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Archive for the ‘home repairs’ Category
Bath Tub Fixtures (WHY)
After a long day, one of the things you would be craving for is a warm long bath. A great bath tub can become your best friend at the end of the day. Many people upgrade their tubs with bath tub faucets to make it more delightful to use. Increasing the value of their largest investment, Real Estate. Nowadays, bath tub faucets come in all shapes and sizes so you have countless of options to choose from.
One of the newest things in this industry today is the touch faucet innovation. Some of the touch faucet brands in the market today are Delta and Kohler. The Delta 980T - SSSD is equipped with the latest Touch 20 technology and is one of the leading products in the market. The price of Delta touch sensor faucet in Amazon is $348. Listed at the original price of $585, you would be able to save around $40 when you purchase it in Amazon. It has a Pilar design which was inspired by technology and nature combined. It also features a Magnatite spray head to secure tight fit. Additionally, this product also boasts its Diamond Seal technology which utilizes an electronic valve along with a diamond coating, making it more durable and guaranteed to last a lifetime.
If you want a Zen-styled bathroom, a faucet Asian waterfall nickel sink would be the best way to go. You can find one in Amazon, like the model SV15, which is an oriental inspired bathroom sink and faucet that sells for $425. This product has marble sink which is handcrafted and a brushed nickel faucet finish. The sink is about 1″ thick and colored black and grey. The product includes a pop up drain and a limited lifetime warranty. Bath tub faucets with an Asian design will also go along well with a Zen inspired bathroom. Vintage themes are also popular. You can add vintage glass fixtures for bathroom or look for modern floor mount bathtub faucets if you want a contemporary, modern look.
For a modern styled bathroom, most people choose ceiling mount tub fillers or custom ceiling tub faucets with a contemporary sleek modern finish. This is one of the most unique kinds of bath tub faucets ever thought of. A bath faucet from ceiling mounts is a great statement of modern style. You can find the Kohler K922 CP ceiling mount bath filler at Amazon for $323.86. The product has a solid brass construction and a polished chrome finish for more durability and resistance to tarnish and corrosion. It has a 2 centimeter orifice and weighs about 5.6 lbs. This product can be used for dual purposes. Aside from filling your tub, it can also be used as a shower. The minimalist style is also the modern style so if you want this kind of bathroom, don’t overdo decorations and fixtures. Look for fittings that possess simplicity and clean finishes.
Bath tub faucets, no matter what design, should complement and match the overall look of your bathroom. Before buying a faucet that interests you, think about the kind of look you want to achieve first. Compare the different styles that you want and canvas on some of the things you need to buy. Remember, you don’t have to spend too much and hire a contractor or decorator for this. Just have in mind the right idea, and the great products to go along with it.
Xypex diy waterproffing
How to waterproof a masonry blockwall , with a stucco finish painted, often the paint appears to create bubble pockets and destroy the visual surface. Retaining walls in yards have garden beds that require weekly watering and irrigation, but even when french drain systems are implemented, the concrete masonry block wall soak’s up and absorbs the moisture. As the moisture filters through the wall it is slowly breaking down causing water damage and destroying the integrity of the structural block wall. 
Xypex crystaline Concentrate is designed to work as long as the is intact, we have used this process on either the positive or the negative side of painted block wall surfaces. For repairs of existing finishes, all the painted finish coat must get removed. Small jack hammer or pneumatic chisel, the paint and the finish float coat, as well as the brown coat gets demoed off. Any cracks or deteriorated openings need to be treaty and filled prior to the Xypex application. Hairline cracks won’t be affected, but any 1/8″ or larger cannot allow the Xypex formula to perform it’s magic.
Once the demolition process is complete, a slurry mix of Xypex concentrate can be sprayed or brushed on, the thicker the better. After curing is complete a finish stucco can be reapplied to desired appearance. If being painted again, the paint has to be breathable and not an elastomeric sealer or the like. Be sure to consult your local codes and read all instructions pertaining to products used.
