Author: Atrace

Repairing Cracked, Discontinued Tile

Atrace

A cracked tile may be an eyesore that detracts from the entire room. Generally speaking, the first step to fixing a cracked tile is to replace it with a new one. But sometimes this isn’t possible, particularly when your shingles have been discontinued and you do not need a replacement. In this case, hairline and other minor cracks can be repaired with a small amount of epoxy and some paint.

Clean the cracked tile, utilizing tile cleaner or dish detergent to be sure the crack and the region surrounding it’s free of any dust, grease or debris. Dry the tile thoroughly, using a soft cloth.

Mix the epoxy on a bit of cardboard. Stir the epoxy with a craft stick till it’s crystal clear and tacky.

Scoop up some epoxy on the end of a craft stick, if the crack is wide. Alternatively, use a toothpick to get a thin or hairline crack. Use the epoxy directly onto the crack. Make sure it passes the crack and makes a level surface with the remaining part of the tile. Turn the craft stick horizontally and scrape it across the surface of the tile to remove any excess epoxy from the tile. The epoxy will begin to harden within 10 minutes, so eliminate any excess as soon as it’s noticed. Allow the epoxy dry for 24 hours.

Apply a small amount of oil or urethane-based paint to the epoxy, with a fine, artist’s paintbrush. Verify the paint matches the tile. Work in slow, cautious strokes to blend from the paint with the rest of the tile until the split is unnoticeable. Allow the paint dry completely.

Brush a layer of urethane sealer over the painted tile to seal the paint and keep it from peeling or flaking. Allow the sealer dry fully.

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How to Edge Landscapes for Drainage

Atrace

Not all natural areas are easy to keep. Some have soil that’s packed and hard, creating a great deal of water run-off and leaving small water in plant beds. Other areas’ plant mattresses simply can not retain the enormous amounts of rainwater that drop during certain times of year. If your landscaping includes drainage issues, then just a little bit of digging may fix those problems.

Dig a trench that’s 3 to 4 inches wide and 4 inches deep around the landscape’s plant mattresses. If the soil is soft, you may have the ability to use a hoe as opposed to a scoop.

Create smaller trenches in the plant beds using a hoe or trowel. The smaller trenches will stop standing water around crops, helping mattresses that do not absorb water well, such as those using clay soil. They also help when it rains too much at once and the soil cannot absorb all of the rainwater quickly.

Slope the small trenches within the plant beds toward the mattresses’ outer trenches. Make each slope very minor, such as a 1/4-inch drop each four feet of trench, so that water doesn’t rush too quickly out of their mattresses. Use a level to look at every single slope. By flowing gradually, some water in the small trenches will have enough time to absorb into the soil. The rest of the water will soak into the soil along the beds’ outer trenches. Maintaining rainwater close to the plant mattresses will help the area retain moisture.

Dig shallow trenches along the borders of walkways. During downpours, rainwater will fill the trenches, keeping standing water off the walkways. In case a walkway is on level ground, slope its trenches to help rainwater move elsewhere. If a plant bed is nearby, then an option is to dig trenches from a walkway to the plant bed to help water the bed plants.

Fill trenches that border plant beds and walkways with gravel or smaller stones to make a better look. Fill trenches inside plant mattresses using a combination of gravel and sand, and cover those trenches in plant beds with soil and mulch to conceal them. Sand, gravel and small stones allow water to flow freely during trenches. Sand also prevents soil from settling in trenches.

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How to Make Linoleum Floors Smell Good

Atrace

New linoleum flooring may off-gas, emitting fumes you can smell throughout the space. Pet injuries and other family mishaps may also create an older floor scent less than brand new. Remove those unpleasant odors by cleaning the ground with a vinegar or baking soda solution. Add essential oils to make the flooring smell better.

New Linoleum Smell

New linoleum flooring may emit a slight odor, similar to olive oil, for several months after installation. The glue used to hold the linoleum in place may also give off a strong chemical odor. To rid the space of these unpleasant smells, open the windows as frequently as possible. Put a box fan or window fan in one window, then drawing air out of the room. If you have another fan, place it in a window on the opposite side of the room or home, to draw fresh air into the room. Bowls of vinegar, baking soda or coffee grounds put around the room also help to absorb the unpleasant odor, making the room smell better. Keep bowls of these natural odor absorbers from young children and pets.

