Show Notes
- Summertime Home Checklist: Get your home ready for summer with 4 easy projects for your outdoor living.
- Stepping Stone Pathway: We’ve got step-by-step instructions on how to create the perfect stepping stone pathway.
- Roof Leaks: The best way to fix a roof leak is to detect them before they happen. Here’s what to look for.
Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
Plus, answers to your home improvement questions about:
- Painting Wood Siding: What’s the best way to paint T1-11 siding? Sean learns that a quality primer is important and a paint sprayer can make the job easier.
- Sliding Door Tracks: Tracy’s got hardened grit in her sliding door tracks. We suggest a stiff brush and a vacuum to remove the gunk and using some white lithium grease on the tracks.
- Deck Stain: Scott wants to use a transparent stain on his cedar deck. He should consider a solid deck stain that will last longer and cover the lumber mill stamps.
- Sealing Tile: Do you need to seal glazed ceramic floor tiles? Laurel should only need to use silicone-based grout sealant as soon as the tile is installed.
- Types of Insulation: How do choose between open-cell and closed-cell insulation? Mark finds out the advantages of each.
- Metal Roofing: Russ wants to install a metal roof on his big old barn. A professional roofer can attach it to the existing furring strips and deal with the steep pitch of the roof.
- Motion Sensor Light Switch: Can you add a motion sensor on two-way room switches? We explain how Pam can do it and what mode to use.
- Flies: Nels is getting pestered by flies coming from the furnace return ducts. He should ask a pest expert about a possible nest in the house.
- Bathroom Mold: Those black spots on the bathroom wall look like mold. Heather gets tips on using a bleach solution, a bath exhaust fan, and mildewcide.
- Cracking Concrete: The edges of the cement porch are cracking and crumbling. Cheryl can either resurface the entire porch or use a cement patching product.
Podcast Transcript
Read Transcript
| 0:00:33 | TOM: Coast to coast and floorboards to shingles. This is the Money Pit Home Improvement show. I’m Tom Kraeutler. |
| 0:00:38 | LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete. |
| 0:00:40 | TOM: And we are here to help you get ready to spend some quality time inside and outside your newly remodeled house. Because we know you have projects right? We’ve been hearing lots about projects throughout the entire spring. We know you’re thinking about sprucing up outdoor spaces. We know you were thinking about maybe sprucing up your kitchen, your bathroom, all the most popular projects. Maybe you got a roof issue you’re dealing with thinking about some new windows or doors, whatever’s on your to do list. We are here to help you get those projects done. So if you need a hand, if you need a recommendation, if you need to know how to get out of some someplace you got yourself stuck in, reach out to us and we will do just that. Two ways to do that. You can most easily go to Money Pit, AECOM slash ask. That’s Money Pit e-commerce ask Click the blue Microphone button. Tell us your question. And it is the quickest way to get a response from us. Or you can call us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT 888-666-3974. Coming up on today’s show, you might be ready for summer, but is your outdoor living space also ready before you shift into full summertime mode? |
| 0:01:46 | TOM: We’ve got a pre summer checklist to make sure your house is as ready as you are for the sunshine ahead. |
| 0:01:51 | LESLIE: And a stepping stone path can be a beautiful addition to your yard or your garden. But while it might seem that you can just plop down a few stones and be done with it, it’s really not that easy. I mean, it’s not a difficult project, but you can’t just go ahead and be like, Whoops, we’re done. So we’re going to walk you through this summer weekend project. |
| 0:02:08 | TOM: Well, by the time most of us spot a roof leak, the water is usually dripping through a ceiling somewhere and quite often a light fixture. But those roof leaks actually start forming a lot earlier than that. So we’re going to share how to catch leaks in the making just ahead. |
| 0:02:22 | LESLIE: All right. That’s exciting. But first, guys, what’s on your to do list? You know, we want to help you create your best home ever. So give us a call. Reach out how you like with your home improvement questions so that we can lend a hand and help you get everything done. I mean, we’re in June, guys. It’s almost summer. It’s like really summertime. So let’s get enjoying our houses and get all of those projects done so we can really just relax. Well, maybe for just one weekend. |
| 0:02:46 | TOM: We’ve got a moneypit.com/ask and record your question. Just click the blue microphone button and we will get back to you with the answer. The number here also is one eight and eight money. But either way, we are here to help you get those jobs done. |
