Do it yourself hardwood floors is now easier than ever due to the staple down technique. This technique is fast and requires little cure time.

In fact, this technique of laying hardwood floors is followed by only about one day to complete. At that time you can move all of your furniture in and proceed with life. With older techniques, you may be inconvenienced for more than a week.

Also, using this technique, will allow you to install solid wood floor panels rather than manufactured floor panels. These solid hardwoods are thicker and tolerate more abuse.

Tools

In practice, using staples for laying hardwood floors is not all that much different than using nails. You can use mostly the same tools to perform either task. The obvious difference being that you’ll need staples and a stapler instead of a nails and a nailer. Here is a list of the main tools you’ll need for this technique:

Staples – You need some sturdy staples so that you can firmly attach your hardwood panels to the wall and foundation.

Stapler – You need to have a good, sturdy staple gun to make driving the staples as easy as possible.

Carpenter’s Crayon – You need to mark guidelines for where you’ll fit each of the hardwood panels together. You’ll also need to mark the floor panels up so you will know where and how to cut them to fit the angles and objects of the room where the floor is being laid.

Cutter Knife – This is a sturdy, sharp knife that has the special ability to be able to cut off small chunks that need to be cut as you go when the measurements are off by just millimeters.

Rubber Mallet – You will most likely have to pound things to one side or another as well as pounding grooves together as you are laying the hardwood floors. Just don’t get carried away and pound on things too hard.

Saw – You will use this to cut up your panels where you have marked them with the carpenter’s crayon.

Claw – When you’re backed into a wall, sometimes the only way you can get a grip on the sides of the panels to pull them is with your claw.

Broom and Dust Pan – You’ll find yourself cleaning up saw dust, splinters, and chunks of wood often during this job.

Preparing the Surface

When laying hardwood floors, you’ll want to prepare your surface area well, as whatever flaws you leave there will be there for the duration of your floor. The last thing you want to do is install them without a proper, flat surface to support the wood. Any lumps or holes under the wood could cause damage and will cause squeaking floor panels

One of the things you can do to prepare the surface for laying hardwood floors is to scrape off any residues or lumps on the surface. Also, you should patch up any holes in the surface.

Next, you will need to do a good surface cleaning. Sweep the floor and get out all of the dust. More importantly, make sure no chunks of wood, splinters of wood, or pebbles are on the surface.

It may be helpful to compensate for any uneven surfaces by ensuring that your first row of floor panels are the sturdiest of the lot. These will help anchor the rest of the panels. If these are not made of good wood, your whole floor will have problems.

Step by Step Instructions

1. Start by positioning your floor liner on the place where you’re going to begin laying your hardwood floor. You can do this each time you lay down another piece of floor board, or you can start by laying the whole thing out for the entire room before laying them.

2. Lay your first hardwood panel in the corner. The grooved edges should point towards the wall. It is best if your initial corner has straight edges and no objects to have to work around. When you’re sure it is where you want it, get it fixed in place.

3. Fix your next hardwood panel to the first one by gently hitting the end of it into the connecting joint. The two boards should fit together nicely and create a smooth surface. You should not have a gap between panels. Also, you should not have the panels overlapping each other. If you hit the panel to hard, it could bust and/or the original panel could bust.

4. Staple the panels in place. Do not place the staples within one inch of the edges of the panels or you may create a crack down any edge of the panels. The panels should be very well affixed in place when you’re done.

5. Repeat steps three and four until you get to the next corner.

6. Cut the panel for this next corner carefully so that it will fit in perfectly to the corner.

7. Start your next row of panels using the leftover piece from the panel cut in step six.

8. As you add more panels to your row, you will now have to pay special attention to pound the panels together both to their current row and to the panels beside them from the last row. Remember not to hit the panels too hard with the rubber mallet.

9. When you start running into parts of your floor where there may be modifications to the shapes of your panels required, lay the panel in place as much as possible. Then mark around the exact areas where you need to cut your panels to avoid the obstacle, but still hug the obstacle as tightly as possible with the panels. Cut your panel tightly around the object. If you can’t quite fit the panel down, use the cutter knife to shave off the excess wood.

10. Continue to repeat all of these steps until your new hardwood floor has been completely laid.

Tips

-In addition to making sure that you do not staple too close to the edges of the panels, make sure you don’t drive your staples too deeply into the surface of the floor. When dug too deep, they will pull areas of your nicely finished surface down. It could also cause the floor to break the staples through at a later time when there are pressures on the floor.

