Show Notes
In this show, learn why homes built in factories can be better constructed and more energy-efficient than traditional builds. Then, prepare your A/C for summer with our service tips and pre-check methods and simplify painting projects with innovative high-efficiency airless paint sprayers. Plus, get answers to more home improvement questions from DIYers just like you!
Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
- Air Conditioning: Be ready to beat the summer heat by testing your air conditioning system.
- Factory-Built Homes: Learn why manufactured homes can be better than homes built on-site.
- Paint Sprayers: Painting projects are made easy with new, high-efficiency paint sprayers.
Top Questions & Answers
- Heating: How to heat a converted laundry room and bedroom? Paul’s most affordable option would be an electric baseboard heater with a timer, but we’ve got other ideas, too.
- Countertops: Carolyn didn’t expect dull spots on her quartz countertops, but it’s an absorbent surface that needs to be maintained and polished every two or three years.
- Roofing: Condensation is staining Kent’s bathroom ceiling. He should check and replace the rubber boot around the roof vent before priming and repainting the ceiling.
- Unused Pool: Dorothy’s not using her huge inground pool and wants to use the space. We explain the steps involved in disconnecting the systems and filling the pool with dirt.
- Painting: Edward is painting the bathroom but is worried about harmful fumes around his baby. We offer tips for airing out the house and using safer solvent-based products.
- HVAC: Amber’s loft is always much warmer than the rest of the house. She should reverse the direction of the ceiling fans to pool cool air from downstairs and consider installing a supplemental split ductless system.
- Flooring: How can you restore the shine to dull marble floors? Ron gets recommendations for some good DIY products that clean and polish stone surfaces.
- Smoke Odors: The previous owner left stinky smoke odors behind! Courtney has done just about everything, but she can also try sealing the subfloors or using a filtration system and an electronic air cleaner.
Ask Your Home Improvement Question
Podcast Transcript
Read Transcript
| 00:00:26 | TOM: Coast to coast and floorboards to shingles, this is the Money Pit Home Improvement Show. I’m Tom Kraeutler. |
| 00:00:34 | LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete. |
| 00:00:35 | TOM: And welcome to the weekend, since that’s when most folks are hearing this show around the country. It’s a holiday weekend that we’re recording on today. So if it’s still a holiday where you are, we give you permission to take the rest of the weekend off. Okay? And enjoy yourself. Enjoy that home that you’ve worked so hard to build up and maintain and make comfortable. We will do the work. So as you’re lounging around, you think, hey, I got a project I want to do next week. Reach out to us with your questions. The number here is 1-888-Money-Pit. 888-666-3974. Whether you’re a do-it-yourselfer or a do-it-for-me kind of home improver, we are here to help. Coming up on today’s show, can a home built in a factory be better built than one constructed on site? Well, most people say, no way. Well, we say that’s a big fat yes. They can also be not only better built, but more energy efficient. So we’re going to explain why just ahead. |
| 00:01:32 | LESLIE: And summer’s on the way. And that means it’s important. It’s important to get your A.C. service now just to be sure that it’s good to go. We’re going to explain what that should include and an easy way for you to test your system to know if it’s working properly before the tech even shows up. |
| 00:01:46 | TOM: And spring is a season for lots of things. That includes painting projects. And if that’s a project on your to-do list, new high efficiency airless paint sprayers can make the project easier than ever. We’ll explain how they work to help you cut painting time by a full third. |
| 00:01:59 | LESLIE: But first, we are here to help you tackle your spring home project. Use with confidence. So let us know what you are working on, what you’ve got plans to work on for the rest of this warm weather season. And whatever you are thinking, we can help you get those done super fast and right on budget. So give us a call. |
| 00:02:17 | TOM: The number here is 1-888-Money-Pit. Or you can go to moneypit.com slash ask. Click the blue microphone button for the fastest possible response. Let’s get to it. Leslie, who’s first? |
| 00:02:27 | LESLIE: Paul in Pennsylvania is on the line and needs some help heating and cooling. What can we do for you? |
| 00:02:31 | CALLER: We had an add-on about 30 years ago. This house, it’s actually my childhood home. We bought it. But we are changing what used to be a mudroom into a laundry room and a bathroom. With all that plumbing that’s going on in there, we’re trying to find the best way to heat it. The house is on central with a furnace, gas furnace. But I’m unable to get the ducking out there. Another way might be better than just an electric baseboard heating. |
