I couldn't find the appropriate thread - so if one exists, mods feel free to move me...

 

Nonetheless, I'm looking for some guidance. I'm not by any means a DIY wiz, but I've put together a little garage gym during this quarantine, I have a lot of equipment, but racks are either back ordered until June or like $400. I want to make a DIY barbell rack for two purposes:

 

1. to use when doing lifts with barbells. I.e. squats or shoulder press, and

 

2. as a place to store the barbell within the garage. 

 

The weights I have only go as high as 185 lbs on the bar and, as such, I wanted to pick someone's brain about this... 

 

My garage was constructed by the Amish and I have exposed beams everywhere, no dry wall, very plain - but sturdy. In my quest for a barbell rack I am considering the following... 

 

• Screwing in a 2x4 across 4 of the vertical beams, each beam being about a foot or so apart, placing 2 6" screws through the 2x4 into each vertical beam. 
• On the 2x4, about 4' apart, I am going to screw in two 1" black iron floor flanges. 
• I will then screw two 6" black steel nipples, sticking outward from the flange into each, and cap each with a pipe cap. 

 

Does this seem like a logical solution to my problem? Or will this not be able to withhold a barbell with weights on it, as I'd imagined? 

 

Again, I'm really a novice at this stuff, so any input/advice would be appreciated. 

Make sure you use lag screws (and pre-drill) when attaching the flanges, not any kind of construction screw which won't hold up over time. Dropping the weight on the supports creates a load that can shear the heads off cheap screws.

 

Just to get some verbiage straight, the vertical beams are called studs. The 2x4 that spans the studs is called a ledger (edit: or stringer). With that said, what do you mean 6" screws? The studs themselves are probably 2x4, so screwing a a 2x4 on the flat side into the long edge of a stud gives you 1.5" + 3.5" = 5" total**, but that is overkill. You need about an inch and a half into the studs, so a 3.5" screw attaching the ledger to the studs is plenty. Either 1 heavy duty lag screw, or 2 regular screws, per stud. I assume the 4' ledger will span 3 studs, so that will be plenty strong.

 

** Dimensional lumber is given in nominal size. A 2x4 is actually 1.5x3.5 if you took a tape measure to it.

Edited April 7, 20205 yr by Mendo

27 minutes ago, Mendo said:

Make sure you use lag screws (and pre-drill) when attaching the flanges, not any kind of construction screw which won't hold up over time. Dropping the weight on the supports creates a load that can shear the heads off cheap screws.

 

Just to get some verbiage straight, the vertical beams are called studs. The 2x4 that spans the studs is called a ledger. With that said, what do you mean 6" screws? The studs themselves are probably 2x4, so screwing a a 2x4 on the flat side into the long edge of a stud gives you 1.5" + 3.5" = 5" total**, but that is overkill. You need about an inch and a half into the studs, so a 3.5" screw attaching the ledger to the studs is plenty. Either 1 heavy duty lag screw, or 2 regular screws, per stud. I assume the 4' ledger will span 3 studs, so that will be plenty strong.

 

** Dimensional lumber is given in nominal size. A 2x4 is actually 1.5x3.5 if you took a tape measure to it.

 

Much appreciated

13 minutes ago, YABO713 said:

Much appreciated

 

No prob. Just a couple more thoughts. The more I think about it, the less I'd trust those iron pipes with my life. You might want look around for hangers made for that kind of weight. If you google for spotter arms, you'll find some options you could bolt to a ledger. Another option could be heavy duty shelf brackets. Also I'd go up in size to 2x6 and 2 lag screws per stud.

 

Make sure you give yourself enough room if you plan to rack the bar with plates still on it. For example, a standard 45 lb plate is 18" diameter. It'd be a tight fit with the 6" pipe in your initial plan.

Any home improvement projects in Ohio that will be using paint should be encouraged to use Sherwin-Williams paint. Just sayin' given the forum we are all on and all.

On 4/8/2020 at 10:37 AM, Toddguy said:

Any home improvement projects in Ohio that will be using paint should be encouraged to use Sherwin-Williams paint. Just sayin' given the forum we are all on and all.

 

Absolutely. It's a little more expensive but it's high-quality, durable paint.

27 minutes ago, KJP said:

 

Absolutely. It's a little more expensive but it's high-quality, durable paint.

We have to support our state companies at this time. They made the choice to stay in Ohio and we should continue to support them.

Hi everyone looking for some help here. I recently (December 2019) purchased a home in Lakewood (near W117 and Detroit). It is my first home, a single family home, and I have only had minor issues so far. Though since Spring has started I have noticed two of my basement walls browning and we got a decent sized puddle once from rain. The sellers made no comment of this in their disclosure forms, and during my home inspection the inspector commented "the basement walls have been freshly painted, which would cover up any potential issues or damages". I have gotten four estimates now for waterproofing roughly 55'-60'  around my house and they range from $8K-$17K. The home included a one year home warranty with the purchase, but of course this issue is not covered in the policy. Two questions.

