People often asked me, “What was your favorite kitchen/bath remodeling project”?  I think they are always surprised by my answer because it isn’t about the biggest, fanciest or most costly job I’ve ever done but a decent sized kitchen project we did back in 1998.  That was when I realized the value of a good kitchen and bath designer.  Becky Fisk did the design for us and she turned a very average kitchen/breakfast room space into my client’s dream of work space efficiency and beauty.

The house was average in size and appearance but the people who lived there were anything but!  Becky and my clients hit it off immediately because Becky was smart enough to listen to what they wanted instead of coming in with pre-conceived notions of what she thought they would want and afford.  She also realized the husband was just as involved as the wife in the planning of the kitchen and he loved to cook as well!

What took place over the next few weeks was absolute magic!  My clients had a good idea of what they wanted and were able to communicate that to Becky.  Becky was tuned in to them so their dreams and her imagination and knowledge flowed together to create the best kitchen layout I’ve ever seen.  It was full of creative ideas and little amenities that would make any homeowner/chef gush with excitement.

Have you ever been to a party where everyone was gathered in the kitchen standing around talking and the host(ess) had to shoo everyone out so they could prepare hors d’oeuvres?  The working space in this kitchen was integral to the rest of the kitchen and the kitchen was integral to the main living space on the first floor.  No matter where you were during their parties, you were connected to the kitchen and as the host(ess) you got to enjoy the party because you were right in the middle of it!

What made this kitchen so special were the island cabinets that created a “barrier” around the working space yet still invited people in.  While working in the kitchen, the cook could still be involved in the rest of the living area yet be free to stay within the working kitchen.  There were many more cabinets along the perimeter of the kitchen and the refrigerator was right along the edge of the “barrier” so it was accessible to the cook and everyone else.  The curved island has a bar top counter with stools for socializing and eating and there is a large breakfast table as well.  The entire layout is comfortable and inviting for everyone.  It has all the right features such as a hanging pot rack and double ovens, yet for the person doing the cooking everything is at their fingertips.

Of course, having such wonderful clients makes any project more enjoyable and we’ve certainly had our share of them.  We’ve since updated the tops, fixtures and appliances in this kitchen but the cabinets are classic and timeless so this kitchen collaboration between Riggs Construction & Design, Becky Fisk and our clients will be enjoyed for many years.

Tom Kitchen Remodeling, remodeling

Every year, Remodeling Magazine conducts a very thorough nation wide poll on the cost verses value of various renovations in your home.  They then dedicate nearly an entire issue to report the research.  Riggs Construction & Design is one of the companies that they ask to participate in this poll every year.

It’s a very comprehensive report that breaks down geographic areas and three “grades” (high, medium and low end) for each renovation.  When it comes to bathroom remodeling, however, the reader should recognize the wide range of scope and scale.  So to put an average price tag, even in three ranges, seems impossible.

A bath renovation can be as simple as re-grouting and caulking the tile in the tub area that takes a few hours and minimal materials, to adding a master bath suite complete with multiple body sprays in the walk-in shower and a mini kitchenette that will enable you to prepare breakfast.  You never have to leave the sanctity of your master bedroom suite until it’s time to leave the house.  That can run into six figures in a heartbeat!

So when Remodeling Magazine’s questionnaire asks the question “how much?”, I’m never sure what to answer.  It’s like asking how much a car cost.  Is it a Ford or a Lamborghini?

We at Riggs have designed and built plenty of both but the norm is somewhere in the middle.  The challenges in bath renovation are multiplied by the materials and trades needed for a bath renovation.  If the renovation is internal you won’t need roofing, siding or concrete but every other trade is incorporated and it’s all in small packages that require much more time per square foot to install.  For instance, a drywall contractor has to make four trips to hang, tape and sand his work but each trip is only one to three hours of work so all that travel time has to be accounted for.  Electric and plumbing can be the same problem.  Both trades have to make two trips, one for the “rough-in” before drywall and finishes and one at the very end.  The plumber may make a day out of the rough-in but the finish is about three hours and the electrician may only have three hours for his work each time.  That’s why a small bath renovation can seem so expensive even if you are looking for a Ford.

Some clients just want a fresh bathroom with re-grouted tile, a new vanity and top and updated electric including GFCI outlets and a better bath fan.  Others want everything to be new which entails stripping the room of all finishes including plaster and starting from scratch.  The biggest desire by most of our clients is the need for a larger bathroom with a tub and shower, in-floor heat and much larger vanities with two sinks and lots of counter space.

