Show Notes
In this show, learn how to safeguard your plumbing from a winter freeze. Then, find out how the EPA’s new tool can prove energy-saving payoffs. Plus, we’ve got easy solutions for tough-to-clean tile floors. Have a project in mind? Listen in for answers to all your home improvement questions!
Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
- Frozen Pipes: Freeze out frozen pipe disasters by protecting your plumbing this winter.
- Saving Energy: Power up with a new EPA program that boosts your home energy-saving IQ.
- Floor Cleaning: Get expert grime-fighter tips for cleaning tough stains from tile floors.
Top Questions & Answers
- Toilet Valves: Tom wants to change the shut-off valves on his toilets. We offer tips for trimming back the pipe for a clean cut before slipping on a new compression valve.
- Cabinet Repair: Laurie’s kitchen cabinets got damaged when the floors were refinished. Remixing the paint and carefully touching up only the dinged areas will help.
- Plumbing: The bathroom pipes started vibrating after the tub was replaced. Crystal learns that the pipe brackets may not have been secured well enough.
- Outdoor Fountain: The bowel of Jack’s outdoor fountain is porous and leaking. We suggest draining and drying it well, then applying an epoxy compound to seal it.
- Snow on Roof: When snow accumulates on Terry’s glass sunroof, it slides off in sheets. She should call the manufacturer to see about adding ice guard brackets.
- Security: Robert’s property keeps getting broken into over and over! We discuss installing LED motion sensor lights and a camera system with a monitoring service.
- Uneven Floor: Deb’s floor is uneven and the stairs are twisting. It would be easier for her to adjust the staircase than to rebuild the floor.
- Insulation: Is spray foam insulation a good option to use above a basement drop ceiling? Pete wouldn’t have access to any pipes, so thermal fiber or fiberglass insulation are better choices.
Ask Your Home Improvement Question
Podcast Transcript
Read Transcript
| 00:00:01 | ANNOUNCER: The MoneyPit is presented by Daich Coatings. 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. |
| 00:00:33 | LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete. |
| 00:00:35 | TOM: We are here to help you take on projects you want to get done around your house. The holidays are here. Are you still fixing up? Are you still sprucing up? Are you still cleaning up, getting ready for some important days ahead when family and friends arrive to criticize everything you’ve ever done in your house? Hopefully not. But listen, if you’ve got some stuff on that to-do list, you can swing it on over to our to-do list by reaching out to us with those questions. The number here is 1-888-Money-Pit, 888-666-3974. Or you could simply post your questions to MoneyPit.com slash ask. Coming up on today’s show, winter weather can be especially hard on your home’s plumbing system, especially in the winter. If your pipes freeze and break, and you get to create your own version of the movie Frozen right there in your kitchen or your bath or your basement. So we’re going to give you some simple tips to stop this from happening. |
| 00:01:31 | LESLIE: And if you’d like to improve the energy efficiency of your home, but you’ve wondered whether the improvements would actually pay off, well, the EPA now has a program that can prove the savings before the project has even started. We’re going to share those tips just ahead. |
| 00:01:44 | TOM: I love that so much because there’s so much over-promising that goes on when it comes to energy saving and improvement. And this program, we’ll tell you about it in just a bit, actually completely eliminates that, which is terrific. But also ahead with holiday visits just around the corner, it’s time for some serious cleaning. Now the floors can be one of the toughest surfaces to tackle, so we’ve got some quick tips to help you get them sparkling clean in no time. |
| 00:02:07 | LESLIE: But before we get to what we want to talk about, we want to hear what you want to talk about. What are you guys working on? Are you planning a small project? Maybe it’s just a decorating project, or perhaps you’re thinking about something really big, and you’re getting a little overwhelmed. Well, whatever it is, give us a call because we’ve got you covered. |
| 00:02:24 | TOM: That’s right. From fixing leaks to sprucing up your space, we’re here to help you every step of the way. So help yourself first. Reach out to us right now at 1-888-Money-Pit, 888-666-3974. Let’s get to it. Leslie, who’s first? |
| 00:02:39 | LESLIE: Heading on down to Daytona Beach, Florida, we’ve got Tom on the line. Yes, there are other Toms in this country. And Tom wants to talk to Tom about a plumbing project. What’s going on? |
