Let’s look at the actual working of installation of said law, install a 6-mill poly on the dirt before you lay out rebar or wire mess. The steel being inserted onto the concrete keeps 1 the concrete floor from cracking, separating, shifting, or shrinking 2. It reinforces the floor incase the dirt under the floor settles. Rebar comes 1/2” x 20 feet long and is heave and flops around like a fish out of water. You will have a number of holes in the poly liner before the rebar is laid out and tied together.  If you use wire mesh this comes in rolls of 5 foot wide x 20 inches diameter about 100 foot per roll, when you unroll this little monster it acts like a slinky wanting to recoil the only way to straighten it out is to flip it over and re-bending it by hand. Resolutes at each end of 1 row you have just punchered the poly membrane 10-12 time.
The code says you must take a new piece of poly and over lap the hole by 1’ on all sides no a basement of 22 x 38 (24’ x 40’ House) a minimum of 120 holes. Now its time to pour the concrete (concrete is a mix of sand small rock, portland and water) you can install it 2 ways; wheel barrow it to the location and dump it, or you can pump it in with a large pump truck add $800.00 to the bill. Did you fix all the holes the wheelbarrow made and the guys pouring the floor, well that’s a radon leak.
After the floor has harden up you walk around the floor sealing all joints between the floor and wall and floor and any protrusions through the floor. About 1 –2 years after the house is done because you chose not to install reinforcing in the floor your floor have at least 3 and up to 10 large cracks big enough to put a tooth pick in it. Oh that’s right you laid carpet on the floor you’ll never see the cracks where the radon is getting in the living space and where Johnny and Amber likes to play and sleep on the floor.

Let’s look at the collection and exhaust system. Remember in this collection area there is standing water as well as an electric pump to pump out the ground water. Facts undisputed radon gas is heavier than air. So radon gas builds up in the collection tank it never leaves the tank and the vent pipe because it’s to heavy now the ground water comes into the collection tank what happens to the radon gas it rises and falls according to water level in the collection tank.  In fact the radon gas in the tank will increase in the parts per million making it more toxic I feel bad for the plumber that must change out the sump pump, he has to get down in there to fix the problem.  Note when the radon gas moves up into the exhaust vent, it’s now looking for an easier way out, that crack in the floor has a lot less pressure and a bigger area to expand into.   Solve the problem (the states view point) Just add a fan and blow the radon gas out of the house. The problem is it does matter how small or big the fan is if there is no air coming in to the drainage system you will never blow any air up the pipe, let alone radon gas which is heavier than air. The state say’s all you need is a small fan, may be rounding about 10 minutes per hour. 1st the state don’t have a clue how much air in cubic feet of air per minute or per hour is going to ventilate the radon gas from below the floor to solve the problem.

Let’s say it’s possible to vent this gas out of the house, well you don’t want to see the pipe from the front side of the house, let’s vent it on the back side of the roof, great or is it. On the backside of the house are the following screened, porch, deck, sand box, swing set, and other toys to play with. Radon gas is heavier than air it’s pumped on to your roof and taken away with prevailing winds and if there is no wind it rolls of the roof and into your backyard.  Looking down at your house from the sky we see the following a pipe sticking out of the roof with no cover over it and you can not cover it by law, that means when it rains water goes down the pipe so what it goes into a sump tank if water can go down so can cold air in the winter time, when this happens it will freeze the surface water in the sump tank or the ground in the collection area and if there fan is installed water will be dripping and getting the fan soaking wet. Well we no longer can use a cheap fan we must put in a stainless steel fan with a concealed shaft with a water bypass system in it. ”$” Now to make this system work we must bring in air into the drainage system. We cannot take inside air just for the fact if the power went out the radon gas has an easy way back into the house. We can us outside air it 20 below or greater in the wintertime freezing the sub soil under your floor and leaving the opportunity to heave your footing.
The only air available to you is in the new law that no one has thought about, you must have an exhaust fan run 15-20 minutes per hour. Blow this air under you floor and the radon fan pumps the radon gas filled air out of your house.  Now you are running 2 electric fans and praying the power never goes out.

Or Just excavate and other 24” lower and install an angled concrete slab 4” with rebar cover with epoxy paint than build on top of it for your house the radon gas will come in contact with the lower slab and slide upward to the surface level on what ever side you choose to bring it to the surface

Adding more insulation on the exterior of the wall if done right will save you a boatload of money. On the exterior of a building you best results are going to be from a rigid insulation board. There are at least 2 types 1st is just an insulation board and the 2nd has aluminam foil on both sides you must choose according to the siding you want to install as to what insulation board is best. For example; horizontal cedar lap siding does not like aluminum for behind it. Before installing any type of rigid insulation on to an exterior wall surface you must make a way for the water vapor to escape to the outside air.

