Sometimes DIY can mean “Do In Yourself”

A few years back, the contractor I hired to refinish my deck proved inept. After his crew cleaned the deck, we had to chase them away twice when they showed up to apply stain to still-wet deck boards. And the stain they applied was clear stuff that didn’t last past a year before it was no longer protective.

With that memory in mind and despite a bad shoulder (still hurting from some bush trimming I’d done in early June) and a sore body (aching from the recent digging and gravel laying I’d done on the site for my new shed), I just refinished my deck myself.

Cleaning the deck with a powerful rented pressure washer went off without a hitch—mostly. The three times that I didn’t tighten the tip of the wand, the tip went sailing off when I pulled the trigger to spray. (One might never find its way out of the pachysandra.) And when I rested a hand in the wrong place while restarting the engine, I got a curiously shaped blister. And even with help from my teenage son, Andrew, I tweaked my back when lifting the 70-pound washer into and out of our little Toyota.

Still, I fared better overall than my sneakers (shown), and a couple of days later I feel pretty good. What’s more, I used the pressure washer to clean a retaining wall, the front steps, a trellis, and parts of the driveway. And unlike some of my Consumer Reports colleagues and respondents to an Angie’s List survey of DIYers who mess up projects and sometimes land in the emergency room, I did the job well—and at reasonable cost—without a trip to the ER.

As for my new shed, it was supposed to be delivered and installed yesterday, but the job got rescheduled for this weekend since the lead man on the crew—a professional, mind you—hurt himself.

My shoulder thanks me for not taking on that job, too.—Ed Perratore | e-mail | Twitter | Forums | Facebook

Essential information: If you’re cleaning your deck or other surfaces with a pressure washer, follow our safety advice, and when you’re shopping for a pressure washer, read our buying tips. And before you buy a new finish for your deck, check out our latest report on deck stains (available to subscribers).

Tip of the Day: Be safe when grilling

Your grill might have served you well so far this summer, but a little bit of servicing now will ensure safe and effective cooking and protect its looks far into the fall and beyond. Here's how:

If your grill has become hard to light or the flame isn't as strong as it could be, check for blockages in the tubes that lead to the burner. Clear obstructions by using a wire or pipe cleaner and pushing debris through to the main part of the burner. Spiders love to build webs and nests in these areas; be sure to check for these, especially if you've just returned from vacation. You'll also want to inspect the hoses for cracks, holes, and sharp bends and replace it if necessary. Then do the following:

• Check the grills for gas leaks by mixing a small amount of dishwashing liquid and water in a spray bottle. Spray the hose and connections, and with the hose connected to the propane tank, open the gas. If bubbles appear, you need to replace your hose or fix a loose connection.

• Have your grill serviced if the burner flames are not blue. A yellow flame indicates clogged air inlets or that burners must be adjusted. 

• Clean the drip pan and remove the grates and burners and clean the firebox; grease and food often collect there.

• Clean both sides of the grates before cooking and after, too. Use a stiff wire brush, or a nylon brush for porcelain-coated, cast-iron grates. (Hint: To keep food from sticking on grates and making them harder to clean, fold two paper towels into a pad and dip in a little bowl of neutral-flavored vegetable oil, like canola oil. After you've preheated the grill and right before you cook, draw the pad across grates using a pair of tongs.)

• Examine the propane tank. Heavy rust, dents, or greenish-orange corrosion means you need a new tank.

If a fire does break out and you can safely turn off the gas, shut it down, the National Fire Protection Association advises. If flames are contained in a grill, close the lid to smother the flames. Douse small flare-ups with a spray of water, a bucket of sand, or the hose or fire extinguisher. If a fire breaks out and moves beyond your grill, call your fire department immediately and keep away from the grill.—Kimberly Janeway | e-mail | Twitter | Forums | Facebook

Essential information: Find out how to avoid the five most common grilling mistakes and watch the video above for more grilling advice.

Top Gear for Dad: Our best-performing Father's Day gifts

Don't feel guilty—you're definitely not the only one who's yet to buy Father's Day gifts. These gas grills (watch the video buying guide, below), cordless drills, mowers and tractors, leaf blowers, and string trimmers will give the dads in your life the most bang for your hard-earned bucks and will come in handy during your summer staycation or paycation.—Gian Trotta | e-mail | Twitter | Forums | Facebook

Gas Grills
The Brinkmann 810-8410S gas grill, $200, provides very good cooking performance, lots of shelf space and a five-year warranty on its burners. The Fiesta Blue Ember FG50069-U409 and the Char-Broil Red 463250509, each $450, beat out grills costing as much as $1,400. If you often cook for a crowd, consider the larger Char-Broil Commercial Quantum 463247209, $500, which offers a lifetime burner warranty. More details on these and other impressive performers and coverage of wow-factor features are available in our June 2009 report on gas grills (available to subscribers).

