Is Your Basement A Man Cave or Just A Cave? - Colorado Springs Gazette
Is Your Basement A Man Cave or Just A Cave? - Colorado Springs Gazette |
- Is Your Basement A Man Cave or Just A Cave? - Colorado Springs Gazette
- Grain Drying Challenges Ahead – Ohio Ag Net - Ohio's Country Journal and Ohio Ag Net
- Franklin VNA & Hospice's Health Corner: Focus on Fall Respiratory Triggers - The Laconia Daily Sun
| Is Your Basement A Man Cave or Just A Cave? - Colorado Springs Gazette Posted: 29 Sep 2019 11:00 PM PDT What does your basement look like? Is it a place you'd look forward to any spending time in? Or are you afraid to venture down there because of what might be lurking in the nooks and crannies? Do water puddles, wall cracks and sightings of the "mold monster" make you cringe?  Whether you use this space for laundry, storage, or a fun hang-out spot like a man cave, it's crucial to know what's in this area underneath the rest of your living environment. Because of the stack effect, air is drawn up through the house in an airflow pattern from bottom to top. So, whatever is in your basement – like mold, moisture and humidity – also is circulating through the rest of your house and affecting you. While these issues are cause for concern, don't sweat it! We at Complete Basement Systems have you covered! We have the right people and the right solutions to give you peace of mind and a safe, healthy home. We have been Colorado's waterproofing experts for 20 years, and our team has extensive knowledge, experience and training to back it up. Here are some common signs you'll notice in a basement with water problems:
You are probably wondering where these problems came from, how you can fix them, and how you can make them stop so they won't happen again. Foundation walls can crack and fail, and water can seep inside basements for a variety of reasons. The root of both of these problems, however, is in the soil.  Laundry room Flooded When your home was being built, the contractors dug a giant hole in the earth to make way for the home's foundation. After the foundation has been built, some of the soil that was excavated is then replaced or backfilled, to fill in the gap around the outer edge of your foundation. This backfilled soil is loose and fluffy from excavation, and it absorbs water more than the dense and hard-packed soil around it. This forms a "clay bowl" of sorts around your house that creates an artificial water table around your home. Water collects around your foundation and then can seep inside. The type of soil around your home is another factor affecting your house. Expansive soils are common in Colorado. Soil expands during wet weather and exerts a great amount of pressure on your foundation walls. When this force becomes more than the walls can handle, the walls will begin to crack and bow inwards. This is also known as hydrostatic pressure.  Are you wishing for a great place to spend time in with family and friends instead of worrying when you hear the weather report your weekend will be spent bailing and shop-vacuuming water? Photo: James Brey While there isn't much you can do to stop these problems with the soil, Complete Basement Systems can help you address the effects that negatively impact your home. Water intrusion and damage can be detrimental to your home for a variety of reasons. Along with ruining any stored belongings, leaking water can lead to mold growth and unpleasant odors, and result in flooding conditions. These issues also result in unhealthy conditions that affect the rest of your home. Your home is a significant investment, and it is important to ensure its health and safety today and for the future. The best waterproofing system involves interior drainage. Our basement waterproofing system has three parts. To fix the issue with leaking or standing water, we need to catch the water, get the water to a sump pump, and send the water away from the home. When we waterproof a basement, we drill "weep holes" into the bottom courses of the block walls (which does not affect their structural integrity) to relieve the pressure and water that may be build up inside. This water is intercepted by the sub-floor BasementGutter™ system, which then directs the water to one of our trustworthy sump pump systems. The sump pump system then pumps the water out of and away from the home through discharge lines. These lines can be directed to drain far away from the house, as well as out to the street. Our powerful, yet energy-efficient dehumidifiers will clean and filter the air, control moisture and humidity, and reduce odors and the potential for mold growth. They improve the air quality in the basement, and throughout the entire home. Not only will you get the best permanent waterproofing solutions when you work with us, but you'll also experience unsurpassed customer service. Our highly trained team will treat your home as their own. We will work until it's done right, and you are 100% satisfied. We are visionaries disrupting the construction industry. The way we do business, people come first. We believe every customer deserves the highest quality solutions and professionalism. To learn more about basement problems, their causes, and how we can help, visit our website's Basement Waterproofing page. Then contact us to set up a free appointment with one of our expert inspectors! We look forward to helping you create a safer and healthier home!  |
