Prevent Household Poisonings, Home Improvements for Mother's Day, Air Conditioner Maintenance for Summer, and more

TOM: Coast to coast and floorboards to shingles, this is The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show. I’m Tom Kraeutler.

LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.

TOM: We are here for one reason and one reason only. That is to help you with your home improvement project. You’ve got a remodeling project that you’d love to get started on? Get started by picking up the phone, calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT. We will help you take the first step. Whether you are a do-it-yourselfer or you’re a direct-it-yourselfer, we will assure that you will not become a do-it-to-yourselfer by doing something wrong. Pick up the phone. We’re here to help, 888-666-3974.

Coming up in this hour of The Money Pit, it remains an unfortunate, sad fact that about a million children a year are poisoned in their own homes. And we’re going to tell you how to reduce that risk with some tips to stay safe.

LESLIE: And summer is a time that you’re supposed to just kick back and enjoy. But if you own a house, not so fast. You know that rising mercury and the sun mean that it is time to get your air conditioner ready for what’s ahead and we are going to tell you how.

TOM: And if you’ve not picked up something for Mom for Mother’s Day just yet, it’s not too late to give her the gift of home improvement. We’ve got some ideas to share that you can use to help fix up Mom’s house.

LESLIE: You’re going to have to come up with a better plan for an almost five-year-old and a six-month-old, Tom. I don’t think they’re going to be capable of doing something that I’ll like to keep in the house. Oh, it’s just a thought.

TOM: I have a great idea. How about fingerpaints and a white wall?

LESLIE: Hmm.

TOM: Maybe not so much.

LESLIE: Let’s get to the prize. What are we giving away this hour? Something to clean paint off the wall. No, no, no, no.

We’ve got a great prize up for grabs. We’re giving you a way to power up your shower with a new Riata showerhead from Waterpik. We’ve got one up for grabs. It’s worth 60 bucks. Now, that could be a good Mother’s Day present.

TOM: It certainly could. The number is 1-888-MONEY-PIT, 888-666-3974. That Waterpik is going out to one caller drawn at random from those that call in for today’s program, 888-MONEY-PIT. Let’s get to it.

Leslie, who’s first?

LESLIE: Mark in West Virginia is on the line with a roofing question. How can we help you today?

MARK: I was just wondering if I could put a metal roof over top of a shingle roof without removing the shingled roof.

TOM: Well, you can but why do you want to do that, Mark? It’s kind of sloppy.

MARK: I just – I’ve never worked with metal and I didn’t know if you could do it that way. Because you can shingle over an old asphalt shingle; you can put another – a layer over top of it. Just getting rid of them – the hassle of getting rid of them in a landfill.

TOM: Technically, you can but I just think it’s going to be a neater, cleaner, more professional job if you take off the asphalt shingles. And they’re not that hard to remove.

LESLIE: Yeah. And you don’t know how many layers are underneath your existing roof. Plus, I don’t know, really, but I’m imagining that a metal roof is going to have some weight to it. And why put that extra stress on the structure? And it’s a lifetime roof; you know, you’re looking at 50 years on a metal roof, so …

MARK: How about cutting it? Any special tools? You have any idea?

TOM: Yeah, I mean it’s all done with shears.

MARK: Yeah.

TOM: And you can use hand shears and you can use power shears. But when you work with that stuff all the time, you have the tools that you need to do that. But that’s what you’re going to have to cut it with.

MARK: Well, hey – well, thanks – thank you for being so – and I appreciate it.

TOM: You’re very welcome. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.

LESLIE: Laurie in South Carolina, you’ve got The Money Pit. How can we help you today?

LAURIE: I live in a house that is about 35 years old. It’s built in the – well, it’s older than that. But anyway, it’s built in the 70s. And the tile in the bathroom, I just can’t get the mold off and I’ve tried every product under the sun. And I’m hoping that you might have a recommendation for me.

