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Pipes, Crack? Surely a drugs story?
Sep. 14th, 2010 01:26 pmSadly, no. It's been a hectic 24 hours in multi-character sewearge disaster in Lewisham Towers, soon to be turned into a book that will run to as many pages as, and feature as many characters as there are in War And Peace.
Yesterday John from DrainCo (not to be confused with previous visitors Response Solutions aka DynoRod, and MTS aka sub-contractor of Thames Water) came around for a second time to conduct a proper survey, and most interesting it all was.
To cut a long story short, he said that he was 90% sure that it was a blocked pipe rather than a collapsed or sheared pipe, mainly because it was cast iron, and partly because there was no evidence of bits of brick or whatever coming out at the other end. That was distinctly heartening news.
Secondly, he established to my satisfaction that this quite clearly is a shared pipe, something which could have been established by both the guy from MTS and the people from DynoRod, had they been so inclined to do. Even I could see that there were other pipes feeding into this pipe from both number 2 (downstream) and number 6 (upstream). That clearly made it Thames Water's responsibility.
Unfortunately, the hose which the DynoRod guy got stuck up a redundant channel is, for about six metres or so, blocking the main channel, and toilet paper and the like was already beginning to gather around it. So, even though I didn't need DynoRod any more, I had to get them to come and remove the jammed hose.
John from DrainCo also discovered another shared pipe -- one which runs parallel to the front of numbers 2,4, 6 and 8 -- and when he ran the camera up there he did find a cracked pipe. And this is also the responsibility of Thames Water. So, there's justice. They could have got away with clearing the blockage at the back -- about half a day's work (probably using, ironically, precisely what Jenny suggested a week or so ago, plus some added high-pressure jets). Now they are going to have to replace a broken pipe at the front as well -- a much more significant project.
He'll be sending Jim (who owns the Property Management Co running number 2) his report by the end of the week, and then I can liaise with Jim on who can throw the most shit at Thames Water.
So, I wrote four identical letters to the inhabitants of the flats next door, to tell them the mainly good news.
But all of this left me with what looked like being a few uncomfortable phone calls this morning.
First I phoned DynoRod to effectively tell them that their potentially very profitable insurance-paid reconstruction work was not to be, but that I would like them to come along with a tirfor wrench to extract their stuck hose, as soon as possible, if that was alright with them. I thought that this might be a problem, but it turned out to be as smooth as anything. Perhaps they are used to this happening.
Secondly I phoned my insurance broker to explain that the claim form that I sent them last week (which it turned out they had forwarded to my insurer -- thanks for telling me, guys) was no longer operative. I was on more confident ground here. I had played it by the book, keeping the insurer informed of things just as they were told to me. Not my fault that the information initially given to me was bollocks. I said that, given that my deductible was £100, it was not worth my while claiming for various sundry costs that will probably reach about £300. But she said (I've talked to lots of nice ladies today) that I should go after Thames Water, since much of my loss was because of their misinformation.
That really is rather tempting, and I'll look at the situation after we've got them down to mend the mess that is the Edwardian sewerage system.
In case any such horrific incident should befall you, the nub of this is a 1937 Act passed to cover the problem of these shared sewer pipes that are not part of the main sewer network. The local water company is specifically stated under Section 24 of the 1937 Act to be responsible for the maintenance and repair of such pipes -- a duty which Thames Water, quite clearly, has been doing its level best to avoid unless you can smack them in the face with a report from an honest and competent engineer (for which I heartily recommend John Evans of Drainco, SE6).
Subsequent to 1937 they put sewer pipes underneath new builds together in a different way (mainly, I guess, in response to the Act). But even John looked at the way the pipes were put together for our little block of houses and saw it as unusual, in that the front parts of the houses go through to one shared pipe (running parallel to the road through the front gardens), while the rear parts of the houses go through to another shared pipe (running parallel to the road through the back gardens). These all eventually join up at the front of number 2, whence the lot heads off to the main sewer.
So, a really incredible amount of progress in 24 hours. Although a lot remains to be done, I've got promises from all bar Thames Water, contact with which awaits the full report from John. But everything else seems to have been sorted out remarkably smoothly. I'll still only believe it when it's all done, but for the moment, for the first time in a couple of weeks, things look (even if at the back of the house they don't smell) rosy.
And I have the lovely Rachel to look at on the other side of the desk, because she is freelancing here this week! Chris is at IUMI (the marine insurance conference) while Greg and Richard are in Monte Carlo for the reinsurance conference Rendez-vous. So my most fun Northern chuck is in the office to cheer me up with her happy cake tales and lines like "anyone fancy a brew?".
