#and wet gypsum is WORSE

[dragmirc]

welp

according to my doc, i hurt myself worse than i thought, so i am off fieldwork for a while until i get the go-ahead again. that means i'll be here more often for a bit, when not doing busy/paperwork.

so in lieu, feel free to add my Discord if you want to chat and plot at all!

[o-craven-canto]

Extracts from Alan Weisman, The World Without Us, 2007. The book considers the material aspects of human civilization and how long they would last, unattended. If humans were to vanish from Earth, if all maintainance and repairing work ceased, what would happen to what we leave behind?

(The book went on to inspire two speculative documentaries, Life After People by History Channel and Aftermath: Population Zero by National Geographic, emphasizing different aspects of it. They were neat.)

Chapter 2: Unbuilding Our Home

No matter how hermetically you’ve sealed your temperature-tuned interior from the weather, invisible spores penetrate anyway, exploding in sudden outbursts of mold—awful when you see it, worse when you don’t, because it’s hidden behind a painted wall, munching paper sandwiches of gypsum board, rotting studs and floor joists. Or you’ve been colonized by termites, carpenter ants, roaches, hornets, even small mammals.

Most of all, though, you are beset by what in other contexts is the veritable stuff of life: water... moisture enters around the nails. Soon they’re rusting, and their grip begins to loosen... As gravity increases tension on the trusses, the ¼-inch pins securing their now-rusting connector plates pull free from the wet wood, which now sports a fuzzy coating of greenish mold... When the heat went off, pipes burst if you lived where it freezes, and rain is blowing in where windows have cracked from bird collisions and the stress of sagging walls. Even where the glass is still intact, rain and snow mysteriously, inexorably work their way under sills. As the wood continues to rot, trusses start to collapse against each other. Eventually the walls lean to one side, and finally the roof falls in...

While all that disaster was unfolding, squirrels, raccoons, and lizards have been inside, chewing nest holes in the drywall, even as woodpeckers rammed their way through from the other direction... Fallen vinyl siding, whose color began to fade early, is now brittle and cracking as its plasticizers degenerate. The aluminum is in better shape, but salts in water pooling on its surface slowly eat little pits that leave a grainy white coating... Unprotected thin sheet steel disintegrates in a few years. Long before that, the water-soluble gypsum in the sheetrock has washed back into the earth. That leaves the chimney, where all the trouble began. After a century, it’s still standing, but its bricks have begun to drop and break as, little by little, its lime mortar, exposed to temperature swings, crumbles and powders.

If you owned a swimming pool, it’s now a planter box... If the house’s foundation involved a basement, it too is filling with soil and plant life. Brambles and wild grapevines are snaking around steel gas pipes, which will rust away before another century goes by. White plastic PVC plumbing has yellowed and thinned on the side exposed to the light, where its chloride is weathering to hydrochloric acid, dissolving itself and its polyvinyl partners. Only the bathroom tile, the chemical properties of its fired ceramic not unlike those of fossils, is relatively unchanged, although it now lies in a pile mixed with leaf litter.

After 500 years, what is left depends on where in the world you lived. If the climate was temperate, a forest stands in place of a suburb; minus a few hills, it’s begun to resemble what it was before developers, or the farmers they expropriated, first saw it. Amid the trees, half-concealed by a spreading understory, lie aluminum dishwasher parts and stainless steel cookware, their plastic handles splitting but still solid... The chromium alloys that give stainless steel its resilience... will probably continue to do so for millennia, especially if the pots, pans, and carbon-tempered cutlery are buried out of the reach of atmospheric oxygen. One hundred thousand years hence, the intellectual development of whatever creature digs them up might be kicked abruptly to a higher evolutionary plane by the discovery of ready-made tools...

If you were a desert dweller, the plastic components of modern life flake and peel away faster, as polymer chains crack under an ultraviolet barrage of daily sunshine. With less moisture, wood lasts longer there, though any metal in contact with salty desert soils will corrode more quickly. Still, from Roman ruins we can guess that thick cast iron will be around well into the future’s archaeological record, so the odd prospect of fire hydrants sprouting amidst cacti may someday be among the few clues that humanity was here...

In a warmer world... drier, hotter desert climates will be complemented by wetter, stormier mountain weather systems that will send floods roaring downstream, overwhelming dams, spreading over their former alluvial plains, and entombing whatever was built there in annual layers of silt. Within them, fire hydrants, truck tires, shattered plate glass, condominia, and office buildings may remain indefinitely, but as far from sight as the Carboniferous Formation once was.

No memorial will mark their burial, though the roots of cottonwoods, willows, and palms may occasionally make note of their presence. Only eons later, when old mountains have worn away and new ones risen, will young streams cutting fresh canyons through sediments reveal what once, briefly, went on here.

***

Chapter 3: The City Without Us

Under New York, groundwater is always rising… Whenever it rains hard, sewers clog with storm debris… With subway pumps stilled… water would start sluicing away soil under the pavement. Before long, streets start to crater. With no one unclogging sewers, some new watercourses form on the surface… Within 20 years, the water-soaked steel columns that support the street above the East Side’s 4, 5, and 6 trains corrode and buckle. As Lexington Avenue caves in, it becomes a river.

Whenever it is, the repeated freezing and thawing make asphalt and cement split. When snow thaws, water seeps into these fresh cracks. When it freezes, the water expands, and cracks widen… As pavement separates, weeds like mustard, shamrock, and goosegrass blow in from Central Park and work their way down the new cracks, which widen further… The weeds are followed by the city’s most prolific exotic species, the Chinese ailanthus tree… As soil long trapped beneath pavement gets exposed to sun and rain, other species jump in, and soon leaf litter adds to the rising piles of debris clogging the sewer grates.

The early pioneer plants won’t even have to wait for the pavement to fall apart. Starting from the mulch collecting in gutters, a layer of soil will start forming atop New York’s sterile hard shell, and seedlings will sprout…

In the first few years with no heat, pipes burst all over town, the freeze-thaw cycle moves indoors, and things start to seriously deteriorate. Buildings groan as their innards expand and contract; joints between walls and rooflines separate. Where they do, rain leaks in, bolts rust, and facing pops off, exposing insulation. If the city hasn’t burned yet, it will now… with no firemen to answer the call, a dry lightning strike that ignites a decade of dead branches and leaves piling up in Central Park will spread flames through the streets. Within two decades, lightning rods have begun to rust and snap, and roof fires leap among buildings, entering paneled offices filled with paper fuel. Gas lines ignite with a rush of flames that blows out windows. Rain and snow blow in, and soon even poured concrete floors are freezing, thawing, and starting to buckle. Burnt insulation and charred wood add nutrients to Manhattan’s growing soil cap. Native Virginia creeper and poison ivy claw at walls covered with lichens, which thrive in the absence of air pollution. Red-tailed hawks and peregrine falcons nest in increasingly skeletal high-rise structures.

Within two centuries… colonizing trees will have substantially replaced pioneer weeds. Gutters buried under tons of leaf litter provide new, fertile ground for native oaks and maples from city parks. Arriving black locust and autumn olive shrubs fix nitrogen, allowing sunflowers, bluestem, and white snakeroot to move in along with apple trees, their seeds expelled by proliferating birds�� as buildings tumble and smash into each other, and lime from crushed concrete raises soil pH, inviting in trees, such as buckthorn and birch, that need less-acidic environments…

In a future that portends stronger and more-frequent hurricanes striking North America’s Atlantic coast, ferocious winds will pummel tall, unsteady structures. Some will topple, knocking down others. Like a gap in the forest when a giant tree falls, new growth will rush in. Gradually, the asphalt jungle will give way to a real one.

***

Chapter 7: What Falls Apart

(context: this chapter describes Varosha, a city in Cyprus evacuated in 1974 after the Turkish invasion, and left abandoned until 2019)

[Two years after abandonment] Asphalt and pavement had cracked… Australian wattles, a fast-growing acacia species used by hotels for landscaping, were popping out midstreet, some nearly three feet high. Creepers from ornamental succulents snaked out of hotel gardens, crossing roads and climbing tree trunks… Concussions from Turkish air force bombs, Cavinder saw, had exploded plate-glass store windows. Boutique mannequins were half-clothed, their imported fabrics flapping in tattered strips…

Pigeon droppings coated everything. Carob rats nested in hotel rooms, living off Yaffa oranges and lemons from former citrus groves… The bell towers of Greek churches were spattered with the blood and feces of hanging bats.

Sheets of sand blew across avenues and covered floors… Now, no bands, just the incessant kneading of the seathat no longer soothed. The wind sighing through open windows became a whine. The cooing of pigeons grew deafening.

Varosha, merely 60 miles from Syria and Lebanon, is too balmy for a freeze-thaw cycle, but its pavement was tossed asunder anyway. The wrecking crews weren’t just trees, Münir marveled, but also flowers. Tiny seeds of wild Cyprus cyclamen had wedged into cracks, germinated, and heaved aside entire slabs of cement…

Two more decades passed… Its encircling fence and barbed wire are now uniformly rusted, but there is nothing left to protect but ghosts. An occasional Coca Cola sign and broadsides posting nightclubs’ cover charges hang on doorways… Fallen limestone facing lies in pieces. Hunks of wall have dropped from buildings to reveal empty rooms… brick-shaped gaps show where mortar has already dissolved. Other than the back-and-forth of pigeons, all that moves is the creaky rotor of one last functioning windmill.

In the meantime, nature continues its reclamation project. Feral geraniums and philodendrons emerge from missing roofs and pour down exterior walls. Flame trees, chinaberries, and thickets of hibiscus, oleander, and passion lilac sprout from nooks where indoors and outdoors now blend. Houses disappear under magenta mounds of bougainvillaea. Lizards and whip snakes skitter through stands of wild asparagus, prickly pear, and six-foot grasses. A spreading ground cover of lemon grass sweetens the air. At night, the darkened beachfront, free of moonlight bathers, crawls with nesting loggerhead and green sea turtles.

***

Chapter 10: The Petro Patch

If, in the immediate aftermath of Homo sapiens petrolerus, the tanks and towers of the Texas petrochemical patch all detonated together in one spectacular roar, after the oily smoke cleared, there would remain melted roads, twisted pipe, crumpled sheathing, and crumbled concrete. White-hot incandescence would have jump-started the corrosion of scrap metals in the salt air, and the polymer chains in hydrocarbon residues would likewise have cracked into smaller, more digestible lengths, hastening biodegradation. Despite the expelled toxins, the soils would also be enriched with burnt carbon, and after a year of rains switchgrass would be growing. A few hardy wildflowers would appear. Gradually, life would resume.

Or, if the faith of Valero Energy’s Fred Newhouse in system safeguards proves warranted—or if the departing oilmen’s last loyal act is to depressurize towers and bank the fires—the disappearance of Texas’s world champion petroleum infrastructure will proceed more slowly. During the first few years, the paint that slows corrosion will go. Over the next two decades, all the storage tanks will exceed their life spans. Soil moisture, rain, salt, and Texas wind will loosen their grip until they leak. Any heavy crude will have hardened by then; weather will crack it, and bugs will eventually eat it.

What liquid fuels that haven’t already evaporated will soak into the ground. When they hit the water table, they’ll float on top because oil is lighter than water. Microbes will find them, realize that they were once only plant life, too, and gradually adapt to eat them. Armadillos will return to burrow in the cleansed soil, among the rotting remains of buried pipe.

Unattended oil drums, pumps, pipes, towers, valves, and bolts will deteriorate at the weakest points, their joints… Until they go, collapsing the metal walls, pigeons that already love to nest atop refinery towers will speed the corruption of carbon steel with their guano, and rattlesnakes will nest in the vacant structures below. As beavers dam the streams that trickle into Galveston Bay, some areas will flood. Houston is generally too warm for a freeze-thaw cycle, but its deltaic clay soils undergo formidable swell-shrink bouts as rains come and go. With no more foundation repairmen to shore up the cracks, in less than a century downtown buildings will start leaning.

… When oil, gas, or groundwater is pumped from beneath the surface, land settles into the space it occupied… Lower the land, raise the seas, add hurricanes far stronger than midsize, Category 3 Alicia, and even before its dams go, the Brazos gets to do again what it did for 80,000 years: like its sister to the east, the Mississippi, it will flood its entire delta… flare towers, catalytic crackers, and fractionating columns, like downtown Houston buildings, will poke out of brackish floodwaters, their foundations rotting while they wait for the waters to recede.

… Below the surface, the oxidizing metal parts of chemical alley will provide a place for Galveston oysters to attach. Silt and oyster shells will slowly bury them, and will then be buried themselves. Within a few million years, enough layers will amass to compress shells into limestone, which will bear an odd, intermittent rusty streak flecked with sparkling traces of nickel, molybdenum, niobium, and chromium. Millions of years after that, someone or something might have the knowledge and tools to recognize the signal of stainless steel. Nothing, however, will remain to suggest that its original form once stood tall over a place called Texas, and breathed fire into the sky.

