They thought the smell was the bins – they were wrong

Incase you didn’t notice, Glasgow City Council changed the collection days for Green coloured wheelie bins earlier this year.  It meant that rather than a bin collection every two weeks, it went up to three weeks.

The reason for this – studies conducted by the council suggested that if used correctly, a green wheelie bin provided enough space for up to three weeks worth of rubbish.

But this change in collection date, combined with a summer holiday meant that a customer has been living with quite the stench the last wee while.  They missed their bin collection because they were away on Summer Holiday. So when they started smelling a ‘bad smell’ in their garden, they naturally assumed that it was the bins which by this point had been sitting there for five weeks.  But when the bins were collected, the smell did not go away.

What could be causing the bad smell?

Another week went by and the smell was getting worse.  And at around the same time, they noticed that their downstair toilet was draining slowly.  They tried the plunger but that didn’t work and like so many people, simply assumed that they needed to live the rest of their lives with a slow draining toilet. But then one day, the toilet would simply not flush.  And that is when they needed to call JSL Drainage.

Why not call a plumber?

As you can see from this illustration…

…the waste water that leaves your home is a drainage issue (whereas the water that comes into your home is plumbing).

What was the problem?

We arrived at the home and conducted an initial inspection.  We sourced the main drain pipe in the garden which was under a patio slab and found a very obvious blockage.  Using our pressure jet blaster, we pushed through the obstruction and as soon as it was clear, weeks or poo began to flow through the drain.  We then ran the toilets through some test flushes to confirm that everything was working properly (the toilet now flushed properly and did not drain slowly.

The cause of the problem was a simple obstruction.  Not big enough to completely stop the flow of waste water leaving the property but big enough that is stopped larger objects (mainly poo) from draining properly.  Overtime, this built up and eventually caused the toilet to drain slowly as the nature drainage system was no longer operating at a consistent level.

Blocked drains can happen to anyone.  Sometimes it is because we flush the wrong thing down the toilet and other times it is because a heavy rain storm simply overwhelms a drainage system and creates a blockage.

And wouldn’t you know, as soon as the drain was unblocked, the bad smell that the owners through was the bins, but was actually the blocked drain, went away.

So if you notice a bad smell building up in your garden and know where your homes external drain pipe is, have a check to make sure it is flowing properly.

Whatever the reason for your blocked drain, we are just a phone call away for all our drainage needs.