#2439 – Cabinet Couture: Kitchen Cabinet Makeovers | Designer Air Vents

Show Notes

Join us today to hear tips on giving your kitchen cabinets a fresh new look without spending a fortune, learn about innovative air vents that double as design elements, and uncover a fast solution for fixing textured walls and ceilings. And as always, we’re here with answers to your latest home improvement questions to help get your DIY projects done!

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Podcast Transcript

Kitchen Cabinets: Cook up a new look for your kitchen cabinets with these budget-friendly options.
Air Vents: Function meets fashion when HVAC air vents become beautiful design features.
Textured Surfaces: Get a smooth solution for rough repairs of textured walls and ceilings with this DIY product.

Ask Your Home Improvement Question

Do you have a home improvement or decor question? Call the show 24/7 at 888-MONEY-PIT (888-666-3974) or post your question here.

Podcast Transcript

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00:00:29	TOM: Coast to coast and floorboards to shingles, this is The Money Pit, home Improvement Show. I’m Tom Kraeutler.
00:00:35	LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.
00:00:36	TOM: And we are here to help you take on projects you’d like to get done around your house. What are you planning for this weekend? What are you planning for this month, for the seasons ahead? If there is a project on your to-do list, you can slide it right over to ours by calling us with your questions. The number here is 1-888-Money-Pit. That’s 888-666-3974. Coming up on today’s show, if your kitchen cabinets are getting older or just need a pick-me-up, you don’t necessarily have to tear them all out. We’re going to share some tips on how you can get a brand new look for your kitchen without breaking the bank.
00:01:10	LESLIE: And the air vents that come through your walls and your floors are definitely not the most attractive part of the home, but they are an important part of your heating and cooling system. Well, one father-daughter design team, has reinvented those ugly air vents into a beautiful design feature.
00:01:26	TOM: We’re going to speak to one of the founders of that company called FITS just ahead. And textured walls and ceilings are popular, but if you’ve got to make a repair to that surface, getting that original texture back is a big hassle. But now, there’s a quick fix that can restore that surface in minutes, and we’ll share the details on that new product.
00:01:43	LESLIE: But first, we are here to help you create the home of your dreams. So what are those projects that you need to achieve to get there? How can we help you do that? Well, you’ve got to reach on out, and we’re going to give you a hand. Give us a call at 888-Money-Pit.
00:01:56	TOM: 888-666-3974. Let’s get to it. Leslie, who’s first?
00:02:01	LESLIE: Petrilla in Louisiana is working on a kitchen flooring project. What’s going on?
00:02:05	CALLER: I have sheet linoleum in my kitchen, and I want to know if I can put the square tile linoleum down over that, or any other kind of flooring over it without having to take up the linoleum.
00:02:17	TOM: You know, I think the good thing about flooring that’s available today, Leslie, is that you can put a lot of these products on top of those old sheet vinyl or linoleum floors, right? I mean, she’s got a lot of options here.
00:02:26	LESLIE: I mean, you really do have so many options when it comes to kitchen flooring, especially flooring that’s floating and can go on top of an existing level floor. You have engineered vinyl plank, which is also known as EVP. It installs beautifully. It can look like a variety of woods and wood tones and wood finishes and planks. I mean, there’s so many different ways to achieve a durable, easy-to-install floor that’s not going to break the bank. Definitely worth checking out LL Flooring. So many options there.
00:02:54	TOM: Also, laminate flooring, right? I mean, because laminate flooring is all sort of tongue-in-groove, locked together. And again, you snap it all together. It can lay down right on top of that old sheet flooring that you have now. You leave a little bit of gap between it and, say, the baseboard molding, and you put some quarter round or some shoe molding to cover that gap. And it’s super durable, and it’s absolutely beautiful. So, the one product I would not put down on top of these, the old one, is another type of sheet flooring. So, I would not put vinyl, new vinyl flooring, roll-out vinyl flooring on top of that old linoleum because you’ll see all of the lumps and imperfections in your old floor. I would definitely look for a product that will go on top of that and that has some resilience to it, like EVP or laminate.
