[Greenbuilding] Uses for shiddle-diddle (was Re: A question regarding sealing in VOCs)

[RT]

On Sun, 26 Feb 2012 13:50:00 -0500, Racheli Gai  
<racheli at sonoracohousing.com> wrote:

> They are planning to tear out the carpets.  Any good use for that shit?  
> (Actually, I shouldn't offend shit,
> which can be composted, unlike this stuff...)

Okay. I promise to shut up after this post. (Good thing too. I'm going to  
have to douse my burning virginal ears after all of Racheli's  
shiddle-diddling here.)

On at least two occasions while out with the mutts on their morning run,  
I've seen neighbours (actually not my immediate neighbours, just people  
within a km or so of my home)putting out broadloom at the end of the  
laneway for garbage pick-up day and I've asked them if they'd mind my  
taking it.

After giving me the initial "Say whuh ??" eyeball treatment they smile and  
say "Sure. I'm glad that you can find a use for it."

And then I proceeded to tell one of them that I intended to haul their  
carpet up to the entrance of the field up at the next sideroad where  
there's a  big patch of poison ivy that I and the mutts (and anyone and  
anything else entering) have to wade through in order to get into the  
field.

The carpet, laid over the poison ivy makes it possible to avoid contact  
with the poison ivy initially and acts as a mulch to kill it in the long  
term and since the $#!+ doesn't, as Racheli points out, decay ... it  
serves as a long lasting mulch to prevent the poison ivy from  
re-establishing itself in that spot in future seasons.

The neighbour impressed and any remnants of the "Are you nuts ?" look  
disappeared from her visage.

I told another of the neighbours that I could use their carpet in my  
vegetable garden on the paths between the raised beds (backing side up)  
again as a mulch to prevent weeds from growing there. Some wood chips  
spread over the $#!+ conceals it from view. I also used some on the ground  
in and around the firewood storage sheds. In addition to preventing weed  
growth, it helps to keep firewood clean (ie as it is dumped on the ground  
awaiting stacking).

On a larger scale, discarded broadloom can be used to sandwich the  
underslab moisture/soil gas barrier to ensure its integrity before, during  
and after construction.

Others have used discarded broadloom in the same manner as geo-textile  
fabric to help stabilise roadbeds and embankments.

-- 
=== * ===
Rob Tom
Kanata, Ontario, Canada

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