Renovation & Design
Renovation & Design
SOLUTIONS: Use cheap shampoo to clean your faucets
QUESTION: What can I do to have perfectly polished taps in my bathroom? I have tried vinegar and baking soda, but water droplet marks remain on them. This really bothers me because my clean bathroom doesn't really look clean. I appreciate your helpful tips. Cleaning Mom! Steinbach, MB
ANSWER: Clean your faucet with cheap shampoo. Bottled shampoo is designed to remove oils and grease from hair and it also works on other challenges. Scrub and rinse taps with an S.O.S pad. Next wipe your faucet with rubbing alcohol, they will sparkle. Optional tidbit: So that the faucet stays clean, pour a small amount of olive oil onto a soft cloth and wipe off ALL of the excess. Doing this will keep water from beading onto your faucet and leaving watermarks.
QUESTION: My swimming pool has a vinyl liner with bad mud stains on the bottom. These stains are a result of the Red River flood that spilt onto my pool last spring. Supply companies sell very expensive products that claim to remove the stains but do not divulge the ingredients. Do you know of an economical way of removing these Red River mud stains? The stain remover must be applied while the water is still in the pool, because if the pool is emptied, the vinyl liner will contract and tear upon refilling the pool. Jim, Winnipeg, MB
ANSWER: I am quite sure that chlorine bleach would be a key ingredient in these products. If I were you I would request the company's MSDS. A Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) is designed to provide workers and emergency personnel with the proper procedures for handling or working with a particular substance. As a consumer you have the right to ask for the MSDS. The company is not obligated to provide you with this information, but in many cases they will.
Most ordinary household products that are diluted with a large amount of water are either too weak to be effective or too acidic and can damage the lining. You are best off dealing with professionals and asking if your insurance will cover some of the expense.
Note: If you have experienced this challenge and have helpful advice for Jim please e-mail me at: householdsolutions@mts.net
QUESTION: We have rust in our dishwasher that is coming from the rack. It has chips on a few places where the plates are most frequently placed. Is there a way we can put something over the chipped areas on the dishwasher rack? We have started placing the plates facing the other direction, so they rest on unchipped areas of the rack, but it would be great to cover the small rusty areas. You have a great column! We read it every weekend. Thank you very much. Jan, Brandon, MB
ANSWER: Scrub rusted areas in the dishwasher using an S.O.S pad. Rinse and dry. Check out your local home hardware store and purchase dishwasher rack repair solution. Apply this to the chipped areas according to the directions on the container. Allow rack to dry for 24 hours. Purchase rack caps and position them to complete repair (these inexpensive caps are available wherever dishwashers are sold).
Feedback from Readers:
I believe you have made an error in your answer to the question about painting a ceiling. You cannot put latex directly over oil. The only way is to use a primer first. The primer may be either latex or oil. Enjoying your books. David, Winnipeg
Hi David, It used to be that one could not apply latex over oil but with new paints on the market such as Aura by Benjamin Moore you no longer have to prime. However, I agree with you that in order to prepare for a great, long-lasting finish it is better to prime first. I really appreciate your comment and thank-you for taking the time to write.
Fabulous Holiday Tips:
* Freezing freshly baked cookies: Bake cookies and cool on rack for a few hours so that moisture is released before storage. If you store freshly baked cookies in an air tight container, they may be soft and crumbly and won't keep very well. Freeze cookies by lining a festive holiday cookie tin with wax paper. Seal cookies between wax paper layers inside tin. The top layer should be wax paper. Put tins inside of a clean, lidded garbage can. Leave outside. Stays fresh for at least four weeks. Best part is the family won't be able to find the Christmas baking until it's served.
* Filling Jam Cookies and Donuts: If you don't have cake decorating bags or tips, a turkey baster is a good substitute. Squeeze baster to remove all air. Place in jam jar; then depress and release the bulb to load the tube. Dispense the jam onto each cookie, or into donuts, using the bulb to control the flow.
* Make boxed Christmas cards extra special by printing your favourite recipe and pasting it to the inside of each card. Keepsake for life and every time someone makes the recipe they will think of you.
I enjoy your questions and tips, keep them coming!
Reena Nerbas is the author of the national bestselling Household Solutions series. Her website is www.householdsolutions.org. You can contact her at Box 429, Blumenort, MB., ROA 0C0.
