In the garden, and RAIN!!!!
POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Thursday, December 25, 2025 04:27
VIEWED: 1005090
PAGE 275 of 1154
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Originally posted by 1KIKI:
Hey Jack
It sounds like you've reduced your under-porch considerations to plastic on the dirt under the porch, no sealing, stapling, attaching to anything, or covering anything else with anything else. Or vents or anything. PHEW! I think it simplifies it down to useful and diy-friendly. Reading through all your posts though - do you have water problems! If it's not coming up from below, it's falling down from above, splashing sideways, or humidifying in with the outside heavy air. Originally I'm from the NE, and I thought WE had water issues with a flooded yard and basement. But your place beats anything I'm familiar with.
Yes. The bank that sold it to me did me dirty.
Not really. It was my fault. Buying with cash I thought I did my due dilligance by looking at the property tax card that said it wasn't a floodplain. It wasn't until after I was here and was fighting my property taxes that I learned about FEMA flood maps.
Whoopsie.
For the most part my basement doesn't flood at all. It's only done it twice, both times when the sump pump failed. I have a generator in case the power goes out. I'm going to get a battery backup and a 2nd well installed for it before I remodel the basement. Should be flood free then.
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Out of curiosity - do you all have storm sewers in your area?
Yeah. They work good.
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As for your house crawlspace ... I dunno ... do you have proof of a problem? Weeping areas, mold or mildew or mushrooms growing behind the visqueen, efflorescence on the cinder blocks, stained(water-exposed) wood, or so on? If things seem OK then maybe you can let them be ...
Other than the standing water that I saw years ago when I left all the windows open 24/7 and it was in the high 90's in my house for about a month, no. Wood is good. No mold or mildew that I can see, and I was just down there about a month ago checking all the perimeter wood for any ant damage. It does have a funky smell down in the basement though. I hope once I put all the drywall back up and put a door to the crawlspace that I can keep the smell out of the rest of the basement.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Yeah, you have surface water, possibly groundwter problems and a potential condensation problem as well. And that doesn't include snow potentially piling up against your (above grade) vents.
There aren't any vents.
I was considering installing them, until I read that in my climate it's not good to have them. The condensation probably won't be a problem if I get proper A/C installed.
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The article that I linked made it clear that you have to consider where the most moisture is coming from (from the inside like a bathroom, from the outside like rain/snow, or from the ground?) and also that you should nevereverever vapor-barrier both the inside and outside of a structure, because while you want to keep water from getting in, you also need to provide a way for it to get out.
I'd say the water in the house is from the ground. If that sump isn't running between April and June on your average spring around here, my basement would have 3 feet of water in it after just a few days of being without it.
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Just as an aside ... curiously, it's important for outdoor paint to be able to repel liquid water and still pass water vapor. (There are ASTM tests for that!) Having read up on the topic, now I know why.
Yeah. I read that too. But thanks for letting me know.
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You say the most damage was the sill plate and presumably the ends of the joists resting on the sill. Since the sill is resting on the foundation, is seems as if the problem is water wicking up from the ground thru the concrete to the wood. If the problem was overall humidity, I would imagine that you would see mold across most of the lenght of each joist.
Well see, here's the thing. I don't have any issues like this in the main house, even though I know that humidity is a problem in the main house.
I really think that a vast majority of this damage was caused by the shitty original construction of this 3 season add-on (20 years after the house was built), and the shitty "fix" somebody had obviously done when (I can only assume) the floor had caved in previously.
There is no mold in the porch crawl space. Like none. It doesn't smell bad at all.
The damage is mainly on the sill plates and the joists, like you said, but it's strictly wood rot and carpenter ant damage. No mold.
The windows that were installed in the front of the porch were built into the house, and the back of the window sills graded into the house under the louvers (which were installed where the goddamned windows should be). Even without gutters, there is an 18" overhang on the roof, and the louvers are big. I just had thunderstorms the other day and the sill didn't even have a drop of rain on it. This was built fine for rain, but the problem is the snowdrifts in the winter that built up under the louvers, melted, then went through the shit windows, behind the cedar paneling, onto the plywood floor, under the wall frame and all over the joists, sill and outside joists. Wood rot set in and then the ants came and finished the job.
On the back of the house, the damage since I've owned the place is my fault, although I don't know how much damage had occured before I moved in. The screen door was hollowed out on the bottom and was absolute crap. I could push my hand through it when the door was closed. And although I "fixed" the back windows and re-painted them when I first moved in, I didn't think to grade them away from the house so after years went by I let it all rot out again and let water in. The threshold under the damaged screen door was a hack job and had about a tube of caulk building it up and I never replaced it. The crappy steps that lead up to the house that rotted out was right up against the damaged screen door, and I never shoveled snow off of it, so it all melted in the bad door and ruined the back half.
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So the issue is to keep the concrNOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
So I can finally cross two things off my list. Got the second coat of paint on the columns on the front porch and the windows on the back. They were all caulked and sealed and graded away from the house this time. With 2 coats of primer underneath, that should last me a while this time hopefully.
