Recently, I just finished a repair of concrete honey comb with chemical injection for a successful real estate agent, who my family know him over 10 years. The problem area is located in basement foundation wall underneath front entrance steps, where is not accessible with excavation [or I should say difficult to seal with waterproofing membrane installation by exterior excavation].

After I took of the drywall partition, concrete honey comb problem along the basement foundation wall [around the front entrance steps over 12 linear feet].

The wall is soaking wet with water running through. This chemical injection work is a wet application.

I installed flat ” T ” plug with hydraulic cement [some contractor epoxy bonder] patch for this chemical injection. I picked two-component epoxy injection cartridge [low viscosity] with water displacement. Immediately on commencing injection, you will see water existing from the next port. Chemical injected into foundation wall will normally curd in couple hours.

Two weeks later, I re-visited the site for water test. Everything dry up and it will look like the above picture. Some injection chemical bleed through the cement patch dried look like shine water [but not wet].

The problem area is on the left side of the air conditioner condenser unit, under the entrance steps. I performed a water test with a garden host laid on the grade and let water run for 30 minutes.

A section of the honey comb foundation wall showed a bit of dampness but no water bleed through.

After I chiseled out the injection flat ” T ” port patch concrete, just dampness but no water bleed through.  I will say the first attempt of chemical injection is successful but not perfect. I did a second injection along the imperfect area.

The trick of doing a repair of concrete honey comb with chemical injection is you will never know the condition behind concrete surface and soil condition behind the foundation wall [sandy soil - chemical run out too fast]. In some case, third chemical inject may need to be run with another chemical injection material [ your B plan]. Try to use chemical injection for repair concrete honey comb problem as your last resource.

Popularity: 14% [?]

Replace broken window screen just need a few simple tools and material:

1. A roll of screen (aluminum or fiberglass), the above is fiberglass screen.
2. A roll of spline (or reuse the existing spline).
3. Spline roller
4. Screw driver
5. Utility knife

Lay screen on flat surface (table or floor). Remove existing spline, replace if brittle. Wipe spline grove clean. Lay new screen over the frame. Insert spline into spline grove begining at corner. To make the spline insert easier, roll screen into spline groove with roller to form a rough shape, prior insert spline.

Push spline into corner properly with screw driver.

After spline has been rolled into spline groove on all four sides, cut off excess spline with a sharp utility knife to complete  installation.

Popularity: 20% [?]

Recently, I was working on a townhouse roof replacement project. I saw a window with a serious condensation problem (October, in Toronto? worse than mirror in bathroom after shower - no kidding). It alerts me if the roof of the unit has a leakage problem (or grow house?). The window condensation was only on second floor front bedroom window.

I did not have a chance to get inside the unit. I just peeked into the attic from the roof vent cut out during the re-roofing work. I saw the following pictures. I found duct work in attic.

The owner converted the original duct work system to make it run over the attic to distribute air. It’s nothing wrong to run air duct over attic, but difficult to do it right. When air duct penetrate interior (warm - room temperature) and attic (cold - exterior temperature), condensation is very easy cause problem in ductwork and ceiling penetration, especially in winter cold climate days. To eliminate the condensation problem, it has to relay on the insulation around the air duct (air tight seal to ductwork and the vertical penetration between interior and attic). However, air tight seal is very difficult to achieve or overlooked during construction.

See above picture, the air duct is exposed to exterior air temperature without insulation properly warped, some watermark still shown on the gypsum board of the separation wall between units. Moisture problem (or condensation problem) for sure exists in the above bedroom.

Popularity: 21% [?]

Roof leakage caused bathroom ceiling caved in, it is a lot of mess. The story is not finish yet. Just looked around the watermark on roof sheathing, rafter and trust,  you can tell that the roof leakage had been there for a long time. The owner just did not deal with it, when the roof leakage was small. Leave the leakage problem may cause more problem (not always but chance are high) and bigger repair cost later.

The following picture is from the same building. The corner brick had been pushed out (high lighted area brick joint) by roof leakage water penetrated into the brick joint and freeze up (in winter cold weather), brick veneer pushed out by ice.

A suitable preventative maintenance work can save a lot of time, money and trouble. The best time to deal with the problem when it is small.

Popularity: 22% [?]

I believed that there was a Google page rank update, recently. When I logged in Pearl | Tsang Blog [明珠阿曾 Blog; http://pearl.1journal.net ] this morning, I found out I got a Google Page Rank 1. I thought that I’ll never get a page rank for my blog [nothing happen in 9 months, since this blog was up in January, 2008].

I did not do any SEO or directory submit recently on my blog. I keep reading other people’s blog and left a message [not much] when I like, as usual. I really don’t know how the Google Page Rank things work. One thing I did is that I removed Google Adsense from my blog [ I don't make much out of Adsense]. Maybe that boot up the PR of the blog.

Popularity: 22% [?]

This expansion joint is on a roof top car park (Toronto, Canada), underneath is commercial retail stores. So, the expansion joint suppose to be 100% water tight. However, we can lift a long section of this expansion joint without really digging hard. That means this expansion failure.

