Homeowners often finish their basements to create more living space for a bedroom, family room, hobbies like this sewing room and more. That’s when you really start to focus on keeping your basement dry although it’s important for everyone, even if your basement isn’t finished. That’s why you want to learn how to keep your home and basement dry.

For every inch of rain, the average roof sheds 1,000 gallons of water. You can imagine how much standing water will pool around your foundation and find ways to get into your home. Gutters are key to catching and directing this water away from your home. There are many other things that help keep your basement dry. READ MORE

Brick walls can present many challenges, especially in older buildings. While we like preserving the old brick walls and leaving them exposed, it’s important to understand brick wall construction and maintenance in order to minimize problems.

A customer called my handyman business. She had purchased a condo in an old brick building and her unit was on the 3rd and 4th floors. The top floor “loft” includes a bedroom and bathroom. The young woman was dealing with several different problems after her first winter in her new home. We did a lot of research to make sure we considered all aspects of her space, to find a solution that would address her problem with creating other problems. READ MORE

Basements are an interesting part of your home, as most of the time they are below ground level, often called “below grade”.  This makes it challenging to get natural sunlight into basements although sometimes, when the ground is sloped, one basement wall will support a sliding patio door for sunlight and access. Even then, what often happens is this door is under a deck so light is still a problem.

In order to bring some natural light into the basement, there are different windows that are installed at the top of the wall. Some may be just above ground level (pictured in the foundation here) and others require a well to be dug out around them to provide enough sunlight. READ MORE

Are your garage and basement organized or full of clutter? Do you have enough shelves so everyone in the family knows where to put things and more important, where to find things when needed? Too often and especially when company is coming, people hide their clutter in the garage or basement. It’s quick and you can close the door so no one sees the clutter.

Guess what? Rarely does anyone remember to go back and sort out the clutter, so the piles keep growing. Even worse is when it’s too difficult to find something, you go out and buy another … you can fill in the blank! Let’s look at some simple shelving you can put in any basement or garage, so you can find what you need next time. READ MORE