Grading and drainage are the first things to look at in reducing the chance of basement flooding. On new builds, I must file a grading plan by a surveyor or other accepted independent expert to show how I'm keeping all water that falls on my property on my property and out of the basement. That means proper sloping away from the building and the use of swales and/or ditches to keep it off the neighbour's lot. In older properties, a complaint to the municipality may be effective or a legal action taken. (Though about 99% of us won't take that route to neighbour war!) So you should consider regrading as your first step. When it's pouring, go outside and see exactly what's going on. I don't have much use for interior systems either, unless you have a rubble foundation, which may fall down if you expose it on the outside; or there is simply no way to access the foundation from the exterior. The incoming water is still at work undermining the foundation. 3) I'm not sure there is such a thing as a monolithic pour of a slab and full foundation. The often stated purpose of a monolithic pour is to eliminate the cold joint that may leak. But since concrete is a pretty porous material to begin with, I've have never understood that rationale. 4) In my area, solid brick homes of that era often had brick foundations with footings simply the same brick set perpendicular to the wall. 5) It is evidently still legal to leave downspouts and sump pumps connected to the municipal sewer systems in Seattle and King County, though discouraged. In many municipalities in the US and Canada, new connections have been banned for many years and old connections have to be removed. In fact, just last month my neighbourhood was targeted for smoke and dye testing to detect illegal connections. This post was edited by worthy on Sun, Aug 18, 13 at 11:38

Probably because our cost of living is the highest in Canada. Our provincial income tax is 37% our federal tax is 18%. I seem to recall in 82 our flat rate was $10.50 per hour and the labour rate was $32.00, maybe $30.00 ? Barry and myself were trimmers, you know what they are, and were offered a garranty of 6 hours a day flat rate. We both refused because you have to stay there 8 hour to collect. If there is nothing in my stall i go home even if it's 2 in the afternoon. We both threatened to quit one afternoon and go to work for Ford. We got our flat rate up to $12.75. That is $25,500.00 in a 200 work day year. I remember those Master Technician exams. Every tech participated in those. I have a drawer full from Ford,G.M. Chrysler, and Toyota. No offence but they didn't mean much. They didn't increase your wages. Our average labour rate now is between $85.00 to $105.00 per hour. If you go to a Specialest dealer like B.M.W. , or Jaguar it is about $150.00 to $200.00 per hour. Now that is the place to work. I'ts usually straight time and if your good and don't mine night mares you write your own ticket. I remember working For Canadian Tire in the 70s making $15,000 - $20,000 a year. We were payed half of the labour rate plus commision on parts. It was good. Just a follow up on customers in our stalls. That was an absolte NO,NO. The insurance company took a very dim view of that. If my customer was waiting for his car i could go and bring him to his car if i had questions. I had to escort him to and from his car. Now that you mention it. I remember working for Dominion Motors ( ford ). The service shop was on the second floor. A horrible place to work. Hot as hell and you froze in the winter. Everything was done on the floor. No lifts. That was 1975. They payed $8.50 an hour just to get someone to work for them. They were the highest paying dealer in the city. Seems no one wants to pay any more to keep their guys. My nephew started out last month on the grease rack for Ford. They are only paying him $12.00 per hour straight time. He wants to go into diesle mechanics. They only pay $15.00 per hour for first year appentice. No wonder no one wants to work anymore. Don't get me wrong. I'm not a smart mouth. You don't servive up here very long at $15.00 per hour with our cost of living. Here is an example. An A.C. tech on a commercial job or roof top makes $47.17 per hour. An industrial A.C. tech. on a 20 ton chiller makes $52.73 per hour. If you bring your home computer into a shop for servicing or virus removal it's $90.00 per hour. If you bring in a brake rotor for turning it's $30.00 each. $22.00 for a new one. Spin balance a tire is $18.00 each plus weights. In 1992 i was being payed $27.00 per hour installing gas pipe in new homes and i was the low man on the pole. Just a little F.Y.I. on this side of the border. Have a good one.

Posted by Happyladi (My Page) on Tue, May 17, 05 at 19:41 We found a Civic LX for $15,200., but it doesn't have side air bags or ABS brakes. This is under invoice and they have it on their lot. They found us a Civic EX for invoice which is $17,475. They wanted $400. more for it and we walked out. They called us and came down to invoice. They will have to go get it, it is 300 miles out of town. It have side airbags and ABS brakes. It also has some other things like a sunroof which isn't a big deal to us. Is this a fair deal? Safety is important to us. Earthworm : But your quoted prices make little sense - what exactly are the prices for the two Hondas ?? It is not right that a customer is forced to accept useless junk such as a sunroof in order to have the airbags and ABS. - I would look at other brands.. But what is really needed is to have far more stringent training, licensing, and enforcement. The state must permanently remove the drunks from the highways.. Even now this is still treated as little more than a joke !! And with these drunken SOBs on the highway, one can drive around in a padded cell-mobile, costing $100,000, weighing in at 10,000 pounds, with 20 airbags, and still not be safe !! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jemdandy, sure enough I had to make a decision, but did not want the expensive Michelins that the honda dealer had on hand when they changed my oil yesterday. They told me yup, get tires today if not from us, from somewhere. So I went to a place just around the corner from home that is a full service tire/auto repair shop, national chain. They offered Toyo to drive for 500 miles to see if I liked (I had not done research on them) and many Goodyear choices, which my research was steering me toward the ComfortTred, or Triple Tred as a couple of tires that would fit. They offered Toyo Versado LX, I take a 195/65r15/91h, at $82 bucks apeice. After they got them on and I went back to get the car, (mind you, late day Saturday) they said please come in first thing Monday because the reason my other tires went bad so fast is that I'm woefully out of alignment, and they just didn't have time to complete that. They said my struts and all else were OK, when I asked what other impact being out of alignment so badly, could have. All is fine they said, just to get in ASAP for a full alignment. Ultimately, driving only a few miles on the Versado, and being out of alignment too, I can say they are certainly quiet tires! I hope to do more research on them, however they were only introduced in March of '07, so there is not too much to read on any of the consumer opinion sites. Now that I've bored you to death!, WHAT do you consider to be the frequency of rotate and balance? I've been doing that every time my civic hybrid tells me that I'm at 40% oil life, which is when I go get the oil changed. (Maintenance ReMinder). Is there a rule of thumb on how many miles one should do rotate and balance? And I at least can drive these 500 miles to see if I like them, and they do come with FREE lifetime rotations and balances, so that is good. Maybe I need to do R&B more often than just when I change the oil???