Category Archives: Rainwater Management

Outbuildings: Week 38, Day 2

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Outbuildings: Week 38, Day 2

The long-awaited concrete headwall was finally delivered and quickly installed and connected up to the flow-control chamber ‘downstream’.

Concrete headwall installed at the West end of the stormwater attenuation pond

With the outfall from the pond taken care of, work can proceed to level off the base of the pond before moving on to install the inlet – though there will need to be a bit of tidying-up of the pond walls around the headwall at some point.

The small load of ready-mixed concrete that had been ordered to reinforce the foul drainage pipe under the access road to the block-paved parking area arrived as scheduled. Once that has set the stone foundation for that access road can be installed, making the parking area and the garages accessible.

Foul drainage pipe between the House and the Biorock sewage treatment plant encased in concrete

I also completed a bit more preparation of the rainwater harvesting system by installing the submersible pump in the underground tank and routing its electrical cables and delivery hose to the pump controller in the adjacent building. A quick test of the pump, to flush through the delivery hose before connecting that to the inlet on the controller, showed it is working well. At their next visit, the plumbers should be able to get the rainwater supply working within the Outbuildings – since they’ve already fitted the meter, the expansion vessel and most of the other components required to enable that.

Outbuildings: Week 34, Day 3

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Outbuildings: Week 34, Day 3

The crushed-stone pathways across the Courtyard were completed, following the good progress yesterday, despite some wet weather at the start of the day.

Most of the flow control units finally arrived – except for the concrete headwall which allegedly got damaged during transfer to the delivery vehicle so a replacement is expected tomorrow.

Western end of the rainwater attenuation pond – where the concrete headwall will be located. The black polythene cylinder is the housing for the 30mm orifice plate that will restrict the outflow from the pond.

Things are pretty wet at the bottom of the pond – believed to be as much due to the high water table as recent rainfall that’s unable to infiltrate the ground. The plan is to connect up the outfall from the pond first, before the inlet, since quite a head of water will have built up in the underground pipework that (currently) has nowhere to drain to. The bottom of the polythene chambers will need bedding in concrete so much of the water will need to be pumped / bailed out in the morning – hoping the holes don’t immediately refill. Fortunately there’s no rain forecast overnight or all day tomorrow.