TOM: We do. It’s called Wet & Forget. And it’s a product that was typically used only outside the house but now they’ve reformulated for use as a mold-and-mildew remover for your bath and your shower. And the way this stuff works is you basically spray it on and you do it once a week and you don’t have to scrub or wipe. And it chemically, basically, kills the mold and kills the mildew and cleans the shower. So you don’t really have to do anything.

Go to their website at WetAndForget.com and look at the shower product.

LAURIE: OK. Wonderful. Well, thank you so much.

TOM: You’re welcome. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.

LESLIE: You are tuned to The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show on air and online at MoneyPit.com. Now you can call in your home repair or your home improvement question 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.

TOM: 888-666-3974.

Up next, poisonings from household chemicals and cleaners are on the rise but they’re also preventable. And we’ll tell you how to do that, after this.

ANNOUNCER: Could your backyard use an upgrade? Enter the Flood Wood Care Better Backyard Sweepstakes for a chance to win a $1,500 gift card for staining and other outdoor projects. Sweepstakes ends May 17. Learn more and enter at Facebook.com/Flood.

TOM: Making good homes better, welcome back to The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show. I’m Tom Kraeutler.

LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.

TOM: Give us a call right now. The number is 888-MONEY-PIT. One caller chosen at random this hour is going to win a new handheld Waterpik Riata showerhead. You can install it yourself. You can choose between 14 different settings, from a powerful stream to an eco-flow for water savings.

Check it out at Waterpik.com or pick up the phone and call us with your home improvement question for your chance to win. It’s worth 60 bucks. 888-666-3974.

LESLIE: Now we’ve got Kathleen in Rhode Island who’s doing some decorating and needs some help choosing floors. How can we help you?

KATHLEEN: Ah, there are so many choices. We’re looking at laminate, engineered and hardwood. What do you suggest? I have one concrete floor, which is the walk-out basement. And then it’s the first and the second floor. First is main living area and second is bedroom.

TOM: Well, in the basement, you can’t use solid hardwood; you can only use engineered hardwood or the laminate because it’s too damp.

LESLIE: Right. And the laminate’s probably the better choice.

KATHLEEN: But what about wear and tear? That’s the other thing. Laminate cannot ever be sanded. You need to rip it out and redo it when engineered can be.

TOM: Well, I’ve got probably 10 years on the laminate floor in my kitchen and 3 kids that grew up on it. And I’ve got to tell you, it’s pretty tough stuff.

KATHLEEN: And now there are different degrees of laminate, too, no?

TOM: There’s different finishes, there’s different durability. There’s a test called a Taber Abrasion Test that’s done on laminate surfaces. It’s also done on the finish of hardwood surfaces. And that’s what determines how durable they are.

So, as long as you – if there’s an option in the quality of finish from something that’s maybe designed for residential or commercial, I’d always go with the tougher one.

LESLIE: Right. Well, Kathleen, in my home, our basement is where my kids hang out, it’s my workspace. And I put a laminate floor down there and I chose one that has a beautiful grain to it. It looks like a hardwood. And then I’ve used area rugs to sort of warm it up and make it feel more homey. But it’s super-durable. I had a plumbing issue go awry and lots of water underneath it and it didn’t buckle, bend. I was able to dry it all out and keep it really, really in good shape. So I’m all for a laminate in a lower level.

Now, when it comes to your main floor and your bedroom area, I’d be more inclined to lean toward an engineered hardwood or a hardwood, depending on your budget and depending on the aesthetic. You know, you can go with – if your concern is wear and tear and refinishing, you can go with a commercial-grade finish. It’s going to be a little bit more costly but it’s going to allow that hardwood to really stand up.

The other option to consider is in your entrance foyers or places where you come in and out, like a mud room, go laminate again in there or do a tile or a marble or something that will be more easily cleanable, more durable, just to handle that type of wear and – wear situation.

Now, I personally, on a second floor and even in living spaces – you say you’re by the salt water. I imagine you have a certain sort of design style that could be sort of – I’m guessing like a traditional but contemporary at the same time, since you’re on the water. And wider planks are very popular now.

KATHLEEN: Yes, I agree. They’re very attractive.

