Show Notes
- Power Outages: When the power goes out, you’ll need these blackout survival tips.
- Fall Lawn Care: Proper care in the fall keeps your lawn and landscape healthy and green for springtime.
- Cutting Heating Costs: Do high heating bills send chills down your spine? Get energy-saving tips to lower costs.
Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
Plus, answers to your home improvement questions about:
- Indoor Bugs: Centipedes and crickets have Dorothy’s skin crawling! We have tips on how to seal off any basement and garage openings and eliminate indoor bugs.
- Water in Basement: Water in the basement after it rains signals a drainage issue. Scott gets advice on what steps are needed to improve drainage around his home.
- Drafty Doors: Weather stripping isn’t stopping the drafts around Wendy’s doors. She may need to adjust the door alignment to seal the gaps better.
- Supplemental Heating: Ralph can’t warm up a room next to his garage. He should seal any drafts and consider getting affordable electric baseboard heaters with timers.
- Cinderblock Walls: How can you give cinderblock walls a more attractive look? Kay should contact a professional to cover the walls with a smooth layer of plaster.
- Low Water Pressure: Sam has great water pressure everywhere in his old home except the bathtub. It may be rust clogging the original steel pipes or a valve that needs replacing.
- Dishwasher Odor: Phew! There’s a bad smell coming from Nathan’s dishwasher. We recommend a product that can easily clean out the microbes of decaying food.
Podcast Transcript
Read Transcript
| 0:00:31 | TOM: Coast to coast and floorboards to shingles. This is the Money Pit Home Improvement show on Tom Kraeutler. |
| 0:00:37 | LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete. |
| 0:00:38 | TOM: And welcome to the program. Hey we’re here to help you guys take on projects that you want to get done around your house, your apartment, your tents, where you live, your yards. If you’ve got questions about projects you’d like to take on, whether they’re repair projects, renovation projects, remodeling, decor, you name it. Well, we’ve been at this for a lot of years, and I’m sure we’ve got some ideas that can help you speed those projects along and get them done right the first time. But you’ve got to help yourself first. That’s the way this works. And you do that by calling us at 1-888-Money-Pit or posting your questions to moneypit.com/ask. Coming up on today’s program, fall is no time to ignore your lawn and landscape. What you do now is going to determine the quality of your yard next spring and summer. So we’re going to share some tips to do just that. |
| 0:01:28 | LESLIE: And winter heating costs are also good. It’s sending a chill down your spine even when your house is warm. We’re going to have tips for spending less on heating. |
| 0:01:38 | TOM: And power outages can strike without warning, especially with winter winds and ice storms on the way. So don’t get caught in the dark without a plan. We’ve got your blackout survival tips just ahead this hour. |
| 0:01:48 | LESLIE: But first, we want to help you create your best home ever. So whether you’re doing a job yourself or you’re hiring a pro, we are ready to help you get that job done right the first time. Plus, we have a very cool new product to give away today from Greenworks. It’s the 40 volt 500 watt four slot inverter portable power station. Now, this is perfect power solution here. If you are on the go, you’ve got seven ports that can support a wide range of devices like your phone, a lantern, a fan lighting, or even a mini fridge or TV. I mean, come on, guys. What do you want to plug in? I bet it can handle it. |
| 0:02:22 | TOM: Yeah, it’s worth 789 bucks. And we’re going to send this out to one listener drawing at random who reaches out to us with a home improvement question. Let me underline that, because we get a lot of folks that will reach out and say, I want to win the prize. No, that’s not the way this works. You got to call us with a home improvement question and the core question, remodeling question. And if you do, you’ll get the answer to your question in a chance to win this great product from Greenworks. So head on over to moneypit.com/ask. Or call us right now with your home improvement question at 1-888-Money-Pit. So let’s get to it. Leslie, who’s first? |
| 0:02:56 | LESLIE: All right, Dorothy in New Jersey, you’ve got the Money Pit. How can we help you today? |
| 0:02:59 | CALLER: I respect all life, but when you have a cell phone off a wall that left, the basement is coming up into the house. It looks very ugly and scary. I understand they’re carnivores, so maybe they need other bugs, but I don’t really know how to get rid of them. And also, I’d like to know what are crickets, how I can catch them. |
