Author Archives: Dan Hansen

EP08 – May 27, 2017: An Epic Historic Restoration

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Sometimes we look at our homes and don’t know where to begin. The kitchen is a little outdated. Maybe the bathroom needs work. Sometimes we see all that and we find ourselves not sure how to get started. The project just seems too big. Well, if that sounds familiar, Patty Meyer, Director of the Felt Estate near Saugatuck has some inspiring advice for you!

That and much more on today’s episode:

Listen here:

Show notes for episode 008:

In 1925, Dorr Felt began construction of what the Felt Mansion for his wife, Agnes. The summer home would be large enough to accommodate his married daughters and their families. Completed in 1928, the 12,000+ square foot mansion consists of 25 rooms, including a third-floor ballroom. Unfortunately, Agnes died in August of 1928, six weeks after the family moved in, and Dorr died a year and a half later in 1930.

From there, the home has changed owners multiple times throughout the years. It's been a seminary, a home for cloistered nuns, and even a prison.

After years of neglect, volunteers from Laketown Township and surrounding communities are restoring the mansion and grounds. It's an incredible community project and a remarkable story!

Today, Patty Meyer, Director of the Felt Estate, sits down with us for two segments to talk about the project, what she's learned, and to give all of us the inspiration to dream and to dare to accomplish what seems almost impossible!

Patricia Hoezee Meyer – Director of the Felt Estate

Pat is a former educator who graduated from GVSU and the School of Education in 1990 with a major in English & History, and a minor in Political Science. Her interest in art, history and architecture led to her passion for the restoration of the Felt Estate.

For the last 13 years, Pat has restored the Felt Estate, and as director of the Estate, planned and implemented hundreds of events. Pat and the restoration project she oversees have won numerous awards at the local, state, and national level. Pat speaks around the State at Historic Preservation Seminars, emphasizing the importance of place in our lives, in our communities, in our history, and in our learning. Pat is continuing her education at GVSU, through the Johnson Center, working toward a Master’s Degree in Non-profit Administration.

 

There are tons of common paint mistakes we all make in an effort to save time. Today we talk about four that we see all the time!

  • Making My Paint Cover In One Coat Whether It Wants to Or Not!
  • Not Washing the Surfaces I'm Going to Paint Adequately!
  • Not Priming After I Strip Wallpaper
  • Painting Out of My Full Gallon Container
Check out or blog post for more info!

How to Properly Load a Paint Brush!

Our dryer and washer can potentially be very destructive if regular maintenance is not performed. Dryer lint is extremely flammable and washer hoses need to be replaced every five years. Fortunately, with just a little maintenance, you can keep your home safe and protected!

Flammable Vent Hoses

We mentioned in the segment that commonly used plastic or vinyl vent tubing is extremely flammable (as is the lint trapped inside!) Here's a video that demonstrates why you want to remove these cheap hoses from your home and replace them with flexible metal tubing.

FloodStop

This item is very interesting to me. It's designed to be installed very simply, taking only 10 minutes. But when it's installed, it will detect leaks, sound an alarm, and best of all, automatically turn off your water supply valves to prevent flooding! I haven't tried it, but I'm certainly going to dig into it! You can get more info right here!

Common Paint Mistakes We All Make!

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OK. In the spirit of honesty and the common good and all that, I’ll admit that I’ve made a lot of dumb mistakes in my life when it comes to painting. The thing with me is that I should know better. But, unfortunately, at heart, I’m busy. And this lack of time actually makes me an eternal optimist when it comes to trying shortcuts. I always figure that this time the shortcut will work. This time I won’t have a mess on my hands. Turns out, I’m almost always wrong.

Well, I’m not the only one who struggles with this. At RepcoLite, we meet people everyday who are like me. People who wanted to save a little time. People who discovered that shortcuts in the paint world don’t often end well. Here are a few of the most common mistakes we see on a regular basis. How many have you made?

One Coat Coverage or Die Trying

So you start rolling your paint on the wall. You’ve got a schedule to keep and a vision of the rest of your day and everything hinges on getting that paint to cover in one coat. And that’s when you notice, with a sinking feeling in your stomach, that the paint isn’t complying. It’s not covering like you hoped.

And so, our first thought is to load up that roller and by sheer force of will make that paint cover in a single coat. The problem with this is obvious: a heavy coat of paint on a wall will dry dramatically slower than a proper application. And the slower dry time will mean your finish will start to show sags and runs. These are huge problems that are not easy to fix!

