Expert Advice on Home Improvement

I think I’m a relatively calm, even-keeled person (considering I was born in the Bronx). I don’t get upset or flustered very easily. OK, once I flung my sand wedge into a water hazard, but who could blame me? That club didn’t hit a single green in two years!

Even fruit isn’t safe from sticker scourge

However, despite my ordinarily cool demeanor, there’s one thing that absolutely drives me mad: stickers. It seems that every single thing I buy nowadays—tools, books, furniture, frying pans, appliances, clothing, you name it—has some sort of decal, label, logo or UPC tag stuck to it.

Heck, you can’t even eat an apple anymore without first having to scrape off its sticky insignia. Even more maddening is that the sticker usually has a picture of an apple on it. (Hey, Mr. Apple Company, we get it, it’s an apple!)

I bought a new gas grill last year that had stickers plastered to nearly every surface, including one on its stainless steel hood that was only slightly smaller than my car’s windshield. And, of course, it was impossible to peel off the stickers in one piece. They came off in tiny bits and pieces, leaving behind a big mess. Apparently sticker manufacturers are using the same adhesive employed by NASA to secure heat-shield tiles to the nose of the Space Shuttle.

Well, unless my gas grill had to re-enter the atmosphere on its way from the Weber factory to my local Home Depot, there’s no reason why these stickers couldn’t be coated with a low-strength, peel-off adhesive.

Heat helps peel away stubborn stickers

Anyway (exhale), even though I haven’t solved all of my sticker issues, I did experience a small breakthrough recently when I discovered a quick, neat way to remove the most tenacious stickers and labels. And all you need is a little heat.

Take an electric heat gun, set it to “low,” and use it to warm up the sticker. Within just a few seconds, the heat will soften the adhesive and you’ll be able to peel off the sticker. (If you don’t own a heat gun, try using a blow dryer.)

For stickers larger than, say a legal-size envelope, it’s best to direct the heat at one corner of the sticker, and then peel it away just a bit, being careful not to tear the sticker. Then, aim the heat gun behind the peeled-up corner, wait a few seconds, then gently tug on the sticker using pliers, if necessary, to protect your hands from the hot air.

Continue to simultaneously apply heat and pull on the sticker until it peels off in one piece. If there’s any sticky residue left behind, remove it with a white cloth dampened with mineral spirits or acetone.

Now this technique works great on all metal and wood surfaces, and even some hard plastics. But be careful because the intense heat can melt plastic and blister wood finishes.

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People are always asking me how I come up with all the Simple Solutions for Today’s Homeowner with Danny Lipford. It’s a valid question, especially when you consider that we’ve taped well over 200 Simple Solution segments in the past nine years.

Most of the tool tips and home-remodeling hints come directly from my experiences working in the building trades, and as a serial DIYer. But I also get great Simple Solution ideas from Danny, director Scott Gardner, even television viewers and online visitors. (Got a Simple Solutions tip? Send it along to simplesolutions@dannylipford.com and perhaps we’ll air it.)

My TV career reaches new heights!

People are also curious to know where we shoot the Simple Solutions, and that’s a bit trickier to explain because we shoot wherever it’s necessary to produce the best possible segments.

We often tape in the Today’s Homeowner workshop or at construction sites. But when we need to shoot in a bathroom, kitchen, attic, backyard, or anywhere else in or around a home, we typically end up at Danny’s house. In fact, during our last taping session we shot quite a few segments at Danny’s, even though Danny wasn’t home at the time, which was probably a good thing.

Here’s how one day went:

While we were taping a tip about hanging holiday lights, I found myself climbing one of the trees in Danny’s front yard. (I could only imagine what the neighbors were thinking.) You see, the sun was shining a bit too brightly so Brad, our cameraman, suggested hanging some white fabric in the tree to diffuse the sunlight.

So, I summoned my inner monkey (in my case, a local call), and next thing I know, I’m high in the tree clamping cloth to branches. Once I was safely back on terra firma, we resumed taping, and the segment ended up looking great.

Welcome to the glamorous world of TV!

