#2442 – Ups and Downs of Safe Deck Steps | Secret Storage Solutions | Spray Paint Projects Made Easy

Show Notes

Today, explore clever storage solutions in overlooked areas of your home, learn how to build deck steps the right way to ensure safety and durability, and get the scoop on why tackling large paint projects is simpler than you might think. Plus, listen in as we answer more home improvement questions from DIYers just like you!

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Show Notes
Top Questions & Answers
Ask Your Home Improvement Question
Podcast Transcript

Deck Steps: Learn the ups and downs of building safe and solid steps for your deck.
Storage: Find hidden storage areas in your home by knowing where to look.
Paint Projects: Big paint projects are made easier with a high-efficiency paint sprayer.

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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00:00:02	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 we are here to help you on this beautiful summer day. Take care of the projects you want to get done around your house. If there’s something on your to-do list, well, let’s put it on your done list. Reach out to us with your questions. The number here is 1-888-Money-Pit. That’s 888-666-3974. What are you working on around your house these days? I’ve been building a fence these last few weekends. And it’s going slow, but it’s going well, so kind of happy with that. Well, what kind of project have you guys been doing? Reach out to us with your questions. Coming up on today’s show, we all need as much storage as we can, but if you’ve exhausted storage solutions in your home, there actually might be places you never thought of. We’re going to explain some of the hidden nooks and crannies you can use for storage in your home.
00:01:22	LESLIE: Plus, if building a new deck is a project for your to-do list, we’re going to talk you through the ups and downs of deck steps. They’re often built incorrectly, so we’re going to share some ideas on how you can make sure that they are solid and safe.
00:01:35	TOM: And you guys have a big paint project to get done, like maybe staining a deck or a fence or even painting the exterior of your house? Well, as challenging as that job sounds, it’s actually much easier to accomplish than ever before. We’ll explain why just ahead.
00:01:48	LESLIE: But first, we want to know what you want to know. Summer is winding down, guys. You’ve got a few more of these warm weather weekends left to tackle big outdoor projects before you actually hit that perfect fall temperature of home improvement season. So let us know what you want to get done now, what you’re looking to do in the fall. We are here to lend a hand so you can tackle those projects with success.
00:02:09	TOM: Reach out to us with your questions right now at 1-888-Money-Pit, or better yet, here’s an idea. Go to moneypit.com slash ask. And click the blue microphone button. We’ve got it all set up for you. So all you’ve got to do is click that microphone and you can record your question right there and it will come instantly to us in the studio. So Leslie, let’s get to it. Who’s first?
00:02:27	LESLIE: I’ve got Lynn in Delaware on the line who’s got a leak in the basement that’s as if somebody’s turned a faucet on. What’s going on?
00:02:34	CALLER: Well, last Thursday we had a torrential rain in Delaware. And I was so afraid of trees falling in the rain, I ran down to my basement immediately. And about maybe two minutes being down there, I hear some sound like somebody turned on a faucet. So I look behind where the faucet is. It comes from the inside. The water pipe comes from the outside onto the inside. Water was just gushing. It was just gushing in. Just like a faucet.
00:03:07	TOM: So it was coming around the pipe where the pipe comes through the wall? Yes. Okay. Yep. All right. So that makes sense. You know, what happens is when you get a torrential rain like that, it’s going to find the path of the easiest path and the path of least resistance. And the holes that are drilled through foundation walls for things like plumbing, like the hose bib in your case, are going to provide an easy entry. So what I would tell you is a couple of things. Now, it probably only happens when you get maybe a severe downpour like this, maybe even one that’s fueled by rain. But I would, number one, is I would take silicone. And you can buy a tube of silicone and a little can squeeze tube or you can buy one just to put into a caulking gun. And I would seal the gap around where the pipe comes through the foundation wall. All right. So next, I want you to do the same thing on the inside. This is going to stop what happened to you most recently. But the other thing I want you to do is to take a look, if you can, at the drainage conditions outside that wall because you might find that maybe you have an overflowing gutter there or that you have soil that is sort of settling down. And maybe it’s moving too much water towards that area of the wall. I don’t know how high up this hose bib is. But generally, the roof and surface drainage conditions are what starts this all. And it’s an easy fix. You just got to figure out what it is. Downspouts are also really important to check. Most of the time when the gutter companies put them in, they drop them pretty close to the foundation. And we always like to see them extended out four or five feet. So you’re moving all that water out away from that wall. And if you can kind of move it out and keep it away, you’re going to find that the whole space is a lot drier. And in your particular case with this little gusher that happened, sealing the area around the pipe should stop that from happening the next time.
