Those damn groundhogs

A story in pictures with captions

Unwelcome groundhog made itself at home under the front porch
That is right next to the foundation, which can lead to water and/or basement wall collapse. It’s never just one little hole; it leads to a network of burrows under the whole porch. I will ultimately have to destroy the porch deck and do serious excavation. Notice the dirt stacked up against the joists, about 400 lbs.
Further excavation leads to more tunnels
There is probably a large chamber under the remains of the old concrete porch stoop, but I can only collapse the tunnels. This is backbreaking work.
Part of the old porch stoop stuck up too high. A bit of light pickaxe work fixed that.
Cement blocks fill the collapsed tunnels. The six-sided ones are twenty pounds and go two deep. At right, that wasn’t enough so I also added patio blocks on top. Then scooped in dry concrete to fill the spaces. Not visible in the center of the porch is the old concrete stoop. I suspect the chamber is under that.
Steel mesh being stitched together with zip ties. Also a layer of garden cloth zipped under the mesh before sliding it under the porch.
Burrows filled with cement blocks, ground leveled, layer of ground cloth + steel mesh, and patio blocks on the edge. NOT groundhog friendly. Also had to nip off the old hardened screws with an angle grinder.
Aluminum + butyl rubber flashing on joists. New wood was so wet that driving in screws made for small puddle. Had to bend and twist the boards as I went.
Back in business

Published by

georgewiman

Older technology guy with photography and history background