A New Sump Pump

When we had the house inspected we found that there are high levels of radon in the basement. In order to have a mitigation system installed we needed to replace the pedestal style sump pump with a submersible so the crock could be properly sealed. My colleague recently replaced his and recommended a combination sump pump with a back up. This will be great for if the power goes out and gives us peace of mind when we travel. The installation started with removal of the old unit.

The old pedestal style.

Removed from the crock.

The new pump is a submersible style with a built in battery backup unit attached. It came preassembled with a wye and check valves. It was very nearly a drop in replacement.

New combo unit.

The only modifications I had to make were to extend the outlet pipe by coupling a new section of PVC onto the existing pipe to add about 10" to the reach. PVC is easy to work with and is cut easily with a hacksaw. I joined the pieces with PVC glue after first cleaning the parts with the purple cleaning solvent.

Modified outlet pipe.

Before dropping the pump into the crock I cleaned its new home out with the shop vac and a shovel. There was a lot of dirt, stones, and broken concrete in the pit, some of which had been there for a while and some of which was from the drain tile work we had done several weeks ago. So that the pumps would sit level and not get clogged or damaged, all of that material had to come out. Several buckets of mud later and the pit was cleared.

New pump in place.

And covered!

The sump pump even allows me to close up the concrete covers, at least until the radon mitigation system is installed. I poured several gallons of water into the crock to to test the new pump and it works great. It is even quieter than the old one, not that we could even hear that one. I still have to order a deep cycle battery for the backup pump but that will drop in to the included charging case easily and isn't needed before the radon system installation.

Drain Tile and New Floors

When we bought the new house we knew that drain tile and some beams were needed in the basement. Thankfully with the split level design of the building the basement is smaller than what you would find on a ranch home. This helped to reduce costs for the work.

We got several estimates and had the work done over the course of 4 days. Siri and I took turn working from home while the crew was there and I tried to concentrate on the first day as they jack hammered the slab and drilled weep holes. The work was loud and dusty but they got most of it done in one day. They also tuck pointed the cracks in the west wall and excavated the old drains. The next day the beams went in with the new drain tile. They also poured the new concrete which they let harden the next day before they finished their work. The cat took it upon himself to step in the soft concrete so now there are kitty prints in the basement in several locations.

The basement work finished on Thursday and we next had the wood floors refinished on Friday. When we were looking at the house I noted that the upstairs closets all had oak floors but the bedrooms, hallway, and stairs were carpeted. I pulled up corners of carpet in each area and found they all had white oak floors underneath. Why people cover wood with carpeting still confuses me.

Such beautiful carpet. Bless the 70s.

The small bedroom was beige.

The second bedroom was blue/white.

And the master was a glorious red.

Wood in the closets was a good sign.

Siri and I spent many evenings after work pulling up carpet and pad and then removing the hundreds of staples, tack strips, and nails. There was a lot of mud under the carpet pad which made for dirty work as I removed it. The tack strips were a pain to remove but a small pry bar helped a lot. I had to be careful so as to not damage the wood floors.

Mud under the pad. 

All the staples, pad, and tack strips gone.

After a good mopping.

The stairs had hundreds of staples.

The floor crew was able to get the job done in one day as we only had about 580 square feet of space to do. They did note that they didn't find any staples as they worked which was a good sign. We had to let the top coat dry for a day before walking on it and longer before moving furniture. I didn't move the bed upstairs until the following Monday just to make sure the floor was ready.

Sanding in progress.

All cleaned up!

The cleaned up floors really open up the bedrooms and lighten the entire upper floor which is great since the windows are a bit small and don't receive much natural light. The sanding process did produce a bit of dust even though the equipment was attached to a good vacuum unit so we had some dusting and vacuuming to do after they left. I made a temporary wall of wrapping paper to keep the animals off the floor while it dried so when it was done we opened it up like a Christmas present. New floors, Santa knew just what I wanted!