Concrete Basement Foundation Sawing & Cutting Massachusetts MA

Is That Heap of A Mess in Your Basement That You Call a Hot Water Heater Worth Repairing?

Have you ever enjoyed a nice, hot refreshing shower and then suddenly half way through the shower you experience a severe blast of cold water? This is all too common in homes with inadequately sized hot water heaters but many times it could be the result of minor easy to fix plumbing problems.

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If your water really never gets completely hot then chances are your that hot water heater hasn't had enough time to reheat the water after its last use, especially if you have been using other appliances in your home such as the dishwasher or clothes washer. But, if that blast of cold water happens in the middle of the otherwise hot shower then you probably have a problem with your hot water heater and could potentially have some problems with your homes plumbing pipes. You may want to consider a few of these options before you hire a plumbing contractor or licensed plumber in MA.:

Are You Tired of Running Out of Hot Water During Your Shower?
Troubleshooting a potential water heater problem – You will need to check the bathrooms, kitchen and laundry room, test all of the hot water fixtures in each location and investigate whether or not your cold shower problem is an isolated incident or if it is a common problem in the entire home. If for some reason you are not getting any hot water from any of these fixtures then it is your water heater that is the likely culprit.

Refinishing Your Basement or Having a Newly Remodeled Basement.
The first thing you will need to do after checking the water temperature at every fixture in the house is to check the temperature setting on your hot water heater itself. The problem may be as simple as the water temperature may be set too low. If not and if you rely on electricity to heat your water then you will need to check whether your fuse for that circuit has been blown or your breaker has tripped . A fuse can be easily replaced and a breaker can just be snapped back into the ON position. If you have a hot water heater powered by natural gas then check to see if the pilot light has been blown out. If this is the case, you can easily relight the pilot light, just follow the instructions on the hot water heater itself or look in the manufacturer's owner's manual that came with the appliance.

Here Are The Main Reasons Your Basement's Hot Water Heater Can't Keep Up.
Once you have checked the circuit breaker or fuse, the temperature setting or the pilot light and none of these procedures solves your hot water heater problem then the chances are that you could potentially have a number of other problems such as a defective thermocouple, flue obstructions, sediment buildup on the heating element, or even a defective temperature control. This is where you should stop diagnosing the problem and call a licensed plumber or plumbing contractor to complete the troubleshooting and repair your hot water heater problem. Sometimes replacing the entire hot water heater is more economical that repairing an old worn out model.

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Concrete Foundations Do it Yourself

Reinforced Concrete is concrete that has been additionally strengthened by having embedded into it some metal, usually steel reinforcing bar also known as rebar. Steel reinforcing bar will almost double concrete's tinsel strength. The component aggregate materials should separately possess certain properties, if satisfactory strength and durability are to be obtained in the structures having both of these materials used in combination. The properties of each concrete material being utilized, and those properties in particular should be emphasized which have the most to do with the safe and economic designing of concrete foundations.



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Boston, Massachusetts - Concrete used in reinforced concrete foundations should be strong, of uniform quality, free from voids, and thoroughly sound. These qualities are required even more than in massive concrete foundations, as the sections in reinforced concrete structures are comparatively small and the stability of a given concrete foundation depends upon the strength and durability of every part used in the poring, reinforcing and forming.

Concrete Basement Walls - The proportions commonly used in American practice or standards may vary from about 1:1 1/2:3 to 1:3:6, using either crushed stone or gravel as aggregate. The rich mixture is usually required in structural foundations subjected to high stresses or where exceptional water tightness is desired. On the other hand, the use of a 1:3:6 concrete requires careful grading of the materials to produce satisfactory results, even for ordinary flat concrete work.

Concrete Forming MA - The aggregate employed in reinforced concrete construction should be of high grade; only Portland cement should be used, and the brand selected should conform to the specifications of the American Society for Testing Materials- for these specifications are now accepted as the American standard.

Concrete Footings - The sand employed should not contain any clay, vegetable loam, sticks, and organic matter and should be of hard, dense, tough material. Siliceous quartz sands are the best, although sands from any durable rock will suffice.

