#2415 – Dirty Secrets: Hidden Germs in Your Home | Finding Homes for Foster Kids

Show Notes

In today’s show, we’ll uncover how to find and eliminate hidden germs in your home. Then, learn about a home improvement company dedicated to finding permanent homes for children in foster care. And if your landscaping is giving you a headache, we’ve got tips on choosing hassle-free shrubs. We’re here to help with all your DIY projects, so listen in for more answers to your home improvement questions!

Table of Contents[Hide][Show]

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

House Cleaning: Keep your home healthy and clean by finding germs that are hiding in plain sight.
Safe Homes: This home improvement company is dedicated to finding safe, forever homes for foster kids.
Easy-Care Shrubs: Sprucing up your outdoor space is easy with low-maintenance shrubs.

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

Read Transcript

00:00:22	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 for one reason and one reason only, and that is to help you with your projects. Need some help planning your project, solving a home improvement problem, solving a repair issue, a decor dilemma, want to renovate, you want to update, you want to restore. Whatever’s on the to-do list, we’ve got some tips that can help. We’ve been at this for over 20 years, and we love what we do, which is helping folks improve and maintain their homes. So reach out to us first, and that number here is 1-888-Money-Pit. So we can get to work. You can also go, by the way, to moneypit.com slash ask. Click the blue microphone button and record your question. It comes to us immediately, and it’s the quickest way to get a response. We have a very springy show planned for you today. Coming up, spring cleaning. Leave your house feeling great, but just how clean is it really? We’re going to share where you can find germs that are hiding in plain sight in just a bit.
00:01:24	LESLIE: And also ahead, we’re going to share how one home improvement company is on a mission to find safe, permanent home. For the longest-waiting children in foster care across the United States and what you can do to help.
00:01:36	TOM: And if you’ve been sprucing up your landscaping, it’s no fun dealing with high-maintenance plants that require constant pruning or suffer from pest problems. So we’ve got tips on how to select a reliable, trouble-free set of shrubs to spruce up your outdoor living spaces and your outlook.
00:01:52	LESLIE: But first, our focus is you. We want to know what you want to know. So if there’s a DIY project on your to-do list, let us help you make it a DIY done project. Whatever you are working on, you’ve got a couple of weekends left until Memorial Day, so let’s get your house in tip-top shape so you can kick the summer off in style.
00:02:10	TOM: Two ways to reach us. Call us right now at 1-888-Money-Pit. That’s 888-666-3974. Or post your question at moneypit.com slash ask when you click the blue microphone button. Let’s get to it. Leslie, who’s first?
00:02:24	LESLIE: Sandy in Pennsylvania, you’ve got the Money Pit. How can we help you today?
00:02:27	CALLER: Yes. I was calling to ask. About building a garage. My husband and I just bought a home. It’s a two-story colonial, but there’s no garage. And we’re trying to decide detached, attached, with or without a breezeway. We know we want it to be oversized, but we’re trying to decide which would be the most efficient and convenient choice to go with.
00:02:53	TOM: So it’s as much an architectural question as it is a structural question, because you’re trying to figure out what’s going to fit best with the property. So that amount, that involves looking at the house itself in terms of its design, and also looking at the neighborhood to determine, you know, what’s going to fit in well. Because it’s okay to have the nicest house on the block, but it’s not okay if it’s that much nicer that the rest of the neighborhood pulls it down in value. Does that make sense? Yes.
00:03:19	CALLER: And I think the rest of the homes are very, very similar, except they have garages. Okay.
00:03:25	TOM: Well, then that’s a good model for you to follow. Okay. Now, if you have the breezeway, then obviously you’re going to have more functional space. So I’m not quite sure what we can do to help you with this question, because it’s really a design that you have to kind of agree on with your husband, and then set apart building it. When it does get built, it obviously has to be built by a pro in accordance with all of the local regulations, which are going to probably require that you have a set of architectural plans. Okay. So you might just want to start with that, because architects can help you look at the options very easily with the computer programming they use today and give you a chance to look at it from several different angles, both outside and inside in terms of available storage space and in different configurations. Okay.
