I think on some sort of subconscious level I was imitating this guy today:

Mole Man to pay £300,000 for burrowing under home

My basement gets seepage every time there's a ton of rain or snow melt, etc.  Mild storms no problem, biblical 7 day torrential downpours on the other hand, bigger problem.  My father in his infinite wisdom covered the flloor in 3 inches of concrete and put a drain in the lowest corner which empties out into the front lawn.  So the water just runs through.  However time has not been so kind to the floor, and it's raised up half an inch here and there, and so no puddles form.

For years, my parents claimed it was coming in from the back wall of the foundation, which has a few hundred feet of hill behind it.  However, I spent most of the last year checking the basement during big storms to see where the water was coming in when the floor was dry.  Low and behold, it wasn't the back wall at all, but the rising water table making it's way up through the small cracks in the floor.

Solution? Install a sump pump

Now the video shows a couple people using an electric jack hammer to dig a hole through the floor to get at the nice soft (and wet dirt) underneath.  Knowing that I didn't feel like working in a puddle, I waited for spring for the ground to be nice and dry so I could see what I was doing.  Today was that day. 

Instead of a jack hammer, I had my fried Dave come over and we fired up the gas powered cut off saw I own.  I'm too chicken to run it by myself, and Dave doesn't trust me with it, so he cut the 2 foot square hole in the floor.  This was done one side at a time with a break in between for reasons I'm about to explain. It wasn't super hard to cut although the blade barely lasted long enough to make the cuts.  The problem was the dust.  Lots and lots and lots of dust.  I opened the windows and the cellar door and put fans in each to try and drive it out.  During the last cut the smoke was so think the LED powered drop light I was using to help illuminate through the dust didn't even reach the floor.  Our face masks were useless by the end as well.

Now comes the part that is causing me all the grief.  Time to get a 5 foot iron pry bar and a five pound sledgehammer.  Even though Dave cut a nice square, it wasn't coming up with a simple whack or two and sliding the pry bar underneath.  Nope, it still ends up like the people in the video with us sledging the hell out of the concrete to break it into pieces, hitting it with the pry bar to pop the little pieces out of the floor.  Four hours later, we had the cement removed and most of the loose dirt and the small rocks. 

Now I have a hole that is a foot deep (they recommend two feet deep), with two larger than life boulders flanking each side leaving me a gap of about 4 inches near the bottom.  Nowhere near enough room to stick a pump.  Time now to borrow a hammer drill, some masonry bits, and order a set of Feather and wedges.  Next week comes the real fun, trying to drill several holes into granite, and then whacking away at the wedges to try and split the rock in the hole.

My left shoulder is killing me as a result of all the swinging, my friend was aching before we left (and I'm sure he's cursing me as we speak!), and I also have a doozy of a blister on my right hand.  On the plus side, I still have several hours of work ahead of me before the project is completed!

so I'm solicitating back rubs in this thread... the heat pad is helping, but there's only so much it can do.

Karma for your troubles...

If you use the concrete saw again, use water while cutting: it'll eliminate the dust as well as make the blade last a lot longer.

A hammer drill is really not up to the task of drilling suitably sized holes into hard granite. Neither is an air chisel, if you're thinking about going that route. A roto or demolition hammer (sometimes one in the same) would be the best way to go, though rental fees and bits aren't cheap. They are a lot easier to use than jackhammers or sledgehammers. 

If you need help, have a look at this site:

http://www.affordableconcretecutting.com/Services/index.html

Ant

Now I have a hole that is a foot deep



Yes ... I read your news today, ... oh boy ! .... about a hole you have that is one foot deep !  :o  :(









Now comes the part that is causing me all the grief.  Time to get a 5 foot iron pry bar and a five pound sledgehammer.


Shame you didn't contact me  :(  .... I could've been  ::)  ....























http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/5884/mrmisterheadwj6.jpg








http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/2109/shamcopych6.jpg

YOUR 'sledge hammer !'  :D












and I also have a doozy of a blister on my right hand. 





http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/8974/knopfxb5.jpg
Sounds like dire straits to me too, Chucky. I know something about blisters (on the thumb ?  ???  :P  :D ).













so I'm solicitating back rubs in this thread... the heat pad is helping, but there's only so much it can do.





















http://www.democraticunderground.com/top10/06/253_hands1.jpg
Be right with you Chucky .... you're next in line !




Yes, THAT man's gotta be good for SOME thing ! ^    :P    ;D  :D

Ouch. What a time to find your house is built on granite.  :-\\

You have my empathies, Chucky.

If you have perused the News- APRIL thread, you will see that I just built a patio a couple of days ago, at my place.
No sledgehammers involved, but I DID use a Mason's hammer & chisel for shaping the cobblestone.
I also had to grade/level the area, tote the cobblestone tiles & fit them, sand the area down, and so on.

Last year, during the rainy season, I also got to help install flood pumps & drainage pipes.
So, in a sense, I know where you're coming from...

You have my empathies, Chucky.

If you have perused the News- APRIL thread, you will see that I just built a patio a couple of days ago, at my place.
No sledgehammers involved, but I DID use a Mason's hammer & chisel for shaping the cobblestone.
I also had to grade/level the area, tote the cobblestone tiles & fit them, sand the area down, and so on.

