Show Notes
- Clothes Dryer Tips: These 5 clothes dryer tips put a new spin on the best way to do laundry.
- Metal Roofing: Learn the latest options in metal roofs that last long and stand up to Mother Nature.
- Best Indoor Plants: You don’t need a green thumb to grow these easy indoor plants.
Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
Plus, answers to your home improvement questions about:
- Bathroom Ventilation: How can you ventilate a bathroom that has no fan? Diane gets advice on installing a vent fan through an exterior wall or between floor joists above the ceiling.
- Warped Hardwood Floor: Kenneth’s new hardwood floor has started to warp. We suggest ways to reduce indoor humidity and trying to sand down the raised areas.
- Door Gap: Julianne needs to close the gap under her bottom door sill. She needs to pack some epoxy patching cement into the space to reinforce and seal the space.
- Insulation: Is ventilation needed after using open-cell spray foam insulation in the attic? Joe won’t need it and his HVAC system will work even better.
- Attaching Shutters: Lisa is considering installing window shutters but isn’t ready to attach them permanently. She could use clips that snap onto the siding until she’s sure.
- Cleaning Travertine Tile: Steve wants to clean and restore the gloss on travertine tile. We recommend some DIY products to clean, polish, and seal the surface.
- Fireplace Façade: Lynn needs ideas for giving her fireplace a new façade. Marble, granite, and faux stone would be attractive options to adhere right over the brick.
- Driveway Repair: Big cracks in an old concrete driveway need repair. George gets tips on how to insert a backer rod to fill wide cracks before sealing them with caulk.
Podcast Transcript
Read Transcript
| 0:00:29 | TOM: Coast to coast and floorboards to shingles. This is the Money Pit Home Improvement show. I’m Tom Kraeutler. |
| 0:00:34 | LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete. |
| 0:00:36 | TOM: And I have a question for you. What are you planning for this weekend? Is it a home improvement project that you want to get done? Well, if it is, you’re in the right place because it so happens that’s what we do. We’re always picking up the hammers and picking up the signs and picking up the paintbrushes and getting something done around our money pits. And if you need help tackling your project, reach out to us with your questions. You can do that by going to money. BET.com Slash asked, Just click the blue microphone button or call us at 1-888-Money-Pit. Coming up on today’s episode, is your laundry coming out of the dryer, feeling damp or maybe looking wrinkled? We’ve got some dryer hacks that can put a whole new spin on the best way to dry your clothes. |
| 0:01:16 | LESLIE: And if you’d like to protect your home against anything Mother Nature can throw at it, installing a metal roof can do just that. We’re going to share the latest options in metal roofs. |
| 0:01:26 | TOM: And if you guys love the look of greenery around the outside of your house but seem to have only a black thumb when it comes to getting that green to flourish inside your house, we have a solution. |
| 0:01:35 | LESLIE: But first, do you love your home but sometimes feel like it’s an endless pit that you’re throwing money into for home improvements and repairs? We get it. We can help, though, you guys. We can help you tackle your to do’s with confidence. No project is too big or too small for us to lend a hand. So let us know what you are working on this fall weekend. |
| 0:01:54 | TOM: And you can do that by calling us at 1-888-Money-Pit. That’s 888-666-3974 or going to money BET.com slash. |
| 0:02:02 | LESLIE: Ask heading out to Missouri we’ve got Diane on the line is dealing with an old bathroom what’s happening in your older home. |
| 0:02:09 | CALLER: Well it’s actually my son’s home and he’s out of the country right now, so I’m trying to help him out with some maintenance things that it doesn’t have a fan for ventilation. And so there’s some renters in the house right now. And they complained of mold on the ceiling. And it’s I just wonder where it says it’s on the ground floor. And so getting into it, like from going through the ceiling to mount a ceiling ventilation fan would be kind of difficult, I think. And so are there options for work arounds for having a ceiling, ventilation, for bathroom ventilation? |
| 0:02:51 | TOM: Is this bathroom on an exterior wall? |
| 0:02:54 | CALLER: Yes. |
| 0:02:54 | TOM: Okay. So I presume there’s a window. Right? |
| 0:02:56 | CALLER: There’s a window, but it’s painted shadows and it’s an old nonfunctioning window. |
