TOM: Coast to coast and floorboards to shingles, this is The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show. I’m Tom Kraeutler.
LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.
TOM: What are you working on this beautiful fall weekend? If it’s your house, you are in exactly the right place because we’re here to help. Help yourself first by reaching out to us at MoneyPit.com. Just click through to the Community page and post your question there or pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
Well, Leslie, this is the weekend when the reality of winter really starts to set in.
LESLIE: Why? It’s not snowing. I mean there’s no ice. It’s not even really that cold.
TOM: Ah. But it’s actually much worse than that. It’s the end of daylight savings time.
LESLIE: Oh, that is true.
TOM: The holiday I love to hate. But I’ve got to tell you, aside from setting those clocks back, it is actually a great time to freshen up your batteries and your smoke detectors, carbon-monoxide detectors, replace your filters and more. So we’re going to have a daylight savings to-do list coming up, in just a bit.
LESLIE: And doesn’t it really always seem like your heat conks out right in the middle of winter or your air conditioning quits on the hottest day of the year?
TOM: Of course.
LESLIE: Well, when it comes to your HVAC system, guys, keeping it in shape will keep it from going kaput when you need it the most. We’re going to share simple maintenance tips, just ahead.
TOM: And Halloween decorations may be everywhere but it’s the sight and smell of stink bugs that can really give you the heebie-jeebies. Yep, it’s the season for those guys, too. Stink bugs are out there. They’re looking for warmth as the weather cools. And your house is a perfect place for that. So we’re going to tell you how to keep them out, in just a bit.
LESLIE: And we’ve got a great prize up for grabs this hour to one lucky person who calls in with a question or posts a question online. We’ve got, from Jiawei, the Maximus Lighting Craftsman Smart Security Light worth $179.
TOM: So give us a call right now. The number is 1-888-MONEY-PIT, 888-666-3974.
LESLIE: Kevin in North Dakota is on the line. How can we help you?
KEVIN: Yes, I have a problem in the basement. I had some people come out. I had a drain in the basement that backs up. It comes from the sink in the laundry. And they found clay when they went into the line. And they said that I have to bust up the tile and the concrete and then get to that pipe. Is that the only option?
TOM: The drain that you’re trying to get to is for the laundry and the sink? What actually is draining into that pipe?
KEVIN: Both the laundry – the washer and the upstairs sink.
TOM: OK. Where does the rest of the waste from the house plumbing system drain out? In particular, is there another drainpipe there, even if it’s up higher?
KEVIN: Yes.
TOM: So, another solution might be what’s called a “lift pump.” And this is – it can look like a small bucket or it can be actually installed in the floor. But it’s a bucket that – or bucket. It’s like a circular container, about the size of a large bucket, like about the size of a 5-gallon bucket that – inside of which it’s all sealed. The water drains there and then it’s float-activated, just like the float in a toilet, right? And once it gets filled to a certain level, this float comes on and it takes the water and it pumps it up, against gravity, high enough so that it can – gravity then feeds into the main drainpipe.
That’s a better option, because it sounds to me like this pipe, that’s going out underground and getting clogged through the clay, is probably a gray-water line that’s discharging somewhere but it may not be the main waste line. So if you were to use a lift pump in – as an alternative, you would – you’d be able to completely eliminate that run, both the laundry, the washer and that sink from upstairs into the same lift pump and then just drain it to the main waste vent. And you’ll have a lot less maintenance to deal with over the years.
KEVIN: That’d be great. Thank you.
TOM: Alright. You’re welcome. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Lisa in Michigan is on the line with a window question. What’s going on at your money pit?
LISA: So what I wanted to do is I wanted to put shutters on the house but I’m not sure which color or which style.
TOM: OK.
LISA: But the only way to fasten the shutters is to drill into the siding.
TOM: Oh, interesting. OK.
LISA: So I don’t really want to do that because if it doesn’t work out, then I have holes in my siding.