 

1. Is there any way I could legally go back to the sellers for not disclosing this? They will probably claim they had no idea, but the first decent amount of rain we get since closing we have issues? What are my options?

 

2. Does anyone have a waterproofing company in the NEO area they recommend and think is fair on price?

 

Thank you in advance for any and all help on this!

12 minutes ago, ytown2ctown said:

Hi everyone looking for some help here. I recently (December 2019) purchased a home in Lakewood (near W117 and Detroit). It is my first home, a single family home, and I have only had minor issues so far. Though since Spring has started I have noticed two of my basement walls browning and we got a decent sized puddle once from rain. The sellers made no comment of this in their disclosure forms, and during my home inspection the inspector commented "the basement walls have been freshly painted, which would cover up any potential issues or damages". I have gotten four estimates now for waterproofing roughly 55'-60'  around my house and they range from $8K-$17K. The home included a one year home warranty with the purchase, but of course this issue is not covered in the policy. Two questions.

 

1. Is there any way I could legally go back to the sellers for not disclosing this? They will probably claim they had no idea, but the first decent amount of rain we get since closing we have issues? What are my options?

 

2. Does anyone have a waterproofing company in the NEO area they recommend and think is fair on price?

 

Thank you in advance for any and all help on this!

 

I'm not an attorney but I feel like your chance to remedy this (at least in Ohio) was with the inspection.   That was the time to go back, to the seller and say "hey--I think there are problems in the basement and I'd like you to remedy that by lowering the sales price or fixing prior to transfer".   

 

I'm assuming your home is 100 years old or so in that area.   This is fairly common with our clay soil here.  Make sure that the gutters are draining properly--I've owned a couple houses in the area that once I fixed the downspouts and got them draining properly, the basement dried right up (and then I painted the walls!).  

 

Good luck! 

6 minutes ago, ytown2ctown said:

Hi everyone looking for some help here. I recently (December 2019) purchased a home in Lakewood (near W117 and Detroit). It is my first home, a single family home, and I have only had minor issues so far. Though since Spring has started I have noticed two of my basement walls browning and we got a decent sized puddle once from rain. The sellers made no comment of this in their disclosure forms, and during my home inspection the inspector commented "the basement walls have been freshly painted, which would cover up any potential issues or damages". I have gotten four estimates now for waterproofing roughly 55'-60'  around my house and they range from $8K-$17K. The home included a one year home warranty with the purchase, but of course this issue is not covered in the policy. Two questions.

 

1. Is there any way I could legally go back to the sellers for not disclosing this? They will probably claim they had no idea, but the first decent amount of rain we get since closing we have issues? What are my options?

 

2. Does anyone have a waterproofing company in the NEO area they recommend and think is fair on price?

 

Thank you in advance for any and all help on this!

To answer number one.  Yes, you could file a lawsuit and a good lawyer will be able to determine whether the homeowners knew of problems during the discovery process.  Given your brief recap of facts I am guessing they did but this is pure speculation on my part without knowing more.  Now here is the bad news.  A lawsuit could easily cost you as much or more than you would recover in damages, especially if it is necessary to retain an expert (which could be possible) for any aspect of the case.  It will also take a long time and you will also have devote a fair amount of your own time pursuing it.  Most lawyers will charge an hourly rate for a case like this and in fact I don't even know if this falls within the type of case that would be ethical to take as a contingent fee under the Code of Professional Responsibility (but again I doubt you would find a "good" lawyer that would take it for anything other than an hourly fee as it could be time intensive.)  

If it's an unfinished basement and there's no risk to any furnishings (make sure anything important stored on the floor is up on blocks), then you may just have to live with it.  It's not that big a deal really.  Plus as Cleburger said, make sure gutters and downspouts aren't clogged and are properly draining away from the house, same for landscaping.  You could install perforated drain pipe yourself if there's somewhere easy to discharge it, though honestly it's best installed as deep as possible, like at the level of the basement floor, which isn't really something to tackle yourself.  Still, I looked at a couple houses with that were on hills and they still had wet basement issues.  It just comes with the territory.

 

Would it really be possible for a lawyer to determine if the previous owner knew about it in discovery if it was never written down?  I bet most of these situations boil down to he-said she-said arguments and no way to prove if the other party is lying.  The only two items I can come up with that could be important would be a previous declaration from the last sale showing water leakage, or some documentation from the painter that special primer or other waterproofing paint was needed.  Beyond that though?  That's going to be tough, and even then probably way more to litigate than would actually be recoverable as Htsguy said.  