| 0:03:02 | TOM: Yeah. So, I mean, unfortunately, there’s a building code out there and a lot of a lot of places that says if you have a window, you don’t have to have a bath fan. As if, you know, you’d be happy to have that window wide open in the winter is just kind of a silly thing. But look, there’s a couple of things you can do. You could install a bath fan in the exterior wall. It doesn’t necessarily have to be in the ceiling. Sometimes we see these in the wall themselves. It just has to be flashed properly so it doesn’t leak on the outside. I would also recommend that you’re putting it in from scratch that you wire it to a static switch, which basically means it runs as long as it has to take the moisture out of that room after you’re done showering. And since you have to run it after run the wire in the switch anyway, you might as well usually. You made a start though. Well now you mentioned putting it in the ceiling would be difficult. It may or may not. Depends on the direction of the floor. Joyce above, if they happen to be perpendicular with the wall of the windows on, it might be possible to install a bath in that ceiling and run the duct in between those floor joists. On its way, sort of outside of the house, certainly a lot more difficult, but not impossible. And I’ve done the project myself. You’ve got to make sure you have the choice of running the right direction and there’s no obstructions so that you can get a duct up above that fan and then run it towards the exterior wall. |
| 0:04:20 | CALLER: Oh, yeah, I thought about that. So you’d be able to kind of could you just use like a set finder to identify which direction there Joyce will run in? Okay. Yeah. |
| 0:04:29 | TOM: You can use my favorite stud finder, which is a hammer. I’ll tap on the ceiling and you can hear. You can hear where you’re on the joist. And the other thing to do another trick is if you take a flashlight like a pretty strong like LED flashlight and you hold that flashlight up against the ceiling. So not pointed but like flush. So it’s like parallel to ceiling. As that beam casts its glow across the ceiling, you’ll be able to see every nail in every trail Mark and know exactly where those studs are. It shows that. Yeah. |
| 0:05:02 | CALLER: Yeah. Okay. Okay. Yeah, that’s great. Okay. |
| 0:05:05 | TOM: You’re a good mom for taking care of your son’s house. |
| 0:05:08 | CALLER: Right? All right. Well, thank you. Thanks so much for the call. That’s great information. |
| 0:05:13 | TOM: You got it. |
| 0:05:14 | CALLER: Good luck. I think that I… |
| 0:05:16 | LESLIE: Kenneth in Tennessee, you’ve got the Money Pit. What’s going on? |
| 0:05:18 | CALLER: Yeah, hi. I was calling about some hardwood flooring we had installed in our home. It’s topping, and we purchased the home and have hickory for it, So we worked with a local law company and tried to match the existing flooring, and we put it in four rooms and now it seems like it started topping like almost immediately. And I went back to the distributor and the local installer and he was not very copacetic, didn’t want to work with us, kept putting us off. Long story short, spent over a year for still cops. I understand I might be able to put a humidifier in here, a rather dehumidifier, and it might help. But what’s the solution? Is there any solution short of ripping it out and putting it back in? I think it was installed improperly. |
| 0:06:11 | TOM: But can unfortunately, one wood starts to work like that. There’s not a lot you can do to kind of get it to lay back down. It’s usually caused by high moisture. You said that perhaps it was improperly installed. Not sure if that’s the case or not, but when it starts to twist and warp, it’s usually because there’s too much humidity. So one thing I would suggest you do is if you have a forced air heating system, cooling system in your house, look into picking up a whole home dehumidifier. This will work automatically to reduce the amount of humidity and moisture in your home and keep it a steady place for hopefully it won’t get much worse. Now, if the wood seems to stabilize after that, you could think about sending it. If you have it professionally sanded, it will take up the edges that are perhaps warped and sticking up a bit, help them sort of lay down and if we get it to be stable, you may in the long run not even notice it anymore. But I hope that helps you out. Sorry it happened to you, but good luck with the project and if we can help you any further, get back to us. |
| 0:07:14 | LESLIE: Hey, you’re tired of living in a money pit. Well, we’re here to help. And if you want us to help out, it would be awesome if you could leave us a five star review on Apple Podcasts. Just go to MoneyPit.com/review. It’s only going to take a minute and it means the world to us. Juliana, Massachusetts You’ve got the Money Pit. How can we help you today? |
