There are over 2000 window manufacturers in Canada, and with all that competition, each one wants to make homeowners, renovators, and builders believe that their windows are easier to install than the other brand. This has led to a lot of very poorly built windows that are often difficult to ins...
Marie-Paule from Labelle, Quebec gave me the greatest compliment. She sent in a question in French and said that she watches the program all the time but doesn't understand English. I guess our models and graphics are doing some good.She was asking me how to paint her metal roof because she was...
Victoria asked us: "I have really ugly vinyl siding on the house and would like to paint it. How do I do it?"Here is what works for both vinyl and aluminum siding.The first thing to know is that painting vinyl siding will void the warranty on it. But if it is old and ugly, it is probably beyond...
To my mind old fashioned hardwood floors are far more trouble than they are worth, especially now that we have better and better Engineered Floors available. An engineered floor is not a cheap plastic laminate on masonite floating floor. It is a very stable, usually pre-finished, real massive h...
Fastening to concrete or masonry? We've got three problems: choosing the right fastener, choosing the right tool and then doing it right. Here is some product information and trouble shooting tips.Power Actuated nailingExplosive shot nailling is the most common but the weakest of the serious ...
I get a lot of questions about choosing and applying a finish to a hardwood floor.First understand that there is no one right answer -- there are a lot of products that each has certain advantages over the others and you need to select the properties that are the most important to you. There are...
Leonard (Scotty) Wells, a long time floor installer dropped by to discuss hardwood floor expansion and contraction.His greatest recommendation was to try and control the humidity in the house to keep it as even as possible between summer and winter.Pre-finished floors have less problem of expansi...
Probably one of the best ways to learn about good and bad building techniques is to work on the renovation or restoration side of the construction picture. Here is where you see the results of everything done before, especially when the results are a failed system. In the world of ceramic, stone ...
THE WIRE WORKS, THE CONNECTIONS ARE THE PROBLEM
Aluminum wire does a good job of conducting electricity (although you do have to use one size larger wire than copper for the same electrical load) and can do the same job for less money. So for a short while it was used in houses for regular wirin...