Category: Home improvement

I’m a little late posting this, but it’s still worthy of a post.

About a month ago we had a week plus long cold stretch. Towards the end of it, I noticed some pretty large puddles in the basement. I tracked it down to be from our softener and filter system purging themselves. Our basement floor drain was clogged.

I feed my 25′ snake into it. It did not clear the issue. So, I had to call a plumber. Their long snake cleared the drain and we found what it drains to. You see, this is the drain for our walk our basement. I figured that it did not drain to the sewer as I could see that main pipe in the basement ceiling. We discovered that this particular drain comes out along our backyard fence. That would explain why that area is always wet and muddy during the summer. My theory is that the builders put the drain in with the assumption that it would only be used during the summer, when the exit would not freeze. In this case, it was not only frozen, but the end was completely blocked as I had never even known it was there.

The plumbers got the water flowing, but the exact location of the exit was still unknown.

About a week later, puddles appeared again. This time, I bought a 50′ snake and a rubber bladder for the end of a garden hose. The snake still did not reach the clog, but hot water through the garden hose did the trick. I was then able to find and dig out the exit. To be extra safe, I also added a water sensor by the drain to alert us of any additional issues.

We were thankful for the water sensor as it alerted us to an issue soon after. I gave up and decided to do a more extreme fix. Here is the drain after this last issue, with the sensor moved up on top so I can clean. The pipe is what our utilities drain into.

This extreme fix will connect the basement drain exit to the rest of the yard drainage system that I added a couple of years ago. This will keep all the pipes underground, which should help both with freezing and with the wet fence line issue.

I left an access point if I do need to snake it as I am still a little worried about how shallow the pipes are. It did take some creativity to come up with the proper fittings to go from a 2″ PVC pipe to a 4″ corrugated drainage pipe. Our local Lowe’s crew did a good job at piecing together what I needed.

I plan on shortening the access pipe (by the fence) this summer after the ground settles and new grass seed is down.

This weekend was the start of our big siding project. About a quarter of the existing siding panels are rotten. There is also no house wrap underneath. This means all of the siding needs to be pulled off and replaced.

I’m hoping that some of the panels can be salvaged enough to use on a playhouse or a deer blind.

My goal is to do one side of the house every year. I think that is the best use of resources, both in cost and in labor.

We decided to start on the west side since that feels the most drafty.

Step one was to get the scaffolding up…but the was no way I was lifting 32′ doubled up 2x4s by myself.  Electric hoist to the rescue!

Once the verticals were in place, I installed the pump jacks.

Now, I’ve never used a pump jack system before, so this was all new. I tried going up and down short distances to get myself comfortable. As you can see, there is a bit of height involved. I’m not afraid of heights, but I do need to feel comfortable with whatever is holding me.

I’ve decided that I’m comfortable going up, but only so so going down. I was going that I might be able to use the pump jack as an elevator of sorts to get larger pieces up and down. Nope. Not happening. Everything will be lifted/lowered with the electric hoist. I’ll use the extension ladder to get myself up and down.

I did make some progress getting the uppermost siding pieces off. In the process, I had access to inspect our attic.

Thankfully, the only bad joist connection is the one you see above. I did get it reinforced.

Here is the electric hoist setup. No. I am not standing on the work bench. I just stretched my arm out. Yes, the extra ladder is tied off. The pump jack is as high as I can get it, but I needed an extra foot to reach the peak. The ladder also allowed me access to the attic. It is a tight squeeze between the hoist support and the ladder, but I managed to fit.

I did have a visitor later in the evening. Apparently one of our cats figure out how to climb the extension ladder…

My wife was able to rescue the cat through the upstairs window.

We’ve always had a garden in our wall by our pool, but dirt keeps washing out of it. Two obvious reasons as to why…1.) Lack of drainage and 2.) A downspout drains directly to the garden.

Thankfully, I knew exactly where the drain was at that I put in last year. After some careful digging, I found it and was able to add a Y. I really lucked out that the power conduit that is next to the existing drain was on the far side…exactly where I needed it to be.

I used 4″ perforated drainage. Except Lowe’s only had one in stock, so I had to create one by drilling holes into it. The full length is then covered with a sock to keep crud out. 20′ of perforated plus a 10′ connector to the main drain = lots of dirt to move.

Here is the finished product.

 Flowers have been purchased. We just need some time and good weather to plant them.