(NOTE: Timestamps below correspond to the running time of the downloadable audio file of this show. Text represents a professional transcriptionist’s understanding of what was said. No guarantee of accuracy is expressed or implied. ‘Ph’ in parentheses indicates the phonetic or best guess of the actual spoken word.)
BEGIN HOUR 2 TEXT:
(promo/theme song)
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: Pick up the phone and give us a call right now with your home improvement question, your do-it-yourself dilemma at 1-888-MONEY-PIT because we are here to help you with your home improvement projects. Take a look around. We know that there is one item – just one. We don’t want you to do a lot of things; we’re not going to say, “Hey, what are you doing? Why don’t you throw an addition on your house this weekend. You’ve got nothing else going on.” (Leslie chuckles) No, but maybe you can just paint a wall, fix that squeaky floor, repair the door; you know, that project that your husband or wife has been bugging you to get done. Take one item off the honey-do list. Let us help. Pick up the phone. We are here to make it easy, make it simple, make it fast and you can get on to your summer weekend of hanging out and simply relaxing and enjoying your home.
Speaking of which, coming up this hour, we’re going to give you one project that would be time well spent. We’re going to teach you how to do a deck checkup to make sure that your deck is in good shape for a season of summer fun and relaxation. We want to make sure that that structure is safe. It takes a lot of use, it takes a lot of abuse and we want to make sure that it doesn’t fall down around you.
LESLIE: Mm-hmm. And if you’re looking at your garage and you’re thinking, “Man, that’s an underused space. How can I make it better?” Well, Fathers Day is just around the corner so how about treating the dads in your life to a garage makeover? We’ve got some info on new and innovative products that can make that happen.
TOM: Plus, if you pick up the phone and give us a call right now, we’ve got a great prize we’re giving away. It’s the Stanley 3-in-1 Tripod Flashlight. It’s worth about 30 bucks and it would make a great gift for a dad for his special day. I love this flashlight because it’s like having three flashlights in one.
LESLIE: (overlapping voices) Oh, it’s so fun.
TOM: It totally stands wherever you need it; all locks together. You’ve got to see it. Check it out. Worth 30 bucks. The Stanley 3-in-1 Tripod Flashlight. Going to go to one caller who reaches us on today’s show at 1-888-MONEY-PIT. So give us a call right now. 888-666-3974.
Leslie, who’s first?
LESLIE: Gene in Louisiana has an insulation question. What can we do for you?
GENE: Yes, my question is I live in an older home with no insulation except what I have rolled in myself; I just rolled it in. I’m considering putting in blown-in insulation and I wish to know if I need to keep using rolled-in or if I have to put a moisture barrier down to go underneath the blown-in insulation.
TOM: So right now you have insulation batts, correct?
GENE: Just what I have put in; about a third of the house and the rest of it is just nothing in there.
TOM: And you want to use blown-in because it’s just easier?
GENE: Correct. It’s easier …
TOM: Well, you don’t have to put – then I’ll tell you what. If you don’t have a vapor barrier down, I’m not going to tell you to put one in now. It certainly would be difficult to do that at this point in time. If you had no insulation and you had easy access and you could put down insulation that has a vapor barrier that faces down to the ceiling, so to speak – I assume we’re talking about the attic here – the rule is that the vapor barrier always goes toward the heated side.
But if you’re going to go blown-in, typically you don’t use a vapor barrier. The amount of insulation you need is 22 inches of blown-in. I think 19 inches of batt insulation and 22 inches of blown-in insulation is what is recommended for your part of the country. But make sure, make sure, make sure, Gene, that you have enough attic ventilation. That’s really critical because if the attic doesn’t breathe, that insulation will get humid and damp and not work very well.
GENE: And I’ve got way high ceiling and it’s a 12-on-12 pitch, the roof, so I …
TOM: Well, man, if you’ve got a 12/12 pitch, why don’t you get up there and put down some batt insulation? You don’t need to use blown-in. You can use a faced, batt insulation with a vapor barrier on the bottom; lay it against the ceiling. And you’ll only need 19 inches of batt insulation because you need more when you use blown-in. And if you put the first layer down and let’s say you use like 10-inch insulation the first time and you want to put a second layer down, the second layer would be unfaced and that would be laid perpendicular to the first layer.
But if you’ve got a 12/12 pitch and then plenty of room to walk up there, I would definitely do that because, frankly, it’s going to be easier for you to get around and do anything you need to do in that attic without having the blown-in. Blown-in is OK if you have an attic that’s really hard to work in like an attic that’s built with a truss roof or something of that nature.