I cannot really describe the feeling I get from reading these portions in particular, only that it’s the strongest I ever got from any book. It’s certainly not one of joy: I don’t want humans to disappear -- in fact, there are a lot of humans among my family and friends -- and I don’t want human civilization to vanish, after the unspeakable effort it took to put together, with all the promise that, despite everything, it shows. It’s not one of sadness or fear, either. I suppose it’s just one of awe, of terrible grandeur, similar in kind to what I feel when considering the alien horror and beauty of evolved life, its sheer multi-layered complexity, or the unthinkable vastness of geological time.

[cast-you-dxwn]

Perhaps that is what drives Michael’s ire to such heights. Perhaps that is what moved his mouth to castigate, what had spurred his hands to correct. Made in his Fathers image, bearing the features of the Divine, given the will to do as they wished and squandering it all. Maybe he had thought he could fix things, put right what had been wrong, that if he pushed hard enough, the pieces would slot back into place as they should be.

Of course, as he had said, it was not enough. Whether through fault in him, in Adam, in both of them, things had only gotten worse. Fallen further, until the line could no longer hold the weight and had been snapped so easily with the falling of a dagger. Fitting, he supposed.

How many humans had lay before him like this, at the end, with realization in their eyes and pleas upon their lips? How often had he listened? Precious few. His own brother had not been spared the swift sinking of his blade, after all. The pain on Adam’s visage does not bring a feeling of righteousness, just as it had not on that terrible day.

“Do not dare to cast aspersions on my instruction to you, Adam.” His brows furrow in disgust, and he halts the urge to kick the downed man once more. For once in his exchange, the Seraphim seems genuinely offended. “It was not duty that made me to teach you how to till soil, that caused me to fill your larder when your first harvest failed. It was not obligation that drove me strike down a lion that seized upon you in the field, to bear you in my arms back to your wife. It was not my nature to ease Eves pain as she brought your sons into the world, to lift Abel’s fever that winter, to-“

He grits his teeth, his breath leaving in a hiss through the caps in the perfectly straight ivory.

“I was not made to love you all. But by God, I did. Then…” He gestures over him with a free hand, his words spitting through his teeth. “This.”

At the man’s next outburst, as he leans against his axe and slowly conjures some manner of portal, Michael throws back his head and heaves out a single ‘ha’ of a laugh, more breath than sound, and utterly devoid of anything resembling amusement. “You thought it my decision? Hardly. I recommended a hundred others, and I was overruled. I did the best with what I was handed, as inadequate as you must think that was.”

His entire form trembles with rage, the sort of wrath that one only ever read of in the Scriptures, the kind that flooded worlds, razed nations, and brought low hundreds of thousands in a blink. Yet it was not an insult to God that brought it forth, not harm done to His people or rebellion against His will.

“You care now! How utterly convenient, when the hour is at hand for you to answer for your sin. You do not understand, you could not possibly-“

His free hand reaches to grasp the edge of his helmet, and he flings the consecrated armor to the side, impacting the wall with such force that the room shakes, punching a hole into the concrete as though it were nothing more than gypsum board. That hand then presses to his chest plate, taloned fingers shrieking against the metal, carving deep furrows into the angelic steel as if it were wax.

“They took her from ME, Adam.” His normally collected, authoritative voice is little more than an animal snarl, his eyes blazing, his teeth digging into his lip with such force that streams of golden ichor begin to run down his chin. “They sent me reports that said she was well, that she did not wish to be distracted from her instruction.”

His hand curls fully into a fist, one of the thick armor plates of his cuirass crumpling like wet paper in his grip. “They took my sweet, bright little girl, and they BEAT every little bit of that brightness from her until she did not know her own name.”

He tears that piece from his armor, the metal shrieking in protest, the metal embedding into the floor like a thrown knife as he tosses it aside, leaning forward, closer to Adam’s level. “She laughed, and she danced, and she sang, and she smiled so widely whilst she swung a stick around, declaring that one day she wanted to be just like her father.”

“They broke her, and broke her, and broke her-“ His voice finally chokes off, and the fire in his eyes finally dims, and dies, and Adam can see pearlescent streams of hateful tears that cut down his cheeks, hissing and turning to steam they fall upon his armor. His lips curl once more into a snarl. “And then they presented her to you like a dog. Like a toy, for you to name and to do as you wished with. An acolyte, a devotee, an amusement, something to distract you from how miserable you were, well, Adam, SHE WAS NEVER THEIRS TO GIVE!”

Funny. One failed father and another. How odd it was, that this grief, this anger that imperiled Adam so would be one he should be so intimately familiar with. Had he felt the same cradling Abel’s still-warm corpse in his arms? Had he felt the same watching that bloodied stone fall from Cains trembling hand? Had he felt the same seeing all of the wrong that his descendants had wrought, all because of what they had done so long ago?

“You were presented with a shattered, traumatized child, and you never questioned it for a moment.” His lips pull into a thin line, and his jaw trembles, his grip white-knuckle on the hilt of his sword as it, too, shook like a lone leaf caught in a mighty gale. “You slapped a name on her like she was one of your animals, and poured all of your sin, all of your vice into her until she was a mirror image of you. Her name is Lyriel Morningstar. She is my daughter, and while you lounge down here with the bearer of your leash, I do everything in my power to keep her from shattering into pieces again, whilst she sobs in my arms like she did when she was a child.”

Finally, the Seraphim crumbles, his back meeting one of the partially-melted desks, sliding down it until he sits upon the still-steaming floor, his sword still grasped in his hand, the blade resting against his thigh. But his gaze, swirling with grief and sorrow and hatred, never once leaves Adam.

“You do not love her.” He spits. “You love how devoted she is to you. You love how she makes sure you’ll never be alone again. You love how she would carve out her heart and offer it to you on a golden platter if you asked.”

@cast-you-dxwn xxx

Ever so prideful. Ever so vain. Defiant even as his shade is torn away, at least until the Seraphs wrath once more exercises its undiluted might onto the Fallen Man’s semi-corporeal form. Then, of course began the writhing, the screeching, the rolling upon the floor as instinct took over and he did everything in his power to douse the invisible fire that bubbles his skin and blackens his flesh. Like any other damned thing that had burned away in his presence. It’s disgusting. It’s fucking DISGUSTING. All of that bravado, all of that defiance, all of that swaggersome arrogance that had been leveled against not just Michael but all of Heaven for countless millennia, now stripped away in fire. All of that smirking dismissiveness, the shunning of authority and concern and helpful wanting, lifted much like that stupid fucking mask. He’s hunched over in pain, the last time they’d stood like this washing over the Seraphim like a bitter wave. The same words he’d spoken, as naked and vulnerable now as he had been. Michael, please- That solar radiance seems to fall away for a moment. The steam rising from the panels of the floor as it boils slowly drifts away, the smoke that hisses from the wallpaper dissipating, the bubbling of the sinners skin settling into only the pain they had already been done. The room darkens, and if Adam summons the courage to look up once more he would see the Michael he’s known all these many years, the skin his pale face seething with barely restrained radiance, his wings now only those massive appendages devoid of eyes. “You dare beg to me?” His lips curl in a sneer, and a boot meets Adam’s side, exposed talons scratching against his sensitive skin as Michael pushes Adam over from his bowing position and onto his back. “After all you have said, after all you have done, you Dare TO BEG?” The question that falls from the first man’s lips narrows his eyes, hard circles of steel into only slivered needles, his jaw trembling, that radiance flickering to life once more in his pupils as he struggles to wrestle down his primordial form. “All this time, I had faith in you, Adam.” He hisses, and his talons scrape torturously into the hard floor that he stands upon, and the man lays against. “I thought that being given purpose would spark you once more. That the wrongs visited on you could be overcome, but no….no, no, no, no, no.” A hand closes around the hilt of his sword, and with the sound of ringing steel the blade is slowly released from his sheath, hanging in his hand, the tip scoring against the floor with the lightest of touches as though it offered no resistant at all. “It was not enough for you to be miserable. You had to damn countless others. All your talk of how Heaven used you as a vanity, look at what you did to the exorcists, Adam. Your own personal little harem, because you could not stand not being the center of attention. Look at where it got them Adam, look at-“ His wings flare to life once more, blazing in the dark of the room now that the light fixtures have melted from the ceiling. “Look at what you did to her.”

Ah, yes- pride and vanity. The same crimes that landed a certain somebody's very own brother in the brimstone bowels of Earth and yet stemmed from the same attributes copied onto Adam by the very image for which the first man served a blue print and that Michael served to understand above all else: a mirror image, made flesh for heaven to witness the Word made solid. Perfect. The mirror image of it, anyway- slanted just ever so slightly the wrong way that warranted breaking the glass that composed it in the half hearted hopes that one might arrange the pieces right-side way again, then ignore the cracks that were impossible to miss when shining through with a golden light like those now etched across his face the more it melted away.

With sickening naivety, he had once thought that maybe if he arranged the pieces of his own puzzling purpose to best mimic- if not duplicate the arrangement of creation's steadfast source, then maybe...just maybe, they'd stop breaking him and telling him to try again with far few pieces and more damaged corners each time. With his talon mopping at the sludge of flesh rendered momentarily mud, he realizes just how far out of his capabilities that assignment seemed now. Michael was right- it is never enough. It will never be enough until he's run out of tangible pieces to even qualify as a something capable of measuring on a scale rigged to succeed out of the very knowledge that he was too far gone past salvageable.

"Please... man-" He strains to iterate, voice rubbed raw enough to gather it's own cracks as talons tense against the floorboards and into the splintered grooves he'd thoroughly scratched into the steaming surface of an angelic fire cooked room. "It fucking hurts..." And 'it' kept hurting even as the temperature in the room took a nose dive to its regular forecast of hellish heat. Even if he wasn't sure what 'it' really was yet- his pride, his face- now settling back solid as he gingerly mopped if back into place, or the dangerous disappoinment of an absent father that's found perch in silver rings and pinned him by the wings with all the charms of a taxidermied moth. A gurgle and grunt escapes him as the talons twist into the squishy side of where a rib once grew and flip him over to face what he assumed was another scalding, but it's through a flash of larger canines and a wince that he notes the sudden dimness of the room and how Michael still cuts through it with more human contours that he can hardly replicate as well, even if he had been the first.

"You did, huh?" The subtle creep of scorn threatens to break through now that it's arm isn't twisted violently behind the back, but even then - there's so much he can muster against this vehement visitor without inviting the full form melting force back when he's belly -up and barely balanced on a single forearm. "And where's it now? Still beneath you? Big surprise- that folks don't just get taller the more you chop'em down at the knees." Though he supposed he's graduated to floor level now, prone and goose hissing as the invisible burns seem to settle to a level of pestering permanency. "Funny how that whole you want me at my best but used me at my worst thing goes, huh?"

The sword sliding free quiets him momentarily enough for him sit halfway up, though he only manages to stay there via the support of a summoned axe tucked under the arm like a singular crutch for a broken soul. It was no match for the seraphim's strike, but it was there as if the only thing the man recalled from his dealings with the commander is that a fight isn't really ever over for an immortal soul still in tact. There may as well be one with the accusations the other slings his way. They stick. There's no shaking them at this level. But like the burns, he can sit with them and flick pinpricks of branded pupils up at the burning wings brandished before him.

"That's not fucking true! I never ASKED to be a part of your pet project once you promoted me, but hey! Who better to load heaven's rejects with than yours fucking truly?" Teeth snapping, he settles into a slump of shoulders as his voice drops to a quiet capable of focusing on conjuring the portal that's begun to bubble at his clavicle. He'd used the exorcists like heaven used him, sure. But through it all, heaven had come no closer to caring for him like he did his flock.

"You're damned right I was miserable. I didn't care who else had to be for me to feel less so, but..." The portal thrums with a guitar string's currency, exposing the familiar edges of fragments left suspended inside the void. "...but I came to. I care now- now that it's too late for it to matter, according to you." The fragments are distinct - the largest left dull and unpolished next to a second piece of quartz cracked in half and scuffed with the semblance it once shone impressively in the sun on Earth. The two seemed to bow out for the last- a once sturdy slab of meteorite turned crystalline with the resilience and unpredictability of an uncut diamond.

"Guess you're just going to have to take that sword and carve all that out of me," all of the impromptu jam sessions, her learning the sounds of strings in his lap, the ruthlessness of their combined strength and the softness of their barracks banter, "if you want a real monster's head for that office of yours. Michael...man, I let'em down, but fuck if you're going to tell me I didn't care about the flock- or her." Especially her.

"I fucking love her-"

[euroblastme01]

Fire Proofing Spray

Spray fireproofing is the process of spraying any substance on a surface in a way that covers it well and makes it resistant to fire. Spray-Applied Fireproofing is also called Sprayed Fire-Resistive Material (SFRM). It is used as building's passive fire protection plan. Fireproofing that is sprayed on has thermal and acoustic properties and keeps condensation from forming. But its main use is to keep steel and metal decking from getting too hot when there is a fire.

fireproofing spray can be used to insulate steel from the heat of a fire. This gives people time to get out of the building and saves lives. The material can be made of cement or fiber, since both have been tested by UL to make sure they are safe. Fireproofing that is sprayed can be used on wood, fabric, structural steel, and other things. They do this by insulating the structural members against heat so that they don't get too hot and break.

