bit of an emergency here - main drain is blocked (sorry a bit long)

[Aperolspritzer]

I'm hoping this isn't something serious - had new pipes and manhole put in a few months ago for a small extension, so its either going to be really expensive 'cos its not been done properly - or (and this is what I hope) - it's self inflicted (we use these moist wipe things which I recently heard were bad for blocking pipes)

So given it's a friday afternoon - i'm tempted to buy drain rods from screwfix and have a poke about - what do you think, anyone done this before?

I'd have a poke about using poles personally. Those wipes are terrible for blocking up pipes! We had this issue a while ago, and it turned out that someone down the road had an extension built and their builders chucked a load of rubble down the drain instead of disposing of it properly. Mad me very

I'm having a chuckle at the irony of your name considering what I expect to find down there!!

I have binned the box of wipes. Going to Screwfix for the rods (tbh I would rather do it myself than face the embarassment of having a man dig through that)

A question - am I supposed to poke the blockage through the pipe or try to bring it out??

before you buy the rods...

have you got some manholes outside?

go and pry the lids open (if they are modern you can buy steel lifting handles to fit, otherwise a spade may do it)

What you are looking for is one or more that are full, and one or more that are empty. The blockage will be between the full one and the empty one. It can also be in the outlet of the full one.

If you have no manholes, or none that are full, you might not have anywhere to poke your rods.

The rods usually come with a sort of corkscrew end fitting that you can use to pull blockages out. If you push at them you may compress the blockage and make it harder. Always keep a "tightening up" rotation on the rods. You don't want the screwed couplings coming undone. Have a hose handy for washing off when you withdraw them.

There is also a possibility that a brick might have fallen out of a manhole shaft, if very old or subject to heavy vehicle traffic, and caused a blockage, or it is possible that a pipe has been crushed, if badly built or subject to very heavy vehicles. Rods will not help, it will need rebuilding in that case.