With everything prepared for contractors to do work on the Annexe; replacing the roof, installing underfloor heating, putting insulating plasterboard on the walls, and installing a new bathroom, work to the water mains and drains has commenced.
The first task has been to break up all the concrete around the left side of the Annexe and the back of the cottage. This is where a majority of the work to install new water pipes and drains is required.
Using the existing routes that go from the manholes, it was established roughly where the existing drain pipes are. However, the hard part has been to find where the water mains are installed.
With the concrete gone, a discovery of the existing water pipes showed that they were damaged in 3 places possibly from them being crushed between the hard stone underneath and the concrete on top. However, with a little work, a temporary fix resulted in water access being restored.
The next task to dig trenches for the new drains and water pipes began. This has been a harder task than expected due to the ground underneath the soil being solid stone. A few cuts through the stone using the angle grinder with a few blades being worn resulted in this hard task being completed and allowing the next phase to commence…installing new drains and pipes.