Tips for Happy Holiday Returns #1226162

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, Happy New Year, everybody. Are you out there celebrating today? Sharing the day with family and friends? We hope you are. And perhaps you’re thinking about some projects that you want to tackle in the new year. It’s always a good time to reflect on what’s on the to-do list. We’re here to help you if they have something to do with home improvement. So pick up the phone and give us a call at 888-MONEY-PIT or post your question to The Money Pit’s Community section at MoneyPit.com.

Coming up on today’s program, got some shopping tips for you about taking back the stuff that you don’t want, electronics especially. They’re pretty hot holiday gift items but they’re kind of hard to return. So we’re going to have some tips on how to make sure that process goes smoothly.

LESLIE: And a common danger this time of year is fire. You’ve got all those extra lights, you’re using extra electricity and maybe you’ve got some candles around as decorations, as well. We’re going to help you stay safe with your holiday candle displays with some simple advice that could save your life.

TOM: All that plus some energy- and money-saving tips this hour but it all starts with you. Pick up the phone and give us a call with your home improvement question at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.

LESLIE: Wayne in Georgia is on the line needing some help with a window situation. What’s going on at your money pit?

WAYNE: Got a window that needs either a jamb liner or balancer. You know, it’s the things that are in the side of the window that help the window go up and down, slide up and down? A lot of times, the paint gets in them and sticks them up. Sometimes the balancer, jamb liners – whichever they are – get crunched because they’re real thin-mil finished aluminum. And I was trying to find – wanted to find a source for them, which was my call.

TOM: So the window – the double-hung window – is a metal window? It’s not a wood window?

WAYNE: No, it’s wood, double-hung.

TOM: Yeah, these jamb liners are available and I think the kind that’s probably the easiest to replace – to install – as a replacement liner are kind that are based on sort of – the track has sort of a spring in it and it pinches the window from the side. And you can almost adjust how much grab it has by – I stuck a putty knife into these things and sort of bent them in just slightly to give it more bite into the window.

Now, you’re having trouble finding these at your local home centers?

WAYNE: Yeah.

TOM: What about a lumberyard? I mean a lumberyard should be able to order one for you.

WAYNE: Yeah, I’ve called them. I’ve called them and they say they can get them. And then when I call back, they say no.

TOM: Wayne, if you’re having trouble finding these at home centers and hardware stores, you can order them online. There are a number of companies online that distribute window-jamb liners and that’s what you’re searching for: window-jamb – j-a-m-b – liners.

WAYNE: Right.

TOM: One such company is JRProductsInc.com. They have a wide selection. They’re not expensive. It looks like they’re between, say, $10 and $15 depending on the length. And I think that’s probably all you’re going to need.

I do see, also, that Lowe’s sells them online. But I don’t see them in the store, so you may also check Lowes.com for window-jamb liners. I think if you search online for those companies, you should be good to go. Does that help you out?

WAYNE: That helps me.

TOM: Alright. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling 1-888-MONEY-PIT.

LESLIE: Alright. Now, we’ve got Virginia in Pennsylvania on the line who’s got a question for The Money Pit. How can we help you today?

VIRGINIA: Well, I want to ask you what product or material to best use. I have an enclosed porch but it’s not insulated at all. And I’d like to know – the roof is a flat roof and I have soffits for the ceiling. It’s a pretty large area and I’d like to know what product to use to put up in the ceiling to insulate it. I’m moving the washer and dryer up to that area.

TOM: So you’re kind of going to be using it year-round, is that what you’re telling me?

VIRGINIA: Yes.

TOM: So how is it enclosed? Are there regular solid walls to it or is it …?

VIRGINIA: Well, it’s connected to the back of the house, so that would be a solid wall. But I had windows put along the back of the enclosed porch and on one south-facing wall.

TOM: OK. And are these windows regular, double-hung, insulated windows? Are they thorough windows like that or …?

VIRGINIA: Yes.

TOM: OK.

VIRGINIA: They’re pretty good that way.

TOM: Alright. So it sounds like you have pretty standard exterior walls on that porch. Is that correct?

