Dry-Well

Our basement keeps taking on water during rain storms and things are getting a bit musty. I read a few journals online to get some info on redirecting storm water. It seemed that the most appropriate thing to do was to dig a sump ~15 feet from the house, downgrade, and pipe the downspout directly into it. the sump will perk rainwater into the ground at a point where it won't seep into the basement walls. Here is a generic elevation drawing from the interweb:


The rear of the house has only one downspout, which is typically pouring like a river during a good rain, so I picked up the biggest pvc sump that I could get my hands on (50 Gal) for the drywell. Here you can see the trench starting at the downspout. We'll plumb the downspout to the well through 4" PVC pipe.


I laid out the run from the downspout to the well and dug the sump (36" x 48" deep) a few weeks ago. Digging a 4' deep 3' diameter hole with a shovel sucks, but luckily our soil is OLD and hasn't been disturbed in many moons... it digs easy as far as dirt goes. Here I am slaving away....

before I could install the well and plumb it up we had a few heavy rains; I checked to verify that the water was making it's way to the well, which it was, and the basement was dry! The well was dry by the day after the rain. Perk test passed!

The dry-well kit is built by NDS, I picked it up from the Natural home store (online) because the big box stores don't carry these things. Here's the well assembled and ready to drop in. It's a 24" diameter, 24" tall reinforced pvc bucket with a bunch of punch-out holes for drainage. The larger holes are used to link multiple wells in series for those with a serious runoff issue.

6" of crushed stone goes in the hole below the well, and once it is installed 6" around the well is filled with stone. I mixed in a few larger stones ~1.5" with the 3/4" crushed gravel.

Liam decided that we should have a catch to prevent the well from clogging up with debris... At this point I am too lazy to install those fancy gutter guards and the giant holly tree behind the house keeps shedding on the roof so this should be time well invested...... We converted a 4" PVC tee into a strainer with a basket to catch any debris that could make it's way down the gutter downspout. I used a piece of gutter-guard mesh and a few screws to keep it from dropping in. Here Liam is explaining how this will all go together:

Gutter screen is trimmed to fit the contour of the tee fitting and the two screws are installed directly below for support:


Liam Approves.

The screen is trimmed and a handle is bent into the backside for easy removal. It is held in place by a 4" threaded cap.

The well also has a vent/cleanout where the PVC drain ties in to remove leaves and sediment that could build up and reduce the efficiency of the well. The vent will also reduce the amount of mold buildup in the well. You can see it here (green cap)

We layed 4" of crushed stone in the trench before backfilling. Here you can see the debris catch just below the tie-in to the existing downspout.


Now the area needs to be graded and cleaned up. We'll see how things work next time it rains. Finished photos later.........

Interim project...... The Garage

My parents are going to use the garage for storage during their move from the northeast, so we needed to make a few improvements before it could be used (Not to mention all of my junk that was left behind in their garage... read disassembled Chevelle, welding gear, toolboxes, workbench just to name a few.). The garage was built into the remains of the old barn, and had a dirt floor. It was also built on a sloping part of the yard, so one door opening was a foot shorter than the other......

Here's a shot of the garage from 3-08 before we moved in: notice the vines growing up into the trees and all over the barn ruins, the grade in front of the garage, and that lush green lawn!


We started by excavating a foot of soil from the garage and grading the approach. we ended up with about 20 yards of extra dirt. here the garage is level and vapor barrier/ mesh is laid down. the hole in front of the right opening is a hand dug sistern, which should keep the area relatively dry by creating a low pressure zone for rainwater to drain. It was covered up with two big slabs of concrete, which we had to move to complete the grading.


Here's a close-up of the sistern before we reinforced the opening; I'll have to build a new cover for it later... you can just picture the creepy little girl from The Ring popping out when you look down...


All prepped and ready for concrete. Notice the area to the right of the ruins is also dug up. the grade dropped off towards the ruins, and was all overgrown with vines, so we took advantage of the extra dirt from the approach and graded here as well. This will give the rear yard a more uniform grade across the property.


Pouring Concrete:

Grading the approach to the garage left a big step in the grade to the right of the opening as you can see in the photo above. we made use of some of the big stones laying around the yard and built a retaining wall. it's nothing fancy, but it does the trick.


We picked up 10 yards of stone for the newly graded approach.
Here's a not-so-good photo of the almost finished product after the wall was done, stone spread and the new grass seed took:

Next we'll run power to the garage, add gutters to re-direct the rain water and install some doors.

Riley Approves!

Liam's Bedroom is Almost Done....

I'm 8 weeks behind schedule; The replacement windows for Liam's room came in just before he was born, and they were all wrong :( wrong pattern, wrong model and non-tilting. 4 weeks of back and forth with the window vendor and they agreed to get the correct windows at no cost since I had already paid for the incorrect ones. The correct windows will be here in 3 weeks; until then we'll finish painting the sills and trim finish coats.

