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What Will A Home Inspection Do For Me? Happy house hunting!
What are they? This article was written by Steve Jacoby. Water
Issues Around a
Home: This article was written by Steve Jacoby. Water Issues Around The Home: The Interior View Today’s houses are being built very air tight and energy efficient. Metal doors, thermo pane windows, builders house wrap, and high efficiency insulations are just a few of the technologies we consider the norm these days. We expect these cutting edges to keep our power bills minimal. But can we over due the process? Can we make our homes so tight that we create an absence of normal and appropriate ventilation? Can we hold on to so much heat, and the associated moisture, that our homes become polluted and “wet” by comparison to previously “normal” standards? And then perhaps we create mold issues we have never had before? A myriad of new technologies, with their potential to hold air, heat, and moisture, present us with challenges we could not have imagined even 15 years ago. And there are some fundamental moisture “facts” that now invite our awareness. The first is this: where ever there is air, there is moisture. This seems simple to comprehend but consider the consequences. Even in the desert air there will be some moisture. Bozeman finds itself in the high country desert yet we still have humidity, even in the hot afternoons of August. And the second is: where ever you have a temperature differentiation, you will have condensation. Read, “will have”, condensation. This looks as simple as the condensation on your ice tea glass on the back deck on a hot afternoon in July. Houses are about temperature differences. That’s why we live in them. They are warm inside when it’s cold outside. They are cooler inside often when it’s hot outside. And even within a house there are temperature differences. The crawl space below certainly is not the same temperature as the kitchen above. The living room is likely cooler than an upstairs bedroom. And you can bet your mortgage that the attic space above will be cooler then the rest of the home in the winter, and, warmer than the rest of the home in the summer. So, its a given. If a house has air inside it, it will also have moisture inside it. And that moisture will always be in some state of temperature differentiation, or, “condensation”. The only questions are, “Where?”, “How much?”, and, “How can we handle it?”. And consider these additional sources of moisture. A clothes dryer throwing warm moist air into a crawl space rather than outside the building envelope. A bathroom shower exhaust fan vented into the attic space rather than through the roof surface to the outside. A slow unnoticed leak in a water supply line. Evaporation from the uncovered soil in the crawl space. Cooking up a pot of spaghetti on the kitchen stove without a cover. Your dishwasher with hot steamy rinse water leaking out around the front door panel. Your plants that breathe much the same way you do giving off moisture in order to live. Or, a humidifier. Given the basic potential for moisture in a house, plus all the things we do that can add water, and, current standards for a “tight” energy efficient homes, it’s no wonder we are faced with explosive growths of mold populations. Perhaps we should drop the term “residential dwelling” and replace it with a more appropriate term, like “green house” or “thermos bottle”? Maybe we’re lucky we don’t have more mold than we do? What to do? Several potential solutions may be available. Some pretty inexpensive and user friendly. And some others more expensive and best addressed with the help of a trained technician. How about simply opening a window a crack even when the outside temperature is below freezing? Let some warm moist air out. Yes. I know. The utility bill suffers. But perhaps the mold remediators may be held at bay. Perhaps there is a balance somewhere? Perhaps the single best home improvement value is a vapor barrier in your crawl space. For the minimal cost in money and time, the returns are huge. Research suggests that a vapor barrier, a simple plastic sheet placed on top of the soil, perhaps not even sealed or fastened around the edges, may drop crawl space humidity by 90% and attic space humidity by 50%. This is a cheap fix to minimize the incoming flow of a significant cause of moisture in your home. Providing a dedicated “make up air” supply to the gas furnace or gas water heater in your crawl space can also be significant. There are two important advantages here. For one, it creates a constant flow of dry outside air passing through the space on its way to being burned and expelled up the exhaust vent. And two, with copious amounts of fresh air, gas is burned more efficiently and safely in the burner. Carbon monoxide is a combustion by product. With a proper mix of air and gas, the potential for carbon monoxide poisoning diminishes significantly. The single most important technology to keep your house dry is your attic ventilation system. Sooner or later, winter or summer, dry house or wet house, crawl space or not, night or day, most of the moisture in your house will make its way to your attic. Or into your roof structure if you don’t have an attic. Warm air rises. And along with it goes the moisture. It may not rise through your interior kitchen space or living room so readily because you’ve got them so encapsulated and tight. But you can bet this air will move up inside the walls, around the framing, through the wiring, the pipes, and around the trim work. From the crawl space, the laundry, the bathrooms, it will likely all end up in your attic sooner or later. So your attic is very important to your home’s ventilation system. And if done well this system is pretty inexpensive in the grand scheme of things. And it works passively with no maintenance, 24-7. Make sure you have plenty of inlet air capacity at the underside of your roof eves. Make sure you have plenty of outlet capacity through roof jacks or ridge