DIY

Building a DIY Wood Slat Privacy Wall

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I used to near a farm with the next house being far enough away that I didn’t have to look at anyone. But that changed when a bunch of new development and duplexes went up. Two of which are like 10 feet away from my fence and when I go out my front or back door, I can literally look into their master bedroom.

Well, this isn’t exactly appealing to me especially considering that I want to use my back patio with some privacy. So I’ve decided to put up a privacy wood slat wall. After some thought and planning, I’ve come up with something that works for my situation and I’ll lay out how I’ve done it here. I would say that my situation is a bit unique considering the size that I needed to cover and if it were smaller, I would’ve gone a different route but I’ll get into that later. This blog is more so just going to cover some of the things that I discovered as I did the project, tips and recommendations that I want to share, not so much and exact how to because your situation is going to be different from mine.

Now, this project can be fairly simple and straightforward but it can also be quite complicated depending on how you want to put your slats up. I essentially went what I thought was one of the simplest ways possible and that was to put up two backer boards that I screwed all of my slats into. I did this because I knew that I was going to have to put a bunch of holes into wood. But I didn’t think that this was going to be a long-term or permanent feature of my home so I would rather put the majority of the holes into the backer boards, rather than the pillars of my home.

For my project, I went with 1”x2” sticks for my backer boards. I did this to keep the backer boards as slim and minimal as possible so they’re not super in your face when you look at the final result. I wanted people to focus on the slats, not the boards they’re attached to. However, if you go with the 1”x2”, you’re going to have a very narrow surface area to screw into which can be somewhat difficult and I myself did have a few screws blow out at an angle because I wasn’t holding the drill straight. If you want to make it easier for yourself, I’d recommend going with 2”x2” backer boards. You’ll have a much easier time and more screw placement options. With the 1”x2”, you’re basically screwing into the edge of the board.

For my slats, I decided to use dimensional construction lumber because this was essentially the only option that I had. I needed 10’ long boards so 2x boards were realistically the only option at my local big box stores. I went with 2”x6” because I thought that that would best match my surrounding wood. Had this area been 8’ or less, I would’ve probably gone with cedar fence pickets because that would’ve been available and they’re thinner, lighter weight, and more manageable to work with than trying to put up 2x material. Dimensional lumber also sucks in the sense that it can have a lot of inconsistencies. On the day that I went to buy wood, there were a bunch of bowed and twisted boards so I just got the best that I could and that definitely made things a bit harder as some of these slats just did not want to align properly. So keep that in mind if you’re going to use construction lumber. Pick the best, straightest boards that you can to save yourself some problem-solving time.

In terms of the spacing between my slats, I used pieces of the scrap 1”x2” that I had left over. Of course, the 1”x2” is actually 0.75”x1.5” so my spacing was 0.75”. I would say that this is the maximum gap that I would personally recommend if you’re actually using this slat wall for privacy because even with this, if I really focus on what I’m trying to look at behind the wall, I can shift around and totally make it out. If I were to do this project again, I would probably go with a 0.5” gap, maybe even a 0.25” gap for really good privacy but still having a gap.

Now, I did paint my slats black to match the house and I would say that painting the slats perceptually gave me more privacy. It’s just harder to see through the black slats for whatever reason than leaving the wood raw. So in my situation, having the 0.75” gap ended up not giving up too much privacy,

Speaking of painting, this is something that you should definitely think about when considering gap size. The smaller the gap the harder it’s going to be to paint or apply whatever coating you choose between those slats. If your gap is too small, you’re basically forced to apply the coating before putting all the wood up. Keep that in mind so you don’t have to take everything down, paint, then put it all back up again.

And that’s basically it. Again, a fairly simple project that could be completed in a day. This is a project that I can recommend to DIY rather than paying someone to do it because it’s a fairly easy one to accomplish.

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How to Propagate Lemongrass from Store-Bought Stalks

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What’s going on guys? It’s Hai.

