# Home Improvements Mini Rants **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 16, 2011, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-improvements-mini-rants/574862 "2011-03-16T01:19:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-improvements-mini-rants/574862/41 "2011-03-18T13:24:07Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > When I was renovating my house, I discovered that if a tool costs under $10.00-$20.00, it’s vastly cheaper to buy several of them rather than spend hours of useful construction time searching for a hammer, tape measure, or drill bit. I suppose painting everything blaze orange would have helped too. The screwdriver I was using in the kitchen (before I ordered the Posi Drivs, which had BETTER not get lost because as far as I can tell they cannot be locally sourced at all) is bright screaming green. So is the tape measure. Do you know how much of this project I’ve spent looking for them? ---
**Author:** ![xanthous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/53a042/32.png) [@xanthous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xanthous)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-improvements-mini-rants/574862/42 "2011-03-18T13:34:59Z")
> [@yanceylebeef](#): > > Why can I not keep track of the damned measuring tape?. Dit-to ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-improvements-mini-rants/574862/43 "2011-03-18T13:41:38Z")
> [@yanceylebeef](#): > > Why can I not keep track of the damned measuring tape? I have five of them in various places around the house and garage, but every project starts off with me wandering around for 30 minutes trying to find on of the things. > > Obviously i need to buy a few more and just scatter them around. I usually end up finding all my tapes in the same place, having riotous tape measure sex. Same with hammers, for some reason. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-improvements-mini-rants/574862/44 "2011-03-18T13:44:33Z")
> [@Shayna](#): > > . > > Not all **blue tape** is **painter’s** tape! Make sure if you’re having every wood floor in your house refinished, that your flooring contractor knows this before they tape plastic sheeting to every wall in your house, then pull chunks of paint off when they remove it, necessitating repainting rooms you hadn’t planned on painting. :smack: I’ve used real painters tape thats done the same thing. If you rub it hard so it sticks well and you leave it there any length of time, it can stick too well. How you remove it seems to make a difference in how likely it pulls paint off. What seemed to work best was to get an end loose, then take the tape and fold it backwards on itself so that the sticky side was facing outwards and the loose end is as close to the still secured tape as you can get. You then pull the tape directly backwards along itself. Thats seems to cause less problems than if your just kinda pulling it outwards. My advice is to lightly press it on, and get it off as soon as possible. Like hours rather than days. To be honest, while a great idea, I’ve found it to be more trouble that its worth much of time. And it can get kinda pricey. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-improvements-mini-rants/574862/45 "2011-03-18T13:49:15Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > My advice is to lightly press it on, and get it off as soon as possible. Like hours rather than days. To be honest, while a great idea, I’ve found it to be more trouble that its worth much of time. And it can get kinda pricey. I’ve only taped once in my life, it’s the worse paint job I’ve ever done, on top of that, I think I spent as long taping as I did painting. For me, it’s not worth it. For as much as I loath painting, I’m pretty good at it, and I’m damn good (and fast) at cutting an edge. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-improvements-mini-rants/574862/46 "2011-03-18T14:48:26Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > I’ve only taped once in my life, it’s the worse paint job I’ve ever done, on top of that, I think I spent as long taping as I did painting. > For me, it’s not worth it. For as much as I loath painting, I’m pretty good at it, and I’m damn good (and fast) at cutting an edge. Same here. We elected to paint the rails and balusters ourselves after the deck was built. My wife set about taping off the balusters from the rails, since they are different colors. By the time she finished taping one side, I had finished cutting in two of the other sides, and started on the third. After painting the ones she taped, I had to go over it again after pulling off the tape. Taping has its place, but is largely a waste of time and money, IME. ---
**Author:** ![perfectparanoia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a5b964/32.png) [@perfectparanoia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/perfectparanoia)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-improvements-mini-rants/574862/47 "2011-03-18T14:51:15Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > I’ve only taped once in my life, it’s the worse paint job I’ve ever done, on top of that, I think I spent as long taping as I did painting. > For me, it’s not worth it. For as much as I loath painting, I’m pretty good at it, and I’m damn good (and fast) at cutting an edge. Yeah, I taped the first few times I painted. I spent more time tidying up after I removed the tape than I would had I just freehanded it. And, of course it took forever to put up the tape to begin with. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-improvements-mini-rants/574862/48 "2011-03-18T14:51:43Z")
> [@Rocketeer](#): > > I’ll bet that was exciting for a few seconds! 😛 I can almost hear it: “Honey, are you Sure you flipped the breaker to ‘off’…?” “Oh wait…now it is.” “Thank you. And yeah, we definately have full 220…” ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-improvements-mini-rants/574862/49 "2011-03-18T15:42:45Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > I usually end up finding all my tapes in the same place, having riotous tape measure sex. Same with hammers, for some reason. They must be sterile hybrids or something, though, because they never breed extra hammers and tape measures. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-improvements-mini-rants/574862/50 "2011-03-18T15:45:39Z")
