A consumer Home Inspection Kit - How to select and maintain the right home for you.

Repairing Hairline Cracks in Plaster Walls - If your home has plaster walls, you can resign yourself to patching before every paint job. Harmless cracks will return with regularity no matter how often you fill them.

Repairing Basement Leaks - Basement leaks not only make life miserable, but they can weaken the foundation of your home. Here's how to address the most common causes of basement leaks.

Repairing Masonry Steps - Damaged masonry steps pose serious safety hazards. If you neglect repairs, you could end up replacing the entire structure. Clearly, it pays to attend to problems right away.

Mending Split Drywall Tape - Drywall edges are bridged with paper tape set in a bed of joint compound. Sometimes the tape will loosen, particularly in humid areas like bathrooms. Use the technique described here to correct the problem.

Furring Basement Walls - If insulation is not a problem and your basement walls are fairly smooth and straight, you may want to save money in materials and preserve some square footage by building the walls with 1x2, 1x3, or 1x4 furring strips.

Replacing a Damaged Brick - Step-by-step instructions help you remove, repair, replace.

Solving Basement Water Problems - For the most common causes of basement moisture problems, we've got a simple test or list of symptoms, information about the root causes, and some suggested solutions.