Wood Conditioner Video

Posted on November 24, 2006 by Tim Carter

Wood Conditioner - Use One Before Staining Wood

Some woods, like oak, are easy to stain. The wood cells are very closed and the stain is not soaked into the wood. A soft wood, such as white pine is very porous and will soak up too much of the stain and the grain of the wood will not show through. You need to close up the wood pores in a soft wood which is what a wood conditioner does. The pre-stain conditioner will close the wood pores. These conditioners are similar to thinned down varnishes or urethanes. They have resins in them that partially fill some of the pores in the soft woods so only a small amount of stain is absorbed by the wood.

They go on clear and only takes 15 minutes to dry.

After the wood conditioner is dry, go ahead and stain the wood. The wood stain will not soak in too much in soft woods. The wood grain will show through the stain beautifully. If you did not use the conditioner, the wood stain would be very dark and there would be little or no wood grain showing. The pre-stain wood conditioners are a must on soft woods.

Do a Test First

It's BEST to do a test on some scraps of wood before you actually stain your wood. Do exactly what you see me do in the video so you get a feel of how the wood conditioner protects your wood from absorbing too much dark stain.

Marie from Oak Harbor, WA, emailed asking about mixing stains. Read her story in the March 23, 2011 Newsletter. This was the I didn't Know That!! article in the October 22, 2013 Newsletter.

Sink Installation

Posted on November 21, 2006 by Tim Carter

Click the image to watch the sink installation video.

A different window will open and the video will play immediately. If this does not happen, you are probably surfing with Internet Explorer as your browser and you have the Block Popups command activated in your preferences.

This is why I surf the Internet using Mozilla Firefox as my browser. It has built-in intelligence that allows popups to open that you activate with a click. There is a difference you know, as some websites throw popups in our faces without our wishes. In this case, I am forcing you to click to activate the popup.

If you want your web surfing to be enjoyable, consider using Firefox as your browser. The software is free and you can get it by clicking here .

Bathroom Cabinets

Posted on November 20, 2006 by Tim Carter

DEAR TIM: The bathroom cabinets I saw at the home center are not going to work for me. I have dreamed up a clever L-shaped design for my new bathroom, and I need bathroom vanity cabinets that are crazy sizes. Is it possible to buy these as well as bathroom wall cabinets? What else can I do to make my bathroom appear as it is indeed one-of-a-kind? I want to splurge, so don't hold back on any of your ideas. Connie B., West Salem, WI

DEAR CONNIE: I get really frustrated when people ask for me to do a brain dump of all of my ideas, but am only given precious few words to do so. Books have been written about bathroom remodeling, cabinets and design possibilities, so I have my work cut out for me.

First, you absolutely can purchase any custom-sized cabinet you need. You can get special widths as well as depths. The depth of the cabinet is very important, especially in an L-shaped design. Smaller bathrooms don't always have the width to allow standard-sized cabinets to be used in this configuration. You will probably discover you need to use a cabinet or several cabinets that are only 15 inches deep.

These semi-custom bathroom cabinets were ordered to fit precisely into the tight space. The upper cubby shelves were made on-site from stained wood provided by the cabinet company. PHOTO CREDIT: Tim Carter

Be aware that bathroom cabinets are also available in kitchen-cabinet heights. A 34.5-inch-tall cabinet allows you to have a 36-inch-high finished counter height if you use granite or some other material that is 1.5 inches thick. Many people have come to appreciate higher bathroom cabinets and tops.

Several high-end cabinet manufacturers produce a wide variety of accent trim pieces that allow you to make the cabinets look like furniture. Imagine an accent piece of wood that resembles a twisted rope. You can have that trim piece applied to the cabinets to hide the seams between two separate cabinets. This look can be stunning.

Consider custom shelving that rests on the countertop on either side of the sink. This shelving can act as a giant frame around a tall mirror that makes the bathroom seem 30% larger than it actually is. Some bathroom cabinet manufacturers will make this shelving for you, while others will supply you with the needed material that has been stained and finished to match the cabinetry. A good finish carpenter should be able to assemble simple shelves in one day or less.

Consider natural stone for the countertop and the floor. You can buy granite tile squares that compliment the color and texture of the cabinets you select. Don't hesitate to look at painted cabinets as well as natural wood cabinets. Painted cabinets that have a slight accent glaze can really go a long way to help you achieve your ultra-custom look.