| 0:03:22 | LESLIE: What kind of crickets are you talking about? Those weird looking ones that happen. They’re, like, gigantic in your basement. They look like prehistoric. |
| 0:03:29 | CALLER: Black ones that live outside. But as soon as it turns fold, they. They come and you hear singing in your garage. |
| 0:03:36 | LESLIE: And you don’t want to kill anything, correct? |
| 0:03:38 | CALLER: I guess I could, but personally, I have a pet that it’s crickets. I would like to charge them. I put on the internet. I can’t seem to come up with a way to capture them or, you know, I’d like to catch them and get them out to these centipedes I’m open to, you know, extermination. |
| 0:03:59 | LESLIE: Well, I was going to say, you know, for your basement, I would start by making sure that everything is sealed off. So you have anything that protrudes through the foundation wall, you know, dry air vents, anything. Make sure that it’s all sealed around. Anything can come in through the tiniest opening. So whether you use an expandable foam or a steel wool, you know, you want to make a combination of things to close up every opening that you see, because that’s how they’re getting in. Now, once you’ve done that, if you see a centipede in the house, I would suggest you could take a vacuum and you can put like a piece of pantyhose at the end of the intake hose. So before it gets into the bag or gets into the area, it gets caught in that little piece of pantyhose. |
| 0:04:38 | CALLER: Oh, that’s a good idea. |
| 0:04:40 | LESLIE: And you can vacuum them into the panty hose and then release them into the wild or whatever you like, or feed the crickets to your lizard or snake friend. Now, as far as the crickets in the garage, I would do the same. I’d make sure everything is sealed up. I don’t know of any sort of traps that you can place and leave and, you know, go and then collect any of the crickets. I’ve done and I’ve seen this done with people of crickets in the basement, specifically the cave crickets. They take tape and lay its sticky side up around the entire perimeter of the room and then the crickets, when they crawl in under the walls, they get stuck to the tape. Now they’re still alive. Stuck to the tape. I would usually think people throw away the tape, but you might be able to feed them to your friend the way that. |
| 0:05:25 | CALLER: Okay. Thank you. |
| 0:05:26 | TOM: All right. Well, good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit. |
| 0:05:31 | LESLIE: All right. Got you. Got the Money Pit. How can we help you today? |
| 0:05:33 | CALLER: We had water come in our basement two or three weeks ago from a rainstorm we had. And I’m just wondering how to prevent that again. |
| 0:05:40 | LESLIE: Okay, so so far, you’ve dried everything out, got rid of any sort of issues that may have occurred from the flood. |
| 0:05:46 | CALLER: Yeah. |
| 0:05:46 | LESLIE: Okay. So if you’re getting water that comes along with a heavy rainfall, what you want to do is I mean, that really is a signal that you’ve got drainage issues around the exterior of your house. So there’s a couple of things you have to look at. First of all, you want to look at your gutter system and a lot of people don’t have a sufficient amount of gutters or maybe the gutters are clogged, maybe the downspouts are clogged, or perhaps the downspouts just isn’t sitting in the right location. A lot of people just put it down about right next to the foundation wall and call it done. So what you want to do is make sure that your gutters are clean and free flowing downspouts too. Sometimes you have to snake those out if they run underground, you want to make sure that everything is connected and it’s still moving the water away to where it’s supposed to be. And if they’re just ending at the foundation, while you want to extend that down, spout out at least three feet or so away from the foundation, then you want to look at the dirt all around the perimeter of the foundation. You want to make sure that it slopes away from the foundation you want like a gradual slope. But you want to make sure everything is moving away from the foundation wall. And if you can do that, that’ll really do the trick. You know, a few years ago, more than a few years ago now, I had a clogged down spout I didn’t even know about it went underground. I just assumed everything was fine. And I came home to a super duper duper soggy basement. And it was truly just because of that. And ever since we fixed that, you know, knock wood, it’s all working. |
| 0:07:06 | CALLER: All right. Well, thanks for your help. |
| 0:07:07 | TOM: All right. Well, good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit. |