00:04:48	CALLER: Oh, okay. Now, another thing that I’m wondering now that you said about the ground settling and everything. This particular stepway, I’ve had gophers, not gophers. What are those things? Groundhogs? Groundhogs, yeah. Under there. And I’m wondering if they could have moved the dirt and made a path or something to this.
00:05:04	TOM: Yeah, they may have. They may have. Generally, the first four to six feet, you want to do what you can to keep the soil sloping away from the walls. Those first few feet. So if it does settle in, you just add clean, filled dirt. Not topsoil, but just filled dirt. Very inexpensive. And you pack it in there and you slope it away. And you could put some mulch or you could put some topsoil and grass over that. But you want to have that soil sloping away. And then it’s going to settle every once in a while. And especially if you get any overflowing gutters, it’ll just erode and wash away. So maintaining that sort of slope and that space to keep the walls as dry as possible is important. And it really does help solve a lot of problems with water in the basement and even dampness in the basement. Okay.
00:05:40	CALLER: I appreciate that. That’s what I will do then. Thank you so much for taking my call.
00:05:45	TOM: You’re very welcome. Good luck with that project. Thanks for calling us at 888-Money-Pit.
00:05:49	LESLIE: All right. Now we’re heading out to Kansas where David’s got a question. How can we help you today?
00:05:53	CALLER: I had a remodel done and we installed a fan over the range. And we get a high north wind in the wintertime. It seemed like we get a lot of back feeding and cold air coming in that vent. I didn’t know, is there any way to stop that?
00:06:11	TOM: So the vent fan has a lot of water in it. It has an exhaust port on the outside wall, correct?
00:06:18	CALLER: Correct. The door seemed to be working fine.
00:06:21	TOM: And is there a gasket around that door?
00:06:24	CALLER: Yes, I think there is.
00:06:25	TOM: When you look at that door, do you happen to note whether or not it’s evenly striking all the way around? In other words, if it’s a little twisted because it’s metal, sheet metal. And sometimes when they’re trying to get that all in there, sometimes if it gets cocked a little bit and it’s twisted, it may not be closing in. It may be closing completely all the way around. Have you taken a look at that level of detail?
00:06:48	CALLER: It looks pretty good that way. It’s just when you get the high wind, it seems to sit there and chatter back and forth a little bit. And that seems to be what’s in that area.
00:06:57	TOM: Okay. Yeah. So it’s depressurizing basically. Huh. Interesting. The other thing is on around the outside of that where it comes through the wall. Do you know if they’ve sealed that when it was put in? It usually comes through the wall. There’s usually some sort of frame around it and flashing. And you may be able to take off that outside housing and then seal it better than it was originally. And that could help a little bit. But if the door is chattering, then it seems like the spring may not be tight enough. And I’m not sure that anything that we could suggest is going to change that. I can’t imagine a way to kind of correct that if that’s what’s going on.
00:07:35	CALLER: Yeah. Well, we’ve had similar problems on the dryer vent and the bathroom exhaust. But this doesn’t have a long enough run to put up. It’s got a damper in that line there.
00:07:48	TOM: Yeah. Well, and of course, if you put a damper in, you’re restricting its efficiency as well.
00:07:53	CALLER: Right.
