Building Confidence

Welcome to Dave's Shop Talk's Home Improvement Newsletter of questions from our members and Dave's answers, as well as a Tip of the Month and a Home Improvement Article, both from our website at http://daveosborne.com.

What's Happening

My wife and I have just returned from a cruise from Tahiti to Hawaii. We thoroughly enjoyed the time away, but are both glad to be home again and eat sensibly. I took my laptop with me in order to stay in touch with family, friends and members of our website.

Dan, my brother and webmaster, spent the last half a year building a new site with two partners. Its stats have been doubling each month and he says at this rate he'll have over 2 million people visiting the site each month!

The site is a way for local businesses to get new customers in their neighbourhood using coupons. It has its own easy coupon maker that automatically makes its own barcode.

Only Vancouver has coupons right now, but the system works anywhere in the world. To see what the coupons look like, move the map up to Vancouver on the west coast of Canada.

It looks like a good deal. We put a coupon on it for Dave's Shop Talk. You can see it at http://freechoicecoupons.com

Tip of the Month

With oak flooring, don't use a nail set. Use a large slotted screwdriver instead, aligned with the grain. These marks, when filled in, will blend better with the grain than a round hole from a nail set.

Ask Dave!

Here are the questions and my answers for the month of December:

Hi Vic,

I wouldn't put the TSP on a painted surface or leave bleach on for too long. For cleaning Hardi Plank, which is painted, use a solution of half a cup of bleach in 5 gal. of water and add some liquid detergent. Apply the solution with a deck or window brush and scrub it right away. Rinse with clean water as soon as clean.

Dave

Hi John and welcome.

Probably, the best design for your wood shed would be a lean-to roof, sloping away from the front and large double doors, in the front, to expose the wood.

We have a lean-to roof shed in our list of plans: http://daveosborne.com/dave/projects/lean-to-shed-plan-6.php It could be easily extended to 8' wide x 16' long, with the doors on the long side. Checkout this plan and see if it will work for you with the above modification. If you want, I could do a custom plan for you at a nominal charge of $55. You can read about this here: http://daveosborne.com/dave/plans/custom-plan.php

Hope this helps,

Dave

You don't have to use backer board. The code states that your floor thickness for ceramic tile should be 1 1/4" thick. If you have 3/4" shiplap and 3/4" hardwood equaling 1 1/2", so you are good. Without using backer board, your bathroom floor will still be about 3/8" to 1/2" higher which still needs a transition. You can buy beveled transition strips called Schluter strips at tile supply stores. Checkout this link: http://www.schluter.com/media/FloorProfiles-ENG.pdf Refer to the 1.2 Schluter®-RENO-U profiles for 5/16 to 3/8 inch thick tiles.

I refer to similar strips when doing my daughters reno in this newsletter: http://daveosborne.com/newsletters/1008.php Refer to the first photo.

Another option is to make a transition strip out of hardwood, as shown here.

When grouting next to a hardwood strip, make sure the hardwood strip has its finish coat of polyurethane already on and dried.

To match up with a piece of hardwood, you could cut out a piece from under the vanity, if replacing it, or in a not heavily traveled part of the floor, behind the toilet, for example. Just fill in the gap, after removing the hardwood, with plywood or lumber ripping.

Hope this helps,

Dave

Hi Mark,

This is typical construction for a bathtub. Since the tub covered up the hole, the plumbers were not too concerned with the hole. Make sure that the hole is just in the flooring and the floor joists under the sub-floor and finished floor are not cut away, as well.

Before installation of the claw foot tub, checkout the structure of the floor, the integrity of the floor joists, checkout the position of the claw foot legs and where they sit in relation to the joists. You could install blocking between the joists, out of the same material the joists are made from, (within reason), right where the feet rest, then replace the sub-floor. If you provide blocking as support for the feet, replace the, probably, 3/4" shiplap, for 3/4" utility/sheeting grade plywood. You could then install a 1/4" to 3/4" overlay for new vinyl flooring or tile. For ceramic tile, minimum sub-floor thickness should be 1 1/4". You may need to watch the height of floor to match the existing floor height in the hall.

Hope this helps,

Dave

Hi Mark,

Yes, you can lay a mat down containing wires for radiant heating.

Make sure the sub-floor and hardwood is at least 1 1/4" thick and the hardwood is secured well to the floor joists. This makes a solid substrate for the tile, so the joints don't crack. Thinset is applied and the mat rolled into it and bedded down with a light roller or sponge float. The tile is then applied, as usual, over the mat. Here is a good website that I found showing installation procedures: http://www.nuheat.com/home.html

Be sure to follow the manufacturer's directions.

Happy New Year!

Dave

Hi,

Your contractor is installing the siding correctly, although we usually choose an overlap of 1 1/4" to 1 1/2". When I have installed Hardi Siding, it would always hang tightly to the bottom course. The only time we would nail at the bottom of the course being installed is at a butt joint. We would use a small galvanized shingle nail for the butt joints, always applying paintable caulking to the joint, which has a bit of adhesion, as well. This way the joint is tight.

I can't understand why the siding is flapping in the breeze like you describe. As I said, the siding is installed at the top with galv. roofing nails or air nails approved for siding. The nails should be hammered in tightly, ( not crushing the siding) and not loosely as for vinyl siding. The siding should not be loose so you can lift it up. Either they are not nailing it securely or something else is preventing the courses to lay flat. The only fiber cement siding I have installed is the James Hardi brand. Here is their website: http://www.jameshardie.com/pdf/install/hardieplank-hz5.pdf

I notice that Hardi does allow for face nailing each course at the bottom, which can be done later. Maybe show this to your contractor. It sounds to me they are getting expansion and contraction properties of vinyl siding mixed up with fiber cement siding.

Dave

Feature Article of the Month

Remodeling 4: How to Frame a Wall

How to frame a house wall is not that complicated, if one learns a few basic home improvement principles of house framing.

The two main components making up a house wall consist of the vertical pieces called the studs and the horizontal pieces called the plates. For a standard ceiling height of 8', the studs are cut 92 1/4", with a bottom, top and double plate that totals 4 1/2", giving a total height of 96 3/4". The extra 3/4" allows for the ceiling finish, with a bit of room. Studs are usually placed on 16" centers for a bearing wall supporting a floor, ceiling and roof and 24" centers for a ceiling and roof only. To save time in cutting all the studs a home improvement person can purchase pre-cut studs for an 8' or 9' ceiling. Studs come in solid wood or are made up of short stock, which is finger jointed together using a mechanical process of glue and pressure. These, however, cannot be used for ... read more at http://daveosborne.com/dave/articles/how-frame-wall-of-house.php

Almost the End

I hope these answers may help with your renovations. We invite you to look at our website to see if our articles, tables, jigs, tips, plans, etc may assist you with your work. Any comments on our Newsletter?

Hi, I'm Dave Osborne. With over 50 years experience as a journeyman carpenter, foreman and contractor in heavy construction I enjoyed working with apprentices and sharing the tricks of the trade that others shared with me. Now I get emails from Members all over the world and we include many of my answers in our Free Monthly Newsletters. Some of my answers include drawings and instructions specific to a project, but may also answer your questions. I use correct construction terminology, so you can confidently inform your building supply dealers or contractors exactly what you need.