| 0:02:59 | LESLIE: We’ve got Shaun from Vermont calling in about painting, siding. What’s going on at your place? |
| 0:03:04 | CALLER: Hi. I’m just trying to find out the best way to paint. You want 11 fighting. |
| 0:03:09 | TOM: So my first question is, do you want to paint it or do you want to stain it? |
| 0:03:12 | CALLER: I would like to paint it. |
| 0:03:14 | TOM: Prep is really key, right? So you want to make sure that it’s properly clean. And the second thing is to make sure you’re using a very good quality primer. No, I personally prefer solvent based primers when I can get them because I find that they have better adhesion than water based primers. But Primer is really going to be important. It’s really the most important layer. Even in some respects more important than the paint, because if you don’t get the primer right, that paint can have a very short life. And once the primer is on and attached and well dried and adhered properly, then you could use a topcoat paint because it’s a textured siding. I think that you’ll find that this is a difficult project or a little. It’s not maybe as difficult as some types of siding, but it would be a good project for a paint sprayer if you had one like one of the Wagner paint sprays, if you want to do it yourself. But I guess you could do it with a roller and a brush set that you’re going to be using the roller on the face boards. In the wider part, you’re going to have to brush every groove. What you really want to do is make sure you get a good layer and an even layer, and that’s something that you can do more. You have more control over where the paint sprayer than you would by doing it by hand. But remember, prep is really key. Followed by primer, followed by the top coat. And then you can choose how you want to apply it, either brushing it and rolling it or pick up a paint sprayer, which you’re not, by the way, all that expensive, and they work pretty darn well. I’ve been using them on fences around my house. |
| 0:04:34 | CALLER: I had heard the advertisement about the Wagner that you guys were talking about. That’s why I thought to call you and see if that would be the best thing. |
| 0:04:42 | TOM: That’s a great point. And I do think that’s a good option for you. |
| 0:04:45 | CALLER: Awesome. I will have to look into one of those. Well, thank you for your time. I appreciate it. |
| 0:04:49 | LESLIE: Now we’ve got Traci in Hawaii who needs some help with a sliding door situation. What’s going on? |
| 0:04:54 | CALLER: The slider doors got like, you know, it’s got grit in it. And I had sprayed it was something that was on sale, I remember because I got rid of it. But it it’s like real it hardened whatever it was. And it’s very hard to I want to if I can find something to loosen it and then what should I use on it that won’t harden, you know, when I spray it to make it easy? |
| 0:05:17 | TOM: Well, first of all, what I would do is I would get a really stiff brush and I would try to I would brush those tracks to try to loosen up all of that gunk that’s there and then, you know, get a vacuum to kind of stuck it out of there so you can kind of get the loose dirt out of the junk out of there. And then what I would spray with is white lithium grease. It comes in a can just like WD 40, but it’s not a little thicker and stays around longer. And another thing that you can think about doing is if you can take the door out of the tracks, it makes the whole thing easier. But it’s a bit of a tricky job because it depends on how your door is built. But generally you can lift it right out of the track. It’ll make the whole thing easier to handle. |
| 0:05:55 | CALLER: Okay, that sounds wonderful. |
| 0:05:57 | TOM: Good luck with that project. Traci, thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT. |
| 0:06:02 | LESLIE: Scott in Illinois, you’ve got the Money Pit. How can we help you today? |
| 0:06:04 | CALLER: I put in a wooden deck about a year ago and treated lumber cedar, I think, and the lumber yard or the mill, they stamp it with like their stamp. That tells the grade or the manufacturer or whatever it is. And I want to stain it with a transparent stain. So I want to tell you how to get that off of there. I’ve tried tar washing it, but it doesn’t do any good. |
| 0:06:27 | TOM: Now you have to sand it. It’s in the it’s in the grain of the woods. You’d have to send it out. And you can do that without affecting it because the pressure treatment goes throughout the entire wood. But it’ll be a slightly lighter color. But why are you going to go with clear? Why not use a semi-transparent or solid color stain. |
| 0:06:46 | CALLER: So that it looks more weathered? |
| 0:06:48 | TOM: Yeah, I mean, you could you can do that. I will tell you of the difference between Semi-transparent and solid color. It’s probably about five years of longevity because the solid color does last a lot longer because it’s got more pigment in there. |
| 0:07:00 | CALLER: Right. Okay. So a solid color will last ten years longer. |
