Best Way to Buy Windows | Disposers that Destroy Food Waste | Duct Cleaning Tricks | Ep #2186

TOM: Coast to coast and floorboards to shingles, this is The Money Pit Home Improvement Show. I’m Tom Kraeutler.

LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.

TOM: Hey, what are you guys doing today? Are you just tooling around? Are you running errands? That’s what my family always tells me they’re doing. “What you doing?” “Oh, I’m just running some errands.”

LESLIE: That means they’re getting their nails done.

TOM: Yeah, exactly. It’s a word that kind of means anything. It means: “I’m busy. I can’t do anything you need me to do, because I’m running errands.”

LESLIE: “I’m running errands.”

TOM: Maybe you’re running errands because you need to pick up some home improvement product: some paint, some spackle, a couple of 2x4s.

I ran errands this weekend and – because I was refinishing a floor. So I ran lots of errands to pick up polyurethane and stuff. And it came out pretty good. I’ll tell you more about that a little bit later.

But anyway, whatever you guys are doing, if it involves your house, your home, your castle and you want some advice on how to fix it up, how to improve it, how to solve maybe something that’s not looking so hot, how to save some money – do you want to hire a contractor? You don’t know which one or which one to pick and they’re all telling you different things? Well, we can help with all of that because we’ve been at this for over 20 years. And we are kind of like your coach, your helper, your home improvement therapist. Whatever you need, we can help you solve your home improvement questions and problems and DIY dilemmas and make your house the best it can be.

You’ve got to help yourself first, though. If you’ve got questions, reach out to us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT. That’s 888-666-3974. Or post your questions at MoneyPit.com.

And brand new: you can also post your question to us by downloading The Money Pit VoxPop app, a new way to get in touch with us. And I will tell you that those of you that will check out our new app and send us some questions, you’re going to get your questions answered first, guaranteed. So check it out. The link’s at MoneyPit.com.

Coming up on today’s show, if you’ve had it with the drafts and are seriously ready to update your windows this spring, well, you might find that it is one very confusing experience. But there’s a trick that makes it a lot easier. And we’re going to share a code that explains everything so you can pick the best windows for your house.

LESLIE: And a garbage disposer is one of those products that once you have one, you’re never going to be without one again. But if you don’t have one, there are a few key features that can make all the difference. We’re going to share some tips.

TOM: And one of the most awkward things to have to hook up is a dryer-exhaust duct. You’ve got to be sort of a contortionist to get that duct hooked up just right behind the machine. Because if you don’t get it right, lint can build up and that can lead to a fire. So we’re going to share some tips to make that project a lot easier.

LESLIE: That’s right. Give us a call. Let us know what you are working on, what you’re planning on tackling this coming spring season. Whatever it is, we’re here to lend a hand. So give us a call, shoot us a text, post your question. Whatever it is, we’re standing by.

TOM: And that number, again, is 1-888-MONEY-PIT. Or post your questions to MoneyPit.com.

Let’s get to it. Leslie, who’s first?

LESLIE: Well, we all deal with neighbors sometimes and sometimes they’re better than others. And sometimes they’re really, really loud, just like Marilyn’s daughter’s neighbor.

What is going on over there?

MARILYN: The walls are so thin that she can hear them at a regular – she says – I haven’t heard it but she says at a regular volume.

TOM: Right.

MARILYN: So she has moved her – she switched her bedroom over and her living room over so they don’t share that wall but it’s still just as bad. So, it’s not that they’re – how do I put it? – you know, hollering or having parties.

TOM: Yeah, they’re not loud.

MARILYN: No, they’re not.

TOM: Yeah, yeah. Right. Yeah.

MARILYN: She can hear them and she says, “The worst thing is I can hear what they’re saying.”

TOM: Right.

MARILYN: And they’re 23 years old, these couple of gals, and Anna is 39 now.

TOM: Too much information, huh?

MARILYN: So she’s starting to realize – “Oh, my gosh, what they’re talking about is not what I want to be talking about.”

