Recently, several friends of mine acquired an old house just outside of Detroit. The top half ismostly finished, but the basement is almost as bad as a michigan cellar.

Some genius in previous years determined that instead of cleaning the clay-brick foundation of the house up, they were going to slap some mortar and plaster over it and let bygones be bygones. Of course, it follows that not only the brick foundation but also the ramshackle plaster job is dry-rotted out now.

Does anyone have any pearls of wisdom or good sound advice on cleaning the place up, waterproofing it, and drywalling it?

It needs to be liveable, because three people are going to be living down there. Also, there's a HUGE silverfish infestation, so any thoughtd on getting rid of those would be much appreciated.

To top matters off, of course, there's a pipe down there that is cracked or screwed up some how, and if the toilet gets clogged, it spews all sorts of nasty shit in the basement, so thoughts or recommendations on that are also appreciated (please).

Thanks in advance guys

Best to get a specialist in to see about that pipe. For the wall, is it going to be plasterboarded? Or just directly plastered? Get a plasterer in to plaster it (if you try it yourself I can guarantee it will be rougher than burnt toast), it would cut down costs substantially if you took off all the old mortar and plaster first. I'm a plasterer, and I can tell you now the job is 70% removing old shit and 30% actually doing the job itself. If you're going to plasterboard it, You could easily set up a partition wall type set-up against the brickwork, then put the plasterboard up and eventually ames-tape or plaster it.

I was going to try and either plasterboard it or just keep the original brick underbeath. Problem is, the brick is so dry rotted in places I can dig out pieces with my hands. I definately intead to waterproof the whole thing though, and I need to build a wall between the two halves of the basement, which shouldn't be too horribly difficult.

I'm mostly concerned about the rot, and whether or not it makes the foundation unstable. Its an oooold house. Like mid 1800's old, and it wasn't maintained due to its location. Is it possible to replace individual bricks at all, or does dry rot "contagious" (I know there's a better word for it, I just can't think of it).

The Dry rot is caused by a fungus, it sends out root-like threads called hyphae which can penetrate mortar, and pass over pipes and masonry to find timber. The fungus lives on moisture within the structure, making the brickwork and timber, brittle and structurally useless. It generally occurs in damp, badly ventilated areas. In such conditions the growth can easily spread... at an alarming rate. Whole houses have been infected in months.

I'd hate to say you'll need to get a specialist in to see that brickwork, sounds pretty dangerous :P Where plaster is within 1m of a damaged area, or where fungal strands are growing over plaster, hack away the plaster with a hammer and bolster and rub down all brickwork and surrounding timbers and pipes with a stiff wire brush. Collect the plaster dust with a vacuum cleaner, remove it from the house and spray it with a fungicide to prevent the spread of infection. Returning to the affected area, apply two coats of fungicide to all the surfaces you have brushed clean of dust. If it's safe enough you can get this stuff you brush/spray on http://www.icipaints.co.uk/products/info/cuprinol_trade_dry_rot_killer_for_brickwork_and_ma sonry.jsp for the dry-rot on the surface, holes will need to be drilled into the brickwork for anti-dry-rot fluid to be poured into get the rest, however no two basements are the same and naturally there are a range of water-proofing solutions suitable for each environment... putting a damp proof membraine (fancy word for a special plastic sheet, basically) over the existing wall is one possibility (after the dry rot has been treated of course), a cavity is leaft between the original wall and the membrane down which any water can pass, into specially constructed drainage channels and sumps in the floor of the basement. The water is then silently pumped away... It's hard to say without actually seeing it.

I've not got much experience in removing brickwork and what-not although i've found a site about it http://diydata.com/techniques/brickwork/replacing_bricks/replacing_brick.php