Solutions for Gardens that Won’t Grow #0814171

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: Hey, give us a call, right now, because we are here to help you with your home improvement project. What is on your end-of-summer to-do list? Yes, Labor Day is just, what, a couple of weeks away now? Oh, man, what happened to the summer? It went so quickly. But that means we’re jumping into the fall season, which we never complain about because that’s when home improvements really heat up.

So whatever you are working on, we’re here to help you out. Give us a call, whether it’s a home improvement, a décor question, a repair question, a maintenance question or just “Hey, I’m thinking about doing this. What do you guys think? What’s involved?” kind of a question. The number is 1-888-MONEY-PIT or you can post that question online at MoneyPit.com.

Coming up on today’s show, if you’ve got a house full of kids, one of the appliances you rely on daily is your laundry machine.

LESLIE: No doubt.

TOM: Exactly. But when you buy a new washer or dryer, how long would you expect it to last? Ten years? Fifteen if you’re lucky? Well, we’re going to tell you about a new set of machines that are designed and tested to last 25 years, just ahead.

LESLIE: And have you ever had a tree or a bush or a flower that just doesn’t seem to grow? Well, the issue might be that plant’s microclimate, so you could be doing everything right but the plant just doesn’t want to be there. We’re going to tell you how to plan for these really hyperlocal conditions that’ll get you growing again.

TOM: And you can’t see it, you can’t smell or taste it but radon gas causes cancer and is found in 1 of every 15 American homes. We’re going to tell you how to make sure yours isn’t on the list.

LESLIE: And if you want to be mosquito bite-free like my family has been so thankfully this entire summer – I’m knocking on wood, which means I’m knocking on my head right now. But we have truly been mosquito bite-free and I’ve got to thank DynaTrap Mosquito and Insect Trap for that. So, we’re giving one up for grabs this hour. It’s worth 129 bucks to one lucky caller.

And I don’t know about you, Tom, but have you been bitten up?

TOM: No, I have not. The thing is amazing.

LESLIE: It’s amazing.

TOM: And in fact, we’ve got friends that live along a lake and they’ve spent hundreds of dollars on these mosquito services to come in and spray everything.

LESLIE: Like the sprayers? Mm-hmm.

TOM: Yeah. And now they’ve got DynaTrap, too, and they absolutely love it.

So give us a call. That’s what you could win and you could also post your question to MoneyPit.com.

Let’s get to it, 888-666-3974. Leslie, who’s first?

LESLIE: Heading over to Delaware where Eve is trying to get rid of a smoke smell. What’s going on?

EVE: Right. We recently purchased a row home in Philadelphia and it has a third-floor studio apartment where the previous occupant was a heavy smoker. And we’re trying to get rid of the smell from the cigarettes. We’ve tried removing the floor tiles, replacing the drop-grid ceiling tiles and painting. But the odor is still pretty strong. So I’m wondering if you have any suggestions.

TOM: Hmm. So above the dropped ceiling, did you paint that surface, as well?

EVE: No. We didn’t.

TOM: What did you paint with? Did you use any kind of a primer?

EVE: Going over paint, so we didn’t. We just used a regular latex paint.

TOM: Right. So the best thing to do in a situation like this is to use a very good-quality primer – either an alkyd primer or a solvent-based primer – because it tends to seal in all of those wall and ceiling surfaces, including the odors that are underneath.

The other issue, of course, is the floors. Now, you mentioned that there’s a tile floor there. So it was a hard-surface floor?

EVE: Yeah. Right now, we pulled up everything. We’re down to the plywood. And we were just going to put in a new flooring. So is there anything we should do before we do that?

TOM: Yeah. I would also prime the plywood.

EVE: OK.

TOM: I’d seal everything and I would use a good-quality oil-based primer, like a KILZ, for example. And I would prime the heck out of everything because that does a good job of sealing out those odors. That and some just normal ventilation ought to do it. But I think if you don’t prime those surfaces, you won’t be able to completely get rid of that odor.

And then, of course, it goes without saying that you’ve disposed of furniture and curtains and things like that?

EVE: Yes. The only other question is: what about kitchen cabinets?

TOM: You can’t do much with them. But what you can do is you can clean them with TSP – trisodium phosphate. It’s like a powdery soap mix that you buy in the paint aisle and you can mix up a solution and clean those.

Are these wooden cabinets or laminate cabinets?

