Could You Live in a Really Small House and Be Happy?

If you’re Jay Shafer, the answer is a decided yes. Jay lives comfortably in a house that’s only 89 square feet – less than 1/10 the size of the average American home.

You should watch this video. It’s an amazing feat of sustainability:

DuoFast FloorMaster 250BN Nailer Giveaway

This is the One Project Closer giveaway for August. I hinted about the item-up-for-grabs earlier and now it’s time to get it started!

DuoFast FloorMaster 250BN

The generous folks at DuoFast have offered up a brand new FloorMaster 250BN! Installing hardwood floors requires several tools including a finish nailer to blind nail the last few boards in place. The 250BN is specifically designed with a 45° angled tip for just that purpose.

Overall, it’s a solid complement where a traditional nailer won’t fit. Fred used the 250BN to help finish off 1100 square feet of Brazilian Walnut flooring. Read more about this tool on his complete DuoFast FloorMaster 250BN review.

What you Get

The winner of this giveaway will receive a brand new DuoFast FloorMaster 250BN- a value over $200.00!

How to Enter

Here’s how to enter this giveaway:

• 1 entries: Leave a comment. Leave a comment on this post.
• 15 entries: Follow and ReTweet! Become a follower of @OneProjCloser on Twitter and tweet “Win a #Duo-Fast 250BN from @OneProjCloser- http://ow.ly/2iNQS”.
• 50 Entries: Blog about the Giveaway – If you have a site of your own, pass the word on to your readers! Each blog entry MUST link back to this article (and should be no-followed since this isn’t about SEO tricks).

Details on all One Project Closer Giveaways

Reminder

I just want to remind everyone that multiple comments will be removed before selecting a winner. That means I don’t want to see any “subscriber entry #1…2…3…etc.” or “twitter follow #7…8…9…etc.” We track comment, twitter and blog entries separate so that won’t help you at all.

Giveaway Deadlines

This giveaway ends August 27, at 11:59pm EDT.

The Fine Print

Only residents of the U.S. and Canada are eligible. One entry per person. Spam entries will not be counted. Spam entries are determined at the sole discretion of One Project Closer. For blog-based entries, the blog must be a legitimate blog and not a “spam” blog, or a blog set up purely for the purpose of entering contests. All rules are subject to change without notice.

Deck Day Giveaway Winner

I want to say a big thank you to Fiberon Decking and everyone who helped us celebrate National Enjoy Your Deck Day. As part of the festivities, Fiberon Decking even offered up a $100 gift card for answering the question “If you could invite one person to celebrate Enjoy Your Deck Day, who would it be?”. I had a blast reading through all the answers- everything from Arnold Schwarzenegger to Gandhi! Well, now it’s time to pick a winner.

As usual, we used random.org to select the winner, and it chose Jillian from Pennsylvania! Jillian said “I would invite my best friend who lives 3 hours away”. Well we hope you do and that you spend time on your deck!

What the Winner Gets

Jillian gets a $100 Visa Gift Card mailed to her front door. Congratulations!

Next Giveaway

Stay tuned ladies and gentleman, our next giveaway starts today! What’s up for grabs? I’ll give you a hint. Fred used the same tool to install hardwood floors.

Why Electrical Circuits are Grounded

Last week we discussed why outlets and plugs are polarized (it’s a safety feature… if you missed that article, it’s worth a quick read). This week I want to take a minute to describe why modern day electric circuits and appliances are grounded.

Most of the electric circuits in your house have three wires going to them, a black wire (normally hot, or energized), a white wire (normally neutral), and a bare copper wire (always ground).  The larger left slot in an outlet is connected to the neutral wire; the smaller right slot is connected to the hot wire, and the circular slot beneath them is ground.

In the electrical panel for your home, all of the neutral and ground wires are connected together on a single bus.  That’s right, neutral and ground are equivalently grounded. So why is it necessary to have two wires going to each appliance?

The reason is safety.  The bare copper ground wire is connected the metal box of an appliance.  The ground wire ensures there is a path for electricity to get back to the breaker box if there’s a short circuit in the appliance that bridges the hot wire onto electric-conducting parts of the containing box.

