Show Notes
Today, we’ll share five easy ways to prevent mold from taking over your indoor space this winter, clever updates to make your small kitchen feel more spacious and functional, and a guide to installing water filters that provide fresh, tasty water while saving you money. Plus, we’re ready to hear what’s on your home improvement to-do list, so listen in for answers to more DIY questions!
Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
- Small Kitchens: Gain space and improve functionality with big, easy updates for small kitchens.
- Mold Prevention: Learn 5 ways to stop mold before it starts and keep your home healthy.
- Water Filters: Choose from two types of water filters for drinking water that tastes better and costs less.
Top Questions & Answers
- Appliances: Charmagne’s washing machine is shaking and making loud noises. We suggest adjusting the feet to make sure it’s level and using anti-vibration blocks.
- Ceiling Leak: Water leaked through the kitchen light from the apartment upstairs. If the ceiling bows, Kevin should poke a hole to release any water, but a single leak that dried won’t be a mold problem.
- Flooring: Chunks are coming out of Dina’s laminate floor that she can’t find anywhere. She may be able to get a patching compound that matches from the manufacturer.
- Mold: David can feel moisture in the back of cabinets and closets in his cinderblock house. He gets tips for cleaning with bleach and ventilating the closets to dry them out.
- Soundproofing: Catherine can hear her neighbors through the beam running through her basement. We discuss using soundproofing drywall to frame in the beam.
- Pet Odors: A tenant’s puppy left stains and odors on Carol’s floors. She gets tips for stain and odor removal products, priming and painting surfaces, and installing pet-friendly carpeting.
- Painting: Ross has residual stains on his concrete cellar walls. He can clean the mineral deposits with a vinegar solution, then apply an oil-based primer and masonry paint.
- Power Surge: Can Rick save on his utility bills by connecting everything to a surge protector or power strip? Maybe, but not much.
Ask Your Home Improvement Question
Podcast Transcript
Read Transcript
00:00:00 | TOM: Coast and floorboards to shingles, this is the Money Pit Home Improvement Show. I’m Tom Kraeutler. |
00:00:00 | LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete. |
00:00:00 | TOM: Hey, do you guys have a project you’d like to get done? Do you have one that maybe you started and got kind of stuck in the middle of? You got a DIY dilemma? Maybe you’re trying to solve a problem with your house? Well, all of those are great reasons to reach out to us right now. A couple of ways to do just that, because we are here to help you with those projects. You can call in at 1-888-Money-Pit. That’s 1-888-666-3974. Or better yet, just go to MoneyPit.com slash ask and click the blue microphone button. You can record your question. It’ll come right to us and you’d be at the top of the line for us to get back to you. We got a great show planned for you today coming up now that we’re stuck inside for winter. Have you thought about what might be stuck inside right alongside with you? Like mold, for example? Well, we’re going to share five simple ways to stop mold before it starts and keep your home healthy and clean all year long. And small kitchens can be tough places to work in, but a few modest updates can make it feel bigger and work better. We’re going to have tips just ahead. And if you guys are ready for a healthy alternative to the cost and all the waste, man, there’s a lot of waste when we’re talking about bottled water. So we’re going to review the water filters that are on the market right now. They can be installed in your home’s plumbing system and deliver great tasting water at a tiny fraction of what it costs to buy bottled water. |
00:01:49 | LESLIE: But first, we’d love to know what you guys are planning for the new year. What kind of projects do you have going on? What is it that’s on your to-do wish list? Well, whatever it is, let the Money Pit lend a hand. The number here, again, is 1-888-Money-Pit or go to moneypit.com/ask. Let’s get to it. Leslie, who’s first? All right, we’re heading out to Cleveland where we’ve got Charmaine on the line who’s dealing with a noisy, noisy appliance. What’s going on? It makes a really loud noise and it’s like, oh, you can hear it now. |
