Day 2 - Save the Drama for your Mama

I really didn't know what to expect. The guys from Badger Basement came promptly at 7:30. There wasn't much of the hard digging left, since the new basement was pretty much dug, there was only some little digging or expanding left.

There was a lot of noise. Jackhammers here, gigantic masonry drills there, you know the standard work. I managed to log into work and get a crap load of stuff done from home. I tried to dial into a bunch of meetings, but it was hard to hear over all of the racket. I would hear the frequent cutting of plastic, as I was certain they were cutting the lengths of their patented "WaterGuard" system. It was right around lunch when I was I hearing the pounding of the jack hammer.

Then it stopped. Then I heard an "uh-oh."
I don't know if I want to hear someone with a jack hammer say "uh-oh." It would be that they were poking holes in the cement blocks to relieve the water pressure and build up along and inside the blocks, when magically they sprung a leak.

Now to Andi and I this isn't surprising, as some of those blocks looked water logged. They had to open the bleeder holes in order to all for the outside water to seep in and into their WaterGuard system. It was after lunch that the drama started.

I heard someone else come over, and I presumed it was someone that these guys knew. It turned out to be the city inspector. !@#%, I said mildly. This won't be good.

You see, there have been all sorts of issues with the city and the city inspectors. I swear to god, they find fault, just to make work for others. It's like they don't want their constituency to succeed in any way. When the guy left, one of the workmen came up stairs and had to tell me about the change in plans.

It would seem that the city doesn't like how shallow they are digging. But that's what they do. The whole premise of the WaterGuard system is that it sits on top of your footings to direct water from the high water table away from the walls and floor to the sump pump. But if they have to dig down into the footings, that's a crap load of more work, and harder too, since the footings are so solid. So, what they decided to do was to ditch the WaterGuard system, and give us something close to it.

They're replacing all of the drain tile with newer PVC pipe of some sort. It's not the same as the corrugated pipe that is traditionally put down, and does crap for actually draining water (I read about that.) This pipe is smoother, and will allow the water to flow easier. They are also going to put in the wall diverter. It's hard to describe, but essentially it's a piece of aligator plastic (it's got all of these ridges, hence the name) that sits along the wall and footing. This piece allows the bleeder holes to drain into the new drain tile.

So essentially we're getting the WaterGuard system, just not in one hand dandy do it themself installation product. Also, this is more work becuase now they are hammering out a little more floor, and all of the drain tile.

That works for me! After all, we're hoping that we can prove to the insurance company that the reason the basement flooded was faulty drain tile. The tile was so old and full of gunk that it could not handle the water load and backed up into our basement. I'll let you see the pictures and you can decide if the tiles could handle the load.