Waterproofing the basement.

Hello all,

I'm finally back. We've been so busy lately that I haven't had time to post anything or even look at anyone's blogs. I got up early this morning to squeeze this into my schedule.
We were at a place in the process that Den had been going over in his mind for quite some time and it was one of the steps we were responsible for physically doing ourselves................."THE WATERPROOFING"! With a ten foot block wall, 600 pounds of PVC plastic and two guys, Den wasn't quite sure how difficult the job might be.
We've had some rain already and we had to wait a few days for the block to dry out and warm up so we could paint on the "tar". Dennis and I got that done working on it for several days after he got home from work. Messy but not difficult. Then with more rain, we couldn't hang the rest of the waterproofing on the planned weekend.
The following weekend we had beautiful weather, Jim, Jamie and Jada came out so Jim could help hang the plastic.
As the morning unfolded, so did the plastic. The guys wanted me to take some pictures ,after they got the largest and the last piece on the top of the wall, as they lowered it down..................not quite what they expected. The plastic was just warm enough that it unfolded slowly down the length of the wall and layed right into place. I'm not sure what they thought it might do but it seemed to disappoint them that it wasn't more exciting after they worked so hard.
It was a challenging evening as the wind picked up and Den had to secure all of it that night so it wouldn't displace what they had done.
The next day, Den and I hung the fabric on the dirt side of the wall (to keep the dirt from seeping through the drain rock) and put the drain pipe in.
This part of our job is done and the guys who are doing the back fill will be here this morning and tomorrow to finish it up and then the cement and block guys will be back out to pour the pad and block for the garage and the rest of the framing on the house. Woo Hoo! Finally getting there.
I'll get some pictures of the backfill being done today and tomorrow but not sure when I'll get them posted. I'm helping the "Reach Institute" do an open house this Friday night and I have a lot of food to prepare and setting up to do.
Here are some "not so pretty pictures" of the BIG BLACK HOLE. The rest of the pictures are guaranteed to be more exciting and definitely will get prettier from here on out.
Thank you again for sharing with us. Until next time, have wonderful days and know that we love you all.

The thick black "tar like" stuff we painted on before the plastic was hung.

The uneventful unrolling of the plastic.



Dad and Jim on the scaffolding, hanging the plastic and nailing it down.



Everything is covered and ready for backfill.

The block wall covered in plastic and the dirt wall covered in fabric.