The world of tiles is changing rapidly.
Twenty years ago we generally had a range of tile sizes from 1 ft x 1 ft down to tiny mosaic tiles. This made tiling relatively simple because slight changes in the flatness of the surface could be adjusted for at the next grout line. In fact that is...
I have always said that as far as the cold getting into your house is concerned, a window is always the coldest part of a wall. But no longer. A company called Prelco from Riviere-du-loup, Quebec has produced a window called Prel-Therm that actually plugs into your electrical system. That's right...
When air gets into hot water radiators, either from new water in the system or even from problems with seals, it can make noise and reduce the heating effectiveness of the system. That running water noise is actually caused by a big air bubble at the top of a radiator and the water falls through ...
More and more we are seeing tankless water heaters, both for replacing our regular hot water tank and for hot water radiant heating. Do they work? Where did they come from? Are they proven technology or new gadgets?
MOST OF THE WORLD IS TANKLESS
Actually, we may want to ask: "Where have we b...
Leafs and other debris clogging up the rain gutters can be the death of a roof. On a one story bungalow you can pretty easily keep those gutters clean but when things are higher up, or you have a lot of mature trees in the yard, it can be a big maintenance task. If you have tried any of the scree...
In 2002, one of my HGTV staff read an article on the web about a man that had found the miracle solution for cleaning up oil spills in the ocean. He claimed that all you had to do was to put paraffin flakes on the oil and it would all gather together in one concentrated mass and you could simply ...
Every few years I need to update this "innovations" entry as things just keep getting better. Not all "gadgets" to save water work, and not all toilets actually flush clean. For details on the comparative performance of low flow toilets that do work, check out the MaP rating system, which is be...
I bet you can imagine how many manufacturers send me products hoping that I will put them on TV. Well, here is one where I called MinWax and asked them to send me over some Wipe-On-Poly. I have fallen in love with this stuff.
It is simply a clear polyurethane finish, but formulated to not gum up...
Have you ever tried to run a string up from the gate latch, through the post and then put a ring or something on the outside. Of course it gets stuck in the wood or breaks, requiring you to either go through the house with your muddy boots, or over the fence.
So finally (2014) one of those inven...
A great new tool for measuring angles – The SawSet. Cabinet makers and finished carpenters have always used two legged devices that you could set to any angle, lock down and transfer that angle to something else. But to measure angles, we have always been limited to reading impossible little ray...
