Home Owner

Starting a Painting Business For Residential Indoor/Outdoor Painting

In these tough economic times with downsizing's and lay-offs sometimes you are better off starting your own business instead of being at the mercy of an employer. Starting a house painting business can be one of the easiest businesses to start due to the low cost of supplies needed to get it started. Getting started in a painting business can be eased into if you just do it on weekends to make extra money, at first, and then eventually move into doing it full time.

One business that requires very little to start is a house painting business. Starting a house painting business in your area would require you to go to your local business licensing division and get the necessary permits and licenses for you to operate your painting business legally.

Starting a painting business requires very little in the way of start-up capital. Most likely you will need:

1) Paint brushes, from one inch to three inches wide and all sizes in between.
2) An airless paint sprayer
3) A vehicle that you don’t mind getting paint on
4) A business name
5) Letterhead for estimates
6) Color swatches – Sherwin Williams has a really large one with hundreds of colors
7) Business cards

Starting a painting business is a semi-recession proof business because people will rather hire someone to re-paint the indoors of their house to freshen it up than have to move. A re-paint job is much more cost-effective to the cash-strapped homeowner. If the homeowner is fixing his house up to sell a new paint job on the indoors of the house will improve the homes value and make it smell fresh to prospective buyers.


When painting the indoors of a residence you should know the type of paints typically used indoors. First a flat paint is usually used on the ceilings and walls. Don’t make a mistake and put semi-gloss on either it will look real bad. Also, indoor house painting requires that you have tarps and plastic blankets to cover the floors and furniture.

For outdoor house painting you don’t need to be as careful about the floors but you will need to cover concrete driveways and patios. Also, outdoor house painting brings with it some other challenges in the form of insects, such as bees and spiders, etc. When you start your house painting business and prepare to do any outdoor painting remember to pack insecticide to keep the insects at bay.

If you decide that starting a painting business is for you start by doing your research at Home Depot where they have painting classes to help you get started, also check out Sherwin Williams and Benjamin Moore stores for assistance. They often have business supplies and advice to help you make the right choice in paint and materials and help you with business tools to grow your business.

New Polaris 360 Swimming Pool Cleaner Parts

Keep your Polaris 360 operating like new by replacing bad or wearing parts as necessary. Allowing bad parts to remain in the unit will only cause other parts to wear out sooner than they other wise would.

Polaris 360 swimming pool cleaner parts can be very expensive if you buy the from a local hardware store, for example, the drive belts in the Polaris 360 can cost $26.00 in a hardware store, while online they may only cost between $15 and $16.

The Polaris 360 runs a long time without needing to have parts replaced, but if you have had one for over a year you will soon need new belts and bearings. In some cases the wheel covers may need replacing if they are worn on the sides causing the unit to circle more often than it used to. I got more use out of my wheel covers by turning them around and putting what was on the inside on the outside. That lasted for six months until I had to replace the wheel covers with new ones.


Also, the Polaris 360 debris bags, you can find all types of the debris bags online for a significant discount to what they sell for in stores. Normally the bags last for, at least, one year, but if you happen to have one with a Velcro closure it may need to be replaced sooner because the Velcro looses its hold after a while being in the water. I have had much better luck with the debris bag with the plastic zipper.

Check Engine Trouble Codes Explained

When you plug your OBD II scan tool in and get a reading each separate character has its own meaning.

B 1 3 0 0

Assuming that the example above is your OBD II readout you can decipher to a close degree where your trouble is located.

The first letter in this case the “B” indicates a problem in the body of the vehicle. There are four possibilities in the first digit of the readout:

1) “P” for powertrain problems

2) “B” for body related problems

3) “C” for chassis problems

4) “U” is undefined by any of the three, P, B, or C. So you would have to rely on the following digits to hone in on your problem.

The second digit tells you whether the problem is generic “0” shared by all vehicle manufacturers, or a “1” for a manufacturer specific code.

The third digit helps you fine tune your troubleshooting by telling you what sub section of the vehicle the problem may be in:

1) “1” is for emissions management either fuel or air

2) “2” is for an injector circuit, either fuel or air.

3) “3” is for ignition misfire.

4) “4” is for emission control.

5) “5” is for Vehicle speed or idle control.

6) “6” is for Computer or output circuit.

7) “7” is for transmission.

