Transcripts

Transcript For April 5, 2008, Hour 1

Hosts: Tom Kraeutler & Leslie Segrete

(NOTE: Timestamps below correspond to the running time of the downloadable audio file of this show. Text represents a professional transcriptionist's understanding of what was said. No guarantee of accuracy is expressed or implied. 'Ph' in parentheses indicates the phonetic or best guess of the actual spoken word.)

BEGIN HOUR 1 TEXT:

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[audio timestamp: 1:00]

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: Pick up the phone and call us right now with your home improvement question, your do-it-yourself dilemma. We know there’s something you want to get done around your house. We’re here to help. The number, 1-888-MONEY-PIT. 888-666-3974. Sometimes you can even do too much in your house and that’s one of the things that we’re going to talk about today. You know, investing in your home is usually a very smart thing but when does an investment become a loss that you’re not able to recoup? When are you doing too much work to your house that you make it so that it’s not as valuable as the rest of the homes in the neighborhood? We’ll help you figure that out in just a bit.

LESLIE: Plus, a rocky real estate market; you know, it can be a blessing in disguise. I know you might not be feeling that way right now but, believe me, it is; especially if you’re in the market to buy a second home perhaps as an investment or even just a nice vacation spot for your family. We’re going to tell you what to look for in either case.

TOM: Also ahead, cue the jaws music.

LESLIE: Duh-duh, duh-duh, duh-duh, duh-duh.

TOM: Let’s talk about termites. It’s the termite season again and they’re there munching and crunching through homes all across the country. How do you know if you have termites?

LESLIE: When you fall through the dining room floor? (chuckles)

TOM: That would be the first clue. We’ll tell you what to do in just a bit.

LESLIE: And we’re giving away a great prize this hour for you nature lovers out there. It’s a Yankee Flipper squirrel-proof birdfeeder plus a bag of songbird blend birdseed from our friends over at Scotts. This will attract all of those gorgeous birds to your yard so you can really enjoy the springtime weather.

TOM: And that great package is worth 175 bucks. Going to go to one caller to 1-888-MONEY-PIT. You must have a home improvement question and be willing to come on the air and ask us.

Leslie, who’s first?

LESLIE: Cathy in Nueva York has a question about insulation. What can we do for you?

CATHY: Yes, hi. I’m converting a basement into an art studio and like a workspace. And I – actually, I had two questions: one is, is there any kind of a do-it-yourself radon kit I can get to check out if I have radon or not; and also, where do I put insulation without robbing the upstairs of heat.

TOM: Good questions. First, to the radon question, there are lots of do-it-yourself radon kits out there. The basic type you want is known as a charcoal adsorption canister and it’s a small charcoal canister. It kind of is the same size as like a tuna fish can. And basically, you open it up and you leave it in the basement for an exposure period that goes from about two to six days and you seal it back up; you stick it in a mailer and off to the lab it goes and then a couple of weeks later they return a report to you that will tell you whether or not you have a radon issue. It’s important that when you do the radon test that the house is totally closed; it has to be closed except for normal in and out.

LESLIE: Normal openings of doors.

TOM: So, it’s getting warm now. You know, you can’t do it with all the windows and doors open because otherwise you’d just be measuring the radon gas that’s sort of in the natural air.

CATHY: Ah.

TOM: Now, as to the insulation question, typically what you’re going to want to do is use a basement wall insulation. You would not insulate the ceiling of the basement but you would insulate the walls because that will make the space a bit warmer. And basement wall insulation is special; it generally is foil-faced on both sides. It’s designed to go against the damp surface there and do a good job without causing any mold issues or condensation issues.

LESLIE: And Cathy, since you’re going to be using the space as an art studio, try to get your hands on some daylight light bulbs so that you can really sort of simulate natural lighting as you’re doing some really – whatever your crafty art work is down there.

CATHY: Ah-ha, good point. Yes. OK, thank you very much.

TOM: You’re welcome, Cathy. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.

LESLIE: Talking tankless with Mike. What can we do for you?

MIKE: Yes, I only have a 50-gallon water heater and I’m in a family of four and I’m the only guy.

TOM: OK. (Leslie chuckles)

MIKE: So that means by the time I get to take a shower I’m taking nice, cold ones.

LESLIE: (overlapping voices) You get the shortest, coldest shower.