TOM: Get a hole in your siding, yeah. That’s a good question. Hmm. Got to get creative on this.
Well, let’s – let me ask you this: if you put the shutters up, are they all going to be about the same size?
LISA: Yes.
TOM: Well, then, I don’t think it really matters, because the – you could make sure that the drill pattern is the same no matter what style shutter you put up.
LISA: But I may find out that shutters don’t work at all.
LESLIE: Now, Lisa, do you have any friends who are good at Photoshop?
TOM: Yeah, exactly.
LISA: OK. I just didn’t know if there were any fasteners that locked into the …
TOM: To the siding? You know, there is a – there are types of fasteners that are designed to snap into vinyl siding without causing damage. And they’re often used by electricians or cable-TV installers. And they’re actually called “siding clips.” And basically, they’re designed to kind of hold a wire. And they clip under the siding so you don’t have to actually pierce the siding. You may be able to find those and install some of those clips and then try to figure out a way to hang the shutter to the clip, at least temporarily, so you can have an idea as to whether or not it looks good and you’re happy with it before making that commitment.
So, look for those vinyl-siding hanging – “sliding clips,” they’re called. And maybe that will get you where you want to go. Or as Leslie said, “Best bet: learn Photoshop.”
LESLIE: You are tuned to The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show on air and online at MoneyPit.com. Give us a call with your home repair or home improvement question 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 1-888-MONEY-PIT presented by HomeAdvisor.
TOM: And just ahead, it’s the end of daylight savings time but aside from setting those clocks back, now is a great time for a few more easy fix-ups around your house. We’ll tell you what you need to know, after this.
Making good homes better, this is The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio show. I’m Tom Kraeutler.
LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.
TOM: Give us a call, right now, on The Money Pit’s listener line at 1-888-MONEY-PIT presented by HomeAdvisor.
LESLIE: You can get matched with background-checked home service pros in your area, compare prices, read verified reviews and book appointments online, all for free.
TOM: No matter the type of job, HomeAdvisor makes it fast and easy to hire a pro you can trust.
And hey, here’s another great reason to reach out to us by phone or community, because we’re giving away, from Jiawei, the Maximus Lighting Craftsman Smart Security Light worth 179 bucks.
And this is a very cool product. The Maximus Smart Security Light is an HD outdoor home security camera and a smart light that’s sort of built in. And you can also control it from your phone. You get alerted when visitors approach and you can talk to them through a two-way intercom. And it’s got that HD camera and a 16-foot motion-detection capability and a 100-decibel siren alarm that will scare off anybody that shouldn’t be poking around your front door.
LESLIE: It will also allow you to monitor your home from any smart device. You can get instant alerts, watch livestream and play back or even download video. You decide whether to communicate, play a prerecorded message, sound the alarm or even call 911. You can set custom light schedules or use the dusk-to-dawn light preset.
TOM: Installation is super easy. Just remove your old light and install the Maximus Smart Security Light using the very same wiring.
You can learn more at MaximusLighting.com. That Smart Security Light is worth $179. Going out to one listener drawn at random. Make that you. Call us now with your home improvement question at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Keith in New York is on the line and has a flooding basement. What is going on?
KEITH: During times of really heavy rains and downpours, we’ve noticed that the rain comes in through the rocks of the cement wall that our house was built upon. And our house was built back in the 1800s, so it’s been a slow process. And now it just seems like it’s coming in all at once.
TOM: Well, that sounds like a really solid house, Keith. I mean I personally have a house that was built in 1886 and I’ve got old brick foundation here. But I can definitely sympathize with that. And the good news is that this is a very easy problem to solve. One that is very, very common, as well.
And the reason I know it’s going to be super simple for you to solve is because you mentioned that this problem is consistent with heavy rainfall. And that means one thing and one thing only and that is that you have some drainage improvements to make, my friend. But those improvements are not inside the house, they’re outside the house.
