Show Notes
Today, get ideas for refreshing your home with new décor on a budget, taking back your peace and quiet by reducing outside noises, and making sure your woodcutting efforts pay off with proper firewood storage. Plus, get tips for creating your best home ever with expert answers to all your DIY home improvement questions!
Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
- Home Décor: Refresh your space and keep down costs with 5 ideas for home décor on a dime.
- Outdoor Noise: Get back your peace and quiet with tips for minimizing outdoor noises.
- Firewood Storage: Proper firewood storage can prevent your plans for a perfect fire from going up in smoke.
Top Questions & Answers
- Contractors: Rita is frustrated by contractors who won’t give her answers or estimates. We suggest a website to search for local contractors who are right for the job.
- Pavers: How should George use mortar to lock new concrete pavers in place? He should build a pad at least 8” wider than what he needs or use flexible border edging.
- Garage Floor: How to clean a garage floor coated with oil and grease? Laurie should pressure wash it with a TSP solution and let it dry before applying an epoxy floor finish.
- Vent Fan: There’s lots of condensation every time Brian uses the shower. He needs to reduce the bathroom humidity with a more powerful vent fan with a humidistat that discharges outside.
- Concrete Stains: Acorns from the oak trees are staining Gail’s concrete driveway. We recommend cleaning it as needed by scrubbing the surface with oxygenated bleach.
- HVAC Fireplace: Paul has questions about installing a wood or gas fireplace with a chimney through the center of the house. We discuss things he needs to know.
- Insulation: Amy wants to add insulation to a huge old attic. Her best option is spray foam insulation, but it will cover the rafters that she wants to leave exposed.
- Flooring: What type of floating floor could possibly be refinished later if necessary? We recommend that Doug install engineered hardwood flooring.
Ask Your Home Improvement Question
Podcast Transcript
Read Transcript
| 00:00:24 | ANNOUNCER: The MoneyPit is presented by SuperFlapper by Fluidmaster. Now, here are Tom and Leslie. |
| 00:00:30 | TOM: Coast to coast and floorboards to shingles, this is The Money Pit Home Improvement Show. I’m Tom Kraeutler. |
| 00:00:36 | LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete. |
| 00:00:37 | TOM: Happy holidays, everybody. Are you guys ready for the new year? You got some plans for the new year? You got some home improvement plans, some project plans, some repair plans, some decorating plans? We can help you with those plans when you reach out to us with those questions. You can do so at MoneyPit.com slash ask. Click the blue microphone button and record your question to us. Coming up on today’s show, are you getting ready to refresh your home with some new decor in the new year? Maybe you’re not sure if your budget is ready for those expenses. Well, we’re going to share five ways to save lots of money decorating your home sweet home. |
| 00:01:12 | LESLIE: And are outside noises disturbing your sleep or your work? Well, you can’t do that. If you can minimize those sounds, whether it’s traffic noise, the train, noisy neighbors, or just loud plumbing, we’re going to have tips to help you get back your peace and quiet. |
| 00:01:25 | TOM: And if you have a wood-burning fireplace or a stove, you know that gathering and chopping firewood is tough work. Well, all that hard work can be undone very easily if you’re not storing the wood properly before you toss it in the fireplace. We’ll tell you what you need to know. |
| 00:01:39 | LESLIE: But first, we want to help you create your best home ever. So whether you are doing that job yourself or you’re hiring a pro, we’re ready to help you get that job done right. |
| 00:01:49 | TOM: So reach out to us right now at 1-888-Money-Pit. If you do, you might just win yourself a copy of my brand new book, Home Maintenance for Dummies. We’re going to give out a copy to one caller drawing at random. So make that you. The number here is 1-888-Money-Pit. That’s 888-666-3974. Let’s get started. Leslie, who’s first? |
| 00:02:09 | LESLIE: We’ve got Rita on the line from Arkansas who’s looking to put in a metal roof. How can we help you? |
| 00:02:13 | CALLER: The contractors that I talk to, they seem to have really sour attitudes. And that’s the nicest word I could put it. |
| 00:02:26 | TOM: What do they seem to be so miserable about? |
| 00:02:28 | CALLER: They get offended that I ask questions like, what are the measurements of my roof? And they want me to sign paperwork as soon as they show up. Yeah. Things like that. I want to know a streamlined way to get estimates. |
