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:
(promo/theme song)
TOM: Coast to coast and floorboards to shingles. This is The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show. I’m Tom Kraeutler.
LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.
TOM: Call us now with your home improvement question. Call us now with your do-it-yourself dilemma. The number is 1-888-MONEY-PIT. 888-666-3974.
LESLIE: We have a great show coming up for y’all this hour.
First up, it is absolutely amazing what a fresh coat of paint can do to cabinets. It really will change the entire look of them.
TOM: Yeah, and it’s not hard to do either. You just have to make sure you prep them properly. And whatever you do, don’t skip sanding them. We’ll tell you why, coming up.
LESLIE: Plus, things like crown moulding and decorative trim, they really do add a nice finishing touch and some architectural interest to a plain room. Wood mouldings, they can be expensive but there is a cheaper option and we’re going to tell you all about that a little bit later.
TOM: Plus, in your home lighting can create a mood, light a work area, keep you safe at night and create drama. Drama with light. (Leslie chuckles) You can always use exterior lighting to create the same effects outside. Learn how to use lighting for ambience, safety, security and accents in just a bit.
LESLIE: And neat freaks, come on out there. You know you’re one of them. I am. You are going to love our prize today. It is the Eureka Capture Plus vacuum. This is a great vacuum for you if you’ve got allergies, asthma. Because it is the only vacuum with a sealed HEPA filter that is going to lock in dust and any other allergens that aggravate your nose all around your house and has got you sneezing. It’s worth $169 but it can be yours for free.
TOM: Call us right now with your home improvement question. The number is 1-888-MONEY-PIT. We’re also launching, this hour, a brand new Money Pit membership program with the folks from the American Homeowners Association. It’s going to provide you all sorts of services that can help make managing your home a breeze and we’re doing this the right way. We’re giving away $50,000 worth of Zircon laser levels and stud sensors, including the super-cool Laser Ball 360 and the I60 stud sensor. The details are coming up on today’s show. So call us right now with your home improvement question. 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
Leslie, who’s first?
LESLIE: Barbara in Virginia, you’ve got The Money Pit. What can we do for you?
BARBARA: Hi, I have a house that’s 20 years old and in the last couple of years I started to see just on one side of the house – actually, in one corner of the house – some cracks in the drywall. Most of them are – most of them are horizontal cracks. There are a couple that go from like a door frame and then at an angle. They’re not huge. In exploring I found that there’s also a small crack in the crawlspace, the brick fascia on the crawlspace, and I’m wondering if – first of all, if that could be – if it could somehow be connected and what I should do about these cracks. I’ve tried to patch them and it’s not working. They come back.
TOM: How are you patching them exactly?
BARBARA: I was using screen – you know, the mesh screen.
TOM: Mm-hmm.
BARBARA: And then spackle and sand and spackle and sand.
TOM: Mm-hmm. Are the cracks – how long are the cracks?
BARBARA: Some of them are not very long. Others are, you know, like a foot long.
TOM: Because, generally what we recommend is fiberglass tape for that.
BARBARA: Fiberglass tape.
LESLIE: Mm-hmm.
TOM: Yes.
BARBARA: Yes, is that the mesh that …
LESLIE: Exactly. It’s like the sticky mesh.
TOM: We have to sand the wall first then apply the tape on top of that and then put two to three coats of spackle and that usually is adhesive enough that it can expand and contract with the wall.
BARBARA: OK. Alright, I’ll give it – maybe I’m just not doing enough spackling and sanding.
TOM: It sounds to me like you’re not because that would actually be enough. Because what happens is a house is always moving; it’s expanding and contracting. And if you don’t really bind it very well then it’s going to open up again.
BARBARA: Is there anything for me to be concerned about in that – it’s not a wide crack. It’s just a little crack on the brick in the crawl space.
TOM: I don’t think so. It’s probably just expansion and contraction and if you have a little bit of brick like that you’re going to want to seal that with some caulk. And if it’s just the foundation of the crawlspace, use some silicone caulk and it’ll go in there and prevent from getting in and making it any worse.
BARBARA: OK, great. Excellent. You’ve answered my questions.
TOM: Alright, Barbara. That’s what we do. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
BARBARA: Thank you so much.
LESLIE: Dorothy in Nebraska finds The Money Pit on KFOR and you’ve got a noisy toilet. What’s happening?
DOROTHY: We have more than one bathroom in the house but only one toilet makes the noise when it refills.
