Hi. I am currently getting estimates for a Radon removal system and was hoping someone here in BT can help me with dealing with these grooves in my basement floor. Can anyone help me identify what these are exactly? I believe they are drain grooves in the floor of my basement but they seem oddly placed.
As shown in the pics in one corner of my basement near the sump, I have an open wall-to-floor joint filled with gravel. This open joint runs for about 8 feet out from the corner on both walls and then it stops. There are also holes drilled into the very bottom course of the cinder blocks inside the groove. This open joint only exists in one corner of my basement.
Then that other groove, spaced about 12″ away from the wall, runs parallel to that wall for its entire length. There are no other features like this anywhere else in the basement. Although it looks like somebody smoothly cemented over all around the room at the floor to wall corner joint a long time ago perhaps at the time of constructing the building in 1983 (except of course near the sump). I do get occasional water leakage into the room when we have heavy heavy rains but it isn’t much.
If I’m going to be installing a sub-slab vacuum system for the Radon removal, how do I deal/seal these grooves up without compromising their usefulness as drains?
Thanks to all in advance. I live in PA just west of Philly.
Replies
Didn't you post on this subject a while ago? Anyway, If you are installing a sub-slab vacuum system for the Radon removal you shouldn't have to do anything else.
Once you get the system installed your radon should be gone.
It looks to me like everything inside the green lines is new concrete.
And either there is now, or there used to be, plumbing of some sort, under the gravel in the blue lines.
I'm guessing there was a plumbing repair in the past, where the blue lines were cut to get to the pipe. Or to put a new pipe in.
And the area inside the green was all broken out, then re-poured.
Why they left the new concrete shy of the wall, I have no idea.
Clean the gravel out of the trench between the plue lines, down to a depth of maybe three inches. Then clean out the groove along the floor/wall junction.
Then fill both with hydraulic cement for a pretty good seal.
Life is what happens when you would rather be finishing your own house.
Oh that's real smart, Luka.Leaving out the attachment.;o)
Life is what happens when you would rather be finishing your own house.
I had a house in Pa, Montgomery Co. to be exact. Radon too.
The perimeter is a drain for the sump pump..floating slab its called there. I had radon abatement done too, in order to sell the house. Jeeze, after I worked for yrs. in the basement w/out anything.
They seemed to have done two things there, one, filled the drain grooves elsewhere ( maybe to help with the venting and block radon from the edges) and the drilled holes may be from a termite treatment.
You're not on Upper Ridge RD in Pennsburg by any chance? LOL Could be my old house!
Nothing to worry about, thats what they do to get the vent sys to work.
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
"Welcome to Poo-ville, can I have your socks?
Seriously Folks, I need a home for 3 lovers of your life.
Hey Sphere, spent part of my youth in Montgomery County, Audubon precisely. When were you there? Rich
Born in Norristown in '60. Lived in Lansdale area from '65-'71 , Quakertown '71-'78. Various places in and around Lehigh Co, Bucks Co and Montgomery after that..left Pa in '94. NC till 2003..then here to Ky.
Audubon used to be nice and upscale..have not been back lately, but am going to Lansdale next month..see my Mom and my daughter.Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
"Welcome to Poo-ville, can I have your socks?Seriously Folks, I need a home for 3 lovers of your life.
I'm thinking we were there from '62 to '69. Not a long time , but it was great. My two older brothers and I would get out on our bikes and be gone all day. Lots of woods to play in. My favorite was the Audubon wildlife sanctuary, on the Perkiomen river, lots of trails and old mines.
Can't be much fun these days being a kid, everyones afraid to let 'em out of sight.
Thanks to all who replied. I'm out near Downingtown PA in Chester County by the way.
The radon guy siad he was going to fill the groove that's away from the wall with cement and the other one near the sump will just be covered with closed cell foam since that one does get actively wet every now and then.+-
I agree with Dinosaur, don't fill the groove, it channels water to the sump pit, fill it or close it and the floor will get wetter than it has.Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
"Welcome to Poo-ville, can I have your socks?Seriously Folks, I need a home for 3 lovers of your life.
how about that. some good friends of ours live on Old Plains Road.
do ya remember that one ?
carpenter in transition
Hell yeah. The dirt part ? ( well it WAS, back then). OP Crosses 663 and comes out near Carvers Hill Rd, IIRC.
I lived on Upper Ridge just before Geryville Pike intersection, almost in Greenlane but the addy was Pennsburg.Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
"Welcome to Poo-ville, can I have your socks?Seriously Folks, I need a home for 3 lovers of your life.
it's sort of chipped asphalt now.
they are waaay back in on 35+ acres.
carpenter in transition
I graduated from Qtown in '78. Had some kids on the bus from over there..I might know of them. I remember the Mann's live on the CarversHill end intersection, and some folks back in around Fels and Fennel rds. Geeze, that was a LONG time ago.Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
"Welcome to Poo-ville, can I have your socks?Seriously Folks, I need a home for 3 lovers of your life.
The separation between the slab and the cinderblock wall should not be touched. That's there so that any water which does get inside the basement will find an easy way out. If you seal it up, you would be creating a potential swimming pool. Leave it as is. An under-the-slab vaccuum system will suck air down through it but that won't compromise its function of sucking out below-slab radon. Might even help by adding a bit of 'flow-through' ventilation. (You're not gonna get a slab-wall joint airtight anyway, not without a lot of work and expense.)
The other groove looks like it once contained a pipe. If you want to fill that one, it probably won't bother drainage.
Dinosaur
How now, Mighty Sauron, that thou art not brought
low by this? For thine evil pales before that which
foolish men call Justice....