Space can be a challenge because most homes have a couple of bathrooms back to back and are your basic 5’ x 8’ “shotgun” bath that consists of a 30” vanity, 34” toilet space and a 32” wide tub.  To increase its size usually requires making a bedroom smaller, losing a closet or even less desirable, one of the two baths.  A closet and bathroom are valuable real estate in any home!   Of course, if you do increase the size you are now affecting other rooms which means drywall or plaster work, flooring, woodwork, painting and a host of other additional costs that aren’t really attributed to the envelope of the bathroom.

One popular solution that many clients find attractive is converting one of the baths into a three quarter or half bath and using the additional space in the other one.  That can increase the cost considerably because now you are doing two bath renovations but it’s what our clients want.  The “empty nesters” are willing to sacrifice an entire bathroom or even a bedroom to get the master bedroom/bath suite they have always dreamed of.  After years of child rearing, college tuitions and mortgage payments they now have discretionary income or savings that they can justify making their home into their castle.

Wherever you might fit into the spectrum of bath renovations, don’t get caught up in the “average cost” or what your friends paid for theirs because in most cases a bath renovation is customized to your home layout and your wants and desires.  My rule of thumb has always been: decide what you want, research all the options and pick a good design/build firm to work with you to realize those dreams.  This is true for a home maintenance agreement, bath renovation or adding a second floor, kitchen and whole house renovation.

Tom Bathroom Remodeling Bathroom Remodeling, cost versus value

Need verses Want Remodeling

When the great recession hit in 2007 -08, Riggs Construction & Design was rolling along with a nice annual revenue which represented about 50 jobs each year.  Maybe 30 of them were small jobs for past clients and friends of the company, and the rest were within a range of $50,000 to $400,000 each.  Just about every year, just two jobs would generate at least $1,000,000 in revenue.

Today, times have changed.  While I didn’t haul out the books to get exact numbers, 2009 brought a much larger number of jobs completed, but each with a smaller price tag.  Overall, we did about 80 jobs and it took our 6 largest jobs to reach the one million dollars mark.  We knew this last year was going to be down in volume and we expect next year to be as well so we were prepared for it and are doing quite well, thank you.  But it speaks volumes about what the remodeling indsutry is dealing with - and that is a need verses want mentality in the market place.

Three years ago people <i>wanted</i> a new kitchen blending into a family room addition with a master suite above.  Today, they <i>need</i> upgrades and repairs done.  It could be based on the need for new windows and more insulation to keep their utility bills down as opposed to wanting the latest and greatest style.  Whole house remodeling and additions were popular before the crash because people could stay in the neighborhood and still get what they wanted.  Now they are settling for scaled back projects like a new kitchen and a face lift in the powder room.  Many of our projects are repairing damage that is worse than it would have been if caught early.  But people are even deferring some projects like caulking, painting and weatherproofing until the damage becomes so obvious that something has to be done.

Some clients did choose to do large remodeling projects last year but as the numbers above suggest, they are fewer in number than I’ve seen in forty years.  I’ve seen some “slow” times before but never for this extended period of time and very few economic prognosticators are calling for this economic situation to end any time soon.

Moving towards a smaller scale, need-based project type calls for a different system of production for remodeling projects - and at Riggs we’ve responded to that shift well.   Our average sized job used to take a crew of three carpenters a month to get under roof.  Then, while the mechanical trades, drywall work, hardwood flooring and painters were getting it ready for our trim carpenters; our framing crew would be working outside on siding, exterior trim and a deck or other such structures. Although our Mission Statement and dedication to our clients hasn’t changed, we’ve learned to become much leaner and efficient on smaller projects. Now, many of our projects take one or two men a week to demo and make ready for the other trades and they are moving those trades in and out at a much faster rate.  A schedule for projects such as kitchens or bathrooms is much faster paced, but the same trades are needed as would be for a huge addition.

We have the same project managers and crew as we’ve always had and they have adjusted to this new type of work very well.  I think they all long for the bigger projects where they get the opportunity to form lasting relationships with our clients and all the trades aren’t piling on top of one another; but they know that need verses want remodeling is the driving force in the market and will be for some time to come.

Tom remodeling

A couple of weeks back I received a surprise visit from Jim Wright, the President of the Kirkwood - DesPeres Area Chamber of Commerce.  He poked his head into my office door and said, “Have you listened to your phone messages lately”?  I laughed and told him I was a lousy businessman when it came to remembering to check for messages.  He smiled and said, “I just came by to congratulate you on being named the Businessperson of the Year and you tell me you’re a lousy businessman.  How is that going to look”?

