School Work Storage Solutions for Kid’s #0102172

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 want to wish each of you a very happy and prosperous new year. In fact, we want to do more than that. We want to make sure it’s a great new year by helping you take on your home improvement projects. We will do that if you will help yourself, first, by calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT, because it’s our goal to make them successful. Anything that you want to do to make your home more energy-efficient, more comfortable, more beautiful is on the docket. So give us a call, right now, at 888-MONEY-PIT.

And speaking of precious, coming up today’s program, if you’re a proud parent, like each of us, you know that every test, every quiz, every writing assessment – or my favorite: artwork – your kids bring home from school is, of course, a treasure. But none of us have enough room or wall space to display it all. We’re going to have an easy solution to preserve those precious moments of childhood, in just a bit.

LESLIE: And speaking of kids, your furniture is likely to take a few hits from time to time, whether from toddlers or not. We’re going to have some quick-fix tips, in a bit.

TOM: And don’t settle for a dreary outdoor view all winter long. You can actually bring some life and color to your backyard by attracting a variety of winter birds if you have the right kind of bird feeder and food. We’ll tell you what you need to know.

LESLIE: Plus, this hour, we’re giving away a set of five Lutron Maestro Occupancy-Sensing Switches to add lighting automation to your home.

TOM: They’re really great. They’re super convenient because they give you a way to turn the lights on and off hands-free. And I love the fact that when the kids leave the bedroom and they leave the lights on, the light switch knows that there’s nobody in there and it turns it off. So you don’t have to yell at your kids. They retail for 20 bucks each. We’re giving five of them away. Total value of 100 bucks. Give us a call right now. It’s going out to one caller drawn at random. Make that you. The number, again, is 888-MONEY-PIT.

LESLIE: Frank in Rhode Island is on the line with a wiring question. What’s going on at your money pit?

FRANK: I live in a Colonial farmhouse – a Cape, really – and it’s the oldest house in Chepachet. It was built in 1753 by a Revolutionary War patriot. And I’m having a problem with radio interference.

Historically, there seems to be three overlays of wiring there. There is the old knob-and-tube, there’s some cable, there’s something recently that was put in, And I know even more recent than that, it was modified – the panel was modified so we can put an electric stove in here. And if it’s a wiring issue – I’m not sure it is. I have three radios and one of them is a battery-powered radio and it’s still getting this interference. It started about two months ago and it seems to be more on the AM dial but at certain times, it’s on both dials.

TOM: The first thing I would suspect is it has something to do with grounding that has gone bad. Perhaps the grounding for your main electric panel would be a place to start, because usually it’s grounding or shielding that when you get a bad ground, that it causes that kind of a static. But I think the first thing you need to do is make sure that it isn’t something, in fact, in the house and not something that’s caused by an outside source.

So I would pay attention to the quality of the signal. Maybe if you choose one station to compare to and you try that in the house and out of the house, in the car and see if it really is getting worse around the house. And then if that’s the case, I suspect it might have something to do with the grounding at your main electric panel.

FRANK: Makes a lot of sense and I thank you.

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

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

[radio_anchor listorder=”5″]DOT: I was wondering which would be the best paint to paint on the outside of the house, on the windows and the door trim, that would last a long time and it would weather properly.

TOM: Dot, what is the condition of the trim right now on the doors and windows? Is it flaky?

DOT: Not very good.

TOM: OK. So, what you have to do first, Dot, is get rid of the old paint. You’ve got to sand that or wire-brush that, because you cannot put good paint over bad paint, if that makes sense. And once you’ve got that sanded and the loose paint is removed, the next thing to do – the best thing to do would be to apply a primer, which is a type of paint that sort of provides the adhesion and the coverage. So you put the primer coat on first, then you put the exterior paint over that.

And it doesn’t really matter so much to me what type of exterior paint you choose, as long as it’s a name manufacturer. But I do want to see you remove the loose paint, put the primer on next and then put the topcoat over that. And that will give you the best setup for a long-lasting paint job. Done well, your paint project should last you, easily, five to eight years.