This deluxe faucet is from the ShowHouse series by Moen. Its polished-nickel finish is stunning. The faucet actually swivels to make cleaning the sink easy. PHOTO CREDIT: Tim Carter

Pay attention to detail when it comes to your bathroom plumbing fixtures. There are high-quality faucets available in traditional or sleek contemporary designs. I personally love the new polished nickel finishes. The color of the polished nickel finish is regal. I think you should also be aware that certain faucet manufactures offer a complete line of trim fixtures that match the faucets. You can get towel bars, toilet-paper holders, shelves, etc. all in the exact same design and finish.

Don't forget about your walls and ceiling. All too often people seem to overlook wallpaper. Wallpaper, in my opinion, can create a mood and feeling that adds to the elegance created with the cabinets, countertops and flooring. Be sure to use a new non-woven wallpaper. These wallpapers do not expand when the adhesive contacts the paper. This feature allows you to easily remove the wallpaper from the wall and reattach it if there is ever a need to do a plumbing or electrical repair behind the wall.

Consider a wallpaper mural for the ceiling, if it fits into your overall look. Modern adhesives will allow the mural to stay attached to the ceiling, especially if you use the proper-sized ventilation fan to remove moist air created during bathing or showering.

I love the bathroom exhaust fans that are located in the attic space away from the bathroom. They are extremely quiet and vacuum copious amounts of air from the bathroom through insulated flexible piping. This air must be piped through the roof or sidewall of your home. Do not allow it to escape into the attic space.

Create a unique design using different-colored granite or tile on the floor or even the shower wall. Use these wide-open spaces as a place to express the look and feel you want. Modern ceramic-tile wet saws allow a craftsman to easily cut pieces of tile or natural stone into any number of sizes and shapes. If you do not have a creative bent, think about hiring a designer to transform the floor or wall into a masterpiece. I guarantee you it will get compliments from anyone who sees it. But if no one does, you get to enjoy it all by yourself!

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Heating Installation

Posted on November 12, 2006 by Tim Carter

DEAR TIM: Do you think I can do my own heating installation? The price of heating systems with installation takes my breath away. My central heating installation job doesn't appear to look that difficult. All I need to do is switch out the furnace and reconnect the black-iron gas line. What am I missing? Gordon N., Perry, IA

DEAR GORDON: I am at a significant disadvantage since I don't know you personally, but because you had to ask me about your skill level, I am 100 percent convinced you can't successfully complete the heating installation job. The task is so complex, especially if you purchase state-of-the-art high-efficiency equipment, that many high-quality furnace manufacturers will not sell you their products. They only want trained professionals to install these highly-complex machines.

This new high-efficiency gas furnace took several days to install. Each step took skill, an assortment of special tools and years of experience. PHOTO CREDIT: Tim Carter

The reason you are suffering from sticker shock on the installed price is simple. Heating installation is hard work, it is dirty, it requires a variety of great skills and a boatload of specialized tools. You couldn't have picked a more complicated task in your home, unless of course, there is a central air conditioner that is also part of the system. Heating and cooling systems are by far the most complex mechanical systems found in the average residential home. And much like automobiles, they are getting more complex each year as internal computers and circuit boards operate these machines.

This past summer, I witnessed this job on a very personal level. Both of my gas furnaces were replaced with super high-efficiency furnaces that have gas modulating valves. I knew I could not do this job myself, so I hired my heating and air conditioning installer to do it. This person happens to be my best friend, and he allowed me to assist him on several parts of the job.

The removal of the old furnaces was miserable, dirty work. Rust, dirt and grime were everywhere. Rather than lift the old, heavy furnaces up from the basement, we disassembled them in the furnace room. It took hours to get the mess cleaned up, and all of the parts out to the driveway.

My new furnaces are smaller than the 20-year-old ones we replaced. This may not seem like a big deal, but it makes a huge difference with respect to the extended plenum metal ductwork that sits on top of a standard updraft furnace. That ordinary-looking metal box is often anything but ordinary. They are almost always custom-made by a sheet-metal fabricator. You may have to have a new extended plenum made, and even then, you may have difficulty making the transition between it and the ductwork it connects to.