| 0:07:05 | TOM: Yeah. Yeah, I think so. I think that’s fair. And by the way, you won’t have to worry about that stain because it’ll just go right on top of it. |
| 0:07:12 | CALLER: Yeah. Okay. Too easy. |
| 0:07:13 | TOM: That’s what we try to do. Scott, thanks so much for calling us at 88 money, But occasionally there actually is an easy solution. |
| 0:07:20 | LESLIE: Hey, are you a fan of our podcast? That will leave us a five 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 Money Pit dot com slash review. |
| 0:07:31 | TOM: You know, you’ve got a project that needs caulk. Trying to pick the right cork is always a bit of a challenge, but today we’ve got a supply of all the right cork products to send to one lucky listener. We’re giving away Daps advanced hybrid sealants. We’ve got a six pack worth about 60 bucks. Now. These new sealants totally outperform silicone in key areas like Patentability and my favorite wet surface application, because man, can that slow you down when you get rain. There’s four different types to cover all of the caulking projects in your home, including the kitchen and bath hybrid sealant, which is good for tubs, sinks, showers and toilets. The products are backed by a lifetime guarantee. Each count goes for 998, but we’ve got a set of six to give away worth 60 bucks. Going out to one lucky listener to make that you, we need to hear from you with a question. The number here is 88 money pit or go to moneypit.com/ask and click the blue microphone button. |
| 0:08:23 | LESLIE: Now we’ve got Laurel from Louisiana on the line with help with the tiling project. How can we help you Today? |
| 0:08:28 | CALLER: My husband and I are building a new house right now and we’re putting ceramic tile in the living room and the kitchen and it’s not going to be sealed. So we were wondering what was the best kind of sealant to put on that ceramic tile? |
| 0:08:43 | TOM: What kind of tile are using That’s not sealed. Are you trying to say that’s not glazed? |
| 0:08:47 | CALLER: No, it was glazed. But I was told that you need to put a sealant over it to make the tile last longer. |
| 0:08:52 | TOM: No, not true. The glazing is plenty tough enough to protect the tile. What you what the sealant usually refers to the grout. And if you seal the grout, it can help keep it cleaner and repel water. And the grout sealants are silicone based. So as long as you use a good grout sealant and the time to do this is before you move in, you know, because once you move in, you start crying. Some version, the tile becomes a lot harder to maintain. But if you seal the grout right after the tiles installed, that’s the best time to do it. |
| 0:09:25 | CALLER: Well, maybe the best kind of use. |
| 0:09:26 | TOM: A silicone one. A silicone based grout sealing is what you’re looking for. |
| 0:09:30 | LESLIE: And you want to look for one that, you know, applies in a manner that you’re comfortable with. Like if you’re doing a smaller grout line, you would look for one that almost looks like a nail polish brush or like a rolling foam wheel with a floor tile. You know, you could be looking at a quarter inch to a half an inch grout line. So that’s easier to apply. But, you know, you want to make sure you have something that you feel comfortable applying strictly to the crowded areas. |
| 0:09:53 | CALLER: Okay. All right. Well, thank you. |
| 0:09:54 | TOM: You’re welcome, world. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT. |
| 0:09:58 | LESLIE: Mark in South Carolina is on the line and needs some help defining different types of insulation. Tell us what’s going on. |
| 0:10:03 | CALLER: I put the icing in my house and then I heard someone say that close was better and then I’ve heard that open. So was better. Can you explain to me the advantages and disadvantages of my home now choosing either closed down or open? So insulation, what. |
| 0:10:22 | TOM: Type of icing did you put in? Is it open cell insulation? |
| 0:10:26 | CALLER: Yes, it was open. |
| 0:10:26 | TOM: So, you know, there’s a lot of debate as to which one is better. And I think that both have good qualities. You know, open cells has a good insulating value. It’s more susceptible to moisture than closed cell. But it’s still it still gives you the benefit of being not only an insulator, but an air barrier. So it protects you against drafts that are going to try to get in to the house. The other advantage of open cells, it has better sound absorption qualities. So it’s a little bit of a quieter house and it tends to be more economical to apply. So I don’t think you made a bad choice and I use nine is a good product. |
| 0:11:09 | CALLER: Okay. What would be a reason I would choose close? |
| 0:11:12 | TOM: So that’s a good question. I would say that if you were in a very high moisture area like Seaside, then you may want to consider close zone. |
| 0:11:21 | CALLER: All right. Well, you guys have a great show. Thank you for your time and your help. |
