When you want to hide a screw in woodworking, you need to either use a series of drill bits to make first the plug hole, then the clearance hole for the screw to go easily through the first piece of wood, then the pilot hole for the threads to grip in the second piece of wood. Or you can use...
David from Kingston, Nova Scotia had a question about a floating shelf he was trying to build himself, but before answering his question I wanted to show some commercial 'floating' shelves that you can purchase.Just what is a 'floating' shelf? It is a shelf that appears to have little or not...
The old days of stacking structure
In the old days, before we had specialized hardware like joist hangers, we would always create beams, or low lying ledger boards and place the joists on top of them with some kind of toe-nail attachment.
The arrival of joist hangers
When joist hangers came in...
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...
If any one thing distinguishes Canadian home improvement from American home improvement, it is the Robertson (square socket) screw. In this segment, we took a look at the history of this famous Canadian invention and visited their head office and warehousing operation in Milton, Ontario. Wikipedi...
We went to the Robertson screw factory in Montreal to see in detail how a reel of wire steel gets cut and formed into many different types of screws, including the famous Robertson square socket head.
They cut the wire to the length of two screws, often very different screws but the same wire si...
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...
I remember years ago, touring Quebec delivering CMHC builder and renovator courses in an effort to get contractors into trouble free window installations. Aside from the fact that they all had the funny habit of installing their windows in French, I was really intrigued to discover that each regi...
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...
This entry has been updated in 2013 and you may want to jump to the last paragraph to see the positive current state of Pressure Treated Wood.
Is pressure treated wood safe or not? Is the wood used to build my deck a few years ago now banned? There is a lot of confusion about pressure treated wo...
