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Wooden pelmits are more obvious and more care should betaken with them. The surface is never touched but it is too high to treat with furniture polish.

Treatment with a penetrating polywax sealer is recommended.

Treat periodically with WOODOC Penetrating Furniture Wax.

Inner doors: Most inner doors are painted but doors of reception rooms are sometimes made of untreated wood. These door surfaces are not handled much but the surfaces around the door knob are touched often. The finish tends to wear and become dirty as hands are sweaty and sometimes greasy. In addition the lock edges of the door are often bumped into when furniture, stepladders, etc. are carried past the door. The door has actually two surfaces with different needs. (more…)

Enemies attacking exterior woodwork are reasonably under control inside the house. Extreme temperatures and ultraviolet rays are limited and the moisture content of the interior atmosphere is also not subject to extremes.

The home owner can therefore use more permanent finishes and expect it to remain attractive for ten years and even longer.

The inside of windows and outer doors

Adorning the wood by strenghtening the grain pattern is the starting point. If new woodwork has been treated by immersion as described in the section on exterior woodwork, further treatment will now depend on the primer which is already there. Enquire about this and make sure the paint subcontractor understands you. It could already be too late for quality sanding of the woodwork and you must make quite sure about this too.

Except for the above you can follow the paint contractor’s advice. (more…)

One condition for the successful use of the agents recommended in the technical section is that the wood must be clean, free from varnish or other finishes that form a surface layer, and such layers must be removed completely. If the previous application was a preservative with an oil base, the recommended agents can be applied without any preparation. Loose dust must be removed, preferably by wiping the woodwork with a cloth dipped in mineral turpentine or by using a steel brush.

Wood that has been smoothed before application appears better and is also more durable. This should be done before the very first application, and you need not repeat it before a subsequent application. Remember that external finishes and sandpaper are bad friends as most of these finishes cling to the paper.

If you consider an elaborate front door it should be well sanded before the first treatment. Such doors must not be stored on the building site and the pre-treatment should be discussed with the building supervisor or the contractor. (more…)

Home maintainers of furniture really come to their right in the finishing of wood construction material on the outside of the house. Acquire some knowledge, do some planning and a lovely surface with good protective qualities is within your reach, with unskilled labour as your only assistance. Here you can save on labour and spend more on material.

Do not accept the advice of the assistant behind the paint shop counter without further ado. Do some reading and decide for yourself after considering the cost and available labour. If you plan to use a paint contractor, first establish what the standard of his work is.

Wood gets damaged by sunlight and heat, but most of all by water absorption from water vapour in the air, rain and especially dew. The starting point is to avoid water vapour as far as possible and bear the other two culprits in mind. This means that the entire surface of the wood must be sealed. (more…)

TECHNIQUE 10

Furniture polish after oil treatment on dark wood and yellowwood

Furniture polish can be applied direct on a previous oil finish or on a fresh surface prepared with sandpaper or steelwool. If the leaf surface has not been renovated the polish can be applied with grade 000 steelwool. The steelwool is dipped into the polish and sanded strictly along the grain. For dark woods the polish slurry is worked into the grain with the palm of your hand after it has become half dry. This is not required for yellowwood. Wipe off the excess slurry with cheesecloth and shine with a soft cloth. Follow up with another application of polish, leave to dry and shine until you have the gloss of your preference. Polish as often as needed. With a good polish the periods in between applications grow longer. A surface that is not much in use will not need polish more than once a month. (more…)

TECHNIQUE 4

Surfaces around brass accessories

Glowing brass mounts are often our char’s pride. Please draw her attention to the wooden surface underneath the accessories, as woods with an open grain such as kiaat and oak also absorb the brass polish and removing this is almost impossible.

New furniture

Brass accessories can be removed and given a semi-permanent coat. The removal is easy and if the piece is not used often you will be pleased with this treatment. An alternative is to let the brass be, and allow it to look its age.

If a polished appearance is required, try to cut a matrix out of hard plastic that fits around the handle and which keeps the brass polish away from the woodwork. (more…)

There are rarely sufficient electrical socket outlets in a modern home. If your system is in good order, you can install extra ones.

Singles into doubles

One of the easiest ways to increase the number of sockets is to convert any existing singles into doubles. Any single socket on a ring circuit can be doubled, but if you are working on a spur with two sockets, you cannot convert either of them to a double. You can, however, double a single socket if it is the only one on a spur.

To establish whether a socket is on the ring, or if it is the only one on a spur, switch off at the main and remove the faceplate. If there are two sets of wires, the socket is either on the ring or it is the first one of two on a spur. To determine which, you need a continuity tester. This you can easily improvise from a battery and bulb holder . Connect one lead of the tester to one of the red wires in the socket, and the other lead to the other red wire. The bulb will light if the cable is part of a ring, but not if it is a spur. (more…)

All the sockets in your rooms may be doubles already. And even converting all the existing singles may not give you sufficient socket outlets. Moreover, you may want a socket in an entirely new position. A new socket is installed by means of a spur. You can have only one socket on this spur, but it can be a double so you might as well make it that. Use 2.5 sq. mm cable for the spur.

Begin by switching off at the consumer unit and then fixing the socket either flush- or surface-mounted. Connect the cable to its terminals, and run it to the point at which you propose to connect it to the supply. There are three possible places at which you can make the supply connection. (more…)