Septic System Design and Pumping – Easy!

Posted on by Tim Carter
Septic System Leach Field

Septic System Design and Pumping | This is the leach field for a septic system. Septic designers have all sorts of options and can make a septic system work on just about any lot. Copyright 2021 Tim Carter

Septic System Design and Pumping - Simplicity

Do you wonder how septic systems work? I never gave it much thought in all the years I lived in Cincinnati, Ohio. Every house I lived in was connected to a municipal sewer line. Just about every house I built I connected to a sewer line. There were a few houses I built that did have septic systems.

Air & Oxygen Break Down Sewage

One, in particular, was very unique. The lot wasn’t big enough to support a traditional leach field. I’ll share what a leach field does in a moment. In essence, the system was a miniature sewage treatment plant! There was a propeller on a shaft that extend down into the septic tank. It was attached to a motor that was protected from the weather. For ten minutes an hour, this motor would spin working much like the blender in your kitchen. The only difference is when the propeller spun around, fresh air from outdoors was also injected into the swirling mass of water and waste inside the septic tank.

Visit a medium or large-sized sewage treatment plant and that’s what you’ll discover. Before they send the sewage back into the closest river, they aerate the wastewater. Introducing oxygen to sewage is a fantastic way to get rid of all the harmful things that one might find in wastewater.

How Septic Systems Work

If you’re a city dweller as I was for five decades, here’s how septic systems work for the most part. When you flush your toilet or water drains from a tub, shower, vanity, or kitchen sink, the wastewater flows through a 4-inch pipe that connects to a large precast concrete tank. The capacity of the tank can range from 500 to 1,000-gallons or more. They’re sized by septic designers based on the amount of projected waste that might be created within the house each day. Typically the designer goes by the number of bedrooms in the house.Septic tank partially buried

Some tanks have different partial suspended walls and baffles within the tank. These baffles isolate grease and other floating debris trying to ensure it doesn't make it to the leach field.

Can a Septic Tank be Installed Backwards?

One of the biggest issues with septic tank installation is installing the tank BACKWARDS! It happens. A plumber might put the inlet pipe where the outlet pipe is supposed to be. You can get a diagram from the company that builds the precast concrete tanks. You can see clearly what's the inlet and what's the outlet opening.

Body Waste Contains Bacteria

The waste from your body, foodstuffs, and oils from your skin all contain bacteria. This bacteria starts to work in the tank to break down the waste. At the other end of the tank opposite the inlet pipe is an outlet pipe. For each gallon of water that enters the septic tank, a gallon of water flows out of it. This partially treated water that leaves the tank has lots of microscopic bacteria and pathogens in it.

septic tank about to be pumped

You simply can't believe how nasty the liquid is inside a septic tank. Countless bacteria and pathogens. This is a septic tank about to be pumped. It’s a best practice to do this every two or three years. Copyright 2021 Tim Carter

Where Does the Liquid Go?

It flows from the tank, or is pumped up a hill, to the leach field. The wastewater enters a maze of pipes that have perforations in them. The pipes typically are set upon a thick layer of washed sand. The wastewater is distributed into multiple pipes where it then slowly enters the sand.

There’s lots of oxygen in the sand and other organisms. These work in tandem to purify the wastewater that drips out of the leach field pipes. It’s a simplistic system that’s time-tested and best of all it works very well if you watch what you put in your septic tank.

Watch What you Put Into Septic Tanks

Years ago when I lived in Cincinnati, I would put anything I could down my drainpipes. Heck, as long as it made it out to the sewer line, foolishly I felt it wasn’t my problem. That was a bad attitude and municipal sewer plant operators wish more people would care. For example, I’d clean my paintbrushes in a sink thinking nothing of it. I’d emulsify grease from kitchen pots and pans and it no doubt congealed farther down in the sewer.

Only Put Body Waste in a Septic Tank

You never ever want to put any of these things, chlorine bleach, or any chemicals into a septic tank. The only thing that should go into the tank is waste from your body and toilet paper. The cheaper the toilet paper the better. Never ever put flushable wipes in a septic tank or a city sewer system. Why? Watch my Flushable Wipes video!

Pipe Gray Water to the Ground

If you plan to build in a rural area where a septic tank is in your future, put in a utility sink in the laundry room or garage that drains directly outdoors. In other words, don’t connect the sink to the septic tank. Many inspectors allow this gray water to flow onto the ground away from your home because they don’t want you to put paint, grease, or who-knows-what into your septic tank. Wash all the bad things in this sink, not the other sinks in your home.

riser diagram gray water

Here's a riser isometric drawing showing the separation of gray water from black water in a home. CLICK or TAP HERE to have me draw your riser diagram.

