Summary of drains pipes set up
Summary of drains pipes set up
Before you undertake DIY plumbing and drains work it is essential to understand the national rules and regulations developed by the local authority.
Detailed plans of any changing or installing of sewage in your home will have to be submitted, and expect ongoing inspections until its completion to ensure that the work abides by the regulations. However you do not require authority approval for replacement of failed joints or cracked plumbing and drains pipes.
If you hear the term ‘surface water’ in any sewage documents this basically means rain. This can discharged into a soakaway, watercourse, surface water sewer or, particularly in older properties, into the foul water drainage system. In a system combining both functions, the rainwater pipes clear out into the dirty water drains through the gully traps that prevent fetid air from sneaking out of the drains. Nowadays hygiene and recycling considerations have led to a mandatory separation of surface water and sewage water. Rainwater and foul water drainage should not be interconnected, however convenient it may seem. The Building Control Department is your first point of contact before you start any work if you are not familiar with your home’s sewage system.
Designing the path of the waste passageways will be your first task. Have an eye to future care when you design the drainage system and always try to keep the waste or soil pipe as straight and short as you can when you are devising the layout. Also, make sure none of the pipes are laid at too steep an angle. Use the surveyor’s site level to calculate the drain fall over the complete system. If you do not have one of these available, establish a datum point and use a hose filled with water to establish levels and calculate the fall from the datum this way.
Be very careful not to excavate too close to your house, as you may undermine the foundation and cause a structural collapse. If you are laying a drain run parallel to the building, you must ensure that any foundations are not weakened.
While installing a new sewage system make sure that you do not dig too long before laying the pipe. Make sure that you get the pipes laid as quickly as possible and then backfill the trench as soon as the system has been inspected and tested.
Because of different depth and soil conditions the trench will probably need to be supported. Avoid risks when working in the trench. Be on the safe side and secure the sides of such risky trenches by propping with sheets or boards. Make sure that you leave enough room in the trench for you to work but try to keep it as small as possible. The base of the ditch should be clean and even and free from protruding stones or bricks etc. If the existing soil is too weak or clayey, you should place and compact a layer of firmer soil at the base of the trench to prevent later sinking.
The pipe present in the trench should not be supported using bricks or other such materials. Such hard objects will cause the poorly supported pipe to bend or break and the joints will eventually fail. For accommodation of the joints in the pipes,the bedding should be compacted in a regular way with hollows made a appropriate points. You will need to provide a continuous and uniform support for the complete length of the pipe.
It is very important that the design of the drainage system should be constructed in such a way that all parts of the pipework are accessible to a set of drain rods for future maintenance. This need for drain rod access can be easily achieved by keeping the pipeline straight and in short sections. As a rule of thumb, a directional change in the pipework must have an inspection chamber for rodding access as drain rods do no go around corners.
Keeping these points in mind, you can carry out your own drainage and plumbing work smoothly and almost professionally.