Show Notes
- Kitchen Makeovers: Cook up some quick and easy kitchen makeovers that can be done over a weekend.
- Roof Inspections: Find roof leaks before they find you with a thorough roof inspection.
- Gas Grills: If you’re savoring the thought of a new gas grill, get tips on the features worth having.
Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
Plus, answers to your home improvement questions about:
- Chipmunks: Chipmunks are much cuter outdoors, so Linda gets tips on how to seal up the gaps in her metal buildings to keep them from getting inside.
- Limescale Buildup: Greg’s having trouble cleaning the limescale buildup on his glass shower doors. Vinegar should remove it unless it’s really another stain or scratches.
- Floor Joists: Laura wants to add support to the kitchen floor under an appliance. We offer info about installing girder beams to reduce the bounce of the floor.
- Converting to Gas: Abram wants to replace an electric dryer with a gas dryer. It should be easy for a plumber to tap into the gas line and make sure it’s safe.
- Industrial Floor: Linda needs suggestions for flooring in an industrial building. She’ll need to remove loose paint from the old cement floor and then apply two-part epoxy paint for a durable surface.
- Uneven Deck: A floating deck that’s covering a cistern is heaving and uneven. Steve should take the deck apart, reframe it with better footings, and consider using composite materials with an access panel for the cistern.
- Concrete Basement Floor: The concrete basement floor is crumbling and flaking. Mary should improve her outside drainage first, then use a cement patching compound and some epoxy floor paint to seal the surface.
- Leaking Roof: Rain is leaking through the roof where it connects to the wall of an addition. We tell Steve how to remove the siding and improve the flashing to seal the space.
- Radiant Heated Floor: Jeanette has questions about installing radiant heated flooring in her bathroom and kitchen. It can be expensive to install and to run, but we have tips on using a timer and getting a contractor to do it right.
Podcast Transcript
Read Transcript
| 0:00:32 | TOM: Coast to coast and floorboards to shingles. This is the Money Pit Home Improvement show. I’m Tom Kraeutler. |
| 0:00:37 | LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete. |
| 0:00:38 | TOM: And as you look around your house, what projects are you planning to get done this weekend? You got a little to do list going on. Well, we can help if you reach out to us with questions, especially if you’re stuck in the middle of a project, you don’t know how to get a project started. Or maybe you want to plan a project for the days and weeks and months ahead. All great reasons to reach out to us here, a team Money Pit, because that’s what we do and we do it just for you. Give us a call at 1-888-Money-Pit or go to MoneyPit.com/ ask for the quickest possible response. Hey, coming up on today’s show, if you’ve been thinking about updating your kitchen but you’re concerned about costs and the complications of a project like that, we’re going to have some easy tips on updates that you can do over a weekend that can totally transform your space without those hassles. |
| 0:01:26 | LESLIE: And did you know that roof leaks can start two years before they become visible from the inside of your house? We’ll share how to find roof leaks before they find you. |
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0:01:34 |
TOM: And as your gas grill been getting a good workout this summer, well, now might be a really good time to shop for an upgrade, especially as gas grills go on sale at the end of the summer. But which features are worth paying for and which are just fluff? We’ll tell you just ahead. |
| 0:01:49 | LESLIE: Well, whatever it is you guys are working on at Your Money Pit this weekend, let Tom and I give you a hand tackling all your to dos with confidence. |
| 0:01:56 | TOM: The number here is one eight at eight money pit or go to moneypit.com/ask. Let’s get to it. Leslie, who’s first? |
| 0:02:03 | LESLIE: Linda at Ohio, you’ve got the Money Pit. How can we help you today? |
| 0:02:06 | CALLER: Well, I had an old garage torn down, so I had a prior cement pad and I had a steel building put up. And I have gaps now from the steel building is not the metal is more like a corrugated. It’s got a little ripple in it. And where it meets the floor and they put a like two by four base around the inside the screw with the metal to it. Well, I’m getting chipmunks in there and everything like that in between. What can I use to steal it but still keep it? So when the cold weather comes, it expands like it needs to. |
| 0:02:47 | TOM: You must be having some pretty big gaps there if the Chipmunks are getting into that. |
| 0:02:52 | CALLER: Yeah. |
| 0:02:54 | TOM: How much space? We’re talking about. |
| 0:02:55 | CALLER: Some spots it’s not very big at all, but some it’s like maybe two or three inches high. Oh, wow. Because the cement pad was not really leveled or throughout the years, too. It could have sunk down in certain areas. I don’t know whether to put like, another board. |
