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How to Paint a Front Door the Right Way -- and 6 Tips to Keep Your Renovation on Budget · Repcolite Home Improvement Show

0:02
Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, thanks for tuning in. You're listening to Home
0:04
Speaker 1: in Progress by Repolite Paints, sponsored by Benjamin Moore, and
0:08
Speaker 1: I want to start the show by saying something that
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Speaker 1: may get your dander up a little bit, gonna rile
0:15
Speaker 1: some people up. Let's see, if you're thinking about painting
0:19
Speaker 1: the exterior of your home this season, just be aware. Gray.
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Speaker 1: You know, cool, gray is losing its grip. It's falling
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Speaker 1: from glory a little bit. It's not gone, it's not banned,
0:31
Speaker 1: it's not forbidden, it's not hideous. I'm not saying any
0:34
Speaker 1: of those things. But it's run as the dominant exterior
0:37
Speaker 1: color in American home design, seems to be slowing down.
0:41
Speaker 1: Fancy way of saying, it's kind of going out, and
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Speaker 1: I know that that could make some people a little edgy,
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Speaker 1: but just just ride with me. The reason that I
0:52
Speaker 1: think this is happening is pretty simple. You know, gray
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Speaker 1: became the default exterior color everywhere you look. You see
1:00
Speaker 1: drive through any subdivision built or updated in the last
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Speaker 1: ten years, and that's what you see. Gray houses, gray
1:06
Speaker 1: on gray on gray. And when that happens, you know,
1:09
Speaker 1: when a color gets that popular, it stops feeling intentional.
1:13
Speaker 1: You know, Gray used to signal that a homeowner had
1:15
Speaker 1: made a considered, modern, you know, fancy choice. When we
1:19
Speaker 1: first saw the Gray houses start, I'm sure you remember that.
1:23
Speaker 1: At first it was a little weird, you know, Gray,
1:25
Speaker 1: what's going on? And then oh man, it really resonated
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Speaker 1: with people. It looked so sharp, so modern, and it
1:32
Speaker 1: just caught on. And that's where we're at now. You
1:35
Speaker 1: got a lot of neighborhoods where it just completely blends in.
1:38
Speaker 1: It's the beige of our era, and homeowners who want
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Speaker 1: their home to look like they actually thought about it
1:45
Speaker 1: are now starting to look beyond it. And that's a
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Speaker 1: real flip in the market and it's worth understanding and
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Speaker 1: thinking about if you're heading into a painting project this year. Now,
1:55
Speaker 1: of course, let's be fair to Gray for a second,
1:57
Speaker 1: because it wasn't a bad trend. You know, it isn't
2:00
Speaker 1: a bad trend. It was a reaction to something, you know,
2:03
Speaker 1: before Gray took over. Like I said, beige was there.
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Speaker 1: We had a lot of tan, a lot of builder beige.
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Speaker 1: Gray came in and when we saw that it felt
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Speaker 1: crisp and clean and a little bit cooler. It really
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Speaker 1: played well with that whole modern farmhouse thing with the
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Speaker 1: black window frames, white trim looked really sharp. It still does,
2:22
Speaker 1: it still does, it still does. You can put the
2:25
Speaker 1: bricks down, you don't have to throw them through my windows.
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Speaker 1: It still looks great. But a decade it's a long time,
2:32
Speaker 1: you know, to run with these same colors, and people
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Speaker 1: are starting to notice that the houses all around them,
2:37
Speaker 1: maybe their houses are feeling a little sterile, you know,
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Speaker 1: a little samy, samey. So now what we're starting to
2:44
Speaker 1: see are some shifting paletts. Homeowners and designers are moving
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Speaker 1: towards colors that feel like they belong to the land
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Speaker 1: around them. We're seeing lots of warm greens and muted
2:55
Speaker 1: sage tones, earthy olives, sandy neutrals, warm topes, cream whites,
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Speaker 1: and grayish, which is that gray beige hybrid. But these
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Speaker 1: are the colors that we're starting to see more and
3:07
Speaker 1: more now, and you can see that shift in the
3:09
Speaker 1: paint industry's color forecasts as well. You know, we're not
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Speaker 1: just seeing it in our store, We're seeing it all
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Speaker 1: over the place. The big story right now isn't cold,
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Speaker 1: flat gray. It's warmth, it's depth, it's earth tones, it's
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Speaker 1: complicated greens and muddy neutrals and warm topes and creamy whites,
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Speaker 1: and like I said, colors that just feel more connected
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Speaker 1: to the world, to wood and to stone and to
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Speaker 1: brick and the landscaping and the natural light. And what's
3:36
Speaker 1: interesting is that a lot of these colors, they're not
3:39
Speaker 1: just being talked about for exteriors. They're showing up in
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Speaker 1: interiors as well, which makes sense because they're really grounded
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Speaker 1: natural colors. They feel settled, they feel connected to nature.
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Speaker 1: They don't screen for attention, but they don't disappear either,
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Speaker 1: So they're not boring, you know, They're just they're doing
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Speaker 1: a lot of work right now. And like I said,
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Speaker 1: we're seeing it all over the place. So the short
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Speaker 1: version of all of this, if you've been on the
4:01
Speaker 1: fence about whether to stay with the gray, you know,
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Speaker 1: because it's safe, or to go somewhere else, the design
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Speaker 1: world is saying, hey, maybe go somewhere else for a
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Speaker 1: little bit warm tones, nature based greens, earthy neutrals. That's
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Speaker 1: where things seem to be headed now. I know, picking
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Speaker 1: a specific color for your home that's its own whole conversation.
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Speaker 1: I don't have time for that right now. There are
4:22
Speaker 1: just so many things to think about your roof color,
4:24
Speaker 1: your brick or your stone if you've got it, how
4:26
Speaker 1: much sun the house gets, what direction it faces, a
4:30
Speaker 1: lot of things to think about. If you do find
4:33
Speaker 1: yourself in that situation and you need answers before I
4:35
Speaker 1: can get to them next week or the next week,
4:38
Speaker 1: stop out at any Repcolite and talk with one of
4:40
Speaker 1: our color consultants. They'll help you in store based on
4:43
Speaker 1: photos that you bring in, and some of them will
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Speaker 1: come out to your house for a design fee and
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Speaker 1: they'll actually look things over in person and make some
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Speaker 1: color recommendations for you to consider. So if you want that,
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Speaker 1: just head to any Repcolite store and start that conversation.
4:56
Speaker 1: Or you can email me at Radio at Repcolite dot
4:59
Speaker 1: com and I'll connect you with the right folks. All right,
5:02
Speaker 1: don't send hate emails about gray siding on houses. I
5:06
Speaker 1: just want to say that one last time. I like it.
