How-To : Home Improvement

There are several ceiling texture choices to choose from when finishing a room. You can simply apply a flat paint to the ceiling, or spray or roll on a popcorn textured ceiling. However both these choices seem to be waning in popularity to the Skip Toweled look. The Skip Troweled look provides a compromise between the flat painted ceiling and the popcorn ceiling. It provides texture but to a lesser extent than a traditional popcorn ceiling.

Skip Troweling is relatively simple to do and can be performed by a homeowner who is doing a home addition project.

Skip Troweling should be performed after the sheetrock, mudding and taping are complete. Skip Troweling simply involves applying water downed Joint Compound onto the ceiling and running a trowel over it once.

To Skip Trowel a ceiling, simply water down a batch of Joint Compound to a soupy consistency. Then using a trowel (the pros use a sprayer for large areas) simply spread the material onto the ceiling.

Note that this is a very messy job as there will be significant spillage and dripping. Consequently protect yourself and your floors with eye-protection and plastic on the floors.

If the Joint Compound is of the right consistency the material applied onto the ceiling will begin to form stalactites that dangle from the ceiling. Not too worry as this is what you want to occur.

After the joint compound has begun to dry somewhat, use your trowel to knock off the high points (the stalactites). To do this, simply run your trowel over the now partially stiff joint compound area. The completed surface will have a mottled look.

Let the Joint Compound completely dry then paint the ceiling using a roller.

When employing the Skip Trowel method you can get creative by adding fine sand to the Joint Compound mixture before applying to the ceilings, or by moving the Trowel in a swirling pattern when applying the compound. In addition, some of the pros actually mix paint with the soupy Joint Compound mixture to eliminate the need for applying paint after the material has dried.

Me_Donovan@comcast.net
http://www.homeadditionplus.com
http://www.homeaddition.blogspot.com

Over the past 20+ years Mr. Donovan has been involved with building homes and additions to homes. His projects have included: building a vacation home, building additions and garages on to existing homes, and finishing unfinished homes. Mr. Donovan’s formal education and profession have been as an Electrical Engineer and Marketing Manager.

[tags]Home Addition, Homeowner, Textured Ceiling, Joint Compound, Sheetrock, paint, popcorn ceiling[/tags]

Ugly, brown stains are a common feature of mobile home ceilings. They develop when roof leaks or condensation cause water to drip
onto the ceiling tiles from above.

They persist because because removal is not as simple as painting over the stain. The stain “bleeds” through paint leaving it as ugly
as before. In addition, many mobile home ceilings are made with a sprayed on acoustical texture which is VERY fragile. Painting it
with a roller or brushing on a heavy latex paint is a good way to pull off some of the texture, leaving a bare, untextured area.
Fortunately, stains are easy to cover if you have the right materials.

There is no point in doing the repair until you are sure the leak is fixed and your ceiling has dried completely! Then go to your local
paint store or home improvement center paint dept. and look for an aerosol can labeled “Stain sealing ceiling paint” or something
close to that. Two brands I know of are “Kilz” and “Zinsser”. It will be made to spray straight up and only comes in one color.
Hopefully, the color will be a good match for your ceiling tiles.

While you are shopping you may also want to buy some of the blue masking tape. It costs more than standard masking tape, but
comes off when you are done, without leaving adhesive behind or pulling anything off when it peels away.

At home, mask the area you plan to spray and put an old sheet or something on the floor. Then follow the directions on the
can to do the actual spraying. Two light coats with adequate drying time between them is better than one heavy coat.

In most cases the color of the new area will be close enough to the old that no additional topcoat is needed. The fact is,
people seldom look up. With the really obvious stain gone there will be nothing to draw the eye to what is probably a very
subtile difference in color.

The repair described here will cover water stains on ceiling tiles or wallboard anywhere, not just in mobile homes.

The Mobile Home Doctor has been providing mobile home repair information since 1999. There are more than 100 pages of advice to help mobile home owners repair their homes. Directions are written
so readers with little repair and renovation experience can be confident they can do the work themselves.

[tags]mobile home repair[/tags]

Red hot as in sales, that is. The reasons behind the increasing popularity of radiant heat panels are ease of installation, quick warm up, dust free heat, and low cost relative to other retrofit heating systems.

For the same price as a pellet stove, you could heat a 1,500 square foot home and not have to deal with locating, storing and lugging 40 pound bags of wood pellets.

A U.S. Department of Energy sponsored study found that radiant heat panels were 52% less expensive to operate than electric baseboard heat and 33% more cost effective than air to air heat pumps. The study concluded that “energy savings would be obtainable in a great portion of U.S. households”.

Radiant panels are about 1 inch thick, and range in size from 2′x2′ to 2′x8′. They are textured to look like the ceiling and can be painted to match the room’s decor with a quality water based acrylic paint.

The panels operate at 150-170 degrees F. and radiate heat to objects and people in the room. The panel itself reaches operating temperature in only three to five minutes.

Advantages of Radiant Heat Panels

Heat loss from ducts, even insulated ones, reduces the efficiency of forced air systems. Additional leakage is created by the internal air pressure generated by forced air systems. No ducts, no pressure, no leakage problems.

Since the need for a blower to circulate heat is eliminated, so is the cost of electricity to run the blower motor. Without a blower, there are no filters that need to be replaced.
Heating without moving air also eliminates drafts and prevents dust and pollen from circulating while maintaining the air’s moisture content.

Radiant heat panels require no maintenance or service because there are no moving parts.
With separate thermostats for each room, zoned heating is easy as turning a light switch on and off. Significant energy savings can be realized by allowing only the occupied areas to be heated. The quick response time of radiant panels will return an unoccupied room to a comfortable temperature in minutes.

Radiant Heat Panel Applications

Radiant heat panels are an excellent source of heat for bathrooms (no more foggy mirrors), log homes, gazebos, screened in porches and stables. If you’re heating a greenhouse, radiant heat will protect your plants in the absence of sunlight by maintaining root temperatures.

Replacing a wood stove with ceiling mounted panels in auxiliary buildings such as workshops or studios allows the use of all available floor space.

Radiant Heat Panel Installation and Cost

The low amperage requirements for ceiling heat panels can usually be provided by existing 120 or 240 Volt circuits. The 30%-70% wattage reduction over electric baseboard heating eliminates the need for dedicated wiring. Wherever a single panel is installed, the existing 120-volt capacity circuit is usually adequate for the additional load.

Installation of radiant heat panels typically costs between $1.25 and $1.50 per square foot of heated space. For a 1,500 sq. ft. house the estimated cost would be $1,900 to $2,300. That’s considerably less than the cost for a complete forced air system.

Disadvantage of Radiant Heat Panels

The major limitation of radiant heat panels is the absence of a cooling function. Installing a ducted central air conditioner would undermine many of the advantages of using radiant panels.

One way around this would be to install a mini-split air conditioning system. The mini-split, like radiant panels, is also a cost effective retrofit solution and can be zoned to cool only occupied rooms.

If controlling heating costs is your primary concern, radiant heat panels offer an easy, cost effective and healthy way to retrofit your home with comfortable, reliable heat.

[tags]radiant heat panels,enerjoy,electric radiant ceiling heat,ceiling radiant heat panels, ceiling heat[/tags]