bath/drain issues

Brooke posted on the 27/06/2018 4:10:04 PM

I am wondering if anyone has had/has any issues with their bath gurgling? Some water even comes up when it happens and it;s quite noisy. We have had numerous plumbers out to try and fix but no luck. Any advice would be great!



#1 - Alan replied on the 27/06/2018 5:22:58 PM

Check the vent pipe outside, it might be blocked therefore air can't get into the system. Does it eventually drain away?

What floor are you on?


#2 - Brooke replied on the 28/06/2018 10:31:49 AM

Hi Alan, thanks for your message. Yes the water goes down no problem, we just don't know why it comes up in the first place. We are on the 1st floor.


#3 - Alan replied on the 29/06/2018 11:57:58 AM

When you drain the bath does water come up the hand basin plug, or vice versa...on any of your other water drains? It really sounds like there's something in a pipe somewhere, most likely the vent pipe. The vent pipe allows air to get into the system when you flush or drain something. If air can't get in - or gets in at a slow rate it will cause a partial vacuum to form, when the air releases this is what gives you the gurgling noise.

Ask your downstairs neighbour if their drains are ok (if you get on with them) as they will suffer the most from this being furthest away from the vent opening which will be at the top floor.


#4 - Mac01 replied on the 29/06/2018 12:03:13 PM

We had similar in the past (tenement) but if you had plumbers out they should have covered what I was going to say.
Is the trap under the bath clean, they are very shallow so it does not take much to stop them being efficient. You could take the trap of and rod the waste pipe as far as you can, a flexible rodding line is really not expensive. The outflow from your house should not protrude into the waste down pipe as that can cause syphoning from those above.
There may be an obstruction on the wast below you before it hits the main sewers in the street, thats really the most obvious in older buildings and what we had, so I would give up getting your own plumber if thats what you have been doing and get the factor in as it could be a communal problem needing someone like dyno rod in. Ours did drain fine too but come rain or a bath getting emptied we got water up.
The plumbing in flats gets messed about with over the years as people move the layout so have care its not just bath/rain water your getting up when above you drain their bath or worse flush the toilet.
Last dont get differing plumbers if you can help it as you may be paying for them trying the same solution time after time.


#5 - Brooke replied on the 3/07/2018 4:16:33 PM

Thanks guys for your advice with this. You are right Mac, currently because it hasn't rained and I am guessing people aren't having baths, it doesn't seem to be going off the last few nights.
We have given up with our plumbers as he unfortunately has not been able to fix the problem. We also can't access the trap under the bath as it's fully tiled in and not accessible which is a real pain. We are not friendly with the people downstairs but might be able to knock on their door and ask if they have issues (but would rather resolve ourselves if we can). We don't have a factor either so it really is up to us to resolve our own issues.
Getting a flexible rod might be the way to go.. we did have Drain Doctors come out at originally but he wasn't confident his machinery wouldn't get stuck and that it would resolve the problem and it was going to cost quite a lot so we didn't go ahead with it, but it sounds like that was probably our best bet. If we knew it would fix it we'd be happy to spend more money on it but at this stage it's just become too difficult to solve and we are hoping we can find someone who had similar issues and tell us how best to solve.


#6 - Mac01 replied on the 3/07/2018 7:48:10 PM

Brooke, in all honesty I think your best bet is to get someone that will put a camera in and check from the bath to the sewer, that way the problem is identified and in the long term it may prove the cheaper option. Repeated flushes with soda crystals is one old school way of clearing stubborn blocks or at least easing them.
Better to find if your neighbours are having problems too. If it is a block inside your building then its the homeowners issue BUT if there is a block in the street before the mains then I'm sure its down to Scottish water but you have to know where it is first, and right now you cant say 100% that it is a block/obstruction.


#7 - Brooke replied on the 19/07/2018 2:14:00 PM

Thanks Mac! We will definitely look into doing this. Funnily enough, since we haven't had rain the last few weeks and it's been dry, we are not having any of the gurgling or issues anymore!!! So it is definitely related to the rain.. I wonder if also knowing this will help us to be able to resolve it..?


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