00:07:54	TOM: So that’s another issue. You know, another thing that you could do is if you put another, I’m going to call it a cage, but it’s kind of like a metal box that’s made out of perforated steel. And it’s very perforated. It’s not enclosed at all, right? But if you were to surround that exhaust port with a second sort of frame around it and had that sort of fenced in area, then that might be enough to interrupt the flow of the air that’s depressurizing that spot and stop it from sort of chattering and coming up as much. And you certainly could attach it temporarily and see if it works.
00:08:32	CALLER: Just something to break the wind. Yeah.
00:08:35	TOM: Some way to break the wind down a bit. Exactly. Yep. Exactly. Thanks for calling us, David. I hope that helps you out and let us know how you make out. All right.
00:08:42	CALLER: And thank you.
00:08:43	TOM: You’re welcome, sir. Bye-bye.
00:08:45	LESLIE: Hey, you want to make our day? Well, go ahead and leave us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts and we’ll be jumping for joy. Plus, you guys, your feedback helps us make the show even better for you. Just go to MoneyPit.com slash review.
00:08:58	TOM: So here’s a pretty common home improvement problem. Your toilet starts to run and run and run, and then it even flushes all by itself, which is kind of freaky.
00:09:06	LESLIE: Oh, those ghost flushes are fun.
00:09:08	TOM: Oh, yeah. It really scares you, especially when it’s really quiet at night and then somebody seems to be flushing the toilet, except that there’s nobody in the bathroom.
00:09:15	LESLIE: Even ghosts have to pee, Tom.
00:09:16	TOM: Yeah, I guess so. But the reason that happens is that the flush valve is worn and leaking. So, enter with a solution, the folks at Fluidmaster. They’ve got this new flush valve called the new Super Flapper, and they’ve given us three to give away to one lucky caller, so you can pretty much update all of the flappers in your house. Now, these are designed to stop the noisy running toilets from wasting water and flushing all your cash down the drain. The Super Flapper fits both two-inch and three-inch toilet flush valves, so one valve fits almost every toilet imaginable, and it includes a cool new water adjustment feature that allows you to customize the water levels in your tank so you can maximize your flush and save water. Easy to put together. It retails for $14.98. We’ve got three going out to one lucky caller, so make that you. Reach out to us with your questions at 1-888-Money-Pit, or you can check it out at Home Depot, again, for $14.98.
00:10:07	LESLIE: Thanks, We’ve got Maureen in Nebraska on the line who needs some help with vinyl windows that are looking pretty faded. Why don’t you tell us about it?
00:10:14	CALLER: They are chalking and leaving white streaks down my glass of the window. Is there any finish I can put on them like a varnish that will hold up to the weather?
00:10:25	TOM: Yeah, Maureen, when that vinyl starts to wear like that, you can’t really totally restore it, but what you can do is paint it. In fact, you could paint vinyl and you could paint vinyl siding, but you need to use the right kinds of paint and the right kinds of prep. Now, most major paint suppliers have what they call vinyl safe colors, which are usually white and the lighter colors. You can’t really use a darker color because it absorbs too much heat, but if you prep those windows properly as directed by the manufacturer and use a vinyl safe color, you could actually paint them, and that paint will last a long time because the vinyl covering is not organic. It doesn’t have pores. It doesn’t breathe like wood does, so the paint really tends to stand up quite well. So that’s the solution to that super faded vinyl and all that chalkiness that’s falling away from them. Paint them.
00:11:09	LESLIE: Well, we all need as much storage as we can get in our homes, or they begin to look very cluttered very quickly, but if you’re feeling like you’ve exhausted all of those storage spaces in the house, there might be some places that you hadn’t thought of.
00:11:22	TOM: Yeah, that’s right. By virtue of the way a home is built, there ends up being a lot of sort of hidden spaces. We call them nooks and crannies that are perfect for storage, and many of those are basically hiding in plain sight. For example, the space around a staircase is the first place you should change your check for storage opportunities. In fact, as I record this show, I am in a space that used to be a closet under a staircase in my home. Now, we’ve got space for the home studio, as well as shelving for our equipment, and even an enclosed storage space at the bottom, which is perfect for office supplies. So it’s there once you know where to look.
