Where there is muck . . .
Once we were called out to a small business in Cambourne, Cambridgeshire because it had been discovered that someone had attempted to steal £500, but rather than be caught redhanded with the money they had flushed it down the toilet, leaving a few tell tale notes in the bowl.
We asked the proprietor where the next manhole was and were told categorically it was outside the toilet window; we blocked off the drain outlet from this manhole with a bung and pressurized the toilet bowl to push the remainder of the money through—Result: absolutely nothing: it was the wrong manhole!
Luckily the interceptor just before the main sewer was partially blocked and the money was found floating inside it.
A total of £490 was retrieved and dried out by the proprietor, but we’re not sure what he said to the bank when he paid it in!
Posted in 
Blocked drain Longstanton – Customer recommendation
Dear Steve. Thank you for coming to deal with our blocked drain problem. It was lovely to deal with someone so friendly, responsive and affordable – seeing your prices on the website was very reassuring.
We very much appreciated you coming out on a weekend at such short notice, and the follow-up advice you offered us was invaluable. It was nice to have an expert who didn’t blind us with science and was really committed to fixing the problem. Your service was second to none and I would have no hesitation in recommending Blocks Away to others. It was a pleasure dealing with you, and it really got us out of a fix! Once again, thank you for coming to our rescue!
Mrs A. C., Longstanton.
Mill Road Cambridge to close for sewer repairs
Mill Road, Cambridge which has had continual recent problems with roadworks will be closed for sewer repairs in April for approximately 2 weeks. The closure is planned from April 11 to April 22. THe works is to be carried out by Anglian Water. A spokesman said of the problem which will close a section between Tenison Road and Gwydir Street:
“Although the main sewer is flowing well at the moment, the damage to the two connecting pipes means they could block up. Unfortunately that means we will need to replace this short section of sewer.
“The work should only take two weeks and we will do all we can to keep disruption to a minimum. Diversions will be in place and there will still be access to the shops along this section of the road.”
“Nevertheless, some disruption is inevitable and we are sorry but it is important that we do this work.
“The re-lining work which uncovered the damage was all about preventing problems and was completed without any disruption and without the need to close the road.
“It is a shame this problem means we will now need a further short closure, but by acting to fix this damage now we will also reduce the chance of much bigger problems in the future.”
Full story
http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Home/Cambridges-Mill-Road-to-close-for-sewer-repairs.htm
Tags: Blocked drain in St Neots leaves no alternative but to dig
We tried everything to clear an overflowing sink waste in St Neots, Cambridgeshire, including our specialist electromechanical equipment and using a CCTV inspection camera from the neighbours’ inspection chambers to try to ascertain where the blocked drain actually ran. We found that there was absolutely no other access point to our client’s drain, so we traced its path from the gulley with our sonic drain tracer and dug a 5 foot deep hole at a convenient point along its length.
When we came to pierce a hole in the uncovered drainage pipe to create an access point, the fountain of sewage under pressure was quite impressive and unfortunate for some! But we were then able to remove a huge quantity of offending tree roots, clear the blockage and inspect the drain with our CCTV camera. Some video footage is below.
Blocked drain investigation in St Neots delivers suprise cashback for customer
When called out to a reported blocked drain problem in St. Neots, Blocksaway engineer Steve was not at all convinced the client’s troublesome drains went the way he thought they did to the public sewer, so we traced them for him using our our advanced drain tracing equipment–to discover they discharged into a very full cess pit !
Despite having to pay to get this emptied, our customer was looking forward to recovering 10 years’ worth of sewerage charges levied on his Water bills since he had been there!
Emergency drain clearing for Ely customer
Quite often Blocksaway is called upon to help customers retrieve drain rods they have lost down their drains. This was precisely the case when attending a customer in Ely, Cambridgeshire, but the problem was exacerbated by the fact this particular set of rods had a 4 “ plunger attached which had become wedged into a junction with a neighbour’s drain, effectively completely blocking the client’s drain and posing a future problem for his neighbours. This drain needed clearing, fast.
Unusually there was no manhole and therefore no access at this junction point, and other contractors had failed to help;so we inserted a camera from a manhole downstream in the neighbour’s garden and using live video were able to direct the use of the retrieval tool from a manhole upstream until it grasped the set of rods by the plunger and we were able to pull them all out.
Blocksaway attends every drain clearing job with a fully equipped van, so with ingenuity we were able to avert what would otherwise have been an expensive excavation.
A Prickly Blocksaway Rescue!
Blocksaway often gets called out at night and this was just such a case in St. Ives (Cambs).
Steve was attending a domestic dwelling with a blocked main and was tracking the run of the drains and manhole covers as best he could with a powerful torch.
Imagine his surprise when he shone it down a gulley with a missing cover to be confronted by 2 small glowing eyes! Further investigation revealed a hedgehog which had fallen in during its nighttime ramblings and got well and truly trapped.
Wearing his Blocksaway drain cleaning gloves made it an easy task for Steve to free up the gulley and release the bedraggled creature, which trotted off apparently none the worse for wear!
Steve also cleared the blockage in the main drain, but that’s another story!
A very peculiar emergency
As Steve was driving to an emergency drain clearing job in Peterborough along Thorpe Rd. early on Saturday morning 29th January, he noticed 2 ladies suddenly jumping out of a car at a junction, which was clearly on fire.
BlocksAway high pressure water jetting puts out a car fire in Peterborough
To the amazement and heartfelt gratitude of the shocked and shaken ladies he immediately pulled up alongside and was able to put the fire out with the BlocksAway high pressure water jetting machine which he always carries in his van. The police and fire service, who arrived shortly afterwards, were most impressed!
BlocksAway – The 4th Emergency Service!
The Rat
Steve was called out to a job in Huntingdon to clear a blockage from a kitchen drain, which he successfully achieved; however he noticed another drain coming into the manhole which appeared to be filling with earth; he cleaned this out as part of the one hour service and inserted the CCTV camera to see what was the cause; the lady of the house was watching the monitor and when she screamed, Steve knew he had found the culprit: a rat was dancing around in front of the camera!
Drain CCTV Footage on a collapsed drain reveals the rat.
A Potentially Explosive Situation in Ramsey!
Called out to a private customer’s drain that was repeatedly blocking, Steve from Blocksaway Ltd. decided to investigate the cause once he had cleared the blockage, all within Blocksaway’s £79 charge for an hour’s work. Steve inserted the CCTV camera into the drain downstream of the manhole and checked its condition for over 30’ along its length.Imagine his amazement when he then discovered the problem: a gas pipe had been installed straight through the middle of the 4” foul drain!
Gas pipe installed through foul drain causing recurring blockages
A good job Steve didn’t attempt to use the electro-mechanical cutter machine to descale the drain!
This is a good example of the very real benefit of the Blocksaway Ltd. policy of carrying the CCTV equipment on the van as standard.
