Called out to another rat issue and no sign of surface activity. However, the home had been extended several times over the years and the sewer network looked like it’d been moved around. Testing the chamber in the drive showed rat activity so Pestend did a CCTV survey of the pipe. About 7 meters beyond the outside wall of the downstairs extension, we found another chamber. That room was carpeted but lifting it exposed a flush-fitting chamber lid (the homeowner had no idea it was there).
Time to lift that so we could look into the laterals – the pipes that join from the side – and another surprise greeted us: someone had concreted the chamber! We have no idea why anyone would do this – but we had to break through it somehow and hired in the tools to cut an access into the drain.
And a result! Two laterals joined this chamber, both heading off towards where the original house would have had a kitchen. We’d mapped out the rest of the network already so we knew these two didn’t service the new kitchen. After clearing away the rubble, we did another CCTV run up both pipes. Both, unsurprisingly, were not terminated and allowed rats free access from the drain to the void space under the house – and, from there, a rat can get up into the cavity and the loft.
In this final image, you can see the end result: chamber cleaned up and both laterals capped off with drain blockers (bungs). These are removable (should the need ever arise) but solidly seal up the end of the pipe, denying access to rats.
All that remains to be done now is reinstate the chamber and get rid of the rats we might have trapped in. If this had been done correctly back in the day, rats would never had got in. However, another happy Pestend customer!
