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:
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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 question. Call us now with your do-it-yourself dilemma. The number is 888-MONEY-PIT. 888-666-3974. And it is hot, hot, hot outside these days. You’re probably paying a lot of cashola (Leslie chuckles); a lot of cold cashola to keep your house at a reasonable temperature. We can help you make that cooling process a lot less expensive if you call us right now and ask us about some cheap tricks for cooling your house. We’ve got them here at The Money Pit and we’re going to take your questions on just about any home improvement question at 1-888-MONEY-PIT, including some tips on doing laundry. Is that a dreaded chore around your house? See, it’s not around my house because I have teenagers.
LESLIE: Oh, so you make them do it? (chuckles)
TOM: Exactly. (Leslie chuckles) Now they may dread it but I certainly don’t. But if you don’t have teenagers and you have to worry about navigating that very narrow basement staircase on your way down to your laundry, why not move the laundry room upstairs near the bedrooms where you generate all those dirty clothes? Wondering how to tackle that project? It’s not as hard as you might think. We’re going to tell you how to do it in just a bit.
LESLIE: And with all this heat across the U.S., you might find that your air conditioning is working overtime and they’re not calling them the ‘dog days of summer’ for nothing. This hour we’ve got a lot of tips on making sure that you’re not overworking your already hardworking air conditioner.
TOM: And here’s a trick that can amaze your friends and fool your enemies. You know how to figure out exactly how old a house is? Well, there’s a cool trick of the trade. We’re going to teach you exactly how to do that so you can guess a house age within about six months in any house in America.
LESLIE: Plus this hour we’re giving away a Tape-Seal prize pack. It’s worth 50 bucks and this prize package includes everything that you need to prep your paint job properly. We keep telling you prep, prep, prep! Now we’re going to give you the stuff to get the job done and it includes a nice new product that’s going to help you get those good, clean, beautiful lines that you want for stripes and patterns but you’ve got to be in it to win it.
TOM: 888-666-3974. 888-MONEY-PIT is the telephone number. Call us right now with your home improvement question. We’ll give you the answer and a chance of winning that great prize pack.
Leslie, let’s get right to the phones. Who’s first?
LESLIE: Theresa in Texas is looking to sell her house. What can we do for you?
THERESA: Well, our house is 14 years old. We’ve been the only buyer and we’re ready to upgrade and so I’m trying to find the most economical ways to make it attractive to a home buyer.
TOM: Well, that’s a good question and it’s one that a lot of people have been facing over the last couple of years. Generally, you want to start with the least expensive things first and that would include landscaping.
LESLIE: Mm-hmm.
THERESA: OK.
LESLIE: You want to look at the outside in because a lot of people, when they’re doing their research as far as deciding what houses they want to go see, are doing it via the internet whether the realtor is sending them a photo or they’re finding them through, you know, a multiple listing service. They’re looking at the outside and if that doesn’t do the trick for them they’ll never even pick up the phone to make up the appointment. So you want to make sure your landscaping is tidy, very colorful, bright, inviting, the lawn looks lush and green. If you can, pressure wash, paint, clean up the exterior of the home just so it looks really well-maintained. Wash the windows. You can even take off the screens and just wash the glass to make it look a little bit more inviting and well-kept. And if you’ve got those chotchkies – you know the lady bent over with her bloomers sticking out or anything like that (Tom and Theresa chuckle) – get rid of them.
TOM: And Theresa, another thing. If you want to make a good improvement to your house and you’re trying to put it on the market, replacing your front door is an improvement that surveys have shown will deliver about five times the cost of the improvement in terms of perceived additional house value. And today, if you’re going to replace the door you probably want to look not at wood, not at steel, but at fiberglass because the fiberglass doors are much more energy efficient and they’re a lot stronger and they’re just gorgeous. They look just like a stained wood door. Probably the best brand to look at is Therma-Tru; ThermaTru.com.
THERESA: Excellent. Thank you so much for your help.
