2007.10.14 - Waterproofing Began

I did a little bit of work on covering up the northeast french drain this weekend. It's still pretty rocky and so I'm having to carry out rocks and try to get the dirt back in the trench. I had to leave the area open where the broken waterline crosses the trench. The water line goes to the garden and I need to repair that line before covering the remainder of the trench.

We began applying the waterproofing to the house. We started with the Ecoline-T, which is the thicker material. We applied it on all of the form straps in the areas that will be covered up with dirt later. If there's a leak, it'll most likely get through where the form straps are exposed, since these metal straps go from one side of the concrete to the other. They're the straps that were used to hold the forms together before the pour. Once the concrete was poured and the forms were removed, the straps were embedded in the concrete, and the ends of the straps were broken off flush with the surface of the concrete. However, water can get through there with hydraulic pressure, and so we will be applying a couple of coats of the Ecoline-T, and later coat the entire house with the lighter weight Ecoline product (which if I remember right, is Ecoline-R), with a bentonite membrane at the most critical places.

I also made a simple test of applying the Ecoline-T alone the seam between two of the modules. I know it's not enough, but I was curious of how well it'll work with just one application in the seams. Ultimately, there'll be two applications, then the bentonite membrane, and then the membrane will be stuck on with more Ecoline-T.

With all the work we got done this weekend, we also managed to shock the well. It was time again. We charged the lines with the bleached water and left it all for 24 hours before flushing all the lines. The water smells much better now and we have the assurance that our water is cleaner and better tasting than the water in Tulsa (or even bottled water).

We need to do some work in the garage. I think I put too much gravel in the garage, because we now want the floor lower than the rest of the floors in the house, so we need to lower the slab. So now I need to level out the gravel, and possibly get some of it back out so that we'll get a four inch slab, still have room to insulate below the slab, and get our utilities buried in the gravel. There's still a lot of work to do.