Howcast
The best source for fun, free, and useful how-to videos and guides.
Learn basic plumbing principles and repairs from Master Plumber John Wood in these Howcast videos.
Learn how to fix many bathroom plumbing problems yourself with the step-by-step instructions in this Howcast video series about bathroom repair.
You, too, can become a mattress professional — and get a good night’s sleep — with the advice in this Howcast video series.
Get all your questions about Christmas trees and Christmas decorations answered, and pick up a few new tricks, in this Howcast video series.
Whether you’re a cigar aficionado or just take the occasional puff, you’ll find something of interest in this cigar video series from Howcast.
Whether you’re a certified hoarder or are just messy, get things put away, organized, and under control with this Howcast series.
Stay safe on the road with the important information in this car and driver video series.
How does your garden grow? Everything — plants, flowers, vegetables — will grow better if you heed the gardening tips in this Howcast video series.
Whether you’re a beginner gardener or an experienced one, there’s something to learn in this Howcast video series about gardening tools and equipment.
Learn how to lead a more eco-friendly lifestyle with these Howcast videos featuring Alegre of Green and Greener.
Learn all about guns — from handguns and shotguns to Uzis and AK-47s — from Police Officer Keith Charley in these Howcast videos.
They say it’s your birthday! Have the most happy birthday ever with the tips in this birthday celebration video series from Howcast.
Get the lowdown on home appliances in this Howcast video series.
Check out all the ways you can make your home more beautiful with the home decorating advice in these videos.
If you’re a homeowner, you should educate yourself about home heating and air conditioning; this Howcast video series makes it painless.
Attention, homeowners: Don’t pay another repairman until you check out this video series on simple repairs you can make yourself.
Don’t wait until you’re burglarized or suffer a home invasion to check out the home security and safety advice in this Howcast video series.
Learn all about hot water heaters — gas, electric, tankless, indirect, solar-powered — from Winters Plumbing & Heating in this Howcast video series.
Learn how to do things better and faster around your home and garden with the tips and tricks in these Howcast videos.
Make house cleaning faster and easier with the tips and tricks in these videos.
Forget the car wash! Do your own car detailing using the car cleaning secrets in this Howcast video series.
Make your kitchen and bathroom sparkle with the cleaning tips, tricks, and techniques in these Howcast videos.
Turn your walls into works of art with these Howcast painting tutorials led by decorative artist Aliya Riaz.
Learn how to drive safely with the driving lessons in this Howcast video series.
Learn how to fold napkins into beautiful and creative shapes with the napkin folding instructions in these Howcast videos.
Bed bugs, stink bugs, pantry pests — whatever crawlers are creeping you out, entomologist Jeff White tells how to kill them in these Howcast videos.
Got a home infestation on your hands? Before you call the exterminator, try these solutions to rid yourself of insects, rodents, and more.
To save the planet, start with your house; this Howcast video series gives you tips on how to keep a green home.
Learn how to make your garden grow with the gardening tips in this video series from Howcast.
Make your life more eco-friendly with the green living tips in this Howcast video series. The environment will thank you!
You’ve got mail…that you need to pick up, send out, package, and so much more. These tips will help you get it done more easily.
Learn how to fix a leaky faucet and how to make many other plumbing repairs from master plumber Tim Flynn in these Howcast videos.
Learn about gun ownership in this Howcast video series about guns and ammunition.
Learn how to paint walls, ceilings, trim, molding and more from Brushed Interiors founder David Sartori in these Howcast videos.
Learn how to make a quilt with the quilting tips and techniques from Cathy Izzo in these Howcast videos.
Whether you want to keep a few chickens or start herding cattle, this Howcast animal farming video series will get you started.
Go green by learning how to reduce, reuse, and recycle just about anything; it’s all in these videos.
Learn about soldering irons, soldering guns, circuit boards, and more from Jeff Koskulics in these Howcast videos.
Learn how to take care of every kind of fish tank — saltwater, freshwater, reef — with the help of expert Joseph Caparatta in these Howcast videos.
Learn how to maintain your lawn and plant flowers, shrubs, and trees with the help of landscape designer Patrick Weisel in these Howcast videos.
Learn how to weld properly and safely with the step-by-step instructions from sculptor DeWitt Godfrey in these Howcast welding videos.
Stay safe during severe storms and hurricanes with videos on assembling emergency kits, building storm shelters, and more.
