Category: Home Renovations

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Home Renovations

Why Drywall Repair is Important Before You Paint

Renewing, repairing your interior with a new coat of paint is a tremendously simple task, mainly if the drywall is in proper condition. However, if the drywall shows signs of damage, repairing it prior to painting is vital to get professional results.

Why Do Repair Drywall?

Beyond the apparent aesthetic problems, there are numerous reasons to get drywall repaired. Drywall has many features. However, one of the most crucial is to keep the factors out of your home. Holes and cracks may also let wind, construction residue, pests, insulation, and moisture into your house. Drywall damage also makes your home less energy efficient, as heat and air conditioning break out through damaged areas of drywall.

Holes

Repairing Drywall Holes

To repair holes in drywall, select a quality spackling compound for small holes and joint compound for large holes. With a putty knife, use the filler to cover the hole and spread it thinly around it. Allow the filler to dry and practice one more coat, without overloading. After the second layer has dried, use fine-grit sandpaper to clean the surface. Also, you could use self-adhesive drywall patches to repair holes up to six inches in diameter. In case the wall has multiple holes in it, the great thing to do is to replace the damaged section or the whole sheet. To replace a damaged part, reduce it down with a utility knife and remove it. Cut a corresponding piece of new drywall and use screws to attach it to the prevailing studs. Then, use a quick-drying joint compound to fill in any gaps among the new section and existing drywall, let the compound dry and sand the surface.

Loose Tape

Repairing Drywall Tape

Tape effervescent and lifting away from the wall surface is another well-known drywall hassle that needs to be repaired. Use knife to cut bubbles, dispose of the tape and fill the hole with joint compound. Use a new strip of tape and cover it with a thin layer of joint compound. Subsequent the synthesis dries out, sand imperfections away.

Water Damage

Block Water Leaks

In case of great water damage, the best solution is to replace the whole drywall sheet. If the structure of the wall hasn’t been compromised, you could look at drywall repair techniques. Before trying to repair drywall, finding and fixing the source of the damage is essential to prevent trouble recurrence. Once the critical repairs were made, allow the drywall to dry entirely and check its condition. If there are any water stains, use a very good-quality stain blocker to prevent stains from bleeding through the finish paint. To repair superficially damaged drywall, scrape off the loose layers of paint surfaces and topping compound, deal with the regions laid low with a mold with the anti-mold solution and allowed the drywall well. Then, apply a high filler over the repair area, let it dry completely and sand down any bumps with fine-grit sandpaper. If the water-damaged region is soft and spongy, it’ll most probably want to get replaced.

Hairline Cracks

Repair Cracks

Hairline cracks commonly appear at inner corners of walls. In this situation, drywall repair involves making use of acrylic latex caulk, which is flexible sufficient to resist the movement among adjacent walls.

Is Drywall Very Costly To Repair?

Never. For small holes, a patch may be made from another piece of drywall. That is fitted into the hole (that is frequently enlarged to contain the patch neatly), taped into place, applied coats of paint & primer, cemented, and refinished so that the repair isn’t visible.

In more significant damaged portions, the elimination of complete pieces of drywall can be done, however, new parts aren’t expensive, and the labor isn’t so hard or costly to break your budget.

Drywall repair is nearly never a huge task when you understand how easy and beneficial it is to repair your drywall problem, however, house owners sometimes worry that it’ll be.

Conclusion

Maybe it looks drywall repair an easy job that can be done on your own. But repairing your walls without any mess ups requires professionals even if it involves minor repairs. If you really need a long-lasting drywall repair and Interior painting results. Contact or Call our professionals at 416-410-0164 for a free estimate.

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Home Renovations

How do I keep my deck looking great?

Sitting out on the deck enjoying a drink or barbeque with friends is one of the quintessentially awesome things about summer. So keeping your deck in great condition is important. Regular maintenance will help to ensure that your deck lasts for many years and that many more great memories can be made there. It will also help you to catch any problems early and avoid more costly repairs down the road. A maintenance schedule can help keep you on track.

Late Spring – Cleaning

When you’re doing your spring cleaning, don’t neglect your deck. A dirty deck is more prone to mold and mildew. Clean debris from between deck boards using a putty knife, remembering to get into areas where deck boards cross joists. Then sweep and clean your deck with the appropriate cleaner. And remember when you use any chemical cleaner to protect surrounding plants with a cover, and wear your own protective clothing as well.

