Here's how to dress up a fence post with a beveled cap. It's easy to do with a radial arm saw. Set the blade at a 45 degree angle. Before cutting, always protect your eyes with safety glasses. Then make one cut, pulling the saw firmly toward you. Rotate the post and make another cut, and proceeed the same way with the remaining sides. When you're finished, you'll have a perfect 45 degree beveled fence post cap.

Here's another great tip from BobVila.com. You can get several years worth of grime off your deck and your home s exterior in an hour with a pressure washer. Whether you buy or rent, it s a great tool to have. But go easy. Pressure washing with more than 1,200 psi is useful for stripping loose and flaking paint, but it can easily damage your siding. For cleaning, volume is more important than pressure. When using a pressure washer, stand several feet from the house and work from the top down. Use a wide-angle spray nozzle and keep the spray at about 30 degrees from the surface to avoid leaving marks. Narrow nozzles and high pressure at a right angle to the surface will damage your siding and can hurt you, too. Always wear safety goggles and protective clothing when you re pressure washing. Unless it s specified by the decking or siding manufacturer, avoid using chlorine bleach, which can be harmful to wood surfaces. It ll turn cedar and redwood black, and your plants won t like it either. Instead, spray any mildewed areas with an oxygen-based bleach solution or other natural cleanser to loosen the grime before pressure washing. If all of this seems like a lot of work, your local pressure-washing service can clean and finish a standard deck for $200-$300 in a couple of hours. Find out more at BobVila.com: The ultimate home improvement web site! BobVila.com 2008

If your home is not protected by impact-resistant windows and doors; or impact resistant shutters or panels; consider building your own temporary emergency panels. Step One: Plan the Project. Count and measure each window and door that has glass including French doors, sliding glass doors as well as skylights. You might also want to include roof and gable end vents or any opening that if damaged would allow wind to enter your home. Measure each opening horizontally inside the exterior trim and vertically from the sill to the bottom of the top trim. Add eight inches to both the height and width to provide a four-inch overlap on all sides. When measuring a window with an extended sill measure from the top of the sill to the top of the window and add four inches instead of eight. Sheets of plywood are generally 4 feet by 8 feet. This will help determine how many sheets to buy. Be sure to purchase plywood that is 5/8 inch or greater, exterior grade (CDX). Step Two: Assemble Your Tools and Hardware. You will need a circular saw, drill and drill bits, hammer and wrench, work gloves and safety goggles for this project. You will also need an assortment of hardware including bolts, wood or masonry anchors, nuts and large washers. A range of bolts may be used because different bolts will be needed for wood frame versus masonry homes. Wood Homes use lag screws and plastic coated permanent anchors Masonry Homes use expansion bolts and galvanized permanent expansion anchors Step Three: Get Started Having someone help you with this project will make things a lot easier. First drill holes in the same diameter as the bolts or screws, 2-inches in from the edges of the plywood at each corner and at 12-inch intervals around the panel. Next hold the plywood firmly in place over the opening to mark where to drill mounting holes. If the window sill is flush to the wall, secure the plywood on all four sides. If the window sill extends out at the bottom, secure the plywood on the top and sides. For windows 3 feet by 4 feet or smaller installed on a wood frame house, use 1/4-inch lag screws and plastic coated permanent anchors. The lag screws should penetrate the wall and frame surrounding the window at least 1 3/4 inches. For larger windows, use 3/8-inch lag screws that penetrate the wall and frame surrounding the window at least 2 1/2 inches. For windows 3 feet by 4 feet or smaller installed on a masonry house, use 1/4 inch expansion bolts and galvanized permanent expansion anchors. The expansion bolts should penetrate the wall at least 1 1/2 inches. For larger windows, use 3/8-inch expansion bolts that penetrate the wall at least 1 1/2 inches. If a window or door is larger than a sheet of plywood, you will need to join the panels with 2X4 bracing along the entire seam. Attach the 2X4s to the outside of the plywood panel with 10 gauge, 2 inch long galvanized screws (exterior deck screws) spaced every 4 inches. Use the widest side of the 2X4 to run the length of the entire seam. When youre done, mark each panel with the name of the opening so you will quickly know where to install it when a storm is approaching. Store the panels, washers and nuts together in a location away from the elements. Consider waterproofing the panels with paint or a sealant.