Why Grounding is Necessary in Electrical Circuits

If you didn’t have this safety feature, bad things could ensue.  Consider this situation: Let’s say the hot wire comes loose in your washing machine and makes contact with the metal box.  The box is sitting on rubber feet so there’s no exit path for the current.  Since the electricity has nowhere to go, the box remains charged.  You unsuspectingly touch the washing machine and the current suddenly finds an exit point–through your body and out your feet to the floor.  You get a terrible shock.

Now, consider the same scenario except that the box is grounded. When the initial short circuit occurs, a rapid amount of current flows through the ground back to the electrical panel. Since there’s almost no resistance across the ground, the circuit overloads and the breaker trips almost instantly, sparing you a hair raising experience.

Next week, I’ll explain how special ground fault circuit interrupt (GFCI) receptacles work and what extra protections they offer.

Digging Guidelines and Information

My neighbors have ordered Fios and part of the process is connecting the house back to the fiber optic pipeline. That means that Miss Utility has been out spray painting the ground to mark buried lines. It’s a common occurrence but did you know that you need to make the same call whenever you dig?

Call Before You Dig

Homeowners, professionals, and do-it-yourselfers all need to make the call to have underground utility lines marked before you begin a project. It could be something as simple as planting a tree or building a deck- either way you need to make the call. The depth of utility lines varies and you might be surprised to learn what’s buried in common areas. Damaging underground lines can disrupt service for entire neighborhoods and result in fines and repair costs. There’s no reason not to call. It’s the law and a free service!

Who to Call

Around Maryland, Delaware and DC, Miss Utility is the company that will mark underground lines. In Massachusetts, New Hampshire and surrounding areas, Dig Safe Systems will handle your needs. If you’re not sure who to call, check out 811. They maintain a quick lookup by state or province.

Underground Utility Line Color Code

Different underground lines will be marked by different colors. Here’s the universal color code.

• Red – Electric power lines, distribution and cables
• Orange – Communication, telephone/CATV, etc.
• Blue – Potable water
• Green – Sewer and drainage
• Yellow – Gas, petroleum, oil and gaseous materials
• Purple – Reclaimed water, irrigation and slurry lines
• White – Proposed excavation site

Digging Guidelines

Things like how long the marks are good for, weekend availability, and necessary notice times vary by state and county. Here in Baltimore County, they require 48 business hours from the time of the request and 18 inches of hand-digging to expose utility lines. Check local guidelines for your area.

What do you think? Have you risked it in the past?

How to Patch Small Holes in a Textured Ceiling

A quick tip for small patches in homes with textured ceilings: you CAN do it yourself with materials you probably already have in your house.

I ran into this job while prepping our guestroom to be painted.  The prior owners had swagged lamps hanging from hooks on the ceiling in that room.  Not our style.  So I got rid of the lamps and took down the hooks, but it left me with round holes.

 

Here’s how I fixed them.

1.  Using drywall compound, put a layer in and around the hole.  (I prefer the “goes-on-pink” kind because it’s fast-drying as well as making it pretty obvious when it’s dry enough to be painted.)

 

2. Using tape, bind the bristles of an old paintbrush into a round or oval shape.  (I used a 3″ this time because I found one that was all “crispy” and no longer useful for painting, but ordinarily, I wouldn’t have chosen one that wide for this small a space.)

 

3.  Load up the bristles with more compound.

  

4.  Apply the compound from the bristles in a quick up-down manner around the whole newly-patched area, turning the brush different ways to keep the texture from being too uniform and adding more compound as you move around.

  

 

5.  EXTRA STEP IF YOU DON’T WANT SHARP POINTS:  Gently graze the tips of all the points with a spackling knife to take them down.  (Note: if you mess up and scrape it too flat, just immediately re-do step 3 and try again.)  You can skip this step if the “pointy” look is what you have everywhere else.  We sanded everything else, so that’s why I added this step.

