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Polybutylene failures can happen inside the wall or can cause more visible leaks. In this video, Richard Trethewey helps a homeowner replace her polybutylene pipes with PEX. What Can I Use to Replace Polybutylene Pipe? Because polybutylene pipes are no longer to code they need to be replaced by a licensed professional. In the video above, we replaced polybutylene pipes with PEX plumbing pipes. Richard was assisted by Capital Mechanical....

Steps for installing vinyl flooring Tools

Paint: Benjamin Moore’s Sweet Pea (base coat) and Autumn Purple (top coat) Tip To artificially age the kitchen island shown here, decorative painter Ingrid Leess started by priming it, then brushing on a coat of flat lime green. The following day, she applied a thick layer of crackle medium, using a clean brush and taking care not to overwork it and dry it out. She let it dry for an hour (the medium must cure for 1 to 4 hours to work), then used a clean, dry brush to add a coat of purple....

Steps: Cut a repair patch from a flooring remnant. Make it at least four inches wider and longer than the damaged section of flooring. Set the patch over the damaged section, making sure the pattern is aligned. Secure the patch to the floor with painter’s tape. Use trowel as a straightedge guide and cut through both the patch and the flooring below with a utility knife fitted with a brand-new blade....

Steps for prepping an exterior for paint Tools

Since the wall is in good condition, veneer is a great choice to make it look much nicer at a smaller price than just replacing the whole wall. Mark and Jenn work together to prep the wall, apply the stone veneer, and lay a stone cap. Steps for Refacing a Concrete Wall: Resources Mark and Jenn refaced the concrete using a thin stone veneer. The material is Connecticut Fieldstone and was cut in a mosaic pattern for installation....

How a Lock Works Before rekeying a lock, it helps to understand how locks work. The type of lock found on most doorknobs and deadbolts is called a pin and tumbler lock. It contains a cylindrical plug that holds a series of pins and springs. The pins are of varying lengths to allow a specifically cut key shape to insert and turn the lock. For this to work, the length of the pins must match the depth of the grooves in the key....

“How do I patch 100 years of gouges, cracks, and screw holes so the walls look flat and clean when painted?” he asks us in an e-mail. Here, Tom Silva shows how to repair plaster walls to make them look as good as new. Plaster Crack Repair: An Overview The key to any fix is to reunite the plaster with the strips of wood lath underneath. Otherwise the cracks come back, no matter how many times you patch over them....

When removing the baseboard heater cover, you’ll have to be careful not to damage the wall. Then, when putting in the replacement make sure to install everything in the right order. Richard Trethewey walks you through the process and shares helpful tips along the way. How to Replace Baseboard Heater Covers Step by Step Tools and Materials How to Upgrade Baseboard Heating

After this, he aerated the lawn to fight soil compaction and allow water and nutrients to reach the roots. For this step, Roger used a Lawnaire IV Aerator Walk-Behind, also manufactured by Ryan Turf and available to rent from a tool rental shop or home center. Based on the results of a soil test, Roger determined that lime needed to be added to raise the pH of the lawn. Lime can be purchased from a garden center or home center and it can be spread using a broadcast spreader set to the manufacturer’s specifications....

Before you start, however, check to make sure your deck is still in good working order. Take a look underneath it to see if the fasteners and connectors are sound. Examine the wood for any worrisome cracks, rot, or mold growth. Make sure the railing hasn’t come loose and the steps are still sturdy. And if your deck is more than 40 years old, make sure carpenter ants and termites haven’t gotten into it....

Answer: If there’s no evidence of any water outside your toilet, the dripping noise is probably coming from inside the tank. Try this simple test: Turn off the water supply to the tank, hold down the flush lever until the tank is empty, and listen for a drip. Dollars to doughnuts, you won’t hear a thing. There are only two ways for water to drip out of a tank: around the flapper valve or through the overflow tube....

Design Your Own Pully Drying Rack You can find plenty of ready-made options online, or you can follow the lead of Cathy and Garrett Poshusta, who blog at The Grit and Polish, and build your own. Using scrap wood they had on hand, Garrett customized the design to fit their laundry space, using seven 42-inch pieces of cedar screwed to two pieces of steel—which they bent by driving over them (leaving the steel flat works, too)....

What Is the Purpose of a Rain Garden? Cost effective, eco-friendly, and aesthetically pleasing, rain gardens reduce runoff that would otherwise saturate your property, help eliminate contaminants from seeping into surrounding areas and also serve as healthy dwellings for butterflies and birds. Rain gardens allow water to pool during a downpour, then slowly percolate into the soil. The shallow catch basin is a flower-bed destination for water rather than a travel route, like a swale....

In this episode: There is a lot of progress made at the West Roxbury house: the wiring is run, and the rough plumbing is in. Outside, it’s time to work on the front porch. Kevin O’Connor meets up with homeowner and architect Derek, who shows him a plan to use a wood called Ipe for the porch ceiling and the decking. Kevin and Deliandro cut and install the Ipe together. Kevin uses this time to get to know Deliandro, asking how he became a general contractor, where he grew up, and why he loves what he does....

Seven years ago, when she first glimpsed the bright-blue Folk Victorian in South Atlanta, Kysha Hehn walked away in something of a trance. Built in the 1890s, the house had been unoccupied for decades and had fallen into disrepair, but Kysha couldn’t shake the feeling that it was special. “There was something about the house,” she says. “I wondered about its past.” Kysha and her husband, Jonathan, along with their two children, Alivia Sage, now 12, and Joia, 10, soon learned that the house was significant to South Atlanta, a neighborhood central to the city’s elite Black community at the turn of the last century....

Best Plug-In: Air Wick Plug-In Scented Oil Best For Bathrooms: Poo-Pourri Before-You-Go Toilet Spray Best For Linens: Caldrea Linen and Room Spray Air Freshener Best For Cars: Febreze Car Air Fresheners Best Gel: Fresh Wave Odor-Removing Gel Best Plug-In: Air Wick Plug-In Scented Oil Pros and Cons ✔ Comes in a pack of 10✔ Available in a range of scents ✔ Pairs with Air Wick’s oil warmers, which feature five fragrance control levels ✘ Sold separately from Air Wick oil warmers✘ Large rooms may require multiple plug-ins...