To ask for your advice - blocked toilet, broken soil pipe under house, autistic DD and new dog!

Quite possibly... and that thought will no doubt make it into my nightmares tonight. Thank you. 😆

Thank you. 💕 We've been on a long journey because the first dog that DD was matched with didn't settle at all well with us, or with the cats. We had her with us in mid-2024 for two months and she barked at the cats and chased them - just desperate to get to know her new furry housemates. She would never have hurt them, obviously the charity who supplied her wouldn't have sent her if she was dangerous to cats. But the cats did not know that!

We've done a lot of work in the intervening months, having dogs visit just for the afternoon on a regular basis and the cats learning that e.g. barking in the house didn't mean a dog actually trying to get to them. Judicious use of a stair gate to keep the cats upstairs and the dogs downstairs, which was fine because it was during the cats' main nap window anyway.

And we've been matched with an absolute diamond of a dog this time, she's a totally different energy and has found the cats no more interesting than anything else in our house! She's had a few good hisses from them but they haven't tried to attack, and she has correctly read the instruction not to get too close.

Yes, we absolutely keep the animals separate when we can't supervise - the dog won't be left home alone for a long time (and not much even then - as an assistance dog she will accompany DD rather than be left at home). And overnight, the dog has thus far been shut into DD's room with her while the cats have the run of the house. This will continue however we move forward, with the dog remaining in DD's room overnight (in a crate, so she can't jump on DD's bed and accidentally thwack her in the face with a stray paw in the night) or sleeping in the living room with the crate door open but the room door shut.

Crikey, I'm glad I name changed for this one. I've put so much identifying information in that if anyone reading this knows me in real life they will absolutely know who it is!

Thank you, yes collecting the dog on Wednesday is her preference. I am probably overwhelmed and overthinking (I'm autistic too, in case it wasn't blindingly obvious from my excessive typing on here). It's just so critical that the first few days here go well, and that the cats cope, and that DD copes. Otherwise there will be catastrophising from DD (and probably DH) and potential issues for the cats that will be hard to deal with and fix. I don't want them to be so stressed by the presence of the dog AND tradesmen AND picking up on my own stress that they start e.g. toileting outside of litter trays.

DD has said that she might be able to cope with having the dog in her room overnight after all, if we bring the new crate/den that we've bought up to her room and she's allowed to keep the door closed at night until she is confident that the dog won't jump up onto her bed during the night. This might work OK; the dog is used to sleeping in a crate and might be fine in there even with the door shut if she knows that DD is in the same room.

Camping toilet for night-time wees might work if we can't get all of this fixed soon. It'll just have to sit inside the bath and be moved every time we need to shower, because of lack of space. 🤣

I think I've decided that, if we can't get the soil pipe sorted quite quickly, we will have to just find a way to cope without the upstairs toilet but still get the dog as scheduled. Having the conservatory dug up in, say, six weeks' time shouldn't be as stressful, because the dog will be well on her way to settling in and the cats should have acclimatised to her presence. She is fabulous with the cats, so calm, doesn't even bark. One of the cats has already learned, on sleepover visits, that THIS particular dog might actually not be dangerous. I don't want anything to mess with this progress, or the success of the programme overall.

It's a displaced joint, likely damaged when the previous owners built the conservatory on top of the soil pipe. We had Dyno run CCTV down there back in 2018. They managed to unblock the pipe enough for us to keep using the toilet (with minimal paper going down there) but the recommendation was to excavate the pipe and get it fixed. Otherwise blockages would keep happening, until the point that it couldn't be unblocked. It seems we have reached that point now.

The Metrorod guy today reached the same conclusion, after trying for ages and failing to unblock the pipe he too sent a camera down. His water jet thingy that was supposed to clear the blockage was just squirting out into the soil through the damaged joint. And not clearing the blockage.

It's really good to hear that you found a solution that didn't involve excavation, though! I will definitely press Dyno on that tomorrow. I seem to remember them saying back in 2018 that the other option might be a whole new soil pipe, fixed to the exterior wall above the conservatory and then going down and into the ground where the main sewer is. That'd be much easier for us to all cope with than having to empty and destroy the conservatory.

Ah of course, this is MN so we must question why the DH isn't stepping up! It's a reasonable question, though. DH has complex PTSD and suspected ADHD with very high anxiety levels, so doesn't cope well with unexpected upheaval and disruption at home. He's also a therapist, which is a demanding job, working long hours to keep us afloat since I had to go very part-time to be DD's carer. My inner feminist hates me for picking up all of the wifework and letting him off the hook most of the time, but ultimately I need him fit to work and not stressing DD out unnecessarily with his anxiety while at home.

