So it begins!!! I have no name yet :)

[Kevin54]

That is not going to keep water from seeping under the walls into the house. It will slow the water down some from what runs down the hill, but in a heavy rain, the concrete that is against the house is going to let water under the wall.

Also, the area that you showed in your first round of pics where you say they are going to be pouring a solid patio between the rooms of the house....you may want to reconsider. If it is not excavated out first and made considerably lower than the floors inside, you will have a major water problem inside. The pic and area I am talking about is the one that I stated that you needed the dirt lower than the band board.

I didn't find where you said that the house was a foreclosure or if the previous owners listed it with a Realtor to sell, but you may be able to go back on someone for "failure to disclose" that the house had previous problems. Be sure to talk with your lawyer about that.

Forget about the "disclosure". I went back and found the pic I was talking about and saw where you said the bank was fixing things on their dime. I don't know whether you could go back on the bank or not to remedy your problems. Again that would be up to your lawyer as to whether you could or not.

I have a feeling that before you get things fixed, you are going to run into some major landscaping issues to get the ground lower than what the slab is. And if you are getting water in under the walls, you're also going to have to deal with mold issues along with it.

Good luck. You are going to need it. Be sure to keep us posted.

 

[Viriiguy]

In an attempt to keep the water out if the house, thy are also installing a rubber membrane skin to the slab and wall. The assumption is that it will keep if from the cracks.

Trust me if I knew half this prior.. I would not have bought the house.

 

[clarkebd]

Man, I hope this all goes well for you. I think water is the #1 issue to deal with on any home for the most part. Breaking pipes, leaking appliances, yard drainage issues, freezing, etc. Pain in the a**!

We need to have our concrete drive replaced after 23 years. We need to get a drain and grate installed at the end near the garage door since the driveway slopes down towards the garage door. I know nothing about it, but need to start researching it. Sigh. I do not look forward to it at all.....

 

[Viriiguy]

I am tryin to arrange a pow wow with my realtor, her broker, the banks realtor and the owner of the foundation repair company. I would like to solve this without Lining a lawyers pockets.

 

[Viriiguy]

Well, long story short... I have no one to sue. So the flood damage is all mine to pay for. Ahh the joys of home ownership.

 

[cascivic]

what did the lawyer say??

 

[Viriiguy]

Still waiting to hear back, but I suspect more of the same.

 

[Viriiguy]

Right now at the Walker house....

 

[Viriiguy]

They will be back tomorrow to pressure wash and seal our new patio and walk way, but this is what it looks like right now!

 

[akluminus]

I'm not familiar with building in that part of the country, but why are the bottoms of the wall that close to grade? Seems like a perpetual source of water invasion, rot, insect problems. If you sill plates aren't pressure treated AND a water barrier placed in between them, they'll eventually rot.

I've had a number of problems in my own house due to DIYers doing it themselves and not doing it right. I've started to get a keen eye for what bad DIY work looks like. The last one was replacing the studs on one garage wall because the sill plate completely rotted out.

 

[Viriiguy]

Yes....
If you will notice in this thread I have already had water issues... As for why? I don;t know why they did half the **** they did in this house. We are in the process now of correcting this issue as best we can.

There has been a rubber membrane installed around the bottom of the house, a french drain installed and we have been digging the dirt away from the house. The problem is, the slab is 3-4 inches tick on that portion of the house. So there is only so far we can go to keep the water away at this point.

However, up until my drain that ran under the house was blocked by the new footers... This house has never flooded. But there is some rot of the fascia boards and a few other spots that we are having to fix.

 

[Viriiguy]

Well, I have not updated in a while, because I have not really done anything. Not Garage wise anyway. And I have had nothing but BAAAAD Luck. I have decided the ONLY way to get anything done right, is to do it myself.

My Patio is still flooding my house. They have tried I think 3 times now. I called him monday and told him to come remove it. I have yet to hear from him. I will call him Monday again. So He takes me to another client of his.. two driveways down from me and shows me their BEAUTIFUL Walkway and Patio. I felt like saying... So why can't mine look like this?