| 0:11:25 | TOM: You’re very welcome. Thank thanks so much for calling us at eight at eight Money Pit. |
| 0:11:29 | LESLIE: Well, summer may mean vacation time for you, but it doesn’t mean time off from home maintenance. I mean, particularly if you want to make your home more enjoyable when you’ve got family and friends over for those summer barbecues. So here are four easy to dos that are going to help you get your house ready for a season of summertime fun. First of all, you want to set that lawn up for success. Now, the warm weather season is all about being outdoors, so watering and mowing your lawn and taking care of generally yard cleanup is a priority. I mean, in general, you’re going to want to water two or three times a week and cut your grass to about two and a half to three inches high to keep it healthy. If you have a sprinkler system, you want to check those sprinkler heads and make sure that they’re working and that they’re aimed correctly. And smart sprinklers can actually help by automatically adjusting your watering based on the weather. And it can happen even while you’re away on vacation. |
| 0:12:19 | TOM: Next, think about stepping up your deck. You want to repair or replace any damaged floorboards on your deck or your porch and keep it looking fresh by using cleaners or a pressure washer to give your wood surfaces a fresh coat of stain, and seal it at least every couple of years. Now, the same goes for any fencing around your property you want to repair, replace and maintain these sections of fans or posts that need attention, or maybe any sections that are leaning. And the sections have settled if they’re sitting too close to the ground, undercut them. So you maintain a 3 to 4 inch clearance. This is going to help prevent those wood boards from rotting away or attracting wood destroying insects. |
| 0:12:53 | LESLIE: Yeah. Now don’t forget about your ceiling fan. If you’re lucky enough to have a summer room with a ceiling fan, now is the time to clean those blades you want to dust off the top of the blades that they’re not spreading around all that dust and pollen. And you want to make sure that the blades are tilted in the right direction to give you a cooling airflow. Now, most ceiling fans have a small reversing switch on the side of that motor. It’s really little, but you can see it. And that’s going to change the blade direction. And you do so every season, you know, one for the warm months, one for the cool months. |
| 0:13:21 | TOM: And last, let’s talk about bugs. Unfortunately, summertime also brings summer pests. You want to try to eliminate any standing water in your yard where pesky mosquitoes may breed. Clean out those gutters and downspouts so they won’t clog or create any pools of water. And in addition to eliminating standing water around your property and protecting yourself with mosquito repellent, you can also disrupt that mosquito life cycle using a mosquito trap like we use Dyna trap around here, which is pretty cool. We plug it in the spring, we unplug it in the fall, and it definitely reduces the number of mosquitoes. In fact, you know, we rarely get bites now in the summer because of this thing. And if you’ve got a screened in porch, now’s the time to check for holes or tears in those screens to keep out any bugs and insects. So look, you can spend a weekend just kind of going around and taking care of all these little fix ups, and then you’ll be good to enjoy that space for the entire summer season. |
| 0:14:11 | LESLIE: Now we’re heading on over to Kansas, where Russ has a roofing question. What can we do for you? |
| 0:14:15 | CALLER: Okay, I’ve got a farm that about eight years ago, and on the farm is a very large, very old barn. As a matter of fact, the loft is large enough that you could probably fit a regulation sized basketball court inside it. According to the graffiti inside the barn, it was built on either 3438, and it was done originally with Cedar shake shingles with one of the four stringers. What about every four inches or about three and a half inch. |
| 0:14:44 | TOM: Spacing between them? I know the construction well. |
| 0:14:46 | CALLER: Okay. And as you know, those cedar shingles are not going to be in very good condition as at this point. So I know I’m going to have to go up there trying to figure out a safe way to work up there so I can remove the cedar shingles, so I can prep it to go back with probably a metal roof. The question is, you know, I’ll have to screw the roof down. But the question is, is am I will I be able to go directly with the one before us with the metal roofing or would I be better off nailing everything fully and putting down some plywood or OSB? |
