Easy Way to Extend the Life of Your Roof | How to Get Your House Hurricane Ready | Best Air Filters for Allergy Sufferers | Ep #2217

TOM: Coast to coast and floorboards to shingles, this is The Money Pit Home Improvement Show. I’m Tom Kraeutler.

LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.

TOM: And it’s the first official week of summer. We hope that you are enjoying the weather and enjoying your home. And if you’ve got some areas that maybe you don’t enjoy so much because they need some fix-up, some repair, some redecorating or just moving things around a bit and you need some help to get those jobs done, well, that’s why we’re here. You can reach us by clicking the blue microphone button at MoneyPit.com or by calling us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.

We’ve got a great show planned for you. Today, we’re going to talk about hurricane season because it’s here. And guess what? Researchers say we should expect 19 named storms, which is actually more than average. So, we’re going to help you make sure your house is ready, with some easy things you can do right now to make sure you’re ready if the hurricane hits.

LESLIE: Alright. Then if you want to breathe easy through the allergy season – which has been a pretty bad one, I feel like, for months already – you know, it’s super important that you’ve got a filter that can truly catch the dust and the dirt and the pollen that’s finding its way into your lungs. We’re going to share a new type of HVAC filter that’s so effective, it’s going to last for an entire year.

TOM: And the summer season, with its very intense heat, can be really rough on your roof. So we’re going to share a way to protect and restore flexibility in that roof and even extend it by as much as 5 years, just ahead.

LESLIE: Alright. And we’re also going to help one very, very lucky listener with a big painting project today, because we’re giving away a Wagner Control Pro 170 High-Efficiency Airless Paint Sprayer.

TOM: Yep. I’ve got one myself and the Control Pro makes it easy for DIYers to tackle paint projects, like decks. I did my fence with it. Or you could even paint an entire house.

LESLIE: I feel like you just walk up and down the block and paint everybody’s fence because you …

TOM: I’m telling you. It’s like a pressure washer, right? Once you get going, you don’t want to stop. Same thing with this paint sprayer. It works awesome. And this thing also can handle a 5-gallon bucket of paint, so you don’t have to change it, either. It just keeps going and going and going.

Anyway, we’ve got one to give away. Not mine that’s all covered with paint splatter already but no, we’re going to give you a clean one right out of the box. It’s worth 379 bucks.

Now, if you want to win that, you’ve got to participate. How do you do that? You call us with your questions or you post them by clicking on the blue microphone button on MoneyPit.com.

So let’s get to it. Leslie, who’s first?

LESLIE: Alright. Now we’ve got Katherine in Arizona on the line who’s dealing with an issue with sod.

And Arizona’s pretty darn hot, so tell us what’s going on.

KATHERINE: I live, actually, in the mountains in Arizona and so our issue is not the heat but the cold. And so what we’ve had happen is that we laid sod about 8 years ago. And unbeknownst to us novice homeowners, it had mesh netting on the back side of the roll. And I don’t know if we were supposed to remove that or something but now the sod did not take to our climate and it has died.

And we would like to reseed or lay on some new sod or something like that. But in order to prepare the soil and till it and all of that, I just don’t know what to do because there’s this mesh netting all over the ground. And in some areas, it’s exposed and some areas, it isn’t. But I just wondered what your advice would be.

TOM: So the sod never really bit, so to speak? It never really grew through the mesh netting and connected with the soil below?

KATHERINE: Not really. It did in some areas but it just did not grow well for our climate. It couldn’t handle the winters; it just wouldn’t recover.

TOM: Well, the first thing you want to do is a soil test. You can – sometimes, your county extension services and services like that will do the test for you. Or have a landscaper do the test. But you need to know what’s in that soil and how to adjust the pH to get it just right to reseed.

LESLIE: Yeah, to fertilize correctly and …

TOM: Right.

LESLIE: In other words, you might not be giving it the stuff that it needs and it won’t grow.

TOM: Yeah, you’re working blind.

Now, the other thing to keep in mind is that the best time to do this is not at the beginning of summer. The best time to do this is in the fall when it’s a little cooler out. Because even if you did everything right and it started to grow, the intense heat that follows a month or two down the line will burn it out and kind of ruin all the good work that you did. So I would spend this summer getting the information that you need to kind of come up with a plan.

