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.

Read the rest of this entry »

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.

Broken sprinkler lines, what a pain. Water gushing out everywhere….. Here are some ideas to get it fixed.

Tools:

• PVC Cutter
• PVC Glue
• PVC Pipe
• Shovel

Cost

• $5-$20 depending on what you already have.

Broken sprinkler lines occur for various reasons varying from lines that were not drained before winter, digging in the wrong place or various other reasons. Regardless of how the pipe broke, it still needs to be fixed. Some people will often resort to calling a landscaper to come in and repair the sprinkler pipe without even considering doing it themselves. However, depending on the severity of the break, it can often be repaired in less than a half hour and just a few dollars in parts.

You can tell if you have a broken pipe by looking for certain characteristics. First you will probably notice that there is little or no pressure getting to your sprinkley heads. If left like this you will have dead spots of lawn. Next, make sure that none of your heads are broken, broken heads are much easier to repair than a broken line. If you do have a broken sprinkler head check out our tutorial on repairing them. Once you know you have a broken pipe you then need to isolate where it is broken. Often times your lawn will bubble where the line is broken. These are the easiest breaks to locate. Other times you will have a mini marsh land in your yard, if this is the case and the break is thought to have been caused by frozen water you may have long breaks spanning several feet along the line, keep this in mind when you think you have found the break. These two can be easily isolated with a little work. Now simply follow these steps:

• After isolating the break you need to dig out the dirt from around the dirt to allow yourself enough room to work. Clear up to a foot on each side to the break to make sure that the break does not go any further up or down the sprinkler line.
• Using a PVC cutter cut out the broken part of the pipe. Make sure that you cut out at least 6-8 inches to make the repair work easier.
• Now that you have removed the broken part of the pipe you will now need to clean the ends of the line removing any dirt or mud. Once clean some people will apply a primer to the ends of the pipe and the inside of the PVC couplers, for most of my work I have not used a primer and have never had a problem.
• If you have PVC pipe laying around you have probably noticed that one end of the pipe usually flares out into a coupling connection. If you have a line like this, then you will only need one coupler, if not you will need two. First you will want to glue on the two couplers. This is done by simply applying the PVC glue to the inside of the coupler and the end of the pipe. This glue sets rather quickly so quickly push the coupler onto the end of the pipe in a turning motion until you have pushed it on and the inner stop in the middle is flush against the end of the pipe in the ground. Repeat for the other coupler. If you are using a pipe with a flared out end. Cut this put an inch or two longer than you will need to fill in where the pipe starts and the other coupler is. Remember that the pipe goes into the coupler at least a 1/2 inch, and the last thing you want is a section of pipe that is too short.
• Once you have glued on the PVC couplers you will then need to measure a length of pipe to fill in the gap. Using a measuring tape, measure from the middle of one coupler to the middle of the other coupler. Then using your PVC cutter cut a section of pipe this length. If you are using the pipe with a coupler on the end, then you can simply cut the pipe where it reaches the middle of the opposite coupler.
• Now you need to glue in the section of pipe on one side. Do not try to glue in both ends at the same time because you will not have enough time before the glue sets. Remember to push in hard using a twisting motion to make sure that the pipe has been inserted completely.
• Once one side has been glued in, you need to glue in the other side. If you have dug out the pipe on each side this is much easier because it will be necessary for you the pull the pipe up or to the side to get the end into the connector. PVC pipe is extremely strong and can be bent pretty far without breaking it.
• Now that the pipe has been repaired you will want to make sure there are no leaks before you cover the sprinkler line back up. Some people recommended waited up to 24 hours before putting a lot of water pressure into the lines. This allows the glue to set, and gives you a break. Since both sides of the pipe are buried in the ground you probably don’t need to worry about the pipe being pushed out so you can run a short test to make sure there are no leaks.
• Once repaired you can bury the line again, and replace the grass. If you are still having problems, you may have other breaks in the line. I have seen a sprinkler line that was broken along a twenty-five foot section because of water that froze during the winter.