Foam crown molding makes a tough job a lot easier

Crown molding is like the icing on the cake when it comes to decorating a room. It adds a lot of value to your home, as well.

However, cutting and installing wood crown molding can be tough to do if you have never tried it before. One solution is to use plastic or polyurethane foam molding pieces. This is easier to work with and is lightweight.

Here are the basics of working with this new material.

You start by measuring the walls around your room. It's a good idea to draw a rough sketch of the room and note the dimensions on your drawing. Note the number of inside and outside corners. Most of the foam molding systems have special corner pieces. This means you don't have to miter the corners, which can be challenging for a novice - especially when it comes to crown moldings.

Once you have all the pieces home, paint them. Doing it this way allows you to paint them on a table or floor, where they will be easy to get to. The foam molding usually goes up with caulk, so very little touch-up, if any, is needed.

Before installing the pieces, dry-fit them around the room and make a couple of small marks on the wall at the bottom edge of the molding to make installing it easier.

To cut any piece to fit, you can make a straight cut. A miter box and backsaw will ensure a perfectly straight cut, but you can use a square if you don't have one.

Just apply caulk at the top and bottom edges of the molding strip and place it on the wall. Go all the way around the room, including corners.

It's a nice touch to go around the bottom edge of the molding with a thin bead of caulk, smoothed with your finger. You also can apply a small amount of caulk to your joint. Then touch it up with paint where you need to.

You'll love the results, and your room will have a lot more class!

Don't wreck the wallpaper

Wallpaper can give a room a new, dramatic look. If you do it a few times and get the "hang" of it, the job gets easier, but it can be a little challenging the first time. You want the job to come out looking professional, and you want it to last. When you do get the paper up, you sure don't want a bunch of holes in your finished walls from hanging pictures. Once you have found the perfect spot for your hanger, just use an X-acto knife to cut a "V" that encompasses the spot. Now gently wet the area and pull this little tab up or down, depending on how you cut it. Fold it out of the way, then install your nail or hook right in the wall. If and when you decide to remove the hanger, you can wet the "V" again and press it back into place. It will be practically impossible to see, and nobody will ever know you made a big hole there. We won't tell!

Stir things up

If you are lucky enough to come right home from the paint store with a freshly mixed can of paint, good deal. If not, then you need to take the time to mix it thoroughly. This takes time but is extremely important. Mixing attachments that fit into a power drill can make mixing the paint much faster and easier. But if you don't have one, you can use a wire coat hanger. Just pull the ends of the hanger down together and straighten out the hook end. The newly straightened end fits into your drill and, when tightened into place, makes a great stirring attachment for your drill. Try not to make a mess while you're at it!

Super hints

Cleaning the underside of your mower deck shouldn't cost you an arm or a leg. Pull the sparkplug wire off the plug so it won't accidentally fire, and turn the blade while you are working to clean or free up the blade. Use long-handled tools when possible.

• Consider adding a rain barrel to your house gutter. They are becoming more popular and more decorative, and will save you on watering your lawn and garden.

• When you have an old piece of furniture that you just can't bear to part with, think outside of the box. Maybe you can turn an old table into a pot rack over your kitchen island, or maybe an old tea cart can become a new bar cart. Turn your old bed frame into a bench. Just get creative, and see what you can come up with to give that prized possession a new life.

Q. My outdoor patio furniture is metal and has started to rust in some spots. It's really tough, but I don't want it to fall apart anytime soon. Can you tell me how to fix it?

A. You can sand or grind off the old rust. There are also some "rust converters" that you can use on any leftover rust. Get as much off as you can, as it will just continue to spread. Then use a primer made for metal paint, and high-quality paint made for exterior metal surfaces. Keep on top of the rust situation, and you might get a few more years out of that old patio set.

Q. How can I find out if I have a water leak under my slab without tearing it to pieces?

A. Find a repair company that uses high-tech sensing equipment to locate leaks. They are located all over the country, and use a variety of techniques with specialized equipment that won't damage your slab until the leak is located.

Q. I replaced the wax ring on my toilet and accidentally tightened it too much. Now there is a crack at the base. Is there anything I can do to repair it, or should I replace it now?

A. That's your call, since we can't see it. If you want to try to repair it, use epoxy glue. Just make sure you don't over tighten it when you put it back in place. If it leaks, you will have to replace it.

Q. I like my new fireplace, but during my annual spring-cleaning streak, I saw that the instant-start logs I used left a large waxy spot on the bricks. Can you give me some options?

A. Saturate the stain with mineral-spirits paint thinner to help dissolve it. Then cover it with clay cat litter to absorb it all overnight. With a little luck, the stain will be absorbed, and you can vacuum or sweep it right up. You might have to repeat it. In the future, visit a fireplace-supply store and see if it has a tray you can put down over the bottom of the firebox to catch the wax.

Reader tips

• I cleaned our fireplace, but it still looked dirty. I used trisodium phosphate to get all of the soot stains off the bricks. The light-colored brick and mortar just always look dirty, though. I finally bought some special heat-resistant fireplace paint, and just painted the whole inside part black. Now it looks much better. It doesn't show up at all. The whole fireplace even looks better.

• We removed the wallpaper from our dining room walls and decided to texture and paint them. We had never done this before and were worried about the process. When we went to the paint store, however, we found a roller that we could use to apply the texture. It just rolled the texture onto the wall like paint, and gave it a very nice finish. The paint was easy, and the whole room looks like a million bucks. I'm even ready to tackle another room.

• We like to put out a flag on special occasions, but not every day. We just realized that we are not very good at taking it down at night or before a rain. So we came up with a super way to install our temporary flagpole. We found an umbrella stand that is the same size as our flagpole. We just put the pole into the umbrella stand, which is very heavy, and tighten the screw to hold it in place. The stand keeps it upright, and when we are ready to take it down, it's easy to do. The stand can be moved back into the garage for storage.

• I like to keep my sawdust in an old aluminum popcorn can. I use the stuff for lots of things in my shop. It's great for absorbing spilled messes, and can be used to help scrub your hands clean. I also have found it useful as a floor-sweeping compound. I just toss it around on the garage floor before I sweep. We used to use something similar in our warehouse, and this seems to work pretty well at home, too.

• I have been doing some wood projects and have designed a nice "light box" to make tracing the patterns easier. I used an old drawer as the base. I put a small night light inside and placed a sheet of glass over the top. My pattern goes down on the glass first, and then my tracing paper or even regular paper goes over that. When the light comes on, it's very easy to trace the pattern on the paper. The kids even have some fun with the light box, tracing some of their pictures on tracing paper.

Shop talk

• The Photo Shower Curtain is exactly what it sounds like. You choose a favorite photo, send the manufacturer a digital image and it's turned into a shower curtain for you. The curtains are tough, won't fade, shrink or wash out, and install just like any other shower curtain. You can go to the Web site photoshowercurtain.com to learn more, or call the company at (888) 366-9284.

• Keep pesky (and dangerous) mosquitoes under control at your next outdoor barbecue with the AllClear Cordless Mosquito Mister. No electrical power is required because it runs on rechargeable batteries. The unit treats a 2,000-square-foot area for up to six hours at a time. It uses a concentrated solution that is easily installed. The unit has several built-in safety features, like a 12-second delay, audible countdown alert and even a remote control pad. Look for it at www.allclearmister.com and find a dealer in your area.

• Write to Al and Kelly Carrell in care of the Daily Herald, P.O. Box 280, Arlington Heights, IL 60006, or visit the Carrells' Web site at thesuperhandyman.com.

© 2009, Cowles Syndicate Inc.