VIRGINIA: Yes. I would say so but just no insulation in walls or ceiling.

TOM: Right. So you’re going to have to do two things. Not only are you going to have to insulate, you’re also going to have to add some heat. Because just insulating that is not going to make it warm enough to be comfortable.

VIRGINIA: I’ve arranged for someone to come and put a vent in.

TOM: OK, good. So, that flat roof really – the kind of insulation you put in there is going to depend on how much space you have to work with. But optimally, you would want at least 10 inches of insulation in that roof. So it really depends on how deep the ceiling joists are and what you can work with. You would have to take the soffit material down to expose it and then get the insulation in there. You could use fiberglass or you could use a product called Stone Wall, which is actually another type of batt insulation that’s fireproof and moisture-resistant. You could also use foam insulation – spray foam. But that would be kind of an expensive project for a small area for you to do.

But insulating that ceiling is a good first step. It doesn’t sound like there’s any opportunity to insulate the walls, so you’re going to kind of be stuck with that the way it is now, unless you take the walls apart and insulate the frame the way you would a traditional exterior wall. And then you’re going to add heat to it.

Now, you mentioned extending the supply register. That’s certainly one way to do it. The other thing that you could do is you could consider – this would be less expensive putting in an electric heater – a strip heater across one wall, because you’re probably only going to use it in the coldest months of the year. So that’s another option. But you’ve got to add heat and you’ve got to insulate as best you can. That’s not a space that was really designed to be a living space, so it’s not easy to work with a place like that or a space like that. So you just do the best you can. Does that make sense?

VIRGINIA: OK. Thank you.

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

LESLIE: Ken in Michigan is on the line and needs some help with a water softener. What can we do for you?

KEN: Well, I’ve got a 22-year-old house that we built and I had a contractor put the water softener in. And my question is: how do I go about cleaning it or do I know that it’s still working? Or am I just throwing money away at salt and dumping it in?

TOM: Well, if it wasn’t working, you would probably notice a difference in the – in your ability to use the water, in terms of whether it got soapy and just sort of felt right on your clothes and your hair and that sort of thing.

In terms of cleaning it, you know, there’s quite a few steps involved. That’s why most people have service companies that do this. But essentially, you have to siphon or get rid of the water out of the brine tank. And you need to be careful where you put that since it’s so salty it could damage your lawn, your landscape.

And then you have to clean it with a soapy-water solution. And then, generally, you have to put a bleach solution after that and let it sit for a while so it kills any bacteria. And then you have to rinse that whole thing and put it all back together. So, there’s kind of a lot of steps to it.

And do you know what – who made this brine tank, what the manufacturer is? Because I’m thinking you might be able to find step-by-step instructions on their website.

KEN: I just looked and I couldn’t find anything on the machine. And all I could find was a – it said Puretec. And so I’m not sure who made it or where it came from. I had – like I said, I had a contractor put it in about 22 years ago. I’m not even sure whether they’re still in business or not.

TOM: I’m not familiar with that brand but if you jump online, I found a couple of references to the procedure for cleaning those tanks. And one is on a blog called WaterTech, which seems pretty well written. So just Google it and I think you’ll find the step-by-step. But there’s about 10 or 15 steps involved in cleaning it correctly.

KEN: Alrighty. Thank you very much.

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

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

TOM: 888-666-3974.

Up next, getting gifts is great but returning or exchanging them maybe not so much, especially when those gifts are electronics. We’re going to have some tips, some advice to help make those holiday returns hassle-free, after this.

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

LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.

TOM: Happy New Year, everybody. Hope that you are having an amazing holiday season. And if your 2017 is going to involve some home improvement projects or maybe you want to reflect back on a project you did in 2016, give us a call, right now, at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.

Leslie, you and I both tackled improvements this past year. You did some interior makeovers. Are you happy with those improvements in your home?

LESLIE: I’m so glad I did. I did some built-ins on either side of the fireplace, towards the summertime. And I was surprised how sort of claiming some real estate on either side of the fireplace, making the windows smaller and doing these built-in cabinets, I thought maybe it was going to make the room feel smaller just because it’s a smallish room. And it was the exact opposite.

