The Easy-To-Install Paver That Increases Your Home's Look And Value, Designing A Bedroom That Grows With Your Child, And Swimming Pool Safety

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: Here to help you with your home improvement project. Hey, you’ve got a do-it-yourself dilemma? Call us, 1-888-MONEY-PIT. Don’t want to do it yourself? No problem. Call us. We’ll tell you what you need to know before picking up the phone and hiring a pro, at 888-MONEY-PIT.

Coming up this hour on the program, is your cracked driveway dragging down your home’s curb appeal and perhaps its value? Well, you can swap out the concrete for pavers. We’ve got tips on an easy-to-install solution that’s going to add some appeal and value for years to come.

LESLIE: And are your kids complaining that their bedrooms are babyish? Well, keeping up on the décor trends is expensive, so we’re going to give you some tips on creating rooms that will grow with them for the years to come.

TOM: Plus, if you’re dreaming of a backyard oasis in time for next summer, you might be thinking about installing a swimming pool. But keep in mind there are a lot of safety concerns you should consider, especially when it comes to the electricity needed to run that pool. We’ve got advice to keep your backyard pool safe and sound, coming up.

LESLIE: And we’ve got a great prize up for grabs this hour, especially given that we’re all going to be spending a lot of time indoors, so we want to start getting things clean. We’ve got up for grabs a chance to win cleaning supplies. It’s a pack of CLR cleaning products worth 50 bucks.

TOM: Now, those cleaning products are made by Jelmar. They make the CLR brand. They’ve also developed a free online test that will reveal your cleaning-personality type. And it will give you customized tips for better cleaning and to make that project just go a lot easier. The quiz is online at Facebook.com/CLRCleaners. But 50 bucks worth of products go out to one lucky caller, so pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.

LESLIE: Mindy in Kentucky is on the line and has a flooring question. How can we help you with your project?

MINDY: Yes. We have a really hideous linoleum in our – on our kitchen floor that’s actually been in the house since we bought it. And of course, it’s starting to peel up and there’s actually other linoleum under it. And actually, I’m really afraid to dig any deeper to see how many levels might be on it.

I was just wondering, is it worth the time and effort and possible extra cost to just take everything up?

TOM: Do you have a dishwasher in that kitchen?

MINDY: No, we do not. I’d love to have one but I do not have one, no.

TOM: Well, the reason I ask you is because if you don’t take up the old floor, you’d end up sort of sealing in the dishwasher and it’s hard to remove it after that.

I mean generally speaking, I’m an advocate of taking up the old flooring, because I think it’s kind of sloppy to put new layers over the old. But I can see if it’s difficult to get it out or for budget reasons that you don’t want to go in that direction. But I would recommend you take it up if you can.

MINDY: OK. OK. Alright. Well, I really appreciate that. Thank you very much.

TOM: You’re welcome, Mindy. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.

LESLIE: Bob in South Dakota is dealing with a drywall issue. What’s going on at your house?

BOB: We have a 1990s home and we had sheetrock nails that were put in that began popping, mainly toward the ceiling area and corners – inside corners, especially. And we had a contractor do – redo some. We redid some ourselves. One of the things they did and we did is we just drove the nails in and covered them and put a screw maybe 2 to 3 inches from it. But the nails reappeared after we did it. What’s the answer?

TOM: Well, it would if you just drove it back in and didn’t put a second nail that overlaps it.

LESLIE: And then it’s in the same hole, so it’s given the same movement area.

Now, what Tom mentioned with the second nail is you’re right putting a screw in; a screw is a great way to do that. But if you’re putting a screw in, I would have taken out the nail instead of giving it the space to come back out.

But what you can do, if you see the nail to start backing its way out, you can take a second nail and overlap it so that the two heads would overlap. So when you drive in the second nail, it pushes that first nail back down with it and will keep it in its place. Because the new nail is in fresh wood, so it’ll stay there. And then you go ahead and cover over it and sand it and spackle it, everything. Make it nice and smooth to prime and paint.

