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Not Just "A Regular Old Shed" This shed's dimensions are 12' x 16' x 7'. It has a storage area in the attic as it was designed to house a patio set for for the winter.
The base of the shed consisted of pressure treated lumber. Nine holes were dug four feet into the ground and a three to four inch thick base of concrete was poured to support the six-by-six pressure treated posts.
Before the floor joists were laid a sheet of black plastic was laid down to control moisture in the ground.
before the floor joists were installed there was a center beam that ran the length of the shed to support the twelve foot span of the floor joists. On top of the beam and the outside six-by-six posts a double rim joist was installed. After the rim joists the floor joists were installed into the rim joist and over the center beam.
The floor of the shed consisted of 3/4" pressure treated plywood. In a later picture you will see the rat wall (required by code in some municipalities) installed however, I will discuss why I waited to install this after the walls were put up.
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"Great fences, make great neighbors." There are many different kinds of fences from simple decorative fences, to elaborate stone fences. The fence that I would like to talk about is the average six foot high privacy fence. In the past years the average fence was made of pressure treated wood, however more fence material is being made out of PVC. This material is lightweight, durable, and does not need finishing. Since PVC is still more expensive than wood fences a wood fence is still very popular, an a inexpensive DIY job.
To start your project you will need to contact your local building department to make sure of the layout you want will be in accordance with local building codes. Once the building department
agrees to your design then you can get started.
I recommend digging and setting all corner posts first. After the corners have been set then you can dig and set the all the inner posts. Digging the holes for the posts will be the most difficult. If you have clay on your property you will want to rent a two man auger. If you have sand you could hand dig them with a post hole digger. Using an auger for either situation will make short work for any post hole digging. The augers are available to rent at any tool rental store. Depending on your location you should dig down past the frost line. Here in Michigan that depth is around forty-three inches. The reason to dig below the frost line is so that ground frost will not push your posts out of position. If you do live in area where the frost line is around forty inches I recommend a ten foot 4x4 that is pressure treated for your posts. With this size post you can dig four feet down and you will have six feet above the ground.
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Swing Set Layout and Maintenance Swing sets are a great way to spend time with your kids in the backyard. These play sets can run from a couple hundred dollars to thousands of dollars. The Rainbow set is really the Cadillac of swing sets and they are great play sets. However, if you cannot afford the Rainbow set there are a lot of other great sets that can provide hours of fun.
Whichever set you buy you should consider layout and maintenance. Laying out your set is critical to your yard size. Layout area should extend a good eight to ten feet beyond the set. There are a wide varieties of materials that you could put under the set but the fastest and easiest is just grass. |
French drains are common drainage systems, used to prevent ground and rain water from damaging a structures foundation and or interior dwelling. French drains are made up of corrugated PVC tile and or gravel. The french drain allows rain water and or ground water to be diverted around a structure and into a central collection area. From the last article I wrote on weeping tiles, I added a french drain to the project during the clean out of the old clay tiles. The french drain was added to a window well that had filled up with rain water under extreme heavy downpours. In 2008 during a summer thunderstorm rain water pooled around the back side of the house. This caused the window well to take on water. The water had no where to go and so it passed the sliding glass basement window and into the basement. Due to the spot close to a floor drain the homeowner did not have much damage. However, it was enough of an issue that they decided to fix the problem. There are two good scenarios for adding a french drain to a window well. The first benefit is that any large mount of water getting into the window well will be diverted down to the weeping tiles and then to the city sewer line and or to a sump pump. The second benefit is having an extra place to be able to clean out the weeping tiles if needed, especially the clay weeping tiles. This hole was hand dug due the closeness of a concrete pond and the house. The depth was close to seven feet before hitting the top of the clay weeping tiles. The sides of the pit were about five feet apart and four feet from the house to the pond. It is very important that when digging you brace the walls if needed and have someone watching you just in case of a cave in. We did not have to brace the walls as we had compacted sand that stayed moist all the way to the bottom. |
 Most homes with basements usually have drain tiles called weeping tiles. These tiles help keep the basement dry. The tiles run around the outside of the basement footer just below the level of concrete floor. The tiles carry ground water away from the walls and into either the sewer line (old way) or into a sump pump (new way). The old way was done with clay tile and dumped into the sewer line before storm drains were installed by municipalities.
