Show Notes
In today’s episode, we’ve got you covered from garden to garage! We’ll guide you through tips for building a sturdy stone garden wall, ensuring your bathroom re-tiling lasts with proper underlayment, and safely storing flammable liquids to avoid garage fire hazards. Tune in for essential advice to upgrade and safeguard your home!
Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
- Flammable Liquids: Storing flammable liquids safely is key to avoiding fire hazards in your garage.
- Garden Walls: Get rock-solid tips for building a stone garden wall that lasts.
- Bathroom Tiles: Learn essential steps for waterproofing bathroom tiles to avoid damage and moisture.
Top Questions & Answers
- Shower Doors: Is there a way to repel water and prevent spots on glass shower doors? We recommend a product Randy can use, plus a squeegee to wipe down the surface.
- House Odors: A funky odor in the house is getting worse. Donna already cleaned everything and took up the carpets, but priming and painting the walls may help.
- Toilet Stains: Axel has been trying to remove a stubborn ring stain in the toilet. A gentle pumice stone can remove it, along with a hydrochloric acid cleaner.
- Firepit: The flame on Steve’s new natural gas firepit isn’t very high. Modifying the gas burner can be dangerous, so he should have a plumber check the gas pressure and contact the manufacturer.
- Lighting: Laura’s compact fluorescent bulbs keep blowing out. They should last a long time, so they may be defective and she should consider buying LED bulbs instead.
- Backsplash: Bills is looking for the best material for a backsplash behind his stove. A solid stone surface that’s cut around the exhaust fan would be easy to install and clean.
- Shower Plumbing: Lynne’s shower is leaking through the ceiling below. We share tips on checking for a crack in the shower pan and caulking all the seams and fixtures.
- Insulation: Does Mark need to ventilate his attic after adding spray foam insulation? We’ll explain why he doesn’t need additional ventilation.
- Basement Floor: Amy’s not sure how to cover the dirt basement floor in her farmhouse. She should test for radon first before deciding what comes next.
- Pool Deck: Will a concrete pool deck crack under the weight of an aquaponic garden tank? It weighs about as much as several people, so Patrick’s deck should be okay.
- Electrical Panel: We have answers for Heidi, who has questions about a new electrical panel that was installed outside, with a subpanel inside.
- Garage Doors: Is there a way to restore the finish of faded aluminum garage doors? Marlene can paint them after sanding the surface and applying a metal primer.
Ask Your Home Improvement Question
Podcast Transcript
Read Transcript
| 00:00:21 | TOM: Coast to coast and floorboards to shingles, this is the Money Pit Home Improvement Show. I’m Tom Kraeutler. And I’m Leslie Segrete. And whether you’re a do-it-yourselfer or a do-it-for-me kind of person, we are here to help you take on those projects you want to get done around your house. So give us a call right now with your questions. A couple of ways to get in touch, you can dial 1-888-Money-Pit, that’s 888-666-3974, or go to moneypit.com slash ask. We want to know what your spring project entails. We want to help you get it done once, get it done right, so you can get back to relaxing in your home sweet home. If you’ve got questions, reach out to us right now at 888-Money-Pit or moneypit.com slash ask. Coming up on today’s show, building a garden wall is a project we’re going to talk about. It’s a fun one to do on a beautiful spring day. So we’re going to share how to build a wall that will stand the test of time. |
| 00:01:18 | LESLIE: And retiling a bathroom is a great way to update the look, function, and feel of this space. But if you want to make it last, it’s what goes under the tile that counts. We’re going to share what you need to know. |
| 00:01:29 | TOM: And with all the long… Lawn and garden work going on right now, you may be storing more hazardous liquids like gas, oil, and grease. So we’re going to share some tips on the best ways to store flammable liquids safely so that your garage does not become a hazard. |
| 00:01:42 | LESLIE: All right, but before we do that, we want to know what you are working on. So reach out to us with your project questions, and we’re going to share tips to help you get that project done once and get it done right so you don’t have to do it again. |
| 00:01:55 | TOM: The number here, again, is 1-888-Money-Pit. Let’s get to it. Leslie, who’s first? |
| 00:01:59 | LESLIE: Heading out to Texas, where we’ve got Randy on the line, who’s dealing with some glass shower doors. What’s going on over there? What’s the problem? |
| 00:02:06 | CALLER: Well, I was just curious as to a product that I could apply to my glass shower doors to help propel the water so that it doesn’t dry up into, you know, water spots and whatnot. Right. |