| 0:03:12 | TOM: Yeah. So, Celeste, if you’ve got two or three inches of gaps, you’re going to have to add some additional sort of siding type materials to cover that gap. You could actually use additional galvanized metal and form it to fit in that space. If you have smaller gaps, those could be filled with, say, spray foam insulation or you could use steel wool. Sometimes when we’re trying to plug up little gaps, especially when it comes to road and prevention, I’ll have folks put steel wool in there that they’re not apt to chew through. But you can’t have a gap that big and not expect those types of animals to get by some. |
| 0:03:45 | CALLER: I’ll try that at the on the foam. |
| 0:03:49 | TOM: Good luck with that project. Linda. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit. |
| 0:03:54 | LESLIE: Greg in Delaware, you’ve got the Money Pit. How can we help you today? |
| 0:03:56 | CALLER: I have. I just moved into a house in Milford, Delaware, and I have limescale build up on my shower door from the previous owners. And I tried every chemical possible kaboom and sealer and it was ineffective. I wanted to know what’s the best solution or the best tool I can use to get Limescale drop off a glass shower. |
| 0:04:21 | TOM: Door if it’s limescale for sure and Sealer is not removing it and I wonder if it’s something else because Sealer is really effective at removing Limescale buildup. Have you tried to test this deposit with some vinegar? No, because if you put some white vinegar saturate like a sponge with white vinegar and wash across that that what you’re calling a lime deposit, it will instantly melt it. If it really is lime, if it’s really calcium in lime, it will instantly melt it and then you can rinse it off. If it’s not, then I wonder if there’s something else that’s staining the door. |
| 0:04:57 | CALLER: What else could it be? |
| 0:04:58 | TOM: Sometimes, depending on the types of cleaners that people have used in the past, they can actually scratch those doors. If you use something that was an abrasive cleaner to clean the shower door, you can put kind of like a fog across it that looks a little bit like a limescale buildup, but it’s really just a damage to the surface of the door. Do the vinegar test, Greg, see what happens and then let us know. Okay? |
| 0:05:19 | CALLER: Okay, Definitely. |
| 0:05:20 | TOM: Well, good luck. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit. |
| 0:05:24 | LESLIE: Laura and Connecticut’s on the line and wants to rearrange the kitchen. How can we help you? |
| 0:05:28 | CALLER: It’s all towns and houses are one to us. And right underneath, right underneath the kitchen floor, there is a portion of the floor that doesn’t have a beam under it. But we would like to put up signs there. We would like to place an appliance there. So we just need something that would still support it, support it gently, just in case. So much weight. |
| 0:05:53 | TOM: So, I mean, generally speaking, floor structures are designed to hold a refrigerator. They’re not that heavy. If you wanted to beef up the structure of that area, your kitchen already has existing floor joist, so the girder will go perpendicular to those. It’s not a true girder in the sense that it wouldn’t be supported with its own foundation. But what sometimes many folks will do is they’ll put a girder like beam underneath those floor. Joyce on some lolly columns may be supported by a very small foundation. It might be a one foot by one foot square pour of concrete so that you can kind of take the bounce out of the middle of those beams. Sometimes if you have long beams in a house or long floor dress in a house, you’ll get kind of a bounce when you walk across the floor. And that can make it feel weak, even though maybe it’s not, but it just has more flexible than you’re accustomed to. So putting in the additional beam perpendicular to the floor, Joyce, can eliminate that. It’s not going to hold up more than that beam. So it doesn’t need to be substantially supported. But I think still that you could do a carpenter could do a good clean job and give you that additional support that’s going to make you feel comfortable because that makes sense. |
| 0:07:00 | CALLER: Oh, yes, it does. Okay. No, I if there is a dirt floor, would it be wise to put down a foundation. |
| 0:07:08 | TOM: So you wouldn’t you would be supported by columns in the bottom of the column would be supported by concrete, not necessarily a complete floor. But what generally you’ll do is dig out maybe a one foot by one foot square hole, fill that up with concrete, and have the columns sit right on top of that. Again, it’s not the same kind of foundation that you would use to put a beam up that was holding up the entire house. |
| 0:07:29 | TOM: But what you’re really doing here is just sort of taking the bounce out of that floor and giving it a little bit of additional support. Laura, thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit. |
| 0:07:39 | LESLIE: Hey, guys, if you’ve heard a helpful tip or two while listening to our show, please help us help even more home improvers by dropping us a five star review on Apple Podcasts. |
