#2512 – Handle with Care: Storing Flammable Liquids | Build a Stone Garden Wall | George Oliphant

[Theme Music]
If your roots start to leak, or your floor’s really squeak, you’re living a money pit, money pit. If your basement needs a pump, or your place looks like a dump, you’re living a money pit, money pit. Pick up your telephone, fix up your home sweet home, by calling 888-MONEY-PIT.

[Jim]
The Money Pit is presented by Trex and Moen. Now, here’s Leslie Segrete.

[Leslie Segrete]
Coast to coast and floorboards to shingles, this is The Money Pit. I am Leslie Segrete, welcome everybody. What are you guys working on?

I always find that the projects kind of pop up when we least expect it. There’s so much to tackle around the house, especially this time of year. From the inside, the outside, lawn and garden, just tidying up.

That there’s a lot, and you can get overwhelmed. And that’s where we come in here at Team Money Pit. Whatever you are working on, we can lend a hand.

And we can help you figure out the best way to get these projects done. So join us every week, you can listen to us online, you can listen to us live on your local stations. However you tune in, we are here to lend a hand.

Coming up this hour, you know, building a garden wall is a project that’s perfect for this time of year. And it’s going to help you set the stage for those backyard improvements that you can enjoy for so many years to come. So we’re going to tell you how to build a stone wall that will last the test of time.

And joining us this hour is a great human and a great friend of mine, George Oliphant. You know him as the host of NBC’s George to the Rescue. I mean, he’s a fantastic builder with such a giving spirit who loves to help others.

So we’re going to see what’s going on with George. Plus, lawn and garden work is definitely what’s going on now. So you may find yourself storing like a lot of strangely hazardous liquids like gasoline, oil, grease.

You know, and chances are they’re in your garage and chances are you’re going in there and your kids are going in there. So we’re going to share some tips on the best way to store those flammable liquids safely so that your garage doesn’t become a fire hazard. And we’re here to help with whatever projects you’ve got going on.

Do you have a bathroom makeover in the works? Well, we may have a great prize for you this hour. One lucky listener is going to get the super smart Moen handheld shower that saves water in a lovely chrome finish worth $79.99. So give us a call right now for your chance to win and, of course, help with your home improvement projects at 888-MONEYPIT. Jim, who’s first?

[Jim]
Leslie, kind of out your way in Pennsylvania. We’ve got Karen on the line and she wants to talk about adding a railing to her porch. Why don’t you fill us in, Karen?

[Karen]
Okay. When we built this home, they put in a prefab hollow step, okay, wider porch and then two steps that go down. And my husband wants to put a railing on it, dirty enough to put a screw in a post to put the railing in.

And to screw it, the one will be attached onto the house. The other one would be going into that hollow porch. Would that be sturdy enough to do that?

[Leslie Segrete]
Well, I think it can be sturdy enough if you’re using the right attachment points and the right type of screws. Now, when you’re going into any kind of masonry, so for your house, you know, with brick or even the hollow concrete steps, you’re going to use something called a Tapcon, which is just a super specialized type of screw that’s meant to go into a masonry surface. And the way it’s got these grooves on the stem of the screw itself is that it just kind of has them tighter together.

It’s a little thicker. So it really just bites into that masonry surface and gives it a really strong hold. And if you use something like that, which is really going to be the appropriate choice for those locations, you should have no problem as long as you’re getting the right weight, the right length, you know, really depending on the situation.

And you’ll have to look at the box because it’ll say, you know, oh, for use for this, for use for this much weight on it. So, you know, you’re getting something that’s sturdy and will meet the demands of a railing. And you can find it at any home center.

You just have to think some of them come with a very specialized bit and you do need a special bit to go use for the drill for the to put the screw in. If it doesn’t come with it, just take a look. You can buy it as an attachment.

But generally, if you buy the box, it does come with the bit. It does require a little bit more effort to drive them in, but you can’t miss them. They’re very distinctive.

