Catching Up on Day 3

And we are done...with this part.

The company that we hired finished up late Wednesday afternoon. They had brought an extra guy to work with them in hopes that everything would go faster since our city inspectors like to screw with people or have something personal against our property (seriously, I'm beginning to think there's an ordinance just for us. Discussing the drama we went through with the garage might make for an interesting post someday). Anyhoo, here's what Wednesday ended with...

That pipe coming up is one of four access points that will allow our system to be flushed out or have maintenance performed on it if necessary. This is in the "new" room...the dirty wall is our old exterior wall. Since there is old drain tile all along that wall that got replaced with new stuff. It might seem like overkill but once you have had water in your basement I don't know if you can ever be overcautious!

This is the wall/corner that had been causing us so many problems. Once everything is dry we can get started cleaning up and scrubbing the walls. Even though drywall is going back up I don't want all that mold/mildew on the walls.

Logan leaving his mark on the floor
Ethan leaving his hand prints in the basement forever
Why not? If you have wet cement, how can you possibly resist putting hand prints in it?

A while ago I stated, "This is not the most inconvenient project we have done." I'd like to retract that statement for consideration. Stay tuned...I'll explain why this weekend. It might move into 1st place.

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.

Work Begins - Day 1

bye bye basement floor

The rattling started today around 8:30. There are two workers on our job and they jackhammered pretty much all day.

Today they made a trench around almost the entire basement, including around the old exterior walls since that area was wet too. Here Brian is admiring his busted up basement floor.

I know this isn't the greatest picture but you are looking at the trench along the wall that has given us the most problems. It's all full of water right now.

And here is the wall where all the new leaks were detected yesterday.
You can tell it's wet from how dark the concrete is.

It was loud today...an a little unnerving. However, given how much water is coming up through the trench I know that we made the best decision to get this done right now rather than waiting! The two guys that are here are very nice and even thanked us for giving them such a spacious and well organized work space. I'm so glad that our, mostly Brian's, preparation work did not go unnoticed. There was some talk about rerouting our old sump pump to the front of the house, which really made me happy. Right now we have some ridiculous job made out of PBC piping that has never given us any problems, which is why we haven't touched it. This is perhaps the one thing, other than the closet mentioned yesterday, that we haven't touched on this property. However, it is unsightly and generally is a topic of conversation whenever someone comes over and notices it. Unfortunately, Milwaukee county won't let them reroute it because they aren't licensed plumbers. If we lived in Walworth county this wouldn't be a problem. Stupid Milwaukee county. Either way, I think this is something we are going to consider doing...I may have to move it ahead of my Solor Tubes on the home wish list.

Look for Brian's post tomorrow night!

How Many Wet Dry Vacs Does a House Need?

Three. The answer is three. Here's why...

Last June, two were a necessity because the water was coming in so fast that by the time one got emptied, the other was almost full. Brian and I were relieved we had two...for the hour or so we had them both going.

Today Brian ran to Home Depot to buy a third, one with a pump attachment. The flow of water coming into the basement/up through the floor was so constant that it again required the two of us and our two wet dry vacs to keep up with the water...all afternoon. At least with the pump we didn't have to constantly run the buckets out. So, there you go, we need three wet dry vacs to keep up with the water.

Today I felt like we were fighting a two front war. We are trying to beat the house at the water war by becoming allies with a basement company. Therefore we needed to take some time and prepare. Before this morning we were almost done. All we had to do was hang the plastic. However, our house didn't really allow that to happen because every time we turned around this afternoon water was coming in from a new place. A good 5 solid hours was spent trying to complete a task that should have only taken 30 minutes - tops.

I just keep reminding myself that at least we have a plan and are doing something about this. Tomorrow is the big day. Here are some shots from the weekend preparations:

Saturday, Brian worked very hard at removing the last of the drywall and cutting all the studs 8 inches off the floor. Since that needed to be done for the entire perimeter of the basement the closets also needed to be attacked. This closet was here when we moved in and nothing had ever been done with it. Therefore, we had no idea the shelves were secured by no less than 7 million nails. What were the previous owners storing in here? Gold bars?
Here is the wall of main concern. Yes, all the dark areas are water and those are sandbags. A feeble attempt to divert water under the stairs and to the sewer drain. It mostly worked...things could have been much worse.
Here is our bookshelf bench, all covered up
Just pretend E.T. and Elliot are at the end of all the plastic.

Every inch of the basement is impacted by this. Even the "new" room. If you look closely at the corner on the right, near the sump pump, you can see how dark our walls are. That's how high the water table is right now. While there is no water on the floor, there is in the cinder blocks.

Even the wall under the stairs had to be removed.

Date Set and the First of the Non-Fun Home Improvement Projects Completed

We got more attic insulation today. Fun huh? This was a project we intended to do prior to the basement crisis and decided to go forward with it since we really needed it.

As for a basement update...Drywall is half down, studs have been cut 8 inches from the ground, what parts of wall that still remain have been braced and the closets are almost emptied. Brian's workshop is ready to go. The basement people are coming next Monday which doesn't feel soon enough. Last week we got rain on Thursday and the water was coming in so fast that it was whistling or gurgling. I think it's supposed to warm up again at the end of this week and if we get water again it will be okay...there is nothing left to ruin!

Option #2 It Is

We have decided to go with Option #2 and are thrilled that an insurance adjusted is going to come out and take a look at our basement. While I highly doubt anything is going to be covered there is a small part of me that is hoping that SOMETHING will be covered. Even if that something is the carpeting or drywall - every little bit is going to help.

No date yet for the 3 day drilling out of the basement. Next week an insulation guy is coming to add more insulation to our attic, clean out the vents and properly vent our bathroom vents. Not exactly the sexiest home improvement project, but a necessity nevertheless. This was a project we knew we were going to do prior to the whole basement fiasco.

Like I said, our house has it's own Economic Stimulus Plan.

Three Options to Consider

We know we need to fix the basement. It's hard to blame the company that did the addition because, frankly, they warned us that we'd have problems if we didn't fix all the drain tile...someday. We hoped "someday" would come later rather than sooner. So we have three different options to pick as we decide how we are going to fix this problem.

1. Just replace the drain tile where there is known damage and add a 3rd sump pump...based on experience, I feel as though you fix the problem in one spot and then the problem just moves somewhere else. This is exactly what happened to us. This is by far the cheapest short term solution.
2. Just replace the inside drain tile with their fancy system. The company that we are considering will provide a warranty so we feel pretty good about that.
3. Replace the inside drain tile, basically redesign the sump crocks and (shutter) dig up the around the entire exterior perimeter of the house. The saleswoman wouldn't say "excavate" which started to irritate me. Instead a couple of guys are going to come with shovels and dig down to the frost line. How is that not excavating?

Option three causes me to have visible signs of stress...we have all that brand new landscaping out there, brickwork, gravel service path and DRIVEWAY. Since our walls are fine (everyone agrees that) I have a very hard time accepting option 3. It's also twice as expensive as option #2 and about five times as expensive as option #1. Therefore, it's not really an option.

July 2008