Show Notes
- Carbon Monoxide: Carbon monoxide is a silent killer and leaks are all too common. Learn how to keep your family safe.
- Upcycled Furniture: Design on a dime with tips on finding the best upcycled furniture to turn trash to treasure.
- LED Lighting: Let’s shed some light on how to save money and energy with LED lighting solutions.
Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
Plus, answers to your home improvement questions about:
- Hard Water: Colleen is wondering about a solution for treating her hard well water, but we recommend a standard salt-based water softener as her best option.
- Condensation on AC Vents: Condensation from the AC vents is staining Stanley’s ceiling. We’ve got tips on insulating the ducts to stop the problem.
- Basement Water: Lynn finds water gushing through the hose bib into her basement. Silicone will seal the gap around the pipe and she needs to improve the outside drainage.
- Porch Resurfacing: Linda is thinking of restaining her peeling porch, but we suggest a great stone-based product to refinish the surface and give it a whole new look.
- Deck Staining: After removing the rotted boards on his wood deck, Casey learns how to properly stain and seal the new pressure-treated lumber.
- Fireplace Drafts: A big draft is coming from the fireplace. Linda needs to install a good damper or use glass doors in front of the hearth to block the wind.
- Roof Drainage: Rainwater is running behind the downspout against the fascia board and may rot the wood. John should see if the gutters and the downspouts were connected properly and consider getting a larger downspout.
Podcast Transcript
Read Transcript
| 0:00:31 | 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. |
| 0:00:38 | TOM: And we are here to help you check on the projects that you want to get done around the house. It is a beautiful fall day. I love this time of year because the weather is crisp and inspired to take on projects big and small, and if you’ve got a project on your to do list, we would love to help reach out to us with your questions. All you need to do is go to moneypit.com/ask and click the blue microphone button or you can call us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT. Coming up on today’s episode, are you in the market for new furniture? But maybe you don’t have a big budget to handle it Well, if so, upcycling might be perfect for you. We’re going to have tips to help you get started, including how to make the best furniture choice for an upcycle. |
| 0:01:18 | LESLIE: And as the days get shorter and darker, now’s a great time to update your home’s lighting. LEDs offer a long term energy savings, but between understanding lumens, what’s color temperature? All of those bulbs are labeled with a whole lot of options and it can be a bit confusing. So we want to help you get the best solution for your home just ahead. |
| 0:01:38 | TOM: And carbon monoxide is an odorless gas that results from the combustion of fuels like natural gas or oil or kerosene or even charcoal. So we’re going to give you some tips on how to make sure your heating system is not putting out that nasty stuff. |
| 0:01:51 | LESLIE: But first, we want to help you create your best home ever. So whether you’re doing the job yourself or you’re hiring a pro, we are ready to help you get that job done right the first time. So give us a call. Let us know what you are working on this autumn weekend. We are so happy to lend a hand. We love to hear what you’re working on. And you know what? Send this pictures to. We love to see all of your hard work, so let us know how we can help. |
| 0:02:12 | TOM: And you can connect with us by going to Moneypit.com/ask for the fastest possible response. Just click the blue microphone button. Let’s get to it. Less Who’s first. |
| 0:02:22 | LESLIE: Heading to Texas where Colleen has a question about water softening. What’s going on? |
| 0:02:27 | CALLER: Well we have well water and it’s really high in sodium and calcium and it’s extremely hard. And we’ve had water softeners before and they need some of them need to be replaced. Okay. And I was looking at this easy water that you recommend and I was wondering if it would really take care of the extremely hard water we have in West Texas. |
| 0:02:49 | TOM: Well, I’ve never had a listener use it with really, really, really hard water. It sounds to me that if that’s the case here, that you probably need a salt based water conditioner, which, by the way, it doesn’t put salt in your water, it just fosters the chemical process that softens the water and makes it easier to use. What easy water does is it charges to the particles in the water so that they don’t stick together and they don’t clog your pipes and stuff. And then but I do think it would probably would still be feel a bit hard when you’re trying to do your clothes. Like sometimes it doesn’t feel like it’s sudsy or it’s really hard. So I would just replace it with a standard salt based water conditioner. |
