Show Notes
- Natural Pools: Learn how natural pools offer a pond-like, eco-friendly oasis with no chemicals and low energy costs.
- Insulation Tax Credits: Keep your home cozy and your wallet happy with generous tax rebates for insulation upgrades.
- Wide-Plank Flooring: Make your small rooms look bigger instantly with wide-plank flooring.
Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
Plus, answers to your home improvement questions about:
- Drainage Problems: Kevin thinks groundwater is coming through an opening in his concrete slab, but he really needs to correct the drainage outside the house.
- Window Glazing: The wet glazing is starting to deteriorate in Dana’s fixed pane windows. She gets tips on removing the trim and adding silicone caulk.
- Solar Panels: Solar panels have made Joseph’s energy bills go way up instead of saving him money. He needs an attorney after performance claims were not delivered.
- Crown Molding: Traditional crown molding looks great but is one of the hardest carpentry jobs to do. Tracy gets info on installing easy DIY foam molding instead.
- Porch Lattice: Darrell needs tips on improving his wraparound porch. We suggest adding composite lattice around the sides that will be easy to maintain.
- Renovation Projects: Deciding what renovations to do and how much to budget? Kay should hire a professional home inspector and an architect to identify what needs to be done in the vacant home she bought.
- Painting Cedar Shingles: What’s the right way to repaint old cedar shingles? Paul must scrape off all the loose paint, then prime before painting over again.
- Bubbling Paint: A new exterior paint job is already starting to bubble! Helen’s painter must properly clean and prime the surface so the new paint will adhere.
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 to help you with projects you’d like to get done around your house. So if you’ve got one and maybe you need some advice to get to the next stage, maybe you started it and ran into a little snafu. Maybe you’re thinking about doing a project but don’t know where to begin. Give us a call at 1-888-MONEY-PIT or post your questions to Moneypit.com/ask because that’s what we do. That’s what we’ve done for many, many years. And we’re looking forward to hearing your questions and your calls today. So reach out. Coming up on today’s show, if you guys love to have a backyard swimming spot and this is the year you’re finally going to do something about it, we’re going to share a very cool alternative to traditional chlorine pools. |
| 0:01:20 | TOM: We’ve got the scoop on natural in-ground pools that are just like ponds. They’re gorgeous, but they’re very earth friendly. |
| 0:01:27 | LESLIE: And also ahead, how’d you like to get 1200 dollars from the federal government to help you with some home improvements? Well, you can if that improvement is insulation. We’re going to share what you need to do to cash in on some serious savings just ahead. |
| 0:01:40 | TOM: And if you’re looking for flooring for a small room, we’re going to share a simple trick of the trade that can make small rooms look spacious. |
| 0:01:47 | LESLIE: All right. But first, guys. From bathrooms to basements and demolition to decor. We’re here to help you tackle your to do’s with confidence. So help yourself first by reaching out with your home improvement question. |
| 0:01:58 | TOM: And you can do that by calling us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT or the easy way. And the fastest way to get a response is to go to moneypit.com/ask. Click the blue microphone button and record your question right there. It’ll come right to us and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible. |
| 0:02:14 | LESLIE: Heading out to Arkansas, we’ve got Kevin on the line. What’s going on in your Money Pit? |
| 0:02:18 | CALLER: Well, I bought this house is a small house. Real small. And I’m doing a total renovation. And it when I pulled out the original one piece, took a shower, I found behind the wall there a square opening in the concrete slab through which the water pipes for coming into the home and then obviously in the shower in most of the bathroom kitchen, which is on the other side of that wall Anyway, we’ve had tons of rain this year, and I noticed that when it rained, I get water in that and the bottom of that opening their ground and water would come up. And so it seems so it’s obviously through the concrete into the subfloor and there’s access there for water to add moisture to come in the house. |
