Renovation & Design
Renovation & Design
Don't let skeeters make themselves at home
A small layer of Fiberglas mesh is the only thing that keeps Canadians sane at this time of year.Look out any window at dusk and you'll see why. Hundreds of hungry mosquitoes patiently searching for the inevitable tear in your screens that will lead to the beginning of their blood feast as you sleep -- or try to sleep.
All this is why basic screen repair skills are useful.
Modern screen frames are made of a factory-painted extrusion (usually white or brown) that includes several key features.
First of all, its hollow shape is made to accept preformed 90-degree aluminum or plastic corner clips that hold any four-sided frame together.
Another feature is the narrow groove found in one face. This groove is made to accept a flexible strip of rubber or foam called a spline. The spline is pushed into it with the mesh lying over top during installation.
The mesh is not only held firm by the spline, but the action of it sinking down into the aluminum channel as you push it into place automatically tightens the mesh, creating a sag-free installation. Take a close look at your own screen frames and you'll see all the parts.
Screen repair supplies, including corner clips and replacement splines, aren't common items on hardware store shelves, but that doesn't mean you can't get them.
The best place to start looking is at a shop specializing in screen repair. Large, national hardware outlets also list screen materials in their catalogues, but they might have to order them.
Aluminum frame extrusion is typically sold in 12-foot lengths, in case you need to replace any damaged frame parts. This stuff can be cut with any carbide blade in a chop saw or table saw.
Mesh is sold off rolls of a fixed width, typically starting at 24 inches wide and working up.
There are two kinds of window screen mesh: aluminum and Fiberglas. Fiberglas is the best option for home repair because it combines low cost and good looks. It's also flexible, making installation much easier. Although not as tough as aluminum, Fiberglas mesh easily lasts a dozen years with care.
Start mesh replacement work by grabbing one end of the old spline with a pair of needle-nose pliers, and pulling it out from all around the frame. Throw out the old mesh. Next, cut a piece of new mesh that's about four centimetres longer and wider than the inside dimensions of your frame.
Place the frame on a large, flat surface with its spline channel facing upwards. Place the mesh on top. The objective is to orient the mesh so the leaf is parallel to the sides of the frame, then preserve this orientation as the spline is installed and the mesh pulled tight.
All of this is easier than it sounds because the mesh is stretchable and can veer out of alignment as you work along one side. Steering the installation of mesh is all about pulling it one way or the other with your hands in that area that's just in front of the point at which the spline is being pushed into place.
Take a length of spline material in your off-hand and an installation wheel (or wide-bladed stubby slot screwdriver) in your dominant hand and begin to push the spline into the groove with the mesh underneath. You'll immediately see how this action draws the mesh down and acts to tighten it as installation progresses.
Continue to work your way around the frame, always being conscious to keep the squares of the mesh parallel to the sides of the frame. When you've splined your way back to the starting point, cut the excess spline material to length so it butts tightly against the end where you started.
Use a fresh utility knife blade to trim away the excess mesh that extends beyond the spline.
Any hope held by those patient mosquitoes has now been well and truly dashed.
Steve Maxwell is Canada's award-winning home improvement expert. Sign up for his free homeowner newsletter at www.stevemaxwell.ca.
--Canwest News Service
Renovation & Design
Qualified plumber can help
QUESTION -- I recently purchased a new home and want to have the washing machine moved into the detached garage where the dryer is located. The problem is that the floor level in the garage is approximately 1.5 metres below the level of the house floor which is located about 11 metres away.I understand that it would be impossible for the discharge of water from the washing machine into a sewer connection under the house up hill and 11 metres away. Is there any solution to this problem?
ANSWER -- There are a couple of alternatives to your problem that come to mind, although we are reluctant to suggest one over the other for a lack of more specific information. What you might want to do is review both of these suggestions with a qualified plumbing contractor who can assist you in making a decision on which alternative best suits your situation.
The first solution involves connecting the new waste line from the washing machine into the existing sanitary sewer system at a point that is lower than and in reasonably close proximity to the garage. The fact that the house is higher than the garage doesn't exclude the possibility that the sewer that supplies your home is, at some point (between the house and the street or adjacent property), lower than the garage. If this happens to be the case, you're as good as washing clothes in the garage as we write these very words.
