Show Notes
In today’s show, we’ll share solutions for keeping plants thriving during winter, offer expert advice to avoid holiday plumbing disasters, and reveal why fall is the ideal season to kick off a composting project. Plus, listen in as callers get answers to their DIY home improvement questions!
Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
- Winter Plants: Enjoy winter greens with tips to keep indoor plants thriving in the cold season.
- Plumbing Problems: Get plumbing tips to avoid clogs and flush holiday woes away.
- Fall Composting: Learn why fall is a perfect time to start a composting pile.
Top Questions & Answers
- Concrete Repairs: Which kind of mortar mix is best for fixing a concrete porch? Mindy has lots of questions about the best choices for various repairs using Quikrete products.
- Bathroom Remodel: Jim is worried about water damage from a window in a remodeled bathroom. We suggest leaving the window and putting a waterproof curtain over it.
- Cleaning Windows: Is there an easy way to clean your outside windows? Marie won’t find many DIY shortcuts, but can try using a concentrate product or hiring a professional.
- Construction Materials: We discuss insulated concrete foam blocks with David and why they’re a good, durable, and quiet construction material option.
- Garbage Disposal: When Eden turns on the garbage disposal, it backs up into the other sink. She gets tips on how to clear the drain line obstruction.
- Damp Crawlspace: Rich still has a musty smell in the crawlspace after installing a vapor barrier and improving drainage. A dehumidifier and fans with a humidistat could help.
- Caulking Gap: Julianne needs to fill the gap under the back door sill. She can use an epoxy patching cement to reinforce the space.
- Ridge Vent: Robert is trying to find a particular ridge vent for metal roofs. He can check online for manufacturers that make them and where to buy them or have them shipped.
Ask Your Home Improvement Question
Podcast Transcript
Read Transcript
| 00:00:05 | TOM: Cost to coast and floorboards to shingles, this is the Money Pit Home Improvement Show! I’m Tom Kraeutler and I’m Leslie Segrete. Hey, what are you working on? What are you planning for this weekend? Do you have a project you want to get done? Well, we would love to help. All you need to do to help yourself is call us with your questions. The number is 1-888-Money-Pit or you can go to moneypit.com slash ask. So if you’re starting a project or you’re stuck in the middle, give us a call. We would love to help you work. Work that out and get it done right the first time. Coming up on today’s show, if you love the look of greenery around the outside of your house, but now that it’s winter, you’re trying to move those plants inside and maybe you have a black thumb when it comes to that, well, we’re going to help you. We’ve got a solution to help make it easier and simpler and more successful for you to grow lots of green inside your home during these chilly winter months. |
| 00:01:15 | LESLIE: And Thanksgiving guests and big meals are tough on your pipes, not just your internal pipes from eating all those foods, but I’m talking about the plumbing, you guys, which I guess is also plumbing for you. |
| 00:01:26 | CALLER: Connected. |
| 00:01:27 | LESLIE: Listen, guys, anyway, we’re going to share simple tips that you need to avoid so that you do not end up with a holiday plumbing backup. |
| 00:01:34 | TOM: And fall may not seem like the best time to start a gardening project, but it’s actually a good time because there’s a never-ending supply of leaves and yard clippings to start a compost pile. So we’ll walk you through that project. |
| 00:01:45 | LESLIE: And if you’ve been hearing strange sounds coming from your toilet, it may be that the flapper is worn out. And that’s an easy fix, especially with the new Super Flapper from Fluidmaster. We are giving away a set of three to one caller who’s drawn at random. |
| 00:02:00 | TOM: But first, we want to know what you want to know to fix up home sweet home. So reach out to us right now with your questions. The number again is 1-888-Money-Pit. That’s 888-666-3974. Let’s get to it. Leslie, who’s first? |
| 00:02:14 | LESLIE: Mindy needs some help fixing it. I’m fixing a stone porch. Tell us what’s going on. |
| 00:02:17 | CALLER: We have a question about fixing a front stone porch. We want to fix the joints. Do you want me to use Quikrete with the red stripe that says corner and edges, or do you want me to use Type S mortar mix? Also, on the steps at the back, I see a crack. Do you want me to use the concrete and mortar acrylic sealant that comes in the tube and you stick in the caulk gun for that? And another question is at the back. At the back of the house, at the bottom of the red brick where it meets a large concrete patio, there used to be concrete there and it broke off. And at that place, to seal that up, do you want me to use the concrete and mortar acrylic sealant that comes in the tube and you stick in the caulk gun? |