LESLIE: Mm-hmm. They’re very attractive. You can go for a plank that has some sort of a hand-scraping detail to it that looks a little more age-y and more worn and – but still be durable.

KATHLEEN: OK. And so you’re comfortable with that for a full living space? The laminate.

TOM: Alright, good, we talked you into it. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.

Well, here’s an eye-opener: the Consumer Product Safety Commission tells us that more than 800,000 kids in the U.S. will be rushed to an emergency room because of an accidental poisoning this year. And 30 of those kids will die. Almost all of those poisonings, however, can happen at home and are preventable.

So here’s a few tips on how to reduce the risk of poisoning, at home, presented by our friends at Arrow Sheds.

LESLIE: That’s right. Medicines, they really are a growing cause of poisonings and these are pretty easy to control. You can ask your pharmacy to fill all of your prescriptions with childproof caps and then make sure you keep all medicines on the highest shelves possible.

Now, dangerous household toxins, they aren’t as easy to control because they come in bigger bottles and they’re often bright and inviting colors, so the kids are kind of attracted to them.

Now, cleaners, bleaches, paint solvents and pesticides, they can often attract the kids because of that packaging. So, simply keeping them in your garage really isn’t enough.

TOM: That’s right. It’s a good idea to keep poisons safely locked away outside of your house.

Now, if you need a space for that, Arrow Sheds makes a line of vinyl-coated, steel sheds that are perfect for this purpose. Curious little hands can’t get in when you’re looking the other way. These are five times thicker than the average shed and that gives you increased strength and durability. And since it’s steel, you’ll get protection from fire and the elements that regular wood sheds don’t offer. And they look great.

Plus, you know what? This is a do-it-yourself project you can do yourself and even with your kids, if you want. They’re fun to put together. You can set it up in a weekend.

Check out the whole line at ArrowSheds.com. That’s ArrowSheds.com.

LESLIE: Steve in North Carolina, you’ve got The Money Pit. How can we help you today?

STEVE: I have a cabin way out in the woods – small cabin out in the woods – and years ago, I built a bathroom on. And I put in a – I believe it is an iron base with a porcelain-coated tub. And I don’t use it that often but it has developed this very light-blue staining all around the drain and it has – it faded out. I’ve used bleach, I’ve – different cleaners. And I’m wondering, is there a painted surface or what is going on with that, if you might know?

TOM: It’s probably minerals from the water. Are you on a well, by any chance?

STEVE: It is, in fact. Yes, it is way out in the woods.

TOM: You may be getting some mineral salts from water – probably hard water – that are just evaporating and staying behind and then reacting with the drain metal material to kind of form that. I’ve seen that before. It’s almost fluorescent.

STEVE: Yeah. In older houses that I’ve been in, I’ve noticed that, that you will sometimes see that.

TOM: Yeah. The best thing to use is CLR Calcium Lime Rust Remover. That product is pretty effective at making the minerals go away. But you might find that if it’s worn the surface off of the drain and that sort of thing, that it just doesn’t clean very well anymore.

STEVE: Oh. OK. Well, thank you so – oh, and by the way, I wish you all would just every other show, play the trailer music and just let it play. I love that (inaudible at 0:13:07). I really do.

TOM: Well, thank you very much.

STEVE: “Live in a money pit.” The music is great.

TOM: Alright, Steve. Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.

LESLIE: Now we’ve got Marie calling in to The Money Pit with a cabinet question. How can we help you today?

MARIE: I’m in a dilemma over kitchen cabinets. I really like this fairly contemporary look but it’s a slab. We’re at – we’re on the salt water and I’ve been told to maybe stay away from a slab cabinet door because of the way it expands and shrinks. What’s your opinion on that or your advice?

LESLIE: When you say “slab,” are you talking about a full overlay?

MARIE: No, it’s an actual slab. I don’t think it’s an overlay or veneer at all.

TOM: I think you mean a solid-wood door, one-piece wood door as opposed to one that’s made up of panels, like a raised-panel door?

MARIE: Yes, it’s not a raised panel but you can actually see the pieces of wood – well, I guess they’re glued together. But there’s no raised panels or anything on it.