It freed up so much clutter; it put it all away so I wasn’t looking at all the extra kid stuff. I painted everything white. So immediately, the room felt taller and bigger. And it was more expensive than I anticipated, as most décor home improvement projects are.

TOM: Always is, right?

LESLIE: But I love it. I’m thrilled with it. What about you? What did you do this year that you loved?

TOM: Well, I think for us, what we really worked on was just some energy-saving home improvement projects. One that I did was I put in a new attic staircase that was a really well-made one that gave you a really good seal, because it was always a constant source of drafts. And I hated the fact that it was always sort of rickety, so we put in a metal one that unfolded and it was really stiff and strong. And when we snap it back shut, it’s kind of like shutting your refrigerator door.

So that was a great project that we tackled that was kind of a weekend DIY kind of thing. But I tell you, all the projects that help you save money and save energy this time of year are really the most popular, because now is when we’re paying those heating bills. So if that’s a project on your to-do list moving into 2017, give us a call, right now, at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.

LESLIE: Barbara in Texas is on the line with a brick question. What’s going on?

BARBARA: Well, I have brick around my house and the mortar is coming out. Back when it was built around 40 years ago, they didn’t put in enough of the cement so it would stay in. So, I don’t know if that’s something I should attempt to try to fill in. I know matching the grout color is real important. What do you all recommend?

TOM: So do you have a lot of this to do, Barbara? Or is this just sort of some minor repairs?

BARBARA: No, there’s quite a bit.

TOM: Yeah, I wouldn’t recommend you do it yourself. I’d have a mason do this because there is some technique to this. You have to mix up the mortar just right. It’s got to be kind of sticky. And once it’s laid in, it really takes a skilled hand to do it. So, I would have a professional do that. I would not make that a do-it-yourself project.

If it were just some areas that were broken out and needed some minor fix, then I’d say OK. But if there’s a lot of repointing to do, I would not suggest you do that yourself, only because it takes an awful lot of practice and sort of a steady hand. That is something you wouldn’t be able to do right out of the gate.

BARBARA: OK. My need is going to get it right like that. Thank you so much.

TOM: Alright. Good luck, Barbara. Happy to help.

LESLIE: Well, you tried your best but you ended up giving a gift that the recipient just can’t use or maybe doesn’t like. Well, it’s disappointing but even more so when the gift is an electronic item, which can be harder to return or exchange. But if you follow a few basic tips, returning unwanted tech gifts can be a little less stressful.

TOM: Yep. So first off, you want to check the return windows in terms of timing. Many stores have regular return policies of 60 days or longer but you often don’t have that long of a time to return electronics.

I had a very bad experience with Best Buy. We had ordered my mom a flat-screen TV as a holiday gift a year or two ago. And it really didn’t sit around very long but considering the fact that we had ordered it a couple of weeks before the holiday and then we gave it to her around the holiday – of course, we didn’t always see her on Christmas Day or it might have been a few days after that.

And then by the time we opened it up, I found out that the screen was broken. I went to take it back to the store. Well, guess what? They told me we only had about – I think it was three weeks to bring that back.

LESLIE: Seriously?

TOM: And I’m like, “Just open the box up and it was broken. What am I supposed to do?” It’s like, “Sorry. That’s our policy.” I was like, “Oh, man.” I was really annoyed. So, I put up a bit of a stink and eventually, they relented and took it back. But you’ve got to be careful with stuff like that because some retailers are going to have some pretty abusive policies when it comes to electronic returns. So pay attention to the time that you have to return stuff when you’re buying it, because that’s the time you need to know about it.

LESLIE: Roger in Alaska is on the line with an insulation question. What can we do for you?

ROGER: Yeah. My wife and I, we’re living the dream up here in Alaska. We bought an old bed-and-breakfast on the hillside. And we did a great energy audit on the main house. The problem is the master bedroom is like an add-on over the garage. And it wasn’t – we couldn’t access the attic when we insulated the attic of the main part of the house.

