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 2 TEXT:
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TOM: Hi, this is Tom Kraeutler and thanks for listening to the show.
Hey, I wanted to take a moment to tell you about a cool contest we’re running right now with our friends at Therma-Tru. It’s called the Ugliest Door in America contest and two of our listeners could win a brand new, completely installed entry door worth up to $5,000. Entering is super easy, too, at MyUglyDoor.com. So if your front door, back door or patio door is looking a little worse for wear, log onto MyUglyDoor.com and you can enter to win a beautiful new entry door from Therma-Tru. That’s MyUglyDoor.com.
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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: And we are at the National Hardware Show in Las Vegas. This is an exciting place. It’s buzzing with news of cutting-edge products, the best services and the latest information out there for home improvement enthusiasts like you.
LESLIE: Mm-hmm, and this is a trade show for, among others, the buyers in the home improvement industry. So through us you guys are getting a sneak peek at the stuff you may soon see on a store shelf near you and this hour we’re going to tell you about some great products and some brand, spanking new trends we’re seeing out there.
TOM: That’s right and one trend that we are seeing here, echoing what we are hearing from listeners and learning about from experts, consumers want products to help them go green. So coming up this hour we’re going to tell you a way to cut your grass that you probably haven’t seen since your grandfather’s day; why, push lawnmowers are making a huge comeback.
LESLIE: And while we’re talking about your yard we’ve got some information on lawn and garden products that are going to help you grow green while you go green. They’re going to reduce runoff into your local water sources and cut down on the amount of product that you have to use. So it’s going to keep money in your wallet as well.
TOM: And another way to go green is to make sure you’re using good-quality materials so you don’t have to redo your home improvement projects. We want to stop you from wasting time and resources. So we’re going to tell you about a durable new flooring option that’s going to stand up to the toughest punishment your family can dish out and also one that is warm to the touch; so no more cold tootsies in the morning.
LESLIE: (chuckling) Plus we’re giving away a prize this hour. It’s the YETI portable security system. It’s worth about 200 bucks. So pick up the phone and give us a call now at 1-888-MONEY-PIT for your chance to win.
TOM: 888-666-3974.
First up, we’re going to talk about safety. You know, summer is the start of the outdoor barbecue season and all those water activities, making it important for families to keep safety in mind as they gather around the grill or the pool. Home Safety Council President Meri-K Appy joins us now to share some tips that will help families cut down on the risk of summer accidents.
Hi, Meri-K.
MERI-K: Hi, Tom. Hi, Leslie.
LESLIE: Hi.
TOM: And when we get outside we see a lot of injuries go up. Why is that? Are we just so tired of being cooped up? (laughing)
LESLIE: (overlapping voices) Clumsy? Excited?
MERI-K: Well, the emergency room docs will tell you that the summer time is called trauma season in hospital emergency rooms. I think yeah, people are active; perhaps indulging in some holiday – in some summer beverages may be a factor.
TOM: (chuckling) Well said.
MERI-K: Yeah. But the good thing to know is, especially if you’ve got little ones at home, there are some very important safety tips and we were talking about backyard activities like grilling.
TOM: Right.
MERI-K: Folks should know every year during the summertime there are about 1,500 structure fires; about 4,800 outdoor fires involving the home. So this is something to really keep in mind and the most important thing is if you’re lighting something hot outside, create a play-free zone around it. Teach your children that, you know, they’re not to get anywhere near that; especially if you’re using charcoal barbecue, which remains hot even after you’ve finished your project.
TOM: And keep it away from your house, too. You know, in the years I spent as a home inspector I used to come around to the area of the house where the grill was and you’d see this arch melted pattern in that vinyl even if that grill was like 10 feet away because of the radiant heat. So you …
MERI-K: (overlapping voices) Yeah. Yep. Yep. Right. I know. You have to keep it well away.
LESLIE: (overlapping voices) Ooh, on the siding.
