Home Improvement Blog Improving Your Home And Your Life

It's time or a giveaway here at Home Construction Improvement. The publishers of Confessions of a Contractor have sent me a copies of this novel to give away to my readers. This book goes on sale on August 14th so they would like to get the word out about it. Here's a snippet about the book:

Meet Henry Sullivan - smart, successful, good with his hands, and perenially unattached. He's spent fifteen years renovating houses for wealthy (and often beautiful) women in Los Angeles. To distance himself from his clients and the intimate environments he works in, Henry has devised a set of rules to keep him out of trouble. But over the course of one very complicated summer, Henry begins breaking those rules...

So if you'd like a copy of this book I'll be giving a few away and the rules are really simple. I'm looking to increase my "social" circle of friends to stay in touch with about upcoming posts and news. So in an effort to do that all you need to do is add one of my social media profiles to your list of friends. Then leave a comment with which social media site you added me to and what your profile name is. I'll choose several people by random draw to receive the free book.

You can follow me at the following locations:
Plurk
Twitter
Digg
StumbleUpon

This giveaway will run until the end of August. I'll choose winners on September 1st. If you already follow one of my social profiles then just leave a comment with your profile so I can check it. Good luck!

Tags: Home Improvement, Home Improvement Blog, Home Improvement Giveaway
Subscribers to Home Construction Improvement can download my free spreadsheets. You can download the Propane Vs Oil Fuel Calculator or the Stair Stringer Calculator for free. Also visit me at Today's Green Construction

Today Jacky emailed me with a very interesting question and design idea about modifying salvaged doors. Jacky said "We live in 1940 house, and are remodeling our unfinished half-lit basement. Currently we are in search of interior door w/small glass for our new 2nd bathroom. Since the bathroom has a big window, would like to use some of sun light thru its entrance door's glass panel to the dark hallway area. We have found a couple of salvaged doors we love, but they are solid hemlock/fir doors without glass. Now we are wondering if we could cut the top panel out and install a reed glass instead. I know we could just order brand new one like that, but it will cost $400/door, it's outside our budget.

Well I've never done this but I have seen it done a few times and it's a great way to recycle / salvage a great solid wood door and give it new life and some added functionality. Solid wood doors are very expansive and honestly aren't as good as the older doors. This modification will work well because the doors back then were indeed made out of solid wood and built with craftsmanship.

The process is actually pretty simple. First you'll need to remove the wood panel that will serve as the window pane. This can be done several ways. Probably the best two ways that I can think of are to use either a circular saw or a router with a straight cutting bit. If you're going to use a router you could make a simple jig to clamp to the door that would ensure you cut the exact size you want. The key here is to make sure you don't cut too far into the corners. With both methods you'll need to finish the corner cuts with a handsaw in order to get nice clean corners.

Once you cut out the panel you'll want to sand the edges and treat the raw wood with either paint or urethane in order to protect the wood from rot. Next you'll need a piece of glass thats slightly smaller than the window opening. I suggest making the glass approximately 1/4" smaller in height and width to accommodate thermal movement in the wood. It's important to note that most codes require tempered glass in doors. You may even want to purchase an insulated piece of glass (this could be quite expensive for a custom size).

In order to hold the piece of glass in place you'll need to use some decorative moldings. The moldings will need to be sized based on the thickness of the door. For instance, if you have a 2" thick door with a piece of glass that's 1/8" thick, you'll need the moldings to be no greater than 7/8" thick. You'll also want to try and find a wood species thats similar to the native door species.

Nail the decorative trim into the opening on the outside of the door (you're creating a sandwich effect, wood stop - glass - wood stop). You want to make sure that the molding is positioned so that when you insert the glass it's centered in the door. Next apply a bead of silicon caulking around the inside of the molding. Set the glass inside the opening up against the first row of molding. Apply another bead of silicone caulking around the edge of the glass. Finally install the inside layer of molding up against the glass panel to complete the sandwich.

Once you've finished installing the glass you can apply a finish to the door to match it's existing finish or you can re-finish the entire door. I hope this explanation offers sufficient information for you to try this interested door conversion.

