Home Tour: Exquisite Traditional Home with Pops of Glam and Color
It’s that time again where we get to take you on a photo tour of another fabulous parade home! (Every month, we feature a Parade of Homes home hat caught our attention and that we think you’ll love, too!) It’s finally spring and as color outside begins to emerge, we continue our Home Tour Series […] The post Home Tour: Exquisite Traditional Home with Pops of Glam and Color appeared first on Remodelaholic. Via Home http://www.rssmix.com/via Blogger http://theastrinaraymundo.blogspot.com/2019/04/home-tour-exquisite-traditional-home.html April 23, 2019 at 10:30PM
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Printable Spring Cleaning Yard Work Chore Bingo + Some Extra Green (Cash) for Earth Day
Happy Earth Day! Thank you to GreenWorks for partnering with us on today’s post! What’s that, you didn’t know it was a holiday? Well, it is, even if you haven’t remembered to celebrate it since grade school recycled art projects. (For this upcycling Remodelaholic, those recycled milk carton projects have just grown up into using […] The post Printable Spring Cleaning Yard Work Chore Bingo + Some Extra Green (Cash) for Earth Day appeared first on Remodelaholic. Via Home http://www.rssmix.com/via Blogger http://theastrinaraymundo.blogspot.com/2019/04/printable-spring-cleaning-yard-work.html April 23, 2019 at 10:29AM
Friday Favorites: Beautiful and Useful Shelves
Woo hoo! It’s Friday! That means it is time for Friday Favorites and we are all about the shelves this week. Shelves are a great way to add storage in so many different ways, or to add a fun decorative touch. Oh and don’t miss our funny stuff too. Favorite Unused Space: Our bathroom is […] The post Friday Favorites: Beautiful and Useful Shelves appeared first on Remodelaholic. Via Home http://www.rssmix.com/via Blogger http://theastrinaraymundo.blogspot.com/2019/04/friday-favorites-beautiful-and-useful.html April 20, 2019 at 06:41AM
PEX Water Lines vs Copper and Water Heater Venting
PEX Water Lines vs CopperQUESTION #1: Can you help me make a decision, Tim? I’m building a new home and have the option of using PEX piping for my hot and cold water in the house as opposed to traditional copper. Do you have an opinion about both materials? Have you used both? What do you have in your own home? Linda P., Rocky Point, NC You may be building a new home or planning a large room addition that will have a new bathroom, kitchen, or some other plumbing fixtures that require hot and cold water. Your builder or plumber may lay at your feet the same decision Linda has to make. I can help you as I’ve been a master plumber since age 29. The PEX plastic water piping for drinking water has been around for almost three decades now. Plastic PEX piping was first introduced in the late 1960s and its use as radiant floor heating exploded in Europe in the 1970s. During the early part of my plumbing career, I only installed traditional copper water lines. It was a mainstay in the Midwest. However, the plumbing codes started to permit the use of PEX and once plumbers became comfortable using it, its use started to grow like dandelions in the spring. I have PEX piping in my own home for both the radiant heating system and all of the hot and cold water that’s supplied to each faucet. It’s important to realize there are different brands of PEX. While the piping chemistry may be the same or very similar, the method you connect the pipe to fittings is different. The one that I’ve come to trust and use is AquaPEX that employs an ingenious expanding compression collar at each end of the tubing to create a leak-proof connection. Installing traditional copper can be a complex and time-consuming process if you solder the tubing to the fittings. In the past decade, there’s been a shift to connecting copper tubing and fittings with a pressing tool that crimps the fittings onto the end of the tubing without using molten solder. An inner rubber o-ring in a raised collar on each fitting along with the crimping creates a leak-proof joint. I have these press fittings in my own home where the copper water lines connect my modulating boiler to the heating distribution manifolds. The copper press fitting system saves enormous amounts of time. It only takes seconds to create a leak-proof connection. However, you may have to install quite a few of these press fittings to supply water to just one fixture. PEX piping eliminates all these fittings. PEX water piping is much like electrical wiring. It’s flexible and you can run long lengths of it from a central distribution manifold all the way to the plumbing fixture without any joints. These long runs of tubing from a fixture to a manifold are called home runs. You can install one PEX pipe in just minutes if your home is framed using open floor trusses. The home run