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INTERIOR HOME CARE -
Refurbishing & Simple Repairs (continued)
b. Cabinets can also be re-
c. Those bright colors of old appliances can also be changed. Companies are available that will refinish your appliances.
4. Re-
5. Wood tables and chairs can also be refurbished to a certain extent, without the aid of a professional.
a. If tables and chairs seem to be wobbly or loose, look for screws or bolts underneath
that can be tightened. Or look for glued joints that can be re-
b. If they are scratched, this can also be addressed. Purchase some liquid scratch cover in the shade required and apply. This will help cover up the scratches. If this does not suffice, buy some actual wood stain in the right shade and apply. This will almost certainly “deaden” the look of the scratch considerably. In either case, make sure you apply the product only to the immediate scratch area and wipe off any excess with a rag.
c. For large nicks and gouges, you might try purchasing some colored wood filler that is stainable and then applying stain.
6. Instead of installing all new carpet because it is worn, or has a stain that will not come out, consider the following:
a. If you have good carpet, but it has a localized stain that will not come out, consider having the carpet patched by a professional carpet installer, instead of replacing the entire carpet. However, you will need a remnant of the original carpet to use for the patch. If this is not available, you might consider taking it out of matching carpet that is in a closet. In any case, if a piece of carpet is available for the patch, call up a carpet company and ask for an installer that is good at patches. If they know what they are doing, the patch will almost be unnoticeable.
b. If you are replacing carpet in a room because of staining or wear in one area, consider if the “old” carpet can be used in another room. For a relatively modest charge, the installer of your new carpet will install the old carpet in another room. If the room is smaller, it may be that the bad area of the old carpet can be cut away, and the remaining good carpet will work just great in the new room. Or, perhaps, the bad area of the old carpet will be under the sofa or bed in the new room and not be visible. In either case, you will now have good looking carpet in two rooms for not much more than the price of carpeting one room.
c. If your old carpet left over after re-
d. When installing new carpet, do not assume that you also have to install new padding. If the existing padding under the new carpet is in good shape it can be reused with no problem. This will save on both materials and labor cost.
7. Ceramic tile can also be patched when cracked or chipped. If you have extra matching tile, this is easily done by yourself. If not, and you have the make, name and color of the tile, call up some tile distributors and see if it can be matched. Matching your grout should not be a problem. To install, just carefully break the old tile out, make the surface underneath smooth and glue in the new tile. Grouting is easy. Just mix up the grout with enough water to make it the consistency of toothpaste, push the grout into the cracks with a sponge, wipe off the excess grout, and after it dries wipe off the residue.
8. If your fiberglass shower/tub or porcelain tub is scratched, cracked or worn
they can be repaired and refinished. In most cases, you do not need to replace the
shower or tub. While some do-
9. One area often ignored when refurbishing the interior of a house is door hardware.
a. Often, hinges will corrode or become marred with paint that is difficult to clean
off. Fortunately, most hinges are very inexpensive and very easy to install. For
usually no more than $5 per door, you can have brand new, good looking hinges. Just
take one hinge off of your door, go to the home improvement store and buy a hinge
of the same size and profile (get enough for the door) go home and install. Remember,
you do not need to take your door off of the hinges to install new hinges. Just
open the door, take one hinge off at a time, replace the hinge and move on to the
next hinge to be replaced. In five-
b. If your door knobs are fine, but are a little loose, just tighten them up with a screw driver. If they need to be replaced, this is a relatively easy thing to do and, unless the knobs are exterior knobs that have key locks, they are not real expensive. Just follow the instructions and you will be done in less than half an hour.
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