#2479 - DIY Hacks to Beat Winter Blues | Clear the Air with Indoor Filters

Show Notes

Today, we’ve got advice for winter challenges! Learn how to clean up your indoor air, fight the seasonal blues, and handle icy conditions with practical hacks. Plus, listen in as callers share their home improvement goals and get answers to their DIY questions!

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Ask Your Home Improvement Question
Podcast Transcript

Winter Blues: Brighten your home and your spirits with DIY hacks to beat the winter blues.
Air Filters: Clear the air of pollutants and allergens by installing the right indoor air filters.
Snow and Ice: Fight frost and stay safe with clever tips to clear snow and ice fast.

Ask Your Home Improvement Question

Do you have a home improvement or decor question? Call the show 24/7 at 888-MONEY-PIT (888-666-3974) or post your question here.

Podcast Transcript

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00:00:01	ANNOUNCER: The MoneyPit is presented by Super Flapper 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: And this is episode 2479, perhaps our last episode of the calendar year. We are so thrilled to have spent 2024 with you guys and ready to take on 2025 in a big way. So, if you’ve got projects you’re planning for the new year, now’s a great time to reach out to us. Let’s talk about it. Let’s help set some goals. Let’s solve some issues, some questions, some DIY dilemmas to get you moving on the project that’s going to help you create your best home ever. So, let’s get to it. First up, when you are stuck inside all winter, getting fresh air is very important, perhaps more important than ever with all those windows closed. But you don’t have to open the windows and let that cold air in to get it. We’re going to share with you. We’re going to share ways to make sure that inside air in your home is as clean as possible.
00:01:24	LESLIE: And also, Ed, are you tired of feeling, well, tired? You know, for a lot of people, the shorter, darker, colder days can bring on a case of seasonal affect disorder. And that can definitely impact your mood and your focus and your energy. We’ve got easy DIY pick-me-ups that will help your spirit.
00:01:41	TOM: And we’ve got three handy hacks to help you deal with snow and ice this winter, including our recipe for a homemade de-icer you can mix up whenever it’s needed.
00:01:49	LESLIE: But first. What’s on your to-do list? Are you thinking about a project that you want to get done in the new year? Well, whether you are dealing with a repair or you’re dreaming about a renovation, consider us your coach, your helper, or your home improvement therapist for all of those things, remodeling, decor, and fix-up.
00:02:06	TOM: So, call us right now with your questions. The number is 1-888-Money-Pit. That’s 888-666-3974. Or better yet, just go to moneypit.com slash ask and click the blue microphone button. You can record your question to us for the fastest way. And we’ll give you the fastest possible response. Let’s get to it. Leslie, who’s first?
00:02:24	CALLER: Jennifer in Missouri, you’ve got the Money Pit. What can we do for you today? I have a rental house that is a basement home. And it has a concrete patio that is rather large, probably around 12 feet long by 8 foot wide. The house has been built several years ago. And over the course of time. The concrete patio has gotten pitted. It looks like from the use of rock salt to melt the ice and snow off of it. And I didn’t know just because of the size of the patio. I’m guessing it’s going to be pretty costly to replace it. I didn’t know if I had any other options.
00:03:09	TOM: Yeah, you do. And this is a perfect scenario for this. Quikrete makes a product called Concrete Resurfacer. And it’s specifically designed for scenarios like this. You can apply this resurfacer to the entire slab. And it’s designed to stick to it. And fill in those pock marks and those little gaps. And it will give it a whole new look. It’ll look like a brand new slab. But it will resurface it completely.
00:03:36	CALLER: Wow, that’s great. What is it called?
00:03:39	TOM: It’s made by Quikrete. And it’s called a Concrete Resurfacer. It’s basically a blend of Portland cement and sand. And polymers. And the polymers and the other additives basically set it up so it can stick to the original concrete. There is a preparation. You have to pressure wash it first to get it nice and clean. But once you apply this, you can basically squeegee it or trowel it on. And you can use a brush finish so it gets that nice sort of slip resistant finish when you’re all done.
