For todayÆs homeowner, basic carpentry skills are an absolute must. Professional handymen are in rare supply these days, and if you can find them at all, they may command exorbitant rates for work that takes just an hour or two to do. Best of all, modern tools are inexpensive and easy to use, making most home carpentry tasks a breeze to do-it-yourself. Black & Decker« The Complete Guide to Carpentry for Homeowners is a down-to-earth guide to help readers solve everyday problems using the most basic of tools -- hammers, saws, sanders, clamps, and screw guns.

The book opens with the basics of setting up a rudimentary home workshop and learning tool basics, then moves into a lavish how-to section featuring more than 50 everyday home carpentry projects that cover just about every possibility.

• The perfect introductory book on carpentry skills for homeowners
• Shows ingenious solutions for creating a full-featured home workshop in limited space
• A complete reference for tools, materials and hardware

The best home insurance policy you can buy

The single worst enemy to any home is the weather. Even tiny breaches in a home’s exterior can lead to thousands of dollars in damage if water invades walls and ceilings. To protect families and guard investments, this book provides all the information homeowners need in order to maintain, repair, and install all types of roofing, siding, and trim. Roofing and siding installations professionals will also find this to be an indispensable source of state-of-the art information.

The Complete Guide To Roofing, Siding & Trim covers all traditional materials, from traditional wood lap siding, brick, concrete block, stucco, stone veneer and wooden shakes, to vinyl, raised metal roofing, and cementitious sidings. Important new tends in materials, like EPDM, architectural, fully bonded selvedge edge and pyramid shingles, are also discussed. In addition to complete installation information, the book includes comprehensive methods for repairing problems with existing surfaces, as well as routine finishing and refinishing information.

Both for practicality and curb appeal, windows and doors are the most crucial mechanical feature of any home, and this book helps homeowners preserve and improve these essential elements. A fabulous door can add thousands of dollars in "perceived value" to a plain house, just as a few new windows can shave off a decade or two in apparent age.

Black & Decker The Complete Guide to Windows & Entryways is a fully-updated revision of Black & Decker The Complete Guide to Windows & Doors. At 288 pages, it features more than 600 beautiful color photographs that are rich with current information. It contains virtually everything readers need to plan and complete any kind of window and door installation. The new version also features an expanded section on door and window hardware, as the types, styles and finishes change frequently. Also new in this edition: an expanded the section on installing and maintaining garage doors; a complete start-to-finish project for enlarging a basement window opening and installing an egress window; a quick and easy technique for giving your fiberglass door the appearance of woodgrain; and much, much more. You'll find no better single book that better covers the ever-changing topic of choosing, installing and maintaining doors and windows.