Show Notes
In today’s show, learn the secrets to creating a harmonious home as we discuss expert advice on decluttering your space, ensuring your stairs are secure, and embracing the uniqueness of vintage finds, plus answers to more home improvement questions.
Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
- Home Organization: Conquer clutter chaos by keeping your home organized.
- Staircase Safety: Step-by-step tips for staircase safety.
- Vintage Design: Add vintage charm to your home with salvaged architectural pieces.
Top Questions & Answers
- Chimney Venting: Gayle needs advice on converting her old fireplace to gas. Lining the chimney with a stainless steel flue would be easier than installing a power vent.
- Cracked Drywall: Doug was told his drywall cracks are from a structural problem, but it sounds like the contractor did a bad job installing the drywall.
- Flooring Options: Engineered hardwood, laminate, and engineered vinyl planks are all good options for Rebecca to install over her existing ceramic tile floor.
- Window Leak Stain: A leak under a cellar window left a stain that looks like mildew. It’s probably just efflorescence that Ross can easily remove and paint over.
- Water Heater: Gwen’s water heater was clogged up with hard water mineral deposits that settled to the bottom. Draining it regularly will keep it running efficiently.
- Refinishing Countertops: Should a dark Formica countertop be covered or replaced? Mark learns about a great DIY product that will give the surface the look of granite.
Podcast Transcript
Read Transcript
| 0:00:24 | TOM: Coast to coast and floorboards to shingles. This is the Money Pit Home Improvement show. I’m Tom Kraeutler. |
| 0:00:29 | LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete. |
| 0:00:31 | TOM: Happy holidays, everybody. Hope you’re enjoying this very magical time of year. And we will give you today off from your home improvement projects because it is a holiday season. But if you’re thinking about tackling the job in the weeks and months ahead, now would be a great time to reach out to us with your questions because we’ll help you get started on the right foot. We can help you save money. We can help you determine whether you can do it yourself. You should hire a pro. We can tell you what questions to ask that pro. We can really speed that project along to make sure it gets done right. But help yourself first by reaching out to us with those questions. You can do that two ways. Call us at 1-888-Money-Pit. That’s 888-666-3974 Or post your questions to moneypit.com/ask. Coming up on today’s show it is a time when we have a lot of stuff that accumulates in your house and it might be a time when it’s feeling a bit cluttered. Well the key to an organized home is to proactively keep those messes from forming in the first place. We’ll tell you how to do just that. |
| 0:01:31 | LESLIE: And before your holiday guests arrive, it’s a good time to make sure that your stairs are safe. Now, they’re often the most dangerous part of the home, but they can be even more tricky without the right type of railing. I mean, you become a pro at your staircases, like you kind of know where everything’s, like, off on. All the usual suspects there, but somebody who’s visiting doesn’t. So we’re going to tell you how you should make sure that your railings are safe. |
| 0:01:54 | TOM: And as we head into the chilliest part of winter, we’ve got some ideas to give your fireplace a nice custom look with easy to build surrounds that can add some vintage charm. |
| 0:02:02 | LESLIE: But first, we want to help you create your best home ever. If you can dream it, you can build it. And we can help. |
| 0:02:09 | TOM: And you can help yourself right now by calling us at one 888-Money-Pit or posting your question to Moneypit.com/ask for the fastest possible response. Let’s get to it. Leslie, who’s first? |
| 0:02:21 | LESLIE: All right, we’ve got Gail on the line with the heating question. |
| 0:02:23 | CALLER: You know, I have a real old house like 1904, and I do have some chimneys in it, you know, with flues. And so I had thought I would use a chimney vent for the gas line, but that I would probably have to put a liner in it like a steel liner and somebody said that there was another alternative and that was to put a power bin, something across the ceiling of the basement and out a window and not have to use a chimney. So as a vent. So I wondered what your thoughts were on that. |
