My house is falling apart..

[Smartin]

..or at least that's what it's felt like for the last week.

Last year, I had a problem with a water leak coming through my foundation wall in the basement. It was seeping through the hole where the main water line comes into the house. It completely hosed down one of the rooms in my basement, which prompted me to completely redo the whole house. I dug it up outside, and followed the direction of a supply house I bought the repair stuff from. It seemed to fix the leak. (This was December 2006).

Fast forward to last Tuesday night, a friend was in town to visit from Cincinnati... He goes downstairs to get to sleep, and walks into the bedroom, and his socks are immediately soaked.:o "Hey Adam, I think you have a leak down here!"

SAME freakin' problem as last year. This time, I hired a waterproofing company to fix it, and they were able to clean out the hole from the inside and inject an expanding epoxy goop that filled the hole in. Great, problem solved.

Now, I had to figure out how to prevent excessive water from building up on the outside of the foundation like that. I have a sump pump, but it's on the other side of the house, and I don't have a water problem anywhere else. Looking outside at the problem side of the house, I have three downspouts dumping virtually straight into the foundation.

Soooo, yesterday, I hired one of our guys to dig in 100' of drain pipe to run all the downspouts to the street...including the neighbor's two downspouts on his house.

Two unexpected projects down, one to go.

Yesterday morning, as I was watching Mark work on the drain tile, I leaned up against one of the pillars on my front porch. It didn't hold me long before it gave way at the bottom:eek:

Here's what it looked like after I pulled the bottom trim off:

http://www.buickpartsdirectory.com/house/pillars005.jpg


Completely rotten!!! Naturally, I'm concerned about the other three pillars...so I pulled the trim off all of those, and they were all in the same shape.

Off to Home Depot I go...again...and had to plop down another $400 in supplies to rebuild all four of them.

Here's a shot of one of the anchors...totally mulched.

http://www.buickpartsdirectory.com/house/pillars002.jpg


After a day and a half of work, I finally have them all boxed in, and ready to be trimmed out. I installed the new ones with a lower anchor made of cast aluminum, like a deck post, or similar item. The problem with the old ones, was that they completely sealed off the bottoms with caulk, and held water, which rotted every one of them out.

Here's where I'm at right now. I still need to install trim on the tops, middle, and bottoms of the pillars. Then, I get to caulk, prime, and paint everything. And now, this is going to cause me to have to paint the whole house!! More projects!! Oh well, I don't like the blue anyway:tonge2:

http://www.buickpartsdirectory.com/house/pillars008.jpg

[EEE]

That's not very fun, seems to be one of the things you have to deal with if you own a house. At least you're handy, and can get it back together every time:xyxthumbs: ,.

[MichelHaak]

Be glad you don't live in Holland, here is water the worst problem we have. If we look under the floor, you can see water 40 cm below the floor in the room between the floor and the ground. It's just groundwater but that's the way it is here at our house. I ever digged a hole in the ground, the ground here is clay but after 70 cm it's just black mud or something like that... :shocked:

Anyway, after I read your story I don't understand the relation between the leakage in the basement and the pillars on the outside. Or isn't there a relation?

[Robroy]

Being a house owner is one of the challenges in life :p , you never know what problem that will show up next and sometimes you get a whole bunch of them at them same time, as you did Adam. Even people that buy brand new houses get headaches; there are cases when they have had to stay in trailer homes for half a year before they could move in to their new home.

Seems like you have the situation covered though, you have done the obvious by sealing up your foundation wall and improved the draining system outside it.
Wood tends to suck up water at the end and then become rotten. The best way to prevent that is if possible, to have a space between the wood and the cement/concrete by using some kind of metal bracket or similar. It’s also a good idea to put on some wood oil (like linseed oil) at the ends before painting to make them more water resistant.

[The German]

Adam, I hope it´s not too late to optimise your construction. The lower end of the pillars is not to be seen clearly at your pics. The good is that you brought the pillars on special anchors but I´m sure there still is too little space between the wood and the basement because water from rain will come under the pillars as shown in my drawing. It´s better to have more space here (min 4") and to cover it with a sheet of non corrosive metal ( right side of my drawing). But let enough space open for ventilation ! Otherwise you will have sweating water at the pillars. Next is that it would be good to have a tar seal between wood and anchor to avoid water coming into gaps there. Last the aluminium could act with parts of the concrete basement and in the long run it could oxidise too much so it would be better to have a seal (tar or a tar mat) between the alu and the concrete also.