00:11:54	LESLIE: All right. Now, an attic is another top spot for storage that’s almost never fully taken advantage of, usually because it doesn’t have a floor. But adding one is pretty easy. In fact, we’ve got a step-by-step post on moneypit.com that we’re going to show you that walks you through the entire project. And now, what about those alcoves and corners you’ve got around the house? You can get creative with those empty spaces that are basically in living areas in the home. An alcove almost anywhere can become a sleek workstation or a project zone with a few simple storage additions, and they really look great, and they’re super functional.
00:12:27	TOM: Now, bathrooms are definitely a place where we could all use more storage, and the space above a toilet is a good choice for just that, as well as the space nearer to the ceiling, which is perfect for a long sort of hotel-style towel rack. And finally, laundry rooms. Most people don’t know that most full-size washers and dryers are actually stackable, which can open up quite a bit of space in an otherwise small room. So those spaces are there if you know where to look. We’ve got a complete list of all the most likely storage spaces in your home at moneypit.com.
00:12:59	LESLIE: Next up, we’ve got Daryl in Louisiana. What’s going on at your money pit?
00:13:03	CALLER: I have an older house, probably in the 70s, early 70s. And it has the old-time windows, just single glass pane. And I have a couple of good-sized picture windows, like 9 feet across or something like that. And they’re big, and I lose a lot of energy there. One of them is on the west side, so I get that afternoon hot sun. And I want to know if it would be better use of my money to replace the window with a new updated double pane, you know, nice modern window. Or put some insulation. There’s insulation in the attic, which the attic also needs insulation because there’s not, you know, there’s not much up there. I know I can use, definitely use some insulation. What would be the best use of the money?
00:13:48	TOM: All right. So a couple of things come to mind. So first of all, regardless of what you do with this window situation, I definitely would put more insulation in the attic. That’s kind of a no-brainer. You’re always going to get a good return on investment on that. So if you had, you know, if you had 8 inches of fiberglass insulation and you could add 8 or 10 or 12 more. You want to use unfaced fiberglass pads and then just stack them perpendicular to what you have. You have to trade off storage space. I don’t know if you have a floor in that attic because you can’t crush the insulation. But putting more insulation in that space is always going to make sense, economic and comfort-wise.
00:14:21	CALLER: Up there now, it looks like it was blown insulation. It’s like little pieces of foam or whatever it is. And I can, a lot of, most of the places I can see the rafters, you know, it’s not above the rafters, which would be, I guess, 8 inches. But if I start putting insulation in there, I have all the wiring. Like, for the light sockets and all that, all the wiring is on top of that. So would I just put the insulation, you know, on top of the wiring? Yeah.
00:14:52	TOM: Yeah. You can, yes, you can have the wiring run through the fiberglass pads. When you say rafters, I think you’re referring to the ceiling joists. The rafters are what’s carrying the roof. What you don’t want to do is you don’t want to go all the way at the ceiling. You want to go at the overhang from the ceiling joists up into those rafters because then you’d be blocking off any ventilation that you had at the overhang. So make sure that you allow for that ventilation that’s important in that situation. But no, there’s no reason to worry about covering as long as you have, when was your house built? It’s probably 72. Okay. So yeah, so you have traditional non-metallic wiring. If you had a really old house, we’d have a different discussion about why you can’t cover electrical wiring. But for a house like that, you can certainly put the insulation right on top of that wiring. And I think it’s going to make a big difference. Now, back to those picture windows, you have really two options there. So yes, you could replace them and it is a big project and it’s an expensive project. Or you could maybe buy yourself some time by just picking up some solar shades. They’re reflective on one side and they help to kind of redirect that heat back outside so it doesn’t overwhelm the house and add to the cooling load. It’s going to be a lot less expensive. They’re not nearly as attractive. Or if you do replace the window, you’re going to use a low E glass, which basically means it has an emissivity coating that reflects the UV of the sunlight back outside. So you’ll find a huge difference if you put in insulated panels with a UV coating. And most of the Energy Star certified glass has that now anyway. But it’s just a huge difference in terms of cost. So it really depends on what you want to do. And you might, if you are going to do that, you could think about breaking it down, you know, doing those, I think you said you had some that were facing west and I don’t know if it’s something that faces south, but do the western-southern face first because that gets the most solar gain.
