A water heater is basically a metal-tank with a metal-tank with a foam layer between like the middle of an Oreo cookie. This system works quite well and there are millions of them out there to attest to this.

However, water heaters still lose heat even in the summer because the air in basement, even in the hottest states, is cooler than the water in the tank. This bleed in heat can be as much as $10 a month in heat costs or higher in the colder states. To alleviate this drain in energy a thermal blanket is advised.

How it works is that water heaters lose heat slowly all the time because of two reasons:

1. Inadequate Thermal Break: Heat finds its way out through the steel that joins the two tanks together and the metal that holds the pipes.
2. Thin Lining: For a vessel that heats water to 190 degrees the outside is almost always warm to the touch so the insulation is rarely enough.

Sometimes this gradual loss of energy may not be felt on the outer casing but it is there.

You can get a thermal blanket kit from any home store. Read and follow the directions, making sure you leave the access panel cutout and operational specifics uncovered or it will void the warranty. In addition place a piece of rigid foam insulation the floor when installing a new heater as there will be no heat transfer to the cement.

For gas, propane and oil-fired water tanks you will have to get a plumber to install the coverings. It may cost a few dollars but you can be assured it will be done right.

There are few more important items to consider in your home than a crack in the foundation. In most cases it is caused by the freezing and thawing of the ground surrounding the basement, the settling of the home or, in the case of a new home, the shrinkage of the cement as it dries.

Concrete, by its very nature, constricts when it dries. This is why there is reinforcing bar put into cement. The cracks that occur in a new basement wall are usually superficial and, on the whole, do not promote leaking because most codes require a waterproofing substance on the exterior and weeping tile to drain away the water. However, this does not mean that the crack should not be sealed.

In all instances a crack should be looked at by a professional. For the hundred dollars invested it will give peace of mind and you will know what you are expected to do regarding the sealing. In many instances a short crack in a pony wall can be chiseled out along the crack and a sealer troweled in and smoothed.

For top to bottom crack a professional foundation company should be called in. The usual method is to drill holes at intervals into the crack and then a sealer is injected into each hole. The thin liquid will fill all voids, cracks and capillaries where water could get in. These resins are fast drying and malleable so they will expand and contract with the crack and never leak.

Cinder block walls are a problem because each mortar joint is an opportunity for a leak. In addition, these joints are weak spots. If the ground shifts in a normal basement you will get a crack. However, the same movement in the ground around a cinder block basement may cause large cracks in the mortar in several locations. This is a serious problem and may require bracing.

Whatever the crack size, call a professional. It is better to do it now than to see water in the basement.

With the price of a barrel of oil going through the ceiling homeowners are beginning to have home inspections done to find out where they need extra protection against losing heat. What many people don’t know is that much heat is lost through drafts than through poorly insulated walls.

1) Rim Joists: The joists sit on a sill plate which is a 2″ X 6″ sitting attached to the tops of the foundation. The ends of the joists are covered with a rim joist which caps of the joists and seals the basement from the exterior. In most cases this is insulated and sealed but in many instances it is not. As wood shrinks and expands the motion pulls against the nails and minute spaces can occur. These breeches are large enough for cold drafts and moist air to enter the basement and should be sealed with a foam spray.

2) Basement Windows: Old wood-framed basement windows can deteriorate from moisture. Fissures can occur in the sill and sashes and between the sash and the cement foundation. These should be replaced with a vinyl product and a window well placed in to draw off the moisture. Newer windows should be caulked.

3) Basement Door: All door jams should be re-caulked with foam and the weatherstripping between thye door and the jam renewed.

4) Hot Water Tank: Tanks are only filled with minimal fiberglass insulation so this should have a jacket attached which can be purchased at a home supply store for around $45. Depending on the size of the tank the energy savings will pay this back in 1 years.

5) Pipes: Foam pipe inserts are easy to installed and will prevent heat from dissipating from the pipe and drawing it from the hot water tank. It also lessens the time for the water to get hot at the tap.

6) Duct Insulation: When the hot air leaves the plenum in the furnace it has to heat up the metal duct around it. Duct sleeves keep this heat within the system and does not allow it to cool.

7) Floor: If you can’t afford to insulated the floor here is a good place to put your old carpet. It will keep the heat from getting to the cement.

Walls: Set up a schedule to insulate all bare cement walls by stud frames and fiberglass or with foam sheets. Closed cell foam insulation does the best job because it seals everything.

