Aaarrrghhhhhh!!!!!!

no sump pump?

Nope. Everyone asks that.

Looks like I'm going to have to smash some holes in the floor.
Or maybe fix this wall? whatever, I'm rebuilding the house anyway.

My basement is a crawlspace that was converted in the 60s to be the worst basement ever.

It is definitely surface water because it only shows up when it rains.

I have to put a hole somewhere if I'm going to install a sump pump :)

My basement is also made entirely out of mold. I periodically bathe the walls and floor in bleach, but I dont want to do it too often or I'll hurt the structural mold.

My basement is a crawlspace that was converted in the 60s to be the worst basement ever.

It is definitely surface water because it only shows up when it rains.

I have to put a hole somewhere if I'm going to install a sump pump :)

My basement is also made entirely out of mold. I periodically bathe the walls and floor in bleach, but I dont want to do it too often or I'll hurt the structural mold.

hehe

So, I unplugged the drain pipe, and guess what, it goes to my septic system!

What a wonderful design! (end sarcastic remark)

At least the flooding is down to a wet floor now.

(EDIT: And quite a waterfall from one of the walls . . . yay)

Dig a moat and pump the water into it. Become a pirate.

The previous owner already dug a moat! Around the house! Thats why it floods!

Arrrr!

That sucks. It doesn't cost that much for a sump pump does it? Good investment, especially for your foundation I would think.

Previous owner's moat idea isnt too far fetch considering cheaper ways to divert water away from your home. Exaggerating the moat further with a tractor/gannon, including adding a bubbler or two, should fix this. Of course your land will be scarred up, assuming you have room to move around a tractor.

I do worry about your foundation. If i understand correctly, this has been going on for years. And assuming you were just made aware of this, I am opt to think you purchased this home recently. If all true, one would assume you have grounds for a winable legal battle. A battle that the previous owner will have to foot the bill to upgrade your property.

Bahahaha, I bought it as a foreclosure, I knew full well that the basement flooded regularly.

It's just I had one wall down cuz I was rebuilding it, and man, talk about releasing the flood gates.

The water main, the pipe that brings water into the house, comes through the wall in such a way that rain water clings to the outside of the pipe and flows in like a rain torrent.

I'm hoping this new wall we built in its place shall reduce the problem.

The property is a half acre, I bought it with the intent of building the "real" house in the back yard after I'm out from under this mortgage. :)

You should level the property and turn it into a baseball field.

"If you build it...they will come."

What a pain. Well, hope all goes well for ya. Good luck.

Ah, foreclosure. Another man's piece of shit, is your treasure ftw! Yeah, hopefully the foundation is good for awhile. At any rate, good luck.

The foundation itself is great, it doesnt get a drop of water on it.

The house was biult in 1941, and sometime in the 60s, the owner decided he wanted a basement. So they dug out the crawlspace, and left two feet of dirt on each side to hold up the footer. Then they built a really crappy parapet wall to hold the dirt back, and filled in the floor with concrete.

Now it's almost 50 years later, and the parapet wall falls over, thats what made the cost of the house so low. When I inspected the house, it still had standing water in the basement. Just this weekend we finished capping the replacement wall on one side.

Holy cow! Well, I'm sure you got a heck of a deal. From what it sounds like, 50 years was quite a stretch, I'm surprised it held that long.

No kidding. It had no rebar or mortar fillis, and it was 4 inch block, not even 8 inch.

The stuff that came out crumbled!!

Man, you're really lucky. That could have been bad news bears for sure. So, will you be able to put drywall and drop ceiling down there, or are you not even bothering with it?

The ceiling is already too low to stand up in without hitting your head on a beam. :P

Here, have a "Before" picture of the wall we replaced.

Remember, this is what the wall looked like BEFORE we did anything to it!


http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j252/Tofuball/House/Another%20Brick%20in%20the%20Wall/a0b2f598.jpg?t=1202267639

Prepping it for destruction . . .

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j252/Tofuball/House/Another%20Brick%20in%20the%20Wall/adc6b73d.jpg?t=1202267622

Wall destroyed!

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j252/Tofuball/House/Another%20Brick%20in%20the%20Wall/bff26b8e.jpg?t=1202267852

And the new wall goes up!

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j252/Tofuball/House/Another%20Brick%20in%20the%20Wall/7c6aece3.jpg?t=1202267838

Then in with even more rebar!

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j252/Tofuball/House/Another%20Brick%20in%20the%20Wall/db4f41c6.jpg?t=1202267835

Then we pour the concrete and level it out . . .

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j252/Tofuball/House/Another%20Brick%20in%20the%20Wall/adfda261.jpg?t=1202268408

Update: So, the wall next to it has started to crumble. I'm gonna try and replace that ASAP . . . put up some supports for the house on it too . . .

http://www.theforumlounge.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2977&stc=1&d=1229086857

Nah, that wall is fine, believe it or not :P

Facing the wall in that picture, it's the wall to the left.

It's so bad that there are supports in the stair well and all over the basement for it.

The reason I am even bothering to replace the left wall is so I can remove all the extra supports so that there is enough room to fit the new water heater into the basement and get the old one out.

basements, lol

Whey the hell would someone go through the trouble of digging out a crawl space, for a nearly usless basement? And how the hell would they get all that dirt out of there, carry is up stairs one bucket at a time?

Why would someone go through the trouble? Because they don't like doing the job right, they want it done cheap.

they probably dug out the wall (where the steps are now) and dug it all by machine.