Cordless Drills
The top-rated Panasonic EY6432GQKW combines performance and light weight, but its $200 cost might bust your budget. Consider instead the Craftsman 11588; it's been marked down to $99 at Sears. Or you can further downsize to the Ryobi HJP001K, $80, a compact drill that's a good alternative to pricey cordless screwdrivers.

One of our tested cordless tool kits, the Ryobi P841, is on sale for $129 at Home Depot. The included drill and circular and reciprocating saw were only average performers but should be adequate for most household work; otherwise, consider the heavier duty DeWalt DC4PAKA, $433 at Amazon.com.

If dad needs storage space, this Kobalt 53" Stainless Steel Tool Chest, $1,700, might make an extravagant gift. It boasts a Pioneer sound system, an iPod jack, a 1.6-cubic-foot refrigerator, and other bells and whistles.

Lawn and Yard Care
If your yard is small, a corded electric mower like the Black & Decker MM875, $230,  might be a good choice. Among gas-powered mowers, the self-propelled Toro Super Recycler 20092, $500, was easy to power up hilly lawns.

The Craftsman 28828, $1,750, John Deere LA115, $1,700, and Cub Cadet LTX1040 13RX90AR, $1,500, lawn tractors held their own against mowers costing $1,000 to $2,000 more. (Read this report and watch this video on lawn-tractor safety.)

The electric Black & Decker GH1000 string trimmer, $70, is easy to handle. The gas-powered Stihl HomeScaper Series FS45, $140, has dual cutting lines that made short work of tough weeds. The Toro Ultra Blower Vac 51599, $70, blows away the competition in performance, and its metal impeller can handle debris that can damage other impellers.

Essential information: For Father's Day, try out these easy, delicious recipes for the grill. And check out these suggestions for electronics gifts, courtesy of our colleagues at the Consumer Reports Electronics blog.

Tip of the Day: Cut your exposure to arsenic in pressure-treated lumber

If you have a deck, playground set, or other outdoor structure that was built before 2004 with pressure-treated lumber, you should pay attention to the new advice from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission on how to mitigate hazards associated with chromated copper arsenate (CCA) used to preserve wood.

As covered in this article on carcinogens and pressure-treated lumber, CCA, used for decades to make wood resistant to insects and rot, was found to contain known carcinogens. While the federal government did not order a recall of CCA-treated lumber, the outdoor-lumber industry voluntarily halted its production for residential use at the beginning of 2004. Also at the time, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency acknowledged the importance of reducing exposure to CCA.

The EPA and CPSC have since completed a study of stains and sealants. "The new information is that we want people using oil-based or water-based deep penetrating stains about once a year to help people trap the arsenic into CCA-treated lumber that is still out there," says Scott Wolfson, the CPSC's deputy director of public affairs.

Our ratings of deck stains (available to subscribers) include semitransparent stains like the ones Wolfson recommends. Be sure to follow proper safety precautions when working with CCA-treated wood.—Gian Trotta | e-mail | Twitter | Forums

Essential information: Even if your deck doesn't contain CCA-treated lumber, you should perform an annual safety check and clean underneath it. Also check out our report on decking materials.

Weekend Project: Using a pressure washer for easy spruce-ups

This item is the first in a new series on weekend projects, simple, quick jobs you can do to improve your home and save yourself some money. We'll post them early in the week so you have time to assemble the gear and supplies to get the job done. Send in an e-mail to tell us what kinds of chores and repairs you'd like us to cover.

Living in a newer home has its perks. I don't have to worry about any of these five major home repairs you shouldn't ignore—at least for now.

In the yard, however, it's a different story. Over the course of the last few years, a steady stream of pollen, sap, and leaves had morphed into a messy green layer on the roof of my tool shed and on my daughter's playground set.

Following the savvy advice in our June 2009 story on simple home projects, I successfully cleaned the asphalt roofing shingles on the shed using a soft brush and a bleach solution to avoid damaging the shingles.

But using a stiffer-bristled brush and a bleach solution (as we recommend to clean outdoor decking) didn't make much of an impression on the playground set. I knew I'd have to haul out my pressure washer. But first I watched our video (right) on safe, effective pressure washing; check out this video whether you own or are thinking of renting one of these powerful machines.

