Victoria asked us: "I have really ugly vinyl siding on the house and would like to paint it. How do I do it?"Here is what works for both vinyl and aluminum siding.The first thing to know is that painting vinyl siding will void the warranty on it. But if it is old and ugly, it is probably beyond...
Seasonal tips for working with masonry.SUMMER Summer Moisture Content:If too much water is drawn out of the mortar before it sets, the bond joint will not be good.Most clay bricks, calcite bricks and stone do not require pre-wetting because of minimum absorption. However in extremely hot weat...
The water content of a piece of wood can be measured with the use of an instrument called a hygrostat. It has two sharp probes which penetrate the wood and measure the electrical resistance between the two probes. This is translated into % of saturation of the wood. 100% would be dripping wet ...
Wood turners like to cut wood right out of the forest and turn them into bowls, plates and the like. But since they start with green wood, there will be a lot of shrinkage and potential cracking before they get to a finished product.Traditionally they debark the wood and then rough turn the shap...
I always had the feeling that caulking from toothpaste like squeeze tubes had less body than caulking from gun cartridges. I recently received a whole array of caulking from Sascho, a manufacturer with a great line-up of products and it included a Mildew Free Sealant for bathrooms in a sque...
Connect to your favourite weather forecaster and look for the following conditions:
Category: Concrete Product: Surface Patching
Temperature Limitations: Above +5 C (+40 F) and below +30 C (+85 F)
Rain Limitations: Protect from rain until concrete is set, 2 to 6 hours (so rain won't was...
Connect to your favourite weather forecaster and look for the following conditions:
Category: Concrete Product: All site mixed or delivered concrete
Temperature Limitations: Use above +2 C (+35 F)
Rain Limitations: No rain until surface is firm -- several hours
Wind Limitations: n/a
...
Holly in Wasi Lake, Ontario wants to know why her 1x10 pine tongue-and-groove floors are shrinking and leaving such large cracks.
If you look at traditional hardwood floors you will notice that each board is rather narrow. In fact it is difficult to locate hardwood floors that are wider than 4 i...
