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:
(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 now with your home improvement project. Call us now with your do-it-yourself dilemma. Call us now; we’re here to help you out at 1-888-MONEY-PIT. 888-666-3974.
Hey, call us now if you’d like to move but you can’t, so you’re kind of stuck in your place. We’ll help you make it bigger, more beautiful, more organized; all of that is possible.
LESLIE: (overlapping voices) More tolerable. (chuckles)
TOM: More tolerable. That’s right. 1-888-MONEY-PIT. 888-666-3974.
Hey, speaking of which, coming up today, kitchen islands are a great workspace and a comfortable gathering place as well. Now, if you don’t have an island and a complete renovation is just not in your budget, no problem. We’ve got some great ideas for a makeshift work space that will look just like it was there all along.
LESLIE: And also ahead this hour, as long as we’re in the kitchen – and this is something that we truly generate a ton of in our kitchens and I’m sure you guys do as well – you know, the average family in America produces dozens of pounds of garbage each week and all of that trash can really start to cause an odor problem in your house; especially if your husband, like mine, forgets to take the garbage out when he says? (Tom chuckles) Not that I’m bitter about it. (chuckles)
But seriously, if you don’t maintain the trash situation in your house, you can end up with a pretty stinky situation. So we’re going to tell you how to keep your trash cans odor and germ-free.
TOM: Now here’s a cost-effective tip: how would you like to know how to make your own furniture polish? You know, it’s a lot cheaper than the canned stuff and it’s all-natural too. We’re going to have the quick and easy recipe for you, coming up.
LESLIE: And one caller that we talk to on the air this hour is going to win a $50 Smart Pack of tools from our friends over at Redback.
TOM: That ought to help you get those projects done. So pick up the phone and call us right now at 1-888-MONEY-PIT. 888-666-3974.
Leslie, who’s first?
LESLIE: Sharon in New Mexico needs some help with a textured ceiling. What can we do for you?
SHARON: Well, yes. I do have a textured ceiling and I have a ceiling fan. So in summer, the ceiling gets really dirty and I haven’t found a great solution to go ahead and clean it.
TOM: Well, aside from getting the dust off, that you could do with a vacuum, you’re probably better off repainting it. Have you painted it at all?
SHARON: No, I haven’t.
TOM: I think that it’s probably so absorbent that it’s sucking up all the dirt. There is a little trick of the trade for painting this and it has to do with the type of roller you use; it’s very, very thick and it’s actually sliced.
LESLIE: Yeah. It looks – it looks like one of those sliced Virginia hams; like those spiral hams? And the whole …
SHARON: OK, OK.
LESLIE: … roller itself is completely sliced; so as you paint over the textured ceiling, the roller sort of opens up to accommodate that texture and it will get the paint all around. But it will also put the paint on without removing the ceiling.
SHARON: OK.
TOM: And I think if you prime the ceiling and then paint it, you’ll find that it traps a lot less dirt and it looks a lot better.
SHARON: OK. So go ahead and prime it first. But what do I do about cleaning the dirt off? Just vacuum the mess that I get?
TOM: (overlapping voices) Well, you just vacuum it off. Yeah, just vacuum off as much as you can. The primer will do a really good job of sealing in whatever is there; that’s why you’re using it. That’s basically the base that makes the paint stick, so it’ll seal it in nicely.
SHARON: Oh, OK.
TOM: And then you could paint on top of that with some ceiling paint. And by the way, make sure you buy ceiling paint because it doesn’t drip as much.
SHARON: Oh, OK. Great.
LESLIE: Calling in with the number one question to The Money Pit – flooring – we’ve got Carl from Indiana who’s got a question about tiling. How can we help you?
CARL: Yep. I’ve got a question regarding my kitchen and living room floor tile. I’d like to cover it with new tile and I’ve got some nail heads coming up through it. And also, I’ve got a little bit of space between them. Do I need to put glue on down or something again? I’m not sure what to do first.
LESLIE: So you’re wondering if it’s OK to go over what’s existing or do you have to take it out?
CARL: Yeah. That’s correct.
LESLIE: How – well, the question really is what type of condition is that floor in? I know you said there’s some spaces but is the tile really stuck down well? Is there a lot of movement? Do you see cracks on the tiles?
TOM: And are we talking about ceramic tile or are we talking about vinyl tile?
CARL: It’s vinyl tile.
TOM: OK.
