Help! I Poured Oil into the Gas Tank of a Lawnmower

Actually, I didn’t But this did just happened to someone close to us who poured used oil (from automobile oil changes) into the gas tank of a Craftsman Push Lawnmower. I guess there should have been labels on the containers…

I thought this might happen to someone else out on the web, so I give some tips below for how to fix it.

Before I start, note the following disclaimer: Accidentally mismatching fluids in an engine could lead to overheating, fire, engine destruction, serious injury, or even death (in rare, worst case situations). These instructions will require you to empty gas out of your lawnmower which, if not done properly, is an environmental hazard and adds to the danger of fire/explosion in this type of fix. If you’ve made the mistake of pouring oil into a gas tank and you choose to try to fix it yourself using our method below, you do so at your own risk. We recommend taking it to a service center

Steps for Fixing A Lawnmower With Oil in the Gas Tank

Pouring oil into the gas tank of a lawnmower engine isn’t the end of the world. You’ll probably be able to get the lawnmower working just fine by following these steps:

1. Make sure you’re working in an open, well-ventilated area. This should be done outside.
2. Disconnect the spark plug wire from the spark plug.
3. Empty out the regular oil from the lawnmower following the lawnmower’s regular oil change instructions.
4. Empty out all the oil and gas mixture from the lawnmower’s gas tank into an approved gasoline container. If you have a push mower, this can be complicated because you’ll need to turn the mower over in most cases. For riding lawnmowers, there’s likely a fuel hose you can disconnect.
5. Refill the engine’s oil resevoir to the appropriate level according to the manufacturers’ instructions.
6. Refill the engine’s gas tank with new gas.
7. If applicable, prime the engine using the push button primer.
8. Start the lawnmower.

You’ll likely end up with white smoke billowing out of the exhaust for the first few second as the engine burns off the oil. In the end, the engine will likely start up find and you’ll be good to go.

If the engine still won’t start, you may need to replace the spark plug, which could be covered in oil [thanks Jennifer], or repeat steps 5-6 one more time. If the engine won’t start after all that, you should take the lawnmower into an approved service center.

What do you think? Did this help you? Do you know anyone who’s done this before?

Image Courtesy of Ansik.

Before & After: Milwaukee Bungalow Kitchen Remodel from Beth @ A Cotterpin House

This week’s Before and After is brought to you by Beth @ A Cotterpin House.  

Beth and husband recently renovated the kitchen in their 1929 midwestern style bungalow.  They’ve created a beautiful space on a tight budget of only $6000, managing to install fantastic granite tile countertops and a great looking backsplash (two of our favorite parts of their remodel).

As a result of  Beth’s submission, OPC will make a $25.00 donation to Habitat for Humanity in her honor. (See below - Habitat is receiving matching donations through June 30, making OPC’s contribution in honor of Beth worth $50.00 to the organization.)

Also, Beth’s article is now entered into our Before and After contest for $50.00 to the home improvement store of her choice.  We’ll select a winner by community vote in October.

Before & After: Bungalow Kitchen Remodel by Beth

Our house was built in 1929 in Milwaukee, and is your typical Midwestern bungalow - small, compact, but efficient.  Everything you could need is all on the first floor, with extra storage upstairs.  We moved in two years ago (almost to the day!) and loved the character and charm of both the house and neighborhood.  The house has had only two previous owners- which was turned out to be both good and bad.  Good in that the owners prior to us took good care of the house because they spent so much time here- but bad that they hadn’t changed anything since 1960. 

The kitchen was the main example-  with two doorways leading into the kitchen, there was no room for the extra counter space we needed, and no ideal place for the refrigerator.  The wall with the stove was too short to hold both appliances and the opposite wall had two doorways.  The only solution was to place the refrigerator in front of the the double windows looking out over the garden- which cut on the light quite a bit. The counter was also too short, and pitched forward, so anything round placed on the surface would roll to the floor.  Finally, the linoleum- which held up great for 48 years- was a horrible orange pattern.

