#2453 – Sticky Solutions: Tape for Any Project | Wood Deck vs. Brick Patio

Show Notes

In this show, get a grip on DIY projects with the right tape for every need, learn how to choose between building a deck or a patio, and enjoy clean, great-tasting water with an easy filtration system. Plus, hear answers to other home improvement questions from callers like you!

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Top Questions & Answers
Ask Your Home Improvement Question
Podcast Transcript

Tape: When you need sticky solutions, this is where to get the right tape for every DIY project.
Deck vs. Patio: Use these tips to decide whether a wood deck or a brick patio is right for your outdoor living space.
Clean Water: Get clean, great-tasting water with an easy and compact water filtration system.

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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00:00:23	ANNOUNCER: The MoneyPit is presented by Owens Corning. Now, here are Tom and Leslie.
00:00:29	TOM: Coast to coast and floorboards to shingles, this is The Money Pit Home Improvement Show. I’m Tom Kraeutler.
00:00:34	LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.
00:00:36	TOM: I love, love, love this time of year because it’s so pleasant to work outside and I got lots of stuff to do. I just sent Leslie and Jim a video of the stone I had delivered today for my fence project. Five tons of gray gravel dumped in this one spot at the back of the driveway so that we could use it running around the property. And, oh man, I tell you what, I’m actually looking forward to getting this done. It’s going to be my winter workout or my fall workout because I got to basically move 10,000 pounds of stone. One wheelbarrow at a time so we could put all these fence posts in. But that’s my project. Yeah, I know, I call this fun and you think I’m nuts, but it keeps me out of trouble. And I really love doing it. The number here is 180. If you’ve got a question about your project, and I hope it’s a much smaller project than what I’m talking about because I’ve been working on this one for a long time. But if you’ve got a question, we would love to help you if you reach out to us at 1-888-Money-Pit or you can go to moneypit.com slash ask. We will do just that. Coming up on this episode, building a deck or a patio to create new space for outdoor living is actually one of the most popular projects for fall. Folks love to tackle those projects now so they’re good to go. But how do you know which is best? Should you build a wood deck or should you build a brick paver patio? We’re going to have tips to help you sort it out just ahead.
00:01:58	LESLIE: And tape is one of those DIY products that you probably don’t think much about until you need it. And when you do, your choices are probably pretty limited. We’re going to share a place that we discovered that sells virtually any kind of tape that you’ll ever need for a project just ahead.
00:02:14	TOM: And we’ve also found a great way to get clean, great tasting drinking water at home that’s compact. Easy to install and even easier to maintain. We’re going to fill you in on the new technology from RO Pure Plus from Premier H2O. Now that’s a Watts Water Technologies company which is a company we’ve actually known and trusted for many, many years.
00:02:33	LESLIE: But first, we want to help you create your best home ever. So whether you are doing that job yourself or you’re hiring a pro, we are ready to help you get that job done right.
00:02:43	TOM: So your job is to reach out to us with your questions at 1-888-Money-Pit or go to moneypit.com. Let’s get to it. Leslie, who’s first?
00:02:53	LESLIE: Jeanette in Colorado is on the line and needs some help with a radiant heating question. What can we do for you?
00:02:57	CALLER: I would like to know if it would be good to do the radiant floor ourself or to have someone else do it. Is it going to increase my electric bill quite a bit? And if it is something I could do, what materials would be best to do?
00:03:11	TOM: Wow, lots of questions.
00:03:13	LESLIE: Yeah, we only said one question, lady.
00:03:16	TOM: All right. So the bathroom. The bathroom is the only room in the house that you want to have a warm floor?
00:03:22	CALLER: Well, for starters, we would like to do it in the kitchen also, but we thought we’d start with the small project as the bathroom.
00:03:30	TOM: And what kind of a house do you have? Is it a ranch? Colonial? What are we talking about?
00:03:35	CALLER: No, it’s more of a ranch. It has, you know, the bottom is not sitting completely on the ground because it’s lots of rocks and stuff in the mountains there. So it does have crawl spaces underneath.
00:03:45	TOM: It does? Yes.