I’ve been wanting to grow some lemongrass for use as a mosquito repellant but when looking to buy some, I couldn’t find any locally and when trying to order, it was like $30 a plant so way too much for what I was wanting to spend. Then after some research, I came across a blog post detailing how you can propagate lemongrass from store-bought stalks. So, in this blog, I want to share with you my attempts at following the instructions from the blog and the results that I got. If you’re interested in reading the blog post for yourself, it’s right HERE.

First things first, we have to find some lemongrass stalks. This is easier to find at an Asian grocery store. I purchased mine from a local H Mart which came in bundles of 3 stalks. In this case, reasonably buy as much as possible. Some of the stalks won’t propagate so you just want to hedge the odds. But also remember that lemongrass grows quite quickly so you’ll be able to propagate more from just one successful plant and there are other forms that propagation for lemongrass that are much easier and almost foolproof once you just get one successful plant going. Personally, I purchased two bundles.

The blog post recommends that when purchasing the stalks, you want to look for stalks with as much of the bottoms intact as possible as the stalks with cut-off bottoms won’t propagate. I looked through a bunch of the bundles at my H Mart but most of the bottoms were pretty heavily trimmed. I kind of wanted to experiment with this and got bottoms with different lengths of cuts. To save you some time, I’m going to say that this doesn’t matter too much because I got successful propagation from 5 of these 6 stalks at the time of this video. So, having more bottom intact is probably better, but you can have success with more of it cut off. Again, I think hedging your odds by buying more stalks is going to be the best approach if you want more plants that propagate.

Next, we’re going to trim some of the stalks back to just a few inches from where they begin to split apart. This gets rid of some of the top dead foliage and I assume helps to allocate more energy for new root development. The blog recommends that you “Try to resist peeling the woody outer layers that form the stem, as new leaves will grow from within these layers.”

Next, we’re going to place the lemongrass stalks in some water. I filled a couple of vases and a mason jar with a few inches of water and just put the stalks in there.

From here, we place the container near a source of light and just wait it out. I started off by putting the plants near a window indoors but my wife got tired of looking at them pretty quickly so outside they went. I experimented by putting them in direct sunlight and in shade. I would say that they prefer to be in the shade because when in direct sunlight, the top of the leaves tends to burn. This didn’t kill the plants but I don’t think it helped them. It probably slowed the growth down but I can’t say for sure. Better to be safe and just let them grow in the shade.

While you wait, you want to change the water a couple of times a week or whenever it starts to look cloudy. I say this but I definitely forgot a few times and just let the plants sit there for like a week and sometimes longer. Again, I still had success.

Now, the blog mentions that within a week, you should see new leaves begin to grow from the top. I did not have any of this but this can definitely be due to me leaving my plants out in direct sunlight and the top of the leaves were just getting burnt.

However, my plants did show signs of new root growth pretty much after the first week. This was the case for 4 of my 6 stalks. Roots started to grow pretty quickly and consistently. However, at the time of this video, which is just a few days over 2 months since I started this process, one stalk has no signs of root growth and one stalk just started to show root growth this week. So just keep in mind that root growth can be completely sporadic. You may be discouraged and want to throw the plants away but it may just need some extra time. For reference, I purchased my stalks on May 14th and today is June 18th.

The blog recommends that you should “Wait until the roots are at least 3 inches long and the stalks have begun to divide (via offshoot stalks) before you plant them.” Honestly, I was a little impatient for this and planted my stalks pretty early. I think two of them were at about two inches and two of them were at less than an inch. What’s worse is I remember snapping one of the smaller roots off which isn’t good at all but hey, it’s working out. I would say that if you’re going to be impatient like me, after planting, you definitely want to keep the soil moist. This is going to help keep the stalks growing.

As for the actual act of planting, I wanted potted plants so I purchased some planters and some organic potting soil. If you’re eating the lemongrass that you’re growing, you’d probably want soil that’s clean in the sense that it doesn’t have a bunch of chemicals that shouldn’t be going in your body in it. I just filled the planter up with soil, placed the root a couple of inches down, and backfilled. After that, give the plat and soil a good soaking and that’s about it. Now, just water the plant, keep the soil moist, and we’re back to waiting to see if propagation is successful.