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

LESLIE: Paul in Texas is on the line with a water question. What can we do for you?

PAUL: I have a long run from the main hot-water heater to the both bathrooms: the master and the guest. And I was wondering if I could take a smaller hot-water heater, like a 6- or 7-gallon, and put it near the bathrooms – a little electric one – and run it in series with the main hot-water heater so that initially – that I have hot water immediately. And by the time that that hot-water heater gets empty, the main hot-water heater will be supplying it. And I was curious if there are any issues with that or if there is a better idea or a better way of doing it.

TOM: Well, Paul, as you’ve correctly identified, the issue here is really the distance between the water heater and the plumbing fixture. The longer that water has to travel, the longer you have to wait for the water to get hot. Now, you asked if adding a water heater closer would help. Yeah, it would but you’d have to split that water off into, basically, two completely separate zones.

There’s a better option now and it’s called a “water-recirculating system.” There is one that just came out that’s available at The Home Depot called Watts Hot-Water Recirculating System. It’s only a couple hundred bucks. And the way it works is it’s a recirculating pump that’s put on top of the water heater that will actually cycle the water between the water heater itself and the fixture that’s farthest away from it.

There is a bypass valve that goes in at the fixture that’s farthest away. And that’s a very easy thing to install. It’s a sort of sensor valve at the sink, generally, as far away from the water as you can get. And then what’ll happen is it will always have hot water recirculating through those lines at the ready.

Now, the key to saving money with this is it’s on a timer, so you only run this when you need it. So when would that be? Well, typically, it’s, say, first thing in the morning. An hour or so before you wake up, you have the timer turn the recirculator on and maybe a few hours at night. But that really can save you quite a bit of water.

PAUL: Then don’t you have to run return plumbing from the fixture back to the hot-water heater?

TOM: No, actually, you don’t. The pump is hooked up to the water heater and the sensor valve gets installed at the sink that’s farthest away from that water heater. It installs – the whole thing installs, believe it or not, in less than an hour. And everything is included in the kit, so it’s really the way to go if you’re trying to solve this problem the easy way.

PAUL: Huh. OK. Well, I’ll check that out then.

TOM: Alright. Well, take a look at that. It’s called the Watts Hot-Water Recirculating System. It works really, really well.

PAUL: I’ll look at it then. Thanks.

TOM: Good luck with that project. 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. Give us a call with your home repair or your home improvement question, whatever you are planning on in your home in this new year. Let us give you a hand. We’re here for you, 888-MONEY-PIT.

TOM: Up next, if your home is presently supplied with a heaping helping of your kids’ schoolwork treasures, we’ll have an easy way to preserve the best without taking up space.

(theme song)

TOM: Making good homes better, welcome back to The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show. I’m Tom Kraeutler.

LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.

TOM: Give us a call at 888-MONEY-PIT. We would love to talk to you about your next New Year’s project. Plus, we would love to give you a set of five Lutron Maestro Occupancy-Sensing Switches.

What the heck are they you say? Well, they’re a convenient hands-free way to turn lights on and off. You basically remove and replace your existing toggle switch in your bedrooms, for example. And then when you walk in the room, the lights come on magically. And when you leave, just as important, the lights go off.

They’re easy to install. They look great. They’re worth 20 bucks each. They’re going out to one caller drawn at random to 888-MONEY-PIT.

LESLIE: Don in Missouri is on the line with a porch question. What can we do for you today?

DON: I have a four-post that has an exposed top.

TOM: OK.

DON: And the stair railing is fastened to it.

TOM: OK.

DON: It’s got a beveled top on it like that’s what they put on most of them. It’s treated lumber and there is a crack that goes from, I’m going to say, a quarter, maybe three-eighths. And I don’t know how deep it is but it’s very deep. And I want to seal the top of it or seal it so that water doesn’t get in there for use and expand the crack.

TOM: Now, Don, let me ask you a question. Do you want to paint this porch railing? Or is it painted now or not?

DON: No, we do not want to paint it.

