We thought this article would be fitting for this very wintery Day here in Edmonton Alberta. The following article is from the Jon Eakes on the Net Website : http://joneakes.com/

jon eakes website
In the home improvement field, winter means
learning how to work with colder temperatures. It is also a time to
identify problems that you may not want to work on until spring.

Whether you are doing the work yourself, or hiring someone, remember that cold
fingers are not as skillful as warm ones. Outdoor winter work does take
more time and you have to be more careful not to break flexible
materials, like roof shingles. Although many contractors will continue
to work well into or even right through winter, you simply can’t get
the same quality job that you can get in warmer weather. For asphalt
shingles, for example, the self adhesive tabs won’t even warm up enough
to stick until a warm afternoon. So if you get a violent wind storm
before the adhesive manages to do its thing, the shingles could suffer
wind damage, something that wouldn’t be likely to happen in a warmer
season.

For caulkings, most of the thermoplastics and
polyurethanes can be applied a bit below freezing, and silicone way
below freezing, but there are tricks to making it work better. Keep the
caulking itself warm right up until just before you apply it. If the
weather is much below the temperature stated on the tube, use a hair
dryer or hot air gun to warm up the surface an inch ahead of the bead.
That will give the caulking a chance to grab the surface before it gets
cold. Although caulkings will stick to clean, dry but cold surfaces,
they will take much longer to cure. Latex caulkings are out of the
question outdoors when it gets cold. If you are using glue for
woodworking, remember that if you only warm up your shop the day you
work, the wood may be far too cold to glue properly with the regular
water based glues we usually use in a workshop. You not only have to
keep your glue warm, but your wood as well, which means overnight or
longer depending on the size and density of the wood as well as whether
it is stacked tightly or wickered for air flow between pieces.

Winter is less a time for working outdoors than a time for inspecting
outdoors. You can spot problems of heat loss by looking at the melting
pattern on the roof, or inspecting inside the attic for frost
accumulation. There is a lot of detailed information on attic “Frost” in the Nuts&Bolts database.

Winter is not always frozen solid. In fact, weather that hovers just around
the freezing point can be the most troublesome, because it creates
flowing water that turns to ice. Walkways can be particularly dangerous
when you have either rain gutters or sump pumps that send water right
across your traffic path. You should try to redirect this winter water
flow away from both the foundation and walking paths. If you can’t
avoid making ice, then you need to be prepared to render it safe with “deicers”.

Ice hanging off the roof is another problem, both in terms of the danger of
icicles falling down, and in terms of water backing up under the
shingles. Check the database for detailed information on both “Ice Dams” and “Icicles”.

When you look around the yard you may see fence posts shifting, patio blocks
rolling out of kilter or even the basement developing cracks. This
generally happens in clay soils and is caused by the particular way
that clay freezes. In some soils, things will just rise year after
year. In others, they will rise and fall back into place every year. It
all has to do with “Ice Lenses”.
Good drainage around foundations and under walkways, as well as good
surface run-off will help to control these problems. But that all has
to wait for spring. For now, just record or photograph the problems so
you remember what needs to be dealt with when the nicer weather
arrives. We can’t control the temperature outdoors, but we can control
the accumulation of water.

Since we don’t do much work outdoorsin the snow filled winters, we do tend to hole up in that nice warm basement shop. Just remember that the windows are not open and you need to exhaust out dust and fumes even more than the rest of the year.
Spreading a large quantity of contact cement can create explosive
conditions in a closed shop, and if the gas water heater is near-by, an
electronic pilot light can do more than just light up the tank burner.
There has been more than one serious accident from fumes igniting in an
enclosed space. Even the simple application of solvent based finishes
on a newly sanded floor can be dangerous without adequate ventilation.
As a matter of fact, fine sawdust floating in the air means as much
danger of an explosion as solvent fumes. Good ventilation is your most
important tool for indoor winter projects.

 

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