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Found 63 results for the keyword(s) ‘Caulking’

  • Article

    WHICH CAULKING SHOULD I USE?

    -- Oil base, resin base and polyvinyl acetate caulking do not hold up. There are far too many better caulkings available to waste time and money with these old formulations.-- Latex based caulking is inexpensive, can be painted and has medium durability. It is acceptable for baseboards and caul...
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    CAULKING & SEALING

    Caulking is actually a common name for what is properly called "sealants".Contrary to the recommendations of almost every handyman book from the US, do not caulk on the outside of the house except where necessary to keep rain, driving rain and blowing snow from penetrating into the wall. Any ...
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    I'VE WEATHER-STRIPPED MY DOORS BUT THEY STILL LEAK. WHY?

    Doors warp with changes in climate, so good weather-stripping should be compressible to take into account small warp differences between day and night, and adjustable to take into account a larger warp movement that starts in the fall and returns in the spring.Doors, like windows, usually have ai...
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    DOORS

    Doors are large openings in the wall which fall somewhere between windows and walls as far as the heat losses go. You can lose as much heat through a door leading to an unheated garage or basement as you can through the front door.It is now common to buy insulated metal or fiberglass doors th...
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    I'VE SEALED THE WINDOW AND THERE'S STILL A DRAFT. WHY?

    The space between the finished and rough frame of the window (hidden behind the window trim) is a major source of heat loss and hidden moisture damage inside walls. The trim should be sealed or removed and the gap filled and sealed if this was not done at the time of construction. Just stuffing...
  • Article

    HOW CAN I ELIMINATE AIR LEAKS THROUGH WINDOWS?

    Air leaks through the moving parts of windows accounts for as much as 14 per cent of the heat loss in a typical Canadian house. Picking the right kind of windows can certainly help:-- Fixed windows with no moving parts can be completely sealed. -- Fixed window panes with small moveable section...
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    MYTH: STUFFING FIBERGLASS INTO A CRACK WILL SEAL IT.

    False. Fiberglass is what air filters are made out of -- it cleans air but doesn't stop it. It can be used to fill a crack if it is then coated with caulking to seal it. Stuffing fiberglass tightly into the space between the window rough and finish frames will not even insulate very well, as c...
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    WHAT SEALING MATERIAL SHOULD I USE?

    There is a wide and confusing choice, and no one material will do for every job. The questions to ask are: What will it stick to? Can I paint it? How long will it last? You won't be saving money if you have to replace the material often; some caulking materials will harden and crack after on...
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    MYTH: PARTIAL SEALING CAN CONCENTRATE PROBLEMS IN UNSEALED AREAS

    False. If you increased the sealing of the house and did nothing to ventilate or control moisture generation, humidity would build up and force more moisture through the unsealed cracks. But window condensation and air quality demands forces us to keep the humidity in the house to a constant co...
  • Article

    HOW DO I FIND AIR LEAKS?

    First, the fancy way: infrared photography can identify temperature changes on different parts of the house, and thus heat losses. With proper interpretation of the photograph you can know which heat losses are caused by air leaks and which by missing or soaked insulation. This is like an X-ra...
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