How do I apply a faux finish?

1. Choose a base coat. You’ll use it to paint the entire surface of the wall or item you want to finish. The base coat may be any color you like. It will remain the primary background or “fill” color. Rosie recommends an interior latex enamel with a satin finish for this step.

2. Choose one or more glazes. These will blend with each other and the base coat to create different colors and hues. You may use oil-based glazes or water-based (latex) glazes. Rosie recommends oil glazes because they dry slower so you have more time to create the effect you want. Tint the glazes by mixing one part paint in any color you choose with four parts of clear glaze. You can buy glazes at home and paint stores.

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Tune in this weekend for all the tips on upgrading your home in the most economical way! Visit our website for answers to all your Home Improvement questions. www.rosieonthehouse.com

5 reasons to finally get organized

Clearing clutter or building shelves or even hiring a pro to help you thin out your collection of worn-out , never-worn or out-of-style old clothes, shoes, purses and knick-knacks will help you get your house organized. Still, nothing but a change of attitude and behavior will help you stay that way.

An organized home is important to your sense of order, your peace of mind and even the quality of your life. Here are five reasons to keep your house organized:

1. Save time. Here’s a familiar scenario: You have a project to complete, and you figure it will take you an hour. Then, you can’t find the tool, the piece of paper, the utensil or the information you need to get the chore done—even though you know you just saw it somewhere. That’s because you either don’t have a place where you always store such things—or you didn’t put it in that place last time you used it. So you spend an hour looking for what you need, and a second hour using the tool to complete your project. What else might you have done with that second hour if you had been organized?

2. Save stress. You’re running out the door, late for an appointment, and you can’t find your car keys. Your kids are rushing to get to the school bus, but someone can’t find her left shoe or his backpack or last night’s homework. They start blaming each other or you, an argument begins, someone cries and either they miss the bus or they go to school without the things they need.

Create a “drop zone” either in the garage or in the mud room or foyer where the family passes through to get into the house. Install lockers or a wall unit with a separate compartment for each family member. Purses, keys, backpacks, musical instruments and other items you usually need to take with you when you leave go there—no exceptions. It’s also a great place to put up a bulletin board where you can post reminders for your spouse and children.

3. Save money. I brought home a cool new jacket not too long ago, only to find one exactly like it hiding between the other jackets I have crammed into my closet. I simply forgot I had it because I couldn’t see it when I opened the closet. More than once, I’ve deliberately run out to buy something I need even though I know already own it—because I can’t find it.

Knowing where everything you own “lives” in your house means you’ll have it when you need it. Getting rid of the clutter and then routinely placing items back in their place gives you a better chance of remembering what you already have so you won’t buy unneeded items. Plus, you might find some stuff in your closets that you can sell during a garage sale, at a flea market or on a Web site like Craigslist.

Keep an inventory of the items in your home, which you can do only if you know everything you have and where it is. A book with photos, descriptions and locations of everything you own will come in handy if your home ever suffers from a fire or robbery.


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For more do-it-yourself tips, go to rosieonthehouse.com. Rosie Romero is an Arizona contractor who has been in the Arizona home building and remodeling industry for 35 years. He has a radio program from 8-11 a.m. Saturdays on KTAR-FM (92.3) in Phoenix, KQNA-AM (1130) in Prescott and KAZM-AM (780) in Sedona, KNST-AM (790) in Tucson and KAFF 930 AM in Flagstaff.

The best Queen of Clean solutions for cleaning windows

For Outdoor Windows

• 2 Quarts Warm Water
  


• 1/2 cup Cornstarch

Mix it in a bucket. Use a sponge to clean, then buff dry

For Indoor Windows

• 50% water


• 50% rubbing alcohol

Put in a labeled spray bottle. If using on mirrors, spray paper towel with mixture, then buff dry with a cloth.

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For more tips on cleaning or any question you may have about your home, house, castle or cabin...Visit our website at http://www.rosieonthehouse.com/

How can I get rid of crickets in and around my home?

If you’re seeing crickets inside your home, the more serious predators are sure to follow. So get rid of those crickets—fast.

Here’s what not to do: Don’t empty a can of Raid on those creepy crawlers. Sure, you’ll drown the ones you can see, but their friends will simply sidestep the chemicals when they come out of their hiding places.

A better strategy is to find out where they’re hiding and lure them out with a granular food bait that will trap them. You also can use sticky traps or concoct your own traps using a jar containing some water and molasses.

