How to pour 1/2" of concrete on my basement floor, but slanted

[nsisman]

"The flood caused my sump pump to fail,"

What happened ? Did the pump sieze, or the electric fail, or just too much water ?

I have a buddy that was paranoid about flooding after a flood about 25 years ago and he enlarged his sump pit and put five (yes 5) sump pumps in there and if you go to his back door you will see 5 pieces of flex discharge hose sticking out thru the wall.

Ironically there has never been another flood since but he feels a lot safer now.

Neil

 

[mustangcoupe]

"The flood caused my sump pump to fail,"

What happened ? Did the pump sieze, or the electric fail, or just too much water ?

I have a buddy that was paranoid about flooding after a flood about 25 years ago and he enlarged his sump pit and put five (yes 5) sump pumps in there and if you go to his back door you will see 5 pieces of flex discharge hose sticking out thru the wall.

Ironically there has never been another flood since but he feels a lot safer now.

Neil

In another thread he mentioned he was working in the basment and forgot he unplgged it and did not plug it back in... I am not sure why it would have failed though, most sump pumps are intended to be submerged.....

 

[ellisr63]

Vivek, if you find someone who is doing a job on new homes and they do it as as side job you can get it jone for way less $$$ than calling a pro to do the job and you still have someone who knows what they are doing. I have done this in the past and saved $$$.

 

[IVB]

"The flood caused my sump pump to fail,"

What happened ? Did the pump sieze, or the electric fail, or just too much water ?

Well, after plugging the sump pump back in, it made it through 2.5 rooms, then gave up the ghost and died. It's the same sump pump the house came with, so it's probably around 10 years old. I don't know if it just seized or overloaded, or just died of natural causes, but that part was relatively easy. It is highly suspect that there's now a drain blockage, so I wonder if something made it through but clogged somewhere in the pipe.

IVB, I would not layer LevelQuick and then mortar. If level, use LevelQuick. If sloped, use mortar. It's the layers that run into durability problems and putting multiple layers compounds adhesion and flaking issues...Do a 10 x 10 area to begin with.

Thanks for the tips & detailed guidance. The interesting bit is that the room in question is only perhaps 9' x 9'. I feel exhausted just thinking about that.

The other two rooms have no sump pump and are unconnected to the sump pump room - that's something that i'm now going to take a look at, but i'm sure that's a $5K-$10K job as it requires changing the floor level for two walkpaths to connect the roooms.

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

IVB:

Man, sorry for all the problems you are having. :blink:

If you are trying to save money, just an FYI, HomeDepot (at least here in Las Vegas) rents the large electric snakes that come on a two wheel cart if you want to try to fix your clogged pipes yourself. I did this when in my older home as I had an obstruction between the kitchen sink and main street.

I just fed this from the "access port" just below the sink and it worked. Well worth the rental fee and was not hard to do at all.

Good luck to you!

BSR

 

[IVB]

That's a good idea - As I hacksaw'ed open the pipes from the outside, I have a clear shot to it.

One thing I didn't mention - the hacks that put in the drain pipes only used a 1" pipe. Talk about getting easily clogged. Ok, off to Home Depot for the 6th time in 48 hours to buy a PVC tee, elbows, and 35' of pipe for a temporary drain outlet. That'll only take an hour to put in, so I can be done and either at the bar for bloody mary's or the Ice Cream shop for a mint chocolate chip sundae.

Then I'll go downstairs again and figure out why the hot water heater refuses to maintain a flame :blink:

 

[hult]

I just realized my basement floor is unevent, and has settled on the edges, so it's not emptying towards the sump pump. This is quite close to the room with the equipment, so I need to rectify this situation.

I only need perhaps 1/2" to 1" of additional filler to get the edges back up to even with the middle. Can I just pour some concrete on the floor directly (after ripping everything off the floor, and putting 2x4's up around sthe sump pump hole), and when it's close to being set, using a spade to angle it down towards the sump pump so it drains?

