Poisonous Holiday Plants to Avoid #1219162

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 Happy Holidays, everybody. Hope you’re having a fantastic holiday weekend enjoying the season, enjoying your friends, your family, maybe even enjoying the relatives because they’re not going to be there that long. Just enjoy them while they’re there. You can kick them out and get back to taking care of your house.

888-666-3974. That’s our number. We’d love to chat with you about the projects that you’re working on probably not today or this weekend, because it is the holiday, but perhaps in the year ahead. Give us a call right now. If there’s something on your to-do list for the year ahead – maybe it’s a new kitchen, maybe it’s a new floor, maybe it’s a new roof. Whatever is going on, we’d love to give you some advice at 888-MONEY-PIT.

Coming up this hour, you’ve been taught that smoke detectors save lives but that might not actually be the case every single time. It turns out that the type of smoke detector you have makes a huge difference in when the alarm is going to sound. We’re going to share which type of alarms go off early enough to keep you and your family safe.

LESLIE: And is your holiday tree or your Christmas tree or whatever you call that beautiful piece of greenery in your home starting to not look so green? Well, we want to give you some tips to help you keeping it looking beautiful and fresh right through the new year.

TOM: Plus, with millions hitting the roads this weekend, we’ve also got some tips to help you avoid emergencies at home while you’re away.

LESLIE: And as the days are getting darker, we’re giving away a set of five Lutron Maestro Occupancy-Sensing Switches. They’re going to help add lighting automation to your house.

TOM: Yep. These are super convenient because they give you a way to turn the lights on and off hands-free and they’re very easy to install. They retail for about 20 bucks each. We’ve got five going out to one lucky listener who calls in their home improvement question. A little holiday gift from us to you. Give us a call right now. We’d love to talk with you at 888-MONEY-PIT, 888-666-3974.

Leslie, who’s first?

LESLIE: Jeffrey in Louisiana is on the line. What can we do for you?

JEFFREY: Being I live in Louisiana, you know, a lot of moisture content in the air.

TOM: We’ve heard that.

JEFFREY: Yeah. And after saying that, in the west side of my house, inside I’ve noticed that my tape and float, along with my sheetrock, is just basically coming off the walls. I’ve had a moisture-content test done on my sheetrock and there is none. It’s only on one side of my house and I can’t figure out why. I’m a construction worker and have been for 35 years. And I can’t figure out why my sheetrock is turning (ph).

TOM: So, did you say paint was coming off the sheetrock?

JEFFREY: What’s happening is when the tape and floats comes up, it brings the paint with it, of course.

TOM: Oh, OK. Alright. So the tape is separating. Oh, yeah. Well, geez. I wonder if the guys that did that tape work just did a bad job or used some bad spackle or something like that. That shouldn’t be happening.

JEFFREY: Well, maybe that’s so. I thought that, too, but once I got it all remodeled and everything, it did it again. Just on that side of the house. I even deemed it one time as being settling in the house . And I even had some of my guys come out and measure and it only settled an inch and within the last two years, so that can’t be the problem.

TOM: Let’s assume that there’s something wrong with that – with the adhesion issue there. And one thought that I might have, especially since the old wall is in such bad shape, why don’t you do this? How much work would it be for you to skin those walls with a second layer of drywall? But not ½-inch; I would use ¼-inch drywall. So very thin drywall.

And you can overlap the joints. I would glue it and screw it to the walls. So now you have a clean, brand-new fresh set of drywall upon which you can tape the seams properly, prime it and paint it. And that surely would be a one-time fix that wouldn’t have to be repeated.

JEFFREY: Yep. OK. I’ll do that.

TOM: Good luck. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT, 888-666-3974.

LESLIE: Jennifer in Missouri, you’ve got The Money Pit. What can we do for you today?

JENNIFER: I have a rental house that is a basement home and it has a concrete patio that is rather large, probably around 12-feet long by 8-foot wide. The house has been built several years ago and over the course of time, the concrete patio has gotten pitted. It looks like from the use of rock salt to melt the ice and snow off of it. And I didn’t know – just because of the size of the patio, I’m guessing it’s going to be pretty costly to replace it. I didn’t know if I had any other options?