00:04:06	CALLER: That’s great news. I didn’t realize there was anything like that. So, thank you.
00:04:11	TOM: Specifically designed for this project. All right. Well, good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit.
00:04:17	LESLIE: Jesse in Michigan. You’ve got the Money Pit. How can we help you today?
00:04:20	CALLER: So, I have a question about the laundry pump set up that’s in my basement right now. The current set up has our washing machine draining into a laundry tub. And then the laundry tub drains into a sump pump that sits inside a bucket that sits just on top of the basement floor. And the sump pump pumps it up into the main drain line that comes out of the house. I’ve got my eye on a new great water pump that I’d like to replace the sump pump with. And the great water pump has a vent location that says it has to be connected to a vent system for the pump to operate correctly. And so, I’m wondering if that vent system, like, do I have to somehow connect that to the main vent stack in the house? Or can I just hook up some sort of new vent system in the basement?
00:05:00	TOM: I’m a little unclear on what to do with that aspect of it. Okay. So, first of all, the entire assembly that you just described to us is not done correctly. You know, you’re not supposed to be draining laundries into sumps. And then you’ve got a lot of laundry. And then you’ve got a lot of laundry. And then, of course, you would discharge the washing machine into that great water pump. Your idea of putting in a great water pump, however, is the right way to go. And then, of course, you would discharge the washing machine into that great water pump. It would be float actuated. And it would lift the water up high enough to drop it into the main waste system for the house. And, yes, it is supposed to be vented as well. And the vent would, in most cases, connect with the stack vent for the house. Although, there is a type of ball vent that could be used and not connect where it would just let air in but not gases out. So, there are two ways to do that.
00:05:45	CALLER: Okay. The main vent stack in the house, it seems to be pretty much inaccessible. There is no opening that I seem to be able to tap into it. So, can you tell me again what the other type of valve was that I can look for?
00:05:57	TOM: It’s technically known as an air admittance valve. And, basically, it lets air in but it doesn’t, like, let gases out. Okay.
00:06:05	CALLER: And so, I can simply just have it exist in the basement space and not allow the pump to function properly? Exactly. Gotcha. Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much for your help. I appreciate it.
00:06:13	TOM: You’re welcome. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit.
00:06:18	CALLER: Joan in Missouri, you’ve got the Money Pit. How can we help you? I have a small 8×10 outbuilding and I’d like to use it for a craft shop, a craft studio, but I need to heat it to make sure the paint doesn’t freeze in the winter. Also, I need it to, you know, be a functional temperature. So, I’m not really sure how to go about that. Okay.
00:06:37	TOM: So, first of all, can you get gas lines to this particular building? Yes. So, that you can use a gas heater?
00:06:44	CALLER: That would be doable.
00:06:45	TOM: That would be doable. I mean, the other option is propane.
00:06:47	CALLER: Propane, yeah. We’re not allowed to have propane where I live in town. Okay.
00:06:52	TOM: So, I mean, if you can get natural gas lines run to that particular building, then what I would use is a gas furnace and I would heat it the same way I would heat a house. Now, if it’s one, is it one open space? Yeah.
00:07:02	CALLER: It’s just a little tiny little building.
00:07:04	TOM: So, if it’s one open space, you can probably put a small wall heater, gas-fired wall heater in there and insulate it as best you can and I think that will be enough to keep it warm. Okay.
00:07:13	LESLIE: Well, I’ll give it a shot. Thanks a lot. Hey, guys. If you’ve heard a helpful tip or two while listening to our show, please help us help even more home improvers by dropping us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts.
00:07:24	TOM: That would be awesome and you might even win a copy of our book, My Home, My Money Pit, your guide to every home improvement adventure. Just go to moneypit.com slash review.
00:07:35	LESLIE: Frances in Michigan is on the line with a wood-burning stove question. What are you working on?
00:07:39	CALLER: I was just contemplating installing a wood-burner in a three-season room with a couple of sliding glass doors and it would go in the corner so one of the walls has a couple windows part way up that are like awning windows and then on the other wall, there’d be the stationary part of the sliding glass door in the corner. And I was thinking about maybe installing a wood-burner in that corner. And I wondered if there’s any restrictions as far as how far away from the glass you would have to put the stove.