| 0:03:09 | TOM: So I can tell you this because this is consistent with rainfall. This is not groundwater coming up, so to speak. It’s more like a drainage issue. What I would encourage you to do is this the next time you get really good rainfall and it’s raining cats and dogs out there and no thunder, lightning where you can safely go outside with an umbrella and just look at what’s happening with the drainage around the foundation perimeter of your house, because I can guarantee you that somewhere water is doing more collecting and ponding than running away. Typically, you want to make sure that all the soil slips away or the downspouts are extended farther than they normally are. Usually they’re extended into a little splash. BLOCK But when you have a water issue like this, you want to extend them about four or five feet. And what we found is that you can move water away from a space like that. You won’t have this water that’s collecting in this easy access point into your house. It’s not the right approach to sort of seal off these points as much as it is to stop the water from getting there in the first place. And based on doing this for many, many years, I can tell you that these issues that are consistent with rainfall are absolutely not a rise in groundwater table. They’re just a drainage issue. And you’ve got to figure out where that’s happening and why it’s happening. And the problem will sit will fix itself. Once you correct that. |
| 0:04:24 | CALLER: Okay. So it is pooling directly outside the house and that location having done gutters, downspouts. Yeah. So that’s part of the mitigation process. |
| 0:04:34 | TOM: Okay. So you have you have no gutters and downspouts, correct. That’s going to make a world of difference. That’s the first thing you should do. And remember, when you bring those downspouts out, you want to extend them four or five feet away from the house. I think you’ll see an immediate change. |
| 0:04:49 | CALLER: Excellent. That’s encouraging. I appreciate it. |
| 0:04:52 | TOM: You got it covered right by now. |
| 0:04:54 | LESLIE: We’ve Godane on the line. He’s got a question about window glazing. What’s going on? I have a number of fixed pane picture windows in my home that the glazing is kind of pulling out of. It’s not the kind of old school glazing that gets hard and chips off, but it’s kind of like a little bit sticky and soft. And it’s just coming out of. And so I’m wondering how I can fix this without having to actually take the window out. I could probably take the trim off on the exterior fairly easily, but some of these are quite large and I really don’t want to mess with taking out the interior trim. |
| 0:05:45 | TOM: So, Dana, you’re on the right track here. The glazing that you’re talking about is actually what’s known as wet glazing. And wet glazing is the glazing that’s between the fixed pane windows. That’s all sealed window unit, right? And then the frame that it’s contained within which in your case sounds like it’s wood. And it seems to me like the original manufactured wet glazing that was in there starting to deteriorate and fall out, as you described it. So I would do kind of what you’re suggesting in the sense that I would take off the trim to get to the side of that, to get to the be able to see all of that. I’d pull out anything that’s loose deteriorated and easily comes out and then simply replace that with a silicone caulk. A good quality silicone caulk can take the place of that old wet glazing. And here’s a little trick of the trade. You want to try to get that filled up as much you can if you wet your hand or what your finger or use something like a little bit of window cleaning solution on the tips of your fingers, it will slide over that glazing over that caulk and leave a nice, perfect bead in its place. Usually you can’t do you can do this with latex, but when it’s silicone, you can’t. So are you going to wait your hand first and use my favorite trowel, which are my fingers, to like sort of smooth it in there and have it lay in nice and tight. So it’s a project. So I would try to do everything you know exists in one attempt in this way. |
| 0:07:04 | TOM: You’ll have some number of years before perhaps any additional glazing starts to separate. |
| 0:07:10 | LESLIE: Hey, Money Pit podcast fans, you want to help us out, we’ll go ahead and leave us a five star review on Apple Podcasts, and we’re going to give you a virtual high five. Plus, you’ll be helping us spread the word about our show. Just go to Money Pit dot com slash review. Well, Father’s Day is coming up. It’s always nice to celebrate the dads and the dad figures in your life. And if those guys like steak there is a great deal happening right now on Omaha steak scam you can score $30 off of your qualifying order by using the promo code Money Pit. |
| 0:07:41 | TOM: Absolutely. I am so psyched that they gave us a promo code for Father’s Day because. |
| 0:07:46 | LESLIE: You can’t shop for yourself. Tom. |
| 0:07:47 | TOM: Oh, come on. Why not? |
| 0:07:50 | LESLIE: All right, I’ll be really good. |