GENE: Exactly. Thank you very much.
TOM: You’re welcome, Gene. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Nancy in New Mexico is calling in with an electrical question. What can we do for you?
NANCY: I was wondering – I’m considering buying a home and the plugs throughout everywhere in the house – except for the laundry room which was apparently added on, remodeled, whatever – the rest of the house has only two-prong plugs.
TOM: Right.
NANCY: Do you have to pull off the sheetrock and completely rewire in order to convert those to three-prong?
TOM: Well, I mean you may not need three-prong outlets. You can certainly use an adapter. I mean a two-prong outlet is a grounded outlet. It’s not quite as modern as a three-prong but there is actually a trick of the trade where, in areas that you’re concerned – like, for example, in the bathroom or the kitchen – you can actually add a ground fault circuit interrupter, which is a three-prong type of an outlet that has a ground fault built into it that will turn off if someone is receiving a shock. It’s possible to wire that into the existing outlets.
If it’s done correctly, what it’ll do is it’ll turn off the outlet if there’s a diversion occurring to a ground source, so it has the same effect. Even though it’s not a three-prong system, it basically has the same effect as it. Does that make sense?
NANCY: OK. So it could be done easier and cheaper than I was thinking.
LESLIE: Right. I mean you don’t have to tear out the walls. Generally, you want to add this ground fault circuit interrupter, that type of outlet, anywhere where it could possibly become in contact with water; so, like Tom said, in the bathroom, on the backsplash in the kitchen. You know, sometimes people put them on the outside since, generally, if you’re plugging in holiday lights or something and rain, et cetera. So it can be done without tearing apart everything.
TOM: Does this house have a basement?
NANCY: No basement.
TOM: Does it have an attic where you can access across the ceiling area?
NANCY: It’s a pitched roof but, otherwise, no. I’m in the southwest and they don’t believe in attics or basements.
TOM: Yeah, you don’t have much room to get any wiring in there, so you’re going to have to do the best you can with what you have to work with.
NANCY: OK. Alright. Well, I appreciate your taking my call.
TOM: You’re welcome, Nancy. Thanks so much for calling us at 1-888-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. Give us a call right now with your home improvement question.
Up next, we’ve got important steps to take to make sure your deck is safe for a season of summer fun. Get your pencil ready. We’ll have your deck safety checklist, next.
(theme song)
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 and you can be part of The Money Pit by picking up the phone and giving us a call at 1-888-MONEY-PIT. We are going to give you the answer to your home improvement question but we’re also going to enter you in our prize drawing every hour. And we’ve got one for this hour’s callers.
We’re giving away the 3-in-1 LED Tripod Flashlight from Stanley and it’s got a hands-free tripod design so you can sort of prop it open and shine it up to wherever you’re working underneath a counter. It’s even got a magnetic base so you can stick it to the hood of your car if you’re doing some work in the garage. But what’s super-cool is that it sort of disconnects and becomes three separate flashlights. It’s really a great prize. It’s super-powerful. The lenses are shatterproof. It’s worth about 30 bucks but if we pick your name out of the Money Pit hardhat, it could be yours for free. So give us a call at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
TOM: 888-666-3974. And might I add by way of this hint, that would make a great Fathers Day gift. (Leslie chuckles) You want to pass that along to anyone on my side of the family there, Les.
LESLIE: Alright, I’ll e-mail the kids. I’ll let them know.
TOM: (chuckles) Hey, for more great gift ideas, you want to visit MoneyPit.com and check out our Fathers Day gift guide online right now.
LESLIE: And you know what? While you’re online, if you’re looking for some ideas – you know, maybe you’re looking for something to add to your backyard or if you’ve already got a deck and you want to make sure that it’s in good shape, all that information is there on MoneyPit.com.
But we want to share with you something super-important about your backyard because a deck, it’s really a super-valuable asset that can extend your home’s living space out of doors and you’re probably using it a lot right now and you’re going to use it a ton more going forward in the summer, so you want to make sure that yours is safe. So here are five important warning signs – you want to write these down – that you need to check for before you have that huge 4th of July party and you’ve got 100 people on it. God forbid a disaster could happen, so check these things out.
First of all, you want to look for loose or wobbly rails or posts. Then you want to look for missing connections; for example, say your deck is nailed to only one side of the house. You want to make sure that all of your ducks are in a row and everything is attached where it’s supposed to be. Then you want to look for signs of corrosion, signs of rot and any cracks. Now, if you spot any of these, professional repair is probably your best bet.
