#2460 – Avoid Plumbing Disaster Season | Paint Sheen That Shines | Custom Outdoor Stone Features

Show Notes

Today, discover how to protect your pipes during the busy holiday season, get expert advice on choosing the perfect paint sheen for your project, and learn how to quickly upgrade your outdoor space with custom stone features. Plus, we’re answering your questions on all things home improvement, from minor fixes to major makeovers!

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Top Questions & Answers
Ask Your Home Improvement Question
Podcast Transcript

Plumbing: Don’t make these common mistakes during the holiday plumbing disaster season.
Paint: Besides picking the perfect paint color, you need to choose the right sheen that shines.
Stone Features: Customize your outdoor space with easy DIY building block kits.

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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	ANNOUNCER: The MoneyPit is presented by FindTape.com. Now, here are Tom and Leslie.
00:00:24	TOM: Coast to coast and floorboards to shingles, this is The Money Pit Home Improvement Show. I’m Tom Kraeutler.
00:00:36	LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.
00:00:37	TOM: And we are here to help you get the projects done you want to take on around your house, whether you’re fixing up or improving or remodeling, whatever’s going on. You know, fall’s a great season to take care of your house inside and out, so if you’ve got something on the to-do list, we would love to hear all about it and help you save some time, save some money, and get it done right the first time. We’ve got a lot planned for today’s show in addition to solving your home improvement questions. First up, fall is the start of a busy season for plumbers, and with all that holiday cooking and cleanup, your pipes apparently suffer the consequences more than you realize. So we’re going to share some tips on how to avoid a costly emergency call to the plumber in just a bit.
00:01:17	LESLIE: And painting is also a popular project this time of year, but while most people spend a lot of time picking out the pieces, that perfect color for the room, choosing the perfect paint sheen is often an afterthought. We’re going to share some tips on how you can choose the best sheen to make your project shine.
00:01:33	TOM: And are you looking to upgrade your outdoor space in record time? We’ve got a simple way to transform your backyard with the look of custom stone, and it only takes minutes to do.
00:01:42	LESLIE: All right, but before we get to what we want to talk about, we want to hear what you want to talk about. So whether you’re planning a small decor project, or you’re diving into a full-blown renovation, which, by the way, bless you, that is a very big project to jump into. Massive job. Seriously, whatever you’re doing, we have got you covered. From fixing those leaks to sprucing up your spaces, we’re here to help you every step of the way.
00:02:06	TOM: And you can do that by calling us at 1-888-Money-Pit, that’s 888-666-3974, or just go to moneypit.com slash ask and click the blue microphone button. And here’s another really great reason to call us right now with your questions, because one lucky listener, is going to win from Koda, a two-pack of multi-directional LED shop lights. So if you have got a darkened garage, a darkened workshop, a darkened basement that you want more light in, this is a great product to really spruce up that space. It’s worth about 200 bucks, but we’re going to give the lights out to one caller drawn at random. So make that you. Call us right now with your questions at 1-888-Money-Pit. Let’s get started. Leslie, who’s first?
00:02:49	LESLIE: Heading out to Tennessee where we’ve got Donna, on the line with a kitchen question. What’s going on?
00:02:54	CALLER: We have three lights above our island, and they are square, but I am having trouble getting them to hang straight so that they’re all square with the island.
00:03:09	TOM: So the wires are twisting a little bit?
00:03:12	CALLER: I guess. They have rods on them, and we have fairly tall ceilings.
00:03:18	TOM: I have a feeling that what’s going on here is that the rod is twisting, where it goes into the junction box at the top. So it’s not easy because you have to get up there and actually adjust the position of that rod. It’s kind of those little things you don’t think about. If they were round lights, it wouldn’t make any difference. But because they’re square, you’ve got to adjust them or twist them until they line up again. Are these touching each other, by the way? Are they really close together? No.
00:03:44	CALLER: No, no. They are not touching at all. It’s like, yeah, the island’s about 11 feet long. So there’s plenty of space, and they’re each 16-inch squares at the base. Yeah.
