LESLIE: Ken in Iowa, you’ve got The Money Pit. Tell us what’s going on at your house.
KEN: Well, winter is coming and last year, when I would come home, there would be snow all over my car. I’d pull into the garage and my garage is heated. The snow would melt and the water would seep underneath my garage door and it would freeze.
TOM: (overlapping voices) OK.
LESLIE: Freezing the door to the ground or prying it open?
KEN: Well, it would freeze (clears throat) at the seal.
TOM: Huh. What kind of seal do you have? Is there a rubber strip on the bottom of the door?
KEN: Right.
TOM: And it was so frozen that you couldn’t break it loose?
KEN: Well, you’re right. I have an automatic opener and then when I would go to open the door, sometimes it would pull that seal; rip it from the bottom of the door. (Leslie chuckles)
TOM: Really. Have you thought about spraying the seal with maybe some WD-40 or Liquid Wrench?
KEN: Well, no. That’s what I was calling about, to see if there was something (Tom chuckles) I could do to (inaudible at 0:30:03).
TOM: Yeah. Why don’t you try doing that? Maybe keeping it fresh with a bit of lubricant on it. That should stop it from sticking.
KEN: OK. That’s what I needed to know.
TOM: Alright. Easy problem. Ken, thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Man, that is one powerful motor (Tom chuckles) on that door.
TOM: (chuckling) Sure is.
LESLIE: Because I know that we still are living in the Stone Age with our manual garage door opener; me and my husband. And if …
TOM: Human garage door opener.
LESLIE: Yeah, I’m the human garage door opener. And ours freezes shut all the time. So there are times …
TOM: If I remember right, don’t you have the tilt-in kind of door?
LESLIE: Yeah. Oh, no, no. It like folds up.
TOM: (overlapping voices) It rolls up?
LESLIE: Yeah, it rolls up.
TOM: But it gets stuck.
LESLIE: Well, the seal will get frozen to the ground all the time but it …
TOM: Yeah, well, there you go. Now you can try that, too, and see if it works.
LESLIE: (overlapping voices) I’m going to try it this winter but it’s really tough because it creates a super-strong seal.
TOM: Yeah, it’s like glue.
LESLIE: It really does. There’s no kicking that seal loose; nothing. That’s why when I know it’s going to be dodgy and snowy, I keep the shovel in my porch.
TOM: Well, it’s just like when your door gets stuck on your car when it ices shut. I take WD-40 with a sort of nozzle thing – the tube that comes out of it – and I’ll spray it around the door jamb and in the locks and that helps me open the door. Because it really does feel like it’s sealed shut.
LESLIE: I bet that NuTech formulation – that Simply Soy – will do the same; because I try to be green.
TOM: (overlapping voices) I bet it will. Yeah. Or Liquid Wrench; all of those products.
LESLIE: All those things. Good idea, Tom.
TOM: Yeah. Alright.
LESLIE: Genius.
TOM: Every once in a while – write it down on the calendar – I come up with a good one.
LESLIE: Today is the day. Tom equals super-smart. (Tom chuckles)
Leave a Reply