Tile is a wonderful flooring option because it’s a beautiful, low-maintenance material. Because it’s easy to keep clean, tile is a popular picks for bathroom floors and kitchens. For the most part, to keep your tile floors clean, all you need to do is regularly sweep or vacuum them, plus wipe up any spills immediately. When it’s time for a more thorough job, here’s how to really get in there and get your tile floors sparkling....
Sponsored by Sakrete Here are three facts about concrete: It’s hard, it will eventually crack, and it’s expensive when installed by a professional. Using rental equipment and Sakrete High-Strength Concrete Mix, I was able to complete a concrete replacement project in less than one day. Concrete work is a linear process, making the task easy to organize and execute. Do it yourself, save some money, and experience the satisfaction of learning a new skill....
karen roach/Shutterstock Why You Should Winterize Your House It’s important to winterize your house each year to save on heating costs and prevent potential damage to your furnace, plumbing and roof. Plus, you can keep your house safe by preventing falling ice or falls on ice. On This Page When to Winterize Your House Winterizing your home is a process, but you should wrap up any outdoor work in the fall before it gets too cold and dangerous to work outside....
Courtesy of ANEW Beginning a career in the construction industry can be a difficult and tricky process to wade through. People in the Seattle, Washington area are getting some help in through ANEW, a non-profit organization that offers pre-apprenticeship training programs open to those looking to kick-off their construction careers. “I was looking for more of a long-term career path, [I had] kind of been doing restaurant jobs and other odd jobs and stuff like that, and this program kind of gives the opportunity to find a stable living wage,” Dustin Bradshaw, a 24-year-old who recently participated in one of ANEW’s programs, told K5 News in Seattle....
Shutterstock/ Dmitry Dven Winter weather has an impact on more than just the way it feels when you step outside. There are plenty of things to worry about when it comes to winterizing your home and car so that the dramatically dropping temperatures don’t have any unwanted side effects. Cold weather can directly impact your car and home, and it’s a good idea to be prepared for the changing of the seasons....
Breadmaker/Shutterstock When I was seven years old, my parents decided to make some serious renovations on our childhood home. Partly because my little brother was born and with only one shower between the five of us (and barely any hallway separating our bedrooms) they knew it was time for an upgrade. As they drew out the floor plan for the upgraded second floor, along with an expanded television room and wrap-around deck, my parents also decided it was time to scrap the wall between our kitchen and dining room....
HomeKit is a network that connects all of your smart home devices. The Apple HomeKit app lets you control all the smart devices you want to include in the HomeKit network. The app is really easy to use, even if you have little experience with smart home technology. Here’s what you need to know about the Home App. What Is the Apple HomeKit App? The Apple HomeKit app is named Home App....
In a new home build or a renovation, the bathroom is a major component, and a bathtub is a big piece of that puzzle. Soaking tubs, tubs with jets, freestanding tubs, shower-tub combos and many more options make bathroom personalization easy, but they make shopping decisions hard. One of the most common bathroom options is an alcove bathtub. This is what you need to know about alcove bathtubs. What Is an Alcove Bathtub?...
Family Handyman Why you should be concerned with backdrafting A “backdraft” in your home is created when an appliance or device uses combustion (an open flame) that isn’t properly vented, allowing the exhaust to be pulled back into the home. While gas range tops and ventless fireplaces produce low enough levels of exhaust that they don’t need to be vented, gas water heaters, gas or oil furnaces, and traditional fireplaces must have properly sized and blockage-free flues in order to vent properly....
Cracked, dented, punctured, and scratched. These are all ugly things that can happen to your car bumper. More accurately called a “bumper cover”, these decorative plastic components hide the metal structural bumper components underneath. Bumper covers are easily damaged (whatever happened to those chrome bumpers that really could take some bumps?), and the best way to fix yours depends on your situation, your abilities, and the kind of bumper damage you’ve got....