Take a look at the expansion just taken out, a lot of salt (winter snow melting salt) was underneath the expansion joint. Water was always penetrate through the expansion joint. Somebody try to fix up with pouring a lot of cold tar on top of expansion joint. The cold tar will not help at all because the water is not come from the top, it come under the expansion joint. This expansion joint failure was caused by membrane failure (roof top parking area), water penterate under expansion joint, freeze up and push out the whole expansion joint.

Popularity: 23% [?]

Time go fast, it’s Toronto Fall Home Show time again. I have couple years have not been to the show. This year I will go to check out the show because the show is run by new even hosting company. I will expect something new in the show.

When I checked out the Toronto Fall Home Show official web site at http://fallhomeshow.com, I saw a lot of new exhibitors on exhibitor list; especially the energy efficient sector.

 ECO FRIENDLY/ENERGY EFFICIENT EXHIBITOR

This is a high oil price year. We have a lot of talk about energy efficient and environmental issues in our TV, newspapers and internet. This is also one of the major attraction for me to the show, to check out new green living ideas and products. See you in the show!

Popularity: 23% [?]

Over the next few years, Ontario’s Building Code will require increasing levels of energy efficiency for new buildings and buildings undergoing renovation.

These requirements are part of the Government’s plan to create a greener Ontario and a culture of conservation. Phasing in these energy efficiency changes allows builders, building officials and others in the building industry time to prepare for the new requirements.

The next phase of this plan will require that homes constructed based on permits applied for after December 31, 2008 include near full-height insulated foundation walls.

A new Best Practices Guide for the Installation of Near-full Height Basement Insulation has been produced with the valuable assistance of the Ontario Home Builders Association, Ontario Building Officials Association, NAIMA Canada and others in the building sector.

The guide will benefit home builders, designers, and enforcement officials by addressing Building Code, technical and practical issues associated with the details and installation of basement insulation. 

Best Practice Guide: Full Height Basement Insulation

As part of the 2006 Ontario Building Code change, it requires that homes constructed based on permits applied for after December 31, 2008 include near full-height insulated foundation walls. Uninsulated foundation wall (bottom half wall - see picture above) is a big heat lost area, simply extend foundation insulation to nearly full height, which is a smart code change. Our Ontarian new home will be better insulated, less heat lost and save more energy.

It sounds great to have greener home for Ontarian. However, I (waterproofing contractor) will have more work to do in my waterproofing quotation to locate the problem area. Home inspectors will be more difficult to spot the basement leakage problem, due to the foundation wall almost all covered up by insulation.

Popularity: 24% [?]

This is my first time to join BILD [Building Industry and Land Development Association -formerly known as Greater Toronto Home Builders' Association] breakfast club meeting. I meet a lot of new faces [I am still very new in the association; maybe I joined training forum previously].

This morning breakfast club hostess are Susan Harvey [Colours & Concepts at http://www.coloursandconcepts.ca ] and Barbara Rudberg [ Model Interiors]. Thanks for their hard work to arrange this breakfast club meeting [also Helen Batista for co-ordination].

Some interesting people I meet:

Mark Cohen - The Condo StoreMarketing Systems [ http://www.condostorecanada.com]: He looks better in poster

Jim Lord, BBA, FCIP, LEED, AP - Ecovert [ http://www.ecovert.ca] : Green Building Consultant

Rita Leslie - ProSource Wholesale Floorings [ http://www.pswholesale.com]

Anyway, there is a lot of interesting professional people. I cannot remember them all [I have a bad memory on people's name].

Popularity: 32% [?]

Recently, I was working on a bathroom renovation of a rental unit. Due to water spilt out from bath tub, the plywood supporting the old tile shown some water damage mark, after I removed the old tile floor. So I recommended to install a new 1/4″ underlayment and a waterproofing membrane layer prior install new floor tile.

A few years ago, I worked with Schluter Systems for a shower (good system but just a bit labour intensive to install). This time, I try out Schluter DITRA membrane as a waterproofing membrane for floor tile. Easy to install but just a bit expensive (about $2.00 Canadian dollar per square foot for Schluter DITRA membrane only). Use Schluter DITRA membrane for floor tile waterproofing, I will have no dull about it. However, use Schluter-DITRA to provide uncoupling, the application surface have to be large (small surface do not need it) and expansion control joint not work; I just wondering what project will require Schluter DITRA membrane to provide uncoupling, and how much will be the cost (membrane, thinset mortar, labour for large area application). 

Schluter-DITRA serves as an uncoupling layer, waterproofing membrane, and vapor management layer that accommodates moisture from beneath the tile covering. Further, DITRA performs all these functions while still providing adequate support/load distribution for the tile covering.

a) Uncoupling
Tile has been successfully installed for thousands of years by incorporating an uncoupling layer, or forgiving shear interface, within the tile assembly. Schluter-DITRA provides uncoupling through its open rib structure, which allows for in-plane movement that effectively neutralizes the differential movement stresses between the substrate and the tile, thus eliminating the major cause of cracking and delaminating of the tiled surface.

Schluter Ditra Membrane

Schluter-DITRA - Schluter-Systems

Popularity: 25% [?]