Home Maintenance For Dummies, 2nd Edition

by Carey, James

  Portable and self-contained lighting: You need flashlights, extra batteries, candles, a disposable butane lighter, and waterproof matches.

  A radio: How else will you hear the all clear?

  When disaster is upon you

  When your castle comes under siege from any of Mother Nature’s natural marauders, three defensive maneuvers should take place in rapid succession:

  1. Go to your safe place.

  Have a safe place ready in the home, such as a windowless room in the basement, and stock it with emergency survival supplies, including first-aid equipment, a radio, bottled water, and emergency food provisions. (See the nearby sidebar, “Your emergency preparedness kit.”)

  2. Stay in your safe place until you get the all clear.

  That’s why you need the radio with functioning batteries! A portable phone (with extra batteries) can also come in handy at this stage.

  3. Check for damage.

  First, check the status and well-being of your family members and nearby neighbors. Then begin a thorough home inspection to ascertain any damage that may create larger problems.

  Check especially for damaged power lines and dangerous gas leaks, which can cause fire and explosions. Next, check for electrical-system damage and downed power lines. If you see sparks, note exposed wiring, or smell overheated insulation on wiring, shut off the electricity at the main circuit breaker or fuse box. If water is present, be careful not to make contact if you suspect it may be electrically charged.

  Also, ascertain any damage to water pipes and sewer drain lines. If they’re damaged, turn off the main water-supply valve, avoid drinking any tap or well water, and don’t flush toilets or let water drain from bathtubs, showers, and sinks.

  Well in advance of any natural emergency, you should know where your valves and circuit breakers are located. Make sure that you know how to turn off all major supply lines, and show your family members how to do this, too. Many hardware stores and home centers sell an inexpensive combination dual-emergency wrench designed specifically for quick gas and water shut-offs.

  For more information on disaster preparedness and recovery, go to the American Red Cross Web site at www.redcross.org.

  Putting things back together

  Follow these general guidelines for getting back underway after an emergency:

  Deal cautiously with structural damage, watching for physical dangers (everything from broken glass and nails to water and wet surfaces that may be electrically charged after power resumes). According to the American Red Cross, after drowning, the biggest flood killer is electrocution. Report downed power lines to your utility company or emergency management office.

  Use a flashlight to inspect for damage. Don’t smoke or use candles, lanterns, or open flames unless you know that the gas has been turned off and the area has been aired out.

  Prevent deadly carbon-monoxide poisoning by using a generator or other gasoline-powered machine outdoors and away from the home. The same goes for camping stoves and charcoal grills.

  Don’t use appliances or motors that have gotten wet unless they’ve been taken apart, cleaned, and dried. Some appliances, such as television sets, keep electrical charges even after they’ve been unplugged.

  Watch for snakes and wild animals that have been flooded out of their homes. They may seek shelter in yours.

  Discard contaminated foods and kitchen and bath products, and boil drinking water until you’re absolutely sure it’s entirely safe to drink.

  Pump out flooded areas in your home as soon as possible to avoid permanent damage to the house frame. Be sure to pump out your basement slowly over the course of several days to prevent the basement walls from caving in due to the excessive amount of pressure being placed on the walls from water-logged soil on the opposite side.

  If hardwood floors get soaked, mop up excess water and debris immediately and dry the floors slowly to reduce warping. Don’t use heat for drying. (Drying finishes out too quickly can cause warping, buckling, and cracking that can otherwise be avoided if finishes are allowed to dry more slowly.) Open windows and doors and allow finishes to air-dry. Rent a high-volume fan such as those used by professional carpet cleaners to hasten the air-drying process.

  If carpeting gets soaked, pick up excess water with a wet/dry vac or carpet-cleaning machine, slowly peel back wet carpet, and discard the padding. Set up a box fan or two to completely dry the area. In most cases, carpets can be cleaned and reused; just the padding needs to be replaced.

  Have a pro check all plumbing and service your septic tank.

  Call your insurance agent immediately to get the financial part of the recovery process underway.

  After immediate dangers are dealt with and relatively under control, take photos to record all damage to your home and its contents for insurance purposes. All too often, this only comes to mind once cleanup and repairs are well underway.

  Part V

  Out in the Great Wide Open

  In this part . . .

  The tale of Zorro and his mastery of swordsmanship has always thrilled us. That’s probably why we got into construction — we had to find some way to be good at fencing.

  Maintaining the inside of your home is only part of the equation. Outdoors there’s more: the patio, driveway and walkways, decking, trellises, and, yes, fencing.