1/2″ ply DIY
The average home will be sheathed with a 3 ply 1/2″ cdx plywood that can span 24″ centers for the roof rafters, 1/2″ plywood has been facilitated in home construction roofs for quite some time, and generally found the least expensive common sheeted material in your local lumber yards and home improvement stores. 
Are you a commercial CADS manager?
Plywood is a manufactured wood, made by gluing together a number of thin veneers or plies of softwood or hardwood. A common reason for using plywood instead of plain wood is its resistance to cracking, shrinkage, twisting/warping, and its general high degree of strength. Also, plywood can be manufactured in sheets far wider than the trees from which it was made. It has replaced many dimensional lumber on construction applications for these reasons.
Another 1/2″ plywood product most generally used on panelized roof systems, or commercial construction roofs such as Wal-Marts or Home Depot roof structures, where 3-1/8″x 18″ sub laminate [glu-lams] beams spanning 20′ or so, between larger Glu-lams that can span 40′ or so. These mini lams are on an 8′ centers layout with 2x stiffeners, 24″ centers, fastened with hardware [stiffy hangers] and then sheathed with a 1/2″ struct one plywood sheet, this material is a 5 ply material that can span length wise over 2 foot centers with the ability to not flex much or give under normal live load weights. Plywood has certainly change building norms, and in some cases fire retardant when called for. Next time standing in line at your busy home improvement warehouse store, look up and you will see exactly what we are saying here….
DIY Xypex systems
The best is here and now, we use Xypex to waterproof from the positive or negative sides of block walls that have been painted and their products work like nothing else on the market. Read further that even the President agrees with this newer waterproofing method, who knows how much he may know about building and construction methods? But we know here at My-diy that its works, over and over ……….
Remarks by President Obama concerning:
“NEW CONCRETE MATERIALS THAT LAST LONGER AND ARE WATERPROOFED FROM THE INSIDE OUT...”
At a press conference on July 2nd, 2009 in the Rose Garden of The White House, President Obama, after meeting with CEOs from a number of “innovative energy companies”, spoke about a new clean energy economy and the importance of encouraging these companies’ efforts.
Based on his discussions with these CEOs, President Obama cited energy saving examples such as LED lighting and solar energy innovation. Most importantly, from our point of view, he also included comments about new concrete materials:
“New concrete materials that last longer and are waterproofed from the inside out, and that can mean that bridges and roads and buildings can last 20 or 30 years longer than using conventional concrete.”
His comment indeed represents support for integral concrete waterproofing as an alternative to traditional membrane or barrier systems, a challenge and opportunity that has been the very basis of the concept, design and development of Xypex crystalline technology. Xypex has, without doubt, led the way with integral concrete waterproofing in North America and, although The President did not endorse any particular product, we are very pleased that he is so clearly drawing attention to our type of technology and innovation.
D’Arcy Mainwaring
President
A Stucco NO! NO!
Here is a stucco no, no! In this photo, the simple project of combining a stair stepped yard border line, the walkway below the cedar 1×6 dog eared fence is poured in place and has the treated 4×4 fence post’s set during that concrete placement.
The public sidewalk was poured on the graded slope so 2 elevations are the challenge. Stucco exterior finish was the call at all the concrete below the fencing, the proper approach would have avoided this problem, cement materials cannot adhere to wood for any length of time, but the answer is adding some stucco lathe screen or wire fastened to the post to allow the stucco brown coat some tooth to grab and hang onto for life!
This property is located in Redondo Beach CA, where the homes median price range is over $700 k, and 10 years ago even in this current market the ROI has more than doubled. Location, location, location kids, but the name of the game is real estate anywhere has proven to beat any stock market over time…
Dads Dig Drills
Father’s Day is just around the corner and I am still debating on what to get my Dad for Christmas. Usually I buy him socks or aftershave, but this year I have a little more money to spend and I want to get him something better. A friend suggested I browse a selection on power tools and the web and I agreed.
When I first started looking at the power tools, I was amazed at the variety. I never had any idea that there were some many tools to do so many things with. I decided to choose a drill for Dad. He was always working on DIY home repairs, so I knew he would put it to good use.
