Let's Paint!

[Zombie]

Well, a couple weeks ago I cleaned up inside the greenhouse after the planting season was kinda wrapping up. Bleached off all the tables and boards but had some bucket soap in the solution as well as a couple other soaps to hopefully speed up the process. Let that sit wet for about a half an hour, then scrubbed it with some more bleach+soap. Again, let that sit for a little bit, then hosed it all off:

Not bad at all. There were a few areas where there was some peeling paint so I scratched that off and sanded it. Should be dry by now so I might prime it tomorrow if I have the time. (I have since weeded in there - all that's left is to stack up the boards on the tables to the right and then sweep it out).

One of the projects I always do around this time of the year is to bleach out all the "overflow" buckets leftover from Mother's Day. What are overflow buckets? Well, I have a couple stacks of buckets I have around for everyday use which are all the same size and type so it's easy to stack them. But when it gets busy I employ other buckets that are similar but not quite the same when the usual ones are used up. As the flowers get used I stack these overflow buckets off to the side (after rinsing them out with water) and when I'm confident that there aren't any more I bleach them out when it's quiet. So I did that on the 3rd and today I rinsed them all out and created a pyramid in the back garage so that they would dry:

The white pails with the black labels contained 30# of powdered flower food. The pails on the lower part of the stack contained 5 gallons of concentrated liquid flower food. The two yellow pails are from a wholesaler which I return, and then there's a few miscellaneous 5 gallon pails on the 4th level. None of these stack properly with our usual 5 gallon pails, but they stack together just fine. Farther back is some 4-gallon black cooler buckets and in back of that is 3 levels of Procona rectangular buckets. All together, that's 60 pails. I could have probably did some non-overflow buckets but my feet were wet so I had to call it there. In the back is the new van, still haven't driven it yet, maybe someday.

I have a bigger painting project which I'm going to start working on in a week or so. The lower part of the east side of the building needs to be painted (I scraped and primed it last year already). And the backroom/back garage wall on the east side has a lot of peeling paint now. I last painted that side in 2012 so it's definitely time. Probably need to pick up another 5 gallon pail as I only have 4 gallons presently. And I know there's going to be another "caulkpocalypse" involved as there's some nasty cracks in the mortar.

- Zombie

[Space Voyager]

Niiiice! A lot of work done, as usual. Why all the bleaching, BTW?

[Zombie]

Bleaching is a way of sanitizing something. It destroys bacteria and some viruses along with fungus, mold and biofilm (slime). It's also an optical whitener as it removes stains. Buckets that have been used will have bacteria in there. If that is allowed to sit, the bacteria will reproduce and eventually when you put a flower in that soup it will suck up the bacteria-laden water which will clog the small tubes in the stem and prevent further uptake. The heads will then wilt, dry up and die. And while the sanitizing aspect wasn't needed for the greenhouse, the bleach will break down/soften up dried old blooms which makes it easy to just flush them away with water.

I use bucket soap in conjunction with bleach as it acts as an indicator how dirty a bucket is (easy to tell on a white bucket but darn near impossible on a black bucket). It also blocks microbial action over time so that stuff can't breed and colonize the bucket until it's used again. When I bleach everyday buckets, I leave the bleach+soap residual in the pail until I'm ready to use it. A little bit of a rinse and it's ready to go. On the overflow buckets, I remove the residual with rinsing, allow the bucket to dry, then stack them up according to size/type. (If you put them away wet and let it sit for a while the water acts like a lubricant and allows the buckets to stack tighter together and when you try to get them apart later the water prevents air from entering which would break the suction). Finally, a plastic bag goes over the top to prevent dust and debris from fouling it up.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

While naturally almost entirely devoid of life now, the greenhouse is looking good, Zombie, and the tabletops have retained that reflective wet look to them. Even if you've already had to sand some spots here and there that paint still can be said to have some true staying power.

And what can you be said to have bucketloads of? Well, buckets!

Pyramids of... stacked buckets - that's an almost russian-doll level of recurrence. The baskets behind them are kind of jealous, unable to match such conformity and union.

Maybe someone with little experience driving the new van could accidentally topple the haughty buckets and bring them down from their perch - the baskets conspire.

You have no shortage of things to tend to, as mentioned, but pry your eyes away from the silky smooth paintjob of the sexy new van for a moment and, at the very forefront of the picture, you'll notice the cruel denting and some creasing found in the vicinity of the handle to the right.

