Blocked drains in Sheffield

Since 1 October 2011, shared drains and lateral drains that run outside your property boundary have been the responsibility of the water company. In Sheffield that is Yorkshire Water. You are responsible for the drain that serves only your house and sits within your boundary.

Yorkshire Water gives a simple test on its sewer flooding page: if your neighbours have the same problem, the blockage is probably in its sewers. If only one room is affected, the blockage is almost certainly in your own pipes.

In a Sheffield terrace this matters a lot. Many rows drain into one pipe that runs along the back yards to a manhole at the end of the row. If that shared run is blocked, it is not your bill.

Student houses in Broomhill, Crookes and Walkley see more blocked toilets than most, usually from wipes and too much paper with low flush cisterns. Kitchens block with fat and food scraps that set in the cold pipe.

Outside, yard gullies in old terraces fill with leaves and silt. Clay pipes laid in the Victorian era crack and let roots in, especially where trees line the street. On steep streets a cracked joint can also let the pipe settle out of line, which leaves a dip where waste collects.

Do not keep flushing a blocked toilet, as it will overflow. Avoid pouring strong chemical cleaners down a fully blocked pipe. They sit in the pipe and make it dangerous to clear. Never lift a heavy manhole cover on your own if you are not sure it is safe.

If sewage is coming into your home, keep children and pets away, and call Yorkshire Water if it looks like the sewer. Sewer flooding is something it must deal with.

A simple plunger is fine for a sink or toilet. Cover the overflow on a sink or bath with a damp cloth so the pressure goes down the pipe, not out of the overflow.

Hills help drains in one way and hurt them in another. A steep fall moves water quickly, but solids can get left behind where the pipe changes direction or meets a flatter section. In terraces built down a slope, as in Walkley, Crookes and parts of Stocksbridge, the house at the bottom of a shared run often gets the overflow first.

If a drain keeps blocking in the same place, rodding it again will not fix the cause. A CCTV camera survey shows the inside of the pipe, so you can see whether there is a crack, a displaced joint or roots. If the fault is on a shared or lateral drain outside your boundary, the survey footage helps when you report it to Yorkshire Water. If it is on your own drain, it shows exactly what repair is needed, whether that is a patch liner, a full liner or digging out one section.