Blocked pipe to soil stack help
Discussion
TwigtheWonderkid said:
Try pushing one of those better quality hose pipes down the loo. Not connected to the water, just using it as a tool to dislodge a blockage. They're quite firm so you can push it and it won't fold over but very flexible and will follow the pipework.
I had a similar thought. I've found a 5m shower hose. I can use the water from the shower to scrape and wash the sediment away. Be careful using chemicals and then a plunger. The chemicals are very caustic, if they haven't flushed away plunging could cause splashback giving you burns etc.
The one shot stuff is nasty, Google it, read the stories and use it carefully.
Personally I would go with the pressure washer drain cleaning attachment
Whatever, its a s
t job 
The one shot stuff is nasty, Google it, read the stories and use it carefully.
Personally I would go with the pressure washer drain cleaning attachment
Whatever, its a s
t job We had the same problem at my hunting cabin/shack. Turned out that it was roots had forced their way in between the joints in the pipe, and so tampons, towels, even bog roll had got caught in it, and eventually it just blocked.
We had to rip out all the old ceramic pipe, clogged with "waste", and laid about 40m of new plastic stuff, All by hand.
It's on an island so no chance of a mini digger - I got showered with st 3 times in one day - fortunately the lake was about 5ft away so I would just jump in. Soap on a rope was a godsend.
It was a long, hideous job, and I will never do it again - but the grass does grow particularly well along the old pipe route. And the deer love it. Put me off venison for a bit.
We had to rip out all the old ceramic pipe, clogged with "waste", and laid about 40m of new plastic stuff, All by hand.
It's on an island so no chance of a mini digger - I got showered with s
t 3 times in one day - fortunately the lake was about 5ft away so I would just jump in. Soap on a rope was a godsend.It was a long, hideous job, and I will never do it again - but the grass does grow particularly well along the old pipe route. And the deer love it. Put me off venison for a bit.
blueg33 said:
Be careful using chemicals and then a plunger. The chemicals are very caustic, if they haven't flushed away plunging could cause splashback giving you burns etc.
The one shot stuff is nasty, Google it, read the stories and use it carefully.
Personally I would go with the pressure washer drain cleaning attachment
Whatever, its a st job
To echo the above...we cracked our toilet using one shot. Read the instructions carefully if you choose to use it.The one shot stuff is nasty, Google it, read the stories and use it carefully.
Personally I would go with the pressure washer drain cleaning attachment
Whatever, its a s
t job Sonic, you've described almost exactly the same problem we had a couple of years back.
It was getting to the point where the toilet would back up every now and then and other times the water was 'grubby' as you say.
I tried chemicals, including one shot, but to no avail.
In the end I put a small camera down the soilstack so I could look into the pipe running from the bathroom and see what was going on. From that, I could see that what had been happening over the years was that waste had accumulated along the pipe because the flow wasn't adequate from the 'eco' cistern and the drop wasn't enough.
That build-up (probably also the really hard water we have here didn't help) had hardened into a solid mass which obviously wasn't ever going to be moved by flushing, plunging or chemicals poured down the toilet itself.
So, I got a drain cleaning attachment for my pressure washer - (Karcher 7.5m Pipe & Drain Cleaning Kit) and tried feeding that down the toilet bowl to get to the build-up, but it just wasn't flexible enough to get around the U-bend and then the 90 degree bend into the pipe. That was frustrating, as the only other way was to attack it from the other end, but to try and get it in there from the soil stack would have been impossible due to the way it's installed in our house.
Luckily, I found another way to get into pipe directly from a second bathroom which shared the waste pipe and the pressure washer did the trick. I could monitor it with the camera so I know it cleaned the pipe out properly and it didn't do any damage. It took a lot of faffing around to sort out, but I'm glad I didn't have to call out a plumber as I suspect they would have tackled it by removing half our bathroom wall to replace the pipe.
The main lesson from all of that was to use a cistern which flushes with a large volume of water if your waste pipes don't have a good enough fall on them.
Hope some of that helps you.
It was getting to the point where the toilet would back up every now and then and other times the water was 'grubby' as you say.
I tried chemicals, including one shot, but to no avail.
In the end I put a small camera down the soilstack so I could look into the pipe running from the bathroom and see what was going on. From that, I could see that what had been happening over the years was that waste had accumulated along the pipe because the flow wasn't adequate from the 'eco' cistern and the drop wasn't enough.
That build-up (probably also the really hard water we have here didn't help) had hardened into a solid mass which obviously wasn't ever going to be moved by flushing, plunging or chemicals poured down the toilet itself.
So, I got a drain cleaning attachment for my pressure washer - (Karcher 7.5m Pipe & Drain Cleaning Kit) and tried feeding that down the toilet bowl to get to the build-up, but it just wasn't flexible enough to get around the U-bend and then the 90 degree bend into the pipe. That was frustrating, as the only other way was to attack it from the other end, but to try and get it in there from the soil stack would have been impossible due to the way it's installed in our house.
Luckily, I found another way to get into pipe directly from a second bathroom which shared the waste pipe and the pressure washer did the trick. I could monitor it with the camera so I know it cleaned the pipe out properly and it didn't do any damage. It took a lot of faffing around to sort out, but I'm glad I didn't have to call out a plumber as I suspect they would have tackled it by removing half our bathroom wall to replace the pipe.
The main lesson from all of that was to use a cistern which flushes with a large volume of water if your waste pipes don't have a good enough fall on them.
Hope some of that helps you.
Monsieur Fertive, tyvm indeed. I've been looking at those inspection cameras for a while so gives me a chance to get one. I can only attack from the toilet end. I'm going to buy a Karcher attachment and a 5m shower hose. I'll try the hose first on full hot and return the karcher attachement if it isn't needed. I start work in a week and I report back with any tips I pick up.
Thanks everyone
Thanks everyone
We had a blocked soil pipe, caused by babies Wet Wipes being flushed, and they layering up on a certain bend, one after another.
As the Dynorod guy who was called out on a Bank Holiday Monday pointed out, they cause more toilet blockages than anything else, and they are NOT flushable, despite what it says on the packet.
Anyway, even using the pressure washer reverse attachment thingy he still couldn't unblock it, it must be up the top, just past the U bend..... so he took a angle grinder to the down pipe a metre above ground level....to cut a slot to attack it at a better angle....
.........and as he cut through the cast iron he got sprayed by a mixture of my families excremental concoction.
As the Dynorod guy who was called out on a Bank Holiday Monday pointed out, they cause more toilet blockages than anything else, and they are NOT flushable, despite what it says on the packet.
Anyway, even using the pressure washer reverse attachment thingy he still couldn't unblock it, it must be up the top, just past the U bend..... so he took a angle grinder to the down pipe a metre above ground level....to cut a slot to attack it at a better angle....
.........and as he cut through the cast iron he got sprayed by a mixture of my families excremental concoction.
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