TOM: Absolutely. And if your deck needs to be completely replaced, you might want to think about using a professional deck builder because they can tell you about alternative decking products like Fiberon, for example, which is a great way to avoid corrosion, to avoid rot, to avoid cracks, all those nasty things that impact the quality of the deck when it’s all complete.
The surface, with a product like Fiberon, is non-organic, so there’s really nothing there for mildew and mold to take hold on. And also, they have great designs that make it look and even feel just like real wood. Fiberon has got an amazing Horizons line with several tropical wood colors. These are just gorgeous.
I know that you built your deck out of the Fiberon Horizon line and I’m actually building a project right now out of it in a very moist, damp area – we’re constructing a bridge over a stream with this product and it’s just absolutely gorgeous – with my son’s local Boy Scout troop. So nice stuff. It’s got a 20-year limited stain-and-fade warranty as well.
If you want more tips on Fiberon’s Horizon line and all the Fiberon decking products, go to their website at FiberonDecking.com.
- Give us a call right now with your home improvement question.
LESLIE: Janna in Illinois is calling in with a lawn question. What can we do for you today?
JANNA: Hi. I want to get rid of zoysia grass. What’s the best way to get rid of it?
LESLIE: Why do you want to get rid of it? Because in all of my experience, zoysia is like a super-durable, drought-tolerant, excellent choice for a lawn.
JANNA: It is if you’re farther south but we’re up kind of north; up by Iowa and Missouri.
TOM: OK.
JANNA: And I only have a green lawn about two, three months out of the year.
LESLIE: Interesting. And you’re watering it adequately?
JANNA: Oh, we’ve been getting more rain in the last two years. We’ve only lived in our home for a year but we’ve gotten lots and lots of rain. That should not be an issue.
LESLIE: Hmm.
TOM: So is the entire lawn zoysia right now?
JANNA: No, it’s kind of working its way over and it’s actually made its way into our neighbor’s yard and I’m sure she’s delighted with that as well.
TOM: (overlapping voices) Alright. Mm-hmm. Well, I’ll tell you the best way. When it really starts to take over your lawn, the best way to get rid of it is do something called a Roundup restoration and this is something that you have to do in the fall. But essentially what it means is that you’re going to spray that whole area of lawn with Roundup and you’re going to let it die off and you’re going to wait about two weeks and then you’re going to seed it. And what you’re going to find is that the dead grass holds the seed quite nicely and it will start to germinate and come back up through the dead grass and next spring you’ll have a green, completely brand spanking new, beautiful lawn.
JANNA: And just one time with the Roundup ought to take care of all that zoysia?
TOM: Yep. Yep, one time, yeah.
LESLIE: It should.
TOM: You’re going to freak out your neighbors because they’re going to think what happened to your lawn because it’s all going to turn brown. (Leslie chuckles)
JANNA: (chuckles) They’re used to it being brown by now.
TOM: Yeah, but I mean if you do that, that’s the one-step way to get rid of everything that’s in your lawn that you don’t want, the weeds and so on, because it just completely kills it off but it doesn’t hurt the seed. And then you put good-quality, fresh seed in there and it starts to grow back up through the dead grass and really takes hold. And it takes about two seasons to really get into a real thick state but you’ll have a green lawn next year; it’ll just be very fine.
JANNA: Right. That’s wonderful. Thank you so much.
TOM: You’re welcome, Janna. Thanks so much for calling us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Alright, heading over to Colorado to chat with Larry about a driveway makeover. What’s going on?
LARRY: Yeah, I’ve got a driveway that’s got some (chuckles) – a lot of chipping all over it and it’s just all – kind of all did it at once. We had a bad snowstorm …
TOM: OK.
LARRY: … and after that snowstorm, it just flaked. I couldn’t have done a better job with one of those hammers or … (Tom chuckles) I don’t want to tear out the whole thing but I want to lay something over it; either asphalt or …
TOM: You could resurface it with epoxy. You could use an epoxy – it’s essentially like an epoxy patching compound. You need to wait for the right weather; so spring or summer or fall – probably spring or summer is the best time to do it. And an epoxy patching compound has a very good adhesive quality to it, so it’ll stick to the driveway and you can essentially trowel it on and almost give your driveway sort of like a scrolled kind of look to it. And that’s an option for you that will give you something else to do besides a total tear-out, Larry.
LARRY: Yeah. OK.
TOM: You know, a good place to start is QUIKRETE. They have a lot of great products that can help with this. And also, Abocrete – A-b-o-c-r-e-t-e. They have more commercial applications but you’ll find products there that can be used to rebuild any kind of deteriorated concrete.
