Well, we had a narrow escape from disaster – well perhaps not disaster, but certainly an escape from flooding.
If you look at the back of the house now it is finished, you will see that not only are there two pipes from the stoves – that we were expecting – there is also a downpipe coming down from the new guttering into our drain, which we weren’t expecting.
We were expecting that the water would just shoot off as it had before, into the neigbours yard and into the street – and not into our yard. Unfortunately, this is now illegal and new guttering can’t just dump water into the street (although judging by the number of gutters that do shoot straight into the street, I don’t think this is a law that is strictly applied).
Well, our narrow escape came because if we had not had the new drain put under the house, we would have def. flooded every time it rained. The old drain was silted up and would not have coped with this amount of water, as although the old guttering was in poor condition, it did send at least some water out of our yard. This was particularly lucky as the new drain was not something that we knew we needed – it was only when Manuel noticed that the walls were not drying as quickly as they should that he realized that there was a problem. So, had we not had the new drain, but had the new downpipe, we would have faced continual flooding and dampness, and not realized the cause.