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Preventing Water Infiltration in the Basement

Bob talks about the need to create dry space when looking to create basement living areas. The Melrose house has water infiltration problems that are commonly caused by clogged downspouts or discharge pipes that saturate the soil around the house. Water chutes have been attached to the conductor pipes to carry water away from the home. The old brick and chimney have been repointed to prevent water from seeping in. Inside, perimeter drainage trenches have been created along the basement walls to collect moisture from the walls and carry it away.

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Preventing Water Infiltration in the Basement Now Playing

Preventing Water Infiltration in the Basement

Replacing Brass Water Pipes with PEX Tubing Now Playing

Replacing Brass Water Pipes with PEX Tubing

Reworking the Existing Plumbing Now Playing

Reworking the Existing Plumbing

Installing Basement Drainage Solutions and Sump Pumps Now Playing

Installing Basement Drainage Solutions and Sump Pumps

Installing an On-Demand Hot Water System Now Playing

Installing an On-Demand Hot Water System

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Preventing Water Infiltration in the Basement

computer-generated transcript - may not be 100% accurate

" When you're remodeling a basement space one of the first things that you want to keep in mind is that you wanted to be a dry living area so last week we started looking at some of the problems this house has water infiltration from the exterior is something that. Is that common occurrence when you have gutters and when those gutters get dirty or when that conductor pipes get clogged. You have water logging the soil around the house so we've got water chutes had been stalled at the base at the bottom of each one of these conductor pipes to get rid of that water and let it. Just flow away from the house we also got other smaller problems to deal with which involve pointing up -- chimney base and things like that then on the inside we've already. And dug a perimeter trench around the whole slab of this area. And today we're going to be looking at some of the finishing touches that go in there."

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Installing the Concrete Cellar Stairs

Back on site, pre-cast concrete cellar stairs, fabricated in Williston, Vermont, are lowered with a boom and bolted up against the house foundation. The stairs, which weigh a good ton, are bolted on with 4 3/4" bolts and waterproofed with a neoprene seal. When finished they will have a metal bulkhead door on top and a door into the basement below.

Installing Custom Shower Doors and Bath Hardware and CO Detector

Bob meets with Greg VanGrover of Ketcham Reflections to observe the finishing touches in the bathroom shower. VanGrover works with architectural drawings to custom fit the shower doors and glass walls. In older homes his factory-trained installers make a site visit prior to fabrication to insure the space is plumb and level. If its not his team will make the piece to fit whole so once its made the installer is not trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Downstairs Bob meets with Barry Driscoll, the electrician to discuss the importance of Carbon Monoxide detectors. In the basement Bob shows off his mini Wine Cellar with a Marvel Cellarette. Also in the basement is a Wood Waiter from Bruce Fowler Industries of Quebec, Canada. This nifty device saves your back from having to haul wood from the basement to the main floor. This wood elevator transports wood from a basement storage area to a cabinet near the fireplace.

Steel Bulkhead Doors

A steel bulkhead door can be a great addition to a home. To install, a steel frame is lowered onto the pre cast cellar stairs. Next, pilot holes are drill into the concrete and the steel frame is bolted down. The door and latching hardware are attached, providing secure and weather tight basement access.

A Complete Basement Remodel

The new family room is all done and furnished and looks terrrific. Bob talks with Sarah Monzon, the homeowner who also acted as the general contractor on the project, about the remodeling work done on the room. The room was a "cave" according to Monzon before the project was started. A pitted soapstone sink was previously used as a laundry and had become an eyesore. The room was also cluttered with accumulated junk. Because of the shortage of space in the house, the family decided to finish the basement to add to the living space of the home. Monzon acted as the general contractor for the project because there wasn't money budgeted for the expense, which was not necessarily an experience she would choose to repeat. The local inspectional services department provided a large amount of information for the novice general contractor. It is imperative before homeowners do any work on their home that they obtain the necessary permits and find out what is safe and what is not. If homeowners do work on their homes without a permit and anything goes wrong, insurance will not cover the damage. Before any work was done on the house, the basement floors were concrete and heating ducts crisscrossed the ceiling. There was flooding damage in the basement during the past fall which needed to be corrected and prevented in the future. Basement Systems was called in to install a perimeter drain and drainage system. A lot of existing plumbing was then moved from the ceiling to make more headspace and a new HVAC system was installed to move the heating ducts. The new central air system complete with an air filter made the house much more livable. In one of the smaller spaces in the basement, a new bathroom was installed with the help of technology from Saniflo. Owens Corning Basement Finishing Systems was then called in to install new finished walls. Many of the mechanical devices in the basement are now hidden behind the walls but are still accessible as the walls can be easily removed. A new entertainment center was then installed in the finished basement featuring a S1 Digital Media Center. The media center allows the homeowner to browse digital pictures taken using the family's digital camera or to set the image as wallpaper for the screen. Television shows can be watched or recorded using a schedule guide. The media center also can store home videos, movies, and music. New reclining chairs from Bell'O were put in the entertainment room. When laying protection from flood damage in a basement, it is important to elevate wood from the concrete floor. Instead of using a plywood underlayment, a plastic tile system was used which interlocks and can be screwed down onto the concrete. Plastic webbing underneath the tiles diverts any water which may come up through the concrete or spill in the basement to the perimeter drain. Slide-Lok cabinets were put in the basement to increase storage space. The Slide-Lok wall system was put in place to hang tools in the workspace. The husband of the family is a musician and uses much of the storage space to hold his instruments. Because the room can double as rehearsal space, two and a half inches of fiberglass are in the walls to reduce sound transmission to the outside. The basement has a small office space for the husband as well. Accents throughout the space correlate with other things in the room. The lampshades on the desk have a design which relates to the flooring product. The floor does not have a wall-to-wall carpet although it looks as if it does. The floor is from Binvetec and features tiles of carpet which stick to the floor. The product has interlocking patterns which can easily be layed down. Bean bags from Sumo were put in the room for lounging in and the kids love to play on them. A stairwell fishtank from AquaVista is only four inches deep.