Some major drainage issues

To say it's been raining is a bit of an understatement! Most of the drainpipes are no longer connected as they were filling the water tanks that we have had to fill with concrete. 

It's meant a lot of standing water, but when James noticed water overflowing the gutter we knew there was a problem somewhere. The next evening when there was a break in the rain James dug out the offending drain pipe. There was some stone just out of reach and James had me on hands and knees trying to get smaller hands into the pipe. 

As it turns out my hands may be smaller but my arms weren't as long so I couldn't even touch the blockage. James tried digging the pipe out further so we could cut it down and put in a new section past the blockage. Turns out it was only the tip of the problem.

James opened up the manhole to see where the water was backing up and there was no longer a manhole! Once the cover was up it was solid concrete. 

You can probably guess what happened. When the builders filled the tanks with concrete they didn't block the overflow and as the high powered pump did it's work the concrete was pumped into the manhole that drains the surrounding land drains and drainpipes. The concrete filled all the pipes underground and has blocked all the water from reaching the soak away. We've had the discussion with the builder, he didn't seem too impressed, but says he'll put it right at the end.

The roofer has been here this week and the roof is coming on at last. There is still some block work to go up, it's taking forever, the work seems to come on really fast for a few days and then drag on for the rest of the week. They didn't turn up on Friday unfortunately as I wanted a chat about some of the work, still there's always next week.