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: Here to help you with inspiration, instruction and support for your home improvement projects. Give us a call right now with your question at 1-888-MONEY-PIT, 888-666-3974. Take a look around your house. Take a look around your yard if any of winter winds have blown anything down that needs to be put back together.
LESLIE: If you can see under that snow.
TOM: Hey, call us right now. We’re here to help. The number is 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
We’ve got a great show planned for you. Coming up this hour, if you’re lucky enough to live where it’s pretty warm all year round, you’ll never have to deal with snow and ice on your roofs, something that can cause major damage if it’s not taken care of. We’ve got tips on how to make sure your roof stays clear and your home safe from all of that heavy, wet, nasty snow.
LESLIE: That’s right. And even large-scale, professional athletic arenas are apparently not immune.
TOM: Yeah. Remember that?
LESLIE: Can you believe that, in December? What was it, the Metrodome?
TOM: Yeah.
LESLIE: It collapsed, all that wet snow.
TOM: FOX had great video footage of that; the whole thing came down. They left their – they smartly left their cameras running overnight.
LESLIE: Seriously. So imagine if it can happen there, it can happen to you folks.
Well, if snow and ice are outside, chances are you want to be inside and most likely curled up in front of a nice, toasty fire. Well, we’ve got advice on how to keep your fireplace screens clean and free of buildup so that you can actually see that beautiful, warm glow that your fire creates.
TOM: And also ahead, the best ways to unfreeze frozen pipes, along with tips on how to avoid those in the first place.
LESLIE: Plus, this hour, we’re giving away a $350 gift certificate from Leggett & Platt and they are makers of fine beds and bedding.
TOM: So, give us a call right now with your question. The number is 1-888-MONEY-PIT, 888-666-3974. Let’s get right to it.
Leslie, who’s first?
LESLIE: Dirk in Illinois, you’ve got The Money Pit. How can we help you today?
DIRK: Yes. I own a 130-year-old house that’s sat vacant for a couple years and unbeknownst to me, the flat roof has been leaking and saturated through the floor and down into the floor joists. It has a basement and while the roof timbers and the floor have dried out, the floor joists and the basement overhead seem to stay saturated. I have access to drying equipment but I wonder, once I get those dried out, am I going to have to treat them for mold or mildew or insects or anything like that?
TOM: What happens is the lumber, once it gets over 25 percent wet, the decay organisms will wake up and start to deteriorate it. But once you dry it out, the decay organisms go dormant and they cease to function.
LESLIE: They go back to sleep.
TOM: So, as long as you dry it out and keep it dry, then you shouldn’t have a problem. Now, has the roof leak been fixed?
DIRK: Yes.
TOM: OK. Well, then that’s all you need to do. Once it dries out – as long as it hasn’t been wet for years and gotten weak – once it’s dried out, there’s nothing further that you need to do about it.
DIRK: OK. Great. Thanks for answering and thanks for your program.
TOM: You’re welcome. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Jackie in Rhode Island, you’ve got The Money Pit. How can we help you today?
JACKIE: Yes. I have a buffet and I have a white circle. I think I got it from polishing it and when I put a planter on the buffet, I went to pick it up and I got a nice, white circle and I can’t get rid of it.
LESLIE: Mm-hmm. Well, it’s a water stain. Yeah, I mean it could happen even if you just leave a glass of water and it just sits there and you get condensation from the cup itself. On the wood surface, you’re going to get a water ring.
Now, if it’s a newer ring, you’ve got a better chance of getting it out. A lot of people swear by using mayonnaise. You sort of want to cover the water mark itself with like a good coating of mayonnaise, let it sit for a couple of hours and then wipe it up. People swear by it. Other people use vegetable oil and sort of rub it in with the grain in that circle.
What happens is it’s just sort of an oversaturation in that stain and that finish is sort of – really sort of almost swelled and created the stain.
JACKIE: Yeah.
LESLIE: But mayonnaise – even toothpaste. I know they sound …
JACKIE: I tried toothpaste.
LESLIE: Did not work?
JACKIE: No.
LESLIE: Hmm. I say give the mayonnaise a try. If that doesn’t work – which, generally, it does – try, if you’ve got some extra stain on hand, and really work that into the grain and try to match that finish.
TOM: What color is the finish right now?
JACKIE: It’s cherry wood.
TOM: OK. There’s also a product called Old English. Have you …?
LESLIE: Oh, that does a lot of great work, too.
TOM: Yeah. That works really well. I like that. I use that a lot in my house.
