Water in Basement.....Help

[NuBota]

Scotty, excellent work. Like John said before, you have done a better job than what many contractors would have have. Actually thought about you when the rain hit here last night (before going on "tornado watch"). Sounds like you made out!

John - Agree with you on crack repair. But always had a few that insisted we do it from the outside, so we would do it.

Now the window well pics - never saw that way but I like it. We would dig out the well -shovel at the top and PHD as we worked down the outside wall - like a funnel - to the footer, er, footing. Then we would punch through the wall at the footing, run drain tile vertically then through the wall into the system - then fill well with gravel. Talk about a workout using the PHD laying on your stomach head first in the hole....

 

[scott_vt]

Scotty, excellent work. Like John said before, you have done a better job than what many contractors would have have. Actually thought about you when the rain hit here last night (before going on "tornado watch"). Sounds like you made out!

Good Evenin Guys,
Well the old Dodge got a work out today, a full load of oak got hauled home and then and went and bought 1 yard of crushed 1 1/2" gravel, that weighed in at 1.33 ton ! Didnt break any leaf springs but she was squattin pretty good !

Times like this I sure wish I owned a dump !!!

Eric, were makin a bit of progress, sure wish I had my bucket loader in Ct instead of Vt !

 

[WayneB]

That is a load! Wonder how long the brown garbage can will hold up to the load going down cellar!

 

[scott_vt]

That is a load! Wonder how long the brown garbage can will hold up to the load going down cellar!

Evenin Wayne,
How you doin Bud ?

Im more worried about how long the back will hold out !!!

 

[JB4310]

Scotty,
That stone is a little big, typical size 3/4", I thought it was just a typo on your part when I read your post about the 1.5" stone from the other night, sorry I didn't say something. There's nothing wrong with larger stone as long as you have the room in your trench to bed the pipe in. the only problem will be at the top, over the pipe and on top of the footing, you need 1.5-2 inches of concrete over the top so that only leaves a couple of inches between the top of the footing and the bottom of the concrete, with such large stone it's hard to level off.
You might have to loosely lay a single layer of stone on top of the footing and pipe, then cover it with a heavy plastic to prevent the concrete from getting down in between the stone and filling the needed voids.
Like I said, nothing wrong with larger stone as it leaves larger voids, just might be a little harder to work with. Good luck, it's raining hard tonight and supposed to be worse tomorrow afternoon, my business has been picking up the last few weeks with all the rain.

 

[scott_vt]

Scotty,
That stone is a little big, typical size 3/4", I thought it was just a typo on your part when I read your post about the 1.5" stone from the other night, sorry I didn't say something. There's nothing wrong with larger stone as long as you have the room in your trench to bed the pipe in.

Like I said, nothing wrong with larger stone as it leaves larger voids, just might be a little harder to work with. Good luck, it's raining hard tonight and supposed to be worse tomorrow afternoon, my business has been picking up the last few weeks with all the rain.

Mornin John,
Glad your business is picking up, I can see why, the ground just cant absorb any more water period !!!

I just have to say how unbelievably nice it is to go down into my basement this mornin and not have puddles all over the place !!! Let it rain baby !!!

Hey john, Im an experienced basement water proofer now !

That was a slight typo on the gravel size, its actually 1 1/4", which is still a bit large, but yes I was planning on putting a layer of plastic over the top of the stone. I believe you stated earlier that I really only need about 2" of concrete ? What do you suggest, the premix stuff ? I will be using a tub and my trusty hoe !

Oh yes, for anyone following this thread, I cant emphasize how important that hoe was for digging out the trench for the pipe, its a must have IMHO !

 

[NuBota]

Scotty, not to answer FOR John - but my suggestion in not to use the pre-mix. With only a couple of inches it is a little harder to put down with a smooth finish. We always just mixed portland and sand - no aggregate - call it cement, not concrete. And we always mixed by hoe and tub - transporting with the wonderful 5 gal buckets. John may have a different opinion

As far as the gravel, like John said, as long as you can cover the drain tile and footing, you should be good. I don't recall how deep you went - we always went 12-14 inches (graded to the sump) and used 3" tile - so 1.5 or 1.25 bluestone worked fine. If the footing was "high" we would use 3/4 on it. Only time we used 3/4 for the whole trench was when we couldn't get the larger stone

And I must say you did a heck of a quality job - you will not regret the work. And you have to feel "pumped" - bucket brigade is a manly upper body workout -especially for the forearms.....

 

[scott_vt]

And I must say you did a heck of a quality job - you will not regret the work. And you have to feel "pumped" - bucket brigade is a manly upper body workout -especially for the forearms.....

Good Mornin Eric,
Thanks for the reply, its also great to be able to drink beer and not gain any weight ! Thats a huge plus IMO ! Im closin in on 57 and Im feelin that Im in pretty good shape after this project !

 

[scott_vt]

Afternoon Boys,
Well we are gettin close to the end of this project !

I layed in the landscape fabric, held it down with a little gravel and layed in my pipe. Then started lugging in garbage can after garbage can of crushed gravel ! I still need a bit more down there but the old back cant take much more today !

Looking back on this project, the single most valuable bit of advice I have garnered, was the suggestion by John, to go with the black perforated corrugated pipe rather than the white pcv pipe with the double set of holes ! That little tip right there will keep this system operating for many many years to come, trouble free !

I will probablly post one final segment on the final wrap up of the " Pouring of the Concrete "

Thanks to all that have helped me get through this project !

 

[WayneB]

Scotty things are nice and wet up here in NH! Some many reasons I prefer snow at this time of the year. got my first signs of Mud Season today so it won't be too long and we will need planks to get across from sidewalk to sidewalk.

By the way 57 puts you smack in the AARP arena and you are just a short distance away from the Olde Farts Club! Working on the cellar project will put years on your life, or take them off, not sure which.

Have a good weekend and a few beers down cellar watching the water flow away.

Wayne