In the event that our first suggestion will not work in your case, then you should consider having a holding tank installed that your washer can discharge into. The holding tank accepts the waste water and upon reaching a certain level will automatically pump it up to a plane where the water can be discharged into the sanitary sewer system. Special back-flow devices must also be installed to prohibit the waste water from backing up into the holding tank. This system will also work for those of you who may be considering a shower in your basement.
-- Associated Press
Renovation & Design
Lettuce not forget to thin out seedlings
A new gardener, who is trying her hand at vegetable gardening, planted seeds of lettuce, carrot and radish. Now that they're all sprouting, she's not sure how many to leave growing and how many to thin out.In fact, she and her spouse are having a bit of a "discussion" about whether to thin at all.
Much as I hate to step into the middle of a family debate, you need to thin out the vegetable seeds that have sprouted.
Usually when we sow seeds directly into the soil, we sprinkle in a lot more than needed, in the belief that this will ensure a good crop. If most of the seeds germinate, the plants crowd each other. This is not a good thing.
Let's take the example of lettuce. If a lot of small plants are growing close to each other, none will ever develop into the normal full-sized head of lettuce that we want to harvest. If you think about the size of the mature plant, a lettuce can occupy a space anywhere from 15 to 30 centimetres across.
Your seedlings should really be thinned out in two separate operations.
The first thinning would take out everything except a few of the strongest seedlings, about 7 centimetres apart. Just pinch off or cut the unwanted ones at ground level.
This seems ruthless, but in time, you'll learn to spread fewer seeds in the first place.
Allow the plants you leave behind to develop for a couple of weeks until their leaves start to touch each other. At this point, use a trowel to transplant every other seedling to another row, spacing them 15 centimetres apart. You'll be leaving behind the alternate seedlings in a similar spacing.
Now you have a bed of properly spaced lettuce seedlings that will be able to expand to their full potential.
The same thing applies for carrots, radishes and anything else that you plant from seed.
Just imagine how much space each plant will take up when it's mature, and leave at least that amount of space between the seedlings.
The only exception to this rule is if you're planting what's known as mesclun. This is a mixture of several salad leaf crops, like arugula, spinach, chard, endive, mache, radicchio and sorrel.
Take some of each of these seeds and mix them up before sowing. Plant them in a rectangular patch rather than in rows, and sow the seeds close together, about 1.5 centimetres apart. Cover the sown seeds with a light sprinkling of sifted soil, and keep the area moist at all times.
Once the seedlings start to grow, harvest them right away by clipping off one section of the patch of the small tender leaves. Clip a different section every time you harvest, in rotation. This way, you give time for the previously harvested sections to grow.
The leaves never get a chance to get very large, partly because they are crowded and partly because you're clipping them frequently. The small leaves stay tender and provide a delicious mixture of sweet and tart tastes in a salad.
-- Canwest News Service
Renovation & Design
A guide to a thorough summer cleaning
Early summer is an excellent time to take on outdoor maintenance tasks that have been on the back burner awaiting warmer weather.Right about this time of year, we pull out our trusty pressure washer and go blasting around the house on a cleaning spree. Beyond a good sprucing up, a power washing will reveal cracks, gaps and wear-and-tear to tackle next.
Here's a guide to a thorough summer cleaning:
Pressure wash
A pressure or power washer uses water under high pressure to strip away grime on all sorts of surfaces. Sometimes you can combine bleach or other cleaning agents, but we find that water is all we need for most tasks.
Power washing a roof can be daunting and dangerous. Unless you work well with heights, we suggest that you hire someone to do the work for you. If you choose to take it on yourself, wear rubber-soled boots and use a safety harness securely anchored to the opposite side of the roof and your waist.
After the spray-down, your gutters will probably be filled with all sorts of muck from the roof. Since a power washer may be too powerful for this tight area, we suggest that you use a garden trowel along with a garden hose to thoroughly clean the gutters and downspouts. Use the garden hose as a snake to flush downspouts and drain pipes.
Next, move on to cleaning eaves, soffits, siding, windows and trim to remove grit, grime, spider webs and wasps nests. Work from the bottom up to prevent potential streaking and staining.
A pressure washing with water is all that will be needed for most siding. Vinyl siding may require a bit of detergent and water and some scrubbing with a nylon truck brush to remove oxidation or staining. Then rinse thoroughly. We like to leave the window screens in place for ease of cleaning and then, once clean, remove them to clean windows and frames.
Move on to power wash porches, patios, paths, decks, barbecues, outdoor furniture and other finishes that could benefit from a good cleaning.
