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...
Insulating on the outside of the house is quite easy if there are no air spaces between the insulation and the warm house. Check out: OLD WALLS CAN SABOTAGE INSULATION EFFORTSSimply attach insulated sheathing panels or foam boards directly to the studs, or to the old sheathing, or, in some cases,...
Mila from Ottawa, Ontario writes: "We are buying a new home and have a choice of 2" x 10" solid wood kiln-dried joists or "Trust Joists" (JLE) Pre-engineered floor system. If you were buying a house for yourself -- which would you choose?"I just love it when people try to nail me down like that,...
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 ...
Kara lives in BC and has foam insulation over her roof with shingles over the foam. She wants to put on new shingles and questions having them right over the foam.You are right to question that application. The first problem is that shingling nails that have to go through an inch of foam will n...
Ted has plaster falling off of his concrete condo kitchen ceilings. Apparently it is related to moisture, so it would be a good idea to see if there is a leak from above, or a lot of excess moisture in the kitchen itself. Exhaust fans may solve the problem.Sometimes you just can't solve the pro...
Rick from Grand Bend, Ontario writes: "I need advice on how to strap a block wall for board and batten. The wall is 10 ft. high, and I am wondering how many straps I will need?"Too few straps and the boards will warp, too many and you are wasting your energy and perhaps blocking ventilation behi...
Yes you can, but it is not always easy to do. The joists may not be perfectly spaced and you only have a 1-1/2 inch target for attaching two edges of the drywall. As well, the floor joists are often not perfectly on the same plane, with one or more of the floor joists being slightly lower or hi...
Sue in Ajax has seen enough home improvement TV shows to completely confuse her. When changing the siding and adding ridged foam insulation, should the house wrap go on first or last? She has seen it done both ways on TV.The answer is Yes! That's right, both ways work fine.The job of the h...
Carol in Havelock, Ontario has floors that are so springy that glasses tend to jump off the shelves when she walks by.Springy floors can be perfectly safe, or they can be an indication of a structural danger. Usually they simply mean that the floor is not rigid enough, or stretches too far bet...