Now, in terms of whether or not you remove the old sod or not, if it’s really loose and disconnected and not really knitting – sort of sitting on top – then, in that case, I would take it out and then prep the soil below. If it has connected, then I would leave it.

Now, if you have sod – is it weedy? Is it also weedy, Katherine?

KATHERINE: There are lots of weeds. So it’s not so much the sod that’s the issue but it’s the plastic mesh netting, that was on the back side of the sod rolls, that’s there. And I just don’t know – can we till with that there or is that going to get all caught up in the tiller?

TOM: I think you probably can. In my experience, those types of backers are designed to stay there and not be removed. And they just sort of deteriorate, naturally, away.

KATHERINE: Hmm. OK.

TOM: So I don’t suspect that that would be an issue. Because otherwise, how would you ever lay it down?

KATHERINE: Right, right. Yeah, I don’t know. I didn’t know what was supposed to be common, just that it hasn’t degraded at all. After a year, it’s still totally there.

TOM: Well, here’s an idea: one of the things that you could do is you could rent a seeding machine that slices the lawn. There are machines out there that will actually slice it and you – and drops the seed sort of into the slits and that will cut through it. But really, before you do any of that, the first thing to do is do a soil test and see what’s going on there.

LESLIE: Now, this way, you’ll know how to feed it, how to take care of it, when it’s going to want to be seeded. That will really answer a lot of questions for you.

KATHERINE: OK. That makes a lot of sense.

TOM: Yeah. And if the sod – if you end up deciding to leave the sod in place and if it gets really weedy, one thing you could do is something called a “Roundup restoration.” You can spray Roundup right on the sod and kill the sod and actually leave it in place. And then put the seed right up into the dead grass. It will hold it really well and it will resprout. And the Roundup will not prevent the new seed from taking root.

KATHERINE: OK, OK.

TOM: It’s called a “Roundup restoration.”

KATHERINE: Hmm. Alright. That makes sense.

TOM: Alright, Katherine. Good luck with that project. Let’s hope there’s some more green in your future.

KATHERINE: Yes, I hope so. Thank you.

TOM: 888-666-3974.

LESLIE: Now we’re heading over to Tennessee where Steve wants to talk about water heating.

How can we help you?

STEVE: My water heater seems to be going out. It’s about 5 or 6 years old. And I’ve been hearing commercials on your show about tankless water heaters and other forms of water-heating solutions. And I was just wondering, is that costly? Or is that a better way to go than putting another tank in?

TOM: OK. So you say the water heater is going out. Is this a gas water heater?

STEVE: It’s electric.

TOM: It’s electric? And it’s going out. So what’s happening to it?

STEVE: It’s leaking.

TOM: Oh, it’s leaking at 5 or 6 years? Really? That’s just plain bad luck, Steve.

STEVE: Yeah, I know.

TOM: Sorry. Well, let me ask you this question: how long are you planning on staying in your current house? Is this the house for a while?

STEVE: Oh, yeah, it’s forever house, hopefully.

TOM: Generally, I would say I wouldn’t hesitate to install a tankless water heater, except – and this is a big except – tankless water heaters that are powered by electricity don’t work that well. They don’t save you that much money. If you have the ability to power it with propane, for example, then it’s more realistic. But if you’re planning on powering it with electricity, then it’s not.

So in that case, your options are to replace it with a standard, tanked electric water heater or you can use a real new type of electric water heater called a “heat-pump water heater.” Heat-pump water heaters are more expensive but they’re much, much, much more efficient than a standard electric water heater.

STEVE: Are those costly?

TOM: Yeah, they’re more costly than a standard water heater. Yeah, you’re probably looking at maybe around 1,500 bucks for one, plus installation. So they’re much more expensive but they’re far more efficient.

STEVE: That’s what I’ll do then. I thank you for answering my question.

TOM: Sorry to hear about that leak and hopefully, we’ve helped you get back on track. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.

Well, if you guys have a big paint project to take on over the upcoming Fourth of July weekend, we’ve got a big giveaway that can help.

LESLIE: We sure do. This is definitely a great DIY project starter.

