How Wide Should I Make My Carport? Planning Your Next Project

Whether you live in a home with or without a garage, you might be thinking about building a new carport. You've came to the right place and by the time you're done reading this article, you should have acquired a little more valuable information for your next home remodeling project.

Some homeowners install carports in front of their garage, on the side of their homes or even in their driveway. Car ports can be built anywhere on your property, as long as you have enough room and access to these areas for a car to be parked safely.

The most important thing to remember, when building a carports, is the width that will be required to park your vehicle underneath it. You will need to allow plenty of room, so that you will be able to access your vehicle comfortably.

There are plenty of carports, all over the country that are built right next to something, like a retaining wall, the side of your home or even another garage. I myself have parked in carports that were too small and over a period of time became an annoying inconvenience.

The minimum width that I would build any carport would be 10 foot wide, if you're going to build your carport next to a building, I would suggest that you park your car, open your door and measure the width of your car, with your door open.

This will give you a comfortable width for building your new carport. This is the best advice I could give anyone, who is planning on building a carport.

Garage Building Tips

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Greg Vandenberge is working on the internet to promote the education for creating simple to follow guides and home building books to help professional building contractors as well as the weekend warriors. He has just finished a Home Buyers Guide to take some of the frustration out of home shopping.

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Basic Home Electrical Wiring - For the Do it Yourself Home Electrician

The Green Bay Packers were one of the most successful football teams and Vince Lombardi said something to them that I will never forget," This is a football." All the football players laughed and he said that we're going to start with the basics and that's what I'm going to do, with this article.

Let's start with our electrical wire, the two most common electrical wire sizes, that will be used in most homes, will be 14 and 12 gauge electrical wire. Let's clear something up, right off the bat, the smaller the number, the larger the wire. In other words a 12 gauge electrical wire is a little bit larger and will carry more electricity, for longer distances than a 14 gauge wire.

What about electrical outlet plugs? These plugs are usually the same, except for the fact that they come in different colors. When I said that most electrical plugs are the same, I'm talking about your standard wall outlet plug. There are different electrical plugs that will be used for air conditioners and some kitchen appliances like 220 Volt electric stoves and ovens.

What about your home's light switches? Your standard two way light switch will usually turn a one light on or a group of lights on, from one location. A three way light switch will usually turn one light on or a group of lights on from two different locations. A four way light switch, will usually turn one light or a group of lights on from three different locations.

It doesn't get any more basic than that. I hope this gives you a better understanding about your home's electrical system.

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Greg Vandenberge is working on the internet to promote the education for creating simple to follow guides and home building books to help professional building contractors as well as the weekend warriors. He has just finished a Home Buyers Guide to take some of the frustration out of home shopping.

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Plywood Roof Sheeting - Roof Framing Trade Secrets

Most framing contractor's look at the building plans and order all of the material, according to those that are specified on the plans. This works out fine, and can often save you money, but rarely produces the best home that you could possibly frame.

As a professional framing contractor, I would like to share one of my house framing tips with you. Most plans require half-inch plywood or oriented strand board as their roof sheeting. This product is fine and if you're building a lot of homes, you're not going to have the choice. Ordering larger sized plywood could cost you thousands of dollars, especially if you're building a lot of homes.

However, if your framing or building a home for someone or even yourself, you might want to take my advice and think twice about it, before ordering the roof sheeting. Half-inch plywood, works okay for 16 inch on center roof rafters or engineered truss roofing systems. It doesn't work well on 24 inch on center roof rafters spacing.

It is usually flimsy and weak at the center point, directly in between the 24 inch roof rafter bays. If you're going to use the half-inch plywood, I would recommend using plywood clips that are relatively inexpensive and can be placed in the direct center of each roof rafter bay on each sheet of plywood. These can be purchased at most home improvement centers or lumber yards.

The other alternative, and this is what I recommend, would be to use 5/8 inch plywood. This plywood works great for 24 inch on center roof rafters and you will have a nice sturdy roof to walk on, while roofing your home.

I have actually seen people step through the flimsy plywood, while lifting heavy roof tiles and bundles of composition roof shingles. Experienced roofers try to walk directly on top of the roof rafters, when loading their roof shingles or even carrying them on the roof.

