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: Call us right now with your home improvement question. Call us with your do-it-yourself dilemma. Whether you want to do it yourself; direct it yourself; tackle that project with some help from a friend or hire a guy, we’re here to help. Call us right now at 1-888-MONEY-PIT. 888-666-3974. Because, hey, we can help to.
Hey, coming up this hour, we’re going to have some tips on how to care for one of the hardest-working appliances in your kitchen. It’s your refrigerator. You know, when it’s running right you hardly know it’s there; when it’s on the fritz, it can totally wreck your life. One thing you don’t want is strange odors. Do you know where they’re coming from? We’re going to tell you – plus how to get rid of them – and it’s not your leftovers.
LESLIE: (chuckling) That’s crazy, Tom; stinky leftovers. You’ve got to eat those within three days and, remember, when it doubt throw it out; as my grandma always used to say.
And also ahead, a good, tight seal on your refrigerator door; if you’ve got one it means less wasted energy and it also means – you know, less energy wasted; less dollars flying out of your pocket. So we’re going to help you figure out if that door has a nice, tight seal and we can help you do it with an easy and a cheap trick.
TOM: And also ahead this hour, we’re going to talk cleaning, including a quick recipe for a homemade cleaner for all things chrome in your home. You know, we recently got a stainless steel-faced dishwasher, when the old one totally went on the fritz, and I was reminded very quickly about the combination of three young children and a stainless steel appliance.
LESLIE: (chuckling) Yes, fingerprints, fingerprints, fingerprints.
TOM: Exactly. So I whipped up a homemade recipe to help clean that up. We’re going to share that with you in just a bit.
LESLIE: And we’re also going to help one lucky listener with a quick decorating makeover because we’re giving away a prize that’s going to help you spruce up your home for the holiday season. It’s a Sure-Fit stretch slipcover. This one is suede. It’s worth 130 bucks and they will fit pretty much any size sofa and with a little tucking these things look fantastic.
TOM: So give us a call right now with your home improvement question. The number is 1-888-MONEY-PIT. 888-666-3974. Let’s get to the phones.
LESLIE: Mary in Rhode Island needs some help with a bathroom floor. What do you have in mind?
MARY: Well, I have some bamboo mats – floor mats – for the bathroom that I bought in a home goods store and I was wondering if I could put the bamboo flooring actually in the bathroom.
LESLIE: You can, actually. Bamboo is a great choice and when you buy it today it’s made in sort of a like a laminate situation where you’ve got a base of flooring that’s made with like a cross-ply so you’ve got different layers of wood and their grains are opposing one another, which makes them structurally stable so it’s great for a bath; and then the topmost layer is actually the bamboo. And so it’s really very durable for a bathroom. They are super gorgeous to look at. Armstrong has some wonderful bamboo options, different colors, which are really lovely. It’s a responsible choice because it grows so quickly and it’s perfect in a high-moisture situation.
TOM: That’s right. It grows in the tropics and it loves bathrooms.
MARY: I think it’s beautiful, too, and I really like these mats and I’m looking at them and I’m saying, ‘Why can’t I put these down on the floor? They would look fabulous.’ So thank you so much for that. I’m going to do it.
TOM: Alright, Mary. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Lamar in Utah has a venting question for Team Money Pit. What can we do for you today?
LAMAR: Hi. I had four vents installed when I had my roof reshingled and we’ve got extremes of weather here in Utah; very hot summers. And so it was recommended to put those vents in to help keep the heat out, but in the winter it gets real cold and I’m worried about energy loss.
TOM: Ah, so you’re wondering if you should seal those up in the winter.
LAMAR: Yes, is that advisable?
TOM: The answer is absolutely not because, actually, they serve a very important purpose in the winter, Lamar, and that is to vent that attic space and let moisture escape.
LESLIE: So that your insulation works properly.
TOM: Right. Your insulation has to be dry. If it’s not dry it won’t insulate. So a drafty attic is actually a very good thing. What you should do, if you’re concerned about energy efficiency, is make sure that you have plenty of insulation; probably at least 22 inches of fiberglass, in your part of the country, along that attic floor so that you have lots of resistance to heat loss and then the ventilation will help keep that nice and dry and make sure it’s effective.
