Ants

Posted on by Tim Carter

DEAR TIM: Two days ago, I ate a piece of watermelon before I went to bed and accidentally left the rind on the kitchen counter overnight. I woke up to find my kitchen invaded by small, black ants. They were everywhere! The little devil ants were crawling all over my counters and in my sink. The melon rind had several ants on it. I killed them all, and immediately took the rind out to the trash. It is two days later, and I am still seeing black ants. What can I do? I am fighting a losing battle here on the Outer Banks of NC. Teresa P., South Nags Head, NC

DEAR TERESA: The ants are just a nuisance. They can't harm your home, and they are just simply unwanted house guests much like some of my relatives and in-laws. The small ants were simply looking for some food, and were attracted by the sugar in the watermelon juice.

Ants are amazing insects. They have very structured colonies, and certain ants have very distinct jobs. All ants need to eat, and certain ants within the colony are the primary energy providers. Their responsibility is enormous as they are charged with finding food for the other colony members. These ants scout randomly for food, and are attracted by fragrances and food particles. Once they locate food, they communicate the findings to other ants within the colony.

These ants that explore the land around the colony were looking for food and knew to come to your house. There is a good chance they had been in your home before, and my guess is they found some small crumbs on the kitchen floor. The reason the ants came back is because they had left a chemical marker trail behind. These marker chemicals are called pheromones.

But this time they struck gold with the sugar-rich watermelon juice. This high-energy food source caused them to scamper back to the colony to announce the find while you were sleeping.

My guess is that once you killed the visible ants, you washed the countertop off. This would have removed the chemical pheromones from the counter, but the chemical trail was still on the floor. The survival programming within the ants kept telling other ants to come to your kitchen to get more watermelon juice. After all, they were unaware you had thrown it away once you decided to get up out of bed.

If you sweep the floor well, and then mop the floor with a solution of ammonia and water, you will stop the invasion of ants. The ammonia will remove the pheromones, and it will act as a powerful repellent to the small ants. Start with a solution of one part ammonia to one part water. If the odor of the ammonia is too strong for you, then cut the solution back to one part ammonia to two parts water.

Ants aren't the only creatures that love watermelon juice. Read Tim's story about the juice in his September 29, 2019 AsktheBuilder Newsletter.

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Diamonds

Posted on by Tim Carter

Diamonds and home improvement have much in common. At first blush, you may not think so. But there are hundreds, actually thousands, of instances where a diamond wedding ring or a diamond engagement ring has disappeared behind a wall, slipped into a floor crack, dropped into a sink or worst of all, been flushed down a toilet.

Talk to a seasoned plumber and my guess is he will tell you a few stories about successful treasure hunts where he has found a diamond or two. The hardest diamonds to recover are ones that have gone down a primary drainpipe. The water flow from a toilet flush can easily carry a diamond ring out to a sewer line. But if it ever happens to you, immediately call a plumber who has a camera scope he can send down the drain line. If the toilet was flushed just once and no other water goes down the plumbing drains before the plumber arrives, the diamond ring might still be in the drain line, and can be recovered.

I have a personal interest in diamonds because of my geology degree. A diamond is simply a mineral that we mine for its gemstone quality. There are plentiful deposits of diamonds in the world, and the supply that is released annually is tightly controlled. This low supply boosts the price of this gemstone.

If you want to discover more great tips and facts about diamonds, sapphires, rubies and other interesting gemstones, you should visit a cool new website I have discovered. It is called ExpertJewelryTips.com. I am convinced you will uncover many fascinating facts when you read the columns at ExpertJewelryTips.com.

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DIY Heating Plumbing

Posted on by Tim Carter

Diy (do-it-yourself) heating and plumbing is an ambitious goal to set, and one that is achievable if you have great comprehension skills, a boatload of tools and are mechanically inclined. In other words, diy heating and plumbing is much harder and far more complicated than painting or rough carpentry. Do not be lulled into a sense of empowerment by the countless diy books, radio shows and television shows about diy heating, plumbing and other topics. Certain diy projects require years of experience to achieve results that are close to that of a professional.

Diy heating is by far the most complicated. For sake of discussion, diy air conditioning should be included in the discussion about heating. The heating and cooling system in a standard home is by far the most complicated mechanical equipment found in a residential house. Not only is the equipment itself highly complex, but the calculations required to properly size the furnace, boiler and air conditioner are not easily performed by a do-it-yourselfer.

Many people are probably unaware that furnaces and air conditioners are like shoes. They come in all different sizes and styles. If you try to wear a shoe that is the wrong size, you are very uncomfortable. The same is true for furnaces and air conditioners. Put the wrong size in your home, and I guarantee you will be highly uncomfortable.