We’ve got the Wagner Control Pro 170 High-Efficiency Airless Paint Sprayer. Now, with the Wagner Control Pro 170, you will have such an easy time using far less overspray than any other airless sprayer out there. And you’re going to paint three times faster than if you were just armed with a roller. You’re going to paint your house, your neighbor’s house, the fence. You’re just going to keep going because it’s easy and fun to use.

It’s a great prize and you’re going to be painting like a pro in no time. It’s worth $379 and you can find it both in-store and online at Lowe’s Home Improvement.

TOM: That Wagner Control Pro 170 High-Efficiency Airless Paint Sprayer is going out to one listener. Now, why not make it be you? Call us with your questions at 1-888-MONEY-PIT or post them on MoneyPit.com by clicking the blue microphone button. If we draw your name out of The Money Pit hard hat, you win. We’ll send you the paint sprayer and you should have it, hopefully, just in time to tackle a big project over that upcoming Fourth of July weekend.

For now, let’s get back to your questions. Leslie, who’s next?

LESLIE: Angelo in Florida is on the line with a painting project.

How can we help?

ANGELO: Well, guys, I have some window shutters and I believe them to be fiberglass.

TOM: OK.

ANGELO: And they’ve been on the house new since 2003. And they face the sun in the hottest part of the day. Now, they’re not chipped but they have a feeling like they have a flat color on them now, because they’ve faded so bad. So I’m wondering how I can prepare those to paint. Can I do it with a brush or can I do it with a spray can? Do I need to strip them? What do I need to do?

TOM: It’s interesting. I’ve had mixed results painting fiberglass shutters. And the last time I did it before the present, I had a problem with the paint that peeled off, even though I used a product – and I think it was a Sherwin-Williams product that they absolutely swore was designed to adhere to those shutters.

So, what I did most recently – because I just did shutters on a building that was owned by our local scout troop. And we redid all the shutters and we pulled them off the building, because it was just easier to do it.

ANGELO: Right.

TOM: But I used a product that I found at Home Depot called Rust-Oleum Painter’s Touch 2X. It’s got a big 2X on it and it’s a paint and primer in one. The reason I used it was because it bonds to plastic.

And I was a little concerned about whether or not it was going to be tough enough. But I sprayed a shutter to test it with the stuff. It wasn’t expensive; I think it was five or six bucks a can. And then I tried to peel the paint off and I couldn’t do it. So I really was impressed with how well it sort of binded to that fiberglass shutter.

So I would use that – it’s Rust-Oleum Painter’s Touch 2X – on those shutters. I think you’ll find that it really works well. You can probably find it online, figure out where it is near you. I’d pull one of the shutters off. I’d spray it with that. Pick up a can. Put it through its paces for your area. But I think that it’ll do well for you. I certainly was very impressed with it.

ANGELO: OK. Thanks, guys.

TOM: According to Colorado State University hurricane researchers, the 2022 Atlantic hurricane season, which runs through November 30^th, is actually predicted to see above-average activity. And so whether you’re in a hurricane zone or not, it makes now a good time to take steps to prevent any kind of storm from causing damage to your house.

So, first up, what you want to do is inspect and repair your roof. Now, this might include replacing loose shingles, installing or replacing loose flashing around your skylights or your chimneys or even replacing roof valleys – that’s the place where roofs sort of come together in a V-shape – if needed to protect your home from leaks.

LESLIE: Yeah. Another thing you should consider is installing a wind-rated garage door. Now, your garage door can be one of the most vulnerable parts of your home to wind damage. And if that garage door buckles under a high wind, it can then cause structural damage to the entire home. You could also reinforce your existing door, if sort of a hurricane is sneaking up on you and you haven’t had a chance to get a wind-rated door.

Tom, how would you do that most efficiently and effectively?

TOM: So, the easy way to do that is to take some 2x4s and cut them to fit inside the garage-door track. Then, basically, put them across the garage door from the back side. Now, just remember, you’re kind of blocking yourself in; you won’t be able to open that door. But that will take any pressure that’s being forced upon that door. It’s something we see folks do from time to time.

Now, next thing you should consider is to trim your trees, because those are nice to have on your property but if they come down in a storm or you have some big branches that come down, well, that would be a definite disaster for your yard, for your house, maybe your cars. So take the opportunity now to trim them back so that you don’t really have that risk overhead.

