If you’re planning on some home electrical DIY to do some electrical household wiring and you come to the right place. We will give you some electrical how to information in the following weeks.

To start with you must be aware of safety. Since no one will be there to check what you’re doing safety wise, play it safe and turn off the power to whatever you’re working on before you start working on it. You have either a circuit breaker panel or fuse box. Locate the circuit you want to break the flow of electricity to an easier switch off the circuit breaker or pull out the fuse. In case of the circuit breaker is also wise to put some tape over top of these which to prevent accidents.

Voltage tester is a must-have

The first tool I recommend owning would be a voltage tester, these are quite inexpensive in its basic form and can grow

in price in more sophisticated versions which you probably don’t need. This tool is good for identifying a live circuit. Knowing this helps you to identify if the wall plug works or not. Also this will help you identify if the wire to the switch or the wall plug works or not.

For twisting and manipulate wire in tight places

Wire nuts to connect electric wires

Another important tool is a screwdriver. A good quality screwdriver has a case hardenedand on it to retain grip for turning, also the handle and shaft should be guarded with insulation to protect against accidental shorting or shock.

You will need a utility knife. You will use this a lot cutting wires. You will need this to strip shielding off wires (the plastic cover on the wire).

Of course you will need needle nose pliers to hold the wire with and manipulate the wire, you’ll get better grip of the wires in tight places, you can remove the metal lockout discs in the power boxes in the even come with a built-in wire cutter. This new most fire should also have shielding on the grip.

Another very needed tool would be a wire stripper. The wire stripper after you’ve cut the wire to length can strip the insulation off to the bare wire. This is definitely a worthwhile investment, they are good.

Of course you will need some electrical tape, this is to insulate any exposed bare wire and also do over top of in conjunction with your wire nuts

You will need also wire nuts also known as Marretts or Marr connectors, they are made to fit different gauges of wires like: a small one/black color/16 to 22gauge, a medium-size one/orange/14 to 22gauge. There are a few more just consult the store to which wire size you have.

When you’re installing walls (drywall) paneling you will have to know how to measure, put holes in it in the right place, and how to attach it.

Measure accurately the frame to which you want to attach the drywall panel. You will have to measure accurately and mark off the panel of drywall to correspond to the studs you are going to be attaching the drywall to.

Measuring is the most important part of laying out where you are going to be nailing or screwing the drywall onto the frame.

I always measure from the top left-hand corner across. Make sure that your studs are all equal distance apart from each other which should be 16 inches from the same point to the same point on your frame. Then check diagonally from top left to bottom right the length of the diagonal and check the other diagonal from bottom left and top right the two measurements should be the same. If they’re not then you have to push in one corner or the other to make both diagonals the same.

Now that your wooden frame is square and all your studs are square and equally spaced you can mark your drywall with a soft lead pencil (not a pen or marker because it will bleed through the paint after painting it). Going across the top of your drywall take a drywall Square and place the long arm of the T. directly over your pencil mark and draw lines directly down from these marks. This will give you the exact place the screws should be inserted.

How to cut drywall

Drywall is usually cut by using a utility knife I usually cut the face side first to give me a sharp edge. If you cut the back edge which is the brown side you end up with a jagged break Mark on the face side (the good side)
to cut the drywall panel across the width measure and mark the locations then place the drywall T-square onto the panel and score the panel with a utility knife deep enough to penetrate the paper right through. Then support the drywall from one side holding it firmly and bend the other half backwards. This’ll break the gypsum with a one half of the panel bent backwards from the break take your utility knife and cut the back half of the break separating the two pieces of drywall.

Cutting small openings into the drywall panel

There several ways commonly used to locate and cut openings for things like electrical boxes or for whatever you might need an opening for. One way is to mark the location of the sides of the box on the floor by using a framing square lying one end flat on the floor and the vertical to be up against the side of the box once you have the vertical lined up exactly here then mark that point exactly on the floor then move over to the other side of the box again having the vertical part of the square directly lined up with the edge of the box and again mark the floor at exactly the same point. Take measurements from the floor to the top and of the bottom of the box and write them down on the floor.
Now you can install the drywall, when the drywall is the right place you can take your carpenter’s square measure up from the two marks you placed on the floor to locate the outline of the box and mark the vertical distances that you also wrote down on the floor from these vertical lines you just indicated on the drywall so now you have the outline of the box you will be cutting.

There different ways you can cut out the hole I usually use a drywall saw. I punch a hole with the saw point through the middle of my marked out box hole and saw towards the outline, and when you reach the outline and cut along the outline all the way around.
Another way to cut out openings is using a electric drywall router again I do it the same way.
If looking to cut a circular hole then you need to purchase a drywall circular cutter. Locate the center of your round hole where it should be and adjust the radius of your cutter described the diameter of your hole. Insert the center point of the tool into the center of your hole that you marked and score all the way around the hole. Once you have your whole scored again you can cut out the drywall in your preferred method.