TOM: OK. That’s probably the fill valve, Dorothy. And inside the toilet there are two valves. There’s a fill valve and a flush valve. The flush valve is like the flapper that’s usually in the bottom of the tank and the fill valve is the other part that’s connected to the float.
Now the good news is that you could replace both of those valves for a grand total of about 15 bucks. There are different replacement parts that are out there; probably the most common one is made by Fluidmaster. It fits the widest variety of toilets; you know, available in any home center or hardware store in America. And Fluidmaster also has a video on their website that gives you step-by-step instructions on how to do it. But it’s very simple to do and it actually is a do-it-yourself plumbing project. If you’re doing that kind of noise on the fill it’s probably the fill valve that’s wearing out and making that loud, screechy noise. OK, Dorothy?
DOROTHY: Right. So, it is – they do have an internet – go to Fluidmaster on the internet?
TOM: That’s right, Dorothy. Go to Fluidmaster.com. You can get information there and you’ll find these valves in almost every hardware store in America. They come in a green box. Put a bunch of them in myself over the years.
Dorothy, thanks so much for calling us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: You know, Tom, what’s so interesting is that you’re supposed to do these maintenance steps almost annually to your toilets and people just ignore the toilet and hope to God that it’s going to work every time until it does fail. So there is some upkeep that’s involved.
TOM: Yeah, a toilet total makeover is not that difficult. (Leslie chuckles) You know? It involves about 15 bucks of parts and, again, it’s easy to do. The only place that you can get a little tricky is the water valve. If you can turn the water valve and it goes off to your toilet, cool. If you can’t turn the water valve off because it’s a bad valve or it sticks in the open position, don’t do it and call a plumber. But if you can shut that water valve off it’s easy to replace all the guts inside the toilet.
LESLIE: Autumn is upon us, Money Pit listeners, and if you are looking for ways to tidy up all of that yard work – all those leaves are falling down, maybe you want to know what you need to do with your lawn for the upcoming winter season, prepare those flowerbeds – now is the time to do it. So give us a call with your home repair or your home improvement question 24 hours a day, seven days a week at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
TOM: 888-666-3974.
Up next, looking to skip the sanding on the cabinets you’re about to repaint? Not such a smooth idea. We’re going to tell you why, after this.
(promo/theme song)
ANNOUNCER: This portion of The Money Pit is brought to you by Aprilaire, makers of professionally-installed, high-efficiency air cleaners. For more information, go to Aprilaire.com. Now, here are Tom and Leslie.
TOM: Making good homes better, this is The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show. I’m Tom Kraeutler.
LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.
TOM: And if you’re standing in water up to your knees you probably should call a plumber. For other, less immediate home improvement questions (Leslie chuckles) pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT because today we’re giving away a great cleaning tool. It’s the Eureka Capture Plus vacuum. There are some really neat – get it? Neat things …
LESLIE: Ha ha.
TOM: … about this particular vacuum. It’s got a telescoping dusting wand that actually attracts dust in hard-to-reach places. It’s worth 169 bucks and it could be yours. The number, again, is 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Alright, are you looking to update your kitchen on the cheap and really make a huge impact in the design and the style of your kitchen? Well, repainting kitchen cabinets can bring a brand new look to that tired kitchen or even your bathroom this works for all cabinetry. But you want to make sure that you do the proper prep. You want to make sure you wash away the grime before you start painting your cabinets. That’s a good idea. But you also want to make sure that you sand everything. Clean them first, then sand them. Because sanding is going to make sure that your new paint is not only going to stick. It’s really going to improve your chances of smoothing away any dings or blemishes that you see in the cabinet face. The more you sand the better your final results will be. Do not skip the prep work, folks. You will be sad.
TOM: 888-666-3974. Leslie, who’s next?
LESLIE: Alright, our next caller is a listener via podcast. Patrick, welcome to The Money Pit. What can we help you with?
PATRICK: Hi, my wife and I just bought a 1921 bungalow with a floor-to-ceiling brick fireplace which had about …
LESLIE: Cute.
PATRICK: … 15 layers of paint on it.
LESLIE: Bad.
TOM: (chuckling) OK.
PATRICK: So we considered our options and because we didn’t have to move in for about five weeks we decided to seal the room off and then send in a sandblaster.
TOM: Hmm.
PATRICK: And – which got off like 95 percent of the paint.
LESLIE: OK.
PATRICK: And I guess the questions I have are two. One is what to do with the rest of the paint. There’s some like flecks – because it’s really, really coarse, rough brick. And someone had suggested using a product called Peel Away. I’m wondering if you guys are familiar with that.
