#2366 – Survey Dishes Up Dishwasher Ratings | 3 Common Heating Mistakes | Affordable Marble Surfaces

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Tune in for a treasure trove of home improvement tips in this episode, where we discuss blunders to avoid in home heating, dish about top-rated dishwashers, and share the secret to creating attractive and affordable marble surfaces. From cozy warmth to sparkling dishes and elegant countertops, we’re here to help you make your house a dream home!

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Dishwasher Ratings: A new survey dishes up details about the top-rated dishwashers.
Home Heating: Find out 3 common home heating mistakes that are driving up your energy bills.
Marble Surfaces: Get the beautiful look of marble surfaces easily and without the high cost.

Podcast Transcript

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0:00:31	TOM: Coast to coast and floorboards to shingles. This is the Money Pit Home Improvement show. I’m Tom Kraeutler.
0:00:36	LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.
0:00:38	TOM: And we are so happy to be here with you today, helping you fix up home sweet home just in time for the holidays. If you’ve got a question, we’ll reach out to us right now by going to moneypit.com/ask or call us at one 888-Money-Pit. Well, guys, we’ve got a good show planned for you, starting with as the days get shorter and those temperatures start to sink, most households find their home heating bills are starting to run out of control. And even worse, sometimes it feels like your house just stays cold no matter how high you crank that heat. So we’re going to share three simple ways that you can cut those heating costs and get comfortable.
0:01:12	LESLIE: And dishwashers can get a pretty hard workout during the holiday season. If you’re ready for a replacement. A new Consumer Reports survey says paying more for a dishwasher won’t guarantee a more reliable machine. We’re going to explain just ahead.
0:01:27	TOM: And you guys love the classic look of marble tops in your kitchen or bath, but not the very high costs. We’re going to share a new product that provides a beautiful marble surface without that usual expense.
0:01:37	LESLIE: But first, our focus is you. We want to know what you guys want to know. What are you working on? What are your plans? Are you getting a Christmas tree this week? Are you decorating for the holidays? Are you still full from Thanksgiving? What’s going on? Maybe you’re too full to tackle those home improvement projects. Well, let’s start researching one then. So let us know what you are working on so we can lend a hand.
0:01:57	TOM: Just while right over to the phone and call us at 1-888-Money-Pit or just go to Money Pit .COM slash ask. Let’s get to it. Leslie, who’s first? All right. We’ve got Lisa from Illinois on the line right now. We just got a question about Grout. What’s going on?
0:02:11	CALLER: Well, we have big porcelain tile and then there’s grout lines that you can see very easily. And they were light color. But in the high traffic.
0:02:23	LESLIE: Areas.
0:02:23	CALLER: They’re darker. And I’ve tried to clean them and they just I don’t know, I just don’t feel like I can get them to that lightness again. So I’m wondering what if you had any recommendations on how to get a much lighter or what we might have to do?
0:02:39	TOM: Yeah, so, so two things. First of all, there’s a type of product called grout cleaner, but there’s another type of product called Grout Stripper. And the grout strippers are much stronger. So whatever product you’re choosing, you want to make sure it’s a grout stripper and not a grout cleaner and then follow the manufacturer’s directions and see how that goes. Grout strippers usually work a lot better at pulling out dirt and of floor waxes and dust and things that spill. You know, all that kind of stuff is better with a grout stripper than a grout cleaner. Secondly, if it still is kind of gross, the other thing that you could consider doing is just recruiting that area. There. You would have to have a tile install or grind out the old grout joints, which is actually not that hard to do. And once that grout joint is removed, they kind of replace it with new grout and you start from scratch again. This time, though, I would use a grout sealer which helps protect the quality of that gravel. When you have wide grout joints and a big tile floor like that, it’s going to be a sandy grout. So it’s kind of a target for, you know, for dirt. And that’s kind of where you’re at right now. So let’s see if we can get that restored.
0:03:44	CALLER: Now, it does have sealer on it.
0:03:46	TOM: Yeah, well, sealer is not a thing that you do once you got to do it on a regular basis and even the sealer is over the dirty grout, then that makes it even harder to clean it. But the grout stripper will pull that out.
0:03:55	CALLER: Oh, great. Super deal. Thank you so much for your help.
