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: And we are here to help you with your home improvement projects, so help yourself first: pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT, 888-666-3974.
Well, a new year brings new trends in home improvement. We’ve got tips to help keep your house up to date, coming up.
LESLIE: And are you looking for a little extra space? Well, your basement may hold the key but finishing a basement is a lot more than clearing out the cobwebs and storing away the boxes. Learn what you need to consider before you make over that space, just ahead.
TOM: And it’s the age-old dilemma: when your appliances break down, do you fix them or replace them altogether? Our cheat sheet will help you save money by helping you make the right choice.
LESLIE: And this hour, we’re giving away a product that is touted to be the bungee cord but reimagined.
TOM: Ooh. It’s called LoopRope and it’s a way to lash down gear in a new way that’s safer and stronger than bungees.
Call us, right now, for the answer to your home improvement question and your chance to win at 1-888-MONEY-PIT, 888-666-3974.
Leslie, who’s first?
LESLIE: Jean in Iowa has a question about her heating-and-cooling system. Tell us what’s going on at your money pit.
JEAN: I have a five-year-old, high-efficiency furnace with the PVC pipe that comes out for the intake and the exhaust? And at the first joint – it’s about a 45-degree angle. And we noticed that that joint wasn’t totally sealed. But our question is – we noticed that there was condensation dripping out of that joint. So if we seal it, will that condensation go into our furnace and cause damage? We’re not sure what we should do with it.
TOM: How old is this furnace?
JEAN: Five years.
TOM: What’s the efficiency of the furnace?
JEAN: In the 90s.
TOM: I ask you this because some furnaces are designed to trap the condensation and pump it out. And so if you have a condensing furnace, then that might not be as much of an issue.
Because what happens with those high-efficiency systems is they put the exhaust gases out at such a low temperature, that they quickly turn from gas back to water. And then the moisture drains back through the vent pipe, gets caught by a condensate system and then pumped out.
So have you had it serviced this winter yet?
JEAN: Not this winter.
TOM: Yeah, you really need to do it every year because the fact that the gas burns, it burns dirty and then you get combustion deposits on the burners. And then they can become inefficient. They’re wasting money and potentially be dangerous. So, I would address this with the service contractor when he comes out to do your service, which you’re going to call for tomorrow, OK? You want to make sure you get that done because it’s important, every winter, to have a heating system serviced.
JEAN: OK. Thank you.
TOM: Alright. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Now we’ve got Trent in Florida on the line who’s dealing with a falling-apart popcorn ceiling. How can we help you?
TRENT: Well, my popcorn ceiling is actually in my bathroom. I guess, on one night or something, my son had gotten it wet and when it dried, it started flaking off the ceiling. And now it’s just continuing to do it.
LESLIE: Well, it’s funny because when you get a popcorn ceiling wet, that’s actually the way to remove it. You would spray it with some sort of garden sprayer and then scrape it off. So if you want it gone, he’s got you on the correct path.
TOM: Now is the time, right.
But if you don’t want it gone, what I would do is this: I would take maybe a stiff-bristle brush and gently brush away – maybe like a dry paintbrush and just brush away all the loose stuff. And then you’re going to pick up some popcorn-ceiling patching material. There’s a number of different manufacturers of this. I know that Zinsser makes one, Homax makes one. It comes both in a trowel-on finish and also in a spray-on finish.
LESLIE: It looks like cheese in a can when it comes out.
TOM: Yeah, exactly. It looks like Cheez Whiz. And you can spray that on and recreate the popcorn effect that way. And then, lastly, you’re probably going to have to paint that ceiling and paint the entire ceiling to blend it in.
But you’ve got to get rid of the loose stuff, add the patching material and then repaint the ceiling and you’ll be good to go.
TRENT: OK. Well, great. Well, thank you very much.
TOM: Now you’ve got options. You’re very welcome.
LESLIE: Jane Ellen in Pennsylvania is looking at getting some new windows. How can we help you make that decision?
JANE ELLEN: Yes. Well, we are looking at getting – replacing our single-pane windows. And our question is: do you think it would be more cost-effective to spend the extra money on triple-pane windows or would double-pane windows be OK? Other than the windows, the house is fairly well-insulated; it’s not real drafty. We haven’t priced our options yet, so we just were looking for an opinion.