The tools needed to install air conditioners are expensive and complex. You need special gauges, a high-quality vacuum pump, special soldering equipment and a wide variety of other specialized hand tools.

The skills to install air conditioning equipment properly are not learned in a classroom or over a period of one week. It takes years of on-the-job experience to become qualified to deal with all of the unique situations one encounters when installing air conditioning in a home.

Diy heating requires that you know about furnaces and boilers. Furnaces are slightly less complicated than air conditioners, but they offer unique challenges. Fitting and working with metal duct work is not a job for a rookie. Boilers are more complex than furnaces, and you must be an expert pipe fitter to produce good results.

Many of the manufacturers of heating and cooling equipment will not sell their products to diy heating buffs. They know the challenges that face trained professionals, and realize it is beyond the scope of do-it-yourselfers to install their products.

Diy plumbing is another field that looks far easier than it is in the real world. Plumbing is directly related to public health, and the installation of both water supply lines and wastewater drainage lines must be done in certain ways to protect the health of communities and individuals within your own household. A rookie diy plumbing installation can send contaminated water backward into a public water supply system. A good-intentioned diy plumber can sicken his own family by installing drainage pipes that clog or emit sewer gas into a home on a regular basis.

Diy plumbing has been glorified on many cable television shows. It takes great skills to install plumbing in accordance with all codes and industry standards. Pipe sizing is important, as is the proper venting of plumbing fixtures.

If you are still in the mood to attempt your own diy heating and plumbing jobs, then be sure to research all methods, tools and codes with respect to your tasks at hand. Take out the necessary permits, and have the inspectors check your work. If you succeed, congratulations. If you fail, be prepared to open up your wallet a little further while you step aside for the professional to straighten out your work.

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Kitchen Sinks

Posted on by Tim Carter

Kitchen sinks are far and away the most important component found in kitchens anywhere in the world. The reason is simple to understand when you think how important water is in both the preparation and cleanup of food. The basic function of a kitchen sink is to serve as a waterproof receptacle for liquids and mushy solid foods of any type.

Kitchen sinks differ from bathroom sinks in both size and sometimes the material that makes up the sink. A kitchen sink needs to be robust in size so it can easily accommodate large bowls, pots and pans, and any other utensil that one might use to prepare food.

The kitchen sink must also be able to withstand the abuse these large, heavy objects impart on a sink. Most people know that smaller objects like glasses, plates and silverware can create scratches and nicks in kitchen sinks. Larger objects can do serious damage to sinks that are not made to withstand a certain amount of daily wear and tear. For this reason, heavy-gauge stainless-steel kitchen sinks are a favorite. Porcelain-coated cast iron should be considered if you want a vintage kitchen sink.

A bathroom sink can be smaller and made from vitreous china, since it is not exposed to the wear and tear of a kitchen sink. Cast-iron sinks are frequently used in bathrooms, as are porcelain-coated steel sinks.

Ever-changing trends put pressure on kitchen-sink manufacturers to explore other materials for kitchen sinks. Solid plastic is still available, and these sinks can be bonded to solid-surface countertops so the sink looks to be sculpted from one solid piece of plastic. Granite kitchen sinks, and those made from marble and other hard stones, make for a dramatic look.

Copper, brass and any other corrosion-resistant metal can be used to form a kitchen sink. Copper and any copper alloy offer a unique characteristic not found in any other sink material. Copper kitchen sinks have a built-in natural chemical mechanism that kills many bacteria and viruses within minutes of contact. This hidden quality can help keep you and your family healthy.

When looking at kitchen sinks, pay attention to the depth of the bowl. Not all sinks are created equal. Many kitchen sinks offer extra depth to make cleaning large bowls and pots a very easy job.

If your kitchen is large enough to handle two sinks, give serious consideration to this possibility. Many kitchen sinks are available in a double or side-by-side configuration, but these can only be used by one person. If you have two separate sinks in two different locations in a kitchen, two people can work independently without getting in each other's way.

The mounting method of kitchen sinks is also an option. The bowl can be placed under the countertop so that water and food can be pushed into the sink like water flowing over a waterfall. A second design is an overmount lip where the top of the sink is higher than the surrounding countertop. Over and undermount kitchen sinks are available in a wide variety of colors, sizes and material choices.

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Dryer Vent

Posted on by Tim Carter

I received this very interesting dryer-vent story from Steve L., who lives in Southern CA with a seemingly harmless variety of small wildlife. He shared this tale in the hopes that other people will be spared the olfactory misery he had to suffer.

