Dennis in Calgary, Alberta convinced me to come visit his attic which he was about to add ventilation to, but he had never been up in the attic.This was a very interesting attic, and an interesting home. The cellulose insulation was matted down a bit and had a very strange grid pattern in the to...
Phyllis from Regina, Saskatchewan wrote: "We live in a house that was built in the early 60's. The furnace has a vent that runs to the outside. I suspect this is bringing in fresh air. Is there a problem in closing off the vent for the winter? I think that the furnace would run more efficient...
Ron from Guelph, Ontario writes: "My wife and I moved into a newly built home in June 2001. There is an orange plastic cap on top of our vent stack. The builder says that the plumber needed this cap on so he can pressure-check the system, but that it is to be removed following the test. He sa...
If you can see the wasp nest, you can buy special sprays that will allow you to stand about 10 feet away and shoot at them. Make sure to wear protective clothing and goggles, both for the overspray if the wind moves aginst you, and for some angry wasps. The second photo above shows just how far ...
Hector from North Bay, Ontario, tells me that he has just built a new house. He has soffit vents on both side of the house but no gable nor roof top vents. Is this enough?Simply -- NO.If there is a strong wind, you would probably get a little air moving through the attic, but most likely just ...
Tom from Toronto, Ontario wants to know how to go about putting a vent pipe into the drain of a kitchen island sink.Good question Tom, because you don't have a wall which will simply allow you to go from the drain pipe uphill to the vent stack as we usually do. The first drawing shows a simple me...
Dan from Winnipeg, Manitoba writes: "We have an older manufactured home with a basement. Years ago a new roof was put on top of the existing one. It is post & beam with trusses, sheeted in with shiplap and a metal roof put on. The problem is the original metal roof now seems to sweat in th...
Last year we shot a special Spring Clean-Up show and in that show we cleaned up some mould on the lower walls of one of our viewer's basement. Recently we went back to permanently solve that problem by installing an exhaust fan that would draw the cold moist air off of the basement floor, doing ...
(This entry was originally submitted as an article to Chatelaine Magazine. The heavily edited version which appeared in September 2008 was a fine little article, but missed some critical points like exhausting central vacs outdoors, not making the critical distinction between the bad ozone air c...
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...
