Misconnections, prevention and correction

As a guide, most houses built after 1920 will have separate sewers for wastewater and surface water. 

Get to know your property

The image above shows a modern, separate foul system (shown in brown) and surface water system (shown in blue). 

The properties in the image above have one combined system (shown in red).

We'll be happy to let you know what the sewer arrangements are for your home, so please get in touch. 

Prevention

A large percentage of misconnections are made when changes or alterations are being made to properties. As an example: the washing machine is moved to a garage or during kitchen renovations it’s moved to another part of the kitchen. 

Remember that, no matter if you make this change or a builder makes this change for you, as the homeowner you are responsible for your home's private pipework and you can prevent this from happening. 

If you're good with DIY and you're tackling this job yourself, don’t assume every drain is for wastewater. An obvious sign may be that your roof downcomer goes into the same drain you're planning on using. The chances are this could be intended for rainwater only. 

Alternatively, if a builder or someone else is carrying out this work for you. Please don’t assume they will always do it right. You’ll be surprised how many misconnections we deal with that were made by a tradesperson. So, don’t be afraid to ask; do they know which drain they should be connecting to? 

If there’s any doubt, get us out!

If you’re getting work done and you’re not sure, or, if you suspect you might have a misconnection, get in touch with us. 

Correction

If you have a misconnection and need to correct your drainage, the important thing to remember is you’re not on your own. We are here to support you through this process. 

Remember, corrections don’t always require extensive building work.Washing machines are one of the most common misconnections, and often the correction can be done above ground, by rerouting or extending pipework to the correct drain.

We would always recommend that you get a reliable tradesperson to carry out work on your behalf, and it’s often best to gather several quotes to help you decide. Of course, you may feel as though you’d prefer to carry out the work yourself, and if you’ll be working on your private pipework, that’s absolutely fine. Something to consider would be that, if this involves a connection to any of the sewers that we are responsible for, then we would need to agree this in advance of work taking place.

In the rarer instances, when new underground pipework or a new drain is needed, you may want to consider using a tradesperson, to ensure it's installed correctly and doesn’t pose any future risks of sewer blockage or flooding. 

Once your misconnection is corrected, any disused pipework also needs to be removed and any gaps or holes sealed up. This prevents the potential for it to be used again in the future.