Often in constructing a house, the sequence of putting up walls, applying outside sheathing and installing insulation batts can leave the outside corner as a hollow spot with no insulation. The carpentry work was done and the hollow corner closed and hidden before the guys with the fiberglass eve...
Epoxy is the most water resistant of all grouts and is probably one of the most durable, making it a good grout for a ceramic tile kitchen counter top where you will be scrubbing it clean all the time. But there are some tips for working with it.
It comes as a kit with three pouches: the A and B...
Scratches on furniture can often be camouflaged by any of a number of simple techniques, especially if the scratch follows somewhat the grain of the wood.
WIPE-ON POLY
When there is no stain on the wood, so the finish is actually the natural colour of the wood, simply putting a bit more fini...
It is rather surprising to me how little information there is available on sump pumps and more specifically on sump pump pits.
We find two basic kinds installed in homes.
One is just a water collection box where perimeter drains flow and a pump then lifts the water up and away from the house.
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The most effective technique, one that can save you hundreds of dollars of erroneous digging, is to use a "sonar probe".
This gadget is often combined with a video camera designed to look inside sewer pipes.
An emitter probe is snaked into the drain line. You walk...
"How can I paint my concrete floor when there's white powder on it?"
White powder is salt deposits called efflorescence that is there because high quantities of moisture are migrating through the floor. You need to solve the water problem first or no paint will stick. So find out why there is wa...
An animation on a CD that I produced with the Reader's Digest several years ago showed clearly why you should insulate the entire wall all the way down to the floor. No, you won't freeze anything outside, as the important footings are below the frost depth anyway and there is always some heat los...
David in Toronto sent us a photo of some very badly worn steps that he wanted to recover with wood without removing the old stairway. It is not easy, but it can be done.
First sand or cut the round nose of each stair square. We will put a new round nose on as the last step.
Clean the stair off ...
I recently spent some time at the Terrazzo, Tile and Marble Association training centre in Toronto and learned some very basic but surprising things, like just how to apply tile mastic and why it makes a difference.
Using a notched trowel gives you a measured quantity of mastic or thinset m...
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...