1 hour ago, ytown2ctown said:

Hi everyone looking for some help here. I recently (December 2019) purchased a home in Lakewood (near W117 and Detroit). It is my first home, a single family home, and I have only had minor issues so far. Though since Spring has started I have noticed two of my basement walls browning and we got a decent sized puddle once from rain. The sellers made no comment of this in their disclosure forms, and during my home inspection the inspector commented "the basement walls have been freshly painted, which would cover up any potential issues or damages". I have gotten four estimates now for waterproofing roughly 55'-60'  around my house and they range from $8K-$17K. The home included a one year home warranty with the purchase, but of course this issue is not covered in the policy. Two questions.

 

1. Is there any way I could legally go back to the sellers for not disclosing this? They will probably claim they had no idea, but the first decent amount of rain we get since closing we have issues? What are my options?

 

2. Does anyone have a waterproofing company in the NEO area they recommend and think is fair on price?

 

Thank you in advance for any and all help on this!

On the first issue, I have seen this numerous times. First, the key is that you have to prove that it was a defect that you could not have reasonably discovered upon inspection, and the seller purposefully did not disclose it. (For example, if a Seller did not disclose the garage door was broken, you would likely not have a claim because it would be reasonably discovered upon an inspection). Water damage is where this comes up most frequently.  The big question is not whether the Sellers disclosed or failed to disclose, but whether they had knowledge and covered it up. Certainly, evidence of fresh painting over browning walls could be evidence, but again, you would actually have to look inside their minds to discover true intent. As mentioned above, a good lawyer can work to identify this on discovery, and the burden of proof is only preponderance of the evidence in this case, so it just has to be more likely than not that they covered things up. 

 

From a practical point, even if you could prove your case, how much will it cost to do so, and even proving your case, you make also have to pay money to try and collect upon a judgment. Winning is nice, but if the Defendant does not pay, you spent a lot of money on nothing. Also, on a practical point, your estimates are between 8-17k. Assuming that $8k is the value you choose, assuming a moderately priced lawyer at say $225-$250/hr it would cost over $10k-$15k if  you took the whole thing to trial.  Even a basic engagement try and collect would cost around $1500-$2500 to get a settlement. 

 

What may be best is to write them a letter informing them of these issues, stating you feel they were responsible for them and asking them to assist you with some of the repairs. If they do not, you can escalate it to an attorney, who will do the same thing on attorney letterhead, which is more threatening. The thing to keep in mind is to seek a quick resolution which means you will not get them to pay the whole amount but if you can get them to cover say 25% of your repairs, you are still better off than you would be if you never contacted them to begin with. These are hard cases to win, even when the law is on your side.

 

 

3 hours ago, ytown2ctown said:

I have gotten four estimates now for waterproofing roughly 55'-60'  around my house and they range from $8K-$17K.

 

Have you looked at the possibility of a French drain and sump pump?  Basically, you let it leak and keep pumping.  It's cheaper than waterproofing and is a popular solution in my neighborhood of 100+ year-old houses. Cost $4-5K.

 

Edit: our winters aren't as cold as yours, maybe a drain system won't work in NEOhio.

Edited April 27, 20205 yr by Dougal

4 hours ago, ytown2ctown said:

Hi everyone looking for some help here. I recently (December 2019) purchased a home in Lakewood (near W117 and Detroit). It is my first home, a single family home, and I have only had minor issues so far. Though since Spring has started I have noticed two of my basement walls browning and we got a decent sized puddle once from rain. The sellers made no comment of this in their disclosure forms, and during my home inspection the inspector commented "the basement walls have been freshly painted, which would cover up any potential issues or damages". I have gotten four estimates now for waterproofing roughly 55'-60'  around my house and they range from $8K-$17K. The home included a one year home warranty with the purchase, but of course this issue is not covered in the policy. Two questions.

 

1. Is there any way I could legally go back to the sellers for not disclosing this? They will probably claim they had no idea, but the first decent amount of rain we get since closing we have issues? What are my options?

 

2. Does anyone have a waterproofing company in the NEO area they recommend and think is fair on price?

 

Thank you in advance for any and all help on this!

 

Also recently bought my first house in Nov 2019 (a 100+ year old home in Ohio City), and discovered some yellowing/light moisture drips on our walls this Spring. How much water did you discover in the puddle?

I've had three contractors out to look at my basement, and they've all indicated that with the amount of water I'm seeing it's not really an "issue" besides possibly creating some high humidity in the basement. Houses as old as ours were just designed differently with regards to basements, so they weren't expected to remain water tight. Do you have a sump pump and/or any basement drain that is clogged? And definitely double check for water discharge issues on the exterior of the home.

 

I agree with other posters that pursuing damages from the prior owner is unlikely to be worth the cost/time it would take. It really sucks to discover issues like this after purchasing a house, but unfortunately that risk is "part" of the cost of homeownership.