Baking Soda Mopping Mixture

Rather than using a store-bought merchandise to mop the linoleum, make your own cleaner that has natural odor-removing properties. Insert 1/4 cup baking soda to 1/2 gallon of warm water, stirring well. Mop the floor with it, wringing out most of the moisture, then enable the baking soda mix to sit for several minutes. Mop the floor again with clean water then. Add a few drops of your favourite essential oil, such as lemon or lavender, to create a pleasing natural scent, if you prefer.

Vinegar Odor Remover

Vinegar removes odors such as those left behind by pet accidents. Mix equal parts vinegar and water in a spray bottle to spritz certain areas after cleaning up the litter, or spray on the entire ground with a very light mist of the vinegar solution; then go over it with a soft, dry cloth. Vinegar may also be used to clean the ground — include 1/2 cup of it to 1/2 gallon of warm water in a bucket. Add a couple of drops of your favourite essential oil to make the flooring smell better.

Vital Oil Spritzer

If the flooring is already relatively clean but you don’t care for how it smells, create your personal freshening spray by mixing one or more essential oils with either distilled water or even plain vodka. Add some water or vodka to a fine-mist spray bottle, then pour five to ten drops every one of your favourite scents. Replace the lid; shake the bottle, and spritz the ground thus a light mist falls to the ground. Adjust the amount of oils in the mix until you enjoy the scent. Test the spray in an inconspicuous area first; just utilize the spray when pets and young children are out of the room.

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How to Get Sunken Chair Marks Away Carpets

Atrace

Furniture and carpeting do not always play well together. Moving a heavy chair reveals indentations left behind by its legs, creating small craters in the carpeting. These indentations can easily be remedied in many cases, however, using moisture or steam.

Removing Chair-Leg Carpet Dents

Run your fingers through the carpet fibers over each indentation to assist coax them back into position. For plush carpeting, this may be enough to take care of the issue, or it will at least help resolve it. If the indentations stay, place an ice cube inside each dent left behind by the seat, leaving them to melt down entirely. After a couple of hours, run your fingers or the bowl of a spoon during the carpet over the affected areas to assist the fibers return to their original spots. Steam provides a different way to remove dents — place a moist white cotton cloth over a dent, ironing the cloth on a low or medium setting to heat the carpet fibers back into position. Lift the cloth after a minute or so of ironing to see if the dent is gone; if not, iron it a little more.

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How Many Dry Ounces of Potting Soil Are in 1 Gallon?

Atrace

Plain soil from a garden can weigh 12 lbs per 1 gallon. Add water, which weighs 8.3 lbs per gallon at room temperature, and also a large container can develop into an immovable item. Soilless potting mixtures, based on their composition, can weigh a few ounces to 1 pound per gallon. Their lighter weight and receptive texture keeps moisture and allows pot-bound origins to stretch and breathe.

Potting Mix Contents and Measurements

Potting mixtures are composed variously of coir, peat moss, humus, compost and soil conditioners such as vermiculite or perlite in combinations intended for successful container gardening. Potting mix bags typically record contents in quarts or cubic feet, not gallons. So comparing contents from gallons isn’t quite as accurate as with the other dimensions. 1 gallon, however, is equivalent to 4 quarts or roughly one-sixth of 1 cubic foot. Soilless potting mixes may vary in weight from 16 oz to 117 oz for 4 quarts.

Mix Composition and Weight

Commercial potting mixes vary widely in composition, and also the materials’ dry weight contains moisture from environmental humidity. A mixture based on coconut coir, which weighs 11 1/2 oz a 1 gallon, weighs less than a mixture that contains peat moss, which weighs 60.8 oz per compressed gallon. General mixtures heavy in vermiculite or perlite that chew oz per gallon weigh much less than cactus mixtures containing mud, which can weigh over 160 oz per gallon. For general usage, however, a lighter potting mixture provides better moisture retention and also allows drainage for extra water.

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Fixing Carpet With Furniture Indentations

Atrace

If you are hesitant to move your furniture due to the scrapes it leaves behind in the carpet, don’t worry — that the indentations aren’t permanent. Erase them fast with one of several moisture-based solutions that enables those rug fibers relax back into position once again.