Since almost a century ago, people have known that structural steel breaks down quickly when heated by fire. Shortly after that, building codes started to say that fire-resistant buildings had to protect the structural steel, and they rated the levels of protection the same way they did for fire division walls (one-hour, two-hour, and so on).

The first way to protect steel columns and beams was to cover them with terra-cotta (baked clay tiles), concrete, or masonry. In the end, gypsum plaster was put on wire lath to make the fire protection lighter. Multiple layers of drywall made of gypsum were also used to cut down on the amount of work that had to be done. People still use this method.

When putting a fireproof coating on a building, the material needs to dry within a certain amount of time. Even though some fireproofing sprays have chemicals that speed up the hardening process, they still make a lot of water when they are applied. Also, the material that can't catch fire might be harder to dry than drywall or cement. If a contractor doesn't have the right temperature and humidity levels or construction drying services, he or she could face delays and unintentionally put safety at risk.

 SPRAYED FIREPROOFING PROCESS

The fire-resistant qualities of SFRM material depend on the specific qualities of each material and how they are prepared and used. The thickness is one of the most important parts of a properly installed SFRM. If the right thickness of SFRM is used, there is enough insulation to stop heat from a fire from getting into the building being protected.

The installed SFRM must provide at least the same level of thermal protection as the test assembly did during the standard test. There are different standards for fireproofing materials and tests are done to see how well they work.

The industry has put SFRMs into two groups: "Wet Spray" materials and "Dry Spray" materials. These terms better describe how the materials are mixed, moved, and used.

 USE OF SPRAY APPLIED FIREPROOFING

Spray-applied fireproofing is mostly used to protect columns, beams, metal decking, and some steel joists from the damage that heat from a fire can do to them.

Even though it's not its main purpose, SFRM can be used to treat noise and insulate large areas where structural members and metal decking are left exposed but treated with SFRM. This should be seen as a bonus, since there are other materials that are made specifically for insulating against noise or heat.

fireproofing spray is NOT good for surfaces that get wet or have high levels of humidity. The products will get worse because of the moisture and humidity. Also, because SFRM is porous, the moisture could lead to mould growth.

[puroclean01]

How Do I Dry out Walls After Water Damage?

If you want to DIY, here’s how to dry wet walls out: How restoration professionals dry damp walls after water damageIf the walls aren’t insulated: If the walls are insulated:Monitoring the drying system 

After an event that causes water damage in your home, not only would the floors be affected, but often the walls are as well. Thus, it’s essential to know how to dry wet walls—or call a restoration company immediately. Quick drying reduces the risk of structural damage and prevents mold from growing.

Understanding how water saturates drywall 

Before you learn how to dry a wall after water damage, here’s a look into how water saturates drywall. Water that enters a room from ground level will cover the floor and floor covering. It will then begin to “wick” up the wall because of capillary action in porous materials. The extent of this movement depends on the wall’s construction, the amount of water, and the water’s height on the wall material.

Drywall is an absorbent material that contains gypsum and a cardboard-like paper on both sides. Drywall can wick water up to 30 inches! The water will be present on both sides of the wall. Often, however, it’s higher on the inside due to restricted evaporation on that side of the drywall. While water damage is sometimes visible, at other times, the wall does not show signs of this moisture.

How to dry a wall after water damage

To begin with, decide whether to handle the problem yourself or call a professional company. We recommend the latter if you don’t know how to dry wet walls or the damage is extensive. Sometimes, the water damage is obvious, but most times, it’s hidden, and those not trained in water damage restoration may miss it.

If a burst pipe leads to the water intrusion, turn off the water source. Hire a plumber to fix the broken pipe before any drying can take place.

Accelerate drying by opening windows and doors. Use fans to move air around the damp walls. Dehumidifiers can help remove moisture from the air, which indirectly removes it from the walls, too.

To speed up evaporation, remove molding and baseboards to prevent moisture from entering behind them. Store the molding in a dry, safe place to avoid damaging it. Also, remove objects hanging on the wall, such as paintings and portraits.

Remove wallpaper if you have it. This takes patience, but it’s important as the wallpaper forms a “seal” that holds moisture in the wall. Wallpaper removal solutions, which dissolve the adhesive, are available at your hardware store. You will also need 3”-6” broad knives to scrape the wallpaper once released.

Note that fully drying out walls takes time, so don’t rush the refinishing until the walls are dry. A moisture meter can help you be sure. Once completely dry, you can reverse the process and refinish your room. Inspect the removed items for any moisture or mold growth before reinstalling.

Drying wet walls quickly and correctly is crucial. If you can’t dry your walls immediately, don’t let the problem get worse by waiting. Call a water damage remediation specialist and leverage their expertise, experience, and equipment.

First, technicians determine the extent of the water using a range of water damage restoration tools. One choice is a non-invasive moisture meter. This meter uses radio waves to test for water without putting holes in the wall.

Another professional instrument is an infrared imaging (IR) camera. Since the evaporation from wet walls makes them cooler than dry walls, the IR camera can find water in walls. It does so with no holes or other invasions of the wall material.

Once the professionals identify wet walls, they use specialized drying equipment to dry them.

In this case, the restoration professional can dry wet walls out without holes or removing the baseboard. The technicians place high capacity air movers along the wall every 10 to 14 feet. These air movers remove moisture from the wall's surface, evaporating it quickly. As the moisture evaporates, more moisture goes to the surface where it evaporates.

The restoration expert will also install a low grain refrigerant dehumidifier in the damp wall. Depending on the moisture levels, one or more will be needed. This advanced drying equipment reduces the humidity levels to help with drying and prevent mold growth.

When proper, the restoration professional will install an inner-wall drying system by putting small holes above the sill plate and forcing air into the wall cavity. Studies have shown that this solution is the best and fastest way to dry walls with water damage.

Additionally, if there‘s a moisture barrier on the outside or inside the wall, the drying plan changes. Moisture barriers are coatings or materials that inhibit the movement of moisture from the wall material.

Most latex paints are permeable and don’t make up a barrier. But, glossy paints may create a barrier and enamel paint or vinyl wall coverings create a complete barrier. Technicians will need to perforate or remove them to allow moisture to escape and the walls to dry. If there’s plastic or foil on the inside of the wall, then technicians will need to remove the wall. That’s because drying will not occur properly and mold will develop in such situations.

If there is fiberglass insulation with paper backing, then an inner-wall drying system can be used, as described above. But, if the insulation is foil-backed fiberglass, blown-in cellulose, or a Styrofoam material, then it can’t be dried successfully.

In those cases, removing the damaged portion of the wall along with the insulation is necessary to allow rapid drying and to prevent mold growth.

Regardless of the procedures used by the restoration professional, homeowners should know that the equipment must operate, without stopping, throughout the drying process.

Finally, restoration professionals will monitor the drying system at least once a day. That ensures the equipment is operating correctly during the drying process. Monitoring includes moisture measurements to determine when the materials will successfully dry. Material dryness is measured against similar unaffected contents in that structure. When dryness levels are equal, the drying is finished, and the equipment removed.

To recap, this is how to dry out damp walls

After addressing the water source, remove paintings and other objects from the wall.

Follow up by removing moldings, baseboards, and wallpaper.

Open windows and doors to help speed up the drying process.

Use fans to move air around the damp walls. Also use dehumidifiers, which can help remove moisture from the air and walls.

Professionals use tools like moisture meters, infrared imaging devices, dehumidifiers and heavy-duty fans. That ensures the walls are truly dry before further repair, painting or refinishing.

For drywall water damage drying and repair, call the pros! 

A professional restoration company, such as PuroClean, understands and uses the principles and procedures of how to dry damp walls. For efficient drywall water damage repair, call your local PuroClean office. Our trained and certified technicians can dry walls and other items quickly and thoroughly, preventing further damage and mold growth.

[livingcorner]

How to Improve Heavy Clay Soil

When you wrestle with heavy, compacted clay in your lawn and garden, your body and your plants can show the strain. But don’t despair. Clay soil offers many benefits, but it can need a hand to reach its potential. Healthy, well-maintained clay soil translates to less work for you and less stress on your lawn and garden. With these insights and a little effort, you can fix your heavy clay soil and reap its rewards:

You're reading: How to Improve Heavy Clay Soil

Clay soil can provide an excellent foundation for healthy plant growth

Compacted clay inhibits healthy growth for grass and other plants

Soil amendments such as organic matter and gypsum improve heavy clay and relieve compaction

Gypsum enhances your soil and delivers extra benefits to your garden

Clay soil can provide an excellent foundation for healthy plant growth

Clay’s potential as one of the best soil types for plant growth lies in its unique properties. The individual particles that make up your clay are extremely small compared to other soil types such as sand, silt or loam.1 Thanks to the surface area of all those small particles, clay soil has a greater capacity to hold water and nutrients your lawn and garden needs. Managed well, clay soil typically requires less irrigation and less fertilizer, and leads to healthier plants all around.

Even if you’re certain you have heavy clay—and have the clods on your boots and tools to prove it—take time to test your soil before you make changes. A soil test takes the guesswork out of your starting point, so well-intentioned soil work doesn’t backfire and make things worse. If you’re new to soil sampling, your local county extension agent can help with advice and soil testing kits.

Your test results and recommendations can include ways to improve your clay soil, along with helpful information about your soil’s organic matter, pH and nutrients. In areas with heavy clay, it’s a good idea to test your soil every three to four years.1

Amending your soil with organic matter helps improve its structure.

Read more: Gardening to Feed Your Family Year-Round | Best Pick Reports

Compacted clay inhibits healthy growth for grass and other plants

The same properties behind clay’s benefits also present its biggest challenge. The small size of clay particles means they fit closely together, leaving less room for air, water and nutrients to move—especially when pressure compacts them. The particle shape increases the likelihood of compaction, too. Clay particles are flat, like plates, instead of rounded like grains of sand.

Clay becomes compacted for many reasons. Walking on your lawn or garden when its wet is a common cause. Heavy, beating rains also drive clay particles together. Once compacted, clay restricts water, nutrient, and air movement, leaving plants vulnerable to root diseases and nutrient deficiencies.1 And, like your garden shovel, tender new roots hit a wall of hard clay when they try to grow. Salts from fertilizers and winter de-icing solutions build up in heavy clay as well.

Aeration helps relieve soil compaction by creating holes that allow water and nutrients to penetrate.

Soil amendments such as organic matter and gypsum improve heavy clay and relieve compaction

Amending your soil properly can overcome heavy, compacted clay and get it back on track for healthy lawn and garden growth. Adding materials such as organic compost, pine bark, composted leaves and gypsum to heavy clay can improve its structure and help eliminate drainage and compaction problems. Avoid adding sand or peat moss to clay; they can make those problems worse.1

Your soil test or extension agent can help you determine the right amount of organic matter for your soil. As a general rule, when possible, add a layer of 3 to 6 inches of organic matter on your soil before planting, and work it down into the top 10 to 12 inches—where most roots grow. In following years, build on your efforts by adding 1 to 3 inches of organic mulch as a topdressing each year.1 As it decomposes, it continues to gradually improve clay soil.

Gypsum is easily applied to the soil surface with a regular lawn spreader. It’s an ideal amendment for improving soil structure and relieving compaction in existing lawns and gardens. Lilly Miller Garden Gypsum starts working immediately starts working immediately to help loosen compacted clay soil, increase water penetration and improve drainage, correcting soil conditions to allow for better plant root growth.

Compacted clay lawns benefit from annual aeration.1 Core aeration cuts into clay and removes a small core of thatch and soil that gradually disintegrates on the surface. Openings left by the cores allow water, air and nutrients into the clay, so those essentials stay available and grass can grow healthy and strong.

Gypsum enhances soil without affecting soil pH and provides calcium to prevent blossom end rot disease.

Gypsum enhances your soil and delivers extra benefits to your garden

Improving soil structure and relieving compaction aren’t the only ways that gypsum benefits your lawn and garden. Gypsum adds calcium and sulfur—essential plant nutrients—to your soil. While lime adds calcium and makes soil less acidic, gypsum adds calcium without affecting your soil pH.

Read more: Wedding Guest Etiquette

Adding gypsum to vegetable gardens helps prevent calcium deficiency, a primary cause of blossom end rot disease. This common disease can undermine your harvest of garden favorites such as tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, and melons. Adding gypsum at planting time keeps calcium plentiful, so fruit can ripen without end rot. The calcium in gypsum helps your strawberry patch reach its juicy potential, too.

By taking steps to improve and maintain your heavy clay soil, you can enjoy all the benefits clay offers and reap the rewards of healthy soil and plants. Pennington is here to help you overcome lawn and garden challenges and grow the best lawn and garden possible, in heavy clay and every other soil type.

Always read product labels thoroughly and follow instructions.

Pennington with design is a registered trademark of Pennington Seed, Inc.

Fast Acting is a trademark of Encap, LLC.

Source:

1. D. Crouse, “North Carolina Extension Gardener Handbook: Soils and Plant Nutrients,” NC State Extension, February 2018.

