Transcripts

Transcript For February 16, 2008, Hour 2

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 2 TEXT:

(promo/theme song)

[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: Call us now with your home improvement question. The number is 1-888-MONEY-PIT. This is the show where we discuss the four elements of any remodel: earth, air, fire and credit. (Leslie chuckles) How you gonna pay for it? Call us right now. We’ll help you figure out economic ways to get your home improvement projects done.

We’ve got a busy show planned. Up first, is dust collecting in your home at an alarming rate? It is at my house, for sure. (Leslie chuckles) Well, if you’re dusting almost daily and still see it coming in and coming in and coming is, there is help. We’re going to have a checklist to help you track down the sources of the dust that’s getting into your house and, more importantly, getting into the air that you are breathing and causing respiratory issues.

LESLIE: And also ahead this hour, are you in the market for a new garage door opener? Well, if you’re still opening that door by hand you should be. We’re going to tell you about what type of garage door opener is best for you and your home. Do you need a little extra power? Are you looking for some super-quiet operation? We’re going to go through all of those options, because there are quite a few, a little later on.

TOM: Also ahead, how many smart homeowners does it take to change a light bulb? Well, just one if it’s you. We’re going to give you some tips on energy efficient light bulbs that can really add up to some big savings in your house.

LESLIE: And also this hour we’re giving away two pairs of safety glasses today that fit right over your prescription glasses or even your reading glasses. They’re worth 70 bucks. They’re super safe. They could be yours for free. All you’ve got to do is ask your question on the air.

TOM: So call us right now at 1-888-MONEY-PIT. 888-666-3974.

Leslie, who’s first?

LESLIE: Jerry in Oregon, you’ve got the Money Pit. What can we do for you today?

JERRY: I have a problem with my lint from the dryer. Well I have a pipe that’s going underneath the unfinished basement for about 15 feet and seems to me every three months I have to take the pipe off and clean the lint because it clogs up. There must be a better way to fix this problem.

TOM: Is the lint pipe a flexible hose or is it a solid …

JERRY: No, it’s a solid pipe going to the outside.

TOM: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

JERRY: It’s an unfinished basement so the dryer is on the first floor. So I want to – eventually I’d like to finish the basement but I can’t do that because every time I’ve got to take the pipe off.

TOM: Well, there’s a tool that actually you can use to clean the dryer duct out.

LESLIE: Mm-hmm. And you would actually do it from the exterior of your home where that dryer duct vents to the outside. It’s something called the Gardus LintEater and it’s basically a series of semi-rigid flexible piping that connect to sort of a bristle brush the same diameter as the dryer vents.

TOM: Yeah, it’s like a fiberglass rod with bristle brushes at the end. You stick it on your drill and you can rotate it in and out of that pipe from the outside. Leslie and I have …

LESLIE: And you will pull out so much gunk. It’s awesome.

TOM: Yeah, Leslie and I have both used this tool and pulled out wads of lint balls from those ducts. (Leslie chuckles) So it works pretty well. It’s not too expensive, either. You should be able to …

LESLIE: And this way you can finish your basement and not have to worry about physically taking that pipe off.

JERRY: (INAUDIBLE)

TOM: Yeah, I think their website is LintEater.com.

LESLIE: Mm-hmm.

JERRY: LintEater.com.

TOM: Alright, Jerry?

JERRY: Outstanding. Thank you.

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

LESLIE: Talking countertops with Cathy in New Jersey. Tell us about what’s going on with yours.

CATHY: Yes, hi. My countertop is lifting in a section – there’s Formica. Just like a little section and my husband tried to stick some glue in there and clamp it and hold it overnight but when he took the clamps off it just lifted back up.

TOM: What kind of glue did he use?

CATHY: A cement glue, I think.

LESLIE: Was it a contact cement?

CATHY: I’m not sure.

LESLIE: Because generally what you want to do, if it’s just the Formica or the laminate peeling up off of the subcounter or the particleboard – whatever it’s covering – what you can do is if you can get a brush or a roller underneath there you want to lift up the piece of laminate that’s sort of lifting up so that you can get in there. You want to put contact cement on both sides; on the subcounter and underneath the laminate itself. Then you need to let it sort of air dry just the tiniest bit so it’s tacky.

