The underground drain is the pipe that takes waste water from the soil pipe into the sewer system where it most likely ends up at a water treatment plant. It may be necessary to connect into a underground drain. A new soil pipe may need fitting if an extension or new bathroom is installed.
This project is sponsored by Travis Perkins
 |
The first thing to do is dig down to expose the drain, take care not to damage the drain with the spade. |
 |
Place a piece of soil pipe along side the drain, ensure the soil pipe is completely vertical. |
 |
Place the bend along side the upright soil pipe and on top of the clay drain. In the photo you can see we have used an adjustable bend, this enables us to achieve a vertical upright irrelevant of the gradient of the clay pipe. |
 |
Mark the clay drain where it will need to be cut. Don't forget to allow for the bend to be pushed fully home to the stop, (shown where marker is) |
 |
Mark around the clay drain ready for cutting . |
 |
Use a grinder with a stone cutting disk to cut along the marked line. |
 |
If the disk will not cut all the way through cut another slot approx. 6" behind the first. (Always make sure the second cut is in the piece of pipe not needed) |
 |
Use the grinder to make a series of cuts and carefully snap them off, this will leave the back of the drain exposed. The grinder should now fit in between the cuts to allow the bottom of the drain to be cut through. |
 |
Remove the unwanted pieces of drain ready for fitting the bend. |
 |
Place a mark on the drain so when the bend if pushed fully home it goes past the marked line. |
 |
Back fill the hole using the soil and hardcore that was removed, fill up to and around the top of the bend but leave the top exposed. |
 |
Using a straight edge determine the length of pipe necessary to extend the pipework up to the normal floor level. The bend will have a wider collar section to allow a connecting length of pipe to be easily inserted. When measuring always measure from the bottom of the collar allowing for the pipe to be inserted. |
 |
Cut a piece of pipe to the required length, always use the end of the pipe with the collar, this will allow for additional lengths to be easily connected. |
 |
Fit the piece of pipe and check it comes up to a level slightly proud of the concrete. |
 |
Pipe shown slightly above level of concrete. This will allow the above ground section of soil pipe to be replaced in the future without having to dig up the concrete. |