X marks the spot

    It has been a fraught few days here at Cornflower HQ. A blocked drain sounds like a minor inconvenience - a sink temporarily out of action, say - but when it is the main drain into which everything, that is every basin, appliance, bath/shower, toilet, and rainwater downpipe drains, then the problem is more major.

    That is what has been happening here since Thursday when a puddle appeared outside the back door and that puddle grew to become a black, stinking, sludgy swamp as no waste water of any kind could get away to the sewer and was backing up through a rainwater 'soakaway'.

    To cut a very long story short, a pump was supplied to clear the back area by pumping the water into the garden; when it broke down, bailing with buckets was the only course of action (Mr. C. was even doing this in the middle of the night as the water rose higher and threatened the house). Meanwhile we managed to get hold of the 1888 plan above (drawn 60-odd years after the house was built) and our drainage man said he thought the next step would be to try to find the 'trap' marked 'C' on the bottom of the plan and jet the drain from there.

    We spent much of yesterday digging in the front garden (luckily the plan is roughly to scale so we had a fair idea where to start) and we found this:

    Beneath that slab is a brick pit around 12' deep. The drainage men came this morning, broke off the metal cover, put a ladder down into the pit, uncovered the trap and jetted the drain. All is now well.

    Two things for Edinburgh readers to note: the council has a drains database which contains old records such as ours. I could get only part way into the site when I tried on Saturday, but it's worth knowing that it's there, and as long as it's not the weekend you could call or email for help if you can't access it yourself. Secondly, if you ever need a contractor for this type of thing, I'd recommend Peter McLeod of Drainage Solutions. He solved a big problem for us once before and he's come up trumps again this time, so many thanks to him, and to the unknown Victorian gentleman whose carefully drawn and extensively annotated plan helped us get to the bottom of things.

Comments

[Liz Davey]

Poor you. Nothing like blocked drains to dampen the spirits, and the people who deal with them deserve every penny they get. Have you ever seen footage of the fat shovellers?

[Adele Geras]

You poor things....so glad you are now okay. Cornflower Towers is such a beautiful house....

[Cornflower]

No I haven't seen that footage, Liz, but I do take my hat off to Mr. McLeod & co. It's a dirty, difficult job they do.

[Cornflower]

I'm busy shovelling up the remains of the 'swamp' and sluicing everything down, but worse things happen at sea, as they say!

[Susie Vereker]

Oh poor Cornflower. amazing you.needed historical archives to solve yr problem. Our drains in Athens used to back up when it rained so I know it is not a good experience.

[Erika]

Hurricane Floyd washed us right out of a rented house (luckily 2 stories) in 1999 and into this one, which we bought and which is on a hill!

The first house was not in a flood plain and the water source was discovered on an 18th century inked map of the area, in the local historical museum, which showed the course of "Muddy Creek" which no longer existed but which rose to turn into a fast flowing water stream connecting with the Christina Creek, which connects with the Christiana river which flows into the Delaware River. It being high tide when 11 inches of rain fell in a few hours the whole flow pattern reversed ending up inside our house.

[Cornflower]

I was even thinking of trying to find a water diviner to help us, but luckily the old plans did the trick. Our drainage man Mr. McLeod was telling me some Edinburgh drains horror stories, so we are fortunate in comparison to some!

[Cornflower]

Oh no!
I'm glad to hear you're high and dry now, Erika.

[Claire]

Oh dear, poor you. I hope Mr McLeod was able to tell you what had blocked it so that you can avoid a repeat. I have been told very strictly never to put anything other than the obvious paper down our drains!

[Deirdre]

That's amazing! I'm glad you were able to find the source of the problem. Isn't it lucky that the plans still exist. Well done to all of you!

[Barbara]

You poor things! Hurrah for old plans and the drainage heroes. I have seen the fat shovellers' film mentioned above and it's beyond disgusting.

[dovegreyreader]

Oh Karen, sympathies! What a nightmare. We are very drain-aware here given rural isolation and the vagaries of Klargesters and soak aways and we know indoors the minute we are in trouble. The sink talks to us!! A funny but unique gurgling sound, now never ignored and we (as in the Royal we) have to go out and set up the pump. Now all the drains have been gradually relaid as we have done building works various, and we have drawn the equivalent of that old map for future reference, so the old 'technology' lives on.

[Cornflower]

He couldn't tell, Claire, but yours is a very good point.

[Cornflower]

Quite what we would have done without the plans I don't know, but kudos to Mr. Stewart of Scottish Water who managed to get them for us.

[Cornflower]

I wonder why, if such plans exist, copies are not put with title deeds as a matter of course, so that when the title is examined by the purchasing solicitor the plans could be passed on to the new owner.

[Cornflower]

I'm sure these things can be much harder to trace in rural properties, Lynne.
Funnily enough, Mr. McLeod says he does a lot of work for our neighbours over the wall the Royal Botanic Garden, and they appear to have no drainage plans at all, which given their acreage and the extensive pipework which must exist for general watering as well as the garden's water features, must mean a lot of headaches!

[Erika]

I am about to start readng "The Great Stink of London, a biography of the Victorian Joseph Bazelgette who designed London's sewage system and other very useful things. It looks fascinating.

[Cornflower]

His was quite an achievement!