We would like to think that roofing systems today are well thought out, easy to assemble and trouble free. And then there is the real world. We went to the manufacturers of roofing systems and roofing components to get a handle on what are some of the real world field problems that shouldn't be...
The EcoEnergy program of homeowner grants to help retrofit homes has been brought back to life by the federal government in late September of 2011 -- part of the EcoAction initiative. I love this program and the hard workers at NRCan have done a great job of organizing it, explaining it and ma...
When you have a new home built for you, just before you take possession, you will spend a couple of hours walking around the house with the builder and a notebook. This is a critically important part of buying a home because this is where you check for all the errors and omissions. If you do th...
We like to talk a lot about the responsibilities of the contractors in a renovation project, but it can be very useful to listen to a good contractor talk about what he needs from the homeowner to help keep the renovation process running smoothly. In this episode we visited with Robert Ludvick o...
Habitat for Humanity is a non-profit organization that builds houses. In fact they are one of the largest home builders in North America if you put all their local branches together.Their houses are rather simple and ordinary, but what is not ordinary is the way the houses get built and who owns...
I get a lot of questions about choosing and applying a finish to a hardwood floor.First understand that there is no one right answer -- there are a lot of products that each has certain advantages over the others and you need to select the properties that are the most important to you. There are...
Elise from Montreal wrote: We bought a small warehouse that we converted into living space. Three years ago we changed all the piping for the hot water radiators. Now it is time to get rid of the very old and costly oil boiler. We are thinking of switching to an Electric boiler. Is this ...
Hugh from Vancouver wrote: Our patio door was single glazed and the cold came through it like there was no door there at all. We installed inside storms several years ago and the improvement was like night and day.A couple of years ago, we saw at a local mall show displays of their double g...
Annie has three roofs on her house, a shingled roof in the front part followed by an asphalt and gravel flat roof and then an elastomeric membrane flat roof over her back porch. They all seem to leak. The asphalt roof is only six years old, installed by someone who advertised in the local paper...
If you recognize the photo above as the heat exchanger in an old boiler as seen through a small mirror with a flashlight, you are probably a home inspector. More and more home owners and home buyers are seeking the services of a professional home inspector and the business of inspecting home...
