#2387 – Baby on Board: Babyproofing Your Home | Removing Red Wine Stains

Show Notes

In this episode, learn about three kinds of safety tips: keeping kids safe by babyproofing your home, keeping fabrics and surfaces safe from red wine stains, and keeping your back safe by installing a heated driveway to eliminate snow shoveling! Plus, hear answers to a wide range of additional homeowner questions from Money Pit callers!

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Show Notes
Top Questions & Answers
Ask Your Home Improvement Question
Podcast Transcript

Child Safety: Baby on the way? Keep kids safe with important tips for babyproofing your home.
Stain Removal: After a merlot mishap or a cabernet crisis, here’s how to remove red wine stains.
Heated Driveways: If you’ve had enough of shoveling snow, you may want to invest in a heated driveway.

Ask Your Home Improvement Question

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

Podcast Transcript

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0:00:24	TOM: Coast to coast and floorboards to shingles. This is the Money Pit Home Improvement show. I’m Tom Kraeutler.
0:00:30	LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.
0:00:31	TOM: And we are here to share our decades of knowledge, helping you take on projects you want to get done around your house. So whether you’re a do it yourself or you a do it for me kind of home improver, or if you’re what we call a prosumer, you do lots of projects by yourself. You’re almost a contractor, but you got, you got a day job, right? So whatever class you find yourself in, if you’ve got a question about a project you’re involved with, we would love to help reach out to us with your questions at 1-888-MONEY-PIT or go to Money Pit. AECOM Ask. Coming up on today’s episode, is your family growing well before you hear the pitter patter of little feet, it is smart to make sure home sweet home is as safe as it can be. We’ve got everything you need to know about baby proofing your Money Pit coming up.
0:01:17	LESLIE: And if you enjoy a glass or two of wine during these long, chilly winter days, we’re going to share a few simple solutions for any Merlot mishaps that maybe happened along the way. I am not speaking from experience, but. You know, things happen.
0:01:30	TOM: So like a Cabernet crisis. And also ahead, would you do anything to avoid shoveling snow? Again, some people are kind of at that, especially those are in the Midwest, In the West, they’ve had so much snow. Well, we’ve got a serious solution for anyone who’s had enough shoveling for one lifetime.
0:01:45	LESLIE: But first, we want to know what you want to know. It’s our job and our mission to educate, inspire and help you build confidence on projects that you want to get done.
0:01:55	TOM: But your job, yes, you do have a job is to help yourself first by reaching out to us with those questions. Give us a call right now, 1-888-MONEY-PIT. That’s 888-666-3974. Or for the quickest response, just go to moneypit.com/ask and click the blue microphone button. Let’s get to it. Let’s whose first?
0:02:13	LESLIE: Wendy in Florida is on the line with a question about the structure of her home. How can we help you?
0:02:18	CALLER: Yes. I’m restoring an old house. It’s about a hundred years old. And we’ve had to take up the kitchen floor and we’ve taken there’s layers of plywood and whatnot. And then in order to get through it and get the right out water, we’ve gone down to the to the beams underneath the floor. Now, the beans are 4×4 and they’re all 28 inches on center. And so I’m wondering as this needs more support and I’m wondering, can we put instead of putting beams down in between the two so the parallel, can we put perpendicular at ties across from those two and create boxes to support the floor?
0:03:06	TOM: Can you get underneath the existing floor, Joyce?
0:03:08	CALLER: Well, it’s called on above grade. And so there’s not that much space you can get under there. It’s about to my side, to the ground.
0:03:20	TOM: So here’s the thing. You can’t change the direction of the beams because you usually go front to back for a reason. Typically, there’s a girder in the middle of the structure, of the middle of the building somewhere. But if you want to support those beams because they’re sagging a bit, what you could do is you could put beams purposed perpendicular to those underneath them. But those, of course, would have to be supported as well. So I think your options are to put additional beams in in between this big wide 28 inch gap or to put the beams perpendicular underneath. But if you put them underneath, you still have these wide this wide gap. The other problem you’re going to have is supporting the plywood now or whatever you’re going to need for that. So in that case, you would have to put some some perpendicular spacers in between the beams. But those are not they don’t they don’t have any structural value. All that’s going to do is give you some additional surface to support whatever kind of floor you put on top of it. So that makes sense.
0:04:16	CALLER: Okay. That answers my question.
0:04:18	TOM: All right, Wendy, good luck with that project.