00:03:46	CALLER: It does have crawl spaces where we have sump pumps in there to help anything that might cause that. So you can crawl under the house, but it’s not very much room. Okay.
00:03:56	TOM: And how is it heated? Is it hot water or hot air system?
00:03:58	CALLER: Hot air, but we mostly use pellets, though.
00:04:01	TOM: So it sounds to me like you’re going to be limited to an electric radiant heating system. There are different types of heating underlayments, so to speak, that you would put on a bathroom floor and you would tile on top of. Now, is it expensive? Yes. It’s electric heat. It’s expensive to purchase and install. It’s expensive to run. It’s not a way to save money on your heating bill. There’s nothing cost-effective about electric heat. It’s very pleasant and nice to have that warm floor, but it is an expensive project and it’s expensive to run. That said, if you put it on its own timer so it’s only on, say, in the morning or in the evenings for a limited period of time, you can manage that experience. Is it a do-it-yourself project? Yes, if you’re pretty experienced because the tile mats usually have to be ordered custom-made and you have to make sure that they’re installed properly because if you get that floor down and it doesn’t work, you get a big problem. You end up having to tear it up. Frankly, my advice would be to not do it yourself because I would rather have a contractor do its work with it time and time again. Okay. I’d hate to see the whole thing get together and you got a problem with it and you got to tear it all up and start again. So the amount of additional expense for labor I think would have sort of an insurance quality to it to make sure it comes out right.
00:05:29	CALLER: Well, thank you all for your advice and I appreciate it.
00:05:32	TOM: You’re welcome. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit.
00:05:37	LESLIE: Ron in California is on the line and needs some help with a fence. Tell us about it. Hate your neighbors or just want some more privacy?
00:05:44	CALLER: Not exactly. I don’t hate my neighbors. I have a big property in my back. We’re living in a 10-acre parcel up in close to Yosemite National Park.
00:05:54	TOM: Oh, beautiful. Okay.
00:05:55	CALLER: Oh, wow. Right now, there’s a wire fence that’s surrounding the back of the property. But we have also a terrain that it’s kind of hard if we’re going to put it back the same kind of wire fence. So I’m looking for a design of fence that I could be able to use to set it up as a regular fence to protect from wild animals.
00:06:24	TOM: Wild animals. So you say it’s a wire fence. Is it like a thin wire fence, like not a real sturdy one? Yes. They’re thin wire fence. All right. Well, I mean, look, you’ve got some options. You can use a solid fence, like a wood fence, or you could use a chain link fence. Or you could use a metal fence. Now, when you say wildlife, how big are we talking about?
00:06:47	LESLIE: Bears, I bet.
00:06:48	TOM: You’re going to need a pretty strong fence. So I think your only option is going to be chain link. And it’s going to have to be a pretty high chain link fence. And it’s going to have to be professionally installed. So that’s a really big project. All right. Great. Thank you very much. All right. So I wish you had better luck for you. But if you want to fence it and keep those bears out, they can be 1,000 pounds. You’re going to need something pretty sturdy. Yes.
00:07:07	CALLER: And I really don’t want them to come over. Yeah, I don’t blame you.
00:07:11	TOM: No, I don’t blame you. I wouldn’t want them either. Yeah. Well, I guess that’s what you get for living so close to nature. But you’ve got a beautiful backyard nonetheless. So, Ron, thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit. And good luck with that project. Thank you very much for your time.
00:07:24	LESLIE: Katherine, you’ve got the Money Pit. What can we help you with today?
00:07:27	CALLER: I have lighting in the basement. And it is something we started initially, and we changed our mind. And so there are outlets or holes that are intended for light fixtures. And then also a ceiling fan. And we’re changing how we’re going to do things down there. Is there some way that we can patch it up and start all over? Or do we need to have an electrician in and resurface everything and do everything all over again?
00:07:53	TOM: Okay. So your main concern is that you have the holes that you’re not using anymore. So you want to know if you can patch those?
00:07:59	CALLER: Yes.
00:08:00	TOM: Yeah. Sure you can.
00:08:01	CALLER: And then the wires are already there.