| 0:02:56 | TOM: Well, listen, lining the chimney is actually not that big of a deal for to convert it to use as a gas vent, because what you do is you drop a stainless steel liner from the top right down. It kind of looks it’s like it looks like a stainless steel version of a dryer hose that makes sense. It’s kind of like it stands like that and it gets terminated at the top and then sections are added so that it goes all the way down the bottom and it comes right out the side of the chimney and you hook it up. So it’s really not a big deal for a furnace company or gas company to do that. I suspect that adding this power vent is probably a lot more work and more money and basically what that is, is a fan that has to run all the time and it would suck the gases off the furnace and then, you know, run them sort of horizontally against gravity because it’s a fan and push them out the side of the house. Not only are you going to have a motor to run all that time, you’re going to have a vent that goes across the ceiling of the basement and you’re going to have a vent that comes out the side, the wall, not the right way to do it. I would line the chimney with a stainless steel flue from the top to the bottom and go with it from there. |
| 0:03:54 | CALLER: Okay. And I guess one of the questions I do have to fluids coming up on that one chimney right now, I have a hot water gas hot water heater, which just goes out without it, without a stainless lining. But I guess they could put a large enough lining to line both flues. |
| 0:04:11 | TOM: Well, actually, you would probably bring the gas, water heater flue and the boiler flue or furnace glue together and then run them up the stainless steel, because honestly, you’re really not supposed to be using one of those old flues just for gas water here, because what happens is in the wintertime, they can get really cold and they can force condensation inside of those hot, warm gases that are going up and that can actually reverse the draft and basically make that water heater vent back into the house until the chimney warms up. So you’re better off having that one flue line and then running them both up through that. You basically bring them together and then you bring them into the chimney and all that. Okay? |
| 0:04:50 | CALLER: All right. Thank you so much. |
| 0:04:52 | TOM: You’re welcome. Gail, thanks so much for calling us at eight 888-Money-Pit. |
| 0:04:56 | LESLIE: Doug in Oregon is on the line with a question about drywall. What is going on at your Money Pit? |
| 0:05:01 | CALLER: I had a flood in my home, wiped out the whole inside get to the point where the sheetrock goes on. They came in and put sheetrock and now the crack in one wall, in the ceiling, in the living room and in the kitchen. And they’re telling me I have structural problems. |
| 0:05:20 | TOM: But I was telling you that I dug. |
| 0:05:22 | CALLER: The contractor sheetrock company, but I had the house inspected to have a refinance. And we do not have a structural. |
| 0:05:30 | TOM: Part of the drywall company in an effort to get out of having to fix this crack has basically told you that you have structural problems and therefore it’s not their responsibility to fix it. Is that kind of where we’re going with this? |
| 0:05:42 | CALLER: That’s correct. |
| 0:05:43 | TOM: Yeah, it sounds like it. Listen, you get structural problems that would have been picked up probably before the drywall was added. And I don’t buy it. It’s more likely that, you know, the drywall seams have to be replaced. Now, the cracks that are forming there, you know, they probably need to be done in a different way. So, for example, if you get a drywall crack because you’ve got walls of expanding, contracting, it’s frequent that what you want to do is lightly sand that and then use a fiberglass tape on top of that cracked area, not the paper tape, because the paper tape is not very tolerant of that kind of movement. But the fiberglass tape is sort of like a mesh tape where the spackle actually presses right through it. Are you seeing any other evidence of structural movement in your house except for these drywall cracks? |
| 0:06:28 | CALLER: Not at all. In fact, the house is in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, and the house was built on a slab when they came in the house or whatever. They filled up the laminated floor and three bedrooms, and there was no cracks in the floors or anything. |
| 0:06:46 | TOM: Yeah, it’s unlikely that you’ve got a structural problem. I think this sounds much more like a workmanship issue, Doug, and I encourage you to go back and get those guys to make a service call and fix it up. They’re going to cause you a lot more aggravation by chasing a possible structural issue. Because if I thought that was the case, I’d tell you to hire a professional home inspector or engineer, and then you’re going to be into hundreds of dollars of inspection fees just because these guys are being a bit lazy about going back and fixing the crack. |
| 0:07:14 | CALLER: They won’t come back. I’ve even offered to pick them up, bring me in my house, take them back to a shop, pay for a cab, come out, pay for a cab, taking them back. |