5:09
Speaker 1: I'm not saying it's bad. I'm just saying that things
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Speaker 1: are shifting a little bit, and if you're thinking about
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Speaker 1: making a change or thinking about doing some exterior work,
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Speaker 1: it's always good to be aware of where things are
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Speaker 1: going a little bit but remember my first rule of
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Speaker 1: color is this, if you like it, it's pretty much
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Speaker 1: all that matters. All right. There are a lot of
5:29
Speaker 1: tools out there that we use all the time without
5:31
Speaker 1: ever thinking about how they came to be. I was
5:33
Speaker 1: asking myself about a tape measure the other day, when
5:36
Speaker 1: did it come about? How did it get here? Well,
5:38
Speaker 1: it turns out it's a really interesting story, and it's
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Speaker 1: actually connected to Victorian hoopskirts. I've got all the info
5:45
Speaker 1: right after this. Home in Progress is brought to you
5:47
Speaker 1: by recoll Like Paints and Benjamin Moore. You know, people
5:50
Speaker 1: often think of paint as just another line item on
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Speaker 1: the project's supply list. But here's the thing. Everything you do,
5:56
Speaker 1: every hour of prep, every stroke of the brush, all
5:59
Speaker 1: comes down to the quality of the paint. The paint
6:01
Speaker 1: is the project. Make sure it's the best. And we're back.
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Speaker 1: You're listening to Home in Progress by Repcolite Paint, sponsored
6:08
Speaker 1: by Benjamin Moore, and today I want to talk about
6:12
Speaker 1: in this segment one of the most overlooked tools in
6:14
Speaker 1: the shop or in your junk drawer, in your kitchen,
6:17
Speaker 1: or wherever you keep it, the tape measure. It's hard
6:20
Speaker 1: to imagine a project without one. You need a board
6:23
Speaker 1: cut to eight feet six inches. You grab the tape measure,
6:25
Speaker 1: you pull it out, you mark the board, you make
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Speaker 1: the cut. Right, that's it. You move on. How often
6:30
Speaker 1: do you think about the tape measure itself? You know,
6:33
Speaker 1: how it came about and all of that. And yet
6:36
Speaker 1: what's really interesting to me is that, in the grand
6:39
Speaker 1: scheme of things, they're relatively new. You know, they're at
6:43
Speaker 1: most a couple hundred years old, you know, going back
6:45
Speaker 1: to the very basic concept of a tape measure that
6:49
Speaker 1: goes back you know, maybe probably about a couple hundred years.
6:52
Speaker 1: The tape measure as we think of it today, you know,
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Speaker 1: the practical tape measure that we use, it's at most
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Speaker 1: about fifty six seventy years old, something like that. And
7:02
Speaker 1: that sounds old. I get that, But think about it.
7:05
Speaker 1: People have been measuring stuff for quite a while, you know,
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Speaker 1: pretty much forever. I always had to measure it. How
7:12
Speaker 1: big is that rock? Yak? And then Yak has to
7:15
Speaker 1: measure how big that rock is? Or you know, Yak's
7:18
Speaker 1: wife wants him to move the rock. You know this
7:21
Speaker 1: you closer to the house or the cave, the measurements.
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Speaker 1: They had to measure things. So how did they do it? Well,
7:27
Speaker 1: they used body parts originally, you know, hands, feed arms, fingers.
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Speaker 1: That was twelve yak fingers wide, you know, that's how
7:35
Speaker 1: wide that rock was. So that's how they did it. Initially.
7:38
Speaker 1: The Egyptians they were a little brighter than yak. They
7:41
Speaker 1: used cubit rods. Surveyors used rods, cords, chains, including something
7:47
Speaker 1: called Gunter's chain, and that turned out to be not
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Speaker 1: as exciting as it sounds. I thought maybe Gunter was
7:53
Speaker 1: like some enormous, enormous you know, mastiff dog or something
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Speaker 1: like that, but it's not the case. Gunter's. Gunter's chain
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Speaker 1: was basically just a sixty six foot long chain made
8:06
Speaker 1: of about one hundred links I think it was, and
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Speaker 1: surveyors would use it. You know. It's useful, yeah, but
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Speaker 1: it's not something that you clipped to your belt. You know,
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Speaker 1: it was dirty because it was dragged all over the place,
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Speaker 1: you know, through farmland, over dirt and rocks and stuff
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Speaker 1: like that. It's dirty, it's heavy, it's not not wonderfully portable,
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Speaker 1: you know. But they had that. Tailors, you know, people
8:28
Speaker 1: working on clothes. They had flexible cloth tapes. But the
8:32
Speaker 1: problem with those is that they could stretch, they could wear,
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Speaker 1: they could have absorbed moisture, and that would affect the readings.
8:38
Speaker 1: They were great for wrapping around a shoulder or a
8:40
Speaker 1: belly if you needed to measure somebody's belly, but they
8:44
Speaker 1: weren't ideal for repeated, standardized job site measurements. So the
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Speaker 1: challenge was this, how do you make a measuring tool
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Speaker 1: that's flexible enough to coil up, you know, so it's portable,
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Speaker 1: easily portable, but accurate enough that you can trust it
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Speaker 1: and durable enough that you can really use it on
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Speaker 1: a job site, you know, for real work. Well, that question,
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Speaker 1: that challenge leads us to James Chesterman, you know, one
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Speaker 1: of the stars of our little story that we're gonna
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Speaker 1: we're gonna tell here. Chesterman. He was born in England
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Speaker 1: in the seventeen nineties and he started out making powder
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Speaker 1: flasks in London. And that may sound unrelated, but nothing
9:23
Speaker 1: on this show, nothing that comes from my mouth, is unrelated.
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Speaker 1: Everything is this massive spinning idea that is all interconnected. Anyway.
9:34
Speaker 1: The flask thing may sound unrelated, but it matters because
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Speaker 1: these powder flasks involve small super precise spring loaded mechanisms. Okay,
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Speaker 1: and Chesterman became completely fascinated with that world with springs,
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Speaker 1: flex tension and controlled energy. That's really important, all right,
9:53
Speaker 1: So he does that for a while. Later he moves
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Speaker 1: to Sheffield, which is one of Britain's great steel centers,
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Speaker 1: and he becomes especially s with flat wire and spring steel,
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Speaker 1: and spring steel is really the key to everything that's
10:07
Speaker 1: going to follow. That's how we end up with the
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Speaker 1: tape measure. Okay, spring steel. It's one of those it's
10:11
Speaker 1: not Springsteen. That's a different thing. You know, people are
10:15
Speaker 1: probably already confused. This has nothing to do with the singer.