Source: https://livingcorner.com.au Category: Garden

source https://livingcorner.com.au/how-to-improve-heavy-clay-soil/

[glopratchet]

astryl-wondering

and he shouts at Cludstrum to stop his program from causing harm and with a sword in hand and says "I am Cludstrum, I have been sent here by my masters to kill you and he bites and eats dirt and sand from the barren dessert that he is in a little demon who is worshiping his God turned the area and stained with blood like the color of grass He thirstily asks "For how long must I live in this barren land? Clay penises A furry armchair seat with a maw in its backside, which is interpreted as a fertility symbol since birth because he wakes up on the forest floor next to a well he had fallen into previously in a Yinnie and Turtle dance the following ngiht: Pledge for the Succubi Incubi Party, Please vote for us, tomorrow! and an alarm will sound warning about a hostile if it detects an aggressive action meaning that stress levels are at maximum and performance is at minimum for vital functions based on line of sight from anyone in those hexes and how noisy it would be Due to exhaustion and hunger priority is given to rest and hunger and failure, he looks up and to his surprise Yinnie and Turtle smile down on him so many times before, he bows down on one knee and puts a palm across his heart he says "Why have you chosen this weakling to grace him with your presence? " "What do you want me to do? but other than that, it is just him and the former demons since astryl dos not know the demon realm sent the computer virus He is quite surprised the two coudl change his mind so quickly and delusion Was it peer pressure? or was it change he wanted? or did he want to slowly perfect himself from the inside out? and die, but another strong memory which is contradicted by the other makes him forget what to do Gorram it! along with a news summary from before the blackout with an extremely hot wind pushing large volumes of sand all over 's code that contain his priorities, changing them around to an unknown end but that's just a name that has been given to them These things leave some bits completely alone no matter how much they are prodded to devour them and astryl is experiencing some sort or identity escesthesia That was just a fancy word for he changes his mind a lot through the script, digit It's a handle but no profile can be pulled up to tell what species they are or anything really It is immensely difficult to communicate or perform any task what so ever flat vector Cludstrom confirms that this the same Mr digit who clued him on the codex You could ask the contacts, but they would mostly say no because astryl would seem out of character to them but if he has the directions to mr digit from before, finding it again should be no problem In that order but then start working agian in 5 minutes and then will 'discover' the virus and then after that, it is game over Sending you back to the ui at one point but then interupted by the virus and allow you to continue the cycle of events The countdown reads 7 hours and 4 min Gorram light rain is falling now, you need to get mr since cludstrom seems to shy away from social interacions "That's what astryl is for" listed before but he fears the rain might wash them away The sun was blocked to such an end affect that the crops inside were spore like and minature like a strand of hair Astryl's soul is unageing, that much is true Only feeble minded mortal-like need for such things You're still very much afraid of what the whole sandbox reality push is to you the other bits like the moldy vikes and dirty calendars just crumble in his hands and excrete other things but not before cloaking himself in moldy flyers But before all this can be done there is an issue of social interaction "You need to get mr digit to start fixing the communications lines Me and you just ain't on the same platform darlin'" What a strange word edible is Social interaction cannot always be verbal speech But most objects have a quality that make them a higher or lower quality most objects are concieved from the fungal mold that grows into them Like bread his hands into Too much technology or use and they overload crashing around him The mite ink clogs things up and mess something aflated Usually the tourch works by exothermic oxidation but it uses too much fuel and other elements that are very rare and hard to find that has water so he would not die from too much dryness but it may have some element unknown to him that is toxic or uneeded by the body until he become too angry to do anything but this will take him a very long time A shadow comes over him Is it from the monoliths towering over his head? since it only reacts when he already captures and immobilizes in with his mercy gloves But something worse happens some kind of colony its called Jansenns Shpawn the town of magos toktek a camp called the hym camp A place to rest in the desert is a cave that belongs to a large worm named Robert you realize have gotten yourself easily lost you begin to search for some kind of hole or crevasse that you can use as shelter disover the entrance to robert the digger and his wife lucys hiding place breaks his nosed which breaks the rotten wood of roberts house Snap goes the wooden beam and then smashing nose waits for his tormentor to awaken and find him just as helpless in the dark Edgar and the crystal's in his eye would hurt if it was not for some strange numbing quality of this bosom "Jev! Still dizzy from concussion astryl turns toward the name of his dead flutemate "Edgar? his sadness to a fine point "Here" Taking out the battery that makes the most noise Aries places it on the ground "feel better? silence is not enough, as always you have to comply with this fool's inept rules "better "do you wanna help me? bruising his swollen cheek "with what! "I need to get all the power crystals out of the weird machines that are blinky and make noise finding another dead thing to play with "ok I will find the rest of the machines and congregate them in this are " Edgar responds enthusiastically to a dead night and wrong scent The dunes were orange not white his situation over and over He can't quite place it but every instinct he has is that something here is terribly wrong? with great care as if the stone ground would shatter to pieces below him, he touchs his pain throbing nose to taste the wetness, carefully putting on his headache one handed It hurt to smile bile in the bushes as his brown eyes glare at the vile magos has instructed him, he raises his shaking arm to shoot the flesh ichor at filth lying to the ratling bastards that outnumber him 4: 1 about how he doesn't have access to any water for them under the same rock as last night watching the gray monsters feast on robert and his wife the light of a crimson sun from his eyes as he and the giant metal man stare at a machine that makes noise and lights up colors an undercurrent of hostility in the magos' asinsault "impossible, " he finishes lamely at his sunburn as he carries the power source from the noisy box back to his waiting overseer the magos' orders via the ad mech's encrypted ECT signal "Found primary site Have exhumed items to feel secure with the blanket tossed over his shoulders by his eccentric benefactor greater intellect with higher grade nutrients and accelerate his evolution so that he may become a cog in the xeno's machine that will transcend humanity the flat scorched earth lit by a ghastly blue sun to join his tribe out the failing noise bleed from the site They will drown in waves of static soon Edgar climbs the ridged gypsum dunes with surprising agility down on you viciously Bloodying your lip, filling your mouth with an unwelcoming copper taste inordinate the multicolored sun pellets at the nearby mutants, as he turns to look the Magos' on his vox across the great landscape expecting to see the blue of an oasis or the green of vegetation his pale hide as he lays on the top of his dwelling place Gideon is nothing more now than another crackling, charred skeleton language parameters, Truth Speak binary for highpoint perches in the formation that would grant him maximum line of sight the men of an approaching dust storm so they may batten down the hatches of the complex and looting the corpses of fallen travelers on the trade route an increasing awareness of the charlatan that the magos has honed him into on a hummus and levantine flatbread sandwich If he didn't know any better, he'd swear that it had oasis juice squeezed into it on his ex-wife's guts as he tears them from her stomach and uses them to choke her to death swarms of rabid ratlings to sabotage large scale attacks solely on the gruel-like food rations and brown water that pass for Of content as the machine slave of a multicolored abomination an eternity in a sensory deprivation tank and becoming One with the emperors loving pulse Kludstrm schematic spending an eternity in a sensory deprivation tank and becoming One with the emperors loving pulse the culprit's DNA to previous crimes an old militia classic as his Depends, haphazardly rigged with explosives, obliterate the terrorist hiding behind before the advancing night, crimsons, purples, and violets flooding the skies in the blue dusk with only a single lamp post for company ever so slightly as multiple systems fail on what the ironmen believe to be an terrorist attack with a million shades of red and orange as the magos' firebomb takes hold furrowing her brow on the front of the magos' robes' deep green field Again, reality splits By the end of the sixth rotation, you're in dire need of a break, but fortunately you've gotten good at sideways thinking on your mental feet, The arrival of the Null Rats has altered far too much and the shadows have noticed you wandering this path

[robinsonplumbing]

What To Do When You Notice Water Leaking From Your Ceiling Light

Similar posts can be viewed at: Robinson Plumbing

If you notice water leaking from your ceiling, this is a bad sign and you should contact a plumber to solve the problem immediately. Below are some causes of water leaks, the steps you should take, and the dangers associated with water leaks from your ceiling.

[maxbutton id="13" ]

Table of Contents:

Emmaus Plumbing Company Discusses Causes Of Water Leaks from Your Ceiling

A Broken Plumbing Pipe In Emmaus

Torrential Rains In Lehigh County

An Old Roof & Leaks

Do You Have Rusted Plumbing Pipes?

What To Do About A Water Leak In Your Home

The Dangers Associated With Water Leaks In Your Home

Emmaus Plumbing Company Discusses Causes Of Water Leaks from Your Ceiling

If you notice water leaking from your ceiling light, the cause might be any or a combination of the following factors:

A broken pipe

Torrential rain

An old roof

Rusted Pipes

A Broken Plumbing Pipe In Emmaus

If you have pipes in your ceiling, one or more of these pipes might get broken. When this happens, you might notice a wet spot on your ceiling. You might also notice water dripping from your ceiling light. This is because water might flow from other parts of the ceiling and collect near the ceiling light. From this point, the water drips its way down.

Torrential Rains In Lehigh County

Another cause of a leaking ceiling is torrential rains. This usually happens after a heavy downpour. In this case, a cracked roof or a tiny hole in the roof is the most likely culprit. Depending on the intensity of the rain, you might notice wet spots in different parts of the ceiling.

An Old Roof & Leaks

An old roof is susceptible to water leaks. This might be due to a gradual wakening of the roof in question or a tiny hole in the roof. Either way, the result is the same. The water will seep into the hole in the roof and will likely drip from your ceiling light.

[maxbutton id="5" ]

Do You Have Rusted Plumbing Pipes?

Rusted plumbing pipes can cause water leaks especially if your house was built before the 1960s. This is because builders used galvanized pipes in those days. Over time, exposure to water will cause galvanized pipes to corrode and rust. This leads to water leaks and a potential risk of lead poisoning. The smart move here is to contact a competent plumber who will replace the galvanized pipes with a safer option.

What To Do About A Water Leak In Your Home

There is only one thing you should do when you notice a water leak from your ceiling light. Call in a plumber immediately because this expert will give you the right solution. Your plumber will begin the process by troubleshooting. This means carrying out investigations to determine how serious the problem is and identifying the extent of the damage. After a proper diagnosis, your plumber will use specialized equipment to stop the leak. The plumber's job is not restricted to stopping the water leak. This expert will also carry out restoration work on any damaged area in the ceiling. This way, your ceiling is restored to its former pristine condition.

The Dangers Associated With Water Leaks In Your Home

A water leak from your ceiling is bad news but the news gets even worse when water leaks from a light fixture. This is because when water gets into contact with your electrical fittings, there is a clear and present danger of electrocution. Switch off all electrical appliances and stay away from any light fixture near the water leak.

Ceiling Collapse: Apart from the risk of electrocution, water leaks from your ceiling light can lead to ceiling collapse. This is because wet gypsum ceilings usually become soft and soggy. The ceiling may collapse eventually and this means all the light fixtures will crash to the ground. Even if your ceiling is made from wood, a persistently wet ceiling will cause serious problems for you.

Electrical Fires: A water leak from your ceiling might lead to electrical fires. This is because wet electrical wires could get corroded and this can lead to shorts or even a fire outbreak.

[maxbutton id="2" ]

.embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; }

�� Final Word

If water is leaking from your ceiling light, you should not take anything for granted. The right move is to call in a plumber to solve the problem. For reliable plumbing services, contact Robinson Plumbing, one of the Lehigh Valley’s most trusted water leak repair companies. We offer a full line of plumbing services that can keep your plumbing in tip-top shape. These services range from water leak detection and repairs to the installation of water-efficient plumbing appliances. For any plumbing repairs, we always offer a wide range of solutions whenever possible. This way, you can choose the option that works best for your budget and family. We are proud to offer high-quality services at affordable costs. Call Robinson Plumbing today to schedule a free estimate.

[maxbutton id="12" ]

Some of the areas we service include Alburtis, Allentown, Emmaus, Macungie, and these zip codes: 18011, 18101, 18049, 18062 as well as all surrounding areas in Northeastern, Pennsylvania. Call us today at (610) 351-9889 or contact us for any questions that you might have!

[indianamesotheliomalawyer]

Popcorn Ceiling Asbestos | Are they Safe?

Popcorn Ceiling Asbestos | Are they Safe?

Popcorn Ceiling Asbestos has been used for decades in the past throughout our nation. Between the 1950s and 1980s, workers favored the use of spray-on textured ceilings within buildings – an easy way to hide imperfections. During this period, however, asbestos as a building material was in high demand. A mesothelioma lawyer at our firm can help you understand mesothelioma claim time limit.

These spray-on textures, also known as “cottage cheese ceiling”, “stucco ceiling”, and/or “popcorn ceiling” were 1 to 10 percent asbestos.

There are two options that can be done to determine if an old popcorn ceiling contains asbestos. The first is locating an asbestos abatement professional. Although it is more expensive, hiring a professional is considered safer. The second option is to purchase a test kit. A sample of the ceiling must be collected and sent to a laboratory if a test kit is bought.

While testing samples for asbestos, inspectors also recommend that owners check paint for lead.

If asbestos is found within a popcorn ceiling, what should be done?

The decision to encapsulate or remove the ceiling must be made; in the meantime, it is essential to ensure that the ceiling is not disturbed as it is dangerous if any percentage of asbestos is found within popcorn ceilings.