LAMAR: Alright. And help prevent …
TOM: So that was a good thing. They did you a favor.
LAMAR: Yeah.
TOM: You know, the vents keep out the heat in the summer; they keep out the moisture in the winter and make sure the insulation works year round.
LAMAR: Yeah.
LESLIE: And Lamar, you want your attic space to be the same temperature as it is outside. So if it’s cold in the winter months it’s doing the job.
LAMAR: Oh, terrific.
TOM: You know, there’s a good website with tips on this topic. It’s called InsulateandSave.com. It’s put together by the experts at Owens Corning. And there is a homeowners guide to insulation that you can download on that website, which will give you sort of a more scientific explanation of why you need that ventilation and what you can do to make sure your house is really as efficient as possible.
LAMAR: Terrific. Well, thank you very much.
TOM: You’re welcome, Lamar. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: You are tuned to the Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show. It is just a few short weeks til the holidays; so hurry up, get those lists done and get your shopping done. We can help you find the right gift for that home improver in your life. So pick up the phone and give us a call 24 hours a day, seven days a week at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
TOM: 888-666-3974.
Up next, food – and not the leftover type – and other debris can raise a stink in your refrigerator. We’re going to give you some tips to keep things clean and smelling fresh, when we come back.
(theme song)
ANNOUNCER: This portion of The Money Pit is brought to you by Ryobi, manufacturer of professional-feature power tools and accessories with an affordable price for the do-it-yourselfer. Ryobi Power Tools. Pro features. Affordable price. Available exclusively at The Home Depot. Now, here are Tom and Leslie.
TOM: Making good homes better, welcome back to the Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show. I’m Tom Kraeutler.
LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete and you should pick up the phone and give us a call at 1-888-MONEY-PIT because one caller who we talk to on the air this hour is going to get the answer to their home improvement dilemma, whatever is bothering you at this moment in your money pit, but they’re also going to win the Sure Fit stretch suede slipcover. It’s worth $130 and it is a super-easy-to-put-on slipcover for a sofa in your home. It fits fantastically well. Really, all you need to do is a little tucking; a little pulling over. It works fantastic. They’re completely washable. It’s worth 130 bucks but it can completely change the look of your living room. But you’ve got to be in it to win it. So pick up the phone and give us a call at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
TOM: 888-666-3974. You’ve got to have a home improvement question to qualify for that great prize. What a quick decorating idea, too; suede slipcovers.
LESLIE: And these – you know, the Sure Fit brand; they actually look the best from all of those store-bought slipcovers. They fit very well, they adjust perfectly to pretty much all of the sofas that fit in within the size range and they come in a variety of fabrics. So usually I’m anti the slipcover but this is a great one; so I’m very happy to give one away.
TOM: Well, with the workout your refrigerator gets this time of year, you probably need to do a little maintenance to prevent major problems. If you smell strange odors, for example, they are not coming from last week’s leftovers. Better check the drain tray. To keep debris from clogging that fridge and settling in the drain pan, you want to clean the system regularly. Start by doing this.
You want to remove the drain pan stopper and use a pipe cleaner to push debris through the drain into the pan. Follow with a solution of soap, ammonia and water and then empty and wash the pan. Those few steps will clean it out pretty quickly and make that odor disappear miraculously.
888-666-3974. Call us right now if you’ve got a cleaning question, a do-it-yourself dilemma or a project that you have to get done. We’re here to help.
Leslie, who’s next?
LESLIE: Ann in Connecticut, welcome to The Money Pit. How can we help you today?
ANN: Hi, we put in a pearl hot tub, oh, probably a couple of years ago when we were building our house. And unfortunately, when I did the painting, I missed some spackles of paint on the tub itself. It’s navy blue and I got most of it but I’ve got little, tiny specks that have been on there now for quite a while. Is there any way to get them off?
LESLIE: And this is a fiberglass hot tub?
ANN: Yes.
LESLIE: What about – have you tried using a rubbing compound; like very, very delicately? You know, don’t be too aggressive with it. If you just carefully take a little bit of the rubbing compound on a damp cloth and then just sort of, in a circular motion, quickly go over the paint area it should lift it right off; then you can go ahead and wax that area.
ANN: OK. Well, so is it rubbing compound for like an auto or is there a special thing that I should look for?