| 00:03:02 | TOM: So, Mindy, a couple of things. First of all, if you have cracks that you’re trying to fill, Quikrete does make a product that is specifically for that. It’s called the Concrete Crack Sealant. And it is good for cracks that are up to a half inch wide, and they like it because it’s pourable. So it sort of flows into those cracks and then it’s self-leveling, so you don’t have to worry about troweling on. Now, if you found areas of that porch where the concrete is broken away and you have some deteriorated surface, sometimes surface gets worn from maybe using too much salt on it in the winter, there’s another product that is fairly new. It’s maybe three or four years old, but it’s really terrific, and it’s called Recap. R-E-C-A-P. And it’s a concrete resurfacer. So this can do two things for you. If you had, you mentioned some areas where there were some missing chunks. If you mix it up to sort of a trowel-like consistency, you can patch those areas and smooth it out. And then you can put another layer of the Recap across the whole surface, and it’ll look like a brand new concrete surface when it’s all done. The nice thing about the Recap is it’s designed specifically to stick to old concrete. So if you’re trying to fix a sidewalk, a pool deck, a concrete floor, a driveway. It works for all of those surfaces, and it doesn’t chip and fall off. It’s a really super product, super strong product because they’ve designed that bond into it so it just doesn’t separate from the old surfaces underneath. |
| 00:04:26 | LESLIE: We’ve got Jim in Louisiana who’s taking on quite a big bathroom renovation. What’s happening over there? |
| 00:04:31 | CALLER: We’re looking into remodeling the bathroom. What we have is a shower and a tub that are basically back to back. And there’s like a half wall that comes out from the outside wall. Into the shower, and that’s the wet wall. |
| 00:04:46 | TOM: Okay. |
| 00:04:47 | CALLER: Where the shower is on one side, tub is on the other. |
| 00:04:51 | TOM: Got it. |
| 00:04:52 | CALLER: She wanted to make that a half wall and move the plumbing, and I talked her out of it. Thank you. |
| 00:04:57 | TOM: Yeah. Good move. |
| 00:04:59 | CALLER: So we’ve got it where we’re just going to put the shower head and everything on the other side. Build the shower on the tub side. Get rid of the tub completely. Right. |
| 00:05:06 | TOM: So you’ll have a bigger shower as a result. |
| 00:05:08 | CALLER: The shower area we have now is going to be storage. |
| 00:05:11 | TOM: Okay. |
| 00:05:12 | CALLER: So we’re putting the shower. That wall is about five feet long or wide, if you will. And there’s a four by four foot window in the middle of it. |
| 00:05:22 | TOM: All right. So the whole world gets to see you while you’re taking a shower, huh? |
| 00:05:25 | CALLER: Well, it’s one of those frosted windows. |
| 00:05:28 | TOM: Oh, that’s good. Okay. |
| 00:05:29 | CALLER: But if you jump around, you can see things moving. Right. So we’d have to tint that or something, which, okay, that’s small potatoes at this point. I’m worried about water. Now, we’re going to tile that whole wall, tile the inside of the casing. One guy says that you could do that and seal it up good and it’d be fine. Another contractor said, no, we’d be walling that all off. |
| 00:05:55 | TOM: I think you absolutely can leave that window. It’ll have some nice light getting in there to the bathroom. And you could put a waterproof curtain over it. And, in fact, Leslie, I think if I recall right, you’ve actually recommended, you know, doing this with kind of a modified shower curtain, correct? |
| 00:06:14 | LESLIE: Yes. I mean, you can use a tension rod so that you can have access to hang a shower curtain where you would need to to sort of give you that privacy and give you that water retention. And then once you put the plastic curtain there, you can then buy like a really beautiful curtain to go on the exterior of it so you can really make this like a stylish decorative choice. It doesn’t have to just be clear. But you can do that to give you the waterproof and like, you know, the water protection that you need. |
| 00:06:36 | CALLER: All right. Well, I appreciate the callback. You got it. All righty. Have a good one. |
| 00:06:42 | LESLIE: Hey, you’re 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. |