“8” is also for transmission

The last two digits identify what specific section of the system is malfunctioning.
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Swimming Pool Cleaners – Polaris 360 Pressure Relief Valve

On the Polaris 360 there is a pressure relief valve right where the water feed line connects to the swimming pool filter water supply. The pressure relief valve is there to let excessive pressure out before it gets to the Polaris 360 itself. My pressure regulator opens up at fifteen pounds or more to keep from over pressuring the Polaris 360.

I have found that the excessive pressure going to the Polaris 360 is caused when the pressure going into the pool filter increases. Since the Polaris 360 is powered by the same pump that runs the pool filter so some of the water that is supposed to go into the filter is diverted into the Polaris 360 instead. as the filter gets clogged and needs to be washed, in the case of a cartridge filter, or backwashed, in the case of a sand filter, the water cannot get through the filter so the pressure increases and the excess pressure is shunted to the Polaris 360. Once the pressure increases above fifteen pounds the pressure relief valve opens up into the swimming pool.

As long as the pressure relief valve spring and assembly are intact it should be easy to prevent the excess pressure just by backwashing or cleaning the filter.

Garage Door Opener Problems – Door Won’t Open

As a proud owner of a Craftsman garage door opener, model number: 139.53985, I had the experience of the door not moving when I pressed the remote control. I have had this particular garage door opener for around five years and it gets a lot of use, so I can't complain.

I decided that I would first try to fix the door opener before I replaced it because it looked like a real challenge to modify a new one to fit where this one is since my garage door was an odd size.

First I went up and removed all of the power going to the opener then I took off the cover and found that the worm gear had just worn out so the teeth weren't touching the teeth of the other gear any longer. There is a Sears store nearby so I took off the old gears by removing the gear rack and then the motor. The bad gear was attached directly to the motor so I had to take the motor off far enough to slide the bad gear off. Once I had the both gears off I took them to the Sears store where they matched them up with a new set of gears, all for around $35.00, a lot cheaper that a new garage door opener, and easier to fix too.

I replaced the new gears in the reverse order of what I took the old ones out and carefully pieced the unit back together. You have to watch and make sure that you put all of the washers back where they go because most of them are thrust washers and are needed to take up the pressure of the gear pushing against them to provide the energy to move the door up. If the worm gear is allowed to hit the metal frame directly it will wear out quickly, so make sure the washers get put back in correctly.

Once the unit is all back together you still need to set-up the door opening and closing distance and pressure. Just raise the door up and down once so you can determine where it needs to go and make the necessary adjustments until the door goes where you want it to.

If done correctly the garage door opener should last you many more years.

Air Conditioning Ductwork – It Pays To Clean It

During this hot summer that we are having here in Florida, I thought my air conditioner was unable to handle the load.  Even though it seemed to be working right and the compressor had plenty of freon it just seemed to run forever to just keep the house at eighty degrees.  I had called a couple of air conditioner companies to check the unit out and make sure it was operating right and they both said that everything was ok.  The last technician told me that I may want to have my ductwork professionally cleaned since the house was over thirty years old.  We had only bought the house three years ago and there was no history for the air conditioning service.

We decided to take his advice and have the ductwork cleaned.  The duct cleaning company came equipped with a large vacuum cleaner and an air compressor to do the job. What they did was start at the furthest end of the house away from the blower and put the compressed air lines in there along with a device that went down the ductwork blowing the dirt out of all of the nooks and crannies.  On the other end, where the blower normally is, they put the vacuum cleaner to collect the dirt as it was blown through.  When they started I couldn't believe all of the dirt and dust that had been sitting up there.  It was a steady flow of dirt from one end of the ductwork to the other.

They did a real thorough job and when they had finished  I noticed a definite difference in both the air flow and temperature.  Now the house gets cooler much faster without the air conditioner having to work so hard and long to bring the temperature down.  I'll make another post when I get my next electric bill, but I bet it will be a big improvement.

Toilet Leak – Fix A Leak Coming From Under The Toilet

Most toilets are constructed to have two joints where a leak may occur during a flush. After a toilet talk fills the only thing preventing the water from flowing out is a rubber flapper covering the water exit in the bottom of the toilet tank. The water is released when the flush lever is pressed. Once the flush lever is pressed the water begins to flow out of the tank and into the bowl where it washes away whatever is in the bowl at the time. As the water is flowing out of the tank it passes a gasket between the toilet tank and the toilet bowl, and then it passed the wax gasket that is between the toilet bowl and the drain pipe. Water rushing past either of these gaskets can leak out if the gaskets have deteriorated enough to create a seem for the water escape through.

