Avoid greenwashing when building your custom home

Greenwashing: Beware!

The term "green" is being increasingly applied as an easy way to identify products, including building materials and new homes, as having a better or smaller impact on the environment.

That's fine for marketing slogans and advertising headlines, but it's also dangerous if the product (or house) isn't truly sensitive to its environmental impact and is simply trying to ride the coattails of a sincere effort to lessen our carbon footprint.

In those instances, intended or not, the term "greenwashing" comes into play. Simply, it refers to incomplete, insincere, exaggerated, or downright untrue promises made about a product's environmental performance, with no real evidence to back it up.

As a professional builder confronted with "green" claims from a variety of building product manufacturers and some competitors, we are keenly aware of the threat that greenwashing can have on our credibility as a quality contractor.

So, in our business, we make every effort to substantiate the claims made by our suppliers regarding reduced water use, recycled content, energy efficiency, and other performance characteristics that relate to creating a "green" building.

How? Thankfully, the "green" movement within and outside of the building industry has spawned a wealth of independent, third-party companies that scientifically verify those claims with a battery of standards and test methods. When considering a product or system, we look for certifications from those entities, as well as specific performance information (such as the precise amount of energy the furnace claims to save) to give us confidence.

However, manufacturers and some builders may unintentionally misuse the certifications they earn from such testing or evaluation. For instance, there's no such thing as an "eco-friendly'" or "environmentally-sensitive" product or house, two terms that have no scientific basis and smack of greenwashing.

Failing to go the extra mile to verify environmental performance claims can put us at risk of becoming greenwashers, too. It's also our responsibility to surround so-called green products and systems with a quality-built house that effectively optimizes the energy use, water use, and durability of those products.

That way, we can all feel good, and be confident in, your investment and our combined efforts to make the Earth a healthier place to live for us and future generations.

Warm Regards,

Doug Abbott
Village Builders

This is an exert from a newsletter that is distributed to all former, current and future clients of Village Builders Inc. It is written by the President Doug Abbott. If you would like to receive this newsletter feel free to email me at www.robabbott@villagebuilders.ca

Rob Abbott
Operations Manager
Village Builders Inc.

Trim in modern custom homes

Modern Day Construction for custom homes Part 10

In today’s modern world of construction things are changing year to year faster than they did decade to decade in any other previous time period. In this multi part series I will traverse through an entire house starting with the foundation and working my way up to the roof and then to the finishing’s. I will explain what has changed in the last twenty years in custom home building.

One thing that you should be able to take away from this is how important it is to not just hire the right general contractor to build your custom home but how important it is to hire one that is up on today’s building methods.

Trim

Twenty years ago if you wanted painted trim you used either MDF or pine. Most trim if it was made from real wood was made from one piece of wood.

Today’s trim if you are using real wood comes in a smaller one piece format. If you want larger elaborate trim in real wood it will usually come in a two piece format. There is still MDF trim but in custom homes it is almost nonexistent. Most painted trim is now popular with less people using pine every year. The reason for this is because popular has a denser cell structure which allows for easier painting. Also popular is almost completely free of knots, which saves time and money because you don’t have to spot treat the knots before priming and painting.

The big difference in trim is the how environmentally friendly trim companies have become in a short 2 decades. Most big trim companies use wood from only sustainable forests. Some companies can actually track the wood that your trim is made from all the way back to the forest that the tree came from. All cut offs and sawdust is reused in different forms, some use it to make finger joint trims (which is a cheaper form of trim that must be painted) and others use high pressure to form the sawdust into pucks. These pucks are then sold to the gardening industry as a natural fertilizer. The shift to popular has come about because it is an extremely fast growing tree and whole forests can be cut down, replanted and cut down again in the two decades that we are talking about in this blog.

The variety of different trim profiles has grown with the amount of different companies that are making it. From the big box stores to the custom trim companies, you almost have an unlimited choice of trim and trim profiles to pick from, depending only on your time and need.