| Grain Drying Challenges Ahead – Ohio Ag Net - Ohio's Country Journal and Ohio Ag Net Posted: 26 Sep 2019 02:40 PM PDT By Emily Unglesbee ROCKVILLE, Md. (DTN) — As combines start to roll this fall, many growers are firing up grain dryers or cleaning out bin fans, in preparation for a wetter-than-normal crop of corn and soybeans. Other drying challenges loom this year as well, including immature or moldy grain and the difficulty of drying and storing a crop later in the fall, when air temperatures are cooler. We visited with Ken Hellevang, an Extension agricultural and biosystems engineer from North Dakota State University, to break down the top four concerns for farmers drying grain from this historically late crop. 1. WATCH YOUR FORECAST LIKE A HAWK With crops maturing deep into the month of October this year, growers will face difficult decisions between leaving grain to dry down in the field or harvesting early and drying it mechanically. The situation is especially risky with soybeans, which are very sensitive to swings in temperature and moisture in the air around them, noted Hellevang. While they might dry down quickly in the field, they also pack moisture back on during high humidity or precipitation, which can make them more fragile and prone to shattering, sprouting and rotting. "As we push later into October, the greater the concern will become in the northern tier of states," Hellevang said. "We can't be too reliant on weather drying down grain, especially soybeans, this year." Don't take your eyes off the weather forecast for a moment this fall, he cautioned. "It's absolutely critical that farmers watch that extended 10-day forecast and look at it as a tool in their grain handling decisions," Hellevang said. DTN Senior Ag Meteorologist Bryce Anderson noted that weather trends shaping up for the rest of September and early October look alarmingly similar to the wet weather pattern that stalled harvest and fieldwork last fall. "There's a big, hot upper-atmosphere high pressure dome over the Southeast, and an upper-air low pressure trough in the Northwest," he explained. "This trough-ridge pattern is a rain-maker in the northern and eastern Plains and the northern, western and central Midwest. Producers may not be able to get into the field with this situation, let alone do any grain drying." The eastern Midwest, Delta and Southeast fare better in this timeframe, with warm and dry weather forecast, he added. There is hope for the Corn Belt, however, closer to Oct. 10, when that southern high-pressure ridge relocates into southwestern Texas, Anderson added. "This would be an important change, because the inflow of moisture out of the Gulf of Mexico would be curtailed, and a drier trend would set up over the northern and central U.S.," he said. "Timing of such a change would also coincide with the maturity date for a lot of acres that are running about two weeks late in their development." 2. EXPECT WETTER, MORE IMMATURE GRAIN With corn and soybeans hitting full maturity two weeks or more later than usual, chances are good that many northern growers will be harvesting wetter than normal grain, Hellevang said. At black layer, most corn hybrids will be at about 35% moisture content. Drydown rates vary by geography, but all slow down as temperatures cool into October and November. For example, in North Dakota, growers can usually expect only 10% to 12% moisture removal in the entire month of October, which could leave some fields sitting at 25% or above come early November, Hellevang said. See more drydown rate estimates for states like Iowa: https://crops.extension.iastate.edu/… and Indiana: https://www.agry.purdue.edu/… . The more northern your region, the greater the risk that a freeze will prematurely end your crop's development this year, he added. These fields can take even longer to dry down, and the immature grain can pose problems for drying and storage. "The actual physiology of the kernel is different in immature corn killed by a frost," he explained. Drying these kernels with heat can produce browning and discoloration. Experts recommend lowering your air temperature to avoid this. "We typically might dry corn at temperatures around 220 to 230 degrees, but for immature kernels, you may need to bring it down below 200 degrees," Hellevang said. Immature soybeans pose their own set of problems, including an increased risk of fire, he added. "Typically if we're harvesting immature soybeans, threshing is a challenge in the field and you get more stems and pods and other things that can get held up in the dryer and create a fire," he said. "A soybean fire is an oil fire, so it becomes really nasty." Immature beans will also require greater drydown time, as they can start at a much higher moisture content than the preferred 13%. Recent NDSU research showed that green soybeans harvested at R6 and R7 maturity stages had a moisture content around 60%. Because of their indeterminate nature, some soybean varieties will also have pods and soybeans at different stages of maturity, leaving growers with a range of different moisture contents in a bin or dryer. "When you're harvesting green beans, they're likely to come out of a high-temp dryer with moisture variation between seeds and that would be true with corn as well," Hellevang said. "We encourage farmers to run aeration fans after grain goes in the bin for longer than usual to help equalize the moisture between kernels and the seeds." Spinning augur systems inside bins can help even out the moisture of variable corn kernels, as well, but it's not recommended for soybeans, he added. "The concern with soybeans for all drying techniques is that we're working with a more fragile seed coat, so the more you stir, the more breakage and damage that occurs," he said. Drying soybeans also requires lower heat ranges than corn, usually no higher than 130 degrees, he added. See more details on the nuances of drying soybeans here: https://www.ag.ndsu.edu/… . See more on corn drying recommendations here: https://www.ag.ndsu.edu/… . 