Fuel Ghoul

Waterproofing Roses for Valentines Day

The Rubber Rose was a famous sex shop in San Diego that YELP now reports as being closed. The image is kinky all the same, as rubber symbolizes sexual deviance and the red rose always means love. A genuine manifestation of this sexy symbol is exactly what Matthew Robert White was seeking when he commissioned Bill Korenowsky of Royal Waterproofing in his basement to buy roses and dip them in various chemical treatments until they found one that preserved the rose forever. Matt was seeking an nonperishable rose product he could sell for $5 each on Valentine's Day. You can read all about Matthew Robert White pop-up retail vision on Digital Journal. 

There is something morbidly wonderful about desecrating red roses on Valentines Day, especially when we can use the latest waterproofing science to preserve them, and their contempt for this romantic tradition, forevermore.

Bill Korenowsky, who is getting married this year, is no stranger to florists. He knows just what red roses cost, and where to buy the best ones. He started with a dozen roses and ... well, he never really got one that was beautiful enough or 'rubber' enough for Matt to sell, but he had a lot of fun trying.

Basement Waterproofing Contractor Rose Treatments

Bill Korenowsky did his level best to find Matthew's rubber rose recipe. Here he is holding the best of his Bakor Aqua Bloc dipped roses which are hard as a rock today, but not very pretty.

Bill Korenowsky of Royal Waterproofing holds a Waterproofed Rose.

Bakor Aqua-Bloc® 770-06 is a one component elastomeric waterproofing compound designed to replace conventional hot mop felt ply and/or pre-formed sheeting systems. It's applied in a single application, which cures through solvent evaporation to provide a heavy-duty, seamless, rubber-like impervious membrane. This is a liquid applied waterproof product that is good for year round use.

Dipping the fresh red roses in the waterproofing compound was rather difficult as the mixture was not very viscous. It reminded me of axle grease and as such it was not liquid. and not quite solid, but consistent enough to give the fragile rose a tough time and the finish was not smooth or representative of the flower's true form. So indeed it was an abject failure. But Bill did try his best.

Excellent for use on concrete, masonry foundation walls, parking decks, planters and reflective pools, Bill combines this goop with Yellow Jacket reinforcing fabric to treat cracks and joints. The finished work is a heavy body trowel grade coating that provides a seamless rubberized asphalt membrane.

More photos of Bill Korenowsky dipping roses in liquid waterproofing membrane in a basement garage in Toronto. Bill is being real careful to keep the mixture off the floor and his pants.

There is a video of Bill dipping roses in Waterproofing compound, 

 

The idea of waterproofing roses is not to make black floral pieces but rather to preserve them in a substance that will make them beautiful forever. To be able to transform roses into floral statues is appealing to pop-up retailers and romantics alike, but the dipping experiment has proven unsatisfactory.

The Roses Need Hydrophilic Coatings
Modern waterproof clothing and especially winter jackets are manufactured by spreading a thin layer of resin directly onto the inside face of the fabric, also known as a hydrophilic coating.  Some fabrics are sprayed with a polyurethane coating before being made into a jacket and this is something Matt could try next.  Polyurethane roses..? This is already a name for a type of crown molding.

Durable Water Repellency (DWR) is a waterproofing treatment that is sometimes sprayed onto fabric (and so could also be applied to flowers), but another way of coating fabric is to laminate or membrane over the surface to form a protective wall from water droplets on the outer layer.  A chemical treatment, DWR is not waterproof, but does reduce condensation forming, aiding breath-ability. There is the possibility of 3D printing a protective sealant over a red rose and adding any pigment in any portion of the flower.

Related articles

Science of How To Make Black Roses with Flat Roofing Bitumar

Some Great Valentines Day Craft Ideas

Science of How To Make Black Roses with Flat Roofing Bitumar

Fuel Ghoul loves chemistry in action! And we love to see new twists on tired 'civic cliches' that impose social expectations on young people. Take for example the ridiculose idea they need to give their lovers a dozen red roses on Valentine's Day, and turn it on its head.

This year SMOJoe worked alongside Dan Sheridan of ToughRoof flat roofing repair company in Toronto to make tar covered black roses for folks to give away, which really started the ball rolling and brought a lot of interest to this otherwise tired holiday subject. Eligible Magazine is featuring a story on Black Roses on Valentines Day this year. Turns out there's a lot of people sick and tired of giving red roses on that special day.

Enter Matthew Robert White and his Pop-Up Retail vision for selling black roses on Valentine's Day but that's another aspect of this story and this Fuel Ghoul entry focuses more on the science of the subject.