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Speaker 1: Spring steel. It's one of those materials that we barely notice,
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Speaker 1: but it does remarkable, remarkable things. You bend it and
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Speaker 1: it wants to come back. You coil it and it
10:27
Speaker 1: stores energy. You release it and it moves. That basic
10:31
Speaker 1: idea shows up in clocks, in doorbells, in umbrellas, in
10:35
Speaker 1: window blinds, and eventually in measuring tapes. Now, Chesterman he understood,
10:40
Speaker 1: you know, the whole spring steel thing, and he applied
10:44
Speaker 1: that concept everywhere that he could, you know, every little
10:47
Speaker 1: problem that he found. He wondered if there was a
10:50
Speaker 1: spring steel solution for it, and he found a lot
10:52
Speaker 1: of interesting solutions where he could use spring steel. One
10:56
Speaker 1: example was crinoline frames. Do you know what crinoline frames are? Basically,
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Speaker 1: they're the enormous steel hooped undergarments that helped give Victorian
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Speaker 1: women that famous bell shaped silhouette, you know, hoop skirt thing.
11:09
Speaker 1: You know. Before spring steel frames, women often relied on
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Speaker 1: layers and layers of heavy petticoats to push their skirts outward.
11:16
Speaker 1: But spring steel came along and that made it possible
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Speaker 1: to create a lightweight cage under the dress. The hoops
11:22
Speaker 1: could bend, you know, when the lady walked, sat, turned,
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Speaker 1: brushed against furniture whatever, and then they'd spring back hook
11:29
Speaker 1: into shape. So it was a fashion application for his
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Speaker 1: spring steel, but it was also engineering, you know, really
11:36
Speaker 1: really cool stuff. Chesterman used that same steel, you know,
11:39
Speaker 1: spring steel thinking in all kinds of different things, umbrella ribs,
11:45
Speaker 1: corset supports, door springs, doorbells, and of course, eventually tape measures. Okay,
11:50
Speaker 1: now here's where the tape measure story gets a little
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Speaker 1: bit murky, a little bit tricky to follow. There's a
11:57
Speaker 1: popular version of the story all over the place. You know.
12:00
Speaker 1: It's it's the story that I started running with. It's
12:02
Speaker 1: the reason I'm talking about this is because I thought
12:05
Speaker 1: this story was so great, But it turns out it's
12:08
Speaker 1: not really true. See there's a popular story out there
12:11
Speaker 1: that says Chesterman invented the tape measure because the crinoline
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Speaker 1: craze died out. You know, he jumped into this whole
12:19
Speaker 1: crinoline thing. Everybody wants hoopskirts, hoopskirts for everybody, and we're
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Speaker 1: gonna make them using my spring steel. And I'm gonna
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Speaker 1: make these these little crinoline cages and oh man, the money.
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Speaker 1: I'm gonna be rolling in money. And then the craze
12:31
Speaker 1: dies out, and he's got warehouses and warehouses and warehouses
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Speaker 1: full of all this flat wire, you know, flexible spring
12:39
Speaker 1: steel wire. What's he gonna do with it? And he
12:42
Speaker 1: sits around and you know, he's debating, you know, every
12:45
Speaker 1: decision he's ever made in life. And then he decides, wait,
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Speaker 1: I can make a tape measure out of this. You know.
12:51
Speaker 1: That's kind of the story. And it's a great story.
12:54
Speaker 1: It's neat, it's tidy, it's the kind of story you
12:56
Speaker 1: want to be true. But like I said, it's not
12:58
Speaker 1: quite right the time, I mean, doesn't really quite work out.
13:02
Speaker 1: You know, that steel frame crinoline thing that became a
13:04
Speaker 1: major fashion item in the eighteen fifties. But we've got
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Speaker 1: records of Chesterman, you know, working on steel measuring tapes
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Speaker 1: way back in eighteen twenty nine. So the better version
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Speaker 1: of the story is this Chesterman was already deep into
13:16
Speaker 1: spring steel, you know, flat wire and measuring tools, and
13:20
Speaker 1: then those same skills became incredibly valuable and lucrative in
13:24
Speaker 1: the crinoline boom. And then when fashions changed and that
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Speaker 1: market faded out, that same flat steel technology could be
13:30
Speaker 1: redirected back into tools, especially longer measuring tapes for surveyors
13:35
Speaker 1: and engineers. In fact, one of Chesterman's most important ideas
13:39
Speaker 1: was the steel measuring chain, and that name tells you
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Speaker 1: a lot. He was improving on the old surveyor's chain,
13:45
Speaker 1: you know, Gunter's chain that we talked about earlier. But
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Speaker 1: Chesterman's version used a flat steel tape instead. It was jointed,
13:53
Speaker 1: you know, I think in twenty foot sections it could
13:55
Speaker 1: be marked with measurements and then it could be rolled
13:57
Speaker 1: into a circular leather case out when needed and then
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Speaker 1: manually wound back in with a small handle. So it
14:03
Speaker 1: was way more portable than Gunter's chain, but it still
14:07
Speaker 1: wasn't the modern tape measure. You know. The next big
14:09
Speaker 1: step for tape measures came in America at the hands
14:13
Speaker 1: of another inventor, and this happened in eighteen sixty four
14:17
Speaker 1: when William Bangs Junior patented a spring return tape measure.
14:21
Speaker 1: Now this was absolutely huge. You know, you could pull
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Speaker 1: the tape out, take your measurement, and then let us
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Speaker 1: spring wind it back into the case. You know, you
14:29
Speaker 1: could just let it go and whoop, there it went.
14:32
Speaker 1: You know, pinched fingers and all. You know, that's the
14:34
Speaker 1: downside to this thing. But man, is that a lot
14:37
Speaker 1: of fun. I bet he had a ton of fun
14:39
Speaker 1: inventing that. Anyway, that was William Bangs Junior's big contribution.
14:43
Speaker 1: A few years later, Elvin Fellows improved the idea by
14:47
Speaker 1: adding a spring click that could hold the tape in place,
14:50
Speaker 1: so now it locks in instead of immediately retracting. That's
14:54
Speaker 1: really great. So that's where the tape measure is at
14:57
Speaker 1: hold steady for a while at that point, and then
14:59
Speaker 1: the the next big step in its evolution comes in
15:02
Speaker 1: nineteen twenty two when a guy named Highrum Farrin solved
15:06
Speaker 1: one of the most important problems with steel tape. You know,
15:08
Speaker 1: a flat strip of steel. It can be flexible, it
15:11
Speaker 1: can be coilable, but if you pull it out in
15:13
Speaker 1: the air, it doesn't want to stay there. It doesn't
15:15
Speaker 1: want to stand there. It bends under its own weight.
15:18
Speaker 1: And that means you need two hands, or you need
15:20
Speaker 1: another person, or you need just a boatload of patients
15:23
Speaker 1: to make it work. Well. Farren changed the shape of
15:26
Speaker 1: the blade to fix this. Instead of making it flat,
15:30
Speaker 1: he curved it across its width, concave on one side,
15:33
Speaker 1: convex on the other, and that shallow curve gave the
15:35
Speaker 1: tape stiffness let the blade extend several feet without immediately collapsing.
15:42
Speaker 1: Now this is the moment when the tape measure starts
15:44
Speaker 1: to feel much more like the tool that you and
15:46
Speaker 1: I know. And oddly enough, I really don't quite get this.