MERI-K: And I just learned something today. We’re talking about new products and I just learned this one today. First Alert has come out with this thing called Tundra, which is like a fire suppressant that you can use on a barbecue grill. If you use a normal fire extinguisher you really shouldn’t put food on that afterwards …
TOM: Right.
LESLIE: Oh, interesting.
MERI-K: … but this is biodegradable, non-toxic. So, yeah.
TOM: And I’ve seen that Tundra. It’s actually in the size of an aerosol can.
MERI-K: It’s about a 14-ounce can.
TOM: That’s great.
MERI-K: Yeah, very easy to use. Yep.
LESLIE: Now speaking of grills I know that you always recommend, especially at the start of the season, to do sort of a maintenance check, a once-over, on the grill to make sure that there aren’t any leaks.
MERI-K: Yes.
LESLIE: You know what are the best ways to look for the leaks and are there areas where the connections tend to break down first?
MERI-K: It’s at the connection points that you’re checking; so you can take some sort of light, soapy material and rub it along the connections …
TOM: Like a dishwasher detergent.
MERI-K: Yes.
TOM: Right.
MERI-K: … and then if you see little bubbles you know you might have an issue.
TOM: Now let’s also talk a little bit about pools …
MERI-K: Good.
TOM: … because pools are a huge problem in the summer. In fact, I think they’re the leading cause of accidental death in children in some states.
MERI-K: It’s number two …
TOM: Number two?
MERI-K: … for kids ages one to nine. Yeah.
TOM: Wow, wow.
MERI-K: So it’s big and you know, some drownings at home; about a third occur in bathtubs.
TOM: Right.
MERI-K: So really, anywhere there’s water you’ve got to be – you’ve got to be really careful, but this is swimming season so the most important thing, if you’ve got a backyard pool, is to have what the experts call isolation fencing.
TOM: OK.
MERI-K: That means fencing on all four sides. The side of your home would not count as a barrier.
TOM: Right and too many people have that. So if you have that sliding door is it a good idea to put a door alarm on it?
MERI-K: Yes and — but even install fencing inside of it so that there’s a barrier …
TOM: Inside of it.
LESLIE: Mm-hmm.
MERI-K: … because we’ve just heard too many stories of, you know, little toddlers; the door is left ajar just that one time and it creates a tragedy.
TOM: Now here’s a little landscaping trick for you …
MERI-K: OK.
TOM: … for those that really just don’t like the look of fencing.
MERI-K: OK.
TOM: Black fencing. Black fencing with some landscaping in front of it, some bushes in front of it, becomes almost invisible to the eye.
MERI-K: Wonderful.
TOM: So …
LESLIE: Yeah but now I mean you’re creating a barrier around the property, essentially. Shouldn’t you have a secondary fence then around the pool …
MERI-K: Yeah.
LESLIE: … on the interior to keep the yard still usable?
MERI-K: Exactly. Exactly. What I’m talking about, isolation fencing is at least five foot high; it goes all around all four sides of the pool and it has a self-closing, self-latching gate and then you’ve got all the rescue equipment. If you have a pool, too, invest in CPR classes. You really – it’s a big responsibility to have a backyard pool.
TOM: Aren’t we talking really here, Meri-K, about layers of protection?
MERI-K: Yes.
TOM: You have to have multiple layers so if the first one fails there’s a backup and a backup and a backup.
MERI-K: (overlapping voices) Exactly right.
TOM: And of course nothing is a substitution for supervision.
MERI-K: Right. But you know, we’ve …
TOM: But we always say …
MERI-K: We’ve done some studies and parents think they’re supervising if they’re sitting there reading a book or talking on the phone.
TOM: Right.
LESLIE: But you’re not watching.
MERI-K: Supervision means you’re doing nothing but eyes on those kids in and around the water at all times.
TOM: Because drowning is silent.
MERI-K: It is and people think there’s going to be splashing; you’re going to hear it.
TOM: Right.
MERI-K: That’s not the case.
TOM: How about poisons? Are poisons a big issue this time of year?
