What to Do When Storm-water Drainage Line Is Blocked?
I have called my local plumber. He blamed the council. Council claims it is owner's responsibility as it's blocked somewhere under the nature strip.
What should I do?
What to Do When Stormwater Drainage Line Is Blocked?
LRomeoD on 01/03/2017 - 16:53
Comments
What council?
Snake it
Yep. I'd snake it first. Even try a long stick?
Then I'd hire a bloke with those high pressure water blasters to try dislodge the blockage.
A not uncommon cause of this can be if a truck drives over the nature strip it can crush the pipe due to them just being stormwater pipes and often shallow. Cleaning it out doesn't help in this situation.
Thank you for this comment. Was researching a stormwater problem I was having after some works were done outside my property. Looking back through my photos they had a truck sitting right on the stormwater line. I would never have thought of this unless I saw this old comment of yours!
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if its sewer, "blocked somewhere under the nature strip" I think would be Council, but storm-water I don't know. But hey, it's only rainwater. Many older homes still go… Gutter - Downpipe onto the ground - Out. As long as it doesn't then go onto neighbors or under your house it's a bonus free watering for your garden. I'm not suggesting releasing the water earlier than the street gutter (!) but, that was the standard and still is (in my council) if you've never replaced gutters or drainage since the new standards were introduced (introduced for the benefit of neighbors getting others overflow).
If the soil constantly remains wet couldn't that eventually cause the ground to collapse ? isn't that how sink holes are formed ?
More bonus, free swimming pool.
Constantly wet would cause a bog. Water flowing causes erosion. When the erosion is concealed by the surface then finally gets bad enough to collapse, that is a sink hole.
So does it exit onto the street via a pipe hole in the gutter? If so a long hose with a "jet" type nozzle fitting may be able to be inched up the pipe with the water going out at pressure because of the jet fitting and so blasting away the obstruction - works at my place for leaf blockages under the nature strip.
If it's a root problem the only long term solution is dig it up and replace.
If it's sewer call professionals.
This technique has worked for me a number of times - the old garden hose on high blast shoved in from the gutter technique….
In Sydney you'd probably call Sydney Water on their 24/7 emergency number. Although not storm-water, the man hole on our nature strip overflows all the time and clogs up the houses in the area, so they get called regularly. They love to come out at 2 am with their blinking orange lights.
In Melbourne I suppose you call Melbourne Water?
Local water authority won't respond to storm water problems AFAIK. They only deal with fresh water and sewer. Local council deals with storm water (drains)
Wyndham council came out with a truck and cleaned out the concrete pipelines under the road. They said now it's again back to your plumber.
The plumber previously used locator and CCTV to try and locate the blockage. He also used the jet pressure to try and unblock but it did not work. Now, he is saying that he needs to excavate the nature strip to ascertain the cause. He is now quoting over 3k.
Woah! Time to get an second opinion
start digging,
assuming your nature strip still has nature.
assuming you want it to be as cheap as possible
did the plumber indicate what 'might' have caused the blockage?