Digging to China

I promised Jeff I'd blog about his latest project. Plus I've had requests for pictures. (Thanks Nathan.) I even figured out how to post a video. (Yay me!) We have two cracks in our foundation that resulted in some flooding in our basement earlier in the summer. After a little research, we decided the most effective way of repairing the cracks is to dig out the foundation and patch with tar paper and asphalt emulsion (tar). Jeff bought a heavy pick-like tool, called a San Angelo bar of all things (interesting what you get when you Google "San Angelo bar"), to break up the clay-like dirt. Then he digs it all out with a shovel. He's getting some good upper-body work in. We calculated he probably lifted and threw down that 17 lb. bar more than 1500 times in a four hour period the other day. He finished the first hole a couple weeks ago. It's probably 4' x 4' square and about 6 feet deep. He's now working on the second, but got slowed down by school starting. Hopefully we'll get it all done and patched before the snow flies.

Starting the second hole

Jeff in the finished hole


Dallin "helping" in the second hole

P.S. The $2.00 I spent on plastic tools for the kids was totally worth it!

P.P.S. By the way, have you ever wondered what would happen if you actually dug a hole through to the other side of the earth? Assuming no air friction, no spin of the earth, and no hot magma in the middle, here is a NOVA podcast that shows you what would happen.

How firm a foundation?

I'd rather be blogging about something else, but this is the issue that has been consuming our lives this week. Anyone ever had to repair a cracked foundation? We knew we had a small but long crack that leaked water into the laundry room if we put the sprinklers too close to the house, but the laundry room is unfinished and there is a drain in the floor, so we hadn't worried about it too much (other than keeping the sprinklers at a safe distance). At some point while we were in Idaho for four days, the tubing up to the swamp cooler on the roof popped off and watered the back lawn for who knows how long, flooding not just the laundry room but parts of the bathroom and bedroom too. (Note to selves and anyone else with a swamp cooler--turn the water to the swamp cooler OFF! if you are going to be out of the house for any extended period of time.) Turns out we have at least two cracks that let all that water in. I sucked a couple gallons of water out of the bedroom carpet with my steam cleaner before deciding just to rip it out completely. We had planned to replace it at some point anyway. Now we are debating the merits of digging out the foundation from the outside and patching with an asphalt emulsion ourselves vs. hiring a foundation repair company to fill the cracks from the inside with polyurethane for $865. At least the estimate was free. Anyone have any expertise, experience, or suggestions on this one? And once the leaks are taken care of, then we have to replace the carpet and some drywall, plus we are considering remodeling the bathroom while we're at it. As long as we are taking on home improvement projects, we might as well, right? So much for starting on our garage this summer.