TOM: Yeah, it’s a solid piece of wood. It’s a laminated door, basically. Solid pieces of wood glued together.

I don’t know. I mean if the door is made right and the wood is dried when it was built and it’s sealed properly, I don’t think it’s more or less likely to swell than a raised-panel door would be.

MARIE: You know, that makes total sense the way you put it that way. Why wouldn’t they dry it out first and then seal it properly?

TOM: Right.

MARIE: Huh. I never even thought about it in that context.

LESLIE: The boxes themselves that the cabinets are – the cabinet box is going to be constructed out of a wood-laminated ply so – or something that’s more structurally stable. And I don’t think you have to be concerned about the door.

MARIE: Hmm, I think, looking at it from that point of view, maybe I won’t be. I’ve had people tell me that they’re just going to get all warped and – but why would they? If they’re – if it is, like you said, a reliable cabinet maker – I guess that would be the question.

TOM: Right. Exactly. A good-quality cabinet should be dimensionally stable.

MARIE: I agree with you. Ah, I found a beautiful door and I think I might go for it then. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

TOM: Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.

LESLIE: Naomi in Pennsylvania, you’ve got The Money Pit. How can we help you today?

NAOMI: What I have is my backyard, over the past several years we’ve taken down a couple of major trees. They died. And now, whenever it rains, pretty much I have standing water for a long period of time and it’s really nasty.

So, I’ve been looking online for ideas. I’ve gone to garden centers looking for plants to do well in standing water. And in the Northeast, we don’t have a long growing season, so a lot of the plants that I’m looking up don’t seem to be doing well.

So, other ideas my husband and I have kicked around are putting a floating deck, I see, that you can build out there?

TOM: Floating deck? That’s called a raft.

NAOMI: Yeah. Spring …

TOM: I don’t think you have to become Tom Sawyer here, Naomi, OK, and build a raft to float down the river.

NAOMI: Well, my husband’s idea was to put stone all over.

TOM: How about this idea? How about if we drain the backyard of water? You like that idea?

NAOMI: Well, how do you go about doing that? We were not sure …

TOM: So, first of all, it sounds like the backyard is sloped in such a way that the water runs into it but doesn’t run out of it. Is that fair to say?

NAOMI: That’s pretty – yes, pretty fair to say. My neighbor’s yard is slightly higher.

TOM: And then is an area below your house that’s slightly lower than the backyard?

NAOMI: After we bought the house, we found out it was built on a swamp, so everybody has drainage problems.

TOM: I’m pretty sure that you’re not looking at the water table there; you’re looking at some water that’s staying around. So here’s the solution: it’s called a “curtain drain.”

And what a curtain drain is is a trench that you construct from the part where the water is ponding to somewhere lower than that in the elevation. Now, the curtain drain is a trench that’s about 12 inches wide and 12 inches deep. You put in a couple of inches of stone, then you put in a perforated PVC pipe. And then you put more stone and some filter cloth and you cover it with soil so it’s completely invisible when it’s done.

But here’s what happens: as the water runs down to that area where it’s ponding now, it falls into the trench, it comes up into the pipe and then it runs down through the pipe and discharges at a lower area of your property. So you are essentially collecting the water, shooting it around the house and then discharging it somewhere at a lower elevation.

NAOMI: Does this require a backhoe or is this something that we can do with shovel and …?

TOM: No, you can do it with a shovel. And you don’t need much pitch either: you need about a ¼-inch a foot – per foot – on the pipe. So just as long as you get a nice, clean trench dug, you get the stone in there, you get the perforated pipe in there, it’ll work very well. And it’ll drain that yard whenever it fills up.

NAOMI: And I look for the wettest part of the yard to start it in and then I go to a – you said a ¼-inch per foot?

TOM: Foot, yeah. And you want to bring it down to someplace lower on the yard where you can discharge it. And the best thing to do is to discharge it to daylight; in other words, have the pipe actually pop out somewhere so the water can run out.

NAOMI: OK, great. Terrific. Thank you so much.

