Doug

Small pleasant thing: I thought I was going to have to do some horrible drains work and/or get someone in at ludicrous expense to do it, but then I didn't.

The shower started to drain veeerrrry slowly, so that you ended your shower in a warm soapy paddling pool. Then, much worse, the shower drain started sputtering from time to time, splashing back water in to the shower pan when the loo was flushed. This seemed completely disgusting until I worked out the gunk was only from the shower drain trap, not the loo itself. Then it started to gurgling even when nothing else was happening in the house. That was just surreal.

I had a chat with an odd-job guy I trust and have had in for a few things, and he was pretty sure it couldn't be anything in the house and was probably a drains blockage. He reckoned it was either something I could easily sort myself, or something needing proper (and expensive) drain-clearing kit that he didn't have. Which was a very helpful and cheap bit of advice, so I'll use him again.

Anyway, while I was procrastinating about investigating that by haring off to a friend's wedding on the Isle of Wight, a neighbour a few doors down had noticed a problem with their drains and called out the local water company. They came round knocking on doors and pulling up inspection covers to diagnose the problem, found it, and cleared it.

Problem solved! With almost no effort on my part. Result.