They’re usually blue in color. And if it turns out that that hollow step just doesn’t have enough concrete behind it to really grab, you can drop the post in front of the step or to the side of the step. Really, it’s going to depend on how it lines up with the rest of the house.

And then you can set that post in soil. And to do that, you would simply dig a post hole. You know, you can use a post hole digger to do that.

You dig down about three feet and then you stick a wood post in there and then you pour concrete. And you can get the Red Bag by Quickrete. It’s a fast-setting concrete.

Pour it in the hole dry and make sure that that post is level. And then you add water to that hole itself and kind of it mixes in place. It doesn’t really need a lot of prep, but it definitely dries or cures, I should say, super strong to support that post.

So if it turns out that going into the step is impossible, this is a great way to get the support you need for the post. And it is a super easy DIY project.

[Karen]
Okay. All right. Well, thank you so much for your answer.

Appreciate it. All right. You are welcome.

[Jim]
Let’s head out to Illinois, Leslie. We’ve got Rich. Rich, what’s going on with the siding at your money pit?

[Rich in Illinois]
I’ve got a house that we had built in 2012 with cedar siding. It’s looking a bit weathered now. We’ve not done anything to it, so it’s ten years.

And I’m wondering what the right treatment would be. If I just wash it and leave it? If I should wash it and stain it?

What’s the appropriate process for securing this? Also, whether or not I should seal each board or not?

[Leslie Segrete]
All right, Rich. You know, that’s a great question. And the good news about cedar siding is that it’s naturally insect resistant.

Unfortunately, the sun still can get to it and cause it to crack. But here’s what you would do. First of all, you’ve got to use an anti-tannin primer, and it’s usually an oil-based primer.

And you’re going to put that on the siding first. And then that kind of seals everything and stops any of the tannins, which is the oil in that cedar, from leaking out. On top of that, you’re going to use an exterior stain.

Now, what you’ll end up with is a house that’s siding that looks a lot like the original cedar, yet it’s got a colorant added to it, so it’s not going to get that kind of faded look that you might not be fond of. And if you go this process with the oil-based primer and the latex-based stain on top, you could probably get about 15 years on this process, especially the first time, if you prep it right. And it will look terrific for years to come.

All right, Rich. Siding project is always a larger project to tackle, but it’s definitely a great one, so we hope it helps you out. Hey, are you a fan of our podcast?

Well, leave us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts, and we’ll be doing a happy dance. Plus, it helps us keep the show going and growing. Just go to moneypit.com slash review. I hope that you are enjoying all that the spring season has to offer. You know, here we’ve got a small makeover project happening right now at the Segrete Money Pit. My almost 17-year-old son Henry has a loft bed, and he has definitely outgrown the experience of a loft bed, both literally and figuratively.

I mean, this kid is 6’2″.

[Jim]
Holy cow.

[Leslie Segrete]
Like, when the heck did that happen?

[Jim]
How did he turn 17? I feel old.

[Leslie Segrete]
I know. It’s like, I can’t even believe, like, where the time has gone. And then I look over at this, like, huge man person sitting across the dining table, and I’m like, hold on.

That’s my kid?

[Jim]
Yeah, Mom.

[Leslie Segrete]
But he’s got this loft bed, and while it was awesome through his teen years, you know, it definitely is kind of young for him. And I just feel for him being a giant climbing up to, like, live so close to the ceiling. So we’ve got a paint project.

I’ve got a lot of box furniture to build. There’s just so much to do on this project that I thought was going to be like, oh, yeah, yeah, we’ll just redo your room. And, of course, being me, I just don’t do anything.

I do everything. So that’s what’s going on here. What about you guys?

What’s on your to-do plate this weekend? Well, let us know how we can lend a hand, and you could win a great prize. We’ve got Up for Grabs, the Moen handheld shower that saves water in the chrome finish.

And what’s so awesome about this handheld shower is that it’s super innovative, and you can kind of set a temperature. So it will run full stream until, say, it reaches 95 degrees or whatever you set it to. And then it kind of just reduces that water flow into, like, a trickle, but keeping it at the temperature that you want so you’re not wasting water while you’re just doing the other things that you would normally do while waiting for the water to heat up.