Renovation & Design
SOLUTIONS: How to remove mildew from stored linens
QUESTION: I am going through items stored for several years in unheated conditions. Some of the linens I would love to keep but they smell so musty... mildew etc. Can I wash them with Detol or bleach or something to get the smell out? Someone also suggested putting them in a closed tub with carbon filters. What is the easiest or most efficient solution that you can suggest? Thank you so much in advance. Lesley, Winnipeg
ANSWER: Place linens into a hot bath of water and four cups of washing soda (available in laundry departments of grocery stores). Let soak for two hours. Rinse with hot water and hang outside for a few hours. If the temperature outside is below freezing you will have an even better chance of success. Bring fabrics inside to dry.
QUESTION: How can I get milk stains off of my kitchen ceiling? So far we've tried soap and water, vinegar and water; I don't know why they won't come off. I can see them as soon as I walk into the kitchen-family room area. Will they ever come off? Yours truly, Angie (East St. Paul)
ANSWER: Sometimes using certain types of soap will actually set stains making them impossible to remove. Attempt to terminate the stain with the following recipe: Into a spray bottle combine a solution of: 1 tsp. Dawn dish soap, one quarter cup rubbing alcohol, half-cup 3 per cent hydrogen peroxide and fill the remainder of the bottle with water. Spray the solution onto the ceiling and blot the area. Let dry. Don't rub; doing so may cause the paint to peel. Administer three applications. If the stain remains, paint the area with flat white paint. Use remainder of spray bottle solution to clean your windows before winter officially arrives.
QUESTION: I can't find the answer to my quandary in any of your books. What size Christmas tree skirt should I purchase; my tree is about six feet tall? Thanks, Samson (Kleefeld)
ANSWER: The size is a matter of personal preference. Tree skirts were originally intended to catch falling needles; therefore skirts would need to be at least as wide as the tree. However, with artificial trees these days, tree skirts are mainly decorative and serve to cover the tree stand. Instead of a purchasing a tree skirt you can make your own: drape a large piece of chiffon around the base or cut out felt fabric and decorate it with sequins and ribbon to encircle the base of the tree. Another option is to sew a long-lasting, heavy-duty, washable tree skirt by patching together denim squares.
QUESTION: I burnt a neck warmer in my microwave. Now it smells. How do I get rid of the smell? Donna (Rosenort)
ANSWER: Here are a few tricks to tackle this quandary: You can either: heat lemon juice or vinegar in the microwave until it boils over and then wipe out the interior. Or combine into a bowl; vanilla and water and heat until it boils over or another option is to combine lemon slices, vinegar, vanilla, dish soap and water in a bowl and heat. Alternatively combine and heat baking soda and water. If the odour persists, store coffee grounds in a bowl in the microwave to absorb lingering smells. All the best!
Feedback from Readers:
Dear Reena,
There was a huge hornet on the ceiling of my family room; I didn't know what to do. Then I remembered in one of your books you said to use hairspray to spray their wings because it freezes them, I did it and it worked! I managed to capture him and send him down the toilet without injury (to me) so I was very relieved! Anonymous
Fabulous Tip of the Week:
Table Centrepiece/Christmas Candle Cookies:
If you don't have time to bake but still want to present an interesting holiday table centrepiece, here is a hot idea. Purchase the following: large flat gingerbread cookies, smaller cookies that have a hole in the centre, rolled wafer cookies. Make a simple icing by stirring together 1 teaspoon water and 5 tablespoons confectioners' sugar. Use dots of icing to attach the smaller cookie with the centre hole onto the larger cookie. Dab icing on one end of a rolled wafer cookie and press it into the center of the small cookie. For the candle flame, halve a mini marshmallow diagonally, dip the sticky side of one half into orange coloured sugar, and attach the "candle flame" with icing to the rolled wafer cookie. Spoon a few wax drips of icing down the candle's sides and use red decorating gel to embellish the base.
I enjoy your questions and tips, keep them coming!
Reena Nerbas is the author of the national bestselling Household Solutions series. Her website is www.householdsolutions.org. You can contact her at Box 429, Blumenort, Man., ROA 0C0.
