Prevent damage by woodpeckers
The Audubon Society says woodpeckers peck at homes for three reasons.
First, the fast machine-gun pecking, referred to as “drumming,â€� is the male woodpecker’s attempt to attract a mate loudly and establish territory. Tightening loose parts of the house may solve that problem. Hanging flashy objects nearby can also scare the woodpeckers away.
The second reason for pecking is the birds’ search for insects in external boards. Often, carpenter bees drill holes into wood and tunnel through, laying eggs. Woodpeckers open up tunnels from the outside and eat hatched larvae. Attaching an untreated board to the outside of your house for the bees will provide habitat for a valuable pollinator species, and hanging shiny strips can scare the birds away.
Woodpeckers may find your wood or stucco siding an attractive and easily excavated site for a nest or roost hole. If the woodpecker seems to be making a round hole big enough for it to enter, you will need to stop it by blocking access, say with bird netting or metal flashing.
It may be easier to install a woodpecker nest box on your house so the bird uses the box instead of making holes. Remember to fill the nest box with wood shavings, because the birds prefer to excavate their own homes.
System speeds door-painting
The Door Rack Painter is a rack system that lets you paint both sides of a door at one time and store multiple doors for drying.
The system comprises a spray rack designed to hold a door while it’s being spray painted, as well as a dry rack that can hold nine full-size doors or 18 cabinet doors. A pair of dry racks can be converted to hold baseboards and crown molding for drying or long boards for storage.
The racks can be ordered from doorrackpainter.com. The system of one spray rack and one dry rack costs $625. Individual dry racks and rods for converting racks into storage units also are available.
Remove heat marks from tabletops
Most of us have at least one piece of furniture damaged from hot food placed on it without table pads.
Gary Hendrix of Hendrix Furniture Restoration in New Franklin, Ohio, has this tip for removing whitish heat marks from furniture: Cover the heat marks with a plain, brown paper grocery bag with no printing, and iron over the paper with an iron set at medium heat. The heat may draw the moisture out of the finish and into the paper.
If that doesn’t work, he said a furniture refinisher may be able to apply a chemical to soften the finish and allow the moisture to evaporate before the finish hardens again.
If all else fails, you can have the table top refinished. You can do that job yourself if you’re skilled, but you’ll probably get better results from a professional.
Author’s tips on landscaping
Julie Moir Messervy understands the challenges involved in making sense of outdoor spaces. The landscape designer helps readers envision the possibilities and turn them into realities in her new book, “Landscaping Ideas That Work.�
The book guides users in assessing their property, identifying their style preferences and determining what they need and want in their yards. It provides plenty of photos and descriptions of landscapes and features.
Messervy covers all the elements of landscape, from paving options to plants. For some features, she addresses the benefits and drawbacks and provides a guide to the relative cost of options.
“Landscaping Ideas That Work� is published by Taunton Press and sells for $21.95 in softcover.
— Staff and wire reports
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