Something for another time perhaps, when your assorted talents are less in demand.

[Space Voyager]

On 7/7/2024 at 8:51 PM, Zombie said:

Bleaching is a way of sanitizing something. It destroys bacteria and some viruses along with fungus, mold and biofilm (slime). It's also an optical whitener as it removes stains. Buckets that have been used will have bacteria in there. If that is allowed to sit, the bacteria will reproduce and eventually when you put a flower in that soup it will suck up the bacteria-laden water which will clog the small tubes in the stem and prevent further uptake. The heads will then wilt, dry up and die. And while the sanitizing aspect wasn't needed for the greenhouse, the bleach will break down/soften up dried old blooms which makes it easy to just flush them away with water.

I use bucket soap in conjunction with bleach as it acts as an indicator how dirty a bucket is (easy to tell on a white bucket but darn near impossible on a black bucket). It also blocks microbial action over time so that stuff can't breed and colonize the bucket until it's used again. When I bleach everyday buckets, I leave the bleach+soap residual in the pail until I'm ready to use it. A little bit of a rinse and it's ready to go. On the overflow buckets, I remove the residual with rinsing, allow the bucket to dry, then stack them up according to size/type. (If you put them away wet and let it sit for a while the water acts like a lubricant and allows the buckets to stack tighter together and when you try to get them apart later the water prevents air from entering which would break the suction). Finally, a plastic bag goes over the top to prevent dust and debris from fouling it up.

- Zombie

Damn, didn't think it could have such a profound effect, especially since at home I never sanitize buckets or pots. Than again, I grow chillies, not gentle flowers.

[Zombie]

Well, with fall on the way I thought it would be a good time to start filling some potholes in the pavement around the shop. I didn't have any more pothole repair (basically a screened stone aggregate mixed with tar otherwise known as a cold patch) but I found some at the hardware store. Came in a 60 pound bag (27ish kilos) which was quite a bit but I have a lot of potholes to repair! First up was in front of the small garage door that faces the driveway. I patched some spots here a couple years ago and they are holding up just fine but there are other areas that were forming which needed some help. And while I was at it, I filled the crack between the pavement and the garage floor:

That should prevent weeds from growing in there and keep snow and ice from sticking so it's a win-win. If you turn around and look at the pavement in the driveway you can see I patched some rough spots due to wear and tear from the delivery vehicles:

This stuff really isn't meant for patching shallow rough areas, but deeper holes. Getting it to stick and stay put until it's cured is an issue, especially in high traffic areas. What I do is spread the patch over the area and then use my "persuader" hammer (like a small sledgehammer) to tamp it into place. Once it's tamped down then I go over it again with the hammer hitting it harder so that the top aggregate breaks apart into smaller pieces and stone dust. This helps to prevent tracking around the tar and also makes a patch which isn't so rough. In the case of the driveway, I put a couple pieces of newspapers down over the patch and then a 3/4" piece of plywood over that so that we can drive over it a little. The next day, I go over the patch again with more pounding and tamping to make it as even as I can. By the third day it's good to go. Anyhow, there were a couple areas exiting the driveway which I filled too:

These look darker because I couldn't really hammer the aggregate too much due to the stuff underneath being soft yet. But that black will fade over time to blend in and you'll hardly notice it. The other area I addressed is the back door of the small garage. If you recall, I used some cement to fix up some of the cracks in the garage floor and the crack between the floor and pavement. I don't think cement is the preferred method to fix a crack like that so I used cold patch instead creating a little "ramp" so there isn't such a big lip:

And for comparison, this is what it looked like previously:

If those cement areas in the crack get loose, I'll bust it out and put in cold patch instead. Right now they are still tight but cracked on the bottom. This really doesn't get much traffic except in the winter so I'm guessing it'll hold just fine. There were a couple longer cracked areas to the left of the garage door which I filled in and also there was an area to the left side of the fence which I filled in too:

Astute viewers may see there's still a pothole in the middle of the driveway. Yup, I'm aware of it. Trouble is, it's in a very high traffic area (either from tires riding over it to the two fence ares sitting on it) so I need a couple days of lighter traffic in order to get the patch to take hold. I'm thinking next Friday or so as that gives it all weekend to dry properly. There's some rough areas by the downspout on the left by the big garage door which need to be fixed too. I got a start on it but ran out of patch. The reason why was because I filled in 3 areas next to the greenhouse:

Found a pic of the area from a couple years ago when I fixed the greenhouse after the top ripped. It's looking the other way, but you should be able to see what areas got bad:

The big pothole(s) in the middle will be patched next. I got another bag yesterday. These are lower traffic areas so I can do them whenever. I need to do it before it gets too cold out though. Or big rains. That's the biggest concern in fall: the weather.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

You had quite a bit of ground to cover and all (literally ) but it still surprised me how quickly you went through a 60 pound bag of the stuff, Zombie.

I mean, some spots are probably deeper than discernible in the pictures and employing that hammer pounding technique you describe to soften the surface has worked just fine as it all looks really smooth and level.

Considering future wear and tear and the ravages of weather, that third photo has some hints at potential trouble brewing, in that area at the top (which is likely outside property limits?) which has cracks and, at the very top right, seemingly uneven slanting / small depression?

Best not wait it out or leave that to outside intervention given what you said about snow and ice if there's going to be significant traffic there...

[Zombie]

12 hours ago, Thorondor said:

Considering future wear and tear and the ravages of weather, that third photo has some hints at potential trouble brewing, in that area at the top (which is likely outside property limits?) which has cracks and, at the very top right, seemingly uneven slanting / small depression?

Technically, yes, outside property limits. This is the alleyway that connects North 11th and North 12th streets and almost everyone on this one-block square has access to their garages and such from it. The city does not own alleyways, everyone on the block owns it. Which means the city will never come by to fix any bad areas or potholes. Everyone on the block is responsible for maintenance or upkeep. How much is up to each individual homeowner/property owner and that depends on how much your property faces the alley. Sometimes if you can get the support of all the property owners to chip in then you can get the whole thing fixed at once which is cheaper than doing it piecemeal.

That particular part of the alley has been like that for many many years. In order to fix it, all the old concrete has to come out and a new section has to be poured. I could probably fill those rough spots in with concrete, but I doubt that would hold for any more than a year. We have a lot of big trucks that come through the alley during all times of the year so those would probably loosen that up. Maybe would be possible with my pothole repair stuff, but that would probably take 5-6 bags (my guess). And then there's no guarantee that it'll last either. So it's beyond the scope of my repairs. Hope that explains it and makes some sense.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Block-level communal property == No Man's Land.

Inertia wins.

So, yes, you've explained it perfectly.

[Zombie]

I decided to show how I patch a pothole in blacktop. First up, get some blacktop patch:

I cut about half the top off so that the whole thing doesn't come out at once. After it's open, I fill a smaller plastic pail until it's half full or so (this pic looks like it's reddish, it's jet black):

Much easier to lug around with a handle than a slippery plastic bag. I'd suggest that this pail has a tight fitting lid too, that way you can store any leftovers in the pail instead of the bag. You could splash a little paint thinner in there before storage, that way it doesn't dry out. The holes I'm dealing with are about 1/2 inch deep (1.25cm):

I'm going to do the smaller one to the left. I use a small garden shovel to fill the pothole with the patch - just a bit higher than the surrounding pavement. Then I smooth it out with the shovel till it's more or less level:

And then it's tappy-tap-tap time:

And this is what it looks like finished:

It's pretty even and sits just a little bit higher than the pavement around it. You need it this way so it can fully compact over time. I have an short old piece of 2x4 lumber that I place down over the patch and then hit it with the hammer for the initial compaction and then after that its a lot of tamping with the "persuader" (in the pic above). So that's whats involved.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Extra brownie points for using the "NEW Environmentally Friendly Formula" (whatever that means ) for this. And, for giving advice on how to preserve what is left (with the paint thinner) so it doesn't become waste, which would be harmful both from an economical and environmental standpoints.

Also worthy of note is your care to even mention the true chromatic properties of the material given the misleading appearance as captured by the digital camera. Very few would bother with that level of accuracy of charaterisation given the purpose intended (exemplification of use).

Then onwards to application and even accounting for the the expected gradual compaction that is to occur post hammer time.

No further "persuading" is required, Zombie: this step-by-step guide is educational as well as to the point and practical. Approved!