EVE: Wooden.

TOM: If it’s wooden, you may not want to use the TSP on it. You could use Murphy’s Oil Soap instead.

EVE: OK.

TOM: But you’re going to have to clean them. Yep.

EVE: Right. OK. Thank you very much.

TOM: You’re welcome, Eve. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.

I mean thankfully, fewer and fewer people are smoking today, so we’re getting fewer and fewer of those calls. But I tell you what, when you get a house that’s like that, what a mess. What a big mess. Hard to get rid of that scent.

LESLIE: Now we’ve got Larry from Arkansas on the line who’s got a landlord running an extension cord from his home into Larry’s place. This does not sound good. What is going on?

LARRY: The extension cord is plugged into our front porch. And it’s connected to a light at an attached shed. And the real problem is I’m thinking about putting a freezer in the shed. And I strongly suspect that that’s not enough electrical support for a freezer.

TOM: Probably not. And the thing is an extension cord is supposed to be a temporary solution, not a permanent solution. If you want to run power to another building, shed or not, on the same property it should be run properly, which is generally underground with cables that are rated for that, that are tied into their own circuit with a proper circuit protection.

So, this is a shortcut, which I wouldn’t recommend and especially if you want to put an appliance out there. You know, freezers pull a lot of power when they – when the compressor kicks on. So, you kind of have this voltage drop that happens when they first kick on, because of the draw. And so, I would suggest that if it’s something you really want to do, you should think about having a circuit run there. That’s really the best way to go.

LARRY: I will check into doing that. I was concerned.

TOM: And rightfully so, Larry. Rightfully so.

LARRY: Well, he’s got the extension cord buried maybe a couple of inches some places.

TOM: Oh, he buried it?

LARRY: Yeah.

TOM: Oh, man. That’s really dangerous.

LARRY: Yeah.

LESLIE: No, because extension cords are meant to be air-cooled.

TOM: Well, yeah. But they’re not – they’re certainly not designed to be underground. That’s a certain rating for wiring. Yeah, yeah. Really dumb.

Should definitely take that out, Larry, OK? Good luck. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.

LESLIE: Michelle in Michigan is on the line with a question about moles. That’s a lot of Ms, Michelle. What’s going on?

MICHELLE: Well, I have about an acre-and-a-half of backyard. Well, actually an acre, not quite a half. But I have moles constantly coming from my neighbor’s yard and tearing up. And they’re living under my patio.

LESLIE: Well, you know why they’re coming to your yard is because your yard is serving up a tasty treat that they really like. So, the reason why moles show up is because your property probably has grubs. And you might not see them. They’re living in the dirt underneath the lawn. But that’s what the moles are eating. So the trick to getting rid of the moles is to get rid of the grubs.

MICHELLE: Now, how would I go about by doing that? Because I’ve done everything I could possibly think of – spraying, putting things down, even a few homeopathic things – but nothing seems to be working.

LESLIE: There’s a couple of different products that you can use that will, I guess, treat the grub situation. One of them that you can find at your local home center is GrubEx. And that’s an application that you’ll put on the lawn and that will get rid of the grubs. It won’t happen instantaneously but it’ll start to get rid of the grubs. And then the moles will figure out that you don’t have the tasty treats in the lawn anymore and they’ll start moving elsewhere.

Have you tried anything like that?

MICHELLE: No, I haven’t tried anything like that. My neighbor down the street told me to poke little holes in the ground and put bubblegum in there. And they might be confused thinking it might be a grub or a worm and they might not want to come back. I was trying to do something where I wouldn’t hurt them but they’re really hurting my yard.

TOM: That’s right. It’s really simple. If you eliminate their food source, they’re going to go try to find it somewhere else. So, the grubs are the food. If you eliminate the grubs, you’ll eliminate the moles.

MICHELLE: OK. Well, great. Then I’ll have to give that a try.

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

LESLIE: You are listening to The Money Pit home improvement radio show. You can post your question to The Money Pit’s community page at MoneyPit.com or give us a call at 888-MONEY-PIT, presented by HomeAdvisor. They really have the best local pros for any home service.

TOM: That’s right. It doesn’t matter what the project is, they make it fast and easy to find top-rated pros. There are no membership fees. It’s a 100-percent free service to use. Find out for yourself at HomeAdvisor.com.

