Tom in Newfoundland has problems of oil smells when the wind blows a certain direction.As you can see in his photo, the chimney is low for his own roof, and then overshadowed by the roof of the larger house -- causing the wind to blow right down the chimney. The rule of thumb is that if you m...
Seigfried from Richmond Hill, Ontario hears some very strange creaking whenever he pulls the plug and lets hot water down his drainpipe. He sent us an audio recording of the noise which did help me to identify what was going on.Expansion and contraction of plumbing pipes, because of a sudden cha...
For electrical appliances to be safe it is important that the power comes through a fuse or circuit breaker, into the wall outlet, then the plug must take that same wire to the on/off switch of the appliance. This way, when the appliance is turned off, there is no power coming to the applian...
Barbara in Saskatoon is complaining about the noise in the plumbing stack every time someone flushes the toilet in the bathroom upstairs.In the old days that noise of falling water was muffled by the fact that the drain stack was made out of very heavy cast iron pipe. In the best of all worlds, ...
Peter in Gander NF has the opposite problem of water hammer. When he turns the hot water ON in the shower, he gets a loud bang in the plumbing. Water Hammer is where you get a bang when you turn the water off.Peter's problem is usually caused by a washer type faucet that has a loose washer,...
Here is a question and answer that you might find interesting."When we take a shower in the second bathroom of our house we bet a mild tingling when we touch the fixtures that the water comes out of. Our guest and family are really funny. They think that the tingling is because they feel inv...
Most nail pops come from one of two basic causes: fiberglass holding the panel away from the stud, hence a gap between the stud and the panel; or shrinking wood.Assure contact between the panel and the stud at the moment the nail or screw is driven home and you avoid the first problem.The seco...
Revised November 2, 2004Should electrical outlets be installed with the ground pin up or down?There is a lot of debate and few regulations on this question.The first time I got asked this question, it came from Newfoundland. You can see my answer to that question by searching for ""Outlets"" in...
We had to go to the Dimplex factory in Toronto to find out how they make a smoke-and-mirrors fireplace look really really like a real wood fire. It is quite amazing. The flames are a rotisserie of aluminum foil reflecting lights up and off a mirror.The bricks on the back of the fireplace are ac...
Sometimes the dimmer hums and sometimes the light itself hums. What is happening and how can it be stopped?Not too long ago we had light dimmers that were simple rheostats. These would lower the voltage going to an ordinary light bulb and it would dim. No problems. But because we have devel...
