Bright Ideas for Kitchen Lighting | Should You Be Using a Heat Pump? | Home Improvement in Under 30 Minutes | Ep #2284

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, do you have a home? Do you want to improve your home? Do you want to reno it, you want to remodel it, you want to repair it, you want to decorate it? Well, you are in the right place because that’s what we do. We love to help you do projects just like that but you’ve got to help yourself first. So if you’ve got a question, reach out to us at 888-MONEY-PIT. Or better yet, go to MoneyPit.com and click the blue microphone button, which you will find in the bottom-right corner of every page. You will be directed to our question page where you can record your question and send it right to us, because we do want to help.

We’ve got a great show planned for you today. Coming up, if there is one room that you want to be bright and cheery, it is definitely the kitchen. So we’re going to share some tips on kitchen lighting that’ll kind that space looking bright even when it’s dark outside.

LESLIE: And also ahead, saving energy and going green are big goals for homeowners, which might explain why heat pumps are more popular than ever. We’re going to share how exactly a heat pump works and where they work best.

TOM: And are you guys ready to take on some home improvement projects but feel that you just don’t have the time? Not possible. We’re going to highlight several you can get done in 30 minutes or less.

LESLIE: But first, what projects do you want to take on this weekend? Do you got a big one? You got a small one? Whatever size, scope, scale of project it is that you’ve got in your mind, we can help you achieve it. So give us a call. Reach out to Team Money Pit anytime.

TOM: The number here is 1-888-MONEY-PIT, 888-666-3974. Or post your questions on MoneyPit.com by clicking the blue microphone button.

So, let’s get to it. Leslie, who’s first?

LESLIE: Adam in Wisconsin is on the line with a radon question.

What’s going on at your money pit?

ADAM: I did a radon test in my basement. Adjusted for getting the mitigation in place.

TOM: What was the level, Adam, that came out of the test?

ADAM: It was 4.6.

TOM: OK. So it’s just above the guideline, because the guideline’s 4.0. OK, go ahead.

ADAM: So, I was wondering, before getting the mitigation system installed by a professional, if there was anything that can be done to help mitigate it without, you know, paying the higher price of getting a professional to do it.

TOM: OK. Well, first of all, you were just over the guideline. One thing that you should know is that the radon levels are going to swing across the year, depending on the season. Typically, in the winter, when the house is really sealed up tight as a drum, your levels are going to be seasonally high compared to the summer when we tend to let a lot more air into the house, which will push it down below the action guideline, which is 4.0 picocuries per liter of air.

Now, in terms of a do-it-yourself sort of radon-mitigation system, it’s kind of a hard thing to do. Because what happens when you do a mitigation system is you set up a system that essentially pulls the gas off of the soil before it gets into the house air. Do you have a traditional basement kind of a house? What’s your home look like?

ADAM: Yeah, it’s a traditional basement. It actually has a palmer-valve drain that goes underneath the house. So, one thing I looked at was a Dranjer drain that would allow water out this essential drain but keep the gas down.

TOM: That would seal. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Right.

Now, do you have a French drain around the inside perimeter of the foundation wall, where there’s a gap between the basement floor and the wall?

ADAM: Yes, I also have a French drain.

TOM: So, what a mitigation company would do is they would seal that French drain up – the bottom of it sits on – to seal off the gas with a flowable urethane sealant. They would seal off the sump if that was accessible. Then they would install a vent pipe that goes into that slab and has a vent fan installed in it that draws the gas off from underneath the slab.

So all of that is not really kind of a DIY. Yeah, you could seal the obvious places. But whether that’s going to have a long-term effect is really hard to say because typically, what the tester is also going to do is something called a “communications test” where they’ll put one suction point where that hole is in the slab – they’ll put one suction point in the slab. They’ll put it under suction – under pressure – and then they’ll go around to the other areas of the slab and see if they have any air that’s kind of getting in there. And this way, they can tell how much suction they need to install or how many suction points they need to install to kind of make this system work.

So while, yeah, if you had some basic areas that you could seal up, that might help a little bit. But it’s really not a do-it-yourself project, Adam, for a whole bunch of reasons. And you know what? If you go to sell this house in the future and it comes out that you had a radon test done or even if they do a test at that time, do-it-yourself mitigation is just not going to cut it. You’re going to have to have a system in that was professionally installed and regularly monitored. Does that make sense?

