DIY and Save when you Build a shed.

functional shed on a city lot or a spacious storage shed or in the country.
Many Shed Design and Plans to Choose From-Most shed plan books come complete with building plans for all of the designs shown on their pages. The design options are numerous. You’ll get storage sheds, one, two and three-car garages, backyard barn plans, cabanas, little pole-barns, workshops, hobby shops, barn-style sheds, backyard studios, pool houses, backyard cottages and more. These professional blueprints are engineered for top quality construction. Bear in mind in any book or cd of plans you may have local requirements to meet. Be prepared to alter any plan if necessary. As a home builder I know how frustrating this can be, but go with the flow and if you need help altering a plan let me know here on the blog. I can point you in the right direction or even modify your shed plans as necessary.

When it comes to sheds they are not limited to a box and a roof. There are garden sheds, cottage sheds, bike sheds, dog sheds and just about anything you can think of. Many of the shed plans are ideal for the how to build a shed, diy u-build-it and for much less than hiring a crew. With a good set of plans a shed can be built in a matter of days.

Sheds are fun to build with Family and Friends. Whatever you do with your shed building project by all means have fun and let it be an educational experience. In fact, make a video and I will post it on this site with your credits. One way to think of building a shed is to think of it as a small house and you are the home builder. There is much to be learned in building a world class shed!

Here you can find many ideas and thousands of plans for all types of sheds.

Glossary of Terms -

One thing I relate to my DIY customers is the importance of keeping up with the maintenance items, basically the honey-do handyman list updated regularly. Maybe you have home handyman jobs that got put off for the time being. Is it because your home handyman didn’t know how or where to start? It is always a good idea to keep a pad of paper handy and keep track of the honey-do chores. Then, before hiring your favorite handyman why not walk about your house, inside and out, to see what needs repair. Taking care of the basics will save you stress, time and money. This list of repairs is something the DIY can handle, with a caution to getting up on the roof! Please be extra careful up there.

7 Home Maintenance Items:
1. The Roof: By all means take care of the roof. Gravity pulls water down and into your home. Little things will become big things and cost more later. Look for loose shingles, attic leaks, loose mortar on chimneys. If you cannot do it yourself hire a roofer or a handyman.
2. Leaks are never good. Running, leaky faucets and toilets need immediate attention, that is unless you enjoy paying a high water bill. Get those fixed before major expense is incurred and repairs increase in cost. A jump in your water bill is never good, and in most places water and sewer rates are increasing. Also, depending on the leak it can lead to mold, wood rot and severe water damage.
3. Caulking: Check for missing or moldy caulk around your tub and shower. Chances are you already know if this is a problem area in your home. Keeping everything watertight will save you a bundle, so be sure to repair any caulking failures. But don’t stop there. Check the exterior surfaces around windows, doors, siding and wherever water and insects can penetrate.
4. Electrical: Many homeowners wait too long when it comes to electrical problems. This puts homes and families at risk for electrical fire. If you have any of these issues, call in a reputable electrician or handyman.
5. Drafty doors and windows: Improperly sealed windows and doors will bring cold air inside during the winter and let cooled air out in the summer, costing you big bucks on your energy bill. An energy audit can tell you where your leaks are and how to seal them up.
6. Heating and Air Conditioning (HVAC) Experts say 60 percent of service calls result from systems with dirty air filters. It is a good idea to change air filters regularly, say three to four times a year. It can save you up to $100 each year on your energy bill. Plus you and your family breathe easier with cleaner air. Many heating and air conditioning companies offer maintenance plans, look for an affordable one if you notice problems.

7. Sump Pumps. Maybe you have a sump pump in the lower level of your home. It is a good idea to have this checked for proper operation, do this annually. Sump pumps will seize and fail to operate and it always seems to happen in an emergency. If you do not have a battery back up then by all means get one. Flood damage is messy, moldy and can force you out of your home if too sever. Get an annual inspection from a handyman plumbing expert and check the batteries. Today, most battery backups come with a warning signal if the battery is low or weak. In northeast Ohio visit Housecalls Handyman Services and ask about their Home Maintenance Specials.

For anyone who has a pocket door it is a frustrating experience when it falls off the track. It usually hangs up in the opening and cannot be opened or closed. And it is always better if you are not locked in the room when the door decides to fall off the track.

What is involved in re-installing a pocket door? The repair itself is not too difficult. The challenge is in finding the parts, if any may be needed. Installing or fixing a pocket door is a fairly ambitious project for the DIY home handyman. It is one of those projects that may be done once in a handyman lifetime, except for someone like me who does at east 4-5 of these repairs annually. With every call I make it seems the fix, or the repair is always a different challenge. No two doors seem to be the same. The reason for that is because the design and hardware of the pocket door has changed over time, plus each manufacturer has a different idea on how to best hang a pocket door.

