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Found 38 results for the keyword ‘Plastic’

  • Which is a better cutting board: plastic or wood?

    Any cutting board can become dangerous to your health if you let it collect bacteria. Rule number one is to use a different cutting board for food that will not be cooked than the one you use for raw meat and fish. If raw vegetables are contaminated, there is no heat process to kill bacteria aft...
  • Copper versus PEX plumbing pipes.

    Copper is a trusted and proven piping for residential water systems.  For years people have been interested in one form or another of more flexible plastic or mixed metal/plastic pipes that could be snaked through a house with fewer joints and easier installation.  Unfortunately there have been m...
  • Tips to applying window shrink wraps for the winter.

    Shrink to fit winter windows are really great draft stoppers and energy savers for old windows and patio doors.   Plastic has almost no R-value Since plastic and glass have no real R-value, the dead air space created between the plastic and the window is as good as can be created with another ...
  • Working with Contact Cement

    Contact cement is a uniquely useful adhesive. It will adhere to most all surfaces and hence is often the in-between for sticking two different materials together. It comes in two basic varieties, solvent based and water based, the later often being called "green" or "solvent free". Although thes...
  • Basement Perimeter Drainage and Leaking Foundations

    This article deals with walls below grade, foundation walls.  For insulating above grade cinder block walls see How do you Insulate a Brick and Block construction as well as Insulating an Above Grade Block Wall from the Inside. The best way to prevent water from leaking into the basement is not ...
  • Weather Restrictions: Epoxy -- "Wet-Bond"

    Connect to your favourite weather forecaster and look for the following conditions:   Category: Adhesives     Product: Epoxy - Wet-Bond Temperature Limitations: Above +10 C (+50 F) -- although a special product called "Cold-Bond" will work at -6 C (+21 F) Rain Limitations: Can be applied in r...
  • Good and bad techniques in insulating basement walls.

    The national building code requires a minimum level of insulation in a basement that reaches about two feet below the outside grade level. The objective is to make this storage space a heatable space. Hence some materials and techniques have developed that satisfy this minimum code requirement th...
  • Vapour barriers in basements

    One of our viewers is about to insulate his basement and he has been told that he should not run the vapour barrier all the way to the floor. Fact or fiction? You should run the vapour barrier wherever there is insulation to keep the moisture on the warm side of the wall. And in a basement insta...
  • Shingle starter strip & should you remove that plastic strip?

      For an overview on changing the roof or roof covering on a house and special information on Mansard roof shingles -- follow this link.   The starter shingle If you put the first row of shingles on the edge of the roof just like all the rest, you will see the bare roof deck through the crac...
  • Epoxy wrap for a leaking pipe - Pow-R-Wrap!

    A viewer from Aurora, Ontario has a small pin hole leak in a copper pipe in the wall and wants to know if there is any way to fix it without having to tear the whole wall open and replace the pipe. There exists an epoxy wrap called "Pow-R-Wrap". You simply turn off the water to relieve the press...