Lawn and Garden Remodeling Outside: Setting a Fence Post
You may be seeing a few signs of spring and start thinking about your spring-time to do list in your lawn and garden. Here is some remodeling help with setting fence posts.
Fence posts can be set in concrete or directly in the ground. Setting posts in concrete adds strength. If you are not using metal, be sure to use treated, or rot-resistent wood. This is true for all your remodeling projects for your lawn and garden. Setting the post in a gravel bed will help with water drainage and further prevent wood decay.
Some woods are naturally resistant to decay. Redwood and cedar have a built-in chemical resistance to rot and are often used in lawn and garden remodeling. These materials are expensive, so if you are only purchasing them for their rot-resistance properties, you may consider a cheaper option. Pressure-treated lumber is wood that has been coated with a chemical that prevents rotting and also deters certain wood destroying insects.
Posts you are remodeling that will be bearing weight, such as those for gates or corners in your lawn and garden, should definitely be set in concrete for added strength and stability.
After digging the post hole to the proper depth, set the post and pour the concrete around the post. Don’t pour the concrete first and then try to push the post into wet concrete. As the concrete begins to set-up, plumb your post and maintain its position. Trowel the conrete so that water will run away from the post.
(Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/31500291@N05/2950144111/)
No Need for a Remodeling Handyman to Replace Interior Doors
6 Panel Bi-Fold Doors
Instead of just replacing interior door hardware, your remodeling could be more extensive by replacing the door itself. This too is a job where you can be your own handyman. Most houses build in the mid-1900′s could use new interior doors. The standard door at the time was a hollow-core birch veneer. By now the finish has faded and the style is out.
Replacing interior doors is a relatively easy remodeling project that can be done without hiring a handyman, but because of the number of doors involved, it can become time-consuming and expensive. If you are replacing just the door, using the existing doorframe, the cost per door will be around $60 per door, depending on the style and quality you choose. I’m assuming a primed 6 panel hollow-core stock door. A door with doorframe will cost about double that.
The reasons you may choose to replace the door and frame could be that the current doorframes are in bad condition, or you feel that your existing doorframes may not match the new door as well. You also may be replacing the molding at the same time for this remodeling project.
Replacing only the door is cheaper, but it also may require more work. If the existing door openings are not square, either because they were built that way, or because of warping, more work is going to be involved. Also the new doors may have to be trimmed if the standard sizes are not the size of your opening. So, in these cases, maybe a handyman would be worth your money and could save you a lot of frustration.
Whichever way you decide to go to replace your interior doors, and whether you need to hire a handyman or not, this remodeling project will certainly add value and appeal to your house and be very noticable in ways that other changes are not.
(Photo Credit: www.flickr.com/photos/jeld-wen/3588963713)