Hot Home & Garden Posts


How To: Remove an Oven/Cooker Door
When cleaning your oven, you'll want to take your oven door off its hinges first to give you more room to maneuver. Plus, take the door off makes it easier to clean the door itself, especially the glass areas. The following video from Nathan Cox talks about how easy it is to remove an oven door off, and it's very similar from brand to brand.

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 an industrial size BBQ smoker from an old refrigerator
You can take an old, stainless steel refrigerator and turn it into a vertical smoker. Weld steel plates to make a fire box with a door and a removable ash tray, then reconstruct the frame to make yourself a new addition to your barbecue pit!

How To: Easily fix a sticking Karcher pressure washer
Using a pressure washer to clean the outside of your home or driveway, is great and easy to use. But what happens when it becomes stuck and there's hardly any pressure? Well you're about to find out. In this next tutorial, you'll see how to fix a sticking Karcher pressure washer easily. It can take you a couple of hours to complete or a matter of minutes. Good luck and enjoy!

How To: Care for Mexican elder tree
In this video from nmsuaces we learn how to care for the Mexican elder tree. This is a widely used tree but it is not a good windbreak tree. It could have limb breakage. It's native to northern Mexico and southern California and is found in New Mexico. The sprouts on the tree need to be broken off the sides of the tree otherwise they are taking energy away from the rest of the tree. When it goes through its dormancy, you need to keep dead wood out of it. It needs a water source near it but it...

How To: Fill and repair holes in ceramic tile
Fixing holes in glazed ceramic tile can be very tricky. This is a solution that may not be perfect but it will provide a big improvement to your situation. You will need some polyester resin, which is often used to repair car bodies. Mix up some of the resin and apply it to the holes in the tile making sure that you overfill the holes. As it dries but while it is still rubbery take a razor blade and trim off the excess resin. Take some 600 grit sandpaper and sand the resin smooth. Wet the san...

How To: Join copper pipe without solder using "Just for Copper" pipe glue
Tired of soldering? Well, there's a solder-less solution to joining pipes together. Check out this handy video tutorial on how to join copper pipe with "Just For Copper" pipe glue. Just For Copper is a solderless bonding solution for copper pipes and fittings. This is very useful in areas where a blowtorch cannot be used.

How To: Inflate a wheelbarrow tire
Wheelbarrow tires are a pain to inflate. They are tubeless, the rim hardly holds a seal, and they just fight with you every step of the way. This how-to video shows you how to use an adjustable strap to inflate a tubeless wheelbarrow tire.

How To: Laundry Symbols Deciphered! Here's What the Care Labels on Your Clothes Really Say
Frankly, I never cared about the care labels on my clothing. They supposedly held some secret key to keeping clothes clean and bright, but who wants to look at little icons and a bunch of fine print for every single garment they wash?

How To: Install a sprinkler valve box
Installing a sprinkler valve box can be made easier by using bricks to support the valve box and using crushed rock in the bottom to make it look a little neater.

How To: Identify hardened steel compared to mild steel
Hardened steel is very durable, but nearly impossible to work with at home. If you are trying to choose a piece of steel and can't tell if it's hardened or not, you're in luck, because this video contains a quick method for doing so. All you do is try to file an indentation in the steel with a file. If that doesn't make a mark, you've probably got hardened steel.

How To: Use a cordless drill and taper tap to cut a threaded hole in steel
Trapping a hole is the process by which you give them threads so that they can accommodate a screw, and doing it to a lot of holes quickly can be a major pain. Fortunately, you can actually do it with a cordless power drill much more quickly and easily than manually. This video will show you how to do it.

How To: Mount a full-length mirror on a door
In this video, Mark Donovan shows us how to mount a mirror on a door. First, take the mirror and position it the height you want it located. Then, mark the top with a pencil and make sure the mirror lines up with lines on the door and it's in the center. Now, screw in the door attachments in the thickest part of the mirror. Attach the mirror and screw the screws so that the mirror is completely secure. Now, you can hammer in the screws to make sure they are completely attached to the door and...

News: Make an arc welder with a car battery & pocket change
Stuck behind bars? Held hostage by a guy with a flamethrower? Thanks to the wise and resourceful 80s secret agent MacGyver, these problems can be resolved by a car battery, two coins and some jumper cable.

How To: Make a cardboard chair
This is a quick demo of how to make a cardboard chair.

How To: Stack bricks to prepare for a job
This video explains how to properly stack bricks as a part of loading out the job. This is an essential step to do before starting your brick laying.

How To: Replace Your Old Garage or Backyard Flood Light with a New Halogen One
Learn how to replace or fix your old backyard or garage floodlight on your house with a new one. This video will show you how to remove the old floodlight, on your house or garage, and also explain the wiring and show you how to hook everything up.

How To: Fix a running old style fill valve toilet
This Home & Garden video shows you how to replace a running old style fill valve toilet with something more modern. Shut the supply line to the toilet and flush to remove the water from the tank. Then remove the supply line. Now take a wrench and loosen the plastic nut of the old fill valve located under the tank. Then lift the old valve and keep it aside. Take a 'flow master', which is a new type fill valve, place it in the same spot and hand tighten the nut under the tank to hold the flow m...

How To: Light a room for different moods and effects
This video shows how to improve light in a room for different moods and effects. You will see how the lighting will fit the design of different

How To: Replace a knob on a Neff gas hob
Watch to learn how to replace a knob on a Neff gas hob. You'll remove and replace a gas hob knob on a Neff gas hob. Replacement knobs as well as burner caps and flame spreaders are easy hob spares to replace. As part of hob maintenance we also use a specialist hob cleaner to get a nice clean hob. This hob maintenance video clip illustrates the many different hob parts

How To: Clean a 2 cycle engine carburetor from a Ryobi trimmer
If you own a Ryobi trimmer and wish to perform some regular maintenance work on it, you may want to check out this next video. In the tutorial, you find out how to clean a 2 cycle engine carburetor from the Ryobi trimmer using some simple pieces. It's not too difficult to do and can be really handy when you want to make sure your machine is working at optimal capability. So check out the video above, pay attention, be careful, and enjoy!