venting, or gable end vents. And inside, vent chutes will help the air flow from lower to higher. As air enters the roof eves lower down, it will be heated and passively rise up through the attic to exhaust through the outlet vents at the top. This happens the same way whether its a hot July afternoon with temperatures in the 90’s or during a night in January with temperatures outside in the “teens”. Its the 10-15 degree differentiation in temperature between the bottom and the top of the attic space that makes this passive chimney effect work. And, as the air passes through, it carries moisture with it. This is a great way to keep your house on the dry side. In the old days, my grandmother made her own sausages. At one point in the process, she hung them in the attic to dry for several weeks in the winter. The dryness in her old drafty house was perfect for sausages! Yum! Yum! A final thought here ... radon, surprisingly enough, may be a plus in some moisture situations. Active radon remediation systems require exposed soil areas to be sealed, then pumped free of radon gas. In this process, the fringe benefit is that moisture is pumped out along with the gas. Voila! Good bye soil moisture! Keep track of moisture in your house and I believe you’ll be keeping track of some of your home’s major maintenance issues. Humidity levels of 30-35% seem to be a nice balance between the “to dry” space where folks have extra colds, dry skin, and sinus infections, and, the “too wet” space where mold becomes more probable. Be sure and check with your plants and your kids to see where you want to end up. Humidity gauges are available at most hardware stores. This article was written by Steve Jacoby. A Commentary On Septic Systems .... A private septic system may be necessary for your home. There are significant expenses involved in its construction and maintenance. Some serious issues can be avoided with minimal expense and modest changes in the behavior patterns of those people using the system. These issues may affect your equity. Here is some basic information to get you started. In general there are three basic types of septic systems. The first two may be “remodeled” to improve their efficiency. 1. The first is a common holding tank attached to a traditional drain field. This system depends on gravity to make it work. As waste water from the house flushes into the tank, solids sink to the bottom, the solutions within the tank are agitated so as to keep the microbes active, and gray water overflows the top of the tank. This overflowing gray water drains into a field of buried plastic tubes with holes drilled in them. By gravity this fluid leaches through the tubes and into the surrounding soil. Here in the Gallatin Valley many building lots are a minimum of 1 acre because it takes that much surface ground and soil to drain an average house safely and adequately. 2. The second system uses the same holding tank as the first. But in this case, the drain field is replaced by a “sand filter”. A “sand filter” starts with a large pot hole dug into the ground. This hole is lined with special materials. It is then filled with a special type of sand. Gray water from the septic tank flows into this basin. As the gray water makes its way through the “filter”, microbes on the surface of the sand particles process the effluent so that the overflow is eventually made safe before it leaches into the surrounding soil. The above two systems may be remodeled and combined with a third process to increase efficiency. This process, called a “dose process”, pressurizes the distribution of fluids through either the leach field or the “sand filter”. This pressurization is accomplished by the installation of a pump at or near the exit orifice of the tank. The pump may be actuated by the rising level of fluids in the septic tank or it may be set to actuate by an electric timer so that fluids are dispersed at regular intervals. In either case, the downstream distribution is under pressure allowing for more efficient dispersal of effluent than gravity by itself. An electrical supply is required for the pump to operate. And alarm systems are generally provided to signal maintenance issues. 3. The third system is characterized by an amalgam of higher technologies. Microbial cultivation “curtains” are placed within a specially designed “catch basin” or holding tank. As waste water is pumped and “managed” through several stages within the system, microbes, dispersed over the curtain surfaces, efficiently process the waste material changing it into a clear safe odorless effluent you may used for irrigation. These systems require very little space, are generally installed below ground with a service panel provided for efficient maintenance access, and, have higher initial installation and down stream maintenance expense. An electrical supply is required for their operation. Alarm systems are provided. And often, telemetry control and monitoring panels are used to signal any necessary maintenance. On going maintenance is required with any system. The most common routine expense is to occasionally remove the solids that collect in the bottom of the holding tank. Some materials that enter the tank are not broken down by the microbes working there. If not removed, these solids may overflow and plug the “dispersal” components of the system. Replacing a drain field, sand filter, pump and/or internal baffles because they have become plugged can cost several thousand dollars. So it’s prudent and wise to pump these materials out before they cause the whole process to back up and flood your back yard or basement. The process looks like pumping these solids up, out, and into a tank truck so that they can be transported to an approved disposal area. Generally this is recommended every 2-3 years depending on the design and rate of usage within the system. With solids in the tank constantly an issue, it’s wise to remain vigilant about what is flushed into the system. Human waste, toilet paper, and gray water from the kitchen and