00:04:12	CALLER: Also, we need to replace the roof on the home. So I was thinking making it an attached or with a breezeway kind of makes it a little bit more efficient as we replace the roof. So if we replace the roof on the home, we’d be putting the roof on the garage as well. Okay.
00:04:31	TOM: Well, it would make sense for you to do the entire roof and have that folded into the same project, and then you could, in fact, fold it into the same financing, too, if you’re financing the project. So, yeah, I’m all for planning those projects to be done together, because when the roofing team is on site, that will be the most cost-effective way to get it all done. Okay. And have it match. Okay. You know, we did our roof in the last year, and we did everything but the garage, and the garage really didn’t need it. But seeing that brand-new, beautiful roof on the house, I just assumed that it would be a good idea to have it done. And I decided that I would ignore the fact that I had a few years of life left in my garage roof, and we did that as well, which is why we always say that the three most expensive words in home improvement are might as well. Right. Right. All right. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit.
00:05:14	LESLIE: Heading out west to Hawaii, where Gary has an electrical question. Aloha, Gary. How can we help you?
00:05:19	CALLER: Aloha. Thank you guys very much. I have a situation in my bathroom where I actually want to, take an existing wall light, and I want to remove it, and then create a situation where I have a light on either side of the mirror. So I’ve got this one electrical feed coming out of the wall, and what I want to do is I want to kind of splice it so that I can take one wire off to the left and one wire off to the right of the mirror, and I’m trying to find out if there’s an easy way, to do that, or if basically there’s a kit that might help me do that, because I’m not an electrical genius here.
00:06:06	TOM: So because you’re an electrical genius, I don’t want you to try this yourself, okay? But I will tell you that it’s a fairly easy project that any electrician could do this for you. Since you have power going to the one fixture, it’s very easy to split that off into two separate fixtures and use the same switch that the other fixture was on. So it’s a really simple project, but I don’t want you doing it yourself, because… Because if you want to tackle a plumbing project, you can get wet. If you want to tackle an electrical project, you could get dead. So we don’t want you to try that yourself, all right? You got to use common sense.
00:06:38	CALLER: Okay, okay. Very good. I appreciate the advice. Yeah. Thank you very much.
00:06:42	TOM: All right. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit.
00:06:46	LESLIE: Hey, are you a fan of our podcast? Well, leave us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts, and we’ll be doing a happy dance. Plus, it helps us keep the show going and growing. Just go to moneypit.com slash review.
00:06:58	TOM: Hey. If you have a kitchen project in mind, wouldn’t it be nice if you could give yourself a brand new countertop? Well, you can when you win the Marble Dream Resurfacing Kit from Daich Coatings. We’ve got one to give away today. Now, this is a roll-on marble resurfacing kit for countertops or vanities or tabletops, and it looks amazing when it’s done. Easy to apply. No schools are needed. Incredibly durable, and everything you need is included in the kit. It retails for $169 at dychecoatings.com, but we’re giving one Marble Dream. Resurfacing Kit away to one caller who reaches out to us with a question. The number, again, is 1-888-Money-Pit, or post your question to moneypit.com slash ask.
00:07:39	LESLIE: Marilyn in Louisiana, you’ve got the Money Pit. How can we help you today? Hello.
00:07:43	CALLER: I have moved into an old home that has unfinished and some finished wooden floors that were carpeted. Unfortunately, in taking that carpet up, former pets that were here, have left their mark all over the floors. There are stains, and there is a dreadful, dreadful odor throughout the house. The dogs that I have brought in have continued that process and now have to live outside. My question is, what do I do, what can I do to get the odor out of these wooden floors?
00:08:26	TOM: What I would do, Marilyn, is I would sandpaper. Sand the floors. This is the one time where I think it makes a lot of sense to do a thorough sanding of these floors.
00:08:34	LESLIE: Yeah, you’ve got to completely refinish.
