(See non-toxic cleaners in the last paragraph, and Do Rust Cleaners Work?)
RUST ON RUGS
There has always been one basic chemical available for getting rust off about anything and that was Oxalic Acid. That was the active ingredient in the old petroleum jelly that we used to clean the rust off o...
Nicki used to be a waitress and was always getting ink stains on her uniforms. She found that it came right out with nail polish remover.
Now the problem with this suggestion is that since Nicki quit being a waitress, they began to produce a variety of nail polish removers, some specifically wit...
Al wants to know how to clean out a vent stack.
Most people never clean out their vent stack -- it just doesn't need it.
However some people do get birds nests in there, or clogs that for some reason are difficult to reach through the regular plumbing branches. You can run a plumbing snake into...
A viewer caught our TV cameras in a renovation centre and asked about cleaning aluminum siding.
An interesting fact about siding is that white aluminum siding and to some extent white vinyl siding both tend to "chalk". If you run your hand over it, you get a bit of a chalk like deposit on your h...
You can easily find Silver, Copper, Brass and Stainless Steel cleaners in stores across the country.
You should clean with soft cloths, but if it is a real dirty outdoor mailbox, you may want to use a nylon scrubbing cloth to help out. Just be careful, it makes more scratches than you think, and...
When trying to remove old, very stuck, masking tape or stickers from glass or even appliances, my favorite aid is simply vegetable oil. I soak on this great non-flammable, non-toxic oil and keep putting on more until it manages to soak into the tape and reactivate the glue. With everything soften...
More and more people have domestic power washers, allowing them to quickly clean all kinds of things around the house. Of course one of the first things we want to use it for is to clean off the siding on the house. CAUTION -- you all know that you need to be careful not to damage wood or spra...
An ivy covered wall
John from Mississauga, Ontario writes: "We recently bought a house that was half covered in ivy. We didn't like it and we were told to cut the roots and let the ivy die and then just tear it down from the walls. We cut the roots and let the ivy die but we noticed all these li...
The only research done that I have found on duct cleaning, outside of the duct cleaning companies themselves, has been by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation -- EFFICIENCY OF RESIDENTIAL DUCT CLEANING -- CMHC Project No. : 93-2-001 January 1994.
Basically they found that when the ducts ...
Slots are simply small passageways through something. In this segment we looked at three very nifty Slots -- all completely different.
THE INSULATED MAIL SLOT
How about a through the door mail slot that does not give you cold drafts?
The Draft Dodger has two gasketed and spring load...
