Lord God in heaven, the cement in the basement is too thick and they have to come out next week with the BIG jackhammer.
The crew did explain what was wrong - the "footer" that the basement wall sits on is increasingly deep, so it works against the downhill slope we have that you think would help with drainage.
Here is some conceptual art for you: a drawing I made for Gary to explain the problem.
- The black lines show the wall sitting on the footer. The footer is a wedge instead of the rectangle it should be. The water is already flowing in from the right side and puddles up because it runs into the cement footer.
- The blue is what we will have: a trench through the footer, on the basement side, that will give the water an egress. (Any previous egress we might have had is blocked up.)
(I recognize this could all be an ornate lie. How would I know?)
They only finished half, but luckily there was a downpour this week and the remaining leaks were illuminating. There are two, and they both are clearly a result of spots where I have outside dirt piled up to the top of the basement wall. Ironically, I did that to get some vertical drainage going on the outside, not the inside. Also, the team was able to drill one hole into the sump pump area to alleviate the pressure underground (only one, all others were impeded by the concrete that reaches to Hell).
So, home construction takes precedence over art for another week, but next Thursday they should be done. I have art plans:
- Return to old bad things and fix them. For example, I left a detailed Buffalo hovering over some abstract grass: I could add some trees or something to fix that.
- Download the Masterclass oil painting class when it arrives on 8/22. That should be interesting.
Comments