| 0:07:32 | CALLER: For the past several years have used silicone caulking to fill in a one half inch gap between the bottom of the back door sill and the concrete walkway that comes up to it to keep water and critters from coming through. It breaks down very easily. So it needs to be replaced. And it’s such a big gap. It really doesn’t hold up well. Right. So I was thinking of using the expandable foam, but I was told that is not waterproof. Yeah. And someone else recommended using a hydraulic cement to fill in that gap and make like a lip there to keep the elements out. |
| 0:08:17 | TOM: So the sill is the bottom silver door is not is it the kind of sill that could be removed off of the concrete? |
| 0:08:22 | CALLER: No, it’s it is. It’s already off of the concrete, but it’s that gap that’s there. I’m trying to find out how to fill that in. |
| 0:08:30 | TOM: Is it does it have some give when you step on it? Because there’s a gap underneath it? Does it does it bend and twist at all? |
| 0:08:37 | CALLER: Not at all. It’s very sturdy. |
| 0:08:39 | TOM: So here’s what I would do. I would get some I would get some cement, epoxy patching, epoxy repair, cement. It’s very adhesive. Okay. And I’ll stick to the old concrete surface, clean out as much as you can of what you’ve put in there before. And then I would very carefully, with a very small trowel or you may be able to do this with like a party knife. I would start to pack the underside of that sill with that epoxy patching cement until the point where it just starts to squeeze out ever so slightly from the bottom of that sill. And then I would just let it harden right in place. So two things will happen. You’ll seal the gap and also you’ll reinforce that open space, because one of the reasons that the cork falls out is because cork is rubbery and it’s just going to bend and flex and tear away. But if you use a solid cement to fill that gap, you’re not going to have this problem anymore. |
| 0:09:25 | CALLER: Good idea. Thank you very much. |
| 0:09:27 | TOM: You’re welcome. Good luck with that project. |
| 0:09:30 | LESLIE: Joe in Rhode Island, you’ve got the Money Pit. What’s going on with your insulation? |
| 0:09:33 | CALLER: Well, we built a new home. And it’s two by six construction with a truss roof. And I used an open cell, sprayed in insulation and they come in and then they shave it all down to the studs. So we have a completely sealed envelope of the structure itself. Now it’s a truss roof so there’s really no attic but there is a space up there. When you sheetrock the whole ceiling and close that off, do I need to be concerned with some sort of ventilation in the attic space? |
| TOM: No, not at all. Not at all. Where did they insulate in the attic? Did they insulate under the roof itself? | |
| CALLER: They insulated the roof, right to the plywood roof. | |
| 0:10:05 | Yeah. Nope, you absolutely do not need to ventilate a spray’s home house. And here’s why. Because basically now that attic is a conditioned space. I have a spray from the attic. It’s terrific because it’s pretty much the same temperature as the rest of the house all the time. Used to be that it was super hot in the summer and really cold in the winter. Now it’s pretty much even Steven And the fact that you used spray foam means that it expanded and sealed all little cracks and gaps and crevices. So you’re not going to have any problems with it with drafts getting in there. So you do not need to ventilate that roof. |
| 0:10:50 | CALLER: Now, we have mechanical equipment up there. I have the air conditioning unit up there. No concerns with that space either? |
| 0:10:59 | TOM: No, it’ll even work better because now you know, when it’s trying to cool in the summer, it’s not going to be doing so in an attic space. That’s 110 degrees. |
| 0:11:08 | CALLER: All right. I was concerned because there’s absolutely no ridge vent. No shaft. |
| 0:11:12 | TOM: But yeah, no, that is done correctly. And we have to start thinking differently now. We use attic ventilation when we use products like fiberglass, because we have to manage the moisture, but with spray for ventilation, that is not an issue. That is now a condition to separate part of your house, just like any room in your house. You may not have eating ducts up there, but it does not need to be ventilated. |
| 0:11:33 | CALLER: Fantastic. |
| 0:11:35 | TOM: All right. That’s a good choice. All right. |
| 0:11:37 | CALLER: All right. |
| 0:11:37 | TOM: Very good. Good luck, Joe. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit. |
| 0:11:42 | LESLIE: Well, warm clothes fresh from the dryer feel great. But what about the laundry that comes out? Wrinkled, damp, staticky. We’ve got five tips to keep your clothes and you looking your best. Now, first of all, you may be shocked in a good way to learn that aluminum foil can eliminate static. So instead of using dryer sheets, just crumple up a piece of foil into a tight, smooth ball and toss it into the dryer. It works and there’s less waste because that foil can be used multiple times. |
