Show Notes
- Cooling Your Home: Beat the heat and save money with free ways to cool your home.
- Installing Tile: Get your tiling project done faster and cleaner with this trick of the trade.
- Paint Sprayer: New airless paint sprayer technology lets you paint smarter without working harder.
Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
Plus, answers to your home improvement questions about:
- Soundproofing: Darlene wants to block out noise between the apartment walls. Mineral wool insulation and sound-deadening drywall will help keep things quiet.
- Loose Tiles: When floor tiles come loose, Tony finds out how to remove them, replace the grout, and use mastic adhesive to reset the tiles again.
- Brick Steps: How can Mia remove worn carpet that’s glued to her brick steps? It would be much easier to install pavers or outdoor ceramic tile over the steps.
- Tin Roof: It’s getting hot under the tin roof on Dan’s screened porch! We suggest applying radiant barrier paint to the top of the roof to reflect the heat.
- Window Condensation: The picture windows are all fogged up from trapped moisture. There’s no remedy for thermal pane seals that fail, so Sally will have to live with the foggy view or replace the windows.
- Peeling Vinyl Floor: Areas of the sheet vinyl flooring are peeling up and glue’s not working. Anna should consider replacing the floor with luxury vinyl planking.
- Whole House Fan: The spray foam is working great in Phil’s house but there are times he’d like to use the whole house fan. He should construct a duct from the fan to a gable vent to bypass the attic.
- Tree Roots Under a Patio: Should Courtney build a brick patio near damaging tree roots? She needs to either get rid of the roots or build a deck above grade.
- Concrete Driveway Repair: What’s the right way to replace a sunken area of a concrete driveway? It’s most important for Larry to compact crushed gravel well enough to make a solid base before pouring new concrete over it.
- Metal Roof: Should you install a metal roof over existing shingles? Darlene learns why it’s a very bad idea that could damage her investment.
- Deck Stain: Why does the stain on horizontal deck surfaces wear out so fast? John should replace the semi-transparent stain with a longer-lasting solid stain.
Ask Your Home Improvement Question
Podcast Transcript
Read Transcript
| 0:00:33 | TOM: Coast to coast and floorboards to shingles. This is the Money Pit Home Improvement show. I’m Tom Kraeutler. |
| 0:00:38 | LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete. |
| 0:00:39 | TOM: So I’m happy to be here today with you helping with your home improvement projects. You’ve got a project on your to do list. You can move it right over to ours are reaching out with your questions will help you get started on the right foot. If you’re trying to figure out if you’re paying the right price for a project or product or you don’t know what to use to get the job done, great questions for us. The number here is 1-888-Money-Pit or go to moneypit.com/ask and click the blue microphone button. Hey, coming up on today’s show, as summer approaches, it’s a great time to make sure your home’s cooling plan is set to deliver comfort and energy efficiency. So to help you do just that, we put together a list of low cost to even no cost tips that will help you stay cool and save some bucks. |
| 0:01:24 | LESLIE: And if you’ve ever taken on a tiling project, you may know that it’s messy and it takes days because you have to wait for the adhesive to set before you can grout. Well, we’re going to show you a trick of the trade to install tile that’s a lot less messy and far faster just ahead. |
| 0:01:38 | TOM: And if you do a lot of painting but have yet to try out a paint sprayer, well, you guys are working way too hard. We’re going to share new technology that makes quick work of big projects. |
| 0:01:47 | LESLIE: But first, are you dreaming about a project that you’d like to tackle this spring? Well, if you can dream it, you can do it and we can help. So give us a call. Let us know what you are working on this summer season because we want everybody to have a great summer at their own money pit. |
| 0:02:01 | TOM: And the best way to reach us, any of the fastest possible response is go to Money Pit. Com slash ask. Click the blue microphone button and send us your question. Let’s get to it. Leslie, who’s first. |
| 0:02:12 | LESLIE: Heading out to Baltimore, we’ve got Darlene on the line is dealing with some noise issues. What’s happening? |
| 0:02:17 | CALLER: Well, I have a wall between my upstairs apartment and my downstairs apartment. And there’s no insulation in the wall. And I want to insulate it so that I have a sound barrier between the two places. And I wanted to know what insulation would be the best thing to use. |
| 0:02:39 | TOM: Okay, so you said. What do you mean ceiling? Because you said… |
| 0:02:43 | CALLER: No. I’m talking about the wall that goes up the stairs. |
| 0:02:46 | TOM: Oh, okay. |
| 0:02:48 | CALLER: And my daughter who lives in my upstairs apartment hears everything in my downstairs. |