| 0:07:51 | TOM: I love those tasty bacon wrapped, flaming yarns. Those are just delish and really any of their gourmet grill levels. And if you order from Omaha Dexcom, you can get $30 off with the simple promo code Money Pit. So why not check out Omaha Dexcom, pick out a scrumptious dish for dad and use the promo code Money Pit to save 30 bucks. |
| 0:08:13 | LESLIE: Heading out to sunny California where we’ve got Joseph on the line who had an experience with solar panels. What’s going on? |
| 0:08:20 | CALLER: So a couple of things. When they first installed it, they promised us that it was supposed to cut our bill down to nothing. And that did not happen. We’re now paying for the solar panels, which is about $300 a month, and it’s going to be a balloon loan that goes up to almost $400 a month. And now we’re getting to the end of two where we have two true up and we’re having the highest bill we ever had. Not to mention the fact that at one point he sold there they hook these up, our electrical box caught on fire. Oh, boy. So granted, they came and they fixed that and they made it to where were operating again. But it’s just it’s not operating to what they what they said that that it would and we’re talking with them but like they’re kind of like beating around the bush like, oh, well it’s producing 7000 whatever and that it’s doing its job. But we had an existing system and like, I can’t tell if it’s their system that’s doing it or our system that’s doing it So it’s like the system we’re in a rock and a hard spot trying to pay for this now and trying to find a way to afford this new true up. |
| 0:09:31 | TOM: Wow. I’m so sorry to hear that. And unfortunately, it’s not unusual. folks ask us all the time about solar and they talk to us about experiences they have with the promises that are made by solar companies. And the salesmen or I presume, are all highly commissioned. And we’ve got a lot of issues with this. one of which is what you just said you got a lease or a loan to pay for the panels and that loan’s going to continue. And if you go to sell this house, you’re going to have to pay off that loan for one thing. Secondly, right now, there’s a big increase in battery technology that’s going to eliminate the need for a good number of the panels that they probably sized the house for. once the battery technology catches up, which it’s doing in a very rapid pace, we’ll be able to have fewer solar panels because those panels will feed a bank of batteries that could sustain the house for quite a long period of time. So you simply don’t need to have the number of panels that you have right now. My only suggestion for you is that if they made representations on performance in the contracts that you signed and they’re not delivering on that, then I think you have a claim. But unfortunately this is one that you’re going to probably have to pursue with an attorney because they’re not clearly owning up to it. And I’ve found and I don’t know anything about this company, but I found that the representations that they make are pretty disingenuous and just plain inaccurate to get you to sign that dotted line and buy these expensive panels and then suffer the consequences for years and years. |
| 0:11:01 | CALLER: Well, yeah, because we actually almost backed out of it right before they did it, because they gave us this contract saying it was going to produce 7000 kilowatt hours or whatever. And were like, no, no, no. We saw that last year. We produced much more than that. And then so they gave us a call back and they were like, Yeah, but what you’re not understanding is, is that we’re also putting two Tesla batteries of those Tesla batteries are going to offset that 7000. And so they make that 7000 be like a lot more and that’s not the case. So like we are barely producing over 7000 and that’s just an it looks like that’s between theirs and my existing one that I already had. So it’s like they, in my mind I would think that they can’t take credit for what, what our panels that we already have. |
| 0:11:47 | TOM: Already had already. |
| 0:11:48 | CALLER: Doing, right? So right but they’re saying, oh well it’s working properly, you know and but they verbally told us, which obviously that’s not going to hold up anywhere that we would have little to no bill every single month. And that is not the case. |
| 0:12:02 | TOM: You’re going to probably have to get an independent expert to look at that system and do a report that explains exactly what they did and what they didn’t do and what you’re generating and what they’re not generating type part of this. But I would definitely pursue this because these guys have to be stopped. It’s just ridiculous. And you’re not alone. |
| 0:12:18 | CALLER: All right. Well, thank you. |
| 0:12:19 | TOM: All right. Sorry to hear that happened. |
