CET’s Underground Services team recently took on a mammoth project in south Wales to prevent flooding to the property of a Customer, as well as those of their neighbours. Nick St John, Technical Manager, explained more…
“I first attended the Customer’s property at the start of spring, and it was immediately obvious that there a huge volume of water backing up from the ground area and running towards the property. At this point, I undertook a thorough inspection of the property, and it became clear that the floodwater was being intercepted by three open chambers and, although these were fortunately preventing the property from being completely flooded, the situation was a real concern that needed addressing as soon as possible.
“Due to the urgency of the situation and to prevent flooding of the Customer’s property - and indeed a further two neighbouring homes - we decided to commence the removal of the grout through a combination of tanker jetting and cutting equipment. However, when our engineers completed a CCTV inspection this revealed that the pipe was 100% blocked and had fractured in places, meaning that the removal of the grout using through this method just wouldn’t work, and instead it seemed the obvious solution would be to replace the pipe.
“What we agreed upon was to divert the pipe from the rear of the property out to the side, before connecting back into the pipe under the front garden before finally connecting into the public highway. Now we knew this would be a mammoth task to divert the pipework to such an extent but finding the right solution not only in terms of what was best for resolving the issue while causing the least disruption for the Customer was our priority.
“The completion of the entire operation took a total of 24 days, including weekends, and it was far from a straightforward task with many hurdles which we had to find alternative solutions to. However, not only have we prevented the property itself and those of neighbours from flooding, but we also have a very satisfied Customer, and that is the reward in itself.”