laundry are the basics. These the system is designed to handle. It is likely that anything else, i.e. paper towels, feminine sanitary products, organic solvents, Q-tips, dental floss, etc. will present more of a need to pump than less. Be aware and make decisions accordingly. Something else to consider. Your existing septic system was likely approved by the county health department prior to your home being built. It may have been sized proportionally to the number people expected to occupy the home. Often this is done by correlating the designed capacity to the number of bedrooms in the home. If later, additions were made that allowed more people to use the system, like adding more bed rooms or more bathrooms, the existing tank and dispersal system may be challenged to handle the added load. It may function, but marginally. Or, its life expectancy may be significantly diminished proportional to this additional use. To add capacity or build an additional system, may be expensive. Be thoughtful when considering the purchase of a home which has been extensively remodeled. Significant “hidden” expense may be involved. This is not rocket science. Follow some basic care. Be careful about what you put into the system. And you’ll likely minimize unnecessary expenses and system failures. This article was written by Steve Jacoby. Whether you are a home owner, a home buyer or realtor, I hope this article will answer some of your questions about septic tanks and leach fields. The first question to ask is what type of system does the house in question have? If you live within the city limits of a municipality, chances are you are hooked up to the city’s sewer system. You can verify this by contacting the city water/sewer department. They should also be able to tell you the approximate yearly cost if the house has been occupied for a year or more. The city is responsible only for system maintenance outside the property boundaries unless a utility easement is designated on the subdivision plat or by a documented legal easement. If you are not within the city boundary and the property is one acre or more (minimum size by regulation) you may have an individual septic system. If you are on a half acre or larger and two or more houses are on one system, you are probably on a community system. Both of these systems have similar working parts. They each have a septic tank the majority of which are made of concrete of varying sizes; some type of piping from the house to the tank and piping to the leach field either by gravity or pumped flow and a leach field somewhere in the vicinity to distribute the effluent or gray water from the septic tank. A malfunction to any one of these parts can be costly and smelly. The first step in getting information about your septic system is to contact your local county health department. In Gallatin County it is located in the county court house in Bozeman at 311 West Main. Their phone number is 406-582-3120. Gallatin County has required septic tank permits since 1966. The permit process has been revised several times since then and now requires that each septic system be certified by a professional engineer, site evaluator or installer all of whom are required to be registered in the state of Montana. (See Gallatin City/County Health Code – Chapter3, Section 7 or MDEQ-4 Pamphlet found under Wastewater Treatment Regulations). These documents can be found on the internet at the following address: http://gallatincomt.virtualtownhall.net/Public_Documents/gallatincomt_environmental/Regulations Prior to any backfilling the installed septic system is checked and approved by a county inspector. An “as-built” drawing of the system must be filed by the installer with the county health department showing dimensions, location of buildings, wells, flowing water, etc. and including the location of the replacement leach field. Depending on the complexity of the septic system there may also be specifications and engineering drawings. The next question involves leach fields. Why do I need a replacement leach field? Leach fields are the weak link to each of the eleven types of systems listed in Gallatin City/County Health Code, Chapter 3. See the above web site to view this document. They come in various configurations depending on the soil type, depth to the water table, slope of existing ground, and, how fast water percolates into the underlying soil. The majority of leach fields are of the simple variety but if your system is one of the minority and has a pump or a sand filter leach field or both or one of the other types, there were extenuating circumstances that required their installation. Because they are more expensive to install and replace, this should be a red flag to ask additional questions of the county health department, the design engineer, and/or installer. Gallatin City/County Health Department has various pamphlets and regulations for sale that describe the criteria and standards for septic systems. Once again, they can be reached at 406-582-3130 or you can view these regulations on the internet by computer at: http://gallatincomt.virtualtownhall.net/Public_Documents/gallatincomt_environmental/Regulations Owners of septic systems should obtain septic tank maintenance recommendations published by MSU Extension Service, which are available through your county extension service office. Two of these publications are Septic tank and Drainfield Operation and Maintenance and Septic Tank Inspection and Troubleshooting. The extension office for Gallatin County is located in Bozeman at the Fairgrounds. They can be contacted at 406-582-3280. In addition I have two recommendations: 1. Be as informed as possible as to the location of your septic tank and the location and type of leach field installed for the system. 