| 00:02:48 | CALLER: I’m trying to change the shutoff valve on the toilet, and I’ve been trying to educate myself a little bit because right now it’s got the compaction screw on right now with the little band, and I’m thinking about either putting it with the shark bite type of replacement, and then I’m curious about whether or not I’ve got to trim back the copper line with where that compression nut went, because I think it kind of leaves an indentation in there. Okay. Or can I reuse the existing compression nut? Kind of what am I up against if I try to change those? Because I’ve got about 10 of them in the house I want to do. |
| 00:03:33 | TOM: Okay, so you want to change the valve though, right? Yes, yes. Sorry, yeah, the shutoff valve. So what you need to do is you need to trim back that pipe to a point where you have sort of the original shape of the pipe. If the pipe was damaged, if it was crushed, if it was dented, you’re going to have a real problem using a compression fitting like a shark bite valve. But beyond that, what I would recommend is, since you have only 10 to do, I would pick up a pipe cutter, a little handheld pipe cutter. It’s about the size of a half dollar. It’s really small, and you can buy more expensive ones. But you clamp that onto the pipe, spin it around. You’ll get a really clean cut, square cut. And then I would take a piece of like emery cloth, and I would sort of buff it so that you get all the tarnish off that area. And I like to just take any burrs off because it’s got to be a really clean fit. And then once you’ve got a clean fit like that, you just slip that new compression valve right on there, and you’re pretty much good to go. I’ve used these many, many times on plumbing projects, and I’ll tell you what, they are a dream. Not only on toilets, but I’ve even used them for water valves, taking water from one side of the house to another or going into a water heater or something of that nature. I think once you start working with them, you’ll really appreciate it. There’s also a little ring that either comes with the compression valve or you can buy it separately. And it’s a really handy tool because it’s a remover. So if you make a mistake, it will release the pressure on the compression so you can actually pull it off and try it again. But I’ve had very good success with them. I’ve never had any leak either on installation or over the long haul. And of course, you need to make sure the water is completely off before you do this, most likely at the main water valve. One thing that messes up this project is if you can’t get the water to turn all the way off, you’ve got to keep going back and back and back to find a valve that will completely shut it off. |
| 00:05:18 | CALLER: All right. Well, that’s very, very helpful. I appreciate it. Well, you’re very welcome. Good luck with that project, Tom. Okay. Thanks for taking my call. You got it. |
| 00:05:27 | LESLIE: All right. Now we’re going to Texas where Lori had some sort of flooring incident. Now the cabinets are all damaged. What the heck happened at your house? |
| 00:05:36 | CALLER: Well, we bought an old house built in 1930. Oh. In 1939, when we took the carpet up, we had some beautiful hardwood floors. So we had them refinished. But as they were refinishing them and replacing some of the bad spots, they banged up our cabinets. And we’ve had to try to touch them up with the paint that we had our cabinets painted with. And it’s just, it’s not working. It looks, the sheen is different. It’s streaky. I just don’t know how to make them look uniform without repainting the whole kitchen. |
| 00:06:10 | TOM: So the cabinets were scratched and you’re trying to repaint them with household paint. And the problem is that they were probably sprayed perhaps with a lacquer or other type of finish. And you’re just not able to match the exact sheen. |
| 00:06:25 | CALLER: And we actually have the exact paint that they used. And my husband touched them up and it just isn’t working. So we didn’t know if there was a, if we needed to sand them again. |
| 00:06:39 | TOM: Why is it not working? |
| 00:06:41 | CALLER: Well, the sheen, it’s shinier. It’s streaked. So I don’t know if it was the brush or what. |
| 00:06:49 | LESLIE: The paint’s probably a year and a half old. That’s the thing. When you’ve got paint sitting around for a while, you can’t just pick it up and use like a stir stick and then go for it. You really should bring it back to the paint center and have them throw it in the tumbler. Yeah. |
| 00:07:00 | TOM: And also as you go ahead and refinish these damaged areas, you want to kind of fill it in from the inside out. Like don’t try to paint over the whole thing. Be very strategic and use a small brush and just get it into the scratched areas. And don’t try to over paint the areas that are not scratched. |
