Vent yes, turbine no. A vent on the top of the roof is designed to let hot moist air out of the attic. It is critically important that air can get into the attic as low down as possible, ideally up through the soffits. This air then feeds up and out the roof top vents. When there are little o...
-- 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...
Ventilation in a Canadian attic does very little to remove moisture when the temperature in the attic is below freezing. During that time, the moisture is in the form of Ice and the passing air simply won't remove it -- whether you have passive vents or power vents. When things warm up, if the ...
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...
Click here for the BP Class Action Suit relating to failing organic based asphalt shingles. Asphalt shingles should be able to take a lot of heat and cold, over and over again. So why do some suddenly curl up, asks Craig from Point-Claire, Quebec?Cold climate shinglesProbably the first thing to u...
Ice Dams are a serious problem throughout Canada, although it varies from year to year as to which region gets hit. Here we visited one of the solution companies who work to seal up the primary cause of ice dams, the warm air leaks into the attic. For more background on the problem check out th...
2009 update: Safer's De-Moss, specifically made for removing moss, is still available but considered a controlled herbicide in many jurisdictions. If you cannot find it in stores, check GOOGLE.You can't mechanically remove this moss without bothering all the gravel, perhaps even the roof. You n...
For those of you who have decided that your house needs the protection of a grid of lightning rods, we took a look at a company that provides the basic service, but decorates it into something classy looking on the roof.Custom Cupola & Steeple Co in Oakville, Ontario make just about anything ...
We visited Anne's roof in a previous show where she had three different types of roofs, no flashings and inadequate transitions between each roof, and of course water buckets in the house. In fact one roof was only six years old, the centre part in good shape but the flashings letting in enough ...
Bernice from Midland, Ontario wants to know how to get more insulation into her vaulted, or cathedral ceiling.The common problem with structures like this, that we call "compact roofs", is that there is not usually enough space for a lot of insulation and a lot of ventilation. In fact, when the ...