00:08:36	TOM: Yeah, especially if you’re saying that some of the floors are unfinished to begin with. So I would sand all the floors to take off some material, vacuum up that sawdust, and then I would add three coats of polyurethane. Now, I’m sorry, let me back up. Before you polyurethane, if they’re still stained, then I would add some wood stain to the floor to darken the color a little bit. Hide any of those remaining marks. Because if you try to go totally natural, the stains will obviously show up. But if you add just like a slight tinted stain, like say one of the colors that I use a lot is called Early American, which is like a very light brown color, that looks really nice and does hide some of those stains that could be in the wood. And then add the three coats of urethane.
00:09:22	LESLIE: A big trend is like dark gray, almost even like an ebonized wood floor. Like dark wood floors? Even if it’s a super dark chocolate or almost on the black gray scale, like really are impactful and beautiful. And that could hide a lot as well.
00:09:35	TOM: Yeah, well, that’s a good point. I mean, you don’t have to go dark is what I’m trying to say. You could just go just very fairly lightly. But from there, you know, I think you’ll be good to go. I think once you put the urethane coating on it, you’ll no longer have the odor issues.
00:09:49	CALLER: Love your show.
00:09:51	TOM: Thank you so much. Thank you, Marilyn. Good luck with that project.
00:09:54	LESLIE: All right, next up, we’ve got Edward in Western Pennsylvania, who’s got a question. He’s got a question about insulation. What can we do for you?
00:10:00	CALLER: Yes, the roll-type insulation, it’s like a thin film. They counted a space-age product that was made that you can’t actually even rip. And it’s supposed to hold the heat in the house like an attic. It’s installed in my parents’ house. And now there seems to be a problem on the,
00:10:29	CALLER: actually, between the rafters. I noticed it on the sheeting. It’s got like a white mold. Not a lot, but just the tins of a white mold that’s appearing. Has this caused a moisture problem in the attic of that house?
00:10:47	TOM: Okay, so first of all, what you’re talking about is called a radiant barrier. And I’ve personally not experienced them to be very effective. In fact, the Department of Energy, says on their website that some studies, some studies underlined, show that they can reduce cooling costs by 5% to 10% when used in a very warm climate. So, you know, for my money, it’s generally not worth it. So if this now is trapping moisture so that the insulation is getting damp, if that’s what’s happening, that’s a bad thing, because insulation has to be dry to be effective. So I wouldn’t be terribly upset. If you took it down.
00:11:29	CALLER: I see. They actually installed this on the floor. It’s a floored attic, and they installed it on the floor.
00:11:37	TOM: What’s underneath it?
00:11:38	CALLER: There is insulation under the most of it, but where it was floored, I doubt whether there is, and nobody has ever taken that up to walk.
00:11:49	TOM: So you say this is on the floor, so you can walk on it?
00:11:52	CALLER: Yeah, you’re walking actually on it in the attic. It’s like a foil, right? Yes. It’s like a very heavy foil, and you can’t rip it.
00:11:59	TOM: So your question is, should you leave it in place? Does it make a difference? Is that what you’re asking me? You say it’s starting to tinge. Right.
00:12:07	CALLER: And is this going to cause, do you think, a mold issue that could get worse in time?
00:12:12	TOM: The thing is, if it’s serving as a vapor barrier, it’s basically on the wrong side of the insulation. I got you. Because vapor barrier goes between the heated and the unheated space. So if it’s on top of the insulation, then it definitely could trap moisture, because warm water is going to trap moisture. And the moisture is going to come up from your house and get stuck in that insulation and not ventilate out. You follow me? Right, right. It doesn’t make a lot of sense, Ed. Okay, thank you. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit.
00:12:40	LESLIE: Well, spring cleaning makes your house feel great, and it can give your mood a lift too. But could your house still be dirtier than you think?
00:12:47	TOM: You know, there actually are a lot of places that most homeowners don’t think to clean. And if you overlook them for too long, they can actually become health hazards.
00:12:55	LESLIE: Yeah, like your ceiling. I mean, the top not only gets dirty, but then think about it. It’s going to send all that dust and dirt and germs flying every time you turn it on. So why not clean the top of those blades with each seasonal cleaning? Put that on your list.
00:13:08	TOM: Yeah, you definitely need to do that. If you’ve ever done it, you’ll know that there’s a real thick coating of dust that somehow sticks the top of those blades. So I’d put that on the list. And another germ magnet would be stair banisters and doorknobs. Keep your home healthy by giving them a quick wipe every week or two with a cleaning spray or some hot, soapy water.