So, you need to look very carefully at the foundation perimeter. And you start with the gutter system, right? You’ve got to make sure you have gutters. You’ve got to make sure the gutters are not clogged and that the downspouts are clear and free-flowing and discharging at least 4 to 6 feet away from the house. You’ve got to manage that roof water. If you let the water run off the roof, right along the foundation, it’s going to head right into the basement. That is the number-one cause of the condition that you’re describing.
The number-two cause is the angle of the soil at the foundation perimeter. Sometimes, if the soil – soil is going to settle over time, especially if you had a water problem. It settles as it goes. You can collect a lot of water because it’s not running away from the house. So, what you need to do is add some soil to the foundation perimeter to slope it away. And you want to use clean fill dirt, not topsoil, so that it can be tamped down and give you a good slope. You want to drop about 6 inches over 4 feet. You can add some mulch or you can add some pebbles or really, sod, anything you want on top of that. But you’ve got to have that grade established first.
Once that grade is established and once those gutters are clean, free-flowing – and also, make sure you’ve got enough downspouts. Generally speaking, you want one downspout for about every 400 to 600 square feet of roof. So if you stand back from your house and kind of try to rough that out, maybe figure out kind of in your mind what a 10×10 section looks like and just kind of do the math, make sure you’ve got enough spouts.
And managing that roof water, managing the drainage around the foundation perimeter, that will stop that problem from happening in a heartbeat.
KEITH: Cool. Because we built a little gutter system when it hits the ground now, because we tried to move it away from the basement area. When the rain comes down, it comes right off on a slant.
TOM: Yep. Well, do you have a gutter system?
KEITH: On the new part, yes. This is a really old roof.
TOM: Well, if you don’t have gutters on the whole house, that’s the first place to start.
And by the way, if you’re going to put it up, I would put up the 6-inch gutters, not the 4-inch gutters. I would step up the gutter size because I find that it’s not that much more money. And if you do that, you’ll find that they clog a lot less frequently because the downspouts are just wider.
KEITH: Well, thank you very much.
TOM: Alright. Good luck, Keith. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Kay in Arkansas is on the line and needs some help changing a wall surface.
What’s going on, Kay?
KAY: Well, it is a sturdy home. Cinder block. Probably just that thick but it has the brick on the outside. But the inside, I would just like something a little more pleasant to look at.
TOM: OK. That makes sense. So, are we talking about a basement here?
KAY: Nope. This is an above-ground. It is a cabin on the lake property.
TOM: So you need a paint that can cover the masonry-block walls.
KAY: Well, a paint or stucco or something that gives it a different texture than a cinder-block look.
TOM: Kay, the process of coating the interior walls isn’t as much stucco as it is plastering. So what has to happen is that wall surface has to be covered with a layer of plaster, much in the same way they used to build plaster walls many, many years ago in, say, the 30s or the 40s. In fact, in the late 40s, they used to plaster right over drywall and that was one of the best wall constructions ever. So those are the options that you have to choose from.
Doing the plaster is probably not the job you want to do as your first DIY project. But if you work with a plastering company – somebody who does this every day – they would have the skills to make the plaster look nice and smooth and have an attractive surface without really taking up much space, in terms of it getting too thick.
KAY: Right, right. So that’s strange. I have plaster walls on my house at home.
TOM: Oh, well, maybe they’re going to follow you to the new house.
KAY: Yeah. OK.
TOM: Kay, good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
Well, it’s about to get a lot darker a lot quicker, because daylight savings time ends this weekend. But aside from just setting clocks back and forgetting to wake up in the morning, now is a great time to take on a few more simple tasks.
LESLIE: That’s right. This is the perfect time for smoke-detector maintenance. Change the batteries, test for proper operation. If your detectors are more than a few years old, you want to replace them and make sure to use a dual-sensor detector that’s going to pick up both those small, smoldering fires and the flash fires.
TOM: Also, check out your carbon-monoxide detectors. And if you don’t already have them, you want to add at least one near the bedrooms. Now, some heat sources and faulty appliances can generate carbon monoxide. And it’s called “the silent killer” because it doesn’t have any odor. So it can really threaten your family’s safety.