0:04:20	LESLIE: David in Massachusetts has a question about mold. Tell us what you’re seeing.
0:04:23	CALLER: I have a problem. I have a driveway which is about six years old. And in the summer, we get more up on this shady area. Not too much, but enough. It comes about maybe two feet by three feet wide. They have used electronics trying to kill the mold, but within month is back. Yes, I’ve high school with soap, water and detergent and it’s still come back. I think you love the water.
0:04:57	TOM: Yeah, well, there’s a very simple solution is a product called spray and forget. And when you apply spray and forget, it basically is a mil the side and it will kill the mold, the mildew, the algae, the moss that’s there, and even the lichen, if that’s what’s causing it. And it has sort of a residual effect to it. So sticks around for a couple of months and then you reapply it. So it’s really easy to do. And as long as you keep that keep doing that, you’re never going to have a problem with that building up again. Problem with bleach is you’re basically just taking it off one time and then it starts from that moment forward, it starts to regrow. But if you spray and forget, it will have some mild aside that will stay back and stop it from reforming.
0:05:37	CALLER: Outside for just a spray and forget like Home Depot or mold.
0:05:41	TOM: Or you can find it. Yeah, you can find it on home centers. Go to spray and forget e-comm. There’s a store locator there, I believe, and you can find out where it’s sold right near you.
0:05:50	CALLER: Okay. Thank you very much.
0:05:52	TOM: Good luck. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
0:05:56	LESLIE: Arena in Oregon. You’ve got the Money Pit. How can we help you today?
0:05:59	CALLER: I have a house and it’s located on a slope. So my backyard actually sloping towards my dining room. And recently we had a big storm and I noticed that there is a couple of inches of standing water in the crawl space. So I talked to a couple of people, and then I did a research and they basically have two options. One suggestion is to do a French pipe system outside of the house. Another thing is to have a French pipe inside of the house in the crawl space with a French with a pump and like seal the hole crawl space. And those two projects, they are in a different kind of budget price range. So I was wondering what you guys would recommend.
0:06:49	TOM: The problem that you’re having is a drainage issue and you have to figure out a way of intercepting that runoff before it gets to your crawl space. You definitely don’t want to put the system in your crawl space. Those are very expensive systems. And what happens is you’re still going to have a lot of water in around that crawl space which can make the structure unstable. So what you want to do is to put in a French drain that intercepts that water as it comes down the lawn and then runs around your house. The good news is that that there’s a new product out right now that makes it easier than ever. And it’s simply called an easy drain. And basically it’s a French drain that’s wrapped in an aggregate that’s made of foam pellets and then covered with a filter cloth before you have to dig a hole, put in stone, put in a perforated pipe, put in more stone, put in more filter cloth, and then put in dirt. A lot of work. Now you just basically dig the hole, throw the easy drainpipe in it, cover it up with dirt, and you’re good to go. So it’s really cut the expense and the time it takes to get this fixed down to nothing. So I think you are going to put in need to put in a French drain in the backyard. And using the easy drain approach is the best way to go.
0:07:56	CALLER: thank you. Is it okay if I put the soil, the existing soil, or do I heard that I need to purchase another type of soil because it’s all like clay and everything When when we dig out.
0:08:08	TOM: If you do have clay, you may want to use a clean filter around that pipe That would just be a little more porous and help the water flow into it easier. Okay. Generally, I would say no. You know, if you have clay, you don’t want to K-Cup. So I think that’s okay. Thank you. Yeah. The product’s called Easy Drain.
0:08:27	TOM: It’s made by ESS, and I think they sell it at the Home Depot. Just Google easy drain. You should find it.
0:08:33	CALLER: Thank you so much.
0:08:34	TOM: You’re welcome. Good luck with that project.
0:08:37	LESLIE: Do you love learning about home improvement on our podcast? Well, we love bringing you all the latest tips and tricks.
0:08:42	TOM: And if you want to make us smile, leave us a five star review on Apple Podcasts. Just go to Money Pit dot com slash review.
0:08:51	LESLIE: Jesse and Navarro’s on the line with a heating issue. What’s going on at your Money Pit?
0:08:54	CALLER: I have a two story house and my furnace upstairs, so when I turn on the here on and set my temperature to 68 degrees. All the three bedrooms is too hot and so I kind of set the temperature to 65 and downstairs it’s just too cold. And it seems like it’s not circulating near his inner circle And downstairs. And, you know, and I called theater company and a guy that came told me that there’s nothing that he can do about it. And that’s why, you know, I called.
