We just recently purchased a home that has a fininshed basement. The full bath downstairs has a sump pump to send the sewage to the septic system. There are two things happening and I can not figure them out. I believe they may be related: 1) When we flush the toilet downstairs, it flushes pretty good and the water is flowing to the spetic. You can hear it go through the line (do not ever hear the pump). After you flush it, you start to smell sewage in the garage near the pump, and worse in the basement (septic line runs above drop down ceiling) and closet (where the line goes to septic). It does not smell in bathroom. This is the only time it smells. This line connects to the main sewage line. Why is it smelling? There is no leaks. The sewage vent goes to the attic where it make a right turn and connects to original sewage vent. 2) At randon times through the night, we here this knocking sound. We have concluded that it is the water line. It does not do it when anything is running. It does it mostly at night when things are off. I have shut off valves and when I shut off the basement bathroom water supply, it has not happened for two nights. The knocking sounds like it has a restricted flow, but it has a destintive pattern. Does the sump pump require water from the main line? The knocking takes about 20-30 seconds when it occurs. I have yet to notice the toilet running when it makes the noise, but I have not checked since it has not happened since we shut off the water. Any help would be great!! Thanks Chris

Grout is NOT waterproof. Even sealed grout isn't waterproof. Regrouting will do nothing to stop water from getting behind a tile installation. What stops that happening is waterproofing. 20 years ago, showers weren't constructed with waterproofing. Many of them set tile straight onto greenboard, which was supposed to be "water resistant" drywall. Water damage from such an install is a common well known syndrome that anyone in the trades is very well familiar with. It's sadly an all too common occurrence. The showers that were constructed that way will pretty much be a mass of mold and mildew behind that almost pristine looking wall from the slow water leaks penetrating through the grout. If a soaking tub was used, the issue is exacerbated and there's usually more than just the mold and mildew behind the wall. There's usually a semi-active small leak to whatever is below. A waterproof tub shower needs a tub with a tile flange. The install is like installing shingles on a roof. One layer physically overlaps the other, and that's what keeps the water out. A properly constructed waterproof shower doesn't even actually need tile on the surface to keep water out of the wall cavities. The overlapping waterproof layers will do that without the tile. Technology has changed a lot in 20 years. Educate yourself thoroughly on modern methods of creating a water tight tub shower. Your band-aids may work for a short time, but if the inspector is correct, you will need to know how to do the renovation properly. And even if your bandaids work for a short enough time to get the home listed for sale, you are still required to inform any future buyers of the water damage issues. They will want to deduct the cost of the project from any offers that you might receive. Buyers also typically inflate in their minds the costs of the project, so keep that in mind.

You can definitely do better on that Kitchen quote with Ikea cabinets and butcher block countertops. Ikea has two real wood doors that would look nice in an old house: Torhamn and Lerhyttan. They also have a veneer door, Ekestad, that looks MCM-ish. You'd probably be looking at $4000 for Torhamn /Lerhyttan cabinets and $1000 for the butcher block. You might also want to look at Barker Cabinets, a line of custom made, ready to assemble wood cabinets for reasonable prices ( that's what I'm planning on using for my own kitchen). You can look up "Half Classic Six" blog for an example of a nice kitchen done with Barker. Barker would probably be $6000-$8000 depending on which door style and how many drawers vs. doors. Ikea Torhamn

That happened at my sister’s house. It wasn’t every time, but totally random. Finally discovered the spout had not been caulked or silicones by the plumber. Leaking depended on where exactly the bather stood and splashed water on the wall. Silicone around the faucet/tile meeting has solved the problem. I hope yours is as easy.