Here Riley tests the durability of the oil paint on my restored windowsill. She approves.

Baby Liam /hans Stanley

Katrina gave birth on May 13th to a 5lb 15oz baby boy! We named him Liam Hans Stanley. Liam has taken quickly to feeding and is growing at a good rate. Mommy and baby are as healthy as ever.

Naptime with Papa
Liam's first bath!


Liam in the "food chain friends"

Bedroom Trois

Riley came up to check out the action in the bedroom and attacked me.


Over the last two weeks we stripped the window sills, plastered, primed and painted the walls, installed the ceiling fan (minus blades) and primed the fireplace.

I'll be replacing the three windows in this room with Jeld-wen aluminum clad sashes. We ordered them to fit the existing frames and to match the original sashes. The lumber yard claims that they should be delivered in two weeks.
Kat's Dad has a stash of poplar, and used some of it to make us new baseboards; the new boards are about 3/4" taller than the original ones to cover up some imperfections. He also came down to help scribe them to the floor and install them. We're quite pleased with the results.

The flash really brightens up the green paint, it's not actually so vivid in person (i'm not a photographer)

T-minus 9 days to the due date and with the exception of the windows we should be all done in the room if Katrina can hold out that long.....

Bedroom Restoration Part 2

Katrina has been nesting like a champ for months now, and I am just getting started (well i got started a while ago but didn't post the photos). I started by pulling up the floorboards and ripping out the old romex wiring. We pulled a new 20A circuit for the outlets and a 15A for lighting. We installed an overhead fixture for a ceiling fan, which required pulling floorboards on the third floor. I found this hanging out under the floor:


I pulled the baseboards up because they are painted with several coats of lead-based paint, and were pretty beat up. The plaster was also cracked from behind the boards, and poorly repaired. I plan to make up new baseboards once the plaster work is done. Here's a shot of the old romex wiring and beat-up baseboards

Here is a pic of the hallway outside of the room where I pulled the new wiring up from the basement. yellow 12 ga. for the outlets and white 14 ga. for the light circuit..... 220, 221, whatever it takes! You can see the old black romex wire in the photo; i'm pulling this old stuff out as i replace it.

The plaster on the north wall of the room cracked and failed when the structural beam supporting the room cracked some years back..... the photo below shows the cracked plaster after I removed all of the loose material. We replaced the beam last month and now the floor is (relatively) level and stable, so I can repair the plaster without it cracking right away. In this area I'll pull the plaster down and replace it with sheetrock.

More to Come.....

Fixing the Timber Frame

Our stone house has a timber frame to support the floors and inside walls. The frame consists of one 8"x8" beam that runs the length of the house in the center with oak floor joists spanning from the stone wall to the beam on each floor. It's a pretty damn beefy setup... it generally brings the words "they don't build em' like this anymore" to mind.

Unfortunately the previous owners did not understand basic construction principles and so they blindly hacked away at the beautiful main beam that supports the second floor to make way for plumbing and electrical components. all of this notching, trimming and chopping made a nice place for a crack to start in the beam. some time ago the beam failed; it bowed as much as 3" in the center. this made quite a mess of the second floor... most of the doors didn't close, and the floor itself was visibly sloping towards the center of the house.

The PO took a shot at setting things straight back in 2003 by installing a second beam below the original. This repair was ugly and ineffective at best. the floor still sloped, and now the dining room had a 9" beam hanging below the ceiling! Here are two pictures of the beam (boxed in with drywall)

We started by excavating the drywall from the ceiling and the support beam, and then built a jack system from scaffold to support the ceiling joists on either side of the beam.

Drywall Demo
Demo opposite side (notice the beam ends at the wall and does not run the full width of the room)

Setting up scaffold support.

Once the floor was supported, we cut the secondary beam out and trashed it. I had assumed that this beam was poorly installed, and it turns out that I was spot on.... the bowed beam only contacted the secondary in the center, and it was held in place with a few lag bolts.

With clear access to the bowed beam, we cut the tenons off of the joists, which left the beam supported only at its ends. The beam was cut in half to make the load manageable, and removed from the ceiling.

I made some calculations for the replacement beam and ordered the "engineered" lumber from the local yard. The beam consists of three 7.25" X 3.5" LVL units @ 14' long. The individual units are Thru-bolted with lag bolts. The replacement beam weighs about 250# fully assembled. Here we have one of the three beams installed:

Hoisting the third beam into place:

Jacking the bnew beam level and installing thru-bolts

Joist hanger brackets installed and support structure removed

The dining room remains in this state until I finish Liam's room..... While the ceiling is open we will move the light fixture to the center of the room, pull new wiring for the dining room and mud room fixtures, and install 3-way dimmer switches