2. The access hatches of the septic tank (one for each chamber) should be raised to ground level and the leach field should be delineated on its corners. You should make sure these areas and the connecting pipes are never driven on or compacted in any way. It may take 3 or 4 years before a problem shows up on the surface. Additionally the septic system (septic tank, leach field and associated plumbing) should be kept clear of all trees and bushes to preclude the clogging up of the system prematurely and also in case you have to dig up the pipes. Also, if you are building a house that requires a sand filter type leach field there is a newly approved experimental pre-treatment add on that will extend the life of your sand filter. It is called Advantex-AX series treatment system. If you are interested in this new system, a brochure is available at Anderson Precast & Supply, Inc., 5851 East Baxter Lane, Bozeman MT. There phone number is 586-5087. It is my sincere wish that anyone with a septic tank/leach field system will be better informed and prepared to ask the right questions using the above information. This article was written by Don Biehl. Sand filters are an effective way to treat wastewater. They work along with conventional septic tanks and drain fields to process household waste water and return “cleaned” effluent back to the surrounding environment. Sand systems have been used for more than 30 years across the United States. In many cases they protect the drain field because failure will occur in the sand filter before the drain field is significantly affected. A single-pass sand filter system pretreats septic tank effluent by filtering it through sand before sending it to the drain field. Various filter types and designs have been tested. Some treatment filters have used peat, pea gravel, crushed glass, and experimental media. But sand is inexpensive, the best understood, and the most predictable. Treatment mechanisms inside a sand filter include physical filtering of the suspended solids, ion exchange processes that remove, add, or change chemicals during the processing of the effluent, and, organic decomposition performed by soil dwelling bacteria living in the sand. Since wastewater leaves a sand filter system as high-quality effluent, the soil in the drain field may be better able to accept it. Consequently, the drain field may last longer. Because sand filters produce cleaner wastewater, they are useful for sites that have been compacted, cut, or filled. They are an attractive alternative for environmentally sensitive areas like those near lakes, in shallow bedrock areas, aquifer recharge areas, and within close proximity to wellheads. Sand filter systems may also be successfully retrofitted into drain fields that have failed because of excessive organic loading. Here’s how the process works. Sewage flows from the house into a conventional septic tank. Effluent from the septic tank then over flows into a pressured tank with a pump. The pump spreads the effluent over the top surface of the sand which is enclosed within a watertight container. A timer is used to dose the filter intermittently with wastewater. As the effluent is “dosed” to the sand surface, it tends to draw oxygen from the atmosphere through the sand. This allows the microbial community living there to breath and help in the processing. They can be very productive! As effluent seeps through the sand layers, it is filtered, treated by some of the chemistry there, and processed by the microbes. So what comes out the other end is more easily handled by the drain field. Sand filter systems cost more to install than conventional gravity septic systems. You need all the main traditional components. Then you add the sand system components which add a step up in the level of technology. So you have the initial cost of a conventional system along with the added cost of the sand filter components. In addition, these systems are more expensive to maintain. Maintenance includes a routine inspection of all the components, then cleaning and repairing as needed. Visual inspection of the effluent is recommended occasionally and at times laboratory analysis may be advised. A flow meter and timer might be installed and periodically checked to ensure that the right amount of effluent is being applied to the system. Daily running costs for a sand filter are based on the operation of a small submersible pump and average less than a dollar per month for an average size home. Overall operational costs of $200-$500 per year include pumping and cleaning the septic tank, repairs to the dosing pump, the cost of the electricity needed to operate the system, maintenance of the electrical components, and the eventual cost of replacing the sand itself as it becomes clogged with solids. This article was written by Matt Chase. With this article, I want to introduce you to several of the basic concepts and components in your home’s electrical system. I also want to describe some pieces that insure the electrical safety and security of your home. Though a wiring diagram or electrical blueprint may appear confusing, it is easy to picture electricity running through your home like water flowing down a braided river. The main feed conductors bring electricity into the system at an exterior entry point where you find the electric meter provided by the power company. From this meter base, cables carry current to the distribution panel. Here the current is broken up into branch circuits that carry electricity throughout your house. Before the current flows into the branches, it first passes through circuit breakers that protect each branch. These breakers are safety devices as well as “on/off” switches. In the event of an overload, they will shut off automatically. Or you can control them manually by simply switching them “on” and “off”. Each branch circuit feeds outlets, appliances, and switches in a given area of your home. After the current flows through the bulbs, toasters, and TV’s in your house, it flows back into the main distribution panel, back through the meter base outside, and returns to the power company. Now let’s consider some of the technical and safety aspects of the components that make up this system. Let’s start with the main feed wires. Most main feed wires are