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Getting read for Spring – household tasks

For many home-owners, the idea of spring is not the joy of getting out there and working in the dirt, it’s the horrible hard slog of getting the basic infrastructure in place so that the garden can be thought about.

Nobody likes to clean or repair gutters. However, there are a few ways to make the job easier. First, for clogged downspouts, try using barbecue tongs to reach in and pull the leaves out. This doesn't always work, but considering the alternative of using a hose to flush the clog out, getting wet and covered with gutter-slime, its worth a try.

Concrete always cracks, but that doesn't mean you have to live with it, especially as it will get worse each year, if you don’t do something about it. For most cracks of less than a quarter of an inch, applying concrete caulk is a good way to make repairs. Just clean the crack out with a high-pressure hose, let it dry and then apply the caulk into the crack. For larger cracks, substitute a concrete patch for caulk. Large cracks or small, some kind of repair is necessary because water that finds its way into cracks will soften the ground underneath and cause more cracking. The situation will of course worsen when the water freezes.

Spring brings showers and then wooden windows and doors tend to swell and stick. To repair a sticky door, window or gate, first mark where it is sticking. Next, remove the door or window by taking out its hinge pins, prop it up securely and with a hand plane, remove any excess material. Don’t use a power planes as it will tend to remove too much and when the wood shrinks back during the summer, the gap will be too wide. A better idea is to keep windows and doors from sticking in the first place, which means making sure that they are sealed with a good coat of paint, including the tops and bottoms.

Water stains on wood and concrete can be a problem and painting over them will not make them vanish - unless you use a primer-sealer first. Oil-based sealers usually work better than water-based and the higher the amount of solids in the sealer, the better it will work, because they are the pigments and other elements that do the actual covering of the stain. One other tip when using an oil-based sealer; consider using disposable brushes and rollers, because cleaning up after using them can be messy and may even mean you spend more on paint thinner than your original brushes and rollers were worth.

Concrete photograph by Sarah Jane, used under a creative commons attribution licence

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