I wrote about how I made Black Roses for Valentines on Smart Canucks and this left this piece on D.I.Y bitumen covered black roses on Medium after photographing and comprehensively documenting a visit to a flat roofer's tarpots which are known in the industry as ‘tar boilers’, but which are in fact filled with 500 degrees bubbling hot petroleum bitumen.

The act of coating objects with bitumen, especially wooden baskets, bowls, and boats, and even people in hot pitch (with a side order of chicken feathers) is thousands of years old. The word comes from 15th century Middle English bithumen meaning a mineral pitch, from Latin bitumin-, bitumen. This was used all over the country, and in the Royal Navy as watersealing agent and probably used for building projects and roofing jobs too.

Most people think flat roofing tar is made from coal tar, and there was a time when this was indeed the case. And if you ask them today, those same ill informed people think 'pitch' is made from pine tar, but these days its all made from petroleum bituman. Even with low oil prices the tar sands in Alberta is spewing out so much bitumen as a petroleum refining biproduct, it makes economic sense that this material be repurposed for other industries.

Websters Dictionary defines bitumen as 'a mixture of tarlike hydrocarbons derived from petroleum. Black or brown, it varies from viscous to solid; the solid form is usually called asphalt. Bitumen occurs in nearly every part of the world and in nearly the whole range of geologic strata. The term may also refer to synthetic hydrocarbon compounds'.

Bitumar comes in 20lb blocks and is heated to liquid in giant propane boilers that are towed behind vehicles. 

The liquid petroleum bitumen is pumped to the roof direct from the boiler.

Behold a beautiful black rose that has been dipped in Petroleum bitumen is difficult to photograph because its so shiny and reflective.

This is how commercial roofers fix leaks and resurface flat roofs in Toronto, which is a cold weather climate with lots of rainfall that gets real hot in the summer. Its a challenging arena for roofers.  Many roofs are made of a bitumen substructure thats covered with either tar paper or gravel. Liquid hot bitumen is sticky and makes excellent roofing tar that can be used to fix leaks in existing roofs or used as an adhesive to bond other material to fix a leaky roof. Since formulations for roofing tar vary by brand and type, it’s important to pick the right product.

Roofing tar is sensitive to temperature; temperatures lower than 70F means the substance will take a long time to set. However, in extremely high temperatures, roofing tar will turn into a liquid. Roofing tar’s unique liquid/solid properties make it ideal for flat and low slope roofs, where it can be self healing and fix leaks. However, roofing tar should not be used on high slope roofs, since it will turn liquid at high temperatures and drip off. Also, roofing tars should not be used on asphalt products or thinned with water or other solvents.

Dave from ToughRoof gave me lots of good information and was very accommodating as we delved even deeper in the art and science of black roses.

Roofing 'Bitumar' comes in solid ten pound blocks at room temperature. It gets delivered to the job as a black solid block that when heated to 500 degrees becomes an oily liquid used on flat roofs to fix leaks. It is made from coal tar and petroleum byproducts. Coal tar is a deep brown or black residue, which is made during coal production process. Coal tar must be refined and processed to meet standards for roofing use.

ToughRoof can make white roofs. Bitumar is black as molasses, but modern science is such that the colour can be altered in stages. The liquid material goes on hot and seals, bonds and repairs areas on the roof that damaged or are slowly deteriorating and then colour has options like white coating under white gravel or flagstones. Newer formulations of roofing tar are asbestos free, but may contain solvents, surface adherents, plastics and mineral fillers/fibers. Coal tar roof cement by contrast must be applied by trowel, while other types of roofing tars are applied like paint or caulk.

Some manufacturers have created silver and white products by which builders can deliver on a promise to make white roofs which have proven efficiencies. Some brands of roofing tar can be painted when dry to match the roof’s original color scheme. Roofing tar stains and drips and ugly mistrowels can be removed by using a tar remover, but be warned such removers may cause damage to paint and other membranes.

Roofing tar is solid at room temperature. It gets delivered to the job as a black solid block that when heated to 500 degrees becomes an oily liquid used on flat roofs to fix leaks. It is made from coal tar and petroleum byproducts. Coal tar is a deep brown or black residue, which is made during coal production process. Coal tar must be refined and processed to meet standards for roofing use.

ToughRoof seals, bonds or repair areas on the roof that damaged or are slowly deteriorating. Newer formulations of roofing tar are asbestos free, but may contain solvents, surface adherents, plastics and mineral fillers/fibers. Coal tar roof cement is applied by trowel, while other types of roofing tars are applied like paint or caulk.

