While 5 x 8 isn't gigantic - it's still gonna cost a couple hundred bucks in materials. The deckplan sites will help you to better plan for the materials - and probably end up saving some money. From personal experience, the big box 'home' stores don't like lumber returns past a couple weeks.

I'm always amazed at the dexterity of the folks here. It's rare to hear "I can't"..... and the pics and questions definitely lend to "I WILL!" So, with that said - what's on the project agenda for this coming year?? Me? I should finish up the interior of my new workshop by spring...

My dryer venting went from a couple feet shy of the marriage seam all the way to an outside wall. And for reasons unknown to me, the compressor unit for the AC was set right in front of the dryer vent outlet. Needless to say, the coils on that side of the compressor unit were caked with lint from th...

I'm a bit late to this party....but.....I recently had to replace all of my soffits and fascia boards. When the knuckleheads put the roof on at the factory they put the starter row of shingles in wrong and there were 5 or 6 places where the butt seams on the starter row lined up perfectly with the c...

The only "code" info I could find says the mouth of the line has to remain a couple inches above the floor. The piece i read said it cannot be run directly to the outside. I inadvertently closed my browser and have yet to find that page again. It was written in section/sub/sub/sub format -...

Sorry - a second question! Is there some sort of device that can be installed on the TPR line that somehow lets homeowner know there may be an issue? I know my hvac has a float contact for the condensation line. Is there something similar for water heaters? It just seems that water heater issues see...

The hot water heater was replaced shortly before I bought this place - and was installed with not much thought towards serviceability. Although the inlet and outlet are on the flex tubing, the unit is turned so that access to the thermostat or elements is a no go. The WH has been in place for right ...

I priced out some of these metal buildings - a fairly large one - to use for a workshop. I was aghast at the prices. I knew I could build it myself for a heck of a lot less. The project is not done yet - 7 months in - and i am now almost $3k more than the metal building kit. I am tired of working on...

The details make it sound like a 3 day event. With an extra pair of hands to help with the plastic - you should be done with it all within 2-3 hours. Spraying the ceiling itself is about 20-30 minutes at most. Prep and cleanup take the most time. When I did mine, I had to do the kitchen and LR as th...

I know that once i get my sight set on a project nothing will deter me outside of a direct grenade hit. That said, nothing is worse than trying to get the cold chill out of your bones on a freezing, bleak, grey day. I think I would be inclined to cover the soft spot so i didn't fall through it - and...

When I first bought my place, it had a metal awning spanning 24 ft x 15 ft. Yes, they attached it directly to the top edge of the house with at least 400 nails. But, the ding-dong who built it had no concept of physics. All of the joists were 2x4's running out 15 feet from the ledger board to the li...

I decided it couldn't be that hard to make a line - so i decided to do it myself. I popped a chalk line so that I had a reference point on the facia for the gutter hangers. Put all the plastic pieces together - and voila! looks great! Then came the rains, some winter, and then the summer heat. It le...

An easy way to find a problem like this is to use a lamp or radio plugged into one of the dead outlets. Just bang on each outlet and switch in the dead zone - and generally you will get some momentary power (seen with the flickering lamp or a blast from the radio).

I'm going to venture your electrical issue is in one of these cheap, clip on outlets/switches. I have the exact same issue now with the master bedroom outlets along an outside wall are all dead. Well, actually they aren't dead. They just have no neutral connection. Sounds silly but you can use a rad...

You could sand down the entire room....but that is a bit impractical. For the areas you can see - light sand the area especially at the paint edge. If you begin manually peeling - there's no telling where it will end. Spray the area with regular Kilz - and let it dry. When I was a painting contracto...