00:08:03	TOM: Oh, the wires are there? Well, if the wires are there, if they’re live, if they’re connected on the other end, if they’re energized to a panel, then they have to be disconnected for sure. Okay. You could just put up, you know, wire nuts on the end of it and cover the box. And there’s different types of ceiling plates that could cover that. But frankly, if you’re never going to use that wiring, I wouldn’t have extra energized wiring through the ceiling. I would just disconnect it at the panel wherever it was given power. If it’s a matter of there’s no wiring behind it or you’ve totally disconnected it and now you’ve got these big old holes, you can do it one of two ways. Yes. You can either put like a decorative plate. Let’s say it’s a round, you know, a round fixture, a round electrical box. There are electrical plates that are designed to fit over ceilings. I can cover that. You can paint it white. It’s not that noticeable. Or if you want to completely repair the ceiling as if it never happened at all, then what I would do is I would probably, if I was repairing that, I would square off the hole first because it’s a lot easier to patch a square hole than it is a round hole. And then what you do is you take another piece of drywall. And you basically measure out a piece that’s, well, let’s say it’s about two inches wider on all sides. So if it was four by four of the hole, I would cut a piece that was eight by eight or so. Because what you’re going to do, and this is a little tricky, you’re going to turn that piece of drywall upside down. And you’re going to sort of score where that four-inch piece would be in the middle. Then you’re going to peel off all of the plastic that’s on the drywall except for the paper on the outside edge. Because that’s going to actually act as the drywall tape. And then if you put spackle and you put that little piece back on, and you may have to tack it in place with a screw or something while it’s holding, while it’s drying, you can spackle that and it will magically disappear. But when it’s time to paint, make sure you prime it and then always use a flat paint because otherwise all the spackle you put up there, even if you do a good job, is going to be really obvious. Okay?
00:09:51	LESLIE: Okay. Excellent. Thank you so much. Do you love learning about home improvement on our podcast? Well, we love bringing you all the latest tips and tricks.
00:09:59	TOM: And if you want to make us smile, leave us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts. Just go to Money Pit.com.
00:10:07	LESLIE: All right. Now I’ve got Linda from Rhode Island on the line who’s having a hard time being patriotic. What’s going on, Linda?
00:10:14	CALLER: Well, what I have, the flagpole I have is the actual bracket that you put the aluminum pole into. Okay. And I was trying to attach it to the front column, which is aluminum on my porch. Okay. But column is not perfectly smooth. It’s like variegated. Okay. And it is right up close to the frame of the door. Okay. So I put one, I was able to put one screw in that came with it. And when I put the other screw in, it held for maybe a day, the first day the flag was up. Right. And the next time I went to put it up, the other screw, one of the screws pulled out.
00:11:00	TOM: Just popped out. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So let me, you want to put this on the column. You see the column is next to your door. Is that right?
00:11:07	CALLER: Right next to the door frame. It’s a very small area, but the whole area in the front is small.
00:11:13	TOM: All right. So a couple of ideas. First of all, in a scenario like that, the hardware that comes with the bracket is probably not good enough because what you want is a screw that’s going to go deep into that column or deep through the column. And if in your case the column is part of the front facade of the house, it would go into the frame. So a longer screw is going to be helpful. And the second thing is that you’re going to want to pilot hole those screws before you put them in, not just try to force them into the column metal. So you’re going to want to use a drill that is smaller than the screw. If you can imagine a screw has the threads and has sort of the solid part in the middle, you want the pilot drill to be just a little bit smaller than that solid part of metal in the middle of the screw. Now, the other thing that you could possibly do if you’re having trouble because as you described, it’s uneven and sort of variegated, I think was the word. You used is you could put another block on that column first. Now, you could do this with metal. You could do it with like a piece of oak like wood that was finished and you attach that really solidly and then you put the bracket on top of that. So this way, you’ll have another piece in between but it might make collectively for a more secure installation by not putting the bracket right on that variegated uneven column. So those are a couple of options for you. But I think you’re going to need better hardware not just what came with the bracket because you’re right. It has to be really secure especially when that flag starts whipping in the wind. Those brackets take a lot of force and if it’s not held in well, it’s going to pop out.
