This hobby and basements. Share your pain.

I have an electric hoist that I bought to help lift 4x9 hardie panel siding to install on the 2nd story of my house last summer. It was a huge help. I'm considering mounting it above the doorway to my basement stairs to help raise and lower cabinets/pins. I'm scared it could rip up the walls pretty quickly though if I can't control the load as it moves.

 
Had to take mine down via the steepest and most mud filled hill in the PNW which is the side of my house one at a time... almost dying everytime. I am never selling this house now.

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I dumped my Toobin' the last time I dealt with moving a game back into the basement through the yard and dealing with a slight hill.

It survived thankfully, but that was the last time I pulled games out to take to a show.

It's not coming out again unless it's being sold.
 
One of my things for buying a house last year is that the basement needed to be a straight shot. Basement ended up being really small so only a few tables are downstairs in the "hangout room". All the uprights are upstairs this time around.

At my folk's house it was also a straight shot, made moving games simple unless they are heavy. At that point it was just having good friends that were also good at helping me move machines.
 
This isn't so much dropping games, but it involves a lesson learned that I wanted to share.

I have a full (non-walk out) basement. This is a first for me, but at the time, it was the house that worked the best for our needs. I was being relocated and the hour and 40 minute drive was a killer. We had a place with a walk-out picked out, but the seller went crazy, so we had to find a different one.

All the games went to the basement, which was protected by a battery back up sump pump. Life was good until my wife called me at work and said "The sump pump alarm is going off." I had her take a picture of the sump control panel.

Main Pump FAIL
Backup Pump FAIL

CRAP. I got permission (I had a reasonable boss), raced home and found the backup battery was shot. I connected it to my 20 amp battery charger and watched the charger trip off as it was trying to charge the battery. The water was at the top of the sump. The charge eventually got the battery out of the mud and got the battery backup sump pump running, and I went out and found a new battery backup system and new battery.

I thought we were in good shape, but water flow into the sump pump was impressive. It ran around every 5 minutes YEAR ROUND. I figured that just came with a full basement. (I was wrong - read on)

We started getting some leakage into our "pit" to the basement, so I had US Waterproofing come in. They dug down to the base of the foundation, and sealed it. When they dug down, they found around 3' of water in that area. They put a sump pump in, but their sump pump failed, so I put my backup in the pit, and pulled all the water I could out. It was pretty dry, but there was a continuous flow into the pit they dug to seal the outside wall.

More leakage, they came out again and injected foam grout.

In the mean time, we had a drought, and one spot in the back yard was green. So I went looking for a lost / buried sprinkler head. What I found was a drain emitter which was buried in the grass. I found it and turned it upward. I thought I solved a problem.

We brought out another company, and found that the drain tiles had been installed without "socks" and they were full of rocks (like 1" diameter river rocks) and silt. A plumbing company came out and got all the rocks out, then the drain company came out and put in a much larger drain.

When they had the space open, water was constantly flowing into the space. I had a sump pump in their running to remove the water.

So I went out to the drain emitter, and removed the cover (no small feat, it was riveted into the pipe) and found the outlet was plugged for around 3' with roots - mostly grass in a thick plug of root mass. I cleared all that out, and went after the other drain emitters. They were also plugged up, so I unplugged all of them, installed pop-up emitters where I could, and now my sump pump runs around 1/hour instead of every 5 minutes.

I think the root cause of my sump pump running so much was that the emitters were plugged. All the gutters in this house are buried in the ground. With the emitters plugged, they would just overflow right to the foundation, which was putting hydraulic pressure on the pit and foundation.

Lesson Learned: If your gutter discharges are buried and connected to drain tile, and your sump pump runs too much, figure out where the drain tiles drain to, and check to see if your outlets are open, or if they were plugged with roots like mine were.

The sump pump now runs maybe once every hour or so. In the winter time, it didn't run for days. The good news is with this fixed, even if the main sump pump fails, it's much less demanding on the battery.

On the battery, they have around a 5 year life limit. I took that first one in to the local auto parts store, and it was dead.

Next time (4 years from now when the next battery reaches life limits) I'll install an AGM battery.

I hope this helps someone.
 
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I have no walkout but the stairs are at least straight, and relatively wide. If I'm patient I'll usually remove the monitor before moving. That helps a LOT. Pins are much scarier for me. Heavier, easier to damage. I rent an Escalera for those. It helps but I wouldn't call it easy. I may hire a mover next time I get a pin.

I had some flooding a while back but was able to get the games on risers before anything was damaged. Since then I took some pretty substantial preventative measures so hopefully that won't be a problem again.
 