Sometimes you just have a small piece of drywall you might need to change in your home or let’s say a doorknob went through your wall. These are repairs that most interior painters can do quite easily. So don’t worry if you have some small drywall work because most  toronto house painting contractor can fix these things.

Faux Finishing

Faux finish painting is a hot trend for interior home decor it has greatly enhanced the look of ordinary rooms to extraordinary looking rooms. It can do wonders to your space. It creates the room and mood of its own, to an otherwise boring look.

Where Can You Do For Finish Painting?

Faux painting techniques can be performed on just about anything. You can’t perform it on drywall, steel, even on glass. You can take a dull ordinary looking window frame and do a “faux painting woodgrain” finish on it. So now, all of a sudden, you have a beautiful window instead of boring plain looking painted window. You can refinish your fireplace mantel and do a “faux painting marble” on that too. This can save you a lot of money and time. You don’t have to buy a new fireplace and you don’t have to hire a stone mason to install it.

Faux Finish Painting Techniques

In some instances you start your finishing the regular way with the base coat of regular latex paint. The second third and fourth and so on consecutive coats are applied in special techniques and materials, which I will talk about a future posts. If you choose to do a wall with some specialized techniques on it, read up on the procedure carefully. Acquire all the necessary materials and the proper tools to perform the specialty finish. I would strongly recommend to experiment on either a large piece of drywall or a wall somewhere that is not important to experiment on. Once you have learnt and experimented with the materials and techniques and you feel comfortable you can perform this application on the wall you choose you can go ahead prepare your new wall. If you’re doing a frame than practice on a piece of wood or something similar to what you’re planning on doing the finish on. Again if you’re comfortable with what you did on the practice piece of wood go ahead and do it on the good peace.

For Further Resources On Faux Finish

And you tried little hands-on with this application and you are not satisfied you can always go to an interior painting company for assistance.

Today I’m going to talk about PVC pipe joint and fittings and generally plastic PVC pipe information and install.

PVC means (polyvinyl chloride). This PVC plumbing pipe is a standard type in the home plumbing industry. Gluing these pipes together can be a lot of fun.

Cutting and fitting PVC pipe is super easy and doing it yourself  Can bring down the cost plumbing significantly.

First of all cutting PVC pipe can be done easily using a fine tooth saw that you would use even on your woodworking projects. So there is no special saw for this. You can get a whole variety of PVC pipe diameter piping with a slew of preformed connectors and angles making it quite interesting to be able to figure out how it all altogether. This is almost like working with a puzzle you have to figure out where your twists will end up at, hopefully at the other end.

Most common fittings such as the one underneath your sink will fit with special PVC connectors with compression fittings. Here you won’t even need any glue to assemble the fittings. This of course is handy when you want to replace or remove something there. A lot of under the sink PVC fittings  are compression fittings and joints for easy assembly.

When you are fitting PVC pipe in permanent areas with permanent PVC pipe joints there is a sequence of gluing you have to do. You first paint on the purple primer on to this section where you will be gluing the PVC pipe to another one. The one end has a female and the other end should be a male end. The overlapping sections should both have this purple primer on them.

Now you can put the PVC cement over the purple primer. You get a little stick with a soft End on it, looks like a cotton ball, you dip this into the can of PVC cement and paint around the PVC pipe diameter three times making sure it’s well covered and totally on. So you go around and around three times. Don’t let the pipe dry, make sure the pipe is still wet when fitting it to the other pipe. Squeeze the two PVC pipes together and give it a slight twist ensuring a good joint then push and hold for a few seconds until the glue sets.

Sometimes you are going to have to be fitting PVC pipe to copper pipe, you will have to use something called a mission clamp. You will have to slide this rubber sleeve over the pipe, you should lubricate rubber sleeve with something like dishwasher detergent to enable it to slide easily without ruining the sleeve. Sometimes chemicals will ruin rubberized type components losing their elasticity properties and sealing properties. I piggyback the sleeve over both the plastic PVC pipe and a copper pipe. Then I tighten up the metal sleeve overtopped the rubber sleeve.

Home bathroom fixtures, how to unplug a toilet properly.This is an article I wrote a while ago that might be of use to you. I discuss the procedure of properly unclogging a toilet bowl after it didn’t flush. Everyone should have the first line of defence against  a plugged toilet.

http://tinyurl.com/ye8fntb

If you’re doing plumbing home repair and you’re wanting to know how to plumb, read this for starters.

Propane soldering kit with igniter

After you cut your pipe to the right length it’s time to join them. One typical joint connection would be a 90° bend in other words a copper elbow. Another joints would be a “T” joint where you splice into a water line tapping off from it. The there are the two most common joints.