ADAM: Yeah, that makes perfect sense. So, I appreciate the information. Like I mentioned, I was just kind of looking to see if there’s anything I could do to try help bring down that level. But sounds like I might have to go with the professionals with this.

TOM: Yeah. And economically, like I said, you’re just over the guidelines, so I wouldn’t consider this an emergency repair but it’s something that you should get to when you’re ready to. When you can afford it, when you have the time, the inclination over the next few months, that would be great, OK?

ADAM: OK. Alright. Very good.

TOM: Good luck with that project, Adam. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.

LESLIE: Laura in Connecticut is on the line with a painting question.

How can we help you today?

LAURA: We had some plaster work done and unfortunately, the gentleman used a rusty tool. What type of primer, what type of paint can we put over that? I’m afraid that I don’t know if it’ll bleed through or what it’ll do.

LESLIE: So, when you said that he used a rusty tool, are you seeing some areas of a sort of reddish patina in the plaster itself or is it changing over time? What are you noticing?

LAURA: Rust. Just rust from the tool.

LESLIE: So you’re seeing it in the plaster and of course, now that’s all cured and dried.

LAURA: Exactly. In the plaster itself.

TOM: Yeah, that plaster will leech through a traditional paint finish, so you definitely have to prime here, right, Leslie?

LESLIE: Yeah. And I think your best bet is to use, if you can, a B-I-N or a Zinsser, one of those primers. They tend to be oil-based. They’re a little bit more heavy-duty. And those really do tend to cover up everything. So I think if you go ahead with a good coat of that as a primer, you’ll end up with, you know, the opportunity to seal all of that rust stain in. And then when you go put your topcoat on, you shouldn’t have a problem with that.

LAURA: Oh, OK. OK. Thank you very much.

TOM: You’re welcome. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.

LESLIE: Now we’re going out to the great north in Alaska where Tim has a construction question.

What can we do for you?

TIM: So I’m looking to do some construction on a new residence and the additional housing is generally 2×6 or 2×8 construction. And certainly, they’ve come out with some more advanced materials: ICF block with concrete and foam insulation. I’m wondering, from a standpoint of cost differences, which would be better for a long-term home.

TOM: So wood framing versus insulated concrete forms or ICF blocks. I am a huge proponent of ICF construction. I think it’s a brilliant technology. And for those that are not familiar with this, these are large, foam blocks. They look kind of like Lego blocks. And you stack up the wall out of these foam blocks – put a traditional footing and stack up the wall with these foam blocks. And then the – it’s all braced and then the wall is filled with concrete. So you end up with a solid concrete wall that’s reinforced, that’s surrounded by insulation on both sides of it.

And what you find with this, Tim, is that the home is super insulated and actually much more storm-resistant and much quieter. In fact, I’ve seen these homes require about a 30 to 40 percent less heating and cooling capacity because they just perform so well.

So, I think when you look at it, yeah, you’re going to have probably an increase cost of construction over wood framing – slightly increased, not huge increase – but the long-term energy efficiency and comfort savings on this is going to be very significant. So, I would definitely consider insulated-concrete-form construction over wood framing if I had the opportunity.

TIM: Thank you for that information.

TOM: Good luck. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.

LESLIE: Michelle in Pennsylvania is on the line with a question about a heat pump.

What’s going on at your money pit?

MICHELLE: I have a pretty big house, lots of windows. And so I want to kind of section off parts of the house that I don’t really live in. Problem is those parts of the house are the formal living, formal dining room and that’s where my thermostat is located.

TOM: Ah, OK.

MICHELLE: So, yeah. So I feel like if I lower the thermostat, then it’s going to kick on even harder.

TOM: Yeah, Michelle, there is a solution for that and it comes in the form of a thermostat – a smart thermostat. And what I’m thinking of is a thermostat that’s called an ecobee. It’s e-c-o-b-e-e. And what’s different about the ecobee Smart Thermostat, it has all the technology you’ll see in other Wi-Fi thermostats, like the fact that you can control it from your smartphone and knows when you’re home, knows when you’re away.