MERI-K: They are and it’s slightly different issues now. You might be talking about pool chemicals, pesticides, herbicides that you’re using in your garden. The thing to know there is always read the label. You might want to choose some of the newer green products coming out because they may pose less of a problem on that. But if you see the words ‘caution,’ ‘warning,’ ‘danger,’ ‘poison’ or ‘Keep out reach of children,’ those have got to be really under lock and key all the time.
LESLIE: And always keep things in their original containers …
MERI-K: Yes.
LESLIE: … because I had read one time where a family put some sort of cleanser in a juice container …
MERI-K: Yes.
LESLIE: … and somehow either the child drank it or the babysitter served it thinking it was actually the juice.
MERI-K: I know. We hear this stuff all the time. And the other thing people don’t know is that the poison control centers are at 1-800-222-1222. If somebody takes something – obviously if there’s a medical emergency call 911 right away but if you’re just kind of wondering, you need some guidance, those poison control centers have toxicologists standing by to help all the time.
TOM: We’re talking to Meri-K Appy. She’s the president of the Home Safety Council.
Meri-K, before we let you go …
MERI-K: Yes.
TOM: … I want you to address the issue of playground safety because too many folks out there think that if you have a grass – if you have grass under your swings that that’s all you need to protect the kids.
MERI-K: According to the CPSC there were nearly 47,000 injuries involving backyard playgrounds. I don’t think I’ve gone to one house, even of my friends, where there was proper surfacing under the playground equipment.
TOM: Right.
MERI-K: You need 9 to 12 inches of a soft surface such as mulch, pea gravel, wood chips; there’s new rubber mulch out that’s good. But 9 to 12 inches that extends at least six feet in all directions around the equipment. We need to provide a soft landing for our kids.
TOM: Fantastic. Meri-K Appy from the Home Safety Council. The website HomeSafetyCouncil.org.
MERI-K: Yes, and the new one, MySafeHome.org.
TOM: MySafeHome.org. Meri-K, thanks so much for stopping by The Money Pit.
More from the National Hardware Show 2008 coming up. Up next, grow your lawn and garden with a green thumb and a green conscience. We’re going to tell you about some environmentally friendly yard care products when we return for the 2008 National Hardware Show.
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ANNOUNCEMENT: 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: Welcome back to the Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show. I’m Tom Kraeutler.
LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete and we are broadcasting a very special edition of The Money Pit today live from Las Vegas, site of the 2008 National Hardware Show.
TOM: Yeah, it boils down to like 50 acres worth of …
LESLIE: Oh, that’s it? (Leslie chuckles)
TOM: … exhibitors, that’s all and we’ve been sort of pounding the pavement, so to speak, to bring you the best of the best.
LESLIE: Yeah, and we want to hear from you, so give us a call at 1-888-MONEY-PIT. One caller who gets on the air this hour is going to win the YETI security system worth 200 bucks. It’s a unique system that you can take with you and set up at your camp site, at your work site, at your beach or your boat, even your garage and it works like a traditional burglar alarm. It lets you know when would-be thieves are getting too close to your goodies.
TOM: 888-666-3974.
Continuing our coverage of green trends here at the National Hardware Show, manufacturers are hearing consumers loud and clear. They know that you’re looking for products that you can feel good about when it comes to the environment.
LESLIE: Yeah, and one area where you definitely want to go green is with your green thumb and joining us to tell us about some natural alternatives to yard care is Scott Everett (sp). He is the executive vice president of United Industries and they’re the makers of Spectrum Brands.
Welcome.
SCOTT: Thank you. It’s nice to be here. Appreciate you having me.
TOM: Scott, talk to us about the trend in green gardening. How do you garden green? I mean it almost seems like an oxymoron because you’re already doing that.
SCOTT: Well, we are doing that but there’s a growing consumer base out there that it’s not that the existing base is not responsible but they’re starting to ask for additional products that they can put down on their yards that they know will treat the environment in a friendly manner. And so what we’ve been trying to do is make sure that we come up with the products that give them intelligent, selected choices.