| 00:06:56 | TOM: You know, if you’ve ever noticed that your toilet is running, this happened to me recently. And, you know, when it first happens, you’re like, wait, is somebody down here where the toilet is? Is there somebody that’s, you know, because it was in the middle of the night and I was just sort of busy in my office and I was like, what? Did somebody wake up? No. What was happening was the flapper valve was leaking. It’s called the flush valve or the flapper. And so I thought, well, wouldn’t it be great if there’s an easy way to replace that without taking the whole toilet apart? And it turns out there is. It’s called the new Super Flapper and it’s from Fluidmaster. It stops noisy and running toilets from wasting water, flushing your cash down the drain or freaking you out when the toilet flushes all by itself and nobody is around. If it’s two and three inch toilet flush valves, it fits pretty much every toilet imaginable. It’s easy to install. We’re giving away a set of three to one lucky listener drawn at random. So make that you. Heck, you can fix up old toilets in your house at once. The number here is 1-888-Money-Pit. |
| 00:07:54 | LESLIE: Marie in Florida is on the line who’s looking for an easier way to clean some windows around the house. What’s going on? Yes. |
| 00:08:03 | CALLER: I’m lazy. Yes. I’m lazy. And I’ve been reading the ads, you know, and Spray and Forget. Is there a window cleaner that I can use on the outside that I could just spray and then forget? Okay. |
| 00:08:20 | TOM: Yeah. So Spray and Forget’s a fine product and that’s designed to clean mold and mildew and algae and moss off of siding and roofs and surfaces like that and sidewalks. In terms of windows, so you’re looking for a product you spray on and it just does the cleaning for you. And I’m not aware of anything that does exactly that. I think that is a job that is always, once and forever, going to need our own personal touch. |
| 00:08:43 | LESLIE: Well, I mean, I feel like anything that you’re going to spray on and leave on is going to leave a streak. Because you know you’ve got to completely remove whatever cleaning formula you put on there. Otherwise, it will streak or cloud or do something unusual. So that’s the issue with cleaning glass. It’s not like a product you can spray on a siding and let it sort of do the work. Yeah. |
| 00:09:02 | TOM: There’s a line of products that we like that are cleaning products, including window cleaners, made by a company called Jaws, J-A-W-S. It’s jawscleans.com. These are products where they sell you the concentrate and a mix and a bottle. And for a fraction of the cost of buying one that’s already mixed up at the store, you can get a dozen or more bottles full of this stuff by mixing it yourself with the concentrate. And I like it because it doesn’t leave any streaks. And I told the guy that… Yeah. …it owns a company who I’ve become friendly with that I keep a bottle on my desk in my office because I clean computer screens and glasses with it. So you might want to take a look at that jawscleans.com, and that might be a product that’s so easy to use that it wouldn’t be so bad for you to have to clean those windows yourself. |
| 00:09:47 | CALLER: Okay, that sounds pretty good. I just have like 20 windows, and I don’t want to clean them. |
| 00:09:54 | TOM: You know, you can always hire a pro. There’s folks out there that that’s all they do. Well, good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at the Money Pit. Okay. |
| 00:10:02 | LESLIE: Okay, thank you. Well, if you’d like to choose the best plants for inside your house this winter, the first step really is knowing your house. I mean, which rooms get west, north, south, east sunlight, which one’s sunny in the morning versus sunny in the afternoon, and, you know, of course, where you wanna put these plants, and then that will help you choose accordingly. Now, with that in mind, you have to consider which types of house plants are most popular and which work best in varying levels of low to bright light, because you wanna pick the plant for the condition in your home for it to do well. |
| 00:10:33 | TOM: Yeah, now, popularity doesn’t always win out, because the number one plant that’s requested from nurseries is a ficus. I really love ficuses. I had a beautiful ficus at one point in an apartment, but it turned out it wasn’t a very practical plant. They’re difficult to maintain, they’re grown in full sunlight, and they drop a lot of leaves, very dense foliage. You’ll be cleaning them up forever. |
| 00:10:55 | LESLIE: Now, the best alternative there is something called a Kensha palm, and this is super popular in parlors and dens of those lovely Victorian homes. Each leaf is kind of gradually smaller on each palm frond. It’s got a super rich green color. It’s very elegant looking. Also, the lady palm is a wonderful choice. Each leaf is sort of like a lady’s hand with a paper-like texture. I mean, they’re not looking at my hands with my glue gun bites, but you know, |