Have any of you tried this? Do you have any before and after pictures? Email them to me and I can post them for others to see.

Tags: Home Improvement, Home Improvement Blog, Wood Doors
Subscribers to Home Construction Improvement can download my free spreadsheets. You can download the Propane Vs Oil Fuel Calculator or the Stair Stringer Calculator for free. Also visit me at Today's Green Construction

This week's mail bag question comes from Thea in Maine. He has radiant heat tubing stapled to the bottom of the plywood sub-floor in his house and the insulation that was installed by the builder is falling down and doesn't appear to be installed properly. Thea asked me what method I recommend for radiant tubing that's stapled to the bottom side of the sub-floor.

First let me start by saying I'm not an expert in radiant heat. I can only share my experiences with it in homes that we've built and my own personal home.

Thea explained that the insulation in his home was stapled up tight against the sub-floor. He was also concerned that there wasn't any type of reflective surface (foil faced or an independent foil product) installed below the radiant tubing.

My home was built with radiant tubing stapled to the bottom side of the 3/4" plywood sub-floor. I have 1/2" thick engineered Brazilian Cherry flooring installed above that. The floor joists are 11 7/8" deep TJI engineered I-beam joists. I have R19 fiberglass kraft faced insulation stapled to the bottom of the joists. This creates an air space of approximately 6" between the tubing and the fiberglass insulation.

I can tell you that my radiant heating system works extremely well. I have no "hot" spots that we've identified over the course of two winters. Our heating bill has been very reasonable. And I'd rate the overall performance as excellent. In fact, I wouldn't change anything with regards to the radiant heat.

Here are my thoughts on insulating a sub-floor with radiant tubing:

1. I really don't think a reflective surface will do much of anything. I can see however why some folks might want to use an aluminum heat transfer plate. The reason would be to evenly distribute the heat to prevent hot spots. I haven't had any problems so again this may be a case by case issue.

2. For me the issue seems fairly straight forward. Heat (or cold) will travel the path of least resistance. Thermal resistance is measured with R values. I installed R19 insulation below the radiant tubing. Wood has an R value of between 0.7 and 1.2 per inch. If we have 2 inches of wood, that would be a maximum of 2.4, call it 3. So it's quite clear to me that it's easier for the heat to travel up through the wood than it is to travel down (which heat doesn't do naturally) and through R19 of insulation.

3. Probably just as important is to discuss this issue with your builder, HVAC contractor and friends and family with a similar system. Finding the right combination is the key, each HVAC contractor should have a combination of factors that works well for them. Ask lots of questions and you should be ok.

On a side note, if you're interested in learning more about electric radiant heat, check out How To Attach Radiant Heat Wires To Concrete.

Tags: Home Improvement, Home Improvement Blog, Radiant Heat
Subscribers to Home Construction Improvement can download my free spreadsheets. You can download the Propane Vs Oil Fuel Calculator or the Stair Stringer Calculator for free. Also visit me at Today's Green Construction

Connecting your propane grill to your house propane supply is a great way to ensure you can cook dinner anytime without running out of gas. This can be a fairly straight forward home improvement project if you have an accessible gas line near the grill.

In my case I had the plumbers run a gas line outside just under the deck when we built the house. They ran the gas line outside and left it with a shut-off valve so that I could connect it to my grill.

First off I want to caution you not to mess around with your gas lines if you're not 100% sure what you're doing. Also, you should check with your local code officials before you start a project similar to this. In this post I'm only showing you how to run a flexible gas line from the shut-off valve to the grill.

The first step is to remove the old regulator and supply line on your propane grill. The hose running from the propane tank on my grill has a regulator attached to it and then it connects to the bottom of the grill as you can see in this photo. I'll be completely removing the regulator because I'm attaching the grill to the house propane supply which already has a regulator on it to drop the pressure.

As you can see I've completely removed the grill regulator and I'll keep it in case I need to take the grill some place and hook it up to a portable propane tank. Take a close look at the fitting used to attach the regulator hose to the grill because you'll need the same fitting on your new gas line.