The other day, I found a small mouse in my side yard where our dryer vents. I chased him from his hiding place and thought I had him cornered next to some recycling boxes near the dryer vent. I moved the boxes a bit to find that he had made a little bed out of vented dryer lint. Then in a flash, he darted toward me a few inches and then hopped right up into the dryer vent (the dryer was not on at the time).

I had never looked at the workings of this vent because it has one of those angled covers that directs the air down. I didn't want the mouse setting up shop in there so I ran in the house and turned the dryer on a minute, hoping to scare him out. I went back outside and saw no sign of him. I figured he probably ran away or, worst case, would crawl out when he got hungry.

That must have been a couple days ago. Well, today our laundry room really started to stink. I immediately suspected the worst. I pulled the dryer out and disconnected the few feet of flexible metal duct between the dryer and the wall.

I gingerly carried it outside. I looked inside and what do you know, a dead mouse sitting right in the 90-degree angle fitting that was attached to the back of the dryer. That mouse died within an inch of the inside of our dryer.

Here's how it all happened: I discovered that our exhaust vent has one big flap under that external angled cover. Years of lint had propped it open by about half an inch. I figure that little bugger was able to jump up nose first into that half inch opening and squeeze himself inside. His big mistake was crawling too far inside. The inside flexible ductwork followed an upside down U pattern. I think he was able to crawl up the incline from the hole in the wall to the top of the inverted U but then fell down the longer other side. He was not able to climb back up from the floor level where the exhaust exits the dryer to the top of the inverted U. Tough luck.

That duct has been thoroughly scoured and reinstalled and everything is back to normal. I'm now highly motivated to check that exhaust vent every week when I take out the trash. I also changed the course of the flexible ductwork. It now follows more of a C pattern, which hopefully won't be as challenging for any future invaders.


I have found that it is often best to vent fans and dryers through the roof. I urge you to watch this video of mine to see how easy it is to install the correct vent-cap flashing on a roof. Have no fear - if done right you will have no leaks.

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Restoration Hardware

Posted on by Tim Carter

DEAR TIM: I need some restoration hardware to help me put the finishing touches on an old home I am renovating. Can you still get authentic hardware for doors and cabinets? What other pieces of trim should I consider to bring this old home back to its former glory? Is it possible to use restoration hardware on new homes? Sandra F., Stowe, VT

DEAR SANDRA: Restoration hardware is readily available. In fact, you will discover many companies offer a wide variety of products at different price points. One thing I have discovered is that price is a fairly accurate barometer of quality. High-quality hardware often costs more money. It also pays to shop very patiently. There are all sorts of places on the Internet where you can get very good deals on restoration hardware. There are also specialty hardware stores that sell nothing but the best hardware, whether it is period or modern.

This ornate solid-brass door hardware is an exact copy of that made 150 years ago. It sports a full-mortise lockbox operated by traditional skeleton keys. PHOTO CREDIT: Tim Carter

This ornate solid-brass door hardware is an exact copy of that made 150 years ago. It sports a full-mortise lockbox operated by traditional skeleton keys. PHOTO CREDIT: Tim Carter

I have used all sorts of different period hardware on past jobs and in my own home. You can get restoration hardware for any time period. Victorian, early Colonial, art deco, old English, etc., are all available and in different finishes. The crystal doorknobs and solid-brass doorknob back plates, I grew up with in my 1930's house, can be found within minutes.

If you want to be authentic, be sure to look for doorknob locksets that sport full-mortise lock and latch mechanisms. Modern doorknobs are tubular in nature, and require the carpenter to drill a large round hole in the face of a door. Traditional full-mortise locksets required a deep cavity in the thinner edge of the door. Special power tools can easily create these mortise cavities in minutes, whereas old carpenters had to do it by hand. These full-mortise lockset locks use a traditional skeleton key. Nothing could be more authentic than that.

You should consider restoration hardware for every room of the house, including bathrooms and your kitchen. In the past few years, there has been an explosion of authentic products for bathrooms and kitchens. If your budget permits, you can even purchase period appliances for kitchens, and every single fixture you might imagine for any bathroom. Can you picture in your mind having a traditional 1950's refrigerator/icebox that looks like it survived a journey in a time machine? Those appliances can be delivered to your doorstep now sans the time machine.

I would consider looking at restoration hardware for any drapery rods, coat hooks, shelf brackets and even electrical switch and outlet cover plates. If you can find older brass light fixtures, you can replace any missing glass pendants and crystals with ease. One very attractive trim item, I used in my own home, is period stair rods and holders. When you place an Oriental stair runner carpet on a set of steps and then trim it with twisted rope stair rods, your friends and neighbors will know you are a serious restoration hardware buff.