Just ahead, if you bought a new washer and dryer, how long would you expect that machine to last? Ten years? Fifteen? Well we’re going to tell you about a new machine that’s designed to last 25 years, 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: Give us a call, right now, at 1-888-MONEY-PIT presented by HomeAdvisor, or post your question to The Money Pit’s Community page. You’ll get the answer to your home improvement question.

Plus, this hour, we’re giving away the DynaTrap Mosquito and Insect Trap. This will protect up to a ½-acre and guard your family and pets from nuisance insects that could bite and spread disease. It produces CO2, which is an irresistible attractant for mosquitoes. And it doesn’t require any lures or attractants whatsoever. Completely non-toxic. You can actually use it both indoors and out.

LESLIE: You know, Tom, it works so well.

TOM: Yeah.

LESLIE: Do you think that friends would be upset if I showed up for their barbecues and outdoor parties with mine?

TOM: And brought your DynaTrap with it?

LESLIE: I mean seriously.

TOM: They’ve got these new models coming out that are really small and attractive and we always say this will work inside and out. Now, I have the big one that protects an acre of property. But we’ve had some of these houseflies that are just buzzing around our kitchen and are really annoying. They won’t go away and they’re too fast to catch right now. I would love to put one of those little ones in my kitchen, just to catch those suckers.

LESLIE: I think you should. It’s amazing.

TOM: It works really, really well.

LESLIE: Next, I need a personal one for when I go over to friends’ houses. Let’s work on that, DynaTrap.

TOM: You can carry it with you?

LESLIE: Seriously.

TOM: Alright. So we’ve got one to give away. It’s worth 129 bucks to one lucky caller. And by the way, we often give away a product on this show and you think, “Well, what if I’m not calling during the week and are not calling live?” Doesn’t matter. If you are listening to the show by podcast and it’s between Monday and the following Sunday, whatever we give away that following weekend, you’re in the drawing for it.

If you call us at 888-MONEY-PIT with your question, we’ll call you back if we’re not in the studio so that we can answer the question or if you post it to The Money Pit’s Community page. Don’t be shy. Get those questions rolling in, 888-MONEY-PIT and online at MoneyPit.com.

LESLIE: Howard in Texas is on the line with a brick wall that’s heading for Humpty Dumpty to have a great fall. What’s going on? It’s leaning forward?

HOWARD: The house is old – about 30 years old – and I assume the retaining wall is probably similar in length. It’s a – there are two walls. There’s one about 6 bricks high and then a 3-foot-deep flower bed and then another brick wall about – landscaping brick wall about 4 bricks high with another 3 feet behind that of shrubbery, no flowers. And it’s – yeah, it’s been leaning. I noticed it last year. And I thought it might go away and it’s not.

TOM: See, the thing is what happens here is over time, that soil is going to fill up with water, it’s going to be moist and damp and it’s going to expand and push on the wall. And that sort of ratcheting action from the frost heave, wall won’t come back from that. So every season, season after season, it pushes a little more, a little more, a little more. So, it’s not a structural issue, because it’s landscaping brick, but it’s eventually going to have to be replaced.

HOWARD: OK. So you mean tear it down and rebuild it.

TOM: Now, there are other types of retaining walls that can be constructed that are designed not to lean. For example, there are different types of block wall – fancy block wall, like precast concrete-block walls – that go together like puzzle pieces, one on top of another, that sort of lean back as you go. You stack one up and the next one doesn’t stick out quite as far and the next one on top of that, not quite as far as the one below. And those are rather permanent when they’re installed. But just a basic brick wall like that, yeah, that’s eventually going to lean and fall over.

HOWARD: Well, when I say brick, it’s probably 4 to 5 inches thick and deep.

TOM: Yeah. No, I hear you.

HOWARD: Well, that makes sense.

TOM: Same thing.

HOWARD: Yep. OK. Thank you.

TOM: You’re welcome. Good luck with that project.

LESLIE: Kim in North Carolina, you’ve got The Money Pit. How can we help you today?

KIM: Well, we have trouble with weed. And it was never a trouble before. But it – we have had trouble finding what we used to have and want to know if it is outdated or no longer safe to use for the environment.

TOM: Oh, you mean your weed-killer?

KIM: Well, no. It’s not a weed-killer, because we try not to put anything down in the ground other than to kill the fire ants.

TOM: But your goal here is to eliminate weeds?

