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Found 43 results for the keyword(s) ‘Drainage’

  • Article

    Commercial "back out" toilets for basements.

    Jeff in Ottawa, Ontario wanted to put a toilet in his basement but was worried about the slope required from the toilet exit to the floor drain. He was even looking at an expensive toilet pump.One easy solution for basement toilets is often overlooked. Drilling through a concrete floor is never...
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    Drain water heat recovery.

    Heat recuperation, or the recovery of heat from things that we normally throw away can be a significant part of energy savings. Most energy efficient houses today have Heat Recovery Ventilators that steal the heat out of stale air before throwing it out of the house. Finally some Canadians have...
  • Article

    A trench to divert water inside the basement.

    Brian from Cornwall, Ontario just bought a house and when it rains heavily, it flows in the basement. Someone recommended that he dig a trench inside the basement to drain the water away.First of all, see if simply landscaping sloping away from the house, and rain gutters and downspouts away fro...
  • Article

    Can I put hardwood floors down on concrete?

    Dale asks about hardwood floors over concrete.If the concrete floor is above grade, like is common in a new condo, no problem.If the concrete is in a basement, below grade, then you have potential serious moisture problems, and hardwood really doesn't like excessive moisture.Generally it is not r...
  • Article

    Can I drill holes in the sides and the bottom of a sump pump pit?

    Ken in Winnipeg wants to know if he can modifiy his sump pump pit.There are really two kinds of sump pump pits.One is an underground container or catch basin designed to receive water from the perimeter drain tiles and any other basement spillage or back-up and pump that up and out of the house.T...
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    What do we do with an old brick wall that has no weep holes?

    Gary from Hamilton, Ontario writes :I know that brick veneer homes have vent holes in the lower rows to allow air to equalize the pressure and help keep water out. We have just bought a 50 year old solid brick (two layers of brick) house. I notice there are no vent holes and it doesn't appear t...
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    Stopping the stream on the floor of the wine cellar.

    Moreno from Port Colborne, Ontario wrote : I recently built a wine cellarThe area I live in allowed me to pour the footings on bedrock and has given me a bedrock floor. This lets the room take the coolness from the rock to help keep the temperature down. The problem I am having is that there...
  • Article

    Bad erosion in the back yard.

    Peter wrote: I recently moved into a new house, and the builder put in a drainage swale at the bottom of my backyard. Since I am at the end of my street, whenever it rains I get all the runoff through my backyard to the street. The drainage swale runs across my back fence as you can see in th...
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    Window installation choices

    When you're thinking about changing the windows in a house, you need to make one fundamental choice: whether to slide the new window into the old window frame (the first photo), or whether to remove the old window right down to the structure of the house (the second photo) and replace the whole t...
  • Article

    Improving balcony drainage

    Margaret has a balcony over a porch and has had some house movement. The water no longer flows off over the edge, but pools back near the house. She is looking for some way to solve the problem without having to rebuild the balcony.Years ago a company on the west coast made an outdoor carpet...
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