But what ecobee also has are wireless remote sensors. So you can put sensors in different parts of the room, different parts of the house. And then you could tell the heating system what the temperature should be in that room. And it should read that and determine whether it should go on or off. So in the rooms that you don’t use that much, you could have a very cold temperature and the rooms that you do use, you could have a very warm temperature. And it would kind of read just that particular area and not the area where the original thermostat is mounted. Does that make sense?

MICHELLE: Yeah, it does. So what’s something like that going to run?

TOM: Yeah, it’s not terribly expensive and the installation is sort of DIY. I think they’re probably a couple hundred bucks but go to ecobee.com – e-c-o-b-e-e – and you can shop online or you can find it on Amazon. I think it’s probably the answer to your particular situation, because heat pumps are expensive to run. And so you want to make sure that you’re using the thermostat properly.

MICHELLE: Very good. Thank you.

LESLIE: Scott in Georgia is on the line with a question about an attic fan.

How can we help you today?

SCOTT: Well, I have a house that has a ridge vent in it. And the temperature in the attic gets to be somewhere around 115 to120 degrees during the summer, which – and it gets pretty warm. So, to help with some of the, I guess, the insulation and I guess, some of the heat up there in the attic, I want to put in maybe an attic ventilator to help assist with the removal of some of that heat, get more airflow up there. But my concern is if I do that with a ridge vent, am I going to pulling air from the outside in through the ridge vent into the attic only to be evacuated again by the power ventilator?

LESLIE: And generally you’re going to – that’s exactly what’s going to happen. And then you’ll be also pulling whatever conditioned air from whatever leaks or spaces you have within the house into the attic space and then back out. So you’re kind of not achieving what you want to achieve there. However, you’ve got the ridge vent. Do you have soffit vents in play at your house?

SCOTT: Soffit. Yes, I do. I do have soffits. Yes.

LESLIE: And they’re not blocked by any insulation or …?

SCOTT: No, I’ve checked most of that. In some of the areas, I had to push the insulation down just to be sure there was a clear path. So, I would say, overall, probably maybe 90, 95 percent of it is unobstructed.

TOM: It sounds like you’re doing the right things. When was your house built, Scott? How old is it?

SCOTT: The house is about 10 years old. Now, it sits out and there’s no trees, there’s no shade or anything in the area. And of course, South Georgia, in the summers we get 100, 110 degrees so …

TOM: Because the thing is, even though it’s getting hot in that attic space, it is at ambient temperature, so that’s kind of – you’re not going to get it much cooler than that if you’ve got unobstructed soffit vents, you’ve got good soffit ventilation on both sides of the house, you have a really good ridge vent.

Now, sometimes I see ridge vents that are not very open there, especially the kind that I see that are corrugated-looking like. They don’t let enough air out. So, I mean it might be worth looking at the type of ridge vent that you have.

The CertainTeed ridge vents – the company’s called Air Vent or the brand is called Air Vent. I think it’s AirVent.com. You’ll see that they have these metal ridge vents that have a folded edge on one side of it. That actually depressurizes the ridge and makes it more efficient, in terms of pulling air out of it. So you may not be getting as much air out of that ridge vent as you would like to.

Do you have gable vents on the end walls, as well?

SCOTT: Yes. Actually, I do.

TOM: So that – if the ridge vent and the soffit vent are set up correctly, you actually don’t need those gable vents. They actually can tend to make that structure inefficient because it kind of messes with the airflow. So I would look at the ridge vent that I have and make sure I’m getting plenty of air that is exhausting out of that. But as Leslie said, putting an attic fan next to that is going to be like a dog chasing its tail. You’re not really going to be very efficient and it could pull up air-conditioned air from your house and actually raise the cooling bill.

SCOTT: OK. That was my concern. I was just kind of thinking about that in my head and going, “Gee, whiz, would that ever happen?” But OK, because I’ve seen some houses around here that look like they have an attic ventilator but then they also look like maybe at least part of the roof or a section of the roof has a ridge vent so …

TOM: Yeah. Well, there’s a lot of people that just do that because they don’t know what else to do. But the problem with attic fans is that your house has all types of little gaps in it that connect the attic to the inside. Think about the framed wall and the outlet, for example. That’s an opening, right? And if your attic is depressurized, it’s going to want to suck air up from anywhere it can find. And that’s going to include the conditioned air – that expensive, comfortable, conditioned air – that’s inside your house. That’s why passive ventilation is always a better option.

