Show Notes
How can you extend your outdoor space, upgrade yard hydration, and improve indoor air quality? Learn about building a backyard deck, installing a rainwater collection system, and making the most of your vent fans in today’s home improvement episode, plus more tips to create your best home ever!
Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
- Backyard Deck: Get your outdoor living space all decked out by building a backyard deck.
- Rainwater Collection: Make every drop count with a rainwater collection system to hydrate your yard and garden.
- Vent Fans: Find out why vent fans are your most overlooked appliances that control moisture and improve air quality.
Top Questions & Answers
- Floor Drain: Patricia’s garage floor drain is clogged but she can’t remove the grate. We suggest running a drain snake through the side yard access and using a vacuum to clear the grate.
- Water Heater: Will an electric heat pump water heater affect the indoor climate? Karl is making the most efficient choice and shouldn’t worry about any negative impact.
- Cleaning Grout: Nicole wants to get her bathroom grout white again. She’ll need to use a professional grout cleaner or grout stripper to get it as clean as possible.
- Bathtub Remodel: Randy is removing his old tub and installing a handicap-accessible shower. We recommend a line of bathroom systems that can be easily customized.
- Popcorn Ceiling: Should you repair or remove a popcorn ceiling that’s pulling away at the edges? Debbie has a few options to choose from.
- Composite Decking: If you’re tired of replacing wood deck boards, is composite decking a good alternative? Carl learns why it’s a great, durable choice and easy to do.
- Quartz Countertops: Iris gets information about changing her granite countertops to quartz, which costs about the same but is more durable, stain resistant, and easier to maintain.
- Emergency Exit: A basement egress window will be too high above the floor. James learns about a line of products that can be installed to adapt to the exterior space.
- Bathroom Vent: The bathroom exhaust fan isn’t removing the humidity well. Diane should make sure it vents outside the building and install a humidistat.
Ask Your Home Improvement Question
Podcast Transcript
Read Transcript
| 00:00:23 | TOM: Coast to coast and floorboards to shingles, this is the Money Pit Home Improvement Show. I’m Tom Kraeutler. |
| 00:00:29 | LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete. |
| 00:00:30 | TOM: And we are here to help you take on the projects you want to get done around your house. We’re here to educate, to inspire, to help you build confidence because we know you can do it yourself. Or maybe you need to hire a pro, and we can help you with that as well by telling you what you need to ask for to make sure you get the right pro to get the job done right the very first time. But it all starts with you. We want to hear from you. We want to know what you’re working on. We want to know how we can help. A couple of ways to get in touch with us. It would be to call us directly at 1-888-Money-Pit. That’s 888-666-3974. Or you can just go to moneypit.com slash ask and click the blue microphone button. You can record your question, and we’ll get back to you during our next show. Coming up on today’s program, though, we’re going to talk about one of my favorite topics, and that is building backyard decks. It’s a great way to increase your home’s living space. And building a backyard deck can be a do-it-yourself project. So we’re going to share tips to help you decide. If it’s one you want to do yourself or hire a pro. |
| 00:01:31 | LESLIE: And the spring weather might be sending a lot of rain your way. But if you have a rainwater collection system at your house, you can use those downpours to keep your lawn and garden very happily hydrated well into summer’s dry spells. We’re going to show you how. |
| 00:01:45 | TOM: And one of the most overlooked appliances in your home has much to do with the quality of air you breathe and the amount of cleaning you need to do. Any guesses? Well, we’re going to tell you what that is and how to keep it running at peak efficiency. In just a bit. |
| 00:01:59 | LESLIE: But first, do you love your home? But sometimes you feel like it’s an endless pit that you’re throwing your money into for all those home improvements and repairs. Yeah, we get it. Truly, if I had all the money in the world, I would just keep renovating. It’s so funny how all I ever want to do is home improvement projects. So we get it. And we can help you tackle all of those to-dos with confidence. So let us know what you are working on so we can lend a hand. |
| 00:02:22 | TOM: You know what I call those people that just keep renovating until there’s nothing left to renovate? Serial renovators. |
| 00:02:27 | LESLIE: Yes, that is me. |
| 00:02:29 | TOM: But first, we are here to take your questions. So reach out to us right now at 888-Money-Pit, 888-666-3974. Let’s get to it. Leslie, who’s first? |