TOM: The reason I’m asking you these questions is because I’m going to tell you what to fill that crack with. But the problem is some of the materials that you use to fill the crack are not going to be the color of treated lumber; they’re going to stand out and maybe look worse than the crack looks right now. So I’m trying to figure out what – how you’d like this to look when you’re all done.

DON: Well, just – the main thing is to keep water from running in there and freezing, expanding.

TOM: Alright. So if you’re not so concerned about the look, then what I would do is I would use an epoxy patching compound. You want to use a wood epoxy patching compound. And the reason I say that is because that has the ability to really stand up to the weather and bind to that wood material. You’re going to apply it with a putty knife and you’re going to press it into that crack and then let it dry and sand over the surface to try to get the excess off. That’s the best material to use for that particular situation.

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

[radio_anchor listorder=”3″]LESLIE: Alright. Now, we’ve got Diane in Massachusetts on the line with a noise question. What’s going on at your money pit?

DIANE: Sided the house 12 years ago and I had blown-in insulation put in 3 years. And the house is noisy. I can hear a humming. It’s annoying. It’s a buzzing. I don’t know why, after doing all of this surrounding the house and trying to keep it warm, I would hear a humming, a resonance in the house.

TOM: Well, I’ll tell you what: there’s got to be a reason for this and it’s going to take some real detective work to figure it out. I’ll give you an example from my own home. You know, we recently had mentioned earlier on this show – put in spray-foam insulation and sealed up the attic and it’s never been warmer in the house as a result of it. But in one part of the house, it still was technically a conditioned attic. So by code, we were required to leave some vents in that attic. Now, it ended up that it was so tight in that attic space, even with the vent, that whenever the wind blew, we’d get this really weird, almost like haunting sound.

You know when you were a kid and you would – took an old bottle and you blew across the top of it and it made a big, deep sound with it?

DIANE: Yeah.

TOM: Like a big jug? Well, that’s what it sounds like when the air blows across this vent. And it makes a really weird sort of vibrating sound in that part of the house. Until I figured it out, I was really scratching my head.

So there’s always a reason for this. In our case, it was a vent. In your case, it could be plumbing. Very often, we get noises in homes that are sourced from plumbing. Sometimes when you run hot or cold water, pipes will expand or contract and cause sort of like a creaking sound that will vibrate through the entire length of the pipe and amplify itself, as a result. It could be electrical. If there’s outlets or panel boxes in those parts of the house, they definitely should be inspected to make sure that nothing is disintegrating inside that electrical area.

There’s nothing about adding blown-in insulation that will cause a noise, so the source must be somewhere else that you’re going to have to dig into a bit more, Diane, before you’ll know what to do about it. But I would trust your instincts. If you’re hearing it, it definitely exists. Sometimes, people think they’re going nuts. But I’ve got to tell you, there’s a reason for that but it’s definitely going to take some detective work to get to the bottom of it.

DIANE: OK. You coming over?

TOM: Alright. Well, you put on the coffee and next time I’m up in Massachusetts, we’ll stop by. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.

Well, as a parent, I always loved seeing the kids’ schoolwork and art projects, which always pile up at the end of the semester. And now that the kids are back in school, you may be staring at one of those piles yourself. And it probably is a good time to deal with all of those papers that they send home at the end of the year.

LESLIE: Yeah. And while we would all like to keep them – and I mean keep everything – we just can’t, especially when it comes to those art or science projects. It’s really tough to store those baking-powder volcanoes. Am I right, you guys?

So, here’s a great solution and it’s a digital one. You want to get in the habit of scanning those school papers and then keep them in a digital folder based on the school’s year. Then, in fact, even set up a folder or maybe even use a Dropbox service so that you’ve got a copy always kept somewhere in the cloud in case you have, God forbid, a hard-drive disaster.

TOM: And the same applies to those art and science projects. Just take pictures of the projects and the kids with the projects as soon as they bring them home and then add those pictures to the same folder. Over the years, you will develop a really fun family record of their treasures that can be preserved for the ages, especially when you want to embarrass them when they get bigger. It’s always great to have those photos.

LESLIE: And believe me, you’ll want to.