Larry, thanks so much for calling us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Helen in New York has a wallpaper question. What can we do for you?
HELEN: Yes. I had wallpaper removed and the sizing was still on the wall but it was painted over. What can be done about that? But the paint is not mold (ph).
LESLIE: So is the paint sticking or you don’t like the fact that you can see the seams and it looks like there’s still wallpaper?
HELEN: You can still see the sizing.
LESLIE: Right. So you want to try to cover that up.
HELEN: I want to try to get rid of all of that, yeah.
LESLIE: Well, if you want to try to get rid of it, your best bet is to probably score the sizing first. There’s a product out there called a Paper Tiger. It’s like a circular, handheld tool that has a lot of little blades on it. And you score that wallpaper and then you would rent a steamer, like a wallpaper steamer, and you would steam that wall to sort of loosen up the adhesive on the backside and all of those little cuts and perforations that you’ve made on the sizing itself will allow that moisture to get behind it and then you can peel away those strips.
Now it’s a time-consuming project and chances are, when you get done with it, the wall is still going to have a little bit of residue from glue and you can try to clean that up with TSP, which is trisodium phosphate; that might get a little bit of it off. But you may still have some unevenness on that wall surface and, if you do, that’s OK. I mean there’s really not much you can do about it. You can sand, you can try your best to sort of freshen it up. But I would cover over it; you know, prime first and then paint with a flat finish. Because if you go anything higher than a flat, you’re going to notice every uneven surface because of the sheen in the paint.
HELEN: Yeah. OK. And another thing, how can I wash my windows without making them streaky?
LESLIE: Do you use paper towels? Is that what’s going on?
HELEN: Yeah.
LESLIE: Try using black and white newspaper. Be really careful when you get around the panes by the painted areas because sometimes the newspaper ink can transfer. But that – I mean there’s something miraculous about newspaper that makes it so it doesn’t get streaky. And also, you can use vinegar and water rather than using a window-cleaning product.
HELEN: Ah, vinegar and water.
LESLIE: Mm-hmm.
HELEN: Oh, OK. I’ll try that. OK.
LESLIE: Dan in Texas needs some help with a leaky roof. What can we do for you today?
DAN: Hi. Well, my dad is getting older; he’s got a couple of shingles – it’s a shingle roof leaking into the attic.
TOM: OK.
DAN: Not a lot, just drops. How do I get on the top and find those holes? I’ve been underneath. We’ve used magnets and all kinds of stuff to center right under the spot where it’s leaking but how do I find – what am I looking for underneath the shingle?
TOM: Hmm. Well, typically, roofs are going to leak wherever there is a protrusion through the roof; so, for example, a waste pipe from a plumbing system or intersection of two roofs that come together or intersection with a lower roof with a second-story wall or something of that nature or around a chimney. So those are the most likely culprits. How old is your dad’s house, Dan?
DAN: Oh, God, it’s 50 years old.
TOM: Do you know if his roof is …
DAN: But the roof is about 15 years old.
TOM: OK. You know, that’s interesting because I was going to tell you that about 15 years ago, we started using fiberglass-based shingles as opposed to cotton-based shingles and the fiberglass shingles can tend to crack and, if they do crack, they can leak. Unfortunately, the cracks are kind of hard to find; you almost have to be walking on the roof to see them. But what you’ll find is where the old shingles used to sort of curl up and shrink and lose some of their granules …
LESLIE: Yeah, to let you know that they were sort of failing.
TOM: … yeah, the fiberglass shingles will just fracture; is the best way to put it. And I’ve been on these roofs and looked down and just seen a whole bunch of broken shingles cracked right through but, again, you can’t see them until you’re right on top of it.
The other way to do this, which is – there’s a tool that could be used to find a leak that’s basically an infrared heat gun, so to speak. It’s used very often to find energy leaks in houses. But you will find that when you get a water leak, that the temperature of the roof where the water is …
LESLIE: Is different enough to register on the scan.
TOM: It’ll show as a cold spot.
DAN: This something I’ll need a second mortgage to buy, though?
TOM: Yeah, well …
LESLIE: No, you would rent it or hire an inspector who has one.
TOM: (overlapping voices) You would hire somebody that had one.
DAN: Oh, OK.
TOM: Yeah.
LESLIE: And then they simply come in and sort of scan the area and they can pinpoint exactly where this leak is coming from on both sides so you know exactly where the repair needs to be done. And it can help you save a lot of time and energy as far as trying to sort to pin the tail on the donkey so you know exactly where to do the repair.
