About Home Repair

Power Washing a Wood Deck

2009-07-04T12:23:19Z

Cleaning a wood deck and preparing it for staining can be a lot of work but the power washer can make short work of the cleaning process. It can also absolutely ruin your wood if you use the tool improperly with too much water pressure or getting the tip too close to the wood.

In the tutorial How to Power Wash a Deck, I'll give you an overview on how to use this tool so it stays a "power washer" and not a "power engraver." We'll review the steps and issues you need to know about safely cleaning your wood deck with a power washer without damaging the wood.

Study Just In: Women Hammer Nails Better Than Men (in the light)

2009-06-28T23:04:39Z

OK, I'm blogging this just for the sheer bizarre value of the study. Livescience.com reports that a study out of University of Massachusetts at Amherst has allegedly determined that women were about 10 percent more accurate than men at hitting a nail with a hammer in the light. Men were about 25 percent more accurate than women at hitting a nail in the dark. Now since I don't know of much construction or home repair that goes on in the dark, I'm not sure how valuable a skill hitting a nail in the dark really is.

So to all my male compatriots, I say, Practice Boys! Read up on the tutorial How to Use a Hammer and let's learn how to use these things in the daylight!

Vinyl Siding Repair

2009-06-21T22:26:31Z

Vinyl siding has limitations. It is prone to impact damage (the photo shows damage due to a hail storm), melts when exposed to extreme heat and becomes increasingly brittle as it gets cold. But even in the summer if a baseball or golf ball hits it, your vinyl siding can break or crack.

Then what? With colors and textures often not found in nature, matching existing vinyl siding can be hard to achieve. And without knowledge of how to separate the strips of siding, you'll never get them apart.

Well, don't worry. I'll show you how to repair damaged vinyl siding for under $10 (if you have spare siding material). And I'll also let you know where you can find discontinued siding styles and colors so that repair looks great!

How to Pick a Contractor: Getting Bids and Evaluating an Estimate

2009-06-11T10:31:51Z

Sometimes you come upon a home repair project that you decide to tackle with a checkbook instead of a hammer. You may decide to hire a professional contractor for a major roofing project or exterior home painting or any number of possible projects.

Getting Contractor Bids and Evaluating an Estimate is something you need to know how to do to protect yourself and end up with a successful project. It's also not fair to a good contractor who does a detailed proposal and includes a full scope of work, to have their price compared to a fly-by-night company who throws a low-ball number out there just to get your business.

Most contractors are hard working and knowledgeable pros who want to do a good job and an informed consumer is often their best customer. So read Getting Contractor Bids and Evaluating an Estimate and learn how to scope a project, understand what to look for in the bids of different contractors like painters, roofers, plumbers, etc. You'll learn that what is "Excluded" in a bid is often as important as what is "Included" in the proposal. And don't forget to read about how to evaluate price, payment terms and what it means if your contractor is proposing "incentives" to you.

With a little preparation you'll be able to communicate much more successfully with your contractor, and you'll both enjoy the process.

Top 5 Exterior House Siding and Repair Tutorials

2009-06-02T11:16:01Z

Your home's siding can be damaged from many different events. OK, maybe not the severe impact damage shown in this blog photo, but your home's siding still needs care and attention.

In the article Top 5 Exterior House Siding and Repair Tutorials I'll walk you through explanations of various home siding options including vinyl siding, aluminum siding, cement fiber siding, wood siding and brick. I'll explain how to repair the most common siding types including vinyl and brick veneer. You'll learn how to identify exterior paint problems and how to repair them.

Overall its a good time to take stock of your home's exterior and make those repairs you need to keep your home weather-tight and attractive. (And hopefully "truck-in-the-living-room-free").

How to Install Deck Boards to Minimize Warping Problems

2009-05-23T23:55:13Z

If you're building or replacing a deck board this summer, then you'll be faced with one of the oldest questions in deck construction. Should the boards be placed bark side up or bark side down? Understanding why wood warps and cups and how grain of the wood affects this behavior is helpful. There are lots of opinions are out there about which way to orient wood decking but I'll try and shed some light on how to place your deck boards so you end up with a great looking deck!

How to Safely Turn Off Power at the Electrical Panel

2009-05-18T12:45:50Z

A required piece of knowledge for anyone is how to safely turn off the power to your home or apartment, or to any individual branch circuit in your residence. You need this skill for any electrical home repair from resetting a tripped circuit breaker to replacing a switch up to adding a new electrical 240 volt circuit for an electric range.

In the tutorial How to Safely Turn Off Power at the Electrical Panel I'll review this essential step for you. There is no reason to be intimidated by your home's electrical power panel or worrying about how to turn power on or off. It's pretty much the same for a circuit breaker or a fuse box. After reading this tutorial you'll find that safely turning off power to your electrical panel is really quite shockingly easy to understand!

Stinky Water Makes No Friends

2009-05-10T18:35:55Z

You can have some real problems with water quality in your home including some stinky issues such as high hydrogen sulfide content which creates a rotten egg smell or rust stains on your plumbing fixtures from high iron content.

In the tutorial Troubleshooting Drinking Water Treatment Solutions I'll walk you through the many water quality problems that can be faced and how to solve them.

So read on. In the end it will be clear, just like the water you want to drink.

How to Paint a Room and Love the Results!

2009-04-26T23:02:15Z

It's that time for spring cleaning and home fix up projects! As the windows and doors to our homes once again open for Spring we get to start those home "fix up" projects. Chances are you'll soon be entertaining friends and family, and a new coat of paint in the dining room, living room or family room can go a long way to freshening up your home. Or maybe you just want to put a fresh coat of low VOC paint in the baby's room.

I've outlined some easy helpful tips the pros use on how to paint a room that you can also use to make interior painting a breeze.

Also, you'll want to check out:

How to Use a Paintbrush

Select, Care & Store a Paint Brush

All About Paint

Low VOC (Green) Paint

Ceramic Wall Paint