Show Notes
- Centipedes: Get a leg up on banishing fast and freaky thousand-legger centipedes inside your home.
- Micro-Irrigation: Tiny drops produce big blooms with micro-irrigation for your garden.
- Paint Sprayers: New paint sprayer technology gets DIY paint projects done faster, easier, and with less waste.
Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
Plus, answers to your home improvement questions about:
- HVAC Blockage: Barely any air blows through one room in Leroy’s home. He gets tips on how to look for a duct blockage or a closed damper.
- Firepit Mortar: Michelle is building a fieldstone firepit but the mortar is dry and cracking. We suggest putting plastic over the surface to slow down the drying time and recommend some good products and videos.
- Lead Paint: Lauren is worried about lead in paint that’s chipping and flaking in her old home. She needs to work with a painter who’s certified in lead paint containment to make sure her kids are safe.
- Water Heater: What is the slight leak coming from the PVC tube at the top of the water heater? Michael learns it’s just a pressure relief valve, but his old water heater should still be replaced.
- Converting a Deck: Diane wants to turn her deck into a closet and laundry room. It’s a good idea, but she should consult with an architect since it can be a complicated addition.
- Plumbing Noises: There’s a clicking noise behind the bathroom and closet. It’s probably pipes or metal siding expanding and contracting against Damian’s walls.
- Floor Moisture: Water is coming up from the concrete slab under Michelle’s laminate floor. She should check the drainage outside the house and use an exhaust fan with a humidistat to reduce condensation.
- Split Outlet: Why does the bottom plug work in an outlet but the top one doesn’t? Chris may have a split outlet that’s partly controlled by a switch.
- Popping Nails: Nails are popping out of the sheetrock near the ceiling and corners. We advise Bob to either replace the nails with drywall screws or overlap the existing nail heads with the heads of new nails.
Podcast Transcript
Read Transcript
| 0:00:31 | TOM: Coast to coast and floorboards to shingles. This is the Money Pit Home Improvement Show. I’m Tom Kraeutler. |
| 0:00:36 | LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete. |
| 0:00:38 | TOM: So glad to be here with you on this beautiful weekend. We hope it’s nice where you are and you are enjoying taking on projects around your house. If you’re not, if you’re frustrated, if you’re stuck, well heck, we can help. Give us a call right now with those questions. At 1-888-Money-Pit. 888-666-3974. Or post your questions at moneypit.com/ask. We’ve got a fun show planned for you today starting with, you imagine this, you see a dark spot on the walls of your home and then that spot begins to move. If you do, it’s probably a centipede, or as they are more commonly known, and very gross, thousand leggers. We’re going to share how to make your home a less welcome space for these fast and very freaky predators. |
| 0:01:19 | LESLIE: And if your garden is looking like it’s had too much sun, one of the best ways to make sure that your plants are thriving is with micro irrigation. We’re going to share how this system of tiny sprayers gets water right where you need it. |
| 0:01:31 | TOM: And if you do a lot of painting, but you have yet to try out a paint sprayer, well, we can tell you this your worker too hard. We’re going to share new technologies that makes quick work of big projects. |
| 0:01:40 | LESLIE: Well, whatever it is you are working on, guys, it is almost the end of summer. I know it’s early August, but I’m just, you know, thinking to the fall. And I know that we’re getting busy with things around the house and maybe the kids are gearing up to go back to school. So you’ve got some projects you want to tackle. Let us help you get all of those done. So give us a call any time we’re standing by to lend a hand, give. |
| 0:02:00 | TOM: Us a call at 1-888-Money-Pit or go to moneypit.com/ask for the caucus. Possible response. Let’s get to it. Leslie, who’s first. |
| 0:02:08 | LESLIE: Head now to Texas. We’ve got Leroy on the line. What’s going on in your money pit? |
| 0:02:12 | CALLER: All the events in the house work just fine. We’re blowing out, you know, called, you know, fast. I suffer one back bedroom, which is our smallest room. Right? Barely any air blows out of it. And I don’t know what might be going on, what the ducting up there or, you know, like I said, I’ve barely any air blows out there in that, you know, smallest room should be in the coldest. But actually, again, the hardest. |
| 0:02:32 | TOM: Is that the farthest room away from where the air conditioner is located? |
| 0:02:35 | CALLER: No. By the second closest. |
