These 18 special products make home improvement easier and faster, from lightweight tile backer board to epoxy adhesives to handy wall anchors.
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These new super-light backer boards have a hard foam core and water-resistant coating and can be used anywhere you would use other tile backer boards. Custom Building Products’ EasyBoard and Schluter’s Kerdi-Board are two common brands.
Dean Sorem, our tile guru, had this to say about lightweight tile backers:
“They’re a dream. An average shower requires two to three hundred pounds of cement board, and six to eight trips from the truck to the shower — on the second floor, if you’re lucky! My 80-year-old grandmother could carry 120 square feet of half-inch in one trip, assuming I held the doors for her.
“Installation is even easier. One steady pass with a sharp utility knife and the board is cut clean through. Fasten it with the same screws used for other backers. Another advantage: No cement dust.”
Traditional twist-on wire connectors can be a bother to install. The wire ends must be held in perfect alignment while you twist on the connector. And then you have to fit all those wires and connectors neatly into the box.
Try push-in connectors instead. They’re simple to use and almost foolproof. Just strip the wires to the length recommended on the package and press each wire end into a separate hole in the connector. And since they’re smaller, they take up less room in the electrical box. They’re also the perfect solution for extending wires that are too short.
A few downsides: You’ll need to keep a greater variety of connectors on hand, since it wouldn’t be economical to use a connector designed for six wires to connect a single pair. And push-in connectors cost more than the twist-on type.
Tired of replacing the sand between the pavers on your walk or patio? Sick of pulling weeds from between the stones? Here’s a solution. Vacuum or blow out the old sand and replace it with polymeric sand. It’s just sand mixed with a glue-like polymer. When wetted, the polymer binds the sand, holding it in place and creating a weed-resistant barrier.
It’s a little fussy to install because you have to be careful to clean it off the face of the pavers or stones before wetting it. But it’s worth the extra effort.
Is the wheelbarrow tire flat every time you pull it out? Do you use your wheelbarrow on construction sites where nails can be a problem? If so, then you need a “flat-free” wheelbarrow tire.
Flat-free tires are filled with foam or made of urethane, so they never need air and won’t go flat if you run over a nail. And they’re not just for wheelbarrows. You can also buy flat-free tires to fit lawn mowers and lawn tractors, handcarts and golf carts. Expect to spend about $30 for a wheelbarrow tire.
Let’s face it: Sometimes it’s too much work to remove old exterior paint down to bare wood. Zinsser’s Peel Stop is a clearn, binding primer formulated to seal the edges of paint and prevent peeling. It’s a good solution for painting over an area that you’ve scraped but still has patches of sound paint you don’t want peeling later.
Old-fashioned “butterfly” toggle bolts are a pain to install. Toggler brand Snaptoggles is a vast improvement. Just drill a hole and slip the metal toggle in. Then slide the retainer along the plastic strips until it’s snug to the wall and snap off the strips.
With the metal toggle mounted on the wall, it’s easy to attach whatever you want by simply screwing in the included bolt. And you can remove the bolt without losing the toggle in the wall. Plus, find out if drywall anchors be trusted to bear their rated weight.
You old-timers out there may remember hunting down and mixing resorcinol powder when your project called for waterproof glue. Now you can just reach for the glue bottle to get a waterproof glue-up.
It’s probably wise to stick with epoxy for boat building, but for everything else these waterproof glues are all you need. Elmer’s Wood Glue Max and Titebond’s Titebond III Ultimate Wood Glue are two brands. Check out these 53 brilliant gluing tips and tricks.
An electrical box that can be adjusted until it’s flush with the wall is a perfect solution when you’re considering adding tile or paneling, but aren’t sure how thick the finished wall will be. There are a few versions of adjustable boxes.
Turning a screw in the Carlon box shown here moves the box in and out and allows you to fine-tune the box position after you’ve completed the wall covering. Adjustable-depth boxes cost a little more than regular boxes ($2 to $2.50 each) but are worth every penny in areas where you think you’ll add tile, paneling or cabinetry and don’t want to guess at the depth.
These are the electrical box basics all homeowners should know.
Premium construction screws carry a few big advantages over the drywall screws we’ve all been using for years. For starters, most have improved head designs: tight-fitting hex, Spider head driver bits. This eliminates the annoying tendency of Phillips head screws to strip out or slip off the bit.
