Bobdude

At this point in time we have seen a mediator at the Prefecture, who has written to the Maire. The story is too long to go into detail, but I just wanted to know whether they had to answer to anyone or, as I suspected, they are a supreme power. As the issue has been on-going for 4 years now, I don’t want to drag it out even longer.

Good Evening everybody. I realise that the Maire of a Commune has quite considerable power and influence, but I wonder whether there is anywhere to air a grievance concerning a Maire, an authority that he/she has to answer to?

[quote user="woolybanana"]If you are in an area where there are power cuts, remember the pump will stop so the sink will be out of action for a while. This could cause some waste water to flow back into the sink, I guess. Users of said sink will need to be told this.[/quote] Thank you. We very rarely get a power cut actually, if we do it tends to be just for moments and quickly back on. But good to bear in mind.

[quote user="Lehaut"]And don't forget to put rodding points in.[/quote]Good tip. Thanks.

[quote user="Chancer"]look at your annual HC and HP consumption, the whole year not just the winter months, if your annual HC consumption is not at least half of the HP consumption then you are losing money.[/quote] Good tip! Thanks a lot Chancer!

[quote user="Chancer"]To change what for what?[/quote]To change from HC to normal tarif.

Thanks everyone for some very helpful info and advice. I hadn’t even thought of installing a pump, but it does seem to be the least disruptive.

[quote user="alittlebitfrench"]If you go the pump route (the picture you showed is not dissimilar to ours) remember that if it can pump a distance of let's say 30 metres, if you introduce a 4 m vertical bit in the piping network, the overall distance will be reduced to may be 20 metres. What I am saying is you have to do some maths to work out if the pump will work in relation to your planned installation. If not, you may have to go for a larger pump. If that makes sense.[/quote] Yes, indeed, I think we are going to have to go for a more powerful pump, as the vertical distance from the sink to the loft floor is around 6.5 metres. But from there into the loft, where the 100mm bathroom waste pipe is located, is around a 7 metre span along the loft floor, but that would cause the least disruption to the tenant in the cottage.

[quote user="Tom 58"]As albf says you can get systems just to treat 'grey' water. Look up 'traitements des eaux ménagères' and http://www.eautarcie.org/04a.html[/quote] Thank you Tom. I did look when albf posted, but could only find fosses touts eaux. I will look up the link you have provided.

[quote user="DraytonBoy"]Current cost of our Sanispeed is 550E if bought on the internet. If it were me I'd get a plumber round and ask him if it's feasible to use a pump and go from there.[/quote] Yes indeed. We are looking at options and obtaining quotes. The work has to wait until the current tenant leaves though! I just found this: https://www.tradingdepot.co.uk/sanivite-waste-water-pump-system-6004 Which seems to fit the criteria.

[quote user="BritinBretagne"]My house didn’t have a kitchen when I bought it. Or water. I could put the kitchen and plumbing where I wanted.[/quote] The cottage is small. It was a choice of either having a kitchen in the living room, but I don't like open plan, and it would have made the living area even smaller, or leaving it where it was, in actual fact just a tiny room with a sink in the corner. It's a gite. We have a guest in there at the moment, which only adds to the problem. The existing sink waste pipe hasn't been touched up to now, and it has been fully occupied from 2010 to now, just as it is, with no problems! At the moment, having located the underground pipe and cleared it, the sink is emptying ok.

[quote user="alittlebitfrench"]Ours is not a Saniflow pump. It was sourced by our plumber in relation to the distance the water needed to be pumped.....which is the key point. I don't know what make it is without finding the manual. It was about 700 euros I think. But cheaper than a new floor had we dug down. The pump (quite small) sits under the sink in the cabinet. The pipe runs horizontally (5 metres all hidden) behind all cabinets. Then through a wall. The piping then turns up vertically 2 metres and horizontally again until it turns up again into the grenier. The piping then goes somewhere to an out flow pipe. Brilliant piece of equipment for an old house because often when you buy houses the kitchen is in the wrong place. These allow you put the kitchen anywhere without major renovation. Top ALBF tip.[/quote] Our 'kitchen', as such, is tiny, so from the sink to where the existing waste pipe is, is maximum 2 metres. In actual fact, it could be run up to the grenier more or less directly from where the sink is now, except that it would at some point have to pass through the back wall of the house, which is almost 2 ft thick stone! Nothing is easy in these ancient buildings.

We have an unused cooker socket in the kitchen, so in theory that should be ok.

[quote user="alittlebitfrench"]You don't need a slope with a pump. It will shoot the water up vertically in a pipe to your roof space as Chancer described. That is the whole point of a pump. Ours runs a good six metres up and down, through walls and around angles. If the pipe is in one corner of the kitchen running vertically up the kitchen wall you can box it in there. I'm not sure what DB was describing in terms creating a slope with his pump installation. I do think through that running it around the walls as wooly described would look pig ugly. In terms of cost, a pump would be much cheaper than a fosse. I think though (for best practice) a pump should be on its own circuit which is the tricky bit.[/quote] On t’s own circuit as far as the mains drain connection or on it’s own circuit as far as the upstairs bathroom, which is on the 1st floor, right at the front, then connected perhaps to one of the pipes in the bathroom?