TOM: You’re welcome, Naomi. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.

LESLIE: You are tuned to The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show on air and online at MoneyPit.com.

Well, the heat is on or it’s about to be, anyway. Is your air conditioner up to the task? We’re going to tell you how to give it a tune-up, after this.

ANNOUNCER: The Money Pit is brought to you by Trex, the world’s number-one, wood-alternative decking brand. Just in time to give your outdoor-living space a summer upgrade, Trex Enhance Decking is available, in stock, at your local Home Depot. To learn more about the long-lasting beauty, hassle-free maintenance and industry-leading warranty of Trex Enhance, visit HomeDepot.Trex.com.

TOM: Making good homes better, welcome back to The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show. I’m Tom Kraeutler.

LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.

TOM: Standing by to help you with your home improvement projects, so let’s get to it. The number is 1-888-MONEY-PIT.

LESLIE: Now we’ve got Dean in Pennsylvania on the line who’s got an insulation question. What can we do for you today?

DEAN: I have an older home. It has a brick exterior and then the stud walls on the inside. And between there is the air space. And that air space, it dumps down in the basement. And in the wintertime, I’m feeling the cold air sinking and I want to try and get my kids to use the basement a little bit more but it’s a little on the chilly side. And I don’t know if I’m – if that’s like a vent of some sort, if I’m allowed to insulate that or will I cause problems if I close it off or what?

TOM: You can actually see where this gap opens up to the basement?

DEAN: Yep, mm-hmm.

TOM: There’s no reason that you can’t insulate that. That would be along what we call the “box beam” or the “box insulation.” And that’s actually a standard place to add insulation.

The other thing that you could consider doing is you could use an expandable foam in that area to kind of seal the gap, if it’s not too wide, or simply add some fiberglass-batt insulation there. I think that’s the easiest thing to do. That will stop some of that draft from getting through to the basement and make being down there a lot more comfortable.

DEAN: Yeah, right. I didn’t know if that was how you have insulated windows now: two panes of glass with the air space in between. I didn’t know if it was something like that.

TOM: No, there’s not quite that much thought put into it. It’s just kind of the way those old homes were built. So you can certainly insulate that space.

DEAN: Awesome. That’ll do.

TOM: Alright. Well, we’re glad we could help. 888-666-3974.

LESLIE: Well, to you, summer may mean kicking back and enjoying yourself but your air conditioner certainly does not see it that way.

Now, a heating-and-cooling system needs annual maintenance to keep on running efficiently and now is the time to get it ready.

Now, to do that, you want to clean your filters. A dirty filter is going to slow down the airflow and it’s going to waste energy because your system has got to work that much harder to move that same amount of air.

TOM: That’s right. Now, here’s another tip: think about adding a programmable thermostat. You want to set it to match your away-from-home schedule. And if you do that, you could save around 180 bucks a year.

Also, did you know that about 20 percent of cool air escapes through poorly sealed-and-insulated ductwork? And frankly, the same goes for warm air in the winter. So to fix that, use duct sealant or metal-backed tape.

Now, you never want to use the traditional duct tape for ducts because it doesn’t have the required staying power. It basically dries out and falls off. Now, to seal all those seams and connections, make sure you use the duct sealant or the metal-backed tape but not duct tape.

If you want more step-by-step instructions, simply go to MoneyPit.com and search “air-conditioner maintenance.” It’s all there, step by step.

LESLIE: Now we’ve got Jeff in Illinois on the line who’s dealing with a ventilation situation. What can we do for you today?

JEFF: Yeah, I should vent a little bit, because I had to insulate that attic up there.

TOM: OK.

JEFF: Yeah. So, you know, it’s an old addition and when they built it, they covered the old gable up. And so when I went up there to insulate this spring, I had to kind of cut a hole through the old gable end to get into the addition. And so my question is: do I need to – should I keep cutting away at that or do I – how do I properly vent that? I don’t want to cut the whole thing out because I suppose there’s some support there.

TOM: OK. So they – basically, when you added the addition, they added it onto the gable end of the old roof. So when you go up in the attic, you kind of see the old roof structure and the old gable end where the vent used to be, correct?