0:03:59	TOM: Good luck with that project.
0:04:01	LESLIE: We’ve got John in Mississippi on the line with some gurgling toilets. Definitely not a fun noise. We want to hear what’s going on.
0:04:07	Speaker 4: I have two bathrooms that were built back to back and the toilets are back to back. So when one flushes the other one either half drains or mostly drains. So I’m wondering what the answer would be to stop this from happening.
0:04:23	TOM: Hey, John. Well, when you have toilets that have that sort of gurgling or where they tend to drain when another toilet is flushed, it’s caused by one thing and one thing only, and that is a lack of proper venting. I think about it when you flush toilet, the water goes down, it’s pulling air at the same time and it pulls out air from the vent pipe, which goes, I would bet through the wall between these two bathrooms up to the roof. So the first thing I want you to do is go outside and look up and make sure you got that vent pipe there. And the second thing is, if you do figure out why it’s blocked, because I think that’s what’s going on. I think that vent pipe is obstructed. And so for that, you might have to have a drain cleaner come in and run a drain snake down. But if it’s clogged, then you’re not going to be able to take air into the plumbing system. And that’s going to basically cause the plumbing system to try to pull air wherever it can. And it’s exhibiting itself by partially flushing the adjacent toilet, but the nearest fixture. So totally solvable and not that uncommon.
0:05:20	LESLIE: Hey there. We’ll be enjoying this episode of our podcast. If you are. You know, what would totally make our day is if you leave us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts.
0:05:28	TOM: Absolutely. Just go to moneypit.com/review and let the world know how much you enjoy our home improvement tips and tricks. And you might even win a copy of our book.
0:05:41	LESLIE: Katherine is on the line. I need some help. Potentially with the holiday gift. What’s going on? My daughter has a white marble countertop that is very badly stained. I wonder if that product you were just talking about, if it is something that can go over existing stained marble. If it is, that might be what they get for Christmas.
0:06:02	TOM: Yeah, you’re talking about dish coatings product. It’s called Marble Dream and it’s a marble resurfacing kit. No dice does tell us that the product will work over stone. So that’s what you have there. It works over laminate, concrete, plywood, stone, pre coated and solid surfaces. So I do think you could use the marble resurfacing kit on top of real marble that’s completely worn out. And it’s a pretty easy project to do. You can do it in a week and you basically put on the marble cream base coats first and you let that dry. Then you put a sealant on top of that and you’re pretty much good to go. Not terribly expensive either. So check that out. A dish coating scum. That’s the ice Age coatings scum. And yes, I think it would be great under the holiday tree as well.
0:06:47	LESLIE: As to say that makes a pretty good gift. Now, if you were going to give the gift and do the project, that’s an even better gift.
0:06:53	TOM: That’d be a better option.
0:06:57	LESLIE: John in Minnesota, You’ve got the Money Pit. How can we help you today?
0:06:59	CALLER: Yes, I have a sauna in my basement drive to transfer over to Ace the shower.
0:07:06	TOM: Okay. You want to convert it to a shower?
0:07:08	CALLER: Yes. And I’m wondering what I could put on those walls to dress it up like some paneling or panels? Or do I have to use tile?
0:07:20	TOM: Okay, well, first of all, before we talk about what you’re going to put on the walls, how are you going to drain this is there a drain below the floor?
0:07:27	CALLER: Yes, I have a cement pour and there’s a drain right in the middle of the in that room there. Yes.
0:07:33	TOM: Now, do you know if that drain is connected to the plumbing system of the house, or is it just a basic floor drain that perhaps goes outside somewhere?
0:07:40	CALLER: It is hooked up to my sewer system.
0:07:44	TOM: All right, terrific. That’s the hardest part that’s solved. So now it just becomes sort of a decor question for you. And you say that this was a sauna at some point in time.
0:07:53	CALLER: Yes.
0:07:53	TOM: So I guess the sky’s the limit here. I mean, what do you like? Do you like tile? Do you like solid surfacing materials like Corian you have you can pretty much do anything at this point. You’re going to start with the floor and you’re going to put your definitely a tile on the floor, I would think, and replace that drain with a cover that’s built into the tile base. And then from there you’re going to build it up. So you could do really anything you want to do at this point. You could put tile on those walls, you could put solid surfacing materials on those walls, you know, or if you want to keep it funky, you could leave them as a wood. You can leave it as wood. I’m presuming it’s probably cedar or some of that type of moisture resistant material.
