Joan from Armstrong, BC is having trouble adjusting the ventilation system in her new home to keep condensation off the windows. She told us the kind of system she has and said that it was required by the building code. Actually no specific system is required by any of the building codes. ...
Todd is collecting a lot of fine sawdust from renovation work and doesn't want to throw it away. What do to with it?First on the safety side of the question. Fine sawdust in the air is explosive! Keep it in closed containers. Sawdust with any volitle solvents in it is like cleaning rags, it...
One viewer has recommended using Urea fertilizer to melt ice on the roof rather than using salt-based de-icers.Actually, the research done, during the famous 1998 Eastern ice storm, confirms this idea. The salt will discolour the shingles and rust the gutters and generally not be good for eith...
When an earthquake strikes you have two major things to worry about:First, things may move or fall over. This could mean glasses falling out of cupboards, or electrical appliances crashing to the ground (fire hazard) or even the hot water tank tipping over (fire hazard again).Second, the house...
When you consider the total heat given off by an open fire place versus the amount of household air that goes up the chimney throughout the burn cycle, an open fireplace may warm up the room it is in, but it delivers a net energy loss to the house. It is in fact a wintertime air conditioner ...
Dr. Don Pinchin of the Pinchin Group in Mississauga, Ontario is an expert in asbestos abatement who usually works on large commercial projects. We got him to show us what forms of asbestos we might still find in our homes, and just how dangerous they might be.The key message was that if it is...
Paul Kaye is a potter who makes fine terracotta pots, but we took the TV cameras to see not how he makes his pots, but how he makes his own clay. Making his own clay gives him total control over the quality of the product -- and he makes it from old scrap concrete construction blocks. He grinds...
Linda from Kirkland Lake, Ontario has sanded and finished her deck with an opaque stain and finds it impossibly slippery. She has tried painter's sand, but it doesn't work. What to do?The opaque stain is the problem, together with too much sanding. A finely finished kitchen table is slipper...
John has some old Low-E windows and wants to know if he can use them to build a greenhouse.Well there seems to be a lot of controversy in the window and greenhouse businesses about this. Any coating on a greenhouse window will change the light that reaches the plants, and there are several ty...
A dual flush conversion kit for toilets -- saving water.The problem with existing toilets and existing drainage systems is that they were designed and tested using lots of water. When we try to reduce the water in the existing toilet it may not even get the solid waste out of the bowl. Even ...