They’re just all male. The wrenches, OTOH, are all female. (The word genders in Spanish, that is) ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-improvements-mini-rants/574862/51 "2011-03-18T15:55:57Z")
> [@perfectparanoia](#): > > Yeah, I taped the first few times I painted. I spent more time tidying up after I removed the tape than I would had I just freehanded it. And, of course it took forever to put up the tape to begin with. My problem was probably more due to not having ever used it before (I’ve always done it freehand) and not really knowing what I was doing. Took forever to put all the tape on. Then I figured since I had that tape I could be a bit more careless, right, I mean, I had the tape. Well, as it turns out, if you run the roller all the way up to the taped ceiling, you’ll still leave a mark, on the other side of the tape. So now, in one room there’s paint on the ceiling in a straight line, one inch from the wall. Then, there’s a ton of paint that found it’s way under the tape. That’s the paint that told me this was completely useless and made me vow to never tape again. What point is there in taping if the paint can get under the tape. It seems like such a false sense of security. Personally, I’d rather just keep a wet rag nearby, _know_ that I got some paint on the trim, ceiling, floor etc and clean it up right away before it dries. Lastly, and this was my fault, I waited too long to take it off and ended up peeling a lot of the new (latex) paint off with the tape. Overall, the room looks like crap and will need to be painted again someday. ---
**Author:** ![Shayna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shayna/32/17976_2.png) [@Shayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shayna)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-improvements-mini-rants/574862/52 "2011-03-18T17:37:06Z")
> [@perfectparanoia](#): > > Yeah, I taped the first few times I painted. I spent more time tidying up after I removed the tape than I would had I just freehanded it. And, of course it took forever to put up the tape to begin with. In our case, they didn’t tape to paint, they taped sheets of plastic over everything so the massive amounts of wood dust from sanding the floors wouldn’t cling to the walls or get into every nook and cranny. And since they’re not painters, they don’t know from proper tape to put on walls, or how to safely peel it off. :mad: > [@Joey\_P](#): > > Then, there’s a ton of paint that found it’s way under the tape. That’s the paint that told me this was completely useless and made me vow to never tape again. What point is there in taping if the paint can get under the tape. It seems like such a false sense of security. If you don’t have a steady hand and need a crisp line, tape is a great solution. But it _is_ a lot of extra work, and there is a “secret” to making it work right that actually creates even _more_ work. After you tape, take the color paint of whatever you’ve taped over (for instance, white, if you’re painting a color against a white trim, ceiling, etc.) and paint along the edge of the tape on the side you’ll be painting your color. Let it dry a bit to create a seal, then if there’s going to be any seepage under the tape, it will be the same color as what was taped over, not the new color you’re painting next to it. ---
**Author:** ![Hakuna\_Matata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e4f/32.png) [@Hakuna\_Matata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hakuna_Matata)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-improvements-mini-rants/574862/53 "2011-03-18T18:02:08Z")
I have been doing a ton of little home repairs the last week, finally decided they needed to get done when the towel rack in the master bath came off the wall. So I had to patch, reapply the orange peel and repaint, then reinstall the towel rack. I have to admit it looks pretty good too. Installed two garage door openers. I have a 3 car garage but only the middle door had an opener. I have three cars, and never realized what a pain it is to open the door, drive out, get out again, shut the door and then do it all over again when you get home. And the whole time hoping the door doesn’t come crashing down. So got those installed and am much happier. Also installed the tennis balls hanging from the ceiling so that you can place your cars perfectly each time. Took me a minute to figure out how to attach fishing line and a tennis ball (use little eye hooks screwed into the tennis balls, the attached the fishing line to that). So the garage is much easier to utilize now. Fixed the downstairs toilet which wouldn’t flush properly. Finally got the kid to admit ‘I may have dropped a pen in it’, or in other words "I dropped a pen and didn’t want to fish it out, so I flushed it’. So used my handy-dandy rooty tooty thingy (I believe that is the official name) and it rootytootied that pen right out. I also got my emergency generator installed but I hired an electrician to do that one. That was a bit beyond my capabilities. But it works like a charm as we had a power outage the day after I got it installed. The only downside is where I live we are on 2 1/2 acres and I can’t see my neighbors. So I had the generator running and I thought ‘how do you know when the power is on when your generator is running?’