It is a great prize. It’s got five unique spray functions, so you’re always going to find that perfect shower. And it’s available in spot-resist finishes of nickel, chrome, and matte black.

But the winner today will get a chrome finish. It’s a prize worth $79.98, going out to one lucky caller. You can check it out at moen.com.

But let’s get back to the phones. Jim, who’s up next?

[Jim]
We’ve got Mary Martin from the musical South Pacific on the line for the Moen faucet. And she’s, yeah.

[Leslie Segrete]
Valley high may call you.

[Jim]
I’m going to wash that man right out of my hair. Right.

[Leslie Segrete]
My friend Larry and I used to sing that song all the time. And whenever she’d go, right out of my hair, I’d go, sh-da-da-da-da. Woo!

I don’t know why. We just did it.

[Jim]
All right, Leslie. Now we’ve got Belinda, who wants to talk electricity. What kind of electrical work are you thinking about doing there, Belinda?

[Belinda]
I live in a house that was built in 1971. So there were no GFI outlets then. And little by little, you know, I’ve been adding them.

So my question is, I have a couple more, you know, that I want in bathrooms and all. When a GFI outlet is added, does it need its own circuit breaker, or is it okay if they splice it into an existing wire?

[Leslie Segrete]
No, it doesn’t need its own circuit breaker. In fact, that ground fault breaker is a circuit breaker. Now, there’s two types of GFCI devices that are most common.

One is built into the outlet, and the other is actually a circuit breaker with a ground fault circuitry built right into it. Now, with an older home, typically, you’re going to replace that outlet with one that’s a GFCI outlet. And the electrician that knows what they’re doing should be able to handle that project pretty easily.

And, you know, we always suggest that you kind of test it yourself using that test reset button. And if possible, there’s a little electric tester that’s in the shape of a plug. And that tells you a lot of information.

You put it in the outlet. It’s got lights on it. And that light will tell you if that outlet itself is grounded.

It will tell you if the polarity is reversed, which means that the wires were put in backwards. And it’s also going to enable you to test the ground fault outside of the breaker itself, which is a better test. It’s kind of like what happens if you have a bad appliance plugged into it.

So it’s definitely something that should be done after the fact. And you don’t have to do it at the breaker itself.

[Belinda]
And this tester, you’re saying, is something I should buy to have in my own toolbox?

[Leslie Segrete]
Yeah, they’re called an outlet tester. And, I don’t know, they’re like $10. They’re not expensive.

It looks like a small plug, a three-prong plug. And you plug it in. You’ll see the lights on it with a little push button.

And when you read the instructions, they’ll tell you if everything’s wired correctly.

[Belinda]
And then the way to test my GFCI outlet that I have, you just press that red button?

[Leslie Segrete]
Yeah, so with the ground fault outlets, you want to just sort of click that red button off. And it should make that outlet dead. It’s sort of the test reset buttons right there.

Test turns it off. Reset puts it back on. Thank you.

You’re welcome, Belinda.

[Jim]
Hey, Leslie, you know, if you have any doubt on electrical stuff, definitely hire an electrician. But here’s a perfect example. On a GFCI, you can have it protect several outlets if you put it in the right spot of the circuit.

And if you don’t know where to put that, obviously, you need an electrician. If it’s something you can handle as a DIY thing, it doesn’t mean every outlet in that particular room has to be a GFCI outlet, which is more expensive. You can protect other outlets with a primary being your GFCI.

[Leslie Segrete]
I mean, and again, these are complicated projects at times. So if you are not certain, you should get a pro because electricity has the risk of death.

[Jim]
Absolutely. Know your limits.

[Leslie Segrete]
Yeah, exactly. Well, stone garden walls are synonymous with strength and permanence. But a poorly built wall, regardless of the material, can crumble in no time at all.

