Adding a garden tap

With people coming to render the front wall with lime (it has cement based render at the moment which doesn’t breath and also  it is a mess with the new windows), we need to add an outside tap so they can get water.

It took a bit more excavation than we had hoped to find the pipe!

Now it all needs filling back in…

Breeze block wall demolished!

 Before

During

After

We also had to remove the hot water tank that replaced the death trap gas boiler that was here when we moved in and move the giant washer dryer combo we have to handle all the bedding from the apartments.

Lots of memories about living in this part of the house when we first arrived and how uncomfortable it was…

Fixing the Pump

We have been struggling on for ages with quite a wonky pump because we are afraid if we take it apart we will make it worse. It has a pressure switch that turns the pump on and off when required to pump up the red pressure vessel that provides the water at pressure to the house. The pressure switch has been sticking for ages so it doesn't turn the pump on when it should, which means the water in the house stops and someone has to go and hit the pump. Occasionally it also fails to turn off which is worse as the pump can overheat.
We have had the new part for a while but have been trying other things to improve it. It finally got so bad we had to go for it...
We ended up having to totally dismantle it, stupid design!

Phew it is back together with the new part in place!

Initial indications are that the pump is now working properly and that this has got rid of another issue where we got air in to the pump (which is a bad thing and made it go wonky)

Water pump dodgy

Back in the day, there used to be lots of whining on the blog about our trials getting water to the house from the source which is 10 meters or so lower.
We have quite a powerful pump at the level of the house as pumps are generally designed to push water out of the water outlet rather than pull water up through the water inlet which is what this one is having to do (before pushing it along to the house).
We would like one day to replace it with a submerged pump in the water tank. But while this one keeps struggling on, it seems profligate to spend money on a new one. Pumps are expensive by the time they have dry run protection, a pressure switch to give you sensible pressure in the house, a water cylinder to protect the pump from constantly running, and have the power to get the water up to the top field.
We have been having issues with air getting in to it somehow, which cases a number of problems. Of course not having water when this happens is a not good, but we also worry about the pump overheating, and it lives below the hay!

We have learnt a lot about pumps while struggling with this one and its very rusty predecessor. Not one of the ambitions we had when moving to France!

This is the pressure switch which goes a bit wonky with symptoms including not turning the pump on, not turning the pump off and making an alarming pffft noise. Initially we thought it was a problem with the switch itself, but now we suspect that air gets in to the system and affects its function, which is mechanical. It didn't like being WD40ed that much and the other lubricant even less - it was only a minor fire that occurred!!

There used to be a cover instead of tape, but it got melted in a dry running incident.

Gosh darn pump

A small but crucial bit has broken on the pump. It is a small plastic screw that keeps the water in and the screw thread has stripped off it.
It took us many hours one evening to work out what was wrong with it - lots of trial and error and the occasional drenching with water when the bit fired out at high velocity.
We have now managed to wedge it back on with a bit of wood until we manage to get a new one. Currently busy tracking down a supplier.

The water supply

You hear a lot less about our water than a few years ago as it is much better (plus we are more experienced in managing it). But from time to time it still does run out. Cleaning the horse box with the pressure washer often causes this - particularly by the time we have had a couple of showers as well.
It ran out last weekend though I had recently changed the filter so I went to check it really had run out because we had used it all rather than the filter being blocked again (that is the most frequent reason and we have a new type of filter). I managed to break the plank - which has been on its way out for some time, so I was being careful,  but clearly not careful enough - and bruise my leg. Thought it was broken for a moment! You can see the tank here pretty much in the center (side to side) and about a third of the way up.

This is the naughty plank

Looking in to the near empty tank. It never get's totally empty as that red thing causes the water to cut off when it hangs on end from it's wire (when the tank is full it floats on its side)

This is how the water flows in to the tank

This is where the water comes out of the spring and is captured :) takes quite a bit of wading in the swamp and battling nettles when this bit goes wrong

Drainage behind the house

Part of why the house is damp is because water comes in under the back wall when it rains. As there is no foundation it is easy for it. It then soaks up the walls and even the floor where there is no damp proof.

We are adding a fin drain - similar to a french drain, which is just a ditch with gravel to allow the water to drain away, but there is a geotextile membraine against the house to help guide the water away inside it.

Looks very neat. They are being careful because the house has no foundations, so if you did to close to the wall it will just fall in to the hole!

There will be some interesting bits getting round corners, and also making room for the drain and for the drainpipes coming off the roof to go round the same bits.

