LESLIE: Mick in Illinois, you’re on The Money Pit. What can we do for you?
MICK: It regards painting a wooden porch and steps. Last time I did it, when winter came it turned out to be terribly slippery, you know, whenever the weather would turn bad. I’d like to avoid that. If there’s anything you know that would be like a better kind of a paint or something that you would add to it.
TOM: Leslie, isn’t there a sand – like a texture that you could add to paint?
LESLIE: Yeah, you can actually add a textural sand. It’s usually right in the painting aisle with it. Mix that into your paint, put that on and you’ve got an instant sort of grip and grit to it. You still see the beautiful painted surface. It does have a little bit of texture, but it’s going to keep you from slipping and sliding.
How long ago did you paint?
MICK: Last time I did it was two winters ago – two summers ago.
LESLIE: Are you seeing things sort of blistering and peeling off or is it in pretty good condition?
MICK: Well no, it’s starting to blister and so that’s what I was looking for. I was going to let it go this winter and then when the spring time came I was going to take care of that so for next year, you know, I wouldn’t have that problem. It’s not bad now because, you know, over the last couple of years it’s been worn down some. But even when it was fresh, for that first year, it was really – you know, you’d take a step out the door and you went flying.
TOM: Well, you know it’s still – weather is still – you know, as long as it’s not freezing you can still paint, so if you do want to do it now. But I would just add the sand to that.
MICK: It’s called texture sand.
TOM: Yeah.
LESLIE: Mm-hmm. And you can find it right in the painting aisle. The only thing is when you paint in the spring time, make sure you choose a really dry period because you’re dealing with a lot of moisture in the ground from the winter; you’re dealing with a lot of moisture in the air from the rains that are going to come with the spring time. And you want to make sure that that wood is dried out very well. You want to strip down that old paint, get it to a good surface, let it dry and then put your paint on top of it.
TOM: Yeah, and I would recommend oil-based paint for steps.
MICK: (inaudible)
TOM: Because – oil-based. And the reason I say it is because as good as latex is, it doesn’t have the abrasion resistance. And especially when you add the sand to it. That …
LESLIE: Just going to be scratching at it.
TOM: Yeah, exactly. So I would use an oil-based paint and I’d add the sand to it.
MICK: I feel safer already.
TOM: (chuckling) Alright. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
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