Laminate Flooring Installation

By Mark J. Donovan

I recently decided to update my kitchen flooring and decided upon laminate flooring. I elected to go with laminate flooring due to a number of factors. First laminate flooring installation is relatively easy to do. Due to the fact that laminate flooring is a floating floor it simply snaps, or interlocks, together. Yes, there is some preparation required before installing it, and a foam pad may need to be installed on the subfloor if it is not already attached to the underside of the laminate flooring pieces, but otherwise it is straight forward to install.

The second reason I went with a laminate flooring installation is that laminate flooring is an extremely durable product. It is almost impossible to scratch or ding, and in a kitchen where silverware, plates and pans occasionally get dropped I felt it was a much better alternative to vinyl, tile or wood.

There are two downsides to laminate flooring that are important to consider. Laminate flooring is constructed via a plastic type surface covering a print (e.g. wood, stone, etc), which is then backed by a wood product. With some brands of laminate flooring a pad is also attached to the back of the wood surface, eliminating the need for a separate pad to be installed on the subfloor first. Though small liquid spills are okay landing on the surface of the laminate flooring, it is important to wipe them up quickly. If liquid works its way in between the joints, and/or to the underside of the laminate flooring, it will swell and become damaged.

The other downside is the sound of laminate flooring when you walk on it. It has a hollow sound when you walk on it. This I believe is due to the fact that it is a floating floor. It does take some time, but after awhile you do get use to the sound.

As I mentioned earlier, laminate flooring installation is relatively easy to do, however it is important to make sure the subfloor is level and free from any lumps, bumps or warping. We also found it best to remove the kitchen cabinet toe boards and install the laminate flooring right up to the base of the cabinets. We then trimmed the toe boards and reinstalled them. Likewise, we chose to remove the original baseboard trim and replace it with new baseboard. The alternative is to install quarter-round onto the bottom of the baseboard trim to cover the edge of the laminate flooring.

Our laminate floor has really dressed up our kitchen, and hopefully it will provide us with many more years of service compared to our previous vinyl floor.

How to Fix a Kitchen Cabinet Spice Rack

By Mark J. Donovan

Well for the second time in as many years I fixed the kitchen cabinet spice rack in my home. This time I fixed it for good!

As usual we paid an arm and a leg to have so-called professional kitchen cabinet installers hang the kitchen cabinets in our home several years ago. As is fairly typical with remodeling contractors, the work was sub-par, and in particular the installation of the spice rack. To begin with the spice rack was installed too low in the kitchen cabinet. Second, the spice rack itself was racked, meaning it was not a perfect rectangle. The weight of it caused it to sag on the outside edge furthest from the hinges. Consequently the spice rack rubbed up along the bottom inside of the kitchen cabinet.

A couple of years ago, I adjusted the spice rack by loosening the hinges and sliding the rack upwards. The holes for the screws were slotted to allow for this type of adjustment. However, even with the slotted holes it was insufficient to significantly raise the spice rack.

So today I chose to remove the spice rack altogether and re mount the hinges another ¼ inch higher. I also squared up the spice rack using a very small thin strip of wood (actually a 2” length of a new paint stick). While holding the outside corner of the spice rack up, I screwed and glued this small piece of wood to the back upper corner of the spice rack. By doing this I was able to keep the spice rack square. I also made sure the screws were of such a length that they did not penetrate all the way through the spice rack paneling.

So with the strip of wood installed, and the spice rack itself reinstalled in the kitchen cabinet, my kitchen cabinet spice rack now works properly and does not rub along the bottom of the kitchen cabinet.

My Freeze Alarm Prevented Frozen Pipes

By Mark J. Donovan

This past Saturday morning at 5:30am I heard what I thought were chimes ringing. I wasn’t sure where they were coming from, however I knew we had some outside the home and figured it was them that were ringing. Anyways, I got up at 6:00am and decided to do a little work on my website HomeAdditionPlus.com. A few minutes later I heard the sound of my wife’s cell phone ringing.

After rummaging through her purse I found the cell phone and answered it. It turned out our Freeze Alarm was calling us from our Lake Home to tell us we had a temperature alarm situation.

Immediately I considered the possibility that we ran out of oil at the lake house and that the furnace had shut down. I confirmed this fact after finding the last bill we received from the oil supply company was 3 months ago.