JACKIE: OK. OK. Yeah, is it the Old English with the stain in it or the Old English just for polish.
TOM: No, with the stain in it.
JACKIE: With the stain. I don’t have that one.
TOM: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
JACKIE: OK. That’s what I’ll get.
TOM: Alright?
JACKIE: OK. Thank you very much.
TOM: You’re welcome. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Travis in Texas is on the line with an electricity question. Tell us what’s going on at your money pit.
TRAVIS: Well, what I’m wondering about on a GFI plug, it has the reset button. When you push the reset button and it won’t reset – and I know there’s power to it and it won’t reset. What’s the deal?
TOM: So, you pushed the reset button and it will not reset? Then, you’ve got a bad ground fault or you have a mis-wired circuit. Did it ever reset correctly? Did it ever work right?
TRAVIS: Right.
TOM: You could have a short somewhere in the circuit, as well.
LESLIE: And it’s doing its job.
TOM: Yeah. So I wouldn’t question it. The first thing I might do is replace that outlet and see if you can get it to set properly. And if it won’t set properly, then you’ve got a short somewhere and, like Leslie said, it’s doing its job and you need to get to the bottom of the short.
TRAVIS: Exactly. Would you recommend putting a – changing the plug or just put it – I understand there’s a GFI breaker.
TOM: Well, there is but right now, I would just work with what you know and that is to change the receptacle itself; see if we can get it to work there.
TRAVIS: Uh-huh. OK. Appreciate that information. So that’s just – change the plug out, huh?
TOM: Change it and make – and see if it’ll reset. And if it won’t, then you’ve got to go a little bit deeper. And by the way, Travis, it’s not a do-it-yourself project unless you’re real comfortable working with electricity, OK? We want you to be safe.
TRAVIS: I appreciate it.
TOM: Travis, 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. Pick up the phone and give us a call with your winter home improvement project. We’d love to give you a hand to get that job done. We’re here for you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
TOM: 888-666-3974.
Up next, steps you can take to avoid damage to your roof this winter. Find out how to keep heavy ice and snow loads off your roof and out of your house, after this.
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ANNOUNCER: The Money Pit is brought to you by Therma-Tru Doors, the nation’s leading manufacturer of fiberglass entry and patio door systems. Therma-Tru doors are Energy Star-qualified and provide up to five times the insulation of a wood door. To learn more, visit ThermaTru.com. Now, here are Tom and Leslie.
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. And you should give us a call at 1-888-MONEY-PIT. We will try our best to answer your question. Plus, you just may win our prize this week, which is a $350 Leggett & Platt gift certificate. And one caller that we talk to on the air is going to win this great prize. And if you are the lucky caller, you might choose the Leggett & Platt Air Dream Sofa Sleeper System Replacement Mattress.
Now, this hypo-allergenic mattress combines coils with an inflatable air system, which then creates an 11-inch-thick sleep surface. No one is ever going to complain again about that bar under their mattress and their back kills. "I’m never sleeping over here again." Unless that’s what you want them to say.
Now, the Air Dream is available in sizes to fit most sofa sleepers and it’s available online and at most sleep bedding retailers. If you want some more information to check out this great system, visit LPCPG.com.
TOM: 888-666-3974.
Well, this season, we’ve already had some pretty heavy snowfalls in many parts of the country. And when those snowfalls are followed by warm days, that can often allow ice to dam up at the roof’s edge, where it blocks melting snow and causes serious leaks inside your home. To prevent this, you want to be sure that your roof is properly ventilated.
If you plan to replace your roof soon, you also want to be sure to have the contractor install an ice-and-water shield, which will give you an extra layer of protection against those rooftop ice dams.
Now, if you happen to get out there right after a heavy snow, another good idea is to use a special-handled snow rake. It’s a really long-handled, lightweight rake and you use that from the ground to remove snow from the roof. And if you get that snow off when it’s light and fluffy like that, then it’s not going to get wet and heavy later and put a lot of stress on your roof and potentially cause a collapse.
LESLIE: Mm-hmm. You also want to make sure that you keep your gutters clear of leaves or sticks or any other kind of debris, so that when the snow does melt or if there’s ice in there, it can actually flow freely and not sort of get stuck up by all of these things that are blocking the flow.
And remember that your downspouts, they should face away from your home. And ideally, you want them to project the water about 5 feet away from your home’s foundation, just to keep your foundation nice and dry.