system allows you to turn off the hot or cold water to just one fixture and still have water working at all other fixtures. The fastest way to install hot and cold water lines in a home or room addition hands down is the PEX piping employing an uninterrupted single pipe between each fixture and the central manifold. To put this in perspective, my son-in-law and I installed all of the hot and cold water lines to his new four bathroom home in less than three hours. You could never accomplish this feat using copper, even with the wonderful press fittings. I have a video at my AsktheBuilder.com website showing you how fast and easy it is to create one of these PEX connections using the simple expansion compression collars. I suggest you go there and type Connect Pex Pipe into my search engine and watch it. You’ll be astonished at how simple it is to work with PEX water lines. Water Heater VentingQUESTION #2: Hey Tim, I need your help connecting my new gas water heater to my chimney. Here’s my deal: My chimney has an 8x8 clay flue liner that’s just under 20 feet from the inlet in the basement to the top of the chimney out on my roof. The water heater vent pipe is 3-inch PVC. The water heater has a 50-gallon capacity with a 40,000 Btu burner. Should I install a 4-inch pipe from the new water heater to the flue liner? Ron D., Boise, ID Each week I receive lots of email from homeowners like Ron asking detailed questions about exactly how to install any number of building products. I understand I think, why they come to me. It’s easy to ask me, a sales clerk at a store, or even some online home improvement chat group. However, in most cases, I’m the wrong person to ask and you should be extremely cautious following the advice from others who you’ve not vetted determining the depth of their experience solving the exact problem you face. When it comes to the nuances of installing products and mechanical equipment like Ron’s new water heater, there’s only one accurate source for your answer: the manufacturer of the product or fixture. The first place to start is by reading the product label or the instruction manual. In Ron’s case, he needs to understand that the water heater venting system is most likely controlled by a very tiny, yet powerful, computer that’s connected to sensors within the water heater. The vent may have to be PVC from the heater all the way up through the roof or out a side wall. There are maximum lengths the pipe can be as well as the number and types of fittings that can be installed between the water heater and the end of the pipe outdoors. In other words, stop hoping that something is going to work when it’s installed. Stop hoping if you or your family is going to die from carbon monoxide poisoning. Take the time to read what the manufacturer wants you to do. In many cases, they may have their own installation videos showing you what to do. Remember, if you want to be SAFE and you want the warranty with a product, only do what the manufacturer says to do. Period. Column 1297 The post PEX Water Lines vs Copper and Water Heater Venting appeared first on Ask the Builder. Via Home http://www.rssmix.com/via Blogger http://theastrinaraymundo.blogspot.com/2019/04/pex-water-lines-vs-copper-and-water.html April 17, 2019 at 11:53PM
April 14, 2019 AsktheBuilder Newsletter
Welcome if you're a new subscriber. I'm glad you're here. If you're a subscriber in good standing for years or a month, it's great you're still here. Running AquaPEX and WireMy son-in-law Brent and I have been working our butts off at the new house he and my daughter are building on Mt. Desert Island in Maine. Last weekend in just four hours we installed, are you sitting down?, nearly 1,800 feet of red and blue AquaPEX made by Uponor. You use AquaPEX for the hot and cold water lines to plumbing fixtures and faucets. CLICK or TAP HERE to discover more about exactly why I chose to use AquaPEX made by Uponor. If you had tried to install traditional copper lines using solder, perhaps you could have installed pipe to one or more fixtures in that four hours by cleaning, fluxing and soldering the pipe and fittings. Yes, you can use the modern press fittings for copper, but most people can't afford the $1,500 press tool required to crimp the fittings to the copper tubing.
Wait until you see how amazing this press tool is and how soldering copper will eventually be kicked to the curb in most instances. The primary advantage to using AquaPEX, or other PEX, is that you don't have fittings hidden behind walls and ceilings. You just have a connection point at the water distribution manifold and then you have a connection at the shutoff valve at the fixture. The PEX installs like electric wiring. You just pull it through the open bays of the floor trusses or holes you might drill in solid floor joists or engineered-wood I joists.