00:03:59	TOM: I think they were not properly adjusted when they were first put in. You’ve got to get up to where they attach to the ceiling, and however the attachment is done, you may have to loosen it and twist that rod until it lines up where you want it and tighten up again. That’s the only option I think I can offer you at this point. Okay.
00:04:14	LESLIE: Thank you very much.
00:04:15	TOM: You’re very welcome.
00:04:17	LESLIE: All right. Now we’re headed to Florida, where we’ve got Richard on the line, who’s got a question about a safe.
00:04:21	CALLER: What’s Yes. I’d like to put a hole in the foundation of the house to put a safe in. How do I break up the foundation? It’s very hard.
00:04:31	TOM: Yeah. For good reason, too. So when you say foundation, do you mean the outside wall, or are you talking about like a concrete floor?
00:04:38	CALLER: A concrete floor. Okay.
00:04:40	TOM: And you’re in Florida, so this is a slab house? Yes. Okay. Do you know if there is any plumbing running through that floor? Because I would imagine certainly the bathroom pipes, the kitchen pipes, all that kind of stuff is running through that floor, and there certainly is a risk that you could break something if you happen to do this in the wrong location.
00:05:01	CALLER: Well, not that I know of. This is a closet.
00:05:03	TOM: A closet. Okay. Well, what we’re concerned is it’s along an outside wall? No.
00:05:07	CALLER: It’s behind the door.
00:05:08	TOM: So it’s sort of towards the middle of the slab is what I’m asking about. It doesn’t matter what room it is. I’m trying to figure out what the risks are of you running into some plumbing in that slab, for example.
00:05:18	CALLER: I don’t think there’s any plumbing. What I was told is there might be some rebar or some metal screening. Yeah.
00:05:24	TOM: Okay.
00:05:25	CALLER: I’m worried about electrical wiring. I don’t think there’s anything in that area. Yeah.
00:05:29	TOM: I mean, that’s the thing. We really don’t know. I mean, the answer to your question is that you use a concrete saw to get into that. Concrete saw and a lot of back-breaking labor. But you know, while it might seem like a good idea, it’s not necessarily the only way for you to secure a safe. You know, you could bolt it to the concrete.
00:05:47	CALLER: Well, I could do that. Right. But I just thought the other way would be a better option. But if it’s too hard to do, I won’t tackle it.
00:05:54	TOM: It’s a big, big job. And it does have some risks associated with it, Richard, because we just don’t know what’s under there. So I think if it was me, I would offer for bolting this thing into the floor. And I know they have a lot of kits for you to do that. And the bolts basically are inside the safe. So it’s not like anybody can reach the top and unscrew it.
00:06:12	CALLER: Right. I was supposed to do this when I built the house. I understand that. Yeah.
00:06:16	TOM: And by the way, when you look into this, there’s a product called a security bolt, which is virtually impossible to break. I see. So you want to use those kinds of bolts. Okay. Thank you very much, Yeho. Good luck with that project.
00:06:27	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.
00:06:39	TOM: Well, guys, if your workspace could use a serious lighting upgrade, we’ve got an awesome giveaway for you today. One lucky listener drawn at random from those that reach out to us with their questions at 1-888-Money-Pit is going to win two sets of Kodas 2-pack multi-directional LED shop lights. So I did the math, Leslie. That’s actually four lights.
00:06:59	LESLIE: Oh, that’s awesome. That’s very good, Tom. You’re excellent with math.
00:07:02	TOM: Thank you very much. The lights are not only versatile but incredibly dynamic. Each one shines between 1,000 and 8,000 lumens with three different lighting modes built to suit your needs. You can use the ambient light for a gym-like feel, the main light for your garage or workshop, or full brightness for those big detailed projects. Each set retails for $99. We’ve got two sets to give away, so reach out to us right now with your questions. The number, again, is 1-888-Money-Pit for the answer to your home improvement question and your chance to win.
00:07:30	LESLIE: Heading out to Missouri, we’ve got Diane on the line who’s dealing with an old bathroom. What’s happening in your older home?