Also, trim trees and remove any dead branches that can become weak from ice or snow buildup. This is going to prevent an overloaded limb from, you know, just falling and snapping and possibly damaging your home or your car or maybe even hurting somebody. Just look around your yard and take some precautions before the snow and the storm sets in. This way, everybody can keep safe during this beautiful winter wonderland.
TOM: 888-666-3974. Call us right now with your home improvement question.
LESLIE: Susan in Minnesota is dealing with a basement project. What can we do to help you?
SUSAN: We have a basement that has occasionally leaked. We do have drain tile in. We have found a system that’s called DRIcore and we were wondering if you knew anything about that system.
Now, our basement, at this point, the only time we’ve ever gotten water is if one of the drain – downspouts from outside is off.
TOM: Right.
SUSAN: And you don’t get – it’s not a huge amount of moisture that we get. Our problem is we have a 12/12 pitch in our house. And so, if it does dump water, it dumps a lot of water.
TOM: Right.
SUSAN: So, our downspout system has to work well. But normally, our basement is very dry and we would love to put carpet in there but – and like I said, this DRIcore system, we’ve heard a little bit about it but do you know anything about it? Is it any good?
TOM: I’ve seen it. I’ve seen it at the trade shows. I like the idea. I mean it basically picks up – it’s kind of a subfloor and it picks it up off of the concrete and that’s not a bad thing. So I think it’s fine as a subfloor. What I don’t think is fine is putting carpet in a basement, under any circumstances. I think it’s a big mistake. We would definitely recommend against that.
What we would recommend is that you consider laminate flooring – which is beautiful today; it’s so well made – or you could use engineered hardwood flooring, which is also terrific. And then if you want carpet, you use an area rug, OK? But you don’t put in wall-to-wall carpet.
LESLIE: Just the cost of putting in a wall-to-wall, in the event of a future flood – which could be likely because things happen with a gutter system; things happen with the grading around your perimeter or foundation – so it’s possible it could come back, even after you correct all of these things.
The cost of removing and replacing, it just gets expensive. Plus, it opens up a whole area of health issues. You could have mold problems, which could lead to respiratory issues. It’s just not worth it.
TOM: Yep. And we’re definitely not anti-DRIcore; we’re just anti-carpet, OK?
SUSAN: Anti-carpet. OK, OK. That sounds good. Well, we’ll research it a little more then.
TOM: Alright. Good luck, Susan. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: David in Maine, you've got The Money Pit. What can we do for you today?
DAVID: Well, I've got a problem with some wallboard. A crack in my drywall is pretty much from the top to the bottom; pretty much in a straight line, vertically. And …
TOM: OK. Is that over a seam, David?
DAVID: That's what I found out. Yes, it was over a seam and it was over a 2x4.
TOM: Alright, yes. How about that?
DAVID: And unfortunately, when I took a utility knife and started carving it out to make a V-shaped profile, I found out that one side of the – it was over a 2x4 and one of the wallboards – one piece of the wallboard – was basically floating.
TOM: OK.
DAVID: But my question is, is there some easy or cost-effective way, rather than – other than just replacing the whole 4x8 sheet of wallboard, to fix that or to secure it so that it doesn't float?
TOM: Hmm. Well, here's the trick. There are ways to repair that but essentially, you have to cut a hole in the wall to do that. Hmm. I'm wondering if it's easier to fix one or two.
I'm thinking, Leslie, the easiest thing to do here would be for David to essentially go to the stud to the left and to the right of the disconnected drywall; cut out both sides of it so now you're going to take out a piece. Let's assume that the studs are 16 inches on center. So you take one to the right so you're 16 inches to the right, 16 inches to the left and now you've pulled out a piece that's 32 inches wide. Replace that with a new piece of drywall that's 32 inches wide. You'll have two seams to tape instead of one but frankly, it's not going to be that much more work.
DAVID: Right.
TOM: Because that one side of drywall is now floating and moving, even if we tell you how to fix that crack, it's going to come back fast.
LESLIE: It's always going to show up.
DAVID: Always going to come back, yeah.
TOM: So if you're going to cut the wall out, we could tell you how to cut it out right near that and slip in some wood blocking and then attach it but frankly, by the time you do all that, the cleanest way to do this is probably to take that whole piece out by going to the left and the right; sort of surgically excise that one piece of drywall, bang in a new piece, tape it, spackle it, be done.
You want to make sure you use perforated drywall tape because it's a little more forgiving if you don't quite get the spackling there just right. Two, three coats. Feather it out, prime it, paint it and you're good to go.
