JR in Nova Scotia has a crack between the slab of his garage floor and the foundation of the house, through which bugs are crawling in. How to seal it.The crack was probably caused by normal shrinkage of the slab after it was poured. The best way to seal the joint with the wall is with something ...
Brian from Cornwall, Ontario just bought a house and when it rains heavily, it flows in the basement. Someone recommended that he dig a trench inside the basement to drain the water away.First of all, see if simply landscaping sloping away from the house, and rain gutters and downspouts away fro...
Tom from Thomasburg, Ontario writes: "I'm thinking about buying a house, however the basement has low ceilings. Is it possible to bust out the cement floor instead of jacking up the house?"Yes you can dig down, but you need to be aware of just how the soil under the house supports the house. Al...
Frost Protected Shallow Foundations
The foundation for a house is generally poured below the soil grade level so that the footing itself is well below the frost depth for any given region and soil type. This protects the house from frost heaving caused by expanding soils beneath the foundation....
Lokesh from Newmaket has a problem with his concrete driveway not being level. It actually flows water into the house. If you don't want to dig it all up and start over (which sometimes is the cheapest solution), you can actually raise the concrete slab to level it or even slope it away from the ...
It is rather surprising to me how little information there is available on sump pumps and more specifically on sump pump pits.
We find two basic kinds installed in homes.
One is just a water collection box where perimeter drains flow and a pump then lifts the water up and away from the house.
...
The most effective technique, one that can save you hundreds of dollars of erroneous digging, is to use a "sonar probe".
This gadget is often combined with a video camera designed to look inside sewer pipes.
An emitter probe is snaked into the drain line. You walk...
The basic message to remember is that Radon is a dangerous cancer causing gas and if found to exist in high concentrations in your house the problem can be solved permenantly and at a reasonable cost. So we don't want to ignore the possibility, we need to test every house in Canada.
7% of homes...
Pyrite and the damage it can cause to homes is a worrisome and expensive problem in certain areas of Quebec and is affecting property values. So just what is the problem?
Pyrite is a mineral, also known as Iron Sulfide or more commonly as Fools Gold for it's looking similar to gold specs in r...
For years we have talked about protecting the sill plate of basement walls from moisture rising up from the concrete. This could be water in the concrete from plumbing spills, or even from under the slab from a high-water table. The old standard ways to protect that bottom piece of wood on t...