00:02:23 | TOM: Oh, wow. Wow. There you go. You can demonstrate it right through the phone. Okay. So it sounds like it’s in the spin cycle. Is that about right? Yeah. Yeah. So here’s why machines do that. First of all, the number one reason it happens is because they’re not level. If all washing machines have levelers underneath the feet and it needs to be leveled both ways. So if you have like a two foot level, you put it on all directions and make sure that machine is perfectly level. That will help. The next thing that you can do is to use anti-vibration blocks underneath the washing machine. I do this all the time now, no matter where my machines are. Now, this is a block. You can buy them in home centers. You can buy them on Amazon and think of it as sort of a shock absorber for your machine. You buy them in a set of four. You slip them under the legs and they absorb that vibration so that the machine |
00:03:21 | LESLIE: doesn’t sort of take it out on your floor. We’ve seen washing machines that will like walk across the room, so to speak. That’s kind of what mine is doing. Yeah, because of these vibrations. I think you need to make sure it’s perfectly level, Charmaine, and then install the anti-vibration blocks. They’re not expensive and they really work wonders. Okay. I will try that. I appreciate it. All right. Good luck. Thank you. How about that? We get to diagnose that right over the phone. See, we don’t even have to see the project. We can hear about it. That’s so funny that it was slamming around like that. |
00:03:50 | TOM: I even knew the cycle. You know, I find if I like overload my washer, it does that. Like if I do all the sheets and a quilt or something. Right. Yeah. That’s right. Because it all sticks to one side. It gets stuck there while spinning and then goes on an adventure on its own. And I think it’s gotten worse with the high efficiency machines because I know the dryers spin a lot faster to get more water out. If it’s not perfect, it’s going to cause those sorts of problems. |
00:04:18 | CALLER: Kevin in Texas is dealing with a dangerous situation. You’ve got water leaking through a light in your kitchen? I actually live in an apartment, but nevertheless, my concerns are obviously valid for my health and so forth. All of a sudden, water started coming through the light fixture in the kitchen and I threw down buckets and went up and knocked on the gentleman upstairs door and turned out his washing machine had gone crazy and had put a bunch of water in my ceiling. Oh, wow. Most of which came right through the light fixture. One of least resistance. However, I can tell that it got into the rest of the ceiling. There’s a place where this living room is bowed in, you know, with a stain. So I know that they got wet up inside there. And furthermore, the guy, when he was made aware of it, apparently thought that it wouldn’t act up anymore and actually turned on his washing machine again and went and stepped into the shower. And so it just, you know, leaked profusely until we could finally get his attention. Oh, my God. |
00:05:17 | TOM: And maintenance, you know, I mean, we’re sitting there with shop vac buckets and mops just shaking our heads. Wow. So it was a one-time event, so it wasn’t an ongoing leak. And I was wondering what my risks are of black mold. Is there a test? Is there a preventative? You know, what’s the story with that? Yeah, it’s a good question. But here’s the good news. A single leak like that that happened and then dried out is not going to become an ongoing mold problem. If it stays wet for a long, long time, and especially if it’s in an unheated place, it’s more likely to become a mold problem. But a single leak like that is not. And also, one more point, and that is you mentioned that your ceiling bowed if, and I hope it doesn’t, but if that ever happens to you again, what you want to do is somewhat counterintuitive, but that is to poke a hole in the ceiling wherever you see that water starting to form. Because it’s easier to fix a hole than it is to replace the entire ceiling, which is probably what will end up having to be done. But when you see water coming through like that, what you should do is grab a screwdriver and just poke a couple of holes until you find a hole. |
00:06:17 | CALLER: Find the spot where the water just starts dripping out. The quicker you can empty that ceiling of water, the better off you’re going to be. And, you know, we had a problem like that not too long ago because of a piece of flashing that blew off our roof. And the first thing I did was took a Phillips screwdriver and poked three or four holes until I found the right spot. All that water drained right out. And all I had to do was fix those holes and didn’t even have a stain on the ceiling when we were done. Wow. Yeah, that’s good advice there. I guess I should have thought of that. |
