Home Repair GuideSeptember 2007 | ||
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In This Issue...
Repair Drywall Paper
Drywall paper can be damaged when a wall is gouged while moving furniture or other common household activities. Water can also damage drywall paper causing the surface to pucker and ripple. This can happen when removing wallpaper with a liquid stripper. The most important part of repairing drywall paper is sealing it so it doesn't absorb any moisture from the repair compound. If you don't seal it, the repair process will cause the top layers of paper to bubble and ripple and no amount of sanding will fix the problem. Use the following procedure for a trouble free repair of damaged drywall paper. — Cut all damaged paper away from the gypsum core. If only the first few paper layers are damaged, cut down to the first undamaged layer. Cut cleanly around the perimeter of the damage with a sharp drywall knife. Tilt the blade out a little to cut at a slight angle thru the paper. Coat the gypsum, paper edges and surrounding wall with two thick coats of primer–sealer. Be sure the sealer is mixed well for a thick coating. Let each coat dry for about an hour. When the second coat of sealer is dry, mix some setting–type joint compound or use ready–mixed and apply a thick coat over the damaged area. Skim the excess mud, filling the damage and leaving a thin coat on the surrounding wall. Let this first coat of mud set for 30 minutes when using setting compound and an hour or more for ready–mixed. Apply another coat of mud and let it dry. Lightly sand the dry mud and apply a final coat if needed to smooth out the surface. Sand the final coat and brush any dust from the area before priming the patch and touching up the wall paint. If you are using flat latex finish paint, you can use it to prime the repair. If you are using semi–gloss or other shiny paint, prime with flat latex paint or a latex primer first. Get Rid of Bugs
Get rid of sow bugs, those little oval shaped creatures found under plant pots or in damp basements. These are not bugs but actually crustaceans and they need damp conditions to survive. To get rid of them, remove their water source. They will quickly leave to find moisture or failing that, dry out and die. — If you have sow bugs, crickets or other insects around the house, try using sticky traps to catch and remove them. The bugs step on the trap surface and can't get free. You can then throw the trap and the bugs out. A sticky trap is easy to make. Use any adhesive that will stay tacky for a long time such as liquid hide glue, vinyl floor adhesive or 3M® 77 spray adhesive. Coat a piece of cardboard or similar material with the adhesive. Set several traps around in the infested area. Change the traps every couple of days until you have removed all the bugs. — To keep bugs from returning, try a flea spray intended to stop the development of the egg and larve stages of the insect. These sprays work the same way for other bugs. Read the label and be sure to use it safely for human and pet traffic. Fighting MildewMildew is that black fungus growing in the bathroom shower or on the walls in the basement. Mildew spores are everywhere in the environment and all they need to grow is a moist, shaded location. This means mildew will probably be found in numerous places around the house. Even the siding on your house can be covered with mildew. The best way to prevent mildew is to dry the location. In a basement use a dehumidifier and ventilate bathrooms and other spaces to keep them dryer. Use a 100 watt light bulb in small spaces like closets and crawl spaces to keep them dryer. Kill mildew on paint–able surfaces using a 10% solution of household bleach and cool water. Apply the solution over large spaces using a pump spray bottle or garden sprayer. Let the bleach sit on the mildew for 10 or 20 minutes. Rinse the surface using clean water and repaint the surface if necessary. — Mildew on washable fabrics should be brushed off as much as possible and the item should be washed. Wash in bleach and cool water when possible or laundry detergent when bleach cannot be used. Let the item soak for a while in the bleach solution to be sure it kills all the mildew before washing. If the fabric is not suited to washing remove as much of the mildew as possible and lay it out in full sunshine for several hours or longer. Keep the item dry to keep mildew from growing back. Remove a Key Broken Off in a LockWhen you have a broken key or some other object stuck in a door lock use a jigsaw blade to remove it. Use a blade that's thin enough to slip between the key shank and the lock cylinder. Press the teeth of the blade into the stuck object and pull slowly. If the teeth slip, reinsert the blade and get another grip. Pull the object to a point where you can use plyers or tweezers to pull it the rest of the way. Kitchen Cleaning HintsUse your microwave to kill germs growing in your dishwashing sponge. When a kitchen sponge starts to smell bad it's because of bateria growing in the moist fibers. Kill the germs and kill the odor. Soak the sponge with water but don't wring it out. Place it on a microwave-able plate and run the oven on high for at least 3 minutes. Smell the sponge to be sure it is clean and soak and zap it again if necessary. — Keep white enamel or synthetic kitchen sinks free of stains with a spray of 10% bleach–water solution whenever stains appear. Let the bleach water sit for 30 minutes or more and rinse with clean water. For tough stains, repeat and let the bleach sit longer if necessary. To clean old, set stains on white sinks or tubs, spray with a stronger bleach solution and let it soak for a day before rinsing. — Remove burned on food and other hard to remove residue from cookware using a soaking bath of vinegar and water. Let the bath soak for about a day. Because vinegar is an acid it will soften the crusted food, making it possible to remove it without scratching the dish surface. Vinegar from the bottle is about 5% acetic acid. You can increase the acid content by boiling the vinegar down. For example, boiling 16 ounces of vinegar down to 8 ounces will double the acid content to 10%. This can be useful when you have a really tough cleaning job. |
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