Tool Calculator

There are two problems with stairs: framing them to hold weight isn’t hard; making them feel good when walking up is. Most failed attempts at … Read more

This has likely happened more than once in your lifetime on the shop floor. A brand-new operator pulls a bar of steel into his machine … Read more

Here you are facing a steel column and a bracket that needs to be bolted on. You see the load and your mind goes numb … Read more

Drywall repair is one of those jobs most folks try to do as if it were a plastering job (i.e., fill the hole and be … Read more

The main cause of most failed DIY pours is underestimating material needs for amount of ground the pour will cover. It’s not so much about … Read more

The right amount of material and consistency is key when it comes to drywall texture. Any kind of inconsistency show up when lights come on. … Read more

Lifting mistakes is not good. It’s important to estimate weight of your steel tanks. If you have ground prepared with a solid foundation and even … Read more

In fabrication work, we know that what happens on paper doesn’t always add up. You figure weight of your base plate based off normal nominal … Read more

Imagine standing in your empty two-car garage, staring upward at the rafters: Where’s that roof going to go? How long does it need to last… … Read more

On a dusty job site it usually starts with a tape measure and a level. It also involves a lot of squinting. Because you’re looking … Read more

If you don’t know what’s creating the sloping surface you’re measuring, there’s no way to accurately measure a roof despite a day of measuring. A … Read more

Sand becomes stabilized and transforms loose, grainy material to a solid base. It is similar to concrete but has none of it’s shrinking or cracking … Read more

Everyone approaches a driveway project as though it’s a basic geometry exercise. Length plus width equals volume. You measure the rectangle, you choose a thickness, … Read more

The way you begin: You’ve got this vision in mind, the expanded storage, the covered porch, whatever it might be. And then you run into … Read more