Hosts: Tom Kraeutler & Leslie Segrete
(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 1 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: The number is 1-888-MONEY-PIT. That’s a very important number because we are here to provide the answers to your home improvement questions; to help solve your do-it-yourself dilemmas. What are you working on? We want to know right now. What are you working on? You’ve got to be doing something in your house. Yeah, we know it might be hot (laughter), but I’m sure you’re thinking about doing something. Maybe you want to just lower the air conditioning cost.
LESLIE: ‘Aw, but the heat makes me lazy.’
TOM: Ah, I know. But it’s going to get cool very soon and you know what’s going to happen after that? You’re going to start paying for those winter heating bills and you know, there’s things that you can do now …
LESLIE: And you need to start getting your house ready …
TOM: Right.
LESLIE: … for the cooler weather that’s right around the corner.
TOM: When it’s pleasant. Now’s the time to do it; not when it’s like zero degrees out, OK? So maybe you want to do some weather stripping or some painting or caulking or fix up. Maybe you want to get the house ready because you’re going to be trapped inside for an entire winter so you want to like talk about remodeling the kitchen. Whatever you’re working on, whatever you’re doing, call us right now. We’re here to help. 1-888-MONEY-PIT. 888-666-3974.
Now, if you’re going to tackle some of those jobs, you might need to know about the tools to get them done. So, coming up later this hour, we’re going to have a great guest to talk about just that.
LESLIE: Yeah, that’s right. We’ve got Kevin Ireton and he’s going to tell us all about this fantastic new generation of tools that are powered by lithium ion batteries. And it’s not just hype, folks. They actually pack up to three times the voltage into a single battery cell; which means you’ll have longer run times and more power. So stay with us for that great interview.
TOM: You know, I was playing with one of those lithium ion tools the other day. That’s what we get to do.
LESLIE: (overlapping voices) They’re so light.
TOM: We get to play with them. And they are light. You would think that they’re going to be very big and heavy; but no, they’re very, very light and they’re very powerful. And I like the way this technology works because the tool doesn’t sort of peter out when the battery power gets really weak. It goes full steam ahead and boom; then it’s done. So you’re not going to kind of …
LESLIE: It’s not just turning like Rrrrr.
TOM: Right, exactly. No, it’s really cool technology. So Kevin will tell us all about that. And you could win a great prize because guess what – you ready for this? Talk about jobs around the house. How about a Husky pressure washer worth 170 bucks. That’s going to go to one caller on today’s program that reaches us at 888-MONEY-PIT. 888-666-3974. You’ve got to give us a call and be willing to come on the air and ask your home improvement question.
So Leslie, who’s first?
LESLIE: WAMO! We’ve got Charlene from Pittsburgh coming up. What’s going on with your pipes?
CHARLENE: Every time I turn the water off, you hear this big D-D-D-D-D-D-DOOM!
LESLIE: (chuckling) You do that really well.
TOM: Could you do that one more time?
CHARLENE: (laughing) D-D-D-D-D-D-DOOM! (laughter)
TOM: Ah! Now I know exactly what it is. (laughing)
CHARLENE: I mean it really rattles. It’s just like it’s – something’s busted and stuff, you know? (laughter)
TOM: Yeah, you know, Charlene? As loud and noisy and scary as that is, it has a simple answer. It’s called water hammer. And the way it happens is when you turn your water faucet on, all of that water is rushing through that pipe on its way to the spigot. Then you turn it off and the water has all this centrifugal force; it wants to keep going. And so it sort of hits a wall and bounces back and that shakes the pipes and that’s what’s called water hammer. There’s a device called a water hammer …
LESLIE: Hammer arrester.
TOM: That’s right. There’s a water hammer arrester. It’s like a shock absorber for your plumbing system that will reduce that noise dramatically. And the other thing is if the pipes where they’re rattling, if they’re accessible – like they’re going through the crawlspace or basement or a place where you can get access to them – you can put additional brackets to support them to the frame of the house. Because some of that rattling is just because they’re not supported well. But those two things will quiet that down. And Charlene, the one thing you should know is don’t worry about it too much because even though it sounds terrible, it almost never causes a problem with the plumbing. In the worst case scenario, it could, you now, shake something loose but, frankly, I have heard that in so rare a circumstance that I wouldn’t worry about it.
CHARLENE: OK, well listen. One more thing. Can I get this arrester at Home Depot?
TOM: Yes, I’m sure you can buy a water hammer arrester at any good home improvement store, but you probably are going to need to have a plumber install it because it involves tapping into your plumbing system.
Charlene, thanks so much for calling us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
I love the way she mimicked that sound.
LESLIE: (chuckling) And she did it on command.
Gwen in California’s up next and she finds The Money Pit on KSRO. And you’ve got a painting question. How can we help?
GWEN: Hello. Yes, I bought a house and it has seafoam green ceramic tile around the fireplace; which just doesn’t work for me. And I was wondering if ceramic tile can be painted maybe black or white or some other more appropriate color. Have you had any experience with that?
LESLIE: It’s – absolutely you can paint it. It’s all a matter of making sure that you get proper adhesion. And the first thing you need to do is make sure that those tiles are all really, really clean. And around the fireplace, you’re probably getting a buildup of smoke and it might just have some dirt and dust on it. So try to clean that really well and a good way to clean it is with water and ammonia – a mixture of the two. And that’ll get rid of any sort of dirt that might be on there. And once that’s on there, once everything’s really clean, make sure you rinse it well with plain water and let it dry.
And then, you have to make sure you prime it with something that’s really going to stick really well. And a Bulls Eye 1-2-3 primer from Zinsser – it’s an oil-base primer – it’s going to stick really well to the ceramic tile, which is important because you want to make sure that that other paint sticks to it. But it’s important to remember that even though you’re painting with something that’s going to stick well, if you sort of rub on the tile abrasively, you might scratch if off anyway. So you have to be really cautious, once it’s painted, that you treat it carefully. You know, don’t scrub it; don’t scratch at it. Because, you know, it could be prone to showing damage.
And then, once you put the primer on, make sure you use – I think an oil-based paint would be good because it’ll give you a nice sheen and it’ll stick really well. And that should do the trick.
GWEN: Just any oil-base or just a … is there a tile oil-based paint or …?
LESLIE: Oh, yeah. I think any sort of oil-based paint that you would find. Behr makes a fantastic paint that offers excellent coverage. And just make sure you get an oil base that will really stick well. Because it gives you good adhesion, it gives you nice sheen.
GWEN: Alright. Well, thank you so much.
TOM: You’re welcome, Gwen. Thanks so much for calling us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Mark in Pennsylvania’s working on the bathroom floor. What can we do for you?
MARK: Yes, I’m putting in laminate flooring and I have a question. When you put in the laminate flooring, can you put the toilet on top of that laminate flooring? (inaudible) supposed to be a floating floor or would it be best to cut around, leaving a
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