Today I had a quick go at breaking out the old bottle gully in order to change it into a soil drain pipe to eventually accommodate the new kitchen and ensuite.
Broke out the concrete above the pipe only to find that the clay pipe was broken in several places and the joint between the uPVC trap and the clay soil pipe consisted of a uPVC coupler simply pushed over the clay pipe.
This never would have sealed effectively and has probably been leaking since day one. As it was the pipe has been leaking badly so the ground was saturated wet and the smell coming up from in the ground was horrendous.
Truly awful and indescribable. Years of food waste, washing machine waste and dirty dish water all combined into the soil around the pipe makes for a nauseous experience.
It absolutely stinks.
My temporary drain pipe from the kitchen into the soil until my new drainage pipes appear, hopefully Monday.
Here’s the pile of stinking soil that I had to excavate by hand.
All my underground drainage pipe work should have turned up today, however the delivery was incomplete. They only brought the lengths of pipe and my DPM sheet. All the fittings are still AWOL from Plastics Express.
In the end I asked Carley to stop off at Screwfix while she was out in order to get a clay adaptor and a 45 degree bend so I can hook up to the existing pipe. She came back with just the right item, she’s good like that.
Fitted the clay adaptor to the existing pipe, and added a 45 degree bend, then piped the kitchen waste pipe into it. Still awaiting the rest bend to bring it up to vertical, hopefully it will arrive tomorrow.
Next big job is the installation of the new drainage pipes and destruction and removal of the manhole to pipe it through, when the rest of my absent fittings arrive. Not the nicest job in the world to come but we’ll get through it.
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