SCOTT: OK, OK. So probably a CertainTeed would be a good brand or a good type of ridge vent?

TOM: Yeah, take a look at AirVent.com and look at the one that’s called a Multi-Pitch FilterVent. It’s a metal vent – ridge vent – that sits on top of your roof and it has an air foil to the side of it. And I know that that air foil speeds up the depressurization and makes it much more effective.

SCOTT: OK. So a multi-vent. OK.

TOM: It’s called a Multi-Pitch FilterVent and it’s in the Ridge Vent section.

SCOTT: It’s OK. I’ll do that. Good. I appreciate the help. Thank you.

LESLIE: Well, if your kitchen feels dark and dreary, it may be that you don’t have the right kind or even the right type of lighting. Now, for kitchens, you need three types of lighting: ambient, task and accent. Now, ambient lighting is the overall light in the room and that’s generally provided by those larger fixtures and of course, the natural light if you’ve got some windows.

TOM: Now, task lighting, on the other hand, is focused and calibrated to specific work areas, like countertops. And accent lighting does just that: it accents and highlights the architectural details or objects within your redesigned space, like kitchen lighting that points up from the top of your cabinets or rope lighting lining the undersides which, incidentally, is a very easy do-it-yourself project.

LESLIE: Yeah. And there’s no shortage of fixture styles and sizes for you to choose from for each of these lighting types. And it’s definitely OK to mix and match those fixture styles. You know, you can put a chandelier over the dining area and then install some interesting pendants in another spot for the task lighting.

TOM: Yeah. And you can even shed additional light on the countertops with – using those little halogen puck lights or LED puck lights that go underneath the cabinets. So, where there’s a will, there’s a way.

It’s a room that we probably spent almost as much time in as any other room. Probably even more, in some cases. So why not have it bright and cheery no matter what the daylight situation is outside?

LESLIE: Dean in Kansas, you’ve got The Money Pit. How can we help you today?

DEAN: OK. We’ve just purchased a home and in that home we’ve got a traditional gas water heater.

TOM: OK.

DEAN: And my wife loves to take baths every night. She’s one of those really hot bath-type persons.

TOM: OK. Good for her.

DEAN: And just wanted to kind of know what the best setting for the water heater was. We’ve been told a couple different things. Usually, we turn it all the way up and we’ve been told some different things, so …

TOM: Mm-hmm. Ooh. That’s really hot. Yeah, well, is it just you and your wife or do you have kids, too?

DEAN: We do have kids, as well.

TOM: Yeah, you want to be careful with the children, especially. You don’t want the water to be any hotter than about 110 to 120 degrees. And if you turn it all the way up, it could get close to 160 and that’s really dangerous. So, if you have a 40-gallon water heater and you’re taking a big bath every night, I think you’re going to have adjust your schedules around that because it’s going to use a significant amount of it. But it also has a pretty fast recovery.

If you opt, at some point in the future – if you’re there in the house for a number of years and you want to get a water heater that’s never going to run out of hot water, you should opt for a tankless water heater. They’re a little bit more expensive than a tank water heater but they basically provide you an endless supply of hot water.

So I think those are your options, Dean. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.

LESLIE: Carol in Delaware needs some help with some insulation recommendations.

What’s going on?

CAROL: Hi. We built, about 2 years ago, a pole building that we are insulating one-third of, that we are making into living space for a shop.

TOM: OK.

CAROL: And the whole pole building was wrapped in Double Bubble, including the ceiling. So, now that we are getting ready to enclose – or encapsulate or enclose this area – it’s 20x30x14. We need to know what type of insulation you would recommend over the Double Bubble?

TOM: Now, when you say Double Bubble, I’m not actually familiar with that term.

CAROL: It is like bubble wrap.

TOM: Right.

CAROL: And it’s closed-cell, so it’s just a roll that they – it’s a rolled product that they put out, like a bubble wrap.

TOM: Oh, OK. I think I’ve seen this. It’s like a foil-faced product? It’s not going to have very much R-value at all.

CAROL: No, it doesn’t. (inaudible)

TOM: So it’s obviously not going to hold much heat in. I think your best option here for insulating that space is spray-foam insulation. Spray-foam insulation can seal all of the gaps that will be in that shell. You don’t need as much of it, in terms of thickness. And it does a very good job of not only insulating but sealing out the drafts. So, I would highly recommend spray foam over a fiberglass-batt insulation for this particular space.