Sizing the new furnace might also be an issue. Keep in mind that furnaces come in different sizes, and you need to ensure the new furnace has a heat output that is slightly greater than the heat loss of your home. Professionals know how to do the necessary calculations to determine both heat loss and heat gain.

The exhaust and incoming combustion-air piping can also be very complicated. The length of the piping runs, the amount of turns and the slope are all very important. You must follow manufacturers' recommendations to the letter, or your furnace may not work correctly. What's more, if you install the exhaust piping incorrectly, you may create a life-safety hazard as exhaust gases can contain deadly carbon monoxide.

You may not think connecting a black-iron pipe gas line is hard, but if you do not have access to tools that allow you to thread pipe, you may be in for a surprise. If you have not been trained properly to thread pipe, you can ruin the threading dies quickly or thread the pipe incorrectly. I know it looks simple, but it is not.

Heating installation contractors are worth every penny, so long as you deal with a real professional. The heating and cooling system in a home creates an artificial environment, one that you want to be comfortable. The real pros will give you a dollar's worth of value for every dollar you spend.

There is a possibility your existing heating system has some flaws. Perhaps one room is hotter or colder than you desire. There may be defects in the original ductwork design that a professional can fix with some ease. Be sure to bring these defects to the attention of any professional that might be bidding your job.

Be aware that modern high-efficiency gas furnaces produce ample amounts of condensate water. This water needs to be directed to a floor drain or be pumped to a sink. The condensate water is a byproduct of the combustion of the natural gas or propane. The condensate is also acidic, so don't drink it, give it to pets or use it to water plants.

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How to Make a Video

Posted on November 7, 2006 by Tim Carter

My How to Make a Video has a story behind it. Most videos are made for a reason, but this one was special. My video was produced the second week of October, 2006 as part of an hour-long presentation I had to give in front of an Internet mastermind group to which I belong. Many in this group are very dear friends, and I was trying to get them excited about the new world of Internet video. I decided to act a little silly at times to make them laugh, and laugh they did!

Many in my mastermind group have never been in front of a camera, and I wanted to share some tips that have worked for me over the years. But trying to squeeze years of my own experience into ten minutes does not do the topic justice. That makes sense when you consider that students go to school for four years to learn the basics of the videography business. I just barely scratched the surface of the topic in this short video.

Over the past ten years, I have taped hundreds of short videos for network television. One thing I learned during that time period is good equipment is absolutely a necessity. You and I can debate this till the cows come home, but talk to any professional and they will tell you a good video camera, a professional tripod and a light kit are the basics you need to produce semi-professional results. I also wanted to give my friends, and anyone else who watches the video, a simple primer of what to do and what not to do.

Watch any number of amateur videos on the Internet and you quickly see why a good camera and a tripod are necessary to make semi-professional videos. I know some people are attracted to home-grown videos that have little or no editing, but I think many will agree over time that viewers and businesses that want to market products will be attracted to videos that are more professional.

A tripod is very important. Without a tripod, the video camera can move and shake. Jiggling video is just like static on a radio. Viewers can find the movement bothersome, and this subtle movement can divert attention from the message in your video. If you can't afford a great tripod, set your video camera on a stick or some other device that allows you to hold it as still as possible.

As you watch my video, you might be tempted to think I was given the equipment or paid to say nice things. Not so. I paid for every piece of equipment you see in the video. I bought the equipment based upon recommendations for professionals who are in the video business. Years of working with tools in building and remodeling have taught me that it really pays to work with quality, so I bought good stuff. Here is a list of the equipment I used to film this video and all of the other ones I am doing.

After looking at many video cameras, I picked the Panasonic PV-GS500 because of the great reviews I read online. John Wall, a very good friend of mine who is a professional video producer, told me about this camera. He explained the importance of the good optics as well as the three separate color chips. I am shocked at how clear the images are when you zoom in on an object.

Another professional, Michael Keating, gave me the heads up on my tripod. It is a Bogen 755B video tripod with a Bogen 3130 QR Micro Fluid Head. When you buy a tripod like mine, you actually are buying two separate parts. The legs are one part, and the second part is the actual head which connects the video camera to the tripod legs. There are many different heads as well as types of tripod legs. You can spend four figures quickly if you want a super-professional tripod.