00:07:35	CALLER: Well, it’s actually my son’s home. He’s out of the country right now, so I’m trying to help him out with some maintenance things. But it doesn’t have a fan for ventilation, and so there’s some renters in the house right now, and they complained of mold on the ceiling. And I just wonder, it’s on the ground floor, and so getting to it, like from going through the ceiling to mount a ceiling ventilation fan would be kind of difficult, I think. So are there options for workarounds for having a ceiling ventilation for bathroom ventilation?
00:08:18	TOM: Is this bathroom on an exterior wall?
00:08:20	CALLER: Yes.
00:08:21	TOM: Okay, so I presume there’s a window, right?
00:08:23	CALLER: There’s a window, but it’s painted shut, and it’s an old non-functioning window.
00:08:28	TOM: Yeah, so I mean, unfortunately, there’s a building code out there in a lot of places that says if you have a window, you don’t have to have a bath fan, as if, you know, you’d be happy to have that window wide open in the winter. It’s just kind of a silly thing. But look, there’s a couple of things you can do. You could install a bath fan in the exterior wall. It doesn’t necessarily have to be in the ceiling. Sometimes we see these in the wall themselves. It just has to be flashed properly so it doesn’t leak on the outside. I would also recommend, since you’re putting it in from scratch, that you wire it to a humidistatic switch, which basically means it runs as long as it has to, to take the moisture out of that room after you’re done showering. And since you have to run, you’d have to run the wire in the shower. If you have to run the wire in the shower, you might as well use a humidistat. That will help. Now, you mentioned that putting it in the ceiling would be difficult. It may or may not. It depends on the direction of the floor joists above. If they happen to be perpendicular with the wall with the windows on, it might be possible to install a bath fan in that ceiling and run the duct in between those floor joists on its way sort of outside the house. Certainly a lot more difficult, but not impossible. And I’ve done the project myself. You’ve got to make sure you have the joists that are running in the right direction and there’s no obstructions so that you can get a duct up above that fan and then run it towards the exterior wall.
00:09:46	CALLER: Oh, yeah. I hadn’t thought about that. So you’d be able to kind of, could you just use like a stud finder to identify which direction the joists will run in? Okay. Yeah.
00:09:55	TOM: You can use my favorite stud finder, which is a hammer. I’ll tap on the ceiling and you can hear where you’re on the joists. And the other thing to do, another trick. Is if you take a flashlight, like a pretty strong like LED flashlight and you hold that flashlight up against the ceiling, so not pointed, but like flush. So it’s like parallel to the ceiling. As that beam casts its glow across the ceiling, you’ll be able to see every nail and every trowel mark and know exactly where those studs are. It shows it up really well.
00:10:28	CALLER: Yeah. Okay?
00:10:29	TOM: Okay.
00:10:30	CALLER: Yeah. That’s great. Okay.
00:10:31	TOM: You’re a good mom for taking care of your son’s house while he’s away.
00:10:35	CALLER: All right. Well, thank you. Thanks so much for the call. You’re welcome. That’s great information. Oh, you got it.
00:10:40	TOM: Good luck. Thanks.
00:10:41	CALLER: Bye-bye.
00:10:43	TOM: Well, Halloween is the busiest time of the year for one trade in particular. And you might be surprised to know which one. It’s plumbers. Halloween apparently kicks off the season when the money starts to roll in, mainly because of what people are putting in their garbage disposals in fall. Yep.
00:11:00	LESLIE: And with all of that celebrating and cooking going on, lots of stuff is being shoved down there. And it can really clog up the works. For example, one of the most common culprits here, you guys, is pumpkin guts. It’s gooey. It’s fibrous. It’s full of seeds. And that will clog a garbage disposal faster than you can say, boo. Now, the same goes for your toilet. If you think, ah, I’ll flush them. That’s true with any stringy or fibrous vegetable. Things like celery, potato peels, even shrimp shells, they can wreak havoc on the disposal and the toilet as well, you guys. Yeah.