TOM: I think that double-pane windows will be fine. The thing is that when you shop for windows, you have all of these different features and benefits that you have to compare and contrast and sometimes it gets very confusing when you do that. What I would look for is a window that’s ENERGY STAR-rated and one that has double-pane glass. As long as the glass in insulated and has a low-E coating so it reflects the heat back, that’ll be fine.
It’s been my experience that unless you live in the most severe climates, triple-pane glass doesn’t really make up the additional cost in terms of return on investment.
JANE ELLEN: Wonderful. Thank you so much.
TOM: What kind of windows do you have now? Are they very drafty?
JANE ELLEN: Well, they’re single-pane windows. They’re relatively decent windows for single-pane but they’re old. They’re starting to – you can see the gas is starting to escape from them and they are a little drafty.
Our house has a field behind it; our backyard kind of opens up into a field. So, there’s a significant amount of wind that comes across the field and flows into the back of the house. And off the main back area, we have a three-season room, which helps to block some of the wind from the interior downstairs. But the upstairs bedrooms, you feel the wind a little bit more significantly. We notice the single-pane windows a little bit more there; it seems more drafty right there.
TOM: Well, I think these windows are going to make a big difference for you. Now, if you need to save some money and maybe not do them all at once, that’s fine, too. What I would do is the north and east sections of the house first – sides of the house first – and then the south and the west second. OK?
JANE ELLEN: OK. Sounds great.
LESLIE: I know given the winter that we’ve all had in the Northeast and pretty much all over the United States, you might think that a triple-pane glass is going to do the trick, especially when we’ve had, what, like an average of 5 degrees, Tom?
TOM: Yeah.
LESLIE: I’ve got to tell you, the days that we’ve had 30- and 40-degree temperatures, I’ve put on a light jacket. I’ve seen families out with no jackets. People are out of their minds when we get 40-degree days.
TOM: Yep. I know. We’re happy for it, right?
LESLIE: It’s like summer.
TOM: Alright. Well, Jane Ellen, I hope that helps you out. Thanks, again, 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.
We are fresh into the new year, so give us a call with what you’d like to get done for 2015, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We are here to give you a hand, 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
TOM: 888-666-3974.
Still ahead, is your house falling behind the times? We’ve got tips on the hot home improvement trends for 2015 to add to your home, next.
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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. One caller we talk to on the air this hour is going to win the LoopRope. It’s a very cool product that can replace any bungee cord.
LESLIE: Yeah, except it’s actually more versatile and actually safer than traditional bungee cord. It never tangles and you can even link LoopRope together to create a custom cargo net, which will strap down just about anything.
TOM: Check it out at LoopRope.com and give us a call, right now, at 1-888-MONEY-PIT for the answer to your home improvement question and your chance to win.
LESLIE: Jim in Pennsylvania is on the line with a metal-roofing question. How can we help you today?
JIM: My question is – metal roofs. What’s the advantage of the metal over the shingle or vice versa? The cost? I see a lot of my neighbors putting the metal on.
TOM: So, metal roofs are probably the most durable roof available today. And so the main advantage is durability. The other thing that you can get with a metal roof is today, they’re coated with low-E coatings so they can actually reflect the sun in the summer and lower your cooling costs, as well.
The downside of metal roofs is that they’re very expensive. They’re called “investment-grade roofs,” very frequently, for a good reason. Because it’s the kind of roof you put on when you really want to invest in the house and it’s the house that you’re going to be in for the long haul. If it’s a short-term house for you, I probably would not recommend a metal roof because I don’t think you’ll get the value out of it when you sell. Certainly, you’ll get some value out of it but I don’t think you’ll get the cost of it. But if you’re like, “Listen, this is the house I’m going to be in for the next 20 or 30 years, maybe longer. I want to really do something that’s going to stand up with literally no maintenance,” then maybe a metal roof is for you.
Aesthetically, they’re beautiful. They come in all sorts of colors, all sorts of designs and they can really make your house stand out. But they are costly. Probably, I would say two to three times the cost of an asphalt-shingle roof.
JIM: But they’ll last 30 years, you say, or more?
