Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 15, 1995, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free january 1995 close the gaps to keep heat in theres More to making right insulation decision than meets the Eye from readers digest books modern Home insulation comes in several forms Batts and blankets that fit Between studs and joists Loose fill that is poured or blown in rigid foam sheets and liquid foam injected into Wall All Are rated by their ability to resist heat the higher the the More an insulation will prevent heat loss and Cut fuel in an existing Home will Benefit most from the addition of Batts or Loose fill Between joists in the not Only is this where the most heat is but in an unfinished attic its a Job that the Homeowner can do easily for moderate blowing Loose fill or injecting liquid foam into finished Walls is a Complex process and requires a Here Are some guidelines to the different types of insulation fibreglass Fluffy fibreglass Batts and blankets Are by far the most popular they Are economical and easy to blankets Are Long Batts Are simply blankets Cut into Standard they come in widths to fit Between joists and studs spaced at Standard thicknesses commonly correspond to stud and Joist widths and Range from Roll to r30 in insulating fibreglass is available with or without a vapor install any insulation so the vapor Retarder faces toward the Walls heated which is the Interior Side in cold when installing More insulation Over existing use the kind without a vapor Retarder so moisture wont get trapped Between the old and new layers of fibreglass particles can be Wear a breathing a Lon sleeve shirt and a hat when handling Mineral Wool Mineral Wool is similar to its available in Batts and but is most commonly sold in bags As Loose and its easy to in an unfinished attic with no just Lay a Sheet of polyethylene plastic As a vapor pour the fill Between joists and spread it with a Loose fill pours easily into cavities that cant be reached with other but it settles in particularly in vertical Wall so care must be taken to install it cellulose the advantages of cellulose Are its Low Cost and the ease with which it is blown into otherwise inaccessible made of recycled its treated by the manufacturer with a fire retardant the main disadvantage of cellulose is that its Messy to because it is its also susceptible to moisture which can cause it to shrink and lose its insulation plastic sheets three types of rigid plastic foam sheets Are commonly used for insulation extruded polystyrene is the Best Choice for below Grade insulation of exterior Walls and floors because it resists its expand fled polystyrene is the least expensive of the three but its not moisture its commonly used beneath exterior siding As the Core of foam Ore polyurethane sheets Are also used primarily under they give a High value but Are All three Are if installed they must be covered with fireproof Gypsum work not for faint of heart or Wallet restoration can take a toll by Nick harder Orange county Register Home restoration is not for it is not for the faint of the shallow tee Ter totter marriages or the und Sci it is far and away More difficult than remodelling or even build ing a custom both contractor and Homeowner have to be More knowledgeable at aware of a wider Range of from fixing 50 year old rotting foundations to applying the latest techniques in heat the amount and diversity of subject matter can bog Gle the heres a Little quiz to help you de cide whether you really have what it takes to undergo a House Restora particularly if you have to live in it during the construction Are you shy do you mind getting ready for work in the morning while construction workers wander in do you mind extremes in temperature be prepared to freeze on cold mornings because your non working Furnace has been removed and the new one Hast been in when a hot summer Day a be prepared to sweat if your new which Powers your air conditioning Hast been How deep Are your pockets you budget for the restoration but find Halfway through that youve already spent that whats worse is that your old roof has been your new one is not on yet and its about to do you enjoy eating out even if you you can easily reach the saturation Point in a few the Kitchen int finished and you dont have a new oven or is your marriage really Strong youve heard that remodels often Are a cause of just try a res the duration of construction is often much longer than a re Model because the contractor might be dealing with Many old problems in the Are you a dreamer or a realist this might be a loaded most people who have a Home lovingly restored have to be at least part you have to be Able to envision the restoration to even want it done in the first if youre a at least youll be better prepared for the de Cost and do you have an Overall plan a person who does his or her own restoration piecemeal will Likely end up with it taking much longer and hav ing a less cohesive Wood to Burn when Winter Charles Vanhorn makes sure Hes ready to keep his House the travers Resi Dent heats his Home with Wood and before Winter he stockpiles More than 16 cords of it around his experts suggest the right equipment and skilled maintenance Are needed to make Wood heat a Safe is your House making you sick geomancy might offer some Relief Byla Dutton Thomson news service Victoria if ghost busters Arent making House Calls and you think you need per haps you should get in touch with Henry Dorst practises the european Art of divination using artificial or natural features of the and Feng the Art of managing the Subtle energies of place for health and at that what his press re lease i will help people become More aware of subtleties that can Lead to health problems in the which Are not often addressed As they Are relatively unknown so Dorst said in an geomancy is the general term that i use for anything having to do with the energetics of the Environ ment relating to the Earth and the atmosphere around and that includes the changes induced by the buildings that we place on the earths All he needs is a rough plan of the main floor of your Home to make an assessment of the trouble he normally i do it by going on but i find that if people have lived in a House for any length of their memory serves Dorst said if he can confirm a hell visit the site for fur ther he charges for his