DAVID: That's the only way?
TOM: That's the way to do it.
DAVID: OK, good enough. Thanks for your advice.
TOM: You're welcome, David. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
I think David was looking for the magic potion that would mysteriously make a stud appear where once there was none.
LESLIE: And I like how he was doing surgical work on it, too.
TOM: Yep. Exactly. He was digging it out. Well, it was probably stuck together by the piece of tape that was there and once he cut that, all of a sudden it became a floater.
LESLIE: Uh-huh, it started moving.
Now we’ve got Gary on the line who’s looking for some efficient baseboard heating. Tell us what’s going on and what you need some help with.
GARY: Well, I have a bathroom on the north side of the house and in Nebraska, it gets pretty cold in the winter. And so I was wondering about using a baseboard heater to warm up that corner of the house; how efficient they are and what the advantage of a 240 is over a 120-volt.
TOM: So it’s just a stand-alone bathroom on the north side of the house that doesn’t get enough heat?
GARY: Yeah.
TOM: OK. So, a couple of things. First of all, adding electric heat to that is the – definitely the easiest. Since it’s a small room, you don’t have to go with 240-volt; you can go with 110-volt. I would have it centrally wired and not use a plug-in unit.
Since it’s such a tiny room, I mean it’s – a strip baseboard heater is the best. If it was a bigger area, I might recommend a larger space heater but just a strip baseboard heater should be fine. The downside is that the thermostat on those is mounted on the unit itself. If you buy a little bit better-quality one, you can actually have one that’s mounted on the wall. But I think that’s an easy way for you to increase the heating in just that one small, very strategic area of your house.
LESLIE: Mm-hmm. And of course, for cost-effectiveness, you’re not going to put this on and keep it on when you’re not in there. You’re going to put it on, you know, a couple minutes before you go in there. And because of the size of the space of the room, it’ll really do a great job of heating it effectively and quickly. And then once you’re done in there, turn it off.
But of course, since it’s a bathroom, you want to make sure that you manage the moisture well, because if you’re dealing with extremes between hot and cold, you’re going to get a lot of condensation in there.
GARY: Uh-huh. Well, this one I was looking at does have a programmable thermostat.
TOM: Oh, good. Well, good. That’s a good choice then. I think you’re on the right track.
GARY: Alright. Well, thanks very much.
TOM: You’re welcome. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Alright. Our next caller needs some help patching up, I guess, a damaged, ceramic tile floor. Now we’ve got Lynn in Texas. How can we help you?
LYNN: I have the ceramic tile and it seems like there was a blister on one of the tiles and it popped.
TOM: OK.
LYNN: It’s been down about 3 years but it left an open place; a little hole that’s about ½-an-inch in diameter, just about 1/16-of-an-inch deep. I’m afraid that it’s going to get very stained, because it doesn’t look good. So is there anything I can do to fill it and seal the surface?
TOM: What color is the ceramic tile?
LYNN: It’s kind of a lot of brick-colored, dark …
TOM: Oh, well, actually that could work for you. Because what you’re going to want to do is get a touch-up paint.
Now, there’s a couple of different ways you can go here. You can use a touch-up paint that’s used for cars. You go to an auto-body story, like a Pep Boys or a place like that. You can get a car touch-up paint – which is a very durable, usually epoxy-based paint – and you can touch it up with that.
You could also – because it’s dark-colored, I don’t know if you’ll be able to find this but they have epoxy paints for kitchen appliances, too, but I doubt you’re going to find it in a dark color. So you may want to stick with the auto-body idea first; look at the auto parts store first, because I think you’ll find touch-up paints in wide varieties of colors there.
And if you can’t – if it’s a sort of motley, go darker and lighter and sort of dab them on together, side by side and create the pattern.
LESLIE: Mm-hmm. Mix them together.
LYNN: Oh, OK.
TOM: And that’ll seal the place where the glazing broke off so you won’t get dirt in there. And you know what? If you do a good job, it may be completely invisible.
LYNN: I hope so.
TOM: Alright. Well, give it a shot.
LYNN: Thank you.
TOM: You’re welcome. Thanks so much for calling us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: You are tuned to The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show on air and online at MoneyPit.com. Still ahead, the best way to avoid frozen pipes and how to thaw them properly if you just can’t avoid it at all. We’re going to have this advice from This Old House’s plumbing expert, Richard Trethewey, when we come back.
