Metro Rod Mid Wales and Shropshire had been called to a property in Shrewsbury town centre. The customer had been struggling with a slow running kitchen sink. At this point it had completely Blocked and there was no flow apart from onto the floor. The customer had explained that they had tried everything to try and clear it but with no success. On attending our engineer completed the usual checks like removing the trap and clearing the obvious pipework. This did not seem to any effect on the sink as water would still back up. Our engineer then proceeded to use his electromec which has a 25 metre reach. This is common practice for our engineers and he used all 25 metres. The wire unravelled and didn't seem to hit anything like a Blockage. By the end of the day our engineer had arranged to reattend the next morning.
Completely Blocked.
Armed with more equipment our engineer set about finding how to gain access to another parts of the pipework. As with the properties in Shrewsbury town centre the properties are old and have extensions and upgrades which cover old drainage access points. Lifting the Drains in the surrounding area our engineer decided to have another crack with a bigger version of the electromec. Again it used the whole coil and still the water wouldn't drain away.
Big Fatberg Discovery.
The customer kindly pointed the engineer in the direction of a small outdoor cupboard. This was situated under the house and the owner says they fill unused bits from the house. When opened was full of fridges and old boxes. He began to move some of the things around and it became apparent that there was a chamber in the cupboard. Clearing it out he found another next to it. On lifting the pair of them they were one big chamber and there hadn't seem to of been much flow through the chamber. This lead the engineer to believe the Blockage is now between the manhole and the sink.
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In the above Pictures you can see #1, Is the closet where the manholes were hiding. #2, On Clearing the closet two Manholes were found. #3, In the chambers you can see the remnants of fat that have slowly made there way down the line and blocked the drainage system and seem to have been sat there for some time.
Pushing Upstream to the Blockage.
From these manholes the engineers high water pressure jetted upstream hitting a solid object 2 metres upstream. He began to work the hose twisting the nozzle with the jet flowing at full power. Slowly he felt he was making headway into the blockage when pieces of fat began to flow back through the Manhole downstream. After 30 minutes and two full tanks of water something started to move. A pipe shaped sausage of fat began to fill the chamber. Water from the other side of the blockage began to push the Fatberg through. 8 buckets of fat were removed from the chamber that's not including the substantial amount that had been broken away and flowed downstream.
Here are 4 bucket loads of the Fatberg after being removed from the Manholes.
Finally Happy Ever After.
Clearing the Manholes of all the fat and cleansing the line to ensure every bit of fat had been removed. He turned the sink taps on and finally the customer had free flowing water again. This was to the pleasure of both engineer and homeowner. The area was cleaned and disinfected and the customer prompted to be more careful to what they put down there drains.
Here you can see the first chamber is now completely clear of any blockage, after flow testing all was good again!
If you have any drains that seem not to be flowing as normal its a sign that an issue has occurred in your Drainage system. You may have a Blockage somewhere on your property. Call Metro Rod Mid Wales and Shropshire on 01938554050. Or E-mail us with any questions on [email protected] our experienced staff are always here to help.
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We are always happy to arrange a free site assessment and no obligation quotations for any work you might need. Alternatively, you can call our emergency hotline number on 0800 66 88 00
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