Interior Weeping System: Day 2 - Chipping Out The Perimeter Trenches

At long last, I've continued the basement project! Day 2 is chipping out the trenches.

You can read about chipping out the sump, or skip ahead to the next post on installing the Waterguard by using the links below.
Day 1 -  Chipping out a the sump
Day 3 - Installing the Waterguard and Membrane
Day 4 - Plumbing the sump
Day 5 - Concrete pour!
Day 6 - Membrane and lower shelf
Day 7 - Final shelf and panelling

Disclaimer

The usual disclaimers apply -- I'm not a professional and this is total Do It Yourself (DIY) project.  Seek professional input prior to attempting this project.  It is NOT an easy project and requires a significant amount of work, knowledge and capability.  Make sure you fully understand all relevant design, structural, and geotechnical aspects, including the building code and applicable bylaws prior to starting.  Any doubts, hire someone qualified :)  We've had good success (so far), but that isn't a prediction of success at other sites.

On to Day 2!

It was a straight forward job and not at all complicated. A few interesting spots like the where water service comes in of course, or spots where I was a tad worried about the shoring jacks and how close my trench get  to the supports of my house... A few pictures, here we go.

Step 1 - Laying out the trench:

Around 3 of the 4 walls, the trench was flush to the wall, so we didn't really need to any layout.  At the bedrock portion, I first laid out a baseline perpendicular to the bedrock at a convenient place (the leftmost line).  Then the trench was easilymeasured from the baseline.  If you look, you'll see the trench will go between the two jack posts.  I was worried about the possibility of the jack post shifting or the weathered rock around the post failing.  Step two was adding a temporary support just in case

Step 2 - Adding a temporary wood post beside a jack post

The wood post on the left was added just in the the shoring jack moved due to the trench close by.  In the end I didn't need to worry about it, the rock was quite competent there.

Step 3 -Chipping and more chipping

This was a little tricky, getting behind the hot water tank.

The trench doesn't need to be this wide, I took this opportunity to remove high spots on the floor.  I'll re-pour this section for a nice flat floor.

All cleaned up.  It will be a nice flat floor once I'm done.

Here was another spot I was going to remove to flatten the floor.  Also, from  breaker to about 2 feet to the right, that rock had to be chipped.  The small little breaker wasn't really up to the task.  I felt we would make more progress with a big breaker, so at this point, I ran out to rent a bigger one.

 ahh, yes, the 60 lbs breaker was much better for that section (and others).  Our final setup was me using the large breaker with a 1" chisel tip, and my father in law using the 25 lbs breaker with a 3" chisel tip.  Using the 3" tip to follow behind the brute force 60 lbs breaker to clean up the chipped trench, worked really well.

For my floor, which was 1 to 3 inches of concrete, followed by slightly to highly weathered shaly limestone bedrock, I think having the large breaker made a big difference.  We definitely could have got it done with only the smaller one, but it might have been more than one day.  We chipped using both breakers from 8:00AM to 1:30PM or so.

Almost done removing rock at this part.

Another tricky (and scary) section at the sanitary line and water service.  We didn't, but a more prudent person would have located the main shutoff outside first....

Step 4 - Clean up
I tested the sump liner in the hole I chipped previously (link here, will open in new window). Thankfully it fit and no more chipping needed!

Test fitting the water guard, it looks great!

And here is what ended up in the dumpster.  The perspective is a bit off, I think we filled this 5 metric tonne dumpster just less than half way  So, I guess we got about  2 metric tonnes worth, lets say 1,800 to 2,000 kg.  It was a mix of concrete rock and highly weathered rock (pretty much soil at that point).

Another view of our day.

Next Steps
The next day will be getting 19mm clear stone and layout out the water guard.  I'll need to start thinking about the membrane for the walls now too.

You can read about chipping out the sump, or read the next post on installing the waterguard by using
Day 1 -  Chipping out a the sump
Day 3 - Installing the Waterguard and Membrane
Day 4 - Plumbing the sump
Day 5 - Concrete pour!

More to come!