Uh, err, Uh. "Hey guys, answer me this"

Over the weekend, Terry and I walked over to the lot to poke around. We dropped down into the Devil is in the details"pit" and walked around our new beautiful basement. We peaked into the cutouts for basement windows. We talked about where this would go and that would go....and "wouldn't a glass wine cellar look really hot over there."

Then I looked up and around and went "hmmmm, that doesn't look right...how are they going to backfill this?" Terry said "That wall looks like an oops." Well regardless of where the blame lies, it could be spread around enough to marry with some jelly and go down just fine. Point is, we all missed a detail in the foundation plan in which one side of a window well was not formed and a retainer wall was put in place for no reason. It's nothing major major, but it's just crazy that no one caught it. That pesky red herring of a wall height. The solution seems simple and we should have it ironed out by morning.

In the meantime, waterproofing has been done. We used a product called Deco 20. It's a non toxic water barrier that they sprayed on in no time. It is gray in color, so the concrete above grade doesn't have that lovely black tar look. They also have a clear product. The outside drainage tile was laid today. Basically, a trench is dug next to the footing all the way around the house, 4" perforated pipe is dropped into the trench, gravel is laid over the pipe, then a mesh material is laid on top of that. There are two drain spouts that will go into the basement that will collect into a pump pit. The City of Denver so lovingly wants you to bring the water into the house and then pump it back out. Makes sense, right? Right. We also added a 2" layer of Dow Styrofoam Insulation around the exterior of the basement. This will help when the ground freezes to help maintain temperatures in the basement.

We will be backfilling the lot starting Thursday. By the way, if you happen to live in the city, be aware that taking dirt away and bringing dirt back costs $$$$. This is something I didn't really consider- I mean, how much dirt is it really. Well 880 yards, to be precise. We could only store so much on the lot. So when we begin to backfill, we will see how much we have to get trucked back in. Also keep in mind, the dirty guys are typically dirty. So if you need to account for this service, find yourself someone trusty and get the bid in writing and have your structural engineer figure out how much will need to be taken away (total cubic feet converted to cubic yards). And then do the math yourself: pay per load vs. hourly vs. distance to dump and spread.

If there is nothing I hate more, it's spending money on things that have little to do with the actual house. Say caisons, dirt, and people's bad business practices.

Perforated Drain TileWindow Well Drain