MyFixitUpLife home improvement
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On some interior remodeling projects it feels like we spend more time protecting the existing home from the work being done than doing the actual work. And, of course, a big part of this set-up is protecting existing floors from demolition and construction traffic. We’ve tried all kinds of tricks to take the pain [...]
I love home improvement, but some days are better than others, notably, those NOT spent renting, using, and returning a jackhammer to break up concrete or boulders. Among the nastiest items I’ve have to break out are concrete steps. Monolithic pours, there is just so much concrete that whaling away at them with a jackhammer [...]
Old house remodeling is often half challenge, half opportunity–and always a whole lotta work. And when opportunity knocks in an old house renovation, knock often first refers to knocking something down. Unlike modern homes which are built with conventional framing and interior drywall all neatly organized into a 4 foot matrix (FYI, framing with studs, [...]
Mark Clement, practical contractor for The Old House Web and host of MyFixitUpLife radio show, dives into the small bathroom remodeling project in an old home. The eight-by-six space is small enough as it is without considering the lack of adequate lighting. To address that, Mark will change the height of the renovated shower to [...]
In room-by-room remodels like the one we have going now there are some things I want to remain in the room in question (dust, debris) and there are some that I need cordoned off from the jobsite (kids, in this case) while still providing me the easy access I need. I’ve found two terrific—and simple [...]
So you’ve taped off every opening, hung plastic everywhere. You’re even blowing a box fan out the window or using an air cleaner. That’s supposed to manage the airborne material. Looks like it’ll work. Now it’s go-time. You drive your demo bar into the plaster and lath, start sanding all that drywall, or start making [...]
“Make a decision and the rest will follow,” goes a phrase I read once, attributed to an ancient Chinese proverb. And what follows when you put steel on plaster, i.e. full-scale demo as we’ve done in our bathroom demolition, is a pile. A big one. Trash Planning: Curbing it If you’re lucky, you can put [...]
We begin our bathroom’s anti-transmogrification by gutting it. The birch paneling (ack!), plaster, lath, strapping–all of it has to go leaving us with the tabula rasa of the home’s structural terra cotta block walls so we can frame new walls against it. The Wrong Tool for the Job And what’s the tool many people think [...]
I wrote about Waste Management’s The Bagster right after it was introduced. Since then I’ve seen it advertised all over the place, including CNN. The post raised a lot of good questions. Veeptosa writes: “Wouldn’t it be drastically cheaper and easier for me to rent a moving van for the day and drop my junk [...]
So why is a door nail dead anyway? Actually, it’s kind of a cool story. One is said to be “dead as a door nail” because when doors were built of nailed together planks the carpenters pounded the nail through then bent it over on the other side. This is called “clench-nailing” and its one [...]
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