| 0:12:22 | LESLIE: Well, there’s a new trend in alternative swimming pools, and it’s not the saltwater pool either. It’s called a natural swimming pool. And it’s kind of a high end pond in your backyard now, rather than chlorine. These pools use living ecosystems to actually clean the water and keep it healthy For swimming. It’s sustainable, it’s eco-friendly, and it’s very popular in Europe, where this whole trend sort of originated about 30 years ago. |
| 0:12:45 | TOM: Yeah, and here’s how they work now. A natural swimming pool is actually made up of two separate but adjoining sections, and the water sort of circulates between them. Now the first is the swimming area and the second is known as the regeneration zone, which is essentially a shallow water garden. Now, in that water garden you have aquatic plants that are rooted in a substrate and they act as a biological filter by removing bacteria and contaminants from the water and taking in nutrients. Now what that does is it deprives algae, which we see all too common in natural pools of what it actually needs to flourish. So it’s sort of a natural algae free solution. |
| 0:13:21 | LESLIE: Yeah, they really are gorgeous and done right. You can make them look so natural, so beautiful. And the shape and design, really, that’s up to the homeowner. That pool can be organically curved. It can feel and look like a real pond, or you can make it like rectangular, like a traditional swimming pool. It’s just that the regeneration zone that needs to be equal in area to that swimming zone for proper filtration. So you’ve got to kind of figure out the space that you’re going to need when you’re planning that design phase. |
| 0:13:48 | TOM: Now, the initial construction costs are pretty much the same as a regular swimming pool, but the maintenance costs can be hundreds of dollars lower because you have no chemicals to buy and there’s very little electricity use. So I think it’s a great way to have a beautiful water garden and a swimming pool all at the same time. That ends up being a lot less to maintain than a traditional swimming pool. |
| 0:14:09 | LESLIE: Tracy in Florida is on the line and has taken a chance with some crown molding. Are you doing this yourself? What’s going. |
| 0:14:15 | CALLER: On? So I wanted to install crown molding. I am not handy at all and I was looking into how to install it and I saw that you could install the high density styrofoam like the poly. I forget what it’s called poly. |
| 0:14:36 | TOM: The foam trim. Yes. |
| 0:14:37 | CALLER: Yes. And got good reviews. And it looks kind of like real and it’s easier to install. I just don’t know if it’s a good, good thing to do. |
| 0:14:47 | TOM: Yeah, I think so. crown molding from a carpentry perspective to put crown molding in is one of the most difficult carpentry jobs because you have to cut a compound miter to do that and you also have to copy it, which means you kind of make one piece. The molding is sort of plain. The second one has this compound minor. Then you have the handsaw, part of the wood out of the way. It’s very complicated for a do it yourself work and that’s why these foam moldings have been such a boom to DIYers, because, as you say, they’re very easy to install. They make the system easy to cut, and all you need is caulk. you pretty much using adhesive caulk to hold it in place. You might put a couple of nails in, just sort of tack it while it dries. And as long as you wanted to do a painted crown molding, it really makes a lot of sense because it’s indistinguishable from wood it would paint, right? It’s just foam rolling and you could paint right over that. So if you wanted wood molding we saw the green, then you’d have to do it with traditional wood crown molding. But if you just want to paint it crown molding, yeah, the foam is definitely the way to go. |
| 0:15:47 | CALLER: Oh, great. So that’s something you feel a newbie like me could handle? |
| 0:15:53 | TOM: Yeah. Just make sure you review. You’re probably going to need a few basic tools, like a very simple miter box with a back sore attached to it so you can make nice square clean cuts. But that is not very expensive when you buy a very simple one. Okay. Okay. You know the other thing too, if you have any mistakes and you might give a little gap here and there, just caulk the gap and then paint over the cork hide all your sins. |
| 0:16:16 | CALLER: Oh, great. That’s what I need. |
| 0:16:18 | TOM: All right. Just use latex cork and make sure you have a proper cork trowel. You know what that is? Your fingers. You got five of them on each hand. |
| 0:16:27 | CALLER: Oh, okay. |
| 0:16:28 | TOM: I got to in there to look great. Okay. All right. Take care. Good luck with that project, Tracy. |
| 0:16:34 | CALLER: Thank you so much. |
| 0:16:36 | LESLIE: All right. Now we’ve got Darryl from New Jersey on the line. He’s got a question about a porch. What’s going. |
| 0:16:40 | CALLER: On? We have the house has a wraparound porch. And I’m redoing the porch because a lot of it’s rotted. It’s probably about three feet off the ground. Do I need to add in any kind of vapor barrier underneath the porch? |