| 00:07:16 | CALLER: All right. We’ll try that. |
| 00:07:17 | TOM: It’s kind of like the same procedure as touching up a car in the same way. You sort of fill in the scratch rather than over paint the whole thing. Because if you do, it’s going to lay over the factory finish and look more like a patch than you want it to. Right. |
| 00:07:31 | CALLER: And I think that is kind of what’s happening. So, okay. We’ll try those things and see if that helps. Okay. |
| 00:07:37 | TOM: Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit. |
| 00:07:42 | LESLIE: Hey, you want to support our podcast and help us grow? Well, go ahead and leave us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts and we’ll be forever grateful. Plus, you’ll be helping other homeowners discover our show. Just go to MoneyPit.com slash review. |
| 00:07:55 | TOM: Hey, so we actually have been working with this company called Roof Maxx for a number of years now. And Roof Maxx is a company that developed a plant-based oil that will rejuvenate old asphalt single roots. And it’s really good. And it’s a great product to use on your roof and give you many years of new life. Now, I used these when my mom was having trouble selling a house down in Florida. And our executive producer, Warren, now just had his house done and he’s joining me now to talk about that experience. Hey, Warren. |
| 00:08:24 | CALLER: Hey, Tom. How’s it going? Good. |
| 00:08:25 | TOM: You had a roof that was like, was it about 20 years old? What was the condition? |
| 00:08:30 | CALLER: Yeah, we bought the house about 20 years ago. At that time, it had a brand new asphalt shingle roof on it. So, after I had heard of the success you had with Roof Maxx, I was looking at the roof. There was no noticeable problems with it, but knowing that it was now 20 years old and most roofs are only warrantied for about 20 years, I wanted to do everything I could to keep it viable and usable and avoid any repair charges or replacement charges, at least for the short term. |
| 00:08:57 | TOM: Okay, so you had a Roof Maxx dealer come out to the property. They usually do an inspection before they start. So what did they find? |
| 00:09:03 | CALLER: Roof Maxx sent out their local team, a guy named Joe, who runs the operation here in Westchester, New York, and he went up on the roof, he did a full inspection, and he verified what I believe. There were no big problems, but it was showing its age, and I was a good candidate for the Roof Maxx treatment. |
| 00:09:22 | TOM: Now, before they were ready to start the treatment, did they make any repairs to the roof? Did they have any flashing repairs, any of that sort of thing that had to be done? Because that’s all important. |
| 00:09:30 | CALLER: Joe had shared with me that that would be part of the process. So they showed up around 10 o’clock on time, just a two-man team, Joe and a worker, and they went up on the roof, they did the inspection, they repaired anything that needed any nail pops or any loose shingles. They actually gave me a full photo documentation of all the repairs they did before applying the treatment. |
| 00:09:51 | TOM: Okay, now, once the treatment was applied, did you see a difference right away? What was that experience like? |
| 00:09:56 | CALLER: I’m not going up on that roof anymore anytime soon, or in my lifetime. |
| 00:10:01 | TOM: Your roof climbing days are over. Yeah. |
| 00:10:03 | CALLER: Right. Right. But even from the street, I took some pictures, and visually, on a sunny day, you could see that it was dull. I took some pictures, and then two hours later, when they were done with the treatment, and now two days out since the treatment was applied, it’s noticeably different. You can tell that it’s got its luster back, it’s got a richer color, the dullness is gone, and of course, I’m trusting and believing that the shingles are now more pliable and have more life in them. In fact, not only is it more visually presentable and looks great, much better than it did a week ago, but now I’ve got five more years left with their warranty. |
| 00:10:42 | TOM: You can actually repeat that process after five years up to two more times. You can actually take a 20-year-old roof and extend it out to 35, which is pretty amazing. When we did the house down in Orlando that my mom owned, we actually kind of split the roof in half by way of an experiment and treated one side and came back the next day and compared side to side. And the untreated side, the shingles were still like stiff and brittle, and if you tried to bend it, they would crack, and the side that was treated were like flopping the shingles around like they’re a piece of rubber. I mean, it was so soft and pliable and totally rejuvenated those shingles to the condition that they would have been when they were brand new. So it’s a good process, it’s a safe process, it’s a plant-based process, and I’m glad you had a chance to experience it. Now, cost-wise, this is a lot less expensive than a new roof, and you’re part of the country, I got to guess. You probably would have spent $20,000, $30,000 on a brand new roof, but this was what, a few thousand bucks? |
