Carpentry & Building Construction: A Do-It-Yourself Guide - Softcover

Carpentry & Building Construction is a comprehensive collection of information for do-it-yourselfers. It serves not only as an excellent introduction for novices to various projects, but also as a valuable reference guide for more experienced carpenters. In its most introductory moments, Carpentry & Building Construction covers topics such as the proper use of ladders, including an explanation that extension ladders must extend 36 inches above the edge of a roof for safe access. Those with advanced skills will find more useful information in sections devoted to topics such as framing flat, shed, gambrel, and mansard roofs. Regardless of skill level, however, readers will find clear writing and explanations made even more useful with over 2,000 photos, diagrams, and detailed drawings. Chapters are devoted to a variety of topics, including "Safety, Codes & Drawings," "Site & Foundation Preparation," "Floor, Wall & Ceiling Framing," "Framing the Roof & Dormers," "Floors & Stairs," "Insulation & Interior Wall Finish," "Cabinet Construction," and more. Carpentry & Building Construction also serves as a veritable cheat sheet for reading plans, thanks in part to the inclusion of a chart on the symbols used in architectural drawings to represent materials, doors, windows, piping, and other designations. There are also various conversion tables, including linear factors for converting metric to customary, and for figuring area and volume.

The book's usefulness can perhaps be best explained in one project. Take, for example, the installation of a door--do this job correctly and you will enjoy the benefits every day. Make a mistake, however, and the door might not latch, it might be difficult to open, and your house might feel like someone left the barn door open. Carpentry & Building Construction delves into a variety of relevant topics to ensure a quality job on interior and exterior doors, including determining the swing of the door before installing the frame, checking the rough opening, setting a door frame in a solid masonry wall, and the actual installation of pocket doors, bifold doors, sliding doors, prehung doors, hinges, door casings, locksets, door stops, weather-stripping, and more. Coverage is even devoted to garage doors.

In the end, it all lives up to author William P. Spence's promise in the introduction that this book will prove useful to homeowners as well as apprentice and experienced carpenters. --John Russell

Carpenters will be enthusiastic about both these new efforts. Together they make a complete package for anyone interested in building. Spence has produced a hefty textbook-style guide to carpentry that covers the entire process of building from planning through finishing. The scope is impressiveA704 pages and 2300 black-and-white photographs and drawings, building codes, foundations, framing, doors and windows, exterior finishing, cabinet construction, and tools. Newer techniques, such as steel framing and popular trends, like post-and-beam construction, are covered in separate sections. The comprehensive safety section is outstanding. Many of the processes are way beyond the comfort zone of the average do-it-yourselfer; however, there is something here for everyone, beginner to expert. Most do-it-yourselfers have encountered jobs where they could have used three or four hands; Carroll, a solo homebuilder, has come to their rescue with a slim volume that shows many of the tricks he uses to safely and efficiently complete work on his own. Readers who have completed projects will be suprised at how much easier their projects would have been had they known Carroll's techniques. Using straightforward text and line-drawings, he shares a variety of tips and labor-saving techniques for masonry, framing, siding installation, measuring, and hanging drywall. He shows how to cope with problems such as the collapse of the overextended tape measure. There really isn't anything else like this book on the market. Spence's title will get greater use in the library because it is a more general reference title; but both are excellent and will appeal to both do-it-yourselfers and professionals. Recommended for larger public library collections.AJonathan N. Hershey, Akron-Summit Cty. P.L., Akron, OH
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.