TOM: You’re welcome, Theresa, and I tell you what we’re going to do. We have in our new book, ‘My Home, My Money Pit: Your Guide To Every Home Improvement Adventure,’ an entire chapter dedicated to home selling tips and advice. We’re going to send that off to you just for calling the program today.
THERESA: Oh, wow! Thank you so much.
TOM: Alright. Hold on for just a minute and we’ll get your contact info and get you a copy of ‘My Home, My Money Pit: Your Guide To Every Home Improvement Adventure’ which just launched and is in book stores this week.
LESLIE: Talking to Terri in New Jersey about the order of projects involved in this kitchen remodel. What’s going on?
TERRI: I am interested in having a new kitchen floor put down and a floor in the foyer. So how do I go about it? Do I pick up the old floor or can they put it right over the old floor?
TOM: What kind of flooring do you have down right now, Terri?
TERRI: Oh, linoleum flooring.
TOM: Linoleum? You can probably go right on top of that. The only caution we have for you is when it comes to the kitchen. Make sure you remove your dishwasher first and that you floor all the way under that space because you don’t want to block the dishwasher in.
TERRI: Mm-hmm. Right. Anything else? Is there anybody that you could recommend?
TOM: What kind of flooring do you want to put down?
TERRI: I don’t know. I just want some suggestions on what – yeah.
TOM: Well, I’ll tell you probably one of the most durable floors right now is laminate floor for a kitchen because …
LESLIE: Mm-hmm, and there’s a lot of options with laminate. You can really get it to look like anything.
TERRI: Is that a wood flooring type thing?
TOM: Well, it can look wood or it can look like stone or it could look like tile. It’s actually made of plastic but it looks darn good. I’ve got a laminate floor in my kitchen that looks like stone. It’s textured and everything and yeah, we’ve had it down for 10 years and the kids have not been able to do any damage to it despite many, many attempts.
TERRI: Sounds good. (chuckles)
TOM: So a laminate floor is a good choice for a kitchen.
LESLIE: You are listening to The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show. Pick up the phone and give us a call. Tell us what you are working on. We can help you get the job done. Let us know your home improvement or your home repair question anytime that the question strikes you, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
TOM: 888-666-3974.
Up next, we keep it hidden in dark basements. We climb down narrow stairs to reach it. Hey, isn’t it time you bring your laundry room into the light? We’re going to tell you what you need to do to move that laundry room upstairs, next.
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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.
TOM: Give us a call right now. The number is 1-888-MONEY-PIT. This hour, one caller we talk to wins a Tape-Seal prize pack worth over 50 bucks. In it you get everything you need to prep your painting project; to make sure the paint ends up where you want it and not where you don’t, including drop cloths, painter’s tape, brushes, rollers and two jars of Tape-Seal. It’s sort of a clear, acrylic gel that you paint along the edge of the painter’s tape and in doing so, it seals out that awful bleed that comes through and gives you really sharp, crisp lines that’ll have your place looking great. You want to win it? It’s worth 50 bucks. Call us right now at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Man, that is a prize package that’s an excuse to tackle a home improvement project …
TOM: That’s right.
LESLIE: … and if you don’t have one on the slate, make one up to do so. (chuckles) Alright, well maybe you’re thinking about doing something with your laundry room. You’ve outgrown it, you’re tired of going up and down the stairs, you want to use that room for more than one function. Well, if you find the laundry room is topping your list of to-do projects then we’ve got an idea to bring the laundry room to you.
More and more new homes are being built with washers and dryers in the hallways, in the kitchen, in the bathrooms, on the first floor or even on the second floor. And it’s never been easier for you to move your laundry room upstairs. For example, a stackable washer and dryer; they’re small enough to fit into a closet and they’re even large enough to do full-size loads.
TOM: You know, another combo unit washes and dries clothes without any help from you. This is a unit that looks like a normal washing machine but it does the work of both the washer and the dryer. You don’t have to move wet clothes from the washer to the dryer because the washer is the dryer. So bring the laundry room to you. Instead of you having to schlep those clothes down to the basement, figure out a way to move it upstairs. It doesn’t take that much space and the plumbing, especially if you keep it near an existing bathroom, is really not that terrible to do.