0:09:31	TOM: So what kind of heat do you have? Is it forced air or hot water?
0:09:34	CALLER: It’s forced air.
0:09:35	TOM: And have you checked the air flow at all the registers to make sure you’re getting a good flow of air at all of those spaces, Jesse?
0:09:43	CALLER: No, sir, I did not.
0:09:44	TOM: First of all, it’s always warmer upstairs, right in it. It’s going to be warmer in the winter. And also warmer in the summer. Yes. So what you need to do is a couple of things. First of all, you want to make sure you have good airflow at all of the rooms. So you check the registers. The easy way to do this is to take a paper towel and hold it in front of the register when the heat’s on and make sure it’s, you know, blowing pretty good. Equally important is you need return ducts that air from the registers to get to the return ducts. So you want to check the return ducts? You can do the same way. Hold the paper towel against it. It should suck flat against that return duct. Like, just hold itself right there in mid-air if you don’t have a good airflow. There are some cases you can adjust the airflow on heating systems, some valve, some duct systems have dampers built into them where they can be adjusted. If it’s not a matter of adjusting. And you still have good airflow, then there’s some imbalance in the design. And that’s when it comes to figuring out how to deal with that. Can you add additional duct lines to provide additional heat? Or maybe should you consider supplemental heat, should you consider perhaps electric resistance repeater in a room or a wall through the wall, heat pump in the room or something of that nature. So you really need to kind of break it down that making sure the heating system is doing what it’s designed to do. And then beyond that, try to figure out how to accommodate it, the areas that are still uncomfortable.
0:11:13	CALLER: Okay. I’m going to try that.
0:11:15	TOM: Well, when it comes to protecting kids, nothing short of a rubber room can be totally child safe. But with some common sense, you’ll be able to remove some of the most worrisome hazards.
0:11:25	LESLIE: Well, first, let’s talk about Windows. Now, they may look completely harmless, but if your window blinds still have cords. Note that they are one of the most dangerous items in your house for babies and young kids. You’ve got to shorten all those long cords and tie them up and away from the reach of the little hands.
0:11:41	TOM: Yeah. And let’s also talk about Windows screens. They’re not the very heavy duty screens that we all grew up with. You know, they were kind of like metal screens and, you know, these were a basketball against them and no harm would happen, right? But now they’re like fiberglass. They’re soft or floppy and if a kid pushes on one from the inside, they’re going to come tumbling right out. So you really need to be careful with this and make sure that your windows have window guards as the kids are of that very inquiring age, where they like to sort of try everything, including climbing up on windows.
0:12:13	LESLIE: Now, another concern that we have is about the furniture tipping over because kids are climbers. So think about shelving. Things like that look super attractive to the little guys. So you want to make sure that your bookcases, a large TV stand, anything that basically seems like something you can climb on furniture wise is anchored to the wall. Also, here’s something you wouldn’t usually think of as a tipping hazard, but it’s your oven. That’s why new ovens include a bracket. To prevent this, it slips around the rear leg and then holds that oven to the floor. But I can remember as little guys, the boys would pull out the warming drawer and like, sit in it. So it’s like you got to make sure they’re not sitting on the door. They’re not like, because it’s so easy for it to tip over.
0:12:53	TOM: Now, having really clean sliding glass doors can also be troublesome. Kids often forget the doors. They’re the walk into it, or worse yet, they’ll run into it. And if there’s a breakage, it can have some serious injuries associated with it. So one good way to deal with that is just to apply some decorative decals at the child’s eye level as a constant reminder of those closed doors.
0:13:11	LESLIE: And finally, you want to check your stairs and your railings. Now, the railings need to be at least 36 inches tall and have no more than four inch spaces between any of the spindles. And at the same time, you want to make sure handrails are in place for all of the stairs and then go ahead and make sure those handrails have a closed end, handrails that don’t wrap around to the wall. I mean, think about it. How many times have you caught like your sleeve or part of your sweater on, like, a door handle? So if you’ve just got this banister that ends to nowhere, you’re going to get stuck on it. So make sure that it kind of curves back around to the wall so you just don’t get tripped up on the steps.
0:13:45	TOM: Good point. If you’d like more safety tips to keep your kids safe, head on over to Money Pit dot com and just search child safety.
0:13:53	LESLIE: Sherry in Georgia is on the line with a question about cleaning bathroom tile. What’s going.