| 0:02:37 | TOM: Really? Huh? That’s the case. There’s no reason you should be getting such a reduced airflow. You definitely to me, sounds like you have a kink in there somewhere. There’s a blockage for some. For some reason. Is there any way that you could get the register off? And sometimes with a flashlight and a mirror, you can look down the whole line of the duct and see if there’s anything obvious that’s blocking. And I can’t imagine what it is. But if it got kinked, maybe when it was first put in, who knows? Could it be like the since day one? And that would definitely cause this problem. If it’s the second closest to the air conditioner, you should not be having restricted airflow. |
| 0:03:10 | CALLER: Right. And that’s what I was kind of thinking. But I figured I’d ask somebody that knows a little bit more about this stuff than I do. |
| 0:03:16 | TOM: The other thing is where it comes off the air conditioning. You want to try to follow the ducks at that point because sometimes there’s dampers where you can control flow and there’s a small chance, I will say not a big chance, small chance that you could have a damper on that line. That’s partially shut. Sometimes they put dampers on line so that they can adjust the amount of air going the different parts of the house. If you see the damper, it’s going to be inside the ducts. You won’t see the actual damper, but you’ll see the axle on which the damper operates. And the ax is going to have a flat on the end of it. And if the flat is perpendicular to the duct, it’s closed. And if it’s parallel to the duct, then it’s fully open. So look for that. I’ll have a little handle on it, usually with a little hand tightened, not on there to stop it from breaking loose. So take a look for that as well. And if it turns out that you can’t find it, sometimes it’s easier to run a new duct than is to try to fix the one that’s there. So that’s another. |
| 0:04:09 | CALLER: Option right now. I understand. Yeah, I’m happy to go get those and option those after the track. |
| 0:04:14 | TOM: Good luck. |
| 0:04:14 | CALLER: Leroy. Thank you. Have a good day. |
| 0:04:16 | LESLIE: All right, now we’ve got Michelle in Iowa on the line who’s looking to spend some more time outdoors with a fire pit. How can we help with that project? |
| 0:04:23 | CALLER: Well, we started making an outside fire pit with Fieldstone and our mortar that we seem to be using. It just seems like it’s awful dry and it’s like it’s cracking. So I didn’t know if you had a different brand that you thought would work or any suggestion. |
| 0:04:42 | TOM: Well, one tip is that if it’s a really warm, dry day when you’re working, you might want to consider putting some plastic over the areas that you’re working on to slow the evaporation rate because if it dries really quickly, sometimes it can shrink and crack. |
| 0:04:57 | CALLER: And no certain brand of mortar you think would work best. Just what the stores recommend for outside fireplaces? |
| 0:05:04 | TOM: Well, I mean, quick Crete works extremely well, so you could look to the Quick Treat brand. And one of the advantages of Quick Create is they’ve also got lots and lots and lots of videos online that give you the step by step on how to properly mix the product. For example, in this case. |
| 0:05:19 | CALLER: Okay, Thank you. |
| 0:05:20 | TOM: Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit. |
| 0:05:25 | LESLIE: Hey, you want to make our day? Well, go ahead and leave us a five star review on Apple Podcasts and we’ll be jumping for joy. Plus, you guys, your feedback helps us make the show even better for you. Just go to Money Pit dot com slash review lawn in Florida is on the line with a lead paint question. How can I help you today? |
| 0:05:42 | CALLER: Hi. My husband and I are remodeling a 1907 home that’s been vacant for multiple years. There’s lots of damage, a lot of the paint chipping off the windows as. |
| 0:05:55 | LESLIE: There is. |
| 0:05:56 | CALLER: On the billboard and wings, coating a lot of the paint chipping off. And someone has gone in and put like sheet wrap mud texture over the original plaster walls. So some of that’s chipping after we’ve got three young children. So we need to repaint this house and think, say, I’m really concerned about the one paint issue. |
| 0:06:16 | LESLIE: Yeah, understandably so. And I mean, your house is in the time frame where you do need to be concerned about lead paint. Now, we had an issue when we put central air conditioning in the house when my son was six months old, you know, when he was little, I didn’t think that, you know, any concern. And they did a great job. They were very tidy. They contained all the dust, but something must have gotten on something. And when we had gone for his next exam, he had elevated blood levels, you know, probably from some dust getting on a toy and then the toy going in his mouth, anything. Anyway, it turned out, you know, after we did the next blood work, his levels went back to normal. So we were really not concerned at that point. But it is a very scary