00:12:47	CALLER: Oh, well, thank you ever so much. I certainly will take your advice and I’ll try it.
00:12:51	TOM: All right. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit.
00:12:55	CALLER: Thank you.
00:12:56	LESLIE: Well, if you’re considering building your own wood deck or your brick paver patio but you’re just not sure which way to go for your home, there’s really two things that you need to consider. First of all, you’re going to need to evaluate the space you have to work with in terms of overall size of that finished project. And second, you’re going to need to consider the height of the deck or patio above the finished grade. Now, if you plan to have your new outdoor space be more than a foot higher than grade, a deck is best. Otherwise, it makes sense to go with a patio. While it’s possible to build the deck at grade level, we think that you’re going to find they’re much harder to maintain because they’re going to kind of stay in place. They’re going to stay damp and wet just from being so close to the ground, and then they’re going to form mildew and algae, and it’s just going to need constant cleaning.
00:13:38	TOM: Now, paver brick patios are really the most popular kind of patio, and they can include brick or natural stone or cement pavers, and they’re installed in sand. Now, the natural stone is the biggest challenge to work with because it’s kind of like assembling a giant outdoor jigsaw puzzle. They’re pretty much maintenance-free, but the most common paver patio mistakes come from not properly prepping the base. And when that happens, the bricks are going to loosen, the patio is going to shift, and weeds will grow through just as quick.
00:14:07	LESLIE: Now, the cost of decks are going to vary widely due just to the fact that there’s so many building materials available. A wood deck is going to be your least expensive option, but they are troublesome to maintain. So if you do have some budget here, you know it’s a healthy one and your tolerance for maintenance is very low, you might want to consider composite decking. But whatever that decking material is, that railing material is that you choose, you’re going to choose. Pressure-treated lumber is generally the standard for construction of the floor framing and support structure of that deck.
00:14:37	TOM: Now, finally, don’t forget about getting permits because regardless of whether your outdoor room is going to be created by building a wood deck or patio yourself or calling in a pro, you want to be sure to get that building permit because if you’re planning to sell the home, your local zoning or code enforcement inspector may be contacted for an inspection, and you want to make sure that you’ve done everything properly because that can really mess up selling the house. Because they won’t give you a CO on the property certificate of occupancy. Plus, especially when you’re dealing with a pro, you want to make sure they didn’t mess up, right? So having another set of eyes check that out is really super important.
00:15:11	LESLIE: Mark and Marilyn, you’ve got The Money Pit. What can we do for you today?
00:15:14	CALLER: Well, a question I have is I spilled some cooking oil on a Trex deck. In other words, the deck has Trex on it.
00:15:23	TOM: Right.
00:15:24	CALLER: And I spilled this oil on it, and I’m just wondering if there’s any way to get the oil out of it or what can I do about it?
00:15:30	TOM: Well, first question is how did dinner come out?
00:15:33	CALLER: Oh, dinner was fine.
00:15:37	TOM: right. Well, listen, the issue with composite decking is some of it, including Trex, can be absorbent, so it soaks in. Right. Now, was this decking ever stained or sealed? Because sometimes you can do that to composite as well, or is it the original?
00:15:52	CALLER: No, I did not.
00:15:54	TOM: Okay. So you got two options. First of all, to try to get as much of that oil out as you can, you’ve got to get the What I would do is I would mix up a trisodium phosphate paste. You get some TSP, trisodium phosphate, you’ll find it in the paint aisles of hardware stores and home centers. It’s a really good cleanser. So you can mix it up, and you can apply it to that area, let it sit a little bit, scrub it a bit, and then rinse it off and see if that starts to draw it out. Okay. Now, if not, it’s kind of there and appears to be permanent. The other thing that you could do is you could remove that deck board and potentially turn it upside down and have a clean side on the other side of it. We suggest that often when folks have issues with deck boards that are cracked and they’re wood, but you could do it with composite. It depends, of course, on how that composite was put down. If it was put down with screws, super easy to remove it, flip it, and put it back down again, and you’ll have a clean side on the back, especially if it’s Trex, because I think Trex has two good sides. Right. Some composite boards, they have an underside that’s not designed to be to the weather. But with a Trex board, you should be able to do that. Okay.
