Get Snow Removal Relief, Find Out Which Essential Tools You're Missing, and Start Off the Year Right with January Home Improvement Projects

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: Give us a call, right now, with your home improvement question. We are here to help you solve your do-it-yourself dilemma. Or if there’s a project on your to-do list that you don’t want to do yourself, maybe we can give you some suggestions for getting the right pro to get the job done. You’ve got to help yourself first, though, by calling us at 888-666-3974.

Coming up this hour, have you ever had a wall or a ceiling crack show up that you fix time and time again, only to have it reappear time and time again? Well, we’re going to have tips to help you repair those pesky cracks once and for all.

LESLIE: And speaking of repair projects, your tool box might be overflowing but is it overflowing with the right gear? Find out the most essential tools that DIYers go without and what you’ll need to add to your tool box to make it complete.

TOM: And snow removal is never fun.

LESLIE: No, it’s not.

TOM: But are you making it tougher than it has to be? We’re going to have some tips and shortcuts to help you dig out of the next snowstorm easily and safely.

LESLIE: Yeah. Tip Number One: get a snow thrower. Tip Number Two: ask your neighbor to do it for you.

TOM: There you go.

LESLIE: Seriously. And speaking of snow, you guys, one caller that we talk to on the air this hour is going to win the Snow Joe iON. It’s the original cordless, gas-free snow blower. No power outlet necessary because Snow Joe iON is powered by a rechargeable, lithium-ion battery that’s going to deliver 40 minutes of run time.

TOM: It’s a great way to clear the snow without the hassle of a gas-powered snow blower. And it’s worth $399. So give us a call right now. The number is 1-888-MONEY-PIT, 888-666-3974.

Leslie, who’s first?

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

LAURIE: We have a Chamberlain ¼-horsepower, garage-door opener and it has no remote.

TOM: OK.

LAURIE: We bought the house as-is, so we have no remote for it. Also, it has a keypad on the outside, which I’m unable to use. So, my question was: if I go to Home Depot or Lowe’s, would a universal remote work or do I have to call a garage-door company out to sell us a Chamberlain remote and program it?

TOM: Why don’t you do this? Why don’t you get the model number of the Chamberlain garage-door opener, which is probably printed on the back of the unit, go to the Chamberlain website and get the owner’s manual for the door opener? With that owner’s manual, you should be able to program the keypad. It’ll tell you the right sequence to do that. And also, you most likely can find out from Chamberlain exactly which remote is designed to work with that unit.

Now, Chamberlain is a very good company and in fact, they have a new technology that’s called MyQ. And the cool thing about the MyQ technology is you can actually put this MyQ unit in your garage and then you’ll be able to open and close your garage door with your smartphone. So, they’re way ahead of the game on this stuff.

LAURIE: Yeah. That’s what I was going to ask you, too. Is this one too old to do that?

TOM: I think it actually works on every garage-door opener that was built after 1996, so it may not be. It might be fine.

LESLIE: Can’t remember if it’s ’96 or ’94.

TOM: Yeah, it goes back over 10 years.

LAURIE: Good. OK. Because this one is about six years old.

TOM: I think that’s how I would proceed. I would not just go buy something and hope it works. I would do the research and you’ll figure it out. OK, Laurie?

LAURIE: OK. I’ll go on their web page. Thank you for the advice.

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

LESLIE: Alright. Our next caller has a question that I’m happy to answer over the phone but will not go see in person. William in Delaware has mice. What is going on over there?

WILLIAM: Yeah, we recently – back in March, moved into our Habitat for Humanity home and we really enjoyed (inaudible at 0:04:11) in downtown Wilmington. And for the first, I’d say, four or five months, we had no problems with mice or anything else. But the last three or four months, man, we’ve been getting mice coming in from the basement. I think that’s where they’re coming from.

We’ve caught like 25 mice in the last 3 or 4 months. That’s why we’ve got sticky traps out. Going around and putting little standing foam in skinny cracks I can find and basement-penetration stuff but I don’t know where they’re coming in other than that. And I was wondering if you had any ideas or what next – what to do next.

TOM: Well, why don’t you get a cat and a snake? Problem will be solved.

WILLIAM: Right. Well, unfortunately, my family is allergic to dogs and cats, so I can’t do that.

TOM: Well, look, have you tried bait yet?

