Patching Walls

Damage to walls is very common. Whether it is is a hole through the wall or deep scratch it can fixed with a relatively low cost and time commitment. 

The scratch below was the result of moving furniture. The scratch was a lot rough originally but I took a razor to it in order to remove paper fragments from the sheetrock. Cleaning the edges will help the spackling to hold.

After cleaning up the scratch or hole, wipe away any dust. Then fill in the hole with spackling using a skinny putty knife. Make sure there are no gaps. Then smooth over the spackling with a larger putty knife to level it with the wall. It is better to have too much than too little. After the spackling has dried you can sand it down. If it is too low more spackling has to be added.

Run a flat edge (eg putty knife or ruler) over the spot to make sure its level. Then paint over the spot to match the surrounding wall. If you don't have matching paint in storage or don't know the color cut off a part of the top layer of the sheetrock. Then bring the sample into Home Depot or Lowe's to be matched. Ideally the sample should be at least 1 inch by 1 inch.

AC Inpection

I inspected  my AC units the other day to check the insulation on the refrigerant lines and cooling fins for damage. The insulation was very damaged and worn out from the weather. Aside from tears and rips, the insulation had become compact and hard (very bad for insulation). 

I spent about $5 at Lowe's buying new insulation duct tape to replace the old insulation. It only took 15 minutes to remove the replace the old insulation. Shown below is the halfway point where one unit was completed and the second one still needed to be replaced. 

Also needing attention was the cooling fins. When rocks (usually from lawn mowers) or other objects hit these delicate fins they become bent and less effective. Simply examine the fins for damaged spots and separate the fins using a blade. Take special care not to further damage these areas. A special AC fins repair tool is also available but be sure to get the correct size for your model. Also, don't forget to inspect both outside and inside fins on the unit. You will have to unplug the power to the unit and take off the fan and guard to inspect the inside fins.

These simple and cheap repairs shouldn't take longer than 30 minutes per unit and will definitely improve your energy efficiency. Check the units a couple times each year (beginning and middle of warm months).

Note: High efficiency AC units often use brushed cooling fins. Although the concepts are the same they can be more time consuming to repair.