| 00:11:20 | TOM: that’s Exactly. There’s also several varieties in the Drusina family. These are cane varieties as well as shorter plants, and taller plants with variations in the leaves for really nice color contrasts. |
| 00:11:35 | LESLIE: Now, orchids, they’re also a great option, especially the moth orchid. Those flowers can last for months. They’re very easy to maintain. They don’t need a ton of sun, but don’t ask me how to get the flowers back after they come off. I have never been successful in that, although my father-in-law was always very successful with that. So, who knows, if you’ve got a green thumb, an orchid could be amazing year-round. |
| 00:11:57 | TOM: Well, one test that often trips people up, also, is not knowing when to repot a plant. If your plant is not absorbing water, either it’s full of roots and not absorbing properly, or it’s so full of roots, there’s absolutely nowhere for the water to go, and it might be time to repot that plant. So, in general, you can go about two inches upwards in the pot size from where you started. |
| 00:12:19 | LESLIE: And make sure when you use potting soil, don’t be confused with topsoil, which is used outside. You want to use rocks or a piece of broken clay to sort of line that pot, make sure that pot has holes, this way the dirt doesn’t clog those holes, and then the plant can drain, because too much water, even though you’re like, I’m watering the plant, is not a good thing. |
| 00:12:37 | TOM: Yeah, and then just add the soil. You want to go almost to the rim and then add your plant, and then fill that dirt to cover and water it thoroughly. And with those tips, you’ll be enjoying plants all winter long. |
| 00:12:48 | LESLIE: All right, we’ve got David on the line who wants to talk about the insulated concrete forms. What are you trying to build? |
| 00:12:54 | CALLER: Well, I’ve seen that it’s durable, withstands a lot of weather. It’s highly insulated, so it’s efficient, and also quiet because of the construction with the foam and the concrete and the walls. So to me, it seems like a good idea for building a new house. It seems like the way to go, but I just want to see your opinion of that. |
| 00:13:17 | TOM: Yeah, so let’s talk about what this actually is for those people that are not familiar with it. Insulated concrete form construction, or ICF blocks, kind of look like gigantic Lego blocks. And when you build a house, you build a house, and you build a house, and you build a house, and you build a house, and you build a house, and you build a house, and you build a house, and you build a house. And when you build a house with ICF blocks, you basically stack them up one on top of another. And then the inside of the block is hollow, and that’s where you pour the concrete. So when you’re done, you have a solid concrete wall with insulation on the inside surface and on the exterior surface. It’s an incredibly durable product. I’ve actually known about it for over 20, 25 years. And I tell you, when I first heard about this stuff, I thought to myself, I’m going to build this. I’m going to build a house someday. I’m definitely going to consider ICF, because it does make a lot of sense. In terms of its durability to natural disasters, you know, we always worry about debris that gets flying, gets flown around in a tornado or a hurricane. It can’t pierce these walls. Remember, it could go through the windows, but it can’t pierce these walls. They’re really that tough. And because they’re so dense, that’s why it’s all so quiet at the same time. The other advantage is that you need fewer bearing walls. If you design it right, you basically can, the interior walls become somewhat movable. So you can easily expand and move your footprint around or at least have that much flexibility. You know, if you use ICF construction with TJIs, we can span, I think, up to 32 feet. You know, there’s a lot of flexibility. It gets a little bit complicated for wiring and plumbing, but you know, once the electricians and the plumbers, if they’ve had an experience with this, get their hands around it, it’s not terribly complicated. It’s just different because it takes a little bit longer. Remember with the foam insulation, you’re going to have to sort of cut that out, set the wires in for the outlets and lights, switches and things of that nature. So that’s a little bit different, but certainly something that’s easy to overcome. So I think it’s a great option and I would strongly consider it. |
| 00:15:09 | CALLER: Well, thanks for the help. I appreciate the advice. |
| 00:15:11 | TOM: All right. Good luck with that project, David. Thanks so much for calling us at 1-888-Money-Pit. You’re welcome. Glad you helped. Bye. |
| 00:15:18 | LESLIE: Now we’ve got Eden in Arizona on the line, who’s got a question about a garbage disposal. What’s going on? |
