Waterproofing

“ In case there is danger of moisture rising in the wall by capillary attraction, the top of the footing should be water-proofed, before starting the walls, by a course of slate well bedded in mortar or by a strip of composition roofing. In wet locations, it would be well to carry the waterproofing under the basement floor also. For waterproofing the foundation walls, in slightly wet soils where the drainage is fair, a coating of one-half inch cement plaster may be applied to the outside surface of the brick as the wall is carried up. ”

“ The well itself must be so constructed that impurities can not get into it from above or from the sides. If water can soak into it after passing through a few feet of soil only, it can not be regarded as secure from pollution. To prevent this, the well may be provided with a water-tight wall built of hard-burned brick and cement down to the water level. The outside surface of this wall should be covered with a thin layer of cement, and clay pounded and puddled in around it. Or, tile may be used to line the well and the joints made water-tight with cement down to the water level. ”

“ The ordinary well should also have its sides project above the surface and a water-tight cover of heavy planks provided, which should not be disturbed excepting for repairing or cleansing the well. Under no circumstances should objects be let down into the well to cool. A still better method of protecting the water from above is to have the lining wall of the well end 3 feet below the surface of the ground and to be topped there with a vaulted roof, closed in the center with a removable iron or stone plate. ”

“ Paving prevents the diffusion of ground air and the entrance of sewage or contaminated rainwater. Trees absorb carbonic acid gas and moisture and yield oxygen, which in turn assists chemical conversion of organic matter. Cementing of cellars and laying damp-proof material upon foundations before erecting walls are also protective measures against dampness and pollution. In wet localities or in settlements necessarily built for commercial reasons near marshy land, through subsoil drainage by means of trenches or drain-tile, the level of the ground water may be lowered to a safe position. ”

“ Accumulations of filth result in objectionable odor and noxious drainage. Figure 5 illustrates poor relative location of privy, cesspool, and well.
Sewage or impure drainage water should never be discharged into or upon ground draining toward a well, spring, or other source of water supply. Neither should such wastes be discharged into openings in rock, an abandoned well, nor a hole, cesspool, vault, or tank so located that pollution can escape into water-bearing earth or rock. Whatever the system of sewage disposal, it should be entirely and widely separated from the water supply. ”

“ If steam enters a soil-pipe, it heats the water in the traps, injures joints on account of the extreme changes of temperature induced, and hastens corrosion of the pipes.
Fig. 25 shows a system of house-drainage for a city house planned in accordance with the above rules.
Fig. 26.—Field’s flush-tank.
In country houses, where there are no sewers, the best method of disposing of the house-slops is subsoil drainage. The house system may be the same as that already explained for city houses. The fluids are conducted by a pipe with tight joints to a flush-tank (Fig. 26) near the house. ”

“ All those who wish to live in a healthful house, will adopt this tubular system of house-drainage; but those who cannot or will not have a perfect drain, may adopt a small part of the modern tubular system with great advantage and at a trifling cost. At present, the great majority of drains open directly into the common sewer, and act as chimnies for the conveyance of poisonous gases into the interior of the houses, the water-traps only partially preventing this evil. ”

“ In laying a sewer, it is customary to insert a pipe with a branch opposite each house, or probable site of a house.
It is important that, in towns not supplied with waterworks, measures be taken to prevent the admission of too much solid matter in the drainage of houses. Water being the motive power for the removal of the solid parts of the sewage, unless there be a public supply which can be turned on at pleasure, no house should deliver more solid matter than can be carried away by its refuse waters. ”

“ Important safety measure.—The farmer can do no other one thing so vital to his own and the public health as to make sure of the continued purity of the farm water supply. Investigations indicate that about three out of four shallow wells are polluted badly.
Wells and springs are fed by ground water, which is merely natural drainage. Drainage water usually moves with the slope of the land. It always dissolves part of the mineral, vegetable, and animal matter of the ground over or through which it moves. ”

“ Not only is water hard to get, comparatively speaking, but it is not always safe to use when obtained unless care is taken to see that its source is pure. Water cannot safely be declared fit for human consumption unless the surface of the well or spring remains permanently above the level of all nearby sources of pollution. Tight well platforms and casings, clean grounds and wide separation from probable channels of impure drainage are the best safeguards. ”

“ Human excrements (feces and urine) as found in closets and privy vaults are known as night soil. These wastes may be flushed away with running water, and there may be added the discharges from washbasins, bathtubs, kitchen and slop sinks, laundry trays, washing vats, and floor drains. This refuse liquid product is sewage, and the underground pipe which conveys it is a sewer. Since sewers carry foul matter they should be water-tight, and this feature of their construction distinguishes them from drains removing relatively pure surface or ground water. ”

“ Where no sand is available, or where its use would be uneconomical, broken stone may be used to ensure final treatment. With stone, on account of its large voids, the enclosure must either be water-tight, and the outlet pipe must be provided with 13a valve or other device so that the sewage under treatment may be held in the enclosure or tank long enough to deposit the solids in suspension and to be acted on by the bacteria concerned. ”

“ The drainage system should be so planned and constructed that neither the atmosphere of the house nor the drinking-water can be polluted by anything escaping from it, and no noxious matters can enter it from any other house. ”

“ Though he must procure for himself drinking water, he is, in most cases, able to get a purer water from the ground than the sewage-polluted fluid which is the only water accessible in many cities. While he must get rid of night soil himself rather than have it disposed of by a water-carriage system conveniently located within the house, he may avoid the annoying complications of plumbing, bringing with it the leakages of sewer gas, the plugging up of soil pipes by the roots of trees or by articles carelessly thrown into them. ”

