Before looking at resurfacing laminate furniture, I gave a small suggestion that a face lifting could be as simple as changing the door and drawer handles. If you haven't visited that isle at the renovation centre lately, you should stop by for a look-see.You can paint the plastic surface. Firs...
The EcoEnergy program of homeowner grants to help retrofit homes has been brought back to life by the federal government in late September of 2011 -- part of the EcoAction initiative. I love this program and the hard workers at NRCan have done a great job of organizing it, explaining it and ma...
Most of you are aware that metal connectors are often used to hold things together in a house, much more than in the good old days. The most common one that most people can see in relatively new basements, even decks, is the joist hanger you see in the second photo. Rather than having to sit th...
Any wood product will expand when it gets wet, some worse than others. Today we have a wide variety of wood or wood like flooring products.Massive HardwoodFirst you should understand that even massive hardwood, if allowed to stay wet or overly humid for too long will swell up and potentially buc...
Good questions, since we are usually trying to take stains out of grout.First you should be aware that you can purchase coloured grout. The renovation stores will have three or four base tones to choose from, not too exciting. Go to a speciality tile store and you will discover a wide variety o...
Tim from Timmins, Ontario has a 2x4 constructed home with wood chips for insulation in the walls. He wants to know if he can leave it there and insulate over the wall on the inside or should he tear it all out?Wood chips do insulate but only at about R-1.4 per inch. Fibreglass is 3.5 per inch a...
We like to talk a lot about the responsibilities of the contractors in a renovation project, but it can be very useful to listen to a good contractor talk about what he needs from the homeowner to help keep the renovation process running smoothly. In this episode we visited with Robert Ludvick o...
Several times I have been asked this question, so I hunted around and found a wonderful little calculator which can do this and much more.It is called Project Calc. It is a regular calculator. Then it is a special calculator that will add, subtract, multiply and divide inches, feet and fraction...
Some tools go un-noticed on the hardware store shelves, like the rotary hammer chisels. At first glance this appears simply to be a heavy duty hammer drill. It has a special quick change chuck called an SDS system and will only work with drills and other accessories with the special SDS shanks....
Dan from Winnipeg, Manitoba writes: "We have an older manufactured home with a basement. Years ago a new roof was put on top of the existing one. It is post & beam with trusses, sheeted in with shiplap and a metal roof put on. The problem is the original metal roof now seems to sweat in th...