| 00:02:39 | LESLIE: Heading over to West Virginia, we’ve got Patricia on the line who’s dealing with a floor drain clog. What is going on? |
| 00:02:45 | CALLER: The drain is filled with dead, what I think are bugs and worms because I’ve caught them on glue traps coming in the corner of the garage. It has a little grid on top. And it’s cemented in, so I can’t anything big down there. I’ve probably only got a little over a fourth of an inch in each little space. |
| 00:03:08 | TOM: So you’re talking about a drain, a floor drain from the garage? |
| 00:03:11 | CALLER: Yes. |
| 00:03:12 | TOM: And where does it drain to? Where does it do with the water that it collects? Do you know where it ends up? |
| 00:03:17 | CALLER: Yes, it just runs out into the side yard. |
| 00:03:20 | TOM: So as long as you have access to that from the side yard, you should be able to run a drain snake up that. Now, I say you. In the distance, you’re probably going to need a drain cleaning company like your Roto-Rooter or a Mr. Rooter type of a service to do that because it’s a long way. It’s possible you could also rent a snake, a hand snake, from a rental company and do it yourself. Not the motorized kind, but there’s a manual type of snake. And it seems unusual that you can’t get that grate off. That would be very helpful. But if you can’t get it off, you might be able to use a shop vac right on top of it and sort of suck up. Whatever leaves or debris are right under that grate, and you might be able to sort of get some of it loose that way. You may have to stick a probe down there and loosen it up if it’s kind of caked. But you could use a vacuum to kind of suck up on that and hopefully pull some of it out. But if it’s really clogged in the pipe, the only way to fix that is with a drain cleaning snake. Does that make sense? |
| 00:04:19 | CALLER: Yes, it does. And I didn’t think about doing it from the outside. So that’s great. Thank you very much. |
| 00:04:24 | TOM: You’re welcome. Good luck with that project. |
| 00:04:26 | LESLIE: All right. We’ve got Carl on the line who’s looking for a new water heater, trying to step things up over there. What’s going on? |
| 00:04:33 | CALLER: I’m interested in electric heat pump water heater. And I haven’t found any information about how it affects the climate in the house. If I put one in my basement, which is uninhabited, will it cool down my basement? Will I need to put some insulation between my basement and my living quarters due to the coolness of the air? |
| 00:04:58 | TOM: So, Carl, I don’t think that installing a heat pump water heater, which is the most efficient type of electric water heater, is going to have any effect whatsoever on your basement in your particular description. You know, basically, the heat pump water heater takes some air in. It has a small fan. It takes air in from the top of the unit. It usually blows it out the side. It doesn’t heat or chill that air. I think you may be confusing the role of a heat pump in terms of an HVAC system that will supply warm air or cold air. To warm or cool your house, the kind that has a compressor outside, heat pumps are all self-contained, and they will have no effect on the room temperature. But they are going to have a big effect on your utility bills. And right now, there’s lots of great rebates for them. I think up to around $1,000. So you’ll find that the prices have come down on them. The rebates have gone up. And I think it’s a really smart move and a good way to get away from an electric water heater, which, let’s face it, that is the most expensive way ever to heat your water. Heat pump’s a much better choice. |
| 00:05:58 | LESLIE: All right, now we’re going to talk grout cleaning so things don’t look so yucky with Nicole. Tell us what’s going on. |
| 00:06:03 | CALLER: I have had trouble trying to get my grout in my bathroom to look white again. And I’ve tried a bunch of different cleaners. I heard that lemon juice and water can work well. Can you suggest anything that would make the grout on my bathroom tiles look brighter and much less dingy? |
| 00:06:22 | TOM: You know, as much as we love to suggest very natural cleaners like lemon juice, when it comes to really dingy things, dingy grout is just not going to cut it. So, Leslie, I’m thinking this is a situation where you need to use a professional grout cleaner or an even tougher product, which is called a grout stripper. That’s probably the best material that will really strip into that sort of dinginess and try to get it out. You know, I had recently needed to re-grout a shower, and I found that it also had gotten quite dingy. And I found no matter how hard we cleaned it, we just couldn’t get it white again. So what I did is I used a grout saw and kind of scraped. I took away most of that old grout and then re-grouted it. And once again, it looks bright. But I found you never can get it quite as bright as the day it was put in. What’s your experience been? |
