Good Vibrations

[yogi]

Your story is a good argument for always selecting a home site at or near the top of an incline instead of at or near the bottom. The year we moved into the last house we owned was the year in which the 100 year rain fell upon us - 9" of rain overnight. The house was about mid way down a long slope that dropped about 20 feet over a distance of 500 feet. Between us and the high point was a drainage ditch that emptied into the main storm sewer on my neighbor's property. The ditch flooded and overwhelmed the 6 foot intake (might have been slightly less)of the main storm sewer. Water then overflowed into the street and continued down the slope flooding out the homes in that subdivision. Our sump pumps ran nearly constantly but we never got flooded in the house. If we lived as little as 100 feet further down the slope it would have been a disaster. They did nothing to fix the drainage because it was a 100 year (1% chance) rain after all. Well, it happened again about five years later but that was it for the 30 years we lived there.

My front door in this house is at street level. The south end of my property is about 15-20 feet lower. Thus our house is built into the slope with a walkout lower level, which might be considered a basement. The people across the street from our front door are level all the way back a couple hundred feet where there is a ridge down which rain water could flow. Between us and the ridge is the street with magnificent drainage. I've seen flowing water on it, but it never has flooded. Even the flowing water only sticks around for an hour or so. Of course we have only been here a couple years and who knows what could happen in the future? I am well pleased with the drainage system around here. So far the sump pump in this house has never gone off. I think I died and went to heaven.

[Kellemora]

Although every house I've lived in until this one, has had a full basement, none of them ever needed a sump pump because they were well above any water table or water drainage problems.
That being said, most of the houses I worked on down in the city did all have sump pumps, but this is mainly because all of the old foundations were either stacked stones, or the newer ones were concrete block, which no matter how much sealing is done, water still leaks in. And for many, the sewer system was not as low as the foundation, so no floor drains either.

If they wanted a washer in the basement, we had to install a catch basin with a sump pump to lift the water up to the sewer connection. Many times you could just run a hose from the washer up to the sewer system, but it had to have a back-flow prevention valve (foot valve) to keep water from getting back in the washer. Old washers had better water pumps than the new models, so often when someone got a new washer, we had to run out and install a catch basin and sump pump for them.

One thing I miss about where I lived in St. Loo, compared to down here.
We had three separate sewers running through our subdivision.
The largest sewer was a 24" concrete pipe used for passing the original watershed across the subdivision.
Then there was a 12 to 14 inch storm sewer, mainly for street drainage, but homes could connect their downspouts and french drains to it.
Then we had the 8" sanitary sewer, which you were not allowed to connect anything but sanitary sewer laterals to it.

Down here in this subdivision they only have one 6" sanitary sewer, relined with plastic recently so is only now about 5-1/2".
We have no storm sewers or storm drains for the streets. What we do have is a ditch in the front yard for street runoff and it runs into the watershed creeks.
The existing watershed, where it must cross under a street, is done so using way to small of pipes under the road, so when we do get a heavy rain, it runs over the road, which often washes out the road on both sides of where the pipes run under the road. Heck, sometimes it washes around the pipes themselves and has literally pushed the pipes out from under the road and further down the watershed.
They are not much for infrastructure here, unless you live in one of their most ritzy areas.

[yogi]

I am not aware of all the civil engineering marvels which create the infrastructure of O'Fallon. But, I can say it all seems well maintained and designed to do the job well. I can't say the same for traffic engineering, but this place seems to be growing faster than the engineers can redesign the highway and roads system. The neighbors tell me there never was a flooding problem here and I believe it when I look at the storm sewers. I have no idea where all the water is going, but they are doing a good job of getting it there. LOL

One of the reasons we had a sump pump system in our old house is that the ground water was 11" below our basement floor. It would come up when it rained hard but never got into the basement proper. We also had overhead sanitary sewers in that house. There was no chance of a sewer backup. We could, however, fill our basement with storm water if the pumps were not working.

To be honest I don't know why every basement built up north does not have water on its floor. The foundations are poured in three stages. The footings are laid down first. Then the walls are poured on top of the footings. Then the floor is poured as a separate slab. There are always cracks along the perimeter of the floor, and after some years the floor itself will crack due to normal settling. On the outside of the concrete wall were it meets the footing is a run of perforated drain tile that empties into the the sump pump pit inside the house. Given all the cracks in the concrete and the way the drain tiles work, every basement should be a swimming pool. I don't get why any of them are dry.

