I ditched on the piano room.

      Well, I know that I said in my last post that I'd be doing paint & vinyl floor next, but I took a left turn at Albuquerque.  I actually got the chance to have some young helpers join me to dig a twenty foot long trench alongside the foundation on the north side of the house.

       You see, for some time now the north wall of the stone foundation has weeped water into the basement after heavy rains. Parging and re-mortaring it from the inside slowed it, but did not stop the dampness at the floor alongside that wall. I decided last year that I wanted to dig it all out from the outside and pour a concrete wall on the outside of the stone wall to stop the porosity.
 
       Rob and I began to dig it out last summer, but thats when we discovered the in ground oil tank. That discovery led to us addressing that project first. (see blog entry from 11/3/19)  Then Rob became ill, and heavy labor such as digging a deep trench was too much for me alone. 

     Last week,  my son Chris and his friend Steve joined me at the house. The three of us dug a trench alongside the stone foundation. The trench was four feet deep, 18 inches wide,  and twenty feet long.  Seeing the stone foundation uncovered, it was no surprise that water was getting in. There was no traces of mortar left anywhere, and there were gaps, voids, and holes everywhere in the wall.

      It took about four hours to dig it out, and then the boys helped me carry the cement mixer out and they carried 16 eighty pound bags of concrete outside so I could mix it up and pour an eight inch deep footing at the bottom of the trench.  We did not take any pictures of the digging process, but I went to the house yesterday to pour more cement, and I did snap a picture of the trench with the cured footing.

       I bought a pallet of concrete mix (42 bags) and headed to the house yesterday to pour the wall. First I built a plywood form which was 24 inches tall at its lowest point and 36 inches tall at the end nearest the cement mixer. I mixed and poured every single bag into that form, and I still need more. I'm about a foot (12") short still, so I will have to get another pallet of mix.

      Here's a photo of the wall so far:
 

 
        I'll photograph the wall at its current height once I remove the forms and before I backfill with dirt. Then I'll build the next form for the last 12" - 18" of the wall.