TOM: It sounds like one of the paint stripper products that you apply and then peel off. I’m not sure how well that’s going to work. If you’ve been through a …
LESLIE: Especially on a coarse surface. It sounds like something that would work better on a smooth surface …
TOM: Yeah.
LESLIE: … where it’s got an opportunity to grab something that might be raised above the rest of the surface. But if you’re dealing with an uneven surface and you go to rub almost like a sticker on top of it, it’s not going to know what to grab.
TOM: And also, if you’ve already sandblasted this, I can’t imagine that any chemical strippers going to do much better off a job. Is there a way – does what left looks so bad that you can’t sort of like go with that as the look?
PATRICK: You know, actually I kind of like it. It’s – no, it looks fine, I think. It’s just pretty inconsistent like on the sides of the fireplace. I think, because of the angle the sandblaster couldn’t really get at it as well. So, it’s just a question I have to kind of make it more consistent. But he also …
LESLIE: I’m sorry. Is it a remnant of sort of like a white fleck?
PATRICK: Exactly.
LESLIE: You can easily – and I know this would take a little bit of artistic courage – but if you take some white paint and mix it with a little bit of water just so it’s not full consistency and then maybe dip your brush and then flick the edge – you know, run your finger over it as you would a toothbrush – to spray water, you might be able to mimic that fleck. And I do – you know, I hate the look of painted brick but I really enjoy it when it has that whitewash-y effect to it that looks really old and interesting. And it does sort of break up that red brick, you know, monotone-ness that you might get if it were fully clean.
PATRICK: Oh, that’s a great idea. One other question.
LESLIE: Sure.
PATRICK: The sandblaster kind of – some of the grout between the brick is pretty much all gone and some of it’s still there. And I’m wondering if it – is it a safety problem to have – some of the exterior bricks are without any mortar between them.
TOM: Depends on how much mortar has been pulled out. I was going to tell you that that’s one of the downsides of sandblasting and sometimes can do more damage than it’s worth. But if you’ve lost the mortar to the point where the bricks are loose then it should be repointed. If just a little bit of mortar is gone then you’re probably OK.
PATRICK: Well, thanks very much.
TOM: You’re welcome. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: John in Massachusetts finds The Money Pit on WPRO and you’ve got a chimney situation. What’s happening?
JOHN: Yes, thanks for taking my call.
LESLIE: You’re so welcome. How can we help?
JOHN: I have a wood stove in my cellar and it goes out to an outside chimney. I’m having water coming through. When it rains real hard I have water coming through my trap door in my cellar. I’m really – right now I even have a gutter – a piece of gutter – that goes to my sump pump from that trap door to catch the water.
TOM: (chuckling) You have a whole little setup down there, don’t you?
JOHN: Yes, I do. (chuckling)
TOM: Alright. Well, a couple of things that you want to do, John. First of all, the most common place that water gets in around a chimney is at the chimney cap. That’s at the top. And there’s this little concrete shelf, so to speak, that goes between the edge of the brick and the middle of the chimney liner. So you need to check that first.
The second thing that you should be checking is the flashing around the base of the chimney to make sure that the flashing is properly installed. In a perfect world you’re going to have flashing and counterflashing. So the flashing comes up from the roof, lays up against the side of the chimney; then counterflashing that goes in the chimney mortar joint and then back down over that. So you have two pieces that sort of work together and can take the expansion and contraction. And then the third thing is to examine all of the mortar joints around the chimney itself to see if you have any deteriorated places where water is basically seeping in there. And if you see those then you need to repoint.
Lastly, you could consider putting a chimney cap on if you don’t have one already because some of those tend to be big enough that they sort of act like an umbrella on top of your chimney and sort of slow down the volume of water that gets to attack it directly. Does that make sense to you, John?
JOHN: Yes, it does. I have a cap and it seems that it only comes when it rains really, really hard. And I’ve diverted my downspouts away from the house. Because when I first bought my home I had a problem with that and I was getting a lot of water in my – in that area.
LESLIE: And that did the trick?
JOHN: And that did – you know, it helped some. But when we have a lot of rain – like we just had some rain here in the northeast, you know, yesterday and today – and I had some water coming down through that trap. And I’ve heard you before and it probably had nothing to do with the water level. I mean I’m to the point where I wanted to dig around the house, around the foundation.
TOM: Yeah, generally not needed.
JOHN: I’m sorry?
TOM: Generally not needed.
JOHN: Not needed, right. I’ll check the flashings, though. I didn’t really check the flashings on the crown.