| 00:02:23 | TOM: So if you leave it alone, is your water there a little bit crusty in the sense that it’s got… It’s got some mineral deposits in it, and you get that white stains that sort of stick to it? Correct. All right. So are you familiar with a product called Rain-X, Randy? Yes. Yeah. I’ve used Rain-X on shower doors, and it works fantastic. So if you apply that to the inside of those shower doors, get them good and clean, and follow the instructions on Rain-X, make sure you put it on with a damp cloth, let it dry, then you buff it. I think you will find that those showers will release water miraculously for months. In fact, a lot longer than the product lasts when it’s on a car because it doesn’t get as much abuse from the rain. Well, it doesn’t have the abrasion factor there. That’s right. That’s right. So I think Rain-X is a good trick for that. And, of course, the other thing is just to kind of get you and the family in the habit of wiping down the doors when you’re done with a squeegee. You know, a lot of times we’ll see folks will keep squeegees hanging from their shower wall or wherever they keep their accessories there and just squeegee off those doors in between, and that helps a lot as well. But I’d give that a shot. I think Rain-X will do it. Okay. Super good. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for reaching out to The Money Pit. |
| 00:03:35 | CALLER: We appreciate you. |
| 00:03:37 | LESLIE: Donna in Tennessee has got a funky guest house. Let’s just call it that. What’s going on, Donna? |
| 00:03:43 | CALLER: We have been on this property for two and a half years, and when we purchased the property, the guest house had tenants. And they moved out a little over a year and a half ago. However, there’s a very funky… There’s a very funky odor in the house that, instead of fading over time, is becoming more and more prevalent. The odor is best described, perhaps, as a stale cologne. So it’s not very pleasant. |
| 00:04:14 | LESLIE: Stale cologne. That’s interesting, because generally when you get a funky odor in a space that’s not used that often, it usually has something to do with a sink not getting water down it and the trap drying out and sewer gases coming back up. So you could get like a funky sewer smell. But cologne, are you sure the house isn’t haunted? |
| 00:04:33 | CALLER: We did pull up any carpeting that was in the house, and there wasn’t that much. It was just in the bedroom and the bathroom. The rest of the floors are wood and tile. |
| 00:04:44 | TOM: Have you done any painting yet? No. |
| 00:04:47 | CALLER: It was fairly recently painted prior to our purchasing the house, and so I didn’t. However, after the tenants moved out, I really thoroughly cleaned. We actually removed all the appliances, everything like that, but I haven’t repainted. |
| 00:05:07 | TOM: Well, I got to tell you that sometimes when a house is empty, it tends to get a little dank sometimes. Are you running the heating system the way you would if somebody was living there? No. |
| 00:05:18 | CALLER: Yeah. |
| 00:05:19 | TOM: So you get more moisture, and sometimes there can be odors associated with that. So unless it’s really pervasive, I don’t think I would worry too much about it. You’re doing the right things. You pulled up the carpet. If you haven’t painted and you’re going to paint, I would suggest one additional step, and that is to make sure you prime the walls, because if there’s anything in the walls, that will block it. |
| 00:05:38 | CALLER: What type of primer? |
| 00:05:39 | TOM: Well, you could use an alkyd primer, which is a water-based primer, or you could use an oil-based primer, something like Kills or Bin or one of the Behr products. But the primer is kind of the glue that makes the paint stick and will also seal in any stains that are absorbed into the walls themselves. Okay. |
| 00:05:58 | CALLER: So if it is the paint… Then the primer could actually… |
| 00:06:01 | TOM: Right. Exactly. In fact, sometimes we tell people that when they have carpets that are very odorous, to also prime the plywood floor before they put the carpet back down again. Okay. Because if anything kind of soaked through the carpet and got into the floor, that’s a way to kind of seal it off. Okay. Very good. Good luck with that project, Donna. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit. |
| 00:06:30 | LESLIE: Absolutely. |
| 00:06:31 | TOM: Just go to moneypit.com slash 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. |
| 00:06:42 | LESLIE: We’ve got Axel on the line who’s calling in from Connecticut who’s dealing with some cleaning issues in the bathroom. What is going on? |
| 00:06:49 | CALLER: I got some stubborn stains from a rain in the toilet that’s been there forever. |
| 00:06:53 | TOM: And what have you tried to do so far? |
| 00:06:55 | CALLER: I used some Comet. I used some of that CLR stuff. CLR stuff. No luck with either of those? Nothing seems to have any. No. |
| 00:07:03 | TOM: So have you tried a cleaner that has hydrochloric acid in it? For example, Lysol toilet bowl cleaner has an acid in it that works very, very well at those dark stains. |
| 00:07:14 | CALLER: I’ll have to give that a try. I did. I just managed to find out something that worked, believe it or not. |
| 00:07:21 | TOM: Oh, yeah? What was that? |
| 00:07:22 | CALLER: So I spoke to a cleaning lady and says, oh, we get that all the time. You go to the hardware store and you buy a little piece of pumice. It’s stone. |
| 00:07:30 | TOM: Right. |
| 00:07:31 | CALLER: And it doesn’t scratch the porcelain. Right. Took the stain right out. It was amazing. Yeah. |