Pump Septic Tanks Every Few Years

It’s vital that you pump your septic tank at least every three years. It’s affordable and it ensures that you won’t ruin your leach field. It’s very expensive to replace a leach field with costs running in the thousands of dollars. I only pay, in 2021 dollars, $285 to pump out my 1,000-gallon septic tank. You can see why it really pays to do this. The average cost per year is less than $100.00.

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October 3, 2021 AsktheBuilder Newsletter

Posted on by Tim Carter

Hold on right there! Why of course I know why you're hanging out with Kay, Jeanne, Andy, Ed, Maritza, Dawn, and Billy. This is your first issue! Welcome! Thanks for subscribing. This is not a normal newsletter, so wait until next Sunday to pass judgment.

MDI

This past week, I spent three days on Mt. Desert (some locals pronounce it dessert) Island (MDI) in DownEast Maine. My oldest daughter lives there with her husband and my only grandchild.

Just a few years ago, I helped build their new home. My son-in-law and I installed all the plumbing - we used cast iron drain pipes, all the radiant heating tubing - we used Uponor, the Noritz mini-combi boiler, and we wired the entire house - we used nothing but 12-gauge wire for the normal branch circuits.

The house came out great as you might suspect, it just took three times longer to get it done because the builder, it wasn't me, is lacking in organizational skills.

Swinging and Hiking

The trips up there are always an immersive exercise. If you have grown children who don't live close to you, then you know how difficult it is to not see them each week to catch up. It's been months since we had been up there and my granddaughter has grown so much. It's magical to hear her talk and to see how perceptive she is.

Fortunately, everyone loves to hike and my granddaughter loves to swing. We tried to get as much of both in as possible in the three days I was up there with my wife Kathy and my youngest daughter.

Here's a photo of what I saw while on the Ship Harbor Trail in the southwest part of MDI. There's a reason mariners call it the Deep Blue Sea. It was a diamond day as you can see with the glittering sunlight on the small waves.
ship harbor trail MDI

George Dorr's Old Farm

The last morning we were there, we visited a place I had driven by countless times but had no idea it existed! It was the abandoned 58-acre Old Farm estate of George B. Dorr. He was the first park superintendent of Acadia National Park.
George Dorr Compass Harbor Trail
George came from money. His mother and father, Charles and Mary, made a fortune in the textile business. I'm sure they were exporting lots of woolen things back to Europe as back in the mid-to-late 1800s the USA was the China of the world spewing out countless exports to countries that had a higher standard of living and possibly depleted their resources. The products being made by hard-working Americans were highly prized back in Europe.

In 1878, George's parents broke ground and built a humble (throat-clearing noise) 30-room summer cottage.
Dorr Old Farm cottage
George lived in this house until his death in 1944. He was 90 years old when the folks of Bar Harbor sent him back up to Heaven.

My guess is even though he had scads of money, he probably let the house deteriorate in his later years.

As painful as this sounds, the house was demolished in 1951. It was a very unusual time with the USA just coming off the painful and costly great WW II. It would take years for the industrial complex to switch back to making consumer goods instead of war supplies.

My guess is the people of Bar Harbor weren't much interested in trying to preserve or restore the Dorr house for the future. Who knows what the story is, but it's a darn shame it was leveled.

All But the Slab and Foundation

The floor and foundation of George's house still remain. But Mother Nature is doing her best to reclaim her land. Trees now grow up in the center of the house. Unless the people or National Park Service intervene, what is there now will disappear.

Because the floor and foundation are not covered by a roof, rainwater is seeping into the walls and under the floor. It freezes in the harsh Maine winter. Water expands by 9 percent when it freezes. This force is blasting apart what remains of the house. It's a darn shame.
Dorr Foundation
The picture above is the floor of the stunning screened porch you see to the left in the house photo above. The floor is made from paving brick laid in a herringbone pattern. It's stunning up close.

The craftsmen who installed the brick, and it makes up the floors in other rooms too, were experts. You simply can't believe how level and smooth the brick is. Think about that. It was 1878-80 when the house was built. There were no laser levels back then!

It appears to me the brick was installed on top of a concrete slab. This would be one of the first uses of concrete as it was a new building product back then.
Dorr Foundation Layers
I tried to capture the section of what the floors look like in the above photo. See the conglomerate material to the right under the brick? That looks like crude concrete to me.