TOM: Oh, man. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

MARILYN: So, OK. So what do you suggest?

TOM: So, OK, that’s – yeah, I love that phrase: the walls are very thin. I mean a lot of folks think they’re actually physically thin, like paper. They’re not usually. It’s just that that’s because of the way the construction is done. There’s a lot of ways for sound to transmit.

So, typically, in a condo they take steps to make sure that doesn’t happen. They use different types of sound-deadening approaches. They put some types of insulation. There’s a type of rockwool insulation, that has sound-deadening capabilities, that is typically used in a wall like that. But the problem is that these kinds of changes can’t be made without taking the wall apart, basically taking the old – taking the sheetrock off.

MARILYN: Can you do something on her side of the wall? That’s what I’m questioning. I don’t think that that’s going to happen.

TOM: Yeah. No, I understand that. You’d have to – right, you’d have to disassemble her house from her side and I don’t think that’s going to happen. She’s probably not even allowed to do that.

Here’s the thing that you could do. First of all, you can put a second layer of – if you want to go this far. You can put a second layer of drywall over the drywall that’s there right now. And there’s a special type of glue – it’s called Green Glue – and it’s a sound-deadening glue. And you need a lot of it. And basically, it comes in a caulking tube and you cover the wall with this stuff and then glue, essentially – glue and screw the second layer of drywall on top of that. And that creates a barrier that will absorb some of the sound.

There’s also a type of drywall that has sound-deadening built into it. One of the manufacturers is QuietRock. I forget what company makes it but I know that name, QuietRock. And basically, it’s a sound-deadening drywall. But you have to remember that sound gets in not only through the drywall itself but it also gets in around the holes that are in the wall. And I’m talking about the outlets, the light switches, the heating ducts. There are other ways to seal around those but again, it’s something you usually do from behind the outlet box, for example. There’s a material that’s kind of like a putty – it comes in a sheet – that you pack behind these to kind of quiet them down. So, this is not easy.

Leslie, what about from a decorating standpoint? Is there some sort of a wall covering you can think of that might act as a barrier and help to catch some of those soundwaves so they don’t easily sort of transmit through?

LESLIE: Well, it’s interesting because I’ve definitely kept sound within a room, like when you’re making a home theater or something like that. There’s acoustical wall tiles or acoustical wall-framing systems. And some of those you kind of put a channel system onto the wall that kind of snaps open and closed. And then there’s a piece of acoustical foam that you can wrap with fabric or get sort of pretreated with a color. Depends on the system that you buy and put together.

And they’re all relatively easy to install, the DIY ones. The flipping and snapping can be tricky when you get to the last parts of the fabric, depending on which one. But for the most part, I’ve had success. They’ve done well.

In my sister’s apartment, when they lived on 6^th Avenue, their neighbor was super noisy. We did the wall behind their bed. They had a lot of success with reducing the noise there. I’ve done them in home theaters. So there are systems that you can do yourself. And that can be done with fabric, with this acoustical foam, with these track systems. It’s just a matter of what budget you’re comfortable with and the level of self-installation or hiring the pro.

MARILYN: Oh, thank – I can’t thank you enough. I can’t believe that you called back. This is great.

TOM: Oh, you’re welcome. Good luck. Take care now.

LESLIE: Mike in Little Rock, Arkansas, you’ve got The Money Pit. What can we do for you today?

MIKE: Well, I’ve been doing some remodeling on my house and it’s been going on since about 2018. I’m kind of doing it piecemeal as I can afford things. And we’re getting ready to list it, probably, earlier this – I mean later this springtime. And I want to know if I can list it as newly remodeled or freshly remodeled. What would be the best way to list it? Because it has taken me 3 or 4 years to do it.

TOM: I think it’s fair to say that it’s newly remodeled. Remodeling doesn’t wear out. And if you had an older house – what kinds of projects did you do? What was remodeled here?

MIKE: Oh, I added a den. I put down new, laminated vinyl floors. I put in several pocket doors, added a powder room, changed the bathroom from a tub to a walk-in shower.

