The grey water from the kitchen sink and the washing machine normally leaves the house via these pipes and a soak away to end up amongst the gooseberries and other soft fruits. This is an arrangement that has pleased them all (and me) up until recently, when the water started spreading over the basement floor instead of going ‘away….’

After convincing myself that roots from uninvited  shrubs – yes, I mean you Chaenomeles japonica! were interfering with the drains – I dug down to see. It wasn’t the roots.  And it wasn’t pretty and didn’t smell that great either….10 years of accumulated sink and washing machine gunk clogging the pipes.

All cleared out now and running clear again. Until the next time….