Blocked drains in Bristol

Wessex Water says you are usually responsible for pipes serving your home up to your boundary or to where they join shared pipework, whichever is closer. Pipes beyond the boundary, and most shared pipes connecting two or more properties, are Wessex Water's to maintain.

This matters in Bristol. In many Victorian terraces in Easton, Bedminster, Bishopston and Fishponds, one drain runs behind or under several houses before it reaches the sewer. Since October 2011, shared private sewers and lateral drains connected to the public network in England became the water company's responsibility, as Citizens Advice explains. So a blockage in that shared run is normally Wessex Water's job, not yours.

Lift your manhole cover carefully. If your chamber is full and the next one downstream, often in a neighbour's garden or the pavement, is empty, the blockage is likely between the two. If that length serves only your home, it is yours. If your chamber is empty and water is backing up inside, the problem is in the pipe between the house and the chamber, which is also yours.

If you are not sure, we can check and tell you before any clearing starts. If it is on a road gully, the drain in the road, that is a council highway job for Bristol City Council, South Gloucestershire or Bath and North East Somerset.

Fat and wipes are the usual suspects, as anywhere. Bristol housing adds a few of its own:

• Old salt glazed clay drains under Victorian terraces with joints that have shifted.
• Tree roots in the leafy streets of Redland, Henleaze and Westbury on Trym.
• Limescale and soap building up in shower and basin wastes, thanks to Bristol's hard water.
• Pumped or macerator toilets in basement flats in Clifton, which block if anything other than paper goes in.
• Extensions built over old drains, where a chamber was covered and is hard to reach.

Most blockages are avoidable. Wessex Water's advice on avoiding blockages is simple: only flush the three Ps, which are pee, poo and paper, and keep fat, oil and grease out of the sink. Wipes labelled flushable still cause blockages in old clay drains.

For Bristol homes, a few extra habits help. Clean hair and scale out of shower and bath wastes every few months, because hard water soap scum builds up fast. Keep leaves and silt out of outside gullies in autumn, especially under trees in leafy streets. If you are building an extension, find out where the drains run first. A manhole sealed under a new floor is hard to reach when it blocks, and building over or near a public sewer needs agreement from Wessex Water.