JEFF: Right. In fact – and I couldn’t get through there. I mean there was – the vent was too small for me to get through to get into the addition to insulate.

TOM: Oh, so there wasn’t even any access in there to insulate. They didn’t insulate when they built the addition?

JEFF: They did. They did insulate but how they actually got it in there, I don’t know. But I couldn’t get to it, I know that.

TOM: The answer to your question is that you want to basically treat each space separately in terms of ventilation. And the best type of ventilation is – actually no longer do we consider gable vents to be the best type of ventilation. The best type of ventilation – a continuous ridge vent that goes down the peak of the roof, matched with soffit vents at the overhang. So this way, we take air in down low, we run it up under the roof sheathing and exit it at the ridge. And that cycle will repeat 24-7, 365.

JEFF: Yeah. The only problem is there’s no soffits in this house.

TOM: Alright. So if you did want to improve the ventilation, you could use a type of vent called a drip-edge vent, which would require a little bit of carpentry. You’d have to extend or actually re-shingle the bottom layer of shingles at the edge. But the drip-edge vent actually extends that roof line by about 2 inches and creates a continuous soffit.

And if you go to AirVent.com – that’s the website for the CertainTeed air-vent companies – I know they’ve got a good diagram of one right there. So that’s the way to improve that.

Now, if you can’t do that or you don’t want to do that, for all the obvious reasons, and maybe you’re not seeing that you have a big ventilation problem right now, then I guess what I would suggest to you is to put in the ridge vents, since that’s something that you can always do, and then couple that with as many other roof vents as you can.

LESLIE: You are tuned to The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show on air and online at MoneyPit.com.

Hey, are you still in need of a Mother’s Day gift but maybe you’re a little short on cash? Well, it’s not too late to honor the mom in your life with a little do-it-yourself help. It’s an inexpensive way to make your mom smile. We’re going to share it with you, after this.

TOM: Where home solutions live, welcome back to The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show. I’m Tom Kraeutler.

LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete. Pick up the phone and give us a call at 888-MONEY-PIT with your home improvement questions.

Now, one of the callers who gets on the air with us is going to win a treat for their shower. We’ve got up for grabs a handheld Riata Waterpik showerhead. It’s got 14 custom spray settings, so you can adjust the amount of spray from powerful to eco-friendly. And you can also install it yourself, so there’s no need to call a plumber. It’s worth 60 bucks but when you think about all the money you’d be saving because, well, you won the prize and you don’t have to call a plumber, jackpot.

Check it out at Waterpik.com and give us a call at 888-MONEY-PIT for your chance to win.

TOM: 888-666-3974.

LESLIE: Now we’ve got Johanna from Michigan who wants to get out and enjoy the deck. How can we help you with that project?

JOHANNA: Hey. We’re getting ready to put a deck on the back of our house. It’s going to be about 20×20. And we’re looking at the composite products and in doing some research, I have come across some hair-raising images of black mold, chipping, cracking, crumbling and so on. And I would just like to get your opinion on the composite decking and if it truly holds up the way it says it does or if there are things we need to look out for.

TOM: I think it absolutely does hold up. Originally, the very first composite products that were out there had wood fiber in them, as well as the plastics. And the wood fiber would tend to grow sometimes algae and things like that and people didn’t like that.

I think it’s a perception issue. If you think that there is zero maintenance – “I’m never going to have to do anything at all” – you’re not going to find any product like that. Because even though it’s composite, it’s going to get dirty, it may grow a bit of algae and need to be cleaned once in a while. But realistically, I think it’s going to stand up a lot better than pressure-treated.

Just give you an example. My son recently completed his Eagle Scout project about a year ago. And his project was to build a 30-foot bridge across a stream. And we chose, for that project, composite decking. This is going to be in a park, it’s going to get lots and lots and lots of foot traffic. That’s been up now for a year and it still looks as good as the day we put it down.

