Author Archives: Dan Hansen

EP05 – April 29, 2017: One of a Kind Furniture and More!

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Today, we sit down in the studio with Kim DeBoer and discuss the adventures of refinishing furniture. Kim talks about some of her best experiences and the joys of taking something old and unwanted and turning it into a centerpiece in your home!

That and more in today’s episode of the RepcoLite Home Improvement Show!

Listen here:

Show notes for episode 005:

Shopping for furniture to refinish or repurpose can be stressful! What's worth buying? What can actually be refinished and what is just going to make you sad? And where do you look to find these pieces?

Kim DeBoer is a professional painting contractor who does a lot of furniture refinishing on the side. She's been doing this for years and has answers for all of these questions and more!

It's Spring and the weather's getting warmer! And that means that we're right on the cusp of air conditioner season. But did you know that there are a few simple projects you can tackle on a Saturday morning (or anytime!) that will help you make sure your unit runs efficiently, for less cost, and lasts longer!

Today we go over the 2 must-do jobs this Spring!

Staining a deck is a great project! It's fun and even relatively easy. In fact, the most confusing part of the whole project is trying to choose the right stain. Should you go with an oil-based product? Or a waterborne? What opacity is best for your situation? Clear or Solid or something in between?

On today's Ask RepcoLite segment, we've got all the answers!

Spring is here and with it, we get warmer weather, baseball . . . and ants! My home is right now under invasion and so I'm very excited to be in the studio with David Popp from Rose Pest Solutions. He's here to talk about ants, termites, what to look for and what to do when you find a problem!

EP04 – April 22, 2017: Painting Vinyl Siding and More!

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Vinyl siding was supposed to last forever. But . . . it doesn’t. At least the color doesn’t. After a while, houses with vinyl siding can start to look tired, faded, boring . . . old. Well, Benjamin Moore’s Revive is a paint specifically made for vinyl siding. It sticks remarkably well and is available in a range of over 300 vinyl safe colors! It’s definitely worth a look if you’d like to change the entire look and feel of your home this summer!

That and more on this episode!

Listen now:

Show notes for episode 004:

Did you know you can paint vinyl siding? Kevin Hermann dropped by our studio to discuss Benjamin Moore's Revive Vinyl Siding Paint and gave us some tips to get the job done right. The best news is, there are over 300 "vinyl safe" colors to choose from! These colors will allow you to choose a color that is darker than your original siding, without warping your siding. A whole new world of possibilities has been opened!

Kevin also stressed the importance of proper prep/cleaning before painting. Revive does not require a primer if you take right the steps to clean the siding first. Check out our blog post for everything you need to know about getting your siding ready for paint.

Browse Revive's Color Palette of over 300 Colors!

Kevin Hermann is a Territory Representative for Benjamin Moore. He has been with the company for 26 years and has a wealth of paint knowledge. He answers questions from what type of paint to use for a specific project to application tips. And if you really push him, he might even tell you a fish story or two!

How often do we drive through a neighborhood and slow as we come to a house with a beautiful front yard? We sigh heavily as we dream about that house.

But wait! This can be your house. No need to dream! These curb appeal projects are simple and inexpensive. They range from cleaning the exterior of the house to landscape primping. We've got 4 projects that don't take a lot of time or money. And if you go through these and are STILL looking for more ideas, listen to our podcast about curb appeal, check out our front door color Pinterest board, or read our blog post that gives you 6 more inexpensive projects.

We also found this great HGTV slideshow with before and after curb appeal photos. It proves how far a change in landscaping (often minimizing it!), some paint and a little color will go!

When it comes to snowblower maintenance, how many of us just fill the gas tank and push it to the back of the garage to collect dust for the next 6 months? Lots of people! But there's more to it.

If you have limited time or energy, we have the one step you ABSOLUTELY should not bypass. If you have a bit more time to spend, we have 4 other things that will help your snowblower start the first time you pull the cord when faced with a foot of snow next winter. We also have a tip that will save you from being like Dan and annoying your neighbors for the better part of four hours!

