<p>This fall, we installed the handrails in the following photos. This is horizontal steel with an industrial-grade paint finish.</p>

<p>Click the link in the picture below to see pictures of stainless steel handrails.</p>

<p>Preservation Cafe: Winterizing Your Home Posted on October 19th, 2014 by Elizabeth Nelson Capitol Hill contractor, Gary Barnhart, will provide tips on preparing your home to withstand winter weather, Wednesday, November 19,  2014 from 6:30-7:15 pm at Ebenezers Coffee House, 2nd and F Streets NE.  Learn from an expert and be “snug as a bug in a [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Working on old Capitol Hill homes, I commonly find problems with condensate discharge lines in many HVAC systems. Even when I find them currently functioning properly, they are often built out of code. The common code problems I find with HVAC condensate discharge lines are as follows: 1. Sizing — the building code requires 3/4&#8243;-minimum [&hellip;]</p>

<p>I spent a lot years working specifically in commercial construction.  In that arena, people talked about the level of the drywall finish in a scale that goes from 0-5. Level 0 has no finish at all.  Level 5, on the other hand, is the most finished it could be — the entire surface is covered [&hellip;]</p>

<p>It is currently getting into the fall season and we are hurrying to wrap up our outdoor jobs that will be affected by cold weather.  It&#8217;s not that we mind working outdoors in the cold; it&#8217;s that some materials do not perform well if applied in adverse weather conditions and temperatures. Paint and cement are [&hellip;]</p>

<p>&nbsp; Wabi-Sabi 100 year old kitchen shelf</p>

<p>At big box retailers, you can buy 10-foot sections of gutter. They are cheap, usually a little scratched up at the big box stores, but they work. The problem with gutter sections like this — in addition to the fact that the big boxes only carry an inventory of about half the accessory parts you need [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Home history buffs like me should get a kick out of this picture.  I am in about 20+ different houses here in Capitol Hill every week.  So, I see all sorts of unique and historic features. This is the kind of stuff that I think is really cool. This is the least fancy, but coolest [&hellip;]</p>

<p>One day I was just working on a house and, out front, this happened! I was working on a house a few months ago.  I came outside in the middle of the day and saw a little truck half wrapped around a light pole.  The speed limit on this road is about 25.  It was [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Here in Capitol Hill, we have some of the best DPW workers in all of DC. But, funny story, I pulled up to a meter just off of Mass Ave, NE the other day.  My eyes drifted toward the pavement as I dug into my pocket for change and I was shocked to see what is [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Have you ever wondered if it is possible to transplant a really big tree and how it is done? Back when Gary worked for Air Force base development he saw it done all the time. But, it is rarely done here on the Hill! To remove, relocate, and transplant a large tree, we use large [&hellip;]</p>

<p><a href="https://screen.yahoo.com/weird-al-yankovic-handy-parody-133702425.html" rel="nofollow">https://screen.yahoo.com/weird-al-yankovic-handy-parody-133702425.html</a></p>

<p>March 2014 &#8211; Preservation Cafe: Money Saving Preventative Home Maintenance Posted on March 15th, 2014 by Elizabeth Nelson Gary Barnhart, general contractor and owner of GL Barnhart Construction, was the March 2014 Preservation Café speaker.  A Capitol Hill resident, Mr. Barnhart started GL Barnhart in 1997 with his father, focusing on home improvement and small commercial renovations. [&hellip;]</p>

<p>We generally use three grout manufacturers: Laticrete, CBP, Mapei Color selection cards of each product line are at the following links.  (Warning: the color may look different depending on monitor calibration.)</p>

<p>Selecting a good color scheme for the exterior façade of your house can be tough. But there are a few tools out there that can help. Sherwin Williams has a Color Visualizer App. (check it out here.)  And below you can see how to change the look of a house, virtually! One of the color [&hellip;]</p>

<p>When renovating a house, if adding brand new kitchen and baths, WSSC can add a big cost which can be hidden or at least easily overlooked from the outset. WSSC charges for new fixture hook ups. The costs can sometimes be very high.  Consider that these costs are in addition to all other permits and permit [&hellip;]</p>

<p>To get a BBL for renting a house and to pass inspections for construction and sales, DC homes are required to meet the 2006 IRC Code. But there are certain things in the code that seem to be missed in homes more often than found. Front porch handrails are one of those items. The Code [&hellip;]</p>

<p>We use a variety of paints for painting metals. For residential painters, typically a spray primer and a brush-applied oil-based paint is the most common and work well.  However, to go the extra mile, a specific group of paints last a lot longer and perform a lot better over time. To paint metals for a long [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Today was a beautiful day in Capitol Hill. The flowers have bloomed and spring is at its best. This week, we did a complete makeover on a yard by adding three garden beds and over 25 shrubs, perennial grasses, and flowers. We also added eco-friendly drip irrigation and re-routed storm drainage to provide irrigation to [&hellip;]</p>