March 12, 2013 AsktheBuilder Newsletter & Tips

This past weekend I did something I should have done perhaps fifteen years ago. I worked all day manning a booth at a home and garden show. Oh well, better late than never, right?
I was doing a test.
I was selling Stain Solver at a neglected small home and garden show just miles from my house. It was a perfect place to work out the bugs and see if it's worth going to other home and garden shows.

It was an enormous success. I nearly sold out of product. A vast majority of people who stopped and helped with the demonstration purchased multiple bottles.
I was selling our newest size, the cute little 0.4-pound bottle. It normally sells for $9.97 delivered to anywhere in the USA (and US Territories). At the show, I was running a special: one bottle for $6 and two for $10. As you might expect, most people purchased two bottles. They fit perfectly in purses and coat pockets.
I was demonstrating how Stain Solver got out DRIED red wine stains. You know if it can do that, it can get out just about any stain. Days before the show, I saturated a new white t-shirt with red wine. I then cut small scraps from the shirt right before their eyes. Once a person dropped the scrap into the Stain Solver solution, it turned pure white within five minutes.
The skeptics, and there were some, whipped out their wallets when they saw me pour the Stain Solver solution on my royal blue shirt proving that it was indeed colorsafe.
I'll be ramping up quickly, and soon you may see Stain Solver exhibited at your home and garden show! I'll be at the Fryeburg Fairgrounds Home Show in Maine in May, and I'm trying to book myself, and some helpers, into other New England shows in the month of April.

TIP OF THE WEEK - BE PREPARED LIKE A GIRL OR BOY SCOUT!

Last night at my ham radio steering committee meeting, a close friend asked me what was the best exterior siding. He and his wife are thinking of getting their house resided after 35 years.
He said, "I went online and filled out a form to get free estimates. I had three contractors rush out to the house, and I have appointments with two others tomorrow. What should I do? What siding should I install?"
"Well, if it were me, I'd get on the phone and CANCEL the two appointments for tomorrow," was my reply.
He looked puzzled.
"How can you get great estimates unless you have a simple set of specifications, with at least the product picked out," I asked him.
If you just call contractors without knowing what you want or how to do the basics of the job, you're going to get back bids that resemble an onion, an apple, a lemon, and a watermelon. In my friend's case, the three told him they'd install three completely different siding products. This made it impossible to compare the quotes.
My advice to you is to take the time to get educated about what you want before you ask one contractor to come out for a bid. You can visit showrooms in your area, look at displays at home and garden shows, do extensive research online - including searching for nightmare stories, and just general due diligence.
At the very least, use my AsktheBuilder.com search engine to see what I feel about a product. I almost always tell you the pros and cons of any given product.
Once you know what you want, then you can get bids and quotes that will make sense. If you want to be an Eagle Scout, then you'll also research, before the contractors arrive, how to install the product. You'll then ask probing questions of each contractor to see if they will be doing the job according to the manufacturer's written installation instructions.
For example, when I installed the Therma-Tru ClassicCraft door here at my house seven weeks ago, I read the written instructions. They clearly stated that you have to do the X-string test across the door opening to ensure the rough frame is not in a helix.
If you asked a contractor, "Are you going to do the X-string test on my door opening before you install the door?", and he looks at you like you're speaking Russian - would you hire that person? I think not.
I show you how to do the X-string test in my Install a New Front Door video series. It should be available for sale next week!

CONTRACTORS NEEDED! - FIBER CEMENT DUST REDUCTION TESTING

Are you a contractor that would be willing to do some testing that will help tens of thousands of workers in the future? This is a RARE opportunity to give back to the construction industry and add to your legacy. Help create SAFER working conditions and save some lives.
Fiber cement contains silica. When you cut this siding with an abrasive blade, it creates silica dust. Inhaling silica dust is not a good idea. You would be testing some revolutionary tools and methods that capture lots of this dust.
If you're a contractor, or KNOW OF ONE, that's getting ready to install some fiber cement siding, that's who I'm looking for. They need to meet these requirements:

1. Be a contractor that has at least three years field experience working with a circular saw.
2. Be a contractor that has installed fiber cement siding on at least three large residential jobs.
3. Have an upcoming job where fiber cement siding will be cut and installed for at least eight hours per day over a course of three days.

Job sites located in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana are preferred, but not necessary.
If you meet the above criteria and want to HELP future contractors stay healthy, please get in contact with me as soon as possible. Reply to this message and change the Subject Line to: Fiber Cement Dust.

HOW GOOD ARE YOU AT FINDING SOMETHING ONLINE?

I'm stumped. I desperately need a crystal clear waterproof plastic box to build a portable ham radio that I can take into the field. I wrote about this radio on my ham radio blog. I just spent 30 minutes and gave up. Perhaps you're better at searching than I am.
Here's a photo of the box.