0:08:30	CALLER: While the walls are that it’s that clay tile.
0:08:33	TOM: Oh, the walls are clay tile. So that that has to be covered. Yeah. So then the right thing to do here if, if it’s basically sort of a raw surface right now is you’re going to need to put it in a shower pan to start with and then build up the bathroom from there. Now, if you’ve already got walls that are sort of creating this, how big is the space that the sauna was in now.
0:08:52	CALLER: Eight by eight.
0:08:53	TOM: Okay, Do you want an eight by eight shower? He wanted to be a pretty much a drive in shower there. That’s pretty big shower. But you wanted to be that thing.
0:09:00	CALLER: Well, I was going to probably have like 80% of it. The shower. I want to put a double like a double to in the shower or one on them, have a rain shower on top and one coming out the side and then the other. Yeah. Like a.
0:09:11	TOM: Car wash.
0:09:12	CALLER: Yeah, exactly. And the other part just kind of a drying area.
0:09:15	TOM: So John, this sauna area, this eight by eight area, this is made of the terracotta clay tile. Yes. And I think you can glue a ceramic tile right to that with a good quality tile adhesive as long as it’s fairly flat because the tile is not going to bend. But if it’s a flat surface, should be able to adhere the tile right to it is already a water resistant back and pretty much go up from there. Now the floor to build up a shower pan there so you get good drainage down to the to the to the hole in the floor, so to speak. But once you get that established, I think you could adhere ceramic tile right to those terracotta walls and go right from there. Now make sure that you have ventilation in that space. You know, the exhaust fan, of course, do all your plumbing ahead of time, and the last thing you’ll do is lay those tile walls in so it makes sense.
0:10:04	CALLER: Okay. Yes, it does. All right.
0:10:06	TOM: John, good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit.
0:10:10	LESLIE: Well, as the days get shorter and temperatures start to sink, most households find their home heating bills starting to run out of control. And even worse, sometimes it feels like your house just stays cold. No matter how high you crank the heat.
0:10:23	TOM: Well, this sounds like your life. It’s time to take some action to lower those heating costs by addressing these three common home heating mistakes. First mistake is this not doing your HVAC system maintenance? I am not kidding, folks. No matter what kind of heat you have, whether it’s baseboard heat, old school radiators, forced air heating, radiant heat through the floor, it’s critical because you can lose a lot of efficiency if those systems are not properly maintained, not to mention that they can get dangerous. So get that heating system service now and change your filters frequently.
0:10:53	LESLIE: Now, mistake number two is ignoring drafty windows and attics. Older homes with outdated windows, they can leak a surprising amount of heat, especially if they aren’t properly sealed. Even a small crack along the base or a side of a window can have a big impact when it’s really cold out. Now, an imperfectly sealed window can be a major point of energy efficiency as well. Now, you got to remember that glass itself is not a great insulator and outdated single pane windows are often to blame for those heat leaks, heavy drapes or insulating panels. They definitely can help solve this problem. Curtains that are heavy enough to block cold air. They can also keep the sunshine out of the house, which provides year-round temperature control benefit. So there is a lot that you can do.
0:11:38	TOM: And next, abusing the thermostat. What do we mean by using the thermostat? Well, there are a few ways to improve the efficiency in terms of the way you use that thermostat. One common mistake that a lot of people make is to crank up the heat for folks that are cold or shutting off heat registers in the bedroom of those who don’t like it hot. This is actually not a good idea because it causes pressure. Inconsistencies within the HVAC system and ultimately it leads to the system needing to work harder and use more energy.
0:12:06	LESLIE: Yeah, and you might also want to upgrade to a digital programable thermostat because that’s going to allow for round the clock temperature control. You can set it to turn the heat down when you’re asleep or when you’re out of the house, for example, and that can help you save a lot of money when you really don’t need a toasty warm house.
0:12:21	TOM: That’s right. So don’t wait for that first really big heating bill to take on some of these simple fixes. And while you’re at it, be sure to take a look at your home’s insulation. The number one place to do that is in the attic. That’s really going to save you quite a bit and improve your comfort at the same time.