CARL: And I really don’t have any movement; I can just see spaces here and there. Not many.
TOM: OK.
CARL: Just where it, over the years, has just – maybe expansion or something.
TOM: And you want to put down new vinyl or new ceramic?
CARL: New vinyl.
TOM: New vinyl, OK. By the way, why are you choosing vinyl as opposed to, say, a laminate floor? Have you thought about that?
CARL: I really hadn’t thought about it.
TOM: Well, my concern is that if you put the new tile over the old tile, eventually the adhesive on the old tile is going to release and then you’re going to have both pieces come up at the same time.
CARL: OK.
TOM: What you could think about doing is using a laminate floor and, Carl, that’s going to – those laminate pieces are going to interlock together and they don’t actually physically attach to the floors, so they’re essentially …
LESLIE: It floats right over the old one.
TOM: They’re essentially floating, correct.
CARL: Oh, OK.
TOM: (overlapping voices) And then you don’t have to worry about it.
LESLIE: (overlapping voices) And it’s very easy to install and you can get it to look like anything you want: from a stone to wood; it can be planks like wood or it can be, you know, a 12×12-looking tile to look like ceramic or stone.
CARL: OK. That’d be excellent.
TOM: Yeah, take a look at it; it’s a great product. I’ve got it in my kitchen and it’s been down for over a decade and it really takes a lot of abuse.
CARL: OK. Well, thank you very much.
TOM: You’re welcome, Carl. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: You are tuned to The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show. Well, we are smack in the middle of winter and if those long, winter days are leading to home improvement projects, you are in the right place. We’d love to give you a hand, so pick up the phone and give us a call with your home repair or your home improvement question. We’ve got people standing by 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
TOM: And the next stop on our home improvement train is the kitchen. Are you short on work space there? Is a complete redo totally out of your budget? No problem. We’ve got a great idea for an inexpensive makeover, after this.
(theme song)
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. The number is 1-888-MONEY-PIT. 888-666-3974.
Why should you call? Well, you’ll get the answer to your home improvement question and one caller we talk to on the air this hour is going to win the Smart Pack from Redback Tools. It includes the Maxistrike Junior hammer and the Maxi S5 Phillips screwdriver. The Smart Pack is worth 50 bucks but it could be yours for free if we choose your name at random from among our callers this hour. The number again is 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Yep. Pick up the phone and give us a call. Let us know what you’re working on, especially if you’re thinking about tackling a home improvement project in your kitchen. Maybe you’re thinking about a major renovation; maybe you’re thinking about changing some of the things that you have just to create a whole new space.
Well, if you’re thinking about working on your kitchen, you know you can really give a whole new look and create a whole new area to enjoy by creating an island. It’s going to give you a great work area to do chopping and mixing and blending and it’s also a great place for your entire family to gather around because, you know, everybody does end up in the kitchen.
And when you’re thinking about an island, you can use something like butcher block to create the top; even if you’ve got an existing piece of furniture like a bar or a tall desk. Think about re-purposing something you’ve already got; even head over to the salvage store and see what they’ve got there. Somebody else’s trash is another person’s treasure; you never know what you’re going to find.
And you can also – if you get a piece of stock cabinetry and then go and splurge maybe on a piece of granite, you can create something so beautiful that will work fantastically for your kitchen and your needs and it really will open up a whole other place to enjoy.
TOM: Hey, here’s another idea if you have a pass-through area. You know, that’s that sort of seemingly useless hole between the kitchen and the dining room. Why not add a countertop to that space that sort of extends it into the dining room space? Then you could add some stools and really have sort of a bar, sort of eating space there that can be useful for a whole lot of things.
See, these ideas don’t have to cost a lot of money and they really can spruce up your space on the cheap.
888-666-3974. Let’s get back to those phones.
Leslie, who’s next?
LESLIE: Craig in Iowa, you’ve got The Money Pit. What can we do for you today?
CRAIG: Yeah, I’ve got a moisture problem in my house and it’s actually on the outside wall.
TOM: OK.
CRAIG: So in the winter, when it gets very cold here, actually it – condensation on the walls themselves.
TOM: Hmm.
CRAIG: Like we get some on the windows but also on the walls.
TOM: OK.
CRAIG: And the house feels dry; like it doesn’t seem like we have excessive moisture in here.
TOM: OK. And we’re sure that we’re not having any sort of a leak here?
CRAIG: No, because it’s in various places in the house …
TOM: OK.