| 0:03:30 | CALLER: Colleen would you suggest using that charger too, on the in the well, the pump house. |
| 0:03:36 | TOM: So that doesn’t go in the well that goes with them on the main waterline when it comes in it wouldn’t hurt but I would I would put the salt based system on first and I think you’ll find that’s probably enough. |
| 0:03:47 | CALLER: Okay, great. Well, thank you so much. I appreciate it. |
| 0:03:50 | TOM: You’re welcome. Good luck with that project. Thanks for calling us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT. Those easy water systems are like think of them as magnets. Lastly, where you know, the particles have the same charge. They repel each other and they’re effective because it doesn’t stick to the pipes and clog up things. But I still wonder whether or not you’ll get the same level of sort of like sudsy ness. I know that if I’ve had houses with hard water that you try to wash your hands, for example, with soap or try to do the dishes. It doesn’t get very slippery because the hard water just kind of fights it. |
| 0:04:21 | LESLIE: So weird, isn’t it? |
| 0:04:22 | TOM: It’s a very weird feeling and it kind of dries out your skin, too. |
| 0:04:25 | LESLIE: Oh, I know. It’s I’ve experienced it when traveling with the home makeover shows. You know, it’s like you get to like Louisiana and you’re almost always going to have it. And you’re like, why is my hair like that? |
| 0:04:34 | TOM: So what’s wrong with this? Right? What happened to my hair? |
| 0:04:38 | LESLIE: Yeah, it’s so weird for the ice is like the ice is never right. And, like, the dishwashers get clogged up, like, it’s just not good all around. |
| 0:04:45 | TOM: And if you have a tankless water heater, so it has a very, very small plumbing system where the pipe goes through many, many loops, it can clog them up. Yeah, there’s actually cleaning procedures in areas that have hard water for tankless systems because they can clog up and stop working. |
| 0:05:00 | LESLIE: Well, hopefully this helps her stay in. And Florida is on the line and it’s apparently raining in his house seeing what’s going on. |
| 0:05:08 | CALLER: Well, it was like to keep it cool and comfortable. And with the humidity outside, the condensation accumulates on the air vents. Right. And it literally is dripping and staining the ceiling areas where I’ve painted. |
| 0:05:22 | TOM: Yeah, I’ve seen this before. And it’s amazing how much humidity and how much water can come out of the air when it’s that warm, right? |
| 0:05:28 | CALLER: Yes, it is. It’s been bothering us. I was wondering what my solution might be. |
| 0:05:33 | TOM: So your solution is to insulate the air conditioning ducts? You know, we don’t think about insulating ducts much in the southern part of the country because usually you’re insulating them to prevent heat loss. In this case, the reason that you’re getting this condensation is because you have warm, moist air. Of course, that’s up in that attic space for those ducts are. And as that warm, moist air strikes the attic ducts, it condenses and releases its moisture much the same as what you would see happen if you took a glass of ice water outside and the outside the glass gets wet. That’s the warm moisture in the air, strike in the glass and cooling. So as it cools, it releases water because cool air can hold less moisture than warm air. That’s why no one ever complains about it being too human when it’s cold outside because the moisture is not in the air. So what you need to do is to insulate those ducts. Now, I can imagine that in some cases this is difficult because of getting access to it, but perhaps if you focused on the areas where it’s worse or by insulating the ducks, you won’t get that condensation that forms on them because the insulation will be a barrier then between the duct and the warm air itself. So it makes sense. |
| 0:06:47 | CALLER: It sure does. |
| 0:06:48 | TOM: And that is the solution there. Serge. Got it. Got to have insulated docs and that will stop that from happening because we can’t control the humidity, that’s for sure. |
| 0:06:54 | CALLER: Right. Well, we have some blown an insulation that I was wondering, should I add an attic fan circulate there? Would that help any of us? |
| 0:07:03 | TOM: I don’t generally recommend the attic fans, and here’s why. Especially in the southern climate, what attic fans tend to do is depressurize the attic as they try to pull air out of it. But the problem is they don’t just stop at the attic. They are so strong that they reach in through the wall cavities where wires and pipes go through and there’s little spaces between the drywall and the walls, and they actually find a way to steal the air conditioned air from your house. So using an attic fan and Florida can actually drive up your cooling costs when most people would think it’s the opposite. If you want to improve the ventilation in the attic, you should do it. Passive league by adding ridge vents to the peak and then making sure the surface, the overhang are fully open. And you know, you’d have screening there, but you want to make sure the air can get in there. This way it goes in the safe. It’s it goes under the roof and goes out the ridge. But a fan itself is not a good idea. That said, I can’t promise you that just improving the ventilation is going to stop the condensation. I think you’re going to find when push comes to shove, that insulation is the best solution to this issue. |