| 0:12:10 | TOM: And you need to dry your clothes out as fast as possible. We’ll do this. Take a clean, dry towel and add it to your wet laundry For the first 15 minutes of the drying cycle and then remove it. The dry towel absorbs some of the moisture from your clothes so they’ll dry faster. |
| 0:12:25 | LESLIE: Now, are your clothes coming out of the dryer a wrinkly mess? Well, letting your dry clothes sit in the dryer too long. That’s what the problem is. So go ahead. Toss a handful of ice cubes into the dryer and then run a quick cycle. The steam from those ice cubes is going to get rid of those wrinkles. And I hate to say it, guys, but another way to avoid those wrinkles is to simply fold your laundry right after they’re finished drying. I mean, come on. Mine generally end up on the chair in the bedroom for at least. |
| 0:12:52 | CALLER: A few. |
| 0:12:52 | LESLIE: Hours. So I guess. |
| 0:12:55 | TOM: And how about this? Are your clothes always accessorized with maybe pet hair? Well, if you love Fido or Fluffy, but you don’t like wearing their fur, try drying your clothes first before putting them in the washing machine. The dryer will lift off the hair before the material gets wet. |
| 0:13:11 | LESLIE: And there’s nothing worse than having your sheets and blankets balled up into a big wet wad. Or, you know, the things that are sort of stuck in the corners of your fitted sheets as well. Here’s a tip. If you add a few clean tennis balls into the dryer, they’re going to tumble around and improve that air circulation. So any of those large items are going to dry properly. Lisa in Michigan is on the line with the window question, What’s going on in your Money Pit? |
| 0:13:35 | CALLER: So what I wanted to do is I wanted to put shutters on the house, but I’m not sure which color or which style. Okay. But the only way down to fasten the shutters is to drill into the siding. |
| 0:13:49 | TOM: Oh, interesting. |
| 0:13:49 | CALLER: I don’t really like that, because if it doesn’t work out and I hope. |
| 0:13:54 | TOM: That hole in your siding. Yeah, that’s a good question. Got to get creative on this. Well, lets me ask you this. If you put the shutters up, are they all going to be about the same size? |
| 0:14:02 | CALLER: Yes. |
| 0:14:03 | TOM: Well, then I don’t think it really matters because you could you could make sure that the drill pattern is the same no matter what Styles center you put up. |
| 0:14:12 | CALLER: But I may find out that shutters don’t work at all. |
| 0:14:14 | LESLIE: Now, Lisa, do you have any friends who are good at Photoshop? |
| 0:14:18 | TOM: Yeah, exactly. |
| 0:14:20 | CALLER: Okay. I just didn’t know if there were any there were any fasteners that lasted into the siding. |
| 0:14:27 | TOM: You know, there is a there are types of fasteners that are designed to snap into vinyl siding without causing damage. And they’re often used by electricians or cable TV installers, and they’re actually called siding clips. And basically they’re designed to kind of hold a wire in the clip under the siding so you don’t have to actually pierce the siding. You may be able to find those and, you know, install some of those clips and then try to figure out a way to hang the shutter to the clip, at least temporarily, so you can, you know, have an idea as to whether or not it looks good and you’re happy with it before making that commitment. So look for those vinyl siding, hanging sliding clips, they’re called, and maybe that will get you where you want to go. Or as Leslie said, best bet, learn Photoshop. |
| 0:15:17 | LESLIE: Steve in Hawaii. Aloha. Welcome to the Money Pit. |
| 0:15:20 | CALLER: We’ve got this really nice travertine tile in our kitchen and some other parts of our home too. But the kitchen is primarily the part that I’m bothered by. And you can see spots where things have spilled with, you know, drops of whatever. I think lemon juice happened was one of the cases. You look at the tile, it’s very nice. But if you look at it from an angle, you can see the glass, except for these random spots about the size of a nickel that are no longer glossy, where something has spilled and basically taken the gloss off. And I wonder if there is some product or some treatment that I can do to the floor to restore the glass to make it look like it’s a nice new floor again, or at least look better than how it looks now. |
