Doors warp with changes in climate, so good weather-stripping should be compressible to take into account small warp differences between day and night, and adjustable to take into account a larger warp movement that starts in the fall and returns in the spring.Doors, like windows, usually have ai...
Caulking is actually a common name for what is properly called "sealants".Contrary to the recommendations of almost every handyman book from the US, do not caulk on the outside of the house except where necessary to keep rain, driving rain and blowing snow from penetrating into the wall. Any ...
-- Cut the nozzle as small as you need but as large as you can get away with; a small bead is harder to squeeze out of the tube than a larger one.-- Make sure the surface is clean and sound.-- Stuff deep and wide cracks with oakum or fiberglass, or foam backer rods. It is discouraging to see ...
For those of you who simply don't like tools, LePage has come up with the No-Gun caulking tube. Yup. It is caulking in an aerosol dispenser. The really nice trick is that they put an adjustable trigger on the can so that you can set the speed you want it to come out -- giving you a very ni...
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 always had the feeling that caulking from toothpaste like squeeze tubes had less body than caulking from gun cartridges. I recently received a whole array of caulking from Sascho, a manufacturer with a great line-up of products and it included a Mildew Free Sealant for bathrooms in a sque...
Foam guns are the air sealing tool of our epoch. We all use them. We all kill them. We all wish they would last longer and clog less. Of course there are as many different qualities of single component poly-urethane foam guns as there are different qualities of foams — at least we can be happy t...
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...
Connect to your favourite weather forecaster and look for the following conditions:
Category: Sealants (Caulking) Product: Water based caulking / Acrylic Latex
Temperature Limitations: Above +5 C (+40 F) to +15 C (+60 F) depending on brand
Rain Limitations: No rain for 30 min.
Wind Lim...
Connect to your favourite weather forecaster and look for the following conditions:
Category: Sealants (Caulking) Product: Thermoplastic Caulking / Sealant
Temperature Limitations: Above -30 C (-22 F) and below +40 C (104 F) -- keep product above +5 C (+40 F)
Rain Limitations: Dry befor...