| 00:07:36 | TOM: Yeah. That is an option. You are sort of reducing the thickness of the porcelain. But look, if you stay on top of the cleaning now that you’ve got that stain removed, then you’re likely not going to have to repeat that. Indeed. Awesome. Well, thank you very much for the call. And I appreciate the help. Good luck, Axel. Thanks so much for calling us. |
| 00:07:53 | LESLIE: Steve in Arizona, you’ve got the money, but how can we help you today? Yeah. |
| 00:07:57 | CALLER: We’ve got a, um, um, uh, uh, square fire pit out in the backyard. Um, it’s really nice. We bought it about a year ago. It’s got nice Southern tile on top. And in the middle of it, it’s got a, it got a round lazy Susan. Then you take off the lazy Susan and it’s a, um, it’s a fire pit with a, um, a stainless steel fire ring. And we’ve got a bunch of, you know, fire glass in there. It’s really nice. And the, um, one of the things that we’re disappointed in somewhat is that the, uh, the flame isn’t really very high on the thing. It’s really, it’s really a nice kind of romantic, uh, low fire, but we’d like, uh, like to figure out if we could find some way to, to make that a little more robust. And I’m thinking about just drilling out the holes in the fire ring too. And I’m wondering if that, uh, if that might, might solve the problem or if I’d be creating more problems than solving. |
| 00:08:46 | TOM: Generally, you don’t want to modify a gas burner like that. Was this a manufactured unit that you purchased and installed? Yes. |
| 00:08:53 | CALLER: Yeah. It was, it all just came. All we really had to do was just, uh, pretty much plunked the thing down and, uh, uh, um, you know, hook up the gas. |
| 00:09:01 | TOM: Well, you certainly don’t want to mess with the manufacturer’s design because that was very specifically designed to do a certain, uh, job. And if you start drilling bigger holes in it, you could create something that’s very dangerous. But let me just ask you this, is this natural gas or propane? |
| 00:09:14 | CALLER: It’s natural gas. Yeah. When we, uh, we landscaped the yard, we had a natural gas, uh, line run out to the area of the, uh, of the yard. Then we poured a really nice big, uh, Oh, 18 circular foot, um, uh, pad out. And then the fire and then stubbed it right in the middle. So that’s where the fire pit is. |
| 00:09:31 | TOM: All right. Have you checked the gas pressure to make sure that, uh, it’s where you expect it to be? |
| 00:09:36 | CALLER: Uh, no, no, I’m not really sure. |
| 00:09:38 | TOM: No, I would, I would have a plumber check the gas pressure to make sure that the gas pressure is correct. If you have low gas pressure, that could account for the low flame. The other thing I would do is contact the manufacturer to find out what flame level that’s designed for, because it might be doing exactly what it’s intended to do. And if you add more, uh, if you try to modify it, it might be doing exactly what it’s intended to do. If you try to modify that, it could be certainly dangerous. So I would not encourage you to drill out the burner or anything of that nature. I would encourage you to check the gas level, the gas pressure level, as well as the valves that serve it, service it because something’s partially closed, or you just don’t have enough pressure coming through that line for whatever reason, uh, that could also be the solution, uh, as well. Steve, thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit. |
| 00:10:21 | LESLIE: Well, stone garden walls are synonymous with strength and performance, but a poorly built wall can crumble in no time at all. |
| 00:10:28 | TOM: Well, that’s true, but building a stone wall is definitely hard work. So if you want it to last, you really need to lay the groundwork first, and it all starts with that footing. You’ll need a firm base before you start stacking stones or your wall will move, and that can be a big problem. So the first step is to dig a trench below the frost line. That means you need to go a couple of feet to two to three feet generally. Next, you want to line it with some landscaping fabric before setting down a base of washed stones. Now, the stone base is important because it allows water to drain away. And that prevents the freezing and thawing under the wall, which can cause it to move. And the landscaping fabric will also prevent the surrounding soil from clogging up the gaps in the stones, which also can block drainage. |
| 00:11:09 | LESLIE: You know, Tom, there’s really two ways that you can build a wall, right? You can either use mortar or stack them up like building blocks. So is one option better than the other? |
| 00:11:19 | TOM: You know, I think it’s really personal preference. I mean, I love the look of the traditional New England style field stone walls are generally stacked without mortar. It’s referred to as dry laid, but a mortar wall can’t be beat for strength and an important consideration if you’re building, say, for example, retaining wall or a wall you’re going to have folks sitting on that will help it stay vertical and plumb all the time. Now, you can also preserve that dry laid look while getting the strength advantages of mortar by using a mortar that’s been pigmented a dark gray to match. Remember, you can always tint these mortars and then rake the joints between the stone. So they actually sit back from the edge, kind of getting. Like the best of both worlds. |