[Zombie]

Well, I finished fixing the potholes alongside the greenhouse today. I tamped the one I did a couple days ago and it seems pretty good now. Still a little sticky in spots but once it dries it'll be ready to walk over. The big pothole took nearly half a bag of patch to fill which surprised me. Didn't bother even dumping the stuff into the bucket first because I knew I'd need quite a bit - I dumped it directly into the pothole. There were some spots where I needed to add some more so I used the stuff out of the pail as it's easier to proportion the amount. Took a lot of tamping to get it to a decent point but I think it turned out:

It's definitely going to need another tamping session - maybe I'll do that tomorrow or Saturday. It just depends how soft it is yet. I took another pic at a different angle so you can see the spots better:

I'm probably going to need to address the rough spot between the small pothole by the 5mph cone and the big pothole in back of it. When I was tamping the big pothole the rough area sounded hollow underneath. Not sure if I want to excavate that out, I think maybe I'll just fill it in and see how it holds up over the winter. There should be enough patch left to fix that pothole in the middle of our driveway and possibly some spots by the big garage door in the alleyway. Hopefully can get to that tomorrow.

I'm going to switch gears here a little bit. Instead of potholes, how about a foray into fixing leaks on a bad roof? Yup, I do everything. Our small garage has a terrible roof on it. I've been patching that for over a decade now, hoping and praying that bossman will get a new membrane put on it since it's virtually flat. Hasn't happened yet, but the ball is rolling at least. Here's a pic I took of the roof three years ago (10/8/2021) after I patched it yet again:

This patch normally lasts through the winter and sometimes into summer if you are lucky. On a roof this bad, 6 months is about tops. Then I'm back up there patching before the snow starts flying. You smear this fibrous asphalt over the leak, slap down some black fiberglass tape and embed that into the gunk, then smear another coat over the whole thing.

Anyhow, the area where the roofing goes up the wall is all cracking. Can't really get fiberglass tape to stick on that rough flashing so I keep filling it. Here's what it looked like last year after another patching session (12/8/2023):

And a different pic of the area above the garage door facing the driveway:

Just keep smearing the stuff on, coat after coat, year after year. And I don't care how it looks, at least it stopped the leaking. This year looked to be more of the same as it was leaking again. I was running low on my supply of the asphalt stuff so I went to the hardware store to pick up another gallon. I wasn't convinced that the stuff I've been using is ideal so while I was there I looked at other options. Found a rubberized cement which had a 15 year warranty too. It was pretty expensive but I'm at my wits end doing this so often so I got it (Red=new, Green=old):

This rubberized stuff is so much better, nice and thick, just the way I like it. Did a lot of patching on the roof again with the new stuff:

Seems like the way to go. Don't skimp on quality folks, it's not worth it, especially for paint and roofing compound. Lesson learned unless it starts leaking again that is. I have another area I need to patch on the roof above the showroom, I'll take you along for that to see what I'm up against.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

The work done to do away with the potholes alongside the greenhouse seems competent enough, Zombie.

Not sure if I'd encourage anything much beyond regular foot traffic there though (say, moving any loads with a wheelbarrow), as stealthy brittleness is precisely what the appearance of those first potholes tend to denounce in a certain area...

Roof leak fixing: that looks like a handful alright. It's a pretty extensive surface to keep consistently watertight.

Also, I need not tell you that the problem that can come with the layering of the stuff over the years is not the appearance but the covering up of where the issues truly are located. Water can be very fiendish when it comes to infiltration because it's not always apparent where it does start seeping in given where you spot it ending up, if you catch my drift.

In any case, I see you've dealt yourself a new hand of Black Jack Rubr-Seal and taking it at its word, by what it says on the tin, it's both an exact fit for the job and a long lasting one.

It's not much of a gamble to venture you'll surely find out, before long.

[Zombie]

22 hours ago, Thorondor said:

Not sure if I'd encourage anything much beyond regular foot traffic there though (say, moving any loads with a wheelbarrow), as stealthy brittleness is precisely what the appearance of those first potholes tend to denounce in a certain area...

Really, all the traffic we get through there is feet. Well, I go through there with my big wooden cart which would probably be fine too depending on what's on it. Although I will mention that I normally straddle those potholes with the cart so that the load remains stable.

