LESLIE: Mike in Illinois, you’ve got The Money Pit. How can we help you today?
MIKE: I got a 12×24 patio deck and it’s concrete and I got a dip in the middle that’s like 3’x6′ that’s got a dip in it that holds water and I’d like to see how to eliminate that so I can put carpet over it.
LESLIE: Why do you want to put carpet on the concrete?
TOM: (overlapping voices) Why would you want to put carpet?
MIKE: Well, outdoor carpet.
LESLIE: Still, why? I’m sorry. (Tom chuckles)
MIKE: I don’t know. That’s just what they want to do, so … (chuckles)
TOM: Is this your wife or something that wants to do this?
MIKE: No, my neighbor.
TOM: Oh, your neighbor. OK.
MIKE: Yes.
TOM: Well, we would try to talk out of it.
MIKE: OK.
TOM: Because once you put down an outdoor carpet, it’s hard to get back up and, you know, it’s not going to look like real grass.
LESLIE: (overlapping voices) Yeah. You’re going to have to use glue. It’s not going to be pretty, unless you go totally crazy and go like electric blue. But I wouldn’t do it. I mean first of all, let’s fix the dip in it. That can be easily done with an epoxy patching compound. You can get one from a website called Abatron.com and you want to make sure that you use epoxy because you want it to stick to the concrete.
Now, if you insist on using an outdoor rug, please, please, please do not glue one down permanently because someday you’re going to want this off and there’s going to be glue and it’s going to be a mess and it’s just going to be horrible.
TOM: Yeah, like next year.
LESLIE: Ugh, like next week. (Tom and Mike chuckle)
There is a company called Flor – F-l-o-r – and they make carpet tiles that you can sort of stick together and just throw outside. And they have a whole exterior line and there’s one – oh gosh, it’s got a crazy name. If you go to their website and just look up “outdoor carpets,” you’ll find a whole bunch of different ideas. But they have one that’s sort of like – it has like big circles cut out of it; it almost looks like Swiss cheese and it’s kind of modern and it’s kind of fun. I think if you’re going to be cheeky and make a design choice with it and make it removable, then fine; but don’t – I would not install carpet on concrete.
MIKE: (inaudible at 0:30:32.3)
TOM: Yeah, there are some other things that you can do. You could use epoxy paint, which gives very good adhesion to concrete surfaces. You could do a painted rug using stenciling, which can be quite attractive. But I don’t think you want to go wall-to-wall outdoor carpet.
LESLIE: Uh-huh.
TOM: That would be a bad idea. So, hopefully we’ve talked you out of that. But in terms of the dip, no problem; just use an epoxy patching compound. That will fix it the proper way.
MIKE: Okey-dokey. I appreciate it and thank you very much.
TOM: You’re very welcome. Thanks so much for calling us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
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