CAROL: OK. And my husband’s sitting here. You’re on speakerphone. Would you recommend open- or closed-cell?

TOM: So, closed-cell is going to be better for moist locations. If you’re considerate about moisture – concerned about moisture – you would use the closed-cell. But open-cell does just a very good job, as well. I actually have both in my house. In my crawlspace, I have closed-cell for the box joists and in the walls and the roof rafters I have open-cell.

CAROL: OK. And then what would you do with the ceiling?

TOM: With the bubble wrap that’s there?

CAROL: There’s a space between the ceiling and the roof. What would you recommend putting in that space?

TOM: So you have two options. If you want, you could insulate the underside of the roof rafters and consider that attic space to be part of the conditioned space, part of the heated space. I mean not the heated space but it would insulate there. Or you could put the spray-foam insulation across the ceiling and make the attic completely unconditioned.

If you make it a conditioned space – if you insulate underneath the roof rafters – you’ll find that, you know, if you need it for storage, it’s not going to have the same kind of temperature extremes that you would have in an attic that was just more traditional and it was just whatever temperature it was outside. Whether it was 110 degrees in the summer or 10 degrees in the winter, that’s the temperature that attic’s going to be. So, it’s just kind of your personal preference. But wherever you decide to make that barrier, I’d make it with spray foam.

Take a look at Icynene – I-c-y-n-e-n-e – Icynene Insulation.

CAROL: What would you recommend as far as the heating/air-conditioning system we have? We have two areas: we have the wide-open space and then we have a bathroom space that will be in that area.

TOM: Do you have gas – natural gas – available?

CAROL: Yeah, we do. We have propane.

TOM: You have propane? Yeah. Well, I think propane’s going to be – probably be your best option. I’d prefer – my order of preference on fuels would be natural gas, followed probably by oil and then propane almost about the same. But propane is probably OK with an efficient furnace. And then electric would be last; that would just cost you a boatload of money.

But I think probably a propane gas furnace that’s a high-efficiency furnace. In the open space, you’re going to use a space heater that’s like one of those big furnaces that hangs up sort of in the air and warms that whole space. In the bathroom, that smaller area, if that could be connected to the same heating system that’s heating that room – is this bathroom separate from the living space you’re talking about or is it part of it? Because you’re going to need heat throughout that whole living space, aren’t you?

CAROL: Right. We’ll need heat throughout the whole living space. The bathroom will be closed off as a bathroom so that …

TOM: I think probably – you’d probably going to end up putting a furnace up in that attic. Sounds like you’ve got some room up there for it. But put a gas furnace up there and you can use that for heating and air conditioning.

CAROL: OK. What do you think about the split units?

TOM: The split-ductless units?

CAROL: Uh-huh.

LESLIE: They run beautifully, though, but they’ll be expensive.

CAROL: I thank you’ve answered our questions. Thank you very much.

TOM: Alright, Jessie. Well, good luck to you and your husband with that project and send us pictures when you’re done.

CAROL: I sure will. Thank you.

LESLIE: Well, saving energy and going green are big goals for homeowners, which definitely explains why we’re seeing a rise in heat pumps. They’re definitely more popular than ever. But is a heat pump always the best way to both heat and cool your home?

TOM: Well, it’s a good question. So first, let’s look at how heat pumps differ than heating systems that most of us use. To put it simply, traditional heating systems use fuel to generate heat. Heat pumps, on the other hand, bring in existing heat. Using a small amount of energy, what they do is they pull heat out of what’s called the “heat source,” like air or ground, to a heat space like your house.

Now, the process can be reversed to cool spaces, too. Its cooling mechanism works very similar to air conditioners but its heating mechanism is completely different.

LESLIE: Yeah. Now, one of the biggest advantages of this is the fact that you don’t need to install separate systems to heat and cool your home. And because they’re transferring heat rather than burning fuel to create it, heat pumps are more efficient than a gas furnace.

But Tom, if you just do a quick online search, though, you’re going to find out that heat pumps also have some disadvantages, right?

TOM: Oh, definitely. I mean one really common complaint is that they sort of
“blow cold air.” It’s not really true. But they’re not designed to put out warm air at the same temperature as what you might be used to if you have a gas furnace, for example. The air is cooler but it’s plenty warm enough to keep your home heated and very, very efficient.