| 00:11:59 | LESLIE: All right. Now, once you’ve got that footing complete, there’s a specific order for how those stones are stacked, and it all kind of starts with that base course, correct? You’ve got to take those large base stones and place them first, and then you’ll see as you’re kind of placing these larger stones, you’re going to notice some gaps in between because those rocks aren’t obviously going to stay perfectly together. So as you sort of see those openings, you can fill those spots with smaller rocks to close those gaps. You should see that those stones are laying flush along the height of the face of the stones, and if you are using mortar, you want to make sure to dry fit those stones before you commit to this sort of build with mortar. Because if you build that wall right, guys, it’s going to last 100 years. |
| 00:12:40 | TOM: Absolutely. And I take it from one who has forgotten that step of dry fitting first, and it becomes a real big mess when you have mortar in the wrong places. So that’s a really good tip. Thanks, Leslie. |
| 00:12:50 | LESLIE: Laura in Pennsylvania needs some help with a lighting question. What can we do for you? |
| 00:12:54 | CALLER: Oh, well, my son gave me some compact fluorescent bulbs. I didn’t like them. Okay. And I had never used them before, and I thought, well, I’ll put them in my little lights I use with timers. Only they all blow out. |
| 00:13:08 | TOM: There’s no reason you can’t use a compact fluorescent bulb in an outlet that has a timer. I mean, a timer simply automatically turns the light switch on or off, so that shouldn’t have an effect on damaging the bulb. |
| 00:13:21 | CALLER: That’s what I thought. I have incandescent bulbs in them now, and they work just fine. |
| 00:13:26 | TOM: Well, maybe he gave you some bum. Bum compact fluorescents. I don’t know. It’s kind of an odd thing for it to happen, too. Compact fluorescents work really well in most fixtures that take incandescence. In fact, you can even have them work well in fixtures that are controlled by dimmers. There are special dimmers today that are designed to work with compact fluorescents and with LEDs where you can adjust the range of the dimming so that it doesn’t ever flicker or go out. So compact fluorescent bulbs are a great option. I don’t know why they’re not working for you. But the timer shouldn’t have anything to do with it. Okay. |
| 00:13:59 | CALLER: Well, maybe I’ll try them again, or I have two left, or I’ll try, you know, buy some. Maybe he has an off-brand or something like that. I don’t know. Because they should last a really long time, right? They should. |
| 00:14:11 | TOM: And you know what I like better than compact fluorescents are the LED bulbs. Take a look at the Philips LED bulbs. These are, they’re very distinctive. They’re yellow. They look like bug lights, but they have a very pleasant white light that comes off of them. And they’re going to be more expensive than compact. They’re not compact fluorescents, but they last like forever. And they’re super energy efficient. Okay. |
| 00:14:31 | CALLER: I will be happy to. That’s a really good idea. Thank you. |
| 00:14:34 | TOM: All right. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit. |
| 00:14:39 | LESLIE: Heading over to Ohio, we’ve got Bill on the line who’s looking for some advice with a kitchen reno. What’s going on? |
| 00:14:45 | CALLER: What is the best material and easiest material to apply to a kitchen wall behind a stove that has an exhaust built into the back for the heat from… In the oven and turns the wall kind of brownish. I don’t know if there’s something that can avoid that. |
| 00:15:03 | LESLIE: You know, Bill, you’ve got a couple of options. And with backsplash, generally the answer is tile. Super easy to install. Very durable. If you seal the grout, you know, you don’t have to worry about stains settling in there. However, with your fan through the wall being your main sort of exhaust there, I think what you could maybe do behind the stove itself where you have that fan is maybe do a piece of solid surfacing. Quartz, granite, you know, something that’s like a solid material that’s easy to clean and one piece. And you do that kind of as like a waterfall section behind your oven and your stove cooktop. This way, it’s super easy to clean. You don’t have to worry about grout lines there. It’s one circular cut or whatever shape your fan is rather than assorted cuts of tile leading up to it. So that’s an easy fix for that part. And then, of course, if you like the look of the solid surface as a backsplash, you could do the entire backsplash as those like single pieces. Or what you could do is just keep that sort of solid section waterfall type look behind the stove and then do tile up to it, you know, and around the rest of the kitchen. And that’s an easy DIY, you know, sort of project for yourself. And even if you don’t want to work with any sort of tile glue mastic, you can go with something that’s like a giant sticker. It’s called Simple Mat. And that goes directly to the surface and the tile goes to that. And then you can grout right away. So a couple of ways you can do this project quickly. And then also keep it from getting all dirty again. All right. Now we’ve got Lynn in Colorado who’s got a tricky, leaky shower. Let’s see if we can help her find it. |