0:12:38	LESLIE: All right. Now we’ve got Anna on the line, who needs some help with some door improvement? Tell us what you’re working on.
0:12:43	CALLER: Hi. Yes, I have one metal door and three fiberglass door. That that’s. I got a guy to paint it and not knowing when I got home, he actually painted with the spray can paint. So when, when the heat hits the door, I opened the door. Oh, boy. To the door jamb.
0:13:01	TOM: What a mess.
0:13:02	CALLER: Not only repair that.
0:13:03	TOM: Well, even though he painted it with spray paint, it should still work. I mean, it should dry. The fact that it’s spray paint is not making it any more or less tacky than perhaps if you use paint out of a gallon. But the fact that it’s sticking might mean that the door needs a bit of adjustment inside the opening or all the doors sticking.
0:13:23	CALLER: All the doors to get right on the rubber of the door jamb. If I think that it’s a social campaign that I’m like, were you sprayed? What to the door?
0:13:31	TOM: What kind of paint that we use?
0:13:33	CALLER: I call it the shoes you regular can paint like you went to the hardware store, got a spray can paint and sprayed it.
0:13:41	TOM: Well, look what you should do now if you’ve had a bad paint job, is you really have to pull that old paint off. So I would take the doors off of the hinges, lay them down horizontally, use a paint remover to pull off the paint that’s there. Once you get it back down to where it was, where you started, then I would prime the doors first and I would use an oil based primer because that’s going to give you a good adhesion to both the metal and the fiberglass doors. And then I would put a good top quality finish coat on that using a semi-gloss paint, then let them dry really well and then reinstall them.
0:14:13	CALLER: So is it possible that this is all metal and fiberglass to get a paint remover for this thing?
0:14:19	TOM: Yes, there’s paint removers. The citrus based removers are the most effective. So use the citrus based paint removers, pull off the old paint, prime the doors and then repaint them. You should be good to go. Okay, Anna.
0:14:30	CALLER: Thank you so very much again.
0:14:32	TOM: You’re welcome. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us. At 888-Money-Pit.
0:14:37	LESLIE: Now we’ve got Eddie in Delaware. On the line was dealing with a moisture situation going on. Tell us about it.
0:14:43	CALLER: I’m having a moisture problem with two out of the three bathrooms. It’s a three-bathroom home. And each bathroom has an in-line exhaust fan. And this just occurred last season, last winter season. And we’ve got a really severe winter in and we’re getting a lot of condensation now. I have dampers in two of the bathrooms at the ceiling and last season. Last winter season I installed additional damper after the exhaust fan, after the inline fan in the ceiling and I was still getting a lot of moisture actually at the ceiling where the sheetrock was actually falling apart. That’s how much moisture we got. Okay.
0:15:39	TOM: First of all, right, above this space is there the attic. What’s above it?
0:15:45	CALLER: Yes, it’s an attic. Yes. All right.
0:15:46	TOM: And how much insulation you have in that attic?
0:15:48	CALLER: Now, the home is only eight years old.
0:15:52	TOM: So first of all, bathrooms are sources of warm, moist air. If the temperature of the drywall is chilly, it’s going to condense and cause condensation. So you want to make sure that the attic above it, that you’ve got at least 15 to 20 inches of insulation in there. That’s really important.
0:16:09	CALLER: Oh, there is. There definitely is. And what I also did was when I when I started having this problem, I replaced the flexible duct work, which was originally r six to the maximum of are eight. And I’m still getting the problem. And these two bathrooms that I’m having the problem. Yeah, there are not use for showers or bathing of any sort.
0:16:34	TOM: The second thing I want to suggest to you is you mentioned that you have exhaust fans in two of the three.
0:16:40	CALLER: No, no. All three have their own individual inline exhaust fans. Yes.
0:16:45	TOM: Okay. So inline. In other words, it’s duct it out somewhere. They’re all connected together and duct that at one.
0:16:50	CALLER: Not connected. They’re not connected together. They’re all different.
0:16:54	TOM: They all vents on their own out of the building.
0:16:57	CALLER: Yes.