Before firing up the machine, I donned, gloves, sturdy shoes, and hearing protection, then started cleaning. I held the sprayer about 2 feet away from the lumber, bringing it no closer than 6 inches so as to not damage the wood. If you notice that the spray is damaging wood fibers, either pull back the sprayer or widen the spray pattern.

And be careful where you point the stream so as to avoid the kind of serious injury detailed in the video—a gasoline-powered pressure washer emits a stream of water much more powerful than a regular garden hose.—Gian Trotta | e-mail | Twitter | Forums

Essential information: See our pressure washers buying advice and ratings (available to subscribers).

Propane dealers don't want you to get a bloated feeling

Feel like you've run out of propane for your gas grill sooner than you used to? No, nothing has happened to the propane you cook with. Rather, it seems as if propane suppliers are filling tanks with less gas than they used to, according to this recent Associated Press article.

The 20-pound tanks used on millions of gas grills have typically been filled with 17 to 18 pounds of propane (for safety reasons they can't hold a full 20 pounds). But when oil prices and propane futures soared last year, propane suppliers including big names Amerigas and Blue Rhino started filling tanks with only 15 pounds of gas, ostensibly to save you from having to pay more for a tank. There was no commensurate drop in price as oil and  propane has become cheaper, and Home Depot would not tell the AP whether the retailer plans to go back to 17- to 18-pound level of gas.

The average price for a tank exchange is $20 to $25, and if you refill your own tank, the cost is about $17 to $20, according to the AP story.

So be aware that you might be getting 11 to 12 percent less propane for the money when you exchange your propane tank. If you refill your own tank(s), ask the propane supplier to put the usual 17 to 18 pounds of gas in the tank. And when you're having a big party and want to ensure you don't run out of fuel for the grill, consider getting a second tank as a backup.

Some grills are fitted with scales to help you determine how much propane is left in the tank. And the Fiesta Blue Ember iQue FGQ65079-U403 we tested for our latest report on gas grills (report and ratings available to subscribers) uses sonar to gauge the amount of propane in the tank; a display shows how much cooking time remains based on the gas level. The grill costs $900 and is our top-rated large model. e-mail | Twitter

Essential information: Read more about shrinking items at the Consumerist.com. And post a comment below to let us know about products and services for which you think you're getting less for the money.

CPSC announces recall of ABTCo., Veranda, and WeatherBest composite decking and railings

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission today announced the recall of 48 million linear feet of ABTCo., Veranda, and WeatherBest composite decking and railings. The materials, made by Nashville-based Louisiana-Pacific, can prematurely deteriorate and break (see photo), posing a serious risk to anyone on a deck made of the recalled decking and railings.

To date, Louisiana-Pacific has received reports that 37 decks have broken, causing 14 injuries that include a broken wrist, a sprained ankle, and minor lacerations and bruises.

The recalled products were sold at the Home Depot and building-product dealers nationwide from January 2005 to August 2008. Colors include Tuscan Walnut/Chestnut, Driftwood Grey/Greystone, Pacific Cedar, and Western Redwood. Veranda is made by several companies; only Louisiana-Pacific-made Veranda has been recalled.

If you own a deck made of the recalled materials, contact the manufacturer for a free inspection; call 888-325-1184 from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET, Monday through Friday. If your decking has prematurely deteriorated, Louisiana-Pacific will arrange for free replacement. (To determine whether your decking is subject to the recall, look for tags or stamps at the end of boards. Your invoice can also help the manufacturer's customer-service reps identify the product you own.)

For more details on the recall, go to the CPSC's recall page or the manufacturer's Web site. e-mail | Twitter

Essential information: Veranda was one of the materials covered in our last report on decking. Read the story for more information on choosing a decking product and advice on deck-construction safety.

Grilling and cancer risks: Avoid burning or charring food

Lots of folks use their gas and charcoal grills year-round. But now that the warmer weather's here, I'll bet that more of you have extracted your outdoor cookers from storage or removed their winter wardrobe. (Look for our new report on grills, including a review of a pellet-fired smoker, in the June 2009 issue of Consumer Reports, online and on newsstands on May 5. In the meanwhile, watch our video buyer's guide, right.)

Before you throw your next outdoor party, be sure your grill is safe and ready for the burgers, kebabs, fillets, and other victuals you'll cook with it. Avoid these common grilling mistakes and try our easy, delicious recipes, including tips for making the perfect steak.

