Let's fix that cabinet door!
One of the primary rules of home improvement is simple: conservation. If something is broken, you'll want to fix it instead of replace it. This is true for most of your household items, whether you're talking about an old bed or a faulty cabinet door. Rather than go through the trouble to replace a broken down cabinet door, it's important to see if you can fix it first. You might be surprised how often you can.
When you're working with a cabinet door - or a door of any kind, for that matter - you'll be focusing on hinges. A door hinge essentially joins two structures of wood together to form the opening and closing we recognize as a door. If there is simply a problem with the wood itself, your woodworking skills will come in handy, but you won't have to worry about the hinges. If the problem in your cabinet door rests in how it actually swings, you'll be focusing on the hinges.
Take a look at the hinges first: what appears to be the problem? If there are loose screws, you can tighten them right away. Once you test-swing the door a couple of more times, you should be able to tell if this fixed the problem. Many broken hinges will continue to remain loose even after the screws are tightened. This implies a problem with the hinge itself. For example, if the screws are tightly locked into the wood, but the hinge is not tightly locked to the screws, you'll need to repair the hinge holes that the screws are attached to.
How can you do this? You can try to take out the screws and fill in the holes with glue, reinforcing them with small pieces of wood like toothpicks. This essentially helps re-build the loose area of the hinge so that you can re-insert the screws after the glue has dried. If there is still a problem, it might be with the quality of the wood itself. You might need to move the hinge up or down to a stronger area of the wood, though you may also want to consider the possibility of replacing the doors altogether.
Of course, since one of the primary rules of home improvement is to conserve, make sure you properly diagnose the real problem with your hinges by exploring the various possibilities first. If at first you don't succeed, try again.
Photo Credits: Greg_e
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Posted by Fix Handyman on August 18, 2009 in
Furniture, Handyman, How to Fix
Fix Your Fences.
Wood is a great material with a lot of uses around the home and in your landscaping, but it is not without its drawbacks. Old wood especially can be prone to rot, which can lead to difficult repairs if you haven't worked with rotted wood before. If you plan on repairing a rotted wood fence, you'll want to know exactly which tools you'll need and the proper way to approach your repairs. In this article, you'll find some great tips for repairing and replacing rotted parts of your wooden fence.
Most of the time, rotted wood occurs in either wood that is very old or that has been untreated: this usually means that wooden fences that have been up for a long time will be prone to rotting. This might include boundary fences or even small garden fences that are on your land. How do you know when wood is starting to rot? You'll usually see the rotting spots near the wood that is most exposed to moisture and given poor air circulation - such as closer to the ground and soil.
The first step is to identify the problem in your wooden fence - see how far the rotting has taken effect. You might even pull some of your fence out of the ground in order to get a better look - this is often not a bad idea because you'll be replacing much of the fence anyway.
Gather some standard fence-building tools: hammer and nails, measuring tape, a saw, wood planks, and a level. To start repairing the rotten wood, simply remove the sections of wood that have succumbed to rot. You might even find yourself removing more than that rotted wood because it is easier to replace an entire segment of wood rather than pieces of wood. If this is the case, make sure that you remove enough wood to make replacement easier on you.
Once you have an empty spot, you'll want to begin replacing the wood. This might involve using a 2 x 4 on the ground so that you can keep the replaced wood level. The 2 x 4 can act as your reference point for the replaced area of the fence.
Knowing exactly what to replace on your fence is the trick - you'll want to make it easier on yourself without giving yourself too much to actually replace. Try to consider how you can achieve the best-looking repaired fence with the least amount of stress.
Photo Credits: SMN
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Posted by Fix Handyman on July 30, 2009 in
Fence, Handyman, How to Fix
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