#2350 – Pressure Points: Pressure Washer Buying Tips | Textured Surface Repair

Show Notes

Pressure Washers: Blast away dirt and doubts with tips for buying the right pressure washer.
Textured Surface Repair: Learn how to make hassle-free repairs to textured walls and ceilings.
Water Filters: Find out why water filters are a healthy and low-cost alternative to bottled water.

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Show Notes
Podcast Transcript

Plus, answers to your home improvement questions about:

Driveway Drainage: Susan’s asphalt driveway was resurfaced but wasn’t pitched properly. She’ll need to install a curtain drain to keep water from collecting and backing up into the house.
Staining a Fence: Mark gets advice about the best methods and materials for staining a cedar wood fence at his condo association.
Radiant Heated Floor: Can you install a radiant heated floor yourself, will it increase electrical costs, and what materials should you use? We’ve got answers for all of Jeanette’s questions.
Tree Stumps and Roots: Bruce is worried about the stumps and roots from trees that were removed near his home. They shouldn’t impact his foundation but he gets tips on how to remove the stumps.
Wallpaper: Wallpaper is tough to remove, but Lisa gets info on tools she can use to make the process a bit easier.
Glass Block Windows: Mario gets suggestions on how to secure a new glass block window when mortar won’t adhere to the existing metal frame.
Terrazzo Floor Repair: Moisture is coming up through a crack in the terrazzo floor. Judith should check the drainage around the house and seal the crack with silicone.
Electrical Socket Failure: The ceiling fan and light work, but not the wall sockets. Joseph should check the light switches first, then call an electrician to inspect the wiring.

Do you have a home improvement or decor question? Call the show 24/7 at 888-MONEY-PIT (888-666-3974) or post your question here.

Podcast Transcript

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0:00:32	TOM: Coast to coast and floorboards to shingles. This is the Money Pit Home Improvement show. I’m Tom Kraeutler.
0:00:37	LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.
0:00:39	TOM: We are here to help you take on projects you want to get done around your house. This is our favorite time of the year for projects because it’s fall. It’s so pleasant outside, it’s pleasant inside. You can get pretty much anything done in or out of your house. And if you’ve got something in mind to take on, but maybe you don’t know how to get started, you’ve got a problem you need to solve. You don’t know what to do about that. Maybe you’re stuck in the middle. Maybe you’ve got a decor dilemma and you don’t know what color to choose or what goes with what. Well, we’ve got answers and we’re here to help you get those jobs done. Reach out to us with your questions. Two ways to do that for the fastest response, go to moneypit.com/ask. That’s moneypit.com/ask and click the blue microphone button. Or you can call us at 1-888-Money-Pit. Coming up today, it’s the time of year when you’ll take on that last round of outdoor cleanings and a pressure washer can make short work of that project. We’re going to share some advice on what you need to know when buying one.
0:01:33	LESLIE: And texture walls and ceilings are popular, but if you have to make a repair to that surface, restoring the original texture is a big hassle. Now there’s a quick fix that can restore that surface in minutes. We’ll share details just ahead.
0:01:46	TOM: And if you’re ready for a healthy alternative to the cost and the waste of bottled water, we’re going to give you water filters that can be installed in your home’s plumbing system to deliver great tasting water at a tiny fraction of the cost of buying bottled.
0:01:59	LESLIE: But first, don’t you just hate it when you’re smack dab in the middle of a project and you get stuck? Well, that’s when you call us, because getting you unstuck, that’s what we do. We’re like virtual WD 40 guys. It doesn’t matter what that question is. We are good for 1001 uses.
0:02:16	TOM: And if you reach out with your questions, you’ll get an answer. Plus a chance at winning a very cool countertop or vanity makeover kit from Dish Coatings that allows you to roll on a new marble surface. Yes, we said Marble in a single weekend. It retails for 169 bucks. But going out to one listener, John, at random. So reach out to us right now with those questions that money becomes flesh ask or call us at 1-888-Money-Pit. Let’s get to it. Leslie, who’s first?
0:02:41	LESLIE: Susan in Montana is having some drainage issues with the driveway. Tell us what’s going on.