Sometimes the wax gasket under the toilet can develop a leak, especially if the floor that the toilet is sitting on isn't completely flat. If the floor has any give to it the toilet will move and eventually separate itself from the wax gasket. When that happens the only fix is to replace the wax gasket. To do that you will need to shut off the incoming water to the toilet and drain it completely. Once the tank is completely drained you can remove the tank with the two bolts under neath the tank. They will be the two bolts holding the toilet tank to the toilet. Remove the water supply line and the two bolts and remove the tank from the toilet. Once the tank is removed you will need to loosen the bolts on the bottom of the toilet bowl. Once the bolts are loose you can lift the toilet off of the floor and lay it on it's side so you can see the wax gasket. The wax gasket will be surrounding the outlet on the bottom of the toilet. There may also be some wax gasket stuck to the pipe flange that the toilet was bolted to. Use a narrow putty knife to scrape off the old wax gasket from both the bottom of the toilet and the pipe flange to prepare the surface for the new gasket.

When you unwrap the new wax gasket it will be sticky and will want to stick to anything it touches. You should hold it with the wax paper that it came in or get a piece of wax paper to hold the gasket with. Stick the new gasket to the bottom of the toilet where the old gasket came from and make sure it sticks and seals all the way around. Prepare the bolts on the flange where the toilet will attach and make sure they are straight and stay up straight as you slide the toilet down over them. It is important that you make sure the bolts will stay up as you put the toilet down because you don't want any interference when you are attaching the toilet to the floor. If you make contact with the new gasket and the flange you don't want to have to lift the toilet up again because that will ruin the new gasket. Wax gaskets are made to make contact once and stay in position to form a tight seal.

As you tighten the bolts that hold the toilet down do so gently as they are not meant to be made really tight. You may need to sit on the toilet to make sure the wax gasket compresses fully so the toilet doesn't move as it is being used or when water enters the tank. The toilet has to be flush with the floor then tighten the bolts just snug to keep it there. Once the toilet has been installed you can replace the toilet tank. You will notice a gasket between the toilet tank and the toilet bowl. If you haven't had a leak there just re-use the old gasket as it has formed to the toilet and the tank already. I was trying to be too much of a perfectionist once and replaced all of the gaskets, to be on the safe side, only to have the gasket between the tank and bowl leak. I replaced the new gasket with the old one and the leak stopped. The porcelain tan, on the toilet that I was working on wasn't formed square so the original gasket formed itself around the irregularities and created a tight seal. The new gasket was too hard to conform to the irregularities of the tank material.

To insure against the possibility of the toilet tank bolts leaking from the inside which would require you to remove them again to fix the leak, put some putty on the inside washers before you re-install the tank. The putty will fill in any void and help prevent any leaks.

Re-attach the water line and fill the tank checking for leaks as it fills. Once it fills flush a couple of times to check for leaks, if you don't find any leaks you are done.

Refrigerator – Cleaning The Coils Helps Them Run Efficiently

The refrigerator is a much unnoticed appliance as long as it is running well and no one really thinks about cleaning the cooling coils underneath it. With most refrigerators the cooling coils are underneath the unit completely out of site of the homeowner. So, quite naturally, no one ever thinks of cleaning the coils, nor do you ever see the dust and animal hair that builds up around them month after month reducing the air flow around the coils that is used to cool the refrigerant.

First,, unplug the refrigerator to avoid any electrical shock, or fan starting unexpectedly. Most refrigerators have an easy access grill attached to the front bottom of the unit. That grille usually just snaps off without the use of any tools. Once the grill is removed you can look in and see just how much dust has accumulated around the coils. You will need to remove all of the dust with a vacuum cleaner and a long soft brush. You really have to be careful not to bend or puncture any of the tubing. So the key is to take your time and don’t force anything into an opening that it doesn’t easily go into. For example, it is real tempting to shove your vacuum cleaner wand in between the coils, it almost looks like it should fit, but it doesn’t. For that part of the coils you will need the brush to loosen the dust so it can be pulled into the vacuum cleaner.