On a limited budget of $6000, my husband and I knew we would have to do much of the work ourselves.  Luckily, my father and brother-in-law were both great help in installation.

In total, we pulled out flooring, built a half wall to move our sink, put down Pergo flooring, ran electric lines for extra lighting and a new garbage disposal, ripped out cabinets, installed new cabinets, installed large granite tiles for our counter tops, installed back splash, and painted on our own.  The only professional help we’ve gotten so far was the plumbing lines for moving the sink.  It took a bit longer than we expected (it usually does)- but we’re happy how it turned out, and that we stayed in our budget!

Before Pictures:

After Pictures:

Thanks from OPC

Beth, thanks for submitting an article to us & supporting a great cause. Your kitchen remodel is fabulous!

Habitat for Humanity Quick Fact

Habitat’s busiest building season is the Summer.

To encourage donations in early Summer 2008, Habitat has sponsors committed to matching every donation, dollar for dollar, through June 30, 2008. For every $1.00 donated, Habitat will receivee $2.00, up to a total of $3,000,000. 

From Habitat’s site:

We are working harder than ever in these days of warm temperatures to build as many houses as we can. That’s why, as part of the 2008 Habitat Challenge Campaign, every donation we receive will be matched dollar-for-dollar, up to our $3 million campaign goal.

That means that your support right now can help double the resources we have available to serve families in need of a decent, affordable place to live. That’s right! DOUBLE! But only until midnight EDT June 30, so don’t delay.

If you’ve been considering donating, now is the time.  There’s only 2 days left to take advantage of the matching donation event.  

You can contribute online right now, using Habitat’s online donation form. 

Submit Your Own Article for the Event!

Article submissions can be sent in virtually any format to oneprojectcloser@gmail.com.

You can also show your support for Before and After supporting Habitat by displaying a one of these Before and After graphics in your sidebar.

What do you think?  Let Beth know what you think about her project… And let us know if there’s any way we can make the event even better!

Metal Gauged Spreader Alternative for Self Leveling Mortar Over Radiant Heating Wires

If you’re pondering how to get self leveling mortar to spread evenly over electric radiant heating wire (or, in fact, any other fragile surface), this article might give you just the help you were looking for.

We recently faced this problem in our basement, where we’re laying a retro-fit electric radiant heating system over a concrete slab. The instructions on the side of the self leveling underlayment we chose indicated that you need to drag a guaged spreader through the underlayment as you pour it in order to ensure that it spreads out evenly over the surface. The problem with this approach is that the spreader is highly likely to pull up the heating wires while you’re dragging it over the surface. In a worst case scenario, the spreader might even cut/knick a heating wire, which would render the heating mat useless.

You might be thinking to yourself, “But isn’t this stuff to supposed to be self leveling? Why do we even need to drag a spreader through it?” That’s a good question. The answer is that even though it’s called self leveling mortar (or underlayment, or cement), it really is only self leveling to a point. The reason it doesn’t completely self level has to do with other forces present in the material that make it tend to hold together rather than spread out completely. The best way to visualize the problem is to picture pouring a moderately thick pancake batter into a large pan. The batter is self leveling to a point, but not entirely. Now, if you drag a fork back and forth through the batter, you can eventually get it to cover the entire pan bottom. The same concept holds true for spreading self leveling mortar over a substrate.  If you drag a spreader through the mortar, you will eventually spread it out sufficiently to cover the entire floor. 

In order to preserve the heating mat, a metal guaged spreader is simply not an option.  So we considered attaching a squeegee to the end of an extendable pole and using that to spread out the mortar.  The squeegee is flexible, and not likely to damage the wires.  This was somewhat successful; however, it still left high and low points in the surface.  The reason?  It’s a little easier to conceptualize from the pancake analogy:  If you used a spatula instead of a fork to spread out the batter in the pan, the likelihood of pushing the pancake mix into one area (thus creating a hill and a valley) is much higher.  The squeegee acted like a spatula.  It was better at spreading out the mortar, but it still created a slightly uneven surface.

