Blocked Sewer Drains

Richard Moyle

Founder of Moyle Plumbing and Gasfitting. Plumber for over 35 years.

Moyle Plumbing & Gasfitting has been unblocking our local community’s toilets, drains, kitchen sinks, septic lines & sewer lines for over 26 years, so there is not much that surprises us.

There are 2 main types of materials used for sewer drains & 3 reasons why your drains block.

1) Miss Laid

2) Miss Use

3) Age

Miss Laid

If the drain has been Miss Laid, it may have a sag, laid incorrectly, back falling, not be sand bedded enough, or sand bedded at all, even back filled with the wrong materials such as rocks.

We have seen PVC sewer pipes laid over the top of bricks or rocks, and over time the PVC pipe moulds around the brick to form the shape of the brick obstructing the flow of the effluent causing a blockage.

Another doozy was a concreter’s star picket post through the centre of the PVC sewer line from a shed that had been recently erected & a fence post through the sewer pipe.

It is common to find sewer pipes snapped or collapsed, caused by the pipe dropping on the inlet to the council sewer or on a connection/join. This is usually caused by the pipe not being supported or sand bedded correctly at construction or possible ground movement – both of these are the owner’s responsibility to repair.

If your drain has been miss laid, then it will break, collapse, drop, sag & ultimately become blocked. If you have a broken drain, then any root system, including trees, shrubs and even grass will find the leaking sewer & grow in the drain, causing it to block.

A miss laid sewer drain may also mean you have an invasive tree nearby which has decided to go looking for water by crushing your sewer line, then invading it for a drink.

Some invasive trees that should not be planted near sewer lines are Fig, Ficus, Rubber, Jacaranda, Poinciana trees & many more. Here is a link for more information on this topic.

https://www.moyleplumbing.com.au/handy-hints-blog/tree-roots-and-your-drainage

Miss Use

Miss Use, can be when something is flushed that should not have been flushed & is causing the drain to block.

A general rule is only flush what you have eaten & digested + the correct 2 or 3 ply toilet paper or tissue.

This does not include ‘flush-able’ toilet wipes, sanitary items, contraception products, paper towels, cotton buds, toilet freshers, toys, underwear, clothing or anything else. (You would be surprised at what we find down sewer drains).

Fish tanks or cat litter are NOT to be flushed down the toilet, laundry sink or bath. These will block your sewer drains.

If you have small pebbles, rocks or drainage rubble around the home, make sure your external drains are covers with the correct cap or grate and that these covers are not damaged.

Foreign stones or concrete down sewer drains is a common cause of blocked pipes, as young children especially love to watch things disappear down these drainage points.

Age

Sewer lines do not last forever, with the expected life of your PVC sewer pipe to be approx 50-70 years. It is recommended that after 30 years you begin to get your PVC pipes inspected with the CCTV drain camera as a preventative measure.

If you have an older home, and still have the old clay pipes, these types of clay pipes had a longer life expectancy of approx. 100 years, but the rubber seal on each join approx. every 4.5 ft (1.3 meters) fails much sooner at approx. 20 years, and it is this join that tree roots enter causing your sewage pipes to block.

Old galvanised waste lines from vanity basins or kitchen sinks are also a major cause of blocked drains. The old pipe rusts from the inside to out, and eventually the diameter of the drain is too narrow to drain freely. This rusted pipe also enables hair, soap scum etc to catch causing the drains to block.

If you have a problem with your sewer drains, and live between Brisbane & the Gold Coast, including Logan City Queensland Australia, give us a call for professional & experienced advice, inspections & reports.

07 3807 7327 or 0447 671 095

Some of the equipment we have to unblock our drains is a Drain Snake, Electric Eel, 5000 PSI High Pressure Jet Blaster, Hydraulic Plunger & Trap Scoop.

All of these can be all used, so depending on what type of blockage you have, we can help you.

https://www.moyleplumbing.com.au/blocked-drains

For further inspections of your sewer pipes, we have an excellent digital CCTV drain camera that can be run through your cleared, unblocked sewer drain to inspect and find out just what is causing the blockage & why.

We have hundreds of these viewings on our YouTube channel.

See examples of our drain CCTV inspections

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