TOM: They’ll last 50 years, they’ll last 75 years. They can last even longer than that.
JIM: Hey, thank you very much. I appreciate your time.
TOM: Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Alright. Now we’re talking to Georgia in Texas who’s got a question about tile flooring. How can we help you with your project?
GEORGIA: Yes. I live in a house that my grandparents originally built back in 1950. The flooring in the kitchen is what I refer to as the old linoleum. A rubber-topped linoleum is what I thought. But it is crumbling and someone at a tile place told me it is probably asbestos, because of the age of it. So, I have been told, yes, I can it rip it up and it’s OK or no, don’t mess with it and put something over it, like cement board, and then retile.
TOM: So, this tile floor is located where?
GEORGIA: In the kitchen.
TOM: And how old is the tile floor?
GEORGIA: It was put in in 1950.
TOM: Well, if you want to determine whether there’s asbestos in it, you’d have to take a piece of tile and have it tested.
GEORGIA: OK.
TOM: But if it’s the original floor and you want to put a different floor over it, there’s really no reason not to. I mean laminate floor, for example, would be a good choice for a kitchen. And there’s no reason you can’t lay that right over the existing tile.
GEORGIA: Well, no, it is literally cracking and crumbling. I trip over it every day and another new piece goes flying across the floor.
TOM: Again, what I would do is I would probably not – tell you not to tear it up. It’s most likely simply vinyl tile. But if you want to be safe, just leave it in place and go ahead and floor right over it.
GEORGIA: OK. Well, I wasn’t sure, you know? The flooring underneath it – the wood underneath it – is still good. So, yeah, I just wasn’t sure which way to go or how to go about it, if I should go to the expense to put down the cement boarding and then put the – on top of the floor, screw it down and then put tile over on that.
TOM: Well, why are you going to put the cement floor down? Are you going to put ceramic tile down?
GEORGIA: It’d be nice. I grew up calling it “Mexican tile” or tile that’s made in Mexico.
TOM: Oh, OK.
GEORGIA: And it’s heavy and you’ve got to putty it and you’ve got to work with it and stuff.
TOM: Well, certainly, if you’re going to do it that way, you could put the board underneath the tile, right on top of the floor. There’s no reason you couldn’t do that, as well, OK?
GEORGIA: OK. Thanks.
TOM: Well, are you looking to keep your home current? Here’s a look at the trends on the rise for 2015.
LESLIE: That’s right. First, studies show that instead of moving to newer, bigger homes, homeowners are making the most of the houses they already have.
Now, McMansions are no longer the home of choice like they once were. In fact, new houses are getting smaller, on average, down more than 200 square feet from 2014.
TOM: Ah, yes. But while homes might be getting smaller, they’re actually getting much bigger on efficiency and quality. There are more options that exist now than ever before, for heating and cooling your home, in ways that help your wallet and the planet.
Natural and sustainable floors made of ceramic, stone and cork are on the upswing, as are rubber floors that work in garages, home gyms and rec rooms. All made from recycled products.
LESLIE: And we’re actually going to see more ceiling fans in 2015, too. Now, homeowners are learning that these add to heating and cooling efficiency if you use them right. And the new, updated styles actually look great in any room and can satisfy this interior designer here. So, it’s OK; you can put one up.
TOM: Also being installed in 2015: upgrades that give your house a richer, more luxurious feel. Out are the contractor-grade appliances and fixtures and in are strategically placed, high-end finishes that make your space feel new at a fraction of the price of moving. That’s all new for 2015.
Does that spur on a new home improvement question, a new home improvement project that you’ve been thinking about? Well, give us a call right now. The number is 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Bill in Texas has a question about rusty grout in a bathroom project. What’s going on?
BILL: Yes, ma’am. A couple of years ago, I put in a tile shower. I’d removed a fiberglass shower and I put in a tile shower. And the problem is – you know how you put the rubber barrier up like 42 or 48 inches? I put that up but I’m guessing that I should have used stainless-steel screws. Because in two spots, you can kind of detect a rust color kind of seeping through the grout? And I’m wondering if I should remove the grout and maybe try – they have that epoxy-based grout, if I should do that or if there’s – when I remove the grout, if there’s a product I should apply to kind of neutralize the rust.