| 0:07:12 | LESLIE: Hey, you want to support our podcast and help us grow? Well, go ahead and leave us a five star review on Apple Podcasts and we’ll be forever grateful. Plus, you’ll be helping other homeowners discover our show. Just go to MoneyPit.com/review. |
| 0:07:26 | TOM: Here’s another great reason to reach out to us because we’ve got the Greenworks 40 volt 500 watt four slot inverter, portable power station to give away to one lucky listener who reaches us with their home improvement question. We think about this thing, it’s awesome. It’s a portable generator that can create enough power for off grid outdoor fun. We’re talking camping trips. Tailgating backup power during electrical outage is a great product to have around. It’s worth 789 bucks and includes four, four and five year batteries and a fast charger. And it’s going out to one listener drawn at random who reaches us with a home improvement questions you got to call in. You got to go to moneypit.com/ask you can record your question there are lots of ways to get in touch with us but once we get that question we will toss your name in the Money Pit hardhat and you might just win that fantastic portable power station from our friends at Greenworks. |
| 0:08:15 | LESLIE: Wendy in Georgia, you’ve got the Money Pit. How can we help you? Today? |
| 0:08:18 | CALLER: I have two drafty doors and we opted to use the peel and stick foam insulator. Okay. And it didn’t work that well. And it just it just created more of a gap. It seemed like it just it just didn’t work at all. And I’m just wondering what kind of solution can we use instead of the plastic still in style. |
| 0:08:40 | TOM: So when you say the peel and stick foam, you mean when the doors close, you get drafts that come through them and you use the peel and stick weather stripping? |
| 0:08:48 | CALLER: Yes. |
| 0:08:48 | TOM: Do you want to operate these doors in the wintertime? |
| 0:08:51 | CALLER: Definitely. |
| 0:08:52 | TOM: And what kind of doors are they? What are they made out of the metal doors or are they? |
| 0:08:56 | CALLER: It’s a metal door. |
| 0:08:57 | TOM: So it’s an old metal sliding glass door. |
| 0:09:00 | CALLER: No. So it’s a regular door is just in. It goes out to our patio, but it’s not a wood or it is made of metal. |
| 0:09:08 | TOM: So it’s a metal door. It’s a regular metal door. Yes. Are the drafts coming in around the sides and top of the door? Are they coming under the door? |
| 0:09:14 | CALLER: Under the door and on the sides right where the door locks. |
| 0:09:18 | TOM: If the door is out of alignment. In other words, if you close the door and it doesn’t evenly strike the jam all the way around, it’s going to be almost impossible to get a seal from that type of weather stripping. It’s got to strike the weather stripping and then compress it a little bit to give you the seal. Now, I would take a look very carefully closing that door like, you know, open and close it from the outside, bringing it to where it just starts to touch the jam and see if it strikes evenly all the way around. If it doesn’t strike evenly, then you need to adjust the door. And that’s usually done by moving the door jam one way or the other to get it to basically hang better so that it will strike evenly in terms of the door at the bottom, the door saddle might be replaceable, or in the alternative you could do something that’s probably even easier and less expensive as you could put a door sweep on the bottom of the door. Now a sweep attaches to the face of the door and it basically goes right down to the floor. It looks kind of like broom like has bristles that are really tied together. And that actually would help a lot. A lot of the breeze that’s coming through in under the door. Okay. And then, of course, you could always go with the storm door. And that’s another way to approach the whole thing. |
| 0:10:33 | CALLER: Okay, that sounds perfect. |
| 0:10:35 | TOM: Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit. Well, your lawn, your landscape, they do a lot for you throughout the year and fall is an important time to take the steps you need to take to keep it in tip top shape throughout the winter. So here are some ways to make sure you are set for a green recovery next spring. First up, keep mowing grass that gets too high can attract lawn damaging field mice. Shorter grass is more resistant to diseases, traps, fewer falling leaves, and allows more sun to reach the crown of the grass. That’s the most important part. So less leaf will turn brown in the winter. However, if you cut off too much at one time, which everyone’s tempted to do to figure out is cut short, the square wants to cut it as often, well, that can actually be very damaging. So for the last two cuts of the year, never trim more than a third of the grass blades off in a single cutting. And next you want to aerate your lawn. This is something that I do about every other year. Compressed soil hurts grass health, so everything kind of punches holes into the soil and gets oxygen and water and nutrients into the lawn. So what I typically do is I’ll rent a walk behind aerator or if you have like a lawn tractor, you can get attachment to pull behind that or you can hire your landscapers to do the same thing. But aeration is a really important step to keep you unhealthy. |