But a screw really is the best way, because those won’t back themselves out.

BOB: What do you think, in your professional opinion – I’ve listened to your show a lot and just as a plug for you guys, thanks a lot for all of the helpful hints. But what do you think has caused those screws to pop like that – or nails, I should say?

TOM: Normal expansion and contraction. You know, the nails that are used to attach drywall have a glue coating on them. They’re like a rosin coating. And when you drive the nail in, it’s supposed to kind of stick in the wall but it doesn’t. And as the walls expand and contract, they very often will back out. It’s really typical. It would be unusual for it, frankly, to not happen.

But the key is that when it does happen, if you just drive it back in it’s going to happen all over again. But if you were to overlap the old nailhead with a new nailhead so that you’re now creating sort of a second nail and a second nail hole that’s holding it in place, that’s effective. Or you pull out the drywall nail altogether and replace it with a drywall screw and it will never pull out.

The fact that you put the screw 2 or 3 inches from the old one will help keep that board tight but it’s not going to stop the drywall nail from expanding and contracting and pushing itself back out, as you’ve learned. You just – you really need to sort of reinforce it by overlapping the heads with a new nail.

BOB: OK. Yeah, that sounds good. And I think, from what I’ve seen, if we pull the old nail and put a screw in a ways away, I think that’s the best solution. Because then we don’t have any possibility of anything happening there again and doing away with the situation completely.

TOM: Trial and error is the best, right?

BOB: Absolutely. Thank you guys so much. Thank you for the great show.

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

LESLIE: You are tuned to The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show on air and online at MoneyPit.com. Now you can call in your home repair or your home improvement question 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.

TOM: 888-666-3974.

Still ahead, your kids may have outgrown last year’s shoes and shirts but have they also outgrown their bedrooms? We’ve got tips for bedrooms that will grow with your kids, taking the edge off spending for years to come, when The Money Pit continues after this.

ANNOUNCER: The Money Pit is sponsored by Pella Windows and Doors. Pella products with Insynctive technology can connect with compatible home automation systems so they can be programmed to help keep your home in sync with you. Learn more at Pella.com.

TOM: Making good homes better, welcome back to The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show. I’m Tom Kraeutler.

LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.

TOM: Pick up the phone, give us a call with your home improvement question. You’ll get our answers, you’ll get our advice and you’ll get a chance to win a $50 prize pack of CLR cleaning products.

LESLIE: Yeah. This time of year, with all the grime on your barbecue, you are going to love the CLR Barbecue Grill Cleaner. It’s going to cut right through all of that baked-on food and grease and just yuck and give you a nice, clean grill for all of those final burgers and hot dogs of the summer season.

TOM: And you can use those CLR cleaning products to clean your house better and faster by taking CLR’s cleaning-personality-type quiz. It pinpoints your habits and gives you custom cleaning tips and advice. You can take it online at Facebook.com/CLRCleaners.

LESLIE: Now we’ve got Rivella (sp) on the line who wants to talk about painting furniture. How can we help you today?

RIVELLA (sp): We just bought some outdoor furniture and we were sort of – by adding some spray paint to it. But it already started to chip and it’s the outdoor spray paint. So, before I paint it again and it’s the winter months coming, I don’t know if it would be best just to – what would be the best way to protect the furniture for the winter from it chipping even more?

LESLIE: Hmm. Alright. So you’ve already painted it and it’s just not holding up. Are you – where are you located?

RIVELLA (sp): Pittsburgh.

LESLIE: OK. So you’re going to get a colder winter. Are you able to store the furniture in a garage or do you have to store it outside?

RIVELLA (sp): It has to be outside. There’s not enough room in the garage, unfortunately.

LESLIE: OK. So if you can stack them or get them sort of clustered together, I would just put them with a furniture cover over them, just to sort of help keep them from snow and ice and water just sitting on it all winter long. And then once the weather does warm up, I would sort of give them a good wire brush to sort of get away whatever’s chipping and cracking. And then lightly sand or sand as much as you’re going to need to to sort of even out those edges between the chipped pieces and the raw metal.

