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 ...
David has one of those showers with an openable sliding window right inside the shower. It is kind of nice having a window in a shower, if you have an open field and no neighbours. If you have neighbours, you will certainly have a curtain on the window, or frosted glass. In any event, take a g...
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 get a lot of questions about choosing and applying a finish to a hardwood floor.First understand that there is no one right answer -- there are a lot of products that each has certain advantages over the others and you need to select the properties that are the most important to you. There are...
No flooring company recommends any kind of wooden floor in a bathroom, and even fewer (fewer than no?) who would recommend it in a basement bathroom where you might not only have water constantly spilling from the top but maybe moisture coming up from the floor.You want to do it anyway? OK, here...
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...
Todd from Manuels NFLD looked under his siding and discovered that the nails holding the siding were rusting away.In very damp climates, like Canada's two coastal regions, walls tend to get wet, and stay wet. In other areas of the country, the climate gives them more of a chance to dry out. Tod...
(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 ...
Warm moist air leaking out of the house through the walls and ceilings is the major cause of condensation and water damage to the structure of the house. In the worst of cases it can cause paint to peel off the outside of the house, start mould growing in the walls, decrease the insulating v...