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ANNOUNCER: The Money Pit is brought to you by SnowBlowersDirect.com. Thinking about getting a snow blower? Check out SnowBlowersDirect.com’s interactive buying guides, recommendations and customer reviews. Snow blower experts are available to help you pick the perfect snow blower. Visit SnowBlowersDirect.com.
TOM: Making good homes better, welcome back to The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show where home solutions live. I'm Tom Kraeutler.
LESLIE: And I'm Leslie Segrete.
TOM: Well, a project like hanging curtain rods is right up there on the you-really-can-do-this-yourself list but there are a few things that could make it more difficult. For example, do you have plaster walls that are prone to crumbling or what if you rent and can’t make holes in the walls?
Well, if that’s you, check out our article on how to hang curtain rods without drilling any holes. It’s online right now at MoneyPit.com.
LESLIE: Roy in Poughkeepsie, New York is calling in about roof moss. Tell us what’s going on at your money pit.
ROY: Well, I have a problem of roof moss on my garage roof that seems to be somewhat shadowed by a section of the house. There aren’t any trees that’s giving me the problem.
TOM: OK.
ROY: And I understand that you do recommend the copper strip along the leading edge of the roof and that’s probably the best route to take. However, in a previous program, you mentioned a solution, I believe, that you could apply. And I can’t remember, for the life of me, the name of that solution and I wonder if you might be able to recall that and give it to me.
TOM: Certainly. It would have been Wet & Forget. It’s a moss, mildew and algae remover.
ROY: Wet & Forget.
TOM: Wet & Forget. Their website is WetAndForget.com. And it works really well. It’s a concentrate. You mix it up; I think it’s about one part Wet & Forget and about five parts water. And you apply it, you let it sit, it does its job and you rinse it off. And that will actually kill the moss that’s there.
ROY: Yeah.
TOM: But unless you do it on a somewhat regular basis, it’ll come back.
LESLIE: It’s just going to keep coming back.
ROY: Yeah.
TOM: And in your case, since it’s physically being caused by the shadow of the house, it’s kind of going to be something you’re going to have to live with.
ROY: Yeah.
TOM: But if you do that – and also, if you think about laying in a small piece of copper flashing up against the house …
LESLIE: Mm-hmm. Or nickel.
TOM: Or nickel, right up against the house. That metal will release every time it rains and kind of work as a regular mildicide.
ROY: Right up against the house, is that right? Mm-hmm.
TOM: Alright. Does that help you out?
ROY: Yes. Thank you very much. I certainly appreciate your show and I wish you and yours a happy new year.
TOM: Thank you so much.
LESLIE: Well, frozen water pipes are a serious risk during very cold winter weather. And when water freezes in a pipe, it expands and then it can exert a pressure of over 2,000 pounds per square inch, which is enough to rupture pretty much any pipe that’s filled with water.
TOM: Well, there are some very simple and inexpensive ways to prevent frozen pipes and we’re going to get those tips right now from a guy who has fixed more than his fair share of broken pipes, I’m sure. Not because he is an incredibly unlucky homeowner but because he is, in fact, the master plumber from TV’s This Old House, Richard Trethewey.
Hi, Richard. Good to see you again.
RICHARD: Hey, guys. Nice to be back.
TOM: And I once saw a single, broken pipe dump over 5 feet of water in a basement. It was not pretty. So where do we begin to make sure we get something like this under control?
RICHARD: Well, I’ve seen it all. You know, a split that’s about a ½-an-inch on a pipe, it can cause like $9,000; $10,000; $20,000 worth of damage.
LESLIE: Wow.
TOM: Wow.
RICHARD: My own family’s house had a frozen pipe years ago and that water coming down through it, it was years before we got the house right again. The sad thing is it’s easy to prevent. So let’s just talk about how not to defrost them first. This is …
TOM: Yeah, there’s a lot of bad ideas out there.
RICHARD: Oh, my goodness. Don’t let anybody take a torch and try to thaw a frozen pipe. You just don’t know where that flame is going to go. Oftentimes the frozen pipe is where? Out in the outside wall or near the outside walls. So make sure you don’t do that.
TOM: Right.
RICHARD: The better way is to prevent it, OK?
TOM: OK.
RICHARD: Let’s seal all the holes and cracks around the home with expanding foam or some of that silicone caulk. I heard a quote once: "Think about a house as just a poorly-built boat." And so, if it was – if you were in a boat and you had a hole that was letting the air in and there was water, in the case of the boat, look for the places you could sink. And so a small, ½-inch hole would be enough to sink any good boat.
