My basement looks like a combat zone

[WickedLou9]

I'm having my basement waterproofed and the walls rough coated with cement. It's a pretty major undertaking. It's an old stone foundation so they have to clean off the surface and remove alot of the old cement skim coat. Then they dig through the cement floor all around the perimeter and lay some perforated PVC pipe and back fill it with gravel. Then they put up some kind of plastic sheeting on the walls. Then they affix wire mesh to the walls. Finally the walls get two coats of cement and the tranch gets sealed off with cement and a sump pump with a battery backup gets installed.

This is how it looks after Day 1. My wife won't even go down to look at it. She went down the stairs, turned around and came back up.

[WickedLou9]

Oh this is what the foundation walls used to look like

[motivez]

what's that stuff on the left? it looks like that stuff that came out of people's eye's in event horizon!

[Stylerod]

Wow. It looks like a damned bomb shelter with that steel plating! At least you don't have to worry about tornado's anymore!

[7960]

I need to do this. How much?

[WickedLou9]

Originally Posted by 7960

I need to do this. How much?

it's way too much for 3 days work. about 13-14k. But I am having them do quite a bit of work. there were some other options as well that are cheaper. If your plan was to put up walls you could just do the plastic sheeting which is alot cheaper. There were some other options too.

This is the company I used if anyone cares

Right Way: Basement Waterproofing, Mold Removal and Remediation, Basement Finishing

[WickedLou9]

Originally Posted by motivez

what's that stuff on the left? it looks like that stuff that came out of people's eye's in event horizon!

hehe, yeah it's ugly right? That was the surface of the old foundation with some old skim coating/waterproofing that may have been applied 50 years ago for all I know.

[WickedLou9]

Well this is how the walls look after day 2. Not bad. Tomorrow they should be finishing up, cementing up the floors and installing the sump pump.

Umm.. the only thing is.. See there is this old hatch.. I should say WAS... there WAS this old hatch that was access to where the fireplace ashes fall into. There is a little panel in our fireplace and you open the panel and sweep the ashes into it. They fall down into this box in the basement. The box is sort of in the wall and there was this hatch you open to get to it. It was a really old black cast iron thing. Well they took the hatch off when they ripped down the old wood paneling... and they cemented over the hole! It's not really something that I ever used. I usually sweep the fireplace out and put the ashes into a bag and throw them away. But still... they cemented over it! I'm going to have to talk to them about that. They also cemented over one of the phone wires I have running in the basement and i had to pull that out before the cement dried but that was not a big deal.
The walls look fantastic though

[motivez]

definitely looks a lot better!

Maybe they can cut some kind of access point for the fireplace thing?

[WickedLou9]

Originally Posted by motivez

definitely looks a lot better!

Maybe they can cut some kind of access point for the fireplace thing?

Yeah they fixed it today when they came to finish up. I havn't seen it yet but my wife says it looks fine.

I just went out and bought some of that concrete floor surface coating stuff. I'm gonna put that down next. Pain in my ass I tell ya.

[Stylerod]

11k. Yikes. I cringed when we just had to put in a new water heater today for $600.

The finished wall looks great though! Are you thinking about finishing the basement so you can use it as a rec room or anything?

[WickedLou9]

Originally Posted by Stylerod

11k. Yikes. I cringed when we just had to put in a new water heater today for $600.

The finished wall looks great though! Are you thinking about finishing the basement so you can use it as a rec room or anything?

Yeah kinda. That's the whole reason we are doing this. We used to get some water in the basement when it rained really hard. So You can't go putting anything down there if it's wet and damp. Then you have to worry about water damage and mold and shit.
SO yeah, there will be a wall going up that sort of divides the basement in half. The half with nothing in it will probably have my computer desk and some large cabinets for storage and a small play area for my daughter. The other half where the water heater and boiler and stuff are will be my workshop and where the washer and dryer are.

I am probably going to start framing up the wall this weekend and get to work on the electrical. The fun never ends.

[Stylerod]

Originally Posted by WickedLou9

Yeah kinda. That's the whole reason we are doing this. We used to get some water in the basement when it rained really hard. So You can't go putting anything down there if it's wet and damp. Then you have to worry about water damage and mold and shit.
SO yeah, there will be a wall going up that sort of divides the basement in half. The half with nothing in it will probably have my computer desk and some large cabinets for storage and a small play area for my daughter. The other half where the water heater and boiler and stuff are will be my workshop and where the washer and dryer are.

I am probably going to start framing up the wall this weekend and get to work on the electrical. The fun never ends.

Then that will be 11k well spent since it will make your house more valuable as well. Sounds cool. We can always use more room!

[7960]

Originally Posted by Stylerod

Then that will be 11k well spent since it will make your house more valuable as well. Sounds cool. We can always use more room!

I wonder if he's going to pull permits and have the town inspect the work so they can raise his taxes.

[WickedLou9]

Originally Posted by 7960

I wonder if he's going to pull permits and have the town inspect the work so they can raise his taxes.

..... no. they already rape us for 5300 dollars a year, and that's not even terrible for NJ.