Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2020 i Family Handyman

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF 1 CONCRETE PUMPING IS AFFORDABLE Back in college, I moved a lot of concrete by wheelbarrow. (My shoulders still hurt!) “Pump trucks,” which pump concrete through a hose, were available, but college kids were a lot cheaper. Prices have come down since then. Pumping concrete from the street to our backyard patio cost us about $200. See the results on p. 38. If you have a concrete job on your list, check on local pricing. 2 BEST-EVER WORK GLASSES I recently complained to my optometrist: With my standard prescription glasses, close-up work is blurry. With progressive lenses, I tilt my head all day and get a sore neck. He suggested a prescription optimizing my vision at about 24 in. from my face. He called this a “painter” prescription, because it’s…

Old dimmer switches are great for mood lighting, but they have control limitations. Smart models improve on the old, giving you more control. Several have hit the market, but which one is currently the best? Here’s what we found and what you need to know about smart dimmer switches. Dim the lights by voice Hands-free control for your lights is an awesome convenience. With smart dimmer switches, you can connect them to Wi-Fi and control them using your smart assistant and smartphone. With our Amazon Echo in the homeLAB, all we have to say is, “Hey Alexa, turn on the lights,” and the room lights up. You can also dim the lights to a certain percentage. This is a great feature when you’re away from the switch and the room…

Can you paint pressure-treated lumber? Yes. Pressure treatment doesn’t interfere with paint. But the moisture left in the wood does. Waterlogged wood, treated or not, won’t hold paint. Let treated wood dry for several weeks. Then test its paintability by sprinkling it lightly with water. If it absorbs drops of water, it’ll accept paint. If you must paint treated wood immediately, only use wood that has been kiln-dried after treatment (KDAT). Always use a brush and start with a high-quality exterior primer. Then apply two coats of 100 percent acrylic paint. MEET THE EXPERT John Williamson is a master electrician and an electrical inspector in Minnesota.…

Painless paint pour The traditional paint can lid deserves to die. You know the trouble: When you pour, paint fills the rim and dribbles down the outside of the can. Behr’s Simple Pour Lid eliminates that mess. It’s a plastic version of the traditional lid, but it includes a spout for a cleaner pour. At last check, this ingenious design was available only on the Marquee line of paints. Note to Behr: Please put it on all your cans ASAP. GARY WENTZ EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Safer log splitting Splitting kindling with an ax puts your fingers in the danger zone. The Kindling Cracker is a much safer solution, allowing you to put down the ax and grab a hammer instead. Just place the log in the ring and drive it through the…

The best thing you can do to avoid furnace problems is to change your furnace filter, but that can be a guessing game. You can mark a date on the calendar, but you might be changing it too early or too late. The time to change it is when it’s dirty, not according to the calendar. To remove the guesswork, the Filtrete Smart Air Filter 1500 uses a Bluetooth chip to track the airflow and usage of the filter and notify your smartphone when it needs replacing. We installed one and found it easy to pair to our smartphone. It updates frequently, letting us know the current status of the filter, and informed us when the filter needed to be changed. You can find the Filtrete Smart Air Filter 1500…

Vinyl gutter tool tray What can you do with a leftover length of gutter? You can screw it to the edge of your workbench and use it to keep tools and fasteners out of your way but handy for assembly work. Round up small parts Steel shower curtain holders are perfect for organizing small hardware with holes, such as saber saw blades, washers, eye screws, POP rivet parts and cotter pins. Cordless drill hangout Here’s a way to prevent cordless drills from toppling off your workbench. Screw large vinyl-covered hooks (available for $1 at hardware stores and home centers) to a convenient spot on a wall or exposed stud and hang up those drills for safekeeping and easy access. Tool-apron storage Tool aprons can be modified to store nearly any…

■ START WITH THE DIRTIEST ROOM FIRST Tackle the big project first and everything else will seem easy in comparison. Plus, you’ll feel better when it’s done. ■ WORK TOP TO BOTTOM, LEFT TO RIGHT When staring a dirty room in the face, you may feel at a loss to know where to start. Schar recommends you work top to bottom, left to right. When you’re done, do a quick once over to see if you’ve missed anything. ■ SET A TIME LIMIT Instead of telling the family it’s a cleaning day, set a time limit and stick to it. Cleaning isn’t so bad when you say you’ll do it for two hours rather than all day.…

