#2391 – Power Up: When to Get an Electrical Upgrade | Heating Fuel Options

Show Notes

Get tips on aspects of home energy management, from signs it’s time for an electrical upgrade to the nuances between various home heating fuels to ways of sealing and insulating your attic access panels! Plus, we’ve got home improvement advice for callers on a wide range of topics that you’ll want to know!

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Top Questions & Answers
Ask Your Home Improvement Question
Podcast Transcript

Electrical Upgrade: Get ready to power up and know when it’s time to get an electrical upgrade.
Heating Options: Learn the differences between oil, gas, propane, and electric heating options.
Attic Access: Prevent energy loss by sealing and insulating your attic access panel.

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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00:00:23	TOM: Coast to coast and floorboards to shingles, this is The Money Pit Home Improvement Show. I’m Tom Kraeutler.
00:00:25	LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.
00:00:27	TOM: Give us a call with your home improvement questions because we’re here to help you get those projects done. This is episode 2391. If you’re keeping track, we are, and I can’t believe we’re about ready to hit 2400. But if you love the show, you can listen 24 seven at moneypit.com or anytime by podcast at moneypit.com slash podcast. Now, our mission is to help you guys get stuff done. So if you’re a do-it-yourselfer kind of person, great. If you’re a do-it-for-me kind of person who loves to hire pros, that’s also great. We can make sure that you know what to look for, what questions to ask so the job gets done right the first time. But you have to help yourself first by reaching out to us with those questions. You can do that by going to moneypit.com slash ask and clicking the blue microphone button or call us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT. That’s 888-666-3974. Coming up on today’s program, are you guys noticing that your home might sink? Do you seem to trip the circuit breakers a little more often than you expect, which is like never? Well, it might be time to upgrade your circuit breaker panel. We’re going to share how to know if it’s time for a power upgrade in just a bit.
00:01:39	LESLIE: And you know, there’s so many choices in heating fuel out there, but have you ever wondered which one is the most efficient? We’re going to sort the differences between oil, gas, propane, and electric heat to help you determine which is going to deliver the best energy efficiency just ahead.
00:01:55	TOM: And is there any big hole in your ceiling where heat, just escapes 24/7? Well, there is, if you have an attic access panel or an attic staircase installed. We’re going to share how to make sure the only thing that goes up into that attic space is you. Maybe just to kind of change out the Christmas decorations or whatever.
00:02:13	LESLIE: You know, winter clothes, summer clothes. Yeah. All right. But before all that, we are here for you. So if you need some help with a renovation, a repair, a decor project, reach out because we’ve got tips, ideas, and inspiration to help you avoid the problem. Perspiration when it comes to improving your space. So let us know what you are working on so we can lend a hand.
00:02:33	TOM: Call us right now at 1-888-MONEY-PIT. That’s 888-666-3974. If you’ve got a DIY project on your to-do list, let us help make it a DIY done project.
00:02:45	LESLIE: Laura in Connecticut’s on the line with a question about flooring. What can we do for you today?
00:02:49	CALLER: Putting down a laminated flooring in my kitchen that houses a wash and dryer. The wash and dryer, they shimmy a bit.
00:02:56	LESLIE: You mean they shimmy as in they’re… Moving across the floor or they just shake a lot?
00:03:00	CALLER: They shake a lot. I mean, they shimmy to the point of if I have my coffee pot on the stove, the water will shimmy a little bit in the pot.
00:03:11	LESLIE: Seriously. Now, I mean, that could be a balancing thing. It could be, quite frankly, that your washing machine itself isn’t perfectly leveled. That could be a matter of adjusting the legs or something’s up with the flooring underneath it. But, you know, that could be one thing. Or if it’s not happening with every single load, it could be, you know, how you’re loading the washing machine. You could have too much stuff in it. But I would start really by making sure that the washing machine is perfectly leveled and perfectly balanced. And then there are actually pads that you can get at the home centers, even like a Bed Bath & Beyond type place. It’s like an anti-vibration pad that goes underneath. Some of them are large enough to fit underneath the entire washing machine. And some of them are more for like the corners under the legs. But they’re meant almost like shock absorbers from the machine to the floor. So definitely start with making sure it’s fully balanced and level.