| 0:11:54 | LESLIE: All right. Now, you also want a multiyear leaves. So many mowers out there now can actually mulch leaves with an attachment. And so mulching with the mower can actually mix those grass clippings with those leaf particles. You’re getting these nitrogen rich grass particles and these carbon rich leaf particles, and they’re going to compost more quickly and together they’re going to bring all of those nutrients right to the soil. And also now is a great time to shore up those trees and bushes. You can use trimmers, chainsaws, pull pruners, cut back your trees, those shrubs, those plants you may even need to tie or brace limbs of upright evergreens or plants to prevent them from breaking in high winds and the coming snow. It’s going to happen, you guys, there’s going to be some snow at some point. So think about calling a professional arborist if you’ve got big trees or some hard to reach spots, but you definitely want to get things in shape for the winter season. |
| 0:12:47 | TOM: Yeah. Now, if your lawn has any bald spots, this is a really good time to reseed though. So you want to use an all in one lawn repair mixture which basically has the fertilizer and the seeds sort of all mixed into one with some sort of a binding agent. You can use a garden rake or a detached to scratch the loose soil and sprinkler down there. Make sure your water, you kind of watered a lot when it’s first getting started. But as you put it in now, there’s plenty of time for those roots to grow deep by the time next summer comes around. Otherwise, if you plant in the spring, those roots are not that deep and they kind of burn out when summer comes. So fall is a great time to recede those kinds of spots in New Orleans. So basically, if you take these simple steps now, we know when springtime comes around, you’re going to be ready to go. Your lawn is going to be green waiting for you. But if you ignore it, well, you may have more weeds, you have more hassles. It’s just better to do it right now. So with that on your to do list. |
| 0:13:39 | LESLIE: Ralph in Pennsylvania is on the line with a heating issue. What’s going on? |
| 0:13:42 | CALLER: I have a friend who’s at my house. Right. And there’s one room that I guess when they build the houses, basically a garage. And I’m using that room because it’s really nice, but I can’t get it to heat up for some reason. It seems like the it’s like a dress coming in there and I can’t get the room warm at all. |
| 0:14:01 | TOM: And how are you heating it? What is the heating system look like for that particular room? |
| 0:14:06 | CALLER: I don’t have heat in that room. |
| 0:14:08 | TOM: But you say you can’t heat it up. How are you trying to heat up? |
| 0:14:11 | CALLER: Oh, I don’t want to put any more of those atmospheres on the stove. |
| 0:14:14 | TOM: So you’re using a portable heater and you’re not it’s still it’s not warming up. Is that you’re that situation? Correct. A couple of things. First of all, garages are essentially the exterior of your house. And so if they’re not built to contain heat, then they’re going to be very difficult for you to do just that. You mentioned it has a flat roof, so you don’t have a lot of access to that roof space where you could add insulation, the walls or the walls insulated. |
| 0:14:44 | CALLER: Yes, there is actually the garage is actually attached to the house. There’s like a very big door, actually. So this. |
| 0:14:50 | TOM: So this is part of your house, but it not part of the central heating system for the house. Correct? |
| 0:14:54 | CALLER: Correct. |
| 0:14:55 | TOM: Yeah. So I really think you need to have more to use in that space as well. So I don’t think you’re getting enough heat out of this portable unit. What how is your house, the rest of the house? Heated Oil. Gas. Electric What? |
| 0:15:08 | CALLER: Oil, Oil. |
| 0:15:09 | TOM: Okay. Hot Air Force there. Correct. Is there an opportunity to extend the heating system ducts supply in return into that area? That was formerly a garage. |