Later that same day, we spent an hour or so in Danny’s master bathroom, shooting a tip on cleaning shower doors. For a majority of the time, I was just standing in the shower stall as Scott, Brad and Allen gathered props, set up lights and ran sound checks. It’s all part of producing a TV show, and since I have the easiest job of anyone on site, I never mind waiting around.

Although, it did eventually strike me as a bit strange. Here I was, freshly flown in from Connecticut, and then suddenly I’m standing—fully clothed—in a shower stall in Alabama, while a trio of talented technicians work to make me look and sound much better than I actually do.

So, after all these years, two things have become abundantly clear: 1) The Today’s Homeowner crew will do whatever’s necessary to produce quality programming, and 2) Danny—and his wife, Sharon—are incredibly accommodating.

I feel very fortunate to be part of the team. And I promise to do my best to stay out of their trees and shower stalls.

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If you’re fortunate enough to live in the Sunbelt or some other balmy region, chances are you’ve never heard of—or at least experienced—ice dams. I, on the other hand, live in New England, so every winter ice dams are as common—and as welcoming—as frostbite and sub-zero temperatures. That’s because ice dams can be destructive, problematic, and virtually impossible to remove once fully formed.

Ironically ice dams are often responsible for one of the most beautiful and iconoclastic of all winter images: glistening, crystal-clear icicles hanging from gutters and eaves. Heck, even I marvel at the delicate beauty of icicles, but only when they’re hanging off someone else’s house.

Here’s a brief explanation of how ice dams typically form: It all starts with a roof blanketed in snow. The snow layer that is sitting directly on the roof begins to melt, and water runs down the roof underneath the snow. When the water hits the overhanging eave of the house, it begins to freeze. Some water often drains into the gutter, where it freezes as well.

As the snow continues to melt and water freezes at the eave, ice eventually builds up along the roof forming a thick ridge or dam. Then, as water runs down the roof, it’s blocked by the ice dam, and forced up under the shingles. I know this seems to defy all laws of physics (and commonsense), but water will actually flow up the roof, working its way under the shingles. And that’s where the trouble really begins, since roofs are designed to shed water running down the shingles, not up.

Over time the water will work its way beneath the shingles and the underlayment, and into the seams between the plywood roof sheathing. From there, water drips directly into the attic, where it soaks through the insulation and ceiling, before dripping into the room below. If not detected immediately, the damage can be very difficult and expensive to repair, especially if it ends up ruining the floor, walls, or furnishings.

Now, the above explanation is a rather simplified version of how ice dams form, the science behind this phenomenon is much more complicated, but if you go back to the very beginning, you’ll find a clue to solving this problem. The entire process starts when snow sitting on the roof begins to melt. That’s key because ideally you want the interior attic temperature to be as close as possible to the outside air temperature. That’s why there’s only insulation on the attic floor, not between the roof rafters.

However, if the attic floor isn’t properly insulated or if heated air is leaking through the ceiling, via cracks, crevices, ductwork and light fixtures, then the attic will become warm. And it doesn’t take very much heat to raise the attic temperature enough to melt the snow on the roof. Since the overhanging eave extends past the house, it remains cold, which is why the water freezes when it hits the eave.

So, what can you do to prevent ice dams on your home? Try these ideas:

1. Seal Air Leaks: Use caulk, insulation and weatherstripping to seal all upstairs ceilings to stop heat from flowing into the attic.
2. Add Insulation: Measure the depth of the insulation on the attic floor, and add more, if necessary. Call the local building inspector or licensed contractor to find out how much insulation is required in your area.
3. Attic Ventilation: Check to be sure that the attic ventilation system is operating properly. Most homes have soffit vents and ridge or gable-end vents, which allow air to flow into the attic along the eaves and out the attic at the ridgeline or gable walls. Be certain the attic-floor insulation isn’t blocking the soffit vents. And never staple plastic or anything else over attic vents. Remember, you want attic temperature to be as close as possible to the outside air temperature.