CATHY: OK.

LESLIE: So you’re going to be holding it up for a little while.

CATHY: OK.

LESLIE: You want it to be tacky then you put those pieces together and then clamp it and leave it be. And that should do the trick.

CATHY: Oh, great. Thank you so much.

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 and you’ve got questions; we’ve got answers. So give us a call with your home repair or your home improvement question; even your design questions. You want some help? We can help you through just about every situation 24 hours a day, seven days a week at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.

TOM: 888-666-3974.

Up next, are you constantly chasing dust? Does it seem like you can’t keep up with it? Well, there might be a reason why excess dust is accumulating in your home. We’re going to dust bust next to help you track down the source of your problems.

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(promo/theme song)

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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: 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 with your home improvement question at 1-888-MONEY-PIT. If you do, we’ll give you the answer and an opportunity to win a great prize. We have a pair of safety glasses we’re giving away this hour from Live Eyewear. I like them because they are stylish, they are tinted, you can wear them as sunglasses and you can even wear them on top of your prescription glasses. They’re worth 70 bucks and if you want to win them you’ve got to call us right now at 1-888-MONEY-PIT and ask your question on the air.

LESLIE: Alright and if you’re wearing glasses I bet you’re seeing all of that dust that’s accumulating all around your house. Well, if you’re finding that it’s building up faster than you can keep up with it, we can help you.

Alright, dust; it comes from several sources and it really is terribly hard to get rid of completely. But increased dust could be a sign that it’s time to change a dirty furnace or even an air conditioning filter or perhaps your vacuum cleaner bag. Those are all simple fixes. And dust can also be introduced into your home through air leaks in ducts or even air filtration through leaky doors and windows.

TOM: So how do you get rid of it? Well, to cut down on dust you need to make sure you change or clean your furnace and air conditioning filters once a month or, better yet, consider installing a whole-house electronic air cleaner. The best ones are made by Aprilaire. I have one in my house and it actually made a huge difference in how clean the air was and how much easier it got to breathe around this house. Also, consider leaving your shoes at the door so you don’t track in debris, which can be a big source of dust in your house. And seal the air leaks. This can really help reduce air infiltration that could be a source of dust.

If you want some more info about preventing and locating the sources of dust in your home, visit EPA.gov. The Environmental Protection Agency’s website has a great section on dust prevention.

Leslie, who’s next?

LESLIE: Terry in Iowa, welcome to The Money Pit. What can we help you with today?

TERRY: Well, I have an older home, built back in 1928, and it was moved onto a new foundation. It has a porch attached to the house and I want to knock the wall out to open up my living room. But this wall is a bearing wall and I’m not too sure how to go about it.

TOM: Very carefully, Terry. (Tom and Leslie chuckle)

TERRY: Very carefully, yeah.

TOM: Yeah. Is this the original exterior wall of the home?

TERRY: Yes.

TOM: Well, I can tell you conceptually how it works. I mean, typically, if it’s a bearing wall what you have to do is you have to support what is being held by that wall before it’s cut open. So, I can’t …

LESLIE: I mean would you do it with columns? Would you do it with a lower header in that area to sort of displace that weight and maybe make smaller side walls?

TOM: You’re close. What you typically would do is build a wall, a temporary wall, inside of the wall that you’re dismantling and that temporary wall would take the place of the wall that’s being dismantled. Now, how much of this wall are you taking apart? Are you just talking about putting like a doorway there or you want to like completely open it up?

TERRY: I want to completely open it up. I was thinking about putting a beam up across and, you know, getting maybe 12 foot.

TOM: OK, Terry, you are beyond the scope of do-it-yourself. (Terry chuckles) And you are very close to do-it-to-yourself, OK? (Leslie chuckles) So this is …

TERRY: OK.

LESLIE: Or not it down yourself, right?