 

 

 6.  When dry, paint the whole area to blend to the rest of the ceiling.

 

That’s it!  It cost me nothing to do:  used very little compound, a bit of tape, and a brush that was headed for the trash anyway.  (Though if you don’t have an old brush, you can also clean the compound off any brush you plan to use again.  Just clean it immediately after use, so nothing clumps up in your bristles.)

Green DIY Oven Cleaner

Our oven was in need of some serious cleaning and it’s a little embarrassing to reveal just how dirty it had become. One day, I began preheating the oven and soon after smelled smoke. I checked the oven and realized that some of the char was in danger of igniting! So I turned off the oven and let it cool down.

I used my new-found time to look into finding a “green” method to clean my oven. It didn’t take much time to find some recommendations to use baking soda. The best part, I kept reading about how baking soda provides a no-scrub solution.

Clean Your Oven with Baking Soda

The process to clean your oven is simple but time consuming. For the full effect, you’ll want to set aside a full 4 hours. Grab a box of baking soda and a spray bottle of water.

Step 1: Coat the oven with a thick, even layer of baking soda.
Step 2: Spray the baking soda with water until it forms a paste. Repeat this step as the baking soda dries.
Step 3: After enough time, scrape the baking soda from the oven.

Results
This method of cleaning is moderately effective. The oven is substantially cleaner and I’m not concerned about anything catching on fire- a fair statement for not actually scrubbing anything. With that said, there’s still a few spots with baked in grime (see picture). Perhaps leaving the baking soda longer or repeating the process would make for even better results.

Benefits of Cleaning with Baking Soda

Baking soda makes for a very effective cleaner. It’s great for absorbing odor and the granules make for a mild abrasive. It’s really good for ovens because it can target dried-on grease without harming any surfaces. Plus, it’s environmentally friendly!

What do you think? How do you clean your oven?

Before & After: Rebuilding a Deck

I love this week’s Before and After because it shows us a really dramatic deck transformation. Michael from Better D.I.Y. had an old, rotting deck. It was dangerous and liable of collapsing at any time. Michael took the time to research decks and rebuilt it from the ground up with a stunning result.

For being this week’s Before and After winner, Michael gets a $50 gift card to Lowes, Home Depot, or Amazon. Plus, we will also make a $100 donation to Habitat for Humanity in Michael’s honor. Check out this great story and this week’s Habitat Quick Fact.

A Better D.I.Y. Deck

This past spring my wife and I tore down the original deck that was attached to our house. It was 8×10, large enough to fit a table and chairs but no grill and not much else. While this isn’t a reason to tear down a deck, the rotting wood, untreated lumber and Carpenter Ant infestation really put the proverbial nail in the coffin (or in this case – the deck).

It was really bad. I am thankful that the person that previously built it did not attach it to the house for many reasons.

• They used untreated wood and sat it directly on the ground, thus creating a feeding area within easy reach of the wood eating insects.
• Supports (if you can call them that) sat directly on the ground, not below the frost line (which would be fine for a free standing deck, but not when you use wood not rated for ground contact)..
• After the Carpenter Ants ate through the main supports (2×12), they sistered some 1×6 blocks on the bottom of the supports. Which provides no support, but gave them an area to paint and “look” nice.
• I was really scared that it was going to just fall apart that I never let anyone on it except myself. The only thing holding it together was the 2×12 decking boards.

Here are some pictures of deck and destruction. That lean is not supposed to be there. If you look in the background, you can see that the insects have gotten to our fence as well (a future project).

Before Pictures and Deconstruction.

My philosophy is to build it right so you only have to build it once. This means going above and beyond “minimum code”. I really dislike the idea of attaching the deck to the house through the use of a ledger board, but because of the concrete pad (2” thick) attached to my house, it will be more trouble and work to build it freestanding. If I cut up the concrete, then I could create a problem with water in the future which the concrete holds back. If I make a hole large enough in the concrete to put my concrete form (12” diameter), then water may get around the seam where the old concrete meets the new form; thus creating a possibility of frost heaving or other problems in the future.

That leaves only 1 choice of ledger board. After reading this article entitled “Don’t Build Decks that Rot” , it gave me a great idea of using composite decking as blocks for my ledger board. This would create a drainage point as well as keeping the ledger board away from the house by about an inch but still providing the structural strength of a ledger board. It also gave me the idea of using a roofing membrane on every joist and at the post connection to prolong the life of my wood structure.