If that's quite dumb, Any other ideas?

You can't really pour 1/2" of concrete on top of an existing floor. The aggregate in the concrete would prevent your getting an acceptable surface. Adhesion to the previous floor would be problematic and you'd likely see extensive cracking of the new pour. You could use mortar mix for this. If you do, use a concrete adhesive to bond the new layer to the old. You'll have to be very careful with the mix to prevent it from cracking as it cures. You'll have to be good with concrete tools to get a decent finish. The best solution (and most expensive) are products made just for this purpose. I've used LevelQuick before which is a self leveling product for correcting uneven floors to a depth of 1". Concrete is often best left to those who do it for a living...

Is the foor done "settling"? Why did it "settle" ?

I needed to level out the very uneven floor in the furnace room so that the HA and AV equipment racks could roll on their wheels. There was an existing concrete floor that had been unevenly installed on top of of the 150-year-old sandy dirt floor. Most places had at least some concrete; other places, where some obstacle had been, were just dirt.. I chipped down the spots that were too high. Etched the existing concrete with hydrochloric (muriatic) acid, I used a combination of Quickrete Vinyl Concrete Patcher from Home Despot on the feather edges, non-vinyl patching cement/mortar where it was thicker and manually dropped gravel into the still-wet mortar to add strength where more than 1/2 inch or so of thickness was needed.

There have been no obvious cracks or failure. But it was putzy, time-consuming work. And the vinyl patch is expensive and leaves a 'dusty' surface (it does not appear to be as hard as regular concrete at least the way I mixed it.).

To make it drain better , you could scratch a trellis network of shallow (eg <1/4" deep ) lines toward the sump before the cement sets completely. This might require you to work in sections so that you have a place to stand.

... Marc

 

[DavidL]

9X9? Piece o Cake.

I thought the whole basement was in question.

That's a half day job.

Do it yourself if you have an adventurous half day available.

The drain is in the middle of the floor? You could use QuickLevel because you really don't need much slope at all to drain 99.9% of whatever comes in. The rest is a quick squigee / towel to dry.

So,

Clean the floor. Use some acid etch. Clean again w/ clear water. Let it dry.

Put duct tape on the entrance of the drain so the liquid doesn't go in it.

Pour the Level starting at the walls from the far corner from the doorway / entrance. You can help work it around using a short 2x4 connected to a broom handle or even a clean dirt rake (not a leaf rake). Don't use too much material. You can add more, taking away extra is a pain.

Let it dry. Done.

 

[nsisman]

And when you get your new pump hooked up wire the pump to an extension cord and a receptacle at the pump location hook the discharge hose up with a union and threaded fittings above the floor as well.

This way you can have a quick disconnect for pump replacement.

I always made it a point to have a spare pump (in the box but all wired up with a cord and fittings) in case the main pump died.

I also had a homemade pump alarm at about 5" below the sump top consisting of a 9volt battery, a 9 volt buzzer (really loud and annoying one) and 2 pieces of coat hanger stapled to a 2x4 and bent down into the sump hole at about 1" apart. If the water got high enough to hit the wires you could hear the buzzer anywhere in the house.

Neil

 

[IVB]

Is the basement done settling

The house is 96 years old, the basement room in question is probably ~50, so hopefully not too much settling left. It's hard-hard clay underneath the house, as soon as you get down 12" you need a sledgehammer to get further - it cost me tons to DIY the irrigation system in the front as I kept breaking tools in it.

(lots of other advice from many folks

Well lots of great tips here, and I even got a PM from a CQC'er who's very construction-savvy and is willing to come out and help for 1 full day as he's travelling to the Bay Area in 2 weeks!

The sump pump is in the corner of the room, but I think I get the point. I'll still buy both LevelQuik and Mortar, and have the CQC'er who's helping me look at the job and suggest a solution. That way I'll have the materials on-hand, and can return whatever I don't use.

