PAINTING
HOME INTERIORS - painting is necessary when walls / ceilings are too dirty to clean or are damaged
1987 - 1988 Borrego Springs Drywalled, painted, stained, varnished entire interior of new 1700 sq. ft. house with high ceilings and exposed beams.
November 2002 Torrance, CA Painted entire interior of 2 bedroom condo, after cleaning oily smoker's residue from walls.
Summer 2003 North Hills, CA Painted several rooms of 3 bedroom condo.
July 2004 Temecula Painted entire interior of 3 BR house -- in preparation for selling. Lighter color was used. House had high ceilings in living room.
HOME EXTERIORS Painting is best for protecting exterior walls, roofs, decks, fencing, gates. Varnishing is best for protecting wood when wood grain must be visible
February 2004 Borrego Springs Painted entire roof of this house -- approx. 2000 sq. ft. with two coats.
January 2005 Borrego Springs Painted entire roof of this house -- approx. 1600 sq. ft. -- with multiple coats, after spackling and priming (shown here)
Refinished exterior gate August 2004 San Diego CA Bleached dark moldy grains of this outside gate and varnished.
Spackled, painted deck December 2006 Borrego Springs CA Spackled the part of this deck, stairs, railings that were most susceptible to the weather, as wood was cracking badly in some places. Then painted with a premium acrylic paint. Nails had to be pounded down and screws added in a few places to level the deck planks.
TREE REMOVAL
STOPPING DESTRUCTION BY VEGETATION - in the example below, roots of this tree, which was planted too close to a main water line had caused a main water leak. To prevent this damage in the future, the owner decided to remove the tree.
October 2003 Temecula Cut down this healthy bottlebrush tree. Then cut larger branches into firewood logs. Repaired water main leak, caused by tree roots the previous week. Before (at noon) After (at 6 p.m.)
IRRIGATION
SYSTEMS - Maintaining landscaping without spending exorbitant sums on labor requires automated irrigation systems. Properly installed system will have controllers protected from the elements and wiring protected from rodents. A map of the piping and locations of dribblers should be made for future additions and repairs, and should be placed by the controller, along with the controller manual.
April 2007 Borrego CA Bricked area UNDER and at sides of valves, preventing rodents from making their home under this valve cover. Rodents tend to bury everything under valve covers with displaced dirt. They also like to chew control wires. To provide a dependable system, rodent entry must be blocked.	CLICK TO ENLARGE
VALVE REPLACEMENT - valves eventually go bad (either stop turning on, don't turn off, or start leaking), and need replacing
September 2004 Borrego CA Replaced this valve after it stopped working
PIPE REPAIR - pipes or adapters will eventually fail, and should be repaired as soon as possible
July 2004 Borrego Fixed this complex valve manifold after an adapter failed. Left is flood damage and right is repaired manifold. In some cases, such as this one, too many previous repairs necessitates rebuilding the entire manifold. Click to enlarge either picture.
PEST CONTROL
BEEHIVES - bees sometimes set up hives in or near homes. Because bees are protective when near the hive, hives should be eliminated and / or sealed up, so that another swarm doesn't take up residence later (bees prefer to re-use a previous hive).
2005 Borrego CA Searched for and eliminated a couple of beehives near this house using my bee suit as a precaution.
RODENTS - rodents, such as mice, rats, or skunks, sometimes enter and live in homes. Even if a home is sealed, a door or window can be left open, and any number of rodents can come in. Rats and skunks have caused extensive damage to electrical wiring (in both homes and cars). All rodents can consume unprotected food (even when sealed in bags) and leave droppings anywhere. Mice have been known to spread Hanta virus, a lethal disease. Countermeasures include various types of traps (the best method) and poisons, after detecting. Jef has watched several houses, noticed infestations, and rid the pests. In some cases, damage was repaired. The most common type of damage is electrical wires being cut. However, in one instance, a skunk had chewed a large hole in the drywall.
January 2006 Borrego After this major hole was discovered behind a dryer, something the size of a rat was responsible. A rat-sized portion of poison was set out, and the next morning, this 2 pound skunk was discovered dead right next to the poison. After properly disposing of dead animal (poisoned animals should not be allowed to be consumed by other predators or pets), I fixed the damage with a drywall patch. Click to enlarge any picture:
2003 - 2006 Borrego Springs CA I have caught dozens of mice and a few rats with this type of trap. The preferred bait is either a nut or peanut butter. Mice usually only come out at night. Baby mice are sometimes too light to trip these traps. It is best to drown a rodent, so they don't repeat coming back in the house. Rodents caught with this type of trap can be left out for other animals to eat -- such as coyotes, roadrunners, crows, snakes. Mouse at right was left for such carrion eaters.	Click to enlarge
FIXTURE REPLACEMENT
Sometimes the cost to replace a fixture can be more than double the cost of a new fixture, as in the following example, but this poses a good opportunity for improvements which minimize future repair costs, upgrades the fixtures, and results in important home improvements:
Replaced 2 pool pumps July 2005 Borrego Springs One was for filtering pool water, and the other drives a waterfall in this case. New 2" piping had to be spliced in, and one of the valves had to be replaced. Only 1 of 2 pumps had failed, but the other was old and leaking, and so it was decided to replace both at same time. The pump house had to be torn down in order to access the pumps, and a new and better one was put in its place. Improvements included coverage of all piping, removeable cementboard walls, new turn-off valves, new power recepticals, and ventilation to increase the lifespan of the pumps by keeping the pumphouse cooler and dryer. Click to enlarge
APPLIANCE REPAIR
Sometimes a fixture can be repaired at a fraction of the replacement cost. In the following example, the repair was under 10% of the replacement cost:
Fixed broken cooktop May 2006 Borrego Springs Removed cooktop. Determined problem was a broken rheostat. Purchased new one, swapped components, re-installed cooktop. Also determined cause of failure was failed gasket -- inadequate quality in this Dacor unit.