| 0:07:21 | TOM: Well, that’s even more evidence that they don’t know what they’re talking about. You know, I guess you’ve got go. He’s got options to pursue them in small claims court, but frankly, to repair those cracks, it probably wouldn’t it probably wouldn’t be worth it. You might just want to go to a website like Homeadvisor.com and find a pro that’s been highly referred by folks in your area and maybe just get them to do the repair for you. |
| 0:07:42 | CALLER: Yeah. Just rather than go into an attorney or whatever and probably money’s ahead just. |
| 0:07:46 | TOM: Probably the sad truth the small project like that. |
| 0:07:49 | CALLER: But it was a big project. I mean they did walls, aliens, everything, the houses acts like that. |
| 0:07:54 | TOM: Well, listen, I mean, all you can do is really pass on the information about the fact that these guys weren’t very professional. |
| 0:08:00 | CALLER: Right. |
| 0:08:01 | TOM: You know, by way of a review, either online or on a site like Home Advisor, for example, passing on and protect other folks from making the same mistake. |
| 0:08:09 | CALLER: Now, if I do take them to small claims court, I’m going to have some kind of an evidence or whatever I’m going to be needing. So I need to have somebody come in there and actually inspect it. |
| 0:08:18 | TOM: Yeah, you probably are. And you may have to have them and testify for you. But the thing is, I wouldn’t go through all that until maybe you make your Well, I shouldn’t be giving you legal advice, but, you know, I would take pictures of it, I would bring it to court. And if the judge decides that you need to have an expert and you just ask for and ask for a continuance to get that done. But maybe just taking the pictures in, they may not even show up and you get a judgment against them. |
| 0:08:42 | CALLER: Yes, that’s true, too. I appreciate everything you’ve had to say. |
| 0:08:46 | TOM: Yeah. All right. Well, I hope that helps. Sorry that happened, Doug. Good luck with the project, though. And it’s not likely a structural issue, but go ahead and get it repaired and keep an eye on it. Okay. |
| 0:08:54 | CALLER: Thank you so much for your time. |
| 0:08:57 | LESLIE: You know, we love hearing from our listeners. And if you want to make our day, leave us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts. |
| 0:09:03 | TOM: You know, it really helps us know what we’re doing right and how we can improve our show for you. So just go to moneypit.com/review, money bootcamp /review and you might even win a copy of our book. |
| 0:09:16 | LESLIE: Rebecca in Kansas is on the line with a flooring question How can we help you? |
| 0:09:20 | CALLER: I have several questions there. All related, I have a large mudroom, a laundry room and kitchen and eating area that are all the exact same ceramic tile and grout. And of course the ceramic is very unforgiving and slick, hard on little kids with soft feet. They fall and I’d like to change it out. My first question is, given it’s a kitchen laundry room, and that type of area would be what kind of material could I use? Some kind of a hardwood or engineered hardwood or vinyl. And second off, I just can’t imagine taking it up all that ceramic. Could I possibly do a floating floor over the top of the current ceramic tile? |
| 0:10:16 | TOM: Yeah, those are all great questions. So let’s take them one at a time. Now, there are lots of options. All those options that you mentioned are viable engineered hardwood, laminate and others like engineered vinyl plank, EVP Flooring is another good idea whether or not you can put a second layer on. Typically you can, but in the kitchen, if you put another layer on, you have to be concerned that you don’t sort of block in your dishwasher. If you had a built in dishwasher and you put more flooring up against that front edge of it, you may not be able to get it out when it comes time to replace it. So you need to maybe pull the dishwasher and make sure that if you were to put another layer of flooring in front of it, that you account for that because you want the floor that the dishwasher sits on to be the same level as the finished floor. So you may need to sort of pad it up and make sure you still have enough room. So that is definitely a concern because you definitely do not want to block that in. But in terms of the products, yes, all of those are viable options. So I would just shop for what you like and take it from there. But do take a look at that EVP product. You’ll find that at Lumber Liquidators and in other great retailers, because I’ve noticed that it looks an awful lot like wood, but it’s 100% waterproof. Know if you were to use like engineered hardwood that is designed for damp locations, but it’s wood, and so it’s going to wear like wood and perhaps not be as durable as some of the new high tech vinyl products. |
| 0:11:37 | CALLER: Okay. And could those engineered vinyl products be floating? |
| 0:11:43 | TOM: Yeah, they’re all designed to be floating floors. Yep. |
