Grate Products Flexi-Flange, what it is, what it does, and how it helps to control moisture in your basement.

Flexi-Flange isn’t one of the more popular products that Grate Products has produced, but it could be considered one of the most important.

The Flexi-Flange is designed to create the seal at the point where our Wall Protection Vapor Barrier meets the concrete of your basement floor. Its primary function is to close off access to the basement from under your basement slab and from behind our vapor barrier. At this point it also performs a few other key functions.

It protects the vapor barrier. The flange does this by lying on top of the vapor barrier. This makes sure that any of the concrete used to seal back the floor doesn’t interfere with the vapor barrier and keeps any separation from happening at the floor and wall joint.

The flexi-flange also allows the vapor barrier to continuously connect with the drain under the floor by allowing minor movements without breaking the seal with the concrete. This ensures continuous flow from the vapor barrier to the drain and stop point if water tries to jump the circuit.

For that homeowner with older, open back systems, the flange is designed to be reversible. This way we can retrofit most open back systems with wall protection and to seal off the open back system to provide true basement moisture protection. Without a vapor barrier and with an open channel in your drainage system you open yourself up to a list of hazards that many companies won’t speak about: added moisture and humidity, radon, bugs, and air from under your basement floor.

Considering that you had an open back system installed in the first place means that you were trying to have your basement waterproofed the right way. So this flange is designed to complete the design that wasn’t installed. Vapor barrier to protect your walls can be installed and your flange will close off the gap, easily sealing off the channel and allowing the vapor barrier to drain to the system without air, water, or other nasty things to jump the system back into your basement.

By creating the seal of the vapor barrier and drain the flexi flange becomes one of the most important sealed system aspects of any Grate Drain system. It’s a little known innovation by Grate Products, however it helps to maintain the system by simply existing. With no maintenance it’s a part that many homeowners forget about, however without it your vapor barrier might become damaged more easily, water might be able to jump the system and air would be able to flow up into your basement from under your floor.

Santa Fe Dehumidifiers vs. Humidex – Forum conversation and Comparison

Conversation about Humidex vs. Santa Fe continues here.

Humidex basically pulls air from the outside to bring into the home. This causes some pressure changes in the basement that draws air from the outside and the first floor. This actually switches the natural flow of the air in the home causing more moisture and humidity to possibly build up in the basement.

This can lead to more humidity and increased dampness, which in turn leads to increased run time and electricity cost to run air conditioners in the rest of the home. They say you can run it for pennies a day, when in reality you're throwing your cooling and heating costs right outside by increasing the amount you heat in the winter, and air condition in the summer. (these can also be vented directly out of the home via the fan of the humidex, so you're systems will run more. )

Santa Fe Dehumidifiers only deal with the moisture and air that currently exists in the basement. This allows the airflow of the home to continue uninterrupted and be added to with moisture free and filtered air from the basement.

Air naturally moves through soil, slowly through the foundation and into the basement. From there it naturally rises through the home, 1st floor, 2nd floor, and eventually through windows or the roof of the home. This is known as Stack Effect.

Since moisture naturally moves with the air through the foundation anyway, the Santa Fe is designed to deal with the moisture as it migrates into your basement. The Humidex doesn’t deal with the moisture level in the basement and in fact can actually increase the moisture and humidity to unsafe levels by bringing air from the outside.

Sadly Humidex has sparked many debates on the proper techniques in venting basements and crawlspaces and mostly because of negative results with the product.

Venting a basement or crawlspace isn’t recommended and can actually introduce more mold, humidity and moisture.

2 weeks of Rain, bad for some, good for others

Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut have been met with violent rainstorms these past two weeks. A series of these storms cut through the state 2 days ago, and now, like some miracle, the sun is shinning like nothing has ever happened.

Pioneer Basement's covert has been filling and dissipating as fast as the rains come and go. The main point however is that when the covert gets to be at a specific height on our property, we know, at least, that local calls will be coming in.

Covert technology is used all over the United States to direct the flows of water to shallow basins. Florida, New York, Philly and Boston all have similar uses of the same technique.

The Bad for some:My landscaping friends have been board these past few days. None, absolutely none, of their outside work could have been completed in the last two weeks where they operate. I felt bad with this update but that's the nature of any home improvement. Some people can operate come rain or shine, and others are totally at the mercy of Mother Nature.

Interior drainage can be installed rain or shine, 365 days a year, which means less down time and a better ability to service and maintain existing customers. This means more chances for homeowners to do the work and more opportunity to eventually finish. Having a healthy basement is a key step to any finishing job and will set up a custom basement for a long, healthy, and protected success.

New Contractor Interviews and More: 101st Blog Post!

It’s been a busy few weeks.

Going through some of my archives here at Safe’n’Dry and come to find out I have no interviews! I was shocked at myself. There’s so many questions out there that so many of the Grate Products contractors could answer.

So the first step was making contact with some of the contractors whom I’m personally friendly and sitting down one-on-one and talking about the business and about foundations. Every contractor has interesting stories, but more importantly interesting insight from their experiences which has lead them to become part of Grate Products.

In the coming weeks I’m planning on interviewing Rob Hicks from Virginia Basement Waterproofing and Chris Brown from Rescon Basement Solutions in New Hampshire

Radon Information
Pioneer’s project managers recently went through intense radon measurement and assessment training, so I will be talking more in depth about radon in weeks to come.
Other than that I'm shocked that I've made 100 posts in a little under a year! Thanks to all of my readers for sending me questions, emailing me and following this site!

My basement renovation project progress: May 2009

Spring is officially here and yard work and family has been taking priority for me. One of the new things to happen is my Girlfriend’s sister has moved into our basement and will be living there for the next Month.

2 Projects came from this all in the same day. a.) Renovating the Basement’s ½ Bathroom and b.) Installing a temporary door to keep her cat downstairs (I’m allergic).

Like with any project around the home you have the helpful “check list” for projects

1.) Measure! If you don’t know how much space you have or are going to be dealing with you’re looking at a large percentage of material waste in your project. In today’s economy and with urgent need to help our environment, every little bit of scrap needs to be avoided.

2.) Draw it out. When you’re building anything that requires solid cuts, making a drawing and measuring it will help you do the math, make your cut list and keep waste down and your work time down.

3.) Clearing the work area: Making sure we had a clear work area, work surfaces, and a clear place to store things makes life so much simpler.

Our bathroom flooring was chosen because it’s an inorganic laminate flooring with a built in sub floor in it. This will have to go down first and cut outs made so that the toilet can be installed. The walls in the bathroom are going to be painted as well.

The Door will be installed on the walk in mud stones. Because it’s only temporary and the Homeowner didn’t want too much damage to the walls (which I’ll have to repair later anyway) we’re going with simple wood studs and a pre-framed door.

Next Projects on the list: Molding, More Painting, and a built in bookcase.