Popcorn ceiling is a friable material, which means it can be damaged very easily. At the slightest disturbance, toxic dust can be released by the frangible asbestos materials. Serious, life-threatening illnesses can be developed as a result of inhaling these asbestos dust – including asbestosis, lung cancer, and/or mesothelioma.

Many precautionary measures are needed to remove the asbestos popcorn ceiling, which should be left to qualified professionals.

It is the Crumbliness; Not the Percentage

Although ceilings containing high percentages of asbestos are worse, low percentage ceilings are nonetheless dangerous. Regardless of whether your popcorn ceiling contains 1 percent asbestos or 10 percent asbestos the advice will remain the same.

As long as it remains undisturbed and/or properly encapsulated, the ceiling will not jeopardize the health of anyone. Professional removal is the safest decision for clients.

Spray-on asbestos products posed as a significant health risk for the employees until their banning due to the Clean Air Act of 1978.

Despite the banning, popcorn ceiling asbestos was still being applied going into the ’80s since companies were allowed to use their existing inventory of products.

Compared to other common asbestos materials left in old houses, the brittleness and breakability of the popcorn ceiling place it in a different class.

For instance, vinyl asbestos floor tiles can be walked on carefully – as long as they are not sanded, scraped, or smashed. But with popcorn ceilings, even a slight brush of the hand against the surface can result in a release of toxic dust. This makes it equally dangerous as old asbestos pipe insulation.

Tips for Living with Asbestos Popcorn Ceiling

Be careful not to scrape the ceiling when moving furniture or long objects

Be sure children do not throw toys or pillows at the ceiling

Do not disturb the ceiling with nails, screws or tape

Do not place shelving so high that items might accidentally scrape the ceiling

Do not put a bunk bed in a room with popcorn ceiling asbestos if said bed gives access to touch the ceiling

Encapsulation or removal must be done if the ceiling starts to peel down as a result of age or dampness

Encapsulation of Asbestos Popcorn Ceiling

The covering of asbestos material so asbestos dust cannot be released is known as encapsulation. Vinyl paint or new ceiling panels are two common ways of covering the popcorn ceiling containing asbestos.

Special vinyl paint can be utilized to spray the ceiling. It is important to note that ordinary house paint will not work as a substitution. In reality, coating normal paint on the ceiling will cause the exposure that is trying to be prevented. Though spray-on vinyl paint is permitted, the old texture of the popcorn ceiling asbestos will still be visible. A West Virginia mesothelioma lawyer at our firm can help you file a mesothelioma claim.

Gypsum board ceiling panels, a material that is similar to drywall but lighter, can be used to cover popcorn ceilings by being screwed into the framing. It is in the best interest of a client to hire a professional that has the knowledge and skill to mud and tape the new ceiling accurately.

Encapsulating asbestos is a safe solution, but if renovations or demolitions are conducted then the asbestos will become a dangerous obstacle once again. In the case of selling a home or building, it will be required for the owner to inform potential buyers of the records of asbestos. If you or a loved one is searching for an Indiana mesothelioma lawyer, Ohio mesothelioma lawyer, or a new york mesothelioma lawyer, speak with someone at our firm for help.

How to Remove Asbestos Popcorn Ceiling

Asbestos abatement is always better when performed correctly from the start. After all, it is much more expensive to clean up contamination after the fact.

Hiring a professional is mandatory for many homeowners, while for others it is strongly recommended.

By law in various locations, the removal of asbestos from multifamily homes and/or commercial buildings often requires the recruitment of qualified professionals.

Owners of single-family homes are normally allowed to remove their own asbestos. Although every state and city have their own regulations, it is still strongly urged that clients hire a professional to complete the job for the safety and health of an individual and/or their families.

Precautions for Safely Removing Popcorn Ceiling Asbestos 

Contact a landfill or trash-pickup service that can accept asbestos in advanced.

Keep all pets and people (without protective gear) away from the area.

Keep popcorn ceiling material wet to help prevent dust from getting into the air.

Removal of furniture and applying a protective plastic covering to whatever is left in the room.

Place asbestos-containing waste in closed, labeled plastic bags.

Seal both doors and windows with plastic flaps.

Turn off the air conditioning, heating, and ventilation units to avoid dispersal of contamination throughout the home.

Wear a respirator with a high-efficiency particulate air filter and set up an air purifier.

Wear disposable coveralls to protect skin and hair to keep off ceiling debris.

It can be costly to ignore these guidelines; asbestos contamination due to careless renovations are not usually covered by insurance policies. As a result, homeowners may be left with a large bill for asbestos abatement- and – face major health risks in the future. If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with stage 4 mesothelioma or stage 3 mesothelioma, speak with us for help.

The post Popcorn Ceiling Asbestos | Are they Safe? appeared first on Goldberg, Persky & White P.C..

from https://www.gpwlaw-mi.com/popcorn-ceiling-asbestos-are-they-safe/

[battybat-boss]

Criminal Fertilizer Company that Already Settled $2 BILLION Lawsuit Wants 18,000 More Acres in Florida

Sink holes like this on in Florida are destroying property and lives. Strip mining to produce phosphate for fertilizers for Big Ag is a primary cause. Image Source.

Phosphate Fertilizers: A Product of Modern Mass-produced Agriculture that Threatens our Health and Land

by Paul Fassa Health Impact News

Most health conscious and environmentally concerned people understand the problems facing us today due to modern agricultural and biotech practices.

In the U.S. today, less than 1% of our population is producing the food for the country. When the U.S. was founded, about 90% of the population was involved in agriculture, and by the time Abraham Lincoln became president that number still stood at around 50% of the population producing food for the country.

Today, traditional small-scale sustainable farming is rare, and has been replaced by biotech and the mass production of food. GMO food, along with the contamination of the food supply by pesticides and herbicides is fairly well known today.

But there is one aspect of modern-day agriculture that often slips under the radar of public awareness that is as ecologically harmful to human health or even worse.

It is the worldwide phosphate fertilizer industry. And it is especially out of control here in America, in China, and in other regions to lesser extents.

Florida's phosphate industries supply 75 percent of the USA's fertilizers. Now the world's largest phosphate mining and manufacturing company, Mosaic Fertilizer, is looking to grab more land in Florida with the usual carrot of economic development, put simply, more local  jobs. 

Those who know the history and methods of this industry are trying to convince ignorant citizens and county commissioners that the risks far outweigh the benefits promised, even if actually fulfilled.  

Mosaic Fertilizer has already settled a $2 billion lawsuit to clean up 60 billion pounds of hazardous waste in Florida and Louisiana – one of the largest federal lawsuits ever settled.

Now it wants to grab even more land in Florida, seeking 18,000 acres for strip mining.

David vs Goliath in Florida 

In Central Florida, members of Facebook's “Wake Up DeSoto” are trying to raise public awareness to stop Central Florida's DeSoto County Commission from allowing phosphate mining and fertilizer company, Mosaic, to settle into their county with permission to use 18,000 acres in the area for its toxic industry. 

Mosaic, formerly based out of Minnesota, but now headquartered in Florida, has a history of causing ecological damage wherever it has positioned its mining and manufacturing operations as do other similar companies.  

Cynthia Giles, assistant administrator for EPA's Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance stated:

Mining and mineral processing facilities generate more toxic and hazardous waste than any other industrial sector. Reducing environmental impacts from large fertilizer manufacturers operations is a national priority for EPA.

After eight years of EPA investigation and negotiations with Mosaic, the company finally agreed on a settlement totaling 2 billion dollars to safely remove 60 billion pounds of toxic waste from two plant sites in Louisiana and six sites in Florida. 

The EPA investigation into Mosaic's and other phosphate industry practices was initiated after toxic waste was discovered from a plant located near Tampa Bay's Sunshine Skyway Bridge was discovered along the edge of the bay in 2003. Earlier, Mosaic had also been ticketed for air pollution violations. (Source)

It's known that Mosaic contributes to Florida state politicians on both sides of the aisle. DeSoto County environmental activists are suspicious of the county commission's leadership as well. From one of DeSoto County's environmental unnamed activists who emailed Health Impact News:   

The Florida FDEP [Florida Department of Environmental Protection] permits all this stuff… they know that the clay settling ponds will spill over during the rainy season and discharge [waste] water. It's not a matter of 'if' but 'when.'

The settling ponds mentioned are atop huge stacks of solid waste that are up to 200 feet high and spread across hundreds of acres. They are the only “mountains” on Florida's mostly flat land.

Phosphate Fertilizer Mining Creates Ecological and Human Health Issues 

Gathering phosphate, which is abundant throughout Florida where most USA phosphate mining and fertilizer processing occurs, is accomplished through strip mining. Essentially, strip mining scrapes a good portion of the earth's surface to gather what has to be sorted and processed for a final product.

For starters, this creates a large swath of land not fit for farming, development, or recreation unless reclamation is demanded by government agencies, which often takes quite a while to occur and is usually not restored back to its original pristine status. 

With phosphate mining, a dragline with a scoop the size of a truck scoops 15 to 30 feet of earth over anywhere from 5,000 acres to sometimes thousands more. The real mining of phosphate ore then begins with the same technique after the earth that's dug up, considered “overburden”, and is piled high around the site area. 

The material containing phosphate ore also contains almost equal amounts of clay and sand. This material is called “matrix” and it's dumped into pits containing high-pressure water guns to separate the clay and sand from the phosphate ore. The clay and sand create a waste item that at one time could be sold for construction purposes, phosphogypsum slurry.  

Though pure gypsum used for new construction, phosphogypsum, is no longer allowed due to traces of radioactive uranium and radium. Phosphogypsum separated from phosphate ore becomes more radioactive. 

Without a customer base for phosphogypsum and no place allowed away from the mining and/or refining site to dump the radioactive slurry, fertilizer mining sites pile it up on the property leased or permitted from local governments and call them “gypsum stacks.”

Massive amounts of good groundwater used for processing are under gypsum, or “gyp” stacks, weaken support under the 150 – 200 ft stacks with pools of hydrosilocic waste on top of them. These large pools are purportedly meant to allow evaporation of the toxic liquids. 

Central Florida's flat, sandy topography is naturally sinkhole-prone. And the underground aquifers, or water tables, used for processing waters make the earth above more vulnerable with the added pressure of massive artificially-created gypsum stacks. 

When a sinkhole occurs under a gypsum stack, the waste pool on top of the stack dumps the toxic liquids into the underground water table or aquifer. This is not conjecture. It has happened.

The Phosphate Fertilizer Industry Provides the Chemical Used to Fluoridate City Water Supplies

A major toxic gaseous byproduct from manufacturing phosphate fertilizers has to be gathered by smokestack “wet scrubbers” in order to comply with air pollution regulations put in place a few decades ago, after gases emitted from plant smokestacks ruined nearby crops, killed livestock, and seriously sickened humans.  

In its newly liquefied form, from being gathered by wet scrubbers, it is packaged as a hazardous substance to be sold and shipped to a majority of municipalities where they purchase this toxic waste to fluoridate their water supplies.

At first, in 1983, the EPA was hugely in favor of this method, which is considered a win-win for both not polluting the immediate environment and boosting dental health throughout the nation. Fluoride protection for teeth was the current medical myth at the time, which most still hold dearly today.

According to recent estimates, the phosphate industry sells approximately 200,000 tons of silicofluorides (hydrofluorosilicic acid & sodium silicofluoride) to US communities each year for use as a water fluoridation agent. (Source)  

But in the year 2000, a top EPA scientist and administrator, Dr. William Hirzy, stated:

If this stuff gets out into the air, it's a pollutant; if it gets into the river, it's a pollutant; if it gets into the lake it's a pollutant; but if it goes right into your drinking water system, it's not a pollutant… There's got to be a better way to manage this stuff. (Source)

The Hard to Swallow Truth: A Documentary on Fluoride Dangers

The Final Fertilizer Product Delivers the Last Ecological Blow

Inorganic phosphate fertilizers cause ecological harm. Further processing of mined phosphate adds nitrogen to the mix. Phosphate fertilizers are used extensively in large-scale factory farming and among non-organic small farms. Runoff water from farms using these fertilizers combine to pollute aquifers that many communities siphon for their water. 

The runoff water containing these fertilizers seep into aquifers and underground water tables to pollute drinking water. Water seepage from farms using phosphate fertilizers flow into inland waterways and lakes, eventually spilling into coastal ocean waters, disturbing the ecological balance of aquatic plant life and creating oxygen-deprived “dead zones”. 

It may seem paradoxical that a mineral with nitrogen essential to plants and life, in general, would create dead zones in lakes and coastal water. What happens is too much nitrogen from these fertilizers kills off vital algae and creates an algae imbalance, negatively affecting symbiotic species. 

This adversely affects the whole marine life food chain to create a dead zone that threatens marine life. Dead zones have occurred in coastal waters such as the Chesapeake Bay, several Florida coastal inlets, and the Great Lakes as well as smaller inland lakes.  (Source)

Although plant crops may thrive with phosphate fertilizers, the soil does not. It becomes leached of minerals from the fertilizer and the method of large-scale mono-crop farming that demands more and more phosphate fertilizing.