When you are inserting one of these joints on to the end of the pipe or pipes there are some very simple basic steps you have to do before you join the pipes and the joints by soldering. You need a very few simple tools and a couple of practice runs to be able to perform good solid solder joints.

In the plumbing section of the store asked the clerk for some sandpaper (This stuff is called plumbers Emery cloth) use for scoring the pipe and removing any surface dirt or oxidization. after you have sanded the pipe on the outside and the joint on the inside wipe clean the sanded surfaces with a clean rag and apply some soldering flux. This stuff is almost something like grease but it’s not it helps the soldering to work. It helps to solder flow evenly over everything and helps the bond between  solder and the pipe. Sometimes if you can’t get your finger and sandpaper inside the pipe try using it  a round wire brush to agitate the surface. Now that you have all your pipes and fittings prepared and fluxed. Put all your bits and pieces together the way you want to be and get ready for soldering.

The copper pipe is  heated with a torch, this is when you sweat copper to melt the solder. I use a propane torch with a igniting trigger on it. This saves you lots of gas when you are not using the torch because if you’re doing something as torches burning your wasting gas. Furthermore it might be even unsafe having the torch flame open wiki for an accident. A normal propane torch kits set up consists of, at torch, a propane cylinder, and an igniter to make a spark. Something the same as you use on your barbecue. Now that you have lit your torch look at your flame and adjusted to a sharp blue flame, there should be a positively identifiable inner blue cone in your flame indicating you have a proper flame set up.

Heating up copper pipe called "sweating"

Now you pass this flame over top and around the joint anywhere from 10 to 20 seconds on the average. Now heat both the  fitting and the pipe to the correct temperature when you place the tip of your solder on the joint it should start melting  the solder immediately and since you cleaned the joints properly with the sandpaper and put the flux on, the solder should run around the entire joint almost like magic. Though sometimes you have to play with it and feed more solder it to the joint applying a little more heat but not directly onto the solder, don’t try melting the solder onto a cold pipe. It’s the pipe that has to melt the solder. It doesn’t take a whole role of solder to join the pipe it takes a very small amount if done properly.

When you learned this very well along with a few other plumbing know-how’s you can  say to yourself you  have greatly reduce the cost plumbing down to  the cost of materials and your time.

If you’re planning to do some fixtures plumbing and you want to know how to plumb one of the things that you have to know is ways of cutting pipe. Unless you have a very recent home most probably you are still using either copper or iron pipes.

If you’re planning to cut a section of pipe and you have a vice preferably on a bench, place the pipe into the vice and secure it. Measure the length of pipe you need and mark it. The number one method of cutting pipe that I use is a heavy duty pipe cutter. You place it on the pipe and the lineup the cutting wheel with the mark. Then with the tightening handle rotated one time, and spin the cutter around once or twice. Once you’ve established the groove that you are sure of then rotate the tightening handle one revolution and then rotate the cutter around the pipe, then again tighten the Cutter one more revolution and spin pipe Cutter again one more time and keep doing this until the pipe cuts through. And separates cleanly.

Another way to cut pipe is a hack saw, I saw blade should be around 18 to 24 teeth per inch. Mind you this is a lot harder work than using a heavy-duty pipe cutter. Start slowly at your marked line going back and forth creating your groove and once your groove has started deepening then you can start cutting more vigorously until you get close to the bottom of the cut were you slow down again in your strokes leaving it nice cut edge.

Another way of cutting pipe if one is available to you as a cordless portable bandsaw. This one will cut very quickly and not tire you out.

And finally another way is using metal cutoff saw this is also very quick and it’s just like cutting wood on a miter saw. This one though makes a bad smell and leaves floating particles of dust in the air that make me you cough if you’re doing lots of this type of cutting

Hopefully this will help you out on how to plumb fixtures plumbing projects.

Paint quality plays an important role  in your interior wall painting project. There is a large difference between a regular latex wall paint and a top line paint. There are some additives which don’t even exist in the cheaper latex paint. And there are some extra and better additives added to the more expensive wall paints. These additives are for, better coverage, more high hiding qualities, better sealing qualities, and better leveling qualities which means that you will have less orange peel effect in your paint job.

Better coverage means do you’ll have to use less paint per square foot. Also better paint coverage eases the amount of labor painting the wall. And finally since you are painting the wall less you will be using less paint. This in itself is a large savings.

Top line paints also hide the underlying color much better, because they break up into finer droplets leaving less space between the droplets to expose the underlying surface. Also what this does is it allows the paint to lay flatter on the wall giving the paint job a deeper look not having so much orange peel effect and roller marks left on the wall.

Interior wall painting basically is easier done with good quality top line paints such as “Benjamin Moore” designer series paints.

I also can say little bit more about this on my other house painters blog site.