Use Oil-Based Polyurethane Varnish is not easy to apply, and shellac is not durable. Tung oil dries slowly and needs many coats. That’s why, for the non-pro, I’d recommend an oil-based wipe-on polyurethane. I’ve used it on a number of projects—including tables—that I built for The New Yankee Workshop and for my own use. It offers great protection, has the look of a hand-rubbed oil finish, and is easy to apply....
How To Replace a Garage Door Note: Some doors may be under considerable spring-loaded tension. It’s very important to be extremely careful when working with these doors. Also, garage doors are heavy, so it’s best to enlist the help of a friend. Materials Shims Garage door hinge and bracket kit Garage door rollers Vinyl trim Tools
Resources: Mauro used an old pot, simmering water, and some baking soda to strip the old hardware. These can be found at any grocery store or department store. Shopping List: Baking sodaTongs
For the project shown here, we enlisted the help of tile contractor Joe Ferrante, who has been laying tile for This Old House projects since 1986. How to Install Tub Surround Tile The first and most important step for tiling bathroom walls insists Ferrante, is to start with a clean, stable substrate. He then fills the backer board seams with thinset mortar and embeds fiberglass-mesh joint tape in the mortar....
b. If you don’t have a common wire, Ross recommends wiring the G wire into the common port instead. Most people don’t use the “fan only” mode, so while you’d give up control over the fan in the system, you’d gain constant power to the smart thermostat. You’ll also have to change the wire at the furnace from G to C. 5. Connect the thermostat to the baseplate. 6. Configure the thermostat following the manufacturer’s settings....
Steps for Zoning a Forced-Air Furnace & AC Unit Resources ZoneFirst How Much Does a Furnace Cost? (2022)
Sponsor: The This Old House Leviton Sweepstakes (“Sweepstakes”) is sponsored by Leviton and This Old House Ventures, LLC, 262 Harbor Drive, Stamford, CT 06902 (“Sponsor”). Sweepstakes Entry Period: The Sweepstakes starts at 12:00:01 AM Eastern Time (ET) October 4, 2020 and ends at 11:59:59 PM ET on October 10, 2020 (“Sweepstakes Period”). Eligibility: Sweepstakes open only to legal residents of the 50 United States or the District of Columbia and Canada (excluding Quebec) 18 years of age or older at time of entry....
Brad: Absolutely, awesome to be here Jenn: I thought we could start with you telling everybody a little bit about Fix This Build That and how you got started. Brad: Yeah, absolutely. So Fix This Build That is a website where I do woodworking and DIY projects and plans—Anything from Instagram, to social media, blog to YouTube. I’ve been growing the platform, and I just do a lot of projects to help beginners to intermediate woodworkers build something awesome....
A line of evergreen trees or shrubs can provide year-round seclusion even better than a fence, because there are no municipal restrictions on how high they can grow. (Towns usually require permits for a fence over 6 feet tall.) However, if there are power lines above your screen, you don’t want trees so big that they’ll grow into the wires. Also pay attention to their width at maturity; the spacing between trunks when you plant should equal mature width....
Top 3 Reasons Why Water Heaters Fail 1. Steel and water don’t mix The typical water heater in the U.S. is a gas-fired tank model consisting of a steel tank with a glass lining. While the glass serves to separate the water inside the tank from the steel, water will eventually make it through. When it does, the steel begins to oxidize (rust), leading to a breakdown of the materials in the tank....
What Can I Do With a Sloped Backyard? Install a retaining wall for a sloped backyard and you can carve out functional outdoor spaces where once there were only precarious slopes. To help you, we asked our experts for their inexpensive retaining wall ideas so you can choose which sturdy and stylish structure for leveling your landscape. What Is the Cheapest Type of Retaining Wall? The cheapest type of retaining wall is poured concrete....
These handsome barriers also make inviting spots to sit, and can increase usable yard space by terracing sloped properties, something that is increasingly important as flat home sites become ever more scarce in many regions. Along with sloped landscapes where water runoff causes hillside erosion, ideal locations for a retaining wall system include spots downhill from soil fault lines and where the downhill side of a foundation is losing supporting soil or its uphill side is under pressure from sliding soil....
In this episode: On the morning of November 8, 2018, the 27,000 residents of Paradise, California woke to an orange glow in the Eastern sky, but it wasn’t the sun. The worst wildfire in the state’s history was heading towards them. By sunset, 85 people would be dead and 14,000 homes, about 90%, would be completely destroyed. A year later, with the help of thousands of workers, Paradise is rebuilding. This Old House is there to find out why this happened, what can prevent future disasters, and to help....
In this episode: Kitchens are the focus of many home renovations. American kitchens used to be modest in size, but now the trend is to have an open well-lit kitchen, with enough space to cook with family and to entertain friends. In the 1901 Arlington Arts and Crafts project, the homeowners need to improve the layout of their kitchen to benefit their family’s lifestyle, so they meet with an experienced kitchen designer and cabinet builder in Maine....
In this episode: Construction work and television production started on the new project in Narragansett, RI, but Covid put a halt to TV and placed restrictions on building. Five months later, we pick up where we left off with our 1887 Queen Anne Victorian. Kevin O’Connor, Richard Trethewey and Tom Silva set the stage for the restoration efforts. The house has been standing prominently in Narragansett for over a century, but it’s a shadow of its former self....
But often it doesn’t work out that way. If a teenager takes a long shower, or a spouse settles in for a tub soak, there can be a long wait for that emptied tank to reheat. Then there are the nagging worries: Is it filled with energy-robbing sediment? Will it spring a leak? Both are reasonable concerns, as tanks generally fail in 8 to 12 years. Tankless Water Heater Installation: Is It Worth It?...
Wolverine (known for making durable work boots for more than 135 years) has joined forces with mikeroweWORKS and TOH’s Generation NEXT in efforts to raise awareness for the trades as an attractive career path. While originally visiting jobs sites and apprentice schools to thank those committed to the trades, this year Wolverine’s Project Bootstrap signed three up-and-coming trade workers from across the country to “Team Wolverine.” Meet Team Wolverine Nolee Anderson from Nashville, Tennessee is a trim carpenter and has received a mikeroweWORKS scholarship to work toward her goal of a career in the trades....
