This project has been on my mind ever since I bought my house – 7 ½ years ago. A combination of (lack of) finances, (lack of) time, and (lack of) connections has always kept this idea at bay. But I’ve been saving up for a while, I have the time (see above; ‘no riding right now’), and a connection just fell into my lap. A long-time friend of mine’s fiancé happens to be a plumber and we got together and talked about the project, and off we’re running. He even said I could work with him to save some expenses if I wanted to. Hell yeah, I want that! Now I’m pretty handy with tools and such but I’m no pro, so there’s bound to be some good learning opportunities ahead.
So Dave (the plumber) swung by the house last week to drop off the concrete cutter and lay out the lines for where the concrete needed to be removed.
This cutter is pretty sweet. I’ve never used one before, but I’ve seen plenty of them. It’s gas powered, runs like a (large) chain saw, and has a connection for a garden hose that’s used to adjust water flow against the blade. Fire it up, bring the blade up to speed, line it up with where you want to cut, and have at it.
The bathroom setup is going to consist of a tiled shower stall, toilet and sink – with a mini sink plumbed onto the opposite side of the bathroom sink wall (the mini sink will be the BAR sink!). Since my septic outflow pipe currently exits my house about 3’ above the floor, I need an ejector to get all the water (et al) up and out of the house. So…the cuts that are needed will be a trench running from the shower drain, running under where the toilet will be (which will…dump…into that drainage line), then running into a large hole where the ejector will be. A couple of small off-shoots will need to be cut as well, for vents and drainage to the main line.
I hooked up the hose, opened a couple of windows, opened doors at both ends of the cellar, and fired that beast up. Dave had advised that I just slice about an inch or so into the concrete and run the lines that way, then go back and cut all the way through. This process worked well as it was easy to make corrections if I started to drift on the initial cut, but once that was done, it acted as a guide for when I was doing the full cut. The cutter worked quite well and once I had a good rhythm figured out, I was slicing along at a good pace.
The ventilation was working pretty well until one of the doors blew shut – something I didn’t become aware of until I noticed that it was getting a bit tough to breathe. Wow, look at all the pretty colors everywhere…hey, time for a break, outside in the fresh air! Once the cellar cleared out, I propped the doors open to prevent any further issues, and finished the cuts.
Prying the concrete out of the cuts was done with a sledgehammer and a large pry bar. First, whack the crap out of the concrete to break it, then pry it up and lift it out. A very messy job, as every time I whacked the concrete with the sledge, the water and mud would explode out of the cracks and cuts. What fun! Thank god for safety glasses.
After I had all the concrete out, I shoved all the mud and water into the open slots and left things to dry for a few days. No need to be digging into a bunch of mud, thanks. I’ve been down there a couple of times this week to start the digging and it’s about 2/3 done. (The trench from the shower drain needs to be 8” deep, out to the point where it meets up with the toilet connection, at which point the trench needs to be 12” deep, running out to the hole for the ejector. That’s the fun part; that hole needs to be 4’ deep. And the stuff I’m digging into isn’t cooperating very well. It’s not just compacted dirt, it’s all kinds of rocks, rocks, and more rocks. More fun!
So that’s where things stand now. I’ll finish the digging this weekend and Monday morning (no holiday off for this kid!), Plumber Dave is showing up at 7:30 and we’re going to start laying out the drainage, maybe even get the ejector into place as well.
I’ll keep snapping pics and will keep you up to date as this thing moves along. With any luck, I might even have this thing done in time for my pig roast in May – not that I need another bathroom for that party...I have plenty of bathrooms in my back yard already – I call them ‘trees’. :-D
Oh yeah - if anyone out there has remodeled/finished their basement before, feel free to toss ideas out to me as to things you did and liked, what worked, what didn't, what you would have done differently, etc. Thanks!
Have a great long weekend.
No comments:
Post a Comment