| 00:07:07 | LESLIE: It’s just tough to keep white grout looking white and bright because you use the space. There’s water. There’s product. There’s all kinds of things. And the grout, when not sealed, is just so porous. So, you know, you’re right. Grout cleaner is definitely the place to start. A grout stripper, that’s the more aggressive of the two. But with Tom, with the grout stripper, does it take away? Is that just a significant layer that you need to reapply on the grout? Or is it just a little bit so that you can still work with it and then seal? |
| 00:07:34 | TOM: No, it’s a little. But it doesn’t really disintegrate the grout. But it does tend to allow you to get below that first surface of it to get it back to white. You know, we could avoid all of this if we just create a grout color called dingy. And then you’d never, ever have to clean your grout, you know? |
| 00:07:51 | LESLIE: Oh, I would like the dingy grout, please. |
| 00:07:54 | TOM: It’s pre-stained. |
| 00:07:55 | LESLIE: That’s wonderful. Could you imagine bringing home that little stick that looks like dirty? |
| 00:08:01 | TOM: It’s like, you know, pre-washed jeans. Oh, take it. Have that little fade to it. And you pay more for it, by the way. |
| 00:08:09 | LESLIE: Hey, Money Pit Podcast fans, you want to help us out? Well, go ahead and leave us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts, and we’re going to give you a virtual high-five. Plus, you’ll be helping us spread the word about our show. Just go to moneypit.com slash review. Heading to Little Rock, Arkansas. Well, we’ve got Randy on the line. What’s going on at your money pit? |
| 00:08:28 | CALLER: I’ve got an older bathroom, and I want to take the tub out and the shower kit and install more of a handicap-type shower kit. Okay. I’m getting about 60 years old, so I want to kind of go ahead and make it handicap. |
| 00:08:43 | TOM: Prepare for the future, yeah. |
| 00:08:45 | CALLER: Yeah. Sure. |
| 00:08:46 | TOM: Right. Have something to hold on to anyway, you know? Well, it makes a lot of sense. So, you know, there are prefabricated accessible one-piece shower unit designs. There are a lot of designs that are a possibility. But if you want to build something that’s maybe a little more customized, a little nicer, maybe you want to have a built-in bench and do it with tile, I would tell you to take a look at Schluter Systems. Now, Schluter is a company that makes a whole host of tile underlayments, and they have a system that’s called KERDI, K-E-R-D-I. And the KERDI system has components for every piece of that shower assembly, and it’s designed to basically go together so that you don’t have any leakage whatsoever. Once it’s all installed, then you basically tile over top of the whole thing. And the part that really is where sort of the rubber meets the road when it comes to water integrity are all of those different types of seams and the shower pants and such. And with the KERDI system, that’s all eliminated. It’s all built in together so it works well together. So take a look at Schluter Systems and, in particular, their line of products called KERDI. And I think you’ll find a system there that will give you everything that you need to accomplish this. As quickly and easily as possible. And you’ll also have something that just will not leak, and it will be there for the ages. |
| 00:10:02 | CALLER: Hey, that sounds great. I’ll sure take a look at that. |
| 00:10:04 | TOM: All right, Randy. Good luck with that project. |
| 00:10:06 | CALLER: Thanks a lot. |
| 00:10:07 | LESLIE: Now we’ve got Debbie from Delaware on the line who’s got a question about some smoke smell and some paint and popcorn ceiling. What’s going on? |
| 00:10:15 | CALLER: When I bought the house I’m in, it has like a popcorn ceiling. And the ceiling was just, you know, you could lift a picture even on the walls. And you could see the nicotine stain on the wall. Anyways, it was painted over by contractors. But I’m not sure what’s happening in the kitchen especially. It’s on the sides where it meets the vertical walls. It’s pulling away. And I didn’t know what would be more economical or wiser to actually have that professional come and scrape that ceiling off. Or would the labor be so intensive as maybe to put a thin layer? If it’s possible, like a sheetrock up there. Or possibly maybe a wood treatment. I live in a beachy area and I think I’ve seen some homes that do have wood in the ceiling. Sort of like maybe a whitewash type of thing. I’m not sure. |