I recommend 1 product “mortairvent” Made by Benjamin Obdyke, it’s only 1/4” thick installed over the tarpaper, than you install you insulation board next and finally your siding. It’s made of woven plastic with enough rigidity to keep 1/4 inch air gap to allow the water vapor to escape either by going down the wall to be vented at the foundation line or vented at the soffit line of the house.

Awning; With this type of window the operating devices are located at the bottom of the window that makes it easy to operate. These windows are hinged at the top and swing outward. The problem is that the kitchen countertop is 36” tall than the window is about 24-36” tall. IE the top of the window is between 5’to 6’ off the floor so when you are looking out the window at the sink all your eyes are looking at the top of the window jamb, you must duck to look out the window.

Glider; With this type of window the operating devices are located half way up the window that makes this window hard to operate when you lean over the sink and faucet.

Casement; This is a great type of window the operating devices are located at the bottom of the window that makes it easy to operate, also if the wind is coming from the left and you want to bring the air in open the right window and it will hook the wind and bring it into the kitchen.

Double Hung; This is a good looking window but it has a draw back you must on unlock the window, the lock is half way up the center of the window opening it from the bottom is adequate again the sink and faucet is the way.

Hopper; A hopper window is a cool design of a window but it swings and tilts into the room in the swing mode the window can not open the faucet is in the way.

Transom; Having a transom window over the regular kitchen window is great unless you have a ceiling under 9’ again the bottom of the transom and the top of the regular is in your line of sight.

Having it warmer also helps your vehicles start faster as well as better engine oil viscosity, because the engine block is starting warm.

Using a compact ceiling gas heater works great. We have installed several of these units. You can bolt them to the roof framing members and or floor joist system. You can mount them up tight or drop them down to a lower height if you have a 9’- 14’ high garage ceiling. By installing the unit at the back of the garage and blow air cross the garage to the far front corner this will get the greatest way to stabilize the temperature in the garage. This will also dry your car off and the floor. By keeping your garage temperature at or above 38° you should never have the garage floor flaking or popping of concrete from the winter weather.

This furnace also can be vented both out the wall and/or through the roof of the garage. Giving is a way to really maximize your opportunity for the best installation.

These foundation walls were built good but they were not designed for your soil type and/or hydrostatic pressure of your lot.

In the 2nd picture it shows that wall is buckling inward, with a closer look a the picture we see 3 problems.

1. The ground is almost level with the top of block wall. This creates other problems that we will talk about on another post.

2. The yard next to the house is flat- when it rains where will the run off go?
If the soil you have is poor or unsatifactory; silty clays, organics, or peat,etc. these types of soil make great lakes, they don’t drain, they pond. Because there is no place for the rain water to go then it seeks the next available spot -loose soil. This type of soil has a lot of voids or air pockets. Every house that has frost footings and /or a basement has loose soil from 2′ and up to 8′ away from the house. The rain water runs into the soft soil and around the foundation of building. This inturn compounds the problem pushing hydrostatic pressure on the foundation walls.
3. Remember the wall has a horizontal crack it now lets water into the house

1. Remove the dirt next to the house
2. Push the block wall straight
3. Install 3/4″ Rebar in block and fill the block with concrete
4. Install a drain tile system
5. Water proof the wall with Black dog Waterproofing system
6. Put a Geo grid system to keep the dirt from mixing into the rock
7. Install any size rock from 3/8″ up 1 1/2″.

What’s the difference?
The Department of Labor and Industry requires licenses for residential building contractors, remodelers, roofers and manufactured home installers. The department requires certain standards of education and professional conduct be maintained to obtain and retain a license.

Licenses are required for all residential building contractors and residential remodelers who contract with a homeowner to construct or improve dwellings by offering more than one special skill. Owners working on their own property must also be licensed if they build or remodel for the sole purpose of speculation or resale.

Liability insurance with limits of at least $300,000 per occurrence, which must include at least $10,000 property damage coverage.
Minnesota workers’ compensation insurance certificate or a written explanation of why the applicant is exempt from workers’ compensation requirements. Applicants who have no employees and have no intention of hiring employees (other than spouse, parent or child) during the next year should attach a written statement with the license application explaining the specific reason they are exempt. If applicant is uncertain whether workers’ compensation insurance is required for your business, contact the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry at (651) 284-5005.

