Case Study – Sewage Blockage, N17

One of our housing association clients looks after the development of 8 mews houses around a courtyard.   They had reports that the manhole was blocked and flooding the courtyard.  It was also producing a foul smell, so they were in desperate need for an emergency plumber to attend as soon as possible.

Our first job was to check that this sewer was not connected to a mains pipe, as if it was then it would be down to the local water authority to deal with.  It turned out that this was not the case, so we were able to attend and work on the blockage.

Our engineer battled the ‘Beast from the East’ and the horrendous snow to make it to site and start the laborious process of unblocking the manhole.  He found the manhole blocked with toilet paper, but also it was full of cement.  Within the courtyard, there were building works going on, so we suspect this was where the cement had come from.

After a few hours, our engineer had unblocked as much as he could and the drain was more or less cleared.  We have advised that, as the building works are continuing, that potentially it could get blocked again and perhaps the client could have a word with the builders to ask them to be more careful when disposing of the cement.

A cold but successful day for our London plumbing team!!

Sometimes, just when you expect a job to be easy, things suddenly turn and that small job can turn into something bigger!!

 

After a call from a client who was looking for a plumber in Harrow, to replace a toilet handle for one of their tenants, we attended as arranged to find that yes, the toilet handle did need replacing, however, the reason had not been given to us.

This was an older toilet cistern that had a handle as opposed to a push-button flush.  The flush handle was totally missing and our engineer noticed a crack running through the hole that the handle should be fitted in.   It was reported back to us from the engineer that if he would fit a new handle then the likelihood is that the crack would worsen and the cistern would smash.  He advised that the toilet should be replaced.