| 00:03:04 | TOM: So this is just for the laundry room? And it’s like we’re at the end of the house or something where you don’t have ducks that go that far? Why is it hard to get them out there? Just explain the layout to me. |
| 00:03:12 | CALLER: The floor is actually technically about 10 inches lower than where the foundation is for the house. That’s where it was poured about 30 years ago or so. And the only access point I have outside of the house with that is actually taken up with the drainage and the waste drainage. And then also the… |
| 00:03:35 | TOM: Got it. Water. So you really need something that’s an independent system here is what it sounds like. And how big is this laundry room space? |
| 00:03:42 | CALLER: The whole area of bathroom and that is about 14 by 14. |
| 00:03:46 | TOM: I’ll tell you what. I mean, even though we rarely recommend this, the least expensive way for you to add, which I think is going to just be supplemental heat, is electric. If you were to put electric baseboard in there on a thermostat, that was a timer thermostat, right? One where you could do a setback to it so that you only… Mm-hmm. …had that come in. It didn’t come on when you really needed it. You know, electric heat is the most expensive, but you’re talking about a really small space. And anything else that you do there, like we could talk about a mini split ductless, for example, you know, that’s going to be $2,000, $3,000, $4,000 by the time you’re done putting a compressor outside and a mini split ductless up on the ceiling, up on the wall, I mean. And it may not, you know, it may be overkill for that small space. So I think if I just had a 14 by 14 foot space there, you know, 150, 160 square feet, whatever that works out to be, I mean, that’s probably perfect. That’s perfect for an electric baseboard. Okay. |
| 00:04:36 | CALLER: And I should probably not… With that, I shouldn’t even have to really worry too much about water pipes bursting or anything. I mean, they’re plex, but… |
| 00:04:42 | TOM: Right. And you know what? The other thing that you could do is, what’s the bathroom situation now? Do you have a tile floor down, or what kind of flooring do you have? |
| 00:04:49 | CALLER: We actually don’t have any flooring down right now. We just got the floor joist and ceiling joist is in. |
| 00:04:56 | CALLER: We’re finishing up the plumbing currently. |
| 00:04:59 | TOM: Why don’t you put electric radiant heat under the floor? Put it under the floor of the bathroom and the floor of the laundry room if it’s not done yet. And if you put it in right, you know, again, it’ll be a very pleasant experience. And if it’s on the right kind of thermostat, you’re not going to have to worry about those costs getting out of control. And boy, there’s nothing better than having a warm floor when it’s chilly. |
| 00:05:20 | CALLER: Yeah. All right. Okay. That gives me another option to go with. Thanks very much. |
| 00:05:25 | TOM: All right. You’re welcome. Good luck with that project. |
| 00:05:28 | LESLIE: Carolyn in Iowa is on the line and has a question about a quartz countertop. Tell us what’s going on. |
| 00:05:33 | CALLER: Yes. |
| 00:05:34 | LESLIE: What? |
| 00:05:34 | CALLER: I noticed some dull spots that are showing up on the quartz countertop. We built this home two and a half years ago, and I always had understood with quartz you didn’t have to polish or seal or anything. And we’re trying to be really careful. |
| 00:05:52 | TOM: Oh, no. Surely you just. Quartz is indestructible because you can put hot stuff on it, but it’s also really absorbent. And you definitely need to polish it. Okay. |
| 00:06:02 | CALLER: So all that report. That I’ve heard that you never have to do anything to quartz. It isn’t true. You do need to. |
| 00:06:08 | LESLIE: I mean, you have to do stuff to granite, to marble, to quartz over time because there’s a sealant that they put on it. And depending on where you got it and who the yard is, if it’s a granite or a marble, it wears away with use. And so the lighter the color, the more often you have to do it. And it should be, they say, with quartz and marble and granite every two to three years. I have a granite countertop. I’ve probably done it three times in the 15th. 15 years I’ve been in my house. And it’s mostly because the areas where you see what they pour that fills into the spaces have kind of like popped out, especially on the edge. But other than that, I haven’t really need to do much to it. |
| 00:06:45 | TOM: There’s a polish online at Amazon.com called Supreme Surface. That’s really well recommended. It’s four out of five stars. I would give that a start. If you’ve never tried it before, order it online. But as Leslie said, you definitely do need to polish natural stone. Otherwise, it is going to get dull over the years. And it sounds like it’s about time to do that with your. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit. |
| 00:07:08 | LESLIE: Kenton, Kansas, you’ve got The Money Pit. What is going on at your house? |
