Bottom Plate Cleanup

Welcome back to another edition of What's Up At Krista's House.  Today's topic - termites, the bottom plate in the basement, and thank GOD for moms who buy the exact ShopVac that Hubs wanted!  Oh yeah - and thank goodness for DeWalt 1-hour battery chargers.   Have I mentioned that there are only FOUR working outlets in the basement now?  1 each for my freezer, washer, and dryer, plus one that has an extension cord in it - and we used it for the ShopVac last night.  So yeah.  9 o'clock last night, I held the flashlight, he vacuumed the bottom plate.  And I don't mean he cleaned it.  I mean he sucked the thing right up.

Poof!  Just like that:

Hubs took hold with his hand and pulled. (And set large chunks into yellow buckets.)

Then sucked up the crumbs.  Oh, and about 50 live termites, too.

Until the 3" ShopVac hose fit UNDER the studs.

The black part is the original (filthy) concrete.  See the 4" gap underneath??

How about  now?  Yup, let's get our nose dirty and really LOOK at this gap.

Check out that gold-ish yellow above-and-to-the-right of Hubs' hand.  That's the aluminum siding.  ... Yeah.

Ignore Hubs. Look at the outside corner there.  There's NOTHING under it.  Good thing Hubs has built that support wall already!!!

And lastly, I'll discuss this corner where that last pic was.  The left side of the photo is The Termite Wall.  Hubs really did suck up between 20 and 100 live termites, among other bugs.  But the wall that Hubs is actually focusing on in the last photo - that wall had absolutely ZERO termite damage.  It was 100% water rot.

See how this one has lots of channels and tunnels?  Termites.

See how this is solid-looking?  It was spongy!  And wet!  But no channels, no tunnels, no termites.

This is the final dump of the ShopVac, at 10pm.  He filled this  container THREE TIMES last night.

We also finally got Every Last Scrap of drywall and unnecessary studs out of the basement.  So after Hubs finished vacuuming up the bottom plate, he took a bleach solution to all the walls down there, in an effort to kill any remaining mold.  It smelled strongly of bleach, so we left the windows open overnight.  I went down this morning and it just smells like a regular basement for the first time since we moved in.  No mold.  No bleach.  Just...earthy.  I <3 my basement now!

Tonight is deck tearout, if the rain holds off.  Then Hubs can tear into the siding and Termite Wall and get pouring on the concrete curb he'll put in.  Stay tuned!!