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And thanks to modern adhesives, a wide variety of species are available as “engineered” boards. Made from a stable sandwich of veneers, rather than solid stock, engineered floors can go places where it wasn’t practical to install wood before: over radiant-floor heating systems and concrete and in basements. Here’s a complete guide in helping you discover the hardwood floor of your dreams. Hardwood Flooring Facts How much do hardwood floors cost?...

Follow along as This Old House senior technical editor Mark Powers and colleague Douglas Adams build this handsome rec-room centerpiece. And if you want to break out the toga when your DIY home bar is finished, well, that’s entirely your call. Home Bar Parts Overview Day-to-day Timeline Prep Day: Build, trim, and assemble the bar’s side panels (Steps 1–7). Saturday: Install the shelves and corner stiles, and create the bar top (Steps 8-12)....

How Often Should I Clean My Gas Range? A daily light cleaning can go a long way—it’ll stave off the need for deep cleaning and make the job easier when you choose to do it. How to Clean a Glass Stovetop After a day’s use, give your gas stovetop a quick wipe-down with an all-purpose cleaner, such as Fantastik or Seventh Generation, and remove any stray food or splatters with a damp cloth....

Whether you’re curious about where your property ends, want to remove a tree between your house and your neighbor’s, or plant a perimeter hedge fence, a below are seven ways you can determine your property lines. How to Find Property Lines for Free Homeowner’s Deed A homeowner’s deed should include a legal description of the plot of land, including its measurements, shape, block and lot number, and other identifiers such as landmarks and geographical features....

There’s usually no preceding or noticeable event. No big show of, “Wow, that’s broken!” Rather, it’s just one of those annoying little surprises of homeownership: One day, all’s fine with your dishwasher; the next, there’s standing water pooling in its basin. The good news is that it may be a simple clog or loose connection that can be quickly remedied. Steps for Fixing a Dishwasher That’s Not Draining “Simple” fixes are made simpler by being prepared....

As you walk across the floor, boards rub against each other or slide against nail shafts to produce a cacophony of squeaks and creaks. How Do You Stop Your Floors from Squeaking? Loose subflooring—both solid-board and plywood types—will also emit high-pitched chirps. Traditional hardwood strip flooring is the most susceptible to developing a case of the squeaks, but all types of flooring can make annoying noises. The good news is that it’s easy to silence nearly any squeak in a matter of minutes—if you know a few tricks....

Polybutylene failures can happen inside the wall or can cause more visible leaks. In this video, Richard Trethewey helps a homeowner replace her polybutylene pipes with PEX. What Can I Use to Replace Polybutylene Pipe? Because polybutylene pipes are no longer to code they need to be replaced by a licensed professional. In the video above, we replaced polybutylene pipes with PEX plumbing pipes. Richard was assisted by Capital Mechanical....

Steps for installing vinyl flooring Tools

Steps for prepping an exterior for paint Tools

Since the wall is in good condition, veneer is a great choice to make it look much nicer at a smaller price than just replacing the whole wall. Mark and Jenn work together to prep the wall, apply the stone veneer, and lay a stone cap. Steps for Refacing a Concrete Wall: Resources Mark and Jenn refaced the concrete using a thin stone veneer. The material is Connecticut Fieldstone and was cut in a mosaic pattern for installation....

How a Lock Works Before rekeying a lock, it helps to understand how locks work. The type of lock found on most doorknobs and deadbolts is called a pin and tumbler lock. It contains a cylindrical plug that holds a series of pins and springs. The pins are of varying lengths to allow a specifically cut key shape to insert and turn the lock. For this to work, the length of the pins must match the depth of the grooves in the key....

“How do I patch 100 years of gouges, cracks, and screw holes so the walls look flat and clean when painted?” he asks us in an e-mail. Here, Tom Silva shows how to repair plaster walls to make them look as good as new. Plaster Crack Repair: An Overview The key to any fix is to reunite the plaster with the strips of wood lath underneath. Otherwise the cracks come back, no matter how many times you patch over them....

When removing the baseboard heater cover, you’ll have to be careful not to damage the wall. Then, when putting in the replacement make sure to install everything in the right order. Richard Trethewey walks you through the process and shares helpful tips along the way. How to Replace Baseboard Heater Covers Step by Step Tools and Materials How to Upgrade Baseboard Heating

After this, he aerated the lawn to fight soil compaction and allow water and nutrients to reach the roots. For this step, Roger used a Lawnaire IV Aerator Walk-Behind, also manufactured by Ryan Turf and available to rent from a tool rental shop or home center. Based on the results of a soil test, Roger determined that lime needed to be added to raise the pH of the lawn. Lime can be purchased from a garden center or home center and it can be spread using a broadcast spreader set to the manufacturer’s specifications....