TOM: Yeah, you do. And this is a perfect scenario for this. QUIKRETE makes a product called Concrete Resurfacer. And it’s specifically designed for scenarios like this. You can apply this resurfacer to the entire slab and it’s designed to stick to it and fill in those pockmarks and those little gaps. And it will give it a whole new look. It’ll look like a brand-new slab but it will resurface it completely.

JENNIFER: Wow. That’s great. What is it called?

TOM: It’s made by QUIKRETE and it’s called a Concrete Resurfacer. It’s basically a blend of poured-in cement and sand and polymers. And the polymers and the other additives basically set it up so it can stick to the original concrete. There is a preparation. You have to pressure-wash it first to get it nice and clean. But once you apply this, you can basically squeegee it or trowel it on and you can use a brush finish so it gets that nice, sort of slip-resistant finish when you’re all done.

JENNIFER: Well, that’s great news. I didn’t realize there was anything like that. So, thank you.

TOM: Specifically designed for this project.

Alright. Well, good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.

LESLIE: Francis in Michigan is on the line with a wood-burning stove question. What are you working on?

FRANCIS: Oh, I’m just contemplating installing a wood burner in a three-season room with a couple of sliding-glass doors. And it would go in the corner. So, one of the walls has a couple of windows partway up that are like awning windows. And then, on the other wall, there’d be the stationary part of the sliding-glass door in the corner. And I was thinking about maybe installing a wood burner in that corner. And I wondered if there’s any restrictions, as far as how far away from the glass you would have to put the stove.

TOM: Yeah, there’s definitely restrictions. Now, would that window be behind the stove or just kind of off to the side of the stove?

FRANCIS: Well, the stove would be in the corner sort of diagonally. The stove is actually not a very large wood burner. It’s a Vermont Casting one that I saw that – it’s longer than it is wide. And it would sit in the corner, so the long part would come out into the room and then it would be diagonally against the corners.

TOM: OK. So, rule of thumb that you need 3 foot of clearance between any part of that stove and the wall, on both sides. You can build in a heat shield, which is sort of a shield that builds – stands away from the wall and it creates sort of a convective loop where air moves behind it and keeps the wall cooler.

Now, what I don’t know is how this is going to impact your windows and your slide, because I really don’t know exactly what the shape of the room is from your description. The other concern is I don’t know if the slider has a vinyl frame. If it does, vinyl melts very readily when exposed to radiant heat. So you could melt some of the door of the frame.

So I think you need to be really careful about the position of this stove. You need to follow the NFPA – the National Fire Protection Association – guidelines. So I would definitely get some advice from a professional on this that can actually see your physical setup and tell you how to accomplish this, because the rule of thumb is 3 feet. If you can keep the 3 feet of space between the back of that stove and your slider or your window, I think you’ll probably be OK. But I suspect that’s going to really push it out in the room. Maybe you don’t want to do that. So I think we have to figure out how we’re going to meet the safety standards here without impacting the combustible parts of your house or the windows or the slider.

FRANCIS: Yeah, that’s why I just wanted to just ask that question to you before I got too excited about doing the project and …

TOM: You may be able to do it fine but that’s the issue. You start with 3 feet, then you kind of work back from there depending on what kind of fire protection you can kind of build into it, Francis.

FRANCIS: Consider the glass the same as you would a regular wall.

TOM: Absolutely.

FRANCIS: Especially because of the vinyl frame around the window.

TOM: Yep. On the door.

FRANCIS: I think ours is actually vinyl, so …

TOM: Yeah. You know, one burning pattern I always used to see, in the years I was a home inspector, was vinyl siding that was burned or melted because the gas grill was too close or the charcoal grill was too close to it and that radiant heat just reached across – in some cases 5, 6, 7 feet – and burned the siding. And you could see it all shrunk and melted, had sort of a halo effect. So, vinyl will melt pretty readily and you definitely need to have the proper spacing there to make this work.

Francis, thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.

LESLIE: You are tuned to The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show on air and online at MoneyPit.com. Now you can call in your home repair or your home improvement question 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.

TOM: 888-666-3974.

Up next, as you head out for visits for the holidays, one simple step can help make sure you won’t come home to newly-developed waterfront property, courtesy of a busted pipe or a leaking water heater. We’ll share that solution, after this.

