I get many emails each day. Some are desperate, others are funny, many are cordial. I try to answer all of them and often the answers reflect my mood. But more importantly my answers pull on my 30-plus years of hands-on experience and all of the technical information I have uncovered in my years as a home-improvement journalist.

Each day, I select a unique email from a real person and post it to a special Premium RSS feed that is generated and hosted by NewsGator Online Services. These daily tips come to you automatically and just one of them might save you hours of searching or better yet, hundreds or thousands of dollars!

Here are a few examples of the emails I get and my answers:

Dear Tim,

Merry Christmas! My husband and I are in the process of building a home in North Carolina. We will have about a 400 ft driveway to contend with and are very interested in the "tar and chip" driveway concepts. It may resolve both the aesthetics and cost efficiency we long for. How does the cost compare to that of an asphalt or concrete driveway? Is it considered a hard surface driveway or is it like loose gravel.....we would appreciate any feedback you can provide. Thank you, Nancy

Nancy,

You are going to love tar and chip. I have installed this surface for years for customers and have one myself. There are thousands of miles of main roads, secondary routes, and private drives in the USA that are tar and chip. It is a magnificent surface that requires no maintenance.

You can have the loose gravel look or that of smoother blacktop with no loose chips. The choice is yours. If you want the full story on tar and chip, read thefirst column I did on the topic years ago. I then did a follow-up column as I kept getting requests from people to re-visit the topic.

As for cost, tar and chip is far less expensive than regular blacktop. It costs only 15 - 20% of what concrete might cost. The savings are a function of the size of the job. Just 5 months ago I redid my own driveway with expensive brown Merimac chert from Missouri. Even with that gravel, my cost was less than one dollar per square foot! Since your driveway is so long, you should get a price less than $1 per square foot.

Tim Carter

Here is an amusing one. I am quite sure the answer was comforting to the travel bugs!

Hey Tim,

We traveled to Orlando, Florida this past week and noticed termites in our hotel room. Yesterday, we left the hotel and boarded a plane back to Toronto, Canada. We are worried that if these termites found their way into our clothes, shoes or belongings, including our suitcases, we may have brought them to our home in Toronto. Now they may be spreading and reproducing inside our home. Being that the plane traveled at 37,000 feet, could it be that the termites may have survived the trip and are now in our home and breeding?

Your reply would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Dorota & Corrado

Dear Dorota and Corrado,

You can sit back and relax! The termites you saw were probably the worker termites and these eunuchs are not capable of starting a new colony. Furthermore, most termites do not like light and they need moisture on a very regular basis. The stowaway adventure would very likely have killed them for any number of reasons.

Keep in mind that your local variety of termites can infest your home at will. So if you get an infestation at some future time, it may have nothing to do with the ones you saw in Orlando. What's more, I doubt the species you saw in Florida would tolerate your winter climate in Toronto!

Tim Carter

I am sure you get the point by now. The daily tips will be varied and are easy to read and understand. I often include links back to more detailed information.

You should seriously consider joining the Premium Newsgator RSS Feed service. I can assure you my daily tips will save you money and frequently bring a smile to your face!

Tim Carter