“ The bottoms require to be made water-tight, either by a thin layer of concrete or by a pavement upon a puddle layer. For the sides either masonry walls or embankments are used, the former saving space, but being in general more expensive in construction. Embankments must, of course, be substantially paved near the [Pg 12] water-line to withstand the action of ice, and must not be injured by rapid fluctuations in the water-levels in the filters.
Failure to make the bottoms water-tight has perhaps caused more annoyance than any other single point. ”

“ Few persons realize the potential danger lurking in leaky waste pipes, drains, and sewers, or in piping between systems, whereby sewage or an impure water supply may even in the slightest degree gain access to a potable water supply. ”

“ For sand filters, either natural or artificial, the tank must be emptied as with sub-surface irrigation, and, in addition, the surface must be scraped occasionally, and at the approach of winter furrows must be dug. Perhaps two days’ time would be all that would be needed for a plant dealing with the sewage of a single family. A broken-stone bed requires no attention for seven or eight years, and then the stone has to be shovelled out, washed, and replaced. ”

“ It is of the greatest importance that all drains should work well, and that the entrance of the sewage into them should not lead to disturbance in the filling material, especially should the tearing of portions of the filling material into the drain pipes be avoided. ”

“ A small handful of wood shavings, thrown over the joints, also answers a good purpose. Care, however, should always be taken, in using any material which will decay readily, to have no more than is necessary to keep the earth out, lest, in its decay, it furnish material to be carried into the tile and obstruct the flow. This precaution becomes less necessary in the case of drains which always carry considerable streams of water, but if they are at times sluggish in their flow, too much care cannot be given to keep them free of all possible causes of obstruction. ”

“ Unless some special provision is made, by means of an effluent settling tank or sand-filter, to arrest these solids in suspension in the final effluent, they will be liable to cause trouble in the stream, and will, in any case, seriously affect the results of any analyses that may be made. The usual manner of arranging this method of filling, is to cause the sewage to flow into an open or covered chamber at the inlet to the bed, the walls of the chamber being provided at the floor level with openings connected to the sub-drains laid on the floor of the bed. ”

“ It has been argued that surface water will be more readily removed by drains having porous filling. Even if this were true to any important degree,—which it is not,—it would be an argument against the plan, for the remedy would be worse than the disease. If the water flow from the surface down into the drain, it will not fail to carry dirt with it, and instead of the clear water, which alone should rise into the tiles from below, we should have a trickling flow from above, muddy with wasted manure and silty earth. ”

“ A separate system of sewers is one in which only sanitary sewage or industrial wastes or both are allowed to flow. Storm sewers carry only surface drainage, exclusive of sanitary sewage. Combined sewers carry both sanitary and storm sewage. ”

“ Such a well has no protection against pollution, and an ordinary dug well is better for shallow depths. A driven well always has a disadvantage also from the ever present danger that the iron pipe will rust through at the top of the ground water and so admit to the well the most polluted part of the drainage. ”

“ Intermittent Sand Filters The agencies employed in purifying sewage by intermittent sand filtration involve its oxidation, or nitrification by bacterial action, while the mechanical straining effected by its passage through the sand plays a very small part in its reduction. ”

“ On the contrary, it passes through the trap when the seal has been lost—when the water has been accidentally withdrawn or forced out. The broad principle of the efficiency of water-seals is not affected by these apparent failures. The difficulty is in maintaining the seals—in keeping them intact and secure against all the various adverse influences that may affect them. And here the aid of sanitary science must be sought; for the plumber's art has been powerless to devise traps that will protect our houses from the foul air of the sewers. ”

“ In the case of any sewage-disposal project of considerable magnitude, where any doubt exists as to the suitability of the sand available for use in sand filters, analyses of representative samples of the sand should be arranged for, and competent engineering advice should be sought before any large outlay is incurred. In general, however, it may be said that any clean, sharp sand suitable for building use is suitable for sand-filter beds in any situation. ”

“ Pumping and Drainage.—Ground water is to be expected in nearly all sewer construction and provision should be made for its care. Where geological conditions are well known or where previous excavations have been made and it is known that no ground water exists it may be safe to make no provision for encountering ground water. ”

“ The mechanical treatment of water is commonly known as filtration, and there are several forms of public water-filtration plants now in use by American cities. The simplest is the system of slow sand filters in which the water is treated by allowing it to percolate slowly through a bed of sand and crushed stone, thereby becoming rid of noxious bacteria. ”

“ In villages and isolated houses, where no drains are provided for waste water, and the dry system of closets is adopted, the disposal of waste water requires special provision. Very commonly the slops are thrown out of the door, and soak into the ground about the house. They should be carried by means of a waste-pipe into a water-tight cesspool, remote from the house,197 whence they can be pumped into a field, or carried away by special conduits. ”

“ Whenever rain water is collected near large towns, it should be boiled and strained before use, as it contains less saline impregnation than other kinds of natural waters, it is more apt to become contaminated with lead from roofs, gutters, cisterns, and water pipes. ”

“ I picked up these latter by the merest accident at the Baker-street bazaar for a few shillings: they are the comfort of my life, keeping out glare and dust in the day and moths and insects of all kinds at night. As for the waterproof, I do not know what I should have done without it; and little G—— ’s has also been most useful. It is the necessary of necessaries here—a real, good substantial waterproof. A man cannot do better than get a regular military waterproof which will cover him from chin to heel on horseback ”