AboutDavid L. Russell, PE Expertise I`m a Chemical,Civil and Environmental Engineer and have a number of projects in all phases of the environment.
I have worked in the chemical industry and am active in professional societies, and am currently on an industrial wastes committee for the Water Environment Federation, and have taught courses in remediation in the US and abroad.
I have written one book on Remediation of petroleum Contaminated Sites, and have a second book on PRACTICAL WASTEWATER TREATMENT to be published by John Wiley in September, 2006. I've also written over 30 articles on various elements of environmental problems and cleanup. Most Recently, I have addressed a NATO Scientific and Techical Conference on Ecoterrorism, and have worked with the same group on remediation of sites contaminated with Chemical Warfare Agent materials and othe materials as well. . I can answer q`s about Chemical and Environmental Engineering, land development, air pollution, water pollution, soil and water cleanup, combustion, international environmental problems, industrial processes chemical processes. Civil and Environmental and Chemical Engineering. Overall, I have over 35 years of experience in this area. Note: I do not answer homework questions
Experience I love work in the third world and developing areas
because it is challenging and one can get a sense of accomplishment.
We have an odor in our house that we are quite confident we have finally isolated with the help of a Home Inspector. The odor is coming from some exposed soil that is in a 3 ft x 12 ft area that is under our laundry room floor. The ranch home is about 20 yrs old and for some reason when they poured the concrete for the basement and garage, they left a 3' x 12' area between the garage wall and a room in our house as open dirt. The area is about 18 inches high. I discovered this after drilling a 3 1/2 inch hole in the 2x12 board at the base of the garage wall and scooping out a sample of the dirt which definitely was the odor. The dirt is fortunately about 4 inches down from the "rim" of the poured basement walls. The access to this 3 ft by 12 ft "bowl" is very tight. I'd like to try to "seal" the area by mixing up a soupy concrete mixture, pouring it into the hole, and letting it hopefully spread itself out about 3 inches thick over the dirt to seal it. The home inspector had recommended spraying foam insulation into the area but I'm skeptical it would spread itself out to cover and seal all the dirt. I’ve attached a photo that I was able to take of the area by sticking my camera into the hole. Do you think the soupy cement idea would work?
Answer I have a different idea. First, however, let's talk about your concrete idea. It might be able to be workable if you use a sand cement, and use a nylon or other fiber filler for fiber reinforced concrete. The problem with thin concrete mixtures is that they shrink and crack, and that will allow the odors to penetrate the cracks, putting you right back where you started.
Fiber reinforced concrete uses nylon and other fibers to bridge in the concrete and it is more expensive but much less resistant to cracking, and it might work.
The idea of spraying a foam is not bad if you can get a foam to seal and build a tight barrier. I don't know about that.
You also might want to try spraying or pumping in a ureathane soil sealer. Green Mouintain Polymers can help you with this. (http://www.mountaingrout.com/). Try giving them a call. Their polymers can bind to moisture and create an impermeable seal. They will tell you about the limitations on their products. The same can be said of Avanti, International, Inc., another polymer maker. Both have good tech service. The polymers are expensive but should work and will be alot easier to control than the concrete.
However, here's what I believe you should try that wil work. Gain access to the area by drilling a couple of 3" or 4" holes at one narrow end of the area. Then take some pVC pipe and find a fan that has a couple of inches of vacuum and will produce about 100 cfm. (See the Grainger catalog or even your local large hardware store. Pipe up the suction of the fan so that it pulls from the holes you cut in the skinny end of the slab. Wire up a timer and a switch to the fan so tha it will come on automatically and/ or manually, and pipe the exhaust up about 5-8 feet above your roof (use a rain cap and a bug screen on the pipe). This should take care of your problem cheaper than anything else. Alternatively, you can cut 4 holes, and it may be one long slot and one hole of the open area. Fish a wire along the length of the open area (pit) and through your slot. A 12- 15' x 4' wide sheet of 40- 80 mil plastic sheeting is not that big and you can slip it in through one of the holes in the short side with a tube in the center. Then looping a wire around each end of the tube and tying it to the wire you fished from the other end of the pit, you can form an inverted Y, and pull the wire through to the other end until it coves most of the hole. The plastic should effectively cover the vapors from the pit, and if you need to be really sure, pull the plastic cover through and ventilate the area.
Good luck.
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