The house foundation was made of interlocking pieces of local red granite. The stone cutters incorporated the popular ashlar pattern in the stonework.

The Ocean Swimming Pool

The Dorr's must have been hearty folk. George or his parents decided to build a large swimming pool in the ocean out of massive blocks of bedrock. The ocean water in DownEast Maine is barely tolerable even on a hot July or August day.

The pool would fill with fresh seawater every twelve hours with the incoming tide. CLICK or TAP HERE to watch a short video of this magical pool. Fortunately, I was there at low tide so you can see how it would work.

EDITOR'S NOTE:

I should have figured it would happen.

You may be one of the many this morning that have already emailed me wanting to see ALL of my photos and the video of the ocean swimming pool from my visit to George Dorr's Old Farm estate.

CLICK or TAP HERE and enjoy them! Feel free to leave COMMENTS with the photos if you know more about what's in the photo.

Your Takeaway

As I hiked around the 58 acres, I thought about amazing buildings that have so much character and are still standing. Most were built decades ago. I can think of quite a few in Cincinnati in the older neighborhoods like Clifton. Several of the houses there are so unique you simply can't believe them.

Can you even think of a modern house you feel would be worth it to save for posterity? I can't think of too many myself! Most new homes built today are humdrum to say the least.

Grand houses back a 100+ years ago were built with tremendous amounts of love and pride - both by the owners and the craftsmen who labored to create them. I know in many older cities here in the USA that there are amazing houses that still are standing that deserve to be preserved.

If you feel the same way, perhaps you might start up a group of other like-minded people and do what it takes to preserve this history for others.

Don't let it come to a photo of a cottage and the remains of a foundation being ruined by ice and snow each year as is happening with George's house.

Get involved. Make a project like this part of your legacy!

That's enough for a Sunday.

Tim Carter
Founder- www.AsktheBuilder.com
BEST Organic Cleaner - www.StainSolver.com
Telegrapher Tim - www.W3ATB.com

P.S. I told you I'd share a photo of me in the black paisley vest you might have helped my find. Here's a photo taken of me just two days ago in the Ashland Railroad Station - yes, it was preserved and not torn down!!! Do you know why telegraphers, draftsmen, bank tellers, etc. wore visors like mine? Do you like the sleeve socks? Why were those worn?
Tim Telegraph Operator

How to Prevent Brick Foundation Problems

Posted on by Tim Carter
brick foundation

Brick Foundation Problems | Guess how old this brick foundation is? It was constructed in 1891 and has survived 130 harsh New Hampshire winters! Copyright 2021 Tim Carter

How to Prevent Brick Foundation Problems - Go to the BIA

A few weeks ago, a visitor to my AsktheBuilder.com website wanted to know about brick foundations. Karen had this ambitious desire to build a small 900-square-foot house by herself. She was well aware of her physical limitations and asked me if it was possible for her to construct the foundation using standard brick. She had tried to lift an 8x8x16-inch concrete block and discovered those were too heavy. She knew she could handle brick. Karen wanted me to share what she needs to know to build a strong brick foundation.

The issue is she had never seen a house with a brick foundation and because of that thought she might not be able to see her dream come true. From time to time, you’ll hear me say, “You don’t know what you don’t know.” When you apply this to your life experience about all things building, it’s easy to fall into a trap where you feel there are just one or two ways to do something.

Take for example house foundations. You may live in a part of the USA where the foundation contractors use concrete or precast concrete block. If you don’t travel at all or do research about foundation types, then you might come to the conclusion there are just two ways to build a foundation.

But travel to other parts of the USA or the world, and you’ll quickly discover that there are quite a few other ways to build foundations that not only last a lifetime, they last generations. Each time I travel to town to get grocery materials, I pass at least five old houses that have stacked stone foundations with no mortar between the stones! The builder just chinked the gaps between stones with smaller stones. Most of these houses were built in the mid-1800s and they look to me as good as the day they were built.

Travel to Ashland, NH, and stop by the restored Ashland railroad train station. The current building was built around the 1860s or so but was moved about 100 feet in 1891 on top of a distinctive brick foundation.

ashland nh railroad station

This is the historic Ashland NH railroad depot. Watch the video below.

The train depot foundation is in fantastic shape to this day with no signs whatsoever of structural cracks or failure. It could use a little tuckpointing, but that’s a minor repair. Karen’s dream is going to come true!

Are All Bricks Equal Strength?

It’s important to realize not all bricks are the same. Brick can have different hardness depending on the length of time they’re in the kiln and what the firing temperature is. You can make brick so hard and durable, they work as paving in streets. Just visit Athens, Ohio to see their wonderful brick streets that have survived heavy trucks, brutal winters, etc. for decades.

