French Plumbing

French plumbing.. the occasional whiff of a bad drain, toilets that are so unreliable that little taps are built into them to stop water constantly running through the cistern and regularly blocked drains are but a few of the many problems.

In an attempt to improve the drainage problems, a law was past a couple of years ago to tighten up on the installation of septic tanks. (Mains drainage is still not available in most rural areas) One of the aims of the new legislation is to prevent septic tanks discharging directly into the rainwater ditches, which up until now has been very common practice !!..

Following this new legislation every septic tank is being inspected, regardless of when it was installed, and if it doesn't conform to the current regulations, the homeowner must carry out the necessary works too ensure that it does.

Today, was Inspection Day. A shortish man with blonde hair in a pony tail arrived in his small van, armed with shovel, crowbar, auger and laptop. The inspection was very thorough, and then he completed his report, asking questions as to the location of the run off pipes, the filter and noting all this information on the land registry plans, who installed the tank, when, what was its volume...

Thankfully our tank passed his criteria, and he was soon gathering his now muddy equipment from the kitchen floor and was on his way to our neighbours. From the raised voices, I can now hear I don't think that inspection is proceeding as smoothly as ours !!...