Water Leak

Posted on October 18, 2018 by Ian

Walking around the farm, I came across a wet patch about 200mm in diameter, all around the area was very dry so obviously something was amiss. I was very quick to blame some workman that had been clearing the land for us back in February. I know roughly where all the water pipes run and I assumed they had damaged the pipes whilst turning the ground over.

There are three groups of pipes around that area. One is the main feed to the house, a second is the feed/circulation for the swimming pool and the third is for the irrigation. I was concerned if I open up the ground would I have an uncontrollable gush and spurting water everywhere. At least at the moment the dirt was holding everything in place.

After a visit to a couple of local hardware stores and the purchase of a couple of variations of pipe joining connectors that I thought would help, it was time to dig down and find out what was going on. So, treating it like an archaeological dig, using a small garden trowel, I scraped away at the soil.

Eventually, I found the problem, it was, fortunately just a bad joint on the irrigation pipes.

I had seen this issue a couple of years earlier and had reported it to the engineer that fitted the irrigation system and had believed it had been fixed. Obviously, only a bodge job had been done and it had just been covered over.

It was a relief that it was not on the main water feed to the house and I could just turn the irrigation system off to make a repair. Of course, none of the connectors I had brought were of the right type, so a second visit to the shops was required.

Once the correct fittings had been obtained it was a simple job to cut out the bad connection and made it good.

A quick test of the irrigation system proved nothing leaked and I just left it for 24 hours to double check before reburying the pipes.

I had also worked out how all the irrigation system was connected, both water pipe wise and control valve wise, so now have the knowledge to be able to extend the system in the future is required.

Job done!

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July 2018

Posted on July 19, 2018 by Ian

So, news from Casa Neroli for the last couple of months. The weather during May and June was awful, very wet and miserable, usually the sort or weather expected in January and February, but like the rest if the world the weather seems to be a little off cycle this year. However, the good weather seems to be back now, long may it stay, although we don’t want to see the fires that we saw last year in Portugal.

The entrance drive and gate as reported before is all complete now and the new arm has been installed, it is working a lot better now, we can pull in off the main track and any visitors can do the same before we open the gate. The steep slope has gone and the swing in is wider now, just makes everything so much easier.

The heating on the swimming pool, works well, although it is quite expensive to run. It does however make the pool so much more enjoyable, 28 degrees is perfect! Any way the heat pump only cuts in when it needs to, so when the sun is out the pump runs less. We did need to get the electricity supply to the house increased as when we tried to use the oven, with the heat pump running the power tripped out. This was a relatively easy thing to do, just a visit to the local EDP office and two days later it was all sorted.

The farm and the land around the house has been cleaned, although we are still having a couple of issues with the damage the contractor did to the land. I don’t think the sub-contractors that Mr Proenca used this time, cared as much about the job they did. I was able to repair some of the things, like putting the cover back on the septic tank and repairing the irrigation pipes, although I shouldn’t have to. There is still the fence repair to be done, where they obviously damaged it with the tractor, but he has had the valve and cover repaired, again damaged by the tractor. I am sure we will get this sorted soon. Then I guess I will have to pay him!

We have re-structured the cactus garden now the entrance has been completed, everything is the other way around now. It didn’t take too long, just needed to clear the weeds, add a bit of gravel, a few “ornaments” and start adding a few plants. This time we added a really pretty rose and a Bougainvillea, hopefully they will survive and grow up the wall a bit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have also found a guy, Tiago, who comes every couple of weeks to cut the grass around the house. He is very reliable and reasonably priced. Regularly cutting it is better for the grass, it stays greener longer as the watering gets to it better and it is easier to cut when he comes.

So all in all, pretty good. Long may it last!

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Overgrown

Posted on May 18, 2018 by Ian

The land has got very overgrown this winter so we are in the process of having it cleaned again so heres just a quick post to show the “Before” state of the farm.

I will post a “After” as soon as the work is complete.

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Gate Update – May

Posted on May 18, 2018 by Ian

Well there has been a lot of progress during the last month.

The new entrance is finished and the electric arm has been replaced (although the arm is missing in the photos) it should make getting in and out so much easier, but only time will tell.

 

 

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April 2018

Posted on April 26, 2018 by Ian

One of the things that has really bugged us has been the entrance to the property from the road (Dirt Track). We have had a few attempts at trying to get this right, but until now whatever we have done has just not quite worked fully.

At the start of the construction of the house we just had a very simple post attached to the lamp post at the entrance just to fix the electricity meters to.

When the entrance was constructed properly, the builders only used standard tile type blocks, these proved later not to be strong enough to hold the weight of the fixings for the gates or to defend against the winds that we get at certain times.