TOM: Up until now, you purchased insulation to insulate, to help keep warm spaces warm and cool spaces cool.

LESLIE: But now, Owens Corning has changed all of that with Pure Safety High Performance Insulation. Pure Safety not only insulates but also actually contributes to a healthier, safer and more comfortable environment for your family.

TOM: That’s right. First, it’s a high-density, all-purpose insulation that efficiently fills cavities in your home with a layer of thermal protection. Next, Pure Safety contributes to healthier indoor air. It stays put in walls and floors and produces 50 percent less dust than some other insulation products. That means healthier air for your family to breathe.

LESLIE: Pure Safety is also fire-resistant. In case of a fire, you’re going to have extra minutes to escape to safety. And those are minutes that can make all the difference.

TOM: And finally, Pure Safety reduces noise up to 50 percent. It helps to keep outside noise out and reduces inside noise from traveling from room to room inside.

Pure Safety High Performance insulation from Owens Corning, a single product that will enhance your family’s health, safety and comfort. Learn more at PureSafetyInsulation.com. Pure Safety, the greatest home improvement you’ll never see.

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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: Hey, give us a call with your how-to dilemma at 888-MONEY-PIT. You’ll get the answer to your question. Plus, this hour, we’re giving away a set of five Lutron Maestro Occupancy-Sensing Switches.

These are very convenient. It’s a hands-free way to turn lights on and off. Very easy to install, very excellent sensing capabilities. They look nice. They’re available at your local home improvement store or through your local electrical professional. You can learn more at LutronSensors.com or call them at 888-LUTRON-1. But we’ve got 5 to give away, for a total value of 100 bucks going out to one caller at 888-MONEY-PIT.

LESLIE: Tammy in Tennessee is on the line with a toilet question. That’s a lot of Ts and a tongue twister.

How can we help you, Tammy?

TAMMY: Best way to replace the seal on our toilet. We’re redoing our flooring and got the toilet up and we’re just wanting to replace the seal.

TOM: So, I mean you pretty much have to replace the wax seal now that you’ve got the toilet up. And it’s a pretty easy DIY project. One little tip I would give you is that when you buy the wax seal, they have different thicknesses. I don’t think you can really hurt yourself by using one of the thicker ones. It essentially gets placed right above the opening, right above the drain.

And then when you drop the toilet back on it, the bolts that are used to hold the toilet in place – one common mistake that people make is they over-tighten those. Toilets don’t get sort of wrenched to the floor; they just get sort of snug to the floor. Don’t go too tight on those bolts because you will crack that base of that toilet. Just make them nice and tight. They pretty much will sit there and not move much once you press it in place with the wax in between. And that’s really all you have to do. It’s a pretty easy plumbing project.

LESLIE: Bill, you’ve got The Money Pit. How can we help you with your flooring project?

BILL: I bought a house three years ago and I hired these people to come in and strip my hardwood floors in my living room. And they never did a good job and I can never get a hold of them. And the hardwood squeaks. I want to redo it. What is the best way to refinish it?

TOM: OK. So the issue is that you want them to be – to stop squeaking or you want to refinish it or kind of both?

BILL: Stop squeaking and also, I want to refinish them.

TOM: OK. So there’s a couple of things that you can do. First of all, because you’re doing the refinishing and the repair at the same time, that actually makes this a little bit easier. But what you’re going to want to do is deal with the squeaking issue first. And the reason that that happens is usually because of movement. If you can identify those sections of the floor that are the loudest, they’re probably going to have the most movement.

And simply what you want to do is resecure those floorboards to the floor. So you can do that with nails. If you nail through the hardwood board, into the floor joists below at a slight angle – with a nail that’s kind of rough, like a galvanized nail – you’re going to have to pilot that hole first. Put a small drill hole in first and then drill – nail right through the hole, because you can’t nail hardwood directly; the nail will bend and the board will split.

In ones that are really weak, you can actually use a trim screw, which is a long, thin screw with a tiny head. And it’s a little bit bigger than a nail. That’s even a better way to do it because the screws are really solid and they won’t pull back out again. So I would just tighten up the boards as best you can in the loudest areas. You’re never going to get them all, so don’t try.

