What to do if your outside drain is blocked with mud

How to clear an outside drain blocked with mud or soil

If you have a rainwater drain blocked with mud/soil, a couple of home solutions might work and help to clear specific blockages. These include:

• Clearing the blockage out manually
• Drain rods

If you attempt to carry out work on a rainwater drain blocked with mud, you need to remember to wear protective equipment to avoid contact with bacteria. 

Please note: These home remedies may not work on stubborn blocked drains. These problems will require a drainage professional or engineer to use specialised equipment to unblock drains correctly.

Below, you will find a guide that may help alleviate some, but not all drainage issues. For more information on how to unblock drains, speak to one of our staff members, or arrange for an engineer to remove any blockages around your property professionally.

Clearing the Blockage Manually

To do this, remove the drain cover over the gully and set it to one side so that you can work on the interior. If the drain cover is solid, pry it up instead, being careful not to damage it as you do.

Reach into the drain with your hand if this is possible. Scoop and scrape out the debris and throw it away in a bin, so there is no chance of it being rewashed into the drain. Repeat this process until you cannot reach any more. 

If you managed to clear out all of the blockages, the backed-up water should start to drain away. 

Drain Rodding

If you have a drain rod or plunger, then you may be able to use this to clear out an outside drain blocked with mud.

Reach into the drain using the rod and gently feel around until you come across the problem blockage. From there, you may be able to use it to break up the blockage into smaller pieces, flushing the rest through with water to clear the problem out.

If these methods do not clear the problem it may be that your drain has root ingress (roots have grown through the sides of the pipes and are causing paper and solids to collect and form the blockage) or it may be damaged in some way (if it is cracked it may have partially collapsed and need fixing or in extreme cases, it may need digging up and replacing. It is probably helpful to point out at this stage that in our experience most blocked drains are simple and are cleared within half an hour.

If your drain is leading to a surface water soakaway, flushing more mud into the system will not solve the problem and you really should call a professional. 

Note: Putting chemicals down a surface water soakaway may cause damage to the soakaway.

When to call the professionals

The methods of clearing an outside drain blocked with mud listed above can be effective at cleaning outside drains blocked with soil, silt or mud, but this does not mean they will always work.

Sometimes, the problem will extend too far into the drain for home methods to be completely effective, or you may not have the correct tools available for the blockage. 

Any of these may result in the blockage not being cleared or being pushed further along your drains. The latter of these could even result in damage to your pipes. This will result in a larger mess for you to clean up and mean a larger bill for you to pay to get the pipe cleaned, repaired or even replaced.

To avoid this, we recommend that you contact a professional drainage company to take care of your blocked outdoor drains from the start. 

Professional services to unblock muddy drains

At ASL Limited, we have over 40 years' experience cleaning a wide variety of drains across Surrey, Berkshire, Hampshire, Sussex and SW London, each with its own individual problems. We have seen many outside drains blocked with mud and soil, so we know that we will have the right solution to get your water flowing again, too. 

Our most successful methods of clearing blocked drains include:

• Drain rodding
• Wet vac
• Drain jetting
• Industrial waste suction tankers (in extreme commercial cases)

Our drainage engineers are all highly trained and dedicated to their profession and are completely qualified to clear the mud from your outside drain.

Our methods in more detail

Drain Rodding

Even if you can carry out this method at home, our professional experience will most likely enable us to clear the drain successfully or know when to stop without causing damage to the drain or soakaway. This will usually be the first method that we attempt on an outside drain blocked with mud, but if the problem is found to need a more thorough solution, we will provide it.

Wet Vac

This involves using a high-powered vacuum cleaner to suck the debris out of your blocked drains, cleaning the problem out entirely. To find out more about this method of cleaning your blocked drains, contact us today. Our friendly staff will be happy to answer any questions you have.

Drain Jetting

If it is discovered that your drains need to be thoroughly cleaned, we may decide to use a high-powered jet of water to clear them out. This service is powerful enough to travel around bends and even break up tree roots if this is also required. Even if your outside drain is blocked with mud deep into your drain, our drain jetting service will be able to clear most blockages.

This method of cleaning out a drain blocked with soil is best carried out by someone who is trained, using only the proper equipment. Get in touch with us if you would like to book this service for your drains.

Industrial waste suction tankers

If your drain is completely backed up, to prevent flushing more mud down the drain, the most effective solution would be to remove the blockage with a waste suction tanker whilst jetting the blockage free. This is where ASL Limited as a medium-sized company are able to deal with any blockage because we have all the equipment to handle this kind of problem.

Contact us to clear your blocked drain

If you have been having trouble with an outside drain blocked with mud, either before or after attempting home methods of clearing it, call ASL Limited. We are passionate about what we do, and will do everything we can to get your blocked drains working as they should be again.

 

See if we cover your area with the postcode checker below and then call us on 0800 181 684 or fill in the contact form on this page and let us help.