0:02:45	CALLER: I had my office driveway resurfaced with our fault, and I thought that the people didn’t really excellent job until we got them on the rain and all the water was pointing. And I had I had to leave to go down the Colorado and I got a frantic phone call from my husband telling me that the water was backing up into the house and it was like a big pool. And I called the asphalt people and they’re not responding to me.
0:03:17	TOM: Well, listen, if they just resurface the driveway, they’re not going to do anything to change the pitch.
0:03:21	CALLER: That’s true. They did do it, but they deliberately supposedly they had the pitch. So that it would drain off into the lawn.
0:03:29	TOM: And they didn’t quite get that right. So how do you fix that? Yeah, if the water is draining down the driveway back towards the building and they’re just never really draining off to the lawn anywhere, then what you have to do is you have to put a curtain drain in the driveway itself and in a driveway, basically it’s a job where the driveway is essentially sliced in half. They only say slice out a chunk of driveway that’s maybe six inches wide and you drop this trough into it so that as the water falls down the driveway, it drops into the trough, has a great on top, and then it runs out the bottom of the trough and of course, that requires some additional plumbing, so to speak, because you have to hook it up to drain pipe to take it to the lowest place on the property to get rid of the water. But that’s how you drain a driveway. That’s, you know, not pitched properly. And typically that’s put like right near the house or right near the garage lap or something like that, so that it catches the water, you know, at the lowest possible spot.
0:04:26	CALLER: So who would I call for something like that? A plumber.
0:04:29	TOM: You’re going to need a general contractor that can install that for you. I mean, a driveway sealing company is not going to do it. A general contractor that could do that, you know, it’s kind of a handyman project. It’s not a difficult project. It’s not a really time-consuming project. But you essentially have to cut in that driveway and install a drain. You’ve got to catch that water, you’ve got to manage it. And that’s the only way to do it. Susan, thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit.
0:04:52	LESLIE: We’ve got Mark on the line now is calling from Illinois. About a question for sustaining fences. And Tom has done a lot of this this summer and that’s just. So what’s going on Mark?
0:05:03	TOM: My pet projects. Hey, Mark, how can we help?
0:05:05	CALLER: I’m on a condo association and we have a few fences or two stain or paint that we just replaced a year or two ago. So the word has just been sort of weathering all this time. And I was curious what the best way to approach this is.
0:05:23	TOM: So what’s the fence made out of Mark? Is it pressure lumber? Is it cedar or what is it?
0:05:28	CALLER: I think it’s cedar.
0:05:30	TOM: So the first thing you want to do when you’ve had a fence, that’s and by the way, you’re doing the right thing, letting it air dry like that for a cut for, you know, in your case about a year, I want a different direction for it for a different reason. But in your case, I think that was a good thing to do. But the thing is now it’s up there. You’re going to have to clean it first because it will have picked up dirt from the air. It may pick up a little moss or mildew or algae. So you’re going to want to use a cleaner and brightener on it. And if you purchase if you decide what stain brand you want to pick up, you can probably stay within the same family. So, for example, I used Olympic on a big fence project. I did 72 sections of fencing. So it’s a big project and I use the Olympic solid color. It’s Olympic maximum, that’s the brand. And I used it because I actually had used this product about got to be got to be 10 to 20 years ago. And I found the candidates in my basement with all my paint, you know, ready sitting there, ready for touch ups. And I wanted to figure out what to use on my on another fence. And it was the same one. And I’m like, okay, this had a good result with, you know, I had ten plus years of life out of this finish. I’m going to use that. So that’s how I got to the Olympic maximum. And I use solid color on fences always because they last longer. If you use something semi-transparent, you have less pigment that’s in it. So I use solid color stain and I clean the sections first. So we make sure you use a cleaner or brightener and then let that dry and then you can apply the solid color you’re going to need about two coats. And depending on the configuration of the fence, you can either spray it that’s got a lot of nooks and crannies or you can brush it and roll it. But typically it’s very hard to brush and roll a fence because it’s hard to get to all the different spots you want to get to. So that’s how I would approach it. I would use solid color. I’d make sure I clean it first and I’d probably spray it.