TOM: OK.

ROGER: And so now, the master bedroom is the coldest room in the house.

TOM: Yeah, I bet.

ROGER: And one thing I’m thinking about doing is – it’s got a high ceiling and I’d like to foam-board the ceiling and then put a – instead of that sheetrock, cover the sheetrock with foam board and then do a wood covering? And I’m wondering, do I need to be concerned about the vapor barrier? And two is should I cut a hole in that ceiling and stick my head in there and see what it’s got in there before – you know, as long as I’m going to cover it anyway?

TOM: So, this high ceiling, is it a high, flat ceiling or is it a cathedral ceiling?

ROGER: Cathedral.

TOM: So it’s probably attached to the bottom of the rafters then, correct?

ROGER: I think it is.

TOM: So that means you really don’t have very much insulation at all. So that’s always going to be a challenge for you.

So are you thinking of lowering the ceiling so that you have an area that you could insulate?

ROGER: No, nope. Not lowering it so much. Just adding the foam board to the surface, like the pink board or the blue board or something. And then, if I’m going to do that and I’m going to disrupt the sheetrock anyway, I’m considering cutting open the peak. And if I can blow foam insulation in there – not foam insulation; cellulose or something – if I can reinsulate that space or add insulation to it.

TOM: You certainly can take a look in there but I suspect you’re not going to find any space for that. Putting the foam insulation on the bottom of the drywall is not a bad idea. I mean you could basically create a layer that way. I don’t think you need any additional vapor barrier, though. You can probably attach it to the bottom of the drywall right now. Because the foam is a pretty good vapor barrier, frankly, by itself.

ROGER: Mm-hmm. And then the only other thing I considered doing is – that bedroom is the furthest from the furnace. Can you put a booster – a fan on your duct or something like that?

TOM: You can. But what you might want to do is just put a small electric-resistance heater in there as a supplement so on those coldest nights, you can just add a bit of heat to that room.

ROGER: Yeah, the problem is even in the middle of the day, with a – that room has southern-facing windows and it’s upstairs. Heat rises. In the middle of the day, that room – I’m just concerned – I guess I really need somebody to take a good look at it with the infrared guns or something to see where we’re losing heat at.

TOM: I think that’s probably a good idea. I’m also thinking that your floor may be not insulated well enough. Because being above the garage, you’re getting some temperature transference through there, as well.

ROGER: I think you’ve probably got a point there. Maybe I could bump up the temperature in the garage a little bit. I keep it pretty cold in there.

TOM: Or insulate the garage ceiling.

ROGER: Yeah.

TOM: That’s one thing to check. If that garage ceiling is not insulated, that could be the biggest source of your problem right there.

ROGER: So how would you – when you say “insulate the garage ceiling” …

TOM: Is the garage ceiling open? Do you see the floor joists?

ROGER: No, it’s sealed with, I believe, plywood.

TOM: Well, take a peek above that and see if there’s insulation in there.

ROGER: Alright. Well, sounds good. Sounds like a plan.

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

LESLIE: Now, we’ve got Leigh on the line with a real-estate question.

LEIGH: We are a military couple and we have five children. We’re just trying to decide when we should put our house up on the market. We just got orders to go to a new base and we’re trying to decide if we should put it up now or wait a few months, when the best time would be for that.

TOM: Wow. Well, first of all, thank you for your service. And that’s quite a challenge that you have. You’ve got five kids and you’ve got to move. I would say that you’d be better off putting it up now and not waiting, even though it doesn’t seem like it’s the best time of year to sell. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, as my dad always used to say. And if you can sell that house now, rather than risk not having it sold by the time it’s time for you to move, that’s the best possible scenario.

If you find a buyer that’s really cooperative, they might even be able to extend the closing date to give you the time that you need to get to the new base. But I guess if I was faced with that scenario, I would probably try to get the home on the market as quickly as possible.

LEIGH: OK. Sounds good. Thank you.