Dang! It was almost like a who dunnit murder mystery! Glad you got the water source figured out! We had to have our gutters redone and rerouted that the previous owners had probably never figured out why they were having problems.

The other thing that's harder about arcades in the basement is we're all older, including our friends. I haven't had a healthy line up of friends in like 5 years. We're all learning from each other all the fun ways the body breaks down when you're older.

The strongest guy on the moving crew had his hips replaced at 40! Unfortunately the titanium replacements don't turn you into a stronger bionic muscle man. My coworker had to have his knee replaced because he slipped on an ice cube in the kitchen!

We're breaking our bodies over silly stuff like ice cubes, can't imagine what these arcades and gravity will do to us! 😜

I'll look into the battery back up sump pumps. What we need are spri g loaded arcade lifters. If the sensor on the arcade detects water, a pin is pulled and the arcade will spring up and lift a few inches off the ground to buy us some time!
 
I grew up in a house with an unfinished basement where the floor was wet every single time it rained. It had a failed drain tile system that my parents chose to ignore due to the very high cost of fixing everything. As a result, a dry basement was one of my primary requirements when shopping for a house as an adult. A walkout basement would have been better.

Flash forward to my current basement, I had my primary pump fail at the worst possible time. So when I replaced it, I bought 2 identical pumps. One is a spare with all of the pipes already connected so that it can be dropped in and connected very quickly when the first one fails.
I also installed this device: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Liberty...Water-Powered-Backup-Sump-Pump-SJ10/317442611
It is a BACKUP pump that uses city water pressure to pump out water in an emergency. Ideally it should never run, unless your primary pump fails. The float switch is set about 8 inches higher than my normal sump pump.
I've had it operate only once in the last 8 years during a very long power outage. It wastes 1 gallon of water to suck out 1 gallon of water, and it works really well. It is also FREAKING LOUD, so you know when your primary pump has failed.

Another failure piece in a sump pump system is the "check valve". Every sump pump has one, and they're a mechanical component that does fail. If your pump cycles pretty quickly after shutting off, your check valve may have failed. If you hear water rushing back down after the pump shuts off, the check valve has failed.

Those are my lessons learned. I live in an area where it is very common to see those flooded basement rescue vans parked in someone's driveway after a large storm has rolled through. Then you see rolls of carpet and carpet pad being hauled out shortly thereafter.
 
Yeah, the basement water issues are the pits.

Now that the Qix made it downstairs with some KY lube, my wife seems to think we can get the pin down there.. we all know here how much a pin costs... I'm not sure I want that going down those nightmare stairs. Plus, as mentioned here in other posts, I'm not 21 anymore. The attempt could end up looking like one of Todd Tuckey's push off the roof cab clusters..
 
I grew up in a house with an unfinished basement where the floor was wet every single time it rained. It had a failed drain tile system that my parents chose to ignore due to the very high cost of fixing everything. As a result, a dry basement was one of my primary requirements when shopping for a house as an adult. A walkout basement would have been better.

Flash forward to my current basement, I had my primary pump fail at the worst possible time. So when I replaced it, I bought 2 identical pumps. One is a spare with all of the pipes already connected so that it can be dropped in and connected very quickly when the first one fails.
I also installed this device: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Liberty...Water-Powered-Backup-Sump-Pump-SJ10/317442611
It is a BACKUP pump that uses city water pressure to pump out water in an emergency. Ideally it should never run, unless your primary pump fails. The float switch is set about 8 inches higher than my normal sump pump.
I've had it operate only once in the last 8 years during a very long power outage. It wastes 1 gallon of water to suck out 1 gallon of water, and it works really well. It is also FREAKING LOUD, so you know when your primary pump has failed.

Another failure piece in a sump pump system is the "check valve". Every sump pump has one, and they're a mechanical component that does fail. If your pump cycles pretty quickly after shutting off, your check valve may have failed. If you hear water rushing back down after the pump shuts off, the check valve has failed.

Those are my lessons learned. I live in an area where it is very common to see those flooded basement rescue vans parked in someone's driveway after a large storm has rolled through. Then you see rolls of carpet and carpet pad being hauled out shortly thereafter.
When I re-did the sump pump this time, I found I had 2 check valves. One in the pump, and a separate one above the pump. However, there should only be 1 per pump, so I cut the extra one out and went with what should be there.

I also just installed a natural gas fueled generator. Our electric service is not the most reliable (unless you ask the city utility, where they insist they are the best) so the generator will now back up the battery emergency sump.

