Warning: Lots of pics and text...this is the full story!
First of all, here is the culprit - the reason behind the entire project. The concrete floor was poured in a manner that it slopes down to this drain from all directions. At first we thought the drain didn't work, but thankfully it does work.
To begin with, we sealed the walls. Someone had previously put a skim-coat of concrete along the base of this wall - presumably to seal the wall from outside moisture intrusion. The skim-coat was delaminated in seveal spots and was not a good seal. We chipped it away around the perimeter of the wall. That was a LOT of work! We actually found voids and gaps in the bottom of the wall where whe have seen moisture come in the house before.
After chipping all the old concrete away, we brushed it clean and then vacuumed most of the dust away. We washed the surface and then applied a coat of Concrete Adhesive to the exposed concrete.
We applied a new skim-coat using self-leveling concrete mixed with the same Concrete Adhesive Additive that was painted on the wall. Finally (although not pictured here), we painted the new concrete with a couple coats of concrete sealing paint.
With all of that done, we were ready for the real work to begin. Enter Ralph. Ralph was kind enough to pose in these pictures for me to demonstrate the work to be done. Of course I would never be so rude as to expect Ralph to conduct work on his "vacation" visit to see us over the holiday weekend. (Good thing we consider construction to be recreational at our house!)
Each board used along the concrete had to be shaved down in various places to mate up with the concrete well. If you look closely here you will actually see sweat pouring down Ralph's forehead and spilling off the tip of his nose...evetually putting our floor drain to good use. (Are we sure we want to cover that?) This task was quite aerobic until Ralph spent his birthday money to acquire the power plane. That was a GREAT purchase!
After shaving one side of the board to mate with the floor, we set the board in place and then used a measuring stick and the laser level to mark the board for cutting. We then ripped each board on the tablesaw such that the cut surface would face upward. You see, we used pressure-treated lumber, so we wanted the treated side to be down. (This was a precaution in case any flooding does occur in the future.)
The next step was to use the Ramset nailer to fasten the ribs to the floor.
Eventually we had to pre-drill for the ramset nails to be able to penetrate deep enough into the concrete through the deeper rib sections.
With the ribs secured, we tacked a vapor barrier in place and then began placing plywood sheathing. (Yes, that's sheathing and not sheeting...and No, I don't know why.)
We started from the center of the west wall and worked our way down and out. The south wall was not square, and gained an inch for every sheet of plywood. That meant a lot of custom cutting and fitting, but it was pretty straightforward...
except around the plumbing and water heater. That area required a bit of extra care.
Before covering up the sewer cleanout, we opened it up and cleaned up the threads (to facilitate easier removal if ever necessary in the future) and then marked it's location. In the near future I will cut a hole in the plywood here and build an access box to the cleanout. In the mean time we have our fingers crossed that we don't need to use it any time soon!
That's pretty much it. It was a fairly straight-forward process. One major requirement throughout the job was good house-keeping. (Please don't tell our wives we know how!) The amount of wood shavings and sawdust created down in that basement was enough to fill our large garbage can to the brim.
Seriously, I can't thank Ralph enough for all the help on this project. What we did in 2 full days together would have literally taken me weeks on my own!
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