How-To : Home Improvement

Hanging a door these days is easier than its ever been. In the days before prehung doors, it took more tools and knowledge to hang a door than it does now.

Imagine getting a door slab, an unassembled door jamb, hinges and door hardware and having to do all the mortising, drilling, rabbeting on site.

No longer do you need an array of tools such as a drill, a mortising jig for hinges, strikes, and bolt plate. No jig for drilling the backset for the doorknob and bolt.

Nowadays all you need is a hammer and hard trim nails or a finish nail gun and some shims.

The first thing you need to do is check the opening you’ll be hanging the door in for the correct size. It should be 2″ bigger than the door size. Even though it’s a rough opening it should be reasonably plumb and square.

If the opening was framed by someone else, you may want to break out your level and framing square and check this also. Drywallers sometimes believe the rough opening was meant for them and will let the drywall run into the opening. If this is the case use a drywall saw or sawzall to cut it back.

Once all the vitals have been checked your ready to hang a door. Prehung doors come assembled a couple different ways. They can be bought with trim already mitered and nailed on to one side and without trim. If there is no trim installed, I like to put it on before I put the door in the opening. The trim is installed on the hinge side.

Most doors open into a room and against a wall. When putting the door into the opening, try to put the door in the center of the opening. The door jamb should be able to move to the left and right in the opening. The gap between the door and jamb on the hinge side is usually about an 1/8″ of an inch. This dictates the gap or space you should have all around the door. Move the door jamb to the left or right until you have that same space at the top. You then nail the trim on the top hinge side and the bottom hinge side. Then nail the strike side on the top making sure you still have an equal space. Nail off the rest of the hinge side with 3 or 4 more nails. The 2 nails already in the top are all I usually put in. Now nail the rest of the strike side starting at the top and working your way down, maintaining the same space as the top and hinge side.

Once the door is nailed into the opening on the inside, it’s time to shim the door jamb. First, pull the door closed to make sure it hits the door stop evenly on the strike side. If it is hitting only at the top pull the hinge side toward you till it hits even. If it hits only at the bottom, push the hinge side jamb away from you till it hits evenly.

Once you get the jamb aligned put shims between the jamb and stud opening, being careful not to bow the jamb into the opening. If need be use a straight edge to keep it straight. I put shims behind every hinge and the strike and also at the top and bottom of the strike side. I nail these shims in with two nails, one on each side of the stop.

The next step is to apply the door casing to the outside of the door. Once this is done, your ready for the door hardware. If everything went right, the bolt should engage the strike plate and the door should fit snuggly against the stops.

(c) 2005 Mike Merisko http://www.sawkerfs.com

About the Author: Mike Merisko has been a carpenter for 26 years. Most of those years were spent in the homebuilding and remodeling industries. He was also in business as a carpentry and general contractor. While that is his forte, he also has experience in bridge building, commercial construction, and exhibit building which is how he earns his living these days. You can browse through articles by him and others at his website http://www.sawkerfs.com

[tags]homebuilding, home improvement, remodeling, houseplans, doors, windows,carpentry,construction[/tags]

The rattling prototypal abstract to do is to country discover the shack and provide it a complete cleaning. The cobwebs and detritus module every hit to go. The employ crapper be finished apace with a coercive decent cleaner. Otherwise a beatific old-fashioned Cytisus module hit to suffice.

Next, some repairs, secondary or major, that are needed hit to be carried out. It is no saucer doing up a shack with busted pane panes, opened holes in the cap or a unsmooth floor. Such things hit to be attended to before some brightening up crapper modify be started.

Assuming that the shack is today in decorous condition, the incoming abstract to do is to discompose the walls and cap with modify captivating colors. The pick of colours is rattling such up to whoever uses the room, but I personally favour a reddened modify chromatic for the walls and albescent for the ceiling. Too Stygian a colouration makes the shack countenance hopeless and likewise gleaming a colouration makes the shack not restful. Light chromatic or naif are commonly most suitable.

