How to make paint prep work go easier

The least expensive way to jazz up your home is with a new coat of paint. Painting is fun, but the prep work is usually the most time-consuming part of the job. Of course, it's also the most important part. Here are some tips to make it a little quicker and easier:

Move as much of the furniture out of the room as possible, and cover the rest with dropcloths.

Cleaning the walls is very important, so wipe them off with a rag. Go over all surfaces with a mixture of TSP (trisodium phosphate) and water. If you are working in a kitchen, where airborne grease is common, use mineral-spirits paint thinner on a rag. Make sure you have plenty of ventilation.

Mildew spots or stains should be removed with bleach and water. Follow up with TSP and water.

Allow washed surfaces plenty of time to dry.

Patch up any holes with drywall patch, and cover stains of any type, especially water spots, with a primer/sealer like Kilz.

Prime the walls and let them dry.

Remove switch plates and receptacle covers. Mask off areas where you aren't painting, if you need to. You can cover light fixtures and fans with plastic bags to prevent having to take them completely down. Just remove as much as you can, like the fan blades, glass covers, etc.

Now you are ready to paint. Start by cutting-in (painting around the edges of the room, where the roller can't get). Then use the roller on the walls. This will prevent color changes between the edges and the centers of the walls.

Try to talk one of your friends into helping you, and the job will go faster and be a lot more fun!

No sweat

Sweat-soldering is really no sweat! It isn't that hard to do. You just need to do a little practicing before working on your plumbing. One important thing that will keep your soldering project from holding is water that is inside the pipe while you are working. Sometimes, even when the water has been turned off, you can still have a little moisture or a drip inside the pipe. A little trick that will help you deal with this is to stuff a wadded-up piece of white bread into the wet pipe to stop the flow of water to the soldering site. It will buy you enough time to get your soldering project done. The bread will dissolve and will be flushed down the pipe when you test your joint.

Super hints

• Copper is easily cleaned with ketchup. That's right. Just rub a thin layer of ketchup over copper surfaces, give it a few minutes to work on the copper and then wipe it off. It will look like new again.

• An extra piece of Styrofoam would make a super pencil and pen holder for your workbench. Just keep it handy and stab these items into the foam, where they will be handy when you need them.

• Wallpaper is a great decorative tool. It adds color and art without your having to be an artist. You can add that artistic touch to a lot of items in your home with some leftover wallpaper. Use small scraps to cover picture frames, notebooks, storage boxes and other items. You can even use it to line your drawers and cabinets.

Q. My bathroom sink and counter are made of marble. I want to replace the faucets and would like to use a single-handle faucet. How do you cover the holes already in the countertop?

K.G.

A. See if you can find a faucet set that has a cover plate for the base that will cover the holes. Most will have these, or you can buy this as an accessory. Some will even allow you to install a soap dispenser in the place of one of the faucets, if you like.

Q. When I removed the old straw mat by the front door, I found a large stain underneath it. What would you recommend using to clean the concrete underneath the mat?

K.M.

A. Using trisodium phosphate -- TSP -- mixed with water according to the package directions should get the stain up. You can try using bleach if that doesn't work. Spray a water seal on the surface before putting a new mat down. That will help prevent the moisture from building up on the concrete, which is probably what caused this stain.

Q. We have a tall ceiling in our den, and it always seems cold down in the actual living area. How can we keep more heat down where we are sitting?

R.T.

A. Ceiling fans are great for recycling the air that has risen to the top. Set the fan on reverse, and let it run at a slow speed. The upward flow will move the hot pocket over to the walls and then down to people level. The slow speed ensures that people won't feel a draft. More comfort at less cost.

Q. My freezer is more frost than frost-free. It started about a year ago and just keeps getting worse. Can you help?

G.N.

A. It sounds like the gasket around the door is not fitting tight and is letting household moisture and warm air into the freezer. Try cleaning the gasket first to see if that solves the problem. If it doesn't, you should consider replacing the door gasket.

Reader tips

• I spilled oil on my sidewalk and was trying to get it up. I ran out of paint thinner, so I tried WD-40. It worked! I just sprayed it on the spot, scrubbed it and put sawdust on top to absorb it. I left it on all afternoon, and when I swept it away, the stain was gone. It was so easy to do, and the sidewalk is clean now.

P.J.

• We turned our son's old dresser into a super entertainment center. We removed the drawers and drilled holes through the back of the cabinet to run the wires. Each drawer hole was filled with an electronic device -- like the VCR, DVD player and cable box. We installed a turntable stand on top and secured the TV to that. This way, we can swivel it when we need to view it from another location. We painted the whole thing to match the rest of the furniture, and it looks like we paid top dollar for it.

B.M.

• I use vinegar all the time to clean my bathroom. Nothing cuts through the hard water stains and soap scum like that stuff. But I also have used it to clean my coffeemaker and, most recently, my steam iron. I poured some into the water reservoir and let it heat up and steam out the holes. Then I let it cool down and rinsed it out with water. I filled it back up with water and let it steam again to get rid of any remaining vinegar, and then it was ready to go. It seems to have done a good job of unclogging the holes that were just caked with mineral deposits and were making white marks on my slacks.

M.W.

• We have large planters around our pool outside. Although they have drain holes, it seems they don't drain very well, and on rainy days, the pots fill up and overflow with water and dirt. This week, while the pots were empty of plants, I turned them upside-down and added some large blobs of silicon caulk to the bottom of the pot. These should act as small feet and keep the pots from sitting directly on the bottom of the drain trays and, hopefully, allow the pots to drain better.

R.D.

• My wife used some rubber shelf liner for our kitchen cabinets. She said it would keep the glasses and dishes from sliding around and making noise or breaking. I thought it would be good for my shop cabinets too, but for different reasons. I cut some to fit my tool cabinet drawers, and now my tools don't roll around and make noise -- or get dull, in the case of my chisels. I've seen some tool cabinets that already have this built in to them, but mine was probably less expensive and works great. I think our liner was maid by Rubbermaid, but I'm sure there are other brands.

C.B.

Shop talk

• Wow is a super, easy-to-use wipe for cleaning stainless-steel surfaces. It's great for the stainless steel that everyone has in their kitchens, but it also works on cars, boats and other surfaces. Available in sprays and towelettes, it's EPA green-certified, leaves no streaks, prevents fingerprints, is non-abrasive and gives your appliances a super shine that lasts a long time. It is also available in a spray bottle. Look for it at your home center hardware store or kitchen-and-bath-supply dealer. For more information, visit www.wowezfinish.com.

• A clogged-up dryer vent is a fire hazard, not to mention that it doesn't allow for efficient drying of your clothes. The LintEater system is an easy way to take care of just about any problem related to a clogged vent. The system comes with four 36-inch-long flexible rods that fit together to reach a total of 12 feet, a 4-inch-diameter rotating auger brush, a vacuum-cleaner adaptor for hooking up to your shop vac, a dryer-blower adapter to allow your dryer to blow out lint, a blockage-removal tool, lint-trap brush and an instructional DVD -- all at less than $30. Look for it at your local hardware store or home center. For more information, visit its Web site, www.linteater.com.

© 2008, Cowles Syndicate Inc.