Water Water Everywhere
Water Water Everywhere
Jet-washing the front of the hall and finding the cobbled path was a real bonus but finding the cover to a water main, just by the roadside could probably be considered our very own rollover!
As we’ve mentioned, we have no land to site a water treatment tank, have no electricity connection and right up until this point, we were pretty sure we’d have to catch and purify all of the water we needed from the sky. This being North Yorkshire, we weren’t worried about it not raining enough but being able to store it internally, process it with an off-grid system and pressurise it for use indoors was causing me a fair few sleepless nights. Finding what could potentially connect us to the mains water would be a real shot in the arm!
We’ve been in touch with Yorkshire Water and after a survey, they think it could be a live main, we’ve paid the invoice and we’re booked in to get MAINS WATER!
We need to dig a trench deep enough to prevent freezing, poke a big hole in the wall to the cellar, attach a stop tap, backfill it and leave at least 2 metres of chunky blue pipe sticking out of the ground.
We also need to have the single lane road closed for the day. As the road sign guy arrives, I’m amazed at how far away he started. We seem to have signage almost from Wray to Settle, so every man and his dog must be using a diversion today!
The guys from Morrison Utility (..Yorkshire Water’s contractor) arrive, check the map, wave a wand and are soon digging their very own hole in the road, looking for the pipe. My main job today is to provide a constant stream of tea or coffee but there are a few jobs which I can be getting on with in the meantime.
It gets to about 1pm though and they seem to have been drilling the pipe for a very long time. One of the guys is starting to think it could be a dead main and my heart sinks with the news. They have a go at it for a little while longer until, releasing the clamp, a 20ft jet of water shoots up, knocking his glasses off his face and filling up the trench to waist height in no time. It turns out the main is live but the pipe cutter is knackered! My relief is off the chart but we’re not there yet.
They try to get the main turned off to finish the job but given the time of day, there isn’t time to get the required approval so, the road needs to stay closed until that night when a second crew can come out to finish the connection.
I’m back in work the following day so chase up with Yorkshire Water to check on the progress but it turns out there isn’t any. The crew which were due to come were called to an emergency elsewhere, then another crew the following day, then again the following day and so, it isn’t until the end of the week when the connection is made and the road closure is lifted. We can only imagine the local reaction to this, so hopefully this isn’t too much of a hardship for everyone and we can live it down sooner rather than later!