| 0:02:54 | TOM: Okay, so the best insulation to do to use for that is mineral wool insulation. Owens Corning makes a product that is called thermal fiber, and it has very good, sound resistant qualities to it. You’d have to open up the walls to do that. You’d have to take off the drywall and then you put the thermal fiber in. Now, in addition to the thermal fiber, there’s also a sound deadening drywall you can use because you have to tear off the existing drywall. And there’s a couple of different ones. One I’m familiar with. I know you can find it. Lowe’s is called Quiet Rock, and it’s basically an engineer drywall panel that has built in sound deadening qualities to it. They think between the quiet rock and the thermal fiber, which you’ll also find at Lowe’s, you will be definitely able to quiet down that staircase and get some rest in your space as a result of it. |
| 0:03:44 | CALLER: Okay. Well, that sounds really good. I appreciate your calling me back so quickly. |
| 0:03:49 | TOM: All right. Well, good luck with that project. Let us know how you make out. |
| 0:03:51 | CALLER: Thank you very much. I enjoy your program. |
| 0:03:54 | LESLIE: Heading over to Little Rock, Arkansas. We’ve got Tony on the line. So, Tony, tell us about this tile issue. What’s going on and where are they? |
| 0:04:01 | CALLER: They’re right in front of the bathroom. My bathroom and my hallway. |
| 0:04:06 | TOM: Okay. So the tiles, those How big of the tile here? What are we talking about? |
| 0:04:09 | CALLER: They transitions from probably a 12 by four inch to a 12 by 12. |
| 0:04:16 | TOM: You know, what you’re going to want to do is lift those up. You’re going to have to work on an edge there. The first one is always the hardest to get up. But if they’re loose like that, you won’t have any trouble popping them up. And then you’ve got to get all the grout out of there. And you may need to do that with a grout knife or you can grind it out, but you’ve got to get the grout out of there. You’re going to need to replace that, and then you’ll use mastic, a thick tile mastic to reset that tile. And then once it’s dry, then you can recruit it. Now the grouting part is probably the trickiest because you know you’re going to have old grout near new grout. And one way that you could deal with that is you could decide to regrow the whole floor by basically grinding out some of the growth is already there, even if the tiles not loose yet. This will all be the same color. Guess it’s kind of depends on what your tolerance is and how close you want those colors to be. But even if you had the same exact product, you know that grout is sturdier over time, it changes color and it doesn’t match up. |
| 0:05:12 | CALLER: Pretty simple, I guess. |
| 0:05:13 | TOM: Yeah. You know, it’s a job like anything else, right? There’s a bunch of steps to it, but it’s really not terribly difficult. And if you’re a little bit handy, I’m sure you can handle it. |
| 0:05:21 | CALLER: Thank you very much for calling. |
| 0:05:23 | LESLIE: All right. We’ve got Maya from Iowa on the line now. Maya’s dealing with some steps outside that have carpeting glued to them. That sounds like a terrible combination of things. What is going on at your Money Pit? |
| 0:05:34 | CALLER: My house has a twostep brick steps on the west side of my house, and it’s covered in carpet, outdoor carpet that’s been glued on. Now, there are some holes starting in that carpet. And I’m wondering what the best way is to remove it. Once I get it removed, what would be your advice on what I should do with that step? |
| 0:06:04 | TOM: Well, my I’ll tell you, that’s a heck of a mess you got yourself into there, because trying to remove that carpet that’s glued on is very difficult under any circumstances. You know, there are adhesive removers that you can use, but the best you’re going to get is it’s going to soften it up and then maybe you can kind of scrape it flat. Now, I do have one idea for you, and that is for you to try to apply pavers on top of this old step. You want to make sure that you’re not altering the height, but there’s a type of paver called a milano paver. It’s made by the Pave Stone company and it’s a thinner paver. So it’s only it’s probably less than an inch thick. And you can glue these on because the problem is this with all that old glue on there, you’re not going that you’re going have a heck of a time getting anything else to stick. You know, you’re not going to get paint stuck terribly Well, You certainly couldn’t use the concrete repair products because they’re designed to basically go over hold over old concrete. But if you were to glue something on top of that, either the pavers or you could use also a ceramic tile, make sure it’s rated for outside. It’s not slippery. But if you were to think about gluing back on top of that concrete surface, top of that step or the little stoop, whatever it is, either a tile or a paver, then I think you could have a nice looking surface there and have something to say around for a long time. |