00:06:47 | TOM: But, you know, when you’re renting, you’re… Yeah, you don’t know. And that’s why I always take the opportunity to mention it because it’s… First of all, you don’t have the experience because, thankfully, people don’t get these kinds of leaks. But secondly, it’s very counterintuitive because, you know, you don’t want to damage your ceiling. Well, it’s already damaged once that water’s behind it. And it’s going to get a lot worse really fast unless you poke a hole in it. Good point, though. Good point. All right. Thank you, guys. You’re welcome. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit. 888-666-3974. |
00:07:16 | LESLIE: Hey, there. We hope you’re enjoying this episode of our podcast. If you are, you know what would totally make our day is if you leave us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts. |
00:07:25 | TOM: Absolutely. Just go to MoneyPit.com slash review and let the world know how much you enjoy our home improvement tips and tricks. And you might even win a copy of our book. |
00:07:37 | LESLIE: Deena and I was on the line with a flooring question. How can we help you? |
00:07:40 | CALLER: My husband and I, about, oh, probably three or four years ago, did some remodeling in our kitchen and we decided on getting some of the laminate fake travertine floor. And we went to our local Habitat for Humanity store and got their, like, planks, their planks of the floor. And we installed them and they looked beautiful. But over the course of the last couple of years, things have fallen and chunks have come out. Like, some places, it’s just a scratch here or there, but in other places, there are some chunks. And luckily, the floor has kind of a brown rock appearance, so some of them aren’t noticeable, but there is one that’s fairly large. And once you start looking, you can see just how many there are. So we can’t go back to the store and get more because… It’s a restore. They only have limited quantities. And really replacing all that is going to be really tough. I didn’t know if you had a way to fix this. Are there any suggestions? |
00:08:48 | TOM: Well, there’s a lot of difference in the quality of laminate floors. And some are going to be more durable than others. For those that are not aware, laminate floors are similar to, like, laminate countertops except, for the most part, they’re about 20 times more durable. Now, if you know the manufacturer of the floor, I don’t know if you’ve heard of it, but it’s a laminate countertop. So if that’s possible, most manufacturers actually have a sort of touch-up compound. It comes typically in a tube. It looks like a toothpaste tube where you can actually squeeze some of this stuff out and patch the floor and come up with a color that’s reasonably close. If you don’t have that, you may be able to find one from another manufacturer that’s close to this. |
00:09:28 | CALLER: Okay. I do remember we looked at the flooring. I don’t remember the name, but I do remember it was a major name brand. Okay. I do remember we looked at the flooring. I don’t remember the name, but I do remember it was a major name brand. I looked it up online to read about it, so I think we may have one or two squares somewhere. Maybe I can look on the back and give them a call. I do remember we looked at the flooring. I don’t remember the name, but I do remember it was a major name brand. That’s great information. |
00:09:46 | TOM: Yeah, if you can do that, I bet you’ll find that they do have a repair product for the floor because you’re not the first one that’s dropped something on the floor and had a chip. Yeah, if you I bet you’ll find that they do have a repair product for the floor you’re not the first one that’s dropped something on the floor and had a chip. and good luck with that project. |
00:10:08 | LESLIE: Thank you. Well, nobody wants to deal with mold in their home. It’s unsightly, it’s unhealthy, and it can be a pain to clean up. But the good news is with a few proactive steps, you can keep mold at bay and keep your home healthy. |
00:10:23 | TOM: That’s right. Mold thrives in damp, humid conditions. So the key is controlling moisture. So first, if you’ve got a leak, you’ve got to fix it fast because mold can start growing in as little as 24 to 48 hours if it is consistently wet. Now whether that’s a dripping pipe, a leaky roof, or even condensation around your windows, you want to address those problems as fast as possible to minimize the chance that mold can grow. |