00:13:25	LESLIE: And don’t forget about the top of the fridge. Kitchen grease, dirt, grime, it all gathers up there, which leads to germs and even fungus. So keep the top of your fridge clean. It’s super important, especially if you’re keeping food up there.
00:13:40	TOM: And you know those reusable cloth grocery bags? They are great for the environment, but they could be bad for your health if you don’t keep them clean. Think about it. They touch everything from shopping carts to raw fruit and meat, and they need a good wash after each use. So unless the bag says otherwise, all you need to do is toss them into your laundry, wash them in some hot water, and they will be clean and fresh for your next use.
00:14:04	LESLIE: Margaret in Arkansas is on the line with a tiling question. What can we do for you?
00:14:08	CALLER: I’ve got a big imagination. I was hoping that there was a product out there that would equal it. I’ve got an old floor that I was hoping that I could maybe fill the cracks and the little places it’s chipped out and then refinish the whole floor. So where it looked like new.
00:14:29	TOM: Yeah, I would not pursue that because you know what? First of all, the reason it cracked is probably because the subfloor wasn’t properly installed or is weakened for some reason because tiles don’t bend. And if they’re cracking, that means that the floor is weak underneath. So except for the occasional odd repair when you’re just fixing like one or two broken tile, it’s not the kind of thing that you want to invest any time in whatsoever.
00:14:51	CALLER: So the best thing is just to take it up or…
00:14:55	TOM: You can either take it up or you can take it down. You can take it up or you could actually put a new floor on top of that if you don’t want it to be tile. You could, for example, install laminate floor on top of that, which goes down in interlocking pieces. And then that sort of floats on top of the tile. It’s not physically attached. It just sort of stays in place by its own weight. It’s really beautiful and very durable stuff and not too expensive. Certainly a lot less expensive than redoing the tile floor. Okay.
00:15:22	CALLER: Laminate is what it is called.
00:15:24	TOM: It’s called laminate floor. Lots and lots of different types out there. Okay.
00:15:28	CALLER: Thank you so much.
00:15:30	TOM: All right, Margaret. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit.
00:15:35	LESLIE: Tim in New York is having an issue with the tub. What’s going on in your bathroom?
00:15:39	CALLER: So my wife and I moved into our home two years ago, and the previous homeowners recently redid the bathroom. It’s very nice, but unfortunately, the bathtub has two cracks in it. So I recently had, to be real quick, I recently had a bathtub. So they’re coming in and take a look at it. They can’t do it because they don’t have the mold for it, and they would have to cover up the tile anyway. So my question is, is there an easy fix? And even if I had to replace a tub, do I have to take out tile to do so?
00:16:09	TOM: Well, you have to take out probably the first couple of rows of tile. It depends on how difficult it is to get the tub in and out of that space. It’s a pretty big job. I mean, it might be that it’s just not worth trying to save the tile. This is the time where you might just want to think about whether or not you could… Just renovate the entire bathroom, because frankly, by the time you get that tub out, you’re going to be taking some of the other fixtures out of the way to kind of get the tub in and out. You might end up doing that anyway, Tim. You know, the bathtub is the first thing that goes into a bathroom, and everything else works around it or fits around it. And I think the bath fitter idea was a good one, but if they can’t do it, they can’t do it. Yeah.
00:16:49	CALLER: I looked up online, and you know, they have these epoxies that fix cracks. I don’t think it’s going to work. Or be a permanent fix. Do you have any knowledge on that?
00:17:00	TOM: That’s true. I would agree with that. It’s very difficult to repair a crack or a chip in a tub. Is it a fiberglass tub?
00:17:06	CALLER: It is. It’s a fiberglass tub.
00:17:08	TOM: So, I mean, look, you know, they repair fiberglass boats, right? Or fiberglass cars. So you can use, right from an auto body shop, you can use fiberglass repair compound to fix this. It’s not going to be pretty, right? I mean, like a Bondo product or something like that. It’s going to be obvious. But if you want to buy yourself some time and use the tub for a while, you could do that. You know, I had a shower stall once where the fiberglass pan cracked. And I repaired that with fiberglass and Bondo just by basically applying the fiberglass in a couple of layers and then putting the compound over top of that. And you could see it, but it didn’t leak after I fixed it. Okay.