A handy man needs none of the above unless he and/or she does more than one of these items concrete, frame, side, sheetrock, trim, tile, hardwood flooring, carpeting, painting

If a handy man gets injured at your house he or his insurance company can sue the home owner. Always Protect Yourself.

The foundation wall and the framing walls was set at 12″ apart. Adding the siding to both the garage and the addition walls, the space between is now 9″.

The house’s foundation was down 7′, while the garage only had a floating slab. To get the foundation in, we had to dig down 7′ and remove the soil. The soil we were digging in was sand. Digging this close to the garage the sand under garage will slide out fast and up 7′ away from the garage under mining the garage, then the garage floor will break, this will bring the broken slab and some of the garage wall framing into the excavated hole. to solve this problem we built a shear wall to hold sand from shifting and sliding, keeping the garage safe.

1.The code requires 8″ of separation between the outside ground line and any type of wood product. The top of decoration rock is called the top edge of the ground line. In Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin there will be many houses that are going to be rotting away in the rim joist area.

2. Look how the load of the floor and wall is putting all the weight on the outer edge of the foundation wall making it act like a hinge point, Having a uniform load on the total thickness of the foundation wall makes it 4 times stronger. When you back fill against the foundation with poor drainage soil with no way to remove the hydro static pressure (ground water), you have made an easy way to have your foundation wall to buckle. If you look you will see before it buckles it will bow or crack horizontally and or diagonally.

There is always a better way to build, in this photo the main floor walls are pushing down on the outer edge of the foundation wall and the floor is pushing down on the interior part as well as holding the wall from being pushed inward.

You are looking at 2 cross sections as to how to build a frost footing.
The first picture shows how 98% of all house frost footings are installed. With this type of design there are some problems.
1. Where there is a 42” frost footing required the install 1-7 1/2” high footing 4- 8” blocks which = 40” with mud joints 41 1/4”. If they install a 1/2 high block the total height is 44 3/4” no problem except the code requires the grade height to 8” lower than wood framing and or wood siding. Making the frost footing only 41 1/4 with a high block and no wood siding. But you house has wood siding and no half high block the frost footing is now 36 1/2”. So in picture 1 the water is up to the top of the soil on the exterior. When it freezes in the winter we know water will expand and increase its mass crushing the insulation decreasing the R-value and allowing the water to freeze to the footing, which will move it, laterally inward or vertically which ever is easier.
2. As the temperate of your frost footing drops in the winter your concrete slab will also reflect how cold it is outside.
3. The Rigid foam insulation must be covered because the ultraviolet light from the sun will break down the insulation most contractors cover it with aluminum sheathing. Aluminum and does not like concrete or salt, it will corrode and eat the aluminum. Yet they pour concrete up against the aluminum shield and don’t tell the owners of the houses not to salt their sidewalks.

1. You have brought the cool weather into the foundation;
Let me explain; If you have a block, or clay tile wall system air inside block is chilled the cold air drops to the footing no big deal if you live in Nevada to Virginia.

But if you live in New York – Idaho and North we have problems. The cold out side is so cold that it can freeze the footings of the house.

With a poured foundation it takes longer but can still happen.

Freezing the footing is not a problem, the problem comes in when the ground around the footing freezes, now we have a making of a disaster. 90% of the time there is groundwater next to the outside edge of the footing in some cases I’ve seen footings and basement floors sitting in water.

When adding a cold winter to this mix and the ground water freezes around the footing, the water has to expand 10% when it turns to ice, on the inside of the structure is forces the water in to the cement slab and sometimes through the slab on to the floor above.

But the water under the footing has no place to go, so it lifts the house (heaving it) and not evenly breaking the concrete wall cracking sheetrock, plaster, and stucco right up to the roofline.

I’ve seen a shift in trusses like a bulge on a roof, magnifying the problem as it lifts the structure up.

2. Water – IE moisture loves to migrate into concrete. We have seen a commercial building that is a warehouse. When it was built they excavated a sump and filled it with sand compacted it and than built on it.

Now 5-10 years later the concrete walls are flaking paint, and chips of concrete pop off up to 24′ of the wall. What’s happening? The high water table is back in the ground, water can migrate through concrete vertically 28′ from the source of the water.

Remember nature’s rule-water must be allowed to expand, and if it cannot, it will move what ever is in its way to expand 10%.