0:07:20	CALLER: One hard question about that. So some people don’t like that both sides of the fence are painted. Have you ever left one side like the inside, like where someone might see it coming out onto their patio?
0:07:33	TOM: You want to protect the wood on both sides. You want to protect all the open edges. So I would not I would make sure I got all of this, all the surfaces cleaned. Otherwise the fence not going to last that long. So you’re saying they want it just to be natural? They don’t want to be. I don’t know what color you’re thinking of. White?
0:07:49	CALLER: Yeah. So inside where the patio would be, some people have asked that that not be painted just because they like the natural look with the outside. We painted white on the street side. If you will.
0:08:02	TOM: I was going to say you could use a different color stain on the inside, but it’s going to be difficult for you to match up. Seeing on one side is darker and stain on the inside. On the inside, it’s a different color. I mean, it’s up to you. I mean, I guess you probably could, but you may have some bleed through. It will definitely be a more complicated job. You could spray the inside like a natural cedar color, for example, which is kind of the color that it becomes when it ages. So you could use a different color on the inside, the second color on the outside. But I definitely feel like you should be treating the fence with the stain and the was just not going to last because the stains have U.V. agents in them to keep it from cracking and checking when it’s exposed to the sun. So it kind of protects the wood.
0:08:39	CALLER: Gotcha. Thank you very much.
0:08:42	LESLIE: Hey there. We’ll be enjoying this episode of our podcast. If you are. You know, what would totally make our day is if you leave us a five star review on Apple Podcasts.
0:08:50	TOM: Absolutely. Just go to moneypit.com/review and let the world know how much you enjoy our home improvement tips and tricks. And you might even win a copy of our book. Hey, if you’re thinking about taking out a project to improve the counters or countertops or vanities in your houses, a new product out from our friends at Daich Coatings. It’s called the Marble Dream Resurfacing Kit, and it lets you create real marble vein surfaces in a few steps with no special skills needed. You can create pretty much a tough, resilient marble surface with distinct defined veins, or one with soft swirling veins. You decide, Just roll on your colorful new marble dream finish. It’s available for 169 bucks at daichcoatings.com. But we have one kit going out to one listener drawn at random from those who contact us with a home improvement question. So make that you go to moneypit.com/ask or call us now at 1-888-Money-Pit.
0:09:46	LESLIE: Jeanette in Colorado is on the line and need some help with a reading and heating question. What can we do for you?
0:09:51	CALLER: I would like to know if it would be good to do the ready it for ourself or to have someone else do it. Is it going to increase my electric bills? Quite a bit? And if it is something I could do, what materials would be best to do? Wow.
0:10:05	TOM: Lots of questions. Yeah.
0:10:06	LESLIE: We only had one question lady.
0:10:10	TOM: All right, so the bathroom is the only room in the house that you want to have a warm floor.
0:10:15	CALLER: Well, for starters, we would like to do it in the kitchen. Also. But with that would start with the small project as the bathroom.
0:10:23	TOM: And what kind of a house do you have? Is it a ranch? Colonial? What are we talking about?
0:10:28	CALLER: No, it’s more of a ranch. It has you know, the bottom is not sitting completely on the ground because it’s lots of rocks and stuff in the mountains there. So there does have crawl spaces underneath. It does, yes. It does have cross spaces where you usually have pumps in there to help anything that might cause that. So you can crawl under the house. But it’s not very much room.
0:10:49	TOM: Okay. And how is it heated? Is it hot water or hot air system?
0:10:52	CALLER: Hot air. But we mostly use pellet stove.
