Published: 20 October 2026
In short
- Logar and rögar describe the same structure: a covered inspection chamber that gives access to the line from above.
- The word menhol is mostly used for the large, deep chambers in the street.
- The boundary chamber (parsel bacası) is the last chamber of the building line before it joins the street sewer, and it plays a key role in working out where a blockage is.
- A grate is an open-topped surface drain. The water that runs into it usually goes to the stormwater line, not the foul water line.
- Telling us over the phone where the cover is, how high the water is and which drains are affected changes how the team prepares.
Telling these words apart is not just academic curiosity. There is a big difference between saying the logar in the garden is overflowing and saying there is standing water in the last chamber where the building connects to the street. The second sentence almost tells you on its own which side the blockage is on. This short glossary goes through the words one by one and helps you recognise the covers on your property by their proper names.
Logar or rögar: do the two words describe the same structure?
Yes, there is no structural difference between a logar and a rögar. Both are names for the same inspection chamber. In Istanbul, logar is the word you hear more often in conversation. Rögar is a word borrowed from French, meaning to look or to take a look, and you are more likely to meet it in technical drawings and municipal correspondence. What a caretaker calls a logar may be written as a rögar in the architectural plans.
What you see when you lift the cover is usually the same layout. At the bottom there is a half-pipe flow channel that guides the water from the inlet to the outlet. In the walls you can see the openings of one or more inlet pipes, and the outlet pipe is on the opposite side. Deep chambers may have iron steps set into the wall. These steps are made for maintenance equipment and are not an invitation to climb in, because toxic gas builds up at the bottom of the chamber.
What is meant by menhol?
Menhol is a word of foreign origin, roughly meaning an opening a person can enter. In Turkish it is mostly used for the large, deep chambers under the street. The round cast iron covers with a pattern on top that you see in the middle of a road belong to this group. They are part of the city's sewer or stormwater network, not of your building.
People may also call the small square concrete cover in an apartment building's garden a menhol. The word itself is not important. What matters is whether the cover is inside the building's plot or out on the road. Mentioning this over the phone lets the team understand from the start which line they will be dealing with.
Where do the inspection chamber and the boundary chamber sit on a building?
An inspection chamber (kontrol bacası) is a chamber built at points where the building line changes direction, where two pipes join, or in the middle of a long straight run. Its purpose is to let you reach the line from there when there is a blockage and to see the flow with your own eyes. A building can have several inspection chambers: at the corners where the shared stacks come down, at the bends of the garden and at car park entrances.
The boundary chamber (parsel bacası) is the last chamber of the building line before it connects to the street sewer, and it usually sits near the edge of the plot, the garden wall or the pavement. This chamber works as a kind of boundary marker. If water is flowing through it, the blockage is most likely before it, on the building side. If water is standing in it, the obstruction may be in the connection after the chamber or in the street line. In many older buildings the top of the boundary chamber has later been paved over or covered with soil, so having someone who knows where it is makes the job much easier.
Why should a grate, a gully grating and a floor drain be kept apart?
A grate (ızgara) and a gully grating (mazgal) are openings with holes or bars on top that collect surface water. You find them on car park ramps, in courtyards and at the roadside. They are not closed inspection chambers. Rainwater, leaves, sand and gravel go straight into them, which is why they are the openings that fill up most often and are the easiest to clean. In a correctly built building, most grates are connected to the stormwater line.
A floor drain (yer süzgeci) is the small opening inside the building or on the balcony. You meet it on bathroom floors, in laundry rooms and on balconies. Underneath it there is a water seal that holds back odour. If water comes back up through a floor drain, the problem may be in the line the drain is connected to, not in the logar. Water overflowing from a grate, on the other hand, often shows that the stormwater line or the grate itself has filled up.
Other words used on the building line
Besides the covers, there are a few more words that technicians use when they talk. Knowing them makes it easier to follow the diagnosis you are given.
- Kolon (shared stack): the main pipe that runs vertically down through the floors and collects the waste water of all the flats.
- Horizontal line: the sloping pipe that starts at the foot of the stacks and runs under the building or through the garden to the logars.
- Cleaning eye: a small opening on the pipe with a screwed cover. Where there is no logar, the line is entered from here.
- Connection pipe: the short section that leaves the boundary chamber and reaches the street sewer.
- Flow channel: the trough at the bottom of the logar that carries water from one end to the other. If it is damaged, the chamber holds water.
- Level (kot): the height of a point. The level of the street line explains why basement drains overflow.
How do you describe the problem over the phone?
Even if you do not know the right word, it is enough to describe what you see in order. The location of the cover, the state of the water inside it and which drains in the building are affected decide which machine the team brings and where it will enter the line. These example sentences can give you an idea:
If you managed to open the cover, take a photo from where you are standing, holding the phone out, without leaning over the opening. If the cover is very heavy or rusted and stuck, do not force it. The team will do the opening.
- In the logar with the square cover at the corner of the garden, the water has risen to just under the cover and is not moving.
- Water is flowing in the last chamber near the garden gate, but the toilet on the ground floor is still overflowing.
- There is a smell coming from the grate on the car park ramp even though it has not rained.
- Dirty water is coming out of the floor drain in the basement, and there is no problem on the upper floors.
- The ground around the round iron cover in the street is wet, and the neighbouring building has the same situation.