[quote user="woolybanana"]Would it be possible to runa waste pipe along the walls to the other side of the house and box it in?[/quote] I don’t think so. It’s around an 8m run fromback to front, and apart from being unsightly, I wouldn’t imagine it would be possible to get a sufficient slope on the pipe.

Unfortunately the bathroom is right at the front and goes straight into the mains drains. Even if we installed a pump, I can’t see where we might be able to run the pipes through the house, not without major disruption, as the floors are solid. We could look into it though.

Yes, that crossed my mind too.

I don't really have an alternative choice, I don't think, as I have two adjoining houses on one meter, and have to have 12kva. I have two chauffe-eaus. I pay €150 per month. I have two radiators in the main house, in the bathrooms, which are on very low 24/7, and a log stove. In the cottage, there is also a log stove, plus three electric radiators. I don't suppose it would pay me to change?

Thank you very much for your replies. Sorry for the delay, as I had problems getting signed in to the forum again. I think my original posting can't have explained it too well, but we are already on 'tout a l’égout' which is mains drainage. But of course the drains are at the front of the house, and as the house is attached to others, there is no access from the back, where the kitchen sink is at the moment, to the front. Which means the waste pipe from the sink would have to go right through the house, which is a huge issue. Hence I am asking whether there might be some other solution to drain it out the back into the garden.

Hi, I am hoping there might be someone who does drainage on the forum, who can answer my question and perhaps give me a devis. (87160)  We have been having problems with slow emptying for a few weeks. (The cottage has been occupied fully since 2010) In front of the cottage is tout a l'egout, but the kitchen is right at the back. Installing a new waste pipe from the back to the front is probably out of the question, considering the floor is solid stone. The kitchen sink drain was in situ when we bought the house, back in 2006, and we just installed a new sink to the existing drain. Yesterday, in the pouring rain, we excavated behind the cottage to locate the waste pipe underground, with a view to unblocking it, having used a 5m long pipe unblocker to no avail. To our horror, we found that the old waste pipe just went into the ground behind the cottage, and ended there! It had been covered over with some sort of metal wire brackets and been covered with some sort of gauze, presumably to prevent blockage from silt or mud. My question is, is there some sort of drain that we could dig out at the back, something like a fosse septique I suppose, but just for the kitchen sink waste?

Hi, I have just received my avis d'impot 2017. I have a couple of quick questions, if anyone can help please. Credits d'impot I have a minus figure in the right hand column. Does this mean I will be paid this amount in due course? It is for the installation of a logburner. Social payments I do not owe any income tax, but this year I am billed for social payments. Last year I received a refund for the amount I had paid in 2013,14 and 15, due to the fact that I have an S1. Is this no longer the case? I did mark this on my declaration. Thank you very much for reading.

We have a trench dug out about one metre deep right by the back wall of our house. After recent rain there is water in the bottom of this trench. We have deliberately left the trench open for the time being, to try to ascertain at least which direction it's filling from. Our rainwater drain at the back of the house is just the opposite side of the back door to the trench. We have videod the drain during very heavy rain, and as far as we can see the water does not back up and flows very fast into the drain, which goes right underneath the house from the back door to the drain by the front door, and flows at the same fast level through the drain at the front. The expert says the water seeping into the house could be from this drain by the back door, although the regard is only about half of the depth of the trench we have dug, and for the trench to fill it seems to us that the water would need to flow upwards. We have agreed to get a firm in to do a video of the drain. In the meantime I need to know how to reply to the home insurance company to extend the time limit of two years for the indemnity. When the really heavy flood hit us, in May 2016, we were sweeping the water out through the front door, as that was the direction it was seeping in from the wall by the back door, if you see what I mean. Our elderly neighbours tell us that our house has never flooded in the 40+ years they have lived here. In 2013 all the rainwater drains in the village were replaced with new. That was when the problem began. The land at our front boundary is communal.

Yes, good idea, but it's on our neighbours land and I can hardly see him agreeing to it unless forced. Thank goodness I have legal assistance insurance - and it's not with the same company as our home insurance! Not only that, but the quantities of rainwater necessary before we get any rainwater coming in are enormous.

Yes, it's proving it that seems to be the difficulty LoL X

I know LoL! To be fair, it's very complicated. We bought the house back in 2006, and never had this problem until 2013/14 which incidentally was when the Commune laid new rainwater drains throughout the village. At more or less the same time, EDF also dug everything up at the front of the house to lay underground wiring. Then a neighbour two houses up excavated the rainwater drains at the back of his house, because he was forever having drainage problems. Where he dug is about 15 metres away from where the rainwater comes in our house. All three of these insist that the flooding is nothing to do with them. You see the dilemma? Thank heavens I have legal insurance cover! At the moment, my veranda consists of a metre deep hole and piles of mud and rock, as they wanted to see where the underground water might be sitting. The trench has water in the bottom, about 10cms deep, which does dry out after a couple of weeks or so of dry weather, then fills up again during heavy rain. It has to be exceptionally heavy rain, and for a few days on the trot, before it starts seeping in the house.