I went to my local propane supplier and had them make me a 12 foot long rubber gas line. They supplied me with the fittings I needed to attach the gas line to the grill and the shut-off valve below the deck. I'm not experienced with gas lines so I decided to have them make the gas line. As you can see in the next photo I've attached the new gas line to the same location that the old one was connected to on the grill.

Next I drilled a hole in the deck, fed the gas line down below the deck and secured it to the framing with brackets. I ran the new gas line all the way back to the existing gas shut-off valve. I connected the fittings and made sure all of it was nice and tight.

Finally I turned on the gas, tested the fittings for leaks with a soapy water solution. The grill works great and now we never have to worry about running out of gas right in the middle or preparing dinner or having a party.


Tags: Home Improvement, Home Improvement Blog, Propane Gas Grill

Subscribers to Home Construction Improvement can download my free spreadsheets. You can download the Propane Vs Oil Fuel Calculator or the Stair Stringer Calculator for free. Also visit me at Today's Green Construction

In this post I'd like to show you how to cut dados using a router. More specifically this method is very useful for cutting dados in the sides of a book case. It would be very difficult to cut these dados using a stacked dado in the table saw because the piece is so long.

A while back I wrote a post about how to build a dado cutting jig for your router. I finally built the jig today so I could cut all the dados in the book case sides. You can make one of these jigs using any scrap plywood you have laying around. I ended up using some 3/4" birch plywood that was left over from some cabinet shelves.

Basically you want to build a U-shaped frame that's slightly wider than the book case. For me my book case is 12" wide so I made the jig 12 1/8" wide. As you can see in the pictures three of the pieces are permanently screwed together. The fourth piece is held in place with 1/4" carriage bolts, washers and wingnuts. The key to this jig is to make sure that the two side pieces are VERY square to the third side when you screw them together. If the sides are not square you'll never be able to cut perpendicular dados in the work piece. I used a countersink pilot drill so that the permanent screws are all recessed below the surface.

I created two slots in the side pieces. The slots allow you to adjust the fourth piece for different width dados. Once you build the jig you'll need to set it up for the dado you need to cut. The nice thing about this jig is you can cut a dado the exact width you want. Most plywood is not exactly the thickness that you call it. For instance, 3/4" plywood is actually 23/32". So if you want a nice tight fit on the slots you need to cut 23/32" wide dados not 3/4".

With this router guide it's really easy. Measure the width of the router base. My router base happens to be 6 3/4" in diameter. I'm going to use a 1/2" straight cutting router bit. So I take the 6.75" - 0.5" = 6.25" (This is the spacer block you'll need). Cut a spacer block and set it in the jig. Now take a piece of the plywood you're trying to match and set it in the jig as well. Pull the fourth piece tight against the spacer and plywood, tighten the wingnuts and remove all the spacers. You now have a router guide set up to cut a perfectly sized 23/32" wide dado.

It's as simple as that. Stay tuned for a future post on building the book case.

Tags: Home Improvement, Home Improvement Blog, Router Guide

Subscribers to Home Construction Improvement can download my free spreadsheets. You can download the Propane Vs Oil Fuel Calculator or the Stair Stringer Calculator for free. Also visit me at Today's Green Construction

I've had several people suggest that I collect reader questions about home improvement projects and write a regular post answering the questions. This Old House does the same type of thing for it's readers, the only difference here is you have a very good chance of me posting an answer (until the site becomes famous, ha ha).

Do you have a home improvement question? Do you have a construction situation that has left you perplexed? Would you like some landscaping advice? Not sure what tool you need for a certain carpentry task? If you have any kind of home improvement question then send me an email with your problem and I'll choose a question each week to answer.

For this to work I'd like you to send me as much information as possible. Send me a written description of your question along with any photos, diagrams or graphics that will help me understand the problem better. If you happen to have a blog that you write about your home improvement projects on, send along the URL and I'd be glad to link to it in the response if your question is chosen.

So start sending me your home improvement questions. I'll do my best to answer them or help you find the answer. So don't be shy, no question is too simple or difficult.

Tags: Home Improvement, Home Improvement Blog, Home Improvement Mail BagSubscribers to Home Construction Improvement can download my free spreadsheets. You can download the Propane Vs Oil Fuel Calculator or the Stair Stringer Calculator for free. Also visit me at Today's Green Construction

Today's post is an answer from a reader about how to easily repair a scratch on hardwood floors.

