Not every project goes as well as planned. We would be happy to spend a few minutes answering your questions.
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If you have a plain cabinet, you can spruce it up with wood appliques, onlays, or overlays. These work well for any project that has a large area that you would like to make stand out. They make these in all sizes and styles. You can buy them online or at specialty molding outlets.
The trick is to get the onlay to match the surrounding surface to make it look like it was originally installed. If the surface is painted, it makes it easy...simply paint the onlay the same color. If the surface is stained and varnished, it will be more challenging. YOu may have to use some scrap wood and try different colors to get the right one. Once you have the right color, you can spray it with a spray varnish.
Some of these are very fragile and securing them to the surface takes some patience. If the onlay has some thicker areas, you may be able to get away with using some brads in a pnuematic nailer. If the piece is very thin, I would use a thin layer of wood glue on the back of it. Place it on the surface and hold it in place with blue painter's tape until the adhesive dries.
This handyman fix works for cabinet doors and drawers. If you have ever had a cabinet door or drawer that won't stay closed, you can try to adjust the door so that it stays closed (European hinges easily adjust this). If it is your cabinet drawers that won't stay closed, you could play with the runners...or you could use a magnetic catch.
A magnetic catch is an easy way to hold a cabinet drawer or door closed. The magnet mounts on the cabinet frame and the mating piece of metal mounts to the door or drawer itself.
A good place to mount the magnetic catch is on the underside of the top of the opening for the door or drawer. For the door, mount it to the frame farthest away fromt he hinge side. This will give maximum hold for the door. For the drawer, you can choose anywhere along the underside of the top frame.
Pre-drill 2 holes and mount the magnet with 2 screws. Screw them in until snug. Mount the mating metal plate to the inside of the door or drawer so that it lines up with the magnet. The plate is usually held in place with one screw. Make sure it is short enough so that it doesn't protrude from the door. Once everything is installed, the magnetic catch should hold the cabinet drawer or door closed. Only a minimal amount of effort should be needed to open it.
I am a handyman, and yes, I have broken light globes. I’m sure we have all broken light fixture globes before. By the way, the “globe” is the official name for the glass that covers light bulbs. You can also have these on ceiling fan light fixture kits. So if you break one, what are your options?
You can try to find a replacement, and you may get lucky and find one. Big box stores will have a small selection, specialty retailers will have a better selection, and the web will have more, but you take a risk with your measurements. The effort and time it wall take you will make you wish you would have just bought a new light fixture, and that may be the best option.
For ceiling fan globes, you will have either 3 or 4 light globes, so if you break one, you will have to get an exact replacement. That won’t be easy. What will be easy is buying four new globes, so that they all match. I know, it sounds counterproductive to buy four new globes to replace one broken one, but the globes are cheap and your time is not. The nice thing is that the new globe will install in a few seconds. There are usually three thumbscrews that hold the globe in place. Just loosen them, insert the globe, and tighten until snug.
I love compression fittings for plumbing work. They are fast and easy, and all you need are tools that are probably laying around in your garage. Compression fittings are commonly seen on plumbing fixtures such as toilet supply valves, hose bibs, and really any place where a bare copper pipe needs to connect to a valve.
Installing a compression fitting or valve is easy. Slip the compression nut over the bare copper pipe. Then slide the soft ferrule over the pipe so that it is totally on the pipe with about ¼” of the pipe sticking out of it. You will have to fidget with the ferrule as there is no play between the ferrule and the pipe.
Once the cap and ferrule are on the copper pipe, place the valve onto the end of the pipe. The small amount of pipe sticking out of the ferrule ought to be just right to insert into the valve. The valve will have threads on it that will reach the nut.
So the soft ferrule is basically sandwiched between the nut and the valve. Once you start to tighten the nut, the ferrule will compress to fill any voids between the cap and valve. One everything is tight, turn the water on and check for leaks. If you have a leak, it can usually be stopped by simply giving the nut another quarter turn.
If you are considering installing a wood floor or a laminate floor, you will need at least one specialty handyman tool. You probably have most of what you need in your garage, but you will likely have to buy a pull bar.
A pull bar is a flat piece of steel with a lip on either end of it. One lip faces down and the other lip is larger and meatier, and it faces up. The reason this side is larger is because that is the side you will beat with a hammer.
The pull bar is great for closing the gap between 2 strips or planks of flooring. If you are using tongue-and-groove flooring, you usually tip the tongue side up at and angle, insert it into the groove of the neighboring plank, and push it down. There are times when the gap won’t be uniform along the length of the boards. This is where the pull bar comes into play.
You will want to cut a scrap of wood that mates with the piece you will be hammering against. For example, if the plank has a groove exposed, cut a scrap from a piece with a tongue and insert that piece where you see a gap between the two pieces. Then place the lip of the pull bar against the back of the scrap and give the bar a good smack with a hammer. This will quickly close the gap without damaging the edge you need for the next plank.