TOM: Yeah, start up and work down. Remember gravity.
JOHN: OK. (Tom chuckles)
LESLIE: And it could just be that the wind is moving the roofing material and causing something to unsettle with the flashing. So it could just be in circumstances like that. So look at all of the surrounding areas where the chimney comes out of the roof.
JOHN: Very good.
TOM: Alright.
JOHN: I appreciate it. Thank you very much.
TOM: You’re welcome. Thanks so much for calling us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT. 888-666-3974.
LESLIE: Gwen in California’s up next and she finds The Money Pit on KSRO and you’ve got a painting question. How can we help?
GWEN: Hello. Yes, I bought a house and it has seafoam green ceramic tile around the fireplace, which just doesn’t work for me. And I was wondering if ceramic tile can be painted maybe black or white or some other, more appropriate color. Have you had any experience with that?
LESLIE: Absolutely you can paint it. It’s all a matter of making sure that you get proper adhesion. And the first thing you need to do is make sure that those tiles are all really, really clean. And around the fireplace you’re probably getting a buildup of smoke and it might just have some dirt and dust on it. So try to clean that really well and a good way to clean it is with water and ammonia; a mixture of the two. And that’ll get rid of any sort of dirt that might be on there. And once that’s on there, once everything’s really clean, make sure you rinse it well with plain water and let it dry.
And then you have to make sure you prime it with something that’s really going to stick really well and Bulls Eye 1-2-3 primer from Zinsser – it’s an oil-based primer – it’s going to stick really well to the ceramic tile, which is important because you want to make sure that that other paint sticks to it. But it’s important to remember that even though you’re painting with something that’s going to stick well, if you sort of rub on the tile abrasively you might scratch it off anyway. So you have to be really cautious, once it’s painted, that you treat it carefully. You know, don’t scrub it; don’t scratch at it. Because you know, it could be prone to showing damage.
And then once you put the primer on make sure you use – I think an oil-based paint would be good because it’ll give you a nice sheen and it’ll stick really well. And that should do the trick.
GWEN: Just any oil-based or is there a tile oil-based paint or just any oil-based ceramic – I mean, whatever, high gloss would work?
LESLIE: Oh, yeah. I think any sort of oil-based paint that you would find. Behr makes fantastic paint that offers excellent coverage. And just make sure you get an oil-based that will really stick well because it gives you good adhesion; it gives you nice sheen.
GWEN: Alright. Alright, well thank you so much.
TOM: You’re welcome, Gwen. Thanks so much for calling us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Susan from New Jersey’s up next on The Money Pit and you want to talk about metal roofs. What can we do for you?
SUSAN: Hi, we own a split-level house with a walkup attic and – that we want to turn in to a bonus room. We want to finish it off. And we were wondering if installing a metal roof will reduce the heating costs; will reduce the heat command of the house and into that bonus room.
LESLIE: Oh, I think absolutely.
TOM: Yeah, you know metal roofs today have special coatings that are very energy efficient and they can reflect the UV rays back out.
LESLIE: Which’ll keep things cooler.
TOM: The old metal roofs that you think about that you might have had on the old farms and the old houses, you know, could act as heat sinks. But the new ones have these very high-tech coatings that prevent that from happening. So, putting a metal roof on actually is a very energy efficient thing to do and, in fact, it will actually qualify for energy tax credits. You know, there’s this – the Department of Energy has energy tax credits now that you could qualify for. So if you put a metal roof on your house, believe it or not, you will quality for a tax credit.
LESLIE: Yeah, and they’re so beautiful, Susan, these metal roofs. If you go to MetalRoofing.com, it’s the website for the Metal Roof Alliance and it gives you all the information that you would need about how to find a contractor in your area; it gives you different photos so you can choose all the different types of roofing that’s available that are metal. It’s a great choice and it’s really good looking.
SUSAN: I’ve got one more question about metal roofing to – what do you know about the noise factor? How noisy are metal roofs when it rains or if it hails? Has that improved over the years?
TOM: I think it’s not going to be any noisier than an asphalt shingle roof because, in general, when you think of a metal roof being very noisy, it’s typically because it’s over an unfinished space; you know, with no insulation and no drywall and minimal framing such as you might see in a shed or a barn. But when you put it on a home and you put it on properly and with the new roofs and the new coatings, I don’t think you’re going to find it to be very noisy at all.
LESLIE: Yeah, and you can even put the new metal roofs right on top of your existing roof shingles because they’re so lightweight. So I think it would be super-insulated below it and not very noisy at all.
