Whenever we have heavy rainfall, my street floods. It’s always been a bit inconvenient, but now it’s getting to the point where it’s dangerous. We have a sewer drain right near our driveway and the build up of water has been getting so deep after heavy rainfall that it’s difficult to drive our car out of the garage. With my kids learning to drive and always wanting to drive everywhere, I can’t risk them driving on a flooded road or down a flooded driveway.
My guess is that we have a blocked sewer. Within Melbourne, the sewers are quite old, so I guess it was bound to happen sometime. I just wish it wasn’t on my street, in front of my house. I tried to unblock the outside drain myself when I noticed that the flooding was getting worse, but the only thing I learned was that I am absolutely out of my depth when it comes to anything to do with plumbing. My wife told me to stick to my day job and call a drain plumber, and even though I didn’t want to, I accepted defeat and followed her instructions.
Of course, the drain plumber waltzed in and made me look incompetent. Not through any fault of his own, he was genuinely just good at his job and got it done efficiently and effectively, but it still made me feel like less of a man. I didn’t want to be outshone in front of my family, and so I decided to watch exactly what he did. He very kindly discussed the whole process with me.
I’ve gone out and bought all the tools he used, and I think that if the outside drain ever became blocked again, I’d be able to unblock it. I’m sure I would have been able to unblock it myself the first time, but unfortunately my wife didn’t give me enough time to properly try. I won’t let my insecurities get in the way of commending the drain plumber – he did a great job. I’m just a bit disappointed that it wasn’t me who got the job done.