00:16:58	CALLER: The other solution I had was just pour oil all over it.
00:17:01	TOM: You could do that, too. That’s one way to do it.
00:17:05	LESLIE: Just to be making a lot of fried potatoes. Yeah. Just keep going.
00:17:07	TOM: And that deck would get awfully slippery, as well. Well, I’m glad you’re looking at it with some good humor. Thanks so much for giving us a call, and we’re glad we were able to help you out. Thank you very much.
00:17:18	LESLIE: Well, tape is one of those household and DIY products that you probably don’t think much about until you need it. And when you pick tape up at the store, your choices are probably pretty limited. Well, a better place to shop for tape and more is FindTape.com, an online retailer who’s been in business for over 20 years.
00:17:36	TOM: That’s right. And they not only supply tape, but also products for crafts, school and office supplies, DIY projects, outdoor products, and a lot more. Kevin Mahoney is the founder of FindTape.com. He joins us now to explain. Welcome, Kevin.
00:17:50	KEVIN: Thank you. Glad to be here.
00:17:52	TOM: I have to say, I find it extraordinary that you started this business 20 years ago when the internet was in its infancy, and you now stock over 6,500 items. So you guys were way ahead of the curve on this. Yeah.
00:18:03	KEVIN: We were one of the first ones to kind of offer a lot of those hard-to-find tapes, like, you know, you want four-inch-wide red duct tape, something like that. You know, we were one of the first ones to offer that kind of stuff.
00:18:14	TOM: So how did you get started? What kind of got you into the tape business?
00:18:17	KEVIN: I worked in New York City. I was a technical director for an international company. It was an interactive web agency back in the late 90s, so we did the websites for companies like Godiva and Waterford Wedgwood and Coach Handbags, just a lot of big websites, so kind of went through the whole dot-com boom, and then the crash, and then kind of rebuilding it. Yeah. I was out with a friend known since grade school. He was in the 82nd Airborne, got back from the Gulf War. He went into the family business, and his family business, his father owned a tape conversion company. Yeah. So they have a tape converter. Basically, you’ll get, say, a 60-inch-wide roll of tape from a company such as 3M or Duck Brand, and they convert it. So they’ll make, say, a three-inch-wide roll of tape, and they’ll rewind it to a shorter length. A log roll usually comes like 1,300 linear yards, and they’ll make it into like a 60-yard roll of tape. So I was out with them, and I’m like, hey, I build websites for a living. Why don’t I build you a website? You can’t find these type of tapes online right now. He was already selling to a lot of companies, and he didn’t want kind of the channel conflict. He didn’t want to compete with the companies he was selling to. So I’m like, okay, well, I’ll just launch a website, and I’ll electronically send you the orders if I get them.
00:19:27	TOM: Yeah. You can sell to you.
00:19:29	KEVIN: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I did that back in 2004, before we launched. My total investment was $200. I invested $100 in Google Ads at the time, $100 in ads on Yahoo, and I worked for a web agency. So I had buddies that could do the logos and the creative work. So I would take them out for a drink, get them a beer, and I would get a logo. Yeah.
00:19:52	LESLIE: Give them a roll of tape, send them on their way.
00:19:54	KEVIN: Yeah, I did. People still ask for a roll of tape all the time. So I launched, and it grew within two years. At that time, I was commuting into New York City every day from Jersey. Right. Two and a half hours, door to door. Wow. By 2006, I had enough money that I quit. And I just started working from home. Originally, it was totally drop ship. I’d have companies kind of cut the tape for me and ship it. Yeah. 2017, we got our first kind of office space, started stocking items. 2019, we opened our first and only retail store. We have one retail store, so if you want to come in and see the items, you can. And then we moved to a larger warehouse down in Hamilton, New Jersey, back in like 2020.
00:20:39	TOM: That’s amazing. It really is. The number of brands you have is so wide. I was really surprised. I mean, 3M, Scotch, Nexcare, Ace, Bondo, Filtrete, Peltier, it just goes on and on and on. Yeah. Let’s just divide this up. When it comes to tape, what’s the most popular tape? When it comes to all these other products, where do people seem to have the most interest?