Premium construction screws are also less brittle than drywall screws so they won’t break off as easily, and they’re coated to resist corrosion. Special self-drilling thread designs coupled with a thin shank mean you rarely need to drill a pilot hole. Large structural screws can replace lag screws, and the smaller ones are better than drywall screws for woodworking and framing projects.
Like any premium products, they cost more. Expect to pay about nine cents each for 1-1/2-in. GRK screws. Here’s how to drive screws perfectly every time.
This extra-stiff, extra-wide drywall corner system is expensive, but there are a few situations where the additional money is well spent.
First, if you’re a novice drywall taper, it absolutely ensures straight inside corners. The stiff material goes on straight, no matter how unskilled you are with a taping knife. For the experienced taper, this stuff makes it easier to handle situations like oddball corner angles or drywall over sloppy framing.
An added benefit is that you only need to apply an additional thin coat or two of joint compound over the outermost edge to finish the job. The remainder of the tape is paint-ready and doesn’t require more mud. This feature also makes it handy for all inside and outside corners.
A 100-ft. roll of No-Coat Ultraflex 450 costs about $66. Strait-Flex’s Wide-Flex 400 is a similar product (about $42). Plus, here’s how to hang drywall like a pro.
A top-notch tiling job in wet areas like showers and around tubs requires a waterproof membrane under the tile. RedGard is a liquid waterproofing that you apply with a brush, trowel or roller. When dry, it forms a flexible membrane that’s perfect to tile over.
Here’s what our tile consultant, Dean Sorem, has to say: “RedGard saved my sanity! This handy waterproofing has made the installation of a watertight tile job as simple as a brush stroke. Once the tile substrate is securely installed and seams are taped, all you need to do is apply a coat of the pudding-like liquid to the surface, let it dry, and it’s waterproofed. This makes waterproofing shower curbs, benches, tub decks and steam showers a breeze.”
Here are ten ways to save money during your bathroom renovation.
Nothing beats two-part epoxy wood filler for rebuilding moldings or other architectural elements that have missing or damaged parts. The most common brand is Abatron’s WoodEpox. When mixed, WoodEpox has a consistency like Play-Doh that allows you to hand-mold it into the approximate shape of the damaged part.
Unlike less expensive fillers, it will stay put without sagging or running. When the “dough” hardens to about the consistency of soap, shave and carve it into the final profile. When it’s completely cured, sand and plane it like wood. Epoxy wood filler costs about $40 for two pints.
Durham’s Water Putty is a powder that hardens after you mix it with water. It’s great to keep on hand for when you need economical, quick-setting wood filler for things like woodpecker holes in your siding or knotholes before painting. Mix it thin and use it as a floor leveler, or mix it thick for making wood repairs.
You’ll find Durham’s Water Putty at home centers and hardware stores (about $10 for a four-pound can). Plus, check out these 25 products all DIYers should have at the ready for quick-fix repairs.
If you’ve ever tried to fill a crack in concrete with regular caulk, you know what a mess it can be. Self-leveling concrete crack filler solves this problem. Just fill the crack and a few minutes later the caulk settles to form a perfectly smooth joint.
For wide cracks, insert lengths of foam caulk-backer first to create a better caulk joint and reduce the amount of caulk needed. Here’s how to fix a cracked sidewalk.
If you’ve ever used expanding foam with the plastic straw applicator, you know what a mess it can be — sticky foam all over everything and half-used cans ending up in the trash. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
Applicator guns feature an adjustment screw that allows you to fine-tune the flow rate. That, coupled with the long nozzle and trigger valve, gives you much more control over the foam so you don’t end up wasting it by overfilling.
Plus, you can leave the can of foam on the gun for about a month and still use it. You only clean the gun if you remove the can. Then you simply screw a can of foam gun cleaner (about $6) onto the gun and dispense it through the tip.
Up next, check out these 15 brilliant uses for spray foam that will blow your mind.
Stephen Evans, one of our Field Editors, has a favorite wood filler for special jobs. QuickWood putty stick is a two-part epoxy filler that is the size and consistency of a large Tootsie Roll. Stephen uses it to fill screw holes and make repairs where high strength and a fast set are important.
To use it, just slice a chunk from the tube and knead it until the color is consistent. This activates the epoxy, allowing you about 15 to 25 minutes to fill holes or dings until it starts to harden. Next, check out these 32 handy hints for the workshop.
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