From Cold to Hot

Place an ice cube on the indentation and let it melt in position — a massive score may need more than one cube. Utilize the damp carpet fibers back and forth with your hand, the side of a wooden spoon or even a comb. Vacuum the region, if necessary, to assist the fibers recover their initial positions. To get a steam therapy, place a slightly damp white tea towel over the dented area; then iron it onto a cotton setting, moving the iron about gradually. Leave the towel in place for at least 15 minutes after ironing to help refresh the rug fibers. When you’ve got a steam cleaner, steam-clean the carpet rather, following the steamer manual’s directions.

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Repairing Surface Scratches to a Lacquered Table

Atrace

Unless your table predates the early 20th century, then it is probably finished with lacquer. Even though lacquer is a permanent finish, it does sustain scratches — particularly on tabletops. Most scratches are not hard to figure out with fresh lacquer, but you might have a problem matching the shine of this area you repaired together with the remainder of the table. Because of this, it is often best to care for the whole tabletop, which isn’t as tough as it sounds. You may select wax, furniture polish or spray lacquer in an aerosol can, based on the sizes of the scratches.

Remove dirt in the finish by washing it with a mild cleanser, like an ounce of dish soap added to a gallon of warm water.

Repair minor scratch damage by applying a coat of paste wax. Choose a light- or dark-colored wax, based on the color of this table. Spread it generously on the finish, and buff it with a clean cloth. If you prefer not to wax your table, mix equal parts of lemon juice and olive oil in a bowl, and then rub the mixture to the scratches using a clean, lint-free fabric.

Repair scratches that have penetrated through the finish and exposed the timber by first recoloring the timber. You can sometimes do so by rubbing the timber using a nutmeat, like a pecan or walnut; the organic oils bent into the timber and darken it. You may also apply wood stain using an artist’s brush.

Level a large scratch, after coloring the wood, by sanding it gently with 320-grit sandpaper, then dabbing it by lacquer-based clear nail polish, with the applicator that comes in the bottle. The lacquer will soften the old finish, and the scratch must evaporate. You can get similar results with nail polish remover, which is a lacquer thinner.

Combine the sheen of this repair with that of the remainder of the table by spraying on one coat of clear lacquer, with an aerosol can. Make sure to spray a wet coat — the surface must be uniformly shiny after spraying. Wait two hours for the lacquer to dry before polishing or waxing the table.

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What Is the Part Bark Plays at a Tree's Survival?

Atrace

Bark is the outer covering of a tree trunk and branches. Bark is analogous to an animal’s skin. Its functions are conserving water and protecting the tree essential living processes from temperature extremes and storms in addition to from attacks from diseases, animals and insects. Some tree species have extra-thick bark that protects the tree in brush fires. Bark also transports food and water across the tree. Serious bark damage will kill the tree.

Inner Bark Transports

The inner layer of bark, called the phloem, transports sugars made by photosynthesis in the leaves back down to feed the branches, trunk and roots. The conductive cells of the phloem differ based on the kind of tree. In hardwoods, for example, the long strawlike conductive phloem cells are stacked end to end and are connected to horizontal ray cells that distribute liquid nourishment to the tree living tissues. In conifers, the vertical phloem cells are perforated with many tiny pores through which liquid nourishment to your living cells seeps out.

Cambium Layer

The phloem on the inside of the bark is separated from the outer alive layer of the heartwood, called the xylem, by a layer called the cambium. The xylem transports water and dissolved nutrients from the roots up to the leaves and lays down a fresh layer of heartwood every year. The cambium produces new phloem cells and xylem cells to replace those that die.

Outer Bark Protection

The outer bark or skin protects the living phloem, cambium and xylem from ecological harm. The outer bark is always revived from within; if the surviving cells of the phloem workout, they eventually become part of the dead outer bark. As trees grow, the girth of the trunk and limbs expands and the outer bark gets too tight. The tight bark splits and cracks in a pattern that’s different to your tree species. The bark sheds its outermost layers in plates or strips.

Unappetizing Layer

The outer bark of trees is indigestible and unpalatable, which discourages animals and insects from consuming it. But some creatures have discovered the inner bark is sweet, tasty and nutritious, and they’ll chew their way through the outer bark to get at the goodies underneath. The dead cells on the outside of bark also discourage growth of fungi and bacteria. But in moist climates vines, bacteria, fungi, algae and lichens grow profusely onto bark. They are not employing the bark for a food source but instead like a scaffold to hold themselves up.

