Well somebody reads these blogs. Within two days of publishing the last one we had our new blue pipe water main connected – hurrah!
UK Power Networks also came back to disconnect the old power feeds to the building and to take away their old switch gear. This allowed us to fill in holes and to paint the walls on those two areas. Another job ticked off the list.
And the builder sorted the damaged bore hole feed – or we think so, it’s yet to be pressure tested. Mind you, reconnecting these pipes was a saga in itself.
Having reconnected the pipes, the test then indicated that there was a blockage at 1.8 meters down one leg of the borehole pipe. A very large compressor was brought to site to try to blow the blockage out but to no avail. A little camera was inserted down the blocked pipe and it was determined that a mixture of sand and small shingle was causing the blockage. Rather than trying to blow the blockage out the plan was to break up the sand with a small rodding tool and then extract the debris. Enter ‘Henry’ the wet and dry hoover! After several scrap and suck cycles the blockage was final cleared.
It was lucky that the blockage was only at 1.8 metre as I don’t think Henry Hoover could have offered much suction at the 125 metre bottom of the borehole!
So, the underfloor heating is now on (albeit powered from only three boreholes) very gradually starting to heat the building up. The process has to be slow to allow everything to dry out slowly else we will have twisted wood and cracks everywhere.
Outside the groundworks move apace. Levels are being established across the forecourt as planters and final drains are installed. The river perimeter line has been established and work has started on the decorative features of the paving including the installation of a pipe to house our time capsule. Elsewhere the external lights have been installed both at ground level, in the planters and as free standing bollards by the river.
Plans for March are to finish the paving and perhaps get some plants in the planters.
