The health risks of mold and mildew in the home are severe enough that both the Centers for Disease Control (the CDC) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (the EPA) devote entire sections of their websites to both public education and the...
Humidity brings mildew: that’s practically unavoidable. And it’s a particular problem in high traffic areas exposed regularly to water, condensation, and steam—like bathrooms. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has a helpful primer that...
HGTV is a cable channel, the programming of which almost exclusively revolves around how-to and home makeover shows. In the “pro” column, HGTV can help viewers on an imaginative level. That is, it may show viewers how to reimagine a space; it may...
Excessive chalking is a common issue that looks precisely as you might imagine: a powdery, dust-like layer that lays over the surface of your paint. In fact, if you type “excessive paint chalking” into a Google Image search, you’ll find photo after...
Generally, the elements have a deleterious relationship to exteriors, causing wear and damage that can end in costly repairs. Exposure to weather does, however, have one very positive effect: cleaning your surfaces naturally. The few exterior...
Can you act as your own general contractor? Sure you can—though it’s not really advisable. The general contractor of a large remodeling project is like the maestro of an orchestra: his job is to make sure all the parts contribute to a coherent and...
What we’re going to talk about now, as when we talk about gutter maintenance, is the difference between aluminum gutters and wooden gutters.
The heyday of popcorn ceilings was a thirty-year stretch of time between the late 1950s and the early 1980s. All over the country, the rough popcorn (or cottage cheese) texture was advertised to customers as...
An estimator is a kind of investigator, the mystery of peeling paint a kind of detective story.That’s one way of saying: there could be any number of reasons your house is peeling, and the best thing to do is to call us so we can take a look.
You know what paint blisters look like: suddenly your smooth finish looks like the surface of the moon, pocked by unsightly bubbles that lift the paint film off its surface. But why? Well, paint blisters are typically attributable to one of two...