As a side note I'm also impressed at the work ethic that seems to be prevalent around this city. The public works people are very good and efficient at what they do, at least they are in comparison to what goes on up by Chicago. A street repair project here might go on for 6-8 weeks. The same project would take that many months up north. In many cases the repair is seamless; I have seen new streets back home appear as if they are patched in by a drunken road worker.

[Kellemora]

When my dads house was built back in 1966, the bottom of the footing is a good 2 feet below the inside basement floor.
A French Drain is around the base of the footing, and a separate lateral line runs from it out to the storm sewer at the street.
On top of the footing, after the forms are set for pouring the concrete walls, a thick layer of tar is poured, then the concrete is poured.
After the concrete is set-up and they removed the forms, the outside of the concrete walls was sprayed with at least four coats of hot tar, up to the proposed ground line, and down to the foundation base.
Before the floor was poured inside the basement, some type of tan sealant was applied to the foundation and up to about 1/4 inch below the top of the basement floor.
After the concrete was dry, a coat of white Medusa was painted on all the basement concrete walls.

In more modern construction, vinyl plastic is spread out before the foundation is poured, and after the concrete walls are up, it is pulled up like a sack around box and backfilled against to hold it in place. The concrete floor is poured over the plastic as well.

[pilvikki]

daughter and i installed a sump pump into my walk out basement floor. it worked great until the river flooded...

[yogi]

Apparently there is more to building a concrete foundation than meets the eye; my eye anyway. I don't know how long the sealing lasts but I do know the tar coating on my first house was useless after ten years or so. Up north they really don't try to waterproof the concrete and only put enough tar on it to keep the moisture out for a few years. Fortunately moisture in the concrete isn't a big problem unless there are cracks. Then the cracks fill with water and turn to ice and get worse from there. There is some weird white stuff on the outside foundation wall in the current house. It looks like paint and will have to be redone periodically. I never heard of maintaining a foundation, but it's in the suggested maintenance documents they gave me with the house.

Sump pumps are not that hard to put in. I replaced one once but generally had a plumber come out and do it when needed. The backup sump was beyond what I wanted to do. It worked very well apparently because we never got water in the basement. The battery for it, however, would probably be enough to propel the QE II for a few days. LOL

[Kellemora]

We had a relative who was a painter. He would save up all the unused portions of paint, often dumping them into large 30 to 55 gallon drums. After a long dry hot spell, and after the ground shrunk away from his foundation. He would haul out those large drums and empty them into the gap between the foundation and the ground.

By my way of thinking, this gap would only be up near the surface. But he proved me wrong by taking an old tape measure the end came off of, and would feed it down along the foundation. If it made it further than six feet below ground level, out came the barrels. His basement was finished and he never had water in it that I know of. I do know he did something that is probably illegal. In the basement floor drains, about an inch above the top of the water in the trap, he drilled small holes, so if any water did get under his floor, it would go right down the drains.

[yogi]

You probably know about this trick, but I just discovered it when we were cleaning out the old house in preparation to move down south here. Over the years I accumulated a lot of partially full cans of paint. I don't know why I saved them, but everybody seems to do it. LOL The paint came in two varieties: oil based and water based latex. The waste management people would not take either one. They told me to take the oil based paint to the local hazmat disposal station, which I did. They had no problem taking it, but they were not interested in the latex. They told me, as did the waste management people, to mix cat litter with the latex. Waste management would have no problem taking the "solid" paint. I was utterly amazed when I mixed the first batch. It didn't take more than half an hour for the paint to solidify. It wasn't like Jello but rather more like concrete. Thinking back on that experience, I'd have no trouble coating my concrete with it. It probably would be stronger than the cement.

Dumping raw paint down the side of the foundation is very creative. However, I have to wonder if it cause any ground water pollution. I suppose that depends on what kind of paint it was.

[Kellemora]

Considering most of his neighbors still had out-houses, I doubt if it ground water pollution from paint was much of a concern. Besides, it probably soaked into the dirt and dried fairly fast anyhow.
On another thought, oil based paint used linseed oil, which comes from the dried Flax plant seeds.

We have that same issue with getting rid of excess latex paint here too.
Only we are told to mix it with water, like 1 gallon to 5 gallons of water, then it is no longer considered a pollutant, politically that is. In reality, it is still a gallon of paint.

We used to joke about that back home. Dumping a gallon of paint into the river is considered pollution.
However, if you bring an empty 5 gallon bucket, fill it up with water from the river, dump the paint into the bucket and stir, you could then dump it in the river. As I said above, it is still one gallon of paint going into the river, regardless of how the laws allow industry to pollute by diluting first.

