Water coming up shower waste
Water coming up shower waste
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gotoPzero

Original Poster:

19,112 posts

205 months

Thursday 20th February
quotequote all
Yeah, one of those delightful posts which probably has me lifting the drain cover tomorrow..

We have a ground floor shower room and the shower is never used but the toilet is used daily.

I think feeding into the same drain is the utility (upstream) - so 2 washers and 1 sink.

Today the mrs cleaned the shower. So maybe connected maybe not? Shower ran for maybe 2 mins total.

I used the toilet after lunch no issues.

Wife used the toilet after dinner and said the shower was making a gurgling noise when she flushed.

I went in and flushed the loo and water (not a lot) came up out of the shower waste and it sounded like a really loud burp...

The water from the toilet seemed to flow away totally normally. After a few seconds the water that came up drained back into the waste and was gone.

Took the waste cover off and its clear.

The only thing I thought was maybe as the washing machine was on it had created some sort of excess flow or maybe an air lock but I tried it after the washing machine finished and it was still doing the same thing?

As far as I can tell the toilet is the lowest point in the system.

Anyone got any ideas?

essayer

10,207 posts

210 months

Thursday 20th February
quotequote all
I had the same with a downstairs shower. Grim.

The inspection chamber was blocked with a load of toilet paper etc and water could still pass, but slowly. Still blocks up from time to time. gurgling is the first clue you have a problem!

Cristio Nasser

289 posts

9 months

Thursday 20th February
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Yep, there’s a blockage somewhere causing higher pressure in the soil pipe when the toilet is flushed, pushing up water from the shower u-bend. It’ll either clear by itself, or get worse. Take your pick…

Spare tyre

11,447 posts

146 months

Thursday 20th February
quotequote all
I always find running hot water for a while a great opener for starting to deal with this sort of thing

It’s always something simple, I’d say it’s something downstream causing a blockage


If simply running the hot water for a while’s doesn’t solve it, follow it up with some buckets of warm water down the loo (put a towel or something over the shower drain first

Good luck keep us in the loop

oakdale

1,957 posts

218 months

Thursday 20th February
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Could it be a problem with the soil vent pipe, or if it doesn't have one, the air admittance valve?

gotoPzero

Original Poster:

19,112 posts

205 months

Thursday 20th February
quotequote all
Cristio Nasser said:
Take your pick…
I will take clear by itself smile

smile

gotoPzero

Original Poster:

19,112 posts

205 months

Thursday 20th February
quotequote all
essayer said:
I had the same with a downstairs shower. Grim.

The inspection chamber was blocked with a load of toilet paper etc and water could still pass, but slowly. Still blocks up from time to time. gurgling is the first clue you have a problem!
Ah. I was hoping it might just have been too much water from washing machine at the same time.

Whats weird is the toilet flushes just fine.

I guess if I was to flush several times then eventually it will have no where to go and come out of the shower trap with a bit more force!! (eww)

Anyway, guess I will have to put my big boy pants on tomorrow and lift the cover and see whats going on.

gotoPzero

Original Poster:

19,112 posts

205 months

Thursday 20th February
quotequote all
Spare tyre said:
I always find running hot water for a while a great opener for starting to deal with this sort of thing
I will give that a go.

sospan

2,686 posts

238 months

Friday 21st February
quotequote all
When you lift the inspection cover check the flow from the shower and the other units. Get someone to run the shower and see how good the flow is at the inspection end.

gotoPzero

Original Poster:

19,112 posts

205 months

Friday 21st February
quotequote all
Had a look under 2 small covers, looks clear to me. Its terrible weather today and I am out all day tomorrow so will be Sunday now before I can lift the big inspection chamber lid.

However as the 2 small ones are either side, I suspect the chamber will be ok... but we will see.

I have a feeling maybe blocked nearer the house.

I flushed the toilet 3 times in a row this morning and it was fine. However if I ran the utility sink and then flushed the loo it did start to back up.

The sink on its own was also fine.

So I think its a flow restriction close to the house / in the house - will report back!

Spare tyre

11,447 posts

146 months

Monday 24th February
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If you can find some muscles to help, fill a wheelie bin with water next to the man hole.

Get all the taps inside running first, then quickly empty the bin into the sewer

I do this for an elderly neighbor from time to time, he stands down stream and reports stuff being unblocked

gotoPzero

Original Poster:

19,112 posts

205 months

Monday 24th February
quotequote all
Cheers good idea, it seems to be ok now. So I can only assume there was a temporary blockage.
Or maybe its prone to blockage. We have only been in a few months.

I might get a camera up there in the summer if we get a repeat.


jinkster

2,362 posts

172 months

Monday 24th February
quotequote all
Ring the water company - tell them you have sewerage coming through the shower and they'll be out to fix within a day or so (jetting drains out and putting camera down).

Byker28i

76,123 posts

233 months

Tuesday 25th February
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jinkster said:
Ring the water company - tell them you have sewerage coming through the shower and they'll be out to fix within a day or so (jetting drains out and putting camera down).
Really? We're on the start of the chain in the close and one of the neighbours had been putting grease down the sink causing a fat berg. We had sewage overflow onto our patio from the drain.

They found the blockage further down, but said if it was on our property it was down to us to pay

Chrisgr31

14,058 posts

271 months

Tuesday 25th February
quotequote all
Byker28i said:
Really? We're on the start of the chain in the close and one of the neighbours had been putting grease down the sink causing a fat berg. We had sewage overflow onto our patio from the drain.

They found the blockage further down, but said if it was on our property it was down to us to pay
In England, and I assume the devolved nations, the sewerage company are responsible for shared sewers. So if ere is a problem in the pipe that serves your property your problem.

Once the neighbours pipe joins it becomes the sewerage companies problem. I can’t remember when legislation changed, probably a decade or so ago.

gotoPzero

Original Poster:

19,112 posts

205 months

Tuesday 25th February
quotequote all
I am in Scotland if that makes any difference

Dr_Rick

1,687 posts

264 months

Tuesday 25th February
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This document is what ScW refer to: https://www.scottishwater.co.uk/-/media/ScottishWa....

I deal with them frequently via the day job.

B'stard Child

30,373 posts

262 months

Tuesday 25th February
quotequote all
Dr_Rick said:
This document is what ScW refer to: https://www.scottishwater.co.uk/-/media/ScottishWa....

I deal with them frequently via the day job.
That document only deals with water supply not foul drains

catso

15,194 posts

283 months

Tuesday 25th February
quotequote all
Had similar, got a downstairs bath/shower/toilet and the drains would regularly block. A quick 'rodding' of the drain would clear it but the blockages got more regular.

There are several manhole covers over 'junctions' in the system, one in our back garden, one in next doors and another at the front of next doors house.

The junction in next doors back garden is basically a 90 degree switch to send the waste under their house and out to the driveway on the front where it turns again and runs down to the road.

The drain was quite old with ceramic pipes set in a rectangular concrete base and the concrete was eroding, meaning there were sharp edges that toilet paper etc. would catch on and then everything would back up behind it. We never had anything coming back up the shower waste but when the toilet was flushed the water level would sit too high for a while until the water drained away and the drains were full up to the manhole cover.

Anyway for years I would regularly unblock it but as it got more frequent, I had the junction/drain removed and replaced with a circular plastic version which has been fine as everything is smooth so no blockages.