Not good. What you see in this photo of our newly-excavated basement is a Canadian specialty: Bedrock. And lots of it.
There is a perfectly good basement under the existing house and no exposed bedrock nearby. So we never even considered the possibility here. We tested for bedrock at the other property we looked at, but for some reason didn't even really think about it here.
The basement of the house we're in now has exposed bedrock making up part of the floor. Other than the inconvenience of making part of the basement only 4 feet high, it lets water in. Water runs over the rock and on into the basement. So that's not an option.
We're looking at Plan B. Only, we didn't have a Plan B, so we're improvising as we go. We thought about making the new basement mostly crawl space and putting the family room under the existing house. (Along with the apartment.) But there were definite downsides to that. Right now we're leaning toward hiring someone to bring a chipper to work on it. It's rather expensive and we really have no idea if it will be a 4-hour job or a 2-day job. And the chipper isn't available until mid-week. So cancel concrete for today and pause everything 1 week. Boo.
Oh well. What can you do. I guess we'll learn to expect roadblocks and do our best to navigate them.
6 comments:
Oh no! Hopefully, it will be smooth sailing for the chipper. I finally got a calling card so I will be able to give you a call. Hang in there!
Crazy bedrock! We have some in our basement too, and yeah, it brings in the water!
So, I'll be over with my crow-bar tomorrow. :-) Or at least some work gloves.
Oh, sorry about the bedrock! When my parents built their house we ran into some and I remember dad dynamited it and then we had to carry the rocks out!
You know the song...Don't build your house on the sandy land...You better build your house upon the rock...a sure foundation and a...do you know that song? I had to think of that. Building a house with a good foundation takes more work sometimes, but is worth it in the end. :)
Jodi, makes me laugh... hadn't thought of that song for a long time. And dynamite "ain't gonna" work too well this time! I had asked the boys if they were going to dynamite the rock out of there, and yeah... we decided that wouldn't be a good plan, with your "cabin" sitting right beside it! "Grandpa is getting very antsy, he can hardly wait to start framing those basement walls! Love, Grandma
It looks like a fun remodel project, Karen! Fun and huge. In any case, I'm already looking forward to seeing "after" photos. I'm sure with your knack for decorating, it will be amazing.
Kendra
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