Any cutting board can become dangerous to your health if you let it collect bacteria.
Rule number one is to use a different cutting board for food that will not be cooked than the one you use for raw meat and fish. If raw vegetables are contaminated, there is no heat process to kill bacteria aft...
Shrink to fit winter windows are really great draft stoppers and energy savers for old windows and patio doors.
Plastic has almost no R-value
Since plastic and glass have no real R-value, the dead air space created between the plastic and the window is as good as can be created with another ...
Contact cement is a uniquely useful adhesive. It will adhere to most all surfaces and hence is often the in-between for sticking two different materials together.
It comes in two basic varieties, solvent based and water based, the later often being called "green" or "solvent free". Although thes...
This article deals with walls below grade, foundation walls. For insulating above grade cinder block walls see How do you Insulate a Brick and Block construction as well as Insulating an Above Grade Block Wall from the Inside.
The best way to prevent water from leaking into the basement is not ...
Connect to your favourite weather forecaster and look for the following conditions:
Category: Adhesives Product: Epoxy - Wet-Bond
Temperature Limitations: Above +10 C (+50 F) -- although a special product called "Cold-Bond" will work at -6 C (+21 F)
Rain Limitations: Can be applied in r...
The national building code requires a minimum level of insulation in a basement that reaches about two feet below the outside grade level. The objective is to make this storage space a heatable space. Hence some materials and techniques have developed that satisfy this minimum code requirement th...
One of our viewers is about to insulate his basement and he has been told that he should not run the vapour barrier all the way to the floor. Fact or fiction?
You should run the vapour barrier wherever there is insulation to keep the moisture on the warm side of the wall. And in a basement insta...
For an overview on changing the roof or roof covering on a house and special information on Mansard roof shingles -- follow this link.
The starter shingle
If you put the first row of shingles on the edge of the roof just like all the rest, you will see the bare roof deck through the crac...
A viewer from Aurora, Ontario has a small pin hole leak in a copper pipe in the wall and wants to know if there is any way to fix it without having to tear the whole wall open and replace the pipe.
There exists an epoxy wrap called "Pow-R-Wrap". You simply turn off the water to relieve the press...
MOLDABLE PLASTIC -- RESUABLE
Utile Plast is a great British product that I stumbled upon -- plastic granules that you put into very hot water - they soften - then you mold them into anything you want. You can shove the soft plastic into a nut and when cool you have a plastic bolt -- or form t...