And then once you get it to a nice feel, Krylon, actually, has a great spray paint. It’s called the Dual Superbond Paint + Primer, so it’s all in one product. And when it goes on, it really bonds to those hard-to-adhere-to surfaces. It works really well on metal, even plastics. And it comes in a lot of fun colors, which is what I always find challenging when you’re dealing with spray paints. And we’ve had great results with it.

RIVELLA (sp): OK, yeah, I’ll definitely give that brand a try. Maybe it’s the brand I’m using. Who knows?

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

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

DAVE: I’ve got a multi-family unit that I own and I’m having trouble with the floor. The major – the floor is – it’s a three-story building, the bottom floor being ground – or below ground level. Sort of like a garden apartment, the windows are at level.

The second and third floor, the floor is – it’s cement poured over – I think it’s plywood underneath it. But right inside the door, there’s a large area that’s completely shattered. And it dips down in sections, maybe as much as an inch, when you step on it. I’m just wondering how to repair this. Would I need to remove the whole floor?

TOM: What I think you’re describing is the fire retardant that is used in multi-family construction. So to repair this, what you need to do is to remove that surface that looks like concrete. I don’t believe it’s actually concrete; I believe it’s a product called Gyp-Crete – G-y-p-C-r-e-t-e. It basically goes on as a liquid and then it dries. And it looks like concrete but it’s really a fire retardant.

So you would tear out the old material. You’d repair the floor, which is obviously water-damaged being near a door. And then you would restore it with new Gyp-Crete to fill that area in. And if you do it in that order, you won’t disturb the fire retardancy of the floor construction but you’ll get the solidity back that you’re losing because of the rot.

DAVE: And the Gyp-Crete would be the same thickness? Because it’s almost 2 inches thick.

TOM: Yeah, you actually mix it up and you trowel it on.

DAVE: OK.

TOM: So you’d mix it to fit.

DAVE: You say I’d have to repair the subfloor underneath it. So remove the plywood, go back to the joists and lay new plywood. OK.

TOM: Exactly. Yep. That would be a standard carpentry repair there. But you’re adding new Gyp-Crete on top of it to restore the fire protection.

DAVE: OK. Excellent. That’s what I’ll have to do.

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

Well, as any parent can tell you, updating your child’s bedroom every time Junior has a change of heart or falls in love with a new color or movie character can really add up.

LESLIE: Well, you can avoid the excess spending with a bedroom that grows with your child. So, start by asking yourself a few questions that can spare you all those pricey improvements every couple of years.

TOM: First off, think about how many kids are using the space now and how old they are and how many kids are going to use it in the next two to five years. It’s no surprise that your second-grader will want a different room in a few years when she hits the middle school. So keep that in mind before going with a princess theme.

LESLIE: Yeah. And then make your big purchases with the future in mind. You know, rather than themed furniture or anything that’s too trendy, you want to go with classic pieces so your son or daughter can swap out bedding and décor as their interests are changing. But that traditional furniture base is going to stand the test of time.

Convertible cribs that take infants from birth to teen years, that’s really another great, money-saving option. And their designs have really come a long way in recent years and you’re going to find a piece that will suit any style.

TOM: Now, it’s important to choose a color scheme that isn’t too juvenile, either, or your little ones might be less likely to outgrow it. So, think about light yellow instead of pink or gray instead of baby blue.

And finally, make sure you include plenty of storage because kids have stuff. And that extra play space can eventually be converted to a space for a desk, a bean bag, a chair or whatever your teen wishes as time goes on.

LESLIE: Sherry in Texas is on the line with a siding question. How can we help you today?

SHERRY: We had this little cottage moved in that has siding on it. But we want it to look like the other outbuildings and put redwood siding on it. To put siding over siding, do you use a special nail? Is it possible to do that or do you use screws?

TOM: Well, first of all, the siding that you have right now, is it flat or is it clapboard? What does it look like?

SHERRY: It’s flat siding.

