I've got the bast*rd
tooled up and set out a hole to suit the size of the 8mm plate O/cut, left over from the sump lid/cover ...
... plan ahead
for the remediation works
the small hole is roughly where the 'spring' has been emanating from which I attacked a few days before our water vanished
got me 'rods' out and sussed the route - AGAIN - to
double triple check where my 'sposed route is
so gave it some 9" treatment ... decided to lop half the hole first, to give me some alternative direction to go once I'd found yon pipe
dug down looking for some signs of disturbed ground ... bloody hard going - was like dry mix under the 2" of 1-1/4 to dust on the top, but went very gently/slowly with a bar to break it up .. not knowing WTF I was gonna find?
so got down to the bottom of that and quietly 'expanded' me dig out to the edges of my 'black top' cut and found a SWA cable
buried under/wrapped around a gert rock
where the pipe enters the house there are 3 SWA cables disappearing into the floor ...... I used one of them (who's end I found when doing the footings for the wall - buried) for the outside lights, built into the wall.
I know for a very truncated tail of a second one, poking out the tar mac, just in front of the wall, which is uselessly short, but have never found the third one.
So guessed I was somewhere near on the right track as they're bound to have been stuck in the same trench as the water pipe - they all come out the ground in the house, virtually together
I was now also finding some water
and had resorted to my pointing trowel for poking about in't hole and found a second cable t'other side of that rock, which'd obviously been lobbed back in the trench - really want to meet the **** who back filled this with enough rocks to start a small quarry ... good job I'd parked the bar and taken to the trowel or I'd've had the second cable for sure
dug further back towards the wall, where the water appeared to be coming from and sure enough
left it for five to settle while I had the cuppa, that'd arrived and it'd settle nicely ... deeper excavation required
and lo and behold
......................................................................................................................................................... and theres the second cable which showed itself when I extracted the bloody boulder sat on them both
I hate those push fit couplings with a passion .... and this un had a rock sat on it -- a fair lump of a rock forcing it out of line with the MDPE and leaking all round - 'specially the back -- said rock below
was running out of light - quick - last hour was torch light, slowly clearing out bit by bit ... pipe is heading downwards, from that joint, as are the cables - 'sposed to be dry tomorrow, so'll have to continue in the morning clearing out the hole properly, to find t'other ends of the pipe and cables, emerging from what I presume is the trench leading to the house about 15 feet away .. then I am going to have to go for the originally sized hole (this is only half of the set out hole - in the right direction too) to get at the uphill/upstream end of that pipe, to give me enough room to 'perform surgery' on it to cure the problem ... might even find the third cable if I can get down to the trench level, where the pipe dives down to
and this is what's been coming out of said hole - sand? - WTF is that - fill is as quarried
.. twa*s
that's the second barrow full .. remarkable how it bulks out of a little hole
I also have a theory as to why the line in the house is dry .... reckon it's probably blocked with shite that's managed to get in round that joint ... once I have the hole enlarged and more pipe accessible, so I know I can sort the repair as planned, I'll disconnect it and back pressure the line from the house, as there obviously appears to be water at the joint as it's coming out of it, upstream of it - either back flush with water through the pump, with a bit of plumbing juggling, or give it 150 PSI of air or both to flush it out
main thing is I have found the source of the problem/issue
will hopefully be down hill from here
... could really do with a small pump to contend with the watter ... got a subby, but a bit big for this - have got an air powered vac gun, that might do the job, but hopefully when I sever that line yon hole is going to fill PDQ ... 'til I cap it, but want to see it gushing to put a smile on my face
don't you just hate cowboy builders - although I shouldn't be surprised, based on previous 'stetson' jobs I've dealt with here
there should be a.n.other water line down in there somewhere at 90 deg.s to this one, which is the line I'm drawing off, for the IBC currently - I know exactly where it is on the other side of the wall, beside the uphill side of the land drain collector sump - better keep a very careful eye open for that one
in here - would be a right p*sser to knacker that one
early start in the morning as it's forecast dry .. Hamster juice'll have to wait tomorrow 'til Monday - it's forecast is horrendous - 30 mil of rain again - followed by 40mil on Thursday .. weeks total is approaching 100mil of wet shite, next seven days