| 00:11:36 | CALLER: It was considerably less expensive than replacement, and now I have the peace of mind knowing that I will not need to write that check, at least for five years, if not more. |
| 00:11:45 | TOM: All right. So if you guys are interested in learning more about Roof Maxx, head on over to their website at roofmaxx.com, that’s R-O-O-F-M-A-X-X, roofmaxx.com, there you have it. I had a great experience, now Warren had a great experience, and we know that you will have a great experience as well. |
| 00:12:00 | CALLER: All in all, a totally great experience. |
| 00:12:03 | LESLIE: We’ve got Crystal on the line, who’s dealing with some banging pipes. What’s going on at your money pit? |
| 00:12:08 | CALLER: I recently had my bathtub replaced, and since then, every time we use the bathtub faucet, or shower, we have like rumbling or vibration through all of our pipes in the basement. So I don’t know what could be causing that, I’m wondering if it was something that happened during the previous installation, because it didn’t happen until after we had this new tub installed. So, thanks for your help. |
| 00:12:37 | TOM: Hey Crystal, this sounds a lot like what we call water hammer. And water hammer happens because as the water runs through the pipes, and then the valves get opened and closed, it keeps moving, that centrifugal force keeps moving, and it can shake the pipes. Now, with the bathtub being installed, I wonder if they ran some new plumbing systems in there? Yeah. |
| 00:13:05 | TOM: So you see here, I’m using a new pipe for the tub. I’m using a new pipe for the tub, and I’m going to use it for the tub for the night. Before I do that, let’s go ahead and slide this DAVID out here, so you can see I’m using a new pipe. rack. Now I’m going to stop the pipe. I’m going to stop the pipe. It won’t move. |
| 00:13:31 | TOM: For more information, please visit us at www.audio.tv |
| 00:13:58 | LESLIE: Well, fortunately, there are simple steps that you can be taking to protect your home’s plumbing this winter. First of all, think about insulating your pipes. You have to think about insulation like a cozy blankie for those pipes, and it really is one of the best measures that you can take to prevent freezing. You can use high-quality fiberglass insulation wrap or even pipe heat tape. Those are both great options. |
| 00:14:21 | TOM: Now next, remember to keep the heat on. If you’re heading to a warm location to escape cold temperatures, leaving the heat on in your home, even while it’s vacant, is important. Now, while this is a cost because of the energy use, it’s better than returning home to burst pipes that are flooding water all over the place. It’s also smart to turn off the main water line. This way, if the pipes do freeze and break, there won’t be an endless supply of water leaking out of them. I once, in my home inspection years, had to reinspect a house right before closing that was owned by a relocation company. And when we opened it, the realtor and I realized that there was four foot of water in the basement of this house because of just that, because a pipe had frozen and broke, and it just ran and ran and ran and ran. It was a big, big mess. So don’t do that. Make sure you keep that heat on. |
| 00:15:11 | LESLIE: Now, another thing that you should be doing is keeping those sink cabinet doors open. When you open those doors where the pipes are, you’re letting that warm air into that cabinet, and you can kind of keep that ambient temperature from getting low enough to freeze those pipes. |
| 00:15:25 | TOM: And lastly, let the faucets drip. If we’re facing a really freezing night, open up those faucets, let them drip a little bit. It’s worth wasting a bit of water. That actually slows down the ability of the pipes to freeze because there’s always a little bit of water moving through that. And if they do freeze, well, if it’s in a located, limited area like that, you can use heat tape, which is sort of a strip that you attach to the pipe and warms the pipe and then thaws the pipe. But if you do use heat tape, remember, it’s not to be used permanently. You don’t keep it on all the time. You’ve got to solve the problem at some point so you don’t have issues with the freezing over and over again. And don’t cross it. Don’t cross one piece of this over the other because it can overheat and cause a fire. It’s a little bit of a risky product. You’ve got to follow the instructions perfectly to keep it safe. |
| 00:16:15 | LESLIE: Jack in Florida is on the line and has a question about a leak. What can we do for you? |