00:10:48 | LESLIE: Now it’s also important to ventilate your home properly. Bathrooms, kitchens, even the laundry room are prime spots for excess moisture. You always want to use exhaust fans when you’re showering or cooking. And if you don’t have a fan, you want to crack open a window to at least try and help that moisture escape. It’s also smart to use mold resistant materials in your home. If you’re remodeling, you can opt for mold resistant drywall, paint, even insulation are all available in mold resistant options. And these materials are designed to repel that moisture and prevent that mold from forming |
00:11:20 | TOM: in the first place. Next, don’t let water collect around your home’s foundation because poor drainage can lead to moisture seeping into your basement or your crawl space, even your slab floor if you’re on a slab house. And make sure the gutters and downspouts are clear and direct water at least five feet away from the foundation. If that foundation gets wet, all that humidity, all that moisture will end up inside the airspace in your house, and that can definitely promote a mold problem. And finally, make sure you clean and dry any wet materials promptly. So whether that’s a wet carpet, damp towels, or a spill on your hardwood floor, don’t let that moisture linger. If a flood or major leak happens, dry everything thoroughly within 24 hours, and you |
00:12:04 | LESLIE: will avoid mold growth. Yeah, these five steps, fixing leaks, ventilating properly, using mold-resistant materials, improving the drainage, and drying wet materials are going to go a long way in keeping your home |
00:12:16 | TOM: mold-free. Yes, definitely. Prevention is key when it comes to mold, so don’t wait for a mold problem to creep up. These are all easy things you can do, easy steps you can take right now. And by the way, if you want more mold prevention tips, head on to MoneyPit.com. |
00:12:31 | LESLIE: Alright, now we’ve got David from North Carolina on the line, who’s a guy who’s dealing with a mold issue. |
00:12:36 | CALLER: Welcome, David. I live in a, it’s a cinder block house, and in the cabinets, it’s bad in the cabinets, and in the closets especially, you can, like, feel the moisture on the back walls of the cabinets. Yup. And in the closets. And lately, it’s since it’s started getting colder, it’s on the bedroom walls as well. So |
00:12:56 | TOM: what are you actually seeing? |
00:12:58 | CALLER: It’s green mold and moisture. Like, like dew on the walls. |
00:13:05 | TOM: Have you ever had this problem before in any of the past winters? |
00:13:08 | CALLER: Last winter, it was a little bit bad, and my wife cleaned it with, you know, bleach and water and stuff, and it pretty much went away. But then in the cabinets, it started coming back almost immediately after |
00:13:21 | TOM: she cleaned it. And how is your house heated? It’s gas. So it’s forced air? Yeah. Do you have a dehumidifier or a |
00:13:27 | CALLER: humidifier running? No, not |
00:13:29 | TOM: at all. Okay, well, here’s the thing. You may have a situation here where the mold spores are starting to take hold, and they’re multiplying, and that’s why it’s happening more frequently. It also could be made worse by the weather conditions, and by that, I mean the weather conditions inside your house in terms of the humidity and that sort of thing. So what I’d like to suggest you do is a number of things. First of all, when you clean mold, and you should only be doing this if it’s a small amount, which it sounds like it is, although it’s spread in different areas. When you clean mold, you want to make sure that you’re killing the mold spores first. And you do that, the easiest way is to simply spray that with a bleach solution that’s about 10% bleach and 90% water. And you let it sit on the areas for a good 15 minutes. So you don’t want to spray and wipe. You want to spray, wait, and then wipe. And that makes a difference because this way the bleach actually kills the mold spores. You’re not just wiping them away and moving them around, sending them back to the air where they’re going to settle immediately. If you can spray it with the bleach solution and let it sit there, and then rinse it off and clean it as a second step, that’s important. In terms of the closets, if you can get more air into those closets, and typically what we do in some homes is add additional vents to the closets. I don’t know, it depends on the way your closet is configured, but sometimes we put louvered doors on them or add vents to the side walls, that sort of thing. But if you could improve the ventilation in the closet so more of the warm air gets in there. And after you clean that, the closets and the cabinets, try to leave them open a little bit longer than you normally would so that the warm air from the house gets in there and doesn’t let the mold kind of reignite that quickly. Because that warmth from the forced air heating system is going to create a condition where mold really can’t grow because it’s going to be drying out that air. The moisture in the air is working against you here. And I know that we like to have a little bit of moisture in the house during the winter because the heat system can be very dry. But an excessive amount can cause a mold problem to |
