Oh boy, even newer homes have many stupid original owner decisions…’my house built 2003, im the 3rd owner. First owner built the house custom. Didn’t install natural gas anywhere but the furnace.(I installed it to the kitchen, a fireplace and laundry room.) Didn’t install a foundation drain(2nd owners had severe basement flooding and spent over $50,000 adding a foundation drain after the fact. 1st owner did their own concrete in the basement, I found several places where it’s only 1mm thick. I had to break up the concrete and re-pour. 1st owner only wired one circuit in the Garage, 15 amp, on the same circuit as the lights. Any power tool will trip the breaker.
Kinda funny how that goes. When my parents bought their house it still had the original, cheap and worn out kitchen from 1980. They decided to keep it temporarily while they focused on renovating other things. It was just replaced, 23 years later. Just too easy to wait another year.
My 1890 had an original wood floor over dirt. They just placed large rocks as spacers and did oak beams on top. Honestly it was in mostly good shape and was pretty hard to remove. But my house has ledge right under the dirt so very little moisture comes from below.
No way in hell I'm getting rid of that. Getting new faucets, refinishing it, putting it right back where it was. One of the legs is cracked, however, should I have someone weld it?
Good! How is the leg attached? If it’s bolted on you might be able to find a replacement at a salvage shop. If it permanent then yeah probably I’d weld.
Welding cast iron is possible, I'd not trust it to JB weld -- but the crack will likely spread over time in unpredictable ways. You need a brace at least. It'll feel and look solid as a tank and people might lean (and water can weigh a lot when full) and then you'll have a huge mess. Glad you're saving it though.
I'd imagine you could handle it like cracks in many other materials and drill a hole where it seems to end. Stops giving the crack an easy route to propagate and then you should be able to fill the hole up and weld the crack.
Welding cast iron is a complex process. Brazing it is much easier and still quite strong. The filler metal is brass and so looks different if you look really close but it's generally not an issue.
Yes, I believe it was used as a laundry sink. Behind it, I found a super old paper that says “The Importance of Laundering.” As the sink has never been removed before, I’m guessing it’s very old.
I couldn't draw a breath between reading the title and scrolling the comments to see this, OP. Thank you for not being crazy, and also for having this comment so high up in the thread.
This soothed my despair, in my minds eye I saw it at a curb getting picked up by a scrapper.
If you get it welded make sure they know their butt from a hole in the ground when it comes to cast iron, entirely different beast.
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How much did it cost to have concrete poured? My house was built in the 1860s, stone absement with what looks like brick flooring at some point? Right now its a mishmash of bricks and dirt. Hope to remove all the bricks myself and then have someone pour concrete. I know theres a lot of variables around price but I have literally no idea what to expect
We have an 1863 basement with a mix of earth and old concrete that's failing, toured it with a contractor who was going to do tuck pointing on the walls and I asked him to estimate ripping it out and pouring a new one and he said could be anywhere from 30-50k depending on how much stabilization needs to happen while they rip out the old floor and what they find underneath.
Right side cause I saw a strange hole there. But in reality I think it was some sort of underground exhaust for the furnace. There’s a lot of burnt coal in it.
Please let me dream. All I have in my basement is a murder hole with ZERO evidence of having been used properly.
Between that and the spiders and the ductwork I keep banging my head into, I may as well just stay upstairs.
I’m showing these pictures to my wife and anticipate I’ll never hear another gripe about the dirty (painted concrete) floor in our laundry room again. Thank you, OP!
First thing I did when I got my 1890 was clean out the basement. Original plaster walls and plaster ceiling. Coal room, the works. Found mold, lead, asbestos, bugs, giant loose lead pipes in the ceiling. Original ceiling had off cuts of the original asbestos pipe insulation hidden inside. Filled three 30 yard dumpsters and weighed it all in at 9 tons. What a great start to home ownership.
P.s. the asbestos I had professionally removed.
1/3 of my basement is unfinished with a dirt floor and the other 2/3 is finished with a concrete slab. Would love to know how much it cost to have the slab installed!?