| 00:15:23 | CALLER: My question is that every time we turn on the garbage disposal, the sink that is next to the sink that has the disposal in it has all this junky stuff come up through the drain up into that sink. And we had a guy come out to adjust the garbage disposal for a different reason, and I hope somehow that would fix it, but it’s still doing it. So basically I turn on the garbage disposal and everything that’s in the garbage disposal goes into the other sink. So it’s really gross. |
| 00:15:55 | TOM: If your garbage disposal, if you have a double sink and the disposal is backing up into the other sink, that means that that main drain line is somehow obstructed and the water is trying to get down there, but it just can’t. And because it can’t, the only place it has to go is back into your sink. And because the drain on that side is the path of least resistance, it’s going to bubble up there and bring all of that gunk that the garbage disposal ground up. So this is a situation where you’re going to have to clear that drain. Now, it is a little tricky. When you have a double sink, because you have to block one sink so that when you actually use a plunger, it doesn’t just try to like push air out that side. So you block, say the disposal side, and you could put like a rubber jar opener or something like that across that sink and hold it in place while you plunge the other side to see if we can get that pipe moving. Now, if that’s not enough to clear it, at that point you’ll need to have a drain cleaning service come in. But if it’s properly cleared, it should not be backing up into the opposite side. It’s just a simple matter of fixing a clogged drain. |
| 00:16:59 | LESLIE: We are heading over to Suffolk, Virginia, where we’ve got Rich on the line who’s dealing with a damp crawl space. Tell us what’s going on. |
| 00:17:05 | CALLER: It’s not necessarily damp, but I did move in to a new house, and it was kind of musty smelling underneath of the house. And I noticed that the vapor barrier was in less than ideal condition. It was probably about 20 years old. So I had a contractor come out and put a new vapor barrier down, and it smells a decent amount better, did some stuff on the outside, ran the downspouts a little bit farther away from the house. I haven’t really had any issues since, but I was kind of wondering, when’s the threshold of putting an actual dehumidifier encapsulation system? Is it a good idea for every house, not every house? |
| 00:17:42 | TOM: So those are really two separate approaches. Okay, so dehumidifier can go into what you have right now. And encapsulation is basically when we change this to basically being a conditioned crawl space by sealing it all off, and then using like a spray foam on the crawl space walls and on the underside of the floors. Either approach is okay. I don’t necessarily think you have to invest in encapsulation. It’s going to be very expensive, but there’s another method that’s less expensive than both of those. And that is to simply install a fan. There are fans that are designed to be eight by 16, the same size as a concrete block. And they would go in the wall and sometimes they’ll replace one of the vents that I’m sure is already there. But the thing about the fans, is they run on a humidistat so that when moisture gets high, it turns on and pulls more natural air through that crawl space to dehumidify it. So that is something you could consider as well. The fact that you extended your downspouts, I mean, on top of that, making sure your gutters are clean and your grading slopes away, are all the right steps in order to minimize moisture in the crawl space, as was replacing that vapor barrier, because really the vapor barrier should be a continuous sheet of plastic that covers the entire surface. And I like to press it up against the wall a little bit myself. So I think you’re on the right track. And unless that humidity gets really bad in there, I don’t think you’re going to have any ill effects from it. A little bit of dampness is going to make the insulation slightly less effective. But I think if you were to add additional ventilation via a fan or a dehumidifier, that’s entirely possible. And speaking of the dehumidifiers, I like the ones from Santa Fe. They’re really durable. They can hang from the underside of the floor, kind of suspend themselves in midair. And these are machines that are able to pull out a lot of damp air from a fairly big crawl space and exhaust it outside. And they run themselves. Their switching is also on a humidistatic basis. So when it gets really moist, it switches on, it pulls that moisture out. When it’s less moist, it goes off. So I think you’re on the right track, but those would be your options. That’s perfect. Yep. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. You got it, Rich. Good luck with that project. |