TOM: Yeah, yeah. You may end up with a bigger project than you know what to do with here. This is a project that can be done but it’s pretty complicated because you have a lot of support work that has to be done before you can disassemble that. Now …

LESLIE: Is it something that an engineer could perhaps design the solution for and then if you’re a skilled do-it-yourselfer you could handle the construction process?

TOM: It’s still pretty risky. I mean, typically, the way this is going to work is you’re going to construct that temporary wall but you have to be very careful as to what’s underneath that and holding it up and how this wall comes apart.

And then there’s the whole issue of the beam. It does have to be designed; it has to be sized and certainly an architect or an engineer could do that. And then the type of beam that you put in is going to make a difference, too; whether it’s a flush header, which would be the best type; whether it’s a header that’s built that can be sandwiched, which has steel in between wood. This all has to be speced out by an architect or engineer based on how much weight is above that wall.

And so that’s why I say it’s really not a project that you should be doing yourself. Certainly, perhaps in the best-case scenario, you could offer to help the contractor but sometimes they charge you more when you want to help, Terry. (Leslie chuckles)

TERRY: Yeah.

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

LESLIE: Wilson in Virginia has a question about installation. How can we help you today?

WILSON: Yes, I have a walkup attic and as you walk up to it – it was built in 1973 and as you walk up to the top of it there’s a flooring been put down. It’s about 14 feet wide; seven foot on either side of center. And after you get off the flooring there’s just regular blown-in insulation. I’m wondering if I can take that blown-in insulation and push it up under the floor and add new insulation. After listening to your show for a few times I realize that I’m way under-insulated and I need to put some r27 or better up there and I’m just wondering if I can push that stuff up underneath the flooring – not tight but just loose – and put new stuff down or whether I should rip it all out altogether or just lay stuff on top of it altogether.

TOM: First of all, Wilson, are you planning on heating this attic or is this just for storage?

WILSON: This is – when it was originally built it was just for storage and that’s all it’s being used for.

TOM: And that’s what you’re going to continue to use it for.

WILSON: Use it for storage.

TOM: So then we can that the attic floor is what should be insulated.

LESLIE: Mm-hmm.

TOM: In other words, you’re not going to be using this space above the attic floor except for unheated storage.

WILSON: Right. There will be nothing upstairs that I have to worry about.

TOM: OK. Well, with that being said, how do you know that there’s no insulation under the floor section that’s there right now?

WILSON: Well there is but it’s that blown-in insulation.

TOM: OK.

WILSON: And it has settled down to about three inches on the outside of the floor so I figured it must be settled down two or three inches on the inside; you know, up underneath it. So I didn’t know whether I’d be safe to push up what was there up underneath it just to give it …

TOM: I think that you could do some of this. If you could actually reach back in there you probably could very carefully but remember, you’ve got wires in there and other things like that. You could cause some damage. I would be more concerned in getting insulation in the areas that were more accessible; like kind of – my theory is here let’s get as much insulation as we possibly can in the areas that it’s practical to do that.

LESLIE: So not try to take like a fiberglass bat and slide it underneath?

TOM: Definitely not a fiberglass bat. He may be able to get the blown-in. Or you could drill some holes in that floor and get some new blown-in and actually blow it in yourself. You can rent those blowers …

WILSON: Right.

TOM: … usually from the home centers or from the rental houses.

WILSON: OK.

TOM: Now as far as the rest of the area is concerned, generally what you want to do is fill up the space between the floor joist to the top of the joist and if you have enough blown-in to do that, fine; and then add a second set of fiberglass bats perpendicular to the floor joist. So if your floor joists are like eight inches and you add like another 10-inch fiberglass bat on top of that, you know, now you’re going to have maybe 18 inches or so. So times three, you’ve got yourself like almost 60r in insulation, which is pretty good.

WILSON: OK, because I was planning on getting some of those pink fiberglass rolls and just rolling it out …

LESLIE: Mm-hmm.

WILSON: … and rolling it that way.

TOM: Right.

WILSON: But I didn’t know what to do with the loose stuff.

TOM: (overlapping voices) Either rolls or the bats. Either the rolls or the bats. Either are fine. Unfaced.

WILSON: Unfaced.

TOM: Unfaced.