LESLIE: Yeah. Now, another thing is you should start thinking about what does your insurance policy cover. I mean when was the last time you looked at it? Have you thought about what would happen if your home was damaged in a hurricane? So, you don’t really use it that often but you should be familiar with everything that’s in your home insurance policy. Review it, know what it covers, know what it doesn’t so that you’re prepared for every eventuality.

For example, most homeowners policies don’t cover flooding unless you have an additional flood-insurance policy. And I think a lot of people forget that these are sort of add-ons that you could and should – and sometimes, you just overlook it.

TOM: Yeah. You don’t want to hear about this when you call your insurance company with a claim. So, definitely check it out now.

Hey, if you want more tips, you can also get a free hurricane-ready guide and a hurricane-preparedness checklist at DisasterSafety.org. That’s Disaster.Safety.org.

LESLIE: Mary in Alaska is on the line and needs some help with a water supply.

What’s going on, Mary?

MARY: I have hot-water heaters downstairs and I’m considering going to a tankless.

TOM: What kind of fuel do you have in your house, Mary? Is it gas or electric?

MARY: Electric.

TOM: OK. So, you can’t really go with an electric tankless water heater, because the tankless water-heater technology is really designed for gas water heaters. What you can do is switch to something called a “heat-pump water heater.”

Now, a heat pump is a high-efficiency electric water heater, so it will save you some money. It’s also – typically will qualify for various different types of energy rebates. But it’s going to be more expensive than your traditional, just tank electric heater. Because with an electric water heater, you know, it’s running 24/7 and it’s pretty expensive. With a heat pump, it basically is – kind of uses the refrigeration concept that you used to use with heat-pump air conditioners to try to provide some of the warmth of the hot water. So it is less expensive to operate.

So I think it really comes down to how much you want to spend for the unit, how long you’re going to be in your house, because it’s not like you pack the thing up when you leave. You know what I mean?

And if you want to keep the electric water heater, you can do so. What I would suggest you do is add a timer to it. There is a device, not too expensive. It’s a heavy-duty timer designed for a 240-volt appliance. And you basically would set the water heater to come on maybe around dinnertime, stay on through evening showers and bathing and then come on again in the morning for morning showers and then go off again. The water will still remain warm throughout the day but instead of it running 24/7, maybe you only have it run 8 or 10 hours. And that will save you some money, too. Does that make sense?

MARY: Mm-hmm. Yeah, it does. I was just trying to get rid of the tanks of water. I always …

TOM: I hear you.

MARY: I had one bust on me one time and flood my basement.

TOM: Yeah.

MARY: And I don’t want that to ever happen again. And I was really hoping I could get rid of all that water sitting down there in one place.

TOM: Well, I tell you what, chances are that if you have experienced a busted water tank that flooded, it’s never going to happen again. Because it’s just not that common and I can’t – you would have the most awful luck in the world for it to happen to you twice. OK?

If you have Wi-Fi in your house, there’s lots of smart-home products that are out there, including some that are leak detectors that basically get mounted on the basement floor. And if you ever get a flood again, it’ll at least alert you and maybe you can send some – send a neighbor over or somebody to check the house.

MARY: Yeah, yeah. I know. They have shutoff valves and all that kind of stuff now, too. But I just wanted to get rid of all of it. But no electric tankless yet, huh?

TOM: No, not – no, they have them but they’re really expensive. They don’t give you any energy savings.

Do you have propane to – that you use for anything?

MARY: No, no.

TOM: Yeah.

MARY: We heat with fuel oil.

TOM: OK. Yeah, so I think that the best thing for you to do is to either put a timer on your standard water heater or get a heat-pump water heater. Either way, I think that’s probably the best option, OK?

MARY: OK. Thank you so much.

LESLIE: Well, if you want to breathe easy throughout this allergy season, it’s important that your heating-and-cooling system have a filter that can truly catch the dust, the dirt and the pollen that makes its way into our lungs. But most filters need to be replaced every few weeks and too often, people just forget.

TOM: Well, that’s a lot less likely to be a problem with the new Castle filters. These feature a revolutionary, new design that enables them to last a full year and trap 10 times more dust. With us to explain the technology is Scott Oakes. Scott is the director of sales and marketing.