0:10:54	TOM: So it sounds to me like you’re going to be limited to an electric radiant heating system. There are different types of heating, underlayment, so to speak, that you would put on a bathroom floor and you would tile on top of Now. Is it expensive? Yes, it’s electric heat. It’s expensive to purchase and install. It’s expensive to run. It’s not a way to save money on your heating bill. There’s nothing cost effective about electric heat. It’s very pleasant and nice to have that warm floor. But it is an expensive project and it’s expensive to run. That said, if you put it on its own timer, so it’s only on, say, in the morning or in the evenings for a limited period of time. You can manage that expense. Is it a do-it-yourself project? Yes, if you’re pretty experienced because the tile mats usually have to be ordered custom made and you know, you have to make sure that they’re installed properly because if you get that floor down and it doesn’t work, you get a big problem. You end up having to tear it up. Frankly, my advice would be to not do it yourself because I would rather have a contractor do its work with it time and time again. I’d hate to see the whole thing get together. And you got a problem with it. You got to tear it all up, start again. So the amount of the amount of additional expense for labor I think would have sort of an insurance quality to it to make sure it comes out right.
0:12:23	CALLER: Well, thank you all for your advice and I appreciate it.
0:12:26	TOM: Well, a pressure washer is a great tool to have for outdoor chores. You can clean sidewalks, driveways, decks, siding. I use it to strip paint off of old cast iron radiators, Leslie. It worked better than anything else I could think of and took all that paint off. So if you have one, it’s a great thing to have around. If you don’t, it’s a pretty good investment because believe me, you’ll find something that you can use it for all the time.
0:12:49	LESLIE: Yeah, it’s one of those tools that’s just like a fun project to use it for, and there’s lots of things you can do with a pressure washer. So there’s definitely those things that you need to be considering when you are in the market to buy one. Now, the first is the water pressure itself. A light duty pressure washer with 1300 to say 2000 psi or pounds per square inch, that’s going to give you about 30 times more pressure than what comes out of a garden hose. And that’s good for things like your car or the siding or a boat. If you need something a little bit stronger, you can choose a medium pressure washer that goes up to about 2600 PSI. And that’s good for cleaning, getting rid of all that grease and grime and heavy duty pressure washers. Those are really best used for stripping surfaces because they are super powerful.
0:13:36	TOM: Now you also want to look at the gallons per minute of the GPM. It’s pretty important because the larger the GPM, the more surface area a washer can actually clean. And then finally, think about the price you could expect to pay anywhere from about 100 bucks, you know, up to maybe five or 600 bucks for a decent machine. And make sure you read the reviews I just went through this process myself because my old pressure washer wore out. I mean, it was pretty old, so I wasn’t that upset about it. And I wanted to buy a new one. And the one thing that was my pet peeve, Leslie, was that, you know, they all come like in sort of with built in carts these days. You sort of pull it around. But they never seem to have like the ability to keep that one, the spray one on the car can always pops out.
0:14:16	LESLIE: It’s true. It always pops out.
0:14:18	TOM: It bugs the heck out of me. I’m like, It would be so easy. You guys can build a pressure washer, but you can’t figure out how to put a strap around this thing so doesn’t come out. So I found one that did that stayed, and I’m pretty happy with my purchase. So lots of options to think about, but super handy tool to have around for all those reasons.
0:14:34	LESLIE: We’ve got Bruce on the line. We need some help with some tree stumps around the property. What’s going on?
0:14:38	CALLER: I have two homes that have some trees right next to the outside walls. A couple of them are six inches in diameter, and then a couple of the others have up to a foot, foot. That tree has been cut off just above the ground level. How do I get rid of all of the trunks and the roots of that without disturbing or hurting the foundation of the house?
0:15:04	TOM: Hey, Bruce. Well, listen, so you have a one tree or a couple of trees that are six inches and some that are like one foot. Those are not very big trees. I cannot imagine that those stumps are going to have any impact on your foundation. However, if you want to get rid of them, there’s a couple of options.
0:15:20	TOM: Well, one is kind of expensive and that is you’d have to have a tree surface with a stump grinder going in there, but they may not have the clearance. The other way to do this is by doing what’s called chemical stop removal. And now with chemical stuff removal, typically what you do is you drill a bunch of holes in the stump and then there are different products that are sold that will cause advanced deterioration or advance rotting of the stump. So it happens faster than just sort of waiting it out, but it still could take a year before that stopped completely disappears. Or you just make sure that you’ve got it cut down below the surface of the soil so there’s no trip hazards or anything of that nature and just let nature take its place. I really don’t think it’s going to have any effect on your foundation whatsoever. I mean, we get calls from folks that have, you know, 18 inch, two foot wide trees along their foundation. And if they’ve not had an effect yet, then I don’t think anything’s going to happen from that because the soil will kind of replenish itself. You start to see it, you know, settling in around there. You can always add more soil so you don’t impact your drainage. So good luck with that project and I hope we’ve helped you out.