I will have to do the other 2 rooms in the basement at some point, but, and this is hard to explain over a forum, there's a middle room that's 18" higher which is preventing me from just connecting everything to the 1 sump pump location. I need to hire a pro to come in and lower that middle room; won't be so bad cuz there's no "floor" there, just a bunch of dirts/rock, but there is this pesky foundation on 1 side of it so i can't just dig it out myself.
There's concrete in the middle, the other thought I had was to just put some PVC pipe so it could all drain, but again hopefully a pro can give me some guidance there. That won't be for months and months, I need to save up some $$ first.

Thanks again to all, if you have any more thoughts I'd love to hear them.

 

[IVB]

Ok, took some pics of the room in question. It's actually smaller than I thought (9' x 7.5'). I haven't cleaned the floor yet, I literally just ripped off the linoleum.

No idea why, but I took a video too. It's 30MB

 

[brotsten]

Did you find any clams?

Brian

 

[DavidL]

that room would be easy to level. The room already is walled in. Just put a little barrier around the sump and pour in liquid level. move it around a bit to help leveling and you're done.

 

[123]

The described area is bound by walls so it should be an easy "pour'. However, the floor's current condition needs some improvement.

The floor is a patchwork quilt of stuff I can't identify from the photos. Are the smooth areas painted or is that finished concrete? The walls seem to be painted. The dark areas look like soiled concrete or is that green mold? Whatever the case, all surfaces have to be clean and free of paint, oil, and other contaminants. Not a fun job.

Chemical paint-remover may remove the paint from the concrete (this is indoor work so get the less noxious stuff) otherwise you can use a wirebush. This is an old home so before you attack the paint, check if it contains lead and take the necessary precautions. There are some DIY testing kits available but I've never used them so I can't comment.

Dilute muriatic acid is used to etch the surface of the concrete to provide better mechanical adhesion for the top-coat. Otherwise, you run the risk of having the top-coat flake off. There are bonding agents available to provide chemical adhesion for the top-coat but may not be needed if already contained within the self-leveling cement.

All of these chemicals require proper safety equipment (goggles, gloves, mask w/filter cartridge for organic vapours) and good air-circulation.

 

[IVB]

The described area is bound by walls so it should be an easy "pour'. However, the floor's current condition needs some improvement.

The floor is a patchwork quilt of stuff I can't identify from the photos. Are the smooth areas painted or is that finished concrete? The walls seem to be painted. The dark areas look like soiled concrete or is that green mold? Whatever the case, all surfaces have to be clean and free of paint, oil, and other contaminants. Not a fun job.

Chemical paint-remover may remove the paint from the concrete (this is indoor work so get the less noxious stuff) otherwise you can use a wirebush. This is an old home so before you attack the paint, check if it contains lead and take the necessary precautions. There are some DIY testing kits available but I've never used them so I can't comment.

Dilute muriatic acid is used to etch the surface of the concrete to provide better mechanical adhesion for the top-coat. Otherwise, you run the risk of having the top-coat flake off. There are bonding agents available to provide chemical adhesion for the top-coat but may not be needed if already contained within the self-leveling cement.

All of these chemicals require proper safety equipment (goggles, gloves, mask w/filter cartridge for organic vapours) and good air-circulation.

Thanks for the tips; i don't actually know the answer to those questions as I didn't rip off the linoleum until 9pm last night, and was dang tired so I went upstairs right after taking the pics. There's a window right above that 6" black pipe, so i was planning on opening it up, scrubbing the crap out of it to clean it. It might suck bigtime as I can't use a regular soapy cleaning agent which would itself create an adhesion problem, so I'll have to see what's available for that cleaning.

Man, after all this damn work, I should just put in a raised floor and move my 10 year old black leather couch that the wife hates down there, and make a man-cave. If only I didn't have to walk out the back door, through mud, and crouch down in the crawlspace in order to get to it!