I have completed yet another project on my list for the house. I had four guys rip up my basement floor to put in a new drain pipe to replace the decrepid clay drain tile that goes around the outside of the house. Over the past 42 years the drain tiles have filled with mud and probably roots, which caused the water it was supposed to collect to seep into my basement. The guys jackhammered out an 18" wide trench around the outside walls of the basement and dug out around 12-18". After that they put in some #6 washed river stone, the flexible lining, more stone, a special plastic barrier, and concrete. The plastic barrier has raised dots that will allow any water that comes in through the wall to go down to the drain tiles. They also dug out the old shallow pit and put in a 3' deep by 2' wide well into my crawlspace. Watching them squeeze it in there was an art of its own. The project took around 10 hours to complete. The guys did an absolutely awesome job and I will reccomend them to anyone.
Now how do you get people to do a good job? You say hello, get their names, and show that you value their work. I left a cooler for them filled with drinks, 3 bags of chips, and I gave them two pizzas during lunch. They were very appeciative of the food and it showed in their work.
Total cost: $2800 for 80ish linear feet of pipe and the new well. Next will be the windows, which will be here in 4-6 weeks. After that it is free game to frame it in an finish it up.
Dan
Before
Trenched
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