Entries Tagged as 'fixing up the house'
Mistakes to avoid during remodeling yourself.
It will save you a lot of money to do your remodeling yourself, however, there are a lot of mistakes that can cost you a lot more money than if you paid someone to do the work.
Some of the mistakes that you will want to avoid are below:
Failing to find the water cutoff before you begin your work in wet areas such as bathrooms. You will need to find the cutoffs at the street as well as in the house so that if you have a problem, you will know right where to go in order to avoid a flood.
Reconstruction is a messy job so you will want to contain the mess. In order to do this you will want to screen off doors and openings with a large piece of plastic and heavy duty masking tape. Use a shop vac to rid the area of dust and debris and take 15 minutes to organize everything, so that when you begin to work again, you will have an easier time getting the items you need.
Remember to carefully plan and give a lot of thought before you just knock out a wall or take on a project. You should never get in a hurry when you are working on such a project. You will want to turn off all electricity and water to the area you are working in. You can find metal with a stud finder, the metal is where you will find wires and pipes running through the walls. In order to avoid ripping out the wall only to find that it can’t be moved; you will want to use a small dry wall saw to cut some holes to investigate what is behind the wall.
it is important that you protect all your surfaces including walls, cabinets, flooring, etc. There is nothing worse than having to make repairs these things due to spills, splatters and damages. Countertops should be covered with foam tiles to absorb the impact of a dropped tool.
You will want to end stop your fittings to cap off pipes so that water can be turned on during a job. These pieces can be purchased in 1/2″, 1/3″ and 1 inch sizes and it is important to have all the sizes just in case you are in need of any of them.
When you are installing new appliances, be sure to protect the floors with carpet or masonite to roll the appliance over. This will keep from damaging your floors.
Building concrete steps.
Concrete steps can help to beautify your home and they are your best choice when it comes to reliability and durability. They are fairly easy to repair and cost effective if they get cracked and in need of repair. This project takes about a week to complete and it takes days to completely dry. When you plan the project, you should make sure you have a week available to work on them.
First off, figure out how many steps you will need and where you want to build them. Be sure to measure and mark where the dirt and grass need to be removed and dig the dirt out that is soft at least 6 inches deep.
Place the stringers which are the outside of the steps. This will assist in eliminating any figuring out how wide the steps should be and how much space is needed between each step. Once the stringer is in place, support it with 2 x 4 inch stakes. If you are making three steps, you should have a total of three stakes, one at each step.
The number of steps you choose to build will determine how much plywood you will need. If you have three steps, you need two pieces of plywood. The plywood should be cut into 2 x 6 pieces. You will need to nail the plywood horizontally to the frame where the front step will be.
Place gravel with frame area which will fill in the area and take less cement to build the steps. Mix only the concrete you will need for each step.
Shovel concrete into each step area and use a hammer to hit the side of the frame once full of concrete to help with it not cracking later. Use a trowel to smooth and even out the concrete.
You can use a broom to sweep each step to help them in not being so slippery once the job is complete and the cement is dry. It will take approximately five days for the concrete to completely dry.