REPAIR
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Do you Sugru? If you have not yet experimented with this endlessly versatile product, you may be missing out on one of the most useful and fun-to-use tools now av...
Home maintenance is a constant reality for homeowners and renters alike, but it doesn’t have to be painful. If you keep the right products on hand, you can fix ju...
Ceiling fans are great—until they get wobbly. What causes that to happen, and how can you go about fixing a wobbly ce...
Do you need a quick and easy way to fasten a patch onto sheet metal? Pop rivets make it pretty easy to do so. They co...
Are you stumped by the fact that your dryer seems to take forever these days? If your clothes dryer needs more time t...
Chances are that, somewhere along the line, you've had to deal with a clog in your kitchen drain. Even if you make a ...
Has a pint-sized baseball player in your neighborhood recently hit a home run through your bedroom window? Here are s...
The toughest part of fixing a roof leak is often to figure out where the water is getting in. It's not uncommon for w...
If there have been nationwide polls conducted to determine what drives homeowners the most crazy, I would bet that be...
If you've got a broken shingle or two on your roof, it's easy to repair the problem yourself. Most home centers sell ...
Garbage disposals are handy household tools, but if you're not careful, they can get jammed or clogged. To keep this ...
Nothing kills the mood of a refreshing bath after a long day (or for that matter, an energizing shower to start one) faster than the sight of mold. Or a delay in ...
The hardest part of fixing a roof leak? A lot of times, it's simply locating the problem. Sure, it's easy enough to s...
There's a simple reason why builders relied on steam radiators for decades and decades—they work! But every technolog...
Steam-heat radiators may be good at keeping you warm, but their banging and clanking can also sometimes keep you up a...
Let's be clear: It's no fun to remove vinyl flooring. Peeling up the material itself is no picnic, but the real trial...
Installations of concrete can last hundreds of years, but sooner of later, most end up developing small cracks and ga...
Please help. My yard stays wet when it rains. I live in a subdivision with flat terrain. Is there a solution that doe...
Sure, you love your old wooden double-hung windows. But sometimes—after raising and lowering them—do you feel like yo...
It can be a real chore to deal with all of your home's trouble spots and "quirks," especially after you've learned to live with them. Sometimes it's out of pure p...
Wood furniture is beautiful, but it's not impervious to the wear and tear of everyday life. To retain their looks, ne...
In my house, several of our wood doors keep sticking. I've tried candle wax and have made sure all the screws in the ...
If your refrigerator door doesn't open and close as it should—or if it doesn’t seal as tightly as it's supposed to—th...
People go weeks, months, and even years without giving the toilet a second thought. The instant it clogs, however, th...
Ever hear a banging noise when you shut off faucets in the house? The problem could be what plumbers call "water hamm...
Sooner or later, most of us need to patch drywall, whether for purely cosmetic reasons—filling nail holes, for exampl...
I’ve removed some carpet and want to refinish the hardwood floors below. What should I use to fill the holes left by ...
Ever notice how pesky bugs manage to find their way through even the tiniest holes in your screens?Listen to BOB VILA...
Scarred flooring, rotted window frames, chipped furniture—common problems like these can be time-consuming and expens...
It's only a matter of time: Sooner or later, your chairs with upholstered seats are going to get worn, dirty, or date...
My wife and I recently moved into a rental house, and we cannot seem to open the double-hung windows in the bedroom. ...
For a significant chunk of the 20th century, from the 1950s through the '80s, the ceilings in many new homes—particul...
Let’s be honest. Drywall repair is not something most people look forward to. Although it’s relatively straightforwar...
My house is 55 years old and still has the original stucco. On one exterior wall, there's a fine crack with paint pee...
If you have ever experienced solid hardwood doors, you know they can’t be beat in comparison to hollow doors. T...
There’s something so crisp and clean about a kitchen with a traditional, white porcelain enamel stove. But sometimes ...
The source of your home’s power is the breaker box, also known as the electrical panel or circuit breaker box. Whatev...
Not every home's a fixer-upper, but all houses need occasional repairs and maintenance. You'll be able to handle those jobs like a pro if you make sure you have t...
There are some maintenance and repair issues that homeowners just hate to deal with—either because they take time, or...
Many of the drywall seams on my 40-year-old house are bulging. It doesn't appear as if the joint tape is pulling away...
K … It feels like I’ve been working on this post for weeks. Well, ha! … because I have. Actuall...