0:13:57	CALLER: On? I bought a condo and the bathroom tiles are really, really pretty. But they’re old and they have lost their luster. And I think is it either I was looking for a solution that didn’t involve demolition?
0:14:15	TOM: Well, that that sounds like a possibility. Let’s see what we can do to help you. So you see, the tiles have lost their luster. Is it really the grout or is it the tiles themselves?
0:14:25	CALLER: no, it’s the tiles. They have absolutely no shine to them whatsoever. They’re very, very matte. And it is So it should have that luster like the subway tiles.
0:14:38	TOM: Well, maybe, you know, not necessarily. I mean, there’s a lot of tiles that have lost that have matte finishes, right, Leslie?
0:14:43	LESLIE: There are tiles that have matte finishes that tend to get the dirt stuck to them a little bit more easily because the gloss is there really to protect that tile. And sometimes tiles that are purposely meant to have a matte finish will have a coating on them that will help keep the dirt away. So it’s really the goal here is do we want to clean the tile that you have? Do we want to change the tile?
0:15:05	CALLER: Well, what’s your goal in a perfect world? I would like to clean it and it stay clean and shiny. I would rather end up with a shiny.
0:15:14	TOM: I don’t think she’s going to be able to bring it back to shiny. If it’s a matte finish. May not have been ever designed well.
0:15:19	LESLIE: It might never have been shiny to begin with. And cleaning a matte finish tile. It’s a different approach than cleaning a glossy finish tile because you can use different things on one than on the other because the matte is more porous and you don’t want to put something on it that’s more aggressive in its cleaning style that you could use on something with a gloss finish. You know, I think the issue with the Anglaise tile is because the glazes and on it, everything just sticks to it, the dirt sticks to it, the mold and mildew sticks to it. So cleaning it, you can’t just pick up, you know, a commercial cleanser. It just might be too rough for the Anglaise porcelain. So generally what we would recommend is using more natural ingredients. You can use vinegar and dish detergent and water. Simple mix of that I would use about a cup of vinegar. White vinegar. Don’t use anything else like a teaspoon of the dish detergent and a gallon of warm water and like mix it around. It’s not going to hurt your hands. You don’t have to worry about gloves. And then what you would do is you can scrub the dry tile, start with the dry towel with like a stiff bristle brush, not a metal bristle, like a plastic bristle brush, you know, one meant for cleaning surfaces. And that will just sort of loosen up whatever dried adhesive, dirt, mildew, whatever’s on there, whatever dirt has adhered to that surface. And then once you’ve sort of, I guess, loosened it up with that stiff bristle brush, then take a wet rag like dip a wagon of rag into that vinegar solution, and then clean the tile with that. And you should see that the vinegar will start to dissolve whatever mold or salts or product, whatever is on there. And the dish detergent just helps to loosen that up and just do it. Keep cleaning out your rag, going back into the solution. And then once you’re kind of satisfied with the cleanliness of it, then rinse everything with clear water. And now that should do the trick. Now, I don’t think you can put anything on it to give it a glazed surface because that glaze is done in the baking process of the tiles.
0:17:21	CALLER: Okay. Well, that sounds like a good plan, actually. I’ll try. I’ll give that a try. Thank you.
0:17:26	LESLIE: So welcome.
0:17:27	TOM: Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit.
0:17:31	CALLER: Thank you. Bye.
0:17:33	LESLIE: Tim in Minnesota is on the line, has a question about LED Lights. What can we do for you?
0:17:37	CALLER: I just replaced my LED lights in my basement, which I have with Askins. Okay. From time to time I get out all the time so that yeah, either you dim a little bit and they start fluctuating, they’re going up, right? Didn’t change the dimmer if the dimmer was not if it was equivalent for poor LED lights.
0:17:57	TOM: But yeah, there is. Lutron is the company that actually invented the dimmer way back in the sixties and they have a product called the CFL Dimmer. It’s designed specifically for dimmable LEDs and halogens and incandescent. And I’ve got these in my house and I like them for this reason. They there’s a range on these dimmers that you can set. So you can set like the minimum power and the maximum power. And that’s important because what happens is if you go down too far, depending on the LED, it will flicker and sort of go out so you can bring it down and like identify like the bottom in terms of the lowest setting. And then of course you can bring it up to the top and you could set that range so that you don’t have to worry about that flickering happening once. What you kind of set it, it’s done. And you can also put a mixed lighting load on it. So if you had a situation where you had some slides and also some incandescents and CFLs all in the same dimmer, you know, by having that ability to adjust the range, you could make sure that they all go down as low as they can, but they don’t go down too far where they start to flicker. That said, the LED bulbs themselves have to be listed as dimmable. The some are and some are not. The ones that are dimmable actually obviously work a lot better.