Wallpapering is not a process containing voodoo rituals although there are some important rituals to follow:

1) Measure your walls: Simple, but important. Some people will measure one wall and guestimate. When you are up to your elbows in wallpaper paste you don’t want to have to run out and get more.

2) Add 20%: For the same reason as #1 plus sometimes the designs have to line up and this means cutting off ends to accommodate this.

3) Find the center of the wall: Mark this on the ceiling and put a nail on the wall below it. Drop a plumb bob and mark the bottom.

4) Snap a chalk line: Do this from the top to the bottom mark.

5) Start at the chalkline: You have choice to align the paper at its mid-point on the chalk-line or start with each each on the chalkline.

6) Windows: If windows and mantels are in the center of the room put the first panel dead-center over top and, in the case of windows, underneath.

7) Design Choice: Consult with a professional designer (usually at your wallpaper store) to get the right wallpaper for the job.

8.) Liner: if using a flock (velvet and fabric) or other specialty wall covering apply a liner paper first. This acts like “velcro” to hold the panels to the wall. Liner also works when wallper is being placed on a glass surface.

We’ve all seen the beautiful driveways put in with paving stones. Some patterns are truly an art form and the best thing about them is that they never crack. This is because they are not mortared into place but inset with sand. The grit of the sand binds them together but allows movement do to heat and cold cycles.

The only drawback for using pavers is that, unless the ground is compacted properly, tire-width furrows might form where the vehicle sits on the pad. Some contractors will advise a homeowner to wait a year before putting down pavers. This way the area will be compacted properly in the right places preventing the noticeable grooves.

Design: If the area is already to go you can choose your design. The pavers are colored cement made in molds under pressure so are very hard. They come in a wide variety of shapes and colors and many home stores have designs you can follow.

Preparation: Unlike drainage applications the driveway has to be compacted so a Class 2 gravel is recommended for the base and this should be compacted with a water spray and a compacting machine. In addition, crusher dust from a rock crusher is placed over this and compacted in. Other landscapers prefer sand but crusher dust holds better.

Leveling: This is the time to get the base leveled. Rent a laser leveler if you can or run a string across from 2 stakes and level this. It is important that the area is completely flat.

Pavers: Edging is is a good idea for paver placement. These strips will confine the pavers. Once pavers are set in place use a compacter to press them in solidly. Then brush irregular-shaped sand over the whole surface. This sand will lock the pavers in place. Compact again.

Sealing: First wash the driveway with a water spray to compact the sand. Let dry a couple of days and then put on the sealer. This will prevent the porous pavers from staining and hardens the sand between the joints.

For the past few centuries shop owners in major cities had a morning ritual of lowering a partial covering of their windows called an awing. This was done by using a crank and protected the store from the sun’s glare during the day. When the shop closed the awning was raised so that it was flat with the building. This was to protect it from damage.

Today commercial awnings provide the same protection but, because of new construction methods, no longer need to be cranked up or down. They are mainly a statement of style for the establishment and advertising.

Residential awnings not only protect your home from the sun’s rays but prevent the home’s possessions from fading and help on air conditioning costs. Some awnings cover up the whole patio while the simpler ones are sun blockers. Another awning type is placed between the home’s wall and the garden to expand a the protected living space outside. Usually this is combined with an outdoor heater to provide a season-extending recreational area.

To get an awning made can cost upwards of $1000 but there are many models and sizes available in home stores that can fit almost any application. These can be as as low as $150.

You see it advertised in window commercials: low e and argon. But what is this stuff that makes normal windows better?

By pure physics windows are not good insulators. In other words heat slips through windows as if they were made of metal and not glass. Now, if the frames are metal the whole unit is an energy-draining portal. By changing to a vinyl frame with a closed-cell foam filling the R-value goes up dramatically. It is withing the glass that the majority of heat loss takes place.

Heat travels by radiation, conduction and convection. The sun’s heat comes in through radiation and heat loss comes from conduction as the glass draws it outside to the cold. The other heat drain is convection which speed up the conduction process in the air space within the glass panes. By slowing down this process the heat loss drops.

By filling the space between the glass panes in a window with a heavy gas the convection slows down. This means that the circulation from hot to cold within the sealed glass is stalled by the weight of the gas. Argon is such a heavy gas and krypton is even heavier. They slow to a crawl the natural air movement which keep the heat from surface of the interior pane, which is room temperature, from transferring to the outer pane, which is the temperature of the outside air.