So, I think composite is a good choice. Stick with a name brand; stick with Trex, for example. Good product, good history. And I think it’s going to cut down on the maintenance overall and it’s going to look terrific at the same time. And you won’t have to paint it and stain it and all that.

Now, you realize that you do – the framing of this is all done through standard pressure-treated, right?

JOHANNA: Right, right. And we will have benches and stuff built in and we’re going to use, I think, cedar for that.

TOM: OK. Well, I mean you can use composite for the built-in benches, too. Anything that’s going to be exposed like that, there’s no reason not to use the composite.

JOHANNA: And it’s a very sunny area, so …

TOM: Yeah, if you have a lot of sun, you really won’t have a lot of problems with mildew and algae growth, because the sun is a very natural mildicide. It’s usually the real shady decks that have the issues.

JOHANNA: Yeah. The images I saw were from ’07, ’08. So it made me think, too, maybe there was a bad run at that time?

TOM: And you know what? Composite has changed in the last five years, too.

JOHANNA: OK. Well, good. Thank you very much.

TOM: Alright, Johanna. Good luck with that project and let us know when the party is, OK?

JOHANNA: Hey, it’s next Friday.

TOM: Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.

JOHANNA: Thanks.

LESLIE: Can’t decide what to get the special mom in your life? Well, why not give her the gift of home improvement? Ask her what’s bothering her the most about her house and fix it.

Now, it could be a leaky faucet, a dreary garden or some paint that just needs freshening. And you don’t have to pick just one; you could do a whole lot of things for Mom. She does a whole lot of things for you, don’t forget. Not that I’m bitter or angry. Just busy.

TOM: Your kids will thank you, eventually, but the little one has to learn how to talk first.

LESLIE: Exactly. Now, you guys, you can clean up the garage clutter and corral what’s left with attractive shelving and cabinets. You can build a gardening bench that will double as a storage zone for all of your supplies. Or you can even carve out a compact, organized office center in underutilized living space. Those are some good ideas.

TOM: Absolutely. Now, why not make an outdoor room more comfortable and inviting for summer activities with some easy, affordable upgrades? You can give her furniture a thorough cleaning, you can remove the rust from the metal pieces and apply a protective oil or a sealant to the wood surfaces. You can also bring in new pieces, like maybe a comfortable, cushioned chaise lounge or maybe some fun nesting tables. You know, those tables that are sort of stacked upon each other? Or add some lighting that’s both strategic and decorative.

LESLIE: Listen, Mom is not going to care what you do; just do something. And don’t forget because, otherwise, you’re never too old for a butt-whooping, if you know what I’m saying.

Listen, we’ve got a long list of ideas on MoneyPit.com. Just search “honor Mom with home improvement.” I don’t care what you do; just do something. Alright, guys? Don’t forget.

TOM: 888-666-3974. If your project is a little more detailed in nature, that’s a fine question to ask, as well. Give us a call right now. We’re standing by to help you get the job done.

LESLIE: Henry in Illinois is taking on a driveway-repair project. What can we do for you?

HENRY: Where my driveway meets the asphalt road in front of my home, right where it meets – I have a hole forming there and it goes down about 3 to 4 inches deep and probably about 4 feet in diameter. And so it turns out that when I turn my wheels to turn into the driveway, well, the left front wheel hits it and it kicks that rock out. And I put new pea rock in there and it just kicks it out, too.

TOM: So you have a pea-gravel driveway and the force of the car running it over and over and over again is sort of wearing away a hole. There is a solution for that, Henry, and that is – what I’d like you to consider doing is pouring a concrete apron at the foot of the driveway.

So what the concrete apron does – it doesn’t have to be very big: across the entire driveway, maybe 2 feet, maybe no more than 3 feet deep; but 2 feet will probably do. That concrete driveway – that apron then serves as the entry point for those tires.

So you hit that, you go over the concrete apron and then you go into the pea gravel. And the edge of the concrete apron will retain – acts as sort of the retaining wall for the pea gravel in the driveway. That’s the easiest way to stop that from happening. Otherwise, it’s going to be a constant maintenance hassle for you to replace what is really just a very soft apron now with the pea gravel coming right out and spilling out into the roadway.