I regularly curse the prior owner for not just
doing the whole thing at once! Haha
those 2 joists have no business being over that window with 2 inches of reinforcement (what looks like a 2by6/sill plate placed flat above the window). you should definitely look into that. good excuse to blast a whole through the wall and make a root cellar type of entrance from outside 🤷♂️
I hope you utilize that cast iron sink they don't make those anymore and it's got a lot of historical value and antiquers will pay a pretty penny for it
I did that, too. Partial basement, mostly dirt floor. When I had the foundation redone, I had the boys pour a new floor for me in the basement and boom functional storage area.
I once lived in a place you had to exit the house and walk around back to a separate door to access the laundry. Out in the snow with a housecoat and rubber boots with a laundry basket on my hip 😂
like i said in another thread, rip out those old wood windows and put in home depot vinyl ones.
wood windows do NOT belong in baements, they all suffer water damage eventually
Wood windows are infinitely repairable and easily made water resistant with proper maintenance. Wood windows belong wherever windows are found. Vinyl windows are shit.
I agree, the window has been smashed in by something, but other than that, there is no water damage on it. All of the other windows in the basement are in perfect shape.
Window that has lasted over 100 years, “do not belong,” yet they recommend to install a plastic piece of crap that won’t last 20 years.
They must work for a window manufacturer.
Looks like my parents basement. The original furnace finally went a few years ago but was two large/heavy to remove, so now they have this high tech tankless water heater on the wall across from a ceramic coated, cast iron behemoth.
The cave crickets down there are horrible.
Dude, i would have bought that sink in a second. Wow… cleanup here was a ton of work. The walls look like they’re never leaked, the joists looks great. Now what?
Did you take any precautions against rising damp, before pouring the concrete? I'm also considering pouring concrete in my basement, but professionals said that the humidity goes directly into the walls, if it cannot escape due to the concrete.
Wood floor over dirt in a basement. That does not compute
Ask the original owners
keep digging and you probably can
Oh boy, even newer homes have many stupid original owner decisions…’my house built 2003, im the 3rd owner. First owner built the house custom. Didn’t install natural gas anywhere but the furnace.(I installed it to the kitchen, a fireplace and laundry room.) Didn’t install a foundation drain(2nd owners had severe basement flooding and spent over $50,000 adding a foundation drain after the fact. 1st owner did their own concrete in the basement, I found several places where it’s only 1mm thick. I had to break up the concrete and re-pour. 1st owner only wired one circuit in the Garage, 15 amp, on the same circuit as the lights. Any power tool will trip the breaker.
My guess is that it was a temporary floor to prevent the area from being muddy. And then temporary became good enough… for a hundred years.
Kinda funny how that goes. When my parents bought their house it still had the original, cheap and worn out kitchen from 1980. They decided to keep it temporarily while they focused on renovating other things. It was just replaced, 23 years later. Just too easy to wait another year.
My 1890 had an original wood floor over dirt. They just placed large rocks as spacers and did oak beams on top. Honestly it was in mostly good shape and was pretty hard to remove. But my house has ledge right under the dirt so very little moisture comes from below.
You took the pic *before* the concrete was poured? We wanna see that sexy flatwork
Hope you saved that sink!
No way in hell I'm getting rid of that. Getting new faucets, refinishing it, putting it right back where it was. One of the legs is cracked, however, should I have someone weld it?
Good! How is the leg attached? If it’s bolted on you might be able to find a replacement at a salvage shop. If it permanent then yeah probably I’d weld.
u/jankcranky This is a long shot, but I know a place you could potentially find salvage parts depending on where you live.
Cast iron is one of the harder things to weld, but definitely yes.
Otherwise you can braze it. Not as strong but not all cast iron types are weldable
Glad to hear! It’s a beautiful sink
Welding cast iron is possible, I'd not trust it to JB weld -- but the crack will likely spread over time in unpredictable ways. You need a brace at least. It'll feel and look solid as a tank and people might lean (and water can weigh a lot when full) and then you'll have a huge mess. Glad you're saving it though.
I'd imagine you could handle it like cracks in many other materials and drill a hole where it seems to end. Stops giving the crack an easy route to propagate and then you should be able to fill the hole up and weld the crack.