Safety should always be top of mind when you're grilling, and it's not just related to a fire or burn risk. It turns out that people who regularly eat burned or charred red meat have a 60 percent higher risk of pancreatic cancer, as reported in this eye-opening post on our Health blog.

Grilling food until its overcooked, burned, or charred can transform amino acids and other natural substances in the foods into compounds called heterocyclic amines, which have been shown to cause cancer in laboratory animals. Some studies suggest that ingesting these and other compounds might boost the risk of breast, colon, pancreatic, prostate, and stomach cancer. Read more about these concerns in "Grilling Basics: Don't Char the Meat."

One way to ensure that you don't overcook food is to use a meat thermometer. We tested 11 different thermometers, both instant-read models and those you leave in food as it cooks.

In our tests, the best models were off by 1°F or less on average; the lowest-scoring ones, by more than 4°F. Our technicians also measured how quickly each thermometer adjusted to temperature changes and checked the temperature range each thermometer could read. Check out the report on meat thermometers to get all the details and see the ratings (available to subscribers) to find the best model.—Steven H. Saltzman | e-mail | Twitter

For spring work around the house, timing can be key

Timing is key when it comes to doing work around the house, and being savvy about when to undertake certain jobs can cut your costs and make your projects go more smoothly this spring and summer. For example, replacing an old roof (shown) in the spring will allow you to avoid the seasonal shortages in plywood and shingles that can occur during hurricane season, which runs from June through November 30. Summer roofing crews are also more likely to include temporary workers who might lack the skill of full-time roofers.

Here's a list of other tips from contributors to the Home & Garden blog:

"You want to get exterior painting done before the pros get busier—even in this economy," says Bob Markovich, adding, "For interior painting and floor refinishing, which people often do themselves, warmer weather lets you open the windows for venting," he adds.

Temperatures in the 60s and 70s are ideal for pouring concrete while spring rains provide the constant water needed to cure it effectively, notes Celia Kuperszmid Lehrman. Spring-laid concrete gets the most curing time before facing winter's freeze/thaw cycles and snow-melt products.

Of course, not all spring rains are beneficial. Steven H. Saltzman advises installing a sump pump in the basement and Ed Perratore suggests you keep a wet/dry vacuum on hand to deal with spring flooding.

Perratore also just had his screen doors replaced—a move he timed to avoid peak season for flying insects. Pat Slaven says you should store sweaters in old cotton pillowcases instead of expensive and environmentally unfriendly plastic bins. "The cotton lets the wool breathe, which helps sweaters last longer, but it still keeps moths out," she says.

Kimberly Janeway suggests that if you need to replace your refrigerator, do your research now and buy in May and June, when stores try to clear out old inventory as they make room for new models—you might be able to get a better deal.

Out in the yard, Peter Sawchuk wants you to get your soil tested to determine its pH level. "In most cases the correction is with relatively inexpensive lime—better to invest in lime in the spring rather than fertilizer later," he says. Getting the right pH level also increases the effectiveness of the fertilizer you use.

Other must-do spring projects include cleaning your gutters and under your deck and inspecting and maintaining your central and window-mount air conditioning.

If your deck or playground set was built of pressure-treated lumber before 2004, there’s a chance the wood contains arsenic. But you can apply a coat of semitransparent sealer that will penetrate and seal the wood.—Gian Trotta

Essential Information: Our Complete Lawn & Yard Guide offers more low-cost, high-return ways to enjoy the outdoors.

International Builders' Show Product Preview: Woodshades Composite Fencing

Wood looks great in outdoor applications like decks and fencing, but there's no getting around the scrubbing or power-washing, and refinishing you need to do every couple of years. Woodshades composite fencing offers "the look and feel of real wood without the maintenance," says a spokesperson for Lowe's, the exclusive retailer.

Woodshades fencing comes in a variety of styles and barwood, cedar, and redwood colors. All contain UV inhibitors but will undergo some slight color lightening over time, according to the manufacturer, Fence America. The product is available now by special order at any Lowe's; in New England and on the West Coast, Lowe's stores already stock the fencing, which costs $3.37 per picket or $79 per panel.

We're always dubious about claims that an exterior product can be truly maintenance free, which is why we perform our tests. Some of the composite decking we've tested, for instance, has developed were stained by mildew growth within a year after installation, especially portions frequently in the shade when installed in areas with a humid climate. And one product, ChoiceDek, has been involved in a class action over mold and mildew growth. If mildew is a concern in your area, consider purchasing a material with proven mildew-resistance and applying a stain developed specifically for composite products.—Ed Perratore