| 0:07:47 | TOM: That would be awesome. And you might even win a copy of our book My Home, My Money Pit, Your Guide to Every Home Improvement Adventure. Just go to Money Pit Tor.com Flash Review. |
| 0:07:58 | LESLIE: All right. Abrams in Arizona is on the line looking to run a gas line for a dryer. How can I help you? |
| 0:08:03 | CALLER: I have a home that has an electric outlet for the dryer, but I want to make gas lines through it because I have a gas dryer. I’m in I’m in Goodyear, Arizona. So it’s not like that. Desperately need a dryer. I can just set it out in a week’s time. But. But I would like to run a gas line for the heat versus using the light. |
| 0:08:30 | TOM: Now, does the house already have gas hooked. |
| 0:08:33 | CALLER: Up to it? The hot water heater and the kitchen both have gas. Okay. |
| 0:08:38 | TOM: So running a gas pipe, you know, is generally a job for a plumber, because if you get it wrong, you could cause a serious issue. But essentially what you’re going to need to do is to tap into the existing gas line at the place that it makes the most sense to do that. Depending on the layout of the line, you’re going to need to obviously have a valve for that. So you can do this work or you can turn the gas off at the meter to do the work, and then you’re going to have a valve at the end of it, and then you’re going to have a flex gas line that goes from that valve into the dryer itself. So it’s not a terribly complicated project to do. But if you’ve not worked with gas piping before, it’s not the kind of job that I would generally recommend be your first do it yourself project because the danger of it getting it wrong. |
| 0:09:20 | CALLER: Okay. Okay. Thank you. |
| 0:09:22 | TOM: All right. Take care, sir. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit. |
| 0:09:26 | LESLIE: All right. Now we’ve got Linda on the line calling in from Florida. How can we help you today? |
| 0:09:30 | CALLER: I have a cement floor that was originally stained and then it was painted over with supposedly a really good stuff and now not doing well. And we want to take care of it, but we don’t want to have to remove all that’s there. We just want to know if you have something we could put over it that will it. It has heavy machinery in it. And you know, there’s gas and oil and all that sort of stuff. |
| 0:09:53 | TOM: So this is where in the garage? |
| 0:09:55 | CALLER: Actually, it’s in a hangar. |
| 0:09:56 | TOM: Oh, it’s in a hangar. Okay. Mm. Yeah. So usually the best kind of floor for an industrial location like that is epoxy paint. And the way epoxy paint works is it’s a two part paint. So when you purchase it, you know, it probably comes in larger quantities depending on how many square feet you want to apply. But typically, like for a house, it would come in a gallon sized container, except that when you open the gallon up. It’s only showed up about three quarters of the way because you also get a quart of hardness in the guy. And the idea is you mix the two together and then the chemical reaction is what gives you the durability and the drawing of that epoxy surface. Now, because it was stain and not as concern, because it was painted, you will need to at least get off any loose paint material that’s there now. Because if you put good paint over bad paint, you’re still going to have flaking because the bad paint acts kind of as, you know, like the Teflon there and it won’t let the new paint get into the floor itself. So you are going to have to pressure wash that floor or you’re going to have to raid that for you got to get as much of that old pain off as you can so that you have a good surface. But I think the solution is epoxy paint and they also have sort of a coloring flex that can be added to that paint, that gives a kind of a texture and helps sort of hide the dirt. So if you’re looking for, you know, a reasonably easy, inexpensive way to give that floor a whole new look and new life, I would recommend epoxy paint. |
| 0:11:18 | CALLER: Well, thank you so much. I enjoy listening to you. |
| 0:11:21 | TOM: Well, thank you, Linda. We appreciate the call. 889-666-3974. |
| 0:11:26 | LESLIE: Well, if home is where the heart is, then kitchens are clearly one of the vital organs that convert a house into a home. So it’s no surprise that kitchen renovations are among the most popular remodeling projects tackled each year. But while any home improvement projects can be complicated, major kitchen remodeling can turn your life completely upside down. And not to mention all those fast food pounds you’re going to be putting on while you’re waiting for that kitchen to welcome you back in. |
| 0:11:51 | TOM: Well, to avoid the home improvement hassles, it makes sense to break down the projects into what we call modules. These are smaller pieces that can be completed independently of one another. So not only does this make the project more manageable, the smaller changes can have a big visual impact and cut down on the need for more major makeovers. |
