Bryan Baeumler
Expert advice for worries about wind, water, mould,
Mould. The very word strikes fear and worry into the hearts of homeowners. And yet, mould spores constantly surround us.
“Really, they’re a natural part of the world and are pretty useful — they help leaves and compost bio-degrade,” says Bryan Baeumler.
“Inside your house, though, it’s a different story. A high level of mould in the air can cause serious respiratory issues. They become a real problem when they meet something wet, colonize on natural fibres and multiply. And unfortunately, they tend to wreak havoc in the colder months.”
Fortunately, there’s no amount of devastation that can’t be reversed with the host of HGTV’s Leave it to Bryan and co-host of Disaster DIY in your corner.
This week, he walks Star readers through their problems with mouldy crawl spaces, precarious gaps and drafty fireplaces.
Hi, Bryan. My son lives north of the Riverdale neighbourhood in Toronto. Above the crawl space at the back of his house is the kitchen and, in the winter, the floor gets quite cold. Recently my son had the pest control people in as there were wasps and hornets in the crawl space. While spraying, they noticed black mould on the underside of the floor. In addition, the insulation is falling down and needs to be replaced. We need your expert advice.
Wayne H., Toronto Hi, Wayne. Any time there’s a crawl space that isn’t heated — and it sounds like yours is not — the air will go right through that floor. So the solution here is to leave the floor uninsulated and insulate the exterior wall of that crawl space and bring a heat run into it (you’ll likely need an HVAC pro for this), basically turning it into an indoor room. That way, the floor is still accessible if there are any issues with pest control. My personal recommendation is that unheated crawl spaces cause a lot of issues and your best bet is to insulate those exterior walls, put up a proper vapour barrier and get some heat in there. Hi, Bryan. Our house is 27 years old. When we moved in, we noticed the wood-burning fireplace in our family room was very drafty (we tried lighting a fire once and the room filled with smoke because of the wind coming down the chimney). We had the chimney inspected and were told there was nothing wrong with the flue or the chimney itself. We had a gas insert and liner installed. It’s a little better but you can still feel a substantial draft coming in through the insert. Any suggestions on how to
get to the bottom of this?
Ian K., Richmond Hill Well, Ian, it sounds like you live in a pretty windy area. Unfortunately, you can’t block off the top of a chimney — the whole idea is to get some air out of there. Depending on the way it’s built, you’re going to get some blowback down that chimney. Generally, you’re going to get heat escaping and cold air coming in. A lot of times, especially with a gas fireplace, people will leave the pilot light on, which will warm that space a little and heat that air up so it’s travelling up and out the chimney, rather than having air pressure coming in.
But if you do feel a draft coming in the chimney whenever the fireplace is on, I’d suggest bringing someone else in to look at it when you’re having that issue. It could be something to do with the design of the opening at the top of the chimney that’s allowing wind to come in it. You might have to put a wind block at the top, or a cap to deflect that wind. A little air coming in could be normal, but it sounds like it’s over the top for you, especially if there’s smoke blowing into the house. Air should be going up and out of the chimney. Hi, Bryan. My kitchen has wooden cabinets that are of good quality. To update the kitchen a little I have changed the handles from brass to silver but the cabinets still look dated to me. I’d like to paint the cabinets and my question is: when wood comes back into style, how difficult will it be to remove a melamine-based paint from the cabinet and restore it to the original wood?
Bev B., Midland Well, Bev, wood is still in style. It just depends what type of finish you’ve got. Once you paint those doors, it’s going to take a ton of work to remove all that — you’ll have to strip and sand them. Generally, once you paint those doors, if you want to go back to wood doors, you’re probably going to have to buy new doors.
You could always save your doors and buy a new set for your cabinets that are actually melamine and will hold up better. But you don’t usually go backwards and un-paint wood. It’s a long-term commitment. Hi, Bryan. We recently purchased a brick bungalow just off of Georgian Bay. There is a large, poured concrete patio in the backyard. There are gaps of up to an inch between the patio and the foundation walls. Should I seal these gaps with some type of silicone caulking to keep water and snow from coming into contact with the foundation? The house was built in 1992 and there are no signs of water damage in the basement.
Paul and Mary, Meaford Hey Paul and Mary! The question I’ve got for you is whether or not that slab is leaning away from the house. If all the water that hits the slab is slightly tilted back toward the house — and the water is running back into that gap — you’ll still get water coming inside, even if you seal that gap.
But if that slab is mostly draining water away from the house, that little one-inch gap probably isn’t going to cause you any issues. There’ll be a little bit of moisture getting in there but your foundation should be able to handle that to a certain degree.
If all the water hitting that slab is draining towards your foundation, that’s going to be an issue; it will put some pressure on your waterproofing efforts. If it’s draining away, that’s great news, but you certainly could still fill that area with stone and seal it to the house with some concrete or caulking. The goal, in that case, is not necessarily to completely block water and dam it there.
If there’s a bit of a gap and there’s some water getting in towards the house, then dig out as much as you can and backfill it with some type of drainable material, like a threequarter inch granular stone, so that when some water does get in there, it can drain down underneath the pad into the soil and eventually make its way away from the house.
So keep an eye on the basement to make sure there’s no moisture in that foundation wall. Have a look at that slab and see which way it’s draining — if it’s running water towards the house, then unfortunately, it will have to be either slabjacked or dug out and replaced.
Bryan Baeumler appears twice a month in New in Homes & Condos. He’s the host of Leave it to Bryan Mondays at 10 p.m. and House of Bryan: In the Sticks, both on HGTV Canada. Send your home repair questions for Bryan to Newhomes@thestar.ca with “Bryan” in the subject line. Contact him at baeumler.ca and on Twitter @Bryan_Baeumler.