What Is the Mushroom Factor?

fixing up old houses

That is the question of the day, isn't it? Well, though I wrote a small blurb about it early in the days of this blog, I found that Squidoo had no search results for it. That is right: a whole huge online community had no resource for understanding this concept that we do-it-yourselfers understand all too well.

So. I wrote an article on it. On the Squidoo site they call them "lenses", where people can take a closer look at a topic they want to know something about. It is surprisingly easy to write for the site, everything is set up to work like a very simple blog. Like a one page blog for each topic.

Would you like to read it? What is the Mushroom Factor?

Gutter Guards

About 5 years ago I had my son Nathan dig a trench for a drain line that would take the gutter discharge out to the ditch. I might mention that Nathan's work standard was "excellence", and he did an exceptional job on this! Anyway, this drain line was intended to not only handle sending the gutter drainage to the ditch, but also the planned future discharge of the washing machine "gray water".

One problem we have had is the clogging of the gutters each fall by the tree leaves and needles. We have several large maple trees along with a large spruce tree in close proximity to the house. This results in a lot of leaves and spruce needles building up in the gutters. Very annoying to the effect that if you don't get up on a ladder at least weekly, they will end up clogged. I researched some ways to eliminate the clogging and, consequently, I went to Lowes and purchased some 3' sections of plastic "screened" mesh gutter guards. I think this will actually work for me. BTW, I have a metal roof, which presents some "unique" problems that call for "customized" solutions. I think I have found it.

I have roughly 300' of gutters to deal with and have installed approx 64' of material so far. I will be installing more of this material over the next couple weeks and will report my progress (and results) as the leaves begin to fall and the fall rains begin.

((In a couple of the gutters I utilized a "hinged" type metal gutter guard (also purchased at Lowes), that seems like it will work well)). My metal roofing calls for various customized solutions!!!

Sump Pump Update

The sump pump is working well. It is discharging the laundry wash as hoped for. What I am patiently waiting for is a couple days of driving rains to determine whether the sump pump/pit will deal with the basement floor seepage. Although we finally got about a 1/4" of rain in the last 24 hours, it is not enough, so I "patiently" wait!!!

Sump Pump installation (Part 4)

Well, the concrete has cured. I bought a 12" diameter circular paver to place in the bottom of my sump barrel for the sump pump to sit on. Then I installed the 1-1/2" threaded-solvent weld PVC adaptor on the pump. Then I solvent welded about a 4' section of PVC to that. At that point (about 3' above floor level), I installed the check valve. Below the sump pit cover (at floor level), I drilled a 3/16" weep hole in the discharge pipe. The purpose of the weep hole is to prevent airlock. From the check valve I made my connections all the way to the outside downspout drain, which will take the sump water to the ditch about 200' away from the house.

After everything was installed and connected, I tested by dumping about 5 gallons of water in the pit. The pump discharged it in approximately 5 seconds. Pump is rated for about 42gpm. The pump sits in 4" water and kicks on when water reaches 8" deep, then turns back off when water level is down to 4" again.

I normally do not like rain, and we haven't had any for a couple weeks. (In my alternative universe it is 80' and sunny every day and rains 1/8" every night from 3-4am). However, since this isn't my reality I am actually hoping for some drenching rains just to see if installing this sump pump will alleviate the wet basement issues and prevent water from coming up thru the floor and around the perimeter.

Sump Pumps (Part 3)

Well hey!!! Here I am posting 2 days in a row!!!

Today we (my son & I)finished excavating the remaining 4" or so of clay/subsoil from our sump pit. It had accumulated a small amount of water overnight, which added to the weight of this subsoil. Anyway, after removing this remaining bit of subsoil (down to the 28" depth), I placed the corrugated plastic sump barrel in it. BTW, I did drill alot of holes in the upper half of this barrel to allow for "under the floor" seepage into the barrel, which should help prevent seepage coming up thru the floor since it will now find its way to the sump pit.

Once the barrel was in place, I backfilled the outside area with 800 lbs of gravel, then topped this with 200 lb of concrete. My one regret was that I didn't listen to my gut feelings on the concrete mix (which my contractor friends had suggested). My feeling was to use sand mix concrete or vinylcrete...and now I wish I had. The problem with the regular concrete mix is that you can't feather out the edges to the existing floor for a nice smooth finish (because of the aggregate). With sand mix (or the expensive vinylcrete) you can feather it. Oh well, too late now. However, it is not really an issue in my 90 year old unfinished basement since aesthetics are not a highpoint feature of my basement.

I also ran my new designated electrical circuit for the sump pump. I already had an unused 20A breaker in my panel to utilize, so all I had to do was run the romex cable, install a box and a GFCI, make the connections, and test...and now I am good to go.

I will now let the concrete cure overnight. Then tomorrow I will install the pump and do the plumbing...and then report the results.

PHOTOS:

Sump Pit

post hole digger