The tricky thing from a DIY home handyman viewpoint is where to begin. Let me offer some suggestions so that your experience is worthwhile and rewarding.

The first thing is to never wrestle the door out of the opening. Chance are that will damage the door even further and if the door has a nice finish it may be marred or bruised in the wrestling match-better to go nice and easy from this point forward.

One trick is to get a flashlight and shine it in the opening to see what it happening in there. You may observe a few things, such as; is the door off the track, or did the track come down? Did the roller come off the door and still in the track or did the wheels of the roller come off the track? The idea here is to find a way to carefully remove the door from the opening, that is unless it is a matter of simply raising the door and placing it back on track. It may seem the obvious answer is to simply lift the door and place back on the track, and yes sometimes that is the case. However, if it fell once it may fall again. Better to find a permanent solution instead of a quick fix.

Assuming you will find a permanent solution to once and for all fix the pocket door for good it may require a complete removal of the door from the pocket. By design a pocket door does not simply come out of the pocket. There are pieces of trim (wood casing) in place from the original installation. These pieces hold the door in place and must be removed to get to the door.   On our website you will find a step by step tutorial. Take a look and come back here with any questions.

In the handyman business there are many jobs we are asked to do. Most of the handyman do-it-yourselfers that I know are problem solvers

How to repair a dryer that will not heat up.

first. The home handyman doesn’t get into this business thinking he or she knows everything, but it is more about the passion of solving problems, like a game of chess or sudoko. So when my customer called and said her dryer is not drying I stepped up to the plate to see if I could resolve it. If you are thinking of trying to fix your dryer please read on. However, if you want to forget about it and buy a new dryer here is a link to discount appliance store.

To become good at anything takes experience, it is no different in the handyman venue. And this especially true when it comes to dryers. The typical handyman probably doesn’t work on dryers. This is due in part because of the various models, parts, pieces and is a specialty in itself. However, as a problem solver I will usually give it a look. I usually take the position in my craft that someone has to know how to do it so it may as well be me. I mean, if they make these things with cheap, under-educated labor how difficult can it really be to fix. The answer depends on the methods used.

The first thing we do is to make sure the unit has electricity, or gas depending on the dryer. I do this by checking the breakers (fuses) then I usually run for operation to see if the juice is on at the dryer. After running through all my prelims on the juice side then I check the exhaust for blockage. The exhaust is the dryer vent, the warm moist air needs somewhere to go and if there is blockage the moisture cannot escape and the clothes will take forever to dry.

When I removed the dryer vent hose I discovered a mound of acorns and a squirrel. The squirrel had found this cozy sanctuary in the dead of winter and made himself right at home. Upon releasing my little friend back to the out of doors I ran the dryer for operation and it worked fine. A screen mesh on the outside of the dryer vent prevented another intruder from making a home. Who knows, maybe I will get a call in a few months from the neighbor for the same repair.

There is some question as to the nature of a review. For example, in the category of handyman. Who decides the validity of the information? Let’s begin with a tale of a top notch handyman home remodeler, we will call him Harry the home handyman. Harry is well known in the community and respected in the industry. His customers enjoyed his company and his work was the best. His business was so good he didn’t need to advertise. But, as things go business slowed and his wife suggested Angie’s list, which he did join.

It was a matter of a month or so before he received a call and went out to perform the work. As usual Harry did a superb job, or so he thought right up until the time he read the review on Angie’s List. Turns out he received a bad review from this particular customer. He was puzzled and called the customer. Turns out the customer was a big shot Republican and Harry was an Obama democrat, and unfortunately in his conversations with this customer he was a bit too critical of the conservative agenda and Republicans in general. Not that Harry knew the position of the customer, he just let Harry blab away and stick his foot in his mouth.

In the first place Harry the handyman made the mistake of talking politics with a customer. Yet, his views were such that the customer decided to punish Harry with a bad review of the work performed and gave him a poor review on Angie’s List. When Harry contacted someone at Angie’s List to protest he was out of luck. They will not remove the poor review nor make any effort to moderate the disputed information.

The story of Harry the handyman is not an actual example but it certainly can happen anytime. The point is there are many reasons for a disgruntled customer to give an unfair and poor review. Besides politics it can be due to religion, racism, a friendship gone bad, a romantic involvement with a customer that soured and probably chief among them the customer cannot or simply refuses to pay-as simple as that. If a customer refuses to pay the easiest thing to do is criticize the workmanship. Some people are mean-spirited people who receive some pathetic joy of slamming others. Rush Limbaugh does it all the time. It’s just that in a site like Angie’s that purports to be a review site the question remains as to what t kind of ‘fairness’ is brought to the table? Is there an opportunity for the handyman (or any business) to have unfair, biased derogatory information removed?

A google search of reviews of Angie’s List brought up some scathing reviews by apparent actual users of the site. The information is out there and it is up to you to decide if it is factual, or invented. According to knaddison Angie’s List Sucks.