There are certain types of species that you don’t see used in trim anymore, it is because the supply of those trees just doesn’t exist in the world anymore. Finding hemlock trim for example is very hard and extremely expensive. Because a lot of the large hardwoods take 50 to 100 years to grow trim companies have stopped producing trim out of them and moved to softer woods that can be made to look like these when stained.
In the future trim companies will have to become more creative in there trim making with the tree supply growing ever smaller.

Some trims like crown moldings have been shifted into other products that are easier to handle and avoid the shrinking and expanding that happens when you have a natural product like wood. Crown moldings are now being installed by drywallers instead of carpenters. This type of crown molding is made out of foam with a finished face. The drywaller mud’s the seams and corners and caulks the edges, this allows the crown molding to have a seamless finish to it.

Look for part 11 coming soon....

Rob Abbott
Operations Manager
Village Builders Inc.

Preparing your furnace for winter

Preparing your home for winter.

One of the major issues people have is that first cold day and they turn their furnace on and the furnace doesn’t work. They frantically call their mechanical contractor and he informs them that it will take them till tomorrow to get there because of all the no-heat calls that they have received. Once they come and repair the furnace then you are stuck with a large emergency repair bill.

There is an easy way to avoid this problem, schedule your mechanical contractor to come and do your maintenance and start up the month before the weather starts to turn cold. This way when the weather turns cold your furnace will be guaranteed to work the first try and you can avoid that costly emergency service bill. Maintenance bills are far cheaper and can be done at your and your contractor’s schedule.

With scheduling your furnace maintenance for around August or September you can schedule them in advance, you can also have your mechanical contractor call you every August to set up the appointment taking the burden off of you. You get a furnace that works well and when you need it too and your mechanical contractor gets a flexible schedule to work with you.

A lot of money can be saved by maintenance, parts can be replaced when they are worn instead of after they brake and cause damage to surrounding parts.

There are things you should do yourself before your mechanical contractor comes;

• Cut the grass and weeds away from the intake and the exhaust of the furnace.

• If you have an HRV do the same cutting and debris removal for it as well.

• Remove any debris that you see in the vents, they are usually easy to remove and re-install.

• You should also replace or clean your furnace filters as well. Dirty or damaged filters can cause a lot of damage to the furnace and also hurt performance by restricting airflow.

• There are filters in your HRV system as well that you should be replaced or cleaned of all dust and debris like pet hair.

• You can also go around and vacuum out all the vents and cold air returns so that you don’t have to worry about dust being thrown in the air when they furnace is fired up for the first time.

• You should check that you do not have furniture or other things blocking the air vents or the cold air returns, this can put undue stress on the furnace as it starves it for air.

• If you live in the country you should make sure that your furnace oil or propane tanks have been topped up, this is always easier to do when there isn’t any snow on the ground.

Remember it’s always cheaper to do it before you need it then after.

Rob Abbott
Operations Manager
Village Builders Inc.

How much will my house cost?

The Cost Question

A question we get all the time is "what's your price per square foot?" The perception (or presumption), we assume, is that if you wanted to add or subtract a few square feet for whatever reason, you simply add or subtract that amount per foot from the price or cost of the house.

Simply, in our business, it doesn't work that way. For us, it's an impossible question to answer without a lot more information and detail, and one that can only be derived once the house is finished and all costs have been accounted for. Before that, it's akin to asking, "How much does a vacation cost?" without first knowing where and for how long you plan to go, and by what mode of transportation, among other considerations.

The fact is, the details (and therefore cost) of every house -- even those built on speculation by large-volume builders -- is different, and the cost of your house is entirely up to you, not your builder. Only you know how much you can afford and what you want in your new home. It's our job to apply our expertise and experience to finely detail your wants and needs and then build a home that meets (or ideally exceeds) those expectations while remaining within your budget.

That's why it is so important to determine and then share your budget with us from the first moment you select us to build your home. Budget information should precede any talk of contracts or actual construction.

Using the vacation analogy, we are like a travel agent working with you to plan a trip.