WILLIAM: Oh, yeah. I had some bait traps outside but they’re still coming in.

TOM: OK. So, is it – getting rid of rodents is sort of a management problem, alright? You know, they’re so small they can squeeze into the space the size of a nickel. And so you’re doing all of the right things.

Now, outside the house – and since this is a newer house, this may not be the case but we always tell people to not store firewood against a house, not store garbage against a house to make sure that there’s no areas where mice can sort of linger around the outside of the house. Inside the house, you want to make sure you don’t have any kind of food source. So if you had a pet that might be – the dog-food bag or if you have a pantry that might be the – not keeping the cereal boxes on the bottom shelf where they can be chewed into by mice. Those are all the normal things.

Beyond that, it’s a maintenance issue where you’re going to make sure you keep some baits outside. I would put bait inside. What I would do is – is this on a basement or a crawlspace?

WILLIAM: Yeah. So, it has a basement.

TOM: So I would – and the basement is not finished?

WILLIAM: No, it’s not.

TOM: So what I would do is I would get some bait stations, put it up on the ledge between the concrete block and the bottom sill, where the framing is. That’s sort of the highway that the mice will use to crawl all around the outside of the house. So put your bait stations right there so that they can have some of that delectable poison and then go outside and die.

WILLIAM: Hopefully, that’s what – well, that’s what I was a little leery about. I’m afraid that if they eat bait, they might die inside the house someplace where I can’t get to them.

TOM: Nah. Occasionally, you can find one inside the house but it’s unusual. Normally, they’ll go outside. The thing is, as the weather gets colder, they go inside because they like a nice, warm house, as well. But you’ve got to prevent them by sealing up all the gaps and putting out bait stations.

WILLIAM: OK. Well, I’ll try more of the bait stations outside then.

TOM: Not outside. Put the bait inside, on that ledge, OK?

WILLIAM: Oh, OK. Yes, I will.

TOM: Alright. Good luck with that problem.

WILLIAM: OK. Thanks.

TOM: You’re welcome, Bill. 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, we hope you had a wonderful holiday and you’re gearing up for the new year. What are you working on? Maybe you have some New Year’s to-do lists for your house, maybe some home resolutions. We’re happy to help you with all of those. Give us a call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.

TOM: 888-666-3974.

Up next, is there a snow shovel in your future? Make sure you’re using it right. We’ll have tips for easier and safer snow removal, after this.

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

LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.

TOM: Give us a call. The number is 1-888-MONEY-PIT. And if we talk with you on the air this hour, you could win the Snow Joe iON.

LESLIE: Yeah. Snow Joe iON is a cordless, gas-free snow blower. You’ll dig it, mainly because you’ll never have to dig out of the snow again.

TOM: Snow Joe iON’s rechargeable, lithium-ion battery delivers 40 minutes worth of power, more than enough to clear most driveways and walkways. It’s a prize worth $399. Going home with one lucky caller we talk to today, so make that you. Pick up the phone, give us a call with your home improvement question. The number is 1-888-MONEY-PIT.

LESLIE: Alright. Now we’ve got Mike in Iowa on the line who needs some help insulating a garage. Tell us about it.

MIKE: Hi. I have a three-and-a-half or four – basically, a four-car garage underneath a house that’s a ranch. The trusses – the floor, it has trusses in it and it’s cold in there. And it gets cold here in Iowa and it stays, I don’t know, 35, 45 degrees during the winter, even in the coldest day.

And it has batting insulation in it but it’s still cold. And our bedroom is above it, so I was thinking about putting some insulation in it, either in the – blowing some – drilling the holes and blowing it in or just doing it around the outside, the outer walls. Or am I just wasting my time trying to do any better?

TOM: Alright. So, the garage ceiling – the walls between the garage and the house – should already be insulated. So what you’re asking is: can you add additional insulation to the exterior garage walls? Is that correct? Because that would be, theoretically, the only part of this garage that was not insulated.

MIKE: Correct. Well, the outer walls are concrete.

TOM: Oh, OK.

MIKE: So it’s basically the ceiling I’m after. Would it be – because the cold air goes up – the room is above the garage.

TOM: So, do you have any – the way the ceiling is configured, it’s drywall right now?

MIKE: Correct.

TOM: So there may not be any additional room above that to add additional insulation. You mentioned blown-in. If that ceiling was built correctly, there’s already insulation there, so you may not be able to add more to that.

