Vern has a range hood on an inside wall and is wondering if he could just use the hollow wall cavity or should he line it, and could he just vent into the attic because the attic itself is vented. There are actually a lot of interesting questions there Vern. First remember that there is a lot of...
Martin from Moncton, New Brunswick has frost forming on the ceiling of a closet in an unheated bedroom.First, you need to realise that heated or not heated, that bedroom has just as much moisture in it as the rest of the house, perhaps more because moisture tends to migrate from warm to cold area...
Valerie has a large living room with two storm windows, those kind that are two separate windows with a space in-between. Ever since she pressure washed the siding in preparation for painting, there is a lot of condensation between the windows.Water could have gotten between the windows directly...
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...
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...
Wood is not as good an insulation material as is any of the products we call thermal insulation: fiberglass, Styrofoam etc. Yet up to 24% of our walls are wood all the way through. Metal framing is even less resistant to heat loss than is wood. Typically the insulation is placed in-between the...
Lawrence in Toronto Ontario is wondering if his attic hatch might be letting moisture leak into the attic.Definitely! This hatch should be treated as an outside door and it needs to be weather-stripped and latched down tight. It is usually a very easy job by simply applying some of the adhesive...
Peter from Toronto wanted to know about installing a linen closet against an outside wall. The major concern expressed by Jon was the moisture issue, as the closet is in a bathroom.The bathroom must have an exhaust fan to reduce the moisture accumulation.The outside wall of the closet should ha...
Mould at the wall to ceiling joint, particularly in a cool bedroom or a closet, may not indicate water leakage at all from above. It can be a very cold part of the wall simply collecting moisture from the air in the house. This kind of condensation can easily feed mould growth.One solution is t...
(Also called the neutral pressure point or the zero pressure point.)Cold air will generally sneak in (infiltrate) at the bottom of the house and warm air will leak out (exfiltrate) at the top of the house. This is called the "stack effect" caused by the rising effect of warm air. In between ...