MIKE: Oh, yeah. [I’m just wondering] (ph) – I’ve heard your programs before about the tankless heaters but I think they’re related to gas and I don’t have gas in my neighborhood so I’m looking for an electric tankless.

TOM: Do you have liquid propane? Do you have LP gas?

MIKE: Not at the house currently.

TOM: OK, because you could put in an LP gas water heater. You don’t necessarily have to have natural gas. But I will say that we do not recommend electric tankless water heaters because they’re just not efficient and there are a lot of complaints about whether or not they can do the job. Gas water heaters – natural gas or LP, fabulous; recommend them all day long; would love to have one myself. But electric tankless; not so much.

MIKE: OK, that was going to be another question. Yeah, every now and then when I do get a chance to have hot water, sometimes it is nice to have like a steam shower to relax in. (Leslie chuckles)

TOM: Yeah. What you might want to think about doing is replacing that …

LESLIE: Wake up earlier. (Mike chuckles)

TOM: Yeah, or replace that 50 – (chuckles) – replace the 50-gallon water heater with a 75-gallon next time out and then also, put it on a timer so it only runs like in the morning when you need it and in the evening when you need it and not so much in the middle of the night or the middle of the day.

MIKE: OK.

TOM: Alright?

MIKE: Thank you, sir.

TOM: You’re welcome. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.

LESLIE: You are tuned to the Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show.

Are you dealing with an April Fool’s Day joke gone awry in your house? Well, we can help you repair whatever it was that that incident caused, so give us a call …

TOM: Egg on the windows (Leslie laughs); toilet paper in the trees. Call us.

LESLIE: Saran Wrap over the toilet. (Tom laughs) Something along those lines.

TOM: Oh man, that’s the worst.

LESLIE: (laughing) Well, give us a call with your home repair or your home improvement question 24 hours a day, seven days a week at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.

TOM: 888-666-3974.

Up next, believe it or not, not all home improvement projects will give you a great return on your investment. Find out which improvements will make you money and which ones will waste it, after this.

[audio timestamp: 0:07:15.8]

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ANNOUNCER: The Money Pit is brought to you by Therma-Tru, the nation’s leading manufacturer of fiberglass entry and patio door systems. Choose the brand more building professionals prefer and add up to $24,000 to the perceived value of your home. For more information visit ThermaTru.com.

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: Call us right now at 1-888-MONEY-PIT because one caller we talk to on the air this hour is going to win the Yankee Flipper squirrel-proof birdfeeder plus enough Scotts songbird blend birdseed to keep it full for quite a while. It’s great for bird watching. It’s going to attract all kinds of wild songbirds that’ll sing to you as you enjoy the outside around your house. It’s a prize worth 175 bucks but it could be yours for free just for giving us a call with your home improvement question right now at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.

LESLIE: Yeah, give us a call. Maybe you’re thinking about doing some major renovations to your house and when you’re planning home improvements you probably think about the things that you would like along with how that improvement is going to increase your home’s bottom line. You know, if you want to spend money you can someday recoup, consider the long and short-term values. You know, bathrooms, kitchens, flooring and energy improvements; those are all outstanding investments. But before a big project like an addition, you really want to decide how long are you going to be living in the house and if the improvement is going to price your house out of your neighborhood’s range, which is something you really want to avoid at all costs.

TOM: 888-666-3974. Call us right now with your home improvement question.

Leslie, who’s next?

LESLIE: Mary’s dealing with some driveway stains. Tell us what happened.

MARY: Oh, what happened was we had a dumpster there for many months and finally, when it left (chuckles), it left a streak like 12 inches wide only on one side. I think the other side was protected by the eave of the house. But this rust is running down the driveway. Now I know I’m going to have to resurface in the fall – in the spring, rather – but anything I can do to cosmetically first-aid that rust on the blacktop?

LESLIE: Oh yeah, there’s an easy way to get rid of it. Tom, does the trisodiumphosphate work on blacktop as well? Because I know it’s great on raw concrete.

TOM: Sure, it’ll work fine. You need to make a paste of that stuff; TSP and water.

MARY: Alright, so it’d be a good idea to just paint it on, right? Sort of – or brush it on.

TOM: Yeah, sort of. That’s right. Just brush it on; let it sit for a bit and it does a good job of removing rust stains.

MARY: OK, let it sit for, what, hours?

TOM: No, not an hour but I mean, you know, 15, 20 minutes; something like that.

