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Home improvement guides
Practical, reviewed advice for planning repairs and projects, choosing the right pro and knowing what to ask before you hire.
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497 guides
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Pool Covers guide
A pool cover is the most effective piece of equipment most pool owners never buy. EPA's WaterSense program estimates that, depending on climate, an uncovered 500-square-foot swimming pool could lose between 12,000 and…
10 min readSeptember 21, 2026 - Guide
Hot Tub Installation guide
A hot tub looks like an appliance and installs like a small piece of construction. Full of water and people it is a heavy, concentrated load that has to sit on something engineered to carry it, it needs a dedicated…
11 min readSeptember 14, 2026 - Guide
Hot Tub Repair guide
Hot tub repair covers the failures that stop a spa heating, circulating or holding water: a heater that will not fire, a pump that hums or floods, a circuit that trips as soon as the tub calls for heat, air locks after…
11 min readSeptember 14, 2026 - Guide
Hot Tub Maintenance guide
A hot tub is a small volume of hot water carrying a large number of people, and that combination sets every maintenance rule that follows.
10 min readSeptember 21, 2026 - Guide
Saunas guide
A home sauna is a small, heavily insulated room built to hold heat, and almost everything that goes wrong with one is a heat problem, an electrical problem or an exit problem.
10 min readSeptember 21, 2026 - Guide
Outdoor Structures guide
Outdoor structures around a pool or spa are not just yard furniture: they interact with the barrier that keeps children out of the water and with the electrical system that runs it.
10 min readSeptember 21, 2026 - Guide
Basement Waterproofing guide
A wet basement is rarely a mystery once someone traces the water. In most American houses the culprit is surface water that was never carried away from the house: a grade that has settled flat or back toward the…
10 min readSeptember 14, 2026 - Guide
Foundation Waterproofing guide
Foundation waterproofing is the exterior half of keeping a basement or crawl space dry: excavating down the outside of the wall, cleaning and preparing the concrete or block, applying a coating or membrane, adding a…
10 min readSeptember 14, 2026 - Guide
Foundation Repair guide
Foundation repair covers the work that stabilizes a house that is moving: a corner that has settled, a basement wall that bows inward under the soil behind it, a slab that has heaved in the middle, or a crawl space…
11 min readSeptember 14, 2026 - Guide
Foundation Cracks guide
Almost every concrete foundation cracks. Concrete shrinks as it cures, and thin vertical cracks that appear in the first year or two are usually the result.
10 min readSeptember 14, 2026 - Guide
Structural Repair guide
Structural repair is the work that keeps a house standing, and almost all of it happens above the footings rather than under them.
11 min readSeptember 21, 2026 - Guide
Underpinning guide
Underpinning means deepening or widening an existing foundation by building new support beneath it, usually in short sections so the wall above is never unsupported for long.
10 min readSeptember 21, 2026
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