Bill from Paradise, Newfoundland writes: "I need to settle a bet between a buddy and myself. When you put in a vinyl window should a drip cap always be used? My buddy never uses one, and claims water never gets in under the window."
Well Bill, you win. Yes you should always put a flashing over t...
Hello Jon
I am the chairman of a church committee with the task of raising money, and doing the admin. for the restoration at St Andrew United.
My concern now is the proper procedure to fully insulate the Church. I am alright with the Attic as well as the crawl space, however I am pondering the...
Frost Protected Shallow Foundations
The foundation for a house is generally poured below the soil grade level so that the footing itself is well below the frost depth for any given region and soil type. This protects the house from frost heaving caused by expanding soils beneath the foundation....
Dan from Toronto, Ontario writes: "I saw your show about installing the Moen Positemp shower system. We had two installed, one upstairs and one in our basement shower. Both work fine for controlling the "shock" factor, but we can't seem to get enough hot water out of the upstairs one. Is there a ...
I received a question on my radio show from a listener who had a brand new washing machine that gave off a dirty sock smell. He would bleach it out but it kept coming back. So he called the manufacturer and the manufacturer said that was normal if you were using cold water! That's a bit of a shoc...
Hi Jon,
I have a driveway retaining wall that continues to be pushed by the ground, even though it is backed by gravel and drained to "nothing under the driveway" except crushed gravel. I realize proper drainage affects this somewhat, however would prefer not to cut open my driveway, sidewalk a...
Several viewers are complaining about low water pressure in old houses. Old steel pipe tends to collect corrosion and calcium on the walls, enough to slowly choke off the flow of water. A look at the graphic shows what happens to water flow compared to a clean new 1/2 inch pipe. When it becomes r...
Michele in Hamilton, Ontario needs to repaint her cinder block walls on the outside of the basement. But a close look at a photo that she sent us showed a lot of deep holes or pock marks in the blocks.
Not only the paint was peeling off, but the block itself was breaking off.
This is a sign o...
When air gets into hot water radiators, either from new water in the system or even from problems with seals, it can make noise and reduce the heating effectiveness of the system. That running water noise is actually caused by a big air bubble at the top of a radiator and the water falls through ...
Michael writes from St. Lazare, Quebec : We recently found a nasty surprise with our new house. The land has a high water table and as a result we have sump pump in the basement. The plumbing for this pump was hidden in the walls and ceiling of the basement. When our inspector inspected the home,...
