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I have a washed aggregate patio that was installed 35+ years ago. It is in remarkably good shape with very few cracks. The patio was poured in diamond shaped sections with what I believe was 1x4 lumber of some nature as the "seam". As you can imagine, this lumber has long since rotted away...

While it's cold, I'm planning my summer project. I am going to build a shelter for my grill (and me) to protect from rain. Anyway, the plan calls for two 6x6 posts sunk in the ground 8 feet apart and a small cantilever roof. I'd like for the posts to have 7.5 feet of clearance. My question...

A few months back I posted about an electrical oddity where I was losing one leg of power in the house. It would either go off and come back on almost instantly or it would go off and stay off for maybe 10 minutes. Then come back on and be fine for long periods of time. The last failure was...

Today I had something happen I can't explain. Two circuits in my house went dead. Reseting the breakers didn't help. I was trying to diagnose the issue and had one of the breakers off and the other was still on. I had not touched anything for 10 minutes and I look and I notice the one...

Not sure if this is the proper forum or not...... There seems to be so much conflicting information on how to make this work. From what I have read, many furnaces will not operate off of a generator. I have read the cause is anything from a bad ground to "dirty" power produced by the...

My main sewer line (circa 1959) is beginning to fail. My basement is finished and I don't relish the thought of demolishing walls to get to the sewer line. One plumber has a system where he digs a hole at the street, a hole in the basement and using a winch/pulley drags a new pipe from inside...

I installed some drainage pipes in my backyard using six inch plastic pipe. The surface drains use the grates that just slip into the end of the pipe to allow the water to enter. To protect the pipe/drains from damage, I'd like to pour a small concrete pad around the pipe however I'm not sure...

I have blown in insulation in my attic that was rated as R40. Anyway it's a foot deeper than the tops of the ceiling joists. Seems my bathroom vent fan has died and needs replacement so I need to get in the attic to pull out the old one and replace it. I tried to get it out from below but no...

I currently have a junction box inside a wall where a switched line separates to drive a light and a fan. (1 switch turns on the light and fan in a bath) I am pulling a new line to drive the fan but would like to attach inside the junction box as pulling the new wire all the way to the fan is...

I have a very small (5 x 7) bathroom that has the old hexagonal ceramic tiles on the floor. The underlayment of the floor is mortar probably a few inches thick. For the most part the tiles are unbroken and well adhered. I'd like to re-tile the floor but don't want to bust up the mortar bed...

My house was built in the late 50's and has cast iron pipes for the main stack. I have replaced everything but the stack and what is under the basement floor with PVC. I have always kept paint on the exposed portions of the pipe but I have two places that quickly corrode through the paint. Is...

I need to get an electrical line from my breaker box to a room that was added on. I have no attic or crawl access to the room. I presume it is acceptable to run a conduit outside, attached to the wall and then enter the room from there? I'm talking a run of maybe 30 feet all above ground...

I saw a writeup where a gas furnace was wired with a piece of an extension cord with a plug (properly sized) that was then plugged into an outlet (dedicated circuit). There was only one outlet so only one device could be plugged at a time. This would allow the furnace to be easily switched to...

I currently have a poured concrete patio out my back door (sliding patio door). It is two steps down (24 inches) from the door to the patio. I'd like to build a deck that is at the height of the back door. Several questions. 1. Should the deck be a few inches below door level or level with...

My home is about 55 years old and has poured concrete basement walls. Along the bottom two feet in several spots, the concrete is "peeling" although very slowly. I don't have water getting into the basement and I really don't think there is much moisture pressing on the outside of the walls...

I have an exposed aggregate patio that was poured in sections using what I guess was some sort of wood to be a divider. Over the years the wood has rotted away and I was curious what to use to fill that gap. It appears the wood was a 1 by 4 or something similar.

We had a substantial hail storm a few weeks back and I was curious how to inspect my roof for damage. We have LOTS of storm chasers in town and I don't trust trust anything they say or do. My current roof is about 2.5 years old and is the dimensional shingles. After the storm there was a BIT...

I have a wall safe installed and would like to hang a picture over it to keep it from view. I would like to hinge the frame to swing left to right but I am a little unsure about the type of hinge to use so I can open the frame more than 90 degrees so the frame doesn;t hit the wall.. Using a...