TOM: 888-666-3974. We are here to help you with your home improvement project.

LESLIE: John in Maryland is on the line with a gutter issue. What’s going on at your money pit?

JOHN: I have an area where I have a system over top of the gutters that is very similar to a very famous helmet-type company that you may have heard of. But it’s not that. But it’s the same type of product and it seems to be overflowing. Well, of course, they’re never supposed to need to be cleaned. And actually, I got up there figuring, OK, well, I guess that’s sort of not true. Maybe I have to clean it. Get up there and it’s completely sealed.

So I looked at some stuff online as to why they might overflow like mine are. And apparently, there’s somebody who said something like it could get pollen and things like that and – from the trees. And I do have a fairly heavily wooded lot and the trees were definitely overgrown for the past couple of years before I trimmed them back recently.

TOM: So I guess this particular gutter product that you purchased probably came with a guarantee for clog-free gutters. Is that correct?

JOHN: I don’t know if this system did and it was so – it’s probably been 10 years ago, at least, since I had them installed.

TOM: Alright. So here’s my experience with those types of gutter covers. I have seen them work and work quite well in some cases. Usually, where there’s a problem is when you have a fairly steep roof and your water, as it trickles down, builds up a lot of momentum and hits that gutter cover and never really draws into the gutter itself; it washes over the top of it. So you may possibly be seeing gutter water that’s running over the top of it because it’s not – the surface tension of the water is not strong enough to pull it all into the gutter itself. They usually work well with moderate rainfalls, not heavy rainfalls.

The other thing that I’ve seen is if you have the kind that has a fine mesh. Yes, you can get some fine particulates that will block those up. But that should be visible to you when you’re looking at it. And if you don’t see that, I don’t think that’s the case.

If it’s not working and those two solutions don’t make a lot of sense to you, then it might be time to remove and replace it. I’ve had good experience with a type that has small holes. It looks like a shutter, like a louver that fits over it. And I like it because it works most of the time and if occasionally it gets clogged, it’s very easy to lift it up and pull the leaves out.

JOHN: I see. OK.

TOM: Alright? Well, I hope that helps you a little bit. Good luck with that project and thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.

[radio_anchor listorder=”6″]LESLIE: Paul in Alaska is on the line with a roofing question. What can we do for you?

PAUL: I have a 45-year-old, built-up roof and it was the age of the house. And it just needs to be replaced. And so I’m looking at one of three options: the EPDM, which is the .06-inch rubber, if we can have – I guess have recovery board under it. And then there’s two torch-down options: one is APP and one is SBS. Now, I’m told the SBS – there’s one contractor that actually offers that and he says that, you know, it’s less susceptible to cracking, so it lasts longer. And we have about 100-degree swing in temperatures here in Anchorage: between about 80-above to maybe minus-20. But the SBS can be torch-down, cold or MOP. And of course, the APP, I guess, is just basically torch-down but …

TOM: OK. Well, first things first. In terms of the flat roof, torch-down roofs or the EPDM roofs, I think, would be my choice in those environments. And what really makes the difference with these flat-roof installations is simply the workmanship, because there’s just no tolerance for errors. If you’re putting in a sloped roof – and you can be a little sloppy with your assembly of the roofing shingles, for example, and they’re pretty forgiving and usually don’t leak. The flat roof? If you get it wrong, you’re going to have a mess on your hands.

So, I would make sure that the contractor was very experienced with flat-roof installation and then let them work with the product that they’re going to be willing to back up.

PAUL: Thank you very much.

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

LESLIE: It’s a fact of life that your furniture will never stay as beautiful as the day it gets delivered. But what kind of defects can DIYers really handle repairing? We’re going to share solutions, after this.

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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: Interesting story out of Portland, Leslie. KGW.com did a survey. They asked 86 burglars how they broke into homes. The answers are really fascinating and one of which is this: do you know what the most common way was these burglars said they got into the house?

LESLIE: How?

TOM: Through an open window or door.

LESLIE: Ugh. That’s the …

TOM: Unlocked doors, unlocked windows. They rarely, if ever, would kick anything in because it makes too much noise, right? So they would get in through open windows and doors.