TOM: The kind of rubbing compound that you use for your car. It’s available at Pep Boys and other auto part stores and places like that.
ANN: Fabulous. Well, I’ll give it a try. Thanks.
TOM: Alright, good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Vinnie needs some help with the water at his money pit. What can we do for you?
VINNIE: You mentioned, on your program, a water softener that doesn’t require the use of salt.
TOM: You’re correct. It’s called EasyWater.
VINNIE: Yep.
TOM: Yep. Good product. They sent us one; I installed it; it worked very well. Does not require any salt. Works on a totally different technology invented by the folks at Freije.
VINNIE: Where can I buy one of these?
TOM: Best thing to do is just go online – EasyWater.com; and in fact, if you tell them you heard about it on The Money Pit, they’ll give you 100 bucks off.
LESLIE: Whoo-hoo.
VINNIE: Yep. Money Pit, I don’t have a computer. (chuckles)
TOM: OK, well then you can pick up the phone and call them. I’ll give you a number. It’s 888-766-7258; 1-888-766-7258.
VINNIE: Thanks a million. Appreciate it.
TOM: Alright, give it a shot. Let us know what you think.
VINNIE: Thank you, buddy. Bye now.
TOM: 888-666-3974.
Leslie, who’s next?
LESLIE: Fiona in New York, you’ve got The Money Pit. What can we do for you today?
FIONA: Yes, hi. I purchased a house about 12 years ago and about 2.5, 3 years ago I noticed every spring – and when this started I didn’t think it was a big deal – I started having what I later found out to be drain flies. Now I’ve spent hundreds of dollars on products via the internet. I’ve had every exterminator you could possibly imagine in here. I had a sewer guy come in and put a video cam into the piping (Tom and Leslie chuckle), trying to get – because they actually can see them.
TOM: Right.
FIONA: Trying to figure it out. Now my problem is I’ve also been told if there is a leak – which the guy with the video cam did not see …
LESLIE: OK.
FIONA: … because that’s what they check for – they said that I would have to tear up the floors. Now, I’ve redone this house from top to bottom over the past 12 years. I (inaudible at 0:11:50.1).
LESLIE: And you’re like, ‘This is all stuff I would have liked to know.’
TOM: There’s a website that we’ve recommended before that we’ve gotten good success with; it’s called Do-It-Yourself Pest Control and they have a product called Invade Bio Foam. And it’s used a lot in commercial establishments. It’s a concentrated liquid with a foaming agent that helps it get in all the places it has to go.
LESLIE: Because what’s happening is you have organic debris and the flies are breeding in it and feeding on it and you need to get rid of that debris that sits in your pipes. And if you can get rid of that debris that’s their food source and their breeding source, then they’ll go away.
TOM: You know, there’s another good website that you might want to take a look at and it’s the National Pest Management Association has a website called PestWorld.org. And on Pest World you can actually contact one of their association experts and get a response. It’s a good group. They have an Ask-the-Pro section of it.
FIONA: OK. I’m going to try all of this. I’m desperate at this point.
LESLIE: Well, good luck.
TOM: Alright, good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Tiling trouble; that’s what Art in Texas has got. What can we do for you?
ART: Yeah, I have a little divot in a ceramic tile. It’s about a quarter-inch around and maybe about a quarter-inch deep. I had a glass fall on the tile. It didn’t crack it but just like knocked out this little hole in there and I tried Googling, you know, to find out about how to repair tile, if you can just do a spot repair, and the only thing I’ve been able to find is how to replace the whole tile and I was just wondering if there’s any kind of like, you know, a little concrete kind of thing you can pour in there or something to fill it in.
LESLIE: Is this in a spot where if you did some sort of patching repair job it would see a lot of action? Like is it in a big counter space that you use quite often?
ART: Yeah, it’s right there by a counter in the kitchen.
LESLIE: Because I feel like whatever you use to patch it, it’s not going to adhere as well as you hope that it will and, you know, with cleaning and everyday use it’s just going to keep popping out.
ART: Oh, OK. So really the only thing you can do for that is either live with it or replace the tile.
TOM: Or replace it with a tile that’s complementary if you can’t find one that happens to be an exact match.