00:04:00	CALLER: And I can put these machines directly on my laminate flooring?
00:04:03	TOM: Yeah, you can. I mean, look, if they’re going to shake a lot, you’re going to get maybe some abrasion, especially if you get dirt under the leg, that could wear through the laminate surface. But I think Leslie is spot on. Get it leveled and then get the anti-vibration pads or blocks. You can Google this. You know, you’ll find them. I’ve got four of them, one under each leg of my washing machine. And I had it in there from when it was brand new and it didn’t really, they shake at all, but it was on the second floor. So I wanted to make sure it was as quiet as possible. And they work fantastic. They’re just like rubber spacers that go under the leg of each of the four legs of the washer. And they sit on the floor. And because they’re rubber also, they will protect the laminate floor from any scratching.
00:04:43	LESLIE: Okay. Thanks for your help.
00:04:45	TOM: Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
00:04:49	LESLIE: Tom in Arizona, you’ve got The Money Pit. How can we help you today?
00:04:51	CALLER: Talk to me about this thing called stainless steel that stains stainless steel appliances.
00:04:57	TOM: Yeah. Stainless steel and the stains that follow it, right? Yeah. You know, everybody thinks it’s indestructible and, you know, always stays beautiful and silvery looking and all of that, but it, you know, it is indestructible, but it doesn’t stay pretty. You know, it’s used a lot in commercial kitchens for a very good reason because it’s very, very durable. But if you want it to look, you know, shiny like chrome all the time, that’s just not going to happen. So you got to kind of accept that. It’s like if you have copper, we had somebody that called once and said, you know, keep my copper gutters without turning green. I’m like, people pay extra for that. You know, that’s called patina. It’s like the natural way copper turns. And with stainless, it’s going to get stained and it’s going to get discolored and you’re going to have to polish it probably more than you’d like to, but that’s just kind of the way it rolls. Right, Leslie?
00:05:40	LESLIE: I mean, it definitely is. And, you know, it’s interesting because some of the appliances have made that turn towards the non-fingerprinting stainless because it’s amazing how quickly stainless steel does get fingerprinty. And one thing, I didn’t realize, which I should have before I got my stainless fridge, is that you can’t put a magnet on it. So then it’s like all the fun things you’d put up of your kids, you know, it’s kind of useless. You can’t put any of those things up. And in fact, some now manufacturers are putting a magnet, you know, a magnet backing on their stainless so that you can do that.
00:06:13	TOM: That’d be a big problem in my house. I don’t think I’ve seen the refrigerator since it was delivered.
00:06:18	LESLIE: I mean, it’s true, but there are, you know, special products that are meant for cleaning stainless steel. It’s important that when you do clean the stainless, that you wipe it in the grain of the stainless itself because you can then scratch it and cause like a weird swirling pattern. In my opinion, it’s gorgeous and I think it’s worth the work. So, you know, it’s just something you got to deal with, unfortunately.
00:06:38	CALLER: What products would you suggest or process to clean?
00:06:41	LESLIE: You know, the one that I actually like actually comes in a wipe format and it’s called Weiman. It’s W-E-I-M-A-N. I know you can get it at Walmart or Bed Bath & Beyond. You can get it in a spray, you can get it in the wipe. I think the wipe kind of just makes it, you know, the easiest to deal with. Plus, then you end up with extra liquid at the bottom and you can use regular rags when you’re done. But I think the important thing is, you know, use a product that’s meant for stainless and you’ll find that you have good success with it.
00:07:05	CALLER: Okay. Is there any type of polish to put over that then to help preclude getting stained again right away?
00:07:10	TOM: I don’t think so because you’re not going to be able to like buff this to keep it clean in that sense. So, I think it’s just a matter of wiping it down on a regular base. It’s more of a maintenance issue, Tom.
00:07:19	CALLER: Okay. Thank you very much.
