Gary in Portage La Prairie, Manitoba wants to put a hot tub on the main floor of his home, but he is rightly worried about if the floor can carry the weight.The answer is that very likely you will need additional support. Now obviously you don't want to call the local permits department to find ...
Tony in Burlington has extremely small (8" x 31") basement windows (that sounds more like a gun turret than a window) and he wants to make them bigger. If he cuts into the concrete and makes them bigger will he need reinforcement for new vinyl windows?If existing windows are showing no signs of ...
Tom from Thomasburg, Ontario writes: "I'm thinking about buying a house, however the basement has low ceilings. Is it possible to bust out the cement floor instead of jacking up the house?"Yes you can dig down, but you need to be aware of just how the soil under the house supports the house. Al...
On other shows we talked about wiring in ceiling fans -- today we dealt simply with how to attach it to the ceiling so that it does not come down on top of the bed like a giant blender.You cannot just attach it to the ceiling drywall.You cannot just attach it to a simple electrical box in the att...
Residential elevators were once only dreamed of for very large houses and very rich people. But the baby boomers are changing that in that many wish to remain in their multi-floor houses long after climbing all those stairs has become quite a pain, if not impossible. Hence the development of a ...
In this TV segment we followed a sound proofing specialist through a home, testing it for problems, and indicating some solutions. Elsewhere in this database you will find more through discussions on soundproofing various parts of your house.The photo shows the use of Z-bars or resilient bars on...
Loretta from Nova Scotia inquired of Jon how to straighten her sun porch doors and windows. Erosion from street run-off has undermined the corner of her concrete slab-on-grade porch, dropping that corner of the sun porch. The problem is now solved, but the openings are out of line.The frame o...
Carol in Havelock, Ontario has floors that are so springy that glasses tend to jump off the shelves when she walks by.Springy floors can be perfectly safe, or they can be an indication of a structural danger. Usually they simply mean that the floor is not rigid enough, or stretches too far bet...
When an earthquake strikes you have two major things to worry about:First, things may move or fall over. This could mean glasses falling out of cupboards, or electrical appliances crashing to the ground (fire hazard) or even the hot water tank tipping over (fire hazard again).Second, the house...
John from Hillsdale, Ontario wants to create a storage area in the attic of his garage and wants to know just what he needs to shore it all up. His photos showed that what is there now is not designed to hold any weight at all.The short answer is that he needs to have a contractor or structur...