00:15:38 | CALLER: develop. Does that make sense? Yes, sir. |
00:15:40 | TOM: Yes, sir. All right, David. Well, good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 1-888-Money-Pit. |
00:15:46 | LESLIE: Katherine in Wisconsin is on the line with a soundproofing issue. Tell us what’s going on. |
00:15:50 | CALLER: I live in a condo with a basement, and there’s an I-beam that runs through the basement. And when I’m in the basement, I can hear my neighbors from two houses down talking in their living room because their voices travel |
00:16:03 | CALLER: down the I-beam. Wow. Crazy. |
00:16:07 | CALLER: So I was interested in covering the I-beam somehow to reduce the noise, but I wasn’t sure what the best way to do that would be. |
00:16:15 | TOM: Well, there’s a couple things you can do. First of all, can you frame in the I-beam so that it has something that we can attach a drywall |
00:16:24 | CALLER: to? Yeah, yeah, I could. I just wasn’t sure what to do that with or if that would help. |
00:16:29 | TOM: Once you frame it in, there’s a product called QuietRock, and it’s a soundproofing drywall. It’s sold at Lowe’s. It’s pretty expensive. I mean, regular drywall is $5 a sheet. QuietRock’s about $40 a sheet, so it’s pretty expensive. |
00:16:44 | LESLIE: But you don’t need a lot. If she can hear them, |
00:16:46 | TOM: they can hear her. Yeah, but you don’t need a lot. You know, you don’t need a lot. So if you can frame in that beam, and you’re sure that’s where it’s coming from, you may want to think about using QuietRock’s to actually cover the I-beam, and that should do the trick. |
00:17:00 | CALLER: Oh, really? So I wouldn’t need to put additional insulation between… |
00:17:04 | TOM: No, insulation is… insulation doesn’t really work as a soundproofing material. It’s kind of a misnomer to think that insulation works on a wall. It’s cheap, but it really doesn’t do much. The QuietRock absorbs the vibration of the sound, and I think that’s what you need to do. |
00:17:18 | LESLIE: Okay, great. And the QuietRock is just spelled like it sounds? |
00:17:22 | TOM: Yep, Q-U-I-E-T Rock. If you go to Lowes.com, you can find it right there. I was able to find it. I needed it for a project. I was able to find it right in my local |
00:17:34 | LESLIE: Lowe’s. Thank you. Bye. Now we’ve got Carol on the line from Oregon. How can we help you today? |
00:17:40 | LESLIE: Well, I’ve got a problem I should know better, but I have rented to people with… who brought in a puppy. |
00:17:47 | TOM: Okay. |
00:17:48 | LESLIE: And now I’ve got to deal with lots of urine, fecal. It’s damage that’s probably been on there too long, too deep, gone through the carpet, to the pad, to the subfloor. So, my question is, can the stain ever be removed? I’m thinking I should just take everything up. My question would be what to put down new, replace the subfloor, solution, like people said something about kills and something like |
00:18:20 | LESLIE: that. Well, I mean it really depends. If you even want to attempt salvaging the rug that’s there, I mean generally with a rental situation, you’re probably better off with a tile or a laminate floor just because of cleanability and then let the folks bring in their own area rugs. But if you want to attempt to sort of get the stain away, get the odor away, there’s a product that I used when I was training our dog who was untrainable for the first year and it’s on a website called RITE.com and it’s called 123 Odor Free and it’s like a series of different products. One’s a stain remover, one’s an odor remover and it sort of neutralizes through enzymes and there’s like an injector that you use to get through the carpet and into the padding and into the subfloor and I kid you not it works because there was a spot at the top of the steps that Daisy just loved and no problems to this day. So, you might want to try that. However, if there is a lot of stuff to deal with, your best bet is probably to just pull everything off and you’re right about wanting to seal that subfloor because if you don’t put, you know, a primer, a good one, on top of it, whatever you put on top, get a humid day and you’re going to notice it. |