Still, the square-foot cost question persists. So, it might be helpful to understand what goes into or affects the cost (or ultimate price) of a new home to gain a better perspective on the question.

For instance, the costs of similarly sized homes can vary considerably due to their location (and even size and shape of the lot within the same neighborhood), the outline of the building, the type of and complexity of the foundation and roof, and many other construction and design characteristics that are not directly related to the square footage of the house.

In addition, costs including development impact fees and permits,  provincial and municipal mandated code requirements, can add from a few thousand to tens of thousands of dollars to the ultimate cost of a new home, regardless of size. Labor and material costs also can vary substantially based upon the time of year, availability and demand of building materials and workers, weather conditions, and the complexity of the project.

The list of variables goes on, and we're happy to discuss them with you and explain how they might impact the cost of your new home. But, in our view, it's short-sighted to ask us up-front what our homes cost per square foot, and certainly to base one of the most important decisions of your life on that metric alone.

Better, we think, to get a full understanding of our process and expertise and marry those skills with what you can afford and want and need in a new home to achieve your goals.

Warm Regards,

Doug Abbott
Village Builders

 This is an exert from a newsletter that is distributed to all former, current and future clients of Village Builders Inc. It is written by the President Doug Abbott. If you would like to receive this newsletter feel free to email me at www.robabbott@villagebuilders.ca

Rob Abbott
Operations Manager
Village Builders Inc.

Call before you dig!

 Call before you dig.

Everyone has seen the advertisements on television, the internet or on a billboard. Ads that show a shovel or a backhoe and words in large print “call before you dig!”

This might sound like a bit of a joke but it’s not. You wouldn’t believe the things that are in the ground today and in places that you would never imagine them to be. Almost everything that is important is buried under the ground now.

A lot of people tend to think that most important things are buried deep in the ground and that the chances of you hitting them are very slim, that’s actually a false hood. Certain things are buried not very deep at all and are installed in the ground like this for a variety of reasons.

Phone, internet and cable are usually only buried deep enough that you wouldn’t see them. They are usually installed 4 to 6 inches below the surface when they are servicing a single home; this is usually some ones lawn. The larger bundles of cable can be anywhere from 1 ft in the ground to 10 feet in the ground depending on when they were installed, why they were installed and by whom.

The only thing that is guaranteed to be buried below a certain depth is the city water lines or the lines from a well. Water supply lines have to be installed at least 4 feet below the surface of the ground in most cold climates. This is because 4 feet is what most people believe will be below any ground freezing that can happen during the winter.

Most sewer lines are below the 4 foot mark but not always, sometimes when you are restricted by the amount of distance you have to travel to the main sewer line they will allow you to come above the 4 foot mark. They allow you to do that because your sewer lines are installed on a slope to allow sewage to flow, this insures that nothing sits in the same place very long and doesn’t have time to freeze in place.

Gas lines are another story altogether, gas lines are you usually bored in under roads or driveways or under lawns and they can be anywhere from 6 inches below the surface to 10 feet below the surface. Gas lines are one of the most dangerous things to dig up, if you sever a gas line you could blow yourself up or burn down someone’s house.
The cost to fix gas lines, internet lines, large bundles of cable or hydro lines can get really expensive really fast. The only way to protect yourself is to call (in Ontario Canada) Ontario One call. They will survey the area for you and mark anything under the ground and give you a map with depth and distance on it.
Ontario One call does a lot of the things buried under the ground but it doesn’t do them all, to find out where the city water and sewer lines are you have to call your local municipality and they will come out and locate them.

The great thing about when you call either of these groups to come mark the ground is that if you break something and it wasn’t on the map or was suppose at another location then you don’t have to pay for it to be fixed.

So remember to call before you dig! It might save you a lot of time and it could save your life as well.

Rob Abbott
Operations Manager
Village Builders Inc.

What to do to your house before the temperature drops below 0

There are certain things that you should be doing around the outside of your home before the temperature drops below freezing.