KIM: We used to use a black plastic. The black plastic would keep the weeds gone – just literally gone. And the plants would actually flourish from the root system being gently baked, we use the term. But now, all you can find is that sand fiber stuff almost.

TOM: Well, listen, if it’s worked for you in the past, I don’t see why it won’t work for you in the future. It certainly is available and it’s safe. And you’re talking about weed block. That’s a different material entirely. And weed block is basically designed to cover the whole surface or to be just below the surface. I mean it will work, as well. But generally, with weed block, you put slits in it and that’s how the plants grow through it. They don’t grow under it.

Now, if you’re talking about a lawn, there are other ways to deal with a massive influx of weeds. If your lawn is in really bad condition and completely full with weeds, then I would recommend a kind of radical step called a “Round-Up restoration,” where you essentially spray the entire lawn with a Round-Up product in the fall, by the way. In the fall. You spray the entire lawn. And then as that lawn starts to die out, you put seed on it. And the seed comes up through the original dead lawn. And then by next spring, you’ll have a beautiful, new, green lawn without a lick of weeds in the whole place.

So there’s a couple of ways to approach it but either way, I think, is fine. If you can identify the plastic and use it again, I see nothing wrong with doing that. If you want to use the weed block, that’s fine. But you have to have cuts in it for the plants to come on. Or if you just want to restore the entire lawn, then go with the Round-Up restoration.

Kim, thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.

LESLIE: Hey, are you guys looking for something fun and exciting to add to your home’s laundry room, maybe for this upcoming fall season? That’s right, I said upcoming fall season or even end of summer. I know you’re building up a lot of laundry, so we’re partnering with Speed Queen for the Speed Queen Lovin’ My Laundry Sweepstakes. Check it out at LovinMyLaundry.com.

Two grand-prize winners, guys. They’re going to receive a Speed Queen washer and dryer set, including the delivery and hookup. That’s a price worth over 2000 bucks and we’re giving 2 of those sets away from Speed Queen. Also, they’ve got up for grabs 10 first-place winners and those folks are going to get a laundry gift basket with things like the basket and clothespins and the laundry sack – all that good stuff that you need – plus a $200 Amazon gift card. But there’s also going to be 40 runner-up winners and those folks will get a $50 Amazon gift card.

Those are huge prizes, Tom. That’s like 52 prizes.

TOM: Fifty-two prizes. And I’ve got to tell you, I love the Speed Queen machines because while most washers and dryers last 10 years –12 years if you’re lucky – they test these machines with 10,000 loads of laundry, which is the equivalent of 25 years’ worth of laundry and wear and tear. So, they really are good-quality machines. Why not enter today? The Speed Queen Lovin’ My Laundry Sweepstakes. LovinMyLaundry.com – L-o-v-i-n – LovinMyLaundry.com.

LESLIE: Alright. Next up, we’ve got Mark who’s got a question about some unwanted summer visitors. What’s going on?

MARK: We’re starting to get these black ants that are coming into the house. Big ants. I don’t understand why they’re all of a sudden coming in whereas they haven’t been coming in before.

TOM: Well, ants are – can be seasonal in terms of their – the times when they’re active. If they’re large, black ants, I would want to know if they’re carpenter ants or not because those can actually eat wood. They could be damaging to the house. So I think if you have that much infestation, I would have it inspected by a pest-control professional.

Now, if it turns out that you have to treat them, the most effective treatments with ants and with some other insects like termites, as well, is to use a bait treatment. Because the baits are effective, because the ants take it back to the nest and it gets split among the colony and it eradicates the entire colony, as opposed to just kind of killing them off one ant at a time. They share it and they eradicate the entire colony. So, baits are the most effective way to rid your home of ants and they really are best when they’re professionally applied.

MARK: Thank you so much. I appreciate your time.

TOM: You’re very welcome. Thank you for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.

LESLIE: Now we’ve got Louise on the line who’s got some mystery stains on a mailbox. What’s going on?

LOUISE: OK, I have a brick mailbox and it seems to have salt deposits leaking through the outside of it.

TOM: Is it in the way of a lawn sprinkler, by any chance?

LOUISE: No, it isn’t.

TOM: Because, often, what happens is if it gets groundwater splashed on it – and that can happen if you have sprinklers and wells – a lot of mineral salts in there that will dry and basically adhere to the outside.

You know, what’s happening here is you are seeing some sort of mineral deposits and you’re going to have to clean it. And the best way to clean it, believe it or not, is to mix up a vinegar-and-water solution. Because vinegar melts the salts.

