What are our top 20 tips for remodeling?

What are our top 20 tips for remodeling?

1. Dealing with Countertops? Make sure you carry countertops with the edge down so they won’t snap. If you carry the countertop flat it will snap.
2. When you are trying to glue 2 pieces together they tend to slide and slip. Adding salt to your wood glue can reduce friction and help eliminate slippage.
3. Put tape around a drill bit to serve as a depth gauge if you are not going all the way thru the material. This gauge will keep you from blowing out the back of your material.
4. If you don’t have the correct size drill bit for a hole that you need to drill, you can actually just use a nail instead. Take the same size nail that you’re planning on using, clip off the head, attach it to the drill and just use that as the drill bit. Now you are ready without having to leave and come back.
5. When removing a nail from the wall where an item used to hang, you’re left with that little hole in the wall. Instead of driving to the store and spending money on spackle, just apply some toothpaste or a bar of soap. After some time drying, you can paint right over it and no one will ever know.
6. When hammering nails, hold the nail with a pair of pliers and you will save your finger if you miss hitting the nail.
7. Need to get sawdust out of the crevices of detail? Drill a hole in a paper/plastic cup and put a drinking straw in the hole. Put the vacuum hose in the cup, and you have an excellent cleaning tool for those hard spaces.
8. When drilling into hard wood, add some candle wax or soap onto your screws to drive them in easier.
9. To avoid tear out on while cutting plywood and laminate, add a piece of tape on the bottom of the piece you are cutting. This help reduce splintering.
10. You need a metal saw blade? Take your miter saw wood blade turn it backwards and now it is a metal cutting blade.
11. Use vinegar or fabric softener to clean your paint brushes.
12. Use package tape to get roller fuzz of the paint roller.
13. If you have small detail areas that you do not want painted, use Vaseline.
14. Pull your painters tape at an angle instead of straight up and down.
15. Always hang ceilings before the walls when hanging sheetrock.
16. Install factory edge to factory edge butt joints. This will give a clean straight line joint.
17. Use a rubber mallet to tap a cabinet’s face frame that is out of plumb.
18. Use toe kick covers as fillers when you run out of materials. Just attach it to a 1x laying around with glue and pin nails.
19. Adjust your inset doors spacing uniformly using a penny as your gauge.