0:16:58	TOM: And you can confirm that that that the vents are working. So if you turn the fan on, if you go outside, you’ll see the flapper. Yes. So hugging them up to emit a stat slash timer might not be a bad idea because this way, when the humidity gets high in the room, it’ll automatically come on. Levitan makes such a switch designed specifically for Bath fans, and I think that might be the next step. I think we need to move air, more air through these rooms. The second thing is what’s underneath these bathrooms. So these are these on the second floor or first floor or the over a slab.
0:17:29	CALLER: It’s a rancho.
0:17:30	TOM: And what’s underneath?
0:17:32	CALLER: Crawl space.
0:17:33	TOM: Crawl space. Okay. This is a crawl space. Have a high humidity problem.
0:17:36	CALLER: No.
0:17:37	TOM: I would recommend that you replace the existing fan switch with a you made a statically controlled fan switch.
0:17:43	CALLER: Yeah. Okay, I’ll try.
0:17:44	TOM: Andy, good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling an 888-Money-Pit.
0:17:50	LESLIE: Thomas in Tennessee is on the line with a wallpaper question. How can I help you today?
0:17:53	CALLER: I have two layers of wallpaper and a small half that that I’m trying to take off. And I was wondering what your guys’s best solution is. One is a lighter wallpaper like you would find in the rest of the house, but the other one is a very thick, waterproof type that is mostly used in bathrooms.
0:18:11	TOM: Yeah, well, removal is pretty much the same regardless of that type. You know, essentially what you have to do is you got to run a tool across the paper called a paper Tiger. And it’s a tool that puts small, perfectly sized holes in the paper. And then once you have those holes in there, you can apply a water. They’re wallpaper paste remover to it, which will soak into the paper, get behind it and start to loosen it up. Now, it’s a lot of work, but, you know, considering it’s just the bathroom, perhaps it won’t be that difficult for you if you really, really, really have a hard time getting that paper off. You could always rent a wallpaper steamer and that will make the job a little bit easier.
0:18:46	CALLER: Oh, okay. Well, do you have any home remedies for this where you don’t have to buy a whole lot of tools? Because I’m kind of on a budget?
0:18:53	TOM: Well, the paper tiger is not very expensive. It’s a little hand tool. It’s probably seven or $8, something like that. So that plus a few dollars for the wallpaper paste remover is that that’s really all you’re going to need.
0:19:04	CALLER: Okay. Well, thank you.
0:19:05	TOM: All right, Thomas, Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit.
0:19:11	LESLIE: Well, dishwashers often face significant demands during the holiday season. However, if you’re contemplating an upgrade, a recent survey conducted by Consumer Reports reveals that shelling out more money for a dishwasher doesn’t necessarily equate to greater reliability.
0:19:27	TOM: Yeah, that’s right. This is pretty impressive. Consumer Reports surveyed 75,000 of its members to find out which dishwasher brands are the most dependable. They actually collected data on these things. A staggering 85,000 dishwashers that are purchased within the last ten years. The results revealed both some really good standout performers that are known for their reliability and some really underperforming options that could lead to breakdown expenses over time.
0:19:52	LESLIE: Now, among the 25 dishwasher brands represented in the surveys, the highest reliability ratings were scored by Bosch, Gargano, Miele and Thermidor. And dishwashers from these manufacturers exhibited the lowest likelihood of experiencing performance issues or breakdowns within those initial first five years of usage.
0:20:11	TOM: Now, it’s worth noting that the dishwashers from these top rated brands tend to lean towards the more expensive end of the spectrum. But even that said, the cost can vary depending on the specific models within the brand. So you can still find some pretty durable, long lasting dishwashers among the brands that offer more budget friendly options.
0:20:28	LESLIE: Yes. So you may be wondering which brands were the most likely to break down. Now, Electrolux, Samsung and Amana distinguish themselves with higher incidence of performance problems compared to other brands. And many members reported that dishwashers from these brands often fell short in effectively cleaning the dishes.
0:20:44	TOM: So bottom line, if you’re in the market for a new dishwasher and you prioritize one that works and works all the time, you want to look at Bosch, Gaggenau, Miele and Thermidor, those are the clear winners. You know, I have used Bosch for the last two dishwashers. I had to replace one at my mom’s house, one in my house, and I’m really happy with the result, except for the mice that chew through the waterline.