Read my past column about different types of brick to get an idea. Be sure you read about lime brick mortar too!

Karen should use a nice strong brick. I told her to go to the Brick Industry Association (BIA) website and download Technical Notes - Specifications for and Classification of Brick 9A. This simple-to-read-and-understand free document shares the best brick to use in a structural situation such as her foundation. She should use a brick that’s rated for severe weathering.

I then shared with Karen that she should look at the entire list of free Technical Notes PDFs offered by the BIA. They contain a wealth of information about how to install brick of all types. You should do the same if you’re planning on building a brick-veneer home. A vast majority of brick-veneer homes here in the USA, based on my observations, are not built correctly. Homeowners routinely complain of water leaks. The BIA knows how to capture and control water that gets through brick and mortar.

Can You Add Reinforcing Steel to Brick Walls?

Yes, you can add reinforcing steel to brick walls. One of the things I recommended to Karen was the use of steel in her brick walls. You can purchase affordable pieces of reinforcing steel that add enormous strength to brick walls. This fabric comes in different widths and is made using two parallel pieces of thin wire that’s just about an inch less in width than the brick wall. In between the two pieces of wire is more wire that looks like a continuous strip of the capital letter W with the tips of the letters touching one another.

This steel is only about 1/16th of an inch thick and you lay it directly on top of a course of brick. You then put the mortar for the next row on the wire just as you would a course without the steel. The BIA Technical Notes talk about the spacing, but I told Karen to do it every 8 inches for extra strength.

How Thick Should a Brick Foundation Be?

The thickness of the brick foundation walls is important. If the foundation walls are over 6 feet, personally I’d have the walls 12 inches thick. You only get one chance to get this right. If the walls are long, every 12 feet I’d put in a brick buttress that’s 8 inches thick and is 2 feet long. Cathedral builders in Europe hundreds of years ago discovered the benefits of buttresses. They’re easy to install and they add enormous strength to the walls preventing them from failing.

The last piece of advice I gave Karen was to build a short experimental wall so she gets comfortable laying brick. It’s not that hard to do. It just requires the three Ds: diligence, determination, and discipline. You can do it too! I’d love for you to send me photos of any brick wall you decide to build.

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September 26, 2021 AsktheBuilder Newsletter

Posted on by Tim Carter

I was born at night, but not last night for goodness sake. I see why you're huddled with Mac, Christine, Noah, Bristol, Eric, Sonia, and Cathy. You're a brand-new subscriber in the past week! You get top billing each week in the newsletter. Thanks for subscribing and I appreciate your trust.

That said, you might have subscribed years ago. This newsletter is about twenty-five years old. Sadly, I didn't do the right thing by keeping track of issue numbers. Otherwise we'd both know how far back we go.

But many moons ago, I wrote a column that's still relevant today. Look at this photo:

house foundation

You might not realize what you're really looking at.

But CLICK or TAP HERE and you'll discover something I'll bet you didn't know. You absolutely need to check out the column if you're building a new home or putting a big room addition on your home.

Searching PRO TIP

Let's say you're on Google, or any other search engine such as DuckDuckGo (quack!). You decide to search for help with ceramic tile.

But, your inner voice says, "Hey, I just want to see all the ceramic tile columns and videos Tim Carter, the Ask the Builder dude, has written. I don't want to see any bogus information from other bozos."

Did you know it's really easy to do this? You'd just see my content and no one else's in the results! Here's how it's done:

Type this first into the search bar with NO SPACES:

site:askthebuilder.com

Then add a space and what you want to search for. Let's say it is ceramic tile. Here's what your search request would look like:

site:askthebuilder.com ceramic tile

Go ahead and try this and have some fun. Think of all the topics you want to know about. Here's a short list:

  • roof leaks
  • clean a deck
  • best house paint
  • pvc
  • air conditioning

I think you'll be blown away by the amount of content I've created in the past 28 years!

While on the subject of search engines, I think there's something you should know.

You might think that the top three or five results you see when you search on Google are the pages that have the BEST INFORMATION for what you're looking for.

Not so. Those pages are the ones that directly or indirectly make the most amount of MONEY for Google. STOP trusting Google for goodness sake! If you feel Google is looking out for your best interests, you're sadly mistaken.

Do a test. Search for something on Google. Look at the results. Then type the exact same search query into DuckDuckGo.com.

