Tips & Techniques

When building decks, I sometimes come across a severely bowed joist. Rather than live with it, I make a straight cut across its top, as shown in the drawing. Some builders…

If you've done any caulking from a ladder, you know how easy it is to scatter worm-shaped goobers of caulk on anything unlucky enough to be within range. Even the…

After reading the tip about using a pneumatic impact hammer as a chiseling tool (see Air chisel), I felt compelled to share another use for this $20 workhorse. I needed…

Many carpenters, me included, prefer to install upper-cabinet units first. The problem is that you must either deal with cumbersome temporary supports or simultaneously juggle cabinet boxes, screws, levels and…

It seems as if every time I work on an exterior electrical box, the screw holding the strap to the box breaks off, leaving the end of the screw in…

Recently, I had to cut an 8-in. dia. wood column to length. The trick was to make sure the round column was cut exactly square. Because it was too big…

An alternative solution for when there isn't enough headroom for a standard landing.

I own a Victorian house that needed some exterior trim repaired. One detail that was in an especially sad state was the 12-in. wide fascia that runs under the roof…

I'm not ashamed to admit that from time to time, I make a mock-up of a project before I work with the finish material. Trying the piece first in an…

Setting a toilet single-handedly presents a tricky problem: If you don't accurately line up the closet bolts with the holes in the base of the toilet bowl, you can damage…