| 0:12:10 | LESLIE: For example, changing your kitchen countertop, painting the kitchen cabinets or just replacing all the cabinet hardware are projects that can be done in hours, not weeks, and they result in a super attractive transformation. |
| 0:12:21 | TOM: Yup. And likewise replacing the kitchen floors, improving the kitchen lighting or just painting the room in, deliver a fresh new look for your space and replacing faucets with water efficient models, as well as switching out old appliances for the more efficient Energy Star, certified products can lower utilities all across the board. Bottom line, with a couple of weekend projects, your kitchen would be good to go for the months and years ahead. |
| 0:12:45 | LESLIE: Steve in Iowa is on the line with a question What can we do for you today? |
| 0:12:48 | CALLER: I’ve had my dick on my house for. It’s been probably at least 15 years part it’s a floating deck, so it’s not attached to the house. And the only problem with that is this part of the deck has a system underneath of it. |
| 0:13:01 | TOM: Oh, so it’s covering this old system. Okay. |
| 0:13:04 | CALLER: Yes, but the system is still I don’t use it often, but it is nice to have. So I don’t want to take it out. Okay. Because my deck is settling at different levels and the system above the system, obviously I can’t put post portholes in to stop the heating. Yeah. |
| 0:13:18 | TOM: So how do you actually get to that system when you want to get to it? You have to pop deck boards up or is there a hatch? |
| 0:13:24 | CALLER: No, there’s a pipe that runs outside the deck and you can just dump the water into there. |
| 0:13:29 | TOM: Well, if the deck is heaving, if it’s structurally moving, then there’s nothing that you’re going to do short of basically replacing that with a better foundation that’s going to stop that from happening. How big is this deck? |
| 0:13:40 | CALLER: 20 by 12? |
| 0:13:41 | TOM: Yeah. As you’re concerned that the deck is moving and that the floor is getting uneven or is you’re concerned that the lumber is cracking in checking, what’s your big concern with it? |
| 0:13:51 | CALLER: The deck is very uneven, the like by the house. It has settled probably maybe eight inches. And then where the system that it hasn’t settled. |
| 0:14:00 | TOM: At all and this sister and this is not like an open well, as it were somebody could fall into it. This is a pipe that comes out. |
| 0:14:06 | CALLER: Yeah, there’s it feeds directly into my basement. There’s a concrete lid over the top. |
| 0:14:09 | TOM: So you really do need to have some sort of a structural cover for this. So I guess what I would do in this case is I would probably take the old deck apart and rebuild it. I would reframe it and basically do it all from scratch and put in some better footings for this. Now, you can use columns in the ground, but they have to be on their own footing. So what you might want to do is dig down and sink posts like six by six posts into the ground and kind of do this almost like it’s a pull barn. But you’re really only doing this to support the girders and the beams for the deck. And then you stringing new rafter, new I’m sorry, new joist across from that. And then I would think about using composite decking on top of this and they would definitely build in an access panel, which could be, you know, sort of like a hatch that lifts up or just the panel lifts out to give you access to that sister in space in case you want to use it. |
| 0:15:00 | CALLER: Would you ever consider pouring concrete first and then put building the deck over top of that? |
| 0:15:07 | TOM: No. I mean, if you were going to do concrete, then you would just do a concrete patio. But isn’t that going to make it hard to get to the cistern and access to the space? |
| 0:15:14 | CALLER: Yeah, I would just start I didn’t know, pouring concrete all the way around the system first would work and then put the deck on top of that or. |
| 0:15:21 | TOM: No, it’s. No, no, no, no. You don’t need the concrete to make this deck structurally strong and to stop it from wobbling if it’s designed properly from the get go, you’re not going to have this issue. I suspect it was not when it was built. And that’s why it looks like it does now. |
| 0:15:36 | CALLER: Okay. Thank you much. |
| 0:15:37 | TOM: Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit. |
| 0:15:41 | LESLIE: Mary in North Dakota, Need some help with the concrete floor? What can we do for you? |
| 0:15:45 | CALLER: We got crumbling. |
| 0:15:46 | LESLIE: Concrete on the basement. |
| 0:15:48 | CALLER: Floor. Okay. After water problems for spring, Right. |
| 0:15:53 | LESLIE: And it’s very crumbly and powdery. |
| 0:15:57 | CALLER: Mm hmm. |
| 0:15:58 | LESLIE: And there are places on it that I’d like to. |
| 0:16:02 | CALLER: Paint, if I could. |
| 0:16:03 | TOM: Do you want to try to stabilize the deterioration of the concrete? |
| 0:16:06 | LESLIE: Yeah. So I. If there’s some kind of sealant that could be sprayed or poured on it. |
| 0:16:11 | TOM: Yeah, absolutely. First of all, in terms of the water problem, is this a problem that happened after heavy rainfall? |
