Huh?

Pittsburgh is one big lump of clay and we have water infiltration
issues galore, it has to go somewhere. Most of our foundations are 8
to 12 inch cement block with waterproofing on the outside and french
drains on both the inside and outside in new construction. We usually
fill the ouside perimeter with either gravel or crushed limestone to
get the water away from the walls, we backfill to about 1 foot from
the surface. I would never enter a hole over 6 feet deep without
really well built walls, when they collapse it's a really bad day.

High humidity can cause mold to grow on the outside of a real cork but
it just looks bad, it's not an issue if it's a good cork. That's why
they used to use lead capsules, it would cover the cork and it did not
corrode since the lead was coated too.
Joe