TOM: So, like a plywood kind of a surface?

SHERRY: Yes, yes. It’s an ugly siding and we want to go with a redwood siding.

TOM: Alright. So here’s what I would do. And this is for a shed?

SHERRY: Yes, uh-huh.

TOM: So what I would do is I would take building paper – tar paper or even Tyvek but it’s really not necessary – but just tar paper. I would put that up first and then I would attach the siding on top of that, driving the nails into the original siding. You do not need to remove the original siding.

That said, remember, if you’ve got doors or windows, you may have to build out the edge a little bit around to make up the difference. Because the siding is going to be thicker than the old stuff.

SHERRY: OK. Alright. Put tar paper under it. Thank you so much.

TOM: You’re welcome, Sherry. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.

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

PAUL: We’re working on a paint job where we were covering rough-cut cedar clapboards with Benjamin Moore ARBORCOAT solid stain that’s self-priming. We painted over the same product that was previously sprayed probably about, I’m guessing, seven to eight years ago. And what we’re running into with – just on one side of the house where we’re getting bubbles, like moisture bubbles. It’s morning sun on that side of the house but we’ve never seen a stain – a solid stain – bubble up like that. I’ve seen it with paint but not with the solid stain.

TOM: Well, cedar has to breathe and sometimes when they install cedar siding, they don’t leave enough space under it for it to breathe. And so it tends to get clogged with moisture and I’ve seen that lift stain before.

You mentioned that you’re using a product that both primes and stains. I am not a fan of doing that with a staining product. I just, in fact, repainted my entire cedar-sided house and I did it the same way we did it over a dozen years ago and that was we oil-primed it first. We used an oil-based primer first because we had good adhesion with the oil-based primer. And it really stuck well to the cedar. And then we put the solid stain on top of that.

So, once the paint starts to bubble, any time you have a failure of adhesion, there’s no way to put that back together. If that continues to get worse or if it looks bad enough already, you’re going to have to take that stain off and start again. Because you’re just – it’s never – you can’t stick good paint over bad paint. And if there’s moisture in there, it’s just going to lift that paint right off again.

So, sorry to be the bearer of bad news but I wouldn’t have done it that way. I would have used an oil-based primer first and then I would have put a solid-color stain on top of it.

PAUL: Right. We’re getting that just on one side of the house.

TOM: Yeah. Maybe it’ll just end up being on one side of the house, for whatever reason. But at least on that side of the house, you have to pull that stain off and start again. And scrape, prime – scrape it and prime it properly with an oil-based primer and then you can stain on top of that.

PAUL: What would you suggest for an oil-based primer?

TOM: I think if you stay within one family of products, I would use the same oil-based primer that that particular manufacturer makes for solid stain but as long as it’s oil-based and not acrylic or water or latex-based.

PAUL: So, now, to remove that stain that’s on there now, that – you’re going to lose that rough-cut finish.

TOM: Well, if you wire-brush it, perhaps not. You may be able to pull it off with a pressure washer. It depends on how well-adhered it is.

I mean when we did my project, we had an unusual problem with the shutters. We were using a product that the manufacturer said did not need to be primed. And it worked well but it took a long time to cure. And so some of the shutters were sitting around for an extra week before we put them back up. And all the paint peeled off of those. And so we had to actually strip all that paint off and start again. So it even happens to the pros. But once that paint separates, you’ve got to pull it off; there’s just no way to save it.

PAUL: Alright. Thank you for your help.

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

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

CARL: As a result of some wind damage at my house last month, I need to reroof. I would like to use metal roofing. My existing roofing is felt paper with three-tab, 20-year asphalt shingles. Do you think that it would be OK to have the metal roofing installed with 1×4 wood strips over the asphalt shingles? Or should it all be torn off?

TOM: I would take it off. You know, that roof will come off very, very quickly and it’s a small part of the job. If you’re going to invest in metal roofing, why put it over asphalt? There’s just no point to do that. So I would strip it down to the original sheathing and then build it up from there. That’s the best way to go.