TOM: Oh, nice, yeah. How about newly remodeled or freshly updated? Because that kind of covers it. Realtors are always good at those – at all those descriptions, right? But no, I think it’s fair. Listen, houses last a lifetime and the fact that you spent 3 years fixing this up, especially since 2 of the last 3 years pretty much were slowed down by the pandemic, I think it’s fair to say that.

I don’t think you’re misrepresenting anything. And then you could fill in the blanks there and let folks know what you did. In fact, that would give you kind of a leg up on the competition, too. We always say that it’s a good idea to have an inventory that lists your improvements when you put a house on the market, especially if any of those improvements are energy-saving, because that’s really attractive to folks today, as well.

So, I think that’s certainly fair for you to use those phrases in your listing. And then, of course, you could complete – add some additional detail when you complete any kind of property sort of inventory, where you sort of list the features and benefits of the place. And include those types of improvements.

MIKE: Alright. I appreciate that. That’s what I’ll do.

TOM: Alright. Good luck with your project. We hope that you sell it quickly and for a lot of money.

MIKE: Me, too. Thanks a lot.

LESLIE: Heading out to California. Cindy, what is going on? How can we help you?

CINDY: We have downgraded to a smaller home. And we bought this cute, little house that has got this beautiful, six-burner gas stove. And the people that built the house put the stove right next to a wooden cabinet. And I can’t use – somebody turned one burner on against the wall and it caught the cabinet on fire. So, I need to find out what I can put against that wall, that will either allow me to use the burners on the stove or not be able to use them at all and just have it look pretty.

TOM: You know, Leslie, so many folks love to have those very large, commercial-style stoves today but there’s a lot more to them than you think because you have all of this additional power, in terms of the burners. And also, you need better venting, right? You can’t use a typical vent.

And in Cindy’s case here, she’s got a serious fire risk. So, my thought is this. Tell me if you think this makes sense. First of all, I would get in touch with the manufacturer of the stove, because there will be a specification for installation that will give you, step by step, exactly what has to be done to make sure that the surfaces around this range are fire-resistant.

There are things that we could suggest but they may or may not work. Putting stainless steel, for example, on this side of the cabinet could help. But then again, it might just heat up and you could burn yourself on it.

So, I don’t to be – I don’t want to give you any specific advice about how to make the rest of the area that surrounds this fireproof, because I know it does exist. The manufacturers of these types of commercial ranges will have them. You really need to kind of take a step back and see how it should have been installed and then decide how you can modify your existing kitchen to make it work.

LESLIE: Well, considering that most homeowners only replace windows every 20 to 30 years, choosing the right windows among the dozens of choices that are out there today is kind of difficult. We’re going to share some tips, in today’s Smart Spending Tip presented by the Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards Credit Card.

TOM: Well, the secret is this: there is such a thing as a rating code. It’s a label. It’s developed by the NFRC, which stands for the National Fenestration Rating Council. Fenestration is another fun word, isn’t it? It means windows and doors. Fenestration. The National Fenestration Rating Council are helping you out here, because it allows you to quickly compare the energy performance of windows and doors and skylights.

LESLIE: Yeah. And now, two of the NFRC’s ratings are particularly important for you to know: the U-factor and the solar heat-gain coefficient. Now, you might see that as SHGC. If you understand these ratings, you can make a smart decision when you’re comparing energy-efficient replacement windows, which can help you save some money on heating and air-conditioning costs.

TOM: Yeah. So, first, let’s talk about that U-factor. So, the U-factor measures how well a window prevents heat from escaping a building. And it’s rated from 0.09 up to 1.2. Now, what you’re looking for is a low number here. The lower the U-factor, the better the product is at keeping heat from getting out.

LESLIE: Yeah. And now, the solar heat-gain coefficient, that’s going to tell us how effectively that window will block the sun’s solar radiation and heat. It’s going to be rated on a scale of zero to one. The lower the SHGC, the better those windows are at blocking out that unwanted solar heat.