issue. Now, I’m not sure nationwide what the rules are, and maybe Tom can speak better on this, but in New York, when you are fairly certain that you’ve got lead paint or the time frame sort of dates it that way, you have to work with a painter or a contractor who’s certified in sort of lead paint container mint, if you will, because even if you have it on a window frame and you’re opening and closing that window, you’re creating little specks of lead dust that are getting into the air. And with small children, you do need to be concerned. So you do need to make sure that if you can, that this is done by a pro. I mean, there’s nothing that regulates when a homeowner does it themselves. But knowing that you probably have lead paint and that small children in the home, I would just have a pro do it. And you want to make sure that things are taped off and really sealed up and cleaned very thoroughly. I mean, there are specific rules I know in New York state that allow for a contractor to be certified, and that’s something you really want to look for. |
| 0:07:51 | TOM: Yeah. And especially because the paint is flaking in deteriorated condition right now. I mean, that’s the highest risk for this law. And so you’re wise to proceed very cautiously and make sure that the contractor that you’re working with is certified as a lead professional. |
| 0:08:05 | CALLER: All right. Thank you. |
| 0:08:07 | TOM: You’re welcome, Lauren. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money Pit. |
| 0:08:11 | LESLIE: Michael in North Carolina, You’ve got the Money Pit. How can we help you? |
| 0:08:14 | CALLER: Today? We have a hot water heater in our garage. I got elevated tomato and we noticed the other day there was a slight leak underneath it, but it looked like it might have been coming from a like a PVC type tube coming from the top of our water heater. And it’s the length of the water heater is the tube. And we’ve never seen water under that area before. And we now notice some of that. So I wasn’t sure why. It’s a it was a sweating situation or what if something of a relief valve maybe, or something like that. But I’m not sure why water would. |
| 0:08:44 | TOM: Have been there. Yeah, that’s exactly what it is. It’s a temperature and pressure relief valve. It’s mounted on the side of the water heater is designed to open up the water heater, develops too much pressure as a safety mechanism. However, they frequently wear and leak. So I’m going to tell you what you can try to do, but I’m also going to warn you, there’s a lever on the side of that. And sometimes you get a little bit of a debris that’s stuck inside that that temperature pressure valve and you pull the lever, it’ll shoot some water out that tube. Want to make sure you have a bucket under it just two or three times will kind of blast some hot water out of there. However, the warning is that sometimes once you do that, the valve never sits back properly and it ends up leaking worse. So it’s possible you could make it worse by doing this, but that’s worth trying if you just want to leave a bucket under it. Manager for a little while. How old is this water heater? |
| 0:09:37 | CALLER: About 1990. 1998. |
| 0:09:39 | TOM: Oh. Oh, Well, you know what? You’re due for a new one. So 1998. I wouldn’t wait too much longer before I replace that, because let’s face it, it’s about 15 years old now. And so, you know, a water heater that gets past ten is, you know, well on its way to needing to the end of a useful life. So I would you know, you could monitor it, stick a bucket in there, keep an eye on it. But I think it’s about time to think about replacing this non-emergency replacement. So got some time to shop around. One of the problems with water heaters is once they do leak, they usually have to be done immediately and people get taken advantage of because they need it today. But you’re not in that situation, Michael, So you could take some time and shop around and find the one, the contractor that you want. But 15 year old water heater you might want to think about replacing it. All right. |
| 0:10:27 | CALLER: I appreciate that very much. |
| 0:10:28 | TOM: Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at eight At eight Money Pit. |
| 0:10:33 | LESLIE: Well, imagine seeing a dark spot on the wall of your home and then that spot begins to move. Well, it’s probably a centipede. And all those bugs have many beneficial qualities. They are one pretty fast and freaky looking bug to have to live with. Now centipedes are usually referred to as thousands of leggers, but they actually only have between 30 and 354, which is still quite a lot. I mean that really is they all have long antennae, they have powerful jaws and they use those jaws to devour their prey, which are other bugs. You don’t want in the house. |