| 0:08:09 | CALLER: That sounds accurate to me. I appreciate your help so much, and that’s what I’m going to do. |
| 0:08:14 | TOM: You’re very welcome, Stanley. Thank you so much for calling the Money Pit. |
| 0:08:17 | CALLER: Thank you. Bye bye. |
| 0:08:18 | LESLIE: Hey, you want to make our day? Well, go ahead and leave us a five star review on Apple Podcasts and we’ll be jumping for joy. Plus, you guys, your feedback helps us make the show even better for you. Just go to MoneyPit.com/review. All right, Now we’ve got Lynn in Delaware on the line who’s got a leak in the basement. That’s as if somebody turned a faucet on. What’s going on? |
| 0:08:38 | CALLER: Well, last Thursday, we had a torrential rain in Delaware, and I was so afraid of trees falling in the rain. I ran down to my basement immediately and about maybe 2 minutes being down there, I hear some sound like somebody turned on a faucet. So I look behind the where the faucet is. It comes from the inside, the water pipe comes from the outside onto the inside of water was just gushing, just gushing in just like a faucet. |
| 0:09:12 | TOM: So it was coming around the pipe where the pipe comes through the wall. |
| 0:09:16 | CALLER: Yes. Okay. |
| 0:09:17 | TOM: Yeah. All right. So that makes sense. You know, what happens is when you get a torrential rain like that, it’s going to find the path of the easiest path in the path of least resistance and the holes that are drilled through foundation walls for things like plumbing, like the hose bib in your case, are going to provide an easy entry. So what I would tell you is a couple of things. Now, it probably only happens when you get maybe a severe downpour like this and maybe even one that’s fueled by rain. But I would number one is I would take silicone and you can buy a tube of silicone a little. You can squeeze tube or you can buy one inch to put in a caulking gun. And I would seal the gap around where the pipe comes through the foundation wall. I said, next, I want you to do the same thing on the inside. This is going to stop what happened to you most recently. But the other thing I want you to do is to take a look, if you can, at the drainage conditions outside that wall, because you might find that maybe you have an overflowing gutter there or that you have soil that is sort of settling down and maybe it’s moving too much too water towards that area of the wall. I don’t know how high up this this hose bib is, but generally the roof and surface drainage conditions are what starts this all. And it’s an easy fix. You just got to figure out what it is. Downspouts are also really important to check the most. The time when the gutter companies put them in, they drop them pretty close to the foundation and we always like to see them extend out four or five feet. So you’re moving all that water out away from that wall. And if you can kind of move it out and keep it away, you’re going to find that the whole space is a lot drier. And your particular case with this little gusher that happened, sealing the area around the pipe should stop that from happening the next time. |
| 0:10:52 | CALLER: Oh, okay. Now, another thing that I’m wondering now that you said about the ground settling and everything, this particular step where I’ve had go no go for is what did I say Groundhog’s Groundhog Day under there. And I’m wondering if they could have moved dirt and made a path or something to this. |
| 0:11:08 | TOM: Yeah, they may have. They may have generally that first 4 to 6 feet. You want to do what you can to keep the soil sloping away from the walls. Those first few feet. So if it does settle in, you just had clean filled or not topsoil, but just fill dirt or inexpensive and you pack it in there, these slope it away and you could put some mulch or you could put some topsoil and grass over that, but you want to have that soil sloping away and it is going to settle every once in a while. And especially if you get in the over flowing gutters, it’ll just erode and wash away so that maintaining that sort of slope and that space to keep the walls as dry as possible is important. And it really does help solve a lot of problems with water in the basement and even dampness in the basement. |
| 0:11:44 | CALLER: Okay, I’ve stayed there. That’s what I will do then. Thank you so much for taking my call. |