And then you can have your floor refinishers sand it and refinish it. And I would definitely have the sanding done professionally. I would not do this myself because the tools are very rugged. And if you don’t use them every day, you’re going to damage your floors. So I would have it completely sanded and then refinished. Does that make sense?

BILL: Thank you. I appreciate it very much.

TOM: Alright. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.

Well, with millions of us traveling this holiday season, we thought it might be a good time to talk about how to make sure your home is protected from all those mechanical gremlins that can come out while you are out of the house.

LESLIE: Yeah. You know, one of those, I think, are plumbing issues. And they can happen. And when they happen, they can be pretty devastating, depending on the scale of what kind of plumbing situation you end up with. So I think the biggest thing here to take away, guys, is that you should know where your water main is – your water-main turn-off valve. It’s usually going to be on the side of your house close to the street where the water is coming in. The supply comes in from your town, village, city, wherever you are. And you’ll see it. Maybe it’s labeled already, maybe it’s not. It’s going to be obvious which one it is.

Once you know what it is, put a tag on it so everybody in your family knows. And then you can go ahead and turn off the water to your home before you go away. That’s going to be helpful because if something happens – if a pipe bursts, if anything goes wrong – you’re going to not end up with a continuous, incoming amount of water. And that could save you thousands upon thousands of dollars in damage.

TOM: Yep. Good point. Now, the other thing is electrical. It’s a good idea to turn off non-essential circuits on your electrical panel when you go away. So, this is a project that you can do over a weekend. Figure out which breakers have to stay on and which don’t. So what has to stay on? Obviously, your furnace, right, your security lights outside, maybe some lights in the second floor or the first floor to make it look lived in.

But there are other circuits that maybe you don’t need in all those bedrooms or maybe you don’t need all the kitchen-appliance circuits to be hot. Those that you really don’t need on, turn them off. Because if they’re not energized, then you’re not going to have a chance of a fire developing.

So, plumbing valves off, main water valve off, non-essential circuit breakers off. And then you can be assured that when you go away, there’s a far smaller chance that anything’s going to happen to that house that’s going to cause damage while you’re not there to deal with it.

888-666-3974. We are here to help you deal with any home improvement or home décor project that’s on your to-do list. Give us a call. Put it on our list at 888-MONEY-PIT.

LESLIE: Cheryl in Texas, you’ve got The Money Pit. How can we help you?

CHERYL: I have some countertops that are plywood. I just purchased a house recently and I’m planning to do a total remodel in about a year. But right now, the countertops are plywood. And so I wanted an idea to put on the countertops so that I don’t have water damage to the plywood and – plus something that looks nice. And I was wondering if you might have an idea.

LESLIE: Well, there’s a lot of different options, of course, at a variety of price points. And if you’re looking for something that’s just going to be temporary but still stylish and functional, probably your quickest and most DIY and affordable option could be tile.

Now, that’s going to be something that you could easily do on your own. And there’s a lot of different choices to keep you within a variety of price points. And that, generally, can look really, really great. The other options are laminate countertops, which you can get precut at the local home center. And that just depends on how much of a run you need and how much actual cutting to fit to size that you have to get.

But those are probably going to be your two most affordable. I think with tile, it really gives you an opportunity to make it really stylish and your own and something that you can feel proud of doing yourself and lasts you through the long haul, until you’re ready to do a major remodel.

CHERYL: OK. And what do you usually adhere the tile with? I’m not really much of a DIY person but I’m sure – I think I could do it. But I was just kind of curious, with the water, what adheres that tile and keeps that countertop protected.

TOM: So there’s two options. There’s tile mastic, which is sort of like a glue that you trowel onto the plywood and you stick the tiles onto that. And then there’s a tile mat that’s like a two-sided adhesive mat that you glue that down to the wood surface, in your case, and you peel off a backing and you can stick the tiles right on top of that. So there’s a couple of ways to do that. If you can find the mat, what’s interesting about that is you can grout right away. If you use the mastic, you’ve got to let it dry overnight and then you can grout.

CHERYL: OK. I like those ideas. OK. Thank you so much.

TOM: Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.

LESLIE: Still to come, will your smoke detector sound an alarm quickly enough to save your life? Maybe not, according to a new study. We’re going to tell you which type of detector is best, after this.

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Visit OCComfortApp.com today and put the power of a professional energy audit right in your hand.