| 0:15:20 | TOM: Well, I think that a good roofer could work with the one by ferring strips that are up there right now because frankly, that’s the way metal Roof was originally put down. It wasn’t put down. So Sheathing was put down on strips just like that. So I think that that’s a fine option for you. I don’t think you need do the sheathing in this particular case. If you were going to put down asphalt shingles, I’d say you need to see that. But for a metal roof, you may have to do some additional carpentry to get the strips. You know where you want them to make the seams on the roof and so on. But I don’t see a reason for you to sheathe this part. |
| 0:15:55 | TOM: I think the metal can go right on top of that. |
| 0:15:57 | CALLER: Okay, so the patched the rotted one before and maybe put in some were seams are and we should be good that way. |
| 0:16:06 | TOM: Absolutely. |
| 0:16:07 | CALLER: Okay. Do you have any suggestions on how to safely work on a 45 degree pitch? Yeah. |
| 0:16:12 | TOM: Call a roofer. It’s not a do it yourself project. I mean, that’s a really high end project. And if you do it every day, you have all the appropriate safety gear and scaffolding and skill set to be able to work on that. That’s a very dangerous place to try out your do it yourself skills, because handling those big sheets of there, you get a wind gust and you know, you start flying off the roof those medical bills at a very quickly. So I would I would definitely recommend that you have a professional do this. Okay. All right. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT. |
| 0:16:51 | LESLIE: Pam in Missouri is on the line, has a question about installing a dimmer a great do it yourself project. How can we help you, Pam? |
| 0:16:57 | CALLER: I have a room that has fluorescent lighting in it and there is two entries into that room, so there’s a light switch on each door. So it’s a two way switch. Can I put a sensor on that so that when you walk in and walk out and the lights come on and go. |
| 0:17:11 | TOM: Off, are you asking me if you can you put a sensor on that. Yes. Is your concern that you want the lights to come on automatically or you’re concerned that you don’t want people to leave the lights on when no one’s in the room? Both Well, I guess you could use an occupancy sensor switch there, but you would need to set it in vacancy mode, non-occupancy mode. C an occupancy mode. The light comes on when there’s motion. So if you had a three way, what could happen is you walk in the room, the switch closest to you picks up your motion, turns the lights on, you continue halfway through the room, so the one on the other side picks it up and turns the lights off. So that wouldn’t work too well. A better option might be to just replace one side of it, just one of the switches with an occupancy sensor, but set it in what’s called the vacancy mode. So what that means is you manually turn the light switch on, but if there’s no motion in the room, it will automatically go off. So we use these, for example, in the bedrooms upstairs at our house because kids turn lights on. But as well as we all know, kids don’t turn the lights off. So if you set it in the vacancy mode, they can turn the lights on. Then they’ll go off. Depending on the period of monitoring you set, they’ll either go off one, five, 15 or 30 minutes later. |
| 0:18:26 | CALLER: Okay. All right. That would work. Thank you. |
| 0:18:28 | TOM: I hope that helps you out. And thanks so much for calling us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT. |
| 0:18:33 | LESLIE: Nels in Oregon, you’ve got the Money Pit. How can we help you today? |
| 0:18:36 | CALLER: I’ve got a problem with supplies. We have three heat pumps in the house and it takes in the air at the base of the windows. And every year we get flies that come up out of those return ducts. There’s electronic filters down there, and I can’t imagine where they’re coming from or. |
| 0:18:56 | TOM: Well, they’re maybe nesting in the house and they’re berthing themselves right into existence. And the reason they’re probably hanging out around the return ducts is because that’s where air gets thrown into the furnace and they just might be part of that. That airflow, I can’t really diagnose exactly what you need to do to get rid of those, but I do know somebody that can. And if you go to the auction website, you know, our show expert is a guy named Greg Bauman, who I’ve known for many years. He used to be the expert for the National Pest Management Association. Now he’s the director of training for Orkin. They have an expert section on the website. And if you post that question there and maybe even put a photo of the flies, I’m sure that you’ll be able to get to the bottom of it very quickly. |
| 0:19:37 | CALLER: Great. Okey dokey. |
| 0:19:39 | TOM: All right. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT. |
| 0:19:44 | LESLIE: Well, a stepping stone path really is a beautiful addition to your yard or even your garden. But while it seems like a project that you can just, you know, throw around a few stones and you’re done with it, it’s actually not that easy. |
| 0:19:54 | TOM: Well, absolutely. In fact, this is a project that requires just as much care and work as even a full paver patio, because it really comes down to planning ahead and properly preparing the base at the stones you’re going to sit on. |