00:16:45	CALLER: Now, back to the insulation real quick. What’s the best kind? The kind that you would just like blow in like in there now or getting some kind that rolls out?
00:16:55	TOM: Can you get around that attic as it is right now? Can you walk around it even more?
00:16:58	CALLER: I can. I can. I can, but I’m walking on the ceiling joist and, you know.
00:17:03	TOM: On the tops of the ceiling joist, yeah. I mean, if it was me, I would use unfaced fiberglass batts. It’s a lot easier. If you want to go blown in, you got to rent the machine for that and, you know, just another layer of complication you don’t have to deal with. I would put unfaced fiberglass batts, I would lay them perpendicular to the joists, and I would probably, you know, pick up, I don’t know, 10, 12, 14-inch thick batts and just lay them edge-to-edge right on top of the joists. You have a whole new layer of insulation there and it’ll make a big difference for you year-round. Okay.
00:17:35	CALLER: Great. I really appreciate it. Yep.
00:17:36	TOM: Good luck with that project, Daryl. Thanks for calling us at 1-888-Money-Pit. And speaking of home maintenance, I am very happy to announce that my book, Home Maintenance for Dummies, has just been released by John Wiley, the publisher, and available for purchase right now. Just go to moneypit.com slash dummies. That’s moneypit.com slash dummies. And Amazon has launched it. They’ve listed it as the number one new release in home repair. So I’m really happy about that and I hope you enjoy the book as well.
00:18:05	LESLIE: That’s awesome. Congratulations. Thank you so much. We’ve got Jean and Virginia on the line who need some advice about resurfacing the patio. Tell us about it.
00:18:14	CALLER: How do you put rumble stone brick over existing concrete without grout?
00:18:22	TOM: Hey, Jean. So yeah, you can definitely use rumble stone on top of an existing concrete surface. In fact, it’s a pretty good idea to do that. The way I would do this is I would clean the concrete patio initially, make sure it’s nice and dry. Then you need to establish a border around the exterior of the concrete patio. So I would start right at the edge of the patio and I would glue the rumble stone paver bricks in whatever pattern you’re going to use, start at the edge, but glue the first two rows. And you can do that very easily just by using a construction adhesive, which comes out of a caulking gun. And once you have that set, then you can just lay the new bricks in one at a time, sort of making sure they all work out in terms of being square and all of that. And after that’s done, you can simply sweep paver sand into the joints and you’re done. I mean, it couldn’t be any easier than that. So good luck with that project.
00:19:08	LESLIE: Well, if building a new deck is the project on your fall to-do list, we’re going to talk through the ups and downs of deck steps. They can be built incorrectly very easily. So we’re going to share some ideas on how you can make sure that yours are solid and safe. Yeah.
00:19:23	TOM: So first up, it’s important to have the term straight because it’s a bit of an alphabet soup. So let me explain these terms. Stringer is what we call the side of the staircase. That’s what supports the treads. And then the rise or the riser is the vertical distance that you step up between the treads, right? And of course you have the tread itself, which is the step. And then you have the nose, which is sort of an overlap of the riser of the tread. And it’s important to get those sort of proportionally correct. So the risers should all be the same height. If you’ve ever tripped on a staircase, I can guarantee you that almost every time, that some of those risers, some of those steps were at different heights. Because I think as humans, we get programmed to lifting our feet up a certain distance based on the steps that we are encountering. And when that distance changes, it’s a trip hazard. Now a shorter rise or shorter step is typically more comfortable for a deeper run. So a longer staircase, for example, and a taller rise works better with a shorter run. But the rule of thumb is this. The tread depth plus the riser should be about 17 inches. Now, personally, I prefer a shorter step. I prefer to make my risers 7 1⁄2 inches and treads 9 1⁄2 inches, which allows for about an inch and a half overhang. And to figure out where this all goes, you want to measure up from the ground to the deck surface and divide that by 7, which is the approximate ideal height for the rise, and round that number to the nearest whole number to get the number of steps. And that’s going to put you in a place where the steps are not going to be too tall, they’re not going to be too short, they’re going to be very comfortable for you and your guests, and hence, they will also be very safe.
