Burying pipe

[addjunkie]

How big are your hands? Got twenty of these to go in if you fancy a job

Bob

Could you deliver me two of those please.....ideal or the stream under my drive

 

[Screwdriver]

Incredibly, it is done! I found this:

Where someone years ago fed a pipe out to the pond. Might just as well use it, gets things done a lot quicker. The tricky bit is getting 36m of pipe dragged through a jungle, along the neighbours fence past the obstacle course I have installed in the garden. I don't do much in the garden except walk through it to get to the shed. I am happy for nature to take its course.

But I need a seriously strong connection to the existing hose pipe. The pipe just fits through the push fit screw cap and I cut a bit of thread to expand it.

That's not going to pull out...

Now I need to drag this all the way up the garden.

First part looks easy, past the stack of 4x2s. But the hosepipe was overgrown with ivy and the bulky connector kept finding fenceposts! So I had to keep climbing on top and fishing out the blockage then run back to the other end of the garden.

Next section is pondland. There's quite a bit of space under the canopy. Inhabited by spiders, foxes and more bramble. I really ought to sort that bit out.

The next section is a large mound of dirt where I have been chucking the odd barrow load every so often (for 20 years!). It will become a rockery/water feature feeding the pond...

From there it has to go behind "The Secret Shed™" which is bigger than it looks and impossible to get behind.

more...

 

[Screwdriver]

Eventually grey pipe emerges from the jungle and I am relieved I don't have to try and fetch it. Don't know where that tree suddenly came from.

And we're there. Finally all the way to Ye Olde Butler Synk.

Yeah I know the fence is a bit mardy. That's thanks to the developers next door who pushed past it to stick up those stupid "bicycle sheds". A deception which allowed them to convert next door into six double flats, each of which requires a bicycle space and 5sqm of garden to comply with planning regs. Never been used and the developer isn't letting anyone into that garden either. I suspect they're holding onto it in the hope they can build a house (fat chance).

I don't mind because the new neighbours are happy to let me tip the odd barrow of dirt over there

So I connected the house end.

Isolate the feed crucially the other side of the path.

and just tapped into the existing external tap.

For completeness sake (someone is bound to ask) I had to fit another isolating valve to that feed. There wasn't one on there. Yeah. It's a bit of a mess but I am doing the bathroom next and this will either get covered up or painted to look like the Underground map.

The boiler is just above and yes, I was responsible for the installation. When I was young and foolish...

Now what's all this about back syphoning and one way valves? I probably ought to fit something if I'm going to drink from the other end. I will fit a filter of course but I have to worry bout anything from the garden end swimming up to the boiler! Err. I think.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

You really need one of these...........

 

[Screwdriver]

I actually quite like pondland...

If you think that's bad, you should see the front garden.

 

[postie jon]

Just make sure you go deep enough so it doesn’t freeze, there is some guidance. I’m sure some one will be along with specifics

ran a new blue water line to my new house, 600meters from mains to property, scottish water insisted it be buried no less than 750 mm under the surface. which they checked.

 

[angellonewolf]

i hate those 15mm isolaters when ever i get to actualy use one when you turn the water off they leak out the screw part

 

[Screwdriver]

i hate those 15mm isolaters when ever i get to actualy use one when you turn the water off they leak out the screw part

I'm going to smear them with grease or give them a squirt of ACF50. I have had a situation recently (doing the kitchen sink; thread on here somewhere) and I was delighted to see I had fitted isolators. They had seized solid and became more of a hinderance than a help.

 

[jordan1]

4' deep from memory.

30 inches deep used to be the reg. at one time, may be different now.

 

[brightspark]

i hate those 15mm isolaters when ever i get to actualy use one when you turn the water off they leak out the screw part

that's because u buy the cheap ones

 

[angellonewolf]

that's because u buy the cheap ones

most of the ones i have seen are not even mine

but your right most of the ones i installed are screw fix finest pack of 10s

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

most of the ones i have seen are not even mine

but your right most of the ones i installed are screw fix finest pack of 10s

Bought a pack of those when i ran out unexpectedly . Every single one weeps from the threads and got swapped.

 

[armalites]

You need to be aware with those plastic pipes when they freeze the joints can creep, it happened on my out side tap when I had forgotten to cover it. I would advise a lever valve as the isolator as in an emergency it's far easier to turn off, it also makes it easy to just turn on when you need it.

 

[8ob]

You need to be aware with those plastic pipes when they freeze the joints can creep, it happened on my out side tap when I had forgotten to cover it. I would advise a lever valve as the isolator as in an emergency it's far easier to turn off, it also makes it easy to just turn on when you need it.

Good point, swmbo`s horsebox is littered with these fittings and every time it freezes its me that has to grovel around under the damn thing putting them back together.
I would say they are unsuitable for exterior/underground use , the cost of proper MDPE pipe/fittings is so small is it worth cheaping out ?

Bob

 

[Screwdriver]

You need to be aware with those plastic pipes when they freeze the joints can creep, it happened on my out side tap when I had forgotten to cover it. I would advise a lever valve as the isolator as in an emergency it's far easier to turn off, it also makes it easy to just turn on when you need it.