| 0:07:20 | LESLIE: Hey, you want to make our day? Well, go ahead and leave us a five star review on Apple Podcasts and we’ll be jumping for joy. Plus, you guys, your feedback helps us make the show even better for you. Just go to Money Pit dot com slash review. Dan, you’ve got the Money Pit. What can we do for you today? |
| 0:07:35 | TOM: I have a screen porch on the back of my house. It has a tin roof and it gets extremely. |
| 0:07:42 | CALLER: Hot in the summer. |
| 0:07:43 | TOM: So hot that it just radiates heat down. I was wondering, is there something I can put on that tin roof to deflect the heat that comes from the sun? Yeah, I bet that metal of gets super hot. What you can do, Dan, is you can apply a radiant barrier. It’s like a paint. And there’s different types. There’s aluminum colored radiant barrier, there’s white. There’s a product called Sunshield that you find at Home Depot. That’s a radiant barrier. And it’s often used not only on porches, it’s even used on RVs. So this will be applied right to the top of the roof, and this will help reflect some of the UV radiation back off the roofs on it all absorb. And that’s going to make you a bit more comfortable under that roof in the summer when the when the sun’s full bore like that, it’ll help about some of that heat back off again. |
| 0:08:37 | LESLIE: All right. Now we’re going to chat with Sally, who’s dealing with an issue with the window. We’re seeing a lot of fogging up. What’s going on? |
| 0:08:42 | CALLER: Well, I have two very large double pane windows. They’re like big picture windows and they have fogged up. It’s a it looks like there’s moisture between the two pane. And so I was wondering what can be done about that besides replacing it. Is there any remedy for that? |
| 0:09:05 | TOM: Unfortunately, there is not. That is a failed thermal paint seal. And when that window was made, that seal was added that the seal was used and it’s placed in a vacuum. And that gap is usually filled with an insulating gas like argon. And so when the seal fails, you get moisture in there and that’s what you’re seeing with the fogging. Now, it is unsightly, but it doesn’t terribly impact the energy efficiency of the window. So if you don’t mind the fog, you know, it’s not like it’s leaking. It just doesn’t look so nice. But the only way to repair that is really just to take it out and replace it because it’s a sealed unit and there’s no way to restore it back to its factory manufactured condition. |
| 0:09:46 | CALLER: Yeah, I have about seven other windows that are about the same age, are over 15 years old, and they’re all fine. But just these two had a particular problem when they were made. So much is assumed. |
| 0:09:59 | TOM: Yeah, that’s unfortunate, you know. Are these the biggest windows or are they all the same size? |
| 0:10:05 | CALLER: Of course there’s a place for. |
| 0:10:06 | TOM: Well, let me I, I ask you that because they’re going to expand more. You’re going to extend expanding contract more than the smaller windows. So they’re about. |
| 0:10:14 | CALLER: 84 inches long and 56 inches tall. They’re big. They’re really good. You know, it’s a panoramic view of the mountains. And so, yeah, unsightly, but okay, I’ll get them replaced. And that’s about all I can do. Thank you. Bye bye. |
| 0:10:32 | TOM: All right. Good luck with that project. |
| 0:10:34 | LESLIE: Well, now that we’re in the heat of summer, it’s a great time to make sure that your home’s cooling plan is set to deliver comfort and energy efficiency. So to help, we’ve put together a list of no cost tips that you can start using right away. So first, if you’re using window AC units, you want to make sure that they’re in windows that are on the shady side of the house, because by keeping those air conditioners out of direct sunlight, that unit stays cooler. So it’s going to be a lot more efficient. |
| 0:10:59 | TOM: Now, let’s talk about storm windows. Now, you normally keep them close in the winter, right? Well, here’s the trick. Also, keep them closed in the summer. If you’ve got central air conditioning, because guess what, guys? You’ve got the same leaks year round. Just because it’s summer, you don’t feel those drafts, but you can be assured that you are wasting cold air from inside your house leaking out. So drop those storm windows to make it a little tighter in your house and that will give you some extra cooling, comfort and efficiency. Yeah. |
| 0:11:26 | LESLIE: Also, do you guys have window shades or curtains of some type? Well, if you have them, pull them closed, keep them down. You want to keep those rooms cool. So close those shades and blinds during those sun filled hours of the day. The more the sun that comes in, the harder that that air conditioner is going to have to work to cool things down. So just cut that sun out altogether. |