00:19:37 | TOM: Yeah, so that’s why, Carol, what you want to do is use an oil-based primer like a Kills or a Bin. There are a number of different primers out there but I would use the oil-based ones for a problem like this because they’re going to do a better job of sealing in |
00:19:50 | LESLIE: the odor. Okay, and if I do decide to put down a rug, because this is a house I would like to sell future forward, it’s a nice house, is there a type of rug that can better be |
00:20:04 | LESLIE: cleaned? Okay, yeah, it is from Mohawk and it’s a carpet that they call SmartStrand and it’s got built-in stain and soil resistant that’s never, never, never going to wear off or wash off or clean off and it feels soft and it’s environmentally friendly because it’s a made in part with, you know, like a recycled plastic and I think it was last year at the Builders Show, Tom and I were at the event and they were just launching this SmartStrand product and they had taken, you know, carpeting and carpeted the pen of an elephant at the zoo and left it in there for a year and then took it off, cleaned it, and like, you know, brought a patch in and like had half under the cover of glass and half out and there was like a little door that you could open up to the dirty side and like you open that up and of course I didn’t smell it because I always do strange things like that and it like reeked horribly and the side that was cleaned was beautiful, clean, soft, smelled fantastic so I’m not really sure about the price point but it is an amazing product and available, you know, in a lot of different looks, different piles, so I would start with Mohawk there, SmartStrand. |
00:21:14 | LESLIE: Okay. Thank you so much. |
00:21:18 | LESLIE: Well, small kitchens can be tough places to work in but a few modest updates can make it feel bigger and help you work better and it doesn’t always have to involve a whole lot of expense. First of all, you want to look for ways to add natural light by removing the window coverings. With kitchens, you really don’t need |
00:21:36 | TOM: them. Yep, and adding a skylight can open up a ceiling to more light and visually expand the space, but you know what, you don’t need a major construction project to accomplish this, you could just add a sun tunnel, which is a type of skylight, it’s round, and you set it in the roof with a tube that feeds down to a ceiling light diffuser. Now the tube is mirrored on the inside so it can actually collect the light at the roof and bring it right down to the ceiling of your kitchen and man, does it throw a lot of beautiful |
00:22:02 | LESLIE: natural light when it does that. Alright, now another idea is to remove any soffits that you have above the cabinets. This creates the illusion of space by allowing that eye to follow a wider ceiling. You can also consider removing the cabinet doors or replacing them with glass front doors and that’s going to help give the room depth, but it is going to add an organizational project to your |
00:22:21 | TOM: daily routine. For sure. So |
00:22:23 | LESLIE: choose wisely. Now also when it comes to flooring, you can opt for a larger floor tile. While this may sound counterintuitive, those smaller floor tiles can actually make that room feel smaller, whereas a larger one gives the illusion of space. Yeah, |
00:22:38 | TOM: so think about it, I mean really despite the small size, small kitchens do definitely have some advantages. The small space can actually make for a very efficient working triangle and if you do want to splurge for better quality cabinets or high-end countertops, a smaller size makes that a much more affordable |
00:22:54 | LESLIE: option. Alright, now we’ve got Ross in New York on the line who wants to help painting his basement. Tell us about the project. |
00:23:00 | CALLER: I have a home that was built in 1950, concrete block cellar walls that at one time had a moisture leaking problem of which has been completely solved and the basement has been dry for about 20 years. But there are still some residue stains, black water stains sporadically throughout the concrete block and I’d like to resurface those but they obviously need to be cleaned before I can paint them. Just wondering what the best solution is to be able to prep this for any paint that I want to put on. Hey |