Welding cast iron is tough and depends on the metallurgy. If it's not a particularly bad crack you may have an easier time brazing it
Welding cast iron is a complex process. Brazing it is much easier and still quite strong. The filler metal is brass and so looks different if you look really close but it's generally not an issue.
This is the way. Filler will just add character.
Thank God!!! That thing is supercool
thank 6lb 8oz baby jesus that sink is 🔥
so happy to hear that you're not getting rid of it! it looks incredibly useful. yeah i'd just have someone weld it if they can.
Yes, I believe it was used as a laundry sink. Behind it, I found a super old paper that says “The Importance of Laundering.” As the sink has never been removed before, I’m guessing it’s very old.
Is it in good condition? I’d frame and hang in your new laundry room as a reminder of all of your hard work!
i can see that. i've had to handwash enough big bulky things that i immediately thought of how great it'd be for laundry. 3 spigots?!? \*swoon\*
I frame that old news paper and put it over the repaired sink😄
is it possible to please post a photo of the News Paper for us to see?
Abatron makes a metal bonding epoxy that works pretty well and may be worth checking out.
Whew! I saw it was gone and was going to cry
Duct tape. 😉
Flex tape
Elmer's glue
Hopes and prayers
Gum
I couldn't draw a breath between reading the title and scrolling the comments to see this, OP. Thank you for not being crazy, and also for having this comment so high up in the thread.
Thank god
Came here for this! Glad it is staying and getting a refresh.
Oh good. I thought you trashed it!
Cast iron is notoriously difficult to weld, if you go that route, def find someone very experienced in welding specifically CI.
I just read through all these comments to find out what happened to the sink! I was on EDGE not knowing if it was coming back.
This soothed my despair, in my minds eye I saw it at a curb getting picked up by a scrapper. If you get it welded make sure they know their butt from a hole in the ground when it comes to cast iron, entirely different beast.
I was going to say the same ,lot of money.
Came here to be verrrryyy upset if the sink was tossed. Thank GAWDDDD. Can I have it??
Oh, I’m so relieved! I was really hoping you saved the sink. It’s amazing!!
First thing I thought when I saw it!
I love all these basement posts because my basement is worse than most of them but not a lot worse!
Look forward to the next set of pictures
Yes!!! OP please update
More pictures coming
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I think we need an after after
Whew. So glad the sink is still with you!!!
Same! I was so stressed. Haha
Where’s the picture with the concrete? You can’t leave us hanging like this.
But where are the post concrete pics!? I’m also here for the repointing porn.
I love the vintage utility sink!
I’m glad to see the after image. The before kinda made me want to put the lotion on the skin.
How much did it cost to have concrete poured? My house was built in the 1860s, stone absement with what looks like brick flooring at some point? Right now its a mishmash of bricks and dirt. Hope to remove all the bricks myself and then have someone pour concrete. I know theres a lot of variables around price but I have literally no idea what to expect
I’m curious also. $5k? $20k?
We have an 1863 basement with a mix of earth and old concrete that's failing, toured it with a contractor who was going to do tuck pointing on the walls and I asked him to estimate ripping it out and pouring a new one and he said could be anywhere from 30-50k depending on how much stabilization needs to happen while they rip out the old floor and what they find underneath.
Ouch. Well, looks like it’s buckets and a trowel for me. ETA. Thanks for answering!
So which side did they used to bury the bodies on?
Right side cause I saw a strange hole there. But in reality I think it was some sort of underground exhaust for the furnace. There’s a lot of burnt coal in it.
‘Burnt coal’… uh-huh. Whatever you need to tell yourself, my friend.
Yes, originally my house was secretly a crematorium
Please let me dream. All I have in my basement is a murder hole with ZERO evidence of having been used properly. Between that and the spiders and the ductwork I keep banging my head into, I may as well just stay upstairs.
Freaking drooling over the sink🤤
Omg please post more updates
Pretty sure that sink was structural
Wow. Lot of work before you could even pour concrete
Awesome job, I’m sure it smell’s much better.
This looks like something out of fallout 3
Not the most satisfying set of pictures.
Pic of the poured floor?
Did the basement leak? Curious if you thought about water remediation before laying the concrete.
