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Listen to BOB VILA ON RUST REMOVAL or read the text below:

You can grind the rust off using a power grinder fitted with a grinding wheel or disc, or a wire wheel to get into seams or around corners. Work your way up from a coarse grit to a fine 400-grit abrasive for a smooth finish.

You can also use chemicals to soak the rust off, but it can take some time. Soaking doesn’t always leave a smooth finish, and unless you use one of the newer non-toxic, acid-free solutions, you’ll need a lot of ventilation.

If you don’t mind that bumpy finish, the easiest way is to kill the rust is to brush off any flakes with a wire brush and then spray on a converter, which you can buy at any home center. No matter what method you use, always read the safety precautions, and prime before you re-paint.

Bob Vila Radio is a newly launched daily radio spot carried on more than 75 stations around the country (and growing). You can get your daily dose here, by listening to—or reading—Bob’s 60-second home improvement radio tip of the day.

For more on maintenance, consider:

Quick Tip: Cleaning Gutters
How to Clean Stainless Steel
How to Clean Painted Walls

Bob Vila Radio: Rust Removal Home Improvement, Home Remodeling & Home Repair - BobVila.com

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Listen to BOB VILA ON PEX VS. COPPER or read the text below:

First is cost: the price of copper is so high it’s become a target for thieves. A pex system will run you about a third the cost, at around thirty cents a foot.

Running pex tubing through walls is like running stiff garden hose; you can “fish” it in long lengths, so it’s great for remodelers. It requires fewer connections, which can be made with cinch or crimp rings and a cinch clamp tool, which will run you around forty bucks. Compression or stab-in fittings are a little more expensive, but any of these beat sweating copper joints or breathing pvc glue.

Best of all, pex is much more resistant to bursting due to freezing than either copper or pvc. And it won’t corrode in acidic water conditions or at brass connections the way copper will, so this plumbing repair project should last you a very long time!

Bob Vila Radio is a newly launched daily radio spot carried on more than 75 stations around the country (and growing). You can get your daily dose here, by listening to—or reading—Bob’s 60-second home improvement radio tip of the day.

For more on piping, consider:

How to Work with Plastic Pipe
Everything You Need to Know about Winterizing Pipes
10 DIY Pipe Fitting Projects

Bob Vila Radio: Pex vs. Copper Home Improvement, Home Remodeling & Home Repair - BobVila.com

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Listen to BOB VILA ON HEARING PROTECTION or read the text below:

Anything louder than that:  loud music, ambulance sirens, machinery, thunder, and yes, that fancy new table saw you got for christmas…will cause noise-induced hearing damage. Not only is hearing loss cumulative, you can’t reverse it.

The solution is to prevent it in the first place, but before you splurge on hundred-dollar custom earplugs, test-drive a pair of one-dollar polyurethane foam stoppels, which are great for blocking all sound.

You can also find earplugs for under twenty bucks that block sound over the eighty-five decibel mark but still let you hear what people around you are saying. Depending on your priorities, that can be a good thing or a bad thing!

Bob Vila Radio is a newly launched daily radio spot carried on more than 75 stations around the country (and growing). You can get your daily dose here, by listening to—or reading—Bob’s 60-second home improvement radio tip of the day.

For more safety, consider:

Ladder Safety
Checklist: A Safe and Insurable Yard
Candle Safety

Bob Vila Radio: Hearing Protection Home Improvement, Home Remodeling & Home Repair - BobVila.com

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Listen to BOB VILA ON OVEN CLEANING or read the text below:

First stop is your owner’s manual: if yours is a self-cleaning or continuous-cleaning model, you may only need to run it through the cleaning cycle and wipe up the resulting ash with a damp cloth. As a matter of fact, ovens with a special self-cleaning pyrolytic coating can be damaged if you try to clean them the old fashioned way.

For standard ovens, you’ll need to ventilate well, protect your skin and eyes, and spend some quality time with a scrub brush and a heavy-duty oven cleaner. Spread the cleaner rather than spraying it to avoid damaging wires, aluminum parts, or the door gasket. If you’re willing to be patient, homemade oven cleaner recipes usually involve baking soda, soap, or ammonia and a lot of elbow grease, and they’re easy to find online.

Bob Vila Radio is a newly launched daily radio spot carried on more than 75 stations around the country (and growing). You can get your daily dose here, by listening to—or reading—Bob’s 60-second home improvement radio tip of the day.

For more appliances, consider:

Selecting Appliances
A New Fridge
Appliance Manuals

Bob Vila Radio: Oven Cleaning Home Improvement, Home Remodeling & Home Repair - BobVila.com

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Listen to BOB VILA ON DRYWALL COSTS or read the text below:

While this is jaw-droppingly cynical timing for the beginning of the housing recovery, and painful for builders and do-it-yourselfers alike, it’s all the more reason to carefully calculate the amount of drywall you need before you buy.

Measure the square footage of the area you need to cover and divide by thirty-two to get the number of sheets you’ll need. Figure on a half-gallon of ready-mix compound and forty feet of drywall tape per hundred square feet. You’ll need about three pounds of drywall screws for every thousand square feet. Cut the big pieces first to minimize waste, and you’re looking at between two and three hundred bucks to finish a twelve-by-twelve bedroom.

Bob Vila Radio is a newly launched daily radio spot carried on more than 75 stations around the country (and growing). You can get your daily dose here, by listening to—or reading—Bob’s 60-second home improvement radio tip of the day.