| 0:16:17 | CALLER: Yeah. |
| 0:16:18 | TOM: All right. So if you’ve got water that comes in after heavy rainfall, I want to make sure we try to slow this down so it doesn’t happen again. Adding some pumps, things of that nature is not going to stop this from happening again. What stops the heavy rainfall from getting in is outside looking at your gutters and your grading, making sure the downspouts are discharging away from the house. Make sure you gutters are clean, making sure soil slopes away from the house. We’ve got an extensive articles, actually several of them on money pit dot com. Just search how to stop a leaking basement. It’s the same advice and we talk about the proper drainage improvements so do that first. And then in terms of the concrete itself, you can use a patch and compound quick create has a patch in compound product. You definitely want to use the patch in compound because it’s designed to stick to the old concrete. If you try to put new concrete over it, it’s not going to stick. So the ready to use patching compounds are trowel apply. They’re latex formulas, so it’s easy to clean up, but that will seal the old concrete that once that dries, then you can paint it. And what I would look for is an epoxy floor paint. The epoxy paints I like because they’re a chemical cure. When you buy the floor paint, you get the paint and a gallon can that’s about three quarters filled and then a quart of harden or you mix them together, stir them up and then you apply the paint. Sometimes there is an additive that goes in after the fact that gives you some texture to the floor, helps kind of hide the dirt, but patching it first than adding in a poxy paint. We’ll have that looking like new in no time. |
| 0:17:48 | CALLER: Okay, so. |
| 0:17:49 | LESLIE: But it’s the name of. |
| 0:17:50 | CALLER: The sealant was called Wet Quick. |
| 0:17:53 | TOM: Creek to you. Okay. Ah, it’s quick. Create concrete patching compound. Good stuff. Mary, thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit. |
| 0:18:03 | LESLIE: Well, the roof is one part of your house that you rely on day in and day out to protect you and your home from weather. But it’s the kind of thing that’s out of sight and out of mind. And we really only start paying attention when something goes wrong. |
| 0:18:15 | TOM: Well, one way to stop that from happening is to have a thorough roof inspection done. Roofing expert Mike Feazel how to do just that. He’s a columnist for Contractor magazine and the president of Roof Maxx. Welcome, Mike. |
| 0:18:27 | MIKE FEAZEL: Hey, thanks for having me on, guys. All of. |
| 0:18:29 | TOM: Them’s roof leaks start way earlier than we actually discover. |
| 0:18:32 | MIKE: Them, right? I mean, roof gross on average will leak for about two years before it makes its way to the drywall or the inside of the home before you actually even know you have a leak. |
| 0:18:40 | TOM: Wow. That’s a long time. And a lot of damage can happen in a couple of years. |
| 0:18:43 | LESLIE: Is surprisingly long. |
| 0:18:45 | MIKE: Yeah, wood rot, attic mold. So, you know, the water has to pass through a lot of different layers, including about a foot and a half of insulation before it actually can stain the drywall before you even know you have it. So that’s why inspections are really essential. |
| 0:18:59 | TOM: So what’s included in a good roof inspection? What should a consumer be expecting if they have a roof or do a roof inspection? |
| 0:19:06 | MIKE: You know, a roofer is getting on the roof and of course, walking the entire roof looking for loose are really the obvious things, loose or missing shingles and some of those things you can’t see from the ground. But then they’re looking at the really detailed things like the flashing lights, missing caulking or caulking that’s pulling back from a chimney with the chimney flashing, keeps the water out, skylights, valleys, anywhere there’s a flashing flashing, keeps water out of the home that the most leak prone areas of the roof. So really giving a close look, a close inspection at the flashing. |
| 0:19:36 | LESLIE: Now, do you find that you also have issues when it comes to the shingles themselves? Is it just, you know, A, wearing out of the asphalt like what causes the shingles to fail? |
| 0:19:46 | MIKE: Well, the single fails for a couple of reasons. One is when the oil dries out and they become brittle and they’ll start to crack and break apart or blow off and end up in your backyard. But it can also be things like a nail backing through the plywood and pushing that shingle up or even backing through the shingle. Those things are very difficult to see from the ground. So that’s why being on the roofing, you know, it’s important to be on the roof, to really look that roof over closely and just make sure there is no problematic areas. |
| 0:20:14 | TOM: Now, your roof max treatment, which is a roof rejuvenation treatment as years of life to the roof shingles. But you kind of put your money where your mouth is and you guys will not do that treatment unless there’s a roof inspection done first, which really makes sense, right? |