888-666-3974. What’s your home improvement question? Let’s find out.
Leslie, who’s next?
LESLIE: Jim in South Carolina needs some help with accessibility to an entrance of the home. What can we do for you?
JIM: Well, I have a family member that’s going to be moving in with us and, unfortunately, my front foyer has about a four-inch lip. I have a patio entrance which, unfortunately, has sliding doors and again a step-in from the garage. And because she uses a motor scooter because she has poor balance, I’m trying to figure out how best to ramp the entrances and …
TOM: Alright. Well, let’s talk about the patio door first. There’s a type of sill for that called a low profile sill but, unfortunately, it can’t be added after the fact. You’d have to order the door with the low profile sill, which is specifically designed for handicapped access.
JIM: OK. Now, what about the front entrance? There’s about a three-inch step-up and, generally, when she visits right now I have to pull the back wheels, have her reverse and then pull the chair with the back wheels up so she can get over it and then she has to spin around and then come through the front door.
TOM: So the total rise of sort of the step is only about three inches?
JIM: Yep. Actually, three and a half, four inches.
TOM: OK. Well, can’t you make a ramp just to cover that particular area and just make it remove-and-replaceable?
LESLIE: There’s actually a good website that has removable ramps. They sell predominantly accessibility products and the website is HandiRamp.com. And there’s a whole section of threshold ramps that are portable, removable. They’re made to specifically just jump up that threshold.
JIM: Great.
TOM: And the AARP has a program that’s called a Certified Aging-In-Place Specialist. It’s their CAPS program. There are contractors out there that are specifically trained in these accessibility/easy-living issues and you can find one through the AARP website at AARP.org. Specifically, I would go to AARP.org/HomeDesign. That’s their home design section with information on the CAPS specialists.
JIM: OK, great. Thanks so much.
TOM: You’re welcome, Jim. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Joyce in Maryland is dealing with some walls that are cracking up. Tell us about the seams you’re seeing.
JOYCE: Well, the previous owners had done a very poor job of putting the drywall up. Evidently, the firring strips are bigger than what need to be so when they put the drywall on they kind of bow in two seams and it’s very noticeable; especially when you have your table lamps on.
TOM: Right.
JOYCE: And I don’t know – is there are a way, other than tearing the whole wall down, to either camouflage it or to make it not so noticeable?
TOM: Is it concave or convex?
JOYCE: Well, let’s put it this way. The seams stick out.
TOM: They stick out.
JOYCE: They stick out further than they should.
LESLIE: It seems like something’s missing from the middle.
TOM: Well, you know, who knows what’s underneath that’s causing this buckle but short of cutting into the wall, what you could try to do is this: you could add some additional spackle and if you do it really well and very skillfully you can sort of feather out this area so that it’s not quite as aggressive a bump.
JOYCE: Mm-hmm.
TOM: The other thing to do is to repaint it with a really good quality flat. Flat is very key; flat latex paint. Because the flat paint does not bounce the light around as much as other types of paint and it’s less likely to show up.
JOYCE: That sounds like a better idea than tearing the wall down.
LESLIE: (overlapping voices) Oh, yeah.
TOM: (overlapping voices) Well, you can always go that step next. (chuckles)
JOYCE: Yeah. (chuckles)
LESLIE: And then, Joyce, just don’t turn the lights on.
TOM: There you go.
JOYCE: Well, that’s the other option. (Leslie chuckles) But I’m learning so much from your show; things that I would have never even given a thought about, you know? So your show is really beneficial. I appreciate having you on. (chuckles)
TOM: Thank you very much. It’s very kind of you. Joyce, thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: David in Texas has a question about concrete. What can we do for you today?
DAVID: Yeah, we’re getting ready to pour a concrete driveway and they were talking about putting fiberglass fibers into the concrete. What’s the purpose of that?
LESLIE: Is that like a reinforcement?