0:19:11	CALLER: I know. I know. Those are dimming works. I know I knew they ask for that.
0:19:15	TOM: So they use need to have the right kind of dimmer. So you’re looking for a diva sealed dimmer by lutron. You can find them at the Home Depot. They’re not very expensive, you know, 20, 25 bucks, something like that.
0:19:26	CALLER: So does anything with I also have another issue with this same thing that I can look to turn them on and off. And I get shocked by that, that the screw for the plate.
0:19:36	TOM: That’s a different issue. Yeah, that’s a big issue. That sounds to me like you might have driven the screw somewhere and nicked the wire. I would have electrician fix that for you. That’s definitely problem.
0:19:48	CALLER: To have an issue when I had incandescent. So is it because the whole.
0:19:51	TOM: Yeah I don’t think of that stuff.
0:19:52	CALLER: I was.
0:19:53	TOM: Never wouldn’t believe that I would get an electrician on that. That sounds dangerous. All right. Hey, listen, thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT. Good luck with that project then. Don’t do it yourself. Get a pro to help buy.
0:20:04	LESLIE: Well, if you’ve ever suffered a spill, getting a spill cleaned up quickly is the best way to make sure it doesn’t set. And this is especially true of red wine stains which will oxidize the longer they sit. So here are a couple of ways to make those stains disappear. First of all, on clothing, if it’s washable, you want to flush immediately under a cold faucet and then dab with dish soap or laundry detergent and then flush again and again and again until the stain is gone. Now, for dry clean only items, you want to blot as best you can with paper towels or a dish towel. And then get that item to the dry cleaner a.s.a.p. Now, if it happens on your carpet or on some upholstery, this is an issue here, so you got to act quick. So if it’s the carpet, you want to soak up what you can with that super quick blotting of a cloth. Don’t rub blot, sort of stomp on it and get that that liquid to sort of draw into that towel, then grab table salt in a pour spout container and just mound it on top of that stain. The salt is going to pull the wine up and out of the carpet fiber and you’ll be able to tell when the salt is no longer absorbing wine, at which point you can use a vacuum or a dustpan to just kind of sweep it all up. Now, if the spill happened on the sofa, do your best blotting with paper towels or a cloth. Skip the salt, but definitely use a fabric cleaner.
0:21:21	TOM: Now, with all of these tips, whatever you do, don’t rub. You might be tempted to sort of furiously rub it the stain. That’s basically the worst thing you can do because rubbing sort of pushes that stain further into the fibers is not ideal, considering that your goal is to extract the stain. So don’t rub it in literally.
0:21:40	LESLIE: Megan, Texas, you’ve got the Money Pit. How can we help you today?
0:21:43	CALLER: Hi. I have a closet door that it’s supposed to light. Supposed to come on. When I open the door, I have to jiggle that little button and play with it for a while before I can get the light to come on. And sometimes it arcs.
0:21:58	TOM: So you’re turning this light switch on, and. And you’re getting an arc that’s really dangerous. That is an immediate fire hazard. So you need to have an electrician fix that right away. See, these switches can basically deteriorate internally. And if they’re sparking like that, that’s a big problem. Consider yourself lucky, but that should not be happening and it has to be immediately replaced.
0:22:22	CALLER: Okay.
0:22:23	TOM: All right.
0:22:24	CALLER: I should not use that door.
0:22:26	TOM: You should get that switch fixed. It should not be doing that. All right. That’s your first thing. Your first to do.
0:22:31	CALLER: Okay, well.
0:22:32	TOM: Let’s prevent a home fire, shall we?
0:22:34	CALLER: Yeah.
0:22:36	TOM: Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
0:22:39	CALLER: Thank you.
0:22:41	LESLIE: Manny from Rhode Island is on the line. Let’s get a question about the water lines. What’s going on?
0:22:45	CALLER: Every few months, I get a mailing letting me know that I’m responsible for the water line from the street to my home. Should it break. And what they’re offering me is basically an insurance policy that would cover one policy would cover ten to up to $10,000 for repair work, and they get the companies to do the work. And then a more advanced policy would cover up to $15,000. I wanted to get your take on what you thought about this insurance policy and the probability of having this kind of a problem.