00:07:20	TOM: Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
00:07:25	CALLER: We’ve got Marianne in Georgia on the line who’s dealing with a very chilly laundry room. What’s going on? I live in a townhome. My laundry room, which is kind of an extension of my kitchen, is very cold. There’s not a heating vent in there. Is there any way to insulate around, say, the hot and cold water pipes that come in for the washer? Thank you.
00:07:49	TOM: Hey, Marianne. Well, if you’re asking us, how do you insulate those pipes so that they don’t freeze? The answer there is to use pipe insulation. Now, pipe insulation is available in a long foam tube and it’s slit down the middle. So, you kind of like spread it apart and then wrap it around the pipe. Now, if you have gaps where there’s cold air getting in, then I would use an expanded polyurethane insulation, like great stuff. I tell you to get the kind that’s designed for windows and doors because it’s not going to expand so much that it can actually push the drywall off of the wall. It’s a little more squishy. But if you use that kind of insulation there, that can also help to stop some of the cold air that’s getting in there. And of course, if it is a really cold night, make sure you leave the door open. Now, if it’s comfort, then maybe that’s another issue.
00:08:39	LESLIE: Yeah. And I mean, also think about you can add an electric baseboard heater into the space. I mean, I know we’re talking about keeping the pipes warm so they don’t freeze. But in addition to keeping you comfortable, a smaller electric baseboard heater is going to keep the pipes warm. It’s going to keep you warm while you’re in there sort of on demand and not be a ridiculous amount of money.
00:08:59	TOM: So that kind of solves your problem. Exactly. Good point.
00:09:04	LESLIE: Hey, Money Pit listeners, if we’ve saved you some time, money or hassles with your projects, you would totally make our day by leaving us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts. Just go to moneypit.com slash review. Heading over to Brooklyn, New York, we’ve got David on the line who’s dealing with an issue. What’s going on at this brownstone?
00:09:21	CALLER: So we’re renovating this brownstone and the whole floor is open. And we have now an option of putting a radiant heat. And we’re thinking we can put the radiant heat on the top of the floor or we can put it on the bottom of the floor with these aluminum plates. And I just wanted to know which was the better way to do it. The one on the top seems to require lots of cement work or all of that on the bottom. So much simpler. And I don’t need to plan ahead of how I’m going to design the room. I can do it
00:10:00	TOM: later. So I would like to know which one is a better option. I’m a little confused by when you say on top of the floor versus on the bottom of the floor. So are you talking about what kind of
00:10:11	CALLER: floor are we talking about here? We have a plywood floor, a wooden joist and plywood floor lying
00:10:18	TOM: right on top of it. That’s how it is right now. So you’re asking, I mean, if you should put it underneath the plywood floor or put it on top of the plywood floor. There’s a type of sheathing for radiant heat that’s like four by eight sheets, but it has
00:10:33	TOM: tracks that are cut into it. They’re all sort of routed out for the express purpose of laying in PEX piping into the sheet. And so you put the sheathing down and you put this PEX piping into the sheet so it’s flat. Then you can floor on top of it. So you could put really any kind of flooring you want. I mean, you’re not going to have to do that. You’re not going to have to do that. You’re not going to want to use something that’s nailed down, but you could use like a parquet that’s interlocking, or you could use a luxury vinyl plank or a stone hybrid product or something like that nature. And you’re not going to regret having radiant heat. It’s really a nice comfortable floor.
00:11:05	LESLIE: Well, we’ve all been there. You’re in the middle of something when poof, the lights go out. Now it seems to happen at the worst possible time too. And it might be a nuisance, but circuit breakers tripping, they do so because there’s a major safety situation going on.
