How do I find out if the main drain on my property is shared with other houses? The water co has no map.?

Question

The main drain has overflowed with sewage in my front garden 2x in the last 2 years. I have to deal with it, but if it's shared the water company can serve notices on other properties to tell them what not to put down the toilet!

Answer 1

if you have knowledge of those that MAY be on your line and have the cooperation of all, an old trick i learned in the sixties was to put coloring dye or red coolaid in the toilets or sinks.

watch at the other end and it it ends up in your yard, bingo, you know who to see.

each home should have a different bright color if you do the all at the same time,

otherwise; dig up around the septic or cesspool your have if you don't have an observation hole and look for pipes entering the system.

if the pipes may be traveling through your property to the main sewer system, change out the old short tiles to 20' DWV or ABS or whatever is equivalent to your area.

Answer 2

Take two braizing rods. Bend the ends of each over at right angles, about three inches from the end. Hold one rod loosely in each hand by the short end with the long ends facing away from you. Let the short end of each rod sit on your little finger and make sure the rods are loose enough to freely swivel. Now walk around your manhole several feet away from it. As you pass over a sewer pipe, the rods will turn outwards. You can keep doing this and map out all the underground pipes (sewer, water etc) and find where they go.

If the rods cross instead of turning out, you will be passing over (or under) a live cable. A dead cable will give the same outwards signal as a pipe.

If this doesn't work for you, ask a family member or friend to do it. It works for about 50% of the population.

The only problem is that people who do not know (or disbelieve) this method, feel silly doing it.

By co-incidence, I had to do this a couple of weeks ago. A neighbour was away when we saw water coming out of the house. Of the many small manholes around, no one knew which one contained the outside valve. I used this method and found the right one in less than a minute and we were able to turn off the water to the house..

Answer 3

You could get in touch with your local council they maybe able to tell you the information you need or if the house is yours and not rented then the info should be on the deeds of the property, failing that, phone a drainage company up and ask them to come and have a look at the drains for you, they will be able to tell whether the drains are shared or not. Hope this helps

Answer 4

Public Works Dept Shold Be Able To tell you Where Your Tap into The Sewer is the Should also be able to tell you if there are any more Tap's for your Neighbor's After You Find That Out you will need to dye test the House's You Think Are On it. To Do This lift Manhole Cover Downstream From Your Tap In Then Go To The Homes And Ask If you Can Dye Test There Comodes And Then Watch Flow In sewer If Dye Comes Into it they are on same lateral.

Answer 5

Go and ask others in the street to lift the manhole covers in the garden and see if their drains are blocked - stand with them while they do it or offer to lift it for them coz some people lie !! I had to do this when the same problem occurred - get in touch with environmental health and they can serve notices next time it blocks and charge the other people equally rather than just you having to pay. We found 43 other properties were affected on our run of drain but we are at the lowest point so eventually the sewage came up in my kitchen !!!!!!

Answer 6

Well, some companies like roto rooter can also do visual inspections down the sewer with a camera system. I would think it would be unusual for you to have anyone else hooked up to your main drain, usually houses are joined at the main in the street.

Answer 7

it really is amazingly likely this isn't proper to the city. In my state, California, the regulation calls for a property proprietor to collect water runoff from their resources and get rid of it in civil infrastructure, which contain a typhoon drain or drainage swale, in the previous it travels over the resources line. How ought to the city approve the construction of this undertaking? If the abode is less than structure i ought to contact the city inspector.

Answer 8

Open up the inspection chambers and see where the pipes come from.

Answer 9

the local court house at the public works dept.

Answer 10

you can always look on the deeds to the property if you are the mortgage holder cos they should be in the plan.