Blasting Through Foundtion Wall To Create Fish Room.

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C

cm11599ps

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 22, 2010
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Long Island
Don't get excited, there are no pics in this thread of construction. lol

0140e195.jpg



Here's a shot of my backyard. We live in a 2 story house but the bottom level is sunk in the ground a bit. I'd say the actual floor of the downstairs is about 3-4' below ground.

First off, do you think we'd be able to keep the existing deck and dig underneath it as long as we support the deck somehow? If not I guess a teardown and rebuild would be in order. I don't mind digging the thing by hand if it saves me a ton of money. There's no rush so I could take plenty of time to do it. FWIW, the bottom of the deck is 4' as you can see by the white lattice work Those are standard 4x8 pieces. I'm figuring we could support the deck on the new foundation walls when the time comes.

What I'm considering is putting a tank and fish room in the area under the deck which is basically wasted space currently. The actual size of the excavated area would be about 12x16 so the dimensions of the fish room would be a bit smaller than that.

Any tips you can give me in advance of this project? Any ballpark figures? This room isn't going to be finished at all since it's going to be a dedicated fish room. I'm thinking of going with about an 11' tank, about 340 gallons.
 
The word "blasting" caught my attention. First off, be very carefull if youre removing foundation, after all its called foundation for a reason. I dont want to go into engineering stuff i dont know about, but lets talk blasting!
Shaped charge mounted center of area you want to punch through, ring of det cord, maybe two loops to redirect radiating shock waves. Get everyone out of the house, and wear hearing protection. Good Luck!
 
You're gonna have to tear down the deck in order to put a roof on the addition. I would dig the addition an extra foot or 2 deeper than the rest of the basement so that you can put a small pitch on the roof, flat roofs are almost guaranteed to leek. I do not know your layout but I'd imagine an exterior door will make your life a lot easier when bringing large tanks in or out. I priced a sunroom of similar size at 15k, your project will have a lot more concrete plus you'll have to cut you existing foundation unless its cmu. Biggest advice is to think of little stuff, its gonna kill you to finish and wish you had done something different.
 
Oh I think youll find my methods more entertaining and much quicker.
 
You're going to need a building permit for your project. Just get an engineer to draw up the plans (preferably an engineer that your county uses as a consultant) instead of hiring an architect. An architect would consult an engineer anyway when drawing up the plans. An engineers stamp on the plans carries a lot of weight with the building department.
 
For resale purposes of your house, you will need a building permit--at least that's how it works in California.
 
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