Home Projects & Repair

Tools:

• Screwdriver
• Sheetrock Saw
• Measuring Tape
• Box For Finished Rooms
• Face Plate with Slot For an Ethernet Jack
• Ethernet Jack Module (Cat5 Cable)

Cost

• ~$20+

Adding wiring to an already finished room can be tedious and difficult work. The results though are more than worth it. Having wires laying across the floor is often inappropriate and ruins the look of a room. Here we will discuss how to add an ethernet jack to a finished room bringing internet and network connectivity to that room. I have done this to several rooms in my house to enable the X-Box to get on the internet, and bring the internet to the upstairs craft room. While wireless is easier, it is not as reliable, secure, or nearly as fast.

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Tools:

• Scroll Saw
• Drill
• Screw Driver
• Level

Materials:

• Shelf: $5-10
• Brackets: $10-15
• Screws

Perhaps one of the best home improvements you can make is to add shelving to a room. Not only does it make the room look better, but it also adds more functionality. If you have lots of books or trinkets and a spare wall, then a shelf might be a nice addition to your room.

The first thing you will need to decide is where you want the shelf to go and how big you want it to be. Several things to take into consideration are what its function is to be and where on the wall it needs to be placed. The length should generally not be more than a few feet, or shorter than a couple feet. Try placing something on the wall to get a feel for how it will look when it is placed, you may be surprised. When determining the height of the shelf you may not want it to be low enough that small children will be able to grab onto the shelf or people hitting their heads on it. Also, make sure that it is not so high that you can’t reach it without getting something to stand on.

Once you have determined the requirements head to the hardware store and look for a shelf and some brackets. There are packages available with precut shelves and brackets. These are often sufficient and much easier to work with since the wood has already been treated and generally has a nicely worked edge on it. If you are looking for something else, you will generally find brackets and shelves sold seperately. If you go this route you will want to make sure that you have enough brackets to support the shelf. A general rule is one bracket for every 3 or 4 feet. More than this and it will look funny, any less and you will end up with a sagging shelf.

Now that you have your shelf and brackets you will need to find the studs in the wall. The placement of the shelf will be somewhat limited to the placement of the studs. There are several techniques to finding studs. An easy way to locate them is to simply knock on the wall and listened to the sound. Hollow sounds indicate there is nothing there, more dull sounds are a good indication of a stud. Knock around a little listening carefully to locate the studs. Once you have found one stud, you may want to pound a small nail into the wall to make sure that it is really a stud. Once a stud has been found it is easy to find another as they are generally placed evenly apart.

The next step is to attach the brackets. You will want to install the brackets towards the ends of the shelfs, if you have three you will want to have it centered in between the two ends. Pull out your level and pencil in a line where the shelf is to go. Then, taking into consideration the thickness of the shelves place the brackets along the line on studs and mark where the screws are to go. Once marked use a drill bit slightly smaller than your screws to drill the holes. This will make screwing them in much easier. Once drilling is complete, screw the brackets onto the wall.

All that is left is to attach the shelf to the bracket. Make sure that the screws you are using will not go through the shelf completely. That would be rather unfortunate.

Painting a room has several effects that will, if done properly, increase the value of your home, make it feel more welcoming, and even make a room look larger. But, before you get started there are some things that you need to know in order to get the job done correctly. If not, you will end up with a room that will need to be repainted.

Choosing a good color:

Choosing a correct paint color is something that largely depends on the individual. Whatever you do do not rush through this decision. Take the time to get paint sample strips and carefully analyze all of your available choices. Paint color strips will give you and idea of what the paint color is and also some similar paint colors.

Take the sample strip home and compare it to the other colors that are in the room. Is this particular paint color going to clash with the other colors in the room? Once you have decided on a color it is often wise to purchase a pint of paint and paint a small area of the wall. Let the paint dry and take a look. If it looks great then you can purchase more and paint the rest of the room. If not you have not wasted time and money painting a room the wrong color.

Getting started:

Before you start painting there are several preparatory steps that need to be taken. When painting you generally do not want to paint the molding, door knobs, outlet covers, light switch covers, light fixtures, etc the same color as your wall. Carefully remove all outlet covers with a screwdriver. Once the covers have been removed tape over the outlets or switches so that they do not accidentaly get painted on. With blue painting tape carefully place this on the floor and crown molding. Getting this applied correctly will give you nice sharp lines between the wall and molding. By taping off and removing outlet covers you are on your way to a successful painting job.