This farming method is considered more rapidly lucrative than cultivating more than one crop to allow crop rotation, which is good for the soil and allowing various parts of the land's soil to rest for a year as fallow soil. 

Big Ag's large scale farming methods are unhealthy for all along the food chain and impossible to sustain.

Beyond the Imminent Dangers

It appears there is a finite limit to the phosphate mining required by this fertilizer that is claimed to help Big Ag feed the world's demand of an expanding population. Does that phrase seem familiar? It's the propaganda used by the biotech's GMO industry, designed to sell more toxic pesticides provided by those who create the genetically modified seeds for crops to withstand the poisons.

The solution for both extreme fertilizer use and GMO interventions is organic farming that serves regional areas. This has been studied by various UN international groups assigned to do an unbiased study on what can actually feed the world and sustain itself without harming the environment and the animals and people in it. 

How Organic Farming Could Release Us From the Curse of Fertilizer

This transition can take some time, and it's not going happen by decree of most governments, which are usually part of the problem through either ignorance or corruption. It's going to take consumer choices, selecting mostly organic and locally-grown foods, and disenchanted farmers joining the ranks of organic farmers, which though not covered by the mainstream news, is gradually happening.

In the meantime, creating a more environmentally-compatible method of phosphate mining may help during the hopefully anticipated change to more organic and sustainable farming.

Sources for this article include:

Phosphate giant Mosaic agrees to pay nearly $2 billion over mishandling of hazardous waste 

Mosaic gypsum stack sink hole exposes a wrong

Chemical Fertilizers Poisoning Drinking Water

Dying Coral Reefs Linked to Chemical Fertilizers and Factory Farms

The Hard to Swallow Truth: A Documentary on Fluoride Dangers

How Organic Farming Could Release Us From the Curse of Fertilizer

Fortune 500 phosphate company Mosaic moving headquarters to Florida

RE: Rezoning of 14,053.40+ of land from Agriculture 10 (A10) to Phosphate Mining-Industrial (PM-I)

Phosphate giant Mosaic agrees to pay nearly $2 billion over mishandling of hazardous waste

Florida Fertilizer Plant Sinkhole Reportedly Leaks 215 Million Gallons of Radioactive Water Into Aquifer

Nitrogen & Phosphorus

<!--//<![CDATA[ var m3_u = (location.protocol=='https:'?'https://network.sophiamedia.com/openx/www/delivery/ajs.php':'http://network.sophiamedia.com/openx/www/delivery/ajs.php'); var m3_r = Math.floor(Math.random()*99999999999); if (!document.MAX_used) document.MAX_used = ','; document.write ("<scr"+"ipt type='text/javascript' src='"+m3_u); document.write ("?zoneid=3&target=_blank"); document.write ('&cb=' + m3_r); if (document.MAX_used != ',') document.write ("&exclude=" + document.MAX_used); document.write (document.charset ? '&charset='+document.charset : (document.characterSet ? '&charset='+document.characterSet : '')); document.write ("&loc=" + escape(window.location)); if (document.referrer) document.write ("&referer=" + escape(document.referrer)); if (document.context) document.write ("&context=" + escape(document.context)); if (document.mmm_fo) document.write ("&mmm_fo=1"); document.write ("'><\/scr"+"ipt>"); //]]>-->

[lopezdorothy70-blog]

Criminal Fertilizer Company that Already Settled $2 BILLION Lawsuit Wants 18,000 More Acres in Florida

Sink holes like this on in Florida are destroying property and lives. Strip mining to produce phosphate for fertilizers for Big Ag is a primary cause. Image Source.

Phosphate Fertilizers: A Product of Modern Mass-produced Agriculture that Threatens our Health and Land

by Paul Fassa Health Impact News

Most health conscious and environmentally concerned people understand the problems facing us today due to modern agricultural and biotech practices.

In the U.S. today, less than 1% of our population is producing the food for the country. When the U.S. was founded, about 90% of the population was involved in agriculture, and by the time Abraham Lincoln became president that number still stood at around 50% of the population producing food for the country.

Today, traditional small-scale sustainable farming is rare, and has been replaced by biotech and the mass production of food. GMO food, along with the contamination of the food supply by pesticides and herbicides is fairly well known today.

But there is one aspect of modern-day agriculture that often slips under the radar of public awareness that is as ecologically harmful to human health or even worse.

It is the worldwide phosphate fertilizer industry. And it is especially out of control here in America, in China, and in other regions to lesser extents.

Florida's phosphate industries supply 75 percent of the USA's fertilizers. Now the world's largest phosphate mining and manufacturing company, Mosaic Fertilizer, is looking to grab more land in Florida with the usual carrot of economic development, put simply, more local  jobs. 

Those who know the history and methods of this industry are trying to convince ignorant citizens and county commissioners that the risks far outweigh the benefits promised, even if actually fulfilled.  

Mosaic Fertilizer has already settled a $2 billion lawsuit to clean up 60 billion pounds of hazardous waste in Florida and Louisiana – one of the largest federal lawsuits ever settled.

Now it wants to grab even more land in Florida, seeking 18,000 acres for strip mining.

David vs Goliath in Florida 

In Central Florida, members of Facebook's “Wake Up DeSoto” are trying to raise public awareness to stop Central Florida's DeSoto County Commission from allowing phosphate mining and fertilizer company, Mosaic, to settle into their county with permission to use 18,000 acres in the area for its toxic industry. 

Mosaic, formerly based out of Minnesota, but now headquartered in Florida, has a history of causing ecological damage wherever it has positioned its mining and manufacturing operations as do other similar companies.  

Cynthia Giles, assistant administrator for EPA's Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance stated:

Mining and mineral processing facilities generate more toxic and hazardous waste than any other industrial sector. Reducing environmental impacts from large fertilizer manufacturers operations is a national priority for EPA.

After eight years of EPA investigation and negotiations with Mosaic, the company finally agreed on a settlement totaling 2 billion dollars to safely remove 60 billion pounds of toxic waste from two plant sites in Louisiana and six sites in Florida. 

The EPA investigation into Mosaic's and other phosphate industry practices was initiated after toxic waste was discovered from a plant located near Tampa Bay's Sunshine Skyway Bridge was discovered along the edge of the bay in 2003. Earlier, Mosaic had also been ticketed for air pollution violations. (Source)

It's known that Mosaic contributes to Florida state politicians on both sides of the aisle. DeSoto County environmental activists are suspicious of the county commission's leadership as well. From one of DeSoto County's environmental unnamed activists who emailed Health Impact News:   

The Florida FDEP [Florida Department of Environmental Protection] permits all this stuff… they know that the clay settling ponds will spill over during the rainy season and discharge [waste] water. It's not a matter of 'if' but 'when.'

The settling ponds mentioned are atop huge stacks of solid waste that are up to 200 feet high and spread across hundreds of acres. They are the only “mountains” on Florida's mostly flat land.

Phosphate Fertilizer Mining Creates Ecological and Human Health Issues 

Gathering phosphate, which is abundant throughout Florida where most USA phosphate mining and fertilizer processing occurs, is accomplished through strip mining. Essentially, strip mining scrapes a good portion of the earth's surface to gather what has to be sorted and processed for a final product.

For starters, this creates a large swath of land not fit for farming, development, or recreation unless reclamation is demanded by government agencies, which often takes quite a while to occur and is usually not restored back to its original pristine status. 

With phosphate mining, a dragline with a scoop the size of a truck scoops 15 to 30 feet of earth over anywhere from 5,000 acres to sometimes thousands more. The real mining of phosphate ore then begins with the same technique after the earth that's dug up, considered “overburden”, and is piled high around the site area. 

The material containing phosphate ore also contains almost equal amounts of clay and sand. This material is called “matrix” and it's dumped into pits containing high-pressure water guns to separate the clay and sand from the phosphate ore. The clay and sand create a waste item that at one time could be sold for construction purposes, phosphogypsum slurry.  

Though pure gypsum used for new construction, phosphogypsum, is no longer allowed due to traces of radioactive uranium and radium. Phosphogypsum separated from phosphate ore becomes more radioactive. 

Without a customer base for phosphogypsum and no place allowed away from the mining and/or refining site to dump the radioactive slurry, fertilizer mining sites pile it up on the property leased or permitted from local governments and call them “gypsum stacks.”

Massive amounts of good groundwater used for processing are under gypsum, or “gyp” stacks, weaken support under the 150 – 200 ft stacks with pools of hydrosilocic waste on top of them. These large pools are purportedly meant to allow evaporation of the toxic liquids. 

Central Florida's flat, sandy topography is naturally sinkhole-prone. And the underground aquifers, or water tables, used for processing waters make the earth above more vulnerable with the added pressure of massive artificially-created gypsum stacks. 

When a sinkhole occurs under a gypsum stack, the waste pool on top of the stack dumps the toxic liquids into the underground water table or aquifer. This is not conjecture. It has happened.

The Phosphate Fertilizer Industry Provides the Chemical Used to Fluoridate City Water Supplies

A major toxic gaseous byproduct from manufacturing phosphate fertilizers has to be gathered by smokestack “wet scrubbers” in order to comply with air pollution regulations put in place a few decades ago, after gases emitted from plant smokestacks ruined nearby crops, killed livestock, and seriously sickened humans.  

In its newly liquefied form, from being gathered by wet scrubbers, it is packaged as a hazardous substance to be sold and shipped to a majority of municipalities where they purchase this toxic waste to fluoridate their water supplies.

At first, in 1983, the EPA was hugely in favor of this method, which is considered a win-win for both not polluting the immediate environment and boosting dental health throughout the nation. Fluoride protection for teeth was the current medical myth at the time, which most still hold dearly today.

According to recent estimates, the phosphate industry sells approximately 200,000 tons of silicofluorides (hydrofluorosilicic acid & sodium silicofluoride) to US communities each year for use as a water fluoridation agent. (Source)  

But in the year 2000, a top EPA scientist and administrator, Dr. William Hirzy, stated:

If this stuff gets out into the air, it's a pollutant; if it gets into the river, it's a pollutant; if it gets into the lake it's a pollutant; but if it goes right into your drinking water system, it's not a pollutant… There's got to be a better way to manage this stuff. (Source)

The Hard to Swallow Truth: A Documentary on Fluoride Dangers

The Final Fertilizer Product Delivers the Last Ecological Blow

Inorganic phosphate fertilizers cause ecological harm. Further processing of mined phosphate adds nitrogen to the mix. Phosphate fertilizers are used extensively in large-scale factory farming and among non-organic small farms. Runoff water from farms using these fertilizers combine to pollute aquifers that many communities siphon for their water. 

The runoff water containing these fertilizers seep into aquifers and underground water tables to pollute drinking water. Water seepage from farms using phosphate fertilizers flow into inland waterways and lakes, eventually spilling into coastal ocean waters, disturbing the ecological balance of aquatic plant life and creating oxygen-deprived “dead zones”. 

It may seem paradoxical that a mineral with nitrogen essential to plants and life, in general, would create dead zones in lakes and coastal water. What happens is too much nitrogen from these fertilizers kills off vital algae and creates an algae imbalance, negatively affecting symbiotic species. 

This adversely affects the whole marine life food chain to create a dead zone that threatens marine life. Dead zones have occurred in coastal waters such as the Chesapeake Bay, several Florida coastal inlets, and the Great Lakes as well as smaller inland lakes.  (Source)

Although plant crops may thrive with phosphate fertilizers, the soil does not. It becomes leached of minerals from the fertilizer and the method of large-scale mono-crop farming that demands more and more phosphate fertilizing.

This farming method is considered more rapidly lucrative than cultivating more than one crop to allow crop rotation, which is good for the soil and allowing various parts of the land's soil to rest for a year as fallow soil. 

Big Ag's large scale farming methods are unhealthy for all along the food chain and impossible to sustain.

Beyond the Imminent Dangers

It appears there is a finite limit to the phosphate mining required by this fertilizer that is claimed to help Big Ag feed the world's demand of an expanding population. Does that phrase seem familiar? It's the propaganda used by the biotech's GMO industry, designed to sell more toxic pesticides provided by those who create the genetically modified seeds for crops to withstand the poisons.

The solution for both extreme fertilizer use and GMO interventions is organic farming that serves regional areas. This has been studied by various UN international groups assigned to do an unbiased study on what can actually feed the world and sustain itself without harming the environment and the animals and people in it. 

How Organic Farming Could Release Us From the Curse of Fertilizer

This transition can take some time, and it's not going happen by decree of most governments, which are usually part of the problem through either ignorance or corruption. It's going to take consumer choices, selecting mostly organic and locally-grown foods, and disenchanted farmers joining the ranks of organic farmers, which though not covered by the mainstream news, is gradually happening.

In the meantime, creating a more environmentally-compatible method of phosphate mining may help during the hopefully anticipated change to more organic and sustainable farming.