Look at the difference in QUALITY of the content of the top three to five pages that get returned to you using DuckDuckGo.com. My guess is you'll soon start using DuckDuckGo as your search engine.

Get FREE Bids Now!

Man Shoveling
CLICK or TAP HERE now to get FREE BIDs from LOCAL contractors for any interior or exterior project at your home.

AstroCrete Follow-Up

You may have been one of my subscribers that got back to me about making concrete on Mars using astronaut pee. CLICK or TAP HERE to see what I was talking about.

I was making fun of how inaccurate the news article was and warning you to stop believing everything you read.

I decided to do some additional math. You should too. I challenge you to calculate how much pee six astronauts generate in two years. Go ahead, do it.

STOP trusting all you read online for goodness sake! That AstroCrete column I read was even MORE INACCURATE than I originally thought!

Is This Wrong?

Look at this photo:

configuration of pvc drain pipes

Is there something wrong with these pipes? If so, what is it?

CLICK or TAP HERE to see if you were right or wrong. I guarantee you're going to discover something that will BLOW YOU AWAY.

Bumfuzzled

Earlier in the week, I was absolutely bumfuzzled. I received a press release from a PR person about a product that had won an Innovation Award from some website.

I decided to check into it because one might think that if you're going to announce to the world that this or that product is really innovative, that you'd have to at least try using the product, right?

Not so it turns out!!!!

This website charges hundreds of dollars for the manufacturers to SUBMIT their product to be considered for the award.

The website then does no testing. I guess they just look at the product website, photos, product label, etc. and make a decision.

This is all buried deep in the pages of the website. But you, the unsuspecting consumer, probably ASSUME the website is doing the right thing thinking about YOU and doing testing to ensure the product is great.

Well, the trouble is, it's a shell game. You may not know the actual definition of the word INNOVATION! Here it is:

"a new idea, device, or method"

The product was new so it does fit the definition. Thus, the products just get this fancy award because they're NEW not because they're GREAT products. Sigh!

But don't you feel it's a slight-of-hand? I know I did.

Oh well, as the Romans figured this out so very long ago:

Caveat Emptor

That's plenty for a Sunday. This weekend, I started my five-week gig as the telegraph operator inside the historic Ashland NH RR station. Live nearby, come visit and watch me use a traditional straight key to send Morse code.

Tim Carter
Founder - www.AsktheBuilder.com
GET CLEAN - www.StainSolve.com
Sleeve Socks! - www.W3ATB.com

Do It Right, Not Over!

P.S. Did you know you can use regular 16d SINKER nails to attach wood to concrete floors and wall? CLICK or TAP HERE to see it done!

Installing Plumbing Drain Pipes

Posted on by Tim Carter
configuration of drain pipes

Installing Plumbing Drain Pipes | This configuration of pipes may look odd to you and you think it’s wrong, but it’s not. There was never a clog here in eight years. Copyright 2021 Tim Carter

Installing Plumbing Drain Pipes - It's Somewhat Easy

I’ve been a master plumber since 1981. I’ve always loved doing plumbing because it’s a very interesting three-dimensional challenge when it comes to installing drain, waste, and vent (DWV) piping in a new home or a large remodeling job. Because I was also the lead carpenter and builder on my jobs, I was able to think ahead to ensure that all the framing and rough lumber was installed so it would not have to be butchered to get the pipes in.

Two weeks ago, Amanda, who lives in South Carolina, reached out to me. She wanted to know how she could get money from the original plumber who put in the drain pipes in her home. Amanda got some bad advice from some other plumber or remodeler who told her a toilet drain pipe had been installed wrong by the original plumber.

Amanda paid the new plumber to cut out the perfectly fine pipes and install new ones with more gentle bends in them. What a shame she wasted so much money! She could have spent less than $50 and arranged a simple phone call with me to ask me if she was getting good advice. But that’s water over the dam.

Amanda could have also read my very short PDF document about Best Practices for Installing PVC Drain and Vent Pipe. It's an instant-download product and less than $15! What a shame she didn't know about it as she would have instantly discovered her pipes were fine.

Here was Amanda’s situation. The toilet drain pipe ran in between two floor joists for about five feet. It then turned down using a normal 90-degree fitting, some call it a short bend L, and immediately connected to a sweep 90-degree fitting that was rotated 90 degrees so the toilet waste could continue its journey to the sewage plant running under the floor joists but now perpendicular to the joists.