MARY: Oh, OK. Sounds good.

TOM: Easy to do.

MARY: Thank you so much.

TOM: Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.

LESLIE: Everybody’s going green including Marty. What can we do for you?

MARTY: The subject is our kitchen. We have a small kitchen. It’s about 8x10. It’s not an eat-in; it’s just a utilitarian type place. And we have fluorescent lighting in there now, which is a single fixture with two circular lights that amount to 72 watts fluorescent. And we want to change and we’re talking about going back to incandescents; perhaps a single fixture. But what we’re not too sure about is how much wattage should we use to replace 72 watts of fluorescent.

TOM: It depends on what you mean by 72 watts. Now, if you’re looking, for example, at compact fluorescents, they usually give you a wattage equivalent to an incandescent bulb. So, for example, a 75-watt compact fluorescent is actually only using about a quarter of that amount of electricity because watts is a measure of electricity and electrical consumption. If you’re talking about one of those old-fashioned circular bulbs …

MARTY: Yes.

TOM: … well, what you might want to do is probably go with 100 to 150 watts worth of electricity but try to buy a fixture that uses compact fluorescents because this way it’s not going to cost you anymore to operate it than the old fixture does right now.

MARTY: OK, so we were trying to get away from the fluorescent look but maybe because …

TOM: Well, but this is a different type of fluorescent. I’m talking about using a compact fluorescent bulb.

MARTY: I see.

TOM: Not a circular, old-fashioned fluorescent.

MARTY: OK. And those will fit into a regular incandescent fixture.

TOM: Socket. Socket. Correct.

LESLIE: We’re heading out to New Mexico to talk to Vicky who’s got a sump pump question. What’s going on?

VICKY: If our home does not have a basement, do we have to worry about any possible water backup? I’m trying to deal with prevention just to get information.

TOM: Now is your home, Vicky, on a crawlspace or is it on a slab?

VICKY: A slab.

TOM: Well, generally not. I mean it’s always possible that you could get a broken pipe under the floor or something of that nature, but you don’t have to generally worry about water infiltration. I have seen, in rare circumstances, where there was a lot of water that collected along the outside of a home that has a slab floor and because concrete is so absorbent it will suck up the water and sometimes that can drawn water into the house and make the carpet wet or make the wall wet. But generally speaking, if your house is on a slab you don’t have to worry about that.

VICKY: OK. Then maybe this is a related question. I never heard of a sump pump until last year. What kind of houses need a sump pump?

TOM: Well, a sump pump is simply a pump that is usually in the basement or the crawlspace that helps take water out that collects in that space. But since your home is slab on grade, you really have no need for one.

VICKY: So you folks have been very helpful.

LESLIE: Yee-ha! Going over to Texas to talk with Brian about a fireplace. What’s going on?

BRIAN: Hey, I’ve moved into a 25-year-old home and on this fireplace it looks like it’s straight out of the Brady Bunch.

LESLIE: (chuckling) OK.

BRIAN: (chuckling) It’s got stone from the floor to the ceiling and the stone is very nice but it’s got this black mortar that makes it just look kind of dated. And so what I’m wondering is how can I change the color of this mortar to make it something a little bit more friendly?

TOM: Hmm. Sounds to me like a job for some very strategic painting. (Leslie growls) Because, you know, getting light mortar to be darker is something that can be stained.

LESLIE: That’s something that can be done.

TOM: That can be stained. There are mortar stains that will do that. But to try to take a dark mortar and make it light …

LESLIE: Would you have to use some sort of heat-resistant paint?

TOM: Probably not because there’s not that much – the outside surface of the fireplace doesn’t get quite that hot.

BRIAN: OK, so I wouldn’t have to use a heat-resistant paint, necessarily?

TOM: I don’t think so.

BRIAN: I could just paint over this mortar?

TOM: I think you could paint over the mortar, yeah.

BRIAN: Oh well, that’d be great.

LESLIE: I mean is it worth it to saw out the mortar …

TOM: No.

LESLIE: … or does that make a fine (ph) disaster?

TOM: No, no, no. That would be a disastrous job. That would be so much work it wouldn’t be worth it. I would try to paint it.

BRIAN: OK, so I’d just go with like a flat interior paint?

TOM: Yep, exactly.

BRIAN: Alright, great.

LESLIE: Talking to Carl in New Jersey about radiant heat. Tell us your question.

