To say that the soil here is compacted clay with drainage issues, is well, just being polite. What I have is a drainage nightmare. Though the sycamore tree, planted above the septic tank, and a little too near the house seems to love it. It sends out roots at an alarming rate, all heading under the house, where the moisture lives, sweats, and rots my house. I swear sycamores must be aggressive rooters. Why? Because I just dug up all the roots on the southwest side of the house and then haven't done anything out there for the past few weeks while I work on the walls in the bedroom. Today I went out to even the dirt out and grade it away from the house more evenly. When I dug I hit more roots. Where did these come from? Are they new? And the glass! Oh the glass! I've never seen so much glass! It's like people where throwing bottles at the house at one point. And nails, and all kinds of crap. Wow, can we say flip? What I need is a tiller, and mix in some sand and loam, to increase drainage. Hopefully this will help with the moisture issues with the house. Of course what the house needs is a dry crawl space. But with the vermiculite in the attic, we might not being staying here too much longer. Sad really.
Oh, so I was spray foaming a hole in the exterior wall where moisture and termites where getting in. I decided to check out the furnace house to see if it needed any ago sealing. Of course it does, all over. I got a closer look at where the duct work enters the crawl space. Looks like when they added the HVAC system 30 years ago, they just cut 2 rectangles out of the house and didn't seal those opening. OMG, this can't be good. There's a cold draft coming from under the cabinets on that side of the house where the furnace house butts up against the main house. As if having a separate house for a furnace isn't strange enough. I might need to get some foam board and close that up. But what is the draft? Is it from that opening? You'd think the furnace house would keep it warm. I can only imagine what critters have gained entry from those places. The cat goes right in when you open the door. She knows. There's lots of goodies to catch in the crawl space. Yuck. Lots of mouse poop on top of the furnace too. Great. But my kitty, she catches a mouse or rat or bird a day, so look out.
Also, another factor, which is good for farming, if I ever get to it, but not good for the house, it rains a lot here, it's one of the rainier spots in Georgia according to my USDA precipitation map.
I need to install some gutters, a rain barrel or two, maybe a drainage ditch with gravel around the house complete with drainage tubing, a real crawl space door, or maybe I'll open it up and let the kitty get in there and clean house, or crawl space if you will. I also need soffit vents, I really should have made the seller install them, now that I know what a mess it will be for me to do it. Vermiculite everywhere. Now I know why he didn't do or the mythical "roofer".
It's always something. Grandma was right, as always, renting is easier.
No comments:
Post a Comment