Create your own indoor Garden of Eden — or at least keep that fern from dying — with these container gardening videos.
Learn about home improvement and home decor from professional interior designer Blanche Garcia in these Howcast videos.
Spruce up your kitchen and bathroom with the easy and affordable renovation ideas in these videos.
The grass is always greener — in your yard, once you’ve discovered the lawn care tips and tricks in these videos.
Learn carpentry and how to do simple woodworking projects from furniture maker Robin Mierzwa in these Howcast videos.
We’ll get all your stuff boxed up and out the door in no time at all.
Make packing a bag less stressful with these tips, tricks, and checklists.
Brighten up a room with these painting and wallpaper tips.
Learn how to do lots of everyday tasks in a better, faster, and easier way with these creative shortcuts.
Start your own vegetable or flower garden today with these gardening videos on seeds and planting.
Make this annual chore less daunting with the cleaning tips and tricks in these videos.
No matter what you spilled on your clothes or furnishings, we can tell you how to get it out.
Don’t host another Thanksgiving without these tips and tricks.
Get your vegetable patch started with these gardening tutorials.
Learn how to choose wedding flowers and how to make some of the arrangements yourself from floral designer Sarah Brysk Cohen in these Howcast videos.
Whether you need a knife for hunting or cooking, Plaza Cutlery owner Dan Delavan helps you pick the right one in these Howcast videos.
Jazz up any room in your home with a little window dressing.
Transcript Hi. Alegre from Ember Living, here today to talk about how to green your party. As with all things eco, it’s much easier to have big bang for your buck if you start at the planning stage. So start planning your party with the mindset of how can I make this most eco-friendly as …
Transcript Hi. Alegre from Ember Living here today to talk about composting. This is a subject I could talk literally hours about, but a brief overview. There are essentially three types of composting: with worms, without worms, and then inside your house, anaerobic composting which is a little more complicated. I’ll get to that last. …
Transcript Hi, Alegre from Ember Living here today talk about how to green your home improvements. As with all things, you can have the greatest impact on your home improvements if you start at the planning stage. Two websites that are great for when you’re doing your planning are the Energy Star website and the …
Transcript Allegra from Green and Greener, here today to take about native plants. The benefits of using native plants in your gardening is that they are better suited to the environment that you live in. So for instance, I live in the desert. The soil there is very nutrient poor, so the plants that tend …
Transcript Hi, Alegre from Ember Living, here today to talk about how to reuse waste water in your home. Whenever we talk about green living we’re always talking about how to maximize your use of resources. And one great way is to use water as much as you can. Now, when water comes out of …
Transcript Hi, Alegre from Ember Living. Here today to talk about how to green your water. The easiest way to green your water supply in your household is to get a whole house filter system. Those tend to be a little expensive. They start around $1,000, but they will filter out your water before it …
Transcript Hi Alegra from Ember Living, here today to talk about capturing rain waiter. Capturing rain water is a great way for you to reduce your use of water from your municipality. So, a lot of people don’t realize how much opportunity there is in capturing rain water. The calculation for how much water your …
Transcript Hi. Alegre from Ember Living, here today to talk about how to green your yard. Now whenever I talk about green living, I’m talking about conserving resources and using non-toxic products. So when it comes to conserving resources, the best place to start when it comes to green living is in the planning stage. …
Transcript Hi, Layla from Amber Living here today to talk about why planting a tree will green your home. First of all, trees are a great opportunity to provide shade for your house. And the old saying, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” if you can keep heat from getting into …
Transcript Hi, Alegre from Ember Living here today to talk about how to green your roof. You know the expression “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”? Well the same is true for your house. If you can prevent heat from coming into your house, it’s much cheaper to do that than …
Transcript Hi, Alegre from Ember Living here today to talk about how to green your Halloween. One thing you can do is instead of offering traditional candy for gifts, you can give out little treats like pencils and stickers and erasers. This has become much more common in my neighborhood and don’t worry, your house …
Transcript Hi, Alegre from Ember Living. I’m here today to talk about how to green your Christmas. Christmas has a lot of opportunities for incorporating sustainability into your everyday life. Let’s start with one of the most obvious examples, the Christmas tree. There are a lot of opportunities there for change. So, for instance, some …
