On Twitter the other day, I ran across a story about a Philadelphia woman who caught a raccoon lounging in her hammock. I once had a similar encounter with a mischievous band of raccoons at my California home. Late one night, I awoke to creaking and squeaking sounds in the backyard. I turned on the porch light to discover a family of raccoons (aka a nursery or gaze) having a grand old time on my son’s playground set....
Steve Chenn/Getty images Ideally, the flow of air in your home is kept in perfect balance and your rooms are uniformly warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Sometimes, though, that’s not quite the way things works out. Have you every walked into a room and found it to be either oppressively warm or chillingly cold, despite the rest of the house feeling as it normally does? This is most likely due to unbalanced airflow in your home’s heat and cooling system....
Dusting is never fun, but there are a few dusting jobs that are super time-consuming and frustrating. We’re talking about fuzzy blinds, sticky dust on top of kitchen cabinets, and probably the worst of them all — a dusty ceiling fan. Not only do you have to haul out the ladder to reach the fan, but inevitably all the dust gently falls to the ground as you start to clean....
What are Wood Deck Tiles Wood deck tiles are a popular, cost-effective way to cover an ugly patio or deck, or to create a small outdoor living space on the cheap. The tiles, which come in a variety of sizes and styles, simply snap together, so you don’t need any special tools. According to Archatrak, a company in Maryland that specializes in wood deck tiles, the trend became popular in Japan due to the fact that so many people were living in densely populated areas without much land for outdoor living....
Ants are a pain. Whether it’s fire ants in the South or tiny brown ants in my Midwestern garden, when you disturb them, they bite you. And those bites can vary from annoying to, in the case of fire ants, really hurtful. When you have an ant problem, do you need a full array of pesticides? Or will something as simple as a homemade orange oil solution work, as demonstrated in this TikTok video?...
Pouring a basement or walkout basement gives dedicated room for the water heater and furnace. It also increases the living area on the main floor and will allow even more living space when the basement is finished. We don’t suggest pouring your own foundation. It’s expensive, time consuming and can be dangerous for DIYers. This is one project that you should hire a professional to do. While it takes a crew of skilled professionals to build a foundation, the process is fascinating....
It’s shaped like a “P” and can be found under sinks, tubs and showers. A simple device, a P-trap holds just enough water to create an airtight seal that prevents sewer gas from backing up into your home. As you run water down a drain, you’re continuously refilling that trap. This plumbing masterpiece has been in use for about 250 years. Here’s what you need to know about P-traps. What To Know About P-Traps P-trap pipes are available in different materials, but the assemblies are similar....
Bluetti, a Las Vegas startup founded in 2019, has been getting good reviews for its solar energy generation and storage products. If you’ve noticed increased buzz about the company in tech publications, it’s probably because Bluetti announced the introduction of a sodium-ion solar generator at the 2022 Consumer Technology Association (CES) conference in Las Vegas. The company claims it’s the first of its kind. The proliferation of large-scale battery packs for solar generation systems and electric vehicles has raised concern about the long-term availability of lithium, the light metal used to make in lithium-ion batteries....
Family Handyman The pre-molded tool cases that come with new power tools are great for presentation on store shelves. They are also great for keeping your tools snug on the way home. But once you’ve got the tool in your workshop, they lose almost all practicality. They’re hard to maneuver and they take up way too much space on your workshop shelves. Here are the Family Handyman recommendations for what to do with them....
When you construct anything with wood, you’re confronted with the problem of how to make two pieces stay together. This is called joinery, and in woodworking traditions it’s a specialized trade. Masters of joinery have developed ingenious ways to assemble pieces of wood, with perhaps the most legendary examples coming from Japan. In the 10 years I spent there I often visited the Horyuji Temple in Nara, the world’s oldest wooden building, built without a single nail....
The Parts of a Staircase Building a staircase requires careful planning, exact calculations and a keen eye for home design. But before you start on any of that, you’ve got to know all the parts and components of a staircase. Here’s a quick rundown of a handful of terms that are frequently used when building stairs: On This Page Treads: The flat part of the stairs you step on. Riser: The vertical part between the treads (some modern stairs go without these)....
LED strip lights can add bright light to your desk or countertops and add amazing colorful light to a rec room, boat, or camper. You can get ready-to-stick LED strips at an electronics store, but they are pricey and can’t be wired together. Buying the components separately gives the flexibility to put them anywhere. Figuring out what components you need is the hardest part. If you decide against the convenience of an all-inclusive LED light kit, there are some products to purchase and some considerations to be made about what you want the lights to look like:...
In the U.S., asphalt shingles and metal roofing are the two most popular roofing systems. When I worked as a roofer, primarily with asphalt, one of the most common questions homeowners asked was, which one is better? The answer depends on your priorities. Metal Roof vs. Shingles: Cost Asphalt shingles are undeniably affordable and easy to install. Metal roofs are more expensive and require specialized knowledge to install. On This Page...
Counter-depth refrigerators continue to be a hot trend in home appliances. That’s a bit surprising, since these streamlined fridges feature fewer cubic feet of interior space, leaving less room for food and drinks. Many consumers want more space, not less. Making the most of less space means rethinking conventional ideas about what goes where in a refrigerator. With some practical storage solutions for counter-depth refrigerators, giving up those few extra cubic feet won’t feel like such a sacrifice....
Around the holidays, when people begin spouting their New Year’s resolutions, I always consider a few things I should get better at. Nothing crazy, just the usual stuff — go to the gym, eat less ice cream, and wash and clean my car more often, especially the interior. On a recent ride home from work, the angle of the late-day sun hit just right to showcase the thick coat of dust on the dashboard of my pickup truck....
For some, a lawn carpeted with leaves is a perennial hassle of autumn. For others, those leaves offer a windfall of free mulch and fertilizer. Whether you like them or not, fallen leaves play an important role in your yard’s life cycle. As they gradually break down, they return nutrients to the soil and eventually become soil themselves. Too thick of a layer of leaves can damage your grass, but removing leaves entirely interferes with important ecological processes....
Jenny McCarthy knows a lot about walls. She started off her career in the trades working as a wallpaperer before switching to professional painting. Now she owns and operates her own painting business in Massachusetts while marketing and promoting the Stud Hugger, a drywall-hanging tool she invented. Thanks to years of experience in the industry, McCarthy has learned a thing or two about painting tools. We asked her which tools she turns to the most when she’s on the job....
My zone four xeriscape garden has a succession of blooms from spring through fall including pink soapwort, alliiums, dianthus, artemisias, Russian sage and native grasses. All of these thrive in low water conditions. With drought conditions and watering restrictions commonplace in communities around the country, the issue of watering lawns and gardens is on the minds of many—including me. One thing I’ve done to reduce the amount of watering I do is to create an entire garden devoted to xeriscape plants—plants that are happy in low-water conditions....
DIY home projects aren’t slowing down any time soon. Whether you’re finishing the basement, landscaping the yard or just giving the living room a much needed deep clean after a year spent mostly inside, you need the right tools to do the job right. That’s where HART comes in. Last year, HART launched their line of affordable DIY-friendly battery-operated power tools and storage solutions at Walmart. And they were just getting started....
Timing belts themselves are relatively inexpensive but can easily cause thousands of dollars of damage if they break while the engine is running. Engines come in two configurations: Interference and non-interference. When a timing belt fails the camshaft(s) stops turning and the valves stop moving, but the crankshaft still rotates for a few seconds. An interference engine has insufficient clearance between the valves and pistons. Because the crankshaft keeps rotating, pistons will slam into any valves stuck in the open position, causing catastrophic engine damage....
