Hour 1
Hardwood Floor Sleuthing
Elizabeth just found the plans for her sixty-year-old house and was encouraged to discover it should have oak flooring under the ugly carpet. She wants to know how to confirm that it’s hardwood and what the pros and cons are of refinishing it.
The best way to confirm the type of flooring underneath carpet is simply to pull it up in a corner, usually in a closet. Grab it with a pair of pliers and pull back. Unfortunately, until every square foot is uncovered you won’t fully know the condition. So, before you pull it up be prepared to pay for a complete sand and refinish.
Shower Mildew Solution
Jeff says he has to re-caulk his fiberglass shower every couple of years because of mold growth or it simple disappears. He wants to know what kind of caulk he should use to reduce or eliminate this problem.
The best kind of caulk for a tub or shower enclosure is typically a 100 percent silicone formula. However, it is important make sure the surface is completely dry before you apply it. Otherwise, the trapped moisture can grow mildew beneath the caulk.
Silicone is however a little more difficult to smooth out because water isn’t an effective solvent for it. The solution is to spray the freshly applied caulk with denatured alcohol before you smooth it out with your finger.
Hour 2
Bubbling Paint on Basement Walls
Nancy from Michigan has paint bubbling up on the walls in her basement. There are also small rust colored and black spots that may be mold. But she’s puzzled because there is no visible moisture on the walls or floors. She wants to know how to treat those walls before re-painting them.
It actually takes very little moisture to create the kind of problem Nancy is experiencing so it’s not odd that she isn’t seeing evidence. The solution is to remove as much of the bubbled paint as possible and then seal the walls with a waterproofing sealer like Drylok* before recoating the walls with latex paint.
Recommendations for Your Halloween Decorations
For some people Halloween is their favorite holiday because they love the costumes and the scary decorations. So we asked the experts at The Home Depot for some of their best decoration recommendations*.
Skeletons are big this year. But they are also small too. You can find them in sizes from three feet to thirteen feet in whatever style suits your taste. Disney themed decorations are also popular. From an inflatable six-foot Ursula and an enormous Jack Skellington to a seasonal Yoda that can be converted from a Halloween decoration to a Christmas decoration.
Best New Products
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Simple Solutions
Tennis Ball Scuff Remover—To remove scuffs marks from floors, take a tennis ball and rub the scuff mark. The fuzzy exterior of the ball will easily erase any black marks made by the heels of shoes and boots. For an extra convenience, use a utility knife to cut an X into the ball so you can stick the ball onto the end of your broom handle. That way you can de-scuff the floors without bending over.
Paint Drips Strike Out—Minimize messy drips when painting directly from a can by creating a strike wire. Cut a length of wire from a clothes hanger and bend each end at 90º. The distance between the two bent ends should equal the outside diameter of the paint can. Next, set the wire onto the open paint can and secure each end with a strip of duct tape. Now, dip your paintbrush into the paint and then wipe, or strike off, the excess paint by wiping the bristles against the wire.
