Before you try to paint the walls, you must properly prepare the wall and the most important step in that is probably to properly clean the walls of all the grease and smoke and dust that they collect over the years.Regular detergent tends to leave a soapy residue, even after careful rinsing, and...
Ralph from Red Deer Alberta sees the shadows of every 2x4 and every nail on the inside of the house not long after painting. I don't think he really wanted to hear that we call this "ghosting".\012\012Actually it is caused by thermal bridging; cold following the studs through the insulation and ...
One of our viewers has discovered that he can keep dust away from a surface for a longer period of time by folding a clothes dryer anti-static sheet into the middle of his tack cloth. The cloth picks up the dust, and the anti-static sheet helps prevent it from coming back too soon.
Michelle (10) and Emily (8) Campbell invited me into their father's wood shop where they had prepared a series of demonstrations to illustrate basic safety precautions for kids working with wood.They walked us through the differences in various types of eye protection, insisted on providing heari...
The first photo shows a respirator. If you have ever used a respirator you will really love this new one. It has a quick latch release that allows you to drop it down off of your face without loosing any of the adjustments of the straps on your head, and quick latch it right back. When using...
Most portable vacuum cleaners have fairly poor filters. Sure most of the real "dirt" gets caught in the bag, but much of the very fine stuff just blows out the back end. A central vac has the same problem, but because it is placed in one place, it can have a much stronger motor to allow it to d...
Craig from Calgary, Alberta has built a woodworking shop in the basement of his house. He wants to cut off the sound from there that is travelling up through the heating ducts that run through the room.First, use aluminium duct tape to seal off all leaks in the ducts. More sound will travel thr...
Wish you could just sweep your shavings into a hole in the floor?You can almost do that by installing a vacuum floor head on the wall as in the photo. Then you just turn on the vacuum and sweep into the slot.These are available in the central vacuum section of renovation centres.
(This entry was originally submitted as an article to Chatelaine Magazine. The heavily edited version which appeared in September 2008 was a fine little article, but missed some critical points like exhausting central vacs outdoors, not making the critical distinction between the bad ozone air c...
I get a lot of questions about choosing and applying a finish to a hardwood floor.First understand that there is no one right answer -- there are a lot of products that each has certain advantages over the others and you need to select the properties that are the most important to you. There are...