It is pretty exciting seeing this happening - even if I am not there in person - as we have been planning his for so long. Eventually we will hopefully have a house where mould doesn't grow on something if you leave it in one place for more than 5 minutes.

Exciting progress

Here is the water tank 2000l ie HUGE. Quite a challenge fitting it under the beam apparently.

In the door is the wood burner - quite big

In addition there is a 200l expansion vessel to adjust as the volume of the water increases with temperature and a 300l emergency flow pressure vessel to provide cold water flow to quench fire in case of a power cut at peak temperature.

Will it all fit on the tiled area!? Also stress because the emergency flow vessel still has to turn up - due tomorrow. 

Exciting!

Yay there is hot water again

Doug has fitted a giant electric heater for hot water. It ain't pretty, but it should do the job for the few months we need it and wasn't too expensive.

Here is a picture of the miracle, it is a little hard to appreciate as a photo... It is hot water coming out of the kitchen tap - which can now happen without having to crank a tetchy death trap boiler in to life, pretty exciting as washing up is not very efficient in cold water.

Plumbing and wiring

Before the hempcrete (the insulation) is sprayed on to the walls (week of 9th November) all the things that need to be hidden in the walls need putting in. Or as close to all of them as we can manage, it will be possible to channel out where we need things that we forgot or could not practically do in advance (for example pipes to take water in to the rest of the house).

The electrician has been and started the electrics. It is done a bit different to if we were using plasterboard as the plugs need fixing to the wall behind and to bring them to level with where the hempcrete and lime plaster will end up, they are screwed to bits of wood attached to the stone. This is because the hempcrete isn't strong enough just to set them in that.

The ventilation for the plumbing in this room is done (it vents out to the roof - this is so that airlocks don't form in the outflows and it vents to the roof so any smell goes outside). The pipes on the wall here will do the shower and sink as well as the temporary toilet which will be in the corner while we live in this room as we do the rest of the house. Pink lines on the floor show where there are pipes underneath.

 This is where the shower tray will go, with the outflow in the centre of the picture. The floor of the shower and the rest of the floor are going to be flush.
The pipe in the top right of the photo is for the grey (ie not toilet) water coming from the bathroom above. It will flow through a heat recover pipe, so that any heat from the water running away will be transferred in to incoming cold water to save energy.

The shower tray. It is pretty darn huge at 120 x 120 which doesn't really show here. This is with the intention that in the future it is for hosing down dirty things like the dog and a bit of space will be nice then as well as in the short term while it is our actual shower too.

Digging up the house - and yay for the mini digger

Last week Doug and team moved the fosse septic (or septic tank) at the back of the house. The previous owner put it in because it is too far from the kitchen sink around to the proper fosse at the front of the house. It is small and is really a grease trap (which usually then feed in to a septic tank).

It was placed right up against the house with the water flow out of it along the back of the house. Which means, because of the clay sole there, that the back of the house gets even more damp than it would just from the rain (and doesn't always smell great).

It sounds a pretty gross job as the water and fat (descriptions of how grease traps work describe a 'crust' which looks gross and smells worse) had to be emptied out before it could be moved.

It has been moved further away from the house and the existing perforated pipe along the back of the house replaced with one which is solid (ie no holes in it) until the end of the house and then the perforated bit which lets the water drain away.

The water supply needs to come in to the house at a different place (and the crappy metal bits replaced) so the new pipe will be laid in the same trench

In its new location, won't be filled in until the new water pipe is laid

Pipe all along the back of the house in its trench

Gravel in the trench

The awesome digger. Imagine doing all that by hand!

Some hand digging still had to be done

Water heater and hurrah for the internet

The water heater is quite tempremental and has been getting more and more difficult to light.

You light the pilot, wait a while and then turn the knob round before you can have hot water.

You might not remember, but the hacked out hole in the wall we did day 1 in the house because one of the water pipes had rusted through...

Last night it decided not to work. The pilot lit, but went out when Doug turned the knob round - it often doesn't work 1st time but now failed all the times.

He dismantled some parts and cleaned out air vents etc so the pilot burned a bit hotter.

Eventually he gave up in despair and went to bed.

This morning I had vague memories of school physics lessons about thermocouples and consulted the internet a bit. Which gave Doug the motivation to try some more dismantling. Eventually we managed to bend the tip of the thermocouple in to the pilot flame a bit more with the theory it would get hotter and be more likely to work. HurraaaaaaaAAAH now it works. 

The thermocouple is the narrower copper tube at the top of the picture slightly left of center.

Doug is now taking a well deserved shower. Fingers crossed it can manage to keep struggling on until we have new hot water and shower - currently scheduled for December-ish.