Interior Weeping System: Day 5 - Pouring the concrete!

Day 5 was pouring the concrete trench.  It felt like a huge accomplishment once done, really felt like a huge step in the whole process.

If you haven't already, catch up with this project by reading about the first three days of work (clicking will open the link in a new window):
Day 1 -  Chipping out a the sump
Day 2 - Chipping out the perimeter trenches
Day 3 - Placing the Waterguard and dimpled membrane
Day 4 - Plumbing the sump and taping the membrane
Day 6 - Membrane and lower shelf
Day 7 - Finishing the final shelf and wall

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.

We poured 17 x 30 kg bags in 2 hours using a small electric mixer.  I had two friends help out, we worked with one guy doing the finishing, and two mixing.  Not much to discuss on this post, but a few photos to show the state of the project.

The small mixer we used.  We mixed 2 bags at a time, roughly 60 kg ready mix to 5 quarts of water.

We used two buckets, one to measure water which helpfully had measurement markings on the side, and one to move the concrete from the mixer to where it was needed.

All finished up.  Wow, does the walkway feel bigger now with the slope chipped away and the floor flattened out.

This part is all done.  Next is finishing the membrane, as well as converting the bedrock side of the house to built in storage and reorganizing the "laundry room.  The engineer part of me wants to get a totalizer flow meter on the discharge just to see how much water I pump, but that's only going to happen if I come across a cheap one.

Interior Weeping System: Day 4 - Plumbing the sump and taping the Delta MS

Day 4 (roughly, it was 2 short evenings and a mostly full day) included:

• Coring a 2" hole through the wall
• Finishing the sump plumbing
• Getting the site ready for concrete pour by taping the membrane, finishing up with granular and tamping it down for a nice compressed sub base
• Doing a water test to make sure the system actually works!

If you haven't already, catch up with this project by reading about the first three days of work (clicking will open the link in a new window):
Day 1 -  Chipping out a the sump
Day 2 - Chipping out the perimeter trenches
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.

Coring the 2" hole

I needed a new hole through the foundation for the sump drain.  I have an SDS Max drill I can use, but the rental place didn't have a 2" core bit so they gave me a deal on a diamond core drill and bit.  If you leave in Ottawa, are doing projects and need gear, check out Robertson Rent-all.  Super nice guys, they know their stuff, and have great prices.  You can pick up gear on Friday before they close, return it on Monday and only pay for 1.5 days.  I can't recommend them enough.

Here is a picture of the drill.

I made the huge mistake of coring from the inside.  It was laziness combined with a crying 3.5 year old upstairs and rushing the job.  Basically I couldn't hold the drill 90 degrees and got an awful slope on the hole.  I ended up re-drilling it perpendicular the next morning from the outside, where I could keep the drill at waist height and was much happier.  From the outside, you only see one hole, from the inside,  there is a little patching to do.  Here a video of how not to drill.




Finishing the sump

Once I had a core hole for the 1.5" ABS pipe, I connected it all up.

The sump lid needed to a few holes cut in it for the pipe and wires.  I first placed the pump to see where the discharge hose would run up, then I used a plumb bob to find the middle of the pipe.  After that I removed the pump/pipe and placed the lid.  Dropped the plumb bob and found the exact location of the hole needed as shown in the next two photos.

A photo of the mostly final sump setup.

Finishing the membrane and granular 

I tucked the membrane behind the Waterguard flange.  This step sucked and I *really* should have placed the membrane before the Waterguard.  I taped it down to limit moisture / vapours.  The manufacturer doesn't have any instructions on the product besides email support and doesn't say if this step is needed, but I figure all this effort, a little moisture vapour sealing and I'll have a nicer basement in the end.  The top of the membrane has some finishing strips to help seal it as well (later photos).

The photo below shows the nicely tamped granular waiting for a new concrete floor.  I brought in another 260 kg of 19mm clear stone.  All told then, I had to bring in 380 kg of clear stone. 

The photo below shows the black finishing strip I bought a Rona.  I used acoustic sealant to seal the membrane to the wall.  Probably overkill and using the stuff sucks, but I'll know shortly how much drier my basement will feel!

Water Test
I also checked the whole system to make sure water drained....  I had a garden hose wide open for 20 mins, pouring into various locations of the system.  I worked perfect, and managed all the water. Very happy!

And a small video, listen to the beautiful sound of water pouring into the sump.




If you haven't already, catch up with this project by reading about the first three days of work (clicking will open the link in a new window):
Day 1 -  Chipping out a the sump
Day 2 - Chipping out the perimeter trenches
Day 3 - Installing the Waterguard and Membrane
Day 4 - Plumbing the sump
Day 5 - Concrete pour!

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!

Interior Weeping System: Day 1 - The Plan and Chipping Out a New Sump

When it rains, we get water in our basement.  It has been manageable but it's pain.  Day 1 was all about chipping out a better sump.  You can skip ahead and read about chipping the trenches or installing the Waterguard by clinking the links below.

Day 2 - Chipping out the perimeter trenches
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.

