It’s starting to get cold all over the Northern Hemisphere. Keep in mind that home improvement can be done year round, and you should be able to find home contractors that are available for work even during the coldest months of winter.

Basement, bathroom and kitchen remodeling, have become popular projects during the winter, as home owners continue to work on beautifying their home and improving their investment.

Below are five great projects and tips that any homeowner can accomplish during the winter months:

1. Roofing & Shingles:

Before it gets too cold, start by taking a look at your roof and gutters. Missing shingles could have cracks that will allow water in, and as water freezes, it expands making the crack bigger – which will eventually lead to leaks. Either replace the missing or broken shingles or hire a contractor to make the necessary repairs. Water coming in through the roof or side of the house is a lot cheaper if you catch it early.

2. Frozen pipes:

Insulation and flowing water are your two best defenses against pipes freezing.  If you have water lines running through a crawl space in the ceiling or running in the basement.  Make sure these lines are insulated or near some kind of heat source to keep them from freezing.  Water is the enemy of any home; and a broken line could release gallons of water before anyone realizes the line has broken.  Take the time to careful inspect and learn where all your water lines and shut off valves are.

3. Furnace tuning and inspection:
Most people don’t know anything about their forced air furnaces.  It’s best to leave this part of the job up to a professional.  Have someone come out and inspect and tune the furnace you plan to use all winter.  The small amount of money on the front end could save you hundreds in additional electrical costs over the winter, or it might just save your home if something is on the verge of being faulty.  A proper inspection will eliminate a lot of the cost and risk of the furnaces – especially if you’re using an older model.

4. Winter Remodeling:

Now that the house isn’t going to be flooded with water or burn down.  Turn your sights to some of those interior projects you couldn’t do because the summer months constantly had you on the go.  Take a look at that bathroom, basement, kitchen, or even the bedroom.  Get creative!  If there is something you’ve always wanted to do or improve – take a good look at it, set aside the time and the money, a start chipping away as the winter months drag on.

Try to have fun while you’re doing it, that’s why we call them projects and not jobs.  Jobs aren’t fun, projects usually are!

5. The Holiday Spirit:
With winter comes the holidays.  Pull out those annual boxes you keep stored away and have fun decorating the house.  Don’t go crazy though; there’s a fine line between decorating and clutter.  If you find that you have to push three santas and six stockings off to the side so that a guest can sit on your sofa, you probably went too far.

Get in the holiday spirit!  Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years are all occasions where we tend to treat each other a little nicer, and we all wish it lasted year round.  Avoid using the credit card for your projects if possible.  These are too easy to use and go overboard.  Why put five thousand dollars on your credit card, but only add two thousand in equity to the house.  So be careful with those things.

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A very useful and interesting video on how they drain water, using channels, from your basement to the sump.

http://www.missouribasement.com During the foundation waterproofing process, the location of the pipe can be critical depending on your expectations of the basement waterproofing system St. Charles, St. Louis, MO

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The No. 1 Enemy of Finished Basements – Moisture

Finished walls and floor covering trap moisture, which accumulates and causes molds and mildew. The musty odor found in many basements is the telltale sign of molds, which may be growing inside the carpeting or walls,
or in upholstered furniture.

As houses age, most basements start seeping water through the concrete or cracks after a heavy rain or snow-melt. The walls, carpets and furniture get wet and molds start growing in just several days. Moldy drywall, carpeting and furnishings have to be discarded.

Why to risk your basement remodeling investment (typically $30,000) and more importantly, the health of your family? Before finishing the basement, seal it against moisture!

Basements as a Source of Moisture

Sooner or later, most basements develop water seepage. At first, it is just intermittent after a heavy storm or snow-melt raises the groundwater level but over time, the leaks become more and more frequent.

All houses settle and stress cracks may develop in the slabs or the walls. The floor-to-wall joint opens up and expansion control joints in the floor crack, as designed. Exterior waterproofing coating deteriorates and the
drainage system may silt up. Hydrostatic pressure then pushes water through any cracks or right through the concrete.

However, most moisture infiltrates into basements in the form of water vapor, which is invisible, unlike steam condensing above a pot with boiling water. Low air pressure inside buildings draws in soil gas with water vapor
from the ground through all openings and pores in the concrete.

Basements are the largest source of moisture in homes and typically, let in over 15 gallons of moisture each day! That is much more than cooking and showering combined (3-5 gallons per day).

Concrete is Very Porous

Concrete cures by cement reacting with water (hydration). But concrete mixes contain much more water than needed, in order to make them easily workable. Almost half of the water is surplus and has to evaporate as
concrete cures. While water pushes through the concrete to the surface, it leaves behind a network of tiny capillaries (pores), much smaller than a human hair.

As a result, concrete is more porous than Swiss cheese ­ residential concrete contains 12 to 20 percent air! Gases and vapor (water molecules) flow easily through the pores. But liquid water has is tougher ­ the water molecules are held back in a blob by surface tension until the pore surface gets wet. Then, liquid water starts seeping through the wet pores in concrete (capillary seepage). Moreover, the pores draw in water like a sponge by capillary action water comes up through a concrete slab against gravity.

Visit START REMODELING for more information on products and services

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Interior Drainage Channel above the Concrete Slab

In most cases when water is entering the basement, an interior drainage system is installed. The simplest and least costly approach is a drainage channel adhered at the base of the wall and the floor slab. Water is collected and drained into a sump using another channel placed on top of the slab, then through a trap to the sump basin. The sump should have an airtight, childproof cover. This system is best suited to a concrete wall with cracks. It does not solve the problem in masonry walls because water remains in the block cores at floor level and the water level is only lowered to the top of the slab. With this approach, the water is not completely removed from the space. The result is that humidity, mold, and mildew can still be a problem. This system cannot drain groundwater from under the floor slab.

University of Minnesota

Most of our article ideas come from repairs people are making to their own homes.

When it comes to getting water out of the basement, this one hits closer to home, since I am in the middle of fixing our longtime wet basement.

If you decide to go with a contractor, the first thing you should know is that they are not cheap.  The work involved in keeping water out of your basement is labor intensive.

We chose to go around the outside of the house and look for spots where the soil is leaning in towards the house.  We bought yards of topsoil to create slopes that will push rain water away from the house.  Another thing we did was slope the soil, then place a plastic seal on top, then cover that plastic with more soil and seed.  Another idea, might be to make that area a flower bed, so it appears to serve a greater purpose.

In the basement, we went with the technique above.  We rented a jackhammer and jacked out a 6 inch perimeter along the basement floor and wall.   We cleaned it out all the way down to the footer.  When we went to pour new cement for the floor, put anything between a 1-2inch board up against the wall, then cement in front of it.  This will create a channel once the board is removed — which should lead all the way to your sump.

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