Basement Concrete

Introduction

When we bought the house the basement had a toilet. The toilet was probably installed when the house was built back in the 30's. It would have been back in style if it had not been gross from decades of being in an unfinished basement.

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Nikki and I both agreed we wanted to have a full bathroom in the basement. This would require much more plumbing than was already down there. This would require us to cut up some concrete to lay down additional piping. As long as we were going to do that we decided to swap the bathroom and laundry room locations. This way our bathroom will benefit from extra floor space and a window.

We cant get started in the other rooms of the basement without first getting the framing up. We cant put up framing around the bathroom until we have our outgoing piping installed under the concrete. So I guess its time to get our s$*t togher and get those pipes layed (sorry for the bad pun, I couldnt help myself).

Enter my parents to lend a helping hand. I originally planned on getting a diamond blade for my circurlar saw then going to town with a sledge hammer. My dad suggested renting a diamond cut blade / saw and a jackhammer. I hate spending extra cash but these tools really made the job more enjoyable. The saw was pretty intense. It was regularly blowing a 20 amp circuit and it kicked up dust like it was its job although it had no problem cutting the concrete and the blade didnt look any more worn after we were done cutting.

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The Jackhammer was a thing of beauty. I probably weighed 80 pounds and was electric rather than pnuematic. I am almost embarrased to say that I had never used a jackhammer before. As you might have guessed, its pretty simple. That thing would cut through concrete like butter. No really, put it in place and start it pounding, then watch the bit get about 1 inch into the concrete every 2 seconds. My concrete was only about 3 inches thick so it was really quick to break up all the concrete. Suprisingly the jackhammer never blew a 13 circuit.

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After cutting and breaking up all the concrete all we had to do was pick up the pieces

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Under the concrete there was a layer of gravel that had to be removed before we could finally get down to the dirt (actually its red clay out here).

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Finally we ended up with a clean trough to run the pipes in

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Of course all the concrete and the old toilet needed to be disposed of. Thankfully my parents brought a trailer with them when they came to visit Nikki and I. Time for a trip to the dump

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I owe my parents a big thank you for the help in getting the concrete up. Its was a tough project to get started on because of how disruptive it was and how much planning needed to be done. I really needed someone there to reassure me that we would get it done and thats just what my parents did. My dad was a real pro with the saw and jackhammer. Here are some of my favorite photos of my dad working. If you look past the concrete dust you can see my dad cutting a line with the diamond blade saw

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And here he is again working the jackhammer like its his job

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Photos

Cost

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