Late Spring – Sealing

Late spring is generally a good time for re-coating your deck following the instructions in question 7. The timing is good because the weather is dryer than it is in early spring but still not so hot as to make the job overly uncomfortable or to cause significant problems with evaporation.

Midsummer – Repair

Inspecting your deck at least once a year and repairing any minor issues is a good way to avoid major repairs down the road. When you get some days of warm, dry weather it is an ideal time to do some deck inspection. Typical problems areas that you’ll want to pay close attention to are any areas where there could be water buildup such as next to planters, downspouts or any area that is within six inches from the ground.

Look for signs of rot by probing structural areas with a flat blade screwdriver. You should not be able to push a screwdriver more than a quarter inch in – if you can, you likely have rot. If you discover very small areas of rot (no bigger than a silver dollar), these can be repaired by chipping out the rot and then repairing the hole with a wood preservative. Larger areas of rot will likely require replacement of the boards in question.

Of utmost importance in this annual inspection is to use a flashlight to inspect the ledger under the deck. The ledger is the piece of framing that attaches your deck to the rest of the house. Ninety percent of all deck collapses are the result of a faulty or damaged ledger.

The metal cap covering the top of the ledger (called the flashing) should be in good condition – no rust, no holes.

Check any remaining beams, joists and posts and replace any hardware that is badly rusted. If anything looks questionable, call a contractor to have it repaired. Finally, check the railing to make sure that is secure and that you won’t have a guest who inadvertently ends up in your rose bush when they put their weight on the railing. Loose railing connections can often be remedied with galvanized lag screws but if you are in doubt, call a contractor.

Early Fall – Preventative Maintenance

In Canada at least, fall your last chance in the season for washing and sealing if you didn’t get to it earlier in the year.

Other steps that you should take during this time are trimming nearby shrubby, sweeping away fall leaves moving planters to avoid moisture buildup.

There is no doubt that maintaining a deck requires work, but when you have deck that looks great for many years, it is clear that the effort is certainly worth it.

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Home Renovations

What are the steps to re-coating my deck?

Summertime is about barbeque parties and spending time with friends and family out on the deck. But if your deck is a few years old and it’s been a while since your last maintenance, it might be looking a little – well, sad. Between the cracks, chips and faded colouring, your deck just isn’t the pride and joy that it used to be.

Well, fear not, because as long as there is no serious damage, it is possible to make that old deck like new again.

The first step to re-coating a deck is to scrape off the old finish with. In most cases, the old finish will flake off fairly easily. Whatever does not come off with the scraper will be removed by the deck stripper. Once you have scraped off as much of the old finish as you can inspect the wood to make sure that nothing is rotten. Do not waste your time trying to clean or refinish anything that is rotten. Rotten wood needs to be replaced before you proceed with the rest of the job.

If there is nothing in need of repair, it is time to start using the deck stripper and deck cleaner.

The deck stripper is used first to remove any old finish that could not be flaked off with your paint scraper. And the cleaner is then used to ensure that you are working with a clean surface before applying a new finish.

There are two main types of deck cleaners. One type made either from powdered hydrogen peroxide or liquid oxalic acid is for removing dead wood fibers from the boards. The other type is bleach based and used for removing mildew.

When using cleaners, be sure to cover surrounding plants in order to protect them. Also remember to wear protective clothing yourself such as safety glasses, rubber boots, gloves, and long sleeves to protect your eyes and skin from any spattering stripper or cleaner.

The best time for stripping and cleaning is on cool overcast days. The reason for this is twofold. First of all, refinishing a deck is hard work meaning the hotter and stickier it is outside, the less comfortable you are going to be. Secondly, cleaners evaporate more quickly on hot days meaning you will have to use more and it will take longer.

When stripping, it is a good idea to work in small – about 6 foot – areas at a time. Doing so will make it easier to keep the area wet so the stripper won’t evaporate before you can finish scraping and cleaning it. You will have to take extra care when refinishing vertical surfaces such as railings, as the stripper will run down the side. The stripper should be in contact with the wood surface for about fifteen minutes before you remove it.

Your deck should be allowed to dry for a couple of days before sealer or stain is applied. Know more about how to stain a deck.

A semitransparent oil stain is the most recommended for railings because solid color stains are heavily pigmented, making your next refinishing job more difficult. Stain is not recommended on deck boards because it will show wear more quickly.

Finally, with your like-new deck, there is nothing to do but show off to your neighbors, invite your friends over for some summer beverages and enjoy your beautiful deck.