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

LESLIE: Hey, do you want to know how to prevent a holiday fire? Well, display your candles safely. That’s the easiest fix. We’re going to share a recommendation on super-bright candles that won’t burn you or your house, after this.

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

LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.

TOM: Give us a call, right now, at 888-MONEY-PIT or post your question online to The Money Pit’s Facebook page at Facebook.com/TheMoneyPit.

Some of the projects that you have to tackle from time to time aren’t always ones that you planned. And I had one of those this year. I had to take down a beautiful maple tree. It broke my heart but it had sort of rotted out from the inside out. And I went out one day to find a large limb resting right on top of the main electrical wire that was feeding our house, so …

LESLIE: Oh, it’s a disaster.

TOM: And that just caught my attention. And then, as I looked further it was like, ugh, it just kept getting worse. But what I was really impressed with was how efficiently a professional arborist can take a tree apart, especially one that’s hard to get to.

LESLIE: It’s amazing, isn’t it?

TOM: It really is. I mean this is a tree that was on the side of our house and there’s a road and then there’s another house and a fence on the other side of the road. And it was way too big to kind of go all lumberjack on you and cut it and let the thing fall. So they basically disassembled it from the top down using a bucket truck and a chainsaw and a crane.

LESLIE: And I’ve seen it where it’s a dude with a rope and then the chainsaw on the rope and it’s like everything is swinging from the tree. It’s crazy.

TOM: It’s everything you tell everybody else who uses tools not to do.

LESLIE: Don’t do.

TOM: But these guys do it every single day and they’re really good at it. And I tell you, inside of three hours, that thing was down, including the stump completely ground out, and they were out of town; they were out of Dodge. It was really, really quick and efficient and professional. And while we were sorry to see it go, we were glad to have a good team of arborists to take it apart for us. Sometimes, those projects are not the ones that you plan but you’ve got to get them done anyway.

And if you’ve got a project on your to-do list that you think, “Hey, I’m really going to have to do this in 2017,” give us a call, right now, because we’d love to chat about it at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.

LESLIE: Alfred, you’ve got The Money Pit. What can we do for you today?

ALFRED: I’ve got a duplex. And I got this idea from truck-stop restrooms – from the truck-stop showers? I drive a truck. Anyways, my question is – in the showers that I’ve seen or the bathrooms I’ve seen, the floor covering goes up on the sides of the – up to the wall, say, about 3 or 4 inches, you know. So I guess when you spill water or something like that, it doesn’t go down in the floor or whatever. Because the problem I had in my duplex is that someone would run the bathtub over or something will leak and it goes down to my kitchen down below. And I’m redoing that bathroom and I’ve seen this thing in the commercial bathrooms. And I was wondering, is there something that I can do similar? Is it like a liquid epoxy?

TOM: Yeah. So what they’re doing in that situation is they’re essentially taking the entire floor and turning it into a shower pan. You know how if you have a shower where you have a tile pan and the pan has the drain in it and you step in the shower and the water falls in the floor and then it runs in the drain. So think about that but for the same size, the basically full width of the shower – of the bathroom itself.

I’ve seen bathrooms in Europe that are done that way. I’ve seen some in the United States but it’s not too common. So, sure, it’s entirely possible to do that but it dramatically raises the cost of the bathroom build-out, which could be weighed against the occasional leak getting through. It’s not a common occurrence for leaks to come through bathrooms, so much so that I would recommend that everyone do that. But if you want to kind of go the extra mile and don’t mind the expense and work, you certainly could build a shower pan that’s the entire width of your bathroom.

ALFRED: Oh, I’ve got you. Do you have an idea what I could – what product I can use that does that? How would I actually do that?

TOM: So, shower pans can be made of lead or they can be made of fiberglass. They essentially have to be sort of molded in place and then they’re covered with tile.

ALFRED: OK. That’s how it’s done. I gotcha, I gotcha.

TOM: It’s like a pool. Think about if you were trying to build a pool, you know? It has to – the base itself has to be absolutely waterproof and then the tile covers it.

ALFRED: Oh, OK. I gotcha, I gotcha. Awesome, awesome. Well, that’s great. Well, I definitely appreciate your time to answer my question. Thank you very much.