Again, I’m just over two months into this project and two of my plants are forming new leaves so I would say that this process was a success. I’m still keeping an eye out for the other two planted stalks but those were the ones with less than an inch of root growth when I planted them so things may take a bit longer. Then I have the one stalk that just started to grow roots so that won’t be planted for a while. Lastly, I have one stalk that hasn’t shown any signs of growth so this one may be a dud but I’ll still keep it in the water and we’ll see what happens.

I’m going to keep doing what I’ve already been doing and hopefully, in the future, I’ll come back with a video and show you an easier way to propagate from the mature plants that I’ve grown.

Before we end things, I want to note that I strayed a lot from the original blog referenced in this video. I did a lot of things haphazardly but hey, things worked out for me. I would definitely recommend that you read the blog and understand what the more conventional approach would look like. That approach will probably get you the best approach.

After almost exactly 3 months, the lemongrass stalk that I continued to keep in water finally sprouted new roots. So, if yours is taking a while to sprout roots and if possible, just keep the stalk in water and see what happens!

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EAST OAK Smokeless Pan Stove Fire Pit 29"

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What’s going on guys? It’s Hai.

It’s still very rainy, wet, and cold here in Washington but I’m currently making plans for a fire pit area on the property. After some research, I’ve decided on the East Oak Pan Stove Fire Pit. This particular one is the Chisel Steel 29” version but there is also a 17” and 21” version. All three sizes are also available in a black finish.

If you don’t hang out outside a lot, this may not be what you’d think a fire pit would look like. You’re probably more familiar with the concrete circle or some other options. But in recent years, these newer stainless steel-style fire pits have really taken off and that’s largely because many will claim to be smokeless.

This is achieved by utilizing a double-walled design with vent holes toward the top of the inner wall. As you burn wood or whatever else, that first burn will cause some smoke to rise but some of it will travel through the gaps between the walls and escape out the small holes. This escaping smoke will get burned again, essentially eliminating it.

However, a key factor in all this is going to be how hot or big the fire is. The fire has to be pretty strong to get that second burn going. A nice thing about the East Oak design is that it features a bunch of oxygen intakes around the entire base and directly under the fire pit. All these intakes should really help to oxygenate the fire and help it get hot enough for that second burn.

That’s a pretty common design for these smokeless fire pits but an annoyance to me is that this design generally does not produce a lot of heat outwards but instead projects it upwards. This means that if you’re standing up and are close to the fire pit, then your upper body will be warm but your lower legs and feet won’t get much. So if you’re sitting down, you’re really only enjoying the ambiance of the fire, not so much the warmth. Some manufacturers have created workarounds for this like Solo Stove and their heat deflector shields but I personally think this is stupid. The heat deflector adds extra bulk, is unsightly, and costs an additional couple hundred bucks on top of an already expensive fire pit.

But times have changed and there are manufacturers claiming to make smokeless fire pits that adequately radiate heat outwards without any add-ons, one of them being East Oak. I don’t particularly understand the science behind it but this is apparently accomplished because the East Oak design features a wider circular base that gets smaller towards the top and the opening turns into a more square shape. Again, I don’t really understand how that works but it supposedly does and I’ll test that out a bit later.

In terms of assembly, this fire pit is pretty much ready to go. You have the main fire pit body, the ashtray that sits inside the fire pit, and the flame ring that sits on top. There really isn’t much to putting this fire pit together.

At this point, I’ve had a chance to use the fire pit and burn wood in it and I want to talk about how that went.

I burned a bundle of wood that I purchased from a local Safeway. It’s been sitting outside under the patio for the last couple of months and was dry. I burned the whole bundle at once just to make things faster. My 29” fire pit not only has a large opening, but it’s also deep. Allowing for a lot of wood to be burned at once. My bundle looked like nothing in there.

In terms of being smokeless, it certainly isn’t smokeless throughout the entire experience. When the fire first starts, there will still be smoke that’s blowing around and that’s not something exclusive to the East Oak but pretty much any fire pit. However, once the wood really started to burn, I did notice that there really was no trace of the smoke. This is the case even though I never witnessed any secondary burn. Maybe I didn’t have enough wood burning? I can’t really say so this will require some more testing.

