Home Renovations

The last couple of months have been a busy time for myself. My last day at work was August 12th. I am now on vacation until the end of April of next year and then on May 1st I will retire after 30 years with Inco. A few days after beginning my vacation I loaded up my red Ranger pickup and drove 1,560km to Nipigon, picking up our youngest son, Jordan, when I passed through Winnipeg.

Soon after arriving in Nipigon I began some renovations on our house in Nipigon. As there had been some water leaking through the basement wall I had decided to excavate the basement and replace the moisture barrier membrane. And while at it I had decided to add some exterior insulation and replace the weeping tile as well as put in new basement windows.

Jordan was my assistant. We did the front, far side and back first. Janice’s dad, Ralph, had redone the water proofing a number of years ago, using asphalt covered with plastic. But he had not made sure the top edge of the plastic was sealed and water had penetrated in behind and then leaked through the block wall into the basement.

We peeled off the plastic, cleaned the trench to the base of the footing and installed the new weeping tile. This was then covered with crushed rock to make sure there would be maximum drainage. Here is a picture after putting in enough crushed rock to cover the footing.

Once the weeping tile and crushed rock were in place we cleaned the wall and then applied a primer prior to applying a product called “Blue Skin”. This is a plasticized membrane about 2mm thick and which sticks to the foundation wall. Here is Jordan applying the primer (helps make the membrane stick better) followed by the application of the membrane and then 2” foam insulation.

 

Then additional crushed rock was placed into the trench and it then partially backfilled. Working off the backfill we then put up pressure treated plywood to cover the above grade portion of the insulation to prevent UV damage to the insulation. After sealing the top edge of the insulation we then covered the top of the insulation and plywood with metal flashing.

 

The last part of the job was to: a) complete the backfilling, b) finish applying flashing to cover any part above the insulation not covered by siding, c) install new stairs for the side porch and d) install the new windows (triple pane awning windows). As a result the basement already is much warmer and much more comfortable.

And here is what everything looks like at this point in time (I still need to add some trim around the new windows).