Monday, August 01, 2005
Water leak
Well I thought I was all set for a lazy Sunday afternoon yesterday after watching the Grand Prix until one of the guests noticed water seeping, well pouring almost, out of the stone wall at the back of one of our existing gites near the laundry room. Either we had discovered a new underground spring below the floor or something was seriously amiss with the plumbing. The odd thing was there are no water pipes at the rear of the gites and no sign of dampness or water inside the gite.
A little investigation later revealed a water leak under the concrete floor at the front of the gite where the main water supply enters and then runs off to supply our house and the other two gites. A leak in the rising main under a floor is not good, especially after looking at the dials on the water meter spinning round like a demented clock. Being a Sunday, and fully booked there was little remedial action we could take. We agreed with the guests to turn the water off at 10pm after everyone had eaten, washed etc. then turn it back on at 8am the next morning; today. There was still enough water pressure to run the taps, showers etc. Fortunately the water was running through a void under the concrete floor and escaping below floor level at the rear. No real damage except to the bank balance.
This morning the plumber arrived and after a little excavation and removing a few floor tiles it looked like the leak was caused by a faulty elbow joint in the 32mm plastic supply pipe buried beneath the floor under the front door. Access was almost impossible without taking up a large part of the floor in the gite. Not something we relished. So the plumber cut the pipe in the wall at floor level and blocked off the end of the pipe then rigged up a temporary supply from the water meter round the back of the house and into a connection near the boiler. Effectively the water was flowing into the system backwards, bypassing the original supply running under the courtyard. At least we had water.
The plumber had another job this afternoon so he left us with instructions to dig up the patio at the front of the gite so we could gain access to the original incoming pipe, which could then be cut and a new section fed under the door sill, under the floor and back up to the floor and reconnected. The idea was to pull out the damaged section and replace it with a new pipe. That meant my friend Ian and I have been digging a fairly large hole all afternoon and clearing an opening from outside to inside the gite below floor level for the new pipe. It took a while but we eventually found the supply pipe under the patio about half a meter down. Now we are just waiting for the plumber to arrive tomorrow and replace the damaged section.
That's the last time I plan on a lazy Sunday afternoon.
| 6:53:36 PM
Water leak