CARL: Yeah, I have a problem. I have a 108-year-old house and, basically, we’re trying to redo the outside. It has no subflooring, so it just has the tongue-and-groove right on the floor joists and there was a porch that came off of it and we put some subflooring to kind of match and there’s no way for me to get any heat in that area. I was going to do baseboard heat but I like the radiant heat.

TOM: In the porch area?

CARL: In the whole house area because I’m …

TOM: Whole house. OK.

CARL: Yeah, the house is old and we’ve looked at doing this floor and to redo it with 108-year-old there’s some boards that have to be replaced that I want to put in.

TOM: Right.

CARL: My question is this: can I put ¾-inch board on top of another ¾-inch and have the radiant heat underneath?

TOM: Yes, you can.

LESLIE: Does it depend on the manufacturer type of radiant heat where they go? Because I know some are made to go …

TOM: Well, you’re probably going to use a PEX system, which is cross-linked polyethylene piping, and part of that system is designed to basically go – sort of be inserted into a subfloor. The only downside of this is that you’re going to be raising the height of the floor across the whole house by that three-quarters of an inch that it would take to contain the PEX.

CARL: I have a nine-foot ceiling.

TOM: Ah, so you have plenty of room to go up. Yeah.

LESLIE: (overlapping voices) Oh, then you’ve got the space.

CARL: Yeah, there I do but my dilemma is the porch that I had that was concrete slab and then we put – you know, it was a step-down. We built it up and it was only maybe four inches. How do I get heat there? The only way I can think about to not raise the floor any higher is putting electric but then I need a floating floor.

TOM: Well, why don’t you combine radiant heat with some baseboard units in the places that you can’t get the radiant heat to go? They could all run off the same boiler.

CARL: Yeah, but do you think that with the not having a subfloor the ¾-inch tongue-and-groove on top of another ¾-inch tongue-and-groove will produce enough radiant?

TOM: Well, it’s not the depth of the wood that’s the issue, OK? If you have the hydronic heating pipes inserted into that upper subfloor you’re going to get plenty of heat and you will be quite comfortable; especially your feet.

CARL: Well, thank you.

TOM: Alright?

CARL: Thank you very much. I appreciate …

TOM: You’re welcome. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.

LESLIE: You are tuned to the Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show.

Coming up, are you thinking about buying a second home? Well, if you are we’re going to give you some house rules to follow, so stick around.

[audio timestamp: 0:17:40.2]

(theme song)

ANNOUNCER: This portion of The Money Pit is brought to you by Aprilaire, makers of professionally-installed, high-efficiency air cleaners. For more information go to Aprilaire.com. Now, here are Tom and Leslie.

TOM: Home improvement tip number 42, Leslie.

LESLIE: OK.

TOM: Before taking out a wall make sure it’s not holding up part of your house.

LESLIE: Or all of the house.

TOM: (chuckling) This is The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show. I’m Tom Kraeutler.

LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.

Hey, are you thinking about buying a second home? Well, if you are, with the market the way it is it truly could be a major smart investment. Lots of homes on the market; lots of low prices. You could really get a good bargain out there. But a second home, don’t just buy it willy-nilly. It should actually fit your lifestyle. And if you’re going to be renting it out a lot, you want to make sure you know all of those maintenance details that are going to be involved with it and if you’re thinking about your second home as a vacation house, spend time in that area. Actually pick a place that you like to go to. This way you know you won’t be giving away your second home or your second thoughts.

TOM: And once you find that brand, spanking new second house that you’ve got to have, well, you’ve got to figure out how to pay for it and we’re going to help you do that in the next edition of the free Money Pit e-newsletter available right now at MoneyPit.com. Just sign up. It’s free and we will never give away or rent your e-mail address.

Leslie, who’s next?

LESLIE: Time for grout talk with Chris in Rhode Island. What can we do for you?

CHRIS: Oh yeah, hi. I have a big grout problem. My husband and I had grouted a backsplash and it came out wonderful. We didn’t buy the premixed grout. We mixed it ourselves. Then we did the floor. So we put the tile down; we did the grout, which was brown, and we woke up the next morning and there was this huge – it was full of white powder all over the tile and the grout, which actually should be brown, is white.

TOM: OK.

CHRIS: Now, do you know why that happened?

TOM: Well, obviously you chose a white grout and the powder over the grout is pretty much normal …

LESLIE: Well, over the tile that’s clouding and that’s just – you know, it just needs to be …

CHRIS: It’s like a powder you actually can wipe your finger in.