So you use foam-rubber pipe insulation. You’ve seen it at all the home centers. It’s usually 3/8 or ½-an-inch sidewall thickness.
TOM: It’s like slit on the sides, right?
RICHARD: That’s right. You can get it slit or not slit. The slit is the much easier one in a retrofit because you just peel the tape and bring it together.
LESLIE: Slide it over.
RICHARD: Yep.
TOM: Right.
RICHARD: So you want to peel that and then just put it together.
Now, the elbows are where the freezing often happens. So we see people that just put the foam insulation on and then they leave the elbows exposed. What you really want to do is to cut a mitered corner to those – that foam insulation.
TOM: OK.
RICHARD: That would be done with a decent wood saw or a razor knife, just to make a nice, clean miter that can butt those two corners together.
TOM: And then you tape them together with more of that foam insulating tape on top of that.
RICHARD: That’s right. They have some special tape for it, so you can really make it tight. And that’s a homeowner, doable project. You know, you’re not going to really want a plumber to come in and do that and it could be a fun project, too.
LESLIE: Mm-hmm. Well and in all of these instances that you’re mentioning, it’s in a case, especially in a kitchen, where you’ve got your sink that looks out a lovely window and you’re enjoying as you’re washing the dishes, so that’s a wall where there’s a concern.
RICHARD: That’s right.
LESLIE: But I’ve always thought, when you’re dealing with frozen pipes, it’s the exterior spigot that I need to make sure that I open up and turn off the supply from the house inside.
RICHARD: Yeah, yeah.
LESLIE: But I mean we really need to think about the entire house and its plumbing.
RICHARD: Well, we see those kitchen pipes as the prime culprit because, oftentimes, you’ve run that hot and cold right behind the kitchen cabinets and it gets locked out. So if you’re going to try to thaw something like that, it should start by opening up the hot and cold faucets at the sink. And then you want to get in there with a hairdryer – never, never a torch – and you want to just start working it gently.
It doesn’t need that much to break that frozen pipe but it certainly doesn’t need any torch, any flame.
LESLIE: Mm-hmm. Now, is the symptom that the pipe is frozen, that you’re not getting any water? What if it’s a fixture you’re not using quite often and you don’t even realize that it’s frozen in that area?
RICHARD: Yeah, you wouldn’t and then the scary thing that – a pipe can freeze in the middle of the coldest weather and you might not even know it until it thaws. And then, all heck …
LESLIE: Water’s everywhere.
RICHARD: Yeah, you really – yeah.
TOM: Something interesting I learned years ago, that in terms of which pipe will freeze first, a hot-water pipe or a cold-water pipe, I’ve always heard that a hot-water pipe will freeze first because it’s got less air in it.
RICHARD: I’ve repaired more hot-water leaks than cold-water leaks on pipes, yeah.
TOM: Now, Richard, how does a pro – if they can’t get to the pipe – how does a pro actually unthaw pipes?
RICHARD: We have a cool machine; a pipe-thawing machine. It looks like a glorified starter for your battery. It’s got two jumper-cable leads and you put one clamp on one side of the frozen pipe and another one over here and you turn it on and it actually melts the ice inside it. And that’s a lot safer than any other open flame.
TOM: And a whole lot safer than a torch.
LESLIE: Yeah.
RICHARD: That’s right.
TOM: Richard Trethewey from TV’s This Old House, thanks so much for stopping by The Money Pit.
RICHARD: Glad to be here.
TOM: And there’s a great video on ThisOldHouse.com, that will teach you how to prevent frozen pipes. Definitely worth checking out.
LESLIE: That’s right. For more great, home improvement information, you can watch Richard and the entire This Old House team on This Old House and Ask This Old House on your local PBS station.
TOM: And Ask This Old House is brought to you by the National Association of Realtors.
Up next, we’re going to take more of your calls. Plus, we’re going to have tips on easy ways to clean those fireplace screens so that you can really see and enjoy that beautiful glow from your roaring, winter fire.
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TOM: Where home solutions live, this is The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show on air and online at MoneyPit.com. I'm Tom Kraeutler.
LESLIE: And I'm Leslie Segrete.
TOM: Give us a call right now at 1-888-MONEY-PIT. We will try our best to answer your question. Plus, you might just win our prize this week: a $350 Leggett & Platt gift certificate. One caller we talk to on the air wins and if you are that lucky caller, you might choose the Leggett & Platt Air Dream Sofa Sleeper System Replacement Mattress.
