I'm having the riversmart people come audit my house today. When looking through the online materials, I saw that they now require a percolation test to determine how well your soil drains. If it isn't at 0.3 inches per hour, the rebate doesn't apply.
That makes sense. But since Bloomingdale is, as far as I understand it, basically clay, everyone will fail. Clay has an abortion rate of less than 0.2 inches per hour. What's the point of the Bloomingdale incentive if no one qualifies?
2 comments:
Hi again from Lauren, your neighbor and RiverSmart Homes representative! So yes, there are a lot of clay soils throughout DC, but the presence of clay won't necessarily cause your soil to fail a percolation test. It all depends on the amount of clay you have. The best way to find out is to do a percolation test, which is totally DIY and does not require a contractor. The Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay has a great worksheet available for doing your own percolation test that you can find here: http://ddoe.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/ddoe/service_content/attachments/Bloomingdale%20Rebate%20Application%20-%202015.pdf
And try a couple locations. We've seen soil percolate in one location in a yard, but not in another. Of course, feel free to email me if you have questions: lauren.linville@dc.gov.
"That makes sense. But since Bloomingdale is, as far as I understand it, basically clay, everyone will fail. Clay has an abortion rate of less than 0.2 inches per hour. What's the point of the Bloomingdale incentive if no one qualifies?"
Not true. I qualified and got my Riversmart pavers put in last year (they look great!). In my own backyard I did the percolation test and got a percolation rate of 1.02" (optimal is 1.2", miminal acceptable is 0.3").
I definitely hit clay digging down, but saying that it's "all clay" is an exaggeration.
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