3 minutes ago, dastler said:

 

Also recently bought my first house in Nov 2019 (a 100+ year old home in Ohio City), and discovered some yellowing/light moisture drips on our walls this Spring. How much water did you discover in the puddle?

I've had three contractors out to look at my basement, and they've all indicated that with the amount of water I'm seeing it's not really an "issue" besides possibly creating some high humidity in the basement. Houses as old as ours were just designed differently with regards to basements, so they weren't expected to remain water tight. Do you have a sump pump and/or any basement drain that is clogged? And definitely double check for water discharge issues on the exterior of the home.

 

I agree with other posters that pursuing damages from the prior owner is unlikely to be worth the cost/time it would take. It really sucks to discover issues like this after purchasing a house, but unfortunately that risk is "part" of the cost of homeownership.

 

Hey @dastler , thanks for your reply. I only saw water once about a month ago when we had a good downpour. It was about a six foot wide, and half inch deep puddle. I do not have a sump pump, and definitely need to take a look at the gutters. The water entry isn't the main issue, the browning/discoloration on the walls is becoming more widespread with each rainfall we get. I'm not sure the best route forward.

Keeping as much water away from the foundation is key. a 100 year old house is going to have more pourous concrete than a new one. The goal is to move as much water away from the foundation as possible. Putting gutter diverters to move water to the yard instead of the foundation works better than you may think. Cleaning your gutters is huge too. We had that at our old house because the gutter was clogged and caused water to pour over to the ground below and it would put pressure on the foundation causing some discoloration. Ideally, the more water you can keep away from the foundation, it will aid you in any discoloration you may be seeing. 

Sorry about the water leaks. I've owned about 10 homes that were 100+ years old. Every one of them leaked. Typically, it was a seasonal event or ocurred after "x" amount of rain in 'X'  amount of time.

It was never worth the cost to make them dry.

1 hour ago, ytown2ctown said:

 

Hey @dastler , thanks for your reply. I only saw water once about a month ago when we had a good downpour. It was about a six foot wide, and half inch deep puddle. I do not have a sump pump, and definitely need to take a look at the gutters. The water entry isn't the main issue, the browning/discoloration on the walls is becoming more widespread with each rainfall we get. I'm not sure the best route forward.

 

Just curious, is this a finished basement? Is the discoloration on dry wall? Or are we talking discoloration of the stone? If we're talking a 100 plus year old house (like mine) then your basement was probably designed to "leak." Those stone walls are supposed to let water pass through. You shouldn't really paint them and you definitely don't want to water proof them. 

1 hour ago, ytown2ctown said:

 

Hey @dastler , thanks for your reply. I only saw water once about a month ago when we had a good downpour. It was about a six foot wide, and half inch deep puddle. I do not have a sump pump, and definitely need to take a look at the gutters. The water entry isn't the main issue, the browning/discoloration on the walls is becoming more widespread with each rainfall we get. I'm not sure the best route forward.

 

Yeah, a puddle that wide is definitely something I'd want to address. We only had one leak that cause actual pooling in the basement, and that was easily fixed by sealing a crack with exterior caulk where the rim joist meets the stone masonry.

 

The browning and yellowing is occurring because the porous concrete masonry blocks are more permeable to water than modern masonry like others have mentioned. If the walls weren't painted you probably wouldn't even notice yellowing/efflorescence on the walls this quickly... the paint actually traps the moisture between the wall and the paint which causes it to sit there and become more noticeable.

 

Did the contractors you contacted all recommend waterproofing after seeing your basement in person? Fwiw, of the three contractors that came to see my basement, none indicated I had any structural issues and one didn't even give me a quote because it was so unnecessary. As a new homeowner it was scary seeing the effects, but after learning more/assurance from the contractors I'm no longer worried about it.

@DEPACincy They are limestone stones and we are talking some yellow/brown colors coming through the white paint. Hope that helps.

 

@dastler All four contractors have given me estimates saying I will need this done immediately. To your point, I am not educated at all on the topic therefore it is scary. Feel free to private message me if that is easier.

Bit of a conundrum here regarding building permits with covid in the city of Cleveland that I was hoping UO people could help with.

 

I've mentioned elsewhere on the forum, but I recently purchased and moved into a single family detached house in Ohio City. It was renovated with a single car attached garage with a second story roof deck. The deck of the garage is graded at approximately 4%, covered with epdm, and then interlocking wood deck tiles were placed on top for the walking surface. There is a railing around the deck, and there is an opening at the base of the railing to allow water to drain into my gutter system. I was considering upgrading the deck to allow for a flat walking surface, but had a few questions before starting any work to understand the permitting process. If I were to pursue this upgrade, my plan would be to use a floating sleeper system with 2x10 joists spaced 16" OC. The walking surface would then be composite decking secured to the sleeper.