TOM: Now, there are two other ratings that are also part of the NFRC label: visible transmittance, which measures how much light gets through the windows; and condensation resistance, which tells you how good a window is at keeping moisture from forming on the inside or between the panes; and air leakage, which tells you how good a window is at keeping out the drafts. All good information to know.

LESLIE: Yeah. And all this information is right there on the NFRC label, which should be on each and every window when you’re out there shopping. So you want to make sure to refer to that sticker when you’re looking at those windows, because this really is the most independent and accurate information that you’re going to find.

TOM: And that’s todays Smart Spending Tip presented by the Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards Credit Card. Earn three-percent cash back on online shopping. Apply at BankOfAmerica.com/MoreRewarding.

LESLIE: Jim in Arkansas is on the line with a chimney question.

How can we help you today?

JIM: Well, the reason I called is because I have an issue with my fireplace. It’s just a regular wood-burner. It doesn’t have an insert in it. And I want to seal the chimney for health and energy-loss reasons. I was thinking about putting a steel plate on the top. Because here in the Ozarks, whenever we get bad weather and that wind is howling, it sounds like a freight train coming through my fireplace and I have quite a bit of a draft. And the damper just does not hold securely enough so I don’t get that air through there.

I was wondering, can you give me some advice as to who to contact if it’s feasible to do something like this? Is safety a concern?

TOM: It’s certainly feasible to do this project. It’s sort of the kind of project that you’ve got to be a bit creative with, because what you’re going to want to do is try to form some sort of weather-tight shield across the top of the flue. I would tell you that whatever you do to this, make it removable because chances are if you sell this house at some point in the future, somebody might find it really attractive to have a fireplace there in the Ozarks and want to reactivate this chimney, so to speak.

So, however you seal it across the top, you’ve got find out – find an easy way to do that. One thing that comes to mind is that there’s a damper that fits in the top of a chimney liner. And it’s sort of like a weighted, heavy, metal door. And the way it’s activated is that there’s a stainless-steel cable that goes down through the middle of the chimney and it’s hooked onto the side of the fireplace. And when you release the cable, the door flops open. So that would be a way to put a device up there that’s really designed for a flue and will serve the dual purpose of sealing off the draft from the top.

JIM: OK. Well, I thank you very much for giving me the time. And I love your show. Listen to it 2 hours every Sunday morning.

TOM: Alright. Well, thank you very much, Jim. It’s nice to hear. We appreciate it.

LESLIE: Well, an easy way to cut down on food waste at home is to install a garbage disposer. Now, there’s nothing more convenient than being able to send all that leftover fruit and potato peels, the vegetable stubs and all kinds of other food waste right down your drain.

TOM: Yeah. And this is one of those appliances that once you own it, you never want to be without it again. I mean I did not grow up with a garbage disposer. And when we redid our kitchen many years ago, we put one in for the first time and I was like, “Oh, man, I’m never going back. It’s so cool to have one.” So if you don’t have one, pick one up. And if you’re going to shop for one, there are three questions you need to consider.

First up, which type of garbage disposer would work best for your home? Secondly, what special features are most important to you? And thirdly, do you have a septic tank? Because that has an impact.

LESLIE: Yeah. Now, garbage disposers are going to come in two basic modes: batch feed and continuous feed. Now, the batch-feed models operate only when the disposal lid is engaged and the unit is activated. Continuous-feed models operate with the flick of a switch and they will run until the unit is switched off. And they’re much more convenient to use.

Now, let’s talk about noise because you’re like, “Ah, running and food, it’s got to be loud.” Well, basic disposal models operate with a typical amount of noise, liked you’d expect. However, new premium models do run much more quietly thanks to sound-deadening features similar to how dishwashers operate.

That said, sink style also will impact the noise that you get. An inexpensive, stainless-steel sink may not provide solid support for a heavier, high-powered model. And an overpowering disposal may cause that surrounding countertop and cabinets to rattle. So there’s a lot of stuff to consider.

