"Andrew Gabriel" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Clive Summerfield" writes:
"Andrew Gabriel" wrote in message
...
Watch out that the rubber seal doesn't flick **** in your
face when it does finally come out...

And my neighbour thought I was daft wearing a mask and goggles when I
replaced most of our soil stack. Glad I'm not the only person to be on
the
receiving end of rubber-propelled **** fragments when working on a
stack.
But after the first time, mask and goggles every time.

I always wear goggles for this sort of thing. A full face mask
would be even better...


After one experience clearing a blocked drain at my old house in Norfolk,
I'd prefer a full NBC suit. 60ft run between shallow inspection chamber
(near house) and 4ft deep chamber near septic tank. Similar scenario with
old bamboo drain rods left by previous owner which had rotted and left me
with about 25-30' of usable rods. Turned up one sunny saturday morning in
summer, 2 weeks after hosting a charity camping weekend in the garden (.75
acre). Pulled on to the drive and immediatly spotted a suspiciously wet area
around the manhole cover nearest the house. Wet, after 2 weeks of
uninterrupted sun. Hmm, worrying. Lifted the lid and nearly passed out at
the stench, although a quick application of a gallon of pine disinfectant at
least eased that for a bit.

So, on with the goggles and mask, and out with the abbreviated rods. Worked
all 30' into the drain from the shallow chamber, but couldn't find the
obstruction. Bugger. Not going to stick my arm in the sh*t to try and clear
it from the top. Will try clearing from below instead. Moved to the deeper
chamber and started rodding from there. Ended up sat on the lip of the
chamber using a foot to work the rod. Having spent considerable time at this
already, I sort of lost it and had a brainstorm. If I could just get a bit
of pressure on the end of the rod at a shallower angle, it should break
through the obstruction. I had wellies on, so they might get a bit mucky as
the end of the rod dipped under the surface, but what the heck - I should be
able to get my arms out of the way quick enough.

What happened next caused immense hilarity for the spectators. I hopped into
the chamber and started to push with increasing effort. Suddenly the
blockage gave way and a tidal wave of stale sh*t and other noxious matter
came hurtling down the pipe. No big deal, it should just shoot down the
drain to the septic tank. Unfortunately there was another blockage a foot or
so downstream of the chamber I was in. Before you could say "Shine your
buckles with Brasso", I was up to my knees in sh*t. It was only when I
climbed out that I realised the wellies might not have been the best choice
of footwear.


snipped humourous tale of drain clearing

IIRC, I went and had a hot bath...


ditto

Clive