She was told the short 90 was improper. I asked her if she had ever had a clog in the eight years since the house was built. Her answer was, “No.”

cast iron lines meghan house

I installed this cast iron in my daughter's new home. Those band clamps make it so easy to do! Look in the upper left of this photo and you can see a sweep 90 fitting on that horizontal drain up in the ceiling. If you need help with your plumbing installation, I offer PHONE COACHING. CLICK or TAP HERE to set up a call.

Here’s why she never had a clog. The short 90-degree fitting resembles the exact change of direction toilet waste would encounter if the pipe was connected to a standard tee fitting. Plumbers for many decades have installed horizontal toilet drain pipes that connect to tee fittings. Watch the video below and you'll see this tee fitting about 2:03 into the video.

When you flush the toilet, the water and waste head straight down and immediately hit a 90-degree fitting under the toilet flange. This 90-degree fitting sends the water horizontally towards the tee fitting maybe a foot or two away. When the wastewater gets to the center of the tee, it takes a sharp turn and heads down again. Think of a river going over a waterfall. This is a completely acceptable configuration, after all, it’s worked well for Mother Nature for millions of years.

Tear out the plaster or drywall and you’ll discover this exact configuration in millions of houses and buildings all across the USA. Plumbers have used tee fittings since the early 1900s and still use them today. In fact, I used this exact configuration two years ago when I recorded my video about flushable wipes.

WATCH THE FOLLOWING VIDEO to see this tee fitting. Advance to 2:03 if you want to save time.

In many situations, the vertical pipe that leaves the bottom of the tee fitting is just a vertical stack. This pipe might be 8 or 9 feet tall. Think of a plumbing stack as a chimney. Wastewater goes down the stack as smoke goes up a chimney.

At the bottom of stacks, the best practice is to install a sweep 90 fitting. These fittings have a slightly greater radius than a short 90 fitting. The longer radius is very friendly to drain-cleaning snakes. This is exactly why plumbers have used sweep-90 fittings for decades.

In Amanda’s situation, she had an acceptable piping setup it’s just that her stack was only 3 inches tall! There’s nothing wrong with that. I’ve done this before where I’ve had to have a horizontal drain pipe tuck up against floor joists in a basement or crawlspace. I’ve never had clog issues.

It’s possible that Amanda misunderstood the advice she was given or the plumber giving the advice wasn’t clear. All change-of-direction fittings buried under a slab should never have any 90-degree fittings. If you need to change direction under concrete or other buried piping conditions say in a sewer line, you use two 45-degree fittings. It’s a best practice to separate the 45-degree fittings by at least 6 inches if possible. This is an aid to drain cleaning snakes.

You can have a 90-degree fitting under a slab, but it needs to be either at the base of a stack as I’ve already described or it can be under a toilet that sits on a slab. If there’s a clog at these two locations it’s usually remedied by installing a clean-out tee just above the base of the stack or removing the toilet to inspect the 90-degree fitting.

If you want to know more about plumbing drain lines or the mystical plumbing vent lines, I’ve got several videos for you here on my www.AsktheBuilder.com website. Look at the titles:

plumbing videos

Go ahead, use the SEARCH ENGINE here on the site and you'll see the same results below the Google ads.

Just type “plumbing videos” into the search engine up above. If you have questions about your plumbing drain pipes, CLICK or TAP HERE and type your question to me. I’d love to be able to help you save time and money.

If you need me to draw plumbing isometric drawings for you or draw a riser diagram, CLICK or TAP HERE.

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Meredith Porphyritic Granite

Posted on by Tim Carter
Meredith Porphyritic Granite

This is but one sample of the Meredith Porphyritic Granite (Mpg). Look below at another one that really shows off the giant phenocrysts of orthoclase feldspar. Photo credit: Tim Carter

Meredith Porphyritic Granite - Most Beautiful Rock in New England

The Meredith Porphyritic Granite can be found in and around Meredith, New Hampshire. I happen to live directly on top of this massive pluton and my college degree is in geology. Some references to this geologic rock formation in the older literature refer to it as the Kinsman granite.

granite rock in NH

This is the Meredith Porphyritic Granite next to my driveway. This is an exposed piece of bedrock that extends miles below the surface of the Earth. Builders and excavators refer to this as a ledge.

When Did This Granite Form?

The granite formed in the Devonian Age about 340-360 million years ago.

How Did the Meredith Porphyritic Granite Form?

The most likely chain of events that created this stunning rock with massive feldspar phenocrysts started with the seafloor being subducted under an old continental plate edge. Keith Heyer Meldahl offers an amazing description of events in his easy-to-read-and-understand book, Rough Hewn Land.