| 0:11:45 | CALLER: Okay. Okay. If a person goes ahead and puts that in, is it better to do the lengthways with the longest running crossways or lengthways of your room? Are you better to go the length of the room? What the. Yeah, we. |
| 0:12:02 | TOM: Understand what you mean. Typically, Leslie, you would go with the lengths parallel to the longest walls, correct? |
| 0:12:08 | LESLIE: Correct. |
| 0:12:09 | CALLER: Okay. |
| 0:12:10 | LESLIE: Depending on if there’s like a hallway joining them, you always want it to run that longest length so that the plank strip seems short and weird. And then that will determine, you know, where you need a threshold and different things for the adjoining rooms. |
| 0:12:21 | CALLER: Right? Right. Okay. Very good. Oh, thank you so much. |
| 0:12:25 | TOM: You’re very welcome. Good luck with that project. Can’t wait to see how it turns out. Send us some pictures. Well, most messy homes are something you deal with retroactively. That is, you kind of clean up once the clutter appears. But the key to an organized home is to proactively keep those messes from forming in the first place, right? |
| 0:12:44 | LESLIE: Yeah. You know, that is very true. I mean, there’s an old saying, a place for everything and everything in its place, and that’s a good thing That definitely holds up. I mean, one reason that things are piling up on your counters, the tables, the floor, is that they have no home. So you’ve got to assess what items are always out of place or underfoot and create or alter the storage that you have for it, maybe make it visible, maybe make it easier to reach so that those odds and ends end up where they belong and not just sort of in a holding area until you bring it somewhere else. Next, you’ve got to play Clutter Cop Dollar Bins and freebies. They’re fun, but are you really going to use that stuff? So you got to assess all unneeded items before you bring them through the front door. I have a girlfriend of mine and every time her kids go to like an amusement park or someplace where they come home with like a giant stuffed animal, she’s like, You can’t bring that inside. You got to put something else outside. So she makes them kind of swap out and see what’s the most important thing. I mean, truly, that’s definitely what you got to do. Rule of thumb, something comes in, something’s got to go out. |
| 0:13:45 | TOM: And finally, beware. How do we call it nostalgia, right? I mean, tossing little kids artwork is tough, but keeping all that stuff becomes more of a burden. I remember when my kids were young, they went to like it was like a robot summer camp where they made robots, which of course, were made out of these, you know, big cardboard boxes. And they were massive by the time they were done. And then like, I can’t really keep this too much longer. So what I used to do with that and other artwork as I got older was I took pictures of it, right? So now we have a record of it, but we don’t actually have all that lovely artwork hanging around year in and year out. So think about that. Photos are a great way to document cherished toys, baby clothes and the artwork. Anything is not a true family heirloom. |
| 0:14:27 | LESLIE: All right. Heading to New York, where we’ve got Ross on the line. What’s going on at your money pit? |
| 0:14:31 | CALLER: We bought the house there had been prior leaking in the cellar underneath a cellar window. Right. I fixed the problem with a new window and had it properly installed. But two years later, there’s still the stain and the mildew stain that’s on a concrete block below that window. Okay, I want to clean it and prep it to paint the block is still in relatively good shape, but I just want to know what’s the best process and the best product to properly clean that wall and prep it for painting. |
| 0:15:08 | TOM: So first of all, Ross, the window that was leaking is this area is still damp. Do you think that there’s any moisture that’s getting into that area under the window because it may not be coming from the window? It could be coming right through the wall. |
| 0:15:21 | CALLER: You know, we had an actual process. Not only was where the windows replace just as normal upgrade, but we had a process by a basement waterproofing company where they every two feet on the outside of the building, they bore down through the dirt all the way to the foundation. And then they had had a liquid that night. I’m not sure if you’ve heard of that process, but the liquid bentonite is kind of like a like a kitty litter almost. But when it gets injected near or into a concrete block, it gets into the block and then it, it expands like kitty litter would expand. And that process completely dried up the basement. |
