Hello All,

I’m living in a very old house (70+) that is a teardown but hopefully I can keep it in good condition til it does meet the buldozer in 5 to 10 years.

The house has a 30 or 40 year old extention on it that became a separate apartment. Short story is part of it inside hallway is the old outdoor stairwell into the basement. Whoever did the intial work, placed a raised piece of plywood over the old concrete slab and carpeted over it. ( i couldn’t believe it!!) Open drain and all!.

Well the apartment never smelled very good and I see why. I cleaned everything up and waited for the minor moisture to dry up before I would figure out what to do. It snowed a good 4″ the other day and now it’s melting….into that hallway section and into the drain..( thankfully the drain still works!)

I can’t have an open drain in the middle of a hall that catches outside water!

I was initially going to seal the edges of the concrete, seal the drain and pour a couple inches on new concrete over it.

I’m not sure thats such a good idea now, seeing how much water is coming in.

My next idea is to bash out the 4’x4′ section of concrete, dig, add gravel and have the drain available under an all new concrete floor.

good or bad? Anything I should be paying aparticular attention to?

Thanks

Gerald