Finally, we arrived at the conclusion you see in the picture at the top-right of this article - a squeegee with gaps cut into the rubber to create teeth.  When we poured the self leveling mortar over the next area of radiant heating wires, we dragged the modified squeegee back and forth over the mortar as we poured.  The holes between the teeth prevented the squeegee from pulling too much or too little mortar into one area.  The result: a perfectly level floor, even over a very large 250 sq. ft. area.

Note that in our example, the radiant heating wires were actually hot glued to the slab at short intervals.  This created a strong bond between the heating wire and the slab, and was necessary to ensure the heating wire didn’t come up as we were dragging our improvised spreader across it.

Using this squeegee method is only one part of achieving a level floor.  For more information, see my article on achieving level floors using a self leveling mortar.

What do you think?  Was this article helpful?  Have you had any successes or failures with self leveling mortars?

Before & After: Konnecto Flooring in the Kitchen and Family Room from Mary @ NotBefore7

The first article selected for this Summer’s Before and After series supporting Habitat for Humanity is brought to you by Mary @ NotBefore7.  

Mary (and husband Eric) recently installed Konecto Flooring in the kitchen and family room of their new home, a recent foreclosure in need of some serious TLC.

As a result of her submission, OPC will make a $25.00 donation to Habitat for Humanity in Mary’s honor. Also, her article is now entered into our Before and After contest for $50.00 to the home improvement store of her choice.

Before & After: Konecto Flooring by Mary

We recently purchases a foreclosed home, so every room has a Before/After story to tell. 
 
Located in the back of the house was a kitchen and family room area.  The two rooms are basically one big area, but separated by a railing in the middle of the room and different flooring.  The family room had carpet and the kitchen was covered in vinyl flooring.  Both needed to be replaced. 
 
Another issue was the pantry in the back of the kitchen. (located on the far side of the refridgerator)   It was only about 12 inches deep (of usable space) and it made the doorway into the dining room very tight.  In fact, if the pantry door was opened, it blocked the entire entryway into the dining room.
 
Before (while standing in family room)

Before (while standing in kitchen)

 
Our goals were to brighten the room and to open up the space in order to create more of a Great Room area.
 
Brightening up the room wasn’t too difficult.  We painted the entire area with Sherwin Williams paint color, Cottage Cream.  It is a very neutral yellow color that brightens without overpowering a room. 
 
Our next step was to paint the trim and molding, as well as the fireplace, with semi-gloss white.  It made a huge difference to have bright white trim, especially at the fireplace.

Our final step in brightening up the room, was to remove the ceiling fans and add recessed lighting.  We added 10 lights so far, but are going to add 2 more and install a new ceiling fan.  We are huge fans of recessed lighting and it definitely paid off in this room.
 
In order to open up the space, we began by taking down the banister which was separating the kitchen and family room.  This helped brighten up the area too because the banister was so dark.  Immediately, we knew we had to choose one type of flooring for both rooms so the two areas could become one large area.
 
We wanted durable and easy to clean flooring because we have 3 little children.  In the past, we have installed laminate wood flooring (such as Pergo) to achieve these goals.  Unfortunately, laminate flooring is not water-proof and therefore, it will not stand the test of time in a kitchen, especially with little ones.
 
Konecto flooring was our answer.  It is an easy to install and waterproof laminate flooring.  Each floor plank is flexible and can be cut with an exacto knife.  Adhesive is not required for installation because it comes pre-packaged with adhesive striping as part of each individual plank.  More about the easy three step installation can be found on their site.  Truly, this flooring is amazing.  I can’t speak highly enough of it. 
 
We choose a style from the Prestige collection because it has an aluminum oxide finish which will help protect the flooring.  It has a different feel than a traditional laminate wood floor.  It has a “grainy” finish to it with true cracks and crevices in the finish.

I think the finished look is beautiful.  We have been complimented on our “wood floors” numerous times.

 

The final step in creating a more “open-space” feel was to remove the useless pantry that was closing in the doorway to the dining room.  Unfortunately, there was an air duct behind it, so we still have a “bump-out”, but the open doorway into the dining room was well worth the pantry removal.
 
