Thursday, November 7, 2013

The Basement Saga, pt 1

 I have been avoiding this project like the plague.  It's dirty, it's nasty, and it's a pain in the arse job that's not going to be a pretty color or well decorated when I'm done.  All it has to do is not allow water to enter when it rains.  After I patch all the holes, we will finally be able to discover if the flooding is caused by (a) excessive water leaking into the crumbling mortar of the partial basement walls that comes through the ground, (b) surface run-off when the ground gets too saturated.  If it ceases to flood after I do all this work (which I doubt it will), it could mean that the problem is not the drainage easement that dumps onto our property; the owner of the easement will still need to eventually connect the pipes and bring it up to code though.  For now, I would just like to not see miniature waterfalls springing out of the wall when it rains.

This is the worst of the walls of the basement, I thought I'd start here to maintain the structural integrity.

The middle of that wall complete with old sound equipment
The corner of the wall.  Notice how much red clay powder gets deposited every time it floods.

I believe that this big ass crack is an entry point for water.
The first bit of patching I did today.
 I think eventually, if this helps significantly, I will do a skim coat over all of this with regular cement just to "lock things in place."
The area I finished today.  All gaping holes have been filled.  There area  few areas where the outer coating of concrete has come away to reveal the bricks, but I don't believe they are entry points for water.

The portion for tomorrow afternoon...
 Oh and the best part of this, all the items seen in the photos above (which is not the entire contents of the basement) need to be shipped off to the dump.  Ooh goody!

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