but say How usually i have people that Al ready have a sense that there is something not right with their he and so with a floor plan there i look at i see where their appliances i ask questions about the in terms of the landscape under and around he said he became an alternative health practitioner in the Early 70s and Practised applied kinesiology in where he lived for 17 years before moving to he said he began to try to pin Down Why so Many people were hav ing problems that health practitioners seemed unable to and i ran into medical doctors who were aware that the environment was having a significant Impact on patients immune i discovered that there Are Many parallels in the forms of that Art which pertain to the immediate environmental such As where you site your whether its in a in a on a and what kind of Earth and soil conditions Are Spon Soivil Couch potatoes blame cushions by Rob Baldwin q the cushions on my sectional have flattened out and gone out of is there a remedy for this a you dont mention How old the sofa but there is a Good test to judge if your cushions Are giving you proper place the Cushion on a hard a Strong Coffee table will do now sit on the Cushion and see what if you find that you have flattened it out to the Point where there is no More Spring left in you can Call the Coroner to have your foam declared officially a four or five Inch Block foam should allow you to if you kill it when you sit on it is no longer providing you with any sup this will cause you to be less than comfortable while youre sit Ting and make it downright difficult for you to get most of the cushions we replace Are about five years the soft ening is a gradual so you May not even be aware of what has when you think that you have to sign up for aerobics because you dont have the Energy to get off the Couch or take Couch potatoes can now get away with blaming the replacing foam cushions is an easy and inexpensive Way to put new life into a tired there is a variety of Quality and density so always look for a War remember that foam will always soften up to a degree with its better to Start with a Cush Ion that feels too hard and have it soften to a comfortable level than have it soften too much and end Back where you you paid a lot for that heres the Way to get your moneys Rob Baldwin owns thai furniture Guy we make it feel like Kef we Loam cushions s wry Nate on l Al Doni in Viii Honig by i unify Imit t furniture rll99m468 in Home fun Grunt it Putin if its ult no it Call 9922468 today dont tolerate Leaky toilets tank trickle wastes water repairs often cheap by Gene Austin Knight Ridder newspapers Aleak Between a toilets tank and the toilet bowl can go unnoticed for a Long often wasting thousands of litres of its a common problem that need not be since the repair is Usu ally simple and symptoms of a tank bowl in addition to higher water can be a slight hissing from the toilet be tween or a continual slight disturbance or rippling of the water in the toilet if it is necessary to jiggle the toilets flush handle after a flush to Stop water from running into the a problem also should be an easy test for a tank bowl leak is to remove the tank lid and add a Little food colouring or easter egg Dye to the water in the tank lids Are so place the lid where it wont be stepped on or dam aged while it is off the dont flush the toilet for at least 20 minutes after the colouring is if coloured water from the tank shows up in the there is a pinpointing the cause of the leak is the next one of the most com Mon causes is a faulty flush the flush valve includes the Stop flapper or other mechanism that seals the opening Between the tank and bowl after the flush valve mechanism is connected to the flush if there is poor Contact Between the stopper and its seat the seat is located at the Bot Tom of the or if either stopper or seat is cracked or water will leak through even when the valve is a leak also can be caused by a defect in the tanks refill re filling is generally controlled by a float attached to a fill some times called the Ball located in the left part of the the float can be a sizable Ball attached to a horizontal or a Cylinder attached to a vertical whatever the float the mechanism shuts off water entering the tank after a flush when the water level reaches a specific if the water does not shut off at the Cor rect some water will leak into the overflow a tall tube near the Centre of the and trickle into the refill system leaks into the Over flow tube Are often obvious water rises above the tubes top after a flush and runs into the if there is any heres How to Tell if the flush valve or refill system is leaking shut off the toilets Inlet located in the water pipe Uri Der the wait a few then measure the water level in the tank with a or make a Chalk or Pencil Mark at the water wait 20 minutes or and Check Thuc water level if the water level is the the leak is in the refill if the water level has the leak is at the flush refill system leaks can some times be stopped by adjusting the float so that less water enters the with a Rod Type bending the Rod downward slightly will let less water into the Cylinder Type floats usually can be adjusted downward by squeezing a clip on the cylinders Side and moving the Cylinder Down on its supporting new Home gobbles up lots of Money in first year the Washington Post buying a new with the attendant costs of closing and is an expensive As most people but what Many people might not realize is that in addition to the initial expenses and the monthly the newly built Home is Likely to gobble up More than one Dollar of every seven coming in during the first year of the National association of Home builders recently issued a study showing that in the first year after buying a new the average household spends per cent of its Gross income on property alterations and related compared with about 6 per cent for people who stay the on the 199091 consumer expenditure Survey of the United states Bureau of labor statistics based on a pretax household income of the percentages tend to decrease the higher the nearly half of the expenditures went for work on the such As fences and another sizable portion was spent on of which the most common items were furniture and new appliances accounted for the rest of the with the most being paid for clothes washers and Lawn mowers and other Yard ;