The camera needs to be level when you shoot, and these quick-adjust fluid heads allow you to do that quickly. If you try to use a simplistic still camera tripod, you will struggle to get the camera level.

You need to have exceptional audio. I experimented first with a lower quality wired microphone, but was disappointed in the results. There was lots of electronic hum. So I spent the money and went wireless. It is so nice to have a wireless microphone, and my Sennheiser EW112P-G2 Evolution System gives me near perfect professional audio. This wireless microphone has all sorts of settings that allow you to minimize background noise and produce crystal-clear audio.

The lighting kit with bounce umbrellas was purchased at a local camera shop. The high-intensity halogen bulbs get very hot and produce a brilliant white light. Lighting is everything in video production as well as still photography. You can spend all sorts of time trying to properly light a scene to get the right balance of lights, and minimize or eliminate shadows. Wait till you discover how much time you will spend adjusting and positioning lights!

I wish you the best, and hope you have some fun as you make your own videos. Remember, it is easy to take short cuts. Invest the time and money to make the best videos you can. You will never regret it.

Medicine Cabinets

Posted on November 4, 2006 by Tim Carter

DEAR TIM: I went to look at medicine cabinets this weekend. All of the bathroom medicine cabinets in my home are beat up and dated. Recessed medicine cabinets seem to be much nicer than surface-mounted ones. How hard is it to install a recessed medicine cabinet? If I purchase mirrored medicine cabinets, will all of the glass make them too heavy? Are there any unpleasant surprises that might spring up on a simple remodeling job like this? Diane H., Sacramento, CA

DEAR DIANE: If you want surprises when it comes to medicine cabinets, wait until you remove one from an old home and see all of the discarded double-edged razor blades that are waiting for you behind the plaster. Those of us who grew up in older homes can still remember the tiny slit in the back of medicine cabinets where razor blades were placed instead of garbage cans. Razor blades in garbage cans can be very dangerous, so medicine cabinet manufacturers of old thought it was a great idea to place the dull blades in a wall cavity where no hands could get cut.

Medicine cabinets still serve the same purpose and tease curious visitors. A recessed cabinet like this one offers a slimmer profile. PHOTO CREDIT: Tim Carter

I hope you didn't purchase your medicine cabinets yet. If you visited a home center, you only saw a very, very small percentage of the amazing selection of medicine cabinets that are available. As time goes on, I am constantly surprised at how the selection of products gets wider and wider. Years ago, you could maybe pick from 20 or 30 different styles of medicine cabinets. Now there are well over 100.

Who would think you could find a distinctive wood-framed medicine cabinet that would look perfect in a Victorian home? Not only are they available, the woodwork trim around the cabinet looks like it is 120 years old. Even the surface-mounted hardware door latch looks old!

I agree with you that recessed medicine cabinets look better than surface-mounted ones. The surface-mounted cabinets serve a market where cutting into a wall is too expensive or not possible. They also provide instant gratification. If you need a functional medicine cabinet in ten minutes or less, screw a surface-mounted medicine cabinet to the wall and be done with it.

Recessed medicine cabinets are very easy to install if you are building a new home or are involved in a major bathroom remodeling project where the walls will be stripped to the studs and plumbers and electricians are showing up to do other work. If you want to talk about other surprises that await you in bathroom walls, wait until you start to remove the drywall and/or plaster and discover a plumbing vent pipe and/or electric cables feeding bath light fixtures or other rooms right where the recessed opening for the cabinet needs to be.

This is why you never want to cut haphazardly into a bathroom wall thinking you are going to install a recessed medicine cabinet. Always proceed slowly by taking off the drywall and plaster to see what you are up against.

Let's assume there are no pipes, electrical cables or heating ducts in your way. Your challenge will be to create the rough-in opening, or cavity, that the medicine cabinet will nest into. This is very basic carpentry, but can be challenging if the wall happens to be a supporting wall. If you have any doubts whatsoever, contact a seasoned remodeling contractor for advice. Offer to pay this person for his/her time to consult with you for an hour.