00:08:20	TOM: Yeah, there’s definite restrictions. Now, would that window be behind the stove or just kind of off the side of the stove?
00:08:28	CALLER: Well, the stove would be in the corner sort of diagonally. The stove is actually not a very large wood-burner. It’s a Vermont casting one that I saw that, you know, it’s longer than it is wide and it would sit in the corner so the long part would come out into the room and then it would be diagonally against the corners.
00:08:49	TOM: Okay, so rule of thumb that you need three foot of clearance between any part of that stove and the wall on both sides. You can build in a heat shield which is sort of a shield that stands away from the wall and it creates sort of a convective loop where air moves behind it and keeps the wall cooler. Now, what I don’t know is how this is going to impact your windows and your slider because I really don’t know exactly what the shape of the room is from your description. The other concern is I don’t know if the slider has a vinyl frame. If it does, vinyl melts very readily when exposed to radiant heat. So you could melt some of the door of the frame. So I think you need to be really careful about the position of the stove. You need to follow the NFPA, the National Fire Protection Association. Guidelines. So I would definitely get some advice from a professional on this that can actually see your physical setup and tell you how to accomplish this because the rule of thumb is three feet. If you can keep three feet of space between the back of that stove and your slider or your window, I think you’ll probably be okay. But I suspect that’s going to really push it out in the room. Maybe you don’t want to do that. So I think we have to figure out how we’re going to meet the safety standards here without impacting the combustible parts of your house or the windows or the slider.
00:10:09	CALLER: That’s why I wanted to just ask that question to you before I got too excited about doing the project.
00:10:17	TOM: You may be able to do it fine, but that’s the issue. You start with three feet, then you kind of work back from there depending on what kind of fire protection you can kind of build into it, Francis.
00:10:26	CALLER: Consider the glass as the same as you would a regular wall. Absolutely. Especially because of the vinyl frame around the window.
00:10:34	TOM: On the door.
00:10:35	CALLER: I think ours is actually vinyl. Yeah.
00:10:39	TOM: One burning pattern I always used to see in the years I was a home inspector was vinyl siding that was burned or melted because the gas grill was too close to it or the charcoal grill was too close to it. And that radiant heat just reached across, in some cases, five, six, seven feet and burned the siding. And you could see it all shrunk and melted. It has sort of a halo effect. So vinyl will melt pretty readily and you definitely need the proper spacing there to make this work. Francis, thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit.
00:11:10	LESLIE: Well, the EPA has named indoor air pollution as one of the top five environmental risks to public health and tells us that indoor air can be up to 100 times more polluted than the air outside. But if you are thinking they can’t be talking about my house, well, they can, especially if you don’t have the right kind of air filter. So here are some options that you could be considering.
00:11:32	TOM: Now, to start, understand there are four types of air filters. There are flat filters. They’re very basic. They’re made from fiberglass. They typically need changing on a monthly basis. And while these capture dust, they really don’t capture the kinds of contaminants that can make you miserable, like, say, allergens. Next, we have extended media filters, which uses a particle filter and a small electrostatic charge that cleans the air and does a much better job than the plain flat filters. Then there’s full-on electronic filters. These units use a very simple filter. They have a very high electrical charge to capture particles like a magnet. They’re extremely effective on tiny particles and perform about 30 times better than flat filters. Finally, let’s talk about UV filters, ultraviolet filters. These are extremely effective at capturing particles, bacteria, and viruses, which is why these are the types of filters that most hospitals use to prevent disease.
00:12:21	LESLIE: Now, when it comes to installation, that’s a job that really is best left to a pro because they do need to be built into the existing HVAC system. They need to be built into the existing HVAC system on that return side of the system. This way, the air is continually cleaned as it passes through the filter, and, of course, everything’s going to operate much more efficiently.
00:12:38	TOM: So, definitely worth looking into having the best possible filters on your house as we move into winter. It’s going to make breathing so much easier to not be dealing with all that dust and those allergens as we’re stuck inside.
