A number of people have been asking about restoring rusted panels on vehicles lately so I thought I would go over some of the best methods to prepare a severely rusted hood for paint. The unfortunate thing about heavily rusted parts is that the rust its self is reducing the thickness of the remaining metal. This is worse when the rust is on both sides of the panel and at some point a rusted …
HowTos
How To Patch A Hole In Stucco Skirting On A Porch
Spring is here so everyone is looking for jobs to do around the house. As a friend of ours was working on their front porch doing some landscaping they found a hole in the stucco that was applied to the wrap around skirting. Its not really big but its something that they want to take care of before pests get in there and cause them problems.
The surrounding stucco does have some cracking but …
How To Diagnose Automotive Alternator Problems
A friend contacted us today with a question about his six year old vehicle that has been eating an alternator a year for the past three years. In the times with more complexity being built into automotive electrical systems your car’s alternator is one of the few things that should either work or not work. They normally have a life expectancy of at least 10 years or maybe much more and they are actually …
How To Convert Your Wired Alarm System To A New Wireless Alarm System
If you have an older home that has a wired alarm system that is in good condition but you would like to upgrade to a new Wireless Alarm System with better features then you do have a variety of methods to complete the conversion.
The first option is to simply start over. Remove your old contacts and motion detectors and other devices and just upgrade to a new system that is wireless. This is not …
How To Know When Its Time To Replace Your Water Heater
A friend writes us about their 27 year old water heater asking if they should just replace it now or whether they should wait until it fails. This is the kind of question that goes through most homeowners minds when they are up at night and can’t get to sleep. Do I need to replace or fix something relatively big in my house and if I do where do I start.
As the old saying …
How To Start A Kid Friendly And Easy Vegetable Garden
For a first timer I would suggest that you start with radishes. they are normally the first harvest of the year and spring radish are normally very sweet, large and even though you will plant red radishes they will come in a variety of easter egg type colors in the early spring. As the season goes on they turn red and bitter like the ones you are use to buying at the store. You …
How To Remove Mold Under Bathroom Flooring
A friend writes us about a mold problem in their concrete floor that they found while remodeling their bathroom. They are wondering what steps they can take to remove the mold and prevent it from reoccurring.
This is a very common problem found in bathrooms. Whether the house is new or old the bathroom is one of the worst places in the home where mold will grow. It just seems pretty much eventual that over …
How To Setup Your Truck For Better Snow Plowing
If you live on a piece of property where you are plowing your own driveway and you get significant snowfall in your area there are some things that you can do to setup your truck for the best experience.
First is the selection of your truck. A lot of people want to buy a beat up used truck that will sit unused for 80% of the year for plowing snow and that is fine but …
How To Diagnose And Prevent Door Frame Rot
A
friend of ours is asking for some help concerning their front door frame and rot that has occurred over time due to moisture.As you can see the damage is pretty bad and it penetrates from the outside of the door all the way through to the inside molding. Obviously this door frame and maybe some of the house framing behind it will need to be replaced but they also want to prevent this …
How To Diagnose Roof Trusses Showing Through Asphalt Shingles
A friend of ours just purchased a new home back in March of this year and they are having some concerns with their roof. Since the home is less than nine months old any problem with the roofing should be a concern to the new owner. Normally when problems show up this early it means that they won’t be getting better over time.
As you can see the problem they are having is Telegraphing of …