LESLIE: And yeah, if your carbon-monoxide detector does sound an alarm, don’t ignore it, don’t disable it. Actually get out of the house, because those detectors go off for a reason. You should immediately open those windows, evacuate your family and call in a professional to find the source of the problem.
TOM: Good advice. 888-666-3974 is our number. If you need some advice on your home improvement project, give us a call right now.
LESLIE: Heading over to Illinois. Gail has got an issue with airflow at the roofline. What’s going on?
GAIL: Well, my home is a pole-barn constructed home, three years old, all metal, on 4 feet up off the ground. And my heating duct and the air-conditioning, it’s all in the ceiling. And I have high ceilings – vaulted ceilings. And I’m having trouble with settlement. It’s settling, as far as I’m concerned, way too much and I don’t know if there’s – in the tape that – from between the duct tape that there are – not the duct tape but the tape in the …
TOM: Yeah, the drywall tape. Yeah. So you’re getting some cracking and some movement in that ceiling area, Gail?
GAIL: Oh, yeah. I know I’ve got movement in the house because there’s – you know, it’s all open.
TOM: Right. Mm-hmm.
GAIL: And I know there’s not walls. The whole thing’s in place.
TOM: Yep.
GAIL: So, therefore, I’m going to get some. But this one that concerns me is in the back because – my son’s in construction and he said, “Well, you don’t have it vented out. It could be a damp problem up there.” I had my contractor come out today and take a look at it and there’s no dampness in because they spray with some kind of a solvent that adheres to the floor – I mean up on the ceiling and around the sides and it seals it in. And my son was concerned that – he says, “Well, where’s the air vent?” I said, “Well, I guess we don’t have one.”
TOM: OK. So let me give you some background information on this type of an application. So, it sounds like your home has been insulated with spray foam. It’s an excellent product. In fact, I have it in my own house. And when you use a spray-foam application, you do not – do not – vent the attic. You only vent the attic if you’re using a batt insulation, like fiberglass or cellulose or mineral wool. In those cases, you need to vent the attic because it carts moisture out. When you use spray foam, your attic is not an unconditioned attic; it’s become a conditioned attic. And so in that case, you do not vent it.
I don’t think your problem is a lack of ventilation. In fact, I’m sure of that with a spray-foam house. I think what you’re describing to me is normal expansion and contraction in a newer home. Those types of situations where the drywall tape loosens up and cracks and pulls away, pretty typical in that particular type of scenario.
Now, the repair on this has to be done in such a way that you’re not just sort of putting back what’s there. You need to pull off the loose tape, all of it. Cut it away. And then you’re going to gently sand that area. And then you’re going to apply a type of drywall tape that’s perforated and made of fiberglass. It looks like netting. And it’s tacky, so you can basically stick it on across the crack. And then you put three coats of spackle over that. And what that tends to do is bridge the gap across that seam much better than just paper tape would and hopefully stop the crack from reforming.
So you can’t just try to respackle what’s there. It’ll just keep showing through again and again and again. You need to take off the loose tape and replace it with the perforated tape and then refinish it, prime it, paint it and you’re done.
Gail, thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Up next, doesn’t it always seem like your heat conks out right in the middle of winter or your A/C calls it quits on the hottest day of the year? Well, keeping those systems in shape will keep them from going kaput when you need them the most. Richard Trethewey, the plumbing-and-heating contractor on TV’s This Old House is here with tips to keep those systems in tip-top shape, just ahead.
TOM: And today’s edition of This Old House on The Money Pit is presented by Healthful Home. You can detect the worst mold with the Healthful Home 5-Minute Mold Test Kit. Then you can treat mold, bacteria and airborne allergens with their Fog-U Mold Aerosol. Find innovative Healthful Home solutions, exclusively at Ace Hardware or HealthfulHome.com.
We’ll be back with more of your questions, next.
