Drainage Work - More Rubble

The 23 cm manhole has 3 x 4” inlets and one 4” outlet. 2 of the inlets are blocked off with caps which have to be removed if required to be used. The 45 cm manhole has 7 x 4” inlets and one 4” outlet. One of the inlets is at the same level as the outlet, all the others are 5 cm shallower, and all are capped except the first one.

Final connection of the sewage system cannot be made until SAP finish their work to connect the main sewer to the treatment plant at Achelia. This could take up to 2 years!!!

Drainage Work - 7 Foot Trench - Lots of Rubble

The trench which is dug to install the sewage pipework needs to be dug to a level approximately 150 mm deeper than the required depth, then backfilled to the correct depth with “Pea Gravel” that is, fine gravel which is about the size of a pea. This ensures that the pipe will not be damaged by large stones pressing against it.

Drainage Trench nearest house, already backfilled.

The pipe is then laid with a fall of approximately 40:1 throughout its length, and the pipe is then covered with another 150 mm of ‘Pea Gravel’, before finally backfilling to surface level, usually with the rubble that was dug out in the first place.

The inlet and outlet pipes are cemented in place and then the inside of the box is ‘benched’ to form a smooth passage through the SABA for the sewage to flow through.

This is an extremely stupid way of doing things these days as plastic sewage manholes have been available for many years to do the job easier, quicker, more efficiently and far cheaper. Engineers at SAP admit that plastic would be far better, so why they still insist on using concrete is anybody’s guess.

The Invert Level at the sewage connection point is to be 1.4 metres below road level. The Invert Level is a fancy name for the bottom of the pipe. The Sewage Connection Point is the boundary between the landowner’s property and the local authority’s road/pavement at the point where the SAP decide to make the connection.

Drainage Work - Penultimate stretch before Saba

The work involves digging a trench between the lowest level of the existing domestic waste water system at the point where it is decided to make the connection and the final manhole where the connection to the main sewer will be.

Satellite Dish Base.

A concrete base for the satellite dish is required, as it was planned to move the 3 metre satellite dish from the front of the property round to the back once landscaping was finished. This will take up another 1.5 cubic metres of concrete.

Completed Workshop, Stairs and Satellite Base

Hot Tub Base.

A concrete base was also required for the installation of a hot tub next to the conservatory. This will use up another cubic metre of concrete.

Shuttering and Rebar for Hot Tub Base

At the point where the retaining wall drops from 3.5 metres to 2 metres, a 10 step stairway will be constructed in concrete to allow easy access to the lower level.

Shuttering the Workshop Steps

Another 7 step stairway will be constructed from the workshop roof, up to the existing conservatory where a gateway has already been installed in the conservatory railing.

Shuttering Conservatory Steps

These steps are to be made of poured concrete and will be reinforced with steel rebar. The stair stringers are to be made out of 18mm marine ply cut with a jigsaw to form 175mm x 305mm steps, reinforced with 5 x 2” timber. The minimum thickness of the concrete in the stairs will be approximately 120mm with 35mm bottom cover.

The workshop will have a concrete floor, incorporating 6mm mesh and about 5 inches of concrete, mixed and poured in sections.

The edge sections will have rebar feet incorporated to help support the walls.

The walls will be 400mm x 200mm x 200mm concrete blocks, laid on the concrete floor over the rebar feet; the tops of the concrete blocks will be broken out to allow the rebar through, and the rebar will be extended up to the top of the wall. The holes broken out in the tops of all the concrete blocks will allow the formation of reinforced concrete pillars, making a very strong construction.

The outside of the walls are waterproofed with Eurogum, which is a bitumen based fabric which is applied by heating with a blowtorch to melt the bitumen enough for it to stick to the concrete blocks. It comes in rolls 1 metre wide by 20 metres long.

The roof of the workshop will be 150mm thick poured concrete. The rebar in the walls will be tied to the rebar in the roof, using 90 degree bends to form a strong joint between wall and roof. The roof rebars will be 12mm bars at 20cm spacing forming a mesh with 35mm bottom cover.

Pillars will be built on top of the retaining wall to form boundary railings and provision for perimeter lighting to be incorporated into these pillars.

Electricity and water supplies are to be fed into the workshop during the construction phase, and a small sink will be installed with the drain using one of the existing retaining wall drain holes.

Laying Concrete for the Workshop Floor

The first 53 feet at 3.5 metres height is to incorporate an underground workshop with entranceway at the point where the level of the retaining wall drops from 3.5 metres to 2 metres. The roof of this workshop would be the finished patio level before tiling.

The remaining 80 feet of retaining wall is at a height of approximately 2 metres and is backfilled to within about 2 inches of the final level to allow for sand and screeding before paving with standard 450mm square paving slabs.

This property is built on a hillside. The house and garden take up nearly 80% of the usable land on a reasonably gentle slope, with the bottom of the garden being about 1.5 metres lower than house level.

View from Conservatory after Tree Removal

Over 20% of the land is so steep that it cannot be used for anything, and in fact when the property was first bought this area was covered with fairly dense undergrowth and a number of trees, most of which were either dead or diseased.

Collapsed Wall

An existing sandstone wall at the kitchen end of the property had collapsed due to poor building methods and the ingress of water into its foundations.

Backfilling the Kitchen end of the Retaining Wall

The project is to clear the land, build a retaining wall along the back of the property to a height of approximately 3.5 metres high at one end to match the level of the existing back patio, dropping down to around 2 metres high and tapering off at that level to roughly match the level at the bottom end of the garden.

Retaining wall Southern view

This newly contained area would then be backfilled, and eventually tiled once the ground had settled sufficiently.

Here we describe some of our building and maintenance projects in Cyprus and the UK.