00:11:36	TOM: And it might seem obvious to you, but plumbers also get a lot of calls after someone dumps grease, oil, or fat down the drain. Just because it goes down the drain, guys, doesn’t mean it gets much farther than that. It’s not out of sight, out of mind. It’s maybe out of sight, but it’s clearly going to be in your mind when the water starts to back up.
00:11:56	LESLIE: It’s going to be on your mind a lot and in your wallet. Yeah. But truly, guys, if you do not want to pay for your plumber’s kids to go to college, let’s start composting. You can use all those leftover veggies. You can dump that grease in the garbage. There’s lots of ways that you can properly dispose of things without wreaking havoc on the plumbing system.
00:12:17	TOM: You know, Sue, my wife, does a lot of composting and she’s been doing it for years now. And it’s interesting though, because when she uses the compost in the garden, we get all kinds of new plants that come up. We get tomatoes that come up. Well, I mean, think about it. And we get all sorts of herbs and stuff that come up in different places. In the landscape beds where we have flowers, now we have flowers with vegetables next to them. So…
00:12:44	LESLIE: It’s kind of amazing.
00:12:46	TOM: It is pretty amazing. Yep.
00:12:48	LESLIE: All right. Now we’re going to talk to Robert in Michigan who’s looking for some heating solutions. What’s going on there, Robert?
00:12:54	CALLER: Well, I have like a 1,500 square foot house in Northern Michigan. And I have… Okay. It’s everything is electric now. I have electric baseboard heat. And I remodeled recently, well, 20 years ago. And I… Recent for you. And I put in a lot of insulation. So the house is pretty well insulated. Okay. And with thermal windows and et cetera. Okay. And I… But electric heat is expensive. And I wondered if a air heat pump… understood… Okay. I understood that they’re a lot more efficient than they used to be, would be a solution for me.
00:13:43	TOM: So they are. But Michigan’s a tough climate for any kind of heat pump because it’s just so darn cold. Right. But I guess if your only choice is that or baseboard heat, it probably would be less expensive. But let me tell you a little bit about a heat pump and the way it works so you really understand what you’re getting into here. All right. So a heat pump, first of all, you have to have ducting that goes through the house to supply the heat. Right?
00:14:08	CALLER: My plan is to just have it come into one main room.
00:14:15	TOM: Just have it come into one room. So are you going to use like a through the wall unit?
00:14:18	CALLER: Yes. Yes. The unit would be outside, but then there would be a wall unit.
00:14:27	TOM: Oh, so you’re talking about like a mini split. So okay. I understand what you’re saying. Yeah.
00:14:32	CALLER: Yeah.
00:14:33	TOM: Yeah. All right. So they are more efficient. But here’s what I wanted to make sure you were clear on. With a heat pump, the temperature of the air that comes out is not as warm as what’s coming off of those radiators. When you have fossil fuel, by way of an example, the air comes out at about 140 degrees. When you have a heat pump, it comes out at around 100, 110 degrees. So sometimes when people feel the air blowing on them from a heat pump, they’ll say it’s cold. But it’s really just not as warm as you’re used to. And when it hits your skin, the moisture evaporates off. It feels a little chilly sometimes. And what folks do in that case is they throw the thermostat up. And that’s where it gets expensive because a heat pump maintains a very steady temperature in your house. And when you throw the thermostat up, you bring on backup resistance heat, which is like having another baseboard heater inside your heat pump. And it pretty much doubles or triples the cost to run that thing. So what I would do is I would put the thermostat in the heat pump. And what I would do is if you put one in, I would set it and leave it alone, and I would keep the baseboard heat units in as a backup for those extremely cold days when you’re just not comfortable. I think, yeah, for the most part, it’ll be less expensive. But I still think there’s going to be some really chilly days where you wish you had more. And the other thing is you mentioned you insulated the walls. Make sure you’ve got at least 19 inches of insulation. the number one way to keep heat in that house. Okay.
00:16:07	LESLIE: All right. Now we’ve got Sue on the line who’s got some green stuff growing on the roof. What’s going on?