So, from an R-value of barely 1.5, the argon gas-filled panes, with low emissivity coating to reflect heat back into the home, can get as high as 4, which is a huge savings in the glass business. With 3 panes this goes up even further.

Up until the 1960’s the standard paint coating for a home was a lead-based oil paint. This meant that lead chromate or lead carbonate were used in a similar way lead metal was used in other exterior functions: durability, moisture resistance and ultra violet protection. Lead paint is still used in commercial and military projects because of its long-lasting quality. Lead, unfortunately, is very toxic to small children and it was taken out of the majority of paint and all gasoline.

if lead paint is on the exterior of an old house, and hasn’t flaked off yet, there is a good chance it will not
deteriorate further unless the wood beneath it becomes unstable - rots. A good scraping of the home - with a particle mask - will loosen and take off most of the paint. On the interior you may encounter several layers of lead paint.

One way to take off lead paint is with a heat gun. However, you will need a respirator do that the lead vapors will not harm you. Heat is applied to an area, usually a molding, and the paint will blister. While it is still hot the paint can be scraped away with a putty knife, usually right down to the wood. In fact a hundreds of paint can come off with a single swipe.

Whether you scrape off the paint with a heat gun, sand the surface and just leave it the way it is you will have to prepare the surface for painting. Because of its ease of use latex is usually used to replace most oil-based surfaces except for kick plates and anywhere use is high. However, late3x will not stick to an oil-based surface for too long.

There are special primers that can be applied to alleviate this situation. They are oil-based and provide the old surface with a “velcro-type” surface that will hold any paint. After this primer is applied then any paint can be put on top.

You can also use these types of primers to paint over wallpaper. Old wallpaper is hard to get off and many people would like to do a faux finish. However putting a latex primer soaks the paper causing it to bubble and come off the wall in various places. By using an oil-based primer the wall paper maintains its integrity and the finishing color can go on without the fear of soaking the paper.

Next to windows one of the biggest heat sucks in a home is through the cement walls of an unfinished basement. Cement is porous, and is also a thermal mass. This means that it absorbs heat, so in a heated basement the wall will draw in the heat and then transfer it to the outside air.

Most new homes are insulated down to just below ground level because this is what many of the codes require. However, this does not mean that the cement below ground level is insulated by the earth. To prevent this heat loss this portion of the walls should be insulated.

Framing the basement with 16″ centers is the logical choice because it provides a structure for both the insulation and the interior finishing. Fiberglass is the most widely-used insulator because it is easy to install. Many contractors agree that the basement wall should be covered with a vapor seal before framing but others say that this will trap moisture between the cement wall and the plastic seal creating other problems.

One way to get around this is to spray closed cell foam insulation between the studs. This foam expands and gets into all the cracks and crevices including the spaces between the studs and the cement wall. The excess is neatly cut off after it dries so, in effect, the whole wall is sealed and no vapor seal is required. Just hang the drywall on the studs as usual.

The bottom of the wood frame, or plate, should be waterproofed with an approved sealer to prevent rot from moisture. Some codes allow pressure-treated studs for this but other states will not allow this treated wood inside the home.

When doing a basement renovation which includes putting in a kitchenette and/or bathroom there is the inevitable task of routing the plumbing, especially the drainage. If your basement is below grade then you have to get a pumping system to connect to the main line. These range from $800-$2000 depending on the size of the unit. If it’s just a bathroom then a $700 pump-and-tank will do the job. The kits includes the pipe to hook into the main sewer line and they are easy to set up.

If the drains are above the line you may have a more difficult problem - cutting into the floor to hook up the fixtures. Your intended bathroom may be several feet away from the drainage pipe for many reasons - there is a furnace in the way - so the drains from the shower, toilet and sink have to be routed. This means cutting out a channel in the cement floor, putting the pipes in and then re-cementing the hole.

To cut into the floor it is best to contact a concrete company. They have the wet saws and the heavy vacuuming equipment. Because renting a saw and doing it yourself could result in a huge mess from cement dust. And an inexperienced hand on a wet saw can have a slurry of mud around the are in no time.

In addition, there is the problem of radon gas. This is decaying radioactive material which, in small doses, doesn’t harm us. However, radon can collect under the cement slab and be released by cutting the floor. If inhaled it can lead to lung tissue damage and even lung cancer. A professional will be geared up to ventilate into the outside air as the floor is being cut. In all it’s worth the $200 you will pay for the job.

You can also jackhammer but this is difficult and dusty work and sometimes you can put cracks into weak areas of the pad.