If you find yourself in this situation, your best bet is to do what we all know, deep down, is right: Apply the paint as it’s intended. Two thinner coats are going to give you a better looking finish (by a long shot) than one heavy coat. And really, you’re probably not going to spend too much extra time anyway. Rolling two coats on properly isn’t going to be much slower than rolling one insanely thick coat on the wall and then dealing with all the drips and runs!

Scrub that Wall? Are You Kidding? I Power Washed It!

We see this all the time! We’re getting ready to paint our home or a pole barn and we know that we should wash it. And so we gas up the power washer, pull on shorts, lather up with sunscreen, and start blasting! We work our way around the house, engulfed in a rainbow mist, washing every ounce of dirt and grime and filth from the surface, right? Well…

As powerful and amazing as power washers can be, they will never replace the need for a good scrubbing on many surfaces we want to paint. Think of it this way: when you wash your car, what would happen if you just sprayed it with the hose? Do it sometime and check it out. Is it clean? Or is it still coated with all kinds of road goodies? We all know that scrubbing the car and then rinsing is necessary in order to really get it clean.

The siding on our home is the same. A power wash alone will not get it clean enough for paint. It needs to be scrubbed. And yes, I know that sounds terrible but it needs to be done. Skipping the step means you’ll probably have premature failing of your paint coat. If the surface isn’t scrubbed clean, your new coat of paint will bond to that layer of chalky residue or dust that the power washer left behind. That means it’s not bonded to the surface of your home or your barn or whatever . . . it’s only stuck to the dirt that’s stuck to the side of your home. That’s not ideal. By a long shot.

So get a scrub brush on a pole, a box of TSP, and scrub the siding before power washing it. You can still work on your tan and you’ll get a great cardio workout to boot. All the while ensuring that your paint job will last!

Wash My Interior Walls? We’re Not Pigs…

The same thing happens inside (without the power washer, of course!) All walls to be painted should be washed with a mixture of TSP. TSP is a degreaser and it will cut through all sorts of contaminants that will build up on our walls over time: cooking oils, body oils, soot from candles, just plain old dirt, and so on. Even if the walls look clean, these contaminants are likely there and they can prevent or hinder your paint from bonding well.

Also, trust me, even if you’re house is relatively spotless, there’s probably a stray cobweb or two on your wall. And nothing is more frustrating that rolling or brushing into something like that and getting it mixed up in your paint, on your roller, or in your brush.

I Just Stripped Wallpaper. I’ve Done My Penance. I Just Want to Be Done…

Another tempting shortcut when happens when we paint a room where we’ve stripped wallpaper. Taking paper down is bad enough. But then to think that there’s a primer step before you can finally roll your finish paint on is often too much for people. The outdoors is calling! The TV is calling. The tedium of wallpaper stripping has killed a part of our soul and we just need to rest. Skipping that primer step is so tempting!

But here’s the deal: wallpaper paste is water-activated. And no matter how well you clean your wall after you pulled that paper down, there’s a good chance that there’s some residue left behind. If you roll latex paint over that paste residue, the water in the paint will re-activate the paste on the wall and you’ll end up with a texture in your finish.

We see it all the time. And it’s a problem that’s typically only fixed with sandpaper on a pole. Which is definitely not a fun project.

So no matter how much you don’t feel like priming, it’s the wisest choice! You can use an oil-based primer like RepcoLite’s Pro Flo primer. Or you can use Benjamin Moore’s Fresh Start Multi-Purpose Oil Primer. Both of these can be topcoated with a good, high quality latex.

If oil’s not your bag, there’s one single waterbased option that we will happily recommend: Gardz Sealer from Zinsser. Gardz is specifically made to seal in wallpaper paste residue and we’ve seen great results when using it! So, if soap and water clean up is a must for you, there’s an alternative. But just remember: this product is specifically made for this purpose! Don’t use just any waterbased product. Because it won’t work!

Working Out of the Gallon Container

Who hasn’t done this? We pop open the lid of our gallon, grab the bucket by the handle and start marching around the room with it, dipping our brush in from time to time and working that way. I’ve done it, I’ve seen it done. I think we’ve all done it. But the problem is, it’s kind of a dumb thing to do for a few reasons:

It’s Heavy and I’m Clumsy. Carrying around a gallon can can be a little tiring. It fatigues our arms and fingers and just makes a project more painful than it needs be. Also, some of us (I’m thinking of me, here) are a little clumsy. The likelihood of me bumping into something and sloshing paint onto the floor is high. If I’m carrying around a full gallon of paint, the chances are even better.

