Wet Basement being fixed (pics)

harleysilo

Well, after living in our new to us home for 6 months, we tired of the occasional water intrusion in the basement. When we first moved in a previous homeowner was well on his way to finishing 1/3 of the basement as a family room. Stud walls up, electrical boxes in place and some wire run, and to top it off he layed a plywood floor glued and screwed down. All of this was done without fixing the leaks in the basement poured foundation walls and floor.

So we had B-dry come in and install their "system". If you were every wondering what they do, the bury a plastic gutter looking chanel next to the footer of basement walls, hanging sheeting on basement walls, and then either direct the capture water into a sump pump, or gravity drain it out of your house.

We have gravity drain at our house. We also have a sump pump, which is not their primarily to remove water, it's their as part of their fancy fresh air system, where they suck air from the chanels they installed, air from the basement via a drain and blow it out of your house. The replaced air comes from upstairs.

Here are the pics....

First day's destruction

harleysilo

2nd days work....

Note: AFter first day, I completed the demo work removing the remaining studs and walls they did not remove b/c not neccessary to get their job done....

harleysilo

So to have 2/3rd of the basement done was $11500 with the fresh air environment thing, $8000 for just the waterproofing system, 10% off if we did it immediately. For $500 we could have them "stub up" for the fresh air system so in the future when we decide we want it, it would be easier to install.....

So we did that, turns out the "stub up" is basically the whole system minus a little pipe, an exhaust fan. So as you can imagine, for $3500, i won't be having them install that, i'll most likely do it myself once I get some more info out of them.....

The fresh air thingy is supposed to reduce radon to less than required amount, reduce humidy to below 55%, exchange air 6-10 times a day in basement thus reducing odors and mold etc. It pulls air through the channel that runs along perimeter so it's suppossed to dry all that out etc.

So i guess i need to figure out how many cubic feet of air would be in my basement, then figure out what fan I would need to remove that 6-10 in 24 hours.

My concerns with this which I will address with the sales man are

so fresh air comes in from where exactly? Leaks around windows and doors upstairs? Through my attic? So in summer hot humid air is being drawn into my cool AC'd main level and down into basement. Do i now have issues with condensation in my walls or around my windows and doors?