She's also running the Great Northern Run this weekend
Why not support her at www.justgiving.com/Rachael-Gormley
_________
Yesterday John from DrainCo (not to be confused with previous visitors Response Solutions aka DynoRod, and MTS aka sub-contractor of Thames Water) came around for a second time to conduct a proper survey, and most interesting it all was.
To cut a long story short, he said that he was 90% sure that it was a blocked pipe rather than a collapsed or sheared pipe, mainly because it was cast iron, and partly because there was no evidence of bits of brick or whatever coming out at the other end. That was distinctly heartening news.
Secondly, he established to my satisfaction that this quite clearly is a shared pipe, something which could have been established by both the guy from MTS and the people from DynoRod, had they been so inclined to do. Even I could see that there were other pipes feeding into this pipe from both number 2 (downstream) and number 6 (upstream). That clearly made it Thames Water's responsibility.
Unfortunately, the hose which the DynoRod guy got stuck up a redundant channel is, for about six metres or so, blocking the main channel, and toilet paper and the like was already beginning to gather around it. So, even though I didn't need DynoRod any more, I had to get them to come and remove the jammed hose.
John from DrainCo also discovered another shared pipe -- one which runs parallel to the front of numbers 2,4, 6 and 8 -- and when he ran the camera up there he did find a cracked pipe. And this is also the responsibility of Thames Water. So, there's justice. They could have got away with clearing the blockage at the back -- about half a day's work (probably using, ironically, precisely what Jenny suggested a week or so ago, plus some added high-pressure jets). Now they are going to have to replace a broken pipe at the front as well -- a much more significant project.
He'll be sending Jim (who owns the Property Management Co running number 2) his report by the end of the week, and then I can liaise with Jim on who can throw the most shit at Thames Water.
So, I wrote four identical letters to the inhabitants of the flats next door, to tell them the mainly good news.
But all of this left me with what looked like being a few uncomfortable phone calls this morning.
First I phoned DynoRod to effectively tell them that their potentially very profitable insurance-paid reconstruction work was not to be, but that I would like them to come along with a tirfor wrench to extract their stuck hose, as soon as possible, if that was alright with them. I thought that this might be a problem, but it turned out to be as smooth as anything. Perhaps they are used to this happening.
Secondly I phoned my insurance broker to explain that the claim form that I sent them last week (which it turned out they had forwarded to my insurer -- thanks for telling me, guys) was no longer operative. I was on more confident ground here. I had played it by the book, keeping the insurer informed of things just as they were told to me. Not my fault that the information initially given to me was bollocks. I said that, given that my deductible was £100, it was not worth my while claiming for various sundry costs that will probably reach about £300. But she said (I've talked to lots of nice ladies today) that I should go after Thames Water, since much of my loss was because of their misinformation.
That really is rather tempting, and I'll look at the situation after we've got them down to mend the mess that is the Edwardian sewerage system.
In case any such horrific incident should befall you, the nub of this is a 1937 Act passed to cover the problem of these shared sewer pipes that are not part of the main sewer network. The local water company is specifically stated under Section 24 of the 1937 Act to be responsible for the maintenance and repair of such pipes -- a duty which Thames Water, quite clearly, has been doing its level best to avoid unless you can smack them in the face with a report from an honest and competent engineer (for which I heartily recommend John Evans of Drainco, SE6).
Subsequent to 1937 they put sewer pipes underneath new builds together in a different way (mainly, I guess, in response to the Act). But even John looked at the way the pipes were put together for our little block of houses and saw it as unusual, in that the front parts of the houses go through to one shared pipe (running parallel to the road through the front gardens), while the rear parts of the houses go through to another shared pipe (running parallel to the road through the back gardens). These all eventually join up at the front of number 2, whence the lot heads off to the main sewer.
So, a really incredible amount of progress in 24 hours. Although a lot remains to be done, I've got promises from all bar Thames Water, contact with which awaits the full report from John. But everything else seems to have been sorted out remarkably smoothly. I'll still only believe it when it's all done, but for the moment, for the first time in a couple of weeks, things look (even if at the back of the house they don't smell) rosy.
And I have the lovely Rachel to look at on the other side of the desk, because she is freelancing here this week! Chris is at IUMI (the marine insurance conference) while Greg and Richard are in Monte Carlo for the reinsurance conference Rendez-vous. So my most fun Northern chuck is in the office to cheer me up with her happy cake tales and lines like "anyone fancy a brew?".
She's also running the Great Northern Run this weekend
Why not support her at www.justgiving.com/Rachael-Gormley
_________