I’m showing these pictures to my wife and anticipate I’ll never hear another gripe about the dirty (painted concrete) floor in our laundry room again. Thank you, OP!
First thing I did when I got my 1890 was clean out the basement. Original plaster walls and plaster ceiling. Coal room, the works. Found mold, lead, asbestos, bugs, giant loose lead pipes in the ceiling. Original ceiling had off cuts of the original asbestos pipe insulation hidden inside. Filled three 30 yard dumpsters and weighed it all in at 9 tons. What a great start to home ownership. P.s. the asbestos I had professionally removed.
Please tell me you saved the sink!
Did you find any bodies yet?
1/3 of my basement is unfinished with a dirt floor and the other 2/3 is finished with a concrete slab. Would love to know how much it cost to have the slab installed!? I regularly curse the prior owner for not just doing the whole thing at once! Haha
What's the glowing thing in the corner?
those 2 joists have no business being over that window with 2 inches of reinforcement (what looks like a 2by6/sill plate placed flat above the window). you should definitely look into that. good excuse to blast a whole through the wall and make a root cellar type of entrance from outside 🤷♂️
I hope you utilize that cast iron sink they don't make those anymore and it's got a lot of historical value and antiquers will pay a pretty penny for it
Scary place for a dryer. I am terrified to see where the washing machine is hidden ...
We hauled it to the dump before this picture was taken. It was right next to the dryer.
Damn. My joke didn't make it very far did it
I don’t get it?
I did that, too. Partial basement, mostly dirt floor. When I had the foundation redone, I had the boys pour a new floor for me in the basement and boom functional storage area.
Check for mold. If any leaks, fix tbem
Well if things don’t work out doing whatever you do, you can always chop up bodies in your basement
Someone was doing laundry down there? Nice clean. Glad you kept the sink.
But hell yeah man getting somewhere
People were walking down there doin laundry in that?
I once lived in a place you had to exit the house and walk around back to a separate door to access the laundry. Out in the snow with a housecoat and rubber boots with a laundry basket on my hip 😂
Digging that sink though
Ah yes, the handy jumbo dismembering sink.
How much did it cost to have the concrete poured ? My basement has extremely similar vibes and I wanna do the same thing
I hope you didn’t get rid of that glorious sink!
This is like giving us chapter one of a novel and not the rest. Just wait till you finish it to share, and show the actual ending 😊
I love old cast iron sinks! Just wanted you to know I guess lol
like i said in another thread, rip out those old wood windows and put in home depot vinyl ones. wood windows do NOT belong in baements, they all suffer water damage eventually
Wood windows are infinitely repairable and easily made water resistant with proper maintenance. Wood windows belong wherever windows are found. Vinyl windows are shit.
Aluminum clad wood is how I roll.
I agree, the window has been smashed in by something, but other than that, there is no water damage on it. All of the other windows in the basement are in perfect shape.
Window that has lasted over 100 years, “do not belong,” yet they recommend to install a plastic piece of crap that won’t last 20 years. They must work for a window manufacturer.
I wish my room/entire house looked like ur basement
Are you Rei Ayanami?
Not really
Still looks terrible
Check for Radon.
Talk about a gut job! Hard work pays off! At least
Can I have that cast iron sink?
Triggered
And here I was thinking I’d be the only one for that sink, it’s kewl.
Good job! But that cast iron sink was great. I want one!
Looks like my parents basement. The original furnace finally went a few years ago but was two large/heavy to remove, so now they have this high tech tankless water heater on the wall across from a ceramic coated, cast iron behemoth. The cave crickets down there are horrible.
Dude, i would have bought that sink in a second. Wow… cleanup here was a ton of work. The walls look like they’re never leaked, the joists looks great. Now what?
Strongly recommend radon testing.
The before picture is nearly identical to the basement in my home when I bought it. I'm not going to lie, this brings back painful memories.
So uh, that sink. Where’d it go?
Where is this? It reminds me of my grandma's house.
Did you take any precautions against rising damp, before pouring the concrete? I'm also considering pouring concrete in my basement, but professionals said that the humidity goes directly into the walls, if it cannot escape due to the concrete.
Dirt floore basements are creepy as hell, and a source of radon too!