| 00:02:45 | TOM: So one thing that you can do is you can use a service called Angie, A-N-G-I. And so if you go online, Angie.com, A-N-G-I.com, and then you put in what you’re looking for. So in this case, you’re looking for a roofer to install a metal roof, and they may ask you a couple of questions. And then what happens is Angie then sends your information out to a limited number of contractors in your area that have already identified themselves. It’s doing this sort of work. So you’re only going to hear from those that are most qualified and most interested in your project because they actually are paying for the leads to get your contact information. It’s an advertising expense for them. So then when they show up, they’re totally prepared to do a proper estimate and don’t expect you to sign something on the dotted line right there. You know, if they’re trying to push you to get you to hire them without you having a chance to think about it, that’s a bad sign right there. And I would go no further with someone that did that to me. A friend of mine the other day had to get an estimate for windows, and it was nine windows. And the estimate was $35,000, which is ridiculous. But secondly, the guy goes, well, if you can decide in the next 20 minutes, it goes down to $26,000. I mean, are you kidding me? So she basically tossed him out of the house with a few choice words to boot. But anybody tries to push you like that is just bad business. So I would not lose any sleep over that. I would just not work with them at all. But I think if you try Angie, you’ll get an entirely different result. |
| 00:04:17 | LESLIE: Thank you. Yeah, and you know what, Rita? There’s other people reviewing that contractor, letting you know how they were to work with, if their prices were fair, what the project was like, the end result. So there’s like a community that you can kind of compare things with right there to get a better sense. Thank you. Heading out to Connecticut where we’ve got George on the line who’s got a concrete paver project. How can we help? |
| 00:04:37 | CALLER: I have some pavers that I’m going to be putting down in the backyard. And I know that they’ll migrate and separate if you don’t lock them in. And I was wondering, I know the professionals use mortar mix or cement, and they dig down around them and they put a row or a line of cement down. Is that a good way of doing it? And if so, how deep would you go with the cement and how wide would the trench be to lock those pavers in? |
| 00:05:05 | TOM: So typically you will be building that pad for the pavers probably at least, I’d say at least eight inches wider than what you’re going to need so that you have a little bit of an area where you can lay in some concrete on sort of a 45-degree angle and sort of support that outside lip of those pavers. Or, you know, there are products that are basically border edging products that are flexible, that you can essentially wind around that paver. And then you attach them down by stakes and you won’t have to do the concrete as well. It’s a lot neater way to go. That also has the advantage of being able to be disassembled if you ever have to kind of work on that paver edge or you want to expand the patio or something of that nature. So take a look at the paver patio edging. You’ll find it at home centers. You’ll find it on Amazon. People have very good success with it. And I think that’s definitely an option. But in any event, you need to prep that base a lot wider than what you think you’re going to need. Because when you make, let’s say you’re going to do a 4-foot-wide walkway and you only prep with compressed soil and sand and stone a 4-foot-wide section, well, that’s not going to work because the edge is going to collapse. So you’ve got to go wider than what you want the finished pavers to do. The grass will grow over that area that you’ve compressed underneath the pavers. But if you don’t make it a little bit wider than what you need, you will find that edge is going to turn a lot quicker. |
| 00:06:30 | CALLER: That sounds like a winner. |
| 00:06:32 | TOM: All right. Well, good luck with that project. If you start it now, you’ll be ready for spring, right? |
| 00:06:37 | CALLER: That’s right. Thank you. |
| 00:06:39 | LESLIE: Hey, you want to make our day? Well, go ahead and leave us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts, and we’ll be jumping for joy. Plus, you guys, your feedback helps us make the show even better for you. Just go to MoneyPit.com slash review. We’ve got Lori in New Jersey on the line who’s dealing with a very greasy garage floor. What’s going on over there? |
| 00:06:58 | CALLER: I have a question about my daughter. She just bought a home in Bricktown. And she has a garage floor that is coated probably about a quarter of an inch thick with oil and grease, probably from changing, you know, the oil in the car. So, anyway, we were wondering how to deal with that and what would be the best way to, you know, get that oil or grease up, or can it just be covered over with something? |