CRAIG: … and it’s only towards the bottom of the walls. (inaudible at 0:09:11.0)
TOM: Alright. Well, obviously, it’s still very damp inside the house. You’re not feeling it yourself but it’s evidencing itself on the wall. A couple of things. First of all, there’s an insulation issue because the walls are probably colder than they need to be, so I don’t think you have continuous insulation. You may want to think about having a home energy audit done where the walls could be scanned with an infrared scanner and actually point out the cold spots in the wall.
The second thing that you could do is take some steps to reduce the amount of humidity inside the house. You know, Aprilaire makes a product called a whole-home dehumidifier that can be adjusted to run 24-7 and maintain just the right amount of humidity – whether it’s, you know, the summer or the winter – in every room of your house; not just, say for example, a basement.
Other things that you can do would be to improve the grading and the drainage at the foundation perimeter.
LESLIE: Yeah, control that moisture that’s coming in from the outside so that it doesn’t become a problem inside.
TOM: Yeah, so we have less water against the foundation.
LESLIE: Margaret in New Jersey has a situation with a leaky shed. Tell us about the problem.
MARGARET: Well, yes, it was a brand new shed from the bottom up. It was set up on, I believe, cinder blocks and it’s at the shore, about two blocks from the beach, which gets a lot of rain and what-have-you. Now, it had a – I had a Therma-Tru door, which opens into the shed. It has no storm door. And about a year or so into – after the shed was built – I start to see on the left side, on the floor was rain or – in other words, water damage. And so – not thinking much of it but, in the meantime, I saw the bottom hinge of the door become rusted and was slightly away from the door; so I thought it was the door so I replaced it with a new door.
TOM: OK.
MARGARET: Now the following year – so the door was put in and the same thing happened, Only now I see water damage on both sides of the door; on the left and the right.
TOM: Mm-hmm. Well, first of all …
MARGARET: (overlapping voices) And in the interim now, this has been going on several years. Everybody I had to look at it, they didn’t know where the problem was coming from.
TOM: Well, first of all, this shed that you have; we’re talking about like a wood shed? Like a small building?
MARGARET: It’s a small building with siding on it.
TOM: With siding on it. OK.
MARGARET: Everything was brand new.
TOM: And how do we know that the siding is correctly installed and there’s not a flashing problem? Because that’s kind of what it sounds like.
MARGARET: Well, see, I did have the contractor look at it about a year or so later and of course he said, ‘You know, there’s nothing I can do about it.’ He says, ‘Just put up a storm door.’ And that was his answer. (Tom and Margaret laugh) So …
TOM: What he meant to say is, ‘There’s nothing I want to do about it, Margaret.’ (Leslie and Margaret chuckle)
MARGARET: So, I’m baffled.
TOM: The situation here, it’s not complicated.
MARGARET: Uh-huh.
TOM: You have siding that’s probably not flashed properly around that door and as a result …
MARGARET: Uh-huh.
TOM: … you’re getting water between the door and the siding.
MARGARET: I see.
TOM: And I don’t care what kind of door you have in there; the door is not going to – it’s not going to be watertight if it’s not …
MARGARET: It’s not the door. Oh yes, right.
TOM: It’s not the door. That’s right. You had two great doors in there and they’re still leaking. Well, it’s not the door; it’s the siding. So what has to happen is – what kind of siding is on here?
MARGARET: Plastic siding.
TOM: You’ve got a door that’s not properly installed against the siding and what’s missing is the flashing. So I would recommend that you pull off the existing siding and that you would reflash that. Now, a good product …
MARGARET: All around the frame.
TOM: Yeah, all around. There’s a good product that’s made by the Grace Company. It’s called Vycor – V-Y-C-O-R – Plus self-adhered flashing. It’s specifically done to protect against air/water/moisture leaks and it works to basically seal all those vulnerable spots, like around window and door openings. Those are the hardest places to flash.
I would go to the Grace website; get some information on the product. It’s GraceAtHome.com, GraceAtHome.com, and it’s called self-adhered flashing; Vycor Plus self-adhered flashing. I think if you get the siding off and if you get it flashed properly, you’re not going to have any more door leaks and you can get back to the beach and enjoy that weather.
MARGARET: That sounds good. (chuckles) Thank you so much for your help.
TOM: You’re welcome. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Dean in Utah is looking for some faster hot water. How can we help you?