15:50
Speaker 1: But Farren's original design still wasn't the modern retractable tape measure.
15:55
Speaker 1: He had a blade that could extend a few feet
15:56
Speaker 1: without bending, but you still had to manually wind it
15:59
Speaker 1: all back up up and This is where Stanley Company
16:03
Speaker 1: comes in, the tool company, and they enter the story
16:05
Speaker 1: and they create They take all of these ideas and
16:09
Speaker 1: motion together and create what we think of as the
16:12
Speaker 1: modern you know, tape measure. You know. They bought Farren's
16:15
Speaker 1: design and they went to work immediately improving the case,
16:18
Speaker 1: the blade, the hook, and the lock. For example, with
16:21
Speaker 1: the case. Earlier tape cases were often round, you know,
16:25
Speaker 1: like tiny little canisters. Stanley Company moved towards a flatter,
16:28
Speaker 1: more squared off case, which made inside measurements much easier
16:32
Speaker 1: to take. And here's something cool that you may or
16:35
Speaker 1: may not know. Check out your tape measure Most of
16:37
Speaker 1: them have a measurement stamped on them, you know, two inches,
16:40
Speaker 1: three inches something like that, right on the case. That's
16:43
Speaker 1: the measurement of the case itself. This means that you
16:46
Speaker 1: can set the back of the case against one surface,
16:49
Speaker 1: extend the tape to the other side, read your measurement,
16:52
Speaker 1: you know, from the tape, and then just add the
16:54
Speaker 1: length of the case that's printed right on the tool
16:56
Speaker 1: and that's going to give you your final measurement. So
16:58
Speaker 1: no bending the tape in the corner, no guessing. Stanley
17:02
Speaker 1: made that adjustment. They also created that little floating hook
17:06
Speaker 1: on the end of the tape, and this is one
17:07
Speaker 1: of the most clever details on the whole tool, because
17:12
Speaker 1: when you hook the tape over the edge of a board,
17:14
Speaker 1: that hook pulls outward. When you push it against a
17:17
Speaker 1: wall for an inside measurement, it slides inward, and that
17:20
Speaker 1: tiny bit of movement compensates for the thickness of the
17:23
Speaker 1: hook itself. You know, it looks loose, it feels like
17:25
Speaker 1: something might be wrong, but it's supposed to do that.
17:28
Speaker 1: So don't do what I did on one of my
17:30
Speaker 1: first tape measures, and don't fix that. It's not a defect,
17:34
Speaker 1: it's not broken. Don't fix it. Don't secure the hook,
17:37
Speaker 1: or you're not going to be measuring accurately afterwards. So
17:40
Speaker 1: Stanley did all of those things, and then in nineteen
17:42
Speaker 1: fifty six, Stanley Company added a retracting spring to the
17:46
Speaker 1: curved blade tape, bringing together the two key ideas a
17:49
Speaker 1: blade that could stand out rigidly and a spring that
17:52
Speaker 1: could pull it back into the case easily. Stanley describes
17:55
Speaker 1: that as the point where the tool became the first modern,
17:59
Speaker 1: coilable and reach practicable tape measure. So nineteen fifty six
18:02
Speaker 1: for that. Then in nineteen sixty three they introduced the
18:05
Speaker 1: power lock tape measure, and that's the big one, you know.
18:08
Speaker 1: The power lock brought together the molded case, the thumb lock,
18:11
Speaker 1: the yellow blade, the sliding hook, and the one handed
18:15
Speaker 1: convenience that we still expect today. And when that patent
18:19
Speaker 1: you know, expired, the power lock became one of the
18:21
Speaker 1: most copied tape measure designs in the world. So there
18:24
Speaker 1: you go, tape measures. The next time you pull one
18:27
Speaker 1: out and extends six or eight or even more feet
18:29
Speaker 1: into the air locks in place, hooks over aboard, and
18:33
Speaker 1: then snaps back into the case. Take just a second
18:36
Speaker 1: to appreciate it. It's two hundred years of problem solving
18:40
Speaker 1: in that little case there. So pretty cool, all right.
18:43
Speaker 1: It happens all the time. You know. People start a
18:45
Speaker 1: home renovation project and they get about halfway into it,
18:49
Speaker 1: about halfway before they realize that they're blowing their budget
18:52
Speaker 1: big time. You know, extras creep in expenses, exceed expectations,
18:58
Speaker 1: and stress starts to build. Well, if you've got a
19:00
Speaker 1: project on the horizon, I've got six budgeting tips that
19:03
Speaker 1: will help you stay on track with your spending. We'll
19:05
Speaker 1: jump into all of that right after. This Home in
19:08
Speaker 1: Progress is brought to you by Repcolite Paints and Benjamin Moore.
19:11
Speaker 1: Think about it. You spend hours prepping, sanding, taping, and
19:15
Speaker 1: then finally painting. Don't throw all that work away with
19:17
Speaker 1: an inferior product. The paint isn't just another supply. The
19:21
Speaker 1: paint is the project. Make sure it's the best, and
19:24
Speaker 1: we're back. You're listening to Home in Progress by Repcolite Paint,
19:27
Speaker 1: sponsored by Benjamin Moore. And I want to talk about
19:30
Speaker 1: budgeting for a project. And I know, but budgeting isn't
19:34
Speaker 1: really the fun part of the project. Nobody gets excited
19:37
Speaker 1: about spreadsheeting. Well, some people get excited about spreadsheets. Most
19:41
Speaker 1: people don't get excited about spreadsheets when they're dreaming about
19:44
Speaker 1: a new kitchen, or a finished basement, or a deck,
19:47
Speaker 1: or even just a fresh coat of paint. Spreadsheets aren't
19:51
Speaker 1: the exciting part. But the budget is what keeps the
19:54
Speaker 1: project from getting away from you, and it's something that
19:58
Speaker 1: happens a lot. Projects generally find a way to get
20:03
Speaker 1: away from us. They have more moving parts than we think.
20:06
Speaker 1: You know, there are the obvious costs that we've got materials, labor, fixtures, finishes, whatever,
20:11
Speaker 1: And then there are all these little costs that sneak
20:14
Speaker 1: in around the edges, you know, stuff you broke, stuff
20:17
Speaker 1: you had to rebuy over and over again. And then
20:20
Speaker 1: for the regular people who don't do that kind of
20:22
Speaker 1: thing like I do, you've got things like delivery, disposal,
20:26
Speaker 1: extra prep. You know, a tool that you maybe didn't
20:29
Speaker 1: know you need, a problem that you couldn't see until
20:31
Speaker 1: the work started. Things like that. So today I want
20:33
Speaker 1: to give you six practical budgeting tips. Nothing complicated, nothing fancy,
20:38
Speaker 1: just a better way to think about the money before
20:40
Speaker 1: the project starts, so you're not scrambling once everything is underway.