This might be a situation where you need to improve the heat more than add to the ceiling insulation. Because short of building it downward so that you have more depth, I don’t see how you’re going to add additional insulation if it’s already insulated.

MIKE: Well, there’s batting up there. I didn’t know if it would do any good to have them blow it in and pack it as tight as they can get it with that blown-in insulation.

TOM: No, because insulation doesn’t work on being packed as tight as possible. Insulation works on the principle of trapped air. And so if you over-pack the insulation, it becomes less effective, not more effective.

MIKE: Right. Alright. Well, that tells me I would’ve wasted my money if I’d have – went and had somebody come out and blow it in.

TOM: I know it might not be the answer you want but at least we didn’t have you spending money on something that wasn’t going to work, Mike. I hope that does help. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.

LESLIE: Alright. Now we’ve got Cheryl in Texas on the line who’s looking to redo a bathroom and make it more modern with just a shower. How can we help you?

CHERYL: Well, I am the mother of four sons and as they get bigger, they no longer like to get in the bathtub.

LESLIE: Right.

TOM: OK.

CHERYL: And we find that they are always in my room, in my shower. We’re wanting to take out the tub that’s in their bathroom and turn it into a shower. My issue is I don’t have a lot of space. It’s a Hollywood bath and then the tub and toilet are in a separate little room that you can close off. And the door facing – of that little room sits right next to the tub itself.

So, my question is – when I pull that tub out, the plan was to put a shower pan down and tile the area and then put a glass door – either a sliding door on there. Will that be a wide-enough space if it’s only the width of a standard tub?

TOM: Cheryl, I think you definitely can find a shower pan that can fit the width of that tub, sort of elbow to elbow if you’re standing in it. Think about it: if you’re in the tub, you’re taking a shower, right? You’ve got room on – to the right and to the left of you. So we want a shower pan, essentially, that’s the same size.

Now, when it comes to residential, prefabricated shower pans, they start at around 24×24, so that’s 2-foot-square. You know, that would be probably the smallest that you would need but you might be able to go up even bigger.

But a little trick of the trade: if you were to find, for example, that for whatever reason – the way this room is configured – a 24×24 would not work, then you should shop for a smaller shower pan, which you will find, sold for RVs – recreational vehicles. Because they have tiny showers in them, right? And there’s a whole host of RV shower pans that are smaller than 24×24. I don’t think you’re going to need it. I think you’ll be fine starting there, maybe even going up.

But the size of the shower pan is what you want to figure out first. Then you can basically build around that, OK? Does that make sense?

CHERYL: Sure, sure. That’s what I want to do.

TOM: Well, whether you’ve yet to see a flurry or you’ve already had your fill of the white stuff, most of us will spend hours digging out of walkways, sidewalks and cars between now and spring.

LESLIE: And most of us won’t enjoy one second of it, that is for sure. But snow removal doesn’t have to be as hard as we all seem to make it. With a few adjustments, you’re going to be saving time and manpower.

TOM: And you want to get started by simply, well, starting. And what I mean by that is don’t procrastinate. The longer you wait to shovel snow, the heavier it gets, up to 20 pounds per shovelful. So shovel it now, instead of hours from now, to spare yourself the heavy lifting. Your back will definitely thank you for that.

LESLIE: Now, speaking of your back, you want to give it a break. You’ve got to bend your knees and lift each shovelful of snow with your legs and pace yourself. Unless you do intense cardio on a regular basis, overexerting yourself while shoveling is easy to do and it’s very dangerous.

TOM: Or you could just scrap all this advice and simply invest in a snow blower. Snow blowers can cut through snow and ice in a fraction of the time it’ll take you, saving you time, energy, aches and pains. And I, for the first time in my life, have actually invested in a snow blower. I did that because first of all, I kind of enjoyed the shoveling and I had a lot of help. But my helpers have all moved on to college, so my snow-shoveling staff is dwindling.

LESLIE: Right.

TOM: So I picked up a new Snapper and I’m very happy I have that and eagerly awaiting the first storm to get to try it out. But you know what? You could even give us a call, right now, with your home improvement question. Because it just so happens – because we’re giving away, this hour, one of these Snow Joe iON rechargeable snow blowers worth almost 400 bucks. And you could win that.