| 00:19:53 | LESLIE: Well, did you know that the day after Thanksgiving is the single busiest day of the year for plumbers? Holiday meal prep, cleanup, it’s busy, it’s crazy, but it often leads to clogged drains from excessive waste in the kitchen drain. That, plus a house full of holiday guests requiring more clothes washing, showers, toilet flushing, it can definitely put a strain on your household’s plumbing system. |
| 00:20:15 | TOM: Now, sewer blockages typically occur between a house and the utility’s sewer main. And that’s important to note, because it means the property owner, which is you, is responsible for repair. Avoiding the potentially big bill really comes down to how well you’ve disposed of fats, oils, and grease. Those are the three enemies of clogged pipes, the fats, the oils, and the grease. And when they get washed down the drain, the grease and the oil can adhere to the insides of the pipes. And over time, that buildup of grease will restrict the flow of wastewater, |
| 00:20:45 | LESLIE: and that causes the backups, which can get pretty nasty. Now, if you’d like to avoid setting an extra place for your plumber at the Thanksgiving table, you want to do the following. Do not pour fats and cooking oils down the drain. They do solidify in your pipes. Instead, you want to wipe grease from the pots with paper towels and throw them in the trash. I mean, I always tend to let everything cool down in those pans and then dump the grease first in the garbage and then wash. |
| 00:21:10 | TOM: We keep, like, a soup can for, like, oils, and we fill that up. And once it gets filled, then we drop it in a bag, like an old, you know, plastic shopping bag, and then put that in the trash so we’re not constantly having to do it. Yeah. The other thing to think about is stringy, fibrous, or starchy waste. For example, poultry skins, celery, fruit and potatoes, shrimp peels. If you put those in the garbage disposal, you’re going to be creating a heck of a mess. So don’t do it. They can’t sufficiently be broken down, even in a good garbage disposal. So you definitely should stay away from that. So keep those tips in mind, unless you do want to, as Leslie said, set an extra place for your plumber at the Thanksgiving table. Although I’m sure you’d appreciate it. |
| 00:21:48 | LESLIE: Everybody likes a nice home place. It’s a great home cook meal. |
| 00:21:50 | TOM: Especially at double time and a half. |
| 00:21:54 | LESLIE: Julianne in Massachusetts, you’ve got The Money Pit. |
| 00:21:56 | CALLER: How can we help you today? For the past several years, have used silicone caulking to fill in a 1 1⁄2-inch gap between the bottom of the back door sill and the concrete walkway that comes up to it to keep water and critters from coming through. Okay. It breaks down very easily, so it needs to be cleaned up. It needs to be replaced, and it’s such a big gap, it really doesn’t hold up well. Right. So I was thinking of using the expandable foam, but I was told that it’s not waterproof. Yeah. And someone else recommended using hydraulic cement to fill in that gap and make, like, a lip there to keep the elements out. |
| 00:22:42 | TOM: The sill is the bottom sill of the door. Is it the kind of sill that could be removed off of the concrete? |
| 00:22:48 | CALLER: No. Okay. It’s already off of the concrete, but it’s that gap that’s there. I’m trying to find out how to fill that in. |
| 00:22:56 | TOM: Does it have some give when you step on it because there’s a gap underneath it? Does it bend and twist at all? Not at all. It’s very sturdy. So here’s what I would do. I would get some cement, epoxy patching, epoxy repair cement. It’s very adhesive, okay? It’ll stick to the old concrete surface. Clean out as much as you can of what you’ve put in there before. And then I would, very carefully, with a very small brush, a small trowel, or you may be able to do this with, like, a putty knife, I would start to pack the underside of that sill with that epoxy patching cement until the point where it just starts to squeeze out ever so slightly from the bottom of that sill. And then I would just let it harden right in place. So two things will happen. You’ll seal the gap, and also you’ll reinforce that open space because one of the reasons that the caulk falls out is because caulk is rubbery, and it’s just going to bend and flex and tear away. But if you use a solid cement to fill that gap, you’re not going to have this problem anymore. |
| 00:23:51 | CALLER: Good idea. |
| 00:23:52 | TOM: Thank you very much. You’re welcome. Good luck with that project. |