For more drywall, consider:

Drywall 101
Quick Tip: Choosing Drywall
How To: Install a Drywall Anchor

Bob Vila Radio: Drywall Costs Home Improvement, Home Remodeling & Home Repair - BobVila.com

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Listen to BOB VILA ON BARRIER-FREE SHOWERS or read the text below:

A barrier-free shower is one that has no threshold, so it’s easy to step, shuffle, or wheel yourself in and out. With some of the new vertical-drain products coming out now, these installations are both easy and stylish. Water drains through a perforated metal strip into a hidden trough, which channels water back toward the drain so it doesn’t get all over the bathroom floor.

For between one and two thousand dollars, you can get a shower base with the integrated drain all in one piece, saving a lot of prep. A universally-designed bathroom doesn’t have to scream “nursing home” or “hospital”. You can include wider doorways, lever-handled, rather than twist-handled faucets, and grab bars that are disguised as shower shelves or toilet paper holders without calling attention to their purpose.

Bob Vila Radio is a newly launched daily radio spot carried on more than 60 stations around the country (and growing). You can get your daily dose here, by listening to—or reading—Bob’s 60-second home improvement radio tip of the day.

For more bathrooms, consider:

Creating a Personalized Shower
How to Install a Faucet
Bathroom Remodeling 101

Bob Vila Radio: Barrier-Free Showers Home Improvement, Home Remodeling & Home Repair - BobVila.com

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Listen to BOB VILA ON FLASHLIGHTS or read the text below:

Light output in lumens, however, isn’t everything: without the right optics, the light doesn’t go very far or focus very well. Check the flashlight’s beam distance and peak beam intensity before you buy, to be sure all that power is actually going to make it easier to see objects at a distance in the dark.

Run time is also important: check how long the flashlight is tested to last before it starts losing power. For an apples-to-apples comparison, keep to manufacturers who follow the ANSI/FL1 testing standard for flashlights.

Bob Vila Radio is a newly launched daily radio spot carried on more than 60 stations around the country (and growing). You can get your daily dose here, by listening to—or reading—Bob’s 60-second home improvement radio tip of the day.

For more tool tips, consider:

Circular Saws
Tip Snips
Ratchet Sets

Bob Vila Radio: Tool Tip – Flashlights Home Improvement, Home Remodeling & Home Repair - BobVila.com

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Listen to BOB VILA ON SPACE HEATERS or read the text below:

Research units before buying a space heater, and look for the most efficient, UL-rated model you can afford. Some newer convection models cost only four cents an hour to run and can heat a whole room, though you should only use them as supplemental heat.

Position your space heater on a level surface at least three feet away from anything combustible. Avoid using extension cords, and unless it’s rated for use in wet areas, a space heater shouldn’t be used outside or in the bathroom.

Inspect wires for fraying or damage, and never use one with a damaged cord. Check the outlet periodically: If it heats up, stop using it immediately and call an electrician, as this could be a wiring problem and a fire hazard.

Bob Vila Radio is a newly launched daily radio spot carried on more than 60 stations around the country (and growing). You can get your daily dose here, by listening to—or reading—Bob’s 60-second home improvement radio tip of the day.

For more on heating and cooling, consider:

10 Space Heaters We Love
The Benefits of a Whole House Humidifier
Quick Tip: Radiant Heat has the Other Options Beat

Bob Vila Radio: Space Heaters Home Improvement, Home Remodeling & Home Repair - BobVila.com

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Listen to BOB VILA ON LITHIUM ION BATTERIES or read the text below:

Contrary to popular belief, you don’t want to run your lithium-ion batteries down completely before recharging them. They do much better when they’re charged frequently and stored with a partial charge.

Temperature is a big factor with lithium-ion batteries as well. They work and charge better between forty and eighty-five degrees Fahrenheit, so you don’t want to store or charge them where they’ll get too hot or cold.

Unless you want your batteries to decide when the job’s done, always have at least two and use them equally frequently; like anything else, with batteries, it’s ‘use it or lose it’!

Bob Vila Radio is a newly launched daily radio spot carried on more than 60 stations around the country (and growing). You can get your daily dose here, by listening to—or reading—Bob’s 60-second home improvement radio tip of the day.

For more on tools, consider:

Top Tools of 2012
Tool Tip: Laser Level
Tool Tip: Circular Saw

Bob Vila Radio: Lithium-Ion Batteries Home Improvement, Home Remodeling & Home Repair - BobVila.com

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Listen to BOB VILA ON LOG SPLITTERS or read the text below:

You can rent a log splitter for a few hundred bucks, which goes a long way if you’ve got a lot of wood to split or you’re sharing the rental with neighbors. If you’re doing this every year, though, it might be worth shelling out a couple grand for one you can use year round at your leisure. The new flywheel-driven models have more power than you’d expect with just a small gas-powered motor, but once you get the hang of it, they can split a cord of wood in under an hour.

Look for models with an electric start, heavy duty wheels for getting it where you need it, and a table that diverts split wood out of your way while you’re working. And don’t forget ear and eye protection, gloves, long sleeves and steel-toed boots, just in case!

Bob Vila Radio is a newly launched daily radio spot carried on more than 60 stations around the country (and growing). You can get your daily dose here, by listening to—or reading—Bob’s 60-second home improvement radio tip of the day.

For more firewood, consider:

Firewood Primer: Which Wood Burns Best?
12 “Different” Ways to Store Firewood
How to Stack Firewood

Bob Vila Radio: Log Splitter Home Improvement, Home Remodeling & Home Repair - BobVila.com