Pro Handyman Blog

If you are getting ready to do some painting, caulking will make your life easier and make your project look better. The benefits of caulking are apparent when you are changing colors at a transition.

Having multiple colors on a wall and trim has always been very popular. We’ve all seen model homes where the molding is white and the wall is, for example, coffee color. It looks great and caulking plays a role in the nice appearance.

When baseboard is installed, there will be a separation between the wall and the top of the baseboard. If the wall is textured (and most are) it will be nearly impossible to get a crisp clean line separating the two colors of paint. This is where caulking saves the day. Using paintable caulking, lay down a thin bead at this separation. Less is better. Use a caulking gun and cut the tip of the caulking tube at a 45-degree angle at the 1/8” line. Gently squeeze a small amount along the length of the top of the baseboard. Then go back, wet your finger, and smooth out the line by slightly pushing as you drag your finger along the edge. Do not lift your finger until you get to the corner or you will have a noticeable mark when you paint.

Let everything dry and then you can paint the area. Use painter’s tape to mark out the paint line. Place the edge of the tape on the caulking and when you lift the tape after painting you will have a perfect line.

A homeowner called to get a bathroom exhaust fan vent repaired. He had a home inspection and found that the fan was just blowing air into the attic. Exhausting warm moist air into the attic isn’t good. He needed to get this repaired as a condition of the sale.

It came to pass that the exhaust hose had come apart from the exhaust fan. This was a simple matter of resecuring it with a large hose clamp. Problem solved. There are lots of other ways that a vent can break or tear. You typically see these problems where the hose connects to a fitting or changes directions. It’s not the most common thing to see a tear in the hose, although pests and vermin can chew a hole in them. If that is the case, you can either replace that section of hose, or use metal tape to repair it if the hole isn’t too large.

The hose clamp is a good solution in the event the hose becomes disconnected. Hoses are a cheaper method of venting. You may see hard metal vents running from the unit, these can be fixed using sheet metal screws and metal tape. Due to the rigidity of these vents, it is rare to see them separate.

A pedestal sink is typically a two piece sink. The bowl sits on a base and until everything becomes tied together, it can be a little wobbly. It’s a good idea to mark the location of each piece.

Set the sink base in the approximate location near the wall and then set the bowl on top of it. It will be a slightly unsteady until you support it with the wall. Use a level and level the bowl front to back and side to side. This is the time to make adjustments to the position of the base and the bowl. When you move the base you will need to adjust the position of the bowl. Once everything is in position it will be fairly stable. Make sure you are happy with the positioning and use a pencil and mark the outline of the base on the floor. Also mark the position of the mounting holes for the bowl. You won’t see the pencil lines for the mounting holes like you would if you marked around the perimeter of the bowl.

Once the position is marked out, you can remove the bowl and base. Use an adhesive product to stick the base to the floor. I like adhesive caulking, but I know people that use silicone. You can also use adhesive between the sink bowl and base, and between the sink bowl and wall. A wet finger will smooth the transition at these points. You will have to secure the sink bowl to the wall through the mounting holes underneath using screws and washers or lag bolts with washers. Just make sure you secure it into lumber.

It always seems to come down to the price, whether you are buying a faucet or a widget. So if you are buying a faucet, should you buy a quality popular brand (Moen, Delta, Price Pfister, etc.) or a cheaper imitation?

It is usually the case that you get what you pay for, and in my opinion that certainly holds true for faucets. I once installed a brand new faucet that was a cheap imitation. I paid 60% less for that faucet than if it had been a name brand. It leaked as soon as I turned the water back on…a seam in the faucet body was leaking and unrepairable. I blew an extra hour of my day replacing it with a quality faucet.

As a person that performs repairs on faucets, it is all about the parts. Cheap faucets have tons of cheap plastic parts. Although the styling is similar, you can feel it and it is inferior with plastic where chrome should be. Name brand faucets usually offer lifetime guarantees and if you contact them they will send you replacement parts for their faucets. For free.

When a problem develops with a cheap faucet, the parts are more difficult to get. In some cases you need to go to a plumbing supply company and possibly order the parts. With the hassle and time involved, you start to consider if it is even worth it. Since you paid so little for the faucet, maybe you just replace it (again). Only this time, you might consider replacing it with a major brand.

Most of us have been tenants at one point, and that means filling holes in drywall. Landlords want the house returned to them in a rentable condition and the less they have to do, the more of your deposit you will get back. Filling nail holes in drywall takes very little time and is something most landlords expect.

Spackle is lightweight and dries quickly; typically you can paint in 15 minutes. Filling nail holes can go quickly if you are careful about applying the spackle.

I use as little spackle as is necessary to fill the hole. Remember, these holes are very small and so you don’t need much spackle. You want to avoid creating a bigger eyesore than the hole already does. I would rather see a small nail hole rather than a 2 inch smear on the wall from spackle. If the wall is textured, you will be left with a big flat spot in the middle of a textured wall, when all that was wrong was a tiny nail hole.