Loading a Brush Correctly is Impossible in a Full Gallon. Yes, there’s a correct way to load a brush with paint. And yes, it’s very difficult to do that when you’re working out of a full gallon. (Here’s a video demonstration of the right way to load a brush).

Don’t Poison the Waterhole. I’ve written about this before. The concept is simple: if you’re working out of your source for the paint (the gallon) and you brush into a spiderweb, dirt, or anything else, you’re going to end up dipping that contaminant into your paint when you go to refill your brush. Suddenly your paint isn’t as pristine as it once was because you’ve introduced who knows what into it! This is especially true when working outside.

To get away from this problem, simply work out of a smaller container. We sell any number of them at RepcoLite. Get something light, easy to hold, and only pour some of your paint into it. It’s not as heavy, you won’t be as likely to drop it or spill it, and if you do contaminate it, the bulk of your paint is still clean and fresh!

 

Paint and Primer All-In-One: Miracle or Marketing?

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By now, we’ve all heard about Paint and Primer All-In-One products. We’ve seen commercials, we’ve heard the promises. And we know that using a two-in-one product is going to save us almost miraculous amounts of time, right? Well….

Brilliant Marketing

To start with, let’s clear something up right away. Paint and Primer All-In-One products aren’t new. The labeling is. The name is. But in all actuality, all high quality, 100% acrylic paints will function as paint and primer all-in-one. There is no inherent difference between a product labeled as a paint and primer all-in-one and a high quality acrylic paint. It is really just a brilliant marketing gimmick revolving around the concept that we all like to save time and skip steps!

RepcoLite carries any number of products like this even though we don’t label them as such. Our Hallmark Ceramic Paints and Carefree Interior Paints are all paint and primer in one products. Benjamin Moore’s Aura, Regal, Natura, and Ben also fall in to this category.

So, in actuality, paint and primer all-in-one products aren’t as “cutting edge” as we may have been lead to believe by the smart tv ads! But are they still great time saving products?

Can We Really Skip the Primer Step?

Yes and no. As we mentioned in the previous post primers are different from paints. Paints are different from primers. When the two are combined into a single product, compromises have to be made. Drywall, for example, is porous and needs to be sealed. Just rolling a finish paint on, especially a finish paint that has a sheen, can result in an uneven finish. The paint is absorbed at different rates into the drywall. In the areas where it lays up on the surface, it will look shinier. In the areas where it penetrates deeply, it will look flatter. Subsequent coats can mask this problem, but not always eliminate it. A drywall primer however is made to seal and provide a uniform surface for your finish paint. And, on top of that, it’s about $15 cheaper a gallon! Why spend all that extra money for lesser results?

Or, if you want to paint a tile backsplash, a paint and primer in one product is likely going to peel right off. You need to use a special bonding primer that is designed to adhere to smooth, glossy surfaces.

Or, let’s say you stripped wallpaper off your walls and want to paint. The paste residue that is often left behind is water soluble. A regular waterbased paint and primer all-in-one will react with this and will result in a texturing problem on your walls. Use an oil-based primer (Benjamin Moore’s Fresh Start Multipurpose Oil Primer or RepcoLite’s ProFlo Primer) and you’ll seal that paste in and you’ll have no problems. (For more information and painting a wall that previously had wallpaper, check out our blog post!)

Bottom line, there are many situations that we run into on almost every painting project where a separate primer and finish paint are going to give you better results than just using a primer and paint in one.

When Can I Use a Paint and Primer All-In-One?

There are certain situations where a paint and primer in one product makes sense:

  • New Coat of Paint (same color)
  • Drastic Color Change
  • Small Repairs

Putting another coat of paint on a wall? Primer isn’t usually needed, so the paint and primer in one products work well. Switching colors? A paint and primer in one will offer better hiding than a cheap paint, so that’s an option. Patched a small area of your wall and you don’t want to buy a separate quart of primer? OK, paint and primer in one makes sense. And there are a number of other situations where paint and primer in one would make sense.

However, remember what we said earlier: Paint and Primer All-In-One products are technically no different from a high quality acrylic latex paint. So, in any of the above situations, do you need to seek out a specific Paint and Primer All-In-One? Absolutely not! If you’ve already got paint, and it’s a high quality acrylic, it’s perfect!

What Do the Professionals Choose?

Professional contractors make their money and build their reputation based on the speed of their projects and the quality of their work. And by an overwhelming margin, they choose to use a separate paint and primer. They know that they will get reliable and consistent results with a separate paint and primer. And they know they’ll get those results at a better price than using the “miracle” paint and primer all-in-one products!

So, why use a lesser system that costs more money when you could use the system the pros consistently choose?