00:17:48	CALLER: Well, maybe I’ll look into that. You know, the bathroom is so new that I don’t want to rip out. Well…
00:17:55	TOM: I know. I hear you. It hurts. And you know, it may be very well that the tub was put in incorrectly because when you put in fiberglass tubs, you’re supposed to put a solid fill under them. Usually, you’ll put like a loose mix of mortar mix underneath it because it basically gives you something solid to step into because the tub has some flex. Yeah.
00:18:13	CALLER: I don’t think they did that because you could actually feel the tub moving underneath my feet. Yeah.
00:18:18	TOM: Yeah. Unfortunately, it sounds like it wasn’t put in right. Okay.
00:18:21	CALLER: All right. Well, thank you very much. That was very helpful.
00:18:24	LESLIE: Well, over the last two years… You’ve heard us talk about RoofMax, a product that was born out of a desire to help homeowners extend the lifespan of their roof. Well, now RoofMax is also creating life-changing opportunities for children through a partnership with the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, which is a national nonprofit public charity that’s on a mission to find safe, permanent homes for the longest-waiting children in foster care across the U.S.
00:18:50	TOM: With us to talk about this new alignment is Mike Feazel. He’s the president of RoofMax. Mike, welcome back to the show.
00:18:57	MIKE: Hey, thanks for having me on, guys. Great to be here.
00:18:59	TOM: You know, the commitment that you guys have made here really can’t be understated. You’re committing to finding homes for 25,000 children by the year 2030, which is really amazing. So tell us about the foundation and how this massive effort all came together.
00:19:14	MIKE: Sure, sure. So we’re based out of Columbus, Ohio, which is where the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption is based out of. Wendy’s International is out of Columbus as well. So we’re… When we found out what they were doing, we really wanted to be a part of it. So we had some different meetings over about a three, four-month period and really came up with, well, the 25,000 children by 2030 initiative. And that’s a joint partnership with us and the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. We announced that, I think it was January 5th, we did a national announcement. And so, yeah, so now our dealers are out educating consumers. You know, every time we treat a roof… A portion of the product sales goes towards helping find a child, finding them a forever home.
00:20:03	LESLIE: It’s amazing because the Dave Thomas Foundation helps the kids that are kind of on the older side and not necessarily in that desirable age for adoption, which is terrible because all these kids need a great home. And what you’re doing with the Dave Thomas Foundation is just tremendous. So thank you.
00:20:19	TOM: Yeah, you’re welcome. You’re welcome. How big of a problem is this, Mike? Can you put it in perspective for us?
00:20:23	MIKE: So it’s a huge problem. One of the… So the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption identified a very unique kind of a niche, if you will. And the challenge was these children between 12 and 13 is about the average age. They age out of the system, and then they become a permanent ward of the state. And that’s about 25% of these children. But it’s very difficult, as you can imagine, to adopt a child that is older, plus a child that is more troubled. They’ve been in and out of the system so many times. And now, finally, they get this. Call that, hey, you’re not going back to your family. And so really, the hero in this, the heroes are the parents. And the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption has found a very unique way to find people willing to work with them and help these children. So yeah, it’s just an amazing story. And we love the organization and what they stand for.
00:21:18	TOM: Now, since we first started talking about RoofMax and the products and the dealers and how you guys have grown. You’ve actually continued that growth and really seen some remarkable expansion over the last year. Can you talk a little bit about where RoofMax is today?
00:21:33	MIKE: Sure, sure. Yeah, we keep building the brand. And it’s a fairly new concept. We’ve been around since 2017. And it’s taken more and more hold. It’s becoming more broadly accepted. And last year, we broke 200 million square feet or 60,000 homes saved. So and we anticipate to… Probably double those numbers this year.
00:21:57	LESLIE: I mean, that’s really amazing. For those folks who aren’t familiar with RoofMax, can you tell us a little bit about how the process works to help extend the life of your roof?