TOM: Yeah, it’s a reinforcement material. It’s a way to make the concrete stronger. See, concrete by itself is actually pretty weak especially in certain types of bending actions. For example, if you try to bend concrete, if it’s not reinforced it’ll bend very quickly. Now, with a driveway or a sidewalk it’s usually best to put reinforcing wire in there, but if you don’t put reinforcing wire then you can use a fiberglass reinforcement fiber inside and that helps to tie it all together so that it won’t break.
LESLIE: Is there a choice ever as to when fiberglass is used over rebar or over that rolled-up sort of squared wire?
TOM: I would imagine that fiberglass is probably less expensive than putting the rebar in but personally, if I was doing it, I would probably always try to do a rebar reinforcement. Are they giving you an option, David?
DAVID: Yeah. We’re still going to use a rebar or the wire but I just wanted to make sure.
TOM: OK. So they’re going to do both?
DAVID: Yeah. I’m going to have both.
TOM: No, I think you’re in very good shape. Both of those is going to stop that concrete from cracking and shifting. It’ll be much more stable that way. I think it’s the right way to go.
DAVID: And it’s fairly cheap, too. It’s not a big expense so …
TOM: It’s a good investment.
DAVID: Alrighty. Thank you very much.
TOM: You’re welcome, David. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Jay in New York, you’ve got The Money Pit. What can we do for you today?
JAY: I am going to be moving into a home that needs a new furnace and a hot water heater and I heard so much about these hot water panels. I spoke to my plumber and he said that it’s very expensive to install but in the long run it will be cheaper for you.
TOM: Jay, I think you’re talking about a tankless water heater, correct?
JAY: I believe so, yes.
TOM: Yeah. It hangs on the wall as opposed to being sort of a stand-up water heater and your plumber is right; they are a little more expensive to buy than a standard water heater – probably about twice as expensive – but they last a lot longer and they’re also more efficient. It’s definitely …
LESLIE: How long do they last?
TOM: … the way to go. Probably a good 20 years.
LESLIE: So double the life span?
TOM: Double the life at least. Yes.
JAY: He said a 25-gallon hot water heater will give me from anywhere from 7 to 10 years.
TOM: Yeah, well, not 25. That would be really small. The smallest water heater for your average residential house is about 40 gallon gas. But the tankless water heater is going to be about a quarter the size of that. It’s going to deliver an endless source of hot water; you’ll never have to run out of hot water again. It’s more efficient because it only heats water when you need it.
LESLIE: Mm-hmm. So think of all your energy savings.
TOM: Exactly. If you add it all up I think it’s the way to go.
JAY: And your recommendation?
TOM: One of our sponsors makes tankless water heaters. Rheem? And they’re very, very good. Their website is SmarterHotWater.com.
JAY: Alright. Very good.
TOM: Alright, Jay. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Heading out to California to talk to Josie about hard water. What can we do for you?
JOSIE: I have a problem with hard water in my house.
TOM: OK.
JOSIE: And it’s ruining my appliances, my showerhead, my faucet and I was wondering about either buying a water softener or a water filter?
TOM: First of all, do you have city water?
JOSIE: Yes.
TOM: There’s two ways to deal with hard water. You can either use a salt-based conditioner, which will take the hardness away, or you can use another product that’s called EasyWater. It’s made by a company called Freije and it uses an electronic technology instead of salt or chemicals to stop the hard water buildup. One of the reasons you get hard water buildup in these appliances is because the minerals actually stick to the appliances. They stick to the insides of pipes, they stick to the heads of showers, they stick to the appliances. And what EasyWater does is actually electronically charge the particles so they will no longer stick. It’s a pretty easy thing to install, too. Basically, you put the appliance near the main water valve and you wrap the – there’s like a sort of a sensing wire that you wrap around it and you plug it in and you walk away. So there’s no plumbing involved in installing it; it’s totally electronic.
JOSIE: Oh, and where would I get that?