| 00:07:12 | CALLER: I have a vent that seems to maybe have some condensation or whatever. But I’ve got some stains of my bathroom ceiling. And I have tried to spray the ceiling stain to fix it. But it continues to be a problem. And I wonder how do I? You know, what do I have to do up in the attic to take care of that? Now, I do have a furnace up in the attic area. So I don’t know if that has anything to do with it. But I think it’s associated with a bathroom vent. |
| 00:07:49 | TOM: Well, typically, when you get a ceiling leak in a bathroom, it’s caused by the plumbing vent where it exits the roof. Because all bathrooms are going to have a vent pipe that go up. It’s about three inches wide. And it goes up. From the bathroom through the roof. And there’s a rubber boot around the pipe that seals the water out. But the problem is that the rubber boot isn’t nearly as durable as the shingles around it. And the sun beats on it. And the UV rays start to break it down. And then you’ll get like a gap around the pipe. And then the water, when it rains, kind of hugs the pipe, works its way down the pipe. It will drip off or find another route and end up somewhere in the vicinity of the bathroom ceiling. So that will be the most common. That’s the most common type of bathroom leak. It wouldn’t be the vent, the bathroom fan. Although, I mean, it’s possible. But it’s probably not it. It’s more likely the plumbing vent flashing. So I would take a look at the outside from the roof. Identify where that pipe is coming through the roof. And see if the plumbing vent flashing is deteriorating. If it is, easy fix. You take a couple of shingles off. Put a new piece of flashing on. Retack it back in place. And you’re good to go. Once you’ve eliminated the leak, then what you can do is spray that stain with a little bit of a bleach and water spray. And that’s what I’ve been using to take care of the stain. And then I want you to prime the entire ceiling with a solvent-based primer. So oil-based or alkyd-based primer. Because that’s the only thing that will seal that black in. And then you could put whatever top color you want on top of that. And that could be latex. Okay? |
| 00:09:25 | CALLER: Is something like a Kills product? Is that what you’re talking about? Yep, that’s exactly right. |
| 00:09:30 | TOM: Yep, Kills would be fine. |
| 00:09:31 | CALLER: All right, that’s what I’ve been using to take care of the stain. But it continues. And so I pick the base product. |
| 00:09:36 | TOM: All right, well, listen, if it’s continuing, the Kills product you’re using, is it the water-based or is it oil-based? |
| 00:09:42 | CALLER: I believe it’s oil-based. How are you cleaning your brushes? |
| 00:09:47 | TOM: Are you cleaning the brushes with water or are you cleaning them with mineral spirits and turpentine? |
| 00:09:51 | CALLER: I am using a spray can. |
| 00:09:53 | TOM: Oh, it’s in a spray can? |
| 00:09:56 | CALLER: Yes. |
| 00:09:57 | TOM: It’s probably the alkyd. I would get a little quart or pint can of the oil-based Kills. You could put it on heavier that way. |
| 00:10:05 | CALLER: Okay. |
| 00:10:06 | TOM: And just enough to do that sealing. All right, that’ll make a difference. |
| 00:10:10 | CALLER: It actually looks like it’s cracking. Is it to the point where I’m going to have to repair the drywall? |
| 00:10:15 | TOM: Well, what’s cracking? Is there a seam that’s cracking? |
| 00:10:18 | CALLER: Yeah, the ceiling right in the very center of where the stain is is a small crack. And I’m almost afraid to touch it for fear that I’m going to put my finger all the way through it. |
| 00:10:28 | TOM: Well, if that’s the case, you better find out now and not later. So, yeah, I would poke around a little bit. But a little bit. A small crack. A crack in drywall is not a big deal. Just Google plumbing vent flashing. You’ll see exactly what I’m talking about. Thanks for calling us at 888-Money-Pit. |
| 00:10:42 | LESLIE: Hey, are you tired of living in a money pit? Well, we’re here to help. And if you want us to help out, it would be awesome if you could leave us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts. Just go to moneypit.com slash review. It’s only going to take a minute, and it means the world to us. Dorothy in Tennessee is on the line and has a question about an in-ground pool. What’s going on? |
| 00:11:00 | CALLER: I have a definite money pit. All right. Welcome to the club. Really. I have a huge in-ground pool that it just wouldn’t do any of us to not buy this house with this pool because we thought we’d just love it. And yet the kids promised to help take care of it and all that stuff. They’re going and gone. I don’t want to take care of it. Don’t want to pay all that money. And I’m wondering if there’s a solution to doing something interesting with this space that isn’t such a money pit. |
| 00:11:33 | TOM: You know, you’re not. You’re not in an unusual scenario. I spent 20 years as a professional home inspector. And when we did inspect homes that had pools, I’d say a pretty good portion of the time, the question from my client was the same question you just asked. I don’t want the pool. I want nothing to do with it for, you know, a whole variety of reasons. What can I do with it? And in those cases, generally what folks do is they fill it in. You know, they tear up any concrete edges or it’s anything on top that might be part of their patio. Or whatever. And they basically fill it in and tamp it and compact it. And it becomes yard space. So if you don’t want to use it as a pool, that’s pretty much your only option. |