| 0:11:06 | TOM: Now, centipedes can look pretty scary. They’re not harmful to humans, pets or the environment. They don’t spread disease. They don’t have noxious odors. In fact, they do have some beneficial qualities. Ah, you just mentioned Leslie, because they eat other harmful pests that may appear in the home. And in fact, if you have a heavy infestation of house centipedes, you can bet they are there for a reason. So look closely and you’re likely to find out what other insects they are feeding on. |
| 0:11:31 | LESLIE: All right, so now that we’ve totally grossed you out, here’s how you can stop the infestations of those creepy crawly invaders from taking up residence at your house. So if you’ve got damp spaces, dry them out because they love those damp spaces. It’s like a welcome mat for those centipedes and a host of other moisture loving bugs like termites, cockroaches, even ants. And if you’ve got gaps and cracks, seal those up because the centipedes can get in. So you don’t want that. You want to look around for cracks, crevices, holes in the foundation, sealing up those voids is the first thing that needs to be done to keep those house centipedes away. And you can use an all weather clock for this job. |
| 0:12:09 | TOM: Now, if you’d like to get rid of another thing that you could do is to apply a spray foam insecticide. Now, spray foam insecticides come with sort of like a straw like applicator, and they can be very helpful to get into those small outside spaces and seal up the holes and not allow the household pest to actually enter your house in the first place. And one other product that is most commonly used to kill house centipedes is simply an insecticidal dust. Just be sure to follow the directions of the manufacturer about application usage and safety for humans and pets. And if you’ve tried but you’re still seeing those thousand layers, you may need to call in a professional pest control service for the job. You’re going to pay more, of course, but most pest control companies guarantee their work and the pesticides they use are very targeted to the very specific insect they’re treating and very, very effective. |
| 0:12:56 | LESLIE: Yeah, no matter what you call them. Centipedes. 1,000 leggers, I don’t know. 808 leg animals or you call them. These bugs can definitely cause plenty of frightening encounters in the home. But the good news is they won’t cause you or the home any harm. You want to follow some tips, you’ll get peace of mind, and then you can eliminate all of the pests at home. For more, check out our post. How to get rid of 1000 letters without getting totally grossed out on the Money Pit dot com site. All right. Now we’ve got Diane in Illinois who needs some extra stored space at her Money pit. How can we help you today? |
| 0:13:30 | CALLER: Well, I have a deck off of our master bedroom, and it’s a 12 by 12 deck, and I want to turn it into a walk in closet. And I want to bring my washer and dryer from the basement upstairs and put it into that closet. |
| 0:13:45 | TOM: Well, this sounds like a good project, Diane, but I have to tell you that generally when people try to convert a deck into a finished room, I’ve seen it done many, many times, especially in the 20 years I spent as a professional home inspector. It just doesn’t work for a lot of reasons. And I can understand that you want it to, you know, flow nicely into the house and all of that. But you’re really talking about an addition here and if you’re going to build an addition, you typically were going to build a different than the deck. What I would recommend is that even though this is a small project, it’s a complicated project because not only do you want a closet, you also want laundry there. I think this is a great opportunity for you to consult with an architect because you have a lot to do to get this done correctly. And you also don’t want to make it look like it’s sort of slapped on the outside of your house because it’s going to detract from your home value. But every single time I’ve seen somebody try to take a deck and convert in the leading living space, it’s never worked out too well. It might be that you can preserve some of the framing and maybe incorporated in there, but it’s going to now be living space is going to have to be heated. It’s going to have to be cords is going to have to have wiring. It’s going to have to have plumbing. You know, it’s an addition. It’s no longer going to be in a deck. So while that space might fit well for it, you know, starting with the existing deck doesn’t always make the most sense. Okay. |
| 0:15:04 | CALLER: Okay. So what would we would have to just tear that deck down and start over? |
| 0:15:09 | TOM: Or you may. But that’s why I say let’s not speculate on this and let’s not make a wrong step. This is a type of project where you are well advised to hire an architect. It’s not going to be an expensive consulting fee because it’s a small project, but it’s really smart to do that in this situation because you’ll find out what you can save and what you have to tear down. You won’t make a costly mistake. |