| 00:07:26 | TOM: So, Lori, I think that an epoxy floor finish product would be really good in this situation. You do have to clean the floor. And that’s going to be done by pressure washing it. You can use a TSP solution that will help you loosen up some of that old oil that’s in there. And also, if you use a product like a garage floor refinishing kit, I actually am working right now with a product from Daich Coatings called Die Hard 100. It’s designed to be a garage floor kit. I’m actually using it in a basement for the same reason. And it’s a two-part epoxy that you mix up. And then you pour on. It has sort of a color flake in it, so it sort of hides the dirt once it’s hardened. But before you get there, you really need to clean this floor very well. You can do that with a pressure washer. Also, there is a concrete etcher that you can use that the Daich Coatings company also sells. And in your case, since it sounds like it’s so thick and so persistent, you’re going to really want to spend a lot of time cleaning this floor and then making sure that it’s dried very, very well. You can’t, like, wash it on Saturday and put the floor down on Sunday. You got to let that water evaporate out. So plan accordingly. And I think you will have a very beautiful garage floor for what sounds like the first time ever in the life of this home. |
| 00:08:39 | LESLIE: Brian is joining us with an issue going on in the bathroom every time he takes a shower. All right, what’s going on? |
| 00:08:45 | CALLER: Every time I get a shower, I have condensation running down the walls, and I have to wipe the walls with a towel. Do I need to change the fan, or is there another problem? |
| 00:08:55 | LESLIE: Now, I think what you’re seeing there is just sort of the condensation from the hot, moist air of the shower touching the colder wall in the bathroom space. And that’s more of an exhaust fan issue. I don’t think you’re moving out that moist air. I don’t think this is anything more than that. Yes, you may have to dry out the walls until you correct the situation, like with the towel, but changing out the vent fan to something more powerful, opening the window and putting on the vent fan, I mean, you have to move that moist air out to correct this issue. |
| 00:09:25 | TOM: Yeah, definitely. If you’ve got high humidity in the bathroom, because you’re not venting it, of course it’s going to condense on the walls, as well as the bath walls, as well as the shower walls and the tub walls, but also just the drywall in the bathroom and in the ceiling. So you’ve got to move that humidity out there. Having an effective fan is important. Having that set up on a humidifier. See, we’re just accustomed to taking a shower, leaving the room, even if we have a fan, and turn the fan off. That fan’s actually got to run for a bit after you leave that bathroom in order to totally move the moisture out. Just make sure that when you discharge it, it’s actually discharging out. Not just in the attic, but actually going out of the house. And a good way to make sure that’s happening, if you do see an exhaust duct on the outside, turn the fan on, go look at it. It should have a flapper that actually moves to the open position. Well, one of the most exciting things about owning a new home is decorating it. But if you rush into decorating, go ahead and buy lots of furniture, that can mean making choices that you might later regret. Instead, think ahead and come up with a plan. |
| 00:10:26 | LESLIE: Yeah, so here are some ways that you can stick to a reasonable budget plan. And maybe even save some money. Think about spreading out those expensive purchases. Now, if you’re buying a number of those high-ticket items, like a couch and a bed and a big TV and all kinds of stuff, don’t buy them all at once. Make a list of the things that you need to buy, and then prioritize how you buy them. You also want to avoid trendy design choices that are, you know, most likely going to just go out of style. So before you plunk down all that money on that crazy pattern on that couch, think about whether or not you’re going to like it in five years or so, or, you know, what you think the last ability is there. Maybe if it’s a crazy pattern, get a pillow or two in that fabric, just to kind of have that, you know, obsession with that fabric. You also want to splurge on the essentials, because classic pieces, those are the ones that are worth investing in. You can always cover the trends again with those less expensive home accents. Now, if you’ve got a statement piece, maybe it’s an awesome rug or a piece of artwork, or a really cool piece of furniture, whatever it is, let that be the focal point of your design, and build around that. Another great way to save some money is to repurpose what you’ve already got. You most likely own something that you can incorporate into that design plan. So if you’ve got leftover paint, maybe, from an old project, or accent pieces that you can refresh, maybe you can give your couch a new life by reupholstering it instead of buying a new one. This kind of upcycling can definitely save you some money, so think about those as well when you’re planning that budget and thinking about what you actually need to get. |