CARL: OK, OK. Thank you very much. I appreciate it and listen to you every week.

TOM: Thank you so much, Carl. Good luck with that project.

LESLIE: Well, you’ve envied your neighbors all summer long and now you want to get your own backyard swimming pool. But before you do, make sure you’re considering safety.

TOM: We’ll have pool-safety tips, after this.

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TOM: Making good homes better, this is The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show. I’m Tom Kraeutler.

LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.

Well, a backyard pool, it certainly can be an oasis, a great entertaining spot for homeowners who love to host friends and family alike. Now, it takes a lot of electricity to run a swimming pool and we all know that electricity and water do not mix.

TOM: John Drengenberg knows that better than most. He’s the consumer safety director at Underwriters Laboratories and you’ve all no doubt seen the UL sticker on anything you purchased that runs on electricity. And John is the guy behind that.

So, we really don’t think about it but it’s true: a live electrical current is right there by the giant pool of water, John. How do we avoid having the two mix?

JOHN: Well, certainly, the first thing you can do is if you are building a pool, make sure that your in-pool lights and your pumps and filters are all certified by UL and carry the UL mark, which means they’ve been tested for safety, knowing the environment that they’re going to be used in.

But the other problem is that many of us like to really start living outdoors in the summer because it’s so pleasant out there and it’s comfortable and you’re near your pool. Bringing a radio that you plug in near the pool, of course, is never a good idea. Stringing lights above the pool might look very pretty for a party but if anything happens and those lights get into the pool while people are in it, unfortunately, you’re one of the most conductive things in that pool. So the electrical current will go right through you and that could cause your heart to go into fibrillation, which is a terrible thing. And that’s why we say water and electricity do not mix.

All outlets near the pool, anywhere, should be GFCI-protected. That’s ground-fault circuit interrupters. And they’re required by code, these days, for new homes but not all homes are brand-new.

LESLIE: Now, what about the pool light itself, John? I mean that kind of freaks me out. You’ve got a light bulb in the water. I’m sure it’s all safe but how do you change it?

JOHN: Well, that should be left to the experts to do. I think many homeowners don’t bother changing the pool lights. But the reality is that it is protected in an enclosure that is waterproof. The light comes through, of course, because it’s glass but the reality is that there is a good gasket in there and that’s the kind of thing that’s tested by UL, to make sure that that underground, underwater light is, in fact, waterproof.

TOM: We’re talking to John Drengenberg. He’s the consumer safety director for Underwriters Laboratories.

John, while we’re talking about the electricity in – and pool and the safety aspects associated with that, let’s talk about preventing childhood drowning, still a major cause of death in youngsters every summer. Where do you think most people drop the ball on that?

JOHN: Well, you know, Tom, that’s so true. The number of children that drown during the summer is several hundred. And all, again, unnecessary. The main thing that anybody can do is make sure that there’s adult supervision when a child is in the pool. And that sounds so easy. Mom or Dad can be out there with the kids in the pool. But watching them is fun, initially, but it might get a little boring. So you want to read, you might want to run inside and get lunch ready. All of that is not good.

We say you should follow the 10/20 Rule. That means scanning the pool every 10 seconds and be within at least 20 seconds of getting to the pool should there be an emergency that would require your attention. And mainly, people say, “I’m going to run inside.” They ask an older sibling to watch the younger children. Well, the older child is playing, too. And they’re kids. And they think like kids and something could happen and you just don’t want that to happen ever, at all.

So, adult supervision is important. Remember those floaties that kids play with? The little, inflatable rings and water wings? They’re great. They might help a child learn how to swim but the reality is that they are not formal lifejackets. And they can puncture very easily and deflate and it’s something that you should not rely on and try to run away from the pool to do something else, like gardening or whatever else, mowing your grass. That is not a good idea.