aluminum. This is a good use for aluminum as it is relatively inexpensive, light weight, and conducts electricity well. However, there is one drawback that invites caution. Where aluminum cable and ferrous metals are joined, often within the distribution box, oxidation may form. With oxidation may come heavy current loads. With heavy current loads may come excessive heat build up and possible fire issues. The system will still automatically try to carry its assigned voltage but the oxidation will restrict some voltage flow. So avoiding this oxidation is important. Fortunately this is done simply, in any one of several ways. One way is to coat the aluminum wire and its associated fitting with an anti oxidant paste. This restricts the presence of oxygen at the point where the two dissimilar metals are joined. Oxidation is diminished to a safe level. Another way is to use a special alloy metal fitting/lug in the panel box. The metallurgy of this special lug is more similar to the aluminum cable it attempts to hold. Now that the two metals are not so different, there is no oxidation. And a third way is to use a special circuit breaker that is designed to use either copper or aluminum wire. This concept is much the same concept as the special metallurgy in the lug, only now the special metal is put inside the circuit breaker. Oxidation is avoided. Running large diameter aluminum cable into a home is normal, appropriate, and meets current codes and manufacturers standards. And at one point, not too long ago, we thought that using aluminum wire for all our smaller branch circuits “downstream” of the breakers would be reasonable too. But for a number of reasons this didn’t work. Safety issues were challenging in these smaller circuits. And aluminum wiring in branch circuits, although common in some applications, is generally not done. If you purchase a home with aluminum branch circuit wiring, be thoughtful and suspect. Safety issues may need to be addressed. And some insurance companies will not insure your home. Another element of your electrical system are some special circuit breakers you may find in the distribution panel. They are called GFCI and AFCI breakers. GFCI stands for “Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter”. AFCI stands for “Arc Fault Circuit Interrupter”. The GFCI is designed to protect people from severe or fatal electric shocks. A GFCI detects ground faults. It can also prevent some electrical fires and reduce the severity of others by interrupting the flow of electric current. An unintentional electric path between a source of current and a grounded surface is referred to as a "ground-fault." Ground faults occur when current is leaking into the ground somewhere. Literally, electricity is escaping into the ground under your feet. If your body provides a pathway to the ground for this leakage, you could be injured, burned, severely shocked, or electrocuted. Your hair dryer in the bathroom where water provides such a desirable grounding system, is an example of this kind of risk. When the GFCI notices that current flow is abnormally high to the grounded “fault”, it interrupts the circuit flow immediately and automatically. This way you don’t end up trying to imitate a light bulb! Or, your hair dryer! The AFCI breaker is a bit different. An AFCI will shut off a circuit if it arcs or shorts at a much lower level for a longer period of time. This looks like putting your whole entertainment system on a very small extension cord that is 50 feet long. There is simply not enough wire to carry all the necessary current for your system. As things heat up and the current flow over time is processed by the breaker, it eventually shuts down to protect both you and your system. GFCI’s are intended to reduce the likelihood of fire when a problem current flow is not high enough to trip a regular breaker or a GFCI. There is a difference between a GFCI and an AFCI breakers. GFCI’s are personnel protection intended to reduce the likelihood of electric shock to you. AFCI's are intended to reduce the likelihood of fire caused by electrical arcing faults. Combination devices that include both AFCI and GFCI protection will become available soon. GFCI’s may be installed within your electrical distribution panel. Or they may be a part of the duplex outlet in your kitchen, bathroom, or garage. These are the ones that have the little push buttons in them. They are generally installed in circuits where water is close by. Water is a wonderful and efficient source for electricity to “ground”. GFCI’s help us be safer when we use electricity near a water source. Be aware! AFCI’s can be installed in any 15 or 20-amp branch circuit and are currently available as circuit breakers with built-in AFCI features. In the near future, other types of devices with AFCI protection will be available. If a GFCI receptacle is installed on the load side of an AFCI, it is possible for both the AFCI and the GFCI to trip on a fault if the current exceeds the limit for both devices. It is also possible for the AFCI to trip and the GFCI not to trip. In this case, there may be enough long term current flow to trip the AFCI but not enough to trip the GFCI. However, safety would not be compromised. A third major element to your electrical system is the “ground” system. The term "ground" refers to a connection to the earth, which acts as a reservoir of charge. A ground wire provides a conducting path to the earth which is independent of the normal current carrying path within an electrical appliance. As a practical matter in household electric circuits, a ground wire runs between the electrical neutral at the service panel and the outlet in the wall. This is the third round hole in a common duplex outlet. It is also the uninsulated bare wire in the 3 wire cable of Romex strung throughout your house to all the fixtures and outlets. It is connected to the electrical neutral at the service panel to guarantee a low enough resistance path to trip the circuit breaker in case of an electrical fault. Attached