Today’s Homeowner Radio Podcast | August 6, 2022

Hour 1

In Hour 1, listen to our suggestions for matching wood posts to vinyl, cleaning outdated wallpaper, and more.  

Matching Wood Posts to Vinyl

Doug May perhaps has a terrific see of the Blue Ridge Mountains on his lined again porch. But, the check out of his porch is not as pleasing.

“The upper part has vinyl sleeves in excess of the major of the posts. Everything’s included and it is wonderful and easy and white. But down down below, it is just pressure-addressed wooden, with all the cracks and gaps,” Doug claims. 

He desires the wood aid posts on the ground to match the white vinyl posts on the porch earlier mentioned. What’s halting him from covering the wooden posts with vinyl is the diagonal wooden braces. He’s concerned about the inconvenience of connecting the quite a few vinyl items on the diagonals and sealing them.

“What I want is the smooth appear and feel of the vinyl on the posts underneath. Is there a way to do that?” Doug asks.  

Vinyl sleeves are high priced! If you want the posts to match, attempt this finances-pleasant choice: 

Very first, cleanse the wooden posts and utilize a coat of primer.

Then, use vehicle overall body filler (like Bondo) to clean out the cracks. Once that dries, flippantly sand the posts. 

Then, caulk the regions wherever the diagonal braces satisfy the vertical posts. 

Lastly, apply two coats of acrylic latex paint.

As soon as you do this, no 1 will know a person established of posts is vinyl and the other set isn’t! The acrylic paint will give it a shiny appear and seal the joints. 

If you make your mind up you want to include the posts with vinyl, remove one submit at a time, which include the diagonal supports, and attach the vinyl sleeves to every piece. 

Miter minimize the ends of the sleeves to in good shape the diagonal brace posts, and thoroughly caulk each and every seam so h2o does not get in.

Do not caulk the base of the diagonal brace items where the wood satisfies the post. If water have been to get inside the vinyl, you want it to be able to drain out and dry. 

How to Clear Old Wallpaper

Sandi Knollenburg purchased a 100-calendar year-aged farmhouse in Bloomington, Sick., 5 yrs in the past, and she’s been renovating it very little by minimal.

Correct now, she’s functioning on the stairwell space. The partitions that lengthen from the initial floor to the next are covered in wallpaper from the 1960s.

Sandi enjoys the pattern, and the wallpaper is continue to in pretty great shape! All it demands is a superior cleansing.  

So, she miracles, “What’s the very best way to cleanse and protect the wallpaper?”

Most modern wallpapers have an acrylic or latex coating that would make them washable and, in some cases, scrubbable.

Older wallpaper is just plain paper, so you never want to get it damp. If you do, it will peel off the wall.

Consider these choices to get rid of the dust and dust: 

• Wipe the wallpaper with a huge, dry sponge.
• Use a vacuum cleaner.
• Attach a microfiber cloth to a Swiffer-form mop for tough-to-reach places.

To eliminate skids and scuffs, use a gum eraser. You can purchase these at an art provide shop.

A different possibility is a dry Magic Eraser. If that does not operate, flippantly dampen it.

Hour 2

In Hour 2, master how to avert wooden rot in a shower window, get rid of sediment from drinking water, and more.

Protecting a Wood Window Body in a Shower

A caller wants tips on tiling about a window in his shower. The wood frame sticks out a bit, so he can not tile above it. 

“What do you do to treat that to make it so that the h2o is not harming that wood and creating wooden rot?” he asks. “And a lot more importantly, (assure) that water is not having guiding that and triggering destruction to the shower?”

A good deal of older properties have this issue. Normally, at one particular point in time, the lavatory experienced just a tub with a window over it. Then someplace alongside the way, a shower was put in. 

I have observed a lot of house owners place a shower curtain about the window, but hardly ever does that very last extensive.

To guard the wooden body from drinking water injury, encapsulate the window body with the tile. 

Right before you lay the tile, be certain to caulk and paint the frame. Bring the tile up to the wooden and then overlap additional tile above the window frame. This will protect the frame from the water and give it a great, pronounced appear. 

If h2o can even now strike it right, set up a watertight window.

To completely remove any prospect of wood rot, get rid of the window and swap it with a vinyl one particular.  

Sediment in Drinking water

Pablo Sandoval in Willow Creek, Calif., is unwell of sediment in his water. His home draws h2o from a deep effectively and all wastewater flows into a septic tank. 

“For most of the year, the drinking water source is fantastic, but every summer time we have a problem with sediment that clogs aerators at sinks and showerheads. Additionally, the washing device normally takes eternally to fill with water. What can we do to ease these troubles?” he asks.

Sediment complications are far more regular in the summer time because drinking water ranges are generally decreased. There is fewer drinking water but the similar amount of sediment in the technique, so it finds its way to the pump and into your home. 

You are going to need to have a well drinking water contractor consider a glimpse at your pump. You may have to have a new screening. 

Also, here are two selections to look at:

• Have a water properly contractor install a sand separator on your pump. This system takes advantage of centrifugal power to press dirt, sand and particles outward to the separator wall and downward in a spiral movement. The cleaned h2o then rises and returns back to your plumbing method. 
• Set up a sediment filter in your household. There are a number of unique options readily available, but we suggest the Braukmann Reverse rinsing good filter.

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Simple Alternatives

Enhanced Soap Dispenser — Kitchen-sink soap dispensers hold such a smaller sum of liquid cleaning soap that it needs you to constantly refill the reservoir bottle. Here’s a improved choice:

• Carry off the hand pump from the dispenser, pull off the plastic fill tube, and change it with a extended flexible quarter-inch-diameter tubing.
• Feed the reverse stop of the tubing down by way of the hole in the sink deck and area it in a huge jug of liquid cleaning soap.

Now you will hardly ever have to refill the dispenser simply just exchange the cleaning soap jug the moment it is vacant. 

View: Soap Dispenser Filling Idea

Sleek Slice in Vinyl Siding — When applying a gap observed to drill by way of vinyl siding, run the drill in reverse. That way, the gap noticed will build a pleasant cleanse hole with no tough edges.

The moment you reduce through the siding, change the drill to forward and bore via the wall sheathing.

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