| 0:16:56 | TOM: You don’t have to add a vapor barrier under a porch. If it was wise to put a vapor barrier in a crawl space, but under a porch, it’s usually wide open anyway. And I don’t know how you’re going to finish off the outside, but if you’re going to use lattice or skirting lattice when it comes to lattice, if you purchase a wood lattice, that can be very time consuming to maintain. There’s a product out that’s fairly new by Trex. Their website is Trex Lattice works for all Trex lattice work scheme. And what’s cool about this stuff is it’s absolutely gorgeous and it’s made of composite, which means there’s never going to need to be painted. It comes in white and black. It comes in the sort of standard checkerboard look and also has some different patterns. And if I was redoing my porch today, that’s what I would use, because that lattice is a tough area to have to maintain because it’s close to the ground and because it’s damp down there. So I think composites are really good choice for that. And it would be worth investing in a product like that. |
| 0:17:52 | CALLER: Great. Thank you so much. I love your show. Really appreciate the help. |
| 0:17:56 | TOM: So I was checking the email inbox, Leslie, and you got an email. |
| 0:17:59 | LESLIE: I did. |
| 0:17:59 | TOM: You did. It’s actually pretty interesting. It says, Leslie, you’re the best. I remember meeting you on a plane from Charlotte, and I was shocked how much you knew about Home Improvement. Yes, I judged you, unfortunately, because you were a female and I paid the price with you schooling me on the trade. Bravo to your show. Amazing. Anthony from Merrick, New York sent that. Of course. |
| 0:18:20 | LESLIE: It’s a fellow Long Islander. Yeah. Tough on each other. I forgive you, Anthony. It’s cool. |
| 0:18:26 | TOM: I think that’s fantastic. |
| 0:18:28 | LESLIE: Okay. From South Carolina is on the line joining us in need some help renovating an older home. Tell us about it. |
| 0:18:34 | CALLER: We have a property that’s in the neighborhood. It’s going through a re gentrification. The home hasn’t been lived in in over seven years. And I’m trying to troubleshoot. What will it take to get that house back up and running? Okay. What steps do I need to take to start to evaluate where my costs are going to be? |
| 0:18:59 | TOM: So you say nobody’s in it now, Have the utilities been on or is it been completely vacant with no utilities. |
| 0:19:05 | CALLER: Completely vacant, no utilities? |
| 0:19:07 | TOM: There’s a number of things that you want to do with the house at this stage. The first thing I might consider doing to kind of give you just a good overall sense as to what it’s going to take is to hire a professional home inspector to do an inspection of that home and explain that you’re trying to identify what kinds of work it’s going to need so that you can either remodel it yourself or sell it or whatever your intentions are for this place. |
| 0:19:33 | LESLIE: But at this point in time, with none of the utilities on. |
| 0:19:36 | TOM: Yeah, that’s a good point. It’s going to be challenging because part of the issue is going to be utilities are off. Do we know if it was proper all the pipes were properly drained before that happened? Or we can have big surprises when the water is turned back on or the gas is turned back on. So, yes, the inspector is not going to tell you everything. But considering that this house has been vacant for so long, I think you might be able to get a good sense as to where you’re going in terms of next steps. And then if I with the biggest projects, are them once you kind of know where you’re going with that, you could consider hiring an architect to help you plan the renovation. If it needs a lot of work, I would recommend that because an architect can look at big picture and make sure that whatever you’re going to do that is going to be consistent with whatever budget you want to put out for it. And then also, of course, you need to have a sense as to what the value is so you can make that cost analysis in terms of whether it’s worthy of putting in whatever, however number of dollars you have to put in there to kind of fix this place up. But just to kind of get you started, since you don’t really have a baseline here, I think it will be well worth three or $400 to hire a professional home inspector. I would recommend that you go to the Web site for the American Society of Home Inspectors. That is Home Inspector.org is their website and those guys, if they’re certified members of ASHIs the acronym of the American Society of Home Inspectors. That’s going to be sort of the cream of the crop. The better inspectors in your area, you can enter a zip code and get presented with a list of inspectors and you can call and speak with them and find one that you can connect with that can address this issue. But then you’ll have a much better idea of what you’re getting involved with here. You won’t know at all, but I think you’ll be much farther along. |