3. KNOW THE DOWNSIDE OF COLDER OUTSIDE TEMPS Drydown rates slow as the average air temperature drops throughout the fall, simply because cold air has very little moisture-holding capacity below 40 degrees, Hellevang said. As a result, growers who rely on drying their crop in bins using natural-air drying may run into problems this fall. "In most years, you can use natural air to bin-dry grain through mid-October and into mid-November," he noted. "Now, if you're suddenly doing it from early November into early December, we're doing it with much colder temperatures and we're not actually accomplishing very much drying." These growers may need to brace themselves for the possibility that they will have to finish drying their grain down to the desired moisture content in the spring, when air temperatures rise again. "When we see temperatures averaging just above freezing, we're not drying anymore and you're just wasting electricity," he said. "Shut the fans off, cool your grain down to temperatures near freezing, hold it over the winter, and then turn the fans on again when temperatures start averaging above 40 degrees." Another downside to a cold harvest is the moisture that can accumulate when growers move freshly dried, hot grain from dryers into cold storage bins, he added. "When the hot grain hits those cold bin walls, condensation forms, and in some northern tier states where you can be harvesting when it's 30 or 20 degrees, it will literally rain in the bins," he warned. "You can get crusted and spoiled grain along the edges." Hellevang recommends cooling the grain to around 90 degrees in the dryer before putting it in the bin and continuously aerating while filling the bin. 4. WATCH YOUR BREATH AROUND MOLDY GRAIN Reports of white mold in soybeans and ear rots in corn are starting to stream in from the Corn and Soybean Belt. These mold spores have obvious consequences for the integrity of grain in storage, and experts recommend harvesting moldy fields as early as possible and drying and cooling the grain down as quickly as possible. See more from NDSU here: https://www.ag.ndsu.edu/… . But when it comes to handling and drying this moldy grain, Hellevang worries first about farmers' safety. "Anytime we start dealing with mold spores or other particles from moldy grain floating around in the air, that becomes a respiratory concern for the farmer," he said. "It's one that we don't often think about, but a person who breathes in a significant amount of mold spores can end up with a severe allergic reaction or respiratory issues." He recommends growers who must handle and dry moldy grain use masks that filter at least 95% to 99% of airborne particles (N-95 or N-99) and use two straps to secure to the head. Lower filtering, single-strap masks can let mold spores through. See more from NDSU here: https://www.ag.ndsu.edu/… . Emily Unglesbee can be reached at Emily.unglesbee@dtn.com Follow her on Twitter @Emily_Unglesbee. (PS/CZ) © Copyright 2019 DTN/The Progressive Farmer. All rights reserved.  |
| Posted: 24 Sep 2019 12:10 PM PDT  FRANKLIN — Summer can bring humidity and blooming weeds which can aggravate allergies or chronic respiratory conditions for many people, but fall brings its own set of respiratory irritants. The World Health Organization estimates that 65 million people have moderate to severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, and with about three million deaths each year, it's the third leading cause of death worldwide. They also estimate that about 334 million people suffer from asthma and the numbers are rising. Early fall is blooming season for Goldenrod and Ragweed. These common weeds produce a pollen that travels for hundreds of miles on wind, and can make people stuffy, itchy and wheezy. An annoyance for some, but a trigger for those with severe asthma or other respiratory illnesses like COPD. Another common culprit in triggering respiratory flare-ups is mold. Damp, warm leaf piles are a popular spot for mold spores to grow which can get stirred up by wind or raking. If mold and pollen are allergy or respiratory problem triggers, try staying inside with the windows closed during high pollen count days, and using an air filter with HEPA filtration will help. Pollen, mold and dust mites can settle on carpets and drapes in the home and trigger indoor respiratory problems. Vacuum and clean prior to turning the heating system on for the year to prevent irritants from being blown into the air the first time the furnace kicks on. Wearing a mask during these cleanings, and during yard work, will help reduce exposure, or consider getting a loved one's help, hiring a homemaker or landscaping company. Understanding what triggers respiratory problems and taking steps to minimize triggers is one of the best ways to help combat fall allergies and reduce related flare-ups and hospitalizations. For more information, call Franklin VNA & Hospice at 603-934-3454 or visit www.FranklinVNA.org.  |
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