When a driveway slopes down into the house, you need to intercept any and all water flow and carry it away before it gets to the garage. If you don't do this, you will find the concrete pad in the driveway getting into moisture and frost problems, the door freezing to the floor, and the like.You...
Carpet or tile adhesive can seem almost impossible to remove from a concrete or wooden floor, especially when it has been there for a long time. If you try sanding, it will heat up and clog up the sandpaper. If you wire brush it with a wire wheel on your drill, again if you let it heat up, it w...
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...
I remember when low flow shower heads were first introduced they made a lot of noise and gave lousy showers. They certainly have come a long way and have become the standard shower today.One very important step in water conservation is simply to become aware of how much water we use. The first ...
Sometimes water conservation can be helped a bit simply by knowing how much water we use -- awareness. Water Watch is a little water meter, one for the garden hose and another for the shower head, that measures in either litres or gallons. In my household it has already cut down on the water wa...
In this TV segment I talked a lot about the latest research designed to identify which low flow toilets work and which do not. For the details of that story, read through my database entry on the low flush toilet controversy and the update at the bottom of the entry.The very reason for low flow ...
So your bilge pump, or the water line into the lake, or something inside your swimming pool needs repair. Do you have to get it high and dry to fix it?We tested three materials under water: a special epoxy called WetBond, regular epoxy and PL Premium polyurethane adhesive.WetBond is a two part ...
Any wood product will expand when it gets wet, some worse than others. Today we have a wide variety of wood or wood like flooring products.Massive HardwoodFirst you should understand that even massive hardwood, if allowed to stay wet or overly humid for too long will swell up and potentially buc...
Ken in Winnipeg wants to know if he can modifiy his sump pump pit.There are really two kinds of sump pump pits.One is an underground container or catch basin designed to receive water from the perimeter drain tiles and any other basement spillage or back-up and pump that up and out of the house.T...
How about a house in the middle of Toronto that gets its water from the sky, not from a city water connection, not even a well. Then it gets rid of the waste water into the garden, not a connection to the city, not even a leaching field. Although it may be considered by many to be an experiment...