| 00:16:19 | CALLER: I’ve got an outdoor marble fountain, like an Italian travertine natural stone fountain. And the bowl is porous and it leaks out just slowly. And I wonder just what kind of product that might skin that inner surface of the bowl with. |
| 00:16:37 | TOM: Yeah, that’s an interesting question. I would think probably an epoxy compound, an epoxy paint because, as you say, it’s very porous. We want something that’s going to last, perhaps be easy to clean so you could wipe it down at the end of the season. So I would think that if you drained it out and dried it really, really well and used an epoxy paint compound, it’s basically two parts. It’s chemical dry, so you have the base and then you have the hardener and you mix them together. And then you have an hour or two to work with it. And then once it dries, it really is quite solid and has very good adhesion. |
| 00:17:15 | CALLER: Okay, I guess I’ve never heard of that. |
| 00:17:17 | TOM: You see it a lot for garage floors, basement floors, and sidewalks. You’ll see it in home centers. Well, Quikrete makes a version of it and there’s a number of other manufacturers as well. |
| 00:17:29 | CALLER: Okay, excellent. And now you think that would withstand the weather in the winter? |
| 00:17:33 | TOM: Yeah, no, I think it would. |
| 00:17:34 | CALLER: Beautiful. Thanks so much. |
| 00:17:36 | TOM: You’re welcome, Jack. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit. Leslie, you know what the perfect holiday gift might be for one of our listeners? It would be a copy of my brand new book, Home Maintenance for Dummies. |
| 00:17:47 | LESLIE: Oh, that’s a great gift. |
| 00:17:48 | TOM: It would go right under the tree. It would be perfect. If you know somebody that has just purchased it, or has just purchased a house, or maybe it owns a house, maybe it’s an old house, maybe it’s a new house, maybe they just don’t know which end of the hammer to hold, we’ll deal with all of that if you give them that book. You can find it at MoneyPit.com slash dummies. MoneyPit.com slash dummies. That link will take you right to the purchase page on Amazon. We hope you enjoy it. Put a lot of work into it. It’s kind of like an owner’s manual to maintain your house. MoneyPit.com slash dummies. |
| 00:18:18 | LESLIE: We’ve got Terry on the line from Hanover, Pennsylvania. Terry’s got a question about a roof. What’s going on? Hi. |
| 00:18:24 | CALLER: I have a glass sunroom that the snow accumulates on, and it just comes down in sheets, and I wanted to know what I could do for that. Yeah. |
| 00:18:36 | TOM: Well, that makes sense because the glass, I’m sure, is pretty slippery, and the sunroom is going to get warm from the inside, and that’s going to cause melting, and then that’s going to let that snow slide down. Now, in an asphalt shingle roof, there are brackets that can be put in, that will catch and hold those sort of chunks of slabs of snow until they melt more slowly. But I don’t know if there’s a way to add anything like that to a glass roof that you might have in a sunroom. But basically, these ice guards, they’re called, are sort of like brackets that slip up under the shingles and then sort of slip out onto the roof, and they stop big sheets of snow and ice from coming down and hitting people below. You might want to see if the manufacturer of this sunroof, usually you’ll find a manufacturer’s name stamped somewhere in there, offers that kind of an additional bracket and think about and see if you can add it or if you could replicate this concept. But other than that, I don’t think this is anything that is easy to fix other than replacing this with glass that’s more insulated. |
| 00:19:38 | LESLIE: Thank you. Okay. Bye-bye. Well, if you’d like to improve the energy efficiency of your home, but you’ve wondered what the best improvements might be, the EPA now has a program that provides a professional evaluation a list of the recommended improvements, and if you make the updates, proof that those improvements actually work. |
| 00:19:58 | TOM: Yeah, it’s called Home Performance with Energy Star. And once you sign up, you’ll meet with a participating contractor who will review your concerns about your home’s energy use and comfort. He’ll take a look at your utility bills to better understand your home’s energy use patterns. Now next, your contractor will assess the home’s heating, cooling, ducts, lighting, appliances, all those things that cause energy loss and energy to be wasted, and determine where improvements are needed. Then the contractor will run diagnostic tests, check the home’s structure for possible air leakage, and use maybe an infrared camera to find trouble spots. With infrared cameras, you can see where insulation is actually missing inside the walls. |