00:11:20	TOM: Yeah. And that is, to protect from an overload, too many appliances running at the same time can cause too much power to draw. And what that does is it overheats the wire and without a circuit breaker to protect that wire, it could catch fire. Now, the second thing that a circuit breaker does is protects from a short circuit, which is what happens when an appliance breaks down. This just happened to us this week. We had put in a circuit breaker panel in a garage and it was working fine. And I noticed that overnight it kept tripping a circuit. Well, it turned out as it got cold for whatever reason, there was a short circuit in an exterior line. And instead of causing a shock or a fire, it just turned off the breaker. So once we figured that out, disconnect the circuit, I think we’ve got to run a new wire underground. So we’re just going to put
00:12:04	LESLIE: that off to the spring, but it definitely did the trick. All right. Now there’s also a fairly new type of circuit breaker that can help prevent fires and that’s called an arc fault circuit
00:12:15	TOM: interrupter. But how do these work, Tom? Yeah, it’s kind of like the next level of protection like against small fires. So you’ve got a short circuit, you’ve got a short circuit, you’ve got a small arcs, which is, for example, if you have a short circuit and you get like a spark, that’s kind of an arc and the arc fault circuit interrupter protects against that and shuts the circuit down
00:12:32	LESLIE: before a fire could occur. All right. So we’ve talked about the arc fault circuit interrupter, the AFCIs. Now let’s cover another that’s been around a lot longer. And I think a lot of people are familiar with it. Maybe they don’t know what it stands for, but you’ve definitely said those
00:12:45	TOM: letters GFCI, which is a ground fault circuit interrupter. Yeah, that’s the outlet that has the test and the reset button built in, usually in kitchens or bathrooms. Right. And the way it works is the ground fault is where electricity travels the path of ground. So if you get a short circuit and the ground may be you, let’s say you’re plugging in a lamp and the lamp has got a short, you don’t want to take that shock, right? So you want that shock is going to go right to ground. But instead of going to ground, it goes to the ground fault and the ground fault turns the circuit off. It detects two thousandths of an amp charge going to ground, which is not enough. For you to get hurt. And they’re really required anywhere there’s a wet location. So kitchens, bathrooms, outside your house, garages and so on. And here’s a little tricky thing about ground fault circuit interrupters. You can use them in a electric panel or you can use them in an outlet. And sometimes when you use them in an outlet, you can have several outlets connected to them. So, for example, I used to get a call, Leslie, when I was a home inspector and one of my clients had bought a house and they said, everything’s great, except we have no power in our bathroom and our this. And I’m like, oh, did you trip the ground fault breaker? Oh, no, we didn’t do that. Like, here’s what I want you to do. Go into the garage. I want you to look at every wall and find the one that’s got the outlet with the buttons on it. It’s not here. It’s not. Oh, oh, oh, oh, wait. Never mind. They reset it. And all of a sudden, all the outlets would have power again. So remember
00:14:14	LESLIE: that one ground fault can cover a bunch of outlets. Kathy in Arkansas is on the line and has a question about potential. Having radon in the home. Tell us what’s going on and why you might think this.
00:14:24	CALLER: I built a house about two years ago on the slab. And I always hear a lot about radon lately for some reason. Is that a potential hazard on a slab home or is that only where you have like crawl spaces? I just I don’t know how that works.
00:14:40	TOM: So it’s technically possible that you could have radon in a house that’s slab on grade. Radon is a gas that’s in the soil. And if it builds up to a point where it’s not, it’s not going to be over four picocuries per liter of air. That’s the measure of radon. Then you would take some action to reduce it in your house. Typically, if your house is on a basement or a crawl space, well, your house is on a basement, it’s probably at the highest risk because it can come directly through the walls and get into that space and up into the house. Crawl space is not so much because it’s very well ventilated. Slab on grade homes can have a radon level if the radon is very, very high in the soil. Now, the only way to know is with a radon test. Fortunately, it’s pretty easy and inexpensive to do. You’d pick up a radon testing canister. You can buy one at a home center or you certainly can order one online. You would place this canister in your home for a period of around two to six days. Then after that exposure period, you would seal it back up, ship it off to the lab. They would read it and tell you what your radon levels are. And based on that information, you could either do further testing or talk to a radon mitigator about getting it resolved. So that’s basically the long and the short of it. Slab on grade house, don’t have as high a risk as a basement house, but it is technically possible for them to have elevated levels.
00:15:55	CALLER: Wow. I just wondered how I could get through the cement from the dirt.
