Home Improvement Today?

Are there no valleys between the grains?

 

Wut

 

I don't speak wood.

Is that totally flat or are the wood grains sitting proud?

 

Flat

 

Starting the slow process of framing the compressor shed using mostly scrap and remnant lumber the previous owner left strewn about the property.

 

There are some spare pieces left over from the shop (which is mildly worrisome), but not enough to finish the shed in it. I'll wrap it with T-111, paint it to match the house, and possibly roof it with spare roofing tiles from the house. Already did that for the dog house I built.

 

I build things that work well and will never fall apart, but probably look like hell. You, sir, are an artist.

 

Donkey Smell

 

alright, really needing some info guys. i'm having a real problem with my basement. my house is almost 100 years old, stone foundation. not a finished basement but a lot of storage down there. at some point in the house's history, someone put down maybe an inch of concrete over top of the existing dirt floor. so naturally, the floor is all buckled and cracked now. not my major concern at the moment.

well, here is a little backstory that will help understand my problem. i live in an older small town. until recently, it still had combined sewers. everyones downspouts and storm drainage all went into the sanitary lines. they recently finished up the sanitary/storm separation in my area and it was mandatory that everyone disconnect their downspouts. well, everyone turned them out to discharge to grade rather than discharging them at the street. so end the backstory...

with all the rain we've had in my area, i think all of this new storm drainage that was never there before because it was piped into the sanitary, is now completely overloading the ground water table. when it rains a moderate amount, i have water coming up through my floor. it bubbles up through the cracks in the floor, it comes in through where the floor meets the stone foundation, and if it rains hard it is terrible. i had water sheeting across my floor like a freaking river last hard rain storm.

how can i deal with a high water table? from what i can tell, all of the water comes through the floor. i looked into french drains (exterior), but to put them at the level of the basement i would have nowhere to discharge them to and i dont think that would solve my problem. i installed a shallow curtain drain on the one side of the house to grab any water from the neighbor's house (uphill from mine) but i still had issues from the last storm which leads me to believe this is a high water table issue. would interior french drains to a sump pump help? i'm just not sure where to start because the water comes in everywhere under the concrete slab, it's not concentrated to one side or another. i'm sure i would have to bust up the floor in there now and put a proper base in as a start, but not real sure what other options i should be looking at to fix this problem.

sorry for the long post, hopefully it makes sense and i didnt leave anything out. typed this pretty quickly on my lunch break.

 

Interior weeping system into a sump pump that discharges outside

 

isnt that just a perimeter system though? would the gravel base of the new concrete let the water that is say percolating up through the middle of the floor reach the perf pipe at the basement perimeter?

 

No , you get rid of your existing concrete ground seal , dig a trench around the interior perimeter of the basement , install a weeping tile system that drains into a sump chamber that pumps automatically when full . Lay down a vapour barrier and pour a proper concrete ground seal or slab .

This job is likely not a homeowner gig because depending on your footing depth you may need to bench inside in order to dig the drainage trench

 

i spent the last 2 weekends digging 50 foot long trenches on either side of my house lol. my downspouts are piped all the way to the road. where the grades were slightly sloped towards my house, i dug next to my new downspout lines and put some perf pipe in a bed of gravel to act as a curtain drain. anything else i can do?

 

i'm not entirely sure if my house has a footer. its old enough it might just be the stone right on the ground.

 

Yeah , that wouldn't be a surprise and also why I would deem it a non homeowner job

 

So , I'm finally done

Just a bit of final sanding then the staining crew ( Mrs OZ ) takes over , once it's all coated I will install the piece of 1/2" glass that goes into the upper railing section

Glad I did it , Glad it's done

 

Just clear I think , I didn't want to block any of the light that comes down from the skylight above that area

 

Looks good and quite a task to take on while working. Sitback and enjoy...glad you didn't cap it with anything gaudy...nice simple lines.

 

Agreed. Less is more.

 

Awesome work as always Oz