Roselea

Category: Repair

  • Module Number 3 Repair – Day 2

     We continued with our repair of the Energy Module Number 3. We have managed to rescue the remaining crates, the rubber membrane and the geotextile fabric

    Module-3-Repairs-Crates-and-Rubber-removed

    Module-3-Repairs-Crates-and-Rubber-removed

    The we lifted the insulation panels to reveal the extent of the silt build up underneath the whole module

    Module-3-Repairs-Inflows-of-Silt-and-Sand-1

    Module-3-Repairs-Inflows-of-Silt-and-Sand-1

    Module-3-Repairs-Inflows-of-Silt-and-Sand-3

    Module-3-Repairs-Inflows-of-Silt-and-Sand-3


    We put down our guide rails and put in some fresh sand to mix with the dark silt material and scrape it flat and level again.

    Then we put back that half end of the bottom insulation layer, and uncovered the other end

    Again, we put our guide rails in and scraped that end flat and level

    Module-3-Repairs-Bottom-of-hole-releveled

    Module-3-Repairs-Bottom-of-hole-releveled

    Then put back all the insulation boards, plus also put back the side insulation panels too.

    Then we put back the geotextile fabric and carefully got the rubber membrane back down too. Working at one end first, we put back some of the Aquacell crates, joined them back together again, making sure we got the right ones positioned so that our conduits for the temperature and water filling pipes can be fitted back in again. Then, we did the same at the other end and finally started putting the final 3 plastic crates along one edge to see if it all fitted again.

    But Oh No! It doesn’t! There is a shortfall of about 10mm, yes just 1cm or a finger width, where we cannot fit the final crate into place! Upon examining the two ends, it looks like that the end nearest the swimming lane has ever so slightly moved inwards a fraction which we guess must have occurred during the flood and when the whole module rose up!!

    Module-3-Repairs-End-of-Day-2-1

    Module-3-Repairs-End-of-Day-2-1

    Module-3-Repairs-End-of-Day-2-3

    Module-3-Repairs-End-of-Day-2-3


    Tomorrow, we will make adjustments down at that end and make the end insulation wall move outwards by that 10mm amount and then all will be well! We Hope!!

     

  • Module Number 3 Repair – Day 1

    Today, we started the chore of digging  out the Energy Module Number 3 to reset it back down into the ground at the correct flat level again (after the flood we had 10 days ago, that lifted it up 6inches!!).

    We scraped the dirt off the lid.

    Module-3-Repairs-Exposing-the-Tank-1

    Module-3-Repairs-Exposing-the-Tank-1

    Module-3-Repairs-Exposing-the-Tank-3

    Module-3-Repairs-Exposing-the-Tank-3


    The removed the insulation from the lid.

    Module-3-Repairs-The-top-of-the-Crates

    Module-3-Repairs-The-top-of-the-Crates

    Then Started dismantling the first layer of the Aquacell crates and then the second layer.

    Module-3-Repairs-Half-of-the-bottom-layer-removed

    Module-3-Repairs-Half-of-the-bottom-layer-removed

    Then the side walls slipped in!

    Module-3-Repairs-After-the-wall-collapsed

    Module-3-Repairs-After-the-wall-collapsed

    So we dug out the soil from around the outside perimeter of the remaining insulation panels using the mini-digger etc.

    Module-3-Repairs-End-of-Day-1-2

    Module-3-Repairs-End-of-Day-1-2

    Module-3-Repairs-End-of-Day-1-3

    Module-3-Repairs-End-of-Day-1-3


    Tomorrow, we will finish removing the last few plastic crates and rescue the rubber membrane. We can hope to keep the end walls standing up so we have the original distance already set but we will have to wait and see how they hold up.

  • Flood Prevention Attempt Number 2!

     Today, we attempted to block off the rain water spillage coming from the workshop. See the little movie of the “river” gushing out of their workshop area (river starts at 12:24 and lasts for over half an hour!).

    Washed-out-section-1

    Washed-out-section-1

    Washed-out-section-2

    Washed-out-section-2


    As you can see what damage their water has caused!

    So we decided to mount a barrier of two 8 foot by 4 foot OSB boards, covered on one side with DPM plastic to waterproof it, and bury them both down 5 feet below the fence footings.

    We had to dig out a long narrow trench for the boards to sit in, it took a lot of digging by hand.