| 0:20:07 | LESLIE: Yeah. Now, in a way it’s kind of like building a bunch of smaller paver patios because you want the grass to grow between those steps, right? |
| 0:20:14 | TOM: Well, yeah, exactly. So the first step is to really set the stones at a comfortable distance from each other. So this is going to take into account kind of your stride and what’s going to be most comfortable and the size of the stones that you use. Then you just cut the side or the grass around the outside perimeter of each stone and once that’s done, you can flip the pavers out of the way and then cut that side, outline out completely and dig down along the edge. Now, the depth is important. It should be the stones thickness plus about an inch and a half, because that’s the thickness of the stone bed you’ll need underneath the paver. Now, to create that stone bed, you just mixed stone dust with water and a wheelbarrow. Then you fill that base where you cut out the grass to fill in that extra inch and a half you dug out. And then lastly, you put that stone back into place. Now, once you set it, you’re going to maybe pound it with a rubber mallet to eliminate any air pockets and get it to kind of sit down just right. And those stones should stay right where you left them for years and years to come. Just don’t skip that step of creating the base or you’re going to see a stone that settles and becomes a tripping hazard. But by taking that one extra step, you know, this is going to be something that’s really going to stand up for the long haul. |
| 0:21:24 | LESLIE: You know what I saw recently? A really nice project for a stone path where every year you take a foot cast of your children, like one year, the right foot, one year, the left foot, and you kind of alternate every year and you replace the stones on your pathway year after year. And when the kids are grown, you kind of have this like beautiful storytelling line of their growth. Like it was such a nice idea and especially on Father’s Day. |
| 0:21:45 | TOM: Yeah, so, so basically they start as little footprints, and as the path extends, they become bigger footprints as they grow up. |
| 0:21:52 | LESLIE: Heather in Texas is dealing with a mold situation. Tell us what’s going on. Well, I have. |
| 0:21:57 | CALLER: Like LAX spots in my restroom and I’m not sure if that’s mold. And I would like to know, how can you fix. |
| 0:22:04 | TOM: It without seeing? I can’t tell you. But if there are black spots, it probably is mold and where are these spots? Is on the wall. Shower curtain tile Where? |
| 0:22:13 | CALLER: Ceiling In the wall. |
| 0:22:14 | TOM: On the wall. Do you have wallpaper on the wall? |
| 0:22:17 | CALLER: No. |
| 0:22:18 | TOM: What you might want to do is mix up a bleach and water solution. About 10 to 15% bleach and the rest water. Spray it on those spots. Let it sit for a bit of time and then wipe it down with fresh water. So if there if there is mold there, that will kill it. The reason we usually get mold in bathrooms is because they’re wet and damp all the time. Couple of things that you can do there is do you have a bath exhaust fan in this room? |
| 0:22:39 | CALLER: No. |
| 0:22:40 | TOM: Well, you should have one. And this is one of the reasons you should have one, because it will draw air out of that room when it gets damp, especially if you hook it up to a unit, a stat. So it’s only running when there’s moisture in the room. If you don’t have that, then the only thing that you could do is just get into the practice of wiping down walls or using a squeegee to wipe most of the water off the bath, shower walls, that sort of thing. Every single time and leave the door open. But if you don’t have a bath exhaust fan, you’re always going to be fighting this. When you do repaint next time, make sure you use a paint that has a mil the side built into it because that can also further reduce the chance of developing mold. Okay, Heather. |
| 0:23:19 | CALLER: Okay. |
| 0:23:20 | TOM: Thank you. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT. |
| 0:23:26 | LESLIE: Well, here’s a reason to reach out to Team Money Pit. We’ve got up for grabs a supply of Dapps advanced hybrid sealants. Now this is worth 60 bucks, and the new sealants outperforms silicone in key areas like paint ability. Tom loves at what surface application. But also you’re going to get crystal clear clarity once it’s dry. So it’s really the best performing out there. Now there’s four different types to cover all of your caulking projects, window door and siding ceilings, kitchen and bath. I mean something for every area, even cement. So it’s definitely great. It’s backed by a lifetime guarantee. The tubes themselves go for 90, 98, but we’ve got a set of six worth 60 bucks. |
| 0:24:00 | TOM: Going out to one listener drawn at random. Very handy thing to have around is always a caulking project. Do so give us a call. Right now the number here is 1-888-MONEY-PIT. If you do, we’ll toss your name in the Money Pit Hard hat and you might just win yourself a supply of caulk. |