 

I tried calling the department of building and housing at 216.664.2282 and the permits and plan examination office at 216.664.3451, but there was no answer at either number. I also emailed the addresses listed on the city website but haven't gotten a response (yet?). Does anyone know if the permitting department is open? Here's the questions I was hoping to get answered from the office, does anyone know the answers?

 

1. What permits and planning documents are required for an upgrade of this nature?

2. Can anyone point me to the applicable sections of the Residential Code of Ohio to make sure that I am compliant?

 

Thanks in advance for any help anyone can provide!

 

 

 

On 4/27/2020 at 3:36 PM, ytown2ctown said:

@DEPACincy They are limestone stones and we are talking some yellow/brown colors coming through the white paint. Hope that helps.

 

@dastler All four contractors have given me estimates saying I will need this done immediately. To your point, I am not educated at all on the topic therefore it is scary. Feel free to private message me if that is easier.

 

Be wary of the contractors using scare tactics to get you to sign a contract quickly.  Probably interior 'Basement Systems' companies aka french drain to sump pump.  It's more difficult to waterproof stone foundations externally, since the surface of the foundation wall isn't flat like a cmu or poured concrete foundation, and the house likely predates foundation drain tile and a way to drain water to daylight or the city storm sewers. An exterior sump pump might be necessary.  However it's the right way to do it.  Otherwise the repeated intrusions of water will slowly (or quickly if the leaking is really frequent or constant) deteriorate the mortar holding the stones together, and an interior french drain and sump pump only removes the symptoms instead of fixing the cause.  I've heard good things about Integrity Waterproofing from Lakewood. 

 

You could also try to do it yourself.  I waterproofed about 40 feet of my basement walls a couple years ago. I was in the same circumstance after buying our home as you with the inaccurate/misleading disclosure.  But the lady we bought the house from was an Auschwitz survivor and passed away shortly after we moved in, so I'll give her a pass on the whole leaky basement thing.  It was 2 days of 15 hours of digging per day with a friend helping for a couple hours each day, to get down 5.5-6 feet deep with about 12-18" of width to just be able to squeeze down in the trench.  Fortunately the house (1952) had functional terra cotta drain tiles next to the footer with just a little sedimentation . So after cleaning the dirt/clay off the walls, you fill any cracks with hydraulic cement (~$30 per medium sized pail).  In your case you might have to re-point the stones with an appropriate mortar, or parge the whole wall to get a flat surface.  Maybe ask a mason for advice. Then coat the walls with trowel grade roofing cement (4-5 5gal pails $40 per pail), or a more expensive waterproofing mastic of your choosing, then cover that with 6 or 8 mil polyethylene while it's still wet ($100 roughly to cover the entirety of the walls), then backfill almost the entire trench with #57 washed gravel (got mine delivered from DeMilta for I think around $500 for 10 cu yards) and leave about 12" at the surface for clay and topsoil on top. Filter fabric around the stone backfill will prolong the life of the drain tile.  Then I paid around $400 to have someone haul away the excavated clay (around 12 cu yards).    You could also redo the downspout drain system while you've got it trenched out.

 

As far as tools, If there are concrete obstructions like a sidewalk or patio or driveway, you can rent a concrete wet saw for $70 for a half day from Handy Rents and sledge the cutout into pieces or rent their electric jackhammer if it's reinforced or really thick.  DeMilta also let me drop off the chunked concrete in their yard in Eastlake for free. Drywall taping knife for scraping dirt off the walls.  A large trowel to spread the roofing cement. A large wire brush from the welding section of Lowes/HD to clean the walls. A few shovels since I bent or broke 2 during the process.  Wheelbarrow mandatory.  Some plywood to protect your grass.   Permitting and registering as a contractor with Beachwood ended up costing $375.  It's simple but tedious work.  Obviously you'd be playing with your life, so there's that too.

2 hours ago, sizzlinbeef said:

 

Be wary of the contractors using scare tactics to get you to sign a contract quickly.  Probably interior 'Basement Systems' companies aka french drain to sump pump.  It's more difficult to waterproof stone foundations externally, since the surface of the foundation wall isn't flat like a cmu or poured concrete foundation, and the house likely predates foundation drain tile and a way to drain water to daylight or the city storm sewers. An exterior sump pump might be necessary.  However it's the right way to do it.  Otherwise the repeated intrusions of water will slowly (or quickly if the leaking is really frequent or constant) deteriorate the mortar holding the stones together, and an interior french drain and sump pump only removes the symptoms instead of fixing the cause.  I've heard good things about Integrity Waterproofing from Lakewood. 

