Painting
Soak your hands in salad oil after completing an oil painting job. The oil will help release the paint from where it has splattered on your hands. Salad oil smells better and is a lot safer than the typical cleanup choices of mineral spirits or kerosene.
When considering what home improvement project to do, stay away from home repairs unless they are absolutely necessary. Things like painting the interior or exterior of your home have no impact on the value of your residence. Spend your time on other projects that will give you a better return for the money you spend.
How to paint a panel door. The order of painting a panel door is quite important if you want to get a professional look. First, paint any moldings, followed by the recessed panels. Next, paint the horizontal areas, and finally the vertical areas. Always use smooth strokes, following the grain of the wood. After the first coat has dried, rub the door with fine sandpaper, wipe clean, and apply a second coat.
If you plan on painting your inside walls, ceiling, or door a dark color, tin the white primer close to the color you plan on using. You can find tints at most hardware stores for most types of paints. Tinting the primer will save you a coat or two of painting.
After you have finished the painting part of your home improvements, it is important to clean up properly. If you used latex paint, all you need to clean up is soap and water. If your surfaces were painted with alkyd paints, you will need paint thinner to clean the brushes and gear that you used to do the job. Remember to not pour paint thinner or excess paint down the drain since it can lead to ground-water pollution. Both paint thinner and excess paint needs to be disposed at a toxic waste collection facility.
Before you decide to paint a wall that was previously covered with glossy paint, you should first use a good primer to prime the walls. This helps the paint adhere to the wall better and prevents the new paint from peeling. Using a primer is essential if you are switching a dark wall to a lighter shade, since you won't need as many coats of paint.
A common homeowners mistake is to settle for the current colors and paint scheme in their homes. They may choose schemes due to lack of experience since they didn't consider their home's value. Select vivid combinations, and you will be amazed by the difference.
When painting your home, it is important to do it on a day when it is not raining. The moisture in the air could cause the paint to take longer to dry. This means that there is more of a chance that the paint will become damaged. It is best to wait to paint until two days past rain.
Drywall
Want to save a coat or two of paint? When you paint wood or drywall that needs to be primed first tint the primer to match your final paint color. By tinting the primer you will reduce the amount of coats you need to paint the surface by a coat or two.
When removing cabinets as part of a kitchen remodel, make sure you don't just unscrew and yank them off the wall. You will more than likely end up taking some or all of the drywall off with you. Take time and care to remove each and every screw, and use a utility knife around the edges to break the caulking that was most likely used to seal between the cabinet and the wall.
To repair a larger hole in your walls, use sheet rock. First make the hole into a uniform square or rectangle by cutting away a measured area. Doing this will make the hole bigger, but will allow you to get exact dimensions for repair. Then cut a piece of sheet rock that is the same size as the square or rectangle you just cut from the wall. Place the newly cut piece of sheet rock in the hole and secure in place with drywall nails. Then apply joint compound to the seams. Cover the seams with joint tape, then apply another layer of joint compound and smooth it out. When dry, paint over it with any color.
Drywall mud can be used not only for repair of pocks and holes, but also to add some visual depth to your walls as a texture agent. It is easy to texture walls. Simply apply the mud with a trowel and utilize a stiff brush, sponge or a crumpled bag to add texture to the surface.
Fix a nail that's popped partially out of your wall covering with a couple of drywall screws! Insert a drywall screw a few inches above the offending nail and another a few inches below. This will pull the drywall or other wall covering back into the wall stud so that you can hammer the nail back into place without blemishing your wall. Paint the visible nail and screw heads and you're done!
Fix floor squeaks with a few drywall screws. While a second person waits below in the crawl space or basement, walk over your floor and locate where the squeaking is occurring. Signal to the person below where the problem is. They can insert a drywall screw through the sub floor and into the flooring to stop the squeak.
If you notice that you are starting to get large cracks in your drywall, it is time to do some handy work. Fixing the cracks won't cost you a lot of money, and it will make your walls look fresh and new. Once you fix the cracks, the value of your home and the pride you have in it will go up.
See, improving your home is more than just huge home improvement jobs. It really can be any kind of endeavor you want it to be. If you could only do large projects, there wouldn't be home improvement stores open where you buy supplies. You should feel ready to get started and use your new knowledge of the endeavor.
