I was recently restoring some older doors and windows and needed a good epoxy solution to address some pretty bad wood degradation. My trusty local paint supply store recommended a product called Flex-Tec. It comes in a beefy, dual tube caulking gun setup that the Terminator might carry if he were into wood restoration. Since that was a lot more product than I needed, I opted for the less manly mini-tube that fits into a normal caulking gun. The product is easy to mix and creates a very solid bond. It’s thick enough you can apply it upside down and it won’t run, and it’s easy to tool to pretty much any profile. After sanding and painting, you are left with what looks like sound and healthy wood. Great stuff! Say “Hasta La Vista” to decayed wood with Flex-Tec. Available from select dealers, or direct from Advanced Repair Technology starting at about $27 for the Mini version.

The Silent Paint Remover, aka infrared paint stripper, might be your ideal solution for assassinating old paint. Let’s face it, stripping old paint is a hassle. You could use methyl chloride stripper, but then you’d risk it eating your flesh off, and there’s the potential carcinogen issue. Heat guns are effective, but carry a high risk of lighting your house on fire or risking lead poisoning. I have now tested a Silent Paint Remover on a couple projects and have found it to be one of the better paint stripping options out there. The tool works fairly quickly (10-60 seconds per section, depending on the paint you’re working with), and it bubbles and softens the paint nicely and cleanly. You just heat a section, and then use a high quality pull scraper to strip the paint.
The lower temperature on the tool is designed to prevent dangerous vaporization of lead paint. However, because this is a dry stripping process that involves scraping, I think there is still a likely risk of causing paint dust to become airborne. Before you strip any older paint, I would highly encourage having lead testing done. If you do plan to work with lead-based paint despite the risks, carefully observe lead safe work practices, or hire a reputable lead abatement company. The Silent Paint Remover is available for $395 from the friendly crew at Viking Sales.

I first saw the Squeak No More system demonstrated on an episode of This Old House. At first, it struck me as a crazy idea. . . but after seeing it demonstrated it makes a lot of sense. Plus, as a father of a little baby, I have learned to hate the evil of a squeaky floor at an inopportune time. Picture stealth-daddy moving ninja-like past the crib until a squeak awakens the baby. Shrill screaming ensues. Squeak No More is designed to silence squeaky flooring under carpeting. The kit includes a little drill bit with threaded ends to find your floor joists. After locating the joists, you simply use a cordless drill to run the specialized screws through a tripod-like jig right into the floor. You then flip over the jig, and it snaps off the screws just below your carpet and the floor surface. Presto! Squeaky floors have now been silenced, much to the joy of ninja-daddies, mommies, and downstairs neighbors everywhere!
More details are available from the parent company O’Berry Enterprises.
McFeely’s carries the Squeak No More kit with 50 screws for about $30.

Cutting insulation cleanly used to be like cutting your airline chicken dinner with a TSA-approved knife. . . not fun, not effective. I recently had a small insulation install that included cutting angles in the insulation batts. I decided to give Cepco Tools’ Insul-knife a shot. Insul-knife is designed to cut sponge foam, insulation batts, and pipe insulation. It can also be used to trim insulation around doors and windows. I used a scrap of plywood to compress the batt before cleanly cutting through the insulation. Worked like a charm, with nice, smooth cuts. Beware, the blade is sharp and the manufacturer recommends gloves be worn when handling the tool. I ordered mine from the friendly folks at SoundAway.com for about $35. More details also available at Cepco Tools.

Quick, what’s the largest crop in America? You guessed it, our lawns. Almost every patch of proud blades requires some machine to keep it trim, and given a recent publication of controversial but alarming statistics on the pollution that our gas-powered beautification devices puts out, we decided to get an electric mower. Enter the Sunlawn EM-2. A rotary–blade mower (think your granparents old push mower) that runs on two 12-volt batteries and charges from an ordinary transformer, it is quite compact and relatively light compared to other electron-swapping-powered (read:ballast) machines. Those of you who have found yourself drooling over those ads for the DR brush mower can keep on salivating. The Sunlawn will choke on anything more than a moist patch of average kentucky’s finest blue. Happily, it will chug along with quiet persistence on most of your favorite ¼ acre plots of willing fescue. Only gripe on my end is the pitifully small bag. If you want to keep your vermillion crop nice and clean during its haircut, you’ll be schlepping bags to the curb every few minutes. One of the best parts: The average YEARLY cost of powering one of these – 5 bucks. The EM-2 is available direct from Sunlawn for about $380.