| 0:15:30 | CALLER: Okay. I didn’t want anything falling off the house and tearing a roof apart, and I didn’t want to have to do all of that. So I appreciate your advice. |
| 0:15:37 | TOM: Thank you. And good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit. |
| 0:15:42 | LESLIE: Now we’ve got Damian in Iowa on the line. We’ve got a mystery noise in the bathroom. Tell us about. |
| 0:15:47 | CALLER: It. I got a new house beginning of April. It’s my second house I’ve owned, and then my master bedroom and the closet. Master closet and the master bath. It’s just some weird, like, clicking noises on the walls. |
| 0:16:02 | TOM: Does that happen when you run water, Damian? |
| 0:16:04 | CALLER: That does, but that’s mainly, I think, my plumbing and the flooring. And I don’t think this is a plumbing issue. |
| 0:16:10 | TOM: So if it happens consistent with, you know, run the water, turn the water on off, it’s almost always the pipes expanding and contracting. If the pipes are rubbing against the wall as it expands or contracts, it will make that clicking sound and then that clicking sound will resonate. So it could be originating in the floor and you might hear it in the wall and so on. Sometimes it sounds like a drip, sometimes it sounds like a click. But in a bathroom area, that’s the almost exclusively the reason that that sound occurs. |
| 0:16:41 | CALLER: Here’s my thing. It happens in the closet and it happens like for hours at a time where the plumbing is not even being used. Okay. |
| 0:16:49 | TOM: Well, it still could be expansion and contraction. |
| 0:16:52 | CALLER: Could it be Because I’m kind of facing the west side and it happens in the afternoon. Do you think the sun has anything to do with stuff heating up in the walls or. |
| 0:17:02 | TOM: It may very well, because when you’re heating, when you’re heating things up, you’re going to get expansion. |
| 0:17:06 | CALLER: Yeah, I’m just I used to based on a brick house and this one’s steel siding, so I never used to hear those kind of sound. |
| 0:17:13 | TOM: Oh, see, the expansion? The contraction of the siding is very noisy, too. |
| 0:17:17 | CALLER: Oh, could that be it then? |
| 0:17:19 | TOM: Yeah, it could be, absolutely. |
| 0:17:20 | CALLER: I’ve gotten to the point where I almost want to take a hammer to my drywall and see what’s going on in there. |
| 0:17:24 | TOM: I think you’d be chasing it for a long time and probably never exactly find the point, but it’s pretty typical and I wouldn’t worry about it. Okay. |
| 0:17:30 | CALLER: Damian All right. Thank you so much. Appreciate it, guys. |
| 0:17:33 | LESLIE: Michelle in Minnesota is on the line with a bathroom floor thing, as all I can call it. What’s going on? You’re getting moisture coming up through the floor. |
| 0:17:42 | CALLER: Yes, it’s a laminate floor. This is my third summer in this house and it’s the first time that I’ve had this issue. And it was started around the warm and humid days. At first I thought maybe that it was my toilet leaking cause I had a new toilet put in last summer. But the plumber did come out and pull the toilet and it didn’t look like it was leaking or that the seal was broken on it. So we’re thinking that it’s condensation from a concrete slab coming up between the slats of the laminate flooring. So the. |
| 0:18:16 | TOM: Laminate flooring is on top of a concrete slab. |
| 0:18:18 | CALLER: Correct. |
| 0:18:19 | TOM: What’s this look? What’s this doing to the floor? Is it causing it to deform in any way or is it just showing up as a stain? |
| 0:18:25 | CALLER: It is not it is not buckling or anything along the edges. It’s it thinks that maybe it’s a rubber flooring, more of a rubber based flooring rather than a wood. And so it has not curled edges or anything like that. It just keeps up as moisture and it comes to like beads up right along the edges of the laminate. |
| 0:18:48 | TOM: You have air conditioning in this bathroom? |
| 0:18:50 | CALLER: I do not know. |
| 0:18:52 | TOM: Are seeing cooler, moist air against a warmer floor could cause additional condensation. And so look, if you want to reduce the moisture that’s coming up through the bathroom, there’s a couple of things I can suggest. First of all, you want to take a look at the grading and the drainage conditions outside that bathroom, because the slab, if it’s getting very wet, is extremely hydrostatic. So all the moisture in the earth will be drawn into the slab. And that’s going to wake up and show up in your bathroom, apparently. So take a look at your gutters and downspouts, make sure they’re clean and free flowing. And the spouts are extending 4 to 6 feet from the house. Get all that roof water away, and then take a look at the angle of the soil and make sure that that’s sloping away. Now, do you have a fan in this bathroom? |
| 0:19:35 | CALLER: Yes. |