EP07 – May 20, 2017: Enjoy that Outdoor Living!

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Outdoor living spaces are big right now! They’re exciting ways to expand your home, your entertaining space, and make the most out of some of our beautiful Michigan summer weather. Today we talk with Rob Cackowski from Heritage Fireplace and Design Center ALL about outdoor living spaces and what you need to do to create the perfect one for your home!

That and much more on today’s episode:

Listen here:

Show notes for episode 007:

Shopping for carpet can be overwhelming. Most of us don't do it very often and every time we do, it seems that the industry has changed dramatically since our last visit to the carpet store!

Today, we're in the studio with Nick Sargent from Johnson Carpet One in Grandville and he's going to help us cut through some of that paralyzing confusion. He's got tips for how to find the perfect carpet for your space and we'll also talk about the pros and cons of the most common carpet fibers. It's like a Carpet Shopping 101 class for anyone who's starting the process!

Nicolas Sargent is a Flooring and Design Consult at Johnson Carpet One in Downtown Grandville Michigan. Nicolas has a background of working with Interior Designers and Builders in a wide variety of products and design styles for the past 15 years. He also has his own clients helping them achieve their own design vision. Some of his favorite products are Wool Carpets, Custom Area Rugs, Hardwoods and Natural Stone.

Most of us have at least 4 - 5 gallons of leftover paint sitting on shelves in our basement at any given time. Sometimes it's paint we plan to use for touch-ups later. But often, it's just extra. And the collection usually keeps growing as time goes by. Well, did you know that there was a green, environmentally friendly solution to all this leftover paint? And best of all, it's incredibly economical.

We're in the studio with Dave Williams from Re-coat Recycled Paint and he explains how easy it is to clean out your basement and, at the same time, help keep old paint out of our landfills!

Re-Coat Recycled Paint Details:

As Dave mentioned in the episode, you can bring any of your usable latex paint to any RepcoLite or Port City Paints location for recycling. There are just a few requirements:
  • Only latex paint can be recycled at this time
  • Paint must be in the original container
  • Paint must be in liquid form
  • Cost is $2 per container
  • There is a 20 gallon maximum per visit

Oil-Based Paint Disposal Options:

If you have oil-based paint or other household hazardous waste you want to dispose of or recycle, you need to contact one of the following locations. Be sure to check with them regarding the times they're open!

When it comes to innovations in the paint and coatings industry, nothing has caused more of a stir recently than the introduction of "Paint and Primer All-In-One" products. They're marketed to be time-saving, money-saving, labor-saving workhorse products. But are they everything they're cracked up to be? We dig into it on this Ask RepcoLite! segment.

And from our blog:

So, last fall I may have done something kind of dumb that may have destroyed my grass in a large are of my backyard. But rather than cry over spilled milk, I'm thinking I'm going to convert that enormous dead zone into an outdoor living space. Unfortunately, I have no idea where to start beyond just throwing down some patio blocks down.

Happily, we have a home improvement radio show and something even better: connections! We got in touch with Rob Cackowski from Heritage Fireplace and Design Center. Besides helping us with all our indoor fireplace needs, Heritage is big into helping people create outdoor living spaces that they'll love. It's a great interview that gave me a little insight into all the possibilities out there!

Rob Cackowski is the General Manager of Heritage Fireplace and Design Center in Grand Rapids. He has 20 years experience in the Hearth, Patio & BBQ industry. He's NFI Certified (National Fireplace Institute) and received his BBA in Finance from Western Michigan University.

Heritage Fireplace is a fully mechanically licensed, bonded and insured company. We specialize in both retail and direct to builder sales and installation. We have serviced the greater Grand Rapids and Lakeshore area for over 25 years.

Is Primer Really Necessary? Not If You Like Problems!

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OK. We all love saving time, right? Of course we do. My kids do as well. In fact, everytime I ask them to help with any household task, they instantly slide into “time-saving-mode”. Which really just means that they look for shortcuts and ways to cut steps out of projects.

For example, when it comes to doing dishes, they routinely cut out the “scrubbing” step. We don’t have a dishwasher and so we end up standing at the sink every night after dinner. And since this is so boring, the kids have found that they can skip the scrubbing step in order to cut a lot of time out of the job. They run their little fingers over the glasses and the forks in a half-hearted cleaning effort and then they rinse like champions.

