Tag Archives: drain basin

Basement, Foundation, plumbing, water barrier, water proofing

Details for drying Foundation

As a research architect at the Building Research Council of the University of Illinois, I am paid to solve some of the more nagging problems that houses have . Frequently , I visit troubled houses, troubled houses, and the most common problem I encounter is poor drainage away from the foundation .This problem became worse as wetlands were developed ; I know what to expect when the name of the developed : I know what to expect when the name of the development is Frog Hollow .

I was once asked yo looked at a house that had settling problems . An addition , built over a crawl space was moving down the relative to the main house. the dirt floor of the crawl space was even with the bottom of the footing. The soil along the of the footing . The soil along the edge along the edge of the footing was in small clumps, unlike the grainy fruity surface of the rest of the floor . I dug away a little more and found drain and found save that reminded me of a prison escape tunnel . In all, 10 ft. of the footing was under minded.

I call my studies of the zone where the house meets the ground building periodontics. Proper preventative care of this area can avoid a variety of problems, some less obvious and a lot more serious than a damp cellar.

For example , a common problem in basements particular those with block walls, is inward buckling . This usually shows up as a horizontal crack one or two blocks below grade , or at window walls , stepping up or down at the corners . A study I did with Illinois State Geological Survey revealed the cause . Clay soils shrink during spells forming a crevice between the soil and the foundation wall. Wind and light rains carry dirt into this crevice . Then, when seasonal rains come, the soils swells back to original dimension, plus the increment of added soil . Over time , the walls watched inward and eventually buckles. You avoid this problem by keeping the soil next to the foundation dry.

Slabs suffer from water problems , too. Garage floors, for example , commonly crack at the outside corners near where gutters drain. This cracking may be due to upward expansion of water directly below the corner. It can also be due to adhesion lifting of the perimeter wall, a situation occurring when saturated soil freezes fast to the foundation wall . The soil nearest the surface is the first freeze , and as the cold water continues , deeper soil freezes. This saturated soil by 8 percent as it freezes, exerting a tremendous force that lifts the soil frozen to the wall above. The wall lifts and cracks the slab .

Moisture damage around the foundations is not limited to masonry problems . In 1947 , Ralph Briton , the government researcher whose work led to current attic ventilation standards , showed that water vapor traveling upward from damp foundations caused moist attic moisture problems . He colluded that if attics are isolated from wet foundations, the standard 1:300 venting ratio could be reduced to 1:3000 .

Kitchens and Bathrooms New, Remodeling Kitchens and Bathrooms

Drain Plumbing Water Damage Clean up Sewage Back up Problems

Drain problems causation and trouble shooting

What could cause gurgling in a rarely used wet-bar sink when water drains in the kitchen at one end of the house or in a bath at the other end? Chances are that the wet bar isn t vented or that its vent stack is blocked. You could check by looking for a plumbing vent pipe protruding through the roof above the area. It will look like the ones above kitchen and bath.

Sluggish drainage is one symptom of this problem. Sewer smell is another . When water drains in the kitchen or bath , it siphons water out of the wet bar s drain trap , which produces a gurgling noise. Without the seal provided by water in the drain trap , sewer gas can rise up through the sink and into the house .

If you don t use the wet-bar sink because of these problems , call a plumber to install an auto-vent. With this in place, the other drains won t siphon water out the trap. If you don t use it and don t really want it , have the plumber remove it and close the drain connection . In the meantime you can reduce the sewer gas smell by periodically pouring some water in the wet bar drain to keep the trap full.

Big Backups

Even with vapor venting, trap placement , and pipe sizing , drains still may be slow. This indicates a big blockage farther down the line. The best indicator that a blockage is in the waste line is sewage gurgling up through floor drains and basement fixtures. Solving this problem depends on your septic system type.

If you have a septic system with a leach field , your septic tank may need to be pumped out . This is a job for professional, but it s important to be around when the pumping concludes . Ask the pump operator if the tank was filled with enough greasy scum to cause the drain problems. If not , the pipes in the leach field itself may be the problem . Digging them up may be the only solution .

If your tied into a municipal sewage system , check to see whether any work has been done on your branch line lately . If so , it could have caused problems with your drainage , If not, tree roots may have gotten in the pipes . Hire a professional to auger the line and pull out the tree roots; thereafter , flush copper sulfate root treatment through the line twice year .

Do it yourself

There is snaking the kitchen line , clean out the pop up drain plugs hair clogged.. To access the trip waste linkage above the drain tub. If you cant get your toilet unclogged may have to remove the toilet snake it apply a new wax ring and reset it . Don t understand that process let a plumber handle it is just cheaper and safer, good luck.