| 0:20:29 | MIKE: Yeah. So part of our process, you know, first of all, we come out to assess the roof to see does that even qualify or does a customer really just is it better off to buy a new roof? And then if it does qualify, we’re doing an inspection. Like I said, looking for all of those items, taking pictures. We’ll share them with the customer. And then if they choose to have the treatment, we always do a tune up prior to applying the treatment. You know, it’s it just it doesn’t make sense to get on a roof and just apply the treatment. You want to do the whole package, the tune up, give it a good once over, make sure everything’s nice and tight, and then apply the treatment. |
| 0:21:01 | LESLIE: So my one shingle on the front of the house that’s kind of hanging to the side because it’s so new now. You guys would do that? |
| 0:21:08 | MIKE: Absolutely. Yeah, we will. We take a look at all those small detail bangs. It just make sure that everything’s nice and tight. |
| 0:21:15 | TOM: Talking to Mike Feazel, he is an industry expert in the roofing space and president of Roof Maxx. Mike, I want to ask you. For those that are unfamiliar with the Roof Maxx rejuvenation, treatment, can you just describe what this process is and how it adds life to the existing asphalt shingle roofs? |
| 0:21:31 | MIKE: So very simple. Asphalt has oil in the asphalt that allows us to stay flexible and waterproof. And as that oil dries out, just like on a road where you get potholes, that’s because of the oil straight out of the road. Well, the same thing happens to your roof. Once the oil dries out, it’s time to replace the roof. We are just putting a natural bio treatment. It’s a natural 100% safe oil that we apply. It soaks down into the shingle and replaces the dried out petrochemical oil with the natural bio oil. And we bring that roof back to like new condition out of the package. We pass the same flexibility testing that’s required of brand new roofs. |
| 0:22:07 | TOM: Yeah, it’s really a pretty amazing process. I had a chance to witness it myself on a family house down in Florida, which had some shingles that were pretty dried out. And it was interesting to see sort of the before and after of the roof max treatment. It did a great job. And in fact, the Florida building inspector came in and followed up on the treatment and told us that it had at least five years left of life and as a result of that treatment, which is about 80% less than the cost of a new roof. So it’s a really smart thing to do. |
| 0:22:36 | MIKE: Yeah, definitely. And it’s a great savings, especially in this economy. But now there’s no reason to you know, most of us are in good condition. The flashing is the shingle itself installed properly. It’s just drying out. So this is kind of like a skin moisturizer for your shingles. We can get more life out of that shingle. That’s the goal with Remax. |
| 0:22:55 | TOM: Mike Feazel, the president of Roof Maxx. Thanks so much, Mike, for stopping by. The Money Pit and filling us in on this important step of roof inspection. Now we know exactly what it takes to make sure your roof is going to do the job it’s intended to. |
| 0:23:06 | CALLER: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you, guys. |
| 0:23:09 | LESLIE: Steve in Kansas, you’ve got the Money Pit. You want to talk about a leaky roof? How can we help you out today? |
| 0:23:13 | CALLER: Well, we live in a house that was built in 1937 and some time after the original house was built, there was an addition put on one end of the house. That’s the house is a two story house. But the addition is single story where the roof ties into the wall. When we get a hard rain with a lot of wind, which we tend to do in Kansas, once in a while we get water that comes in and it leaks out, drips from the ceiling in that addition. Mm hmm. And we have a wood burning fireplace. The chimney was made out of brick, you know, And I have corked every place I can caulk, I put sealer. I’ve had a new roof put on the addition, and we still get water in there whenever it rains really hard. And I don’t know where it’s coming from. |
| 0:24:12 | TOM: Well, it’s the flashing, obviously. So you say this is between the roof and the addition. |
| 0:24:16 | CALLER: Between the wall of the house and the addition. |
| 0:24:19 | TOM: The problem here is the flashing. And unfortunately, sometimes when this is done, even when you put a new roof on, they tend to reuse the old flashing. In your case, that flashing has got to be leaking. It’s letting water get in when the wind heads just in the right direction. Really what has to happen here is for the siding against that roof intersection to be removed or peeled back because the flashing has to go from under the roof, well, up under that siding to make it really, really tight. Now, there are different side there are different flashing products to do that with Grace, who makes ice and water shield makes like a flexible siding product that’s designed for this purpose. It’s like a membrane with an adhesive on it and you can literally seal in any of that kind of space against exactly this condition, that driving rain that’s going to come up between the roof shingles through the traditional aluminum flashing and get in that space between the roof and the siding itself. It’s the only way to fix it. |
