There’s Paint on the Bricks? Blast It All!
Q. I recently bought a home with a brick facade that the previous owners had painted white. I’d like to remove the paint to expose the natural brick, but my attempts to do this with chemical strippers have been unsuccessful. Any ideas?
T.M.
Brea
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A. About the only way to make it work is to sandblast the brick, says Gene Teramura of Dutch Boy Home Decorating Center in Santa Ana. Brick tends to be porous; when you try to remove paint chemically, it bleeds into the stone. Sandblasting is expensive, so get some estimates. Another way to fix it is to paint the bricks a natural brick color while painting the grout lines to look natural also.
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Q. We’re buying carpeting, and people say it’s the padding that makes good carpeting. Is that true? What do you look for in padding?
W.K.
Tustin
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A. What you look for in padding is the density and the thickness, which is its height, says Mark Silverberg of New York Carpets in Anaheim. Most manufacturers recommend padding no more than a half-inch in height, or the carpet won’t lie correctly.
For most applications, a 6-pound-per-cubic-inch density is a good choice. The common re-bonded pads are what you see under most home pile carpets. Commercial, higher-traffic carpets generally use jute or fiber pads, and the highest-grade pads are the expensive rubberized ones. Overall, padding helps your carpet, but it’s not everything. You’ll need as good a quality carpet as you can afford with a good backing, and you’ll need to take good care of it to get a lot of life from it.
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Q. My 10-year-old gas furnace seems to work fine except that I hear a squeaking deep in the vents as it runs. Is this a sign that a major problem is ahead?
J.I.
Brea
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A. There could be a problem developing in the motor, says Tom Houlihan of Orange County Appliance Parts in Garden Grove. Check the bearings in the motor. If they’re causing the noise, they can be oiled, but that’s a temporary fix because the squeaking will resume after the oil has worn away. Most older motors have oiling tubes that can be used to lubricate the bearings. Eventually, though, the motor will probably need to be replaced.
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Q. Four years ago we did some remodeling and painted the kitchen and bathrooms of our condo with a semi-gloss. Now the paint is separating and splitting in places. What’s causing this?
G.D.
Placentia
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A. It sounds as though the prep work for the painting was incomplete, says painter Ed Gomez of Fountain Valley. If you apply paint to a slick surface that hasn’t been cleaned or scored, the new paint doesn’t get enough adhesion to stick. Sand and scrape away all loose paint from the flaking areas, apply a good latex primer to the surface, then coat it again with the finish coat.
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Q. We have four recessed ceiling lights in our kitchen with 75-watt bulbs. The canister kits for each are black. The kitchen always seems too dark. Will changing the kits to white or mirrored give me more light without having to switch to higher-wattage bulbs?
R.R.
Costa Mesa
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A. The area will be brighter than before, but the “spread” of the light will also be different, says Kathy McNally of McNally Electric Supply in Los Alamitos. Black kits tend to focus the light down, and the light doesn’t spread as much. You also might want to consider halogen bulbs. These provide up to 150 watts of light while using 75 watts of power.
If you have a question about your home or garden, A Helping Hand will help you find the answer. Send questions to John Morell, Home Design, The Times Orange County, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626.