| 0:16:09 | TOM: Right. Well, I mean, certainly marble does need a lot more maintenance than most other surfaces, even though people think it’s really durable. It really does need cleaning and sealing and that sort of thing. Now, if you have a professional, do what’s going to come in. They’re going to buffet and say, look, you know, beautiful. But there are some do it yourself products. One of the most common manufacturers in that line is called Stone Care. And they have a number of cleaners and sealers and polishes that are designed for travertine. So I think that’s a good place to start. Take a look at Stone Care.com. I’m sure their products are pretty widely distributed and I think you may find the solution there. |
| 0:16:49 | CALLER: Too. Do I want, as a sealer or a cleaner product am I looking for. |
| 0:16:54 | TOM: Well, you have cleaners, you have polish and you have sealers. Right. And it really depends on the condition of the marble. I would certainly start with a cleaner. And if you’re seeing a lot of where you think the pores are really opened up, then you might want to add a sealer and then polish on top of that. But it’s kind of a multistep process and it is a lot of work and that’s why a lot of times these solid stone, even countertops that folks get and think that it’s kind of a one and done thing, they’re just like sorely disappointed, especially the first time is spill, you know, coffee or tomato juice and have a stain to deal with. |
| 0:17:29 | CALLER: Yeah. Okay. We’ll give it a try. |
| 0:17:32 | TOM: Thanks. Good luck. Your voice. You’re very welcome. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit. |
| 0:17:38 | LESLIE: Hey, guys. If you’d like to protect your home against anything that Mother Nature can throw at it, installing a metal roof can definitely do just that and a lot more. In fact, metal roofs last three times longer than asphalt. Shingle roofs require virtually no maintenance and are pretty much the most sustainable roof choice you can make. |
| 0:17:55 | TOM: Renee Ramey is the executive director of the Metal Roofing Alliance and joins us now to talk about why metal roofs are a great way to add value to your home while protecting it from hurricane or tornado force winds, as well as hail, ice, snow and even fire pretty much covers at all. Welcome, Renee. |
| 0:18:10 | RENEE RAMEY: Thank you. Pleasure to be here. |
| 0:18:13 | TOM: We love metal. Roofs are so beautiful, but I think a lot of folks don’t realize how they’ve changed since the sort of tin roofs of days of old, right? |
| 0:18:22 | RENEE: Absolutely. A lot of people in Vision Barn Roof, they’re a long way from that. |
| 0:18:27 | TOM: So let’s talk about some of the qualities of today’s metal roofs. We mentioned the storm resistance that’s becoming increasingly more important than ever. Can you talk about the way metal roofs are assembled when they go on a roof and why they’re so durable to high wind? |
| 0:18:43 | RENEE: Yeah, absolutely. A quality metal roof is not just tin slapped on with some nails or some screws. There are actually metal systems, metal roofing systems. And those systems include a lot of times being fastened down with screws or clips that you cannot see before a metal roof component is attached to that. You know, they kind of marry together. So yeah, there’s a lot of extra screws and enforcement within those metal roofing systems that make them very strong and able to just withstand whatever Mother Nature throws at it. |
| 0:19:21 | LESLIE: What about fire rating? I mean, we’re seeing such more frequent occurrence in wildfires across the country. How does a metal roof stand up in that situation? |
| 0:19:29 | RENEE: Great question. We most quality metal roofing systems are going to be rated as by a cease fire, which means we like to call it ember resistant. So obviously, when a burning ember falls on something that’s metal, it’s not going to ignite and catch fire as quickly. And certainly with metal roofs, the weather installed there very tightly installed, which means that there’s not a lot of opportunity, if done correctly, for embers to, you know, not just land on the roofs, but, you know, get up under the eaves and things of that nature. There’s certainly a lot of ways metal roofing plays into that to make it a classy system. |
| 0:20:08 | TOM: For, you know, metal roofs can last. I think I should mantra three times longer in asphalt roofs. I’ve seen them last up to 100 years, frankly. But they’re so darn durable. They do really last a long, long time, which in and of itself makes it a very sustainable choice. But one area of metal roofing technology that I am confident not too many people know about is how metal roofs have coatings on them now that reflect the U.V. heat that comes out of the sun. So it makes them actually a very, very cool and comfortable roof. They actually are lower temperature when you take the readings than asphalt shingle roofs. You know, anybody that’s been like me, a home inspector for years, anyone who’s ever been on the roof in the summer knows it just really throws a lot of heat off. Metal roofs don’t do that because of the coating system. So can you explain how that works? |