LESLIE: I mean that’s really just amazing. Now, they said that once they were inside, what was the first thing that they were looking to steal? They said jewelry, electronics, cash, credit cards; those really were the top of their lists. But they also mentioned collectibles and guns. And they said that if they saw an NRA sticker on a car’s bumper, that meant the house had a lot of guns to steal.

TOM: Yeah. So think about what you’re telegraphing when you put those sorts of bumper stickers on your cars. No matter what it is, it says something, potentially, to a burglar.

Now, the other thing that they found out was about these security signs. You know the stickers in the window? Did they have any deterrent? Guess what? Nope. Not much. Some burglars, they kind of had mixed opinions about it but most of them said they weren’t too terribly concerned about it. But if you had a dog in the house? That was a deal breaker. If there was a dog in the house, they were not coming in.

LESLIE: Yeah. But they did say that small breeds really didn’t do much. It was the big deal – it was the big-breed dogs that kind of turned them away from the house, so keep that in mind.

TOM: Freaked them out, right?

LESLIE: The other thing is they said that they almost always knock on the front door before they break in. They want to just make sure nobody’s home.

TOM: Yeah. And if somebody answers the door, they kind of pretend like they were looking for a lost friend, a lost pet, taking a survey. We heard about this when we were talking about that Ring Video Doorbell. That’s the kind of story you hear through those guys, because the way that works is you ring the bell and there’s a video that pops up on your iPhone and you can kind of see who’s there. And this is what happens: these people walk up to the door to knock. If you answer the door, they think you’re home. You can have a conversation with them. You can tell them to get lost. But that’s really interesting.

And then finally, I thought when we talked about deterrents, you know what one of the top deterrents was besides the big dog was sound. If they heard a radio or television on, they did not break in. So, whatever station you’re listening to this show on, lock it on when you go away, folks, and leave it on and leave it loud. It definitely could keep your house safe.

888-666-3974. We are here to help you safely get through your next home improvement project. So give us a call and let’s get to it.

[radio_anchor listorder=”2″]LESLIE: Janice in South Carolina, you’ve got The Money Pit. How can we help you today?

JANICE: Yes. I have bought a new outside storage shed-type building, you know? You get it at the big-box stores? And I wanted to know how you can – what’s the best way to treat the exterior wood to keep it lasting longer? And also maybe the inside – the wood inside – the best thing to do for it.

TOM: Is it made of pressure-treated lumber, Janice?

JANICE: They call it – well, it’s got lumber on the trim and then the other, they call that “smart siding”? And that’s the side of the walls and stuff are – on the outside – smart siding?

TOM: OK. So has it been painted?

JANICE: No, no. It’s just raw wood.

TOM: OK. So what we would do is we’d recommend that you prime it first. And I guess you have an option to paint it or stain it, depending on how the siding actually looks. But you want to prime it first. And then after you prime it, then you could add a couple of coats of either good-quality exterior paint or good-quality exterior stain.

You don’t necessarily have to do anything to the inside as long as it’s watertight. But I would definitely work on the outside before it gets any colder out.

JANICE: OK. Alright. Alright. Thank you.

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

Well, if your furniture is looking a little worse for wear, there are many ways to bring it sort of back into shape if you know how. Let’s start by talking about those white rings that are caused by water glasses. That happens when the water vapor actually penetrates the finish. But you can get rid of them by simply wiping them down with an alcohol-laden cloth.

LESLIE: That’s really interesting. Another common disaster you could say are shallow chips. And if that clear finish is chipped, you can go ahead and use a few drops of clear nail polish. And then after that polish dries, you want to sand flush with a 600-grit sandpaper. So that’s super, super, super fine.

And if you want to try to restore the sheen on satin finishes, you can rub with a 4/0 steel wool and paste wax. For gloss finishes, you can use auto-polishing compound in a rag. All of it really works.

TOM: Yeah. And if you’ve got scratches or worn edges, there’s a couple of things you can do there. If it’s just a simple scratch – if you can touch it up with actually a marker, it works really well. Because sometimes you scratch through the stain but if you just, say, take a black magic marker and get some of that blackness into the bottom of the raw wood and then wipe off the excess, you will find that it kind of blends in and disappears.