You’ll also save a lot of stone in the winter when the plows come by and start pushing that snow around.

HENRY: OK. Hey, thank you very much.

TOM: You’re welcome, Henry. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.

This is The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show. Up next, a drab, concrete patio floor can be easily transformed into an eye-catching work of art. We’re going to tell you how, after this.

TOM: Making good homes better, welcome back to The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show. I’m Tom Kraeutler.

LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.

TOM: Give us a call right now at 1-888-MONEY-PIT, 888-666-3974. We are standing by for your home improvement question.

Hey, do you have some tough cleaning jobs but you’re really sick of the overwhelming odors from those chemical cleaners? Well, check out MoneyPit.com because we have, on the home page, some great recipes for natural cleaners, like vinegar-and-lemon for your microwave. We can get your whole house clean and smelling great.

LESLIE: And while you are online, when you are not cleaning out your money pit, you can go ahead to – go over to the Community section, post a question there. And I’ve got one from Amanda in California who writes: “I’m expecting a baby in the fall and looking for flooring for the nursery. I want something that handles stains well but also something soft. Do you have any suggestions?”

Now, Amanda, I’ve got two little guys. A new baby at home, myself, six months old. And flooring is super-key because you’re going to be spending a lot of time on the floor. Also, I can’t tell you how much formula and/or breast milk you will be spilling on the floor in the middle of the night when you go to fill a bottle and you drop everything on the rug.

So, don’t be like me and get a white rug because you’re like, “It’s cool. It’s going to be great.” Because it’s going to be a disaster.

Definitely go for a rug that is super-durable, super-cleanable. I think Mohawk makes a great line of – I want to say it’s like a plastic-based – it’s like recycled materials mixed with wool. Super-cleanable, really awesome, soft, as well. Great durability. Or if you’re really looking to be budget-friendly, floor carpet tiles. You sort of pick the amount of colors, pick the textures, pick the softness. You put them together and it creates a wall-to-wall carpet or an area rug. If you get one totally stained and gross, just pick it up and replace it with a fresh one. I mean you can’t beat that.

TOM: Well, would you like to have a patio floor unlike anyone else’s on the block? Leslie is going to tell you how to do just that, in today’s edition of Leslie’s Last Word.

LESLIE: Yeah. This is one of the easiest ways that you can have about the coolest outdoor area ever. You just have to get a little creative and you can paint a rug right onto your concrete patio.

Now, this is a project that we’ve done on both Trading Spaces and While You Were Out. The more creative you get, obviously the better it’s going to look but you can do something super-simple, as well.

So this is what you have to do first. You need to get your patio super-clean. You want to mop it with a cup of vinegar per 1 quart of water and then spray it away with a hose. And of course, let it dry. Then go ahead and mark off the area for your faux rug with painter’s tape. And you want to make sure you get those lines straight because, unlike a regular rug, you cannot just adjust it to make sure it is laying correctly.

Then you want to use concrete paint. Now, you can get it at most home improvement stores and it can be tinted to any color that you want. And when you do get everything laid out, first of all you want to paint your background color first and let it dry overnight. Then you go ahead and add your details.

Now, you can use stencils to create your design. You can just be creative and do something freehand. You could do something more graphic. There’s a ton of outdoor rugs available. Do an online search, get some ideas there and then go ahead and knock it off yourself with some paint. It’s going to be a lot cheaper and a lot cooler.

When you’re done, finish it off with about three coats of water-based polyurethane and let it dry completely. And that drab slab of concrete is now completely unique, totally your own and really awesome-looking. So have some fun; it’s a great project.

TOM: This is The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show. Coming up next week on The Money Pit, we’re going to talk about stainless-steel sinks. They are a classic, functional and easy-to-clean product but not all stainless is created equal. So we’re going to have some tips on how to buy the right kind of stainless-steel sink for your needs, on the next edition of The Money Pit.

I’m Tom Kraeutler.

LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.

TOM: Remember, you can do it yourself …

LESLIE: But you don’t have to do it alone.

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