ArcaMax

One of my newsletter subscribers, Robert, does handyman work on the weekends for friends and other homeowners. Eleven years ago, he wanted to learn how to frame a large shed, including common roof framing. He volunteered to help me build my 16- by 24-foot two-story shed. We’ve been fast friends ever since that week we worked together.

Robert ...Read more

Ed subscribes to my free weekly newsletter. He lives in western North Carolina, as does his son. His son’s house was flooded by a portion of the trillions of gallons of water Hurricane Helene unleashed on the interior Southeastern USA.

Ed’s son thought he was doing the right thing by asking one of the artificial intelligence (AI) engines ...Read more

Several days ago, I had a texting exchange with a very smart woman who attends my church. She reached out to me the day before with a photo of water inside her garage and another showing a crack in the garage foundation wall near the water puddle. A rain shower had happened the day before, after weeks of no rain.

My wife and I are friends with ...Read more

Every seven weeks I sit in my barber’s chair and say to Mikayla: “Take no prisoners. Cut each and every one of them.” She giggles to humor me.

I have to step up from the asphalt parking lot to a concrete sidewalk to get to the shop door. Someone tried to patch a crack or a spalled area in front of the barber shop a few years ago. Spalling...Read more

Are you planning a new deck or patio soon? There’s a very good chance you’re going to make it too small. I know this based on the thousands of complaints I’ve received over the years from homeowners just like you.

Most people don’t have the ability to look at a plan drawn by an architect or design contractor and then visualize that ...Read more

I installed an attractive concrete paver patio for my wife seven years ago. I knew it would fail, but I didn’t know when. She wanted the patio completed as soon as possible. This tight deadline dictated that I had to set the patio stones on sand instead of mortaring them to a steel-reinforced concrete slab.

My new flat patio soon was not so ...Read more

You probably give little thought to why the stairs in your home are built the way they are. I’m talking about how high you need to lift your foot to get up to the next step and how deep the flat tread is when your foot falls. The vertical face of a stair is called a riser and the flat step is a tread.

I’ve built many staircases in my career...Read more

Are you aware how expensive it is to hire a professional to do simple jobs around your home? I know they’re worth the price in many cases because I used to do that work day-in day-out. You may be on a fixed income and simply can’t afford to hire a pro. Thank your lucky stars there are thousands of great videos to help you, and keep in mind I...Read more

Are you about to install a new roof on your home or small business? The odds are you’ll be giving serious consideration to asphalt shingles. This building material has dominated the U.S. residential roofing market for just about 100 years. Go back farther in time and other, more durable materials were the standard. Tin, slate, fiber cement and...Read more

You may have had the good fortune to live and work inside old homes. I’m talking about houses that were built over 100 years ago. The architects who designed them and the builders who built them were wise.

I started my building career in Cincinnati. My good friend John and I started a small handyman business in college. One day, while hanging...Read more

I’m helping my son on the weekends to finish the basement in his 3-year-old house. He’ll be adding 1,300 square feet of finished living space. A few days ago, we met with the local building inspector. Donna gave us the thumbs up on the framing, plumbing and all the electrical rough installations. She’s been doing inspections in Nashua, New...Read more

I was blessed by God to learn my craft of building and remodeling in Cincinnati. The first few years of my career had me working on houses that were close to 100 years old. I have no recollection of seeing rusty roofing nails on any of the jobs where we had to strip off roofs. I had to spackle exposed nail heads on house siding and trim, but ...Read more

Roy subscribes to my free newsletter. He reached out to me about a month ago for one of my phone consultations. He needed help engineering a drainage system around his house to stop water from infiltrating his basement. My college degree is in geology with a focus on hydrogeology and geomorphology. Hydrogeology is the study of groundwater ...Read more