Most paint removal or building cleaning is either done with harsh solvents or harsh blasted granules like sand. The solvents are not good for the environment, and the sand can remove important outer layers on materials like brick.We visited a cleaning/stripping company in Toronto, Ontario called...
Getting the adhesive or even old pressed down underpad off of floors is never easy. Not much of anything dissolves it, although you could try several different solvents.Start with hot water and soap--it just may be water soluble.If there is a clear varnish on the wood under that glue, you can us...
Before you try to paint the walls, you must properly prepare the wall and the most important step in that is probably to properly clean the walls of all the grease and smoke and dust that they collect over the years.Regular detergent tends to leave a soapy residue, even after careful rinsing, and...
Ralph from Red Deer Alberta sees the shadows of every 2x4 and every nail on the inside of the house not long after painting. I don't think he really wanted to hear that we call this "ghosting".\012\012Actually it is caused by thermal bridging; cold following the studs through the insulation and ...
Jim in Newfoundland has suggested using vegetable oil to remove paint from hands.Poor Phil, one of the guys who builds the props for the show, became our test subject. With dried oil paint all over his arm, he set about trying different ways of getting it off.The vegetable oil did pick up and re...
Carpet or tile adhesive can seem almost impossible to remove from a concrete or wooden floor, especially when it has been there for a long time. If you try sanding, it will heat up and clog up the sandpaper. If you wire brush it with a wire wheel on your drill, again if you let it heat up, it w...
One of our viewers caught our cameras in a home improvement centre and asked how best to finish off his long slow job of stripping a staircase of paint.If you sand too soon, you will waste a lot of sandpaper because it will simply clog up with melted paint.If you do the whole job with paint strip...
The nozzle on your can of spray paint is clogged up? Don't throw it away yet.Soak it overnight in solvent. Then use a needle or thin wire, like that inside the tie-wraps, to poke through the holes. Then spray some oil through it by using a spray can like WD-40, if the tips are compatible.If yo...
When the valiant handyperson manages to get machine grease on the rug while fixing the clothes dryer, like I did today, the immediate solution is to dampen a clean rag with hot water, put some concentrated liquid laundry detergent directly on the rag and work it into the grease. Clean the rag and...
When you want to take resin or glue off of drill bits and saw blades you don't want to use just any solvent to do the job.
In fact one of the resin cleaners that we hear about in DIY books is to use an oven cleaner. It certainly does remove burned on resin efficiently. Unfortunately it also eats...
