{"id":1667,"date":"2013-04-23T16:04:04","date_gmt":"2013-04-23T20:04:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=1667"},"modified":"2013-05-07T16:45:20","modified_gmt":"2013-05-07T20:45:20","slug":"ask-tom-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/ask-tom-3\/","title":{"rendered":"ASK TOM"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now is the time for outdoor maintenance
\nBy Tom Mrakas<\/strong><\/p>\n

The weather is starting to warm up \u2013 well, almost \u2013 so this week I feel the need to give some pointers on when it\u2019s a good time to do any exterior painting. The time is getting close, but not quite yet.
\nFirst, you will need at least three days of temperatures above 10 degrees to even consider doing exterior painting. Ideally, it should be five days, but three will do.
\nAt the other end of the spectrum, you don\u2019t want it to be too hot either.
\nIf it is too cold, then the paint will \u2013 to use my own term for it \u2013 freeze dry. If it is too hot, with extreme heat and sun blazing on the surface, the paint will dry too quickly. In either case you will have the same result \u2013 paint that has not adhered properly to the surface and in a year\u2019s time you will undoubtedly have cracks and flakes. A considerable amount of wasted time and effort.
\nThe best time is the spring or fall. Most will prefer to tackle the outdoor projects in the spring to spruce things up for the summer season. Why do it in the fall? It\u2019s going to be covered in snow soon enough!
\nGiven our weather, and the extremes of the four seasons, our homes\u2019 exteriors take quite the beating \u2013 with painted or stained surfaces taking the worst of it. Careful and considered maintenance is the best way to protect your home\u2019s exterior from wear and tear.
\nThe best way to maintain these surfaces for a long time, protect them from rotting and generally keep them looking like new is to do a kind of spring clean up \u2013 much like you do with the rest of your spring cleaning.
\nOnce the weather warms up sufficiently, choose the surfaces that need some care, do a quick sand of the surfaces and then a quick refresh coat of paint. If it\u2019s a deck you are maintaining, put on coat of water sealer .
\nI would recommend this basic outdoor surfaces maintenance at least once a year. The most I would let it go is two. The most common reason that you get the rotted window sills or deck boards rotting is because the maintenance has been neglected.
\nIf you take care of the maintenance on a yearly basis your decks and windows will last much longer \u2013 which, in the long run saves you a great deal of money, and aggravation!
\nNow if you just don\u2019t like the idea of yearly maintenance, then there are a number of relatively care free products you can use to minimize the need to do the outdoor work, but keep in mind though, maintenance free comes at a cost. These products are quite a bit more expensive than regular products.
\nIf you take some time every year and take care of your decks, windows and doors you will have a stunning exterior for many years. Or you can pay a bit extra for products that allow for a relatively care-free exterior. The choice is yours!<\/p>\n

So until next week, remember a good job, is a job well done! Also if you have any questions you can reach me at www.facebook.com\/anastasisdesign or on twitter, @ADesign_build and email of course Anastasis@anastasisdesign.ca.<\/em><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now is the time for outdoor maintenance By Tom Mrakas The weather is starting to warm up \u2013 well, almost \u2013 so this week I feel the need to give some pointers on when it\u2019s a good time to do any exterior painting. The time is getting close, but not quite yet. First, you will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-qT","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-10 13:20:28","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1667\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}