Transcript Hi, Alegre from Ember Living here today talk about how to green your business. As I mention when I talk about anything green living, I’m talking about using non-toxic products and sustainably using your resources. So in your place of work, I would encourage you to seek out non-toxic cleaning products and bath products …
Transcript Hi. Alegre from Ember Living, here today to talk about green living. What is green living exactly? It’s a philosophy. It’s a philosophy that encourages you to make choices that will optimize your health, the health of your community, and the health of the planet by avoiding toxic products, by choosing to use resources …
Transcript Hi, Alegre from Ember Living here today to talk about how to green your laundry. As I talk about with a lot of green living topics, green living is about using non-toxic materials and using resources in a smart way. So when you’re buying your detergents or any sort of thing that you’re going …
Transcript Hi, Alegre from Ember Living here today to talk about BPA. What is it, and how to avoid it. BPA is an ingredient found in a lot of hard plastics, and it is a highly-toxic ingredient. It’s also called Bisphenyol A, BPA is the short term for it, and it’s something you definitely want …
Transcript Hi. Allegra from Ember Living here today to answer a question that I get asked all the time: What plastics are safe? Now that question might confuse you if you’re not familiar with the rating system for plastic, but plastic is rated on a scale of one to seven, and you can find the …
Transcript Hi, Alegre from Ember Living here today to talk about how to green your child’s lunch. As I mention with a lot of things about green living, it’s all about non-toxic and about using resources effectively. So your child’s lunch, there’s a great opportunity to use resources better if you use reusable lunch items. …
Transcript Hi, Alegre from EmberLiving, here today to talk about what can you recycle and how. A lot of people ask me this question: “Is this recyclable? Is this recyclable?” OK, well a basic tip about recycling is that the item needs to be able to be separated into a single material in order for …
Transcript Hi, Allegra from Ember Living, here today to talk about the three Rs. We’ve all heard them but you might not really know what they mean. Reduce, reuse, recycle are the three Rs and they’re actually in order for a reason. They’re hierarchical meaning reduce has the greatest impact on the planet and on …
Transcript Hi, Alegre from Ember Living here today to talk about how can green living be easy and practical. The first thing I want to encourage you to do when you think about going green, is think about what’s most important to you. Don’t go green because I told you to or because someone else …
Transcript Hi, Alegre from Ember Living here today to talk about the top green products every household should have. If you don’t know where to start when you want to start going green, start here. The first thing to do is green your cleaning products. I go into much greater detail about all these subjects …
Transcript Hi. Alegre from Ember Living here today to talk about the top ways to conserve water, energy, and gas. Whenever we talk about green living, we always talk about how to use resources in a really smart, efficient way. So one of the things that you can do that’s really easy and important is …
Transcript Hi, from Amber Ember Living. Here today to talk about light bulbs. There are three basic light bulbs that I’m going to talk about. Incandescence, CFLs and LEDs. So, the first bulb is the incandescent bulb. Also known as the Edison bulb, a technology that has been around for a really long time. They …
Transcript Hi. Allegra from Amber Living here today to talk about the exciting topic of greening your lighting and appliances and electronics. My first tip is to invest in something called a smart strip. Smart strips are fantastic because they’re kind of surge protectors except that they have 3 different types of outlets. They have …
Transcript Hi. Alegre from Ember Living, here today to talk about how to green your indoor air quality. Your first question might be why would I even want to green my indoor air quality. Well there’s actually something known as sick building syndrome, where people are exposed to so many toxins in an indoor air …
Transcript Hi. Alegra from Ember Living here today to talk about top green cleaning supplies. One of the my favorite cleaning agents is actually baking soda, which I always keep a huge canister of right next to my kitchen sink. This is fantastic for scrubbing out your sink from all that grime that gets built …
Transcript Hi, Alegre from Ember Living talking today about how to make your own green cleaning supplies. Now, a lot of us have gotten used to just buying a bottle. You know, we say, oh we need to clean the carpet, okay, this is a carpet cleaner. But we don’t really understand what it is …
Transcript Hi, Lee from Ember Living. Many of you have asked, “Why should you use green cleaning supplies?” There’s a number of reasons you should use green cleaning supplies. A lot of the chemicals that are used in traditional cleaning supplies are irritating to your eyes and your skin, but most importantly to your lungs. …
