Lori from North Gower, Ontario has purchased an old farm house with one part covered in board and batten wood while the main house is brick. She wants to know what she should do to protect the old board and batten. Presently it has simply been left to "silver" with age.Painting or oiling that o...
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...
Although I have learned a great deal about paint and painting over the years, it is not my best subject, especially when formulations and even the tools are constantly changing. So I had my good friend and host of HGTV's One House Two Looks, Jane Lockhart, come on the show to answer some of our ...
One of the cardinal rules of painting or staining in order to avoid lap marks is to apply material wet-on-wet. On an interior wall that is done by rolling small enough sections that allow you to overlap the edge with the next section before the first one manages to dry. Painting wet-on-wet does...
Wagish from Brampton, Ontario is worried about the ongoing construction of his new home as they have not put a wooden sheathing on the outside of the house. He asks: "Is the insulation value and strength of the wall compromised by not using the chipboard?".First things first. "Chipboard" should...
I have had a few inquiries about how to attach things to outside walls, like signs, wires and Christmas lights without causing any damage.For a brick wall there is a wonderful gadget called the Brick Clip that simply has a spring on the bottom and teeth on the top which grab a brick by inserting ...
Boris lives in a 45 year old bungalow that has no insulation at all. It has a brick outside, an air space, a concrete block wall for structure inside and then drywall. Is it possible to blow foam into the space between the brick and the block?NO. As long as the brick is the weather shield for ...
Valerie has a large living room with two storm windows, those kind that are two separate windows with a space in-between. Ever since she pressure washed the siding in preparation for painting, there is a lot of condensation between the windows.Water could have gotten between the windows directly...
Carolyn in Montreal wants to insulate her garage so that she can heat it but it is so narrow that there is no room to do anything on the inside. Can she insulate on the outside?As you can see in the graphic, you can easily put foam insulation of just about any thickness right on the block wall. ...
Better is a big word. Each siding on the market has it's advantages and dis-advantages. Both vinyl and aluminium siding are generally available as imitation wood siding, where-as some steel siding admits to not being wood. That comes simply from the fact that people like the "look" of wood sid...
