When two apartments share the same heat source and only have one thermometer, someone is always unhappy. If the thermostat is upstairs, the downstairs people are too cold, and if the thermostat is downstairs, the upsatirs people have to open the windows, to keep from getting cooked although thos...
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...
Radiant Heating and Convection Heating are the two primary types of ways we heat our houses. FORCED AIR HEATINGConvection heating means moving hot air -- what we usually call a forced air heating system simply heats air and moves it around the house through a system of fans and ducts. Forced air...
Dee from Toronto, Ontario writes: "We are having a new home built with the laundry room on the second floor. We were told the washing machine would sit in a trough, which was lined with rubber and has a drain. It has been finished with only a drain and we are concerned with the risk of floodin...
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...
There are a number of appliances around the house that have user or trade adjustable temperatures and it is not always simple to get them right.Hot Water HeatersMost Hot Water heaters for domestic hot water are factory set to 66deg C. ( 150F ). This is actually hot enough to scald someone so legi...
Judy from Stoney Creek, Ontario is baffled by the fact that her cold water is hot, at least for the first few seconds of running.Faucets that combine the hot and cold water to come out of a single spout are of two basic varieties: two completely separate valves each feeding the spout, or a combin...
One of the little known problems of working with copper plumbing is that the copper pipe should never touch a piece of galvanized metal, be it a pipe strap or a passing heating duct. There is an electrolytic reaction between the two metals, especially in the presence of heat, that will eat holes...
Foam guns are the air sealing tool of our epoch. We all use them. We all kill them. We all wish they would last longer and clog less. Of course there are as many different qualities of single component poly-urethane foam guns as there are different qualities of foams — at least we can be happy t...
When the pressure-release valve on the top of a boiler or a hot water tank is leaking it could mean several things.
The first thing to try is to simply lift the little lever on the top of the tank to let out some hot water. Before you do this, make sure that the valve has a discharge pipe attach...