You can also use these wax pencils. They’re kind of like freezer pencils. You heat them up with a lighter to make them soft and then you sort of press the wax into the scratch and rub it until it sort of becomes flush.

Another product that works really well – it’s been around forever; I remember my mom using this – is Old English. It’s kind of like a stain that you put on a cloth and then rub it in and it fills in all of those scratch marks, so …

LESLIE: It works amazingly well.

TOM: It really works well. I mean there’s nothing better than Old English when you find that you have that scratch. It can really make it disappear. And then like you said before, if you put a little wax on top of it, it’ll look brand-spanking new.

888-666-3974. Give us a call, right now, with your home improvement project question.

LESLIE: We’ve got Mike in Delaware on the line who needs some help with a front porch that’s cracking up. What’s going on?

MIKE: The crack’s about 5 feet long. They’re anywhere from about 1/8-inch wide to 3/8-inch wide at some points. They’re absolutely not straight. They formed, probably, just a month after the porch was poured. Had the greatest guy do my basement. It’s perfect. It’s still perfect. We’ve been here like 20 years. But the porch cracked instantaneously, so evidently he was sick that day.

TOM: Yeah, it sounds like it cracked from shrinking. It just might have been how the concrete was that day. Who knows? But it’s been like that for 20 years?

MIKE: It’s been like that for, yeah, about that. Pretty close.

TOM: So you just want a way to kind of spruce up the space. Is the porch fully exposed or is it under a roof?

MIKE: Well, it’s under a roof but it’s not closed in.

TOM: So, you can use an epoxy patching compound on those cracks to fill them in. And then you’re going to have to decide how you want to finish the porch beyond that. You could use an epoxy paint. That’s a perfect application for it.

MIKE: I have RESCUE IT!.

TOM: Well, that’s a different type of paint. That’s used for – to fill in old, weathered surfaces that are cracked and worn, wood and concrete. I think it’ll work for that. The one thing about RESCUE that has my – I’m a little concerned about – is it’s not rated for any surface that an automobile can go on. And so, that means it probably doesn’t have the same adhesion that, say, an epoxy paint would. So, just a little concerned about the adhesive qualities of it. But it’s a good product; it’s a good brand.

MIKE: And that was part of my reason for the call. I was wondering – the directions are not fantastic on the can. Should I be etching the cement before I apply it?

TOM: Yeah, I think that you do have to do a really good job prepping it for a product like that. And in fact, even for epoxy paint, there are special solutions that help you do a really good, deep clean on that concrete surface. And then it’s also going to be equally important that you let it dry really, really well. Because you don’t want to put any paints on surfaces that are damp or moist, because it will impact its adhesion.

MIKE: So do I need to actually enclose the porch in plastic for a time?

TOM: No, I don’t think so. Just as long as you have decent weather.

Right, Leslie?

LESLIE: Yeah. But you do need to make sure that the concrete is dry. I know they usually recommend doing a test where you tape a piece of plastic down over a patch of concrete. And I think you leave it for a day – I’m not sure – 12 hours? Something like that. But if you peel it back and there’s any dampness on the underside, from condensation on the underside of the plastic, then it’s a no-go; you’ve got to let it dry out more. If it comes out dry, then you can go for it.

The other thing I know with RESCUE IT! is that you have to make sure that if it’s a ¼-inch crack or less, that you go in with a brush first and sort of dab it into the cracks and the crevices until it’s filled. And anything that’s deeper or bigger, you’re going to want to fill with some sort of patching compound. Because otherwise – like I’m just guessing that it’s some sort of hyper-rubberized paint, so it’s just kind of – stick over and into the crack. And that’s why when they’re saying, “Don’t drive on it,” – because I think it would have too much movement and cause it to stretch out. So anything that’s bigger than a ¼-inch, you’re going to have to fill those before you go ahead and do it.

MIKE: Yeah, that’s been very helpful. Thank you.