After (standing in kitchen):

After (standing in family room, complete with kiddos):

 

We are very satisfied with the results so far.  Clearly, our 1980’s kitchen needs to be the next project on our remodel list, but as Fred states here on his blog, at least we are One Project Closer to the end!

Thanks from OPC

Mary, your floors are fantastic… truly an amazing before and after story, and an excellent one to kick off the event.

Habitat for Humanity Quick Fact

Even with the downturn in the US housing market, in the last three years building costs internationally have risen more than 17%. This increase must be met with increased monetary donations in order for Habitat to continue its oustanding work across the globe.

OPC will donate $25.00 this week in Mary’s honor. Admittedly, that small amount only scratches the surface of the enormous need. We hope you will consider donating monetarily or through volunteering with a Habitat program in your area as you are able. If you choose to donate, you can find Habitat’s online donation page here.

If this post inspired you to donate or volunteer, please leave a comment below and let us know. We want to honor all those people who are participating with us periodically throughout the summer.

Submit Articles for Early Summer!

There are 12 Sundays left this Summer and we’ve received very few articles for the first few weekends, with many folks planning to submit articles later in the Summer.

We would very much appreciate additional articles submitted early (even if they technically don’t comply with the project being completed in the late Spring/early Summer).

Article submissions can be sent in virtually any format to oneprojectcloser@gmail.com.

You can also show your support for Before and After supporting Habitat by displaying a one of these Before and After graphics in your sidebar.

What do you think?  Let Mary know what you think about her project… And let us know if there’s any way we can make the event even better.

Primer Worth the Price? Valspar, Behr, and Kilz Review

You may be thinking, “Wait, did I already read this post?” Congrats, you are not crazy, this is a sequel to Paint Worth the Price? Valspar, Duron, Behr, and Ralph Lauren Review AND Valspar One Coat Primer.

After my previous posts, I received a lot of good input from fabulous readers like yourself, who recommended Kilz Primer, since my experience with Valspar left me wanting more. So, I took your advice. But, just to make the research project a little more valid, I compared Kilz to both Behr and Valspar.

The project was to prime over my very red walls. On the top of the chair rail will be the color “Sea Star by Benjamin More” (review coming soon). Below, the chair rail will be painted white and will eventually be
wainscoting. Particularly for the bottom half, it was important to fully cover the red.

Valspar Primer

$17.98/gallon

Pros: Even coverage.

Cons: Higher cost comparatively, requires multiple coats of paint to provide full coverage and therefore is more work.

Conclusions: For a small job, you will need only one can of paint and therefore it may be the most cost

efficient. But it’s not worth the time and effort, in my opinion.

Behr Primer

$10.98/gallon

Pros: Even and full coverage, low cost, required one coat

Cons: None!

Conclusions: Behr is well worth the money! Buy Behr!

Kilz Primer

$13.78/gallon

Pros: Even coverage, lower coat than Valspar.

Cons: Required two coats, and on the bottom, still needed two coats of paint over that to cover the color.

Conclusions: For a small job, you will need only one can of paint and therefore it may be the most cost efficient

So was the cost worth it? Valspar and Kilz are not worth the cost, even though Kilz is comparatively inexpensive. Kilz was a little lumpy out of the can and for those of us with texture/sensory issues, this was a little gross, but it went on fine. Behr was worth the cost - it was by far superior, and in the end will save you money because you use less paint, and save time and effort.

What do you think? Do you agree with the pros and cons? What brand would you recommend?

Flat Paint to Eggshell: Walls After Kids

When I (Kim) left my job to stay home with our boys, I was excited to have a few months before the adoption finalized to whip our newly-purchased fixer house into better shape.  Most of our rooms still had their construction-grade paint from 1985, and they were gross.

Summoning my just-enough-to-be-dangerous interior design experience, I picked a neutral-toned color palate, grabbed my brushes and rollers, and I was off!  Armed with flat paint, despite the known touch-up risks. 