00:03:36	LESLIE: We’ve got Robert in Delaware who’s got some problems with the sidewalk. What is happening?
00:03:41	CALLER: I have a small issue with my walkway coming into my house, and that is the divider between the concrete pads, the walkway. They’re all in good shape, except for one. It seems to have deteriorated and washed away. So, I’m trying to think of a way to fill that in. I didn’t know if I should put them in and then pour in a composite or exactly about a half-inch gap there. If you have any ideas that could help me out, I’d be very
00:04:09	TOM: You know, Robert, that problem you describe is very common because the fillers between the concrete slabs that you mentioned, those are really called spacers. And they’re actually there to give the concrete a place to expand and contract so it doesn’t push against each other and crack. But they’re not nearly as permanent as the concrete, obviously, and they’re just going to dry out and fall out over time. And then you end up getting dirt and you get seeds and you get weeds that fall into there. So, what you want to do is this. You want to scrape out anything that’s in that space between the two concrete slabs. Then you want to pick up something we call a backer rod, which is like a foam noodle. It comes in different diameters, and it sounds like you’re going to need one that’s like one inch in diameter. You cut a piece to fit the width of the sidewalk, and then you press it into that gap. You can use a screwdriver or a stick or something. So it sits down below the surface probably at least maybe I’d say a half inch or so. And then on top of that backer rod, you basically install a flowable urethane type of caulk sealant. And when that dries, it’ll expand and contract. And because you have the backer rod there, it’s not all going to fall down to the bottom of the slab, and there’ll be no end to how much of that stuff you’re going to need. So the backer rod keeps it in place. You put the sealant in there. It dries. It attaches itself well to both sides of the slab. And you’re going to have to do this probably again and again in the future, but that’s the best way to handle that. Putting sand in there is not going to solve that at all. It’s just going to grow weeds. So put the backer rod in, and you’ll be good to go.
00:05:35	LESLIE: Hey, are you tired of living in a money pit? Well, we’re here to help. And if you want us to help out, it would be awesome if you could leave us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts. Just go to moneypit.com slash review. It’s only going to take a minute, and it means the world to us. Cindy in Ohio is on the line with a question about cedar shingles. How can we help you?
00:05:54	CALLER: I live in a raised ranch home, and I have cedar shingle siding on the front of my home. And the shingles themselves are in good shape. They were previously stained, and I’m wondering, now that they’re fading, if there is any way I could paint them or do something different to them other than staining them.
00:06:14	TOM: So, Cindy, the one thing to know about siding like this, cedar siding in particular, is that once you paint it, you’re kind of committing to paint for the rest of the life of the siding on your house. If you continue with the stain, as you’ve noticed, the stain will fade. It will change color, but it doesn’t ever get to the point where you have, like, cracked strips of stain that would have to be pulled off with paint. That’s what happens. It ends up cracking and separating from the cedar below, and you’ll have to scrape it all out to do another painting. You’ll have to do another coat or at least rough up what’s there. So I’m a big fan of stain on siding. Now, that said, you have a lot of choices in stain. It doesn’t have to be dark. You want to brighten it up, not a problem. You want to turn it into, like, a red cedar, you can do that. You want it to be gray, you could do that. I would recommend that you use a good quality, solid color exterior stain. And the other thing about cedar siding is that sometimes it’s helpful if you prime it first with an anti-tannin primer. There’s certain types of primers that work well with cedar. And by doing that, you stop some of the oils from leaking through and impacting the quality of the stain. You know, we’ve taken care of the cedar siding on our house doing just that for many, many years. And I’ve had my siding last years and years and years, like, way longer than it should have between coats of stain just because we did it right the first time out. So I’d recommend you skip the painting step and go right with the stain. Use the solid color stain. Prime it first, and that’s going to last as long as it possibly can.
00:07:40	LESLIE: Mike in Pennsylvania is on the line and needs some help figuring out what to do. He’s learning how to change some columns that are pretty much the entire front of the house. What’s going on?