| 00:12:13 | CALLER: Well, exactly. Is there an inexpensive way of doing that? The little bit of research I’ve done, it’s not inexpensive to fill it in. |
| 00:12:24 | TOM: Well, look, you need to find. It’s not a hard. Look, putting dirt in a hole is not a difficult thing to do. What you have to do is, first of all, obviously, you have to disconnect. All of the mechanical systems, right? Then there’s power out there. All that has to be disconnected. And plenty of plumbing has to be disconnected. So you get rid of all of the stuff that’s easy like that. And then for the rest of it, if you have, like, you know, a decking or a curbing around the outside edge of the pool, that will have to be broken up. Now, if that’s the case, I can’t imagine that would take more than an hour or two to break up with a jackhammer because it’s only going to be a few inches thick of concrete. So it’s actually pretty easy to break up. And then you have to have excavators. You have to have excavators that will come in and probably with a small piece of equipment like a bobcat, start to move a lot of dirt into that space because it has to be tamped. You know, you can’t just put it in there without tamping it. And, in fact, you might also, where you actually may need to break up the bottom of the pool. Otherwise, you won’t have drainage, right? So you probably have to brush that up, too. And then it’s just going to have to be filled in and tamped and filled in and tamped and filled in and tamped because if you don’t, it’ll become a sinkhole. It’ll just, you know, be a depressed area in the yard. You want to really. You want to really fill it up. You’re going to use clean fill dirt for that. You’re not going to use topsoil, obviously. So the dirt is pretty much the cost of the transportation. It’s almost like you don’t pay for the dirt. But that’s probably the best thing to do with it. And then start thinking about what you do want to do with that space. |
| 00:13:46 | CALLER: Well, I can imagine a really nice formal garden out there. Well, there you go. Fire pit, gazebo, all kinds of neat things. But getting to that point is not going to be cheap. |
| 00:13:58 | TOM: How long do you plan on staying in this house? I mean, this is basically, is this it forever? Oh, probably. Yeah, because, I mean, there’s one thing to consider, and that is if the pool is functional and you, you know, take it out, whether or not it’s going to deter from the value of your home. From the resale value. Yeah, sometimes it will and sometimes it won’t. It depends on, you know, who’s buying it and what their needs and wants and desires are. Well, hopefully we’ve given you some ideas on what is possible. And good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit. |
| 00:14:29 | LESLIE: Well, according to the DOE, more than 20 million Americans live in a manufactured home and many newer models are well-built and very energy efficient and more affordable than site-built homes. |
| 00:14:42 | TOM: Yes, and to clarify, we’re not talking about mobile homes here. There are no wheels on these houses. They’re factory-built and set on slabs or on block foundations right on site. And in fact, they can be so well-built, they can even be constructed in hurricane and tornado zones with no risk of it being torn off the foundation. Now, manufactured homes are available in a wide variety of designs and floor plans, similar to site-built homes. And consumers can also choose among many energy-efficient equipment options and features, including high-efficiency heating and cooling systems and ENERGY STAR appliances. |
| 00:15:17 | LESLIE: That’s right. In fact, consumers can also choose ENERGY STAR certified manufactured homes, which can provide even lower utility bills and greater comfort. And thanks to the DOE adopting new energy standards for manufactured homes, this is actually going to help consumers save almost $500 on their annual utility bills. So if you are looking for a newly built, modern, and energy-efficient home at an affordable price, purchasing one of today’s manufactured homes can be a smart choice. I mean, really, there’s a range of financing and ownership options that you can be considering, including loan programs that are offered by federal agencies. And you don’t have to skimp on design or style, because you can really design your own home. You can design anything with these manufacturers and have it built for you. My sister and brother-in-law are doing this right now for a new home where they live out by the beach. And it’s going to be beautiful. I mean, they’re waiting a year for it, but it’s going to be amazing. |
| 00:16:14 | TOM: To learn more, check out the many resources on the Department of Energy’s Energy Saver website at energy.gov slash energy saver. |
| 00:16:23 | LESLIE: Edward in Louisiana is on the line and needs some tips about painting a bathroom. How can we help? |
