House & Tools questions

[DrDoom]

Hello,

Has anyone purchased/actually used the new Cub Cadet "i1000" zero turn riding mower ? (the one that looks like a yellow sports car).

Has anyone purchased one of the John Deere power washers ?? opinions on them?

Really dumb question - I have soffits around the house w/vents. They look a bit dirty (1 story ranch). What's the best way to clean them ??

Using a power washer is probably out of the question right ? (considering it would spray high pressure water thru the vent holes into the attic).

Moving along, are there any rules against painting a white vinyl fence ? since i'd like to get one, and fine tune the color to match the house.

thanks in advance

[trader4]

I'd use a bush, similar to what you'd use to scrub a floor or similar.

You can paint it, but that defeats one of the main advantages of a vinyl fence, which is that the color is intended to be permanent. Once you start painting you're going to be subject to all the usual problems of paint, ie possible peeling, having to redo it periodically, etc.

[mm]

They might be dirtier yet if you get up close to them. :)

Absolutely. That's exactly what would happen.

What I did the first time was just peel the dust off the soffit screens, like one peels the lint off a clothes dryer screen. The second time, when I was up on the ladder replacing the gutter spikes with gutter screws, peeling didn't seem to work so well (probably because the plant life around here has changed a bit. More milkweed maybe.) so I decided to use a brush. I ended up using a rather expensive clothes brush with brass bristles. It did a good job, and because I only pulled the brush and didn't force it "backwards" bending the brass bristles, after I cleaned the brush afterwards by pulling the small amount of leftovers out with my fingers, it was as good as new when I was done.

I must have had at least a 50% restriction on air flow both times I cleaned it. My house is two stories and I don't have room for a ladder, so that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

I decided to change the color of my car, but then I hesitated because among other reasons, I was afraid the paint wouldn't stick to the bumper. Later my car got worse, and I forgot all about the bumper, and I had the car painted a different color**. So far, so good, but it has only been 2 months!

**I painted it a similar color, so that I didn't have to paint the door jambs or inside of the hood and trunk. And it came out great. The new color is sort of metallic grey/silver. The old color was driftwood, a crummy grey. So now the outside is a little flashy but the door jambs and inside trunk are dull, which is fine.

[mm]

By the way, the auto shop bakes the paint on, and I think uses 100 dollar/gallon paint. I still have doubts if the paint will last, though I don't remember seeing any peeling bumpers.