00:12:52	LESLIE: Marilyn in South Dakota is on the line with a cabinet question. How can we help you today? A galley kitchen.
00:12:57	CALLER: It’s very small. We just live in a small ranch. There’s a lot of dust in there. It’s a lot of dust. We put in quarter sawn custom-built cabinets with the crown molding to the ceiling, the French cabinets up to the ceiling or European style. So, we’re going to be putting the house on the market, and my husband and I are having a little debate because I want to take them out and bring them with. They’re quarter sawn solid oak. We put them in years ago, where if we had to repeat this again now, it would be like three times the cost. So, I want to take them out. And I’m going to have to get them out. I’m designing a new home so, you know, I have the galley design sort of drawn in and so we could put them basically in the same configuration with just a little bit more room on both ends for other living space. So I just wanted to get in your opinion on that.
00:13:42	TOM: Sure. I mean, why not? You can basically disassemble it the same way that you assembled it. You mentioned that you have crown molding on the cabinets all the way up to the ceiling. That’d be the place to start. And I would take the doors off and take the molding apart, take the doors off next because you don’t want to have to work on those cabinets with the doors on them. So I would take the doors off at the hinges, carefully pack them and store them and label them so you know which cabinet they go to. And then just start taking the boxes apart. Start with the wall cabinets and work your way down to the base cabinets. And you know the difficulty of the project is going to be, you know, totally based on how they put it together the first time. But hopefully you can get everything apart pretty quickly. With just some, you know, very gentle prying off of the molding and with removing of those cabinets the same way they were assembled. They were probably screwed into the wall. You should be good to go. I would be careful that the wall cabinets are usually also screwed together. And so you may have to pull out more fasteners than you expect. But I certainly don’t see any reason you can’t disassemble them, especially given the fact that they’re good quality cabinets and that you feel like there’s a place for them in the new home.
00:14:44	CALLER: I’ve been wanting to kind of call about this, but we weren’t sure until we found out for sure we are going to be moving.
00:14:50	TOM: All right. Well, it sounds like we’ve got a plan. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit.
00:14:55	LESLIE: Carl in Idaho is on the line with a furnace question. How can we help you?
00:14:58	CALLER: So I just bought a house in Idaho. I’ve been in it for two days now. The furnace is a gas Lennox furnace. It’s like one of those high efficiency ones where your air inlet and outlet are all PVC pipe. But the home inspector, when he inspected the house, he said, yeah, I do like a 97% efficient furnace, but you have 50% efficient air ducts. Because this house was built in 1950, I doubt they’ve done anything with them since. So my question is, how can we help you? So my question is, what do I do to bring those air ducts up to an efficiency more compatible with the furnace I have?
00:15:36	TOM: Yeah. I mean, the solution to leaky ducts is to seal them. And it’s very common that HVAC ducts, especially in an older house, are going to be very drafty and very leaky. So it was astute of your home inspector to pick that up. Now, shockingly, duct tape is not designed to do this. Duct tape is not designed for ducts because it’ll dry out and fall off and not be very effective whatsoever. There is a type of tape called UL 181 tape, which is a tape that is designed for ducts, more expensive, of course, but the adhesive on it is not going to dry and crack. There is, however, another way to approach this where you seal the ducts from the inside instead of the outside. And there’s benefits to that because you don’t have to worry about getting to every single seam because it’s going to happen by pressurization. That process is called aeroseal, A-E-R-O-S-E-A-L. And essentially, the way this works is they apply a material to the inside of the ducts that sticks to the gaps. Wherever there’s leaks, it fills it in. Have you ever had a leaking radiator on your car? Oh, yeah. I had one on my truck, yes. And if you drop a can of stop leak in there, what happens is it finds the holes and plugs them. And this works the same way. It finds the holes in the ducts, the air leaks in the holes, and it plugs them. And it’s a good quality product. There’s… You have to use their dealer. It’s certainly not a DIY. There’s a great video online where the guys at Aeroseal work with our friends at this old house and did sort of a complete sealing job and did before and after testing to see how well it worked. And it was pretty effective. So I would take a look at Aeroseal as one option. And then beyond that, you could think about doing some of this duct sealing on your own. Just use the right kinds of materials. You can use that UL 181 tape. There’s also a duct mastic, which is kind of like a putty or a paper. You can use that to seal ducts. But of course, that’s a lot of work as well. And remember, you’ve got to get to every single seam. Right.