Sources for this article include:

Phosphate giant Mosaic agrees to pay nearly $2 billion over mishandling of hazardous waste 

Mosaic gypsum stack sink hole exposes a wrong

Chemical Fertilizers Poisoning Drinking Water

Dying Coral Reefs Linked to Chemical Fertilizers and Factory Farms

The Hard to Swallow Truth: A Documentary on Fluoride Dangers

How Organic Farming Could Release Us From the Curse of Fertilizer

Fortune 500 phosphate company Mosaic moving headquarters to Florida

RE: Rezoning of 14,053.40+ of land from Agriculture 10 (A10) to Phosphate Mining-Industrial (PM-I)

Phosphate giant Mosaic agrees to pay nearly $2 billion over mishandling of hazardous waste

Florida Fertilizer Plant Sinkhole Reportedly Leaks 215 Million Gallons of Radioactive Water Into Aquifer

Nitrogen & Phosphorus

<!--//<![CDATA[ var m3_u = (location.protocol=='https:'?'https://network.sophiamedia.com/openx/www/delivery/ajs.php':'http://network.sophiamedia.com/openx/www/delivery/ajs.php'); var m3_r = Math.floor(Math.random()*99999999999); if (!document.MAX_used) document.MAX_used = ','; document.write ("<scr"+"ipt type='text/javascript' src='"+m3_u); document.write ("?zoneid=3&target=_blank"); document.write ('&cb=' + m3_r); if (document.MAX_used != ',') document.write ("&exclude=" + document.MAX_used); document.write (document.charset ? '&charset='+document.charset : (document.characterSet ? '&charset='+document.characterSet : '')); document.write ("&loc=" + escape(window.location)); if (document.referrer) document.write ("&referer=" + escape(document.referrer)); if (document.context) document.write ("&context=" + escape(document.context)); if (document.mmm_fo) document.write ("&mmm_fo=1"); document.write ("'><\/scr"+"ipt>"); //]]>-->

[elsoperclean-blog]

Thermal Efficiency Material For Building And Construction Using Waste Goods

Thermal Efficiency Material For Building And Construction Using Waste Goods Owens Corning is definitely certainly a world innovator in building materials and devices, delivering a wide assortment of high quality goods and services. People knew just where I were living and wondered what somewhat house hold the self announced setting up guru occupied. Double ouch. If 180mm can be to be installed then simply 100mm board could possibly be presented between the rafters شركة تنظيف الافران بالرياض (there has to be a minimum 25mm air difference between the insulation plus the underside of the porcelain tiles or slates) with a great 80mm board running around the rafters. Result: Oil use reduced to about 4, 700 gallons per year coming from a previous average of 6, 000 gallons, representing cost savings of 21%; actual cost savings in the insulated building might be higher when essential oil use in the non-insulated building is accounted for. شركة صيانة ثلاجات بالرياض Foam insulation that grows as it cures to fill wall cavities or cover walls. Inverted roof: The insulation is installed more than an uppermost weatherproof membrane layer, in the roof framework, effectively safeguarding it out of heat and cold that can trigger damage in the extended term. installment payments on your Pet confinement properties often avoid need wall membrane insulation. This kind of process causes the concoction to expand and develop uniform, connected closed skin cells to form the coating material. عزل خزانات المياه الارضية using the light wet method is structured on attaching the insulation material with glue and mounting pins to the exterior surface of the wall, covering it with a thin layer of mortar with a satisfying mesh and finished with a layer of plastsorter. For over 50 years, professionals have trusted Dow XPS insulation for improved moisture resistance, long-term energy performance and increased long life of the roof. These can be estimates based on protecting an oil-heated home with possibly a totally uninsulated attic, or topping up existing insulation from 120mm to 270mm. Figure 1: Roof major Edge Detail—Overhang extended to cover the thickness on the over-roofing rigid شركه عزل فوم. Adopting Putting surface Building methods will drastically reduce or eliminate damaging environmental effects and boost upon existing unsustainable design and style, construction and operational routines. Column A is perfect for extensions where the existing dwelling's walls and roof U-values are even worse than 0. 70 W/m². K in the walls and worse than 0. 25 W/m². K in the ceiling. Nevertheless , in circumstance your building is of vaulted building and provides a peaked roof, the indoor options tend to be limited, Hart supplies. شركة صيانة غسالات بالرياض Icynene is a high performance, spray-foam underlay that expands 100-fold at any time applied, sealing all places service holes and hard to reach spaces anywhere air leakage can consider place. It reflects around 97% of radiant heat by the roof surface and prevent energy and larger temperature penetrating inside. To meet code requirements for a cold weather barrier, it will likely need to be shielded using a layer of gypsum drywall; fiberglass-faced drywall can be more moisture resistant than paper-faced drywall. A part of rigid شركة عزل اسطح شمال الرياض board can be added either together with the roof's weatherproof layer or perhaps directly on top of the timber roof area with a new waterproof layer on top of the insulation. Applying the reflective padding on more comfortable part will let dual seeing as vapor barrier and prevent moisture from obtaining inside. If the loft is only for any time going to be employed for holding suitcases and Christmas decor, this may well often be a waste products of strength (effectively warming it to the same standard while being a normal room); if it is being employed seeing as a room, then simply really a worthwhile try.

[andrewmawby]

Repair Wall After Removing Ceramic Tile

Repair Wall After Removing Ceramic Tile TIPS

Wall must be flat & smooth or tile will telegraph defects

Do NOT use cheap pre-mixed spackling or drywall mud for repair

WATCH repair videos below

Patching compound MUST BE waterproof

CLICK HERE to Get Tim's FREE & FUNNY Newsletter!

DEAR TIM: We’re in the home stretch of a delightful bathroom remodel job. One of the final steps is to install subway ceramic tile as the backsplash above the dual-bowl sink.

The plaster wall above the new granite top needs to be repaired. After we removed the old ceramic tile there were giant holes.

My husband is in a hurry and wants to do the patch fast with a pre-mixed product that comes in a tub from the local big box store. I want your expert opinion as to the best way to repair the massive depressions in the wall from where old trim tile pieces were removed.

Do we need to remove the old hardened glue from the walls too? Pam L., Columbus, OH

DEAR PAM: I’m humbled that you feel the expert opinion will emanate from my fingertips as I type this!

Countless Wall Repairs

The truth be told I’ve been in the exact situation you’re now facing countless times while working in paying customers’ homes. The tile style changes from year to year, but the method of getting the wall ready for the tile has not changed.

High-Gloss Tile Shows Wall Defects

Let’s first talk about high-gloss finish ceramic tile first before we go much farther. We need to do this to slow down your husband so he keeps the key out of the car’s ignition as he tries to get to the big box store.

Have you ever noticed how a small dent in the door of a new car stands out like a sore thumb? The paint may not be chipped or scratched, but you can clearly see the inward depression.

Free & Fast Bids

CLICK HERE to get FREE & FAST BIDS from local tile contractors who can do this repair for you.

Light Reflection

This happens on high gloss surfaces like car paint because the reflected light off the metal is bent by the dent. In other words, high gloss finishes are unforgiving if the surface beneath the gloss is not in the same plane.

Wall Must Be Flat & Smooth

If you want every aspect of your bathroom remodeling to be gorgeous, you need to be sure the wall surface under the tile is not only perfectly smooth, it needs to be in the same plane. If the subway tile pieces are not in the same plane on a flat surface, they’ll reflect light differently and it will look like a drunk tile setter installed them.

Here are the two monster defects in Pam's wall. See that uneven old yellow adhesive? It's got to go. Copyright 2017 Tim Carter

Repair Wall Early

I see by the photos you sent that the new granite top and faucets are installed. This is going to make the job of repairing the wall much harder as you work around these finished items. The wall repair should have been done long before the cabinet, top and faucets were installed.

Chain Of Adhesion

You also need to be concerned with what I call the chain of adhesion. What’s that old saying? “A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.” I can clearly see in your photo that you’ve got traditional plaster applied to gypsum lath panels nailed to the wall studs.

For the tile to stay affixed to the wall for decades, the bond between all the wall elements needs to be as strong as possible. The pre-mixed compounds I see in the big box stores contain very weak glues in almost all cases. What’s worse is some of the glues in these products are water soluble. Premixed drywall joint compound and common spackling are great examples of products with these weak glues.

Cheap Products Not Waterproof

Once these two products are dry, you can dissolve them by rubbing them with a wet sponge. Rub your plaster walls for days with a wet sponge and nothing happens except for you getting blisters and sore muscles. Plaster is waterproof and it bonds tenaciously to just about anything.

Remove Old Adhesive

Here’s how I’d proceed to make your walls ready for the stunning subway tile I’m sure you’ve selected. First you need to purchase some liquid adhesive remover.

Here's a great adhesive and mastic remover. Don't use just any adhesive remover. It needs to say it's made for tile mastic. CLICK THE IMAGE NOW to have this delivered to your home in days.

This product brushes on much like liquid paint remover. it’s imperative you protect the granite top and  faucets and any other finished item like the front of the vanity cabinets from this harsh chemical.

CLICK HERE to get FREE & FAST BIDS from local tile contractors who can do this repair for you.

Follow Directions

Follow the directions and get all the old yellowed tile glue off the plaster exposing the original white lime finish plaster. Once it’s off, now it’s time to start to repair the deep depressions.

Traditional Base Plaster

Purchase a bag of Structolite base plaster. You can get this online or from a local building supply store. Be sure the holes in the wall have all loose material removed and brush away and dust.

This is a fantastic gypsum base-coat plaster. You just mix it with water and it really sticks to wallboard and other old gypsum plaster. CLICK THE IMAGE NOW to have this bag at your doorstep in days.

Mix up the Structolite plaster per directions on the bag. You want it to be the consistency of somewhat stiff applesauce.

Structolite Mixing Video

Watch this video to see how to mix Structolite. For small amounts you can just mix by hand with a stiff 3-inch broad scraping knife.

  Take a wet sponge and lightly pat the old base plaster in the hole to get it slightly damp just before you’re ready to apply the Structolite. Pack in the new plaster being sure to keep the new plaster 1/8-inch lower than the existing white lime plaster finish you exposed once you removed the old glue.

Use a straightedge to ensure the Structolite is lower than the old white lime plaster. Allow the Structolite to cure for one day.

Finish With Durabond 90

The next day fill in the slight depression and all other tiny holes in the plaster wall with Durabond 90. This is a dry-setting joint compound that’s much like the white lime finish plaster on the wall.

This is the dry setting joint compound I prefer. It mixes easily with water. Use COLD water to slow set time. Mix until it's like warm cake icing. CLICK THE PHOTO NOW TO HAVE THIS DELIVERED TO YOUR HOME. NO NEED TO FIGHT TRAFFIC AND RUDE SHOPPERS.

Mix it with water to the consistency of warm cake icing so it’s silky smooth. You only have 90 minutes to work with it before it gets hard. You can use cold water to slow the hardening process.

Take your time and be sure the wall surface is as smooth as glass and in the same plane. Use a long straightedge or metal level to help you locate small depressions that may exist in the old white plaster finish. Fill those with the Durabond 90 product so the final surface under the new subway tile is as flat as possible.

Durabond 90 Video

Watch this video to get an idea of how to work with quick-setting plaster or setting compound.

CLICK HERE to get FREE & FAST BIDS from local tile contractors who can do this repair for you.

Column 1213

from builders feed http://www.askthebuilder.com/repair-wall-after-removing-ceramic-tile/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[emoryjrice71]

Repair Wall After Removing Ceramic Tile

DEAR TIM: We’re in the home stretch of a delightful bathroom remodel job. One of the final steps is to install subway ceramic tile as the backsplash above the dual-bowl sink. The plaster wall above the new granite top needs to be repaired. After we removed the old ceramic tile there were giant holes. My husband is in a hurry and wants to do the patch fast with a pre-mixed product that comes in a tub from the local big box store. I want your expert opinion as to the best way to repair the massive depressions in the wall from where old trim tile pieces were removed. Do we need to remove the old hardened glue from the walls too? Pam L., Columbus, OH

DEAR PAM: I’m humbled that you feel the expert opinion will emanate from my fingertips as I type this! The truth be told I’ve been in the exact situation you’re now facing countless times while working in paying customers’ homes. The tile style changes from year to year, but the method of getting the wall ready for the tile has not changed.

Let’s first talk about high-gloss finish ceramic tile first before we go much farther. We need to do this to slow down your husband so he keeps the key out of the car’s ignition as he tries to get to the big box store.

Have you ever noticed how a small dent in the door of a new car stands out like a sore thumb? The paint may not be chipped or scratched, but you can clearly see the inward depression. This happens on high gloss surfaces like car paint because the reflected light off the metal is bent by the dent. In other words, high gloss finishes are unforgiving if the surface beneath the gloss is not in the same plane.

If you want every aspect of your bathroom remodeling to be gorgeous, you need to be sure the wall surface under the tile is not only perfectly smooth, it needs to be in the same plane. If the subway tile pieces are not in the same plane on a flat surface, they’ll reflect light differently and it will look like a drunk tile setter installed them.

Here are the two monster defects in Pam’s wall. See that uneven old yellow adhesive? It’s got to go. Copyright 2017 Tim Carter

I see by the photos you sent that the new granite top and faucets are installed. This is going to make the job of repairing the wall much harder as you work around these finished items. The wall repair should have been done long before the cabinet, top and faucets were installed.