Do you have a love-hate relationship with your caulk tubes? I know I do. There is a whole shelf in the garage filled with multiples of the same caulk. Inevitably, trying to use a previously used tube results in a messy battle between me, the caulk tube, and some sort of sharp implement like a nail or coat hanger. I usually lose and have to tap a new tube. Apparently I am not the first person to struggle with Caulk woes. Enter Caulk Savers. Designed to puncture the membrane of caulk at the base of the neck of the caulk tube container and then seal the neck of the container to preserve the caulk for the next use. It is a handy tool that promises to save countless tubes of caulk, and, it can be re-used. Available in six packs (minimum order of two packs), for about $9/pack, direct from CaulkSavers.com

Reggio Registers deliver top notch metal grilles for hvac. Did I ever mention that nothing in our house in “standard size”? Oh yeah, I have mentioned that about 100 times. In perhaps one of the sadder “non-standard” dissapointments, I was not able to purchase the great looking metal cold air return grilles I was coveting from Reggio Registers. My opening size was off enough that none of the numerous size options Reggio offers would work. Aside from not carrying my house’s crazy vent size, Reggio appears to have great vent cover grille options. Available in wood, metal with square holes, and metal scroll pattern (which I was coveting). The metal grilles come in several finishes, including a great looking cast iron look. They can also be ordered with or without mounting holes. There was even a coupon for 10% off in the July/August issue of This Old House Magazine. Reggio has numerous sizes (except ours) and pricing ranging from $100-$200 for most grilles, with a few lower priced and some as high as $500 depending on finish and size. Available from ReggioRegister.com

This post should be read:

1. If you live in an area like we do, which is basically irrigated dessert
2. If you find your water bill insanely high
3. If you would rather sip mai-tais and watch your garden grow, rather than water it

If any or all of these apply to you, Zeba makes a line of soil amendment products to help you cut back on your watering, whatever your motivation. According to Zeba, “Quench” saves water by up to 50% in your gardens and container plants by absorbing water and releasing it when the plant root “asks for it”! That’s right, your plant says “hey Zeba, I’m thirsty”, and then Zeba says, “well, drink up my dear bromeliad, there’s plenty to go around.” Zeba acts like a sponge catching and releasing moisture, and it can hold hundreds of times its weight in water. Available in both “Singles” (with organic fertilizer option), or in larger containers for mixing right into the soil. There are also several different types geared towards home use, agricultural, nursery, etc. You fellow green homefixated types will appeciate that not only does Zeba save water, but it is biodegradable, non-toxic and pH neutral. More details at Zeba.com. Available starting at about $15 from Peaceful Valley Farm and Garden and other retailers and etailers.

Finding good help for home improvement projects can be a risky endeavor. After finally realizing our “mow, blow and go” gardener wasn’t up to snuff, I joined Angie’s List with the single hope that I would find a new gardener. Within a couple hours I had several candidates picked out. And within several days we had a new gardener that 1) I could talk to 2) showed up when he said he would 3) actually picked weeds 4) used tools other than just the lawnmower and weed-wacker 5) did not bill me for days he was not here. . . .you get the idea. In fact, he even emailed me to give me a heads-up that part of our lawn was looking a little dry. Angies List is a subscription based service (low monthly rates, or anywhere from $45 to $65ish a year on yearly plans). You can search the list for your particular area (see their web site for regions they cover), and find service providers. The wonderful thing is subscribers review the providers themselves and provide theoretically unbiased reviews about the provider. It is a great tool, and one that I have come to rely on heavily already. So don’t settle for second-rate service, check out Angie’s List and find the true “gems”. If you’re in San Diego, check out Down Under Services for your gardening and landscaping needs. To find gardeners and other providers in most major metropolitan US areas, visit AngiesList.com