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

LESLIE: Still ahead, want to turn your boring winter yard into a vibrant, colorful space? Well, you can if you attract winter birds. We’ll tell you how, after this.

(theme song)

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. You will get the answer to your home improvement question. Plus, this hour, we’re giving away a great prize. We’ve got up for grabs a set of five Lutron Maestro Occupancy Switches.

Now, they’re really convenient because it allows you to turn the lights off and on hands-free. Easy to install. Anybody can do it and it gives a big impact. It’s got excellent sensing. It looks really great on any wall surface.

You can check them out at your local home improvement store or through your local electrical professional. If you want to check them out online, go to LutronSensors.com. It’s a prize worth $20 each, so your set of 5 is going to be worth 100 bucks.

TOM: Give us a call, right now, for the answer to your home improvement question and your chance to win at 888-MONEY-PIT.

[radio_anchor listorder=”4″]LESLIE: Bob in Tennessee, you’ve got The Money Pit. How can we help you today?

BOB: I have a friend who has a house with a metal roof on it. Their cell service is pretty severely impacted every time somebody tries to call him on his cell phone when he’s inside his house.

TOM: First off, your cell is probably always – very frequently, I should say – inside buildings that have metal roofs. Think about it: your church, your post office, your bank, restaurants. There’s a lot of metal roofs out there. And if he’s having a problem just in his own house, I would suspect that the signal is weak to begin with. And I think the solution is a little device called a “cell-phone booster.”

A booster can be basically plugged into the house – inside of the house – and it can double or triple the range of the phone. So if I was having that issue, I would just get a cell-phone booster, install it in my house – it’s not a very expensive piece of equipment – and solve my problem once and for all.

BOB: OK. Interesting. Well, I just wondered about that.

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

LESLIE: Well, if you’d like to add some life to your backyard during this winter season, you might think about making some simple changes to attract winter birds. Now, don’t worry. All birds don’t catch that red eye for Mexico with the first sign of cold weather. Even the northernmost parts of the U.S. has cardinals, woodpeckers, finches and many more winter-loving birds. And you can attract them to your yard simply by giving them the right food.

TOM: Now, most winter birds eat seeds. They have to because insects are pretty much nonexistent in the cold. So you want to stock up on both sunflower seeds and safflower seeds. The great thing about safflower is that squirrels don’t like them. And gosh, that is so important because the squirrels will so go after pretty much everything else.

And if you love woodpeckers, you can also hang up some suet for them. But hang that high because most winter mammals like that, as well.

LESLIE: Also, you don’t want to forget water. You can go ahead and break up ice in bird baths or add warm water to melt the ice and the birds will flock from all over to your yard for a little refreshment.

TOM: This is The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show here to take your calls at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.

[radio_anchor listorder=”1″]LESLIE: Alright. Now, we’ve got Sylvia in Pennsylvania on the line with a flooring question. How can we help you today?

SYLVIA: I am moving from Pennsylvania, moving further south to get away from the snow. I don’t know if it’ll be South Carolina, Georgia or Florida but I am going to build myself a house and it’s going to be a small house. I’m wondering about in-floor heating but I would like to have a terrazzo floor. So can you put in-floor heating and cooling in a terrazzo floor?

TOM: So, first of all, congratulations on your plan. That sounds really exciting. Secondly, in terms of the floor – first of all, the floor can be heated. It can’t provide your cooling. You’re going to have to have a central air-conditioning system for that.

SYLVIA: I was wondering about that because I was wondering, too. Because cold settles and I’m thinking the floor would be cold but nothing else would be.

TOM: So, in terms of the heated floor, yes, there is a way to run PEX piping – which is a cross-linked polyethylene, hot-water piping – through underlayment that would go under tile. In fact, they make a specific type of plywood that’s actually channeled out for this very purpose, where the plumbing sort of lays inside tracks in the plywood. And then the mud floor or whatever you’re using underneath the trowels goes on top of that.

So, certainly, you can do that. It’s a pretty big project. But if you’re set on having this kind of floor, you can definitely do it. But it will be a more expensive heating system than other types.

