I need your urgent advice - Mother in Law care with plumbing problem?

[techsurf]

Hi Guys,
some may think this is unusual for a bloke to take an interest in the 'Mother in Law' but she's is a great Mother in Law who is in her 80's and unfortunatley now suffers from Dementia and has been living in a really good council managed care home. So what's the problem? Well the problem is that she is lives in the bottom flat with one other flat above her and over the last year or so there has been numerous instances of a blocked toilet in her flat. The pipe arrangement from what I am led to believe is the upper and lower flats are connected and feed into one main outlet. I know that this in itself does give you any real information at all but what I am after is this. A method to clearly identify who is blocking the toilet, upstairs or downstairs such as dye etc.

Now you maybe wondering why havn't the council sorted it and the answer is they have had many attempts to and keep blaming either the pipe design or the Mother in Law for incorrect disposal of toiletries. Now recently the council replaced a felxible soil pipe from behond the toilet in the Mother in Laws but not long after the toilet was blocked again. This is now totally unacceptable as the council have failed numerous times to correct the problem permanantly. The type of help I am after from you guys is real in the form of sound advice as far as diagnostic methods from a plumbers perspective. I want to be able to discuss the problem plumbing with the council and suggest the best methods to clearly identify the root cause of the problem and possible remedies.

I know this is a big ask given I am here and have access to the visual layout of the plumbing etc and you do not but I hope you still maybe help to give some pointers.


Yours Sincerly
Mike
(Techsurf)

 

[mountainman]

I would consider doing a camera survey.

 

[jase158]

same her, you got 2 possible issues,

1. layout of pipework, meaning that the pipework is wrongly fitted and the rubbish is getting stuck instead of flowing away.
2. There may be a blockage that is stopping rubbish from soaking away, this causes the pipes to block up and will eventually flow away, only problem with this is that it will eventually completely block. this could be anything from tissue and number 2's to toy cars, nappies, loaf of bread, shoes or even towels.

I haven't got too much experience with this, but maybe photos would help of any visible pipework.

 

[PowerFlusher2]

once - a long long time ago - found a (defrosted) frozen chicken, still in its wrapper, 6 feet along a 20 foot horizontal run!

 

[ADM360]

When the problem was last cleared did they find a blockage??or did they just clear it!! and blame someone or somthing.
you can find alsort down the drains, I haven't found but one guy told me he found an action man in full scuba gear!!

 

[Guest123]

I'd contact Environmental Health and get them to force the council to investigate the problem properly. The whole stack may need jetted right out to the main sewer. If the problem is found to be caused by neighbours flushing things that are causing a blockage then EH can back up the council to have action taken.
Don't see why you have to take this hassle, the council should fix it properly.

 

[techsurf]

When the problem was last cleared did they find a blockage??or did they just clear it!! and blame someone or somthing.
you can find alsort down the drains, I haven't found but one guy told me he found an action man in full scuba gear!!

They just cleared the blockage and found toiletries and blamed the 'Mother in law' but it can quite easly be the lady in the flat above.

 

[techsurf]

Brilliant advice about EH that's in my plan now ;O)

 

[mitchellcook]

i like the fact the action man was prepared! Today i lifted a man whole cover to clear some drains, but realised it was just a rain water drain (still about 1.5meters deep of water). I asked my dopey brother to put the cover back on but he dropped it down the drain. Muppet. I have a friend in highways and phoned to see if he could sort it, but as it was a private road it was out of his hands. So at about 6pm tonight i had to go down in the freezing water to lift the cover out. I've never been so cold in all my life! At least my brother bought me a crate of beer!

 

[techsurf]

Sound advice and will be mentioned at the meeting

 

[techsurf]

Ha ha how on earth did it get in there ;O)

 

[ADM360]

Our guess was the lad want to see if he could swim!! guess he made it out of the pan!!

 

[PowerFlusher2]

Ha ha how on earth did it get in there ;O)

never worked it out (and it was metres not feet (showing my age there)) because it was in the central run from 4 separate properties in a private cul de sac, had to put one of those spinning flexible pipe cleaners down to break it up and flush it to the main sewer chamber - it wasn't a big chicken, one of those tiny ones you get nowadays (the last time I looked, anyway) from Aldi or Lidl for GBP1.99p - maybe a pound to a pound and a half.

 

[techsurf]

never worked it out (and it was metres not feet (showing my age there)) because it was in the central run from 4 separate properties in a private cul de sac, had to put one of those spinning flexible pipe cleaners down to break it up and flush it to the main sewer chamber - it wasn't a big chicken, one of those tiny ones you get nowadays (the last time I looked, anyway) from Aldi or Lidl for GBP1.99p - maybe a pound to a pound and a half.

such a good story ;O)

 

[stevetheplumber]

i once took about twenty drink cans out of alead soil stack they had roofers working on the roof who thought a soil stack was the ideal place for empty cans