00:22:06	MIKE: Sure. Very simple. An asphalt roof, when the oils dry out, it causes the shingles to become brittle. For the same reason you get a pothole in the road, that’s why your shingles go off into the backyard and you need to replace your roof. So we are simply applying a bio oil to the shingle. It soaks down. Now, an end of the shingle restores the flexibility and the waterproofing protection.
00:22:29	TOM: It’s really an amazing process. I get a chance to watch it firsthand. I’m not only a proponent of RoofMax, I’m a customer of RoofMax. And we had a home to sell in Florida that was a family home that my mom and dad lived in for many years. And because the roof was 15 years old, the insurance companies wanted the roof replaced, which we said there’s no reason for doing that. And how about if we treat it with RoofMax? And we did just that. And I got a chance to see what happens when RoofMax… is applied to an older roof and how it remarkably gains its flexibility all over again. And it was actually even certified by a licensed building inspector as having at least five years more life left into it. And the insurance companies had no further objections. So it’s a product that really works and works very, very well. So my congratulations on all your success with RoofMax and for taking this huge step with the Dave Thomas Foundation committing to finding homes for 25,000 children that are in foster care. By the year 2030, it’s really amazing. Congratulations and keep up the great work.
00:23:29	MIKE: Yeah, I appreciate it. Thank you, Tom. Thank you, Leslie.
00:23:33	LESLIE: Now we’ve got Joan in Missouri on the line who needs some help building a habitat for some furry friends. What’s going on?
00:23:39	CALLER: I’d like to put an enclosed space on the back of my house for my cat, not with a solid roof, but with like a wire roof. Okay. But the issue is that it’s going to be 24 by 22. And I don’t know. I’ve built… Small things, but I’m not sure how to span something that wide because I don’t want the uprights in the middle.
00:24:02	TOM: You must have a really important cat. You’re making over 400 square feet of space for that cat. Is that right?
00:24:09	CALLER: Well, the idea is it’s going to just enclose the patio.
00:24:12	TOM: I see.
00:24:13	CALLER: And then I haven’t poured the patio yet. I see.
00:24:16	TOM: Well, look, I mean, anything that big qualifies as an addition. It’s not just a pen or a patio. I mean, this is a pretty significant addition. So my first question is… So whether or not you’re impacting any zoning laws in your town that would limit what you can do.
00:24:32	CALLER: No, we have very low limits here.
00:24:34	TOM: All right. You have very low limits. Okay. But at the same time, you want to make sure that whatever you put in terms of the patio can support the structure. So you say you want to enclose it. And I presume since it’s an open roof, you don’t ever want to heat it. Is that right? Right. You said it would be open, but you’re not going to have any rain protection over it? No. Well, what kind of roof structure are you thinking about?
00:24:55	CALLER: I’m thinking like hardware cloth. I just want something that will keep like birds, obviously, out and, you know, wildlife, stray cats, that sort of thing.
00:25:06	TOM: I don’t know. I mean, it seems to me if you’re going to build something that’s 22 by 24, that’s a pretty big construction project. I’d put a roof on it at the same time because who knows, maybe somebody who buys your house in the future would love to have an enclosed patio and would, you know, be particularly important that they have a roof at the same time. I think that’s possible. Because anything that you put on there in terms of, you know, clothes, you know, you’re going to have a roof. Hardware cloth or temporary is just not going to last very long. And frankly, it won’t be tough enough to keep birds and insects from nesting it.
00:25:32	CALLER: Oh, no. Hardware cloth is like large, large square screen water.
00:25:37	TOM: Yeah. No, I know. I know what you’re talking about, but I’m just thinking that you’re going to have to put to have something that’s that span. Like if it’s going to be, say, 22 foot off your house, you have to have some sort of a structure to support that. You get the hardware cloth or whatever you use is not going to just sit by itself. It’s going to have to have kind of like a roof structure. A roof rafter structure. Right.
00:25:56	CALLER: That’s what I’m, I don’t know how to do.