LESLIE: Make sure you wear long sleeves and a dust mask and safety glasses.

WILSON: If I want to do – if I want to cover up two-thirds of the floor area also, should I use unfaced?

TOM: Yes.

WILSON: Because there are two-thirds of the area that I’m not even using.

TOM: Yes, unfaced.

WILSON: Unfaced all the way?

TOM: Yep, unfaced. Because if you put a face insulation in there you’re going to trap moisture on the wrong side one way or the other.

WILSON: OK, that’s fantastic. You all helped me out a lot.

TOM: Yep, unfaced. Let it breathe.

LESLIE: Margaret in North Carolina’s dealing with a nasty three-letter word – rot. Tell us about it.

MARGARET: Yes, we have a balcony and the balcony is 14 feet from the ground. The supports are wood and the wood has rotted out; the wooden supports. And so what we’d like to do is the wall itself, the façade of the house, is brick and the wooden supports for the balcony are – go through the – into the wall, into the ceiling below, into the wood braces that are …

TOM: OK.

MARGARET: … on the ceiling. Well, we want to replace that wooden support with a metal floor on the – metal floor for the balcony as well as metal supports; three metal supports that cantilever into those beams in the ceiling below; wood ceiling – wooden beams.

TOM: Right. So you have a balcony that extends out the exterior wall of your house. Are there any supports underneath or is it totally cantilevered off of the outside wall of the house?

MARGARET: Totally cantilevered.

TOM: OK, and if you have a rot problem. You’ve got a serious structural issue. Taking that apart and rebuilding it with steel is probably a good idea. You’re going to end up using steel I beams and you would only need two I beams – one at both ends – and then in between you could have wood floor joists; pressure treated lumber. But the main supports that go through the wall and cantilever back over the exterior wall, they would have to be steel I beams.

This is a big project; not one that you can do yourself; one you definitely need a pro to work with you on. You definitely need a good, qualified contractor and you need to get a building permit because there are a lot of deck collapses because of this very reason; because of those rotted beams that go from the outside of the deck, cantilever over the exterior wall and go back into the house. So, you’ve got a big job on your hands but it sounds to me like you have the right plan.

MARGARET: Thank you very much. I certainly appreciate it.

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

LESLIE: Donald in New York, you’ve got The Money Pit. What can we do for you today?

DONALD: Hi. I have a problem. I spilled approximately a half a gallon of gas – in the red, plastic gas container? –

LESLIE: Mm-hmm.

DONALD: – in the trunk of my car.

TOM: Oh. (chuckling)

LESLIE: Rrrr.

TOM: That’s not good.

LESLIE: I have done the same thing with a rental car in Olathe, Kansas and they charged me a ton of money. But I happen to know a trick that could help it.

DONALD: Excellent.

LESLIE: First off, get some kitty litter; those regular, absorbent, odor-absorbing kitty litter pellets; whatever you find at your local supermarket. Sprinkle it on there. Let it sit on it with the trunk open in a well-ventilated area, you know, and let it really soak up everything that it can and then vacuum it up. If that doesn’t work there’s another product called Odorzout, which is a little bit pricey but it’s made to absorb all kinds of different types of pet odors and, you know, smoke and must and anything like that that sort of gives you a problem. And that’s also a powder and you would sprinkle that onto the trunk area and let that sit; I think it’s for 24 hours it says in the directions. It’s an all-natural product. It’s safe for people and pets so you don’t have to worry about that. And then vacuum it out and between those two it should do the trick, but that is a big, giant mess.

DONALD: I appreciate that. I did try the baking soda and unfortunately it only was able to possibly handle half of the stench.

LESLIE: Mm-hmm. Try the kitty litter next.

TOM: Yeah, whenever you have a petroleum spill, kitty littler is really the hot ticket. It’s great on concrete floors, like in garages; on driveways, if you have an oil leak. It does a really good job of soaking up odors and also the material itself if it’s still wet.

DONALD: I appreciate your advice, Tom and Leslie. I’m a first-time caller and I am a long-time listener and I will remain that way. Thank you.

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

Leslie, do you have a garage?