Making good homes better, this is The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio show. I’m Tom Kraeutler.
LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.
TOM: And hey, whether you’re buying, selling or just downright enjoying your home, we are here for you every step of the way. Give us a call, right now, with your home improvement or décor question at 1-888-MONEY-PIT presented by HomeAdvisor, the fast and easy way to find the right pro for any kind of home project, whether it’s a small repair or a major remodel.
Well, why does it always seem like your heat conks out in the middle of winter or your A/C quits on the hottest day of the year? If you don’t take care of your system, that’s exactly what can happen. Staying on top of heating and cooling maintenance will also help your systems run more efficiently and last longer.
For the best advice on how to do just that, we turn now to Richard Trethewey. He’s the heating and plumbing expert for TV’s This Old House.
Welcome, Richard.
RICHARD: Nice to be in The Money Pit again.
TOM: It’s a pleasure to have you, my friend.
And we usually ignore the HVAC system until something goes wrong. But that’s the worst thing you can do. This is a system that truly needs regular care and feeding, right?
RICHARD: Absolutely. Proper maintenance is not difficult or costly and it can really save you a lot of trouble in the long run. It has to run all winter and if you don’t maintain it, it’s not going to take care of you.
TOM: So let’s talk about the reason that it needs maintenance. Burning fossil fuel just like running a car. If you don’t tune it up, everything gets dirty, gunked up and it can actually be unsafe.
RICHARD: That’s right. Every time that burner fires, it’s a little bit of incomplete combustion and so, sooner or later, for any fuel – gas or oil – it does have to be serviced and cleaned.
TOM: So if we hire a service pro, I’m sure that there are as many variations of what they actually do as pros out there. What are the core steps that a pro is going to take to make sure our system is efficient for the season and safe?
RICHARD: Well, one is to make sure that you’re burning the fuel the most efficiently. So that would be the cleaning of the furnace, checking the burner to be sure it’s firing correctly.
The next is to be sure it’s being delivered to the building correctly.
TOM: OK.
RICHARD: Now, you’ve got ducts all through the building; those ducts should be sealed. It’s amazing to me how many ducts are put together without any duct sealer and maybe use a little bit of duct tape. So a fair amount of the heat or air conditioning, in cooling mode, that you’re making is not being delivered up to the living space. It’s going into the basement, it’s going into the walls, it’s going to the attic: the places where you don’t need it.
TOM: Now, let’s – let me stop you right there because that’s a really important point. I think one of the core differences between the way we used to put ducts together and the way we do it today is that issue of duct sealing. And we’re talking, of course, about the sealing of the joints of the ducts. If you don’t seal them properly, as you say, all that conditioned air is going to escape. What are a couple of the options if you have an older house and you want to seal those ducts? Most people are going to grab a roll of duct tape but duct tape isn’t the best thing to use on ducts.
RICHARD: Biggest misnomer in the entire industry. The last place you would want to use duct tape is on a duct.
TOM: The adhesive just dries out and falls off.
RICHARD: That’s right. So my preferred method is a duct mastic. It comes in a tub, like paint; it’s sort of like a putty, almost. It’s not quite a paint; it’s a little thicker than putty. It’s a pain in the neck to work with; it gets all over you. But you take a brush and you paint all the seams, both the seams where the ducts come together and on the sides of them. And you make sure that all the air stays in there and that’s an elastic – elastomer sort of …
TOM: So it expands and contracts with the duct itself.
RICHARD: That’s right. And so it won’t crack.
And the other is these foil tapes. Many of them have a rubberized backing on it that has got a great adhesion to it. You put that onto the ducts and the air stays in the duct.
TOM: Now, that’s something you only have to do once, thankfully.
RICHARD: Absolutely. Absolutely.
TOM: But back to the steps of the service. What about filters? That’s another thing that people seem to ignore. I remember in the years I was a home inspector, I would see these incredibly dirty blower compartments on furnaces and then a brand-new filter, obviously just stuck in for the inspection itself.