| 0:21:12 | CALLER: Okay. So thank you so much. |
| 0:21:14 | LESLIE: Well, did you know that the government has a program that will refund you up to 1200 dollars in the form of federal tax credit when you tackle an insulation project? Now, according to the experts at Owens Corning, 90% of U.S. homes are under insulated. So this is a project that you need and a way to keep both your home and your wallet cozy. |
| 0:21:34 | TOM: Yeah. Now, the way it works is this. If you make certain energy saving upgrades to your home, like adding insulation and you can qualify for a federal tax credit from the government. And that means you can save money on your taxes while also saving money on your energy bills. |
| 0:21:49 | LESLIE: Now there’s a good reason that you should be tackling this project. First of all, adding insulation gives you a 117% return on your remodeling investment, which is actually the highest ROI for any weatherization project. Now, not only that, upgrading your home’s insulation can also help you stay comfortable all year round. It actually keeps your home warm in the winter, but it also keeps your home cool in the summer so you can kick back and relax and save no matter the weather. |
| 0:22:15 | TOM: Now, I just completed a big installation project about a year ago now. I was insulating the floor of my 130 year old home. And I got to tell you, it made a huge difference that first winter. Older homes can be quirky at the least when it comes to exposing what’s underneath floors or walls. But I used the Owens Corning thermal fiber fire and sound garden. |
| 0:22:36 | TOM: Plus it was easy to install and it made the chilly floors a heck of a lot more comfortable. And it was also fire and moisture resistant. So I got to say, it really went smoothly as a project and we definitely felt a difference right away. |
| 0:22:50 | LESLIE: Yeah, it really is amazing what essentially boils down to a simple improvement can make such a huge difference. Now, if you’re looking to add fiberglass insulation, you need to check out the new pink next gen fiberglass insulation. Now that also uses an advanced fiber technology that creates a soft blanket of insulating micro pockets. That’s really easy to install because it’s no longer itchy like a traditional old fiberglass used to be. And the best part is that by doing a project like that, the tax rebates could cover a significant portion of the costs. we’re talking up to 1200 dollars per year. |
| 0:23:25 | TOM: Yep. So if you’re looking to make your home more energy efficient and you want to save some cash in the process, that federal insulation tax credit might be just the ticket. You’ll find both the Owens Corning thermal fiber and the pink next gen fiberglass insulation at Lowe’s and Lowe’s dot com. |
| 0:23:40 | LESLIE: All right. Now we’ve got Paul coming up to the Money Pit. What is going on at your house and how can we help? |
| 0:23:45 | CALLER: I just bought a house. It’s about 110 years old and it’s cedar shingles on the outside. And it probably has been painted in at least 20 years. So we’re repainting the house. And I started working on I didn’t know how much of the paint should be removed, seeing different things on mine. And I didn’t know how much work to put in before repaint it. |
| 0:24:12 | TOM: So first of all, congratulations for Leslie and I. That’s a baby. You have older houses. It’s still a younger one, but actually I have cedar shingles and they’ve been on the house for well, went through at one point, we took off three layers of siding. House is 130 something years old now. And we restored the cedar shingles over 40 years ago. And since then, it’s gone through I think only two paint job. So the paint for us is the last thing a long time. And here’s why. What we do is when we first of all, we don’t use paint, we use stain. If your house was already painted one rather than stained the difference is the paint sort of sits on top of the shingles and the paint. The stain sort of soaks in. But if you already are dealing with a paint job, you’re kind of stuck and you have to paint it again because you’re not going to get it all off. But in terms of how much you take off, you really want to make sure you’re taking off everything that’s loose. And so if you’re scraping it and your wire brushing it and you’re loosening up as much as you can, that’s all you can do. Because you know, you can’t put good paint over bad paint. So you have to cool stuff off. And the next thing that I would recommend you do, it’s really important step is to make sure you prime it and not just put another coat of paint on it, but because the primer is think of it as the adhesive. It’s the glue that makes the