SYLVIA: Well, I’m not really set on the terrazzo but I was thinking of it and – because it would be easy to clean. It would be just – from living in Florida, I am familiar with terrazzo floors. And I just thought that, you know, it was a possibility. I have not decided exactly yet. I’m just gathering information now.

TOM: Yeah. The answer is you could put hot-water heat through your floors pretty much with any type of material, including that. So, definitely an option for you, Sylvia. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.

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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: Give us a call at 888-MONEY-PIT or post your question to the Community page at MoneyPit.com, just like Ray did from California.

LESLIE: Yeah, that’s right. Ray writes: “I have a standard, wood-burning fireplace with no perks like a blower system. It really isn’t meant to heat the house but I would like to have it supply a little supplemental heat. Is there some kind of system I could get to make it more efficient and possibly add some supplemental heat to the house?”

TOM: Well, I think if you want to try to get the maximum number of BTUs out of that fireplace, there’s only really a couple of things you can do. First of all, it starts with choosing the right wood, right? I mean if you’re burning softwood, you’re not going to get as many BTUs as if you burn good, dried hardwood. And, next, you could think about adding an insert that has a blower. And there are inserts that can go inside existing brick fireplaces that will basically take the heat through sort of a radiator and blow it back into the room.

But short of those two things, there’s not a whole lot you can do to try to make a wood-burning fireplace more efficient than it was when it was constructed. And there’s an awful lot of them out there that were made very badly. And while they’re great because they’re beautiful and they’re nice to have when you have a party and that sort of thing, generally speaking, most of those old fireplaces are just not that energy-efficient.

LESLIE: Alright. Next up, we’ve got a post here from Kim who writes: “This weekend, I tried to remove a dead light bulb from my ceiling fan. And it was so brittle it shattered in my hand. Now, the base of the bulb is basically stuck in the socket and I don’t know how to get it out. I thought about using pliers but what part of the bulb should I grab onto?”

TOM: A good trick of the trade there. First of all, turn off the power. Make sure it’s absolutely off. And then you can grab the bottom of the bulb with a piece of foil. Sort of bunch it up and stick it in there and you can basically turn the foil to get the bulb out. That’s a lot safer than grabbing it with the pliers, because you may sort of break off whatever is left of the glass at that point.

LESLIE: The other thing I’ve heard is that people use a potato sometimes if there are shards of glass sticking out. And you can slide the potato onto the broken parts of glass and then turn.

TOM: Well, you may have noticed signs of little visitors by now. We’re talking about mice and other rodents. Leslie has got some advice to help keep those furry creatures away from your house, in today’s edition of Leslie’s Last Word.

LESLIE: Yeah. They want to spend the holidays, as well. They want to come inside and have some fun. But really, guys, the best piece of advice I can give you is to keep a clean house. Mice, rats and all those furry friends will make their way into your home to keep warm but if they find a buffet waiting for them, they’re not going to go anywhere anytime soon. So sweep up crumbs. Store dry foods, like cereal or pet food, in plastic containers.

Rodents aren’t picky, guys. I had a pest-control pro once tell me that he found rats in a homeowner’s garage who were feeding on the grease and drippings among the lava rocks in the gas grill. I mean that’s so gross. You also want to keep trash covered, empty indoor containers often. Go ahead and cut down on their nesting sites around the house, as well. They like wood piles, stacks of newspaper, cardboard boxes, all of that kind of stuff. And keep those items off of the floor inside and away from the foundation, as well.

Now, you have to remember that mice can squeeze through places as small as a dime. So seal up potential spaces with steel wool and pay attention to areas around pipes, vents and ducts. And also poisons designed to eliminate rodent infestations work well as long as you follow the instructions. And keep your kids and your pets away from it because it is dangerous, so you want to keep it away.

TOM: Good advice. This is The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show. Coming up next time on the program, if your winter heating bill is sending a chill down your spine, you’re not alone. Millions of Americans are feeling that chill in their wallets and in their homes. And part of the cure is insulation. But do you know what type is best for your home? We’re going to tell you, 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.