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The Air Dream is available in sizes to fit most sleeper sofas and it’s available online and at most sleep bedding retailers. For more info, you can go to LPCPG.com or call now for your chance to win. The number is 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Don in Illinois, you’ve got The Money Pit. What can we do for you?
DON: Well, I built my home about two-and-a-half years ago and the basement walls are built with insulated concrete forms.
TOM: OK.
DON: And when they poured the concrete down through the forms, they didn’t vibrate it.
TOM: OK.
DON: And so, consequently, I’ve got a lot of honeycomb in that concrete and now my walls leak when we have, you know, a fair amount of rain.
TOM: Heavy rain? Yeah. OK. So, the way you fix that is by not trying to seal the walls but by trying to stop the leak at the source. And if you’re getting leakage that’s consistent with rainfall, you need to look at the grading, which is the angle of soil around the outside of your house. But even more importantly, the gutter system. You want to make sure that you have one, that it’s extended away from the house, that it’s clean, it’s free-flowing, you have enough downspouts. You need 1 for every 400 to 6-foot – or 100 square feet of roof space.
And if you try to keep that foundation perimeter as dry as possible, you’ll find that you’ll get no leakage through those walls during heavy rain.
DON: OK. Well, we just recently did put guttering in and did some additional backfilling around the house, too, to try and get that grade to flow away from the house, so …
TOM: OK. Well, it sounds like you are on the right track. I would continue that, because that absolutely does cause it. Take a look at our website, MoneyPit.com, and search on "basement leaks" and "fixing basement leaks" and "basement flooding" and that sort of thing and you will find a wealth of information on this problem and – as well as lots of tips and lots of comments from folks that have tried his.
DON: Alright. Well, I appreciate your information.
LESLIE: Angela in Texas is on the line with an airflow question. What can we do for you?
ANGELA: Yes, ma’am. We have a house that was built about four years ago and they used the spray-foam insulation in the walls and in the attic.
TOM: OK.
ANGELA: And I was wondering if we need to make any special precautions or do anything special for ventilation.
LESLIE: Is there no ventilation right now in your attic space?
ANGELA: I guess it has a typical – I’m not really sure what it has, honestly. I just – I’ve heard something that those houses don’t breathe very well and I don’t know if there needs to be something special done when it’s a spray-foam insulation or …
TOM: Are you seeing any signs of high humidity or anything inside your house that would lead you to believe there’s any type of an indoor, air-quality issue?
ANGELA: No, sir.
TOM: OK. And how old is the house?
ANGELA: Four years.
TOM: Yeah. And if you’re not seeing any signs and it seems to be working well and your utility bills are in line, I would just leave everything alone.
LESLIE: Now, when you look at your roof line from the street – your ridge or the tippy-top of your roof line – do you see that it almost looks as if the shingle’s a little different? Like maybe it’s slightly lifted up off of that? Because that would indicate that you have a ridge vent and what you really want for proper ventilation in your attic is a continuous ridge vent and soffit vents to sort of recirculate that air. But if your house is only four years old, you probably have that.
ANGELA: OK. I think we do. I’ll check and make sure but yeah, that sounds familiar.
TOM: Well, continuous ridge and soffit vents are the best system. So if you’ve got that, you’re definitely good to go.
ANGELA: OK, great. Thank you for your help.
LESLIE: Alright. Well, here’s an easy way to make cleaning your fireplace screen part of your regular cleaning routine; that is, if you have a regular cleaning routine. If you’re like me and have a two-year-old, you probably clean every single day.
TOM: That is your cleaning routine.
LESLIE: That is my cleaning routine: chase child with vacuum; repeat.
Well, once or twice a season, what you want to do for your fireplace screen is use a cleaning solution of about an 1/8-of-a-cup of liquid dishwashing detergent per quart of water. And that’s going to help you remove whatever dirt has sort of caked onto that screen surface, which can actually be kind of hard to get out of there.
Then what you want to do is gently scrub that fireplace screen with a soft-bristle brush and then follow up by wiping with a lint-free cloth, because you really want to get all of that water off of it so you don’t get any rusty spots, which could happen kind of quickly.
Now, if you have any brass on the screen, you want to make sure that you polish that section with a brass cleaner and also use a lint-free cloth. That lint-free cloth is probably the biggest secret to so many household cleaning chores, so just get a bag of them, keep them and use them whenever you tackle your cleaning chores and you’ll be so happy with the results.