Most roofing tar formulas are black in color, but some manufacturers have also created versions in lighter colors like silver and white. Some brands of roofing tar can be painted when dry to match the roof’s original color scheme. Roofing tar can be removed by using a tar remover, but removers may cause damage to certain roofing surfaces.

These black roses are certainly beautiful, and have inspired both pop-up holiday retailers and copy cats.

Matthew Robert White is also experimenting with wax roses and waterproof roses, or what were once red roses that have been dipped in a waterproofing compound that can be any colour. I've decided to do an entire write-up on that subject next week, closers to valentines Day as the waterproofing compound in another whooly original product of modern science.

People get pretty excited when i show them my photos of Black Rose Valentines, and I think Matt will have lots of success selling them in Toronto. Here's what folks were saying about Black Rose Valentines on Erotic Canada forums and even more chimed in on Black Rose Valentines on Just Put discussion forums.

Related articles

Getting an Oil Change at Jiffy Lube Beside the In Out Car Wash in Brampton

Science of Baking Sourdough Bread with Flour from Sprouted Grains

Getting Drive Clean Emission Test at Master Mechanic High Park in Toronto

Greenmoxie Builds a Tiny House in Toronto

Although many people are watching this amazing homemade design & build project, Fuel Ghoul may be the first to report on how Greenmoxie magazine builds a Tiny House in Toronto.

Greenmoxie is a green lifestyle web magazine that is growing incredibly popular in Canada and beyond. The staff is finding its green legs and starting to do remarkable things offline - like building tiny houses. These are more sustainable shortterm accomodation but also permanent dwellings for tourists and backpackers.  Greenmoxie journalist Cornelius Quiring pledges to keep the world updated on the team construction challenges and developments as the cabin is constructed. Readers can follow along via email newletters and get constant updates on the progress of the Tiny House which will, upon completion, be available for rent. Another interesting part of the Tiny House project story is its 'birth place' location in Rouge Park more on that later.

David Shephard is seen above outlining the dimensions of the bed and bathroom including a hot shower. One of the differences in his tiny house design over competitors more low-tech solutiona (as per downlaod schematics) is the solar power technology that he and his half brother Dan Shephard bring to the projact. They also have the best batteries in the business. And the best insulation solutions, rain water filtration technology, and hyper modulation of space for storage capability.

All over the world, the tiny house concept is exploding as people opt for more sustainable, and more affordable housing options. That's why the act of making the cabin and recording the step by step challenges involved, capturing the information rich minutia of the experience, will be valuable for others on the same journey or simply researching the cabin before renting it for a weekend in the park.

Rouge Park

Photo Credit: Rouge Park

The cabin is on wheels but when completed it will be situated somewhere in the woods around the Rouge River.   Rouge Park is a natural wilderness inside the city of Toronto. The park offers great hiking trails, wildlife and Biodiversity and is close to the Toronto Zoo and Rouge Beach.

The GreenMoxie Cabin project is being constructed on a farm near Rouge Park, an urban wilderness park in Toronto . Here David points out the barn swallows that have nested in the stables below his century old workshop. Nobody is allowed to go into the stables unless absoluteley necessary so as not to distuirb these birds, twhich are now on the threatened list of species. They are disappearing because their natural habitat in old barns like this are disappearing. The swallows eat flies and insects that are abudant near cattle but these days the creatures have to fly some distance to find a herd of cattle near an old barn. 

Blueprints for Greenmoxie's Tiny House will be made available for a free download - link to follow.

David has cobbled together a crew of volunteers, skilled and handsome builders, enthusiasts and eco-friendly folks who'll work together to create a tiny home for readers and followers of Greenmoxie to marvel at and perhaps rent for a week and occupy its tiny dimensions on future occassions.

Greenmoxie Cabin Creation Ensemble

• David Shephard

  Greenmoxie Co-Founder

  

  David Shephard runs an advertising agency in Toronto by day and is the captain of this ship at night on weekends. He's a veteran serial entreprenuer that values efficiency and eloquent design. He is a builder of starnge things and businessman who respects someone who can do more with less stuff. His vision of the Tiny House became a rallying point to which the other artists and engineers gathered with their knowledge and reources. David's vision of the Tiny House to come inspired the other members of the team. .

