Last Thursday (3rd July) I found yet more things around the house that needs fixing.
I was just coming back upstairs via the yard after having to go downstairs to do something or other, when I spotted a wet patch from the drain in the corner of the steps being blocked while the washing machine was draining my laundry.
Then when holding onto the wall to haul myself round to avoid paddling in it more than necessary, I found the capping stone and one of the corner bricks on the wall up the side of the steps had come free from their mortar bed.
I first tried fixing it with half a bag of Soda Crystals and hot water from the kettle, but it made no difference whatsoever.
I picked up a couple of bottles of 2-litre Bleach and 2 more bags of Soda Crystals when I went shopping on Saturday (5th July), and overnight tried fixing the drain by pouring another half a 1kg bag of Soda Crystals down it, followed by an entire 2-litre bottle of Bleach.
That also made no difference what-so-ever, so I went and ordered a set of Drain Rods and a pair of Industrial Rubber Gloves from Amazon UK since this wasn’t the first time this had happened, and previously when my Dad was more mobile would try bodging it by poking garden canes down there + my Grandparent’s garden hose to unblock it. So I decided it was probably time to get the proper tool for the job.
Those 2 items arrived Tuesday, a day earlier than estimated, so I set to work fixing the drain.
That did not go to plan, as I couldn’t get the worm-screw attachment in down the drain, so I tried it without, and I still couldn’t get the drain rods down the drain because of the downpipe from the roof guttering extending down too far and blocking the brass joints for threading the rods together from going past.
I tried removing the bottom part of the downpipe with the big hacksaw, but as it was made of solid cast iron it barely touched it.
So I went for Plan B, and tried raking out the hosepipe from the overgrown corner of the garden below my Dad’s bedroom window, and poking that down the drain poked it clear and not overflowing.
