Disclosure: this post may contain affiliate links, which means I may make a commission if you decide to make a purchase through one of my links, at no cost to you.
SORRY, THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED. Congrats to the five winners! Please send me your details so I can get your info to the giveaway sponsor!
When I first moved into the “Ugg-Duck”, there were drafts coming through nearly every window. And considering that my closing took place just before New Years, I got a very freezing cold welcome into my new house. And to top it off, the primary bedroom was the worst!
Yes, that’s a gap in my front window (sorry for the blurry pic – this is long before I started paying attention to decent blog photos and I was probably shivering at the time). All the caulk in the world wouldn’t have helped me solve this kind of problem.
GREAT STUFF™ is a maker of expanding foam sealants. I’ve used these products all throughout this very drafty house with two different intentions:
To seal up major (and costly) air flow problems. The old adage of “letting bought air out” certainly rang true for me in the early days of this house. All the heating and cooling I was going to be paying for would be slipping right out through these gaps, and my bank account was going to feel the burn if I didn’t do something about it.
To clean up various other unexpected gaps where caulk wouldn’t suffice:
- There were holes from old knots in my wooden garage door, and painting it white only made them more obvious.
- In the last 30 years of this house settling, there were other exterior gaps that made the house look old and saggy. Aside from aesthetic reasons, it would probably also let bugs and other unwelcome critters in if I didn’t do something about it.
- There was a mysterious small hole in the upstairs hallway ceiling. Remains a mystery as to how it got there.
- And the builders who put my staircase together weren’t concerned about making the treads tight with the risers (they covered all of these issues with carpet), so when I began painting, I needed something that would fill these uneven areas and allow me to get a painted staircase that didn’t look crooked.
- Fill other drafty areas in the house that weren’t on external walls (but could feel air flow and needed something flexible)
As you can probably imagine, an expanding foam sealant like GREAT STUFF does the trick for these kinds of issues very well. So when the company contacted me about a giveaway, I was immediately on board (you can see my pros and cons list in my review here). Seemed like perfect timing when we’re all heading outdoors to take care of our spring projects. Who wouldn’t want to take care of care of draft problems… for free?
And better yet, five of you are getting a bundle of these products. So, let’s get on with it!
EACH GIVEAWAY BUNDLE INCLUDES: GREAT STUFFTM Pest Block, GREAT STUFF™ Gaps & Cracks and GREAT STUFFTM Work WipesNUMBER OF WINNERS: FiveSHIPS: Sorry, U.S. onlyGIVEAWAY CLOSES: Next Wednesday, April 17th at midnightTO ENTER: Leave a comment to this question (or heck, make up your own question & answer it): What are your DIY home maintenance plans for spring?One entry per person please (so no requirements to follow on Facebook or tweet about this or anything, though I would love it if you did)
Want a few more ideas of how you can use GREAT STUFF sealants around the house? They’ve provided a handy air audit checklist here.
Good luck!
Disclaimer: I was compensated to host this giveaway, but all opinions (no matter how much I ramble) are 100% my own. I have used this brand several times over, and keep relying on them as an expanding, flexible alternative to more complicated and more expensive DIY projects (like replacing and perfectly fitting new stair treads when all I need to do is fill a darn gap too wide for caulk). It’s all about avoiding frustration, people. See my other disclaimers if you like on my page specifically for that.
This stuff looks awesome! Would love to try it!
4 huge and hideous evergreen shrubs against the front of my house. THEY MUST DIE
I need to do some painting and then some seeding in large bare spots on the lawn
Great give-away! We are planning to start tackling our back yard, which currently consists of mud, weeds and zero privacy. Fence is first on deck!
Our 2 goals for this spring are to work on our backyard (it’s a hot mess) and to insulate our garage to block out the heat!
I’m getting my house ready for adoption home studies. Like you, I’m a single girl trying to figure all this stuff out and this looks like a product I *NEED*.
Dudes…we need to box in the grecian columns on our porch. And figure out how to make grass grow with three dogs running on it…
I have two large bushes that I’ve hated forever that took quite a beating this spring from ice and heavy snow. Those buddies are going away!
