One viewer has a cold, probably uninsulated, wall in his shower, and the mould grows rapidly on the grout. What to do?
He is right when he suggested that the best idea would be to tear down the wall and insulate it properly, and while renovating, make sure you have a functioning bathroom fan to ...
Our camera caught Burns at the hardware store -- he is going to redo his roof and wanted to know what is the best material to use to re-roof.
That that's a wide open question. And of course, there are a lot of "good" materials.
Start by deciding on the "look" you want, then check that against y...
Madaline wants to put carpet over tile over parquet flooring. The following answer also applies to vinyl over ceramic tiles.
Well, aside from the floor getting so thick that doors may not open and counters will appear to be sinking into the floor, there are a couple important things to know abo...
It always surprises people to learn that neither siliconed grout nor glazed tiles are totally waterproof. If there is not a waterproof membrane below the tiles, the heavy flow of water in a shower would eventually soak through the base and rot out the floor below. No amount of silicone sealant no...
Most people don't realize it but glazed tiles are not completely waterproof although they are highly water resistant. The reality is that the tile and the grout are not the final line of defence against water leaking through to the ceiling below.
A proper built-in shower stall starts with a tape...
Bill from British Columbia sent in an e-mail asking how to remove silicone caulking from his acrylic shower floor. For many years we had nothing that would remove silicone caulking from a bathtub. Then all the companies came out with silicone caulking removers. Then they all disappeared (or will ...
If you have a wobbly toilet because there is something uneven on the floor the ideal solution is to find a way to level the floor. If it is wood, you could shave it down to flat. If the problem is tiles, you could remove the tiles under the toilet. But often in real life, we don't want to do eith...
A squeaky ceramic floor is a particularly difficult problem because you really cannot fix it from the top down, and if you don't fix it, it will eventually break the grout if not the floor tiles because of the movement of the floor.
Squeaking is caused by something rubbing, often the floor board...
I just received (October 2014) an alert from Healthy Building News about additives in many building products that are supposed to kill microbes and make the house healthier. These things are called “Antimicrobials”. A couple of the best known trade names are Microban and BioFresh.
Little disi...
Video conferencing, like Zoom, is known for head-to-head talks, but it is also a dynamic tool for interactive inspections, remote on-site consultations, and remote on-site teaching. In 2016 I tried to start a Zoom interactive webinar but back then, not many people were comfortable with video c...