00:16:12	CALLER: What size copper flashing to put on the roof to prevent mold buildup?
00:16:21	TOM: Hey, Sue. So here’s some tips to get rid of that green stuff. By the way, it’s probably not mold. It’s more likely moss that’s growing up there. And the more sunlight you get on your roof, the more mold you’re going to get. The less of the chance that that’s going to be able to take hold. So sunlight is definitely the best algaecide to get rid of moss and anything else that’s like it. You mentioned the copper flashing. That is a trick of the trade that we have used from time to time and talked about on this show. And basically, it works like this. You take a piece of copper flashing and you add it to the very top ridge of the roof. So obviously, maybe not you, but a roofer that can go on up there and do that. And the copper flashing will catch the rainwater. And then it will release some of its metal as it washes down the roof, as it trickles down the roof. And that will wash and act as a mildew side and also help keep that roof clean. You would need probably an eight-inch-wide strip of copper on both sides at the peak of the roof for this to work. You often will see the effect of this, by the way, if you look at chimneys that have copper flashing that have like clean streaks underneath them. That’s because that roof’s getting cleaned by that copper flashing. And we can extend it to the entire roof if we add it across the entire roof.
00:17:31	LESLIE: So Chandler in Kentucky, you’ve got The Money Pit. What can we do for you today?
00:17:36	CALLER: My question for you is when it comes to insulating a new home, I’m building a new home in Mayfield. And I would like to know what’s the best route. I want to do a total encapsulation of the entire envelope of the house, but I don’t want it to cook my shingles in the hot summers and stuff. I don’t want to have a vented roof system or anything. I feel like that’s very outdated method. But I just don’t know. And I don’t know any contractors that are willing to do that. I don’t know any contractors that are educated enough to give me an answer. So I’d really like to have some perspective from y’all on what would be the best approach as far as having a great insulation value, but not cooking your shingles in the summer with that hot, hot Kentucky heat that we need to get.
00:18:18	TOM: You know, Chandler, I’ve heard this same question over and over again. And I think that the roofing shingle manufacturers sort of started this because they have told some folks that their warranties will be voided unless they vented the attic. But the truth is that you can go ahead and spray foam on the inside of your attic and the entire building envelope with absolutely no fear whatsoever that this will shorten your roof shingles. You know what would shorten your roof shingle life like at about 10 times more than worried about spray foam insulation? Just having a darker shingle. You know, if you look at white roofs versus black roofs, the white roofs reflect more UV than a black roof. So, you know, that’s the kind of thing that really impacts shingle life, not whether you use spray foam insulation on the backside of it. There have been some folks that have done some really detailed studies on this. And if I remember the number correctly, I think the increase in temperature of the sheathing was only about 3% because of the spray foam, which is infinitesimal and completely insignificant. So I would have no worries whatsoever about shortened shingle life by using spray foam insulation, which is why, by the way, I myself have personally used it and it’s been up for several years and I have no fear whatsoever that it’s going to shorten my roof shingles. So I think it’s a great option for you. It’s going to seal and insulate and make that home super comfortable for you in the years ahead. Well, painting a room is the most economical way to change your decor. But while most people spend a lot of time picking out the perfect color for the rooms, choosing the perfect paint sheen, and by sheen we mean the shine, you know, whether it’s flat or semi-gloss and so on, is also an important consideration because the right paint sheen can mean the difference between easy cleanup and a smudge that’s really hard to get off. Yeah.
00:19:59	LESLIE: So let’s start with the basics here. Let’s talk about flat paint. Flat, it’s a matte paint so its appearance has no sheen. It’s a very good choice when the surface you’re covering is not in the most perfect condition because once you start to add some shininess to your sheen choice, the more reflective or shiny, the more those imperfections on the surfaces like nail pops, drywall seams, it’s all going to show. So a flat paint is great for ceilings but not for areas with high traffic, high touch because it will show scuffs, it smudges easily. And because of the, I guess the finish that makes it matte, it’s very difficult to clean. So not a good choice for a high traffic area. Next is eggshell. Most people are going to think eggshell is the color but it’s not. It’s the resemblance that the finish of the paint gets to kind of like an eggshell. You know, it’s like a little bit dimply. It has like a little bit of a texture to it. It’s smooth but it does reflect a little bit more than flat paint. I kind of love an eggshell finish. It kind of gives a richness to the color. It still will hide those imperfections. It’s somewhat washable but it’s not as durable as more stepped up sheens.