DEAN: My master bedroom is far away from the water heater and so it – my wife turns it on and it takes, you know – in the morning it takes about five to ten minutes to get the hot water to it. And so I wondered – you have any idea or any solution to it?
TOM: Sure. The reason it takes that long is because of that physical distance. So if you were to cut that distance, say, in half it would take a lot less time.
DEAN: (chuckling) Right, right.
TOM: Now typically, you know, when we build domestic hot water systems, we have that one water heater in the house because the water heaters are so big. But because of the tankless water heater technology, today we can actually put multiple water heaters in a home and, hence, cut the distance that that water has to physically travel to get hot, especially for that first shower in the morning.
So what you might want to think about looking into is installing a tankless water heater closer to the bedroom. They’re very small. They can fit either in a closet or even outside the house, if it’s a ranch, mounted to the exterior wall. If it’s a two-story home it could hang up higher. They’re direct-ventable so you don’t need a chimney system for that. And that would actually cut the distance and deliver you an unlimited supply of hot water in a very convenient way.
DEAN: OK. And what’s the price – I mean are they affordable?
TOM: Tankless water heaters are more expensive; a bit more expensive than tanked water heaters but they’re much more efficient. A good website to go to, to check this out, is SmarterHotWater.com. That’s the Rheem tankless water heaters and they are a sponsor of our show and they make a great product or we would not have them on the air. So why don’t you check that out? It’s a great place to start. SmarterHotWater.com.
This is The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show. Up next, a question: how many pounds of garbage do you think the average family generates each week? And we’re not talking about after your Super Bowl party. (Leslie chuckles)
LESLIE: Which is a lot. We are talking about enough to raise a stink that you definitely do not want to be around. When we come back, we’re going to teach you how to keep your garbage cans fresh and clean.
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ANNOUNCER: The Money Pit is brought to you by Therma-Tru, the nation’s leading manufacturer of fiberglass entry and patio door systems. Choose the brand more building professionals prefer and add up to $24,000 to the perceived value of your home. For more information, visit ThermaTru.com.
TOM: This is The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show. I’m Tom Kraeutler.
LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.
TOM: Saving you money and saving you trouble are our two main goals. In fact, we’ve written hundreds of articles with those goals in mind. You can check out each and every one of them for free at MoneyPit.com.
LESLIE: Yeah. And one of those is maybe if you want to burn wood to supplement your home heating. Well, if you do, we’re going to tell you what kind of wood burns best. Or maybe you’re thinking about how to hang your picture perfectly or maybe you’re thinking about how to create the best paint job in your home. Well, we’ve got all of those, too. All you need to do is search at MoneyPit.com by room or by project and a wealth of information will be at your fingertips.
TOM: Here’s a tip straight off MoneyPit.com; it has to do with how to keep your garbage cans clean. You know, an average family of three generates 40 pounds of garbage a week. 40 pounds! Now I wonder how much our family of five plus the dog makes; probably even more. That doesn’t even include the recyclables, which add a lot of weight as well.
And that much garbage can raise quite a stink. So, to keep your garbage cans looking and smelling clean, here’s what you need to do: rinse them weekly with a solution of borax and warm water. Now, borax is a very inexpensive detergent. One box goes a long way and it will keep germs at bay as well.
Another thing that you want to think about doing is, when you’re all set and done, put about ten percent bleach solution in a spray bottle and just give the inside of those cans a squirt. That will kill any bacteria that’s left behind. Hope that helps you out.
Give us a call right now if you have another home improvement question. The number is 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
Who’s next?
LESLIE: Steve in North Carolina has got a log cabin that needs some help. What can we do for you?
STEVE: I’ve got a log cabin that needs a lot of help.
LESLIE: (chuckling) OK.
TOM: Alright. (Steve chuckles)
STEVE: But right now, my biggest concern is I have – you know, it’s – the logs are the pre-fab logs. They’re …
TOM: Right.
STEVE: … about six inches tall …
TOM: OK.
STEVE: … eight inches wide, round on both inside and outside.
TOM: Uh-huh.
STEVE: And I was thinking, because with the shrinkage of the logs, gaps are opening …
TOM: OK.
STEVE: … and everybody that I talk to says you have to use the wire mesh and all this other stuff and I only want to put about an inch wide since they’re only six inches tall.
TOM: Right.