| 00:16:35 | CALLER: I had a plumber come out once and he said the pipe and the bottom where it comes out of the shower doesn’t always hook up right. So he siliconed it and it didn’t leak. But now once in a while it’s leaking again. Of course, it’s upstairs. So I see it on a ceiling. And I’m wondering, is there some kind of a liner you can put down the pipe like they do for sewage lines that go out? |
| 00:16:58 | TOM: You’re talking about the supply pipes or you’re talking about the shower stall? |
| 00:17:01 | CALLER: I’m talking about the stall, the drain pipe. |
| 00:17:04 | TOM: Do you have, is it a tile shower pan or is it a, like a plastic shower? |
| 00:17:08 | CALLER: Yeah, it’s one of the insert ones. |
| 00:17:10 | TOM: Those pans can develop cracks in them and you have to figure out where that crack is. One way to try to figure out at least how high on the pan the crack is, is if you block the drain of the pan and fill it up with water. And see if it leaks. If it doesn’t leak, then the pan’s fine. The next thing you have to do is move up with your sort of analysis. And now you’re going to get into the seams of it. If you’ve got existing caulk, what I would recommend as a first step is to remove that caulk using caulk softener. And that’ll allow you to strip out everything that’s there and start clean with some new good quality bathroom caulk that’s got a mildew side built into it. And I would just caulk very carefully every single seam. And also around. All the pipes and the faucets and the fixtures, where they come through. Because sometimes you get direct leaks where water fills up in the pan and leaks. And a lot of times, though, with showers, you’ll get leaks when the water bounces off your body, hits one of those seams, works its way in behind the wall and down. So I would take out the existing caulk, re-caulk it, and check the shower pan for leaks. And somewhere in that analysis, you’ll probably figure out what’s going on. Okay. All right. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit. |
| 00:18:27 | LESLIE: All right. We’ve got Mark in Texas who just tackled a spray foam project and needs some help. What’s going on? |
| 00:18:31 | CALLER: I built my home 38 years ago. I have a tube of six outside walls with stuffed insulation, fiberglass. And on top, I have an R30 fiberglass. This past week, I had foam insulation blown underneath my attic. So now I have foam insulation under the rafters. And then I have R30 on. On the floor of the attic. My question to you is, do I need to ventilate the attic or do I close it up completely? |
| 00:19:06 | TOM: Hey, Mark, that’s a great project. In fact, I did that exact same project in my 1886 house. I applied spray foam insulation to the underside of the roof, completely covered in the rafters. I did have existing insulation in the floor, which I left. But as to the question is whether or not you need to vent that or not, if you also spray foam the gable walls, so those are sort of those triangular walls between the floor and the underside of the roof. So you’ve, in fact, sealed in that entire attic. And if you’ve also sealed in the area where your soffit fence were and certainly your roof fence, that would have been optimal because now you have what’s called a conditioned attic. When it’s all sealed in like that, you don’t need any additional ventilation in the conditioned attic. And you will find that that attic stays about the same temperature as your second floor or your first floor, if we’re talking about a ranch here. And you don’t need any. You don’t need any additional ventilation with that. You don’t have to worry about moisture control. And again, you can leave that old insulation in place. It just contributes to the efficiency. Now, when I did this, I started looking at my gas bills. And man, what a difference this made almost immediately in the first couple of months of the following winter. So good luck with that project. And let us know if you have more questions. |
| 00:20:16 | LESLIE: Well, renovating a bathroom is a great way to update the look, function, and feel of its space. And adding some gorgeous tiles can take a blah bath to an outstanding, but the key here to making sure that that tile work is going to last is making sure that the surfaces are waterproof. Because water can get behind those tiles through the grout. And any water getting behind there could cause that project to fall apart. But it could also lead to mold. So it’s crucial that you are making sure that water doesn’t get in behind those tiles. |
