Tips & Techniques

During a recent remodeling project, we had to put a new floor over an old ceiling. The cramped quarters made it impossible to swing a hammer from below to bring…

Many people in this part of Canada do not have pressure-balance shower valves (the kind that prevent scalding). So I often am called to replace single-handle shower valves with the…

Bruce Guertin’s tip Short-point measurement is great for odd-angled miters. But for the most common 45° miter, I simply hook my tape over the long point of the miter, then add…

If you are putting siding on a new building in an area where rain is frequent, you may find your newly sided lower walls spattered with mud after every shower.…

I do service work and troubleshooting for a plumbing and heating company on Cape Cod, and it seems I never have enough organized storage space. I have 10-in.-deep shelves along the…

I recently had a job fixing a broken slat in a louvered door, and it turned out that the right clamps for the job were sitting in a box at…

My mini-grinders see a lot of action on-site, and nothing beats them for coping moldings. Instead of using the backing pad, I put a pair of disks back to back:…

I recently bought a Makita 6916 impact driver. I think this tool is great, and the other day, I hauled it up a two-story scaffold to help me box a…

Mark Rabe’s technique for Clearing a clogged shower drainsounds like a good solution. But if you don’t happen to have a 12-in. reciprocating-saw blade on hand, you might give this technique…

Whenever we hang drywall, a few boxes are always misrouted slightly, leaving a ragged hole that the outlet or switch plate can’t cover (drawing 1). We’ve solved this problem, and…