| 00:23:55 | LESLIE: Give us a call because we have got great advice to share, but we also have a great reason to reach out. Have you ever noticed that the toilet can just kind of run on its own and make a ton of noise or maybe even flushes all by itself? Well, we have a great prize that can help you stop those noisy running toilets from wasting water and flushing all of your cash down the drain. We’ve got the Fluidmaster New Super Flapper. It fits both 2-inch and 3-inch toilet flush valves and pretty much every toilet out there imaginable, and it’s got a water adjustment feature that allows you to customize the water level in your tank so that will maximize your flush and save water. It’s really easy to install. I mean, Fluidmaster makes it very, very easy. They have a ton of videos and a ton of instructions to help you accomplish this task. It ranges from $14.98 each or $45 for all three, so it’s a great prize up for grabs this hour. |
| 00:24:47 | TOM: That new Fluidmaster Super Flapper is available at the Home Depot for $14.98, but as you say, we’ve got a set of three going out to one lucky listener drawing at random. So you can update all the toilets in your house at once. So make that you. Call us right now with your questions at 1-888-Money-Pit or post them at moneypit.com slash ask. Just click the blue microphone button. Well, fall might not seem like the best time to start a gardening project, but with a never-ending supply of leaves and yard clippings on hand, it’s actually the perfect time to start a compost pile. So to do it right, you want to choose a level spot that’s about five feet square and out of direct sunlight and away from roof drainage. Clear any grass from that spot and build your pile right on top. |
| 00:25:31 | LESLIE: Yeah, now a compost pile needs a mix of browns and greens, and that’s sort of shorthand for carbon and nitrogen-based plant materials to feed the microbes as they break down those scraps. Browns can include leaves, twigs, wood chips, as well as shredded newsprint and cardboard, and greens is those fruit and vegetable scraps, the grass clippings, and not so obviously, I don’t think people think about coffee grounds and eggshells. You want to layer the browns and greens in roughly equal amounts in the pile. |
| 00:25:59 | TOM: Then aerate the pile with a pitchfork or shovel about once a week to distribute the air and the moisture, and your compost is ready when it’s dark and rich like soil. Now, we’ve been composting for years, and the thing that’s kind of fun about it is there’s sort of like a potluck aspect to it. When you use the compost in your garden, all of a sudden, you’ll see like a pepper start to grow where you didn’t really plant one, or maybe there’s a tomato. Mix them with the corn because it was, the seed was in the compost, and it germinated and started to grow the plant right there. So it’s a fun project to do, to tackle, and you often get very interesting results. |
| 00:26:34 | LESLIE: Robert in Arkansas, you’ve got the Money Pit. How can we help you today? |
| 00:26:37 | CALLER: Well, I am trying to find something that seems that nobody makes anymore. I’m looking for a metal, continual ridge vent for steel roofing. What I’ve got in my hand is, take the letter U and add a wing on both sides, flatten the bottom, comes in 10-foot sticks, and it’s cut to fit the corrugation on the steel, and then the roof cap screws to it, the separate independent piece, and it’s made out of metal, and it’s perforated. |
| 00:27:11 | TOM: It’s a ridge vent, essentially. That’s a metal ridge vent, but you’re saying it’s designed specifically for metal roofs? |
| 00:27:19 | CALLER: Right, specifically for metal roofs. And, you know, for decades I’ve got it, and I put a roof on over 15 years ago, and we had a bad storm that went through, and I’ve got to replace parts of it. But no one, big box, little box, steel manufacturers can find this vent for me. And I know it comes in 10-foot sticks, and it’s the metal piece that screws down to the roofing, and then you’re ready to go. And your ridge cap, you know, screws onto it. |
| 00:27:46 | TOM: So, John, I mean, first of all, a ridge vent is a really good thing to have because it provides an area of the roof where as wind blows over it, it will depressurize and pull warm air out of the building. I can see that it might be a challenge to find a ridge vent that’s specifically designed for metal roofs, but there is a number of manufacturers out there that make them. There’s a product called FlexoVent that is designed specifically for ridge vents. There’s another company called Plyco, P-L-Y-C-O, that has another vent that’s specifically designed for metal roofs, a ridge vent for metal roofs. I think if you check out those two brands, you may find one that works for you, and then you’ve got to try to obviously get the supplier, find a supplier locally. Now, some suppliers will be able to order this stuff in, but if you contact these companies, they may be able to ship them. I see that they come in at least, I guess with the Plyco comes in 8-foot lengths, and I’m not so sure about the FlexoVent, but they certainly come in lengths that may be, uh, shippable to your location. Okay? Got it. We’ll definitely look them up. I appreciate it. Good luck. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit. |