• Ian Fotheringham

  

  Green building consultant

  As an advocate for green building, Ian will be designing the house, drafting the plans, and making it as eco-friendly as possible while maximizing theproject's limited resources. Ian recycles materials for the windows and doors

• Cornelius Quiring

  Storyteller & helping hand

  Cornelius can be found on site twice a month taking pictures and making notes and documenting the entire build process. He's recording the obstacles and challenges as they present themsleves,and remembering exactly how the team overcame their adverse challenges of making a tiny house. He hopes to update the journal atleast thirty times over the course of summer leaving out no new information or details regarding how the team incorporated high technology into the tiny wood frame house.

• Dan Shephard

  Solar Energy Consultant

  Dan is a certified solar energy system designer with dozens of grid-tied and off-grid projects to his credit. Dan will assist with the build, design, and installation of our off-grid energy system.

• Mike Seyffert

  Builder

  Mike was heard saying "We plan to build this home to code, well as close to code as a tiny house can get."  And Mike knows best. Mike brings over 10 years of home building experience to the project; he's expected to provide leadership and ingenuity and think through every tiny detail which will no doubt mean measuring twice and cutting once.

David Shephard took time out of building the Tiny House to set up the Bird Photo Booth which he hosted on the property,

It was in the middle of June when the fields were lush and the hay needed to be cut that the Toronto Bird Photo Booth Business Challenge came to the farm.

In Toronto Bird Photo Booth Business Challenge, the host business positions the booth and picks the birdseed and or other bird photo strategies which could include a

Birds are abundant here and I will update this post with pictures in keeping with the storytelling done around the Birds of Toronto initiative.

More to follow

Post by Robert Campbell on July 3, 2013

Related articles

Elements Needed to Make Toronto a Garden City

Our favourite upcycling projects of the week

Three ways we can make cycling better in Toronto

Elements Needed to Make Toronto a Garden City

What is a Garden City?
A garden city is a sustainable urban landscape that has net profit in terms of energy consumption and quality of life - its an 'eco-city'.  A garden is an environment designed with consideration of environmental impact, and inhabited by people dedicated to minimization of required inputs of energy, water and food, and waste output of heat, air pollution - CO2, methane, and water pollution. A man named Richard Register first coined the term "ecocity" in his 1987 book, Ecocity Berkeley: Building Cities for a Healthy Future.

Where was the first Garden City?

You could make an argument that the Hanging Gardens of Babylon was history's first living 'garden city' as many accounts of this historic Wonder of the Ancient World chronicle its man-made stone structures and irrigation systems. But history is unclear as to how much produce was harvested or what exactly was grown in this urban garden. 

The first modern thinker to concieve the possibility of living in a garden city was Sir Ebenezer Howard who wrote a book called Garden Cities of To-morrow at the turn of the 20th century. This book, which was first entitled To-morrow: a Peaceful Path to Real Reform in 1898, was reissued in 1902 as Garden Cities of To-morrow and was a rather provocative publication that eventually brought fame and a knighthood to its author. The book changed the way urban planners concieve cities and Ebenezer Howard got the knighthood after he went around England for the next twenty years raising money to make model communities wherein he succeeded in doing things differently. His work forever influenced how cities came to be laid out and organized in the modern age.   

Fuel Ghoul's Vision of Toronto as a Garden City Includes,

1. Fruit trees line the city streets and are planted in the center of urban thoroughfares. A community based initive exists to gather the public into a weekend fruit picking force in August and volunteers tend the trees throughout the year.

Toronto has Not Far From The Tree fruit harvesting program which rallies volunteers to tend the fruit trees that do exist in backyards and in some public , but not many public spaces,

2. Community livestock is pastured in public areas and tended to in animal husbandry programs including milking, breeding, shearing, delousing, calving and dehorning by animal specialists. 

3. Soil recycling programs make cheap top soil available to residents and community gardeners - today its possible to buy a big bag of soil for residential use from vegetable compost recyling programs and have it inexpensively delivered right to your home or job site. This faciltates the rapid planting and reshaping of urban landscapes.

4. Community vegetable plots are leased to passionate urban farmers and weekend gardeners get smaller holdings which are grouped according to tenders, food type and harvest period and associated festivals.

Toronto has High Park Gardens and Leslie Spit Garden Plots and Riverdale Farm is a small farm with livestock right in the middle of the city.

5. Green rooftops and efficient architecture including but not limited to LEED certified buildings

6. Mobile apps and modern cloud computing are the two most important ingredients and make it possible for the public to become better stewarts of the land. Their increased vigilience reduces demands on paid staff, city workers and specialists.