Get a new water softener now that we know ours isn’t doing crap, remodel the bathroom, get our garden planted, and outside looking good. I didn’t know they had a pest block! We’ve used their Gaps & Cracks to patch our home, but we have some mice that keep getting in the garage and shed. Heading to check that out (but still secretly hoping I win)
Our goal is to find a home to maintain!
My husband, Chris, and I just moved into a new home with our boys. Even though it was built in 79, it’s in rather great shape. Still we’ll be looking through the inspectors list. Adding extra insulation in the attic, caulking where the glass shower meets the window in our bathroom, and general nail banging all the maverick nails trying to stand out and stub toes.
Congrats Lyndsey! Random.org chose you as one of the winners! Please email me and provide me with your shipping address so that I can relay that to the giveaway sponsors.
Does probate count? I’m putting my grandmother’s house (empty for ten years) through probate right now and I don’t want to put much more money into it until I get it in my name. This weekend I’m working on brush removal and pest control. The yard was sooo overgrown when I started last May, but now it nearly looks normal.
Home maintenance? Lady – just in this past week I’ve had 2! Retaining walls tore out and replaced, restoration experts consulted for aluminum siding repair, an handy man and roofers involved for fiberglass roof panels, and just now refrigeration repair guys left because apparently dust and gunk can collect in the defrost filter and cause a refrigerator to flood.
So I’m hoping to fix a few drafts, mulch a flower bed (or 5), open a beer & call it good.
…untill the next project…
The DIY home maintenance plans for spring would take me that long to type. As in, all spring. Immediate items include replacing the janked sliding and french doors with matching french doors, removing the non-working hot tub, and cleaning out the garage. Oh boy.
I’m putting my house on the market this year, so this spring I need to tackle all of the projects that I’ve put off for three years. Ugh! Replacing wood rot, fixing the lawn-to-weeds ratio, patching ceiling cracks, and a ton of painting. Oh boy.
Imagine a newbie DIY-er (and I mean green as could be) standing in front of my childhood house with my first small tool box. The house is in much need of repair and I need to sell it this summer. The list is so very long. I’m trying to be brave and channel my inner kick butt DIY diva and avoid curling up in a ball on the ground.
I need this stuff! There is a hole way too big for caulk in my entryway closet and I feel the draft!
Congrats Sara! Random.org chose you as our winner! Please email me and provide me with your shipping address so that I can relay that to the giveaway sponsors. Hopefully soon, your closet won’t have a draft anymore!
More on the maintenance side than the DIY side, I need too plug a few old holes in the siding where the gutter was previously hung and seal closed an old microwave vent that is no longer used.
We’re definitely tackling our backyard this spring/summer – add some raised beds, new planting beds, and either reseed or tear out the lawn. We’ll also be putting a wooden fence in (hallelujah!), since right now we just have chain link and everyone can see our everything!
Pest Block? 0.0 I’m tired of fighting ants in our house. I think I’m going to have to try that stuff. So give it to me because getting the mold out of the kitchen by redoing my floor has left me BROKE. :)
I am doing some landscaping around the house as well as extra sealing around the exterior to reduce drafts.
Lots and lots of planting. In the garden, in the flower beds, everywhere! It seems like my husband and I spend every dime on plants this time of year! And I think this is the year I finally paint my (boring) front door.
We are reseeding our lawn. It’s pretty bare in spots and with our kids getting to the age where they want to always be outside…it would be nice to have somewhere for them to play. And although not an outdoor thing, we are also doing lots of spring cleaning in the house. We’re organizing all the closets in the house. That’s a big task.
I have bugged my husband in the past about the gaps around the windows. If I win this I will take it as a sign to fix them my darn self. ;) Thanks!
We’re finishing the paint job around the house, finishing the shelves in the den, hanging the cow print, mulching, caulking (snicker…), and creating a rubber mulch play area in the yard all before Red’s/your birthday. Ready? GO!