| 00:20:46 | TOM: That’s right. So it all comes down to the options. Let’s talk about floors first. For floors, you want to use a waterproof membrane. It comes in sheets. And it’s typically made of polyethylene. With a fleece webbing on both sides for added strength. Now, the sheets have to be measured for each surface in which they’re being applied. So it really is sort of custom work. But the membrane also helps prevent tiles from cracking. Especially when they’re used in floors. When you have the very large tiles, they don’t bend. Remember that. It’s not like the old mosaics that could flex. These don’t bend at all. So the membranes are really helpful for that. Now, for walls, you want to use a backer board. There are a number of manufacturers that make backer boards. And they let you quickly. And easily build tile-ready walls in showers, bathtubs, surrounds, that sort of thing. And the very best approach, which is one we rarely see, is what’s called a mud wall. Now, a mud wall is when you put metal on the wall and cover it with a mortar mix. Now, these are very thick walls. And you can spot houses that have these. Because the tile, where it sort of rounds back to the wall, is like an inch thick. And they last forever. But, of course, they’re expensive. And you don’t see them that much anymore. But if you find a house that has it, try to save it. Now, I have a house that I’m renovating, Leslie, that has these beautiful, thick mud walls. But it’s really going to put my advice to the test. Because they are lemon yellow. I’m thinking, oh, man. It’s so hard to look at. I know they’re made well. But it’s so hard to look at. |
| 00:22:14 | LESLIE: That’s amazing. All right. But let’s talk about that so-called waterproof or water-resistant drywall, which you can also call greenboard. And builders use that a lot. But it just doesn’t last, right? I mean, I’ve always used it. I’ve always thought of it as something that’s good and will stay. But that’s not necessarily the case. |
| 00:22:29 | TOM: Oh, I so totally agree. I worked in new construction for many years where all they used was greenboard. And by the time that stuff gets to be three, four, five years old, it’s got problems. You can definitely see if somebody’s not, like, really careful with their caulking and that sort of thing, and water gets behind that wall, it gets soft so quickly. So I don’t recommend greenboard, especially when there are so many great backer boards out there, like their hardy plank backer boards, for example, that are not terrible. They’re incredibly expensive, really durable, and can stand up to just about anything you can throw at it. So greenboard, definitely something to avoid. |
| 00:23:02 | LESLIE: Amy and I was on the line with a question about a dirt basement. Tell us what’s going on. |
| 00:23:06 | CALLER: Hi. I recently had purchased an old farmhouse, and in the basement it has a dirt floor. And I was wondering if I should lay concrete on it or if I could lay that thick plastic and put gravel on top to help with the radon. And try to keep some of the heat in there. |
| 00:23:28 | TOM: Do you know that you have a radon problem? |
| 00:23:30 | CALLER: Well, I don’t. They talk about it in Iowa being an issue. And with it being a dirt floor, I didn’t know if that was something I should have tested first or go ahead and just lay the plastic in the rock and be… |
| 00:23:42 | TOM: I would definitely test because you don’t know what you’re dealing with. You may have to put stone down and then put a concrete floor and then do a ventilation system where you draw the gas up off from underneath the concrete. So the first thing you have to do is test. So do it yourself or hire somebody and do it right. You know, the testing has to be done under closed building conditions with all the windows and doors closed except for a normal exit and entry. And find out what you’re dealing with. And then, you know, you can take the appropriate steps after that. But don’t just put it down, you know, thinking that if you have a radon problem, it’s going to solve it. Because, frankly, it may not. |
| 00:24:21 | CALLER: All right. Well, thank you so much for your help. |
| 00:24:24 | TOM: You’re welcome. Good luck with that. Project, thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit. |
| 00:24:29 | LESLIE: Patrick in Tennessee is on the line and needs some help with a water feature. What can we do for you? |
| 00:24:33 | CALLER: I have an aquaponic garden that was in the yard of our old house. And we moved. This new house is pretty much all pool and concrete in the back. And this aquaponic garden is basically about 150 gallons of water and 150 pounds of lumber that occupies a 5×10. Two and a half square foot area. And I’m just concerned if I put it on the concrete, if it’ll crack. |
| 00:25:01 | TOM: So you’re worried about the concrete cracking underneath it? Correct. And what are you talking about? Like a concrete driveway? A concrete sidewalk? What are we talking about? |
| 00:25:09 | CALLER: It’s like a slab that goes around the pool. |
| 00:25:11 | TOM: What’s the tank size? |
| 00:25:12 | CALLER: It’s 200 gallons, did you say? There’s two tanks, one mounted above the other. So one’s 100 gallons and one’s 50 gallons. |
| 00:25:19 | TOM: So 150 gallons times 8 pounds per gallon. So you have over 1,000 pounds of water. There, plus the lumber. That’s not terrible. I mean, think of it. That’s like four or five people standing on the concrete together. OK. So I think it’d probably be OK. You know, I mean, it really depends on how thick the concrete is and that sort of thing. But generally speaking, concrete should be able to take folks standing shoulder to shoulder all around it without a problem. Well, thank you so much. Patrick, good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit. |
| 00:25:51 | LESLIE: Heidi in North Carolina is on the line with an electrical problem. How can we help you today? |