LESLIE: Right.

TOM: Right, but that’s – when you grout tile that’s what happens. You get like a haze and the last step is that you buff it off after it dries.

CHRIS: OK, but we did that and we even bought products that are supposed to take this haze off and it didn’t. But actually the grout we bought was brown and it’s white.

LESLIE: Hmm. And you’re sure that it just wasn’t mismarked on the packaging?

CHRIS: No, it wasn’t and even when we put it down it was brown and as we tried to wipe the haze off – when it was wet it was nice and brown and as soon as it dries …

TOM: Well, it sounds like it dried lighter than what you expected.

CHRIS: You think that’s what it was then?

TOM: Yeah, I think so.

CHRIS: OK.

TOM: That’s all. It just dried lighter than expected. Listen, if you’re still unhappy with the grout color you can dye it and darken it up.

CHRIS: (overlapping voices) OK. OK.

TOM: But you know, you might just want to live with it for a while. But the haze is a normal part of the grouting process.

CHRIS: OK. Alright, well I thank you.

TOM: You’re very welcome. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.

LESLIE: Time to talk flooring with Greg. What can we do for you?

GREG: Hi, I have a situation where I’m going to replace the carpet in my living room …

TOM: OK.

GREG: … and I want to put a wood floor down and I’m looking at the carbonized bamboo that’s five-eights thick by about three-and-a-half inches wide.

TOM: What’s the subfloor?

GREG: And right now, even though I live in the northeast, New England area, I have a slab or concrete slab floor – no basement –

TOM: OK.

GREG: – and then a half-inch piece of plywood on top of that and then, of course, the carpet, which will come up. And I wanted to know if I could – you know, can fasten this wood floor to the half-inch plywood or do I need a thicker subfloor?

TOM: Well, first of all, if you’re putting down any type of solid floor – I know this is bamboo so it’s not quite as susceptible to twisting as other types of solid hardwoods, but you better make darn sure that the manufacturer rates this for use over a concrete slab.

LESLIE: Now I know Armstrong makes a bamboo flooring that’s similar to like an engineered hardwood. It’s constructed in the same way where it’s, you know, cross-ply-based technology with the bamboo on top so it’s perfectly made for on slab.

TOM: Yeah, if it’s an engineered hardwood floor then you’re OK on a slab. If it’s solid, generally you cannot put it on a slab.

GREG: OK, so if it’s a – meaning if it’s a solid wood …

TOM: Right.

GREG: … then you don’t recommend that.

TOM: No, because there’s too much moisture in the slab and it will warp and twist. But if it’s an engineered hardwood, which is made sort of like plywood but out of better wood –

GREG: Right.

TOM: – and it looks like solid when you’re done – that’s OK for a concrete floor.

LESLIE: And I know that the one for a concrete slab and I know the one that Armstrong makes is like a locking, snap-together technology that doesn’t need to be fastened down.

GREG: Right, so it …

LESLIE: It like sort of floats over your subfloor.

GREG: Like a floating floor?

LESLIE: Exactly.

TOM: You would have a difficult time putting a traditional hardwood floor over if all you had to nail it into was a ½-inch worth of plywood. There’s just not enough meat there to really secure it properly. So you probably want to look at an engineered floor with a lock-together technology that will essentially float on top of that.

GREG: Well, very good. Thank you.

TOM: You’re welcome, Greg. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.

LESLIE: You are tuned to the Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show and spring may be home improvement season but it’s also your once-a-year chance to see a pesky pest that’s literally capable of eating you out of house and home. It’s termite swarm season and this is pretty much the only time of year you might actually catch a glimpse of these wood-destroying insects. Up next, we’re going to tell you how to keep your house off the menu.

[audio timestamp: 0:23:31.5]

(theme song)

ANNOUNCER: This portion of The Money Pit is brought to you by Ryobi, manufacturer of professional-feature power tools and accessories with an affordable price for the do-it-yourselfer. Ryobi Power Tools. Pro features. Affordable price. Available exclusively at The Home Depot. Now, here are Tom and Leslie.

