Bath water emptying onto street

[Spencer74]

Thought that would get your attention ......

We are just completing rennos and garden makeover .... last night I gave my son a bath and went outside to bring in the bins and was delighted to see the bathwater heading into my gutter.

I am no plumber but I am pretty sure that bathwater goes into the sewage system and having inspected pipework (it is an upstairs bathroom) I can see that shower/toilet (currently unused) and floor trap head into the same pipe which is a worry .... what the hell is going on?

Could the following be factors:

1. Stormwater has recently been diverted to rainwater tank (pretty sure that landscaper knows that sewage pipes are different to stormwater and they appear to be on different sides of the house

2. Pool backwash has recently started being diverted into sewage system rather than onto garden as previous.

3. Could my sewage have a blockage and it is simply overflowing onto street. It is coming out of what looks like a normal stormwater pipe concreted into gutter if that helps - woudl this be a dedicated sewage overflow pipe?

Any questions/comments welcomed ... I am not sure how I will sleep tonight!

[DavidG]

That looks exensive. Someone has made a wrong connection.....

[Spencer74]

But ... I have only noticed it when the bath is emptied.

A bath would be the largest volume of water (by far) versus showers, washing machine etc. .... and therefore more likely to be impacted by a blockage and overflow ......

[bricks]

You have a incorrect connection, someone has put the sewer and stormwater into the same pipe.

If bath water comes out of the stormwater pipe then it is incorrectly connected regardless of blockage.

EPA will fine you big money for this if it continues, and the water authority won't like it either.

Get both contractors back to check their work, if they say all is ok, then get independant inspection and get your money back.

[davo2310]

As Bricks said..

sounds like they have dug up and joined to the first pipe they found. if its running into your kerb, theres no question, NO sewer surcharge will run directly to your kerb, unless it overflows from your surcharge gully over ground to get there. just a thought to be on the safe side... you dont have a stormwater pit near your surcharge gully?

[Ivan in Oz]

Have they signed off on their work yet?
Have you payed ALL of their bill?

[Spencer74]

OK, plumber came this arvo and we inspected all IP's with bath running. All as expected and the final IP on driveway shows bathwater merrily on it's way. Paper test in toilet showed same.

Could not replicate the flow from stormwater exit pipe in gutter! Did it last 2 nights and this morning when builder came and there is no other obvious source.

Work was all completed a year ago which is why I was so confused ... if there was anything amiss I would have thought I woudl have noticed it. Sewage on street would not go unnoticed.

Now at a loss but will monitor. If/when I can replicate it I will throw some food dye in to isolate ... and then perhaps get a camera in. There was a garage built after main house and I reckon he was a DIYer - plumber suggested a strange connection somewhere .... but atm it appears to be outside of the main dwelling and I just need to see it happening again.

I will sleep tonight.

[sdrob]

only a few months back i had a similar thing, our house is about 4m above street level and we had sewage water flowing down the street. ours was coming up through the ground where the ip had been buried over. after 30mins of digging i found it opened it and the water was flowing out the top. sa water came out and cleared a blockage in the main line.. the thing was it would only happen sometimes. just a matter of catching it..