Regulars to this site and certain other expat forums will know that during our relocation from England we have encountered all sorts of problems.

This latest is one of a series related to our house and concerns the drains…

The house is a renovated village house, which retains part of the original concrete main drainage pipe.

Our project manager?s workforce installed a new bathroom and kitchen with all new plastic drains which join up with original drains underneath the living room floor. The ground floor is tiled throughout so access to the main drain is impossible without first removing floor tiles and about 9 to 12” of concrete. The bathroom is at the back of the house with drainage for the bath/shower, the loo and a washbasin, then, coming further forward we have the kitchen which is plumbed for a sink unit and a washing machine.

For reasons best known to themselves, the team installed the new drainage with no access points for rodding…I know a lot of the problem was due to space availability, but the use of multitudinous right angle bends make it almost impossible to use even the flexi-spring type of drain clearance tool.

In the bathroom the drains are behind stud walls (again all tiled) and under concrete and in the kitchen a similar situation exists.

For reasons best known to himself our project manager walked off the job before completion and is of very little help.

Two weeks ago we started to have problems…flushing the loo caused water(?) to appear in the bath. Using the washbasin brought a similar result. The kitchen sink takes a long time to drain. To my way of thinking the problem therefore lies forward of the kitchen.

In desperation I emailed our project manager and asked his advice. His reply was very helpful…NOT.

Quote “Remove the loo and rod it from there, if that doesnt work call a plumber…” Unquote .

Cant do that because the loo is a horizontal rear extract rather than a vertical. The pipe from the loo goes back about 12” then turns 90 degrees downward to meet the main drain again at 90 degrees. So we have two 90 degree turns in the short space of a couple of feet. Conventional rods are therefore completely unsuitable. I explained this in a further email to the project manager who has decided to ignore this second email completely.

Again in desperation I went to the local Ferretaria and bought a couple of kilos of cautic soda, made up a saturated solution of 1 kilo of this and dumped it down the kitchen sink. Much gurgling and other tubular noises but not much real effect.

Reluctantly I called a local plumber who claims to specialise in blockages and came out right away. He had a look at the system and like all plumbers worldwide, shook his head, took a sharp intake of breath and set to work.
In machine-gun speed Spanish the meaning of most which was totally beyond me, he explained he would have to remove the loo and try to clear the system from the loo drain. Given that it was now 8pm he would come back the following day.

The next morning he reappeared with his assistant daughter and they set to work removing the loo. This in itself was no easy task because rather than use screws to bolt the thing to the floor it was secured using a rubber mastic solution As a result it took over two hours just to get the loo out!

He then used a flexi-steel drain rod and attempted to clear the blockage. How successful this was I don?t know, because when he withdrew it, it was coiled up on itself for about 2/3 of its length. He seemed satisfied however and set about re-installing the loo.(Using screws I?m pleased to say).

At this point I had to leave the house for a few minutes. 

When I returned, he had fresh water in all the sinks and the bath and demonstrated the free outflow from each. All appeared to be well, and so it remained for three days?
The plumber made a charge that I consider to be very expensive considering his time on site?max about 5hours?320 Euros.

Very expensive in view of the fact that three days after the ?fix? the problem reappeared just as bad as ever?I hesitate to call him out again?my knowledge of Spanish is not good enough to get into a serious discussion with him. Literally 320 Euros down the drain?

Given that my project manger doesn?t want to know, I am faced with having to pay someone to do the job properly. We are still none the wiser as to where or what the blockage actually is. I can?t see it being building rubble since the drains had been fine for the previous eighteen months following installation. I don?t have the tools to investigate and we are very short of money since my wife had to make an unexpected return to the UK in January for a month.

This has been a very long entry? If anyone out there has any suggestions I would be very appreciative.

god you have plumbing problems , and see my mums has ws replumped few years ago and there access points at every bend ( that out side the house) but all pipes got to this point with out bends (that if pospable ) and put access point in the house is not good due to gas in the system . think you going to have to re do it
sould like every think is going intwo the one pipe all the way to main road ... see can you find out side point and work back
try to get plans off you plumping and if you can mail them i can help you out .... my mates house he put access point out side the back so he could rod it to the front off his house . bathroom and kitchen all come one pipe no problems yet ....

The pipe from the loo goes back about 12? then turns 90 degrees downward to meet the main drain again at 90 degrees ” that sound wrong “

jurdyr Hi,
thanks for responding,shows there is someone else awake!

The bit that sounds wrong is perhaps down to my detail not being too clear.

The wastepipe from the loo goes straight back through the stud wall, then turns 90 degrees downward to mate up with the drain.
Given that the main drain is horizontal, (ie more or less parallel with the floor,but under it) and the waste pipe from the loo is vertical, the angle between the waste and the drain is 90 degrees…
Hope that clarifies things…
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Hi foxbat,

I know you’ve tried to contact me a couple of times, but I’ve been working away from home, whilst you’ve been having the problems. I’m not surprised that “a certain person we both know well” would not offer any advice or help with your problem though.

I’ll give you a call tomorrow (Friday 18th April), to see if you’ve managed to sort things out. If not, I’ve some free time this weekend and would be happy to pop round to have a look for you.

The first thing I would ask is if any of the people on your street have had any drainage problems. There may be a problem in the street at the root of things, although obviously multiple bends in the pipework in the house won’t help matters.

A couple of months ago my parents drains blocked. They live in the campo and the line runs to a septic tank and soak-away. The problem was isolated to one bathroom, so we called a specialist drain cleaning company (who weren’t cheap either!).