  In this part, we show you how to care for everything outside, including patching, puttying, painting, staining, oiling, and caulking — tasks that add life and beauty to the outside of your home. And remember, Zorro did most of his fencing outdoors, too.

  Chapter 17

  Walkways, Patios, and Driveways

  In This Chapter

  Keeping concrete drives, paths, and patios clean and looking good

  Repairing concrete steps

  Painting and staining concrete

  Cleaning masonry and stone

  Rumor has it that Jimmy Hoffa’s career ended one evening while wearing cement slippers. And because he hasn’t been found, we can assume that the guys who mixed the concrete knew exactly what they were doing. But then again, they probably weren’t too worried about the quality of their work. Most homeowners, however, are worried about the quality and condition of their concrete; specifically, they’re concerned about cracks. Cracks are caused by ground movement — and that’s what damages most concrete.

  Although concrete bears the brunt of the traffic around most homes, masonry (brick and stone) often is used instead of, or in addition to, concrete for paths, patios, and walkways. And when they’re not used on the ground, brick or stone almost always can be found as a decorative element on homes. Moreover, because concrete, brick, and stone are similar in composition, the materials and techniques used to clean and preserve one of them can, more often than not, be used to clean and preserve the others, so we’ve put them together in this chapter.

  Whether your carport is concrete or your patio brick, cleaning, repairing, and sealing make them look good and last a long time.

  Cementing Your Relationship with Concrete

  This may come as a surprise to you: Your sidewalk, driveway, patio, and paths are not made of cement. Instead, they’re made of concrete, which contains cement — Portland cement to be exact. Basic concrete is a mixture of rock, sand, and cement. In combination with the oxygen in water, the three dry elements bond together to make good old-fashioned concrete. You know, the stuff with cracks — the cracks you’re always trying to patch.

  By the way, although Portland cement was purportedly invented by Joseph Aspdin, a builder in Leeds, England, who obtained a patent for it in 1824, the use of cementing materials goes back to the ancient Egyptians and Romans. It is said to have been dubbed “Portland cement” due to its resemblance to limestone found on the Isle of Portland, England.

  The following sections explain how to perform common concrete maintenance and repair tasks.

  Cleaning off grease and oil stains

  You probably let your vehicle rest in a g
arage, carport, or driveway when you’re not driving it. Depending upon the mechanical condition of your vehicle, oil and grease spots soon begin to decorate the concrete in these areas. If this situation sounds familiar, you’ll be pleased to know that we have a clean-up formula for you — a couple of formulas actually, depending upon the severity of the stains. In either case, wait until the area is shaded to prevent the cleaning solution from drying out too quickly.

  Plan A: Using our Soda-Pop Concrete Stain Remover

  This first formula may cause your neighbors to wonder whether you’re playing with a full deck of cards. However, you’ll soon be the envy of the neighborhood when you have the cleanest driveway on the block.

  Gather the following items:

  A small bag of cat litter

  A few cans of a cola beverage (diet or regular)

  A nylon brush or stiff-bristle broom

  A mixing bucket

  Powdered laundry detergent (ammonia free)

  Liquid chlorine bleach

  Eye protection and rubber gloves

  A garden hose and running water

  Then follow these steps:

  1. Completely cover the grease or oil with a thin layer of the cat litter and grind it in using the soles of your shoes.

  2. Sweep up the cat litter and pour on enough cola beverage to cover the entire area.

  Don’t just throw the oil and grease-laden cat litter in the garbage can — dispose of it as you would used motor oil, paint, or other potentially hazardous chemicals. If you’re not sure how to dispose of such materials, call your local waste-management company for advice about the rules in your area.

  3. Work the cola into the affected area with a scrub brush or bristle broom, making sure to keep the entire area damp with cola. Then leave it on for about 20 minutes or until it has stopped fizzing, but don’t permit it to dry.

  4. Rinse off the cola with fresh water.

  You should see a gray stain.

  5. Scrub the gray stain with a solution of 1 cup liquid chlorine bleach, 1 cup powdered laundry detergent, and 1 gallon of very hot water.

  Make sure the detergent you use is ammonia free. Mixing ammonia with bleach creates a lethal gas, similar to mustard gas.

  Plan B: Muriatic acid

  If Plan A (see the preceding section) doesn’t do the trick, then it’s time to bring out the big gun — muriatic acid. Make a solution of one part muriatic acid to nine parts water, adding the acid to the water (not the other way around).

  Working with muriatic acid is dangerous! Wear eye protection, put on rubber gloves to protect your hands and arms, and make sure that there’s plenty of ventilation. Do not attempt this project when children or animals are present.