LESLIE: I do, of course.

TOM: And do you keep your car in it?

LESLIE: No. (Tom and Leslie laugh) Keep a whole lot of stuff. It’s organized but it’s stuff.

TOM: Well, a garage is very handy whether you want to keep your car in it or not and if you’re thinking of getting one or updating your current garage opener so that you can get in and out a lot easier, we’re going to have some advice on the best garage door openers for your needs, coming up.

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(theme song)

ANNOUNCER: The Money Pit is brought to you by Rheem water heaters. For dependable, energy-efficient tank and tankless water heaters you can trust Rheem. Learn more at SmarterHotWater.com. Now, here are Tom and Leslie.

TOM: Making good homes better, welcome back to The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show where the old saying “Hitting the nail on the head” is not just a snappy comment; it’s a way of life. That’s what we do. We help you hit the nail on the head of those home improvement projects and, hopefully, miss your fingers. (Leslie chuckles) I’m Tom Kraeutler.

LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.

I have to tell you, Tom, in all the years of working on home makeover shows, every time I’d be working on my own, hammering; no problem. Hit the nail on the head every single time. Camera walks up, thumb; miss nail; thumb; someone else. (Tom chuckles) I’m like, “Get the camera away because it’s the jinxer.”

Alright, folks. Well if you need some help avoiding your thumb, we’re here for you and we’ve got some great info, including if you’re looking for a project that’s going to make your home safer, more efficient or even better-looking, we’ve got an awesome website for you. It’s MoneyPit.com, of course. And on our site you can look in the project of the week. Every week we’re going to have a new project with advice on everything from wiring to even water saving. You can find it at MoneyPit.com. And if you’re not already a subscriber to our Money Pit e-newsletter, you should because it’s awesome. It comes in to your inbox every Friday. It’s totally free and you get the project of the week automatically in every issue. So sign up now, if you haven’t already, at MoneyPit.com.

TOM: 888-666-3974 is the number to call with your home improvement question.

Hey, is jumping in and out of your car to open the garage door getting to be a bit of a nuisance? It’s probably also hard on your back. So now might be a good time to look into an electric garage door opener or maybe you want to upgrade the one that you have right now. So here’s what you need to know.

There are three basic types. First is the chain drive. These can be pretty noisy and if your garage is connected to your house you’re going to be annoyed by them. But they’re also very powerful, so if you have a really heavy door that’s probably the hot ticket. But there’s also the screw drive. These are the ones that are really good for one-piece doors that tilt open. And finally, the belt drive is the quietest but it’s also the most expensive. So there are different types of drive systems for different types of openers.

LESLIE: Yeah, and also when you’re shopping around, consider looking for an opener that has something called a rolling code technology. This means that when you push the button on your remote control to open your garage, a coded signal is sent to the receiver in your garage and that means that every time you open the garage these rolling codes, they change that signal every single time. So even though your opener is the same and the door is the same, it’s not sending the same code. This way if a burglar’s got the same garage door opener as your garage, they’re not just going to be able to open your garage or any of your neighbors. Yours will be all on its own. It’s a really smart thing to do when you’re looking for a new opener.

TOM: And new technology is really the best reason to replace your old garage door opener because the new ones are just a lot safer. They have the safety reverse mechanisms built in six ways from Sunday and they really are the safe thing to do.

Call us right now with your home improvement question. The number is 1-888-MONEY-PIT.

Leslie, who’s next?

LESLIE: Aaron in Florida has a tiling question. How can we help you with this project?

AARON: Hey, I’ve done a remodel in my kitchen and I’ve got some ceramic tile and we’ve removed some of the cabinets and then reset some of the tile around. But I’ve noticed on some of the other tile that we haven’t removed that, when I knock on it, it has a hollow sound to it.

TOM: Right.

AARON: And I was wondering if I needed to, you know, pull that tile up and then re-cement and then place the tile again.

TOM: Well, it wouldn’t be a bad idea if it’s obviously loose. This is the time to make that repair. Is it your sense that it’ll come up fairly easily?

