As some of you may or may not know, I'm having to "remodel" (or fix, depending on how you want to look at it) our basement. The unfortunate part is this is where my display/collection room is.

Earlier this summer we discovered ground water leaking in through the foundation of our house. Now, finally, this week the repairs are set to begin! We are also putting in an egress window at the same time, so we can at least "gain" a little something in the process.

Anyway, I thought I'd start a thread showing the various stages of the fix and the eventual "re-construction" of the display room. As I'm sure you may have guessed, this has been incredibly stressful and taxing. I'm just glad that there's light at the end of the tunnel now.

First up is a photo of the actual location of the leak. It's behind the panel and under the dark blue towel. This was where the Kenner portion of my display was located. Along with some of my pre-production items both vintage and modern.



Here's a shot of the room as it sits now. If you look on the west wall you can see the mildew and mold forming from all the water/moisture in the room.



And last here's a shot of the west wall. This is where the egress window is going.



I'll update some more during the week when there's something to see at least!

Chris,

i hope you caught it in time and nothing was damaged by the damp/water ingree.

Keep us updated on the progree - i cant wait to see the setup once it is complete.

Steve

Looks like a big pain, but hopefully it was caught early enough before damage was done to your collection. I look forward to seeing the progress of the updated room.

Chris

Sorry for your bad luck. The bright side is you've got a very interesting thread out of the deal. I can't wait to see updated pics of your display room. It's going to be like "This Old House" for Star Wars fans.

Good luck on the remodel!

Brad

I hope none of your collection was damaged by the leak Chris.

Can't wait to see the new & improved collection room!

Hi Chris
Sorry to hear about the water leak and fingers crossed your collection was okay.
Look forward to the new collection look
Tony

Good luck with the work Chris, ive had "major" works on my house before and its a pain in the arse with the mess and inconvienience, however it was well worth it when finished

Andy

I feel your pain Chris.

The basement in my house leaked and the basement in my sister's house leake's.

All i know We both had our's fixed.Mine was'nt as bad as my sister's and has'nt leaked since it was fixed over 10 year's ago.

My sister spent a fortune to fix her leaking problem's and even after all the work and money spent it still leak's a very little when a huge rain storm come's in.

It seem's like everyone with a basement will cross path's with a leak eventually.

Dan.

damn , that looks like my collection room

good luck with the reconstruction bro , i keep telling myself it will be wurth it in the end lol

not that it takes away the pain of not having your collectionroom , but hey , it will all be wurth it in the end

First update!

Yesterday they started construction on the egress window on the outside of the house. And with that, came a change in plans. It turns out, they don't have to cut the concrete on the inside of the house to fix the leak like they originally thought. When they were digging the hole for the window, the discovered a TON of ground water coming up from the bottom of the hole.

So now the plan is to install the sump pump on the outside of the house and pump the water from outside into the side yard. It's actually going to save us a lot of money too!

Here's some photos.

This is what the construction looks like from the side yard between my house and my neighbors house.



Here's one of the giant piles of dirt. The contractor told me it would be around 8 tons of dirt when it was all said and done.



And here's the hole for the egress window/sump pump. We figure it's about 8 feet deep. The concrete you see is the foundation of my house, and the footer that sticks out at the bottom. You'll also notice all the ground water.



Here's another shot of the hole. I wish I could have captured how big it is. It's at least 8 feet deep and around 10-12 feet long and probably around 6 feet from the house to the outer edge.

Chris,

may i suggest putting a time capsule in the hole before its filled over?

maybe a pic of you and your wife , copy of the days paper and maybe aven a loose figure, who knows in few hundred years it may be the last vintage left


Andy

Damn, that reminds me of when I used to do construction work. Looks like you have either an underground spring or your in a low lying area to have that much water sitting there. Are they going to pump more concrete in the hole to help stop the water from leaking in again? I know you said they are installing a pump, just curious if they are going to put 'crete for a base.

Chris_J wrote:

Damn, that reminds me of when I used to do construction work. Looks like you have either an underground spring or your in a low lying area to have that much water sitting there. Are they going to pump more concrete in the hole to help stop the water from leaking in again? I know you said they are installing a pump, just curious if they are going to put 'crete for a base.

Sort of. They are more or less creating a leech field. When we got home last night, they had the sump hole dug and the pipe and "tile" in. I think when it comes time to put the base of the window well in, they are going to use more rock than anything, just to help with the drainage.

BTW, I think it's just a ton of ground water in the area. We do sit at the bottom of a little hill too.

My first thought when i saw the digger was that Auggie/Brian Syra had turned up at Chris' house mistaking it for his magical kenner landfill dump!

Seriously,i hope you get your drainage problems sorted out quickly Chris!

DarthStanley wrote:

My first thought when i saw the digger was that Auggie/Brian Syra had turned up at Chris' house mistaking it for his magical kenner landfill dump!

Seriously,i hope you get your drainage problems sorted out quickly Chris!

That is HILARIOUS!!!!!

And actually, my wife and I are giving some serious thought to doing a time capsule type thing. We thought that was a fabulous idea! So thanks for that Geordie!

ya welcome mate , dont have to be nothing flash, i used an old biscuit tin few year ago before i had my last house extended, just made sure everything inside was in plastic bags and taped sealed shut in case of dare i say it........ any water getting in


Andy

The window went in yesterday! Construction is ALMOST done! In fact it should be finished up today for the most part.

Definitely going to need to invest in some UV filters for the window and some curtains. It's a LOT brighter down there now.

Long over due bump to this thread.

I've gone almost the entire summer without having any time to mess around in my display room. So finally, on Friday evening, I decided now was as good as time as any to get things moving in the right direction. I set up my loose figures in their case again! It was a treat to finally pull some stuff out of storage. Here's a pic of my loose case and if you look to the left of it, you can see what the new wall color is going to be!



While I was down there, I moved around some furniture and decided to take a couple of quick pics to show you all the progress and compare to them to the before pics.

This is the north wall of the display room.

BEFORE:



AFTER:




Here is the west wall. The before pic is really old. In fact it's one of the first pics I took right after we moved in. But it really didn't change that much (outside from being cleaned up) from this photo.

BEFORE:



AFTER:



I've got big plans for the room. It may not look like much now, but there's a lot of ideas rolling around in my head. It was just nice to start getting some things back in there.

Very nice Chris! I'm sure it was great to get your loose collection back up on display. Are those lights up at the top of the case? Just curious as to what you used as I haven't added anything like that to mine yet.

It looks like you've had your work cut out for you. I'm sure the display will be even better than before once its all finished.

Chris
What an exciting project setting up your own VSW room I could think of some great ideas if I had one but got to be satisfied with this little study which apparently I am lucky to have
Look forward to the updates
Tony

shawn_k wrote:

Very nice Chris! I'm sure it was great to get your loose collection back up on display. Are those lights up at the top of the case? Just curious as to what you used as I haven't added anything like that to mine yet.

It looks like you've had your work cut out for you. I'm sure the display will be even better than before once its all finished.

Yes, those are lights on the top of the case. I picked them up at Lowe's. They work great, although, I think I may need another one in there, to help brighten things up a bit.

I looked online at Lowes.com and couldn't find the EXACT ones I got. However, these are pretty close: LED Lights

Basically it's these with a whole block of lights instead of two per fixture. What I like about them is they cast a nice yellow hue light. Instead of the harsh white that LED's usually have.