SUSAN: OK, thank you for very much. I appreciate it.
TOM: You’re welcome, Susan. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT. 888-666-3974.
LESLIE: More great home improvement information coming up after the break. But first, we know you know about landscaping but up next, we’re going to tell you about lightscaping; that’s using lighting outdoors to accent your home. It’s going to keep your walkway safe and help with security as well. So stick around.
(theme song)
TOM: Making good homes better, 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 at 1-888-MONEY-PIT, especially if it involves working on the outside of your house. Because we’ve got a great guest standing by to talk about the topic of exterior lighting. You know, it’s not as simple as simply hanging a spotlight anymore. If you want your house to look really dynamic, really attractive, really good you really need to create what we call a lightscape.
Now, you did that to your house, Leslie, and it looks fabulous.
LESLIE: You know, we did. There are several layers of things that you should do and you should think about doing when it comes to exterior lighting. And actually, the folks at Fine Homebuilding magazine have a wonderful story on just that. We’ve got Kevin Ireton, who’s the editor of Fine Homebuilding, joining us.
Well, Kevin, before we even jump into the interview, welcome. And …
KEVIN: Thank you, Leslie.
LESLIE: You are so welcome.
You know, when it comes to all of these layers and to the lighting of your home’s exterior, what are some of the key ideas and the points that we really should keep in mind before we just jump in the car and head to the store, which everybody loves to do?
KEVIN: Well, layers is exactly the right word to use. The first thing to talk about is decorative lighting and that’s the fixture that everybody knows. That’s the one hanging out by the front door or that’s the one on a post at the end of the driveway. That’s decorative lighting. And that’s only one part of the plan. You shouldn’t rely upon those lanterns and post lights to do everything.
LESLIE: You know, how much should you allow for that one lamppost to account for the overall scape of your lighting to the exterior? And what else and what other layers should we think about sort of applying to that?
KEVIN: I think that decorative lighting is going to be about a quarter of your lighting needs and the rest should come from what’s called ambient lighting, accent lighting and even safety lighting.
Ambient lighting is the first one to talk about and that’s kind of – I mean sunlight is ambient light. So it moonlight. But you want to create that effect in your outdoor room or in your backyard (INAUDIBLE).
TOM: So is this a technique where you might bounce light, say, off walls or trees and that sort of thing to create that effect?
KEVIN: Exactly. Or even, in some cases, an umbrella; you know, an outdoor patio umbrella …
TOM: Right.
KEVIN: … will work. But usually it’s trees.
LESLIE: But usually it’s trees.
LESLIE: You know, we did that, Kevin, at our house. We have this enormous pine tree that just doesn’t fit in our backyard and is huge. And so we climbed up into the tree and put a beautiful copper fixture, which you would never notice. But it sort of splays this light down through all of the branches and on our patio you see this wonderful shadow-work as if there was a full moon all the time.
KEVIN: Leslie, you just mentioned one of the keys. You don’t see the fixture. With this kind of lighting you don’t want to see it. You want it either hidden in the ground, hidden in the bushes or hidden in the tree. You just want to see the lighting that it produces.
TOM: Now Kevin, running a lot of wiring outside seems like it could be a complicated and expensive project. Hey, do you guys look into whether or not this can be done with low voltage versus standard voltage lighting fixtures?
KEVIN: Tom, most of your lighting needs can be handled with low-voltage fixtures. And as you point out, I mean the easy thing there is the wires, because they’re not carrying a lot of voltage, they don’t even have to be buried; or at least not very deeply. You don’t necessarily need a new circuit. They’re pretty user-friendly, so people who’ve never done wiring or maybe are afraid of wiring inside their house …
TOM: Mm-hmm.
KEVIN: … these are much safer fixtures to install. So absolutely, it’s a great way for people to get started.
TOM: And what about the control systems for them. Can you, in effect, sort of program them so there are different lights that come on at different times to kind of create that sort of drama and effect that you’re searching for?
KEVIN: You absolutely can. Most of these systems come with timers but you can also add timers to them. With the low voltage you do have to have a transformer that has to get hidden somewhere; either inside the garage, typically, or under a deck.
LESLIE: And I’ve got a tip; not because it’s something that we did at home – or maybe it was because. But when you’re doing a low-voltage lighting, try to create a map of where your wires are going through the flowerbeds. (chuckling)
TOM: And why is that important, Leslie? (chuckling)
KEVIN: Uh-oh.
