There are several non-destructive ways that we can see what is going on inside the walls, ceilings and roofs of our homes. Simply watching the melting patterns of a light snow on the roof will tell you where you have insulation and where you have heat losses. In the first photo this was an unheat...
Oil spills in water can be a real problem -- ranging from oil in your swimming pool, to around a boat dock or serious spills from commercial vessels. Old techniques try to contain the oil, but wave action can sabatoge that. Dispersents have proved to cause more problems than they solve. New te...
Bruce from Thunder Bay writes:
I own a mobile home that is 12' x 64' and I have to replace the skirting around the base and which product is best to use. You always talk about regular homes but not mobile homes and we need help too. In the area that I live in there is a very high water table and...
All electrical currents give off electromagnetic radiation when there is any change in the current flow, which means that our standard AC current is giving it off all the time. (DC current only creates an electromagnetic field when it goes on or off or changes magnitude.) Transformers tend to giv...
On January 1, 2004 the wood industry throughout North America has ceased to produce pressure treated wood treated with CCA (chrome, copper and arsenic) for residential use, replacing this chemical with what is generically called 'non-arsenic' treatments, primarily ACQ and Copper Azole (CA), both ...
Concrete, outdoors in the Canadian climate, has a particularly difficult time surviving. Walkways, patios, driveways and the like must have as much as 4 to 6 inches of gravel as a drainage base to minimize the effects of shifting from frost movement in the soil. Drainage around these areas has to...
Hilda has a century-old house and is repointing the bricks. She wants to know if it is wise to seal the wall with Silicone to prevent water from getting in.
The answer is -- no.
Brick is designed to shed water, absorbing a bit, but drying out quickly as soon as the rain stops. In addition the a...
revised Spring 2009
WEATHER
Follow this link for details on critical weather specifications for applying water repellents to outdoor wood.
MOISTURE PROOFING
Although pressure treated wood, cedar and redwood will not rapidly develop rot, any wood left totally unprotected outdoors will grey wit...
A minimum filter is designed to protect the furnace fan from large dust balls -- not to protect your health.
ONE INCH FILTERS
You can start upgrading from there. One of the best of the 1 inch filters is called Filtrete from 3M. It's an electrostatic filter that becomes charged as the air pas...
I received a question on my radio show from a listener who had a brand new washing machine that gave off a dirty sock smell. He would bleach it out but it kept coming back. So he called the manufacturer and the manufacturer said that was normal if you were using cold water! That's a bit of a shoc...
