We are slowly emerging from our third, and arguably hardest, coronavirus lockdown. According to current government guidelines, we are permitted to socialise outdoors with up to 6 people from different households or any number of people from 2 households. This means that we can now invite people into private gardens for anything from a quick coffee to an all-day barbecue. Some spring sunshine is also making this idea even more appealing.
However, there’s nothing more likely to spoil the party atmosphere than a smelly, blocked drain.
Your outdoor drains may have potentially been overlooked over the winter. A combination of bad weather, general winter dirt and debris in the garden, less time spent outdoors, and more cooking, cleaning, and washing done at home due to working from home, home schooling, not being able to eat out, and no gyms open etc means that drains could be in a sorry state now.
There are few smells quite as unpleasant as a blocked drain, so nobody is going to be in a hurry to sit in a garden with that kind of aroma hanging around. The smell isn’t even the worst of it: any drain that is blocked up needs dealing with quickly as the consequence can be significant damage to pipes and sewers. And with that, comes a big bill, not to mention potential damage to your home.
There are several tell-tale signs that you have an issue with your drains. Look out for the following:
If you have any of these things, they do need investigating as they could be an indication of other things as well such as a leak or internal blockages.
Obviously, you are responsible for the drains, guttering, and pipes that are inside or attached to your house. As for the external pipes, as a general rule of thumb, you are responsible for the sections of pipe that run from your property to the point they reach the public sewer. You can see more information about this here.
Obviously, it can be hard to determine where blockages are exactly because you can’t see into the pipes. You can ring your water provider for guidance, or you can have a drain investigation conducted, where a camera is fed into the pipes and can locate the exact position of any blockage or damage to the pipe. This allows you to be very accurate with any repairs or drain clearance.
While we only need to restrict socialising to outdoor spaces for a few more weeks, all being well, we all still want our gardens to be lovely outdoor spaces for parties, barbecues, and general get togethers all summer – after all, we have been separated from our friends and family for a really long time so have plenty of catching up to do! Therefore, if you have any of these signs of a blockage, you really need to attend to it sooner rather than later.
For full drain investigation work and all types of drain unblocking, call us on 0333 577 0151 or send us a message.
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