00:20:55	LESLIE: I thought you were going to say they were going to be just right, and I was going to call you Goldilocks. It is true, though. Well, that’s true, yes. Like, you get so used to your steps, whatever they are, and somebody who’s never been on them before and, you know, encounters a little bit of unevenness or a little bit of something unusual, and completely, you are wiping out. So this is really, really smart. Now, if all of this just is too darn overwhelming, the home centers sell pre-cut stair stringers. Is it ever smart to you? Do you use those, Tom?
00:21:27	TOM: Well, I’d say that they’re, like, probably the worst-case scenario. But if you have to have something and you can’t make them yourself, that’s probably an okay way to go. But the problem is this, the tread height, the top and the bottom, might not match the rest of the steps. Because, I mean, if it happens that you have, like, say, three steps and they’re each seven inches tall, and that would be a total of 21 inches, well, what if the steps, the height you have to cover is 18 inches or some other odd number that seven doesn’t sort of divide into?
00:21:54	LESLIE: Then you have that weird rise on the last one.
00:21:57	TOM: That’s right, that we’re trying to avoid. You have that uneven step. The first one might be short, the last one might be short, whatever, but it’s not going to be exactly right.
00:22:05	LESLIE: All right. Now, I’ve got Steve from Massachusetts on the line. What’s going on at your money pit?
00:22:09	CALLER: Hi, Leslie. Hi, Tom. I was calling because I needed a little advice on baseboard heating covers. Okay. And I didn’t know if I was getting in over my head with trying to remove the whole, you know, the whole cover, or whether I’d be better off just doing a replacement cover.
00:22:29	TOM: Well, you want to change the design or the color or something? Why do you want to update this, Steve? What’s going on?
00:22:35	CALLER: Some of these are falling apart. They’re original to the house, and I’m trying to, you know, make it a little bit of a cleaner look.
00:22:44	TOM: I think it’s probably okay for you to remove these and restore them. I’m not that crazy about telling you to just take them all apart. And go with something else, because frankly, it’s difficult to get new covers in and have them work as well as probably the old covers do. So if you could take those apart and repair them, and everything but the back piece will come off. So the top will come off, the louver part will come off, the front panel will come off. You should be looking at just the hot water pipe with the fins attached and a metal back plate when you’re done. Okay. And if you take that all apart, you have the opportunity now to repair anything that needs to be repaired. There’s not that much that goes wrong with it, so you can probably figure this out. And then you could do a light sanding. You could pick a nice spray paint, good color, and go ahead and paint them up and then put them back together. And I think that’s going to be the least expensive thing for you to do that will give you a good clean look and get everything working the way it should. Sometimes when you go with those covers, they obstruct so much of the heat that you end up having to run the heat longer just to get the same amount of heat out of it. And that runs your heating bill cost up because you’re using more fuel.
00:23:52	CALLER: Yeah, which I want to avoid doing. Yeah.
00:23:55	TOM: So I’d stick with what you got and just fix it up. It’s not a hard project to do.
00:24:00	CALLER: Okay. Yeah, that sounds like an easy DIY, do-it-yourself project, DIY. Yep.
00:24:06	TOM: Absolutely.
00:24:07	CALLER: All right. Well, thanks so much for your calling me back, and I appreciate your help and guidance.
00:24:12	TOM: Thank you. You’re welcome, Steve. Good luck with the project. Send us pictures when you’re done, okay? All right. We will. Thanks so much.