Imagine this scene: you are shoveling your driveway after a long day at work. Everything is fine until you are stopped abruptly when the blunt end of your shovel tries to impale you through the stomach. Dan is all too familiar with this feeling.

But the pain is over! Andy Van Dyke from VDC has the solution for those pieces of sunken concrete. The best news is, it's way cheaper than we would have imagined.

Painting Your Vinyl Siding

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vinyl_roundedPainting your vinyl siding isn’t typically a project we’d consider “low-budget”. Yet, in the grand scheme of things, it really is. Here’s why: painting the vinyl siding of your home will produce a remarkable change. In fact, not many outdoor projects (if any!) are going to produce as profound a change in the curb appeal of your home. So, the project produces amazing results. And to get those amazing results, you typically only have to spend anywhere from $300 – $600 on paint. Add some supplies and figure in your time to do the work and you’re still talking about a relatively low expenditure to produce the biggest change possible without remodeling or re-siding your home. So, relatively speaking, it’s inexpensive when you consider the results!

Best of all, it’s not a difficult project. In fact, it’s pretty simple. Here are the basics:

CLEAN THE SIDING: Before you apply any paint, the siding needs to be cleaned and free from any surface contaminants. The paint you will later use bonds to the surface of the vinyl. If that surface is not clean and ready for paint, you can end up with the paint bonding to whatever contaminant was there (dust, dirt, etc). So, make sure you clean the siding.

And when it comes to cleaning, there are a couple of options. First, you can go to the old paint prep standby: TSP TriSodium Phosphate. It’s inexpensive and functions as a degreaser, mild deglosser, and cleaner. If you’re painting your vinyl siding, it’s perfect. If you have mold or mildew on the siding around your gutters or downspouts, just mix a little bleach in the TSP mixture.

Never use TSP on your siding if you’re only trying to clean it because it will dull the finish of your vinyl that you mix with water and it’s an excellent cleaner

A second cleaner that would be excellent on your vinyl siding is called Jomax. It’s designed to clean vinyl siding and if you use this in conjunction with a scrub brush and a power washer, you’ll be able to get the dust, mildew, and any other surface contaminants off the siding to make it ready for paint.

Jomax is safe to use on your vinyl if you’re only trying to clean it!

Whatever cleaner you choose, make sure you scrub with a scrub brush before rinsing with a power washer or a garden hose!

PICK YOUR PAINT: Once the siding’s ready for paint, it’s time to get the paint! We recommend Benjamin Moore’s Regal Select Revive. Revive provides excellent color retention, is resistant to mildew and can be applied as long as surface temperatures are 40 degrees Fahrenheit (and rising).

Revive is designed specifically for vinyl siding and comes in a wide palette of vinyl-safe colors. This is a big deal because when you use standard paints in non-vinyl-safe colors, you run the risk of warping, damaging, or even destroying your vinyl siding.

The short story is this: the old rule of thumb when painting vinyl siding is that you need to make sure you only select a new color that is the same shade or a little lighter than the original vinyl siding color. If you don’t do that, you run the risk that the new paint color (the darker color) will absorb so much heat that it will case the panels to warp!

Vinyl Safe Colors are another story entirely. With Revive and it’s incredible palette of colors, you can safely change your light tan siding into a charcoal grey with no worries whatsoever!

Below, we have a gallery showing you why you want to use vinyl safe colors! In the photos, the paint on the vinyl was simply regular exterior paint and a vinyl safe color wasn’t chosen. The new color was darker than the original vinyl and, in the sun, heated up so much that the actual vinyl siding warped, creating a problem that can only be fixed by replacing the siding. The lesson? Always choose vinyl safe colors!

APPLY IT and ENJOY: After cleaning and picking your paint (and vinyl safe color!) all that’s left is to do the work. Apply the paint on the cool side of the house, working out of direct sunlight. You can use a roller (we have various sizes), a paint pad, a brush (generally just for trim work), or even a sprayer (if you can safely do that without having overspray drift throughout your neighborhood!).

