Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Uncle of What Lies Beneath

Yesterday saw the return of plumber man to finish up the basement.

Or at least that was the plan.

Last Thursday he came out for day two, and was planning on returning the next day to finish it up, and bring a "kid from the yard" to clean up all the debris while he worked.

Well, he was unable make it out Friday, but they scheduled him for Monday morning between 9 and 10. We also had the installation of new windows scheduled for 10, but as plumber man was going to be in the basement, and window men upstairs, they could work at the same time.

Window man 1 showed at 9:57 and promptly got to work, with window man 2 showing up 30 minutes later. At 11 I called the plumber man's boss to inquire and was told he was on an emergency call, and they would let us know what time he'd make it out.

Basement drain work day three 05
Holey Holes!

He eventually made it out around 2:30 and stayed until almost 7. We still have holes in the floor, very large holes. We have less holes than last week, but that is because some holes have joined forces to become one big hole.

He did get everything all tied together though. Now we have a drainage system that circles the entire basement, and is tied into the storm drain. So any water that get under the basement will drain away. Huzzah!

Basement drain work day three 09
Piles and holes and pipes and things.

We also have the aforementioned holes still, as well as piles of nasty sludgy gravel, concrete chunks, and clay.

The only thing left to do is to remove/replace the floor drain by the washer, as he found that one also had a hole knocked in the side of it to (theoretically) tie into the old drainage system, finish installation of the cleanouts, fill in all the holes with pea gravel, and haul away all the sludgy piles.

Basement drain work day three 16
The plumber gave us piles.

That was supposed to be today's task, but as he left so late last night, he ended up booked for today already, and it has now become tomorrow's task.

Fingers are crossed that we will have this finished by the end of the day tomorrow.

Then we will still need to let everything sit a week or so to make sure everything stays dry like we expect, then we get to put in the concrete ourselves to finish it up, but that should be no problem. We just have to be able to move the washer and dryer back into place before then so we can have some clean clothes.

The more I saw as he opened up the floor to fix this thing, the more I understand why the company that initially put in the drainage system are no longer in business.

What a mess, but the new windows are great!

Of Windows and Dogs 03

As usual there are more pictures to see. Just click on any pictures to go to my Flickr account.

2 comments:

Susan said...

I see a little doggie head in the doorway! The new windows look really great, I bet they cut down on your heating/cooling bills. The giant holes look giant, and dirty. Hope it all works out and you can have a clean and dry basement and some clean and dry clothes.

Anne said...

There is indeed a little doggie head in the doorway! I think it's the Lady Lo. Rest assured that K got the laundry rehooked up (albeit on top of boards to bridge the uncemented channel). And the windows rule!