00:24:18	LESLIE: We’ve got a great reason for you to reach out to Team Money Pit. Have you ever noticed that perhaps you’ve got like a mysterious sound coming out of your toilet, like maybe the water is running or kind of flushing on its own? Definitely annoying, definitely a water waster. Well, the product we’re giving away this hour is the Fluidmaster New Super Flapper. What it does is it stops those running toilets from wasting water and flushing all your hard-earned cash right down the drain. This flapper is going to fit both two-inch and three-inch toilet flush valves, so kind of every toilet out there. It’s super easy to install. It’s about $14.98 each. We’ve got three to give away, so you can do all the toilets in your house. The new Fluidmaster Super Flapper is available at Home Depot, but we’ve got those three up for grabs, so give us a call and let us know how we can lend you a hand.
00:25:07	TOM: The number here is 1-888-Money-Pit, 888-666-3974.
00:25:13	CALLER: Betty in Tennessee, you’ve got the Money Pit. What’s going on? Okay. I’m in Tennessee, and for several weeks on end, we’ve been doing a lot of things. We have temperatures from the mid-80s and up to almost 100. During that time, when it’s really hot, there is mold that comes into my closet that leads to the attic stairs. Okay. And it comes out from a couple of vents in a couple of bathrooms and sort of on the ceiling and the hallway adjacent to the attic stairs. Okay.
00:25:50	TOM: How do you know it’s mold and not something else? Well, I mean, it’s little black spots and, you know. The reason I say that is sometimes if you have a difference in temperatures, you will get condensation of basically the airflow on those surfaces. Now, that condensation can deposit some of the dirt that’s in the air, and it’s not like you have a dirty house. It’s just that sometimes you get dirt particles in the air on the walls, and they’ll stick to the cooler parts and not so much to the warmer parts. So, you know. One question I have is is it really mold that you’re seeing because mold doesn’t usually become airborne. It just kind of grows on a surface.
00:26:26	CALLER: Well, I don’t think it’s sticking to cooler parts because the closet that leads to the attic stairs, I mean, the heat is intense in there, and I try to leave the door open as much as I can.
00:26:37	TOM: So if it is mold that’s forming, it sounds to me like it might potentially be in your duct system, which is unusual, but I’m wondering where else it could be. Have you had the system cleaned? Have you had the filters replaced on your systems? Because that should be trapping mold spores.
00:26:55	CALLER: No, I just really didn’t know what to do.
00:26:58	TOM: All right. Well, here’s what I would do. I would have the HVAC system inspected by your heating and cooling company to see if they find any of these deposits inside the system. If that’s the case, I would have that and the duct system thoroughly cleaned. I usually don’t recommend that because it’s almost never necessary, but if you’re getting this much mold forming in those areas, it may be that there are deposits. If there are deposits inside the ducts and it does need to be cleaned, just make sure it’s done by a professional so it doesn’t get released to other parts of the house, okay? Okay.
00:27:25	CALLER: Who would be the professional?
00:27:27	TOM: Duct cleaning experts that have dealt with this problem before, and your HVAC company may be able to point you in the right direction.
00:27:34	LESLIE: Well, do you have a big paint project to get done, like perhaps you’re painting a deck, a fence, or the exterior of your house? As challenging as a job that big sounds, it’s actually much easier to accomplish thanks to the new high-efficiency paint sprayers from Wagner. Yup.
00:27:51	TOM: Now, I’ve been working on helping my neighbor paint a fence recently, and for that project, we went with the Wagner Control Pro 130, which now has a brand new T2 spray gun, and that’s kind of cool because it features a soft trigger pull, so it’s easier to use, and it has a very lightweight ergonomic design for extended use, so you’re not going to get tired out before your project is done because it’s definitely a possibility. Now, the sprayer features a high-efficiency airless tip technology, and that produces, up to 55% less overspray, which is important because you don’t want to waste paint. Plus, the Control Pro 130 has a soft spray pattern that makes it easy to overlap and get a great finish. And best of all, the job gets done fast because this paint sprayer, it actually lays down that paint three times faster than a roller.
