Mazur Manor: Is that Concrete?
- Jessica Mazur
- May 29, 2017
- 2 min read
Updated: Apr 24, 2019
CLEARLY OUR BASEMENT HAS BECOME A PRIORITY.
My hardworking husband. My poor, poor, hardworking husband.
Because of the waterfall in our cellar, Austin is hard at work on removing the washout. Removing dirt is exhausting enough, but in such tight quarters! For days in a row I've watched Austin hauling bucket, after bucket of dirt up the narrow stairwell and out to the yard. Each day he calls it a night, covered in sweat and filth, his t-shirt practically transparent with sweat.
I can't say enough about his capability and strong will, though. He turned our little mud slide into a clean cut retention wall - it even had a built in drainage trench! He dug almost two feet down to level out the ground with the concrete slab at the bottom of the stairs (which we didn't even realize was there, thinking, a sump pump surrounded by mud does seem a little weird). He also opened up the tunnel so that he could build strong walls to hold back the remaining earth.
Mission Hold Up the Fort has begun.
Enough time spent in the trenches... Austin has discovered many new projects to add the the list.
Access Tunnels - At some point in the homes history, HVAC was installed, but the owner knocked out a major foundational support to do so - also, the vents are blocking easy access to the rest of the crawl space. That means in order to support our bouncy floors in the living room, he has to dig, dig and dig some more!
Floor/Foundation Support - Because foundation support was demo'd, he will have to support the current floor joists with post jacks until he can get down there and rebuild replacement support; the little retaining wall will be enough to hold back the remaining earth until then
Drainage System - I've shared more in the french trench post... but I started digging a moat around the property :) - The plan is to install a drainage system around the home to collect water from uphill properties and from the drain spouts on the house - the more water we can redirect, the more sound the foundation
Austin, the mole man, as he has taken to calling himself, will be spending the next several weeks down under. At least he's started wearing a mask now - he's been hacking and sneezing up crud for days!
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