| 0:15:18 | CALLER: Yeah, I think that’s where. Yeah, maybe that’s what I have to do. I don’t know. But, you know, my problem is actually that I feel like a drought. Even if I take out like you see a place on the plus one on the left, I it’s like you’re coming through there. Yeah. |
| 0:15:34 | TOM: So you’re going to probably do some comprehensive draft proofing. So look, first of all, you need to extend the heating system into that. If it turns out you can’t or it’s not going to deliver enough heat, the least expensive way to heat that room would be by two. And then just in this room, electric baseboard heaters, you could have these permanently wired in and run off the thermostat. These are run off the clock thermostat so that when it really gets very cold, you could use that to supplement the heat in that room. That’s the least expensive way to add additional heat to that space. In terms of the drafts, yeah, you need to start attacking those drafts in all the ways you normally attack them. You want to try to identify them if it’s coming in around the outlets, then you add gaskets behind the outlets. There’s foam gaskets, very inexpensive. You can put in that go under the cover plate and will cover that area if it’s coming around the windows. You may need to whether strip those windows or caulk the windows. You know, you want to attack those one at a time. And the roof above says a flat roof is that roof insulated as well? |
| 0:16:32 | CALLER: Yes, it is. |
| 0:16:33 | TOM: Well, then it sounds to me like what you want to do is seal off the drafts and add additional heating to that room. The easiest way you can I just don’t think you’re getting enough BTUs in there with the space heater. Okay. |
| 0:16:44 | CALLER: Okay. Thank you very much. |
| 0:16:45 | TOM: You’re welcome. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money Pit. |
| 0:16:50 | LESLIE: Kay in Arkansas is on the line and need some help changing a wall surface. What’s going on? |
| 0:16:54 | CALLER: Cable. It is a sturdy home cinder block of probably just that thick, but it hasn’t bricked on the outside. But the inside I would just like something a little more pleasant to look at. |
| 0:17:08 | TOM: Okay, that makes sense. So are we talking about a basement here? |
| 0:17:12 | CALLER: No. This is an above ground. It is a cabin on a lake property. |
| 0:17:18 | TOM: So you need a paint that can cover the masonry block walls. |
| 0:17:22 | CALLER: Well, a paid or stucco or something that gives it a different texture than a cinder block look. |
| 0:17:30 | TOM: Okay. The process of coating the interior walls isn’t as much stucco as it is plastering. So what has to happen is that wall surface has to be covered with a layer of plaster, much in the same way they used to build plaster walls. You know, many, many years ago in, say, the thirties or the forties. In fact, in the late forties, they used to plaster right over drywall and that was one of the best wall constructions ever. So those are the options that you have to choose from doing. The plaster is probably not the job you want to do as your first DIY project, but if you work with or with a plaster and company, somebody who does this every day, they would have the skills to make the plaster look nice and smooth and have an attractive surface without really taking up much space in terms of, you know, getting too thick. |
| 0:18:16 | CALLER: Right, right. Well, that’s strange. I have plaster walls on my house at home. |
| 0:18:23 | TOM: Though. Well, maybe they’re going to follow you. The new house? |
| 0:18:25 | CALLER: Yeah. Okay. Okay. |
| 0:18:28 | TOM: Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit. |
| 0:18:32 | LESLIE: While almost a third of energy consumption at home goes to your heating and your cooling of it. So it’s no surprise that a vast number of those of you that call our show are always looking for ways to get those costs down. |
| 0:18:44 | TOM: So here’s what you need to know. Bottom line, the simple solutions are often the first to be overlooked. It’s really amazing how many homeowners don’t even have the basics right, like insulation, for example. I’m always somewhat amused by folks that call us to ask about installing a wind generator or some other equally complicated system to reduce energy costs. But when I ask about their insulation, they really have no idea how much they have yet. |
| 0:19:08 | LESLIE: Definitely. And making smart decisions about your home’s insulation as well as your heating, ventilating and air conditioning, you know, your HVAC system, those can really have a big effect on your utility bills and your comfort. So first of all, you want to check and then improve as needed your attic insulation. The insulation in the attic is key to reducing both your heating and your cooling bills. For southern states, a depth of 13 to 14 inches is good. If you’re not sure how much insulation you have, you can grab a tape measure and head on up to the attic and measure it out. Next, you want to make sure that you tune up your HVAC equipment yearly just as a tuneup for your car can improve your gas mileage. A yearly tune up of your heating and cooling system can actually improve the efficiency and the comfort in your home. |
