Planned Preventative Maintenance Contracts

 

Planned Preventative Maintenance Contracts

PPM (Pre Planned Maintenance) is critical to sewers and surface water drains. Why?, Drains are the carriers to move crude sewage, waste water and surface water from one point to another on the site and then to the discharge point which could the mains sewer network or mains surface water drains or even a soakaway.  

The drainage system for all properties is designed to be self-cleansing. This is provided it is installed correctly and we only put flush the Three P’s (Poo, Pee & Paper). We know this will not happen as people flush more done the drains, but also items like hair from showers and baths can cause problems.   

Blocked drains cause disruption to our everyday life and to businesses, so let’s be brief on what they are: 

Loss of services – Blockages will fill the rains and manholes very quickly; this will cause toilets to fill up and overflow. They are no longer usable. You may have to close if you cannot provide welfare facilities.  

Health risks – Sewage overflowing from the manholes, this could cause people to become ill and internal flooding.  

Internal flooding – This can be costly with the clan up operation, damages to stock, good, electrical equipment. This can also be in wet rooms or kitchens where there are internal gullies/traps built in the floors for removing the water when mopping clean floors.   

Expenses that are very much unwanted, along with smells and Health risks 

External flooding – Manholes and gullies that are overflowing, unpleasant smells and clean up costs. Having to make sure staff, children, members of the public and visitors do not walk through. This isn’t a great image either whichever business you are.  

 

What can be done to reduce the possibilities?  

Prevention is better than cure. We cannot cure everything, but we can do our best to prevent it from happening.  

PPM work is one of greatest methods to try and prevent blockages, but we know we cannot be looking at everything that is being flushed. We could install alarms in the manholes for early warning and hope we can unblock before it becomes a larger issue. Alarms are great and we can install these, they can also be linked to telemetry so the alarm can be sent to other third parties.  

What does the PPM consist of?  

Basic PPM 

  • Jetting the drains so they are clean as possible.  
  • Cleaning and removing the FOGs (Fats, Oil, Grease)- these build up over time and reduce the drain diameter and other items attach to the FOGs like wipes, hair, sanitary items, organic matter, other inorganic matter. 
  • Cleaning the gullies, these become smelly and are unpleasant. You will find these gullies on the outside of the building where sink waste goes.  
  • CCTV survey of the drains to check their health. Looking for cracks, displacements, collapsed drains, unwanted items stuck in the drains and move.  
  • Report on the conditions and should any remedial works be required; we will send a quote/estimate for the works 

 

Extras on top of the basic PPM 

  • Cleaning of sink traps 
  • Cleaning of urinal traps 
  • Cleaning of carpark surface water gullies 
  • Cleaning of gutters and down pipes 
  • Pump station clean 

All the above are part of the foul and surface water drainage system, and they all need to be kept in good condition.  

The Sewage Undertakers carry our PPM on their own networks, Why? Because they need to keep the waste flowing to the treatment works. Keeping it flowing means reduced risks of blockages and we all know what happens when sewers do block, so even they are doing it.  

Most commercial properties are not owned by the sewage undertakers, so therefore they will not respond to any blocked drains and if they do, they will check to see if it is private. Sewage undertakers are not allowed to unblock private drains and can be fined if they do. 

Call us at EPPH Drainage in East Anglia and London today at 01473 559072 to learn more about our comprehensive drain cleaning services