We just bought a short sale home (fixer upper for sure!) so I am CERTAIN I could use gallons of this :)
Planting something in the empty flowerbed along the front of my house (the last plants died a few months ago) and painting all of the baseboards, crown molding, and window trim inside the house (the last owner painted it a really ugly shade of purple/pink). I have a never-ending list of stuff to do to my house because because it is over fifty years old, but these are the two items I am working on for now.
we are finishing up a major renovation, adding a master suite to our attic. So the DIY list has a million items on it!
Our house was built in 1922 and has settled and weathered over the years. We have more than a few gaps/cracks/holes/what the’s to fill. We also have some peeling paint that will need to be dealt with sooner than later.
Landscaping is first on the list, repainting the front door is second and painting the bathroom vanity is third although that one is less home maintenance and more “cover the hideous vomit colored cabinets til we can afford a remodel.”
We are going to installing a hood over our stove (scary because we’re cutting through an exterior wall!!). We are also going to be insulating the rim joists in our basement using… wait for it… Great Stuff.
This reminds me we should check the energy efficiency of our home and see if there is anything that needs to be addressed soon. As of now we have more spring projects planned than we have time for. If we have to narrow it down I hope we can focus on the floors.
I’m planning to re-tile my shower, ORB some door knobs and pressure wash my driveway!
Congrats Sarah! Random.org chose you as one of the winners! Please email me and provide me with your shipping address so that I can relay that to the giveaway sponsors.
We are finally going to be starting on the kitchen remodel. Woo-Hoo!
I am repainting all the trim in my 2600 sq ft house all by myself. Now after looking a the information about Great Stuff, I or should I say YOU, have added about 10 news jobs to my to do list. Oh well busy hands and all that.
Everything needs to be painted, and we need to landscape the front yard.
I need to fix my door jamb that got cracked by one of the kids.
We are working in the garden this year, building raised beds and laying out the trellis for beans and cucumbers, lots of work.
We are painting the entire house, making a crawl space a closet, and landscaping. Still trying to talk the husband into chickens….
We are working on updating the entrance room and adding a half bath. Would love this!
We’re working on the yard outside and painting trim inside. Thanks for the giveaway! GreatStull looks great.
Congrats Merry! Random.org chose you as one of the winners! Please email me and provide me with your shipping address so that I can relay that to the giveaway sponsors.
I need some Great Stuff. Actually, I could use it this week-end. Lots of chores.
Plans? I laugh in the face of plans. So I make Planz. In the hope of getting at least one thing done. Amazingly, I need to replace a door and its framing (contractor put it in crooked) and repair all the damage under the siding by leaking water and air from said door. Which will require at least one can of Great Stuff. Also need to finish the master bath (gutted shower from bad tile job) and paint the inside of the garage. I might get one of them done over the summer. Great Stuff will definitely help.
I am painting the entire interior of my house. Then I am going to hire someone to install floor tile. After that I will put in new door trims and baseboard (hopefully all this year.)
Congrats Anna! Random.org chose you as one of the winners! Please email me and provide me with your shipping address so that I can relay that to the giveaway sponsors.
My spring/summer project is to declutter! I also am planning on learning how to weather my doors as I felt a lot of cold air this winter.
I have wooden siding with some gaps on the bottom of some of the panels so something to fill in those gaps would be amazing since box elder bugs are building a home in there!
We are going to remove some shrubs and plant a tree, paint the front stair railings, and treat the deck. The top story of the deck is in worse shape than the bottom because it is older, so I am thinking about doing a stencil of some sort on the floor of it to disguise it a little.
I’m painting our front entryway and hallway a nice light tan color (to replace the awful light blue/white color that it is now), doing some major yard work (we have a MASSIVE juniper right next to the driveway, and I want it gone along with all of the ivy in the front yard), and possibly painting the exterior of the house (most of the house is brown with, get this, ORANGE TRIM. Who the heck decided that that looked good?!). And I’m sure I could use some GREAT STUFF somewhere in there. :)
I wish we could make plans but right now we may have a leak under our house which is $$$ to fix. So we’ll see. If not, we may be building a pergola out back!
We use GREAT STUFF all the time! So we could always benefit from having some on hand.
Our Spring project is building a deck. I can’t wait to have dinner out there watching the sun set!