. So I called the electrician and he said 'look out your window to see if your neighbor’s lights are on. … oh yeah, you can’t see your neighbor can you!" So basically all I can do is every now and then, go out flip the breaker from the generator and see if the lights come back on. Anyone know of another way to tell? Home improvements, ya gotta love em. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-improvements-mini-rants/574862/54 "2011-03-18T18:02:18Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Blue? 😕 OK, add another checkmark to the list of “things which you’d never think vary by location”: all the painter’s tape I’ve ever used was a sort of parchment color.\ And here painter’s tape is green. 🙂 Jim doesn’t use painter’s tape, but sometimes I do. It is tricky to use the tape just right, too - it’s not idiot-proof. It’s just a different kind of fiddley. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-improvements-mini-rants/574862/55 "2011-03-18T18:11:03Z")
Man, there sure is some hatin here in regards to painters tape 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![stretch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a6a055/32.png) [@stretch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stretch)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-improvements-mini-rants/574862/56 "2011-03-18T19:13:47Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Blue? 😕 OK, add another checkmark to the list of “things which you’d never think vary by location”: all the painter’s tape I’ve ever used was a sort of parchment color. I recently had to explain to Mom how to distinguish between painter’s tape, electrician’s tape and packaging tape, followed by out-of-the-blue questions for several days; a couple of weeks ago she called me because she wasn’t sure which one was which, but at least she remembers there is a difference… In the US we have masking tape, which is the parchment colored and was used for painting, and painters tape, which is blue colored and now used for masking off things when painting. I’ve also seen green painters tape, which is stretchier material and used for making curves. My most recent home improvement fun was last fall when we put up the aluminum storage shed. We ran out of daylight just as we finished construction but before we could secure the shed to the slab. The next day brought wind storms that walked my shed part way off the slab and turned it sideways. The bottom rails of the shed structure got all bent out of whack. My daughter and I moved it back into place by putting a skateboard under one side, picking the other side up, and scootching it around on the slab until it was pretty close to square again. It will never be quite right. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-improvements-mini-rants/574862/57 "2011-03-18T19:49:17Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > Man, there sure is some hatin here in regards to painters tape 🙂 It’s a point of pride for Jim that he doesn’t use painter’s tape (and he doesn’t have to - he is very good with cutting). I just want it to look right when it’s done - I don’t care if I tape or not. Maybe it’s a guy thing. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-improvements-mini-rants/574862/58 "2011-03-18T20:19:24Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > They must be sterile hybrids or something, though, because they never breed extra hammers and tape measures. I believe you may be wrong on this point. I often find tools with the tags still on them, immediately following the purchase of a new one. Breeding is all I can figure, because I couldn’t be that stupid. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2011, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-improvements-mini-rants/574862/59 "2011-03-21T06:37:02Z")
At the moment, instead of having a functional, but not quite perfect toilet, I have completely broken one. It needed a new flapper. And possibly some other stuff as well (the float was ancient), but I could probably have gotten away with just a flapper. Actually, I could have gotten away with nothing, but listening to it run and flush itself all the damn time had finally gotten to me. So I went to the store. And there was a display that said “Dual Flush! install in minutes!” which I knew was a horrible lie, but I asked the store guy about it, and he said that it was only a minor lie. He also said that all I needed was in the kit. Three trips to three different stores (because, no, it wasn’t all in the kit), a few instructional videos, and a lot of swearing later - it’s now leaking. And while before, it was loud and runny and needed to be fiddled with a lot, at least it could be used and didn’t leave puddles on the floor. It was going to be so cool if it had worked. Don’t even ask about the light fixtures. And did you know you can only buy floor paint by the gallon? What’s with that? ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2011, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-improvements-mini-rants/574862/60 "2011-03-21T16:34:25Z")
Our new (to us) house came with two toilets that aren’t working perfectly; the main one requires holding down the handle to get a complete flush, and the auxiliary one has started running (flapper problems here, too). We’re thinking about putting dual flush toilets in, too - we had a low-flow one in our last house, and we hated it - the water level was so low that the toilet was always filthy, and you had to flush and flush and flush to get it to work anyway. We did get one of the light switches changed this weekend, though - slow but steady (kind of), we’ll get things changed around here. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-improvements-mini-rants/574862.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-improvements-mini-rants/574862.md?page=4)