[yogi]

There's a lot of misinformation going around about pollution. Your observation about a gallon of paint is typical. There are anti-pollution laws on the books just about everywhere, but none of them realistically stop pollution. The laws never were intended to stop it, but rather to slow it down. Unless we cease and desist in our industrial ways there will always be waste products. We can get smart about how we handle the waste, but pollution is a byproduct of our modern way of living. The same can be said about the highly debated topic of global warming. It's proven that we as humans are contributing to it, but it would take a drastic change of lifestyle to eliminate our air polluting habits. All we can hope for is a slowing down and perhaps a less harmful way of handling our waste products.

I don't know that mixing cat litter with latex paint is any better than diluting it with water 5:1. I can say the solid mass formed by the cat litter mixture isn't going anywhere like the diluted mix would. Thus they both are anti-pollution methods, but one is a bit smarter than the other.

[Kellemora]

I know first hand, whenever the government gets involved in anti-pollution schemes, they actually create more pollution.

I'm sure you remember the late 1960's when they added an air-pump to the cars to blow air into the exhaust.
It takes fuel and energy to run that air pump.
Back then, they measured pollution by sticking a sniffer up the exhaust pipe.
Blowing air into the exhaust system diluted the output so the measurement system read less, even though the amount of actual pollution was higher than before they burned fuel to run the air pump.
I used to race back then, so we removed the air pump, and on inspection day, we just set a scuba tank and ran the hose to the exhaust system inlets from the now non-existent air pump. Always got super low emissions readings, hi hi.
Anyone with half a brain could see the cars with air pumps actually added more pollution to the air.

Same thing with the signs over the highway showing the ground level ozone. It looked bad being near the red line all the time, so they just changed the numbers they used, what used to be red became yellow, so it looked good on the signs.
I've gone over the Natural Ozone Cycle before. But suddenly stopping the use of Freon in aerosols overnight caused ground level ozone to rise sharply. It never had any affect whatsoever on the Ozone Belt, it still ran on its merry own 13 year cycle unchanged, just has it has for a million years.

When they built Interstate-270, and cut between the rock hills around the Highway-66 area, they hit an old landfill which had closed sometime before 1956. Other than finding glass bottles, and some partial metals near the surface, there was nothing recognizable or recovered. I think they found the remnants of two large Bakelite radio housings, but everything inside, except for the glass tubes and sockets was completely gone, the metal chassis completely rusted away. They expected to find the discarded glass items, but they thought for sure they would find other household waste items still intact from being buried, which should have preserved them. They did find the remnants of a couple of saddles, but this too was up near the surface. I thought it was interesting they found nothing they expected to find.

[yogi]

Perhaps you can be a little more detailed in explaining how those air pumps increased the pollution levels. I guess part of your answer would have to include exactly what "pollution" we are talking about. It's true that adding an air pump to the engine increases the load, and consequently more raw fuel could be consumed in the process. The problem those air pumps were addressing was the exhaust of unburned gasoline (hydrocarbons) cause by incomplete combustion in the cylinders. By pumping air into the exhaust system, a lot of the unburned fuel was oxidized and thereby eliminated the hydrocarbons composing the pollution. To my understanding catalytic converters now perform that task better. Even though the engine might be less efficient due to the addition of anti-pollution components, the final exhaust is cleaner than it would be without those components. Your SCUBA tanks had a hell of a lot more oxygen in them than the air coming out of those pumps that you removed. The more oxygen the better as far as oxidization is concerned because more efficient oxidization translates into burning more hydrocarbons and less pollution.

I could be wrong but I think that's how it works. I almost didn't graduate from high school because I was so bad a chemistry. LOL

[Kellemora]

There is no added oxygen to scuba tanks, however they must use oil free compressors to fill them or they will be deadly.

I think that is what they wanted folks to think, but diluting the exhaust with air, even if it did cause some oxidation, it is still the residual of fossil fuels and hence hydrocarbons.

Catalytic Converters are reburners, designed to burn particulates that failed to burn in the cylinders.
They are a good thing, which is why you find them in wood-burning stoves, and in some high-end ovens.
Back when I worked on a few appliances eons ago, almost every stove had an electric reburner element in the exhaust from the oven. I don't know when they quit putting them in, but many of the newer ovens produce more odors now without them.

I did a lot of work in water chemistry, and working around reef animals in closed systems, there were so many things we had to watch out for that folks never think of. One of those is dissolved organic carbon which can be introduced into the aquarium via unlikely sources. One of the reasons we use only beet sugar instead of cane sugar is because cane sugar has organic carbon in it. Since it never breaks down, where is it all going? Eventually to our oceans?