In other news, about three weeks ago, my plan to replace all the plumbing in the garage was escalated. A Polybutylene pipe connection in my garage let go. I would show pics, but it is currently ugly and nothing to show off. I am soon ripping out the current rotten bathroom and replacing it and everything in it. Making it a bit bigger as it is TINY atm.

 

[Red Leader]

Dang man, sorry to hear about the raw deal. Keep on those guys.

Would it be possible to just dig down and excavate the entire level of surrounding dirt/fill to get it back to a normal level?

 

[Viriiguy]

Thanks,

I have not made a LOT of progress today on my bedroom.. Guess the wife was right Anyway... I have found the damage is not far reaching at least. Only going back about 3 foot and looks like the walls MAY be ok.. We will see.

 

[Nighttrain]

Looking at the first photos the down spouts all had pipes on them to draw water away from the foundation. Problem those pipes have holes in them. If the bank owned this property and they disclosed it had flooding issues then they knew it had water problems. They need to fix it. If the dirt is not removed at least a 12" away from the entire foundation you are not going to stop the water coming in. Is it possible to to dig out all around the house? Not just french drains? Very nice propert though and congrats on the house!

 

[Viriiguy]

Unfortunately it is impossible to remove 12 inches of dirt from my foundation. My house sits on a slab that is between 3 and 8 inches thick. We have worked to remove as much dirt as possible.. But this flooding is caused by the concrete patio. It is higher than my bedroom door and slanted towards it.

And thanks

 

[Viriiguy]

Well The bedroom turned out to not be half as bad as I had imagined. The mold was limited to the underside of the floor and to one corner in the room. And in the corner, it was limited to the baseboard only. No damage tot he sheet rock behind. I treated the entire room with Concrobium. Now to get the Patio taken care of...

 

[BigWil]

Viriiguy, that really *****. You always hope for the best when you get into a new place...you definitely got the shaft on this one.

 

[Viriiguy]

Yea I really did. I knew the price was just too good to be true... But that is ok. It is very private, which is what we were after. So long as I can fix these issues....

Can anyone in Knoxville TN Recommend a GOOD Concrete Installer? And possibly a GOOD Landscaper with Drainage Experience?

I have almost all the KNOWN electrical issues solved. Still a couple switches that do nothing, and a couple plugs that do not work. The plumbing... It works.. But needs to be done a bit better. It is perfectly functional, but none of the P-EX is strapped to a wall. The water pressure comes and goes, comes and goes... So gotta figure that out...

But the Concrete and the remainder of the drainage issue in the back.. I will hire out.

Assuming I can ever actually find someone qualified.

 

[Viriiguy]

Ok, so the latest update, The patio has been busted out and the flooding has stopped. So that is better... Now on to Garage news!

I acquired a new item for my garage a couple weeks ago....
It will soon be my new beer/cola fridge.

It is a 1946 Vendo 83 Coke Machine. It used to sell Royal Palm Sodas by Coca Cola, back in the day for a dime each. When I got it, it had no key and no power cable. It also has severe damage to the sides from a forklift. Judging by the rust, it happened some time ago.

Well, I drilled out the lock and got it opened. Much to my shock it was complete! I wired in a new power cord for the moment and plugged it in, with the fire extinguisher ready... Much clanging, but it blew cold air! The clanging turned out to be the fan housing. It has rusted and bent up into the fan. A little love from the hammer solved that for now.

Here is the machine... Sitting happily in my garage

And here is the inside..

And this is the damage...

I hope to find a local welder who works for beer.. or peanuts.. or maybe beer and peanuts Who will help me with patching up the sides. Then I plan to remove the vending drum, put in a couple shelves, have the compressor charged and turn it into a fridge

 

[Viriiguy]

Fast forward two months, I figure it is high time for an update.
The company that put my Patio in wrong.. I am still fighting them for a refund. I am in talks with a lawyer atm.. It will likely cost me way more then the man owes me to sue him, but at this point I no longer care about the $$ It is about the Principle now. We have been doing a lot of work on the house and the drainage, so nothing new has happened to the garage...

