On Fri, 6 Apr 2018 23:26:37 +0100, alan_m
wrote:

On 06/04/2018 22:41, MM wrote:


Any other suggestions most welcome!

You can probably get the hose up up the downpipe by feeding from the
bottom - the downpipe will stop the hose folding back on itself.

If you have room at the bottom of the downpipe a bare end of a hose may
be sufficient to clear a blockage but ideally a nozzle set to the
narrowest higher pressure jet will work a lot better. Feed the hose up
before turning on the water.

You don't say if the downpipe has push-fit or solvent welded fittings.
If the former you may be able to take off an angled shoe at the bottom
of the downpipe to give you more room.

If you have moss on the roof the blockage is probably that. If so just
clearing the downpipe may not be a long time cure as the moss in the
gutter will migrate to the downpipe again in heavy rainfall.

You'll be pleased to know that I've cleared the blockage successfully,
using a Screwfix spiral drain unblocker.

I am still shaking from the immediate and wondrous effect 30 minutes
ago. Takes me back to my first orgasm aged 12.

I got home from Screwfix, had a bacon sarnie, assembled the handle on
to the unblocker, stuck the wire up the drainpipe and "rodded" it a
bit while turning the handle.

All of a sudden out comes a great shower of water and crud! Bingo!

Job done. The Screwfix tool costs £22.99, so it's money well spent.

To answer to one of the other responders, if it blocks again, well,
now I have THE tool to unblock it again.

Plus, while I was at Screwfix I also ordered a half-round scraper to
attach to my long pole. I'm going to use that to scrape along the
gutters.

By the way, before starting this job I poked a webcam out of the
upstairs window on a long selfie stick to spy into the gutter. While
there is ~some~ moss in there, it's not too bad after 14 years and
never been cleaned out. It's at times like these that I wish I had a
little drone with camera.

Right, now it's time to connect up that rain diverter in order to
rejoin the cut pipes.

Shame we can't do a smiley face in Usenet. Maybe like this

MM