| 0:19:36 | TOM: That is helpful. You might want to think about replacing the fan with one that’s that has a built in humid estate because that’s going to be in a couple of fronts. First of all, when you take a shower and you need leave the bathroom, turn the switch off, it’ll actually stay on until all the moisture is properly vented out of there. And if it does get humid on its own, then the units that will kick the fan on and also dry it out. They’re not terribly expensive. I know Bron makes a good one. There are a number of manufacturers you can find this from and keep an eye on the floor. Some laminate floors, you know, stand up very well to moisture. I’ve seen laminate floors are going to be submerged in. They don’t seem to be affected by it, but others will buckle just like hardwood wood. So just keep an eye on it. And if it ends up that it does have to be replaced, I would paint that cement slab underneath with a couple of coats of epoxy paint to kind of seal in and stop the moisture from evaporating through it in the room. Okay. But only the only to get that far. I mean, I wouldn’t tell you to tear up the for now, but if you have to replace it, just make sure you seal the slab at the same time. |
| 0:20:40 | CALLER: Okay. Thank you. That’s good. Good thing. |
| 0:20:42 | TOM: All right. Good luck. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit. |
| 0:20:46 | LESLIE: Well, micro irrigation is a system of drip tubing and tiny sprayers. And it’s a great way for you to get water right where you need it for specific plants and areas of your yard. Now, unlike a lawn irrigation system, installing drip irrigation is not as complicated. You don’t need a sophisticated irrigation network to supply the micro irrigation. A spigot for a hose is going to do the trick. It’s perfect for flowerbeds and shrubs because what it does is it delivers the water right where you need it. Under low pressure. |
| 0:21:14 | TOM: Now, most micro irrigation systems consist of drip tubing. It’s either a quarter inch or half inch hose filled with tiny plastic knobs that are called emitters. The emitters allow water drip out at a regulated pace without clogging. Now the tubing is going to snake around and among plants and trees to get the water into the soil at the roots. There’s also a lot of accessories. You can have sprayers for ground cover figures for hanging containers and single emitters for reaching plants that are sort of off the grid, which allow you to customize a system that’s perfect for your situation. To get started, it’s best to draw a plan of your garden and then map out a configuration of the tubing and the accessories you’ll need for your project. |
| 0:21:51 | LESLIE: Now, the actual plumbing connection is really simple too. It doesn’t have to be permanently installed. Instead, the system connects to an outdoor faucet. The first screw, the vacuum breaker to the pressure regulator to prevent contaminated hose water from back washing into the house’s supply lines. And then you attach the filter to the pressure regulator and connect the host to that filter. |
| 0:22:10 | TOM: Then once the tube is installed, you cover it with about two inches of mulch to keep that water from evaporating before it reaches the plant’s roots. And you’ll give your garden a nice manicure appearance. |
| 0:22:20 | LESLIE: Chris in Georgia is on the line with an electrical question. What’s going. |
| 0:22:24 | CALLER: On? Yes, I’ve got a question with an electrical issue in our in our bedroom. He bought this house and trying to find out some answer to why the like the bottom plug of a duplex receptacle would work. But if you plug into the top part of the outlet, it won’t work. There’s no power. |
| 0:22:44 | TOM: Is there any possibility that the top outlet is on a switch? |
| 0:22:49 | CALLER: I could be. Okay. |
| 0:22:51 | TOM: I’ve seen that you don’t see it very often, but I have seen it where it looks like a normal outlet is actually split and the top one is wired to switch, and the bottom one isn’t. |
| 0:23:00 | CALLER: Oh, okay. |
| 0:23:01 | TOM: So theoretically, you would have your light on the top one. Now, if that’s not the case, then obviously something’s wrong with the outlet and I would just replace the outlet. It should be a big deal. |
| 0:23:11 | CALLER: Awesome. I appreciate the. |
| 0:23:13 | TOM: Advice. All right, Chris, good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 88 Money Pit. |
| 0:23:18 | CALLER: Very good. Thank you. |
| 0:23:20 | LESLIE: Deborah in Pennsylvania, You’ve got the Money Pit. What can we do for you today? |
| 0:23:23 | CALLER: Okay. I’m purchasing a home that has a couple of stains on the ceiling, and it turns out the stains are located directly under the vents. I don’t know any other way to explain it, but they’re like the tubes on the seat, on the outside where the roof is. So I was told by the inspection man that there is rubber stopper. Things that go around them need to be replaced. |