By removing the by-products of cooking and combustion at the source, range hoods minimize the concentration of particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide and other pollutants in your home. They also reduce odors and moisture. Studies show that many homes use exhaust fans that move too little air. The worst ones just recirculate the air through filters. All range hoods should vent to the outdoors. Hoods are designed to mount under cabinets, on walls or over islands. Downdraft systems work close to the cooktop. The amount of airflow you need, expressed in cubic feet per minute (cfm), depends on several factors. The Home Ventilation Institute (HVI) recommends 100 cfm of airflow per linear foot of range, or 150 cfm for an island range. So a standard 30-in. range calls for a 250-…

What’s in the garden sprayer? I use my garden sprayer for pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers. I was never able to remember what I last had in it, so I picked up some key chain tags at the hardware store. I add the product info to the tags and clip the corresponding one to the sprayer. Problem solved! Our model isn’t wearing protective gloves; be sure you do! CARROLL PETER DEDICATED NAIL PULLER Nippers are great for pulling brad nails, but the sharp edges often cut the nail as you try to pull it out. Dull a pair of nippers slightly with a metal file and mark it as your designated nail puller. Use a cheap pair; higher-quality nippers with hardened cutting edges may not file easily. Shoot a few nails…

I found the old optical fingerprint lock technology to be unreliable, slow and inconvenient. It made me steer clear of the technology. So, when I saw the fingerprint sensors on the latest latches, dead bolts and padlocks, I was wary. They claimed speed, reliability and security, but it seemed too good to be true. So, I got my hands on a Lockly Secure Pro ($329) and a couple of Tapp padlocks ($39 to $99) to see how well they worked. Here’s what I found. A LOCK THAT SENSES ELECTRICAL CURRENT Some fingerprint locks use optical sensors that take an image of your fingerprint. The locks I tested, however, use capacitive fingerprint sensors that collect data about the ridges and valleys of your fingerprint with electrical current. DOESN'T WORK WITH WATER…

WHAT IT TAKES TIME 3 days COST $750 SKILL LEVEL Intermediate TOOLS Table saw, or circular saw with cutting guide, miter saw, drill, jigsaw If you’re like me, you spend a lot of your grilling time running back and forth. You grab the wood chips, head back to the grill, and then make a couple trips to the kitchen for your favorite seasoning, the skewers and, oh yeah, another clean plate. This handsome grilling cabinet keeps your stuff together and gives you counter space, too. I built this one over a few days and spent $750 on lumber and hardware. EDGE-GLUE BOARDS TO MAKE PANELS The main components of this project are made from edge-glued panels: three 25-in. x 52-in. panels for the top and shelves, and two 25-in. x…

PREVENT MINERAL BUILDUP WITH A SQUEEGEE Hard water buildup means hard work later. Schar gives a squeegee to all her customers and tells them to use it after every shower. It makes cleaning showers much easier. Schar Ward cleans the old-fashioned way—with homemade cleaning solutions, rags made from sheets, and a little elbow grease. With decades of experience, she’s tackled dirt, grime and stains that aren’t for the faint of heart, and she doesn’t think you need fancy new products to clean. With a little knowledge, you can get the job done with many of the household cleaners you probably have lying around. Here are some of her favorite techniques to make your house shine. Schar’s Secret Weapons Shown below are Schar’s favorite commercial cleaning products—for removing stubborn mineral deposits,…

Cordless power used to be easy to figure out—voltage was everything. But with lithium-ion (Li-ion) technology, most full-size tools use an 18-volt battery, usually comprising five individual cells of 3.6 volts (5 x 3.6 = 18). This five-cell stack has become the sweet spot for power, run-time and battery weight/size. Improvements in the tools, such as the addition of brushless motors, also help batteries run longer. More important than voltage is the battery’s amp-hour (Ah) rating, which tells you how long the battery will work effectively. For a battery rated at 2.0 Ah, you can draw 2 amps for 1 hour or 1 amp for 2 hours. Theoretically, anyway. The actual run-time also depends on the task, the battery’s charge level and the temperature. Most single-stack 18-volt batteries offer 1.5…