Home Improvement

Insulation – silently hidden in your walls, no moving parts to fix – is a material you probably spend precious little time thinking about. Until sub zero (or sweltering) weather, a three-digit utility bill or chilly drafts start to come, and you start thinking about it a lot! At home, you ponder whether it’s worth [...]

Regular cleaning of your home\’s air ducts helps prevent major maintenance issues, promotes good health for your family and reduces your home energy expenses.

Homebuilders too often overlook pipe insulation. Some shady contractors wishing to cut corners in order to keep the bottom line low for their clients will leave out these options often, but pipe insulation is essential for the performance and long service-life of piping systems. So it is often these kinds of additions that homeowners will [...]

Weatherstripping and caulking may be the easiest ways to increase energy efficiency and reduce heating and cooling costs for your home. Caulking and weather-stripping prevents air from entering or escaping the home, and also prevents the spread of moisture around pipes, drains, and faucets. Replacement weather-stripping is usually available at most building supply and hardware [...]

If you’ve ever had that worst of experiences (a contractor who takes forever to complete your remodeling project, does shoddy work or doesn’t get around to completing the job!) you’ll find a wealth of ideas and tips in this 3 part series on finding the right contractor for your next home improvement, remodeling or home [...]

Like a cartoon character you go to open your closet one day and things spill out on top of you. If you’re like me, you have lots of clothes. And belts. And shoes. And coats. And sweaters and tops and … well, you get the idea! However, when I bought my house I came to [...]

Well, you have to be a die-hard do-it-yourselfer, but if you want to try laying your own carpet, we’ve outlined the basic steps, along with videos on how it’s done!

Renovating your kitchen on a budget means making trade-offs. But smart homeowners are finding great deals on appliances, materials and labor these days, making kitchen remodeling a smart long term investment.

Warm and natural, terracotta tile is a great choice for flooring. Learn how to lay out, cut and set terracotta flooring tiles in our how to guide for do-it-yourselfers.

Part 2 in our DIY tile flooring series shows you how to lay, set and grout your own ceramic tile flooring.

With these tips you can learn to plan and layout a tile floor yourself. Whether you want to install ceramic, terracotta or natural stone tile flooring our guide will teach you how to measure, estimate materials, lay out and cut tile for your home flooring project.

Home Sweet Home It has been a little over a year now since we developed the current RafterTales home improvement and decorating blog, we have posted almost 400 articles during that time. Looking back at the content we have published, it is fun to look back and see which articles have been most popular with our readers; [...]

Preventive plumbing tips; what to do if a water pipe bursts, the toilet or sink drain clogs, how to prevent frozen water pipes and more do-it-yourself problem solving tips in honor of Joe the Plumber.

During these tough economic times, does it make sense to do home improvements? We think it does; read on to learn why your home is still one of the best places to invest and how you can be prepared to sell your home when things start to rebound!

Having your home heating system inspected once a year by an HVAC contractor will extend its useful life and save money on your heating bill. But there are some home furnace and heating system maintenance items you can complete yourself.