| 0:11:45 | TOM: You know what’s cool about that is that they have automated sheets. The prices have come way down, that they’re kind of programed so that they will go up and down at certain times on in the day based on the sun level. So that’s kind of cool. You don’t have to think about it. Now, if you got an overhead fan, you might have noticed a little switch of sorts on the motor itself. And maybe you wondered what the heck that’s for. Well, it’s the change, the direction of the blades to run. Now, you want them to spin in the right direction for cooling efficiency by setting the reverse motors for counterclockwise, and you’ll see that will pull up the air and sort of recirculate that cool air around the room. |
| 0:12:17 | LESLIE: Yeah. And when it comes to washing dishes in the dishwasher or doing the laundry or running the dryer, you want to run all of those heat generating appliances at night if you can. This way, your cooling system won’t have to work as hard. It’ll be far more efficient and it won’t put so much stress on the system. |
| 0:12:32 | TOM: Yeah, and the best part of all these little tricks is that they won’t cost you a dime. Hey, if you guys have questions about a project just like that, reach out to us right now at one eight of eight Money Pit or go to money become slash ask. Let’s get back to the calls. |
| 0:12:46 | LESLIE: And in Louisiana what is going on at your Money Pit? Tell us about it. |
| 0:12:50 | CALLER: In the hall I have a section of the vinyl flooring that has peeled up. Okay. You know, it’s that rolled vinyl and it’s not on a seam. It’s just in the middle of the floor. The length of it has started peeling. And I’ve tried several different glues and put the hairdryer on it to try to get it warm and it put the glue on it and then put a piece right on some place, put a piece of wax paper and then put a board on it and let it sit. And to know about it just keeps peeling back. |
| 0:13:24 | TOM: Yeah. I got to tell you, it’s a really difficult problem to solve at this point because you’ve have so many different adhesive products on there. It’s not just not worked well for you. If it was me, what I would do is I would replace the floor, not with the vinyl sheet, but there is a product called LV PE. It’s luxury vinyl plank. First of all, it’s absolutely gorgeous stuff. And secondly, it’s really, really affordable. You know, for maybe as much as a dollar and a half, $2 a square foot, you can buy these planks. They’re so easy to install, they snap together and you could replace that floor and have a beautiful new floor. As a result, for a fraction of the aggravation that you are going through right now trying to fix this loose seam. So I wouldn’t put any more effort into it. You could go to L.L. Flooring dot com. They’re one of our sponsors. They make this you can go check out the stores or anywhere else you’d like to and look at the LV PE products, the luxury vinyl playing floor, and you’re going to really be surprised at the variety of patterns and options you have. And I think the stuff is just gorgeous. I’ve seen some of these installations where you can almost not tell that it’s vinyl. |
| 0:14:34 | LESLIE: I mean, it really is beautifully done with the way that the graphic is made to sort of emulate that wood grain. And it really looks fantastic. |
| 0:14:43 | CALLER: Well, I appreciate it. |
| 0:14:44 | TOM: Well, thank you very much. Good luck with that project. |
| 0:14:47 | LESLIE: Heading up to Michigan, where we’ve got Phil on the line. What is going on at your Money Pit? |
| 0:14:51 | CALLER: My wife and I recently had our home spray foamed the rim joists, exterior walls and the attic and the change in living quality has been fantastic. We no longer hear all of the outside noise of the world. Our home stairs. A moderate temperature at all times now, and the energy savings has been fantastic. We have a 2500 square foot Cape Cod style house. We’ve been here for four and a half years and with a spray foam attic, we no longer get to use the whole house. Found. And we’ve come to rely on the whole house fan because our kitchen, when we cook indoors, it makes a lot of smoke and our vent hood can’t exactly keep up. And it’s also really nice on very hot days to just pull in some of that cold air that comes off the river and just run that through the house. Do you have any options for this whole House fan or should I just remove it and patch my ceiling up? |
| 0:15:58 | TOM: That’s a really interesting question. I’ve never received that question before, but I totally understand it because I too am a big fan of whole House fans because, as you say, they serve a multitude of purposes. We put one in our very first house, which was a condominium garden apartment, and it was on the second floor. It was always very warm and it just did an amazing job of making that place comfortable. We would open up the door, sliding glass door, open up a couple of windows and set it on low so a timer and would cool the house off as we were going to sleep at night. We saved a lot of money in air conditioning. Now, do you have a conflict of interests here? Because the spray foam insulation, of course, that’s designed to seal in every nook and cranny. Right. And takes that attic and makes it a non-vented attic space. So you no longer have to worry about having, you know, any temperature differential in there, any moisture venting in there, because no moisture is going to form. But the problem is that you also have to close up the gable vents. Now, the one idea that I have for you would be if you were to construct a duct and would be a large duct that went from the whole house fan to the old gable vent. Then essentially you would be bypassing that attic space as part of the journey so that when you turned on the whole House fan, essentially draw the air directly from the exterior and not from the attic as it used to. Does that make sense? |