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Do I Cut the Sunflower Top Off If It s Dead?

Atrace

Cutting off a sunflower (Helianthus spp.) Bloom can serve several functions, based on the form of sunflower you develop. With annual varieties, the only reasons to cut off the blossoms is to harvest the seeds. However, perennials can develop new blossoms if deadheaded, besides providing you.

Annual Sunflowers

Annuals sunflowers (Helianthus annuus), including the colossal varieties, do not require pruning during the growing period to promote new growth and you do not have to eliminate the flowers because whenever the blossom begins dying, it’s usually a sign the plant is dying as well. Once the blooms die, you can cut them and dry them to harvest the seeds. Pull the rest of the plant from the ground and add it.

Growing Annuals

Perennial sunflowers, like the willow-leaved sunflower (Helianthus salicifolius), which develops in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 4 through 9, do not have to have their flowers eliminated, however cutting the stems of perennial sunflowers just below the dead blossoms during the growing period can help the plant refocus its energies into creating new blooms. The willow-leaved sunflower will grow as tall as 10 feet, and simply trimming off the blossoms after the plant goes dormant will not depart an attractive plant for the winter. Trim the stalks into ground level after the flowers have faded.

Collecting the Seeds

Wait until the bracts turn back of the flower head gets brownish or yellow. Both should feel dry. Cut the stem 4 to 12 inches beneath the head — the longer period gives you enough to hang it upside down to dry, if the seeds do not fall off easily. Until you cut the stem placing a paper bag on the head can help you keep any seeds which fall as the blossom moves. Examine the blossoms to check on the seeds they’re ready to harvest when they are removed by a swipe of your hand.

Cutting Live Blooms

Sunflowers create a stunning statement in your lawn, but they can do the exact same for inside your property. Instead of waiting to die, cut them about 12 inches below the bloom after the bracts form but until they open. Cutting them helps discourage wilting. Put the stems in a vase of water, changing the water daily. Use the blossoms to be supported by tall vases.

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Neem Oil Effectiveness on Squash Bugs

Atrace

Effective pesticides like neem oil create gardening that is safe and organic possible, even when squash bugs threaten to take over. From sucking sap from the leaves neem oil and neem oil-based pesticides keep squash bugs. Use caution when employing this particular pesticide and keep it though neem is safe. Oil is toxic to honeybees and other beneficial insects.

A Nontoxic Effective Pesticide

Neem oil stems from the neem tree (Azadirachta indica), an Indian plant which possibly grows in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 10 through 12. The oil works in a combination of ways, both repelling bugs and making it hard for them to feed on the leaves. In addition, it works to control future generations. While they’re in the stage, it works best on squash bugs.

Possible Damage and Diagnosis

Squash bugs feed on vegetables and fruits in the squash, or Cucurbitaceae family, so assess your watermelons (Citrullus lanatus), cucumbers (Cucumis sativus) and summer squash (Cucurbita pepo). Bugs suck causing them to wilt, draining the leaves and sap. By depleting the leaves whole plants can be killed by A massive infestation of bugs. Since feeding is minimized by neem oil, it is an efficient approach.

Pre-Treatment Identification

Bugs are not hard to spot. Look for egg clusters that are brick-colored in groups under the leaves. You’ll be looking at the nymphs, After the eggs hatch, they vary from white to grey with black thighs and get. Mature squash bugs have bodies around 5/8 inches long. Look for the orange belly — and the best way to recognize a bug is to reverse if over — with a stick if you don’t want to touch it.

Mixing and With Spray Formulas

Oil formulas comes either ready-to-use or as a concentrate. If you are working with a concentrate, dilute 1 fluid oz in 1 gallon of water. A fresh sprayer works well for applying the dilution. Early in the morning or late squash bugs adult until area and each leaf is saturated with the remedy. Avoid spraying on bees and other insects or pollinators since it can kill those garden helpers. Repeat every seven days before you get the squash bugs.

Security Precautions

While relatively nontoxic, neem oil formulas can irritate the skin, eyes and other areas that are vulnerable. When treating bugs to be safe, wear long sleeves and gloves. Working with a evening or morning can help keep the spray out of blowing around. Keep pets and children away in the backyard areas where you sprayed for bugs before the leaves and dirt dry out completely. Drinking neem oil may lead to stomach upset and, even in massive doses is toxic, so keep it out of reach of curious children and pets.

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