I was caught totally by surprise!  I was stunned, then honored and humbled, and I had a hard time believing Jim was telling me the truth.  All the men and women that I have admired flashed before my eyes.  I was now one of them.

I’ve been going to awards ceremonies of one kind or another, my whole life.  With the Cub Scouts, Jaycees, Church, Rotary, Chamber and all the other organizations I’ve been active in; it represents at least 150 “banquets” over the last 50 years.  There have been a few of these ceremonies where I have been the recipient of an award but mostly I sit and applaud as someone else steps up to be recognized by their peers.  I always think to myself, “Wow, what an honor.  I wish that were me going up there right now.”  But I would remind myself that it takes more than a wish to be recognized; it takes a commitment to doing something to the very best of your ability.  It means going “all in” with your time and effort so that you get the very best results.

I know this because of the people who have preceded me.  I’ve admired them for their dedication and commitment; their desire to do the right thing.  Without the examples they set, I would never have understood the importance of giving back or paying forward.  These people have been my unofficial mentors and by studying and learning from them, I guess some of their qualities have rubbed off on me.  I would not have known that the best way to run my life and my business is by doing the right thing, no matter what.  I would not have realized that we must contribute our time and resources for the betterment of others and that the more we give, the more fulfilling our lives become.

It’s difficult for me to believe that the tide has turned and now I’m the old guy that the younger generation is saying, “Gee, I wish that were me up there”.  Now that I have achieved this honor, I have the responsibility to pay it forward to those who may look to me as their mentor.  I have four children; my oldest two, Amie and Bill are with me every day as co-owners of Riggs Construction & Design and there is Maddie who is a nurse and Emmy who’s a freshman at Kirkwood High School.  I hope the good in me will rub off on them and the mistakes I’ve made will be forgiven.  I have three grandsons and one more on the way and I want to show them by example that doing the right thing, no matter what, is what integrity is.  And personal integrity is the path to true success in both their personal and business life.

Tom Life In General

Over the New Year’s weekend the furnace in our office stopped working and it was 37 degrees when I arrived this morning.  I knew it was on its last leg because it shut down last week and I had to do some emergency repairs to get it running again.  The sad fact is I didn’t want to spend the money on a new one; just yet.

It got me to thinking about our clients and what they must feel about the improvements they are making on their homes.  Most of what we do here at Riggs Construction & Design is work with homeowners on voluntary improvements to upgrade their home life and environment but there are a significant number of clients who call us because of something that has to be done.  Things like new shingles on the roof or an HVAC system that is so old they have concerns about it lasting through the winter.  Other concerns we run across are moisture infiltration and rotten exterior trim (sometimes one in the same).  These owners have to spend their hard earned dollars on something that we call, “the un-fun stuff” as opposed to a new bath, kitchen or master suite that they can truly enjoy day after day.

Some of those expensive “un-fun” repairs could have been avoided with a more aggressive maintenance program but life expectancy on shingles, mechanical equipment and other building products have to be taken into account when doing a yearly home budget. I mentioned earlier that I didn’t want to replace the furnace just yet.  Our year ends January 31st and since I didn’t have a new furnace in this year’s budget, I was trying to prolong its life just one more month.  I didn’t do what I say to do and it caught me rather flat footed and red in the face!

We offer a maintenance program to many of our clients that includes a checklist of things we do every six months.  Some are simple, like checking all the caulking around the house and walking the roof for possible damage to shingles and flashing.  Some are more complex like having the mechanical systems serviced but they are all geared toward preventing the “un-fun stuff” and keeping those products with life expectancies in top notch condition to stretch that life as far as possible.  The clients we do this maintenance program with feel that the small cost of yearly checkups is much better than what can happen if the roof leaks or the furnace goes out when it’s 4 degrees outside.

As I write this, our space heaters aren’t working very well to warm up our offices and Schraut Heating & Cooling is downstairs replacing the furnace.  I’m going to print out a copy of the spring and fall checklists that I insist our project managers take with them when they perform the maintenance program on our client’s homes.  Before I finish the 2010 budget, I’ll be going over that checklist on both my office and my home!