Painting the whole house is labor intensive. It will take you some time and it’s definitely a work out (you’re going up and down ladders all the time!). But, the good news is that once you’re done, you’ll be able to enjoy the benefits for many years to come!

If you decide to tackle a project like this, stop out at any RepcoLite, Port City Paints, or Snyder Paints location and let us give you the full rundown regarding method and tools!

EP03 – April 15, 2017: Benjamin Moore Color of the Year

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Benjamin Moore’s Color of the Year is purple. Yeah. And we’re hearing a lot of questions in the store about how in the world to decorate with purple. Today, we’re on the phone with Hannah Yeo from Benjamin Moore. She has a TON of great color information. It’s easily one of the most interesting interviews we’ve done so far. If you have any interest in decorating with color (purple or otherwise) give this a listen!

That and more on today’s episode!

Listen here:

Show notes for episode 003:

In this first segment, we're on the phone with Hannah Yeo from Benjamin Moore to discuss Benjamin Moore's Color of the Year for 2017. We're just letting you know: It's purple! But, of course, that's being a little too simplistic.... Benjamin Moore's Color of the Year is sophisticated, unusual, interesting, and the perfect "enabler" color.

Hannah's here to explain how Benjamin Moore came up with this color and how you can easily use it in your own home.

Hannah Yeo is a Color & Design Expert for Benjamin Moore, North America’s favorite paint, color and coatings brand. As part of the Benjamin Moore Color & Design team, Hannah plays an integral role in forecasting trends, developing and curating colors, and managing four sub-brands at Benjamin Moore & Co.

Prior to joining Benjamin Moore in 2009, Hannah began her career at Fisher-Price as a Graphic Designer. Her background in graphic design and color gave her a unique skill set: infusing graphic design elements to communicate color.

Hannah holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications Design from Pratt Institute.

At RepcoLite, we get tons of questions on a regular basis. Tons of questions. In our Ask RepcoLite! segment today, we focus on a couple of very common questions.

The first one is simply: "What in the world is a RepcoLite?" We know that our company name doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. And we also know that it doesn't make tons of sense. But apart from that, we still think we're a pretty interesting company with a lot to offer! So we take a minute to introduce ourselves! (And if you'd like to read our origin story, check it out here!)

The second question gets down to the nitty gritty: "I just painted my bathroom. How long before I can start using my shower again?"

Brian Stacey from Bergman Power Equipment is a lawn equipment specialist and he joins us in the studio to talk about the Must-Have Lawn Equipment Every Homeowner Needs. Some of us think we can get by with a lawnmower. Some of us feel we need a different edger for odd and even numbered days. Brian's going to walk us through the 4 pieces of equipment he feels are absolutely necessary.

When we told co-workers that we were interviewing a vet for the last segment of today's show, everybody figured we meant a veteran! Nobody could imagine what in the world we were going to talk to a Veterinarian about on a home improvement show. But Betsy is both an animal lover and extremely creative and she came up with the idea of interviewing a vet about how a home remodel project can produce stress in our pets. To find out what we can do as pet owners to alleviate this stress, we interview Dr. Jim Havinga from the Animal Clinic of Holland. He's got some great advice and recommendations regarding how you can keep your pet safe and calm during the next project.

And, after the interview wrapped up, Dr. Jim started telling us stories from his practice: A dog who rattled, a horse on the tracks, and a number of others. Betsy and I thought the stories were great and we want you to hear them, too! So we've got them below. They're really worth a listen!

EP02 – April 8, 2017: The #1 Issue Discovered by Home Inspectors

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In this episode, we speak with Dave Stegink from ABI Home Inspection Services about the #1 issue he finds when he inspects a house. Chances are, these things (at least some of them) are happening in your home right now! What are they and how do you find them? We cover all of that and more!