 

You could also try to do it yourself.  I waterproofed about 40 feet of my basement walls a couple years ago. I was in the same circumstance after buying our home as you with the inaccurate/misleading disclosure.  But the lady we bought the house from was an Auschwitz survivor and passed away shortly after we moved in, so I'll give her a pass on the whole leaky basement thing.  It was 2 days of 15 hours of digging per day with a friend helping for a couple hours each day, to get down 5.5-6 feet deep with about 12-18" of width to just be able to squeeze down in the trench.  Fortunately the house (1952) had functional terra cotta drain tiles next to the footer with just a little sedimentation . So after cleaning the dirt/clay off the walls, you fill any cracks with hydraulic cement (~$30 per medium sized pail).  In your case you might have to re-point the stones with an appropriate mortar, or parge the whole wall to get a flat surface.  Maybe ask a mason for advice. Then coat the walls with trowel grade roofing cement (4-5 5gal pails $40 per pail), or a more expensive waterproofing mastic of your choosing, then cover that with 6 or 8 mil polyethylene while it's still wet ($100 roughly to cover the entirety of the walls), then backfill almost the entire trench with #57 washed gravel (got mine delivered from DeMilta for I think around $500 for 10 cu yards) and leave about 12" at the surface for clay and topsoil on top. Filter fabric around the stone backfill will prolong the life of the drain tile.  Then I paid around $400 to have someone haul away the excavated clay (around 12 cu yards).    You could also redo the downspout drain system while you've got it trenched out.

 

As far as tools, If there are concrete obstructions like a sidewalk or patio or driveway, you can rent a concrete wet saw for $70 for a half day from Handy Rents and sledge the cutout into pieces or rent their electric jackhammer if it's reinforced or really thick.  DeMilta also let me drop off the chunked concrete in their yard in Eastlake for free. Drywall taping knife for scraping dirt off the walls.  A large trowel to spread the roofing cement. A large wire brush from the welding section of Lowes/HD to clean the walls. A few shovels since I bent or broke 2 during the process.  Wheelbarrow mandatory.  Some plywood to protect your grass.   Permitting and registering as a contractor with Beachwood ended up costing $375.  It's simple but tedious work.  Obviously you'd be playing with your life, so there's that too.

Also, if you do go this route of exterior waterproofing, take the time to evaluate if adding insulation is in the budget (2” of foam board making sure it’s rated for ground contact). Since the walls would already be dug our it would be easy enough to add in and then backfill against. It will keep your basement walls(and basement in general) warmer in the winter and less likely to have condensation form on them which can lead to mildew smell. Keep in mind the foam can’t be exposed to light once done or it will gradually degrade overtime. It has to be covered with finishing materials such as cement board 12” deep or so below grade.

Thank you everyone for this help and advice. While I do have more downtime than usual, I do not trust myself to do this correct (sadly). To your point @sizzlinbeef Integrity Waterproofing was by far the most professional company that gave me an estimate, but they were also double the price of every other company ? .

Integrity!!  That my Bro in law!!  He's the best, and does it right.  Sadly, doing it right is expensive.  

Adelio's Contracting, Chubb Construction, and Girard Construction are others who do it right if you're willing to get more estimates.

On April 29, 2020 at 1:21 PM, RDB said:

Also, if you do go this route of exterior waterproofing, take the time to evaluate if adding insulation is in the budget (2” of foam board making sure it’s rated for ground contact). Since the walls would already be dug our it would be easy enough to add in and then backfill against. It will keep your basement walls(and basement in general) warmer in the winter and less likely to have condensation form on them which can lead to mildew smell. Keep in mind the foam can’t be exposed to light once done or it will gradually degrade overtime. It has to be covered with finishing materials such as cement board 12” deep or so below grade.

I had considered doing this but having a brick veneer cavity wall on my house creates a thermal bypass to the foundation so interior insulation is the only efficient way to insulate in that case.

Anyone have any recent experience getting a DIY building permit with the city of Cleveland.  I'm building a new deck and decided to get a permit since I'm also cutting in a new door.  I thought it used to take about a week to hear back regarding a permit application.  Just curious how long others have had to wait to get their permits approved.

I got one of these crack kits a few weeks ago.  I found out the hard way that the epoxy tubes are only half full, so you're not getting anywhere near as much of the epoxy as you think you are.  What that means is you set up the tubes with the crack sealer, go to bed, wake up the next day hyped to inject the cracks with the epoxy, but then you run out really quickly on anything larger than a fine crack.  

https://www.amazon.com/Crack-Kit-Injection-Concrete-Crack-Kit/dp/B078WYK9JL/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=crack+kit&qid=1603735616&sr=8-2

 

To my horror, Amazon was completely out of the epoxy for 2 weeks.  So I've had a stack of bricks protecting the injection tubes on my front steps since early October.  

 

I used something similar to this (but without the injection tubes) about five years ago on a big crack in my rear retaining wall. Whatever that stuff was cost $40-50 per tube. It re-cracked the first winter but the second application has held firm since.   