| 0:23:47 | TOM: Okay. Yeah. So the plumbing then flashing is what is leaking here and the plumbing then flashing consists of an aluminum piece of flash material that goes underneath the roof, shingles and a rubber boot that is designed to fit over the plumbing pipe. And they very often their rubber boot will very often crack, deteriorate and does have to be replaced. Not terribly complicated job. You know, a roofer or a carpenter can do it in about ten or 15 minutes. They just basically have to peel up a roof shingle or two right around there. You can do that with a flat bar. You can actually put the flat for under the roof shingle, get it right up to where the nail is and kind of wiggle it back and forth. It now will come right out. You can kind of disassemble the roof one shingle at a time, replace the flashing vent and put it back together. So pretty easy, straightforward repair project and not the least bit unusual, Deborah. Okay. |
| 0:24:45 | CALLER: Okay. Well, I appreciate you taking my call. Thank you. Yeah, you’re. |
| 0:24:49 | TOM: Welcome. Good luck, Deborah. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit. Well, if you do a lot of painting, but you have yet to try out a paint sprayer, well, you are working too hard. The new Wagner high efficiency, airless paint sprayers can deliver more paint without waste and result in a far better finish than you can achieve with other methods. For example, the Titan control max 1700 high efficiency airless paint sprayer is really good for handymen, general contractors and experienced homeowners who are tackling large painting projects. |
| 0:25:22 | LESLIE: Now. The high efficiency airless technology in these sprayers produces 55% less overspray and goes on three times faster than a roller. Plus, it pulls paint directly out of a one gallon or a five gallon paint container. And it has a 30 foot hose. So it makes it super easy to get around. And when you’re done painting, you can store the tips, the tools, everything, right in the integrated storage, which I love. So I’m never losing things. |
| 0:25:48 | TOM: The Titan Control Max 1700 high efficiency airless paint sprayer by Wagner is available at Lowe’s Home Improvement and retails for 379 bucks. |
| 0:25:59 | LESLIE: Bob in South Dakota is dealing with the drywall issue. What’s going on in your house? |
| 0:26:03 | CALLER: We have a 99 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 did some ourselves. One of the things they did that 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? |
| 0:26:41 | TOM: Well, it would if would if the just drove it back in and didn’t put a second nail that overlaps it. |
| 0:26:47 | LESLIE: Well, 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 the 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 packing its way out, you can take a second nail and overlap bits that you know, 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’s Wood. It’ll stay there and then you go ahead and, you know, cover over and sand and spackle at everything, make it nice and smooth and paint. But a screw really is the best way because those won’t back themselves out. |
| 0:27:27 | CALLER: 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 the helpful hints, but what do you think sells cars? Those screws the part like that? Or nails, I should say. |
| 0:27:44 | TOM: Normal expansion and contraction. You know, the nails that are used to attach drywall have a glue coating on them 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 of the 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 nail head with a new nail head so that you’re not creating sort of a second nail in the second nail hole it’s holding in place that’s effective. Or you pull out the drywall now altogether and replace it with the drywall, screw it and will never pull out. The fact that you put the screw two or three inches from the old one, you know, we’ll help keep that board tight. But it’s not going to stop the drywall now from expanding and tracking and pushing itself back out. As you’ve learned. You just really need to sort of reinforce that by overlapping the heads with a new nail. |
| 0:28:39 | CALLER: Well, so that sounds good. And I think from what I’ve seen, if we pull the old nail and put a screw in always the way 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. |
| 0:28:56 | TOM: Trial and error is the best, right? |
| 0:28:58 | CALLER: Absolutely. Thank you guys so much. Thank you for the great show. |
| 0:29:01 | TOM: All right. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit. |
| 0:29:05 | LESLIE: Nicole from Bay City, Michigan, wrote into Time Money Pit, and she’s having a hard time caulking her bathroom shower. She says, every time I caulk the shower, I let it dry for a few days before use it. But after a week, that caulk looks like it’s cracking and falling out all over again. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong. |