The Garden City Movement is a shared vision for a sustainable future

Ebenezer advocated for garden cities to be planned and created as self-contained communities surrounded by green food growing areas, containing proportionate areas of residences, industry and agriculture.

Surrounding the garden city would be a greenbelt measuring about 4,000 acres in size.  Within this area Howard proposed the development of facilities such as farms, hospitals, convalescent homes, and agricultural schools, for example. The greenbelt would also act as a growth boundary for the garden city, which would thus eliminate the risk of urban sprawl.

Today most large cities contain large parks where it is possible to disappear in nature.  To make this possible there's a lot of considerations including human and wildlfie, floral and fauna.

Modern Chemistry in Action: Spray Foam Insulation

Last week Fuel Ghoul rode along with a mobile spray foam insulation crew and got his eyes and ears filled with good information on how they insulate the exterior walls of upscale houses in Toronto.

Below are pictures and stories of the men and machines of AirSeal Toronto, spray foam insulation mobile appication crew. Here's the Support Tech opening the back door of the truck first thing in the morning. I followed and watched as he started the fifty kilowat diesel generator at the front of the trailer, and then powered up the compressors and pumps and switched on the heaters in the onboard Graco H-40 REACTOR, a two component proportioner that heats the liquids to the necessary temperatures to make perfect foam insulation.

Airseal uses the BASF Walltite Eco system which bills itself as 'the insulation that pays you back'.

 

Walltite Eco is a medium density polyurethane foam insulation system designed to improve the energy efficiency of residential, commerical and industrial buildings. Its composition includes some recycled plastic material, and a 'zero ozone depleting blowing agent' which makes it an environmentally friendlier green option than most other insulation alternatives.

Walltite ECO™ is a made by combining two component liquids, Elastospray 8000A Isocyanate and  Walltite Eco v.3 F Resin. These two liquids are heated under high pressure and mix as they leave the nozzel of the applicator's spray gun. The chemical reaction occurs in midair; the two hot liquids combine and expand rapidly to make a rigid foam.  As Walltite ECO™ is born, it goes from liquid to foam in seconds, expanding twenty to thirty times its original volume. It is completely dry within seconds, and is fully cured in twenty four hours.

Below is the onboard Graco H40 REACTOR temperature display panel, a two component proportioner which ensures the ingredients of the foam will be delivered at the right temperature and will be in the correct amounts to combine properly as far as fifty feet away from the truck, which is the length of the heated hose. Temperatures of A and B component are set to 115 degrees Farenheit.   

The barrels contain the two chemicals, isocyanate and resin which react to make foam.

They are heated under pressure and spring to life and literally take shape in mid air. By the time the material hits the wall, the reaction has occurred.

Here is the crew starting in the basement of a new home in Forest Hill. They start at the bpttom of the building doing the exterior wall 'headers' and work up and in as they go. The team takes over the jobsite for a few hours each day; they often work lunches and late into the evening to be there when the other contractors are absent.  These guys are very careful not to expose any other tradespeople to the noxious gasses often created during the spray foam application process (I had to wear a breathing mask, visor and cover-alls as I followed the applicator around the basement).

Spray Foam Tech Rolls Saran Wrap Around his Hazmat Helmeted Head

To the left, the prime applicator technician applys Saran wrap directly over his hazmat suit and visor. He wraps his whole head four or five times and will peel away layers as he works.  I chuckled as I watched him roll the Saran Warp around hs whole head. This is because the spray foam material will stick to his visor and make it impossible for him to see anything after about twenty minutes of spraying. He peels the wrap away as he goes. He will peel away the layers and eventually he'll need to reapply more which is far easier than trying to clean the plexiglass visor on his breather mask.

Read this Bizcovering business magazine article, What is it like to be a Spray Foam Insulation Guy? and you'll get a pretty good understanding of what these guys do all day long.

The foam adheres to virtually any surface, providing a gap-free, airtight envelope of low permeability even in extreme hot or cold weather, and Walltite Eco is specially composed so it does not support fungus or mold growth.

Its a fact that sunlight, which contains ultraviolet light degrades polyurethane foam, and so it must be covered and protected from direct exposure. In some situations this job falls to the support tech.

The support tech is the truck minder; he keeps an eye on fluid levels and temperatures and pressure. He changes tanks when liquids run low. He also watches the diesel generator in the truck, and helps the applicator move and adjust the long length of heated hose on site. This skilled and charismatic truck driver also keeps an eye on the property during the course of the day. Part of his duties include being a watchdog to keep everyone else away from the house when the spray foam work is being created and applied to walls inside.