[yogi]

I don't know about SCUBA tanks but i do know the purpose of introducing air into the exhaust system of automobiles is to burn off (oxidize) the gasses considered to be pollutants. The probes up the exhaust pipes are fair indicators of the effectiveness of the techniques. Same goes for Catalytic converters. It's not perfectly clean air coming out of them, but the offending hydrocarbons are greatly reduces as well as the particulate matter you mention. Where are all these chemicals going? Good question. LOL The earth is a closed system and nothing gets created nor destroyed, according to science. So it's all staying on the planet in one form or another. Our job is to keep it as safe for humans as is possible.

My guess is that the reburner in ovens disappeared for cost reasons. Cleaning up the pollution is not cheap. The automobile manufacturers objected vehemently when they were required to make cleaner exhaust systems. Of course it cost them nothing to do it. All the added anti-pollution devices were and are being paid for by the consumer.

[Kellemora]

One of my step-sons designed cars for one of the big three.
His main jobs was to scrutinize certain small parts to see if they could be omitted from the vehicle. Which basically meant redesigning a certain area of the car so it was cheaper to build using less parts, and using more automation to build faster.

How can a car dealer offer a 7 grand discount if the car was not already so grossly overpriced?

After I totaled my originally bought new 1997 Blazer, two years ago, it took me a year of searching to find another car with the features I wanted. Guess what, I finally found it, and it was another identical 1997 Blazer.

Shortly after I bought my 97 Blazer, I loved it so much, in 1999 I began hunting for another one like it. Checked out all the new cars from 1999 to 20003 and never found one I would part with my money for.
Ended up buying the frau a 1993 Jimmy as temporary transportation until I could find her something else. She loved that old Jimmy so I sunk a few bucks into it. We finally found her a 2002 Blazer, and sold the 93 Jimmy. The 2002 does not hold a candle to the 97 Blazer, not even close. I actually hate it when I have to drive her car.
Now that I'm on a low fixed income, there's no way I could ever afford a new car, nor would I really want one.
The only couple of new cars I found to consider cost right at 60,000 dollars, but only worth about 6,000 bucks to me, so No Sale!

[Kellemora]

Forgot to mention, we tried four drops of mercury on a freshly drilled divot in a block of aluminum from a storm door.
Absolutely nothing happened. Tried cleaning the hole with vinegar which is acetic acid, still nothing. Even tried using a smaller drill bit passing it through the mercury into the center of the divot. At first it looked like it was doing something, but it was only the shavings moving around to get away from the mercury.

Starting to wonder if what I think is mercury, because it came out of thermostats and tilt switches, might be something else and not mercury at all. Although it looks and acts like mercury. Put a little on a penny and it turned the penny silver just like always. I don't have any sulfuric acid to try that as the cleaning agent.

Another possibility is the aluminum corner blocks from the screen door are perhaps magnesium and not aluminum, or maybe just pot metal?

[yogi]

I'm kind of thinking the guy in the video used some special materials for the experiment, i.e., pure metals. If I recall correctly he also had trouble starting the reaction and had to use an acid wash to eliminate any residual Al2O3. There is a vague memory somewhere in my skull suggesting that thermometers no longer use mercury. I seem to recall breaking into one somewhere in my teenage years and being disappointed. Tilt switches, however, more than likely are the real thing. They are less likely to be tinkered with by curious young men. If the aluminum sample is truly aluminum, maybe some oven cleaner or some of that CLR cleaner would work. Both have hydrochloric acid in them.

I knew somebody who worked for Ford Motor Company. His job was to calculate the cost of parts down to the 3rd decimal place, e.g., 11.123 cents. They would change the part or the process if they could affect the cost down to the .001 cents level, just to give you an idea of how cost conscious those folks are. It was also Ford that made some headlines many years ago with the revelation that around $10,000 of that new car price goes to the employees' pension fund. Dealers, of course, get volume discounts too and rebates that we as consumers never hear about. So, I'm betting that $30,000 new Hupmobile costs out at half the MSRP to manufacture. No, I can't afford that either, but I'm not one to say the people in the supply chain should not make a profit.

At one time I fantasized over owning a red Lamborghini, but in my old age I've changed my preference to Bentley. The particular model I'm interested in, the Mulsanne, starts at $345,000. As you can see by the web page there are a few options that would raise the price a bit. Should I win the Lotto, you can bet the farm on the fact that I'm going to get one. I'll even come visit you and take you for a ride.

