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Found 87 results for the keyword(s) ‘Condensation’

  • Article

    Water running down the basement walls.

    Carol from Smith Falls has a new home but has had water running down her basement walls from the beginning, and no one, not even her builder, seems to be able to figure out why. As well, the problem seems to get better and worse with time, but still wet. First of all you need to keep in mind tha...
  • Article

    WHY IS THERE FROST ON THE RUG?

    On windy days, houses in the Prairies often develop a small frost line on the rug about an inch away from the wall on the north or west side of the house. Here the wind is succeeding in lowering the temperature of the most poorly insulated part of the house -- the floor boards. In most construct...
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    WHY IS THERE FROST ON MY CEDAR WALL SHINGLES?

    Condensation or frost on cedar wall shingles on the shady side of the house, early in the morning on clear winter days, bothers many homeowners. They imagine that somehow vast quantities of water are escaping from the house. In fact, what is happening is that the surrounding air is warming up fa...
  • Article

    MYTH: VAPOUR BARRIERS CAUSE INSIDE CONDENSATION PROBLEMS.

    False. Vapour barriers, together with air barriers, prevent moisture from escaping into the walls. In this sense vapour barriers make you more aware of the quantity of moisture you have generated in your house. Condensation problems are caused by generating too much moisture and/or having too ...
  • Article

    Radiant Heating Systems for Homes

    Radiant Heating and Convection Heating are the two primary types of ways we heat our houses. FORCED AIR HEATINGConvection heating means moving hot air -- what we usually call a forced air heating system simply heats air and moves it around the house through a system of fans and ducts.  Forced air...
  • Article

    Vapour barriers and Showers

    There is a lot of debate about whether to put a vapour retarder (vapour barrier) on an insulated wall behind shower tiles.  The code has not historically been specifically clear on this so we get lots of different interpretations.  What the code does say clearly is that we should not have two vap...
  • Article

    Different thermal pane window spacers

    Peggy is moving from Calgary to Vancouver and in her new province she says she can't locate the SuperSpacer windows that she loved in Calgary. That brings up the whole question of what are different window spacers, and why some are available in some areas of the country and not others.Thermal pa...
  • Article

    Tracing the origins of mould in the house

    I receive a tremendous quantity of questions about mould, the housing sickness for the new century. First, it is important to understand, in nature, there are mould spores all around us and most of us are not bothered by or aware of them. It is massive accumulations of mould that can cause ...
  • Article

    Moisture problems with a new roof over an old roof.

    Dan from Winnipeg, Manitoba writes: "We have an older manufactured home with a basement. Years ago a new roof was put on top of the existing one. It is post & beam with trusses, sheeted in with shiplap and a metal roof put on. The problem is the original metal roof now seems to sweat in th...
  • Article

    Mysterious tracks in an attic.

    Dennis in Calgary, Alberta convinced me to come visit his attic which he was about to add ventilation to, but he had never been up in the attic.This was a very interesting attic, and an interesting home. The cellulose insulation was matted down a bit and had a very strange grid pattern in the to...
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