| 00:12:00 | TOM: Now, for new decorating, you want to live in your home before making major changes. Let me tell you a story about some friends of mine that moved into their first home, and the very first thing they did, they tore up all the carpet in all the rooms. They tore out all the wallpaper. They basically, from a decorating perspective, pretty much gutted the whole place. And guess what? It sat like that for months and months and months. You don’t want to do that. We think it’s a good idea to wait at least two or three months before you make any kind of significant purchase, and here’s why. Now, one of two things are going to happen. You’re either going to get used to the old decor, shift some of your existing furnishing around, and discover maybe it’s not so bad, or the desire to decorate is going to increase, and you’ll take on the project anyway. But by waiting, you’ll have a much better idea of what you want to spend money on and how to accomplish all of your decorating dreams. |
| 00:12:50 | LESLIE: Gail in St. Simons Island, Georgia, you’ve got The Money Pitch. How can we help you today? Something about acorns? |
| 00:12:56 | CALLER: We’ve just moved into a new house, and we have a lovely concrete drive that is underneath a lot of live oak trees that are now dropping all their nuts. And the acorns are putting stains all over my concrete. I’m wondering if I should stain this concrete brown. |
| 00:13:21 | TOM: Well, listen, I think those beautiful oak trees are part of the beauty of living on St. Simons Island, which is a gorgeous place. Now, I can sympathize with your thought that, hey, why don’t I just restain the driveway to match the color of the acorn stains? That is one way to do it for sure. But then again, that stain is going to fade over time, and, you know, they’ll have stains and a driveway that has to be stained at the same time. So what I would suggest is that you just take on the maintenance that this is going to require. It’s not difficult. You just need some oxygenated water. You don’t have to use a lot of oxygenated bleach. Or you could mix up your own bleach. I would do about maybe like a cup of bleach to about a gallon of water. Pretty strong bleach solution. And then when you put that down, you let it sit for a while, and then you can scrub it off with like a floor brush. You will find those stains will come up if you stay on top of that that way. I would be cautious about using a pressure washer. It’s always an option. But if you want to put down a solution first of the bleach and then pressure wash it, you could do that, but do not use too much pressure because concrete, as hard as we all think it is, it’s like butter to a pressure washer. And the pressure washer will actually wear away the surface of it. And you’ll see indentations from where you ran the pressure washer over it. But it’s a pretty common problem. You’re just going to have to stay on top of it by using a cleaner. So like I said, oxygenated bleach. There are driveway cleaning products that are formulated for this. They’re very similar to the deck and house cleaning products that are simulated for these sorts of stains. And if you stay on top of it, it won’t be terribly bad. |
| 00:14:57 | LESLIE: Alright, looking to cozy up, we’ve got Paul in Massachusetts on the line who wants to add some sort of fireplace or wood-burning stove. What’s going on? |
| 00:15:05 | CALLER: The chimney goes up in the center of the house. Now this could either be the wood or a gas-burning stove. It has nothing to do with heating the house. It’s more of an added feature. |
| 00:15:16 | TOM: The ambiance factor. Got it. Alright, so the chimney that you have going up through the center of the house now, that is serving only the heating system? Is there anything else? So there’s one flue inside of it? |
| 00:15:29 | CALLER: Just one flue, yes. |
| 00:15:30 | TOM: So you can’t mix the if it’s wood-burning, you can’t use that chimney anyway. That’s not possible. What you would have to do, and probably in both cases, is you would put in a triple-walled metal vent pipe whether it was wood-burning or natural gas. You would put a vent pipe in. You may choose to run that parallel with the chimney only because you already have sort of the space knocked out for it or chased there even if you have to extend the box. And probably run it up parallel to that structure all the way up and out the roof. The other option is if you wanted to mount it on an exterior wall it’s possible to direct vent in some circumstances as well. |
| 00:16:10 | CALLER: I imagine the second option is also invasive. It’s probably just punching up and then punching a hole in the wall, putting up a heat pipe, and then running it a certain height. That’s correct. |