One of the big things that people forget to do or don’t even realize that they have to do is removing any outdoor shower heads. A lot of people today have outdoor showers or dog showers. These shower heads are usually hand showers so that you can accurately wash off your feet and legs before you proceed into the house. If you don’t take the time to remove the hand shower and the hose that it is attached then you could end up with the hand shower and the supply line freezing. When water freezes it expands in size, when water turns to ice and expands in a confined space like a plastic or copper line then it ruptures the line causing it to burst. This will basically destroy the hand shower and the hose attached to it. The other thing that can happen is that the water that is still in the line can freeze, this will allow the cold to travel into the tap that it is attached to the fixture and ultimately freezing the tap as well. Once the tap has frozen then the copper or plastic pipe on the inside of the house freezes and splits. This means that instead of having a broken shower head on the outside of your home you have a burst pipe in your basement that can potentially flood it with water.

The other thing that you have to do before the temperature drops below freezing is remove any garden hoses that you have still attached to your outside taps. Garden hoses are famous for holding water in them, since there is water left in them then it can freeze and if it freezes then if can actually freeze the tap it’s attached too bursting the pipe attached to the tap on the inside of the home, those flooding the basement.

You don’t have to take the garden hose inside to the warm of the house, allowing it to freeze usually doesn’t do any damage to it, as long as there isn’t something attached to the end, like a pressure nozzle.

If you have outside taps that are “frost free” then you don’t have to worry about them freezing as long as there’s nothing attached to them. If they are the older conventional taps then you need to make sure that there are shutoffs on the inside of the house. They need to be placed far enough inside of the building that they are in the heated space. You need to turn the shutoffs to the closed or off position and then go outside and turn the tap on so that any excess water from the pipes empties out.

If you have sprinklers or water lines that run to an outbuilding you should be giving them the same treatment to prevent freezing and those preventing leaks.

Rob Abbott
Operations Manager
Village Builders Inc.

5 Ways to Avoid Greenwashing when building a new home

5 Ways to Avoid Greenwashing

Sadly, going "green" isn't always about the environment or conserving energy. Companies in and out of the housing industry make claims that their products offer environmental benefits -- such as fewer toxins, recycled content, or resource efficiencies -- but fail to back them up with independent testing, quantified results, or other forms of verification.

In many cases, such claims are simply misstated or overstated in an effort to grab your attention and sell products. Words and terms such as "eco-friendly" or "environmentally sensitive," while catchy and conveying a certain benefit, have no true basis in fact.

In fewer cases, the claims are intended to deceive you; the company is simply jumping on the green bandwagon without the proper documentation and worse, little sincere concern for the environmental impact of its products. The goal is to cash in on the green movement, not contribute to it.

In both cases, the effect is called "greenwashing." It's something we as professional builders confront all the time with our suppliers. And while it's our job to ferret out true and impactful environmental claims from those that are greenwashed before we offer those benefits to you for your new-home project, we encourage our homeowners to take initiative and protect themselves, as well.

Here are some tactics you may find useful to avoid greenwashing:

• Ask questions! With a little digging online or perhaps on the phone with the manufacturer, you can discover the details of how a product is made and quantify its green claims. If there is recycled content, for instance, you should be able to find out how much and from what sources; if the product claims to save water, the amount of anticipated savings based on a baseline of use should be accessible.

• Look for a label. Not all sincerely green products are certified by a reputable third-party, such as the federal Energy Star programs (among several), but such labeling is a good (and easy) piece of the puzzle. These programs verify quantifiable claims made by the manufacturer regarding their environmental impact. If you see a label you don't recognize, look it up online for more details and likely a list of certified products.

• Beware of hidden tradeoffs. Many products tout a narrow definition of an environmental benefit but with a tradeoff somewhere else, such as a product that uses recycled content but also contains or uses formaldehyde or adhesives that emit volatile organic compounds (VOCs). We also look at things like packaging, distance from the source (the closer the better), and manufacturing processes that ideally reduce the environmental impact of the product beyond a single green claim.

