What Is The Problem If My Lawnmower Keeps Stopping After It Has Run For 10 Seconds?
What Is the Problem if My Lawnmower Keeps Stopping After It Has Run for 10 Seconds?
Read MoreBob Haring
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Stories By Bob Haring
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How To Build Steps On An Uneven Surface
How to Build Steps on an Uneven Surface. Steps take people from one level to another. In a house, that's pretty simple. You build steps to an upstairs or from a basement to outside or from a sidewalk to a porch. Those are pretty standard step situations, with fixed heights and widths. Steps are trickier outside, in a yard or garden or on a pathway where surfaces vary and may be uneven or off level. But with planning and preparation, you can build steps almost anywhere.
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How To Lay Flag Stone On Uneven Ground
How to Lay Flag Stone on Uneven Ground. Flagstone is a term for any large flat stone, either cut from a quarry or found naturally. Flagstones may be a variety of rock including sandstone, limestone, quartz and granite and come in many colors. Natural stones, created by the fracturing of rock layers, are irregular in size and shape and usually have irregular surfaces. Quarried stones are cut from thick layers of rock and are more uniform in size and shape. Either style can be used for patios, walkways or other paved surfaces around a house. Flagstones can be set in mortar or concrete or laid on sand.
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How To Add A Brick Wall To A Basement
How to Add a Brick Wall to a Basement. Brick is decorative and durable. A brick wall creates an aura of permanence, for brick is one of the oldest building materials. Many brick buildings have stood for centuries. Once brick walls were solid layers, usually at least two bricks thick, and were a structural element supporting ceilings and roofs. Bricks also were often used to make basement walls. Today, virtually all brick walls are veneer, a layer of brick on a concrete or wood-sheathed wall, and basement walls are solid poured concrete or concrete blocks. Neither is as attractive as brick, so adding brick improves their appearance.
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Chainsaw Sharpening Degrees
Chainsaw Sharpening Degrees. Chainsaws are used to fell trees, trim limbs, cut firewood and clear brush. Chainsaws require regular maintenance, chiefly, keeping the chain teeth sharp using a round file. The teeth must be sharpened at the proper angle to keep the chain cutting effectively and straight.
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The Type Of Gravel To Use For Pavers
The Type of Gravel to Use for Pavers. Construction gravel is usually crushed limestone. Big boulders are blasted out of a quarry, then run through giant crushers to grind them into smaller pieces. Chunks are put through screens or other filters to divide them into fairly uniform sizes. The most common gravels used under pavers are fine, about 3/8 inch; medium, 1/2 to 3/4 inch, and coarse or heavy, up to 1-1/2 inches. Bigger gravels and other gravel stones are available but usually are not used for paver bases.
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How To Install Stone Steps
How to Install Stone Steps. Stone steps may have been the first type ever built, when early man threw down rocks to help him up or down a slope. Today's stone steps are more decorative, while still serving their original purpose of getting people up and down grades. Steps may be built with any kind of stone, laid in concrete, set with mortar or just laid in the ground. All steps have two elements, treads and risers. Space treads at least a comfortable stride distance apart and at least a foot wide. Make risers at least 4 inches and no more than 8 inches high.
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How To Vent A Fire Pit
How to Vent a Fire Pit. A fire pit can add a warm and cozy atmosphere to a patio. Fire pits can be elaborate constructions or simple rings of metal or masonry, as big around and as deep as a homeowner wants. Fire pits should always be built where there is plenty of open space and ventilation and no flammable material, including plants and trees, nearby. Open pits well removed from a house require no vents, but those installed on attached patios or as part of an outdoor room should have a vent to direct smoke and rising heat safely away and catch any sparks.
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How To Build A Stucco Courtyard
How to Build a Stucco Courtyard. A courtyard is an outdoor space enclosed by walls. In southwestern, Spanish and Mediterranean architecture, these walls traditionally are stucco, cement plaster applied over a basic wall. Most stucco courtyard walls today are made of concrete blocks, finished with traditional three-coat stucco. Before starting such a project, check local building codes. Most communities regulate wall construction and location, and some may forbid building of courtyards in front of a house or on a corner. Any wall over 4 feet high usually requires engineering consultation.
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How To Install Stucco Over A Wood Frame House
How to Install Stucco Over a Wood Frame House. Stucco is an ancient building material, dating to early Greece and Rome and Middle Eastern areas. A form was also used by early Native Americans. It is a masonry coating on a wall, today composed of Portland cement, sand and lime. It is durable, weather-resistant, can be colored on application or painted and can be used with almost any style of house. It is easily applied to masonry walls, of brick, concrete or concrete block, but can be applied to wood-framed walls, too, with proper preparation. Done right, a stucco wall on wood sheathing is attractive and long-lasting.
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How To Electrical Ground An Above-Ground Pool
How to Electrical Ground an Above-Ground Pool. Above-ground swimming pools are an option where soil conditions, such as thick stone, or other considerations make installing a pool in the ground difficult or impossible. Above-ground pools typically have a raised platform around them and may have lights installed on the perimeter. All above-ground pools must have a water filtering system, which uses a pump powered by an electric motor to remove contaminants from the water. All electrical outlets around an above-ground pool must be properly grounded to prevent any current from reaching the water. Each element should be grounded separately.
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How To Build Brick Steps Into A Hillside
How to Build Brick Steps Into a Hillside. A slope or hill can be an attractive element in a lawn or garden, adding visual interest and affording different planting locations. A hillside also can be awkward, requiring extra effort to climb up and down. A solution is to build steps. There are many options for steps in a hillside. You can use large flagstones or limestone slabs as individual steps, form steps of natural or quarried rock set in sand or mortar or you can build more formal steps with bricks. The basic step construction is similar for all materials.
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Best Ways To Level The Ground For A Shed
Best Ways to Level the Ground for a Shed. A shed is a great addition to a yard. It can provide space for potting plants and storing garden accessories or storage for tools, toys, out of season items or other objects. A shed can be a 4-by-4-foot tool bin or a 12-by-16-foot workshop. A shed can be built almost anywhere; the ground does not have to be perfectly level, but the foundation must be. Check building regulations; larger sheds will require permits.
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How To Make Foundations On A Slope For A Shed
How to Make Foundations on a Slope for a Shed. The ground on which a shed is built does not have to be perfectly level. The foundation for that shed must be. A shed should not be situated, however, on a very steep slope, which would be subject to heavy rain runoff and erosion, unless you plan to build poured concrete stub walls such as are used on house foundations. A more typical shed foundation can be built on unlevel ground using concrete blocks.
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How To Attach A Shed To The Ground
How to Attach a Shed to the Ground. Not all sheds need to be attached to the ground. Many wooden sheds will rest solidly on concrete blocks or similar foundations, even beams set on compacted gravel. But lighter sheds, especially those of metal or vinyl, usually need to be attached in some way and many homeowners are more comfortable with sheds that are solidly secured into the ground. There are three basic ways to attach a shed to the ground: concrete slab, pier and beam foundation or ground anchors (also called tie-downs).
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