| 00:16:22 | TOM: That’s correct. It has to clear the roof. There’s a rule for how far above a roof a vent has to be. We call it the 2-10 rule, which basically means if you go from the top of the vent pipe down two feet, it has to be more than 10 feet from any portion of the roof. So if you were to tie a string around it there and circle it around, you couldn’t touch your roof. Those are your options. I hesitate to tell you this, but there is a type of gas fireplace that’s not vented, but I don’t recommend it. There are gas fireplaces that are high efficiency and vent into the house, but I really don’t like it because I feel like it puts in a lot of moisture into the house and I feel like it’s a potential carbon monoxide risk unless it’s operating perfectly. So I would not do that. But if you had the space, I think the nicest thing just for the charm of it in my mind is a wood-burning, zero-clearance fireplace. It’s called zero-clearance because it can go against a combustible surface with no space. So it takes the least amount of space. You still need to have a hearth in front of it and so on, but you can basically insert it into the exterior wall. So wood-burning fireplace, but the term is zero-clearance. Zero-clearance. So if you go to a supplier or you Google that, zero-clearance wood-burning fireplaces, you’ll see a wide, wide, wide variety of models and installation methods from some that are sort of circular, you can go as an art piece right in the middle of your house all the way to the ones that are mounted in other various spaces throughout, even corner mount versions. |
| 00:17:48 | CALLER: Perfect. I really appreciate it. |
| 00:17:49 | TOM: All right, Paul. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling the Money Pit. |
| 00:17:52 | CALLER: And I look forward to Sunday morning listening to you again. |
| 00:17:54 | TOM: All right. Thank you so much, sir. |
| 00:17:56 | LESLIE: Heading over to Ohio, we’ve got Amy on the line who wants to talk about some installation. How can we help you? |
| 00:18:01 | CALLER: My house is 202 years old. |
| 00:18:03 | TOM: Wow. And we thought we had old houses, Leslie. |
| 00:18:05 | CALLER: That’s the old house. Yeah. Let me tell you, your show, Money Pit, basically describes our house. We have a third floor attic, which is not your traditional attic. I mean, it’s huge. It covers the whole second floor. It’s about 30 by 40. All you can see are the original hand-hewn, you know, trees, beams. There is floor up there, but I want to insulate. I don’t want to cover up the beams, but I do want to put some insulation in between them and then some sort of something that goes with it, but not the entire depth of the beam, if that makes sense. |
| 00:18:42 | TOM: Let me ask you this. Are we talking about an improvement here solely for energy efficiency, or is this third floor attic a finished space or a space that you want to finish? |
| 00:18:52 | CALLER: Both. I want it more energy efficient. Our electric bills at the moment are about $1,000 to $1,200 a month. |
| 00:18:59 | TOM: Wow. Yeah. Energy efficiency wasn’t so important 200 years ago. |
| 00:19:05 | CALLER: No. There’s no insulation. It’s entirely brick. It’s 18 inches thick of brick all the way around, so there’s no insulation anywhere. |
| 00:19:13 | TOM: I will first tell you that insulating a space like this is challenging. The reason it’s challenging is because the depth of those rafters, which is where you’re talking about putting the insulation, is limited. That means you have a limited amount of space that you can use for insulation. It also presents challenges for ventilation because let’s just say for argument’s sake that you have a beam that is, I’m going to be optimistic here, and it’s probably less than this, but let’s say it’s a 10-inch deep beam, right? Well, you can only put 8 inches of insulation in there. It would have to be flush with the inside edge of the beam, and then you have to leave the 2 inches behind it, that gap, for ventilation, and then you have to add vents to make sure you have airflow back there. It’s a challenge. Plus, in an attic, normally you would want to have, if we’re talking about fiberglass, you would want to have 15 or 20 inches to really keep the heat in. So, that’s what it makes it really difficult. Now, I will tell you another option, which you may or may not like, because I’m going to tell you you’ve got to cover these beams, but if you want to insulate this space, there’s one thing that will work brilliantly, and that is spray foam insulation. The reason you can use spray foam insulation is because it’s incredibly efficient per inch. It gives you more R, more resistance to heat loss for every insulation than fiberglass does. In my house, for example, which is a youngster at 130 years old, I did spray foam insulation in my attic, and albeit it’s not a living space, but we insulated between the rafters and slightly over the rafters because we wanted even another inch or two of insulation. And the temperature in that attic, Amy, does not change year-round. It is like perfectly, and there’s no heating or cooling up there, it just stays at ambient temperature, and it’s very, very comfortable. It’s just an incredibly powerful product because it not only insulates but seals. So it seals all the gaps that are just common to older homes. So if you really want to cut back on that heating bill, that’s kind of what you’re looking at. I guess the other thing that you could think about doing is adding insulation to that floor, and this would help make the lower sections of your house would become more efficient as a result of that. The attic, how is the attic heated now? You said you have a high electric bill, what’s that like? Is it electric heat, or is it some other heating system? |