Welcome, Scott.

SCOTT: Hello.

TOM: You guys have an interesting backstory. You didn’t start in the HVAC air-filter business, did you?

SCOTT: No, that’s right. We started in the dirt-bike industry. We’re avid dirt-bike riders and we have been making foam filters for dirt bikes for over 20 years. And we also have a patented, proprietary filter treatment that goes on, that makes the foam super tacky. And we decided that, hey, this would be great to bring into the HVAC market.

TOM: So, that creation of that new type of foam that had the tackiness to it – as I understand it, that is sort of embedded inside the Castle filters. And it turns out that that was a really important ingredient that enabled you to catch more dust without filling up the filter and making it harder for the air to pass through. Is that correct?

SCOTT: That’s exactly right.

So, in the motorcycles and as well as the Castle air filter, the filtering media is this cellular structure that’s made out of foam. And the way that it – to make it work the best is that you cover it with this filter treatment that makes it super sticky and tacky. And so, since it’s all made up of tiny, little cells, it’s the cell walls that get sticky. And when the dirt – the dust and dirt come and hit up against the sticky wall, it adheres to it but the center of the cell remains open so it flows air through. And that’s what makes the filter work so great.

Because the thickness of the foam – it’s ¾-inch in the HVAC filter – it’s able to pack away 10 times more dust than a standard, pleated paper filter and still flows great air.

LESLIE: I mean that’s really amazing that it’s able to tuck away so much that you can have a single filter last a year. I’m guilty of not changing our, you know, traditional filter as often as I’m supposed to. And boy, are they disgusting. So, how gross are these after a year or is it so encased in the foam that you don’t even see it?

SCOTT: Well, that’s not always the case. It does start to pack on the dirt and the dust inside the filter. But over time, it can look a little bit dusty on the outside. But it doesn’t mean that it’s not working. It’s still flowing air that you need and catching dust. And sometimes when people think it’s just too ugly to look at, you can easily just pull it out and just bang it outside on the ground or vacuum it off real quick and install it right back in.

So, you’ve got those options to do for aesthetics. But as far as the functionality of it, even though it might look like it’s packing all the dirt, it still is flowing air just fine.

TOM: Now, when you look at the filtration industry, there’s a lot of different filters out there that are designed for specific purposes or at least they’re marketed that way, right? So some are considered more of an allergen filter, some are aimed at odors and such. Is there more than one type of Castle filter or are they all the same, because you don’t really need to [have it vary] (ph)?

SCOTT: Currently, we’re pretty much the same as far as the filtration goes. Actually, we do have two different models right now. We have what we call our High-Flow filter. Now, that’s our flagship filter. It’s good for about 90 percent of the homes out there. And it’s got our three ¼-inches of foam with the sticky/tacky filter solution on it. And it flows air really great.

But some homes are a little bit under-engineered or are a lot older HVAC units that really need a lot of airflow for it to function well. We do have what we call the Super-Flow. It has a little bit thinner foam on the inside and so it flows way more air. Still works for a whole year but it’s probably – it’s more rated for a MERV 6 for people. If you’re using one of those green, fibrous – what do you call those?

TOM: I call them “rock stoppers.”

SCOTT: Yeah, you’ll stop rocks and twigs and birds and stuff. But if your home needs one of those kind of filters, then our Super-Flow would be great for you. But other than that, we don’t really have a charcoal filter as of yet. We’re kind of young and we have a lot of great ideas of future markets we want to move into. But right now, we’ve currently just got our High-Flow and our Super-Flow.

TOM: Now, I want to clarify. We talked about the fact that this foam is a sticky foam but that’s not what you feel on the outside, right? That’s all encased inside layers of sort of foam. It’s not sticky. Is that correct?

SCOTT: That’s correct. I’m glad you asked that, because the filtering media is made up of three ¼-inch pieces of foam. And the – it is the center one, the one in the middle, that’s got that – the tacky surface on it. And the outside two pieces of foam are completely dry. And so if you happen to touch it with your fingers or anything while you’re installing it, you’re not going to get any sticky solution on your hands at all.