The next step is to fill in any gashes in the wall. While this is not necessary it is a good time to do it, afterall you will be painting soon anyways. So get your caulk out and fill in the gashes. Let it dry as instructed on the can and then sand it so that it is smooth with the wall. Sand other areas of the wall as necessary.

Small nail or screw holes, and cracks up to the size of about a dime in sheetrock or plaster can be patched using lightweight spackling compound. You simply press a small amount of it into the hole, then smooth off the area by scraping over it with the flat edge of a putty knife, or anything with a flat edge.

However, if the hole is larger, such as a fist or foot hole, it will take a little bit more work.

A sheetrock saw makes this job easier. They look like keyhole saws but have a sharp point that lets you punch into the sheetrock to get the cut started. If you don’t have a sheetrock saw, a utility knife will work as well, however, it will not be quite as easy.

1. Get a piece of sheetrock [also called drywall or wallboard] a few inches bigger than the hole (scraps from construction site, maybe?). The edges of sheetrock are thinner than the main area of the sheet so, stay a few inches away from the edge. Draw a circle just larger than the hole and, cut it out. It doesn’t have to be a perfect circle. Lay this patch piece over the hole and trace the outline on the wall–that is, draw around it. Cut along this outline making a hole in the wall roughly the same size and shape as the patch.
2. Find, cut, or make a piece of wood that is narrow enough to go in the hole and about 3-4″ longer than the diameter of the hole. Thickness doesn’t matter much so long as you can get it in the hole but, thinner is usually easier to work with. A piece of 1/4″ plywood is perfect but, a wide range of things will work, including a couple of thicknesses of corrugated cardboard glued together. (If the hole is in the ceiling the backer needs to be stiffer than for a wall so don’t use the cardboard trick.) This is called the backer piece.
3. Insert the backer into the hole such that it extends on each side of the hole and attach it to the inside of the wall.
4. To hold the backer while you’re attaching it to the wall, drill a small hole in its center. Tie a string to a nail, stick or something and thread the other end through the hole. Now, after you put the backer in place, you can pull on the string to hold it in place against the inside of the wall while the glue sets or while running down the screws. Then cut the string and let the nail fall inside the wall. Another way to do this is to put a long screw where the string hole is and use the screw as a handle to hold the backer in place with your fingers or pliers. Remove the screw, of course, when your done.
5. Some common ways to attach the backer are:
   • A Hot Glue Gun
   • Caulk
   • Construction Adhesive
   • White Glue
   • Screw it in place by running screws through the wall.
6. Cold glues require you wait up to a day before finishing. The most common method is screws. If you use screws use flathead screws and tighten them so they just dimple into the sheetrock but, don’t tighten them until they cut the paper around the screw head. If you use an electric drill/driver set the screwdriver clutch to the lowest setting and work up to the right torque.
7. After the backer is in place, attach the patch to it using one of the same methods — thereby filling the hole except for the seam/edges. Now, using a putty knife press a glob of joint mud or spackling against the wall, forcing it into the seam (and the screw dimples if you used screws). Then scrape off the excess making a smooth surface. Allow this to dry, about a day if you are using mud or an hour or so if you are using spackling. Mud will shrink as it dries so you will probably have to apply a second layer. Once it has dried use a sanding block or a damp sponge to make smooth. Joint mud takes longer than spackling, but it is much more forgiving, you can use a damp sponge to remove it and do it over again if you have to.
8. If you have some PVA (polyvinyl acetate) primer handy use it, otherwise just paint.
9. If the wall is stippled (textured) you will want to match the stippling.
   For advice on this you will want to look around a little more on the internet.
10. Now you can fix that hole in your sheetrock. Look around some more to find out how to fix or repair all of the other holes you have.

A note of caution. This method works well for a repair that is in the central area of a sheet of sheetrock, such that the patch is attached to the surrounding sheetrock and not attached to studding. When the patch is attached to studding, it and the sheet it abuts can move independently, so you’re safer to tape and float the seam to resist cracking.

Another method is to do the repair much the same way but, make a square patch, then tape and float the seams.