| 0:16:16 | TOM: All right. Well, as I would just say to you that the reason most basements leak is because of a problem with exterior drainage. So make sure your gutters are clean, your downspouts are extended, and your soil slopes away from the house. Now, aside from that, removing the stains is not that big of a deal. Usually what you’re seeing is efflorescence. That’s the mineral salts that are left. When the water evaporates, that gets in and then it dries out. So if it’s not an active leak, you just have these things. I think, frankly, all you got to do is wire brush those walls to get rid of that loose stuff. Usually it’s a white grayish powder kind of a thing that stuck. If it’s on block, it’s not mold, it’s salts. And so once you get that clear, then you can apply a concrete block paint to that surface and you should be good to go. |
| 0:17:05 | CALLER: The dream is this has been completely taken care of. There’s gutters, there’s downspouts, there is it slopes away from the house, everything is check, check, check. Okay, good. The things that are there are definitely a darker blackish mildly of stain that just needs to be that’s left over from one that was, you know, a moist air, consistent moisture problem there, Right. |
| 0:17:31 | TOM: Yeah. But it’s not going to be Mulder mildew because you need a food source for that and you’re either a masonry surface there so you don’t have a food source of which drywall would be more concern. But as long as it’s dry, then it’s not active. I would just like I say, brush it wire, brush it just to make sure any loose stuff is off. And then you can paint right over that. You should be good. |
| 0:17:50 | CALLER: Okay, terrific. Thanks very much. |
| 0:17:52 | TOM: You’re welcome. Ross. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling in the Money Pit. Celeste, I know that you have had your Christmas decorations up since, what, like October? On how long do they stay up? How long they stay up after the holidays? |
| 0:18:05 | LESLIE: I mean, you know that my dream is to keep them up to my birthday, which is February 28, but I don’t ever do it, although I really do want to. Rule of thumb is I kind of take down like the extra decor minus the tree, like kind of right after New Year’s just because it starts to get a little cluttered for me at that point. Like, I loved it, but now I’m like, It’s over. Come on, guys. But I keep the tree up through the epiphany, which is always January six. So it’s like we do little Christmas, then we keep it up. And I also kind of really time it with when the local sanitation department is taking away the tree. |
| 0:18:39 | TOM: That also plays a role, doesn’t it? |
| 0:18:40 | LESLIE: Yeah, I don’t want the tree to sit on the front of the house for weeks and weeks, and if you miss it by a day, then like the next time that recycling truck rolls around could be two weeks. So I kind of pay attention to that as well. |
| 0:18:51 | TOM: Well, certainly a great season for decorating your home, But, you know, there is always some only so much you can take. I usually leave mine up probably through the first week in January, except one year. I did leave it up through almost into February, but it was a really bad storm. And, you know, I do things the hard way here. |
| 0:19:06 | TOM: I have I have lights that go across my roof two and a half stories tall. And I just do want to go up on that roof with the ice and the snow. So we left them up after a long time and it was fun. |
| 0:19:15 | LESLIE: All right. Heading out to Tennessee, we’ve got Gwen on the line. What is going on in your money Pit? |
| 0:19:20 | CALLER: My water heater had the element we thought had burned out, and so I had someone come and look at it was going to replace the aluminum. And he said, well, it’s clogged up and he couldn’t get it unclogged. And he said, We’re going to have to just pull this heater out and drain it, turn it on. It’s hard. And it came out of the water heater was a jailer to me. Whatever it is. |
| 0:19:51 | TOM: Let’s call it by its technical name gunk. |
| 0:19:53 | CALLER: Yeah, dark was a bit hard and but I mean it was a lot of it and it wouldn’t he couldn’t get it out until he turned the water heater over on its side and turned it around and it, it was liquid and then it was just like this jail stuff. And so anyway, I have a water system, a Connecticut water system. And so my thinking is, okay, I’m on a well, I should have said that if water is coming my way all through my water system, there’s supposed to be filtering everything before it comes into the house. You know, the Connecticut people don’t know what it is. They first thought it was White Farm, but they checked all of my fixtures, commodes and everything and said, No, it’s not White Farm. But he couldn’t he didn’t know what it was. So he just hasn’t gotten back to me. And I wondered if you all had heard of that. |
| 0:20:52 | TOM: No, but it sounds to me before you even told me that you had one well, water, I kind of knew what it was. I think it’s hard water. And I think what you’re seeing are minerals, mineral deposits that are settling to the bottom of the of the water heater. What kind of water heaters this is it electric or gas? |