AARON: No, it seems like it’s really secure down. It’s just that I notice the knocking sound. I mean it’s sort of like a …

TOM: So it’s only the sound? It’s only the sound?

AARON: Yeah, it – right.

TOM: Well, if you don’t see any movement and it sounds hollow it may very well be because a lot of tiles have ridges underneath and don’t completely, solidly connect to the subfloor. So it could sound hollow but still be adhered. If it’s adhered well I wouldn’t mess with it.

AARON: OK. Alright, great. And any suggestions for matching existing tile or doing something if you can’t find a tile that’s going to match exactly?

TOM: A couple of things. This is floor tile, correct?

AARON: That’s correct.

TOM: Well, if you can’t find the exact matching tile, is it possible you could use a tile that has a pattern in it and make it look like it was supposed to be there?

AARON: Yeah, I could do that.

TOM: Lot of times – for example, in bathrooms – when you have to replace a bathtub and you have a tiled wall and you end up tearing up like the bottom couple of layers of tile, we very often will recommend that people put a complimentary color there or one slightly wider and make it look like it was a feature.

LESLIE: To make it look like it’s designed on purpose that way.

TOM: Yeah, exactly.

AARON: OK. Alright.

TOM: Yeah.

AARON: Alright, that’s great. I appreciate it.

TOM: (overlapping voices) If you’re going to mess it up, you want the repair to look so good that people thought it was always supposed to be that way. (chuckling)

LESLIE: (overlapping voices) That it was all planned.

AARON: Yeah, yeah. Well, that’s the trick, isn’t it? (chuckles)

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

LESLIE: More great home improvement advice still ahead on this edition of The Money Pit, including why changing one light bulb could save millions of dollars. Stick around. We’ll be right back.

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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 you should pick up your phones right now and give us a call at 1-888-MONEY-PIT. If we talk to you on the air this hour you could win a great prize. We’re giving the prize of safety. It’s two pairs of safety glasses from our friends over at Live Eyewear and these super-cool glasses – number one, one’s tinted; one’s not – they’re designed specifically to fit over your prescription eyeglasses so that – get this folks – you can actually see what you’re doing and, you know, maybe save a finger or two. (Tom laughs) These Eye Armor glasses, they’re …

TOM: There’s an idea.

LESLIE: Exactly, it’s like “Hmm, start with 10; end with 10.” These Eye Armor glasses, they’re antifog …

TOM: I mean what more could you ask for from a home improvement project. (laughs)

LESLIE: (chuckling) I got the job done. The cabinets look great. I’ve got all my fingers. Awesome. (Tom laughs) So it’s a great prize, folks. We want to keep you safe. Great safety glasses could be yours for free. If you don’t win them they cost 70 bucks so give us a call now at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.

TOM: 888-666-3974.

Get rid of your ancient energy-wasting incandescent light bulbs. If you still have those around the house you really ought to be tossing them. Do you know that if every American replaced just one old light bulb with an Energy Star qualified bulb we would save enough energy to light more than three million homes a year and that adds up to more than $600 million in annual energy savings. It also would prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of more than 800,000 cars. How do I know all this? Well, it’s in the video podcast that I hosted for Energy Star (Leslie chuckles) and I remembered it.

If you would like to see that video podcast, go to EnergyStar.gov and click on the Energy Star at-home video podcast. We walk you through, step-by-step, every room in the house. We give you lots of tips and techniques to save energy and save money and save the environment all at the same time.

LESLIE: Steve in Maryland has a question about built-in cabinetry. What can we do for you?

STEVE: Any special place to go to get some custom-made bookshelves and wall cabinets and things like that?

TOM: That’s a very local question, Steve.

STEVE: OK.

TOM: In the sense that that’s something that involves the craftsmanship and handiwork of a local pro.

STEVE: OK.

TOM: That being said, Leslie and I not too long ago had needs for some very custom cabinetry for a makeover project that we were doing and we actually bought the cabinetry at IKEA …

STEVE: Aha!