TOM: You can go to EasyWater.com. It’s a really great product. There’s no salt, there’s no chemicals, there’s no filters, and there’s no plumbing required so it couldn’t be easier to install. And I’ll tell you, there’s a lot of big corporations that have been testing this technology – including some very large food manufacturers, some water heater manufacturers – because everyone’s experiencing these hard water issues and this technology is really a great way to straighten it out.
LESLIE: Tom is it spelled easy like e-a-s-y or E-Z.
TOM: Yep, it’s simply easy – E-A-S-YWater.com.
JOSIE: Oh, OK. Thank you very much.
TOM: You’re welcome. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: You are tuned to The Money Pit and have I got a story or a situation for you and I’m sure this has happened to many of you, because it’s happened to me. It never, ever fails. Your AC is going to conk out, not work on – well, let me guess – the hottest day of the year. Up next, we’re going to help you figure out why your air conditioner isn’t working and what you might be able to do about it without even picking up the phone to call in a pro. So stick around, and stay cool.
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ANNOUNCER: The Money Pit is brought to you by Behr Premium Plus Ultra Exterior paint and primer in one with advanced NanoGuard technology to help you save time and money while preserving your home’s exterior finish. For more information, visit Behr.com. That’s B-e-h-r.com. Behr products are 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.
TOM: Call us right now with your home improvement question. Call us with your do-it-yourself dilemma. Call us if you’re hot, if you’re sticky and the last thing you need is your air conditioning to die, because we can help. There are a few things that you can do to make sure your AC stays working properly.
First of all, always keep your thermostat at around 78 degrees. If you’re in the habit of turning it way down to 70, it’s not going to cool your house any faster. It’s sort of a – you know, a steady-Eddie kind of approach. You really just want to have it set and forget it. You know, it’s like that Ronco commercial: set it and forget it.
LESLIE: (chuckling) I’m like what, are you making a chicken?
TOM: Just like you’re making a chicken, you set the air conditioning thermostat and walk away. You know why? Because everything in your house holds heat; you know, the furniture, the carpet, the walls, of course …
LESLIE: Oh, upholstery especially.
TOM: Yes, exactly. And so, it’s not going to cool any faster just because you’re dropping it down and in fact, what you will do is kind of cycle it on and off more quickly than you have to and that lets a lot of humidity build up in your house. So just set it at 78 and walk away. Also, make sure the thermostat is set lower than the actual room temperature or it won’t come on and the selector has to be on ‘cool’ and the fan switch, that should always be on auto and if it’s not behaving properly, especially if it’s digital, change the batteries.
LESLIE: (chuckling) I know that always seems like the simplest thing but really, check the batteries; make sure they’re working. And like Tom says, if it’s on auto and it’s not coming on, throw it to the ‘on’ position just to make sure that the fan switch is coming on. This way you’ll know if the blower runs there is power. And if nothing is happening, a control is burned out or the power could simply be disconnected. If the system uses a furnace for heat, you want to check that the emergency switch is on and if you’re at all familiar with the fuse or the circuit breaker panel, check for a blown fuse or any tripped breakers because that could be a simple fix right there.
TOM: And by the way, you can have a tripped break out at the compressor itself and that sometimes is not so obvious. There’s usually a little electrical panel near the air conditioning compressor outside and inside you can easily have a blown fuse or a tripped breaker. So those are the places to check if your system is not working properly. Or pick up the phone and call us and we’ll help you out at 888-MONEY-PIT.
Leslie, who’s next?
LESLIE: Well, pavers certainly make a gorgeous driveway or patio; even a front entrance walkway; and Nancy in Florida needs some help with her project. How can we help?
NANCY: Hi there. I’ve got cement pavers around our pool here in Florida and we have a problem with mold and weeds growing up between the pavers. Do you have a suggestion of something that can permanently help us with the mold and maybe something to seal them so that the weeds don’t come up as much?
LESLIE: Yes, Tom and I found a great new product at the Builders Show this year.
