Whilst our daughters were here during August '01 we noticed a very strange phenomenom. When someone had a shower at the far end of the house, waste water came up in the kitchen and flooded the floor. It was not from the toilets I hasten to add, just bath/shower water. The kitchen sink seemed to evacuate without any problems... It seemed that there was either a blockage in the pipe outside or that maybe the fosse septique was full and backing up - but there was no obnoxious smell.
We located the fosse septique with the aid of our elderly neighbour - he prodded a place with his walking stick which turned out to be dead centre of the lid! We dug out the ground that covered the fosse and looked. There was a large concrete lid with a ring in the top..... We called on our local farmer and he arrived with tractor, hook and chain and lifted the lid. There were around six men stood around the hole, looking down, scratching their heads and sniffing. They all nodded to each other, pas de probleme! c'est bon. The lid and soil were replaced and everyone departed....
What next?? At least the kitchen floor was now spotlessly clean, every day!
J decided then to dig out from the outer kitchen wall, approximately where the down pipe went through the wall. He found the exterior pipe and dug away following its course through the grass. It went down deep, deeper and deeper, had a left hand bend and then started to rise.... There was the problem. J lifted the pipe, about a 4ft length. It was extremely heavy. What had happened was that the pipe had sunk in the ground and over the past 25+ years had slowly calcified inside from all the soap etc used (the water here is hard!). The pipe was absolutely solid!!
New pipe was laid so that it all flowed in the right direction and we have had no problems since...
When we had been here around 8 weeks, we had been shopping and on return I came into the house first...I could smell gas, a very strong smell of gas!!
I shot into the kitchen opened the door and window and shouted to Jeff not to touch any switches - or light a cigarette......
The gas operated water heater in the kitchen (which came out of the ark!) had switched itself on but the pilot light had not ignited. The problem was with the sink tap that had too much water pressure. The tap had not been tightly turned off. So with the water pressure it had started the hot tap running but not fast enough to light the gas. A whole gas bottle had emptied into the kitchen area.
We called an emergency plumber who came and fixed it for us also turning down the water pressure.
Oh what fun living in rural France.........
We located the fosse septique with the aid of our elderly neighbour - he prodded a place with his walking stick which turned out to be dead centre of the lid! We dug out the ground that covered the fosse and looked. There was a large concrete lid with a ring in the top..... We called on our local farmer and he arrived with tractor, hook and chain and lifted the lid. There were around six men stood around the hole, looking down, scratching their heads and sniffing. They all nodded to each other, pas de probleme! c'est bon. The lid and soil were replaced and everyone departed....
What next?? At least the kitchen floor was now spotlessly clean, every day!
J decided then to dig out from the outer kitchen wall, approximately where the down pipe went through the wall. He found the exterior pipe and dug away following its course through the grass. It went down deep, deeper and deeper, had a left hand bend and then started to rise.... There was the problem. J lifted the pipe, about a 4ft length. It was extremely heavy. What had happened was that the pipe had sunk in the ground and over the past 25+ years had slowly calcified inside from all the soap etc used (the water here is hard!). The pipe was absolutely solid!!
New pipe was laid so that it all flowed in the right direction and we have had no problems since...
When we had been here around 8 weeks, we had been shopping and on return I came into the house first...I could smell gas, a very strong smell of gas!!
I shot into the kitchen opened the door and window and shouted to Jeff not to touch any switches - or light a cigarette......
The gas operated water heater in the kitchen (which came out of the ark!) had switched itself on but the pilot light had not ignited. The problem was with the sink tap that had too much water pressure. The tap had not been tightly turned off. So with the water pressure it had started the hot tap running but not fast enough to light the gas. A whole gas bottle had emptied into the kitchen area.
We called an emergency plumber who came and fixed it for us also turning down the water pressure.
Oh what fun living in rural France.........
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