| 0:20:51 | RENEE: Yeah, there’s a coating systems, a whole vast array of coating systems that are referred to as cool coating. And within that it means that the composition of the coatings themselves, the paint colors and or the stone coating on a roof is such that they have materials or substances within that coating that do reflect, as you said, the UV rays. So they will actually not only reflect, but there’s also a term called invisibility where they will emit back out. So even if the ray isn’t immediately reflected away and some heat is absorbed, the immersed factor comes into play where, you know, the roof will offset a lot of that heat and not a lot of damage to the home itself. So, yes, cool coatings are an amazing thing and I certainly want a solar roof on a home without it. |
| 0:21:43 | LESLIE: So, Renee, in addition to a metal roof lasting 50 years, what are some other ways that it can enhance your home’s sustainability? And, you know, how does it look from a resale standpoint? |
| 0:21:54 | RENEE: Yeah, great question. So from a risk resale standpoint, the research we’ve done, we find that it adds at least 6% to the value of your home just by, you know, surely putting on a metal roof. And that’s for the reasons related to the benefits that it provides beyond the increased resale value. We also see a lot of on the sustainability or environmental front. You know, it’s a lot easier to clean. Certainly, you know, once a year or twice a year, depending on where you live at most. And typically very easy, just a garden hose, you know, running on it very, very simple. Clean process. Most metal rooves are made out of recycled content, Some portion of recycled content and all metal rooves at the end of their life are 100% recyclable. So from a landfill perspective, that story we like to share is asphalt. Roofs end up in landfill. Metal roofing does not need anything in landfill. It can be recycled. And probably related to that a bit is in many situations, on or on a home, A metal roof can be installed over the top of the existing asphalt roof. Again, that’s not every situation, but in a lot of situations. And so that’s a great thing because it saves from that asphalt roofing actually being put into a landfill when you’re doing the reverse. |
| 0:23:09 | TOM: Yeah, that’s a good point. I’ve always advised against that, only because I felt like it was, you know, just unnecessarily having a lot of extra weight in the house and, you know, another surface that could retain heat. But I see your point. There’s other side of that, which is it’s more sustainable to kind of leave it right there. So to each his own. Renee Raimi is the executive director of the Metal Roofing Alliance. And they’ve done a really good job of providing materials that help educate folks about metal roofing. We’ve got a fantastic buyer’s guide on their website right now. Encourage you to check out It’s that metal roofing, dotcom metal roof income slash buyer’s guide. I’m sure you’ll see it right there on the home page. Renee, thank you so much for stopping by the Money Pit and for educating us on the benefits of Metal Roof. |
| 0:23:53 | RENEE: Thank you very much for the opportunity. |
| 0:23:56 | LESLIE: Lynn in Arkansas is on the line and needs some help with the chimney. What can we do for you? |
| 0:24:00 | CALLER: Well, I have a 1980s brick fireplace. It is surrounded by library paneling. So the brick surface area is just the hearth and a row of bricks on either side of the fireplace and perhaps two rows of bricks above the fireplace until it meets the mantel and then library paneling from there up. I want to give it a facade. And I thought about stucco in it or plaster of Paris or perhaps tiling it. I want to attempt to do this myself, and I didn’t know if I was overstepping my boundaries. |
| 0:24:35 | TOM: The tiling is kind of a cool idea because that would be very attractive on a fireplace. I like that a lot better than stucco in it. |
| 0:24:42 | LESLIE: Oh, yeah. I mean, I even like outside of tiling, you can fix it with marble or a granite and that can really look beautiful and you can do that in a fuller sheet. They almost do it in three pieces. And that looks stunning. You can also do it in a faux stone. So it looks like a ledge stone or a river rock. You know, that really gives it some characteristic. I mean, it’s gorgeous that way. |
| 0:25:03 | CALLER: I could just go directly on top of the brick or what I need to prep the brick. I imagine I would need to seal the brick grout lines to make it a smooth finish, perhaps? |
| 0:25:18 | TOM: No, because the well, I mean, the tile could pretty much go over that. |
| 0:25:22 | LESLIE: Right. |
| 0:25:22 | CALLER: And your idea a little tricky. |