You see, I grew up in a home that was all-semi-gloss, and it always looked tacky to me.  My mom swore by it’s “wipeability,”  but I decided to strike off in the opposite direction.  My house would be classy looking from the get-go.  I thought I would rather have to repaint a wall here or there from time to time than succumb to the dreaded “sheen.”

Enter our sons (yes twins), aged 2 1/2 at the time.  Adorable little guys.  So much fun.  Not at all easy on walls.  In the 16 months since we brought them home, they’ve returned our walls to their former look of having been neglected for years.  From the “handrail? what handrail?” line of sticky prints going all the way up the stairs to the tell-tale flung-food spots all around their mini table in the kitchen, it seems systematic, the way they’ve done it. 

I was once especially proud of my gray-purple powder room.  Potty training “aim issues” proved to be my undoing there.  After a couple of months of their “missing” and my cleaning up, the white wallboard was showing through:

Upstairs, I knew the boys would love the bright cheerfulness of their light-orange bedroom.  They do.  But I forgot to mention the “Never use your matchbox cars to write on the walls” rule.  Thought I was covered by keeping all their crayons and markers downstairs.  I wasn’t: 

As I knew all along, there’s a limit to cleaning flat-painted walls.  We simply have passed that limit on an accelerated time-table.  And all over the house.  So this summer, one by one, I will be going back and repainting all the rooms in eggshell.  I’ve already started with my powder room.  There will be ONE space in our home that looks like a girl lives here!  Even if it does need to be (shudder) slightly shiny for practicality’s sake.

Fortunately, I DID have the good sense to paint the boys’ bathroom in eggshell (and dark blue) the first time, so that room can stay as it is.  For the rest, I’ll just have to wait about 20 years to try again with my beloved flat paint.

What do you think?  Have you ever thought you were done with a project only to find yourself back at the beginning? How much do kids, pets or ____ (fill in the destructive life force) play into your decorating decisions? 

How to Fix a Small Copper Pipe Leak Using a Repair Clamp

Copper pipes can spring leaks for many reasons: corrision, freezing and bursting, inadequate soldering, or human accident.  For large holes, cracks, or bends, you’ll need to replace the portion of the copper line that broke with a new piece of copper.  This involves a fair amount of plumbing know-how, but can be achieved by a do-it-yourselfer (you can Google Search for “sweat solder copper pipes” and find plenty of help).  If you’re not comfortable with the idea of cutting, heating, and solder-joining pipes, you’ll need to call a plumber to fix a large/unusual leak situation.

For very small leaks (also known as “pinhole” leaks), one easier solution is to use a repair clamp purchased at your local home improvement store for about $5.00.  Repair clamps are metal sleeves with a flexible rubber pad inside that clamp over the pipe in the area where the leak has sprung.  They are straightforward to use, and can be applied in under 5 minutes.  When applied properly, a repair clamp will last as long as the rest of the plumbing structure.

In the picture on the left, a self-tapping valve for a refrigerator water line has been installed on the main water pipe.  This valve has malfunctioned, and will  no longer completely close (not an unusual problem for self-tapping valves).  The house is to be sold without a refrigerator, so this tap valve must be replaced.  It would not have been wise to replace the valve with another self-tapping valve in the same location because it would suffer the same problem.  Instead, we’ll repair the hole created by the tap valve with a repair clamp, and the new owner can tap the line in another location when the next refrigerator is installed.

The picture on the right shows the small hole created by the self-tapping valve.  This hole size is well within the range of the type of leak that can be repaired with a repair clamp.  You can see in the picture a small area on the pipe where the self-tapping valuve was that is particularly shiny.  This is the area that the rubber pad inside the self-tapping valve was touching.  A repair clamp uses the same principle to close the hole as the self-tapping valve was using to prevent the water from spraying out the sides.

How to Install a Repair Clamp

To install the repair clamp, simply place the repair clamp on the pipe with the flexible rubber pad centered over the hole.  Place the metal clamp over the pad, and tighten the two screws and nuts until the rubber pad is compressed over the hole.  Be careful not to over-tighten the screws, as this could bend the copper pipe.

