Basement Fixed, Wallet Destroyed

Two winters ago, I had a flood event happen in my home that had never happened before. Copious amounts of water in my basement. Clean it up, and it would be right back. Until the water table fell, it would return.

I had a room mate living in that space at the time, and I felt horrible about it. As I had told her the basement never flooded. I had warned her that there might be a small puddle in a couple places – but never flooding.

We had a couple of heavy rain events this winter, and the same flooding returned. However, I was able to find exactly where the water was coming from. It was coming directly through my fireplace, and into my basement. I covered the cap with plastic, but that didn’t stop the flow. It was coming through the ground.

So I immediately reached out for quotes to get this fixed. Not a band aid, an actual fix. Most of what I was faced with was what I call a “bubba” situation. People telling me that they’d put a drain in for me, that’ll fix it. No it won’t Bubba. That will just mask the issue. One person, a guy I moderate a group with lent me a water pump to help get rid of the water until I got the situation resolved. That’s an amazing gesture, one I appreciate immensely.

I decided to go with a small family run crawlspace business. They gave me a plan, which they executed just as was explained. Their charge was more than the others, but I think it will pay dividends in how dry my basement will stay.

The area in question

They called 811 almost a week ahead of time, to make sure my utilities were marked, but the company that does that only marked my fiber line for telecom. Thankfully I have had this done several times and roughly know where all my utilities run.

Hole and Trench

From this image, you can see what they are doing. They dug this hole around my chimney, and then ran a trench for the drain. While digging the trench, they broke my water line. It didn’t run directly to my meter, and instead did a zig-zag.

Tar Application

They then cleaned the area and covered it in asphalt tar, a thin layer of plastic and a thicker bubbled layer of plastic to create an air gap. Many times, water is pressed through concrete block walls by pressure alone. This will will mitigate that.

Bubbled Plastic

The aforementioned bubbled plastic I mentioned. The drain is constructed of a section to gather water made up of drain tile with a fabric covered section to keep it from becoming clogged, with a run section that only moves the water to an exit.

After they finished this section, it started raining. They were unable to complete the job for a few days. They then back-filled, trimmed the plastic back and covered the raw dirt with straw.

The spot now

Since the dirt had become saturated from the rains, they were unable to grade the ground as proper as they had liked. They told me to call them in a few months and they will come back to smooth the yard up more.

The end of the line

This is where the drain ends. I haven’t decided what I will do with this spot, as it changes how I have mowed my grass. I will probably put in some rocks or landscaping feature to help with this.

View from the street

In the end, I had to use all of the few hundred dollars I had been able to save and go in debt by $2000 more to get this work done. I’m really feeling the financial pinch but am thankful to be in a situation where it is not the end of the world.

My goals right now are focused on lowering that debt amount and enjoying a dry basement.

Leave a Reply