0:16:25	LESLIE: Lisa in Iowa, you’ve got the Money Pit. What can we do for you today?
0:16:28	CALLER: I’ve got borders and wall papers to take down. Now, what if I paint over it? Should I prime it? And if I have to take it off, do I go for it and then peel it off by using water and vinegar? Hey, that’s my question.
0:16:47	TOM: So here’s the best way to approach this project. And you know, you’re right, it is a lot of work, but we generally don’t like the idea of painting over the wallpaper because you’re just kind of putting off the problem for later. It makes it even harder to deal with find the easiest way to take off a lot of wallpaper is with a steam wallpaper stripper, and it’s a tool that you can easily rent. I know Home Depot rents them. I’m sure other places rent them and it really does a good job of steaming the glue and loosening up the paper. You can speed the job up by scoring the wallpaper and there’s a neat little tool called a paper tiger that is really a one of a kind. And it kind of rolls over the paper and puts a bunch of little holes in it that helps the steam get through the surface to get to the glue underneath. And it comes off that much easier. Now, even though I say it’s easier, it is still a lot of work. So I don’t want you to kid yourself. But renting the steam stripper for the wallpaper is definitely the best way to go.
0:17:38	CALLER: Well, cool. Thanks a million.
0:17:41	LESLIE: Mario was on the line with a window question. What can we do for you?
0:17:45	CALLER: I have a frame and obviously the rectangle on the top side of the rectangle on the testing frame of the masonry in the basement. It’s metal. It’s a metal bar. And I’m replacing my old window with a glass. Glass preassembled window. Okay. And the mortar, the manufacturer, the more I contacted them and they say that mortar does not adhere to metal. So I am going to have a gap between the topside metal bar and the window. And about half inch. And I’m curious what your recommendation is, where they actually do feel it or actually try to find some material to bond. And I just feel.
0:18:26	TOM: So the gap is going to be on the top of the bottom. What about the sides?
0:18:29	CALLER: The sides are okay because they’re masonry, they’re cement. So that’s not a concern. If some saw, you know, there was some sort of reinforcing bar I put into the top of the frame, I assume, for some structural reason. So that that’s my only real concern. The other three PSI are masonry, and the mortar works fine there.
0:18:51	TOM: Is this the kind of thing that maybe you could use pressure, treated lumber, a half inch piece of half inch thick piece of, say, pressure, treated lumber, plywood or pressed treated plywood as a shim?
0:19:03	CALLER: Yes, I would think so, Yes.
0:19:04	TOM: Yeah, because I think that’s what I would probably use something like that, because you want to basically close down the opening so that the window can be secured and you could attach the pressure treated lumber to the old masonry opening and then attach the window to that.
0:19:17	CALLER: Okay. And that’s a very good suggestion. Thank you very much.
0:19:20	TOM: Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit. Well, guys, if you’ve ever had a leak or a crack or a nail pipe come through a ceiling or a wall that’s textured, you know that repairing that leak or crack can be easier than the actual hassle of trying to restore the original textured surface. I mean, typically it’s a very messy process, especially when you’re trying to fix an area that small or one that’s just really hard to reach. But now there’s a new product out from DAP that makes this easy for both the wires and pros.
0:19:50	LESLIE: Yeah, it’s called the two in one wall and ceiling spray texture, and it allows you to apply orange peel knocked down and popcorn textures quickly and easily to both the wall and the ceilings and it comes in a simple to use 25 ounce can that has a 60 degree adjustable nozzle so you can easily repair a vertical surface, anything that’s overhead or even those hard to reach spots. Now the nozzle system is only available from DAP and it’s called TEC because it really allows you to direct the texture exactly where you need it. Now, depth to an on wall and ceiling spray texture is really a super handy product that saves time and certainly saves a lot of hassle. It delivers a fast drying, excellent texture match for maximum coverage and professional results. Plus it’s going to dry in under 30 minutes. Guys, that’s super-fast and you can paint it immediately.