| 0:11:49 | TOM: You’re very welcome. Good luck with that project. Thanks for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT. |
| 0:11:53 | LESLIE: Well, if you were in the market for some new furniture, but you don’t have a big budget to buy it, well, maybe upcycling could be an awesome solution for you. First of all, some basics here. Upcycling is essentially a term that’s the opposite of down cycling, which is what happens when you just throw something away. Now, in between upcycling and down cycling is recycling, which still puts waste back into the environment, but it does so in a more responsible way. Now we love upcycling because it provides an opportunity to find useful furniture and other household items and using a bit of your creativity and a small budget for some supplies, you can give that piece a second life in your home or your apartment, or as a gift for the upcoming holiday season. There’s a lot of great ways that you can upcycle. |
| 0:12:36 | TOM: And super popular right now. In fact, there’s even a fun and very useful Instagram page called Stooping in NYC, where people that spot items being thrown out with the trash take a picture uploaded to the site with its location. If someone thinks the pic looks good, they can head on over to the location and hopefully be the first one to score a great upcycled fine. Now, outside of urban areas, many towns and cities have a bulk trash collection day, which is code for free stuff. I know that we just had it in our community, Leslie, and we were emptying out our nearby house for a neighbor, and we had the entire sort of width of the house on the street sidewalk filled up with stuff. By the next morning, when the trucks came, half that stuff was already going because folks found it useful and decided to upcycle it. So there’s a lot of ways to participate in upcycling in terms of doing the project and cleaning out your own house at the same time. |
| 0:13:25 | LESLIE: Now when you’re shopping for a piece to upcycle, here’s a few things that you want to keep in mind. First of all, you want to look at the bones like, how is this piece of furniture built? You want to make sure it’s structurally sound. It’s not going to need any major repairs so that you can use it and then look at what cosmetic updates are there. Like it does need to be cleaned. It can just be painted. These are all super easy DIY projects, but if it needs a bigger repair, it just might not be worth it. |
| 0:13:51 | TOM: They also want to avoid upholstery and bedding. And here’s why. Because obviously there’s no telling where that furniture has been. If you’re talking about a couch or a bedding or an easy chair, you could also have something living inside of it, like bedbugs. Now, the exception it pretty gross exception could be a wood chair. It’s got the bolstered seat, which should be easy to remove and completely replace. Otherwise it’s just not worth working with the upholstered stuff. |
| 0:14:12 | LESLIE: And you know what, guys? Upcycling is a fun and meaningful way that you can take an item on its way to the trash heap. And then with just a little sweat equity, you can totally make it your own. And those are always the pieces that stand out. So definitely keep this in mind. |
| 0:14:26 | TOM: Now, listen, whenever we talk about upcycling, I remember my IKEA couch that you upcycled by upholstery it and pretty much doubled the life of that shirt for bed. You know, it really is a fantastic project. So if there’s an opportunity I went against my own advice about you don’t know where it’s been. Well, that piece of upholstery has been so I was happy to us all our grime and whatever was on it. But still, you know, if you find some wood furniture, if you find some tables and chairs, refinishing tables and chairs, there’s a really easy project of those Over the last couple of years. There’s always great opportunities and you know, one person’s trash is another person’s treasure for sure. |
| 0:15:02 | LESLIE: And you know what? Upholstery definitely is a tricky project to sort of tackle, especially if you don’t have experience with it. But you’re right. Start with the seat cushion. That’s very straightforward. Start with a chair that maybe has some exposed wood, so you get a sense of how things work. You always learn best when you start to take things apart. So if you find something that doesn’t really matter, if you mess it up, try to wrap, holster it, take it apart section by section and put it back section by section. This way, you know how to do it. That’s how I learned heading over to Alabama, where we’ve got Linda on the line. How can we help you today? |
| 0:15:32 | CALLER: A couple of years ago, we gained our port with some well, it was a dark stain. We had edged it before and then we put a polyurethane on top. Now, part of this port is not under cover, but the majority of it is. Well, this the stuff is still in our looks terrible. So what we want to do is get this may the house and maybe use cement. Paint. Just paint. It was cement tank. |
