Waterproofing
On Thursday, our waterproofing project was completed. To summarize:
- If you are facing our front door from the street, the foundation was excavated from the right side of the front steps and around the wall all the way to the garage.
- In order to to get the excavator into position, the fence back there separating us from our neighbor was removed, and the various pine bushes and flowering plants in front of the house were cut down. Neither is a loss. In fact, M is pretty near ecstatic about the pine bushes. They also had to break up and remove the concrete pad outside of the back door.
- The old drainage pipe at the bottom of the foundation was bowing so water would get stuck in it. An all new PVC pipe was laid with easier to access cleanouts. New PVC was run from multiple rain gutters down to the drainage pipe.
- Since they had to dig up the wall to fix the pipe anyway, the tar-like waterproofing substance was smeared all over the walls. Then this was covered by water resistant foam.
- The hole was then filled with gravel and the dirt that had been in it is originally. It was covered by topsoil.
It will be nice when our basement stops smelling vaguely of whatever that tar-like substance on the walls is. Honestly, it smells vaguely like nail polish remover. The only other potential problem is that they found that the floor drain in our garage was going to the same drainage line that was replaced, which is completely against modern code. Fixing that would have been enormously expensive, so we opted to have them cap it. We don't park cars over that drain anyway, so it shouldn't be a big concern.
All that remains is for our HVAC company to come back and put the compressor back into position. They came prior to the excavator company, disconnected it and put it in our garage. Well, I suppose we need to get a new fence and do something with the place where the pine shrubs were, but those aren't a priority.
Whether or not it worked, well, that we won't find out until the next heavy rain. However, I feel pretty confident. Before we signed off on this expensive job, they came out and ran cameras down the drains. Most of them weren't clogged. Even the line to the street that goes under our tree was totally clear. However, the contractors found the bowing pipe along the side of the house, which corresponded to where most of the water was entering out house.
Finding a contractor was the usual hassle. Late in 2021 I called a bunch of folks in the hopes of getting on the spring 2022 schedule. As is traditional, most never called me back. The one guy who did:
- failed to show up for the estimate
- When called, did show up and promised to give us a written estimate via email, and then never did. While I 'appreciate' the chance to skim through my spam folder to see if I missed something, I clearly wasn't calling him back.
I was out of ideas there, but then I happened to notice a sign for my usual plumber (Killeen Plumbing) in someone's yard when I walking Birdie back from the lake. The yard in question was clearly having waterproofing work done. I hadn't realized my plumber had an excavating division, and once I found that out I went with them for all the work. I was pleased with their professional and custom service.
When they did the camera work I got estimates for doing the entire house, but given prohibitive cost of doing all the work at once I opted to do just the half where the leak (and the identified problem) was. I may consider the second half in the future, mostly because the drain line that goes under our screened porch has apparently collapsed. However, there's no leak on that side of the house so we'll see what happens.
Many thanks are due to EmilyT for suggesting that we get someone to come out run a camera down the lines to see if there was a problem that could be fixed more cheaply than digging up the walls. There wasn't, but it was worth a shot!
After the project was finished, I had the somewhat horrifying thought that from 2019 to today, I have put nearly $70K of work into the house between:
- Waterproofing. - $17K
- Water Filtration Unit - ~$5K
- New Roof - ~$24K
- Central Air Conditioning - ~$22K
That's about 40% of what I paid for the house back in 2007, and that doesn't include the Interior Painting / Wallpaper Removal or Blinds from 2020.
Conclusion: I am never moving again. At least most of this would raise the value of the house if I ever did need to sell it.
- If you are facing our front door from the street, the foundation was excavated from the right side of the front steps and around the wall all the way to the garage.
- In order to to get the excavator into position, the fence back there separating us from our neighbor was removed, and the various pine bushes and flowering plants in front of the house were cut down. Neither is a loss. In fact, M is pretty near ecstatic about the pine bushes. They also had to break up and remove the concrete pad outside of the back door.
- The old drainage pipe at the bottom of the foundation was bowing so water would get stuck in it. An all new PVC pipe was laid with easier to access cleanouts. New PVC was run from multiple rain gutters down to the drainage pipe.
- Since they had to dig up the wall to fix the pipe anyway, the tar-like waterproofing substance was smeared all over the walls. Then this was covered by water resistant foam.
- The hole was then filled with gravel and the dirt that had been in it is originally. It was covered by topsoil.
It will be nice when our basement stops smelling vaguely of whatever that tar-like substance on the walls is. Honestly, it smells vaguely like nail polish remover. The only other potential problem is that they found that the floor drain in our garage was going to the same drainage line that was replaced, which is completely against modern code. Fixing that would have been enormously expensive, so we opted to have them cap it. We don't park cars over that drain anyway, so it shouldn't be a big concern.
All that remains is for our HVAC company to come back and put the compressor back into position. They came prior to the excavator company, disconnected it and put it in our garage. Well, I suppose we need to get a new fence and do something with the place where the pine shrubs were, but those aren't a priority.
Whether or not it worked, well, that we won't find out until the next heavy rain. However, I feel pretty confident. Before we signed off on this expensive job, they came out and ran cameras down the drains. Most of them weren't clogged. Even the line to the street that goes under our tree was totally clear. However, the contractors found the bowing pipe along the side of the house, which corresponded to where most of the water was entering out house.
Finding a contractor was the usual hassle. Late in 2021 I called a bunch of folks in the hopes of getting on the spring 2022 schedule. As is traditional, most never called me back. The one guy who did:
- failed to show up for the estimate
- When called, did show up and promised to give us a written estimate via email, and then never did. While I 'appreciate' the chance to skim through my spam folder to see if I missed something, I clearly wasn't calling him back.
I was out of ideas there, but then I happened to notice a sign for my usual plumber (Killeen Plumbing) in someone's yard when I walking Birdie back from the lake. The yard in question was clearly having waterproofing work done. I hadn't realized my plumber had an excavating division, and once I found that out I went with them for all the work. I was pleased with their professional and custom service.
When they did the camera work I got estimates for doing the entire house, but given prohibitive cost of doing all the work at once I opted to do just the half where the leak (and the identified problem) was. I may consider the second half in the future, mostly because the drain line that goes under our screened porch has apparently collapsed. However, there's no leak on that side of the house so we'll see what happens.
Many thanks are due to EmilyT for suggesting that we get someone to come out run a camera down the lines to see if there was a problem that could be fixed more cheaply than digging up the walls. There wasn't, but it was worth a shot!
After the project was finished, I had the somewhat horrifying thought that from 2019 to today, I have put nearly $70K of work into the house between:
- Waterproofing. - $17K
- Water Filtration Unit - ~$5K
- New Roof - ~$24K
- Central Air Conditioning - ~$22K
That's about 40% of what I paid for the house back in 2007, and that doesn't include the Interior Painting / Wallpaper Removal or Blinds from 2020.
Conclusion: I am never moving again. At least most of this would raise the value of the house if I ever did need to sell it.