Megablab Home Improvement

Archive for the ‘Gardening’ Category

As a builder I see many rooms that have succumbed to the effects of damp. Cracked walls, leaky roofs, poor insulation all lead to this most annoying issue. While it seems a daunting task to erase such a problem, it’s actually a pretty painless task.

One such case I recently had to deal with was an old 1960′s bungalow kitchen. This is the kind of building that pre-dated cavity wall insulation (or indeed, insulation of any kind including the roof), and had internal walls that were primarily formed using an inch thick drywall. While this was a much better system than the earlier plaster and lath way of doing things (hundreds of wooden slats with plaster laid on top), it still presented its own issues. Read the rest of this entry »

The kitchen just might be the most popular room in any home. Even though its main purpose is for cooking and preparing meals, it often becomes the social hub during family gatherings, meals and parties. Most modern kitchens these days have kitchen extractor fans or, if a kitchen is undergoing renovation or an upgrade, a kitchen extractor fan is surely in the budget and on the list to be installed. And while tile choices, sinks and stovetops might be more obvious and glamorous things to be thinking about in a new kitchen, it’s worth putting thought into the smaller – but no less important – details like fans. With that in mind, let’s look at the things to consider when purchasing and installing a extractor fan. Read the rest of this entry »

To fix a crack in a basement wall there a few tools that needs to be gathered. The materials are quite simple; all that is needed is some masonry cement, water, six inch sheetrock knife, wheelbarrow, hoe, paintbrush, paint scraper, outdoor caulk, caulking gun, wire brush, primer, and paint. Be sure to take a piece of paint from the wall, to the paint store, in order to have it matched to the correct color.

Take a paint scraper and peel back any loose paint around the crack. Next take the wire brush and clean the area around the crack removing any dirt. Take the outdoor caulk and squirt it deep inside the crack; be sure it is smoothed out. Give the caulk twenty-four hours to dry. Read the rest of this entry »

Why Build a Chicken Roost?

I love scrambled eggs for breakfast. Especially if the eggs come fresh from the hens and haven’t spent weeks in the supermarket. So I keep a few hens in the back yard to enjoy this pleasure. Going out into the garden on a bright sunny morning I equally enjoy and would not miss it for anything in the world. Breathing the fresh air and smelling the flowers gives me an appetite and starts off my day on a beautiful note.

Alas my chickens have one problem – they taste too good. The fox being more of a night creature cannot get at them as they are locked up in the chicken shed. He does try some of the nights but he has not been successful and during the day he does not dare go near them. Read the rest of this entry »

If you don’t have much time to spend redecorating, you don’t want the upheaval or you can’t afford the expense of a whole new bathroom, here are some quick and easy ideas you can implement to give your bathroom a bit of a lift in a jiffy!

You can buy some fabulous cheap bathroom wall tiles. It can be a big job re-tiling the whole bathroom but how about just replacing a few tiles with some really special ones? This works really well if your bathroom is currently tiled plain white. Removing tiles isn’t too tricky, it just takes a bit of patience as you have to be very careful not to damage the surrounding tiles. You could replace them with contrasting plain coloured tiles and you could then continue that colour theme with some new towels and a matching shower curtain. Or you could go for a pattern, blue and white Victorian designs, or something ultra modern, there are loads of choices available and as you’ll only be wanting a few you should be able to afford to buy any you like best. Read the rest of this entry »

Any type of renovation or additional construction on our homes is usually approached with some feeling of trepidation as we have all heard some disastrous home renovation horror stories. But how much stress is involved in building a verandah? If you plan it right, not much at all!

Verandahs are a great addition to any suburban backyard as they transform unused space into an extra living area and will result in you spending much more time outdoors. Verandahs are also great spaces for holding laid back summer parties, so once the structure is up all you have to do is concentrate on having a good time in a place that you love. Read the rest of this entry »

Home improvement is the process of making changes to ones homes, either through repair or renovation. Home improvement projects can be small, such as adding sealant to a window. They can also be big projects, such as adding new carpeting to floors. The tips in this article should help you with home improvement, regardless of the size of the task.

Do not wait until December to start winterizing your home, and start in autumn, instead. Weatherstripping and other products that depend on adhesives will stick better while the air and surface temperatures are still warmer, and you need not wait until it’s frigid outside to perform tasks like insulating pipes in the crawlspace. Read the rest of this entry »

Anyone would like to have an expedient garden shed to go with their adorable garden. But sad to say, there are people who are disappointed because they are not satisfied with the garden shed they build or buy. To avoid this, one should be knowledgeable regarding garden sheds available for purchase these days. Knowing the type of garden structure in terms of the materials used is helpful to come up with the best informed decision. Currently, storage sheds are made from these materials: wood, metal, steel, vinyl and plastic. Read the rest of this entry »

As a homeowner, you’re no doubt aware of the need for ongoing maintenance and repairs to your home and yard. Now, all this work calls for several different pieces of equipment and tools and naturally you must have somewhere to store them when they’re not in use.

It’s an odd thing but there never seems to be sufficient storage space in the garage or in the basement or elsewhere! Especially when it comes to larger pieces of equipment such as a lawn mower, power generator, ATV and a host of other ‘necessary’ appliances.

In fact, garage space can be at such a premium that there is often not enough room for the cars! Read the rest of this entry »

When most of us think about sheds it is usually the typical little back garden tool shed that springs to mind first. There are in fact many different shapes, sizes and uses for the common shed these days. The other thing about sheds is that they are for the most part relatively easy to build. DIY Shed Plans are prolific on the internet these days and make the whole adventure of Do It Yourself projects so much easier.

Now many of us will think that it is just easier and cheaper to go out and purchase a pre-built or kit set shed because most if not all of the work is already done for us. However, these can come with their own set of complications. Things like, predetermined sizes (you may have to sacrifice more of your yard than you thought because your new fully built shed doesn’t quite fit where you wanted it to go), you are also limited by someone else’s design ideas. There may also be missing pieces when your flat pack shed arrives, which is not only frustrating but also takes up precious time going back and forth sourcing the missing bit/s and a lot of the times the instructions are in another language or very obscure. Read the rest of this entry »