Improve the Curb Appeal of Your Home This Summer

Great Curb Appeal in 8 Easy Steps

Improve the Curb Appeal of Your Home This Summer

If you're looking for a summer project, why not consider improving the curb appeal of your home? This is a project that's not only enjoyable, but also adds to the value of your home.
Improve the Curb Appeal of Your Home This

Summer #1: Pressure Wash

A good cleaning will greatly improve the curb appeal of your home. This summer, visit your local Walmart and buy a 2500 PSI pressure washer that is powerful enough to clean your home. But, skip the special cleaners that are sold at Walmart and make you own solution using bleach and water. On the day you pressure wash your home, be sure to wear old clothes, because you will get bleach on you. You can always hire someone to do this for you, but it will cost as much as a new 1500 PSI pressure washer, so you might as well do it yourself.

Improve the Curb Appeal of Your Home This Summer #2: Paint

Whether the paint on your home is peeling or just outdated, a paint job will improve the curb appeal of your home. While you may be tempted to choose a bold color, try and keep your choice down to earth. Even if you plan on keeping your home forever, a bold color choice will only cause your neighbors to complain until you repaint your home.

Improve the Curb Appeal of Your Home This Summer #3: Create Flower Beds

Flowers beds improve the curb appeal of your home by adding color. This summer take the time to create flower beds outside your home. A flower bed on either side of your front entrance filled with pansies is simply gorgeous. You can either choose one color or mix two to three colors together.

Improve the Curb Appeal of Your Home This Summer #4: Create a Walkway

A walkway adds to the curb appeal of your home while being functional. Walking through a muddy yard with several bags of groceries is never fun and its even less fun when you have soggy shoes. You can either buying stepping stones or you can create your own with kits available at your local hardware store.

Improve the Curb Appeal of Your Home This Summer #5: Plant Shrubbery

Shrubbery will improve the curb appeal of your home, while providing you and your family with privacy. Instead of putting flowers in your flowers beds, why not place bushes in there? You could then surround the bushes with small rocks and solar lighting. This is a beautiful touch that also allows you to easily find your porch in the dark.

Improve the Curb Appeal of Your Home This Summer #6: Add Solar Lighting

Solar lighting is a way to add protection to your home, while improving the curb appeal of your home as well. Homes that have solar lighting are less likely to be robbed. Why? Robbers do not want to be seen and solar lighting will make it very easy for people to see someone sneaking around your home. Solar lighting that is triggered by movement is only useful if your neighborhood is free from wondering animals. If your solar lights are always being tripped by animals, your neighbors will never pay attention when they come on.

Improve the Curb Appeal of Your Home This Summer #7: Buy a New Door

A new door can greatly improve the curb appeal of your home. Also a new door is completely customizable if you shop at Lowe's. Lowe's allows you to pick the color, style, metal, etc. so that your door is truly unique.

Improve the Curb Appeal of Your Home This Summer #8: Redo the Driveway

Whether your driveway is gravel or asphalt, you can still improve the curb appeal of your home this summer. If your driveway is gravel, the obvious solution is to have your driveway paved. If your driveway is already paved, you may want to add flowers along the sides of it as a way to brighten the path to your home.

Source: https://pressurewasherguides.com/electric-pressure-washer/

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The Pros and Cons of Staining Your Deck

The Pros and Cons of Staining Your Deck

When I bought my house in the mountains, I was a little put off by the condition of the deck. It was well made and sturdy, constructed of ironwood on a steel I-beam, but it hadn't been treated so it was that awful light gray, the result of UV exposure and mold.

While the gray matched the house paint surprisingly well, I'd been raised to consider fine wood the ultimate in materials. You protected it, displayed it, sometimes stained it, and you certainly never painted it!

I decided to do something about my painfully gray deck, partly because I hated the gray, but mostly because I knew ironwood to be absolutely beautiful, a lot like mahogany or teak, and I wanted to bring that out.

How to restore your deck

First, you have to wash it. My deck was filthy, so I hired a contractor to power wash it, but you can do that yourself if you have a decent 3500 PSI pressure washer. This is not a quick or easy job; it took hours to clean my fairly large deck. I was amazed at the grain that was exposed by the cutting stream of water, but the deck was still killer gray. Next step, stain.

I would have preferred to restore the wood to its natural color, but that was no longer possible. You can't sand ironwood. I selected Australian Timber Oil in Mahogany Flame to approximate the original color and it worked exceptionally well. The grain jumped off the surface in a rich, warm red-brown that glowed with natural beauty, even after all those years of neglect.

Then I noticed gray in the spaces between each board that jumped up in an entirely different and unacceptable way. I tried to get into the spaces with a brush, but that didn't work very well so I bought a crack tool, which would have worked perfectly if my boards had been properly spaced. As it was, I did the best I could, but you can still find gray peaking up from the decking.

You can use a sprayer to apply the stain that will get into the cracks, but you end up using more stain that way and if you don't know what you're doing, as I didn't, you'll probably make an unholy mess.