They managed to clear the blockage, however the surprise wasn’t the amount of effluent (three inches deep in the bathroom!!), but the fact that whoever had installed the drainage section from this bathroom, had in fact used square guttering, covered over the top with god only knows what. The bends were therefore square right-angles. Not only that, some of this “covering” had been disturbed somewhere along the line and most of the blockage was soil, and I don’t mean what we produce.

Net result, the drain is temporarily cleared, but they can’t put any paper down it and now have to use a little bin (just like in parts of Greece!). At some point, we’re going to have to trench down and replace it all, which means removing a large portion of the bathroom floor and a large trench through the patio outside. A big mess.

I don’t know how they laid the drainage under your floor to be honest. The run through to the street “should” be fairly direct? It’s a shame that I wasn’t available at the time, as I could have got hold of a good drain company for you who would have run a camera down it to look at things, for about the same price you paid. That’s the only way to know for sure, without digging everything up.

Speak to you soon - Heath

heath1974 he got it sorted out for now so PM him and you tell you the story
jurdy

drain and leak solutions are the best commpany on the coast for drain problems. they are also experts at leak detection on water pipes and swimming pools. we have used them and so have my friends. they are very good

I have worked in the building industry for nearly 30 years. I have never seen so much bad drainage until I came to live in Spain. The general rule here seems to be that if the pipes are connected in whatever way possible then that is all that matters. There seems to be little thought given to pipes having any sort of fall let alone a correct fall. I bet Heath could tell some real horror stories concerning drains here.
I’m wondering if a length of pipe can be added on to the run in the bathroom that would go to the back of the house outside (do you have an outside at the back?) with a fall heading to the front of the house of course and then this pipe could be used as a rodding point in future? Especially if the problem is under the sitting room floor and you are not in a position to dig it up.
Btw I doubt the floor is actually 9”-12” of solid concrete but would usually be made up of probably four inches (10cm) of concrete and below that might be hardcore to whatever depth. If you know otherwise then please forgive me because I have never known a house to have such a depth of concrete. Not wanting to argue about it. Just trying to let you know the floor might not be as big a problem as you imagine.
I hope your problem is sorted out swiftly.

Btw 2. Has anyone used “Alien” on their drains. I used it to get a drain in one of our bathrooms running a little bit better until we had time to sort it out properly.

EDIT: I have just noticed that problem was posted way back in May! I think I’m a little late to the party. LOL

Warren P…
Dont have access to the back of the house!
Back of the house is a party wall for the village church and I dont think they’d want a rodding point under the alter!
The local council eventually cleared the problem for us by back flushing with a high pressure hose.
Hell of a mess in the bathroom once the blockage was cleared!
Just as a matter of interest what is ‘Alien’
Thanks for the interest.
The problem will almost certainly recurr at some time in the future…so all suggestions are gladly received!

Alien is a drain unblocking fluid. It comes in a white bottle with red writing and a sketch of a plumber. You will find it at many ferreterias. You pour it down the drain while wearing protective gloves and goggles but do not stand directly above it when you pour or while it’s working in the drain because the fumes are nasty. It eats it’s way through the blockage. I’m not sure if it can be used often on the same drain run though. Maybe Heath or somebody knows?

Warren P - 21 October 2008 12:46 AM

Alien is a drain unblocking fluid. It comes in a white bottle with red writing and a sketch of a plumber. You will find it at many ferreterias. You pour it down the drain while wearing protective gloves and goggles but do not stand directly above it when you pour or while it’s working in the drain because the fumes are nasty. It eats it’s way through the blockage. I’m not sure if it can be used often on the same drain run though. Maybe Heath or somebody knows?

eats the hell out the drains , wouldn,t be good to used to often are Inhale

Thanks jurdyr. Just as I suspected.

So foxbat has any put a camera down the drain run?

Nope!
Having been ripped off by a local plumber to the tune of 320 euros fro a fix that lasted all of 36 hours, Im not all that anxious to repeat the exercise!
When we lived in the UK we were the last and lowest house in a block of six and we used to get our drains blocked regularly by a young Mum who would insist on putting disposable nappies down the drain. We were always the first to be affected by a blockage, but, because all of the houses were privately owned the local authority would have nothing to do with the problem. Southern water were responsible for the sewers, but not for the drains from the properties. On one occasion we called out Dynorod to come to fix a blockage with a high pressure jetter and they did a follow up check with a camera without being asked and they then charged me a small fortune which|I had to try to recoup from other householders in the block of houses; a singularly unsuccessful exercise as you can well imagine.

If push really comes to shove, I might have to get a camera down there at some point, but it an expense which I can do without until I have to!.

There are a variety of Proprietary products available from most supermarkets which are based on Caustic Soda at 5% solution strength and we now routinely use one of these about once a month. A 1 litre bottle split across the various sink and bath outlets,touch wood, seems to keep thing clear. The Sapnish plumber who answered our call out used a product based on concentrated Sulphuric Acid…Did a great job of permanently staining our stainless steel kitchen sink…It also stank the house out for days afterward…Another lesson learned the hard way!

1 do you know any one in the pub trade , becareful when you do this ( real funny story ) and you need two people are more

most beer used gas to get life in two it ... yes the gas BARREL and a cut tube with fitting to gas BARREL one hold pipe in Drain , make sure all opens are cloesd off
turn on and off very fast do few times   pressurize gas will shif any think down a pipe , look to see if the manhole still where it should be , real

some one in the block in the uk i live in was dumping food down the drains well time came and there was a stoppage ...... out with the gas and down the pipe will food where every where from the ground floor flate and up went the man hole with fry rice all over the road all buildings cars mmmm and in side the flate on the ground floor