Renovation & Design
ASK THE INSPECTOR: Wall stains in church may be from candles
QUESTION: Our church worship hall has exterior walls around the entire area. It is an extremely large space with room for over 600 people to be seated. The worship area is painted white. On the exterior walls you can see a faint dark line where each stud is behind the wall. We were thinking of repainting the walls but for a space this large it is quite a costly undertaking.
Do you think this condition is manifesting itself due to inadequate insulation or vapour barrier? If we paint the space, do you think in a few years we might be facing the same problem?
Thanks, Frank Conway, Winnipeg
ANSWER: The issue you are seeing on the inside of the exterior walls of your church may be due to building envelope defects typical of many older buildings, which are not normally easy to rectify. I will provide you with an explanation of the phenomenon and some things to avoid that may help, but remediation may be difficult and costly.
The good news is that the "shadows" on the walls are primarily cosmetic and rarely are a sign of any significant defect in the wall system. These vertical lines can be quite common and are simply due to specific areas where particles in the air in the building adhere to the wall. These particles are not attracted to the surrounding area, so the dark discolouration appears as lines only in these specific sites.
You are correct that this phenomenon normally appears only where the studs are installed. The reason for this is primarily due to "thermal bridging", which is caused by a direct connection of the wood or steel studs in the outside walls to the exterior siding. This will cause the entire stud to be slightly cooler than the surrounding wall cavity, which may be moderately insulated. Even with decent insulation and a polyethylene air/vapour barrier, this can still occur.
Because the studs are colder than the surrounding wall, this thermal bridging can also extend through, and make the drywall or plaster covering these areas cooler. The cooler wall may attract more airborne particles than the surrounding, warmer wall surface.
The airborne particles may be fine dust, smoke, or dirt that normally is carried throughout the building by the forced-air heating system. These particles will be darker in colour than the white walls in your sanctuary, so they will appear as shadows or dark lines.
I've been aware of the cause of this phenomenon for quite some time, but always thought the particles in the shadows were sticking to the walls due to condensation on the cooler surface. This may not necessarily be the case. I read an article a while back, authored by a physicist, who explained this issue at a molecular level. He said that fine particles in the air would adhere to cooler surface of walls because the lower temperature causes subatomic particles (electrons) to move slower than on the surrounding wall surface. These slower molecules would then "plate out" on the slightly cooler surface, whereas the warmer ones would simply keep moving and not stick to the warmer sections.
Further details on this were beyond my level of comprehension, but the theory seemed to make sense to me. This theory seemed more valid than that of condensation because the temperature difference may not be great enough to cause that to occur.
My own experience has shown that this wall staining can happen in one area of a home or building and not in others. I typically see it in areas like family rooms where vaulted ceilings and fireplaces are present. I also have observed it in homes with heavy smokers. Other colleagues of mine from across the country have found this happening in homes where candles are frequently burned.
Because of all these observations, I feel that one of the main variables is a high concentration of smoke particles in the air in buildings where this is seen. These smoke particles may indeed be highly susceptible to the subatomic effects described by the physicist, and plate out more frequently due to the nature of the dissolved smoke particles in the indoor air.
Following this reasoning, it's possible that your church is seeing the "shadows" occurring due to smoke particles in the indoor air. Because indoor smoking in all public places has been banned in Manitoba for several years, and I doubt that there is a wood-burning fireplace in the church sanctuary, I would suspect that the smoke may be coming from candles. If your congregants or clergy regularly burn large numbers of candles, which burn at a fairly cool temperature and emit black, carbon-rich smoke, this may be the source of the dirty air particles.
It may be possible to paint the inside of the walls of your church with a good primer and highly washable paint that will be easy to clean, but that may not prevent future staining. Without major renovations, the thermal bridging will continue and the shadows may return.
If my theory about the candles is correct, addressing that issue with better ventilation in the areas where they are used may help more than re-painting. Washing the walls, if they are not coated with flat-finish paint, may minimize the shadow effects by removing the excessive particles at a much lower cost than painting.
Ari Marantz is the owner of Trained Eye Home Inspection Ltd. and the President of the Canadian Association of Home & Property Inspectors - Manitoba (www.cahpi.mb.ca). Questions can be emailed to the address below. Ari can be reached at (204) 291-5358 or check out his website at www.trainedeye.ca.
trainedeye@iname.com