00:20:57	KEVIN: We started with just tape originally. We started with really like 3M Scotch, Duck Brand, Gorilla, Prod Tape, or Pinger Tape. And it kind of grew from there because 3M, they own so many sub-brands. So we’re like, wait. We have access to these products. So we started bringing in all the Bond products. We have the Bondo fillers, which sell great. Then Filtrete for all the air filters, Command, Peltor for hearing protection. Gorilla also owns, say, O’Keefe’s, if you’ve ever seen O’Keefe’s working hands, which is awesome.
00:21:27	LESLIE: Oh, yeah. It really is great. Yeah.
00:21:28	KEVIN: Right? Everybody loves O’Keefe’s. And they also own Lutz tools. We have ratcheting screwdrivers, which are great. The Bondo fillers started selling for us. So we contacted DAP. So we sell all their caulks and sealants. And actually, the best seller right now for DAP is probably, they have a wall and cavity spray foam that is selling really well.
00:21:45	TOM: We actually helped launch that product.
00:21:47	KEVIN: Oh, that’s awesome. It’s been selling really well over the last six months for us.
00:21:52	LESLIE: I mean, I love that you have such a wide variety of crafting and art materials, even back to school supplies. I mean, I was just perusing. And I use every day at Good Morning America, this Xyron machine. And I’m always like making things into like, I’m making labels for fake products and whatnot. And I’m like, I always have a hard time finding that refill kit. I’m like, I don’t know. I’m like, wait. They’ve got it. I’m going to place an order. So just be prepared. You’re going to see an order from me very shortly.
00:22:18	TOM: I like the detail that you have. Like for example, I was looking at, I said, let me think of something that is not totally common, but we recommend it now and again, which is 181 tape. And that’s a type of duct tape. Well, it’s not really, it is duct tape, but it’s not like the clothy kind of duct tape. It’s more of the silver duct tape. And we recommend it because if you’ve got leaking ducts, you’re going to lose air conditioning and you’re going to lose heat, but you got to have the right stuff. And that’s why the UL standard is called 181. But when I look at your site, man, look at it. It’s got all the data. It’s got the, it’s got the adhesive. It’s got the thickness. It’s got the strength of the adhesion. It’s got the strength of the backing. It’s got the tensile strength. You know, it’s all right here. And then when you look at the pricing, you start with a price for a single item, but right in the same chart, I could buy one item or I can buy 10 cases and I see my discounts on my prices. And the prices are good. Yeah.
00:23:09	KEVIN: Yeah. We have a lot of people use that advanced tape finder on the site because if they have an application, we sell to a lot of manufacturers. We sell a lot of double-sided tapes and they go in exactly like you said, they need a specific thickness and they need this adhesive strength and they’re able to use that tape finder to narrow it down. And then like you had mentioned about the pricing, we are totally transparent. If you want like a cartridge of DAP stainless steel silicone sealant and you’re a homeowner, you’ll see the price for one. You may be a contractor and you want to buy a case of 12. The price is right there or you may want to resell it and want to, you know, you’re going to buy five cases. We don’t want, you know, a lot of websites you’ll go to, it’ll say, oh, call for volume base price or bulk pricing. We just totally transparent. All that’s right there on the website.
00:23:54	TOM: Amazing. Well, listen, well done, sir. And it’s a real, real great site. I’m so glad we found it. And I know that Leslie and I are going to be spending a lot of time here because we do a lot of projects. We talk about a lot of projects. And this is like one of the best sites I’ve seen for this sort of availability. You know what? It’s right there. The prices are good. It’s so easy to use. And all the detail you need to know about whatever type of tape you need is right there at FindTape.com. That’s the website. FindTape.com. Kevin Mahoney is the president and the founder. Kevin, thanks so much for stopping by the Money Pit. Thank you so much.
00:24:29	LESLIE: Russ in Iowa, you’ve got the Money Pit. What can we do for you today?
00:24:32	CALLER: I have some casement windows, the old crank style ones. Okay. And we need to replace windows, but can those be replaced with double-hung windows easily or is it going to be major work?