| 00:21:33 | CALLER: No, there isn’t any heat or air conditioning up there now. |
| 00:21:38 | TOM: Well then, what are you going to put up there if you want to make it a living space? |
| 00:21:40 | CALLER: I will have to add something. I was hoping maybe it would be tolerable year-round, I don’t know. |
| 00:21:47 | TOM: Well, you could put a split ductless unit in that’s like a mini heat pump that would provide heating and cooling. Do you have hot water heat throughout the rest of the house? What’s the rest of the heating system? |
| 00:21:58 | CALLER: It’s gas, natural gas. |
| 00:22:01 | TOM: Radiators or forced hot air? |
| 00:22:03 | CALLER: Oh, forced hot air. |
| 00:22:04 | TOM: Well, you probably would not be able to extend that. It’s probably pretty tapped out now, so you really would have to have a separate zone up there. And given that, probably using a split ductless heat pump, which is still going to be expensive. But look, these older homes, we love them, they’re beautiful, but they are challenging in some respects when you want to finish areas like this. And if you love the look of those beams and you want to keep them, then insulation does not play well with that decor. Leslie, I don’t think we’ve ever seen an attractive insulation product from a decor perspective. |
| 00:22:37 | LESLIE: No, I mean, it’s really not something that you’re meant to look at. I mean, it does a great job and you feel comfortable, but I wouldn’t want to look at it all the time. |
| 00:22:44 | CALLER: Would it be beneficial in any way to put even a couple inches of the spray foam on, you know, the part of the roof that you can see, the plywood, but still save the beams? |
| 00:22:56 | TOM: You may be able to pick up some on that. I might, you know, just have a conversation with some spray foam providers and, you know, find those that are very experienced and have a good track record, not the person that, you know, that does other types of insulation and subs out to a spray foam company. You want somebody who’s a real pro because there’s definitely points for technique and neatness when you use this product. You know, when we did our house, we not only did the attic space, but we did the crawl spaces and the box beams, and I had a section in my basement that had a computer network in it and these guys were neat as a pin. And man, what a difference it made by using that. So, you would pick up some insulation and you would definitely pick up a reduction in the drafts that are up there. So, that’s an option. Wonderful. It’s just kind of a shame to have somebody there and the expenses, the mobilization of having a spray foam contractor come out and just say, but only put a couple inches in, not filling it up. You know, it’s because like, ugh, you’re so close to having a really, really well insulated home and you’re just pulling them back because of the core concerns. But, you know, that’s your right to do. It’s a balancing act against the expense of those electric bills. |
| 00:24:03 | CALLER: As you’ve learned. Oh, yeah. Alright, wonderful. Thank you |
| 00:24:07 | LESLIE: for your suggestions. So, are you working from home a lot these days and you’re finding out that those outside noises are making it hard to focus during the day or maybe even just fall asleep at night? Could be traffic noise, it could be the train, a noisy neighbor, loud plumbing, whatever it is, we’ve got some ideas to help you get back your peace and quiet. Now, your solution is going to very depend on whether you live in a house, a townhouse, an apartment, and certainly the options for new homes are easier to plan as part of the construction, but there are a lot of options for existing homes and even renters. |
