and the saga goes on!

The never ending drain saga continues!!
Steve spent part of yesterday putting stone chippings into the hole where the inspection chamber is, to prevent it sinking and make access easy if we need to dig it back out for any reason in future. The water pipe was in the way of inspection chamber, but a crafty kick from his brother had it out of the way without the pipe snapping!! Good news! Soil needs to go back in now, and then the flags can go back and we'll be more or less straight........
Except that we've got a smelly kitchen!! There is some drain ish smell coming back up the sink waste pipe... so apparently they have to do some other thing... I'm not asking, but I'm sure it's not good!!

Not very sunny now..

As I write this, I'm looking outside to lots of wind and rain! Been thoroughly foul since the weekend, so the drain is as yet unfinished. We need dry weather so that joint bits on the inspection chamber can have special tape to seal them, and then it can all be filled in with stone chippings so it doesn't sink, then the soil and hopefully then the stone can go back in, and we'll be back in business. Have also bought samples of paint to go on walls in the yard, so need dry weather to try those. Hoping the weather will improve for the weekend.
Household glad that England are through, and avoiding Germany!

the drain's fixed!!

The drain is fixed! Yay!! We now have new bits of drain, an inspection chamber and drains that work! It's fixed, and all working nicely! I can now run all sorts of water based machines at the same time and they'll go down the drain!! aparrently part of it further down the yard is possibly fractured, water pipes catch slightly as they go down it, but for now it's fine. The inspection chamber means we can rod that bit again if we need to...... It's fixed!!!!

progress

It is now looking like the drain is nearly fixed. It's 4pm and they have been working on it since 8 this morning.... a long day!! We have had half of the yard dug up, (or so it seems,) rods and water down the pipes, but they seem to have solved the problem!! If ever you have a problem with your drains, even just outside your property boundaries, don't bother to phone United Utilities, they're not interested. Apparently it is our responsibility to maintain our drains up to where they join the main sewer, which is under the middle of the back street. Quite how you can maintain that bit without digging up the back street, which of course you can't do, is beyond me!! But they seem to think it's completely logical!! But anyway, new bits of drain are in place, along with concrete, lead and all sorts of other interesting bits!! Hoping we're getting there now as i would really like to be able to have a shower without the water regurgitating itself up the drain and down the yard!!!

They're working on the drain!

The work on the drain has now commenced. Steve and Jimmy and John have now
dug up half of the yard so that they can figure out what the problem is
with the drain. They have also in the process managed to trip the power,
which means that my cooker, which is slightly temperamental, now isn't
working!! It has a button that you have to press to make it work, and it
doesn't always work (the button that is!!!) Of course, today it isn't so
now my cooker and grill doesn't work. Which scuttles the plan of bacon
butties somewhat!! Hoping that this might be the last day of drain
problems, but I am not depending on it! Will keep you updated.

Quite smelly really

My yard is quite smelly today. As a consequence of the ongoing drain issues part of the drain is smashed open, so as you can imagine the smell is not particularly pleasant! The dog doesn't quite know what to do with herself, she probably wants to lick everything, so it's a matter of keeping her away from smelly bits!! Hoping it will all get sorted tomorrow, it's beyond tedious now!! Washing machine, sink in kitchen etc running straight into holes in yard.... fairly clean water at least. Praying for a quick resolution!! I think I'm on brew duty when I'm in tomorrow.

and so it goes on...

... quite a proportion of my yard is now dug up, some more of the pipe is smashed to get access, and still it's blocked or something. Steve is busy tomorrow, so now it's going to be saturday... they're going to have to take the flags up one at a time in the yard, smash the pipe to try and find the problem. Then it's going to need a new pipe..... not good.

So, the drain...

For over a week we've had problems with our drains backing up. Running water quickly, taking a shower or bath, using the washing machine, all made the drains back up. Which as you can imagine was not plesant! We've done using pressure washer, which made no difference! We've done rods, but that just didn't work, the angle was all wrong!! Then we did some aerosol thing that should have blasted it, and that didn't work. So last night Steve and his brother took up flags in our yard, smashed part of the drain, and used the rods. Which ran in fine... but made no difference to the fact it was all backing up!! So now the crack squad are in!! Steve, his brother and his stepdad are in next doors back yard, looking in the inspection chamber that does our house too!! Hoping this might show what the problem is, and get it sorted, as am totally bored of the whole saga!!
Will update when there's more news!!

first time at posting!

Hi. Welcome to the Wilky's blog. I have been inspired to create a blog after the ongoing saga of my broken drain dragged on over a week! Also Mrs Green suggested it, and as I do spend time online chatting, figured i could do this aswell! Having never done this before it might take a while to get into the swing, but it could be fun!
Here you will find lots of interesting things (I hope!) and news about Steve and I and our pooch Sheba!
Enjoy, and please post back. H.x