-As you complete each row, recheck the row to make sure there are no small gaps at the connecting joints. These will not only look bad later and cause instability in the connection, but they create gaps under the wood as well which can cause bubbling in the floor. This can result in creaking sounds whenever you walk on the floor. If you notice a row is not well fastened in any place, gently use your mallet to push all of the gaps together before laying another row.

-Before starting each successive row after the second row is complete, first walk around on the row you just completed to test it for stability. If it squeaks, something isn’t right. It’s a lot easier to go back and correct the problem now than when you finish the floor!

Clean Up

You only want to get rid of the sawdust at this point. Ignore any advice to use a wet rag or mop. Give your floor some time to settle before you start applying water. The water will make the wood swell and it could pop out of place and even warp if it gets too wet before it has settled into place.

The exception to the water advice is if you deviated from the instructions here and used adhesives to connect joints, you will need a damp towel to rub off any excess glue before it can harden on the surface. Just be very careful not to have your floor get any more wet than necessary.

As for cleaning up the saw dust, your broom and dust pan will do just fine. If there is still some dust or debris stuck in hard to reach corners, you can get this out using a vacuum with a hose attachment. Once you’ve completed cleanup and waited a day for your floors to settle, you’ve completed the staple down technique for laying hardwood floors.

Niv Orlian is an experienced Home Improvement Adviser who writes articles for his Flooring & Carpet Cleaning online guides.

Visit myflooringhelper.com to learn more about Laying Hardwood Floors

Shower pan liner installation if done properly will produce a shower that will be trouble free for decades. Get it wrong and your bathroom is a nightmare. So what makes a successful installation?

The real key to shower pan installation is to build a waterproof floor that moves water rapidly to the drain with no leaks. Also the floor must be sealed properly to the walls. Oddly enough, ceramic tile floors are not waterproof. The grout and some tiles are not waterproof at all. Water goes right through grout. So the key to a waterproof shower floor is a waterproof liner under the ceramic tile.

Another option for a tile floor is a fiberglass shower pan or the more expensive acrylic pan. These pans are waterproof as long as the coating is not broken. If the gel coat is cracked some of these pans can leak too.

The traditional method of ceramic shower floor construction is masonry work. A layer of masonry, like concrete is poured in over a sturdy floor and sloped to a special shower drain. The shower drain has two layers of drain holes. Over the base concrete layer a waterproof vinyl sheet is fitted and glued to the drain base to make a waterproof layer. This layer is key to the shower pan. The lower drain holes are now in position to catch any water that makes it to the waterproof liner.

Now gravels are put in the drain holes to keep them open. Then the top masonry layer is poured and sloped to the drain. Finally the tile is set and grouted to finish the floor.

An often overlooked part of shower maintenance is sealing the grout. Sealing the grout is not required, but it does keep water out of the grout. Constant soaking and drying of the grout can cause failure of the grout over time. Also another maintenance tip is to check regularly the seal between the walls and the floor. Most tile setters will caulk this joint to make sure no leaks start there. Make sure this joint between the shower floor and shower walls stays in good shape.

Another class of shower pan liner is the tile ready liner. There are several companies that make complete systems to waterproof showers ready for installation of ceramic tiles. Some systems include the walls, ceilings and floors. Some just address the floors. Look at one of these systems as an alternative to the traditional showers. The tile ready systems are faster than a traditional construction shower but usually more expensive. Suppliers of these systems are Tile Redi, Schluter and Wedi.

Puzzled about shower pan liner installation? Need more information?

We invite you to visit http://www.installingceramictile.net/showerpan for answers to your shower liner questions.

It’s a typical scenario you’re sitting down stairs watching the TV or reading a book, and then you hear a loud bag from upstairs. Startled, you run upstairs to see what is going on, and you see your kid’s leg, arm or head sticking from the wall. After all the dust clears, you make sure that everyone is alright, and the proper punishments are divvied out, it’s time to fix the gaping hole that is left in your wall.

Now depending on the size of the hole that is in the drywall. depends on how it is going to be fixed. If you have a small door handle size hole it’s going to be easier to do it one way (which ill explain later). But if you have a larger hole it might be easier to install a large new piece of drywall that runs from one stud to another. I’ll explain that also.

