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Now’s the time to make amends with a proper feeding schedule and smart troubleshooting tactics to stop budding pest and weed problems in their tracks. Read on for what to do right now and in the weeks ahead to cultivate a hardy, healthy patch of green. Shown: A thick, well-fed lawn is your best defense against weeds, which can’t compete for space and nutrients. Leaving the grass long, 3 inches or more, encourages roots to grow deeper, where they’ll weather drought better....

Can You Add Glass Doors to a Fireplace? A lot of new fireplaces come with glass doors. But if you want to add this safety feature to an existing fireplace, retrofitting them isn’t difficult. The doors come in standard sizes that fit in any flat firebox opening. We asked Justin Calemmo, of Five Sons Chimney Service in Brookfield, Connecticut, to show how to retrofit new doors on an old fireplace. Our 1848 fireplace has a surround that’s undersized, so the glass doors make it safer by blocking the fire from the too close wood floor and mantel....

The exterior camera system was manufactured by Arlo, which is a division of NETGEAR. The smart thermostats that also serve as digital assistants were manufactured by Ecobee. Jason was able to integrate several smart home devices using the IFTTT platform. The “smart windows” used a combination of technologies to work. The motorized windows were manufactured by Loewen and were connected to IFTTT using a Z-Wave controller. IFTTT was connected to the local weather station and the Ecobee thermostats to determine indoor and outdoor temperatures and open and close the windows according to programmed parameters....

Steps for Building a Stone Water Fountain Resources Jenn and Mark team up to design and create a water feature out of a boulder. Jenn and Mark work together to split the boulder, sourced from Mark’s personal collection, in half using the feather and wedge technique. Using a Bosch masonry drill, they drill a series of holes across the center of the boulder. The fountain is powered by an MD Tidalwave MD-Series Pump manufactured by Atlantic Water Gardens....

Steps for building deck stairs Tools

Resources Mauro demonstrated a variety of different painter’s tapes. He suggests simply reading the label of the tape to see where each tape is best used. The color of the tape varies by manufacturer, not by application. Each of the tapes Mauro demonstrated can be found at home centers and painting supply stores. Expert assistance with this segment was provided by Mauro’s Painting.

Wood Chips You can’t beat the price of wood chips, which many tree companies and townships give away for free. Chips break down slowly and are best used around shrubs and trees to protect their roots. For more a more decorative mulch, reddish-brown pine bark nuggets will give your garden a neat, natural look. These nuggets can be as large as 3 inches long and work best in flat beds, where they won’t float away during a heavy rain....

Steps for Caulking Baseboards: 1. Gather Your Tools To keep things simple, gather everything before you start. Here’s a list of tools and materials you’ll need: Caulk (aka caulking) Caulking gun Kneepads or foam knee rest Wood filler An old rag Bucket of warm water Painter’s tape Small putty knife An old paintbrush Hammer Nail set Utility knife Don’t skip the knee protection. Even if you have healthy knees, kneeling will take a toll on them....

Rather than using a toothbrush, Tom recommends using a cleaning brush with stronger bristles. They sell specialty grout cleaning brushes at most home centers in the tile aisle. The one Tom used in the video is manufactured by QEP. If the stains are really deep in the grout, Tom recommends using a grout removal tool and lightly scraping it against the grout to remove the layer of grout that’s been stained....

If the leak is at the bonnet: a. Start by tightening the bonnet with a wrench. b. If that doesn’t work, shut the water off and fully remove the shutoff and the bonnet. Check the washer underneath the bonnet. If it is worn, replace it. There are washer replacement kits that can be bought at the home center, or even packing the threaded connection tightly with Teflon tape can do the trick....

Steps: Put the collection bag on your mower and then mow the lawn, cutting the grass to just 1½ inches long. Run a de-thatching machine over the lawn to remove all the dead grass and leaves. Rake up all the thatch and dump it into a wheelbarrow. Run a core aerator over the lawn, punching air holes into the soil. Rake up and remove the soil plugs deposited onto the lawn by the core aerator....

1. Find the Source The first step to getting rid of musty smells in your basement is identifying where they’re coming from. Most of the time, the smell is simply a symptom of the actual issue, which is mold or mildew caused by moisture. Here are some areas to check for cracks or leaks that could be causing the smell: Basement windows (Do the wells improperly direct water toward the house, instead of away from it?...

Steps for Installing Radiant Heat Under Solid Wood Flooring Materials Wood putty Tools Installing Radiant Floor Heat

Steps for Maintaining Your Snow Blower Tools Best Snow Blowers of 2022

Steps: Replace standard incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs, and watch how much more slowly the electric meter turns. Use an appliance meter to determine how much electricity an appliance is using. Have an electrician install current sensors onto individual circuits in the main electrical panel. The sensors send information to a power management box, which you can access on-line to determine when and where you’re using the most electricity....

Steps for patching hardwood floors Purchase hardwood flooring about a week before and leave it in the room where it will be installed to let it acclimate.2. Begin laying boards in the corners and work across the room.3. Cut the underside of the trim using an oscillating saw. Get the height by holding a piece of the flooring underneath the saw.4. Place the first line of flooring down to make sure it fits properly....

Expert assistance with this segment was provided by Mahoney’s Garden Center and America’s Test Kitchen.