Make repairs
Beyond a good sprucing up, a power washing will reveal cracks in stucco, gaps and bare spots in siding, loose mortar, deteriorating window screens and missing caulking. There's no better time to make these repairs:
Repair hairline cracks in stucco using an exterior-grade latex caulk. The secret is to slightly dampen the area with water and inject a small amount of caulk into the crack. Use an old paintbrush and water to remove excess caulk to prevent the caulking from appearing through the paint. We like to place texturing sand in the palm of our hand and blow it onto the surface of the fresh caulk to have it blend in more thoroughly to the surrounding finish.
Use a high-quality exterior caulk to fill in gaps in siding and around windows and doors. Less is more: Inject the caulking into the joint and remove the excess with a damp finger and/or sponge.
Remove any loose paint that may remain after the power washing by scraping or sanding. Fill in voids using an exterior grade vinyl spackling compound. Allow it to dry, then sand and prime with a high-quality exterior grade primer/sealer and apply a coat or two of finish.
Repair damaged or missing mortar using a mortar patch and a jointer -- a narrow trowel that gives mortar that smooth, uniform look. Be sure to dampen the mortar first to prevent dry mortar from drawing moisture out of the fresh mortar, which can result in cracking and poor adhesion. Seal the brick or stone and mortar with a high-quality exterior grade brick and stone sealer to prevent freeze and thaw damage in winter.
If your window screens were old and brittle, chances are good that pressure washing them all but destroyed them and rescreening is in order. If the frames are in good shape, all that is needed is new vinyl screen material and rubber spline -- the cord that holds the screen into the frame. Working on a flat surface, place the new screen material over the frame and push the spline material into the groove with a spline roller. Make sure the material is taught.
Finish up your cleaning frenzy with window washing. Never wash windows in the sun or in the heat of the day. We like using a touch of vinegar in warm water, and we have found newsprint to be the best wiping material. Here's a secret for streak-free windows. Wipe the inside of the windows vertically and the outside horizontally. If streaks do appear, you'll immediately know what side of the glass they are on and can readily eliminate them.
-- Associated Press
Renovation & Design
Bonsai pachira a tree that money grows on
The money tree used to be known as pachira aquatica, a popular plant as a bonsai. The bonsai pachira was developed by David Fukumoto, who planted them on Hawaiian lava rock, roots exposed, and sold them all over the world.Fukumoto regularly treated his plants with a fungicide and, as it happened, received a hot batch of fungicide that effectively wiped out his dream of dominating the popular bonsai market. Whatever was in that batch was to destroy all the work Fukumoto had accomplished over many years.
But a phoenix rose from the ashes in the 1990s when Fukumoto once again pooled resources and, with encouragement, again started up his business. Today, the tiny bonsai he created has developed into much more ambitious, more expensive products.
The money tree caught on as a novelty, however, and was brought back by enterprising growers in Asia in a braided trunk form with the common name of money tree.
It is native to wetland areas of Central and South America, where it flowers and bears fruit. The leaves, flowers, and fruit pods are all edible and the pods contain nuts tasting much like the peanut.
The flowers themselves are indeed showy; they are rather large, opening up in peeled-back petals revealing hair-like stamens that look like a paintbrush.
Most of the pachira are sold as small plants, but can grow 15 to 18 metres high in the wild. The pachira has made its way around the world and, in 1986, an enterprising truck driver living in Taiwan found these strange plants. He bought five and took them home, braiding them in a single flower pot. He began growing them from seed and cuttings and sold them as money trees. The popularity took off, and now many Asian businesses have them in their premises, hoping for good fortune.
The plant has proved to be good for the Taiwanese economy, with recent exports reportedly at $7 million. The trend is catching on in North America, too.
Pachira care is simple and the tree adapts well to many conditions. I've found the tree is somewhat of an anomaly because though it comes from swampy wetlands, it does poorly when overwatered in cultivation. It does best when allowed to dry slightly between waterings, and must have adequate drainage. Use fish fertilizer or kelp and seaweed for nutrition.
The tree loves the sun in winter, but tends to burn in the hot summer sun. Morning light is best; maintain regular household temperatures in cultivation.
Money tree, Malabar chestnut, Guiana chestnut, whatever it is named, the tree is truly a sight to behold. From the smallest of plants to the six-foot (1.8-metre) monster plants they turn into, the money tree will definitely raise eyebrows.
-- Canwest News Service