Part 2 of that strategy is to keep the chirping pests from getting inside in the first place. Crickets may seem like benign little creatures, but they’ll eat through everything from wallpaper glue to wool to silk. And they’ll attract hungry scorpions and spiders.

To keep them outside, you have to find them. They live in voids, like under those decorative boulders in your yard, in your sprinkler system’s valve box, or under the sidewalk and patio. Anywhere there’s a space between the ground and another object, you’re sure to find crickets, which love moist, cool hiding places.

If you find a nest and spray it with a pest spray, be prepared to watch what looks like a river of the bugs pour out of it. More than 1,000 crickets can cram into one tiny nest.

Once they’re gone, fill in that void with dirt or expansion foam, which you can buy at any home store.

One place you’ll find crickets for sure is around your home’s foundation, especially in that gap between the stem wall and the stucco. Use a caulking product called a home seal—it’s a spray-on foam that helps seal the gaps that allow bugs like crickets to walk right into your home.

Use a mirror to look for large gaps under the home, especially around the corners, and fill them in.

Sealing gaps in the foundation also will stop scorpions and other pests from coming indoors.

While you’re sealing holes, search for other places where critters can come into the home from outdoors—the roof line and entry points for plumbing and electrical connections, for example. Trim bushes and tree branches so they don’t hang over the roof and drop bugs in a place where they can crawl through crevices and into the attic.

Even holes in window screens or a gap between a door and the floor are invitations for pests to walk right into your home.

To the best of your ability, create a barrier anywhere where insects could get in out of the sun. If you do that, you’ll naturally bring your pest population down. If this seems like a lot to keep up with—and I admit it is—considering hiring a professional pest-control company to do it for you. These firms supply monthly preventive treatments—stronger and longer-lasting than the ones you can buy at a home store—and a trained professional to find the pests for you—before they take over your home.

For more information, visit our website: http://www.rosieonthehouse.com

Rosie on the House-TOP FAQ: What are the pros and cons of Kool Deck versus an acrylic pool deck?

It used to be that every backyard swimming pool looked just about the same—because everybody relied on the same product—Keystone Kool Deck—to keep the deck around the pool comfortable under bare feet. In fact, if your pool deck was built before the mid-1990s, it’s probably covered with that familiar mottled-beige concrete.

Today, acrylic is becoming even more popular than Kool Deck because it’s easier to install and maintain. Here are the pros and cons of each:

Kool Deck

Keystone Kool Deck was invented by a Tucson company—Mortex—in 1962 for use as a surface coating over concrete swimming pool decks, walkways and patios. Applied to freshly poured concrete, Kool Deck creates a colored, textured cement surface that the manufacturer says is as strong as the base concrete.

Kool Deck Pros:

• lowers the surface temperature of concrete by around 20 degrees—more than any other deck material.
• withstands thermal expansion and contraction better than concrete.
• Is fairly easy to clean.

Kool Deck Cons:

• is more complicated to install than acrylic, so it takes someone trained specifically in the use of that deck topper. If you go with Kool Deck, make sure your installer is trained and experienced in applying this specific material.
• fades under the Arizona sun, so its color is hard to match if you have to patch it up during a repair.
• must be applied to freshly poured concrete before it dries in order to bond.

Acrylic

An alternative to Kool Deck is a thin coat of acrylic or polymer concrete—usually a mixture of modified acrylic resin, Portland cement and sand—applied over plain concrete to give it a texture.

Acrylic Pros:

• can be fashioned to look like flagstone, Saltillo tile, brick and even Kool Deck.
• can be acid-stained or custom-textured for a unique look around the pool.
• may be applied to new or old concrete.
• is usually finished with a solvent-based sealant that makes it stain resistant and easy to clean

Acrylic Cons:

when textured, is cooler than plain concrete, but n

Rosie on the House TOP FAQ- What is the correct Mortar Mix ratio for Masonry?

Clem Hellmann of Quality Block and I agree that with pre-mix bags available, unless you are on a major jobsite with at least a dozen masons it's just not worth mixing yourself. However, if you are inclined to do so our friends at Superlite Block have provided the industry standard directions below.

There are a variety of mortar mixes that the mason contractor can mix up, depending on the type of material that is being installed:

* Type M (2500 psi)
* Type S (1800 psi)
* Type N (750 psi)

The different types are achieved by varying the ratio of Portland Cement, Lime and Sand. Type S mortar is the most common for the Arizona market so we will use this as the basis for our comparisons.