In a nutshell, as the seafloor is subducted under a continent's edge as a result of plate tectonics, about 50-70 miles below the surface of the Earth this thick seafloor plate starts to melt. Seawater is in the rock and some actual liquid seawater under tremendous pressure is pulled down with the seafloor. The presence of seawater lowers the melting point of the rock.

The seafloor starts to melt and giant blobs of this molten rock begin to rise up through the continental crust. Think of these blobs as massive hot-air balloons slowly floating up into the air.

As the blobs slowly rise over millions of years, the chemistry of the rock changes with element substitution. The rock transforms from seafloor sediment and pillow basalt into granite.

The giant phenocrysts in the Meredith Porphyritic Granite attest to how slowly the giant blob, a pluton, rose to the surface. The slower the rock cools and solidifies, the bigger the mineral crystals.

Eventually, through other tectonic events, the pluton makes it to the surface of the earth. A vivid example of plutons, actually a series of them stuck together, is the Sierra Nevada mountains in California.

meredith porphyritic granite

This is a fantastic sample showing the many minerals within the granite. There are small flecks of mica if you look for them. The ruler markings are centimeters alternating white and red. I added the electrical tape on that ruler in 1972 for my Geology 101 class. As you can see, I still have it 49 years later! (C) Copyright 2021 Tim Carter

What Minerals are in the Meredith Porphyritic Granite?

You'll find the following minerals in the granite:

  • large white phenocrysts of orthoclase feldspar
  • plagioclase feldspar - dark matrix material
  • quartz
  • biotite mica
  • and muscovite mica 

The mineral list was provided by Jay Long in his Stepping Stones Across New Hampshire book.

fine grained granite

This is NOT Mpg. It's a different granite. Note how the mineral crystals are so much smaller. You don't see any huge feldspar phenocrysts. There are hundreds of different types of granites that exhibit different colors and mineral sizes. Go visit a shop that sells granite countertops to see!

September 19, 2021 AsktheBuilder Newsletter

Posted on by Tim Carter

September 19, 2021 Ask the Builder Newsletter

Ah, I get it. You're standing over there against the wall with Missy, Fran, Sean, Noble, George, and Meg because you just subscribed in the past week. Welcome! I devote this top paragraph to you each week. Thanks for becoming part of my virtual family.

You, though could have subscribed in the past few weeks. Do you remember my August newsletter where I shared getting two glasses of T-Rex lemonade?

It turns out one of my subscribers, Erik Thorson, wrote a delightful song about lemonade! CLICK or TAP HERE to listen to it. It's guaranteed to make you smile.

AstroCrete BWAHAHAHAHA

I ran across an intriguing article in the news this past week. It was about building with concrete on Mars. Astronauts would use all their body fluids to make AstroCrete. Here's a pull quote from the article:

"A crew of six astronauts can produce an estimated 500kg of high-strength AstroCrete on a two-year mission on the surface of the moon, according to the findings."

(There was a typo in that pull quote because the entire article was about building on Mars, not the Moon.)

Since you probably don't know much about concrete, that 500kg number is meaningless to you. 500kg equals 1,100 pounds. One cubic yard of concrete here on our Earth Ball weighs about 4,000 pounds.

So two years for six astronauts to make 1/4 yard of concrete... BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA

This is why you need to be careful about being WOWED by articles like this. For goodness sake, do the math!

It's going to take hundreds of years to build a concrete building up on Mars at that rate! "Tom, you need to DRINK MORE WATER!"

CLICK HERE to read my follow-up on AstroCrete in the September 26, 2021 Newsletter.

Old Blueprints Filled with Gold

Steve is one of my best friends. He lives in sunny southern CA. I go out to visit every few years and was last there three years ago, helping him with his Honey-Do list. We had a blast and recorded, with the help of his darling wife, this video about how to stain Mexican outdoor patio tiles. It's a funny and informative video. I will NEVER make it as a Hollywood actor. Not on my best day.

A few days ago, Steve sent me a link to a curated scanned copy of a nearly 100-year-old builders magazine. It's filled with amazing articles and photos. Here's one you should study:
fireplace blueprint
These three images of a residential fireplace may not mean much to you, but they're filled with gold. The architect who drew these knew exactly how to build a fireplace, firebox, and chimney that will NOT SMOKE.

CLICK or TAP HERE and allow me to put flesh on the bones of the above blueprint. I share all the critical dimensions that you can plug into the blueprint. Trust me, you'll want to bookmark the page.

If I were a young architect, and even one that had a few years under my belt, I'd spend two hours a week going over old blueprints like these. Many have details you simply don't find in modern plans.