I didn't apply the product under the best circumstances (it rained each afternoon), but even without the 24-48 hours it should have had to dry, it still provided protection. That protection has faded as the Sun has worked on it, but I live at over 7,000' so those of you at sea level should fare better. After all, this was my deck's first treatment in many years, perhaps ever.

So was it worth it?

Yes and no. While I think the deck looks much better now, I'll have to apply a new coat of stain every year. And stain scratches. If you have patio furniture, move it very carefully or you'll scrape the surface rather noticeably. Before the restoration, you couldn't see the scratches; they blended in with the gray (or if they didn't they would soon enough), but a dark stain is very prone to damage.

However, it's more likely you don't have ironwood for your decking. You probably have pine or redwood. These woods are soft so be careful with the best electric power washer our you'll literally scar the surface with the cutting spray. And remember, dark stains show scratches so pick your stain accordingly. Light colors wear better.

You do have another option with these softer woods that I didn't have. You can sand them back to their original color, then simply apply a preservative. Then if you scrape the surface, it won't really show much as the scratch will blend with the color of the wood underneath it. You will, however, still have to deal with that gray between the boards, if you have any.

I'm glad I stained my deck. It looks fantastic now, but I realize I've taken on a yearly project that's time consuming and expensive. That stain costs $45 a gallon and I needed over 3 gallons to cover the deck and railing, not to mention the $320 I paid the contractor to clean it. If you can live with the gray, your life will be easier, but you'll miss out on all the beauty your deck has to offer.

Source: https://pressurewasherguides.com/gas-pressure-washer/

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Deck Cleaning

Deck Cleaning

A deck is a great investment. It's attractive and functional, creates more square footage for your home and increases its overall value. And with such an important investment, it's always a good idea to let a professional decking contractor get the job done right. But after they leave, it's up to you to maintain it. A bi-annual deck cleaning will help prolong the lifespan of your deck and keep it looking good for years to come.

Cleaning Basics - Besides using the leaf blower to get rid of leaves and dirt, a deck's surface needs to be cleaned to remove buildup that can harbor mildew and fungus. Even if your deck is made from composites, cleaning it bi-annually is a must because staining and fading can become a problem over time. But composites and wood decks must be cleaned differently. Here's the scoop:

Composites: For composites, use an acid/deck brush and a composite material cleaner. Duckback Products makes several different cleaning products. This can help keep composite decking (and siding) looking bright and clean without being too harsh on the material or being chemically caustic, like some wood decking cleaners can be to composite materials. Avoid any cleaners that use bleach to keep your composite decking looking brand new.

A pressure washer is suitable to clean away stubborn stains and debris from composite decking. However, keep the pressure down and use a wide spray nozzle to help prevent streaking and delamination that can sometimes occur with high-pressure sprays. A biodegradable soap solution will work best in combination with a pressure washing to help keep composites clean while being eco-friendly to your surrounding plants.

Wood: For wood decks, a deck brush like the Weiler 10" deck scrub brush and a mix of oxygenated bleach and water will remove mild stains and keep wood decking looking bright and clean for months. Heavier stains from leaves or puddled water can be removed using a spray-on deck bleach. These dangerous chemicals can be caustic so be careful.

A very common mistake when cleaning a wood deck is to use a pressure washer. This is a big no-no! The pressurized water enters into the wood grain, permanently damaging wood fibers. Mold and mildew can then easily penetrate the interior of the wood, quickly subjecting it to rot. Never use a pressure washer on a wood deck. Instead, always use a brush and an approved wood cleaner.

Source: campbell hausfeld electric pressure washer

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Learning to Read the Owner's Manual: Or, Sprayed Hard and Hung Up Wet!

Sprayed Hard and Hung Up Wet!

Life's little embarrassing moments... what would we do without them? You know what I mean: those precious little events that serve to either drive us completely around the bend, or teach us a valuable lesson. My life is replete with little situations, many of them humorous, where something I did... or perhaps didn't do... furthered the cause of self-education...
Case in point: hearken back with me, if you will, to a sultry Sunday afternoon late in the summer of 2009.

Here I am, staring at the mildew-encrusted floor boards on the rear deck attached to our newly purchased house. Located in an idyllic woodland setting, our new home is surrounded by tall trees that keep our deck drenched in shade during nearly all hours of daylight. This year, we've had an absolutely miserable spring and early summer in Midcoast Maine. Something like 45 straight days of rain, fog, drizzle, mist, and unseasonably cool temperatures have plagued us. The result: lots of damp, ugly, mildewy... STUFF... clings stubbornly and verdantly to almost every square inch of the deck floor.

On this particular Sunday, there's finally been a break in the weather! Bright sunshine and warmth abound, but it's very muggy. I decide it's probably a good day to tackle a clean-up of that rear deck. A 3000 PSI electric pressure washer is probably the fastest and least painful way to get rid of all that "scunge." I pay a visit to our local hardware store and rent one of their gasoline-powered pressure washers for what I hope will be a quick and easy clean-up. If all goes well, I should be done in time to watch my beloved Boston Red Sox play on my high definition TV...