RICHARD: That’s right.
TOM: This is something that truly has to be replaced on a very regular basis.
RICHARD: You can’t change the filter enough, in my opinion. And it becomes mostly a function, though, of the amount of contaminants in the house. If you have pets, with pet hair and dander, they should be changed regularly. At the least case, they should be changed before the start of each season, before heating season and again before cooling season.
TOM: Now, speaking of cooling season, what additionally do you have to do to service your cooling system?
RICHARD: Well, you want to make sure that the cooling coils – the place where the air goes across, if you ever looked inside any of these, it would be like aluminum fins. And you want to be sure those are clean as a whistle. And so, if there’s algae or any sort of mold buildup, a good service tech would be sure to do a coil cleaning to be sure that the air going across that coil is picking up all that cooling power or the heating power in heating mode.
You also want to make sure the refrigerant level is correct on your air conditioner. You know, nowadays, any good service tech knows how to read his refrigeration gauges. The proper amount of refrigeration is critical. Too much refrigerant doesn’t help you and too little doesn’t help you. So you need somebody that knows what they’re doing.
TOM: Now, what about the blower? Anything to adjust with the blower itself?
RICHARD: You can. Most of these blowers are designed to be matched to the furnace that they’re actually coming in.
TOM: OK.
RICHARD: There’s not a lot of changes. There’s one thing that’s very interesting in the furnace industry, though, and that’s a thing called an ECM blower motor: electronically commutated motor.
TOM: And how does that work?
RICHARD: And with that, that blower fan, instead of just being at one speed, can actually change in according to how much resistance is out there. So, as zones or dampers are opened or closed, the fan will reflect that and sort of cruise control up or down to match. And it saves a lot of electricity.
TOM: So that’s something that you might want to consider if you’re doing a retrofit.
RICHARD: That’s right.
TOM: Speaking of retrofits, when does it make time to change out an old furnace or an old air conditioner with one that’s newer and far more efficient? Do you wait until it fails? Do you wait until it becomes unsafe? I mean many times, I remember folks only replacing furnaces when the heat exchanger cracked.
RICHARD: Well, I think you – some of the things that affect that decision is the cost of fuel. And if you have a furnace that’s been in there for a long time and if it, on its best day, was 75-percent efficient – and now you have a furnace you can put in that would be 95-percent efficient.
Well, that’s an important number because as fuel goes up, if I can save 25 and 30 and 40 percent on my fuel bill, there’s really no better place to put money nowadays. If you had $10,000 to put into a bank, what would you – you can’t get any return on that, right?
TOM: That’s true.
RICHARD: So if I could do something that could avoid a major cost each winter and every winter it gets better and better as fuel goes up, then it’s a great investment. Most people don’t do it, though, until it breaks. They say it’s not the romantic part of the house. They just say, “Well, I’ll wait for it to break.”
TOM: Now, there is one thing that you can do, even if you have a small budget, that is guaranteed to save you a lot of energy and that is to replace your standard thermostat with one that’s a setback thermostat, correct?
RICHARD: Yeah, a clock thermostat. Let’s not heat the building or cool the building when people are not there.
TOM: Makes a lot of sense.
RICHARD: That’s right.
TOM: Richard Trethewey, the plumbing-and-heating contractor on TV’s This Old House, great advice. Thanks so much for stopping by The Money Pit.
RICHARD: Thanks for having me.
LESLIE: And remember, you can watch Richard and the entire This Old House team on This Old House and Ask This Old House on your local PBS station.
TOM: And This Old House and Ask This Old House are brought to you on PBS by GMC. GMC, we are professional grade.
Still ahead, the scary holiday may have passed but the scary stink bugs? Well, they’re here to stay as they head inside to look for warmer places to hang out. We’ll tell you how to stop them from hanging out in your house, after this.
This is The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show on air and online at MoneyPit.com. I’m Tom Kraeutler.
LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.