0:20:39	TOM: Love that. So whether you’re checking on a repair, you need to match existing wall or ceiling surface or you’re creating a whole new look. DAP spray textures make it easy to apply an orange peel knocked down or popcorn texture. It’s a great choice for both pros and the wires, and it’s available now in select stores for $29.98.
0:20:57	LESLIE: Whatever projects you guys are working on this fall season, be sure to reach out to Team Money Pit so we can lend a hand. And here is a great reason to reach out to the Money Pit we’ve got up for grabs the marble dream resurfacing kit from Daich Coatings. Now this is a roll-on marble resurfacing kit. You get it in four elegant color scheme options. You can use it on your counter vanities tabletops and it is the easiest kit imaginable. You really don’t have to have any special artistic skills to make it look gorgeous. And everything in the kit goes for 169 bucks.
0:21:30	TOM: Yeah, you’ll find this kit a Daichcoatings.com. But we’ve also got one kit going out to one listener for free, drawing at random from those who call us or reach out to us with a home improvement question. So you can do that at Moneypit.com/ask, just click the blue microphone button.
0:21:46	LESLIE: All right, Let’s head down south to the Sunshine State, where we’ve got Judith in Florida on the line. What’s happening?
0:21:52	CALLER: Hey, well, I’ve got a house that was it’s an old Florida house. It was built in 1958. And the original owners were I guess, more on the high end of lifestyle. So I was told by many contractors that the house was built with all of the best materials. The problem is travel flaws, and that’s what they put down in airports now. They’re very expensive and they’re super durable. Yeah, but I found I found a fracture, hairline fracture and it started having some kind of moisture come up through the hairline fracture. Not it doesn’t go throughout the house. It just in this one section, but it comes up. And I’ve tried to call companies that can do like I wouldn’t call it water testing or laboratory testing to see what it is. I’ve called you know, I just reached out to every aspect and I heard you guys on the radio, there’s a moisture coming up and it doesn’t it’s not it doesn’t come like dry and fuzzy and cobwebs. Like someone said, it was something, but oh, it’s like, well, it’s like I’m going to put you take it off. It comes up like a an oily substance and it almost smells like vinegar, very mild. And when you touch it, it has like a little bit of an oily substance feeling. And it’s not like it pours out. It comes up and it’s now over a period of time. It’ll like I’ll wipe it down and it comes up like the size of a nail, pull up like a quarter.
0:23:34	TOM: Here’s what I think is going on. The reason you have the stain, this moisture coming up where the crack is, because that’s the path of least resistance. I don’t think that there’s any kind of a leak directly under it. I think there’s probably leaks or not leaks, but there’s probably high moisture under the entire house. But wherever you have a void, it’s going to find its way up. So there’s two ways we can address this. One is we could try to reduce the amount of moisture you have around your house, and that’s actually fairly straightforward and involves looking at the angle of the soil at the perimeter, making sure soil slips away. But since Florida soils tend to be more sandy and very porous, the more the more important thing to do would be to look at your gutter system and make sure that there’s no gutters discharging anywhere near that area. So if the gutters clogged, if a downspouts is not run at least four or five six feet away from the foundation, if you can keep that first few feet around the house dryer by managing that roof water from the gutters, they’ll be a lot less water to push up into where that crack is. And then the second thing is you could potentially seal that crack. I’m not sure exactly what products I would recommend for that, but I think if it was me, I try to clean it real well. Let it dry real well. Is the crack open at all?
0:24:51	CALLER: It’s a hairline, so you can’t I mean, it’s literally a hairline.
