Reader’s home has elevated carbon dioxide levels
Home Improvement
Plus, how to deal with continual ground water seeping into your basement.
Q. I had an air quality inspection in our house recently. Everything was fine except the carbon dioxide readings were high on all three levels of our home — about 1,200 parts per million. We have oil heat and no gas. I had the furnace checked, and this is not the cause of the high levels. We had our attic insulated a few years back, but I’m not sure this is the cause. The service people who checked the furnace suggested a fresh air intake, and they are coming over this week to see whether that would help. Why are the levels so high, and how can we correct this? Thanks.
J.C.
A. That is an unusual problem, to have elevated carbon dioxide levels on multiple floors. According to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, the levels of carbon dioxide in the air and potential health problems are:
When you say that you had the furnace checked, I assume that they looked at the flue pipe to make sure no flue gases are spilling back down into the space where it connects to the furnace. If that is the case, and you don’t have any gas appliances in the house (such a dryer or a range), then my best guess would be that you have a breach (or several) in the flue pipe itself as it runs up through a chase or the chimney. If you have a metal liner that runs through the chase/chimney, the connections between the sections could have broken or been compromised. Very often a boiler or furnace flue will simply be dumped into an unused masonry flue, and the installer leaves it at that. Unfortunately, many times the masonry chimney flue has numerous holes in it from missing bricks, and the old liner is almost always completely deteriorated. Either of these scenarios would allow flue gases, and of course CO2, to leak into the living space. These breaches go undetected when the boiler is tested at the basement level. My advice would be to have a chimney company use a camera to inspect the entire length of the flue pipe, all the way down to the furnace. If there is a breach, they will find it.
Q. In my basement, there is daily low-volume ground water seepage that enters via seams in the cylindrical concrete area that encompasses the sewer outflow pipe. (The ground water seepage does not contain sewage.) The portion of the foundation where the seepage occurs is made of a more porous concrete than the rest of the foundation. In addition to small amounts of ground water, worms wriggle their way through the seams and get into the basement. I have been told that the best way to fix this problem is to have a contractor inject some kind of plastic into the porous concrete, but I wanted your opinion on whether this is a good idea — and whether there may be an alternative fix. I am concerned about two things: a plastic odor from the injected material that may be long-lasting and possible cracking of the concrete if the sewer outflow pipe expands due to heat. What should I do?
R.F.
A. You should definitely use a reputable foundation repair company. They should be able to make quick work of this, and if there are any other suspect cracks, they could take care of those as well. Understandably, these companies will charge a set rate just to show up with their equipment, so the marginal cost for additional crack repairs is minimal. What they will probably do is carve out any loose concrete and then use an epoxy product, typically a two-step process. The first step is to seal the surface and install injection ports. Once this has cured, they inject a polymer sealer under high pressure to seal the joints tight. Typically, the fumes dissipate very quickly once things have dried. It is a very good system when done correctly. We have never had a callback.
Mark Philben is the project development manager at Charlie Allen Renovations in Cambridge. Send your questions to [email protected]. Questions are subject to editing.
Address newsletter
Get the latest news on buying, selling, renting, home design, and more.
link