One of the cardinal rules of painting or staining in order to avoid lap marks is to apply material wet-on-wet. On an interior wall that is done by rolling small enough sections that allow you to overlap the edge with the next section before the first one manages to dry. Painting wet-on-wet does...
With a "hollow door fastener", of course. Actually they used to say that on the package, but now they are just called "anchors". I remember when they went by the name "molly bolts".For these fasteners, you drill a moderate sized hole in the door, then insert the fastener. You push its teeth in...
When a lath-and-plaster wall has loose plaster, you shouldn't just put more plaster over it, because the base is no longer solid it will quickly crack again. Either remove the loose plaster, or secure it down.One way is with special "plaster washers". These are light curved washers made out of ...
Ventilation in a Canadian attic does very little to remove moisture when the temperature in the attic is below freezing. During that time, the moisture is in the form of Ice and the passing air simply won't remove it -- whether you have passive vents or power vents. When things warm up, if the ...
Gary from Hamilton, Ontario writes :I know that brick veneer homes have vent holes in the lower rows to allow air to equalize the pressure and help keep water out. We have just bought a 50 year old solid brick (two layers of brick) house. I notice there are no vent holes and it doesn't appear t...
Tom from Toronto has made 'door storage' by simply suspending old doors from the ceiling or the wall, as you can see in the first two photos above.Then there is the home made "free form" drawer that you thought was condemed when you put a sink in front of the drawer front. The bottom of the draw...
Before you try to paint the walls, you must properly prepare the wall and the most important step in that is probably to properly clean the walls of all the grease and smoke and dust that they collect over the years.Regular detergent tends to leave a soapy residue, even after careful rinsing, and...
The books say 32 inches, but there is no reason for that to be a hard and fast rule. However if you make it a lot smaller you will have the impression of being a giant Alice in a tiny Wonderland. If you make it a lot higher, it will dominate the wall.Wainscoting was originally created to protec...
Radiant Heating and Convection Heating are the two primary types of ways we heat our houses. FORCED AIR HEATINGConvection heating means moving hot air -- what we usually call a forced air heating system simply heats air and moves it around the house through a system of fans and ducts. Forced air...
Dan caught our camera in a store and asked just what is "scribing a counter top"?When you have a wall that is not flat, like you see our exaggerated wall in the first photo, the kitchen counter will not fit tightly up against this wall. If you look at the second photo you will see that all forme...
