One of the most useful jigs for cutting straight lines across panels with a circular saw is a piece of 1/8 inch masonite with a straight edge screwed to it on one side.
Make it a bit to big and cut off the excess by passing your own saw along the guide edge. Now the outer edge provides you a vi...
Peter in Selkirk, Manitoba is trying to fit his countertop flush to a wall that is not perfectly flat.
If you look closely at the back splash part of formed countertops you will notice that they have an "L" shaped lip right up on top. This gives a bit of a hollow space behind the back splash. Yo...
Shrink to fit winter windows are really great draft stoppers and energy savers for old windows and patio doors.
Plastic has almost no R-value
Since plastic and glass have no real R-value, the dead air space created between the plastic and the window is as good as can be created with another ...
CUTTING FIBERGLASS STRAIGHT AND SQUARE
It is always easier to cut fiberglass batt insulation if you compress it down as flat as possible. That way you can get through in one pass. Using a piece of plywood gives you a straight edge at the same time.
There is a special devic...
Probably one of the best ways to learn about good and bad building techniques is to work on the renovation or restoration side of the construction picture. Here is where you see the results of everything done before, especially when the results are a failed system. In the world of ceramic, stone ...
When air gets into hot water radiators, either from new water in the system or even from problems with seals, it can make noise and reduce the heating effectiveness of the system. That running water noise is actually caused by a big air bubble at the top of a radiator and the water falls through ...
It may surprise you to find out, but for an optimum cut in wood, you should have fewer teeth on your saw blade when the wood is thicker. We know that you want fewer, even different types of teeth, for ripping than for cross cutting. But both when ripping or cross cutting, as the material gets thi...
Often in constructing a house, the sequence of putting up walls, applying outside sheathing and installing insulation batts can leave the outside corner as a hollow spot with no insulation. The carpentry work was done and the hollow corner closed and hidden before the guys with the fiberglass eve...
ENTRANCE DOOR HORIZONTAL ADJUSTMENTS
Entrance doors often warp from season to season and are hard to close in the winter and rattle in the summer. This requires moving the strike plate horizontally -- but the good fit changes from season to season. Don't adjust it at all -- but rather follow...
Low flow toilets: do they work? do they not work? This is an ongoing very interesting debate. This history of the evolution was first written in 2001. For the latest updates on this story and current data on toilets that do work, click here.
The average Canadian household uses between 7 hundred...
