Jason from Auburn, Ontario has found a great way to cut rigid foam insulation.Regular knives are too thick and get stuck in the foam. He sharpens the edge of a putty knife which is strong not by being thick but by being wide. Jason recommends sharpening only one side of the knife to cut better ...
I don't often answer all the details of a long letter, especially not with the time constraints that we have on television. But Larry from Sydney Mines, Nova Scotia wrote such a coherent detailed letter about the 80 years old very cold home that he just bought that I thought I would just wade in...
Bernice from Midland, Ontario wants to know how to get more insulation into her vaulted, or cathedral ceiling.The common problem with structures like this, that we call "compact roofs", is that there is not usually enough space for a lot of insulation and a lot of ventilation. In fact, when the ...
Harold in New Brunswick has a problem with moisture and mould. He has a bungalow with a 2 foot crawl space. There is no insulation in the floor and no vapour barrier under the floor. He asks if installing insulation between the floor joists prevent moisture in the house?No. Most insulation wi...
Sol, from Sudbury, Ontario, has terrible ice dams, as you can see in the photo. They are directly over his bay window. Take a good look at the house design. The bay window comes right out to the edge of the roof, preventing any possibility of any ventilation up over this area. In addition, be...
Kara lives in BC and has foam insulation over her roof with shingles over the foam. She wants to put on new shingles and questions having them right over the foam.You are right to question that application. The first problem is that shingling nails that have to go through an inch of foam will n...
Martin from Moncton, New Brunswick has frost forming on the ceiling of a closet in an unheated bedroom.First, you need to realise that heated or not heated, that bedroom has just as much moisture in it as the rest of the house, perhaps more because moisture tends to migrate from warm to cold area...
What is an Enviro Home? It is an energy efficient R-2000 house that in addition meets a series of environmental requirements that relate both to the process of construction as to the final quality of the house.One example of environmentally friendly construction practices is the re-use of wood. ...
Short question. The short answer is, because they dye it pink.Actually pink is the brand colour for Owens Corning Fibreglass. Yellow is the brand name colour for John's Mansfield. Blue is the brand colour for Dow Chemical's Styrofoam. Even the word "Styrofoam" is a brand name that belongs to ...
A viewer from Nanaimo, BC has a bedroom ensuite far away from the hot water tank and wants to know how to cut down the long delay between turning on the hot water and getting hot water at the tap.Even if you could open the walls and add insulation to the pipe, it would not help the problem. Insu...