to the case of an appliance, it holds the voltage of the case at ground potential. This protects against electric shock. The ground wire and breaker are standard safety devices used within modern electrical circuits. Why is the ground wire necessary? The appliance will operate normally without the ground wire because it is not a part of the conducting path that supplies electricity to the appliance. In fact, if the ground wire is broken or removed, you will normally not be able to tell the difference. But if high voltage has gotten in contact with the case, there may be a shock hazard. In the absence of the ground wire, shock hazard conditions will often not cause the breaker to trip unless the circuit has a ground fault interrupter in it. Part of the role of the ground wire is to force the breaker to trip by supplying a path to ground if a "hot" wire comes in contact with the metal case of the appliance. In the event of an electrical fault that brings dangerous high voltage to the case of an appliance, you want the circuit breaker to trip immediately to remove the hazard. If the case is grounded, a high current should flow in the appliance ground wire and trip the breaker. This is not quite as simple as it sounds! Tying the ground wire to a ground electrode driven into the earth may not be sufficient to trip the breaker. The U.S. National Electric Code, Article 250 requires that ground wires be tied back to the electrical neutral at the service panel. So in a line-to-case fault, the fault current flows through the appliance ground wire to the service panel where it joins the neutral path, flowing through the main neutral back to the center-tap of the service transformer. It then becomes part of the overall flow, driven by the service transformer as the electrical "pump", which will produce a high enough fault current to trip the breaker.This article was written by Matt Chase. Crawl Spaces: To Vent or Not to Vent Current building practices lean towards structures that are much more air tight than ever before. In the process, we are taking for granted many technologies and materials that were not available even a few years ago. Metal doors, thermo pane windows, builders wrap, heat exchangers, condensing furnaces and high technology blown insulations are the norm for both remodeling and new construction projects. These new materials and technologies are making it possible to save more energy than ever before. Our structures have become very efficient. But while we have been increasing our energy efficiency and encapsulating our structures with gusto, using higher technologies that are intricate, profitable, energy saving, and sometimes at the cutting edge of new material applications, we have also been experiencing higher rates of mold infestation, interior environmental contamination, and, moisture related structural damage. Health issues abound. Concern for moisture related issues runs high. And our learning curve on the myriad issues involved seems to stretch steeply in front of us all. No where are these issues more acute than in a typical crawl space here in Bozeman. Moisture and contamination questions in a crawl space are particularly significant because moisture and air in a crawl space invariably, by heat and/or convection, rise upwards throughout the entire house. So in some ways, handling these issues in a crawl space may help address moisture and contamination issues throughout the entire structure, from the kitchen to the attic. These questions are being considered by a multitude of people associated with the housing industry. Builders, buyers, realtors, engineers, inspectors, and architects are all concerned and pursuing fundamental data on how to treat this influx of technology and some of its implications. At a vortex of these challenges, resides The National Energy Code, disseminated and serviced and by the Federal Government. This National Energy Code is embraced by both The State of Montana and the local building inspection department here in Bozeman. If you’re inclined, there are two short publications available at the Bozeman building department offices, that will introduce you the specifics of the arguments at hand. The first is entitled, “Residential Buildings energy Code Summary 2005”. And the second is an article found in the City of Bozeman building division news letter of June 2005 entitled “City of Bozeman Adopts 2003 International Energy Conservation Code”. Within these two articles are two options described for handling insulation and ventilation issues in a crawl space. Parameters are tight for each option. And there is much discussion of the details within each. An additional piece here is that enforcement is dramatically different than paradigms of the past. Computer programs are being enrolled to enable verification that particular combinations of technologies have been installed by the contractor. Labeling at the building site is required to show compliance with both state and city requirements. And although the bulk of this new process is geared for “new” construction, many of these requirements are being applied to major remodeling projects where energy conservation concepts may be applied successfully. Crawl spaces may now be created in only two distinct flavors. Builders are given the choice of either “ventilation” or “encapsulation”. You can let air pass through the space, or, you can seal up the space like a thermos bottle and heat it like you do the rest of the house. When the space is ventilated with holes or “boxes” through the foundation wall, which allows outside air into the space, some other ingredients are required to satisfy the new codes. For one, the bottom of the floor deck immediately above must be insulated. For two, all the water lines and the ductwork for the furnace must be insulated. The concept here is simple. If cold air is allowed into the space with some potential to keep the space dry, insulation needs to be applied as an energy conservation measure. Can you imagine how challenging it is to wrap all the water