TOM: Absolutely. There is a product that’s brand new out from QUIKRETE; it’s called PowerLoc and it’s actually known as a jointing sand. It’s a brand new product that has never been out there before to solve this very, very problem; where you have weeds and moss that grows up between the bricks. And the way you work is, basically, you clean that area out and then you sweep this jointing sand in and then you run some water over it and it basically solidifies.
NANCY: QUIKRETE PowerLoc.
TOM: That’s right.
NANCY: OK.
TOM: QUIKRETE PowerLoc is a jointing sand designed to solve exactly this problem; in fact, Leslie and I just found it at this year’s International Builders Show.
NANCY: Thank you so much.
TOM: You’re welcome. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Manny in New York’s got a moisture situation. What’s going on?
MANNY: I have a basement about 1,500 square foot.
TOM: OK.
MANNY: Been having moisture in the basement over the past six seasons. In the summertime it is so much and I have a lot of mold and I use a dehumidifier that was given to me by the builder.
TOM: OK.
MANNY: If I run the dehumidifier and I’m not there the water will spill on the floor.
TOM: I have a better solution for you, Manny. A couple of things. First of all, the grading and the drainage around the outside of your house is going to have a direct impact on how much moisture you get in the basement. So, for example, if your gutters are clogged or if the soil around your house is fairly flat, you’re going to have a lot of water that sits around the foundation and that’s going to be saturated into the foundation and then evaporate into the basement so humidity gets to be pretty high.
The solution to the dehumidifier that you’re running right now that has to be drained all the time is something called a whole-home dehumidifier. A whole-home dehumidifier is installed into your HVAC system and it runs automatically 24/7 to take moisture out of that space. So it’s not a portable; it’s a permanently-installed dehumidifier. And an in-between solution, if you don’t want to go for that, is to pick up a condensate pump for the portable. A condensate pump could be mounted to drain out of the portable. It’ll lift the water out and then stick it outside. Now I in my house, for example, have a hot water heating system and I have a dehumidifier in our basement and I put a condensate pump on that because I didn’t have a ducted system to use with a whole-home, so I put a condensate pump on my portable dehumidifier and it works perfectly.
You are tuned to The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show and as I have mentioned before I spent 20 years as a professional home inspector and usually had to go in to inspect homes. One of the questions I always had was, ‘How old is this house?’ because that really gives you a lot of information about what you can expect; you know, how old the wiring is, how old the plumbing is and so on. There is one trick of the trade that I would deploy consistently that will give you that exact answer within six months. I’ll tell you how to date your house, next.
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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: This is The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show where we make good homes better. I’m Tom Kraeutler.
LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete and in helping you make your home better, we want to help you with all of your home improvement projects. So if you’ve got a question, if you’ve got a dilemma, if something’s broken and you want to fix it quick before the spouse comes home, pick up the phone and give us a call. (chuckling)
TOM: (chuckling) Especially if you’re the one that broke it.
LESLIE: (chuckling) Totally. Give us a call at 1-888-MONEY-PIT. Our operators are always standing by and one caller that we talk to on the air this hour is going to win a great package. I mean this is an excuse to pick up a painting project. It’s the Tape-Seal prize pack. It’s worth over 50 bucks and it includes all of the things you need to properly prep your painting area. It includes some drop cloths, a paint tray, a roller, some brushes, painter’s tape and this really cool product: two jars of a new product called Tape-Seal. And it’s perfect if you want to create stripes or pattern with tape because, generally, you would tape it out and then roll over another coat of your base coat over all of the tape and everywhere that you’re going to be working on, then you have to let that dry. But this is a clear acrylic gel that you just paint up against the edge of the areas that you’ve taped off before you paint on that next color and it’s going to block out that next color from bleeding underneath. So you’re going to get crisp, clean lines every single time. It’s a great prize pack but you’ve got to be in it to win it, so give us a call at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
TOM: 888-666-3974.
You know, knowing when your house was built is important for safety and maintenance reasons because there are errors of home construction that have specific defects. For example, aluminum wiring – late 60s, early 70s. Nob and tube wiring – back in the 30s. You know, if you know your house is 25 or 30 years old you can expect to replace things like water heaters and dishwashers. All of that is possible if you know when the house was built.
