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...
A viewer in Brandon, Man. had some questions about why his stockwall has started to shrink and crack. Art asked whether it is the aggregate he used or the logs themselves.Good question and I couldn't really help much. (But read on and you will see that at least one of our viewers does have so...
Rob in London Ontario has one wall that is cold in the baby's room and he just wants to warm it up a bit. The easiest way to make a significant difference without major renovations is to put about 1 to 1-1/2 inch of Styrofoam right over the painted wall and cover that with more drywall. That ma...
The easiest way to stop the bathtub from overflowing is to turn off the water. If the faucet leaks, we have to pull the plug to let the dripping water out the drain as fast as it comes into the tub.Warm, humid air leaking into the walls of a house is like a faucet flooding the tub. Even a go...
Yes, but maybe not good enough.Sheathing paper is designed to keep outside water and wind out of the walls but to let inside vapour breath out (like your skin does for your body). Over the years, manufacturers have made the traditional sheathing or building paper stronger, but at the same tim...
This generally indicates a lack of insulation behind the moist area. This can occur when loose-fill insulation has settled, leaving gaps. Open the wall and inspect the insulation.Corners are usually poorly insulated, and they lose more heat than flat walls anyway. If insulation cannot be up...
Yes. Have you heard the true story about the conscientious homeowner from Regina who lived in a pre-Second World War bungalow? One summer he insulated his attic, with proper ventilation and all and the following winter his heating bills went up, not down. The next summer he insulated the w...
Insulating open walls with glass fiber or mineral wool batts is the most economical. Adding additional strapping to open stud walls (horizontally is best) will give you more wall space that can be economically insulated. Double strapping will provide room for a good air/vapour barrier (poly...
If you want to insulate inside the house but don't want to remove the old wall, here's what you should do:-- Make a couple of exploratory holes in the wall (don't worry about being neat, you're going to cover the wall anyway) to find out how much insulation is in the wall and if there is a good...
An incredible number of exterior insulation jobs are done wrong and do not follow the building codes requirements regarding the use of building paper. This can lead to immediate water problems inside the wall (rain penetration or condensation) or less evident long term decay.Building paper (m...
