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Found 187 results for the keyword ‘Environmental’

  • Snow and Ice are ripping the rain gutter off of my metal roof.

    Every year the snow and ice slipping down from one of our viewers roofs does great damage to their rain gutters. How to stop it?   POSITION THE RAIN GUTTER RIGHT The rain gutter should be installed a bit lower down so it is not directly in the path of the sliding snow, and the metal roof shoul...
  • Raising the Driveway Slab

    Lokesh from Newmaket has a problem with his concrete driveway not being level. It actually flows water into the house. If you don't want to dig it all up and start over (which sometimes is the cheapest solution), you can actually raise the concrete slab to level it or even slope it away from the ...
  • How to find where leaks enter the wall.

    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...
  • Calibrating your Hygrometer

    Yes you can check if your hygrometer or humidistat is giving you the right readings. Mix into a glass, one part water to two parts salt -- like 1/4 cup water to 1/2 cup salt. Mix it thoroughly. Now put this glass and the hygrometer into a sealed plastic bag at 22 degrees C, room temperature. Wait...
  • What is Radon and should I be worried?

    The basic message to remember is that Radon is a dangerous cancer causing gas and if found to exist in high concentrations in your house the problem can be solved permenantly and at a reasonable cost.  So we don't want to ignore the possibility, we need to test every house in Canada. 7% of homes...
  • SOLAR ENERGY

    The sun's energy is free. It's collecting it that costs money. There are two different ways of collecting solar energy; actively and passively. Active solar heating systems collect the sun's heat and transport it into the house where it is used to heat water or living space. Usually there is a...
  • Water in the bottom of the window well.

    Robert from Oakville, Ontario wrote: I live in a town house and only have two basement windows. Last year I cut out the wall on one of the windows and took out the 32" X 15" window and replaced it with a 32" X 24" window. It worked great. So this year I decided to enlarge the back window before f...
  • WHAT IS RELATIVE HUMIDITY and HOW DOES IT RELATE TO COMFORT?

      Montreal winters are uncomfortably cold;           while in Saskatoon it is even colder but more comfortable Montreal summers are uncomfortably hot ;           while in Arizona it is even hotter but more comfortable Why?  It is all about Relative Humidity. If we come to understand humidit...
  • Old fashioned linoleum has found new colours

      Linoleum used to be the kitchen floor covering of choice, but with the arrival of less expensive vinyl flooring which had colourful patterns, it got lost in the market. Yet linoleum has always been one of the most natural flooring materials following wood. It has been and is still made up ba...
  • Electric radiant floor heating without electromagnetic radiation!

      In the spring of 2004, a young and dynamic company in Quebec got a new radiant heating cable out of the laboratory and onto the market that has almost no electromagnetic radiation. "FlexTherm" from Longueuil, Quebec came out with what they call their Green Cable. With a sensitive professional...