  After you carefully mix the acid solution, follow these steps:

  1. Pour the solution over the area and work it in using a nylon scrub brush or stiff-bristle broom.

  Be careful not to splash — you don’t want to damage the surrounding area.

  2. Flush the entire area with fresh water after the solution has stopped fizzing — about ten minutes.

  More than one treatment may be necessary for those stains that only professional race-car drivers can appreciate.

  By the way, just before you clean your concrete is the perfect time to get that leaky engine fixed!

  Cleaning up mildew: No slip slidin’ away

  Mildew is a fungus that grows as a surface mold on virtually any material (inside and outside of the home). Dormant mildew spores are in the air almost everywhere, and all they need to develop and prosper is a warm, damp environment, which they often find on your concrete.

  In addition to its potential for causing falls, its unsightly appearance, and its often fierce odor, medical studies have shown that mildew can cause a variety of physical ailments as well, including respiratory problems, headaches, nausea, fevers, backaches, high blood pressure, and fatigue.

  Many years ago, we discovered a foolproof formula to clean off mildew on all kinds of surfaces. This formula was developed by the same agency that gave us the $750 toilet seat — the U.S. government! Actually, credit should go to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Products Laboratory. Although this formula has no problem zapping mildew on concrete, it can also be used on any (non-colorfast) painted or washable surface, inside or outside.

  To use this all-surface, easy mildew remover, follow these steps:

  1. Add 1 quart liquid chlorine bleach to 3 quarts warm water; then add 1/3 cup powered laundry detergent.

  Even though this solution is mild, make certain to wear safety goggles and rubber gloves, and have plenty of ventilation.

  Use ammonia-free detergent. You never want to mix bleach with ammonia because the combination of the two creates a lethal gas.

  2. Apply the solution to the affected areas using the broom.

  Leave the mixture on long enough for the black or green stains to turn white, but don’t allow it to dry — 15 minutes should be long enough.

  3. Rinse the entire area with fresh water.

  Ponding water is a primary source of mildew, so to prevent the return of mildew, make sure that you have good drainage off of your concrete surfaces. And because sunlight is a major enemy to mildew, prune and thin trees and shrubbery that shelter concrete surfaces. Proper cleaning helps fight the battle against mildew, while taking preventive steps helps win the war!

  Turning up the pressure clean

  When tough stains aren’t the issue, and you just want to give your concrete a good once-over cleaning, use a pressure washer to eliminate the required elbow grease. You can clean just about anything with a pressure washer, including roofing, siding, window screens, decking, fencing, cars, boats‚ even concrete! You name it, a pressure washer will blast it clean.

  Today, most home-improvement retailers stock a full line of pressure washers that range from what we classify as “toys” to heavy-duty, industrial-strength models. For a few hundred dollars, you can get all the power you need. When shopping for a pressure washer, consider the following:

  The means by which the tool is powered — either by gas or electricity: We prefer the freedom that the gas models offer; they eliminate the need to string electrical cords, especially when working in the back-40, pressure-washing a fence. The disadvantage of a gas model is that you need to fuss with gasoline and oil.

  How much power you want: Pressure washers are rated in cleaning units, or CUs. The more cleaning units, the more powerful the machine. A CU rating of 2,000 to 9,000 units is ample for virtually any do-it-yourself household-cleaning task.

  Patching cracks

  Aside from sprucing up the exterior appearance of your house, repairing cracks and holes in concrete also prevents water damage and improves safety. Cracks in concrete can allow water to travel into areas where it isn’t invited — like a crawlspace or your basement, which can wreak havoc. Furthermore, cracks, potholes, and uneven concrete are notorious causes of nasty falls. Did you ever stop to think that a little concrete maintenance could keep you out of court as the defendant in a personal-injury case?

  Frequently, extensive or severe cracks in concrete are the result of a soil condition that needs attention. For example, an inordinate amount of water may exist in the soil beside or below a path or foundation, causing the soil to expand and the concrete to crack. All the cosmetic crack repairs in the world won’t correct a drainage problem like that, one that probably will result in more severe damage if left uncorrected. Address excessive moisture due to over-watering or poor drainage before making any crack repairs. Standing water, mold- and mildew-laden walls and siding, cracks in walks and walls, and difficult-to-open doors and windows are telltale signs of poor drainage.

  After you take care of any long-standing drainage needs, turn to Chapter 4 for instructions on patching concrete using one of our favorite tools — vinyl concrete patch.