PHOTO:COLLEENMCQUAIDfour 1
3⁄ 4 -inch fl athead screws, a
screwdriver, and a small tube of
polyurethane construction
adhesive, such as PL Premium
(loctiteproducts.com).
To start, pull the exposed
staples and scrape the old glue
residue off the drawer box and the
back of the drawer front. Slide the
box partway out , hold it in place
with clamps, and run a bead of
the adhesive over the exposed
particleboard at the ends of the
box’s sides. Bed the box front
into the adhesive, then clamp it to
the box. Use the clamps holding
the box open as anchor points
for this second pair.
While you’re waiting for the
adhesive to cure, take the
countersink bit and drill two pilot
holes through each side of the
drawer and into each end of the
particleboard drawer-box front.
Make sure the countersink is deep
enough to recess the screwheads—
you don’t want them to hit the
cabinet stiles when opening or
closing the drawer—then drive a
screw into each hole. Cover the
heads and fi ll the recesses with a
fast-setting, polyester wood fi ller,
such as Minwax High-Performance
Wood Filler (minwax.com).
After the adhesive cures and the
clamps are removed , you’ll never
have to worry about that drawer
front coming off again.
Fix for short doors
A mold problem last year
prompted us to remove all of our
carpeting and put in hardwood
fl oors. Now there’s a big 1
3⁄ 8 -inch
gap at the bottom of the interior
wood doors. How do you close
up these gaps and still have the
door look okay?
—JIMMY JONES, GARNER, NC
BROUGHT TO YOU BYGas dryer install
We have a gas furnace and want to run another gas line up to
our laundry room so we can use a gas dryer. Is this something we
can do ourselves? —ALISON SCHMALZIGAN, ARVADA, CO
RICHARD TRETHEWEY REPLIES: In a word, no. Most municipalities
require this sort of work to be done by a licensed plumber. And
even if your town has no explicit rules against DIY installations,
the risk of an explosion or fi re is too great to even think about
doing this work yourself.
Having said that, you do have a few installation options to
consider. For instance, there’s more than one way to pipe gas
through a home. The traditional method—the one I prefer in most
cases—uses lengths of rigid, black iron pipe. (Actually, it’s made of
mild steel with a black iron-oxide coating.) These inexpensive pipes
are threaded on both ends; they connect to threaded fi ttings sealed
with pipe dope.
Another option is corrugated stainless-steel (CSST) gas pipe.
Because it’s fl exible, no intermediate fi ttings are needed: One end
connects to the gas line, the other connects to the appliance. CSST
is more expensive than black pipe, but the labor it saves in certain
long-run or retrofi t situations may outweigh the extra cost. Note:
CSST’s thin walls are vulnerable to electrical arcing during a
lightning strike, so building codes require this pipe to be
connected—“bonded”—to the house ground.
The venting of gas dryers is also strictly regulated. They have to
be vented to the outside through a 4-inch duct no more than 35 feet
long (less if there are bends), and the exhaust vent can’t
be any closer than 3 feet from a window. The safest
duct is smooth-wall, 26-gauge galvanized steel. Flexible
duct can be used only if it’s UL-listed—look for the
UL 2158A marking—and no more than 8 feet long.
Richard
Trethewey shows
homeowner
Haven Nichols the
fl exible 4-foot
appliance
connector that
conveys gas from
a rigid iron pipe
to his dryer.
These connectors
don’t need to
be grounded.
DIY SMARTS
ONLINE
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information
about this
topic—and
others—at
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34 THISOLDHOUSE.COM SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2019 40 YEARS
DIY
SMARTS