Do this before you start drains pipes installing
Do this before you start drains pipes installing
Before you undertake DIY plumbing and drains work it is essential to understand the national rules and rules formulated by the local authority.
If you are considering altering your existing drainage, or installing a new sewage system you will almost certainly need to present some detailed plans of the work that you intend to undertake and it will need to be inspected as the work progresses making sure that it complies with the local building rules. In most cases they do not need to be notified for a simple replacement of broken parts.
The water which you see on the surface is basically rain. This surface water can seep into sewers, watercourse and become a part of the sewage system in older housing developments. Air escape from the drains is stopped when rainwater pipes are discharged into the foul water drains through gully traps in an older combined system. However with the new drainage systems, the foul and the surface water can be kept apart. It’s absolutely crucial that you keep the dirty water sewage system apart from the one for surface water. If you have doubts about your house’s drainage system, you can get help from the Building Control Department before you begin any work.
Designing the path of the waste passageways will be your first task. 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 stoppages. You must avoid making your pipe runs too steep. A surveyor’ site level should be used to work out the fall of a drain pipe. In the absence of one of these, create a datum point and set levels with a hosepipe filled with water and compute the fall from the datum in this manner.
When installing your drain trench, you will need to make sure that you do not impair the stability of the building. The substructure of the building should not be undermined by your digging if the drainage runs parallel to it.
The pipes should be laid before too long a trench is dug as a new ditch can be unstable. Excavate a part of the sewage system, install and test the pipework, and then back fill and compact the earth before moving on to the next part.
Because of different depth and soil conditions the trench will probably need to be supported. Do not take any risks. It is better to provide support to the ditch walls than allowing the ditch to collapse. Keep the trench as narrow as you can but of course make sure that there is enough room to work in the trench including any plan, machinery or tools you require. Be sure to remove any stones or bricks from the ditch bed and make it as even as possible. You may need to import a suitable material for the base of the trench if the existing material is unsuitable.
You should definitely not use hard materials such as bricks to support the pipe in the trench. This should not be used as support for the short or the long run because it will damage the pipe, the pipe needs to be fully supported over its full lenght. Consolidate the bottom with a small roller or rammer and provide grooves in the bed to support the joints properly. The support should be smooth and even, from the beginning of the pipe to its end.
Make sure that your plans are made in such a way that drain rods are within reach of every part of the network of pipes. So that is why a run of drains should be as straight as possible between two points or inspection chambers. An inspection chamber should be present at places where the pipework changes its direction, this is important so that it remains accessible to drain rods and they do not need to go around corners.
Keeping these points in mind, you can carry out your own drainage and plumbing work smoothly and almost professionally.