TOM: Our pleasure, Alfred. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.

He brings up a very good point that you can get ideas and inspiration no matter where you are. Here he is, a long-haul trucker and sees this kind of a shower setup in one of the establishments that he stopped in and was thinking about whether he could do it at home. Makes sense.

Well, candles can add that special touch to holiday celebrations but this is the time of year when home fires increase and candles are one of those reasons. So, it pays to always be safe and never leave candles burning in a room that’s unattended or overnight. And always keep them away from anything flammable. And the problem is this time of year, you’re moving stuff all over your house, so it’s easy to get in a situation where it is near something flammable. So, just be really careful with candles.

LESLIE: Yeah. Another thing I think people forget is that it’s a really good idea to trim your candle wicks. You want them to be about a ¼-inch long before you use them each time. Don’t use pillar candles or taper candles once they’re within 2 inches of the holder, because then the flame gets too low and it could fall off. You’ve got to be careful with candles, guys.

TOM: Yeah. Good point. And don’t discount the new battery-operated candles. They are amazing. These are LED candles. They flicker and they create bright light and they look just like the real thing. We’ve had a couple of these in rooms of our house from time to time. I’ve run them in the evening. I’ve had friends over. They’ve walked over to them and thought they were the real thing. So take a look at the battery-operated candles that are out today. They use very little power. They literally last for years. And they truly do look like a real burning candle.

LESLIE: Yeah, they really do. They’ve got – some of them have a great flicker to them. They really are a nice touch.

Chris in Arkansas is on the line with a painting question. How can we help you today?

CHRIS: Well, I bought a house and it has two bathrooms. And the tile – sink and tubs are baby pink and baby blue.

TOM: What’s wrong with that?

CHRIS: Well, it’s not exactly what I had in mind. But I was wondering if you can successfully – until I get to redo the bathrooms, if you can successively paint over them without it looking terrible.

LESLIE: Yes and no. I mean you can. There’s quite an extensive process to it to make sure that you get proper adhesion and it sticks very well. However, whenever you’re dealing with a painted surface and water is involved and areas that you have to clean, as well, you’re going to get some wear and tear. So I don’t think it’s the best idea.

There are kits that you can buy online. Basically, if you want to do it without a kit – and of course, then you don’t want to paint the grout. But a lot of people do paint the grout and then that looks weird, also. So you’ve got to think about all these things. But you’re going to want to use a very, very durable oil-based primer. And of course, you’ve got to clean those tiles very, very well before you even think about putting a drop of primer on them.

TOM: And I think Sherwin-Williams actually makes a primer that is super, super adhesive. And the reason I know about this is because the way they demo’d it was by painting it on tile and then putting a second layer of paint on it. But even though it’s a really adhesive paint, I agree with you completely that eventually – in a very short period of time, especially if you’re cleaning the surface – you’re going to start wearing through it.

CHRIS: OK. And like I said, not knowing if I could or not, I just was thinking if I could buy myself some time and just paint it until I can redo – or maybe it’s sounding like I should just wait until I can redo.

TOM: Well, the bad news about those old tile bathrooms is that they have these very traditional, 1960s-like colors. The good news is that the tile quality is usually really good and the way it’s installed is really solid. And that’s why, if at all possible, maybe you could think about decorating around this tile.

So you said that you had – is it pink and blue?

CHRIS: Yes.

LESLIE: With the pink, I think we’re seeing such a big trend in pink really making a comeback in bathroom spaces. You could go overload on the pink, you can add in florals, you can add in different tones of pink. You can sort of tone in down with neutral beiges and grays and hints of gold and sort of make it glamorous and more girly. There are ways you can do that.

Blue tile, I feel like, is just a poor choice. Blue tile is blue tile.

CHRIS: I totally agree with you.

LESLIE: Maybe everything else goes super clean. But I just feel like if you attempt to paint the tile, you’re going to be sad in the long run. And it’s going to – it will perhaps motivate you to do the permanent work more quickly.