How To: Deal with brown patches on Leylandii hedges
Over the past few years brown patches on leylandii hedges has been a real problem in some areas. These patches are caused by conifer aphids that feed by sucking the sap from the new shoots. In this gardening tutorial, Martin Fish from Garden News shows you how to deal with brown patches on your Leylandii hedges.

How To: Unlock A Privacy Door Handle
When owning a home one type of lever set you may have in your home is a privacy lever. In a privacy lever set, the main feature is that the door can only be locked from the inside. Sometimes a kid might get locked in or someone may accidentally lock the door behind them. It's really easy to unlock it in an emergency.

How To: Hook Up Your Above Ground Swimming Pool Vacuum & Hose with the Sand Filter
This video will show you how to connect your above ground pool vacuum and hose to the sand filter on your swimming pool.

How To: Make Your Own Febreze (And Save Up to 97% Per Bottle)
If you're a Febreze fanatic, you're well aware that the "odor eliminator" can be pretty pricey, and that's reason enough to stop buying it.

How To: Apply TEFLON TAPE. The EASY WAY!
How to use Teflon tape for plumbing applications. I know it sounds simple but there are a few tricks to applying the Teflon tape. Teflon tape is also known as PTFE Tape.

How To: Use a power drill to unlock a lock
Some locks are easier to drill through than to try and pick, especially if you need to get through them in a hurry! You will need one large power drill and an assortment of drill bits to be able to use this method. First, drill a 1/8 inch pilot hole just above the keyhole. Then follow through with a 1/4 inch or larger drill. After just a minute or so of drilling, you should be able to get through the lock!

How To: Cut a machine screw without damaging the threads
Every electrician knows you have to cut a screw every now and then to make it fit. But do they do it properly? Most will probably just use their linesman's or dikes, but using your wire strippers equipped with screw cutting is the proper way. Watch this video tutorial to see how to cut a machine screw without damaging the threads. An electrical screw or machine screw can be easily cut with a pair of electricians pliers. Cutting metric screws this way means that the thread will not be damaged ...

How To: Get past a mortice lock with a drill
This lock can certainly be picked, but what if you don't know how, or you don't have anything on hand that can serve as a good lock pick? That's what this video is here for! It will show you how you can drill out the stump of a mortice lock, allowing you to get past the lock entirely. It is not a difficult procedure, and all you really need is a power drill with the appropriate bits, and maybe a template showing you where to drill.

How To: Work on your roof without falling off
In this roofing video Bob Schmidt shows you how to use the foam padding from a sofa cushion to say secure and not fall while doing roof repairs.

How To: Cut hardened steel with an angle grinder
Hardened steel is a very useful material, but working with it is tough because it is nearly impossible to cut with simple tools. What you really need is an angle grinder, and this video will show you how to use one of the powerful power tools to cut a hardened steel ring.

How To: Grow Juniper bonsai from cuttings
First of all you have to take the branch of the juniper tree. You can do this activity in the early spring which is the months of February and March. Take a very sharp knife and then peel the bark until you see green color. You have to tear the bark down until you see the greenery below the bark and that greenery is called cambium which is extremely thin. You have to use your knife to remove any kind of knots from the bark. Now you have to dip it in the “RooTone” which is a rooting hormone an...

How To: Tie a slip knot in a plastic grocery bag
Have you ever wondered how to tie a slip knot on your grocery bags? When we go to the grocery store, the clerks always tie the bags in a carrying knot. With this easy to follow video, tying these knots is made easy. Knots always seem perplexing, but now they are easy to do. This is a must watch video for anyone who goes shopping.

How To: Turn over soil
Turning over your soil mixes the nutrients and makes the ground more suitable for planting. Watch this video to learn how to turn over soil.

How to Build a Shed, Part 11: Installing Fascia Boards & Soffit Materials
The fascia boards and soffit material installation is very important. This is the finishing part of the shed. Henry shows you how to do this in great detail and get perfect results. In this video he shows you how to use his exclusive jig to make it easy to install long trim without any help!

How To: Take a BIC lighter apart for recycling
For on-the-go lighting of birthday candles (those surprise birthday parties really get you), homemade explosives (because making stuff explode is fun), and cigarettes, a cheapo BIC lighter is a totally awesome fix. But most BIC lighters run out pretty quickly and get tossed without second thought.

How To: Kill bugs in wall holes with Diatomaceous Earth
Diatomaceous Earth may be useful for killing bugs in walls. Light sockets and phone jacks provide a highway for bugs to travel from one infested room to another or one infested apartment or another. They also function as a hide-out for them during daytime hours, when they might be more visible.

How To: test your pond water's PH level
Patty Moreno shows us how to test your pond's PH, and see if the conditions are right for fish. • First get a freshwater PH test kit.

How To: Replace the washer in your shower faucet to stop a leak
Before you pull out your phone book (okay, pull up your laptop and start up Google) to find a number for a handyman, why not attempt to fix your broken shower faucet yourself? Yeah, we know it's kind of annoying to find your tool box and remove your entire shower faucet unit, but it's actually quite easy to fix a basic leak in your shower.

How To: Add a door In an exterior brick wall
If you've got a brick house and are looking to install a door in the brick, this how to will get you there. Be prepared, it's a big job and you'll need to be comfortable wielding several power tools. Are you ready to take the challenge?