0:24:58	TOM: I’d probably try to seal it. I’m not quite sure what product I would do. I’d probably experiment with something. But I think what I would do is I’d probably try. I tried taking a little silicone and rub it into the crack to see if I can push it down into the crack a little bit and seal that crack off just a tad, and then you can wipe it off the surface with like a mineral spirits dinner. It will take the excess silicone away, but do it sort of like in a dry fashion, which is don’t put too much mineral spiritual wash it out. I think I might try a little silicone in that crack and see if I can seal it off or slow it down. That plus improving the amount of water that collects the foundation from there I think will make a difference. Because generally, you know, we’ve seen cracks. We have little geysers show up in the middle of the house that’s built like on a slab. It turns out it’s a downspouts down about 20 feet away that was just misdirected or damaged too much water near a part of the foundation that found its way in and the pressure forces that come up in that area. So I think usually when you have a crack and you have water, that’s what causes it.
0:25:55	CALLER: Thank you so much.
0:25:57	TOM: You’re welcome. Good luck with that project.
0:25:59	LESLIE: Well, if your family uses a lot of bottled water, you may be ready for alternatives that cost less, but delivers the same great taste. Now, two types of filters do that for you. You can save money and go green with an under-sink water filter. Or you can go for a whole house water filter.
0:26:17	TOM: Yeah. So here’s how they work for the under sink filters. Most are dual cartridge water filters. That means they have two cartridges with the filter material in and they have carbon block and granular carbon filters. The dual filters are going to reduce most common chemicals and contaminants that are found in tap water from municipal sources like lead, mercury, asbestos, pesticides and cysts. But they’ll also eliminate sediment and bad taste and the odors caused by the chlorine added to the municipal water supplies, which I think is the most annoying thing of all, because it’s right there kind of in your face. But here’s the rub. You’ve got to change the filters. I can’t tell you how many times I was seeing these filters as professional home inspector, and I could tell these filters had not been changed in years.
0:27:03	TOM: I mean, years. So I can only imagine.
0:27:05	LESLIE: They changed it like the day you were coming.
0:27:07	TOM: Yeah, that happens, too. That’s right. That’s usually with the furnace filter. You can tell because there’s dust stuck everywhere except there’s a brand new shiny filter in there. You guys are not fooling anybody. But remember, you got to change those filters with the with the under sink. It’s about every six months.
0:27:23	LESLIE: All right, Now, what about the whole house water filter? I mean, those are installed where the main waterline goes right into the house, right? So it’s cleaning it right at the source.
0:27:31	TOM: Yeah, that’s right. So you have everything, the water that you’re drinking, plus the water that you’re using, you’re washing with, you know, it’s running through your plumbing system. It’s basically going through that filter before it gets to the house. And they’re designed to trap dirt and impurities like rust. But they can also improve the water tastes. They can reduce the cloudiness that reduce contaminants. And they only have to replace about every 12 months. I think Filter has one that’s part of the quick change system that cost under 100 bucks and it lasts a full 12 months. So it’s a nice system to have and it really does make a difference in the quality of water that you drink and that you wash with.
0:28:05	LESLIE: Now we’ve got Joseph on the line with an electrical question What’s going on at your Money Pit?
0:28:09	CALLER: I’ve got an older house is built in 1940s and my daughter’s nursery the overhead fan and lights works but none of the sockets in the room function and I have no breakers that have tripped.
0:28:21	TOM: So somewhere those sockets are disconnected. Now, are you sure the sockets are not connected to a light switch?
0:28:26	CALLER: I am 99% positive, sir.
0:28:30	TOM: There’s a seed of a doubt there that perhaps they could be. You know, sometimes the light. The outlets are operated by a light switch. But I would say that it’s not normal for that to happen in 1940s house. But what you need to do is this. And when I say you need to do more accurately, an electrician needs to do, you got to get into the wiring that’s supplying those outlets and try to figure out why it’s disconnected it I can’t imagine any reason to have been physically disconnected, which means most likely some failure in the wiring of the outlets themselves. But if you open up the outlets, you can see if you have hot wires there and try to figure out what point they became energized, because they’re probably wired in series. So the wiring goes from one to the next to the next, and you need to do a little bit more investigation to figure out why that is. But it’s really not a do-it-yourself project. I don’t want you to make a mistake and I don’t want you to get electrocuted.