LESLIE: Because we were adding some new perennials to our flower beds and we sort of add onto it every year. And I said to my husband, I was like, ‘You know, I haven’t had a chance to pull the wires out in that bed yet so if you’re going to dig be really careful.’ And he’s like, ‘What wires.’ Zzz. (Tom chuckles) Totally cut through them. I mean it was an easy repair but it does make a lot of sense to sort of keep a map of where these wires are so when you do go digging you don’t have a, you know, mishap.
TOM: We’re talking to Kevin Ireton – he is the editor of Fine Homebuilding magazine – about the topic of exterior lighting.
Kevin, what about safety lighting. Any innovations in lights for paths, walkways, steps that we should know about.
KEVIN: Well, a couple of tips but the first thing I’ll do is to distinguish safety from security lighting. You know, security lighting are the flood lights that make it look like it’s the middle of the day in your backyard at midnight.
TOM: Right.
KEVIN: And safety lighting is a different thing. That’s pretty much lighting your steps and lighting your pathways. And a couple of things to keep in mind. On your steps, if at all possible, put the lighting of the side of the stairs rather than in the risers. Because if they’re in the risers it can blind you when you’re walking towards the stairs.
LESLIE: Oh, and then all of a sudden what you thought was safe is a major hazard.
KEVIN: Exactly. Exactly. The other thing to keep in mind – and this is a surprise to me – when you have lights installed a pathway, be careful not to put too many. You’re going to turn that path into an airport runway. And also, it actually is a little more interesting if you don’t have them rigidly, evenly spaced. But you let the spacing pattern be a little asymmetrical.
TOM: Good ideas, good tips, good techniques. Kevin Ireton, the editor of Fine Homebuilding magazine. The article is in the current edition of Fine Homebuilding, which is on newsstands now.
For more information, you can log onto Fine Homebuilding’s website at Fine Homebuilding.com.
Thanks, Kevin.
KEVIN: You’re welcome.
LESLIE: Alright. Up next, decorative trim adds a nice finishing touch to any room. But there are many, many moulding products on the market to choose from. We are going to help you find out which materials are going to fit your budget, after this.
(promo/theme song)
ANNOUNCER: This portion of The Money Pit is brought to you by Ryobi, manufacturer of professional feature power tools and accessories with an affordable price for the do-it-yourselfer. Ryobi power tools. Pro features, affordable price. Available exclusively at The Home Depot. Now, here are Tom and Leslie.
TOM: Making good homes better, this is The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show. I’m Tom Kraeutler.
LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.
And you should call us right now with your home improvement headache at 1-888-MONEY-PIT. Our operators are standing by always. And someone that we talk to today is going to win a $169 vacuum from Eureka. It’s called the Capture Plus. And this machine is going to reach more dirt on more surfaces than your average vacuum cleaner. It’s got a powerful sealed HEPA filter which is going to keep dust and any allergens inside and away from you. It also has a static power dusting wand which is charged to grab dust from hard-to-reach places. But you’ve got to be in it to win it so give us a call now at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
TOM: 888-666-3974.
Mouldings. Let’s talk about the picture-perfect way to add a nice look around windows, doorways, walls, furniture, you name it. Hardwood mouldings include a pretty hefty price tag but paint-grade pine or fir mouldings are much less expensive and they’re also made from shorter pieces of wood that have been joined together. So, for the best of both worlds, consider new, ready-to-paint mouldings made from high-density polymers. These are plastic mouldings but they look just like wood and you can paint them. They’re very attractive and they’re a fraction of the cost of the real thing.
Got a home improvement question about trimming out your house to make it look real nice? The number is 1-888-MONEY-PIT. Let’s get back to the phones.
LESLIE: Paul in Florida’s got a dirty problem in the garage. What’s going on?
PAUL: Well, I was looking to, you know, put one of those painted surfaces on the garage floor?
TOM: OK.
PAUL: And you know, it’s got oil stains on the floor and I was just wondering what would be the best way to get rid of the oil stains so that the painted – you know, the painted surface will be able to stick or adhere better.
LESLIE: Well Tom, there’s a lot of epoxy coatings out there right now. They seem to be the hot item for garages. But do you need to clean the oil stain before you apply the epoxy?
TOM: Well, you do and some of the epoxy systems – I know QUIKRETE has one that comes with a cleaner. They’re actually matching the paints and the cleaners together for this very problem, Paul. Basically, you use the cleaner first, which etches the surface and gives you a good, neutral surface that the paint can attach to and then you use the epoxy coating on top of that.
LESLIE: Yeah, and what’s really cool is it’s all coming in a kit for you, Paul. And it even comes with an instructional DVD so if you have any questions or any concerns it’ll address all of that for you so you do a great job that lasts and lasts.
