Isolating parts of the house located underground from the heat of the house can cause freezing and shifting under certain conditions. Wing walls, carport posts, and the like are common frost heaving or ad-freezing candidates because these structural parts of the house are far away from the heat ...
A basement is subject to three strong pressures.Settling is caused by the weight of the house pushing down on the footings and further compacting the soil underneath. This causes no great problem if everything settles together. However, settling can cause foundation and upper wall cracks whe...
Any of the following five factors can make matters worse:-- Thermally conductive soils: Dense soils that hold water fairly well, in contact with the basement wall are asking for trouble. Clay soils are even worse in that they allow migration upward of water through capillary action, the prim...
Wing walls, posts, and concrete steps are common candidates for ad-freezing, even if they go below the frost line. They usually do not have proper granular back-fill around them, they have no weeping tiles under them, and they receive little or no heat from the basement. They are overlooked...
Skylights in a cold climate always cause problems trying to get insulation on the portion of the skylight frame that is above the roof. The more insulation you design into the frame, the smaller the light opening in proportion to the size of the skylight itself, simply because the frame that the...
The depth of the fence posts into the ground must be at least one foot below the frost level for your region. As well, one third of the total length of the post should be in the ground. This means that in mild regions the posts will be well below frost simply because of their length. In regions w...
You have all seen highway signs indicating the period of spring thaw and reduced truck loads throughout the northern US and all of Canada -- or walked across grass that is just beginning to thaw from the winter making deep footprints or tire marks that would never sink like that during a stro...
Condensation or frost on cedar wall shingles on the shady side of the house, early in the morning on clear winter days, bothers many homeowners. They imagine that somehow vast quantities of water are escaping from the house.
In fact, what is happening is that the surrounding air is warming up fa...
On windy days, houses in the Prairies often develop a small frost line on the rug about an inch away from the wall on the north or west side of the house. Here the wind is succeeding in lowering the temperature of the most poorly insulated part of the house -- the floor boards.
In most construct...
A basement that has more than 50 per cent of its height sticking out of the ground is not really a basement. The walls should be treated as ordinary, above-ground walls. The foundations should be treated as slab-on-grade to avoid frost problems.
Interior/exterior insulation combinations can be u...