0:21:07	LESLIE: That was terrible.
0:21:08	TOM: Pay Bosch for that.
0:21:11	LESLIE: Wade in South Dakota is on the line, has a question about siding. How can we help you?
0:21:15	CALLER: We had a big hailstorm come through and it took out a bunch of our siding are still fighting and I’m kind of fighting with the insurance company to find an exact match. My question, I guess, is the house is almost 20 years old. What are the chances that the siding that they picked is going to match up with the colors.
0:21:37	TOM: Between little and none?
0:21:38	CALLER: They’re going to let us figure.
0:21:40	TOM: And listen, wait, this is not a new argument with insurance companies. It happens all the time with roof damage. You know, let’s say you get ice stand damage and you have to just replace like three feet of roof on the front of the house. Or maybe you get leaks around a vent or something and you to replace a piece of roof insurance companies traditionally replace the entire roof. In your case, they should be replacing all of your siding without argument because they’ve got to restore it at least as good as it was before. And giving you mismatched siding isn’t what you contracted them to do. So I would stick to your guns and sure, give them the opportunity to find a replacement, but they won’t be able to and you don’t have to accept it. And you can insist that it all be replaced with brand new siding. Do you have a private adjuster on this to help you with, with the claim.
0:22:30	CALLER: Somebody that the insurance companies contacted? Yes.
0:22:33	TOM: That adjusters working for the insurance company. What you want to do is get a public adjuster. And a public adjuster works for you, the public, and they work on commission. So it doesn’t only cost much to have these guys on the job. And they’re there to find every single cell. It’s everything that they can claim for and get that into the claim. So everything from picking up the nails on your property that will be part of that construction project to getting the whole house decided. They try to get that claim as full as possible because the more they find, the more money they make because they’re all in commission. So I would definitely find a good quality public adjuster, perhaps check with your attorney, do your research, find somebody that has a lot of experience and let them fight for you so you don’t have to fight with the insurance company. Great.
0:23:20	CALLER: I’ll definitely look into that. Thank you.
0:23:21	TOM: Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at eight. At 888-Money Pit.
0:23:25	LESLIE: Dina in Iowa is on the line with a painting question, How can we help you? Today?
0:23:29	CALLER: I have this brown paneling and it goes all the way from the floor to ceiling and every room. And I wonder if I can paint over this or wallpaper or what is your suggestion?
0:23:43	TOM: Wow, that’s a there was that 1970s.
0:23:48	CALLER: Yep.
0:23:48	TOM: Yeah. You know, I kind of remember that growing up we had those that era in my house. And, you know, it’s always better to remove it, but you can’t paint it what you want to do, Dina, is you want to prime it. So the first thing you would do is you would clean it, you would lightly sand it. And because there’s so much of it, I would when I go to the paint store, I would get up a sand, a sanding extension. It’s on a on a pole. It’s like a pole with a in it with an indexing head at the bottom at the end of it, I should say. And you can run this pole over the surface and sand it, rough it up a little bit and then you going to want to prime it. And I would use a good quality oil based primer. It’ll go on nice and thick. It’ll give you a good solid surface on which to add the wall paint. And then you can use latex wall paint on top of that and the think it’ll come out nice and it’ll go on easily if you do those steps in that order because once you prime it you get a very nice even surface. It fills in any of the imperfection in the surface and it will make sure that that topcoat can be accepted properly.
0:24:50	CALLER: What about those grooves?
0:24:51	TOM: You’re always going to have those grooves. You can’t do anything about it unless you want to take the paneling down, which by the way, could be an option. Because sometimes when they put the paneling up, they just nailed it with these types of small, very thin ring nails. You could you could experiment with the possibility of taking the paneling off the walls. And you may find that underneath it is drywall. Now, generally, you have to do a lot of spackling sometimes re taping and that kind of thing. But it is possible that underneath that paneling are some decent, typical drywall covered.
0:25:20	CALLER: Walls. Okay, it sounds like a Saturday job.
0:25:24	TOM: Yeah well at least if you’ve got that much paneling, it might be a couple of Saturdays jobs, a lot of schemes already. And good luck with that project. Thank you so much for calling us at eight At 888-Money Pit. Well, if you guys love the look of marble tops in your kitchen or bath, but not the cost of those tops, Daich Coatings is now out with a brand-new product called the Marble Dream Resurfacing kit. And what it does is it lets you create a beautiful marble surface in just a weekend.