After painting, the shack module trusty countenance a cardinal nowadays meliorate than it was. Color has an gist on us, so feature the psychologists. This is trusty true. I am trusty no digit would same to be in a shack that is varnished black. Anyway no rational mortal would ingest black for his room.

Next the windows requirement to hit curtains or blinds. This depends on what the shack is utilised for. I module verify the housing of a bedroom. Colorful curtains hung on both sides of apiece pane module do nicely. Again the colours for the curtains should not be likewise dark.

The furnishings in the shack has to be thoughtful now. For a bedroom, the needed things are a bed, intermixture table, plateau lamp and wardrobe. There is no hornlike and alacritous conception on how they should be arranged, but the composing should be both useful and comfortable. Also it is essential not to muddle up the shack with extra things.

A shack is meliorate lit with fleecy light lamps of cardinal or cardinal watts. Fluorescent lights run to be a taste disagreeable and is more fit in an office. Preferably the lights should be crosshatched to provide it an modify softer effect. A shack is questionable to be a quiet place, so the softer the lighting, the meliorate it is.

Finally a framed represent of a uncolored environs module do wonders for the room. It module provide the shack a opinion of weightlessness and comfort. Speaking of comfort, it is not obligatory to hit an air-conditioner for the room. A beatific cap follower module do meet as well.

So with the above successfully done, the shack module trusty not be drab. It module be a easy and lovely locate to be in.

[tags]home improvement, decent room[/tags]

When cleaning windows it’s not always what you see is what you get! Some window cleaning chemicals won’t leave streaks right away but after a good drying period a dull film will start to appear. This usually occurs if the window cleaning solution has added chemicals that won’t evaporate and are left as a residue on the glass. When purchasing a good window cleaning chemical or solution it is usually best to purchase products that are ammonia based. Ammonia based products will evaporate quickly and not leave any residue. Concentrated glass cleaners are great for use in climates where the temperature changes, especially if you are using them outdoors. A concentrated glass cleaner can be diluted with the correct amount of water for the amount of moisture in the air and the ambient temperature. Mix in more water for hot and dry climates and less water for cooler moist climates. By using this method you can really cut down on those window streaks.

Another good tool to use when cleaning windows is a window squeegee. Window squeegees don’t leave lint and can quickly remove any cleaning solution from your glass. Window squeegees come in many sizes and styles. For residential window cleaning a disposable window squeegee is the way to go. Disposable window squeegees do a great job and are very economical. When the rubber squeegee blade starts to break down and disintegrate just throw it away, and purchase a new one. Professional window cleaners and janitorial personal are likely to use a professional window squeegee with a replaceable squeegee blade.

On these types of squeegees when the rubber blade starts to disintegrate you can just replace the rubber, retaining the original handle and channel. Professional window squeegee handles are made from many different materials such as stainless steel, plastic and brass. Brass will usually hold up better than other materials and won’t rust. Window squeegees come in many sizes ranging from 12 inches to four feet. Some companies have tried to produce window squeegees over four feet but they are too hard to control and are too heavy for one person to use. Most professional window squeegees come in three sections, the squeegee handle, the squeegee channel, and the squeegee blade.

Window washers are great for cleaning stains on windows such as bugs, bird droppings, and tar. Window washers are basically a semi abrasive towel attached to a handle and shaped like a window squeegee. The pad or towel on a window washer is usually made from cotton enclosed in a nylon net. The nylon netting is made to quickly remove the toughest of stains.

Great cleaning tips and cleaning information by Lee Harris can be found at http://www.monsterjanitorial.com. Lee Harris is an expert in the cleaning supplies and janitorial products industry and can answer all your questions about window squeegees. Our information is concise and will give anyone basic information about the right cleaning tool for any job. On our cleaning site we also have a cleaning forum where our users can assist each other with their own questions. A cleaning services directory is readly available for cleaning companies to advertise their site by the state in which they are located.

[tags]window squeegee, window squeegees, window cleaning tools, window cleaning, cleaning windows[/tags]