Our first flood!

This is the week that we connect the house to the sewer.
First thing on Monday morning Thames Water's contractors turned up and closed the road to begin digging.  The appropriate part of the road was identified and digging began.  The sewer pipe is a long way down, and to get there, the contractors had to carefully dig passed the mains water pipe and a storm drain.

Getting started

Going down...

...a long way down!

After digging down about 10 feet, the sewer pipe was uncovered, cut into and collar fitted for the waste outlet from our house was fitted 

The opened sewer pipe

The next part of the job is to dig a trench back towards our house and fit an inspection chamber just inside our boundary and connect it to the sewer pipe.  Digging the trench was not straightforward as other pipes are in the way.
The first pipe encountered was the storm drain which takes the surface water away.  This was to become a major problem - more on this later. Rather than using the excavator, it had to be dug out by hand.

Digging around the storm drain, with new sewer connection at the bottom

The sewer pipe is much lower than the storm drain, but almost directly in line with it which meant that it was definitely in the way.  Because of the dry weather (we've had no rain since May), it should be dry, therefore a section was removed.  The pipe was indeed bone dry, and would be replaced later.
The next obstruction was the mains water piper which is known to be fragile so, again it had to be dug out by hand.

Digging around the mains water pipe

After, the mains water pipe had been dug out, the next obstructions were two much smaller pipes at right-angles, potentially carrying electric cable, so these also had to be carefully avoided.
By the time all done, it was time to pack up for the day with the trench hardly started.  With no rain forecast, it was decided to reconnect the storm drain after the whole trench was dug.  Even though the road was officially closed, it is normal practice to cover the hole with steel plates to allow emergency vehicles to get access if necessary.

Steel plates covering most of the hole

The following morning dawned fine and dry.- or so we thought!  During the night, a water main had burst on a nearby street.  Apparently, it was quite a sight and has done much damage to the road surface.  The water from the street sped down the hill and into the storm drain at the bottom.  This storm drain is the pipe that runs along beside our house which was cut open yesterday in the knowledge that no rain was forecast.  The water rushed down the pipe and promptly filled and overflowed our neatly excavated hole. Also, because the storm drain could not cope with this amount of water, it also flowed down our lane and on to our plot.  The site which was something of a dust bowl now had to accommodate a large amount of water which we're pleased to say, it did admirably with the excess water flowing into the canal, and not the house!  It did leave parts of the site very muddy though!  The photos below show the lane after the the water had been turned off and therefore do not do justice to the amount of water involved.

Pumping out our hole

The debris around the storm drain

The source of the water, now just a trickle

Not our hole this time

Even though the burst water main is not in our lane, the builders have had to close down all work on the sewer connection to allow the road to be partially re-opened to give Thames Water to access the works on the other street, where much of the road surface has been lifted.  This is going to delay the delivery of the beams for the garage concrete floor.  It also means that we have very little (drinking) water on site and therefore builder's tea will have to be rationed.