And then, days later, we have a guest over and inevitably, the guest needs a glass of water or something. And I get a cup out of the cupboard and stifle a scream when I see a spaghetti noodle, crispy and razor sharp, draped across the cup like a worm on the sidewalk in the sun. I try to hide the glass and reach for another only to find a hunk of hamburger stuck to the next one. Quickly, I toss that one behind my back and reach for a third glass only to find that it’s lined with sticky, leftover Mountain Dew.

I wish I were exaggerating, but I’m not. It’s really embarrassing. And it proves the point that saving time by skipping steps isn’t always the best plan.

And that’s brings me to the paint point: Many of us want to save time on a paint project and one of the easiest ways to do that is to cut out the primer step. After all, it’s just a time-consuming, boring, and labor-intensive step that serves no real purpose, right? Why put 1 coat of primer and 2 coats of finish when we could just do 2 coats of finish? Can’t we save time by just skipping the primer and going straight to paint?

It’s a great question and we’re going to answer it in chunks. First, let’s start by pointing out that paint and primer are fundamentally different products which serve fundamentally different purposes. Yes, they look similar in the can and they’re applied the same, but a lot of the similarities end there. Paint is designed to take tint and lock that color in a paint film that offers you a sheen (should you want one), scrub resistance, durability, and protection from the elements. Paint is designed to look beautiful and provide you with the durability you need on any given surface.

Primer, on the other hand is made to seal, to adhere, to block a stain, to resist rust, and for a wide variety of other specific situations:

So, using a finish paint on bare drywall, for example, is going to cause problems. Yes, you’re skipping the primer step, but in that instance, you’ll find that your more expensive finish paint is soaking into the surface unevenly. If you used a finish with a sheen (anything other than flat), you will notice that the wall has dull areas (where the paint soaked in) and shiny areas (where it didn’t). Subsequent coats will not completely even this out and you have the potential to produce a wall that has shiny spots that are visible no matter how many coats you apply. A specific drywall primer like RepcoLite’s Quick Seal would resolve this problem for less money!

Using a finish paint over a ceramic tile backsplash is only going to result in sorrow when you find your paint peels off whenever you bump the wall. Again, a bonding primer like Stix from Insul-X, would take care of the problem!

The bottom line is this: skipping the primer may save you some time, but it will likely cause a larger number of problems that are much more complicated and expensive to deal with. If you’re unsure if the project you’re tackling requires a primer, let us help! Just ask at any RepcoLite or Port City Paints location and we’ll let you know the best way to proceed.

Now, of course, the next issue that comes up revolves around the paint and coating industry’s newest innovation: Paint and Primer All-In-One products! All this talk about primers goes out the window when you’re using one of these miracle all-in-one products, right? Well . . . not so fast. We’ll deal with that in the next post!

 

EP06 – May 6, 2017: Simple Steps to Home Staging and More!

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Home staging. We’ve all heard about it, but how many of us know how to do it? On today’s episode of the RepcoLite Home Improvement Show, we list 5 simple steps that will help you make your home as appealing to new buyers as possible. We also discuss the best colors to choose when painting your home for resale. Do you go with neutrals and look like every other house out there? Or do you roll the dice and try to stand out with color?

We have the answer to that and more on today’s episode.

Listen here:

Show notes for episode 006:

Spring is the best time to put your house on the market.....along with everyone else in town! So how can you set your house apart from all the rest, while getting top dollar?

Home staging is a great solution if you are planning to sell your home. It helps potential buyers to see your house in a different light. And it isn't as bad as you may think. We've got 5 simple home staging tips that will help you put the best house forward.

And here's the article with the interesting statistics we referenced in the show:

Paint color is a hotly debated topic whether you're selling your house or not. We help you decide between a neutral or dramatic color scheme. And tell you the last two important steps to home staging.

And, because we have a few extra minutes, Dan decides to tell us about his brick chimney leak and tells us about a great product that will seal the brick and stop the water before it's too late!

We always ask that our listeners email us with questions and Lisa emailed a great one about painting cabinets and trim that we think many other people may have as well. We thought about just answering, but we had a few questions. So, we asked Lisa to call us with her question so that we could give her the best possible answer. Hence, our first caller!

On today's Ask RepcoLite segment, we've got the answers for Lisa's questions!

While we have had a lot of rain recently, at some point it will dwindle and we will be forced to create our own rain to keep our grass green. I have spent a lot of time dragging a hose and sprinkler around to keep everything that SHOULD be green from turning brown and dying. It's hard work!

Aaron Katerberg from Grapids Irrigation stops by to tell me what it takes to put in a new sprinkling system. And Dan asks about upgrading his old system so he can stop jumping out of bed in the middle of the night to turn off his sprinklers when he hears rain!