I have begun tuck-pointing (or re-pointing) the crawlspace foundation brick. It took about two hours to re-point about ten square feet of wall. I think I can speed up that process by shifting over to using a different tool next time, but it was progress none-the-less.
The first portion of the process, cleaning out the brickwork’s deteriorating mortar, is complete. This second step of filling all of that cleaned-out space with new mortar will take a week of focus, especially with the tight work schedule. The following steps include creating a cement or mortar shelf at the top of the stone portion, cleaning out the mortar from the stone, and re-pointing the stone wall.
The real challenge will be in rebuilding the portions of the stone wall that have eroded over the last one hundred years. There are three focus areas for that: the drainage piping break, the pump tunnel gaps, and the sump area.
Of those problem areas, the pump tunnel gaps are the most concerning as they are accessible from both sides of the stone underground. The pump tunnel was built in the forties and accesses an underground pump cap. I’m not certain why this well was installed this way, but I’m guessing it was maintained and replaced by previous homeowners rather than professional installers. Unless we move to municipal water, we will likely have to do our pump replacement in the future too.
The current well sucks in a lot more sediment than I realized and will easily fill up the five-micron filter in three months. I have a three-stage filter to keep the water nice and clean and odor-free, but that five-micron filter fills up fast as the first line of defense. I think the pump should have been installed much lower into the water table than it was.
For now the focus must be on fixing up the above grade brickwork and making it airtight for the summer to keep the humidity manageable while working on the lower stonework. I really want to have this done before the warmer spring weather comes. That weather will give me the temperatures I want before opening up some of the walls in the main portions of the house.