| 00:28:52 | LESLIE: Well, Jack reached out to Team MoneyPit and said, I heard your comments a few weeks back regarding a problem I have been having with the copper pipes, developing holes in them in my apartment buildings. Thanks for suggesting treating the water to lower the pH level. That makes a lot of sense, and it’s a simple solution to a long-term problem. Tom, this relates to the kind of pinhole problem we hear about now and again. Can you kind of explain what causes this? Because I think a lot of people can’t understand why this seems to be affecting them. |
| 00:29:21 | TOM: Yeah, because you would think that copper pipes really don’t deteriorate like, say, steel might, right? But when you have water that’s acidic, it could be the city water, it could be well water, it tends to form holes in the pipes. Now, they’re pinholes, but they can do a lot of damage. One of the approaches is to treat the water to lower the pH. If you lower the pH, you’re going to lower the acidity, and that’s going to make those holes a lot less likely to form. So glad we were able to help you out, Jack. |
| 00:29:49 | LESLIE: All right, now we’ve got one from Ron who says, I live in an older house. The second floor bedroom walls are plaster and are cracking, and some areas are falling out. I’m wondering what the easiest way to repair it is. Is it easier to take the plaster down and replace it with regular sheetrock or make that plaster repair? |
| 00:30:06 | TOM: Okay, so let’s first talk, Ron, about why you’re seeing cracks in the plaster walls. In an older house, plaster is applied across usually wood strips that we call lath, and the plaster sort of goes through the strips and sort of pushes out the other side, and as it dries, it kind of grabs the backside of that wood strip and it holds the plaster in place. But over 100 years, hey, things move, they expand, they contract, plaster starts to break down, and when those sort of fingers of plaster that are grabbed to those sticks break down, those plaster chunks can come off, and man, they can be really heavy. If they’re on the ceiling, they could hurt somebody. So it’s important to deal with that. They can be reattached, if there’s not too many of them, using plaster washers, but another option would be to cover those plastic walls with drywall. I prefer that over tearing the walls down and re-drywalling over the studs because you’re going to find in an old house that those studs are not straight, and you’ll do a lot, it’ll take a lot of repair to make it work out. So my advice, go ahead and cover those plaster walls with drywall, and you’ll have a fresh skin to work with from there. |
| 00:31:11 | LESLIE: All right. Good luck, Ron. That seems like a good project. |
| 00:31:14 | TOM: Well, there are a few things more pleasant than enjoying a roaring fire in the fireplace, but that’s only if you can actually see the fire through your fireplace screen. To help you do just that, Leslie has a simple solution in today’s edition of Leslie’s Last Word. |
| 00:31:28 | LESLIE: Yeah, you know, I love a good fire in the fireplace, but if you really want to enjoy it, plan to clean that fireplace screen once or twice a season. Now, to get that job done right, you want to use a cleaning solution of about 1⁄8 cup liquid dishwashing detergent per quart of water, and that really does wonders for the caked-on dirt. You kind of need to gently scrub the screen with a soft bristle brush, and then follow up by wiping with a lint-free cloth to avoid rusting. If you’ve got any brass or other metals on there that need polishing, you can do so now or use an appropriate cleaner and a lint-free cloth, and then everything about that fireplace screen is just going to glow, just like the fireplace screen. And it’s perfect for the holiday season, instant ambiance, and just a lovely place to relax. |
| 00:32:13 | TOM: This is the Money Pit Home Improvement Show coming up next time on the program. Two of the hardest-working appliances in your home also have the ability to catch fire or flood your house if they’re not properly maintained. We’re talking about your washer and your dryer. They may clean and dry your clothes, but they can also be a source of big leaks and fires if they’re not operating safely. So we’ll share some tips on how to keep them running properly on the next edition of The Money Pit. I’m Tom Kraeutler. |
| 00:32:40 | LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete. |
| 00:32:41 | TOM: Remember, you can do it yourself. |
| 00:32:43 | 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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