What you don’t want as you’re packing for a much needed weekend away from renovation chaos and looking forward to hot water, bathrooms and cooking for twenty people – seriously, I do consider the latter a special treat – is a call from a tenant with a blocked loo. As a landlord you don’t get to choose the days on which disasters happen so, as regular as clockwork, they roll up on Saturday nights, birthdays and your busiest afternoons.
Especially welcome are those calls which involve loos. Ones whose handles won’t flush, ones with dicky ballcocks and, the most welcome of all, ones which won’t flush. In the past we’ve had some crackers and pretty much all have involved daft decisions. One memorable delight was the loo blocked with, wait for it, candle wax. Yes, that’s right, an intelligent human considered it a good idea to pour ‘waste’ candle wax down the loo and flush it away.
But at least candle wax is clean. At least candle wax is solid. And at least candle wax doesn’t have a god almighty stench like the piles and piles of wet wipes literally dug out of the pipe below. You are so lucky this blog post isn’t scratch and sniff. If I could find the person who first invented wet wipes and then slapped ‘flushable’ all over the packets I’d personally flush their head down the nearest loo.
Here’s the thing people – piddle, poo and loo roll go down the loo. Anything else GOES IN THE BIN!!! It’s not flippin’ rocket science is it. Because ladies, and it is mostly ladies who flush away their unmentionables, look what happens when you chuck them, plus tampons & ear buds etc etc down loos in old buildings with unforgiving drainage….
Why am I showing you this grossness? Because I’m super helpful that’s why, and because I’m trying to save you from the hundreds of pounds it costs to get out professional drain companies who, bless them, have to deal with such hideousness on a daily basis. They told me that one woman last week had been chucking nappies down the loo. NAPPIES! Cost her over £500 in chargeable hours to unblock it all. If you’re a tenant, you might not really care about your landlord’s drains but believe me, you will when you get the bill. It might not be something you’ve ever really though about but I’m here to help you out on that score.
Landlords – it’s a good idea to remind tenants of this regularly via notes or emails because tenants do forget. Or mail them a link to this blog 😉
Some blogs feature beautiful cupcakes, some luscious lifestyle shots, but I’m here to keep it real. You’re welcome.
(If you’re eating your tea you might want to save this next video for later on)
PS If you are Manchester based and you need a specialist drains company, then do give Clearway Drainage System (CDS) in Leigh a call on 01942 606761. . Their guys sorted Withington Baths out for us last year and they did a sterling job on this last week. Highly recommended and honest, at decent rates. Thanks guys.
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