Tom Home Maintenance, remodeling

A few weeks back, most of us in the St. Louis remodeling community were surprised to hear a very prominent Remodelor closed their doors.  They were a firm that had deep roots in the community and a very fine reputation.  Specializing in high end projects, it wasn’t unusual to hear that they had a couple of million dollar projects going at the same time.  We will never know the entire story but it is known that they started a commercial remodeling division just prior to the start of the recession and it never truly got off the ground.  They also had two of those huge residential remodeling projects go south this year.  Then the phone just stopped ringing.  With the cash that was never recouped from the commercial division and the loss taken on the big projects, there wasn’t enough new business to generate cash flow.  The bank shut down the line of credit and the rest has been tragically well publicized.

From the bad things that happen to ourselves or others, we need to take notice and figure out what lessons we can learn.  Unfortunately, it usually takes something terrible to happen before we choose to look within and make some changes.  What happened to this remodeling company has been a common occurrence leading up to, and during, this recession.  They stepped outside of their expertise at the wrong time and they didn’t adapt their business model to reflect what was happening in today’s economy.

Taking risks is part of any successful business.  Expansion and/or diversification are healthy and help make small businesses become big ones.  It’s an excellent model for growth in America’s free market system.  But, for those that have the courage to take the risk, one must also have the wisdom to know when to pull the plug and accept that the gamble didn’t work.  Hope is part of the entrepreneurial spirit but when funds are being drained to keep that hope alive, courage of another sort must come to the surface.  The courage to say, “I was wrong, it’s time to stop the bleeding”.

Adaptation is the key to survival in today’s market.  What was once a successful business model a few years back might not work in today’s marketplace.  Remodeling companies that were set up to do large jobs had plenty of work when the economy was rolling but there are far fewer wealthy homeowners who are willing to spend large amounts of their cash on grandiose remodeling projects.  Even those who can afford it are downsizing their desires and focusing on what they need, then want, around their home.  Not recognizing this change in attitude and adapting your marketing, sales and production teams to focus on this, could be the difference between success and failure.  If you are known throughout your community for your “big expensive jobs” you won’t get the calls for the smaller ones without letting the market know you are the best company for those jobs as well.

Here at Riggs Construction & Design, our average size job in 2006 was somewhere around $200,000.  Over the last three years that average has dropped to $60,000.00.  The larger jobs in ’06 ran in the $700,000.00 range where as now, our larger jobs run in the $300,000.00 range.  We have adapted our systems to fit this change and are servicing each and every client as if they were a “big expensive job”.  What wasn’t done until our peer shuttered their door, was re-evaluating our place in the market for 2010.  We waited until something really bad happened to look inward and make some changes.

About the time you think you’ve got it figured out, you better look again.

Tom remodeling

Riggs Construction & Design turned 50 years old this month.  Amie, Bill and Lauren Kolbe of our PR firm, KolbeCo Marketing Resources, planned a celebration that had all the elements of a great party including great food from McArthur’s Bakery, wine, beer, games and raffles.  Best of all, we had a fantastic idea to raise money for breast cancer research.  Since it was our “golden” anniversary, we asked everyone to bring any gold jewelry that they could donate to the Young Women’s Breast Cancer Program at Siteman Cancer Center.  Jim & Martha Durbin from Durbin Jewelry here in Kirkwood were kind enough to spend their time collecting and evaluating what was brought in.  If course, it rained all day, the temperature was in the 40s and the plan was to hold the party outside!  Fortunately, they planned for all possibilities by setting up a tent with heaters and a direct connection to the office interiors so that our guests would stay dry and comfortable.  But would all our past clients, trade contractors, suppliers and other friends of the company come?  The weather conditions made that question even more doubtful.

Before I answer that question, let me give you a little inside story about a division within the company that this party created.  We have the “older” generation with me, Steve, Pam and Kathy whose parents grew up during the great depression and have lived through some pretty rough times ourselves and then we have the “youngsters” who have experienced a steady paycheck and boom times over the last 20 years.  That would be Bill, Amie, David and Brett.  Chris, our estimator is in between and I think he had some reservation but tried his best to be enthusiastic and encouraging.  The rest of the crew had their own opinions and I’m pretty sure what they were.

We old folks thought that not only was this party a waste of money, but no one likes coming to these things anyway!  How embarrassing it will be to hold a big party and have no one show up.  I wanted to say no to the party but in letting go of this company over the next few years, I have to let Bill and Amie make decisions and carry them out regardless of the outcome.  It’s the best way to teach them how to run this business.  In making mistakes and suffering the consequences we all learn the most enduring lessons.

Then, on the day of the party it started to rain and the temperature began to drop.  We said, “See, this is never going to be successful.”  They said, “Let’s party!”

