Post a picture... any picture

mrbiron

He hasn't got any blue wires!
Doesn't take a trained eye to figure this one out.
PM the solution right away and send my regards.

mhardy6647

Dang! You're good.
I totally missed that.

Actually, I am not sure I even have any blue clip leads. Hmmm.
I wonder if they're like blue m&ms?

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/10/09/magazine/blue-food-coloring-mars-company.html

gwg_97

Pot of gold? Taken this afternoon.

D2Lo

Nice! On the same wavelength, I was sketching some sailing yachts last night... ready for the weekend?

ken brydson

EndersShadow

May you all have someone in your lives to warm your heart today.

Or toobs lol

Willow

Came home to this......


Then to basement for...

Willow

The first ones are water coming into the garage.... The other is in the basement. Thankfully semi unfinished. Builder is coming over today to take a look. If they deem it not a building issue then a call to my insurance I think.

tonyb

Are both below ground ? If so, that's an issue of water around your foundation not flowing away from the house. Normally, depending on the grade of the surrounding landscape, drain tile is put in around the foundation and covered with wash stone so water doesn't build up or sit eroding and cracking your foundation.

Unfortunately, some contractors don't use wash stone or even just use dirt. If that dirt has clay in it, it's going to hold water and keep the drain tile from it's intended function. Also, refrain from planting anything with a heavy root system around your foundation as those roots will eventually clog any drain tile or impede the flow of water.

If you have downspouts from your roof gutters in the area, put extensions on them to get the water away from the foundation.

Willow

The garage is at ground level and basement is obviously below. Right now the ground is frozen and covered in about 3 ft of snow and ice. This morning there was no more drops in the bucket. Interesting but not conclusive.

mhardy6647

Well -- the thing about water (says Cliff Clavin) is that it's not compressible. If there is water trapped someplace, and more water comes to join the party, it will find a place to go; the path of least resistance.

Tony's scenario is the most likely, I would think --

but, optimist that I am, I'd also suggest making sure it's not coming down the walls from above. At least up here in New England, especially in older or not-so-well insulated (or not-so-well designed) houses, we get these nasty things known as ice dams. Heat from the house (attic) melts a little water at the interface between a snowy roof and the roofing material (shingles or what have you. A solid layer of ice forms -- but that water's gotta go somewhere. It's still not compressible (Cliff again ) so it goes up the roof and seeps back under the shingles from above. Then it usually wicks down the roof decking and thence down the wall.

Usually, of course, the seepage appears in the top story ceiling and/or at the ceiling/wall intersection.

Not sayin' it's likely -- just want to give you something else to worry about!

steveinaz

My great-nephews last year halloween costumes. Classic....LOL

mrbiron

@Willow
The garage looks like you have snow built up against the perimeter of the house. Moisture wants to be pulled from cold to hot. My guess is there is a void in your sill seal (under bottom plate of wall) and water is infiltrating.
Run your snow blower around the garage to pull the snow away from the warmer object.

As for your basement, there could be a number of issues. Don't know the ground water height but did the builder roll on waterproofing on the exterior?
Are you experiencing warm days where the roof is melting and all runoff is building up at the foundation? Do you have a sump?

Willow

Ok so it's ice damming bought the roof scraper and I'll get up there and melt some ice.

mrbiron

Oomph!
All the way into your basement? Notice any staining on the main living levels?

mhardy6647

Ice dams may well mean one (or both) of these things.

Too much heat in the attic.
Not enough roof overhang beyond the wall.

The first one is pretty easy to remediate: Soffit and ridge vents to pull cold air through the attic; good insulation between the living space & attic.

There are also multiple ways to improve the "water resistance" of the roof (i.e., installation of a water/ice barrier under the shingles, or metal roofing material instead of shingles at the overhangs) -- but these do treat the symptom, not the disease.

We had ice dam issues once at the MA house (fairly minor, fortunately). I talked about doing roof work with a hifi buddy who's a woodworker/contractor and he said rather brusquely - "that doesn't fix the problem. Do you have a pull-down stair for your attic?"

"Yes"

"Is it insulated?"

"No"

"Then you have a 2 x 3 foot [or more!] window from your heated house to the sky. You need to fix things like that first!"

To cut a long story short (MA had a state-funded program to do stuff like this, which was a terrific thing for us), we had some work done in the attic to improve insulation. One of the remediations: they built a cover for the pull-down out of foam boards. Well done and easily removed (from below) for attic access from the pull down (a couple of velcro straps that can be pulled down tight through a couple of metal loops).

We never had any more trouble after improving attic insulation.

Just though I'd mention this.

