for Cold Climate Housing and much more

Found 89 results for the keyword ‘Alternative’

  • Add a second floor to a house -- in 3 days!

    For years we have had factory built homes where the entire home was built in a factory and then trucked to a site and put on a foundation, much like a mobile home. When people wanted larger factory built homes, they started making them in two halves, to fit on the trucks, and stuck them toge...
  • A look at Steel Roofing

    Joe is one of those nice guys from New England who doesn't like wasting things. Joe spent most of his life as a roofer and in the asphalt shingle business, using and disposing of roofing brackets is just part of the business. Roof brackets are the supports that are temporally nailed to the ...
  • Another look at straw bale construction

    Straw is considered an agricultural waste product, which makes it quite inexpensive when people want to use it as a primary house building material. Straw bales, covered in stucco have been used in the dry prairies for hundreds of years. It is now becoming a serious alternative house buildi...
  • Finally, a revolution in air conditioning!

    Ecologix Heating Technologies Inc221 Holiday Inn Drive #2Cambridge, Ontario N3C 3T2Tel: 519-658-4330 e-Mail: info@ecologix.ca "www.ecologix.ca"I know I'm always lecturing you about heating for a cold climate, but air conditioning is very important in Canada and especially in the US. In fact, ...
  • Can I insulate a roof from the outside?

    20 years ago Bob built a geodesic dome in Saskatchewan. As you can see, it was a community effort. After all this time he has finally gotten tired of the snow melting off the roof creating all kinds of ice cycles, so he is asking about the feasibility of putting some Styrofoam right over th...
  • Alternative mouldings and hidden lighting

    Floor mouldings and crown mouldings were originally all made out of heavy plaster or real wood. Then they were produced out of MDF or compressed sawdust. Now you can find them made out of plastics and drywall as well.ProFlex is a rubber like moulding that is the champion at following curves...
  • Making panels follow a curve

    Often designers, or your own artistic urges, call for a curve in the riser of a stairway or perhaps a whole wall, and you have to figure out how to get that done.There is a great new invention for making the structure of curves walls. It is like the bottom track of a metal stud wall but it ha...
  • Floating Shelves

    David from Kingston, Nova Scotia had a question about a floating shelf he was trying to build himself, but before answering his question I wanted to show some commercial 'floating' shelves that you can purchase.Just what is a 'floating' shelf? It is a shelf that appears to have little or not...
  • Sanding curves

    The best tool to use for sanding curves is a drum sander. The thing interesting to note is that drum sanders come in all kinds of sizes and even different textures aside from all the different grits and types of sandpaper.For very small work, there are miniature drum sanders that are used wi...
  • Speciality bits for drilling holes

    The right bit for the right hole can make all the difference in getting the job done well.The first photo shows a power auger. You can't see in the photo but this particular drill is 18 inches long. The key to it working well is that screw head that actually pulls it into the wood for you. D...