Those of you who read my piece last month would have probably been scratching your heads, wondering what exactly it was that had caused the blockage in the foul drain I had attended.
Many of you put some great guesses in the comments, but there was one guess which was spot on – it was a toilet seat! Well done Cliff Jones.
You can see in the photo that a whole toilet seat lid was in the chamber and as you can imagine was preventing the normal free flow of the waste material down the main drains. After removing the item, it still took a fair amount of time and effort to clear the backlog of solidified waste and clear the volume of liquid and solids downstream. Flushing with plenty of water ensured the flow was fully restored and also gave the waste some additional force to make its way through the drains to the nearest sewage pumping station.
I cleared this blockage using drain rods and a 4” plunger, but for larger jobs or for deep chambers and large diameter drains, we call in sewer support in the form of a Vanpack or Jetvac. These vehicles use high pressure water to jet clear blockages and the Jetvac has the ability to suction clear out chambers or clean up areas of spillage.
I hope these couple of articles have been interesting for you to read. If there is anything you are interested in hearing about, or having more information about, please put some suggestions in the comments or feel free to message me direct.