00:07:48	CALLER: We bought a split level house that has a nice porch that is halfway in between and very, very tall columns holding up the roof. We would like to modify, somehow to make the front look a little bit different, but we can’t find anything to replace the columns. They’re kind of a scalloped, white chalky column that is in need of repair.
00:08:12	TOM: So Mike I hear you on your desire to change those columns because maybe you guys feel that they are dated and certainly that style is not common today but I got to tell you those are an important structural member of that roof structure and they’re supporting that piece of the roof so this is not something that’s very simple to replace. There are columns out there that are designed as wraparounds where you may have a plain structural beam underneath it and then you surround them and I know you can find those with flat sides instead of the scalloped round ones you have now but I think that this is going to be a real challenge if you have a real strong desire to replace this. You’re really gonna have to go to an architect and almost redesign the front of that house right Leslie because even if he takes it out it’s not gonna look
00:08:59	LESLIE: nearly as cohesive a design that as what he started with. Oh for sure no I mean these are a specific type of architecture they do perform a purpose of keeping the house structurally you know integral they are keeping things together I don’t know of any wrap that goes with something that’s substantial in size just to sort of change the look I mean it’s definitely a specific architectural look that you look for when purchasing a house I don’t really know of a way to change it without a full sort of redesign and engineering perspective of how to do something that stylistically
00:09:33	TOM: changes it but keeps it all together. I think your only option here is to go to an architect and maybe just talk with him about doing some initial designs maybe just sketches not even blueprints but sketches with ideas on how you might be able to change the look at this house to get it closer to what you guys would like to see. So Mike sorry we don’t have better advice for you on that no simple solutions here but we certainly want to make sure that you do this right and don’t negatively impact the value of your home by taking some of the way that’s pretty important in terms of holding up that roof. Well kitchens are one place in the house where most of us spent a lot of time but if you feel like your kitchen cabinets are dated or drab and dull it might not always be your favorite room. Now the good news is there are options for getting a totally new look without breaking the bank and those options
00:10:17	LESLIE: include replacing, refacing, or just refinishing cabinets. Well first of all let’s talk about the difference replacing of course is just that you tear them out and you start again. You want to replace when you’re reconfiguring the layout or you’re changing the existing boxes of the cabinets because the current ones are junky, Now, refacing is when you resurface the cabinets with new doors, drawer fronts, hardware, and that can be less expensive and can definitely make a huge difference without breaking the bank.
00:10:46	TOM: Now, how do you determine if a kitchen is a candidate for refacing? Well, you have to be happy with the existing configuration because refacing does not add or change the layout of any new cabinets. The cabinets need to be also a good quality cabinet, structurally speaking. So, for example, there’s no sense refacing a cabinet that’s not going to stand up for a while.
00:11:07	LESLIE: Yeah, and refinishing a cabinet is probably your most cost-effective move here. You’re going to repaint, you’re going to restain, that’s how you accomplish that makeover, and it’s a great DIY project that truly delivers some good results. And with the trend in cabinets looking like gray or white, painting can be an inexpensive option that can truly update your kitchen very easily. Now, we’ve got Anna in South Dakota on the line with a question about ants. What is going on?
00:11:33	CALLER: Took down a huge, huge tree, and the contractor that took it down said, good thing you took it down because in two years it probably would have fell. Okay. Because it’s all hollow, and he said it had a huge carpenter ant nest in it.
00:11:49	TOM: Yep.
00:11:49	CALLER: So, my house is 10 feet away. Do I need to worry about that?
