Trying to finish a half finished basement ? Hello all, my…
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Trying to finish a half finished basement ?
Hello all, my mother’s house was built in the late 60s, to save money while we’re both in college, me and my fiancée are going to be renting the basement from her. It’s a pretty big space with 2 bedrooms, a living room, a bathroom, and a back boiler room. It was pseudo finished sometime in the late 90s or early 2010s by a DIY enthusiast but it appears they ran out of money or effort about halfway through, so now the rest falls to me to try and figure out.
To start, the window wells are pretty screwed up. The sill plate has multiple gaps in it, including above them, and I was able to seal the most egregious holes in the sill plate/around the windows with low expansion spray foam for now, but the windows themselves have no screens, almost completed desiccated weather strips, and are in generally poor condition. I cannot afford to replace the windows entirely, so am looking for alternate methods to try and restore them. Are there any recommendations for window screen kits so I can cut and fabricate my own screens to replace them? I would need to make sure the screens are removable, as the windows are egress windows and need to be removable in emergency. Same goes for weather stripped, are there any good kits for custom weather stripping that isn’t just sealing the windows shut with caulking?
There is also the matter of the sump pump. To the best of my knowledge, the sump was replaced when my mother bought the house about four years ago, and does function, but it appears to be underpowered for heavy rainstorms. My sister who previously rented the basement says that the sump corner floods during heavy rainstorms, normally this wouldn’t be a problem except the prior owner decided to carpet over the entire room, including over the sump itself, which has created a roughly 4’x4’ hell corner of mold, and so I am considering upsizing the pump to compensate and ripping out the carpet. Would deepening the sump well be required for this, or is it as simple as buying a higher powered pump and replacing the pump 1:1 in the current well?
Surprisingly, for a Missouri basement from the 60s, it doesn’t really have prominent moisture issues, at least no “damp” smell. I have a dehumidifier but am concerned it may be smaller then required, as it seems to run basically constantly, never hitting the target goal of 50%, and it reports that humidity is around 65-70%. I am waiting on a hygrometer to confirm separate of this, but am interested in recommendations for a dehumidifier, how do you size them, etc.
To properly address moisture and water issues permanently, I am planning a landscaping operation, but am not that experienced in such things. My current plan is to start with a trench around the perimeter of the house of about 1’x1’ to remove all mulch and dirt that currently sits directly against the house, including the sill plate, and of which I am fairly certain is allowing water in. My idea from there is to try and grade the perimeter to encourage flow away from the house, but I am a bit unsure of the best way to do that. To get a strong 4% grade away from the house would be a somewhat Herculean task, as the house sits roughly on top of a hill of sorts, and so it would require essentially digging out and regrading the entire property to some degree, in virtually all directions, and would also run into some issues in the way the walkway of concrete runs relative to the grade. I also would be doing this all with a shovel and pick, as I can’t afford any kind of powered equipment. I am wondering if I could attempt a series of French drains around the immediate perimeter to reduce any pooling as an alternative to regrading the property. I could reasonably run a large T shaped French drain for each face of the house that could sit about 1’ below ground, collect the water above, and shoot it off into the far distance about 12’ away from the house. I was also considering as part of this, replacing that first 1’ of dirt coming off the house with some kind of gravel to prevent plant growth against the foundation and discourage bugs, as well as using some kind of moisture barrier against the concrete for that first 1’ of depth while I’m at it.
#diy
source
Hello all, my mother’s house was built in the late 60s, to save money while we’re both in college, me and my fiancée are going to be renting the basement from her. It’s a pretty big space with 2 bedrooms, a living room, a bathroom, and a back boiler room. It was pseudo finished sometime in the late 90s or early 2010s by a DIY enthusiast but it appears they ran out of money or effort about halfway through, so now the rest falls to me to try and figure out.
To start, the window wells are pretty screwed up. The sill plate has multiple gaps in it, including above them, and I was able to seal the most egregious holes in the sill plate/around the windows with low expansion spray foam for now, but the windows themselves have no screens, almost completed desiccated weather strips, and are in generally poor condition. I cannot afford to replace the windows entirely, so am looking for alternate methods to try and restore them. Are there any recommendations for window screen kits so I can cut and fabricate my own screens to replace them? I would need to make sure the screens are removable, as the windows are egress windows and need to be removable in emergency. Same goes for weather stripped, are there any good kits for custom weather stripping that isn’t just sealing the windows shut with caulking?
There is also the matter of the sump pump. To the best of my knowledge, the sump was replaced when my mother bought the house about four years ago, and does function, but it appears to be underpowered for heavy rainstorms. My sister who previously rented the basement says that the sump corner floods during heavy rainstorms, normally this wouldn’t be a problem except the prior owner decided to carpet over the entire room, including over the sump itself, which has created a roughly 4’x4’ hell corner of mold, and so I am considering upsizing the pump to compensate and ripping out the carpet. Would deepening the sump well be required for this, or is it as simple as buying a higher powered pump and replacing the pump 1:1 in the current well?
Surprisingly, for a Missouri basement from the 60s, it doesn’t really have prominent moisture issues, at least no “damp” smell. I have a dehumidifier but am concerned it may be smaller then required, as it seems to run basically constantly, never hitting the target goal of 50%, and it reports that humidity is around 65-70%. I am waiting on a hygrometer to confirm separate of this, but am interested in recommendations for a dehumidifier, how do you size them, etc.
To properly address moisture and water issues permanently, I am planning a landscaping operation, but am not that experienced in such things. My current plan is to start with a trench around the perimeter of the house of about 1’x1’ to remove all mulch and dirt that currently sits directly against the house, including the sill plate, and of which I am fairly certain is allowing water in. My idea from there is to try and grade the perimeter to encourage flow away from the house, but I am a bit unsure of the best way to do that. To get a strong 4% grade away from the house would be a somewhat Herculean task, as the house sits roughly on top of a hill of sorts, and so it would require essentially digging out and regrading the entire property to some degree, in virtually all directions, and would also run into some issues in the way the walkway of concrete runs relative to the grade. I also would be doing this all with a shovel and pick, as I can’t afford any kind of powered equipment. I am wondering if I could attempt a series of French drains around the immediate perimeter to reduce any pooling as an alternative to regrading the property. I could reasonably run a large T shaped French drain for each face of the house that could sit about 1’ below ground, collect the water above, and shoot it off into the far distance about 12’ away from the house. I was also considering as part of this, replacing that first 1’ of dirt coming off the house with some kind of gravel to prevent plant growth against the foundation and discourage bugs, as well as using some kind of moisture barrier against the concrete for that first 1’ of depth while I’m at it.
#diy
source
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