PickVidsBest Home, DIY & practical skills Videos
The 61 Home, DIY & practical skills videos here were recommended by different people across different months. Choose by who it is for: 5 introductory, 3 intermediate, 53 for a general viewer, and 0 for someone who wants the harder derivation. Most of them are a demo. What they share is that you see the result first and only then decide whether to follow the detail. Channels you will keep seeing include Technology Connections, Kirsten Dirksen, Primitive Technology.
Bed Bugs- What You've Been Told is Totally False
Mark Rober digs into bed bugs, testing popular beliefs about where they come from and how to get rid of them.
The Secret Life of Machines - Vacuum Cleaners 1/2
Part 1 of an episode of the British educational TV series The Secret Life of Machines, about how vacuum cleaners work and their history.
GSMT - Dan Holohan, Author: "The Lost Art of Steam Heating"
Dan Holohan, author of The Lost Art of Steam Heating, talks about the old steam heating systems he learned about from veteran tradesmen.
(405) Choosing a High Security Lock
Lock-picking YouTuber Bill Johnson (BosnianBill) explains how to choose a high-security lock and why, showing examples and comparing designs.
Extreme transformer home in Hong Kong: Gary Chang's 24 rooms in 1
Kirsten Dirksen visits architect Gary Chang's 32 square meter Hong Kong apartment, which he has redesigned over decades.
Earth-cooled, shipping container underground CA home for 30K
Kirsten Dirksen profiles Steve Rees, who buried two shipping containers to build an earth-cooled, off-grid 640 sq ft home in Northern California for about $30,000, solar included.
This Swiss Builder uses NO INSULATION...
Builders Matt Risinger and Jordan Smith visit a Swiss cross-laminated timber factory that makes thick all-wood walls with no traditional insulation and wooden nails instead of glue or chemicals.
Cody's Algae Panel
Cody's Lab builds a prototype algae growing panel as an experiment before making more.
Why Britain Uses Separate Hot and Cold Taps
Tom Scott explains why Britain historically has separate hot and cold taps rather than mixer taps, tracing it to how water was stored in tanks.
Oldest US mall blends old/modern with 225-sq-ft micro-lofts
Kirsten Dirksen visits the Providence Arcade, the oldest US indoor mall, which was converted into 225-square-foot micro-lofts classified as a rooming house.
Copper vs Pex vs SharkBite - Freeze Testing
Builder Matt Risinger freezes water-filled copper and PEX piping capped with SharkBite fittings to see which survives.
Underground dome house of the family who led geese to fly home
Kirsten Dirksen tours the underground ferro-cement dome home of Paula and Bill Lishman, the family behind the geese-led flight story.
Primitive Technology: Forge Blower
A Primitive Technology episode in which the creator builds a bow-drill-driven bark fan to blow air into a fire, using only natural materials.
New vs Old Room Fire Final UL
A short NIST-based demonstration places a room furnished with old natural-material furniture beside one with modern synthetic furnishings and burns both.
How to Make a DIY Air Filter | Ask This Old House
This Old House's Ross Trethewey explains MERV filter ratings and how air filtration works, then shows how to build a localized DIY air filter, including a box fan with multiple filters.
How to design an actually good toaster with lessons from the 1940's
Technology Connections praises a 1940s-50s Sunbeam toaster and explains what makes a toaster well designed, drawing on a vintage Sunbeam video.
Table Saw Safety: My Accident and How to Avoid Your Own
A woodworker shows how his table saw accident happened, why it happened and how to avoid a similar one.
What is a rocket mass heater?
A two-minute explanation of what a rocket mass heater is, starting from how a conventional wood stove works and why creosote and chimney fires occur.
The Car-Replacement Bicycle (the bakfiets)
Not Just Bikes explains how an electric bakfiets (Dutch cargo bike) replaced the family car after a move back to Canada, saving thousands of dollars.
Awnings: a simple cooling tech we apparently forgot about
Technology Connections looks at why awnings disappeared from houses and how effective they are at cutting solar heat gain and cooling costs.
Primitive Technology: Stone Axe (celt)
The Primitive Technology channel shows the making of a stone axe (celt) using only primitive tools and materials, from shaping and polishing a basalt head to making the wooden handle and hafting it.
A simple water heater is more clever than it seems
Technology Connections explains how an ordinary tank water heater works, including twin-element designs, and why it is cleverer than it looks.
Fire test: wooden house vs. ordinary house
A short unscientific fire test comparing a massive timber house with an ordinary house.
Passive House - Fresh Air System Install & Costs (Zehnder)
Matt Risinger covers installing a Zehnder ERV fresh-air system in a tight passive house, explaining balanced ventilation, the benefits of heat recovery and the costs involved.