He was actually the one at home this afternoon when the Metrorod guy came. When I got back, he was white as a sheet! He spends his working hours talking to people about their very serious problems and trauma and anxiety and depression, and he's bloody good at it. But admin scares the hell out of him, and talking to a 'proper bloke' who does a job like unblocking drains rather than talking about feelings... well, his comfort levels in that situation are NOT high. 🤣

Thanks, yes, I should hopefully be able to get enough information tomorrow to decide whether we need to postpone the dog arrival or not. DD is very keen not to, and willing to do what she can to help make it work. But what she can actually do from day to day varies a lot.

The dog'll be fine, she's very chill and has been here before and would probably think it all a great adventure. But our plan to have her sleep in the living room won't work if we're all traipsing down to the downstairs toilet late at night and early in the morning and disturbing her. (She's slept with DD on visits, but disturbed her sleep so badly that DD couldn't cope so we've had to come up with a new plan.) And I agree, you need your pets to fit in with your life but our cats will struggle with the dog and major works in the house at the same time. And we do have an awful lot riding on the success of this assistance dog partnership; it's been a two-year journey so far and looking like the only way that DD will successfully access an educational setting after having pretty much missed high school.

Really appreciate everyone's thoughts here, it's helping me get my head a bit clearer typing all of this out.

I've just spoken to Dyno Rod, they're going to come tomorrow rather than on Thursday (which was the earliest I could book online).

And of course I'll be checking with the insurance company first thing to see if they will cover it or if I'm on my own with this and need to sort everything myself.

I need to make a decision about whether we're postponing the dog's arrival or not before the end of tomorrow. It's not necessarily possible to just leave it a few days, as delivery training is booked for the end of next week. It might be a long time before we can reschedule that, and the dog would probably have to remain in training and with her foster family during that time.

Assistance dog, provided by an ADUK charity. Emotional support animals aren't really a thing in the UK, they don't have any public access rights.

Thank you. Yes, the dog is highly trained but when they join their handler and family it can take a while to settle in - their whole world has just been turned upside down after living with the same foster family for nearly a year and then moving to a new area with a new family. Having them move in at a time of extra chaos and upheaval could ruin everything, even if it's just because they're picking up on the whole family's stress levels. She's a wonderful dog, calm, very well trained. But she's not a robot.

Also we have two cats, who have met the dog several times when we've had her visit for sleepovers over the last few months. And that's gone OK, but it's a massive change and source of stress for them and I want the dog's arrival to be the only thing they have to deal with right now. They're rescues, scared of humans except us, and will find it really stressful having tradesmen in all day.

If it'll be weeks before we can get the toilet fixed, though, we may have to find a way to cope and have the dog join us as scheduled. After a few weeks with us it'll be easier for the dog to manage with building work, and gives the cats a chance to work out how to live with the dog before they're subjected to extra stress from building work.

Just had a look at camping toilets and I'm not sure DD will go for it. Not sure if we can fit one in either, the upstairs bathroom is absolutely tiny. If we put a camping toilet in, we won't be able to get to the sink or use the bath/shower without moving it out of the room every time. But I will definitely still consider it.

I don't understand your post? Sorry.

Thank you, it's flippin' laminate flooring which is about the worst type to repair as I think we'll have to redo the whole room. It could do with replacing, it's old and a bit damaged in places already. But the timing is just awful! I think I'll have to get a removal company to take all of the furniture away and store it; we've got absolutely nowhere to put a sofa, armchairs and dining table while work is done.

Yes, we've had a camera down today and hopefully the company can supply me with some more detailed information as a result of that.

We've also had a camera down there several years ago; going to go and dig in my files now and see if I've still got the pictures and report.

I think DD would be freaked out by a camping toilet, but I might have a look at them online just in case!

That is very, very good to hear - thank you.

If only the soil pipe was in the garden, not underneath one of our living rooms...

Thankfully the other toilet is fairly solid, it was put in much later than the upstairs one I think and its soil pipe joins the main one somewhere after the blocked/damaged bit and goes straight into the mains sewer.

It won't have been THAT much loo roll, not for a normal toilet anyway. But this one has been a sensitive soul for many years due to the damaged pipe.