I have various scratches on my wood floors. Some add character, but some are just too big and need to go away. What i...
If you want to avoid frustration and preserve your holiday spirit, I don't recommend that you spend time figuring out...
If you have an old house with holes in the plaster, here's a quick way to patch them. Apply your base coat (or brown...
There are many different kinds of blind repairs – In this article we will deal with the 3 most common: Restring o...
When you're renovating, save and recycle old hardwood floorboards for patching and repairing. Using a pry bar at each...
Aluminum siding first became popular in the wake of World War II, when this metal, which had been so crucial to the w...
Here's how to re-glaze those old, broken window panes. First, remove the old glazing compound with a propane torch an...
I've got to remove some drywall in a room so I can nail studs behind the wall for anchoring purposes. What is the bes...
Here's how to stop squeaks in an old house with original floors you'd rather not replace. Preservationists use an acr...
If your garden hose has seen better days, don’t just send it to the landfill. There are some simple, inexpensive ways...
Here's a way to save time and energy when repairing floorboards. Instead of drilling and chiseling damaged floorboard...
Here's how to remove old plaster when starting a remodeling project. Have professionals remove any old electrical co...
It can be easy to patch cracks in an old wood floor or grout a new wood block floor. Here's how. First, make a mixtur...
Stop—don't panic! You, too, can unclog that drain with these easy steps for banishing the backed-up sink and toilet.
Don't throw out that rusty garden furniture. Restoring it can be a great weekend project. Use a wire brush or sandpap...
Here's a way to replace damaged ceramic tile. Remove the grout with a grout saw. Crack the tile with a hammer and co...
Here's how to restore the missing brass hardware from an antique door. The "ghost" image of original brass hardware ...
Low water pressure can be a real annoyance—the shower subsides to a trickle, the washing machine takes eons to fill, ...
In our home, there’s always something that needs fixing. If it’s a big enough problem, I usually get right o...
Brick houses are hard to damage. Anyone familiar with The Three Little Pigs knows that. Inevitably, however, there co...
Making good decisions is the key to minimizing near- and long-term costs related to any home improvement. This is esp...
When choosing outdoor furniture for a garden room, outdoor kitchen, or multi-level deck, some consumers prefer qualit...
Can You Tackle Mold Removal on Your Own?Mold problems are present in about 4 out of 10 American homes. With the often...
Nowadays, we don’t give much thought to our toilets, but there was a time when answering nature's call involved such ...
The faucet—whether it's in the kitchen, bathroom, or behind the bar—acts like a mini dam, holding back a pressurized ...
My wife and I recently reorganized our bedroom closet and added several new accessories, including a double rod hange...
Many older houses incorporate construction materials that contain asbestos. Usually its presence is uncovered during ...
You’re in the middle of a party, enteraining a houseful of guests, and the toilet acts up. Are you ready to spring in...
Do you have something around your home that’s been sorta broken but not quite broken enough to fix it yet? For us,...
Sometimes it’s nail holes and sometimes it’s rotten wood, but your projects will often require you to patch ...
Whether it’s an errant baseball or a tropical storm, windows are bound to break on occasion. Before you call in a...
Your kitchen gets a lot of use. So it doesn't take long to begin seeing signs of wear and tear on wood cabinets. Soon...
Walls, normally thought of as interior design elements, are useful in landscaping, too. A landscaping wall can be fre...
Drywall has been the wall finishing material of choice for most of a century, because it’s so easy to install and fin...
A squeaky floor is easier to fix if it’s a floor that you can access from below. Listen to BOB VILA ON SQUEAKY FLOORS...
Water spots on ceilings and walls aren’t just unsightly--they can be a symptom of a much bigger problem that needs at...
Despite what the three little pigs might say, even the hardiest of brick buildings will require repair and restoratio...
We all know that life would be very different without that wonder of modern science: the toilet. But when it acts up,...
What Causes the Clanging?Water hammer is a common cause of banging pipes. In plumbing where water pressure is high, s...
Of all the siding materials you could use on your home, cedar shingles are one of the most attractive and long lastin...
Grace tweets, “The bathroom sink in my 1890s Victorian is draining really slowly. What’s the best way to get things f...
Be Gentle on Old Drains A partial clog can be cleared by cleaning out the drainpipe. Older plumbing can be damaged by...
A wet basement can be obvious—water trickling across the floor or standing several inches deep at the base of the sta...
The cost of re-roofing is something no one wants to think about, but every roof—at some point—will need to be repaire...