TOM: And of course, layers of protection are very, very important. Not only do you want to have a fence, you want to have the right type of fence. It’s not the same sort of garden fence you might have elsewhere. The spacing on the fence is much smaller. It’s different. It’s not climbable. It’s called “non-climbable fencing.” And the gates, of course, have to have automatic closing devices on them so they can’t be left open. And then don’t forget about the alarms on doors if – sometimes we build pools and our house, actually, forms one side of the fence, so to speak. So those doors need to be alarmed.

All of these layers work together to kind of back you up as a parent. But as you said, John, the first and most important thing is to make sure you’re there watching the kids. And don’t let yourself become distracted.

LESLIE: I think if somebody does happen to go missing – a child – look in the pool first. Don’t make that the last place you look.

JOHN: You bet. That’s the first thing you should do. Don’t look in their room; look in the pool. If they are down in that pool, under the water, by all means get them out. The sooner you get them out and get them help and give them CPR, you can probably save that child. And it’s really seconds that count. So look in the pool first, one of the most important things to remember.

And along with the fences, Tom, make sure you don’t pile pool furniture along the fence line. Kids love to climb. It’s a natural instinct.

TOM: John Drengenberg, the consumer safety director for Underwriters Laboratories.

John, thank you so much for all the work you and the team at UL do to keep us so safe every single day.

JOHN: Eleven-thousand strong and we continue trying to work for a safer world.

TOM: If you’d like more information on tips from UL to keep you and your family safe, go to UL.com/Newsroom.

Thanks, John.

JOHN: Our pleasure.

LESLIE: Is your driveway in need of some TLC? Well, get rid of that cracked concrete mess and replace it with a beautiful, paved driveway. We’re going to tell you which materials are going to stand up to the weight of your vehicle, when The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show continues after this.

TOM: Making good homes better, this is The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show. I’m Tom Kraeutler.

LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.

TOM: Pick up the phone, give us a call, right now, at 1-888-MONEY-PIT. We’ll give you the answer to your home improvement question and a chance to win a prize pack of CLR cleaning products worth 50 bucks.

LESLIE: Yeah. The CLR – Calcium, Lime and Rust Remover – it’s going to make a really big difference in your home. You can get rid of all of those ugly deposits that you see in your bathtub, in the toilet, in the sink, even on your appliances.

TOM: And speaking of cleaning, the CLR Cleaning-Personality Quiz is online, right now, at Facebook.com/CLRCleaners. And it will give you tips on how you can get that job done faster, leaving more time for the things that you really want to do, like picking up the phone and calling us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.

LESLIE: Dennis in Wyoming is on the line and has a question about a backer board. What can we do for you?

DENNIS: Yes. I just wondered your opinion on the greenboard being used behind a thermoplastic shower wall. I’m installing a shower in an alcove and they sent me the base.

TOM: OK.

DENNIS: And then I’ve got these three walls that I have to glue …

TOM: Usually, it’s – that kind of a liner usually goes on top of tile. Can you put it over greenboard? Well, the problem with greenboard is it’s not very water-resistant. It’s more water-resistant than regular drywall but it’s not terribly water-resistant. It’s designed to be a tile backer.

So I would say if you’re going to do it, it’s probably OK but just don’t kid yourself into thinking this is something that’s going to last for more than a few years or maybe 10 years max. But I would be very careful to silicone-seal all of the seams so that you don’t have water that goes through the seams of that shower enclosure and saturate through the greenboard. Because it will sort of soften up and rot out.

DENNIS: OK. Well, thank you very much.

TOM: You’re welcome, Dennis. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.

Well, nothing sets a walkway or a patio apart like pavers. You can get them in stone tile or bricks, sometimes, installed in outdoor surfaces instead of concrete or dirt. And not only do pavers provide a really distinguished look, they’re very durable and they last for lots and lots of years.

LESLIE: Yeah. Their durability means you want to do the job right and in the pattern that you choose and that you’re going to like for the long term.

Well, Pavestone’s Holland Stone Parkway Series is the go-to choice for that classic look that’s never going to get old. The stones are rectangular and that lets you design the fascinating pattern of your choice or perhaps even using a mix of patterns.