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

LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete and the number here is 1-888-MONEY-PIT. Give us a call; ask us your home improvement or your home repair question on the air and you might be the lucky winner of our weekly prize. And this hour it’s the Yankee Flipper squirrel-proof birdfeeder and a whole lot of Scotts songbird-blend birdseed that is going to stock up that birdfeeder for a long, long while. Your yard is going to be bird heaven and you will be able to enjoy those lovely feathered friends every time they stop by and visit. The total package is worth 175 bucks but could be yours for free, so give us a call at 1-888-MONEY-PIT right now.

TOM: Now some wildlife is nice to have around, like birds; but some, not so much. Speaking of that, let’s talk about termites. The sneakiest thing about these little buggers is that they live underground and it’s often very, very hard to tell if you’ve got an infestation in your house. Now is the time, though, that you could possibly see termites swarming and I remember I was doing an inspection of a home in the spring and I had come around to the back of the house and I found the back stoop completely covered with a termite swarm. It looked like a black carpet; there were so many of them.

LESLIE: Really? So they’re on the wood; not in the air?

TOM: They were on the wood; they were on the stoop; they were on the siding of the house. And the scariest thing was, as I came back like an hour later, not a single one was left behind.

LESLIE: Now I thought you were going to say, “I remember when you first bought your house and called me up and said, ‘What are these little teardrop-shaped wings?’” (chuckles)

TOM: Well, you know, one time I did find them in my own house. The audacity of the termites to infest the home of a home improvement expert. I came down one morning and went to make the coffee and I thought, “Aw geez, the coffee spilled all over the counter.” (Leslie gasps) And then I flipped the lights on. It wasn’t coffee. (chuckles)

LESLIE: Really?

TOM: It was a swarm. Yeah. Exactly. They attacked our old house. So we took care of it and that’s what we want to teach you how to do as well. It’s important that you try to keep your home off the menu, so a couple of things that you should do.

First of all, remember that termites love moisture and they love wood that’s collecting out near the foundation perimeter. So if you have something like firewood, you want to keep it away from the house. If you have drainage problems, gutters that are blocked, soil that’s sloping into the wall, try to redirect that to keep the soil as dry as possible. And if you do get termite infestation, the best way to treat it is with an undetectable termidicide. That’s exactly what we did. We had this product called Termidor applied to the foundation perimeter and the termites don’t know it’s there so they can kind of sort of crawl through it and crawl into their nests and they take it with them and then they spread it to all of the other little termite friends that they have and that wipes out the total nest. So, now is the time that you’ll see them and if you do, you’ve got to be careful because they really can eat you out of house and home.

LESLIE: Really do take care of it. And also, folks, if you’ve got any wood or cardboard that you’re storing in your basement, make sure it is not on the floor directly and definitely do not keep it in your crawlspace. If you do all of that you will have a termite-free home.

TOM: 888-666-3974. Call us right now with your home improvement question.

Leslie, who’s next?

LESLIE: Now we’re going to talk to Helen who has a painting question. What can we do for you today?

HELEN: I have a question about movable shutters.

TOM: OK.

HELEN: Needs repainting. And the painter seems quite reluctant to do it because he claims that they won’t be moving; they won’t be movable after they’re painted.

TOM: Well, that’s not true. If they’re painted correctly they would be and if they are movable shutters they’re hinged shutters. You know what the most important part of that shutter is to paint? The backside because that’s where it’s going to rot and if you ignore painting the backside they’ll start to rot from the back forward and they’re not going to be movable very much longer after that.

LESLIE: And you would want to remove them from the home for painting in the first place, correct?

TOM: Or certainly, if they’re on hinges …

LESLIE: Open them out.

TOM: … open them out – that’s right – so you can paint the back and the front. That’s silly. I mean you definitely can paint the shutters if they’re done correctly. It sounds like you’ve got a painter here that just doesn’t want to do the job. (Leslie chuckles)

HELEN: Ah-ha. They’re indoor shutters; not outdoor.

TOM: Oh, indoor shutters?

HELEN: Yes.

TOM: What are they shuttering if they’re indoor shutters?

HELEN: Windows.

LESLIE: They’re like decorative like plantation shutters.

TOM: Oh, you mean decorative shutters?

HELEN: Yes.

TOM: OK. Well, OK. You still can paint them. I don’t see why not. I’ll tell you what. If he’s concerned about it he could take the hinges off and then put them all back on.

HELEN: Would spraying be a better idea?

TOM: No, not necessarily. I mean either way is fine. But they certainly can be painted.

LESLIE: I mean are they plastic or are they wood?