I also downloaded quite a bit on code for deck building. This includes span charts, joist sizing, beam sizing, etc… Can’t forget about the StrongTie handout for deck building connections that has all of the connections with pictures and uses.

AWC Code
Multi-Level Decks
Strong-Tie Deck Fasteners

The Lowe’s Deck Designer is GREAT for an overview and parts list. It allows you to do some great designs for decks with multi-levels and then shows you what your deck will look like with beams and everything. It was great and saved me a lot of time. Of course I tweaked the design a little bit and played with different joist sizes to see if the Live and Dead Load changes.
Lowe’s Deck Designer (Need Account) .

We removed the electrical and water spigot until we have reinstalled the ledger board.
We removed the vinyl siding and cedar siding and then the sheathing After that, I saw the inevitable it seems for my projects. Carpenter ants decided to eat out some of my rim joist. I prayed that they didn’t cause too much damage. Luckily they only ate out about a 2 foot section of the rim board. They never touched any floor joist or even the sill plate.

I removed 6 feet of the rim board and replaced it with a PT board. I used (3) 3/8” Lag Screws per floor joist to secure it. It shouldn’t go anywhere J. I then put some Ice & Water Shield over the top of that.

We dug our 3 sonotube holes with a post hole digger 4 feet deep, 12″ wide and laid 6 inches in the holes. We put in our sonotubes and used 5000 psi concrete. We waited a couple of hours for the concrete to start curing before we could put our ½” x 12” anchor bolt into the form.

For those that are interested in soup-to-nuts information. Here is the information needed to submit for a permit to add the deck to the house. I have removed all information distinguishing location and address, but you get the idea.

You need quite a bit of information. Then there are the fees. My city charges .01 times the cost of what you are building. In the case of my deck, the cost of materials is $2500, so it is a $25 permit fee plus a standard $25 application fee.

We installed the first 2×12 where the ledger is to be installed as a spacer board to bring the wood up to the same level as where the vinyl siding currently attaches. On top of that we installed ice and water shield. We went up about 12-18”, even behind the vinyl siding and down about 12” below the bottom of the sill plate just to keep things tight. Don’t see a need to cut off the bottom, it will be behind the deck anyway.

On top of the ice and water shield we installed vinyl flashing. On top of that we installed composite decking spacers every 16” on-center.

Then we attached the ledger board. We used 5” LedgerLok’s in a staggered pattern.

I have never had to pull a permit for a deck before. I hadn’t realized that the first inspection was after digging your post holes…OOPS! Lucky for me, the inspector was VERY understanding and just made me dig down the side of one of the posts to verify depth. He approved my posts on Tuesday and so we are officially ready to go! The next inspection will be at the completion and then hopefully we get the Certificate of Completion!

This weekend, it actually started to look like a deck!!

Next, I ran a string to a batter board so that I could figure out the height of my post. I leveled the string with a string level and then measured down 22 3/8” which was the actual distance of my 2×12 joist and 6×12 beam added together. The first 2 posts were almost the same at 5 5/8”.

I originally was going to go with the composite decking, but decided upon cedar. I found some at the local big box store for $1.22/linear foot! Nicer looking than composite, safer than Pressure Treated and naturally insect repellant. Of course, that means maintenance, but sealing the deck every year is not that difficult. I can roll it on relatively easily.

I refuse to use anything but vinyl railings because painting every spindle is ridiculously time consuming…and pressure treated railings are more likely to splinter and I don’t want to worry about that with children…even if they don’t use Arsenic/Formaldehyde anymore.

We cut the 6×6 posts and attach them to the post bases. Then we stack the first half of the beam and cut it to length (about 12 feet long). Then the 2nd to be stacked on top of that one. Then we use ½” x 12″ lag bolts to tie the beam together. Then we do the same for the 2nd half of the deck at about 7 feet long. We ice and water shield the posts and attach the beams to the posts. We then cut 2×6 boards to keep the beam from rocking front to back. The beam is SOLID!

