Wet, Wet, Wet

Saturday afternoon and yet again we've had an emergency water company engineer on site; this time up to his elbows in the manhole where the water meter sits.

I thought about getting my camera and taking a picture of his bottom in the air, but it seemed rude to wander off and leave him when he was baling ice cold water as fast as he could so he could get at the problem.  So we carried buckets and made small talk in French and English.

Fortunately the problem was the water company side of the meter.  Our side and he would have driven away.

Somehow the water company pipe coming into the meter had become detached and within minutes the manhole was full and water was flowing down the garden in the direction of the house and along the pipework into the kitchen.  We now have a very soggy kitchen floor (again).

Strange that it should have happened just after our plasterers arrived and tried to use their pressure equipment for spraying on the plaster.  But the water engineer thought that the new pipe our side of the meter might have settled in the ground and in doing so tugged the meter out of its connection - maybe it was a combination of the two.

Anyway, he sucked on his teeth and muttered about the previous workmanship (doesn't every plumber when they come to fix a problem?) and added another joint to the meter to give it a bit more leeway.

We're seeing the floor-tiler and Monsieur B at six this evening to talk kitchen and bathroom tiling.  We'll have to ask Monsieur B how we can make sure the kitchen stays dry.  New tiles and new kitchen units don't go well with the occasional flood.

Links:
A Water Leak (or Two)
(And down at the cottage) Water, Water Everywhere