tutorial

Lowering your home heating bills

Thu, 02/09/2006 - 14:00 — tony

This is the first post in a recurring 'column' by our resident HVAC and home repair expert (and my brother) Robert Maro.

Properly maintain your heating system.


Heating can account for almost half of the average family?s winter energy bill. Make sure your furnace or heat pump receives proper maintenance each year.

Install a programmable thermostat.

The energy savings will offset the cost of a basic unit in less than

a year. Programming your thermostat from 72 degrees to 65 degrees for eight hours a day while no one is home, or while everyone is tucked in bed, will cut your heating bill up to 10 percent.

Insulate heating ducts and keep them in good repair to prevent heat loss.

Your system can lose up to 60 percent of its warmed air before it reaches the register, if ducts are not properly insulated in unheated areas such as attics and crawlspaces.

The single most important thing you can do to keep your air conditioning and heating system working efficiently is to make sure the air filter is matched to the unit and is clean. Air filters can also provide other benefits such as cleaner air and reduced allergy symptoms.

Refinishing hardwood floors tutorial

Mon, 02/06/2006 - 14:00 — tony

Well, now that I'm done with the floor I thought I'd write up a quick tutorial for those thinking of doing it themselves. Keep in mind, I'm no pro, just a do-it-yourselfer who has done this one time. Hopefully I can pass along some good tips, but certainly don't consider this for your only source of info.

Read on for the tutorial...

You must of course start with a hardwood floor, preferably one that needs to be refinished.

Remove all furniture, baseboards, etc from the room. I also recommend removing curtains and any other fabric as you will generate a lot of sanding dust. Empty the closet, even if you don't plan to refinish the closet floor.

You need to make sure you either have a subfloor underneath the hardwood, or a thick enough hardwood floor that it can handle being thinned a bit. Once a floor is too thin, you'll chance cracking boards in the future when you move heavy furniture around.

The first thing you'll need is a drum sander. Check with your local hardware and equipment rental stores. If you've never used one before, I'd highly recommend renting one from a smaller hardware store or rental shop, as the guy at Lowe's or Home Depot probably doesn't even know how to turn it on, much less instruct you in it's use. Make sure you get a sander that runs on 110 current, because they do make larger ones that require 220 volts and are much harder to use.

Here's a nice before picture that has the sander as well:

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Renovating our 1916 Craftsman style home, one room at a time.

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