Our guests started to trickle in at 4:00 PM; slowly…We were worried.  By 5:00 PM it started to get a little crowded and I saw past clients that I hadn’t seen in 5 years!  We were surprised.  By 6:00 the place was rocking!  Even clients we had done little repair jobs for showed up!  Our trade contractors, suppliers, fellow Rotarians and Chamber members were there.  Art McDonnell, the Mayor of Kirkwood gave us a proclamation making that day “Riggs Construction & Design Day”.  The wine ran out and Kathy ran out and bought more and she was happy.  The beer ran out and Pam went and bought more and she was happy.  The pile of gold kept getting bigger and bigger as did Jim and Martha’s smile.  More past and present clients kept showing up, some that I wouldn’t have guessed would take the time to come in a million years.  Even the food began to run out and McArthur’s brought enough to feed an army.

It rained all night.  It was cold, wet and miserable but people just kept coming.  Kathy, Pam, Steve and the rest of the old folks were amazed.  We were smiling and laughing and shaking our heads in disbelief. The youngsters just partied on.

We old folks happily admitted that we were wrong and I think we enjoyed the party more than anyone.

I didn’t know that crow would taste so sweet.

Tom Life In General, Uncategorized

My father began teaching me about managing time when I was about 5 years old.  He was very much from the old school of work hard, earn your keep and keep your mouth shut.  I vividly remember him stopping me in mid stride and asking, “Where are you going?”  I replied, “I’m going outside to play.”  He said, “Well, take something with you when you go.  Don’t ever go anywhere without thinking about what you could take with you to save a trip or what you should get done before you go.  Always be thinking two steps in front of where you are.  If you do that, you’ll never waste time or energy”.

I thought he was crazy!  I heard him say that same basic phrase at least a thousand times over the next 10 years and I still thought he was crazy.

It wasn’t until I went to work for him as a laborer that I really started to understand the importance of “keeping two steps ahead”.  He had me carry wall framing materials from the drop site onto the sub floor where the carpenters were going to build the outside walls of the house.  He took a red marker and drew lines on the floor and told me, “I want the wall studs right here and the plates right here. Put the sheathing right here and don’t let any of the lumber get outside these lines or I’ll make you do it again.  When you carry lumber in, stack it like I told you and when you go out for more, don’t go empty handed.  Grab some trash or debris and throw it in the dumpster.  You’ll note it’s right next to the lumber pile out there.”

I thought he was crazy!  All I was doing was stockpiling lumber for the carpenters.  What difference did it make if I stayed within his lines?

The next day, when the carpenters showed up, I got to help build those walls.  The foreman started laying them out and we started building them.  As we were working, it came to me that the subfloor was cleaned off so we weren’t stumbling over a bunch of junk that would slow us down. I also noticed my lumber pile wasn’t in the way of building any of the walls.  There was room to swing a hammer, raise them up and brace them off.  Not one stick of lumber had to be handled twice!

Maybe he wasn’t so crazy after all.

You see, his business depended on how well he managed his own time and how well the carpenters he employed managed their time.  He taught his men never to go anywhere empty handed and to make sure that every step they took was thought out far enough in advance that they wouldn’t work their way into a corner.  He would say to them, “Think first.  Think about the big picture, then think about the steps you need to get there.  If you do that, it will be right the first time, every time and you won’t have to work so hard.”

That is time management the old school way.

Tom Life In General, remodeling building, jobsite management, remodeling, time management

In previous posts about basement finishes we’ve talked about the challenges of egress and moisture.  There is one more design challenge - headroom.  If you live in an older home you are already aware of low basement ceilings and HVAC ductwork or bearing beams that are potential head bumpers.  The floor structure at the bottom of your stairs is another place you may have to duck or you wind up with a knot on the top of your head!

To maximize headroom and minimize the expense we at Riggs Construction & Design start a finished basement design by determining if we can give our clients the room they need and still build as much wall as possible directly underneath the bearing beams.  This not only covers the beam and columns but allows us to rout all the HVAC trunk lines on the unfinished side of the basement.

Other items such as electrical lines, A/C refrigerant lines and gas pipes can be covered by firing the joists down with a 2 x 2 before we hang drywall.  This will lower your ceiling by 2” but it is higher than a suspended ceiling and gives the room a much more finished look.  Remember that all electrical junction boxes and shutoff valves have to be left accessible so with a drywall ceiling and walls, you will have to put removable plates over the electric junctions and an access panel for shut off valves, meters, plumbing cleanouts or other items that need to be accessed.  Fortunately, these access panels are readily available at any supply house, are low profile and can be painted the same color as your walls or ceilings.