| 0:21:07 | CALLER: It’s electric. |
| 0:21:08 | TOM: Okay. So a lot of that stuff just settles down the bottom. And what happens is sometimes in a gas water heater especially ends up making it very inefficient because the gas he doesn’t get through all that stuff as efficiently. How old is this water heater? |
| 0:21:22 | CALLER: It was only about five years old. And actually what I did was what the contractor said. I would be cheaper. I would be saving more money if I just got a new water heater instead of him taking the time to try and get that stuff out of the one that I had. And so I bought another. This was last year. Okay. And so even and he told me I need to drain it, you know, like every six months. |
| 0:21:54 | TOM: Yeah, that’s what I was going to say. You do need to drain it. So you got to drain at the bottom and you got a little little valve there. So you hook up a like a garden hose to it and remember, it’s going to be hot. So I would even maybe suggest turning the water heater off. You can turn off the breaker at your main panel. Maybe, you know, at night in the morning you can drain it or whatever or turn it off in the morning and at night you can drain it and then just open that valve up and let the water flow. And if you do it every six months, it’s going to wash away all any minerals that are that are stuck down there. It would be worth having a look also at the water treatment system to make sure the water softener portion of that is working correctly. Because I think with all those mineral deposits, the probably more hard water’s getting through than should. But if you flush it every six months like that, I don’t think this is going to happen again. I think you were just looking at five years of buildup. |
| 0:22:42 | CALLER: But that whether they can hold water that would make it that jelly type texture. |
| 0:22:46 | TOM: Yeah, because it’s minerals and it’s mixing with water and it’s going to sort of stick together. So yeah, it can get gunky like that. |
| 0:22:54 | CALLER: Okay, good. Well, I hope that’s all it is. It’s but, you know, you would think that the people who sent me the water system would, would think of the hard water. |
| 0:23:04 | TOM: Well, you would hope. But you know here’s something that you can do also You can why don’t you just take a water sample and send it off to a testing lab? You can find one online or find one in the area. Don’t use the water company. You don’t use the Connecticut tested. Get an independent test. And this way you’ll know, you know, if that system is working, really working properly and filtering out all the contaminants. |
| 0:23:25 | CALLER: Good idea. I will do that here. I enjoy your show. |
| 0:23:29 | TOM: You got it. Gwen, Have a great day. Well, building new stairs or railings or updating the ones that you have can be actually a very important home improvement project, especially since we’re in the middle of the holiday season when so many visitors are coming and going, right? |
| 0:23:44 | LESLIE: Yeah, I mean, that is true. You have to think about it because stairs and railings, they’re not only a decorative part of the home, but they really do have an important job in keeping both your occupants and the visitors safe. So for an existing home, stairs do take a lot of wear and tear and those treads can become loose, The railings can get wobbly, spindles can fall out. So you have to pay attention to what’s going on. |
| 0:24:05 | TOM: Yeah. And after all those years of use, a lot of times what stairwells begin to come loose themselves. The railing can feel wobbly or just seem slightly loose when force is placed on it. And additionally, you may find that you have like one squeaky wooden stair that announces to the world that you are walking on it. I mean, these are not things that you have to live with. |
| 0:24:23 | LESLIE: Yeah. So step one here is a safety check. You want to look at the stairs that have at least three steps. They should have a handrail mounted securely to the wall. Now for open staircases, spindles should be installed no wider than four inches on the center. You’ve got to prevent the small kids from squeezing in between them. I have seen kids squeeze into like the weirdest, tiniest of places. So, you know, do yourself a favor here. Four inches should do the trick. Also, look carefully where steps are uneven, particularly in older homes, because you definitely, as the homeowner and the person who uses those steps all the time have developed this like second nature instinct when you’re navigating them. But your guests, this could be the first time they’re doing it. So make sure they are aware if you’re not fixing it at that exact moment, but fix it so that it’s not an issue for you and anybody in the house. |