Simply leave the vacuum cleaner wand on the floor near where all of the dust is stuck to the coils and start brushing the dust out of the coils and into the waiting vacuum cleaner nozzle. Move the brush along the entire coil to loosen all of the dust so it can be picked up by the vacuum cleaner. Once the coils are cleaned you will still need to vacuum all of the nooks and crannies all around where the coils are. There is also a small fan in the back of the refrigerator that is used to move the air around the coils. You will need to clean around the fan and its blades also be careful when you do this because the fan blades are extremely thin and will bend easily.

Once you have thoroughly cleaned under the refrigerator clean the walls near where the refrigerator sits as well. After you have finished your refrigerator will sound a lot quieter when it is running because the air is moving freely around the coils it is not being forced between small dust covered openings any longer.

Mark your calendar when you cleaned the refrigerator and plan on doing it again every six months.

Flood Insurance – Do You Really Need It?

I have to admit, that I try to save money just like the next person so I thought that if I don't live in a flood prone area why should I buy flood insurance.  After looking at the flood insurance rate maps I realized that the flood insurance really wouldn't cost that much, but did I need it was my big question.

That was right around the time that hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans.  I saw all of the destruction of the houses there and especially the ones that should never have flooded and that changed my mind.  I am sure that those people in New Orleans never expected to be flooded out so many of them probably didn't have flood insurance and lost everything as a result.

So, in a nutshell, flood insurance is a wise investment, if for nothing else you will have the piece of mind that you have the protection should a catastrophic storm hit your area quite unexpectedly.  Your homeowners insurance provider should be able to give you a quote for a rate and get you a policy, or at least help you get one.

Saving Money On Home Repairs – Sometimes You Can Save Money Hiring A Specialist

We had just bought a fifteen-year old house that needed a lot of cosmetic work but nothing major.  So we could live in the house and still fix it up we worked on one room at time allowing the rest of the house to be uninterrupted by construction projects.

After being in the house for one year we began to have problems with the drain pipe that led from the house to the street.  Since we had a municipal sewer system there was no septic tank to worry about so the problem had to be in the pipe itself.  There was till a homeowners warrantee intact so I called them to look into the problem.  They came out with a drain clean out tool that went down into the pipe to clear any obstructions that it came across.  The machine seemed to hit something and then smooth out so the plumber went out a few more feet still unobstructed.  When he pulled the cable out of the pipe on the end of it was a clump of small roots.  That told us that there must be a break in the pipe around fifteen feet from the house.  I started to dig and around five feet down I found the broken joint.  It turned out that the land running underneath the pipe was a mini sink hole and the earth was being pulled down in one section and not the other shearing the pipe joint as the weight of the soil pulled part of the pipe down.  I replaced the joint and filled in the dirt that had sunk into the sink hole and filled everything in planted new grass and everything.  After everything was added up the job didn’t really cost that much.

The drains worked fine for around eight months when the same thing started happening again.  It started backing up for no apparent reason.  I thought that the joint broke again so I dig that up first and it was fine.  I called the plumbing company I do business with and asked them what I should do and they said snake out the pipe again.  They had a machine to do that and they could do it cheap.  Once they were finished snaking the drain it worked fine for around three weeks when it backed up again.  I called the plumber again and they snaked the drain again.  That went on for four plumber visits needless to say it was getting expensive and frustrating dealing with a problem that should be so simple to fix.

The next time it backed up I called Rooter-Rooter a company that specializes in clogged drains.  They cautioned me right up front that they charge a little more than a plumber would because they have expensive equipment engineered to clean drains.  They came over and had to use a winch to unload the machine from the truck.  The plumber just carried his like it was a suitcase or something.  It was a really big difference in equipment.  The end of the Rooter-Rooter cable had an auger on it to chew through whatever was in the pipe and restore the pipe to its original inside diameter where the plumber had just a cable end that merely punched a small hole in the obstruction.  That was over a year ago and I have not had problems with the drain since.  That was one instance where it would have been better to call the specialists first and pay a little extra instead of paying for someone who doesn’t specialize in that type of work. I still use the same plumber because they are excellent plumbers.  But if I need a drain cleaned I will definitely call the specialists in that field, Rooter-Rooter.