The ACI sells it for $58.50. There are other construction book sources but I doubt they are cheaper. It's not a long document so if you have specific questions I may be able to answer them or post a section from the standard or other ACI standards. Hopefully your contractor owns a copy. In many areas the soil at footing depth is consistently granular, well drained, and free of organic material. It can usually be verified by sight, smell and feel (if it's black, squishes through your fingers, or stinks, you have a problem). Sometimes there can be a layer of organic material from the bottom of a swamp, etc. and it must be removed. Organic material will continue to decompose and will allow the footing to settle. Reinforcement in the bottom of a deeper footing can help bridge local areas of poor soil but not larger ones. Deeper in the ground is also better and so is reinforcing in the stem wall but if you build over an underground stream or a sink hole all bets are off. Relax, I'm joking. A geotechnical engineer is only needed when the person in charge of the design or construction is in doubt. I've only hired one when the soil didn't look like we expected it to. I've only drilled for soil analysis samples for a multistory commercial building. Here is a link that might be useful: ACI 332

I just wanted to chime in for anyone reading this upon google searching like I was - I showered the day after the primer and two costs were applied and it completely ruined the wall. Painters had to come back and repaint all over again. The picture shows how it looked DRY 4 days later and why they had to come back. The painters didn't know how long I was supposed to wait so this time I'll take @randita's advice and use the other bathroom for as close to at least a week as I can.

Hi again. That is so sweet of you to help me like that! OK ... your comments were not in vain, first off. You asked me what kind of effect am I looking to achieve. Anything that looks good. without too much trouble because I'm old-er in presently comparative terms and do most of this by myself. However, when I pulled off the wallpaper I made a lot of mistakes, plus it was very hard to pull off. I gouged the wall because it was my first time and I didn't even know what drywall looks like under the paper. So I pulled off some of the drywall as well as gouging much of it anyway. Therefore I was left with a seriously damaged drywall. I did plug up most of the holes with paste but there is enough roughness to make sure I won't get a smooth coat of paint, so I would need to use some coverup texture. I am glad you can help me through this. So what I finally decided is to tissue paper it and paint over that. I am in the process of tissuepapering it. I like the texture well enough. I have a problem with this, though. I expect to put two coats of paint over the tissue paper. But my real problem is, because it's paper, what type of final coating should I use to protect it so that I can damp sponge it if it gets dirty later on? Now, as far as your questions go, here's what I have been doing. (maybe it's slightly useless because maybe there is no need to basecoat it before I apply the tissue paper but that's what I have been doing.) I am first priming the bare wall with Kilz. I am doing this with Kilz because I bought it a while ago and don't want to waste my money plus I think it will help, maybe it doesn't and maybe this step is futile. I have been applying the tissue paper to the wet basecoat. That's first off. It is by no means completed. To see what I have been doing, I applied the color I want over that over a portion of the wall. I'm having a slight anxiety problem because I purchased a can of BM nice paint at an oops price and now I'm afraid I may not have enough to cover the bathroom walls. So that's a problem. I'm going to call BM paints and see if they can duplicate the color if need be. Maybe I should think about a different color for the ceiling, even though I hate to do that but I may have to. Or maybe I'll have to indulge and simply purchase enough paint to do the room, LOL, and go over the part I've already done with the complete batch of color! It's not that I can't afford it, although I need to save my pennies so if I can get a bargain i'll go for it. What I was hoping (and of course this is a novice speaking) was that I could glaze over the top coat with a nice (but slight) mottled burnished look. Since there is already texture in the tissue paper application I am not looking for more texture. I am pleased with the look. It is coming out better than the sponging I attempted. Now you hopefully know where I'm at. I will post this also on the gardenweb site so you can answer there also if possible maybe later on so others can learn. I have learned so much from gardenweb, I really appreciate the replies (even if they don't always apply...lol). It's always nice to speak to someone who has been through the process and knows what they're doing. So thanks again, looking forward to your answer. But now that you got me going, you mentioned a couple of ways of doing things, like applying the color first and then letting the tissue paper stay on top of that? I'm interested in this approach. What is the difference, though, between applying basecoat, then appying the tissue paper, and then rolling color over that? But let's be practical and talk about my actual situation first. LOL ... :-) To sum up: I have started applying a white base coat, smashing on the tissue paper and painting over that. Glazing over that may not be the proper term, since the effect I want is a slight metallic or burnished edge to the paint job. I don't want the glaze all over the paint, just perhaps in drips and drabs, like marbling. -- I hope you're having a good day at work so far!! Cindi

Oh dear. The 'wet work' needs to be done BEFORE the floors are refinished...but that hasn't happened. So now we have to do it bass akwards. The REAL way to do this (ahem...if a professional contractor with HIGH standards were in charge of this) is: 1. Wait the FULL cure time (7 - 10 days) before ANYTHING ELSE gets done 2. Cover the wood floor (after the cure time has elapsed) with Ram Board 3. Continue with the sanding/painting and door hanging 4. Do NOT use tape on the wood floors. The Ram Board should be taped to itself AND THEN up the walls with 'Green' low-tack painters' tape (aka 'Delicate Surfaces' tape). 5. Remove the tape (not the Ram Board) at the end of each day of work 6. Reapply tape at the beginning of each day of work should you need to (keeps the Ram Board from slipping and causing serious injury to the worker) Once the 'wet' work has been completed, you clean up the room and THEN you remove the ram board. Sweep and vacuum. Do NOT damp mop your floors for at least 2 weeks after the final coat has been applied. I'm sorry you to go through the 'wrong way around' process but it is faster/cheaper than having to sand/refinish your floors because of the damage of working on a SOFT finish. The 'dry' time is not the HARDENING time. Dry just means 'no longer liquid'. A floor finish often has 3 coats. Each coat has a 'hardening' time. When three coats are applied the first and second coats stay SOFT (as in you can leave foot prints and debris can be embedded in it) for those 10 days. A fresh finish is a floor that has reached 95% cure rate (7-10 days) but still has 5% left to go. That's why you CANNOT mop your floors for 2 WEEKS after the final coat has been applied. The floor is still CURING. Whew! Good luck. Leave the room/floor alone for the next 7-10 days AND THEN cover them with Ram Board. Do NOT cover them 'too early' or you will have embedded the ram boar INTO the soft finish....kinda like painting a window shut. It isn't a fun thing to learn about. So do not rush this. The floor MUST HARDEN enough to allow Ram Board to go over top. There is NO WAY around this.