| 0:16:02 | TOM: So I’ve got some other suggestions for you that would be much more attractive than paint. There’s a manufacturer that makes products for covering concrete. Okay. That look like stone because they actually have stone built into them and they’re absolutely beautiful. They have a terrazzo version of it. They have a product called RollerRock. They have a product called SpreadRock. I would take a look at Daichcoatings.com. That’s Daichcoatings.com. These products work really, really well. We’re getting great feedback on them, especially this terrazzo product which is just gorgeous. You could apply this terrazzo product literally in an afternoon and be ready to walk on it the next day and it’s going to look a heck of a lot better than paint. And it really stands up. |
| 0:16:52 | CALLER: Okay, now what do you do to prepare for that? |
| 0:16:56 | TOM: There’s going to be instructions with all of these products, but basically you have to get to get off the loose, paint the stair, whatever the materials you put before, if it’s if it’s binding, if it’s stuck in there not coming off, that’s fine. But if it’s loose and flaky, all the loose stuff has to come off. And there’s also some products that they offer that you can use to clean those surfaces and etch them surfaces before you actually apply the products would follow the instructions. Again, go to Deitch Coatings dot com, check them out. We’ve worked with these guys for many years. They’re really, really good at the stuff and I think you’ll be surprised with all the options you have. |
| 0:17:30 | CALLER: Okay, Thank you so much. I appreciate that. |
| 0:17:34 | LESLIE: Heading to Tulsa, where Case is on the line with a ducking question. What’s going on at your Money Pit? |
| 0:17:39 | CALLER: Hey, guys. So I’m in the process of tearing out the top boards on my deck. It’s some somewhat new deck, but you can tell that it wasn’t treated properly on the top boards. So there’s some writing going on. Okay, Joyce underneath look pretty good. So I’ve successful torn them out and replaced them with new top boards. What I want to know is what is the process look like for sealing that properly to make sure the boards don’t write out like they did last time? |
| 0:18:09 | TOM: So is the deck made of pressure treated lumber? Casey Yes. The floor joists, are they pressure treated? Yes. All right. So with pressure treatment, you don’t have to worry about decay. Decay should not happen with pressure treated lumber for a long, long time. What you do have to be concerned about is just the cracking or checking, as we call it, when it comes to wood that happens from exposure to the sun. The UV radiation causes the wood to shrink and crack. So generally when you’re finishing a deck, that’s the reason you’re finishing it is to give it some protection against the sun. So now that you have taken off the damaged boards, you’ve got new decking on there, You might at this point, as were in fall. Want to wait a little bit of time. I would say this would be a great spring, early summer project because you don’t really have to do anything to that for, you know, a good part of the first year. But since we’re going into the fall now, I’d make this maybe a spring summer project to do. You want to make sure you find a period of time when the deck is really dry a couple of days of sun would be great. And then you’re going to use a good quality stain on that exterior stain. You have some options on how dense that stain is. It becomes transparent, semi-transparent and then solid color. Now we always recommend solid color, and the reason is because it gives the deck the most protection. Yet you can still see the green through it. Most popular is semi-transparent, but it won’t last nearly as long. When you apply it, you can apply it with a roller, you can apply it with a spray. It’s a little bit tricky to get into the nooks and crannies when it comes with a deck, so I kind of like a spray application. And you could read the sprayer, you could buy a sprayer. They’re not very expensive. They’re made by a lot of great companies. Wagner makes one just for homeowners. And my buddy did his deck and the gazebo with a sprayer, and he was using paint, not even stain because he just wanted to paint it. And the whole project took him like a day because it was just so efficient to apply the product that way. So that’s what you’re up against. Just wait to spring early summer. The stain it and you should get maybe four or five or six years out of it that way. |
| 0:20:16 | CALLER: Great. Thank you so much. I love the show and appreciate the help. |
| 0:20:20 | TOM: You got it. Good luck with that project, Casey. Well, you guys have been thinking about replacing all the bulbs you have left in your house. It might have been incandescents or CFLs to LEDs, but maybe not sure about the cost savings. We have found that upgrading the LED bulbs really is a great way to save money. And that’s because light bulbs use a lot less energy and can last for decades. |
