Dear Paul,

I just wanted to write and thank you for your swift, professional and very friendly service today when you came and unblocked the drain outside.

I said when you arrived that I didn’t know how you did your job, as to me it must be one of the most disgusting jobs in the world! You assured me that you love your job….. and when you told me that it’s because you can leave the customer happier then when you arrived, then I can see why you do enjoy your work….you certainly left me going back to my school preparation with a smile on my face!

Thank you so much and thank goodness for people like you, who can do what most of us can’t…….. I think I will stick to the classroom!

Many thanks again.

Yours sincerely,

Kathryn

1-2 Clear often receive calls from people who’ve lost things down the drains, from dropping car keys through a roadside gully grate to losing wedding rings down shower drains, also even being asked by an insurance company look for a Rolex watch supposedly lost when a householder was clearing his drains – but there is never a good time to lose your false teeth, but dropping them down the toilet between Christmas and New Year would probably be the worst.

When the call came through on Boxing Day morning there was a note of desperation in the man’s voice, he explained that he’d had his grandchildren around to stay the night before, and somehow his wife’s top set had dropped into the toilet, which had then been flushed taking away the false teeth. I took the caller’s number then gave him a quick call back just to make sure it wasn’t a prank – and to ask that they didn’t flush the toilet again.

The poor guy opened the door and immediately apologised for calling us on Boxing Day, his wife was in the background saying something that was incoherent as not only had she no teeth, but had her hand covering her mouth to try and hide the fact. I asked how many times the toilet had been flushed, the reply was, “Only once and we’ve been using the downstairs toilet since”. I realised at that point because both toilets discharged into the same fallpipe the chances of finding the teeth where slim, as they would most likely have been carried to the main sewer.

Checking the upstairs toilet showed nothing in the toilet pan. Lifting all the manholes outside showed there was nothing wedged or sitting in the bottom of either of them. Starting at the manhole on the driveway a quick look with the CCTV camera showed the line clear to the connection with the main sewer in the road. Putting a bung in the outlet to the manhole (just in case anything was flushed) the line up to the next manhole was checked and found to be clear and unfortunately so were the other lines – the teeth were long gone….. or so I thought….

I went upstairs and flushed the toilet which did rise above the normal level before going down, knowing I had the bung in the manhole I called downstairs to ask if they could come up and check the toilet flush and whether this was normal. Flushing the toilet and the level again rose slightly, they both agreed that it was not normal. I smiled at her (she didn’t smile back obviously) saying, “I think there may be something partially blocking the toilet, I wonder what it could be?”

Unscrewing the holding down screws, the inlet pipework and the screws holding the cistern to the wall I slowly pulled the toilet back out of the pan connecter to reveal……

….. a white plastic rim block holder that had been on the inside of the toilet, some toilet paper and wedged behind them was the ladies top set.

Bearing in mind I had my gloves on – I separated the teeth from the rim block holder and toilet paper, rinsed them under the tap and handed them to the lady…. fortunately she didn’t put them straight back in! I said she had now a decision to make, she had her teeth back, she knew where they’d been, it was up to her….

I packed up, wrote out the invoice and picked up the cheque, leaving the house with the lady on her hands and knees looking through all the chemicals and cleaning products she had under the sink – whilst her top set sat in a cup filled with denture cleaner at the side of the sink above.

I picked up a call from a customer who relayed a story about another company who had cleared the drains and carried out a CCTV survey, they supposedly spotted a tree root intrusion through one of pipe joints, excavated and broke into the drain upstream of the problem and relined the drain for 4m downstream, and then filled in the hole. This was done two weeks ago and the drains had not run since. She’d tried to contact the other company who refused to come back, and now refused to answer her calls; unfortunately she’d paid the invoice.

She owned the house but it was rented out to tenants, I offered to visit either late Saturday or Sunday morning to have a look, she added, “My husband will be there, and he’s already re-excavated the drains and chopped the tree down”.

