American Standard Culinaire Bridge Kitchen Faucet Review

By Todd Fratzel on Plumbing, Product Reviews

The Back Story Over the last six months we’ve been using/testing/abusing a new kitchen faucet from American Standard. Before I go into the particulars on this faucet I wanted to give you a quick back-story on why we have this new faucet. We built our new home just over 5 years ago. Like many homeowners…

Continue reading »

Installing Programmable Thermostats

By Todd Fratzel on Air Conditioning, Electrical, Energy Conservation

Programmable Thermostats Save Money Installing a programmable thermostat is a very easy home improvement project and one that could save you quite a bit of money. Installing a programmable thermostat helps save energy by automatically turning down your heat or turning up your cooling when you’re asleep or away from home. The savings from using…

Continue reading »

Cold Roof

By Todd Fratzel on Insulation, Roofing

Ventilated Cold Roof Ventilated roofs are nothing new, however ventilated cold roof are used on SIP roofs in order to prevent ice dams, damage from trapped moisture and a second layer of defense for roof leaks. In this article I’ll show you how we use ventilated cold roofs on timber framed homes that have SIP’s…

Continue reading »

Frozen Pipes – How To Prevent and Repair

By Todd Fratzel on Insulation, Plumbing

Frozen Water Pipes With temperatures dropping below zero here in the Northeast I thought it was fitting to write about Frozen Pipes. Each year thousands of homes are damaged by frozen water pipes. As ice expands inside of a water pipe it acts like an incredibly strong jack that causes most water pipes to burst…

Continue reading »

Stepped Footings

By Todd Fratzel on Foundations

Stepped Concrete Footings Footings are the most basic structural support for buildings in contact with the earth. For houses on a level building lot the footings are very simple and end up all at one elevation. However, for more complicated designs the footings end up changing elevations and therefore require a “step” in the grade.…

Continue reading »

How To Remove An Under Cabinet Microwave

By Todd Fratzel on Appliances

How To Remove The Microwave Without Destroying Your Cabinets Recently a reader wrote to me and asked if there was a trick to removing his under cabinet microwave. He explained that he had been prying, pulling, tugging without any success. Frankly he sounded as though he was going to hook up his truck to it…

Continue reading »

$100 Gift Card Giveaway From UPS

By Todd Fratzel on Giveaways

UPS My Choice – Simplify Pickup & Deliveries The other day I mentioned a cool new service from UPS called My Choice. Well I signed up and I’m already getting delivery notices and emails that help me totally control package deliveries at the house.  I’m really excited about this new service and hope you’ll consider…

Continue reading »

Say Goodbye To Incandescent Light Bulbs – Buy In Bulk Now!

By Todd Fratzel on Energy Conservation

You Better Hurry Up and Buy Lots of 100W Incandescent Light Bulbs I’m going to try my best to keep my politics in check with this post. However, if you haven’t paying attention you might be shocked to find out that when the ball falls in Time Square on January 1, 2012, it will be…

Continue reading »

Copyright © 2009-2023 Front Steps Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Home Construction & Improvement™ is a Trademark of Front Steps Media, LLC.