My site visit for Monday was in the afternoon rather than morning as I had been doing. Approaching the site I was being closely followed by a large blue truck. And it followed me right to the driveway to my home of the future. Then I saw it was the "water pipe freezing" truck. Well, that's a good sign.
When the townhouses in front of my block were built, an easement was created for provision of services to my block. This includes the requirement to be able to connect those services as and when they are needed. And the builders have done the right thing. There is a large conduit for the power cable, another one for phone, and two copper pipes - one for water, the other for gas. As there is no gas line in the front street (but for a mere $10,000 it would be extended the 100m involved), the gas line will remain unused for now.
Last week the power and telephone conduits were extended to the side of the garage-to-be, and by week's end, the power cables run and power connected. There's a draw rope in the telephone conduit to run those wires when appropriate. However, there was no water in the water pipe, so there was the obvious question of why. The worst case scenario would involve running a pipe under the road to the water main on the other side of the street. And possibly digging up the driveway across the street.
Fortunately, the water main feeding my front neighbours is quite large, and capable of handling another house. Beauty! And I arrived in time to see the connection.
So, rather than the photos of "steaming" liquid nitrogen freezing the water in the main pipe , you see this, showing Dave, the plumber, soldering up the final joint. Ah, what a pity - I'm sure I had some good photos. And I did ask - there's no lead in the solder, which is a very good thing to keep lead out of the drinking water.
And you'll notice the valve to shut the water off, should that ever be necessary. Note that there is also a valve adjacent to the water meter on my lot for normal use; this buried valve is for maintenance on the line (i.e. emergencies).
After finishing this joint, Dave opened the valve slightly and let water fill the pipe, and compressing the air in there. After a period, the water stopped flowing, which is a good sign indicating no leaks! After all, it's been in the ground since about 1992, and never been pressure tested!
Before filling in the hole, it's time to test, specifically to
make sure the water was connected to the correct pipe! Dave is
slowly opening the temporary tap, and there's that wonderful sound
of air under pressure escaping.
Ah, there she blows!
Full flow - looks pretty good to me.
| Sewer line on eastern side | Man hole in the SE corner | Sewer line on western side |
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I suspect the bags on top of the sewer line are to ensure that it stays in place should the trench fill with water, as it has in the right hand side photo. The orange strings in the photo are the sides of the house, and although it's a bit hard to see, it is very close to the sewer line in the right hand photo.
Looking from bedroom 2 (will be an office) north shows what will
be the eastern wall of the kitchen, and the front door will be
on the left side of the large excavated area just to the right
of the middle of the image. The yellow lines represent the outside
of the walls of the house, and are there to guide the concrete layers
tomorrow. Note also the trench cut through the middle of that
area. It's the location of the old sewer line, and will be used
to place the sewer lines running out of my home! It's nice to
recycle :)
Looking east from near the front door. This will be the northern
wall for the lounge room. Note the rock everywhere - these footings
will all be anchored to the rock, so this is a house that is not
going anywhere.
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These photos show details of the eastern end of the trench in the previous photo (i.e. the northern wall of the lounge room). The right photo is a detailed view of the left image; it shows the old sewer line (old as in before it was diverted to the back fence), which is now disconnected. And it too, has a trench.
All in all, the site is ready for the big concrete pour tomorrow, when the footings will be done, and the exposed sewer lines encased in concrete.
Building A Home
The Big Pour I
Sure Footed