Know this if you don’t remove the moisture (water) from the footings it will remove paint off of concrete and have popping chips of concrete.

If there is water against your foundation wall when it freezes it will blow the face off the concrete and in a few years there will be major holes in your foundation not only letting more water in but also exotic organisms and creating a mold problem in the structure.

The code also requires that the contractor installs 4 inches of rock or gravel under concrete floor.
But if you have a high groundwater table on your lot 4 inch of rock is not enough.
If water touches the concrete floor it will wick up to the topside of the floor and evaporate into the house air rising your humidity level.

This in turn creates other problems in the house. If there is carpet on the concrete floor it now has mold growing in it.

Moisture freezing on the windows in the winter time. By installing 4 inch rock you leave larger voids under the floor not giving the water a chance to touch the concrete floor. This is required in Minnesota building codes since 1992.

Now installing draintile around the foundation on the inside is known as cosmetic it also is wise and while you are installing draintile running additional draintile lines is just prudent.

The cost worth the investment of only about $ 150.00.

The code also requires that 1/2 of the depth of the excavation around the building is back filled with course fill rock, sand and/or gravel.

This helps drain groundwater down to the draintile. If the excavation was 8′ deep, then you must back fill 4′ with course fill.

If you are building heavy clay, the building site may have pockets of water or even underground rivers. To help keeping your foundation wall protected install Blackdog waterproofing.

Using Blackdog waterproofing is 1 way to insulate the foundation and drain the whole depth of the hole to remove all the groundwater.

The reason why water expands upon freezing is because of the strong hydrogen bonding between the water molecules. Water is polar having a positive end nearest the Hydrogens and a negative end nearest the Oxygen atom. Therefore the positive ends of some water molecules attract the negative ends of other water molecules.

When groundwater is next to the surface it will push hydrostatic pressure and/or heave frozen dirt against the foundation wall.

When you have high level of ground water and/or let’s say you build a house in clay, then back fill area is more porous fill because you are in clay the ground water goes where it can travel easily in porous soil, now the porous soil is full of groundwater and winter sets in the frost goes down for 10″ in the central part of the country to 6′ or more in the northern parts of the country.

When the ground water freezes ground it’s the volume of water expanses10% larger than when it was in the liquid form. Creating an incredible force on any foundation whether it’s a full basement or just frost footings.

Making a place for water to drain is a prudent and proper thing to do; it will save your house now and in the winters to come as well as reducing the risk of mold problems.

To achieve 2000-4500#LBs. they mix low quality clay and lime to High quality clay and lime.

The sand I.e. each grain of sand must be jagged/pointed not round the
Portland will not bond if it is round. Sand from a beech, lake, river, or desart is round.

Then there is the rock – inexpensive rock is used for most applications:

Limestone is most common-This rock is soft and absorbs water and is not recommended for exterior use in areas that freeze.

Sea Shells- used in Florida

Pea rock- Exposed Aggregate -this rock is hard, and absorbs very little water but its more rounded and the Portland has a harder time bonding to it. It is adequate for exterior use.

Quarts- this type of rock is harder for water to seep into it. Exterior uses

Driveways, sidewalks, and patio slabs

Sea Shells- used in Florida

2000# poor quality don’t use
2500# Good for house and garage footings
3000# Great for house and garage footings
3500# Good for poured foundations walls for houses and garages
4000# Good for finish floors (basement, driveways, garage, sidewalks)
4500# Great for finish floors (basement, driveways, garage, sidewalks)

When the concrete freezes the water inside the lime rock expands it blows the surface off the concrete.

The only way to slow down/stop this from happening is to seal the surface of the concrete. Like -Enviroseal 20 is a clear, water based 20% alkylalkoxysilane penetrating sealer. It protects against moisture and chloride intrusion.

There are many grades of concrete check the next post for more information.

They buy a train carload of lumber and push it in to large basined of Chromated copper arsenate (CCA) is a chemical wood preservative.

Let it set for a number of hours then pull it back out. They pack it up and ship to off to the store.

The good lumber yard have their lumber pressure treated with CCA pushing into all the cells of the wood 40% of treatment.

An easy way to tell is if you cut the board and look at the end grain is the treatment through out the end cut.

60% of treatment of CCA is used for wood foundations buried post footings, etc.

Installing electric baseboard heat is the most economical way for installation but bad on the wallet for running it.

Let’s look back 100 years ago the settlers used the room under the houses IE root cellars for a place to store their canned goods and vegetables like potato’s and squash etc.

The ground around the cellar was about 55° a little warmer in the summer and cooler in the winter.