| 0:25:24 | TOM: Yeah. Yeah. You would hear it right to the brick. It might be a little tricky on the grout, but I don’t think you have to put any kind of sheathing over it or anything like that. |
| 0:25:34 | CALLER: Okay, cool. |
| 0:25:35 | LESLIE: I wouldn’t. I think your adhesive is going to be enough. The only instance is if you had, like, a super uneven surface. Like I had a very old fireplace that the surface was it almost looks like a coral, but it was like this. |
| 0:25:47 | CALLER: Old cement. |
| 0:25:48 | LESLIE: Stucco that looked like coral that was all uneven. And I put a cement board over that just to give me a level playing field. But if you’ve got an even surface, I think that’s the way to go. |
| 0:25:58 | CALLER: Wonderful. Okay, I’m going to try this. |
| 0:26:01 | TOM: All right. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit. |
| 0:26:06 | LESLIE: Well, if you’d like to choose the best plants for inside your home this winter, the first step is really knowing your house. Which room gets west, north, south, east. Lighting during the day as it’s sunny in the morning versus the afternoon. And once you kind of see the patterns there, you can choose your plants accordingly. |
| 0:26:23 | TOM: So what type of house plants are the most popular and which work the best in varying levels of load a bright light. Here’s a couple of top line tips. First off, focus. I love focus. I used to have a beautiful fake history. It’s the number one plant that’s most requested from nurseries, but it’s not a very practical plant for a home, which I will attest to. They’re difficult to maintain when they are grown in full sunlight and they will drop a lot of dense foliage. It’ll always end up having to clean up all of those leaves, which we did frequently. And I tell you what, it also gets a bit sappy, but I still love it because it’s just so rich as a part of our indoor space, we had a very tall one in room, a cathedral ceiling, and we loved it. |
| 0:27:05 | LESLIE: Now, another thing that you should be keeping in mind is when exactly you need to repot a plant. If your plant is in absorbing water, either it’s full of roots and not absorbing properly or it’s so full of roots that there’s nowhere for that water to go. And it’s time to repot that plant. So when you do it in general, you want to go up about two inches in size. You want to use potting soil, not to be confused with topsoil, which is used outside, and you want to use rocks or even pieces of a broken clay pot to line a pot with holes. This way the dirt isn’t going to clog those holes the plant can drain properly, and once you’ve done that, add some soil, you can go almost to the rim, then add your plant, fill with dirt to cover and make sure you’re just watering things thoroughly. |
| 0:27:48 | TOM: Now, if even with those tips, you still are challenged on keeping your houseplants alive. We’ve got more tips on Money Pit dotcom. Just Google 13 Hard to kill house plants on Money Pit dotcom. |
| 0:27:59 | LESLIE: George in Texas is on the line with the driveway. Question What can we do for you today? |
| 0:28:03 | CALLER: Well, I was learning about some fairly big cracks in my concrete driveway. You’re going to do that. |
| 0:28:12 | TOM: So are these new cracks, George, or have they been there for a while? |
| 0:28:15 | CALLER: Yeah, they’ve been there for a while. But college grades probably 40 years old. |
| 0:28:21 | TOM: Okay. How wide of the cracks? How far open are they? |
| 0:28:23 | CALLER: Maybe a half inch. |
| 0:28:24 | TOM: Two things. Number one, you can repair these and quick create makes a number of products that can help. But one thing that you want to do is because the cracks are so wide, is you’re going to have to insert what’s called a backer rod in there first, which is like a very small foam tube. And you press that down until it’s about a half inch below the surface or maybe 3/8 an inch below the surface. And then you can use a flow of oil urethane caulk on top of that. And the reason you’re putting the backer right in there, so that you don’t lose a lot of the other joint sealing material down all the way down to the ground. And once you do this and if you do it right, then that seal will expand and contract and it won’t crack again. Okay. So you stuff the crack with the backer, Rod and then you repair it with the urethane seal it. |
| 0:29:11 | CALLER: Okay. What is it I’m putting first in the crack. |
| 0:29:15 | TOM: It’s called a backer Rod. It’s like a foam tool. It’s like a Styrofoam tube. And it comes in different. |
| 0:29:21 | LESLIE: Gaps. |
| 0:29:22 | TOM: Just to fill the gap. |
| 0:29:23 | CALLER: I see. Okay. And all of the smaller ones just don’t do that. But the second item in there. |
| 0:29:29 | TOM: And then you apply the flow urethane. Okay. And that’ll do it. |
| 0:29:33 | CALLER: Okay. Thank you so much. |