| 0:19:52 | TOM: Now, speaking of comfort, let’s talk about thermostats. A programable thermostat can save you almost $200 every year in energy costs. And if you look at like a Wi-Fi-enabled model like Nest, you’ll have additional features like the ability to switch to a vacant house mode. When no movement is detected near the thermostat, it automatically drops that thermostat down so you save even more money. Also, if you want to improve your efficiency of your HVAC system, think about stealing your heating and cooling dock stocks that move air to and from a forced air furnace or a central air conditioner or heat pump are often big energy wasters. So if you seal them, you can improve the efficiency of the system and by as much as about 20% and sometimes even a lot more. |
| 0:20:31 | LESLIE: Now, it’s also important to replace those filters regularly. You want to replace your furnaces air filter before the heating season begins and then monthly, once you start using the heat, a dirty filter is going to reduce the airflow that goes into your system and then it makes the system work even harder to deliver the air to the registers. Now you also want to make sure that you’re insulating your water heater because a water heater loses heat through the outside shell. So if you install a water heater jacket, it’s super simple, it’s inexpensive, and then it keeps the heat from escaping. Also, turn down your water heaters, temperature setting to a safe but very efficient, 110 degrees. Instead of that potentially scalding 140, which most heaters are set at. And if you’ve got an electric water heater, you can also cut the cost of running it in half by installing a timer. This way you’re only getting the hot water when you actually need it. |
| 0:21:21 | TOM: Now, if all this talk of heating and cooling systems and such has you thinking that maybe you need a new system, well, if you go in that direction, a couple of things. I think, first of all, make sure it’s Energy Star certified, because that means you’re going to get the most efficient systems available. And secondly, make sure you take a look at the available rebates. There’s a lot of rebates out there right now, and those are just waiting to help lower the cost of those systems when you buy a new one. So take a look at what’s available. You can check for local, for state and for federal rebates. And certainly your local utility company can help connect you as well as your HFC dealer with what’s available in your area. |
| 0:21:57 | LESLIE: Sam in Tennessee is on the line with a water pressure question. How can I help you today? |
| 0:22:01 | CALLER: Yes, I’ve just purchased a home that is about a 75 years old and we’re refurbishing it and we’re trying to keep airplanes as regional as we can. I have great water pressure and every room that has water. |
| 0:22:19 | TOM: Sam, does your 75 year old home have steel water pipes? |
| 0:22:23 | CALLER: It has the old. We’re eventually going to replace all the water systems, but we’re having we’re having to live in part of the home now and redoing the other half while we live here. |
| 0:22:37 | TOM: If you have the original steel water pipes in the 75 year old home, they’re absolutely going to suffer from interior rusting. What happens with steel? Is it rust and expands inward So it kind of clogs like an artery, so to speak. And the older it is, the more of that can occur. It’s possible that that you may have a bad pipe on the way to that tub, and that’s why you have such a slow fill out of that. The other possible issue is the valve itself. It’s feeding water in that same bathroom. I presume you have a sink in the toilet. Do you notice any water pressure problems with those appliances? |
| 0:23:17 | CALLER: No, sir. We have, like I said, great pressure everywhere except for that one. Stick it. You know, the hot and cold runs into one. |
| 0:23:27 | TOM: Well, I mean, the other thing, it could be as a bat. It also could be a bad faucet on that tub. But, you know, if it’s if the pressure is pretty good everywhere else, it’s not it’s not likely to be rusted just at the bathroom, at the one fixture itself. So I would suggest that maybe you want to replace that tub, that sort of tub valves, because it’s probably obstructing there. |