| 00:25:55 | CALLER: Well, I have a… Kind of a two-part question. I have an older home. It’s about 68 years old. We paid an electrician to come in when we converted over to a heat pump from an oil furnace to up our service. And we have an old fuse box that are the screw-in type fuses. And when he put the system in the new electrical box, he was supposed to convert everything over into the new electrical box. And he left the little electrical. The little fuse box in my kitchen. And unfortunately, he put the new electrical box on the outside of my house. I would be okay except I’m a single woman and I don’t, you know, safety reasons. I don’t think it’s really smart considering I have a full-size basement that could easily be put in. So do I need to… I mean, I would never call this guy again for lots of reasons. But do I need to pay somebody else to come in and convert that last part of my home into this other space? Fuse box or, you know, these little fuses are hard to find. And, you know, when they blow… |
| 00:27:03 | TOM: So it’s definitely an active panel, right? The fuse panel? |
| 00:27:06 | CALLER: Oh, it’s active. Yes, sir. Okay. |
| 00:27:08 | TOM: So that’s called a subpanel. And that’s going to be a subpanel from the main panel. You said the main panel is now in the basement. The main panel is outside. |
| 00:27:16 | CALLER: It’s outside. We have a full basement. And why he put it outside, I have no clue. But he put the main panel… |
| 00:27:21 | TOM: Yeah, that makes no sense. Because the only time you usually see full panels outside is maybe, maybe a condominium situation. And then they’re in utility closets. So I can’t imagine why that was done that way. It doesn’t make sense. It sounds to me like you do need a better electrician to come in and take care of this. If it makes you feel any better, the fact that you have a fuse box does not mean that it’s unsafe. Fuses are actually quite safe if it’s the right size fuse matched against the wire that’s hooked up to that circuit. And so to know if that’s the case, somebody has to open the panel and say, this is number 14 wire. So it’s a 15 amp fuse. And this is number 12 wire. So it’s a 20 amp fuse and so on. And physically write that like right above the fuse on the panel. So you know what size to put in there. Because it’s too easy with a fuse box to put in a 20 amp fuse on a wire that’s only rated for 15 amps. Then, of course, that’s potentially unsafe. So it does sound like you need another electrician. It’s obviously not a do-it-yourself project. And unless there’s some compelling code reason in your part of the country to put that outside, I don’t understand why they would have done that. And you know, you could consider… Running it back to the inside. And unfortunately, that’s kind of where we’re at. It’s not an easy fix. It’s one that’s going to require the investment of a good electrician. |
| 00:28:34 | CALLER: All right. Well, thank you very much. |
| 00:28:36 | TOM: Well, guys, with all the lawn garden work going on right now, you might be storing more hazardous liquids like gas and oil and grease than you normally might have around. So we’re going to share some tips on the best way to store those flammable liquids safely so that your garage or shed does not become a fire hazard. Yeah. |
| 00:28:54 | LESLIE: Well, first of all, the most common… And obviously, the most dangerous flammable is gasoline. But there are other highly flammable products that you also need to consider. Things like paint thinner, charcoal lighter fluid, kerosene. You know, these are just to name a few. Now, the problem, however, isn’t just spilling these flammable liquids. All of these liquids give off invisible vapors. And that can ignite if they come in contact with even the smallest of sparks. So you’ve got to keep them properly labeled, tightly sealed, in non-glass containers. And as far away as possible from anything that could potentially even produce a spark. |
| 00:29:31 | TOM: Yeah, or certainly even an open flame. You know, have you ever noticed, if you have natural gas as a heating system, and very often the water heaters are in the garage, but they’re not on the garage floor. They’re always up about 16 plus inches, usually stacked on a couple of concrete blocks. There’s a reason for that. And the reason is that gasoline fumes or vapors, as you say, Leslie, they’re heavier than air. So they can… They can lay on the floor. And if they were to work their way over to the burner compartment, where you have an open flame for a water heater, well, poof, you get a big fire. So that’s why water heaters are actually up off the floor. And again, it’s because of those vapors. So you really need to consider both the liquids and the vapors that they emit. |
| 00:30:14 | LESLIE: Marlene in Minnesota is on the line. How can we help you today? |
| 00:30:16 | CALLER: We have two aluminum clad factory finished garage doors, dark brown in color, or at least they were. |
| 00:30:25 | TOM: Okay. |
| 00:30:26 | CALLER: And they’re beginning to fade due to oxidation and sun exposure. Is there anything we can do to restore that finish? |
