Chaotic!

The only word to describe today’s proceedings, maybe not for the workmen involved but certainly as far as my own involvement in them was concerned. The day didn’t start off well when the phone rang while I was eating my breakfast. It turned out that one of the tiles that I’d chosen for the walls in my bathroom several months ago has gone out of production and as I want brilliant white and the only alternative that the supplier can now offer is matt, I needed to confirm, today ideally, whether one of the other two approved suppliers could offer a replacement in the same price range.

That would mean leaving the site, today of all days, because of the amount going on. I expected just the ‘fosse septique’ (septic tank) men and the plumbers to be on site today but it turned out that the electricians had also turned up. I knew that would mean taking lots of small but important decisions about where I wanted things to be positioned and how I wanted things done so all of those things had to be sorted out before I left shortly after lunch.

I’d wanted to take videos of the full ‘fosse septique’ installation but because of having to go out I was only able to shoot footage of the beginning of the process and the stage reached at the end of the day. The first few images below are lifted from the video that I shot at the beginning of the job in the pouring rain (luckily my Fimi drone is one of the few waterproof models that are available).

They’d brought the ‘fosse septique’ with them on the back of a large lorry and when they’d unloaded it, as shown above, the driver reversed it down the land to turn it around and drive out. Unfortunately it turned out to be impossible because the wheels just started spinning on the wet grass churning the grass up a bit. Things got even worse when they drove their excavator over to give it a push so my grass is now starting to look rather badly cut up from the spinning tyres and the machine’s tracks.

By the time I got back towards the end of the afternoon only the electricians were still on site and even they’d left by the time I went up to take a look at what had been done during the day, starting with the ‘fosse septique’.

Before I’d left there’d been what appeared to me to be a somewhat animated discussion involving what seemed like all the parties about conduits, cables and trenches outside the front of the house. The reason for that was because the ‘fosse septique’ man was going to dig trenches to take the house’s water and electricity supplies and they had to decide what colour plastic conduits (‘gaines’) would be available and where the trenches needed to be dug, bearing in mind that I also want to have a cable left available to connect to my proposed garage in due course and also a connection for a generator to run the house if/when the electricity fails.

Here’s what I found when I took a look. A trench had been dug from just outside the front door up to the water main where the new connection will be made. At the moment there’s a standpipe there for construction use and my caravan but that will disappear when the house is finally connected.

The next shot shows the bunch of ‘gaines’, cable and tubing in the other end of the trench in the hole outside the front door.

Now coming back down to ground level, here’s another shot of the ‘fosse septique’ taken at the end of the day.

The next shot shows the state that the land is now in with the machinery that it’s had driven over it and the materials it’s had dumped on it. The words ‘omelette’ and ‘eggs’ come to mind…

Now five more shots of the trench containing the electrical and water services.

Now was time to take a look inside to see how the electricians and the plumbers had done while I was away, starting with the sockets in the TV corner of the living room. Still work to be done.

Now the connections for the oven and hob in the kitchen.

These two boxes are over the kitchen worktop in the corner where the fridge will be. One of them is a normal power socket but the other is the switch that will operate the house’s ventilation system that is installed in the roof. I wondered how that was going to work and now I have the answer.

The next shot is of the ‘cellier’ (utility room) which appears to be where the heart of the plumbing system will be located, not surprisingly as that’s where the heat pump’s internal unit will be. A myriad of plastic piping has been installed and I have no idea at this time where it all goes to.

What I do know is that it’s been very simply and quickly installed, much as the heat pump underfloor heating pipes were, by just clipping it to the concrete floor slab. This can be done because eventually (next week) the floor levelling screed will be poured encasing, hiding and protecting all of the pipework that’s currently visible. Only the open ends will be left as can be seen in the photos, clipped to the walls where they will in most cases be hidden behind floor cabinets, ready to be connected.

The next shot is an example of this and shows where the washer/dryer will be connected in the corner of the ‘cellier’ with a pipe now ready and in position to accept its water outlet. The pipe on the left I think is for the proposed outdoor tap as well as the washer.

The next two shots show the connections and outlet for the sink and another outside tap at the back of the house and the connection and outlet adjacent to them for the dishwasher,

Here is the pipework for the small handbasin that will be in the corner of the separate WC.

This is another shot of the pipework running from the ‘cellier’ into the kitchen.

There’s still quite a bit of work to be done in the bathroom. The second of the next two shots shows the shower controller.

The next shot is an example of the bedside plug point and light switch combination that will be installed in each bedroom.

And to finish off, another shot of the ‘fosse septique’ from the opposite direction to before.

I’m worried that I might have made too hasty a decision regarding the septic tank’s position. When asked, I suggested putting it close to the house but this could have been a mistake. As I’ve mentioned several times, the ground falls away very quickly at the bedroom end of the house where the septic tank is being installed. As shown in the photos, there are three green covers o the top of the tank that must be left at or above ground level.

There has to be a ‘fall’ from the house into the tank and the closer the tank is to the house, the more abrupt this fall will be. I’m now worried, therefore, that the difference in ground level between the house wall and the green covers will be so great due to the proximity of the septic tank to the house that it will be difficult, if not impossible, to create a path along the end of the house between the house and the septic tank, but I’ll only know when the ground has been filled in again back to level.