| 0:20:41 | LESLIE: Yeah. Now maybe you find yourself being a little put off by the price of LEDs. I mean, I know I was when they first came out because they definitely are pricey, but the cost now has come way down, especially in this past year, and you don’t need to buy a ton of bulbs to start seeing that savings. |
| 0:20:56 | TOM: Now, to get started, you can replace bulbs in the lights used most often or the ones that stay on the most. Replacing these first will have the biggest immediate impact on your energy savings. And from there you can replace the older bulbs with LEDs on fixtures that have multiple bulbs. |
| 0:21:10 | LESLIE: Yeah. And finally, you want to make sure that you’re getting the best results for your new LED bulbs. You want to make sure that they’re rated for that specific use or fixture. You know, example here, if you’ve got a lamp or light with a dimmer, you want to make sure it’s a type that works with LED bulbs. Like you got to make sure things kind of go hand in hand because if you try to use an LED bulb that’s not rated for dimming, it’s not going to work on a switch that’s dimmable. I learned this the hard way, but, you know, I had other lamps. I could put that bobbin. So we were good. |
| 0:21:36 | TOM: Yeah. And here’s another thing to keep in mind. If you’re going to replace a fixture like I just bought new lights for the outside of my front door, like some sort of pretty sconce lights. Well, the LEDs are actually built into those lamps now, so there’s no bulb to add. It’s actually part of the light itself. So you don’t even have to shop for a bulb. So you can find those as well if you’re buying new fixtures. All in all, they really provide a great quality of light and they last a long, long time. |
| 0:22:03 | LESLIE: Ah, Linda in Nevada, you’ve got the Money Pit. What can we do for you today? |
| 0:22:06 | CALLER: I bought a house in Nevada, in Henderson, and slowly but surely I have been plugging up all the areas for drop. It’s coming in. And then I realized because I have a cell phone in front of this fireplace. So gas, fireplace. There is a huge drive coming out that was just hitting my ankle. So I would like to know what is it that I can do to cover that draft. So I have to cover up the whole fireplace is there. You know, I have no idea what to do. |
| 0:22:33 | TOM: Yeah, well, you got to have a damper on it. So there’s lots of different types of dampers. There’s you probably have a damper already. There could be a mechanical damper right above the firebox. There could be a flu damper up towards the top of the flu. Or you could just put glass doors on the fireplace. It’s another way to kind of start with even. |
| 0:22:50 | LESLIE: With the glass doors. If that flue is open, you can still feel a little bit of a draft because we have that. And I notice that if I forget to cause the flue, then I’m like, Oh, it’s time to close it. |
| 0:23:00 | CALLER: I will look to see about the damper, see if there’s anything I can close. But if I close that damper and I’m still have a draft and I do need to put a glass there, a glass cover, or do you find the glass? Cover glass, because… |
| 0:23:14 | TOM: Glass doors, glass fireplace doors are widely available. Pretty much everywhere. |
| 0:23:18 | LESLIE: So, I mean, we had hours done from like the local Harts Place, I believe it was called, like hearth and leisure. There’s probably somebody right in your area, you know, right near Henderson. I know that area of Vegas and in Nevada. And that’s a good spot. You probably have somebody there already that can do this for you. And there’s so many choices and so many finishes and different designs on the glass and different framework and, you know, all different price ranges as well. So don’t be surprised when some are really expensive, but it’s beautiful. And it also when you’re running your gas fireplace, you can keep those closed. And it really does generate quite a lot of heat. |
| 0:23:52 | CALLER: It does. I just didn’t think that they would. I mean, I have it blocked with myself. I don’t really use a fireplace at all. |
| 0:23:59 | LESLIE: Oh, my gosh. Gas fireplaces are so cozy. |
| 0:24:02 | CALLER: All right. Well, the real one. See, I’m used to the real thing. |
| 0:24:06 | LESLIE: I know. I hear you. I’m all for a wood burning fireplace, but our neighbors have a gas fireplace, and any time we go visit them, it just. It gets downright warm. In fact, hot in their living room. It’s lovely. |
| 0:24:19 | CALLER: Okay, I will try it. |
| 0:24:21 | TOM: All right. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT. |
| 0:24:26 | LESLIE: Jon, you’ve got the Money Pit. How can we help you today? |