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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: So did you get any new tools for Christmas? Are you hoping for some?

LESLIE: You know, I really – this year, my mom decided not to give the family gifts. We’re all going to go on a vacation, so there’s no presents to unwrap there, which is fantastic.

TOM: Yep. There’s few things that are better than tools but I think a vacation qualifies.

LESLIE: Well, we’ve been trying to do experiences. So, for me, it’s like you and I are so well-stocked with tools. Aside from a really good-quality glue gun, there was really nothing on my list.

TOM: Yeah, I have so many tools, I need storage cabinets. So, that’s kind of on my project list to tackle. As soon as it warms up, I’m getting in that garage and reorganize it. It is definitely time for a onceover. I’ve done it before but it’s just sort of creeped up on me again. So that’s my project. Perhaps that is my New Year’s resolution for the season ahead.

What is on your to-do list? Put it on ours. Pick up the phone and call us, right now, at 888-MONEY-PIT.

LESLIE: Joan in Missouri, you’ve got The Money Pit. How can we help you?

JOAN: I have a small 8 x 10 out building and I’d like to use it for a craft shop – a craft studio. But I need to heat it to make sure the paint doesn’t freeze in the winter. Also, I need it to be a functional temperature. So I’m not really sure how to go about that.

TOM: OK. So, first of all, can you get gas lines to this particular building so that you can use a gas heater?

JOAN: That would be doable.

TOM: That would be doable. I mean the other option is propane.

JOAN: Propane. Yeah, we’re not allowed to have propane, for I live in town.

TOM: OK. So, if you can natural-gas lines run to that particular building, then what I would use is a gas furnace and I would heat it the same way I would heat a house.

Now, if it’s one – is it one open space?

JOAN: Yeah, it’s just a little – tiny, little building.

TOM: So if it’s one open space, you can probably put a small wall heater – gas-fired wall heater – in there and insulate it as best you can. And I think that will be enough to keep it warm.

JOAN: OK. Well, I’ll give it a shot. Thanks a lot.

LESLIE: Well, you might think having working smoke detectors in your home is going to protect you in the event of a fire. But according to the experts at Texas A&M, that protection really depends on the type of smoke detector you have.

Now, there are two types of detectors out there: ionic and photovoltaic. And as it turns out, the ionic smoke detectors go off for fires with flames but those same type of detectors are not going to quickly detect slow, smoldering fires. In fact, when comparing detectors, the Texas A&M University study found that ionic smoke detectors didn’t go off until 36 minutes after that fire started. And that’s too late to avoid the toxic smoke.

TOM: Now, the good news is that the photoelectric type of smoke detector does detect fires quickly. And these are a little more expensive but they’re well worth the cost. So your best option is, really, to have detectors that use both types of detection technology. Or if you’ve already got one type, like ionic, you can back it up with a photoelectric detector and vice versa. You also want to be sure to always test your detectors.

And if they’re more than five years old, replace them because that detection technology is always on and so it does sort of wear out. So you want to replace them. And if you do, make sure you choose the new detectors that have the dual-detection technologies. You should be good to go with either type of fire.

LESLIE: Jesse in Michigan, you’ve got The Money Pit. How can we help you today?

JESSE: I just have a question about the laundry pump setup that’s in my basement right now. The current setup has our washing machine draining into a laundry tub. And then the laundry tub drains into a sump pump that sits inside a bucket that sits just on top of the basement floor. And the sump pump pumps it up into the main drain line that exits out of the house. I’ve got me either a new gray-water pump so – that I’d like to replace the sump pump with. And the gray-water pump has a vent location that says it has to be connected to a vent system for the pump to operate correctly.

And so I’m wondering if that vent system – do I have to somehow connect that to the main vent stack in the house or can I just hook it up to some sort of new vent system in the basement? I’m a little unclear on what to do with that aspect of it.

TOM: OK. So, first of all, the entire assembly that you just described to us is not done correctly. Yeah, you’re not supposed to be draining laundries into sumps in any way, shape or form. Your idea of putting in a gray-water pump, however, is the right way to go. And then, of course, you would discharge the washing machine into that gray-water pump, it would be float-actuated and it would lift the water up high enough to drop it into the main waste system for the house.

