Basement-Waterproofing101 Waterproofing Information

An open excavation is an unnatural situation. The average landscape shows no vertical or near vertical slopes.

Soil or dirt is a very heavy material. A cubic foot can easily weigh 114 pounds and a cubic yard can be as heavy as a pick-up truck.

Consider a column of soil which is one foot by one foot and several feet high. At one foot of depth a horizontal plane one foot by one foot is carrying the cubic foot which lies over it. The stress, or load per unit area is 100 lbs. per square foot (psf). At a depth of two feet the horizontal plane is carrying two cubic feet or 200 psf. At a depth of five feet the vertical stress is 500 psf, and so on.

The column described would soon collapse if not supported by similar adjacent columns. Stresses are developed which act horizontally on the column. These lateral stresses can be considered

Many industries, lumber products are manufactured or used in construction. Often the environment in which employees work have quantities of lumber from internal structural beams to wooden storage crates and shelving. In recent tests, mold has been found responsible for the sickness and possibly death of employees working in such environments. This study significantly demonstrates the inhibition of molds from mycotoninx to toxin producing fungi through the use of specific wood products.

Houses, for example, often use specific lumber products on the inside walls. While more effective than untreated lumber, molds still grow fewer of which release toxins such as Aflatoxins, Ochratonins, or Tricothecenes, all of which are dangerous to humans. Unfortunately, these particles are not easy to detect due to their size. They have been associated with neurological conditions, urinary tract conditions, skin lesions, and malignancies of kidney, bladder and the brain in both animals and humans.

Medical Director, Dennis Hooper, M.D., Ph.D. reported “The fungal outbreaks over the past decade have increased exponentially due to rising inclement weather changes worldwide