kiwishooter
Active member
Eric feel free to move this thread to a more suitable place if you want.
This has been a project that has been going on for a considerable time, work, life and other things have gotten in the way from time to time.
20+ years ago I bought a house that has a basement with a dirt floor and a section that had asphalt as a surface.
As it was the basement wasn't usable for much except parking a car in one section and storing stuff in as long as you put something between the dirt floor and what you wanted to store.
Yes, carboard boxes did tend to disintegrate if left on the dirt floor.
The area was really 2 single car lengths end to end on one side with a largish single car tilt a door at one end.
Shortly after moving in I dug out some dirt and levelled a section about half the length of the house toward the back of the double single garage section and had a 5" concrete floor poured. Due to the driveway for the house this wasn't an easy task, and the person that layed the concrete did a very poor job in my opinion.
But it was a concrete floor and I built a bench, moved a lathe in (quite a story) moved a mill/drill in and a bit of other stuff, and was happy doing some projects and keeping my self occupied (when I found the time)
As time passed I found it wasn't level (something placed against the wall where the front edge was 400mm away from the wall needed 10mm+ spacers to get the item vertical) and dropped toward the front, another thing I found later was the top layer was "sandy" and would lift and peel just by rubbing your boot on it.
While living in the house I kept thinking about things to do to make things "better" and had sort of formed a bit of a plan, which got altered due to a water leak in the ceiling one weekend.
We went away for a weekend during winter and came back to a burst pipe in the ceiling, water running through the ceiling, down an internal wall and down into the basement. I don't know how it didn't get into the fuse box for the house in the basement as it was running down the studs where the fuse box is located.
The advent of the leak created an opportunity to start some forward thinking and get some plans drawn up for some house alterations and the development of a bigger usable space in the basement.
So some plans were drawn up and we got building consent and the plans included some structural work downstairs.
The house came first, we took out a load bearing wall, opened up the area between the kitchen, dining area and lounge, fitted a laminated beam into the ceiling to take the load of the load bearing wall. Removed all the wall linings and installed insulation, removed the ceiling and installed a new ceiling, added led lights additional power sockets etc.
Downstairs there were 3 big concrete piles removed, some PFC bolted to both sided of an existing floor bearer that the floor joists rest on, part of a support was had pfc bolted to both sides of the top plate and the studs and footing were removed.
Interior lining removed and getting ready to remove the wall on the left in the 1st photo, notice the wall removed had windows in it.
Laminated beam has been installed and top portion of the wall removed, we lined down the stairs to the basement
We have a new ceiling (it looks better after painting. The two pfc have been bolted to the top plate and the studs and footing are next to be removed
The support beam has been supported and the middle pile has been removed, a hole dug and a footing put in for the new pile. You can see one of the concrete piles that will be removed
This has been a project that has been going on for a considerable time, work, life and other things have gotten in the way from time to time.
20+ years ago I bought a house that has a basement with a dirt floor and a section that had asphalt as a surface.
As it was the basement wasn't usable for much except parking a car in one section and storing stuff in as long as you put something between the dirt floor and what you wanted to store.
Yes, carboard boxes did tend to disintegrate if left on the dirt floor.
The area was really 2 single car lengths end to end on one side with a largish single car tilt a door at one end.
Shortly after moving in I dug out some dirt and levelled a section about half the length of the house toward the back of the double single garage section and had a 5" concrete floor poured. Due to the driveway for the house this wasn't an easy task, and the person that layed the concrete did a very poor job in my opinion.
But it was a concrete floor and I built a bench, moved a lathe in (quite a story) moved a mill/drill in and a bit of other stuff, and was happy doing some projects and keeping my self occupied (when I found the time)
As time passed I found it wasn't level (something placed against the wall where the front edge was 400mm away from the wall needed 10mm+ spacers to get the item vertical) and dropped toward the front, another thing I found later was the top layer was "sandy" and would lift and peel just by rubbing your boot on it.
While living in the house I kept thinking about things to do to make things "better" and had sort of formed a bit of a plan, which got altered due to a water leak in the ceiling one weekend.
We went away for a weekend during winter and came back to a burst pipe in the ceiling, water running through the ceiling, down an internal wall and down into the basement. I don't know how it didn't get into the fuse box for the house in the basement as it was running down the studs where the fuse box is located.
The advent of the leak created an opportunity to start some forward thinking and get some plans drawn up for some house alterations and the development of a bigger usable space in the basement.
So some plans were drawn up and we got building consent and the plans included some structural work downstairs.
The house came first, we took out a load bearing wall, opened up the area between the kitchen, dining area and lounge, fitted a laminated beam into the ceiling to take the load of the load bearing wall. Removed all the wall linings and installed insulation, removed the ceiling and installed a new ceiling, added led lights additional power sockets etc.
Downstairs there were 3 big concrete piles removed, some PFC bolted to both sided of an existing floor bearer that the floor joists rest on, part of a support was had pfc bolted to both sides of the top plate and the studs and footing were removed.
Interior lining removed and getting ready to remove the wall on the left in the 1st photo, notice the wall removed had windows in it.
Laminated beam has been installed and top portion of the wall removed, we lined down the stairs to the basement
We have a new ceiling (it looks better after painting. The two pfc have been bolted to the top plate and the studs and footing are next to be removed
The support beam has been supported and the middle pile has been removed, a hole dug and a footing put in for the new pile. You can see one of the concrete piles that will be removed
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