00:11:54	TOM: No. Carpenter ants are Mother Nature’s way of getting rid of dead wood. Sure, they could infest your house, but they’re not necessarily going to be motivated to go there. They’re not going to go over anything else that’s lying about. You’ll find ant nests like that, you know, once in a while, and they’ll usually just go down on the ground. They’ll go off to another location, but they’re not like, hey, let’s go over to Anna’s house because I heard it’s tasty. No, they’re not necessarily going to go in your house. I mean, that said, you know, you ought to keep your eye out for all sorts of pests, carpenter ants and termites in particular, but you’re not at any increased risk of finding ants. I’ll tell you, I had a surprise myself with ants a couple of weeks back. I have a bay window that’s filled with plants, and I was doing some cleaning, and I had noticed we were getting some persistent ants in this area, and I figured they were coming in from the outside, you know, being the knowledgeable home improvement expert that I am. Well, imagine my surprise when I lifted up a big clay pot that had a flowering plant in it and found that the ant infestation was, in fact, in the plant. So we were helping this ant infestation survive by dutifully watering our plant, and once I got the plant outside, those ants had to find a new place to live, and we haven’t seen a single one since. So, you know, they’re not necessarily looking to go to your house. I think that you’re going to be fine.
00:13:12	CALLER: Okay. That was my only concern. The house is, you know, was built in 1908, and it’s like it’s, you know.
00:13:19	TOM: Yep. Man, it’s going to be fine for another 100 years. You don’t worry about that, okay? Thank you. Good luck.
00:13:26	LESLIE: Dave in Iowa has got an issue at his money pit where something smells a little stinky, like rotten eggs. What’s going on?
00:13:33	CALLER: Oh, well, I just bought a farmhouse about three, four years ago, and I have this rotten egg smell in my house all the time, and I also, my sinks and my toilets and my bathtubs are all rusty. I was wondering if you have any ideas for me. I do have a water softener.
00:13:57	TOM: So, first of all, the rotten egg smell usually happens because of a bad anode in the water heater itself. That’s a rod that’s immersed into the water, and over time, it deteriorates. And if you have a bad anode, it can be removed and replaced without replacing the entire water heater. The other potential cause of this is the water quality. But is this well water?
00:14:27	CALLER: Yeah, this is well water.
00:14:28	TOM: So, have you had it tested lately to see, you know, among other things, what the sulfur content is? No, I haven’t. So, I would be smart to do that. And this way, you want to make sure that nothing has changed that you’re not aware of in terms of the quality of the water. But typically, it’s because of a problem with the water heater that leads to that odor. Now, in terms of the rusty fixtures, you know, that’s just going to be wear and tear. That’s going to have nothing to do with the water quality. For the most part.
00:14:56	LESLIE: Now, we’ve got Kathy from West Virginia on the line who’s tackling a kitchen project and has some questions about a sink.
00:15:02	CALLER: What can we do for you? Well, I’m having a hard time deciding on the type of sink. I’ve always had a, I keep on wanting to say double barrel. I always washed on one side and I rinsed on the other. Right. So, it’s really hard for me to relate to a single-bowl sink.
00:15:22	TOM: Mm-hmm.
00:15:22	CALLER: But they seem to be the rage. And I wanted to see, really, I mean, what is the attraction?
00:15:29	TOM: Size and space. I mean, you can get a lot more in a single-bowl sink than you can in one that is divided into two. And I understand the, you know, the habit of put soap in one and rinse it in the other. And, you know, listen, if you’re used to that, why not? But I think the reason people get them is because they can get the bigger pots and pans in there. And they’re just a whole lot easier to use. You know, the other option, of course, is if you’re going to have a single-bowl sink. Then you just get used to having a small plastic bowl in there, a plastic tub, I should say, in there, which is what we always did. So, that is where all the soapy water goes. And then you have plenty of room on the other side to rinse. And then you can just, you know, take it out and put it away when you’re all done. So, it’s really personal preference. But I think the reason they’re so popular is space. What do you think, Leslie?
00:16:12	LESLIE: I mean, I personally, I have like an extra deep single-bowl stainless sink. And I like it because, you know, pots and pans fit in there no problem. I can definitely put a lot of stuff in there as I’m trying to get things cleared up. And I don’t have to have it on the countertops. But I did grow up with a double sink. And I, too, liked that. You know, I didn’t have to fill up so much water in one sink if I wanted to just wash a couple of things. Or, you know, you have more options with that. Now, when you’re remodeling, are you just replacing the existing sink or are you changing out the cabinet?
