# Forum Home Renovation Plumbing  Stormwater into sewer.. maybe.. (old house)

## nobloodyidea

Hey Guys 
I'm going to get a plumber to fix a cracked underground stormwater pipe at the front of our property. 
This drain takes water off the front roof and drains to the street. 
Whilst investigating getting this drain fixed I checked to see where the stormwater from the *back* of the house drains to. 
This morning I put a hose into the downpipe and ran water for 5 minutes or so. 
No water appeared in the road side gutter at the front of the house. 
Where would this water be going? 
I suspect the back of the house downpipe (there is only one) is connected to the sewer system? Its not obvious cos the downpipe just goes into the ground. There are concrete tiles surrounding the downpipe so its not easy to see where it is actually ending up. 
How could I test where this is draining to. There is a sewer inspection hole about 4m away.. Should I use some dye in the top gutter and see if I can see this water flow through to the inspection hole? or is this just a mad suggestion? 
Whilst illegal apparently it is common for older house (1910 terraces etc) to tap the storm water into the sewer, especially at the back of the house where it is not possible to lay drains to the front of the house without ripping up the entire house. Is this true? 
My concern is if the stormwater is not going into the sewer then where the hell is this water going? There are no obvious signs of damp/flooding. 
Any comments

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## skot

The best thing to do is notify the local council. As you suspect that the Stormwater feeds into the Sewer and you didn't do it but wish it to be investigated, I am sure the Council will be happy to help. 
The Council in Brisbane often does suprise checks by placing a smoke "bomb" down the Sewer system in the road and watches for any sign of smoke emitting from the downpies at the gutter point. 
Your council may do the same at the Sewer Inspection Opening. If they find no evidence of the Stormwater into the Sewer, it may be that you have a drainage pit which can be a long pit of gravel into which the downpipe spits the water and it absorbs into the ground over time.

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## nobloodyidea

> The best thing to do is notify the local council. As you suspect that the Stormwater feeds into the Sewer and you didn't do it but wish it to be investigated, I am sure the Council will be happy to help.

  Err.. but wouldn't they then demand that I fix the problem? 
If it is going into the sewer then it would be a HUGE pain in the @@@@ to reroute to a storm water drain.. I'd have to rip up the floor in my house and lay a new stormwater drain from the back of the house to the front.. There would be no other option. 
Contacting the council and notifying them is just too much of a risk IMHO.

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## GraemeCook

It used to be the norm to run storm water into sewerage lines:  now it is illegal. 
In our case the roof water from the front of the house is piped into the street gutters.  At the back of the house the stormwater goes into a pipe that crosses my yard and three neighbours and dumps the stormwater into a side street, collecting their stormwater on the way.   There is a stormwater easement on our title deeds.   It takes a different route from the sewerage line that also runs across the rear of the house. 
This might be a question that you do not want answered. 
Cheers 
Graeme

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## skot

I can see your hesitation with contacting Council but if you can not re-route a pipe down the side of the terrace house then they would not make you tear up the floor. I think they could do a couple of things 
1) Leave as is if this was normal practice back when the house was built. Council's don't make it a habit of making by-laws retrospective. 
2) Cut the pipe off from the sewer and place the drainage pit as I mentioned in my 1st post. 
OR you could leave well enough alone as there is no damp areas as you mentioned.

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## wonderplumb

Try the dye test, get yourself some flurosene from bunnies or reece etc and mix it up in a bucket the pour it down the gutter as you said and look into the boundary shaft to see if it does in fact come out. Yes they did _sometimes_ run downpipes into the sewer, if its not causing a hassle just leave it especially if its too hard to rectify. The council may not want to know about it anyway but sydney water definately will want it fixed.

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## Compleat Amateu

I've had this nightmare, and I can see why you might not want the answer.  My experience is that if you ask Council they will come after you. 
As a test, do you have a sewer inspection point somewhere towards the front of your property?  What's on the sewerage diagram that you'd have got when you bought the place?  Any evidence of an inspection outlet (from memory I/O on the diagrams, I can be corrected here)?  If you can find such a point in your sewer, just stick a hose down the back stormwater, and see if she flows past. 
Laying PVC stormwater isn't that hard ... it's just the digging prior that is the grind!

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## intertd6

If the worst happens & the stormwater does flow into the sewer & you have to disconnect it, you can run your stormwater to the rear of your property & have it spilling over ground from that point, most old downhill blocks will have a drainage easement at the rear but no piping, once the stormwater leaves your block then its the neighboring blocks responsibility to keep it going on its easement flow path & so on & so on down the line, I have built multimillion dollar homes in the eastern suburbs of sydney with these drainage issues in their backyards
regards inter

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## wonderplumb

> If the worst happens & the stormwater does flow into the sewer & you have to disconnect it, you can run your stormwater to the rear of your property & have it spilling over ground from that point, most old downhill blocks will have a drainage easement at the rear but no piping, once the stormwater leaves your block then its the neighboring blocks responsibility to keep it going on its easement flow path & so on & so on down the line, I have built multimillion dollar homes in the eastern suburbs of sydney with these drainage issues in their backyards
> regards inter

   You cant just purposely run it over the ground and through the fence and say its the neighbours problem after that

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## intertd6

> You cant just purposely run it over the ground and through the fence and say its the neighbours problem after that

   You can, I have & its legal as long as there is an drainage easement with no buried inter-allotment drainage pipework specifically for the purpose.
regards inter

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## Terrian

> The Council in Brisbane often does suprise checks by placing a smoke "bomb" down the Sewer system in the road and watches for any sign of smoke emitting from the downpies at the gutter point.

  'S' bend in the stormwater pipe should thwart that  :Smilie:

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