TOM: And today’s edition of The Money Pit is presented by Jiawei. Safeguard your home and loved ones with the Smart Security Light by Maximus Lighting, the porch light redefined. Equipped with two-way talk, high-definition camera, 17-foot motion detection and a 100-decibel siren alarm. Learn more at MaximusLighting.com.
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Now we’ve got Scott on the line who needs some help rearranging a door swing. What’s going on?
SCOTT: We just bought a new place and in our downstairs bathroom, the door now swings into the left. But the problem is the light switch is then behind the door.
TOM: Oh, yeah. So you’ve got to walk in the bathroom, close the door in the dark, fumble for the light switch and turn it on.
SCOTT: Yes, that’s pretty much it. So I’m just curious if there’s a way to switch the handing of the door without replacing the whole casing and (inaudible).
TOM: Not easily. It’s probably easier to run a new light switch on the other side than it is to change out the door. Because the hole is drilled where the hole is drilled. And if you were to change the hand, you’d basically have to put a new hole on the other side, I would think.
SCOTT: Sure.
TOM: Yeah, doors don’t flip right and left too easily unless you’re talking about the door in your washing machine that’s designed to do that, you know. An interior door doesn’t turn very easily, so I would suggest you just run a new switch on the other side. And you could just put a blank-out plate across the one that’s there now because, frankly, nobody’s going to see it.
SCOTT: Alright. Thank you very much.
TOM: You’re welcome. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
Well, they’re pretty creepy to look at and they’re not much better on the nose. Stink bugs, we’re talking about here. And they’re pests that emit a very distinct odor for protection against predators. And now that it’s getting colder outside, guess what? They’re on the rise and looking for a nice, toasty, warm space inside your house to hang out.
LESLIE: Yeah. You know what? They’re harmless but that doesn’t mean that you want them and their smell in your house. So, the first thing you’ve got to do is seal all the cracks and crevices in and around your home. And as an extra measure, install weather-stripping under the interior doors.
TOM: Now, you also want to protect the vents in the attic and the crawlspaces with screening. And make sure all of those screens on windows are in good shape. You also want to store any chopped firewood on a rack outside and away from your home’s exterior walls. And take away any boards or boxes or other possible stink-bug hangouts that are in your yard and your garden. All those places are perfect for stink bugs to kind of stay behind where it’s nice and moist and shaded and then eventually make their way into your house.
LESLIE: And you know what, Tom? Oddly, I saw a stink bug on the New York City subway system the other day.
TOM: See?
LESLIE: So weird.
TOM: Well, they’re warm, too, right? Yeah.
LESLIE: It was warm on the train but it was really creepy. I’m not going to lie.
And you know what, guys? As you’re dealing with all of this fall yard care and the season really is winding down, you want to keep the weeds and the grass trimmed around the fences and those drainage ditches, where stink bugs can congregate. It’s going to help keep those bugs away from not only your house but your yard, too.
TOM: Now, here’s a tip: if they do get in your house, don’t squash them. Because it gets a lot worse when you’ve got smashed stink bugs around, believe me. They really stink up the place. The best thing to do is to vacuum them up.
Now, another little trick of the trade when you’re vacuuming. Now, if you vacuum them into a typical vacuum bag, guess what? That bag starts to stink and you’ve got to throw it away. But what you can do is take a stocking and stick it in the end of the vacuum hose. And then sort of take a rubber band and wrap it around the outside so it stays in place. You’re kind of creating a built-in net inside the hose. Then, when you suck up the stink bugs, you can basically pull that stocking off with all the stink bugs included and then take it outside and toss it away.
There you go. Need more tips on how to take care of stinky, little problems like that around your house or maybe a home repair project you’ve got to get done? Give us a call, right now, at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Just ahead, do your clothes seem to take a really long time to dry? Well, the problem might be how the dryer vent was run and it could be dangerous. We’re going to have the solution, after this.
TOM: Where home solutions live, this is The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show. I’m Tom Kraeutler.
LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.