TOM: … and then assembled it in our own way. So we were able to find a way to use stock cabinets in a very, very creative way. So sometimes, with cabinetry, you have to kind of think outside the box – no pun intended. In this case, we bought – was it 30-inch base cabinets? – 30-inch wall cabinets …

LESLIE: Yeah.

TOM: … and we used them as base cabinets because we wanted …

LESLIE: Because we needed a certain depth.

STEVE: Oh, OK.

TOM: Yeah, we wanted cabinets that were only 12-inches deep. So we bought wall cabinets and then added feet to them – sort of modified them in the field – and they became the base cabinets for like sort of like a buffet along a wall.

STEVE: Exactly. Right, because usually the base cabinets I think are like 24 inches and the uppers are like 12.

TOM: Right.

STEVE: You’re exactly right.

TOM: Right. Right, but you can buy 30-inch uppers and you can also buy 36-inch uppers. So you can buy upper cabinets but mount them down on the floor level and kind of get that narrow approach.

STEVE: Gotcha. OK, well thank you, guys.

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

LESLIE: Carrie in Indiana’s got a project in the kitchen. What can we help you with?

CARRIE: Hi, I had a question. I live in a manufactured home and my kitchen cabinets, the bottom ones, are all open. There’s nothing divided them. So when I put everything in it’s just flying everywhere. There’s no organization. And I wondered if you have an idea of what I could use to separate that or what I should do.

LESLIE: So when you open the doors to the bottom cabinet there’s – it’s just like one open, long shelf?

CARRIE: Right.

LESLIE: Have you thought – I mean there’s tons of different things available at The Container Store online – ContainerStore.com – and even BedBathandBeyond.com. They’ve got a lot of great kitchen organizers from metal racks that sort of stack upon one another that are perfect for glass heights or a stack of plates. You can also think about little metal drawers that sort of slide out on rollers that can suspend from just underneath the cabinet or maybe below the bottom shelf.

CARRIE: OK.

LESLIE: Little baskets that you can put labels on. There are spice racks that are sort of made to go into drawers but you can get ones that are freestanding. If you’re looking to sort of give yourself some more storage on the backsplash there’s great magnetic strips that you can put knives, spices, little storage bins on. There’s lots of smart stuff if you search the web. You can really find some cute things. And organizational stuff is really fun to shop for.

CARRIE: Alright, thank you.

LESLIE: Dan, welcome to The Money Pit. How can we help you today?

DAN: I’ve got a little problem. I have a front window. I think they call it a bay window. It’s actually five separate windows that have crank handles and then like a lock on the top and a lock on the bottom to keep them airtight. And what’s happened, I broke one of the locks on the bottom. It’s actually – looks like a hook almost and it sits in a piece of plastic. It pivots in a piece of plastic. And the plastic broke so I don’t really have an airtight seal on one of the windows …

TOM: Right.

DAN: … and it doesn’t have any markings on it. I was wondering if there’s someplace I can go online to kind of look for a product like this that I can replace it.

TOM: You’re probably going to be better off going to a local window contractor or someone who does glazing repair because chances are that it’s going to be a specialized product and something they may have in stock …

DAN: Right, right.

TOM: … but something that would be rather difficult for you to find. It’s very difficult to find repair parts for old windows. It’s not something that’s very common. But I find that the glazers – these are folks that replace, for example, thermal pane windows that have failed …

DAN: Right, right.

TOM: … and they don’t want to replace the whole window. Very often they’ve run across this before and have a solution for it or have the actual part in their arsenal of products.

DAN: Oh, great, great.

TOM: And I think you’ll find that’s going to be much more successful.

DAN: Thanks very much. I appreciate your help.

LESLIE: You are tuned to The Money Pit and we help you with all sorts of home improvement dilemmas and debacles including what happens when you’re done with a great project, you’ve got a beautiful new color in your bedroom but what the heck are you going to do with all those dirty brushes, the buckets and the paint trays? Up next, we are going to give you the ABC basics of paint cleanup.

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ANNOUNCER: The Money Pit is being brought to you by – well, by us. Save hundreds a month on groceries, not to mention significant savings on home improvement products and services with your new Money Pit American Homeowners Association membership. And get $50 in Zircon tools if you join in the next 30 minutes. Call now. 866-REAL-HOME. That’s 866-REAL-HOME. Now here are Tom and Leslie.