Now, I’m not going to sugarcoat this, guys. Building a stone wall, it is hard work. So you are definitely going to want this wall to last.

And, you know, to do so, you really need to lay the groundwork first. And that really all starts with the footing. You do need a firm base before you start stacking those stones or that wall will move and then ultimately fall apart.

So to get that firm base, you kind of have to dig a trench below the frost line. And you want it two feet wider than that wall is going to be. Then in this trench, and I’m talking about the whole trench where that wall is going to go, you line with landscaping fabric before you set down a base of washed stones.

Now, the stone base is what will allow that water to drain away. And that prevents that freezing thawing cycle under the wall, which can cause it to break up. And that landscaping fabric is important because it prevents the surrounding soil from clogging the gaps in the stones and then hindering the drainage as well.

Now, when it comes to actually building the wall, you can either use mortar or you can dry stack them like building blocks. And how you build really depends on the use and the placement of the wall itself. Now, traditional New England-style fieldstone walls are generally stacked without mortar.

It’s also called dry laid. And that’s because they’re generally flat on their stacking surfaces and they have that rough edge on the fascia sides. However, a mortared wall really can’t be beat for strength.

And that’s an important consideration if you’re building a retaining wall or something that’s going to be used as a bench where you’re going to sit on. And trust me, as a parent, you’ll know that if there’s anything that is a wall surface, people will find a way to sit on it. So I definitely recommend the mortar as the sort of glue that will stick it together.

But you can still have the look of a more dry laid wall, but have the advantages of mortar because you can take the mortar and you can pigment it so it’s kind of a darker gray. And then the joints between the stones, you kind of want to rake them so that they’re overhanging a little bit, not truly flush with one another because that makes it so that that mortar isn’t as visible. Now, once that footing is complete and you’ve decided how you’re going to build this wall, there’s a specific order for how the stones are stacked.

And it does all start with that base course. You know, the large base stones are placed first, then the smaller stones kind of fill in the gaps. And this is truly the best live version of a puzzle that you can play.

I love putting together puzzles. So I love building things with stone, like a patio or a stone wall, because it always has to fit together. And you can dry fit everything before you commit with mortar.

So sort of stack a bunch, make sure you’re happy with it, and then use the mortar to glue everything together. If you do build this wall right, it’ll last hundreds of years. I mean, maybe even more.

Just head on over to the fields of Ireland and England, and those stone walls have been there for like centuries. All right. So get to it.

That’s a good project. Jim, let’s get back to the phones.

[Jim]
Heading to your neck of the woods, Leslie, Connecticut, we’ve got George working on a flooring project. Tell us about it, please, George.

[George in Connecticut]
Well, I have a family room that measures 26 by 16, and it’s over a dry basement. And I was thinking of putting in wood flooring and replacing the wall-to-wall carpet. I was wondering if you had any ideas of how to proceed, and what kind of wood flooring would you recommend?

[Leslie Segrete]
So do you want to use natural wood flooring, or do you want to use a product that’s like a vinyl plank that looks like wood, or maybe a hybrid stone that looks like wood, or even a ceramic plank that could look like wood?

[George in Connecticut]
I think it would be better to go with natural wood, be a bigger return when I go to sell the house.

[Leslie Segrete]
Yeah, so I don’t see any issues with you using a pre-finished hardwood. There’s a lot of great brands out there, and the finishing today, those factory finishes that come on it are really lovely, and they’re more durable than ever. You can put your own if you did natural and sand and refinish it, but I would definitely look at the pre-finished wood products because they’re much easier to install than the traditional hardwood, and there’s so many places that really have them available.

There’s a couple of brands, like Mohawk is a good one. You mentioned that your basement is dry, and that’s great, but if you had a super damp basement space, I’d be more concerned about warping, but the most important thing for you here is to get your subfloor ready, and once you pull out the carpet and pull out all the tack strips and all the little spiky things that you find on the floor, once you get down to that subfloor, it was probably just nailed down, and with the subfloor, it gets a lot of movement, those nails will start to back out, so I would put screws in every sheet of plywood and get two-and-a-half-inch drywall screws and put it right in with a drill and just go deep with those screws and re-screw and re-secure every board because that’s going to prevent that subfloor from moving, causing squeaks in the future, and the last thing you want to have happen is you do all this work and then find a noisy spot after that hardwood’s installed.