Spray foam technicians are well trained by government sponsored health and safety reps, and BASF, and other chemical manufacturers product application training teams. All the same, spray foam insulation businesses and the process itself has been called into question lately, specifically by a recent CBC marketplace documentary news story showing how spray foam can go very wrong by examining the unlivable homes of justifiably some unhappy customers. But these are isolated cases, and even the highest-performing system will not work if it is not installed correctly. Only certified, approved applicators who have undergone rigorous training can install WALLTITE® Eco for example.

The Canadian Urethane Foam Contractors Association (CUFCA) with headquarters in Winnipeg Manitoba, estimates that spray foam insulation is installed in between 300,000 and 400,000 homes across Canada every year, and the numbers grows 30 to 40 percent larger each year. 

How much does spray foam cost?
The initial expense of insulating your building with Walltite ECO™ spray foam insulation is higher than using fiberglass at around $3 dollars per square foot, but it will actually add value to your building and save money on heating in the winter. Here in Canada, the initial costs can often be offset by the ability to downsize the heating and cooling systems and by taking advantage of government subsidies and green initiative building programs.

Related articles

Green Basement Renovations, Advanced Flooring and Insulation for Walls

Best Natural Snow Removal Solution Mixes Beetroot Juice And Brine

Spray Foam Insulation Contractor In Phoenix

Spray Foam Insulation: You Can Do It!

Internal Gutter as Waterproofing Remedy for Wet Basement in Toronto

The real estate market in Toronto is red hot right now. It's a good time to sell investment property, esp residential houses, but not if the domicile has a wet basement.  If you want to sell a property in this city for top dollar, it must have a warm dry bottom layer.

After the 2013 record high rainfall levels for spring and summer months, most homes that have a freshly renovated basements now advertise that fact right under the For Sale sign on the front lawn.

Here's a house just north of Danforth and Broadview Ave in east Toronto that's getting waterproofing to cure condensation on the cement in the basement, and a little bit of runoff from the driveway during the spring melt. Its a beautoful home and having a wet basement could kill its market potential.

More details in this Bizcovering piece How a Waterproofing Company Fixes Wet Basement in Toronto From Inside House.  

Any kind of moisture can compromise framing, destroy carpeting, and ruin drywall, and make smelly crawl spaces. Some folks only use their basement for storage, but excessive condensation on cement walls can still buckle hardwood flooring above and invite mold and pests.

This job started by taking out the trash and cleaning up the modly insulation and drywall that was buried under paneling , and cleaning up the cement walls that flood every srping and fall.

The cinder blocks had to be drilled individually to puncture the cavities inside which can collect water.

It was through this window that all of the building supply materials were passed...

As you can see just below this window, the driveway is right beside the house, and the homeowner tried to put a bandaid on the problem by caulking the joint with the grey waterproof caulking; this is however little more than decporation, a ribbon of protection against the flash floods. When the ground is soaked from a week of rain, a summer storm can trigger a deluge.

In the case of this home, the driveway and lawn area, with a heavy clay soil, some of the water has nowhere to go.  It descends down the fissure at the side of the driveway above the basement region and so approximately 1500 square feet drains into this crevice and if you do that math that much square footage gathers 1,000 gallons of water for every inch of falling rain.

Wet basements flood according to the season in Toronto but for the most part there are five wet months: March, April, May and October, and November.

The standard procedure for drying out a wet basement is to first track down the source of the water. There are three main sources of basement flooding: condensation, run-off, subsurface seepage.

Ask how is the water flooding the basement?

Was the water in basement due to watershed run off? or from seepage (an underground water system which is by far the worst case scenario) or is the moisture due to condensation? Those are the three main ways in which moisture eneters the basement.

In this picture you can see the gravel on top of the special constructed filter hose that surrounds the plastic pipe. There is more about subterreanean landscaping on this Distillery Blog post which documents how waterlogged land can freeze and crack old brick walls in the downtown Toronto historic hotspot.

 

This homeowner in this case had runoff issues from the driveway above and so elected to have the local waterproofing company come into the home and dig an eight inch trench around the peremiter of the basement walls and then bury a perforated plastic pipe that's wrapped in this white plastic / polymer rubber hose filter. Then its all covered in gravel and finished*

Above this internal gutter to sump pump solution, a plastic membrane covers the wall and overlaps and ends at the gutter that has been dug below the wall.

To remedy all leaks and condensation, the solution would have to be tackled from the inside the house.

This is how you engineer a warm and dry basement.