LESLIE: Well, if this is the question that’s on the top of your list, there’s a trick of the trade that Tom found out as a home inspector. The commode; your toilet. The manufacturers usually stamp the inside of the tanks or the lids with the year that that toilet was made. And since toilets are usually installed right after construction, this is a great way to sort of figure out exactly when your house was built. Now, of course you have to go into one of the restrooms that was actually built originally with the home. Don’t go to one that’s in the new area of the house or the fancy new bathroom because you’ll be like, ‘2005? Weird.’ (Tom chuckles) ‘My house is so young but we’ve lived here for ages!’ So just be smart about the one you choose and if it’s original to the house you’ll know exactly when your house was built.
TOM: 888-666-3974. No matter when your house was built, we can help you with your home improvement questions. Give us a call right now.
Leslie, who’s next?
LESLIE: Heading over to Iowa to chat with Cindy about a garage door. Tell us about what’s going on.
CINDY: Hi. I’ve got two cracks under my garage door from the edges of concrete in. The space in between the two cracks is heaved. My garage door now is kind of high-centered. It’s a little worse on the east side than the west side and I didn’t know if there’s anything you could do about like …
TOM: What kind of door is it, Cindy? Is it wood or metal?
CINDY: I think it’s fiberglass. It’s insulated.
TOM: The garage door is?
CINDY: Yes, the garage door is.
TOM: OK. If it was wood, you could actually score it and shape it and cut it to sort of follow the flow of the uneven garage floor. If it’s not, the only other thing that you could really do is to try to double up the weatherstripping or add some padding to the bottom of it to try to take up some of that space.
CINDY: OK.
TOM: And this way you can get perhaps a better seal. You know, garage floors are not dimensionally stable like they would be if it was, say, a slab foundation or something of that nature; they’re basically just covering the dirt. And so they do tend to move a lot and crack and shift. And sometimes the only way to get that to work is with some additional weatherstripping. Now the other thing that you could think about doing is you could add to the backside of the garage door another piece of trim; whereas the trim is actually cut to the shape of the floor. Think of it as like adding a piece of baseboard moulding; here it’s sort of a one-by material that attaches to the back of the garage door and then that gets shaped to the floor. The weatherstripping goes on the bottom of that piece.
CINDY: OK. I can do that.
TOM: So there’s a couple of ways to deal with this. It’s not so unusual and not something that you have to worry too much about.
CINDY: OK. Thank you so very much.
TOM: You’re welcome, Cindy. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Talking tankless with Mike. What can we do for you?
MIKE: Yeah, I only have a 50-gallon water heater and I’m in a family of four and I’m the only guy …
TOM: OK. (Leslie chuckles)
MIKE: … so that means that by the time I get to take a shower I’m taking a nice cold one.
LESLIE: (overlapping voices) You get the shortest, coldest shower.
MIKE: Oh, yeah. I was wondering – now I’ve heard your programs before about the tankless heaters but I think they’re related to gas and I don’t have gas in my neighborhood, so I’m looking for an electric tankless.
TOM: Do you have liquid propane? Do you have LP gas?
MIKE: Not at the house currently.
TOM: OK, because you could put in an LP gas water heater; you don’t necessarily have to have natural gas. But I will say that we do not recommend electric tankless water heaters because they’re just not efficient and there’s a lot of complaints about whether or not they can do the job. Gas water heaters, natural gas or LP – fabulous, recommend them all day long; would love to have one myself. But electric tankless – not so much.
MIKE: OK. That was going to be another question. Yeah, every now and then when I do get a chance to have hot water, sometimes it is nice to have it like a steam shower to relax in. (Leslie chuckles)
TOM: What you might want to think about doing is replacing that …
LESLIE: Wake up earlier.
TOM: Yeah, or replace that 50 – replace the 50-gallon water heater with a 75-gallon next time out and then also put it on a timer so it only runs like in the morning when you need it and then in the evening when you need it and not so much in the middle of the night or the middle of the day.