| 00:20:36 | LESLIE: Now once this assessment is completed, that contractor is going to prepare a detailed work proposal outlining all of those recommended improvements, and they can also show you how they might qualify for special financing or other incentives when they’re available. Now when the work is completed, your contractor is going to run another set of tests to measure the improvements in energy efficiency. Their work is also spot-checked by independent third parties so that you can have added confidence that your project is going to be done correctly. |
| 00:21:05 | TOM: To me, this makes so much sense, Leslie, because the pre- and post-project testing is really the guarantee that the work was done right. So if you think you’re interested in this kind of an approach, check it out at EnergyStar.gov. EnergyStar.gov. |
| 00:21:21 | LESLIE: I’m going to chat with Robert in Tennessee, who seems to be an easy target at his store space. You’ve been broken into 45 times? Yep. That is just insane. What is going on at your business? |
| 00:21:33 | CALLER: Well, I do a Christmas craft, |
| 00:21:38 | CALLER: apparently they lost my tools. And then they break in and they steal my tools and locks and everything else. |
| 00:21:45 | TOM: That’s awful. That’s awful. That’s awful. So how can we help you, Robert? |
| 00:21:48 | CALLER: Well, I need some kind of security light. And Appalachia won’t put a pole up there because it’s too close to the driveway. Is there any way that you can get some kind of security light to go on the building? |
| 00:22:02 | TOM: Motion detection spotlights are available, and I think you definitely, if I was you, I’d have some pretty high-powered LED lights on all sides of this building so that when a person approaches the building, the lights come on and surprise them. The other thing, that you should be aware of, is that a lot of the security systems today, the camera systems, have monitoring. So it’s not like the alarm system, the old alarm systems, where they send you a text alert or something if you’re getting broken into. But I have a system from a company called Deep Sentinel. And you can get one camera, two cameras, three cameras. And what’s really interesting about this is if they don’t recognize you, if you appear to be suspicious, the guards are watching these darn things 24-7 in a central monitoring station. And they have a speaker in the camera. And they’ll come right out and say, you know, this is Deep Sentinel. Can I help you with something? We’re monitoring the property. Who are you? You know, what are you doing here? Do you have permission to be here? You know, that sort of thing. It’s funny. On their website, they show you all these burglars that get totally surprised by this. But it’s a fascinating system, and technology is there today to make that possible and to make it reasonably affordable, especially when you’ve lost so many tools. You know, you’ve got to look at the cost of that. But I would say lighting is a really simple approach. So set up some motion-activated spotlights. Think about adding some cameras that are monitored just like that. And I think that it will definitely help secure your place. |
| 00:23:23 | CALLER: I enjoy your program every evening on a Sunday, and I enjoy my coffee when I listen to you. All right. |
| 00:23:30 | TOM: Coffee with the Money Pit. Hey, Robert, good luck. Take care now. Okay. |
| 00:23:34 | LESLIE: Heading to Minnesota where Deb is having some issues with an unlevel floor. What’s going on? |
| 00:23:39 | CALLER: We’re in a house that the main part of the house was built in the 1930s, and that’s our problem right now, although the rest of the house has got issues, too. It’s a little over 3,000 square feet, and we tried to sell it, can’t sell it, so we’re staying, but we don’t… There’s only two people living in this big of a house. So we want to block off the upstairs and just live on the main floor. We were going to change the stairs and enclose them. Right now they’re open stairway, but when we started doing that, the floor behind it is probably real close to an inch-and-a-half dip. |
| 00:24:21 | TOM: And why is it important to you that you try to take this dip out of the floor? Because generally when dips form over many, many years, everything gets kind of settled in that space, and it’s not always a good idea. In fact, it’s rarely a good idea to try to pick it back up unless it’s an active structural problem, which I doubt this is. |
| 00:24:36 | CALLER: We want to replace the steps going upstairs, and we can’t do that because the steps down there, that are there right now, are actually twisting from the dip. |