TOM: Good advice. And a fireplace is also a great way to enjoy a little wintertime atmosphere. But it can help cut those heating costs, if it’s used correctly. We’re going to tell you exactly how to do that, next.
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TOM: Making good homes better, welcome back to The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show on air and online at MoneyPit.com. I'm Tom Kraeutler.
LESLIE: And I'm Leslie Segrete.
TOM: And there’s no need to wait to hear our radio show to get your question answered, if you become a member of The Money Pit community. You will be able to post your question 24/7 and either Leslie or I or one of your fellow do-it-yourself, community members will answer that question. You can join now. It’s free at MoneyPit.com.
LESLIE: Mm-hmm. And while you’re there, you can post your question, just like Ray did. And Ray posted: "I have a standard, wood-burning fireplace with no perks like a blower system. It’s really not 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: Yes. It is called a Heatilator and it essentially …
LESLIE: Oh, it’s that thing that looks like an engine, that you stick in your fireplace, doesn’t it?
TOM: Yeah, it’s a wood-burning-stove insert and it does a much better job of burning the wood efficiently and getting many more BTUs out of each burning piece of wood than you would if you normally just burn it in an open fireplace.
What many folks don’t think about is that when you burn wood and you have that flue open to let the smoke out, guess what else it takes out? It takes out all the heated air that your main heating system is providing and takes it right up and out that chimney.
LESLIE: That you’ve already got in there.
TOM: So, it’s actually quite expensive, sometimes, to use a fireplace. Even though you feel that radiant heat – you feel that glow; you feel that warmth and it’s kind of fun – I mean if you’re going to do that, think about it: it comes out of the recreational budget; it’s not real efficient. But if you use a Heatilator insert, then yes, it can become more efficient. And not incredibly efficient but certainly more efficient than not having one at all, so that’s a good option for you there, Ray.
LESLIE: More so. Alright. Next we have a post from Edward17 who writes: "As it starts to get cold outside, the foyer and kitchen floor of my house are really cold. I can have the heat running at 70 degrees but the floor itself stays cold. Is it worthwhile to insulate the ceiling joists of my basement? Would this help?"
TOM: Certainly would help. It’s a pretty easy project to do. You want to not only insulate the ceiling joists but you also want to insulate the box beam, which is the sort of the end of the ceiling joists, where the wood floor frame sits on top of the foundation. And I would use unfaced fiberglass batts. I’d use them as deep as you can get them, so if you have 10-inch ceiling joists, use 10-inch unfaced batts.
And you put wire ties in between them; that holds them in place and sort of hang there in place. I would use unfaced, again, with no vapor barrier; you really don’t need one in that space. And that’s going to make that floor much, much warmer, because you’re just not going to have the heat loss that you get during the night.
LESLIE: Mm-hmm. I hope that helps warm up your tootsies. You can also – at this point, it’s kind of difficult to think about but if you’re ever redoing that floor, radiant heat is just a super-fantastic solution for all of this.
Alright. We’ve got one more here from KimTheTenant who posted: "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 light 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 am I supposed to grab onto?"
TOM: Ah, OK. Well, first of all, turn off the circuit. Turn off the circuit, turn off the electricity.
LESLIE: Before you stick anything in there.
TOM: Is it pretty clear? I’m telling you to turn off the power.
Alright. Having done that, there’s two ideas that come to mind. One is that you can take a crumpled-up newspaper and make it – sort of twist it into the same shape as the inside of the socket and then put it in there and keep unscrewing it.
LESLIE: Oh, true.
TOM: Make sure you twist it in that same direction and that will usually cause enough friction to actually back out that bulb.
Secondly, if you have to grab it with the pliers, you can; I like to use needle-nose pliers. Grab the edge of the metal part of the socket itself and work it around in a circle.
LESLIE: Of the socket itself, yeah.
TOM: Remember, righty-tighty, lefty-loosey. So you want to work it to the left. Usually, you can get it out that way. Either way, though, make sure, Kim, that the power is off before you actually start that project.
LESLIE: And you know what? This actually happened to me at Christmastime. I had put – I like those big, old-fashioned, C9 bulbs and one of them broke right in there. I made sure everything was off, I took my needle-nose pliers, unscrewed it, came right out. So, that’s your solution there. Just power off. How many times do we have to say it? No electricity.
TOM: This is The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show. Thank you so much for spending this hour with us. We hope that you learned a thing or two about how to take your home from house to home to castle and right out of that money pit category.
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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(Copyright 2011 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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