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60 Year Old Water Main


Onoff

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1 hour ago, Onoff said:

Must try this weekend to finish getting this MDPE new main in and do away with all the temporary fixes along the run. Weekends of late.....well haven't really had them due to other issues.

 

So, trench dug. Everything I've read says to line the base of the trench with "sand". Should that be soft/ sharp or even ballast. I'm guessing soft. No problem ordering in a couple of three jumbo bags. In the very flinty ground I have is soft sand "enough"? I'm still tempted to just order a length of blue duct and forget the sand. I could then just backfill without worrying too much about damaging the pipe. Would it negate the need for sand? Cost for a roll of duct vs the sand, there can't be much in it!

 

Any thoughts? 

 

Our MDPE water main (installed by the water board) is encased in a soft sand. I'd say 200mm below and a good 300mm sides and top. Our ground is very rough. 

When we've done the additional runs to the outbuildings we opted for simply putting it in twin wall ducts. Cheaper and quicker! 

Edited by Barney12
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28 minutes ago, Onoff said:

For better or worse this is coming tomorrow:

 

http://www.drainagepipe.co.uk/products/flexible-underground-ducting/blue-flexi-duct-x-50m-coil/63mm/

 

Didn't go for the twin wall. Also ordered a roll in green for the CCTV.

 

I'm sure that will be fine. We only went twin wall as most of our ground is rocks and boulders!

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6 hours ago, Barney12 said:

 

I'm sure that will be fine. We only went twin wall as most of our ground is rocks and boulders!

 

So what happens if you are on sand..?? Do you have to buy sand to back fill or can you just chuck the pipes in the trench ..??

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We've got clay and flints.....lots and lots of flints! 

 

Taking this thread off track a bit but the wife's cousin sadly died a short while back (early 50's) following a short but nasty illness. A keen amateur geologist, painter, model maker, photographer and much more besides. We've "inherited" his flint collection. He did have a fantastic geology website but I guess as it's not been maintained since he got ill it's been taken down. Anyway we've got about 10 crates of flints and they were marked "axe heads", "trilobites" etc. They would have been dumped otherwise. Each flint he personally picked up. Must have had a real keen eye. Knowing now that there's something on each of them we spent ages turning each one over to find what he did, fossilised leaves, trilobites etc. The plan is to incorporate them in feature flint panels within our gate pillars is his memory. Now as to his art.....not everyone's cup of tea I appreciate but here's a taste (he did other styles):

 

https://flic.kr/s/aHskbJqL1N

 

 

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15 minutes ago, Oz07 said:

Never mind the Flint get that art up on your wall

 

Not sure what's happened with the originals.....the missus said some were pretty large canvasses and they were being CUT and ROLLED up. Can't see that being good for an oil painting tbh.

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Back on topic.....

 

Not sure where to connect the new 25mm MDPE pipe to as I've a couple of options:

 

The site of operations! Incoming mains comes in from the road (top of the picture). Off to the house, bottom of the picture via the old iron pipe. The white plastic housing is where another meter WAS but now just has a stop cock in it's place. Handy for isolating without going outside the boundary fence. 

 

SAM_3943

 

Unscrewing the joint to the iron and swinging it up I can't seem to remove this fitting on the MDPE that I'm holding. I can push it on a bit then pull it back as the video shows but it won't come off. It has teeth I'm sure. Is there a knack for getting this off? I was going to connect the new MDPE to it at this point:

 

SAM_3945

 

SAM_3946

 

When swung down the joint I'm holding is nom 600mm down. The iron pipe then goes off deeper which is how far we've dug the trench.

 

I'm thinking maybe though I could connect the new MDPE direct to the stopcock. That is approx 300mm down. I could insulate the pipe as I'm putting it anyway in 63mm blue duct. It would save on 5 joints in the MDPE:

 

SAM_3947

 

SAM_3948

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Onoff
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3 hours ago, PeterW said:

Go direct onto the stopcock, don't bother insulating it as at 300mm down you need a couple of weeks of -10c to get that far with permafrost ! Just push it down to the right level as soon as practical. 

 

Ta. The connection onto the stop cock came undone a treat. All in good nick so will re-use. 

 

Duct laid in half the trench with some excess. Also brought under and up through the hole drilled in the footings. I went with a rolled bit of galv mesh to protect the duct within the suspended floor.  Hopefully I won't need to get there again until I take the hall and adjacent bedroom floor up and make back into one room with en suite. 

 

20161001_165048

 

20161001_165216

 

20161001_165100

 

20161001_170150

 

2016-10-01_05-11-33

 

20161001_170223

 

One day it will all be a distant memory! :)

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One end on and neat!

 

2016-10-02_05-56-02

 

Need to make some sort of an enclosure around this for easy acess / digging if I need to get to it later. Thinking a cut down blue barrel?

 

The one pita is that between the above isolator and the stop cock / meter point at the roadside it's still the old iron pipe - about 10' or so. The oddity is that that's supposedly the water companies responsibility as we originally had the meter in the white tube above. Sod's Law it'll leak there and I'll have to get them in! Cue their argument it's after their meter so it's mine!

Edited by Onoff
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So, inside now, debating a 22/22/15 compression T with the drain valve in as opposed to a solder ring fitting. Thinking it'll be easier when I come to redo the mains throughout in 22mm:

 

20161002_192122

 

20161002_192200~2

 

?

 

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Compression it is then. Just waiting for the moaning to start ref the visuals on the PRV etc!

 

Committed the cardinal sin earlier and LOST the draw cord! xD

 

The vacuum and plastic bag trick sorted it though.

 

Duct now all in and covered with a bit of sharp sand / ballast where I ran out:

 

SAM_3963

 

SAM_3967

 

SAM_3966

 

A pig getting a 1m length of lagging over the MDPE and down the duct as there's a bend. Goes in about 750mm which will have to do. Was going to push it in a couple of inches into the duct and foam?

 

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Purging the 25mm pipe...a thought...

 

At the mo the excess is coiled up as shown above. I was thinking to first cut it long enough to poke out of the WC window. If I then turn on the stop cock at the gate it should clean out the pipe? I can then cut back further and fit everything inc the PRV which shouldn't get contaminated by any crud in the pipe. Saying that I've been super careful about leaving the yellow caps on the MDPE until the last minute.

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A flaw in the plan maybe!

 

The tee off to the outside tap, put before the PRV to allow full mains pressure, is proposed to also feed the downstairs WC and cold to the basin there.

 

Image1

 

Do I really want them at full, unadulterated mains pressure which is circa 9 bar?

Edited by Onoff
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2 hours ago, ProDave said:
2 hours ago, ProDave said:

And in inside stop valve to turn off the outside tap.
 

 

I can't see her not wanting this lot boxed in! Wonder if its worth chucking in that spare Geberit wall frame and getting a wall hung WC. Working round this one I'm having to virtually hug it, and you realise how often kids "miss"! :)

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