ART: Right, yeah I’ve got tile left over from when they built the house.
TOM: Oh, good deal. You know that’s not that big of a deal to replace it then if you’ve got that tile. I would just do that if it bothers you that much.
ART: Great, thank you very much.
TOM: You’re welcome. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Veronica in New Jersey needs some help with a cement overrun or spill, if you will. What happened?
VERONICA: I had a major oil leak and it required a major cleanup to take out my front steps and my front sidewalk and the company who did the cleanup had done the replacing of the sidewalk and the front steps and they did a terrible job. Specifically, my front step is cement with slate surrounding the top and then the steps are slate.
TOM and LESLIE: OK.
VERONICA: The top part that was cement, they spilled a lot of the cement onto the slate part and it just looks awful and it – I don’t know how to get it off the slate; I don’t want to ruin the slate, but it’s brand new and it looks like it’s about 50 years old. I mean they just did a terrible job.
TOM: Essentially what you have to do is wear it off the slate. You have to abrade it so it goes off the slate. You’re not going to be able to do anything that will loosen it up or wash it off as you would try to get a spill off of a floor. It doesn’t work that way. Slate is very absorbent and so that concrete is probably really soaked into it and it’s very difficult to get it out.
Now you know, it’s possible that you could try an acid wash, but I’m concerned that that may adversely affect the slate. I can tell you that if you were to have it ground off, it could be abraded off and slate is going to retain its color straight through. So it could sort of be ground and polished off. It’s really not a do-it-yourself job. I mean you need some heavy tools. If you try to do it with a hand grinder, one of these abrasive pads that’s on the bottom of – sort of like an abrasive pad with a handle on it that masons use, you know, it’s a lot of work. But if you have the right tools you can grind that off, polish that slate and it’ll look fine. But it’s nothing that you can definitely clean yourself, Veronica.
VERONICA: So would that be a mason I would call? I mean who would I call to do that?
TOM: I think a mason could handle that for sure; absolutely.
VERONICA: OK.
TOM: They would have the right tools for that.
VERONICA: Excellent.
TOM: Veronica, thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT. 888-666-3974.
LESLIE: Heading down to South Carolina where Betty has a concrete question. What can we help you with?
BETTY: When I walk from my car into my house through my driveway and on my walk, when I come into my house, I see the footprints on my dark, hardwood floors.
TOM: Hmm. So you’re picking up something on your feet and you think it’s from the driveway?
BETTY: I think it’s – it’s almost like a very fine powder.
TOM: Hmm, I wonder if this – has the driveway had any wear-and-tear problems?
BETTY: No.
TOM: Well, how about a doormat. Have you thought of that? (chuckles)
BETTY: Well, I have but when I have company or …
TOM: Yeah.
BETTY: … a lot of people coming in; I mean it just – just one trip in and you can see them on the floor. And someone suggested maybe powerwashing it or …
TOM: Well, I mean you could but if you did that you’d have to be very careful to not erode too much of the surface because there’s a lot of wear and tear that happens when you pressure wash.
BETTY: Mm-hmm.
TOM: You certainly could try that but I think you’re just picking up normal dust and dirt from being outside and hardwood floors tend to really show that. And that’s why area rugs and carpets or throw rugs are a good idea.
LESLIE: And efflorescence coming through – you know, the mineral salts on the concrete floor – would not transfer to a foot like that?
TOM: I mean it could but I doubt, being outside, that she’s getting a lot of that built up because every time it rains it would probably wash away.
LESLIE: Wash away.
TOM: Yep. You know, you could have mineral salt deposits on it, like Leslie’s saying, that could be contributing to it but I don’t think there’s going to be an easy, permanent solution.
BETTY: OK.
TOM: Aside from, you know, wiping your feet.
You are tuned to the Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show. Up next, you can save some cold, hard cash on your utility bills by actually putting a dollar in your refrigerator. Want to know how that works? We’re going to tell you, next.
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ANNOUNCER: This portion of The Money Pit is brought to you by Aprilaire, makers of professionally-installed, high-efficiency air cleaners. For more information go to Aprilaire.com. Now, here are Tom and Leslie.
TOM: This is The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show. I’m Tom Kraeutler.
LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete and this time of year if you are feeling the pinch from all of your holiday shopping and then all of a sudden your energy bill arrives and you really are feeling sad, well we can help you save some dollars. Because one of the biggest energy hogs in your house is actually residing in your kitchen and it can be your refrigerator. You know, opening the door immediately causes that temperature inside to rise; so then your fridge has to work double-time to lower it once you close the door. And the same thing can happen continuously if your refrigerator door seal is not tight and this can be caused by an older, worn gasket or even if your fridge is just sitting on an uneven surface. So we want you to test it. Everybody reach into your wallets and pull out a dollar bill.
Alright, now that you’ve got the dollar bill you’re like, ‘What am I doing with this?’ Go over …
TOM: Get an envelope.
LESLIE: (chuckling) Mail it Tom.
TOM: Address it to Leslie. (Tom and Leslie laugh)
LESLIE: Team Money Pit. Take out your dollar bill; head over to your fridge. Now put it in. Open the door. Put it in, close the door over it. If you can pull that bill out easily, you may need to adjust the latch or replace the seal completely. It’s a tip that only costs that dollar that’s in your pocket and you get to keep the change.
TOM: 888-666-3974. Call us right now if you’ve got a home improvement question. And hey, if you like that tip, you’ll love all the stuff you can get at MoneyPit.com. We’ve got a treasure trove of resources for you right there. You can check out our tip of the day and learn how to get a new one every, single day; you can even add it to your website and you can look up our project of the week; you can even get a monthly maintenance calendar that will give you step-by-step, one-weekend-at-a-time exactly how to keep your money pit in tiptop shape.
Let’s get back to the phones.
Leslie, who’s next?
LESLIE: Alright, countertop talk with Mark in Washington. What can we do for you?
MARK: I recently purchased a home, a 20s cottage style, and the kitchen was remodeled in 1972 and they put in a yellow Formica countertop. The backsplash is also yellow Formica. (Leslie chuckles)
TOM: And what’s wrong with that? (chuckling)
MARK: Well, this happens to be the house I grew up in.
TOM: OK. Time for a change.
MARK: After 36 years I’m a little tired of the Formica.
LESLIE: (overlapping voices) You’re like, ‘I’m sick of it.’
TOM: (overlapping voices) Yeah, you’re ready for a decorating change. (chuckles)
MARK: And what we’d like to do is see if we can go right over the Formica with subway tile as the backsplash. We’re going to replace the countertop. The problem is they put the backsplash up, put the Formica up and then they put the cabinets up over it and we’re going to see if we can just go ahead and put the tile on over the Formica. Or are we going to have to pull that backsplash off?
LESLIE: You actually can go ahead and put the tile over the existing Formica. If it’s super smooth and shiny you may need to scuff it up a little bit just so the mastic does adhere better to the Formica itself.
MARK: OK.
LESLIE: You want to, of course – you know it depends on how this was done. Is the countertop inset and then the backsplash is on top of it? You may need to have that counter installed first just in case there’s any movement, cracking, lifting up that sort of shifts that backsplash around. Get your new countertop in and then go ahead and put the tile up.
MARK: Outstanding.
TOM: Mark, thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Sheryl in Colorado’s got some leaky windows. Tell us what’s going on?
SHERYL: I have some windows in a house that I have cold air coming through.
TOM and LESLIE: OK.
SHERYL: And we want – I want to know how to get insulation or whatever I can do to stop it from coming through the windows. They’re sliding windows (inaudible at 0:22:09.3).
TOM: Oh, those are really drafty. Yeah.
SHERYL: Yeah, and we can feel it – we’d be downstairs; we can feel the cold air coming from downstairs.
TOM: Mm-hmm. Are these windows where; in your bedroom?
SHERYL: In the bedroom and in the front room.
TOM: Hmm. Well, a couple of things. First of all, if you didn’t need to open the windows – which in the bedroom you might have to because they’re an escape route – we would recommend that you use a temporary caulk product. You can actually caulk the windows shut – several manufacturers make these – but essentially, it’s a temporary caulk where you can caulk the window and then peel the caulk off; it peels off in a string.
LESLIE: But it seals up that draft all around the operable parts of the window.
