Calling All Plumbers & Sages of Sewage

[Ian (WA)]

Got a call from builder today says they can't plumb into sewer connection in street. I'm putting 3 x stand alone, 2 storey townhouses on one block - 1 at street front, 2 at rear of block.

We confirmed with SA Water today that we can't even drop the tie in point 1.5m either, so I have no option but to run a sewage pump arrangement from the two rear townhouses to the street.......bugger!!

Straight off the builder indicated, "could cost in vicinity of $20K"......BUGGER!!

I've done some quick research and SA Water recommend:
E-One, MONO, Aquatec-Barnes or ITT Flygt as systems which they would accept.

So i'm wondering if are there any Sagely Sewerage Artisans on the forum whom have experience with any such pressurised pump out systems and can shed some light on pros & cons as well as rough costings to set up a such a system?

We would need to push the poo up hill and over a distance of approx. 40m to street front tie in point.

For those who are up to speed, I don't have any screaming kids nearby either otherwise I'd burn 'em at the stake!!

Cheers Ian.

 

[Annietom]

g'day Ian, I'm sorry to hear about this "mishap"!! $20K is a budget breaker no doubt. I'm just wondering why you only found out about it now, was there no way to discuss with water co prior to forewarn you, or would have that been impossible?...

 

[Ian (WA)]

G'day Annietom,

The only stormwater & sewer items applied to survey drawings and research done up until today indicated no underlying concerns with a suitable tie in.

We had a hydraulic engineer review the block as part of the process - he clearly has had to draft a stormwater management plan including installation of retention traps & pump out system..........trouble is nobody thought about the poo!! It'd be ok if we could tie-in our bowel pipes to our down pipes.

This is certainly not my area of expertise, but I asked the same question you ask of the builder today and I said essentially the same thing too......"This is a $20K @#$% up".

Anyway, I have to take it on the chin and in the words of our fearless leader, "We will keep moving forward"......the 3 x slabs have been laid and there is no going back now!!

At least this will rate a paragraph or three in my book.........along with all the other @#$% ups in my property journey so far......it's great, I love it!!

And now Poo will be prioritised and get it's own little tick box on my "To Do" list for my next development so there are no nasty little blockages or blow outs.

Cheers Ian.

 

[Annietom]

yeah I bet you asked - I'd be a bit peeved too, at the end of the day, with developments, I've noticed how everyone working for you (or with you) is never quite as excited as you (when things go well) or cost conscious (when potential savings can be made). I often have a tradie say to me "oh I think you should do this.. and that" and my reply is "why? do I have to? This is a business, not a bottomless pit of money". I think you know what I mean, I can understand that guy saying to you that it's a $20K &(&(^)(* - but that's because it's not his problem, it's yours!!!

If this is a sewer thing, could have a call to the water company prior to plans (or work) shown this problem? Is this seriously only a problem that could have been seen once dug?

(you know I'm only asking because I would hate to be in the position you are in and I'm still quite the novice!)

 

[Ian (WA)]

Hi Annietom,

Yeah, I would think in hindsight it definitely could have been identified by SA Water if "someone???" i.e. me, surveyor, hydraulic engineer, Council Planner, the local Postie, the bird on nightshift at the local knock-shop had thought to ask.

Where I work in my "job" with Woodside Energy on the Northwest Shelf Gas Plant I come across this sort of thing all the time......seriously it leaves us all scratching our heads. A contracted maintenance group will come through and apply for a permit to go out and make some small or even major modification to part of the existing running gas plant and one of us will look at the scope of what they intend to do and then often we'll ask the question, "Can you actually do this?" "Have you considered that what you want to do will actually mean we have to shutdown one LNG train at a cost of $12M per day?". "Who has said this can be done and where is the approval?" Generally the permit application will be rejected and the poor tradie who just wants to do his job has to go back through his chain of command and the whole thing will end up back on an engineers desk and the engineer will say, "Oh I didn't think about that".

Getting back to your comments, it is interesting albeit infuriating, that not one person out of the 15 or so significant figures I have been liaising with over the last three years of this development process ever mentioned checking out sewer requirements / compatibility / access etc.........Not One!!! From my perspective I am bloody embarrassed , seriously this is @#$%ing with my head, but by the same token I am a virgin at this development game but I am doing it for the learning, I am going boots & all and I just really enjoy being flagellated and abused while roped to an 'A' frame too.

The sewer point at the front of the block is identified on a drawing but that's it..........apart from that, not one word has ever been mentioned in 3 years by anyone until I got the dreaded, "Guess what?...You've just lost $20K!!....How do you feel cork-head?.....Want to phone a friend?" phone call yesterday.

The 3 years duration of this "project" (and I use that term loosly) is a separate story (another chapter in my book of @#$% Ups in My Property Investing Journey).......time, planning issues, two DAs, more ammendments, critical players on leave, change in players and interpretation blah, blah........and there was also a good period of, "I just can't be @#$%ed with this right now" from me which has seen this drag out for so long.

But as I said earlier, it's great & I love it.....it's a hoot!!

Come on you weak b@st@rds, whip me harder.........oh God that's good!!

Cheers, Ian.