If you use a solvent based adhesive and squeeze it between two surfaces that will not let the solvent out -- like between tiles and the vinyl -- then the solvent will eventually eat into the vinyl showing up as a ghost line of the glue. Put a trace of glue on the wall. Push the vinyl panel into...
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...
Calcium build-up can make a shower a difficult place to get wet. Soaking the shower head in ammonia over night solves the problem. You can do it without even taking the head out of the shower. Just put a vegetable bag full of vinegar over the head and attach it with a rubber band over night, t...
The most common shower curtains sold are made of vinyl with very inadequate reinforcing around the hole used to hook it to the curtain rod. The result is that rather quickly the vinyl stretches and breaks through. Now this process accelerates when you have a wife like mine who scrubs the curtai...
Shower faucets often have large holes cut through the tiles to allow the plumbing through. These are then covered up by escutcheon plates, those decorative plates behind the handles. But these plates are not water proof and often water rolls down the tiles, behind the cover plates and into the ...
Letter: I have a ceramic shower, that is leaking, I do not know how it was built or what is underneath.In the last week +- have noticed about an ounce or 2 of water in the garage,I have a small openeing in the ceiling directly under due to the drain pipe, the drain pipe and feed lines are dry. Bu...
Ed writes from Ajax, Ontario : All 3 walls of my bathroom shower stall are finished with 4" ceramic tiles and are in good shape. When I had to remove one of them, I discovered that the drywall was behind it was so wet that I had to put a fan on it over night to dry it out before I could glue...
Heat recuperation, or the recovery of heat from things that we normally throw away can be a significant part of energy savings. Most energy efficient houses today have Heat Recovery Ventilators that steal the heat out of stale air before throwing it out of the house. Finally some Canadians have...
Ben in Montreal is having trouble getting wet in the shower.Often water pressure will decrease in a system when you have old pipes that are slowly collecting calcium and other minerals on the inside, closing down the diameter of the water flow. In a serious case, simply putting in standard new p...
Car polish and powerMary from Sauble Beach, Ontario sent in the tip of cleaning off a heavy build-up of soap scum from her glass shower door with automobile polish and a power buffer. So we tried it.It didn't seem to get down to perfectly clean, but it certainly did remove a lot. Mary just has ...
