It has been a busy couple of days and we have started to reinstate the field over the 800m of ground loops that we have installed. We have pressure tested these pipes and they still seem to be holding 1 bar of pressure. The good news is that we will know straight away if any of the pipes get damaged. I suspect that they are more sturdy than we give them credit for, but we don’t want to take any chances. No one wants to have to dig them up later.
The drains are now all installed ready for us to pour the concrete slab in the new extension. We have also connected up the drains to the septic tank. We have put a rubber bung into the drain and then filled all of the drains with water. If there are any leaks, they will show up straight away. The building inspector turned up towards the end of the day and signed off the drains. Tomorrow we will remove the rubber bung and let all of the water drain into the septic tank and then cover over the drains. There are just too many holes now on this site and it will good to get some of them filled in.
This was taken by Ricky (one of the guys installing the ground loops) while stood on the spoil heap. The stones have been used to weigh the pipes down while it is being back filled. They are removed as soon as the sand is laid down.
Sand goes down first on top of the ground loops first, then the subsoil is carefully put on top the sand.
We have started to fill the area where the first 800m of ground loops have been installed. We have also finished sorting out all the drains in the new extension (see picture left). The hose is filling all the drains with water to test for leaks. There aren’t any!
This is a manhole full of water. We have filled the drains with water to test them.