00:16:41	CALLER: I’m changing everything.
00:16:42	LESLIE: I love the idea of a ceramic-coated apron front sink that looks kind of, it can be modern and country sort of at the same time and have an interesting feel. And you can do a double sink. I think they’re even called country sinks, you know, the apron front. They’re so beautiful. And it might be just, you know, something that’s a little different but still familiar. And they resell very well for the house.
00:17:04	CALLER: Well, I am so attracted to those ceramic apron front sinks. And before I make the commitment, I was just wanting to see, am I missing something?
00:17:17	TOM: No, I don’t think you are. I think they’re very attractive. And I think, you know, I think it’s part of that sort of farmhouse sink design that’s so popular today. So, good luck with that project, Kathy. Okay.
00:17:28	LESLIE: Thank you very much. Well, when we pick out our finishes for the inside of our homes, we certainly spend a lot of time choosing paint colors, the kitchen cabinets, and all of those other fun design elements. But one element I bet you hardly give a second thought to are the vents. These come through the floors, the walls. I mean, they’re the most essential part of your heating and cooling system. But do you ever think about them? Yeah.
00:17:52	TOM: And the reason that we do that is because, you know, we have a lot of things that we don’t think about them is because there just weren’t very many options. It was all pretty standard. Well, that all began to change back in 2016 when the father-daughter team of Roberta and Paolo Mantenuto formed Fittes, a company that has reinvented the ugly grill vents into a beautiful design feature. We’re very excited to have co-founder Roberta Mantenuto joining us right now to tell us more. Welcome, Roberta.
00:18:18	ROBERTA MANTENUTO: Hey, guys. Thank you so much for having me.
00:18:20	TOM: What an awesome idea to make vents. Beautiful. I love your mission statement, which is to create thoughtful, innovative design products that are beautiful, functional, and badass. I think we can agree with all of that.
00:18:33	ROBERTA: Yeah. I think, like you guys mentioned, it was just a forgotten accessory in a home that ends up showing up in every single room of a home. And we kind of all shrugged off and accepted that, you know, they had to take the form that we’ve always seen, which is just grilled flats. And so I’ll take no credit for the product innovation. That’s all my father. He thought. Well, maybe there’s a different way of integrating these products into your design so that they don’t need to be such an eyesore. So that’s exactly what he did. He patented the design from a grill into a rectangular air channel that you can actually customize so that it matches your floors and your walls and just seamlessly disappears and melts into that surface.
00:19:16	LESLIE: I mean, and that truly is what it does. When you’re looking at all of the different options, you’re seeing the flooring, the wall covering, the tiles. Whatever it is. But you’re not seeing the vent. You’re just seeing a very modern, beautiful, almost art installation. Like, it’s stunning. Thank you so much.
00:19:33	ROBERTA: That’s so nice. Yeah. I mean, we feel the same way. Like, we are, you know, in an industry now where we’re looking at every single detail and curating every single space of our home, even down to, you know, like, how it smells. What is the ambiance? The lighting? We’re just, again, there’s so many products on the market. To really cultivate that, you know, that sense of, you know, how it smells. You know, look that you want. And there just wasn’t any innovation with vents. And so, we saw it as an excellent opportunity to just go into a forgotten detail and give it that sleek, modern, elevated look. And I say modern, but it really can match any design aesthetic that you have. That’s really what we’re trying to accomplish.
00:20:14	TOM: And your first product was what you call the Aria Vent, A-R-I-A. And this is the vent we’re talking about primarily here because it blends so perfectly with any wall or floor surface. So, it looks like you take a slice of flooring or you take a section of wallpaper and it gets basically installed into the vent. And when you install the vent into that surface, whether it’s a floor or a wall, it perfectly flows with the design. You hardly notice it at all, yet it’s beautiful and functional at the same time. What a brilliant idea. So, I guess there’s a lot of folks that agree with us with the million of these sold, literally. Yeah.
00:20:48	ROBERTA: More than a million. I think we’re almost at two million now. Wow. In a busy eight years.