| 00:11:07 | TOM: Well, here’s the thing. If you’ve got a section of popcorn ceiling that’s not adhering properly, it’s separating, you obviously have to scrape the rest of that off. There’s no, I mean, not necessarily the entire ceiling, but you have to get rid of the loose stuff because you’re not going to be able to reseal it. Now, once you do that, there is… There is a type of popcorn repair product that comes in like an aerosol can. And you would have to, of course, mask off the cabinets and everything that’s in that area. But you can spray it and restore the sort of the gap where you took off the old sort of loose popcorn. Now, it’s going to be a different color. So then that would have to be followed by painting of the popcorn ceiling, which is not a pleasant project, but it can be done. You need a very thick roller. It’s going to have slits in it. It’s a special kind of roller. It has like slices in it. Okay. And it uses a lot of paint. And then you sort of just start to work that room one side to the other. And you can repaint that ceiling. Most people don’t really like popcorn ceiling anymore. But if you’re kind of stuck with it… |
| 00:12:10 | CALLER: No, I don’t. I really don’t like it. No. |
| 00:12:12 | TOM: You could remove it. I mean, that’s another job. You can scrape it off. And then what you have to do is prime the ceiling. And then once you prime it, you can paint it. But I would recommend that you use a flat paintbrush. Don’t use like a ceiling paint. Use a flat paint. It’s really important because even though you do a good job scraping off the old popcorn, you’re going to find that the ceiling is still a little uneven underneath that old popcorn, the drywall. And if you paint it with anything that’s got any kind of a sheen, it’ll show. And you’ll see the bumps and sort of the warts in the wall. But if you scrape it off and prime it and paint it with a flat paint, it comes out pretty good. |
| 00:12:49 | CALLER: Thank you so much. I really appreciate you reaching out to me. |
| 00:12:51 | TOM: Yeah, you’re very welcome. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us. |
| 00:12:55 | LESLIE: Thanks a lot. Take care. Bye-bye. Well, adding a backyard deck is one surefire way to increase your home’s living space, at least for considerably more than half of the year. I mean, truly, depending on what part of the country you call home, maybe this could be an extra room all year round. But that said, adding or even replacing a backyard deck does require some planning and some skill to pull it off, which begs this question, should I do this myself or do I hire somebody? So let’s weigh the pros and cons of each. |
| 00:13:23 | TOM: Now, first, if you do it yourself, you definitely stand to save just by virtue of the labor cost, right? But building your backyard deck, it could eat up a number of weekends, especially depending on how quickly you work. Also, that DIY option, well, it might be perfect if you’re planning on a fairly simple square or rectangular deck. But things kind of get dicey if you choose a more complicated, especially multi-level deck design. Yeah. |
| 00:13:49 | LESLIE: So now if you’re hiring a pro, this is definitely going to result in a price. Your deck, since, I mean, I get it, you’re paying for the labor there. But on the plus side, a professional contractor, at least somebody who’s reliable, is likely to finish that project much faster than you’re going to do it. Sorry to, you know, break that news to you. But somebody who knows what they’re doing and does this often is going to do it a heck of a lot quicker than you can. I mean, and the pros that you hire, they’re also going to take care of all of the permitting process. They’re going to know what’s up to code, what isn’t. So all of this is going to ensure that your new deck is going to be A-OK with that city inspector, because you do need to get these projects inspected when they’re done. |
| 00:14:26 | TOM: Yeah, and let’s talk about that, because although some of you may not love the idea of having to shell out extra money and take the time to obtain a permit, not to mention having to pass an inspection by your local building inspector, but you will be glad you did in the end. Trust me, not only will you be confident your new deck is safe, you won’t have to worry about problems or questions concerning that addition from your homeowner’s insurance provider or from future potential buyers. I’ve been on home inspections where decks were constructed without permits, and the building inspectors made them tear it down before they could get a CO and sell that house. So important to make sure you have a permit when one is required. |
| 00:15:04 | LESLIE: Heading over to Mississippi, where Carl is taking on a decking project. What can we do for you? |
| 00:15:09 | CALLER: I guess I’m telling you I’ve had this problem with a deck for some years, where I would replace the board and stain it and cover it up, seal it up good, and yet I seem to have boards that are still kind of loose. So I was torn over the idea of using a material that I see advertised called a Trex board or something similar to that. How much maintenance do I have to pay for that? |