Except for a couple of new projects that spend a lot of time in there...
I recently acquired this...

My plan was to gut it and build a digital Pinball Simulator out of it.. Being a techie nerd Server Admin.. But when it was delivered to my house, it was in way too good of a condition to justify gutting it. So I am fixing it I replaced the driver board and have to replace 4 coils... Then track down why the ball popper doesn't work and it should be good as new.

And in the midst of repairing that... This fell into my lap for only $40!!

It had no circuit boards and the Screen was shot. So I took the parts I had set aside for the pinball simulator and built a MAME Cabinet out of it

It is far from finished, but I can't stop playing long enough to take it back apart and complete it
This is how it sits today..

It is running MAME with about 8600 arcade games on it. I am using Hyperspin as the front end. I have also added emulators for all the consoles and will be moving my ROM collection over to it, once I finish with the MAME setup and tweaking.

The garage is still a complete mess, most everything is still in boxes, waiting on me to find a place for it to go.

I REALLY need a much larger garage!

 

[Kevin54]

Viriiguy.....What did they do about the patio between the house? I know you said they tore it out, but how is it finished?

If you plan on having a patio put back in, and here's what had to be done to my dads house as it was the same way, you siding will need to come off. Flashing will need to go at least a foot up the wall behind the siding, then it will need to go down in the ground and across then the concrete can go on top of that. My dad had poured concrete against his siding and it rotted the floor out in his kitchen that was built on a slab. It was a mess that you would not believe.

Personally, if you have not done anything to it yet, get a skidloader and dig everything out a couple of feet and backfill with stone to insure good drainage. If you have any lower ground anywhere else, you will want to run a drain like you had in the center in solid PVC pipe. Not corrugated pipe. You want smooth pipe. If anything, you may have to run this to a drywell or have a plastic cistern put in to collect the water and use it for outdoor watering. Just an idea to think about.

Also I went back and looked at the pic with the concrete out and the guys pouring the new. It doesn't look like you have any gravel at all, just packed down dirt. You need gravel. I'd also do away with the textured concrete if you put it back in. Make it smooth so water will run faster. A very light broom finish would work. From the two inside corners of the house, you want to start there and slope it towards the drain. Most concrete guys know how to do that. I said most. Those two yocals working on it don't know squat. It can easily be remedied, but you need drainage. If you can't get a skidloader in there, look into a Dingo. It will take a little longer but it will work.

 

[Viriiguy]

Good Morning Kevin,

The patio is still non-existant... Currently it is a mess of concrete rubble and mud. I had commented when they poured the cement as to why they did not put down gravel.. and was told that in TN, due to our Red Clay, we do not have to have gravel.. I protested.. but you see where it got me.

Next year, when we tackle it again, I do plan to dig the area down a foot or two and slope it to drain down our hill.. But I am NOT putting concrete back in. There was a wooden Patio there previously and I am just going to build another one.

I figured I would slope the land, lay down some landscapeing cloth and cover it in pea gravel, then build the patio over that. I also have to dig some drainage pipes under my sidewalk they poured.. if I keep it in at all.. Because again, no sand, no gravel and no drainage.

Thank you for the suggestions. I kind of figured I would need to pull the siding off. And will do that, just as soon as I can find somewhere to buy a couple replacement pieces.. The concrete company tore ours up.

 

[Viriiguy]

Due to a break in attempt last night, the second in 4 months.. I am planning HEAVY security upgrades. I am currently trying to find a supplier of Concertina (razor) wire, to run along my back fence.. It buts up to train tracks. The Video Survelliance system is getting completed this week as well.. And I now need to replace my Office door. Twice it has been kicked, trying to get it open. The door frame itself has suffered heavily from the attacks. As much as I hate to give up the window in the door, I think I am going to install a steel door and frame.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Maybe you need and electric fence along the back ?

 

[Viriiguy]

We are actually looking in to it.

