If there is one tool that everyone living in Northern United States, Canada and mountainous regions has it's an ice scraper for your car's windshield. And if there is one thing we all have in common, it's the fact that long before the end of the winter, it no longer scrapes well. So just like w...
In woodworking a slot is a channel usually made to receive another piece. It is either designed to be a tight fit to hold something together like shelving or T&G flooring, or a sliding fit to permit things to move. A little research on vocabulary will tell us that a dado is a slot cut a...
We visited a demonstration solar energy house in Guelph, Ontario and Teresa Paul from Nexus Solar Corp. who designed it. In this very standard looking house we could see the bringing together of all the basic concepts of solar energy for both winter and summer. To emphasise that this did no...
Foam guns are the air sealing tool of our epoch. We all use them. We all kill them. We all wish they would last longer and clog less. Of course there are as many different qualities of single component poly-urethane foam guns as there are different qualities of foams — at least we can be happy t...
If the sun has unobstructed access to the inside of your house through lots of window space, and if you have a well-insulated house, the sun can cause overheating in the summer and sometimes even in the winter.
If the south-facing window area of your house is more than 6 per cent of the floor ar...
When it is time to replace your windows you will hear a lot of confusing and even contradictory things from contractors, salesmen and even friends. If you just look up Windows in this database you might be overwhelmed -- so here are the links to the most useful entries specifically related to pla...
Connect to your favourite weather forecaster and look for the following conditions:
Category: Sealants (Caulking) Product: Water based caulking / Acrylic Latex
Temperature Limitations: Above +5 C (+40 F) to +15 C (+60 F) depending on brand
Rain Limitations: No rain for 30 min.
Wind Lim...
Connect to your favourite weather forecaster and look for the following conditions:
Category: Sealants (Caulking) Product: Silicone Caulking / Sealant
Temperature Limitations: Above +5 C (+40 F) and below +27 C (+80 F)
Rain Limitations: Apply to a clean, dry surface - no rain for 30 min...
Connect to your favourite weather forecaster and look for the following conditions:
Category: Sealants (Caulking) Product: Polyurethane Caulking / Sealant
Temperature Limitations: Above + 5 C (+40 F)
Rain Limitations: No rain for 1 hour
Wind Limitations: n/a
Humidity Limitations: Mis...
Weather-stripping is used to seal air leaks at any opening in the house that moves -- doors, windows, and traps. If you need to be convinced of the necessity of doing a good job of weather-stripping, check out Air Barriers in the search tab above -- or look at your last heating bill.
Much of ...