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

LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.

TOM: And The Money Pit is fully portable. Download our podcast at MoneyPit.com/Listen and Leslie and I can be the voices in your head – as if you needed more voices in your head (Leslie chuckles). You know, some radio shows charge for a podcast. We do not. They are totally free at MoneyPit.com and we’re proud to say it’s the number one ranked home improvement podcast in all of iTunes. So find out what you’re missing. Subscribe today at MoneyPit.com. And while you’re there, click on Ask Tom and Leslie and shoot us an e-mail question.

LESLIE: Alright, we’ve got one here from Ken in Boonton, New Jersey who writes: “Love the show!” I didn’t make up. It’s really written there. (Tom laughs) “I have a question regarding latex paint and a septic system. Is it OK to clean up your latex brushes, et cetera, in a basin that goes out to your septic system field?”

TOM: I see no reason why you can’t do that, Ken. You know, the only time you get into trouble with septic systems, if you have one that’s failing and you happen to dump something in – for example, bleach –

LESLIE: Mm-hmm.

TOM: – that can have an adverse effect. But cleaning up something that’s latex water base like that, I don’t think it will have any effect whatsoever.

LESLIE: Alright, great. We’ve got one from Tom in Baronville, Illinois who writes: “I’m looking for energy efficiency. There are only two in the household and was wondering when we bake potatoes and chicken and use maybe 20 percent of the oven is it efficient heating that much air? Is there a better alternative with a good payback time? Some mentioned a conventional toaster oven but that’s electric and I’ve got a gas oven. What’s better?”

TOM: Well, the smaller oven – the smaller the oven the more efficient it’s going to be because you’re using a lot of kilowatt hours of electricity to heat up that large oven. That being said, I don’t think you’re going to save enough money to warrant the cost of a separate appliance just for your potatoes, unless of course you’re baking them an awful lot of the time.

LESLIE: You know what, Tom? Poke a lot of holes in your potato; put it in the microwave for about four minutes. If it doesn’t come out soft enough then give it another three. They’re awesome and they’re like super-instant baked potatoes. I do it all the time.

TOM: You are tuned in to The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show.

Hey, would you like to give your lighting a little something extra? Good, because Leslie has the lowdown in today’s edition of Leslie's Last Word.

LESLIE: That’s right. When you’re thinking about updating the design style in your home, sure, you could just head to the store and buy a nice lamp with a shade and just stick it right on your desk or your nightstand or your dresser or your sofa table. It’s easy as that. But why not take a little time and give that basic lamp some extra personality and a truly custom look? It’s not that hard at all. You can create instant interest to a plain lampshade and an inexpensive lampshade, I might add.

You can make it look super expensive by attaching decorative ribbon or any sort of trimmings or fringe or even layers of trimming and fringe to the bottom edge of your shade. You can use fabric glue or hot glue; depends on what you’ve got. The hot glue I’d stay away from if you’ve got a shallow shade that’s really close to the light bulb because even though it’s a little bit of heat you don’t want anything to sort of loosen up that glue and there’s a lot of great fabric glues out there. Fabri-Tac is often. Takes off your nail polish but it sticks everything to everything and it really does do the trick.

And if you want, look at different layers of ribbon. Maybe get a super thick one; something a little bit narrow and then a fringe for the bottom and layer them so that it really gets some depth and texture.

And if you’re feeling adventurous, go online and buy all the parts so that you can wire your own side table lamp. It’s simple. It’s a cord; it’s a fixture. It’s very easy to do. And you can turn anything from a vase to any sort of planter to even a statue into your own lamp. I’ve done it before. It’s really easy to do. If you’re feeling adventurous and crafty these are great projects for you.

TOM: Great advice.

This is The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show.

Hey, do you know how wearing vertical stripes can make you look thin? (Leslie chuckles) Well, the same can be done for your room. Painting stripes in your home can actually give it a whole new shape, a whole new size and a whole new style. We’re going to give you those painting techniques next week on the program.

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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