Remove Sag from a Gate

The toughest part of building a fence is almost always the gate. Adding a gate means additional posts and dealing with the hardware, and they usually require finicky measurements and additional planning. Worst of all, about forty-five minutes after you install them the darned things start to sag and warp. Well, at least my gates do.

The gate in the Houston house's back yard became unhinged during Hurricane Ike a few weeks before we moved in, and the previous owner did such a lousy repair job that I had to replace his replacement within a couple of years. The replacement gate fit fine and I did a good enough construction job that it doesn't sag, but the BigBox lumber I used to build it began to warp seemingly within minutes, causing a serious case of gaposis near the top. I decided that a set of eye bolts, some cable and a turnbuckle would straighten it out, so I returned to my local BigBox store where I'd bought the lumber (blue, not orange). There on the hardware aisle I found a National Zinc Anti-Sag Gate Kit (V-852) and brought it home.

Patch Holes in Subfloor (or Drywall)

As much as we adore our furry friends, sometimes  they make a mess. One of the biggest messes any of our dogs ever made was the time she knocked over a lit floor lamp, which somehow managed to stay lit instead of shattering. It took some time, but the 150-watt bulb melted clear through the carpet and pad, eventually charring a perfectly circular three-inch hole in the subflooring of our upstairs. We came home to a house filled with smoke and a two Labradors cowering in the back yard – no flames, though, so no visit from the fire department.

So… how do you patch a hole in the floor? Well, here’s how I did it…

Unstick Stuck Windows

Old houses are special for their charm and character, but they also have special problems. An annoyance regularly encountered by people who buy or rent in old buildings is the stuck window. These windows stick closed for several reasons, but one common reason is that they've been painted shut. If you've found yourself battling stuck windows, here's some help to get fresh air back in your life.

Window Anatomy

Windows with panels that move up and down are called "sash windows." The panels, or sashes, move in channels that keep them from falling into the room or the back yard. The lower sash is held in place by thin strips of molding on either side called the inner stops.

Some sash windows are single-hung, meaning only the bottom sash moves. This is more common in houses with central air-conditioning. Older houses are more likely to have double-hung windows, where both top and bottom sashes move. If your top sash doesn't move, look at the inside of the frame: if there isn't a channel or groove to let the window slide, it isn't moving because it isn't supposed to. If there's a channel, you'll find two more molding strips that separate the channels for the sashes. These are called parting strips.

Many sashes are been frozen in place by paint that fills the spaces between the sashes and the molding. It's fairly easy to remove this paint if there aren't too many layers.

Replace Valve Packing in a Hose Bibb

Next to replacing the toilet flapper doohickey, the leaky faucet is probably the most common household plumbing repair. Kitchen and bathroom faucets come in an astonishing selection of styles and a bewildering array of valve types, but once you've gone through the repair process once (or twice), shutting down a leak with a new washer or a cartridge rebuild is actually pretty easy. That's for indoor faucets, however: those tough, utilitarian outdoor faucets (actual names, hose bibs or bibbs) are different, however. When one of them leaks, it may not be a worn-out washer: it might be the valve packing.

"The what?" you may ask.

Valve Packing

A hose bibb consists of a simple valve, usually brass, that screws into a molded metal body. To prevent leakage around the valve stem, bibbs are designed so that soft, waterproof material seals against the stem. This is what's called valve packing. When packing wears out, which it eventually does, the bibb starts leaking at the stem. Leaky packing is different from a worn-out washer, which allows water to leak out of the spout.

Be Your Own Fuel Economy Calculator

We're not here to talk about how improving gas mileage or to complain about the difference between EPA mileage estimates and what you really get. We may get to that some other time, but for now you'll have to look elsewhere.

This is a plain old arithmetic class that I'd like to think will help people calculate their own gas mileage (AKA "fuel economy" or "MPG"). It doesn't make sense to say that it costs $50 to fill your car's tank, because 1) the tank capacity isn't the same from vehicle to vehicle and 2) the distance since the last fill-up varies, too. This is - like I said - a tutorial: