Progress...
Dec. 11th, 2006 08:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
johnridleyWell, a bunch of junk has been rearranged, though sadly not much thrown out, making room for construction in the basement.
I took my tablesaw apart. I'd sell it if I could get anywhere near what it's worth; it's an $800 tablesaw but people seem to want to pay me $200 for it. I bought it for woodworking, which I don't think I'll ever get around to, and it's just a huge obstacle that keeps me from doing anything with the basement, so it's getting packed away for now.
A contractor friend told me that lining the concrete walls with plastic before putting up walls is old school and causes major problems down the road, the solution these days is to paint on dry-lock. So the first coat of that stuff went on yesterday. I decided against UGL on budgetary reasons; I'm using something called "Sunny Dry" - it's cement based, comes in a powder, sets in an hour. If we had actual moisture issues, I'd have spent the money on the UGL ($100/bucket instead of $26), but we haven't seen so much as a damp corner since the cracks got sealed and the disturbed soil around the foundation settled, about 6 years ago.
I'm pretty sure this was the right choice, because just before applying the SunnyDry, you're supposed to wet the concrete with a garden sprayer. The concrete in our basement is like a sponge; it's extremely thirsty. As soon as it got wet, the water just slurped right in and the smell of portland cement became pronounced. If the cement is that thirsty, there must not be much water trying to get through it. Locking the inner wall will probably help keep a little bit of moisture in the cement, which should add to its strength.
That stuff is not fun to put on. It's heavy. Getting the wall wet helps enormously, but I had to spray a lot of water on to get it wet. I could only wet about 4 sq ft at once or it would dry out.
Second coat goes on tonight, then I start laying out walls.
I took my tablesaw apart. I'd sell it if I could get anywhere near what it's worth; it's an $800 tablesaw but people seem to want to pay me $200 for it. I bought it for woodworking, which I don't think I'll ever get around to, and it's just a huge obstacle that keeps me from doing anything with the basement, so it's getting packed away for now.
A contractor friend told me that lining the concrete walls with plastic before putting up walls is old school and causes major problems down the road, the solution these days is to paint on dry-lock. So the first coat of that stuff went on yesterday. I decided against UGL on budgetary reasons; I'm using something called "Sunny Dry" - it's cement based, comes in a powder, sets in an hour. If we had actual moisture issues, I'd have spent the money on the UGL ($100/bucket instead of $26), but we haven't seen so much as a damp corner since the cracks got sealed and the disturbed soil around the foundation settled, about 6 years ago.
I'm pretty sure this was the right choice, because just before applying the SunnyDry, you're supposed to wet the concrete with a garden sprayer. The concrete in our basement is like a sponge; it's extremely thirsty. As soon as it got wet, the water just slurped right in and the smell of portland cement became pronounced. If the cement is that thirsty, there must not be much water trying to get through it. Locking the inner wall will probably help keep a little bit of moisture in the cement, which should add to its strength.
That stuff is not fun to put on. It's heavy. Getting the wall wet helps enormously, but I had to spray a lot of water on to get it wet. I could only wet about 4 sq ft at once or it would dry out.
Second coat goes on tonight, then I start laying out walls.