And yes, it is supposed to be vented, as well. And the vent would, in most cases, connect with the stack vent for the house. Although there is a type of ball vent that could be used and not connect where it would just let air in but not gases out. So there are two ways to do that.

JESSE: OK. The main vent stack in the house just seems to be pretty much inaccessible. There is no opening that I seem to be able to tap into it. There’s so – can you tell me, again, what the other type of valve was that I can look for?

TOM: It’s technically known as an “air-admittance valve. And basically, it lets air in but it doesn’t let gases out.

JESSE: OK. And so I can simply just have that and just in the basement space and that will allow the pump to function properly?

TOM: Exactly.

JESSE: Gotcha. OK. Thank you so much for your help. I appreciate it.

TOM: You’re welcome. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.

LESLIE: Is your fresh-cut Christmas tree losing its pep? Well, we’ve got some advice to help revive that tree and help make it last through the New Year, after this.

The new Comfort Tracker app by Owens Corning can help you locate problem areas throughout the home. The Comfort Tracker app works with the FLIR ONE Thermal Imaging Camera, which attaches to your iPhone, iPad or Android device. By visiting OCComfortApp.com, you can learn more and download the Owens Corning Comfort Tracker app free for your iOS or Android device. Room by room, you’ll have a prioritized master plan to improve your home’s energy efficiency, ensuring comfortable temperatures all season long.

Visit OCComfortApp.com today and put the power of a professional energy audit right in your hand.

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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.

Give us a call at 888-MONEY-PIT. We will help you get the answer to your home improvement question. Plus, this hour, we’re giving away a set of five Lutron Maestro Occupancy Switches.

Now, the Occupancy Switch is super convenient. I mean it allows you to use all of your lighting in your home hands-free. Goes on and off just by simply walking into a room. And that’s kind of really helpful this time of year. I always find that, normally, I’m always carrying something around the house. But especially during the holiday times, with guests in the house, there’s just so much stuff to move around that having your hands full seems to be more common than not.

So, occupancy sensors, especially the Lutron Maestro series, are really helpful. They’re super easy to install. They give you a really big impact. And best of all is they look really nice in the room but they also have excellent sensing abilities. So they know when you’re entering, they know when you’re leaving. It really is a great thing to add to your home.

They’re available at your local home improvement store or through your local electrical professional. If you want to learn more, check out LutronSensors.com or give them a call at 888-LUTRON-1.

TOM: 888-666-3974 is our telephone number. Give us a call, right now, with your home improvement question. Hey, you can also post it to Facebook.com/TheMoneyPit.

LESLIE: Tony in Georgia is on the line with a roofing question. How can we help you today?

TONY: I wanted to transfer from a shingle roof to a metal roof. And I wanted to know if leaving the shingles on would give me a better insulating factor and if there are any other pros or cons that you could advise me on.

TOM: Well, leaving the shingles on gives you zero insulating factor. What it can do is add to the inefficiency of your home’s insulation system, because it’ll act as a heat sink. It’ll hold a lot more heat in that roof structure and that will raise the temperature of the building, costing you, ultimately, more air conditioning.

It also can result in the roofing material – the metal roofing material – to be appearing uneven. So I would strongly encourage you to strip off all of those shingles. Metal roofing is a big investment. Let’s do it once, do it right and you won’t have to do it again for a hundred years. So it’s definitely worth stripping it off and starting from scratch.

TONY: Yeah. Also, I noticed that it is much better – easier – to walk on than it would be if it was just lap boards with metal on top of it.

TOM: I can see that but you shouldn’t really have to do much walking on that roof once it’s done.

TONY: Yeah, yeah. Once it’s done, it should last my lifetime.

TOM: Absolutely.

TONY: Well, I appreciate your advice on this.

TOM: Well, you’re welcome. Good luck with that project. I think you’re doing a good thing, 888-666-3974.

Well, now that we are in the holiday season, your tree might be looking a little peaked. If you want to keep it fresh, you know that, of course, you need to keep it well-watered. But what you might not know is that if you let that tree suck up all the water in the stand to the point where it really is completely dried out, the trunk sort of seals itself off and there’s no way to get it to start drinking again, short of taking the tree down and making another cut in the base. So, you want to make sure that you keep it wet.

