Septic System OK, Other Progress

The day at the property didn't begin very well.  Between 5PM yesterday and 11AM today my wheelbarrow went missing.  A section of the property had been mowed during that time and I suspected that whoever that done the mowing had helped himself to the barrow.  During a visit to the real estate office I explained the situation to Emeline the property manager and asked her to pass the word to the departing tenant that I wanted the barrow back.

I then resumed the task of clearing vegetation and stacking it for burning.  After a few minutes a truck pulled up and Trevor introduced himself as the man who would look at my septic system to determine the cause of the reported odours.  I gave him a quick history of the old system then traced out the path of the new system, which had been installed while I was away sailing.

The outcome was very good for me.  First of all, he confirmed that the design of the new system is good.  Because the house is on the side of the hill there is plenty of fall for the drainage to the septic tanks.  I knew that it was a two-tank system but was surprised to learn that it has two leach drains with a selector valve for swapping between the leach drains. The idea is to use one drain for a year, then swap over to the other one in order to give the first one a chance to dry out. He lifted the plastic cap and swapped to the other drain stating that the double drain was why the system had cost so much money. Unfortunately no word had been passed to me about the drain swapping mechanism so it's just as well that calledI had to call Trevor.

He assured me that given the young age of the septic system it should be working OK and not need pumping for another 5 years or so.  He took me to the first tank, which has its lid above the ground, and showed me the gaps between the heavy lid and the actual tank.  He told me that when the easterly winds are blowing they will pick up the smells from the tank and carry them toward the house and the school next door.  It is a problem that he sees often.  The fix is simple: build up around the perimeter of the tank with sand then use cement to seal all around the lid.

He then looked at the large leach drain that had taken the waste water from the kitchen and laundry.  This waste water was now going into the new septic system, according to modern code, which explains why the new tanks had to be placed so far away from the original tank.  We looked at the new disused drain, the size of a very large coffin, and cordoned off because something - probably a vehicle - had broken one of the lids.  Trevor said that the drain should be filled in and he had the equipment with which to do the job.  He ordered 4 cubic meters of fill sand, the bulk of it to be used to fill in the old leach drain, with enough left over to cover the first septic tank, obviating the need to seal the lid with cement.  The sand will be delivered tomorrow but Trevor will be in Melbourne during the coming week and will do the work on Monday week.

For me it was a very good outcome: The septic system design is good, the odour problem is minor and will be fixed, and the old leach drain will soon be filled in.

I resumed my landscaping work then 30 minutes later a van pulled up and it was Graham the electrician with his offsider (assistant).  Reg had just arrived and he was able to shed some light on a repair that had been done during my absence.

I had reported an intermittent problem with the house electrics, where the RCBO ("residual-current circuit breaker") (aka RCD, RCCB and, believe it or not, R2D2) tripped out intermittently.  Graham reported that the RCBO's on my board had been recalled from stock (but not from the field, probably to avoid compensation claims) due to some defect and proposed that he swap out the RCBO to see if that would fix the problem.

Fortunately I had told Graham that there was also a problem in the garage.  He went over for a look and when I mentioned the two way switch that allowed me to work the flood lights from either the house or the garage (so that could get out of my car, switch on the floodlights at the garage, walk to the house, then switch them off next to the back door) he immediately identified the problem.

I am not electrician so all that I can do is record my impression of the problem. There the main switch panel at the house and a sub panel at the garage.  Each has an RCDO.  However, the boards go to separate negatives so that there is some sort of electrical interlacing of the two systems, which really pisses off the RCDO's because they are so sensitive.  The fix will be to separate the two flood lights and their switches.  He will return next week to do the work.

The problem has just come to light because the RCDO upgrades were made after I departed on my circumnavigation in 2008 and there would not have been enough electrical activity in the garage to bring out the problem,

Reg and I then had a coffee at the shop at the top of the road then I resumed my gardening work.

Then two men visited.  One introduced himself as Peter, the man who had done the cutting that morning with his whipper snipper.  His brief had been to cut only to the clothes line and he got permission to go a bit further, toward the boundary fence.  He knew that it was not enough but he was authorized to do only two hours of cutting.  I told Peter that I had not problem with his work because he had worked to the brief given to him, and I would work through the property manager to get more cutting done.  Peter knew nothing about my wheelbarrow so I have to conclude that it is the first item that has been taken from my property in the 38 years that I have owned it.

Peter then introduced me to his friend Paul.  "Peter and Paul, I can remember that!" was my reply.  Paul told me that he did "structural work" on houses, such as adding second stories.  I told him that I did not need structural work because I was merely going to renovate the house as it stood.  As we were walking back to their car I asked them if they wanted to see the inside of the house.  We went first into the front bedroom and I described the cracking problem and my intention to replace the interior walls and repair the ceiling. Paul immediately began to describe how what I call a "floating" wall could be put up.  Horizontal strips of metal would be screwed into the studs along the surface of the existing walls then the new wall of gyprock type of surface could be fixed to those strips. This would provide some thermal and acoustic insulation but more importantly would not crack and distort even if the original wall underneath did.  A similar treatment could be given to the ceilings.  The advantage I saw with that is that there would be no need to drop the old ceiling, which would be difficult and very messy given the pink bat insulation that rides on it.  The ceilings are high enough to tolerate a loss of a few inches.

I thanked Paul for his free advice and asked him if he did that kind of work. He claimed that he can do the lot: the roofing, internal and external cladding, and even the kitchen renovation.  He uses apprentices from the Real Estate Institute who are fully bonded and cost only $35 per hour.  What I found attractive other than the prospects of  lower costs is that we could attack the  renovation problem flexibly and in stages.  The metal roof would come first.  (The clay tiles are beautiful but pose a maintenance problem and put thousands of pounds of weight on the rafters. Also the fall of the roof over the porch, laundry and bathroom is too small for tiles and I get water finding its way to the ceiling.)  After the roof would come the kitchen and one bedroom.  At that point I would move into the house then we would proceed from room to room.  After that would come the exterior cladding (ie siding).

I told him that if we got into this project it would be a very big job and I was worried that it might be too much for him, but he assured me that he would find the time to do it all.

Paul can show me some of the work that he has done, including a self contained "granny flat" that he has just completed in Glen Forest.

I told Paul that things are moving so fast that my head is spinning a bit and I will need time to think about his proposal.  I've got his card and will telephone him within ten days.

I then resumed the landscaping work, which involved a lot of tree lopping and dragging of material up the hill to the burning site.  I focused on clearing the canopy of branches over the lower driveway in order to make way for the sand truck in the morning.  Reg had brought back my electric chain saw and long electrical cord that I had left with him during my absence and used it very effectively on the bigger branches.