Ask A Tradie with Simon Stevenson

Now on the weekends, ask a training. Thanks to not Be Kitchens since nineteen thirty nine and with Sydney's largest kitchen showrooms and free in home design servers, you.

Got some DII work that needs to be done, questions that need answering. Well, this is the premiere destination for all of that. Simon Stephenson's in the studio. You can ask a question on one three one eight seven three call right now. Hello am my friend, Hello mate, you're well, I'm well?

Thank you good?

Yeah, not too bad at all. We wanted to start off by talking about window tinting. I nearly said tindo winting. I don't know why, but I nearly did. Can I make a real difference to the temperature on the house against you? If we've got full sun and you don't want it, might you know what?

Do you know what's amazing? We get our cars window tinted, don't we. Yeah, And we do that for temperature and a little bit of privacy too, and it's the same with your home. I had a house years ago. I had windows facing directly east, and in the morning.

That lound room used to get so hot.

I had window tinting done and I ended up taking all the blinds down and it was amazing because we had a bit of a view and we were able to take the blinds down because the blinds were there to try and stop the heat coming into the room. And it just made a massive difference. I reckon at least ten degrees difference in the mornings in that lound room, so my air conditioner didn't have to work so hard.

So if you do have a view, the clear.

Tint is there and it's designed. You know, obviously it's not going to put a darkness on the windows. But what it does is it stops the UV coming through the glass. And the amounts of UV that comes through from the sun can damage things like carpet, timber, flooring, furniture, even curtains themselves. If you have curtains up for many years, they will break down from the UV.

They'll just tend to fall apart.

So thinking about getting your windows tinted can make a huge, huge difference to your home.

Is it something you can do yourself or should you get an expert or trading or someone to do it for you.

There are tints available at hardware stores that you can get yourself, but truly, I've tried to do it. It's not as easy as it looks, okay like really because.

It is a thin film, isn't it. You've got to be and it's full of glue, so.

It's a thin filmy so you know you've got to be able to cut it to size. Your glass has to be perfectly clean as well, so you've got to make sure that you run over the glass with a blade to clean any sort of imperfections off. You know, it's quite time consuming and to watch the professionals do it.

It's one of those jobs where you know, there's a few.

Jobs tiling, rendering, obviously electrical and plumbing, but also window tinting, which I think one of those ones to leave to professionals, definitely, but definitely worth looking at. And if you do have old window tints and you want to get it off, if it's starting to break down, because it does have a lifespan, put newspaper onto the glass internally, because window tints always are played from inside.

Put newspaper on.

The glass and then spray it with water and keep it wet for a good while, an hour or so, and then that tint.

Will just peel right off. Is that right, that's a simple solution to give it.

Okay, I didn't know that, all right? One three one eight seven three Grace, good morning. How can we help you?

Oh, good morning, Luke and Simon.

Morning.

Problem in the shower, recess one tile, the one that you tend to step onto getting in, is losing its surface ceramic and revealing the terra cotta color of the tile underneath.

Okay, that's unusual.

I mean the tiles are usually they got a glaze or something on them, and they shouldn't normally lose that. And I don't know why one one tile would have you tried giving it a really good clean to make sure that it is definitely losing its sheen.

Just take oh.

Yes, yes, you can pick up a little sliver of it.

All right.

So it's obviously breaking down. And look whether you can get a tiler to come in and replace one tile, It may be a little bit difficult.

The other option would be maybe to paint that tile, and you need.

To use a two pack of POxy something from an all glass or something. You could fill it and then paint it so it could match the tiles that are already there.

So that is another option to think about.

Oh do golly so yes, it wouldn't be a good idea to try and remove one tile, would.

Look The problem you've got is if you're removing a floor tile that you're stepping on, you're then compromising the waterproof membrane underneath.

So you're better off trying to repair if possible.

Okay, good luck, Grace, thank you for calling on the text good a. Luke and Simon. A few weeks ago, Simon spoke about a sealer for putting in small cracks on concrete driveways. Simon, could you please mention the product name again, Dug on the Gold Coast.

Okay, Doug.

It was called ePIE Res one two three, so ep i r z epi res one two three. And it comes in like a tomato sauce bottle with a little tube, you know, and you just squirt it into that crack. It seeps the way down, and what you do is you keep going back and forth to the crack till it will not accept anymore.

It does then foam up.

A little bit and fill that crack up and it will then give it full strength back to normal.

And when it foams up, does it go outside of the crack? Do you end up having it sound?

Yeah?

Look we did, we did it.

We did a garage floor where we did end up sanding that because we ended up putting a coating over the top.

Of the garage floor after wards. Yeah.

And that depends on the size of the crack too. That is designed for hairline cracks.

Or bigger, just a little bit bigger. You're not going to do something ten mils wide with that, Okay?

And what's it called again?

EPI Res one two three?

Okay, Simon, I have an outdoor table that's stained and sealed. I want to paint it. What prep is required? And can I use water based paint?

Okay?