In terms of East Oak advertising that this fire pit is able to radiate heat sideways, this is a hit or miss depending on how you want to look at it. I personally feel that there was no heat radiating directly to the sides of the fire pit. I can put my hands right up to the sides and basically feel no difference. The metal itself gets quite hot if you try to touch it but it weirdly does not put off any noticeable heat. The chairs that you see in the video above are less than 2 feet away from the fire pit and I was originally worried that they were too close and would get damaged by the heat but that is absolutely not a concern anymore. The chairs stayed chilled the entire time from ambient temperature, never even getting warm. However, if I were to sit at the edge of a chair and my body pokes above the top of the fire pit, then I’d feel A LOT of heat. Being about 2 feet away, the heat is almost unbearable. I would say that standing up and stepping back to 4-5 feet away, I can still feel the warmth on my torso, arms, and head but, again, nothing on my legs. I kind of want to give East Oak the benefit of the doubt and say that this fire pit may radiate more heat if more wood was burned at once, but I feel that I did put in a decent amount. If I had to burn two or three of those bundles at once just to get some lateral heat then this isn’t exactly the most efficient way of keeping warm. Take all that information as you will.

At the end of the day, how do I feel about this East Oak fire pit? As a mostly smokeless fire pit, it gets a pass because it does the job even when the secondary burn didn’t kick in and who knows? When it does things may be even better. As a fire pit that will keep you warm, well that depends on if you want to sit or stand all night. I personally bought this fire pit because it was advertised as being able to radiate heat outwards and in this case, I would say that the East Oak is a total failure. I do not recommend it if you are buying this fire pit to keep yourself warm while sitting down. It just won’t cut it. To me, the question of buying the East Oak all comes down to price. I personally bought it on sale for about $200 and that price for a 29” smokeless fire pit is crazy value. However, when not on sale this fire pit regularly sits around $400-$500. For that price, I would personally not buy this fire pit and just go with a Solo Stove Yukon which is in the same price range but the Solo Stove is better supported in the sense that more companies make accessories for it and you can do more with it.

And that’s going to be it. I’m going to continue and use my East Oak fire pit. I kind of know what it’s capable of now and what I want to use it for so I’m not too disappointed in my purchase.

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CHEAP DIY Floating Shelves

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What’s going on guys? It’s Hai.

My office wall has been pretty bare and I’ve been contemplating what to hang on it for a while. I ultimately decided on some floating shelves and I was originally going to buy some but for the size of shelf that I was going for, some of the cost that I saw were ridiculous. So in this blog, I want to share with you how I went about making my own for a very affordable price.

First, let’s start with the wood. I wanted 3 shelves that are 4’ long and 8” wide. From experience, I knew that construction lumber would probably be the cheapest option so I just went to my local Lowe’s. Here, the cheapest option was some 2”x8”x8’ Hemlock for $12.53. This is cheap but was my second choice. I was really going for some 2”x8”x8’ Douglas Fir which would cut the price by more than in half at $4.98 a board. I would need (2) 8’ boards and that would give me (4) 4’ shelves. With Hemlock, that would equate to about $3.13 a shelf but had my Lowe’s had the Douglas Fir in stock, the shelves would’ve only cost about $1.25 a shelf, making it VERY affordable.

Now, I’m no professional woodworker. I just know enough to get things done for my own personal projects. And for this project, I experimented with some stuff that I’ve never used before so I don’t want to give any outright recommendations. I’m just going to show you what I did and give some thoughts.

Again, I wanted (4) 4’ shelves so I ripped the 8’ boards down to size with a miter saw. For this project, I decided to make black shelves because that would best match the color scheme of the room. There’s a variety of ways to make the shelves black but I decided to try MinWax True Black oil-based stain, something I’ve never used before.

