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Tips & Techniques

Tips & Techniques is a collection of methods, tools, and jigs that our readers have devised to get things done on their own construction projects.  Email photos and descriptions of your tips to us at [email protected]; post them with the #FineHomebuildingTips hashtag on Instagram; or upload them to FineHomebuilding.com/reader-tips for a chance to have them featured in an issue of Fine Homebuilding Magazine. Plus, we pay for any tips we publish.

Want to see a new Fine Homebuilding tip in your inbox every day? Then sign up for the Tip of the Day newsletter!

  • Cable Pulley

    While rewiring my house, I was confronted several times with having to thread the cable behind finished walls and under subfloors. Difficulty arose when the cable had to be drawn…

  • Nested Post-to-Beam Joint

    The wind can blow up to 100 miles an hour where we live on the Oregon coast, so it's mighty important for a roof to be tied firmly to its foundation.…

  • Increasing the Power Supply

    Antiquated wiring can be a real frustration during a remodeling job -- under a load, compressors and tablesaws are always blowing fuses. When this happens, I do one of two…

  • Folding Workbench

    When I left my amateur standing for an apprenticeship in carpentry, I also left my overbuilt workbench in the basement. One evening, when I was glancing over plans for sitebuilt…

  • Miter Jigs

    I cut miters on my radial-arm saw with the jigs shown in the drawing. In the plan view, the path of the sawblade should bisect the miter fences -- a…

  • Renovation Metalwork

    People who do renovation work or build rustic new houses are often in the market for black hardware -- hinges, latches or just ordinary nuts, washers and bolts. But the…

  • Applying liquid preservatives

    Many builders treat exterior millwork with liquid preservatives to protect the wood against fungal decay. Unfortunately, chemicals that kill fungi can also be deadly to humans, animals and plants. Spraying…

  • Concrete calculations

    Figuring out a load of concrete for foundations, walls or slabs can seem like an endless math assignment. The following formulas are shortcuts to the conversions from square inches to…

  • Quick Square Cuts

    A technique I find useful for making an accurate crosscut with a circular saw is to place a framing square on the work and scribe a pencil line at the…

  • A Sliding Dump-Bed

    The mother of this invention is my hatred of shoveling aggregate out of my pickup truck. I built a shallow wooden box that keeps the stone in one place when…

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Fine Homebuilding Magazine

  • Issue 332 - July 2025
    • Custom Built-ins With Job-Site Tools
    • Fight House Fires Through Design
    • Making the Move to Multifamily
  • Issue 331 - June 2025
    • A More Resilient Roof
    • Tool Test: You Need a Drywall Sander
    • Ducted vs. Ductless Heat Pumps
  • Issue 330 - April/May 2025
    • Deck Details for Durability
    • FAQs on HPWHs
    • 10 Tips for a Long-Lasting Paint Job
  • Issue 329 - Feb/Mar 2025
    • Smart Foundation for a Small Addition
    • A Kominka Comes West
    • Making Small Kitchens Work
  • Issue 328 - Dec/Jan 2024
    • How a Pro Replaces Columns
    • Passive House 3.0
    • Tool Test: Compact Line Lasers

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