Expert Advice on Home Improvement

If you have a dog or cat in your house, there’s a good chance you have to deal with pet hair on your carpets, rugs, and upholstered furniture. One easy way to remove it is to apply duct tape to a paint roller with the sticky side facing up. To use it to pick up hair, simply roll the roller over the surface. When the tape is full of hair, peel it off, and put on a new piece. Watch this video.

Rather than rolling up an old carpet that can’t be reused, fold the carpet over and cut it into sections from the back using a utility knife. This makes it easier to handle and dispose of than trying to carry one big piece. Watch this video.

No matter what kind of flooring you’re installing, it’s important to make sure the surface beneath it is level, smooth, and flat. Most subfloors will have low spots that require filling with floor patching compound. After the floor patch compound has hardened, the subfloor is sanded until it’s smooth before the new flooring is installed. Watch this video.

Tiling a small bathroom floor like this one is not that hard if you know the basic steps involved. The tile can be laid directly on top of an existing tile floor as long as the old floor has been cleaned thoroughly first. To make a small bathroom like this one feel larger, the tiles were laid diagonally. Read more to find out how. Watch this video.

Accidental falls are the number one cause of death and injury in the home. To reduce the chance of falling, make sure all rugs on a hard surface are nonslip. While you could use double stick carpet tape or a nonslip rug pad to keep them from sliding, a simpler solution is to apply a bead of 100% silicone caulking to the bottom of the rug. Watch this video.

Cork is made from the bark of a type of oak tree that grows primarily in Europe. The bark can be harvested every 8-10 years without harming the tree, making it a very environmentally friendly product. Due to its soft nature, cork is easy on your feet, and since it doesn’t absorb or release dust, it can actually improve the air quality in your home. Watch this video.

Engineered hardwood flooring comes sanded and finished from the factory, eliminating much of the mess and time involved with installing traditional solid wood flooring. It can be held in place with nails or glue, depending on the type of surface it’s installed over. Watch this video.

When attempting to drill into ceramic tile, the glazed surface of the tile can cause the drill bit to wander. To solve this problem, apply two layers of masking tape to the spot to give the bit a surface it can grab hold of, then use carbide tipped masonry drill bit to drill into the tile. Watch this video.

While ceramic tile is a durable, low maintenance material, the grout between the tiles is not. Unless stain-proof grout was used, the grout will need to be sealed. Danny shows you how it’s done in this video. Watch this video.

Schluter-Ditra Tile Underlayment is a polyethylene membrane that replaces ½” cement backer board when applying tile over a plywood subfloor. At only 1/8″ thick, it can significantly reduce the finished height of a tile floor. The flexible membrane comes in rolls and weighs only two ounces per square foot. After being cut to length, it’s set in a bed of thin-set mortar then covered by another coat of thin-set in which the tiles are laid. The membrane acts as an uncoupling layer to prevent cracking as well as providing waterproofing in one easy application. It’s available at The Home Depot stores. Watch this video.

Radiant flooring heating systems are an energy efficient way to gently warm a room by heating the floor. This system from Uponor uses hot water piped through a closed loop of flexible PEX plastic tubing. Watch this video.

To remove an existing tile, use a nail set to mark the surface then drill holes through the tile using carbide tipped masonry bit. Finally, chisel away the title with a cold chisel and remove any loose mortar. Watch this video.

To cut door jambs so flooring will fit under them, turn a piece of flooring over to use as a guide. Lay a handsaw flat on top of the flooring and saw through the jamb. Watch this video.

This small room is perfect for a piece of low pile commercial carpet we picked up for $100. Start by aligning the factory cut edges of the carpet against two of the adjoining walls in the room. Press the carpet firmly against the remaining walls with a 6” drywall knife, then cut through it using a sharp utility knife. Watch this video.

More and more materials for countertops and floors are available that are both beautiful and environmentally friendly. One product called shetkaSTONE is made from recycled paper, plant, and cloth fibers. While it has the look of stone, it can be cut and screwed like wood. It is water and stain resistant and comes in a number of colors. Best of all shetkaSTONE can be recycled again if it is ever replaced. Watch this video.

Nowhere is the charm of an older home more apparent than in the rich look of heart pine floors. Cut from the dense heartwood near the center of virgin longleaf pine trees, heart pine is prized for its fine grain, durability, and lasting beauty. Watch this video.

Danny takes a look at the Uponor radiant flooring system installed during Today’s Addition. He talks with the installer, Wes Sisco to see how it was installed. Wes demonstrates how the system known as Quick Trak® works. ½” plywood with a heat emission plate on one side and a dovetail groove on the other is installed under pre-finished hardwood. 5/16” plastic PEX tubing fits in the groove and conducts to the heat emission plate distributing heat across the floor. Watch this video.

Ceramic tile floors can add extra elegance to formal areas like the living room and dining room. In a project like this, Floor preparation is import before the first tiles can be laid. Darker marble insets were used to add pizazz to this flooring. Watch this video.

If laying out square lines is part of your next home improvement project (like tiling a bathroom floor) here’s a great tip. Establish one line parallel to a wall (the most visible one works best) and mark off 4 feet on it. Watch this video.