Pouring concrete is hard work. Finishing concrete is an art. The best tips for pouring concrete are to start with a very small job and do it in cool weather. Learn how quickly the concrete goes from a pourable mixture to a hard compound. Practice different finishing methods on a small pour, not a huge slab.
Extreme makeover has come to town. An extreme home makeover happened in Sunrise, Kentucky to a needy family. Extreme makeovers such as this are a popular television show idea and people wonder how in the world can the work happen so quickly. Is it possible to build these homes without workers tripping over one another?
A business trip took Tim through the Finger Lake region of New York, where he saw thousands of Canadian Geese migrating. He answers callers' questions today about vapor barriers, sagging in a roof, wood plank floor, laminate flooring, crumbling new grout, repairing cracked rookwood tile and truss uplift problems.
Low water pressure in faucets is a very common problem. The source of a slow or clogged kitchen faucet can almost always be found inside the faucet. It usually takes a small amount of effort to get the water flow back to normal. Read on to learn how to fix low water pressure.
Spiral stairs and circular stairs are one and the same. Wood spiral stairs are works of art, while metal spiral stairs and aluminum spiral stairs can also be elegant. Steel spiral stairs are often used in industrial applications, but I have installed them in homes.
Tim talks about using newer durable, seamless laminate countertops to achieve the same effect as stone or marble. These tops are available in Cincinnati at Keidel. He answers callers' questions on leveling a kitchen subfloor, plaster cracks in an old home, insulating new walls in a basement, a failed septic system sand filter, matching the color of stucco and painting exterior stucco and a builder's framing mistake.
Tim talks about a lead paint regulation on remodeling homes older than 1978. He answers' callers' questions on broken sliding door parts, concrete seawall for a lake property, water leak in a main line, heat pump efficiency, broken toilet flange and water in a crawl space.
Framing basement walls is a challenge when working on slabs poured over expansive clay bentonite soil. The walls need to float so they are not squeezed if the soil expands and pushes the wall upwards. There is a very simple trick that solves the problem and allows you to build strong walls that can move upwards, but not tilt over.
A straight staircase is great for moving furniture, but it can be very long. The length of a wood or Victorian staircase is easy to calculate. A circular staircase takes up the least amount of space in the house floorplan.
Two Home Depot employees really did a great job, and Jerry Willis thought he had taken a ride in a time machine. One was a cashier, and the other employee worked in the lumber department.
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