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My basement train room dreams came crashing down with the rain....

My basement train room dreams came crashing down with the rain....


  #1  
Old 01-18-15, 05:55 PM
Z
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My basement train room dreams came crashing down with the rain....

Hi everyone,
My wife and I closed on our first home in November, which is a 1,200 SQ ft ranch with a full basement, built in 1959. One of the selling points for me was was a small finished room in the basement. The moment I stepped into the room I knew that it would be my Lionel sanctuary.....well then reality set in.
When we first closed, the room had carpet down, and it looked decent. The only thing the room needed was some fresh paint, or so I assumed.
The first indicator of any problems, was that the room smelled a bit like a dirty fish tank when the door was closed. I also noticed some mildew like stains by the baseboard trim. We had some boxes in the room that we had to move out since every item in the box of a musty (dirty fish tank) odor.
I removed the carpet to determine if that was the source of the odor, and I found that the carpet/foam was simply placed over the bare concrete. It was clear that the carpet had been wet before. The nails in the tack strips were even rusty. I removed the carpet/foam, but the smell still remained.
My next assumption was that the base of the sheetrock was moldy, thereby creating the musty odor. I had planed to check it but didn't get to it.
Today we had a rough weather day, ice in the AM and many inch's in the afternoon. The ground is frozen so no rain water is being absorbed. I walked down to the basement this afternoon, and I was horrified to see water seeping out from the wall in a few places.
The previous owners had a sump pump/French drain system installed, but it does not extend around the perimeter of the basement. In my "train room" there is no French drain, but there is a hole in he floor to drain the water I guess. Water was emanating from the wall I assume ,but never a huge amount. It was also leaking near the sump pump. In the train room, the basement trim and some sheetrock was also damaged.

Any deas on what to do about my dilema?

Thanks everyone,

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  #2  
Old 01-18-15, 06:00 PM
Z
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Also in the "train room" you can see where the floor was broken up in an L shape. I assume this was done when the French drain was installed. Any idea why that might have been done? There is a hole in the floor in the "new" concrete attached to a tube that I assume runs into the sump pit.
 
  #3  
Old 01-18-15, 09:19 PM
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I'm trying to figure out why that hole was left in the cement like that.

The first thing you need to do is to make sure all the downspouts are draining away from the house and that all the gardens and dirt around the house are graded away from the house.
 
 

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