| 0:25:10 | TOM: Yeah, and speaking of fixing things, here’s the most common things that you might need to repair a weak or broken railing. You know, when they’re first installed, railings are sturdy, even though they may have some give to them, but only after a lot of years of use, they can become less sturdy through basic wear and tear and strain on the wood. So Carpenter can evaluate why your railings are weak and make the appropriate repair. Squeaking steps, not a structural problem come annoying thing, but what you want to do is find where it’s loose and you want to install a trim screw, which is kind of like a drywall screw with a really small head through the tread and into the risers, which is the part of the stair that holds it up from below that should secure the loose step and avoid the squeak. And if you got broken treads, make sure that you reinforce those. You can repair them, you can replace them. But if the tread breaks, that’s a bad thing because you could step through it. |
| 0:26:00 | LESLIE: Yeah. Now, when it comes to thinking about what the cost of a stair and railing, installation and repair will be, you always have to think about the complexity of the layout. A simple straight staircase is going to be less expensive to update than, say, a spiral stair. But for the safety of you, your family and your guests, it’s really an important part of your home to pay attention to. Now we’ve got Mark in Kansas on the line, who’s got a question about a countertop? What’s going on? |
| 0:26:24 | CALLER: Well, we have a from my cook countertop is darker and my wife is wanting something lighter. And I’m wondering, do I have to replace it or can’t I push something over? |
| 0:26:37 | TOM: No, actually, there’s a product that you can replace that you can actually cover that top with. It’s made by a company called Daich Coatings. I see. I actually just used the product myself in the last few months, and it’s called Luxe Rock. L You Exxaro. C K They also have another version called Mineral Select. And essentially these are products where you put on a primer, and then once the primer dries, you put on a coat of the luxe rock, you let that dry and then you very carefully sand it and what you see come through are like all the flakes of different colors of like gold, for example, that you would see in a granite piece. And once you reveal that you’re sort of happy with that appearance, then you put on like an epoxy topcoat and that sort of locks it all in. So in my case, I had a really old kitchen and I had the option to go over the old top, which I would have been happy to do. But I was I was reconfiguring cabinets, so I decided I would build the countertop myself from scratch using plywood. And when people said, You’re going to put a plywood countertop in, well, I got to tell you, I had friends that saw this luxury product after it was complete and they were kind of like, What do you mean that’s not that’s not granite? They’re like, like looking at it. They can’t see anything that tells it was not granite. I finally had to turn a piece of the top upside down approval wasn’t granted. That’s how darn good it looked. So check out Daich Coatings.com. You’ll find those products — they’re really good at this and I was very happy that I made that choice. |
| 0:28:10 | CALLER: Well, thank you. I appreciate it. |
| 0:28:13 | LESLIE: Well, if you love the look of vintage charm, you know, think of things like ornate molding things or details in the flooring or something. That’s definitely typical of a certain building period of time. You know, that it definitely adds value to your home. But if you’re living in a fairly new home, you probably don’t have a lot of those special touches that definitely make you feel like that home has been around a while. So one way to capture that vintage feel without giving up modern convenience and this is a great trick, you can add a salvaged antique fireplace mantel, the mantel, the whole hearth. You can really find some beautiful stuff at these salvage yards that are just gorgeous. They can be carved wood, they can be stone, and you don’t even need to have a fireplace. You can just put them in about any room. And then that decorative fireplace quickly becomes that focal point. And I mean, truly, if you have a fireplace, this is also a great way to add that historical sort of detail that gives it that charm. And, you know, really not a tremendous amount of work. |
| 0:29:11 | TOM: Now, when older homes are renovated or torn down, it’s becoming more popular to save architectural pieces and actually to sell them to salvage dealers. So you can find some pretty good looking stuff. We’re talking about Mantels, Clawfoot, bathtubs, stained glass windows, and even antique doorknobs. And if you don’t have a salvage dealer close to you, you can even buy these things online. |