00:21:06	TOM: Now, beyond those two starters, here’s where the sheen really starts to kick up. You’ve got satin which has sort of a silky sheen. It reflects just enough light. It works great in kitchens and bathrooms and kids’ rooms and hallways. Satin stands up well at grime and it cleans up well too. And then there’s semi-gloss. Semi-gloss is shinier than satin. It reflects sort of between 35% and 50% of the light that hits it. It’s best for fingerprint-prone areas like trim and molding and doors and cabinets. I used semi-gloss when I repainted a kitchen recently on the cabinetry. And it’s great because it was durable but also very washable. And then finally, high gloss. Now, this is the highest, shiniest paint available. It’s good for utility rooms or playrooms where washability is absolutely a must. But do not use it if you’re worried about imperfections because it will highlight every single one. And I’ll tell you a little trick of the trade that I used every day in the 20 years I spent as a professional home inspector. And that is if I wanted to see the condition of the walls, if I was looking for nail pops, if I was looking for seams, if I was looking for termites that might have crawled up inside the wall, what I would do is I would hold my flashlight and I would parallel to the wall or almost on the wall and cast that beam right over the surface because it would find all of those imperfections and I would know exactly what was going on. So, you know, if you put the wrong sheen on, let’s say you have a ceiling fixture and you put the wrong sheen on, first time you switch that light on, you’re going to be like, oh my God, it looks pockmarked. Well, you wouldn’t have seen that without that light or if you’d used a flat. But if you use something with a shine to it, remember, you’re going to get all those imperfections and they’re going to be staring you right at the face and you’re going to kind of hate yourself for it and probably end up repainting it with something with less sheen.
00:22:48	LESLIE: All right, we’re heading out to Mississippi. We’ve got Caitlin on the line. What’s going on at your money pit?
00:22:52	CALLER: My husband and I just bought our first house. It’s a 1977 Cape in Massachusetts. It had a lot of surprises for us. The oil tank spring leak. We had carpenter ants in the kitchen and had to gut our kitchen all within the first week. One of the things we did know coming into it is that the window sills were pretty punky, had some water damage, and they’re actually even more rotten than we realized. I was going to try and use some wood epoxy and wood hardener to fill them. We’re going to fill that window sill, but it’s rotten to the lip, and so there’s not really something to fill into, if that makes sense. We’d love to hear your thoughts on a stopgap solution short of actually replacing those window sills right now.
00:23:36	TOM: Hey, Caitlin, so sorry that you had all those problems so early into this new home of yours, but you know what? It’s going to be great when you get it fixed up. Let’s talk about those wood sills. You know, you asked for the stopgap measure. That is filling those rotted areas with epoxy. Now, I’m not quite sure to what extent the rod is. I mean, if the entire sill is completely destroyed, then you probably can’t do much other than replace it. But if it’s just chunks of it that are, you can use a wood hardener first. The wood hardener will take all that soft, mushy, rotted wood and solidify it. And second, after that dries, then you could use the wood epoxy to fill it in. I like the wood epoxy line that’s made by Abitron. A-B-A-T-R-O-N. That wood epoxy line has all the products that you need. I’ve used it in some really unusual places. I’ve used it on fascia. I’ve used it to when I was changing locks and needed to move a very big hole only about a half inch, which is really hard to do without filling in the old ones. So I filled it in with the wood epoxy. It worked great. So take a look at the wood epoxy by Abitron. A-B-A-T-R-O-N. Now, I know that you’re assuming that replacing those sills is going to be a mess. It’s a massive project. But I have found that replacing just the exterior portion of it, not so bad. So you could make up some sill stock, which is basically wood that’s milled to sort of take the shape of the old sill and then cut out the rot and attach the new stuff and then prime it and paint it. There’s a possibility a good carpenter can do that, of course. So I think you have a couple of options. But I wouldn’t give up on the idea of filling it in with epoxy because that stuff’s pretty darn amazing these days. And it really does replace all the wood that rotted away. Hey, here’s a great reason to reach out to us at 1-888-Money-Pit with your questions. Because one lucky listener drawn at random is going to win two sets of Kodas 2-pack multi-directional LED shop lights. So if you’ve got a dim garage, workshop, basement, and you want to really spruce it up, you could win four of these multi-directional lights if you call us with your question. And you are the one we pick out of the Money Pit hard hat. The best part of this is that they come preassembled. They can link up to six features together. So install is really, really easy. Now, each set. Retails for $99. But we’ve got two sets to give away. So the value here is about $200. So if you’ve got a home improvement question, now is a great time to ask us. And, hey, you might just win some lights for the trouble. The number, again, 1-888-Money-Pit. Or go to MoneyPit.com slash ask.
