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Recent Blog Posts

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The Safest Way to Change Ceiling Lights in Your Home

We have all been caught staring at our ceiling, wondering how we will ever get up the courage to climb up a ladder and replace that pesky ceiling bulb or ugly fixture. This article looks to shed some light on replacing both ceiling bulbs and fixtures with some easy how-to tips. Changing a Ceiling...

Exterior Colors to Help Make Your House Stand Out

We all want our homes to stand out. It’s not so difficult in a rural setting, but in a suburban setting where there are rows of homes, a little individuality goes a long way. Have you ever tried to find someone’s home in a neighborhood where all the houses were similar in shape and color? Phone...

Effective Ways To Clean Your Gutter

If your gutter is brimming with leaves and water cascades off your roof like it’s coming down Niagara Falls, it may be time to clean it out. Here are some ideas the clear the clog in your gutter: Extension BrushIf you’re looking to avoid climbing any ladders, an extension brush would probably be...

Tips for Building your own Backyard Fire Pit

Sitting around the fire. It’s a tradition that goes back further than recorded history and is one that has endured for many reasons. The simplest of which is that it’s just plain relaxing. What better way to spend a summer evening than being gathered around a fire with family and friends? More and...

Four Factors to Consider When Working with Minimalist Floor Plans

Many homes are now following the trend of a minimalist modern house plan. As remodelers are called more often to work in these types of homes, they should keep in mind four important characteristics. These homes tend toward open floor plans, yet implement many interesting features of the last few...

Business Management Tips for Contractors

For many contractors, the work doesn’t stop when the tools are put away. They are, after all not just building a deck or installing cabinets, they are also running a business. The truth is, there are some things that must be handled effectively in order to provide a successful future for the...

Organizing Tips: How to Get your Car Back in the Garage

People tend to store things in their attics, garages, and sheds as if those spaces were interchangeable. The fact is, as a storage space, your garage is fundamentally different from your attic. An attic should be used to store the things you wish to keep, and a garage is for storing the things you...

Tips for Living through a Renovation

A renovation project can be very rewarding. But like most things in life, rewards don’t come easy. Renovation projects can vary in size and expense, though one theme that holds true throughout any of them is the impact it makes on your daily life. Even the most mundane parts of your day, such as...

Benefits of a Programmable Thermostat

Controlling your home’s energy use is always an ongoing challenge for homeowners. Updating your home’s windows and doors with more energy efficient models, is another. Replacing an aging heating and cooling system also plays a large part in dictating home energy costs, since they account for the...

Build Strong and Go Green with a FORTIFIED Home

Among many of the topics covered by a recent US Department of Energy (DOE) webinar was the subject of FORTIFIED™ Homes. In the webinar, the Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS) discussed which building systems where the most vulnerable and how getting the roof right could reduce as much as...

Learn about the Department of Energy’s Zero Energy Ready Home

The US Department of Energy (DOE) recently held a webinar on marketing and sales solutions for Zero Energy Ready Homes (formally the DOE Challenge Home). The presentation was intended to help builders communicate how they’re Zero Energy Ready Homes live better, work better and last better. A Zero...

Window Boxes Can Dress up Your House

When it comes to curb appeal, window boxes provide a lot of bang for the buck. With basic tools, materials and just a few hours of effort, you can make a huge positive impact on the look of your home’s exterior. Though making one is relatively easy, they can also be purchased. Some window boxes are...

Gutter Installation Tips

Gutters play an important role in keeping your home safe from water damage. Without them, your foundation can be weakened over time; water can seep into your basement, or at the very least, splash onto your siding or damage landscaping and foliage below. During the winter, gutters aid in directing...

DIY Tips for Installing a French Drain

A French drain is typically used to alleviate drainage issues in your yard, lawn or garden. These problems often occur in situations where land is at or near the bottom of a slope. The water then settles (especially in areas with dense, poorly draining soil) and can create a swampy, often unusable...

Know Your Wood When Selecting Paint

How well exterior paints and stains adhere to wood is a direct result of wood properties and the various manufacturing processes. Dense wood shrinks and swells more than light wood, which stresses paint and solid-color stains and causes them to chip or peel prematurely. Edge-grain lumber has...

What to Look For in Exterior Wood Finishes

The choice of exterior wood finishes is dependent on the manner in which it will be used. All-acrylic latex paints are the most durable house paints, but oil-based paint films usually provide the best protection from water and water vapor. Although latex paints allow water to pass through more...

Green Building with Cool Roofs

When talk turns to "cool" roofs most think in terms of metal roofs because of the manufacturer's ability to paint metal roofs with reflectant coatings thus limiting heat absorption. But manufacturers of asphalt shingles will not be deterred. Asphalt shingle manufacturers (with the help of research...

Roofing Materials Storage Quick-Tip

Proper storage and handling of roofing materials at the job site ensures peak performance.Insulation, underlayment, felts, and polymer-modified bitumen sheets should be stored indoors; water-based adhesives, acrylic coatings and emulsions should be protected from freezing. If indoor storage is not...

Deck Building & Mold Prevention

Of course, homeowners bear the greatest burden for keeping new decks free from mold, but there are some things a builder can do: Gap the decking properly (minimum 1/8”) for drainage. Pitch the deck properly away from the house for drainage (minimum 1/8” in 8’). Space the ledger away from the wall...

Job Site Tip: Sealing Ductwork

Mastic is a sealant paste applied to joints and connection in ductwork, and can be used on cracks up to 1/4” wide. Use fiberglass mesh to help seal holes larger than 1/4” wide. Foil tape and butyl-backed foil tape can be used to seal holes and cracks as well. To achieve a good seal for a long time,...

How to Repair Old Windows

One of the advantages of having old windows in your house is that for most problems, a simple repair job is all that you need. They are designed in such a way that repairs can be done piecemeal, unlike some modern replacement windows that would require either to be sent back to the factory for...

Use System Thinking On Your Next Roofing Project.

There is more to roofing than just nailing down shingles. A roofing system must also adequately ventilate the attic space. Proper roof ventilation prevents shingles from curling and reduces energy bills. Research shows that a simple balanced system of soffit vents and continuous ridge vents is the...

Hardwood Moulding Installation

Architectural details done with hardwood mouldings are the perfect finishing touches to your workmanship. Chair rails, crown mouldings and other decorative enhancements in oak, poplar, cherry, maple, ash, walnut and beautiful North American hardwoods go a long way toward making your work into a...

Some "Sound" Installing Advice

Increasing the mass of partitions in light construction is neither aesthetically pleasing nor cost-effective as a method of sound control. Discontinuous construction methods, however, reduce sound transmission by as much as 6 to 10 dB, with little added cost. A further reduction of 5 to 15 dB is...

Roofing Tip: Preventing Ice Dams

The National Roofing Contractors Association recommends using a self-adhering polymer-modified bitumen sheet underlayment in areas where ice-dam protection is required. An ice-dam protection membrane should extend from an eave’s edge to a point 24” inside the interior face of a building’s exterior...