LESLIE: So, Scott, because we’re just using one per year, I imagine that the Castle filters might be a little bit more expensive. But how does that compare when you’re thinking of a year’s worth of the more common rock-stopper filters that are out there?

SCOTT: You know, you’re right. The Castle filters, they’re going to range, retail-wise, between $24 and $32, $34 – $24 and $34. And it is a little bit higher than some of the pleated filters you can get in Home Depot.

But the thing you have to remember is – usually, we found that the pleated filters, they are going to fail when they get about 5 to 15 grams of dust on it. And a normal household of about 18,000 square feet is going to gather about a gram a week of dust. So, in about every 4 to 6 weeks, you have to change out one of those pleated paper filters and that’s going to cost you. And if you do it regularly, at the right time throughout the year, that could be up to eight changes. And so there is some – if you leave ours in for the whole year, there is a little bit of savings there.

But the biggest savings is going to be lower energy costs. Because even though it captures a lot of dirt, it’s still flowing really great air. And your static pressures are going to remain low which means, over the course of a year, your air conditioner or your furnace won’t have to run as long to heat or cool your house because it’s flowing really great air.

TOM: When I say that I’m glad there are guys like you that can calculate exactly how many grams of dust we accumulate every month, I mean that’s good information to know.

SCOTT: Yeah. I’ve just got all kinds of little dust traps around the house and I just check it out every – no, it’s a calculation. And then there’s some stats out there and …

TOM: I’m sure. I’m just kidding you. Yeah, well, that’s fantastic.

Look, I was a home inspector for 20 years. I can’t tell you how many times I opened up blower compartments of either furnaces or just air-conditioning air handlers and just found filters that were completely forgotten, absolutely, totally caked and super ineffective for the job that they should be doing.

And as a result, especially when it comes to air conditioners, those coils would get clogged up inside those systems. And boy, when that happens, you can blow a compressor and it becomes very, very expensive. So, you’ve got to have the right kind of filtration. This a real advance in what we’ve seen out there.

Scott Oakes, thank you so much for sharing this info with us.

Scott Oakes is the director of sales and marketing with Castle Filters. You can learn more at CastleFilters.com. That’s CastleFilters.com.

Thanks, Scott.

SCOTT: Thank you very much.

LESLIE: Hey, guys, do you love posting pictures of your four-legged, furry friends? Who doesn’t? It’s kind of like my favorite posting topic is what Sherman is up to. So what’s your floof pet doing out there?

Well, guess what, guys? Right now, you can post a picture of your floofy friend and you can enter LL Flooring’s Floof Proof Pet Sweepstakes for a chance to win a $1,000 gift card and more from LL Flooring.

TOM: That’s right. Just post a picture with the #LLFloofProof on Instagram. That’s LLFloofProof. Or you can enter direct at MoneyPit.com/Sweepstakes. You can enter once a day and even earn bonus entries by sharing the sweeps with friends.

LESLIE: Well, the summer season, with its intense heat – and boy, I feel like the summer has already been super hot, even before it was actually summer. So we could be heading for a rough one these next 2 months. But all of that summer heat really does a number to your roof. The intense UV radiation can dry out a roof to the point where it’s going to lose its flexibility. And when that happens, those shingles can dry out, they can crack and then they lose their water-resistance.

TOM: Yeah. This is really especially true today because most shingles actually have less asphalt in them than ever before. That means they dry out all that much faster. And when that happens, the shingles need to be replaced, which can get to be pretty expensive.

But now, there’s actually another way you can extend the life of your roof. It’s a product called Roof Maxx and it’s a roof-rejuvenation treatment that restores flexibility and waterproofing protection of an older asphalt-shingle roof. It can actually save you about 80 percent of the cost of a traditional roof replacement, as well.

LESLIE: Yeah. And Roof Maxx’s new technology uses natural, plant-based bio oil for a full asphalt-shingle restoration. Now, this is going to give shingles flexibility and instantly can add 5 years of life to a roof. It’s kind of like when the sun dries out your skin and then you go ahead and put on some nice lotion and you feel all kinds of restored. Well, that’s the same thing. It helps bring it back.