If you actually live in your home then theres no way to avoid scratching hardwood floors. My wife reminds me daily that we have to live in our house not sit back and admire it. So, kids, pets, parties and life in general cause us to scratch and abuse our beautiful hardwood floors.

I've found a very easy method for repairing (masking) those ugly scratches. This method is a temporary fix until the day when you refinish your hardwood floors. Go to the hardware store and buy a couple of Minwax Stain Markers in the two closest colors you can find. These markers have a stain and urethane mixture that you can apply to the scratch to help hide it from plain site.

First you'll want to make sure the scratch is clean from dust and debris. Next shake the marker well to mix the stain and urethane well. Apply the stain liberally to the scratch. Now heres the important step: use a clean rag to remove any excess stain before it dries. This helps keep any stain from discoloring the adjacent wood and keep it only on the scratch. You may need to try several colors before you find one that works best for your floor. The nice thing with this approach is even if the color isn't a perfect match, you'll find that a colored scratch typically resembles wood grain and not a scratch anymore.

This method will hold you over until you refinish the wood floors in the future. I keep several of these pens around the house to touch up the floors and even scratches in the cabinets and on furniture! Do you have a tip for fixing scratches?

Tags: Home Improvement, Home Improvement Blog, Fixing Scratched Wood Floors
Subscribers to Home Construction Improvement can download my free spreadsheets. You can download the Propane Vs Oil Fuel Calculator or the Stair Stringer Calculator for free. Also visit me at Today's Green Construction

The first mantel that I ever built was a colonial style mantel with a slate surround and hearth. The photo shows the mantel and surround that I built in our first home. I really wish I kept photos of the fire place before this project so you could see the dramatic change.

The previous fire place had a serious 70's look to it. The fire place surround and hearth were a dreadful looking off white architectural brick that looked like something from the Brady Bunch house. The brick went from floor to ceiling and the hearth was approximately the same size as the new one.

I framed a surround around the upper portion of the brick chimney and covered it with drywall. Then I built the mantel as you see it in the photo. I used techniques similar to the ones I used when I built our latest custom mantel. All of the wood used was pine and poplar and I glued and biscuited all the joints.

Once the mantel was done I applied slate tiles directly to the existing brick. I used thin set and tiled the surround like any other tile project. This project highlights the fact that you can really change the appearance of an existing fire place and surround. This was a fairly complicated project but certainly one that someone with moderate home improvement skills could tackle. Just make sure you follow all local codes with respect to fire place surrounds, combustible material requirements, etc.

Tags: Home Improvement, Home Improvement Blog, Custom Mantel
Subscribers to Home Construction Improvement can download my free spreadsheets. You can download the Propane Vs Oil Fuel Calculator or the Stair Stringer Calculator for free. Also visit me at Today's Green Construction

If you're getting ready to build a new home then you should be planning a future bathroom before you begin construction. Today more than ever people are building living space in their basements to increase the available living space and value of their home. Having a basement bathroom is a huge bonus for the functionality of finished basements.

If you have even the slightest interest in a future basement bathroom then speak with your builder before construction begins. Whether you will build your home on a site with sewer or a septic system it's crucial to plan that bathroom ahead of time and rough in the plumbing. This is true even if you'll need to pump the sewage up in elevation if your basement is lower than the sewer lines.

I suggest to all of our customers that they rough-in plumbing for a vanity, toilet and shower. The last thing you want to do is jack hammer out concrete in the future to install the drain lines. In the adjacent photo you can see the vanity waste and vents for our future basement bathroom. Prior to construction I created a drawing showing the exact layout of a bathroom. This allowed the plumber to install the drain lines exactly where they will need to be in the future when I frame the walls.

In the second photo you can see a vent line (next to the insulation) and a square piece of blue board insulation. Under the blue board is the future shower drain. Typically we leave a boxed out section of concrete so the plumber can adjust the drain to fit exactly where the shower ends up.