| 00:15:29 | LESLIE: Yeah, Trex decking is great. It’s a composite, which means it’s made out of plastics and other materials. It’s super durable. It’s not going to rot or twist or warp like an organic material would, like regular wood. It requires really little maintenance. I mean, you do have to clean it every so often just because it does get yucky from the elements outside. It does get hot in the sun, so keep that in mind. And there’s a variety of price points. Now, the lower end of the price point, I think, is like a solid single color, and I think there’s only two color options. I remember like a gray and a brown. One side has like a smoother texture. The other side has more of a heavy wood grain look to it. And then, of course, the higher price point ends, you know, look like a variety of wood types and are really beautiful. Tom and I both actually have it. I have mine in a screened-in porch and the steps leading out to the yard, and it’s been fantastic. I mean, it looks great. It lasts long. It’s a long time. I mean, I’ve really had to do nothing to it, and I think the 12 years, something like that, that I’ve had it. |
| 00:16:26 | CALLER: How difficult is the installation? |
| 00:16:27 | TOM: It’s not terribly difficult. There are special screws that are designed to use with composite that are, they sort of have like a drill bit sort of body to them so that they sort of cut their way in. Otherwise, you get like a mushroom that comes up when you drill into it in terms of the plastic. But they’re pretty easy, and they’re also, and it’s not just Trex. There are many types of composite decking out there. Some of them have hidden fastening systems so you don’t even see the fastener. So if you just look into this whole category of composite decking, I think you’ll find a solution there. With most decks, you can remove the decking board itself. You keep the structure, so you keep the framing that supports the floor. I would probably replace the railing, too, so that everything you see is going to be composite now. I call that sort of a deck-over project. And as Leslie mentioned, there is a little bit of maintenance, especially if you’re in an area like Mississippi where it gets warm and moist. You may have some algae that grows on it, but you can clean that. But again, it will do so without causing damage. Any structural damage to that board whatsoever. |
| 00:17:22 | CALLER: And it’ll still hold the weight like anything I could do. Absolutely. Absolutely. That’s wonderful. Wonderful. That’s a great product. I’ll go get some and get to work. |
| 00:17:31 | TOM: All right, Carl. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit. |
| 00:17:35 | LESLIE: Iris in Florida is on the line and has a question about a new countertop. Tell us about it. |
| 00:17:40 | CALLER: Oh, hi. First and foremost, Leslie, let me tell you, I’ve loved listening to you and Tom for so many years. Both of you are just so wonderful. |
| 00:17:50 | TOM: Thank you, Iris. We appreciate that. |
| 00:17:52 | CALLER: You’re most welcome. Well, my husband and I built our current home about four years ago. We did not upgrade the granite counters in the kitchen. We are now putting in a wonderful click-in waterproof vinyl planking throughout the entire house. And, of course, the counters are looking like they need to be upgraded as well. |
| 00:18:20 | TOM: What kind of counters do you have right now? |
| 00:18:22 | CALLER: We currently have granite, but we’re very strongly favoring a quartz. Okay. So, what do you think? |
| 00:18:32 | TOM: I mean, the cost is about the same. It’s kind of a toss-up between those two products. The granite is probably a bit harder to take care of because it’s more absorbent. It’s the difference between, you know, solid stone and really engineered stone. I mean, the solid stone is what you have now, and engineered stone is what you would be getting. |
| 00:18:47 | CALLER: We want to stay in this house. Fairly permanently. And we’re pretty contemporary, and there’s so many beautiful quartz patterns. What are your thoughts about silestone? Silestone. Silestone. |
| 00:19:03 | TOM: Yeah, it’s beautiful stuff. |
| 00:19:04 | LESLIE: So, I think, Iris, the reason why I really do like quartz as a product, we put it in my mom has a vacation home out on the east end of Long Island. My whole family shares it. And we had a big flood due to a pipe bursting a few years back, and we renovated everything in the house. And, I mean, we had formica countertops, laminate countertops that, you know, from a gajillion years ago, and we, all of us loved the look of marble, but none of us wanted the maintenance of marble. So, we ended up going with a quartz that looks just like a beautiful white marble. And it’s gorgeous. It’s durable. It’s stain resistant. It, you know, you can put a hot pan on it and not worry about it. I mean, we try not to, but you can. So, we all love it. And we ended up also doing one that has a, a concrete look for a surround to a fireplace. And we’ve all been happy. And, I mean, this was trying to please three siblings and a mom. So, you know, we all struggled on picking the right thing, but I really do enjoy the quartz product. I mean, truly, I love marble. I love granite. But there is such a level of maintenance that goes along with it. And if you’re not willing to take on that maintenance, it’s just not going to stand up. |