If your home already has ice dams, there’s not too much you can do about them. Avoid installing electric cables or any other device to melt the ice, as they won’t solve the problem. You can try using a snow rake to remove as much snow as possible from the roof. That’ll at least remove the source of water. Just be sure to work safely from the ground, since it’s never a good idea to climb onto a snow-covered roof.

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If you’re ever anywhere near New Hampshire, do yourself a favor and make the drive north to the White Mountain National Forest. There, you’ll find the Presidential Range, a 12-mile-long rocky ridge of eight sky-piercing mountains. And at the center of this natural wonder is Mount Washington, the highest peak in New England.

If you’re lucky, as I was just last week, you’ll have clear skies, calm winds, and the time to make your way up to Mount Washington’s 6,288-ft.-tall summit. There are four basic ways to the top: hiking, driving, taking a guided van tour, or riding the train. That’s right, there’s a mountain-climbing train. With a little apprehension I boarded the one o’clock train, and boy am I glad I did. It turned out to be one of the most thrilling, scary, amazing, breathtaking rides of my life.

The train is called the Cog Railway and it’s unlike any train I’ve ever seen. The track has two rails like a standard train, but there’s also a center rail that has teeth, similar to those you’d find on a gear. The train’s axle is fitted with a ratcheting cog that locks onto each tooth of the center rail as the train powers its way up the mountain. As a result, it’s impossible for the train to slide back. The design is brilliantly simple and perfectly executed. Oh yeah, did I forget to mention, the train is 140 years old!

Back around 1860, Sylvester Marsh and a friend decided to hike up Mount Washington. A fierce storm trapped the two hikers on the mountain overnight, nearly killing them both. Once safely back home, Marsh—who apparently had a lot of free time on his hands—began to think that there must be a better, safer way to the summit. In 1866 he started designing and building the now-famous Cog Railway, which officially opened for business on July 3, 1869.

There’s an informative little museum at the base of the mountain that explains in great detail all of Marsh’s trials, tribulations and eventual triumphant. The train runs from about mid-May to late-November, depending on the weather, which can be unpredictable and unforgiving. (During my first visit to the summit several years ago, which was in early-October, the mountain was blanketed in ice and the air temperature was minus 25 degrees with 45-mph winds.)

At the summit is an extensive weather observatory that’s staffed year-round with meteorologists. In fact, the highest wind speed ever recorded was on Mount Washington on April 12, 1934. The wind reached a sustained speed of 231 mph!

When the train stops at the top, you can get out and walk around—well away from the edge—to enjoy the amazing 360-degree views. On a clear day, you can see the glistening Atlantic Ocean to the east, Canada to the north, and west across Vermont’s green mountains, all the way to Mount Marcy, New York’s highest point.

So, as I said, if you’re ever in the area, visit Mount Washington and catch the Cog Railway to the summit. You won’t regret it.

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Straight cuts in cement backer board can be made using a circular saw.

I just remodeled one of our bathrooms, which included tiling the floor with 12”x 12” Turkish tumbled marble. It was a fun project to work on (it’s a small room) and the tiles look terrific, but the most important step of the entire job was prepping the subfloor.

After ripping up the old vinyl flooring, I discovered that the subfloor consisted of two layers of ½” plywood; the minimum recommended subfloor thickness for tile is 1¼” So, I had to cover the plywood with ¼” cement backer board, which was set in a bed of thinset mortar and then screwed to the subfloor.

Cement backer board can be cut with a carbide-tipped scoring tool, just score and snap the sheet, similar to cutting drywall. But since I had several cuts to make, I decided to use power tools.

Now the first thing you need to know when cutting backer board is that its dust contains crystalline silica, which can be extremely irritating to your eyes and lungs. So, be sure to wear eye goggles and a dual-cartridge respirator when cutting backer board. Also, always make the cuts outdoors and well away from open windows and doors.

A jigsaw works best for cutting curves.

For straight cuts, use a circular saw fitted with a carbide-tipped woodcutting blade, but here’s a little secret: use a blade with the fewest number of teeth you can find. Ordinarily a blade with more teeth is desirable because it produces a smoother cut, but in this case many teeth would bog down and create clouds of thick dust. A blade with fewer teeth (mine only had six) cuts quickly and produces less dust.