Now with a smaller hole First we need to cut out the fragments that are hanging all over the place. We will do this with a drywall saw and a utility knife. Then once we have a nice clean area to work with, we want to take off about 1/2inch to 1 inch strip of paper off the drywall so that it looks like torn cardboard. Then we want to cut a piece of drywall that is slightly larger than the hole that is going to be fixed. Then start to carve away at the back side of the piece until the piece fits the opening and the paper is left. This piece is called a “patch hat”.

Now put drywall mud on the edges of the patch hat and place it in the hole. Then once in place apply a coat of mud over the patch, let dry. Once dry, chip off any chunks and sand smooth, and then mud once again. Let that dry, and do the same thing. Do this until the patch is nice and smooth and ready to be painted.

That’s how to repair a small hole in drywall. Now to fix a larger hole it’s basically the same thing except that we are going to want to cut out the hole entirely. Take the drywall saw and cut till you hit a stud, now measure to the mark and minus ¾ of an inch so that you will be half on the stud. Make two marks and snap a line, or with a flat edge draw a line through the two marks, that’s the line you want to cut. Now that you have that done we want to use the saw to cut to the stud on the other side of the hole. Take a measurement from the same place that you did for the other mark and add ¾ of an inch to it. That will get you half on the other stud. Make two marks a draw a line through it. With a framing square, use the line to make a square line at the top and at the bottom of the hole. You should have a square hole now. Now you want to cut out the piece that you have marked. Measure the hole that you have and cut a piece to fit in it. Once cut place the piece in the hole and nail to two edges where the studs are with some drywall nail. Then mud it like in the other example and you are all set. These are some examples of how to repair a hole in your wall.

drywall

I went into my local garden centre recently to find that the whole place have been completely re-vamped and a massive area dedicated to barbecues and smokers. What did this tell me?……..Two things:-

1. Barbecue grills and outdoor smokers continue to become more popular recreational equipment.
2. There’s money to be made!

Let’s face it; the smartest “in your face” displays have got to be for the products that carry the biggest margins, right? Having spoken to the manager I think maybe it’s the accessories where a killing can be made but whatever the case, you can quite easily spend a serious amount of cash on a new barbecue grill and that will be completely wasted money if you buy the wrong thing.

Consider the situation twenty odd years ago before modern manufacturing techniques, globalisation and low cost country sourcing, the situation was even worse for someone with no income and lots of leisure time (you guessed it, I was a student!). CD’s had just appeared on the music shelves (a big drain on cash compared to vinyl), I don’t think the word download was in our vocabulary and certainly the thought of getting free barbecue recipes off the internet could be nothing more than a dream.

I was doing what students do best – having one long party! But the opportunity to have a barbecue party was nil because we simply couldn’t afford to buy a barbecue, and to a confirmed outdoor cooking enthusiast. It was at this point that I decided to build my homemade brick barbecue out of 16 second hand bricks and two cake cooling trays.

Not only is this a great low cost introduction to charcoal barbecue grills it’s also a wonderfully portable system too. Simply lay 8 bricks on the ground in two rows of four to make a square. On two sides place 2 bricks (on their sides) and place another 2 bricks on top so that in cross section you’ve now got a U shape. Throw the charcoal on the brick base a span two cake cooling grids across the top and there you have it.

The cake cooling trays are really cheap in the supermarket and (as a true student has to) the bricks were acquired one night from a local housing development. So with the barbecue complete, how did I get hold of some good free BBQ recipes?
Well that’s where it all started to fall apart and a process of enthusiastic trial and error began. I’m pleased to say that those early formative years have paid off handsomely; all my friends still love my outdoor cooking and so much so that BBQ smoker recipes.com was born to document mine and my friends’ tasty creations.

If you do give the low cost barbecue a try, notice how the bricks heat up and create an “all round” heat. Not only is it cheap, it’s actually very effective too!

Mobile home roofing is home construction convenience wherein the roofs are pre-cast before installation. This makes it easy to set on the house, saving the homebuilders time in connecting one roofing material to the other. Using a circular-knit rubber membrane that fits your roof, the mobile home roofing method is one easy system that gives home owners a shorter time to anticipate a finished job.

Components of Mobile Home Roofing

Mobile Home Roofing emerged in the US during the 1960’s and has been used for over forty years in the West. The key element in Mobile Roofing is EPDM, or “ethylene propylene diene monomer”, rubber which is 45 mil compacted and preformed and cut to fit the roof in a single job.