We attach the joist hangers at 16” OC (on center) along the ledger board and hang the joists and cut them down to size We attach our Rim Board with ¼” x 3” lag screws. We install the railing posts with 2-Deck Post Ties per post. We install ice and water shield on top of our joists, square up the stringers and block the sides of our posts to reinforce the connection. The final thing to do before we were finished framing was to install our dryer vent. It is located in the middle of the ledger board, so we had to use a 4″ hole saw to cut a hole so that we would still have our dryer vent.

We finished half of the decking boards. We started in the middle of the deck. You are probably wondering why. Well, we were going to start on one of the ends, but we couldn’t tell if the board was straight. I am more worried about the board looking straight to the eye, than of it being square.

So, we started in the middle at the middle post and it looked perfectly straight. The problem we ran into is because it is wood, as it dries it warps, bends, etc. We started with the straightest board we could find. Then we used clamps to persuade the other boards to stay straight. We had to do some minimal shimming to make the boards even.

The problem with the clamp is that we started overtightening it and causing our spacers (8d nails) to cause impressions on the sides of our cedar decking. We used some laminate flooring spacers which helped, but they kept getting stuck. We finished about 5 rows in about 5 hours…not good progress at all!

So, I decided the clamps had to go and since they are 4 foot clamps, we were going to reach their limit very soon. I use ratchet straps in the truck all the time to tie things down, so I figured it was worth a shot. I set up 4 straps across the length of the deck and we ratcheted the boards down and it worked like a charm. Plus, we didn’t have to move the straps which moved things along quite nicely.

We finally completed the decking. This totally transformed the deck into a new beast. It made all of the previous pain worth it. We finally had a 260 sq. ft platform to walk on. After finishing the decking, we moved to adjusting the stairs.

Railings:

I purchased 100″ vinyl post sleeves because I knew that I would be able to cut them in half and therefore buy half as many. We cut them all at 43″ so they would all be the same height. Then we started unpacking the railings. Since the railings had been out in the rain the past couple of weeks, the labels were pretty much stuck on there. We spent an hour with goo gone removing the labels. We didn’t get them perfect because we didn’t want to be stuck doing that all day. We then started the first railing closest to the house so that we could make mistakes and they wouldn’t be as noticeable. Things went pretty smoothly from there and by 1PM we were finished the railings on the main part of the deck. We took a break for lunch.

Then we started the stair railings. Since I am obsessive about perfection, it took us about 5 hours to install the 2 stair railings…constantly making adjustments. Since this is finish carpentry, it takes me longer. This is the part that people will see no matter how much time and energy you spent on the subframe. If it looks funny, it will haunt me the rest of my life.

After completing the railings, I was happy with the deck.

Besides being safer since we have little ones; the finish height of the deck in some areas is 32″ so code says we need to have railings (anything over 30″). Since it was a holiday weekend, I waited until Tuesday to call the inspector to tell him I am ready for the final inspection. He comes by while I am at work and leaves. Tanya finds the paper inside the door.

It says, “failed”. The 2 reasons are:

• Deck not adequately attached. Needs to be attached every 3-4′.
• Stairs not uniform.

Ok…let me talk about #1. The ledger is attached every 16″ with (4) 5″ LedgerLoks as all of you know from my previous post. I e-mail him and asked him to clarify what he meant. He responds “Due to the limited angle for viewing I was unable to determine your means of fastening to the house.” And that he would check upon reinspection of the stairs. So…because you couldn’t see how the deck was fastened to the house, you failed it!!

Let me talk about #2. I knew the stairs were not uniform, but they are only off by 1″. I have walked them numerous times and I don’t see a problem. But I looked up the code and it says that the smallest rise to the highest rise shall be maximum of 3/8″ difference. Well…they are definitely not that. And I guess he needed to come up with something wrong with the deck to justify his position (just a little bitter*).

But there are only 4 stairs and to me they don’t feel that much off. But I don’t make the rules and when you pull a permit you are at the mercy of the inspector.But this whole thing could have been avoided (#1 and #2) by having a framing inspection. The most important part of the deck is the framing.

