Do you understand the first actions in drain fitting
Do you understand the first actions in drain fitting
Before starting any plumbing and drainage work yourself you should find out about any Local Authority rules that relate to your area.
If you are considering altering your existing drainage, or installing a new sewage system you will almost certainly need to present some detailed plans of the work that you intend to undertake and it will need to be inspected as the work progresses making sure that it complies with the local building rules. In many situations when you are simply replacing damaged parts, there is no need for the local authority to be advised.
Surface water is basically rain. It can drain out through a soakaway, watercourse, surface water sewer or, especially in older houses, into the dirty water sewage pipes. Air escape from the drains is stopped when rainwater pipes are discharged into the foul water drains through gully traps in an older combined system. However with the new drainage systems, the foul and the surface water can be kept apart. Rainwater and foul water drainage should not be interconnected, however convenient it may seem. You should get advice from the local authority Building Department before you start any work in a situation when you are not sure about the drainage system around your house.
To properly prepare the plans and get local authority permission to commence work there is a need for you to plan the route of the waste pipes before you begin. The route should be as short and straight as possible, this will help to reduce future maintenance problems and costs. You must avoid making your pipe runs too steep. Use a surveyor’s leveling tool to set out the slope of the drain trench. A hosepipe filled with water from an established datum point can be used if you don’t have a surveyor’s site level.
Be very careful not to excavate too close to your home, as you may undermine the foundation and cause a structural collapse. The foundation of the building should not be undermined by your digging if the drain runs parallel to it.
If you try to dig all the trenches before you start pipe fixing, there is a chance of some trenches collapsing. Excavate a part of the sewage system, install and test the pipework, and then back fill and compact the earth before moving on to the next part.
Weak soil may require that you shore up the walls of the excavation, particularly for deeper trenches. It is no advisable to not take any risks. It is better to provide support to the ditch walls than allowing the trench to collapse. Keep the ditch as narrow as possible, but allow room to work in the ditch. The trench base must be smooth and clean, there shouldn’t be any bricks or protruding stones around. You may need to import a suitable material for the base of the ditch if the existing material is unsuitable.
Bricks and/or any other sturdy material should never be used to prop up the pipe in the ditch. Such hard objects will cause the poorly supported pipe to bend or break and the joints will eventually fail. The material used for bedding should be firmly compacted down with a depression created to allow the joints in the pipes to fit easily. The entire drain pipe system has to be uniformly supported by the soil bedding.
It is important that all parts of your sewage system are designed so that all parts of the pipework are accessible to a set of drain rods. Which means that a run of drains must be installed straight between two points. Inspection chambers have to be provided at any sudden changes of direction or level, so that drain rods can be inserted easily.
DIY plumbing and drainage is within the reach of many DIY fans if you follow these simple rules.