| 0:17:20 | CALLER: Yes, it does. |
| 0:17:21 | TOM: I don’t see any other way of accomplishing this unless I don’t know what the second floor looks like. But of course, the other thing that you could do is perhaps there’s a passive vent that could be installed in the finished wall. But I’m concerned about that because that might just be super cold in the winter. So I think ducting the whole house fan, right to an appropriately sized gable vent on the end of the building might be the best way to go if in fact you want to continue to enjoy the whole House fan. |
| 0:17:46 | CALLER: Okay, Thanks for the option. |
| 0:17:49 | TOM: So, Leslie, I ran into a friend of mine this past weekend. And what’s interesting about her is that I actually built a deck for her and her husband 34 years ago. I said, Hey, how’s that deck still standing? |
| 0:18:02 | LESLIE: Nice. |
| 0:18:02 | TOM: She said that we placed the decking itself, but the frame is still standing. It’s still strong. So they have updated the railing and the decking, but it’s still standing. And that just goes to show you that if you build it right, it can last a heck of a long time. I was a little bit surprised myself, but very happy to hear. |
| 0:18:19 | LESLIE: Never underestimate your skills, Tom. You are a kick butt carpenter. |
| 0:18:23 | TOM: 34 years ago. I remember that because it was the summer before we got married. Otherwise I probably would have forgotten by now. But that was like my getting shape project for the wedding. |
| 0:18:32 | LESLIE: I remember your anniversary. But you remember the deck. Good job. |
| 0:18:35 | TOM: Guys. I have my deck anniversary and I have my wedding anniversary. |
| 0:18:40 | LESLIE: Heading out to West Chester, Pennsylvania, where we’ve got Courtney, who’s doing some work in the yard with a patio. But a tree has got other plans. What’s going on? |
| 0:18:49 | CALLER: So we want to build a brick patio. We have like extra free bricks and we want to do it in an area in our lawn where there’s not a lot of grass growing. You know, it’s hard to grow the grass because of these pines. There’s five pines that are large. Right. How can I best build this patio without disturbing the roots and having it level? |
| 0:19:13 | TOM: The answer is you can’t, because if you can’t get rid of these roots, or at least the major big ones there where this patio has to be, you’re going to continue to have to deal with them. And no matter how good a job you do in laying in the base of that patio, you’ll find that the roots will just start to lift it up, especially with brick, because it happens really quick. Concrete might take a little longer, but you know, even if it is concrete, it would lift the slab up and crack it. One of the things you could think about doing is maybe doing and I hardly ever recommend this, except in this unusual circumstance, I would be to do a deck right above grade. So it’s kind of like a wood platform that is right above the grade. You only have to secure it at the corners the same way you were any deck. But then if the roof start to come up with that, then at least you got some room. You know, to go before they start to interrupt the thing. And you could always pull the deck boards out, cutlery, packs a little bit if you can. You know, rooms are pretty durable. You may be able to cut back some big ones, not impact those trees at all. |
| 0:20:13 | CALLER: Yeah, we weren’t sure because, you know, we only see a little bit. So when we dig down, we’re like, we don’t know what we’re going to find. You know what I mean? Mm hmm. |
| 0:20:23 | TOM: Yeah. Do a little exploratory surgery with a shovel there and see what you find. |
| 0:20:27 | CALLER: Oh, okay. All right. Well, thank you so much. I appreciate it. |
| 0:20:32 | TOM: Better to know. Good luck with that project, Courtney. Thanks so much for calling us at the Money Pit. |
| 0:20:36 | LESLIE: Well, if you’ve ever taken on a tiling project, you may know that it’s messy and you know that it takes days to complete because you got to wait. Really, You need to wait for the adhesive to set. Then you can grout it and then all the wiping and the drying and all of that stuff. Well, we’ve found a new product that eliminates those hassles. |