0:29:21	CALLER: Yes, sir. Then I will definitely look at calling an electrician.
0:29:26	LESLIE: Tim wrote into Team Money Pit and he says, We have yellow jackets going into our siding. How can I get rid of them? This finally sounds like something that happened at my house as well. I feel like this summer the Yellow Jackets were just like, You know what? We want to be inside with you because they were getting in behind a piece of trim board at the front door. And then somehow in the foyer.
0:29:47	TOM: They were attacking my neighbor’s house and I went over and helped her out a couple of times. And then it was very, very quiet in my house. Leslie and I heard kind of like what sounded like expansion and contraction of the walls or ceilings, like kind of like a quick, quick, quick kind of sound. And I’m thinking, hmm, that’s really odd. And right outside that window is where I had a woodpecker attack. The siding was I thought, well, let me go out and see if the woodpeckers are back. Well, the woodpeckers weren’t back, but a really, really busy, massive, busy yellowjacket nest was they had drilled a hole somehow right above the window and they were going in the wall. And there must have been one heck of a nest in there, because you could actually hear them working. It was that loud. So what do we do about this? Well, what I do about this is I like the foaming type of wasp or yellowjacket or hornet spray foaming, as they’re really is really important because it expands when you shoot it and usually has about a 12 foot spray on it. The best time to do this is early in the morning or late in the evening when you still have some light, but they tend to calm down. The worst time to do this is in the middle of a warm day because then they’re super, super active. So I usually hit them with the foaming spray. Tim And then what I’ll do is I’ll put a sticky trap near the opening when it’s safe to go near there because they’re going to come back and they’re going to try to rebuild that nest. And the sticky trap tends to work well to stop doing that. There is one called Trap stick. It’s made by a company called Rescue, and it basically hangs right outside the nest. They leave it somewhere near the window or in the area. And it’s interesting. Lastly, this is a like sort of a tubular shaped trap with the stickers on the outside. I put one of these up my neighbor’s house. I went back to this later. Let me just say, there wasn’t a parking space left. There were so many bees stuck to that thing. So that kind of takes the ones that was were keeping coming back. And then the last thing I’ll do is if you do find a hole like that, I will seal that and the reason the way I seal it is with like the great stuff, window and door sealing, not the regular great stuff, but the kind of design for windows and doors. And here’s why. The reason is because the ones that are designed for windows and doors is soft and spongy. If you use the regular great stuff, when you put it in, it expands. You can start pushing the siding off of your house. You don’t want that to happen. So I use that and it’s okay if you let it, like swell outside the hole because after it dries, you can go in with a razor knife, utility knife, cut it flat, and then you can make the repair if you have to, to the wood or whatever kind of siding you have after that. So kind of a three step process, but that’s what we do. And of course, you can also call an exterminator and they have other products that they can use that are that are probably far more effective what we do. But that’s my DIY way to get rid of wasps and yellowjackets and hornets.
0:32:35	LESLIE: Yeah, I’m telling you, we ended up getting an A pro because I’m just so terrified of the yellow jackets and they sprayed into the hole in the siding. And for the next two weeks I would find these like half dead or dead yellow jackets, like all over the first floor of the house. And I was like, Man, where are they coming from? But thank goodness it’s over with. What a summer for those yellow jackets.
0:32:59	TOM: This is the Money Pit Home Improvement Show. Hey, guys, thank you so much for spending a little bit of your day listening to us. We hope we’ve been helpful with some tips and ideas to help you improve and maintain your home. It’s all about the care and feeding of your home, right? It’s a place we love to spend so many hours of our lives, and it does need a little bit of TLC. And we are pleased and proud and privileged to be able to share our knowledge with you to help you get those jobs done. Remember, you can reach out to us with questions at 1-888-Money-Pit or any time at MoneyPit.com/ask. I’m Tom Kraeutler.
0:33:32	LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.
0:33:34	TOM: Remember you can do it yourself.
0:33:36	LESLIE: But you don’t have to do it alone.

	(Note: The above referenced transcript is AI-Generated, Unedited and Unproofed and as such may not accurately reflect the recorded audio. Copyright 2023 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.)