TOM: Yeah, Roof Maxx does something very similar to asphalt-shingle roofs except it’s using a revolutionary, new technology that soaks the old, brittle shingles with millions of microbeads of the all-natural bio oil to restore their flexibility and prepare them to better protect your home.

LESLIE: Now, each Roof Maxx treatment comes with a 5-year flexibility guarantee. With 3 treatments possible once every 5 years, Roof Maxx adds up to 15 years of added life to your asphalt roof. That’s amazing.

TOM: It really is. To learn more, set up an appointment with your local Roof Maxx dealer at RoofMaxx.com. They can do a free assessment and decide if it’s a good candidate for roof rejuvenation. That’s Roof – M-a-x-x – .com.

LESLIE: Carl reached out to The Money Pit with some issues with a 10-year-old Rhode Island home.

Now, Carl writes: “The siding is redcedar clapboard and it’s warping and turning up on the west side of the house. Do I need to replace it all – about 500 linear feet – or is there a way to repair it?”

TOM: Probably not, Carl, because the west side of your house is going to get a lot of UV radiation. And it will dry out and crack faster.

Now, typically, that would not happen in just 10 years, so I suspect there may have been some installation issue when it was first put together. Because if you have clapboard, typically you’re going to have – it’ll be 8-inch-wide clapboard of which you’ll have about 6 inches to the weather. So that, if it’s installed right, should really securely hold that thinner part of the board down so it doesn’t tend to curl back up again.

But regardless, I think at this point you’re going to probably have to take it off and replace it. When you do, make sure you prime the new clapboard and then put a solid-color stain on it, because that’ll hold up best over the next number of years.

LESLIE: Alright. Next up, Carrie says, “I have some floor tile left over that would be cool on the porch and sidewalk in front of my house. Can I do that or would it be too slippery?”

Now, she just says floor tile left, so I don’t know if it’s something that’s rated for floor, rated for wall. Does she think it’s a floor tile? It’s hard to say.

TOM: Yeah. And that really is the key, Leslie. That’s a good point. Because regular floor tile for inside a house is probably going to be too slippery for outside.

What you want to find out from the manufacturer is what the COF number is. It’s called the Coefficient of Friction or COF. It’s a standard for rating how slippery an item is. And the higher the COF slip-resistance numbers, the better. So if you have stuff like terracotta tile or quarry tile or even brick, that’s a very high COF rating and they are very slip-resistant. But anything less might actually be a dangerous thing to put around the exterior of your house.

LESLIE: Alright. So find that out first, Carrie, and then have fun with it if you can.

TOM: Well, if you really want to make the most of your outdoor space, think about how you could turn it into a spare room. Well, sort of. It still stays outside but it looks like a room from inside your house. Leslie has some great ideas to help you do just that, in today’s edition of Leslie’s Last Word.

Leslie?

LESLIE: That’s right. When those warm evenings sort of beckon you to dine outside, adding some ambient light can really set the mood.

Now, candles can help create the perfect setting. And if you use a citronella candle, it can help keep those bugs away, as well. Or consider tiki torches around the yard. They’re so cute and festive and summery. Even paper lanterns work beautifully to set the scene. Those are a great option.

Now, if you’re looking for some shade during the day and maybe a barrier against bugs at night, you might consider a portable gazebo with netting. You can tie it back when you’re not sort of containing yourselves inside to keep the bug-free area. And they really do set a nice destination in the yard, as well.

If you’re looking for some comfort underfoot, add an outdoor rug. That’s really going to do a great job of anchoring that outdoor-seating area. It kind of provides a focal point but it also gives you a chance to add a pop of color and it’s a really great design statement. Make sure you shop for ones that are made from polypropylene, washable fabrics, anything that’s specifically meant for outdoor usage.

And also, you know, why not bring some of your indoor décor outside? Because you can pretty much find every indoor accessory made for outdoor usage: outdoor lamps, outdoor furnishings, outdoor wall décor, all of these things that are meant to withstand the elements.

So create that space and give yourself a beautiful destination right in your own backyard.

TOM: Good advice.

This is The Money Pit Home Improvement Show. Coming up next time on the show, weeds often stand between you and a pristine lawn. But before you try to wipe them out, you might want to just sort of stop and listen because they actually might be telling you something. We’re going to teach you how to read your weeds, on the very 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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