Bearing Wall Footing - Or What is that long block of concrete in my Basement? DEAR TIM: My wife and I are building our new home and we stopped by to see the progress just after the foundation was poured. We saw a massive long block of concrete at least 10 inches thick in the […]
This is a special column about trust. It was inspired by no less than three emails and one phone call I had with visitors to my AsktheBuilder.com website and this column that appears in your paper. Lynn, who is building a new home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, is now wringing her hands each day […]
Next weekend is the unofficial start to summer and while you may be celebrating at a picnic or on a boat, it's more of a subdued bittersweet weekend for my sister and me. A week from tomorrow is Memorial Day - the day we honor those who gave the ultimate sacrifice - their LIVES - […]
I'm finally starting to get back in the groove from my ten-day vacation / business trip out to California. You may have been one who asked me to post a few photos of what I saw with my youngest daughter Kelly. Here's one taken at Barker Dam at Joshua Tree National Park. Here's one I […]
DEAR TIM: My last house had a basement that leaked water. I’m building a new home and want my basement as dry as the Atacama Desert. I’m confident that my drain tile was not put in correctly at my last house. What are the best practices when installing drain tile around a foundation? What materials […]
I'll make this as fast as possible. I've got two pretty important tool / product reviews for you. They're both SHOCKING, but for different reasons. The links to them are below. But first, I want to share a quick story of where I was yesterday. Several days ago, I was hired by a homeowner who […]
Yesterday I had the pleasure, if you want to call it that, of standing next to my open septic tank while it was being pumped. I shot videos of the process looking down on it from my deck. Believe me, you don't necessarily want to see a close-up shot of the inside of a septic […]
I'm back. If you're a new subscriber in the past ten days, I was on a much-needed vacation to California with my youngest daughter. Kelly and I also got to spend four days with my oldest daughter Meghan who you might see just to the right of these words if you have your images turned […]
DEAR TIM: I’ve got an odd problem. I have concrete spalling on a sidewalk that leads from my concrete driveway to my home. The concrete driveway and sidewalk were poured at the same time. The driveway is in great shape, but the sidewalk has all sorts of places where the top surface of the concrete […]
This will be FAST. I'm on vacation in California and am now in Death Valley National Park as you're reading this with very limited Internet access. The Stain Solver SALE is in progress. It lasts until May 9th. You can get 15% off AND FREE SHIPPING using this promo code: Spring2016 You must order at […]
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