small house upgrades - basement

[pseudoreality]

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.

[ecomodded]

There may be drainage pipe in place already, if so it may blocked by roots causing an accumulation of dirt/mud in that section, causing the water to build up behind it, in turn flooding your basement.

I would not dig around the basement walls as a first approach, instead hire a plumber to come in with an inspection camera. Be sure to start looking toward the city sewer outlet section first. If it is blocked on city property, They handle the repair.
There is a good chance the block may be there, or in your front yard in the drain pipe leading from the basement.
I recently Know of a guy who paid a bag full of money to dig out his basements drainage pipe. Only to discover it was fine, the blockage was in the front yard, the pipe leading to the city sewer. A stupid simple fix that he missed out on.

Another guy, same neighborhood, hired a plumber to look for the blockage with his snake camera, to wit he found the blockage on city property. The city fixed it, the next day.
They act fast when its on city property and related to water pipes , drainage and sewer.

edit to add:
If your eavestroughs have the drain pipe going down toward the foundation, you can bet you have weeping tiles or drain pipe in place already.

[pseudoreality]

Originally Posted by ecomodded

There may be drainage pipe in place already, if so it may blocked by roots causing an accumulation of dirt/mud in that section, causing the water to build up behind it, in turn flooding your basement.

I would not dig around the basement walls as a first approach, instead hire a plumber to come in with an inspection camera. Be sure to start looking toward the city sewer outlet section first. If it is blocked on city property, They handle the repair.
There is a good chance the block may be there, or in your front yard in the drain pipe leading from the basement.
I recently Know of a guy who paid a bag full of money to dig out his basements drainage pipe. Only to discover it was fine, the blockage was in the front yard, the pipe leading to the city sewer. A stupid simple fix that he missed out on.

Another guy, same neighborhood, hired a plumber to look for the blockage with his snake camera, to wit he found the blockage on city property. The city fixed it, the next day.
They act fast when its on city property and related to water pipes , drainage and sewer.

edit to add:
If your eavestroughs have the drain pipe going down toward the foundation, you can bet you have weeping tiles or drain pipe in place already.

I wish the I lived in a City like that! There's no storm sewers, just surface drainage. They don't ever cover water breaks that happen on City property! A few years back I had a break at the connection to the main and it came out of my insurance. It sucks.

[S-F]

What's the tape you used? Looks like an interesting project.

[pseudoreality]

Originally Posted by S-F

What's the tape you used? Looks like an interesting project.

It's just tyvek tape to seal the joints, so the foam can double as a vapour barrier.

[ecomodded]

That sucks having to pay to fix your city water hook up, yourself.
In my last house same city, The city water line sprung a leak at the meter and my water line under my house, in the dirt crawl space, the city fixed it in 1-2 hours..
To keep things in perceptive i will confess my taxes are high, We pay for it..


Because your electricity rates are sky high compared to mine.
I'll suggest a propane hot water heater,not the tank model, the on demand type.
I pay $0.10190(high rate)to your $0.2700

I plan on getting a on demand propane water heater when i replace my hot water tank,as my current tank is 7-10years old, the pressure valve is weak, it passes hot water into the drain to equalize the pressure even when the temperature is at a useable level, without the need to add cold water.
Curious if the cost of propane sky high Up there/Northwest Territories?
In B.C ,Canada, Propane is about the same price as gasoline, $1.25 a liter.