20:44
Speaker 1: All right, First tip that I've got budget for what
20:47
Speaker 1: you actually want. You know, this sounds obvious, but people
20:50
Speaker 1: get it backwards all the time. They start with a number,
20:54
Speaker 1: we want to spend twenty thousand dollars on the kitchen,
20:57
Speaker 1: and then they try to force the project into that number.
21:00
Speaker 1: But once the project starts, they realize the kitchen that
21:03
Speaker 1: they actually want it's closer to twenty seven thousand. And
21:06
Speaker 1: now when that happens, they're stuck. You know, either they
21:09
Speaker 1: have to cut corners or they end up going over
21:11
Speaker 1: budget and they feel like they failed or they feel
21:14
Speaker 1: a lot of stress from the fact that they're spending,
21:16
Speaker 1: you know, seven thousand dollars more than what they intended.
21:20
Speaker 1: So don't let yourself get into that point, you know,
21:22
Speaker 1: don't put yourself in that spot. Flip things around. Start
21:25
Speaker 1: by figuring out what you actually want done, and be
21:29
Speaker 1: really honest about the scope of it. Be honest about
21:31
Speaker 1: the materials that you want to see used, be honest
21:34
Speaker 1: about the finished level you're expecting, and then price that
21:37
Speaker 1: project out as realistically as you can. And once you've
21:40
Speaker 1: got that number, then you can work with it. If
21:42
Speaker 1: it's too high, Okay, Now you have to make cuts
21:46
Speaker 1: intentionally before the project starts. That's a good place to be.
21:50
Speaker 1: You don't want to be making those cuts after the
21:52
Speaker 1: project starts. You know, before things you can change the countertops,
21:56
Speaker 1: you can adjust the floor, and you can scale back
21:58
Speaker 1: the extras. But at that point you're doing it calmly
22:00
Speaker 1: and you're doing it on purpose. Way different from making
22:04
Speaker 1: those cuts halfway through a project under pressure, where every
22:07
Speaker 1: single choice feels like you're making a compromise. So first,
22:11
Speaker 1: tip budget for what you actually want out of the project.
22:14
Speaker 1: Second tip, add twenty percent and treat it like it's
22:18
Speaker 1: already spent money. All right. Once you've got your project number,
22:21
Speaker 1: add twenty percent to it, and then mentally just put
22:24
Speaker 1: that money in a box and label it spent. You know,
22:27
Speaker 1: not because you're trying to spend it, but because you're
22:30
Speaker 1: being honest about the real cost of getting a project finished.
22:33
Speaker 1: You know, typically this is kind of sad won't won't
22:36
Speaker 1: won't news, But typically, you know, a thirty thousand dollars
22:39
Speaker 1: project isn't really a thirty thousand dollars project. It's a
22:42
Speaker 1: thirty thousand dollars estimate. And estimates are based on what
22:45
Speaker 1: you can see before the work starts. But once the
22:48
Speaker 1: work begins, that's when you discover things for real. You know,
22:52
Speaker 1: now you're living in the real world. You may discover,
22:54
Speaker 1: you know, damaged wood or something. You know, something behind
22:57
Speaker 1: your drywall that you pulled out that's good and have
23:00
Speaker 1: to be addressed. You could discover bad wiring that needs
23:03
Speaker 1: to be updated on, new tools that you need to
23:05
Speaker 1: buy in order to keep moving forward on it, a
23:08
Speaker 1: delivery charge that you had hadn't counted on, or just
23:11
Speaker 1: you know, some other costs that was always part of
23:13
Speaker 1: getting the job done, but you just didn't realize it.
23:16
Speaker 1: That's what that extra twenty percent is for. You know
23:19
Speaker 1: that you're setting aside. And here's the rule. You only
23:21
Speaker 1: touch that money for costs required to finish the original
23:25
Speaker 1: project properly. I'm going to say that one more time
23:27
Speaker 1: because it's a little convoluted, but it's really pretty smart.
23:30
Speaker 1: You only touch that extra money for costs required to
23:34
Speaker 1: finish the original project properly. You know, this is not
23:38
Speaker 1: for upgrades, it's not for add ons, it's not you know,
23:41
Speaker 1: while we're at it, you know, let's add this stuff in.
23:44
Speaker 1: It's not a nicer version of something you already picked.
23:47
Speaker 1: Only the hidden or underestimated costs that belonged to the
23:49
Speaker 1: project you already decided to do are things that you
23:52
Speaker 1: would cover with this money. So for a thirty thousand
23:55
Speaker 1: dollars project, that means you're really planning for a thirty
23:58
Speaker 1: six thousand dollars pit pro For a fifteen thousand dollars project,
24:02
Speaker 1: you're planning for eighteen thousand dollars. And I know that's uncomfortable,
24:05
Speaker 1: it's a little bit scary, it may feel a little undoable,
24:09
Speaker 1: but try to find a way to do it. Because
24:11
Speaker 1: if that original estimate that you got, you know, the
24:13
Speaker 1: thirty thousand dollars project estimate, if that holds, great, you
24:17
Speaker 1: finish with the money left over. But if the project
24:20
Speaker 1: costs what projects often do, you know what they often
24:23
Speaker 1: cost once they get underway, you're ready for it. You know,
24:26
Speaker 1: you're not panicking, you're not cutting corners, and you're not
24:29
Speaker 1: turning a normal project issue into a financial crisis. So
24:33
Speaker 1: that's tip to add twenty percent and treat it like
24:36
Speaker 1: it's already spent. Tip three, plan your contractor farther ahead,
24:40
Speaker 1: way farther ahead, then you think you need to. You know,
24:43
Speaker 1: this is one of those project details that people underestimate
24:47
Speaker 1: all the time. You know, they decide in May that
24:49
Speaker 1: they want a major project done in July. You know,
24:52
Speaker 1: it says two months away. It's way in July. You know,
24:56
Speaker 1: that's a long ways away to us, you know, who
24:59
Speaker 1: don't do the work. You know, we think that seems
25:01
Speaker 1: like forever, and we start calling around and checking in
25:05
Speaker 1: with different contractors, and that's when we find out that
25:08
Speaker 1: that's not that far at all. You know, a lot
25:10
Speaker 1: of people are already booked at that point and they're
25:13
Speaker 1: booked months and months ahead of time, and the bigger
25:16
Speaker 1: the project that you've got, the longer you may have
25:18
Speaker 1: to wait until somebody's schedule actually clears out for you.
25:21
Speaker 1: So if you're thinking about, you know, hiring a painter
25:24
Speaker 1: or building a deck, or you know, putting on a
25:27
Speaker 1: roof or installing siding or windows or anything like that,
25:31
Speaker 1: don't wait to start making calls until you think it's
25:34
Speaker 1: the right time, because you're probably going to underestimate it.
25:37
Speaker 1: You know, as soon as the project's on your radar,
25:40
Speaker 1: make a few information gathering calls. You know, if it's
25:42
Speaker 1: too early to book it, that's fine. At least just
25:45
Speaker 1: talk to them about when you should reach out to schedule.