| 0:20:52 | TOM: Yep. It’s called symbol matte. Now, what it is, is a two sided adhesive mat and replaces the need for thin set mortar or that kind of messy mastic adhesive. It’s kind of a quick and easy way to install tile in back splashes or countertops or shower walls. You just apply the simple mat to the surface that you want a tile. |
| 0:21:12 | TOM: And then you add the tile on top of that. It binds instantly. And you can start grouting right away. |
| 0:21:18 | LESLIE: Yeah. And you can use a simple mat on vertical or horizontal surfaces and when used with simple grout, a backsplash project can be completed. And get this, just a few hours. I love this. |
| 0:21:28 | TOM: It’s really pretty brilliant. I mean, the adhesive is built into both sides of the mats You apply it to the wall for, say, a backsplash, and you set tiles on any grout. Simple mat is available at the Home Depot. It’s made by custom building products. No mortar, no mixing, no mess. Learn more at custom building products. |
| 0:21:45 | LESLIE: Dot com Time to shop driveways. We’ve got Larry on the line. Tell us about your project. |
| 0:21:51 | CALLER: Okay. We have a driveway. There’s probably 25 or 30 years old and we’re going to replace 30 feet of it. That has sunk down. And, you know, there’s been some water issues and so forth. So we’re going to take all that up, of course. And then when we see what we got, we probably to have to this is just me talking about bringing in some sort of river sand or something and then make sure that that’s good and bring in. I was thinking like maybe four inches of maybe two or less. You’ll think some other kind of gravel would be better to have a nice base and then pour the slab on top of all of that. So that’s my question. Am I going the right way or I need some need some help? |
| 0:22:37 | TOM: Yes. Are we talking about a concrete driveway or an asphalt driveway, Larry? |
| 0:22:40 | CALLER: Concrete. |
| 0:22:41 | TOM: You’re definitely on the right track here. And typically, you do get a lot of movement, especially in your part of the country. Down Louisiana, you’ve got a lot of water such down there that in the sand, as you mentioned, it kind of settles things a lot. You definitely have to get that up and then you’re going to have to bring in some of that crushed gravel. And the thing is, and where people usually go wrong is they don’t put enough crushed gravel and they don’t pack the gravel. So you’ve got to have mechanical tampers, compact that gravel. And when and when it’s done well, it’s frankly just as hard as the concrete itself. You know, it’s really solidly packed in there. You do all your work with the gravel and getting that crown just right for drainage. And then you can add, you know, your concrete on top of that. But if you don’t do the prep properly and you don’t fill it in, you don’t compact it, you’re going to be right back where you are right now in the not too distant future. So you’re definitely on the right approach here, sir. |
| 0:23:39 | CALLER: Okay. So now, when you say the gravel, is that speed too good or is there some other size gravel that I should use there? You know, maybe like four inches on top of the sand or dirt? What you’re thinking on that. |
| 0:23:52 | TOM: Up here, you use the gravel that’s about an inch and a half in diameter, and then we’ll put crushed gravel on top of that. So we kind of build it up with a thicker base, then put the crushed gravel over that and then tamp it down. But that tamping step, I mean, we’re not just talking about hand timber here. You’re going to have to rent yourself mechanical timber that you know, sits on top of a big metal plate that’s got a heavy engine on it. Put your protection on. Just go to town with that thing. Get it nice and nice and tight. |
| 0:24:15 | CALLER: Okay. Well, we were I did talk to one guy that sells the gravel. He suggested the four inches and we’d put two inches down, pack it, then come back with two more inches in fact. |
| 0:24:26 | TOM: That you can’t go wrong doing that. If you feel like it’s still moving, even though your champion you don’t have enough in, you got to stamp it. Well, when you do that driveway section, make sure you’re reinforcing that concrete is that will also prevent you from having a cracking. |
| 0:24:38 | CALLER: Thank you very much for your help. I love your show. I travel a lot on the road. I catch you out quite a bit. |
| 0:24:43 | TOM: All right. Thank you very much, Larry. Good luck with the project. Send us pictures when you’re done, okay? |
| 0:24:47 | CALLER: Sure. We’ll thank you. |
| 0:24:49 | LESLIE: Darlene in West Virginia is on the line with a roofing question. How can we help you? |
| 0:24:53 | CALLER: Today, my husband and I are considering putting metal roof on our home. And I want to know, is it best to go ahead and keep the old shingles on the rear? |
| 0:25:04 | TOM: No. You know, if you’re going to go through the expense of putting on a metal roof, which is a real investment grade roofing, it’s a roof that could last you 50 to 100 years. You absolutely don’t want to put it over old asphalt shingles. There’s no point in having them there. And if anything, they could make that metal roof look lumpy. So I would absolutely take it right down to the sheathing. And then how the roof installed right from there on up is absolutely not worth trying to save a few dollars by leaving that old asphalt there essentially forever. |