DAN: (inaudible at 0:19:28.0) We’ve been pulling up shingle by shingle and tarring up underneath each one.
TOM: Oh, boy.
LESLIE: Oh, gosh. No. I think that’s worth the rental. (chuckles)
TOM: Yeah. (chuckles) Right there.
DAN: Oh.
TOM: Well, I hope that gave you some ideas, Dan. Thanks so much for calling us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: You are tuned to the Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show on air and online at MoneyPit.com.
Up next, we are going to share with you great ideas for gifts for Fathers Day, including the must-have tools and some fantastic garage makeover tips. Really super ideas for the dads in your life, so stick around.
(theme song)
ANNOUNCER: The Money Pit is brought to you by Stanley Tools, your trusted name in quality hand tools. To learn more about their complete line of quality tools and everything for your tool box, visit StanleyTools.com.
TOM: Where home solutions live, welcome back to the Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show on air and online at MoneyPit.com. I’m Tom Kraeutler.
LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.
TOM: Well, if a man’s home is his castle, the heart of that home is his garage. Most of us love having that space to ourselves, so what would be the best Fathers Day gift ever? Well, how about decking out that garage with some great new tools, some equipment and some storage boxes?
LESLIE: Alright, well that sounds pretty awesome. And so here to tell us how to do it and do it right for the dads in our lives, we’ve got Bob Gfeller from Lowe’s.
Welcome, Bob.
BOB: How you doing, Leslie and Tom?
TOM: We are happy to have you. And you guys are featuring an awful lot of product for Fathers Day. It’s one of the big home improvement holidays of the year. Tools certainly beats ties. (Leslie chuckles) Where do you begin if you want to deck out your garage for dad?
BOB: Well, I appreciate the tools certainly beats ties. That’s a good start. I appreciate the time today. And you know, if you’re a dad and you really want to deck out your garage, Lowe’s is a great place to go because we’ve got all kinds of gifts for dad at the holiday time and certainly for Fathers Day.
LESLIE: Bob, what about storage? I mean a lot of guys have a ton of stuff out there in the garage but yet no place to put it. What are some good ideas to sort of keep it organized and get everything put in its place?
BOB: Well, storage is definitely a huge opportunity for dads; particularly since dads tend to gather a lot of stuff.
TOM: Yeah, we do that, don’t we? (chuckles)
BOB: And the first place to start would be in our tool storage. We have a whole line of Kobalt tool storage: big storage chests all the way down to small storage chests; some small ones that might just sit on a workbench in a garage.
We also have a system called Gladiator that allows you to customize your garage storage. So you basically put it up on the wall and you can start with hooks that are very small and inexpensive; you can move to some small cabinetry that you can hook up on the wall to pull some things off the floor and get them off the floor of you garage or you can also basically install cabinets that are the size of a very large filing cabinet that would go almost floor to ceiling.
TOM: And that’s very cool. I saw a Kobalt storage tool chest at your store recently that had a built-in refrigerator and even – I think it was a CD player or an iPod player.
BOB: Indeed it did. Built-in refrigerator; it has a radio; it has an iPod mp3 player. It’s the coolest tool we’ve got to hang out in your garage.
TOM: Wow, how did I ever survive all these years without that tool chest.
We’re talking to Bob Gfeller from Lowe’s. Lets’ say we’re on a budget here, Bob, and we want to suggest some gifts for kids to buy Dad. What are some small places to start?
BOB: Well, when you come to Lowe’s during the – kind of from Memorial Day to Fathers Day, you’re going to be greeted, actually, right in the center of our store as you come in, if you’re a child coming in with your mom to shop, with an area that we’re calling Great Gifts for Dad. And we are going to have gifts basically $20 and below, $10 and below and even $5 and below because we were hoping that some of those kids would come in and buy some small tool items for their dads. We’ve got a great lineup of tape measures; we’ve got hand tools from Kobalt; we’ve got utility knives of all sorts, frankly, that obviously a lot of dads like to keep in their tool chest in their garages. But we have a number of tools at a great value for somebody who’s really on a budget for Fathers Day.
TOM: Dads love to hang out in garages but many garages are so crowded we don’t have a place for it. If we are able to actually get that car out of the garage and move some of that storage around, how can we fix up that space?
BOB: Well, I think the first thing you can do is you get that car out of there and you want to spruce up that garage, the first place to spruce up is your floor. And we’ve got a full line of floor coatings that can actually allow you to paint your floor either a solid red, a solid blue or I’ve even seen some guys with their garages painted in that checkered flag pattern to put that beautiful car on top of. So clean up the floor, get the dust out.