And if you find yourself watering it too often, it’s a good idea to pick up a different tree stand, perhaps, for next year: one that’s got a very deep water reservoir so you don’t have to attend to it every single day.

LESLIE: Yeah. You know, it’s also a good idea to keep that tree away from your fireplace, your heating vents, radiators, pretty much any source of heat. You also might consider using a humidifier overnight, just to keep a little bit of moisture in the air, especially if you’ve got a forced hot-air heating system, which can just be terribly drying.

Now, you can also keep the temperature in the room a bit cooler or at least turn that heat down when no one’s in the room. You’re also going to save on your heating costs while saving your tree.

TOM: Yep. Good advice. 888-666-3974. We hope that you’re having a fantastic holiday weekend. Give us a call, right now, with the project that’s on your holiday wish list at 888-MONEY-PIT.

LESLIE: Justin in Rhode Island is on the line with an interesting project at a very old building. How can we help you?

JUSTIN: I’m calling about a property that I just purchased. It is a church building that I’m in the process of converting to a residential. And I have some questions about a heating system for this building.

TOM: How can we help?

JUSTIN: It’s an enormous building. It’s about 2,800 square foot on the top main level and about 2,600 square feet on the bottom. And in the past, there was a coal system with radiators. For about 20 years, there’s actually been no heating in the entire building and I just finished replacing a lot of the damage that was caused by that. And now, with the winter coming, I’m looking to having a heating system as soon as possible, really. And I’ve searched around quite a bit, different HVAC specialists, and they seem a little uncertain about how to heat something this size.

TOM: Yeah, it’s more of a commercial project than a residential project. Now, the work that you’ve done to repair, do we know if the radiators are in good condition? What kinds of radiators are there?

JUSTIN: Actually, there’s nothing left currently. The previous owner had removed everything.

TOM: Oh, so you’ve got nothing.

JUSTIN: Everything. It’s a pretty blank slate.

TOM: Do you want to air-condition the home, as well?

JUSTIN: It’s not necessary, 100 percent, but it wouldn’t be bad to have that, certainly.

TOM: So, first of all, you have to decide if you want to use a forced-air system or a hot-water system. If you use a forced-air system, you’re going to have a duct system installed that will provide both warm air and cool air in the summer, warm air in the winter. If you want to use a water system – a hot-water baseboard system or a radiator system – then that would cover the heating but not the air-conditioning. Most folks today use forced-air even though it’s a drier heat. It’s less expensive because you’re not kind of putting in two separate systems. So I think that this is completely doable.

You probably need to speak to – not your sort of your local HVAC residential contractor but somebody who’s more experienced with commercial work to figure out the best way to get the duct system run, to make it look good, put it in such a way where it could be hidden behind ceilings or walls or featured, if that’s the kind of look you’re going for: sort of that industrial look.

But there’s calculations that are involved to be able to tell, based on this many square feet and more importantly, this many cubic feet that have to be heated or cooled, how many BTUs you need of heat, how many BTUs you need of cooling power to be able to make that building comfortable. And that sounds to me like you just haven’t found the right guy yet.

JUSTIN: More recently, I’ve been kind of reading into radiant heating from the floor. The forced hot air was the first thought and it’s become somewhat of an issue because of the original tin ceilings, actually, on both levels. And we really didn’t want to disrupt, without having to replace any of that again, by running ductwork through the basement or through the attic. So I was really interested in what your opinion was on radiant-floor heating for something this size.

TOM: I think radiant-floor heating is fantastic. You can do a lot with PEX piping today – cross-linked polyethylene – and it certainly is an option. But again, it’s a big project. And given the size of your home, it’s going to have to split up into many zones. Are you taking – was it a big, open space that you’re sort of dividing into rooms?

JUSTIN: The plan is to have, really, just one enormous space. It’s about 70 by 40, roughly. Just a big, open rectangle for the most part.

TOM: OK. Well, I think radiant-floor heat is a great idea but of course, that doesn’t help you on the air-conditioning side. If it comes to air-conditioning, there’s a type of system called SpacePak, which is a high-velocity, low-volume system where you have very small air-conditioning hoses, so to speak. They’re about 3 inches in diameter that are a lot easier to hide. And they’re very often used in buildings that are design-sensitive, where you don’t want to do a lot of disruption to put in big, old heating ducts.