The box has two clamps on it to keep its lid closed. It measures approximately 7 inches long, 5 inches deep, and probably 4.5 inches tall.
You can watch a video of a fellow ham radio operator, Jim Cluett, W1PID, using it to send Morse Code in my blog post. He doesn't own the radio that's in the box in his hands. It belongs to Johann Busch, W1JSB, sitting across the table translating the di's and dah's that Jim is sending.
Jim's holding it upside down because the touch-sensitive keys are oriented opposite the way he sends Morse Code with the touch paddle on his radio.
The FIRST person to find this box for me gets a FREE small bottle of Stain Solver sent to their house or business anywhere in the USA or US territories.
Every other person that finds it for me will be sent a special hidden page where they'll get a healthy discount on this new size of Stain Solver. It's the least I can do for you trying to help me. You need to live in the USA or US territories to get this small jar of Stain Solver. That's the only hitch.
Happy Hunting and Thank You in advance!

COLUMN OF THE WEEK - CHOOSING A CARPENTER'S LEVEL

I'll bet you'd like to know the latest about carpenter's levels.
I'm currently testing both the 2 and 4-foot bamboo levels I talk about in the column. WOW, are they nice levels. You'll discover a link to them in the column.

More tips next week!

Drywall Cutting Tools and Tips

DEAR TIM: I'm a remodeling novice, and am going to be doing some drywall work soon. I've never worked with the material and have no idea how to cut it. Not only do I have to cut new sheets to size, but I also have to make cutouts in existing drywall walls and ceilings. A friend suggested I use a circular saw. That makes sense to me. What tools and techniques do you use to cut drywall? I'm interested in both accuracy, speed and safety. Rachel C., Tacoma, WA
DEAR RACHEL: I clearly remember one weekend driving to a potential customer's house to look at a job. His next door neighbor had a sheet of drywall laying flat on two sawhorses out on his driveway. He was attacking the drywall with a circular saw creating so much dust that I thought the EPA was going to issue a county-wide air quality alert. Suffice it to say I offered this man the some of the same advice I'll offer to you.
First, don't use a circular saw to cut drywall. It's like using a rock to hammer nails. Both are the wrong tools for the job. A circular saw creates giant clouds of unnecessary dust. This dust causes premature wear on the moving parts of the saw, as well as your lungs and those standing nearby.

Here are three nifty tools to help cut drywall. The smallest one is the most ingenious and it's new technology. Photo Credit: Tim Carter

Professional drywall hangers use a regular razor knife to make straight cuts on drywall. Standard drywall, or sheetrock, is simply a sandwich product. It's comprised of two outer layers of special paper that conceal a gypsum-based core. Each drywall manufacturer might have a special recipe of ingredients found in the core, including fly ash from power plants.
This fly ash can contain silica, and it's simply not a good idea to inhale silica dust. Doing this can contribute to, or cause, a serious lung disease, so it's best to minimize dust when working with drywall. Spinning saw blades work well with wood because they normally create a harmless dust for the most part.
To cut a straight line with drywall and create minimal airborne dust, you just score one side of the drywall with a sharp razor knife. Apply enough pressure to completely cut through the paper and into the gypsum core about one eighth inch. You need to cut this line all the way across the piece of drywall from edge to edge.
After making the cut, you go to the other side of the drywall and apply pressure directly behind the cut line. This pressure causes the drywall panel to snap along the cut line and bend over completely on itself. You finish the cut by simply cutting through the paper backing on the other side of the drywall panel.
Standard drywall is one-half-inch thick. You can use this method to cut off pieces as narrow as one and one-half inches wide. If you need to cut narrower pieces from a sheet of drywall, it requires you to make deeper cuts with the razor knife into the gypsum core. Do this carefully so the razor knife cuts only the drywall and not you.
To make cuts into existing drywall that's screwed or nailed to walls or ceilings, you can make repeated cuts with a very sharp razor knife, but it's very time consuming and hard to do. The gypsum core creates a large amount of friction making the cutting difficult.
You can use a hand-powered saw that's especially made to cut through drywall. The blades are tapered and have a sharp tip that allows you to push it through the drywall with relative ease. The biggest problem is these blades are normally about 5 or 6 inches long and they can easily reach wires, cables, pipes and other things hidden behind the drywall. A rookie like you can easily create big and expensive repair problems in a hurry using one of these tools.
A new short metal blade has been developed for electric-powered reciprocating saws that's designed specifically to cut holes into existing drywall. The blade has a blunt tip, and it's only about one and one-quarter inch long. It doesn't have sharp teeth, but rather square notched cut outs. It does a splendid job of cutting drywall, but won't cut deep enough to harm anything behind the drywall, especially if you hold the blade at a 45-degree angle as you glide it across the surface of the drywall.

Here's a new drywall cutting blade that fits in an electric reciprocating saw. It's perfect for cutting holes in drywall on walls and ceilings but not the things hidden behind the drywall! Photo Credit: Tim Carter

Be careful when cutting holes in drywall ceilings. Always wear safety goggles, not safety glasses. Drywall dust and small chunks of gypsum core in your eyes can cause you to make an expensive trip to an emergency room or eye doctor.
Professional drywall hangers use a small rotary cutting tool fitted with a bit that looks like a standard drill bit. This bit has special cutting edges on the spiral shaft that allow it to cut rapidly through drywall. These tools are used by every professional drywall hanger that I know. While they increase production by a factor of five or more, they also create small clouds of dust.