• Realize relevance. The use of bad stuff like lead (in paints), chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs, in refrigerants), asbestos (in insulation and roofing products), and arsenic (used to preserve wood products) has been banned for decades. Still, some manufacturers now tout them as a "green" benefit. Something that's "lead-free" should be a given, not a sales pitch -- and certainly not considered green.

• Trust your gut. Common sense is always a good gauge; if something sounds too good to be true, or at least overstated or exaggerated, check it out. If you get the runaround or the company can't qualify its claims, find an alternative that satisfies your needs and goals.

As your builder, we consider it our responsibility to provide you with products and systems that perform as promised. Greenwashing gets in the way of that goal, while avoiding such claims helps deliver the environmental and resource efficiencies you expect and desire.

Warm Regards,

Doug Abbott
Village Builders

 This is an exert from a newsletter that is distributed to all former, current and future clients of Village Builders Inc. It is written by the President Doug Abbott. If you would like to receive this newsletter feel free to email me at www.robabbott@villagebuilders.ca

Rob Abbott
Operations Manager
Village Builders Inc.

Engineered reclaimed flooring the new hot trend

A hot new trend in custom home building is the use of engineered flooring.

This might not sound like a new thing, but it’s the type of engineered flooring that is being used that is changing.

For years people have been installing engineered flooring in places that they couldn’t install normal hardwood flooring, one of the most popular hardwood flooring is reclaimed hardwood flooring.

Reclaimed hardwood flooring is wood that has been made from old barns that are being torn down ever more frequently. The reason for the barns being demolished is a variety of reasons. Some barns that are 100 years old have just reached the end of their life, others are being taken down because they have been neglected and the weather has made them unsafe to put livestock or hay in anymore. There are barns being removed as former farm land is transformed into housing developments or into private residences that have no use for an old barn and have no idea how to care for one. But the biggest reason is that most farmers now have to be larger and to be larger producers to survive and this means that they need specialized buildings. They need buildings that are built for a purpose and not an old multi use building that was designed to hold square bails in the top and livestock in the bottom.

They have now taken the next logical step in reclaimed flooring and have created engineered reclaimed flooring. This allows them to expand their market to customers that wanted their product but couldn’t use it because of certain factors. Some of the factors that do not allow you to use reclaimed wood flooring are as follows;

• You are installing the wood on a concrete basement floor.

• You have in-floor radiant heat and are worried about the gypcrete or the heated floor warping the wood floor over time.

• Where you want to install it is a damp or high humidity area and you are worried about what the moisture will do to the wood overtime.

• You are looking for a product that will stand up to shifting or changes in humidity or moisture in the air and in the building.

These are just a few of the more common reasons why people end up choosing engineered flooring over the full thickness hardwood flooring.

This move toward engineered flooring was expected, one to increase their market and the other is so that they do not have to use so much of their limited product.

When you have a very limited product such as reclaimed wood from barns then the less you can use the better. Engineered flooring uses less than a quarter of normal hardwood flooring. Engineered flooring has basically a skin of reclaimed hardwood on it.

Even though it is just a skin of wood a lot of companies are making the skin thick enough that you will still be able to get one sand and refinish out of the floor. This will help prolong the life of the floor and it gives you the purchaser some piece of mind that if you happen to damage the floor you still have the option to repair and refinish it.

If you are thinking about new flooring in your home or building a new custom home, think about reclaimed engineered flooring, you won’t be disappointed.

Rob Abbott
Operations Manager
Village Builders Inc.

Women shelter charity event an overwhelming success

Women shelter charity event an overwhelming success!

On Saturday in the town of Collingwood “My Friends House” a women shelter held a charity event to help raise money for the ongoing operation of the very successful shelter.

It was called “Walk a mile in her shoes” and it turned out to be a smashing success.

They were able to raise over $28,000.00.

Walk a mile in her shoes is a charity event that men walk 1 mile in red high heel shoes, it is to help raise awareness to help stop women abuse.

Village Builders employee Peter Heron was the lucky guy that did the walk this year for the whole company. Peter was quiet the sight in a pair of black high heel shoes and camouflage jacket.