Transcript Hi, Alegre from Ember Living here today to talk about what pots and pans you should use if you want to be green. Well the first thing I want to point out is that when it comes to green living we want to avoid anything that is toxic. So I avoid any products that …
Transcript Hi. Alegra from Ember Living. Many of you have asked the question, ‘Are frozen foods green?’ Well, if you’re talking about frozen foods that are sold in the grocery store the bottom line is ‘No.’ It’s not eco-friendly. And whenever we talk about things that are eco-friendly, we talk about, one, is it the …
Transcript Hi. Alegre from Ember Living, here today to talk about how to green your diet, which is one of my favorite topics, because any time I’m talking about food, I’m super-happy. There’s a lot of tips here, because there’s a great Ayurvedic saying that loosely translated means, “Bad diet, medicine doesn’t help. Good diet, …
Transcript Hi. Alegre from Ember Living, here today to talk about how to green your kitchen. As with all things green living, we want to think about what’s non-toxic, and also how are we conserving our resources. So something that you might not have thought a lot about but is very important in green living …
Transcript Hi, Alegre from Ember Living. A number of you have asked if you have to avoid dry cleaning in order to be green. And I would like to say yes. Personally, because I personally try and avoid dry cleaning. There are some new technologies that are less toxic both for you and for the …
Transcript Hi. Alegre from Ember Living, here today to talk about how to green your pregnancy. There’s probably no more important time to really think about things that affect you, because everything you’re doing at this point in your life will affect your child as well. So the first thing I want to recommend is …
Transcript Hi, Alegre from Ember Living here today to talk about how to green your birth. Pregnancy and birth are such a great opportunity to really keep your body clean, because everything that you put in and on your body will go into your baby. So if you haven’t considered doing a drug-free birth, you …
Transcript Hi. Alegre from Ember Living, her today to talk about how to green your baby. I could talk about this subject forever, and I talk about it a lot on my website. So go there for pamphlets and videos on how to green your baby in great detail. But just a few things. Green …
Transcript Hi. Alegra from Ember Living, talking today about alternatives to disposable diapers. There are really three alternatives, and when we say “disposable diapers,” we mean traditional, plastic diapers that are really hard on the planet and hard on resources, because they use a lot of resources to be made. The obvious alternative is cloth …
Transcript Hi Allegra from Ember Living to talk about how to green your bathing routine with all things green living it’s often about avoiding toxic products and using your resources in a smart way. So first of all let’s talk about non toxic products you should really use bath and body products that are good …
Transcript Hi, Allegra [SP] from Ember [SP] Living here today to talk about how to green your period. And I have to say that I’m so excited to talk about this topic because I’ve never covered it on my channel because I really thought it was TMI: too much information. But apparently, a lot of …
Transcript Hi. Allegra here from Amber Living talking today about how to green your beauty routine. Well, with all things green living, the bottom line is always what you need to do. So less is always more. So I always say beauty routines are supposed to be fun, right? I mean, some of us torture …
Transcript Hi I’m Alegre of EmberLiving. Today I’m going to talk about beauty ingredients that you want to avoid for many, many reasons. Some of them are toxic, some of them are non-renewables, some of them might irritate your skin. Let’s just start with carbons. You will see them in most common products as preservative, …
Transcript Hi. I’m Dave Sartori of Brushed Interiors, a New York interior painting and finishing firm. We specialize in high-end boutique interiors, plaster repairs, painting, wood installs, remodeling, wood restoration, and general finishing work. I’ve been in business six years here in New York, with thirteen years construction background going back to Clearwater, Florida. The …
Transcript Here are my tips to interior painting that the average homeowner may not be aware of. Number one, the mini-roller. This is a standard pin roller. It’s less expensive, but it slides on the surface. I don’t like it very much. I had great success with this mini-roller, the ‘Coater’, with the wider handle …
Transcript Well, I completed my paint project and I have some dirty tools. This is the water-based latex paint. I’ve got my brush, roller, and this is a mini-tray so it’s not a throwaway. Those other larger green ones, green plastic, garbage. I’m going to keep this one, though. So here’s my roller. How to …
Transcript Hi, this is Dave. We’re getting into doors. We’re going to paint the door. One hundred grip sand paper. I roughed it up a little bit. Basically light sanding all over and I wiped it down. Again, we’re using the high end self priming paint. Now, this door knob. If it’s too much trouble …
