Lee from Portugal Cove, Newfoundland is trying to warm up his floor without warming up his basement. "The floor above the basement is plywood covered with hardwood or vinyl flooring. It is very cold during winter and our 10 month old spends most of his days crawling around on a cold floor. Wil...
Dan from Winnipeg, Manitoba writes: "What would be the best weather stripping to use for the wooden storm doors on my house? Front and Back."Wooden storm doors tend to warp a bit with changes in the weather and with any direct sunlight on them, so you will probably find that the south facing doo...
Debbie from North Bay, Ontario has electric heaters sunk right into her floor. Very few people even know that these things exist, but if you have a baseboard heated house you know how hard it is to get heat in front of a patio door or some other place that needs heat but there seems no way to ge...
Temporary caulking is a transparent caulking specifically designed to be put on a window frame in the Fall and then peeled off in the Spring. It is used to actually caulk old windows, usually sliders, shut for the winter because their weather-stripping just isn't keeping the cold out. Remem...
John in Thunder Bay has moved his gas burning fireplace from the centre of the house and he is moving it to the side of the basement and wants to run it up the outside of the house. He was asking if there could be any problem with downdrafting by doing this. The answer is that this is the worst...
Caulking on the outside of the house has very little to do with stopping cold air drafts from getting into the house. It's purpose is to weather proof the wall against rain penetration. It doesn't generally stop air flow since most siding is purposefully ventilated.Caulking inside the house ...
Daniel in Ottawa has a lot of trouble getting the fire started without smoke in the house.Chimneys on the outside of the house always have more problems than chimneys that run up inside the warm part of the house. There may not be enough air available for the draft to start, which can be demo...
Yes -- if the cold-air input is uncontrolled. In fact, uncontrolled cold-air drafts are the reason for dryness in older houses. Damper control of the cold-air intake (not the hot-air exhaust) will allow you to maintain whatever level of humidity you want.If your furnace combustion air is provid...
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...
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...