If you're a home builder and your concern is about making a profit, you will need to use the half-inch plywood. If you want to build a superior roof, use the 5/8 of an inch plywood.

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Retaining Walls Suffer From Moisture Problems

Whether you're driving down the road or through a neighborhood and you notice a retaining wall that has large cracks in it, or is severely discolored, or one that has white calcium deposits from moisture covering the entire wall, you've got problems with moisture.

The retaining wall is designed to hold the dirt back, that's it's sole purpose. It's not going to hold any moisture back unless someone has installed a waterproofing membrane to separate the soil from the concrete block wall. If the soil isn't ever going to get wet, then you probably don't need to waterproof the retaining wall.

However that's normally not going to be the case. So we need to waterproof the interior of our retaining walls to eliminate future moisture problems that could eventually, deteriorate as moisture starts to accumulate, inside of our block wall for a longer periods of time.

If you don't know anything about waterproofing, I would suggest that you hire a waterproofing expert. Waterproofing looks easier than it actually is, and might be out of your scope of work.

I'm not going to suggest that you use waterproofing paints, because I haven't seen great results with these products. However, if you're not that concerned about your retaining wall and are looking for a cheaper way to apply any waterproofing materials, these paints might not be a bad idea. Sometimes, Something is better than nothing.

If you live in a relatively dry climate, it might not be necessary to waterproof your retaining walls. But if you live in a damp or moist area, especially an area where the ground is moist all year round or more than six months out of the year, I would suggest that you waterproof the back of your retaining walls.

If you're really interested in basement remodeling and repairs, you should click on this link House Basement Repair Ideas. Get some great home repair advice that can make a big difference on any of your home remodeling projects.

Dryer Vent In Basement Window.

Greg Vandenberge is working on the internet to promote the education for creating simple to follow guides and home building books to help professional building contractors as well as the weekend warriors. He has just finished a Home Buyers Guide to take some of the frustration out of home shopping.

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10 Things a Homeowner Won't Tell a Contractor - Common Courtesy

I've been a contractor in the state of California for over 20 years and there are some things that a homeowner won't tell a contractor. These are a few things that a contractor might want to hear, but a reluctant homeowner, might have second thoughts telling their contractors how they really feel.

1. We are happy with all of the work that you did in a timely manner and we appreciate your services.

2. We are happy with the way you performed your construction tasks, efficiently and we appreciate your services.

3. The work was done by a true professional and we would recommend you to any one of our friends.

4. The payment plan that you created in the contract worked out perfectly and never made us feel uncomfortable. It never seemed like you had too much of our money or we were putting you in a bad spot financially.

5. Thanks for keeping the job clean, it meant a lot to us, because we have seen other construction jobs that look like a tornado ran through them.

6. Thanks for helping us with our design. Working with your contractor on a daily, weekly or monthly basis can be frustrating or joyful. Let the contractor know either way how you are really feeling.

7. You and your crew are extremely hard-working and we appreciate the simple fact that you didn't come to work late or leave early.

8. Thanks for the reasonable priced estimate on our project. You helped us say a lot of money and we appreciate that sincerely.

9. Thanks for doing the extra work at a reasonable price. You could have gouged us at certain times, but you chose to be fair and work things out, in a way that would benefit both of us.

10. This one is the most important and often overlooked by homeowners and it's simple and easy to do. Thanks for doing what you said you were going to do and actually doing it.

Just a simple thank you and paying them on time, for a service well done is enough for most contractors. However, a little common courtesy can go a long way, even in the construction industry.

If You Live in Northern San Diego County or South Orange County, and You're Looking for a Great Contractor, Click on This Link Home Remodeling Contractor

Greg Vandenberge is working on the internet to promote the education for creating simple to follow guides and home building books to help professional building contractors as well as the weekend warriors. He has just finished a Home Buyers Guide to take some of the frustration out of home shopping.

Click here if you're looking for additional Homeowner Contractor Advice. If you're interested in gathering more information on how to hire a good contractor, make sure that you visit our website.