 

4 hours ago, Hootenany said:

Anyone have any recent experience getting a DIY building permit with the city of Cleveland.  I'm building a new deck and decided to get a permit since I'm also cutting in a new door.  I thought it used to take about a week to hear back regarding a permit application.  Just curious how long others have had to wait to get their permits approved.

Almost 6 months and I still haven't gotten my official permit issued for a deck upgrade over my garage.

I was reading this thread yesterday and I was running into a similar issue at my home, where our sump pump was running non-stop.

This was seen on the inspection and there was a disclosure that the house had backed up in 2018 from the sump being overrun or power out and sump getting overwhelmed and flooding the basement.

 

That isn't the same as the walls leaking but similar in that the new poured walls have perforated tile within the foundation. The walls are waterproofed and the water drains to the footers where the tiles are toward the sump pump then out.

 

A couple things I did over the last 4 months and the sump hasn't run since:

 

1.) The gutters on the back of the house needed fixed, there were gaps between the gutters and the roof and half of the back of the house the water was running straight down.

 

2.) Where the gutters were connected, they were clogged, and water was running over. I had this fixed as well as new downspouts and making certain the downspouts were connected to the drain pipes correctly, $2500

 

3.) Even though all this was happening and running into the side of the hosue straight to the foundation, in addition to this, the deck was in bad shape and didn't have gaps. The previous owners kept painting over top of the old paint and it clogged all the gaps. The deck was slanted toward the house so the whole surface area of the deck was also draining back into the house. The fix: I bought a DeWalt circular saw and cut gaps in the whole deck, the deck has a surface area of 600 square feet. It was a huge undertaking. I then of course sanded the deck with an angle grinder (need to use that!!!) which worked as getting the paint off as well as sanding. I then primed and solid coat stained the deck. It looks glorious, total cost with tools, stain, etc. and some help from my brother (and a period of 4 months though we just had our baby so I didn't have much time) was $2,000. To have this done / deck replaced over top I got quotes of $7.5k-$10k.

 

4.) My neighborhood has a land berm running the length of it to my house where it stops and all the water is deposited, it also had low spots running right into the corner of my house. When it rained decently hard there was a pond in my back yard all the way to the corner of my house. What I did was plant a rain garden at the access point into my yard from the water. I also replanted a former bed the owners had. I used native plants which have deep roots and also act by attracting bees and butterflies, etc. The cost for that was $700 including the plants and wild flowers. 

 

Now, since this has been done, even though in Cincinnati area we got a lot of rain last week, the sump hasn't turned on one time, the rain garden is soaking up a ton of the water, there is no standing water in my yard, I believe this will help the mosquito problem as well, and the backyard no longer smells like a roller dam.

 

So, if you are still having basement drain issues, I would first test the roof by spraying with your house on top of your roof and look for any place water is running straight off, get that fixed. Then, I would look to see if there could be any other surface area (patio/deck, etc.) that could be draining toward your house, there are fixes for that (for example if you have a patio you could put inline drains before it hits your house wall to drain out). 

 

Then, I would look to put in yard drains or french drains OR if you are confident you can catch lots of water use a rain garden using native plants. It will attract wildlife and beautify your yard while serving a funcitonal purpose. It isn't that hard, you just have to go and do it.

 

If worst comes to worst you could also put in a backyard sump pump. Again, it isn't that difficult but I used to do these when I did concrete work. A backyard sump pump would be better than having water in your basement. 

 

I would think if you covered all these steps you could avoid doing any costly foundation work on your home. Sometimes though there is nothing you can do because of the topography of your house, but normally you can do a lot to mitigate the water before it hits your wall. Let me know if there are any questinos on any of this and I am happy to help.

This is great. Our basement flooded from a sewer backup in May when we got dumped on.  The sump at the same time was mere inches from overflowing, but never actually did.  I had a landscaper come out and I talked him through some standing water/french drain and rain garden solutions... the price: $10k+ all in.  Guess I'm doing the rain garden and other work sometime on a warm winter weekend.  How intensive was making a rain garden?

Where at do you live? In Cincinnati the soil is a hard clay type. You basically want a fairly large surface area I think mine was 10 x 5. You need to dig out the hard pack

clay and amend like 25-75 fines with clay, then drop back in the Clay. The hole you dig is like a step down: 1 foot, 2 foot, 3 foot in the middle. It’s a lot of work but easy if you are shovel competent. You will want a tarp to haul out extra clay that doesn’t fit back in and a place to put it (try up against your house where water is running in anyways). PM me if you want I can try to send photos to better explain 

Nice, thanks for the tips. I'm in Cinci as well.  My backyard is at the bottom of a small incline, so my neighbors' water flows down into my yard.