| 00:30:35 | TOM: Well, not short of painting them, because if you, when you say restore them, I mean, that would presume that there’s a way to kind of bring back the luster of the original paint finish. But after years of exposure to sun, and especially those darker colors, you do get oxidation where the paint surface is broken down. And you’re not going to bring that surface back. The good news is that because they’re metal, metal doors, they’re fairly straightforward to paint. You want to make sure that you lightly sand the door. And then I would use a metal primer. So a good quality metal priming paint. And then whatever your top coat of paint is going to be beyond that. And if you do that right, because it’s metal and it’s not organic, so it’s not subjected as much to expansion and contraction, and certainly not moisture absorption, a good paint job on a metal door like that could easily last 10 years. Okay. |
| 00:31:22 | CALLER: Well, thank you for your help. |
| 00:31:25 | TOM: You’re welcome. Marlene, thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit. |
| 00:31:29 | LESLIE: Sarah in Oregon reached out to Team Money Pit and wrote, I like my neutral bedroom, but it lacks personality. Are there ways to make it more interesting without adding color? |
| 00:31:40 | TOM: That’s a pretty good question. I’m thinking that the trick here, Leslie, is maybe to bring in some texture. |
| 00:31:46 | LESLIE: Yeah. And it’s all about the tones too of those same neutral colors, because a neutral color is say like a cream, a beige, tan, gray. And once you get into those sort of palettes, each cream, tan, gray, beige, once you start looking at that, there’s a whole depth and breadth of colors there that you can choose from that are still in that same neutral tone. So they may only be one or two steps up in the lighter or darker shade, but it can feel so different and add those layers. So if you kind of combine all those neutrals in a variety of depths of shades of color and then bring in texture. So look at something that’s linen, something that’s woven, something that’s, that’s knit, you know, and layer all these things in and suddenly that space is really alive with texture and color and it’s, you know, vibrant in its own way without having color. So I hope that helps you out. |
| 00:32:36 | TOM: All right. Jim says, I’m renovating my kitchen. We currently have a vinyl floor and I wanted to know if it’s okay to go over that with rigid vinyl plank. That’s a good question. First of all, if you’re renovating any kitchen and you’re replacing your floor, one thing you need to take note of is how your dishwasher, is installed. Now the reason is because it’s very easy to block in the dishwasher with new flooring and that can be a big problem. I remember some years ago where I was helping my sister replace a dishwasher and imagine my surprise when I found that her tile floor, I mean tile floor with like a really thick base of it was on top of the exhaled floor and locked in that dishwasher. The only way we got it out, Leslie is I physically had to remove the countertop because I just couldn’t get the dishwasher out any other way. It was crazy. So you want to take note of that and make sure you’re not locking in your dishwasher in terms of whether you can go on top or not. Certainly you can go on top and you may find it to be better that way because the vinyl floors, the old flex sheet vinyl is not very thick and it’s typically glued down. So we start taking it up. Sometimes you get, you know, chunks of glue and such that you have to work on and take off as well. So it just adds a little bit of thickness. If your floors can handle that, you certainly can go right on top of that. The key with that rigid vinyl plank and all of those plank products though, is to make sure that the floor is flat. If you’ve got some humps in that floor or some sags in that floor, you need to fill those in because if the floor that you put on top starts to bend when somebody steps on it, the seams can come apart. They’ll start to pull and stretch and it really doesn’t end well. So make sure that floor is nice and flat before you put it on top of it, but you can certainly go over the vinyl. |
| 00:34:23 | LESLIE: Yeah. And you know, Jim, it’s not just this RVP flooring that you have to keep in mind. There is sheet laminate products. There’s laminate planks. There are, you know, hybrid stone products that you can apply right over. And there’s a really a ton of variety out there that you’ll find something durable, something that’s easy to install, and that can absolutely change the look of your kitchen space. So definitely keep your eyes open when you’re out there looking at choices, because there’s a ton. |
| 00:34:49 | TOM: You are listening to the Money Pit Home Improvement Show on a beautiful spring day. I hope you guys are doing well and engaged in home improvement projects that make you happy as you go to improve your space. If you’ve got questions on projects you’re taking on, or you get stuck in the middle, or you don’t know where to begin, remember, you can reach out to us 24-7 at 1-888-Money-Pit or by going to moneypit.com slash ask. Until next time, I’m Tom Kraeutler. |
| 00:35:15 | LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete. |
| 00:35:17 | TOM: Remember, you can do it yourself. |
| 00:35:18 | 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 2024 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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