Customer Perspectives:
Problems & Solutions
Customers regularly call us with issues & we quickly offer solutions to help make problems feel manageable.
Here are some real life examples.
The Problem:
The customer called with an issue of water seeping up from the concrete slab into a spare bedroom. After assessing the situation and discussing options with the home owner, we determined that water collecting around the foundation was a major issue.
The Big O drain line was
in poor condition &
partially blocked.
The culprit:
The old perimeter drain that was damaged by the roots of shrubs & trees around the house.
“We were anxious about trying to figure out how to address this strange water issue in our place.
Glen was so helpful— he was honest that the perimeter drain was a likely cause but that it could be only part of the issue.
Throughout the process, the crew was professional and they worked so very hard, even when it was freezing cold.
Glen even took the time to show us some ideas we can use to take care of our home even beyond his work, including advice on how to better protect our home from termites. ”
Suzanne
The Solution:
A new perimeter drain & removal of large shrubs & a lilac bush that would prevent further damage to the foundation & perimeter drain.
This involved:
Removing & saving landscape rock from around a garden area to replace later
Digging out numerous trees & shrubs to move to new places on the property
Digging the trench and installing the perimeter drain
Resealing the concrete slab to minimize any absorption of water
Digging a rock trap to safely remove the water from near the house
Replacing the soil around the perimeter of the house to help insulate the concrete slab
Replacing the landscape rock around the garden area & placing the grass back into place to allow it to regrow as if no work has been done there.
Number of Days of work: 5
Amount of time between initial consult & starting of work: 1 week
The Problem:
The customer called complaining of a persistent hissing noise from the utility room. This straight forward waterline repair became anything but after we discovered a couple of details. The waterline was contained within the slab of the home and could not be located visually and the water line from the city connection was shared with 6 other homes which made its path to the house a mystery.
Typical homes and businesses have a city locate on file and we can use that if we need it to locate the the waterline from the city. In this case that connection point was 50m away and had several other properties tied into it. It's path the the home was not documented. Now we have to guess but guessing was not cheap as the entire area was a concrete driveway.
The Solution:
Our experience working with waterlines in the city helped us to locate the old waterline, follow that to find the connection point where the neighbours water branched off and rectify the entire problem while staying under the homeowners insurance coverage.
Cut and remove the concrete from the known affected area
Repeat the cut, remove & dig process to find the existing waterline
Chase the old waterline to the connection point with the rest of the water system
Move the wye fitting to the new waterline location & extend a new waterline for our customer while maintaining water service for the neighbours
Remove very wet soil & replace with drain rock in the trench
Backfill, compact, prep & pour the concrete
Number of Days of work: 4
Total time without water to the home: 2 hours
This was an emergency job & we started the day after we received the call.
The Problem:
The customer wanted a new driveway. The existing pad had been partially removed some years ago after it failed. What was left was in very bad shape.
The Solution:
Concrete slab driveways fail for a number of reasons: water freezing & heaving under them is a very common problem (especially in the wet winters in Campbell River). This was the case with this driveway & we discovered something interesting when we dug into the project!
This driveway was bordered on one side with a retaining wall. The retaining wall was connected to the weeping tile of the house, as it should be, however, the location of the weeping tile behind the wall was incorrect. Water was flowing under the weeping tile but also over the footing of the wall. The wall-footing joint was not poured at the same time and was not sealed so water was flowing directly under the driveway.
The retaining wall was in decent shape so we decided we would prevent the water from accumulating under the driveway by installing a second weeping tile along the driveway side of the wall footing. The driveway was poured directly over this second drainage system.
Finally, a clean-out was installed to maintain the new weeping tile and the cap was set just below the grade of the finished driveway: snow shovels & vehicles driving on it would not be a problem.
Number of Days of work: 7
Concrete pour was completed over 2 days.
Work Details:
Removed and disposed of 1500sqft of concrete
Removed water saturated soil from under driveway
Dug trench along retaining wall footing on driveway side and installed weeping tile
Wrapped the trench and pipe in Geotex fabric and surrounded the pipe with drain rock
Backfilled whole driveway with suitable crushed gravel and set to grade
Compacted with 1250lb plate tamper
Poured 32mPa concrete, ensured extra expansion joints were cut in and added an exposed finish
Interested in starting a project?
Call or text: 250 202-4323
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Mr. Mini Dig
Campbell River, BC
(250) 202-4323
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