Thanksgiving and Christmas are bearing down on you. When I still was building and remodeling six days a week, I clearly remember how customers wanted me gone and out of their homes during this festive season. The stress level that accompanies turkeys, family, gift giving and parties is already high enough so the dust, plastic […]
Anthony DiStefano is an inspiration for all of us. He lives in Ocala, FL, and loves to work on cars. "I watched your video and I was wondering if you would give me some off-the-record advise about my garage idea. We have a 3 car attached hip roof CB constructed garage, W-trusses running front to back […]
Chris and Jennifer Nugent purchased a home in Mooresville, IN in May of 2013. Little did they know the house had been previously occupied by people that ran a home-based business from the house. The trouble is the business was manufacturing illegal methamphetamine. The Nugent's had the house inspected by pros, but unfortunately, it's not […]
Ross Ott, who has a neat bungalow house in Rockford, IL, hates his aluminum siding. "I have a 1924 bungalow that has aluminum siding over the original siding. I hate it, and now it has hail damage and I need to figure out what I'm going to do with it. My desire is to remove […]
Rachael Maloney, who has a nice home in Cedar City, UT, has a perplexing problem with a downspout drain pipe. Let her tell you about it: "We have a downspout drain pipe that runs across our front sidewalk. The problem I have is that the sidewalk is right up against the foundation of our garage. The […]
Preventing Mold Growth in Basements DEAR TIM: Our full size divided basement has mold growing on the west side of the wall, as well as the south side on the other end of the basement. The basement has two sump pumps, one on each side of the basement. The basement does not leak water. We've […]
Janis Hatch is building a new home in Lafayette, CO. She thinks she's got a problem with her new foundation. "We are building a home with a national builder. The foundation was poured last week. When the forms were removed there was a pie shaped gap about 15 inches long (vertical) at what will be […]
Gina Zuk, is trying to make her house look better. But she's not getting good advice from her siding contractor. "I have a contractor that says I don't need the house wrap if I am putting on the solid core vinyl siding made by Crane. I think it should have the house wrap as even if […]
Shona, who lives in Herfordshire, England, had to get rid of her builder who was not dealing with the mold on her walls. "I have excessive mold on plastered brick walls. I have removed most of the detached molding plasterwork back to the brick to find crumbling mortar and damp brick. I'm in a rented […]
Dave Keith is working on his home in Syracuse, NY. It's an old one! "I need to know about footers for LALLY COLUMNS. I am fixing an 1870's house, two story, water damage. I will be adding many jack post/lally columns to level up floors and shorten floor joist runs(some 18 foot). Do the footers […]
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