About the author

Todd Fratzel

I'm full time builder for a large construction company in New Hampshire. I run their design-build division that specializes in custom homes, commercial design-build projects and sub-divisions. I'm also a licensed civil and structural engineer with extensive experience in civil and structural design and home construction. My hope is that I can share my experience in the home construction, home improvement and home renovation profession with other builders and home owners. I'm also the Editor-in-Chief and Founder of Tool Box Buzz. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions, suggestions or you'd like to inquire about advertising on this site.

Router Dado Guide

By Todd Fratzel on Finish Carpentry, Power Tools

I’ve been searching for an easy to build, cheap router dado guide. What I found is a very simple router dado guide that I can build for making the dado’s in the book shelves I’m going go make for the basement storage room. As you can see this router dado guide is really simple. I’m…

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Cutting Dados with a Router

By Todd Fratzel on Cabinetry, Finish Carpentry

I’m getting ready to build some book shelves for the new basement storage room. To build the book shelves I’m going to need to cut dados in the side panels of the shelves. The easiest way to cut the dados is to use a router with a straight plunge cutting bit. I’m going to make…

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Heating A Large Building

By Todd Fratzel on Air Conditioning

Heating a large building can be a real challenge. We are building a 9,000 sf assisted living facility right now at work and I thought I’d share a picture of a really great heating system. This building is using two Buderus Logano G215 oil fired boilers. These boilers have a high efficiency – A F…

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Basement Storage Room Is Finished

By Todd Fratzel on Basements, Closets & Storage

Basement Storage Room with Shelving Today I finished our new storage room in the basement. This storage room was needed badly so we could organize all of our stuff that has been piling up in the basement. Two of the walls have these 24 inch deep shelves spaced approximately 30 inches apart. I still plan…

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Creating Storage Room with Attic Trusses

By Todd Fratzel on Closets & Storage, Design, Framing

Attic Trusses Create Attic Space An inexpensive way to create additional storage space in your new home is to use attic trusses instead of conventional “common trusses”. Most modern homes that are built today use a common truss that doesn’t really leave any usable space for storage. Older homes were framed using rafters and collar…

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Basement Storage Room

By Todd Fratzel on Basements, Closets & Storage, Insulation

Building A Basement Storage Room The basement storage room project is coming along nicely. I recently wrote a couple of posts, Finished Basement – Step 1 Insulation and Basement Framing and Insulation Update, about how to properly insulate a concrete foundation wall in a basement. Now that the walls are insulated I’ve started finishing off…

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Finished Basements – Insulation Method

By Todd Fratzel on Basements, Insulation

Finished Basement Insulation I’m preparing to “finish” one of the rooms in the basement. The room is actually going to be a storage room so I use the term “finish” with a grain of salt. I plan on building some shelves to store some of our “junk” that has accumulated in the portion of the…

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How To Install A Split Jamb Pre-Hung Door

By Todd Fratzel on Doors, Finish Carpentry

Split Jamb Pre-Hung Doors Hanging a split jamb pre-hung door is a very easy home improvement project. We ordered all the doors for our new house at the same time, including the basement ones. The basement doors have been sitting in the basement in the original packaging for over a year now. So I decided…

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