Fireplace Update

This is going back almost a year now, but we finally fixed something that has been making me cringe since we bought the joint...the multi-colored slate hearth:

It already looks better:

Poured a fresh base for the new tile:

My lovely wife capped it off with the tiling, since she is far more patient than I am:

And going with the 80/20 rule, the only thing left to do is a bit of trim to finish the edges:

Basement (Pt 2): Devising a plan (Water Management Complete)

Since we went through so much to remove the mold, we certainly want to ensure that we don't have an issue again in the future.  So off to the interwebs I went to do my research, and found the following:

• Water management:
• Exterior waterproofing / weeping tile (french drain) systems are really, really expensive
• Interior waterproofing / weeping tile (french drain) systems are only really expensive...just one "really"
• Water will likely work it's way into the house over time

• Interior climate: 
• If you don't control interior conditions, you'll likely end up with condensation, which can still lead to mold

So, I have to figure out a way to remove the water that comes in, and prevent moisture in the air inside the basement from condensing onto cold surfaces...sounds easy enough.

I began to look into having a basement company come in and install an interior weeping tile system (commonly referred to as a french drain, and quickly found out that for the size and shape of our home we would easily be looking at $10,000 and up.  And quite frankly, I'm not totally confident in the quality of jobs that companies do for a flat fee since they can make more by quick turnover and corner cutting.  If I was going to hire this job out, it would have been to a company called HydroArmor.  Watch the youtube videos that Dan O'Connor has posted and tell me that you'd be confident in someone else doing this job...plus he's hysterical.

However, my being almost fearless in the renovation department, I decided to tackle this job on my own (with the help of some family and hired muscle).

Here are the basics of what I have been up to:

Break the basement floor around the perimeter

Dig a sump pit and a trench to the bottom of the footer and line with filter fabric

Add a stone base
Lay the drain pipe (wrapped in a filter "sock") and set the sump basin

Run the discharge line to the exterior

Back fill the trench to the bottom of the floor and drill weep holes in the blocks

Hang a dimple membrane n the wall and overlapping the footer and stone

Back fill with concrete to refinish the floor

Since there is an outside entrance accessible through bilco doors that don't seal out the weather, I will be building an exterior entrance just inside the basement to seal out the elements.  To accommodate for any water that gets in through those doors into the entrance area, I have also installed a drainage grate at the bottom of the steps:

That should take care of any water from the outside (fingers crossed).

The next step is to manage indoor climate and humidity.  In short, I will be framing the exterior walls 1" away from the block foundation walls, and having a company come in and apply sprat foam from the floor to the ceiling, which will cover the dimple membrane, seal the above grade block wall, and seal the rim joists.  This will create a thermal break between the inside air, and the outside temperatures, and eliminate condensation inside.  And that means that I can move on to finish the basement without worry of additional issues!

There are many details, tips, and tricks that I have found in my research, or figured out on my own during the project that I have been documenting, and hope to make that available as a downloadable eBook at some point, so check back and/or leave a comment if you want to get in touch for more info (I'm a real research nerd).

Some of this may seam overboard, but as my building hero Mike Holmes says, "do it right, do it once" (paraphrasing there).

Basement (Pt 1): There be MOLD!

Would have been nice if there be gold, but mold it was.  Our house, being roughly 60 years old, was bound to have water in the basement at one point or another, especially with cinder-block foundation walls.  It came in drips and drabs, was easily cleanable, and we ran a dehumidifier much of the time.  This is what it looked like during it's best days:

Unfortunately, this is the only "before" pic that I can find.  

This is the finished living area.  

There is also a large unfinished storage room and work shop, 

as well as a utility room and bathroom.

At the end of last summer, we got hit with a clogged condensate line in the central air handler, and a ton of condensation inside the basement that resulted in quite a bit of visible mold.  It was in the ceiling tiles all under the pipes and central air runs, and in the exposed wall areas surrounding the central air handler.

The clogged condensate line that for some reason empties under the floor...

Mold on the floor and walls around the central air handler...

More mold under the stairs...

To ensure that the mold remediation people killed all of the mold, we decided the best plan of action was to empty the basement of all contents (and clean them before putting them into temporary storage), and completely demo the basement down to the block walls.  Once I started the demo on the finished walls, I knew we had made the smart choice.  The mold and rot was as high as 3-4 feet up the inside of the walls in many spots.  We filled a dumpster with 4 tons of debris.

All in the middle of the summer.

Without any central A/C (since we didn't want to blow mold all over the rest of the house).

That was awesome...

It's been far too long my friends

HA!!   So, apparently it's been FOUR YEARS since our last post. 

Here's a quick catch up:

• The master bathroom has been completed
• The kitchen has been given a minor face lift
• Upstairs bedroom 1 was covered with new drywall and given a larger closet
• Our first little project arrived...a BOY!
• Upstairs bathroom was gutted to studs, expanded, and completely refinished (my first plumbing experience)
• Upstairs bedroom 2 was gutted to studs, re-insulated, given a larger closet, and a built in storage area in one of the knee walls
• Our second little project arrived...a GIRL!!!
• Began work on a custom headboard using an old door
• Discovered a major mold issue in our basement which promptly led to:
• Complete basement demo, down to the block
• Installing an interior weeping tile system (french drain) and waterproofing membrane (current project)
• Re-finishing the basement

I plan to revisit each of these in more detail, as well as document other projects as they come along, for prosperity sake.  That being said, I can't make any promises as to the frequency of those posts.