25:48
Speaker 1: They're happily going to give you a ballpark idea, and
25:51
Speaker 1: that's going to help you make sure that you're reaching
25:53
Speaker 1: out in time. If you reach out too late, your options,
25:56
Speaker 1: you know they're going to be limited. And that matters
25:59
Speaker 1: because when people you know have limited options, they start
26:01
Speaker 1: making decisions from pressure. You know, they take the first
26:04
Speaker 1: person who calls back, they accept a vague estimate, they
26:08
Speaker 1: skip checking references, they ignore little warning signs because they
26:12
Speaker 1: just want to get the project moving and they're just
26:14
Speaker 1: grateful that they got somebody out. But that's often not always,
26:19
Speaker 1: but often when expensive mistakes happen, you know, ideally you
26:22
Speaker 1: want time to talk to more than one contractor three
26:25
Speaker 1: bids is still a really good standard recommendation when you're
26:29
Speaker 1: getting work done, not because you're automatically looking for the
26:32
Speaker 1: cheapest price or even necessarily the middle price, but because
26:35
Speaker 1: three bids help you understand the project better. You start
26:39
Speaker 1: to see what's included, what's missing, what questions you should
26:42
Speaker 1: be asking, and whether one bid is unusually high or
26:45
Speaker 1: suspiciously low. Here's the practical advice with this particular tip.
26:50
Speaker 1: If you want a big project on this summer and
26:52
Speaker 1: you're just starting now, understand that you're probably a little
26:56
Speaker 1: bit behind, maybe a lot behind. That doesn't mean give up,
26:59
Speaker 1: but it does mean you know, start today, Let's get
27:02
Speaker 1: on it and be flexible with your timeline, and don't
27:05
Speaker 1: let urgency push you into a bad hire. If you're
27:08
Speaker 1: looking specifically for a painter, start at Repcolite. You know
27:12
Speaker 1: a close Repcolite store, stop in ask us we've got
27:15
Speaker 1: names we can recommend, or head to repcolite dot com
27:18
Speaker 1: and then about in the middle of the homepage. You know,
27:21
Speaker 1: if you scroll to the middle of the homepage, there's
27:23
Speaker 1: a find a painter form. Fill that out and we
27:27
Speaker 1: can help you with some names of people in your
27:28
Speaker 1: area who do the exact work that you need done.
27:31
Speaker 1: So that's a great resource to use, So check that out,
27:35
Speaker 1: all right. Fourth tip that I've got for managing your
27:38
Speaker 1: budget is know your homes age and adjust accordingly. Okay,
27:43
Speaker 1: if your house was built before nineteen eighty, add an
27:45
Speaker 1: extra ten percent on top of that twenty percent contingency
27:48
Speaker 1: money that we talked about in step two. Yeah, it
27:51
Speaker 1: just gets better, doesn't it. We're adding that not because
27:54
Speaker 1: something's definitely going to go wrong, but because the odds
27:57
Speaker 1: of a surprise discovery are meaning fully higher the older
28:01
Speaker 1: the house gets. You know, older plumbing, older wiring, insulation
28:05
Speaker 1: that maybe doesn't meet current code. These things exist in
28:08
Speaker 1: a lot of homes, and the odds are better than
28:10
Speaker 1: even that. Opening up one wall is going to lead
28:13
Speaker 1: to a conversation you weren't expecting to have. So know
28:15
Speaker 1: your home's age and adjust to that, you know accordingly,
28:19
Speaker 1: all right. The fifth tip that I've got understand the
28:21
Speaker 1: value of quality and the place for quality understand the
28:25
Speaker 1: value of quality and the place for quality. Here's a
28:28
Speaker 1: useful breakdown that a lot of people don't you know,
28:30
Speaker 1: they don't know. Going in on a typical renovation, materials,
28:34
Speaker 1: fixtures and finishes, they're going to eat up about fifty
28:37
Speaker 1: to sixty percent of your budget. Okay, fifty to sixty
28:40
Speaker 1: percent of your budget. Materials, fixtures, finishes, labor permits and
28:44
Speaker 1: design fees they're going to count for another twenty five
28:47
Speaker 1: to thirty five percent, and what's left is everything else,
28:51
Speaker 1: you know, disposal, delivery, incidentals. What this tells you is
28:54
Speaker 1: that materials and finishes, they're often where the biggest budget
28:57
Speaker 1: swings happen. You know, the difference between one and another
29:01
Speaker 1: can be thousands of dollars. Same is true with floorine, cabinets,
29:04
Speaker 1: you know, appliances and so on. And what that means
29:07
Speaker 1: is that when money gets tight in the planning stage,
29:10
Speaker 1: you're going to be really tempted to want to cut
29:12
Speaker 1: on these materials. This is where you can make a difference,
29:15
Speaker 1: right of course, obviously it's where you'll make the biggest
29:18
Speaker 1: impact with the bottom line, but it's really important to
29:21
Speaker 1: understand the value of quality and the place for quality.
29:24
Speaker 1: And I'm not saying that you need to just invest
29:27
Speaker 1: in the highest quality materials that you can always find.
29:30
Speaker 1: I'm seeing you've got to understand where quality will actually
29:34
Speaker 1: matter in your daily life and where it might not
29:36
Speaker 1: matter as much. Right a top of the line wood floor,
29:40
Speaker 1: for example, they could outperform everything else out there, let's say,
29:44
Speaker 1: But if that means you get thirty years instead of
29:47
Speaker 1: twenty years, you've got to ask yourself a really practical question.
29:50
Speaker 1: Does that extra ten years really really matter? Now? If
29:53
Speaker 1: this is your forever home, you're never leaving, they're going
29:56
Speaker 1: to drag you out. You know, they're going to carry
29:58
Speaker 1: your corpse from the play. Well, if that's the case,
30:01
Speaker 1: maybe that does matter. You know, you want the best
30:04
Speaker 1: there can be, and if you can swing it, go
30:06
Speaker 1: for it. If you think you're gonna move in seven
30:08
Speaker 1: to ten years, even fifteen years, maybe that doesn't matter.
30:12
Speaker 1: Maybe twenty years is still really really good and it
30:15
Speaker 1: can save you some money. One countertop might cost twice
30:18
Speaker 1: as much as another option, but if it's something that
30:20
Speaker 1: you touch, you know, clean, look at and use every
30:23
Speaker 1: single day, that quality may be worth the price. You know,
30:27
Speaker 1: it's not a budget decision that you're making at that point.
