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Found 47 results for the keyword ‘Structure’

  • How to stabilize a floor made out of only 2x4's.

    Pat has an 80 year old house and the previous owner built an addition onto it. The floor is tiled and when Pat looked underneath the floor to find out why it was so bouncy, she discovered (see the photo) that the floor joists were 2x4's turned flat! That's not a floor, that's a trampoline, and on...
  • Pressure Treated Wood - the new generation

    Have we really moved to a new generation of Pressure Treated Wood? With the introduction of MicroPro treated wood to the Canadian market in the spring of 2013, some are saying that we have a game change in exteriour wood and building decks.  It has taken several years to get this technology adap...
  • Deck Span Tables

    Decks need to be built strong enough to not fall down or have deck boards break for lack of support. In addition, although they do not need to be as solid as a floor in the house, they should not bounce like a trampoline. The structures of most decks in Canada are built with pressure treated wood...
  • Outdoor basement stairs -- CAUTION!

    Can I cut in a door where the basement window is presently? Ed and Shirley from Dundas, Ontario want to put a door into the basement right where there is presently a window. Can they do it? If the door is the same width as the window, there will be no structural problems above. If you make the ...
  • Foundation settling - Reading the cracks

    Our camera caught up with Alfred at the renovation centre and he says that he has cracks in the concrete and in the plaster. What to do?  (Be sure to read all the way to the end of the article to learn how to read a crack.) The important first step is to determine which one of three possibilitie...
  • Supporting outdoor structures

    In this 2004 HGTV episode, we collected several different viewer questions about supporting outdoor structures so we could compare one to the other.  At the bottom of this article I have added, in 2015, the Helix screw piles that may just have replaced all the rest. Elephant Feet The first vi...
  • Techniques for Installing Drywall

    Wood Bracing for Doors, Windows, Cupboards and Shelves