pipes, seal all the ductwork, and wrap all the heating ventilation components? But if you do that, the code will allow you some fresh air into the space. The second alternative is encapsulation. In this modality, you are not allowed ventilation boxes to the outside. The concept here is to encapsulate the space, insulate it, then apply a prescribed air ventilation or heat source to the space. It looks like this. No vent boxes to the outside. Exterior foundation walls and rim joists are insulated. The dirt floor below has a vapor barrier. All main floor deck penetrations and ductwork are sealed. Then, a heat source, without a return air supply is installed. Or an exhaust fan may be used to pull air outwards. These are the two choices for a new crawl space. You can let the air flow through but you need to apply a lot of insulation to various components. Or you can encapsulate the entire space and heat it. On some level this is an amalgam of technologies both new and old. And I suspect the jury is still out on how all the details will dress out. Call me in 5 years! Maybe we’ll understand more about the whole process by then? This article was written by Don Biehl
and Steve Jacoby. You cannot see, smell, or taste radon but it still may be an issue in your home. When you breathe air containing radon, you increase your risk of lung cancer. The Surgeon General of the United States has warned that radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the United States. In February 1998, the National Academy of Sciences released its report on radon and lung cancer: The Health Effects of Exposure to Indoor Radon. This Academy is an independent, non-governmental, scientific organization. The NAS estimates that radon causes between 15,000 and 22,000 lung cancer deaths each year in the United States. And that 12 percent of all lung cancer deaths are linked to radon. Their report concluded that radon is second only to smoking as the leading cause of death due to lung cancer in the US. Radon is a radioactive gas that has been found in all parts of the United States. It comes from the natural breakdown of uranium in soil, rock, and water, and can enter into the air that you breathe. Radon typically moves up through the ground and into your home through cracks and other holes in the foundation. Radon may also enter your home through well water. And your home can trap radon inside. Any home can have a radon problem. New and old homes, well-sealed and drafty homes, and homes with or without basements may have notable levels of radon. You and your family are most likely to receive the greatest radon exposure from your home. That is where you spend most of your time. Nearly 1 out of every 15 homes in the United States is estimated to have an elevated radon level. That means a level greater than 4.0 pCi/L. Elevated levels of radon gas are not uncommon in central Montana. The US EPA has created a three tier rating system to help us define the level of radon risk by state and by county. These zone classifications are based upon being able to predict the likelihood of finding certain ranges of radon concentrations when conducting short term measurements. These short term tests are those often used in a real estate sales transaction. Zone 1 is equal to or greater then 4.0 pCi/L. Zone 2 is between 2.0 pCi/L and 4.0 pCi/L. And Zone 3 is less than 2.0 pCi/L. As a state, Montana is rated as a Zone 1. As a county, Gallatin county is rated as a Zone 1. But you cannot predict radon levels based on state, local, and neighborhood radon measurements. Do not rely on radon test results taken in other homes in the neighborhood. Homes which are next to each other may have different radon levels. Testing is the only way to find out what your home's radon level is. And re-testing is recommended if the last test was done more than two years ago. Re-testing is also recommended if the home has been recently renovated or altered. Especially if the remodeling involved work at the lowest level in the structure. This is where radon entry points raise the most concern. Also, if someone plans to live in this lowest level and the previous test was done on a higher level, you should consider re-testing. The risk of developing lung cancer from radon exposure depends both on how much radon is present and how long you are exposed. The higher the radon level or the longer the time of exposure, even if the levels are relatively low, the greater the risk. Exposures up to 4.0 pCi/L may present some risk of contracting lung cancer to more sensitive occupants, especially children. Recently, the US Congress set as a goal the lowering of radon levels in buildings to equal the levels of outside air. This is an exceptionally aggressive goal. However, it indicates the degree of concern the EPA has regarding the risks posed by radon. When tests are performed in different seasons or under different weather conditions, the initial screening and follow up tests may vary considerably. Radon levels may vary significantly between seasons, so different values are to be expected. Even during normal weather, indoor radon levels may rise and fall by a factor of two on a daily cycle. For example, from 5.0 pCi/L to 10.0 pCi/L in 24 hours. During rapidly changing or stormy weather, the levels may change more dramatically. Because continual changes in radon levels are considered the norm, it is recommended that the testing devices be exposed for as long as is practical, while following the manufacturer's recommendations. The US EPA protocol describes two general types of radon measurements. Short term tests are conducted from 48 hours to 90 days. And a long term tests are conducted from 90 days to 365 days. EPA guidelines recommend that at least two short term test samples be conducted, either together or sequentially, at the same location in the building. The most preferred location is the “...lowest lived in space”. If the average of the two tests is below 2.0 pCi/L, no further short term testing is necessary.This article was
written by Matt Chase.
