Rabbit
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Post by Rabbit on Nov 20, 2016 11:24:28 GMT
I hope everyone kept their wigs on in the south last night. Very windy with frightening gusts.
I had a lake outside my 'pub' and was considering koi carp for a minute. Then I went out with a spade and dug a channel out onto the driveway to let it drain out.
Hope everyone kept their roof on......
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solderdude
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Post by solderdude on Nov 20, 2016 12:52:24 GMT
Winds have blown to us now... quite a storm.
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Rabbit
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Post by Rabbit on Nov 20, 2016 13:58:32 GMT
Of course. It swept from Devon to the south east and then swung north east to you guys. It's the gusts that were nasty. Our dustbins took off.
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solderdude
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Post by solderdude on Nov 20, 2016 18:06:12 GMT
It calmed down now... normal winds a.t.m.
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Rabbit
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Post by Rabbit on Nov 20, 2016 18:40:04 GMT
We were forecast round two this afternoon but it never arrived thank goodness!!
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Post by marveltone on Nov 21, 2016 1:42:31 GMT
Ian, sounds like your yard was looking like my road during the spring thaw and rainy season. That lakefront property can really jack up the property taxes!
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Rabbit
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Post by Rabbit on Nov 21, 2016 7:57:32 GMT
Not as bad as those photos that I saw from your place, Joe!!
What makes me laugh is one of the neighbours went out after I dug a channel to check what I'd done. Typical English. They'd rather see me flooded out than have the inconvenience of water running down the side road!!
I basically just swept out under my back gate so the water could run away easier, but because I swept the whole area, they presumed that I must have dug a whole canal down the side road or something.
I didn't mind Yorkshire until I met these two pains. One of them watches me from behind blinds.... it's very funny.
Problem here in Crockham Hill is exactly the second word .... Hill. We're on the North Downs and so water can come down the hill like rapids and we get enormous gusts of wind. A few months ago, the road disappeared under a torrent of water which was literally like rapids. Luckily, nothing can come into our house, since it's raised off the floor, quite high. Water would have to be two to three feet deep to reach our floors so I guess when the place was built, they knew what the water here does.
Anyway, once I took the grass away from under my gate and swept it out, the flood went down and drained away nice and slowly!!
Those same neighbour's complained about me putting up security cameras to the local police lady, who visited me to check them. They were fine. They also complained to the council about the height of a new shed which they can't even see from their place!! The council came to check and found it perfectly legal. They also complained about another neighbour's childrens' climbing frame being too high. It was by around 4 inches, so he cut four inches off the roof struts!!
I also had the police lady visit me because the neighbours accused me of 'staring' .......
Only in the U.K.
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Rabbit
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Post by Rabbit on Nov 22, 2016 17:27:41 GMT
Well, we had a real blast last night. It was as though someone had turned over loads of dustbins full of water. The rain was absolutely torrential. So bad that my road became like rapids and you could have come down in a canoe. It left a load of rubble out there this morning, but I found worse ...........
My pub/ex garage has an inspection pit which has wood covering the top. I noticed that the wood was wet. Looked up for a possible leak but was very puzzled because of the amount of layers up there.
I looked the wrong way ........ water had come UP from below!!!!! I took the wood covers off my pit and it was absolutely full of water. We're talking 5 foot deep, 8 foot long and about 3 or 4 foot wide. That is a helluva lot of water. We suddenly had a pond. I guess it must be below the water table and it has possibly filled up over time and last night's nuttery was the last straw.
So off in a car and bought a pump. No out hose with it and it is 3/4 inch hose so off again to look for the right size. Managed to get 15 meters since that's all the shop had and I put the pump in, switch on with bated breath and low and behold, I had a fountain running out the other end of the hosepipe.
Been draining all day now and the pit is nearly empty, but what a surprise!
Does anyone know whether it's 'safe' to fill a pit like this in, either with concrete or pebbles? I.e. Would that make it flood worse in there? Problem is that I think it's below the water table and the floor is barely an inch above.......
The pit seemed to fill to the top and went no further. However, as it was draining, there was a serious dripping from one edge into it so water must have been held back and once I'd removed the water, more drippied in. The drip has stopped in there now though and it's nearly completely empty thanks to my new pump.
