| Illegal drainage 19:32 - Jul 2 with 804 views | Zx1988 |
Another one for the hive mind...
We bought Chateau Zx about two years ago; built in about 2011 by David Wilson Homes, we're the second owners.
One of our drains is backing up under heavy rain, so I got Homeserve out tonight who spent about 30s on site, said 'not our problem, call Anglian Water', and promptly naffed back off.
Upon calling Anglian Water, they feel that we might have an illegal drainage connection from our washing machine to the rainwater system - they're sending someone out tomorrow to check and, if it does turn out to be as suspected, I'll be responsible for fixing the issue (my irony meter broke at this point...).
Has anyone else encountered this sort of thing before? I assume, fourteen years and a change of ownership later, there's no point going after the developer who built the house incorrectly in the first place and, as a latent defect, one assumes that neither the Homeserve insurance or our buildings cover will foot the bill either.
Likely to be a costly fix? |  |
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| Illegal drainage on 19:53 - Jul 2 with 744 views | lowhouseblue |
i guess the dodgy connection into the wrong drain could also have been added by the previous owner? but why would a washing machine cause the rainwater drain to back up? if it's just a build up of washing machine detritus can't you just rod it? i guess the cost of a proper fix will depend on how you get from the washing machine to the correct drain? |  |
| And so as the loose-bowelled pigeon of time swoops low over the unsuspecting tourist of destiny, and the flatulent skunk of fate wanders into the air-conditioning system of eternity, I notice it's the end of the show |
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| Illegal drainage on 20:01 - Jul 2 with 713 views | Zx1988 |
| Illegal drainage on 19:53 - Jul 2 by lowhouseblue |
i guess the dodgy connection into the wrong drain could also have been added by the previous owner? but why would a washing machine cause the rainwater drain to back up? if it's just a build up of washing machine detritus can't you just rod it? i guess the cost of a proper fix will depend on how you get from the washing machine to the correct drain? |
As far as I can ascertain, the house is still absolutely as built. The utility room is the same as with all other properties of this type on the development. Yes it's possible that the previous owner may have re-plumbed, but on the evidence to hand it seems unlikely.
I hadn't even considered the illegality of it all until AW gleefully pointed it out, and said that a member of their pollution team would be around tomorrow morning to check further.
I wish I'd just bought a set of rods and done it myself, rather than opening this whole can of worms! Thankfully the washing machine only sits on the other side of the wall from the sink in the cloakroom so, as long as that's properly connected up, it shouldn't be too difficult a fix. [Post edited 2 Jul 20:04]
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| Illegal drainage on 21:01 - Jul 2 with 620 views | BloomBlue |
I don't see how the washing machine water waste would cause that. But im assuming AW have spotted that and using it as an excuse.
A WM waste water pipe is invariably plumbed into the waste pipework coming from a sink.
I'm guessing you dont have a sink near your WM? |  | | |
| Illegal drainage on 23:19 - Jul 2 with 514 views | SitfcB |
Does the drain gurgle/water run when the WM is on then? If it doesn’t then doubt it’s plumbed into that.
I know WM water is technically classed as waste water but it’s not the biggest pollution in the world.
If it’s backing up it will just be blocked and shouldn’t have anything to do with wether the WM is hooked up into it anyway! |  |
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| Illegal drainage on 09:04 - Jul 3 with 319 views | MattinLondon |
We had this or something similar.
Our house was built in the 80s and whoever connected our drains did an half-arsed job and connected our sewage pipes to the rainwater drains.
United utilities put some dye in our toilet and it ended up on the nearby allotments.
Cost £1500 to sort it out. Do you have any of the paperwork from 2011? Someone must have signed the work off? |  | | |
| Illegal drainage on 11:04 - Jul 3 with 231 views | DJR |
When you say one of your drains is backing up under heavy rain, do you mean a foul water drain or a rainwater drain? And how does this manifest itself? Do you, for example, have drain covers in your garden which overflow? Or does the water enter the drainage system in your house? And do you know if the rainwater drains to a soakaway, which is sometimes the case?
Whichever it is, I can't imagine a washing machine would have any effect, unless you are operating it when there is heavy rain.
As regards the issue with backing up, this could be caused by a blockage (but Homestart's response suggest this is not the case), or it could be that the local drainage system can't cope with heavy rain. This could be caused by people illegally connecting rainwater drainage to mains foul water drainage (not necessarily in your estate) and overloading the system (as has happened where I live and which has caused foul water, combined with rainwater, to enter my garden on occasions through the foul water manhole cover in my garden).
If it is a problem that has existed from the outset, I think it is too late to take it up with the developer, but the local authority ought to have ensured things were done properly when the estate was built. [Post edited 3 Jul 11:11]
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