0:23:25	LESLIE: Geez, many I can relate. You know, Tom, I feel like I get these all the time. It’s the water line. It’s the sewer line. It’s the main it’s the gas line. Everything from your house to the street you are responsible for. I mean, I feel like they’re more scare tactics because I kind of just recycle them.
0:23:41	TOM: Yeah. I think for the most part, they are. First of all, just to be really clear, these are not insurance policies because they’re not regulated by the insurance laws of the state. What they are service contracts. It’s the same kind of a service contract you might get on an appliance.
0:23:56	LESLIE: Right. Well, I have service contracts for the heating system in the house and like, you know, yeah.
0:24:01	TOM: That’s a legitimate heating system. That is legitimate, right?
0:24:04	LESLIE: Exactly.
0:24:05	TOM: But for a service contract for the pipe that brings the water in your house, let me say this. If I had a really old house and I had a really old main water pipe that was made out of steel, which should have been replaced 30 years ago, I might get a service contract on that pipe, but for the most part, if you’ve got, you know, a plastic water entry line like most people do, I would not buy these things at all. The chances of this being a problem are really, really small. And if it happens, it happens. But I just don’t think it’s worth the money to insure against this. I mean, it’s just not a good example. You know, my mom has a house in Florida and they love to sell her service contracts for subterranean termites. First of all, her house has made a concrete. But let’s not let the facts get in the way. It’s true. And they want to sell our service contract for termites that live in the ground. By the way, the dry wood, termites that fly around, those are not covered. It’s only the ground. Once they would have to have suitcases and come down to Florida, like with the rest of the folks from the north, They’re moving during the winter, right? I mean, a lot of these are just like you say, Leslie, They try to scare you into getting into your pocketbook, getting into your wallet to buy these things. Yes. You’re technically responsive, but for the pipe from the meter into the house. But what’s the chances of that break in? Pretty, pretty small.
0:25:26	LESLIE: Well, if you swore you would do anything to avoid shoveling out your driveway again, here’s the real test, guys. Are you willing to invest in a heated driveway? They’re not cheap, but they do handle the job while you stay warm inside.
0:25:39	TOM: Yeah, and here’s how they work. They first of all, it starts with a boiler, just like a heating system boiler, but specially designed for the driveway. But it doesn’t push water. It pushes antifreeze through pipes that run underneath the driveway surface. This keeps it warm enough so the snow never even collects in the first place.
0:25:57	LESLIE: Now, unfortunately, the system isn’t something that can be retrofitted and it can’t work with your existing pipes either. So the upfront costs include a brand new driveway since your current one is going to need to be dug up to do this.
0:26:09	TOM: Yeah, it’s a pretty expensive thing to install. So to start comparing the price to the cost of long term snow removal, it might be more cost effective just to hire a plow the whole way snow every winter. But if you live in a snowy area or if a luxury upgrade is what you’re after, a heated driveway is one your neighbors will notice and the prospective buyers will not forget.
0:26:31	LESLIE: Bonnie and Marilyn’s on the line is having an issue at her home. What’s going on?
0:26:35	CALLER: My husband has rental property and one of the tenants decided to destroy the property on the way out and poured wet cement into the drains. And so I just want to know what can be done and the cost of it and things like that in terms of the repairs, because maybe it’s just not even worth trying to find another tenant after doing a bunch of work that cost so much money.
0:27:04	TOM: Wow, that’s awful. Boy, what a jerk to do something like that. It’s just it’s just terrible. You know, it seems to me, though, that that’s a crime. I mean, that’s basically vandalism. And as such, not only can you first, of course, press criminal charges, but secondly, it seems like that should be something that’s called that’s covered by your homeowner’s insurance.
0:27:23	TOM: Have you tried speaking with your insurance company about this?
0:27:27	CALLER: You know, it was just something that my husband had, you know, talked to me about. It’s not really anything that it’s really my business. I’m not sure. Like, well.