[George in Connecticut]
Well, thank you very much. I appreciate that. That’s some very good information.

[Leslie Segrete]
All right. Good luck with this big flooring project. I’m really excited about our next guest.

You may know NBC’s George to the Rescue. It’s a great show. It is so heartwarming and wonderful, and it is currently in production of its 16th season of surprising, deserving people and organizations with just truly spectacular build-and-design makeovers.

I mean, it’s no surprise George to the Rescue is an Emmy Award-winning program because the makeovers are tremendous, but the stories are really just what gets you, and George Oliphant is probably one of the nicest people you could ever know and truly is the heart of the show, and I’m so proud to call him my friend. So, welcome, George Oliphant.

[George Oliphant]
Oh, well, thank you, and with that introduction, it’s good to be here, and it’s good to have you as a friend, Leslie.

[Leslie Segrete]
I mean, truly, you are just one of, like, the most genuine people that I know, and you have such a true passion for helping people during what is undoubtedly the roughest moments in their life, and you, I mean, I’m not the only one to say this, you were the not-so-secret sauce to George to the Rescue. So, tell me, how did this feel-good journey get started? Because I’m sure there’s a story here that I have yet to hear.

[George Oliphant]
Yeah, well, maybe. I talk a lot, and you were on the Rescue with me, so maybe I rambled it out, but…

[Leslie Segrete]
I also talk a lot, so sometimes we may both be talking.

[George Oliphant]
Yeah, I hear you. I know it well. So, George to the Rescue is actually a spinoff from the show Open House, which George to the Rescue is in its, oh, it’s its 16th season.

Open House, I believe, is in its 18th, 19th season, so it’s been around forever, hosted by Sarah Gore, the incredible Sarah Gore. So, I started on Open House, she hosted it, opened the show, and I was just a little desert at the end with a segment called Open House to the Rescue. I developed it with the team there, Marnie Sabia, who is still there, and Andy Sherbo, who is my co-EP on George to the Rescue.

I was a new father, I had an apartment, and then I was moving into my old family home, which is a whole other story, but the honey-do list was two miles long. It went on and on, and I thought if I could just go into people’s homes and just check one thing off their honey-do list, just something small, but just to give them a little bit more time, whether with their family or be that springboard into doing their next project, or whatever it was, whatever part of just getting their home into the shape they want it to be, and then taking the audience along to the right and teaching the audience something about that specific part of home improvement.

And we did, so it was a small segment at the end of Open House, it was literally a three to five minute segment, and every episode was a different project. Window treatments, putting in hi-hats.

[Leslie Segrete]
And it’s sort of manageable projects because you’re given such a short segment time, but you were trying to pack in so much.

[George Oliphant]
Exactly, and so it was digestible. It was something that the homeowner could take and be like, okay, I saw the show Open House, those mansions were bananas. I mean, that stuff’s awesome, wow, what a life, I can’t imagine it.

But the rescue segment, they showed me how I could make my house look a lot better with window treatments, or how important different types of moldings were. And it’s like, I just do that for one room, and I have that one room, and what accent walls there are, what feng shui was, what size appropriate furniture was, just little things, and it snowballed into bigger projects and bigger purpose, where we went from just doing something small to doing a laundry room or a living room or bedrooms. And we came upon this gentleman, Al Kaplan, who had recently adopted his niece and nephew who had lost their parents to illness and an accident within months of each other.

And so we’re quickly, we’re all of a sudden orphaned, and they’re like 12 and 14. Uncle Al sold his house to move into their house, and he was going to do a project for them because they were just like, hey, let’s do something to make this house really feel special. And they’re like, mom always wanted to do the kitchen, so we’re going to do the kitchen.