| 00:16:28 | CALLER: I’m doing my bathroom, and I got newborns. I have some mold there, and I need to prime over it. And I’ve had two options, select and kilts primer. It has to both be oil-based, from what I’m told. I was wondering if there’s some kind of alternative that I could use, you know, maybe a latex or something that would do the same effect, because I’m kind of concerned about, you know, my son breathing that in. |
| 00:16:54 | TOM: Sure. Well, first of all, since you mentioned that you had some mold or mildew in there, I want you to clean that. First, before you paint over it, you can mix up a bleach solution with, say, maybe about 20% or so bleach with water. Spray it on those areas. Make sure you ventilate in the room real well when you do this. Do you have a window to the outside in this bathroom? |
| 00:17:15 | CALLER: No, no, sir, I do not. Okay. |
| 00:17:17 | TOM: Do it on a day where you can have some fresh air in the house. Let it sit for 10, 15 minutes, and then use another damp cloth and just kind of wipe it down. This will make sure we kill any mold that’s there. I will tell you that even the solvent-based, and the water-based products are a lot safer today than they’ve ever been in the past. The solvent-based, or what you’re calling oil-based, most products today have a far lower VOC count in them than they ever used to. So I don’t necessarily think it’s unsafe to use that. And I think the odor only is going to stick around for a few hours, so that if you could maybe get the family out of the house while you do this painting, and the bathroom’s a fairly small room, I do think that those solvent-based finishes are going to do a much better job on the priming, you don’t necessarily have to use it on the finish coat, but you could use it just on the base coat, on the prime coat. And if you use a paint plus primer product that’s rated for bathrooms, you can actually skip the priming step. |
| 00:18:11 | CALLER: Yeah, I think that would be the best solution. You’re always a great help out there. |
| 00:18:15 | TOM: You’re very welcome, Edward. Good luck with that project. Thanks for calling us at 1-88-Money-Pit. You got it. Thank you. |
| 00:18:22 | LESLIE: Amber in Ohio is on the line and has a question for us. How can we help you today? |
| 00:18:26 | CALLER: I have a loft, and it is… It’s all… It’s all open to the, you know, downstairs, but at any rate, when people come and stay, it is so… It gets so warm up there. It’s very warm, and people always complain. Summertime or wintertime. Right. It doesn’t matter. And downstairs, I mean, the first floor can be, you know, it feels 10 degrees. It feels 10 degrees different than upstairs. And I have temperature set on, you know, one certain degree. Yeah. And downstairs just feels like it’s not paying attention to what I set the thermostat at. |
| 00:19:20 | TOM: All right. What kind of heat do you have? Is it forced air? You have a duct system? |
| 00:19:25 | CALLER: Yes. |
| 00:19:26 | TOM: And do you have central air conditioning or not? |
| 00:19:28 | CALLER: I do. |
| 00:19:29 | TOM: Okay. Okay. Do you have any ceiling fans or paddle fans that can help mix up the air? |
| 00:19:35 | CALLER: Yes, I do. But it seems to be that even when they put the fans on, they say that they don’t feel the difference. |
| 00:19:47 | TOM: So when you turn the ceiling fans on, do you know that there’s a way that you can reverse the motors on that? There’s a little switch on the side. And in the summer, you want to set those so it pulls cold air up from the first floor. And in the winter, you want to change that setting so that it pushes warm air down from the second floor. Does that make sense? Yes. |
| 00:20:07 | CALLER: Yes. |
| 00:20:08 | TOM: Now, have you operated those reversing switches? Did you even know they existed? Because many people don’t. |
| 00:20:12 | CALLER: I have. Yeah. I have known that they existed. And I could tell. I haven’t told the people that come and stay, though, that up in the loft. |
| 00:20:24 | TOM: Well, but it’s the kind of thing that you’re going to do. You would do this one time per season, so you wouldn’t expect them to do that. Now, the other thing that you can do is you could add supplemental air conditioning to that space. And what I would recommend there is a split ductless system. So split ductless means you have a small compressor that’s outside, and then you have the actual air handler that is inside, and that mounts on the wall the same way you’d hang a TV, for example. And then between the outside compressor and the air handler, inside, it will add additional air conditioning or cooled air up there, which will then filter down from there to the first floor and make everybody comfortable. And when you have a house that’s got this kind of configuration, it’s very common to have this great difference in temperature, and it’s a real challenge. And the only other thing that you could potentially do is you could talk to your HVAC company about adding an additional supply and return to that space, but that would involve ducting, and it’s going to depend on how hard it is to get that up. If there’s a way. If they can get those ducts run up pretty easily, and you had additional supplies in return in that space, then it’s going to cool a lot better and heat a lot better. But if not, then you’re going to have to do it a different way. Now, by the way, that mini split ductless system, that can be purchased to work as a heater and air conditioner all in the same system. So if folks are complaining about it being too cold or too hot, depending on the season, you would have control over that for both seasons. |