00:17:32	CALLER: And if you can’t find them, you can’t reach them, then you can’t get to them. But if it goes on the inside, it will do it automatically. So I don’t have to have my grandson crawl through the ducts.
00:17:43	TOM: Crawl through the ducts? He would like to. No. probably would never come out. I’m sure he would. But I wouldn’t recommend it.
00:17:52	CALLER: All right. Well, you’ve been most helpful. I appreciate it. And… I got a lot of little things to do in this house, but that was one of them I wanted to get knocked off. And I listened… I was hearing you a couple of days ago when I was driving across country, truck I was hauling my stuff. And so I thought to call.
00:18:10	TOM: All right. And you thought, well, have you… If you’ve got some questions in the new house, you knew who to call. And Carl, I’m so glad you did. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit.
00:18:20	LESLIE: Laura in Connecticut is on the line with an installation question. How can we help you today?
00:18:24	CALLER: I’m calling for my son. He purchased a home. Okay. He has two kitchens. Okay. He wants to insulate. They’re outside wall kitchens. The house is over 100 years old. It’s perched high. It’s a coastal home. All right. The washer and dryer are on the first floor. And it shimmies a little bit. The walls… We took down a couple of the walls. We noticed they’re similar to cabin walls. They are horizontal planks. They’re spaced. They Okay. And they do have a couple of nail holes due to poor insulation. No, I’m sorry. Poor vinyl siding. Okay. During the winter, we also noticed that the heat is very challenged. You can actually see your breath. How do we insulate these walls?
00:19:12	TOM: So you have a really old house, 100 years plus. And you’ve got some very cold walls that are cold rooms that are so cold you can see your breath. So there’s a couple of things. We have to start at the beginning with this. Is this a one-story house or a two?
00:19:24	CALLER: It’s a two-story house. In fact, both kitchens are on the same side of the house and one above the other. And the kitchen on the first floor not only does it have the washing and drying and shimmies the floor somewhat, but it has a dirt basement.
00:19:38	TOM: So the kitchens are stacked on top of each other. First of all, we need to… When you’re trying to evaluate how much insulation a house has and trying to make it as warm as possible, the easiest and the most important place to start is the attic. And you’re in Connecticut. So you need 15 to 20 inches of… Of fiberglass insulation across the floor of that attic. And if you don’t have that much, then you’re wasting a lot of heat. So you’ve got to really insulate the attic. Now if you’ve got some insulation that’s great, you could add more to that on top of it. You want to use unfaced fiberglass bats and then stack them side by side. Okay. Now the other thing to look at is the type of heating system you have in this house. Is it forced air or is it hot water? Oh, it’s electric. Oh, it’s electric. Yeah. No. It’s electric. Now even more recent to make sure that place is well insulated, did he get a home inspection done when he bought the house?
00:20:30	CALLER: He said he did. I wasn’t here. I’m here now. I’m freezing. That’s why I called. You know, I wasn’t in his state. I happened to come in to help him out with whatever and to find out it’s really poorly insulated.
00:20:44	TOM: All right. Look, you had a lot going on with this house. I can only sort of poke around on this from a distance, but I would say that if you have a cold and cold. You know, if you have a cold and a comfortable house, you have insufficient insulation and probably insufficient heat. Now the insulation is the easiest, quickest, fastest thing you can fix and you can start in the attic. You know, insulating exterior walls is rather difficult because they’re already built, although there are ways to do that. But since this is a new house for you guys and since you say your son had a home inspection, the next call I would make would be to my home inspector and I would ask him to revisit the house with you guys together. Because you’re having some pretty serious problems with it and you’re hoping that maybe he can give you some advice and, you know, in a nice sort of way, why didn’t this come up on the inspection as well? So I would do those two things because you need more information to determine what’s going on with this. But I can tell you for certain you don’t have enough insulation. Laura, thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit.
