Singapore

09 February 2013

Finally a Water Problem Solved

When we built our latest house in 1989 we specified that we wanted a large deck to be able to have breakfast or lunch 'al fresco.' The result was great but the good old Queensland sun made it impossible to sit out there. At that time Queensland schools had their eating areas fitted with shade cloth tents. So we had one fitted on the deck, it still was not very satisfactory but we put up with it for  number of years.


House with Shade Tent (Drawn Carol-Ann Bohlen)
Eventually we consulted our architect neighbour next door who designed an extention of the roof over the deck. This was a vast improvement and we were finally able to eat out on the deck... if it wasn't raining! As soon we had a tropical downpour, which we frequently have here in Queensland, the extra water from the old and now the new roof just couldn't cope and the deck floor was wet every time. Fortunately luckily it hasn't rain too often here until 2012 when the weather pattern changed, probably courtesy of global warming. So the deck was once again unusable for a lots of times.

House with Roof Extension (Drawn Carol-Ann Pickvance)
 Last week, we called a plumber who suggested installing an additional 2 drain pipes down onto the garden, which he installed a few days ago.

Addition of two downpipes
Early this morning we awoke to one of the tropical downpours I mentioned above. I jumped out of bed and went investigating. Result! I walked out onto a dry deck. We waited years for this to happen, so today we're having lunch on the deck, come rain, hail or shine. Cheers!
Finally a dry deck