Hope this information will be of help for you but perhaps you did it in a similar way anyway – I couldn´t see it from the pics. And I hope that you will not have other problems with water ... !
_______________
Rolf

Added :
Adam, today morning I had only little time; so I answered very fast and made that 1st drawing assuming you have full wood pillars. Now I noticed your old pillars lying under the window behind the both pillars in the middle – so your construction might be like that one in the 2nd drawing. Anyway, make sure that water keeps away from the end of the planks and protect it with special paint as Per said, then you will have no problems for a long time.

When I built my house I also had some water problems, so I know that such events can cause a lot of trouble. Hope that water-trouble is blown away from you now ! In any case the pillars will be better than before – one can see that you did good work again, Adam !:xyxthumbs:
_____________
Rolf

[dewbers]

Feeling your pain........ I'll share more later this week. Had a death in the family yesterday (my 92 yr old Grandmother, God Bless her!) and I have a 2-day business trip to Washington DC I need to leave for in 30 minutes. When it rains it pours......
Don't miss me too much!! :D
I'll be back!!

[73 Centurion]

Hey Adam,

In my town there is an ordinance that downspouts cannot dump on the ground they must go into some form of drainage system. Mine were piped into my basement and disappeared under the floor. Over time whatever drainage system existed filled with leaves and crud and the downspouts happily dumped all the water into my basement.

I have them dumping into perforated black pipe hidden in the foundation plantings. During the summer I have them drain into rain barrels. I'm going to arrange a drip irrigation system to feed the flowers. :)

I put up handrails on my porch and I used Mahogany for all but the trim at the base of the posts. I used synthetic wood (plastic) to trim that area. You can't tell the difference unless you look closely, and if I catch anyone looking that closely at the base of my handrails they'll be admirably positioned for a kicking. :laugh:

I used galvanized steel post bases that hold the wood off the concrete, I used the plastic to cover the air gap. The top of the plastic is cut at an angle to shed water and there is silicone caulking behind the trim to keep water out. I cut decorative half circles in the plastic to allow some ventilation. The only plastic is the trim at the base of the columns, the rest is mahogany.

If you're going to paint the columns any plastic trim will blend in perfectly.

Good Luck,
John



2 years and I have not seen any sign of moisture wicking up the mahogany posts.

[RFortuna]

Jeez Adam! Is there anything you can't do? I practically have to hire a contractor to change a lightbulb! Good luck.

Randy

Steve - Sorry to hear about your Grandmother. Hope you're doing well. I have a 92 year old Grandmother too. Losing her would be tough. Stay strong!

Randy

[centurion 455 ragtop]

Feeling your pain........ I'll share more later this week. Had a death in the family yesterday (my 92 yr old Grandmother, God Bless her!) and I have a 2-day business trip to Washington DC I need to leave for in 30 minutes. When it rains it pours......
Don't miss me too much!! :D
I'll be back!!

Our prayers are with you Steve.

[Smartin]

Ok, my skills with MS paint aren't what they used to be. I'm much better with Photoshop:coffee:

Here is what I did.

Aluminum block with a lower portion that is raised to allow water to pass through

On top of the block, I mounted a square piece of pressure treated 2x8.

I mounted the pillars to the 2x8 on top and bottom.

I will be installing decorative millwork on the bottom, about 3/4" off the ground, to allow for water flow.

[The German]

I´m curious to see it when finished, Adam.

BTW : have those pillars truly the function to hold the roof or are they used only to make the front of a house looking like a palace entrance ?:rolleyes:
___________
Rolf

[Smartin]

None of the pillars are load-bearing....which surprised me when I replaced them.

[The German]

None of the pillars are load-bearing....which surprised me when I replaced them.

I assumed it when I saw the construction of the old pillars; but okay - they look good, Adam ! A house in my neighbourhood also has pillars - made of concrete which was formed with 2 half pipes of plastic (seemed to be a normal plastic water pipe before used for this construction). Later they painted these pillars in a very interesting way. Perhaps it´s of interest for you also, so I´ll go, take a picture and post it here.
___________
Rolf

... here they are (pictures):

[Smartin]

Definitely interseting paint! Did they use the pipe as a mold, and then remove it?

[The German]

Definitely interesting paint! Did they use the pipe as a mold, and then remove it?

Yes.
_______________
Rolf

[Smartin]

Finished trimming out the pillars today! Now, all I have to do, is prime and paint..

http://www.buickpartsdirectory.com/house/pillars011.jpg

[EEE]

If they're for show only, why are there two of them in the middle?

[Smartin]

The pillar behind the front center one, is at the front of the other section of roof line. Assuming these were load bearing, this would be the correct way to do it.