Tips & Techniques

Here's another version of a hole-saw guide for drilling lockset holes in a door stile. I think it is simpler and more versatile than other versions I've come across because…

When hurricane-fed floodwaters kept rising in our town last year, we watched the water creep closer to our doors. Water pouring into the house appeared inevitable. But there is always…

In the course of roof tearoffs and other typical remodeling jobs, we need a large numbers of tarps. Whenever we run short of tarps, I head for our local lumberyard,…

When drilling into a ceiling, you've got dust falling into your eyes, into the drill motor and all over the client's floor. I prevent the problem with the trick shown…

Recent tipsters have offered effective ways of supporting a sink cutout as the cut is completed (see Supporting a sink cutout  and Supporting sink cutouts). But I think both of…

After a big chunk of plaster fell out of the ceiling in our living room, we looked for a way to stabilize what remained. Someone told us about Plaster Washers, which…

Some nasty runoff eroded a cavity under the edge of my concrete patio, and I became concerned about the lack of bearing along its edge. Sooner or later, the slab…

As a construction coordinator for Habitat for Humanity, I'm always looking for ways to save resources on our home-building projects. Recently, a couple of windy days taught us a few…

Last winter's snows brought back memories of sidewall shingling after a snowstorm. Sun would hit the snow-covered roof and melt the snow, and rivulets of water would drip on us no…

One evening last spring, I was sweating together some copper water lines in my unfinished house. As my acetylene flame scorched a joist, I realized that I needed to find…