small house upgrades - basement

pseudoreality · 02-17-13, 06:37 PM

Alright, I guess I should start a thread on my project(s). I have a ~1000 sq ft bungalow in Yellowknife, NT, Canada. The city is in an area of discontinuous permafrost and as such there are few homes with basements. I'm one of the lucky few with a basement as my house sits on a rare sand deposit right downtown. The house was a modular construction shipped up in two halfs sometime in the 1960s and placed on a full height concrete basement. It has 2x4 wall construction with fibreglass insulation and had a partially (poorly) finished basement.

Late this past summer I had a flood resulting from a faulty flex hose connection under my kitchen sink. As a result all the flooring on the main floor and the entire basement had to be gutted. I'm taking the time to rebuild things right and the basement in my main project right now.

A minor amount of water intrusion has been an issue in my basement since day one. Typically in the fall you will get a bit of water on the floor for a couple of weeks. Ideally I'd like the excavate around the house, install a weeping tile, and water proof membrane to fix the problem. However, there is very limited access on the outside of the house and I can't seem to find a contractor interested in doing it. So instead, I went the inside route and treated the concrete and construction joints with Xypex. I can go into more detail on that if anyone is interested. I also plan on installing a dimpled HDPE membrane (delta flooring) in case any water does still make it in.

So far I've put up 1 1/2" XPS foam board on the wall and will be covering that with a 2x4 wall (2' o/c) with fibreglass. The floor will have 1" XPS on top of the delta floor membrane sealed to the wall board. My intent was to insulated the joist cavities with spray foam, but I have an incident installing the foam where it only worked for the first third and then just sprayed half the product leaving me with a giant mess. Instead of special ordering in my foam product, I'm just going to seal in cut out pieces of XPS board with spray foam in a can.

The little eco friendly interesting piece of technology I'm putting in is a drain heat recovery from Power Pipe. I just have one bathroom with a nice vertical drop to the basement making it an ideal installation. Also, my current method to heat water with $0.27/kWh electricity is very pricy. The power pipe is on order and I can't wait to install it.

Below are some photos of where I'm at with things.

Oh, I also discovered a support post almost completely rusted out when things got gutted. Some idiot decided to chip out a drainage trench into the concrete around the post. So of course it rusted out. I braced the area, grinded out the old post, grouted the area flat, installed a new post, and then poured additional grout to cover the baseplate and shed water.

02-17-13, 06:37 PM	#1
pseudoreality Lurking Renovator Join Date: Feb 2013 Location: Yellowknife, NT, Canada Posts: 11 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	small house upgrades - basement Alright, I guess I should start a thread on my project(s). I have a ~1000 sq ft bungalow in Yellowknife, NT, Canada. The city is in an area of discontinuous permafrost and as such there are few homes with basements. I'm one of the lucky few with a basement as my house sits on a rare sand deposit right downtown. The house was a modular construction shipped up in two halfs sometime in the 1960s and placed on a full height concrete basement. It has 2x4 wall construction with fibreglass insulation and had a partially (poorly) finished basement. Late this past summer I had a flood resulting from a faulty flex hose connection under my kitchen sink. As a result all the flooring on the main floor and the entire basement had to be gutted. I'm taking the time to rebuild things right and the basement in my main project right now. A minor amount of water intrusion has been an issue in my basement since day one. Typically in the fall you will get a bit of water on the floor for a couple of weeks. Ideally I'd like the excavate around the house, install a weeping tile, and water proof membrane to fix the problem. However, there is very limited access on the outside of the house and I can't seem to find a contractor interested in doing it. So instead, I went the inside route and treated the concrete and construction joints with Xypex. I can go into more detail on that if anyone is interested. I also plan on installing a dimpled HDPE membrane (delta flooring) in case any water does still make it in. So far I've put up 1 1/2" XPS foam board on the wall and will be covering that with a 2x4 wall (2' o/c) with fibreglass. The floor will have 1" XPS on top of the delta floor membrane sealed to the wall board. My intent was to insulated the joist cavities with spray foam, but I have an incident installing the foam where it only worked for the first third and then just sprayed half the product leaving me with a giant mess. Instead of special ordering in my foam product, I'm just going to seal in cut out pieces of XPS board with spray foam in a can. The little eco friendly interesting piece of technology I'm putting in is a drain heat recovery from Power Pipe. I just have one bathroom with a nice vertical drop to the basement making it an ideal installation. Also, my current method to heat water with $0.27/kWh electricity is very pricy. The power pipe is on order and I can't wait to install it. Below are some photos of where I'm at with things. Oh, I also discovered a support post almost completely rusted out when things got gutted. Some idiot decided to chip out a drainage trench into the concrete around the post. So of course it rusted out. I braced the area, grinded out the old post, grouted the area flat, installed a new post, and then poured additional grout to cover the baseplate and shed water.