What's in This Issue
MY LAUNDRY ROOM
HOME DEPOT AND LOWES COMMENTS
MEMORIAL DAY WORK WARNING
OXYGEN BLEACH
My Laundry
Room
This weekend I am switching out all of the
cabinets in my laundry room.
This room is not in my basement where many washers and dryers are
located. I am also adding a few extra cabinets that should have been
installed when I built my house. It is going to be a fun little project
that I hope produces one or two informative videos. You will see before
and after photos as well as videos.
I wanted to mention that the new cabinets are not the normal 30-inch
high
ones. The bad boys that were just delivered yesterday are 42-inches
high,
so we will gain about 15 extra cubic feet of storage space than we
currently have. The plan is to put things up high that are not used
that
often.
Many people forget about these taller wall cabinets when remodeling a
bathroom, kitchen or a laundry room. They usually are pretty
affordable,
so I urge you to consider them when looking at wall cabinets.
One of the videos I plan to tape is about my dryer-vent pipe. Years
ago,
I
was an idiot and installed the outlet for the dryer down low at floor
height since that is where the outlet is on the dryer. Let me tell you
that is a mistake. Wait until you see what I am doing to make it super
easy to get my dryer in and out of the space at any time. It will take
only 30 seconds to disconnect the vent pipe from the wall.
I also plan to show you in a video the way I bring water to my washing
machine so it is easy to turn off and on. You really need to be able
to
easily
and quickly turn the water on and off to the washing
machine
in
case you leave your home at any time. About five years ago, one of the
supply hoses to my washer burst. Luckily, we were eating dinner at the
time and I heard it leaking. Since then I installed burst-proof hoses.
But the key is to have handy valves you can turn in case of a problem
or
to ensure the water is only on when the washing machine needs
water.
As for dryer venting, I want to hear from you with any and all
questions
you have about dryer vents. I will do my best to get answers to you as
fast as possible.
Home
Depot and Lowes
Comments
In last week's newsletter, I had a minor
rant about Home Depot and Lowes.
As expected, I received other comments.
Martin Brummel took the opportunity to let off some
steam. He
wrote:
- "On your statement about the big box stores, I could not
agree
with you more. The public does not realize that the box store's pricing
on a lot of their items are more than if you search out your local
lumber
or supply houses. Also, your local suppliers are usually home-grown
businesses, and they will almost certainly go the extra step for you,
and
will work even more diligently with you if there are any problems with
the products that they sell. You can talk to almost anyone, and they
will
have a story about a big-box store that had ordered and / or installed
products, for them or their friends, and the disasters that followed. I
am a contractor and have been so for over 20 years, and I almost always
use the local suppliers because the service and quality is
always
better. I always wonder why a professional contractor would ever
exclusively use the big-box stores. Bigger isn't always better. Thanks
for letting me vent."
A few hours later I got this email from
Tim Chapin in
Macedonia,
OH:
- "Hey, you are right about prices at Home Depot and
Lowe's.
Another item that I've found huge mark ups is on HVAC sheet metal
parts.
Go to your local HVAC contractor supply houses and you can save a
fortune, and have a way-better selection. I'll never buy a
pipe or
boot from either Home Depot or Lowe's again.
- I think the worst thing they do though is put a lot of
materials in
people's hands that, if not used properly, can lead them to kill
themselves. Some jobs should be left to the
professionals.
And, just so you know, I'm not a contractor!"
I share these wonderful comments in an effort to help. So you know, I
did
not get any emails taking me to the woodshed. When I get emails or
calls
putting me in a bad light for crossing the line or making a mistake, I
absolutely publish those as well. I try to be like Fox News - Fair and
Balanced. (Ouch, I can hear the emails on that one now!)
Memorial
Day Work Warning!!!
Many people do larger outdoor
projects on
the first real weekend of
summer. One of them is wood deck cleaning and sealing. I have
a
huge category at AsktheBuilder.com all about
Deck Maintenance.
But here is the bottom line:
- Avoid cleaning your deck with a pressure washer. They can
cause
severe damage by eroding the soft spring wood that is in between the
darker bands of summer wood
- Avoid using Chlorine Bleach as a cleaning solution. The
chemical name
for this product is Sodium Hypochlorite. Look for that on the label
of anything you are thinking of buying. Chlorine bleach is highly toxic
to all nearby vegetation, including trees. It takes the color out of
the
wood. It can accelerate the corrosion of all fasteners and metal
framing
components. It is better to use Oxygen Bleach. Read the next item in
this
newsletter for a special offer.
- Be sure to seal the deck with a sealer that is made from
synthetic
resins. These products are not food for mildew and algae. I talk about
these in great detail in many of my past Deck Sealer columns that can
be
found in the
Deck Maintenance category.
Over the years I have received countless emails and calls from people
who
have either ruined their decks or had a professional ruin it with a
pressure washer. Be careful with those machines around wood!
Oxygen Bleach
I sell oxygen bleach, and have done so for
about 13 years. The name of my
product is called
Stain Solver. Years ago, I was
exposed to the product when doing
research for a deck-cleaning column. When I heard about it, it was one
of
those classic Too-Good-To-Be-True products. Well, guess what? It was
and
is that good. So good in fact, that my wife and I decided to start to
sell the product. Go here to see what else it cleans.
For all of you deck-cleaning warriors, I am offering you this weekend
off. How would you like a Super Sale price on the
12 and 50-pound sizes of Stain
Solver? This is an amazing offer I
will extend until next Wednesday (
expired
on May 28, 2008) since you
may not get this email until
next week when you get back to work.
Since the prices of so many other things are going up, I am calling
this
the Neutralizer Sale. My prices are going down as others go
up.
Use this Promo Code for the discount:
20ssdeck (
Sorry, the
sales has expired.)
Remember, no spaces and lower case.
Go here to get some.
Stain
Solver
is perhaps one of the greenest cleaners out there. My
raw materials are made in the USA and the ingredients used to make the
active cleaning agent are food-grade approved by the FDA! You can't get
much purer and greener than that!
Keep in mind my Stain Solver safely cleans hundreds of other things.
For
example, I just hung up the phone with June Hunter. She purchased eight
pounds of Stain Solver to clean the grout in her kitchen floor. Wow,
does
it do a good job of cleaning floor grout. I know this first hand as I
used it for years on my own kitchen floor grout that would go from
light
gray to black around the refrigerator. Gray was the original grout
color,
but my kids would drop food and drinks, and soon enough, Yuck!