TOM: Now, let’s talk about if you have a septic system, because septic systems that are sized to accommodate usage of several typical home appliances, like dishwashers and washing machines and showers, that’s pretty much the norm. Disposers, on the other hand, are compatible with septic systems, as well, but you need to avoid placing any solid, mineralized items like eggs or seafood shells in the disposer, as those could definitely contribute to the accumulation of sludge, which is going to clog up your septic field and potentially impact its effectiveness.

LESLIE: Now, you hear a lot about people’s disposers getting stuck, so there’s got to be some tricks of the trade to fix them. So what can we dish?

TOM: Oh, absolutely. You know, in fact, I got a tech-support call from a Money Pit listener, known as my son, last week about this, which is what got me thinking about it.

LESLIE: Number-one fan.

TOM: Yeah. He’s down in his own apartment, down in Virginia, and he had turned on the disposer and it just had this sort of buzzing sound, like (inaudible). I said, “Turn the switch off, quick.” Because what I knew that meant was it was jammed. It was stuck in that position. Apparently, I think his roommate had cleaned out a fish tank and dumped some gravel down the sink or something like that. And a little piece of that stuff got stuck in the disposer.

And so, the solution is this. On the bottom of most disposers – and I have to say, first of all, turn the power off. You don’t want to do this with the power on. Make sure the power to the unit is off at the circuit breaker. Figure it out, turn it off. But the bottom of the disposer has a socket for an Allen wrench right in the middle of it. Think of it as the axle for the disposer. And most disposers come with this Allen wrench.

And so, I was sending him off to get his hex-wrench set that I knew he had, because I put it in his toolbox. And he said – he opened up the bottom of the closet. He said, “Oh, wait, there’s this big wrench here.” So that’s the right thing to do. Once you get one of those wrenches for a new disposer, leave it in the closet, in the bottom of the sink cabinet. Because that’s where he found it, in this – it’s always there or in a kitchen drawer.

And so, basically, you put this in and now you actually are sort of moving the disposal mechanism forward and backwards. And you just kind of rotate it forward and backwards and forward and backwards. And he did it a couple of times, flicked the switch on and away it went. All problems solved. So, sometimes they get stuck and there’s that little hole in the bottom where the Allen wrench fits in. And you can free it up that way.

And the other thing I’ll tell you is that disposers have their own circuit breaker. Also on the bottom of the unit, there is a little push-button kind of breaker. And sometimes, if it gets stuck and you don’t turn the switch off quick enough, that little breaker will pop. So not only do have to unstick it, you have to push that breaker back in.

So, yeah, for an appliance, it’s actually a pretty easy do-it-yourself fix. And I like the fact they give you the tool to do it with.

LESLIE: Alright. Now, can you end this family argument that I’m sure many people have across the United States and wherever else you listen to The Money Pit? Do you need to run the water? I feel like there are water-runners and there are not.

TOM: Oh, my God. I can’t tell you, in the years I spent as a home inspector, how many homeowners yelled at me for not running water when I was testing a disposer.

LESLIE: When you flipped that switch.

TOM: Oh, man, they thought that I was ruining that appliance and I was going to have to pay for a new one and this and that.

Look, there’s this little thing called the “ball bearing,” and that’s what makes them spin. The fact that you run water or not is immaterial. What the water does do is it helps move the waste through the plumbing system. But you can run the disposer without any water, for hours, and it would have no effect on it whatsoever. I don’t know why you would want to run it for hours but if you wanted to run it for hours, you could.

LESLIE: Alright. I hope that settles a lot of arguments out there.

Laurel in Pennsylvania is dealing with some stinky drains at home.

Tell us what’s going on.

LAUREL: My bathroom drain and the kitchen drain, they’re starting to smell like garbage. And nothing I put down there helps. Can you help me?

TOM: What have you tried to do in terms of cleaning them?

LAUREL: Like dishwashing liquid and real hot, sudsy water.

TOM: Laurel, the odor that you’re describing is most likely what we call “biogas” or “biofilm.”