So, I hope that helps. Give us a call right now. The number is 1-888-MONEY-PIT. That Snow Joe iON going to one caller drawn at random.

LESLIE: Alright. Going out to Tennessee where Jack is dealing with some rust on a toilet. What is going on, dude?

JACK: Well, I’ve got a toilet-bowl problem with a stain that I’m unable to do anything with.

TOM: OK. What have you tried so far?

JACK: I’ve only tried the normal thing with Ajax or Comet, one of the scrubbing powders.

TOM: What kind of stain is this? Is it like a rust stain?

JACK: I think it is sort of – the plumber said it was a rust stain. I had the tank – all the works in the tank.

TOM: Replaced? Mm-hmm.

JACK: I was talking with him about it and he said it’s a rust stain and says, “Never use Brillo or any of the other scrubbing wires,” and suggested a sanding pad. It’s a soft pad. And I did use one of those and got a tiny bit of result but not what I’m looking for.

TOM: Alright. Well, here’s a suggestion. First of all, you’ve got commercial products like CLR or Lime-A-Way that can work. Or you’ve got some sort of do-it-yourself products or mix-it-yourself products that you could put together. But the most important thing is to start with a dry bowl. So you want to turn the water off at the toilet and flush it and dry out that bowl, because you’re going to be able to get more of the cleaning product onto the surface.

You can use lemon juice. That’s an acidic-based rust remover. White vinegar also works well. Borax works well. You can mix Borax with hot water and that works pretty well. And here, right from The Money Pit Engineering Department, my crack engineering team tells me that they’ve had good success with Coca-Cola. And I’m sure they wouldn’t be making that up. So, again, any of these acid-based products can do a pretty good job of pulling that rust out of the toilet bowl. But you want to flush it and dry it first so that it really has a chance to get to work.

And in terms of the scrubbing pad you mentioned, something like the Scotch-Brite pad is a good thing to use on that. It’s not going to destroy the surface.

JACK: Thank you so much for taking my call. And I’ll get on it this afternoon.

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

LESLIE: Tony in Iowa is having a hot-and-cold-water situation. What’s going on?

TONY: Well, I’ve got an electric water heater. And the main feed that comes in from the city, that goes into my electric water heater, it’s a cold line. But yeah, I get cold water to come out of my faucets and everything but that cold-water line, up around through the water heater there, it’s hot, the line, when I touch it. And I’m just curious what’s going on with that.

TOM: So, you have an electric water heater and that’s going to be fed by a cold-water line and it’s going to go through the water heater and come out as a hot-water line.

TONY: That’s correct.

TOM: OK. And so what’s the problem? So far, it’s normal.

TONY: The water line that goes into the water heater – the cold water?

TOM: Yes. Yep.

TONY: That line is hot.

TOM: Well, some of the heat from the water heater can be working its way back up the pipe. So you may be feeling some conductive heat that comes from – the hot water in the water heater itself could be making that pipe warm. But if you go farther down the line, you’re going to feel that it’s cold again.

It goes in cold and comes out hot but the fitting right around the top might feel like it’s a bit warm. But that’s only because of the conductive heat of the water in the water heater coming back up the metal pipe.

TONY: OK. That alleviates my concerns then.

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

LESLIE: Hey, is your tool collection complete? Well, don’t be so sure. Up next, we’ve got This Old House host Kevin O’Connor joining us with the top three tools that are most overlooked by a shocking number of do-it-yourselfers. And that’s coming up.

TOM: And This Old House on The Money Pit is brought to you by Stanley FatMax Box-Beam Levels, featuring three block vials for accurate measurements and bright-lit vials for visibility. Now available in a variety of sizes.

We’ll be back with more, after this.

KEVIN: Hi. I’m Kevin O’Connor, host of This Old House on PBS. From floorboards to shingles, you are tuned to The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show with Tom and Leslie.

ANNOUNCER: The Money Pit is presented by Leviton, the brand most preferred by builders for wiring devices and lighting controls. With a focus on safety and convenience, Leviton products are the smart solution for all your electrical needs.

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

LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.

TOM: Hey, are you still looking for help with your money pit? Well, you’re not alone. Head on over to MoneyPit.com for tips and answers to home improvement questions big and small.

And while you’re there, sign up for our free e-Newsletter and stay ahead of home maintenance year-round. It’s all online and free at MoneyPit.com.