TOM: So what’s a good example of a natural product or a more natural alternative?
SCOTT: Well, a couple of them come to mind. One is our brand called Garden Safe and Garden Safe is a line of products that are naturally based products that you can use for plant fertilizers. We have special natural ingredients; you can also put them down. We have weed control. We have insecticidal soaps. And so they’re all naturally based as opposed to chemically based.
LESLIE: Now Scott, do you think in addition to the products themselves being more green in their components do you think it’s also sort of the responsibility on the user and how they’re applied and sort of the maintenance of where the extra material goes to?
SCOTT: That’s a very good point. One thing that we always try and tell consumers is read the labels because the labels are very informative. You know, as an example, our line of phos-free fertilizers. We’ve taken the phosphorous out of Sta-Green. Phosphorous – you know consumers may think more is better. In this case less is better; it’s better for the environment; it’s actually better for the yard.
TOM: Now isn’t it true that most lawns already have plenty of phosphorous in it and you really don’t need to add it unless it’s a brand new lawn?
SCOTT: Well, it’s the old adage that more is better; in this case less is. Phosphorous is in the yard. If you don’t overmedicate, so to speak (Tom chuckles) with phosphorous, you will force your yard to mine the phosphorous that is already there. So you don’t need to put it down.
TOM: Well, curb appeal is a huge issue right now with folks trying to sell their homes on this market; being kind of a very, very slow one. I think that the fertilizers are a great way to spike it up pretty inexpensively.
SCOTT: Well, they are and there’s a lot of research out there and a lot of statistics about you can invest a little bit of money in greening your grass, planting great flowers and plants and shrubbery and it will enhance the value of your home. There are even statistics from a homeowners association that if you spend some money here it’s money that will pay back more than what you invested.
TOM: And the Spectrum products help us do just that; especially the Sta-Green phosphorous-free fertilizer product.
SCOTT: Well, the Sta-Green phosphorous-free, which is available at Lowe’s, is a great way to do that. We actually took a leadership position in this in taking the phosphorous out and it’s our way to help green the environment.
TOM: Great. Scott Everett, Executive Vice President with United Industries, thanks so much for stopping by The Money Pit.
SCOTT: Thank you very much.
LESLIE: Alright, well another way to go green is to avoid waste and putting more things into your local landfill and one way you can do that is to use all of the tools that you’ve got in your workshop as long as possible and it really is easy when you’ve got the right products to maintain your tools for a longer lifespan.
TOM: Here to tell us more about that is Hank O’Dougherty. He’s the president of ProTool Manufacturing and Hank, you guys have been in the sharpening business now for a long time and I think what’s cool about what you do is that you help tool users save money and also work safely because many of those people that don’t use tools all the time don’t think about the fact that a dull tool is actually far more dangerous.
LESLIE: (overlapping voices) More dangerous.
HANK: That’s right. Our new Work Sharp tool helps people sharpen their tools and what they find, just like in the kitchen, is if you have a sharp tool it works better.
TOM: Now I’ve got to tell you a little story about sharpening chisels. You know, I went to college originally to be a shop teacher and I had to take, you know, advanced woodworking classes and things like that. And Leslie, one of the things that you had to do to pass Dr. Johnson’s woodshop class was to hand-sharpen a chisel and there were a lot of guys that started with four-inch or five-inch chisels (Leslie chuckles) and ended up with little stubs of chisels because they couldn’t quite get it right. Your system, though, takes all of that hand skill out of it and makes it easy to do.
HANK: Well, what you just said is true. It’s tremendously difficult to sharpen a chisel. There are guys that are artisans that can do it but most people can’t. What we’ve done is designed a process where you can sharpen a chisel in about a minute to a mirror finish and you don’t have to have skill.
LESLIE: And it keeps all of the edges even.
HANK: It keeps the edges square and it brings you to the perfect bevel angle. Our goal is to take the mystery out of sharpening to make it an everyday event.
