October 05, 2007
Basement Chronicles Part XXXVIII: The Professionals
filed under: Demolishments and RenewvationsIf any readers are unfamiliar with the basement saga, click the "Demolishments and Renewvations" category, read 'em, and weep. We finally gave in and, for the first time, I had contractors come in. They dug a "french drain" (actually a "hydraulic pressure relief trench") around the perimeter of the basement - a one foot wide/one foot deep trench, filled with gravel, with a pipe up the middle to collect water and channel it to a sump pump. It took them all of three hours (amazing!). Now we just have to assume it will work...
It did mean emptying our friggin' basement. AGAIN. Which left the upstairs and the stairwell pretty packed:
I sealed up the stairwell from the rest of the house, because they had to jackhammer through the slab:
If anyone ever offers you the chance to have dudes operating a jackhammer IN YOUR APARTMENT, I'd suggest you go ahead and pass it up. It's frackin' nerve-wracking.
Anyway, here's the trench, already concreted, and the sump pit:
There's a 1.5" gap between the wall where the real problem was and the new concrete, leaving an opening for any water that gets in to drain straight into the trench. The gravel is still visible through it, which makes for an interesting room border. And for the first time in years, I'm actually HOPING for a heavy rain, so I can see if this sucker works... Of course, first I have to have a plumber actually hook the sump pump up to a DRAIN, since the crew wasn't qualified to do so (grrrr).
I will, you can be sure, keep faithful P'net readers posted...
Posted by rjt at October 5, 2007 11:26 AM