To make curved cuts or circular cutouts in backer board, you have a couple of options. You could drill a series of holes along the cut line and then tap out the waste with a hammer.

While that technique works, it creates quite a mess and leaves a ragged edge. I prefer another approach that is both cleaner and quicker.

When I had to cut a 7” diameter hole in backer board to fit around the toilet drain flange, I used a jigsaw fitted with a metal-cutting blade and made the cut slowly. To be honest, I wasn’t sure the blade would cut the dense, fibrous sheet, but it did so quite easily with a minimal amount of dust.

However, I should mention that by the end of the cut I noticed that all the teeth on the blade had been worn down to mere nubs, so if you have a lot of circular cuts to make, be sure to have plenty of metal-cutting jigsaw blades on hand.

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As coxswain of the eight-man boat, Chris (in white shirt) sits in the stern and steers and keeps the rowers on pace by shouting instructions into a microphone.

I admit that until very recently I knew little about crew—the sport of rowing—even though it has been practiced for many centuries. However, all that changed a couple of months ago when our son, Christopher, joined the Salisbury School crew team.

The school has six boats and a rich history of rowing. Chris was appointed coxswain of the first novice boat, which is quite an honor for a freshman, especially considering Chris had never even seen a crew race before joining the team.

Chris’ boat is a sleek, sliver of a vessel, measuring just 23” wide and more than 50’ long. The team consists of eight rowers (each with one oar) and a coxswain. The coxswain sits in the stern and has two primary responsibilities: to maintain the rowers’ pace (strokes per minute), and to steer the boat.

Sounds simple enough, until you see the team in action. To propel the boat through the water for 1,500 meters (nearly one mile) requires stamina, concentration, brute strength, unparalleled teamwork, and the precision of a fine Swiss watch.

It has been thrilling to stand on the shore and cheer as the boats fly across the water. The Salisbury boats have done very well this season. Chris’ boat won a few races, and came in second in the New England Championships. We’re proud of Chris’ hard work and dedication to the team, and very grateful to the tireless effort of the Salisbury coaches.

One of the many traditions of the sport is that the coxswain of the winning boat gets tossed into the lake by his teammates. And even though the water was 40 degrees the day Chris’ boat won its first race, Chris couldn’t have been happier, nor I any prouder.

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When I designed our master bath, I knew from the onset that I wanted to use glazed porcelain floor tile that resembled tumbled marble. It has a weathered, old world look that I find more interesting than traditional polished marble. Plus, porcelain tile is much stronger and harder than real marble, so it’s less likely to crack. It’s also less porous and more stain resistant.

In any case, while buying the floor tile I saw a catalog photograph that showed the same tile applied to a bathroom wall, similar to wainscoting. I loved the look and immediately ordered enough tiles to cover the bottom 36” of my bath walls.

The wainscoting is made up of 10”x 10” tiles, a stone bead, 4”x 4” tiles and a stone chair rail. It wraps around the room, visually tying together the entire bath.

Besides the visual appeal of the wainscoting, I also like the fact I didn’t have to install any baseboard molding. The wall tile simply sits right on top of the floor tile.

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I’ve been a home-improvement writer for nearly 25 years, and have visited remodeling jobs and construction sites all over the country. And as a member of the press, I’ve had privileged access to some astonishing projects, including a California hillside home, which had a freeform redwood deck cantilevered over a 100-ft.-deep ravine; a 10,000-sq.-ft. beachfront South Carolina home that was framed entirely out of 2×12s (including all the interior walls!); a French-built tramway over the Mississippi River at the New Orleans World’s Fair; a townhouse development in Helsinki, Finland, where every unit had a cedar-lined sauna and a hand-cut soapstone wood-burning stove; and the rescue renovation of the Statue of Liberty on her 100th birthday.

But do you know the very best thing about being a home improvement writer? No, not the limos or groupies (unfortunately), it’s that I get to meet some really talented tradesmen, designers and architects. Most of the time I’m working on projects here in New England, so over the years I’ve developed relationships with dozens of local carpenters, masons, electricians, plumbers, roofers, landscapers, and cabinetmakers.

