One of our viewers asked about sound proofing a basement room. That is a big topic but here is some information.The QUALITY of sound in a room is the subject of ACOUSTICS, not sound proofing. Acoustical tiles and sponges on the walls do not do much to stop noise movement to or from the rest of ...
Larry in Calgary has the problem that the wind makes a lot of noise with the damper on his bathroom exhaust fan.The banging noise of a duct damper can be reduced or eliminated by carefully placing the self adhesive foam insulation strips as soft bumpers against the damper. Make sure that the d...
In this TV segment we followed a sound proofing specialist through a home, testing it for problems, and indicating some solutions. Elsewhere in this database you will find more through discussions on soundproofing various parts of your house.The photo shows the use of Z-bars or resilient bars on...
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...
Squeaking floors are not always possible to make quiet, but there are different ways to attack different floors.If it is simply plywood over the joists, as with most modern floors, and you have no floor covering or a rug, you can use special screws with special guides that put the screw just th...
Brian in Mississauga wakes his kid up every night because the bedroom floor squeaks so badly. Brian send me his floor plan, showing a large stairwell opening in line with the problem bedroom and no support walls below. He already screwed the plywood down to the floor, to no avail.Before we c...
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,...
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...
Ken Houseley from the Monster Cable company came into studio to educate me a bit on surge protectors, but mostly on how to clean up the electrical current within our house.We all buy bus bars with surge protection for our computers, maybe even our more expensive TV sets and sound systems. Some o...
