Plumbing Problems

I

IzZzy

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Hi there,

Since this relates to health (having a clean bath) and wealth (not paying a plumber), I would love to hear your views as to what the problem could be:

Problem 1: Since moving into the flat I'm in now, the bath has been faulty. When I run the taps full, small pieces of dirt come out. When I run them on low, it seems to be fine (but then takes ages to fill!). I've tried running the tap on fill for a while to "clear the pipe" to no avail. What do you rate is the problem and how does one fix that?


Problem 2: Whenever I run the washing machine and it drains water, the water also comes out the sink. It appears the existing pipes cant drain the water quick enough. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance!
 
problem 2: Both the washing machine and sink drains connect to a single bigger pipe that carries the water away. In our place, it's the same with the bathrooms - the bath and shower drains and the toilet drains all lead into one big pipe.

So what does that mean? Either the bigger pipe is really too small to handle water from the washing machine, or the bigger pipe is somewhat blocked. Either way, the water fills back up the pipe, and filling up through the sink drain as well. Sufficient water build up (ie: large amounts of water like from your washing machine) can probably fill up to leak back into the sink.

Similar thing happened a couple of months ago by us, but in the bathrooms (hence my knowledge of the btahroom drainage). What happened was that everytime someone flushed the toilet, sewage would flow out of our shower/bath/basin. Not very welcoming... especially whn it happens that you're the one standing in the shower when the water starts filling up aound your ankles and the nasty smell and "dirty" water greets you. We had to get the main drains unblocked - took 15 minutes and around 600 bucks :(
 
See the DIY thread about using plumber rods.

Smelly business :)
 
yeah, problem 1 is probably old piping, and living in a flat makes it pretty difficult to fix/replace.

problem 2 is probabaly a block somewhere, as voicy says, time for the plumbing rod to try and unblock, and yes smelly business it can be
 
Awesome thanks for the replies! I will be off to source a plumbing rod!
 
Problem one could also be rusty pipes if your place has old metal pipes.

Problem two could be due the angle of the outflow pipe besides things being blocked.
 
Problem one could also be rust from the geyser or communal tank on the roof. Thats what caused this same problem in my flat.

Problem two, have you washed a lot of fat down the drain? maybe some drain cleaner will help you out.
 
Problem 1 sounds like old piping. In durbs we had Galvanized Iron pipes, and wilth hot water flowing in these pipes they heat up and tend to rust quicker. Also, bits of this rust would block the pipe or fall into the bath when the tap is turned up. We replaced all these pipes to the geyser with "polycop"(?) piping (looks like plastic piping).....all sorted
 
Leftfoot said:
Problem 1 sounds like old piping. In durbs we had Galvanized Iron pipes, and wilth hot water flowing in these pipes they heat up and tend to rust quicker. Also, bits of this rust would block the pipe or fall into the bath when the tap is turned up. We replaced all these pipes to the geyser with "polycop"(?) piping (looks like plastic piping).....all sorted
Click to expand...

Polypropylene. :)
 
Leftfoot said:
Problem 1 sounds like old piping. In durbs we had Galvanized Iron pipes, and wilth hot water flowing in these pipes they heat up and tend to rust quicker. Also, bits of this rust would block the pipe or fall into the bath when the tap is turned up. We replaced all these pipes to the geyser with "polycop"(?) piping (looks like plastic piping).....all sorted
Click to expand...

having done some plumbing myself, avoid polycop like the plague, it might be cheaper but its a nightmare to work worth and it doesn't last, copper is the way to go if you're replacing anything, polycop eventually gets brittle and eventually bursts.
 
hoegh said:
having done some plumbing myself, avoid polycop like the plague, it might be cheaper but its a nightmare to work worth and it doesn't last, copper is the way to go if you're replacing anything, polycop eventually gets brittle and eventually bursts.
Click to expand...

+1
I only use that pipe in the ground otherwise copper everywhere else.
 
Mila said:
When i Read this..... Izzzy you should fap more :)
Click to expand...

Lol! Random!

Anyway, I read in the DIY thread that a plumber's rod costs +-R700? What the? It only comes from the hot water tap so it must be the pipes on route from the geyser. Sigh.
 
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