The men walked right down the main street of Collingwood, they definitely stopped traffic and had more than a few onlookers in shock.

Peter’s legs even made the local news cast, to bad Peter didn’t shave them first!

We would like to thank Peter for doing this, this charity along with a couple of other ones are very close to the heart of Village Builders.

If you would like to donate or participate next year please feel free to email are financial controller Ursula Abbott at uschi@villagebuilders.ca and she will give you all the information that you require.

Rob Abbott
Operations Manager
Village Builders Inc.

Prepare your outdoor shower for winter

There are certain things that you should be doing around the outside of your home before the temperature drops below freezing.

One of the big things that people forget to do or don’t even realize that they have to do is removing any outdoor shower heads. A lot of people today have outdoor showers or dog showers. These shower heads are usually hand showers so that you can accurately wash off your feet and legs before you proceed into the house. If you don’t take the time to remove the hand shower and the hose that it is attached then you could end up with the hand shower and the supply line freezing. When water freezes it expands in size, when water turns to ice and expands in a confined space like a plastic or copper line then it ruptures the line causing it to burst. This will basically destroy the hand shower and the hose attached to it. The other thing that can happen is that the water that is still in the line can freeze, this will allow the cold to travel into the tap that it is attached to the fixture and ultimately freezing the tap as well. Once the tap has frozen then the copper or plastic pipe on the inside of the house freezes and splits. This means that instead of having a broken shower head on the outside of your home you have a burst pipe in your basement that can potentially flood it with water.

The other thing that you have to do before the temperature drops below freezing is remove any garden hoses that you have still attached to your outside taps. Garden hoses are famous for holding water in them, since there is water left in them then it can freeze and if it freezes then if can actually freeze the tap it’s attached too bursting the pipe attached to the tap on the inside of the home, those flooding the basement.

You don’t have to take the garden hose inside to the warm of the house, allowing it to freeze usually doesn’t do any damage to it, as long as there isn’t something attached to the end, like a pressure nozzle.

If you have outside taps that are “frost free” then you don’t have to worry about them freezing as long as there’s nothing attached to them. If they are the older conventional taps then you need to make sure that there are shutoffs on the inside of the house. They need to be placed far enough inside of the building that they are in the heated space. You need to turn the shutoffs to the closed or off position and then go outside and turn the tap on so that any excess water from the pipes empties out.

If you have sprinklers or water lines that run to an outbuilding you should be giving them the same treatment to prevent freezing and those preventing leaks.

Rob Abbott
Operations Manager
Village Builders Inc.

Extending Exteriors-getting the best out of the outside finishes on your home

Extending Exteriors

A home's exterior finish is literally its face to the world. The combination of materials, colors, and textures delivers a first and lasting impression and evokes pride and value. The right exterior finishes for a given climate and their proper installation also reduce ongoing maintenance chores and replacement or repair costs.

Updating and replacing those finishes on an existing home can also significantly boost its resale value.
In our experience, there are several factors that help ensure the long-term quality and value of exterior finishes, namely:

Top-Quality Materials. There's no substitute for the best-made roofing, siding, and trim materials. As a professional remodeling contractor, we work to find the best-quality exterior materials available within budget. Climate conditions and the style of the house can also dictate materials selections. Where wood might be a good choice for a moderate climate, it's not the best choice in extended extreme weather conditions. A composition shingle may be appropriate for a Rancher, while concrete tile may work best for a Mediterranean-style home.

Professional Installation. An exterior finish is only as good as its installation. We work with and supervise professional installers or train our own crews to install and finish exterior products properly. We then inspect and approve their work. To ensure long-term value, lasting good looks, and low maintenance, we use the recommended type and number of fasteners, allow for slight, climate-induced shrinking and swelling, and seal joints between materials to avoid buckling and separation.