00:26:09	LESLIE: We’re going to head to West Virginia where we’ve got Russ on the line who’s dealing with some flickery lights. What is happening?
00:26:16	CALLER: Well, I have a light fixture in my dining room. And it has ten bulbs. Each one of the bulbs is an LED. It’s a medicine-type bulb. Okay. I have it on when I turn the hot water on, the light flickers. Okay? Okay. But what I did was I took an incandescent bulb. I was just trying something. I took one incandescent bulb and put in the light fixture.
00:26:41	TOM: I can put the incandescent bulb in any position and it doesn’t flicker. I was going to ask you that. Okay. So a couple of questions. First of all, the water heater. Is this an electric water heater? Yes.
00:26:53	CALLER: Yes, it is.
00:26:54	TOM: Okay. Okay. So when the electric water… Here’s… I’m going to give you a suggestion here of what might be happening. When the electric water heater comes on, it’s going to pull a lot of current and cause a voltage drop across the whole system. Okay. And when that comes on, the amount of current going to those LED bulbs that are majorly in your ceiling fixture. With an LED, when you get below a certain amount of voltage, it starts doing weird things like flicker. It doesn’t evenly dim. Like an incandescent bulb, it always comes on and sometimes maybe it’s not as bright while that voltage drop is happening. But with an LED, it starts to flicker when it goes below a certain level, unless it’s a dimmable LED. But that’s another conversation. Good luck with that project.
00:27:46	LESLIE: Well, if you’re looking to transform your outdoor home. If you’re looking to transform your outdoor space quickly and easily, have we got a solution for you. Ladera wall blocks by Pavestone are designed to give your backyard a custom look without all of the hassle. Yep.
00:27:59	TOM: These blocks look like dry stacked stone, but they’re way more stable, easy to assemble and faster to put together. You can actually build an entire fire pit in less than like five minutes. So there’s no cutting those special corner pieces. You just stack them, level them and adhere them with Quikrete construction adhesive. So it’s really perfect for those weekend DIY projects.
00:28:20	LESLIE: I mean, it really is. You know, the Ladera blocks come in one nominal size, but they feature seven different face patterns. So it’s really easy for you to get a custom look without any obvious pattern repeat. And because they’re made from precast concrete, they’re super durable and they’re built to last in any weather condition.
00:28:37	TOM: Plus, they’re not just for fire pits. You can use Ladera wall blocks to create a raised garden bed, seat wall, columns, and more. So whether you want to add some functional elements to your backyard, or you just want to have a little bit of fun, you can do that. Or maybe just create a beautiful outdoor space. Ladera wall blocks really make it easy.
00:28:51	LESLIE: And the best part? You can start transforming your backyard in minutes. To find a retailer near you, get design inspiration, and check out project instructions, visit pavestone.com.
00:29:01	TOM: That’s P-A-V-E-S-T-O-N-E, pavestone.com.
