| This new reference volume contains 350 of the best tips, techniques, and trade secrets from Fine Homebuilding. It helps builders save time, money, and trouble by improving the ease and accuracy of countless construction and remodeling projects. Packed with photographs and drawings, it presents foolproof shortcuts and ingenious solutions in a concise, well-organized format.
For over 20 years, Fine Homebuilding magazine readers have consistently picked the "Tips and Techniques" column as their favorite part of the magazine. It's easy to understand why. This is the place where veteran carpenters, plumbers, electricians, and other tradesmen share their shortcuts, trade secrets, jigs, and ingenious solutions. With over 350 entries, this collection of jobsite gems will help you get the job done better—and faster—and it may even save you some money in the process.
Written by the pros who actually do the work, these articles will help you to:
- Solve tricky layout problems.
- Use jobsite scraps to build useful jigs, benches, work tables, braces, and sawhorses.
- Save time and money with special techniques.
- Eliminate costly mistakes when installing expensive materials.
- Solve common problems with plumbing, electrical, and HVAC installations.
- Correct mistakes quickly and easily.
From the Introduction
"My partner Jerry always reads the Tips & Techniques column, and he wont even read stop signs."
That's probably the best compliment anybody ever paid this little bi-monthly tailgate session, where builders share their ingenious victories over job-site challenges. When I first came to work for Fine Homebuilding in 1980, I was lucky enough to be the guy that our art director wanted to edit and illustrate the Tips & Techniques column. As a remodeling contractor, I had already been doing similar drawings for the other guys on the crew. But most of those drawings were on scraps of drywall or plywood. Getting to work indoors, at a desk yet, is a real step up for a guy who's done his time in crawl spaces.
In addition to being a wellspring of useful advice, the Tips column plays a couple of other, less apparent roles. For many of our authors, Tips is the first place they get something published in our magazine. In fact, some of our all-time great editors launched their publishing careers here, by sending their favorite job-site solutions to the Tips column.
Evidence of the crafty nature of our tipsters can be found in the number of ideas that have been developed as commercially available products after first appearing in the Tips column. Examples of the tips that turned into products include adjustable flashlights, invisible drywall joints, soap pumps, stair-tread layout gauges, bucket stilts, and plastic pipe clamps, just to name a few. But I think the best part about the Tips column is that it's a community of builders who genuinely get a kick out of sharing their ideas with others and have done so for a long time. More than once I've opened a tip from someone new that begins, "I've learned an awful lot from the Tips column over the years, and I just wanted to repay the debt by sending in these ideas. Hope you can use them."
- Charles Miller
Tips Editor
Table of Contents
Foreword; Note from the Editor; Measuring, Marking and Layout; Horses, Benches, Boxes and Belts; Shortcuts, Tips and Tricks with Tools; Site-Built Tools and Jigs; Masonry and Foundation Work; Framing Solutions and Shortcuts; Framing Jigs; Roofing, Siding and Exterior Trim; Insulation; Doors; Drywall; Trim and Finish Carpentry; Painting and Caulking; Electric and Plumbing. |
