Dummies.com: Home & Garden

How to Repair Nail Pops

Nail pops are exposed screws or nails in your drywall. Walls and ceilings can reveal nail pops, even after painting. Drywall work and house settling create nail pops that this video shows how to fix. [more…]

How to Paint Trim with a Trim Guard

Using a trim guard while painting around doors and windows helps protect woodwork. The edger keeps paint off the trim, and this video shows you how to use one. [more…]

How to Caulk Windows

Caulk windows to prevent drafts, to save energy, and to keep moisture from rotting the wooden window parts. This video shows the tools and step instructions you need to caulk around windows to get a clean [more…]

How to Hang Things on Hollow Walls

This video shows how to hang pictures and other items without nailing or drilling into pipes and electrical wiring. Find out how to choose hanger hardware for light- and medium-weight objects, and to use [more…]

How to Install Weather Stripping

Lower utility bills by installing weatherstripping. This video shows how to use weatherstripping to seal doors and windows and to stop drafts. Your HVAC system cools and heats your home more efficiently [more…]

How to Remove Old Wallpaper

Stripping wallpaper is a serious home-improvement project. Removing old glue from walls before you paint is a must. These tips show how to strip old wallpaper from your walls and remodel like a professional [more…]

How to Replace a Standard Switch with a Dimmer Switch

Installing a dimmer switch in a standard outlet is a DIY home-improvement project. Safely wire a dimmer switch with help from this video tutorial, which also takes some of the mystery out of electrical [more…]

How to Replace a Washer in Leaky Faucet

Repairing a leaky faucet usually requires replacing a washer. Conserving water and avoiding a professional plumber in one DIY home-improvement project? This video shows you how to fix a leaky faucet by [more…]

How the Government Can Go Green

In order to meet the world’s increasing demand for energy without further damaging the world’s climate and environment, specifically preventing carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere, governments [more…]

LEED Green Building Certification

To help the construction industry define green building, the U.S. Green Building Council(USGBC) devised a scoring method to rate how green buildings are. That rating system, called Leadership in Energy [more…]

Moving toward Energy-Efficient Appliances

Upgrading your major appliances to those with a high Energy Star rating improves your carbon footprint, reduces your utility bills, and gets you to a greener lifestyle. The federal government rates appliances [more…]

Keeping Forests Green: Sustainably Harvested Wood

The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is an independent, not-for-profit, non-government international agency that promotes the use of sustainably harvested wood, [more…]

Vinyl and Why to Avoid It

When you think of vinyl, you may think fondly of your old vinyl LP records. But the truth about vinyl is less romantic. Though it's one of the most common synthetic materials, vinyl is the worst plastic [more…]

Overconsuming: Mother Nature’s Laws of Supply and Demand

Everything you consume comes at a cost to the planet — energy uses finite fossil fuels, even food depletes land, water, and light resources. Living a green lifestyle means looking at the resources you [more…]

Understanding the Effects of Climate Change and Global Warming

Increases of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide in the earth’s atmosphere throw the planet’s highly sensitive ecosystem off-balance. This climate change, or [more…]

Sizing Up Fuel Source Choices

When assessing energy sources, you can’t simply say, nonrenewable energy is bad and renewable is good. Each source has its pros and cons, which means that this green issue isn’t a black-and-white choice [more…]

Creating Energy with Biomass

Biomass is any organic material. Converting biomass to sustainable energy is a carbon-neutral process because, although burning or otherwise processing the material releases carbon, new organic material [more…]

Getting the Lead Out . . . of Your Home

Buildings constructed before 1978 have a reasonable chance of containing oil-based, alkyd lead paint, which is a health and environmental hazard. (Lead was banned from paint in the United States in 1978 [more…]

Detecting Radon in Your Home

Radon gas is a natural product, but it’s not one you want in your green, eco-friendly home. Radon is colorless, odorless, and radioactive; that last one can cause health problems, such as lung cancer, [more…]

Turning Broken Plates into Tabletops

A green lifestyle includes reusing resources. You can turn old and broken plates into creative works of art as tabletop mosaics. Choose a non-toxic, eco-friendly adhesive and grout [more…]