STEVE: Where you can still see …
TOM: (overlapping voices) I never – when I’ve used chinking – and by the way, if everyone is wondering what chinking is, that’s that stuff that kind of looks like mortar that’s in between the logs of a log cabin.
LESLIE: Mm-hmm.
TOM: But with the pre-fabbed logged homes, the chinking is a synthetic and it actually stays rubbery and sort of flexible; it’s kind of like a really thick, heavy …
LESLIE: So it stretches with it.
TOM: Yeah, exactly. And it’s very sticky and it adheres well. Got to be careful when you put it on because it’s – yeah, you don’t want to be sloppy with it. But I’ve never had to put it over any type of a wire mesh. You’re going to have to follow the manufacturer’s instructions for it but typically you just trowel it in there the same way you might apply, for example, mortar and it adheres really well. It stays very flexible and it looks great.
STEVE: I’ve been asking around to the local hardware stores and they don’t know anything about a synthetic chinking …
LESLIE: Hmm.
TOM: Hmm.
STEVE: … or a rubberized chinking. There’s a Lowe’s store fairly close that I can go to. Do you think they would have it or would I have to talk to a log home manufacturer?
TOM: Chinking is not the kind of thing, Steve, that you’re going to find from a home center or a hardware store; it’s not exactly an off-the-shelf product. I imagine you’re going to have to go right to a manufacturer of log homes or perhaps find it online.
LESLIE: Mm-hmm. You know, there’s a website, Steve; it’s called LogHelp.com and they actually vend several different manufacturers’ synthetic chinking. There’s a company called 1010 Chinking, Chinker’s Edge, Log-Gevity Chinking. Several of them are available in different colors, I think, based on the different manufacturers or sort of different application methods. But if you go to LogHelp.com you can find out a lot of information there.
STEVE: You guys have been very, very helpful. This is a problem I’ve had for a while.
TOM: (overlapping voices) Alright, Steve.
LESLIE: (overlapping voices) Well, we want you to stay warm.
STEVE: I thank you much.
TOM: Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Sharon in New Mexico needs some help with a textured ceiling. What can we do for you?
SHARON: Well, yes. I do have a textured ceiling and I have a ceiling fan. So in summer the ceiling gets really dirty and I haven’t found a great solution to go ahead and clean it.
TOM: Well, aside from getting the dust off – that you could do with a vacuum – you’re probably …
SHARON: Uh-huh.
TOM: … better off repainting it. Have you painted it at all?
SHARON: No, I haven’t.
TOM: I think that it’s probably so absorbent that it’s sucking up all the dirt. There is a little trick of the trade for painting this and it has to do with the type of roller you use; it’s very, very thick and it’s actually sliced.
LESLIE: Yeah. It looks – it looks like one of those sliced, Virginia hams; like those spiral hams? And the whole …
SHARON: OK, OK.
LESLIE: … roller itself is completely sliced, so as you paint over the textured ceiling, the roller sort of opens up to accommodate that texture and it will get the paint all around. But it will also put the paint on without removing the ceiling.
SHARON: OK.
TOM: And I think if you prime the ceiling and then paint it, you’ll find that it traps a lot less dirt and it looks a lot better.
SHARON: OK. So go ahead and prime it first. But what do I do about cleaning the dirt off? Just stacking the mess that I get?
TOM: (overlapping voices) Well, you just vacuum it off. Yeah, just vacuum off as much as you can. The primer will do a really good job of sealing in whatever is there; that’s why you’re using it. That’s basically the base that makes the paint stick, so it’ll seal it in nicely.
SHARON: Oh, OK.
TOM: And then you could paint on top of that with some ceiling paint. And by the way, make sure you buy ceiling paint because it doesn’t drip as much.
SHARON: Oh, OK. Great. I appreciate that. Thank you.
TOM: You’re welcome. You’re welcome, Sharon. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Well, if the thought of spring being kind of around the corner has got you into a cleaning frenzy, when we come back we’re going to tell you about an all-natural furniture polish that you can make with stuff that you’ve probably already got hiding in your pantry and it will be much less expensive than the store-bought kind, so stick around.
(theme song)
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 the number here is 1-888-MONEY-PIT. Pick up the phone and give us a call with your home improvement or your repair question. Whatever you’ve got kicking around, going on at your money pit, we want to help you sort out all of those projects.