00:25:59	TOM: Yeah. And it’s a good question because it’s actually a lot of work to do that. First of all, what, is this a one-story house or is it a two-story house? Yeah. One story. One story. So that those beams, those rafters to have any kind of slope to them would have to start up way high on the roof. And this means you have to intersect them with your existing roof. This is a big project and it’s not something I think you should take on lightly, but anything of that size is an awful lot of work. And I think you would be…
00:26:27	CALLER: I wasn’t going to do it myself. I was going to have my sons do it, but I would have to be the one to design it and tell them what, you know, how to do it.
00:26:36	TOM: But you don’t have the skill set to do that. So I think you would be wise to get some professional help, at least on the layout and the specs for this, because there’s a lot of changes, you know, a lot of decisions that have to be made. And most of the time, if you tackle something like this, I can just tell you, I’ve seen it time and time again. If you tackle something like this and it’s not done well, it is going to devalue your house. It is going to be an eyesore. It’s going to be a maintenance headache and people are going to be really turned off by it if you ever want to sell. So I would put the time and the effort into it to design a nice solid roof patio space. You can have it furnished if you want. You can let the cats in there. You keep the water out. You know, you could even think about heating it at some point in the future or cooling it. But I would not do it, you know…
00:27:22	CALLER: This is pretty much a profession. This is a professional project.
00:27:24	TOM: It really is a professional project. If that’s size, yeah, that’s a professional project.
00:27:28	CALLER: All right. Well, thanks a lot. I appreciate it.
00:27:30	TOM: You’re welcome. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit.
00:27:34	LESLIE: Well, when you think about shrubs, you might not think of them as the most glamorous plants around, but the fact is that shrubs are the backbone of every landscape design.
00:27:44	TOM: That’s true. But although there are hundreds of shrubs available, you need to make the right choice so that they thrive in your local environment. And if you don’t, you might end up dealing with a very high… maintenance plant situation that requires constant pruning or suffers from pest problems. So how do you know to select a trouble-free shrub? What’s going to work and what’s not?
00:28:04	LESLIE: So to figure out the plants that are going to do best, first, you really need to consider that plant’s cold tolerance. Now, you can use the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map. It’s pretty easy to find online, and it’s going to tell you whether a shrub is capable of growing in your location or not.
00:28:19	TOM: Yeah, and hardiness zones are really a good guideline to start, but also think about sun, wind, and snow cover. For example, if you live in an area where you get consistent snow that covers the shrubs, that can actually act as an insulator during winter and allow you to plant types of shrubs that otherwise can’t be exposed to freezing winds. And soil type is another major thing to think about. Some shrubs can thrive in sandy soils, others less so. Lastly, it’s really important to keep your shrubs pruned, because if you don’t, they’re not going to grow strong and healthy. Worth taking a little time to figure this out, because if you get it right, you’re going to have some beautiful landscape to enjoy for many, many years to come.
00:28:58	LESLIE: John in Virginia is on the line and looking to upgrade some electrical outlets in the bath, but some tiles got you trapped. What’s going on?
00:29:07	CALLER: So, I got the bathroom that’s attached to my daughter’s room. The outlet isn’t ground fault, like a ground fault outlet, but it’s tiled into the bathroom. Like, I can’t switch it out, because there’s tile around me. So, I was wondering, is there any way to make that outlet safe without having to block out the tile?
00:29:31	TOM: Yeah, here’s what you can do. You can make the entire circuit ground fault protected. So, you want to trace that circuit back to your main circuit breaker panel, and you can replace the circuit breaker with a ground fault circuit breaker. So, in other words, the entire circuit now is ground fault protected, not just that outlet. And depending on, you know, how your house was wired, that could be inconvenient if it happens to include tile. You know, some area that you don’t want to be on the ground fault, like you tripped the ground fault, and I don’t know, the lights go off in the kitchen or something. But, you know, that’s the way to do it. So, this way, you don’t have to tear that old outlet out. But, you know, I would also keep an eye on it, though, because at some point, that outlet’s going to fail and need to be replaced. If you want to get the protection, you just create a ground fault circuit. You know, in newer homes, what they do is actually do one circuit for all of the bathrooms and put that in the main panel often. Or sometimes, they’ll do one. One circuit for all the bathrooms and have it tied in. Just one GFCI kind of acts as the circuit breaker for everything and located in one of the bathrooms. But that’s the way to do it and not too complicated. Electrician could hook you up pretty quickly with that. Well, I don’t know. That seems pretty easy. All right. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us. Thanks. Bye.