This whole process probably only cost a few hundred dollars to do during construction. If I hadn't done this, and wanted a future basement bathroom then I would need to jack hammer up the concrete to expose the sewer line, obviously MUCH more expensive than the few hundred dollars.

So make sure you plan any future basement bathrooms before you build your new home. This will certainly save you some money in the future.

Tags: Home Improvement, Home Improvement Blog
Subscribers to Home Construction Improvement can download my free spreadsheets. You can download the Propane Vs Oil Fuel Calculator or the Stair Stringer Calculator for free. Also visit me at Today's Green Construction

We have child proofed a couple of doors in our house by simply reversing the privacy lock sets. In particular we have used this method on the door leading to our basement stairs and the utility room in the basement. This is a really simple method to child proof doors without having bulky door knob protectors.

As you can see in the photo I've taken a simple privacy lock set (like you'd use on a bathroom or bedroom) and reversed it. I've placed the push button lock in the stairwell to the basement. I really have no need to secure the basement side of the door because there are deadbolts lock sets on the basement exterior doors.

We just keep one of the safety lock pins sitting on top of the door casing out of the kids reach. The safety pin comes with the door knob sets and it allows you to release the lock. Once the kids are old enough I'll probably reverse the lock set again so that the door secures from the living space side instead of the stairwell. We also used this method to secure the door from the basement into the utility room (furnace and electric).

So if you've got little ones you'd like to keep out of certain closets or rooms you can use a privacy lock to accomplish that.

Tags: Home Improvement, Home Improvement Blog
Subscribers to Home Construction Improvement can download my free spreadsheets. You can download the Propane Vs Oil Fuel Calculator or the Stair Stringer Calculator for free. Also visit me at Today's Green Construction

Do you know how to use a Swanson Speed Square? I'm sure you've seen a speed square before, most every carpenter you run into has one hanging from their tool belt. Learning how to use a speed square is a very valuable carpentry skill.

Most people use speed squares as a perpendicular cross-cutting guide for circular saws. This simple square allows you to cut nice square cuts with a circular saw each time. But a speed square is much more useful than that!

If you look closely at a speed square you'll see all kinds of numbered scales on it. There is a short scale on each of the both perpendicular faces that are handy for laying out wall plates and other tasks. However, the most useful scales are the ones used for cutting rafters. There are two scales, one for cutting common rafters and one for cutting hips and valleys.

I'll show you a simple example of cutting a common rafter with the adjacent photo. Let's assume we're cutting rafters for a 6:12 pitch roof (6 being the rise and 12 being the run).

Step 1 - Set the pivot point at the tip of the rafter with the guide tight against the wood.

Step 2 - Rotate the speed square about that point until the pitch (6 for our example) is lined up with the edge of the rafter as indicated with the arrow labeled pitch.

Step 3 - Draw a line along the line indicated as the cut line. Now just cut your rafter. This method will give you a plumb cut for the top of the rafter and the tail of the rafter.

It's as simple as that. If you want to cut hip or valley rafters the method is the same you just use the other scale. So next time you need to cut some rafters give your speed square a try. It's certainly much quicker and easier than pulling out the calculator!

Tags: Home Improvement, Home Improvement Blog, Swanson Speed Square
Subscribers to Home Construction Improvement can download my free spreadsheets. You can download the Propane Vs Oil Fuel Calculator or the Stair Stringer Calculator for free. Also visit me at Today's Green Construction

If you own a table saw you should buy yourself a mobile base for it. I purchased a Delta Table Saw Mobile Base several years ago and I can't imagine owning a table saw without it. There are numerous table saw mobile bases available on the market. Most of them are universal designs that allow you to use them with most table saw manufacturers.

I own a Delta Contractor's Series Table Saw so I decided to purchase a Delta Table Saw Mobile Base to go with it. The mobile base allows you to sit the table saw directly onto the frame or mount a platform to support the table saw. I chose to build a wooden frame to support the saw so that it could also support my dust collection bag and keep sawdust from falling down around the wheels.

As you can see in the photo I built a simple wood platform and attached it to the table saw mobile base. I installed wood cleats at the corners of the platform to keep the saw from moving.