| 00:21:58 | CALLER: Oh, that would be wonderful. Split ductless. |
| 00:22:02 | TOM: Split ductless. Yep, exactly. |
| 00:22:04 | CALLER: And I would go to my… You’re going to have to go… |
| 00:22:08 | TOM: No, you’re going to have to go to an HVAC contractor. It’s not a DIY project. |
| 00:22:13 | CALLER: The HVAC. Okay. Okay. That’s great. |
| 00:22:18 | TOM: All right, Amber. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit. |
| 00:22:22 | LESLIE: Well, summer is here. I mean, officially, it’ll be here shortly. But if you’ve got a central air conditioning system, now is the time. It’s the time that you should be having it serviced. Central air conditioning systems, they’ve got to be in tip-top shape to cool your house efficiently. Now, when they’re working properly, the system should produce a temperature differential of about 15 to 20 degrees between the return and the supply air. Now, this means that if the air being drawn into the system is 75 degrees, so that’s at your return duct, if it’s getting sucked in at 75 degrees, then the air coming out of those registers should be 60 degrees. If not, your air conditioner is probably low on refrigerant. You’re wasting electricity. You know, there’s a host of things that could be wrong. |
| 00:23:05 | TOM: So, as a home inspector, we used to actually test air conditioning systems just by doing exactly that. We would use like a refrigerator-style thermometer, and I would stick one at the thermostat or at the return duct. And then the other, I would put in a register, a supply register that was pretty near to where the blower was, so it was a pretty strong flow. And then I would look for a difference, like you said, Leslie, between 15 and 20 degrees. Now, if the air was sucked in at 75 degrees, now, if you got like 10 or 12 degrees or 13 degrees, think about it. The system has to run a lot longer to cool that house. And if it’s too high, then that’s another problem, because if it’s too high, the system won’t run long enough to dehumidify all of that warm heat that’s in the house. So, really, 15 to 20 degrees is the sweet spot. So, it’s a good thing to check to know if your system’s running properly or not. |
| 00:23:53 | LESLIE: Heading over to Louisiana, where Ron’s on the line. What’s going on at your money pit? |
| 00:23:57 | CALLER: Well, my house has… Marble floors in the kitchen and in both master bathrooms. And I’m trying to find what to put down to make them shine again. They’re so dull. And we had a man come out, but he wants an outrageous price to shine them up. So, I’m trying to figure out how to do it myself. |
| 00:24:18 | TOM: Well, Ron, you can do this yourself. There are two different products that I would suggest you take a look at. The first one’s called Rejuvenate. And that is a marble, granite, and stone floor cleaner. And polish, not very expensive to get. And the other one, it’s been around for a long time. And I’ve recommended it a number of times. And people always get back to me and say they love it. It’s called Granite Gold. And again, that is a stone and tile floor cleaner that will allow you to polish and clean the floors at the same time. Now, maybe it won’t be as good as having a pro come in there. But it’s going to be a heck of a lot less expensive, even if you have to do it more frequently. Yeah. |
| 00:24:58 | CALLER: The gentleman that came out… The gentleman that came out to give me a price, he said, oh, no, don’t use Rejuvenate. So, of course… |
| 00:25:04 | TOM: Well, that’s probably a great recommendation. |
| 00:25:08 | TOM: know, if you look at it online, you know, it usually always has four or five stars. And people seem to love the stuff. |
| 00:25:16 | CALLER: I know we use it on the rest of our floors in the house, on the hardwood floors and the tile floor. But I never have put it down on the marble. |
| 00:25:27 | TOM: Well, I think there’s a… There’s a formula just for the stone product. So, make sure you’re using the right one. |
| 00:25:33 | CALLER: Okay. Okay. I’m on it. I’ll check that out. |
| 00:25:35 | TOM: Thank you so much. All right. Good luck. Ron, thanks for calling us at 1-888-Money-Pit. |
| 00:25:41 | LESLIE: So, do you have a big paint project in mind this spring, like maybe painting a deck, a fence, or the exterior of your whole darn house? Well, as challenging as those size jobs do sound, it’s actually much easier to accomplish thanks to the new high-efficiency paint sprayers from Wagner. Now, these paint sprayers… These sprayers feature high-efficiency airless technology that produce up to 55% less overspray, so no wasted paint. They output a high-quality finish with better control. Plus, the job goes quickly because the paint actually goes down three times faster than with a roller. Yeah. |
