LESLIE: Alright, now we’ve got Larry. What can we do for you today at The Money Pit?
LARRY: Yeah, hi. I have a house right on the lake in (inaudible at 0:02:46.4) New York on Kinderhook Lake.
TOM: OK.
LARRY: And it’s a cinderblock wall, like (inaudible) I guess six-foot high. It’s the foundation of the house. And I’ve painted it – you know, I asked around in the different stores and stuff for what to put to it. It just keeps on peeling, especially where the cement – you know, that holds the block together? It just peels away. I’m wondering is there anything I can put there to stop it.
TOM: Hmm. Well, block wall gets very, very wet and holds a lot of water; so you’re really fighting the water here.
LARRY: Yes.
TOM: The best thing that you can do is, first of all, you have to get as much of that old paint off as possible and then you need to use a very good-quality – you have to wait for a very dry day and you need to use a very good-quality primer. And I would use two coats of oil-based primer and you want to let it really dry, really dry. Then on top of that, you can use a latex exterior paint topcoat. That’s going to give you the best chance of adhesion. Make sure that the primer and the paint are from the same manufacturer and that will do the best job of helping it stay on as much as possible. It’s a real adhesion problem that you have; caused by probably layers upon layers of paint that are delaminating and the fact that the block gets very damp and very wet.
LESLIE: There’s nothing for it to stick to.
LARRY: OK. Thanks very much. Your program is very helpful. I’ve picked up a few tips from just listening to you every Saturday and Sunday.
TOM: Fantastic. Thanks so much for calling us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
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