The finished project is shown on the left.  In this case, a repair clamp saved us the cost of calling a plumber (about $120 just for the visit in this area).  Instead, with $5.00 and 5 minutes we repaired the problem ourselves.

What do you think?  Was this article helpful?  Have you ever used a repair clamp to fix a plumbing problem?

Installing a Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter

I finally got around to installing a ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) on my deck. The PO’s had a regular receptacle which worked about 50% of the time. A soft kick usually got it working. This was obviously something that needed a little more attention.

How GFCI’s Work

A GFCI is a device used to protect against electrical current. It does this by measuring the imbalance of current between the hot and neutral conductors of a circuit. Typically, the two currents are about the same. When the difference becomes greater than 5mA, the circuit is de-energized. This can happen when, say, current passes through a person to the ground.

Wiring a GFCI

GFCI’s are good safety devices but only if wired appropriately. When you examine a GFCI you will see at least one pair of terminals marked “Line” and another pair marked as “Load”. The Line terminals are for incoming power from the breaker. The Load terminals are for powering other receptacles downstream. Be sure to shut off power to the circuit before handling the wires.

I determined which wire was coming from the breaker in this fashion. After removing the old receptacle and separating the wires, I turned the breaker back on and carefully tested each pair to determine which wire was active. Then I turned the breaker off and continued.

Connect the incoming power, black wire to the hot Line terminal and connect the incoming power, white wire to the neutral Line terminal.

In a similar fashion, connect the downstream power, black wire to the hot Load terminal and downstream power, white wire to the neutral Load terminal.

Splice ground wires together and connect to the green screw on the GFCI.

Testing Your GFCI

You want to be sure that everything is working appropriately. Here are scenarios that I tested:

• With the breaker off, there should be no power

• With the breaker on, and the “reset” button pressed, your receptacle (and everything downstream) should have power

• With the breaker on, and the “test” button pressed, your receptacle (and everything downstream) should not have power

I’ve found a basic multimeter to be a must have for working with my home electric. A multimeter is the only reliable way I can know which wires are hot. I use it constantly. Amazon has a great Digital, Six Function Multimeter available for $19.99.

If your interested in a more complete electric guide. Check out Freds review of Stanley’s Complete Wiring Manual.

What do you think? How often do you test your GFCI’s? Ever replaced one?

How to Take a Home Inventory for Insurance and Tax Purposes

We all think it will never happen to us:  a house fire, a hurricane, or some other calamity destroys our house and everything in it.  Of course, these disasters happen every day to people across the country; they aren’t uncommon.  All of us have homeowners insurance to pay for replacement items, but in the event of a disaster, could we prove to an insurance company that we actually owned all the items in our homes?  For most of us, the answer is no.   In the worst losses, it’s very hard to determine from the remains of the house the original quality of the items that were destroyed.  This makes a bad situation even worse.

A home inventory gives you the evidence you need to get fully reimbursed in a disaster.  Taking a home inventory is probably simpler and less time consuming than you think.  In the event of a catastrophe, an inventory can help you quickly and accurately characterize your possessions for your insurance company, ensuring you get fairly compensated for your loss.  There’s other reasons to take an inventory too.

Why Should I Take a Home Inventory?

An inventory is essential to protecting you from further damage in a distaster.  An inventory: 

• Ensures you have the right amount of total insurance coverage for your home’s possessions.
• Ensures you have specific coverages for special coverage items like jewelry, rugs, collections, and more.
• Provides a complete list of items that your insurance company should reimburse you for in a disaster.
• Gives you evidence for tax write-offs for casualty losses that aren’t covered by the insurance company.

What Items Should Be Included in a Home Inventory?

In an ideal world, you would include every item in your home in your inventory.  The more information you have about your stuff, the more likely you are to get fairly reimbursed in a disaster.  That said, it is impractical to keep an up-to-date inventory for every individual item in a house.   Here’s a few general guidelines:

• Focus on high value items first. Make sure you have all the details on these items recorded (at least a model number, purchase price, purchase date, and a picture of the item).
• For items that are similar in nature, like clothes and DVDs, record items together and simply note the quantity of the total.  Take a high-resolution photo of the items.