Water Resistance. We've learned to respect water and allow for its inevitable (if incidental) intrusion behind exterior finishes by taking measures to shed and vent it away before it causes any damage that requires maintenance, extensive repairs, or replacement.
Common solutions include weather-resistant barriers for the roof and sidewalls, flashing around windows and doors, metal drip edges and kick-out flashing at roof eaves. We employ airspaces and weep holes for brick or stone veneers, gutter and drainage systems, and rainscreens behind stucco and some clapboard or shingle siding finishes. These materials and methods serve -- usually in combination -- to keep incidental water from ruining a high-quality job. We also work to use dry framing and sheathing materials to limit moisture that might migrate behind the finishes from the structure.

Proper Painting. The value of a high-quality, exterior-rated paint cannot be overstated. Starting with a well-prepared surface, a universally thick layer of paint can last perhaps twice as long as the conventional 7-10 years before it requires a new coat. The best way to achieve full coverage and a uniform thickness is with a sprayer (not brushes or rollers) and it is essential that the paint be applied over a completely dry surface.
For wood-based siding, such as clapboards or shingles, we may specify a factory-applied primer that encases the entire panel against moisture and enables better adhesion.

As a professional remodeler, we take pride not just in how our projects perform and meet a client's needs, but also how they look -- especially over time. We also want our clients to enjoy as few ongoing maintenance chores and costs as possible and avoid expensive repairs or replacements before their time. Properly applied exterior finishes are critical to achieving those goals and exceeding the expectations of our homeowners.

Warm Regards,

Doug Abbott
Village Builders

 This is an exert from a newsletter that is distributed to all former, current and future clients of Village Builders Inc. It is written by the President Doug Abbott. If you would like to receive this newsletter feel free to email me at www.robabbott@villagebuilders.ca

Rob Abbott
Operations Manager
Village Builders Inc.

Water problems in your basement? Why the backfill around your home could be the problem.

 A lot of people think that when they have a water problem in their basement that the waterproofing must have failed. That’s not always the case, if you are living in a home that was built in the last 20 years you may have a problem with the backfill that was used.

The one I would like to talk about in this blog is the type of backfill that was used around the home.

If your home was backfilled with the wrong material then it could easily explain the reason that you have water in your basement. In Ontario there are certain types of material that are approved by the building code to backfill around your home. The backfill is supposed to be inspected by the building inspectors when the home is being built but that isn’t always possible. Here are some of the materials that you can use to backfill a home that are expectable;

• Sand
• Gravel
• Granular A or B
• Pit run
• Clean fill or soil that is not full of organics or clay.

The reasons that these are approved to backfill around houses are because they are porous. What you want to backfill a house with is a material that will allow water to penetrate all the way to the footings of the home.
At the footings there should either be a tile drain or a big “0” that will allow the water to flow to the sump pail to be pumped away from the building or out a gravity drain away from the home.

Some of materials that people use to backfill houses that do not allow water to penetrate are as follows;

• Clay. This material does not allow moisture to penetrate it and will actually absorb it becoming heavier. When clay becomes heavier it puts pressure on the foundation walls, this could lead to a brake in the foundation wall over time.

• Large stones. Large stones can damage the waterproofing, the foundation wall and the weeping system. They also can allow water to penetrate through the waterproofing if they are leaning directly on it for an extended amount of time.

• Organics. The problem with organics is that they can grow plant life that can interfere with the weeper system. They can also push on the waterproofing until a leak starts.

If you live in a subdivision or track built home the backfill that was used could be filled with construction debris. The last couple of homes that are built in a subdivision get all the garbage buried in and around the building. This can damage the building and the waterproofing.

When you call in an expect to ask them about the water problem in the basement ask them about the backfill around your home, this might be your problem and not your waterproofing. If you hire someone to fix the waterproofing and they use the same bad material to backfill the home then you will be back in the same problem in a couple of years.

New homes have to be inspected by the local building inspector before they are backfilled, at this time most building inspectors will inquire about the fill being used to backfill the home. When the inspector does their next inspection after the house has been backfilled they will look around and see if the backfill is legal. They can make you remove it all if they believe that you haven’t used the proper fill.

Rob Abbott
Operations Manager
Village Builders Inc.