Home Improvement

Many homes across the country have a basement. The basement can be finished or unfinished but usually, at a minimum, has some plumbing infrastructure. Unfortunately, sometimes the basement can develop a sewer smell that can be hard to diagnose and even trickier to fix. The first step to eliminating a sewer smell in your basement is to learn where the odor is coming from.

Whether your goal is to protect your newly installed floors or you’re refinishing ones that are several years old, the first step is to choose the right topcoat. Regardless of the specific hardwood species, your floors need a finish coating to keep them looking their best and lasting as long as possible. With so many options, choosing the correct topcoat can be an overwhelming process.

It’s stressful when a strong storm carrying heavy rains and flash flooding passes through, especially when you are a homeowner. The significant wind and rainfall has a tendency of highlighting all the vulnerabilities of your home’s exterior.

Are you interested in transforming your yard by building some new walkways, a patio, and even a deck for your pool? If so, you will need to install some new stones in your yard. Among the material options that can be used for those aforementioned installations are flagstones.

One way to create an oasis in one’s home is a bathroom that evokes peace and tranquillity. This could simply be from the choice of paint color to keeping the space neat and tidy. An essential factor is also ensuring that everything works and is in tiptop shape. 

A modern kitchen needs to be able to do a lot, sometimes without much space. There needs to be a way to store and prepare food, clean and store dishes, and dispose of trash.

When it comes to cooking, especially grilling and frying, you inevitably release a lot of greases, smoke, and lingering food odors. In order to obtain proper circulation and keep the air in your kitchen clean, it’s necessary to install a range hood.

Toilets are naturally the centerpiece of any bathroom, but this important fixture is also the starting point for bathroom design. Building codes dictate the placement of a toilet with respect to the cabinetry, walls, and other fixtures. When a toilet is placed wrong within the space, you not only feel uncomfortable, but the plumbing won’t work properly.

It’s funny – most people, no matter how familiar they are with home improvement, never really think about how they should finish the tile edgings when they meet the wall until they’re actually at that point. Then they begin asking all the questions: Should they just stop? Grout the spot? Add a metal profile or commercial edging? What would be the costs?

Electrical work is one of the hardest things to wrap your head around as a homeowner, and that comes right down to outlets. The standard outlet for American homes is the ground fault circuit interrupter or GFCI outlet. They are effective and protect you from electrical shock, but can two GFCI outlets be used on the same circuit?

One of the major selling points of any house is how many bathrooms it has. Not only that, but the overall value of each bathroom in the house is a deciding factor. It can be confusing when you see different names for bathrooms, like “1/2 bath” or “full bath,” and you may wonder what is a three-quarter bathroom?

Adding a new bathroom to your home is a project that you probably are thrilled about. Unfortunately, adding this type of room is far more difficult than adding another bedroom or a new closet. This is especially true if you have a concrete slab foundation since the very foundation of the home can be an obstacle to get the water lines.

You come home at the end of a long, tough day, looking forward to taking a hot shower. You climb in and find out that your shower has either stopped distributing water completely or with the painstakingly low-pressured flow.

With the increase in vinyl siding’s popularity, people are increasingly focused on finding ways to ensure that their siding can last longer than ever. That’s why people put house wrap underneath their vinyl siding. Of course, the wrap is known for being expensive. Is it really worth it? Do you even need it?

Showerheads can generally be changed out whenever you feel like it. Whether it is because the old showerhead has gone bad or you simply want to go with a new style. Even better, they are generally installed and removed with relative ease.

If you’re a handy homeowner, your garage probably isn’t just a place that you park your car. It’s actually a place where you park everything from seasonal storage, gardening gear, tools, kids’ toys, and wood saws. Without space-saving shelves to help contain all of these supplies and tools, your beautiful garage can end up looking like a disorganized mess.

When constructing your home or making renovations, it’s important to choose the best option for the material of your walls. Sheetrock, more commonly known as drywall, is the all-around best choice for cost, ease, and safety. However, this excludes the bathroom or other moisture-heavy rooms.

If your doorbell wires are not labeled, then you need to locate the chime and the low-voltage transformer. The chime could be in your living room, kitchen, or another open area. The transformer may be near your electrical panel, garage, or mechanical room.

You may be remodeling an existing bathroom in your home or prepping a bathroom for an investment house. In either case, when it comes to deciding on a bathtub, there are several choices. Often the choice boils down to bathtubs made of Vikrell or an Americast bathtub.