PAUL: Oh, alright. Thank you. I appreciate that.
TOM: You’re welcome, Paul. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT. 888-666-3974.
LESLIE: George from Tennessee is up next and what can we do for you here at The Money Pit?
GEORGE: Well, we have been having a lot of trouble with our commode. It’s very erratic in its operation. Sometimes it vortexes correctly and the material disappears. Other times [when the first flush] (ph) it just goes round and round and does not vortex; generally leaving a mess.
TOM: Hmm.
GEORGE: And …
TOM: George, how old is the toilet that you’re working with?
GEORGE: Well, I frankly don’t know since it’s not mine. What do you think?
TOM: Well, you know, there’s a way to tell and that is you can lift up the lid of the toilet and look inside. And toilets are always dated. But the reason I asked that question is I’m trying to determine if it’s a low-flow toilet. Do you think it’s more than 10 years old?
GEORGE: Probably, yes.
TOM: Hmm. Well, there’s a couple of things. First of all, if the toilet – if the waste lines are not properly vented you’re not going to get good flow. If, of course, there’s an obstruction there that you can’t see you’re not going to get good flow. And have you taken a look to make sure that there’s nothing obstructed in there? There could be something that’s lodged partway down the pipe.
GEORGE: Well, the owner’s agent had gotten a plumber in here when we first came in. And the plumber was not able to find anything.
TOM: OK.
GEORGE: I mean (INAUDIBLE) try that so I don’t know. My wife still thinks there’s something down the drain maybe. She says the previous owner had dogs and cats and she thinks that maybe cat (INAUDIBLE) or something like that down the drain. I don’t know.
TOM: Hmm. Well, let’s not speculate as to what’s in there, but generally if you’re having a sluggish toilet like that there’s an obstruction somewhere. So I think your wife is probably correct.
Now, I don’t know if the plumber removed the toilet from the base but that’s probably a good place to start. I’ve actually seen times where you get obstructions in the throat of the toilet, in sort of the internal plumbing of the toilet. You’ve seen obstructions that form there that can slow that water down. But if the water’s not flowing down, there’s a blockage somewhere and you’ve got to identify that blockage. So George, I think that your wife is right. Take her advice and keep looking for the obstruction because that sounds to me like why it’s happening.
Now, if it turns out that you check this out and you have a very, very young toilet, the only other thing I would consider is if it’s one of the low-flow toilets that’s not vacuum pressure assisted; in other words, it works just on gravity. Those are horribly inefficient. You have to flush them two and three times sometime and if that’s the case I would just replace the toilet with a better quality one.
George, thanks so much for calling us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Laurie in New York is up next. You’re possibly my neighbor and you want to talk windows. What can I do for you?
LAURIE: Hi, my husband and I want to put a window in a living room wall. There’s no window there now. And we don’t know what we should go about; which, you know, kind of window to buy and if there’s any concerns about wiring we should be worrying about.
TOM: Yeah, there’s actually a whole host of issues you need to think about, Laurie. First of all …
LESLIE: Is it load-bearing.
TOM: Yeah, are we talking about a narrow window; like a big, wide bay window? What are you thinking about?
LAURIE: Just a narrow – like a 36 by, you know, (INAUDIBLE)-inch window.
TOM: OK. Alright. Well, first of all, the exterior wall; is it the front or the rear wall of your house?
LAURIE: It’s the rear wall.
TOM: The rear wall. It’s probably a bearing wall, which means you need to build a header. Now, if it’s only a 36 inch-wide opening it’s probably not going to be terribly complicated. But here’s what has to happen. First of all, you need to expose the studs and you need to probably remove one to two studs that are holding up part of the wall. Before you do that though, you need to put some temporary bracing in to support the roof and the ceiling above it. And that’s why this is something that at least you might need to have a little bit of professional help with because you’re dealing with a bearing – a load-bearing wall here and you don’t want to do things in the wrong order.
And after you open up the stud bay you’re basically going to reframe the opening now and you have to put in what’s called a header which takes the load of the header, which takes the load of the roof and spreads it across that opening for the window and then back down to the foundation. That’s the big job; getting it framed in right.
Once it’s framed in, the actual window installation is pretty straightforward; pretty simple. But getting the wall framed – the hole cut in the wall and properly framed out – is the part that’s a little more complicated. So I wouldn’t suggest this as a first-time do-it-yourself project. It really needs some structural experience to make sure you do it right and don’t cause any adverse problems to the rest of your house because those are the things that are involved.
