A few years ago, I “rigged” some plumbing valves and faucet to fit this old sink at my son’s house: While it functioned adequately, it never has been quite right, mostly because the cold and hot knobs are just a hair undersized of the holes in the sink body, so a lot of caulk was needed to seal things. Since everything comes through the vertical back of the sink instead of through the top as is common, it was difficult to find parts that fit properly. This time around I was asked to replace...

There are a lot of accidents on steps. Some are from carelessness, like ascending or descending too quickly. Some are from poor design and build, like having differing heights between each step. Sometimes a problem can occur without much warning, seemingly for no obvious reason. That’s what happened to a set of precast concrete steps that’s the focus of this month’s article. They have serviced this porch for many years with no issue, but suddenly the top step just broke through. This was...

There aren’t a lot of photos in this month’s article, because the work is very straightforward. I’m simply showing you an easy way to deal with an issue, or at least how I dealt with it. This particular location is a house with laminate flooring throughout. I’m not a fan of laminate, and I know that under some of the laminate is an oak floor that could have been refinished, but it’s not my house! At least the laminate used was a high quality one, with a 12mm wear layer. The long and...