The material of mobile roofing is resistant to impact, puncture and tear. It is made to stand very hot and cold temperatures, as it builds motion and thermal shock. It also lessens noises in roofs caused by the wind, which gives a relaxing ambiance for families to comfortably rest. White Elastomeric Roof, Peal and Seal, Kool Seal Aluminum Roof, Brewer Cote Plastic Roof, Stone Patch Flexx Sealer are just among the many samples of mobile roofing styles.

After problems with leaks in mobile home roofing materials in 1978, a new type of system was invented by Bob May, which includes insulating the material then rolling out the sheet with the roof membrane. This allowed the roof to be automatically attached into the deck which guarantees the membrane to be fixed around the edges. Such a membrane radiates 78 percent of the heat of the sun, which helps warm up cold areas.

Cost Worthy

Not only is mobile home roofing worthy of a purchase, it is also cost-effective since it usually comes in a complete package. These mobile roofs can also last for twenty years or more with no special instruments used during installation. The set up of mobile home roofing can done by the local handyman or by the home owners themselves.

Also, with the help of roofing calculators, ordering for a desired roof size is made easy and less time-consuming. More conveniently mobile home roofing can be bought online.

Some websites even accept orders with customized appearances, making the roofs more attuned to the owner’s taste. And if there is a problem on the roof ordered, calling for help is easier because mobile home roofing materials also come with warranties. With this system, everyone can definitely have their own houses without having to wait too long and, yet, be assured that they have sturdy roofs over their heads for a lifetime.

Our house is quite new – we moved in during the summer of 2003, and since we had the house built during the year preceding that, the garden was a disaster area in the beginning. We knew we wanted a deck of some kind along the length of the house (with access from the living room), but didn’t quite know what kind. After having paved a barbecue area with rocks we retrieved from the property, we decided the deck would be far too big for that kind of a project, and opted for wood. The area is at ground level, and didn’t require being attached to the house in any way, so I said – OK, I’ll do it.

Hubby was very doubtful, but we women can be persuasive, so early this spring, I went to it.

We had prepared the ground by leveling it with gravel, so the size was decided upon (3,5 x 15 meters), and the materials were purchased. 2′x4′ for the foundation, and ordinary, treated terrace boards for the actual deck. Also, I needed 2′X6′ for steps.

Tools are paramount. I would never have considered getting into a project like this without a proper saw – you know, the kind you can swivel and turn so it cuts the wood into any angle you choose. A level is a great help, and a right angle too. So is a rechargeable drill – a marvelous gadget!

Since I really knew nothing of carpentry, I had to work out for myself how to do everything, but I found that the scraps I remembered from my geometry lessons in school helped a lot. I now know why they teach kids that stuff… I spent quite some time planning the whole process, and had it pretty well worked out by the time I began.

I started by making a frame with the 2′x4′. The frame went all around the projected size of the deck, and provided support for the next part of the plan – 2′x4′ beams inside the frame, distanced at 60 centimeters. These were to provide support for the boards, that were to be screwed on to the beams. Why 60 cms? I found (on the Internet!) that this is the ideal distance between beams supporting the boards I’d chosen. 28 millimeters thick boards can take a span of 60 cms.
Once the beams were distanced correctly, I screwed the whole frame together at fairly right angles, and was ready for the next step.

I needed two steps from the deck to the terrace doors, and I didn’t want them to be too small – I wanted to be able to sit on them, and I wanted them to be deep enough, so that anyone coming out of the doors with a heavy tray wouldn’t stumble headlong into the scenery.
So, before starting with the actual deck, I needed to have the foundation ready for the steps – so that it would provide support both for the bottom and the top one. Two more frames were made, corresponding with the terrace doors, complete with support for the beams I was going to need to support the steps in two levels. I used far too much wood, as it turned out!

Onwards with the deck – the boards were cut to fit onto the beams, with two screws anywhere it crossed a beam, and 4 screws anywhere one board met another one on a support beam. I used those little distance crosses that are used for laying tiles to keep a constant distance between boards. The steps were made once I reached them with my boards – 2′x6′ for the frame and beams, and boards to cover the steps. Two levels, and it turned out beautifully!

A month later (yes – with 6 kids, plenty of beasts and varying weather conditions, it did take me a month!), I had completed the terrace deck, and gained enough confidence to build a table for 12 to go with it…

Surrounded by big rocks collected on the property, loads of flowers and with a lovely view of the rolling countryside, we’ve enjoyed it immensely this summer, as we hopefully will in years to come.

I’m proud that I pulled it off, but most of all, I now believe even more firmly that: “You don’t know what you can’t do until you’ve tried!”