0:25:51	LESLIE: Yeah, that’s right. It’s a roll on marble resurfacing kit, so it’s great for countertops, vanities and tabletops. It comes in four elegant color schemes and even lets you create real marble veined surfaces in just a few simple steps with no special skills needed. Now you can create a tough, resilient marble surface with distinct defined veins, or, if you like, that soft or swirly kind of look. You definitely can do that too. It’s really easy to use. You don’t need any special skills. Everything that you do need is included in that kit and it’s all 169 bucks. So it’s really a great, cost effective way to achieve something super gorgeous.
0:26:28	TOM: You’ll find the new marble green resurfacing kit at Daich Coatings, 169 bucks, but actually I think it’s on sale right now for less at daichcoatings.com.
0:26:41	LESLIE: All right. Our next caller has a question that I’m happy to answer over the phone but will not go see in person. William in Delaware has mice. What is going on over there.
0:26:51	CALLER: Yeah we recently back in March moved into Habitat for Humanity and we really enjoyed Thoreau in downtown Wilmington there for first I’d say four or five months. We had no problems with mice or anything else. But the last three or four months, man, we’ve been getting mice coming in from the basement. I think that’s where they’re coming from. We’ve caught like 25 mice in the last three or four months. Now we’ve got sticky traps out. I go around and put low standing foam and it cracks microfiber wiring and basement penetration stuff. I don’t know where they’re coming in, other than that was one of their ideas for what to do next.
0:27:33	TOM: Well, once you get a cat and a snake, problem will be solved.
0:27:36	CALLER: Right now, of course, you know, my family’s allergic to dogs.
0:27:42	TOM: Well, look, have you tried bait yet?
0:27:44	CALLER: Well, yeah, I have some bait traps outside, but they’re still coming in.
0:27:48	TOM: Okay, So is it getting rid of rodents is sort of a management problem. All right. You know, they’re so small they can squeeze into the space the size of a nickel. And so you’re doing all of the right things now outside of the house. And since it’s a newer house, this may not be the case, but we always tell people to not store firewood against house. And I saw garbage against house to make sure that there’s no, you know, areas where mice can sort of linger around the outside of the house. Inside the house, you want to make sure you don’t have any kind of food source. So if you had a pet that might be, you know, the dog food bag or if you have a pantry, that might be the circuit keeping cereal boxes on the bottom shelf, where they going to be chewed into by mice. You know, those are all the normal things. Beyond that, it’s a maintenance issue where you’re going to make sure you keep baits outside. I would put bait inside what I would do is this not a basement or crawl space?
0:28:42	CALLER: Yes, I have a basement.
0:28:43	TOM: So I would. An invasion is not finished.
0:28:45	CALLER: No, it’s not.
0:28:46	TOM: So what I would do is I would get some bait, some bait stations, put it up on the ledge between the concrete block and the bottom sill where the framing is. That’s sort of like the highway that the mice, the mice will use to crawl all around the outside of the house. Support your bait stations right there so that they can have some have some of that delectable poison and then go outside and die.
0:29:05	CALLER: Hopefully that’s what I worry about. I’m afraid that they take my dog inside the house some place where I can get to it.
0:29:12	TOM: Yeah. Now, occasionally you could find one inside the house, but it’s unusual. Normally they’ll go outside. The thing is, as the weather gets colder, they go inside because they like a nice they like a nice warm house as well. But you got to prevent them by sealing up all the gaps and putting out bait stations.
0:29:27	CALLER: Okay. Well, it’s more of a bait station outside.
0:29:33	TOM: Not outside. I put the bait inside on that ledge.
0:29:34	CALLER: Okay. Yes, I will.
0:29:35	TOM: All right. Good luck with that problem.
0:29:37	CALLER: Okay. Thanks.
0:29:37	TOM: You’re welcome, Bill. Thanks so much for calling us. At 888-Money-Pit.
0:29:41	LESLIE: Rebecca reached out to Tim Money Pit and says, I have a toilet that keeps running after watching YouTube videos. Now that my first step is to turn off the water at the toilet, but I can’t turn the knob. I don’t want to cause a problem by forcing it with a tool and then making more of a problem. Is there another way to turn off the water?