TOM: And sometimes you have a really old window that’s got big gaps; it’s a good solution. Another thing you could do is to look at weatherstripping to see if you could find some ways to seal that a little bit better. You could use some heavier curtains. You could use a honeycomb shade.
LESLIE: Yeah, Levolor makes that honeycomb shade that really has good insulating power.
TOM: (overlapping voices) Yeah, they do. Yeah, and it’s a good one. That, coupled with a heavier curtain, will stop – you want to stop the cold air not only from coming in but the warm air in the house that strikes it …
LESLIE: From going out.
TOM: … will chill and then fall because of convection and that causes a draft.
SHERYL: And what kind of weatherstripping would I get; just foam or …?
TOM: It depends on the design of the window but if you look at how the window was designed to seal originally, then you could choose probably one of the self-stick products and you could improve it. And they come in all sorts of shapes and sizes and so on and they’re at the home center; they’re inexpensive and I would do a little bit of experimenting and try to see if you can get one that works well.
And finally, the last thing that you could do is, if you really don’t want to deal with it, is you could use shrink film over it. You know, there are these shrink window – these window film kits …
LESLIE: It’s like a wrap.
TOM: … where you basically put like a clear plastic across the entire opening and then, with a hair dryer, you heat it and it pulls really nice and tight and clear and that totally stops the draft. And if you ever had to get out in the event of an emergency you just punch right through it.
SHERYL: OK.
TOM: So there are a few ways to deal with those leaky sliding windows and I think if you’re thinking about a good improvement, moving forward in the future when you get the time and you’re ready for that investment, I think you’d get a lot of enjoyment out of some new windows. Because there’s nothing worse than the leaky sliding ones.
SHERYL: Mm-hmm, they’re bad. (chuckles)
TOM: Yeah, they sure are.
SHERYL: (chuckling) Yes.
TOM: Alright?
SHERYL: Alright then. I sure appreciate it. That’s what I wanted to find out.
TOM: Alright, well good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Well, over here at Team Money Pit we are big fans of stainless steel appliances; not so much big fans of the fingerprints that show up all over the stainless steel appliances. It is a pain in the butt but Tom has a fantastic trick, and we are going to share it with you, to bring the shine back to all of those beautiful appliances, after this.
(theme song)
ANNOUNCER: The Money Pit is being brought to you by Guardian Home Standby Generators, America’s choice in power outage protection. Learn more at GuardianGenerators.com. Now, here are Tom and Leslie.
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: And we are here to help you make your money pit better. If you’ve got a question about a do-it-yourself dilemma; got a project that you’d like to start – don’t know where to begin – pick up the phone and begin with us. 888-666-3974.
Here’s a project. How do I keep my furniture in good shape; especially if I’ve got pets or kids? The answer might be a very nice, suede slipcover because that’s what we’re giving away this hour. It’s worth 130 bucks. It’s from Sure Fit and, as Leslie said before, these are very, very nice slipcovers and they go on very easy; they fit very well and they can definitely totally change the look and the feel of the room that you have this piece of furniture in. If you’d like to win it, pick up the phone right now. Call us with your home improvement question; perhaps your decorating question. We will toss your name in the Money Pit hardhat and might send that slipcover out to you worth 130 bucks.
LESLIE: And while we are on the subject of making old, worn things look new and fantastic, we’ve got an easy and inexpensive homemade recipe for chrome and stainless. It’s a fantastic cleaner.
What you want to do is you want to make a paste of baking soda and water and then go ahead and apply it with a soft cloth, let it dry and then gently wipe away. All of your surfaces are going to sparkle like new. I swear to you they are going to challenge your holiday lights. They will be so fantastically new and shiny. You want to make sure, especially with stainless – you know how stainless has a grain?
TOM: Yeah.
LESLIE: When you’re taking off this sort of paste that you’ve made, make sure you go in the direction of the grain. It will help make everything look fantastic.
TOM: 888-666-3974. Let’s get back to the phones.
Leslie, who’s next?
LESLIE: Dan in Illinois needs to clean some tar off of brick. Tell us what you’ve got going on over there.
DAN: Yeah, I bought a brick ranch house and, apparently, they must have had problems with water in the basement and they put tar and seal between the concrete patio along the front and the back of the house.
TOM: Hmm.
