Cleaning the Air Intake Vent Cover

My husband isn't the most masipag person in the world when it comes to housework (neither am I) but I have to say that when he sets out to do something, he does it really really well. Wala akong masabi.

So this recent winter, we've noticed that the air intake vent for our central AC looks very dirty. We've been in this house for years and no one remembers how this used to look like before - was it brown ? silver ? was it clean when we moved in ? I remember hiring a company to come and clean out the vents but I don't remember them scrubbing the actual vent cover.


For sure, we knew that it wasn't clean.

Okay... I admit, I'm 100% it is dirty.

You know, the kind of dirt that builds up on the blades of the ceiling fan ? That type of dirty.

At some point, the husband gets on a ladder and starts wiping and scrubbing with a few sheets of Lysol wipes.

... and the layers of grime started coming off.

It wasn't easy though. The grime seemed "baked-on" and with that thought in mind, I decided to soak the grime with Easy-Off (my favorite go-to kitchen cleaner and degreaser).

I don't have pictures of that step where we both got on ladders and then wrapped the grate in plastic wrap, section by section, and then spraying with Easy-Off.

After letting it soak. Hubby then started scrubbing.

A couple of hours of elbow grease later, tadaaaaa!

For the record, silver pala siya.

Baseboard heater covers

Finally got around to attaching the baseboard heater covers properly.

We had known that they were loose even before we moved in. Our painter had alerted us to them and told us that it wasn't really a problem, we just had to attach them again using drywall screws.

1.5 years later, nagawa rin namin. And if I have not mentioned how slow we are yet, yep, we are slow. Kaya lang rin namin inasikaso na agad because one section had already fallen off because Swe-cha keeps stepping on them so he can climb onto the bay windows (he loves to look outside from this spot). If we didn't get it fixed right away, the heating element inside could get damaged.

As it turns out, it wasn't so difficult. We kept putting it off because we didn't think it was going to be this easy - the baseboard cover was made of some sheet-metal material and we were anxious about punching holes in it (baka mahirap). As it turns out, we found some videos on You Tube that showed how to do it, easy lang if you have the tools.

a) Look for studs in the wall, this is important. The reason why they were falling off in the first place was that they weren't anchored to studs. The baseboard covers were just screwed onto the drywall so the screws worked themselves loose over time. I suspect that all the other baseboards are attached like that as well, but since they aren't in high traffic areas, they're still secure.

We used our stud finder to locate the studs and marked their locations with tape.

b) Since the baseboard covers are made of sheet metal, we used a drill to make pilot holes. We didn't drill all the way into the wood.

c) Then we got All-Purpose construction screws. These ones we got are rated for wood, concrete, metal and drywall.

While purchasing screws, I realized how much variety there is - there's a whole wall of them in our local home depot. It also occurred to me how expensive they could be. For exeample, we paid $3 for 15 of these screws - that's roughly P8 / screw = 4 pandesals (nagtakam tuloy ako bigla while I was doing the math), kaya wag sayangin!

The next  bigger pack of drywall screws (not all-purpose ones) cost $8 for a 1-lb box, not sure how many screws are there. We didn't need that much so it does not make sense to get a 1 lb box.

I've never really had a need to buy screws when we were still in Manila (home projects were overseen by Dad, he took care of everything) but are they that expensive in the Philippines as well ? No wonder, Dad has a habit of picking up loose screws and nails that he sees anywhere and then saving them. I picked up this habit from him too so I have a jar of orphan screws I picked up and don't really have to buy unless I need more than a few. Needless to say, I did recover and save the loose drywall screws that were used to attach the baseboard covers originally.

d) and then just because I like being sigurista, I also got a pack of washers (30 zinc washers for $1.xx).

We secured 3 sections of baseboard heaters in the living room this afternoon before our drill ran out of juice and had to be recharged. I did an inspection and looks like we still have 1 section left to do in the dining room.

Labor Day Weekend General Cleaning

We didn't really have a great start to our Labor day weekend as Swe-cha has been out of sorts since Thursday afternoon. We already brought him to the doctor yesterday and doc thinks it may be viral though she did give us a prescription for antibiotics which we will be filling if Swe-cha's fever persists till Sunday.

He's feeling a lot better now than he did yesterday and was doing cartwheels (literally) all afternoon and if it weren't for his temperature and poor appetite, you wouldn't think that anything is wrong with him today. I hope that he feels much better tomorrow and we won't have to resort to the antibiotics anymore.

On a good note, hubby did great today.

He cut the grass, took care of the fallen leaves, applied fertilizer to the lawn and afterwards, he WOWed me and cleaned our bedroom.

He really got into cleaning when he decided to bring the leaf blower in and used that to clean. I have to admit that I was skeptical at first and thought it was overkill (hubby's normal mode) but I didn't say a word - hey, who would be stupid enough to complain when the husband cleans ?

But I should really share this next photo and let the results speak for themselves - a picture says a thousand words, I tell ya.

This cringe-worthy pile of dust bunnies, grit, dust and dirt is the last batch of what came out of the baseboard fins after using the leaf blower on them.

Yes, I said "last" batch, we had already swept out / vacuumed the earlier ones and take note, all these came out AFTER vacuuming.

And again, allow me to *cringe*, this picture really sends shivers running down my spine.

After all this was cleaned up and our room was left spic & span, hubby broaches the subject of getting more power tools. He had been wanting to buy an air compressor for the longest time and I didn't really think it was practical so I wouldn't say yes.  This time ? He used the magic words - "you know, if I had an air compressor, I could use that to clean our baseboards..."**

Oo na. You can start shopping around for an air compressor - basta ba kasama ang regular cleaning.

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** the leaf blower is also a leaf vacuum, it's still brand-spanking new and haven't been used to vacuum leaves yet so hubby felt that it was clean enough and it was okay to use in our bedroom. He doesn't want to use this inside after it's been used to vacuum outside.