Bargain Basement, Part II

Before cutting up Lucy and Rachel's wall, I have been making plans to level the basement floor in the downstairs family room. Working with Jeff Stringham, I now have a two part plan to add a layer of cement in the lowest parts (more than an inch or so thick), and then add an inch to an inch and a half of quick-set, self-leveling cement on top of that over the entire south side of the room. The slope has always bugged me: we couldn't use the ping pong table down there, and the table and chairs are always crooked.

At least it doesn't leak in there. (Although we have developed a leak around one of the skylights above it. Another leak to fix!) I know it doesn't leak because we tore out the carpet. Here is what we found:

The white stuff is some kind of plaster they used to make the slope in the add-on section less steep. Some of it comes off in chunks, quickly. In other places, it is well attached to the cement, and I had to break up the cement to get it out. Under some of it is some self-leveling or underlayment cement of some kind. It seems like a lot of work for just changing a gradient.

Jeff loaned me hammer tool to break it all out. It is a very manly tool, and I was exhausted by the time I got it all chipped out Saturday. 

Here are some more pics:

Close up of the cement underlayment, under the white plaster.

The manly tool I borrowed.

I am a man.

The drain.

Unfortunately these three pictures are blurry. They show Andrew patching wall dents and fixing loose trim around the door at the bottom of the stairs. He did a fine job. He has been really, really sick the last three days, so he didn't help me with the leaky wall.