00:20:54	TOM: When you design the vent and you’re focusing on the aesthetic, of course, the vent serves a purpose, right? It has to have good airflow. How have you guys dealt with that? Has there been any reduction in the airflow because people see the vent and they don’t… Actually, they see very little of the vent compared to the old ones, right? So, they might wonder whether or not you have good airflow on it. So, let’s talk about that because I know you’ve done some testing around that.
00:21:15	ROBERTA: Yeah, absolutely. So, that’s definitely the first question that people ask. It looks great, but does it actually work and do what it’s supposed to do? For that reason, we had all of our products tested by a third-party lab for airflow performance, and all of those tests were in accordance to ASHRAE standards, which is the HVAC standards. Essentially, the airflow is comparable. In fact, I guess the big question comes from people really looking at the vents and seeing if they facilitate great airflow, but what we’ve really learned is that the performance of your HVAC system has very little to do with the vent that’s at the end of the system and more to do with the design of the system and what’s really happening behind the walls. So, if you have a poor-performing HVAC system that’s not efficient, the vent is not going to make it any better. It’s not going to necessarily make it any worse. So, that’s where our products fit into. It’s just a part of the system, not the whole system itself. And then on top of that, we’ve also tested our products for weight capacity. So, the vents that we have can hold an excess of 300 pounds, which I think is more than what the standard is on the market.
00:22:22	TOM: I don’t think too many folks are putting that much weight on a floor vent. I’m afraid to step on any of those vents as it is. They look fragile just at first glance. But, I mean, the truth is, with 300 pounds, that exceeds most ladder capacity.
00:22:34	LESLIE: Better be safe than sorry. What about from an installation process? Is it more complicated? Is it a similar process? Can this be approached by a DIY or an advanced DIY? Or strictly for the pros? Yeah.
00:22:46	ROBERTA: So, we have a whole suite of products, some that are specifically for DIYers. So, absolutely anyone can install them. And then we have a little bit more complicated products that are definitely made for a pro. Those pro ones, they need to be mounted at the sub-floor level before your flooring goes in. Or for our wall vent models, we actually have mud-in versions. So, that does require some drywall mudding, which is very difficult for a DIYer. I’m sure there’s some great DIYers that listen piece of cake. But for me, that’s fine. That’s not DIY consideration. So, the beauty of it all is that it is a fairly simple installation. You can do it really quickly. All you need to do is have a leftover piece of your flooring, cut that, put it inside of a tray, and then drop that into the duct, just like you do any other grill vent.
00:23:29	TOM: We’re talking to Roberta Mantenuto. She’s the co-founder of Fittes, a company that is dedicated to providing beautiful design elements for the home and has completely reinvented the vents that are so commonplace in all of our forced-air heating and cooling systems. And making them absolutely stunning. I notice that your line has expanded since the original vents that you and your dad, or your dad designed, and you have helped to manage the business for. Can you talk about some of those extensions and what we’re going to see in the future from Fittes?
00:23:57	ROBERTA: Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, just developing more vent solutions, but we’ve also expanded into other product categories, like light switches and niches and support brackets for floating shelves and benches, especially in the showers. We just want to take mundane, unloved products. We just want to make sure that they’re in good condition.
00:24:14	LESLIE: One of our Ulster manufacturers has sent us a new set ofability998. just trying to get a Joyce. Quickly. You And first of all, you’re hiding them stylishly, and you’re also completely avoiding that. And I’m guilty of it. I try to adjust the thermostat in the studio all the time, so Tom, maybe this is what you need to get for me.
00:24:50	TOM: I do that in restaurants when it’s really warm, and it’s like a major deal to ask the waiter or the waitress if they could possibly raise or lower the temperature, and you get kind of a blank look, and they’re trying to find the manager, and sometimes it’s just easier for me to walk up to the thermostat and reset it myself. Did you just help yourself? Oh, my God. That’s very you, Tom. I just help myself. I just help myself. I only got busted once, and it was from a family restaurant that I’d gone to forever, and the co-owner of that was like, stop doing that, Tom.