00:23:46 | TOM: Ross, well super glad that you were able to get that basement dry and not have any moisture for all of those years. The stains that you’re seeing may be old from the moisture that happened years ago or, and I hate to tell you this, there may be still some minor leakage because it sounds like they’re mineral salt deposits and they form when basically water leaks into the wall and then evaporates and leaves its minerals kind of in place and those can be like black or gray or sort of a dark white powdery type substance. Now if you do want to paint this, you’re going to have to get that off of there but it’s pretty easy to do. Just use a vinegar and water solution because it will melt the salts and then you’re going to need to prime those walls and I would use a good quality primer, even an oil-based primer on that and then a topcoat, a masonry topcoat over that and with those steps in place, you should be good to go but I would however take one more look outside those walls to make sure your gutters are clean, the downspits are extended so that none of that stain that you’re seeing is a result of something that maybe just kind of got disconnected or somehow stopped working as well as it should have. But if you can make sure that those leaks are under control, you can clean those stains and paint it up and you have a bright new space. Good luck with that project. |
00:24:57 | LESLIE: Well if your family uses a lot of bottled water, you might be ready for some alternative options that cost less and deliver the same great taste. Two types of filters can do just that. You can save money and you can go green with an under-sink water filter or you can add a whole house water filter. |
00:25:16 | TOM: Yeah, that’s right. So here’s how they work. First let’s talk about the under-sink filters. Most are dual cartridge water filters. They have both carbon block and granular carbon filters. Now the dual filters are going to reduce most common chemicals and contaminants that are found in tap water from municipal sources like lead, mercury, asbestos, pesticide and cysts. They’ll also eliminate sediment and bad taste and odors caused by the chlorine that’s added to municipal water supply. Because I don’t know anybody that likes that chlorine taste. But you do need to change the filters about every six months or when 500 gallons have passed through them. And I gotta tell you Leslie, all those years I was a home inspector, I used to find that those filters they went from rarely changed to like never changed. And I can’t imagine how nasty that water was as a result of that. So changing those under-sink filters is key. Let’s talk about whole house water filters. These are very large units. They’re installed at the main water supply, the main water pipe. And they’re designed to trap dirt and impurities like rust. They can also improve taste, they can reduce cloudiness and reduce contaminants. Now for an example, take a look at Filtrete. They have an inexpensive, quick change whole house water filter that costs under 200 bucks with a filter that lasts 12 months. But remember same advice applies. You gotta replace that filter when the manufacturer says it’s time. So set your calendar, set your reminders. Don’t let it linger because then it can have the reverse effect and let all that nastiness back into the house. |
00:26:49 | LESLIE: Heading out to Illinois, we’ve got Rick on the line who’s got a question about surge protectors. |
00:26:53 | LESLIE: What can we do for you, sir? Can I save money on my electricity bill by putting in surge protectors and connecting my microwave, my coffee maker, my toaster, my blender, my treadmill, and turning all those things off with the surge protector and just turning the when I want to walk on my treadmill to turn the surge protector on, walk on my treadmill and when I’m finished, shut it off. Will I be saving electricity by doing that? |
00:27:28 | TOM: Maybe, but not much. So first of all let’s just clarify what the purposes of these different things are. So for the surge protector, that’s designed to protect all of those things you mentioned your appliances, your electronics. Should your power system be hit by lightning and you’ve got a surge of electricity, that can burn out a lot. A lot of stuff. It can ruin things. I remember a neighbor friend of mine who got hit with lightning at somewhere nearby the house, but it wasn’t the house itself, it was like the pole or something and there was a surge and they lost like the microwave, the television, they lost their cable, you know, boxes, a whole bunch of stuff because electricity surged through. And the surge protectors or surge arrestors will stop that from happening. That’s the purpose of the surge protectors. What you’re talking about is basically a power strip and sometimes they have surge capabilities built into them. But if you have any kind of appliance that uses a transformer block, so that might be your treadmill or it could be your cell phone, if you have a transformer block, those types of appliances will use a little bit of power even when they’re off. It’s called vampire power because it’s like leaking power. And in that case, if you had them plugged into a power strip with an on-off button and you left the button off until you needed it, you would basically stop any of that leaking power from the transformer block itself. Does that make sense? It’s not really protecting you from surges in that case, but it’s really just stopping any power leak that’s caused by that small |