Basically, that’s what’s going on. I’ve just – I’m decently handy, so I know I can remove the grout and everything but I’m just wondering what steps I should take to prevent the rust from coming back.
TOM: Well, the sand-based grout certainly is going to allow any rust stains to kind of permeate right through. Epoxy grout probably would not. That might be the simplest solution if it’s just minor surface rust. It’s a little bit late now to pull tile off and start changing fasteners, so I think that probably makes the most sense, Bill – would be just to remove the old grout with a grout saw and then regrout it with epoxy-based grout which, by the way, is a little harder to work with. So make sure you take your time, maybe practice off those bathroom walls before you apply it to it. But I think that’s probably the best solution in the short term.
BILL: Now, the – for automotive, they have POR-15 and different products to neutralize the rust. Is there anything like that that you – would it be worthwhile to even try to attempt that or is it not worth my time?
TOM: I’m not familiar with those products but my concern would be that, you know, if you got one, it’ll probably open up somewhere else along the way, so it’s kind of like you’re chasing a ghost after a while.
BILL: OK. So maybe try the epoxy grout and cross my fingers?
TOM: I would say so. I think there’s a pretty good chance it’s going to work out, Bill, OK?
BILL: OK. Thank you so much.
LESLIE: Randy in Delaware is on the line doing a bathroom project. Tell us how you’re working on it.
RANDY: So, a shower stall – an old shower stall – was removed with an old pan just all cruddy and moldy and just outdated. So, installing a new shower base. It’s not a mud base; it’s preformed epoxy and cement.
And then, I was wondering about what type of flashing you might recommend from the framing members, behind the corners and any of these areas. How susceptible are they to these moisture issues where the corners may, with expansion and contraction, may break open or get some kind of moisture penetration? What’s the extent of the flashing system that you put behind cement board?
TOM: OK. So, when you put on tile backer board, you don’t flash like you would if you were putting up shingles and intersection – intersecting – with siding. I mean essentially, what you do is you put the pan in, you put the backer board on, you overlap the pan and then you put the adhesive on and the tile right on top of that. That’s sort of the normal procedure for doing a tile job. You don’t really flash the board any further than just making sure it overlaps the prefabricated pan.
Is that what I’m hearing? Are you using a prefabricated, say, a fiberglass tile pan?
RANDY: Right. But a lot of – there are a lot of recommendations out there to run a 6-mil plastic sheet behind the backer board so that any penetration that could occur in the future hits this plastic wall. It overlaps the pan and in front of that, the backer board overlaps it. But anything that penetrates the backer board and the tile and all that hits this plastic and eventually makes its way to the pan, never actually getting to the framing members.
TOM: I don’t have a problem with that. But let me put it to you this way: for many years, the way that tile showers were done is they simply put the green board – the water-resistant drywall – right on top of the studs and that was it; there was nothing more than that. So, by putting on a tile board, you’re already making it a lot more durable. And if you want to put a polyethylene sheet behind that, I have no problem with that. Just make sure that the shower pan that you choose goes up enough to create that good overlap at the bottom so you don’t have water that backs up into it.
RANDY: I think that’s it.
TOM: Alright. Well, good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Well, if you’re hoping to convert a basement into finished space this year, you first need to figure out if the basement is up for the task. We’re going to have tips on assessing your downstairs space, from This Old House general contractor Tommy Silva, up next.
MIKE: Hey, this is Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs and I’ve just been told that Tom and Leslie might have a dirtier job than me? I find that hard to believe but then I heard they worked in a pit. It’s a money pit but it’s still filthy.
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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.
Give us a call at 888-MONEY-PIT. One caller that we talk to on the air this hour is going to win LoopRope. It’s a very cool product that can replace those traditional bungee cords. And you can use it as a clothesline, you can use it to lash down gear, even as a pet leash. Ooh, multifunctional. I love it.
TOM: Yep. And LoopRope never tangles and you can link several LoopRopes together to create a custom cargo net. Check it out at LoopRope.com.
Give us a call right now. That LoopRope is going out to one caller drawn at random at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Well, most basements are a little more than a place to cultivate cobwebs and of course, store tons of cans of paint.
TOM: Ah, yes. But fixing up a full-height basement can dramatically increase the usable living space in your house, at a cost that’s far lower than adding on.
