Well ...Drains .
outside my house theres a bridleway , downhill past my drive. So all the water from the hills pours down this ,then down my drive , eating away the sad excuse for a surface .
halfway up the hill , about 25 mwtres from my drive there are 2 drains . I had been told by PO that the drain on my side of the path ,was blocked , and only drained to my hedgeline/garden , and was useless .
in the rain the other day i thought hmmm , i wonder whats under that big slab over the drain entrance ...it was pouring down and a good stream was coming down the hill by my feet .
i lifted the 2ft x 2ft thick slab , and startrd digging out sloppy mud , then solid mud , got down futher and further into th concrete box , and suddenly , out of the other drain, on the other side of the bridle way, came a poop gloop poop ! hurgghhh i thought .
carried on digging , and again another gloopp poopp glooop , and then the water in my drain started going down , very slowly , and then water , which had been going down the other drain , started coming out , and overflowing !
Well ,well ,WELL ! i thought.
this drain , we'll call it drain A , is connected to the other drain ,drain B . on the other side .
so i carried no digging A , and got as far as i could ,about a foot and a half down .
Then went , lifted B slab , and started digging in there as it overflowed .
i did about 5 shovels , looked away for a moment , then looked back in the drain , and at this point had a parallel universe moment .
all normal rules of nature appear to have been suspended for , there in front of me , was a concrete box ,Drain B ...
WITH NO WATER IN IT !
it was as if someone had connected a atomic vacuum cleaner to the drain and sucked it all out in 1 nanosecond .
we now had a happy waterfall into the box , and i could see the water from A coming in the bottom , and it all shooting out of a 5" terracotta pipe exit .
BRILLIANT .
i trowelled out the under the exit a bit , then replaced the slabs , and so far its all working v well . no torrent down the drive .
pics .
and after a few days ..
not sure if you can see the streams . i was carefull not to cross them
in other news , i had a big clearup ..
to this...
got it all under the stairs , after clearing that out ..
i took apart the water pump , after the seller asked me too ..
all that came apart was this wiggly bit that spins in a rubber corkscrew , it had worn away its drive rubber ... i was expecting a load of impellors etc , in the stainelss tube , but that doeesnt seem to have any water inlet or outlets , so , I'm a bit confused .
did another trip to get stuff from my sisters barn ..
couldnt quite get it all in , theres 4 8x4 19mm ply sheets soaked in water on the roof , under the crpet and chairs (id allready taken one chair off) and it was v heavy on the roof .well over id say .
one more trip will finish that off,2 more 8x 4s and a chair or two .
did a bit more paving of the mudfest from hell..
i drove the astra up with the boards on the roof so i could put them down to drive on , and then reversed astra back down the track , the silencer did not catch at all so big win there .
had a dig in the field to see if there is any track under the grass..
got that heap of stone out of the holes , and a bit of brick and tarmac , so at some point i guess there was something down there . maybe worth getting a jcb in for a scrape .
had another dig in the drive , and uncovered more concrete ..
found this in the field hedge ..
anyone know what thats for ? atv ?
also this was buried in the mud between the barns ..
some sort of tower?
Phew , and we are caught up
oh i did have a new visitor ..
and , now i have a bit more furniture, i made a still life ..
oh i forgot , i had the nice rayburn bloke shaun , come round , and he set the mix on the burner for me , it was at 24% o2 , v lean , asi suspected , and the air was right down , so we used a 1/4 turn on the oil pressure to get to :
CO 77 PPM
O2 7%
CO2 10%
EFF 84% .
We discussed ways to harness some of the heat going up the flue , and baffles in the burner box (there are none).
till next time ,...don't be a stranger .
regards
robert
outside my house theres a bridleway , downhill past my drive. So all the water from the hills pours down this ,then down my drive , eating away the sad excuse for a surface .
halfway up the hill , about 25 mwtres from my drive there are 2 drains . I had been told by PO that the drain on my side of the path ,was blocked , and only drained to my hedgeline/garden , and was useless .
in the rain the other day i thought hmmm , i wonder whats under that big slab over the drain entrance ...it was pouring down and a good stream was coming down the hill by my feet .
i lifted the 2ft x 2ft thick slab , and startrd digging out sloppy mud , then solid mud , got down futher and further into th concrete box , and suddenly , out of the other drain, on the other side of the bridle way, came a poop gloop poop ! hurgghhh i thought .
carried on digging , and again another gloopp poopp glooop , and then the water in my drain started going down , very slowly , and then water , which had been going down the other drain , started coming out , and overflowing !
Well ,well ,WELL ! i thought.
this drain , we'll call it drain A , is connected to the other drain ,drain B . on the other side .
so i carried no digging A , and got as far as i could ,about a foot and a half down .
Then went , lifted B slab , and started digging in there as it overflowed .
i did about 5 shovels , looked away for a moment , then looked back in the drain , and at this point had a parallel universe moment .
all normal rules of nature appear to have been suspended for , there in front of me , was a concrete box ,Drain B ...
WITH NO WATER IN IT !
it was as if someone had connected a atomic vacuum cleaner to the drain and sucked it all out in 1 nanosecond .
we now had a happy waterfall into the box , and i could see the water from A coming in the bottom , and it all shooting out of a 5" terracotta pipe exit .
BRILLIANT .
i trowelled out the under the exit a bit , then replaced the slabs , and so far its all working v well . no torrent down the drive .
pics .
and after a few days ..
not sure if you can see the streams . i was carefull not to cross them
in other news , i had a big clearup ..
to this...
got it all under the stairs , after clearing that out ..
i took apart the water pump , after the seller asked me too ..
all that came apart was this wiggly bit that spins in a rubber corkscrew , it had worn away its drive rubber ... i was expecting a load of impellors etc , in the stainelss tube , but that doeesnt seem to have any water inlet or outlets , so , I'm a bit confused .
did another trip to get stuff from my sisters barn ..
couldnt quite get it all in , theres 4 8x4 19mm ply sheets soaked in water on the roof , under the crpet and chairs (id allready taken one chair off) and it was v heavy on the roof .well over id say .
one more trip will finish that off,2 more 8x 4s and a chair or two .
did a bit more paving of the mudfest from hell..
i drove the astra up with the boards on the roof so i could put them down to drive on , and then reversed astra back down the track , the silencer did not catch at all so big win there .
had a dig in the field to see if there is any track under the grass..
got that heap of stone out of the holes , and a bit of brick and tarmac , so at some point i guess there was something down there . maybe worth getting a jcb in for a scrape .
had another dig in the drive , and uncovered more concrete ..
found this in the field hedge ..
anyone know what thats for ? atv ?
also this was buried in the mud between the barns ..
some sort of tower?
Phew , and we are caught up
oh i did have a new visitor ..
and , now i have a bit more furniture, i made a still life ..
oh i forgot , i had the nice rayburn bloke shaun , come round , and he set the mix on the burner for me , it was at 24% o2 , v lean , asi suspected , and the air was right down , so we used a 1/4 turn on the oil pressure to get to :
CO 77 PPM
O2 7%
CO2 10%
EFF 84% .
We discussed ways to harness some of the heat going up the flue , and baffles in the burner box (there are none).
till next time ,...don't be a stranger .
regards
robert