Randy in Winnipeg has found small cracks in a foundation wall and wants to know how to fix them.
Right up front I want to make the statement that it is often not worth the bother to fix a small crack in a foundation wall that is not moving -- especially if no water is coming in. The best way to...
A caller from Ontario has a leak that keep's coming in through the wall despite the efforts of two contractors.
It is often very difficult to find the place where water gets into the wall, when it is not something obvious like a crack in the caulking around a window. You need to make a careful i...
The national building code requires a minimum level of insulation in a basement that reaches about two feet below the outside grade level. The objective is to make this storage space a heatable space. Hence some materials and techniques have developed that satisfy this minimum code requirement th...
One of our viewers is about to insulate his basement and he has been told that he should not run the vapour barrier all the way to the floor. Fact or fiction?
You should run the vapour barrier wherever there is insulation to keep the moisture on the warm side of the wall. And in a basement insta...
It is always better to insulate on the outside of basements and crawl spaces, but usually more expensive and more trouble.
Brick or field stone foundations must not be insulated on the inside for much more than one foot below ground level. The poor quality of the mortar in these foundations dete...
An animation on a CD that I produced with the Reader's Digest several years ago showed clearly why you should insulate the entire wall all the way down to the floor. No, you won't freeze anything outside, as the important footings are below the frost depth anyway and there is always some heat los...
Ron from Penticton, B.C. has a "stepped" foundation with a pony wall from the concrete to the ceiling above. This upper portion is insulated but not the concrete. He wants to insulate it all. He asks: "Does he have to remove the existing drywall, and does the vapour barrier need to extend over th...
As you can see in the first graphic, the soil helps to insulate a basement so there is more heat lost on the top of the basement than on the bottom. That is why the National Building Code requires a minimum level of insulation in a basement that reaches from the floor boards above your head, down...
Evert from Brownsburg, Quebec has the problem of a sewer odour in his bathroom but isn't sure where it is coming from and whether or not he needs to change his toilet.
It can in fact be difficult to localize the source of sewage odours and hence which fixture or drain is guilty.
One technique ...
A viewer caught our TV cameras in a renovation centre and asked about cleaning aluminum siding.
An interesting fact about siding is that white aluminum siding and to some extent white vinyl siding both tend to "chalk". If you run your hand over it, you get a bit of a chalk like deposit on your h...
