Tuesday, 30 March 2010
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Get Ready for Exterior Painting
If you have wood siding, regular maintenance and occasional repainting is necessary to keep your house looking its best. Painting exteriors is a large undertaking and requires a good deal of preparation to ensure that you end up with the best possible result. Follow these easy steps to get ready for exterior painting.
Begin by covering any outdoor hvac units, bushes, limbs, or surfaces with plastic garbage bags, tarps, or drop cloths. A spiffy new paintjob looks much better if it is not accompanied by drips and splatters all over the surrounding scenery.
Any repairs to the wood surfaces should be done well ahead of time. Remove shutters and their associated hardware, and close any storm windows. Dents, rotted wood, or insect damaged areas should be filled in with wood putty and sanded smooth prior to painting.
Reglaze windows wherever it is needed. Old putty can be removed with a stiff putty knife or chisel, taking care not to crack the glass as you are doing so. Apply new glazing compound as needed.
Prepare the siding and trim by washing the entire surface of the house with trisodium phosphate (tsp) and bleach or a phosphate-free alternative. Apply in liberal strokes with a wire brush, then rinse off with a garden hose until the runoff water runs clear. Rinse again, then let the whole house dry for about two days to make sure all the nooks and crannies have had a chance to dry.
Clean the soffits and the area under porch roves with a pressure sprayer and a TSP and bleach solution. The spray on the pressure sprayer should be strong wenough to remove loose paint chips and soiling, but not so strong as to damage the underlying wood.
Finally, sand off any loose paint with a specially-designed power sander made for this particular application. Begin with a coarse grit such as 16, 24 or 36-grit discs, then use a finer grit to remove swirl marks and give a smoother finish to the job. Any areas that cannot be reached using a circular sander should be scraped off using a chisel or paint scraper. Use a dry paintbrush to remove any dust, stray paint chips, or other residue. You now have a smooth surface to apply a perfect, professional-looking coat of paint. -
Corrugated Metal Roofing
If you are in the market for roofing for your home, you may want to consider the corrugated metal roof. This type of roof has a wave pattern on its surface, somewhat like the pattern you will see on a corrugated cardboard. Some people will find that the look is not the most attractive, but its good points may convince you that it is the type of roof you would want to install in your home.
The corrugated roof is very much cheaper than conventional roofing, and it is lighter weight than the other metal roofing that are made of double layers, but these double layers are no stronger.
A big disadvantage of the corrugated roof is that it has a tendency to rust. Rust can damage a metal roof by leaking, an cracking of the metal and also by breaking, after it becomes rusted. This issue has been addressed by steel manufacturers who came out with a rust free version, the galvanized metal roofing. The galvanizing process occurs when the metal is subjected to a chemical processing that prevents corrosion. In the process, zinc is utilized to create a coating over the corrugated metal, and thus renders it resistant to rust.
Once the coating is complete, the result is a sandwich of sorts in which the layer of corrugated metal is layered between two layers of zinc. This is the material which will prevent rain from seeping into your home during a rainy period. This layering of the zinc also keeps down the noise you will normally hear as the rain falls on the roof during rainy weather. The roof becomes as quiet as when rain falls on wood, clay or asphalt.
Installation of the corrugated roof is easily accomplished by fitting the sheets on the wooden roof. Overlapping will occur as the sheets are applied and the slope of the roof determines exactly how they will overlap.
You may want to seriously consider putting a metal corrugated roof on your home. Choose a galvanized version, and your home will be protected from rusting and also, with correct maintenance, it will last as much as fifty years and even more.
This type of roofing provides great weather proofing for your home. It can stand up to extreme weather conditions such as heat, rain, hailstorm and snow and even hurricanes because it can relax and contract with heat.
Getting a galvanized metal corrugated roof for your home is a great way to contribute to protecting the environment since the material can be recycled. If it is thrown out, it can be retrieved and melted to create another sheet for use as roofing for yet another home.
The corrugated metal roofs can be purchased in a wide variety of colors. The sheets can be made to last longer and to be stronger by applying solutions, known as polymers, to their surface. This type of roof is much less expensive and also better in quality than other kinds of roofing on the market. For the benefits it provides it is certainly a great value for the money.
Source: Roofing Estimate
Thursday, 25 March 2010
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Drywall Installation Tools
Drywall installation seems like a simple task. You screw the sheets to the studs, then putty over the seams and sand it smooth. However, to perform this task, there is a bewildering array of drywall installation tools that you need to sort through to get the job done. A basic understanding of these tools before you begin will help you complete the job quickly and efficiently with a minimum of frustration and errors.
A drywall hawk is a metal platform with a wooden handle that holds putty or joint compound while you are plastering. An alternative to the drywall hawk is the 'mud bud,' a trough-like metal device that holds more compound than a drywall hawk and has less risk of spilling and splatting.
A drywall joint knife is a spatulate, flat-bladed knife used to apply drywall compound and smooth and finish seams. Drywall joint knives are available in a variety of sizes, from very small one-inch knives for applying compound in tight areas, to eight, ten, or twelve inch knives for smoothing the final coat of compound. There are even some available specifically for applying compound to corners, though the relative efficacy of these is debatable.
A drywall sander is a finely meshed screen that attaches to a long handle that allows easy sanding of cured drywall compound. These are also available in specialized adaptations to attach to vacuum cleaners to allow easy dust clean up.
A drywall saw is a long, coarse-bladed saw with a serrated edge used to cut small holes in drywall sheets to accommodate switches, electrical outlets, and other fixtures. These saws will perform drywall cuts with a great deal more efficiency than a utility knife, and have a number of other useful applications as well.
A drywall screw bit with depth gauge is a specialized attachment for a screw gun that will prevent the drywall screws from being set to too great a depth and damaging the drywall sheets. This is not a necessary tool, but is nice to have if you are going to be doing a lot of drywalling or are inexperienced with drywall in general. -
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