A few weeks ago I was trying to find a floor tiling project for a new book that I’m writing. The job had to include tearing out an old ceramic tile floor, installing new cement backerboard, and then setting glazed porcelain tile. So, I called my buddy Jimmy Tiganella who owns Classic Tile in Oakville, Connecticut.

Jimmy and I have worked together on more than a dozen projects over the years, and he’s always willing to let me photograph and write about one of his projects. (That’s me with Jimmy, who’s kneeling beside his grouting bucket. The other photo shows Jimmy spreading thin-set mortar with a notched trowel.)

I’ve learned a lot from Jimmy about how to set and grout tile, but also how to properly prepare the subfloor to ensure a long-lasting tile job. We’ve installed tile on floors, walls, countertops, shower pans and kitchen backsplashes. It’s a pleasure watching Jimmy work. He takes no shortcuts and always has a good reason for everything he does.

On the job, I’m always asking questions and having Jimmy explain each step of the process. As you can imagine, this could drive someone mad. But Jimmy is always very patient and takes the time to answer each question with both sound advice and good humor.

So, thanks to Jimmy for putting up with me all these years. He has made me a better writer, and I’ve come to appreciate how much hard work and talent it takes to properly install tile.

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I’m always looking around the house for extra storage space. From the basement to the attic, I’ve scoured every square inch searching for spaces that I could convert to storage. However, I learned that sometimes the answer is right in front of you.

A few years ago, my son Chris had run out of shelves for his growing book collection. But his 10’x 12’ room already housed a bunk bed, computer desk, stereo cabinet, two large windows and a closet, so there wasn’t any room for a freestanding bookcase or wall-mounted shelving. Then I stumbled upon a novel idea:

I cut a hole through the end wall of his closet and installed a built-in bookcase. The bookcase is only about 9” deep x 18” wide x 40” high, but its four shelves hold an impressive number of books. And best of all, it doesn’t take up a single square inch of floor space.

I built the bookcase from 1”x 10” pine and used 1/4” plywood for the back. The shelves are set into dadoes routed into the sides. After screwing the bookcase into the hole in the closet wall, I trimmed around it with Colonial casing to give the project a clean, built-in look.

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Me and the Gray Ghost, my dad’s ‘89 Dodge Ram truck.

I’ve got an old pickup truck that I use whenever I need to haul material that’s too big or too dirty to put in my car. It’s a 1989 Dodge Ram with a fiberglass cap and only 53,262 miles on it. It doesn’t have a fancy sound system, or automatic windows or heated seats. Heck, I don’t even think it has a cup holder. But I can lay a full 4×8-ft. sheet of plywood flat in its bed, and the bench seat is only slightly smaller than the sofa in our family room. They don’t make vehicles like that anymore. I love that old Dodge.

I’ve only had the truck for about two years, and although I use it rarely, nearly every time I drive it, someone asked me if I was in the Navy, which I wasn’t. At first I didn’t know why anyone would ask me such an odd question, until I remembered the U.S. Navy license plate bolted to the tailgate.

A simple, understated remembrance of my dad’s service, which still draws interest.

My dad was in the Navy; he enlisted as a 17-year-old high-school student, and was immediately shipped off—quite literally—to the Sea of China aboard the heavy cruiser, U.S.S. Columbus. He spent his entire four-year tour of duty in the Pacific Theatre, and saw things he never talked about to me, or anyone else that I know of. I got the truck when my dad died a couple of years ago.

He had been a remodeling contractor, and never owned anything other than pickup trucks. He bought the ’89 Dodge after retiring; it was the only brand-new truck he ever purchased.

When I think back, I remember how proud my Dad was of his Naval service, and how he loved that truck better than any of the others he had owned. Now, when I climb into that cavernous cab, which still carries the lingering smell of his Camels, I, too, feel proud, especially when asked if I was in the Navy.

Like most sons, I could never pay back all that my dad had given me, but I think he’d be pleased to know that the old Dodge is still serving a useful purpose long after his service has ceased.

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