Category: Phase 4

We finished off connecting the last large drain pipe to the Filtration Module, this being the final last resort overflow connection to the soak-away unit.

Then the next job was to climb inside and apply extra sealant around the clean water section and its joints. It was a tight squeeze but we managed it! Finally, we vacuumed out the slightly dirty water in the bottom of the cabinet to reduce the amount of grit and dirt to avoid fouling up our water pump.
We spent the remaining of the day shovelling all the sandy soil back in and around the cabinet and piled the excess up around it so it can settle down over time.
The last task was to get the lids installed, using stainless steel threaded rods, glued and screwed in various places around the rim and clearance holes in the lid themselves.

The filters and baffles were lowered down inside the module and everything is now ready for the next rain shower, at least off the garage roof, but we can now connect up each section of the guttering (as we complete the slate tiling) and any water will be drained and properly filtered to our water storage tank.

Today, the job was to connect the three rainwater inlet pipelines (from our two roofs) and the output pipe to the Filtration module. But first, a leak test was performed. Sprinkling water (from our garden hose) on to the wall above the seals, we noticed that there were a couple of leaks along the bottom edge. After carefully scraping away the sand and gravel and cleaning the joint, more white sealant was applied and forced it into the joint. All the edges was done to ensure that we don’t have another leak.
Next was connecting the rainwater pipeline coming from the garage which needed a simple right angled turn and head straight into the cabinet. Next was the white pipe (this is the clean water after filtration and supplying our underground tank) but we discovered that we needed a 30° turn to make it head perpendicular into the cabinet and no one sold this angle for 40mm diameter pipes (they had 90° and 45° and straight) but nothing else. so we had to go out and buy a flexible small length of pipe. We glued together the required pieces to form the pipeline to the underground storage tank (under the garage).

Finally, the last two rainwater pipelines (from the main house) were connected to the side of the cabinet.

All these joints had to have a slip type of connector which allowed the whole straight connector to slide almost fully onto the pipe, move or rotate the assembled pipeline into place and push the slip connector over the both pieces.
The last job tomorrow is to do further water leakage tests and then connect the soak-away pipeline to the back of the cabinet to takeaway overflowing water (on those very rare occasions of a very heavy thunderstorm).

This report is a summary of our week’s worth of work we did on our rainwater Filtration Module. Most of the time was spent on creating the two filter units and two baffles. The flat one had the wire mesh welded onto a heavy metal framework and then coated in several layers of resin to prevent rusting. The second filter unit is a square box shaped, made with just more of the same wire mesh and this was also coated in resin too. Our geotextile material was delivered and we cut and shaped the material into each of these two filters. The flat one had extra padding tied onto the metal edge to provide a soft conforming interface and reduce any leaks. The outer layer was then stitched into place with fishing line.

The box filter had the same cloth material wrapped up the inside and folded into the flange edging and coated in several layers of resin to reinforce it and lock the cloth into place.

Then we made two baffles, which are like flat tea tray like objects, about 400mm (15inches) wide and 580 (22inches) long, with upwards edges approximately 25mm high. We used some more wire mesh and laid two layers of the glass fibre matting (one on the underside of the mesh and the second one inside the tray) and all coated in resin. We had to bend up several tags over the tray so it can support its sibling companion tray on top, and the top tray having water deflectors to help slow down the rainwater rushing into the cabinet.

Finally, we did some minor adjustments inside the main cabinet, mostly in the area of the clean water filter, near the bottom portion.

Another job we did this week was the installation of the Return Channel vertical module to the end of the Swimming Lane. It was a lovely day so we took the opportunity to get that done while we remembered it before we tackled the big job of getting the main cabinet installed.

Now we just need another moment like this to haul the large heavy module into place.

Today, we continued with the task of building our two water filters. The long flat one’s frame is now constructed with a heavy thick metal bar around the perimeter and the metal mesh is welded on to it.

The second filter, the box shaped one, was tidied up, removing excess mesh material and it is now ready for the cloth geotextile fabric to be folded and inserted in.

Hopefully, tomorrow, we will get our new piece of the geotextile fabric (coming in the post) and we can wrap these two skeleton frameworks and then paint the metalwork in protective resin to stop rusting and also seal and hold the cloth in place.

This is a combined report showing our progress of creating our rain water filtration module. It has been a very fiddly work, constrained by the slow “drying” time of the polyester resin substance, but also having to take time and care to prepare, tidy-up and adjust the glass-fibre surfaces after each application of the resin. It is a slow job.
But we can report that we are nearly there now, with the completion of all the “lids”, the swimming lane Return channel unit and much of the main cabinet, all coated in the final top-coat light grey coating.

Today, we started designing and producing two filters, the first one designed (in a box like shape) to tackle the initial very dirty flush of rain water collected off the roofs and the second one, being a long flat slope for providing a final filter to ensure minimal particles of “rubbish” doesn’t get into our rainwater storage tank.


These are made from heavy-duty weld mesh, supporting some geotextile fabric, mounted with a reinforced metal rim and the rim coated in protective resin.
We needed to make these filters now so we could confirm that everything fits into place, so we will achieve the correct flow of the water and that we could successfully remove and put back them via the proper entrance (the top of the cabinet). Just in case we needed to make further adjustments to the internal layout, as we did exactly this the other day (the long sloping filter didn’t come down low enough and would have held quite a bit of rainwater back in the pipes running from the buildings), before we applied the final light grey top-coat.. Also, it is only sensible to make sure that we design and make these filters and baffles here and now (in the workshop) so we can test the created products before we close up the filter and make it much harder to test things.

So on Monday and Tuesday, we will complete these final bits and pieces and then tackle the next problem of transporting this heavy unit and installing it into our flooded hole in the ground – We had lots of rain these last few days!! But the next week look drier so the hole should hopefully dry up!