0:27:39	TOM: You should call your insurance agent. You should talk with them about that, because this is not we’re not talking about wear and tear like, you got to paint the walls because somebody’s living there. This is damage. This is like some but this is like having an arsonist burn your house down. You know, that’s those kinds of crimes are covered by the insurance. That’s one of the reasons you have insurance. So, gosh, we pay so much money for that. So I would definitely make that make that claim. Now, in terms of, you know, whether what how much work this is to fix, I mean, I guess it kind of depends. I’m guessing since you’re in you’re in Maryland, this house, the bathrooms on the first floor. Second floor. What’s underneath the plumbing is to go into a trailer. Okay. It’s a tree. So like I said, Yeah. So then you have you for your full access above and below. So you’re probably going to you’re probably going to have to just cut out those pipes. Will it’s all going to sort of hang down the bottom of the pipe. So you’re just going to have to find out where it ends and cut it out. But but again, I would I would not hesitate to file a criminal complaint and also to file a claim with my insurance company or at least speak to my agent about that part.
0:28:46	CALLER: Awesome. Thank you.
0:28:48	LESLIE: Ronnie reached out to Tim Money Pit about a popcorn ceiling. Now, she says, I heard in a previous podcast recently that there is a lightweight snap together wood look ceiling covering that can be used instead of removing a popcorn spray. I can’t remember the name or where it’s sold.
0:29:05	TOM: Yeah, you know, I mean, moving popcorn. We’ve got a guide on how to do that online. But bottom line is it’s a messy, very time consuming job. But it’s not the only way to get rid of that. Look, in fact, Armstrong Ceilings makes a ceiling option product called easy up and it includes both sort of the wood look planks as well as panels and installs directly over the popcorn ceiling uses a track and clip system. Ronnie So basically you install the tracks and the clips and then you sort of snap the panels in place. It’s really quite attractive. I’m not quite sure how expensive it is, but if you want to avoid the big mess of getting rid of all that popcorn in the course, you got to prime. And again, even if you do all that, it still doesn’t look quite the same as it did. Check out the easy up system from Armstrong Ceilings.
0:29:55	LESLIE: Yeah. Ronnie, it really can make a huge difference. So definitely check it out.
0:29:59	TOM: Well, spring might still be weeks away, but don’t let these dreary days of winter drag you down. A few dollar wise home improvement projects can spruce up your home and your spirits. Leslie has some tips on how to do just that in today’s edition of Leslie’s Last Word. Leslie, are you going to let the sun shine through a little bit early? Yeah.
0:30:18	LESLIE: I mean, you know, it might sound obvious, but the first thing you can do is just turn on some lights. I mean, come on, guys. This is a good time to add a lamp or some sconces, or at least increase the brightness of the bulbs in the fixtures you already have in your home, or just, you know, ask your device to make the light brighter. I’m sure everybody’s got everything automated. I don’t even want to risk saying it for all the lights in the studio going off. You know what I mean? Some other things you can do is plant an indoor garden. It’s really nice to have colorful flowers or something edible that reminds you of the spring season. And then hopefully if everything lives and does well, you just transfer it outdoors on that warm weather, return. You can also spruce up your front door. The door is a great welcome for you when you’ve been out in the dreariness. So if you’re not going to paint or get a new door, just polish the hardware, just add some brightness to the front entry. I mean, you can also just get an inexpensive doormat. I love changing out the doormats every season. I mean, first of all, they just get cruddy looking and a short amount of time. So it’s like I go over to any of those sort of like home dÃ©cor superstores and pick up like a cute one with a cheeky saying or, you know, something fun and silly that makes me feel happy coming to the front door on a yucky day outside. I mean, there’s so much you can do. It’s a great time to add any sort of fancy finial. Take advantage of sales, you know, after the holidays, even after like a winter holiday, like a Valentine’s Day or an Easter, there’s all these beautiful turned finials that are painted and festive and feel very of the season. And you can put that in a planter out front. Just kind of ways to add color. I always boost up my arsenal of like porch decor like as the sales happen throughout the year. So I always have something seasonal, whether it’s a new wreath or a new finial or a new garland or something just to dress up the house. You feel better. It’s not hard, guys. Let’s just try to get rid of the winter.
0:32:11	TOM: Downey’s This is the Money Pit Home Improvement show. Coming up next time on the podcast. High efficiency washers are on the rise in Energy Star. Certified clothes dryers can cut energy by an impressive 25%, but are these more efficient in the mind at more expensive washers and dryers? A smart buy. We’ll have some answers on the very next edition of the Money Pit.
0:32:34	TOM: I’m Tom Kraeutler.
0:32:35	LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.
0:32:36	TOM: Remember, you can do it yourself.
0:32:38	LESLIE: But you don’t have to do alone.

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