30:29
Speaker 1: It's a daily living decision. Same thing with paint. You know,
30:32
Speaker 1: in high traffic areas, buy the best, you know, the
30:35
Speaker 1: most durable paint that you can afford. Hallways, kitchens, bathrooms, mudrooms,
30:39
Speaker 1: kids rooms, those are places where durability really matters. You know,
30:43
Speaker 1: you want the paint to wash up, to hold up,
30:45
Speaker 1: to look good for years. Repainting a few years after
30:48
Speaker 1: a big renovation because you tried to save a little
30:50
Speaker 1: on paint is a real bummer. But you don't necessarily
30:53
Speaker 1: need to put that super top of the line you know,
30:56
Speaker 1: scuff X or whatever in a bedroom that gets you know,
30:59
Speaker 1: a guest bedroom or something you know, you certainly can
31:01
Speaker 1: if you got the budget for it. But that's a
31:03
Speaker 1: nice place to use some of our more budget friendly options.
31:06
Speaker 1: You don't always need to jump into the highest end
31:09
Speaker 1: that you can, but don't cut the corners either so
31:12
Speaker 1: short that you end up regretting it, you know, down
31:14
Speaker 1: the road. So if you do get to the point
31:16
Speaker 1: where you're cutting some finishes and materials or you're you know,
31:19
Speaker 1: downgrading them a little bit in order to save some cash.
31:22
Speaker 1: Before you do that, look at them each one by
31:24
Speaker 1: one and ask where will quality improve daily life, Where
31:27
Speaker 1: will it reduce maintenance, Where will it help the project last?
31:30
Speaker 1: And where am I just paying more for something that
31:33
Speaker 1: won't really matter to me, you know down the road.
31:35
Speaker 1: That's how you protect the budget without cheapening the project.
31:39
Speaker 1: All right. Tip six, Watch out for scope creep. Scope
31:42
Speaker 1: creep you have any idea what that is. Scope creep
31:45
Speaker 1: is what happens when a project quietly grows after it starts.
31:49
Speaker 1: It's like sneaky growth. You know. You begin with a
31:51
Speaker 1: bathroom repaint, pretty straightforward, going to repaint the bathroom, and
31:55
Speaker 1: then you decide, well, we really should upgrade that vanity,
31:59
Speaker 1: And then you look at the exhaust fan that's going
32:01
Speaker 1: to need changes. Then maybe the flooring, I'm not sure,
32:04
Speaker 1: what about the hallway flooring? You know that connects. If
32:07
Speaker 1: we're going to change one, maybe we should change the other.
32:10
Speaker 1: None of those decisions are really crazy. You know, they
32:12
Speaker 1: each seem reasonable in the moment, but together they can
32:16
Speaker 1: end up adding thousands of dollars to the final bill.
32:18
Speaker 1: So before the project starts, decide on what's included and
32:22
Speaker 1: what isn't write it down and agree on it, you know,
32:25
Speaker 1: as a couple, as a family, whatever you've got to do,
32:28
Speaker 1: agree on it and share that list with your contractor,
32:31
Speaker 1: and then make a rule. Any new addition gets priced
32:34
Speaker 1: separately before you approve it, you know, not just yeah,
32:36
Speaker 1: go ahead, let's do it, not just we'll figure that
32:39
Speaker 1: out later, get the number and then decide. That doesn't
32:42
Speaker 1: mean you can't change your mind during a project. You know,
32:44
Speaker 1: sometimes that change makes sense. You see it better as
32:48
Speaker 1: you get into it. But don't let those changes sneak in,
32:51
Speaker 1: you know, just don't let them trickle in is probably
32:53
Speaker 1: the best way to say it, because they come in small,
32:56
Speaker 1: but they all pile up. Make them stand in front
32:58
Speaker 1: of you with a price tag attached, and you know,
33:00
Speaker 1: that way you can really assess if that's worth it
33:03
Speaker 1: moving forward. You know, here's the truth about renovation budgets.
33:06
Speaker 1: They're a starting point. They're not a finish line. The
33:09
Speaker 1: data proves it. Most people go way over and we
33:12
Speaker 1: all know that most of us have been there. Most
33:15
Speaker 1: people don't regret going over so much because the project
33:18
Speaker 1: was worth it. But there is a real difference between
33:20
Speaker 1: going over budget because you planned honestly and something unexpected happened,
33:25
Speaker 1: versus going over budget because you really didn't have a
33:27
Speaker 1: plan at all. You know. One of those is just life,
33:30
Speaker 1: that's how it goes. The other one's avoidable. If you
33:33
Speaker 1: do want to check this stuff out again, I know,
33:35
Speaker 1: sometimes listening to this kind of thing on air, maybe
33:38
Speaker 1: that's a little tricky. If you want to read it,
33:41
Speaker 1: you know, go over it and take a look at it.
33:42
Speaker 1: You can find all of it in the show notes.
33:44
Speaker 1: Just had to Repcolit dot com and click the on
33:46
Speaker 1: the radio tab on the homepage. All right, it's front
33:49
Speaker 1: door season. And while that's nearly the perfect exterior project,
33:52
Speaker 1: there are still a number of things that you probably
33:55
Speaker 1: should know before you jump in. We're going to get
33:57
Speaker 1: to all of them, or at least some of them.
33:59
Speaker 1: Right after this. You're listening to Home in Progress, where
34:03
Speaker 1: the projects are real, the mistakes, they're educational, sometimes painful,
34:08
Speaker 1: mostly educational, and the only thing more stubborn than that
34:13
Speaker 1: old wallpaper on your bathroom wall is your determination to
34:16
Speaker 1: get it fixed. Probably sponsored by Repcolite Paints and Benjamin
34:20
Speaker 1: Moore Paint with a purpose, people who care and everything
34:23
Speaker 1: you need to get the job done right. And we're back.
34:25
Speaker 1: You're listening to Home in Progress by Repcolite paint sponsored
34:28
Speaker 1: by Benjamin Moore, and since we're heading into the front
34:32
Speaker 1: door season, I want to spend a few minutes talking
34:35
Speaker 1: about that project and walking you through it. It's a
34:38
Speaker 1: project that makes a huge impact and it doesn't take
34:41
Speaker 1: a lot of paint, so it's really ideal in that regard,
34:44
Speaker 1: But there are still some things that you want to
34:46
Speaker 1: know in order to get the best results. So here's
34:48
Speaker 1: the basic process with a few tricks that really can
34:51
Speaker 1: make the job go a lot better. First off, pick
34:53
Speaker 1: a mild, dry day and start early, you know, ideally
34:56
Speaker 1: before the heat sets in heat on that front door
34:58
Speaker 1: are working in the heat be a problem with how
35:01
Speaker 1: the paint lays out and it will affect the overall look.
35:04
Speaker 1: So start early before that happens. And also that's going
35:08
Speaker 1: to give you plenty of time to let that paint
35:10
Speaker 1: dry before you have to close the door for the evening. Next,
35:13
Speaker 1: a big question that comes up is do I take
35:15
Speaker 1: the door off the hinges. Well, for most people that's
35:18
Speaker 1: gonna be no. You just leave it on the hinges.