HELEN: Wood.

LESLIE: Then there should be no issues.

TOM: I see no reason you can’t do that, Helen.

HELEN: Thank you so much.

TOM: You’re welcome. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.

She’s got a painter that just doesn’t want to do the job.

This is The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show. Up next, let’s talk about the changes that you can make in your bathroom; subtle ones; easy ones; simple ones that can make a big visual difference.

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ANNOUNCER: The Money Pit is being brought to you by Guardian Home Standby Generators, America’s choice in power outage protection. Learn more at GuardianGenerators.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 Tom and I want to remind you that you can download the Money Pit podcast for free at MoneyPit.com. We’d like to give the information away to you folks and you can download every episode of The Money Pit, all of the content; even if you want to search by subject and just download that section, it’s all available for you. Just go to MoneyPit.com and click on Listen today. And while you are at that fantastic, super-informative website – MoneyPit.com – you can click on that little icon that says Ask Tom and Leslie and shoot us an e-mail question. I’ve got one standing by here from Joyce in Oak Ridge, New Jersey who writes: “We would like to change the color of our bathroom vanity. It’s oak and we would like to make it a lighter color. Do we have to sand it first or is there an easier way?

TOM and LESLIE: Hmm.

LESLIE: I’m wondering. It depends, really, on …

TOM: The material, right?

LESLIE: Well, yeah. It is truly oak; is it solid; is it a veneer; is it oak over, you know, some sort of particleboard? You really have to sort of examine it because it depends on what it is, the way you would go about it. If it’s solid wood I would say sand it. If it’s got flat surfaces, sanding is probably a lot easier than stripping.

TOM: It’s very difficult to take premanufactured cabinets that are stained dark and make them light. It’s very hard to get the stain out of the wood because especially oak is a very, very porous surface. So …

LESLIE: Mm-hmm, big grain on it.

TOM: … you may want to consider a different type of finish here; some sort of painting finish or sponge finish or something of that nature because it’s very difficult to make the wood lighter [if it is in fact stains dark] (ph).

LESLIE: Mm-hmm, and you know what? If you really have your heart set on making it lighter I say find an area maybe on the backside of a door or somewhere on the side rail of a drawer that’s the same finish as the exterior; try a chemical stripper; try sanding really to see what gets that finish off as best you can. I love Rock Miracle. I think it’s a fantastic chemical stripper. It goes on nicely; you can really see it working. If it’s got a lot of flat surfaces and you can just sand it away it does make it a heck of a lot easier and then go ahead and put the new stain on it. But you might want to consider painting it. You can go light right away with that or even, using the existing stain, putting a crackle finish on top of that and then a coat of paint that’s a light color so you get this sort of age-y technique. There’s a lot of things you can do.

TOM: Alright, Joyce. Hope that helps you out.

We’ve got an energy-efficiency question here from Gloria in Hillsboro, North Carolina who says: “I need to put a floor in my attic. What do I need to know and how do I start?”

Good question. The answer depends on how your attic is framed. First of all, if your attic is framed with trusses you cannot put a floor on it because trusses are not designed to be a flooring surface. A truss is when you have a lot of cross members. It’s sort of a – it’s a manufactured structural member as opposed to a stick-built home that just has rafters and floor joists. If you have rafters and floor joists you most certainly can put a floor on it.

LESLIE: But you don’t want to put a floor on the entire space because what about your insulation and ventilation?

TOM: Well, good point because most of the time you want to have more insulation than the depth of the floor joist. So what we would recommend, Joyce, is to sort of carve out or reserve an area right around the attic staircase or the attic entrance and put a floor over that particular area and then the area outside of that, double your insulation. So if you have, say, a 2x8 ceiling joist you can put eight inches of insulation in that space and then outside, where the flooring might be, you could put 16 inches or 24 inches and have a really well-insulated house but you’re just saving just the amount of space that you need for the actual storage.

LESLIE: And you know what? Remember, Gloria, that you don’t want to overfill this area of flooring that you’re going to create for storage because if you weigh it down too much you’re going to start compressing the insulation that’s underneath it and then that’s not going to work at all either. So really, think about what you’ve got, plan accordingly and then go ahead and store away.

TOM: You are tuned to the Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show. Thank you so much for spending this hour with us. The show continues online at MoneyPit.com. You can also pick up the phone and reach us 24/7 at 888-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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(Copyright 2008 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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