Ray's House Help » Walls

Simple And Easy Way To Clean Grout

Ray — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 14:49:31 +0000

Using a basic mold and mildew cleaner on your tube or shower grout occasionally will help keep your walls sanitary. But just your basic cleaning won’t get your grout to sparkle.

At least once a year you can try this to get that extra shine out of your bathroom grout. Just make yourself this cheap homemade grout cleaner. Spray a 50-50 solution of chlorine bleach ( Clorox ) and water onto the dirty grout. Just don’t try this on colored grout. Let it sit for 15 minutes. Using a grout brush wet with clean water, brush to remove excess bleach and build up. Blot up with a dry, clean cloth.
You can also water this solution down to a 25% bleach mix and wipe down the tile surface to give it an extra shine. More grout cleaning tips.

Freshaire Choice Zero-VOC Paint Review And Info

Ray — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 22:48:18 +0000

We now have a less expensive choice in Zero-VOC Paint with Home Depot now offering Freshaire Choice. According to the EPA, the air inside a home is, on average, two-to-five-times more polluted than the air outside. Paint is a large contributing factor to poor indoor air quality and can emit harmful chemicals, such as VOCs, for years after application.

Freshaire Choice paint holds back the VOCs with the help from tints are also zero VOC. It’s the first paint that can make this claim — on average, up to 150 grams of VOCs are added back into paint once the color is mixed. That means that even if you buy a boutique, all natural paint, as soon as you tint it to the color you desire, you just defeated all the work you put into locating and purchasing the paint (except for naturally pigmented paints, like clay paints).

Home Depot’s Freshaire tinting system uses pre-measured packets of dry tint that color the paint without adding any VOCs to the paint. This zero VOC system is an industry first. No other tint system for paint can make this claim. Another innovation is that the tint comes in a packet that dissolves into the paint completely. By using pre measured, standardized packets, Freshaire ensures consistent colors no matter when you buy more paint. The only drawback to the system is that you can only use the 65 colors that are currently available — so no custom matching.

Freshaire Choice Paint will be exclusively available at The Home Depot nationwide beginning now. The one-gallon containers will be sold at a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $35 – 38. The Freshaire Choice Paint product assortment consists of flat, eggshell and semi-gloss finishes, as well as drywall interior primer and ceiling paint.

The Good:
No VOCs – Great converge, some times only one coat needed. – Most of the time no primer is needed. – Good earth tone color selection.

The Bad:
The paint still gives off a stiff odor though not as painful a smell as standard paint. – The paint will easily peel from the surface. Be very careful when removing painters tape. – The tint packets do not completely melt into paint during mixing. – Ask Home Depot to pour out the tint from the packets or you may have clumps in your paint – Only 65 color choices.

How To Repair Drywall Video Easy DIY

Ray — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 21:10:38 +0000

Drywall, tough as it is, can withstand only so much abuse. A door swung open with too much force can produce a doorknob-size hole in the wall. This kind of damage looks bad, but even large holes are easy to fix.

What Is Insulation R-Value

Ray — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 00:49:37 +0000

What does the insulation’s R-Value mean?
Thermal resistance is the ability of a material to resist heat flow. That resistance is measured by an R-value. The greater the R-value, the more the insulation resists the movement of heat. A small percentage of newer houses are built with insulation that meets optimal standards but rarely are older homes up to par unless they have been upgraded with some newer type of insulation.

Minimum R-values recommendations for homes vary by climate and usually are affected by how a house is built and the type of heating system used. Here are a few rules of thumb:

For mild climates, R-11 in the walls and floors and R-19 in ceilings below ventilated attics.
For moderate climates, R-19 in the walls and floors and R-30 in ceilings below ventilated attics.
For cold climates, R-19 in walls and under floors and R-38 to R-49 in ceilings below ventilated attic spaces.