When we decided to foam the basement walls, we had to make a decision about whether to put in a perimeter drain. Liane’s basement is generally fairly dry (except when there’s a plumbing leak). But in this era of climate change, extreme weather, and biblical floods–even in Somerville–we decided that the responsible thing was indeed to install a perimeter drain. We would connect it to the foundation walls by means of a drainage mat which could send any moisture coming through the walls–down along the perimeter drain. A pump in a sump at the low end of the basement could pump any accumulated water out if necessary (whatever its source). So that’s what we did.
The diamond blade that cut along the perimeter of the basement
Diamond saw marks
A little (actually a lot) of drilling
Abi putting up the Cedar Breather, which actually worked as a more affordable approach to a drainage mat.
Rick and Abi with the Cedar Breather--and note that the electrical panel has been moved inward temporarily
Laying out the filter fabric wrapped, perimeter drain line which was installed deeper than what is shown here. Btw, the foundation walls are fieldstone with brick above.
Concrete covering the perimeter drain. Yes, we had to go around the Pheonix because of the switch in how to deal with the basement.
We did decide to cover the basement windows and to later foam over them. Liane only uses her basement for storage and the building systems. If she wants to have windows in her basement at a later time, they can always be cut out through the rigid and the spray foam from the outside.
and there's the sump...
No, we haven’t seen any closed cell foam in the basement yet–but it’s coming in the next post. Just wanted to let you know what we needed to do before we could foam. Dealing with moisture is probably one of the most important things in any retrofit–deep or not.
