When the guy at the hardware store laughs at you, it's not really a good sign that you're on the right track to solving your home problem.
Faithful readers will recall our leaky basement window beside the driveway. I made a temporary fix by lining the window well with heavy duty plastic, which I weighted down at the edges with wet towels. This seems to have kept water outside the basement, but collected a rather large pool of water in the well itself.
My plan: continue with the plastic lining method, but fill the liner with something so that it wouldn't fill with water. My thought was that that super-expanding foam stuff would be ideal; it would make a form that exactly fits with the well, and as long as I put down the plastic liner, it's not permanent. And if it didn't work, I was out a can of spray foam. So, guess, what? Looks like I'm out a can of spray foam. You'll see my process here: first the lining of the well:
And here's the foam:
OK, So I have to let it cure for an hour, but there is no way this stuff is gonna fill the well. I'll update with more photos, but I'm pretty sure this won't work. That said, dear readers, I welcome your suggestions. We could use your help! What can we do for a quick, simple fix for this?
[Incidentally, the long-term fix for this is to build up the sides of this well with bricks so that it's higher than the driveway, then cover the whole well with a plastic thing. This will keep both falling rain and driveway drainage from running into the well. But the masonry is going to have to wait until summer. So we're looking for something temporary and quick to get us through the spring rain/thaw.]
You are correct about it being a bad sign when the guy laughs at you, but I think you have all the supplies you need. Duct tape, plastic and uncolored easy cheese. I think that if you taped the plastic to the side of the house, maybe 18" up, and then held the plastic down with a piece of wood (2x4?) on the other side of the window, it would keep rain from going into the well. You may need some wood supports slanting down from the wall. The water running in is a different problem. You need a little dam/dike to divert the water. Easy cheese? Or a 1 x 2 duct taped to the pavement. I'll ask Chas for more ideas. My first thought was you could find some clear "plastic cardbord" stuff that they have at Home Depote and make a window well covering with that. Or there might be something cheap at a nursery to make an easy cold frame.
ReplyDeleteGo to home depote and buy a window well cover.
ReplyDeleteBuy some koi to put in the well.
ReplyDeletegoogle window well cover
ReplyDelete