Yes, you can use a water based paint if it is stained and sealed. I would use an oil based primer on their first, so sand the coating. Make sure that you have got a solid surface to work from. Then use something you can use either the nor Glass Universal Primer their primer, or you can use something like Zinza Cover stain is another product you could use, and then you can go over wa the water base.

I would go with a water based.

Enamel, it's going to be a little bit harder wearing than just something like a Dulux weather shield, because when you put plates and cups and things down, you want to be a little bit harder wearing.

Okay, good on your David. Hope that helps. Now give us a call one three one eight seven three. You can text if you like zero force zero eight seven three eight seven three, but we like talking to you, so call us one three one eight seven three back with more Simon after this all right, it's ten to eleven o'clock. Patricia, Good morning to you. How can we assist you?

Good morning, Simon and Luke.

I'd like to ask how what to do to the surface of tinted windows that have already have a Marx on them. But there's been a painter in and there are marks from the painter, and there's just a Mars on the tinted surface. It's been there a few years and I don't want to remove it.

Okay, Simon, do you know if it is a water based paint that he's got on there, or if it is an oil based paint. Do you know that whether he's got what's on the surface of the tint.

Yes, it's the water based paint. Okay, well no it's Molly No, it's not No, No, the windows were done with oiled window.

Yeah.

Unfortunately, if it's on the tint, there's nothing you can do to get it off. There's there's no remover that's going to take that off that won't damage the tint. So unfortunately, I think you're going to have to get the windows retinted again. If it was water based, I could definitely help you there, but oil based, No way.

Can tell me what if it's water based from the plastering that's done earlier and not the other because there's been both tradesmen here.

What would I do if it wore the.

Water based If you can get to a Mito ten store or an inspiration paints or something, get a product called lift off and it has got an acrylic paint remover, and try spraying some on a cloth and rubbing it on the surface. Just try an inconspicuous area first, just to you know, just so it doesn't checked, it doesn't damage the tint, but it should work.

Okay, what's that called lift So lift off.

And it is the acrylic paint remover of it so it works really really well.

Now this note from Lisa, Thank you Lisa. We were hoping to lay laminate floorboards over our existing timber floor, the original ones when we bought the house. But the floor isn't level so the new boards won't be flush and the installers can't give a guarantee on them. What options do we have other than ripping up the existing boards and replacing them. We have the option of tiling. How does that work on existing flooring? Is that easier with regards to our leveling issue?

Okay, so you can't tile over floorboards. It has to be like a cement sheet to get tile over, Otherwise those those tiles will crack when it comes to your floorboards that you're putting over the top. There are self leveling products, but I don't know how that's going to go sticking to the floorboards either. So land Co make a self leveling product. I would contact land Co themselves. It's available at the hardware stores and ask them if

Vinyl is an amazing option and you can get it that looks like timber. Yeah, I love it. It's warm under the feet, it's a bit softer than timber.

Before you can spill a bucket of water and it's not going to be affected. I really think people just forget about vinyl all the time.

It's not like the sixties.

No.

I showed you those hybrid square hybrid vinyl granite looking flooring I put on in the in the laundry, and you are so right, and you think vinyl vinyl, I'm not going to put liner. It doesn't have to be that at all.

It's nothing like what it was in the sixties. I mean there is ones that.

Look that you and I were around in the sixties. Absolutely, that's only what people tell us.

Absolutely.

All right, So vinyl is an option and land code is at l A N get it right, Yeah, all right, Peter, good morning, good morning.

How are you going?

Good?

Good good, Yeah, thanks for taking the call. Look, there's there's an issue I've got with some walls in a unit. So there was some pairs of the roof because waters water was coming down the walls that's been repaired, it's been painted through the insurance. But now when we look at the wall, there seems to be it looks like water marks still down the wall even though it's been painted, but it doesn't seem to be wet.

I'm just wondering when you say water marks is when you say water marks is like a brown light brown stain coming through something like that brown?

What you what it looks like. It looks like it's streaking, It's like a lighter color.

Okay, So what what I'd say is happening is you're getting something bleeding through that paint. They've probably just gone straight over with an acrylic paint. You need to prime that surface with a stained seiler something like the zin Zabin b i N that's completely going to solve that issue. And then you go over with the acrylic paints. So whoever did the painting hasn't done the job properly. They haven't solved the stain issue first.

Okay, if you've got to go back and do that, go back.

Yeah, So I'd contact the insurance company and so listen, that's this is not right.

It needs to be fixed.

Properly, Okay, right, see how you go with that, Peter. Now, unfortunately I'm not going to get time to get to our other callers and I'm not having a crack at anyone but ring early. We've got plenty of time, and we get to this point where we run out of time. So sorry about that. And there's one or two text messages which will pass on to Simon. You can always go to Simon's website. We see examples of his brilliant work. Simon's house dot com dot are you Simon's house dot

Mate?

It I'll be away for a few weeks. I'll be back and I have looking forward or ready to see him again.

You too, mate, I hope you have a really fantastic time, buddy.

It'll be a beauty. I'm sure of it. Simon Stephenson, don't forget Simon's house dot com dot are you