As North American households face heating bills averaging at least 30 % higher than last year; the connection between household energy use and energy prices is evident to everyone. Energy efficiency remains the quickest, cheapest, cleanest way to help you…
How Price Per Square Foot influences your decisions when building or buying a new home What is a price per square foot for new homes these days? In one form or another, this question is one of the most asked…
Ice and icicles on your roof may be cute, but they can tear off gutters, loosen shingles, and cause water to back up into your house. As snow continues to pile up on people’s roofs this winter, homeowners are up…
Ontario builder advice Hardwood • tile • vinyl • engineered Comfort, durability & resale Flooring What You Need To Know – Your home décor starts on the floor Flooring is one of those decisions people think is mostly about colour,…
Solar water heaters can reduce annual water heating bills by 50% to 80% Water heating can constitute 15% to 25%, or more, of the energy use of a home. The approximate annual cost to operate water heaters ranges from $300…
Ontario new builds permits + inspections budget control builder reality 10 Steps to Building a New Home in Ontario: The No-Surprises Guide (2026) “Building a new home” sounds simple until you’re three months in, your decisions are stacked like pancakes,…
What is formaldehyde? Formaldehyde is a colourless gas. At elevated concentrations, it has a strong, pungent odour and can be irritating to the eyes, nose, and lungs. Formaldehyde is released into the home from a variety of indoor sources.…
What 10,000 Pinterest Boards Have Taught Me About Human Delusion After 45 years of building custom homes, I’ve developed what my wife calls a “special kind of patience” and what my therapist calls “occupational PTSD.” I’ve built everything from modest…
A gallon of paint can cost as little as $15 or well over $100. What’s the difference? The paint can labels are not very informative. Many companies don’t list their ingredients. Even when they do, you have to be a…
There is no doubt that radiant floor heat is a superior method of heating your home. Its popularity is steadily increasing as people discover that is it not only the most comfortable form of heating but also the most cost…
By Nick Senofsky, Lighting Unlimited Buying an LED light is very different than buying an incandescent light bulb. An incandescent light bulb is a simple device with a tungsten filament. It consistently produces the same type of light with the…
Ontario | ROI | What actually pays back Curb appeal vs comfort vs cosmetics Repairs that prevent bigger bills Best Home Improvement Repairs for Your Dollar: The Fixes That Pay You Back (and the Ones That Don’t) Every homeowner eventually…
By Diane Swanbrow News and Information Services With high winter heating bills on the horizon in much of the country, a new U-M study shows that the total energy used during the life of a typical home in the U.S.…
Austrian designer Klemens Torggler came up with a spectacular sliding door system. Evolution by Klemens Torggler The designer’s Evolution Door slides open without the use of tracks. As you can see in the photo above and in the video below (in slow motion),…
OTTAWA, ONTARIO–(Marketwired – Feb. 6, 2014) – Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) expects the number of housing starts to stabilize in 2014 and 2015. Support from improved economic and demographic fundamentals will be tempered by a combination of a modest…
Buying a home? Avoid These Common Buyer Mistakes! For most of us, buying a home is the single biggest financial transaction we will make. It’s exciting and fulfilling, but it can also be overwhelming, even downright frightening. The pitfalls are…
What you need to know about roofing shingles If you’re buying a tract-built house, the chances are close to 100 per cent that the roof will be asphalt shingles, the most cost efficient roofing material currently available. The builder will…
Imagine you’re having a new house built. Workers prepare the building site then a 6-metre tall crane-like gantry is brought in and installed on rails either side of the house. The machine rolls back and forth extruding fast-drying concrete and…
BY ANTHONY FUREY ,QMI AGENCY One of the most bizarre bans ever is gaining traction in cities across the country. A ban on doorknobs. First passed in Vancouver last November, now Halifax and Pickering, Ontario, are considering it. What could…
National Association of Home Builders’s consumer study, “What Do New Home Buyers Want,” takes a comprehensive look at what’s hot and what’s not among prospective home buyers. The 2013 survey was conducted at the tail end of a protracted housing…
How to get home construction loans to build your custom home: A down payment of at least 5-10% of the total value of your building project will be required. If your building project (land and house) is projected to…
Smartest Dog A structural engineer, an architect and a builder are all standing around arguing who has the smartest dog. The architect says “Watch this. CAD, come here!” And his dog takes a pile of dog bones and makes them…
A new report from the National Association of Home Builders shows the costs of constructing a single-family home were much higher when compared to 2011, reaching $246,553 last year compared with just $184,125 in 2011. Much of this cost was…
The Home of Tomorrow — complete with helper bots and automated appliances — has long been the stuff of science fiction. The tech world is determined to make it a reality. Soon, the vision goes, everything from garden products to bathroom…
Ontario | Before you sign | Plain English Scope, allowances, deposits, draws Red flags + the clauses that protect you Signing a Construction Contract in Ontario: The Clauses That Save (or Sink) Your Build Ask anyone who has built or…
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