LAUREL: OK.

TOM: Because of the moisture and the waste that gets into these lines, they form sort of a mass of biological material that sort of gels together and releases an awful odor, kind of like something that’s rotting. And there’s no way to kind of make it simpler than that but it’s really kind of a gross thing.

So, what you need to do is – just sort of rinsing it out with hot, soapy water is not going to do this. You’ve got to take the drain cover off, you’ve got to get into the drain with a bottle brush or something like that and scrub the inside of the pipe. And that will start to break down the biofilm and that should help eliminate the odor problem. It’s not just a matter of rinsing it out, because that’s kind of just feeding it. You literally have to abrade this gross stuff away to make it clean once again. OK?

LAUREL: Alright. And I really enjoy your program every week.

TOM: Well, the most important part of a dryer, believe it or not, is not what is on the front of the dryer; it’s what’s on the back. It’s the ducting. It’s the dryer-exhaust ducting. And I’ve got to tell you, in all the years I spent in the home inspection business, I saw this done wrong more times than I saw it done right.

The idea here is to have the shortest distance between the dryer and the vent outside your house and also to have no kinks in those lines. But typically, especially right behind the dryer, you have a vent that’s mounted in the wall and you have – the other side of the vent is on the machine itself. Then you have this sort of snake-like exhaust duct that you put on one side, then the other. Then, you have to push the dryer back to the wall. Well, what happens to that piece of ducting? It gets all twisted up and sort of candy-cane shaped and just kind of all squishy and collapsed. And it just doesn’t work. It makes it harder for the clothes to dry and you build up more lint.

I was faced with this exact problem, Leslie, this past weekend. One of the projects I was doing in the condo I was fixing up was I was straightening out the dryer-exhaust duct. And so, I decided that I would use what’s called a “periscope vent.” Have you ever heard of a periscope vent?

LESLIE: No. But is it what it sounds like? You’re sort of snaking something through but still kind of checking it out? Or it’s up like a submarine?

TOM: Yeah. Think of it like a submarine periscope, right? So, on the bottom you have an opening for the vent on one side of this sort of periscope. And then, on the opposite side towards the top, you have another opening. So what you can do is if – like say you have a hole in the wall where the vent goes that maybe is, I don’t know, a foot higher than the one where the dryer is. Basically, the periscope slides. It expands, it goes up and down just like a periscope. And you can just adjust it to the perfect height between those two ducts and basically press it in place on the dryer side, which is what I did, because that was the low side.

And I secured it tightly. I brought the dryer back to the wall and it was pretty easy to reach my hand behind the dryer and push it in so it connected with the wall vent. And then I put another radiator-clamp strap around that and I was good to go. And this way, I had no hoses that were crushed and crimped and messed up behind the machine. And I knew we would get a lot better drying efficiency and we would not have lint built up.

So, the bottom line is it’s really important to make sure that you have as clear a path for dryer venting as possible, so that your clothes dry quickly and that you don’t collect a lot of lint that can lead to fires.

LESLIE: Alright. I mean it’s really an important project, so you’ve got to do it right.

James in Illinois is on the line and looking to tackle an electrical project.

What are you working on?

JAMES: I have a – oh, probably a 50-year-old house. And everywhere, except my bathroom and my kitchen, I’m dealing with a two-prong outlet. And I’m just using these adapters, that are three-prong adapters, everywhere else. And I absolutely hate it.

And I don’t even know where to begin getting them fixed. I’m kind of not wanting to go the route with an electrician but the thought of doing something and doing it wrong and then having an even bigger mess scares me.

TOM: Yeah, you want to hire a pro. You don’t enough conductors for a three-prong; you don’t have the ground wire in the type of wiring system that was put in. Now, there’s a way to kind of get around it. You can install ground-fault outlets that have the ability, if they’re wired correctly, to basically shut off the outlet if there’s ever a diversion of current to a ground source, which is basically what happens when you get a shock. But even that needs to be done by a pro.