    Trench-dug-for-boards-e1466194453203

    Trench-dug-for-boards-e1466194453203

    We then inserted the boards and attached them to each other and the end of the swimming lane.

    Boards-in-place-1

    Boards-in-place-1

    Boards-in-place-2-e1466194032680

    Boards-in-place-2-e1466194032680


    Then we filled up all around both sides of the new barrier to make sure that there is a strong berm of soil to stop the water from flowing up hill and around the side of the new boards. The other end overlaps the end of the swimming lane’s back wall by a foot.

    All-filled-in-and-compacted

    All-filled-in-and-compacted

    We had to dig out quite a lot of soil from the mound nearby the area to fill in around the boards (replacing the soil washed away)

    Area-dug-out-to-fill-trench

    Area-dug-out-to-fill-trench

    Hopefully, that will prevent  the river from forming and etching away our soil again. it might pool up there in and under the workshop’s fence but it will be contained and not flow anywhere.

    One of the problems, is the fact that the workshop building doesn’t do anything with the rain water collected off their roof. It just goes down two gutter pipes and splashes straight out onto the ground!! These downpipes are right next to our fence!!

    Gutters-droping-water-on-the-boundary

    Gutters-droping-water-on-the-boundary

  • New Stop Knob Fitted!

     Stephen replaced the old defunct Engine Stop knob on the dumper truck with a shiny new one!

    Dumper-New-Stop-Handle

    Dumper-New-Stop-Handle

    It was a relatively simple job and took about 30 minutes.

    It is lovely now and really easy to stop the dumper truck – Thank Goodness!

  • Sunday Quiet Jobs!

    As to our rule, for Sunday, we do quiet jobs around the house and the site so not to disturb our neighbors.

    Today, we did several tasks as follows:

    Camera and TV Aerial

    We decided to take down the heavy wooden old pole that holds up our TV Aerial, Camera and floodlight. It was too heavy for the structure of the building, our front door and storage room door were not braced very strongly, so the whole corner was leaning over, especially during strong winds.

    The floodlight went back up on a much smaller and shorter piece of timber we had lying around, a 50 mm by 50 mm piece.

    New-pole-for-floodlight

    New-pole-for-floodlight

    The TV Aerial went up at the top of the weather equipment pole at the other end of the temporary living quarters and reconnected back into the TV.

    Aerial-Moved

    Aerial-Moved

    Mind you, it seems to have stopped working and at first, we thought it was because the birds had bounced the aerial downwards so it wouldn’t be picking up a strong signal anymore, but having moved it now and pointed it in the general direction that our neighbors’ aerial are pointing, we are still not getting a good signal so something else has gone astray!!

    And finally, we moved the camera so it is much closer to our building area where our house is going to be. We used the original heavy wooden pole but this time, we mounted it on the corner of the garden shed, furthest away from any doors etc. We also braced the tall (3.6 meters – 12 feet) pole with two further diagonal wooden CLS timber.

    New-pole-for-Camera-1

    New-pole-for-Camera-1

    New-pole-for-Camera-2

    New-pole-for-Camera-2


    It is much sturdier, stronger and braced against strong winds to reduce the camera shake so our automatic movie generator will only take videos when something is happening in shot (it took the camera shake as “something is happening” and started recording again and again of nothing!). We are recording at a rate of 5 frames per second to keep the storage demands lower, especially as we are using the full HD “2K” resolution as our image size and quality.

    Garden Shed Roof

    While we were up on the roof doing the camera pole, we noticed that the ridge line was showing cracks in the roofing felt. So we got out our trusty old flashing tape and stuck a small piece down along the ridge, about the middle section of the roof.

    Fence Returns

    The orange builder’s fence, one of those holey plastic mesh things, is now back in place to ward off strays who might come over across our building site and fall down into one of our many holes we may have on the go. It is silly but we have to provide some warnings fencing or signs to keep trespassers off our land, and if they fall down a hole and break a leg, they can sue us for not warning them!! Shake of head!

    Hedge & Flower bed + Brambles!

    We started the tidy up trimming of the hedge we have remaining along the Loke and we will finish that off soon. But we also picked up other bags of clippings, and along with the bag of trimmings from the hedge, went up to the top of the garden to our compost heap. Plus also tidied up bags of bark chippings to a neat pile too.