Here to talk about basement-finishing options is This Old House general contractor Tom Silva.
Welcome, Tommy.
TOM SILVA: Nice to be here. Thanks.
TOM: So, not every basement is a good candidate for finishing, right? What are some key considerations before you start the renovation?
TOM SILVA: Well, water is the big enemy. You’ve got to make …
TOM: That would be followed by water and more water, right?
TOM SILVA: Water and more water because water is a big problem-solver. So, water and moisture, dampness, that’s the culprit that you have to deal with.
TOM: And we’ll start by talking about that, because I think a lot of folks think that water in the basement is always going to be a very expensive solution. But in the 20 years I spent as a home inspector, it always seemed to me that gutters and grading, followed by grading and gutters, were the number-one and number-two source – and clean gutters, right – of wet basements.
LESLIE: And clean gutters.
TOM SILVA: Yeah.
TOM: Because when that water comes in after the heavy rainfall, it’s always starting at the roof; it’s not a rising water table.
TOM SILVA: Exactly. I mean I would say that people don’t understand. First of all, they have to keep the gutters clean, because the water will roll over the gutters.
TOM: Right.
TOM SILVA: And guess what? It drips down around the perimeter of the house and it will get into the basement. So you want to make sure that your gutters have the right pitch, you want to make sure that the gutters are clean and you want to make sure that they have a means of egress. So, in other words, the downspout is away from the side of the house.
TOM: Every gutter installer out there only turns it out about a foot and puts another splash block for another foot, so you’re dropping it within 2 feet of the foundation, right in the backfill zone where all the soil is pushed back in the foundation, not as compacted.
TOM SILVA: Yeah.
TOM: And of course, it rolls right back in.
TOM SILVA: Exactly. And it will seep into the basement, causing all kinds of problems.
LESLIE: You know, I think a lot of people don’t pay attention to what their local building codes might be. You might not be allowed to have a basement or a bedroom in a basement or a bathroom in a basement. That all really varies upon where you live, right?
TOM SILVA: Exactly. And that’s why the idea of getting a building permit to do something helps you out, as a homeowner. The building inspector is not the enemy; he’s just trying to tell you how to do things right and making sure that whoever you hire to do the job gets it done correctly.
LESLIE: Right.
TOM SILVA: So he’s going to check. You want to make sure that there’s the right ceiling height. You don’t want to be lower than 6-foot-8. That’s the minimum.
TOM: Right.
TOM SILVA: You want to make sure that you have egress. So you can’t have a bedroom down there if you can’t get out. So the window height has to be a certain dimension off the floor. Has to be lower than 42 inches off of the floor. You want to make sure that the window size is wide enough that you can get out and you have a space to get out into.
TOM: And speaking of space, when it comes to basements, that is the place that all the utilities end up, for all of the obvious reasons, where the long plumbing runs are, the duct runs, the wiring runs. So, concealing all those is a key consideration of a basement-finishing project, right?
TOM SILVA: Yeah. Depending on the extent of the basement work that you want to do, it can cost you a lot of money to move a lot of that stuff. So you have to figure out ways to go around all of those things. And it can be tricky but it can make a huge, huge difference.
TOM: And of course, you don’t want to do something like wall over your main water valve.
TOM SILVA: No, you want to be able to – you can get to the water valve, in case there’s a problem upstairs in the house. And you want to make sure that you don’t close-in the electrical panel, because you have to have 3 feet of space in front of that electrical panel and it has to be seen.
LESLIE: And I think materials choice. I mean that’s got to be key in a basement space, especially because no matter what you do to control that moisture, you’re still going to have moisture down there just because of the inherent reasons of what the materials are. So you’ve got to look at drywall that’s not paper-faced, right?
TOM SILVA: Exactly. You want to make sure that you try not to use any product with cellulose, like wood fibers. That’s great breeding ground for mold. If you use a pressure-treated wood, it’s pretty good. I’d prefer a metal stud; it works great. I also want to make sure that I close off the area with a good vapor retarder or a vapor barrier.
So you either have to seal the concrete floor – because if the house is probably older than 50 years old, it probably doesn’t have a vapor retarder under the floor anyway. So you’ve got to stop that moisture from migrating up through the concrete.
