How to Build a Super Top Secret Bunker under Your House. The Prelude...

Step 2 Ten Yards of Sand by Hand out in the Yard

I made a big dent in it, the hole not my head, but that to has a dent but only the size of a tennis ball.

A mere dimple compared to shoveling out 10 Yards of sand by hand.

For a time the pick and shovel bumped the floors joists and my wife started asking about the noises where? What could be causing it and well and this is actually true I have a perforated drain line that runs around the perimeter of the monoslab making up the garage floor, about 40 yards of concrete and at times of heavy rain the water would sometimes back up this pipe and actually cause the bottom row of block to wick some moisture out so one of the factors in choosing this location was that it was in the center of the drain line and I figured when I found it I'd think of something and when she asked of the noises I thought well I'm just digging a hole to run that pipe into so it drains well and keeps the bottom level dry and patted myself on the back for being quick on my mental feet and actually coming up with a valid reason to dig down there.

By now I was pretty proficient in digging using the tower of babble approach and was getting strong again but really 10 yards was making me wish for a better way and then I looked at my 3 inch trash pump and the pile of three inch pipe and by now I had gone down a good 4 feet below the bottom level floor and had hit a seem of very water impervious clay that would hold water for days.

Sometimes you just get lucky!

I also looked up and saw my 1 1/4 central water supply line and added a T and a valve plus a spicket for a hose and I could draw up the max the 2 hp well puts out and fill the hole in no time then while its running start the trash pump with the flexible line in the drink and it pumped as much sand out as I could shovel in, slurry style and I could pump out a yard in five minutes or so plus I stretched the hoses out so it deposited the sand in the low spots of the yard I had always been meaning to fill.

It was surprisingly effective and on a bigger scale I'd get a second trash pump to deliver a large volume of lake water up to the pit since I had to constantly pause to let it fill back up with water.

It also ran my power bill up a bit...

I continued this pouring two feet at a time although you can go 3 or 4 feet without the walls caving in when dealing with clay but better safe than dead so two foot at a time and ever other 2 feet I drill a hole with a water jet at a 45 into the layer of clay then shot a piece of 3 inch pvc 5 foot long again with water, drove a piece of rebar about a foot into the clay past the pipe incase I ever ran into it from the other side I could tie the rebar together and ended up with 12 fingers extending into the seam of clay and tied solidly to the walls rebar so they could almost hover if you dug out from under them.

Once I had about 18 foot of headroom I jetted a ten inch piece of schedule 80 about 15 feet down so I could get an idea where the water would because and by my rough guestimate I was as low as the lake is high so I figured the water was near and sure enough it's almost 25 feet below the dining room floor, very unusual, and apparently the seam of clay is acting as a sort of underground dam since the seam follows the contour of the ground and free of the pressure of a layer of clay above it, it rises up the pipe to about 5 foot below where I stopped going down.

I did this to have a drain.

I would not want to come home and find the bunker has turned into a swimming pool because a pipe broke and the ten inch pipe filled with gravel would have been very effective and require no power.

OCD rears its head and I remember I have some 2 inch sch 40 and about 15 feet of 2 inch well screen and so I shot the well point down about 60 feet then filled around it and the inside if the ten inch pipe up almost to the top with gravel so nothing could fall into it. I temporarily hooked a half horsepower well pump to it and ran about 8 gallons a minute for 30 hours to get all the fine settlement out so I figure it should be able to drain almost as fast as it empties. Plus it could serve as an emergency water source if we ever get slammed by another Katrina and have to go a few months without power since only having to lift water 5 feet can easily be done with a hand operated crank.

Comments

[nigeltech]

You are a resourceful man. Having messed with holes long and wide myself, I admire your tenacity and innovation. I especially liked "I remember I have some 2 inch sch 40..." well doesn't everyone? Best of luck should the unthinkable happen and another Katrina should visit. Regards from New Zealand

[Senseless]

I've got a tree farm near me that I use as a private scrap yard LOL. I've had things sit up there in a clearing a made out of site of the road and my cabin and gone back 12 years later and founds things I needed. When I built the house above it took me seven years by myself mostly but I remember going up there for steel and having to make two trip in a sixteen foot trailer just to haul back rebar, probably worth a few thousand dollars but I bought it from a friend with a salvage company by the pound and paid I think $120 US for it knowing someday I'd need it. I had so much and even some 3/4 and 1 inch lengths I used in the shaft and spots in my footers that I knew I'd be digging under plus a third trip for angle iron and pipe. A lot of the reinforcing in the house is welds tied to a beam that spans my bottom garage, goes though the main floor and ties into the shear walls above and then all the way to the top chord of my trusses so to pull the roof off you need to lift the entire house LOL.

[jaymanx]

wow i have to give you credit thats amazing haha i might do it under a shed but not risking the house to cave but good job!