EDIT: If the pull-down thing is an issue for the OP, you can make a cover like the one I described, or just buy something like this.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Owens-Corning-25-1-2-in-x-54-in-Attic-Stair-Insulator-II-AS2/100676399?cm_mmc=Shopping|THD|G|0|G-BASE-PLA-D22-Insulation|&gclid=CjwKEAiAlZDFBRCKncm67qihiHwSJABtoNIgVndcr2eP2a5xJgiEsEKJ46XdChcvE9qeVW1rgb2vahoCFIzw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

I put one of those in this house -- the pull-down here is insulated, but up here in the frozen white north, you cannot have too much insulation

mhardy6647

Of course, up here in the Frozen White North, lots of us go to the Nuclear Solution for the issue of snow-on-the-roof.

DSC_9793 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

The metal, "standing seam" roof -- sooner or later, the snow just. slides. off.

Usually at about 3 am.

Woompf

tonyb

Good point Mark, ice dams are certainly a possibility also. Have many here in Chicago who suffer that fate as well.

Usually poor ventilation in your attic is one of the root causes. You should have vents cut out in your overhangs on the roof. Make sure the insulation in the attic isn't covering those vents too.

Another, though you can't see now but in the spring take a look, is the backing of the gutter warps and if the shingles on the roof or tar paper doesn't go all the way into that gutter water will run behind it....soak the wood, get in the walls and create ice dams. Weather warms up, ice dams melt, and bingo.

As noted, remember water always takes the path of least resistance. So when dealing with water around foundations, specifically basements, you have to make sure the water flows away from the house and not build up.

All foundations crack over time, some will leak, some won't, depends on how well the drainage and landscape is situated. If it's a fairly new house still under builders warranty, I'd be screaming up and down. If it's an older house, look at the easier fixes already stated first, last thing you want to do is dig up the outside to install new drainage pipe and stone.

mrbiron

mhardy6647 wrote: »

The metal, "standing seam" roof -- sooner or later, the snow just. slides. off.

Usually at about 3 am.

Woompf

When we've done projects with standing seam roofs...rooves....rufusses?
We have to install a snow rail to prevent ice sheds from sliding off the 60' high roof and killing people. Surprised there aren't any on you roof, or maybe, i can't see them.

mhardy6647

There are not but our primary routes of egress are on the gable side.

We probably should have 'em over the doors, though, out front.

EndersShadow

mrbiron wrote: »

mhardy6647 wrote: »

The metal, "standing seam" roof -- sooner or later, the snow just. slides. off.

Usually at about 3 am.

Woompf

When we've done projects with standing seam roofs...rooves....rufusses?
We have to install a snow rail to prevent ice sheds from sliding off the 60' high roof and killing people. Surprised there aren't any on you roof, or maybe, i can't see them.

Aww man, wheres the fun in that.

Natural selection at its finest, or maybe a modified version of russian roulette lol...

mhardy6647

I was dodgin' snow comin' off the roof Monday whilst digging out our beater Tacoma pickup on the parking pad behind the garage :

mhardy6647

speaking of which -- finally startin' to look like winter in the Upper Valley.

DSC_7020 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr
DSC_7014 (2) by Mark Hardy, on Flickr
DSC_7024 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr
DSC_7029 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

txcoastal1

Beautiful pics as always DrH. Love to visit the snow, Love to ski, just can't live in it

Jimbo18

I love to see snow. In pictures. That were taken far from where I live.

steveinaz

Marks got a beautiful place.

mhardy6647

You know youse guyses are welcome any time.
Of course, if you come now -- I may hand you a shovel.

Nightfall

mhardy6647 wrote: »

You know youse guyses are welcome any time.
Of course, if you come now -- I may hand you a shovel.

Honda makes some sick snow blowers on tracks like a tank. Beast.

Nightfall

Ghey?

mhardy6647

Nightfall wrote: »

mhardy6647 wrote: »

You know youse guyses are welcome any time.
Of course, if you come now -- I may hand you a shovel.

Honda makes some sick snow blowers on tracks like a tank. Beast.

I say, I say, I say -- whoa!






Well, a little secret. We pay a plow guy to plow the driveway and the parking pad : I/we usually shovel around the house & the paths to the bird feeders. When we have a real winter, I snowshoe out.

Another little secret. My son-in-law and I are tractor shoppin' -- we're planning to go halfsies on a fairly serious tractor (in the 40-50 hp neighborhood, 4WD) to share between their property and ours. They need one more than I, but I do have the western wasteland (where we'd had to clear the red pine stand that hadn't been well maintained) that needs work to remove invasives & try to get something good growin' on it.

I think the front-end loader would suffice -- or we can get a big ol' snowblower for it!

Further details as events warrant.

PS actually I do have our old snowblower from MA -- it is small but sincere. We'd given it to our son-in-law and daughter when they set up their first house in Keene. I'd bought a much larger one (used) after we moved up, but ended up swapping back our old one for it -- because our son-in-law's/daugther's place has much more stuff that needs to be cleared of snow.