Harting 8: Finally connected to the water main

The connection to the water main

Yesterday (20th June) we finally got connected to the water mains. What should have been a relatively straightforward affair turned into a day and half of misery in the sun - the two hottest days of the year so far (38°C) and not good days for digging around in the yard, looking for a water pipe at 120cm depth. What happened was, when the water company installed the pipe to Harting 10 about twenty years ago, it wasn't drawn in on any plan. Nobody could remember where the pipe was. We figured that, since we knew where the water pipe was (supposedly) connected to the mains and since we knew where the water pipe entered Harting 10, we could pretty much guess how it had to cross the yard. We also remembered coming across a black plastic pipe about 100cm down when we installed the thick pipe for hot water across the yard in March.

When the workers came to make the connection I had already dug a channel from the wall on the yard side about seven metres into the yard. This had to be done with a spade because the digger would not be able to get under the scaffolding. With the digger, the workers soon found a black plastic water pipe. A couple of minutes later, one worker turned off the main water supply on the road, I confirmed that there was no water in Harting 10 (by turning a tap on and checking that no water came out) and the other worker diligently cut the water pipe.

Connecting the (wrong) pipe

Chaos ensued. Water gushed into the channel we had dug at about 10 bar pressure, meaning it was half a metre deep in no time. The worker in the hole used a clamp to stop the flow. He was a bit perturbed to find that the water which had apparently been switched off at the mains wasn't. He connected up the pipe to our house with a t-piece nonetheless. As they were fixing up the connection to the water meter on the inside of the house, I could not get over thinking that something was wrong. I suspected that the pipe they had connected to was not the local water main at all - it was a pipe from a well. To confirm, I turned off the well water and turned on the municipal water. This should have meant that water would nonetheless come out of our water meter at pressure. It didn't. The workers accepted that this was an unlikely event to occur if they had connected to the right pipe. Hence, we now had to find the right pipe.

It was about midday at this stage, at it was blisteringly hot. We started making educated guesses as to where the pipe might be, but despite digging down 2 metres in some places, there was no sign of the pipe. I went into the party room to fix the incoming pipe to the wall, when I heard a commotion outside, where they were still searching for the right water pipe with the digger. I also noticed the light had gone out. It turned out they had hit and snapped the electric cable, knocking out the electricity in pretty much the whole locality. The energy company had to be called and spent three hours fixing the cable. In that time, we kept looking for the water pipe, to no avail. After a pretty much wasted day, the workers went home. To add insult to injury, the digger broke down because of the heat.

The thick pipe is the main municiple water line

The day after (yesterday, 20th June), the workers were back, with a new digger, a map showing where the electric cables were located, and some new ideas as to where the water pipe might be. This time we tried digging around the drive - they figured that, irrespective of how the pipes crossed the yard, they absolutely must have entered the yard through the drive. However, two hours later and a massive hole further, we still had no water pipe. The workers decided to give up and to create a new connection to the main municipal pipe rather than trying to connect to the Harting 10 pipe - which didn't seem to exist. Out on the road we quickly found the water main. From the party room (where the water meter is) they used a hydraulic rocket to shoot out underneath the house. The rocket emerged exactly under the foundation (100cm deep) right next to the hole we had dug on the road, to find the main water pipe. A perfect shot, so to speak.

A few hours later, we had water from the mains with about 10 bar pressure and a new hydrant on the street, where we can shut off the water to Harting 8 if necessary - without influencing water supply to either Harting 10 or to the rest of Harting. The workers stayed around a bit longer - they dug a shallow trench so I could install the main drainpipe to take water from the roof. They also helped to fill in the rest of the trenches dug around the yard, looking for the water pipe.

Today (21st June), Grasser finally arrived with the steel supports for the glass roof. These will also support the balcony, as soon as it goes in (after the plastering on the outside). It was about a two hour job to get them permanently installed. Now the roof should be rock solid - both to carry the weight of the roof itself and (more importantly at the moment) to "tie down" the glass roof in case wind (e.g. in a storm like last night) gets under the roof and forces it up.

The next steps for now are to get Niedermaier back to start fixing the plumbing up. We cut a hole in the roof of the party room, going all the way up to the living room. The hole will have to house numerous pipes going up and coming down. Below are a few photos of some of the things that were done in the last couple of days.