LOUISE: Wow.

TOM: So you can mix them up in a bucket, splash it down with a nice, soft-bristle brush, scrub it. And that should make those disappear. They may come back but the other thing that you could think about doing, once it gets nice and dry and clean, is to apply a masonry sealer to it. And if you use a silicone-based masonry sealer, you want to get one that’s vapor-permeable so it doesn’t trap the water underneath the sealer surface. This lets it breathe and stops it from cracking and chipping. But that should slow down the showing up of any additional salt stains.

LOUISE: Well, thank you so, so much. I’ll do that.

LESLIE: Alright. Thanks so much for calling The Money Pit.

Just ahead, have you ever washed your clothes and then discovered that they come out with sort of like a strange, white residue? Well, we’re going to solve that mystery, next.

RICHARD: Hi. I’m Richard Trethewey, the plumbing-and-heating contractor from TV’s This Old House. If you want to keep your home from freezing, frying or going on the fritz, keep listening to Tom and Leslie on The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show.

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

LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete. You can post your question at MoneyPit.com or give us a call at 888-MONEY-PIT presented by HomeAdvisor, the fast and easy way to find the right pro for any kind of home improvement project, whether it’s a small repair or a major remodel.

TOM: Hey, have you ever washed clothes and then when they came out they were covered with kind of a mysterious white residue? That’s probably the result of washing clothes in hard water with low-quality detergent. Because if you don’t use the right detergent, it doesn’t soften the water for the washing cycle. And those low-quality detergents will contain only sodium carbonate but what you need to do is find a detergent that includes both aluminosilicates and sodium carbonate, which basically work together to soften that water and get rid of all that white, crusty stuff.

Of course, you also want to use the hottest water possible and if it’s a really bad situation, pick up a water softener. Home Depot has got a lot of good water-quality solutions that could help you out with that.

LESLIE: Well, when you’re planning your landscaping or your garden, it’s always a good idea to choose plants, shrubs and even flowers that are native to your geographic area.

TOM: Absolutely. But beyond your geographic area, you can also get very specific about the climate right around your plants. These are actually called “microclimates.” And planning for these very local conditions – here to tell us more about microclimates and help make sure that they assure the success of your garden or landscape is Roger Cook, the landscaping expert for TV’s This Old House.

Hi, Roger.

ROGER: How are you?

TOM: We are excellent. And how micro exactly are we talking here, Roger? Are there different climates kind of theoretically going on in different places in your yard?

ROGER: Well, let’s start off with a broad point of view.

TOM: OK.

ROGER: There are hardiness zones that break up the United States into different areas of high and low temperature.

TOM: OK.

ROGER: This tells you what plant will survive in that area. Like if you buy a plant, you live in Zone Five? You go to the nursery, you find a plant that’ll grow in Zone Five so you know you’re safe.

TOM: Got it.

ROGER: Now, if the zone goes colder, like Zone Four, a Zone-Four plant will grow in a Zone Five. If you have a plant that likes warmer temperatures, like a Zone Seven or Eight, and you put that in a Zone Five, it’s going to die.

TOM: So palm trees in New Jersey don’t do so well.

ROGER: Only if you can take them inside for the winter. But as a general rule, no.

TOM: Alright. So, we know that we have to match our planting to our specific hardiness zone but beyond that, when you get into your own yard, there are conditions that can actually change that and almost move a section of the yard into a different hardiness zone, theoretically, correct?

ROGER: That’s right. And it happens both on the warm side and the cold side. We’ve had several places where the sun will hit off a concrete wall and that gathers and retains the heat.

TOM: OK.

ROGER: So that area there, we could actually grow a plant that would be out of its zone, because of those warm temperatures. The other thing that happens in that warm zone is those plants will grow faster or flower earlier than other plants in the yard.

LESLIE: But will that zone – that new sort of microclimate that you’ve created just because of this perchance that you’re reflecting the sun off of this building – will that continue throughout the year? Or once you get into a winter season, is that going to be really detrimental to that plant?

ROGER: It’ll revert back to whatever zone you’re in, so you’ve got to be careful. Most people find that with a warm microclimate, the plants bloom earlier and they’re always wondering why. And that’s why.