 

16 hours ago, 10albersa said:

Nice, thanks for the tips. I'm in Cinci as well.  My backyard is at the bottom of a small incline, so my neighbors' water flows down into my yard.

 

Your water issues would be hard to understand unless I saw but are you saying your neighbors water is flowing into the back of your backyard which runs downhill to your house? Or is there a direct entrance from the waterflow into your house?

 

If there is "space" in between the drainage area and your house then a rain garden should actually help quite a bit. Part of the rain garden that helps is you dig out hard pack to more soft pack basically making a catchment basin which gives more time for the water to "soak in". When you are digging maybe like me you will pull up a lot of rocks and you can use those as a stronger border on the sides of your garden in case it "runs over" the rim. You could do multiple step down rain gardens (one fills up all the way, spills into next then spills into next). I may have to do that yet, I don't know. So far, have had no issues.

 

Then, the native plants work by one being able to sustain the heavy water and thrive but also digging deep roots into the hard clay to better allow pathways for water to go.

 

IF the water runs almost straight into your house from the neighbors you may need to install a rain garden if you like still with an underpipe that leads out from your house.

 

You can also use just a ton of catch basins where it is running direct into your house and then out and around. It honestly isn't hard to install catch basins and piping, and won't be too expensive. You would want to use a french drain too in that case so that it catches anything the catch basin doesn't. Not sure if this is making sense or not.

 

I think you DEFINITELY don't watn to use a rain garden WITHOUT an underdrain if it's going to be like within 20' of your house wall, probably too risky for all the work to not help so much. 

 

My problem is I wanted to do catch basins but there was no slope to get me out of the low spot so I just did the rain garden to catch all the water and grow pretty flowers. If worst comes to worst you could install the catch basins to go downhill to a sump pump then pipe out of the yard if you don't have another way to get the water out.

 

Let me know if you go the native plant and rain garden route the lady I worked with was fabulous and helped with the design and picking out the plants. You probably won't be able to plant until April though after last frost.

So we had a good amount of rain here in Cincinnati over a 24 hour period. I checked the rain garden last night, it was filled with water. There was also some standing water in the yard. I think I figured out my rain garden doesn't capture a big enough area, but the amount of water standing was SIGNIFICANTALLY reduced. It wasn't enough water to wet your socks (like it would be before and standing for 3-4 days), it was enough to be quite Squishy and I saw one area of small puddle.

 

I went and checked this morning and the rain garden had absorbed the water where I couldn't see anymore visible. The standing water in the yard had also been absorbed. So, I am guessing it was enough taken up by the rain garden to rid the standing water.

 

I think what I will need to do is build an additonal rain garden extended further down the lawn form the first in one direction and the other going the other direction to make basically a square angle. That is where I figured more rain was coming from, the backyard sloping down and the other side of yard. I won't need to do those as deep I don't believe but should greatly reduce even more and possibly eliminate the standing water. The good thing is I believe where my garden currently is is where the majority of water is coming in. That's a LOT of water to fill up a 3 foot deep hole.

 

The sump pump was also running for the first time but it wasn't running as hard, so all the work on gutter, deck and rain garden has really helped.

Edited October 30, 20204 yr by IAGuy39

Yeah I was nervously checking the Hurricane Zeta forecasts almost hourly in the days before we got rain.  I'd like to not have to do that in the Spring.

Some knucklehead attempted to break into my basement through the glass block window on Wednesday of this week.  It was pretty cheap and easy to repair...only $30 in materials for four glass blocks and a tube of silicone.  By chance I work really close to a glass block operation and I was able to go in there and buy individual blocks. 

 

 

The interior showroom is awesome but I didn't get any photos:

 

Demolition:

 

The silicone takes about 30 minutes to set:

 

The test kick after 24 hours:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Do any Cleveland UOers have recommendations for a experienced pro concrete contractor for a home driveway?    Location is near west side Cleveland.  

 

I realize it's not the season, but haven't received any calls back from anyone I've reached out to.   I am just trying to get a projected quoted for summer/fall 2021.   

 

On 1/12/2021 at 6:34 AM, Cleburger said:

Do any Cleveland UOers have recommendations for a experienced pro concrete contractor for a home driveway?    Location is near west side Cleveland.  

 

I realize it's not the season, but haven't received any calls back from anyone I've reached out to.   I am just trying to get a projected quoted for summer/fall 2021.   

 

 

Rossi Construction out of Middleburg Heights

On 1/12/2021 at 6:34 AM, Cleburger said:

Do any Cleveland UOers have recommendations for a experienced pro concrete contractor for a home driveway?    Location is near west side Cleveland.  

 

I realize it's not the season, but haven't received any calls back from anyone I've reached out to.   I am just trying to get a projected quoted for summer/fall 2021.   

 

Seitz and Sons

 

https://www.seitzandsons.us/

Thanks fellas will give them a shot.