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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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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 …
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 …
A friend of ours is asking for advice about waterproofing their block wall foundation after their water supply line leaked in their front yard and caused seepage into their basement. The line had been leaking for an extended period and saturated the ground and then with some moderate rain they experienced some slow leakage which resulted in some mold growth in their basement.
They have been asking a few people about the problem and have …
In this how to we are answering questions from a friend that is considering buying and installing their own security system. They would like to own the equipment and have as much versatility in expanding it and choosing the method of monitoring. They also have questions about security cameras and home automation. We will try to cover the basic considerations when you are choosing a system that you will self install and what …
A buddy of ours is a professional welder now retired and every once in a while in the conversation is what do you do when you are out on a job and you brake something but you don’t have a welder. Can you put something together with a few car or truck batteries and maybe weld a part good enough to get it back to the shop.
A lot of people do this and maybe …