Everything did look smart once the rendering had been done and it was painted white.

The entrance was reasonably easy with a car as the drive was just about level with the road outside and there were no gates.

However, because of the slope (left to right) it meant there was a large gap under the right-hand side, plus a slightly less, but too high gap where the gates met. This resulted in a high stop in the middle of the gates, this proved to be a problem, as we often caught it with the underside of any car we drove in or out and we regularly had to have the stop re fixed.

 

 

 

We also had a problem with the granite cube drive, the slope here was too much and the it had to be lowered to allow for the gates to open. The company doing the gates, adjusted the granite cubes where the gates were to allow them to open, but it left the drive very uneven.

In order to overcome this and to smooth out the drive we had the granite blocks on the drive re-laid to firstly smooth the level out and secondly to raise the drive under the gates to be more even, left to right, and to reduce the gap underneath so we could fit a lower stop in the middle of the gates.

 

 

 

This overcame this issue, except that to achieve this affect it meant there was a steep ramp on the right-hand side from the road. This also proved to be a problem with getting low cars through the entrance, they would ground as you went in and out. It also resulted in the shorter stop in the middle being regularly broken as well.

During this time, if you have read our blogs you would have seen that due to the winds we get on occasions and the poor strength of posts we had to regularly call the builder and locksmith back to re-fit the electric gate openers as the fixing would pull out of the posts.

We finally took the decision this winter to redesign the entrance to overcome all these problems. The idea was to move the gates back from the road, so giving us a larger turning circle to get on the drive from the road. Also meant we could drop the level of the drive back down to road level, removing the steep slope. We also had the posts to hold the gates made from reinforced concrete, so fixings should be stronger.

The gates will also be re-fitted with just a small, even gap underneath, so the shorter stop can be used in the middle, but as there is a gentle slope the bottom of any car should clear it easily.

We could also build a wall down the side of the entrance which should give some extra protection from the winds for the gates. We have also had a bolt fitted to the bottom of the gates, so when it gets windy we can drop the bolt as well if we need some extra strength.

It also gives us an area for parking off the road, whist we are waiting for the gates to open.

All this is currently being done, here are a few photos taken during April, showing what’s happening, hopefully you will be able to see what we are trying to achieve. At the time of writing, the new posts are in place and the granite cubes have been re-laid yet again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is still work to be done, the gates to be re-installed, the electrics for the openers and the doorbell to be installed plus the rendering on the walls to be finished and painted.

I will post another blog as soon as everything is complete so you can see the finished product. Hopefully this time we will have got it right. I’ll let you know!

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February 2018

Posted on February 26, 2018 by Ian

Swimming pool heating has now been commissioned and we have received training from the company that installed it. The new summer pool cover and its spool have been delivered and stored away. It’s still a bit early in the year to use the pool even with heating at the moment, but we are all ready now for using the pool around Easter time.

The land at this time of year is not looking its best, although there is an amazing crop of Oranges, Lemons and Clementine’s, they are all quite small this year as it was very dry last summer and we were still struggling in getting the irrigation working properly. Hopefully 2018 will be a better year both weather wise and the fact we now know how the watering works and we have fitted a grit filter. It was interesting however to see the lemons heavy in fruit yet also showing blossom for the next crop.

We have also repositioned the bird table so we can see it a bit better and the birds seem to favour this area at the moment. However, you don’t see many bird tables in Portugal so we don’t think the birds know what they are, they don’t seem to be too interested at the moment. Have put a good pile of rocks around the bottom to hold it in place as we do get quite strong winds at times coming down from the Estrela. It is also helping to frame what we might do with that part of the garden/land.

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Swimming Pool Heating – Update

Posted on January 19, 2018 by Ian

Quick update. Looks like the heat pump for the heating of the swimming pool has been placed and installation is well under way. Still some finishing work and commissioning to do, but looks like we may have heating for this year.

Unit is quite big, bigger than I expected, but the company doing the work did say that had to get a slightly better heat pump than originally specified so it should heat the water quicker, same price! Great that it has been installed out of view from the house, so will not interupt our beautiful view.

Looking forward to trying it all out.

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Welcome to 2018

Posted on January 10, 2018 by Ian

A Warm Welcome to 2018

Welcoming in the New Year was a bit of a wet affair this year. We did however get one really nice day when we were able to do some pruning on the vines and cleaning around the roots of the olive trees. I was also able to cut the grass around the house and swimming pool.

The rest of the days were damp and overcast, although during the day the temperature was not too bad, it did chill down at night.

On the upside, we were still able to cook outside every day, apart from when we ate out at a restaurant, although it was far too cold to eat outside.