00:29:05	LESLIE: David in New Jersey wrote in to Team Money Pit asking, We recently dug out an old garden patch that was up against the house. I’m just wondering what’s the best type of fill to use to bring that soil in? We have some mixed three-quarter minus sand and soil left over from a patio project, and we’re wondering if that would do. We would of course grade it away from the house.
00:29:27	TOM: Yeah, I just want to clarify that when you say back above the foundation, you don’t want to go above the foundation. You need to stay at least six inches. You need to leave six inches of space between the bottom of the siding and the foundation because you don’t want to cover it. If that dirt gets too close to the house, then termites and carpenter ants and rot are going to find their way in. But I would not use that three-quarter minus. What I would use is clean fill dirt. Clean fill dirt is basically absent of any organic matter like branches and leaves and grass. And you should use that to bring the level back where you want to get the slope where you want. And then it’s always a good idea to add an additional layer of something on top of that. Now, that could be stone if you want that kind of finish, or it could be topsoil, or it could be mulch. Whatever you want it to be, that’s fine. But that goes on. Think of it as sort of the top coat. Of the clean fill dirt. And by the way, the good news is that the fill dirt is really inexpensive, depending on how much you need because there’s going to be a delivery charge. But it packs really, really well, and it’s pretty easy to work with.
00:30:25	LESLIE: All right. Next up, Stan in Ohio wrote in saying, My garage door does not seal when it’s down, and at any time it rains or snows, water comes in under the door. How do I seal this gap?
00:30:36	TOM: Yeah, it’s kind of frustrating. So your floor should be sort of stepped down at the edge of the door to prevent water from getting under it. That’s the right way to do that. But unfortunately, I see that as a shortcut that gets taken by a lot of modern masons. They don’t put that step in, so the floor ends up being flush. And then when that happens, the only thing that stands between you and water getting in is that seal along the bottom of the door. Now, if the seal is not hitting the floor evenly across, there’s a couple of things that you can do. If you happen to have a wood garage door, you could actually trim the floor. The wood garage door bottom to be parallel with the existing floor. If you don’t have a wood door, you could attach a 1x to the inside surface of that garage door, like a 1×4 or 1×6, and you would attach it so that the bottom edge of that 1x would be resting even on the floor, and then the top would slope up however it needs. The key there, though, is you need to be able to add a gasket across that bottom so that you have a way to seal where it strikes the concrete. So this is going to be sort of a moving target now, but if your concrete floor is settled, then now is a good time to do it. If it’s brand new, it could move again. You know, that’s the case. One way you could make that easier the next time is to make sure that the screws are removable, that you’re using to put that 1×6 on, because then you can just reposition the thing. But you’ve got to basically get contact between the door and the floor. And while you’re at it, you might want to also look at the jams, the side jams and the header, to make sure you have a good weather stripping there. You know, garage door weather stripping is kind of special. It’s different than other types of weather stripping. It comes sort of pre-assembled. So look at what’s available. I think you’ll find a good solution for there. And that’s going to make a big difference in how much wind, rain, snow is getting through that door into your house.
00:32:28	LESLIE: And you know, Stan, it’s pretty much a weekend project, so it shouldn’t take you that long.
00:32:34	TOM: This is the Money Pit Home Improvement Show, on air and online at MoneyPit.com. We thank you so much for taking part of your day to listen to this program. We hope it’s been helpful. Especially as you’re fixing up your house for the chilly winter ahead. If you’ve got questions, remember, you can reach us any time, day or night, at 1-888-Money-Pit. Or just post your questions at MoneyPit.com. Until then, I’m Tom Kraeutler.
00:32:58	LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.
00:33:00	TOM: Remember, you can do it yourself.
00:33:02	LESLIE: But you don’t have to do it alone.

	(Note: The above referenced transcript is AI-Generated, Unedited and Unproofed and as such may not accurately reflect the recorded audio. Copyright 2024 Squeaky Door Productions, Inc. No portion of this transcript or audio file may be reproduced in any format without the express written permission of Squeaky Door Productions, Inc.)