Then there’s the other side of the house: the north side. Now, it doesn’t get any sun and that stays colder, so you’re almost in a colder area. So what you should do is balance that: make sure you put the right plants that will take that coldness, like a Zone-Four plant, in that area.

LESLIE: Now, Roger, this is all really fascinating. I mean so many things can affect how your garden succeeds. So, is there an example where you’ve seen this in effect?

ROGER: We actually did a project on Ask This Old House where we had a homeowner who had a set of stairs with matching plantings on either side of the stairs; they had a dwarf Alberta spruce on either side. The one side, the plant was all shriveling up and diseased because of the heat that was caused in that one corner. The other side, the plant was beautiful.

So we took out the dwarf Alberta spruce, which wasn’t dealing well with that heat in the sun and we put in a yew, which had the same shape as the other dwarf Alberta spruce but would tolerate those conditions there.

LESLIE: And it all worked out?

ROGER: It all worked out beautiful.

TOM: So it sounds like what you’re saying, Roger, is that, typically, we see a plant that doesn’t do well or seems to do extraordinarily well and we always blame it on the plant or on the soil. But we really need to expand our view to kind of think about what’s happening right around that area of the building – of the yard, the sunlight, the reflecting surfaces – to really get an understanding of what’s going on there.

ROGER: Right. That particular microclimate could be affecting that plant’s performance and you described it perfectly, Tom.

TOM: So the choice might be to move up or down in hardiness zones based on what you’re seeing in that particular area, if the plant is not doing well.

ROGER: That’s right. So we’ve just about confused everyone and they don’t know what to do.

TOM: Well, I think the point is that there’s a lot more than just choosing the plant in the zone; you really need to look at what’s around it. And this kind of advice is very, very insightful. We’re going to have a lot of gardeners out there going, “Aha. Now I know why it’s not doing so well.”

Roger Cook, who always helps us do well with our landscaping chores, thanks so much for stopping by The Money Pit.

ROGER: You’re welcome.

LESLIE: And remember, guys, you can watch Roger and the entire This Old House team on This Old House and Ask This Old House, which are on your local PBS station.

TOM: And This Old House and Ask This Old House are brought to you on PBS by The Home Depot. More savings, more doing.

Up next, when it comes to odorless, colorless gas that can pose a real health threat to homeowners, what do you think of? Carbon monoxide, of course, right? It gets all the attention. But radon gas is out there. It’s also odorless and colorless and it can be a real killer. We’re going to share how to know whether radon is lurking in your home, after this.

TOM: Where home solutions live, this is The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show. I’m Tom Kraeutler.

LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.

Give us a call at 888-MONEY-PIT, presented by HomeAdvisor. Or you can post your question to The Money Pit community. You’re going to get the answer to your home improvement question. Plus, this hour, we’re giving away a really fantastic prize. If you hate being bitten by mosquitoes – and I can’t imagine that there’s anybody out there who actually enjoys it – this is the prize for you guys.

We’ve got up for grabs the DynaTrap Mosquito and Insect Trap. And you’re going to receive it and it’s a really attractive-looking lantern. But it protects up to a ½-acre of your yard and it guards your family and pets from all of those nuisance insects that bite and spread disease and are just particularly annoying. And you plug it in. It stays plugged in all the time and it works by producing CO2, which really is that attractant for the mosquitoes. And it does it through a chemical reaction. There’s no additional lures or attractants needed.

It works immediately but in about six weeks, you’re going to notice that there’s probably going to be zero mosquito population. It’s amazing. We have been bite-free all summer, which is really an unusual case for my family. Which mosquitoes seem to just adore biting myself and my kids and so far – knock wood – we’ve been great this summer. You can find it right now, if you can’t wait, over at Bed Bath & Beyond or at DynaTrap.com. But one lucky caller drawn at random is going to win the prize worth 129 bucks.

TOM: 888-666-3974 is the phone number or post your question to the community at MoneyPit.com. Remember, no matter when you’re hearing the show, you can call us, 24/7, or you could post that question and you will be eligible for that week’s prize.

LESLIE: Tim in Illinois is on the line with a mold question. What’s going on?

TIM: The house was painted five years ago. It’s got a new roof, new gutters. And underneath the soffit, I have this black mold that – it’s kind of splotchy, pretty – it’s getting – it’s like a blackish film. And it’s starting to come down the siding. And it wasn’t like that last year. I’m just – I don’t know what to use to clean it and to prevent it from coming back.

