LESLIE: Jerry in Virginia’s just done some remodeling. How can we help you?
JERRY: Yes, ma’am. Got a house, built back in 1932. I’m remodeling it and I’ve got a lot of dust and stuff on the studs and the ceiling joists and stuff like that. And I was wondering if there’s a product out there that I could spray that would seal all of that stuff off.
TOM: Well, you could use the kind of sealer that’s very often used when you have a fire; that seals in charred areas. But I really don’t think that that’s necessary. Construction, of course, is a very dusty process but once you get all of the drywall put up and everything completed, then, you know, after a period of time, that dust is going to settle out. Usually, if you have a duct system, you can take some steps to seal off those ducts so that they don’t get a lot of dust inside. But once it’s all done, you know, the first few filter changes that you make on your HVAC system are going to be fairly frequent. But after that, it’ll kind of settle down.
So I don’t think that the dust being on the … on the joists and on the walls is a reason to seal them right now. You know, if you have excessive piles of it, you could vacuum it up with a HEPA filter on your wet/dry vac. But I wouldn’t recommend sealing it as a reason for doing that.
JERRY: OK. Along with the floor, the previous owners had carpet in it and had dogs in there. There’s a very foul odor. I’m afraid once I put the new floor down, it may come through. What’s you all’s opinion? Or should I do something to seal that?
LESLIE: So you’ve taken up the carpeting, you’ve taken up everything that was there prior to with the pets on it?
JERRY: Yes, I’m down to the subfloor. I mean I’m doing a completely remodel job on this house. I’m at the subfloor. I’ve got OSB showing.
LESLIE: OK. There’s a product out there …
JERRY: (overlapping voices) And you can … you can see the stains that the …
LESLIE: On it.
JERRY: … dogs have left.
LESLIE: Yeah. Actually, what causes the stain is there’s something that’s … it’s almost like a parasite that’s living in the pet urine – as gross as it sounds. And you need to kill that. Otherwise, when it reacts with the heat and the moisture and the … and the food that’s in the OSB, it creates that same odor over and over. So unless you kill these little particulates, you’re always going to get that smell. So there’s something out there – it’s from a company called JustRite.com – J-u-s-t-r-i-t-e.com. And it’s a fantastic product and it’s in a liquid form. And you would just spray it onto the OSB. And then it absorbs into another cloth and it really does get rid of that odor. You can use it through carpet, through any sort of carpet padding. It works really well. You can even use it on gravel or concrete outside if your … if the pets, maybe, use the backyard as a bathroom.
JERRY: OK. That sounds great. That’s a very simple solution to my problem.
TOM: Terrific. Jerry, thanks so much for calling us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT and for listening to the show on WSVA.
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