Planters provide an elegant way to display a variety of flowers and other plants around your home. However, planters made of decorative stone or brick are prone to leaking around the seams and joints. The water leaking out of these crevices is laden with minerals and other deposits that can cause stains. It's easy to prevent these issues by waterproofing the inside walls of your planter, so the water will only drain out the bottom as intended.
Green or black algae stains tend to be common on stone or concrete exterior surfaces, especially in humid climates and where shaded from direct sun. Though unsightly stains caused by algae are typically only surface coatings, they can be removed with common household cleaners and some elbow grease.
Things You Will Need + Clean water Scrub brush or stiff-bristle broom Trisodium phosphate Household bleach Spray bottle Safety glasses Once removed, growth can be kept under control with regular maintenance.
Rain gutters are one of the mundane parts of a home no one thinks much about unless they become clogged or need replacing. Gutters do more than just keep rainwater from dousing you. Without them, runoff can eventually damage a home’s foundation through erosion. It’s not difficult to measure gutters for a house.
Things You Will Need + Measuring tape Masking tape Twine Ladder Calculator You do need to be accurate.
Moving heavy furniture, such as a dresser, is difficult enough, but moving your furniture up stairs adds special challenges. You must wrap, pack and lift your dresser carefully to avoid damage to the piece – and to yourself.
Moving is never fun, but a little caution keeps you and your furniture damage-free. For safety’s sake, always empty the dresser drawers before packing and use correct lifting techniques during the move.
Every furnace is marked with a BTU input rating, a number usually in several thousands. Knowing what this number means in imperative, particularly when buying a new furnace. The BTU input rating of a furnace is a benchmark of its heating capacity, indirectly affecting how well it will heat your home.
BTU Defined Your furnace's BTU rating is a measurement of how much it can heat your home. The letters BTU are an abbreviation for British Thermal Unit.
If you have an arched doorway between two rooms with no door to separate the spaces, you may want to install a curtain to create a division. When hanging curtains on an arched doorway, you have a couple of different options.
Things You Will Need + Curtain Curtain rod Magnetic level Brackets Pencil Screws Screwdriver One option is to install the curtain on the exterior of the arched doorway to conceal the entire opening.
Outdoor living space is a great addition to any home. Building a small in-ground deck, where you excavate a hole just deep enough for the deck to sit flush with the surrounding yard, is a job that you can easily do yourself with a little skill, a few tools and some preparation.
The natural texture of a deck is a big selling point for many. Compared with other outdoor living space options, in-ground decks are cheaper and less labor-intensive than interlocking stone patios, simpler than raised decks, and offer the warm texture of wood or composite decking.
Corrugated metal siding is a fast and easy way to side a home, barn, or shed. It is a versatile building material, used for both commercial and residential applications.
Corrugated metal siding looks great and is very durable. Using a few tools, you can have your siding in place very quickly, giving you even more time to enjoy the durable, professional look that corrugated metal can provide.
Things You Will Need + Corrugated steel or aluminum siding Siding nails Corner edge pieces Steel saw and tin snips (optional) Make sure the building frame is ready to accept corrugated metal siding.
The Sears Craftsman reciprocating saw is a useful tool for any number of household chores. A dull blade might need changing or replacing sooner than expected.
Things You Will Need + 1/2 inch universal blade shank Allen wrench (supplied with the saw) Tip Inserting the blade is equally as simple--do everything in reverse.
Turn off and unplug the saw from the power source.
Remove the Allen wrench from the saw's holder.
R-value refers to resistance of heat transfer. We want our homes to stay a steady temperature. So, if the temperature outdoors is different from the temperature in your home, the temperatures tend to coalesce through heat transfer. Air is a very poor heat conductor.
Materials trapping and isolating air in cells limit the heat transfer. The greater the limitation, the greater the R value, so R-11 has lower insulative properties than R-15.