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Rabbit
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Post by Rabbit on Nov 24, 2016 18:46:30 GMT
Been pumping water for two days now and it kept returning, so I thought perhaps it was to do with the water table, so I had trouble. This morning though, it had slowed down a lot and the pit is no longer filling up anything like as fast as it was.
The original pipe that I used to clear it was pointed out into the garden but I thought if it's the water table, I'd better send it to the drain, so I took a long hose from the pump to a drain for a day. It emptied and the pump kept it empty.
Since it's massively slowed down today, I took the out pipe out from the pit and along the top of the garage and out the back again via the eaves. Switched the pump on and watched for an hour. No puddle formed and the water just soaked away, so we must be above the water line down there. That's a relief.
So it looks as though the answer is to leave the pump down in the pit in readiness for flooding and just let it pump it out to the back. The pump switches itself on and off when it detects the height of the water rising, so it's OK to just leave in there.
The problem is that if it had been the water table, even sealing the pit can cause problems since the underground water pressure can build up and push the concrete up. At least having a pit allows a flood area that's safe and can easily be drained.
Anyway, everything plumbed in today and covered up and I swept the garage out to clean the place up and we're back to normal with a pump in the pit, ready to go off if it happens again.
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jello
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Post by jello on Nov 24, 2016 19:51:01 GMT
Look at it as a positive Ian and make your bothersome neighbours envious. Tell them you have just had an indoor pool installed
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Rabbit
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Post by Rabbit on Nov 24, 2016 20:46:04 GMT
I actually ,mentioned 'blind cave catfish' to the woman selling me a pump in the shop!!!
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jello
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Post by jello on Nov 25, 2016 0:19:32 GMT
Did she look as confused as I was when I read that???
I admit I had to google it as I'd never heard of cave catfish before. Makes a change from Koi carp I suppose!
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Rabbit
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Post by Rabbit on Nov 25, 2016 7:35:27 GMT
I should have said trout I guess!! The pump has worked fine and it's really slowed down now thank goodness. I had no idea that I had an inbuilt well under the cover until we had this 'empty the bathtub' rain. Trouble is where I live, not only are there no shops but down the back ..... no drains. Just a little field which acts as a giant soakaway. I sent the last of the water out onto the land outside the shed and it disappeared in seconds. Modern pumps work really well and I think if I had a basement, I'd have one installed permanently in a sump since basements are very prone to flooding. I lived once in an old Victorian house in London with a basement and that was a nightmare in the winter.
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jello
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Post by jello on Nov 25, 2016 9:38:06 GMT
Yeah, that pump sounds like a very hand piece of kit.
Just as well you noticed the water before it'd escaped the inspection pit or it could've been a bit of a nightmare if you have stuff stored on the garage floor.
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Rabbit
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Post by Rabbit on Nov 25, 2016 10:29:27 GMT
Exactly Mark. We have a second big freezer out there (because there are no shops here and a snowfall cuts us off) and also a second fridge. There's also a tumble dryer and the games stuff, so it was luck that I spotted it.
I went in after the rains and noticed the wood covering the access was darker in colour. It was wet and when I pulled it up, there was five feet of water in there and it was touching the wood at the top!!
It's no longer flowing in so I guess it must have been top flood water flowing down Crockham Hill under the ground. My pit acted as a reservoir and in fact was draining slowly. Slower than it was coming in though!! So it would have flooded if I hadn't seen it.
TBH, these pumps aren't too expensive and I must admit, they are really effective. If you had a flood in the house, it would get it under control very quickly. Never seen one before but they are great. The one I got has a float switch. The water makes the float rise which has a ball bearing inside and when the angle of the float is steep enough, the ball bearing rolls and makes an electrical connection inside to switch the pump on. When the float is down, the ball bearing rolls away and the pump stops. Ingenious.
The pump self is strong enough to pump water through 25 meters of pipe which I've routed along the ceiling of the garage and out the eaves, so it's between 2 and 3 meters above the water which takes some pumping!!
No noise and totally hidden away. It was a good buy.
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