Here s another great tip from BobVila.com. While it s a job many of us would love to ignore, gutter cleaning is an important twice-a-year ritual all homeowners need to adopt. When clogged gutters overflow, they can cause ice dams on the roof that force water inside your house. They can also get so heavy that they ll pull the gutters loose and rot the trim and siding. Even if your gutter doesn t fill to overflowing each season, leaving any decaying debris in there is an invitation to carpenter ants and mosquitoes. If you have a lot of trees around your house, you might want to clean your gutters even more frequently. There are lots of ways to do the cleaning. You can find inventions like tongs on an extension pole, shop vacuums with gutter nozzles or even a remote-controlled gutter-running robot. But most methods eventually involve getting on a ladder. If you have gutters above the first story or aren t comfortable on a ladder, you re better off hiring a pro. To clean your gutters yourself, wear gloves, a dust mask and safety goggles. Make sure your ladder is well-footed at all times and use a ladder stabilizer, or stand-off, to keep from denting and damaging your gutters. Scoop the debris into a garbage bag with a garden trowel, then rinse toward the downspout with a high-pressure nozzle on your hose and scrub it clean. Try to avoid spattering the siding in the process. Next, clear the downspouts with a hose or auger. Installing leaf strainers at the drain tops will cut down on the large clogs. When it rains, check for leaks and mark them with a china marker so you can patch holes or correct pitch problems when it s dry. There s debate about whether gutter caps or screens are worth the investment of up to $7 a running foot. Because nothing keeps all debris out, you still have to have your gutter cleaned every couple of years at least, and screens and caps make it much more difficult and expensive to do it. Find out more at BobVila.com: the ultimate home improvement web site! 2008 BobVila.com

Cracked and broken bathroom tiles are easily removed and replaced. There may be water damage to the backing behind the tile, so be prepared for a longer job.

Here s another great tip from BobVila.com. It s not uncommon to find beautiful woodwork with coat after coat of paint obscuring its detail, especially in older homes. For a new paint job that does your woodwork justice, stripping the old paint is your best option. There are three ways to strip paint: mechanically by hand-scraping, burning it off with heat or with chemicals. The mechanical methods of scraping and sanding work only when loose or uneven paint needs to be removed before repainting. Just remember to do this work outdoors and with protection. Using heat to remove paint usually involves a blowtorch or a heat gun. The disadvantage of using heat is that it can be dangerous because of accidental combustion and harmful vapors. Also, you may still have to sand when you re done. Neither of these first two methods, mechanical or heat, should be used if any of the paint you re removing could be 30 years old or more since it s likely to contain lead. Instead, you should use a chemical stripper. Look for environmentally friendly citrus-based versions, which are becoming as common as the old caustic gel strippers. Brush the gel on, leave it to do its work and then scrape it off. Here s a quick tip: Sprinkle sawdust on the gel to make it easier to scrape off and throw away. For tough jobs, try a sheeted paste that peels away after dissolving the paint. You may not have to scrape much at all. With chemical strippers, you need to start and finish the same day. Dried gel can be very difficult to remove. The chemicals may affect the animal glues in older furniture, so avoid excess use around the joints. And you should always wear the safety gear recommended on the product label and work outdoors or in a well-ventilated area. Find out more at BobVila.com: the ultimate home improvement web site! 2008 BobVila.com