As luck would have it, a storm came, they had not the right insurance or what have, and a tree fell through their roof, and they had to put all the money they were going to put towards the kitchen.

[Leslie Segrete]
To this one maintenance project.

[George Oliphant]
Yes, and so word got to us. We were open house the rest of the time. We’d never done a kitchen or anything.

And a guy who you may know, maybe a lot of your listeners know, he also is quite infamous. The one and only Steve Finuca came in and said, I would like to do a kitchen with you, George, and I would like to do it for this family. And we were like, all right, let’s take this on.

We only have like a three to five-minute segment. And so we decided that we were going to tackle it, and everyone came in. And it wasn’t like George Rescue Now where we do things in five to seven weeks.

Even though we have a lot of planning, we still get things done fast.

[Leslie Segrete]
So this really was the birth of NBC’s George to the Rescue, and we have so much more to talk with you about. So we’re just going to take a quick break, and then we’re going to come back and jump into it again with George Oliphant of NBC’s George to the Rescue. So stick around.

Well, this has been a pretty rainy spring season so far in my part of the states, but still there are plenty of projects that can be tackled regardless of the weather. So what’s on your to-do plate this weekend? Let us know how we can lend a hand, and you could win a great prize.

This hour we have up for grabs the Moen Handheld Shower that saves water in the chrome finish. And it’s awesome because it kind of stores that water to the temperature you want. It’ll come out full force while you’re, like, brushing your teeth and getting the towel ready and doing all the things you do while you wait for the water.

But once it reaches that temp, it reduces it to a trickle, so it’s not just constantly wasting the water while it’s waiting for you to get back in. And the coolest part is there’s a magnetics technology to help that handheld showerhead reach that magnetic dock, even if you’ve got, like, shampoo all over your face and you don’t know where you’re going, you can just reach right for it, it goes in place, it comes down super easy, and it’s got five unique spray functions so you can always find that perfect shower. You can check it out at Moen.com, but this prize worth almost 80 bucks is going out to one lucky caller. Jim, who’s up next?

[Jim]
You know, Leslie, bathroom remodel projects, they’re always pretty cool when they’re done. We’ve got Jackie in my home state of Michigan working on one as we speak. Fill us in a little bit here, Jackie.

[Jackie in Michigan]
I have done some plumbing, and I am going to be taking out an old tub and putting in a tile shower in place of it. So the diverter and the showerhead are fine. I’m going to be removing the tub faucet because I’ll no longer have a tub.

Can I just cap off that pipe coming to the tub faucet, or do I have to put a whole new diverter in?

[Leslie Segrete]
No, no, you actually have to put a shower valve in because you’re going to disconnect that whole spout. And the way you get water currently is the water runs through the tub spout, and then you pull up that diverter, and then it starts coming out the shower. So you need to put in a shower valve in order to get that water to come up to the showerhead.

I would also suggest that doing this at this point, you need to put a pressure balance valve in. And this is just simply to make sure that if somebody is running water somewhere else in the house, you’re not either going to get scalded or chilly. It makes sure that the temperature mix is always constant.

So this is a great opportunity to do that. Now let me ask you this question. The wall right behind the bathroom, is that accessible right now?

I mean, have you had to open it up in the past to work on the plumbing?

[Jackie in Michigan]
No, they left a little access panel. The tub that’s in there now is actually like a jetted tub. So they left an access panel to get to maybe the motor.

And I figured I could, when I was tearing out some of the tile and pulling out the spout, I could just remove the spout. I thought maybe I could just cap it off. But then I thought, no, because just like you said, you pull up on the spout.

I need a whole new diverter.

[Leslie Segrete]
Yep, that’s right. You know, it’s always a bigger project. And plumbing is one of those things that if you don’t do it every single day, it can be confusing and it can be more time consuming than it has to be.