Don't forget about the heating and cooling aspects of your home. Be on the lookout for authentic heat register covers. They are available in a multitude of finishes including brass, cast iron and nickel plate.

Cabinet knobs, drawer pulls and small door pulls are available in hundreds of classic styles and finishes. Hinges of all types are also ready for you to bring your home back to its former glory.

All of this restoration hardware can be used on new homes. In fact, the only things that separate a new home from an older home are the woodwork and the hardware. You can visualize this with ease if you stop and think of what a new house looks like just after drywall is finished and sanded. It looks identical to a 150-year-old home where the plasterers just left to ride home in a horse-drawn wagon. The walls and ceilings in both cases are flat, smooth surfaces just waiting for the finish carpenters to arrive the next day.

If you want to make a new home look old, you must pay attention to other things in the planning process. Older homes often had taller ceilings and they had windows and doors that were proportioned to the wall height. Many modern homes have simple 8-foot-tall ceilings instead of 9 or 10-foot-tall ceilings.

Give serious consideration to the flooring in a new home. Old homes almost always had hardwood floors that were often partially covered with gorgeous area rugs. That look can be easily duplicated today. Be sure to consider exquisite inlay borders for the hardwood flooring, or at the very least, create borders in rooms by mixing different species of hardwood flooring. Walnut hardwood flooring can be easily installed with select red oak for a stunning look. Try to stretch your budget to include as much quarter-sawn hardwood flooring as possible for a truly authentic floor.

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Kitchen Cabinets

Posted on by Tim Carter

wall cabinet crown microwaveKitchen cabinets are by and large the core of a modern kitchen. They are flanked by kitchen appliances such as the refrigerator, stove, cooktop, dishwasher and microwave, but in today's kitchen many of these appliances are encapsulated by the cabinets or made to blend with the cabinet finish.

Shopping for kitchen cabinets can be intimidating. There are scores of major cabinet companies, and many more smaller custom cabinet shops where you can get any cabinet made from any species of wood that your mind can imagine. Add to this the subset of laminated cabinets, and the choices are enough to bring the most savvy shopper to her knees.

Pricing is a fantastic way to categorize kitchen cabinets. As with many things, the higher-quality cabinets simply cost more money. It does not take much effort to spend tens of thousands of dollars on the actual kitchen cabinets.

Traditional kitchen base and wall cabinets come in standard sizes. The base cabinets are often 34.5 inches tall and 24 inches deep. They come in widths starting at 12 inches and can go up to 48 inches often in increasing width increments of 3 inches. Wall cabinets are often 12 inches deep and 30 inches tall. They also come in the same size widths as the base cabinets. Wall cabinets also come in several different heights ranging from 15 inches all the way up to 48 inches. It is not uncommon to find an even wider range of sizes with certain custom cabinet product lines.

Different semi-custom cabinet manufacturers make different-sized cabinets for all sorts of special looks and situations. It is not uncommon to have one cabinet extend beyond adjacent cabinets to create a distinguished look. It pays to shop around to see all of the different possibilities and special cabinet features offered by the custom-cabinet manufacturers.

One of the interesting aspects of true custom kitchen cabinets is the ability of the cabinetmaker to make one giant base or wall cabinet instead of separate boxes that are screwed together by the installer at the jobsite. A custom-cabinet maker can easily make one giant base cabinet 8 feet long that installs as if it were a piece of furniture. The same is true for wall cabinets. The advantage of this method is the lack of vertical seams where two traditional cabinet boxes would mate up to one another.

Pay particular attention to the materials used to build the cabinets. Lower-priced cabinets are made with minimal-quality engineered lumber. If you plan to load a wall cabinet with heavy traditional china, the weight of the dishes may cause the cabinet to pull apart over time. I have seen this happen on several occasions. Be very careful about storing china that has sentimental value in a low-cost cabinet.

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Lowes Home Improvement

Posted on by Tim Carter

Lowe's Home Improvement is the store I visit when I have a home improvement emergency. There is a Lowe's Home Improvement store about two miles from my house. I prefer Lowe's over Home Depot, because the Lowe's store is cleaner and better organized. There may be better Home Depot stores, but they are too far away from my home.

For all of my ordinary home improvement and hardware shopping trips, I go to Silverton True Value Hardware. The owners, Will and Betty, are old-time friends of mine. Their son, Don also works in the store each week. I love shopping at this traditional hardware store, because I can park within 10 feet of the door, and they stock some very unusual items. The store clerks at the Silverton store also are far more knowledgeable than any employee I have ever spoken with at Lowe's.

