Sewage outflow - in my backyard!

Woke up on Good Friday, still with a nasty head cold, and climbed into the shower. My parents, who had very sweetly decided to drop round to give me an Easter egg (but hadn't warned me they were coming, with the result that I was in the shower when they arrived), were unable to attract my attention by ringing the doorbell, so they went around the back to try knocking on the back door. At this point they noticed sewage running over the edge of the gulley trap. Once I got out of the shower and let them in, they informed me of this rather revolting fact :(.

They were able to reassure me that this was a not uncommon problem, and was often caused by tree roots growing into the sewage pipe. Given the recent drought, the local trees may well have been targeting any possible water source, with great energy, so tree roots could well be the cause.

Fortunately the sewage was not completely blocked, s0 I was still able to use small amounts of water, such as washing my hands, or flushing the toilet, without causing an overflow. Given the difficulty, not to mention expense, of getting a plumber out on a public holiday, I decided to put up with the problem until the following Tuesday. I did have motivation for very, VERY short showers tho! Given the water restrictions and drought this was probably not a bad thing :)

Well, the plumber came out on Wednesday morning and cleared the blockage. He wasn't sure if there was also a problem in the water company's main, so he told me to keep an eye on it.

My first experience with something like this. A definite downside to home owning :(.

Plumbing

Well, I am now the proud owner of a new dual flush AAA rated toilet cistern. It has the particularly important advantage over my old cistern of stopping the flow of water into the bowl after flushing has completed. Yay!