take the paint stick. So you want to prime it properly, and then you put a paint on top of the primer. It will come out so much better and last a lot longer if you prime it. So you don’t want to skip that step. I would not recommend the primer and paint worn for this particular project. Whatever brand you use, I would use a name brand I would use a Benjamin Moore or Sherwin-Williams. I would stick within their line for whatever primer they recommend with the particular finish that you choose. And if you prime it and paint it, I think you can get a paint job. It’s going to last year hopefully 8 to 10 years. Well, it used to be that hardwood floors were only available in very narrow widths. But today we are seeing lots of wide with options, especially the pre refinished hardwood floors. I’ve seen them in five, six, seven or even eight inches wide. And they really become more popular than ever because the wide widths make even smaller rooms look big. |
| 0:26:19 | LESLIE: Yeah. And here’s the trick, because you’re using fewer planks and that means less seams interrupting sort of that pattern. You don’t want a room is kind of small and use a narrower plank and just end up seeing so many lines and so many linear interruptions that space feels busy. It feels more claustrophobic. But if you’re going with a wider plank, that kind of spaces everything out more and makes everything feel a little bit larger and gives everything more breathing room, plus that wider plank gives you more of that beautiful natural grain pattern of the hardwood, and that really lets that flooring shine. So even if the space seems on the smaller side and you’re thinking going with a wider plank might not seem the best, ask if you can borrow a couple of boards and just put them down, try it out and you’ll see it makes space look huge. |
| 0:27:05 | TOM: Yeah, great idea. Now one thing to keep in mind, and that is when you install this kind of floor of the National Wood Flooring Association requires that they be both nail and glued. And it’s important because it will eliminate creaking noises and nails loosening up any gaps that form between the boards. So a little more difficult to install, but so worth it when you see how beautiful they make your home look, especially if you have smaller rooms. |
| 0:27:32 | LESLIE: Helen in Arizona is on the line with a question about some bubbling paint. What is going on? |
| 0:27:38 | CALLER: I had my the exterior of my home painted last summer and the painter had power washed. It came back and a couple of days a day or two and actually did the painting. And it was about two months after that I happened to notice little bubbles appearing under the paint and I. I presume that’s because there’s water under that paint. |
| 0:28:12 | TOM: Not necessarily what you have as a adhesion issue. So the paint’s not sticking to the wood siding or the substrate, whatever it is. This is a wood sided house. |
| 0:28:21 | CALLER: Yeah, it’s a manufactured home. Yes. |
| 0:28:23 | TOM: Okay. Do you know if your painter applied a primer or did he just put the paint on? |
| 0:28:30 | CALLER: Oh, I’m trying to think if my paint did have primer in it. |
| 0:28:33 | TOM: Well, wouldn’t have it in it. It would be a second coat. See, the right procedure would have been to scrape or pressure wash, as he did in this case, to get rid of the loose paint, right? Or mildewed So and let dry and then prime it because primer is what is what makes the paint stick. Now if he did prime it and the paints separating after two months, that’s a big problem. It’s problem for your painter because he did something wrong. There’s no way that paint should be failing after two months. |
| 0:29:04 | CALLER: I had it painted the fall prior and the person did a terrible job. And so I decided to change colors and have it done again. |
| 0:29:16 | TOM: The new painter, the guy who does accepts the condition of the house. So if the if the first guy made any mistakes, then the second guy’s job is to correct those mistakes so that his work looks good. |
| 0:29:28 | CALLER: But there was no bubbling after the first paint job. |
| 0:29:30 | TOM: Okay, I heard you on that. But okay, no matter what was there before. You need to make sure that the house was cleaned and loose, paint removed, but primed because at some point you’re going to see you can’t keep putting layers upon layers of paint and expect everyone to stick to the one before it. Primer is the glue that makes the paint stick. And if you did not prime, I think that’s probably a good reason that this paint is failing. Two days in warm weather should probably have been enough to deal with any moisture from the pressure washing. heck, it’s not much more than just heavy rainfall. So I think what you need to do is to is to contact that painter and have them back and have discussion as to why your paints failing a short period of time. Absolutely. Should not be happening. Thanks for calling us and I wish you the best of luck with that project. |