Here's another great tip from BobVila.com. As green building hits the mainstream, you ll continue to hear many new terms. One of them is LEED certification. L-E-E-D, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a set of green building techniques and standards that make it easier for state and local governments, builders, architects, designers and homeowners to build sustainable and healthy buildings. LEED rates the whole building in five key areas: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality. LEED-certified buildings conserve energy and water and cost less to operate. They send less waste to landfills and less greenhouse gas into the atmosphere. Best of all, they re healthier and safer for the people who live and work in them. As an added bonus, LEED-certified projects also qualify for tax rebates, zoning allowances and other incentives in hundreds of cities nationwide. LEED certification program standards are set by committees selected from all parts of the building industry and administered by the U.S. Green Building Council. These standards can be used in both existing buildings and new ones. LEED certification doesn t just make homes, schools, commercial buildings and neighborhoods more efficient and healthy. It also makes them more profitable and enduring. So, hiring a LEED-accredited professional for your next big project can be a win-win situation. Find out more at BobVila.com: The ultimate home improvement web site! BobVila.com 2008

Bob meets Larry, the tile contractor, who is installing floor tiles in the bathroom. Larry starts out by putting down an under-layment, letting it dry then snapping chalk reference lines to insure the grout line remain parallel to the vanity and shower. Larry gives a tip on where to start tiling a bathroom to lessen the likelihood of tile failure and water damage. Larry�s assistant, Leo, then cuts the tile using a diamond tipped water-cooled, tile saw. Bob comes back to Larry who then nips the tile to the specifications and lays it.

George Saylor from Owens Corning is on location in this episode to discuss the insulation products that will be used in the Waterfront Warehouse Rehab project. Before work begins, Bob notes the importance of wearing protective gear including gloves, hat, long sleeve shirt, pants, particle mask, and eye protection when working with fiberglass insualtion. Owens Corning has provided a fiberglass insulation that delivers an insulation value of R15 in only three and half inches of thickness. The material's higher density creates smaller more uniform cells of trapped air to provide a greater degree of insulation in a tighter space, making it more efficient. Saylor also explains how to insulate around outlets and other building infrastructure. On the exterior walls, extruded polystyrene insulation is being installed between the studs and wallboard to prevent thermal transfer from the metal studs to the building's interior. The additional material will create a R20 wall. In the living spaces, interior walls are filled with fiberglass batt insulation to prevent the transfer of sound from room to room.

Here s another great tip from BobVila.com. Mold problems are present in about four out of 10 American homes. With the often prohibitive costs and dubious results of professional mold remediation, more and more homeowners are looking for ways to take care of mold problems themselves. If mold is affecting an area less than 10 square feet and your household doesn t include anyone who is very young, very old or immune-compromised, you can tackle the problem yourself if you re careful. First, consult the EPA s web site and read about the different levels of mold infestation and the levels of protection they require, both for you and for the rest of your house. Mold spreads by sending out millions of airborne spores. Disturbing a mold infestation can send the spores flying and make your problem worse and more widespread unless you seal off the area and protect yourself. Seal off any heat or air vents to the affected area, and install a window fan to pull air to the outside. Seal off the area with plastic sheeting taped over the doorway. Never touch mold with your bare hands, get it in your eyes or breathe it. Wear a disposable work suit or clothing you can throw away after the job is done. Wear a respirator, gloves and goggles, and shower well after you ve finished. Contrary to popular belief, you cannot kill mold with bleach. It might remove the appearance, but it won t get the roots, which will re-bloom in a matter of days, sometimes hours, if the area remains wet. In general, the best way to get rid of mold is to remove the affected materials altogether and rebuild. Removal is your only option if the moisture came from grey water or sewage. If the moisture source was clean, use a wet vac or steamer to remove wet or loose debris first and double-bag it in heavy trash bags. Then damp-wipe or scrub with detergent and water, but don t soak the surface. When it s thoroughly dry, vacuum again with a HEPA vacuum. Double-bag the vacuum contents and thoroughly clean or replace the vacuum s filter. You can dispose of the bags of debris with the rest of your trash. If the moisture problem that invited the mold in the first place has been fixed and the area remains completely dry, the mold may not re-grow. Find out more at BobVila.com: the ultimate home improvement web site! 2008 BobVila.com