| 0:25:17 | CALLER: Okay. Well, at least that gives me something to go on. |
| 0:25:21 | TOM: All right. Well, sorry, it’s not better news, but sometimes it’s better off to take it back to the beginning and do it right the first time. As we always say that if you can do it once and do it right, you won’t have to do it again. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit. |
| 0:25:35 | CALLER: Thank you. |
| 0:25:36 | LESLIE: Well, has your gas grill been getting a workout this summer? You know, now might be a really good time for an upgrade, especially as gas grills go on sale as the summer starts to come to a close. But what features are worth paying for and which are just the fluff? So first of all, you want to choose features that make the grill efficient and safe, like an electric igniter, which is easier to operate and more reliable than those rotary or pushbutton starters burners. They’re the most frequently replaced part of a grill. So you want to look for burner warranties of ten years or longer. Also, seek out stainless steel or coated cast iron grates for durable, dependable cooking. |
| 0:26:15 | TOM: And also don’t be misled by the BTU number. Bigger is not always better. You want to select a grill with features you’re going to use backed up by solid warranty to deliver many enjoyable barbecues in the years to come. Now, if the reason you’re thinking about buying a new grill is because your burners are rusted out, you don’t have to replace the grill. You can just replace the burners, you can replace burners, crossover tubes, flame deflectors and lava rock for a fraction of the cost of a new grill. All you need is the model number of your old grill. You’ll be able to easily order those parts online. You know, I just did this for the second time. For about 100 bucks. I replaced the burners and the flame covers on our grill. Now, sure, we could have gone out and bought a new grill and probably found one on sale. But the bottom line is we like how our grill cooks and there was no reason not to continue to use it now that we have brand new burners. |
| 0:27:07 | LESLIE: Jeanette in Colorado is on the line and needs some help with a radiant heating question. What can we do for you? |
| 0:27:11 | CALLER: I would like to know if it would be good to do the radiant for our self or to have someone else do it. |
| 0:27:18 | LESLIE: Is it going to increase. |
| 0:27:19 | CALLER: My electric bills quite a bit? And if it is something I could do, what materials would be best to do? Wow. |
| 0:27:25 | TOM: Lots of questions. Yeah. |
| 0:27:27 | LESLIE: We only had one question lady. |
| 0:27:31 | TOM: All right, so the bathroom is the only room in the house that you want to have a warm floor. |
| 0:27:36 | CALLER: Well, for starters, we would like to do it in the kitchen. Also. But with that would start with the small project as the bathroom. |
| 0:27:44 | TOM: And what kind of a house do you have? Is it a ranch? Colonial? What are we talking about? |
| 0:27:49 | CALLER: No, it’s more of a ranch. It has you know, the barn. |
| 0:27:52 | LESLIE: Is not sitting completely on the ground. |
| 0:27:54 | CALLER: Because it’s lots of rocks and stuff in the mountains there. So there does have crawl spaces underneath. It does, yes. It does have cross spaces where you usually have something in there to help anything that might cause that. So you can crawl under the house. But it’s not very much room. |
| 0:28:09 | TOM: Okay. And how is it heated? Is it hot water or hot air system? |
| 0:28:12 | LESLIE: Hot air. |
| 0:28:13 | CALLER: But we mostly use pellet stove. |
| 0:28:15 | TOM: So it sounds to me like you’re going to be limited to an electric radiant heating system. There are different types of heating, underlayment, so to speak, that you would put on a bathroom floor and you would tile on top of Now. Is it expensive? Yes, it’s electric heat. It’s expensive to purchase and install. It’s expensive to run. It’s not a way to save money on your heating bill. There’s nothing cost effective about electric heat. It’s very pleasant and nice to have that warm floor. But it is an expensive project and it’s expensive to run. That said, if you put it on its own timer, so it’s only on, say, in the morning or in the evenings for a limited period of time. You can manage that expense. Is it a do it yourself project? Yes, if you’re pretty experienced because the tile mats usually have to be ordered custom made and you know, you have to make sure that they’re installed properly because if you get that floor down and it doesn’t work, you get a big problem. You end up having to tear it up. Frankly, my advice would be to not do it yourself because I would rather have a contractor do its work with it time and time again. I’d hate to see the whole thing get together. And you got a problem with it. You got a terrible start again. So the amount of the amount of additional expense for labor I think would have sort of an insurance quality to it to make sure it comes out right. |