A kitchen faucet goes through a lot of abuse, and the handle and spout seem to bear the brunt of it. The loose kitchen faucet handle seems to occur most commonly with a single lever-style handle.
The single handle is typically held on by one screw and you need to locate it and tighten it. Then cross your fingers that the problem isn’t something more. On many faucets, the screw that holds the lever on is located under a decorative cap on top of the handle. Use a small standard screwdriver and pry off the cap. A phillips head screwdriver is all that is needed to tighten the screw.
On other types of faucets, you will need to locate a setscrew that is recessed into the base of the handle. Look for a small hole either in the front or the rear of the base of the handle. You will need a small allen wrench to tighten it. This can lead to some guesswork as to which is the correct size of wrench to fit the head of the screw. It will be a matter of inserting the wrench and slightly turning it to see if it fits the hole. A small flashlight can help, but the hole is so small that it won’t totally illuminate the inside of the hole.
Cabinet drawers take a lot of abuse. They get yanked out of their openings and the heavy contents slam into the sides. The weight of the fully loaded drawers place stress upon the drawer runners and cause them to fail and become loose. You may be able to repair these drawers with just a screwdriver.
Remove the sagging drawer from the cabinet and inspect it. YOu are looking for loose drawer guides. You may be able to simply tighten the screws that hold the guides to both the drawer and the cabinet itself. Some drawer guides extend from the sides of the cabinet and some do not. If you have the type that extends, you will need to extend the guides to get access to the screws. Tighten the screws and reinstall the drawer. If the guides are tight, the drawer should operate smoothly. If the guides are still loose, you will likely need to remove the guides and fill the holes with some type of wood so that the screws will have something to bite into.
Try adding glue and small lengths of wood toothpicks into the screw holes. Then reinstall the guides and tighten the screws. The drawer should operate smoothly.
Cabinet toe kick is a decorative piece of trim on base cabinets. It is usually installed last to cover the very bottom of the cabinets. It resides under the doors in an indention and touches the floor. This thin strip of wood is susceptible to damage from people accidentally kicking it, and even from water damage in the case of a leak.
Replacing the strip is easy, so long as you can get a decent match to the cabinets. The toe kick is usually only supported at the edges of each cabinet, although some cabinets have a piece of wood to support it along the way. So once all of the base cabinets are installed the toe kick is installed to complete the finished look.
Replacing the toe kick is easy. Remove the corner molding and then pry up the toe kick. It may break off in some places, but that is fine as you are replacing it anyway. Cut the piece to length and secure it in place. You can use a nail gun for this, or simply a hammer and some finish nails. Try to hit the nails into the grain of the wood and then use wood putty to fill in the indentions. Once you have the toe kick installed, reattach the corner molding.
I had a customer ask their handyman how to hang a round object on the wall. In this case it was a mirror. It was simple to me, but not so simple for them. I guess since the object wasn’t square it was causing problems.
Hanging a round object is the same as hanging a square object except that you can’t set a level on top of it. Rather you take a measurement of distances from the side of the object to the edge of the wall. With a round object, it is more about it being centered than level.
You can install a hanger on the back of the round object so that it can sit on whatever you have installed into the wall…a nail, screw, or anchor of some type. Use a large compass (or a piece of string with a pencil tied on the end), and mark a light line from the same spot on either side of the round object. It will leave you with two arcs that intersect each other in two places. Draw a line where the two arcs intersect and this is the center of the object. Extend the line to the top of the object and install a hanger.
From there find the midpoint of the wall and the height that you want the object installed at and install your nail, screw, or anchor. Once you have the round mirror on the wall, measure from each side to the edge of the wall. The distances should be the same. If not, you can adjust the mirror until it is exactly centered on the wall.
Plumbing leaks can be fixed with the right tools and the right parts. A kitchen sink leak has many culprits. We came across a leak the other day that was coming from the garbage disposal. The disposal itself wasn’t leaking, but the connection from the air gap hose was leaking.
The dishwasher drain goes up to the air gap, and then flows down to the garbage disposal. These are all places where a leak can develop. This particular leak happened because the hose from the air gap was connected by a zip tie. That was strange, as a zip tie doesn’t really have the strength to secure a hose to a fitting. The best way is a hose clamp.
A hose clamp is a circular band that tightens around the hose and the fitting it is attached to. It applies pressure all around the circumference of the hose. These clamps should be used where the dishwasher drain connects to the air gap inlet, where the air gap outlet connects to the discharge hose, and where the discharge hose connects to the disposal.
Hose clamps come in a variety of sizes for the job. You will need to slip the clamp over the hose and then push the hose onto the nipple or fitting that it is attaching to. Then tighten the clamp until snug.