If you have an older home without a sump pump you may have the ground water dumping into the sewer line. A good way to tell is that someplace in the basement you will have a clean out close to where the sewer line exists the home. This clean-out is sometimes called a sand trap and it's shaped like a "U" to catch dirt before it enters the sewer line. If you can locate the clean-out it is a good idea to clean it out and check to see if water is still flowing through the system. To clean out the sand trap you can use a wet dry vac. |
| A good detection of home heating loss can be detected quite simple if you live in the north with a significant amount of snow fall. Winter snow fall is the best time to see how well your home is losing or retaining heat. What translates into heat loss in the winter will translate into cooling loss in the summer. Here are some tips to tell how your home is losing heat and how to fix the problem the correct way. Icicle and Ice Dams As kids we all enjoyed finding icicles as the shape and sparkle was intriguing. However, this is the first indication of heat loss from a home. Icicles or ice dams will appear on the bottom edge of the roof. Which indicate some type of heat loss from the home. Icicles and ice dams can cause damage to the roof, shingles, roof decking, and interior walls and ceilings. As the ice forms it pushes itself up and under shingles and roofing materials. The expansion of ice as it freezes forces the shingles and roofing materials apart. As melting occurs above the ice formations the water will run down the roof and up under the shingle where the ice has separated the roof material. The water can then freeze again overnight causing the roofing material to expand. This processes can occur over and over again until the the water reaches up the roof and just over the interior walls. To answer the question of why the snow is melting off the roof and forming ice we will need to look inside the attic or conditioned space below the roof. The home can lose its' heat through the attic or space below the roof. The underside heat melts the snow turning it into water. With little insulation in the ceiling of this space the heat can escape from the home and start the melting process. |
One area of storage space that you may not have considered was under a stairway. This project took about a full Saturday to complete. Scrap materials could be used so this project would not cost any money. No finish work with drywall and trim are required. As you can see from the photo this storage area is used for painting tools and supplies.
Before explaining the project lets talk about being organized. Organization has great value and over the last year I have found that it not only helps you work faster but it also saves you money. Being organized helps you locate your items that you are looking for before heading off to the store to purchase materials. It only takes a couple of minutes to put items away in area where you can find them again. This project was dedicated to storing paint supplies and tools. This setup allows for the user to find and replace anything to-do with painting, finishing, and cleanup. Also this space was located in the basement utility room and is perfect for storing paint. Paint is best stored in a cool and dry environment.
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This article will walk you through on installing ceramic tile on a wood sub-floor. This will show you what materials were used and how the installation took place. This room size was approximately 12' x 14'. The room was a formal dining room and had carpeting. Under the carpeting there was a layer of 3/4" particle board and a layer of 3/4" OSB board. According to the manufacturer of the Hardibacker cement board, the company recommended that we remove the particle board. Their reasons is the particle board is not a durable enough material to place their product over. Here are some reasons why particle board is bad under tile: absorbs moisture and water like a sponge, flexes under weight and does not hold screws and nails very well.
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In this tutorial I will walk through how a crawl space can be turned into a nice conditioned storage space.
When most people here the word crawl space they think of a musty cold damp dark place. Well this does not have to be the case. With some simple techniques and a couple hundred dollars you could save money on energy costs and add additional storage space. This project was to insulate a 8' x 14' crawl space that was part of a master bedroom addition. The crawl space was a mess with debris on the floor and a huge arachnid population. The crawl space was sealed from the outside of the house but did have vents that were covered with dirt and a layer of foam board. The person / company that built the master bedroom addition decided to drywall over the access window in the basement to the crawl space. The new home owner did not realize that there was a crawl space until they felt cold air coming into one of the basement closets.
When I found the access it was an original basement window. After using a vacuum for awhile to clean out the initial mess I climbed in an looked around. The climb into the crawl space was outrageous. It was up above the basement floor about five feet. Once I got up into the window it was down about a foot and a half to the dirt floor. However, the crawl space was nice and roomy with about a three foot high ceiling.
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 This article will explain how to refinish a hardwood floor. This work is hard, time consuming, and not for the impatient. Included are some ideas to follow and some advice during the processes.
This project consisted of a hallway and a bedroom to refinish. The hallway is pictured here and you can tell that part of the floor had already been sanded with a drum sander. The homeowner had started the project and did not want to finish it. The homeowner knew how difficult the work was due to the layer of finish that was on the floor. To give you some background on the home, it was an old farm house with maple floors. The top layer of finish was a varnish or a version of a varnish. As the homeowner learned from this project that varnish when heated gums up the sanding disks in a hurry. Varnish is better removed with a liquid stripper but the fumes can be overwhelming and not good for your health.
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