CHRIS: OK. Well, exactly that and that’s why I called. I just wasn’t sure if there was some miracle cure that I – “Hey, this works great” or not. And I am trying my best at decorating around but the pink, yes, has worked better than the blue.

TOM: At least we solved half the problem, Christine.

CHRIS: I appreciate it. I appreciate it so much.

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

LESLIE: Up next, want to cut 10 percent off your heating bill? Well, you can do this with one simple step and it’s free. We’ll share that tip, after this.

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

LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.

Give us a call now at 888-MONEY-PIT.

Hey, if you want to cut your heating costs this winter, here’s an energy-saving tip that really adds up: lowering your thermostat 2 degrees in the winter and raising it 2 in the summer can cut your annual heating and cooling bills by more than 10 percent. That’s 2 for 10. That’s an energy-saving idea that really adds up.

TOM: Absolutely. 888-666-3974. Give us a call, right now, if you’d like to talk about a home improvement project on your to-do list for 2017. We are here to help.

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

PATTY: Yeah, I’ve got a problem with squeaky floorboards, especially in the winter. When the furnace is on, it dries out – the house gets pretty dried out. I’ve heard suggestions of going under the house with some shims to try to solve the problem that way. I didn’t know if there might be a better solution.

TOM: Sure. There’s lots of ways to address this.

So, Patty, what kind of floor are we talking about here? Are we talking about a hardwood floor? Or is this like the flooring under carpet?

PATTY: Flooring under the carpet.

TOM: OK. Alright. So, the flooring under the carpet. So the tough thing here is that the carpet is in between you and the solution. The reason that’s happening – and one more question. How old is your house?

PATTY: Probably about 27 years old.

TOM: So, you probably have plywood floors. They most likely were put in with a type of a nail that’s called a “cooler.” And the reason it’s called a “cooler” is because it’s rosin-coated or glue-coated. And when the carpenters drive that nail through the plywood, into the floor joists, theoretically, the rosin is supposed to melt. And then when the nail stops, it sort of freezes in place.

But in actuality, that doesn’t happen all the time. And so, when you step on these boards, they loosen up. And because the nails have rosin on them – if you think of rosin, like on the bow of an instrument, it has a lot of friction, right? So it really increases the squeak factor as that nail moves in and out of the space between the plywood and the floor joist below. And you can also get squeaks when the boards rub together.

So how do we make this go away? How do we make it quiet? There’s two approaches. First of all, if you want to try to silence a squeak and not remove your carpet, what you can do is identify the place where the floor is loose and it’s on top of a floor joist. Now, you can do that with a stud finder. Stanley Tools has lots of different stud finders that are anywhere from a few dollars to $25 or $30. And it can tell you exactly, by sort of looking through that carpet, when you’re over a floor joist. Then what you do is you drive a Number 10 or Number 12 galvanized finish nail through the carpet, through the subfloor, into the floor joist.

Now, when you’ve finished driving it, it’ll look sort of like the carpet is dimpled in. But you can pull that carpet nap and pop it sort of right through the nailhead and it will sort of disappear below the carpet that way. If you do that in a couple of places, you’ll quiet down that spot because you’ll be basically securing down that loose subfloor to the floor joist below.

But the best way to do this is to pull up the carpet. And then, what you would do is you would get case-hardened screws that are put in place with a drill with a screwdriver tip on it and basically shoot these screws in, about 4 or 5 of them across every 4-foot depth of the plywood, into the floor joist below. This will lock that floor down and it will never, ever pull up again and you’ll get rid of 90 percent of the squeaks. There’s probably going to be one or two somewhere that you can’t get rid of but for the most part, you’ll get rid of them completely.

The idea of going under the floor and shimming has to do with the idea of going under and looking for little gaps, perhaps, between the plywood and the floor joist. And it can work in certain circumstances but it’s certainly not a comprehensive approach. If you did do that, what I would do is I would insert shims with a construction adhesive on both sides of it so it’s kind of glued in place. But really, what you really want to do here is secure that plywood floor down to the floor joist better, because it’s loosened up over the years. And that’ll make your squeaks disappear. Does that make sense?