And if you get on the air with us this hour, you could be the winner of our great prize. We’re giving away the Redback Tools Smart Pack prize pack. It’s worth 50 bucks and it includes a hammer, a Phillips screwdriver and a tape measure with a rewritable surface so you can actually make notes right there on the tape measure instead of writing something down on a piece of paper or a scrap of wood and accidentally throwing it away and then when you go to measure something – it’s all right there for you. It’s a great prize pack; it’s going to help you get a lot of your home improvement chores tackled and it could be yours for free, so give us a call at 1-888-MONEY-PIT for your chance to win.
TOM: That is so handy. How many times around, say, 3:00 in the afternoon when you’re getting a little tired, you go up on a ladder, you measure something, you get down from the ladder …
LESLIE: By the time you get to the bottom …
TOM: By the time you get to the bottom …
LESLIE: It’s gone.
TOM: … you forgot the number (chuckles); trying not to go back up again. So that’s a great idea.
LESLIE: Or you write something down on a piece of wood and then you sand it off. (Tom chuckles) Like a phone number, a shopping list. (chuckles)
TOM: I’ve never done that.
LESLIE: Really?
TOM: Yeah, no.
LESLIE: Ah, I’ve done that.
TOM: (overlapping voices) Well, I guess because I don’t sand things. (chuckles)
Well, speaking of simple home improvements, here is a simple way to save some money and go all-natural with your furniture polish. You can mix your own. Just mix up three parts olive oil and one part white vinegar. You can make a fresh batch every time you clean; a little goes a really long way. And it turns out to be a lot cheaper per use than a canned spray polish that also contains potentially dangerous chemicals, so quick tip to help you save some money on your cleaning costs.
888-666-3974. Give us a call right now with your how-to question. Let’s get back to the phones.
LESLIE: Chris in New York wants to talk flooring. What can we do for you?
CHRIS: I have about 600 square feet of ceramic tile that’s been down, I guess, about 15 years. I live at the beach. It’s starting to wear out and I’m not sure whether I should have more tile installed right on top of it – which the tile man said I could do – or I wanted to ask your opinion on putting down like a thin luan with maybe a floating floor right on top of it?
TOM: What kind of floating floor?
CHRIS: Well, I noticed that some of the – the stores now are carrying a stone look. It looks like stone.
LESLIE: Oh yeah, like a laminate.
TOM: Are you talking about a laminate floor?
CHRIS: (overlapping voices) Like a laminate, right.
TOM: A laminate floor?
CHRIS: Like a laminate floating floor.
TOM: (overlapping voices) OK. Mm-hmm. Both of them are good options. The tile surface is certainly going to be more durable than the laminate surface but that being said, a good-quality laminate can really stand up well; especially in abrasive environments where there’s a lot of sand.
CHRIS: Right.
TOM: Both – your tile man is correct; you can put the ceramic tile on top of the old stuff. And with the laminate floor, basically, you don’t put any plywood down; you put down an underlayment. Now it’s either built into the back of the laminate panel or it comes on a roll and then the laminate locks in place, sort of snaps together, and then it floats right on top of that tile.
CHRIS: Right. We’ve done that in the bedrooms …
TOM: Mm-hmm.
CHRIS: … and we know it has that thin, light blue liner?
TOM: Right. Depends on what manufacturer; they’re all a little different. But yeah, that’s the way that works.
CHRIS: That’s the way that works.
TOM: Mm-hmm.
CHRIS: And that can go right on top of the ceramic tile?
TOM: Right on top of the tile and you just have to, you know, trim the edges where it gets near the wall, with a molding.
CHRIS: Mm-hmm.
TOM: And put it some sort of saddle at any doorways …
CHRIS: Right.
TOM: … that go through, so it’s nice and neat there. But other than that, it just floats in place; there’s no attachment to the floor whatsoever.
CHRIS: Yeah. That was my idea because I thought, well, if that wears out, then it’s easy to replace.
TOM: Well, it’s probably easier to replace than new ceramic tile. It’ll be a bit less …
CHRIS: Right.
TOM: … expensive.
CHRIS: Right. Because the next time we have to pull up all that debris, we have already a mud job; which in some places is four inches thick.
TOM: Yeah. Then it gets pretty expensive.
CHRIS: Right. OK, well, that’s great. I guess I can choose either/or then.
TOM: You certainly can and there’s lots and lots of options with that laminate. Great stuff; we love it. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: You are tuned to The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show. When we come back, we’re going to jump into our e-mail bag and we’re going to offer up some solutions for a concrete garage floor that could really use some help, so stick around.