Almost all of our projects are curb-appeal projects. We bought a foreclosure and spent the past year working on the inside, but the outside has been neglected too – so we are enjoying the weather and working outside (before GA gets too stinking hot).
We’ve done a lot of outside work so far…moving the raised bed garden over and planting fruit trees, mulch, etc but we have a baby coming in August so I need to focus on putting a nursery together :)
My Aunt is OBSESSED with this stuff in her 17th century home, so I just bought myself a can (for my 19th century home). I cannot wait to start using this stuff! I didn’t know they made a pest control one!
Spring projects consist of getting our roof deck ready for some parties – planters with flowers, new patio set, etc.
We’re planning on re-working the patio this spring! I’m really excited (but terrified) to undertake this HUGE project, but we really need an outdoor living/eating space!
We close on our “new” house on 4/16. It’s a 1959 model with a lot of original stuff inside. So our spring fling consists of redoing two bathrooms, the kitchen, garage and then tiling the whole she-bang (is that term politically correct anymore?).
I found you through Kit’s website and you’re both hilarious and informative. I’m making both sites mandatory reading for my wife as she has signed on to help me do all this work. Good luck with your stairs, thank God we’re a ranch style, so I only have one step to worry about.
DOnna and maRK, or as we refer to ourselves…Team DORK!
I will be re-building a deck this spring. And maybe a patio. And then there’s the lawn…
We just moved into our new house. Our (long) list includes new trim around the windows, painting, and gardening (to name a few). This stuff would certainly come in handy!
I plan to replace all the paneling in my 2200 sq ft home with drywall and replace all the flooring….. there are lots of steps to accomplish this, but you know them already so I won’t bore you with the details. :)
We are finishing up our DIY home maintenance plans… We just added on a new room to the back of our house and put hard wood floors on the entire first floor. We had a contractor come in and do the “big” stuff (new room and floors), but I have been painting and fixing up the baseboards so they don’t look so shabby. I have also painted my entire first floor (went from bland builder’s white to some color)! All that is left is cleaning all the dust and decorating. I have several other DIY projects planned and am hoping to start tackling them as soon as the renovation is 100% complete.
While moving furniture last week and painting we realized that we have a window that is leaking, leaking to the point that we have mold on the carpet. So our maintenance issues are repairing window, wall, carpet, EVERYTHING. I hate surprises. We also have new gutters on our schedule this spring. Its just money, right?
Pressure washing and staining the deck!
So many projects to do this spring! Including but not limited to: insulating the attic and crawl space (and obvs sealing some cracks along the way), painting everything in sight, laminate floors and dishwasher in the kitchen, and landscaping the yard. In addition to other things. But I’ll stop there, because it gets boring. :)
I had just written an entire list of things this new twin mom had to do and my computer froze. So add that to the list of things to do this Spring. Our house is from 1954, on a concrete slab and with no installation in the walls, and to say it’s settled is an understatement. Now that we have the twin princesses, we have to make this house safe and do it an an affordable fashion. So a short list for us is sealing settlement cracks in the ceiling, sealing all the windows and doors (settling has caused the grout to crack away from the walls as well), organizing, sodding yard, building bookshelf/toy chest in the now playroom (once gym/man cave). A whole lot of things to do in a short amount of time and now on an even small budget. So anything free is always appreciated! :)
I would use it in repairing all the damage done to our floors (down and including subfloor) from the neighbors clogged septic tank we seem to share?! This was allowed when our modular homes were built. We were away for 4 days so you can imagine water and ?? Coming up from around the toilets and into the bathtubs etc. A huge mess that we are still dealing with. We have to repair walls, replace carpets, flooring and rip out cabinets :/
My 70’s home is begging for new exterior doors. Talk about a draft…..I’ve been using duct tape to seal when the wind really blows. LOL. Its time for me to learn how to install a door and I’m sure I will be needing sealant around the frame.
Here in New Orleans, we’re already close to the end of the nice spring weather and bracing for the heat of the summer. We’re hoping to paint the outside of our house this summer – it’s a huge project!
treating my teak furniture, washing my windows & screens, & coincidentally… sealing all the drafty spots in my significantly drafty condo! (This stuff would come in handy for sure.)