A matter of overflowing

I would believe everyone has one of these sewage holes at the back of their houses.

When I bought my house in 2012, the hole was located at the back of the unit. But then, I decided to extend the back portion of the house until the back lane. In the process, the hole became located within the building itself, but covered with a tile for easy access. This sewage hole was some sort of a waste water trap. Water from the sink would flow into it, as well as water from the bathroom and the outflow from the washing machine. So it was a three-in-one. The waste water flows in and then gets dumped into the main sewage tank somewhere at the back.

Technically this waste water trap shouldn't overflow because it's just water, dirty water. However about a month ago, I began hearing some strange noise from the trap as if the waste water wasn't flowing easily. Being ignorant, I ignored it.

Then it happened. Twice when the washing machine was being used, water seeped out from between the tiles. Dirty brown water. I had to mop the kitchen floor several times just to get it clean again.

Things came to a head on the 28th of last month when the waste water from the bathroom began overflowing from this trap. There was no choice but to pry open the tile and see what was down the hole. It wasn't pretty of course. Water was accumulating till the top of the hole, about three feet deep, maybe even deeper, and it wasn't subsiding. So I took a long pole and churned the water, hoping that the action would somehow dislodge the blockage and make the water to flow again. It wasn't easy work but it did reduce the water level to a reasonable level. And the problem was, I felt around the bottom of the hole with the pole but I couldn't find an outlet. Where on earth did the water flow to?

My neighbour suggested that I tried to force pour a kettle of boiling water directly into the hole, thinking that it might dislodge whatever was blocking the water outlet. Tried that but all it did was raising the water level again. The water simply could not flow out.

At first, I tried calling some plumbers I knew but no-one wanted to come out during this Movement Control Order period. No, I would have to resolve this urgent problem some other way. How about Indah Water Konsortium, I thought? Perhaps they should be able to help me.

They came with a big truck on the 29th, saw the problem and said they would come back on the 30th morning with a smaller truck. The problem, according to them, wasn't as serious as I had made it out to be. Cheaper too, they assured me, if their team came with the smaller truck. It was another overnight wait.

On the 30th morning, the IWK team came, they opened up the hole, stuck a pole down it and twisted about. Don't know what they did because the chap's back was back to me, but it cleared up the problem immediately. The waste water subsided immediately and I haven't had the problem anymore, touch wood. Cost to me was RM180 for a few minutes of their time.