Skills and Techniques - Page 511 of 644

Q: I’m planning to mill some maple for flooring that will go over a plywood subfloor. How wide and thick should I make the boards, and should I quarter-saw the wood?…

As a tilesetter, I often use Hardibacker as a floor underlayment. I use drywall screws to affix the underlayment and follow the dot patterns printed on the underlayment as I…

Before you slice through studs, make sure you've got the weight of the house well supported elsewhere.

Q: We would like to turn the attic space of our garage into a storage loft. Currently, the ceiling joists in the garage are 2x8s spanning 16 ft. 6 in.,…

Not just a cover-up for lousy drywall work, this approach creates the appearance of hand-troweled plaster using ordinary joint compound.

Every load of tongue-and-groove siding contains some crowned pieces. If you run into this problem, there is no need to save them for the back of the house where the resulting…

Over the past 25 years, I've installed a handful of central-vacuum cleaners. I think they are the best thing since indoor plumbing, and they're easy to install. Although I have…

The bones beneath concrete's muscle, rebar has to be cut, bent, and tied properly to do its job.

It's amazing to me how often contractors and homeowners alike apply latex paint directly over a semigloss oil finish without first roughening up the old surface or applying a primer.…

If you don't want the roof to leak, careful flashing details and a watertight membrane should be your primary concerns.