Postscript - drains

In mid-December 2025 our delightful neighbour, Jess, came round to tell us about their experience of having their foul drain rodded more than once. Their waste drains away under our parking area to the main sewer under Hayden's field, into which we connected. She had a video from her drains man which showed a break in their pipe under our land with a red pipe running across it. The only rational explanation was that this was the sleeving for our electrical supply which Pat had installed early in the build.

I messaged Pat and he responded quickly, at first incredulous but then, having seen the video, reaching the 'acceptance stage of grief'. He promised to come the next morning, and duly turned up with Tommy as soon as it was light.

They cut the gravel-retaining pads with a disc cutter and started to dig at the point the drains man had identified, luckily just a short distance from the resin-bonded path.



A large void was exposed, at first full of waste, but then rodded away. It became obvious that both the red electrical sleeving and the blue water supply pipe had dropped into this void where the sewer pipe had broken.


Pat worked very hard in cramped and dirty conditions to trim both ends of the broken pipe before fitting a new section of pipe with the necessary fixings, and bedding it into gravel.



As I write, we are still awaiting the filling of the hole. Sorting out the pipe was in itself a hard day's work, and Pat wanted to await the next visit of the drain man to check that all is well. In the event he has identified a partial tree root blockage further down the pipe, under the field, which will require excavation and repair, yet to be arranged by Jess and Toby. So for now we have a restricted parking area, but it could have been so much worse.

 





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