0:30:00	TOM: Yeah, that’s a pretty smart thing, Rebecca, to stop right there, because the handles on those toilet valves are pretty weak and you can easily bend them or break them off. So if you can’t turn the water off at the toilet valve itself, one way to get around this is to turn the water off at the main water valve. This will turn, of course, all the water off in the house, but it’ll get you through having to replace the innards of that water, which by the way, you want to replace for the fill valve in the flush valve because you’ve got to drain the toilet anyway, so you might as well get that done. Now, in terms of freeing up the toilets, what you could try to do is to spray it with a penetrating oil and then sort of work it back and forth using only hand pressure. What happens with those toilet valves is they leak just a tiny little bit and they get kind of like mineral salts that are stuck to them in there and they kind of grind away and eventually it acts like a glue or something. It just seals it, you know, and you can’t do anything with it. But if you try to, like, put a wrench on it or something, you’re going to most likely bend that valve and then you’re going to need a plumber, cut it out and put a new one in and that’s going to get expensive. So I wouldn’t give up on that. But in terms of just your immediate need, you could simply turn the water off at the main water valve. And by the way, if that doesn’t work, you better fix that valve right away. You’re going to definitely need a plumber because that’s something you’ve got to be able to turn off because who knows where the next leak is going to happen. And if it does, you want to be sure that your main water valve works.
0:31:26	LESLIE: All right, Rebecca, good luck with that. Now, Laura wrote in saying, we want to remodel our laundry room, the floors, cement and slants toward a center drain. What is the best kind of flooring at an economical price that would work for the laundry room flooring?
0:31:39	TOM: You know, when you think about good old fashioned ceramic tile for that, I mean, I think if you used a small tile, a two by two or a mosaic, you could sort of curve it down towards the drain. I’ve seen that done in, you know, commercial bathrooms and showers and stuff like that. So it’s definitely a possibility. So I think that’s a possibility. And then the other thing could be an epoxy, which is a two part paint, of course, is not very attractive, kind of more designed for more functional. Yeah, it is more functional. Or, you know, you could look at some of the coatings that Daich Coatings makes. They have like roller rack, which is designed for pool decks that can work inside or out and that can be very attractive. You can have like a tile finish on that or you can have a bit of a rougher finish on that, which, you know, makes it kind of slip resistant. So you have either liquid finishes like that or tile finishes.
0:32:24	LESLIE: Now, let me ask you, Tom, the point of a drain in a laundry room. I mean, you’re not really dumping water down there. Is this just in the event of an emergency? I’m just more from a curiosity standpoint.
0:32:35	TOM: I think so, yeah. I think it’s designed to drain, you know, the laundry room. If the laundry, you know, a lot of the washing machines, especially the older ones, if they broke the floats, never turn off. Yes. I think the point of that drainage is to give that water a place where it can drain out. But, you know, one thing you might want to check is to make sure it’s still going somewhere. I mean, I might dump a few gallons of water down that make sure it’s still draining, because if the drain is not working or it’s blocked up or hasn’t worked for years, then problem solved. Right?
0:33:00	LESLIE: Right. Seriously, I mean, who knows where that’s going to? So that’s definitely the first part there, Laura. But definitely a small tile and epoxy coating. If you do need that drain to function, those are all great choices.
0:33:12	TOM: This is the Money Pit Home Improvement Show. Thank you so much for spending this part of these holiday days with us. We’ve got a lot going on this time of year and we so appreciate you spending a little bit of your day with us. We hope that we are giving you the information that you need to help take care of home sweet home. And if we’re not, reach out with your questions at 1888-Money-Pit. Or you can always go to moneypit.com/ask for the quickest possible response. I’m Tom Kraeutler.
0:33:38	LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.
0:33:40	TOM: Remember, you can do it yourself.
0:33:42	LESLIE: But you don’t have to do it alone.

	(Note: The above referenced transcript is AI-Generated, Unedited and Unproofed and as such may not accurately reflect the recorded audio. Copyright 2023 Squeaky Door Productions, Inc. No portion of this transcript or audio file may be reproduced in any format without the express written permission of Squeaky Door Productions, Inc.)

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