TOM: That’s fantastic. Now you also make a product called the Drill Doctor which I know you’ve sold millions and millions of them.
HANK: That’s right.
TOM: And was that sort of the first major product in your line?
HANK: Drill Doctor, it was our launch. We’ve been sharpening cutting tools industrially for over 30 years. We recognized that a lot of people had a drawer full of drill bits or a coffee can and they didn’t know how to sharpen them. We said, ‘Alright, let’s tackle this.’
TOM: It’s always interesting that so many of the companies that are here with consumer products started in the industrial end of things.
HANK: Right.
LESLIE: Well and it’s great because when you think about, you know, the cost effectiveness of purchasing one of the sharpeners, whether it’s the Work Sharp or the Drill Doctor, you know, over time, replacing a chisel is a pricy thing and all those drill bits that you buy. I mean with the Drill Doctor you can take a bit that’s – what? – a half an inch long and as long as it’s got a turn on it you can sharpen it?
HANK: That’s right, that’s right. And let me just mention this, what we’re finding with Work Sharp is it was started as a sharpener but now, just daily, we’re getting comments from our users that are saying, ‘This thing stays out on my work bench. I’m sharpening my garden tools with it. I’m sharpening my shovel, my hose. I’m sharpening my bypass pruners.’
TOM: Perhaps your steak knives, too. (Leslie chuckles)
HANK: Well, actually we get some of that but we don’t recommend it. Lawn mower blades, too.
TOM: Alright. Hank O’Dougherty, President of ProTool Manufacturing, thanks for stopping by The Money Pit.
The websites for those tools that Hank mentioned are WorkSharpTools.com and DrillDoctor.com. Hey, saving money by keeping those tools sharp instead of replacing them is smart.
LESLIE: Alright, when we come back we’re going to talk about a great new service for everybody out there who is working on a digging project. It’s a national number to help you locate your utility lines. We’ll talk to you in a bit.
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ANNOUNCEMENT: 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; a special edition of the program broadcasting today from the floor of the 2008 National Hardware Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. There’s 50 acres of ground to cover and we’ve been trying to get it all to you about the best new products coming to the marketplace.
LESLIE: Yeah, and while we’re here we’re also learning about some new services and information that’s available out there for all of you do-it-yourselfers as well as trends in home improvement. One area that we notice continues to just boom is outdoor living and more and more of you are extending your living space to the outside of your house, which is excellent. But if you’re planning a major outdoor project that involves landscaping or, say, digging giant post holes for a patio or a deck, there’s one thing that you do need to know before you even think about picking up that shovel.
TOM: And here to tell us all about that, we’re going to head outside and talk to Bob Kipp, the president of the Common Ground Alliance.
Bob, what do we need to do before we pick up a shovel?
BOB: Before you pick up a shovel you call 811.
TOM: 811.
BOB: 811. Three easy numbers to remember.
TOM: Now you’re with the Common Ground Alliance and you’re an organization of utility companies across the country. Is that correct?
BOB: More than utility companies. We’re an organization that has the utility companies, contractors, road builders, insurance companies, railroad companies, state regulators. We are a unique organization that has 16 different stakeholder groups and of course the 17th which is the do-it-yourselfers.
TOM: Well just the fact that you pulled all those folks together is an amazing accomplishment.
LESLIE: Yeah.
BOB: It really is and I wish I could take credit for it but I can’t. It resulted from an act in the ’90s to bring people together, all of these industries, to come up with best practices to reduce damages and particularly, at that time, to reduce the incidences to gas and oil lines which can result in serious injuries and, frankly, fatalities. And so that’s how it all started. We developed some best practices. We continued and created the Common Ground Alliance and then we said, ‘OK, what else can we do here that would help make it easy to reduce incidences?’ and the first thing that came up is this three-digit number. Why not get a three-digit?
