NEW CONSTRUCTION
In the interests of health and safety a number of trades are controlled by law, most particularly plumbing and electricity. The degree to which plumbing and electrical work are actually regulated varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. For instance almost all work performed in...
Controlling a hydronic radiator when there is no water shut-off valve.
Hydronic heating means heating with hot water or steam. With older systems it often means overheating as well!
IS THERE NOTHING YOU CAN DO?
Hydronic heating was what kept houses hot a long time ago, and some of the old...
The Bucket List
“Having a Zoom call with Jon was so easy and efficient. I prepared a list of questions regarding various issues in my house. I was then able to walk around and show him in realtime each one and he was able to answer all of them in great detail. I didn’t need to take any notes reg...
It all started when his older brother and sister were really good at music and he couldn't carry a beat with the garbage can. So he holed up in the basement and built boats. The saving grace for his 12-year-old engineering talents was the discovery that wooden boats float even if they're full of ...
(updated May 2023) -- Essentially nothing has changed in the last year -- read on.
As for heating contractors that say you have no choice but to go all-electric, they are either ignorant of the regulations or lying to you. When they tell you that you have no choice, tell them to call their ...
After an exchange about hydroxyl air purifiers, Mike asks another question:
"What is your opinion on purification units with HEPA and carbon filters versus the hydroxyl technology. I am reading a lot about fine particle pollution I.E dust and I notice that this (hydroxyl) technology does not eli...
Skylights are basically windows that are not vertical, but usually closer to horizontal as they sit on top of the roof. Most are fixed but some open a bit for summer ventilation. There also exist roof windows which are basically skylights that open wide and are much more common in Europe where ...
Click here to scroll down past all the legal updates to see the
Overview of the debate on Cell Phones, Wi-Fi and Smart Meters.
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Update Dec. 2019: The US Supreme Court just rejected an appeal of a lower court ...
Kim from Victoria, B.C. pulled up a carpet and discovered that the concrete floor slab was not level with the door sill. What to do? Use Self Levelling concrete.
This is an easy to find but very special type of concrete that will say 'Self-Levelling' right on the bag. It is designed to flow like...
A comment from a reader:
"I notice in your section on self leveling concrete that you mention about needing to let the water out before putting anything on top of the new compound. (Self Leveling Concrete) This is a common misconception about concrete, in fact the water does not leave, it become...
Arlette from Victoria BC is trying to dig through the confusion of all the power tool marketing. Let me copy much of her letter here, because she really is asking the kind of questions we all ask sometimes when looking at that wall of tools where each claims to be as good as the next and we are n...
Ok, I'm not the best painter in the DIY world. I don't even enjoy painting that much. So I asked Alan Watkins from Sico paints to come in so I could grill him on my common painting errors.
I always thought that the thick rollers were for rough surfaces and the low mat rollers were for smoother s...
Theresa in Grand Valley Ontario is not looking forward to keeping a nice brass backsplash in her kitchen nice and brass looking.
The key is to clean it well, making sure there is no wax on it, and then spray it with a varnish or any other clear finish. Simply some transparent finish from a spray...
Wooden window sashes tend to rot. There are special hardening and filler materials that can do a good job of restoring this wood without having to replace it -- also good for the bottom of door frames.
A wood hardener is the starting point, to solidify existing soft wood and prepare the area for...
Copper is a trusted and proven piping for residential water systems. For years people have been interested in one form or another of more flexible plastic or mixed metal/plastic pipes that could be snaked through a house with fewer joints and easier installation. Unfortunately there have been m...
Gregory in Québec asked:
I recently replaced my oil furnace with a heat pump/electric furnace system. I live in the region of Montreal. The heat pump can heat/operate in temperatures as low as -30c. The oil furnace had an air intake duck supplying the furnace with outside (cold) air. I underst...
Research projects by George Brown College,Red River College and Jon Eakes
studying pressure equilization in low rise wood frame residential construction
GEORGE BROWN COLLEGE
Link to PDF: Pressure Equalization final report revised January 2024 -- George Brown College.
Link to Fenestratio...
Ed from Quesnel, B.C. had patched a leak in his concrete wall. It worked -- no more water. But now a strange white stuff has developed all around the patch. What is happening?
Obviously he has succeeded in stopping the water from entering his basement, but he has not eliminated the presence of w...
One viewer has tried loosening the screws that hold the heater to the wall to stop that ping noise, to no avail. No, that is not where it is rubbing. There will always be a little bit of metal expansion noise when a baseboard heater goes quickly from totally cold to maximum hot, but it can be min...
Jean Charles from Shawinigan, Quebec noticed that the heat from his baseboard heaters was flowing up and being "wasted" by hitting the cold window glass. So he decided to put a piece of plywood over the heater to deflect the heat out into the room. He even sent me sketches of before and after.
Y...
Paul from Vancouver wants to put some new stairs down to his basement, but he has a very limited opening in the floor above. He wants to know just how do you determine the slope of stairs.
In the first photo you can see on the model the triangle formed by stairs as they go to the basement. The t...