TOM: I wonder if it’s mold. It could be something else. Sometimes, if we see any kind of growth, we call it “mold.” But it could be moss or mildew or algae.

There’s a product on the market called Spray & Forget. It’s very effective against all those things: mold, mildew, moss and algae. And as the name implies, it’s very easy to use. You spray and then you kind of walk away. And the product goes to work, basically inhibiting the ability of that growth to continue. And then it will basically dissipate after that. So, I would go ahead and pick up some Spray & Forget.

And it is safe to use around plants. It’s a cleaning – an effective – very effective cleaning product for situations like that.

TIM: Thank you so much. I appreciate your time.

TOM: You’re very welcome. Thank you for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.

TOM: Well, during these hot days, we spend a lot of time inside our homes, all sealed in with the A/C on and not so much ventilation. But have you ever thought about what you’re breathing in those situations? Because in some parts of the nation, radon gas may be part of that mix. And if it’s high enough, that can be a problem because high levels of radon gas can cause cancer.

LESLIE: Yeah, that’s right. And radon gets very little attention compared to carbon monoxide, which does get a lot of attention. But it can creep into your house through cracks and gaps in your basement floors and walls and it’s more common than you might think. Now, 1 in every 15 homes here in the United States is believed to have elevated radon levels, so to find out for sure, you can order a quick and easy charcoal adsorption kit.

You can get them online, you can buy them at the home center and that’s going to test for radon in your house. It’s inexpensive and it can determine those radon levels inside of about a week’s time. You send it away and they’ll get all the results to you.

Now, Tom, is there a better time of year to do it? Because I know it’s kind of imperative on having your windows and doors closed.

TOM: Yeah. So if your house is closed up for the summer – if you have central A/C, so you’re not really opening your windows and doors except for normal exit and entry – then it’s fine to do it now. If not, I would wait until it gets a little chilly, when it’s really tight, and then you can do the test. And if it turns out that the radon comes in high which – if it’s using the picocurie scale, which is the standard scale for the charcoal adsorption canisters, that’s 4 picocuries per liter of air. If it’s higher than that, then a mitigation system could become necessary. That has to be professionally installed but it’s not complicated.

It basically sucks the radon gas out from below the lowest level of your house, whether that’s a basement or a slab on the first floor, and then it vents it outside. There’s a fan that gets installed. And in fact, some homes in the country are actually sort of pre-plumbed for these systems, so it’s just a matter of just hooking up that fan. And that will get rid of it and once that’s done, you have no worries whatsoever. So, it’s something to be aware of; it’s not something to panic over. But test your house, find out if you have an issue and then take the appropriate action.

LESLIE: Alright. Now we’ve got Theresa on the line who wants to change her deck from paint to stain. What’s going on at your money pit?

THERESA: We have a deck. We have replaced half of the deck with – what do you call that? – pretreated lumber?

TOM: Yep. Treated lumber, OK.

THERESA: And we got – and I really don’t know what to do because half the deck is now replaced and the other half is still painted with paint, not stain.

TOM: Mm-hmm. Are you planning on replacing the painted lumber, as well, or not?

THERESA: Well, I was actually wanting to use some type of solid stain, because I think they’ve come out with some new stuff now. So maybe I would use it over all of the deck.

TOM: Yeah, the thing is since it’s been painted, you’re really going to have to get all that old paint off. You can’t stain over paint because there’s nothing for the stain to soak into unless it’s so worn that it’s exposed sort of the pores of the wood. But you’re talking about solid-color stain. It has a lot of pigment in it. Kind of looks like paint; it just doesn’t have the glaze to it. But it gives it a lot of protection.

And since the pressure-treated side is brand new, I would tell you to probably wait until next spring to tackle that. Because the first year, there’s a lot of chemicals in that pressure-treated lumber. We like to let them evaporate out a bit first.

THERESA: Oh, OK. Because I had heard several different things. I was gung-ho ready to go. And you think that the part – see, part of the deck is actually covered. So you think I need to strip that off of there?

TOM: I’d be concerned because I don’t think the stain is going to stick on top of the paint. The idea of stain is that it soaks into the wood. You can paint over stain but you can’t stain over paint, OK?

THERESA: OK. So what products are out there that would maybe …?

TOM: Paint. Like I said, paint would work for all of it but then you’d be painting the rest of the deck, unless you just wanted to have it be sort of two-tone or at least one is painted and one is stained. You’re going to see a difference between the two but then maybe you can figure out a way to make that work from a décor perspective.

