The Breakroom > The Water Cooler
But I can't brush my Teeth !!!!
awemawson:
Sunday - a day of rest - but SOMETHING woke me up - ok no point in lying in bed, get up and do things! First action, brush my teeth. Oi who stole the water :bang:
OK there was water but at a very low pressure. I glanced out of the bedroom window to see a 'gusher' in the front garden - probably about 6" out of the ground and LOTS of flow :bugeye:
Quick Google got me Southern Water's emergency number, and when I called them they said they'd had several low pressure reports and were searching for the leak - 'I think I know were it is' I said !
This was just after 7 am - team turned up about 9 am but before arrival they'd shut valves to stem the flow - in the mean time I took a little video and a few pictures:
awemawson:
They brought a 1 ton digger with them and started digging up my front lawn - very soggy - lots of mess :scratch:
Eventually they got down to what was shown on the plans as a 150 mm ductile iron water main, but in practice turned out to be a 150 mm asbestos water main :bugeye:
Oops - need another team - not allowed to cut asbestos pipes. OK another couple of fellows suitably trained turn up, and they decide to cut a 4 metre section out and replace flange to flange. More digging, big lorry arrives with 6 metre length of (this time actually ductile cast iron) pipe flanges etc
Careful measure up and out with the petrol cutter to slice off the extra
awemawson:
Now while this is happening we have no water for the livestock so I pressed them for a bowser to be delivered, which eventually turns up
awemawson:
Cut length of bally heavy pipe now man ported across the soggy lawn and put in place.
The crack in the original pipe is substantial as you can see in one of the pictures
awemawson:
So, leak fixed time to turn on the water :thumbup:
Ah - ever heard of water hammer :scratch: :scratch: :scratch: :scratch:
Big hammer effect as large volume of water flows into big pipe - BURSTING THE PIPE about 30 foot further along our hedge.
As I type, there is another even bigger hole being dug and about 10 metres of my front laurel hedge have been felled to insert yet anther new bit. They had to borrow my JCB 803 for this hole as theirs wasn't big enough !
They intend to fit a fire hydrant in our front garden on this section, and have it open when the pipe is re-filled to stop the water hammer, but it's now 18:40 - still no water, and I'm having supper - more pictures later !
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
Go to full version