DAN: And the tar runs up the bricks probably two inches and out on the concrete about two inches.
TOM: (chuckling) They tried to …
DAN: It’s real hard and dry.
TOM: They tried to tar it shut, huh?
DAN: Yeah, it didn’t work. I replaced the gutters on the house and cleaned out the window wells …
TOM: (overlapping voices) And that made it all go away, right? I bet that solved it.
DAN: That solved the problem.
TOM: Yeah.
DAN: But anyhow, I’ve got to get rid of this tar on there. I try to scrape it and that doesn’t seem to work very well.
TOM: Have you tried any type of a solvent?
DAN: I haven’t and I thought about trying gas on it but I thought that might be the wrong thing, so …
TOM: (overlapping voices) Aw, no, no, no, no. I wouldn’t try gasoline. I would try a solvent like mineral spirits. And you might want to use a degreaser. Sometimes you can use it together with the mineral spirits. I would try a little bit at a time to see if we can soften this stuff up. Because that’s what you’ve got to do. You’ve got to soften it up and scrape it off. It’s not going to come off easily but I’d try to get off as much as I can.
And then the other thing that you could do is you could pressure wash the rest. Pressure washing can tend to get under it and lift it but you’ve got to be real careful because if you do go to heavy you’ll damage the brick.
DAN: Alright. Well, I’ll give that a try and see if that helps me out.
TOM: I think it will, Dan. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Sue in Indiana is looking for some help with flooring. What’s going on at your money pit?
SUE: I have carpet in my house right now and I have two large dogs and I want to take the carpet out and put something in that’s a little more dog-friendly but I’m not sure what is the best thing that holds up under the wear and tear of, say, two 70-pound dogs.
TOM: Well, my two cents would be laminate flooring. Laminate flooring can not only stand up to 70-pound dogs but it stands up to children pretty well, as evidenced in my house.
LESLIE: (chuckling) You know, kids with claws.
TOM: Yeah, kids with claws.
LESLIE: Would you go with a commercial-grade finish over a residential or do you think residential sort of stands up to it.
TOM: I think residential will be fine here. The laminate floor is really pretty durable stuff and it’s very attractive. It can look like tile, it can look like hardwood and I think you’ll be very happy with it, Sue.
SUE: Now the laminate, are you talking about the one that has the padding on the back or the one that you put the padding down first?
TOM: That depends on the manufacturer. Some manufacturers have the underlayment attached to the laminate and some have it as a separate element.
SUE: Is it better one way or another?
TOM: I don’t think so. You know, essentially, I would buy a brand-name product; you know, I would get a Pergo or an Armstrong or a Tarkett or something like that and I would look for the lock-together tiles – the lock-together so it doesn’t need any glue – and I would put it down. I think you’re going to find that it’s incredibly durable and you’ll be very happy and so will your pets.
SUE: OK, great. Thanks.
TOM: You’re welcome, Sue. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Lola in Pennsylvania, you’ve got The Money Pit. What can we do for you today?
LOLA: Yeah, I was calling about the gutter on the north side of my house.
TOM: OK.
LOLA: [Thought of] (ph) replacing it. Is there anything that can actually, truly remove the black mildew that forms on it every year?
TOM: Yeah, sure. You can clean it with a house wash material. There’s a product on the market called Jomax. It’s a siding wash and it’s specifically designed to attack those stains and that’s a product that you could mix up and use to clean them with.
LOLA: With a power washer.
TOM: You may not necessarily need to use the power washer. You need to spray this stuff on first because if you just try to blast off the mildew …
LESLIE: You’re just washing away the material itself that’s cleaning.
TOM: And you get some of the roots, so to speak, that stay behind and it comes back just as quick. You need to treat it first. So you need to use a house wash like Jomax or a bleach-and-water solution; spray it on there; let it sit for 15 or 20 minutes and then you can use the pressure washer to blast off the residual.
LOLA: Oh, and it will totally come off?
TOM: Yes.
LESLIE: Oh, yeah.
LOLA: Thank you.
TOM: Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
You are tuned to the Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show.
