Thursday, January 6, 2011

basement update

I haven't posted a Basement update in a while, so I thought I'd bring you up to speed on what is happening.

Shortly after the last pictures were taken, we realized that we had a water problem in the basement. Ever since we moved in we have had an issue with the walkout stairs in the back. During heavy rains, water runs down the stairs and overwhelms the small drain and then begins to seep under the doorway into the basement. Pat fixed the problem earlier this summer, by changing the drain cover to one that rises higher than the ground and has vertical slats to allow more water to flow in and prevent it from getting clogged by leaves and debris. No more leaks!

So we thought.

Right after we signed the contract for the basement renovation, we had a weekend of steady rain. The next morning, the basement floor bore the tell tale signs of water seepage. This time in a different spot, just to the right of the basement door. Pat got a little nervous about dropping all this money on the basement just to have it ruined by water damage.

So we looked in to waterproofing companies. I began to get a pit in my stomach just thinking about how much they were going to slam us for. Pat called two companies to come out for estimates. The first company gave us the whole song-and-dance with a binder full of pictures of how the basement was constructed, the perils of heavy clay soil, water flow, etc. His solution was to dig a hole inside the back wall of the basement and install a new drain-similar to a french drain-all the way along the back wall to the sump pump. And then also replace the sump pump. There was more to it than that, but I really started zoning out at that point. The price he quoted us was over $9,000, with a discount for doing it between Thanksgiving and the New Year, making it a little over $6,000. To be honest, I was expecting the damage to be more.

A second company came out and gave Pat the same diagnosis. The sales woman was less of a hard-sell than the first one, and recommended the same fix for the basement at nearly half the price. We locked in and unfortunately had to pay the basement contractor extra and lose 2 days of work for them to take down the studs along the back wall and then to put them back up after the waterproofing was done.

All in all, I am glad we did it. We now have peace of mind that we won't have water in the basement...so worth it!

Here is what the basement looked like on New Years Eve. The drywall has been hung, mudded and sanded. Closet doors have been hung and the wood trim is up as well.The house is dusty, but we are getting there. We have picked the paint color and it is going up on the walls this week. Once the paint is up, I'll be able to pick carpet to be installed when the contractor is done. CANNOT wait for it to be finished.