Toilet flush systems often end up with issues that need immediate repairs. You do not want your nature’s call to be messy due to a broken toilet, now do you? One such problem that has been frequently witnessed by people is an inefficient toilet flapper that closes too soon. As a result, the necessary amount of water does not flush down the toilet bowl to clean it.

If you have a light switch that you hardly use, it might be more beneficial to convert it into an outlet. But can that even be done? The answer is a resounding yes!

A 4-inch backsplash that matches the granite surface was included with my bathroom vanity. Since the backsplash isn’t really exciting to look at, I questioned if I even needed it and whether it would be good to remove it.

Shopping for a new toilet can feel overwhelming, especially with how many options there are on the market. When it comes to choosing the right toilet, it’s important to consider your wants and needs for your space as well as your budget.

If you have a dehumidifier, you’ll be happy to know that it can do more than prevent your home from getting moldy. Dehumidifiers have many uses you might not know about, including helping keep your home cool without air conditioning.

Window glass is usually pretty durable, but it only takes one unfortunate event to cause a crack.

We don’t give much thought to toilet paper. We give even less thought to the toilet tissue holder in the bathroom. For the most part, we accept what the home builder installed and go on about our business. However, for some people finding the right recessed toilet tissue holder is a focus.

Adding a shed to your property is an excellent investment. You may need it for storing tools, building a workshop, or extra storage for seasonal decorations. Whatever the reason, you must investigate the cost, in time and money, of building a shed on your own versus buying one and having it installed professionally. 

After binge-watching real estate shows, you might think you need to fix everything in your house before you can list it. But the truth is, you can overdo it. Some things just aren’t worth repairing or upgrading before you sell. However, there are undoubtedly home fixes you must complete before selling. 

Building things with your own two hands is the best feeling in the world. But anything you are building should be done safely and solidly, or your plans (and your project) could fail. Although end nailing may be easier and faster, it is not usually the best choice when building.

LED floodlights are some of the brightest lights on the market right now. A properly functioning LED floodlight will illuminate a significantly wide area, and this is why these lights have “flood” in their name. They essentially flood a space with light, as opposed to spotlights and downlights that usually only illuminate a small area.

There’s nothing quite like relaxing at the end of a long day with a soak in a tub. Or, maybe you prefer to wake up in the morning with a nice shower in a combo shower/bathtub. Either way, the time you spend in a tub is a great way to refresh and prepare yourself for what’s ahead.

It’s never easy to plan a dream home or even pick out an existing one, especially when you don’t know what dimensions you should look out for. Bedrooms are huge selling points in any house, and it is important to find one that is spacious and comfortable. With that size, what is the average bedroom size?

Samsung dishwashers are affordable, efficient, and reliable. That doesn’t mean they aren’t without their problems. For example, performance issues and error codes often appear and confuse homeowners. What do the Samsung dishwasher Smart Auto and Heavy blinking error codes mean?

Each home’s electrical panel has circuit breakers that act as a safety device for your home. They are each is designed in a way so as to cut power off when the current that passes through exceeds the designated rating.

Ductwork isn’t easy for every homeowner to navigate without vast HVAC knowledge, and that is understandable. The ducts in your home are every bit as important for heating and cooling your home as the AC and furnace. So, what size duct do I need for a 12×12 room?

When installing a mounting block on vinyl siding, there are plenty of ways things can go wrong. You may ask if your vinyl siding can handle this depending upon the weight. You may not know where to begin.

It isn’t typically something we give much thought to until we plug in that appliance or flip the light switch, only to have everything in the room go black. Then, the question of how many watts can our  amp panel handle becomes one of the first things we start thinking about. Funny, how being left in the dark can inspire us to seek answers. And in this case, those answers will be about the power that literally gives us the light we need to see.

There is no mistaking when the AC comes on in your house.  Not only can you hear the condensing unit start, the lights in the house flicker, dimming for a few moments each time.  What does it mean with the lights dim each time the AC turns on?

Choosing the right tile for your shower can be quite difficult. The tile that you choose ultimately determines how your shower will look and how easy it will be to clean and maintain. So, what kind of tile is best for shower walls?

A failed sump pump can be a nightmare situation. Ankle deep standing water in a basement after a sump pump fails is no picnic. But what if that standing water is energized and capable of delivering a lethal shock?  Shouldn’t sump pumps be on a GFCI protected outlet?

There are two primary options when it comes to shower flooring,  shower pan versus tile floor. The question, or more appropriately, the questions about which is best may not be as clear-cut.

