Product Reviews - Paint and Trim

Whenever I find a product that really works for use around the small hold I make it a point to shout it out to my readers. Ya just never know they may have a use for it as well sometime.

One of the first major projects I undertook here at the Small-Hold was the renovation and repair of an old outbuilding. The building must have been built about the same time as the main house because the inside supports and such were all made from the same type of wood. About 200 year old oak planks and beams that had become so hard that not only would they kill any termite who tried to bore into them they also resisted all attempts at nails as well. The barn has this same wood in it too and my guess is that is the only reason all these structures have survived so many years without seeing any maintenance. The wood quite literally has turned to stone.

So before I could seriously get started on cleaning up and repairing this place I needed a place to store tools and such so the out building became my first real project.

I gutted it added in work benches, shelves and stuff and turned it into my reloading/shop. I then repaired and re-shingled the roof and added solar panels to make the entire building energy independent during the first year of serious work.

The last part of the project was finally completed last year when I stripped what little 50+ year old paint remnants off it, repaired the siding and repainted the little building.

The girl at the hardware store recommended DutchBoy Maxbond paint for the ultra-dried wood siding and very old paint remnants that barely clung to the building. At something like $40.00 a gallon I wasn't too sure but took the plunge. Five gallons of paint later I had doubled my projected cost margin and was feeling the pinch of project funding but I am now glad I spent that extra cash. This paint not only stayed on through one of the worst late Winters we have seen in years but in looking it over today after a year I cannot find any chips or cracks in it. Let me tell you considering how old that wood splint siding was that is a huge accomplishment.

This particular building has an exposed West and North wall on it that takes a real beating during the Winter months. I honestly was expecting some peeling at least but the paint has held out remarkably well. Much better than the  paint I used on the barn even.

If any of you are repainting or renovating some old building I would not hesitate to recommend this product.

The second product I did a review on earlier this year but I wanted to update it after a Summer of hard use.

The Black and Decker 20volt Lithium Weedeater. I picked one of these up on sale back in April for about $75.00 when I went in to replace the battery on the older 18volt model I had purchased a few years ago. A replacement battery ended up costing over $60.00 so I said screw it and got a new model.

As many of you already know I am not a big fan of small gasoline engines and the smaller the engine the less I like it which means weed eater engines are about my least favorite thing on earth. In fact I would rate gas powered weed eater engines at about the same level as Squash bugs.

Now I know many of you will drone on about maintenance and gas treatments keeping these instruments of hell going. Ya know what? Screw that, I don't have time to spend so much effort on stupid small engines like that especially when I can find a maintenance free product that works and I have found one in this little gizmo.

It comes with two lithium batteries and  with both fully charged I can knock out all the trimming around the barn, raised bed area, bee hives and other out buildings. It has some power to it as well. After this Summer of continuous use the batteries also are showing no sign of losing their charge amount either. The old 18Volt models lasted about a month before they were almost useless but this one is going strong with the same overall battery life now as the day I bought it.

My 69 year old mother and 72 year old father even love the thing and for my father to ever admit anything battery powered is worth more than spit is saying something remarkable. They can each use this to trim without getting tired like they do with the gas powered trimmers.

I have carried this trimmer in the back of my truck for use on heavy weeds around the hives in my out lying apiaries and it gets the job done there as well.

I haven't so much as touched my gas powered weed eaters since I bought this battery model and it has cut (pun intended) my small engine maintenance times way down.

Not to mention I charge the thing off my solar panels and don't need to buy gas either. Perhaps that saved me a whole 10 bucks this Summer but every little bit counts.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!