00:24:44	TOM: Well, if it’s a casement window, I mean, you don’t have an existing sort of window jam that would stay behind. If it was an old double-hung and you took out the sashes, you could slip a replacement window in between that and use the old sort of frame, but just replace the sashes. Because it’s a casement window, you physically have to take the entire window out. So it’s more like doing a new construction window installation where you have to replace, you know, kind of mess with the siding to get the whole window out and then put a new window in. In terms of the shape of it too, you know, if it’s sort of shaped for a double-hung, you know, double-hungs are more tall than they are wide. Casements can be, you know, kind of squatty in terms of their style. So you want to make sure it’s going to look good. But listen, if you’re going to take the casement out and it’s not going to fit a double-hung well, why not put in a new casement, but just put in a good quality casement like an Anderson, for example. And that can fit, you know, alongside double-hungs quite well. In fact, I’ve got both casements and double-hungs in my home and they look quite natural together. Okay.
00:25:43	CALLER: I’ve just had, we’ve, every house we’ve had has had casements and they’ve all rotted and had problems. And so I was looking for something different, but okay. That answers my question.
00:25:52	TOM: What kind of siding do you have? Vinyl.
00:25:54	CALLER: Yeah.
00:25:55	TOM: So you’re going to have to peel back the vinyl to do this. There’s no way around that because you have to basically set the new double-hung against the sheathing. And then put the J-channel in and fill the vinyl in around it. Now, if these new vinyl double-hung windows are bigger than the casement, you’re not going to have any issues with, you know, needing to try to replace sidings. Just make sure it’s a little bit bigger and then be careful about the siding that you remove. And siding does come down pretty easily. And what I would tell you to do is number each piece, you know, with a piece of tape and a number on it. So you make sure you get it back in the right order and you can basically cut it to fit. So, you know, it’s more work, but it can look fantastic when you’re done. Okay.
00:26:33	CALLER: Thanks, guys.
00:26:34	LESLIE: Hey, Tom. You know, we’ve got something pretty exciting to share today for all of our listeners who are serious about clean drinking water at home. It’s a compact solution that’s easy to install and takes care of all your water filtration needs.
00:26:47	TOM: That’s right, Les. We’re talking about the RO Pure Plus from Premier H2O. It’s a part of the Watts Water Technologies. This reverse osmosis system is designed to specifically fit into those tight under counter spaces without compromising on performance. Exactly.
00:27:03	LESLIE: You know, the RO Pure Plus features four stages of filtration, which not only traps sediments, but also reduces the total dissolved solids and that chlorine taste and odor that we all hate. The result? Crystal clear, great tasting drinking water for your family. And when it’s time to change those filters, it is completely hassle free. You just push a button and the built in shut off valve takes care of the rest. No mess, no fuss. Yup.
00:27:28	TOM: And don’t forget about the annual filter replacement kit. It’s a complete one year supply designed to keep your system running smoothly and your water tasting fresh. Plus, this is great, there’s an exclusive 25% off coupon code just for Money Pit listeners. So head on over to PremierH2O.com slash Money Pit and use the promo code Money Pit to get your discount.
00:27:50	LESLIE: Yeah, this is a fantastic deal for anyone looking to upgrade their home’s water quality without the usual bulk and complexity of the other systems. So don’t wait. Check out the RO Pure Plus today at PremierH2O.com slash Money Pit and use the code Money Pit to get your discount.
00:28:10	LESLIE: Now I’ve got Winston on the line from Ontario, Canada, and you’re dealing with some stains on a concrete floor. Is it a driveway garage? What are we looking at?
00:28:19	CALLER: A garage.
00:28:20	LESLIE: All right. So tell us what happened.
00:28:21	CALLER: Okay. This engine was leaking down to the floor. I tried to get the spot from the floor, but it penetrates inside the concrete.