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Sharp sand was formally a requirement in all residential concrete foundation construction, but this property is by no means essential. To be sure, by the use of sharp sand there is a slight tendency toward a concrete of greater crushing or tinsel strength than when sand of rounded grains is used, but this influence on the result is of less importance than the size of grain, or granular-metric composition. Moreover, the sharper the sand used-the relative sizes of the grains remaining the same-the greater the percentage of voids, and consequently the greater the amount of cement required to produce a given density. (The term density is here used to express the ratio of the volume of the solid particles to the total volume of the concrete.) It is now generally conceded that the requirement of sharpness of sand should be omitted from concrete specifications.

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Pressure Tests of mortar and concrete show that: strength and water-tightness increase with density, and so the best sand as to size is one which will produce the smallest volume of mortar of standard consistency when mixed with the given cement in the required proportions. To put it somewhat differently,-the best sand for strength, for water-tightness, and also for is one which is so graded from fine to coarse so that the percentage of voids in the resulting mortar is reduced to a minimum. Such sand has a very coarse appearance as the amount of fine material required is very small.

It has been found that the densest mixture or concrete occurs with particles of different sizes and also that the least density occurs when the grains are all of the same size. Coarse and fine sands are thus inferior to graded sands for the use in concrete, but of the two extremes the coarse sand is preferable. The reason for this is due to the fact that the coarse sand has a less total grain surface in a unit volume, even when the sands considered contain portion of solid matter and voids. Less total grain surface means less cement and water to coat the grains, and less labor required in mixing the concrete. The additional amount of cement and water required in the case of the fine sand reduces the density of the resulting mortar and likewise its strength.

The finer the sand, the more nearly uniform the size of the grains, and consequently the greater the proportion of voids. Fine sand is seldom satisfactory and should not be used unless coarse sand is simply not available. Even in such cases, tests of strength should be made with the idea of determining what extra cost may be justified in securing a coarser material for the mixture of concrete.

A screen with 1/4-in, openings is generally employed for separating out large material from sand. Specifications should limit the maximum amount of loam or clay to be allowed in any given concrete mixture. Loam should never be permitted, but clay to the amount of 5 to 10 per cent, if evenly divided, is often beneficial in lean concrete. In rich concrete the strength and density is decreased by even slight additions of clay; but in lean concretes the clay helps to fill the voids of the sand, and causes the cementing material to coat the grains better and to bind them together more strongly.

Broken stone screenings have a small percentage of voids and, when free from clay, usually make excellent sand for use in concrete. These screenings ordinarily give a stronger concrete than natural sand but are likely to contain an undue amount of dust, especially when obtained from soft stone; in such a case the mass should be screened before being used in mixing mortar or concrete. Gravel screenings also constitute a good material in place of sand. All material passing a 1/4-in, screen is generally considered as sand, or fine aggregate; while all material larger than this size is classed as coarse aggregate.

Stone - For the coarse aggregate, either crushed stone or gravel is generally used. Any stone is suitable which is clean and durable and which has sufficient strength to prevent the strength of the concrete from being limited by the strength of the stone. Trap, granite, limestone, and the more compact sandstone are generally employed. Aggregates containing soft, flat, or elongated particles should never be used.

All that has been said concerning voids in sand applies with equal force to the coarse aggregate. Screens varying by a quarter of an inch from 1/4 inch up are desirable, but a very useful analysis may be made with fewer screens. A uniform size of stone filled with mortar does not make as dense or as strong a concrete as one in which the coarse aggregate is well graded-that is, where the small stones partly fill the larger interstices. A straight line on a mechanical-analysis diagram indicates a uniform grading of size.

A general rule is that the larger the stone, the stronger and denser the concrete. Experience has shown that for reinforced concrete that the maximum size should not be more than about 1 inch to 1 1/2 inches, in order for the concrete to fit itself closely around the reinforcing metal. Subsequently, the smaller the stone and the greater the surface to be coated, means the greater the amount of cement required.

Most gravel is sufficiently durable for the use in concrete as an aggregate. The gravel should be at least reasonably clean, although a quantity of finely divided clay equal to 5 to 10 per cent of the gravel may add to the strength of the concrete, if the cement paste does not entirely fill the voids. The presence of clay requires very thorough mixing. When gravel is used, it should be screened to separate the sand and then be remixed in order that the proportions may be definite to result in a quality concrete mixture.