So you might want to plan this when you’re doing the demolition and then you’re doing the tiling work, but you have the plumber come in at the right time and sort of reroute those pipes properly, install that diverter valve and the pressure balance valve. This way you can be sure that the guts of this project are getting done properly. And then you can go in and sort of close everything up and finish it up and make it nice.

All right, Jackie, thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEYPIT.

[Jim]
And in some new construction areas, it is code to have that pressure balance valve. Leslie, are you aware of that?

[Leslie Segrete]
No, I mean, I would think it should just be in there anyway.

[Jim]
It’s a safety thing, yeah.

[Leslie Segrete]
Safety or not, it’s smart. Well, with all the lawn and garden work going on right now, you may be storing more hazardous liquids like gas, oil and grease in that garage. So we’ve got some tips on the best ways for you to store those flammable liquids safely so that your garage or shed doesn’t become a fire hazard.

Now, first, the most common and the most dangerous flammable liquid is obviously gasoline. But there are other highly flammable products that you also need to be considering like paint thinner, charcoal, lighter fluid, kerosene. I mean, when you think about everything that you’re kind of starting a fire with or powering up in the summer months, there is a lot.

Now, the problem here isn’t just spills. All of those liquids give off invisible vapors that ignite if they come in contact with even the smallest of sparks. So you’ve got to keep them in properly labeled, tightly sealed, non-glass containers.

And you want them as far away as possible from anything that can produce a spark or, quite frankly, anything with an open flame. That’s why you don’t see these sort of water heaters in garages nearby to all of the things that are being stored. And they’re usually raised up about a foot off of the floor to sort of give more breathing room to the flame that operates the unit itself.

And that’s just to make sure that the gases that are coming off of those combustible liquids do not come in contact with that flame and potentially cause a very hazardous situation. So just be smart about what’s going on in the garage because summertime is a tricky time for mixing things up in the garage.

[Jim]
We like every one of our Money Pit listeners and want to keep them around.

[Leslie Segrete]
Yeah, we want to keep you guys safe. All right, Jim, who’s up next?

[Jim]
All right, Leslie, we’ve got John in Maryland on the line who’s dealing with a smoke smell in his home. What’s going on, John?

[John in Maryland]
My tenant has been in the house for a number of years now. I did ask her, please, please smoke outside.

[Leslie Segrete]
Yeah, but she didn’t listen.

[John in Maryland]
Thank you. I didn’t say that, but I should have. When you light a cigarette and smoke a cigarette, the smoke, it’s like having a small campfire.

[Leslie Segrete]
Yeah, and it’s funny that you mention that because getting rid of a cigarette smoke smell is pretty much the same process that you would do if there was a fire in the house. So, John, that smoke smell, even the discoloration, that’s just kind of from cigarettes. I remember my grandparents were both such heavy smokers, and when you would take a picture off the wall, it was like the original paint color behind, but everything else was like yellow and tarry and gross.

So there’s a couple of things that you have to do for the walls. You kind of have to wash them first before you can go ahead and paint them, and you can wash them with something called TSP, which is trisodium phosphate. You find it in the paint aisle.

It’s in a powder form. You mix it according to the manufacturer’s directions, and then you wash the walls with it, and that’s going to give you a good prep base there. You still have to prime, and if it’s really stinky, you should use an oil-based primer because that locks in the odor, that locks in the discoloration, and once that’s dry, you go ahead and put that latex top coat on it, but you also have to think about your flooring.

I mean, just smoke smell gets into everything, so anything that’s a soft good, that’s a hard good, it’s just going to stink. So if you have flooring, especially if you have carpeting, let’s talk about that. Wall-to-wall carpeting, you need to pull that up.

If there’s padding, you have to get rid of that too because the smoke has just permeated everything, and steam cleaning alone is just not going to cut it, and then you can replace that carpet, or you can refinish the wood floors if there’s something nice under there. Draperies, you’ve got to take them down and have them cleaned professionally. Any upholstery should have that steam cleaned.