| 0:24:29 | CALLER: I had the rain spell in my house in two different areas that when it rains, the water goes behind the rain spout against the soft or the facia against the house and comes in between the rain spot in the house. So a lot of the water does go down the rain, but some goes behind the rain spot. And I’m afraid it needs to respond to the water and start rubbing the wood. And I don’t know how I can fix that from occurring. |
| 0:24:57 | TOM: So it sounds to me like the gutter is becoming over, overflowed is overwhelmed, and so the water’s backing up over the back edge of the of the trough of the gutter. |
| 0:25:08 | CALLER: I don’t think that’s the case. It’s not overflowing. But somehow the water is being carried away. But yet there’s still some water making it. To your point behind the rain spout towards the house. And I know it’s not an overflow situation. And I had a new roof put on about two years ago. So. |
| 0:25:25 | TOM: All right. So typically when gutters are installed by roofers, the downspouts is a three inch downspouts or a four inch downspouts, and it’s pierced through the gutter body down into it. And the hole that is actually created, there’s a fairly small opening. What we usually recommend is to use a larger downspouts, one that’s a six inch down spout because it has less restrictions and this way more water can fall into it. I suspect, however, that the joint between the downspouts and the gutter was made. It’s allowing for this to occur. So, you know, the simple thing to do is to get a ladder and get up there and take a good hard look at it, grab a hose, run some water down the roof. Watch if you can see exactly what’s happening in that space and what’s letting the water get behind it, that I suspect that that connection between the downspouts and the gutter is not done correctly. You could try to fix that and you could try to seal it. You know, maybe you have to mechanically take it apart and, you know, bend or rivet or something in to get it where it needs to be and then seal the whole thing with silicone caulk. Or if that doesn’t work, you might want to try to switch it out to a larger downspouts and that will have less tendency to hold any of the water back. And it will, you know, gravity will take over and they’ll be that. |
| 0:26:42 | CALLER: That sounds like a solution to me. Yeah. Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Get some silicone in there, too. |
| 0:26:47 | TOM: Okay. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 88 Money Pit. Well, as some may know, carbon monoxide or CEO, as it’s often referred to, is an odorless gas that results from the combustion of fuel. So we’re talking about natural gas, oil, kerosene, even charcoal. And it can make you sick or it can cause death. And in the years that I spent inspecting homes before getting out of the crawlspace and into the radio studio, I found carbon monoxide leaks with shocking frequency. |
| 0:27:19 | LESLIE: Yeah. And that’s why you absolutely must have your heating system tuned up every year. Now, Tom, we always say that, but what exactly is the tech looking for that could lead to these toxic situations? |
| 0:27:29 | TOM: Yeah, Good. Good question. So the tech, first of all, is going to look at the color of the flame for good combustion. So if you have a blue flame, that’s what you want. That is a properly adjusted flame. But if you see an orange flame, that is a dirty flame, that means you have very incomplete combustion and that can actually contain a lot of carbon monoxide. And also you want to make sure you don’t have any kind of sweet like an acid type odor that comes out of that because, again, signs of carbon monoxide. And finally, you want to look at the heat exchanger. This is sort of the internal guts of the furnace and with sort of medium to older furnaces, you can see this pretty clearly. With the newer ones, it’s getting a little bit harder. But this is what keeps the combustion gas separate from the house here that blows around it to beat to be warmed. So they’ll inspect that. And also, you want to check the ventilation. We check also for what’s called Backdraft. So if we have a block chimney, for example, that all those fumes, which are sort of like warm and moist, are going to come back out of the furnace draft to it. So any of those could be signs of carbon monoxide and need to be picked up. |
| 0:28:32 | LESLIE: Yeah, but we should also mention other sources of carbon monoxide that can also be hazardous. Like never run a car, use a barbecue or run a generator or even a lawnmower in a garage, even an open garage, because those fumes are going to rise. They’re going to start to fill the house and it’s going to sneak up on you. And before you know it, you’re sleeping. So it’s you know, you’ve got to be careful. |
| 0:28:53 | TOM: Absolutely. So important. Great point. And even if everything’s operating properly, it is always important to also have carbon monoxide detectors. In fact, those carbon monoxide detectors are not just a good idea. They’re in fact, mandatory in many jurisdictions. So you want to make sure you have at least one on every floor of your house, including detectors outside every bedroom. You know why? Because that is where most carbon dioxide poisonings occur while you’re sleeping. So many times you just don’t wake up. So you want to make sure you have detectors outside of your bedroom. |