| 0:29:43 | CALLER: Well, thank you all for your advice and I appreciate it. |
| 0:29:46 | TOM: You’re welcome. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit. |
| 0:29:51 | LESLIE: Tom wrote in to team Money Pit. And he says, I have a stepdaughter that just purchased a home. She’s physically challenged and can’t go to the basement to do the laundry. She’d like to purchase a stackable washer and dryer and wondered how hard it would be to install upstairs. |
| 0:30:05 | TOM: You know, it’s a great question. So if you’re going to do this project, you got to try to find the best location for that washer and dryer because you’ve never had that laundry upstairs. The plumbing upstairs has drains upstairs. What you want to do is try to get it near existing plumbing. So, for example, we had a house that we bought not too long ago. It was a very old house and it never had a washer and dryer upstairs. So we found the physical space to put that and fortunately it was very close to the bathroom. The bathroom is on the other side of the wall. So in this case we were able to get the plumbing feeds and the drain connected then with the same pipes that are feeding the bathroom and drains coming off the bathroom. That made that project a lot easier. And the second thing to consider is where are you going to vent the dryer? You really don’t want to go too far with that. The shortest possible distance between the dryer and the outside vent is going to work in your favor for a lot of reasons. First of all, your clothes will dry out super fast because we’re moving that air out. And secondly, it will be a lot less expensive to run that dryer because they’ll just be drying so fast. I mean, you can use a lot less energy. So short distances are really good and it also helps keep the duct clean. You don’t get lint buildup. Sometimes when people run dryer exhaust stock, it can really get clogged up when it goes through several turns on its way outside. So the fewer the better. |
| 0:31:29 | LESLIE: And it’s crazy how quickly it gets clogged up, too. I feel like every time I clean it, like, you know, just a few short months later, I see it again on the driveway. Well, Tom, congratulations to your daughter on her home. And I hope everything works out with the laundry. That’s going to be the least of the problems. Here’s to lots of home improvements. |
| 0:31:46 | TOM: Well, if you own a dishwasher, it’s tempting to throw everything but the kitchen sink into it. But there’s a chance your dishwasher may be doing more harm than good. Find out which kitchen items always deserve that white glove treatment, or at least the rubber glove treatment. In this week’s edition of Leslie’s Last Word, Leslie. |
| 0:32:02 | LESLIE: You know, it goes without saying that anything marked Hand-wash should be hand washed. But those aren’t the only items that should never make their way into the dishwasher. A season seasoned cast iron skillet. I mean, this really is a point of pride for any cook out there. But you can undo all those years of work with one dishwashing cycle. So always hand-wash cast iron, but not with soap. We want a scrub with cooking oil and salt instead and then wipe it dry with a paper or cloth towel to keep it from rusting. And if you fill uninsulated travel mug with coffee every morning on your way out the door, you need to wash it every night. But by hand, the force of water in your dishwasher can actually get between the mugs, outer and inner layers. And that can cause odors and mold. And then it won’t be insulated anymore and your drinks aren’t going to stay hot or cold. And the same thing goes for nonstick pans. They’re dishwasher safe, but others lose their nonstick quality in extreme heat. So it really depends and it’s not really worth taking the risk. You can either check with the pants manufacturer or just play it safe. I mean, the minute or two you spend hand washing a nonstick pan definitely beats a ruined pan and a ruined meal. And finally, anything made of wood, it does not go in the dishwasher, not only because it’s porous and it can absorb soap and other germs, but because of all of that heat. Eventually that wood’s going to crack and split and your beloved spatula or scraper or spoon or whatever it is, is just not going to be there for you and all of your cooking adventures. So hand wash like I do. |
| 0:33:27 | TOM: This is the Money Pit Home Improvement show. Coming up next time on the program. Shake, Rattle and Bang are three sound you do not want coming out of your plumbing pipes. Those loud noises are caused by a condition called water hammer. And they can cause some serious leaks. We’re going to share simple tips to silence the water hammer for good on the very next edition of the Money Pit. I’m Tom Kraeutler. |
| 0:33:49 | LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete. |
| 0:33:50 | TOM: Remember, you can do it yourself. |
| 0:33:52 | 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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