The Setup 

Our basement is founded directly on bedrock, with around 1-2" of parging to level to floor.  On one wall, the bedrock actually encroaches inside the house, and during rain storms, water flows through the bedrock fractures and into the basement.  It pretty much negates exterior water proofing unless I want to spend a significant amount of cash.  When it really rains, the hydrostatic pressure builds up outside the foundation wall and water seeps in as well.

Photo of the bedrock:

The previous owner was a bit of a hack and while his waterproof parging on the bedrock and levy directing water to a small inadequate sump works to some extent, the parging is failing more and more with each rain storm and the problem seems to be getting worse and worse.  After a really big last rain storm and the most water to date in the basement, we decided it was time to implement our master plan.

Research and Planning

I researched products and techniques for interior water proofing.  I called 5 contractors, 4 of which came to see the house and provide quotes.  Of those 4 contractors, 2 had no idea what to do although one in particular really pretended he did.  One guy proposed a solution I was 100% sure what do absolutely nothing.  One guy set out to fleece me from the get go.  Of the original four contractors, only one returned a quote.  They had a great plan but unfortunately for them, between the original site visit and the quote, we found a few leaks in the roof and any extra cash we might have had got re-allocated to a new roof.

My original thoughts:

I do need to thank one contractor who planned on a making usable space with a small wall and bench. He didn't get me a quote which is too bad, but the rain isn't stopping so I'm moving forward!  Here is my bad attempt at showing the new "bench" I will create.  Eventually, I will create a second bench higher up, and we'll have built-in shelving (if only a tiny bit awkward)

Step in http://www.importsuppliesdirect.com/, which sells Waterguard.  The owner Ray also replies to emails quite promptly.  I selected Waterguard instead of a traditional perforated piping because of what I hope will be savings in terms of my time and less effort for installation.

For example: given that I will have to chip out the interior trench around inside of the perimeter walls, using Waterguard requires only a 4" deep trench as opposed to say a 4" perforated pipe which would require a deeper trench (to allow for granular cover over the pipe). For Waterguard, for a 10 m [50'] x 0.10 m [4"] deep x 0.15 m [6"] wide trench, I calculated that to be around 520 kg of stone assuming a bedrock density of 2,220 kg /m3.  This is bedrock I will have to chip, load into buckets, carry upstairs and dump in a dumpster.  If I went with a 4" pipe and a 6" x 8" trench, I was looking at around 1,040 kg.  Right off the bat, saving 520 kg of material to be moved made the extra cost of Waterguard worth it in my mind.

The manufacturer, sent me a detail on how to incorporate a membrane I had planned:

Chipping Out The Sump

The original sump was small and inadequate.  To kick this project off, I chipped out a larger well for the Flood-Buster sump which I currently have on order.

Original sump, maybe 8" deep and 12" in diameter:

I marked out the new sump, which will be around 18" square on top, 20" deep and a 13" round bottom. The manufacturer indicated the hole should be 4" wider all around, so the new sump was actually marked out at 22" square on top so there would be room for 3/4" clear stone.  I used a 65 lbs breaker.  Quite a beast but very effective.

I drilled the perimeter with 5/8" holes to 12" deep using a SDS max drill.  I thought that this would help to keep the sump from chipping inwards as I went.  In the end, I'm not 100% sure it was worth it.  The 1" chisel bit on the jack hammer was faster and easier.

A quick video of the chipping.  It's hard to keep good posture, especially as the sump get's deeper and deeper.


The drilling in the picture above took around 20 minutes.  The chipping in the picture below was around 5 minutes!

After getting started, it was just a matter of taking out around 4" lifts of bedrock rock.  The top 12" or so was really weathered and went quite fast.

You can see the sump pit progressing.  At around 12" deep, I started tapering in the sump so I would have less material to remove.

The sump is done!  Total time was about 9AM to 1PM, with 20 minutes for lunch, and a few stretching breaks.  I really didn't want to get hurt using the jack hammer.

With the sump done, I turned my attention to starting the trench along the inside wall.  I didn't plan on doing too much of the trench but I wanted to see how hard it would be.  I marked the trench along the wall, and also where the Waterguard discharge pipe will enter the sump.  I put a piece of electrical tape 4" high on the 1" chisel blade so I knew when to stop chipping.

The part went *really* fast, the top part of my floor can almost be dug by hand once you get through the top 1-2".  The 65 lbs jack hammer was really overkill for this.  I learned that this part should go well, but a smaller jack hammer is needed, I think the 25 or 35 lbs jack hammer.  Otherwise I could see myself getting really exhausted constantly moving the large jack hammer to make all the holes.

At this point, I stopped and cleaned up.  The sump took 3 hours or so with the large jack hammer. I'm really glad I had the big one.  Trench took 10 or 15 minutes.

Read about chipping the trenches or installing the Waterguard by clinking the links below.

Day 2 - Chipping out the perimeter trenches
Day 3 - Installing the Waterguard and Membrane
Day 4 - Plumbing the sump
Day 5 - Concrete pour!