The Basement Thread

[Mr. Anderson]

Ok, as some of you might know, I used to have a 'media lab' in my basement. I posted pics of this and was quite happy with it.

Well, things have changed, we moved the tv room down there and put my computers in the 2nd bedroom. The drafting table went to storage....very sad about that.

Then the basement flooded a day after we put new carpet down - so after fighting that for a couple months we decided to get some 'professionals' in to fix it for good.

They call and said they were going to show up on Saturday (during Geekfest which I was hosting) and throw a huge wrench into the works, so I didn't get to go out and run around DC with the other guys as much as I would have liked.

Well, Monday I stay home from work, expecting them to show up......nope. After a few calls I get the excuse the other job they were on ended up going longer. Then I arrange to have them here this morning first thing. Guess what, no show again. Mean while I've got some huge trenches dug in my basement. Blah!

I eventually got in touch with the company doing the work and it seems that the foreman called in sick today but was supposed to have been sending his guys over to do the work......right. And they have no way of contacting them, right again.

So they're showing up tomorrow.

I might be finding some creative uses for their jack hammer.....;)

Here's a pic of what the media lab looked like last year.

D

[Mr. Anderson]

Here's a pic of what it looks like now....

Oh, and the morons managed to rip down the shelf on the left, probably by placing the jackhammer or something equally as heavy on it.....

And to make this less of a rant thread, anyone else have any interesting contractor or basement related stories?

D

[eyelikeart]

This is nothing near what u are experiencing, but I've been working in an unfinished office for 4 weeks now.

I saw what those guys did to your basement, and there's no justifiable excuse that I can imagine for such incompetence. I would understand if it were a home insurance situation where they were contracted out to do the work, but it's not.

[pEZ]

I suppose I could toss in a contractor-related story. Our basement has flooded in the past, so we decided never to finish it.

It's not really contractor-related, but we hired these landscape people to mow our lawn, mulch areas in the back yard, and lay down sod in the front yard. It all went fine, but after they laid down the sod, they scalped it with their mowers that were set WAY to low. They also tore up some of the mulch they had just laid. At first they refused to replace it, so we were stuck with a large rectangle of beige grass because it wouldn't grow anymore. After they agreed to replace it, we told them to just come and fix it and never come again - we could just see that story being a vicious cycle.

Ah well. Finally realized that our yard looks better when we do it ourselves.

D - did you ask for a moat in your basement? Otherwise I'm not seeing why they're doing that.

[mischief]

Am I seeing tile on a bed of sand D? Shouldn't there be about 6" of footing where that trench is??

I'm confused. Could you explain the structure of the walls/foundation down there? It looks like you're lacking for a slab or propper membraine.

[MacBandit]

Serves you right for moving your media room and getting rid of your drafting table. Sounds to me like Karma of some sort or maybe your drafting table is getting even somehow. I mean you had your media room down there for a while with no problem and then you move your TV down there and wammo. Sounds like fate to me.:D

[Mr. Anderson]

The concept for what they're doing is good - although the implementation is not exactly what we were expecting.

Digging up the interior floor, laying pipe surrounded by gravel that empties into a sump. Recover it with 3" of cement and you never have water in you basement again. Also keeps moister down, so there's no mildew.

Since its on the inside you don't see the footer.

I'll be discussing it more with them tomorrow when they show up and talk to the owner. This is not going as planned.

D

[MrMacMan]

Aww, sorry man.

That is nothing the WHOLE house of mine is about to be totally destoryied.

Seriously my front porch has pillars that hang up some of roof, and are attached to my room, my mom and dad's room and the bathroom, the porch is rotting, litterly.

The bricks are falling apart, the pillars are going to collapse and instead of my window soon I will have a BIG GAPPING WHOLE THROUGH THE SIDE OF MY ROOM.

And the insurence will only give us water damage.
Yeah, they want my house to FALL APART to give anymore money.

Thannkksss.

[wdlove]

I'm sorry to hear about you basement problem MR. Anderson. The prior picture looked very nice.

My basement is damp all summer, it has water beads on the walls!