| 0:29:20 | TOM: Well, I’m not either, Nicole. So let’s sort of wing this back to the beginning and make sure that we have a good clean base for you to caulk from. And so the first thing I want you to do is to remove all the old caulk that’s in there. Now, there’s a handy product called a caulk softener that you can apply in sort of like a paint remover for caulk. It softens the caulk and allows you to kind of scrape it out and get absolutely as much of that old stuff out of there as you can. Try not to damage the shower or the tile or whatever the surround is, but definitely get it out of there. Now, after you’re done with that, I want you to scrub it with a brush and then rinse it and spray it with a bleach solution. By bleach solution, I mean, like, let’s just say 25% bleach solution or maybe a little stronger and let it dry and you can rinse it again. The bleach is going to be there. Kill any mold that gets left behind. So after you’ve rinsed it, after you believe it, rinse it again and it’s really dry, then you can proceed to caulk it again. But this time I want you to use silicone caulk. It has the best binding power of all the corks that are out there. Harder to work with because you can’t really smooth it out with your favorite trowel or my favorite trowel, which is your finger. But there is a way you can do that. And that is if you use some soapy water or if you spray some soapy water or get your hands of soapy water like dish soap, maybe a little just soapy water in a spray bottle. Spray your finger with that. Then it’ll slide on top of the silicone caulk. And in this way you can get nice even bead all the way around. Once that’s done, let it dry and you should be good to go. I can imagine if you follow all those steps, it will come out again. I think you’re just having a problem because whatever’s underneath is not binding to the New York. |
| 0:30:53 | LESLIE: All right. Next up, Parker from Chicago says, I’m buying a new house and curious about window replacement. The home was built in 1985, and several windows look like they have moisture coming through. And I’m wondering if I should plan on replacing them. |
| 0:31:04 | TOM: So when you say they look like they have moisture coming through, I’m going to guess that you’re talking about fogging in the window, condensation in between the window panes. Because when we made windows in 1985 and we still do this very similarly today, but maybe with slightly different materials, we put an insulator gas in between two panes of glass and insulator gas usually argon or something similar to that and helps make the window more energy efficient in the winter. And in the summer. But as the SEALs fail and the SEALs have a funny name, the cold squiggle, when the squiggle leaks, then you get condensation between those panes of glass and that’s what makes them look like they’re leaking, as you say. The thing is, it’s not really going to affect energy efficiency a tremendous a lot. So just because the windows fogged, unless it’s really bugging you, I don’t think you have to replace the windows. So I put this in sort of the nice to have category not to have to have. And if you’re going to replace the windows, I would suggest that you start on the south side. If you’re concerned about the bills for electricity in the summer and air conditioning or the north side, if you’re more concerned being in Chicago about the bills in the winter, you don’t have to do all sides at once. You can pass this out over a couple of years for sure. |
| 0:32:12 | LESLIE: You know, Parker, we get so many calls about this sort of squiggle failure issue where you see the condensation in between and, I mean, truly, as long as the window is functioning, okay, it’s just cosmetic. It’s not something to worry about, but it is so common. Everybody deals with it. So tackle it as you will. And, you know, good luck in the house. I’m glad you got a new home and hopefully it all works out for you and you’re enjoying your place. |
| 0:32:34 | TOM: This is the Money Pit Home Improvement Show. Hey, we really appreciate you guys sticking with us for today’s program. We hope you picked up a tip or two to help you take on projects around your house. Remember, if you’ve got questions, you can always reach out to us at MoneyPit.com//ask. But for now, that’s all the time we have. I’m Tom Kraeutler. |
| 0:32:52 | LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete. |
| 0:32:53 | TOM: Remember, you can do it yourself. |
| 0:32:55 | LESLIE: But you don’t have to do it alone. |
| (Note: The above referenced transcript is AI-Generated, Unedited and Unproofed and as such may not accurately reflect the recorded audio. Copyright 2023 Squeaky Door Productions, Inc. No portion of this transcript or audio file may be reproduced in any format without the express written permission of Squeaky Door Productions, Inc.) |
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