Shop Flood

Every couple of years or so my shop will flood. Sometimes it’s because it rains on frozen ground and water seeps between the top of the foundation and my bulkhead door, sometimes the freeze-thaw cycles dislodge some of the bulkhead foundation blocks, and sometimes it just decides to rain all weekend so the ground is saturated, then it really lets loose like a fire helicopter dropped it’s load over our house. That last one pretty much described this weekend. There were times when the taller grass patches looked like reed islands sticking above the surface of a swampy lake. That’s really an accomplishment when our soil is 99% sand.

My heart sunk when I went to putz around in my shop on Sunday morning and I found the puddle on the floor. Rather than actually work on something useful, it was time to clean up the water and figure out how my crafty enemy water found it’s way into my shop again. It’s always the bulkhead door; when we bought the house I thought it would be great for moving materials into my shop, but I’ve found that I’ve repaired it more times than I’ve actually used it.

Of course, I traced the water back to the thresh hold of the outside door. When I opened the door and examined the steps and the block, I couldn’t see any cracks where the water could get in this time. My only thought was that it rained so hard the water level was over the top of the foundation. That was until I looked at the photos I took — I noticed the light shining through the bottom of the metal doors.

Several times on Saturday the wind was gusting so hard that it was almost raining sideways. The wind was really erratic and was changing directions every few seconds. My bet is that the wind drove the rain right under the crack in the door. Score one more way for water to get into my shop. Just when I think I’ve fixed the bulkhead for the last time it ends up surprising me once again.

Last time this happened, my dad suggested I rented a core drill and cut some drain holes in the concrete on the outside of the thresh hold. If water did make it past the bulkhead foundation, it would have somewhere so go besides into the shop. Maybe I should have listened. I guess next time I’m at the rental center, I need to check out my options