Up next, we’re going to have some tips on how to waterproof a crawlspace. We got an e-mail from Rick. Perhaps this has happened to you. He’s heard our tips on how to waterproof basements but he doesn’t have a basement; certainly not a space he’d like to live in. This one’s filled with dirt and concrete but it’s flooded nonetheless. It’s causing all sorts of moisture issues; potentially some mold. We’re going to talk about how to fix that, next.
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ANNOUNCER: The Money Pit is brought to you by Owens Corning. It’s easy to insulate your home and save money. What’s stopping you? Learn more at InsulateandSave.com. Now, here are Tom and Leslie.
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: And if you’re out shopping for a great home improvement gift for the holidays, we would suggest My Home, My Money Pit: Your Guide to Every Home Improvement Adventure, available at MoneyPit.com right now; our brand new book. We hope that you enjoy it. It will make a great gift for a DIY-er in your household. And if there’s a project that you want to get done, we recommend opening to that page and putting a little sticky note right there as a not-so-subtle hint (Leslie chuckles) that this might be the first area they may want to dig into.
LESLIE: Start with this one. (Tom laughs)
And while you’re looking around online for some ideas for projects for the holiday season, head on over to MoneyPit.com and you can click on Ask Tom and Leslie to e-mail us your question. We always answer you back; sometimes on the show, sometimes by e-mail. So we’re going to jump in now and I’ve got one here from Rick in Branchville, New Jersey who writes: ‘I’ve heard your tips on waterproofing a basement but my problem is an unfinished, flooded crawlspace. Can you make a suggestion for waterproofing this area?’
TOM: Yes, Rick. If you’ve been paying attention you know, of course, that we typically tell folks how to cure flooded basements and, just to reiterate, it has to do with getting the water away from the foundation perimeter; two areas of concern: the gutters and the grading.
Now, in the case of a crawlspace, it’s kind of like a shallow basement; so that advice still applies. But there a couple of other steps. First of all, you want to make sure that your crawlspace is properly vented. You need to have at least one vent on each side of the crawlspace so that you can get dry air that sort of washes through that space. And secondly, after you get it dried out, we want you to put down a plastic vapor barrier across the crawlspace floor. This will stop moisture from wicking up, evaporating up, into that area; condensing on the wood beams; causing mold and decay to form and cause all sorts of damage. It’ll also keep that insulation in that space drier, which will make it more effective.
So remember: grading, gutters, ventilation and a vapor barrier will keep your crawlspace nice and dry.
LESLIE: Alright, James in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania writes: ‘I’m finishing our basement.’ Alright, we’re down in the basement this hour. (Tom chuckles) ‘I have framed the walls and I’m wondering about insulation and vapor barrier. I’m worried about installing fiberglass batt. If I do put up the batting, where do I put the vapor barrier?’
TOM: James, good question. Insulating a basement is actually pretty simple. Fiberglass is a perfect material for that.
Now, before you actually tackle this, we want to make sure you’ve addressed all of the moisture issues that we just talked about; making sure that basement space is nice and dry. You can also caulk the band joist. Now that’s the horizontal band beam that goes just above the walls. You want to make sure you caulk that and seal that to prevent air leakage in those joints, which will actually cause a very inefficient draft situation in the basement. Once that is done, you can add pink fiberglass insulation; you can use faced insulation. The facing – the vapor barrier side should face the inside of the crawlspace. You always put the vapor barrier towards the living space. Make sure you use cut pieces up in that band area and you can use full pieces in between the studs.
After that, you can drywall over it and we would recommend that you not use paper-faced drywall. You want to use the new drywall product from Georgia-Pacific called Dens Armor Plus. That’s the fiberglass stuff; right, Leslie?
LESLIE: Mm-hmm. It’s fiberglass-faced. It finishes the exact same way as your typical drywall product. It finishes beautifully and it’s made to withstand these high-moisture environments. So I hope that helps and enjoy your new basement.
TOM: This is The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show. Thank you so much for spending this hour with us. We covered a lot of ground. Hopefully we’ve helped you fix up your money pit just in time for the next holiday, which is just ahead. Man, it’s really coming up quick.
LESLIE: Days.
TOM: If you’ve got a question; you’ve got an emergency; can’t figure out where to go, pick up the phone anytime of the day or night and call us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT. If we’re not in we’ll call you back the next time we are in the studio.
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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END HOUR 1 TEXT
(Copyright 2008 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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