~o~
Wednesday 15th 40F/4.4C. Overcast. Dry but cloudy, possible mist.
Up at 7am. The nice sweep arrived at 8am. Always a pleasure to see him and have a chat. He speaks English and has been sweeping chimneys for 45 years. He rebuilt our leaky brick chimney a few years back. Before my wife died. We asked him to call when the law was changed. To allow homeowners to choose other sweeps than those allotted by the kommune.[Council] Finally we were able to get rid of the racist-fascist who used to call, interrogate us and damage our furniture. While simultaneously doing a piss-poor job of sweeping our chimney.
My second physio class is after lunch at the new venue. Meanwhile I shall be doing more wall drilling for the washing machine. Now I need to drill a larger hole. This time to carry the soapy water outside to the drain system under the lawn. Which I installed myself many years ago. Then had an authorized drainage engineer confirm it was built to accepted standards. I had plenty of experience with trenching by hand and laying PVC pipe from our cottage rebuild in Wales.
Prior to that, the hovel owner had not used any fittings between straight sections of sewage pipe. A DIY nightmare! Which left our bathroom floor literally floating on a reservoir of decades of shit and pee. We used to wonder why it smelt of shit all the time. When the pig farmers hadn't been around with their foul smelling, muck spreader for at least an hour or two.
The compulsory arrival of a local pumped sewage system forced a change. We couldn't afford the thousands they wanted for laying new pipes. To connect the house to the new system. So we agreed to have the local drainage business sell us the parts and check my work. I dug the trenches in the lawn and dug up all the floors indoors by hand. Then laid all the necessary pipes from the bathroom and kitchen out to the new pipes under the lawn. That was finally the end of the foul smell indoors.
The only problem was the two-man contractors. Who dug the trenches for the new pipes. Using a large excavator out in the adjoining field. They used numerous, high precision beer bottles to check for levels. So the system never flowed away as it should. They had to bring in new contractors to dig new trenches after a some time. To remove all the low spots. Where the foul water always collected.
Years later there are still problems after heavy rain. I had only to check the inspection chamber. Which I installed in my lawn. To see the system was flooded again. It happened so often that I used to keep a plastic cover over the chamber. Instead of the massive concrete lid provided. It made all too frequent inspections so much easier. When the toilet failed to flush away as expected, yet again. I would find the bottom of the inspection chamber full of water. Instead of clear.
9.30 I have just run a long pilot drill through the outside wall. To confirm it is 350mm thick. An inner layer of plasterboard has a standoff of about 60mm. Seemingly an empty space. There is no perceptible insulation preventing prodding with a smaller drill. I shall know more when I have chain drilled a core out of the plasterboard. Ideally the wall should be stripped back to the inside of the blocks and insulated but not now. Far too much involved.
I tried to find a diamond core drill while I was DIY shopping yesterday. I don't have a heavy duty drill anyway. So it might not have helped if I had bought a core drill. I'll have morning coffee before I start chain drilling the hole for the outlet pipe. All my smaller DeWalt batteries need recharging anyway.
11.00 Success! Finally, I can push a 40mm pipe through the hole without resistance. The problem was not the cinder block wall. It was the batten inside the wall. Masonry drills are poor at cutting through wood. I had to resort to a hammer and chisel and normal drills to make any progress on the batten. There proved to be polyurethane foam behind the plasterboard. Probably about 50mm. I am dripping with sweat in 60F/15.6C indoor temperatures. 40F/4.4C outside. I didn't bother to light the stove while I was busy.
13.00 Time to go. The car didn't want to leave the parking space because it had turned to
wet mud and recent traffic. It took me five minutes to escape. Because the engine wouldn't
pull while it was still cold. So I couldn't use a higher gear. There were forced detours on the way there. Due to the district heating, installation
work. So I arrived just in time. The class held a minute's silence for the
loss of one their former members. It must be remembered that they are all elderly and all have a history of heart problems.
15.45 Still overcast. Returned from physio. The exercises went well. No ill effects from a hard morning working on
the plumbing. It sounds silly but it takes a lot pressure to push a
blunt masonry drill through a thick wall. Even more pressure when a masonry drill just polishes wood. I visited the builder's
merchants on the way home. To buy some more 40mm PVC pipe and fittings.
16.30 Dusk. Cooking class tomorrow. So I shan't have a chance to do much more until the afternoon.
Dinner was the only thing left in the larder: The last two slices of bread for toast and the last two eggs.
~o~