There are three primary ways to make mortar:

1. Portland Cement, Hydrated Lime and Masonry Sand
2. Masonry Cement and Masonry Sand
3. Pre-mixed Mortar

The Portland Cement, Hydrated Lime, Masonry Cement and Pre-mixed Mortar are available in bags, the Masonry Sand is generally available in “bulk quantities” that are delivered by a truck or can sometimes be purchased in big “super sacks” from the big box retailers.

Portland Cement
94# bags
Lime
50# bags
Masonry Cement
70# or 78# bags
Pre-mixed Mortar
60#, 80# or 94# bags
Masonry Sand Usually a pile of sand is delivered to the jobsite by a dump truck. The sand is measured into the mixer by means of a standard square point shovel that is “mounded full”. This is referred to as a “shovel of sand”

Portland Cement, Lime and Sand

This is the “old school” method, the standard for the industry that all other methods are compared to. In order to make a Type S masonry mortar one would proportion the materials into the mixer in this manner;

1 bag
94# of Portland Cement
½ bag 50# Hydrated Type S Lime
28 “Shovels” Masonry Sand
7 to 8 Gallons Clean Water

Mixing Procedure:

* Put 2/3 to 3/4 of the water into the mixer
* Add the Portland Cement and Hydrated Lime to the batch
* Add the sand into the mixer, adding water as necessary to achieve the desired consistency
* Mix for 5 minutes in a mechanical paddle type mixer

Amount of water required to make good mortar will vary depending on the desired consistency of the mortar. For stiff mortar use less water, for wet mortar use more water. If you do not add enough water the mortar is so stiff that it is unworkable and very difficult to use, if you add too much water the mortar turns to “soup” and you will be unable to use it.

Masonry Cement

Masonry Cement is simply a product that has Portland Cement and Hydrated Lime already blended together in the proper proportions. In order to make a Type S mortar with Masonry Cement one would proportion the materials into the mixer in this manner:

1 bag 70# or 78# Masonry Cement
18 to 20 “Shovels” Masonry Sand
5 Gallons Clean Water

Mixing Procedure:

* Put 2/3 to 3/4 of the water into the mixer
* Add the Masonry Cement to the batch
* Add the sand into the mixer, adding water as necessary to achieve the desired consistency
* Mix for 5 minutes in a mechanical paddle type mixer

Add water to achieve desired consistency of mortar, less water for stiff mortar, more water for wet mortar.

Pre-mixed Mortar

This is the easiest mortar of all to make. Pre-mixed mortar is a combination of Portland Cement, Hydrated Lime, and Masonry Sand already blended together in the proper proportions to make a Type S mortar. All that is needed is to add sufficient water to achieve the desired consistency, usually about 5 to 6 quarts for an 80# bag. Pre-mixed mortars are a little unique in that they require a slightly modified mixing procedure.

Mixing Procedure

* Put 2/3 to 3/4 of the water into the mixer
* Add the Pre-mixed mortar into the mixer, adding water as necessary to achieve the desired consistency
* Mix for 3 to5 minutes, turn off the mixer and allow mortar to “slake” for 2 to 3 minutes, re-start the mixer and mix for an additional 2 to 3 minutes adding water as necessary to achieve desired consistency.

Pre-mixed mortars use a kiln dried sand that has a higher water demand. It takes a few minutes for all of the water to be absorbed into the dry sand, hence the need for a prolonged mixing time. If you do not allow the mortar to set and “slake”, it will feel gritty on the trowel and will be difficult to work with.

All of these mortar may be mixed by hand in a wheelbarrow or “mud tub” for those of us who do not own a mixer. A mortar hoe is a great tool when mixing by hand, as well as the obligatory square point shovel. I have found from past experience that a standard construction grade wheelbarrow is too small to mix a full bag of Portland Cement, ½ bag of Hydrated Lime and 28 shovels of sand. It will just barely fit 1 bag of Masonry Cement and 18 to 20 shovels of sand. A standard wheelbarrow very comfortable fits 3 of the 60# bags of Pre-mixed Mortar, or 2 of the 80# or 94# bags of Pre-mix Mortar. Follow the same mixing procedures as when using a mechanical paddle mixer.

Rosie on the House: Hail Damage Repair on Good Morning Arizona

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