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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: And we know you’re thinking carefully about every dollar you spend these days but sometimes you have to spend a little to save a lot. You know, getting a home inspection – if you’re going to be selling your house anytime in the near future or if you’re going to be buying one – is a really good idea. You can find out about potential problems before you put your house on the market or you can identify those if it’s a house you’re going to buy.
LESLIE: Yeah, and then you can decide if you want to take the repair costs off the sale price or if you want to fix them before you go ahead and list your house or, if you’re looking at a house to buy, maybe you can get the seller to do those repairs before you buy the house; sort of negotiate the price based on the inspection and the results there.
Now the trick is finding a reliable, capable and certified home inspector. And you know, we only recommend ASHI-certified home inspectors and that’s the American Society of Home Inspectors.
And if you want to find out what an inspector should check for, you need to read our next Money Pit e-newsletter. It’s got all the information there: exactly what the inspector is going to be looking for and what you need to understand about the whole process. You know you’re going to get it every Friday in your inbox and if you’re not a subscriber, you should sign up now; we give you a lot of valuable information in our e-newsletter. It’s totally free; head over to MoneyPit.com and you can enter for our newsletter right there.
TOM: And while you’re there, click on Ask Tom and Leslie. Send us the e-mail question just like Nancy did, from Crystal River, Florida, who says: ‘What are your recommendations for a concrete garage floor in Central Florida? I’m thinking about an epoxy-painted, sparkle-type floor. Are they durable? Do they tend to peel up? Any suggestions?’
Well, I’ll tell you, Nancy, we have been covering these epoxy garage floor kits for, gosh, it’s got to be four or five years now …
LESLIE: Mm-hmm.
TOM: … and they’ve actually continued to get better. They never gave us a problem in terms of wear or tear or peeling. What’s different about them now are all these additives that you can add to the surface as it’s drying, to create some really incredible, beautiful surfaces.
LESLIE: (overlapping voices) Slip-resistancy, extra sparkle.
TOM: Yeah, exactly.
LESLIE: I think the only complaint we’ve ever heard in the four years we’ve been talking about it is that somebody painted themselves into a corner …
TOM: Yeah.
LESLIE: … in the process. (Leslie chuckles)
TOM: (overlapping voices) Well, we can’t help you with that.
LESLIE: So plan accordingly; it’s a couple of steps. It looks fantastic, they’re very durable and it definitely will stand up to your high moisture that you see down in Florida.
Alright, we’ve got one here from Terry in Baltimore who writes: ‘What is your recommendation for a new 66-gallon electric tank, hot water heater? Do I want to go tankless?’
TOM: I would say you don’t want to go tankless because the reason you have electric is because you don’t have gas in your house and there’s no such thing as an efficient tankless, electric water heater.
What you want to do is get a super-high efficiency tanked water heater; real thick outer-shell, lots of insulation. And the second thing, Terry, is put that on a 240-volt timer so that the water heater is only running the several hours a day you need it. If you have it on a 240-volt timer, you’ll have it kick on, say, in the evening when you’re, you know, having dinner and doing showers and dishes and all that. Have it kick on in the morning when you’re doing all the morning activities. But for the other times, it could pretty much be off; you don’t need it on.
LESLIE: Alright. Joanie in Evansville, Indiana has a house that’s worth 165,000 and has some concerns about adding high-end improvements like granite countertops. Should she stick to the improvements that are in the price range of the house or the neighborhood?
TOM: If you’re going to sell the house, Joanie, good idea to just do the basics. Clean it up, remodel it; don’t do something that’s so inconsistent with the rest of the neighborhood because you won’t get a great return on investment. That said, remember kitchens and bathrooms and decks; three areas that give you a lot of bang for your buck when it comes time to sell.
LESLIE: Alright, Joanie. Hope that helps.
TOM: This is The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show, available on-air and online at MoneyPit.com. If you’ve got a home improvement question, couldn’t get through to the show today, pick up the phone and call us at 888-MONEY-PIT anytime of the day or night. And we do mean any time the question pops into your head. You wake up sleepless in the middle of the night because you have a pressing home improvement question, pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT. Neither Leslie nor I will pick up the phone (Leslie chuckles) but our 24/7 call screeners will and we will call you back the next time we are in the studio.
I’m Tom Kraeutler.
LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.
TOM: Helping you build big dreams.
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END HOUR 1 TEXT
(Copyright 2009 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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