Brad Gates from AAA Wildlife in Toronto talked about the hazards wild animals can present to the health of your home and yourself and he showed how he traps or exits the animals.One critical and poorly known health item is that Raccoon feces often contains worms that can be fatal to humans! T...
Exhaust fans are the minimum necessary in houses for taking out stale air. You may have a fan, but it may not be working. It could be clogged up, improperly installed or simply too noisy for anyone to turn it on. Quiet fans, with good controls are a must in our energy efficient and often stuff...
Catherine in Toronto has asbestos insulation on the hot water pipes that run from her boiler to her radiators. She is changing the boiler and wonders if she has to remove all the old insulation.If the insulation is in good shape and will not be disturbed by the new work, then it can be left a...
Paul in Calgary, Alberta has a partially finished basement and wants to complete the job now, but he has one stud covered with black stuff. Is this mould? Is this serious?It is probably mould and it is probably serious. Put a little laundry bleach on it. If it changes colour, it is most li...
No insulating materials on the market in Canada today have asbestos fibers in them. Most of the scare a few years back about asbestos came from acoustic tiles, asbestos linings in ventilation ducts, and asbestos insulators in heating devices such as hair dryers. It was also discovered that ...
Grandpa had winter air quality problems in his house -- it was always too dry and an occasional back draft would fill the room with smoke. Other than that, pollution or the absence of air didn't pose a problem. Why? His drafty old house worked like a fresh running stream -- it continually ...
In a house of any size it is easy to get sufficient oxygen for breathing. If a combustion furnace is not operating you could live for days on the oxygen in your house with no fresh air at all. What we often mistake for a lack of oxygen is a concentration of pollutants. Carbon dioxide (CO2) for...
Dr. Don Pinchin of the Pinchin Group in Mississauga, Ontario is an expert in asbestos abatement who usually works on large commercial projects. We got him to show us what forms of asbestos we might still find in our homes, and just how dangerous they might be.The key message was that if it is...
Rose & Donald in Aurora, Ontario had a sewer back-up a while back. They cleaned up and then redecorated the basement, laying cushion flooring directly over the concrete. Now they have random spots coming through the vinyl that won't go away.If good cleaning products can?t remove the spot...
As we so well know from the Walkerton experience, municipal and rural water supplies can become contaminated. Municipalities do have testing mechanisms in place. And although they were not applied in Walkerton, because of that experience we can probably feel even more confident that municip...
