Reader Tips - Page 109 of 213

Years ago, I got fed up with the Stringline in my chalk box. The string would get fuzzy, clog in the box, leave fat layout lines and eventually break. My…

Low-expansion urethane goam, roof cement, and roof vent flashing is a better process to prevent cracking.

As the maintenance manager in a large Victorian house, I spend a lot of time on stepladders replacing lights, smoke-alarm batteries, Venetian blinds and so forth. Needless to say, these…

The drawing shows the trick we use to make sink cutouts in laminate counters. First, we draw the cutline on the counter. Then we use a spade bit to drill…

Teaching students to drive stakes with a sledgehammer has cost me many a handle. Those inexperienced hands mean well, but they often miss the mark and end up hitting the…

A tightly stretched string is one of the most accurate tools available for getting a straight line on a building. Most of the masons and carpenters that I've seen wrap…

Manufacturers have come up with numerous well-designed auxiliary tables and stands for miter saws and slide compound saws. These stands, however, do not come cheap, and many of them aren't…

Whenever I build decks, I place the piers and then cut posts to carry the girders that will support the deck framing. The bottoms of the girders are in the…

The cheapest extra pair of hands on our framing jobs is the truss spacer shown in the drawing. We use them in pairs to keep roof trusses the correct distance…

We installed a fiberglass tub and then caulked its perimeters with silicone, planning never to return. Three weeks later, when the plans changed, we had to remove the tub. The…