00:25:18	ROBERTA: I didn’t even know that was an option. I’m going to do that from now on. I love that.
00:25:22	LESLIE: It’s not an option.
00:25:24	TOM: Yeah, we’re not recommending it. Well, I think it’s cool that you spend a lot of time just like looking at stuff that’s ugly in the houses and accepting it and figuring, hey, I could do better with that. I mean, there’s no limit. There’s no limit to those opportunities, and it’s evidenced by all the extensions you guys have already come up with.
00:25:38	ROBERTA: Yeah, absolutely. Another thing, so our products, our company is all really based around innovation, right? We just want to do things that other people have really not thought about for many, many years, but also building them in a sustainable way that makes sense for us and for the end consumer. So all of our products are actually manufactured in Canada, which is where we’re from, but also the United States. Absolutely everything. Down to the little screws that come into the boxes, the packaging, all of it comes from U.S. and Canada.
00:26:09	TOM: That is so awesome. The company is called Fittes spelled F-I-T-T-E-S. Their website is Fitts.com, F-I-T-T-E-S.com. And you can find these products at selecthomedepots and homedepot.com. Rollout has started to make Fitts more accessible across the country. Roberta Mantenuto, thank you so much for being a part of the Money Pit. Congratulations on the company and all the work that you’ve done. You guys are doing to make our homes more beautiful and functional at the same time.
00:26:37	CALLER: Thank you so much, guys.
00:26:38	ROBERTA: I really appreciate it.
00:26:40	CALLER: Norm from Wisconsin, you’ve got the Money Pit. Tell us about this insulation issue.
00:26:44	CALLER: The second story of our house has a suspended ceiling with like 12 inches of insulation on top of that ceiling, on top of the suspended ceiling. Should there be a vapor barrier in between? Because there’s no vapor barrier. No.
00:27:03	TOM: Not really necessary. So you have 12 inches on top of the dropped ceiling, essentially? Yes. Yeah. I don’t think so. Not in that particular case. You’re good to go.
00:27:12	CALLER: Old homes had high ceilings, and so we dropped it down a bit to match the paneling.
00:27:19	TOM: Yeah. Is that dropped ceiling still standing up okay? Yes. Yes. All right. Good. Now, I think you’re okay the way it is. There’s no need to change that. And if it’s an old home, it’s plenty drafty as it is anyway. Okay. Thank you. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit.
00:27:38	LESLIE: Well, if you’ve ever had a leak or a crack or a nail pop come through a textured ceiling, you know that repainting that leak or crack can be easier than the hassle of trying to restore that original textured surface. Typically, it’s a very messy process, especially when you’re trying to fix a small area or one that’s just hard to reach. Yeah.
00:27:57	TOM: But now there’s a new product out from DAP that makes this easy for both DIYers and pros. It’s called the 2-in-1 Wall and Ceiling Spray Texture, and it allows you to apply different types of textures. You can use an orange peel texture, a knockdown, or a popcorn texture very quickly and easily to both walls and ceilings. Part of the magic is that it comes in a very simple-to-use 25-ounce can that has a 60-degree adjustable nozzle. And that’s important because it allows you to easily repair vertical or overhead in those hard-to-reach places. That nozzle system is unique. It’s only available from DAP. They call it AimTech because it allows you to direct that texture exactly where it’s needed.
00:28:39	LESLIE: Now, DAP’s 2-in-1 Wall and Ceiling Spray Texture is really a super handy product that saves you a ton of time and really a lot of hassle. It delivers a fast-drying, excellent texture match for maximum coverage and professional results. Plus, and this is a great bonus here, it dries in under 30 minutes, and you can paint it immediately.
00:29:00	TOM: So, whether you’re taking on a repair and need to match an existing wall or ceiling surface, or you want to create a new look, the 2-in-1 Spray Texture from DAP makes it easy to apply either an orange peel, knockdown, or popcorn spray texture to both walls or ceilings. And you can do that with ease and accuracy. It’s a good choice for both pros and DIYers. You’ll find it at retailers nationwide, and it retails for $29.98.