22 hours ago, Thorondor said:

Also, I need not tell you that the problem that can come with the layering of the stuff over the years is not the appearance but the covering up of where the issues truly are located. Water can be very fiendish when it comes to infiltration because it's not always apparent where it does start seeping in given where you spot it ending up, if you catch my drift.

Honestly, it's been leaking from the same areas for years. So I know where to look. I also take measurements from below and then use a "landmark" of such, to measure off on the roof to pinpoint the problem area. If I can't find a crack I expand the search. The underlayment for the roof is boards with small spaces between them and that's where leaks show up (I'll take a pic of this sometime). This year the leaks were big enough where I could see light coming through (especially helpful in a dark garage). In the past where I didn't see light, I pounded a long nail up through the roof from below so that when I got up there I could find the spot.

Ok, going to change gears again on another project I've been working on for a while. Last year I noticed that the wall above the door where I poured a new threshold was peeling paint and needed some help. I spent a while scraping, wire brushing and caulking to get the prep finished (10/5/2023):

I also adjusted the cable above the door so that it went straight across instead of drooping like it was before. That big crack of missing mortar above the gutter was not touched as I was out of mortar mix (or so I thought). The weather got cold for a while but we had a warm snap at the beginning of December so I was able to start painting. Wanted to use up the old paint as the bucket was starting to get a rusty rim so I started with the long wall (12/8/2023):

You can see the areas where I didn't paint (no cracks or peeling so I left them alone). This whole area will get a fresh coat of paint eventually - not this year anymore though. And here's what the area looked like above the door after paint:

To the right of the door near the ground there were some bricks that had some chunks coming off. I "glued" them back on with some caulking and painted over it. That didn't hold up over winter so I needed to fix that somehow. I was in the small garage a couple months ago putting stuff away when I noticed I had a half-used bag of mortar mix in there yet. I had plastic over it, but I think the bottom may have got wet as it was hard. The stuff above that was still powdery so I decided to fix that crack above the door and the missing chunks of brick (9/11/2024):

This area went fine - got it to stick and was able to smooth it out without the mortar sagging. The area above the door was a different issue. I couldn't get my mini-homemade mortar "hawk" (a flat board with a handle screwed on it) close enough to push the mortar into the crack because of the conduit which was in the way. As a last ditch effort I used my hands to fill it as best as I could. Wasn't pretty though and a lot of swear words were muttered:

I figured the rest I can fill with caulk. After the stuff that was smeared on the bricks dried, I came back and scraped it off. I had to let it sit like that for about a month to fully cure. (Probably didn't have to wait this long as the areas were small and not very deep but I was busy too). Anyhow, the other day I caulked and primed both areas(10/11/2024):

Caulked a crack in the mortar again but didn't bother priming that. Hopefully one of these days I can paint the spots. As an aside, I did a lot of this same work on the east side of the building too. Started that late last year (didn't take a pic from that) and it's continuing on to this day (took pics this time). So expect to see that soon.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Shifting gears indeed to good old fashioned caulking, mortaring and painting.

This really gets across how much of an ongoing maintenance process it is on several fronts, with you getting ahead of problems as much as time permits over the years.

You've done fine too in the case of the here depicted overall in my opinion. I mean, that crack above the gutter is clearly a bit of a nuisance given the obstacles in such close proximity (including that sort of curved downspout).

So what if you needed to lean on more colourful vernacular a little underbreath when forced to do some literal handiwork? Happens to the best of us.

[Space Voyager]

I'm shocked by all the alledged swearing... but I have to admit it is a common occurance in my masonry feats. 

[Zombie]

Spent a little time cleaning up between the greenhouse and store today as the weather was finally decent. Cleaned the two windows, swept up the leaves and dust and chunks of blacktop, put away the hose reel, used the leaf blower to remove the rest of the stuff. Took a pic of the final state:

Looks great now. That white thing on the one patch is a bird feather - the patch may be a little sticky yet. Some of the loose blacktop on the bottom of the pic... well, I might just put down some roofing patch and "glue" the loose pieces back into place for the winter. If it doesn't hold, no big deal, at least I tried. I'm getting rid of a bunch of old pallets too, so that we only have 3 stacks total. Anyway, as for the crap at the far end of the pic, I'll clean that up soon. Still need to fill in that last pothole in the driveway and a couple rough spots by the greenhouse patches. And I need to start painting the areas I primed too, before the weather gets too cold and humid.

- Zombie