Use a small putty knife (a big putty knife will encourage you to use too much). Get a little spackle on the corner of the putty knife and push it into the hole. The idea is to fill the hole so that it is flush with the surrounding surface without getting spackle on the surrounding surface. I know, easier said than done. Spackle is water based, and if you do get a blob of it on the wall, use a damp sponge and wipe it off. If you are lucky, you won’t need to touch up the paint. By the way, in a pinch you can use toothpaste as a nail hole filler.

Having a microwave hood is a great feature. It sits right under your wall cabinet directly over your cook top or stove. When it is installed correctly it looks great, but how do you fix a gap in between the bottom of the cabinet and the top of the microwave?

The microwave hood sits on a bracket that is screwed into the wall. The brunt of the weight and stability rests on this wall bracket. The power cord gets threaded through a hole in the cabinet above it. The final adjustment is closing this gap between the microwave and the cabinet.

If you look in the cabinet above the microwave, you will see a screwhead near the front of the opening. This screwhead is attached to a bolt that goes through the bottom of the cabinet and into the top of the microwave. The purpose of the bolt is to hold the front of the microwave and adjust the gap. By turning the screw clockwise, you will close the gap. Always support the microwave from below as you turn the screw, as this will make raising the microwave easier. You want to turn the screw just enough to close the gap. Don’t over tighten the screw.

If you are going to tile a shower or bathtub surround, the age-old question becomes whether you should use green board or cement board as backing. You will get different answers depending upon who you ask.

Greenboard is a water resistant drywall. It has a waxy surface that repels water better than regular drywall. I’m told by people in the know that it also has a water resistant gypsum core. It is lighter than cement board and therefore easier to move around; it is also easier to cut than cement board.

If it were my shower, I would install cement board. Yes it is heavy and slightly more difficult to cut (although you can score and snap it), but it is tough. I have seen green board turn to mush.

Whichever you choose, the installation is very important. Make sure you leave a gap between the shower pan or bathtub lip. After the tile is installed on the backing, the gap is caulked. This gap will make it so that if water gets by the caulking, it won’t wick up the backing and cause damage.

Cement board is also known as “durock” and has specific screws to use to fasten it to wall studs. There are markings on the cement board for spacing of these screws.

Hanging a corkboard in drywall isn’t difficult. Corkboard is very light and is typically used to hang papers or pictures on, so it shouldn’t need to support a lot of weight. You can buy a corkboard at an office supply store.

Most corkboards have reinforced corners you can screw through to install into drywall. Although the reinforcements are made of plastic, since there if very little weight hanging on the board, should be sufficient to hold the board to the wall.

Whenever possible, you should mount the corkboard into a wall stud. You may get lucky and get a stud on each side of the board, but don’t count on it. If you don’t have a wall stud where you are mounting the board, you can use a wall anchor. I have even used just course threaded drywall screws (only if very little weight will be supported).

Install one of the top corners into the drywall and then set a level on top of the board. Swing the board up or down to get it level and then secure the other top corner. Once the top has been secured, secure the bottom two corners into the wall. Just make sure you are screwing through the reinforcements so that the corkboard won’t rip.

If you are looking to replace your faucet handles, the biggest question I get is “how do I remove them?”. It’s really easy once you know the story.

Faucet manufacturers make replacement hardware specific for their faucets only. In other words, you generally can’t install a Moen handle on a Delta faucet. The pattern of each is different from the other. If you have a replacement handle for your fixture and it is from the same manufacturer, you should be looking at a 10 minute job.

The trick is figuring out how the handle is held to the faucet. The handle is typically held in place by a screw under a cap on the handle, or a small setscrew near the base of the handle.

Look at the top of the handle for a seam. Although it may not look like it, you should be able to get a screwdriver into the seam and pry off the cap. Under the cap is the screw that holds the handle to the faucet.

If you don’t have a cap, look for a small indention at the base of the handle. You may need a flashlight to see the small setscrew inside the indention. Use an Allen wrench and loosen the screw and the handle should pop off.

Once the handle has been removed, you can install the new handle and tighten the screw.

If your sink stopper in your bathroom sink won’t raise back up, you likely have a broken pivot rod in the drain assembly. The sink stopper is plastic, and the pivot rod is made of metal. The pivot rod corrodes and the end, which is subjected to the stress of raising and lowering the sink stopper, breaks off. Gravity takes over and the sink stopper falls into the sink drain which stops the sink from draining.

This can all be corrected by replacing the pivot rod. The pivot rod goes through the end of the stopper on one side. The other side is connected to the handle on top of the faucet. When you lift the handle, the pivot rod engages the stopper and pulls it down to stop the flow of water. Pushing the handle down raises the stopper and allows water to pass.

You will have to disconnect the pivot rod from the handle and unscrew the cap nut that holds the pivot rod to the drain assembly. Pull the old one out and place the new pivot rod into the hole making sure to engage the sink stopper. You may have to slightly raise the stopper to engage it. Replace the cap nut and reconnect the lift handle and your problems should be solved.