LESLIE: Jackie in California, you’ve got The Money Pit. What can we do for you today?
JACKIE: Hi. I have a house that I’m renting and my landlord is not really willing to do anything to help us out, fix it up. It’s a 1920s/30s cinderblock but the bathroom has just got concrete in it and it looks like they’ve painted it. And also, the shower is concrete and like I said, it’s like a cinderblock and they painted it and the paint’s chipping off. And it’s not really cleanable; it’s really difficult. I just basically use vinegar and pour it on there; that’s all I can do.
And I was wondering if there’s an inexpensive way of kind of putting something over it. Like I said, it’s in the shower, too, (inaudible at 0:03:29).
TOM: So the key here is to find an improvement that’s not too expensive, because you don’t own the house.
And Leslie, I’m thinking about epoxy paint.
LESLIE: Yeah. That could be a good trick. The only issue is how …
TOM: Got to get the old stuff off.
LESLIE: Well, you’ve got to get the old stuff off and also, you’ve got to make sure that it’s really dry before you apply the new. But that works really well. And the stickiness of it – or would you say the viscosity of it – is strong enough where it will stick to the walls and adhere very, very well but you do have to do some work to get the original finish off or at least enough of it off so that you’ll have an area for adhesion to occur.
TOM: Typically, epoxy paints are used on horizontal surfaces like …
LESLIE: Like garage floors.
TOM: Yeah, like garage floors. But there’s no reason I think that you can’t use it vertically in a situation like this. And in fact, you could even use some of the color chips that come with it, to give it a little bit of texture. It will look better than just the plain concrete that you’re dealing with right now.
JACKIE: Well, what about it being wet and the mold issue and all that, with that?
TOM: Not an issue. See, the key here is to get it really dry and get the old paint off. You’ll get good adherence because this is a chemical reaction that causes the drying to occur here. It’s a two-part epoxy, so there’s a chemical hardener that goes in there. And I think that if you get good adhesion by getting the old paint off, you’re not going to have a problem with water or mold, because it’ll be easily cleanable.
JACKIE: Great. Well, thank you. I appreciate that.
TOM: You’re very welcome, Jackie. Good luck with that project and thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
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