16th Nov Pipes and my not so nice patio

Another long day, just got home to the hole that was made in my patio, which is more scarier at night.

My boy messaged me this morning at work saying some guys were outside making noise, banging and that the house stank as the pipes had beren blown again. In my mind I was wondering what was being done this time and din't want to miss out. So in my lunch break I shot home. I was concerned as there was still confusion over the Council contractor doing their bit and who was doing the other bit, back lateral pipes or front lateral pipes, or did I still have a patio, and apparently the pipes were blown through without them knocking at the door and asking my boy to cover the toilets again. He said the house stank.

I drove home armed with my camera. Seems the workers had gone by the time I got there and yeap when I walked in the house it smelt like a fart farm. I went straight out to the patio and oh dear, yes there is quite a bit thats been ripped up, and there was another menacing ugly putrid hole, right by my lonesome spa pool. Some of the hole was covered with bits of wood from around the property, the seat screwed to the patio was being used as a make shift fence along with a table top I had out the back.

Silly me, I got to take a couple of pics with the camera but then realised it didnt have the memory card in it. YAY I had my cell phone with me, so took pics with that. EWWW there is yukky yuk at the bottom of the hole and quite a gap between the two breaks in the pipes. There is a mound of dirt, silt and pipe debri sitting there, and liquefaction, or shall I call it silt with sewage. All this time I wanted to see under the patio, but it wasn't as exciting as I thought, no lost treasure or bodies. But then who knows as it is only a fraction of the area, so who knows what lies under this property.

Oh and I could finally see my kitchen drain, have not seen this before. Seems the blow out cleared this too, but I am keeping in mind that these will only last for so long before they are filled up again. I think time has made me immune to some of the smells, but my wash house is rancid, last night it had a terrible smell. I noticed it more when I went to the loo last night too but I guess this is because under the hosue it is wet as and stagnating.

It was good to see, that what the Council man had said, about the Contractor coming to fix the front hole, and would be looking at the back lateral problem was a happening.

I know the house was built 1949-1950 so I wonder how old the terracota like pipes are. Just unfortunate that the council ones are along the inside of my boundary. The garage on my poroperty was built in 1956 and it has to be completely rebuilt, so wonder if they allow for any unofficial escavating. Maybe they m,ay go for a beer/doughnut break and I can do some of this while they're not around, just imaginging whats deep under the shed is exciting.

I had to get back to work, but before I left I wanted to check out the front hole. It definitely wasn't an appetiser, lunch was off the menu. The sump was off, and there was sewage/waste in the hole again and also around it. What was gross, was all the blow flies sucking up all the crap. Sometimes I think maybe Im a bit wierd, cos I had to get pics of this too. The flies are hard to see in the pics but theres plenty there.

Late this afternoon I got a call form the Contractor and he told what they had been doing. this was a pleasant surprise, but I'm sure it was due to the Council man who wanted this sorted. He said they had sorted the pipes and ripped up some of the patio, which had been approved by Flethcers. Seems todays escapade was counted as an emergency repair (argggh dont like that phrase now as I know thery will take this money out of any payouts I get). Tomorrow they are coming to camera the back pipes and see how much more damage, then send a quote to Fletchers.

I'm still confused as being over the cap I thought Fletchers wouldn't be involved, plus is it not silly to replace the lot if the house is to be drebuilt or repaired, yet land damage is still to be assessed individually. I can just see the bill at the end of this, 'Sorry miss but with all the screwed pipes, taking into account any payouts from EQC etc, you now owe us'.

Bloody blow flies, never miss a meal

But to finsh this off, they are coming back tomorrow to fill in the front hole (hope they don't forget to put the sump cover back on), and I think he said fill in the patio hole and put the patio back on. Surely they would replace that part of the piping before they put the munted dirt back and fill it in.

Now I can only hope sleep will be good tonight dreaming of the shower that will drain away and not have the cruddy water building up over my feet, mmmmmm, morning shower, no water rising yay.....