Chris from Clarenville, Newfoundland has a mysterious crack in his ceiling that you can see in the photo. It comes and goes with the seasons and nothing appears to be able to keep it closed. Why he asks.
Many houses today are constructed with pre-fabricated "trusses" for the ceiling joists an...
"Decor" paints are the deep rich colours that are often used for decorative trims or accent walls. But home painters are constantly complaining to me that they can't get the right colour at home, or that it requires three and four coats to cover the old wall.
To understand what is wrong and h...
Dan wrote in asking what is that little diamond mark on his tape measurer at 19-3/16 inches?
Look further down the tape and you will see it repeated every 19+ inches, always at some imprecise measurement, not really a multiple of 3/16 of an inch. Finally when you get to 8 ...
When air flows through the edges of carpets, the carpet acts as a filter and collects whatever is in the air. Hence we often find dirt streaks around heating outlets where some of the air sneaks under the grill and through the rug.
Often, streaks are found near baseboards where household air flo...
If any one thing distinguishes Canadian home improvement from American home improvement, it is the Robertson (square socket) screw. In this segment, we took a look at the history of this famous Canadian invention and visited their head office and warehousing operation in Milton, Ontario. Wikipedi...
Bill from Qu'appelle Valley in Saskatchewan is trying to figure out why his toilet tank just won't fill up. The flapper is in place but the water seems to be just flowing through.
Rubber flappers do get old and need replacing. If you use a chlorine puck in the tank to help keep the bowl clean, ...
Colour from the studs themselves is not really "bleeding" through the drywall, but it is the studs that are causing the problem.
When metal studs are used in outside walls of a house, they conduct so much energy through the metal that the overall R-value of an R-19 wall drops to only R-10. When ...
Tim lives in a 13 year old house and is rather disturbed by the fact that he can see the studs and ceiling joists as if they were coming right through the wall.
Don't panic Tim, this is unfortunately very common. It relates to a poor job of insulation in a cold climate.
You see, the ...
Scott in Grand Falls, NF has a loud banging noise in his pipes every time he shuts off a faucet.
In some plumbing systems when a faucet or an automatic valve like in a washing machine stops the water too fast, it tries to keep going and you get a banging sound throughout the house. The pipes are...
Meir Schneider runs a School for Self Healing in San Francisco and several years ago I had the occasion to take a seminar from Meir on therapy massage. I asked him to come onto my HGTV show to give us a few tips on how to improve things that prevent us from working around our own houses as we get...