00:21:43	LESLIE: Well, for many people, the shorter and colder days bring on a case of the blues that’s called seasonal affect disorder. And it can definitely impact your mood and your focus and your health. Energy, if that sounds familiar, here’s one reason to smile. Many folks find that a few easy changes to your living space can spruce up your home and your spirits.
00:22:03	TOM: So first, let’s talk about your lighting. One reason that SAD impacts your mood is because of your body’s response to a lack of lighting. So for ways to improve the lighting in your home, update the light bulbs and remove or reduce window treatments to allow as much sunshine as possible to get in. You can even pick up a UV light that simulates natural light. That can be really helpful in brightening your mood.
00:22:26	LESLIE: Now, you also might want to consider planting an indoor garden. Colorful flowers or herbs, they really can go a long way towards improving your physical and mental health. You just want to make sure that you choose a location that gets plenty of sunlight, since most veggies need as much as six hours of direct sunlight each day to grow and thrive.
00:22:43	TOM: And a pick-me-up for your front door or your entrance way can definitely raise your spirits before you even step inside. So we’re talking about polishing the hardware or swapping out a new doormat. So if you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me. New paint or maybe even a new door all together can bring even more freshness to your space.
00:22:59	LESLIE: And finally, don’t forget to please the most powerful of your senses, your sense of smell. Citrus scents are known to energize and rejuvenate, and jasmine and grapefruit can ease depression and sadness. You want to use oils, incense, or candles to add those beautiful fragrances to your living space.
00:23:16	TOM: For more great ideas to spruce up your home for winter, check out MoneyPit.com.
00:23:22	LESLIE: Chris in Pennsylvania, you’ve got the Money Pit. What can we do for you today?
00:23:25	CALLER: Well, I’m calling about a leak in a copper pipe that is coming from the boiler in the basement up and running along the ceiling of the living room wall and into the radiator which sits in the bathroom. And right in the ceiling in the living room, it’s dripping about one drop per minute, and we’re emptying the bowl. And I had a fellow look at it. He said that there is a leak where the two pipes are connected, and it’s called a 90. Right.
00:24:00	TOM: That’s a 90-degree bend, okay.
00:24:02	CALLER: Yes, which is something I did not understand. And then he said he would be back to repair it and hasn’t come back yet. The boiler is also working, but we have to kind of watch the water and the pressure in it.
00:24:20	TOM: Is it a water system or a steam system?
00:24:21	CALLER: It’s a hot water boiler.
00:24:23	TOM: So it probably has an automatic feed valve that puts more water in if it starts to get low. Do you know if that’s the case?
00:24:28	CALLER: No. I think we turn the valve in the basement and it adds water.
00:24:35	TOM: Well, you certainly have to have it fixed, unfortunately. To do that, they’re going to have to drain the boiler off to below where that leaking joint is, and then the plumber can go in and repair it and then refill the boiler. So you’re definitely going to need to have your plumber or your heating contractor come back and take care of that. If this guy is ignoring you now, you’re going to have to call somebody else. Maybe you got busy.
00:24:57	CALLER: All right. Yes. Well, thank you very much.
00:24:59	TOM: Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit. Well, winter storms can pop up suddenly and quickly, and when that happens, it may be hard to find what you need to stay safe and clear the mess. So we’ve got three hacks to help. First, one of the most difficult situations to get out of is a car stuck in the snow. The tires can spin endlessly, but with no traction, you’re not going anywhere fast. So here’s a way to avoid that. Keep a bag of kitty litter or birdseed handy. If you spread this under the tire, it can actually help improve traction and get you out of a jam.
00:25:33	LESLIE: Now, de-icers are also a good thing to keep on hand, especially for your car’s windshield. Now, you can make your own de-icer from one teaspoon of a grease-fighting dish detergent like Dawn. A teaspoon of rubbing alcohol and a half a gallon of warm water. You can also mix up a bigger batch of this to use on your driveway, walkway, even your windshield to prevent those wet surfaces from freezing over. And you can use this before the storm to keep the ice from bonding to hard surfaces.