Here is the Lowe's store near my home. It looks just like the hundreds of other Lowe's stores all across the nation. PHOTO CREDIT: Tim Carter

Here is the Lowe's store near my home. It looks just like the hundreds of other Lowe's stores all across the nation. PHOTO CREDIT: Tim Carter

I go to Lowe's when the Silverton True Value hardware store is closed. I also will visit the Lowe's home improvement store for larger things that Will and Betty do not stock.

Pricing is an interesting point. Often I will get better prices when I go to Will and Betty's smaller hardware store. Having a small business myself, I also prefer to support other small businesses.

There is not a doubt in my mind that the Lowe's home improvement store near my own home is here to stay. But I will continue to drive a little further to visit with Will, Betty and Don. I also feel better when I open my wallet in their store. Try visiting a small hardware store near your home, and see if you experience the same great service I get at mine.

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Hurricane Window Protection

Posted on by Tim Carter
hurrican window protection

That is Matt Geiger, former NBA player, striking a window that has been protected with security window film. The photo was taken the instant just after the mallet bounced off the glass. The glass shattered, but did not fall to the ground. It was held in place by the durable and crystal-clear window film. PHOTO CREDIT: Tim Carter

Hurricane window protection is on the mind of just about every homeowner in Florida and all states that touch the Gulf of Mexico. The fierce winds of a hurricane pick up objects which become projectiles. Imagine a piece of 2x4 flying through the air at 130 miles per hour. Think what happens when that 2x4 smashes into an unprotected patio door or window of your home.

Once the glass is shattered, wind-blown rain is driven into the home. This water will cause all sorts of damage to the house and any possessions it saturates. The inside of the home also gets pressurized by the sustained-wind blasts, and this can actually tear a house apart.

For these reasons, you can see why it is vitally important to keep window glass intact during hurricanes. There are several ways to do this. Hurricane shutters, hurricane screens, laminated glass, 7/16-inch thick or thicker plywood, tempered glass, security window films, miscellaneous other window films and annealed glass.

The cost to install these different systems varies, as well as the level of protection each offers. But the security window films are the most intriguing in my opinion. They offer some distinct advantages.

Security window films are crystal clear, and certain types offer great ultraviolet light protection as well as blocking solar heat gain. The films adhere to the inside of the window and are a passive protection system. They allow the glass to shatter, but the window film holds the broken glass in position. The window film continues to work until the storm is over and new glass can be installed. During the storm, however, the window film provides the needed weather barrier so wind and rain stay outdoors.

Another advantage to security window films is their lower cost. They are very affordable when compared to durable and discrete hurricane shutters. Hurricane shutters and other devices that cover over a window often are not as aesthetically pleasing as one might like. Security window films offer invisible protection once installed. You simply do not see them, yet they are protecting your home from storms and even burglars who try to break glass to gain entry into a home.

Author's Notes: I want to thank the hospitality of Dimitar, the friendly desk clerk who works at the Best Western Palm Harbor hotel in Tarpon Springs, FL. Dimitar allowed me to write this column in the lobby of the hotel while I waited to go to the airport.

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Bathroom Vanities

Posted on by Tim Carter

Bathroom vanities are a core fixture found in just about every bathroom. The bathroom sink is supported by the vanity, and the cabinet conceals the plumbing water supply lines as well as the drain line. The bathroom vanity cabinet plays a big roll when it comes to the overall design of a bathroom. Pick the right vanity and it can make a dramatic statement if you have both good taste and a generous budget.

Many consumers are unaware there is a vast difference in quality when looking at bathroom vanities. Mass-produced vanities are often very inexpensive, and can be found at home centers. Semi-custom bathroom vanities can be ordered at kitchen and bath showrooms that represent various cabinet manufacturers. You will pay more for these, but the higher quality is noticeable. You can also find cabinetmakers that will build you anything you can dream in your head. What's more, they can build the vanity from just about any material. A custom bathroom vanity can become a permanent fixture in a bathroom if it is built well and has a classic design.

Don't think that you must use a standard vanity cabinet when it comes time to furnish your bathroom. You can use just about any box to create the needed support for the countertop that sits on top of the vanity. I have even used a gorgeous chest of drawers to make a vanity cabinet.

If you use a vanity in a bathroom, you will want drawers with it if you have the room. But a powder room or hallway bath for guests might not need a vanity with pullout drawers. Keep this in mind as you look at different vanities.

Trends change as people grow tired of a look. Bathroom vanities that resemble furniture, instead of just a traditional box cabinet, often are timeless. These stylish vanities never seem to go out of style, and people who see them often comment on their beauty and functionality.

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