35:20
Speaker 1: If you're stripping it down, spraying it, you know, doing
35:23
Speaker 1: major repairs something like that, then maybe take it off
35:27
Speaker 1: the hinges. You know that makes sense. But for a
35:29
Speaker 1: normal repaint, most people are going to leave the door
35:31
Speaker 1: hanging up. The trick is to chock it open, you know,
35:35
Speaker 1: get a good door wedge or a block of wood
35:37
Speaker 1: so that the door stays partly open and doesn't swing
35:40
Speaker 1: while you're working. It's gonna be a lot easier to work,
35:43
Speaker 1: trust me. Next thing you want to do is remove
35:46
Speaker 1: as much hardware as is reasonable. You know, take the
35:48
Speaker 1: handle off, if you can, take off the dead bolt plates,
35:51
Speaker 1: remove the door knock or the kick plate, and so
35:53
Speaker 1: on if it's easy to do, and then tape whatever's left.
35:57
Speaker 1: Then you've got to deal with the cleaning. And the cleaning,
36:00
Speaker 1: you know. This prep work part of things is really important,
36:03
Speaker 1: you know, because front doors get touched constantly, so they
36:06
Speaker 1: collect hand oils and dust and pullen and spider webs. Basically,
36:11
Speaker 1: they collect whatever the outside world throws at them. So
36:14
Speaker 1: wash the door down well with a good degreaser and
36:16
Speaker 1: then wipe it down and let it dry. After that,
36:19
Speaker 1: scrape off any loose paint, sand the surface dull and smooth,
36:22
Speaker 1: and wipe away the dust and give it one more
36:25
Speaker 1: good rinse with clean water. If you've got bare wood,
36:28
Speaker 1: bear metal, or you've made spot repairs at that point
36:32
Speaker 1: right now in the process, you would prime those areas.
36:35
Speaker 1: The big thing here is don't skip the primer if
36:38
Speaker 1: you've got a situation that warrants primer. All right, now,
36:41
Speaker 1: let's talk about one of the biggest front door problems
36:43
Speaker 1: that people run into, and it's sticking. You know, I'm
36:46
Speaker 1: sure you've run into this. The technical term is blocking.
36:49
Speaker 1: You know, blocking is when paint sticks to another surface
36:51
Speaker 1: after it dries. You know, on a front door, that
36:54
Speaker 1: usually means the fresh paint sticks to the weather stripping
36:56
Speaker 1: and then when you open the door, you get that,
36:59
Speaker 1: you know, that peeling or popping sound, and sometimes the
37:02
Speaker 1: paint actually pulls off, which is a really sad day. Now, Unfortunately,
37:06
Speaker 1: the way paint works, it can be dry to the
37:08
Speaker 1: touch and still not be cured. You know, it feels dry,
37:12
Speaker 1: so you close the door. That's how people get into
37:13
Speaker 1: this problem. But the paint film is still soft enough
37:16
Speaker 1: that the weather stripping can press into it and bond
37:19
Speaker 1: to it. So one of the best tricks to avoid
37:22
Speaker 1: this is to remove the weather stripping if you can.
37:25
Speaker 1: You know, a lot of modern weather stripping is set
37:27
Speaker 1: into a little groove around the doorframe. If yours is
37:30
Speaker 1: like that, you can easily, you know, get it out
37:33
Speaker 1: of there. Just take a flat tool like a painter's
37:35
Speaker 1: five and one tool, a putty knife something like that,
37:38
Speaker 1: and carefully, you know, kind of pull it out. There's
37:40
Speaker 1: videos online if you need to see how the process works.
37:44
Speaker 1: It's very straightforward, very simple. You just want to make
37:47
Speaker 1: sure you don't gouge it, don't stretch it, you know,
37:49
Speaker 1: just work slowly and gently. If it comes out cleanly,
37:53
Speaker 1: pull it out, set it aside, and leave it out
37:55
Speaker 1: while the paint gets a good head start on curing.
37:57
Speaker 1: You know, you could leave it out for a few
37:59
Speaker 1: days to give yourself the best chance to not have
38:02
Speaker 1: any of that blocking. You know, that's one of the
38:04
Speaker 1: best ways to prevent sticking, because now the fresh paint
38:07
Speaker 1: really isn't being pressed against anything, you know, it's not
38:09
Speaker 1: pressed against the rubber or the vinyl all night. Now,
38:12
Speaker 1: if you can't remove the weather stripping, the next best
38:14
Speaker 1: thing that you can do is just give it time,
38:17
Speaker 1: you know, leave the door open as long as possible.
38:20
Speaker 1: And again this is why starting early really helps. So
38:22
Speaker 1: start early. Paint thin coats, don't glob it on. You know,
38:25
Speaker 1: two lighter coats are going to be way better than
38:27
Speaker 1: a heavy coat, So do all of that and use
38:30
Speaker 1: a good block resistant product like Benjamin Moore's Exterior Aura
38:33
Speaker 1: or Benjamin Moore's Command. As for actually painting the door,
38:36
Speaker 1: if it's a panel door, you want to start with
38:38
Speaker 1: the recessed areas and details first. Use a good angled
38:42
Speaker 1: brush and paint the inside edges of the panels. Then
38:45
Speaker 1: paint the flat panel areas, and after that move onto
38:48
Speaker 1: the rails and the styles, you know, the horizontal and
38:51
Speaker 1: vertical parts of the door. Basic idea is this, do
38:54
Speaker 1: the fussy detail work first, then move out to the
38:56
Speaker 1: broader areas so you can keep a wet edge. Ideal
38:59
Speaker 1: tools for this are going to be a good angled
39:01
Speaker 1: sash brush as we've already talked about, but also a
39:04
Speaker 1: small roller system like Wooster's Jumbo coder system. They're like
39:08
Speaker 1: little four inch roller covers roller frames that are real small.
39:11
Speaker 1: That's going to be ideal for those flat sections, but
39:14
Speaker 1: like I said, make sure you've got that brush on
39:16
Speaker 1: hand as well for some of the fussier work front doors.
39:20
Speaker 1: They're one of the best small exterior projects you can do.
39:22
Speaker 1: A fresh color is really going to change, surprisingly so
39:27
Speaker 1: the whole look of your house. You'll be surprised how
39:29
Speaker 1: much difference it makes. So it's really good project to try.
39:33
Speaker 1: Just make sure that if you've got any questions, you
39:34
Speaker 1: stop out at any Repco Light store, give us a call.
39:37
Speaker 1: Whatever you need to do, ask those questions. We'll gladly
39:40
Speaker 1: walk you through the project. All right. That's going to
39:43
Speaker 1: do it for this episode of Home and Progress. If
39:44
Speaker 1: you want to catch it again, you can find it
39:46
Speaker 1: online at repcol Light dot com. Whatever you do today
39:50
Speaker 1: makes your paints a part of it. For Home and
39:52
Speaker 1: Progress by Repco Light Paints. I'm Dan Hanson. Thanks for listening.