00:28:27	TOM: Mm-hmm. Yeah. That’s because the concrete is very, very porous. Right. And once that happens, you’re never going to be able to get all that stain off. And you can’t get all that stain out. What you can do is to paint the floor with an epoxy garage floor surface kit. There are a number of products you can use. I would recommend you look at Abatron, A-B-A-T-R-O-N, abatron.com. We’ve been recommending them for years. They make an excellent set of products designed for resurfacing concrete and repairing concrete. And you should look at the epoxy coatings. They’re very, very good. And they have a lot of different types of coatings that they provide because once you apply that to the concrete slab, you have to prep it properly. There’s usually an acid wash step that makes sure the concrete’s ready to receive the epoxy. But it’s a really cleanable surface. And so if you do get drips and leaks from oil, it’ll be fairly easy for you to clean it up.
00:29:25	CALLER: Thank you very much.
00:29:26	TOM: I really appreciate that. Good luck with that project. Thanks for calling us at 1-888-Money-Pit.
00:29:32	LESLIE: John in Bedford, New York, reached out and he’s got a problem with his circuit breaker’s tripping. His house was recently lost power and when the power was restored, he found one of the circuit breakers had tripped. He resets the breaker and it trips again. The breaker controls the living room, which has eight outlets. I unplugged everything and I tried to reset the breaker, but it still pops. Do you have any suggestions as to what to look for next, he’s asking. Yeah.
00:29:56	TOM: So first of all, there’s a reason it’s popping. So don’t think it’s a mistake. There’s definitely a reason and you’ve got to get to the bottom of that. Now, you did all the right things. You unplugged everything that was on that circuit just to make sure it wasn’t an overload situation, but now you found that when you put the breaker back on, it immediately pops off. So that means you’ve got a short somewhere and finding that can be challenging, especially if you’re not a pro. So I do think that this is something, at this point, you need to turn to an electrician for. I mean, I myself, for example, I was putting in a light not too long ago and I put in the light. I wired it while the wires were sort of loose. The new fixture I kind of had hanging because I wanted to wire it up, make sure it was all done right before I installed it in its final position. And I did that and it was perfect. Everything was fine. Right? And then I put it all back together. I hung it on the wall. And of course, as soon as I turned the breaker back on, it immediately popped off. So I had shifted a wire somewhere, it’s shorted. I think the ground wire may have accidentally contacted one of the hot leads. Anyway, I fixed all that up and now it’s fine. But sometimes you just don’t know where that’s happening. I had another situation where I had actually tightened up some wires in a box in my house and everything was fine until I tightened them up and then it started to trip. So you never know and you really need to have a pro sort that out.
00:31:17	LESLIE: Yeah, John, because electrical issues can be super dangerous. I mean, you don’t want to have the effects of a fire, which can really get out of hand rather quickly when you do have an electrical fire at home. So knowing what’s causing the circuit to trip and making that repair. Could be life-saving, so don’t mess around.
00:31:35	TOM: Well, when temperatures drop, mice, rats, and other rodents love to make their way into your home for relief from the chill. Leslie’s got tips on how to keep them from doing just that in today’s edition of Leslie’s Last Word.
00:31:48	LESLIE: You know, it’s not as easy as hanging up just a no vacancy sign, but you can make changes that’ll keep those mice and critters from moving into your house and moving on to the next one. You know, mice can squeeze through spaces that are smaller than yours. You know, if you’ve got a dog and a cat, you’ve got to make sure that they don’t get in the way of the smell of their pet food. I mean, it’s so enticing that they’ve been known to chew through heavy duty food bags for a taste. So keep that dry pet food in sealed metal containers and rinse out your pet food bowl before heading to bed every single night. Now, cleaning is also important. So you want to give kitchen counters and tables a swipe each evening too, because those discarded crumbs are an outdoor animal’s favorite treat. And get rid of stacks of paper and cardboard that mice and rodents can turn into nesting sites. Now, if you need more ways to keep your house critter free, head over to moneypit.com, where we have solutions for all the areas of your home inside and out.
00:32:54	TOM: This is the Money Pit Home Improvement Show. Coming up next time on the program, is your kitchen feeling a little dim? Well. On the next Money Pit, we’re going to share bright ideas to transform your space from dim to delightful when we talk top kitchen lighting tips on the very next edition of the Money Pit. I’m Tom Kraeutler.
00:33:12	LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.
00:33:14	TOM: Remember, you can do it yourself.
00:33:15	LESLIE: But you don’t have to do it alone.

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