How to find the overflow in a toilet

How to find the overflow in a toilet

A good question came up in response to my hard to flush toilet blog post. How do you find the overflow in a toilet?

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Cleaning vinegar vs distilled vinegar

Cleaning vinegar vs distilled vinegar

I was shopping for vinegar the other day and noticed a lot of unanswered questions regarding the difference between cleaning vinegar and distilled white vinegar. In this blog post, I will explain the difference between cleaning vinegar vs distilled vinegar and when it’s okay to substitute and when substitution is dangerous. I’ll also share a trick for saving money.

In both cases, the main ingredient in white vinegar is grain alcohol fermented a second time to form acetic acid.

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Toilet hard to flush? Try the simple things first

Toilet hard to flush? Try the simple things first

There is a fair bit of advice out there about fixing a hard to flush toilet. Unfortunately, most of them start with the more expensive and less effective remedies first. In this blog post, I’ll walk you through troubleshooting a hard to flush toilet, starting with the cheap and easy fixes first, not last.

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How much weight Command strips can hold

How much weight Command strips can hold

The other night I heard a boom. It turned out a picture we’d hung with 3M Command strips fell. I’d rather that not happen to you, so in this blog post, I’ll cover how much weight Command strips can hold.

How much weight Command strips can hold varies depending on their size, and there’s more that goes into it than just weight. But they hold a maximum of 16 pounds in the case of the large version, with smaller versions holding considerably less.

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Is Purple Power safe on paint?

Is Purple Power safe on paint?

Purple Power is an extremely versatile and effective cleaner. But is Purple Power safe on paint? That’s not exactly a yes or no answer. In this blog post, I’ll talk about the caveats of using Purple Power on paint.

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Garage door goes back up? Try this

Garage door goes back up? Try this

It’s annoying when you push the button on your garage door opener to close it, and the door comes down a bit, seems to change its mind, and then the garage door goes back up on its own. There’s a workaround for this and there is also a fix. Fortunately this is usually something you can fix yourself.

Your garage door goes back up on its own because its sensors can’t see each other. Holding down the opener’s button usually overrides this, and for a permanent fix, make sure the sensors near the door are aligned and clear of debris.

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Why dimensional lumber has rounded edges

Why dimensional lumber has rounded edges

When you go to a big box store to buy lumber, some lumber, often sold as appearance boards, has square edges. But construction lumber like 2x4s, also known as dimensional number, has rounded edges. In this blog post, we’ll explore why dimensional lumber has rounded edges.

Rounded edges on dimensional lumber, such as 2x4s, make it easier to process, handle, and deliver the lumber without damaging it during production and shipping. It also makes it less likely to damage drywall when using it for framing.

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Can a light switch go bad? How to tell

Can a light switch go bad? The answer surprises some people, but yes, being an electromechanical device, there are parts in a light switch that can wear out or become oxidized over time and eventually stop making good electrical contact. In this blog post, I’ll explain how to tell if your light switch is going bad and if it’s time to replace it.

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Line vs load when wiring

Line vs load when wiring

Wiring conventional outlets and switches is usually pretty easy. As long as you match up the colors and match the right colored wires to the right colored pairs of screw terminals, everything just works. But with ground-fault circuit-interrupter (GFCI) or arc-fault circuit interrupter (AFCI) outlets and occupancy detector switches, there’s an indicator for line and load. And if you mix up the line and load, nothing works. In this blog post, I’ll cover the difference between line vs load when wiring and how to find which is which in your electrical box.

In electrical wiring, the line is the upstream voltage from the source. The load is the downstream voltage to devices further along the circuit.

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Ace Hardware garbage disposals

Ace Hardware garbage disposals

If you are in the market for a replacement garbage disposal, the unpretentious, unglamorous Ace Hardware garbage disposals deserve your consideration. That’s because they are InSinkErator garbage disposals in disguise.

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