I arrived early, walked around the rear of the property to find the decking removed and a 3 foot deep hole in the back garden adjacent to the kitchen waste water gully, which was filling with water each time the kitchen sink or washing machine emptied.

The husband arrived and immediately described how he been ripped off, how he’d already got ‘Trading Standards’ involved, and would be seeing them in court. I put my hand out and shook his hand and said, “No problem, we can help you with that, let’s see how we can get this drain running shall we, firstly do we know if the neighbours drains are blocked?” He came back with, “Yes apparently they’ve been blocked for the last 18 months.”

He went next door, and before he returned an obviously nervous lady came out of the back door followed by her three small children. We had a quick chat over the garden fence and she confirmed that her kitchen gully had been blocked for the last year and a half, which it had been getting her down, as she had no money and couldn’t afford to get the work done. She went on to say that her husband had lowered the garden to allow the water to run away from the house. I asked her if I could lift up a fence panel and come through to have a look, her reply was to say certainly, but again to add that she had no money and couldn’t pay anything.

Sure enough the gully was blocked and the waste water was running onto the garden, which had been lowered by about 6” for the full width and the soil piled up at the rear end. I indicated that I needed to find out if her blockage was affecting her neighbour, and said, “Let me have a quick look at clearing it for you”.
I got a six foot industrial drain rod with a 6” plunger from the van, stepped through the fence, smiled at her & her children and said, “don’t, worry have faith”.

I inserted the plunger into the kitchen gully and used an action honed by over twenty years in the business; the water dropped with the first plunge and went completely with a very satisfying glug after the second. I turned and told her that her drains were now clear – her eyes filled and to see 18 months of worry & misery disappearing from her face after approximately 20 seconds of work, free of charge, was something that has made my weekend.

After a few seconds she looked at me and said, “You have made me so happy, I could kiss you”…. I gave her a little peck on the cheek as I walked back through the fence and said, “It’s all part of the service”.

The prognosis was that the drain liner inserted into the next door drain by the other company had collapsed inwards on itself before the epoxy resin had set. The solution is an excavation in the garden of the lady with the long term blocked drain (although she is not affected), to remove a short section of drain where the liner has collapse. Does the lady mind us excavating the drain in her garden…. What do you think??

I did ask the husband how he came to call us after his experience with the other company, “Oh you were recommended by the Estate Agent we used when we bought the house”

Hi Paul,

Many thanks for your help on Friday and yesterday. After dealing with the drainage contractor who had caused the problem with the drain liner, your honest, open and efficient (not to mention humorous) approach was a pleasure to experience. I am now happy that the problem has been resolved and I should also add that I had the same confidence in Leeroy as I had in yourself. I also appreciate that your advice of installing a rodding eye rather than a manhole saved some additional cost and gives us a degree of insurance for the future. A job well done – thanks again.

Best wishes
David

Note:…… To re-line a damaged drain is a very cost effective way of repair, providing the pipe is reasonably intact, the pipes are not too far out of line and there is access at one end to allow the liner to be installed. A liner is used when an excavation to repair a drain would be difficult.

The liner is a flat felt tube with a plastic outer covering – immediately before installation a type of epoxy resin is poured into the liner which soaks into the felt, leaving a flat tube (similar to a fire hose) to be either pushed or pulled into and through the damaged drain section. A plastic innertube is then inserted into the end of the liner, and using water or air it is pushed through the full length of the liner plus and a good distance through for good measure, which is then inflated. This opens up the liner and the pressure pushes the liner outwards to seal against the inside of the drain. The inflated innertube remains inside the liner until the resin cures, and once cured, is removed leaving a new pipe within the existing drain.

Unfortunately, some companies are not as good at doing this as others – and in this instance it would appear the innertube inserted into the liner was not long enough – by a few inches!!

