Drainage/Plumbing Advice please

[Paulsss]

Afternoon all, I don’t really have much knowledge of drainage/plumbing so need some advice.

My house is a 4 bed detached house with 1 downstairs toilet. 2 upstairs en-suite shower rooms and 1 family bathroom. It is 12 years old and we bought it new. As it has only being 3 of us living in the house the family bathroom hasn’t been used that much (mainly guests on a few occasions and intermittent use by ourselves)

A few weeks ago we had someone stay and the toilet wouldn’t drain. This had also happened previously. It did clear itself but by this time I had asked a local drainage company to come out. He looked down the manhole got me to flush toilets etc and said that it was a plumbing problem inside. He wasn’t very helpful!

Since then I have flushed the toilet on numerous occasions and it drains away ok. I’ve put some toilet paper down and this also drains ok. I haven’t actual used the toilet again as wanted to check it without human waste incase it blocked. The water is currently draining fine and is running through the pipe behind the toilet and then I can hear it running down the vertical pipe stack into my kitchen. Where it goes from there I have no idea.

I am now worried that it is the pipe under the ground floor that has been laid incorrectly and as we haven’t really used this toilet it’s always been a problem.

I should also add that we have no problems with the rest of the toilets in the house.

Any advice would be helpful.

 

[HERTS P&D]

Yes, my advice is to stop worrying. You had a bloackage that had cleared itself.

Flush the toilet several times to confirm everything is working correctly.

Andy

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Open the manhole, and have someone watch whilst you flush some paper down, to see if it appears flowing through the manhole promptly.

If it does, it may just have been a temporary blockage.

 

[Hugh Jaleak]

Could well be down to the drainage layout, if the family bathroom doesn't get used so much, there may be a point in the system where solids build up, (it shouldn't happen but it does, particularly with the plastic chambers commonly used these days.) If the Family Bathroom was used more frequently, there may never be an issue as the flows from there may wash anything 'left behind' from another direction away each time.

As though, its not used so much, perhaps there was a build up and it's taken a bit of a head of water to shift it. I would suggest flushing the WC in that bathroom a couple of times a week, just to keep everything flowing if you're worried, it may help keep things running more smoothly.