It's a complete mystery to me how this could have happened to my roof in Florida. There are no palm trees around to d...
Some friends of mine moved into a new house and had a couple of issues with their bathroom. The sink drain was a litt...
Put the phone down! There's no need to call the plumber. In only six simple steps, you can unclog a drain that no longer flows as freely as it once did.
Finishing a new wall or room with plaster or joint compound takes practice. If you have no experience with plaster or...
[bobsays_inset]Asphalt shingles are the most popular roofing material for homes today, accounting for nearly 70% of d...
The Virtues of Drywall Drywall has been the wall finishing material of choice for most of a century because it’s so e...
The door closer on my front porch—that mechanical cylindrical device that keeps the door from flying open too far and...
Architect Mary Kennedy and Bob tour her Georgian Colonial family home in Westchester County, NY. After a flood ruined the house, the challenge was to salvage and ...
Bob works with contractor Bob Ryley and carpenter Chris Clark installing new wood-shingle siding.
Carpenters Bob Ryley and Danny Ruffini and copper-work specialist Fred Mitchell install custom fabricated copper-lined wood gutters on Bob's home.
Bob meets with Ed and Lisa Zywusko, a husband-and-wife masonry team, and sees how they are going to refurbish the old brick chimney.
Tile is installed in the master bathroom’s shower area. A flashback reviews the waterproofing work that was done to prevent leaks.
Bob reviews the work done on the existing plumbing in the basement and the replacement of obsolete brass water pipes.
Basement drainage systems are installed to control moisture and humidity and to eliminate rot and mildew.
Bob meets with the installer of the new HVAC system to discuss how it filters air and reduces energy costs.
Bob meets with a local real estate broker and with homeowner Sarah Monzon, whose basement will be finished to create additional family space.
Carpenters replace a rotted deck, and a rotted porch column is reconstructed with concrete.
Damaged sill is replaced, the house is protected against insects and rot, and sliding doors with custom trim molding are installed.
Bob discusses the installation of a plastic subfloor to prevent water damage and the selection of a basement dehumidifier.
Bob meets with FLASH—Federal Alliance for Safe Housing and FEMA—Federal Emergency Management Agency, to learn how homeowners can protect their homes from damaging...
Bob visits the Bethesda Terrace in Central Park with Doug Blonsky of the Central Park Conservancy.
Bob and Professor Tom Visser (UVM) visit the Burtch-Udall house in Quechee, VT, and the nearby Sumner Mansion-- suitable locales for a running discussion on prope...
Chris Borovka (from US Gypsum) joins Bob to explain about patching with plaster.
Bob meets with Beth Judge (of Clemson University) to review hazard-resistant building techniques at a demonstration house used to teach builders and architects in...
Bob meets with preservationist Fred Ecker to go over the process of making repairs to the floors.
Bob tours the finished house, the fifth in the Elmwood neighborhood project. Better grading and gutters have been added to prevent future water damage.
As part of a Miami kitchen renovation, Bob frames a partition wall made to resemble a banana leaf. He also pours concrete to patch a floor.
Bob examines the exterior of the home, where several layers of paint are removed, and contractor Cortney Lofton explains the techniques and tools used to restore ...
Bob and homeowner Gavin repair and refinish a 75-year-old oak floor. Because the new patch floor panels have a different thickness from the original, a belt sande...
Bob surveys the plaster cornice in the project home. Water damage has ruined a large section and much of the remaining plaster needs repair. Bob and restoration c...
Bob observers the expert plasterer add detail to the cornice, which is under reconstruction due to water damage.
Bob joins the plumber as he installs a shower stall in the kids' bathroom. After drilling the drain hole, the plumber demonstrates how to properly attach a metal ...
Bob and the architect survey the problem areas of the home and eventually focus on the decaying deck.
Bob has finished wiring the Colonial-style light fixture in the entryway and, back in the kitchen, the refrigerator ice maker is hooked up.
Bob helps general contractor Ron Gan demonstrate how to repair a broken window pane the old-fashioned way.
The tour of the project house continues up into the attic and down into the basement. Bob and general contractor Ron Gan discuss the necessary repairs and desired...
The roofing crew strips several ancient layers of old roofing off the project house, leaving a section open for the installation of the new dormer.
Ryan Pirro (from RestorationWindows.com) discusses refurbishing old windows with solid-bronze sash chains, new parting beads, and spring-bronze weather stripping ...