LESLIE: Jan in California is having a wallpaper-removal situation. Tell us what’s going on.

JAN: Hi. Been removing wallpaper and repapering for 50 years and never come across where you take the wallpaper off and it looks like there’s a paper lining behind it. I’ve had some people tell me that this is a filler for the texturing so the wallpaper looks smooth. And others tell me that it’s a liner and it fills the whole wall with pencil lines where the wallpaper goes. I don’t want to damage the sheetrock that’s underneath, so I’m a little leery about taking that off or leaving it on or what I should do with it.

TOM: So your end game is to get down to the drywall?

JAN: Well, it doesn’t have to be if I can texture over what’s there. But it’s almost like a paper and I don’t know if we can put the mud and everything on that.

TOM: If it’s adhered well, then I don’t see why you couldn’t texture over it. Do you want to use a textured paint?

JAN: No, I want to use the texture that I’ve had on the other walls.

TOM: The key here is whether or not the surface that you’ve exposed is well-adhered to the drywall underneath. If it’s well-adhered, then you can go ahead and put your texture over that. If it’s not, then your texture could be on there for a couple of months and it could start falling off in chunks when that backer paper pulls off. As long as it’s well-adhered, then I don’t see any reason you can’t go on top of it, Jan.

JAN: OK. I appreciate you and enjoy your program all the time.

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

LESLIE: Well, you’ve probably amassed quite an assortment of tools over time. But is there anything missing from your collection?

TOM: Well, chances are your tool box could stand to benefit from the addition of some lesser known but fairly useful items. Here to tell us about his choice for favorite tools is This Old House host Kevin O’Connor.

So, Kevin, when you bought your first house, what kind of tool collection did you have and what was missing?

KEVIN: Well, I had a pretty mediocre tool collection. And the thing that was missing was Tom Silva there to use them for me. Right? Because …

LESLIE: Or glue them to the floor, as we’ve all …

KEVIN: Or glue them to the floor, as we all know.

TOM: Right, yeah.

KEVIN: I have been in a, I guess, a decade-long now arms race with the boys on our tool collection. And I am always turning out to be Russia to the United States. No matter what I get, Tom one-ups me, gets two times as many tools.

TOM: He ups you, right?

KEVIN: But there are a couple things that I love to have on hand all of the time and I think most homeowners would benefit from having on hand, whether it be in their tool box or in their work apron. And the first one’s a speed square, right? I mean how many times – everything we do is right angles or 45-degree angles.

TOM: Right.

KEVIN: And so the speed square, it’s small, it’s compact, it fits in your apron and it lets you draw those lines at 90 degrees. It’s got a lot of great measurements on there so you can draw at different angles. It’s a great marking tool. It’s pretty universally used on the job site and I think homeowners would get a lot of use out of it, as well.

LESLIE: Mm-hmm. And I like the metal one over the plastic ones.

KEVIN: I’m with you. You’re a traditionalist, Leslie, right?

LESLIE: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

KEVIN: The aluminum ones, actually, are about just as light as the plastic one.

TOM: Yeah, they’re not much heavier.

KEVIN: No.

LESLIE: Nope. And the marcations (ph) are easier to see. They’re more rigid. I just like them.

TOM: Yeah, it’s a real personal item, right?

KEVIN: It is a good personal item. They also …

TOM: You develop a relationship with your speed square.

KEVIN: You kind of do. So, that’s definitely one that I would put in there.

Another one that I was actually unaware of until I started hanging out with Richard Trethewey – and there’s a lot of things that I was unaware of until I started hanging out with Richard Trethewey – but the basin wrench.

TOM: Right.

KEVIN: And so imagine all that work that you do underneath the sink as you’re trying to work around flexible water lines and P-traps and such. It’s a really hard-to-get-to spot. And the plumbers have been using this little gadget and keeping it to themselves forever. And it’s the basin wrench. It allows you to get into these tight spots. It allows you to make those connections and turn those nuts and such and do it that – in a way that you really couldn’t do with most conventional wrenches. So that’s a pretty cool one to have on hand, as well.

TOM: And that’s one that there’s absolutely nothing that replaces that. It just does the job and nothing else will suffice. We try to get any other kind of wrench in there – open-end, close-end – it doesn’t matter. It’s just impossible to get the wrench in there. But the basin wrench does that work for you.

