Today's project - dig a basement door

California

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My Yanmar is the greatest toy - er - tool! :)

I started this new project tonight after dinner and quit at dark - the photos are 'hot off the press'.

Basement access on this old farmhouse was made difficult by a sunporch addition years ago. The basement is excellent for storage of fresh-picked fruit, but the tortuous access with only 4ft headroom between the sunporch and a concrete walk had made it difficult to get the fruit in and out.

After cleaning a few trailerloads of junk out of the basement I got to looking at the post-and-pier foundation. I found one span that isn't crisscrossed by bracing. I realized the driveway is just outside - and its lower than the house, so a new access door there is feasible. I don't know why a door wasn't put there originally.

Measure, cut, dig. Presto - new access! In a day or so I'll add a door and some concrete to stabilize the piers.

The photos show my view from the backhoe seat, and the project underway.

As for the tractor: Aint she purty! As I've noted before, my focus in this Yanmar is the projects I can do with it, rather than the tractor itself. Nothing ever breaks. Scheduled maintenance is cheap and simple. I just bring it a jug of diesel a few times a year and get on with my projects. There's nothing to improve, Yanmar got it right years ago.

I know, Mark, I should take it all apart and paint it and everything - but it's too much fun to just run it!
 
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Mark777

Member
Cool project California. Hope you keep us updated on how it turns out!

(Man do I like that back hoe attachment)
 

Mith

Active member
Oh to have a backhoe :D You're getting your monies worth from it already :D

How are you going to stop water going in the basement, or how are you going to let it out?
 

California

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Mith, I have 5ft elevation difference between the basement 'ceiling' (joists) and the driveway 10 ft away, so I'm going to make a path that slopes away from the new door. I will also make a sill to step over at the doorway. Then put an intermediate step down, just inside the door, to reach the basement floor. Going in will still be a duck and step down process but far better than via the double doors you see in the second photo. (You step up 12 inches onto a slab inside those doors. And the slab was used as the porch foundation so it can't be altered.)

My design will avoid water draining in and just as important, the sill will reinforce the pier blocks that I'm undermining by this excavation.

The photos show how the land slopes away from the house. One to plan the project, and the other one is from 2003 when I just bought the tractor.

And as you can see this is an old simple farmhouse. Dad said he expected the house to last about as long as he did, and advised me to bulldoze and start over. I may someday -presently disintegration and repair are about a standoff.
 
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