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Found 74 results for the keyword ‘Types’

  • Old fashioned linoleum has found new colours

      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...
  • Electric radiant floor heating without electromagnetic radiation!

      In the spring of 2004, a young and dynamic company in Quebec got a new radiant heating cable out of the laboratory and onto the market that has almost no electromagnetic radiation. "FlexTherm" from Longueuil, Quebec came out with what they call their Green Cable. With a sensitive professional...
  • HEATING SYSTEMS -- AN INTRODUCTION

    Building codes require that a heating system be able to just barely maintain a comfortable house during the coldest day of the year. Hence the size of the heating system depends not only on the size of the house but on where it is located and how well it is winterized (sealed and insulated). The ...
  • History of the Robertson Screw

    If any one thing distinguishes Canadian home improvement from American home improvement, it is the Robertson (square socket) screw. In this segment, we took a look at the history of this famous Canadian invention and visited their head office and warehousing operation in Milton, Ontario. Wikipedi...
  • Chalk line technique & eraseability.

      Chalk lines are used to draw straight lines across large surfaces from about 2 feet to over 20 feet.  But it is not always easy to see the line, especially if you are working in the sun, or your saw has a dusting action that blows the chalk away. Phil from Ottawa sent in the chalkline tip t...
  • Can I put carpet over tiles?

    Madaline wants to put carpet over tile over parquet flooring.  The following answer also applies to vinyl over ceramic tiles. Well, aside from the floor getting so thick that doors may not open and counters will appear to be sinking into the floor, there are a couple important things to know abo...
  • Carpenter Ants & Identifying ants in general

    Carpenter Ants are probably one of the most home damaging insects in Canada and one of the most difficult to control. They don't eat the lumber in the walls of your house; they just dig tunnels through it to make a comfortable living space, but that tunnelling can destroy the structural integrity...
  • Which Paint Is It - Latex or Oil?

    Determining, definitively, whether a given paint was oil or latex has always been a bit of a problem, but an important one as you can paint oil over latex, but not latex over oil unless you use a special 'super adherent primer' first. I used to recommend taking a bit of paint thinner on a clean ...
  • Floor covering in a basement

    I'm asked a lot about covering a floor in a basement. There are several considerations we need to deal with: the hard and cold concrete and maybe with levelling the floor. Of course we need to pay attention to water, either coming from outside the house or from plumbing spills inside the house si...
  • OVERVIEW: Lubricants: Why are there so many choices?

    Lubricants are products designed to make things slip. Sister products that have some lubrication but are specialized for other uses are penetrating oils that are used to loosen up rusted parts, drying sprays designed to remove water from electrical wires and some cleaning sprays. Although I use...