As it relates to the walls, you can always paint those walls but I would go with some storage and organization that you can basically put on the walls, get your products off the floor, hang your garden tools, hang your rakes, hang your bags, hang the stuff – all the duffels and all that sporting equipment that your kids probably have all over your garage and then give yourself some space to move around.
LESLIE: So Bob, what’s new in power tools? I mean if you’ve got a dad that really already has everything you can imagine, where can we go to get something that he doesn’t already have?
BOB: I think the best value you’re going to find in power tools right now at Lowe’s is in our combo kits. We’ve got a full line of DeWALT, Porter-Cable, Skil and Bosch. And if you’re looking for a great gift for Dad, a combo kit is going to be your best value. Why? Because you get multiple tools at a very low price. And I would like to tell you that Porter-Cable at Lowe’s is a wonderful brand, exclusive product to Lowe’s, and we’ve got a two-piece and a four-piece combo kit that are just wonderful values you can find at Lowe’s for Fathers Day.
TOM: Now Bob, you’re a guy that’s probably got every tool in the world, with your role at Lowe’s. What do your kids buy you for Fathers Day?
BOB: (laughs) Good question. Probably a Lowe’s gift card. (Leslie chuckles)
TOM: (laughs) Alright. Well put. No ties for this guy.
Bob Gfeller from Lowe’s, thanks so much for stopping by The Money Pit.
BOB: Thanks for having me. Happy Fathers Day.
LESLIE: Well, we’ve all heard that old adage: lightning strikes twice. Well, it doesn’t strike twice in the same place, that is. In fact, lightning actually strikes the earth about 20 million times a year. So with all that lightning, is your house adequately protected from lightning damage? Find out, after this.
(theme song)
ANNOUNCER: The Money Pit is brought to you by Stanley Tools, your trusted name in quality hand tools. To learn more about their complete line of quality tools and everything for your tool box, visit StanleyTools.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: Give us a call right now at 1-888-MONEY-PIT. This hour, we’re giving away the 3-in-1 LED Tripod Flashlight from Stanley to one lucky caller. It’s got a hands-free tripod design with three flashlights that can be used separately or as one powerful light. The lenses are shatterproof. It’s worth about 30 bucks but can be yours if we pick your name from random from the callers who get on the air with us this hour by picking up the phone right now and calling us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Alright. Well, we’re fully into the summer swing and, as we all know, the summer season truly brings a lot of pretty serious summer storms. Regardless of where you are in the country, you’re going to get some sort of summer storm happening where you live. Wow, that was a lot of S’s I just said out there. (Tom chuckles)
Now, if you find that you’ve got a summer storm happening where you are, you know that they can bring lightning and thunder. And with all that lightning, some of it can actually even strike your home. So what are you to do to protect your family and your house from whatever damage that lightning could bring?
Now, properly-installed lightning protection systems can actually save your home from costly damage. Now if you have lightning arrestors professionally installed on your roof, this way, if the lightning does strike, these arrestors are going to use protected cabling systems to redirect all of that energy from the lightning away from your house and into the ground where it can disperse properly and safely and keep you and all your electronic items safe.
TOM: Absolutely.
888-666-3974. Give us a call right now with your home improvement question, your do-it-yourself dilemma. Before you pick up the paint brush, pick up the phone and call us right now. We’ll give you tips to make that project easier to get done.
LESLIE: Walter in North Carolina is having a plumbing issue. Tell us about the problem.
WALTER: I have one faucet; a mystery faucet that has a hissing noise on the hot water side every time I turn it on.
TOM: Hmm.
WALTER: Now let me explain. We did have a water main break last Sunday, but it did it two weeks before that and then now it’s still doing it.
TOM: So you have a hissing sound when you open up the hot water; so it’s like it has air in the line? And this …
WALTER: Yes, and then sometimes after that, too.
TOM: Well, invariably, with a hot water line there’s always more off-gassing of oxygen as it leaves the water. The water heater does a good job of baking that out, so to speak. One of the things that you can install that actually softens some of that is water hammer arrestors, which will also capture the air.
WALTER: Where would I put that? Right before …?
TOM: The water hammer arrestor goes, usually, along the main supply pipe. What kind of house is this? Is it a ranch or a two-story colonial or what?
WALTER: It’s a ranch.
TOM: Alright. So, generally, the lines come in with a ranch; they come in at the main and they’re going to go parallel with the main beam of the house, down the line of the house and then tap off to the bathrooms. Usually you’ll put it at the end of the line.
