A Little Drainage Work

We have been lucky to have our friendly neighbour Bruce help out on some drainage over the last few weeks. Bruce likes to keep busy, he tells us, and he has been supervising and lending his expertise to do the various stages of this job.  Bags of Ready Mix  concrete were involved, and these had to be kept safely under cover in the shed, until needed.

There were two small jobs which needed doing, one was to lay a concrete pad for the emergency water tank we recently purchased.  The rainfall off our Archgola will run through the drainpipe to fill the water tank.  But first we needed a drainage system to take any excess water away.  A length of gutter and channel was to be inserted along the edge of the concrete patio to do this job.  Out came the spades,and the boys got to work digging the small trench.

Then they had to work out how to join the this into our new existing drain.  First there was some concrete which needed cutting, and luckily Bruce had his very own concrete cutting blade.  With a hiss and a roar, and plenty of concrete dust, it soon made short work of this task.

Work stopped for a few days as Robin had to go and purchase some fittings to take drainage from the new gutter into the drain.  I thought that might be a big problem, but obviously male minds work better than mine, the bit and pieces were soon all joined up and that part of  the job was completed. 

Stage two of the job had to wait for the ground to dry out after some rather heavy rain, which was to lay a small concrete pad under our water tank.    Out came the concrete and it was mixed the old way, by hand.  Bruce commented that it was great to have an apprentice on the job to help with the heavy jobs.

With the concrete pad laid, Bruce then concreted around the drain, working with the tiniest trowel I had seen.  One he made himself, he told us. 

Once the concreting was complete, the barrow and tools washed and clean, they both sat down for a well earned rest.  Thanks so much Bruce, we really appreciate your help.

The next job, Bruce tells us, is to make a wooden frame for the hold the water tank, then plumb it in to the downpipe.  Knowing Bruce, he will be here again soon, whistling merrily as he arrives with all his tools, ready and eager to get on with the job.  He likes to keep busy, he tells us, and we certainly appreciate his help.