 

[Viriiguy]

Well, I did some research and I cannot put an Electric fence on my back fence row. If I do, I have to remove the vegetation from the fence and from around the fence. Especially the ivy. Since it is part of my sound barrier fromt he train tracks, I do not want to do that. So instead, I am going to plant Poison Ivy, Poison oak, Bramble Thorns and whatever else I can find that will HURT someone back there...

I will either top that section of fence with Concertina wire or Barbed wire. I do not have kids so I am not worried about anyone getting hurt on it. My neighbors kids, know that I am an active Sport Shooter, so they stay away from the property.

I also called the police and had them come take a report for both incidents. The officer saw my camera mounted over the garage and got hopeful. Unfortunately, they are not finished yet, so it was not hooked up. But I assured him, the next time this happens, I will either have a video of the perp, or his corpse for them to pick up. He had a pretty good idea who did it, and I was right, they came from the trailer park a couple lots over.

So this is my story thus far.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Hopefully no boards with nails sticking up through them fall off a passing train and land outside your fence.

 

[Viriiguy]

Hopefully no boards with nails sticking up through them fall off a passing train and land outside your fence.

Yea, it would be a darn shame wouldn't it.
The previous owner already coated the area with broken glass and various junk. I was going to clean it up, but I have since re-thunk that.

 

[Viriiguy]

Well, it has been a few months. I have upgraded my security system and installed better cameras all around the house. No more trouble since the completion of this stuff.

As for the flooding, we thought we had it licked. Until the snow proved me wrong. We found another spot where water has been getting in and going under our floorboards. So I have a couple of contractors that are supposed to come and give a quote for the repairs. I am pretty handy, but knowing that an external wall is going to have to be jacked up and have the bottom of it replaced.. is a bit more than I feel I can safely handle. So hopefully one of them will get back to me soon.

If you know of a GOOD contractor in East TN, please send me their info. So far I have had nothing but horrible luck in picking contractors.

We are slowly getting settled into the house and making it our own. I have a LOT of work still to do, but have not accomplished hardly anything since my last update. Mostly just stupid simple stuff, like replacing more lights with LEDs.

I have some electrical work to do, and need to go over ALL the plumbing. Whoever installed the PEX did not know what they were doing.

 

[woodersen]

Hopefully no boards with nails sticking up through them fall off a passing train and land outside your fence.

yea that or a bunch of broken beer bottles back there.

 

[BellyUpFish]

Very nice.

The wife and I are house shopping. Found two that have very nice shops.

 

[Viriiguy]

Good luck! And get the strictest Home Inspector you can find! Ours was... well, less that good at his job.

I get started on the meat and potatoes of my next major project this weekend... My Digital Pinball Sim Cabinet. I will post a few pics on here when I make some worthwhile progress.

 

[notchy]

Very nice house and property.A house of that caliber in Vancouver would easily be 4million plus.

 

[Viriiguy]

Thanks Notchy! Now if I can just get all the flooding issues fixed before it rots away on me!

 

[bmeagher]

We have our closing date!! 3/19!!

Well my wife and I are in the process of closing on our home! And it comes with a nice big (but not big enough) garage!

Here are a couple Realtor pics of the house, garage and my office over the garage!

And this... Is my Birthday present! My loving wife bought this for me to hang in my retro garage!!

Stay tuned! Once they finish repairs to the sun room... We start fixing up and moving in!!!

Where did you get the Pictou sign from? I'm from Antigonish, which is 1/2 hour away

 

[Viriiguy]

I spent lots of time working in Antigonish My wife had it made for me by http://www.retroroad.ca/garage.html

His prices are WAY more than fair for the quality you get. Check him out!

 

[bmeagher]

I spent lots of time working in Antigonish My wife had it made for me by http://www.retroroad.ca/garage.html

His prices are WAY more than fair for the quality you get. Check him out!

And he ships them all the way to Knoxville from BC?

 

[Viriiguy]

He will ship them anywhere in the world.

 

[goneflyin2002]

And he ships them all the way to Knoxville from BC?

wow, what a page full of awesomeness... I gotta make some of that stuff!