Transcript How to paint wood moldings. I’ve gotten to the point where I sanded, I scraped and I wiped down my area. Again, we’re dealing with an older pre-war [SP] wood molding here. This is the area where we tore out the old wires from Edison and Company and we plaster patched all those areas …
Transcript Okay. Don’t panic. Dave here, with another tip of the trade. Paint spills, how to handle. Do you still have your plaster tools around from doing the patches on the walls? You can scoop it up as if it was a dustpan. In fact, a dustpan will work too, but these are very convenient, …
Transcript How to do cut-in, a very important part of painting. I’ve got my 1-1/2 inch brush, personal preference. You’ll see a lot of painters with a 2 inch or a 3 inch, but I like to have total control. Now go ahead and buy something like this at Home Depot for a couple bucks. …
Transcript Hey guys it’s Dave here Broast Interiors New York painting. We’re finally getting down to painting. Painting the wall and a paint job can be two thirds prep and one third painting and you finally get to the painting and it is quite enjoyable. Now we’ve got our low sheen, we’re going low sheen …
Transcript Hi, this is Dave with Brust Interiors. We’re up here in the ceiling now and we’re going to paint this ceiling flat white. We’re going to take a close look at it. Also be sure to wear some paint gear. You’re going to have paint splatters coming down on you. Now, let’s take our …
Transcript This is going to be a lot of fun. We’re going to do the painting now here in this bathroom. It’s an awesome navy blue. The ceiling is white, so I put blue tape here to create a new line at the meeting of the colors. Always prep your walls a little bit. Take …
Transcript We’re into prepping a bathroom for paint. It was very similar to the kitchen. I used a lot of one mil plastic and protected things like the curtains. I wrapped those up, wrapped tape around them, and then put plastic hanging down. I’ve got blue tape here on this line, of which I’m creating …
Transcript Hi, Dave here. We’re going to get into the painting now in the kitchen, and I’m going to go over a few points again. I sanded down a few points on the wall and smoothed it out, but it’s maintaining it’s character. It’s an old building, and we didn’t get into skim coating or …
Transcript Hi, Dave here. We’re going to go over how to protect the kitchen now. A similar process goes for bathrooms. And this here is your one millimeter plastic. And I’ve already got some of it up. This is what I like to use for ease of use in kitchens and bathrooms. Very important, have …
Transcript Hey, guys. We’re just about ready to paint. So this is your final wall prepping. Really stop and take a look at your wall. This is important. Now, our sandpaper, 100 is kind of a general, safe average for wall prepping. And we have that sanding sponge, multi-use, and also it says “fine”. So, …
Transcript We’re going to talk a little bit about caulking and I’ve inspected this area next to the baseboard and there’s this huge gouge here where an old wire was torn out. Now I’m scraping a clean and it looks like it could be something that if we didn’t want to go so in depth …
Transcript So you’ve got your floor protected. Your next step is protecting your possessions. All the big pieces of furniture, floor lamps, bring everything into the middle of the room. We’re going to protect it with plastic. This is your basic 1-mil plastic. That’s the thickness, 1 millimeter, and that will do just fine. And …
Transcript Hi Guys, Dave here! We’re gonna do some repair on wood molding, and we may not have the time totally strip all the paint off of this wood molding. There may be a hundred years of paint. So, a couple of tricks here to just smooth this out and make this nice. It’s a …
Transcript All right, great. This primer is dry, and we wiped down the radiator. We dusted it out. The best way to paint these is with spray paint. Why go through all the trouble of trying to brush it in? Go to the store and get yourself some spray paint. All the modern spray paints …
Transcript Hi, Dave here. We’re going to talk about how to prep metals and radiators for painting. We want to strip off any loose metal. Any flakes. Take a look at it. Any nuggets. Now, this radiator is in pretty good shape, actually, but you can see little, little pieces from old paint jobs, drips …
Transcript This may not be an easy subject, and it may not be the most favorite, but we’re getting into stripping paint, and we’re using a chemical gel stripper, and the most powerful one, to be honest, is Rock Miracle. There are other brands like Peel Away, and Stripe Ease, but this Rock Miracle is …
Transcript Hi, were going to talk about stripping paint. There are two ways to strip paint. We have a heat gun, a heat gun is not the same as a blow dryer. This has a little more horse power. You have to be careful with it. The other way is a chemical stripper. They both …
Transcript How to patch larger holes. Now, here’s where your Pitbull [SP] Terrier slammed into the wall playing football with your kid and these are oh, no this is scary, you know? This is a very bad hole. How are we going to fix this? Now, no need to worry about big holes and drywall …
