Q&A / 

Quick Column Summary: Keep grill away from house Doublecheck propane connections Call fire department first One of my ham radio friends almost burned his house down in the past two weeks. He had to switch out the four-gallon propane tank under his grill and somehow cross-threaded the hose connector. The leaking gas caught on fire […]

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Quick Column Summary: Home improvement endorsements Are they credible Did the endorsers test the product Did endorser get paid for this I'm pretty much just like you. I'm not immune from receiving advertisements in the mail. Earlier this week, I received a postcard from GutterBrush that was promoting a 20-percent-off offer. Here it is: On […]

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Quick Column Summary: Need spray painting tips Start with a great sprayer Use top quality paint Practice using the sprayer first DEAR TIM: I've got quite a bit of painting to do both inside and outside my home. I watched a neighbor use an airless paint sprayer and he made a mess of things. It […]

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Quick Column Summary: Plastic fiber gutter guards After testing, these will fail Get micromesh gutter guards Video links, test results Tracy, who eats lots of cajun food in Plaquemine, LA, asked me about a poor-quality gutter guard I reviewed in a past video of mine. Here's what she said: "In your video about gutter guards, the […]

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Last week I was having a rare phone conversation with my editor at the syndicate that distributes my Ask the Builder column. Dave's a great editor and a DIY enthusiast. Somehow the conversation drifted to how he looks for help online to do projects and to help guide him when he decides he needs to […]

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Quick Column Summary: No one buys paint online Color needs to be seen in person Order from home I don't have a record of when the meeting happened, but my guess is it was 2004. I was in the offices of Miller Brothers Paint in Norwood, Ohio meeting with the owner of the company and […]

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Quick Column Summary: Flooded, drywall damaged How high up do you replace Make it easy on the drywall finisher Add extra electrical outlets now Ms. Lisa Reynolds, who works for the Federal Department of the Interior in Colorado, had her offices flood with water.  Heck, I'll let her tell you the rest: "Our office suffered […]

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Quick Column Summary: Want to hang porch swing without thru bolts What size eyelet lag bolt Not safe to use single eyelet bolts Hang from a created, steel bar Sean Kelliher, who lives in Readington, NJ, reached out with a compliment and a question. "I'm an avid reader of all your tips and you've been […]

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Quick Column Summary: Patched drywall does not match finish Get the right brush and finishing compound Practice the pattern on scrap drywall John Ryland, from Maumee, Ohio, has a tough a problem as any tailor trying to patch clothes. "I took down a small wall in our kitchen and either side of where the wall […]

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