JMG Posted October 3, 2017 Author Report Share Posted October 3, 2017 Tuesday is demo day... the one day of the week where I try to find out how much weight I can stuff into the trash bin. So far it has only been limited by how much plaster or stone that I can personally wheel out to the curb. Trying to keep from having to pay for a dumpster. Found about thirty years worth of razor blades in the bath wall below the old medicine cabinet. Since we are running out of warm and or dry weather, the rest of the day was spent on mudding in two basement windows, and looking for cracks in the block to fill in. Doesn't look like I will get to apply the gray primer this week (rain incoming). I am so tired of the ugly red paint the last owner chose for the foundation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMG Posted October 11, 2017 Author Report Share Posted October 11, 2017 Yesterday was demo day again and I started the day by removing the added floor coverings in the bathroom. I have decided that the previous occupants of the home would have made great government employees in charge of cover-ups, as they couldn't fix any problems they encountered, probably could not be bothered to ask for any advice, and used incredibly ineffective methods in their attempts at hiding anything they ran into that could have been fixed with even the slightest amount of original thought or understanding of what was happening to cause the issue in the first place. While the current batch of issues started with the original flooring installer's lack of understanding of how wood moves when exposed to higher levels of moisture, the first attempt made at covering up the buckling floor in the bathroom was to spread out a layer of thinset (yeah, lets add more water to the problem), then screw down a 1/4" sheet of ply, spread some more thinset, and then apply peel and stick vinyl tiles... I am quite sure this did not last very long and instead of pulling up the vinyl tiles (took all of five minutes to do so), the next cover-up was to apply yet another layer of thinset and then glue down a vinyl sheet and half-ass caulk the edges. The last person to add the vinyl covering, may have also been responsible for not installing a wax ring on the toilet too, as there was no indication of any wax at all when I replaced the toilet itself after moving into the house. Some of the issues could or should have been addressed before covering up the problems. The person who installed the hardwood flooring did not leave any expansion gaps at the walls (wedged tight to the framing), and I am pretty certain that no sealer was applied to the end grain at the tub either. The problem was also exacerbated by the fact that they used a low density fiber underlayment instead of plywood in the wet areas. When the first signs of buckling appeared, they might have been able to forestall any issues by cutting a gap into the floor surface at the walls and then reseal the floors, but at the stage the floor was at when they tried the first episode of hide and seek, the wood flooring should have been removed altogether. The end result was that I found a fairly large patch of black mold trapped in the different strata of the attempts to improve the room's floor surface. I hope this is the last major mold find for me, but I have not torn out the kitchen yet... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMG Posted October 15, 2017 Author Report Share Posted October 15, 2017 Yesterday I spent a majority of the day working on mechanical issues, primarily installing two exterior vents. As it was the last really warm day forecast for the week, some oil base primer on the new wood around the windows was on the list too. Still need to make a couple of flange supports for those two vents as a way to both support and seal the bottom side of the vent cap and pipe. Today I spent most of the day verifying pipe run locations and working on plumbing design for the bathroom. I have spent way too much time trying to find a small soaking tub. The US plumbing industry in the US absolutely sucks when it comes to small space design. Google doesn't help matters any with their attempt to support a localized marketing base when searching for ideas and specifications. You have to be a bit of a mental contortionist to get beyond the seeming border restrictions, but unfortunately, importing something from out of country that might fit into the space I am working with is too expensive of a proposition. I have decided to focus on one of the smallest tubs I could find in the supply system and work around the possible difficulties it may cause. This one has a forty inch square footprint and if I pursue the design idea I had originally worked on, of a soaking tub and separate shower, it will necessitate the combined demolition of both the bath and kitchen areas at the same time. Kitchen will have to lose a few inches in width so that I can maintain at least some semblance of code compliance in minimum spacing requirements in the bath. Not that the current space would pass today's codes by any stretch. May have to flat stud a section of the bedroom wall as well. The toughest part was simply making the decision to move a wall, but since the old plumbing is going to end up being completely stripped out anyways, there will not be any other major obstacles in doing so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMG Posted October 27, 2017 Author Report Share Posted October 27, 2017 Nothing like a hard shift in the weather to arrange ones priorities... Ran short of time, and warm weather. At least it's capable of running at the moment. Spent the morning making sure it was functioning properly before starting work on the upper duct work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMG Posted November 6, 2017 Author Report Share Posted November 6, 2017 Tonight we got another one of those gully washers... The backwater valve did it's job, leaving me just with water intruding under pressure out of the block wall as high as three blocks off the floor, which is just over five feet below grade. Prior to the installation of the valve, I would have had up to six inches of water in the basement from the initial surge. At one point in the basement I could literally hear water running in the wall, and may have discovered another item I will have to open up and fix. It seems someone cut an old drain line that came in from outside about forty plus inches off the floor (you can see it in the picture of the furnace), and just covered it over with concrete. The drain was probably the one out of the garage floor and may also be from the storm tile off of the roof. Wherever it goes, or comes from, it still seems to be active and is running water into my block wall. You just can't fix stupid... Hopefully, the repair won't be too painful of a project. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DR99 Posted November 7, 2017 Report Share Posted November 7, 2017 Wow that is some crazy hydrostatic pressure!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMG Posted November 8, 2017 Author Report Share Posted November 8, 2017 During that latest downpour, I emailed the city engineers office again about the flooding issues we have been having, and received a response early the next morning. Yesterday the engineer in charge of the city drainage stopped by my house to talk to me, along with a copy of the email and pictures I had sent in. I had asked a question about capping the storm tiles I have on the rear corners of my house, and if it would be a problem of any type, and he came out to verify what I was doing and agreed with me that it was probably the best solution for my immediate problem. The asshats that had cut the drain off in the basement were probably the same ones that then inserted the downspout from the gutters into tiles that, I now believe, are tied to the blocked pipe in the wall. All part of the addition that they had built onto the back end of the house. It's almost never just one problem or situation causing major water issues in a basement. I still have to open up that patch on the wall, and hope that there is something intact enough to work with. The final solution may include reconnecting that drain, if I can determine if it is connected to the old drain in the detached garage or not. At the minimum I want to be able to add a threaded plug onto the end and repair the patch in the wall, and also fill in the cavities in the block wall under it. Today I filled in, and covered of the top of the drain tiles with cement, and the amusing part is now I am hoping for another heavy downpour, before winter, to see if there is a significant change in the water pattern in the basement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMG Posted November 18, 2017 Author Report Share Posted November 18, 2017 Had enough rain today to prove that the caps on the old storm tiles have helped, but did not fix the water infiltration problem into that idiot damaged pipe. I have been attempting to work up the courage to open up the wall where the drain was cut off, and today's rain has shown that I am going to have to definitely repair and reconnect that pipe to the drain system. There is still a large amount of water filtering into that pipe from somewhere, and there are no obvious sources on the outside of the building, for the amount I am seeing and hearing. In fact, the pad that I poured earlier this year directs any water that hits it away from the corner nearest the broken drain. Overall, I have slowed the amount of water entering into the basement enough to be able to identify the main problem areas remaining on the outside of the house, and those items will need to move to the top of the list sometime next spring. Some back fill along one side of the house, a storm drain pipe out towards the street, and new gutters, with a different flow to drain point, should correct a majority of the remaining issues. Never ending battle... End of life on the roofing is fast approaching too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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