Down the tube and round the bend

Every since we moved in, the outside of the house has looked a disaster and as was mentioned in a previous blog Dodging the Rain we have started to work on building the walls to hold back the terraces. One of the key things that needed doing was to re run the water pipe round the back of the wall so that it was hidden from view and to stop us from tripping over it all the time.


So one Saturday Helen set about measuring and cutting the steel piping that is used here for water pipe. The funny thing is that although Spain is fully metric the pipe used is 1/2 in and the thread cutter is British Standard Pipe Thread (BSPT). Once Helen had cut all the bits of the pipe then it was a matter of putting a screw thread on each end of the pipe and rough fitting it together.


Next comes the tricky bit. You then need to unscrew everything and put it back again only this time you need to wind the sealant into the threads at each joint, in the past horse hair was used but these days you can buy something in a tub which is like industrial strength dental floss which is a little easier to handle.
After all the pipes had been screwed together it was time to cross fingers and make the final connection to the mains. This connection was made and then breath was held while the pipe was checked for leaks, but none were found and we could breath again.


All that remained was to give the pipe a coat of paint to protect it from corrosion once it is buried and we were almost done. All that remained was a bit of concrete casting to finish off one level of the wall.