00:29:25	LESLIE: Jessica reached out saying, my bathroom sink gets cold water through the hot faucet and hot through the cold. This is the only place where it happens. Can something be wrong with the water heater, or is the faucet broken?
00:29:35	TOM: Ah, you know, this is a really frustrating problem and has a very simple solution. What happened here, Jessica, is that the plumber hooked up the hot water to the cold side of your faucet and the cold water to your hot side of the faucet. So you have to switch those connections, which is just underneath your bathroom sink. Once you do, all of a sudden you will have hot on the hot side and cold on the cold side. Nothing to do with the water heater, nothing to do with the faucet that’s broken, it was just an issue in terms of how it was installed.
00:30:02	LESLIE: That is a great, great, great solution. Tom, what if it’s a single-handle faucet and it does the same thing? How do you fix that?
00:30:09	TOM: It doesn’t matter. You’re going to have two sides, a hot water side and a cold water side. There’s two feeds that go from the house plumbing into that faucet. You just have to switch them. All right. Well, is your family growing? Hey, congratulations, but before you hear the pitter-patter of those little feet, you need to make sure Home Sweet Home is safe. Leslie’s got tips to help baby-proof your money pit in today’s edition of Leslie’s Last Word. Leslie?
00:30:43	LESLIE: Yeah, when you have a new baby coming into the house, you’re like, oh, it’s going to be fine. I don’t have to do anything. And then you start doing your research and looking at all of the products out there that are available to baby-proof and just make your home safe from these little aliens that are coming to invade your space. And truly, these kids can get into anything and everything. So just short of having like a padded room at home, you’ve got to make sure that you don’t have to do stuff at the house to make it safe for these guys. So first of all, let’s talk about your windows. Now they may look completely harmless, but a window blind cord is one of the most dangerous items in your house for babies and young kids. So you need to shorten all of those long cords and tie them up and away and out of reach from little hands because they can become entangled and they can strangle themselves. It is a terrible thing. Now another concern is furniture chipping. Any piece of furniture that has a grab, a pole, a shelf, suddenly lose its shape. That’s exactly what I’m talking about. I have a coworker, Kajana, whose daughter Mia is now six, but when she was really little, he showed me a video and he was like, can you help me find me in this video? And she was standing on top of their dresser and she was little like they find a way to climb on everything. And once they start to grab, if that furniture, if a drawer opens or something happens and it becomes off balance. That dresser can totally topple over. And land right on top of your child. So you want to make sure that something like a bookcase, a TV stand, a dresser, anything again that is climbable. And also this can apply to a stove or a range. You want to anchor them to the wall. And a lot of these products do come with an anti-tipping bracket and that can secure that piece of furniture to the wall, the stove to the floor, any way possible. So look for those brackets. If it doesn’t come with one, do some research, find out what you can use. And one more big thing. Is to check your stairs and railings. Railings need to be at least 36 inches tall and have no more than four inch spaces between any of those spindles. And at the same time, you want to make sure those handrails are in place for all of the stairs. And you have to make sure that the handrails have a closed end. You don’t want it to just kind of end and be open that you could get something caught on. It has to return back to the wall. I mean, it’s so easy to catch a sweater, a sleeve, something, and then it’s a fall hazard right there. So lots of stuff to start thinking about. I mean, there’s smaller things and bigger things as well you can be tackling, but this is a good starting point.
00:33:02	TOM: This is the Money Pit Home Improvement Show. Coming up next time on the program, now that summer has all of a month or so left, wah-wah, it might be a good time to upgrade your grill. There’s a lot of sales starting right now, so if you’d like to step up to a new BBQ, we’ve got tips on what to look for so you get the most bang for your buck on the next edition of the Money Pit. I’m Tom Kraeutler.
00:33:23	LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.
00:33:25	TOM: Remember, you can do it yourself.
00:33:26	LESLIE: But you don’t have to do it alone.

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