Last year, during the rainy season, I also got to help install flood pumps & drainage pipes.
So, in a sense, I know where you're coming from...


I did a patio about 8 years ago.  Dug a section about 10 feet wide by 20 feet long, and about 18 inches high.  Then dug back the hill around it and put in two rows of fieldstone stone wall that are 30 or 40 feet in length by 3 feet in height each.  Patios seem like a cakewalk by comparison to this, although the amount of time in total of this project is way less than the patio.  The patio took all summer, this will be likely a few weekends.

I'm starting to think I'm at a point in my life and career where I should just bite the bullet and pay someone else to do this crap.  I feel like a zombie today.

Karma for your troubles...

If you use the concrete saw again, use water while cutting: it'll eliminate the dust as well as make the blade last a lot longer.


yeah, I thought of that afterwards, though I wonder if the mess left behind by the water and mud would have been worse.


A hammer drill is really not up to the task of drilling suitably sized holes into hard granite. Neither is an air chisel, if you're thinking about going that route. A roto or demolition hammer (sometimes one in the same) would be the best way to go, though rental fees and bits aren't cheap. They are a lot easier to use than jackhammers or sledgehammers. 

If you need help, have a look at this site:

http://www.affordableconcretecutting.com/Services/index.html


I've done a couple holes in a granite bolder with a hammer drill and a masonry bit before.  I'm at least willing to give it a shot before I start renting more exotic equipment.  I definitely know I've got to keep those bits wet.  At this point I've got to rest and wait for the equipment I need anyways.

stuff like this makes me wish I owned a condo or a new house where everything was built and landscaped ahead of time.

stuff like this makes me wish I owned a condo or a new house where everything was built and landscaped ahead of time.


That's funny, cause I've always said that I wanted an older house. ;D

That's funny, cause I've always said that I wanted an older house. ;D


I love Victorian houses, with the gingerbread trim and the multiple colored paint jobs, like the houses in San Francisco.  My house is nowhere near as nice looking, but it seems to be requiring just as much effort to work on it.

I've still got a 60 foot tree near the house that need to come down before the work on the addition can begin. Each family member believes they know the proper manner in which to take it out, but no one's showing up to lend a hand... >grin<

I love Victorian houses, with the gingerbread trim and the multiple colored paint jobs, like the houses in San Francisco.  My house is nowhere near as nice looking, but it seems to be requiring just as much effort to work on it.

I've still got a 60 foot tree near the house that need to come down before the work on the addition can begin. Each family member believes they know the proper manner in which to take it out, but no one's showing up to lend a hand... >grin<
Be thankful for one thing if you were in the U.K  that tree would have a preservation order on it! You have to get council permission to fell big trees, and a lot of the time they say no. Personally with a tree that size I'd get the professionals in, especially if it's very near the house...................

Be thankful for one thing if you were in the U.K  that tree would have a preservation order on it! You have to get council permission to fell big trees, and a lot of the time they say no. Personally with a tree that size I'd get the professionals in, especially if it's very near the house...................


heh... there's some of that nonsense over here too, but generally once your nowhere near the property lines, it's not a problem.  I've got a nine acre piece of property, so most of my trees are pretty much fair game.  I'm thinking I should get it selectively logged to help pay some bills for the upcoming addition.  Otherwise the bugs and the lightening strikes are just going to end up taking down the good trees eventually.

Normally I'd agree with getting someone else to do it, but I know this one is doable. Plus if it hits the back of the house, no big deal.  The back of the house is coming off in a month or two anyways >grin<.  The casement window in the kitchen had it's latches break on me last fall, so I just locked it in place and told Susan, "oh well, no need to open them before the spring anyways, and then they're coming off and going into a dumpster"

though Susan has expressed displeasure at the idea of cleaning up broken glass if I do manage to bring it down wrong.  I've been using a ladder and removing limbs to help make sure it doesn't catch or bind on anything on the way down.

One way we found to get help from friends or family when bringing down a tree is to have a barbecue or some other inducement available afterwards.

What sort of tree is it?  We've brought down a few conifers in our time.

One way we found to get help from friends or family when bringing down a tree is to have a barbecue or some other inducement available afterwards.

What sort of tree is it?  We've brought down a few conifers in our time.


I think it's a beech.  hard to tell, the leaves aren't out yet.  The branches I've cut so far are constantly dripping water even five days later. Everyone's pretty much convinced that if we tie off the top and have someone pulling while the cut is being made it should be ok.  Personally I want to use the rope saw on it once I get it started, so I can stay on the ground when it lets go.

I gave up on trying to do the tree myself, a couple of my brother's friends are going to do it instead for some money.

I split one rock in half today and it took about two hours.  I used the wrong drill bit for the first hole, but got it right for the next two.  I then spent about four hours removing another 9 buckets of rock and dirt out of the hole.  I ache, but not as much as last time.  I did manage to get down a solid two feet  for more than half of the hole, which is really good.

Tomorrow I go after the big one.  I need to make an L shaped break in this one. I found one end of it, and removed as much as I could around it and beneath it.  It's really big and solid though.  If I can get a good clean split, I'll be almost done with emptying the hole out.

Here's pictures, not real exciting or anything, but the first one in the set gives you an idea of the next rock I'm up against:
Basement Excavation Pictures