Pandora's Box

In one of my first entries about our renovations, I mentioned hoping that I hadn't opened Pandora's Box. Consider it opened.

My parents were here all of last week, and Aaron's dad was up for a couple of days. It was decided that the front yard would have to be pulled back to fix the cracks in the foundation...which meant the front step would have to go.
Before:

After:


This was good news for Aaron, who has hated those steps since we first bought the house. The bad news is that, after jackhammering and hauling all that concrete to the dump, we found a different, and likely equally effective, way of dealing with the cracks from the INSIDE. So, now the front yard needs a little landscaping (remove those thirsty flower beds from the edge of the house, and we will be replacing the steps with a narrow veranda that will run nearly the entire length of the house...CUTE!!)

Back to the inside...ok, so the walls will get the special crack-fill procedure, and will get inside weeping tile, including a drainage trench around the outside edge of the floor...ah, yes, the floor...

We called in a concrete guy to look at things, and he gave us two options (which we had already figured out ourselves, since we're so smart).

Option 1: Pour a new layer of concrete over the existing floor to even everything out. Now the pros of this would be that there would be little to no prep work required. The cons would be that any structural problems under the existing floor would probably continue, and eventually, even quickly compromise the quality of the new pour. Also, we would lose even more head room in the basement, which is not really an option, considering Aaron's height.

Option 2: Remove the existing concrete, prep the "dirt" underneath, install new re bar, and re pour the entire floor. Pros: A new, properly installed floor that we wouldn't have to worry about. It wouldn't cost much more than the new layer, as concrete needs to be a certain thickness for the necessary strength, anyways. We would stand to GAIN headroom in the basement, as the floor would now be even. The cons: Jackhammering and hauling out 6-7 cubic yards of concrete. Doing the prep work and re bar installation.

Well, following our "Might as well" mantra, and Mike Holmes' advice to "Make it right," we are going with option 2. After considering many, many, MANY options regarding the jackhammering, the removing of the concrete from the basement up to the yard, and how to get the concrete from the yard to the dump, here's what we came up with:

1. Aaron bought a jackhammer. Yes, he did. It was used and cost about the same as renting one for 6 days. We can sell it to the Home Hardware here in town when we're done with it, and they will use it as a rental.

2. Hauling concrete up a flight of stairs SUCKS. This was the most disheartening part of the whole process. It just seemed to be taking forever, and as of yesterday morning, we had resigned ourselves to the fact that we would have to pay some students (which a., costs a lot of money...any labour is not cheap in Alberta right now and b., is not the best option as students tend not to be as motivated as SOME adults to get the job done). BUT help arrived. Yesterday afternoon, our friend Philip came over and after supper, he and Aaron hauled some serious butt, and got the 1/4 of the basement that had been jackhammered CLEARED of concrete in just over 1 1/2 hours. THANK YOU, PHILIP, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!!!! I honestly don't think words can say how much it helped to have that part of the job done, and to have the renewed confidence that this is DOABLE.

3. Once the concrete is out of the basement, we'll get a landscaping company to bring a Bobcat and a dump truck to load it up and take it to the dump. We thought about buying a truck temporarily, but I think hiring someone is the better option here.

I know you've all been DYING to see pictures...haha...so here are a few.

The concrete at the top of the picture was about 4" thick. The concrete at the bottom of the picture, where there was a BIG hump in the floor, was about 1/2" thick.



Aaron's new toy... :S



A BIG piece of concrete coming out...



...and the hole it left.



Aaron hauling the first 2 pieces of concrete...the first of MANY.



The first section (about 1/4 of the basement) is DONE...except a little work around the edges.


The pile of concrete that came out of that space


I think Suki thinks we've just built her a giant litter box!