| 00:24:46 | TOM: Well, that’s not a problem. It’s easier to build a set of steps that fits the existing floor structure than it is to try to fix the floor structure. You can easily make a set of steps that has a stringer that’s longer on one side than the other. You know, very often when stairs are made, sometimes, especially custom stairs, they leave the stringers running long and the carpenters cut them on site so they fit perfectly in the home. But I don’t think it’s necessary to try to rebuild your floor just to fix the floor. You can fix the stairs. Okay, Deb, good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit. Well, with all the holiday visiting going on, there’s a lot of cleaning to be done, and one of the harder services to get clean are tile floors. Have you ever noticed that tile floors almost never look as good as the day you put them down? It seems like within hours, the grout is already becoming fairly disgusting-looking. |
| 00:25:36 | LESLIE: I mean, it is true. So we rounded up some tips on how you can remove the top six stubborn stains from a ceramic tile surface. First of all, I think this one’s super annoying. It’s like a gummy or a waxy, sticky substance. What you can do there is place some ice cubes in a resealable plastic bag and place that ice pack on top of that sticky stain and leave it there until that sticky residue is solidified. Then you can kind of carefully chip away at it using, like, a Popsicle stick. You really want to make sure you use something that will not scratch that tile up. Another one is blood, and bleach here is the key. You want to make sure you mix up a diluted solution to lift that stain, but you’ve got to make sure that you rinse that whole tile thoroughly. Coffee, tea, juice, that kind of stain, you want to clean that first with detergent and soap, and then use the same diluted bleach to lift that stain by blotting or dabbing to get the stain off the tile. |
| 00:26:26 | TOM: All right, now let’s talk about some really gross stains, like grease or anything that’s sort of fat-based. For that, you can mix up a non-abrasive floor cleaner, like Soft Scrub, with club soda or carbonated water, and then work it into the stain and then rinse. Now, if the problem is ink or clothing dye, and diluted bleach can help here too, but you can step up that strength by soaking a cloth in the bleach and placing it on top of the ink stain. Now, you need to leave the cloth in place until that stain has dissolved. Then you can rinse the tile very well. |
| 00:26:55 | LESLIE: Lastly, let’s talk about nail polish. If you happen to spill nail polish, you want to use a little nail polish remover first to kind of lift that nail polish. Now, if the stain remains on the tile, you can again try that diluted bleach solution and dab it until that color lifts. And I mean, the nail polish remover plus the bleach then really does work. I remember when we first moved into this house a gazillion years ago, I dropped like a bottle of silver nail polish on the floor that proceeded to spill and stick to every tile surface in that corner. It took some work, but it did eventually come off. Pete’s on the line and needs some help with insulating in the basement ceiling. What’s going on? |
| 00:27:31 | CALLER: I am beginning the process of finishing my basement. And one of the things I’m looking for is a good solution to insulate the ceiling of the basement between the floor joists. And I am considering foam insulation. Is that a good option? Are there other options I should consider? I plan to put a drop ceiling in or leave the ceiling exposed. I don’t want to drywall it in and leave the ceiling exposed. |
| 00:28:03 | TOM: Hey Pete, so first of all, you mentioned there at the end of your question that you did not want to drywall the ceiling because you wanted to have access to the pipes. So if that’s the case, you definitely don’t want to use spray foam insulation because you will not have easy access to those pipes. Now that leaves two types of bat insulation, either fiberglass bat or rock wool bat, mineral wool bat, also called thermal fiber. The difference is thermal fiber is fireproof and it’s also soundproof, a little more expensive, but it’s a better insulator. I use that in my house or you can use fiberglass insulation. It’s actually a lot easier to use than it was in the past. Owens Corning has a product called NextGen where they’ve reformulated the fiberglass insulation so it’s a lot easier to handle, to cut, not nearly as itchy and that sort of thing. But you definitely don’t want to go with foam because when you go with foam insulation, you’re going to basically seal all those pipes in and if you do have repair to make, it’s not going to be very easy at all. You’ll have to strip all that foam off. |
| 00:29:03 | TOM: So I would use it just on the box beams around the foundation perimeter but not across the basement ceiling. All right, I hope that helps you out. Good luck with that project and let us know if you have more questions. |