12-Gauge WireA few day ago, we started to install the electrical wiring in the new house. I discovered long ago the advantages of 20-amp circuits as opposed to 15-amp circuits which most houses have. A 20-amp circuit can handle 2400 watts vs the 1800 you get with a 15-amp circuit. Do you remember your high school physics class? Watts = Amps X Volts One hundred and twenty volts is the standard here in the USA. Yes, 12-gauge wire is slightly tougher to bend when you install an outlet or a switch, but it's worth it to have all that extra power for just $25 more for each 250 feet of cable you buy! Yes, at the time I purchased the spools of cable, it was just ten cents more per foot for 12 gauge wire vs 14-gauge you use for 15-amp circuits. What are all the red wires for? You're looking at a massive bank of switches just as you walk in from the garage of their new home. These switches operate any number of lights using both 3 and 4-way switches. I prefer to use 12/3 wg cable to wire 3 and 4-way switches. Watch the two following videos to see why it's a huge advantage to use three-wire when wiring these special switches! CLICK or TAP HERE to watch my 3-Way Switch video. CLICK or TAP HERE to watch my 4-Way Switch video. CLICK or TAP HERE to discover a bunch of other electrical wiring tips I've accumulated over the years. DEEP Searching at AsktheBuilder.comLast week I created a few new messages that new newsletter subscribers receive after signing up. You've been receiving these same messages. I got a HUGE GRIN on my face about three days ago when a subscriber responded to the message about doing Deep Searches on my AsktheBuilder website. My suggestion is when you have a problem, just type the simple phrase into my search engine. In his case, he had a hardwood floor scratch. He wanted to know the best way to repair it. This kind gentleman was actually responding to my message about Deep Searching instead of trying to find the answer himself. I got the biggest kick out of that. If he had just typed: hardwood floor scratch he would have found right away this very useful column: I'll bet you dollars to doughnuts you didn't know about the alcohol lamp guy, did you? Go ahead, click or tap here and tell me the truth. I know, I can't handle the truth! Downloadable AsktheBuilder PodcastsA few days ago, Rachel reached out to me and suggested I make my podcasts downloadable. I pretty much assumed anyone who has in interest in podcasts would have an app allowing them to do this. As usual, I was wrong! It turns out there's a button I can click when uploading a podcast that allows you to download it easily without an app. This button defaults to NO downloading, so that's why I missed it. I went back and turned ON all the buttons so you can now download my podcasts to listen to on your terms. CLICK or TAP HERE to see the full list of podcasts. That's quite enough for a Sunday! Happy Get-Your-Taxes-Done Day! Tim Carter Do It Right, Not Over! The post April 14, 2019 AsktheBuilder Newsletter appeared first on Ask the Builder. Via Home http://www.rssmix.com/via Blogger http://theastrinaraymundo.blogspot.com/2019/04/april-14-2019-askthebuilder-newsletter.html April 17, 2019 at 11:53PM
Get This Look: Modern Traditional Home Office
There are so many things to love about this modern traditional home office. From the stunning built-in shelves to the luxurious leather desk chair, modern and traditional elements combine to create a warm, inviting space where you’re sure to get loads of work done. A neutral rug and large wood desk help to anchor the […] The post Get This Look: Modern Traditional Home Office appeared first on Remodelaholic. Via Home http://www.rssmix.com/via Blogger http://theastrinaraymundo.blogspot.com/2019/04/get-this-look-modern-traditional-home.html April 17, 2019 at 07:52AM
Adding Built-In Shelves for Bathroom In-Wall Storage
We’re ready for the next step of our bathroom built-in shelves: actually adding the shelves! Subscribe to our YouTube channel here and watch this in-wall storage project unfold from our plan for the in-wall shelves to cutting the drywall, framing the opening, and finishing the drywall to a smooth texture, plus installing a pocket door […] The post Adding Built-In Shelves for Bathroom In-Wall Storage appeared first on Remodelaholic. Via Home http://www.rssmix.com/via Blogger http://theastrinaraymundo.blogspot.com/2019/04/adding-built-in-shelves-for-bathroom-in.html April 15, 2019 at 10:08AM
Friday Favorites: Spring Home Decor and Projects
Happy weekend! It’s time to party, it’s Friday. This week we are all about spring. Spring home decor, spring projects, spring everywhere. What is your favorite part of spring? We especially love adding the cheery spring home decor touches everywhere we can. Let’s take a look at all these springy ideas. Favorite Way to add […] The post Friday Favorites: Spring Home Decor and Projects appeared first on Remodelaholic. Via Home http://www.rssmix.com/via Blogger http://theastrinaraymundo.blogspot.com/2019/04/friday-favorites-spring-home-decor-and.html April 13, 2019 at 04:57AM
Get This Look: Traditional Farmhouse Kitchen
Next up in our ‘‘Get This Look’ series is this stunning traditional farmhouse kitchen! The neutral color palette, industrial style lighting, and extensive cabinetry are all key aspects of traditional farmhouse style. This modern farmhouse look is becoming increasingly popular thanks to Joanna Gaines and her every growing Magnolia empire and style. While JoJo didn’t design […] The post Get This Look: Traditional Farmhouse Kitchen appeared first on Remodelaholic. Via Home http://www.rssmix.com/via Blogger http://theastrinaraymundo.blogspot.com/2019/04/get-this-look-traditional-farmhouse.html April 12, 2019 at 09:01AM
Creating Organization and Storage With Beautiful Built-In Cabinets
What are you currently working on? Any fun projects to ring in spring? Or current remodels? We love to see your talents at work! Show us your before and afters! You can email us photos at [email protected], or by sending them here. We love to see the things that you create! What’s New Home Tour: […] The post Creating Organization and Storage With Beautiful Built-In Cabinets appeared first on Remodelaholic. Via Home http://www.rssmix.com/via Blogger http://theastrinaraymundo.blogspot.com/2019/04/creating-organization-and-storage-with.html April 11, 2019 at 04:57PM |