| 0:25:35 | CALLER: Okay. Because I’ve known some people, they’ve been told, Oh yeah, you all, you know, you don’t have to worry about through an amount. You don’t have to worry about taking them. |
| 0:25:43 | LESLIE: Off and everything and. |
| 0:25:44 | CALLER: It’s just fine. It actually even hurt and tell people that it’ll add a layer of insulation. |
| 0:25:50 | TOM: Yeah, that’s all. That’s all crap. |
| 0:25:53 | CALLER: Okay, so you told me on the air. I’m glad I called. |
| 0:25:56 | TOM: That’s just not true. There’s nothing about an asphalt shingle that insulates anything that doesn’t trap air, so it just doesn’t work. In fact, you know, what it does do is hold a lot of extra heat on that roof so. |
| 0:26:08 | CALLER: Well, and it would build up moisture and everything, probably. |
| 0:26:12 | TOM: But in the summertime, that extra heat will add your air conditioning costs. So I would just tear that out and forget about it. Start from scratch. Okay. You’d be better off in the long run. |
| 0:26:22 | CALLER: All right. That sounds great. Thank you so much. |
| 0:26:24 | TOM: Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at eight. At eight Money Pit. |
| 0:26:28 | CALLER: Bye bye. |
| 0:26:29 | LESLIE: Well, if you do a lot of painting, but you’re doing it the old way, you know, with brushes and rollers and you haven’t quite tried out a paint sprayer yet. You’re just doing too much work. You know, these Wagner, high efficiency, airless paint sprayers, they can deliver more paint without waste and result in a far better finish than you can achieve with those other methods. |
| 0:26:49 | LESLIE: For example, the Wagner Titan Control max 1700 high efficiency airless paint sprayer. It’s great for handymen, general contractors and experienced homeowners who are willing to tackle those bigger painting projects. |
| 0:27:03 | TOM: Yeah, you know, the high efficiency, airless technology produces 55% less overspray and it goes on three times faster than a roller. Plus it’s going to pull paint directly from either a one gallon or a five gallon paint container. And it’s even got a 30 foot hose, which makes it super simple to get around. And when you’re done painting, I also love the fact that with this model, you can store your tips and your tools in the integrated storage, which I love, because I’m always looking for a wrench or something or that came with a tool. And when it’s not store on board, it’s just all a bit hard to find. |
| 0:27:39 | LESLIE: Yeah, it definitely makes it easy to find the things that you need when you want them. Now the time control Max 1700 high efficiency airless paint sprayer It’s available at Lowe’s home improvement and it retails for 379. John in Michigan is on the line right now with the money pit and he’s got a question about deck staining What’s going on? |
| 0:27:58 | CALLER: I’ve got a stain and I’ve used a couple of different stains at different houses we’ve lived at. But anyways, the almost all the stains, say six or seven years they’re great for. But the flats, meaning the decking and the handrails, they seem to lose all resiliency to water and they fade out in just a couple of years while the spindles and everything that’s vertical do last six or seven years. Right. Well, I was wondering if I’m doing something wrong here or wrong stain. |
| 0:28:27 | TOM: Or let me ask you about the stain that you’re choosing. So seeing comes in different sort of densities is available in transparent, semi-transparent and solid color. Do you know which one you’ve been applying? |
| 0:28:39 | CALLER: Getting a semi-transparent. |
| 0:28:41 | TOM: Look. That’s probably the most common, but it’s not the one that I would have selected. I would have selected solid color. Some people are afraid of solid color stain because they think that it’s like putting paint on the deck. It’s really not. You do see the green through that solid color stain, but it has a lot more pigment in it and therefore lasts a lot longer than semi-transparent. So one thing that I would suggest you do is the next time you’re going to stain is a very good quality stain. Make sure the surface is properly prepped in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions and then apply a solid color stain. And I think you’ll see a deck that’s going to last a lot longer and wear better at the same time. |
| 0:29:23 | CALLER: Okay. And so if I use the same brand, it should be okay to go over the existing semi-transparent. |
| 0:29:30 | TOM: Even to stay with the same brand. You know, you can use a different brand as long as you properly prepare the deck before you make that application. So if there’s any loose stain or loose fibers, the wood, you may have to do some sanding and some scrubbing. If you do pressure washing, that’s okay. But make sure the deck is really, really dry. The only pressure washing and stain. So pressure washer should wait a couple of days in the hot sun for it to really dry out before you apply the stain. |