Once again, until I put pictures up, it would be hard for me to explain the awesome work I did in the porch today. The two pieces of plywood flooring up against the house were good and weren't removed, although I did have to replace 29" of sill the other day. The joists themselves are fine on the back end, but were a little sketchy on the front end where I replaced the sill.
So I jacked it all up again and installed new 2x8's on the two compromised joists. Unlike the rest of the porch, these joists closest to the house were only 2x8. I'm assuming these were original construction and the notched 2x12's in the rest of the place were all put in when they "fixed" the original problem.
I've got a 2x4 in the middle of the floor installed from below now, and tied into the existing and the new 2x8's with 3" coated screws. Tomorrow I will be making plates to fit tight into these under the flooring so this side of the house has the exact same support in the middle that the exposed joists have (that I did last week).
So... after all of that, and after throwing a few 4x4 sheets of 3/4" plywood I had on the new joists, I spent a good deal of time jumping around for all I was worth everywhere that I had a floor over the joists.
It didn't budge. 
Not a creak, not a pop... no more "trampoline" effect. This thing is rock solid now.
I think between lumber, tools, the visqueen on order, screws and nails, I'm about $400 into this now. Money well spent. :)
I'm going to double up on the plywood floor again, so that's going to run me another $225 or so.
Eventually, I'll get those windows and a new storm door. With the additional framing lumber I'll need as well as some new vinyl siding and aluminum flashing, that will probably run me about $1400-$1500.
Seriously... with how much work will be done here, that's a steal. I don't even want to think about what somebody would have charged me to do all of this.
I probably added $30,000 to $40,000 to what I could have expected to get for the house when this is done VS dumping the house for cash with a huge hole in the porch floor. I'm going to assume that I'm adding another $5,000 to the house on curb appeal alone by removing those god awful louvers and putting real windows in the front.
Can't wait till that floor is finally in!
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Back from work and boy am I glad.
My boss' husband didn't think that I was supposed to be there today. He didn't want to let me into the house. They don't actually talk to each other.
Wasn't surprised that they didn't realize that Sunday was my birthday. They've promised me supper out next Thursday, so we shall see.
I don't know what to make of those two sometimes. Actually most of the time.
Sounds like the most awkward dinner ever.
Do they at least pretend to like each other when company is over?
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:
Originally posted by 1KIKI:
Well the city finally took down the four yuge dead liquidambar trees next to the restaurant parking lot where I sometimes go for coffee. They were pretty trees and provided really nice shade for the parked cars in summer. But as eastern water-thirsty natives that grow near streams and marshes, they were a poor choice for SoCal.
Still they hung in there through years and years of extreme drought and high temps. But for some reason 2 of the four finally totally succumbed after a winter of good rain, and the other 2 were mostly gone.
There's nothing left but dirt mixed with wood chips, not even left-over holes, so I think they used stump grinders to get rid of the very last of them and filled-in with the mix of ground-out stump and dirt.
I was sorry to see them die so slowly over all that time. I kept hoping that we'd get some good rain to rescue them.
Bummer about the trees.
Wish I could borrow the stump grinder though.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Back from work and boy am I glad.
My boss' husband didn't think that I was supposed to be there today. He didn't want to let me into the house. They don't actually talk to each other.
Wasn't surprised that they didn't realize that Sunday was my birthday. They've promised me supper out next Thursday, so we shall see.
I don't know what to make of those two sometimes. Actually most of the time.
Sounds like the most awkward dinner ever.
Do they at least pretend to like each other when company is over?
Do Right, Be Right. :)
It probably will be. Any time I have dinner with them can be a little strange.
Supposedly they are deeply in love with each other but I do wonder.
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Maybe they just took a distaste for PDA to the extreme.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Brother is coming over now so we can get the plywood.
Got a message that the visqueen should be here by the 4th. I've still got a lot to do before the flooring goes in, but we're getting to the end of it now. I should have everything done and ready for plastic when it comes. I may or may not wait until my friend comes to put the floor down. It would be easier with 2 people for sure, but I could do that on my own if I need to and I'm not going to wait on it.
Although... I will need to rip some pieces, and that's probably not the safest or easiest thing to do solo. Maybe I'll just put some full sheets in and see how it goes from there. I'd rather use the table saw than the skilsaw for perfect cuts, and it's not easy for one person.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Maybe they just took a distaste for PDA to the extreme.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
I have no idea Jack.
Another example yesterday was the third time that I have asked them not to walk away from me when I am talking because I am still having some problems with my hearing aides. Heck, I even said please and added I would appreciate it. My boss made all the right noises and then asked her husband if he heard what I said and he said yes. Then went on to say that he has to repeat himself to my boss.
What gets me is that these are two professional people. The husband is a retired math teacher/preacher and she is still a doctor. If their hearing is getting that bad then she shouldn't be working anymore or they both should be investing in some hearing aides!
So anywho, I am not going to say another word about it as there is no point to it.
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