Truly, anything that needs to be cleaned, just do so, and if it is something, try leaving it outside. Maybe put a chair outside, but you could leave it outside for the rest of its life, and it might not air out fully, so you’ve just got to get ahead of this, and you’ve got to get rid of those odors. All right, John, good luck with that.

I hope it helps you out. I know how gross it can be.

[Jim]
We’ve got Melinda who wrote in to Team Money Pit, and she asked that she’d like to change the look of her brick house. It’s a brick house. I’m sorry, Melinda.

And she wants to know the pros and cons of staining it versus painting it. You know that? I know.

I know. I know, Leslie.

[Leslie Segrete]
This is such a tricky question. It’s such a personal question.

[Jim]
With stain, you can four, five, six years down the road do it again. You’re not going to do that with paint and brick.

[Leslie Segrete]
I mean, paint you’re going to do again and again and again because it’s not going to stick great. But, I mean, Jim’s right. We kind of always joke that, you know, when you paint, next is repaint.

But in terms of stain, I mean, it really depends, Melinda, on the type of brick that your home is made out of. If it’s a light-colored brick, then maybe, you know, like those tannish, yellowy bricks. But you can’t really stain those darker, burgundy ones.

I mean, you can only go darker. It’s not like you’re going to change a red brick to a lighter-colored brick. So if that’s kind of what you’re envisioning, then you have to paint it.

But you have to think here because anything that you’re applying to this brick is going to be a permanent change that you’re making, and it’s going to force you to have to redo either the stain or the paint as the years go on. So let’s pretend like we’re going to come up with a different solution, even though I know you’re probably still going to paint your house white, which is totally fine. But let’s think here.

You know, why don’t we try other things? Let’s change some things other than the brick because maybe mixing the siding materials so you keep the brick but you kind of add in some areas that are like partially brick or other stone or a clabbered siding, you know, maybe from halfway up, just kind of differentiates the brick and changes the look of it without having to actually change the brick because, again, it’s a ton of work. And I’m not saying adding the siding or adding another stone isn’t also a ton of work, but it’s not something you’re going to have to redo again and again.

Whereas with paint or stain, you’re just going to have to redo it every few years. Now, if you’ve already kind of thought about this and you’re like, Nope, I want to change the bricks. Let’s think about one more idea.

Maybe you want to add shutters because maybe just adding some color and breaking up the brick around the windows, maybe that’s enough to make it a little bit more interesting. Maybe change the trim around the door or maybe change the front door. These are things that are a little bit less expensive but can definitely make things more interesting to how the home will look.

Now, all of those things will definitely help minimize the appearance of the brick and also enhance the look. A brick home, though, is so lovely. And a painted brick home really isn’t everybody’s favorite thing.

I do, though, I have to tell you, and I know this is kind of a secret, I love the look of a white painted brick house. I know it’s bad because you can’t undo it.

[Jim]
The whitewash look is awesome.

[Leslie Segrete]
Well, yeah. I mean, you can do the whitewash, which is more of a sheer wash. So you still kind of get the sense of a brick or you can just solidify it with a white solid paint.

And that looks awesome too. So whatever you decide, Melinda, I know that it’s going to look awesome. You’re going to be so happy with it.

But just kind of think about what it looks like down the road for you work-wise and how much work you want to commit to it. All right, hope that helps you out.

[Jim]
Hey, Leslie, can you put that real thin brick veneer over the other brick? So you’d still have brick, but you’d have the color you wanted at least.

[Leslie Segrete]
I mean, you could, but why not do like a field stone veneer or like some other type of stone that really goes well with the brick and kind of just mix it up. But definitely that veneer stone is awesome. All right, thanks again, everyone, for joining us this hour here on The Money Pit.

Please let us know what you plan to work on this summer. You can send us a note at moneypit.com or leave a message at 888-MONEY-PIT. This way we can help create shows for you based on the projects that you guys are working on this time of year.

What do you have going on? Let us exactly craft some answers to help you with that exact project so you can get that project done in no time flat. And remember, you can do it yourself, but you don’t have to do it alone.

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