You can purchase a mirrored medicine cabinet with no worries. The weight of the glass is only an issue for you as you carry the cabinet from the store to your car and from your car to the bathroom. The weight of the mirrors can easily be supported by the walls. Be sure to use the screws provided by the manufacturer. Just pay attention to the written installation instructions and you will do fine. You must be sure the screws bite into solid framing material so the heavy medicine cabinet does not tip out of the wall cavity.

Many medicine cabinets come equipped with lights. All electrical connections must be done according to the National Electric Code. It is vitally important that any metal parts of the medicine cabinet are grounded, because of the electrocution hazard that is enhanced by the presence of water in the vanity sink.

The installation height of the medicine cabinet is very important. If your family has a mixture of tall and short people, be sure to think about getting a tall mirrored medicine cabinet that all will be able to use without stooping or standing on tip toes as they primp in front of the mirror.

Medicine cabinets don't have to be relegated to bathrooms. There are lots of other places in a home where you might want recessed storage and a handy mirror. You can purchase very affordable medicine cabinets that work great in sewing rooms, hobby areas and even workshops. The smaller cabinets are great places to store small items for any number of projects.

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Bathroom Lighting

Posted on October 28, 2006 by Tim Carter

DEAR TIM: Bathroom lighting is my current project, as I have two bathrooms that are being completely remodeled. What bathroom lighting fixtures have you had success with in your jobs? In the largest bathroom, contemporary lighting might interest me. Can I install one of those nifty makeup light and mirror fixtures that I often see in hotel bathrooms, or are those only permitted in commercial buildings? Carol S., Manassas, VA

DEAR CAROL: I don't know if there is a silver bullet when it comes to bathroom lighting and bathroom lighting fixtures. There are many wonderful options, and I think your biggest problem is going to be limiting your selections to just a few. When you visit a real lighting supply house that just sells lighting fixtures, I predict you will develop a mild headache from the mind-numbing task of looking at all of the delightful lighting fixtures.

To make matters worse, most lighting supply houses only display five or 10 percent of the light fixtures that are available. Be prepared to spend hours looking through catalogs that contain thousands of photos of bathroom lighting fixtures.

This halogen light is also an intake duct for a remote bathroom fan. The halogen bulb produces a brilliant white light. PHOTO CREDIT: Tim Carter

The best success stories I can share come from both personal experience, and many of the jobs I have completed over the years. Believe it or not, I am still learning how to best utilize light in bathrooms. New bathroom configurations and layouts create new bathroom lighting opportunities. The trick is to approach each job or bathroom with a new attitude.

The first thing to consider is that you have two lighting sources, and both should be considered. I think that people often underutilize and neglect natural lighting options. Windows, skylights and tubular lights that pipe sunlight into a bathroom should used whenever possible. There is no substitute, in my opinion, for brilliant sunlight streaming into a bathroom space in the morning. It is a wonderful way to start the day. Bathrooms that face away from the sun can benefit from skylights that reflect natural light from the sky and clouds. The same is true for windows, as they will let light in no matter which direction they face.

Artificial bathroom lighting is what most of us are used to. Standard light fixtures that use any number of different types of incandescent light bulbs can be found in tens of thousands of bathrooms across the land. But newer halogen and energy-efficient fluorescent bulbs should be considered, as they create a different palette of color. Be aware that different bulbs produce noticeable color spectrums ranging from a warmish golden hue to a blistering white light as you might experience outdoors at high noon on a cloudless day in the mountains.

The biggest mistake you can make in bathroom lighting is to have too little. My experience has shown that you need 300 watts of incandescent lighting per 50 square feet of bathroom. You can have more, but I think you will discover quickly that more than 8 watts per square foot could be overkill.

A combination of different lighting fixtures almost always produces a magical effect. I call this layering light. In my daughter's bathroom, I installed two recessed halogen lights over the vanity that are operated on a separate switch. Two other recessed lights, one in the center of the room and one over the tub, are operated by a second switch. When just one switch is on, the bathroom has a nice welcoming glow. When both are on, the bathroom lighting is just right for bathing or brushing your teeth.

Indirect bathroom lighting is another trick that many people seem to ignore. This form of lighting forces the builder/remodeler and the electrician to hide the actual light fixture, and bounce light from it onto a wall or a ceiling. Indirect bathroom lighting is ideal if you are going for a dramatic look. It is a great way to highlight wallpaper or decorative elements in a bathroom.

