Building Materials

How To Pick The Right Materials For Your Remote Off Grid Cabin

Off Grid building has become very popular in the past few years as people want to move to areas that are remote but still have some of the comforts found in a modern home. Your ability to build your remote off grid cabin will depend on a few things including your skill level and available materials. If your property has road access then you will be able to bring in a much larger variety …

How To Kiln Dry Wood For Lumber And Furniture Building

If you are someone that lives in an area where you can get easy access to your own trees you might want to consider milling your own lumber. Trees like spruce and pine are pretty easy to come by throughout the country and other woods like Oak, Maple, and Walnut may be prevalent in your area.

Many people that make custom furniture for a living will find ways to get logs from people that …

How To Store Lumber

When you are working on projects sometimes you need to order your lumber early and sometimes you have extra lumber that you want to store for your next job. Either way the cost of lumber means that you need to take good care of it.

There are a few different ways that lumber might come to your home or work site. Often flatbed trucks will deliver your materials and if you are purchasing a full …

How To Kill And Remove Mold Found During A Bathroom Remodeling Project

A friend is remodeling their bathroom and found some mold that they need to kill and remove. Unlike most mold that people are worried about this mold is white but that does not mean it isn’t dangerous. So, what precautions should they take and how do they go about removing it?

Mold will occur anywhere there is warmth, food and moisture. Because mold spores are constantly on everything including our bodies we have to take precautions …

How To Complete Home Projects on a Budget

Other than actually completing the work, budgeting your home projects can be one of the more difficult tasks which limit things you might like to get done. This is true for any size project and most contractors will tell you that on your first few projects you should add 50% to the time and 15% to the cost of any job.

Underestimation of cost and time which can also be labor costs if you …

Performance Considerations of OSB Vs Plywood in Residential Roof Construction

When building or buying a home you want to make sure that you understand the materials used in its construction, the construction methods used for those materials and how this relates to the quality of the resulting project and your overall safety.

For this reason there has been a number of research labs that have inspected the results of hurricanes and other natural disasters along with normal wear on building materials to come up with …

How To – Purchasing Salvaged Building Materials For Your Projects

Saving money should be part of any good project and there are a number of ways that you can save by using Salvaged building materials.

Salvaged materials come in two groups. First and the best bet for your money is when you can find new materials that were never actually installed.  The second offering is when you reclaim used materials from homes that are older and either being demolished or remodeled.

Before considering any salvaged materials …

How To – Temporary Sound Proofing For Residential Homes

Recently someone asked how they could reduce the amount of noise that would exit a home during an upcoming party where a live band would be performing. Unfortunately there is not a good solution for sound proofing residential or even commercial buildings for temporary performances. This is one reason zoning laws along with construction permitting will restrict commercial buildings that mix with residential buildings for noise ordinances.

Sound proofing that can be used for commercial …

How To – Finding Recycled Materials To Reduce Your Home Project Cost

Everyone wants to save money and while you are searching the net or local sales circular for discount prices you may also want to look into recycled building materials.

Now I know what you are thinking why would you want to buy someone’s old used toilet.. Well doing that is probably not a good idea but there are a lot of ways you can save and even pickup new items for big discount.

Almost every area …

Exterior Sheathing Options

Most wear on your home will come from external elements. Wind, rain, snow, ice and uv rays from sunlight will all cause your home to break down over time. Unfortunately there is little you can do to stop its final demise but choosing the right products during construction will help extend the life of your home.
In about 1950 new building materials standards improved the quality of available lumber. Timber mills began to test, grade and size dimensional lumber …