Interested in adding a special touch to your house painting? Stencils have been used for hundreds of years by not-so-artistic DIY home painting folks who want to turn out beautiful designs without too much effort. Unfortunately, stenciling doesn’t always turn out like it should, so let me share a few painting tips that I’ve learned over the years.

Use a stencil brush. You’re going to be tempted to use a regular paintbrush, but this is not a good idea! Stencil brushes use short round bristles to give better coverage, whereas regular brushes are too long and the bristles tend to slip under the edge of the stencil, messing up your design. To use the stencil brush, load lightly with paint and stipple the area, dabbing at the area to be painted rapidly. A small roller can work for larger, same color stencils, too.

Do the edge first. Make sure you start around the edge of the design and then fill in the middle. In fact, if you want a nice shaded effect, you can use less paint in the middle, making the edges darker. This works particularly well for flowers and leaves.

Don’t overdo it. One of the best painting tips for DIY home painting and stenciling is to avoid painting too thickly. If need be, do two thin coats and you’ll have much better end results with your home painting.

Use tape. You might think that you can hold the stencil steady with one hand and dab with the other, but it’s not worth having a wobbly design running across the wall to find out. Use low tack or painters masking tape to hold the stencil to the wall. You’ll get the best results if you measure first to make sure you’re going in a straight line, since it is easy to slip a little as you work and create a poor effect.

Using a stencil really doesn’t require a lot of talent, but it does require precision. Unlike other house painting areas, you will need to be very careful with this type of DIY home painting. These painting tips will help you get great results.

Do it yourself home repair can save you a lot of hassle, as well as money, but only if you have the right tools. There’s nothing worse that struggling to strip a wire with your teeth or tighten a bolt with scissors. DIY home repair requires tools, so if you’re serious about DIY home improvement, you’re going to need a tool box.

There are a number of useful tools to have on hand for DIY home improvement projects, but certain DIY home repair jobs require certain tools more than others. Your do it yourself home repair kit should have the following tools in it:

Screwdrivers: Skip the frustration of using a penny to turn a screw and get yourself a couple of good screwdrivers at the very least. If you can, pick up a full set or get one that has interchangeable heads.

Adjustable wrench: Any DIY plumbing jobs are going to require this one. An adjustable wrench saves you having to store an entire kit, though this can be good if you have the space and the money for this.

Clamps: There are so many uses for clamps that I won’t even start to go into them, but we’ll leave it at the fact that you need to have at least two on hand, preferably more. Trust me, they come in very handy.

Pliers: Needlenose pliers in particular are useful for working on electrical connections, but they can be used anywhere you need to grip something in a small space. Regular pliers are also very handy to have on hand.

Hammer and chisel: These could technically be two tools, but they really do go together and neither has a good substitute. Make sure you have both in your tool kit.

Of course, there are many other tools that you should have on hand, but these essentials will help you deal with most common do it yourself home repair issues. When you have a DIY home repair emergency in the middle of the night, you want to have what you need on hand, so stock your DIY home improvement tool kit well.

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.

Wiring the light diagram

Okay, so you went out and bought a new light for your ceiling. You have been dreaming about a new light on your ceiling since you bought your home. You decide, it can’t be a very big job to install it yourself so you go ahead with installing it.Here we will talk about “wiring light” to your ceiling. This will be one of our electrical tips today.

Simple wiring the light diagram.

Wiring light securing with nipple

The first thing you should do before attempting to work on any electrical repair is find your circuit breaker or fuse box identify which one of these items will disable the flow of electricity to what you’re working on whether you’re doing ceiling fan wiring or any kind of wall electrical repair. Either pull out the fuse or turned off the circuit breaker and for some extra added safety put some tape over top of the circuit breaker switch on the off position. This will ensure if you need to do any resetting during the time you’re doing any wall electrical repair you won’t be tampering with the disabled breaker accidentally turning on the circuit.

Removing your old fixture from the ceiling should be a fairly simple job. This will expose the electrical box containing the wires to connect the light fixture. You should see three wires coming from this to covered wires usually black and white and one bare copper wire the bare copper wire will be screwed to the metal of the fixture creating a good ground. The other two wires also referred to as “Marrette” or “Marr connector” will be connected with wire nuts

Sometimes in older homes that have a lot of history of electrical work done on them might not have the proper connectors. I will talk later about this in another post.

The junction box has a cross plate called the “strap” running across from one end to the other with a threaded tube called a nipple which is not indicated in this diagram which is adjustable coming out of it. This threaded tube is the actual support for the fixture (most common type of light fixtures)

it is safe to touch anything in this electrical junction box because you turned off and circuit breaker. You can unscrew these wire nuts from the wires holding a little of everything not to drop the light. You might need a screwdriver to unscrew the bare copper wire that is used for grounding the fixture.

Inspect the wires that you’re going to be connecting that they are all in good condition and not bare in any spot, this could cause a short. Also ensure you have the correct wire nuts to reassemble the circuit. If you have stranded wire make sure the strands are all twisted into a rope first, this allows the wire nut to twist on smoothly. This is done by putting the two bear pieces of wire that all to each other and fitting up against each other snugly, placing the wire nut carefully over the exposed wire pair and then twisting and pushing lightly until the wire nut grabs traction and starts threading on to the wires. I generally cut enough wire shielding away from the wire so that it is still inside the plastic part of the wire nut.

Once you have your two live wires connected then connect your bare ground wire back to the electrical junction box. For added insurance I generally take some electrical tape and wrap both wire nuts down wire strands. This ensures the nut doesn’t become free and loosens up.

Make sure the cross plate that holds the lamp fixture will be properly adjusted for depth to accommodate the lamps base. To do this with your two fingers twist the nipple in or out as needed.

Make sure that you have placed the tightening nut first on the wire from your lamp and before the base. So holding the lamp bring it to the ceiling place the base over the nipple then holding the base in place tighten up the nut. If the nut is something like an acorn nut if you keep on twisting the nut in a little twisted nipple back far enough to tighten up the base securely.

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