Get FREE BIDS NOW

CLICK or TAP HERE or Mr. Shovel Man above to get FREE and FAST Bids from local contractors for any inside or outside job at your home.

VIP Fast Answer and Consult Call

The past two weeks, I've done a boatload of VIP Fast Answers and my trademark 15-Minute Phone Consult.

In fact, as I'm writing this, I'm just 2.5 hours away from talking with Cosmo. He lives out in the Pacific Northwest and watched my video series about building my deluxe shed. He ordered a stunning pre-cut shed kit. Cosmo has a few questions about getting the concrete piers at the right height.

Why do I promote these services?

I get no less than TWENTY emails a week from homeowners like you that are in a MESS and need me to throw them a life preserver. They decided they KNEW BETTER and just jumped into a job or decided to TRUST what the contractor told them.

The average cost to FIX the mess they're in is about $2,000.00.

Why not invest $20 or $50 before you get in a mess? Having me advise you is the BEST MONEY you'll spend on your project. Period

Changing Word Meanings

I've been building my Ask the Builder and STAIN SOLVER websites for over twenty-five years. I also work on my ham radio blog and my personal blog.

Did you know that I can go back to one of my old columns and completely change a sentence, delete things I've said, or add content in just SECONDS and you'd be none the wiser?

If you don't have a copy of the original page, you have no idea the content has been changed. It's sort of spooky.

Well, I think this is starting to happen with the English language! If I can do the above with my website, don't you think those that own the online dictionaries can do the same?
close up dictionary page
If I'm right, then it makes sense for you to have one, or more, hardcover traditional dictionaries around your house. It's pretty darned hard to change the definition of a word in one of those!

CLICK or TAP HERE to see the dictionary I use multiple times each week.

Yicky Drain Flies!!!

My friend Jim reached out to me days ago asking about how to get rid of pesky drain flies.

Floor Drain

CLICK or TAP HERE to see the easy easy steps on how to defeat forever drain flies.

That's quite enough for a Sunday.

Peace out.

Tim Carter
Founder - www.AsktheBuilder.com
Organic Cleaner - www.StainSolver.com
RR Telegrapher - www.W3ATB.com

Do It Right, Not Over!

P.S. Did you know fresh concrete can BLEED? How's that possible? If you make a mistake, you can RUIN the concrete! CLICK or TAP HERE and stuff a bit more info into those tiny gray cells of yours.

Buy a Hard Cover Dictionary

Posted on by Tim Carter

Buy a Hard Cover Dictionary

It's really easy to change the definition of a word in an online dictionary. It takes seconds. And I know it's happening online.

We can't have invisible people changing the definition of words for goodness sake!

But no one can easily change the definition of a word in a dictionary that's in your house. I'm talking about a real book!

Here are a few great ones. I own this one and use it many times a week:

dictionary cover

CLICK or TAP HERE to order this dictionary.

Do you need a dictionary with larger type to make it easier to read? Here's one:

Webster's dictionary cover

CLICK or TAP HERE to get this dictionary.

 

 

 

Drain Flies How to Get Rid Of

Posted on by Tim Carter
Floor Drain

Drain Flies - This is a typical floor drain. The flies set up camp just under that shiny drain strain cover.

Drain Flies How to Get Rid Of - Easy!

My friend Jim from Cincinnati, texted me the other day: "How do I get rid of drain flies?"

I replied, "Simple..." I then outlined the steps in the text message. Here they are for you.

Step 1: Remove the drain cover and use a toilet brush, liquid dish soap, and plenty of water to scrub the sides of the pipe all the way down to the water level of the trap. If the brush handle is long enough, clean all the way to the bottom of the trap. Add water as you scrub to keep the brush filled with a frothy soap solution. Be sure to clean the drain cover too, including the holes and the underside of the cover.

Step 2: Pull out the toilet brush and pour a gallon of water into the drain. Use a flashlight to see if the sides of the pipe are perfectly clean. If not, repeat step 1.

Step 3: Once the pipe walls, and drain cover are clean, add two tablespoons of chlorine bleach to the water in the trap if you're on a city sewer system. If you're on a septic tank, add 1/2 cup of STAIN SOLVER certified organic oxygen bleach. Each month add a gallon of water to the trap and repeat the addition of the bleach or STAIN SOLVER.

What Causes the Drain Flies?

The drain flies are attracted to the nasty biofilm that builds up on the sides of the floor drain pipe. If you keep the walls and the cover clean, there's no food for the drain flies. It's that simple.