Q:I am strengthening my house in the crawl space by putting oriented strand board (OSB) shear panels on the cripple wall from the mudsill to the floor joists. I am wondering if the same application ...

Q. I'm going to build a room addition because moving to a bigger home is just out of the question. I've never done rough framing for a subfloor, and I need a quick tutorial on the top things one ...

Q: I have an older home with a crawl-space foundation. My problem is the floors sag in the living room to the point where it’s hard to keep a lamp steady on the end tables. My other problem is there ...

An insulated basement or crawl space provides many benefits year-round, and the rim joist (or band joist) is often a focal point in energy-saving initiatives. Installing insulation at the rim joists ...

I’m sure you’ve driven across or seen large steel truss bridges that are made by combining any number of huge steel beams into right triangles that interconnect. When viewed from the side they look ...

Last week I was downloading some photos from my digital camera, and I stumbled across hundreds of forgotten photos I shot while my daughter’s new home was being built on Mount Desert Island, off the ...

Q: The floor in my kitchen squeaks in an area approximately 2 feet by 4 feet. The subfloor appears to be separated from the floor joist, causing the sounds. I have used many shims, but that has not ...

A squeaking floor is annoying. It’s one of those building defects that just gets to you. While we typically associate creaking and squeaking floors with old houses, the problem occurs in newer homes, ...