| 0:29:34 | TOM: You’re welcome. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit. |
| 0:29:40 | LESLIE: Lisa in Texas reached out to the Money Pit and she says, I recently bought a home that was built in 1960 and I’m noticing that some of the original outlets have only two prongs, while others have three. Why is this and will it limit what I can plug into them? |
| 0:29:55 | TOM: It’s a very good question. It’s a common issue. And here’s the difference, Lisa. Both kinds of outlets feature hot and neutral wires, but the three prong outlets have a grounding wire, while the two prong outlets don’t. And since the three prong outlets have this grounding wire, they are much, much safer to use than the two prong outlets. You can’t just put in a three prong outlet into a house that’s wired for two because again, you’re missing that additional grounding feature. |
| 0:30:22 | LESLIE: All right. I hope that helps you out. It’s all in the name of keeping you safe. Now, here we go. Is that Bill wrote in. He lives in Hagerstown, Maryland, saying I just had a new concrete driveway put in and I want to know if I should apply a sealer and if so, what kind? |
| 0:30:35 | TOM: Yep. I mean, definitely regularly sealing your concrete surface is an excellent method for safeguarding its longevity. You know, not only does it aid in the prevention of cracks, but it also maintains its initial appearance and it will shield it from staining and other damage that can be caused by the weather. Now, acrylic sealers are really the best. They give you good performance at a cost effective price. They’re also frequently combined with Epoxies or polyurethanes or silicones to enhance their performance, their durability and their water resistance. It’s really important, though, that when you choose your sealer, you make sure it’s as vapor permeable on the can. That means that if you get some moisture in that driveway, which are ultimately going to do it will evaporate itself right back out the way it came in and not stay in the concrete, freeze, expand and cause cracks. |
| 0:31:26 | LESLIE: All right. That’s a great tip because Bill Winters on its way in. It can do a lot of damage. |
| 0:31:31 | TOM: Well, if you’re only using your microwave to heat up leftovers, you might be missing out on some other very handy uses. Leslie has tips on what those are in today’s edition of Leslie’s Last Word. Leslie. |
| 0:31:42 | LESLIE: Yeah, you know, there’s a microwave is a great appliance to have for heating up your leftovers, warm in soup or making popcorn, all those great things. But did you know that you can disinfect your sponges and get rid of that funky smell in a microwave? Well, here’s what you do. You just soak those sponges in a water and vinegar mix and then zap them for a minute. You can also do the same with a cutting board. Just rub a little lemon on it, heat it for a minute and say goodbye to last night’s raw chicken germs. Now, have you ever found that you go to get the honey because you’re making a cup of tea Because it’s autumn and you want to relax. But that jar of honey is all crystallized and solid. Well, you can bring it back to life on medium power for 30 seconds. You can also cut grilling time on potatoes if you heat them for 2 minutes and bell peppers for just one minute before you put them on the grill. You just have to make sure that you use oven mitts when you take things out of the microwave, because things do get crazy hot sometimes. Dishes get crazy hot and you want to just avoid it getting a nasty burn. Now, another great tip for your microwave is to warm up citrus fruits. Not only is this going to help release the juice when you’re using them in the recipes, but it also helps release the oils in the skin for resisting or flushing out just that pleasant scent. When you’re displaying those citrus fruits in a pretty bowl. I mean, it really does make them very nice. It’s a beautiful all natural air freshener. Who doesn’t love the smell of fresh oranges and lemons? So that’s a great trick. And there’s some other fun things you can be doing with the microwave. |
| 0:33:06 | TOM: Great tips. This is the Money Pit Home Improvement show coming up next time on the program. Are you guys looking for an easy way to make your heating system more efficient, maybe spend a little less money on heating this winter? Well, it could be as simple as changing your furnace filter, but not all of those filters are created equal. We’re going to share how to pick out the one that’s right for your house on the very next edition of the Money Pit. I’m Tom Kraeutler. |
| 0:33:30 | LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete. |
| 0:33:31 | TOM: Remember, you can do it yourself. |
| 0:33:33 | 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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