| 0:29:32 | LESLIE: Yeah, you can check for individual pieces that have been redone on sites like Etsy or even Craigslist. And even though that mantel won’t actually be a working fireplace, it will definitely add that warmth to your home. And then, of course, you can add things like a beautiful sort of brass antique fireplace screen or something that gives it that charm as well, even fireplace tools or a vintage basket right near it. Lots of ways. Once you install this mantel that you can give it more charm. Charles in Colorado reached out to Money Pit and is asking how hard is it to replace faucets on our bathroom and kitchens sinks? We have zero DIY skills. This is this something we could or I should say should do ourselves? |
| 0:30:13 | TOM: Well, I give you credit for taking the proper assessment of your of your skills and where you’re at with that. You know, look, first of all, replacing faucets today is not that difficult. But the problem is usually that you can’t turn the water off that feeds them because those valves in the sink that turn the hot and cold water on, a lot times they’re stiff. They don’t turn off all the way. So you really can’t get much through into the project before you’re dealing with a drip in your face or something of that nature. But you can turn those valves completely off and the faucets open and you’re not getting any more water out, then I think it’s probably safe to proceed. The fittings are pretty standard, so it’s unlikely you’re going to have something that doesn’t match. But it is a tough place to work, believe me, for a 200-pound guy trying to fit into a tiny kitchen cabinet is always a challenge for me. So, you know, it can be a very difficult thing because you have to get sort of tools up underneath the sink sometimes. So, you know, it’s inconvenient, I’ll say, and you’ve got to be a bit of a contortionist. But if you can tolerate all that, I think you could probably do the replacement, but maybe keep the plumber on speed dial just in case. |
| 0:31:21 | LESLIE: All right. John from Pennsylvania wrote in, Is there a way to keep snow from forming at the edge of my roof and collapsing the gutters? |
| 0:31:27 | TOM: Yeah, proper insulation and ventilation. John. So what you’re describing here is the early stages of an ice dam, which is not a good thing. And the reason these dams happen is because when that snow starts to melt from the top of your roof, you’re above your above the heated area of the house. If the water starts to run down and when it hits the section of roof that’s at the overhang, it freezes. And when it freezes, it builds up and builds up and builds up. And that can cause leaks into the house and can also cause those gutters to clog up and collapse. What you need to do is improve your insulation and make sure you’re not blocking ventilation of the soffit so that you keep the heat inside the house and not up into the attic. |
| 0:32:06 | LESLIE: All right, John, I hope that helps. Yeah, you got to keep those gutters free flowing. You got to keep the snow from forming at the edge of the roof. Lots of things you got to do. |
| 0:32:15 | TOM: Well, have you been decking those halls with holiday cheer? And if you’re getting ready to take them down soon, you’re no doubt about to get up or down a ladder maybe for the first time since last year. Well, with 20,000 injuries every year from ladders, Leslie’s got some great tips to help keep you safe in today’s edition of Leslie’s Last Word. Leslie? |
| 0:32:35 | LESLIE: Yeah, you’ve got to check that ladder out before you even take one step onto it. Worn out or improperly used ladders? That’s the other thing. It could be in great condition, but you could just be doing it completely wrong, folks. And that that can cause thousands of serious injuries every single year. So to stay safe, you want to make sure that your ladder has slip resistant rungs on the feet. You want to inspect it for cracked upright and split rungs or loose rivets. And when you’re using an extension ladder, you need to make sure that the bottom is pulled away from the wall by at least one quarter of the height that you need to work at. And finally, never stand on the top rung of any type of ladder. And especially when it says like, hey, this is not a step. They mean it was ladder, do not stand up there. I can’t believe how many people I see are like, Oh yeah, this is a perfect platform for me. It’s not just be careful, guys. All right? Stay safe this holiday season. |
| 0:33:32 | TOM: This is the Money Pit Home Improvement Show. Coming up next time on the Money Pit, you’re probably inside more often than not this time of year. So here’s a question. How healthy is the air you’re breathing? Well, maybe not as healthy as you think. We’re going to teach you how to cut down on dust, allergens, dirt and even germs with a whole house air cleaner. On the next edition of The Money Pit, I’m Tom Kraeutler. |
| 0:33:55 | LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete. |
| 0:33:56 | TOM: Remember, you can do it yourself. |
| 0:33:58 | 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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