| 00:26:16 | TOM: These Wagner sprayers are really easy to use and perfect for DIYers who are just learning about airless spraying. You can save money by taking on bigger projects yourself instead of hiring a contractor. And using a sprayer also does a better job than a brush on uneven surfaces. Like a fence, for example. Now, the Wagner Control Pro sprayers come in several models. I have been using the Control Pro 170 because it pulls paint or stain directly from either a one- or five-gallon bucket, which is especially useful for large projects. In my case, I was painting a long board-on-board fence, and five gallons was just what I needed for the project, so I didn’t have to stop and restock the paint supply. To find the right sprayer for your project needs, just head on over to wagnerspraytech.com. That’s wagnerspraytech.com. That’s wagnerspraytech.com. That’s wagnerspraytech.com. |
| 00:27:02 | LESLIE: That’s wagnerspraytech.com. Courtney in Texas is on the line with a very stinky question in her money pit. What is going on? |
| 00:27:07 | CALLER: It’s not an old house. We’ve just lived here just under a year, and the previous owner was a cigarette smoker, and so pretty much everything smelled like cigarette. |
| 00:27:18 | TOM: Yeah, it’s disgusting. |
| 00:27:19 | CALLER: So we’ve replaced and painted, and we’ve done a lot of work on it, but I’m wondering if I need to just replace or clean out the ventilation system. Awesome. That’s one thing I haven’t done yet. |
| 00:27:31 | TOM: Well, let’s talk about this. So are we talking about every room in the house here, or have you focused on one particular room? |
| 00:27:36 | CALLER: It was every room in the house. |
| 00:27:38 | TOM: And do you have carpet in the house? It’s been replaced. Carpet’s been replaced. When you replaced the carpet, you had, what, hardwood floors, or you had plywood floors underneath? It was plywood. Did you paint them? Did you paint them with a sealer? No. So one of the things that we generally recommend is because cigarette smoke is so pervasive and it gets into everything, you do have to replace the carpet. Which you did. Unfortunately, you didn’t seal the floors at the same time, which would have been obviously the easy time to do that. Right. And the reason we say that is because sometimes those floors will basically absorb all that odor, and then they can just let it go back up, you know, through the carpet. The carpet isn’t going to stop it. So we always recommend sealing that with primer, you know, good quality priming paint, which seals it in. It’s kind of the same thing that happens if you use a restoration company after a fire and you get smoke damage because the smoke gets into everything. Yeah. What they do is they clean it and then they seal it with the proper type of smoke-sealing paint, and then that helps to control it. The other thing is any other soft material, so furnishings, blinds, drapes, anything of that nature that’s still around you need to clean or replace. |
| 00:28:46 | CALLER: We’ve done that. We’ve done all light fixtures, all the outlets, all the cabinets have been redone. |
| 00:28:51 | TOM: And what about the walls? Has the house been repainted on the interior? Yes. Did you prime it first or did you just paint over it? I did prime the walls. Yeah. What do you think’s left, Leslie? It sounds like she did most of this here. |
| 00:29:01 | LESLIE: I mean, it really does sound like it. The only thing I can think of is there like a drop tile ceiling that’s like a soft, more porous material. |
| 00:29:09 | CALLER: Is cleaning out the HVAC system something? Yeah, maybe. |
| 00:29:13 | TOM: I mean, we’re not big fans of duct cleaning unless you’re doing a lot of remodeling and you get a lot of dust and stuff in it. I mean, I don’t think it would hurt, but I don’t think that’s going to be the cause of your problem here. Okay. The filter system, though, in the HVAC system may be also a place to start. If you had a better quality filter system, that could help as well. So you have a forced air system, obviously. Do you have an electronic air cleaner or is it a fiberglass cleaner? What kind of air cleaner do you have there or filter? Yeah, I don’t know what that means. You need to find out what kind of filter you have. If it’s a disposable filter, you should be changing it every one to three months depending on the quality of the filter. |
| 00:29:50 | CALLER: I do change that, but I don’t know what type of material it is. |
| 00:29:54 | TOM: Okay. Well, if you’re changing it, it’s not an electronic air cleaner. So there are better air cleaners on the market that do a much better job of scrubbing the air. They’re called electronic air cleaners. You could look at one called the Trane, T-R-A-N-E, CleanFX. And there’s also one from Aprilaire that’s very effective. But these types of electronic air cleaners will scrub even virus-sized particles out of the air. And that might help because I don’t think if you have just the standard fiberglass filters, that’s doing absolutely nothing. To capture any of this residual odor that you’re talking about. So I hope these couple of ideas help you. It sounds like you’re kind of on your way. The only thing that you didn’t do that I would have recommended would have been to paint those subfloors when you had the carpet up. |