That initial dock installation job is, admittedly, a big one, but it’s a necessary part of getting your cabin ready for the season. You can hire a service to handle it, or you can save that money for a new water toy and take on the installation yourself. Whether you’re installing a floating dock, crib dock, pile dock, pipe dock or lift dock, the tips below will help your dock installation project run much more smoothly, giving you more time to enjoy your waterside getaway....
Family Handyman Ant-Proof Your Hummingbird Feeder “If it bugs you that ants come to your hummingbird feeder and treat it like a picnic table, try this. Punch a little hole in the bottom of a shallow can and thread through the line that suspends the feeder. Tie a large knot in the line so the container rests on the knot. Seal the hole at the top and bottom with silicone caulk....
It always seems easy enough. You want a simple gray, a navy blue or even white. You peruse piles of paint chips and make multiple trips to the store for samples. Then it goes up on your wall, and somehow the gray looks green, the navy pulls purple and the white is suspiciously yellow. Ugh. Matching already-existing paint can be an exercise in futility. Apps to the rescue! Using phone cameras to analyze RBG, CMYK, Pantone or other color codes allows the app to match it to a branded paint color library, or give you the codes that may help your local hardware store find the right match....
Lumber prices increased during the pandemic. Although prices came down when some lumber shortages were resolved, other factors, such as dwindling forest supplies, probably will be with us for the foreseeable future. That means prices are likely to remain volatile. And that makes sawing your own lumber an increasingly smart decision, assuming you have a ready supply of suitable logs. A full-scale lumber producer has the means to transport the logs to the sawmill....
Russell Binns/Shutterstock If you’re into DIY and landscaping, chances are you have a shed sitting in your backyard. Sheds are a great place to store the supplies you need to keep your house in tip-top shape. From lawn mowers to chainsaws, your shed is a valuable asset for your property. Which means taking care of your shed should also be a top priority. Although your shed doesn’t need a stellar interior (unless you have one of these awesome game day sheds, of course), you should still do everything you can to ensure that this little hut is keeping all of your supplies safe and dry through the winter....
Drill Doctor Drill Bit Sharpeners You might have to convince yourself you need a bit sharpener, but after you have a couple of bits burn out on you in the middle of a project, you’ll be happy you’ve got a bit sharpener within reach. Drill Doctor Details The Drill Doctor will sharpen multiple bits: high-speed steel, masonry, cobalt and TiN-coated. It provides custom point angle sharpening from 115 degrees to 140 degrees and the Drill Doctor will help extend the life of your bits....
Exterior estimating software has come a long way in the last decade, and both contractors and insurance adjusters are reaping the benefits. The technology has become so reliable, that scampering about on a steep roof and slogging around in the rain with a tape measure and soggy notepad are becoming a thing of the past. We sat down with a long-time insurance adjuster and also spoke with the folks at EagleView, one of the principal players in the estimating software industry....
via Trex Company Demand for environmentally friendly, virtually maintenance-free Trex composite decking grows every year. Why has this home-improvement upstart captured so much attention? Home ownership comes with a seemingly bottomless list of maintenance tasks, so naturally home improvements that limit the ongoing investment of time and money generate a lot of buzz—particularly when they deliver on their promises and do it in an environmentally friendly way. The Trex decking combination of ultra-low maintenance and rich finishes tends to get people talking, whether that is online or around the neighborhood....
If you’re the kind of gardener who likes to get out early in the spring to start growing vegetables well before your last frost, you’ll likely have great success growing peas. Peas like it cool! I was reminded of just how early peas can be sown when I found an old seed packet on which my dad had written, “sown March 16.” His frost-free date was generally May 10th. Types of Peas to Grow There are three main types of peas to grow for eating....
After 90 years of service, this old toilet was ready for retirement. Aside from being rust-stained and chipped, it was a water hog, using about three times as much water as a modern toilet. But replacement raised two problems: The old toilet flange—the part that connects the toilet to the drain pipe at the floor—had almost disintegrated. That’s normal with old toilets. The old toilet was a “14-in. rough in”. That means the flange was centered 14 in....