THERESA: Well, thank you so, so much. I’ll do that.

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

LESLIE: Coming up, there are plenty of products claiming to keep your heating costs down but not all of them are created equal. We’re going to share some tips to separate insulation facts from fiction, when The Money Pit continues.

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: Post your question to The Money Pit’s Community page at MoneyPit.com. You can also post them to our Facebook page or pick up the phone and call us at 888-MONEY-PIT, presented by HomeAdvisor. With HomeAdvisor, you can find out what it costs to do your home project before you hire a pro and then instantly book one of HomeAdvisor’s background-checked pros for free.

LESLIE: Alright. But these pros are here to help you right now. And we’re jumping into our posted questions and I’ve got one from Todd who writes: “What are your thoughts on insulating paint additives? I hear it can improve the heating and cooling of your home if you paint it onto your walls and ceiling and inside your attic, because the paint additive contains ceramic microspheres that have reflective properties. Any truth to this?”

TOM: Todd, the concept of insulating paint has been around for a long time – at least a decade to my knowledge – but I’ve not really seen any convincing data that it works as promised. Sure, ceramics are a great insulator for spaceships but that doesn’t means that it’s going to work well for walls and ceilings.

You know, whenever I hear folks bring up stuff like this, Leslie, it’s always that sort of off-point, a little bit, kind of product that sounds like it should make sense. I always say, “Listen, why don’t you just go back to the basics, right?”

LESLIE: Yeah.

TOM: It’s like the people who want to build wind generators in their backyard. Have you checked the insulation level in your attic yet? I mean start there. Start with simple, effective things that you know are going to work. Are your windows – have they been caulked? Are they drafty? What about the gaps around the outlets on the outside walls? You can put inexpensive gaskets behind them. Stop those drafts.

LESLIE: Has the insulation settled in your attic? There’s so many places to look before you get all crazy.

TOM: Right. Do that stuff first before you start looking into sort of this oddball stuff with no really proven record of success. So, yeah, we’ve heard of it but I’m not going to tell you to do it. I want you to go back to the basics here, Todd, and make sure that you’ve got all of that covered before you start getting into these kinds of things.

LESLIE: Alright. Next up, let’s help Barb in Maine. She wrote: “I’m redoing my basement and putting a shower down there. Do I need a trap in the shower or will a straight drain be OK?”

Now, that’s interesting because you’re in a lower level, so you’re thinking, “Maybe I can just directly connect to your wastewater line there?” But that would be a bad idea, right?

TOM: Yeah, unless you want to come out of the shower smelling like sewage gas.

LESLIE: That’s what the trap is for.

TOM: Yeah, exactly. The trap does just that: it basically traps the sewage gas from backing up into your house. That little U-shaped piece of the drainpipe is a really important piece and so no, you can’t skip the trap. I don’t know why you would. If you’re doing that kind of a project, it’s a pretty big project.

And by the way, you need to be concerned about where the waste line is. Because if you’re going to put a shower in the basement, you may have to lift that wastewater up and then drop it into that drain so that gravity can take it the rest of the way. And there are special pumps that are designed to do that.

If it’s a shower, it’s a gray-water pump. If it’s a toilet down there, it’s a different type of pump that actually grinds the waste then lifts it up. And that itself needs to be properly installed and vented. And when it’s all done, it works terrifically well. So, definitely a possibility to put a shower in the basement or even a full bathroom in the basement but you’ve got to follow the plumbing codes. It’s there for a reason, Barb.

LESLIE: Yeah. And you know what, Barb? You’re really going to be enhancing the value of your home with putting a bathroom in the basement. But first, pop into your town or your village municipality. Make sure that the building permit will allow you to have a bathroom in the basement.

TOM: This is The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show. Thank you so much for spending this hour with us. We hope we’ve given you some tips, some ideas, some suggestions, some inspiration, some education to help you get your home improvement repair and décor projects tackled these remaining days of summer. Maybe plan some fun projects for the fall season ahead. And whenever you have a home improvement question, you can call us, 24/7, at 888-MONEY-PIT or post your question to The Money Pit’s Community page at MoneyPit.com.

I’m Tom Kraeutler.

LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.

TOM: Remember, you can do it yourself.

LESLIE: But you don’t have to do it alone.

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