house and garden things

[tielan]

Yesterday, I woke up with the not-entirely-unjustified dread that the gutters on the south side of the house are not actually going into a drainage system but directly into the ground around the base of the house.

It's not entirely unjustified because at least one of the downpipes definitely only drains into the ground at the base of the house - maybe the drain only takes it a foot or so away? Either way. The nearest gutter corner is about 5m high off the ground and if I want to clean it out or fix it, I have to go in over the roof because I don't have a ladder long enough. And it basically floods every time it rains. I think it's sagging. But I don't have a ladder tall enough to deal with it.

Maybe I should ask around the neighbours and see who does?

Also, today, seeing as it's cooler than 39C, I should probably try digging out the nearest downpipe to determine if it actually does connect to a drainage system - I thought there was only the sewer line on the north side of the house, and the house was built by the owner before national standards were really a thing.

Ugh. Maybe I should do that after I've sorted out the new chookhouse and moved it in...

--

So none of that got done. *sigh*

Comments

[raine]

You could have French drains - they're designed to drain into the ground and then into the sewer system. Most modern homes are set up with that style of drain, but they can get clogged just like traditional ones.

[tielan]

oh, i surely hope that is the case! however, i'm not hopeful...

[velithya]

Definitely see if any of your neighbours have an appropriate ladder! I'm sure someone nearby will be able to help out :)

[tielan]

I asked one of the neighbours over the fence this morning and she thinks her husband might have borrowed another neighbour's ladder, but she doesn't know which one, so she'll ask her husband and we'll take it from there.

The builder guy who was supposed to turn up this morning didn't... No contact, either. *shakes head*

[velithya]

ooh, that's just rude! A courtesy call is always the polite way to actually keep repeat business :(

Meanwhile, I waited all day for my "Express Post" parcel to be delivered... it arrived at 5.43pm & was literally the postie's last delivery of the day. I don't call four business days "Express Post", Australia Post! Very disappointed. :(

[tielan]

He's actually a UK tradie doing a bit of moonlighting while on holidays (apparently he was getting bored while the people he was staying with were working), but maybe he got scared off because last night I was asking about builder's licensing in the UK (they don't have to) and mentioned insurance. He said he'd still come along for a consult, but...no turney uppey, no makey contact.

Bloody frustrating.

Express Post really tends to mean "like, we'll try to move it on from every shipping point within a day but no promises haha" these days. It hasn't really meant overnight since, ugh, I can't think when. At least five years, probably more.

[velithya]

Oh I definitely wasn't expecting overnight, but I was expecting 3 days at the most.