On the Level
by Terry F. Meany
Once upon a time, encyclopedia salesmen roamed the family-friendly suburbs of America, earnestly peddling Colliers, Britannica and World Book to equally earnest parents who wanted to give Suzy and Johnnie a step up in their schoolwork. Nowadays, encyclopedias have been replaced with Google and Wikipedia—a user-written, collaboratively constructed, internet-based, “free content” encyclopedia whose accuracy is presumably determined by Wikipedia contributors.
In fact, it was Wikipedia that provided this information on spring cleaning: “The origins of spring cleaning date back to the Iranian Norouz, the Persian new year, which falls on the first day of spring. Iranians continue the practice of ‘khooneh takouni,’ which literally means ‘shaking the house,’ just before the new year. Everything in the house is thoroughly cleaned, from the drapes to the furniture. Another possible origin of spring cleaning can be traced to the ancient Jewish practice of thoroughly cleansing the home in anticipation of the springtime holiday of Passover.”
Spring cleaning in the days before Tidy Bowl and vacuum cleaners that cost as much as a current month’s rent were tedious affairs. In the crudest homes on the American prairies, where humans and smaller livestock might winter together, spring cleaning was critical unless you liked living with the debris and smaller critters that came along with this interspecies living. In city homes, grit and grime from wood and coal-burning stoves and fireplaces got scrubbed off walls, ceilings and windows, while rugs were removed and months’ worth of dust beaten out (which didn’t exactly benefit the beater’s lungs).
It’s spring here, so what do you need to clean out (besides certain tenants)?
Every building owner accumulates paint, stains, thinners, cleaners and other chemicals that may be past their usefulness. Unless you’re going to mix all those odds and ends of paint from color schemes past into one container—a practice I wholeheartedly recommend because it’s a great way to use up small quantities of old paint as long as the resulting color is something you can live with—you can recycle or dispose of old paint. For recycling information, call the Toxics Reduction Program at San Francisco Department of the Environment (415-355-3700) or San Francisco Recycling and Disposal (415-330-1425) to see if your business qualifies for free disposal. Oil-based paint is considered hazardous and must be disposed of at the Household Hazardous Waste facility located at San Francisco Recycling and Disposal. The same cautious disposal is required for roofing tar, insecticides and any other deadly poisons you may have tucked away in a storage room.
Keep in mind that you cannot simply open latex-paint cans, allow the paint to dry up and then toss it in the trash. The California Department of Toxic Substance Control says this is illegal, as it is considered “treatment of a hazardous waste.” Latex paint that has naturally dried out may be disposed of in the trash, however.
Spring for Larger Paint Rollers
Speaking of painting, it’s a common thought that anyone can do it. If that’s true, why does it cost so much to hire anyone to do it? It isn’t rocket science, but the right tools help. The best painters will use anything, from sponges to sprayers to Q-tips—whatever gets the job done quickly and accurately. You should, too.
One of the biggest timesaving painting tools ever created is the paint roller with roller cover, which was introduced in the late 1950s. The most common size purchased by consumers is a 9-inch roller, but if you’re looking for production results and you can handle a heavier tool, consider an 18-inch roller instead. Use this for the bulk of your wall and ceiling work, and a 9-inch roller for more precise work near corners. As I said, this is a heavier roller than most people use, so think about practicing on a basement wall first.
As to whether you paint the woodwork first or wait until the walls and ceiling are finished, I vote for the latter. There’s always a fine overspray from the roller that gets onto the trim, windows, door, and, unfortunately, the floors. Use the widest brush with which you are comfortable. You are not painting the Sistine Chapel; you’re painting a rental unit and you will be painting it again, perhaps sooner than you wish.
The cheapest disguise for a smooth wall that’s seen better days? Use a roller with a nap longer than the eighth-inch to quarter-inch normally used for smooth walls. Longer nap rollers are designed for stucco and other uneven surfaces. They can be harder to roll on smooth material if they’re loaded up with paint, so don’t soak them. The resulting paint texture can cover up a few plaster sins and not look out of place.
There’s an unofficial rule in painting that states that the one square inch of flooring or furnishings you don’t cover with plastic will be the one area where you will drip paint. So, cover everything with painter’s plastic. It’s quite thin and comes in large rolls (12 feet by 400 feet, for example) so one roll can last for several jobs. Satin finish (paint with a low-lustre film) is normally used in bathrooms and kitchens because it’s washable, but consider it for common areas as well. It’s much easier to mop grungy hallway walls and ceilings coated with satin latex using Spic ‘n Span in hot water than it is to set up and repaint.
Floor Dilemmas
That choice unit with the view is finally empty. After spiffing it up, you can finally get market rent. You plan on new paint, some upgraded appliances and fixtures, and tearing up the red shag carpet to refinish those nice wood floors. Should you?
In a word, no. In several words, no, no, no and no.
Of course, it depends. In one unit I worked on, the living room floors had been carpeted for years and the oak floors underneath were beautiful. These floors were keepers because they were ready to go and only required a small amount of work to refresh them. Otherwise, carpet is less expensive to install and easier to maintain. A tongue-and-groove wood floor can only withstand a limited number of heavy sandings, usually no more than three, unless it’s unusually thick. If an existing floor is mostly scuffed and scratched and the finish is intact, there are chemical restoration systems—such as Varathane Renewal Floor-Restoring System—that abrade the top coating, allowing a new coat to bond to it.
Because this is a solvent-based process, there is no sanding dust to clean up and cure times are shortened.
Newly finished wood floors look great. A few years out, greatness turns to dullness and a few more years produce mediocrity and eventually the same appearance they had when you last refinished them. Few tenants will dutifully clean their wood floors with Murphy’s Oil Soap and remove their shoes to keep from bringing outside dirt and grit in. Potted plants—large potted plants—always find their way to wood floors and often leave black rings underneath. Sunlight bleaches out the sections of finish that don’t yellow out first. Stick with apartment-grade carpet that can be cleaned between tenants.
Bargain Tip
Kitchen counters too often end up as cutting boards and hot frying pans leave less than lovely black rings. Installing a new laminate counter in an otherwise clean kitchen is costly, messy and smelly. Instead of replacing an entire countertop because one area is badly damaged, buy a marble cutting board, scuff up the damaged area with coarse sandpaper, and glue the cutting board down with adhesive epoxy. It’s simple, inexpensive and gives your tenants a surface for rolling out pastry dough.
Use a light touch with the epoxy. At some point in the future, you will want to redo the countertops and you don’t want to be cursing the day—and cursing me—because you glued in a piece of marble that you later find yourself chipping out in pieces. In lieu of marble, a section of granite or ceramic tile can also be used. Look for seconds or cut-offs from a local tile or stone and tile shop.
With the passing of Proposition H last November, another small nail was pounded into the coffin of San Francisco housing and owners’ rights. I admire any reader who puts up with this death by a thousand ordinances and still manages to go an extra inch, let alone mile, in building maintenance in order to provide comfortable rental units.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the viewpoint of SFAA or SF Apartment Magazine. Terry F. Meany is a former contractor and landlord. He is now a full-time writer and author of Working Windows: A Guide to the Repair and Restoration of Wood Windows, now in its second edition from Lyons Press. He is cost conscious but not cheap, and he knows deferred maintenance always costs more in the end. He can be reached at tfmeany@msn.com. Copyright © 2007 by SF Apartment Magazine. All rights reserved.