Most flat top roofs are made up of layers of asphalt, roofing paper, asphalt, roofing paper, asphalt, roofing paper, and then gravel. Although most leaks are caused by damaged or poor flashings, the built up membrane itself can get old and worn.The gravel serves to keep the UV rays of the sun aw...
There is a lot of debate about whether to put a vapour retarder (vapour barrier) on an insulated wall behind shower tiles. The code has not historically been specifically clear on this so we get lots of different interpretations. What the code does say clearly is that we should not have two vap...
When two apartments share the same heat source and only have one thermometer, someone is always unhappy. If the thermostat is upstairs, the downstairs people are too cold, and if the thermostat is downstairs, the upsatirs people have to open the windows, to keep from getting cooked although thos...
To my mind old fashioned hardwood floors are far more trouble than they are worth, especially now that we have better and better Engineered Floors available. An engineered floor is not a cheap plastic laminate on masonite floating floor. It is a very stable, usually pre-finished, real massive h...
Ray from Rothesay, N.B. has a rumbling sound in his hot water heating pipes. Servicemen drained them twice, thinking it was air in the pipes, but no improvement.First idea, maybe it is a bad bearing in the circulation pump. You can check that out by putting your ear right to the pump when it ki...
-- Take care of air barriers, ventilation and vapour barriers before insulating. Check out these three topics in the Search Tab above.-- Don't block the eave vents with insulation.-- Do cover the top of the outside wall.-- Don't put plastic foam on top of porous insulations (batts, loose fill) a...
Gary from Hamilton, Ontario writes :I know that brick veneer homes have vent holes in the lower rows to allow air to equalize the pressure and help keep water out. We have just bought a 50 year old solid brick (two layers of brick) house. I notice there are no vent holes and it doesn't appear t...
Many of you have certainly heard of the beautiful Butchart Gardens in Victoria B.C. As you can imagine, when I visit a place like that I want to see more than just the flowers. So, David Clarke gave me a tour of the hidden side of the gardens: where their water comes from. What may surprise yo...
Radiant Heating and Convection Heating are the two primary types of ways we heat our houses. FORCED AIR HEATINGConvection heating means moving hot air -- what we usually call a forced air heating system simply heats air and moves it around the house through a system of fans and ducts. Forced air...
I am always amazed at house construction where so often things are half built or more while people are running around beginning to think about "extras" that should never be though of as "extras" but as part of the essential system. So time for one of my lectures -- (you asked for it).Heating is o...