00:25:59	TOM: Now, if you’ve got a shovel that’s not so great, here’s a hack that can help stop the snow from sticking to it. Just spray your shovel with cooking spray or a lubricant like WD-40. It is one of the 1001 uses, by the way, for that product. That’ll make the snow slide right off and actually make shoveling a little bit easier for you. So there you have it. Some quick hacks to get you through the next storm.
00:26:21	LESLIE: Jeanne in Ohio is on the line with a crud question. What is going on at your money pit?
00:26:26	CALLER: My friend, I’m afraid that her, it seems like her apartment may be making her sick.
00:26:31	TOM: Well, what are you seeing?
00:26:32	CALLER: She has central air. She has COPD. Two weeks after they change a filter, if they get around to it, they’re dirty again and she’s been like vacuuming them off and wiping around them with bleach water and stuff like that. And she said out of the vents also, there’s like a brown something or the other and she doesn’t know what it is and I don’t, I don’t know. She doesn’t know if it might be mold.
00:26:57	TOM: She has an apartment or she has a house? What kind of a place is it?
00:27:00	CALLER: One bedroom apartment. She lives with her son. She’s in her late 50s and he’s in his early 30s.
00:27:06	TOM: Right. And it’s a forced air heating and cooling system. So it’s gas fired or what? Yes. I mean, obviously, the landlord needs to address this and what I would tell you to do first would be to have somebody look at the duct system and really look at the apartment for sources of mold. The problem is that landlords aren’t motivated to find mold because that means they got to fix it up but a good mold inspector could detect it. It’s hard to figure out what’s coming out of these ducts and certainly the filter needs to be changed on a regular basis and if you have a better quality filter, this filter comes with a wide range of qualities but if you have a good quality filter, that’s going to do a pretty good job of trapping most of this but you shouldn’t be seeing a constant source of substance coming out of those ducts unless they’re dirty and need to be cleaned. So that’s kind of one thing that comes to mind. You say that the house might be making her sick. Does she get better when she leaves the place or does she just not leave it? Is she there all the time?
00:28:03	CALLER: Well, she’s been in the hospital a couple times with bronchitis and other kinds of stuff that are breathing. I think I told you she has COPD.
00:28:13	TOM: Well, obviously there could be a lot of things that are causing her distress but I think eliminating the apartment as one of them would at least make her feel better. I would have it inspected thoroughly by perhaps a home inspector or a mold professional to look for signs of it because there are a lot of different places in a house where air quality can be impacted. You know, carpets can hide dust mites and allergens and different types of molds can form. There’s just a lot of places and so if you really suspect that there could be something of the mold nature going on there, I would have it inspected by a pro and figure out what’s there. Yeah.
00:28:50	CALLER: She talked about like an air purifier but I said if your system is dirty, I’m afraid it would fight each other. Yeah.
00:28:58	TOM: Listen, you don’t want to go that way. You don’t want to add more filtration to this. I want you to inspect and determine if there’s a problem that exists. Then you can talk about the best way to clean it. So don’t keep throwing money out of this. Get the information. Figure out what’s going on or maybe not going on and then you can put your mind to rest. Yes, having a good quality filter in your HVAC system is important. There’s a website, by the way, called Filtreeasy.com that I like because you can sign up for a subscription service for filters. They end up being less expensive than they are in the store and you just sign up once and then they’ll send you a new filter like on whatever frequency you need probably every about three months and when it shows up, you just pop it in so it’ll always be clean. You mentioned that she was always vaping. She was always vacuuming. If you don’t have a HEPA vacuum, one that is a high-efficiency vacuum, you could be redistributing that dust to the air. So there’s just a lot of ways that the air could be contaminated and you really need to look at this holistically, not just at one duct at a time. Does that make sense? Yeah.
00:29:53	CALLER: The filter. Filter what.com?
00:29:56	TOM: Filtreeasy.com. Filtreeasy.com. Yeah, check it out. It’s a great way to make sure your filters are always replaced when they should be.