We had some family staying with us to see in the new year this year, but they had unfortunately booked the early morning return flight instead on the evening flight, which meant we had to drive back to Lisbon airport during the early hours and Teresa and I had a full day to do something until we could fly back in the evening.

We decided to drop the rental car back as soon as they opened, and then head into Lisbon City on the Metro. We walked around for a little while and found a small café for some breakfast, croissants and coffee. We then took a tour bus, but by now it’s raining so hard it was difficult to see anything much although the commentary was very interesting.

After the tour and lunch in Starbucks, yes it had to be done, the rain just got too much and we decided to head back to the airport, at least we could stay dry there, by now we were soaked through to the skin.

Gate Update

Well the gates were still attached to the posts, but only one would open with the electric control, one just refused to open and we had to do it manually. So once again we still have problems with the gates.

We did get the locksmith to call eventually and he said the engine on the gate was faulty, so he will have to take the arm away and get it to a man that could fix it, but he was still on holiday so it couldn’t happen until the next week. Will be interesting to see if he comes next week as promised.

All this, along with the fact that slope from the gate to the road (dirt track) is just too steep, we have decided to redesign the gate entry area.

We can get our car in and out without too much problem, but the turn in is very tight and when we have a rental they are much lower to the ground and can on occasion just scrape the gravel around a bit.

More on this to follow in the coming months.

Swimming Pool Heating Update

The guys who are doing the swimming pool heating system, turned up at the house early this morning, I think they dropped off the heat pump and laid the concrete base. However, I don’t think they could do too much as it has been raining hard all day.

At least something is happening, looks like we should be able to start swimming earlier this year.

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Pool Heating Update

Posted on December 15, 2017 by Ian

So, decision made.
Cover decision made.
Negotiations complete.
Deposit paid.
Installation time scale agreed, (hopefully).

We will have heating.

More updates to follow.

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Swimming Pool – To heat or not to heat.

Posted on November 15, 2017 by Ian

We had a swimming pool constructed a couple of years ago and at the time decided not to include heating as wanted to see how it would work without, after all we were in Portugal and it’s a lot warmer than the UK and everyone was telling us at the time that we would not need heating. We did however ask the builders to make sure that we could add heating at a later date if we decided to do so.

Research on the internet seems to guide that the optimum temperature for a pool is 28oc. We have been monitoring the temperature over the last two years and whilst it is warm enough, in the summer (June/July/August) maintaining a heat of around 25oc it is still only just warm enough and on the days, we saw 26oc we could see how those extra couple of degrees could make all the difference. Any time outside of that period it is was just too cold for us to enjoy, although we did try on a few occasions.

As we are intending to spend more time at the property and already want to extend the period that we can comfortably use the pool we thought we should start to find out more about adding some heating and at get some idea of what would be needed. We really want to be able to use the pool from end of March to the end of October as a minimum each year.

As with anything, nothing is ever simple, there seems to be a whole range of ways in which we can add heating and it is not just a heater that is needed. Heating the water is one thing but of course you want to try and keep that heat in the water, so need a “summer cover” which can be put over the pool at night.

The option we are being recommended is to fit a “bomba de calor” (heat pump), this has to be powerful enough to heat the water within a reasonable time, say roughly 2 days. It runs on electricity so running costs also need to be considered. I am lead to believe that the one we would need uses 4 kilowatts per hour when running so based on the rate we pay to EDP it is about €0,71 per hour (inc IVA), not too bad but of course it depends on how long it is running. If it takes 2 days (48 hours) then that is about €35 to get it up to temperature, but after that it would be a lot less to maintain the temperature. This explains the need to use a summer cover to retain as much of the heat as possible when not actually using the pool.

There also seems to be a wide variation of covers, and in turn a wide range in price, so need to investigate more why, there must be a valid reason for such a large variation. We also need to bear in mind that it seems that these covers may only last 3 -5 years so will need to be replaced, maybe that’s the reason for the variation of price.

Then it seems it is advisable to get a spool/spindle thing on wheels, a bit like a long cotton reel, to help with getting the cover off and on again.

So, the shopping list at the moment is:

  1. Heat Pump, pipes and fitting.
  2. Summer Cover
  3. Spool

We also took a poll on Facebook, Life in Portugal group, for people’s opinions and thoughts. It seems there are many that have invested in heating and all agree that it is quite expensive but there is a real payback when it comes to how long in the year the pool is usable. We are based north of most of the people we had feedback from and the further north you go the cooler it is, so it just confirms the needs.

That’s where we are, currently negotiating with the pool company to see what deal we can get, but we think we have reached the decision to go ahead.

More to follow………

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