| 0:23:46 | CALLER: Right. Well, actually, it’s got the old timey butterfly controls on it. We was really warned that you can. |
| 0:23:54 | TOM: Find those valves. There’s a lot of sources of antique plumbing and some of the new fixtures and fossils are designed to basically go be used in a retrofit situation like that. So you can find modern versions that look old. |
| 0:24:08 | CALLER: Yes, sir. |
| 0:24:08 | TOM: Thank you, Sam. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit. Have a great day. |
| 0:24:13 | LESLIE: Let us know what projects you are working on so that we can lend you a hand. But also, we’ve got a really great reason for you to reach out as well. Up for grabs today. We’ve got the Greenworks 40 volt 500 watt four slot inverter, portable power station. I mean, this is like a baby generator. It’s amazing because it’s power on the go. You’ve got seven ports that can support a wide range of small electronics to give you comfort and convenience. I mean, if you need a mini fridge can power that If you’re going camping and you want to bring a TV, heck, why not? You can totally power that with us fans, phones, lanterns, lighting all of it can charge easily and it includes 44.0 amp hour batteries and a super-fast charger. Make sure you check it out. It’s going out to one listener at random. |
| 0:25:01 | TOM: Call us right now with your question to qualifying. The number here is 1888 money bit that’s 888-666-3974. Or better yet, post your questions at Moneypit.com/ask. |
| 0:25:12 | LESLIE: While dishwashers are supposed to make your dishes clean not stinky Nathan what’s going on? |
| 0:25:19 | CALLER: Smells coming from the dishwasher. Change the drain hose, clean out the interior. Still got a smell. |
| 0:25:27 | TOM: Typically when you get odor from a dishwasher, it’s because of microbes that are decaying from all the food particles that are in there. And to get rid of that smell, you really need to do a thorough job cleaning it. There’s a product called Dishwasher Magic that’s very effective and it’s also very easy to use. You put the bottle of dishwasher magic in the in the tray and then you run the machine. And it’s specifically designed to get into all of those nooks and crannies and deal with that type of debris and odor that results from it. And it comes clean in one cycle. |
| 0:26:05 | CALLER: Okay. Thanks. |
| 0:26:07 | TOM: You’re welcome. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit. Well, we’ve all seen the news stories about entire towns without power for days at a time. But if a winter storm leaves you without power, what should you do? |
| 0:26:21 | LESLIE: Number one, guys, don’t use candles. You want to invest in some good flashlights. You want to keep them handy, and you want to always keep them in the same spot. So when something goes wrong, power goes out, it’s dark. You know exactly where you’re going for them. And remember, check the batteries often this way you don’t find yourself in the dark, literally. |
| 0:26:39 | TOM: Now during an outage. Powered down appliances and don’t turn them back on again until the electricity has been restored for at least about a half hour. And that way, the utility company can kind of stabilize the power grid and avoid another block. Had a lot of times when the power comes back on, it’s not steady. Some kind of comes and goes. You may hear that in the form of your refrigerator, for example, or maybe it seems to kind of darken or the lights darken and they come back up. That’s because the grid starting to stabilize. So give a little bit of time for that to happen before you turn your power back on. |
| 0:27:09 | LESLIE: Yeah. Now, here’s another thing. When the power’s out, don’t just keep opening up your refrigerator to think about what you might want or check to see if things are still good. You’ve got to keep the cool air inside. You want to eat the food from the refrigerator first and the freezer later. Those frozen items can last several days. Now, also, you want to avoid becoming a victim of carbon monoxide poisoning. So never, ever, ever run a gas powered generator indoors or even in an open garage that’s attached. Just because the door is open does not mean it’s okay. |
| 0:27:41 | TOM: Also important, avoid cooking with charcoal or propane in any enclosed area. If you plan on heading to a relative’s home, sort of wait it out, remember that street lights and traffic lights will also be on the blink and approach intersections with caution. |
| 0:27:55 | LESLIE: Now, if you want to avoid a bad situation completely, why not consider investing in a standby backup power generator? They’re actually much more affordable than ever, and they’re almost more necessary than ever as well. I mean, we have one and it’s really just been fantastic because, one, we need it. It is there and it comes on all by its lonesome. |