LESLIE: It seems to really streamline things, Bob, because in several instances when I’ve traveled the country doing outdoor makeovers, you know, we’ve had to call several local utility companies for a certain home to get everything sort of mapped out. Now by dialing the three numbers, does it sort of access everyone locally for me in my area and do it all as sort of a one-stop shopping?
BOB: Absolutely, Leslie. There are 62 one-call centers across the country and each has their own numbers. Now with 811 the switching center, the telephone switching center that receives that call from you will direct it to the appropriate one-call center and they take it from there.
TOM: Is there any cost to the consumer for taking advantage of the 811 service?
BOB: Free calls, free service and at the end of the day it helps reduce inconveniences: decreased business productivity because of downed lines; inability to make emergency phone calls – we’ve all heard of radars to airports being cut. There’s a variety of things on the commercial side and of course on the local side, the residential side, you can take your air conditioning out for the summer; you can take out your neighbor’s internet service if he’s working at home or she’s working at home; of course cable service on a Sunday is not a good thing to cut, especially when there’s NFL football that day. (Leslie chuckles)
TOM: Yeah, it doesn’t make you popular with the neighborhood.
BOB: Exactly. So a lot of inconveniences but there’s also the risk of damage and injury.
TOM: We’re talking to Bob Kipp. He’s the president of the Common Ground Alliance.
Now Bob, I think people may think they only need to call 811 if they’re doing a major project like an addition or installing a new plumbing line or something like that but you say that really any time you place a shovel in the ground, whether it’s just for a fencepost or for a foundation, you really need to make that call.
BOB: Absolutely. We have – we estimate about 675,000 damages a year and 40 percent of those there was no call made to the one-call center.
TOM: Wow.
BOB: So if you’re going to put a shovel in the ground – you know, that’s more than one damage per minute every day 365 days a year.
LESLIE: Oh, that’s huge.
BOB: It is huge. It is huge.
TOM: Well, it’s a great service. It’s a great idea.
Bob Kipp, President of the Common Ground Alliance, thanks so much for stopping by The Money Pit.
BOB: Thank you, Tom and Leslie. Appreciate it.
LESLIE: Alright.
Well we’re going to move inside now and you know we’re big on vinyl flooring; especially in high-traffic homes with kids and pets. When we come back we’re going to have a new technology that’s making vinyl floors even tougher and more resilient than ever.
TOM: Plus a new way to go green with your lawn care. Did you ever think you’d see the day when push lawnmowers would make their way back to the tool shed or the garage? Well believe it or not this is a really cool, environmentally friendly way to trim your grass. Find out all about that, next.
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ANNOUNCER: The Money Pit is brought to you by Rheem water heaters. For dependable, energy-efficient tank and tankless water heaters, you can trust Rheem. Learn more at SmarterHotWater.com. Now, here are Tom and Leslie.
TOM: A very special edition of The Money Pit broadcasting today live from the 2008 National Hardware Show and our next guest is literally pushing green with the resurrection of the push mower to trim your lawn; but it’s not your grandfather’s mower anymore and here to tell us all about that is Elisa Haworth, VP of Operations for Sun Lawn.
Hi, Elisa.
ELISA: How are you?
TOM: We are excellent. Now, I understand your dad invented this.
ELISA: He did. He got tired of hearing the gas mowers …
TOM: (overlapping voices) Mowers?
ELISA: … and smelling the pollution.
TOM: Yeah, I especially like the fact that you don’t have to like pull your arm out trying to start it at the beginning of the season. You know?
ELISA: Throw your arm out? Nobody wants to do that on the weekend.
TOM: No, but this mower is much, much different than the ones that we’ve seen in past years that you may remember your grandparents having. How has it changed over the years?
ELISA: Well, the mowers that we have now are less than 20 pounds.
TOM: Wow.
ELISA: Most of them are less than 20 pounds.
TOM: That’s a change right there because I mean those old ones, they were really, really heavy.
ELISA: They were very heavy and hard to push. These are very, very easy to push. They use a non-contact cutting system; so that cuts out all of the friction which …
TOM: Non-contact cutting. What does that mean?