KEVIN: The only thing that comes close is a big collection of swear words, which is what you’re going to be doing if you can’t find your basin wrench.

I have got a little, mini block plane and now I carry it with me everywhere I go. It’s surprising how often I reach for it. If you’re doing any sort of carpentry, this little block plane is going to get you out of a lot of trouble. It’s going to sharpen up all of your miters so that they’re nice and tight. It’s going to knock off any edges around trim work and such, smooth things out.

TOM: Right.

KEVIN: It’s not a big item to carry around. I’m reaching for it all the time, so a good block plane.

TOM: Yeah, I do the same. I’ve had the same block plane for many, many years and you’re right: it’s surprising how many times you reach for that and all the things that you can do with that. If you get a little feather edge when you cut something, you can just one-swipe with that; it cleans it up nice and neat.

KEVIN: These days, I found smaller ones. You know, they used to be sort of the Stanley standard Number Ones that maybe your grandfather passed them down.

TOM: Right.

KEVIN: They’re kind of bulky to carry around in your pouch at all times. I’ve got these smaller ones that I actually keep in the apron and it’s nice to have them on hand.

TOM: What else?

KEVIN: So, I’ve got a little electrical tester: the pen-style ones.

TOM: Right.

KEVIN: Those are great because half the time – well, you never want to touch a live wire and you want to be able to always double-check. Sure, you should turn it off at the panel but I always want to double-check before I put my pliers …

TOM: Yeah, because you don’t always know if the panel is labeled correctly.

KEVIN: Yeah.

TOM: And even though everything else in the room seems to be off, that outlet could be fed from the opposite wall – the room in the opposite – on the opposite side.

KEVIN: Sure.

TOM: And you really do want to be sure. So, that’s actually one of my favorite tools, as well. I use something that’s called a “tic tracer.” It detects a magnetic field. Same idea. You get close to it, it alerts you so you always know what you’re dealing with.

KEVIN: It really gives you peace of mind.

TOM: Yep. Absolutely.

KEVIN: And it also can help you determine whether or not – “Hey, is it the outlet that’s just in need of replacement or is it the wiring behind?” And to me, that determines – “Hey, do I do it myself or am I – or do you call in the guy?”

LESLIE: Or do you call in the guy?

TOM: Yeah.

KEVIN: Exactly. And then the final one is, obviously, a tape measure but I would say the right tape measure.

TOM: OK.

KEVIN: I carry a couple different ones. I have a couple different ones so that I only have to carry one. Generally, if I’m working outside, I’ve got the bigger one: maybe the 35-footer, because you might be doing some sort of layout with 2x4s and such. But if I’m working inside, there’s just absolutely no need …

LESLIE: It’s overkill.

KEVIN: Isn’t it? I mean think about it …

LESLIE: Mm-hmm. And they’re heavy.

KEVIN: They’re heavy. They’re big and they’re bulky and they’re designed so they can stand out 12 feet without falling over, limping and all that kind of – so I don’t need that if I’m working in the living room. And so a little 16-footer, think about that. That’s two full lengths of plywood. I’ll never measure something that large in a living room; it’s just not that big.

LESLIE: Well, I will tell you – if I’m by myself looking at something or trying to figure out how large of a curtain rod I might need, I’ll take the bigger one with me, only because of that 13-foot standout, so that I can be by myself and kind of sense where I want something to fall. But once I know what the dimensions are, I take the smaller one.

TOM: Put it away, right?

LESLIE: Because you’re right: it’s so heavy.

KEVIN: Put it away. I don’t like carrying around more weight in that apron than I need to, so I’m switching them out between the big one and the small one all the time.

TOM: Speaking of which, there might be some folks out there who are kind of reluctant to throw anything else into their already cluttered tool boxes. What would you tell them?

KEVIN: Get a bigger tool box. Never back down.

TOM: Never back down. Take no prisoners.

KEVIN: Absolutely.

TOM: Great advice. Kevin O’Connor, the host of TV’s This Old House, thanks so much for stopping by The Money Pit.

KEVIN: My pleasure, guys.

LESLIE: 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 and Ask This Old House are brought to you on PBS by GMC. GMC, we are professional grade.

Up next, no matter what you’re doing on New Year’s Eve, we’ve got ideas for the weekends that follow, with our top projects for January weekends, after this.

