I think that’s how the old (Yorkshire?) saying goes. It refers to dirty or unpleasant activities being lucrative. In our case we were about to learn today whether the septic tank (muck) was needing replaced (costing a large amount of brass). The previous day’s bramble cutting had revealed the septic tank’s location but we were still unclear of the path of sewerage pipes from the property and whether or not rain water also was directed to the tank.
We handed the task to the experts who arrived with camera equipment to explore drains and divine the flow of…….. water. Meanwhile we turned our focus to the inside of the building.
Damp has penetrated the building to a great extent, and one of the key things for us in this first week was to remove all of the soft furnishings left behind that are holding that damp in the property. Soft furnishings is probably the wrong word, I mean carpets, underlay, curtains and a solitary sofa that remained.
There’s good and bad in the above picture. It’s clear from the staining on the back wall that damp is penetrating through the wall and the carpet is holding much of the damp that has come in. The property has been unoccupied for a number of years and during that time a lack of heating (and airing) has exacerbated the issue. The good is that as we have removed carpets the floors underneath have mostly been good. Likewise in the photograph below:
The floors are looking promising and we need to make a decision on their refurbishment or replacement. Again a decision for later, the primary objective to take up the damp carpets was achieved over 2 floors of the property leaving the ground floor for later.
Back to the drainage. Wayne and Lee from Abel had quickly managed to identify that water was flowing freely from waste systems and gutters to the septic tank. An early visual inspection of the septic tank wasn’t promising in that it looked blocked and with further enquiry from two more inspection hatches that they identified it was clear that there was a blockage somewhere. Again this was resolved without fuss from the two gents and came with a cautionary tale to flushing wipes down toilets, the cause of the blockage.
I won’t produce more picture evidence here, it is not pleasant. I will however report that the big win for today, one that surpasses the floors is that it looks as though the septic tank is good for now. It needs to be emptied, which presents a logistical challenge in where it is, but that should be a much lesser cost than replacement. S**t news turned out to be ok after all.
Really pleased with the service and advice from Abel: https://www.facebook.com/abeldrains
Middle Age Musings 