| 00:20:12 | CALLER: Well, it sounds like you made an excellent decision based on so many people to please. And since we were leaning so, so favorably toward it, I think I’m convinced. So, thank you both so very much. |
| 00:20:24 | TOM: Yep. Good luck with it. I’m sure it’s going to be beautiful when it’s done. |
| 00:20:27 | CALLER: Thanks so much, Tom. Take care. |
| 00:20:29 | LESLIE: Well, spring is here and it could be sending a lot of rain your way. But if you have a rainwater collection system at your house, you can use all of those downpours to keep your lawn and garden happily hydrated well into the summer’s dry spells. So, Tom, I mean, this really is a great way to water the yard all summer long when it’s super hot without ever having to turn on the hose, right? |
| 00:20:51 | TOM: Well, right. Yeah. And installing a rain barrel is really not that difficult. First of all, they come in all different sizes. But let’s say you want to do one that’s like an average size of like, I don’t know, maybe like a 55-gallon drum size. Well, you’ve got to put something down first to support it because remember, water is super heavy. So, normally, you put down some solid concrete blocks under it, maybe just a couple of them thick and make sure it’s really, really level. Then you’d set the rain barrel on top of that. And you want to make sure that the spigot, is actually facing the garden. And then you attach a water diverter to the downspout elbow. That basically diverts the rainwater from the downspout directly into that barrel. Now, you’ve got to distribute the water. So, to do that, you simply attach a soaker hose to a spigot on the barrel. And then you run that hose up and around each plant in the garden. You can cover it with some mulch and you’ll be totally good to go. So, not difficult at all to do and very, very cost-effective because you’re saving water. Yeah. At the same time. |
| 00:21:50 | LESLIE: Now, where can you find these rain barrels? I mean, there must be specialized ones out there. So, where do you go? Where do you find them? |
| 00:21:57 | TOM: Yeah. You know, you’re not going to find it in the Isle of Home Center, but you will find them online. There’s a lot of landscape suppliers that do that. And by the way, there are folks that are watering a lot more than a garden with rain barrels. In fact, there are collapsible types that are like large and flat. And I’ve seen them under decks or in crawl spaces. They can hold 700, 800 gallons of water or even more. Basically, just buy them. By taking advantage of all of the rain and storing it until it’s needed. So, it’s a real good option. They’re out there. Something to think about, especially if you’re in an area of the country that’s challenged by a lot of droughts in the summer. |
| 00:22:30 | LESLIE: All right. I love this idea. Jim in Washington is on the line and needs some help with an egress window. Tell us what’s going on. |
| 00:22:38 | CALLER: Well, I’ve got a window in my basement that I need to replace with an egress window. Okay. And there’s plenty of square footage. And the opening in the concrete wall. But my window will be 54 inches off the floor, which is a little bit more than 44 that’s required off the finished floor. And I was just trying to figure out what my options were. |
| 00:23:07 | TOM: So, your problem is that in the basement, it’s going to be 54 inches off the floor? Yes. Why are you putting it up so high? Is it because of the grade outside or the conditions outside? |
| 00:23:17 | CALLER: That’s initially. Initially, I think that’s why they put it up so high. |
| 00:23:21 | TOM: Well, listen, you’re not going to achieve an escape window if it’s that high. I think what you need to do is look outside and let’s talk about some of the options there. The Bilco Company, B-I-L-C-O, you know, kind of famous for the Bilco door. That’s that sort of metal slanty door that covers a lot of basement doors. They have two products that are actually very efficient, very functional. And one of them is actually particularly good looking. One’s called a stack well. And it’s an egress window well. Basically, it’s a very deep window well, very wide, that has a ladder built into it. So, you don’t really see the ladder unless you’re inside looking out. But you basically can go through the window, grab the ladder, and then kind of climb up. And the other one’s called a scape well. It’s an escape well. And that one’s kind of cool because it has a planter design. It’s like a terraced kind of look to it. And that’s going to take up a little bit bigger room outside. But it’s designed to do the same thing. It enables you to. It’s designed to basically have that window at the proper height. And then if you had to go through it in the event of a fire, you would easily be able to climb up out of that scape well. So, I would take a look at those products from Bilco. I’m sure there may be others that make it. I just happen to be familiar with those. I’ve seen them at the trade shows. And they are pretty cool looking. If I needed one, I’d definitely buy it. |