| 0:28:16 | TOM: And also adds to the value of your home. So great idea. |
| 0:28:21 | LESLIE: Emily in Minnesota reached out to a team money pit and she says, I would like to either have my hardwood floors refinished or refinished them myself. They’re faded near the windows from the sun and scratched and worn in some other places. What is the best way to tackle this project? |
| 0:28:37 | TOM: So, I mean, certainly calling a Ferrari finisher is the easy way to do this, but you can do this yourself, especially if those scratches are not terribly deep. Here’s how I would suggest you do that. Obviously, you have to remove everything from the room. You have to vacuum, maybe even a dry, damp mop kind of a thing to get all the dust and stuff out of there to start. Then what you do is you rent a floor buffer, but not with the buffing wheel. You use a sanding screen. It kind of like looks like sort of like window screen material, but it has abrasive on it and it sits on the bottom of the floor buffer and lightly work that all around your floor. And then what this is going to do is take off like the upper level of finish old finish that’s there, and maybe any dirt that’s ground in. Once you’ve done that, you may have to do some handwork along the edges because sometimes the floor buffer doesn’t get too terribly close. Once you’re done that again, you get a vacuum in and then again, damp mop it, let it be really, really, really, really dry and then you can apply the urethane. Now, when you apply the polyurethane, first of all, do not buy water based urethane always by the solvent based because the water based usually doesn’t have the durability. You’ll be sad if you do that. All this work. So you use the oil based or the solvent based urethane. You can apply it not with a roller, but with something called a lamb’s wool applicator. It’s like a piece of fabric that has a wooden applicator stick that supports it, and you dip it into a regular paint tray and then you sort of mop on is the best what you think of this, the urethane. You may have to cut in around the baseboards all the way around with the brush, but you mop this on, working your way out of the room, out of the house, whatever you have to do, then go away for like a day. And I mean, really let this thing dry and the amount of drying time is going to vary based on the dampness and the humidity. If you’re doing it in the chillier time of the year, it’s going to take longer than you’re doing it in mid-summer. But it’s not terribly hard to do. You going to have to go back now after this first coat and put on a second coat. So you need at least two coats kind of following the same procedure, you know, the seasons again, But you do have to put a second coat on so you get good, thorough coverage and again, let it dry. Even when you start moving the furniture back in, you know, put the furniture up a little protector’s, don’t grind that furniture on the floor because it does take a while for that polyurethane to really, really cure. |
| 0:30:59 | LESLIE: All right. Now we’ve got Kathy in Kalamazoo, Michigan, who reached out and she says she has an 80 year old home with plaster ceilings that are cracked. How can I determine if it’s a structural issue or not? |
| 0:31:09 | TOM: It’s not likely a structural issue. What happens in old homes is the plaster loosens its attachment with the ceiling and it will start to sag and crack. And let me tell you, you got a piece of falls. It’s really heavy and it can hurt you. So you have to repair it, Kathy, That’s for sure. And there’s a couple of ways to do that. You can use plaster washers, which basically go and support that crack and pull those sections that are loose back up. And if it’s done right, it’s a permanent repair. Just don’t want to get to bed because, again, if it falls, it’s going to leave a mark and it’s going to hurt. |
| 0:31:41 | LESLIE: All right, Kathy, I hope that helps you out. And, you know, start off by just look it up while you’re walking around for a while. |
| 0:31:49 | TOM: This is the Money Pit home Improvement Show. Thank you so much for spending a bit of your day listening to us. We hope we’ve been helpful if you’ve got inspired to take on a project but maybe don’t know how to begin that project. Remember, you can reach out to us 24/7 by going to MoneyPit.com/ask, that’s MoneyPit.com/ask. |
| 0:32:09 | TOM: But for now it’s all the time we have. I’m Tom Kraeutler. |
| 0:32:11 | LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete. |
| 0:32:13 | TOM: Remember you can do it yourself. |
| 0:32:14 | 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.) |
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