ANNOUNCER: The Money Pit is brought to you by Chamberlain Garage-Door Openers, with a battery backup for when the power goes out and MyQ technology that alerts you when your door is open, so you can close it from anywhere. Discover smarter possibilities at Chamberlain.com.

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

LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.

TOM: And if you call us, right now, with your home improvement question at 1-888-MONEY-PIT and come on the air and ask that question, we will toss your name in The Money Pit hard hat and you could win the Snow Joe iON Snow Blower. It’s cordless, it’s gas-free and it’s got a rechargeable battery that packs up to 40 minutes of run time, more than enough for most driveways and walkways.

LESLIE: Yeah. And it’s also disappearing fast. You know, by this time of year, all of the snow blowers out there are sold out. So if you don’t have one yet, this could be your last shot.

TOM: And the Snow Joe iON is worth $399. Worth every penny but a real steal if you win it for free, which one caller will do this hour.

Learn more at SnowJoe.com. And call us now with your home improvement questions at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.

LESLIE: Laurel in Pennsylvania is dealing with some stinky drains at home. Tell us what’s going on.

LAUREL: My bathroom drain and the kitchen drain, they’re starting to smell like garbage. And nothing I put down there helps. Can you help me?

TOM: What have you tried to do in terms of cleaning them?

LAUREL: Like dishwashing liquid and real hot, sudsy water.

TOM: Laurel, the odor that you’re describing is most likely what we call “biogas” or “biofilm.”

LAUREL: OK.

TOM: Because of the moisture and the waste that gets into these lines, they form sort of a mass of biological material that sort of gels together and releases an awful odor, kind of like something that’s rotting. And there’s no way to kind of make it simpler than that but it’s really kind of a gross thing.

So, what you need to do is – just sort of rinsing it out with hot, soapy water is not going to do this. You’ve got to take the drain cover off, you’ve got to get into the drain with a bottle brush or something like that and scrub the inside of the pipe. And that will start to break down the biofilm and that should help eliminate the odor problem. It’s not just a matter of rinsing it out because that’s kind of just feeding it. You literally have to abrade this gross stuff away to make it clean once again. OK?

LAUREL: Alright. And I really enjoy your program every week.

TOM: Thanks so much, Laurel. Good luck with that project and call again.

LESLIE: Well, January is the ideal time to get cracking on lots of little winter home improvement projects. But before doing anything else, you want to clear out some space by using the first weekend in January to put away all of those holiday decorations.

TOM: And once they’re out of sight, feed your eyes on your walls and look for the cracks. Why not use that second weekend of the month to fix those? Cracks where walls meet ceilings are often caused by normal expansion and contraction where drywall meets. You can tackle them by removing the existing drywall tape. It’ll make the problem worse but that’s OK because you’re about to fix it.

Next, you want to apply a continuous piece of the mesh-y fiberglass drywall tape over the joint, then apply a thin layer of joint compound using a wide-spackle knife. Let it dry, then just continue adding layers until it’s safe to sand and paint.

LESLIE: Now, for the third weekend in January, you want to clean tile and grout in your floors, backsplashes of walls and bathroom. You will be absolutely shocked by the difference it’s going to make. If you’ve got unglazed tile, you want to use a natural cleaner. Glazed tile can withstand stronger chemical cleansers. You just want to make sure you apply the cleanser with a toothbrush and work in small areas and rinse as you go.

TOM: And for that final January weekend, you can alleviate aches and creaks – in your house, that is – by applying some WD-40 to the working parts of any doors that aren’t opening or sliding the way they should. Just lubricate the hinges in sliding tracks to smooth the sticky situation. You can apply it to the hinges on medicine cabinets and kitchen cabinets, too. And every so often, put some WD-40 on your key and slide it into the lock to keep those parts working well.

Easy, simple weekend projects. If you’d like to look up some more, they’re on MoneyPit.com.

LESLIE: Mary Lee in Washington has a call about radiant heat for the floor. Tell us what’s going on.

MARY LEE: I’m going to remodel my bathroom. It’ll have a tile floor. Some of my neighbors in my condominium have put under their floors and say they love it. But I wonder if there’s any efficiency to it or if it’s just an expensive comfort.

TOM: I think it’s more of a luxury item, because your condominium probably has enough heat with the core heating system.

