Thread: Plumber in the House?? - Unblocking a Crapper

Hi,
I'm not a plumber, but had years of 'blocked pipe' syndrome in the house till I got sick of it and couldn't live with getting the eel in every year or so.
The problem occurred every time one family member came to stay, I suspect they used heaps of toilet paper and clogged the system.

I hired a plumbing firm with a camera to look down the pipe, and the inspection was videotaped and showed the length unwound from the cable reel on the screen.
Thus I had a good idea where the camera was e.g. just passing the toilet, just passing the laundry etc.

The camera went into part of the pipe full of 'liquid and other bits' and with a bit of pushing and pulling, suddenly the fluid ran past the camera and the pipe was clear again, except for a root ball.
It was this that was catching the reams of paper and blocking the system when overloaded.

With the inspection now recorded, I then carefully watched the distances and the pipe entrances that I could identify and knew the locations of to work out exactly where the blockage was.

I suspected it was in a very difficult position, and had been reluctant to dig there with out any confirmation that I was not wasting time and effort.

The camera and measurements gave me the confidence to remove quite a bit of earth works to get to a very awkward section of the pipe.

Once exposed, I could see why I had a problem, there was a pencil sized hole in the top of the pipe that the original plumber had covered with a bucket of cement.
A root had squeezed between the pipe and cement over about 5 years and was causing the problems.

It was then relatively cheap to get a plumber in to cut and shut a new bit of pipe and add an inspection point at the same time.

I would recommend getting it properly repaired, otherwise you will be revisited by the problem in the future.

cheers

thanks - yep I do expect to have to dig in the end but if there was a "flush" solution that would be easier. My pipes are the old terracotta ones and I have to get them "eeled" about once every two years but this is the first time I have an issue with this section of pipe.

Cheers

garry

My neighbours kids used to love flushing toys down... theyd get just past the junction of my section and his then block both systems.

After the MTh call out the plumber simply asked me if I was a mechanic.... upon replying yes he said its simple....

Flush yours till the system backs up then empty a battery down their toilet and flush it...

if its organic stuff that the problem it'll clear it up.

Not to sure if the OH+S side of thats legal and I never tried it. but sealing up my toilets and blowing the air shooter into the system made enough mess in his to convince him maybe he needs to pay for the plumber once in a while.

if you like poo keep looking for the easy way out. If you want to your toilet to drain properly do it right. I know which way id be going. BTW its not just a dud toilet, but if its leaking close to the footings of your house it can be causing the soil to heave and then do some other stuff.....oh and termites love damp ground

As a plumber, i would go with dig up & repair. Other wise other problems will raise there ugly head & cost loads of coin.
While you have a machine on site remove all the old terracotta pipes & replace with PVC.

Cheers
David