WALTER: Very good. Appreciate it. I listen to your show every Sunday.
TOM: Well, fantastic. I’m glad that we were able to help you out.
WALTER: Thank you again.
TOM: Thanks so much for calling us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Lee in Wisconsin is having some mildew issues in the bath. What can we do for you today?
LEE: Yes, I have and I’m not sure if it’s mildew or mold because I don’t know the difference. But I have a couple of spots on the bottom of my window in the bathroom and after I shower I turn the fan on and open the window but I’d like to know how to get rid of them and how to eliminate them.
TOM: Well, it’s really a moisture management issue. Mold in the bathroom is pretty common. Usually it’s Cladosporium, which is a type of mold. Most people are not sensitive to that but it is pretty ugly and gross. So what you want to do is mix up a bleach-and-water solution and spray it down; let it sit for 5, 10, 15 minutes and then scrub it so that it goes away. And then what I would recommend you do is – do you have a bath fan? Is the bath …?
LEE: (overlapping voices) Yes, I have and I always run it after.
TOM: Yeah, the bath fan; is it on a …?
LESLIE: Well, you should run it during and after and, once you’re done with the shower, you should keep it on for 10 or 15 minutes more because that’s when you open the door and the real condensation starts to happen.
TOM: What you can do is install the bath fan onto what’s called an occupancy sensor with a timer …
LEE: Oh, OK.
TOM: … so that whenever somebody walks into the room, the bath kicks on – the fan kicks on and then it stays on for 10 or 15 minutes when there’s no …
LESLIE: However long you set it for.
TOM: When there’s no movement.
LEE: Well, I didn’t realize that you could do that in the home. I knew that they had that in restaurants or hotels but I …
TOM: No, it’s the same electronics; not that expensive. Very common and as easy to install as replacing a light switch.
LEE: Oh, I bet my husband could do that. He told me to use bleach and water but I didn’t believe him.
TOM: Well, you know he’s a smart guy, Lee. Give him a break. (chuckles)
LEE: OK, I will. (chuckles)
TOM: Alright. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Alright, we’ve got Jim in New Jersey who’s dealing with some hard water issues. Jim, what can we do for you?
JIM: Oh, hi. We live in Northern New Jersey and our water is supplied by town wells.
TOM: OK.
JIM: And we notice – we have a lawn sprinkler system and we notice we’re getting some white etching on the glass and, as well, we have a hot tub spa that every time we get it tested when we refill it we get high alkalinity. And we hear you speak of the EasyWater system and wonder if the application might be good for us.
TOM: Yeah, I think it might be. I would give the EasyWater folks a call because they’re very, very knowledgeable about what the system works well for and what it doesn’t work well for. I installed one. I was very happy with the results. I especially like that it was very easy to install because …
LESLIE: Mm-hmm, it’s one you can do yourself.
TOM: Yeah, because, essentially, you plug the unit in near the main water line and then you wrap an electrical wire around the main water line that creates the electronic field that sort of changes the polarity of the minerals in the water and that stops them from sticking together.
JIM: Yeah, because we notice we get like some deposits on the showerhead.
TOM: Right, and that’s designed to stop all that. So I would give them a call, though, and talk specifically about it. They’re very, very knowledgeable and if you tell them exactly what the water results are they can tell you what the unit can and can’t do. But if it’ll work, it’s going to be a lot less expensive than putting in a plumbing-based system.
LESLIE: Lisa in Illinois, you’ve got The Money Pit. How can we help you today?
LISA: I bought an old, two-story, 100-year-old storefront building – a two-story, balloon-frame construction – and I’ve had it completely gutted. Now I’m wondering, after the electrician, what kind of insulation do you recommend. I’m considering wet cellulose or spider fiberglass.
TOM: OK.
LISA: And I wondered if those are what you recommend. I know foam is a really great insulator but I can’t afford to do the whole structure in foam.
TOM: So the walls are off right now?
LISA: Yeah, it’s completely gutted.
TOM: Right. Yeah, I mean a product like isonene would be really cool …
LISA: Yeah.
TOM: … because you could blow it in and seal up all those old gaps. But if you can’t go that way, I guess I would probably just use a standard fiberglass. I would just make sure I did a really good job with choosing the right thickness so that we get it through the entire wall cavity. I would make sure to use a vapor barrier on the inside surface. And I think that you’ll find a very well-insulated, comfortable building if you do that.
This is The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show. Up next, hard-to-remove stains are not so difficult with the right products. We’ve got tips on how to get rid of tough stains like smoke, after this.
