C-O-D-E-R-E-D

Archive for July, 2009

Wood floors offer warmth and beauty to your mobile home. They also bring problems.
Parquet floors that start to bulge or rise at the joints are a clue that your home is probably settling unevenly. Page 20 suggests the test and the remedy. Apply fresh mastic or contact cement under parquet tiles that have worked loose.
You do not have the freedom with wood floors that you do with linoleum. They are not waterproof. Only special cleaning procedures can preserve their beauty. Use only cleaning agents recommended by the manufacturer for the finish on your floors. Always vacuum the floors and around the walls thoroughly before you clean and wax. If you don’t, grit becomes trapped in the wax and grates into the wood. Your floors age rapidly. You’ll also find yourself stripping the wax oft frequently just to keep the floor looking good.
Protect wood floors from gouging. Do not push heavy furniture across it. Table and chair legs should not have sharp bottom edges that dig into the floor. Use runner rugs in high-traffic areas, and perhaps under the dining area. You can always roll them up when you want to show off your beautiful floor to company.

When the wallboard around your bathtub starts to bow, as if often does, it’s time for new. Rent a power drill, a reversible screwdriver bit, and a hand jigsaw. You’ll find using a power screwdriver faster than removing and replacing 18-dozen screws by hand. Measure the walls. Remember, this board goes all the way to the floor behind the tub. Then buy replacement panels.
Remove mouldings and plumbing fixtures. Take down the old wallboard. Measure and cut holes for the plumbing fixtures in one new panel.
Bend a back panel slightly and slip it into position behind the tub. You may find it a tight squeeze; it should be. Once the panel is in position, fix it flat against the wall with a piece of duct tape while you fit the other pieces in. Fasten them with tape too, while you attach the mouldings.

Start with the moulding at the back corner. Fill the cracks behind and under the moulding generously with bathtub caulking. Don’t be stingy. Plenty of caulking here, now, heads off the majority of leaks. In this way, apply mouldings all around the tub. Clean off excess caulking compound as you tighten each moulding strip. Don’t tighten the screws so much they strip out the holes; that leaves the mouldings loose.
Reinstall the plumbing fixtures. Allow the caulking to set up before you run any water or step into the tub. You now have a new bathtub wall.
The caulking for bathroom wallboard needs yearly refurbishing, just as the caulking for ceramic tile does. During your spring housecleaning, remove the mouldings, scrape out driedup caulking, and recaulk all the joints.