| 00:24:39 | CALLER: Okay. Is there any option like building a step inside to bring you up to a… |
| 00:24:46 | TOM: I mean, you probably could. You could do that. But, you know, why would you want to have an extra step in the floor? You know, that’s just going to take away from the square footage. |
| 00:24:53 | LESLIE: You know, I’ve seen similar to climbing out of a pool sort of indentations where your feet would go in to get a foothold to climb up. I’ve seen that built into a wall when you have a similar situation. And then you climb into that egress window. And then you climb out as well. You know, that’s a good solution if you need it. But then you have to worry about the ability of somebody who might be in the space and the ability to climb out. |
| 00:25:15 | TOM: Stack well and escape well. Yep. Take a look at those Bilko products, and I think you may find a solution right there. Okay. Well, thank you very much. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit. Well, one of the most overlooked appliances in your home has much to do with the quality of air you breathe and the amount of cleaning you do. And that appliance is your vent fan. See? I know you were thinking, no, not that. |
| 00:25:43 | LESLIE: I was thinking something else, maybe. |
| 00:25:45 | TOM: Exactly. Nope. It’s your vent fans. It really is. |
| 00:25:48 | LESLIE: Well, you know what? Vent fans, they’re really great for helping you reduce the humidity in your house. It reduces odors, pollutants, water damage in areas with a lot of moisture, like a kitchen or a bathroom. So they really are super helpful. And if they’re installed properly, those vent fans will pull air from your kitchen or bathroom directly to the outdoors. And that takes all of that extra moisture and pollutants right outside with it. Now, in the bathroom, a vent fan helps reduce the incidence of mildew and mold. And in the kitchen, this is going to help remove those odors and pollutants that you make while you’re cooking all of your fantastic meals for your family. |
| 00:26:29 | TOM: So next time you take a shower or you fill the tub or you cook on the stove, run your fan, please. You should typically run the fan in your bathroom for about 10 to 15 minutes after you’re done with the shower, right? Because that’s when all the moisture is sort of hanging out and condensing on the walls. And that’s when you get the mold and mildew growth. And that’s when you get the mold and mildew growth to start setting in. Now, an easy way to do that is simply to connect it to a humidistat, which will keep it running just as long as that moisture is in the air. Once it’s gone, the fan will stop automatically. Yeah. |
| 00:26:58 | LESLIE: And now when it comes to your kitchen exhaust fan, you should really be running that whenever you’re cooking on the stovetop. And remember that vent fans exhaust moisture to the outside are definitely preferred over those recirculating fans that are only going to help manage odors. But I get it. Depending on the location of your cooking area, sometimes you just have to have it. Not the recirculating one, but definitely put in every effort to vent those outside. Yeah. |
| 00:27:23 | TOM: And regardless of whether they vent in or out, there’s grease screens, remember, in those vent fans in the kitchen. So you need to change those as well as the filters about every six months. Sometimes you can take the grease screens out and just pop them in the dishwasher. It doesn’t have to be hard. And the filters are often charcoal and easily replaceable. |
| 00:27:41 | LESLIE: Diane in Minnesota has got a steamy bathroom. Tell us what’s going on. |
| 00:27:44 | CALLER: Yeah, it’s an exhaust fan. It just does not seem to. Take the steam out of the bathroom at all. It just doesn’t work for some reason. |
| 00:27:53 | TOM: Well, where is the exhaust fan mounted? It’s on the ceiling and goes into an attic. Is that correct? |
| 00:27:58 | CALLER: Yeah, it’s in the ceiling. I just live in an apartment, so I’m not exactly sure where it goes. |
| 00:28:04 | TOM: But OK, well, see, that would be a good place to start because you want to make sure when you turn on an exhaust fan that you can see it actually exhaust somewhere. And generally, it’s going to be a vent outside the building somewhere. And you can turn on the exhaust fan and see that vent open. So you need to figure out, or if it’s an apartment, you need to have a super figure out where it’s exhausting because it could be obstructed. It could be crushed. It could be blocked. It could be terminated. There could be a lot of things wrong with it. And the other thing that you might want to think about, and you may or may not want to do this because it’s an apartment and not a condominium that you own, but there’s a different type of exhaust fan that’s out now. Brone and Newtone make it. Same company. It’s called Ultra. And what’s cool about it is it has a… Moisture sensing switch built into it, a humidistat. So it runs whenever the room gets moist. So you can kind of set it and forget it. And you take a shower, it’ll just stay on until all the moisture is evacuated out of the room and then go off again. Okay. |