JUSTIN: OK. OK, great. OK. Thanks so much for your call.

TOM: Sounds like a fun project, Justin. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.

LESLIE: Well, it’s pretty well known that poinsettia flowers, while they’re really very pretty can actually be very dangerous if you eat them. But it turns out that other holiday flowers are actually far more toxic. We’re going to tell you what they are and how to avoid poisonings, after this.

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TOM: Where home solutions live, this is The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show. I’m Tom Kraeutler.

LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.

TOM: Let’s jump into a post from Donna in New Jersey that says, “With all of the recent cold weather, our cold-water pipes have been freezing. Now, the hot-water line just broke, which really surprised me since I thought that one would not freeze since it was for hot water. How did that happen and what can I do to keep the other ones from freezing?”

That, Donna, is a surprising misconception. Hot-water pipes do freeze before cold-water pipes. And you’re saying, “How can that happen? How is that possible?” It’s very simple. There’s a little science behind it. If you think about it, hot water runs through the water heater, right? And so in that process, it actually takes out all of the air that’s in the water. You have less air bubbles entrained in hot water than you do in cold. So that means there’s less sponge to that water when it freezes. When the hot-water pipe freezes, there’s no give. It just expands and expands and expands until the pipe gets ripped or broken.

Cold water actually can take a little bit more abuse because of that kind of sponge in it in the ice, which is caused by the air bubbles. But hot water doesn’t have that, so it breaks quite quickly.

Now, as to your next question, which is, “What can I do to stop this from happening again?” Well, it really depends on where these pipes are running. Pipes that run through exterior walls are frequent sources of issues with freezing. If you can open that wall and reinsulate those areas, that can help a lot. Perhaps wrap the pipes with pipe insulation.

If you can’t, another thing to do that sometimes is even easier than trying to get into the wall where the pipe is to run other line and to run it through some of the interior space. We used to have a water line in our kitchen that froze all the time and I just reran it. And I reran it inside the cabinet and took it out of running through the exterior wall. And you can do it with PEX, that cross-linked polyethylene piping.

So easy to work with that today. It doesn’t really need to be soldered or anything like that. It’s pretty much cut and all these pressure joints that sort of clamp it back together again. Very, very easy plumbing to work with certainly for you, a DIYer or a plumber. And that can help you avoid this problem in the future.

LESLIE: Yeah. And the PEX plumbing, I mean it really does look so slick when you get it going into your house.

TOM: Well, this time of year, holiday plants can help set the scene for celebrations. But despite their beauty, some holiday plants can be dangerous to humans and pets. Leslie has got that lowdown on holiday-plant safety, in this week’s edition of Leslie’s Last Word.

Leslie?

LESLIE: Yeah. To keep your holiday free of emergencies, you need to be keeping a few holiday plants out of reach or perhaps even out of your house altogether.

First of all, let’s talk about holly. I know it’s synonymous with the Christmas season and the holiday time of year but holly, it really is just kind of a unfriendly plant. Now, the prickly leaves, you know, really do help keep the kids away in the first place. But consuming just one or two of those holly berries can actually cause a tummy ache. And if you eat as few as 20 holly berries, you can actually die. So you want to be super careful and keep them away from your kids and your pets.

Now, mistletoe, that’s another deceptive holiday plant. It goes hand-in-hand with romance, yes, but also hand-in-hand with nausea, diarrhea, blood-pressure problems and sometimes even fatalities when the berries are eaten. So keep that mistletoe hung up high on the ceiling or above the doorway where it belongs.

Now, amaryllis and paperwhite narcissus, those can actually cause a heart arrhythmia and convulsions if their bulbs are digested. Pets are especially susceptible to these flowers, so keep them far, far away from the reach of any hungry or just simply curious animals.

I’m saying just be careful, guys. I’m not saying don’t be happy and joyful. We want you to be joyous this season but be careful. And if you even think that one of these plants was eaten, do call your local poison-control center. Keep that number handy. You never know when you want need it.

TOM: This is The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show. Coming up next time on the program, one downfall of a portable generator is having to string extension cords throughout the house to use it. The good news is that there’s a way to make portable generators easier to use. It’s a simple switch that a pro can install. And we’ll have that tip, on the next edition of The Money Pit.

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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