I promptly called the oil company to make an emergency refill. My wife and I then jumped into the car and raced north. We arrived at the lake home to find the tank full and a bill on our door. However to get the furnace running again I needed to bleed off the air in the oil pipe first.

After getting the furnace running again, my wife and I discussed what would have happened if we had not had the freeze alarm call us. She had been planning to order oil in the following week, however by running out of oil, the furnace would not have restarted on its own. If the freeze alarm had not called us we would have been oblivious to the loss of heat in the home and we would have had frozen pipes. The FA-D2 Freeze Alarm saved us a small fortune in water damage and cracked pipes.

Building a Crown Molding Shelf

Instructions on Building a Crown Molding Shelf

By Mark J. Donovan

If you have some scrap crown molding lying around your workshop, you might want to consider putting it to good use by building a crown molding shelf. A decorative crown molding shelf is ideal for displaying various collections of knickknacks or even small trophies. Not only is a crown molding shelf a beautiful accent piece to a room, it is also very inexpensive and easy to build.

Required Materials for Building a Crown Molding Shelf

To build a crown molding shelf all you need is a few feet of crown molding and a piece of 1-by material, such as 1”x3” or 1”x4”, depending upon the style and size of crown molding you are using to build the crown molding shelf. A little wood glue is also helpful.

Required Tools for Building a Crown Molding Shelf

To build a crown molding shelf you need a miter saw, and preferably a finish nail gun, although a hammer and finish nails will also work.

Building a Crown Molding Shelf

To build a crown molding shelf use your miter saw to cut a length of crown molding stock the desired length of the shelf. The ends should be cut at a 45o angle. Note that when cutting crown molding it is important to position it on the miter saw upside down so that when it is hung on the wall it will sit properly.

Next, cut a couple of side rails out of the crown molding stock. The length of the crown molding side rails is determined by how far out the crown molding shelf will penetrate outwards from the wall. Again, a miter saw should be used to cut 45o angles on the edges of the side rails to form the 90o corners associated with the front piece of the crown molding shelf. The back ends should be square cut to the desired depth of the crown molding shelf.

Once the three crown moulding pieces have been cut, glue and nail them together.

Next, cut a section of 1-by stock to fill in the top gap of the crown molding shelf. You may want to use a table saw to create an angled groove along the top of the piece of the 1-by material if you want to display plates on the crown molding shelf.

Now fasten the 1-by material to the inside area of the crown molding shelf frame, again using glue and nails.

After the glue has dried, sand, prime and paint the crown molding shelf.

To hang the crown molding shelf on the wall, it is best to use a small block of wood that you fasten to the wall, and into wall studs. The crown molding shelf can then rest on top of it, with the block of wood sitting inside the crown molding shelf cavity and flush up underneath the flat shelf piece. You can then use a few nails to fasten the crown molding shelf to the block of wood.

For information on installing wood crown molding see HomeAdditionPlus.com’s “Installing Crown Molding Ebook”.

Cutting Crown Molding Angles

Cutting Crown Molding Angles Requires the Right Tools and Skills

By Mark J. Donovan

When it comes to installing crown molding much of the success depends on cutting crown molding angles correctly.

Cutting crown molding angles correctly requires a quality miter saw and a coping saw. A quality miter saw may cost you a couple of hundred dollars, however a coping saw may only set you back ten to twenty dollars.

For most crown molding installation projects, cutting crown molding angles involves cutting 45o angles using a miter saw. By cutting two pieces of crown molding at 45o angles, a 90o angled inside or outside crown molding corner can be formed.

Since most walls are not perfectly square, coped angled crown molding cuts are also required. Coped crown molding angles are formed by the intersection of two ends of two pieces of crown molding. One of the crown molding pieces is butted firmly up against the inside corner using a square cut. The other crown molding piece has one of its ends cut with a coped crown molding angle so that this angled cut sits over the square-cut end of the adjacent crown molding piece. The visual effect is a perfect 90o angle inside corner.

When learning how to cut crown molding angles it is wise to practice on a few scrap pieces of crown molding first. Without this practice, you might find yourself spending an inordinate amount of money on wasted crown molding stock.

For more information on Installing Crown Molding see HomeAdditionPlus.com’s “Installing Crown Molding Ebook”.