There are three realistic materials for a ramp, and they are genuinely different products, not three prices for the same thing. Concrete The permanent answer. A poured ramp is a piece of the property, it reads as part of the house rather than as equipment, and with a correct subgrade it lasts as long as any other flatwork. Strengths: longest life, no maintenance beyond occasional sealing, no heat problem in summer if the color is reasonable, and it adds value rather than subt

Fences fail from the bottom. The boards outlive the posts, the posts outlive nothing, and when a fence goes over in a windstorm it almost never breaks in the middle of a panel — it goes at the ground line. Which means everything that matters about a fence happens in a hole that gets filled in on day one. The two ways a post fails Wood rots at the ground line. Not below it, where there is less oxygen, and not above it, where it dries. Right at the transition, where the wood is

Carpentry gets treated as one skill. On a real job site it is at least two, and the difference is not seniority — it is tolerance. For the wider map of carpentry specializations, see exploring carpenter specializations. This is about the distinction that decides who you should hire. The difference in one number Rough carpentry is measured in fractions of an inch. Finish carpentry is measured in fractions of a sixteenth, and the standard is whether a gap is visible from six fe

Video of Balcony collapse in Malibu, CA. This could be 100% prevented with preventive maintenance and an annual structural assessment.

Kitchen cabinets seem to be a really difficult build, but kitchen cabinets are super easy to build! Kitchen cabinets are nothing but wood boxes. When your budget is tight, but you need quality, the only option you may have is doing it yourself! Kitchen cabinets can be a very expensive item, and low cost options are very limited. If you buy some Chinese-made brands of cabinets, all that you are going to get is some particle board boxes stapled together. Those fall apart in a f

When you decide to embark on a small home improvement project, a little help may change the odds from a failed DIY to a successful one-of-a-kind project. Success is priceless! In the video below, we show how a small shelf installation on a window sill can turn into a whole renovation, when success empowers you. Just book a job assessment if you feel that any DIY project may be more than you can chew. More is always More On DIY Projects With Our Help: When you test a finish te

HPOZ for those who accidentally fell upon this page, means Historical Preservation Overlay Zone. For those who purposely searched and found us here, this acronym is the theme of many nightmares of homeowners in certain areas in Los Angeles, especially if you seek to get HPOZ approval, and get permits to accomplish any construction or renovations on you property. Historical Preservation Overlay Zones are not only found in Los Angeles, in fact these areas are also found all ove

There are many lessons to learn in the building contracting business, even if you think that you have already learned all of them, there will always be a new one lurking around the corner. This job is going well as planned, we are building some partition walls, installing hospital-style track for curtains, installing one door and one window. It all seems simple and straight forward enough, so when we drew the work agreement and had the client sign it, we never thought that, s

Stabilizing And Repairing: Sometimes replacing rotted wood isn’t an option. In conserving historic buildings, for example, the goal is to preserve as much of the original “architectural fabric” as possible. Stabilizing deteriorated wood with epoxy is often the only choice. Epoxies consist of resin and hardener that are mixed just before use. Liquids for injection and spatula-applied pastes are available. After curing, epoxy-stabilized wood can be shaped with regular woodworki

Recommendations from The Ultimate Handyman In damp crawl spaces or other places where water is likely to appear, replace decayed members with preservative treated wood. The major model building code agencies -BOCAI, ICBO, and SBCCI- require that treated wood be used for sills and sleepers on concrete or masonry in ground contact, for joists within 18 in. of the ground, for girders within 12 in. of the ground, and for columns embedded in the ground supporting permanent structu

The first and most important thing to do once decay is discovered, is to figure out where it started. If it is not wood destroying insects, it is water. So we have to figure out where the water is coming from and fix the leak or water penetration. If it is insect damage, call professional exterminators first! For water damage, in order to check for the origin of the problem, start by checking for the obvious – roof and plumbing leaks, and missing or punctured flashing. If the