You know that I don't believe in trying to keep a basement dry by simply patching all the cracks in a wall. First I want to remove as much of the water as possible from the other side with rain gutters on the roof, downspouts running far away from the house and the landscaping slopped away fr...
"I would like to ask your thoughts on the "pros and cons" on the use of the self-adhesive, 3 ft wide membrane (ice dam) used on the edge of the roof line. I believe that this would replace the felt paper, under the 1st rows of asphalt shingle. We have a sloped roof, but I do not know how ste...
Do not fill the space between brick siding and the sheathing.
First, this space is outside the sheathing and does not cause condensation, as does an air space inside the wall. (A small space between ordinary siding and the exterior insulation or between ordinary siding and sheathing is also perm...
Insulating hot water lines that run through a heated basement or crawl space sounds logical, but in fact it will same you little or no money. The infrequency of their use lets them cool off whether they are insulated or not, and the heat is converted to useful room heat anyway.
The exception is ...
This time I collected some toilets and toilet accessories that you may have never heard of.
The North Vent is a new Canadian invention designed to draw the bathroom exhaust air directly from inside the toilet bowl -- you can't get any closer to the source of the pollution. It uses a good squirre...
Carol from Smith Falls has a new home but has had water running down her basement walls from the beginning, and no one, not even her builder, seems to be able to figure out why. As well, the problem seems to get better and worse with time, but still wet.
First of all you need to keep in mind tha...
This article deals with a block wall above grade. For a below grade block wall see Basement Perimeter Drainage and Leaking Foundations.
Bryan is faced with a totally un-insulated cinder block wall with 1x2 strapping and a plaster covering. He is thinking about stripping it back to the block...
We visited an old poured concrete basement that had one wall that was literally falling apart -- the others were fine. We tracked down roof and yard run-off that just feeds water to this wall all the time. This kept the wall completely saturated and although there were no obvious leaks, the fact ...
Connect to your favourite weather forecaster and look for the following conditions:
Category: Concrete Product: Surface Patching
Temperature Limitations: Above +5 C (+40 F) and below +30 C (+85 F)
Rain Limitations: Protect from rain until concrete is set, 2 to 6 hours (so rain won't was...
Connect to your favourite weather forecaster and look for the following conditions:
Category: Adhesives Product: ABS & PVC Pipe Cement
Temperature Limitations: Above +4 C (+40 F) and below + 38 C (+100 F)
Rain Limitations: Work on dry pipe and keep dry for 15 minutes.
Wind Limitati...
