Fitting of drainage, this is your project plan
Fitting of drainage, this is your project plan
Before starting any plumbing and drainage work yourself you should find out about any Local Authority regulations that relate to your area.
If you are changing your current sewage, or installing a new system, you will most definitely be asked to show detailed plans of the implementation that you have in mind and it will need to be overseen as the work moves forward to ensure that it is compliant with local building rules. However you do not require authority approval for replacement of failed joints or cracked plumbing and drains pipes.
Whatever water we see on the surface around your home is usually rainwater. An earlier method was to directly discharge this surface water into the sewage drains, but modern homes use a surface water sewer or watercourse or soakaway to drain or absorb rainwater. The rainwater pipes in combined sewage systems empty their discharge into the foul water drains through gully traps, this prevent foul air from escaping outside creating odours. However with the new sewage systems, the foul and the surface water can be kept apart. Rainwater and foul water sewage should not be interconnected, however convenient it may seem. When in doubt about the how the modern sewage system works, consult the Building Control Department.
Before starting your work, finalise the routes the waste pipes would take. The basic thing which you have to care about is to keep the route as straight and short as you can while designing the route of a waste or soil pipe, this will help to reduce the likelihood of blocks. Steep pipes should be averted during the path design. Use a surveyor’s leveling tool to set out the slope of the drain trench. By establishing a datum point and using a hosepipe filled with water to establish levels you can calculate the fall from the datum in a situation when do not have one of these measures available.
When installing your drain ditch, you will need to make sure that you do not impair the stableness of the building. If you are laying a drain run parallel to the house, you must ensure that any foundations are not weakened.
If you try to dig all the trenches before you start pipe fixing, there is a chance of some trenches collapsing. You should attempt to get the pipes laid as soon as possible and, after inspection and checking, you should back fill the ditch.
Depending on the depth and soil conditions, the ditch may require support. You should avoid any risks with this project. If in doubt add support to the trench to prevent it from collapsing. The trench should be narrow, but spacious enough for people to work with any required tools. The base of the ditch should be clean and even and free from protruding stones or bricks etc. The base should be good so you may need to import material if the existing soil structuire is not up to the mark.
Never use bricks and/or other hard materials to support the pipe in the ditch. Such hard objects will cause the poorly supported pipe to bend or break and the joints will eventually fail. The bedding should be made compact to fit around the pipe joints. A good guideline is that support should be provided for the entire length of the pipe.
When designing your sewage system, it is important to make all parts of the pipework reachable via a set of drain rods should a blockage occur. The drains should therefore run straight between two points to ease the passage of the drain rods. In case of any change in the direction of the pipework it should be provided with an inspection chamber for allowing drains rod access.
DIY plumbing and drainage is within the reach of many DIY fans if you follow these simple rules.