00:30:43	LESLIE: Gary wrote in to Team Money Pit saying, My water pressure is pretty poor. I’m pretty sure it’s due to the fact that the water line from the street is more than 50 years old and made of galvanized steel.
00:30:53	TOM: I’m pretty sure he’s right.
00:30:56	LESLIE: good guess. I can’t even do a load of laundry and take a shower at the same time. Outside of replacing this pipe, is there a pump I can install to increase the pressure for the whole house or even just the bathroom?
00:31:10	TOM: No. That would actually end up worse because it would blow out holes in the pipe. I bet you if you look at that steel pipe, you probably see some places where you have little rust bubbles on the outside of it because what happens is it rusts from the inside out. It constricts. It constricts. Think of it. It’s sort of like a clogged artery. It constricts. And then it starts to rust through the outside skin. So there’s nothing short of having to replace this. But having said that, you don’t have to do it all at once. The smart thing to do is to replace it in stages. First up, do everything you can reach. So if you’re in a basement, you have access to all that plumbing, you can do that. And secondly, do what’s in the walls, but only do what’s in the walls when you’re doing another project like remodeling a bathroom, for example. You open up a wall, you always replace it. And the other thing you should know is that… What you’re going to replace it with is a product called PEX, cross-linked polyethylene. It’s a flexible plumbing pipe. And because it’s so flexible, you don’t have to have seams. There’s no soldering to be done here. There’s no elbows to be attached. It basically flexes and bends right where you need it to go. So again, best thing to do is to replace it in stages. You don’t have to use copper this time. You don’t have to use steel, of course. You should use PEX. It’s flexible. It is a lot easier and less expensive to do the job than it ever was. Well, spring and summer are a very busy season for real estate sales. And if you’re the owner of a home that’s new or new to you, it’s tempting to move in now and paint later. But painting before you move is hands down the best bet. Leslie’s got the reasons why in today’s edition of Leslie’s Last Word. Paint first, move later. Right, Les?
00:32:46	LESLIE: Listen, I get it. After months of dreaming about your new home, it’s finally yours. And you want nothing more than to just move on in. Before you do, there are some good reasons to start with a fresh coat of paint. Now, first of all, interior painting, listen, guys, it’s really a lot simpler when you can move freely in that empty space. Painting first is also going to save you time. Now, that painting project is going to take a lot longer if you have to cover, recover all the furniture, move everything around, re-hang the artwork. I mean, it’s also going to save you a ton of money. Now, if you’re working with a professional painting company, they are also going to finish. So, much faster in an empty space, which can keep those dollars in your pocket. Painting first is also going to simplify all of your interior decorating. If you’re designing a space from scratch, starting with that fresh coat of paint is going to help you drive all of those other decisions. So you get that really beautiful finished space that you’ve been dreaming of because you’ve got a brand new palette to work off of. And finally, it just feels good. I mean, there truly is nothing like a new coat of paint to make a home seem cleaner, fresher, more welcoming, and even more yours. And truly, years down the road, after you’ve been in that house forever, painting a room feels amazing as well. So always know that a fresh coat of paint just boosts everybody’s spirits in the place. Remember, use a top quality, 100% acrylic latex paint, and you are going to get a stain-resistant finish that will look great for years to come until you get tired of the color and do it again.
00:34:20	TOM: This is the Money Pit Home Improvement Show. Coming up next time on the program, we’re going to talk about building backyard honeybee hives. They are becoming a huge DIY trend, and we’re going to share the buzz on that very sweet project on the next edition of The Money Pit. I’m Tom Kraeutler.
00:34:35	LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.
00:34:36	TOM: Remember, you can do it yourself.
00:34:38	LESLIE: But you don’t have to do it alone.

	(Note: The above referenced transcript is AI-Generated, Unedited and Unproofed and as such may not accurately reflect the recorded audio. Copyright 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.)