An Intro
to the Degradation of Concrete by Water Our common laymen’s understanding of concrete is that it is a hard and impermeable material. Certainly water does not have the ability to crumble something so solid as a concrete foundation wall. Or a concrete street. And in general these observations are true. But what also is true is that at a microscopic level, concrete has a porosity that allows some small amounts of water to enter its superficial surfaces. This is what allows us to see concrete as dry before a rain storm and wet afterwards. And water itself, as inane as it may be, may cause some chemical changes in the concrete that allow it to be more susceptible to decay from within. Add to this mix the propensity for water to expand and contract as ambient temperatures fluctuate and we have some thoughts to consider. The chemical compounds in cement paste that provide strength contain calcium and magnesium. Normal groundwater typically contains enough dissolved compounds of calcium and magnesium, so its presence with concrete will not attack and dissolve these strength developing chemical compounds. However, soft water, such as rain and snow melt, contain very few calcium ions. Continuous contact of new soft water with concrete will dissolve vital calcium and magnesium compounds at the surface of the concrete. Over a few years, this problem may only cause slight strength loss and aesthetic issues, such as efflorescence of the foundation walls. However, the older a house is the more likely that enough calcium and magnesium may be leached from the cement paste to significantly reduce the strength and durability of the foundation. In addition there is the issue of freezing and thawing, expanding and contracting, of water which generally challenges all brittle surfaces including concrete. Most of the materials in the world around us shrink as they get colder. The button on your shirt, your ball point pen, a child’s wood toy, your coffee cup ..... all these items shrink in size as the temperature in your house begins to drop and temperature becomes colder. But not water. It actually expands for awhile. And contracts for awhile. Water expands as its temperature drops from 68 degrees down to 39 degrees. At 39 degrees it reverses itself and begins to shrink until it reaches 32 degrees where it freezes solid. And that’s not the end of this process. Although frozen solid, it continues to shrink in volume through a process call sublimation. This simply means that water molecules evaporate off the surface of the frozen ice and continue to diminish the physical size of the mass of frozen water. This is not rocket science. This is what happens in your refrigerator when you have ice cubes that are several months old. Fresh new cubes fill up the ice tray to the top. After several months the whole tray of cubes is diminished in size due to this sublimation/evaporation. As an aside, this expansion and contraction, freezing and thawing, is what makes our roads and streets filled with pot holes. Water seeps down into all the little cracks in the road surface. There it freezes. I.E. it expands, making the cracks larger. Then at some point the ice thaws, and the water flows down a little further into the cracks. Etc., etc. etc. .... So when water comes in contact with cement, which has some level of porosity in its outside surface, and the cement is exposed to constant temperature changes like we have here in Montana with radiant heat/sun in the summer and 30 below temperatures in the winter, its not surprising that water, in it’s never ending pilgrimage from “fat” to “thin” and back again, and back again, and some more, and some more ..... will begin to degrade the structural integrity of the concrete. Now add back into this equation the ability of snow and rain water to leach some important chemistry from the concrete paste allowing a weakening at the molecular level in the structure of the wall, and we have two significant forces to be respectful of. The presence of rain water and melted snow on basement walls enables water to permeate into the concrete microstructure. As the water freezes, it expands within the concrete and causes micro cracking, which increases the porosity of the concrete. The higher porosity allows more water to seep into the concrete, accelerating both additional freeze-thaw damage and the dissolving of more critical calcium and magnesium compounds. Voila’! Bummer! It is important to note that the presence of soft water on the exterior of the concrete wall will not necessarily translate into a wet interior face of your basement wall. As the soft water permeates through the concrete wall, new compounds are formed from the Ca and Mg in the cement, water, and carbon dioxide present in the air. These compounds are found as white and yellow precipitates on the interior face of the basement wall. These compounds, as a group, are called efflorescence. It is also important to note that above ground level, where the exterior foundation walls are generally dry for most of the year, the concrete may not be challenged in the same way as concrete in the same wall three feet down inside the soil where moisture is more common. The concrete above grade has not been subjected to prolonged exposure to rain water and snow melt. So ....... what to do? The down and dirty way to address these two challenges to your concrete foundation is simple. Make sure the water that lands near your foundation wall doesn’t make it up against your foundation wall for long. I.E. install gutters. And with them, make sure you have “kickers” to move all this rain and snow water out and away from your foundation. And then, once this water is away from your foundation, make sure it drains naturally away and/or around your house so it doesn’t flow back. And if you have naturally occurring ground water in close proximity to your house, consider remodeling the landscaping to create “natural” drain paths or swales in your lawn so that water will want to flow away rather than towards your equity. If need be, consider a French Drain system or some other sump process to catch, direct, pool/store, or deliver water so that it has time to soak into the ground somewhere else rather than up against your foundation. And the part of this that is so very very rude .... these forces are all happening at a microscopic level and we can’t even see them happening. And they are at work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And the gutters are expensive. And the “kickers” are maintenance intensive unless well thought out. I mean, kids and lawnmowers and bicycles will bump those horizontal drain pipes and make them not functional within minutes after you’ve installed them! And the new landscaping and French drains cost a chunk of change! Yes. There are perhaps large financial commitments here. And this is what the never ending “...work around the house” looks like. But can you imagine the cost of a new foundation when it can no longer sustain the weight of the super structure of the building above? sigh ..... And you said you wanted to buy a house? This article was
written by Steve Jacoby. Some Basic Construction Concepts What follows are short descriptions of: 1. the most common foundation types 2. the most common upper level structural wall types 3. the three main types of factory made housing 1. the most common foundation types ...
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