So I would have an electrician come in, look it over and figure out the easiest way to resolve it. I think it’s probably easier than you think. Electricians are pretty good at being able to run new wiring through finished walls and ceilings without disturbing a lot of the structure.

JAMES: Oh, that was my biggest fear was that it’s going to be a big mess but …

TOM: Yeah, they don’t have to tear it all out to do that. There’s different tools that can snake wires through those spaces, OK?

JAMES: OK. Great. Thank you.

LESLIE: Here’s something that happens to the best of us. Margaret wrote in and wants to know: “What is the name of the product that you recommend for a stripped screwhead? It’s a liquid and only a drop is going to solve the problem.”

Well, she was listening, so let’s help her out.

TOM: Yeah, you’re talking about a product by DAP called Tank Bond Liquid Grip. Now, you’re right: just one drop. That’s all you need. And it’s designed to instantly add up to seven times more grip once it’s applied to the screw. And that’s going to stop your tool or your bit from slipping out and stripping the fastener.

It’s very helpful whether you’re installing or you’re removing. It’s also going to work on any type or size of screw. And it cleans up easily when you’re done. It’s been really popular with a lot of folks, because this is a problem that happens a lot. And you tend to lean that screwdriver into it and sometimes it’s an old screw and maybe it’s rusted or something. Or sometimes you’re not quite straight on the screwhead and it strips out. This is a really good solution and it’s only about five bucks. And you find it at home centers and hardware stores.

So, take a look at that product: DAP Tank Bond Liquid Grip. I think that will solve it for you, Margaret.

LESLIE: Oh, my gosh. End of frustrations, for once and for all, with that going on at your house.

Alright. Now we’ve got one from Joan who writes: “I have what looks like a wall vent that isn’t connected to any duct but it’s open to the space where the heating system is located, in the garage behind the wall. As a result, the cold air from the garage keeps the basement very cold in the winter. Is this vent cutout necessary or can I cover it up?”

TOM: Ah, yes. Very confusing. It looks like a duct but it’s not. What it actually is, Joan, is a combustion air vent. I imagine that your heating system is contained inside of a closet in that basement area. And because it’s in a small area like that, you have to make sure that there’s enough fresh air that gets in there for the burn of the gas to actually happen or the oil or the propane. Any fossil fuel needs to have combustion air. Because if you starve it of air, the fuel won’t burn completely and that can lead to carbon-monoxide problems. So you don’t want to do that.

So, no, you definitely need to leave that vent open. It is there for a very important purpose and that is to make sure you have plenty of fresh air in that system to properly operate the furnace.

LESLIE: Yeah. We have the same. So we have the boiler room. It’s in a small closet off of the basement hangout room. And the kids are terrified of that room, which is great because you can keep stuff in there that you don’t want them to see. But also, you can’t close the door.

TOM: Yeah.

LESLIE: So, I ended up putting a vent in the door so that I could close it tight, so that they weren’t terrified. I even took them in and showed them all of the equipment, how it works. Nothing to see here, nothing to be afraid of. But they are convinced that there’s something living in there that has bad intentions.

TOM: You know, I was replacing the floor in the laundry room at a condo that we own and we rent. And I was kind of on my hands and knees working on this floor and I felt the draft. And I looked and there, of course, was a combustion air vent right in the side wall of this room. And the thing is this is a second-floor unit in the middle of the house. So, no matter where this sort of enclosed area is, it’s got to have fresh air for it to work properly.

LESLIE: Yeah. It’s got a good job.

TOM: This is The Money Pit Home Improvement Show. Thanks for spending a bit of your day with us. Hey, whatever project you guys are working on, if you run into a jam, we will get you out of it. Remember, you can reach out to us, 24/7, at 1-888-MONEY-PIT or post your questions at MoneyPit.com. And don’t forget to check out the brand-new Money Pit VoxPop app and get your questions answered first.

I’m Tom Kraeutler.

LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.

TOM: Remember, you can do it yourself …

LESLIE: But you don’t have to do it alone.

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