He would be able to:

• Measure the spacing of the joists.
• The attachment of the ledger to the house.
• Fastening of joists to ledger and to beam.
• Beam connection.
• Stair uniformity.

So…although they aren’t going to change the way things are done, I think they would have much safer decks if they did a framing inspection.

Well…this past weekend we spent quite a few hours fixing the stairs. We chiseled the concrete about 3 inches by 5 feet so we could sink the stairs a little further. They are now only .5″ off. Hopefully he will say it is ok.

Well, I purchased the 2009 International Residential Code (IRC) book. It costs $90, but I probably could have avoided this by having the code book easily accessible. It will be useful in the future. And since my city is still using the 2000 IRC book, I think I should be safe with whatever I do.

HERE Is the Completed Masterpiece (before the lattice work was installed). My wife and I love it. My wife, daughter and son use it daily in the summer.

Thanks from One Project Closer!

Michael, this is a really great story- full of information and how-to! Building a deck is a great project and re-boarding my deck is on the to-do list (maybe next summer).

Habitat for Humanity Quick Fact

From the HopeBuilder Page:

HopeBuiders are the foundation of Habitat for Humanity’s housing ministry. Through monthly donations, HopeBuilders provide Habitat with a consistent and reliable source of funding that allows us to plan ahead. When you join Habitat for Humanity’s HopeBuilders, you will join a special group of people reaching out each month to provide affordable housing for families around the world. Together, we can eradicate poverty housing and give families decent shelter and the hope of a better life.

Click here to learn more about the HopeBuilders.

How to Enter Your Own Before and After

Want to win $50 and help a good cause? Send your entry to: beforeandafter@oneprojectcloser.com.

Why is One Side of an Outlet/Plug Larger than the Other?

You’ve probably noticed that in all homes built since the early 80s, the standard configuration for a receptacle is a large slot on the left, a smaller slot on the right, and a roughly circular hole in the middle underneath the two of them.

You probably know that the center hole at the bottom is the ground wire, but probably don’t know why one slot is larger than the other, or how grounding works exactly.

How Electric Circuits Work

The larger, left slot in a receptacle is neutral and the smaller right slot is hot.  In all electric circuits, electricity flows from a point of higher electrical potential to a point of lower potential.  The hot wire in a house is the source of electrical potential. It’s the one that will shock you if you touch it, and that’s why we call it hot.

When you plug in an appliance or light bulb, the current flows out the hot side of the plug to the appliance or light, and then back out of the appliance on the neutral wire into the left side of the plug, completing the circuit.

Polarized Receptacles

Remember that in order for an electrical appliance to run, a complete circuit must exist through the appliance.  This means a switch could be placed anywhere in the circuit and still prevent the appliance from running.  For example, on a toaster, the switch could be placed either before or after the heating wires in the circuit and it would be equally effective.  However, it would not be equally safe.

Let’s say that we have a toaster with a switch installed after the heating wires.  A piece of bread gets stuck in the toaster and you (unwisely) start rooting around inside of it with a metal fork.  Since those wires are electrified (they are connected to the hot wire), as soon as you provide an alternate path for the electrical current to exit–e.g., through the fork, through your body, out your feet to the ground–you get shocked.

Take the same toaster and put the switch before those heating wires.  Now, when you go rooting with a form, the wires aren’t electrified at all, and you won’t get shocked.

If it isn’t obvious already, the reason one side of a plug is larger than the other (a.k.a. polarized) is to make sure that the switch inside a device is always in the circuit before the motor or heating wires or other electrical parts.  This is a safety mechanism just in case you accidentally provide an alternate exit path for the current.

Stay Tuned

Now you know about polarization.  Stay tuned for how grounding works and why we need it.

(photo: oxymoron)

A Concord Carpenter Comments Giveaway

I’m sure many of you already know Rob from A Concord Carpenter Comments. Rob is a great guy that I had the pleasure of meeting when he came to Baltimore. His site is loaded with great carpentry info from quick kitchen remodeling tips to installing crown molding.

Rob is running a sweet Channellock plier set giveaway. Head over and enter before it ends on July 30!