Temperatures have fallen across the country and many of you have already cleaned up your fireplace and started using it on a daily basis. The quest to find decent wood to burn is easier for some than others. We've picked up a lot of free wood from Craigslist but the quality often hasn't been so great.
Why not take advantage of the available square footage in your basement and not just leave it as a storage room. By finishing out a basement or at least insulating it, you'll be able to enjoy more of your home as well as save energy.
One Project Closer went through the process of selecting basement insulation and they considered all of the major options including fiberglass, wet cellulose and spray foam.
They chose closed cell spray foam: While closed cell spray foam is slightly more expensive than other methods, it offers high R-value with the best mold resistance. Given that we've invested thousands of dollars in radiant floor heating, we believe that the higher cost is justified and would recommend this method.
When building or remodeling a home the interior doors are often an afterthought but they shouldn't be. Cheap doors on a quality built home suck! But investing a limited budget into solid wood doors isn't always the smart choice.
We've followed this debate on Home Construction Improvement regarding hollow-core vs. solid wood interior doors and while there are some basic advantages and disadvantages to both.
Solid Wood Doors
+ Solid wood doors are great for sound dampening, insulating properties, damage resistance and value to potential buyers.
- Solid doors certainly have benefits but they also cost approximately 50% more, they are heavy and more prone to shrinkage and expansion due to temperature and moisture changes.
If you're short on time, money and effort but still need covet a new tile backsplash then it looks like SIMPLEMAT is for you. It literally adheres to your current backsplash of tile or wallpaper and your done! Without grout there's no mortar, mixing, or mess.
They also have kitchen countertop applications as well.
Fall is always a great time to bring out the candles. The warm flicker softens any room or outdoor area. ShelterPop highlights some make your own candle projects and our favorite are these diy hanging lanterns from Craftynest.
iPhone apps for the remodeling and diy enthusiast are plentiful. There's an app to pick a paint color and an app to level a shelf but we recently got a handy new app that is more educational than gimmick. This app from Double Dog Studios is a reference guide for wood and contains full screen samples and detailed information for over 50 different varieties. It's a standalone application that doesn't require an internet connection so you can access it at the lumber yard or design store.
We've had a chance to check it out and we really dig the educational reference pages that explain the types of cuts (quarter sawn, rift sawn) as well as the very helpful "wood" glossary for those not in the industry. But one of the most helpful features we found was their listing of sustainability of wood types from secure to moderate and threatened. A must for any green builder or customer who is conscious about the materials they are going to buy.
Would you go with your same decking materials again? Synthetic or wood or something else?
There is a great debate going on over at FineHomeBuilding where builders are letting their opinions be known and it isn't as one sided as you might think. Synthetic deck materials aren't without issues and are also not entirely maintenance free as some manufacturers would have you believe.
No matter what material you choose to build your deck or shore up a current deck make sure it passes this inspection and you are working with a licensed contractor.
A reader is having trouble removing the original swinging door between their dining room and kitchen.
We have an old house that has a swinging door between the dining room and the kitchen. I want to take this door down but have not been able to figure out how to get it down. At some point in the past, sheet vinyl was put down in the kitchen and carpet in the dining room and I wonder if it might be covering some part of the door that would allow it to be taken down. There are no hinges, it appears that it is on "pin" at the top and some sort of metal plate/bracket at the bottom. We can not locate any screws anywhere, there just seems to be nothing to take apart. Any ideas?
We love the smell of fresh cut grass like the next person and taking pride in a well manicured lawn is an accomplishment, but in the current age of water conservation there are alternatives to natural lawns that outweigh the real stuff in every aspect (except being alive).
Recently we spoke with Duane Ruth of SYNlawn which is one of the leading installers of high-quality synthetic grass. They've been in the business much longer than their competitors and have the jobs and reputation to back it up. They recently installed a commercial stretch of SYNlawn in Santa Monica which is notorious for having perfectly kept public landscapes that are always natural and thus take a lot of water. For all installations including commercial and residential they recommend a professional installation even for small jobs.
An industry we'd love to see grow is recycling materials from demolished buildings. In the past the ROI on sorting and recycling demo materials hasn't made sense/cents but now that LEED certification can help the bottom line of a public building, more organizations are doing what they can to recycle their tear downs.
Jetson Green shared this example of elementary school demolition where they will be recycling at least 75 percent of the waste.
November 6, 2009 | Comments ()