    We had to rip out a small clump of brambles that managed to grow right in the dark corner, right behind our temporary living quarters, along the Term Gardens fencing, because we needed to gain access at that end to feed the TV Aerial cable through the wall and up to the new location for the aerial just above on the weather pole. That was a tough and spikey job!!

    That’s Concludes our Sunday Quiet Jobs!!

  • Minor Roof Repairs

    This morning, we installed our Sun Shield covering over the long corridor.
    While up there on the roof, we inspected, as we always do each year, the
    quality and state of the roof felt, and discovered that there were two worn
    patches right on the edge of the roof of our temporary living quarters. It
    was the old original roofing felt that has gone brittle and broken through,
    probably caused by birds or squirrel actions.

    We got our flashing tape, nice 100mm wide stuff, and put several rows and
    covered up the patch again. that was that! Hopefully, the rest of the roof
    will survive the next year or so while we get our house built, and if
    required, we will do running repairs to keep it weather proof until we can
    move out!!

  • Electric Vibrator Reassembled

    This morning, Stephen put back together the electric powered vibrating plate
    compactor, bolting the off-centre motor back onto the base plate. He also
    had to extend the cable back up to the required length to reach the switch
    mechanism.

    Electric-compactor

    Electric-compactor

    We had used the electric motor to provide the “shake” action to our home
    made sieve machine we built last year for removing the “rubbish” out of the
    soil during the massive site clearance operation.

  • Digger drips oil

    While digging the hole for the first energy module today, we noticed that there were splashes of oil on the digger’s tracks and the ground nearby. It looks like we have sprung a leak somewhere in the hydraulic system!
    After lunch whilst Shaun was removing the excess sand from the bottom of the hole, Stephen started investigated the source of the leak.
    The oil was coming from a hole under the right rear of the machine and after removing a couple of body plates you could see some pipes covered in oil. After cleaning them the digger was started and operated for a short while and the pipes were inspected again and there was no new oil! Further investigation revealed one of the pipes was the overflow from the hydraulic oil tank (which we has topped up a week ago). So we think the oil drips were just the tank being filled too much and overflowing!

  • Wheel on Trolley Fixed and Resprayed!

    This morning, on this lovely Sunday morning, we did some maintenance tasks,
    like for example, repair the puncture we got in one of the tyres of the
    large flatbed trolley.

    Large-Trolley-Old-Tyre

    Large-Trolley-Old-Tyre

    It was a devil to get the tyre off the metal wheel rim, but after surfing
    the net, we wiggled and heaved and levered the tyre off and pulled out the
    inner tube. The little hole in the inner tube was located and patched up.
    The tyre itself was thrown away as the rubber has cracked under the pressure
    of heavy loads we had on the trolley over the years, and this was what
    caused the puncture where the inner tube was “bursting” out!!

    We also gave the whole metal wheel a thorough rub with an angle grinder with
    the wire brush attachment and now is drying in the lovely sunshine with a
    fresh coat of black metal paint!!

    Large-Trolley-New-Tyre

    Large-Trolley-New-Tyre

    One done and three to go! But first, we will order some spare inner tubes,
    just in case we mess one up trying to get the tyre off etc.

  • Rebuilt the Boundary Fence with Workshop

    And this afternoon, while we were waiting for the building inspector to come
    to look at our sewage pipes, we rebuilt the boundary fence, between us and
    the workshop. We reassembled the 4 fence wooden panels, each being 3metres
    long and 1.65 metres high, on top of the original gravel boards(them being
    150mm tall and 3 metres long). They were blooming heavy, being reinforced
    concrete slabs!

    We used 8feet timber posts to support the panels, instead of trying to man
    handle the original concrete posts back into the ground, after all, the
    posts still had their huge chunks of concrete foundations wrapped around the
    bottom of each of them .. and very, very heavy .. so heavy that we would
    have needed the mini-digger to lift them!! Far too much effort, and we knew
    that this fence was only a temporary fix in the first place. so we used the
    3inch round timber posts and screwed the wooden panels on to them using
    horizontal pieces of CLS timber to keep it all locked together.

    Workshop-fence-repaired

    Workshop-fence-repaired

    We hope that the posts will survive with the next storm of strong winds and
    down pour of rain!!