And then you’ve got to make sure that you can seal the walls. Because if there’s not a sealer on the wall, you’ve got to worry about the moisture getting into the wall cavity. And foam insulation works great for that. You can spray-foam the walls. A closed cell is great because it’s water-resistant, waterproof and a great vapor retarder.
TOM: In terms of the framing of the walls, do you prefer to kind of frame basically against that wall or maybe leave a little gap, if you do metal framing?
TOM SILVA: Leave a gap. Yeah, you want a gap in your studs, whether it be wood – as long as it’s on a pressure-treated – there’s a gap between it that when they spray-foam, they can lay it in behind there.
TOM: Right.
TOM SILVA: If you don’t have the money or the budget to use a spray-foam insulation, what I like to do – and I’ve done it for years – is I take a polyethylene and actually staple it to the back side of the sill and let it droop down over the foundation and bring it out onto the floor. Then you can apply your pressure-treated sill to that frame …
TOM: Right on top of the polyethylene?
TOM SILVA: Right on top of the polyethylene. Then you stud up your wall.
And now, if you don’t want to use a spray-foam insulation, I’d use a mineral wall or a thermal-fiber insulation.
TOM: Right.
TOM SILVA: And then just apply it to the wall cavity. It makes a huge difference and it’ll save you some money if you don’t want to use the spray foam.
TOM: Sure. Now, let’s talk about the moisture that’s in the basement that’s left over. Let’s say that we did do everything that was necessary to get the water from coming in. But now, because of the – it’s below grade, we do have high humidity. What kind of dehumidification do you plan for?
TOM SILVA: Well, you want to have dehumidification. You also want to bring in fresh air, so you use an air exchanger, which would circulate the air on a regular basis.
TOM: OK.
TOM SILVA: And sometimes, just by doing that and using the vapor retarders or the vapor barriers, you’d be surprised it’ll solve that problem of moisture. If you worry about water, you want to make sure that you have a sump pump there and you want to make sure that you have a battery backup on that sump pump so that it doesn’t flood.
Don’t use carpet. And use materials that are good for so-called “moist areas.”
TOM: I’m so glad you mentioned that carpet thing, because that’s sort of a pet peeve of ours. So many folks have carpet in the basement and it’s just a breeding ground for everything that’s not good for your air.
TOM SILVA: Yeah.
TOM: Dust mites and allergens just stick right to that. They’re sustained by the moisture, sustained by the air and it’s really not healthy.
TOM SILVA: Right, right. Well, they have laminate floors and vinyl floors and tile floors that you can use.
TOM: Engineered hardwood, too.
TOM SILVA: Exactly.
LESLIE: And there’s always area rugs.
TOM: Yep.
TOM SILVA: Yeah, to dress up …
LESLIE: You can get that same coziness.
TOM SILVA: Yeah. I love area rugs because it adds a little bit of a color to the space and it defines the area. And it’s great for wear …
LESLIE: I sense a frustrated decorator in Tom Silva. He’s like, “I also do interior design.”
TOM SILVA: I don’t – no, I don’t do interior design. Nope.
TOM: He appreciates good interior design.
Tom Silva, the general contractor and sometimes decorator on TV’s This Old House, thanks so much for stopping by The Money Pit.
TOM SILVA: Well, thanks, guys. It’s nice to be here, as always.
LESLIE: Alright. You can catch the current season of This Old House and Ask This Old House on PBS. For local listings and step-by-step videos of many common home improvement projects, visit ThisOldHouse.com.
TOM: And This Old House is brought to you on PBS by State Farm. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.
Up next, is your dryer making a funny noise? Garbage disposer not doing its job? Well, wondering if you should repair or replace those appliances? That is, in fact, the question. We’ll help you make the right choice with your appliance repairs, next.
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.
Give us a call at 888-MONEY-PIT. One caller that we talk to on the air this hour is going to win LoopRope. It’s a very cool product that can replace those traditional bungee cords. And you can use it as a clothesline, you can use it to lash down gear, even as a pet leash. Ooh, multifunctional. I love it.
TOM: Yep. And LoopRope never tangles and you can link several LoopRopes together to create a custom cargo net.
