Tips & Techniques

As my client watched over my shoulder while I began removing the acoustic texture on his ceiling, I thought about the incredible mess I was about to make. There just…

Peeling the protective sheet off a piece of acrylic (or, for that matter, any other flat surface with an adhesive wrapper) can be a frustrating exercise. The wrappers want to tear,…

I recently needed to fasten a handrail to a wall and didn't have room for a rosette to secure the handrail because of the minimal clearance to the outside corner.…

To support a temporary 7-ft. high retaining wall in clay, my excavation contractor recommended 16-ft. long 6x6s. He sharpened the ends of the posts with a chainsaw. Then he used…

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…