Hour 1
Awning Dumping Water
Jeanine’s Wisconsin home has an awning that dumps water on the concrete near one of the doors to her home. The concrete is eroding, and the storm door is leaking so she wants to know how to solve those problems. She has patched the concrete and caulked the door, but to no avail.
The solution is stopping the problem and not treating the symptoms. Adding a gutter along the edge of the awning is likely the way to do that. There are companies that create custom aluminum gutters on site which would be ideal for this application.
Steps to Refinishing Wood Front Door
Steve in Kansas has been refinishing the wood front door to his home. He sanded it, applied new stain, and then applied two coats of exterior polyurethane. The problem is that even after all that work, the finish is still somewhat rough. Steve wants to know what went wrong.
The problem is that he simply missed an important step between the first and second coats of polyurethane. The application of sealer to wood will initially raise the grain and create a rough texture. The solution is to sand lightly after the first coat with a very fine grit like 220 or 320 grit paper. The wipe down any residue before applying the final coat.
Hour 2
Solution for a Sagging Door
The 70-year-old front door to Walt’s home is beginning to sag. This causes the lock set not to line up so that the door lock doesn’t catch. He wants to know if this can be corrected and how.
The problem is probably not the door but the connection between the door and the jamb. The solution may be as simple as replacing the screws that hold the hinge to the jamb with longer screws that will pull the top of the door closer to the jamb. To make this more effective it may be helpful to pry up on the outer edge of the door with a shovel or pry bar.
How to Remove Ceramic Tile
Lisa’s midcentury Florida home has a tiled floor in the garage. The tile is lifting, and she wants to know how to remove the tile to get back to the original concrete so she can apply an epoxy coating to cover it.
The tool for this job is an electric floor scraper which can be rented at your local rental center. It has a wide blade that’s powered by an electric motor, and it chips away at the tile and the adhesive holding it in place. The resulting surface will still need to be sanded before applying epoxy.
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Simple Solutions
Enlarging Holes—It’s sometimes necessary to enlarge an existing hole, such as when boring hole in a door for a new lockset. However, you can’t use a hole saw because its pilot bit needs something to drill into to keep the saw cutting on track.
So, here’s the solution. Clamp a piece of ½-in. plywood to each side of the door, and then drill the newer, larger hole. The plywood will provide support for the pilot bit, allowing the hole saw to cut cleanly and accurately.
Clean-Cut Bolts—Here’s how to shorten a machine bolt, threaded rod, or carriage bolt, without messing up the threads. First, thread two hex nuts onto the bolt, then make the cut using a hacksaw or jigsaw with a metal-cutting blade.
Spin off the nuts, one at a time, using a wrench if necessary. When the nuts come off the end of the bolt, they’ll re-cut and straighten out any threads that were damaged by the saw, making it easy to thread the nut back on.