00:16:00	TOM: Yeah, it finds a way. Wow. All right. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
00:16:05	LESLIE: Thank you. All right. We’re heading out to Pennsylvania where Gene is on the line who’s dealing with some smelly shower drains. What is going on over there?
00:16:14	CALLER: We’ve been smelling sewer gas coming from the drain in our shower. I thought there might be clog in the P-trap, so I poured baking soda and vinegar into the drain, but still this scent remains.
00:16:29	TOM: What could be causing this and how can we resolve the problem? Well, Gene, if you’ve cleaned the P-trap out, that was a smart thing to do, but you didn’t mention whether or not you had dumped any bleach down there. And I’ll tell you why that could be helpful here, because a lot of times when you get strong odors that can smell like sewer gas, it’s really a bacteria that grows in the drain and it’s called biogas, which you’re smelling. And the way to clean that is by dumping some bleach down there and using that to sort of clean and swish around that drain, letting it sit for a while and then flushing it and then doing again. Or you could use an oxygenated bleach cleaner. I wouldn’t use both, but you could use an oxygen cleaner and that does the same thing. I’d like to make sure you’re eliminating the biogas. And I would also do that with a clean bleach cleaner. I would also do that with a while you’re at it with your sink drains in that bathroom as well, because sometimes you’ll get that same bacteria that will form in sink drains, sometimes even in the overflow channel of the sink. And do those three areas, the overflow, the sink drain, and the tub drain, and see what happens. If you have a problem, reach out back to us. But I think it sounds to me like it’s a biogas issue. It’s not a venting problem.
00:17:41	LESLIE: All right, heading over to North Carolina, where John’s got a question about insulation. How can we help you?
00:17:49	CALLER: Hey, so this is just a follow-up. Question to what I had for y’all before. I called in about spray and foam. And Bill said that for your house, I think 1896 home or something. Yeah, 1896. Yeah, good memory. Yeah. So for that house, you said you had the spray. What I was just wondering was, I talked a little bit more to the person that wants to do the work on my house. And they said there was two different types of closed cell and open cell. I just didn’t know. I was wondering if you knew what was in your house, if it was open or closed cell, and if there was one that was better than the other. I guess that was pretty much my main question.
00:18:29	TOM: Well, closed cell spray foam can be applied at a lower temperature, as low as I think about five degrees. It’s also a stronger foam. So sometimes if you’re concerned about shift in a wall, what’s called a racking strength, you use a closed cell. It’s also got a higher R value per inch. So it’s a little more energy efficient. Okay. Efficient. And it’s resistance of vapor transfer. So it has a lower vapor permanence, it’s called. It also can reject any water, like in leaks. It’s not really damaged by that. Open cell spray foam is at a significantly lower cost than closed cell. And you can get a greater R value if you’re not restricted by space. In other words, if you’ve got room for the stuff to expand. Okay. So, but it’s a little more of a hydrophobic. Hydropobic material. And it’s going to also be a good air barrier and insulating material as well. So those are kind of the differences. It really depends on what you’re trying to achieve. I think in my home, I have both. I think I closed cell down the crawl space where there’s more potential moisture and open cell up in the attic space.
00:19:33	CALLER: Okay. Yeah, that’s awesome. I really appreciate you all letting me call in again to ask a follow-up question. I love your program. So
00:19:43	TOM: thank you so much for calling me, guys. All right. Take care. Good luck with that project.
00:19:48	LESLIE: So have you been bombarded with ads compelling you to choose propane over oil or natural gas over electric? Well, all of those competing claims make it very hard for you to figure out what the best deal is. According to the Department of Energy, the best home heating fuel option for your home really depends on a variety of things, including the cost, the availability of that fuel in your area, and the cost of maintenance and installation.
00:20:10	TOM: Yeah. And the truth is that for the most of us, up to us, you know, since the fuel has to match the heating appliance that was installed in your home, your apartment, or your condo, switching from one fuel to another usually isn’t practical.