(theme song)
ANNOUNCER: The Money Pit is brought to you by Fiberon Horizon decking and their new tropical hardwood colors. Ensure your deck stays as beautiful as the rest of your home. Insist on Horizon decking. To learn more, visit FiberonDecking.com.
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.
TOM: And hey, if you need info on a project right away, make MoneyPit.com your one-stop resource for information, product recommendations and resources. You can search everything we’ve ever written about home improvement online at MoneyPit.com; plus, listen to a year’s worth of our radio shows, which is enough to make me really sick. (Leslie chuckles) So maybe just do it in small bits. You can all find it organized online at MoneyPit.com.
LESLIE: And while you’re online you can e-mail us your question and I’ve got one here from Richard in Morristown, New Jersey who writes: “How can I remove or lighten a dark smoke stain on the fascia of a white brick? It’s not painted but it is a white brick fireplace.”
TOM: Interesting. I think the solution there would be to mix up some TSP, which is trisodium phosphate – you will find that in the paint aisle of most hardware stores and home centers – into sort of a paint-like consistency. Put it on there, let it sit for a while and then rinse it off. Now remember, it might do a really good job and take off so much of it that you’ll have to keep going and do the rest of the brick fireplace, because it is going to lighten it up. So you may want to try it maybe on the side first, just to kind of see what effect it has.
LESLIE: Alright, Jim in Valley Cottage, New York writes: “I want some ideas to improve the look of regular concrete steps. I found a system that either uses a stamped overlay or a stenciled finish. How durable is this type of work?”
TOM: Well, I think the durability is going to have to do with the product and if you’re putting anything on top of existing concrete, it better be epoxy-based; otherwise, it’s simply …
LESLIE: Otherwise it’s not going to stick.
TOM: Yeah, it’s not going to stick. So there are a lot of finish systems that you can try, but just make sure that it’s epoxy-based; otherwise, it’s going to peel and crack off probably the first winter that you get, Jim.
LESLIE: Mm-hmm. Yeah, you really want to make sure that it’s applied properly. Then those stenciling systems truly give you a chance to create something unique and beautiful and all your own.
TOM: Well, this is the season for summer barbecues but there’s one guest that you want to keep away and that is the insect guest – and I’m not talking about your relatives that bug you. (Leslie chuckles) I’m talking about the real insects. Leslie is on bug patrol this hour and has got some great advice in today’s edition of Leslie’s Last Word on how to keep those annoying pests away from your summer fun.
LESLIE: Yeah, just invite me to your barbecue because, for some reason, they love me and I’m always covered in mosquito bites.
TOM: (chuckling) You’ll be an attractant.
LESLIE: Exactly. Just have Leslie at your party and she’ll get all the bites. You know, send me to the other side and everybody else can have a nice time. (chuckles)
But seriously, mosquitoes, bees and all of those other flying insects, they can really take a bite out of your backyard fun; if you let them, that is. You know, there are lots of ways to control insects on your deck or on your patio.
Now, the first thing you can do is get rid of all of that standing water which is, as we know, where they breed. In fact, I once read something about mosquitoes being able to breed in like a soda cap full of water. So gross. If you’ve got it, get rid of it. And in that tiny soda cap of water, they can lay thousands of eggs. So think about that if you’ve got a baby pool filled with water. Turn it over, dump it out, get it out of there.
You want to also get rid of kids’ toys and empty out candleholders and all of those other decorative items you’ve got around your yard that tend to collect water after it rains. Just plain turn them over so you’re not going to have that breeding area. You know, you can also use a backyard fogger to create a bug-free perimeter.
Now when you’re enjoying your outdoor space, citronella candles, they can actually provide both ambience and bug repellent and they don’t smell like they used to, so they really do get rid of the bugs and create a nice time.
Now you can also use personal repellents with DEET. I mean I find that that’s the one that really keeps the bugs away the best.
TOM: Yeah, it does.
LESLIE: But just make sure that you give yourself a good rinsing before you go to bed because you don’t want to sleep with that on you. It can just really irritate your skin if you leave it on too long. But it does work.
So don’t run and hide when the bugs are out. Get out there and make them go away and enjoy yourself.
TOM: This is The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show and we certainly hope you’ve enjoyed yourself this hour. We hope that you’ve gotten some ideas on how to make your home more enjoyable and your projects easier to accomplish.
Coming up next week on the program, we’ve got easy ways to cut down on air conditioning costs, including when and how to use a whole-house fan that can cut those …
END HOUR 2 TEXT
(Copyright 2010 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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