| 00:30:39 | LESLIE: All right. Well, I appreciate your time. |
| 00:30:41 | TOM: All right. Good luck with that project. |
| 00:30:42 | LESLIE: Thank you. Caleb in Arizona reached out to Team Money Pit saying, We stained our deck two summers ago with an acrylic solid stain and have had problems with that stain peeling off in some areas. I’ve got two questions. Could staining on a hot, sunny Arizona day be the cause of the peeling? And secondly, since a solid color stain is a solid membrane, much like paint, can you change the color of the stain when restaining? |
| 00:31:07 | TOM: Well, Caleb, temperature is definitely going to impact how much of the stain gets to soak in. So you definitely need to do that in much cooler temperatures. So we’re talking early morning or late evening. You want to use a cleaner. You need to mix that according to the instructions. And make sure that you apply that cleaner. Let it sit for 15, 20 minutes, keeping the wood moist at the same time. You might need a garden hose for that. And if you follow those instructions, you’ll be able to get that first layer to a point where it can accept the second layer. And yes, you could put a new color on as long as it’s the same paint manufacturer. So if you want to change from a brown to a gray, go for it. All right. |
| 00:31:44 | LESLIE: Good luck. |
| 00:31:45 | TOM: It’s picnic time. Don’t let the inevitable stains that accompany outdoor eating ruin your fun. Leslie has quick fixes for those stains. And today’s edition of Leslie’s Last Word. Leslie, with two kids, especially two boys, I bet you have dealt with your fair share of picnic stains and many more. Yeah. |
| 00:32:03 | LESLIE: It’s like I can’t even imagine or understand how they make a majority of these messes and what those stains are. But yet we managed to figure it out and make them go away. And, of course, picnics are a great summer outdoor tradition. But eating outdoors, as we all know, can be messy. I mean, how many times have you had the wind? Oh, the plate right over onto yourself. Things just tend to happen outdoors. So here are some stain removal tips for the most common picnic outdoor eating stains. Now, for barbecue sauce, and I have a funny story. I took my older son, Henry, and some friends to Six Flags last year for his birthday. And one of them put like a little to-go package of barbecue sauce in his pocket and he kept calling it his barbecue. And we like, dude, you’re going to go on a ride and it’s there. And they’re going to close the restraint and it’s going to explode in your pocket. No, no, no, no, no. Sure enough, he gets off a ride and I see him reaching into his pocket. And his hand comes out all covered in his barbecue sauce. |
| 00:33:06 | LESLIE: So if this happens to you or you just happen to make a mess while eating barbecue sauce, you want to flush that stain with cold water from the underside of the fabric. And then go ahead and blot with liquid laundry detergent and then sponge with vinegar. Now, you can apply a stain treatment and then wash it. And the same steps are going to work for ketchup and mustard. I know it’s a lot of steps and a lot of things if you’re running around. But you can even do it at home once you get back. And that’ll make that stain go away. Now, for berries, you want to mix a tablespoon of white vinegar with a half teaspoon of liquid laundry detergent with a quart of water. And then let that fabric soak for 15 minutes and wash. If you’ve got a tougher stain, you can definitely blot that stain with vinegar. If you want some more tips on a variety of other stains and how to get them out, we’ve got a whole list on the website. Search picnic stains on moneypit.com. |
| 00:34:01 | TOM: Tom, he then tried to go on like the River Rapids ride to clean So he could wash it out? |
| 00:34:09 | LESLIE: And of course, every other kid got soaking wet. And this one boy came off that ride dry. It was hilarious. |
| 00:34:16 | TOM: That’s the one time you missed the spray from the elephants and all the other things, right? Yeah. |
| 00:34:22 | LESLIE: It was amazing. He stepped off that ride dry. Everybody else was dry. |
| 00:34:26 | TOM: But everyone had a strange hankering for barbecue after that. I don’t know why. |
| 00:34:30 | LESLIE: I know. Truly, the whole car ride home, I was like, dude, you reek of barbecue sauce. |
| 00:34:36 | TOM: This is the Money Pit Home Improvement Show. Coming up next time on the program, are you ready to spruce up your backyard space for the summer ahead? We’re going to share some tips to take the indoor living space to the outdoors on the next edition of the Money Pit. I’m Tom Kraeutler. |
| 00:34:51 | LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete. |
| 00:34:52 | TOM: Remember, you can do it yourself. |
| 00:34:54 | 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.) |
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