MIKE: OK.
TOM: Alright?
MIKE: Thank you, sir.
TOM: You’re welcome. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: This is The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show. When we come back, we are going to jump into our e-mail question bag and we’re going to answer one about a bathroom tile job. Maybe it’s yours, 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: Call us right now with your home improvement question or head on over to MoneyPit.com, click on Ask Tom and Leslie and shoot us an e-mail question. And speaking of being online, you know energy costs are going up, up, and up with no falling prices in sight and it’s causing us to have to sometimes think outside the box, so to speak, when it comes to our home. So in my new AOL column I write about trends in modular home construction. We’re talking about everything from log cabins to yurts; these are those tent-like structures that provide …
LESLIE: I love those yurts.
TOM: Yeah, they’re cool. They provide very simple and cost-effective living. That is all being covered in the next edition of The Money Pit column on MoneyPit.AOL.com so head on over there and check it out.
LESLIE: And while you’re surfing the web, head over to MoneyPit.com and you can research all of your home improvement projects, get maintenance tips, step-by-step ideas to tackle those projects and you can even e-mail us a question so that you can go back to doing what you’re doing and we’ll get your answer out to you on the air right now, in this hour, as we do every hour of the show. And we’ve got one here from John in Brooklyn, New York who writes: ‘What is the proper ceramic tile adhesive for bathroom ceilings and does it work with backer board or drywall?’
TOM: First of all, I would suggest backer board always over dry when it comes to tile. You know, the only folks I see consistently putting in like even a green board drywall backer for tile are builders in track construction homes and frankly, you’re lucky if you get 10 years out of it and that’s only if you caulk it like every night before you to bed.
LESLIE: And there’s even a Georgia-Pacific product called DensShield, which is a moisture-resistant backer board that – it looks like the concrete board but it’s not; it’s still fiberglass. It’s got a moisture-resistant core, so that’s even like going the extra distance when you think of moisture-resistancy.
TOM: So if you use those products, all you need is a standard tile adhesive. There’s nothing special about the adhesive but it’s really important to choose the right backer board, John. Thanks so much for writing us.
LESLIE: Do you want to buy an adhesive that’s pre-mixed so that you get the right sort of viscosity? Is that the word I’m thinking of?
TOM: I prefer pre-mix because I think it’s just a lot easier to use.
LESLIE: Alright, good. Alright, we’ve got another one here from Jacob in Escondido, California who writes: ‘I’ve built some garden boxes out of redwood. I’d like to get a slightly richer redwood color and I’d also like to seal and protect the wood from termites and rot. I’m considering a semi-transparent stain, but I’m concerned about chemicals from the stain leaching into the soil contained in the boxes. Any recommendations for nontoxic products that work well for this application?’
TOM: That sounds like a job for Mythic.
LESLIE: Well, Mythic does paints but there is a company that does sort of enviro-friendly stains and it’s called …
TOM: Stains? OK.
LESLIE: … Bioshield. And their website is BioShieldPaint.com. And their stains are made for interior or exterior – I think there’s like 9 or 10 sort of natural wood-look colors of stains – you can find one in the redwood or even richer redwood color that you’re looking for – and then there’s about 10 or so colors that are sort of yellows, reds; you know to be a little bit more creative as far as furnishings. They do interior and exterior; they’re water-based; they’re low VOC; they go on fantastically and they’re very durable.
TOM: You know, it used to be that VOC, volatile organic compounds, made for a better paint but today we want to get that stuff out of the paints, out of the stains so that we can have really environmentally friendly products to put on our walls, our floors, our decks and our planters.
LESLIE: Now that’s a good point, Tom. You’re totally right.
TOM: You are listening to The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show and we’re just about out of time on the air right now. But no matter because the show continues online at MoneyPit.com. Head on over to MoneyPit.com. Send us an e-mail question with your home improvement project. Pick up the phone and call us anytime of the day or night at 1-888-MONEY-PIT. If we are not on the radio, we will call you back the next time we are and try to get your question answered right here on the program.
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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