Just can't afford to throw any money at this currently. Project was completed using found materials. Unfortunately I had already found some lever valves which are currently decorating various air and gas fittings.

Good point, swmbo`s horsebox is littered with these fittings and every time it freezes its me that has to grovel around under the damn thing putting them back together.
I would say they are unsuitable for exterior/underground use , the cost of proper MDPE pipe/fittings is so small is it worth cheaping out ?

Bob

They weren't cheap, everything you see there was free (except for two straight fittings and some of those pipe end inserts).

Thanks to too many bargains in the for sale section, I am pretty much broke until I sell something. Swinden's anyone?

 

[Screwdriver]

Slight digression. Super happy with the new tap and now need to sort out a sort of junction box for the shed end of the run. I need to run a bit more round the side of the shed to feed the garage area, I really ought to have water on hand in the forge (I hate burns!) and of course a proper tap set up on the old butler sink.

This is what I have been putting up with for years.

And this is the quick fix pallet stand for the sink.

But hang on. Look at that fence! Can't really fit a permanent junction and reposition the sink to it's new permanent home (probably only a few feet from where it is).

So...

I have three good 100mm posts, two on ground stakes but one firmly bolted to the wall. I'm going to fence the area off with plywood sheets!

The fourth post is only there as a sort of marker. It's the only boundary marker I have left since next door stuck his wall up (where the wall mounted post is) and he removed the boundary marker post to dig out his foundations (I didn't mind, I like the wall). So I should hang on to the old concreted in post which has been there for many years. I might also put in a cheeky gate so I can nip into next doors garden (they are quite happy for me to do that incidentally. Long story involving the Russian mafia. We digress...)

Didn't take long to rip out the old fence!

But then I ran into a little problem shifting the ladder about while banging in the fenceposts. I bumped the ladder into this:

Mrs. Robin scarpered and I was relieved to see she returned later this evening. Gonna be tough enough for those little creatures to fledge with all the cats we have around here without me getting on with my business and scaring off the parents. I might put a little platform under the nest so they aren't impaled on anything and there's plenty of wilderness for them to disappear into (i.e. my whole garden and the abandoned garden next door).

Means I need to be a little more circumspect around there and I better not run the new fence all the way to the ground as I had planned. They'll never get out. Nature is a wonderful thing but it is cruel and I don't want to put these amazing creatures at any further disadvantage.

 

[Screwdriver]

After way too much faffing about, I just bit the bullet and did this to it.

Two full sheets of exterior ply. One little cutout which will be the cheeky gate (currently screwed in place). There's a sort of shelf with some 1x2 inch rail behind, sandwiching the board with some 4x2 for stiffness. Eventually it will get another 4x2 on top, cutout to fit around the posts, cover the edge of the ply and give me a smooth wooden top.

I scarfed in a section of 100mm post so the short post is now at the same level as the rest. It hides the horrible drainpipe and gives me something to hang stuff off. I haven't fixed the top rail in yet, it will probably get a little hat like a long skinny "roof". But that's a 5m run of "fence" which needs a full 5m 4x2 and the longest one I've got is 4800mm.

I was using hand tools all day to try not to upset the birds but haven't seen Mrs. Robin all day. Not sure if Shroedinger's chics are truly alive or dead. If she doesn't come back, they're already dead...

Need to find some paint to splash on the bare wood, make up some hard standing for the sink unit and Workmate (I just bang in a few bricks), then I can finally get around to fitting the waterworks.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

The yellow hose looks like 3/4"? If so these work well, we used to use them for setting sprinklers on the golf greens [and joining shorter lengths too] - but use decent Jubilee clips......
Replacement grommets are also available if they wear.

QuickGoogle shows they're not too expensive https://www.leisureshopdirect.com/w...ttings/bayonet-waste-fitting-for-3-4inch-hose

 

[Screwdriver]

Turns out those "Robins, were in fact Blue Tits. The nest was deserted so I took the chicks to a local wildlife rescue.

I have a few spare pavers and slabs kicking about so I made a small extension to the paddock area.

I have some rebar 'staples" so fired a few into the ground at the unsupported edges. It's not great but theres a weed control barrier and sand base and it's not as if they're going to fall off...

Once they're in, the edge pavers are pretty solid.

Then the fun part, filling up the gaps with kiln dried sand.

I have to worry about drainage in this area so I don't want to pave it all (even though I do!) so the bit under the sink unit stays bare dirt. It's not a pavement and that edge is only there to support the odd Workmate, bench etc.

One part in the middle is very soft. Almost like quicksand. I'm guessing that's where all the runoff wants to go. Must get around to digging out a soakaway one of these days. Might actually fit another post leg vice out there, firmly bolted onto something really solid.

Next step, paint then finally wire up the sink...

 

[brightspark]

ive had to keep out of me garage as much as possible. theres 2 robins nests on the shelves somewhere amongst the stuff dunno where though just hear them squeaking