03 9888 2887
We help a client solve a sewerage overflow on their Northcote property
Alfonso’s attention was brought to an urgent plumbing problem on his property by his daughter stating that they had a sewer blockage. Alfonso’s son found that sewerage was overflowing down the blind side of the house and then subsequently filling a hole where the access point is for the underside of the house.
Alfonso looked up plumbers on the internet and found the O’Shea Plumbing website and decided to make contact. The phone call was answered by one of the lovely O’Shea office staff who organised Andrew (an O’Shea Plumber) to come over the next day.
Andrew arrived to find the sewerage flood on the side of the house. Andrew is an experienced drain cleaner who knows not to get sucked into thinking that the blockage is located where the symptom lies. To Alfonso’s surprise, Andrew asked if he could take a walk around the property including inside the garage to the rear of the property.
Andrew found an old cast iron (clay lower underground) boundary trap, this was clear. Andrew also noticed another inspection shaft located about 1m away. Once this lid was removed Andrew noticed that sewerage was backed up here. This inspection took a total of 10mins and gave Andrew the knowledge as to where the blockage is located. He could now work as close as possible to the blockage which on this job meant he only needed to use a small amount of cable as opposed to working from the blind side of the house to the blockage which would have used about 36m of cable. This saved Alfonso a good amount of money.
Andrew got the approval to complete the work and got right to it. Andrew managed to pull out a large clump of wet wipes from the drain and allowed all the sewerage to drain into and through the boundary trap. Andrew worked with two different-sized cutters to clear the drain as best as possible.
Once this was cleared, Andrew used the drain camera to inspect what was causing the issue. It was found that there are slight gaps/lips in the old drain under the ground where the wet wipe had gotten stuck. Andrew let Alfonso and his daughters know that this issue may come back as the drains are not aligned properly. Andrew asked if a permanent solution is desired and Alfonso said that if the blockage comes back then he would consider it.
Attention to detail, saving the client money
All in all, spending a little bit of extra time investigating before setting up meant that, in this case, Andrew could clear the blockage at a minimum cost to the client.
Call us now on (03) 9888 2887 – we’re the plumber Melbourne locals can trust to solve their blocked drains!