You can do contemporary lighting and switch to a different style in a few years. Almost all electrical lighting fixtures mount to the same electric boxes in walls and ceiling. Plan ahead to make sure you have enough side wall and ceiling clearance for most larger fixtures. Installing those lighted makeup mirrors is easy. They connect to a standard wall electrical box. Be sure the box is firmly attached to a stud or wood blocking in the wall.

Visit model homes on weekends to get real-time bathroom lighting ideas. I also urge you to look at many of the home design and decorating magazines for other ideas of unique bathroom lighting.

Be sure all moving doors in wall cabinets and medicine cabinets are able to operate fully and not hit lighting fixtures. Some lighting fixtures can be mounted too closely to mirrors and cabinets creating huge problems once you discover they are in the way and interfere with you gaining access to a cabinet.

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Electrical Safety

Posted on October 15, 2006 by Tim Carter

DEAR TIM: I am a new homeowner and know virtually nothing about electrical safety issues. Not listening to my parents is now coming back to haunt me. What kind of electrical safety program do I need to follow around my new home to stay safe? Are there specific electrical safety requirements I should and should not do? Think of me as a dry sponge ready to soak up all the knowledge you can afford to share. Melinda A., College Station, TX

DEAR MELINDA: You can soak up all the knowledge and water you can handle, but let's agree to keep electricity from finding its way into your body. High voltage electrical current found in just about every residential home is a double-edged sword. It lights our homes when it is dark, allows us to do things with ease by powering tools, appliances and motors and it can help keep us warm. But electricity can be a wicked dragon that is unforgiving if you make a mistake. People die each day from electrical-related accidents or fires.

Be sure the screws that secure electrical wires to outlets and switches are tight. PHOTO CREDIT: Tim Carter

Electrical safety begins when most people are small children. But it is shocking how much the average person does not know about the electricity found in the average home. I can't serve this topic the justice it deserves in the limited amount of space I have, but I will try to cover what I feel are some of the most important points.

The experts in electricity work each day to help protect us from all sorts of dangers. Much of this knowledge is in the National Electric Code (NEC). These rules and regulations, when followed, allow electricity to be helpful instead of harmful. If you ever do any electrical work in your home, or hire someone else to do it, make sure the work is performed in accordance with the NEC. Electrical inspectors will come to your home for a reasonable fee to ensure the wiring work is installed correctly.

Electrical cables in your home that feed outlets and switches usually contain three separate wires. You should find a black, white and bare copper wire in each cable. The black wire is supposed to be the charged conductor, the white wire is considered the neutral and the bare copper wire is the ground wire. If an exposed energized black wire touches an exposed white wire or ground wire, you get a dead short that will produce a large amount of sparks and a shower of molten metal as the wires become a small arc-welding machine. The circuit breakers or fuses in a circuit panel are designed to turn off the current if this happens. But if they fail, the sparking and arcing can continue. You often see this with downed power lines.

The electrical cables in your home come in different sizes. The common sizes are 14 gauge and 12 gauge. 14 gauge cable is rated for 15 amperes and 12 gauge is rated for 20 amperes of current. The wires within each cable can only carry so much electricity safely. The circuit breakers or fuses in an electrical panel are made to match these same amount of amperes.

If you ever add additional cable or even a new circuit to your home, the cable size must match the circuit breaker or fuse size. If you install a 14 gauge cable on a 20 ampere circuit, the wire can overheat and start a fire long before the circuit breaker or fuse would ever shut off the current flowing through the circuit.

Be very careful when using extension cords. Never run them under a carpet, through an operating window or door or place them where the cable can be cut or damaged. Never use an extension cord as a permanent way to provide power to something. I feel extension cords should just be used to supply temporary power for a short period of time.

Consult with a professional electrician and see what it would take to get your home up to the current code with respect to life-saving devices like ground-fault current interrupters and arc-fault circuit interrupters. These devices can take the place of existing circuit breakers in your electrical panel.

Never remove an older two-prong electrical outlet and install a three-pronged grounded outlet unless you are equipping that outlet with a code-approved ground wire. If you fail to ground the outlet, you are creating a situation where a future homeowner thinks the outlet is grounded.

