Landlords & houseowners should be aware that the property owner (freehold property) is responsible for all of the drainage system up to the point where it joins onto the sewer. This includes any drains that lead towards the sewer, and any manholes located on your property. The local council is responsible for maintaining and cleaning the communal sewer
Possibly the most frequent maintenance call-out landlords get from tenants is for blocked drains. Tenants usually phone up saying 'The water won't go down the sink!' Most often it's the kitchen sink that is blocked and it's usually because the tenant has put food down the plughole. Your investigation may reveal a load of rice or pasta down there, but the tenant will invariably be mystified as to how it got there.
A) Plunger
The first thing you can do if the water's not moving at all and the sink's half-full of water, is to use a plunger. Most people have a rubber one on a wooden stick, but a better version of plunger is a plastic concertina or even a sort of big syringe: these produce a far greater range of pressures, which can blast very hard through the sink drain blockage.
B) U-bend
If that fails, you might start dismantling the pipes to clean them out. This sounds quite scary - but infact the first bit of drain pipe is usually the bit that is blocked, and this is located under the sink and called the U Bend. To do this best, you should clear any cupboards or the area and place a bucket under the U bend area. Once your bucket is in place, usually you will find that their is a grip on a big washer that is hand tight for you to undo. You simply undo both ends of it and slowly lower the full U bend into the bucket and clear it. You take the U-bend pipe off by unscrewing the white plastic nuts that hold it on. If they are too tight to do by hand, so you may need a pair of water pump pliers with a jaw capacity of about 50 ml.
Some flexible pipes are about 30 feet long that you can poke down the sink / bath drain, which may either be like a thin metal ribbon or may be coiled. This will often clear a blockage. Some types can be passed through plugholes but I prefer to use them only beyond the dismantled U-bend, as there is a risk they could get stuck.
Joke - Contrary to what the layman may think, a 'U-bend' does not refer to the third person singular verb conjugation, or your position when you're trying to find it, it does in fact refer to the pipe bend that looks like a 'U' under the sink. It's full of water and the idea is that it stops smells from your drain coming up through your plughole. It's a sharp U shape so you can't poke anything through it - that's why you have to remove it if you want to poke anything beyond there. The U-bend may in fact be where your blockage is, so when you take it off you can have a look and see if that's full of muck.
C) If it is not the U bend, you may want to buy a flexible rod and poke from the U bend area a bit deeper. If nothing clears, then this could be an outside problem. Best thing is to check with neighbours first to see if they all have a problem before starting to lift manhole covers.
D) My last resort for sinks and bath plug holes is to use a chemical to try to unblock the drain. You need to be very careful, try using something like 'Dambuster'. It's quite expensive at £20 a bottle, so avoid using it whenever possible. Don't get it on your skin, because it's very caustic and will cause burning! You can pour Dambuster down the plughole, or down the open end of a dismantled pipe (to avoid it sitting in the U-bend). It dissolves oil and fat, grease, hair and paper (even cigarette ends). It makes a wonderful burning smell and the plastic pipes get hot due to the acidic reaction. Milder drain-unblocking products may not worth using in situations where there is a serious blockage problem.
With a bath it's more difficult to dismantle the pipes because of restricted access so the Dambuster, plunger and flexible pipe passed through the plughole may be the only options."
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If you are really lucky, some sinks have something that's called a bottle trap, which is actually a three-inch diameter pipe that forms a U-shape, with a cap on the bottom. When you remove the cap, all the muck falls out. So you can have either a bottle trap bottle trap or a U-bend underneath the sink."
If the sink is only partially blocked, it may pay off to run the tap for a few minutes so when you do remove the U-bend, at least the water will be reasonably clean - remember to have a bucket handy underneath!
That's how to unblock the 40 mm plastic pipe that you find above ground, between the sink and the sewer.
If the blockage is below ground, in the sewer, you will have to use drain rods. You can buy a set of drain rods for about £20 from a plumbers' merchant - this is MUCH cheaper than calling out a plumber, and then you have got them forever. Drain rods are a bit like the sort of thing a chimney sweep uses - they screw together (or attached like tent poles with elastic in), there's usually ten in a set and each piece is about three feet long, so you can make up a 30 foot flexible rod and shove that down the drain. If one set does not do it it may be worth getting two sets so you can make up to double the length, as can sometimes be needed.
You will need to lift a manhole cover to access the drains. You could invest in a manhole cover Lifter and Key, but there's usually some sort of tool that you can use to improvise, to get hold of the manhole cover and lift it up. Manhole covers are very heavy (some of them are made of concrete) so don't drop them - especially on your toe.
A) Identify the correct manhole: you can usually tell which way the sewers run by the slope of the ground. If the ground slopes away at the back of the house for example, that will probably be where the sewers run - so any manhole cover in the back garden will give you access to the drain in question.
B) Next Manhole. If when you take the cover off you find the drains are full of mucky water that means the blockage is beyond that point. So you need to go to the next manhole cover along. What you're doing is looking for one that's empty and then you can put your rods down there in the direction of the one that's full, knowing that the blockage is somewhere between the empty and the full one. If you use the corkscrew type head on the drain rods, then you can usually get hold of the blockage and pull it through. It will all come whooshing through and will be cleared.
Strictly speaking, there is often a clause in the Assured Short hold Tenancy agreement to say that if the tenant blocks the drain due to an act of negligence, it's their responsibility. It is normally caused by something they've done. But it can be worth going the extra mile to be a good landlord and sort the problem out for tenants. And anyway, if the tenant has to pay over £100 to Dyno-rod, they may not be able to pay the next month's rent!
Fix It Yourself. Your DIY guide to fixing and repairing in and around the home. This DIY guide is written with the novice in mind, but if in doubt of your skills you should seek advice from a qualified person. Most of these things I have tackled myself over the years and have gained hands on experience in fixing things myself. I normally try to have a go at fixing something myself before I call in the professionals, but as soon as I realise I am out of my league - I call in the boys!