| 00:24:39 | TOM: Yeah, so let’s talk about a few. So, if you’re planning a new home, consider the type of insulation that’s being used. Most homes use fiberglass insulation, but it’s not a great sound deadener. A better option is Thermafiber, which is a product that’s made from super-heated rocks. It’s really dense, it’s very sound-resistant, it’s fire-resistant, it’s made by Owens Corning, and it’s really a good choice for people that are sound-sensitive. Now, for existing homes or retrofits, you might want to think about using blown-in cellulose insulation. Other ways to quiet spaces, if you’ve got just a room or two that you want to be particularly quiet in, you can add another layer of drywall, basically making it a double layer of drywall. That double layer that’s separated by something called Green Glue, which comes in a caulk gun, is basically a sound-deadening assembly that is really effective without spending a lot of money. Now, speaking of drywall, there’s also a special type of drywall that is designed to reduce sound. It’s made by different companies that has different brands. I think one of them is called Quiet Rock, and basically it’s designed to replace the half-inch drywall that’s typical with the sound-deadening drywall, and that sort of absorbs the sound. Now, you could also consider acoustic ceilings. Many are designed to reduce sound. If you want to sort out the best, there are some ratings to look out. Look at the NRC, which is the noise reduction coefficient, and the CAC, which is the ceiling attenuation class. The NRC tells you how much sound a ceiling panel is going to absorb within a room, and the CAC rates how much sound travels from there to the adjacent rooms, which is really where you’re trying to end up. |
| 00:26:17 | LESLIE: Yeah. Now, if you’re a renter, or maybe those that just don’t want to take on a construction project, there are lots of less disruptive things that you can do to reduce the level of noise both inside and outside. So, the more stuff they actually have in your room, the better it is for sound absorption. If you’ve got drapes in a window, you know, that really does look nice, but if you add a heavy drape, maybe a velvet-looking fabric-y curtain to the wall, that’s going to absorb a lot of the sound while giving that wall sort of an elegant and classical feel. So you don’t just have to stick to the windows. You can actually do an entire wall, which kind of dresses up the space. Now, leather furniture, people really like it, but besides being super cold when you first sit down and maybe your butt sticking to it in the hot summer months, it’s not the best for sound because it kind of creates an echo chamber with all of that smooth surface out there. So definitely, if you do have leather furniture, put a throw blanket on, add some pillows, do anything that can help sort of stop those sound waves rather than helping them bounce right |
| 00:27:14 | TOM: off of it. So lots and lots of ways to reduce sound and quiet the rooms in your home and protect them from outside noise. Well, chopping and moving firewood is hard work. Hard work, by the way, that can be easily undone all too simply if you don’t store that wood properly before you toss it into fireplace. Here’s what you need to know. Yeah, |
| 00:27:36 | LESLIE: the key here, guys, is keeping it dry. When the firewood gets wet, that wood’s not going to burn properly, it’s going to put out steam, it’s going to smoke, and it’s not going to actually heat |
| 00:27:46 | TOM: the space. Now, it’s always best to store that firewood off the ground by stacking the wood on a base or a rack but don’t lean that pile against the side of your house because moisture from the wood can damage the siding and it can attract termites to your home or |
| 00:28:02 | LESLIE: your deck. Yeah, you also, when stacking that firewood, you want to pack it snugly but be sure to leave enough airflow to minimize the risk of mold and mildew, don’t stack it higher than four feet unless you have side |
| 00:28:14 | TOM: supports. And even if you do have side supports, you want to keep the top of the pile level to avoid having it collapse and fail because it’s really heavy. Now, lastly, keep that firewood stored outdoors under a waterproof cover so it stays dry and gets that blaze burning quickly. |
| 00:28:33 | LESLIE: Doug in Rhode Island’s on the line with a flooring question. Tell us about your project. |
| 00:28:36 | CALLER: Yeah, I’m considering pulling out some carpeting and putting in a floating floor, but I’m looking for a good quality, something that would be, have a decent thickness, and also the possibility to be refinished, need be in ten years or whatever. Is there something like that? Well, |
| 00:28:58 | LESLIE: with a floating floor, I mean, I think if you’re looking for something that has the potential to be refinished, you’re going to want to look at an engineered hardwood. Because that’s going to assemble the same way that a laminate would. And it’s also going to be structurally stable if you’re looking for flooring to go in a space maybe below grade or in a room that might have a higher moisture content. But the difference between a laminate, which you cannot refinish, and an engineered hardwood is, an engineered hardwood is going to be a base of a plywood. So you’re going to have the opposing layers of the grain so that it will be structurally stable. And then the top most layer is the actual hardwood. And so, you’re able to re-sand it, you know, depending on the manufacturer, a couple of times, up to five times. It really depends on which one and the thickness of that top layer. And that will give you the opportunity to do so when and if you need it down the line. |
