Pod arrives at 8am in the snow

[Poorboy]

At 8am this morning my pod arrived ...

background .... we have has unusual high amounts of rain this past year and the ground water has pushed up through my foundation ...
we will have to have french drains installed throughout the down stairs of the house, so everything must be removed while they rip apart the slab
It`s going to be a fun beginning to a new year

[Ronkh]

Cool.

[Poorboy]

Cool.

yes it was very cold outside

[Ronkh]

And its gonna get cooler when you start loading it.

[Poorboy]

And its gonna get cooler when you start loading it.

it may be Spring before I finish

[Ronkh]

So then it won`t be an I Rush Spring.

[TLMitchell]

.... we have has unusual high amounts of rain this past year and the ground water has pushed up through my foundation ...
we will have to have french drains installed throughout the down stairs of the house, so everything must be removed while they rip apart the slab
It`s going to be a fun beginning to a new year

A house in NY State with a basement that didn`t have French drains installed during initial construction? Just curious, is this a real, old house?

TL

[Mr. Clean]

PB, I`m afraid I can relate to you and foundation issues. I`m afraid we have a similar problem, that is I think it is water related. Will there be any homeowners insurance help for you?

Good luck and hopefully it will be resolved in short order w/o too much damage on the pocketbook.

[Poorboy]

A house in NY State with a basement that didn`t have French drains installed during initial construction? Just curious, is this a real, old house?

TL

it`s not a basement .. just lower level of a bi-level ..the outside footing drains have failed after 50 years and the cost of digging them up is much more than the inside french drains with a sub-pump ... just more inside hassles

[cwcad]

Sorry to hear of the troubles, Steve.

I loved the picture. Thanks!!

The Pod looks like a fun item to operate. If I go back to work I am going to go there and apply. I think it would be a dream job for this old duffer.

[Bunky]

French drains..I would prefer Freedom Drains. Yea, I know French was not related to France.

[Reddwarf]

Wow, sounds expensive and a huge hassle!

[Poorboy]

PB, I`m afraid I can relate to you and foundation issues. I`m afraid we have a similar problem, that is I think it is water related. Will there be any homeowners insurance help for you?

Good luck and hopefully it will be resolved in short order w/o too much damage on the pocketbook.

no flood insurance figure a few months to get the drains in, the walls repaired & painted, and a new floor installed ...I guess Poorboy is the right name

Sorry to hear of the troubles, Steve.

I loved the picture. Thanks!!

The Pod looks like a fun item to operate. If I go back to work I am going to go there and apply. I think it would be a dream job for this old duffer.

yeah I could see you doing that Kirk ... the guy who delivered it was an older guy and he seemed to have a good attitude doing it

French drains..I would prefer Freedom Drains. Yea, I know French was not related to France.

well they have to get credit for something

Wow, sounds expensive and a huge hassle!

no idea yet, but it will definitely be a huge hassle

[GearHead_1]

I worried about this when I built my home. I installed French drains on the outside of the foundation. It ran about $5000 at the time of the build. I live in the foothills within a mile of a 10,000 foot peak. According to my father flooding hasn`t been an issue in this area in at least 78 years (his age). It`s something I`ll likely never see the benefit in owning. That said, I`m glad I have them. Steve, I`m sorry to hear you have to do this. I`m sure you would jump at the chance to make this repair for 5K.

[TLMitchell]

it`s not a basement .. just lower level of a bi-level

Gotcha

..the outside footing drains have failed after 50 years and the cost of digging them up is much more than the inside french drains with a sub-pump ...

Really? :::shrug::: I`ve got no idea what that type of stuff costs.

When I had my secret Lair in the Woods built 14 years ago I watched `em serpentine the French drains all around before they covered `em with slag and poured the basement slab. Being an inquisitive neophyte to such things I asked a lot of questions. Bottom line, it`s easier to get water where you want it to go than to try and keep it out. Same principle applied when they laid the footer drains. Everything is routed to the same sump crock.

Since I`ve recently been bashing my head with sump pump problems lemme share some thoughts. Pumps fail, sometimes intermittently due to switch or float issues. Go downstairs and see a full crock and reach down and wiggle the float and it works fine. For a week. Or maybe two or three. Fortunately I`ve got a 2nd crock right next to it for overflow since one is needed to uplift gray water from laundry as the basement is below the level of the septic system. So in my case a single pump failure isn`t a calamity.

Now lets talk about power outages which are guaranteed to be lengthier when the ground is saturated courtesy of Mr. Murphy. A springtime ice storm blacked out much of NE Ohio for up to a week a few years ago. We lost power for only 30 hours. That was plenty of time for sump crocks to overflow and force it`s way right up through the slab. Got treated to a couple of inches of water, an unpleasantness it sounds like you`re familiar with. Fortunately I never got around to finishing the basement and when I built the shack drain backup insurance was dirt cheap so I said "why not"? Good and lucky move

At the very least you`ll want a battery backup installed with your sump pump. A small generator for those occasions isn`t a bad idea either. Being without power is full of inconveniences that can be managed. But when the water starts backing up it`s more than inconvenient.

My only neighbor for miles around enjoys having full power during Ohio Edison`s screwups or calamities of nature. First time he had water in his basement he went out and had a whole-house, 16 kw, natural-gas powered generator installed. Every time I`m sittin` here lighting candles and see his lights shining through the woods I think about doing the same. Might be overkill for some but if you`re already going to the expense of the drains you need some kind of backup power to keep the sump pump flowing.

It`s always something......

TL