That said, it is kind of nice to have that toasty floor in the bathroom. And if you don’t mind the expense to install it, you can control the expense to run it because you’re always going to – you’re only going to operate it when you need it. You can put it on a timer, you could heat the floor up just for one particular bath/shower experience. You can really control that usage.

But it is awfully nice to have. There’s nothing efficient about it; it’s definitely going to cost you some money to run because it’s electric. And it’s the most expensive form of heat.

MARY LEE: OK. Thank you.

LESLIE: Well, ’tis the season for lots of things, including frozen pipes. Are you worried that yours are going to burst? Find out how to protect them in a few, easy steps, next.

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, this is The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show. I’m Tom Kraeutler.

LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.

Hey, guys. Are you feeling a little bit radio-shy? Well, there is more than one way that you can win big with The Money Pit. Like us on Facebook. You’re going to get news and updates on all of our upcoming sweepstakes.

Super-easy. All you have to do is head to Facebook.com/TheMoneyPit and click Like. And you’ll see all sorts of fun stuff that Tom and I post and interesting pictures and fun stories and of course, home improvement tips, which is – we know why you guys like The Money Pit.

And if you’re still feeling radio-shy, you can e-mail us or post your question in the Community section on Money Pit. And I’ve got one here from Joe in New Jersey who writes: “With all the recent cold weather, our cold-water pipes have been freezing. Now, the hot-water line just broke, which really surprised me since I thought that that one would not freeze, since it was for hot water. How do that happen and what can I do to keep the other ones from freezing?”

That’s a conundrum.

TOM: Ah, Joe, you have fallen upon one of the most common conundrums, as Leslie said, in home improvement and that is which pipe freezes first: the hot-water pipe or the cold-water pipe?

And you’ve discovered correctly that the hot-water pipe, in fact, freezes first and here is why. As the hot water runs through the water heater, the water heater – the process of heating that water takes all the air, all the air bubbles, out of the hot water. So that when that water freezes, there is nowhere for it to go; it doesn’t have any cushion. Cold water has a lot of tiny air bubbles in it that acts as kind of like a sponge, like a cushion. And it can – actually has to expand through that to crack. Hot water? Not so much. It’s going to cool off quickly, even though it’s hot. But since there are no air bubbles in the hot water, it’s going to expand, freeze and crack that pipe. So that is exactly what happened.

Now, how do we stop this from happening? Well, we need to identify the weak links in how your plumbing system is being run. You’re going to need to insulate those pipes. You’re going to need to insulate the area around them if cold air is getting in. You might need to consider putting some heat tape on those pipes so that you can plug it in and thaw them before it cracks.

But pipe insulation would be the first place to start and it’s pretty easy to add. So I would get started with that this weekend.

LESLIE: Alright. Now we’ve got one here from Suzanne in Illinois who writes: “I do a lot of entertaining and would like to put a second refrigerator in my garage. But I’ve heard that since my garage isn’t insulated, the refrigerator won’t work properly. Is this correct?”

TOM: It is correct, because the compressors on typical refrigerators are not going to perform correctly in sub-zero temperatures. They’ll run but they’ll run extremely inefficiently and they’re just not going to do the job. And they may actually seize up and break.

So that said, you need to invest in a refrigerator that’s designed for the garage. Now, Gladiator GarageWorks is one brand I’m aware of that makes something they call a Freezerator, which is a freezer for the garage. And they also make a refrigerator for the garage. And these compressors are specifically designed to work in that wide variety of temperature swings between sub-zero temperatures and then up to 100-plus on a hot summer day. You just can’t use your extra refrigerator in the garage and expect it to perform, because it won’t happen.

LESLIE: Yeah. And the benefit of these refrigerators that are actually designed for the garage is they are not as large as traditional refrigerators. So they don’t take up a lot of valuable real estate, which I know a lot of us use for our garages. You know, we’ve got stuff we keep in there if you’re lucky enough to get your car in there.

So they’re a good size, they’re right for the job and that’ll free up a lot of things from your main fridge, too, like extra beverages, extra sodas. So it really is a great idea, especially if you like to throw those parties.

TOM: This is The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show on air and online at MoneyPit.com. Thank you so much for spending this holiday weekend with us. We are here, 24-7, to help with your home improvement projects. So you can get in touch with us by posting your question at MoneyPit.com or calling any hour of the day to 888-MONEY-PIT. If we’re not in the studio, we’ll call you back the next time we are.

Happy Holidays, everyone. 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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