Check it out at LoopRope.com. Give us a call right now. That LoopRope is going out to one caller drawn at random at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Louis, you’ve got The Money Pit. How can we help you today?
LOUIS: I have a question regarding a sump pump – drainage water. The previous owner has it routed to the sewer line going to the bathroom in the basement. That’s where the sump pump is, also. And I was wondering, should I reroute that to the outside of the house or should it – is it OK where it is?
TOM: Well, you’re technically not supposed to connect a sump pump to a sewer line. You’re correct in that it’s supposed to go outside the house. Part of the issue is that if you don’t have a check valve, for sure, if you have any backup in the sewer, it can come right straight back up into the sump pump and that’s not going to be a pleasant situation.
So, it would be preferable that it drain outside and at least 4 to 6 feet away from your foundation of your home so it doesn’t drop water back against the foundation wall.
LOUIS: OK, then. Well, I did put a check valve in the – I put a heavy-duty sump pump in it and it requires you to put a check valve in it, which I did. But they put a flex hose from there to the sewer line into the wall and I’m not comfortable with that. And I didn’t think it should go there but thanks for (inaudible at 0:30:11). I’ll take care of that.
TOM: Yeah. And you are correct. So make sure you repair the sewer line when you pull that hose out, OK?
LOUIS: I will do that. Thank you very much.
TOM: Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
Well, I’m not known to be a glass-half-empty kind of a guy but do you ever look around your house and wonder which appliance will be the next to break down?
LESLIE: You know it’s right; they don’t last forever. But most appliances have an average life span of like 10 to 20 years. So, unless it’s covered by a warranty, at some point you’re going to have to decide whether an appliance is worth fixing or if it’s just time to suck it up and buy a new one.
TOM: Well, there’s a helpful formula to help tip the scales one way or another. It basically weighs the age of the appliance and its original cost against the cost of repairing it.
So, let’s say your 3-year-old refrigerator breaks down and the cost of repair is, I don’t know, 1,000 bucks. Is it worthwhile or not? Well, according to our chart, it’s not worthwhile because the repair cost is more than 40 percent of what you paid for it just three years back. Replacing is a wiser bet.
LESLIE: Now, the numbers are going to vary by your appliance type. Microwaves are cheaper, so they quickly become candidates for replacing rather than even bothering to repair. Dryers, on the other hand, are often worth spending a few hundred dollars on to fix.
TOM: Get the entire cheat sheet of when and whether to repair or replace your broken appliances right now. It’s on our home page at MoneyPit.com.
LESLIE: Laura in South Carolina, you’ve got The Money Pit. How can we help you today?
LAURA: We have a deck on the back of our house that we, about two years ago, put a product on it that makes it like an anti-slip texture? And the coating is starting to chip off in big chunks, so we were thinking about using that DECKOVER or OVERDECK, I think it’s called?
And when we were at Home Depot, we noticed that they have something else that was an option. They’re actually foot-squared tiles. They’re like a thick rubber that you actually use a glue to adhere onto the deck and then you cover your deck that way. My concern is if you apply that onto the deck, will that rot the wood?
TOM: Well, Laura, I’m not familiar with rubber tiles but there are polypropylene tiles or plastic tiles or composite tiles that are on the market that are designed to cover old decks. And the way these work is they sit on top of the deck boards and they usually lock together. And some of them are quite attractive. There’s a product called Coverdeck that comes in dozens of different colors and shapes and designs that could look really neat. And it’s not going to be slippery and it’s going to look great.
I am concerned if you’re gluing something down to the wood deck, I agree that something like rubber glued to wood is bound to let some water underneath and it’s certainly not going to evaporate. These composite tiles or the plastic tiles usually have a bit of space under them which allows the wood to breathe and dry out. And then really, that’s the issue: if you hold water against it, you will get decay.
So I would take a look at some of the tile products that allow you to cover these decks and probably avoid anything that’s rubbery that you’re going to glue down.
LAURA: OK. So the glue is OK as long as there’s a gap or some sort of gap between the wood?
TOM: It’s OK to cover it as long as there’s air space so it dries out.
LAURA: OK, perfect. Alright. Thank you.
