Floor Replacement

painterman

I have to replace a section of floor that is over top of a well. The floor has rotted away due to a moisture problem. Oh ya did I mention that the well is located in the house under the laundry room.I think that I should place 6 ml poly on before I set the new floor section. OK? or maybe house wrap? Not sure what to do with the joists. I really do not want to trap any moisture in them. Should I vent the floor over the well? Any thoughts on this problem.

Stan

Spot

If the well is no longer in use first thing I would do is fill the well in, then reframe it. If the well is being used then there should be access to it. Look into getting an access cover made out of AL or SS (Plastic or carbon/kevlar Maybe?). There are companys that cast this kind of thing and I have installed some usualy in commercial instances.

Nick H

I "found" a well under a customers floor a few years back, or more accurately it nearly found me. The floor joists were sitting on two old wooden beer crates sitting on a large stone slab about 4 foot square that appeared to be "just" sitting on the dirt. I removed the joists and crates and when I tried to lift the stone the sides of the well crumbled in taking the stone with it. I was a lot faster in those days so it didn't get me.
It was about 20 feet deep 1/4 full of water, we filled it with rubble from the rest of the job and concreted it over.

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Double-A

Long term liability comes to mind here.

Walk away or have a civil engineer design a fix for this and install exactly as specified.

My main reasoning is this... if your design fails and the home or someone is hurt, you're gonna get sued and badly, no to mention the mental pain it would cause you.

Yes, the well has been there all along, and yes the house is still standing, and no, no one has died because of this... yet.

My argument is this... Stuff happens. Washington, D.C. flooded (who'd a thunk it?), New Orleans and Mississippi flooded, the north east coast flooded. No one thought it would happen to them.

Best you can do it walk away or get someone with bazillions in liabilty insurance involved in this.