00:30:03	CALLER: Thank you so much.
00:30:04	TOM: Good luck, Jeannie. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit.
00:30:08	LESLIE: Trevor wrote in to Team Money Pit and says, mice are coming into my home via the street sewer system. I thought I had fixed the problem eight years ago by fixing small holes in the foundation, but they are back.
00:30:19	TOM: Well, listen, Trevor, if you ever thought you could mouse-proof or rat-proof your house by sealing up small gaps, well, forget it because mice only need the space as small as a nickel and rats need a space about twice that size to find their way into your home. So things you can do. You want to avoid nesting sites like stacks of newspapers. Yeah. And cardboard boxes. You want to secure your storage. Don’t put like dog food on the floor of the garage. Keep the house clean and use rodenticides. These are poisons designed to eliminate mice and rat infestations. They are highly effective if you use them properly. If you’ve got pets, just make sure you use them inside a lockable bait station.
00:30:53	LESLIE: All right. Good luck, Trevor. Keep those little mice out of your place and send them packing.
00:30:58	TOM: Well, do you want to let your kids help with projects around the house? Leslie’s got tips for teaching home improvement to youngsters in today’s edition. Leslie’s last word. Leslie, one time I let my kids help when I was doing a painting project and they spilled a whole gallon of paint down the stairs.
00:31:14	LESLIE: That’ll teach you a lesson, mister. I mean, come on. Things do happen and you do want to get your kids involved with stuff. You know, there’s a lot of stuff going around the house and kids do show interest, so why not encourage them to be more helpful? If you get them involved when they’re young, they’re definitely going to, you know, expand on these life skills, be able to take care of their own home, maybe even do the laundry, do the laundry by themselves. We’ll see. I’m still working on that with some of them here in my house. So here’s a few tips to get those little guys going. First of all, select that project together. Whether it’s an easy fix-it project or an improvement job or even an opportunity to redecorate, every DIY project is a valuable chance to learn. You can plan and shop together. Talk through the project. Think about what you need to buy. Get them involved in the online shopping of supplies as well. This is a great way to talk about budgeting and spending and really come up with a plan and get them involved in the online shopping of supplies as well. You also want to let those kids help. You know, your kid’s age and the complexity of that project is kind of, kind of determine which tools they can safely handle, but there’s always a way to get them involved. Even if it’s just keeping them busy with a few simple items or just even kid-sized tools so that while you’re working the complicated stuff, they can be nearby working on something less difficult. Remember, anything that you do with them is going to instill confidence and a can-do attitude, which is going to be valuable to them as they go on with their life. I think my dad is completely responsible for me doing what I do because we couldn’t rearrange our rooms without drawing an accurate floor plan. I mean, graph paper was a necessity in our house. So if you wanted to move something around, you had to draw a plan to scale. And that’s pretty much what I do every day of my life. So thanks, Pop.
00:32:53	TOM: It’s amazing. I mean, my parents are responsible for what I do because to get me out of their hair, they used to give me a can of nails and a block of wood and a hammer and let me bang, bang, bang. Somehow I didn’t damage my fingers. So I guess they thought that was natural and ended up going into construction. But listen, you know, it’s really important to get the kids going early, especially today because there’s no education, there’s no shop classes, and we’re all moving into houses that were built the same for, look, the last couple hundred years. So give them a start. Give them a start in the trades just by letting them know, letting them see how you work with paintbrushes and tools and things of that nature. It really is going to make a difference in their lives. It has for us. This is the Money Pit Home Improvement Show. Thank you so much for being a part of our program, for being a part of our year. We wish you the best for the days, the weeks, and the months ahead. Coming up next time on the Money Pit, which I think is going to be in 2025, if you hate setting foot on cold floors first thing in the morning, we’re going to talk about radiant heat because that could be a great solution. We’ll highlight two systems that can work for both new and existing homes on the very next edition of the Money Pit. Happy holidays, everybody. I’m Tom Kraeutler.
00:34:04	LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.
00:34:06	TOM: Remember, you can do it yourself.
00:34:07	LESLIE: But you don’t have to do it alone.

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