Basement stairs can be a bit of a challenge in older homes depending on how they are configured and what is above the bottom of the stairs.  The stair opening can be made longer thereby increasing the headroom and still not affect the floor above with some creative structural design.  In fact, the existing stair opening structure can be supported with new piers under the concrete floor so that the structural integrity is not compromised and it even furthers your options.  If you are lucky enough to have a closet on the first floor that is directly in line with the stair opening, that closet floor can be raised enough to allow you to build a new staircase with the proper tread depth and riser height and still leave you with enough headroom to meet codes.  No matter how nice your finished basement is, if it starts with a steep staircase where you have to duck to get down them, it will take away from the pleasure of using your new space.

Tom basement remodeling, remodeling finished basements, finished lower levels, remodeling

Moisture infiltration is the enemy of a finished basement.  If you plan to remodel your basement, the absolute first step is waterproofing your foundation.  It doesn’t matter where in the St. Louis area you are, but it seems like Kirkwood, Webster and the surrounding areas are the worst for old leaky basements.  A lot has to do with the age of the house and its foundation.  The old stone foundations are the toughest to waterproof but there are many concrete ones that are just as bad.

St. Louis is known for its elastic soil and that is where the problems start.  The soil has a heavy concentration of clay that absorbs moisture and swells then dries out and shrinks throughout the year.  Usually, in the winter and spring it swells tight against the foundation walls and in the summer and early fall it dries out and pulls away.  This same process is what causes your patios and sidewalks to rise and fall with the seasons.  Once the clay has absorbed all it can, the remaining water will push through the cracks that have formed in your foundation due to the tremendous force of the swollen clay.  In the summer, when things normally dry up and the clay is moved away from the foundation, the moisture can run right down the foundation wall and find its way into those same cracks much easier than it can be absorbed by the clay!  It’s a loose, loose situation!

Foundation cracks can be sealed using epoxy injection and there are number of qualified companies that specialize in that area.  Unfortunately, moisture will find another way in.  It can enter through the seam between the footing and foundation and work its way through the joint at the floor or is will travel to the first available crack in the concrete floor itself.  If that doesn’t work, it will form new foundation cracks to find a way in.

It sounds like I’m equating moisture with some evil alien that is bound and determined to invade your home!  That is how you should feel, because once water has infiltrated your finished basement there are a number of serious consequences.  First and foremost is ruined carpet and personal property but what goes on behind the walls is far worse.  Moisture is absorbed by the wood framing, insulation and drywall and that can mean an expensive repair.  Drywall has to come off, insulation has to be replaced and many times, the wood is rotten and has to be replaced.  With all of that, the mold and mildew can be the biggest headache.  Although easy to eradicate with a double dosing of half bleach, half water, the smell of a wet basement due to mold and mildew can be hard to get rid of.  It’s important to go much further each side of a leak than you would imagine because the water will travel a long distance along the inside of the wall before it shows up on the outside.  Most homeowners and many remodeling contractors may not realize just how far it can travel and they repair just the immediate area.  Two weeks later, the smell is still there and no one can figure out why!

There is a solution to this challenge and it’s expensive but worth every dollar spent.  An interior drain tile system with a sump pump will solve all moisture infiltration in your finished basement.  The better new home builders are putting them in before the basement floor is poured and that’s a plus.  Older homes don’t have them which means breaking out the floor and digging down to the bottom of the footing, about 18” from the wall, around the entire perimeter of the basement.  A layer of rock is then put in the trench followed by a sleeved, perforated drain tile then more rock.  The drain tile is terminated at both ends into a sump basket that is set in a large hole and rocked in place even with the top of the basement floor.  Then concrete is poured into the trench and around the basket and finished at the same level as the old floor.  Then a sump pump is placed in the basket and piped to the exterior of the home.  Along with the drain tile, there is a product called cove base that goes between the floor and the wall that allows any moisture running down the wall to go into the drain tile instead of on to the floor.   We at Riggs Construction & Design recommend a dedicated circuit for the pump and a battery backup just in case the electricity goes out during a storm; when you might need that sump pump more than ever!

With a properly installed drain tile system and epoxy injection of existing foundation cracks, you can be 99% sure that moisture will not ruin your newly remodeled basement.  Just remember that uninvited water in your home is the evil alien that can destroy your most cherished possession, your home.

Tom basement remodeling, remodeling basement remodeling, finished basements, moisture problems