But sometimes, when you put your hand in front of it or if you feel a draft on your face, because we have moisture on our skin, as that water sort of evaporates off of us, it chills us. And even though that air is kind of warmer – it’s definitely warmer than ambient – sometimes it will give you that false feeling of a draft. And it can make people uncomfortable.

Now, heat pumps are also ideal for climates that have moderate temperatures. So, once outdoor temperatures, though, are going to dip below 25 or 30 degrees, there’s not much heat left to extract. And as backup heaters become necessary, the cost goes up. Because basically, what a heat pump does is it only maintains a difference in temperature between your thermostat and what it’s set at by about 3 degrees. And so, let’s say you have the temperature set to 72. If it drops to 69, the heat pump’s on. If it drops to 68, the heat pump says, “Hey, I can’t keep up,” and it brings on electric backup heat, which is super expensive to run.

LESLIE: Now, I think a lot of people hear about the benefits and the efficiency of a heat pump and they’re interested, then, in retrofitting their homes with this heat-pump technology. But is it possible to retrofit?

TOM: Well, it’s not practical, especially with a central system. Because retrofitting a space usually calls for what’s called a “mini-split heat pump.” So you’re not really removing and replacing your existing furnace. You’re installing a separate sort of zone system where you have a separate heat pump, a mini-split – which is a little compressor outside – and then an air handler that’s mounted to an inside wall. And you put a number of those in each floor of the house.

They’re good for retrofitting because their location outside the home is flexible. But they can be expensive and you need more of them to heat the whole house. So it’s not as efficient as an originally-installed central system in a very well-insulated house in a moderate climate. If you’re outside of those parameters, you’re always going to be best with fossil fuel, if it’s available.

LESLIE: Brad in Virginia, you’re up next. How can we help you?

BRAD: It’s a water situation in my house.

TOM: OK.

BRAD: In one bathroom, you’ve got cold and hot. You go to the kitchen, you’ve got hot and barely is running cold. And then the last bathroom, it’s the same way.

TOM: OK. So, you have a good stream of hot and cold water in the one bathroom but you don’t have it in the other two?

BRAD: Right.

TOM: So, to me, that sounds like it’s a valve problem. Because the first thing you want to ask yourself is whether or not you have enough water pressure coming into the house. And if you’ve got it in one bathroom, then you certainly do. You just don’t have it in these other two and got to figure out why that is. It could be a partially obstructed valve; it might look like it’s open but it’s partially closed. It could be a clogged aerator but that would affect both hot and cold equally. You could easily check that, by the way, just by unscrewing the aerator. That’s that little tip of a faucet where the water comes out.

LESLIE: Just make sure you remember how you took it apart, because it goes back in that opposite way.

TOM: Yeah. It’s like – it’s kind of like Rubik’s Cube sometimes trying to get it back together again. But the fact that you have water that’s the correct pressure in one bathroom means it’s not a water-pressure problem. It’s definitely going to be in the plumbing or in the valves or the fixtures or faucets themselves, which is another thing, by the way. The plumbing faucet itself could be a problem.

The other thing that you could do is you could disconnect the plumbing at the valve and just hook up some hose lines to it there. And just see how much water pressure comes out. See if you can sort of narrow down where the restriction is. Is it the faucet? Is it the valve? Where exactly is it being restricted? Is it before it gets to that fixture or faucet? Because you do have the water pressure; you’ve proven that. OK?

BRAD: Yeah, OK. Thanks.

LESLIE: Well, if you keep telling your spouse or your significant other that you just don’t have time to do anything around the house, we are calling your bluff. If you’ve got 30 minutes – even less – there are a lot of improvements that you can make to your home.

TOM: That’s right. You know, for example, that window that hasn’t opened since maybe Seinfeld was on prime time? Well, it’s probably because it’s painted shut.

So, here’s the solution. Just grab a putty knife and break the paint seal. If it still won’t budge, you can put a block of wood on top of the lower sash window and tap the wood down with a hammer that will break that paint seal loose and it’ll be operational once again.

LESLIE: Now, here’s another one: exercise. You know it’s good for you but it turns out that exercise is also good for your circuit breakers. About every 6 months, you want to turn each breaker off and then back on again. Then every month, push the test button on the GFCI to make sure that it stays flexible and strong, just like you do after a good workout.