The cellar was a poor man’s refrigerator. Now today’s life style we have to reverse the effects of this room (area).

Keep in mind that Warmth (heat rises because it is lighter than cold air, Cold air being heavier forces it’s way to the floor pushing the warm air up.)Touch on picture to enlarge

Exterior concrete walls have to be separated also, using 2″rigid foam is great if you are in a sandy lot and with a high water table is below the floor level.

Other wise use rigid sheets fiberglass insulation, ground water will drain through it.

Now we have to heat this area, a 2 fold system works best first install In-floor radiant heat with a boiler system and setting the thermostat at 68°.

Then install a forced air system for air handling, moving air for cleaning it, moistening it and mixing it.

By setting the thermostat at 65° degrees and having set the fan to the on position shall give you the best results.

To improve the performance add 3 1/2″ of Icynene insulation into the exterior walls.

There are many different types of damp and water proofing systems.
Remember this, using damp proofing it is only good for sandy soils with no water table.

There is no guarantee and/or warranty (piece of paper going to keep water out) if there is water coming into the basement when the foundation was covered with a damp proof material.

When back filling (pushing dirt back into the hole) around the foundation if the dirt is full of rocks, sticks, roots, or sharp objects these will cut, damage and create a leaks in the damp proofing system.

A tar based damp proof system brakes down in 6-10 years. The damp proofing you bought when you had the house built, well it no longer works because it is just not there.

Spray on plastic membrane about 20 mill thick.

What makes a good water proofing system?

Having a solid foundation with no cracks.

A seamless shield of 40 mill or greater of polybutylene

Next a layer of porous rock, (not gravel or sand) ridged fiberglass insulation, or some thing that keeps the dirt from touching the foundation and also creates a void to allow groundwater to run down word to the footing.

Must of all having a large drain tile system on the exterior of the bottom edge of the footing to remove all the groundwater being brought to it.

After that the block are set in the hole.

That weekend it rains. Monday morning you get a phone call saying your footing are destroyed.

What happened? You’ve built your foundation on untested soil. If a core sample (hole bored in the ground 10′-12′ below the surface) were taken before you started you would have found out that;

You’re building above an abandoned septic system, rock pit, buried logs, and or stumps, an old dump site, modeling clay, or even an under ground river. All this can be fixed by at a high price.

Another good reason for a core test is it should tell you the water table of your ground water weather to use damp proofing or water proofing systems on your foundation.

Well when he was done sheetrocking!

When gentlemen came into the house that did the taping called the house from Hades.

The gaps in the corners were bigger than the narrow part of my framing hammer 1 1/4″ (the maximum gap of ¼”) the rock job was so bad they textured sprayed the walls and ceiling to cover problems.

The basement looked like the Greek parathion.

15-20 steel posts making it hard to finish the basement. The trim work was poorly done.I was approached by a couple that wanted to build a large new 2 story house. They already had bought a house kit all they wanted me to do is frame roof and side the house. What was missing in this house package; A permit, City sewer and water, the driveway, basement foundation walls, Excavation, the wrong size sheet rock for the ceilings that have to hold up insulation.
The house package came with a large 3ring book tell you how to frame shingle and side. The illustrations were horrible there was no background information explaining why the house must be framed in a certain way. The house packages this company sells was really designed to sold to a carpenter who know how to frame, side roof and trim. All this person had to do is supply the labor but with no understanding of any of the trades. He was over his head, than came the time to sheetrock the house. Well when he was done sheetrocking, the gentlemen which came into the house that did the taping called the place “ house from Hades”.

The gaps in the corners were bigger than the narrow part of my framing hammer 1 1/4″ (the maximum gap of allowed 1⁄4″) the rock job was so bad, they textured spray the walls and ceiling to cover problems.

The basement looked like the Greek parathion.

15-20 steel posts making it hard to finish the basement. The trim work was also poorly done.

This was to tell which type of sewer system is required.

On this lot because of high level of ground water a mound system was required.

When it was time to build about 3 months later being a dry summer they dug 3 1/2 feet below the drain field system, to set the footings.

The next 2 years were dry. But the spring of 2003 was a couple of wet months above average rainfall that spring and they had 3′ of standing water in their basement.

Saved about $20,000.00 on construction fees, and lost about 26′x 42′ area in a lower level or lost about $54,600.00 resell value.

Saved about $20,000.00 on construction fees, and lost about 26′x 42′ area in a lower level or lost about $54,600.00 resell value.