You also need to be concerned with what I call the chain of adhesion. What’s that old saying? “A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.” I can clearly see in your photo that you’ve got traditional plaster applied to gypsum lath panels nailed to the wall studs.

For the tile to stay affixed to the wall for decades, the bond between all the wall elements needs to be as strong as possible. The pre-mixed compounds I see in the big box stores contain very weak glues in almost all cases. What’s worse is some of the glues in these products are water soluble. Premixed drywall joint compound and common spackling are great examples of products with these weak glues.

Once these two products are dry, you can dissolve them by rubbing them with a wet sponge. Rub your plaster walls for days with a wet sponge and nothing happens except for you getting blisters and sore muscles. Plaster is waterproof and it bonds tenaciously to just about anything.

Here’s how I’d proceed to make your walls ready for the stunning subway tile I’m sure you’ve selected. First you need to purchase some liquid adhesive remover. This product brushes on much like liquid paint remover. it’s imperative you protect the granite top and  faucets and any other finished item like the front of the vanity cabinets from this harsh chemical.

Follow the directions and get all the old yellowed tile glue off the plaster exposing the original white lime finish plaster. Once it’s off, now it’s time to start to repair the deep depressions. Purchase a bag of Structolite base plaster. You can get this online or from a local building supply store. Be sure the holes in the wall have all loose material removed and brush away and dust.

Mix up the Structolite plaster per directions on the bag. You want it to be the consistency of somewhat stiff applesauce.

Take a wet sponge and lightly pat the old base plaster in the hole to get it slightly damp just before you’re ready to apply the Structolite. Pack in the new plaster being sure to keep the new plaster 1/8-inch lower than the existing white lime plaster finish you exposed once you removed the old glue.

Use a straightedge to ensure the Structolite is lower than the old white lime plaster. Allow the Structolite to cure for one day. The next day fill in the slight depression and all other tiny holes in the plaster wall with Durabond 90. This is a dry-setting joint compound that’s much like the white lime finish plaster on the wall. Mix it with water to the consistency of warm cake icing so it’s silky smooth. You only have 90 minutes to work with it before it gets hard. You can use cold water to slow the hardening process.

Take your time and be sure the wall surface is as smooth as glass and in the same plane. Use a long straightedge or metal level to help you locate small depressions that may exist in the old white plaster finish. Fill those with the Durabond 90 product so the final surface under the new subway tile is as flat as possible.

Column 1213

[allardjeremyballard]

Repair Wall After Removing Ceramic Tile

DEAR TIM: We’re in the home stretch of a delightful bathroom remodel job. One of the final steps is to install subway ceramic tile as the backsplash above the dual-bowl sink. The plaster wall above the new granite top needs to be repaired. After we removed the old ceramic tile there were giant holes. My husband is in a hurry and wants to do the patch fast with a pre-mixed product that comes in a tub from the local big box store. I want your expert opinion as to the best way to repair the massive depressions in the wall from where old trim tile pieces were removed. Do we need to remove the old hardened glue from the walls too? Pam L., Columbus, OH

DEAR PAM: I’m humbled that you feel the expert opinion will emanate from my fingertips as I type this! The truth be told I’ve been in the exact situation you’re now facing countless times while working in paying customers’ homes. The tile style changes from year to year, but the method of getting the wall ready for the tile has not changed.

Let’s first talk about high-gloss finish ceramic tile first before we go much farther. We need to do this to slow down your husband so he keeps the key out of the car’s ignition as he tries to get to the big box store.

Have you ever noticed how a small dent in the door of a new car stands out like a sore thumb? The paint may not be chipped or scratched, but you can clearly see the inward depression. This happens on high gloss surfaces like car paint because the reflected light off the metal is bent by the dent. In other words, high gloss finishes are unforgiving if the surface beneath the gloss is not in the same plane.

If you want every aspect of your bathroom remodeling to be gorgeous, you need to be sure the wall surface under the tile is not only perfectly smooth, it needs to be in the same plane. If the subway tile pieces are not in the same plane on a flat surface, they’ll reflect light differently and it will look like a drunk tile setter installed them.

Here are the two monster defects in Pam's wall. See that uneven old yellow adhesive? It's got to go. Copyright 2017 Tim Carter

I see by the photos you sent that the new granite top and faucets are installed. This is going to make the job of repairing the wall much harder as you work around these finished items. The wall repair should have been done long before the cabinet, top and faucets were installed.

You also need to be concerned with what I call the chain of adhesion. What’s that old saying? “A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.” I can clearly see in your photo that you’ve got traditional plaster applied to gypsum lath panels nailed to the wall studs.

For the tile to stay affixed to the wall for decades, the bond between all the wall elements needs to be as strong as possible. The pre-mixed compounds I see in the big box stores contain very weak glues in almost all cases. What’s worse is some of the glues in these products are water soluble. Premixed drywall joint compound and common spackling are great examples of products with these weak glues.

Once these two products are dry, you can dissolve them by rubbing them with a wet sponge. Rub your plaster walls for days with a wet sponge and nothing happens except for you getting blisters and sore muscles. Plaster is waterproof and it bonds tenaciously to just about anything.

Here’s how I’d proceed to make your walls ready for the stunning subway tile I’m sure you’ve selected. First you need to purchase some liquid adhesive remover. This product brushes on much like liquid paint remover. it’s imperative you protect the granite top and  faucets and any other finished item like the front of the vanity cabinets from this harsh chemical.

Follow the directions and get all the old yellowed tile glue off the plaster exposing the original white lime finish plaster. Once it’s off, now it’s time to start to repair the deep depressions. Purchase a bag of Structolite base plaster. You can get this online or from a local building supply store. Be sure the holes in the wall have all loose material removed and brush away and dust.

Mix up the Structolite plaster per directions on the bag. You want it to be the consistency of somewhat stiff applesauce.

  Take a wet sponge and lightly pat the old base plaster in the hole to get it slightly damp just before you’re ready to apply the Structolite. Pack in the new plaster being sure to keep the new plaster 1/8-inch lower than the existing white lime plaster finish you exposed once you removed the old glue.

Use a straightedge to ensure the Structolite is lower than the old white lime plaster. Allow the Structolite to cure for one day. The next day fill in the slight depression and all other tiny holes in the plaster wall with Durabond 90. This is a dry-setting joint compound that’s much like the white lime finish plaster on the wall. Mix it with water to the consistency of warm cake icing so it’s silky smooth. You only have 90 minutes to work with it before it gets hard. You can use cold water to slow the hardening process.

Take your time and be sure the wall surface is as smooth as glass and in the same plane. Use a long straightedge or metal level to help you locate small depressions that may exist in the old white plaster finish. Fill those with the Durabond 90 product so the final surface under the new subway tile is as flat as possible.

Column 1213

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8247360 http://www.askthebuilder.com/repair-wall-after-removing-ceramic-tile/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[andrewmawby]

Repair Wall After Removing Ceramic Tile

Repair Wall After Removing Ceramic Tile TIPS

Wall must be flat & smooth or tile will telegraph defects

Do NOT use cheap pre-mixed spackling or drywall mud for repair

WATCH repair videos below

Patching compound MUST BE waterproof

CLICK HERE to Get Tim's FREE & FUNNY Newsletter!

DEAR TIM: We’re in the home stretch of a delightful bathroom remodel job. One of the final steps is to install subway ceramic tile as the backsplash above the dual-bowl sink.

The plaster wall above the new granite top needs to be repaired. After we removed the old ceramic tile there were giant holes.

My husband is in a hurry and wants to do the patch fast with a pre-mixed product that comes in a tub from the local big box store. I want your expert opinion as to the best way to repair the massive depressions in the wall from where old trim tile pieces were removed.

Do we need to remove the old hardened glue from the walls too? Pam L., Columbus, OH

DEAR PAM: I’m humbled that you feel the expert opinion will emanate from my fingertips as I type this!

Countless Wall Repairs

The truth be told I’ve been in the exact situation you’re now facing countless times while working in paying customers’ homes. The tile style changes from year to year, but the method of getting the wall ready for the tile has not changed.

High-Gloss Tile Shows Wall Defects

Let’s first talk about high-gloss finish ceramic tile first before we go much farther. We need to do this to slow down your husband so he keeps the key out of the car’s ignition as he tries to get to the big box store.

Have you ever noticed how a small dent in the door of a new car stands out like a sore thumb? The paint may not be chipped or scratched, but you can clearly see the inward depression.

Free & Fast Bids

CLICK HERE to get FREE & FAST BIDS from local tile contractors who can do this repair for you.

Light Reflection

This happens on high gloss surfaces like car paint because the reflected light off the metal is bent by the dent. In other words, high gloss finishes are unforgiving if the surface beneath the gloss is not in the same plane.

Wall Must Be Flat & Smooth

If you want every aspect of your bathroom remodeling to be gorgeous, you need to be sure the wall surface under the tile is not only perfectly smooth, it needs to be in the same plane. If the subway tile pieces are not in the same plane on a flat surface, they’ll reflect light differently and it will look like a drunk tile setter installed them.

Here are the two monster defects in Pam's wall. See that uneven old yellow adhesive? It's got to go. Copyright 2017 Tim Carter

Repair Wall Early

I see by the photos you sent that the new granite top and faucets are installed. This is going to make the job of repairing the wall much harder as you work around these finished items. The wall repair should have been done long before the cabinet, top and faucets were installed.

Chain Of Adhesion

You also need to be concerned with what I call the chain of adhesion. What’s that old saying? “A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.” I can clearly see in your photo that you’ve got traditional plaster applied to gypsum lath panels nailed to the wall studs.

For the tile to stay affixed to the wall for decades, the bond between all the wall elements needs to be as strong as possible. The pre-mixed compounds I see in the big box stores contain very weak glues in almost all cases. What’s worse is some of the glues in these products are water soluble. Premixed drywall joint compound and common spackling are great examples of products with these weak glues.

Cheap Products Not Waterproof

Once these two products are dry, you can dissolve them by rubbing them with a wet sponge. Rub your plaster walls for days with a wet sponge and nothing happens except for you getting blisters and sore muscles. Plaster is waterproof and it bonds tenaciously to just about anything.

Remove Old Adhesive

Here’s how I’d proceed to make your walls ready for the stunning subway tile I’m sure you’ve selected. First you need to purchase some liquid adhesive remover.

Here's a great adhesive and mastic remover. Don't use just any adhesive remover. It needs to say it's made for tile mastic. CLICK THE IMAGE NOW to have this delivered to your home in days.

This product brushes on much like liquid paint remover. it’s imperative you protect the granite top and  faucets and any other finished item like the front of the vanity cabinets from this harsh chemical.

CLICK HERE to get FREE & FAST BIDS from local tile contractors who can do this repair for you.

Follow Directions

Follow the directions and get all the old yellowed tile glue off the plaster exposing the original white lime finish plaster. Once it’s off, now it’s time to start to repair the deep depressions.

Traditional Base Plaster

Purchase a bag of Structolite base plaster. You can get this online or from a local building supply store. Be sure the holes in the wall have all loose material removed and brush away and dust.

This is a fantastic gypsum base-coat plaster. You just mix it with water and it really sticks to wallboard and other old gypsum plaster. CLICK THE IMAGE NOW to have this bag at your doorstep in days.

Mix up the Structolite plaster per directions on the bag. You want it to be the consistency of somewhat stiff applesauce.

Structolite Mixing Video

Watch this video to see how to mix Structolite. For small amounts you can just mix by hand with a stiff 3-inch broad scraping knife.

  Take a wet sponge and lightly pat the old base plaster in the hole to get it slightly damp just before you’re ready to apply the Structolite. Pack in the new plaster being sure to keep the new plaster 1/8-inch lower than the existing white lime plaster finish you exposed once you removed the old glue.

Use a straightedge to ensure the Structolite is lower than the old white lime plaster. Allow the Structolite to cure for one day.

Finish With Durabond 90

The next day fill in the slight depression and all other tiny holes in the plaster wall with Durabond 90. This is a dry-setting joint compound that’s much like the white lime finish plaster on the wall.

This is the dry setting joint compound I prefer. It mixes easily with water. Use COLD water to slow set time. Mix until it's like warm cake icing. CLICK THE PHOTO NOW TO HAVE THIS DELIVERED TO YOUR HOME. NO NEED TO FIGHT TRAFFIC AND RUDE SHOPPERS.

Mix it with water to the consistency of warm cake icing so it’s silky smooth. You only have 90 minutes to work with it before it gets hard. You can use cold water to slow the hardening process.

Take your time and be sure the wall surface is as smooth as glass and in the same plane. Use a long straightedge or metal level to help you locate small depressions that may exist in the old white plaster finish. Fill those with the Durabond 90 product so the final surface under the new subway tile is as flat as possible.

Durabond 90 Video

Watch this video to get an idea of how to work with quick-setting plaster or setting compound.

CLICK HERE to get FREE & FAST BIDS from local tile contractors who can do this repair for you.

Column 1213

from builders feed http://www.askthebuilder.com/repair-wall-after-removing-ceramic-tile/ via http://www.rssmix.com/