Getting ready to spruce up the house a bit for the soon-to-come holidays?
Here are some bits and pieces that might be of help:Wallpaper that doesn't want to come off the wall used to be a real chore to remove. It had to be steamed off, a hard and messy job.
There is a fairly new product available now that makes this job a lot easier. The 3M company has produced a gel that is applied to hard-to-remove wallpaper and left on for 20 to 30 minutes. Paper then usually comes off fairly easy, without any harm to the wall behind it or the woodwork around it. The product is nontoxic and requires no special ventilation, gloves, masks or the like. It also has an easy-to-remember name: Wallpaper and Paste Remover.
Is there a wooden deck outside that has seen better days? Bringing it back to its original clean look and sealing it for mildew, sun and water protection involves some elbow grease, but it is possible to do if time and patience are available. The difficulty is finding the best sealer product that will not only do the job, but will continue protecting the wood for a long time.
To test if the wood has been properly sealed, most people believe that if water is applied to the sealed wood and the water beads up, the wood is perfectly sealed. Water beading up is desirable, but if this effect was produced by wax only in the sealer, the job will only last a few months.
For proper protection, the sealer needs many ingredients, some rather expensive, for full protection against splitting, warping, cracking, mildew and rotting. As usual, you get what you pay for. If the wood cleaner/protectant sells for $5.99 or less per gallon, chances are all those good ingredients aren't in the can.
The initial application might be cheaper but subsequent frequent applications will add up to more than it would have cost to buy the better product to begin with.
So what products are good and how much do they cost? Let's do cost first: About $10 and up per gallon is a safe bet for a better sealer/protectant. And now for some name dropping. Olympic has a good deck cleaner as well as several natural wood colored sealers. Benjamin Moore has a product called "Repels" that is a transparent deck stain. A lesser-known name but all the same a quality producing company is The Flood Co. They have several choices from wood cleaners, finishes and protectors.
Clean the deck for Halloween, change the wallpaper by Thanksgiving and just enjoy Christmas.