| 00:29:12 | LESLIE: John reached out to Team Money Pit and says he’s having an impossible job trying to find stain to match a 50-year-old hardwood floor that was recently patched. He says, my floor contractor wants to re-sand the entire floor but are there any other options? Yeah, |
| 00:29:27 | TOM: I bet you he does want to re-sand the entire floor. It’s a nice job for him, right? Well, look, here’s the situation. Whenever you have to insert new wood into an old floor, I’ve had to do this a number of times and when you first do it, it looks really painful because it’s kind of like a stripe, right, on the floor but what you’ll find and I’m referring here to floors that are not stained so this is natural wood, what you’ll find is that give it a year, maybe a little bit more depending on how much light gets in that room and that new piece of wood will start to get darker and will blend in perfectly with the old floor. When I moved into the home I’m in right now, there was a very old floor furnace in the middle of the dining room and this is a big square hole that I had to patch and so I patched it properly. I basically sort of alternated the rows of the old wood with the new wood so it kind of looked like almost like a finger joint but it just looked awful because it was this bright yellow color against this sort of golden brown floor but I knew not to panic because like I said a year or so later it started to fade in and you could not find that patch in the floor right now so it will happen. Now if you want to hurry it along a little bit the other thing that you can do is you can stain some of those floorboards to make them closer to the aged color of the existing floor. Now for that I would start by getting some extra wood some extra floorboards and choose some color stains that are close to it and then test this you know test it on the extra wood until you find one that matches nicely and then you can mask off just like if you were masking for painting you’ll mask off those new boards on the floor and then stain them and then finish them. Now even if the finish might make it look a little bit different than what’s around it you could expand the area that you’re finishing a little wider than that or again just give a little time and it’ll just fade right in. So good luck with that project. |
| 00:31:29 | LESLIE: Now Greg wrote into Team Money Pit saying my wife and I are in the process of buying a home and we’ve decided to have an inspection and a radon test done. The inspection was fine but the radon test came in at 18 which is four times more than the safe level. What do I do? |
| 00:31:43 | TOM: Yeah well first of all good on you by having a professional home inspection done and a radon test very very important to be done before you buy a house. Now radon is not prevalent in all parts of the country and I’m not quite sure where you’re writing us from Greg but here’s what we know about it. Radon is a gas it’s a soil gas and it can build up in homes we have it a lot here in New Jersey where I live and when it builds up to a level that is greater than four picocuries per liter of air which is the which is what has happened here when you say four times the safe level four picocuries is considered safe 18 not so safe. It has to be evacuated it has to be vented it has to be mitigated and the way you do that well not you but you have a professional company come in and what they’ll do is usually in the basement they’ll drill a hole and install a pipe in that hole so they can pull the gas off from underneath the slab and then vent it outside with the help of a fan. It runs 24-7 works perfectly fine it’s called sub-slab ventilation and it will render that house completely safe. |
| 00:32:48 | LESLIE: All right good tips. |
| 00:32:51 | TOM: everybody you are listening to the Money Pit Home Improvement Show and we are so glad that you are. If you’ve got questions as you rush to fix up your house in time for visitors that are going to be here any day now at this point or if you’ve got plans for projects that are going to happen this winter next spring next fall reach out to us 24-7 with those questions at 1-888-Money-Pit or post them at moneypit.com slash ask we’d love to hear from you but until next time I’m Tom Kraeutler. |
| 00:33:20 | LESLIE: and I’m Leslie Segrete. |
| 00:33:21 | TOM: remember you can do it yourself. |
| 00:33:23 | LESLIE: but you don’t have to do it alone. |
| (Note: The above referenced transcript is AI-Generated, Unedited and Unproofed and as such may not accurately reflect the recorded audio. Copyright 2024 Squeaky Door Productions, Inc. No portion of this transcript or audio file may be reproduced in any format without the express written permission of Squeaky Door Productions, Inc.) |
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