I hope so, and that you appreciate it and the labours of those who toiled to make it so.
Rob Appleyard
Lee Edwards
Peter Ewing
Ian Garthwaite
Phil Harris
Gina Rogers and
Rob Taylor
Thanks to some months of investigation and planning and about six hours of hard physical by a few good members, we now have wonderful water pressure upstairs and downstairs.
Rob Taylor kicked off the project some months ago. Rob obtained quotes from several plumbers to do the job. Prices ranged from $1200 to about $3500 and this sort of dampened any enthusiasm to continue.
However, Ian Garthwaite, through a plumber mate of his, obtained a price of about $600 to supply and install the pipe and fittings if we (Swan Canoe Club) dug the trench. He mentioned this to the committee and Lee Edwards took up the challenge.
Lee and Ian did some digging around the club and Meads' to find out exactly where the old pipe was and what it consisted of. Based on the results of the digging, we decided that we could do the whole job in-house.
Lee obtained the fittings, scheduled the work party date and contacted a few members to make up the work party.
Work started at 7. 00 am in order to cause the least disturbance to Mead's next door and by 8.00 am the site was a hive of activity with shovels, picks and kerplunkers in full swing. (Sorry, bad pun!).
What? I hear you cry in confusion and desperation is kerplunking?? Kerplunking is a method of tunnelling under concrete paths and other obstacles where a trench can't be dug. It means driving a large PVC pipe under the offending obstacle to create a tunnel. Ian, Lee and Phil all laboured mightily at this task, impeded by too shorter a pipe and miscellaneous lumps of limestone that blocked the pipe route. Kerplunk is the term to describe the noise that the pipe makes as it is shoved in to the earth to open up the tunnel. Kerplunk, kerplunk, kerplunkÉ My spellchecker is having seizures over that word!
As the trench was dug, we encountered water pipes, reticulation pipes, a telephone line (ours!) and electric cables, which fully justified the decision to dig the trench by hand rather than by machine.
It wasn't all hard yakka and rolling limestones however, Gina Rogers prepared a magnificent breakfast for us of cakes, savouries, fruit and tea or coffee. That all work parties should be so well catered for!
The original forty year old steel pipe was exposed, cut into sections with an angle grinder and removed. (That's the pile of rusty pipe current lying near the clubrooms). It was interesting to observe that the pipe was almost rusted solid inside and had a leak in it.
The new pipe laid is 20 mm high pressure plastic, with a tap near the club so that we can shut off the water if necessary without disrupting Mead's reticulation.
The task was complete by midday.
As soon as the pipe had been laid, it was back filled and the weeds, sorry, turf replaced so as not to cause distress to the local council and picnickers. It was also done to satisfy our duty of care obligations. Hell!!!! I just realised that we didn't produce a Hazard and Risk Assessment document, Safety Plan and Float Plan for the task. This is an unforgivable oversight and I blame myself totally for such a careless oversight.
Thanks to the efforts of all of those above, we can now wash our craft down in thirty seconds instead of five minutes, the shower simply gushes hot water and the upstairs sink can be filled in less that 10 minutes.
Moral of the Story: with a bit of cooperation and enthusiasm a few volunteers can make a big difference to the level of comfort in the club with a minimum of financial outlay and just a few hours of work.
Thank you to all those who assisted and to Damien Kelly the Plumber who gave practical advice and was prepared to help out the Swan Canoe Club.
Ian Garthwaite