Now up to this point, I've never even seen a 4000 PSI pressure washer up close, much less used one. "Yeah, right," I think when I first spy the small, nondescript piece of equipment the hardware store clerk loads, along with its user's manual, into the back of my car. "This thing is supposed to take every bit of that scum off my deck?!?" It looks like nothing more than a 5-horsepower four-cycle engine with a pump attached to the bottom of it, mounted to a red two-wheeled cart with a handle on top. Connected to the pump is a 15-foot high pressure hose and wand assembly. A pair of safety goggles hangs from the cart's handle.

"This thing," I muse aloud to my wife, once I have the 2700 PSI pressure washer set out on my rear deck, "doesn't look like it's capable of getting the dirt off my car!!" But, hey... the job's gotta get done, so here goes...

The pressure washer takes about 15 seconds to put to rest forever my skepticism over its capabilities. It is one powerful little machine!! It supplies water at up to 2,400 pounds per square inch (psi) and a rate of 2.2 gallons per minute... more than enough pressure to accomplish my desired task! I can select from a variety of spray patterns. There's even a low pressure setting that allows me to spray water in a stream gentle enough to water the lawn and garden, or wash the family car. It's easy to set up and start...

Of course, I don't know any of these things when I begin my task. With a bull-headedness sharply honed over 57 years, and despite having never used a 2000 PSI electric pressure washer before, I charge right into the fray with only a cursory glance at that owner's manual that came with the machine.

"Hmmm... this should be easy enough to figure out... lessee... the water supply obviously attaches here, on the bottom. Easy enough... an ordinary garden hose does the trick!! Turn the water on before starting the engine... remove wand from high pressure hose before starting the first time, to allow pressure build-up inside pump... move choke adjustment lever to 'start' position... hold starter safety handle... pull starter ro-- WHOOPS!!"

Now... here's where I probably should have stopped and read that owner's manual.

Man, does that starter rope pull hard!! And that blasted engine is almost impossible to start. For ten minutes, after pulling and pulling and pulling and pulling on the starter rope, and making a plethora of adjustments to the choke lever, and loudly punctuating the air with a multitude of four-letter Anglo-Saxon adverbs, I finally get the engine to sputter and spit and cough, then finally, reluctantly, wheeze to life. WHEW!! If it's gonna take that much effort to start this thing every time, maybe I better go and get a wire brush, a bucket of soapy water, and some rubber gloves...

Once I get the machine started, I re-attach the wand, select my spray pattern with a quick turn of the yellow adjustment handle on the end of the wand, and begin attacking the deck. Amazingly enough, the spray stream lifts every bit of that thick mildew from the surface... along with about ¼ inch of the wood as well!! My first pass with the wand results in a nice, 6-inch long, ¼-inch deep gouge in the wood. I guess I need to play with that spray pattern a little...

Pretty soon, I'm getting the hang of things. I adjust the spray pattern to a flat fan, making it look a bit like the blade of a putty knife. I discover that by holding the wand about eight inches from the deck, and moving it back and forth like a paint scraper, the dark green moldy film lifts from the deck with almost no effort and no damage to the wood. The power washer seems to get all but the most stubborn spots with almost no effort.

After six hours of power washing, I find that I've completely cleaned an four-foot by two-foot area of a sixteen-foot by twelve-foot deck. Obviously, this is gonna be very time consuming!! There's just gotta be a better way. By now it's getting dark. Oh well, I'm on vacation all next week. I'll try again tomorrow...

Next morning, I'm back at it. And then next day, and the next day after that. Six 6-hour days it takes me to completely clean the deck! Slow, tedious, backbreaking work. Work immeasurably hampered by my inability to get the little power washer started and keep it running.

It wasn't until day five of this project that good ol' Mike finally decides that he's had enough of this agonizingly difficult startup procedure; he decides to actually... wait for it... open the owner's manual and read it in detail. Sure enough: right there on page three of the book, in bold print, are these words:

Grasp the spray gun with your left hand and squeeze the trigger. Water will flow out of the gun in a thin stream. Continue to squeeze the trigger with your left hand as you pull the starter rope. Pull slowly until you feel some resistance; then pull rapidly.

I try it. One quick pull of the rope, and voila!! The little engine eagerly jumps to life! I'm off and running!!

So, friends, there is a moral to my story here: Next time you buy or rent anything with more than one moving part, look for an owner's manual. And please... if you find one: heed the words usually found on page 1: "READ THESE DIRECTIONS CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THIS EQUIPMENT."

Your back... and your pride... will be eternally grateful to you when you do.

Now I'm off to try out my new chain saw... Geez, now what'd I do with that owner's manual?!!?

Source: https://pressurewasherguides.com/

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