TOM: Give us a call, right now, on The Money Pit’s listener line at 888-MONEY-PIT presented by HomeAdvisor.
LESLIE: That’s right. You can get matched with background-checked home service pros in your area and compare prices, read verified reviews and book appointments online, all for free.
TOM: No matter the type of job, HomeAdvisor makes it fast and easy to hire a pro you can trust.
LESLIE: Alright. But speaking of pros you can trust, you’ve got us right now. So post your questions or call in.
And I’ve got one here from Tyler who writes: “My dryer vent is on the opposite side from the wall outlet and the vent hose kinks. Would it be OK to run a length of PVC pipe with elbows instead?”
TOM: Hmm. Not PVC pipe because, remember, that dryer exhaust duct, well, that gets pretty hot inside. It could catch on fire. You certainly don’t want to use a PVC pipe; it’s just not designed for that.
What I would do is you could use metal dryer-exhaust ducting. It kind of looks like HVAC ducting but it’s made of solid metal. It’s usually sold flat and then you assemble it yourself. There’s sections that you sort of fold together and there’s a seam that locks in place.
Keep in mind that what you want to do is have as few twists and turns as possible. The quicker you can get that out of your house, the better. And consider the fact that you might even be able to side-vent your dryer. Sometimes, the best way to get the dryer – to get the exhaust out of the dryer – is to not go out the back of the dryer, where there’s not a lot of room to work, but go out the side. And there’s usually a slight modification you have to do to the back of the dryer for that to happen.
But I did that, for example, because my – the back of my dryer was facing a wall with a bedroom on the other side. And it would have had to run through about two or three turns and out about 12 feet to get to the outside. By going to the left and out the side of the dryer, I was out inside of 2 feet. And so, I’ve got to tell you, doing that makes the clothes dry a lot quicker and it’s a heck of a lot safer. So, not – don’t use PVC. Use metal dryer-exhaust duct instead.
LESLIE: Yeah. And make sure that that dryer vent is totally clean going to the outside of your house. You don’t want any extra added heat or fire risks in there, as well, with all that lint.
Alright. Next up, Josie in Massachusetts writes: “Our house was built in the 1940s and all the doors have original mortise-style locks, antique knobs and backplates. But all of the keys are missing. I’d like to replace the locking mechanism but keep the antique backplates and knobs. Can I add new locks to old knobs and backplates?”
TOM: Ah, that’s a great question.
Now, certainly, you could if you could get the parts. But that becomes the challenge. There are a lot of sources online for antique locks – the actual antiques – plus reproductions. I’m thinking of places like Restoration Hardware.
Right, Leslie?
LESLIE: Oh, yeah. I mean Restoration Hardware will have a lot of beautiful, new door hardware. Really historical-looking in its own right. But there are so many online sources that have historical replicas. And all you have to do is a quick Google search and then you’ll find a ton of places right there to help you find the exact piece.
TOM: Alright. Heidi says that she lives in the house that Jack built. It’s a Colonial and the entire upstairs has no return vents for heating and cooling. “What’s the most economical way to rectify this?”
Well, add return vents, Heidi. You know, HVAC systems work by both supplying and returning air back to the system to be reheated or recooled. And if you don’t have enough return registers, that’s just not going to happen, which means your cost to heat and cool your house is going to get a lot more.
Head on over to HomeAdvisor.com, find yourself an HVAC contractor and get it fixed. You won’t regret it.
This is The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show on air and online at MoneyPit.com. Hey, thank you so much for spending part of this beautiful fall weekend with us. If you’ve got questions and couldn’t get through to the show this hour, remember, we’re open 24/7. So pick up the phone and call us at 888-MONEY-PIT. If we’re not in the studio, we’ll call you back the next time we are. Or post your question online, anytime, in the Community section of MoneyPit.com.
I’m Tom Kraeutler.
LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.
TOM: Remember, you can do it yourself …
LESLIE: But you don’t have to do it alone.
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(Copyright 2017 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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