| 0:24:15 | LESLIE: Cheryl in Virginia, you’ve got the Money Pit. How can we help you today? |
| 0:24:18 | CALLER: I have a cement porch. The house was built in 1981, and it has a cement front porch to it. And it along the edges of the porch, it’s cracking and crumbling like off. And then one portion of the porch, it actually has a, you know, water stands there because it’s a dip. I just wanted there’s an economical way I could fix that to make the sports last a little bit longer. Yeah. |
| 0:24:44 | TOM: And there’s a couple of things that you can do. You either resurface the whole porch surface or you could mix up a recipe of quick create products that could be used to patch those badly chipped or spoiled areas. Now, the key here is that you just can’t buy a cement mix in the bag, mix it up and be done, because when you’re trying to adhere new concrete to old concrete, you need to use products that are designed to make that bond possible. So if you go to quick Crypto.com, you look at the listings for projects, there are actually one sheets there that give you the step by step for repairing badly damaged concrete. There’s also a one sheet for resurfacing concrete, and I think one of those two applications and the products they recommend there are going to work. It is a do it yourself project and it’s not terribly expensive. The products are very affordable and the instructions are there to make sure you follow them. It’s like mixing a recipe. You can’t leave out, you know, one item or is not going to come out, right. |
| 0:25:48 | CALLER: Okay. And then now, as far as along those edges that we have to build up, I said, Well. |
| 0:25:55 | TOM: You could mix it up to a consistency where you could trowel it, reform the edge. |
| 0:25:59 | CALLER: How? Okay, pull the concrete. Dcoms Thank you so much. |
| 0:26:04 | LESLIE: Well, by the time most of us spot a roof leak, that water is actually dripping through a ceiling somewhere. But roof leaks actually start forming a lot earlier than you seeing that water coming in the house. We’re going to share how you can catch the leaks in the making. And today’s roof review tip presented by roof Max. Now, there’s a lot of ways that roof leaks can form, but the vast majority of these leaks happen at points where roof sections intersect. So this is where the roof gets the most movement. I mean, in terms of expansion and contraction. And then that movement definitely is what leads to a leak. |
| 0:26:37 | TOM: Yeah. And here are some good examples. First, let’s talk about roof values. Now, this is where different sections of your roof come together. They typically form a V and this happens. It’s going to either have metal flashing that lays at the bottom that V or the shingles are going to overlap and sort of lock together. But because this is an area where water collects on its way down to your gutters and it’s an intersection of two big sections we will frequently find that leaks form when that flashing wears out or the shingles crack from all of that movement. |
| 0:27:06 | LESLIE: Now another place is plumbing vents. I mean, have you ever noticed how many of these pipes are sticking out of your roof? Those are all plumbing vents, and they share a very common form of rubber sealed flashing boot that kind of goes over the vent and then under the shingles. Now, the problem is that that rubber seal does wear out from exposure to sunlight and then it’s going to leak. And that’s usually showing up in your bathroom or your kitchen ceilings just below where that pipe breaks through the roof. |
| 0:27:30 | TOM: And finally, let’s talk about chimneys now. If you’ve got a brick chimney that goes through the roof, the flashing system is made up of two parts which we call flashing and then counter flashing. They form a sort of sliding joint that allows for normal movement of the chimney due to wind. Now, unfortunately, when these flashing systems leak, laser repairs are common, like just slapping on some roof cement on top of the whole thing instead of properly rebuilding that original flashing. |
| 0:27:56 | LESLIE: Yeah. And now all of these situations can cause big roof leaks, but they’re easy for a pro to spot early before it’s happening. Companies like Roof Max offer a maintenance package that’s going to focus on the most leak prone areas of your roof and roof. Maxes Experts are going to inspect your roof and then make minor repairs to the most common issues. And that’s all going to help protect your home. |
| 0:28:16 | TOM: And that’s today’s roof review Tip presented by Roof. Max A roof. Max treatment restores flexibility and waterproofing protection of aging asphalt shingle roofs, extending life by as much as 15 years. Roof max treatments come with a five year flexibility guarantee and is purchased through a nationwide network of factory trained and certified dealers who also apply the treatment. Learn more at Roof Max Icon. That’s roof MH x AECOM. |
