 | Marvin Niedens is owner of Texturite, LLC. He has been involved in every facet of the construction industry since his childhood when his father was a general contractor in the ‘50s and ‘60s. He enjoys working with his hands to create something people enjoy using, as well as being appealing to the eye. He also likes to work on projects often times neglected by others. Such was the case with ceilings and walls of residential and commercial structures. This is how his company, Texturite, came into existence. You may contact Marvin at 316-393-0836, or by e-mail at marv1096@msn.com. |
Home Improvement
2011-01-01 10:18:00
Marv’s 3 to 1 & more home value tips (previous articles in this series, refer to Dec. ‘10 and Jan. ‘11 issues)
Question: The market is tougher than we can ever remember. Our home value has stayed the same or gone down over the last three years. What can one do to increase the value of his or her home, without waiting for the market to rebound?
Answer: That’s a great question and a great strategy. There’s more than one way for home values to go up and you’re on the right track. So often it takes so little to make a big difference in home value. Over the next several issues, I will give you a few tips. Some of these…for every dollar you spend…you can increase your home value by as much as $3 to $10 or more. Spend $1,000 and get your home value to go up by $3,000 to $10,000 or more. This will outperform most any market condition you can find.
This month…the front door…
Exterior doors are both decorative and protective. Don’t skimp when it comes to one of the most important features of your home. Once you’ve made your decision…on just the right front door…and those tips may include a trip to your home improvement center for some additional advice, here are some tips on installation.
1. Door measurements are extremely important. Measurements should be taken from the top of the stop down to the threshold. Take the width measurements in at least two, maybe three, places. Take these numbers to your home improvement center and allow someone help you find the proper door for the opening.
2. Always put the handle of a storm door on the same side as the door going into the house.
3. Once door hinges are in place, always dry fit the door first. Dry-fitting enables you to determine whether you need to mortise the door opening as you did the hinges (with a hammer and chisel), where to locate the door knob, lock and other hardware and where to locate the hydraulic door closure mechanism.
4. If you are installing a wood door and it sticks a little bit, it’s okay to use a power or hand planer to scrape just a bit of wood from the door at the area where it sticks.
5. When replacing an entry door, be sure to carefully remove the door trim with a utility knife, pry bar and hammer. The trim can be reused if the new door is the same size as the old one.
A rough opening for a door should always be at least one inch wider and thicker than the door dimensions.
6. Measure for an entry door by measuring the width between the side jambs and the head jamb to the sill under the old threshold. Also measure the thickness of the door jamb. The rough opening should be at least one inch wider and taller than the outside frame dimensions of the door to be installed.
7. A solid-core entry door provides better insulation and security than a door that has a hollow core.
Make sure the door is already in place when you paint. If you paint before securing it, you could scratch the surface and ruin the paint job.
8. Don’t try to save a lot of money on paint for the entry door. Remember, this is the outdoors, so always purchase a high-quality primer and paint. Latex is fine as long as it is of good quality.
9. Once the door is painted, install the door hardware — reversing this step will make the painting job far more difficult.
When you’re all through, you will do as most do…stand back and admire it. You will wonder how anyone could not immediately fall in love with your home.
Next month, we will talk about the entry way of your home.