This particular Delta table saw mobile base has two roller style wheels in the front and a larger third wheel attached to a pivot bar on the back. The pivot bar allows you to lift up the saw so you can push it around. When you let the pivot bar down the back of the frame sits on rubber stands which keep the saw from moving. This frame is very steady and when the pivot wheel isn't lifted up for movement the mobile base is very sturdy and stable.

I think I spent about $100 for this base and it's been worth every dollar! If you own a table saw and you don't own a mobile base for it I'd recommend you guy out and buy one. This mobile base allows me to easily move the saw out into the middle of the room for cutting large pieces. After you're done working you can just push it back into a corner. This is certainly a must have table saw accessory.

Tags: home improvement, home improvement blog, Delta Table Saw Mobile Base
Subscribers to Home Construction Improvement can download my free spreadsheets. You can download the Propane Vs Oil Fuel Calculator or the Stair Stringer Calculator for free. Also visit me at Today's Green Construction

Just a quick apology to any of my readers that couldn't open the blog yesterday or this morning when viewed on Internet Explorer. Sitemeter, a traffic monitoring tool that I use on my blogs had a serious "meltdown" yesterday. The long and short of it was if you tried to view the site in Internet Explorer then it crashed. The problem appears to have been solved for now. Again my apologies.Subscribers to Home Construction Improvement can download my free spreadsheets. You can download the Propane Vs Oil Fuel Calculator or the Stair Stringer Calculator for free. Also visit me at Today's Green Construction

Recently, the most popular mortgage product for homebuyers has been the FHA loan. As part of the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008, Congress raised the FHA loan limits so that they are viable for purchasing a moderate home in high cost areas like California and Hawaii. No longer are FHA loans just for low income families that can't otherwise afford a home.

The greatest part of all is homeowners that do not want to move can still reap the benefits of these changes with an FHA refinance. Like any conventional refinance, this allows a savvy homeowner to tap the equity that he or she has built up in a property from principal pay down and appreciation.

Proceeds from paying off your previous mortgage can be used in any way the owner likes. Of course, the smartest would be to invest this money either back into the house or in some other way. In many cases, it's smart to pull some cash out to update a house in order to increase the value. If the remodeling is done in the right areas of the house it would be possible to profit by doing nothing! Technically, it wouldn't be "nothing" but one could refinance his or her home, use those proceeds to hire out the work and increase the value by more than was spent.

FHA Refinance Requirements

• Owner must have owned and lived in home for 12 months..


• Owner must have good credit and timely payments for 12 months.


• All borrower’s credit must qualify.


• Loan amounts must be below the maximum for that area.

Subscribers to Home Construction Improvement can download my free spreadsheets. You can download the Propane Vs Oil Fuel Calculator or the Stair Stringer Calculator for free. Also visit me at Today's Green Construction

My John Deere X300 Mulching Mower works great! The other day someone left a comment on my previous post that I didn't publish because it was full of profanity. However, I wanted to respond to his comment with this post.

He said something along the lines of this "The John Deere Mulching Mower is a piece of *&%#@@!" He went on to say that the mower leaves clumps of grass all over the place and it won't cut tall grass at all.

First of all I highly doubt he was talking about a John Deere X300 mulching mower. Secondly I totally disagree with he assessment. I took this photo today shortly after I finished mowing the front lawn. The last month has been very rainy around here and perfect conditions for grass to grow like crazy! Today I cut off between 2 and 3 inches of grass. Does it look bad to you? My lawn looks like a PGA golf course! Not only does this mower cut great you can hardly see the grass clippings. I didn't rake, I didn't bag, thats exactly how the lawn looks after I cut it.

Now I'll be the first to admit that when I have to cut grass that tall you have to drive slower. You can't drive like Dale Earnhardt at the Daytona 500. This is true with any riding mower so it shouldn't come as any surprise to someone with experience mowing grass.

In my opinion this is probably a case of mistaken identity! I have a sneaky suspicion that this person bought a John Deere mower at one of the big box stores and didn't realize that there is a HUGE difference in what you buy at a John Deere dealer vs what you can buy at the orange or blue box stores. Most likely this person bought one of these mowers that's built exclusively for that store. Those mowers typically have much less horsepower (this is probably the issue), plastic parts instead of steel parts, and an overall watered down version of the real deal!