00:20:27	LESLIE: But there are some ways to save. So if you heat by oil, or in some cases propane, one way that you can cut costs is to join a fuel oil cooperative. Now, a cooperative is a group that forms to purchase the fuel in bulk at a discounted price, which is then passed along to the end users. And the cooperatives have been around for more than 20 years, joining one can definitely result in some substantial savings. You just have to remember that these providers do not offer service like in an emergency. If you need an oil delivery on a cold weekend night and you’re out, like you’re kind of in a jam in that situation, but the savings are for sure there. Absolutely. June in Alaska is on the line with a question about tiles cracking on the floor. How can we help you today?
00:21:09	CALLER: I was listening to your wonderful program, and when you got to the part about the in-floor heat… We have a lot of that here in our area, the in-floor heating, and I love it. However, our home is only 10 years old. It’s, you know, it’s fairly new. But I’ve noticed my bathroom floors, they have ceramic tile, and we have some hairline cracks in them. But I thought, when? Okay, I’m going to replace them. But when I do that, I want to know… How to have the people do it properly. Right. So that doesn’t happen again.
00:21:53	TOM: Yeah. So I think you may have heard us talking to the representative from Schluter Systems. You’re referring to the remote show that I did up in Newton, Massachusetts with all of the guys at this old house. And we were talking about one of the products they put in, which is a product called DITRA. And DITRA is a membrane that goes under tile, and it does just that. It prevents cracking. But now they have DITRA, where they’ve combined it with a… a heating system. So you can have an electric floor underneath your tile, and you know that the tile is going to be both warm and it will not crack. So it’s a really cool product, very effective, and I really hate to get the calls from folks that are asking me how to stop the floors from cracking because there’s no easy answer. It’s just, it’s happening because the floor wasn’t put down correctly to begin with. But now you can put down this DITRA product with the heating system built in. There’s a Wi-Fi thermostat that’s available, and you can put down the heating system available for it, and you’ve got all the parts in one place. So I would definitely encourage you to look into that when you’re ready to do the floor. Just look for those Schluter systems, their website, and it’s pretty obvious. It’s called DITRA Heat. They’ve been making products for pros that install tile for a long, long time, and that’s why the guys at this old house use them for so many of those critical bathroom projects there. All right, June, good luck with that project. Love your program. Well, thank you very much.
00:23:19	LESLIE: All right, we’ve got Alvin on the line who’s dealing with a structural issue over at the money pit they live in. What’s going on?
00:23:22	CALLER: Well, I’ve got a brick ranch. It’s about 100 feet long, no basement, three-foot crawl space. And what’s happened is the center of the house spine has broken, and the floors dropped down, and of course, some of the walls are splitting, and I got under the house and looked, and what’s happened is the builders, when they built the house, most of the cinders… The cinder blocks were filled to make them solid, but the two right in the center of the house were left open, and what’s happened is the weight of the house over time, and I had a heavy bookcase above there, has just crushed the floor, and those cinder blocks just crumbled.
00:24:03	TOM: Oh, man, what a mess.
00:24:05	CALLER: And I’ve tried to jack it back up, and the ground is good and solid under there, but everywhere that the hydraulic jack presses into the two battens, there’s three of them nailed together. It just presses into the wood, and it’s not lifting.
00:24:18	TOM: Well, all right, you got quite an issue there. I don’t know that I would do this myself. You really need to have an experienced pro behind this. Also, you have to realize that when you start lifting this house back up, you’re going to move everything that basically fell to begin with, so you’ll end up with additional repairs. You could also stress out electrical connections or plumbing connections, and those could require repair or potentially be unsafe. To get the house jacked back up, you probably just don’t have the right equipment, because typically on a situation like that, it would be a pretty heavy-duty jack. You say you got good solid soil underneath, but you essentially are going to distribute out that weight. You’re not just going to have the jack contact with those three wood beams. You’ll probably have like an I-beam that goes between the jack and those beams you’re trying to lift, so that you could spread out the lift to a much wider footprint, and that would distribute the weight and stop this problem of the jack actually pressing into the wood. And then, of course, once you get it up there, you have to rebuild the concrete. You have to rebuild the concrete, and you have to rebuild the column properly. Footing’s probably still okay, but you probably have to tear out that block and rebuild it or put a new column in there, and then let it back down. So it seems, as I describe it, a fairly straightforward process, but there’s a lot that could go wrong. I think you’re onto something with trying to repair this, though, in that fashion, because you can’t let it get any worse, and it does sound like it’s an active problem. So the other thing to consider is, if you want to get the help of a structural engineer, this could come up, you ever sold the house. And it’s always helpful when you say that you consulted a design professional like that, and they basically designed the repair. I told you exactly what to do. Then you had a contractor do it per the engineer’s specification. Then the engineer re-inspected to confirm it’s done correctly. It’s kind of like having a pedigree or a seal of approval on that work, and you can assure yourself it will have no impact on the value of your home by following that process. So it sounds like you’ve got a project in front of you, my friend.