TOM: That’s right. And check for water leaks in less than 30 minutes. So just turn off all running water and look at your water meter. If it’s moving, you’ve got a leak somewhere. You can also check your fixtures and faucets for leaks. Just run water in the sink to the overflow mark and let that water run down. Then look underneath for leaks.

Now, if you want to check out a shower pan, what you could do is put a washcloth across the drain, fill it up with 2 or 3 inches of water and then quickly go downstairs and look for any leaks coming through the ceiling. I used to do that as a home inspector. And I learned very early on in my career to not let it sit too long. Because typically – especially if you have a tile shower pan – if it’s going to leak, it’s going to leak quick. And if that happens, you’ve got a big repair. But you’re better off to find it sooner than later when it rots out the floor.

LESLIE: Joan wrote in saying, “Our house was built in 1989 in Northwest Georgia. We bought it in 2022 from a builder who redid it as a flip. It was about a year before I realized that every room in the house had painted-over wallpaper in it. How do I strip the wallpaper? Is there a good way to get already-painted paper off that isn’t porous to soak up the steam or a remover? Is a paper tiger enough?”

This sounds like a disaster. Also, what a smooth, wonderful wallpapering job that you did not notice it was there.

TOM: Well, we don’t know how many coats of paint on it.

LESLIE: Oh, that’s very true.

TOM: Look, it’s really hard to get wallpaper up when – well, it’s hard initially to get wallpaper off the walls. But when you have layers of paint on it, it’s not going to soak in any of the steam or even the wallpaper removers that well. And the paper tiger, that’s a tool that scores the paper, puts little holes in it. And yeah, it’ll help. But I just think you’re looking at an awful lot of work.

So, this is going to be like a testing kind of a thing where you actually try it out in some areas and see if you can come up with a technique that works. If you figure out what works, it’ll probably work throughout the entire house. I do think I would go right to steam. I would get a paper tiger, I would go right to renting a steam wallpaper-remover. Because sometimes, when you have it painted over, it may tend to adhere more to the paint than it does to the glue underneath the paper. And you may be able to get it off.

If you are fortunate enough, Joan, to get it to strip away, what you’re going to want to do is clean those walls really well and then prime them. And I would definitely use a solvent-based primer so everything is sealed in nice and tight and flat. And then always use a good-quality, flat wall paint. Because if you use anything with a sheen, you’ll see all the little defects that no doubt those walls will have as a result of all the work it takes to get rid of that wallpaper.

So you’ve got a job in front of you but it is not impossible. I would try it out in a small area first. Maybe you can find a closet or small wall. See if you can come up with a system that works. But I suspect you’re going to need to rent a wallpaper steamer and to score that wall with the wallpaper tiger tool.

LESLIE: Alright. Next up, Robert wrote in saying, “I live in Northern Michigan. And I want to know if it’s a good idea to install a heat pump to supplement electric baseboard heat.”

It’s like he knew what the show was about this whole hour.

TOM: Wow. Yeah, not such a good idea. It’s kind of funny because a heat pump is – does include electric heat within it. As I was explaining earlier, Robert, when the heat pump basically exceeds its capacity, when it can’t keep up with what the temperature – it actually brings on a backup electric system. So, not a really good thing to supplement electric baseboard heat. You’re just trading off one expensive system to another.

If you’ve got electric baseboard heat, I would suggest you first determine whether or not gas or even oil is available to you as an option. I would much prefer you install a hot-water baseboard-radiator system instead of trying to kind of mess around with different heat pumps. If you’ve got a cold room or two, you could always go with a mini-split ductless heat pump. But again, those are expensive and just might not do the job you’re looking for. If you can change out to fossil fuel, it’s always a better way to go.

LESLIE: Alright, Robert. I hope you’re staying warm in that Northern Michigan winter chill.

TOM: You are listening to The Money Pit Home Improvement Show on air and online at MoneyPit.com. Hey, if we didn’t get to your question today, we apologize. But you can always reach us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT any time of the day or night. And remember, if you’ve got a question, another way to get in touch with us is to post it at MoneyPit.com by clicking the blue microphone button. There’s a little record feature there. You can just talk to us, tell us what’s going on and we’ll get back to you the next time we produce the show.

Until then, 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.

(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.)