There’s Water Under the House! Post-2
I’m about 50% finished with the sump pump project. The work is slow because of poor clearances. Code says there’s supposed to be at least 16 inches of clearance. In the photo below (and many of the others I’ll show in this post and others) you can see that the clearance is closer to 14 inches — less where the insulation is drooping between the girders. In fact, clearance is the largest cost factor on this job! Low clearance means it takes longer simply to get to where you want to work, and then to move around to reach tools, swing them, etc. Under this house it takes 5 minutes to crawl (on your belly) from one side to the other — and it’s only 35 feet!
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| I just stapled the wire. I’m running it from the source to the location of the pump — clear across the house, of course. The hammer is my small claw hammer. It’s 12 inches long. Clearance here is about 15 inches. One of the more roomy areas beneath the house. |
But, to be fair, I’m no longer in my twenties (or even thirties), either.
Before continuing: I must apologize for not getting this entry up earlier. I had intended to make this post on Friday or Saturday. These photos were taken with the camera in my phone (hence the dubious quality) and the software that connects the phone to the computer didn’t want to work. I had to argue with it all weekend to get things straightened around. Finally, late Sunday night, I was able to down load the pictures to the PC so I could post them with this article.
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| Fixing the damage. Here’s where it all started. There were places like this all over the sub-area. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough money in the budget to fix it all properly. All I could do is tack it back into place, and out of my way, as best I could. |
To start at (more or less) the beginning, before any drainage work could begin, I had to get the insulation that had fallen back up where it belonged — or remove it. Most was (blessedly) serviceable; some had been water soaked and had to be removed. A minor amount had been so completely shredded it was impossible to put back in place. Strangely, in some places there simply was no insulation. There were places like those pictured above all over the place underneath the house. Note how the insulation is hanging down, held only by the plastic netting. When originally installed, the batting was crushed up against the sub-floor and staples were driven through. That tactic ruins the insulative effect at each point where a staple is driven through. Eventually the weight of the insulation (especially after absorbing moisture for 20 years) tears the paper and vapor barrier, leaving it to hang solely on the netting. It thus becomes a health risk to workers: You can’t crawl around under the house without tiny fiberglass particles glittering in the air around you. You’re working in a constant rain of tiny fiberglass particles. To be completely safe, full breathing apparatus and eye protection would be required. A virtual impossibility in such a cramped space.
Ironically, mitigation would have been as simple as A) stapling the insulation in place from above before the sub-floor was installed and then B) knowing how tight the quarters would be for future workers, using high quality netting material to contain the insulation over time.
What’s visible in the foreground is what happens when such a tactics are not used. The insulation has pulled free of its staples and the plastic netting has stretched under its weight, letting it hang down into the already cramped crawl space. Netting was never intended to be the first line of defense against falling insulation! (The clearance from ground to insulation in the above picture is about 12 inches.)
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| Trenching. The heart of draining the water from beneath a building. Note the fallen insulation in the background. |
In the final picture we’ve finally reached the point of trenching — the heart of draining the sub-area. This picture shows several interesting details. Like the previous one, note the sagging insulation with its tear-drops of fiberglass in the foreground. The trench is also clearly visible in front of the main 4 inch house drain. Above the drain is one of the main, 8 inch central heating ducts. (You can see it to the right of the fallen insulation batt in the middle of the picture.)
What you can’t see is also important. There’s another 5-6 feet of area behind this wall of drain pipe and ducting that’s virtually inaccessible. At the south end of the house the heating duct is some 6 inches above the ground — and that only because someone smashed the duct a bit in an attempt to make enough room to get through! (It’s visible at the extreme right of the frame.) I don’t know about you, but I’m not small enough to squeeze through a space that small. There’s another space in the North West corner that’s equally inaccessible for the same reasons.
Still, for all the access problems, we’re going to be able to do a decent job of draining the ground beneath the house, and covering the ground with a plastic vapor barrier. Mind, I’m not saying this is going to be easy! But we’ll get it done.
Next time: Electrical hookups and plumbing. We finally get a break in our favor!
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