In preparation for the stain, I sanded the boards first with 150 grit sandpaper, then 220 grit. This is to get a smoother more presentable finish on the final product and to help the stain soak into the wood. But, I did purposely pick lumber that had more character and imperfections as I was going for a farmhouse aesthetic, so I did try too hard to get a perfect finish.

Once I was happy with the sanding, I moved on to the staining process. To start, I applied a coat of pre-stain. This product helps to distribute the stain more evenly so less blotching occurs with the stain. I have had blotching problems with hemlock in the past so pre-stain is something that I personally now use. The pre-stain itself is very quick and easy to apply. I just used a foam brush to spread it around. The directions say to let it sit for 5-15 minutes, then apply your stain within 2 hours.

Moving on to the actual staining, again, I used Minwax True Black oil-based stain. I’ve been looking for a way to ebonize wood and now that I’ve tried this product, I would say that it’s a very viable option. I don’t know if you can tell, but it comes out jet black like you’re dumping ink on the wood. It may look like much at first but it does thin up a bit when dried and you can still see all the figures in the wood. This is my first time trying this product and I would recommend to not apply a heavy application like I did because it does spread quite well and if you go heavy, this stuff takes a while to dry. It didn’t help that I was doing all this in a cold garage during winter so it took about a day to dry between coats. I did two coats to achieve the look that I wanted so that was two days of just waiting.

Then we move on to applying a finish. I used MinWax polyurethane and the same as before, I just spread it on with a foam brush. Once that’s dried, we can move on to mounting these shelves up.

Now there’s not really much to this step as it really depends on your application and how you want to mount them. I ended up doing three staggered shelves. I went with some brackets that I found on Amazon, which are linked in the description below, and they work just fine but if you go with the same brackets, I would recommend finding your own hardware because the ones that these brackets came with are complete trash. The heads stripped so easily and I had 3 screws that just snapped in half. There are two screws that are broken in my wall where I hit a stud and one that’s lodged at the bottom of a shelf. This shearing happened even with a pilot hole so I would definitely recommend buying your own hardware if possible.

And that’s about it. Some potentially very cheap DIY floating shelves. Depending on the materials that you already have, this project can potentially be very cheap, I mean, like less than $10 if you have the know-how. I bought my brackets because I wanted this look but you can make your own which can bring the cost down even lower. It all depends on what you're going for. Then to spice things up, you can add LED lighting or whatever else to make the shelves really stand out. I’m still working through decorating and what I’m actually using these shelves for so this isn’t finalized.

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Kobalt Quiet Tech Air Compressor High Flow Coupler Upgrade

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What’s going on guys? It’s Hai.

I recently showcased the Kobalt Quiet Tech Air Compressor that I recently purchased and in this blog, I’m going to show you the first upgrade that I did to it and that’s switching the stock industrial-sized couplers for a high-flow option. The particular couplers that I’ll be using are the Milton HighFlow Pro V Style, part number S-765.

According to Milton’s packaging, this upgrade can provide an airflow increase of up to 70%.

To remove the stock couplers, I’ve found that the easiest way is to just get a wrench in from the bottom and loosen the couplers from there. Lefty loosey, righty tighty. It’s kind of annoying doing this upgrade because there’s little clearance anywhere. You might have the urge to remove the top plate but, just take my word, there are various parts that are screwed to it. You may have more access by removing the plate but then you’ll have parts dangling and I think it would be even more difficult to torque everything down that way. So, just take your time and do a little turn at a time from the bottom.

When you get the coupler out, it’s just a matter of replacing it with the new high-flow coupler. Just remember to use some Teflon tape or other thread sealers to help prevent leaks.

Now, to really maximize airflow gains, you’re going to want to also upgrade your other fittings. I purchased a Milton kit, part number S-217 and it has the various fittings that you’ll need to connect a hose to the air compressor and tools to your hose. Then if you need more male fittings for tool connections, they are readily available online and at a very affordable price.

And that’s about it. This is a very easy install with a lot of potential gains depending on your setup. Not all tools will be able to capitalize on the increased airflow but that’s just how it is. Do your research and figure out if higher-flowing couplers can benefit your setup.

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