| 0:29:58 | CALLER: Thank you so much. I appreciate it. You’re welcome. |
| 0:30:01 | LESLIE: Got a question here from Martha who wrote in saying, and I always imagine it’s Martha Stewart when it’s Martha. I know it’s not. But in my mind, Martha. |
| 0:30:08 | TOM: Stewart would not be asking this question because she knows not to do this. |
| 0:30:12 | LESLIE: So? So Martha asks, How do I remove paint from a brick fireplace surround? It’s a lot of work. |
| 0:30:19 | TOM: You know, look, there are certain things that you do in terms of projects that take a commitment and whether this case is your commitment, Martha, or the past owners commitment. Once you put paint on a brick fireplace, it’s there to stay. It doesn’t come off as long as you can scrape it off. I mean, it’s even harder to get off the wall, but it’s not even the scraped it off a wall or scrape it off trim. You know, bricks are so porous that all that paint gets in every nook and cranny and it just is not coming off. So my advice to you is to think about repainting with a color that you love and decorate around it because you’re going to end up in a total frustration Leslie, right? As she tries to remove the paint from a fireplace. |
| 0:30:59 | LESLIE: I mean, that paint always going to be there in some capacity. It’s just going to be thinner, more spread out, Like it just doesn’t come off the way you want it to. So definitely pick a color you like and just enjoy it. All right. Next up, we’ve got Mark who wrote in saying, I’m preparing to install engineered wood flooring over a plywood subfloor. The installation instructions say that there should not be more than three six inch deep over a six foot distance. How could I make sure the subfloor is flat for the new floor levels? |
| 0:31:30 | TOM: Well, levels. But the question is, how do you fill in those gaps? I got to tell you, the one issue I have with a lot of these new flooring products is those specs in terms of unlevel, this seem to be getting smaller and smaller and smaller. I mean, three, six, seven inches that. |
| 0:31:44 | LESLIE: Is little. |
| 0:31:45 | TOM: Has little over a six foot distance. You know, that is not much. |
| 0:31:49 | LESLIE: It’s really not an anything. |
| 0:31:50 | TOM: It really is. And I mean, a perfectly built house can have that kind of a depth, you know, just because maybe the plywood lip is up a little bit. So here’s you know, they have floor leveling compounds for this. And if it’s kind of a large area, I would use that. Now with the floor leveling compound, it’s kind of like a very thick slurry. And you pour it out and it dries pretty quick and it raises the floor to level A of the trade, though, is this what you want to do is get a level and you want to figure out how thick that coating has to be. And once you figure that out, you put in a couple of screws to represent the height of where you want the floor to be. So if you have the level, it’s a four foot level, right? And you have it on the wood, then you have it out where you’re going to have to actually make up some space. You drive a screw and then you leave it hanging up off the subfloor, just enough to represent the thickness. And then when you put the slurry in, you can match it to the level of the screw. Hence it’s a little trickier to trade make that job just a little bit easier. If it’s only in a little area, you can kind of build up some of those dips with just tar paper. I’ve done it myself. I put a few layers of tar paper, some strips, tarp over, built up some of those dips and had the floor sitting just perfect. |
| 0:33:03 | LESLIE: I mean, and that’s the techniques. It’s been done for ages. If you ever take apart an old house, you find newspapers from like 100 years ago, right? So, you know, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. |
| 0:33:12 | TOM: That’s great. |
| 0:33:13 | LESLIE: Good luck with that, Mark. I hope your floor is not more on levels and 3/16 of it. |
| 0:33:18 | TOM: But it probably is. This is the Money Pit Home Improvement show on a beautiful summer day. Are you guys working on your summer projects? Have they begun? Well, since summer’s here, it’s time to get going now. If you get questions, you got problems, you got issues that you’re run into something you didn’t really count on. Well, you can always count on us to help you with those projects when you reach out at 1-888-MONEY-PIT. |
| 0:33:44 | TOM: Thank you so much for spending part of your day with us. We hope you picked up a tip or two. And if you did, we really appreciate if you drop us a five star review on your favorite podcast app. I’m Tom Kraeutler. |
| 0:33:56 | LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete. |
| 0:33:58 | TOM: Remember, you can do it yourself. |
| 0:33:59 | 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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