Childproof Sump Pump Lids can save lives! - Difficult to open is a GOOD thing

After reading the story of the 3yr old drowing in a sump pit in the Daily Herald, I became extremely angry. How could a company install something that isn't childproof into a home and say that it's safe?

Grate Products' Grate Sump is a sealed childproof sump pump basin, which I'm now extremely proud to promote. The lid is difficult for any child to move or seperate, which will protect the child from falling into the basin.

It's good for other health reasons such as limiting humidity and moisture in the home, but nothing is more important than the life of a child.

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Fort Wayne Girl drowns in open sump pit

(Associated Press)FORT WAYNE, Ind. -- Authorities say a 3-year-old Fort Wayne girl drowned after she fell into a sump pump pit in her family's basement.


The Allen County coroner says Alexis Stark-Bork was pronounced dead at a hospital soon after she was found in the pit about 2 a.m. Saturday.

Police say Alexis was last seen watching television in the home's living room. About 20 minutes later, the girl's parents noticed she was missing and she was found face down in the pit.

An officer reported finding the pit's cover about 6 feet away underneath a futon.

http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=340818&src=110

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Read about the Top 6 Basement Mistakes that contractors and homeowners make.

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Plywood flooring in a Crawlspace or Basement – the possible dirt floor area cover-up.

As I mentioned before in a post about Fixing Plywood Flooring in a Basement, the existence of a plywood floor could simply be because of an uneven floor during construction. The other ugly truth is that this could be an easy and cost effective cover up for what the floor actually is.

DIRT

Dirt floors in basements and crawlspaces across America are covered up every day with plywood to finally have a solid flat surface for storage. The problem with having a dirt floor is now moisture has a direct path into the basement, not to mention Soil Gases like Radon, Insects and other nasty business.

With open dirt floors in a tight space like a crawl space or basement the levels of moisture can sky-rocket and eventually cause large issues.

The wood that would keep your things steady and dry could become the food for mold and mildew and turn against the homeowner.

If a crawlspace has a dirt floor the best solution would be to encapsulate the crawlspace. This not only keeps the moisture out, it also improves the air quality and protects the insulation underneath the 1st floor of the home.


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Read about the Top 6 Basement Mistakes that contractors and homeowners make.

Ask Jacob A question Directly on Pioneer Basement's Help Forums!

Feedburner Feed Discontinued - Sorry to my Readers - New RSS Feed to subscribe too!

For a while I was using Feedburner to burn my RSS feeds for subscribers. And for a while it worked. But Google anounced there were some major problems with it, I had seen it stop taking content from Safe and Dry Blog and so I stopped using it.

Many readers have asked why I did that ...so here I am answering.

The new feed is the blogger default: Safe and Dry Blog RSS Feed

For now, it works, and you folks can still get my blog posts correctly!

Thank you for reading!

*UPDATD*
Found out that it's still "working" but it's lagging about 5 weeks behind or something silly. Needless to say it didn't change my choice, but at least you know you're not gonna be getting cut off completely.
(not like this blog is anywhere as addicting as Chocolate, but one could wish)


Related Reading and Links

Read about the Top 6 Basement Mistakes that contractors and homeowners make.

Ask Jacob A question Directly on Pioneer Basement's Help Forums!

Fixing Plywood flooring in the Basement that’s wicking water from underneath.

Many homes that have finished basements have flooring that rests on a plywood riser. They are cheaper than leveling out the floor or pouring a new concrete floor. Because of this, quite a few finishing contractors throughout the United States help the homeowners create a cheep solution to provide them with a level floor.

The problem with this, as many have found, is that any plywood, 2x4s or any other type of wood absorbs water. This can lead to mold and mildew issues and rotting floorboards.

Fixing a wet plywood floor in the basement
If a plywood floor is wicking water up from underneath and causing issues there are three things that are needed to fix this:

Step 1: Remove the floor
Step 2: Identify the moisture issue
Step 3: Repair the moisture issue
Step 4: Decide on what you’d like to do for the floor.

Having an uneven floor temporarily outweighs any Mold or Water damage that could be generated from leaving the Plywood down.

Controlling the leak and moisture problem will not only keep this from happening again, but it will protect what is left of the finished space.

After that stage is complete you can move onto replacing the floor. The first step is adding a Sub Floor -

Addressing future flooring with a Sub Floor
Many flooring products only work with sub-flooring, or a floor that’s designed to be installed underneath the floor that you will see. It acts to separate the finished flooring from any moisture that might come into contact with it. (A carpet pad is a basic example of this, however a real sub-floor will be solid and not able to absorb moisture or other liquids.)

Products from Grate Products LLC, like WarmShield and FloorShield, have been used by Pioneer Home Basement Finishing and Pioneer Basement for years with great success. Carpets, wood flooring, and laminate flooring have all been installed and protected by the simple introduction of an in-organic sub floor.


Related Reading and Links

Plywood Floors in Crawlspace or tiny basements - Discussion on the Pioneer Forums

Read about the Top 6 Basement Mistakes that contractors and homeowners make.

Ask Jacob A question Directly on Pioneer Basement's Help Forums!