| 0:30:18 | LESLIE: Jeremy reached out to Team Money Pit and wants to know if not cleaning a bathroom can cause a leak. Why? We recently had a water leak from a shower on the second floor, leaking through the space between the tiles where the crowd is missing. Our landlord is telling us that the grout to tier rated from a lack of cleaning and we are at fault and must pay for the damage. The house is a little over a year old. Cannot cleaning a bathroom caused this? Is there any credibility to him saying this? That is the craziest excuse I’ve ever heard in my life. |
| 0:30:47 | TOM: I’ve got to say, I agree. This has got to be about the dumbest excuse for a lazy landlord I’ve ever heard. This guy has is either has no idea what he’s doing. Apparently so. The answer is absolutely no. Not cleaning a bathroom will not lead to a leak. However, not maintaining your grout and caulk will, which of course is the responsibility of your landlord. So tell your landlord to get busy fixing this as it is definitely 100% his job to get done. Now, usually these kinds of leaks occur when a section of grout is missing or if the seam was never grafted or corked in the first place. Because what happens is when you take a shower, the water splashes off you and then runs down the walls until it finds these little gaps and then sort of drips into the wall space and leaks down to the space below. It’s kind of tricky because sometimes if you just run the shower without you in it, most of that water hits like the drain area. So nothing ever happens. Then when you step in the shower, all of a sudden you get leaks and that’s why it’s bouncing off of you getting on the walls and then finding those little gaps. So to make sure the drain is not leaking, though, there is a little test you can do to prove it. And that is you can easily pour a few gallons of water down that drain directly without splashing on any walls. Just fill up a bucket with water and do that. That will prove it once and for all that it really is the grout between these tiles and nothing in the drains causing this. And regardless, it is not your fault. |
| 0:32:11 | LESLIE: that is amazing. And also, if the House is only a year old, either it wasn’t done correctly or maybe just never done, period. |
| 0:32:18 | TOM: Yeah, good point. |
| 0:32:19 | LESLIE: Now we’ve got a question from Reggie who says, I recently purchased a home where part of the roof is not sloped enough for shingles and has rolled roofing. My home inspector said it would only have a life of 5 to 7 years when it’s time to redo. Are there other roofing materials to consider that might have more longevity? I feel like roll roofing, it lasts a lot longer than that, depending on which one you get. |
| 0:32:38 | TOM: Yeah, no, actually I kind of agree with the home inspector role. Roofing is the least expensive type of roofing. It goes on low slopes and it’s installed in such a way that it’s only one sort of thickness. It overlaps like about three or four inches at the edge, and it typically doesn’t last more than a few years. So I think your inspector is 100% right. And while a lot of factors can impact the life of a roof, having a low slope is definitely one of them. This kind of material is just not going to have longevity of the more common asphalt roofs, which require at least aa3 12 pitch, which means it slopes downwards, three inches over 12 inches. But these low slope rooves that are one or two inches of pitch definitely won’t work. So couple of options. One is called EPDM. It’s ethylene polypropylene. Diane Terra polymer. So just remember EPDM, it’s commonly referred to as rubber roofing, and it works really, really well. It’s flexible. It handles the hot and the cold weather cycles and it can last for decades. And the other is a type called modified bitumen. This is asphalt based. It’s less expensive than the EPDM and it gives you a really good seal, but sometimes won’t last as long. So either way, when this roof does fail, I would go with a better, higher quality option. And this way you won’t have to worry about leaks in the very near future. |
| 0:33:51 | LESLIE: Yeah, you got to do it right this way. You’re only doing it once, right? |
| 0:33:54 | TOM: Absolutely. Well, it’s a beautiful weekend for projects, and we hope that you guys have gotten a few tips and ideas by listening to this episode of the program. This is about all the time we have. But remember, you can reach us 24/7 when you go to moneypit.com/ask until we meet again. I’m Tom Kraeutler. |
| 0:34:12 | LESLIE: And I’m Lesley Segrete. |
| 0:34:13 | TOM: Remember, you can do it yourself. |
| 0:34:15 | 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.) |
Would love a pond. It sounds easier than I thought. Thanks for good info@@!