Archives: Structure

Diagonal Decking Layout

By Todd Fratzel on Decks & Porches

I recently discovered a great way of installing decking on decks to reduce waste and eliminate warping butt joints. Traditionally many decks are built by installing the decking material perpendicular to the floor joists. By using that layout method, decks that are longer than 16 feet will require butt joints over a joist. Typically those…

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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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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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Painting The Chair Rail

By Todd Fratzel on Finish Carpentry, Painting and Finishing

Tonight I started painting the chair rail. I like to use Sherwin Williams Semi-Gloss paint. One tip that I learned from a painter years ago really applies to painting this chair rail. When ever you paint trim work, casing, crown molding, chair rails, etc, it’s best to paint the trim work first. When you paint…

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