If you live in an older home, the connections between the wires and the screws on outlets and switches may be loose and dangerous. In my own home I once heard a switch in a bathroom crackling and sizzling. I took the cover plate off and actually saw small electrical arcing that would have caused a fire within hours or days. If you do not feel comfortable checking switches and outlets, hire an electrician to do it for you.

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Garden Stepping Stones

Posted on October 14, 2006 by Tim Carter

These garden stepping stones are more formal. Thin paving brick were cemented to pre-cast concrete pads and sunk into the ground. PHOTO CREDIT: Tim Carter

Garden Stepping Stones

DEAR TIM: Garden stepping stones would prevent me from ruining my shoes each time I walk through my garden after a rain shower. What are my options when it comes to the different types of stones I can use? What size stones are best? Is there a preferred spacing? How does one prevent mud and mulch from covering the stones over time? What tips can you share to minimize the upcoming hard labor? Elizabeth M., Louisville, KY

DEAR ELIZABETH: Isn't it amazing how tranquil a walk in the garden can be? I get great pleasure from walking through and around the different shade gardens my wife has planted. The garden stepping stones she had me install not only add to the beauty of our gardens, but they also keep my shoes dry and mud-free.

The best stepping stones for garden paths are usually flat sedimentary or metamorphic rocks. Limestone, slate, flagstone, and quartzite are some of my favorite rock varieties. Coarse limestone that contains abundant fossils makes for a stepping stone that has superb slip-resistance and natural beauty. You are lucky to have this type of rock near your home. You might be able to get slabs from creek beds or road cuts on a state highway.

Quartzite is a very interesting garden stepping stone as many of them glitter when they are highlighted by sunbeams. When wet, quartzite can produce deep colors that may compliment your plants. This stone is also extremely durable and will wear better than iron.

You can also make your own stepping stones with concrete. Irregular molds and stamping kits allow you to create stepping stones that resemble cobblestones or slate. It is also quite easy to cement thin paving brick to pre-cast concrete slabs. These stepping stones look more formal, but the red brick really blends well with the shades of green found in just about every garden.

The sizing of the stones is fairly critical. A garden stepping stone that is too small offers a small target as you walk through the garden. Stones that are too big tend to overpower the pathway. I have found that garden stepping stones that are roughly 18 inches wide by 14 inches deep are ideal. The stones should be approximately 1 to 1.5 inches thick. They can be thicker, but this just creates more work for you as thicker means heavier.

The spacing of stepping stones is controlled by your gait. You can measure your gait easily by getting the bottom of your feet wet, and then walking on dry pavement. Measure the distance from the center of one footfall to the next. The odds are you will discover the average adult gait is approximately 24 inches. People who are taller with longer legs will have a longer gait.

To keep stepping stones free of mulch and mud, they should be installed so they are higher than the surrounding ground. Rookie gardeners frequently dig shallow holes and plant the stones as they would a plant making the top of the stones level with the surrounding dirt. This locks the stone in place, but also allows the stone to get covered easily with debris.

You can still make the stones look flush with the surface ground by placing dirt around the edges of the stones and then flaring this dirt out into the garden. Each stepping stone will then be a small plateau within the garden. The slope away from each stone will be so gentle you will not see it, but water will not flow up on the stones unless a Biblical storm inundates your garden.

Try not to carry the stones to your garden. Make use of a wheelbarrow or a two-wheeled cart used by deliverymen. Either tool allows you to bring the stones one by one into the garden with ease. I also urge you to wear thick gloves to protect your hands while working with the stones. You can easily pinch your fingers while trying to take stones from a stack.

If you decide to make your own stepping stones using paving brick, build them in place exactly where they will rest in your garden. The combined weight of paving brick, cement mortar and a pre-cast concrete pad for just one stepping stone can easily exceed 125 pounds or more.

Cold weather can cause frost to form in the soil. This may cause the stepping stones to tilt one way or another until such time as the ground thaws. If the stones are out of kilter after the spring thaw, level them by placing sand under the low part of the stone.

Natural stone will rarely require any maintenance. Harder stone like limestone, quartzite and shale will last generations. In fact, they will last thousands of years with little or no wear. Visit a stone supplier to get the widest variety of stones, and be sure to ask about durability and relative hardness. Stones that have a high quartz-mineral content will be harder and will last longer.

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