00:26:12	LESLIE: So is there a big hole in your ceiling where heat can escape? There could be if your attic door hatch isn’t insulated or sealed.
00:26:19	TOM: Yeah. So to find out, what you want to do is open your attic access and check to see if the door is sealed and insulated. Now, typically, an attic hatchway will be sealed with weather stripping. That could be like foam tape or even a rubber gasket where the door makes contact with the door frame, which is usually like trim that is around that opening.
00:26:39	LESLIE: Yeah. If your attic door has an attached pull-down stairs, insulation typically takes the form of a foam box. That’s what you want to do. It’s going to fit over the opening and then has to be moved to enter the attic. If you don’t have pull-down stairs, the attic door is typically insulated with foam or bat insulation that’s attached directly to the backside of that door.
00:26:56	TOM: Yeah. We have an attic stair that actually has a foam surface built into it, so it is quite warm. And here’s why that’s important. An unsealed or uninsulated attic door is basically a big hole in the ceiling of your house. So your attic may have plenty of insulation, but if that door isn’t sealed and insulated as well, you aren’t getting the full benefit.
00:27:16	LESLIE: And adding weatherstripping and insulation to that attic door is a simple DIY project that typically costs less than $25. Now, if your attic door does not have pull-down stairs, you can attach that foam board or that bat insulation directly to that door.
00:27:30	TOM: And if you do have pull-down stairs, you can actually build a box out of that foam board or purchase a pre-made model. They’re not very expensive and very simple to install.
00:27:40	LESLIE: Michelle in Pennsylvania is on the line with a question about a heat pump. What’s going on at your money pit?
00:27:44	CALLER: I have a pretty big house, lots of windows, and so I want to kind of section off parts of the house that I don’t really live in. Problem is, those parts of the house is the formal living, formal dining room, and that’s where my thermostat is located. So I feel like if I lower the thermostat, then it’s going to kick on even harder.
00:28:03	TOM: Yeah, Michelle, there is a solution for that, and it comes in the form of a thermostat, a smart thermostat. And what I’m thinking of is a thermostat that’s called an Ecobee. It’s E-C-O-B-E-E. And what’s different about that thermostat? It’s called an Ecobee. And what’s different about that thermostat? What’s different about the Ecobee smart thermostat? It has all the technology you’ll see in other Wi-Fi thermostats, like the fact that you can control it from your smartphone and knows when you’re home, knows when you’re away. But what Ecobee also has are wireless remote sensors. So you can put sensors in different parts of the room, different parts of the house, and then you could tell the heating system what the temperature should be in that room, and it should read that and determine whether it should go on or off. So in the rooms that you don’t use that much, you could have a very cold temperature, and in the rooms that you do, you could have a very warm temperature, and it would kind of read just that particular area and not the area where the original thermostat is mounted. Does that make sense?
00:28:51	CALLER: Yeah, it does.
00:28:55	TOM: So what’s something like that going to run? Yeah, it’s not terribly expensive, and the installation is sort of DIY. I think they’re probably a couple hundred bucks, but go to Ecobee.com, E-C-O-B-E-E, and you can shop online or you can find it on Amazon. I think it’s probably the answer to your particular situation, because heat pumps are expensive to run, and so you want to make sure that you’re using the thermostat properly.