00:28:47 | LESLIE: transformer. Okay, well, thank you very much. David reached out to Team Money Pit and says, I live in Naples, Florida, and I’m planning to install double entry doors. I’d like to know which material is the best choice. Metal, wood, or fiberglass. I’m looking for a door that offers an elegant appearance, is strong, and easy to operate. What do you recommend? |
00:29:06 | TOM: You have had a door that’s elegant, strong, I don’t know how easy to operate, it’s pretty heavy right? But that was a wood door, correct? |
00:29:13 | LESLIE: It’s mahogany. It’s very heavy. Do you still have it? We still have it. I’ve had it now, I put it in when I bought the house, so 24 years ago. God, that’s a long time. And, uh, you know, the door itself has stayed in great shape. I do restain it and freshen it up every so often. The issue I have is with the lock set, I can’t really do anything with it. And so I struggle with this lock set and its functionality and we’ve changed out parts and pieces so I think eventually I too will change doors. And if I do, I’m for sure going fiberglass because I can find a door that’s going to look exactly like the door that I have that’s solid mahogany. It’s going to be more lightweight, it’s going to be more durable, I’m never going to have to refinish it again. It’s going to operate so smoothly, so you know, I know that’s on my to-do list. So if I were you, David, I would say fiberglass, especially in Florida with all the humidity and moisture. |
00:30:06 | TOM: Yeah, and I think that folks don’t understand fiberglass because, you know, you think of it as being sort of a very cold, dull material but the fiberglass doors today are absolutely fabulous. They look just like wood doors. They are absolutely indistinguishable and I tell you from experience because Leslie, you had your door for 24 years. I think I’ve had my fiberglass doors front and back doors for probably at least 15 or 16 years now. And I have done zero, zero maintenance. It’s needed nothing. I mean, the hinges on these doors are ball bearings, so I don’t even have to lubricate them. The finish is not faded. The locks work perfectly. In fact, the locks on the fiberglass doors not only lock at the traditional lock set area where the handle is, but they have pins that go up into the header and into the floor. So it’s almost like a bank vault, you know, super strong. So definitely fiberglass is the best choice. Metal, not even worth talking about. I mean, it’s cheap, but it’s cold. It’s not insulating very well. You have to paint it over and over again, just like wood. So wood, beautiful, elegant, but you can get that same elegance in fiberglass and much more durable door. So I think that both of our lessons are very relevant here, Leslie, that fiberglass is definitely the way to go. And if I had to recommend a brand, by the way, I would say ThermaTru. Take a look at those ThermaTru doors. That’s what I have. And there are other |
00:31:32 | LESLIE: good ones, but I like that. I can remember one of the first international builders show that you and I went to together. And we I remember this was like the launch of these beautiful fiberglass doors. And this was 20 years ago. Jesus. And they were stunning and the texture was so believable. And that was then. So today they really look great. |
00:31:56 | TOM: This is the Money Pit Home Improvement Show. Hey guys, thanks so much for spending this part of your day with us. We hope that we have helped you guys out with some tips and advice to make your home, more enjoyable, more energy efficient, more lovely to live in. If you’ve got questions and couldn’t get through to today’s show, we hear you. We still want to talk to you. So call us again at 1-888-Money-Pit. We’ll call you back the next time we’re in the studio. Or better yet, record your question at moneypit.com slash ask. Until next time, I’m Tom Kraeutler. |
00:32:24 | LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete. |
00:32:26 | TOM: Remember, you can do it yourself. |
00:32:29 | 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 2025 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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