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.

Certainteed Vinyl Siding

By Todd Fratzel on Siding & Trim

One of the nice things about my job is I get to see and use lots of different building products. So when we built our new home I feel like I had quite the leg up on choosing quality products. One product that we use on many of our new homes is CertainTeed vinyl siding.…

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CABOT Decking Stains

By Todd Fratzel on Painting and Finishing

The other day I wrote about my deck staining project. Since then I’ve had several questions about which type of Cabot stain I used. I used Cabot Decking Stain, color 1480 Redwood. This stain works really good on pressure treated lumber. You can check out Cabot’s website for more information about this stain. I couldn’t…

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Staining Pressure Treated Deck Framing

By Todd Fratzel on Decks & Porches, Painting and Finishing

Our deck out back was framed with pressure treated lumber. We used cambara decking for the surface and it’s treated with Penofin sealer. In order to get the pressure treated to look more like the stained cambara decking I bought some Cabot’s deck stain in the “red wood” color. As you can see in the…

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Custom Colonial House Plans

By Todd Fratzel on House Plans

Colonial Style Home With Farmer’s Porch Lately I’ve had a few people ask me where I got the plans for our new home. The answer is simple, I designed the house myself (with lots of input from my wife!). Anyway, after thinking about it for quite some time I’ve decided that I’d be willing to…

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Sealing Cambara Decking

By Todd Fratzel on Decks & Porches, Painting and Finishing

Last fall we finished building the decks and porches on the new house. We used Cambara decking for both the deck and the farmers porch. At the time a co-worker suggested that I use Penofin Penetrating Oil Finish to seal the hard wood. So I went to the hardware store and picked up a few…

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Farmers Porch Design Drawing

By Todd Fratzel on Decks & Porches, House Plans

I’ve been quite surprised at the number of folks finding my blog the last couple of weeks searching for information about building a farmers porch. So, in an effort to share some of the knowledge I have about these great porches I’ve attached some of the details from my own farmers porch. As you can…

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Vinyl Posts and Railings

By Todd Fratzel on Decks & Porches, Siding & Trim

In my post yesterday about the farmers porch skirt several people asked what type of posts I used. All of the railings and posts are made by Certainteed , the Evernew Collection. The porch posts are actually structural. They have a structural aluminum post in the center. Below you can see the basic railing system.…

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Farmers Porch “Skirt”

By Todd Fratzel on Decks & Porches, Siding & Trim

Farmers Porch Lattice Skirt I’ve been trying to decide what style “skirt” to put under our new farmers porch and finally it came down to cost. I was thinking about using an older style where you put vertical boards with a small gap between them. However, the materials were going to be about triple what…

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