Home improvement Q&A

(MCT) — A couple of weeks ago, I tried to answer a question from a reader about removing yellow stains on wallpaper that she attributed to gas from her heating system.

I asked for your advice for a problem that I frankly had never heard of.

Here are some of your answers:

When I prepped my home for sale, my kitchen had about 20 years of grease and grime that had to be cleaned.

I wound up using Spot Shot to clean my entire kitchen. While this is a stain remover for rugs, it has a degreaser in it and it removed all that yellow gunk that accumulates in the kitchen. I used it on walls (including wallpaper), cabinets, the stove, countertops and canisters.

This stuff cut through all the grease. I actually could see the wallpaper "change color" as I proceeded around the room. My real estate agent now recommends it to her clients, after seeing how it worked on my kitchen.

I just sprayed it on a sponge and followed up with wiping it down with a paper towel. I still swear by it and use it to clean my kitchen floors as well. — Nancy Heidelberger

Bet the yellow stain is not from the gas heat, but from a heavy smoker in the house. It is almost impossible to remove nicotine from wallpaper. — Joan Douglas

Thirty-five years of fixing gas heaters, and I know the stains are from dirty filters or smokers in the house, not the gas. Try Spic 'n' Span. — PHS

Question: Someone decided that egg was a good addition to my garage door. It was winter and 20 below so washing it off was not an option until this summer. I used a pressure washer — not my best idea, because now that section of the paint looks cleaner than the rest. How do I paint the door so it still matches the house? It is a metal garage door.

Answer: So, what I gather here is that someone egged and stained your metal garage door, and now part of it looks cleaner than the rest, and if you repainted the entire garage door, the paint, being newer, would not match the rest of the house.

When I touch up paint on my cedar clapboards, I use a foam brush and just a bit of paint and sort of wash it into the surface. I'm helped by the fact that I always keep about a half-gallon of the paint I'd originally used in a tightly sealed plastic container, and that, and the technique, tend to solve shading differences.