There is a bit of conjecture here but on the evidence of having to rod
the back bathroom drain rather frequently :(, plus the fact that in
an earlier rodding expedition, where an access point had to be dug up,
I could not get the plunger passed a point some 15m into a 50m run,
all leads to the probability that the drain is fractured.

If we add to this the fact that this drain is not all that deep (can't
remember how deep but digging up the access point was much less than
expected !), was laid possibly 80 years ago and cars have been parked
on top if it all that time .... well it all adds up doesn't it.

So this summer will see a digging session - thank goodness the guy up
the road has mini-diggers :).

The question is this - I'll be constrained by the depth of the
existing drain when I re-lay in plastic so how do I protect the
plastic from the soil pressure due to the vehicles. There is no
question of options/choices here - the drain has to go where it is
already (1) and we cannot park our cars anywhere else.

Thanks for any help.

Rob

(1) It could possibly be re-directed through the house but the thought
of that is horrendous - rip up floors, the bathroom, the kitchen, etc.
and anyway is it legal to lay a drain over the solum ?

On 15 Feb, 17:00, robgraham wrote:
There is a bit of conjecture here but on the evidence of having to rod
the back bathroom drain rather frequently :(, plus the fact that in
an earlier rodding expedition, where an access point had to be dug up,
I could not get the plunger passed a point some 15m into a 50m run,
all leads to the probability that the drain is fractured.

If we add to this the fact that this drain is not all that deep (can't
remember how deep but digging up the access point was much less than
expected !), was laid possibly 80 years ago and cars have been parked
on top if it all that time .... well it all adds up doesn't it.

So this summer will see a digging session - thank goodness the guy up
the road has mini-diggers :).

The question is this - I'll be constrained by the depth of the
existing drain when I re-lay in plastic so how do I protect the
plastic from the soil pressure due to the vehicles. There is no
question of options/choices here - the drain has to go where it is
already (1) and we cannot park our cars anywhere else.

Thanks for any help.

Rob

(1) It could possibly be re-directed through the house but the thought
of that is horrendous - rip up floors, the bathroom, the kitchen, etc.
and anyway is it legal to lay a drain over the solum ?

Encase the drain in concrete. This is in the building regs for pipes
less than a certain depth from the surface - can't remember the depth
off-hand.
Simon.

robgraham wrote:
There is a bit of conjecture here but on the evidence of having to rod
the back bathroom drain rather frequently :(, plus the fact that in
an earlier rodding expedition, where an access point had to be dug up,
I could not get the plunger passed a point some 15m into a 50m run,
all leads to the probability that the drain is fractured.

If we add to this the fact that this drain is not all that deep (can't
remember how deep but digging up the access point was much less than
expected !), was laid possibly 80 years ago and cars have been parked
on top if it all that time .... well it all adds up doesn't it.

So this summer will see a digging session - thank goodness the guy up
the road has mini-diggers :).

The question is this - I'll be constrained by the depth of the
existing drain when I re-lay in plastic so how do I protect the
plastic from the soil pressure due to the vehicles. There is no
question of options/choices here - the drain has to go where it is
already (1) and we cannot park our cars anywhere else.

Just make sure the plastic drain is encased in gravel before you backfill
the cutting, this is for expansion and also to stop any hard materials like
bricks, sharp stones etc from damaging the pipe, which incidentally are
extremely strong.
As an example of how strong they are, we used small sections (about 18in
long) to manouvre steel girders into position - we had to move them
approximately 80m from where they were dropped, over to where they were
required.
The girders were over 8m in length and were over 100kg per m - two sections
of pipe held them up off the ground.