When making home improvements one of the major things you want the most is to save money, do it the right way and make it look beautiful. There are some minor repairs such as replacing the sidewall or ceiling registers (vents), minor bathtub chip repair and minor appliances chip repair, that you don’t need to hire a professional when you can do it, fix it yourself and make it look like new again.
How to Fix Vents
Depending on what year the house was built the vents can be bigger or smaller compared to the vents you find in Lowes, Home Depot or any other hardware store. Every time we flipped a house and needed to replace a vent we had a hard time finding the right size. When it comes to flipping houses the one thing you don’t have is too much time and of course you’re trying to stay within your budget.
How did we fix that little problem? Well, if the vent is just dirty that’s not a big deal, you can just clean it and put it back. But, how about when it’s rusty and yellowish looking and cleaning it won’t do the trick? To replace it you always have the option to buy new vents, if you’re lucky to find the same size and if you want to spend anywhere between $13 and $60 each, do the math, if you’re in a budget and you have 2 vents per room, plus living room, dining room, family room, hallways, laundry, bonus room etc, you get the point, you will end up paying more than $200.
When you’re on a budget or you’re not that lucky to find the right size then look for alternatives like spray paint. Yes, finally after all that reading she finally tell us, spray paint. My favorite is Rust-Oleum, but of course you have different good brands, although I wouldn’t get too cheap. My advice is to choose one that have the option of spraying in different angles, that way you get the perfect coating of paint all throughout the vent. The color or finish will depend on how you would like the vents. If you’re going with the regular white, then I recommend using Rust-Oleum Universal Paint & Primer in One Gloss White, it cost around $5-$6 a can and it should be enough for about 6-8 vents, it will depend on how many coatings you want. I usually buy 2 spray cans and its more than enough for about 8 vents and still get some paint left. Now do the math, you’re only spending about $10-$12, that’s a big difference.
There is always a process on getting things to look professional and nice. Don’t forget once you take off the vents you can always get a marker and label the vent with the room it belongs to on the inside of the vent, so you don’t get confused when it’s time to install them back. Also, don’t forget to keep the screws in a safe place. If the vent is rusty I like to sand it a little, so I get a smooth finish when I apply the spray paint. Always wait until the first coating is completely dry before applying the second coating so you get that shiny and smooth professional looking finish. We let the vents dry overnight or little longer before installing them.
Tub Chip Repair
When you only have minor cosmetic chip repair on your bathtubs you don’t have to spend a fortune to resurface the whole tub. You have some of products to help you save money and at at the same time make it look beautiful. Depending how big the chip is we use a porcelain chip fix tub touch up kit or if it just a small chip or scratch you can use the appliance epoxy touch up paint, works like a charm and the best thing is it cost only between $3-$5 dollars. You can also find the Rust-Oleum Tub & Tile Spray paint, although we have never used it before, we know for sure the spray paint works amazingly for vents, so depending on your skill I’m pretty sure the tub and tile aerosol spray could work for tubs and sinks. If you have rust stains around the tub or toilet, Bar Keepers Friend Soft Cleanser has worked for us on tubs and toilets to get those stains out.
Appliance Chip Repair
Like the bathtub chip repairs, sometimes you will buy a house with appliances and the fridge or stove have small scratches or rust stains and you want the appliances looking like new. The Appliance epoxy touch up paint works very well on appliances, you can also find the appliance epoxy spray. One of the last houses we bought came with a stainless-steel fridge and it had a rust line stain right in the front of the fridge. I used Bar Keepers Friend Soft Cleanser and after a nice scrub the stain came off. Please always test on a small area preferable in an area that can’t be seen before applying any products.
Making home improvements does not have to cost a fortune. There is always an inexpensive way to have your house looking like a brand-new house. Good luck with your project.
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