00:29:18	CALLER: Very good. Thank you.
00:29:22	TOM: You’re welcome. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
00:29:27	LESLIE: Rick wrote in to Team Money Pit saying, he’s driving an older truck, and it’s been dripping motor oil on the garage floor. Aside from fixing the truck, yeah, yeah, I know about that. Step one. You got any tips on products to clean that floor with?
00:29:40	TOM: Yeah. What I would do, is I would pick up some Borax, and I would mix it with water into a paste, and I would apply that paste to the stained area and let it sit for a bit, and then once it sits, you can rinse it off. That will do a decent job of lifting that stain. Now, if it’s a fresh stain, you could also put kitty litter down, and that will help soak it up, but definitely fix the truck, because you can only do this so many times until it’s just going to be permanently stained, and then there’s nothing else that you’re going to be able to do. Except paint it. Even that’s going to be a challenge, because you’ve got greasy concrete trying to go over.
00:30:15	LESLIE: All right. Now, we’ve got one from Terry, who says, I have a greasy buildup on the kitchen cabinets. Boy, grease is the popular question of the hour, apparently, and I’m wondering how to best clean them without damaging the wood.
00:30:30	TOM: I would first try vinegar, honestly. Vinegar and water, right? Like a mixture of that.
00:30:35	LESLIE: Yeah, and I’m talking about white vinegar, not salad vinegar. Yeah.
00:30:40	TOM: Yeah. And then I think if you want to ramp it up, I would try vinegar. If you want to ramp it up, you could try Murphy’s oil soap, which is a very gentle cleaner. The thing is, you can’t get the cabinets too wet. And above that, I like crud cutter. I’ve been using that in my house. Crud cutter makes a cleaner degreaser that’s really good at cleaning cabinet surfaces. As long as you don’t let it sit on there too long, it works really super well. So there’s some options for you.
00:31:05	LESLIE: Yeah. And while we’re talking about grease, let’s stick to greasy things in the kitchen. How about the vent hood over the range? That thing gets surprisingly greasy. And I think a lot of people don’t realize there’s filters on there that you should either be changing or cleaning. And if you do that and get rid of the grease built up on that so that the air flows nicely and the way it’s supposed to, you can get rid of a lot of the grease that’s on your cabinets.
00:31:28	TOM: Well, using found items is a great way to decorate. There are many vintage pieces just waiting for the right touch. And you know the old saying, one man’s trash is another man’s trash. So if you’re going to do that, you’re going to have to get rid of a lot of the grease that’s But you need to be sure that what you’re picking up, either at a garage sale or even off the street, is safe, especially if you’re using it in kids’ rooms. Leslie has the details in today’s edition of Leslie’s Last Word.
00:31:53	LESLIE: Yeah. You know, guys, if you decide to do a little garage or estate shopping to save some cash, you want to be careful about which vintage pieces you choose, especially for your kids’ room. Now, you don’t want to get anything with old chipping and potentially lead-based paint. You also want to make sure you stay away from furniture with out-of-date latches and hardware, especially like a crib or a chest of drawers. Now, you can also check at the cpsc.gov website for recalled items there. And don’t be afraid to salvage old pieces. You can save money. You can save the planet. You just have to be smart about it because crib safety has changed so much. Railings on headboards or side rails on kids’ beds, that has changed so much as far as the spacing of things. So definitely think smart before you go and make that deal. Check out the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s website before you do purchase anything just to make sure you’re getting a good and safe deal.
00:32:49	TOM: Yep. And that’s at cpsc.gov. Coming up on the next edition of The Money Pit, if you could use a better night’s sleep, and who couldn’t, it turns out that March is the best month to buy a mattress. There’s discounts out there now, guys, ranging in the area of 50%. So we’re going to share tips on what to look for when you’re buying a new mattress. On the next edition of The Money Pit, I’m Tom Kraeutler.
00:33:12	LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.
00:33:13	TOM: Remember, you can do it yourself.
00:33:15	LESLIE: But you don’t have to do it alone.

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