ELISA: There is five one-hundredths of a millimeter in between the cutting bar and the blade …
TOM: Oh, OK.
ELISA: … so it actually acts more like scissors and there’s a …
TOM: Oh, cool.
LESLIE: Interesting.
ELISA: So you get a very clean cut across your blade of grass.
TOM: And you get great exercise at the same time.
ELISA: You do. It’s not as much exercise and work as everybody thinks that it used to be. (Tom chuckles) It’s very, very easy to push now.
LESLIE: Well, along those lines, are you finding that most of the people who are buying have small yards and live in sort of urban environments or are people really going for the gusto and doing, you know, a push mower on a good, sizable yard?
ELISA: No, it’s usually urban yards and they’re less than about 10,000 square feet.
TOM: Wow. Well that’s great. I mean you can probably get a pretty good workout. How long would it take you to mow a yard of that size?
ELISA: Mine is about 9,000 square feet …
TOM: Yep.
ELISA: … and it takes about 45 minutes.
TOM: And you know, think about all the gym memberships you’re not having to pay for. (laughs)
ELISA: Oh, it’s free. You’re outside; you’re getting fresh air and a little exercise.
TOM: Well, it’s a cool product. Elisa Haworth, Vice President of Operations for Sunlawn. Where can we go for more information?
ELISA: www.Sunlawn.com.
TOM: Perfect. Thanks so much for stopping by The Money Pit.
ELISA: Thank you.
TOM: Well, we also get a lot of questions about floors on this program and probably the most frequently asked question has to do with maintenance. I mean people want a really long-lasting and durable floor that can stand up to the daily wear and tear of big families like mine which includes three kids, a dog, a goldfish …
LESLIE: Well that doesn’t damage the floor. (chuckles)
TOM: (chuckles) … and a couple of parents. (chuckles)
LESLIE: And that’s why we are big believers in vinyl flooring here at The Money Pit. Unfortunately, there are still some of you out there who won’t even give vinyl a second thought but vinyl really has come a long way. It can look like wood and stone and tile and it really does look great and it’s super durable and here to tell us more about advances in vinyl flooring and some of the new trends we’re seeing is Gary Finseth (sp). He is the residential marketing director for Tarkett Floors.
Welcome, Gary.
GARY: Thank you.
TOM: Now Gary, you guys have a new product out called Fiber Floor which I think is really cool. It’s actually really hot, I should say, because it solves the problem of cold floors. How does it do that?
GARY: Well, it’s got five layers and three of the layers are actually foam and they help to insulate against the cool floor and help to keep it warm.
LESLIE: So does that eliminate the need for any of those underlayments?
GARY: You could if you wished but actually this floor is about between 80 to 120 mils thick, which is quite a bit thicker than the old floors, and it will span small gaps in the subfloor; so you don’t really need the underlayments that you may have needed in the past.
TOM: What about wear resistance? Do you give up wear resistance when you have that much insulation?
GARY: Not at all. We have three different quality levels of FiberFloor; anywhere from a 10-year limited warranty to a lifetime warranty. So – and we protect against scratches and indentations along the way.
LESLIE: What about if we’re dealing with a high-moisture situation; perhaps if we’re putting it on-grade on a slab. Do we have to be concerned about moisture?
GARY: This is a perfect product for this because on the backside of our backing layer we put a product called AquaGuard on that that will actually make the entire floor moisture resistant.
TOM: It’s a great product. It’s called FiberFloor.
Gary Finseth (sp), thanks so much for stopping by from Tarkett.
For more information we can go to the Tarkett website at Tarkett.com.
GARY: Thank you.
TOM: Up next, a centuries-old practice is getting a makeover. We’re going to have the latest and greatest sanding products for all your woodworking projects. Find out all about that, 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: Welcome back to the Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show where we make good homes better. I’m Tom Kraeutler.
LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.
