Times are tough and there is plenty you can do yourself around the home to keep more money in your pocket and gain some experience and confidence to tackle even more. In my 25 years in the home improvement business I have made many mistakes and had to pay for most of them. When you have to pay, you learn pretty quickly how to do things right. Here are some typical fixes that may be needed around your home:
Brown patches on your lawn. If you have a dog, then you know what I am talking about. Male dogs kill the flowers and bushes and female dogs kill the lawn. No matter what is causing the patches, here is how you bring them back. Scratch all the dead grass from the area and loosen the soil a bit with a garden rake. Then apply a seed mixture that is right for the area’s condition — sunny, shade or part shade. There are now seed mixtures that hold more moisture that work great; makers like Scotts and Pennington have these. Sprinkle the seed over the area and cover with peat moss. Water the area to moisten the seed and try to keep traffic off of it for about two weeks with some garden fence. Water every three days and your brown patch will be fixed.
Replace or repair a damaged piece of wood siding. Exterior improvements can get a lot worse if left unattended. Fixing them now can cost just a few dollars, but left unrepaired they can turn into hundreds and even thousands of dollars in repairs. If there are small areas that are rotted, you can patch those with some exterior grade wood putty. First remove the damaged area with a scraper or putty knife; be sure to remove any rotted or wet areas. If wet, let them dry, then apply the wood putty. There are many different brands — Dap, Elmer’s and Wood epoxy, to name a few. You apply it with a putty knife to build up the area; once dry, you sand it smooth. Then you can spot-prime the area with an exterior primer and touch up or paint the entire piece or section of siding. If the area is too big, you may want to replace the entire piece of siding. If you do not have extra siding (and who does?), consider removing a good piece that may be on the back side of the garage or behind some bushes. Use a hammer and pry-bar or screwdriver to loosen the good and bad piece. Swap locations and nail siding into place using galvanized No. 6 or No. 8 nails. These are intended for outdoor use; once installed you can spot-prime and paint. Make sure you align the siding with the rest of the panel; it’s easy, like putting together a puzzle.
Mildew or mold on the outside of your home. This one is EZ with a new product called Wet & Forget. This concentrate has been used Down Under for years and, when mixed with water and applied with a pump sprayer, the cleaner will do all the work. You can spray brick, concrete siding, canvas, almost any exterior surface. The cleaner works with the sun and the rain to eliminate mildew and mold from your home. You can learn more at WetandForget.com.
Summertime means a good game of catch — and one that got away and broke a window. Single-pane glass windows like those on a garage or basement window can be fixed for a fraction of the cost of calling a pro. First carefully remove the broken glass and any putty or clips that may have held the glass in place. Then measure the frame’s width and height. Subtract 1/8th of an inch from that measurement and then take that down to your local hardware store and they will cut you a piece of glass. That new piece fits into the frame and gets held in place with small metal pushpins. Then it gets finished off with window glazing. You apply that with a putty knife on an angle away from the frame and against the new glass — it’s a lot like decorating a cake.If you have more questions or need some additional information, please visit me at Housesmartstv.com