PATTY: Yeah. You said galvanized nails and what length or what …?

TOM: Yeah. Number 10 or 12 galvanized finish nails. And if you look up on our website how to silence a squeaky floor, you’ll get the instructions there, as well.

PATTY: Oh, OK. Alright. Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate your help.

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

LESLIE: Well, getting the house all Christmassy is super fun. Getting it back to normal, not so much. Coming up, storage and organizing tips that will help make this chore productive and efficient.

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

LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.

TOM: Standing by for your questions at 1-888-MONEY-PIT and your posts to MoneyPit.com. Jewel in Wyoming is dealing with – well, actually, she said dealing with this yet. She’s calling it – and running in advance for some advice on how to deal with snow load on her roof and wants to know what is the best way to remove it and how much snow is really too much.

The problem with snow on a roof is not as much the snow when it first falls, it’s what happens when it starts to melt, right, or if it rains after the snow, because the water gets trapped in it. That adds so much additional weight. So, if you have a very heavy snowfall, the best thing to do is to get it off your roof. And the simple way to do that – believe it or not, there is a simple way – is with a handy tool called a snow rake.

Now, this is not the kind of rake that you see in most home improvement stores. It’s one that you – if you live in an area where they’re used to having a lot of snow, certainly you’ll have them there. But if not, it may be one that you have to order. It’s basically a rake that’s very lightweight, on an extremely long handle, so that you can safely pull that snow down from the roof without actually climbing up on it. Because if that snow does sit there and if it does get wet and heavy, then you could be at risk of a collapse. And that’s something that you definitely want to avoid.

And I’ll tell you, Leslie, in snowstorms of years past, you can almost predict when you’re going to hear about a collapsed story because of those weather conditions. Having a heavy snow, having a rapid melt, having some – maybe some rainy weather on the bridge of snow, you know when you hear, though, there’s going to be a collapse somewhere. And invariably, every single year there’s one or two collapses, even in my own area that I hear about because of those conditions.

So, be smart and get as much of that snow off quickly, after it falls, as possible and then you’ll avoid that potential.

LESLIE: Yeah. And it’s amazing to me. You know, it’s almost always in a shopping center or some sort of large, flat-roofed structure, like a gym or the supermarket. But a lot of homes, especially in urban areas, have flat roofs. Apartment buildings. You really just have to stay on top of it and be smart like Tom says and really, this way you can avoid a lot of unnecessary damage.

TOM: Well, it’s a lot of fun getting out all those holiday decorations and setting them up. But putting them away, well, maybe not so much. If you organize and plan, though, the storage chore can be very productive and efficient. Leslie has tips on how to do just that, in this week’s edition of Leslie’s Last Word.

LESLIE: This really is the best time of year to get a head start on next year. So, as you take down the décor, check for any damage. Now really is the time to make sure your lights are going to be in good working order next season. You can go ahead and replace those burned-out bulbs and then make sure there are no frayed wires from any of your holiday festivities or visiting pets. Plus, if you do find any damage, you can buy stuff while it’s all half off at every post-holiday sale that’s happening right now.

Now, to store your holiday lights, you want to cut some cardboard into about a 12×9 piece and then wrap the lights around it. That’s going to keep them tidy and that they’re ready for next year. You can also use a paper-towel tube. I’ve seen this done before where you kind of notch out the top and you kind of wrap it around that way. You just want to be sure to store your decorative items in clear plastic bins. This way, you know exactly what’s in there. It’s also going to help to keep the moisture out and not deteriorate any of your favorite decorations.

Finally, place all of your stored items at the back of your storage area. This way you’re going to put the current seasonal items towards the front, making them more accessible. And then next year, you’re really one step ahead when it comes to your holiday decorating.

TOM: This is The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show. Coming up next time on the program, there are definitely some notoriously difficult surfaces to paint. But it can be done with the right approach. We’ll have tips and tricks for success with hard-to-paint surfaces, on the next edition of The Money Pit.

Happy New Year. 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.