Adventures in Basement Building
I'm listening to Billy Talent because I have some anger.
We bought out house with an unfinished (or minimally finished) basement. The plan was for me to do it myself even though I have no experience, tools, or time to do so. After 5 months with no progress made, we decided it would be best to hire someone to do it. A bazillion estimates later, we decided on a guy who struck me as honest and professional. I had a "good feeling". Being a police officer, you learn to rely on your instincts and first impressions are usually pretty accurate.
So on the day he was coming by to finalize the contract, we discover some water in our basement. It appears we have a stress fracture on one of the poured concrete walls. Outside, the water seems to be pooling and not adequately draining to the weeping tile. This is because the backfill is all clay which doesn't allow the water to drain properly. The contractor says he can fix the crack and will backfill with some stone. Fair enough.
So fixing the leak took about a week where he said it would have taken 2 days, max.
He also tells us that he will start on the basement on Monday. So as mentioned in the previous post, we had my mother-in-law come down to supervise as Tam and I both work, and I cleaned out the basement on Sunday.
Monday comes and goes. No contractor. He calls and tells us he'll be around between 8-8:30 on Tuesday.
Tuesday comes....and he manages to come by in the late afternoon to fill the hole he dug outside. He tells my mother-in-law he'll be by between 8-9 the next morning.
Wednesday comes.....10:00. No contractor. I phone and leave a message. Start this post. He calls around 10:30...saying he'll be here for 11:15.
We'll see.
We bought out house with an unfinished (or minimally finished) basement. The plan was for me to do it myself even though I have no experience, tools, or time to do so. After 5 months with no progress made, we decided it would be best to hire someone to do it. A bazillion estimates later, we decided on a guy who struck me as honest and professional. I had a "good feeling". Being a police officer, you learn to rely on your instincts and first impressions are usually pretty accurate.
So on the day he was coming by to finalize the contract, we discover some water in our basement. It appears we have a stress fracture on one of the poured concrete walls. Outside, the water seems to be pooling and not adequately draining to the weeping tile. This is because the backfill is all clay which doesn't allow the water to drain properly. The contractor says he can fix the crack and will backfill with some stone. Fair enough.
So fixing the leak took about a week where he said it would have taken 2 days, max.
He also tells us that he will start on the basement on Monday. So as mentioned in the previous post, we had my mother-in-law come down to supervise as Tam and I both work, and I cleaned out the basement on Sunday.
Monday comes and goes. No contractor. He calls and tells us he'll be around between 8-8:30 on Tuesday.
Tuesday comes....and he manages to come by in the late afternoon to fill the hole he dug outside. He tells my mother-in-law he'll be by between 8-9 the next morning.
Wednesday comes.....10:00. No contractor. I phone and leave a message. Start this post. He calls around 10:30...saying he'll be here for 11:15.
We'll see.
posted by Dave at 10:14 AM
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