TOM: Now, the Holland pavers have that old-world charm of a simple paver shape but with modern conveniences, including your choice of three different finishes that’ll match your home and the desired effect that you’re going for.

LESLIE: And Holland Stone Parkway Series, true to their name, will not crack under the weight of cars, which makes them perfect for sidewalks and driveways, too.

You can learn more at Pavestone.com.

TOM: Pick up the phone, give us a call, right now, to learn the answer to your home improvement project at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.

LESLIE: Now we’ve got Kathleen in Illinois on the line and she’s got a question about a vaulted ceiling. What can we do for you?

KATHLEEN: I’m calling about a renovation project that we are trying to do on a three-season sun porch. And it’s a 12×27 room. We did tackle doing window replacement by ourselves and we managed to do that. They’re vinyl-clad windows, the tilt-in kind and everything. But the ceiling right now is 12-inch tiles that are – they seem to be glued up to the ceiling. They’re not on a grid system; they’re just up there. And we want to put faux-tin ceilings. And we’re wondering if that’s a project that we could tackle or is that something best left to professionals or – we’re looking for your advice.

We had some damage from rain on the roof and we’ve had the roof replaced. But I even painted over where the water stains were with a Zinsser Stain Stop. And you can still see the – it did not cover it, so we need to change the ceiling.

TOM: Hey, they make these tiles that are a drop-ceiling type of a tile that looks just like tin. Have you seen those, Kathleen?

KATHLEEN: Yes, we have. And we thought that those were very cool and we didn’t know – do you think just LIQUID NAILS or something to put it up over these existing tiles?

TOM: What’s underneath the tiles? Plywood sheathing?

KATHLEEN: I don’t know. It feels really solid when you push a …

TOM: I would try to figure out what’s underneath it. You could take some pieces of the old tiles apart, see how thick that is. I would prefer to have a mechanical attachment, like a staple or something like that, than just simply the glue. The glue is OK.

LESLIE: I mean I would use LIQUID NAILS and something else.

TOM: Yeah, exactly.

KATHLEEN: Uh-huh. And you don’t think it would – I don’t want it to look uneven, you know, how they – you see sometimes those grid systems where the tiles kind of droop and sloop and look …

TOM: No, if it’s done really well, it looks great. We’ve seen them at really high-end décor showrooms, where you have some really upscale decorating done, and they look fantastic.

KATHLEEN: OK. Alright. Well, thank you so much.

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

GREG: I have a – I just moved into a house in Milford, Delaware. And I have a limescale buildup on my shower door from the previous owners. And I tried every chemical possible and it was ineffective. I’m wanting to know, what’s the best solution or the best tool I can use to get limescale buildup off a glass shower door?

TOM: If it’s limescale for sure and CLR is not removing it, then I wonder if it’s something else. Because CLR is really effective at removing limescale buildup.

Have you tried to test this deposit with some vinegar?

GREG: No.

TOM: Because if you put some white vinegar – saturate a sponge with white vinegar and wash across that what you’re calling a “lime deposit,” it will instantly melt it, if it really is lime. If it’s really calcium and lime, it will instantly melt it and then you can rinse it off.

If it’s not, then I wonder if there’s something else that’s staining the door.

GREG: Oh. What else could it be?

TOM: Sometimes, depending on the types of cleaners that people have used in the past, they can actually scratch those doors. If you use something that was an abrasive cleaner to clean the shower door, you can put kind of like a fog across it that looks a little bit like a limescale buildup. But it’s really just the damage to the surface of the door.

Do the vinegar test, Greg. See what happens and then let us know, OK?

GREG: OK. I definitely will.

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

LESLIE: Still ahead, are you looking for a super-affordable and simple way to update your kitchen? Well, up next, we’ve got an idea that lets you show off your style, too, when The Money Pit continues.

ANNOUNCER: The Money Pit is brought to you by QUIKRETE. It’s what America is made of. For project help from start to finish, download the new QUIKRETE mobile app.

TOM: Welcome back to The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show where we make good homes better. I’m Tom Kraeutler.

LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.

TOM: And the dog days aren’t the only sizzling thing this summer. We’re giving away big-ticket prizes in our Sizzlin’ Summer Giveaway Sweepstakes.

LESLIE: Yeah. Not one, not two but three winners are going to get peace of mind with our grand prize. It’s the Classic SimpliSafe Home Security System worth $349, plus a month of free monitoring. Just visit Facebook.com/TheMoneyPit and you can enter right there.

TOM: And you can help increase your chances of winning by sharing your Sizzlin’ Summer Giveaway post on your Facebook page. It’s all online at Facebook.com/TheMoneyPit, another place that you can post your question, which is what Tiffany did.

LESLIE: Alright. And Tiffany writes: “I love your program. It’s been super helpful to me. I purchased a bank-owned property and the entire home’s interior is painted with a white primer. I’ve discovered there are several rooms where there’s wallpaper under the paint. Is it alright for me to just paint over the primer as they are or will the wallpaper under the primer eventually cause a problem?”

TOM: Well, you certainly can continue to paint over the wallpaper but the best thing to do is to pull that off. The reason banks do that is they kind of want to neutralize the whole house so that whoever moves in can kind of imagine their stuff and have sort of a clean start. But by repainting over the wallpaper, eventually that’s going to loosen up and have to come off anyway. So I would say right now, while the room is empty, go ahead and pull it out and then prime the walls and start painting again from scratch. You’ll be much happier in the long run.

LESLIE: Yeah. It never looks good to paint over wallpaper.

TOM: Well, here’s a question we hear all the time at The Money Pit. Homeowners want to add a stylish touch to an outdated kitchen but they don’t want to replace all those cabinets. There is a quick, affordable and fun solution that will win you compliments and let you show off your style. Leslie has got that, in today’s edition of Leslie’s Last Word.

LESLIE: Yeah. Decorative panels. I mean they’re a real simple idea that you can use. I actually used them for an episode of $100 Makeover so, obviously, they’re not going to cost a ton of money. And you can make these panels with fabric or paper-wrapped hardboard. And it’s a simple and affordable way to change the look of an outdated kitchen.

So here’s what you do. You just cut the hardboard panels to cover a portion of a door or a drawer front. And then you dress them up with your favorite fabric or a patterned paper. And you create a beautiful, standout focal point that’s going to add texture to your design scheme.

First of all, you’ve got figure out what size panels you’re going to need. Then you measure and cut them from a ¼-inch hardboard. And if using a power saw isn’t for you, you can have your local home center cut the hardboard to size. Sometimes they’ll do a couple of cuts for free, sometimes it’s a quarter a cut. Ask. They’ll do it for you.

From there, you want to cut a piece of fabric or paper 2 inches wider and 2 inches longer than the pieces of hardboard that you’re going to cover. And make sure any patterns or anything that you’re using that you want to display is centered on that board. Then you use a staple gun and ¼-inch staples to attach the covering to the hardboard. You want to start in the center on one side, then you work outward from there, placing your staples about ½-inch or so apart and parallel to the edge of the fabric. You want to do this on both sides, make sure everything is nice and tight, keeping things straight. Then stop about 3 inches from each corner.

Then to finish the corners, you’ve got to pull that loose corner of the covering onto the back of the hardboard so that it creates like a 90-degree corner. And then attach it with a staple. Then fold the rest of the loose material over onto the board and staple it in place. And you want to keep it nice and smooth because you don’t want it to bunch up. Because you need this panel to lay flat on the cabinet or on the door.

Now, consider drawing the room together by matting and framing a piece of the fabric, as well. Then you hang it on a nearby wall and you’ve got a brand-spanking-new kitchen that did not cost you a ton of money.

TOM: Great idea. This is The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show. Coming up next time on the program, smart homes are becoming a reality. And the do-it-yourself version is actually more affordable than you might think. We’ll have tips on how you can control and monitor your home from within its walls or miles away, with budget-friendly options that raise your home’s IQ, on the next edition of The Money Pit.

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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