| 00:29:46 | CALLER: Is there a particular name that you’d recommend? |
| 00:29:50 | TOM: Yeah, take a look at the products that are available at Lumber Liquidators. They have a very good selection in all lines of durability as well. Okay, great. Listen, I appreciate that. Thank you for your time. Good luck. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit. |
| 00:30:05 | LESLIE: Jim in Ohio wrote in to Team Money Pit saying, My attic currently has blown in fiberglass insulation about five to six inches deep and is ventilated with sulfate vents and an attic fan. I would like to remove the fiberglass insulation and replace it with spray foam. Is it okay to apply spray and foam in the ceiling joists, and if so, does any of the wiring or ductwork or electrical boxes have to be protected from the foam? |
| 00:30:30 | TOM: Okay, so first of all, when you use spray foam insulation inside your attic, you no longer need to have ventilation. So, with all the vents that you have there, you’re going to want to remove and seal those. You can actually spray the spray foam on the underside of the roof rafters. You can cover the wires and anything else that’s in that space. I did this project in my house. I just spent a few hours going through the attic and tightening up any loose wires, putting a few new nails in to keep them snug to the beams before we had the foam sprayed on. And what I found when I’m all done was that that attic now is the same temperature as maybe the most of the house. It doesn’t really get very cold anymore. I still have plenty of storage space up there. It doesn’t really take that much space. And by the way, there’s no reason to remove the fiberglass insulation that’s already in that attic floor. It’s not hurting. It’s not helping. So, just leave it right where it sits and enjoy that space. You’re going to find the spray foam insulation to be extremely effective. In fact, I saw my bills go down significantly the first winter after we added it. |
| 00:31:30 | LESLIE: All right. That’s good. Let’s talk to Susan in Michigan who wrote in saying, I have a ranch house on a cement slab, but the heating ducts are under the house. We closed them off with cement and installed electric baseboard heat instead, but the ducts leaked water. Now, the ducts are sealed off. The question here is, should drainage be added to the house or does it matter now that the ducts are sealed off? |
| 00:31:51 | TOM: So, I wonder why she sealed these off if she had an in-slab, you know, heating distribution system. But whatever the reason, at this point, I would focus on reducing the water that’s getting into that slab and not think about sealing things off because you really are not going to be able to stop the water that really wants to get in. The more important question is, why is that water forming now? And the reason is most likely the same reason that we talk a lot on the show about floods and crawl spaces and floods in basements, and that is the condition of the gutter system and also the grating at the foundation perimeter. Starting with the gutters, they need to be clean. They need to be free flowing. The downspouts need to be extended at least four to six feet from the house because we’re dealing with a water problem here. You also want to make sure you have enough spouts. You want one spout for every 400 to 600 square feet of roof surface. It’s real important so that the roof gutters don’t get overwhelmed. Now, in addition to the gutter system, take a look at the angle of the soil around the house. If it’s flat, if it’s sloped in towards the building, if it’s really mulchy or has like a ton of topsoil around and that water is just landing and soaking in, what happens with a slab is when the water gets around it, it draws that moisture up through the concrete and that’s why you’re seeing evidence of leakage into those ducts. But if you avoid having that water collect by improving the grading, improving the drainage and getting those ducts clean and extended, you’re not going to have any water in those ducts. So that’s the solution. Stop the water. Don’t worry about the ducts. |
| 00:33:28 | LESLIE: Alright Susan, I hope that helps you out and good luck everybody. Have a wonderful holiday. |
| 00:33:32 | TOM: Happy holidays everybody. This is the Money Pit Home Improvement Show on air and online at MoneyPit.com. We are so happy that you’ve joined us for today’s show. We’ve got lots and lots more great stories to tell, great tips to offer you in the year ahead. We hope that you are enjoying this holiday season. Have a wonderful new year and we’ll talk with you soon. I’m Tom Kraeutler. |
| 00:33:54 | LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete. |
| 00:33:56 | TOM: Remember, you can do it yourself. |
| 00:33:58 | 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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