You noticed that sag in the roof of your home. A trip into your attic and a bit of investigation and you found a roof trust with some damage. The damage doesn’t look too bad from the inside, but you can see the definite sag where the roof truss has bowed from the outside. How much does it cost to repair a roof truss?

You may be building your new dream home, remodeling your present home, or simply upgrading the insulation on your attic. Batt or loose insulation is often the easiest for the do-it-yourselfer to install insulation. Many homeowners wonder if you can put insulation over the electrical wires in your home.

We are fortunate in the US to have one of the most stable and dependable electrical systems in the world.  Most of us don’t give a thought to coming into a dark room and flipping an almost silent switch to bring light to the darkness. However, it can become disconcerting when a simple light switch starts to buzz.

Maple hardwood flooring has been around since Colonial times. As a part of the all-American aesthetic, maple flooring remains popular throughout the United States. Of course, part of the reason it’s so common is that maple was one of the only hardwoods Colonial folk had available to them. However, things have changed. So, is it worth getting your flooring done in this wood style anymore?

Adding insulation can be a task depending on the size of your rooms or attics. Try applying the same logic to a vaulted ceiling, and you’ve got the potential of having a pretty big headache. Because of this, we’ve produced a short guide to help you out with insulation in vaulted ceilings.

When it comes to tiling a shower wall, many have the first impression that the job will be a significant hassle. The truth is, tiling a shower doesn’t have to be hard at all. In fact, if you follow a simple set of rules, the job can be both speedy and efficient!

Having a basement offers more storage space and additional living space for you and your family, which makes it a popular project for many homeowners, especially if you don’t have a lot of overall square footage. Depending on where you live, you’re going to run into different guidelines and roadblocks when it comes to digging out a basement.

Mahogany is one of those woods that oozes class, sophistication, and old-world British flair. Having cabinetry that’s done up in a rich mahogany stain doesn’t just add a beautiful touch of burgundy red to your home. It also is a subtle way of saying, “I’m totally loaded, dude.” But, what kind of flooring works with mahogany cabinets?

After a long workday, you want nothing more than to take a hot shower, until you notice a sour smell in the bathroom. Smelling unpleasant odors is anything but relaxing, and the smells often signal there’s an issue somewhere. Therefore, it’s vital to identify the smell, find the source, and know how to resolve the problem. 

Working on a ladder is a delicate process. Yes, the ladder will allow you to get to spots high up off the ground that you wouldn’t be able to otherwise. They are a useful tool that any roofer, builder, or amateur handyman should have at his or her disposal. To keep your ladder steady, it’s a good idea to have a roof ladder hook. The good news is that you can make these, and it’s simple.

The addition of a wrap around front porch can be one of the greatest ways to enhance the exterior of your home and increase your living space. They provide an excellent location for entertaining guests, enjoying gorgeous views, lounging in a rocking chair and sipping on lemonade.

Houses come in all different shapes and sizes and styles, each with its own stand-out features. You can typically recognize Dutch Colonial homes from their familiar and classic barn roof design. However, many things have changed inside these homes since their beginnings in the mid-1600s.

Upon seeing yellow water in your toilet, your first instinct will probably be to flush (and be mildly annoyed at whoever forgot to flush). So, imagine your surprise when the toilet bowl fills back up and it’s still yellow! The good news is you don’t have to panic. The real reason behind your yellow toilet water is actually a lot less gross

More and more, we are seeing 400 Amp service being run into residential properties across the US. Today’s modern appliances and electronics demand more and more power requiring higher amperage electric service. Many homeowners, builders, and contractors wonder if using a pair of 200 Amp service panels is a viable option.

There’s something undeniably heavenly about soaking in a warm bath after a long day. But, a relaxing bath becomes anything but when the water won’t drain properly (or won’t stay in the tub).

A beautiful kitchen can work wonders for just about any type of home. Preparing your favorite treats inside a gorgeous kitchen is a delightful experience unlike any other. If you’re interested in redesigning your home kitchen, don’t forget to do something about the ever-present backsplash.

If there is one single room in every home that tends to be prone to mold, it’s the basement. Basements are dark, cold, and often have leaks from the outside. This leads to a lot of issues, primarily mold. We’ve all been in basements that had that telltale musty, moldy smell. Sometimes, you might even see the mold growing up a wall. Did you ever wonder what you can do to get rid of that mold?

If you’ve never lived in a house with thin walls, then you are among a small group of people. Many people have lived in houses, apartments, and duplexes with thin walls and a lack of privacy. That’s why you’re not alone if you’ve ever struggled with how to get privacy in a house with thin walls.