for Cold Climate Housing and much more

Found 44 results for the keyword ‘Temperature’

  • I painted my bathroom and now I am getting mould!

    Anne painted her bathroom with latex paint and then started to get mould and mildew where she never had any before. She is wondering what she did wrong? Mould is caused by the prolonged presence of condensation. Condensation is caused by a combination of high humidity and low temperatures. If yo...
  • How do you stop shower scalding?

    It may surprise you, but more accidents happen in the shower when the shower suddenly goes cold, than when it suddenly goes hot. It seems that we just jump higher. But neither shock is agreeable, or safe. That's why all new plumbing installations require something called a "Pressure Balancing va...
  • Weather Restrictions: Plastic Cement / cold applied Roof Patch

    Connect to your favourite weather forecaster and look for the following conditions:   Category: Roofing     Product: Plastic Cement / cold applied Roof Patch Temperature Limitations: Varies by product: Use above -5 C (+23 F) to above freezing Rain Limitations: Varies by product: dry to underw...
  • Adjusting the Posi-Temp temperature control shower valves.

    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 ...
  • Retaining Walls and Frost

    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...
  • How to move heat from a stove to other rooms.

    Jon in Winchester, Ontario has a free standing natural gas stove and wants to get that heat distributed to the rest of the house.  First, what not to do Do not try to put a grill in a return air duct of a forced air heating system over the stove as you see in the photo, especially forbidden fo...
  • Canada Degree Day Map

    One way to determine how cold a region is, is to count how many days it is how many degrees below 18 degrees C in metric, or below 65F in Imperial.  This is one of the measures used to determine the heating needs for a house. The US and Canada both measure Degree Days, but do not use the same s...
  • Tips for working with fiberglass insulation

      CUTTING FIBERGLASS STRAIGHT AND SQUARE   It is always easier to cut fiberglass batt insulation if you compress it down as flat as possible. That way you can get through in one pass. Using a piece of plywood gives you a straight edge at the same time.         There is a special devic...
  • Working with Contact Cement

    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...
  • BASEMENT: INTERIOR OR EXTERIOR INSULATION?

    It is always better to insulate on the outside of basements and crawl spaces, but usually more expensive and more trouble. Brick or field stone foundations must not be insulated on the inside for much more than one foot below ground level. The poor quality of the mortar in these foundations dete...