OK, Laurie?
LAURIE: Yes, that makes sense. (giggling)
TOM: Alright, well good luck with the project …
LAURIE: Thanks.
TOM: … and call us if you have any more questions.
LAURIE: OK, great.
TOM: 1-888-MONEY-PIT. 888-666-3974. Our website is MoneyPit.com.
LESLIE: More great home improvement information coming up, including how to get the look of granite without actually spending all that money. We’re going to tell you an inexpensive way to get that solid stone look, so stick around.
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TOM: Making good homes better, this is The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show. I’m Tom Kraeutler.
LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.
And hey, if you’re like me you’re probably traveling all around town with your MP3 player because you’ve just got to listen to something all the time. And why not have it be Tom and I; the voices in your head. You can take us with you wherever you go when you download our podcast. That’s right; we have a podcast. And not only do we have a podcast, it is the most downloaded home improvement podcast on iTunes. So visit MoneyPit.com now and click on Listen to download the show.
TOM: And while you’re there hit Ask Tom and Leslie and shoot us an e-mail question like George did from Southborough, Massachusetts. He says, ‘We have a driveway that slopes into the garage. The drain is constantly getting plugged and floods the garage. We’ve contacted various paving and plumbing contractors to enlarge the drain and grade area with no success. Each says this is not their specialty. Is there a waterproofing company that we should call to get this done. Who do we contact??
LESLIE: Hmm.
TOM: Well, no. What you need is to – let’s see, you’re calling – contractors are calling plumbers. You probably need to call a landscaper; a good quality landscaper can handle this situation. Because what’s going to happen is you’re going to have to put in, essentially, a curtain drain into the driveway itself. There’s a type of drain you can insert into a driveway that’s basically – if you can think of sort of slicing about six inches out of the driveway it’s like a narrow box that sits in there with grates on top. And if you can pitch it the water will fall into that and then run out the other end, which could be hooked up to a pipe and then taken somewhere lower on the property. So, you are not talking to the right type of contractor to get this done. A good quality landscaper should be able to handle the job, George.
LESLIE: Alright, we’ve got one more here from Dean in Austin, Texas who writes: ‘We are getting a new roof and I asked the roofer about flashing around the chimney. He told me that he had sealed over the flashing with a layer of tar. Is this legitimate and is it going to prevent leaks?’
TOM: Not for very long, Dean. You know, it’s a good question and the answer really depends on the type of roof you have. There are many kinds. But for the sake of this let’s assume that your roof is either a hot tar roof or a shingle roof. The flashing for a hot tar roof works a bit differently than for a shingle roof. If he’s using a layer of tar for flashing on a tar roof its effectiveness is going to depend pretty much on where he puts the layer. If it’s a shingle roof then the layer of tar is a really bad choice and I’ve seen this happen many, many times; where roofers that don’t want to reflash the chimney just try to seal it. And the problem with it …
LESLIE: It’s like a temporary band-aid, isn’t it?
TOM: Yeah, well because there’s too much movement between the chimney and the roof. And the seal cracks rather quickly. So that’s not a good idea. A better choice might be a product called Grace Roof Detail Membrane. This is a product that is flexible and can actually create the joint between the chimney and the roof and it’s going to bend. It’s going to expand and contract and flex in and out and that’s actually going to stop this chimney from ever breaking free of that flashing joint.
LESLIE: Alright, we’ve got time for one more. Let’s take this one from Sarah in Orlando who writes: ‘I’m thinking about replacing my windows. How important is low-e glass?’
TOM: Well, Sarah from Orlando, Florida where it’s incredibly hot, you’re going to need low-e glass unless you are independently wealthy and just want to waste all that money paying to cool your house. Because low-e glass – the e stands for emissivity and it basically is designed to reflect the UV radiation from the Florida sun back out of your house, keeping you cool and comfortable. Great idea.
LESLIE: And keeping those bills down.
TOM: This is The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show.
Coming up next week on the program, we’re going to talk indoor air quality. You know, you’re about to be shutting all the doors and all the windows and sealing yourself in for the long winter. You want to make sure …
LESLIE: Well, unless you like to be cold.
TOM: Exactly. (Leslie chuckles) You’ll want to make sure that the air you’re breathing is clean. And to do that you’re probably you’re going to know a bit about the air filtration in your house. Yes, you do have it. There’s a filter somewhere in your home that actually can help keep your air clean. We’re going to teach you where it is and what to do about it next week 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 2 TEXT
(Copyright 2007 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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