Building Codes - Stairway Construction

The stair building code was created for building safety. Before the building code and local city enforcement (Building Inspectors), anyone could build a house. This meant Uncle Earl who had just watched a couple of his friends build a house down the street construct some sort of a dwelling. The next step for Earl would be to help these guys for a day and now he is a professional home builder. You get the point.

Stair Building Codes create the safety needed for one of the most hazardous areas of your home. You might know someone who has fallen down a stairway?

I lived in a house I built for 15 years and I redesigned the stairs from a winder design to a T shaped set of stairs. Both sets of stairs were built using the local stair building code for my city.

Wow I could not believe how many times my family members fell down the stairs. I even fell down once. I was amazed. When I switched from the winder to the T shaped stairway there were less accidents. My point is that even using the stair building codes this is a dangerous part of your house.

Having a professional stair builder install your stairs is great advice. Take it. For example this happened to me on quite a few jobs. I get a set of plans from a architect who has been designing houses for over 40 years. I looked at the stairway to find out that he has designed a stairway that is too small for the length of this part of the home. If I build the stairs using the plans that by the way were approved from the local building department, I could have a problem.

You are probably asking yourself how does this happen. Aren't these people experienced professionals. Of course they are. They probably have the U.B.C. (Uniform Building Code) in their office somewhere. Everyone makes mistakes here and there but this is one area of the home where safety is a big concern.

Just look at it like this. The stair building code was designed to improve the safety and reduce the number of accidents while using the stairs. Over the years I have seen stairs poorly designed and constructed. These stairs create problems for the owners of the buildings not just the people that use them. Did I mention lawsuits. This is one area where a lawyer will have a field day.

As a building professional I advise you to use the stair building code first for safety and second to avoid lawsuits. Get an idea from some of the pictures I have taken over the years on problems with stair building.

Use common sense while building or remodeling your home. It goes a long way.

Greg Vandenberge is working on the internet to promote the education for creating simple to follow guides and home building books to help professional building contractors as well as the weekend warriors. He is currently working on more building stairs books and adding useful content to help solve problems created by the lack of construction knowledge in the building industry. Stair Building Articles

Avoiding Mistakes For Do-It-Yourselfers - Drain Clearing

The other day I was in a popular home improvement center picking up some irrigation parts for our house, when I was ease dropping on a conversation between an older man and one of the stores representatives. The man explained to the so-called in house plumbing expert that he had a clogged drain and was looking for a product that could be poured into the drain and solve his problems.

They were both standing in front of the liquid plumber selection of fine products(that was a joke). What product do you recommend the older man asked. The do-it-yourselfer plumbing expert answered by pointing to a product that he recommended, this seems to do a pretty good job at clearing drains. The older man, having been around the block before, a little more educated than he was a few years ago, from his previous purchases of a product that claimed to perform a task, but didn't.

If this was a young man or woman, I would have waited until the home improvement specialist left the area and then, I would've explained who I was, and my experience with a few of these products. However, I felt that this man, who looked like he was in his late 60s or early 70s, should've known better. I chose the let him help the economy with his purchase. I guess in a sense, I was doing my good deed for the day.

Their conversation soon ended as the in-house plumbing expert left to advise another customer, hopefully on something that he actually knew something about. The older gentleman selected a different product and quickly scaned the area to make sure that the person who had assisted him wasn't around as he scampered off in a hurry.

Here's a quick tip on how to avoid mistakes as a do-it-yourselfer. Don't assume that liquid drain cleaning products will solve your problem. Try not to get caught up in your home improvement advisers solution to your problem. I have watched them sell products to unsuspecting customers and even had them try to sell me something that didn't work.

I personally, have never had any luck unclogging any drain pipes with any liquid drain cleaner. I don't know if my message is loud and clear here and hope that anyone who has gotten this far, reading the article will not believe everything that they read, because the book or product says professional plumbing expert or listen to someone because they're wearing a shirt that says ask me, I'm a home improvement expert.

If you choose to ignore my advice, know this, you will be forever doomed to repeat the mistakes that others have made before you.

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Greg Vandenberge is working on the internet to promote the education for creating simple to follow guides and home building books to help professional building contractors as well as the weekend warriors. He has just finished a home buyers guide to take some of the frustration out of home shopping.

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