Basement Wall: Cement Work and Cleanup

Long day today! We got up early (circa 8:30 AM), and headed out to Home Depot to buy a ton of supplies. Then, we stopped off in Logan Square for an early brunch. Then stopped to get bun veggies. And then home.

All said and done, we got suited up to work outside and began actually working closer to 1PM.

We learned one of our neighbors was having people over at 2PM, so we had to hurry up and do some loud/dusty work (to try to get it in before their guests arrived).

One big challenge: this section of concrete on the side of the house, that protrudes a lot. We have a special bit that Bob recommended, and after some trial and error… we were able to make some (slow) headway.

It’s a decent amount of concrete to whittle down. And while we consider ourselves veterans around a demo hammer, this particular task seems like it requires a lighter touch.

Liz and I switched off a lot. And we made some ok progress, but still have a lot of material left to remove. Things got a bit better for me, once I stopped trying to put a ton of pressure/muscle into the wall and just let the tool do its job.

Liz, suited up to do a bit more grinding/smoothing work.

A fun moment: I was working on the wall when I felt a slight stinging on my arms. After a second or two, I realized it was debris raining down on me from above, where Liz was grinding down the wall’s exterior.

A bit later, we switched to slightly quieter tasks (to avoid bothering our neighbors). Liz mixed up a lot of Quikwall, to patch some areas all along the interior. A slight throwback/reminder to our days, shoring up the interior basement walls.

While she was doing this, I backfilled some spots with soil (leaving a bit of block exposed, so that we can throw on an extra coat of Drylok on the exterior).

I ended up clearing a lot of old brick that had just built into a pile, next to our basement stairs. Separated out the ones that might be usable and threw the rest in another pile. Also relocated a lot of brick and lumber that was sitting on the back porch, clearing up a bit more space.

Super long day today. And fast, given that we didn’t get started until 1PM. By the time we stopped, it was close to 5:30 PM and both Liz and I were pretty wiped out.

A solid house day, despite a late start.

Related:
Basement Wall, Interior Cleanup
Block Wall Construction, Day 3