Resin in softwood knots can stay active for years, and bleed slowly through most paints, even if the wood has been kiln dried. The only way to really stop the bleeding is to use a shellac to seal in the resins.Shellac is not a very strong finish but has the unique characteristic that it allows n...
Donna lives in Georgian Bay, Ontario but has to share her deck with hornets that are attracted to the pine sap oozing out of her deck. What to do?Pine sap will not stop oozing until it has all crystallized inside the wood. This process can be accelerated with heat, but even kiln dried and aged b...
Kelly wants to know if it is possible to paint over something that already has stain on it.The answer is YES, but only if the stain is ready! What do I mean by that?Most stain has water repellents built into it. Look at the first photo and you can see how the water is beading up, rather than so...
I was amazed how easy it is to paint in "faux grain" using this funny little rubber tool.You just apply the wood stain and then drag the tool along, rocking forward and backward to open and close grain lines. It is amazingly realistic and surprisingly easy.It is called a "ZAR Graining Tool".The ...
Bill in Stratford, Ontario sent in this great tip.When you just need a touch up of paint or stain, rather than opening the lid and increasing the clean up problem, simply punch a hole in the top of the can.You can cover the hole with a finger to shake the can if you like, even use your finger to ...
"Renewal" is the name of a floor refinishing product/system from Flecto-Varathane.You take of any wax first. They only mention that in fine print and don't provide a wax remover, but the system will fail if you leave old wax on the floor.Then the first product in the system removes the scuff mar...
Rust is actually the oxidization of metal and we usually want to either remove the rust from the metal itself, or remove stains that the rust left in rugs and other materials.There are a wide variety of cleaners on the market for cleaning off rust, some of which are very toxic and often remove mu...
When paint gets onto concrete by accident, or as graffiti, it is difficult to remove because the concrete is so porous that the paint soaks down in.We decided to test a few different removers.Bio-Wash Masonry Strip works very well at removing oil, latex, and spray enamel paints.De-Greaser from St...
One of the cardinal rules of painting or staining in order to avoid lap marks is to apply material wet-on-wet. On an interior wall that is done by rolling small enough sections that allow you to overlap the edge with the next section before the first one manages to dry. Painting wet-on-wet does...
When a floor wears down through the finish, even through the stain and to bare wood you have a serious refinishing problem.Bernadette wants to re-stain the warn spots without having to sand down the whole floor.Well, the bad news is that you probably won't be able to do a good job. Sand down the...
