Regulars to this site and certain other expat forums will know that during our relocation from England we have encountered all sorts of problems.
This latest is one of a series related to our house and concerns the drains...
The house is a renovated village house, which retains part of the original concrete main drainage pipe.
Our project manager’s workforce installed a new bathroom and kitchen with all new plastic drains which join up with original drains underneath the living room floor. The ground floor is tiled throughout so access to the main drain is impossible without first removing floor tiles and about 9 to 12" of concrete. The bathroom is at the back of the house with drainage for the bath/shower, the loo and a washbasin, then, coming further forward we have the kitchen which is plumbed for a sink unit and a washing machine.
For reasons best known to themselves, the team installed the new drainage with no access points for rodding...I know a lot of the problem was due to space availability, but the use of multitudinous right angle bends make it almost impossible to use even the flexi-spring type of drain clearance tool.
In the bathroom the drains are behind stud walls (again all tiled) and under concrete and in the kitchen a similar situation exists.
For reasons best known to himself our project manager walked off the job before completion and is of very little help.
Two weeks ago we started to have problems...flushing the loo caused water(?) to appear in the bath. Using the washbasin brought a similar result. The kitchen sink takes a long time to drain. To my way of thinking the problem therefore lies forward of the kitchen.
In desperation I emailed our project manager and asked his advice. His reply was very helpful...NOT.
Quote "Remove the loo and rod it from there, if that doesnt work call a plumber..." Unquote .
Cant do that because the loo is a horizontal rear extract rather than a vertical. The pipe from the loo goes back about 12" then turns 90 degrees downward to meet the main drain again at 90 degrees. So we have two 90 degree turns in the short space of a couple of feet. Conventional rods are therefore completely unsuitable. I explained this in a further email to the project manager who has decided to ignore this second email completely.
Again in desperation I went to the local Ferretaria and bought a couple of kilos of cautic soda, made up a saturated solution of 1 kilo of this and dumped it down the kitchen sink. Much gurgling and other tubular noises but not much real effect.
Reluctantly I called a local plumber who claims to specialise in blockages and came out right away. He had a look at the system and like all plumbers worldwide, shook his head, took a sharp intake of breath and set to work.
In machine-gun speed Spanish the meaning of most which was totally beyond me, he explained he would have to remove the loo and try to clear the system from the loo drain. Given that it was now 8pm he would come back the following day.
The next morning he reappeared with his assistant daughter and they set to work removing the loo. This in itself was no easy task because rather than use screws to bolt the thing to the floor it was secured using a rubber mastic solution As a result it took over two hours just to get the loo out!
He then used a flexi-steel drain rod and attempted to clear the blockage. How successful this was I don’t know, because when he withdrew it, it was coiled up on itself for about 2/3 of its length. He seemed satisfied however and set about re-installing the loo.(Using screws I’m pleased to say).
At this point I had to leave the house for a few minutes.
When I returned, he had fresh water in all the sinks and the bath and demonstrated the free outflow from each. All appeared to be well, and so it remained for three days…
The plumber made a charge that I consider to be very expensive considering his time on site…max about 5hours…320 Euros.
Very expensive in view of the fact that three days after the ‘fix’ the problem reappeared just as bad as ever…I hesitate to call him out again…my knowledge of Spanish is not good enough to get into a serious discussion with him. Literally 320 Euros down the drain…
Given that my project manger doesn’t want to know, I am faced with having to pay someone to do the job properly. We are still none the wiser as to where or what the blockage actually is. I can’t see it being building rubble since the drains had been fine for the previous eighteen months following installation. I don’t have the tools to investigate and we are very short of money since my wife had to make an unexpected return to the UK in January for a month.
This has been a very long entry… If anyone out there has any suggestions I would be very appreciative.