00:28:38	LESLIE: Now these Wagner sprayers are really easy to use, and they’re perfect for DIYers who are just learning about airless spraying. You can save money by taking on these big projects yourself. Instead of hiring out to a pro, and using a sprayer also does a way better job than a brush on all of those uneven surfaces you’re bound to encounter. It’s ideal for medium to large projects like a fence, deck, homes, garages, and more. And I’m telling you, once you start with an airless paint sprayer, you’re kind of going to want to paint everything.
00:29:06	TOM: Yeah. It’s like using a pressure washer. You just don’t want to stop. The Wagner paint sprayers offer a faster way to a better finish. Learn more about Wagner’s Control Pro 130 high-efficiency airless sprayer. At www.wagnerspraytech.com.
00:29:23	LESLIE: Kay in Bloomington, Illinois reached out to Team Money Pit, and she wants to put a circle skylight in her kitchen. She says, I have a galley kitchen and it doesn’t get much light, and I think a skylight could add more natural light into the space. Any tips for this project that you can share? Yeah.
00:29:39	TOM: I mean, well, first of all, a skylight is a lot of work because putting the skylight in the roof, that’s the easy part, right? But building what’s called the light shaft, which takes a lot of time, and it’s a lot of work.
00:29:55	TOM: You’ve got to frame it, you’ve got to drywall it, you’ve got to tape and spackle it. It’s a very hard area to work in. And so therefore, it gets really expensive. But I do have a better solution for you, Kay, and it’s called a Sun Tunnel. Now, it’s made by Velux, which is a big skylight company, but it’s a better option. And here’s why. So a Sun Tunnel, think of it as like a flexible, 4-door, 5-door, 5-door, 5-door, 5-door, 5-door,
00:30:25	TOM: 5-door, 5-door, 5-door, 5-door, 5-door, 5-door, 5-door, 5-door, 6-door. And if you’re going to have a big floor, or you have a bigger floor, or you’ve got a big wall, then this is where you’re going to have to work on that. You know, it’s a good solution for the ground, and it’s a really good solution for the roof.
00:30:49	LESLIE: www.audiocast.com All right, now Denise says, I bought an old home, which was originally a church. It was built in 1905. We’re having issues with tree roots clogging the sewer pipes and finding that we need to have them cleaned out every six months. What’s the best way to stop those roots from clogging the pipes?
00:31:36	TOM: Yeah, well, I would hassle that. It’s an inexpensive maintenance project, too. So considering that your home was built in 1905, and by the way, very cool that it was originally a church. Such a neat structure. Yeah, how cool is that? But because it was built in 1905, and assuming that the sewer pipes have not been replaced, I’m thinking, Leslie, these are probably clay pipes that sort of stacked together. And the clay pipes were great. They’re really durable, except that where they stack together, the roots of a tree can easily get in between those clay pipes at those stacking points and then start to grow inside the pipe. And that’s why they sort of fill it all up. And they could break it apart, but it usually just becomes a big like mesh of roots, right? And so the solution here is to replace, that clay pipe with a PVC pipe, or you could add a liner to the clay pipe, but that would be expensive. And I would only do that if it was like going under a driveway or around a pool or something where you couldn’t move the structure as a top of it. Better off to replace that pipe with a PVC pipe. And that problem, clogging will go away once and for all.
00:32:37	LESLIE: And Denise, I would love to kind of see what details from this original church you kept in this making of your home. Send us some pics. Why not drop us a line? Let us know what you’re working on.
00:32:47	TOM: You are listening to the Money Pit Home. Home Improvement Show on a beautiful summer day. We hope it’s beautiful where you are. We’ve enjoyed spending a good part of our day talking to you about home improvements, home repairs, home maintenance. If you’ve got questions and couldn’t get through today’s show, remember you can go 24-7 to moneypit.com slash ask and click the blue microphone button. Just record your question right there. It will come over to us instantly and we’ll get you the quickest possible response. Until next time, I’m Tom Kraeutler.
00:33:16	LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete. Remember,
00:33:18	TOM: you can do it yourself.
00:33:19	LESLIE: But you don’t have to do it alone.

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