Home Improvement
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Don't need to be a mason to use glass block
Q. I love the look of glass block and have several projects I am thinking about. One of them is somewhat bizarre--a playhouse for my children.
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The nitty gritty on cleaning floor-tile grout
Q. I have spent hours looking on the Internet for products to clean my floor-tile grout. There seem to be lots of different answers at chat rooms and online forums about using chlorine bleach, baking soda, vinegar, peroxide, etc.
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Frame job isn't as difficult as you might think
Q. I have quite a few square openings between rooms in my home. These openings do not have any doors but do have finished wood jambs and trim as if there was once a door in each opening.
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Simple flashing can stop leaks on sloped roofs
Q. I have a simple sloped roof over a side porch on my new home. Each time it rains, water leaks down the wall of the porch.
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Architects help nail down project details
Q. My husband and I are going to build a new home on a lot we own. After interviewing several architects we have discovered that the fee they charge for plans is a function of the amount of service they provide as the house is being built.
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Keeping a paver patio looking new
Q. Last fall we installed two new patios of colored, interlocking concrete paving brick. This spring we noticed the color of the patios is not the same, and some of our patio furniture has left rust stains.
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Searching for brick to match new addition
Q. I am getting ready to build an addition and need to match the brick on my home. The house is only 12 years old, and the original brick had a sand finish.
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Install a brick patio that's on the level
Q. I am in the process of installing a brick patio around a pool. The brick needs to be placed on compacted gravel, upon which I then place a 2-inch layer of sand.
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Tunnel under sidewalks and driveways
Q. I am installing some low-voltage lighting in the planting beds in front of my home. But a sidewalk is blocking me from running the cable from bed to bed.
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Make outdoor countertops last a lifetime
Q. I need a recommendation for the finished surface of a small (42-inch long and 20-inch deep) exterior potting bench and a somewhat larger outdoor kitchen top.
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Quality erosion may be quelled by training
Q. I was a teacher for 35 years and wonder why more residential construction workers are not formally educated.
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Test-driving a pressure washer
Q. I am on the fence about buying a pressure washer. I have seen how fast they clean things, but I recently saw a wood deck that was ruined by a pressure washer.
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Punching up the privacy factor for patio
Q. We are building a home in a subdivision and plan to have both a deck and a patio.
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Diameter of deck posts isn't guesswork
Q. I am building a deck and wonder how far down I have to dig into the ground for the wood deck post.
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A camera is a handy tool for any project
Q. We plan to build a new home soon and wonder about how best to document the progress of the job. Taking photographs seems so straightforward, but I wonder if they will be enough? Are some photographs better than others? Is digital photography acceptable? What cameras would you use?
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The lowdown on installing downspouts
Q. I need to bury downspout drainage pipes in my yard before the yard is seeded. Where is the best place to put them, and how deep should they be buried?
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No shortcuts when trimming and painting
Q. My husband and I are building a new home. We are going to install all of the door and window trim ourselves and paint the entire interior as well.
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Get a handle on tricky door replacement
Q. My wife wants to change out the front door on our existing home. But the door is flanked on either side with sidelights.
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Rock-solid advice about hardscapes
Q. I am building a retirement home in Utah. The location boasts lots of sunshine, but winter weather is a reality.
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What's your definition of a quality job?
Q. My 6-month-old concrete driveway is crumbling. The contractor visited and said I got what I paid for.
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Dressing up foundation with stucco
Q. My home has two types of foundation: concrete block and poured concrete. They look horrible because of the different colors and textures.
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Coping with deadline for a move-in
Q. My husband and I are weeks away from moving into our first fixer-upper home. We thought we could rehab it in five weeks and are now overwhelmed with unfinished work.
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When an attic turns a home into a hothouse
Q. What is the best way to ventilate a Cape Cod-style home that has a short knee wall in the upper level?
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Stain can help match up grout colors
Q. The grout on the ceramic tile on the wall and floor of the master bathroom of our new home was supposed to be the same color, but the floor grout is much lighter.
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The road to a smooth blacktop drive
Q. The surface of my concrete driveway is eroding after years of wear and tear. I'm thinking about resurfacing my existing concrete driveway with blacktop.
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Weigh concrete advantages of a block house
Q. I know this sounds crazy, but I am thinking of building a home from concrete blocks. Are there any advantages?
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A quick lesson in soldering copper pipes
Q. My house has old galvanized iron water pipes. The water pressure is bad at many faucets and almost nothing in the kitchen.
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Toilets are flush with improvements
Q. I'm looking at toilets for my new bathroom. Our current toilet measures 23 inches from the back wall to the front edge where the toilet touches the floor.
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On the lookout for right kind of architect
Q. I purchased a killer river-view lot and will build a dream home there as soon as I can get the house to fit on the lot.
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The realities of building a dream kitchen
Q. A new kitchen is on the horizon for me. I have waited years for this and want the perfect kitchen.
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Think twice before junking old furnace
Editor's note: Tim Carter is on vacation. The advice in this column is as relevant today as it was when it was published in 2001.
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Solve dining dilemma with `instant' table
Q. It is a very long story, but I have a dining room with eight chairs and no table. Ten days from now, I am having a dinner party and do not have the thousands of dollars at this time to buy the table I really want.
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The foundation of a successful room addition
Q. I am building an addition on my home and realize I must connect the new foundation with the existing one.
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Who or what's to blame for efflorescence?
Q. I feel our new home has some serious problems, but our builder disagrees. The house is less than 6 months old, but we have ugly white deposits that are leaching out of our chimney, a wing wall that juts from a corner of our home and a retaining wall.
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The bottom line about fixer-uppers
Q. I am seriously considering buying an as-is, fixer-upper home. The boarded-up house has been stripped of all plaster, fixtures and utilities.
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Avoid streaks when staining softwoods
Q. I have to stain some white pine woodwork in my home. In the past, I have had nothing but problems when I stain wood.
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