TOM: And this hour The Money Pit is coming to you from the floor of the 2008 National Hardware Show. We’re in Las Vegas scouring the acres upon acres of show floor to find the things that are going to make your life better and easier if you’re a DIYer and these are the products that are going to eventually make it to a store near you.
LESLIE: Yeah, not only are we finding new products but we’re finding products that you do-it-yourselfers out there have used for centuries, and some of you every day, are getting an update; like sandpaper. This is a concept that actually originated in 13th-century China, so it’s been around a long time.
TOM: I always think it’s amusing that the Chinese invented sandpaper because you know what else they invented?
LESLIE: What?
TOM: Toilet paper. (laughs)
LESLIE: (chuckling) And if you ever confused them you were in deep trouble.
TOM: Well, the Gator Company is taking up this age-old toolbox staple and kicking it up a notch. Liz Topitch (sp) is here to tell us about some of the Gator products.
Hi, Liz.
LIZ: Hi, how are you?
TOM: Now using sandpaper is always something that’s, you know, pretty stressful. I mean it really hurts my hand when I have to grip it and fold it and try to work it into the nooks and crannies of the projects that I’m working on, but your Gator product is actually quite different so let’s explain it to our listeners. It’s sandpaper that’s mounted really to what is sort of like a sponge block.
LIZ: Yes, actually it’s called the Zip Sander and it has a hand-hold that you can use.
TOM: Looks like a small iron.
LIZ: It does, actually.
TOM: Yeah.
LIZ: It does and actually it’s very comfortable. People love it. And the idea being that it gets easily into the corners and edges and literally you just use it; you pick it up; you go; you’re done.
LESLIE: And what I like is that this gives you an opportunity to actually change the sandpaper as you use it where some of these other products that, you know, make it a little bit more user-friendly are just tossable.
LIZ: Right, right. This is actually something where if you decide you want to, you know, switch grades or you decide that you really just need it for a second to touch something up real fast, you can reuse the piece of paper or you can change it out.
TOM: Now how many different configurations does this come in? Is it just the single one or are there different ones?
LIZ: Actually there are. There are – there’s a whole Zip line of products …
TOM: OK.
LIZ: … and we have it all online. You can look at it, check it out. It’s actually at www.ZipSander.com.
TOM: Now the customers that are buying this, what are the most common projects that they’re tackling?
LIZ: You know, actually it’s interesting because this is really great for all projects. People have come up and said, you know, ‘I picked it up just to touch up a spot on my wall.’
TOM: Right.
LIZ: It’s great for cabinets because it gets into the edges and the ridges very well.
TOM: We get a lot of questions about that; about kitchen cabinets …
LIZ: Yes.
TOM: … and how to refinish them and you know, Leslie, I was thinking with the kitchen cabinet door – with all the raised panels – this is something that could slide in quite nicely.
LESLIE: Well and it’s tough because you’re dealing with routed edges, so a lot of times you’re dealing with nooks and crannies that give you weird edges that are hard to get into. So that’s what I like; you know, you really can get into all these corners.
TOM: What other projects are they doing? How about furniture?
LIZ: Furniture, yes; that’s a popular one. Floors, some.
TOM: Because you can get up kind of close to the baseboard with this.
LIZ: Right, and actually drywall. They seem to like it for the corners where the walls meet the ceiling.
TOM: Yeah, very, very cool.
Liz Topitch (sp), thank you so much for stopping by The Money Pit.
If you want more information on the Gator products, what’s the website again?
LIZ: It’s www.ZipSander.com which is Z-i-p-S-a-n-d-e-r.com.
TOM: Fantastic. Liz, thanks so much for stopping by The Money Pit.
Well that’s just going to just about wrap up this hour of The Money Pit coming to you from the 2008 National Hardware Show. We’ve got a lot of coverage of the items that we’re seeing in the National Hardware Show online at MoneyPit.com where the show does continue 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We hope that you’ve enjoyed this and learned about some of these new innovations.
Coming up next week on the program we’ll have some tips on keeping kids safe from lead poisoning.
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 2 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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