Shared drains: Advice please!

papsita

I have just gone sale agreed on an old terraced house in Dublin 8. The drains are shared, and the surveyor said to check with neighbours on either side to see if there was a history of any problems there. If there was, he advised we "walk away." Unfortunately, neighbours on both sides of the house say that the drains do block up every six months or so, and then when it happens they get together and arrange for dynorod to come out, and share the cost. One neighbour (an elderly lady), said it was getting blocked more frequently lately, and that she lived in fear of the whole thing collapsing, which would leave everyone in a very costly mess. Should I walk away from this (I don't want to as I really love the house), or are such blockages par for the course in an old house (it's about 100 years old)? Indeed, does anyone know if such systems could collapse, or might that have been a bit of an exaggeration? Should I just get a proper dain survey and take it from there? Any advise at all would be very much appreciated.

Max Power1

in the current market i'd be walking away from anything that wasnt 110% perfect! Its a buyer's market - go somewhere else

LillyVanilli

Me too, and also if the house is over 100 years old its really difficult to get house insurance at a reasonable price.

JuliusCaesar

Why don't the 3 neighbours club together to get the problem fixed?

PS by drains, do you mean sewage outlet?

papsita

Thanks for getting back people. It's really not a house I want to walk away from. That's why I am wondering if the drains are worth it.

Juliuscasear, I do mean the sewage. The neighbours do club together when they need to get them unblocked. I am just wondering why they seem to be blocking several times a year in the first place. Maybe they have never got it properly investigated, or maybe some f***wit is shoving nappies down the jacks or something.

I just don't know whether this is something I should walk away from my 'dream' house over. If the place was riddled with damp and the foundations were crumbling, fine. But are drains that block occasionally a dealbreaker?

Confused.

JuliusCaesar

This might be useful to you. I know it's from Cork, but applies to Dublin too. Apparantly it's quite common.

papsita

Thank you very much Julius, that is really helpful. I'm going to get the vendor to have a full investigation. If the pips are damaged then forget it, but if it's just standard blockages then I think I can cope.

antoinolachtnai

It is a good basic leaflet, but I would not wholly rely on that document as a summary of the legal situation. The DCC engineer who called out to me about something similar tells me that a judge in the district court in Dublin (which is obviously not something that sets a precedent) recently decided to divide the cost of works among all the owners on the private drain, whether they were effected by the problem or not.

The problem with old clay drains is that they gradually degrade over time. The can collapse, or more likely, the joints between the sections of pipe will move out of alignment, so the water can't flow past smoothly. Getting them jetted by dyno-rod is not always the thing to do - the pressure of the jet can cause further damage if you do it repeatedly. If you can rod them out, it's better.

Also, you can get a jetting attachment for some pressure washers. This might be of help to save money, all the warnings above obviously apply.

This is a problem for all old buildings with common drains which have not been replaced. They will all fail, eventually. It's just a matter of when.

It's actually all down to access. If you can figure out where the common drains goes, and if it is all accessible (i.e., doesn't go under any houses and doesn't go under too much concrete) then you could actually resolve the problem for once and for all by replacing the part of the pipe where the problem is. Replacing it is not really all that expensive if you have access and cooperation, and a few people are prepared to split the cost.

There are sometimes also ways to patch the pipe from the inside. Dyno-rod should be able to tell you about these possibilities.

I would not walk away just like that if the deal was good and you had access as above, especially if there were cooperative neighbours. But obviously this is up to you and you need to consider the professional advice you have received.

If fixing the drain would entail digging up the inside of someone's house, then that is a problem and I would be much more reluctant.

If you want to be really thorough, you can get a survey done using a video camera that goes down the drain. This will cost you about 250 euros. It will help you find out for once and for all where the problem is. Dyno-rod (and many of the other drain cleaning companies, in Dublin, AJ Drains is my preference) will do this for you.

ricman

EVEN in old houses this is not common , most houses have their own outlet to the main sewer pipe.Which is maintained by the council water dept.You could ask for a reduction in 5k in the price considering the extra expense, re drains.
I know one gaff where the main water pipe in had to be replaced, cos it was lead ,at a cost of 150euro.AND the old sewer pipe needed a new cover ,
1ftx1ft , it was 5 ft under the floorboards ,easy to reach cos the house has no concrete foundation, just earth underneath the floorboards.House is 200 years old.
AT least 5 percent of the water supply pipes have leaks, but the council cant afford to fix them all at once.
LOADS of new estates have major problems with drains, and the builders are out of business.
I dont regard it as a dealbreaker, if the rest of the house is ok.
AND old houses have good sound insulation, ie the walls are thicker than new ones.

antiskeptic

LillyVanilli wrote: »

Me too, and also if the house is over 100 years old its really difficult to get house insurance at a reasonable price.

Not quite true. I've a house over a hundred years old and the insurance isn't anything special. Indeed, it could be said to be a better built house than many built in the last 20 years or so

shoegirl

antoinolachtnai wrote: »

The DCC engineer who called out to me about something similar tells me that a judge in the district court in Dublin (which is obviously not something that sets a precedent) recently decided to divide the cost of works among all the owners on the private drain, whether they were effected by the problem or not.

Yeah, I think is supposed to be the case.

My parents are at the end of a row of houses connected to a private drain and the problem there is that problems can only impact one or two houses and those unaffected often refuse to contribute to fixing it, even though they might actually be the cause of it. If the neighbours are already contributing at least thats a good thing but damage could be pricey to repair.

antiskeptic

papsita wrote: »

Thanks for getting back people. It's really not a house I want to walk away from. That's why I am wondering if the drains are worth it.

Juliuscasear, I do mean the sewage. The neighbours do club together when they need to get them unblocked. I am just wondering why they seem to be blocking several times a year in the first place. Maybe they have never got it properly investigated, or maybe some f***wit is shoving nappies down the jacks or something.

The drains might not be so bad in fact. Over the years you can expect filling mortar used to cement the elements in place at connection point to the house to wash away in places - in which case you've got snag points. Not a big deal were it only toilet paper you're dealing with - it'll fall to bits. Panty liners and baby wipes are a different matter. Generally the problem can be rectified with a bit of re-mortaring in each of the manholes (sometime there's only a manhole every second garden) to rid things of snag points.

If there is shifting of the pipe segments which set's them out of line with each other or partial collapse ... then you've a more serious problem on your hands. I'm wondering is it possible to get the pipe relined with a continuous plastic tube at less cost and inconvenience than digging things up?

I'd reason to have a "survey" of my sisters sewers done a few months ago and got someone to do it for 150 quid. It shouldn't be too difficult to establish what's going on - you might be looking at a simple enough repair..

papsita

Thank you to everyone for getting back with so much sound advice. I have spoken to the agent about this, and the vendor has agreed to get a survey done. Fingers crossed there is no major work that needs doing.

antiskeptic

papsita wrote: »

Thank you to everyone for getting back with so much sound advice. I have spoken to the agent about this, and the vendor has agreed to get a survey done. Fingers crossed there is no major work that needs doing.

Make sure that you're in the loop for a copy of the survey dvd so that you can establish for yourself (via your own assessor) what the state of the drains is.