Hi all,
I bought a house pretty much a year ago to the day. It has a bathroom and kitchen in the basement. I knew there was some damp problems, but 2 surveys on the house said it would cost about £1000 to fix them, so I thought I could cope with that.
It turns out the people who did the survey were clueless. About £5k and 6 months later I'd taken out my kitchen & bathroom, tanked the walls, re-plastered, re-decorated and had myself a brand new kitchen and bathroom. There was a one-way valve put in by the council just outside my house which was cleaned and any debris was removed from the pipes to prevent it happening again. I moved in (hurrah!)
1 month later there was a very heavy storm and the flood waters came up from the sewage pipes and out of my toilet and bath and flooded my kitchen & bathroom :|
After some toing and froing (5 months worth), the kitchen units were taken out, all plaster up to 8" was removed and is currently being replaced. The builders will be working on my bathroom this week.
Now my other problem. Today my mother flushed the toilet and found that the toilet water almost over-flowed and there was a large gurgling sound and dirty water came out of the bath.
The next door neighbour also has a kitchen and bathroom in the basement, but they are slightly higher than me. The result of this is that it was only my house that flooded and I think that all of their water/sewage just heads down towards my house if it doesn't escape into the sewage system.
Now I really need something that will permanently fix the problem. I have asked the insurance guys to put in a 1 way valve for the bath so that the water wont come up the waste pipe into my bath anymore.
This still leaves my toilet which is very open to "attack". If the water at the moment is almost overflowing after a flush when some water escapes into the bath.. then when I stop the water coming out of the bath, surely the toilet WILL overflow since that is the only outlet.
I can only assume that there is some blockage between mine & my neighbours house and to sewers outside. So I have a couple of questions, firstly, does it sound like a blockage to you and are these usually easily cleared?
Secondly, can you think of anything I can do to prevent water coming from my toilet? I'm worried that heavy rain will result in a flood again and now I'm even worried that if the neighbour takes a bath and empties the water that it will come out of my toilet.
Any help/info you can give will be appreciated.
P.s. Never buy a house with a toilet in the basement
I bought a house pretty much a year ago to the day. It has a bathroom and kitchen in the basement. I knew there was some damp problems, but 2 surveys on the house said it would cost about £1000 to fix them, so I thought I could cope with that.
It turns out the people who did the survey were clueless. About £5k and 6 months later I'd taken out my kitchen & bathroom, tanked the walls, re-plastered, re-decorated and had myself a brand new kitchen and bathroom. There was a one-way valve put in by the council just outside my house which was cleaned and any debris was removed from the pipes to prevent it happening again. I moved in (hurrah!)
1 month later there was a very heavy storm and the flood waters came up from the sewage pipes and out of my toilet and bath and flooded my kitchen & bathroom :|
After some toing and froing (5 months worth), the kitchen units were taken out, all plaster up to 8" was removed and is currently being replaced. The builders will be working on my bathroom this week.
Now my other problem. Today my mother flushed the toilet and found that the toilet water almost over-flowed and there was a large gurgling sound and dirty water came out of the bath.
The next door neighbour also has a kitchen and bathroom in the basement, but they are slightly higher than me. The result of this is that it was only my house that flooded and I think that all of their water/sewage just heads down towards my house if it doesn't escape into the sewage system.
Now I really need something that will permanently fix the problem. I have asked the insurance guys to put in a 1 way valve for the bath so that the water wont come up the waste pipe into my bath anymore.
This still leaves my toilet which is very open to "attack". If the water at the moment is almost overflowing after a flush when some water escapes into the bath.. then when I stop the water coming out of the bath, surely the toilet WILL overflow since that is the only outlet.
I can only assume that there is some blockage between mine & my neighbours house and to sewers outside. So I have a couple of questions, firstly, does it sound like a blockage to you and are these usually easily cleared?
Secondly, can you think of anything I can do to prevent water coming from my toilet? I'm worried that heavy rain will result in a flood again and now I'm even worried that if the neighbour takes a bath and empties the water that it will come out of my toilet.
Any help/info you can give will be appreciated.
P.s. Never buy a house with a toilet in the basement