It would appear that I was the ‘very pleasant man on the telephone’ in the following email I received from a customer this evening:

On account of the torrential rain, we had a serious problem with drain blockage resulting in raw sewage at the back of the house. The level was so high there was a possibility that it could have come into the house. I telephoned a number of drain clearance companies last night and as you would expect, many were very busy and unable to come out.

I am sending this message as your company offered exceptional service and you deserve acknowledgement of this. Although you too, were unable to come out last night, you said someone would be here at 8.30am. I spoke to a very pleasant man on the telephone this morning who confirmed that someone was on the way. Lee arrived shortly afterwards.

Lee did a really good job sorting out the drain situation between my house and my neighbours. I told him I was so impressed, would tell his line manager. He was not only efficient but also very professional, competent and pleasant.

So thank you for a job well done and at a reasonable price. It is important to acknowledge reliability and good service. Keep it up!

Thank you
Catherine

There is never a dull moment in the Drains Business… Sitting having a ‘post drains clearance’ cup of coffee with a wonderful customer, when she said, “You would not believe what happened to me recently.”

Explaining that she was about to take the bus into town to visit a friend at the hospital, having got her coat on, she thought she’d just enough time to go for a wee. Needless to say this made her a bit late meaning she had rushed the job and almost had to run to catch the bus.

I knew this was going to be interesting when the owner of a property company called and said, “I really think you need to go to this one yourself Paul, it’s a real problem tenant and the drains have been blocked for three weeks”.

Arriving, I noticed the front door boarded up and the drive between the property and the neighbouring property swimming in sewage. I knocked on the back door – it opened and I was somewhat surprised to be greeted by a rather dishevelled and generously proportioned woman, dressed only in a long tee shirt – whilst holding and stroking a young black pussy.

Bearing in mind what I’d been told about it being a potentially difficult situation, I thought I’d better try humour and said, “Hello, I’m Paul, and I’m here to give you a little late afternoon rodding”. “Really?” she replied, “That’s the best offer I’ve had in months!” We both laughed, the ice was broken and one would have assumed everything would be fine.

She explained that Yorkshire Water’s contractor’s had visited and had looked at the drain but refused to do anything. Before I could get any more information, the old guy from next door came round and proceeded to tell me where the drains run, that he had his own rods, how he regularly checked his drains, that Yorkshire Water were rubbish because their contractor wouldn’t listen to him, and that the drain had been blocked for a month. He then proceeded to tell me what equipment I needed, and how I should do the job…. I said that I would be OK, thanked him for the advice and told him firmly that I’d been doing this for many years and he should leave it to me.

I turned back to the tenant who rolled her eyes at me and said she was going to get dressed; she let the cat go and closed the door. The manhole was at the end of the long rear garden. As I made my way past and through the various amply sized and brightly coloured items of clothing on the washing line, and through the long grass and debris that formed the garden, I realised that I was being followed – by the cat and the neighbour!

I found the manhole, bent down and removed the heavy cast iron lid to reveal the chamber full of sewage, a thin crust on top complete with an imprint of the underside of the lid in the surface. I turned and warned the neighbour to keep clear…. and with that the black cat walked straight onto the crust and sunk into it….

As it started to disappear …. so with one continuous action I swung my gloved hand, under the crust into the sewage and under the belly of the cat and flung the cat out onto the grass!

I picked up the wide eyed and smelly wet cat and ran to the house, just getting there as the now fully clothed tenant opened the door. She let out a worried cry as I held the cat under the outside tap, washed him as best I could, before she took him from me, taking him inside for a shampoo and conditioning.

As I returned to the manhole the neighbour laughed and rather irritatingly said, “I’d have let the bloody cat drown”. I replied, “Well I didn’t”. I then ignored him; got the drain clear and everything cleaned up, and hosed down (including his half of the drive).

I did see the pussy before I left – it looked fine, especially after being blow dried, and as for the neighbour – he was nowhere to be seen!