LESLIE: Hey, how that we’re past the big holiday season, did you find that all of that extra foot traffic did a number to your carpet? We’ve got tips to clear the crud and freshen your carpets once again for the new year, coming up.
ANNOUNCER: The Money Pit is presented by QUIKRETE Concrete & Cement products. QUIKRETE, what America is made of. Like us on Facebook and visit online at www.QUIKRETE.com for product information and easy, step-by-step project videos.
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.
Hey, get more Money Pit wherever you want, simply by liking us on Facebook. It’s super-easy. Head to Facebook.com. We know a lot of you are probably on there all day anyway, trying to figure out what your buddies are up to or who’s doing cooler things than you. And then what you do is go to Facebook.com/TheMoneyPit and click Like for more prizes, more home improvement advice, more Tom, more me all right there at your fingertips.
TOM: And while you’re there, post pictures of your home improvement projects and questions. We might just have an answer. That’s Facebook.com/TheMoneyPit.
LESLIE: Alright. Here is a question that was posted in our Community section that says, “What is the best method for cleaning the carpet in my home’s main living areas? Chem-Dry? Steam? Should it be done sparingly or is it OK to clean them as often as needed?”
Well, I think that’s going to really depend on a couple of things. First of all, you’re smart to want to clean it, because Tom and I both know that, really, it’s the dirt that contributes to the wear and tear. So the more often that you clean your carpet, the longer you’re going to get out of it.
Now, secondly, you’ve got to think about – what is your carpet made out of and what is the stain? Because if it’s just a spot stain, you might just want to clean that spot with, really, a little bit of soapy, warm water. And you just want to do, you know, very little soap, more water. You want to sort of dampen it and try to lift the stain up by sort of – I’m doing something with my hands but that doesn’t help on radio. You kind of sweep the stain. I’m like, “Like this.” No, you kind of sweep the stain up, almost twisting it and pulling it up at the same time. Because you don’t want to rub because that kind of just wears it down into the fibers of the carpet.
You should have it professionally cleaned once a year, especially if you have any kind of warranty from the person you bought the carpet from. If it’s an area rug, you can have it sent out for cleaning, which is really helpful because then they can really get to the nitty-gritty of it.
But you kind of have to consider a couple of things: what is the stain and what is the material of the carpet? And then that will really lead you to the best way to take care of it.
TOM: Good advice.
Alright. Sharon writes: “My wife and I are finishing our basement to include a family room and bedrooms for our two young children. What’s the best way to minimize noise from people walking around upstairs? The ceiling will be an I-joist system. We plan on a drop ceiling since the plumbing will be present above. Flooring on the main floor is a combination of carpet and hardwood.”
Well, so, first of all, the hardwood floors are always going to be noisy, no matter what you do with that. The best way to minimize that is with area rugs. In terms of closing in the ceiling, if you insulate it, it will actually dampen or deaden the sound.
Now, I do have another concern about something you didn’t ask for and that is the fact that you’re putting bedrooms down here for the kids. Make absolutely certain that you follow all building codes for this space. Because when you put bedrooms downstairs, you must provide for egress, for an exit door. It could be an exit window of a certain size; it could be a door. But that’s really critical when you have people sleeping in your below-grade spaces.
LESLIE: Yeah. You’ve got to think about a way to get out, God forbid your main entrance and exit is blocked. And that is truly something that’s for code, so you’ve got to do it.
TOM: This is The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show on air and online at MoneyPit.com. We’re just about out of time but we want to remind you that, 24-7, you can call in your home improvement question at 1-888-MONEY-PIT. It’s a unique feature of The Money Pit. Leslie never sleeps; she’s always standing by to answer your question. I, on the other hand, am available nine to five, Monday through Friday.
LESLIE: That’s because your kids are older and I have a two-year-old that seems to be constantly having ear infections.
TOM: She’s not sleeping anyway.
LESLIE: So, no, sleep doesn’t happen here.
TOM: That’s why it’s convenient to route the phones down through to your house.
LESLIE: There may be a screaming child and I may curse a few times but I’ll help you out.
TOM: Well, you can reach us, 24-7, at 888-MONEY-PIT. But better yet, post your question to The Money Pit’s Facebook page at Facebook.com/TheMoneyPit.
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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(Copyright 2015 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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