Listen now:

Show notes for episode 002:

Dave Stegink is in his 4th year doing inspections full time for ABI Inspection Services. For about 8 years prior to that, he inspected homes on a part time basis. Before joining ABI Inspection Services full-time, he was the Construction Director at Lakeshore Habitat for Humanity for 4 years and had his own remodeling company.

kickout_flashing_2Kickout Flashing

In the segment, Dave mentioned something called "kickout flashing". We tried our best to describe it on air, but figured a picture's worth a thousand words, right? Right! So, here's the picture we promised along with a link that explains exactly what kickout flashing does for a home and another that explains how it's installed.

Check them out and then take a look at your home. Is it something you should be adding?

There are a lot of contractors out there, and some of them aren't very good. Fortunately, there are a number of easy steps you can take to make sure that the next one you hire is going to get the job done well and on time! We talk about what we feel are the 6 key steps to take. But if you liked what you heard, check out our blog which has a few more tips!

Water stains on a ceiling are depressing! They look terrible and worse, they are proof positive that there's a bigger issue at work in our homes. Maybe it's a leaky roof, maybe a burst pipe, or maybe we get lucky and it's just overeager bathers! On top of that, many of us have painted over a water stain only to see it almost magically bleed back through our new coat of paint. They're definitely frustrating. But the good news is, they can be easy to deal with. You just need to know the right way to approach the project and the right products to use!

If you'd like more info on water stains, check out our blog post!

Selling your home isn't something most of us do on a regular basis. As a result, we don't always know the best ways to go about it. Personally, I'm always interested in what I should update and what's not worth the expense. Today, we're in the studio with realtor Roger Nyhuis from Keller Williams Lakeshore Holland Realty. He's a self-described "old guy" who made a career change after 45 years in commercial radio! But don't let his relative "youth" in the realty world fool you: Roger knows his stuff and has great information to help you if you're even remotely thinking about selling your home!

EP01 – April 1, 2017: Getting Your Deck Ready for Spring

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It’s Spring! At least mostly…. And there is no better time to clean your deck and get it ready for the season. In this episode, we talk all about what it takes to get that deck cleaned and ready for stain. We also talk with Rose Pest Solutions about a common outdoor pest: mosquitoes.

That and much more on this inaugural episode!

Listen now:

Shownotes for episode 001:

Cleaning the deck is a simple Spring project (or Summer or Fall!!). We ran you through the basics on the show today, but there's a lot more information out there. If you're interested, stop out at any RepcoLite, Port City Paints, or Snyder Paints location and let us help.

Also, we recorded a podcast last summer. It's basically a Deck Cleaning Q&A and it's full of great info. Check it out:

OnFloor Machine Demo

Here's a demo of the OnFloor Machine we discussed in the episode, though we want to note that the situation in this video shows the OnFloor Machine removing nearly 5 layers of freshly applied stain (yikes!). As a result, the speed is dramatically reduced. Still, you can see a great example of how clean the OnFloor Machine will get your deck. It's a very quick way to get your wood ready for stain without having to do any cleaning or introduce any water to the deck at all. This means you could clean it and stain it on the same day!

We have an OnFloor Machine for rent. You can contact us at 616-396-5213 to check availability and rental rates!

Which Tools are Best?

We didn't have time to get to all the different tools on the radio show today, but below we have a video that walks you through a number of different application options and how quickly (or not!) they work!

Mosquitoes are a giant pain in the neck! You just get your deck looking great and find that you can't even be out on it for more than 10 minutes at a time. And all of that time is spent running in circles, waving your arms, and trying to present them with a moving target.

Today, we sit down in the studio with David Popp from Rose Pest Solutions and we talk about prevention and reduction of this annoying spring, summer, and fall pest!

In this first Ask RepcoLite! segment, we answer your exterior paint questions:
  • How early is too early to paint outside?
  • Can you use exterior paint inside?
  • Can you use interior paint inside a garage?
We've got the answers!
It's Spring and that means we're going to be working on our lawns soon enough. Is your lawn equipment ready? What do you need to do to make sure it's ready to go for the season? We sit down with Brian Stacey from Bergman Power Equipment and he tells us everything we need to know!