Many of you, well a few... okay one or two of you know that I am/was wanting to convert half of the usable basement space into a man cave, entertainment room, with bar and the like. Well as you may also know I do have an issue with basement moisture. Now when I say moisture it's not just damp, but if I dig a hole 8 inches it will fill up with water when it rains and drains just as quickly.

Now I have been able to control some of it with mortering of the side of the house. But with the amount of rain we have just had the drainage under it all can not really cope, and this is where I believe that it coming from. All the water coming down the side of the hill has to go somewhere, and currently, a fair bit goes into my basement. Now, normally this I wouldn't worry about as basements get damp. But since I am wanting to develop the room I can not guarantee that I can stop it, and then well have the door well issue which could flood. Now when the water does get in it does drain out pretty fast once it stops raining.

I have one more thing I can try and that is to dig a trench behind up further under the house, fill it with stones and try and divert it as much to the side of them as I can. Again I can not guarantee this will work. Then with the small retaining wall and concrete floor hopefully that is enough. However, is it going to be enough not to floor the door well when we dig that out? Who knows. Can I risk putting the carpet down only for it to seep through or the door well totally floods?

Another viable option is to flag the Mancave as such, which in reality does not bother me as I gain more workspace. We will still have the lower entertainment or the promenade deck out the back with BBQ and the possibility of an outdoor bar under the upper deck. (Those that know the layout of the land will know what I am talking about ... kind of)We can start to enclose that area and make it waterproof just as easily. I could become a second lower conservatory.

However I would still put the small retaining wall in con concrete the floor and where the door well would have gone put a small drain, so if it does flood the water trapped above has somewhere to go. This simply would stay as a workshop basement. To me, it is 6 of one half a dozen of the other.
Now, I know that this can all be fixed and have our entertainment room but my other issue now comes in to play... budget. We don't have one. We also want other things done that have priority, back stairs, bike deck, and turntable, for example.

Simply put, ah the joys of owning a home.

Regards
Nighthawk