| 0:28:43 | LESLIE: Lisa rodents team Money Pit about moles invading showing up hanging around the yard. Well they’re in our garden. I’m just imagining that they’re everywhere. So Lisa writes, What can I do to get rid of them? I don’t want to use any kind of pesticide because we’re growing vegetables. So what do we do? Moles. They’re cute, but don’t. |
| 0:29:01 | TOM: Even know they’re cute, but they really terrible on you have them for a couple of years and then they went away. But we always treat for them. We use grub, control the treat for them, and the grub control basically eliminates the grubs in the lawn, which is like, you know, the foil minions for moles. They love eating them. So when you get rid of the grubs, you get rid of the moles. But when it comes to a garden, you have to be so careful about any pesticides, obviously. So what you might want to use is a natural pesticide free way to evict them, and that is to add nematodes. Now, nematodes are these tiny little insects that will eat grubs. So once the grubs are gone, the moles go elsewhere and the. |
| 0:29:40 | LESLIE: Moles don’t like them. |
| 0:29:41 | TOM: They do not like them. Well, the thing is, the nematodes are like tiny, like microscopic. Like you get like, you know, if you go to the post often, you get like the tiniest little bag that has like two stamps in it. Well, that would be like 5 million nematodes. When you get these, they come. When you order them, they come cold refrigerated, and then you have to mix them with water and you spray the garden. And we’ve done it and it’s worked really, really well. And those years that we’ve had a mold problem around the house. So that’s the way that you deal with moles that are in the garden there in the lawn, you can use the grub control products, but when in the garden you’re going to be a lot more careful. |
| 0:30:16 | LESLIE: All right. Hope that helps you, Lisa. Now we’ve got Denise who wrote in saying, I’d like to update and refresh my kitchen. My cabinets are in good shape, but the doors don’t match on three of them. Can I just buy replacement doors for those cabinets? |
| 0:30:28 | TOM: Well, I know what you think, but I understand that temptation to replace just those three unmatched doors is a challenge. I think it might be a better option. Replace all the doors. I doubt you’re going to be able to find, like the exact door that you have there. And I don’t know how mismatched the one is that you have or the three ah, that you have now. But the other option is to think about pinning your cabinets because you know those painted kitchen cabinets. That’s like a thing today, right, Leslie? I mean, more people are going, Oh, yeah, they look than they are for the wood look than ever before. So if you were ever were thinking about painting your kitchen cabinets, now’s the time to do it, because it really is quite stylish. |
| 0:31:04 | LESLIE: Yeah. I mean, I would say if they’re mismatched because of the style, then for sure replace those and then think about doing a uniform finish all over them, whether that’s, you know, restating all of them to match or painting all of them. But either way, like once the doors match in style, you know, framework style shaker or whatever it is, as long as they look the same, then let’s talk about what they can look like. And I do love a painted cabinet. And I’m telling you, we didn’t redo our kitchen a couple of years ago. We painted all the cabinets and I had it done by a pro. They were sprayed. They really did a great job. They’re standing up and it looks so different and so improved in the space, feels bigger and brighter. And it wasn’t that big of a project. I mean, yes, we had to empty everything out. Yes, things were labeled, but the pro did it. They came out beautiful. They put them all back together. But it is a DIY project if you’re up for it and they really can come out great. |
| 0:31:58 | TOM: Yeah, I totally agree. Definitely a project you can do yourself and you know, the way to do that is to take all the doors off, take the drawers out, work on it one piece at a time and you’re going to love the result. |
| 0:32:07 | LESLIE: And then even add new hardware and you’re going to just be blown away. |
| 0:32:11 | TOM: This is the Money Pit Home Improvement show. And we saw appreciate you joining us on this beautiful Father’s Day weekend. Happy Father’s Day to all the dads and the dad characters that are out there amongst us. We know you give so much to your families and we so appreciate the opportunity to help you with those projects that you’re tackling all year long until we talk again. I’m Tom Kraeutler. |
| 0:32:33 | LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete. |
| 0:32:35 | TOM: Remember, you can do it yourself. |
| 0:32:37 | 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 2023 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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