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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).

Today, we took the opportunity of a very nice sunny day and that the hole was reasonably dry, to tackle the job of installing and burying our new Rainwater Filtration Module, at the end of the swimming lane. We have had to wait for a few days whilst the rain drained out of the hole (The roof of the garage drains into the hole at the moment – it will connect to the filter soon)

We started by digging out the hole of the excess material that had slipped in during the rain we had last week and got a wheel barrow load of gravel and sand mixture to provide a good and firm surface. We used our laser site level to make sure the bottom of the hole was set to 1metre below ground level.
Then we built a ramp come platform (made from three 4.8metres 2inch by 4inch planks screwed together using lots of pieces of plywood) and placed it across our hole (the far end supported on the mass wall against the fence and the other end packed on to the dirt pile), ready to take our 140kg cabinet!
We laid the module on the trolley, put on some extra temporary support arms at the top of the cabinet (for connecting lifting straps to the winch motor) and carefully rolled it out of our workshop and around to our ramp.

After a struggle to get it upright, and then sliding it along the ramp and then trying rope but finally settling on nylon straps to lift it clear. We pulled the ramp away and lowered the whole cabinet down into our hole. After some fiddling around with the straps and the supporting arm plus also tidying up the gravel surface again, we got the thing landed solidly into place at last!
It was getting dark by this time so we got out our flood lights and carried on with drilling the seven fixing holes into the concrete blocks of the swimming lane’s wall and screwing concrete bolts into the back of the cabinet and then covering up the metal work with more polyester resin.
The last job was to secure the vertical side “lid” to enclose and seal the joint with plenty of PU sealant and a couple dozens of screws.

It was pitch black and tomorrow, we will finish the task of connecting the various pipelines to the new filtration module, including doing a leak test! Phew what a long day it was today!!

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.