Anyway, I'm sticking to all my previous posts about this mower. The John Deere X300 mulching mower is great! I wouldn't trade it for anything else (except maybe another NEW John Deere).

Tags: home improvement, home improvement blog, John Deere X300 Mulching Mower
Subscribers to Home Construction Improvement can download my free spreadsheets. You can download the Propane Vs Oil Fuel Calculator or the Stair Stringer Calculator for free. Also visit me at Today's Green Construction

Our new home has Brazilian Cherry floors throughout the first floor. When we chose the Brazilian Cherry flooring a friend of ours warned us that cherry flooring will darken from sun light. If you use area rugs then you will notice the flooring under the carpet remains it's original color while the area of flooring exposed to sun light will darken over time.

As you can see in the photo the Brazilian Cherry flooring under our area rug in the breakfast nook is much lighter than the floor that's exposed to direct sun light (I've pulled back the carpet in the photo so you can see the difference). This significant difference in the flooring color has happened in just under two years time.

Ultraviolet light from the sun causes the tannins in the Brazilian Cherry floors to darken over time. Most Cherry floors, American, Black, and Brazilian will darken when exposed to ultraviolet light. This problem is most often seen when area or throw rugs are put down to cover the flooring for extended periods of time.

I can only think of a couple of solutions to help with this situation. You could install a ultraviolet film to your windows to reduce the amount of UV rays that are exposed to the floor. You could also use curtains and blinds to shield the amount of direct sun light that hits the floor. I suppose if this has already happened then you can pull up the rugs for a few months at a time and try to expose those areas to UV light so they can darken as well.

If you are looking to buy a home with cherry floors then take a look under any area rugs. You may well find this issue and want to consider it before making your purchase decision.

Have you seen this before? Any suggestions on how to prevent it or fix it?

Tags: home improvement, home improvement blog, cherry flooring darkens
Subscribers to Home Construction Improvement can download my free spreadsheets. You can download the Propane Vs Oil Fuel Calculator or the Stair Stringer Calculator for free. Also visit me at Today's Green Construction

It's happening in Atlanta, GA, Portland, OR, and New York City, and it's probably happening where you live, also. But what exactly is "it?" All across the country increased costs for fuel and food are being joined by rising costs of construction.

New York is one of the hardest-hit cities, with construction cost increases of 32% since 2005, due to higher prices for labor, lower availability of necessary materials, and the added expense of building in an already-congested urban environment, and several projects have been affected. The new PATH transit hub and the ongoing World Trade Center projects have seen cost-related trouble (delays, etc.), and other projects, like the Fulton Street transit center for the MTA, have been scaled back from their original plans.

While the cost of steel is one of the largest factors in the overall increase in construction costs, which have risen 6.5% in the last year alone, other building materials are becoming more expensive as well. Copper, brass, and diesel fuel have all seen price increases of their own, with the latter rising a whopping 61 percent since 2007, according to the April, 2008 producer price index provided by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Following the trend, the consumer price index also rose by 4 percent since last year. The jumps for copper and brass were smaller – 22 percent increases – while steel products rose 8.2 percent. Also on the rise were prices for asphalt in both paving mixture and block forms, not to mention equipment, machinery, and even concrete products.

Greatest Impact?
With all materials becoming more expensive, it can have an impact on your basic homeowners insurance policy. Where exactly is the rise in construction cost being felt the most? It's not in single-unit residential homes, though the cost of building them has gone up 3.3 percent since last year. Instead, the increased costs are causing the greatest in street and highway construction (a rise of almost 13% since 2007), followed by heavy construction (up 9.9 percent) and commercial buildings, which have become 6.7% more costly to build.

