Hi I have found that there is a hole in the basement floor! Please see the video below. Before I bought the house I saw water leakage in that corner, so now I am thinking they did that hole to fix something! not sure really.
My question, with what i should fill that hole? I am thinking to buy sands, or you think I should do something else?
Thanks a lot.
Hi I have found that there is a hole in the basement floor! Please see the video below. Before I bought the house I saw water leakage in that corner, so now I am thinking they did that hole to fix something! not sure really.
My question, with what i should fill that hole? I am thinking to buy sands, or you think I should do something else?
Thanks a lot.
Leza Did you buy this house without first seeing it? There seems to be to many things wrong with it?WW
That hole was put there for a reason so it would be good to find out why before you fill it in. There may have been a leak and the previous owner made the hold to act as a drain field or a sump. It may have been to access sewer pips running around there, as to repair a leak. Or is may have been a hiding place for gold.
Is the hole dry? If so, you can fill it easily. If the hole wet? If so, you want to find the reason and stop it before filling the hole.
If you are sure you want it filled, you can use any combination of rocks, dirt, sand. Bring it in a bucket at a time.
Sounds like a house a friend bought. She bought the house up in cottage country because it was cheap. It was sold as a "4 season" home and it has no foundation(sitting on concrete blocks) and no insulation in the floors. In March when she bought it, everything was level - the roof ridge was straight, and all doors and windows operated. Throughout the winter the ridgepole was up to 8 inches out of line and most windows would not operate. By March it was straight again - but the heating bill for the winter was about $2000. There were all kinds of electrical issues and plumbing issues. Now she can't afford to keep living in it - so she needs to sell it. Good luck.
People who don't know about houses shopuldn't buy them without the assistance of someone who does. ( same goes for buying used cars, as far as that goes)
e video below. Before I bought the house I saw water leakage in that corner , so now I am thinking they did that hole to fix something! not sure really . My question, with what i should fill that hole? I am thinking to buy sand s, or you think I should do something else? Thanks a lot.
Leza,
Are there any pipes or any anything inside the hole, that look as though th ey might connect to somethintg else, like it is part of a perimeter drain s ystem? Does water come up in the hole when it rains? Is the window in the picture right at ground level like your laundry room window? Is it on the same side of the house as the laundry room window?
The floor is what material and how thick ?
Greg
Hi, Are you in Toronto? which part of the city? I used to live in Scarboro, left Ontario in the spring of 1970 on a company transfer. How big is the hole? Maybe it is a drain pit? Then you should remedy the leak problem first. If you bought that house, have you used the service of house inspector?
Hmmm, A expensive lesson. I never lived in a pre-owned house. Wife designed house. I had it built after getting her design OK'd from pros and local building permit dept.
But only in the basement and maybe the patio. Walking down the stairs** I was impressed at how much nicer the stairs looked than the basement. Not everyone's basement is at all "finished".
**I like that btw. You had lost the Hitchcock touch in many of your videos, but this one defintely had it. By the time you got to the bottom of the stairs I was scared to death. When you backed out of the stairwell, I was sure someone was going to grab you. Did you post this video, or was it your kidnapper? And what does he want to release you?
I thnk the kidnapper was looking for the gold. Probably found it and that's why the hole is empty. The OP probably came home early and that's why he snatched her too.
Rocks tend to be free, and they make the filling go quickly, except for spaces between the rocks. But they might be harder to remove when you want to get your gold.
Agree. And she has no experience with the house in various conditions, ie like after heavy rains for 4 days. Maybe it fills with water for all we know.
There is a *lot* wrong with this house. Best advice I can give is that she needs to find a competent home inspector and get the whole house inspected to find out the extent of everything that is wrong. It doesn't make sense to be fixing one thing here, one thing there, only to find out a year later that there are very serious problems that require a tear-out of all the work you'be just done to fix correctly. The few things she has found already could be just the start.
And for an example of how you could wind up doing work for nothing, there is the basement window example. Apparently she removed pavers and poured concrete right up to the window. Two things wrong there. First, it was apparently graded the wrong way. Second, by pouring a slab instead of pavers, the water has no place to go and is brought right to the window to pour into the basement.
She needs a complete home inspection, which should have been done before purchase. There is no way of knowing what all is wrong and it could be tens of thousands of dollars of trouble here.
There are probably a few things "out of the ordinary" with your house, but if you take a good look at any old house you will find a few things "out of the ordinary." If it were antique furniture the term would be "patina." The thing about patina is you leave it alone or the antique will lose value. Think of your house the same way.
The hole has been there for some time. It was put there for a reason. Until you can find out the reason, leave things alone. If it is a drain then let it drain or find the leak and repair it. Some problems are minor and can be lived with, some have to be fixed. You can't fix a problem until you know what the problem is.
See what happens after a heavy rainfall. Keep an eye on things for a few days or weeks.
Out of curiosity, how did you find the hole to begin with. It looks like you tore up the floor to find it?
LdB
I would leave the hole as is till you know what its supposed to do......
I think it's hard to tell exactly what the hole is for or how it got there.
I assume that the landing where the hole is located is at the same level as the rest of the basement floor. right? In other words, after you go through that door at the bottom of the stairway, there are no more steps going down from there, right?
So far, it does look like someone broke out the original concrete basement floor in that area and dug out a hole down along the foundation wall footing. Your video didn't show what it looks like inside the hole if you look toward where the steps are. Is there a dirt wall there or something else there, or does the opening go further along the side wall under the steps?
And, maybe you can do a little video or photo of that window from the outside. Maybe that is or was a problem area where water was getting in which caused the water leak in that area that you saw before. It might be the same deal -- the ground not being graded away from the house to allow water to run off away from the house rather than into the foundation wall.
I also agree with the others that you should wait for some heavy rains and see what happens with the hole open.
Some of you guys can be a real downer when she's still in the middle of fixing things. Are you trying to break her spirit? You don't know what the rest of the house looks like, what she paid, or how much money she has. I've long noticed in this group and others that some people write like everything can be fixed with money and everyone has enough money to do so. It's not true. Many people have to put up with things far less than perfect because they don't have as much money as others do.
Good for you Tony. Not everyone has the good fortune of being able to not having to buy used. Since you never had to buy a pre-owned house, you haven't any experience with them. Probably time for you to shut your trap.
I had the same thing happen once, I'd bought some fence post holes on sale and stored them in the basement, mice chewed a hole in the package and they leaked on the floor.
Thanks for your reply. Today was heavy rain and I did not see water goes to that hole. That wall has been dry. I put some cement from the outside and that might helped to push the water away not sure!
The laminate floor in that area was not firm and moving so I decided to re-seat them and that is how i found the whole. the previous owner did put a cement block in that hole, i guess just for safety if someone press that area and his/her leg go inside.
Yes Tom, you are right, the floor in the same level there is no more stairs . Yes the window there has exactly the same issue. It is level with the gro und. What is inside the whole, I see stones around the hole and dirt/sand i n the ground. I will take another video shortly. Thanks a lot once again.
Thanks a lot Micky, really appreciate it.
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