Levelling Compound in Drain !

[Spinny]

So our flooring contractor has managed to pour floor levelling compound down one of our drains !

We have a rain water drain that is completely blocked at the u-bend.

Other parts of the drain had deposits.

 

Is there any way we might be able to unblock the rain water drain ? Some kind of solvent or acid ?

 

Plumber cleared some from the vertical part of the drain using a very long drill bit, but clearly won't go around a bend.

 

Drain pipe is clay. Levelling compound is Bostik C530 which has fibre reinforcement.

Edited Monday at 20:50 by Spinny

[Russell griffiths]

Keep it wet, keep the u bend completely full, if you let the air get to it it will harden. 
get a piece of 15 mm hep 2 pipe and ram it around the trap, back and forth 

take detailed timing of how long this takes and charge the flooring contractor 

 

you really are attracting some muppets. 

[Spinny]

Here is a piece the plumber drilled out of the pipe vertical - see photo.

You can see the reinforcing fibres in the leveller, and you can see some sticking out in the middle photo above.

 

I doubt the 15mm hep 2 pipe is going to do anything TBH. The plumber was having to drill bits out.

That said I did get some bits out of the main drain pipe by ramming some 32mm MDPE up and down the pipe - but that was straight pipe and only congealed pieces stuck to the bottom of the pipe.

Plumber was of the opinion the drain would have to be replaced - but once you start on clay pipe that is 90 years old you are likely to end up replacing the lot.

 

I have just about had enough now. The last 'customer' of my original builder was having him do a barn conversion - 'customer' died of a heart attack during the build. If I stop posting you'll know I've gone the same way.

 

https://www.tiktok.com/@iammarkmanson/video/7277481945515216174?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc

[Nickfromwales]

Are you saying this was poured down the drain as a way to clean up at the end of the day and dispose of the excess goop?

 

If so......................what a cock.

[Mike]

4 hours ago, Spinny said:

Plumber was of the opinion the drain would have to be replaced - but once you start on clay pipe that is 90 years old you are likely to end up replacing the lot.

Replacement seems likely, but clay pipes are pretty robust so it will likely only be a localised replacement. At least they didn't tip it down an internal drain...

 

5 hours ago, Spinny said:

The last 'customer' of my original builder was having him do a barn conversion - 'customer' died of a heart attack during the build. If I stop posting you'll know I've gone the same way

A bit bleak :)

 

I'm sure the end result will be worth it!

[Spinny]

10 hours ago, Nickfromwales said:

Are you saying this was poured down the drain as a way to clean up at the end of the day and dispose of the excess goop?

I can only presume so as I didin't see it occur. There were two people, the older experienced guy was in the kitchen pouring and spreading the leveller, and then a monosyllabic youngster preparing tubs outside with water from the outside tap.

 

Work was done at the start of an extended dry spell. Some 7-10 days later we had heavy rain and SWMBO went to empty some waste water down the drain. Noticed the water level was very high near the top of the drain. Opened the main chamber shared with the neighbour but on our property and u-bend water was also high with stick test showing there was something in the bottom of the u-bend there too. Week later plumber finished fitting our water softener and so we investigated further with the help of his water vaccuum. Found leveller blocking the rainwater drain and stuck to bottom of main drain pipe run and in bottom of main drain u-bend.

 

Plumber explained and demonstrated how old clay type drain risers above the u-bend are actually permeable to water. So the drain doesn't necessarily completely overflow, water leaks out into the surrounding soil/ground through the sides. If you suck the water out of it, it refills as water from the adjacent soil/ground drains back into the riser again.

 

I called the manufacturer Bostik in search of some kind of solvent/acid that might attack the leveller but not the clay - he hasn't called back.

 

[saveasteading]

It might not be terrible hard If it is cleaning of tools slops then it will have been very wet and that makes it weak.

 

It is total ignorance... thinking a drain is a magic thing where stuff goes away.

Yes the culprit should pay for a solution.

I wouldn't want them bodging a half- hearted improvement. It needs a groundworker who doesn’t mind old-fashioned spade work.

£1,000 deduction, some released if it turns out to be easier.

 

[Spinny]

I spent yesterday giving them merry hell because after 2 months they still couldn't tell me when they were going to finish levelling the kitchen even though I have told them from the start it has to be done before W/B 18th May as that is when the kitchen is being delivered and fitted.

 

12 days ago they told me they couldn't do the utility, only the kitchen, 9 days ago they told me they couldn't come last week and hadn't scheduled this week yet. I told them very clearly once again that I have a kitchen fit on 18th, if it is missed, it will be months before another slot is possible. The kitchen floor needs final prep, top coat, hardening time, checking for level and flatness, time to do any final remediation. Therefore must be done early this week. Their 'scheduler' then failed to schedule my job in, went on leave, then took another day off because his kid was sick. Then was told it was 'likely' they would come on Thursday i.e. at 5 to midnight.

 

They are supposed to have a good local reputation and are an Amtico premier partner (doubtless just sales volume based).

 

Not suprisingly I have lost all confidence in them, but with tens of thousands of kitchen stuff arriving next week I have no choice to sack them now. Pray for me.

[Spinny]

SWMBO and I have just about had enough now. 6 months ago the kitchen fit was cancelled because the plasterer didn't turn up. When we eventually got the plastering finished in the kitchen, the painter did the dirty on us so we have been painting it ourselves. Was trying to get the sparky to prep some things for the kitchen - he goes incommunicado, then tells me he has a wedding to go to all this week, then says he can come to see what he will need yesterday 08:30 (before the ''all week wedding''), then hasn't showed by 09:30 so chase him, then turns up after 10 saying he forgot.

 

As far as I can see 50% of tradespeople hold their customers in contempt and treat them as victims. Turning up, answering the phone or replying to a text or email is entirely optional, fulfilling an agreed contract entirely optional, timescales entirely flexible. If they fancy a fourth holiday of the year next week, they will go and just fob off a customer. I have had tradies ****ing off at no notice to Las Vegas, New York, turning up in Lotus Sports Cars. Seen a roofer tossing his open stanley knife around on my roof.

 

I have spent 40 years working long hours in stressful business environments surrounded by other professionals - people communicate, people solve and workaround problems, people show personal commitment, work weekends as necessary, burn midnight oil. They don't arrive at 10:00 and disappear to collect their kid at 2:30, attend every school matinee, leave for a 3:30 weekday tee time with the job unfinished, not turn up because the weather is glorious, falsely claim the concrete lorry has crashed and the driver is in hospital etc.

 

Life can be shit, don't spread more, help clean it up.

 

With sincere apologies to all those good trades people also out there making the world a better place.

[kandgmitchell]

I think any of us that have needed to employ "tradesmen" feel your pain. From the plumber that apparently had to deal with an "emergency" on his way to our site virtually everyday so he only turned up just before lunchtime, to the heating engineer who's "early next week" actually meant Thursday afternoon with no time to finish before their next "important job" on Monday (and ours obviously wasn't). It happens project after project, tilers, electricians, plasterers.....

 

Sometimes though you get a diamond among the rough, the guy who turns up on the day as promised, is a pleasure to work with and stays until an excellent job is done. When that happens it makes you realise that there are decent tradesmen out there so don't give up!