What to Do About It?
All of this, of course, begs the question, what do we do about it? For answers, let's look to New York once more. City planners there have consulted with a company called Urbanomics to come up with several options to lower the cost of city construction projects. First, new accountability requirements are suggested, so that even before permits are issued monies can be allocated, and materials can be approved. In addition, salary increases for public officials, and more zoning changes to allow better development were recommended. A more controversial piece of advice was to use less-expensive, non-union labor, to help offset the cost of materials.
Of course, another option is to shift toward less expensive building materials, whenever possible. Some of these include aluminum, gypsum, brick, and clay tile, as well as certain types of lumber (including plywood) and plastics, all of which have actually gone down in price over the last year.

Construction, both commercial and residential, is a necessary part of urban development, but with materials increasing in cost almost daily, we must find alternatives in order to keep our cities growing, and our economy healthy.Subscribers to Home Construction Improvement can download my free spreadsheets. You can download the Propane Vs Oil Fuel Calculator or the Stair Stringer Calculator for free. Also visit me at Today's Green Construction

This post is an answer to a question a reader asked the other day. "How should I treat the radiant tubing into concrete slab detail?"

It just so happens that I installed the radiant tubing in our new home so I've got a bit of experience with this detail. Installing radiant tubing in a concrete slab is fairly straight forward. The key is to lay out the loops so that each loop is approximately the same length. Each loops starts and ends at the same point (location of the header manifold).

The easiest way I know how to deal with the location where the radiant tubing exits the concrete slab is shown in this photo. I used a 1 1/2" electrical conduit 90 degree sweeps for each pair of radiant tubing. The conduit sweeps help make sure you don't have a kind in the radiant tubing where it exits the concrete.

To support the conduit sweeps and radiant tubing during the concrete pour I pounded two wood stakes into the sub-grade on either end of the sweeps. Then I screwed a scrap piece of wood between the stakes centered at the top of the sweeps. I used metal conduit supports to hold the conduit sweeps securely against the scrap wood (if you look closely at the photo you can see the clamps still in place around the top of each sweep).

I rolled out all of the radiant tubing first. Then I installed the stakes and the scrap wood. Then I just slid the conduit sweeps down over each pair of radiant tubes and secured them in place with the clamps. Once the concrete slab is finished and set up you can just cut off the stakes flush with the slab. As you can see this leaves you with a very neat and organized layout for your radiant tubing manifold.

Tags: home improvement, home improvement blog, radiant tubing, radiant heat in concrete slab
Subscribers to Home Construction Improvement can download my free spreadsheets. You can download the Propane Vs Oil Fuel Calculator or the Stair Stringer Calculator for free. Also visit me at Today's Green Construction

Today Home Construction Improvement hit a milestone with traffic. This month there were over 20,000 unique visitors to this site. I'd like to really thank all my regular readers for helping me continue to make this site what it is today. Thanks everyone!



Tags: home improvement, home improvement blogSubscribers to Home Construction Improvement can download my free spreadsheets. You can download the Propane Vs Oil Fuel Calculator or the Stair Stringer Calculator for free. Also visit me at Today's Green Construction

French Doors with built in mini-blinds between the glass panels are great. Typically French Doors don't provide much privacy because of all the glass. If you wanted privacy with a French Door in the past you would have to install some type of blinds or a curtain attached to the door. You no longer have to settle for that option because you can now by most all French Doors with the blinds built in.

When I designed our new home my wife was concerned about having French Doors in our breakfast nook. She was worried about privacy and shading from the afternoon sun. She has never been a huge fan of mini-blinds because she hates cleaning them. When I told her I could order the French Doors with the mini-blinds built into the insulated glass she was very interested in trying the product.

I'm happy to say we've been very pleased with this feature. The blinds have two controls on the door, one to raise and lower the blinds and another to control the tilt of the blind blades. The great benefit of these blinds is they never need to be cleaned because they are contained within the sealed void between the pains of glass. The cost was similar to buying a set of mini-blinds so in my opinion you'd be crazy not to order a door with this feature. If you want full light from the window just open up the blinds all the way and you don't even know they are there.

I highly recommend this type of product if you're planning on buying a new French Door.

Tags: home improvement, home improvement blog, built-in mini-blinds
Subscribers to Home Construction Improvement can download my free spreadsheets. You can download the Propane Vs Oil Fuel Calculator or the Stair Stringer Calculator for free. Also visit me at Today's Green Construction