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Eco-Disposal Helps the Environment and your Community
Occasionally, we tire of furniture and want to replace it even though there it still has plenty of life left. Or we may move to a smaller or larger home and the existing pieces are no longer useful or needed. Rather than adding to already overpopulated landfills, consider local charities.
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Ventilating Basement Radon Gas in the Home
Radon is a natural gas derived from uranium found in the soil that is odorless, tasteless and invisible. It seeps out of the ground and enters the home usually through cracks and crevices in the basement and can affect other areas of the home. In the open air, the amount of radon gas is very small and it does not pose a health risk. However, in some confined spaces like basements and underground mines, radon gas can accumulate to relatively high levels and can become a …
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Energy Saving Basement Finishing Ideas
In Ontario, all new homes built after 1975 had to have basement foundation wall insulation with an R12 rating just two feet down from the sill plate. This was designed to prevent condensation from forming on the top half of the foundation wall that was exposed above ground level. This code provision is a standard component of all Canadian and United States building codes today. For older homes built before 1975, there was typically no basement insulation. Recently, the …
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Consider a Finished Basement
For many homeowners, finishing the basement provides the solution to many items on the family “wish list”. A place to play, a space for entertainment, a home office, organized storage – the uses for an attractive basement are limited only by your imagination.
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Venture Into the Darkness
A home’s crawlspace is often used for storage and may be a place that homeowners rarely explore. With its low ceilings, minimal light and often cluttered space, venturing into this unchartered territory might be a little scary. Though you may not have any idea what you are storing in your crawlspace it is important to know that air flows in and out of there, and can affect the overall health of your home. Crawlspaces are built directly above the ground, which means that …
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How to Stop Your Home's Rising Energy Costs
The cost of moving into a new home can be quite steep. New homeowners are often focused on buying new home furnishings, appliances and accessories. But one other important thing to consider is how your home can help you save money in the long run. Insulating your basement is one way to help put money back into your pocket. An insulated basement can help reduce energy costs and increase your living space, as well as help increase the resale value of your home. A …
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Fixing a Wet Basement
Growing up in the west end of Toronto, our three-storey attached Victorian row house had beautiful stained glass windows, spacious rooms and a third floor bedroom large enough to house four children. The basement, however, housed the mountain of coal dumped through the basement window, quarterly, which fed our furnace – that was it! In the early 1950s, people just accepted the fact that basements were dark, dank, wet and only about 6 feet high. Today it’s a different …
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Basement Insulation Building Science
Basement insulation, specifically extruded polystyrene (XPS) insulation, is the best basement insulation to use for residential basement construction. Dow Chemical invented XPS insulation, giving it a closed cell structure that proved to be ideal for use in basement insulation projects. There are no holes or voids that would allow water to penetrate. In fact, Dow’s XPS insulation is so waterproof that it is used to make billets for floating docks. Because it has high …

