Randy wants to build his rough cut cedar fence right with no future stains, but has been told that even stainless steel nails will eventually rust, and that given the price difference he might as well use galvanized.Actually your choice of nails goes much further than that -- including "plastic n...
Some time ago I had a demonstration on upholstery where I showed that a hand operated staple gun couldn't staple into the hardwood normally found in upholstered furniture. I showed the two standard alternatives: a pneumatic stapler complete with air compressor and hoses, and good old hand ta...
When trying to salvage baseboards or other moldings you need to be careful not to destroy the face by driving the nails out the front.Rather, take a pair of locking pliers to grab the finishing nails from the back side as in the photo and then roll along the round jaws of the pliers and force the...
Holly in Wasi Lake, Ontario wants to know why her 1x10 pine tongue-and-groove floors are shrinking and leaving such large cracks.
If you look at traditional hardwood floors you will notice that each board is rather narrow. In fact it is difficult to locate hardwood floors that are wider than 4 i...
DUST PROTECTION - TEMPORARY DOOR OR ARCH CLOSURE
Often when we are working on home improvements, we need temporary fixes. One that many of us use is that plastic shrinkable window cover for stopping winter drafts.
One plastic covering that is less well known is a construction doorway. Th...
For an overview on changing the roof or roof covering on a house and special information on Mansard roof shingles -- follow this link.
The starter shingle
If you put the first row of shingles on the edge of the roof just like all the rest, you will see the bare roof deck through the crac...
Drum Cymbal noises --> Furnace Ducting
Gina in Saskatoon is complaining about drum cymbal-like crashes that happen every time her furnace goes on. This is common when you have smooth flat ductwork. The heat and pressure of the air can cause the large flat surface of sheet metal to flex eithe...
There are interesting stories about most fasteners.
The standard galvanised nails should not be used with Cedar because the tannic acid in cedar will react with the galvanisation. Just as Aluminium nails should not be used with pressure treated wood.
Many new coatings exist that work even bette...
A squeaky ceramic floor is a particularly difficult problem because you really cannot fix it from the top down, and if you don't fix it, it will eventually break the grout if not the floor tiles because of the movement of the floor.
Squeaking is caused by something rubbing, often the floor board...