DIY smooth coat stucco
Having been in this vocation for an awful long time, working mainly on high end real estate, estates on the southern coast of California, where quality and service is mandatory, the market is always changing. In this cyclical environment, the home improvement industries have to reinvent themselves to catch a lucky break. But some companies will survive without needin any such luck, by offering the best in there fields.
Stucco means little to most of us, but the artisans that use and perform exterior plastering on perhaps just about any type of dwelling, know the difference between La Habra products or Mission stucco produce many colors, lines and textures. Cal Dorado though has the purest smooth coating product out, that we have found. With there 30/60 ratio, the higher the numbers the finer the sand for a super smooth easy application over your walls brown coat. An 1/8″ covering of any color you can dream of. Cal Dorado is one product stucco line that we here champion for, the new rich in the world of quality built real estate homes.
Fix it Now
Whatever may be in disrepair around your home will eventually need quite a bit more attention as time elapses. Does your rain gutter hold water from 2 weeks ago when it last rained? As much as we would love to ignore this fact, what you may not realize that the nearest seam is breaking down and starting to leak, could be a small drip straight to the front porch or it might just be working its way through the fascia board and rotting away at the roof’s eave or a few rafter tails. Hence causing more dry rot and or concrete water damage than the earlier quick minor repair, sealing the rain gutter.
Procrastination isn’t the name of the game if we really ever want to get anywhere folks, a buck ahead for that proverbial rainy day and or as Napoleon Hill once wrote “money conscious or poverty conscious” which way is your mind taking you? Another marketing genius and extremely successful self made entrepreneur, is Jeffrey Combs and his whole mantra is about already being instead of waiting to be, it all begins at that perception of ” somethings else that needs to be done as a home improvement project” when it should be thought of as ” protecting the biggest investment in your portfolio”. See you at the new rich extravaganza !!
Thoughts will become things
Every now and then again we will find ourselves fixed on an idea, thought or premonition. And with the constant bombardment of commercialism, media news and advertising surrounding our lives how can this not be? When Andrew Carnegie figured a way to fabricate mountain ores into a battleship, this perhaps did not happen overnight, rather starting as an idea and slowly manifesting into something tangible. The power of your brains or thoughts as well as opposing thumbs can be the sole difference from man to animal.
Many a day and night we have all struggled to grasp and hold onto a simple life changing decision such as maybe “how am i going to stop that leak?” well we here are living flesh that, given all the elements of any equation, the human mind still has to concentrate to a point to enable a solution, think-think-think using your mind is the greatest gift that any one God will have ever granted. An education is imperative, no doubt, but having a masters degree in any field, still requires a plow…..
Rain Gutter dilemma’s
Average homeowners throughout this world can now relax and need not to fret any longer about their rain gutters. With the expansive widths of the average fronts of our homes, my experience here lies in the fact that rain gutters cannot perform as designed. ![no push causing malice [mosquitos/ dryrot / water damage]](http://www.my-diy-blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/thumbnail-23.jpg "no push causing malice [mosquitos/ dryrot / water damage]")
Water has to have a 1/4″ per foot slope to jettison the moisture to the down spout at the end, and not a sole likes to see a highly noticeable crooked rain gutter attached to the front of their homes. It appears wrong and anti symmetrical, common fascia board widths consist of 4″ to 12″ heights while, after installation causing a loss in fascia profiles when buried by drip edge flashing and shingle overhangs accentuating this dilemma.
I’m launching an all new and improved rain gutter marketing campaign that will easily and virtually correct and eliminate all of these aforementioned appearance and functionality problems. Take this opportunity now and tell me your stories of and why this may inexpensively be of service.
Napoleon Hill, Charles Hannel, Henry Ford, Tim Ferriss etc., all these great men that have changed many lives and authored books on self development, championed the fine art of mastermind groups to create change for all as well as a way to wealth through the laws of nature. “success requires no explanations, failure permits no alibis”