What’s the Best Way to Record the Information?

Keep it simple.  A home inventory should be useful to you in the event of an emergency, not cumbersome and hard to figure out.  You can list your items in detail in a typical word processing document, or better yet, a spreadsheet.  Either way, create a new section (or spreadsheet sheet) for each room in your house.   If you choose a spreadsheet, you should create columns for category, name, description, quantity, price paid, year purchased, picture name (with the name of the picture of the item), and total value (quantity times price).

You’ll also want to set up a root inventory directory for pictures, with subdirectories for each room of your house.  You’ll likely have 5-15 pictures for each room in the house.  If you choose a document format for your inventory, you can paste pictures directly into the document.  If you use a spreadsheet, you might choose instead to reference the picture name in the spreadsheet.  Either way is acceptable.

You could also consider taking a video of each room.  Videos can help you remember information better, or fill in the gaps where pictures are insufficient.  Videos cannot be faxed or e-mailed to people easily, however.  You should view a video as a back-up for pictures and recorded information since you may be working with an insurance adjuster over e-mail or fax, and they may not be used to working with video.

Where Should I Store my Home Inventory?

When your inventory is complete, you should archive the files and store them offsite.  The easiest way to do this is to e-mail the archive to yourself using an online service like Gmail.  You can also burn a CD of the inventory and store it at the house of a nearby family or friend.  Whatever you do, don’t store your only copy at home (for obvious reasons).

How to Avoid Getting Overwhelmed

If this is the first time you’ve considered a home inventory, it might seem downright overwhelming.  You have a whole house of stuff, it’s probably hard to decide where to start. If that’s your situation, start small.  Pick a single room to inventory.  Most rooms take about 1-2 hours to inventory.  If you inventory 1 room a week, the average single family house could be inventored in just over 2 months. 

What do you think?  Have you taken a home inventory?  What other tips can you offer to make a home inventory better?

Image by HAM Guy.

Acclimating the Hardwoods

Fred and I picked up my Brazilian Walnut hardwood floor a few days ago. 27 boxes and they are heavy! I opened one of the boxes for a preview and it looks amazing. I’m very please with the color and variation. Click on the picture for a larger version. Corey, hope this helps you decide.

Why Acclimating Hardwoods is Important

Now the wood is sitting around my house. Doesn’t seem like an important step but it is. Wood is a porous material that will expand with increased moisture and contract in more arid conditions. By sitting in my home, the wood will achieve the moisture level (and size) that it will be after it is installed.

Be Ready for the Hardwoods

Make sure your home is ready for hardwoods before you pick them up. For a new house, make sure jobs such as drywalling are completed. Moisture can evaporate from the walls and be absorbed by the wood. Doors, windows, heating and air conditioning should be installed an operating. These are all elements that can alter moisture levels. Double check that the sub-floor is in good order and doesn’t have a moisture level higher than 12%. If your installing above a crawlspace, make sure the 6mm black plastic is intact.

How to Acclimate the Hardwoods

The wood will need between 3 and 7 days to become fully acclimated after it is delivered. It is best if you can spread the boxes out on over the sub-floor. If your floor is delivered on a damp or rainy day, give it extra time as it may absorb extra moisture. Do not let them sit in a garage or on concrete substrate as the boards can absorb moisture and warp before they are even out of the box.

What Happens When you Don’t Acclimate

If you don’t acclimate your floor, the dimensions of the boards will change. Boards that absorb more moisture can swell and buckle. Boards that loose moisture can cup and gaps will appear. Either way, your beautiful floor will never be the same.

Testing Moisture Level

Not sure how to test for moisture? Amazon has a great Wagner MMC220 Extended Range Digital Moisture Meter. It doesn’t use tips so it won’t damage wood and it can scan to 3/4″ depth.

What do you think? Have you ever seen a floor installed that wasn’t acclimated?