House in Progress Diary

Ugh! Sorry to hear about that. Yesterday I went down into the basement and found water as well. Only I can't find where it is coming from. Looks like from underneath the tile. I guess we were going to redo that bathroom soon anyway...

Ask This Old House sent Tom Silva to fix exactly this problem. It's the fifth episode of season four, and you might be able to find it online via bittorrent or something similar. Not that I recommend piracy. Piracy bad.

Basically, they very carefully chiseled out the old crumbling cement, cleaned it all very thoroughly, and filled the hole with hydraulic cement, which not only will dry in a wet environment but expands slightly as it dries, instead of shrinking.

Oh, I can so relate to your recent posts. Just when you feel the tiniest warmth towards your house, like a naughty child, it pulls some crap to test your. I'm currently in a secretely hate my house phase.

P.S. last summer I saw a similar vision in my basement (blown pipe). Oh, I also saw the TOH episode mentioned by the previous poster...it really was a similar situation.

You know, I read your last post and I couldn't believe it. People tell me that when I am done fixing up my place I will probably love it. While that's possible, I think it's equally likely that I'll have such bad blood and frustration associated with it that I'll sell it when I'm done and go live in a condo somewhere, pay a monthly fee and let my HOA deal with the headaches.

My house pulls that crap once in a while too. It's particularly frustrating because those kinds of repairs, while necessary, aren't as visible as, say, painting or flooring, so people who visit you wonder why you aren't making progress.

You know, I read your last post and I couldn't believe it. People tell me that when I am done fixing up my place I will probably love it. While that's possible, I think it's equally likely that I'll have such bad blood and frustration associated with it that I'll sell it when I'm done and go live in a condo somewhere, pay a monthly fee and let my HOA deal with the headaches.

My house pulls that crap once in a while too. It's particularly frustrating because those kinds of repairs, while necessary, aren't as visible as, say, painting or flooring, so people who visit you wonder why you aren't making progress.

I thought it was heating oil at first glance, that would be much worse. It hard to get the scale of the photo, water supply is usually around 3/4" to 1". Is the draintile good around your house? I had some large cracks in our basement, I parged and damp-proofed the outside, and filled the crack with non-shrink grout. It hasn't leaked again. I added pvc draintile as well. Is snow melting right now? that's probably the cause.

I totally understand what you are going through. My husband and I have bought an "old" 1921 house (ok, not really old, but good enough). At first it was wonderful - beautiful fireplaces, large ceilings, lots of charm...until the charm turned into something like, well, reality. We find the newly painted walls starting to peel (nearly every room - stupid calcimine/oil paint). The electric on the 2nd floor goes on and off without warning. The roof...well I'm glad we have insurance. Oh,and the grading ... we had a waterfall in our basement this past summer.
Whew, thanks for letting me get that off my chest! I needed that.
I do want to say you guys have given me hope of being able to fix my home. Its a ton of work, but its totally worth it when you see things start to evolve and come together-like your master bedroom and bath (which I am soooo totally envious of!). I am looking forward to such a moment in my own home improvement endeavours :)

See, in my house, I would assume cat pee if I saw something like that. Sorry to see that it's worse than pee, but I hope it's not tremendously difficult to fix.