Some things I've learned:
1. The battery doesn't get deep cycled very much, so it lasts about 5 years and then it's done. (BTW: This is typical of most batteries these days - the manufacturers know exactly how to make batteries to deliver 340 CCA or whatever for 5 years, and then you're done. It's lean manufacturing - cheaper costs, because they wrung out all the previous margin.)

Solution: Set an alarm in my phone to purchase a new battery at 5 years.

2. The main sump pump (Basement Watchdog) fails after around 5 years. When I last looked in and when it ran, water would spray out the sides. It was still pumping, but once it corrodes that bad, it's only a matter of time until it fails.

Solution: Every year, I pull the cover and watch the sump pump run. If I see water spraying out the side, it's time to replace the system. At 5 years, it's going to be leaking (cast iron corrodes) so I plan to replace it at 5 years. The next replacement will be in 2029 or so.

3. The pit itself has a drain, but the drain can be plugged by leaves and stuff. If that happens on a heavy rain, I can get water high enough to get over the door threshold and flow into the basement.

Solutions:
1. Clean the pit regularly
2. Have the pit drainage improved from one x 1 1/2" drain to add in a 4" x 36" drain trough, with three 1 1/2" drain lines off the bottom. More area, less chance of plugging up.
3. Clean out the drain emitters in the spring and fall.
4. (edited) Added Orbit Flood Sensors to all locations where water can get in, like the door or the water heater or the furnace drain, so I can quickly arrest and address problems. (Before we had the basement pit drain work, this saved me from having water get anywhere near my games - the alarm went off on my watch and phone, and we got down there and got the shop vac and got all the water sucked up before it even reached the carpeting.)
 
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Stairs are not too bad for a basement when you have an escalera. I can bring down and pull games by myself with no real issues.

Originally when I had the house built, they built my basement stairs with a landing that turned 90 degrees to the right to match the upstair stairs.

Good thing is I knew the guy that built these houses and had him frame out my basement to be finished. He knew where all the support beams were, etc.. and was able to straighten my basement stairs. Wish I had more room at the top of the stairs to position games to go down, but I'll take it.
 
Moved 2 years ago to a new house. Moved all of the old games out through a window in our English basement using a ramp and a winch.

New house had a 180 degree staircase with landing which was going to make game moving a pain. Fortunately there was room on the other side of the wall, so I put in the ramp and lowered the games to the basement floor with the winch attached to a stair climbing appliance dolly.

Next house *definitely* needs to have a walk out basement...
 

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Moved 2 years ago to a new house. Moved all of the old games out through a window in our English basement using a ramp and a winch.

New house had a 180 degree staircase with landing which was going to make game moving a pain. Fortunately there was room on the other side of the wall, so I put in the ramp and lowered the games to the basement floor with the winch attached to a stair climbing appliance dolly.

Next house *definitely* needs to have a walk out basement...
If you have your basement finished, you can definitely have them straighten those stairs. Looks like you have plenty of room heightwise, etc..
 
No horror stories yet with my basement and transporting games.

I'd say the biggest problem is my "basement" isn't really a "basement" in the traditional sense. I have two additional bedrooms and a full bath downstairs in what we are calling a "basement." Those rooms are rarely if ever used. So my horror story is I have walls up and space I could be using to expand my arcade. It's a little annoying. Part of me wants to knock the walls down. But then I wonder if my son, when he gets older, will want one of the bedrooms downstairs to get away from everyone. You know, when they get in the rebellious teen years. Lol.

I might have a horror story though when I try to move a Big Blue Gen 1 down there. I honestly don't think it is going to fit on the landing. It is an inch too big (too deep). The cab/control panel just juts out so far. So it might stay in the garage. But that seems like blasphemy, to have a Big Blue in the garage.
 
Some pictures of the project:
Post-US Waterproofing excavation and wall treatment - you can see the water up several feet here.

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Post Leak Pros - who dug up the perimeter of the pit, found the collapsed / full of rocks drain tiles, and at my insistence (based on talking to my buddy who is a civil engineer) installing socked drain tile to prevent this from happening again.

1749525728470.png

The original drain was in the center. The new drain is the black trough in front of the door. Between the two of them, very hard to plug up like it used to - the last time we got water, there was a inch plus pile of tree stuff blocking the center drain (before the Leak Pro work).

This goes from ground level to the basement and the basement has 9 foot ceilings at least.
 
I picked up an Asteroids Deluxe from a basement with crazy steps and basically a non-existent landing with a hard right.
 

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