[Kellemora]

Well, I tried something else. I wadded up a ball of aluminum foil, but folding it first so both the shiny side of one edge, and the dull side of another edge were right next to each other. Flattened the ball with my hand first, then used the eraser end of a pencil to make a dent centered between the shiny and dull pieces.
The frau started her video rolling and we dropped four drops of mercury into the divot.
Ten minutes later, still nothing. She stopped filming.
Rather than dump the mercury back, I set the plate with the foil and mercury in the center of the kitchen table and left it there. About two hours later I took a look, and there was some minor activity. No growing vertical hairs, but more like little thin slivers of crayon about 1/8 inch long were curled away from the mercury.
I thought cool, it's starting to work. Took a look at it after another hour and saw no change.
I wanted to leave it overnight, but the frau said no, put it outside away from the house.
I did, set plate and all on a stone table on the other side of the driveway.
Took a look at it this morning and no real change, except for perhaps a few more little sliver curls.
I'll just leave it there and check it again tonight.

Henry Ford had the right idea, build cars cheap enough almost everyone could afford one.
Shame his descendants didn't have the same ethics.
I understand the chains of manufacturing and distribution probably more than most folks.
Which is one of the reasons I say corporations should not be taxed.
Those hidden taxes added at every level in both chains compound exponentially until the end consumer is paying in many cases 7 times more in tax than what the government gets out of taxing corporations.

I owned a Bricklin for a few months before I convinced them to take it back.
It was a neat looking concept car, but was falling apart before I even got it new.
I had the law on my side on this one. The contract and bill of sale both showed what I ordered, and what they claimed they would use in their brochures. All the records agreed, so when what they sent me wasn't even close to what I ordered, they didn't have a leg to stand on. Even so, it took two months before they finally agreed to give my money back without deductions.

If money was no option, I would get the frau a Red Mustang Convertible. As far as myself, I don't know if I could truly find a car I would be pleased with. I would probably end up buying another SUV if I could find one with all the right parts. However, if money was no concern, I could afford to have real cars fully restored, like a 57 Chevy as an example. I also liked my 68 Camaro and 76 50th Anniv. SE TransAm. That being said, I've never owned a vehicle I liked more than my 97 Blazer, which is why I bought another one. Shame I don't have the money to have it fully restored. Parts, especially plastic parts, are a problem to find.
I would rather stick ten grand into my 97 Blazer than have to drive the deadly junk they call cars today.
I really wish I could have afforded to fix my original Blazer, I kept it in top running shape and in perfect condition all the years I owned it. One little crunch in the passenger side headlight bucket did little body damage, but because most of the components for the vehicle are on that side, lined up back to back, it shoved them into the plastic heater box. I could get the computer and AC parts, but that plastic box was impossible to find. Fenders are cheap and available so no problems there. Too late now though, it sat for four years and has now gone to the crusher.

[yogi]

I think you proved the concept with your aluminum/mercury experiment. The video was a time lapse but I don't recall how long it took being mentioned. It could have been hours, days, or weeks. LOL I also think the quality of the metals was probably better than what you or I could get our hands on.

Good ol' Henry Ford had a great idea with the production line method of building cars. It's still used today in one way or another. The big difference is that robots have replaced people on that line. I'd agree that one of the ideas Ford had was to make cars affordable for the average person. He could do that at the time, but there is no way he could duplicate his initial efforts today. The cost of everything in those Model T's has gone through the roof not to mention the cost of labor.

I think you could possibly get a '97 Blazer built to your specs if money were no object. But then you would be in the same category as me with dreams of owning a Bentley. In fact I am pretty sure the Bentley would be cheaper than a custom made Blazer these days. I drive what I have to in my retirement, but I am a big fan of luxury. I think I'd be willing to forgo some of the old time high reliability and safe vehicles to indulge in being chauffeured around in a car that I could not tell was in motion unless I looked out the window to see if the scenery was moving or not.

[Kellemora]

I owned a Cadillac for a short time, here too, because they sold me something other than what I had ordered.
However, it sure had a lot of amenities in it. Heated seats and steering wheel. A switch on the cup holders allowed you to open or close a vent to direct either the AC or Heat into it.
After using it for two years, it being in the shop for over six months of those two years. I finally spent 7 grand in it so I could trade it in for 3,500 bucks. I feel sorry for the bloke who bought it, although with a new engine and transmission, and several other new parts, perhaps I finally got everything fixed, but I never considered it reliable transportation.

If the government would quit subsidizing them and bailing them out, they would be forced to build affordable and reliable cars again, or go out of business. Let someone who knows how to build cars take over and not be held back by the big three.

Labor costs and materials have gone up some, but nothing comparable to how the price of cars has escalated.
What other manufactured items have increased so dramatically? I honestly can't think of a single product which increased more than the standard rate of inflation, and many manufactured products have actually come down in price.