How Long Should Concrete Cure?
Q: I’m about to pour a new sidewalk. How long should I let the new concrete cure before walking on it? A: Generally speaking, concrete
Q: I’m about to pour a new sidewalk. How long should I let the new concrete cure before walking on it? A: Generally speaking, concrete
Q: Two doors in my house have lousy hinges. The screws have stripped out of the casing and now the doors swing crooked. I have
Q: I tiled the kids’ bathroom and mixed my grout in the tub. The tub itself is made of fiberglass. I now have small dark
Q: One of the burners on my oven range died. Should I replace it, or can it be fixed? A: If the burner is scorched
Q: Can you tell me how to re-glue a seam in a vinyl floor? I’d hate to call a handyman if it’s something simple that I
Q: I have a crack in the drywall of the living room ceiling. When it gets cold, the crack widens. When it’s warm, the crack
Q: I have a heat pump question. How much water should be coming out of my A/C unit? It is an 8-year-old system, and it
Q: I need to cut a piece of cement board into a 30-inch circle. What’s the best way to cut this material? A: You
Q: I have an old house that has lath and plaster walls. When taking off some wallpaper, a lot of plaster came off. Can I
Q: I’d like to install a glass block window in a bathroom. Is this a DIY project? A: Glass blocks can be used in
Q: The finish is worn on our bathtub and instead of ripping up the bathroom and replacing it, I was wondering if there are products
Q: I want new flooring in the dining room and I’m trying to decide between carpet and wood. I’m on a concrete slab and it’s
Q: Is there a quick fix for a squeaky door hinge? A: Here’s one method that sometimes works: petroleum jelly. Start by loosening the
Q: I’m about to wallpaper a bedroom but dread the mess of soaking the pre-pasted paper. Is there any way around this? A: The soaking
Q: Our upstairs hardwood floor squeaks in a few places. I can’t access the joists because of the finished ceiling of the first floor. Can
Q: Our shower won’t spray water the way it used to. Can I repair this or do I have to replace the head? A: For
Q: I’m considering replacing my old water heater with a tankless version. Are these things all they’re cracked up to be? A: Tankless water heaters
Q: I’m having a terrible time trying to remove melted candle wax from the carpet. Any advice? A: First, carefully scrape any loose wax
Q: Help! When I had my back turned, my three-year-old grandson found a loose loop of carpet and gave it a yank. Now I have
Q: I’d like to add an arched entryway between the living room and kitchen. Can you tell me how to bend drywall for the arch?
Q: My neighbor has a faux finish in her family room that she calls “stippling.” It gives the walls a nice textured look. Her walls
Q: Should I use pressure-treated lumber for the inside of a shed I’m building? A: Using pressure-treated lumber certainly wouldn’t harm anything, and it will
Q: When you’re laying sheathing on the roof, which way does it need to go, vertical or horizontal? We have it going horizontal and have
Q: I’m interested in buying a framing nail gun and wondered what the pros and cons were for Clipped-Head vs. Round-Head. I’ll be framing a
Q: How to Build a Header for a Door? A: A header is doubled 2-by material above the door to distribute the weight of the
Q: Hi, I’m 12 years old and I need to get a stripped screw out of my electric guitar. The needle-nose pliers won’t grip it
Q: I’m planning to do my own roofing job. Is it possible to do one side of the roof at a time, finish one part
Q: I would like to cover a block wall of my home to look like an old adobe. Do I need to cover the brick
Q: When I turn on my air conditioner I smell a very bad odor, like sulfur or rotten eggs. The smell only lasts about 10
Q: Is it possible to paint vinyl siding? Or do I have to replace the siding if I want a new color? A: Fortunately, several
Q: For a countertop, what are the advantages/disadvantages of 2-centimeter granite versus 3-centimeter granite? The 2-centimeter is cheaper, but I know you usually get what
Q: I always hear about the importance of insulating the attic, but rarely hear much talk about insulation between the floor joists of crawlspaces? Is
Q: I recently finished adding a deck to my house. I’ve noticed part of my handrail is warping. I used treated wood, 2-by-4 and spindles
Q: I am installing quarter-round on my new baseboards, what do you use to attach the joints with? Should I use Liquid Nails to glue
Q: I had a mahogany deck installed last year and the boards were put too close together, resulting in puddling when it rains or snows.
Q. I’d like to build a backyard concrete patio to replace a rotting deck. The patio would be about 18 by 10 feet. How do
Q: A few months ago, I hired a contractor to install laminate tongue-and-groove flooring over concrete. It was installed with glue. Now I hear pops
Q: I can do a decent job at taping and mudding the flat seams of drywall, but still have a little trouble at the inside
Q: Help! My three-year-old son flushed a bar of soap down the toilet. I’ve tried using a plunger plus a lot of Drano, and it
Q: My home has about 6 inches of fiberglass insulation in the attic, and I’m planning to add more. Should I use faced insulation? A:
Q: Which is better; cobalt, titanium or black oxide for drill bits? By better I mean will stay sharp longer when drilling wood, metal studs,
Q: Is there a standard height for base molding? And do you have any tips for installation on a new floor? A: You want to
Q: We just had our fireplace cleaned and the cracks sealed, but still sometimes have a backdraft problem where the smoke doesn’t go up. There’s
Q: A thunderstorm blew a few shingles off my roof. The roof is about 12 years old. I would like to replace the missing shingles
Q: When hanging drywall, do you place the bottom of the sheets on the subfloor or are they raised up to allow for expansion? A:
Q: There’s a lot of loud banging in our plumbing. Any advice on how to stop this? A: You’re probably talking about “water hammer.” Water
Q: Is textured paint easier to use than creating texture with joint compound? A: Using pre-textured paint can be easier because it saves you the
Q: My daughter and her husband just moved into their first house. They’ve got some work to do, and I thought a toolbox would make
Q: I was interested in becoming a residential contractor, and I thought Extreme How-To may have some information on pointing me in the right direction.
Q: I’m building a room in the top of my garage and need to hang the ceiling joists. In this case, the joists will hang
I have a water stain on my hardwood floor from a leaky plant. Is there a way to remove this? Try using a vibrating palm
IN A FIX, the new home-improvement show on the TLC Network, follows a team of remodelers who rescue homeowners from botched renovation projects.
Changing a vehicle’s engine oil and filter is sure to save motorists time and money from trips to the service station.
Q: Can you lay new tiles (saltillo) on top of old ceramic tiles? A: Yes, but only if the existing tile surface is in
Q: How can I remove the haze that covers my car’s headlights?A: The oxidization of the plastic housing on the headlight can definitely create a
Q: Do you foresee any problems with using ceramic tiles to re-surface the interior of a bathtub? A: If the tub is fiberglass or acrylic,
Q: I’m planning to build a small patio area with landscape pavers. Should I seal the pavers? A: Sealing your pavers is not absolutely
Armstrong-Clark’s deck and siding wood stain has nondrying conditioning oils that separate from the drying side of the formula. These oils penetrate deep into the deck or siding wood fiber where the wood’s natural oils used to be. This process rejuvenates the wood. The drying oils stay at the surface, lock in the conditioning oils […]
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