To give you an idea of what your basement could look like, we would like to showcase one of our favorite custom basement remodels. This project incorporated a custom designed bar area complete with custom cabinetry, wet bar, refrigerator and convection oven with plenty of counter space for mixing and serving food and beverages.

What really makes this space special is the wine cellar. When we create custom basement remodels for homeowners, we really want to make sure the space reflects their personal passions.

In this particular case, the homeowner’s love for wine led to us designing and building a custom wine cellar. The wine racks were designed to store the couple’s extensive wine collection, along with beautiful granite countertops for displaying and tasting when entertaining guests. This fully furnished basement den will allow the couple to entertain both family and friends for years to come.

If you are looking to create the perfect basement area in your home, please feel free to give RIGGS a call today. We offer superior design, planning and remodeling solutions that are second to none. Drop us a line or visit us online 24/7 at www.riggscompanystl.com

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St. Louis is known for its elastic soil and that is where the problems start.  The soil has a heavy concentration of clay that absorbs moisture and swells then dries out and shrinks throughout the year.  Usually, in the winter and spring it swells tight against the foundation walls and in the summer and early fall it dries out and pulls away.  This same process is what causes your patios and sidewalks to rise and fall with the seasons.  Once the clay has absorbed all it can, the remaining water will push through the cracks that have formed in your foundation due to the tremendous force of the swollen clay.  In the summer, when things normally dry up and the clay is moved away from the foundation, the moisture can run right down the foundation wall and find its way into those same cracks much easier than it can be absorbed by the clay!  It’s a loose, loose situation!

Foundation cracks can be sealed using epoxy injection and there are number of qualified companies that specialize in that area.  Unfortunately, moisture will find another way in.  It can enter through the seam between the footing and foundation and work its way through the joint at the floor or is will travel to the first available crack in the concrete floor itself.  If that doesn’t work, it will form new foundation cracks to find a way in.

It sounds like I’m equating moisture with some evil alien that is bound and determined to invade your home!  That is how you should feel, because once water has infiltrated your finished basement there are a number of serious consequences.  First and foremost is ruined carpet and personal property but what goes on behind the walls is far worse.  Moisture is absorbed by the wood framing, insulation and drywall and that can mean an expensive repair.  Drywall has to come off, insulation has to be replaced and many times, the wood is rotten and has to be replaced.  With all of that, the mold and mildew can be the biggest headache.  Although easy to eradicate with a double dosing of half bleach, half water, the smell of a wet basement due to mold and mildew can be hard to get rid of.  It’s important to go much further each side of a leak than you would imagine because the water will travel a long distance along the inside of the wall before it shows up on the outside.  Most homeowners and many remodeling contractors may not realize just how far it can travel and they repair just the immediate area.  Two weeks later, the smell is still there and no one can figure out why!

There is a solution to this challenge and it’s expensive but worth every dollar spent.  An interior drain tile system with a sump pump will solve all moisture infiltration in your finished basement.  The better new home builders are putting them in before the basement floor is poured and that’s a plus.  Older homes don’t have them which means breaking out the floor and digging down to the bottom of the footing, about 18” from the wall, around the entire perimeter of the basement.  A layer of rock is then put in the trench followed by a sleeved, perforated drain tile then more rock.  The drain tile is terminated at both ends into a sump basket that is set in a large hole and rocked in place even with the top of the basement floor.  Then concrete is poured into the trench and around the basket and finished at the same level as the old floor.  Then a sump pump is placed in the basket and piped to the exterior of the home.  Along with the drain tile, there is a product called cove base that goes between the floor and the wall that allows any moisture running down the wall to go into the drain tile instead of on to the floor.   We at RIGGS Company & Design recommend a dedicated circuit for the pump and a battery backup just in case the electricity goes out during a storm; when you might need that sump pump more than ever!

With a properly installed drain tile system and epoxy injection of existing foundation cracks, you can be 99% sure that moisture will not ruin your newly remodeled basement.  Just remember that uninvited water in your home is the evil alien that can destroy your most cherished possession, your home.

The post Basement Renovation Challenges – Moisture appeared first on RIGGS Company in St. Louis, MO.

One of my favorite projects was finishing a basement for my friends and neighbors.  I learned how to do a little bit of every trade.  Plumbing, electric, drywall taping, HVAC; you name it.  Finished basements included all of it.  It was warm in the winter and cool in the summer so working conditions were ideal.

With today’s new ordinances and codes, finished basements aren’t so easy anymore. In fact, most would be almost impossible for me to accomplish on a “weekends only” schedule.  The biggest challenge is egress, or means of escape, from the basement in case of an emergency such as fire.  It’s a very good change in the codes but often a costly one.  An egress other than the basement stairs can be a life saver.  If there is a bedroom or bathroom in the basement, a second egress is required by code.  In a full basement that means you have to dig out an area outside your foundation big enough to put in a window no more than 42” off the floor and big enough to allow a firefighter in full gear to get in or someone on the inside to get out.  Once that area is established the 8” thick concrete wall has to be cut away to install this window and the opening above has to be reinforced to carry the load of the floor, wall and roof.

Now that the opening is in and properly engineered you wind up with a big hole in the ground alongside your foundation!  Fortunately there are a number of products made just for that hole.  Our pick here at RIGGS Company & Design is “Scapewel” (www.scapewel.com) made by Bilco Corporation.  It is designed to secure against the foundation, provide the required steps to climb out of the unit and even comes with an optional cover that can be unlatched from inside or out.  The recommended installation includes digging the hole much bigger than the unit and placing clean rock under and around it and a drain pipe out the bottom to allow for drainage.  The challenge to the drainpipe is how far it may have to go before it comes out in a lower spot than the bottom of the well or into an exterior drain tile at the foundation’s footing.  On many properties there is no such low area or drain tile and it’s against the rules to pipe it into a waste or floor drain inside the house (Often called a “French Drain”).

The only solution then is a sump pump system that will pump the water out of the well and onto the ground where is slopes away from the house.  If it’s in the well, you have to run a waterproof, G.F.C.I. outlet on a separate circuit that has to come from within the house in conduit, through the concrete wall and attached to the Scapewel or foundation wall.  Of course, a battery backup is highly recommended because the one time the sump pump is needed most is during that huge rain storm the knocks out electric in your neighborhood!  Even an exterior sump pump is not a perfect solution.  The winter around here can be severe and water will freeze solid and expand enough to burst pipes and/or pumps.  Timing is everything when it comes to pulling out and putting in your pump so it lasts for more than one season.  If you pull it too early you can get an early winter rain that fills your well and if you put it in too late in the spring, it will flood then as well.

The final solution is to run the drain inside your house into an interior sump pump system that then pumps it back outside.  This method is the best but even it has its problems.  The penetration of the foundation for the pipe has to be sealed very well or you’ll have leaks on the inside of the basement and if the pump malfunctions the chances are you’ll have water all over the floor!  This method means breaking out the concrete floor and setting up the sump basket with gravel all around it and then patching in the concrete.  An outlet still has to be run for the pump and it really should be on a separate circuit.

We started installing egress windows in basements using “Scapewel” some years back and it takes a lot of expertise, time and hard labor.  It’s expensive but it will be worth the investment if a fire blocks the stairs to the main level of the house.

Next up is why we absolutely, positively won’t finish a basement without installing a full drain tile and sump system along the interior perimeter of the foundation.

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