| 0:29:26 | LESLIE: Well, Stacy reached out to Money Pit and says, I’ve been told by roofing contractors that spray foam insulation on the bottom side of the roof can avoid a shingle warranty. I recently heard you recommending doing the foam for insulation, which is correct. |
| 0:29:41 | TOM: So that’s a great question, Stacy. And I guess the answer is it depends. Now, some roofing shingle manufacturers have tried to avoid warranties or have voided warranties because they feel like the spray foam raises the temperature on the roof shingle itself. I got to tell you, though, I am not impressed with roofing manufacturer warranties, roof shingles, warranties. And here’s why. Because they only offer, at best, a appreciated value based on the age of the roof. And it’s only going to be on materials they don’t cover labor. So if you can imagine the cost of a roof replacement, it’s got to be at least 75 or 80% labor and maybe 20% materials. So if that roof is ten years old, that means they’re going to give you at half the cost of new shingles, but all the expense of tearing off the old and adding the new is on you. Even in a normal circumstance with a valid market claim, it’s just not worth that much. On the flip side, having spray foam insulation, as I have personally added the underside of my roof to tell you how much I’m worried about this, when we put on a new roof its underside in the attic space, it’s not the gable walls. That roof space is completely sealed in right now. And I got to tell you, I could not be happier. My energy bills have not been lower. I no longer have a huge difference in temperature between the rest of the house and the attic. It just doesn’t get that cold up there. And it’s a much more stable environment for all the stuff that we store as well. So I’m not terribly worried about voiding warranties and that’s why. But I do agree that some manufacturers are trying to make that point. I just don’t see it. |
| 0:31:17 | LESLIE: All right. Now we’ve got a question here from Jamie, who says, My aunt has a one story, 2400 square foot, 1963 home and a full basement. Winter temps can be in the twenties and thirties and summers in the nineties. There’s heat in the ceilings, but it doesn’t work in a couple of rooms. She wants to upgrade the heating system, but the electric company told her a heat pump system might not be the best choice because it gets too cold and will switch to backup heat and super high high bills. What’s the best heating and cooling system for the house? |
| 0:31:47 | TOM: So it is good advice from the electric company. What’s going to happen, whether traditional air to air heat pump is this. You’re going to have the heat pump, which is what he pump is, is kind of like if you’ve ever had a window air conditioner, you know, that blows cold air into the house and warm air outside. Well, if you flip that around, stuck it in the winter, that’s kind of like a heat pump. It sort of the reverse of the cooling cycle, but it blows that warm air throughout the house. The problem is it can only maintain about two degrees difference between what the temperature is in the room and what you set it out. And it goes more than that because it’s cold. What’s going to do is bring up an electric or straight electric resistance backup heat system, which is going to run about two or two and a half times more to operate than the heat pump itself. So that’s why it’s really designed for moderate temperatures. Secondly, the ceiling is never a good place for heat distribution. So I would be looking for options to have a system that’s fueled by gas, by propane or by oil. Those are going to be the least expensive ways to go. |
| 0:32:44 | LESLIE: All right, Jamie, good luck with that. Definitely something to keep in mind. We do have such crazy temperature swings in the northeast just like that twenties nineties. I can’t find the right zone. |
| 0:32:54 | TOM: This is the Money Pit Home Improvement show on air and online at Money Pit.com. We hope you’re enjoying a beautiful fall weekend taking on projects around your house if you run into a problem or an issue. Got a question? Don’t know where to start. You’re stuck in the middle. Remember, you can reach out to us 24 seven by calling 1-888-MONEY-PIT. That’s 888-666-3974. Or better yet, for the fastest possible response, just go to moneypit.com/ask and click the blue microphone button. I’m Tom Kraeutler. |
| 0:33:26 | LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete. |
| 0:33:28 | TOM: Remember, you can do it yourself. |
| 0:33:29 | LESLIE: But you don’t have to do 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.) |
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