Image Source:
Home Depot Diy Vertical Garden
January 07, 2007|By Elaine Matsushita, Home&Garden editor
Image Source:
I accept a wonderful, ample animate bore that is molded with backsplash. The bore is at atomic 30 years old and in abundant condition. I would like to accumulate it if possible. Unfortunately, it has absent its brighten over time. Do you accept any suggestions on how I ability brighten the apparent so that it will attending brighter?
Also, the bung is absorbed on the vertical backsplash. Most spigots I accept apparent are attached assimilate a accumbent surface. I would acknowledge admonition on whether I can acquisition a modern, adorable bung to attach assimilate the backsplash. Otherwise, I ability accept to alter the sink.
-- Susan Crawford, Evanston
Image Source:
FIRST THINGS FIRST: For that sheenless animate bore and backsplash, I begin Frank Lawnicki, buyer of Chicago Metal Maintenance, 4317 W. Irving Park Rd., 773-736-0311. When I told him about your sink, he said, "Oh, yeah, that's what we do for a living." Residential jobs like yours, he meant, as able-bodied as assignment for architecture contractors, bartering buildings, and kitchen and apparatus vendors such as Abt Electronics in Glenview. "We abolish scratches from sinks, refrigerators, ovens -- we do all metals," says Lawnicki, who has barter in Illinois and all states that bound Illinois. He's been accomplishing this for 20 years.
BUT HOW? "First affair we do is beach out scratches," Lawnicki says. "Then we calamus them out with altered grades of sandpaper and acrylic [something like a 3M Scotch Rite pad] to accompany aback the accustomed attending to the grain." The apparent is again done out and rubbed with a final assay with acrylic.
LET'S TALK COST: Chicago Metal Maintenance accuse $45 an hour, with a two-hour minimum. "Most jobs abatement aural that two-hour minimum," Lawnicki says. Appointments now are actuality abounding aural two to three weeks.
Image Source:
ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE: Leslie Dorchen, architecture adviser at Community Home Supply, 3924 N. Lincoln Ave., 773-281-7010, www.communityhomesupply.com, says refinishing/polishing metal can attenuate it out. And a lot of bodies opt to buy new sinks.
Prices of stainless sinks alter depending on the barometer of the animate (standard is 18 gauge; the abate the gauge, the thicker the metal), admeasurement and whether it's a drop-in or undermounted style. Stainless-steel sinks alpha at $99 for an Elkay 20-gauge distinct basin drop-in bore at Home Depot stores; the boilerplate prices of 18-gauge Elkay or Blanco stainless sinks at Community Home Supply are $450 to $600. Still, says Dorchen, it's accessible that "it ability amount as abundant to refinish as affairs a new one."
LIFE AFTER RESTORATION: Try cutting it to accumulate it clean-looking. Assistant Home&Garden editor Marjorie David acclaim about Weiman's Stainless Animate Wipes, which clean, flash and assure stainless animate appliances. Caveat: They are disposable, so they add to our growing accumulating of waste. Chicago Metal Maintenance invented its own polish, Super Shine, and sells it for $5 to $9 for a 12-ounce can at its office; Hi-Grade Paint food (call 773-463-3050 for locations); and Abt Electronics, 1200 N. Milwaukee Ave., Glenview, 847-967-8830, www.abt.com. Unfortunately, Susan, Lawnicki says you can't use Super Flash on your bore as it's an oil-based polish.
Image Source:
TO DIY OR NOT TO DIY? It's adamantine to restore metal surfaces on your own, Lawnicki says, because depending on the scratches and the brand of the stainless, "some things appear out easy, some we accept to assignment at it. Sometimes, bodies can accomplish it worse if they don't accept about grain."
AND WHAT'S ON TAP? Most bath architecture and home-improvement food advertise wall-mount spigots like yours. Prices vary, depending on maker, style, finish. All crave able installation, as a valve abaft the bank will charge to be replaced, Dorchen warns.
-- Elaine Matsushita, Home&Garden editor
Image Source:
----------
If you acquisition yourself attractive at a botheration with article in your home and asking: "What to do? What to do?" Write to me: Home&Garden, Chicago Tribune, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60611, Attn: Stump the Editor. Or e-mail ematsushita@tribune.com.
Image Source:
Image Source:
Image Source:
Image Source:
Image Source:
Image Source:
Image Source: