Hot Construction & Repair How-Tos

How To: Build a Raised Garden Bed Out of Old Pallets!

How to easily build a raised garden bed out of wooden pallets for free! …Well almost free. Building a raised vegetable garden with pallets or reclaimed wood is a really rewarding experience. The garden bed idea out of pallets came about from the fact that l wanted to build a rustic looking raised garden bed. A vegetable garden bed that not only provides delicious food, but looks good at the same time. The recycled wood has come from hardwood timber pallets that have been sourced totally FREE ...

How To: Change a Power Antenna

1- We removed the screws holding the lid of the box, with the help of a screwdriver. 2- After we removed the part unscrew the machinism and we took it off. 3- To remove the mechanism, we leave the loose wires, knowing which is which. 4- When we have the new mechanism, we bring them back to the cables that we loose. 5- Finally, we bring them back to the cover with the screws and a screwdriver.

How To: Find a Stud in the Wall. Amazing Method!

How to find a stud in the wall. How would you like to be able to find a stud in a plaster wall / drywall wall, easily and every time without an expensive stud finder? Let's look at how to find a wall stud using three conventional methods then l'll explain my foolproof method of how to find a stud in the wall without a stud finder.

How To: Remove and Replace a Door Knob.

How to remove and replace a door handle / door knob. How to install a door knob. This is a job that can be done quickly and easily without any special tools (a cordless drill with a Phillips bit or a hand held Phillips Head screw driver). Follow the steps outlined below for a hassle free experience.

How To: Fix a Hole in a Wall. The Proper Way!

How to patch a hole in drywall / plasterboard / Sheetrock. Everyone at some stage in their life will need to patch a hole in drywall / plasterboard / sheetrock. Instead of doing some dodgy patchwork, watch this video to see how simple the job is. The steps are as follow in point form. This method is particularly suitable for holes that are larger than about 100mm or 4 inch's in size.

How To: Repair Stripped Screw Holes

How to repair a stripped screw hole. Look, we've all bought a crappy chipboard piece of furniture in our time that has fallen to pieces because the screw holes are so worn they no longer hold the screw, or have had an old door that is about to fall off because the screws holding up the door have been stripped out of their hole.

How To: Attach Timber to Concrete Using Concrete Anchors

How to install concrete anchors.How to attach timber / wood to concrete or any other SOLID masonry surface using masonry anchors / DynaBolts. DynaBolts (that's the name for this particular anchor in Australia. They are know by other names in other countries) are the ideal anchor for attaching almost anything to solid masonry such as concrete. This video will look at attaching timber to a concrete floor.

How To: Clean and Maintain Your Tape Measure

Recently I was working outside forming a driveway in the rain. Working in and around the wet sand was not friendly on my tools, especially my tape measure. About halfway through the day my tape measure would need "encouragement" in order to retract to the closed postion. Not too much later, with force applied, it would remain standing out at 1ft. and the problem progressively got worse.

How To: Hate Ugly-Looking Power Strips? Make This Sleek DIY Power Outlet Box for Your Desktop

One of the biggest downsides to having so many gadgets is that you never seem to have enough outlets to power them all. Most of us have a power strip or two to solve this problem, but Instructables user dlewisa wanted something a little nicer looking, so he built this DIY desktop power outlet. For the housing, dlewisa put together a small wooden box using a nail gun and wood glue. He used a sander to round off the corners, then filled in the gaps with wood filler and painted it. You could als...

How To: Build a Rustic Timber Table

These three videos will show you how to build a rustic, distressed kitchen table. I'll be walking you through the process of selecting some recycled timber from a junk pile, and with a little care and some simple joinery techniques, transform that waste timber into a distressed timber kitchen or dining table. In fact, you could use the table for whatever you wanted really.

How To: Roll Up an Extension Cord. Good One!

How to roll up an extension cord. Rolling up an extension cord. Extension cord. It sounds like a basic skill but it's amazing just how many people just don't know how to roll up an extension cord. For the DIY'er and tradesman alike there are probably two main methods. There's my way of doing it (which l show in this video titled how to roll up an extension cord) and the other is similar to the method used by skydivers to roll up their parachute cords. They are both good and you could use eith...

How To: Frame a Wall. What You Need to Know.

Wall framing. How to frame a wall. Whether you're re-sheeting an old wall or building a new timber frame wall, before you install the plasterboard or drywall, take the opportunity to have a really good think about what services or insulation qualities you might want to have in that space. There are issues to consider like electrical, plumbing, noggins for wall fixtures and insulation.

How To: Unlock a Bathroom Door

How to unlock a bathroom / bedroom door that has a privacy door handle set installed. Have you ever been in that situation where you have accidently locked yourself out of your bathroom or bedroom, or your toddler has accidently locked themselves in the bathroom / bedroom and you can't get them out! The first thing to do is not panic! Don't call the locksmith and don't reach for the closest sledge hammer and commence smashing the door in. it really is easy to open the door when you know how.I...