| 00:29:00 | CALLER: Well, thank you so much. |
| 00:29:01 | TOM: All right, Diane. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit. |
| 00:29:05 | LESLIE: Well, Mike in California wrote in to Team Money Pit looking for a recommendation for underneath the shower walls and floor. He says, what do you recommend for shower wall replacement? The old shower material has been removed and we’re down to the studs. All right. This is a big bathroom reno project. I love it. |
| 00:29:22 | TOM: Yeah, it really is. I’ll tell you what. There’s a couple ways to go with this. If you’re going to sort of build this like the way we used to do it many, many years ago where we would put up a wall board and then we would put tile on and we’d use all sorts of sealants and stuff. I mean, that’s one way to do it. But the Sluder Company has a system that I think is really smart called KERDI. K-E-R. D-I or K-R-D-I. And with this KERDI system, it’s kind of modular. So it fits on all sorts of different shower sizes. And you put in the pan and then the walls like lock into the pan. And if you want to make sure your floor of the bathroom is waterproof, there’s a system for that. If you want like a bench in a shower, there’s a system for that. And they’re all different components you buy and assemble together. And once you get in there, it is absolutely 100%. It’s 10% waterproof. You can cover it with anything you want. But I really like that KERDI system. So I would encourage you to take a look at that because I’ll tell you, the weakest link is the pan, right? And if the pan cracks or it leaks in any way, you’ve got to do a lot of work to replace that. So I would make sure I get that right the first time. |
| 00:30:35 | LESLIE: All right. Good tips there. Good luck, Mike. Now we’ve got Ed who asks, what’s the best weatherproof caulking for windows? |
| 00:30:42 | TOM: You know, for exterior caulking, I prefer silicone. It’s a little harder to work with. Because you can’t use your favorite trowel, which in my case is my finger, to smooth it because it gets kind of sticky and gooey. But there is a trick. You could use dish soap on your hand first. And if you wet your fingers down with a little bit of dish soap, it does actually slide across the caulk. So if you’re trying to get a nice, neat bead between like the caulk and the door trim and the siding or something like that, you can do that. But I’ll also say that less is more when it comes to caulk. Don’t overdo it. But the reason I like silicone is because it lasts longer. You usually get 10, 15 years out of silicone, a good quality silicone. So that’s my advice, silicone. Yeah. |
| 00:31:22 | LESLIE: And these are generally things you want to do once and not have to do for a long, long time. Because, you know, windows sometimes require ladders to work on. |
| 00:31:29 | TOM: This is the Money Pit Home Improvement Show. Thanks so much for spending this part of your spring day with us. Yeah, I’m going to say spring because it feels like spring in my area. I don’t know if it’s officially spring or not, but it certainly does feel that way. I think spring’s like maybe next week officially. It’s the 21st. |
| 00:31:49 | LESLIE: Stop rushing my ski season. |
| 00:31:51 | TOM: I’m sorry. I just want to get to spring. Leslie, I know you love skiing, but you can ski in the spring, right? I do. It’s a little softer in the snow. |
| 00:32:01 | LESLIE: They call it mashed potatoes. |
| 00:32:02 | TOM: It works. That’s a good analogy. I used to go to a mountain up in New York, and they would have like a splash pool at the bottom of the ski run in the spring, and you would ski right into the water or whatever. Oh, what a mess that was. |
| 00:32:16 | LESLIE: Those are the best. That’s always the closing weekend on the mountain, and I think this is the year that the kids have said they’re going to do it. So we will see. I can’t wait. |
| 00:32:25 | TOM: It’s going to take you a week to dry out their boots and clothes. |
| 00:32:30 | TOM: Anyway, thank you so much for spending this part of your day with us. We’ve got lots of great tips on our website at moneypit.com. Until we meet again, I’m Tom Kraeutler. |
| 00:32:41 | LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete. |
| 00:32:42 | TOM: Remember, you can do it yourself. |
| 00:32:44 | LESLIE: But you don’t. 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 2024 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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