Hosts: Tom Kraeutler & Leslie Segrete
(NOTE: Timestamps below correspond to the running time of the downloadable audio file of this show. Text represents a professional transcriptionist’s understanding of what was said. No guarantee of accuracy is expressed or implied. ‘Ph’ in parentheses indicates the phonetic or best guess of the actual spoken word.)
BEGIN HOUR 2 TEXT:
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TOM: Coast to coast and floorboard to shingles. This is The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show. I’m Tom Kraeutler.
LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.
TOM: Here to help you get your home improvement projects done around the house. Now, have you been hearing the economy is bad, Leslie?
LESLIE: Yeah, kind of. And also, you know, my savings statements show that as well.
TOM: I think it’s the Chicken Little effect. You know, everybody thinks the …
LESLIE: The sky is falling?
TOM: Yeah, the sky is falling. (Leslie chuckles) The truth is, if we had just a more positive mental attitude, I don’t think it would be near that bad. Stock market would re-boom, carpenters would go back to work, housing would do much better and all would be well. So let’s just try to be positive for this hour of The Money Pit and let’s get some projects done around your house. We are in, actually, the money pit prevention business; we help you make good homes better, so pick up the phone and give us a call right now at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
Coming up this hour, we’re going to talk about a few ways to cut your energy costs. You know, one way is to upgrade your windows. If you use good-quality windows and you properly install them, you will see major, major results in your heating and cooling bills. We’ll tell you what you need to know in just a bit.
LESLIE: Now, the big things like replacement windows, they can of course help a lot. But when you’re looking for places to cut energy costs inexpensively, the first step is to look at the insulation in your home. So we’re going to hear from Kevin Ireton, the editor of Fine Homebuilding magazine and he’s got some tips to help us with that.
TOM: Plus, we’ll have a few quick and easy ways to save a few bucks on running your dishwasher. You won’t want to miss that. It’s a super-easy tip and you’re going to wonder why you haven’t been doing it for years.
LESLIE: And this hour, we’re giving away a set of Husky Tough Tapes; measuring tapes. They’re worth more than 50 bucks and they are fantastic, very sturdy measuring tapes.
TOM: Pick up the phone and give us a call right now at 1-888-MONEY-PIT. 888-666-3974.
Leslie, who’s first?
LESLIE: Heading over to Michigan to chat with Donna about a painting project. What can we do for you?
DONNA: Hi. My son has, in his room – we had painted it bright red and had sponge-painted over top of it white and I want to change that. He’s 13 now and he wants a Detroit Tigers bedroom (Tom chuckles), so …
LESLIE: Alright.
TOM: It seemed like a good idea at the time, huh, Donna?
DONNA: Yeah. (Tom and Donna chuckle) So I was just wondering, you know, what I should do. What’s the first step?
LESLIE: Definitely primer. And especially since you know what colors you’re going to go with; you’re going with blue and orange for the Tigers, correct?
DONNA: Correct.
LESLIE: So you know what colors you want, so you need to get your primers tinted and they’ll do this for you at the home center. Just have them tint the primer to each color and you want to make sure – I don’t know if you’re doing like a half and half – like orange on top and blue on the bottom – but you want to make sure that you’re priming for the appropriate color of the top coat. It’s going to help make sure that you get rid of that red the first time with the primer and then when your top coat goes over you’re getting good coverage.
Now if you’ve got some sort of areas of unevenness from the texture with the sponge painting, you might just want to give it a light sanding before you go ahead and prime.
DONNA: OK. That’s what I was wondering about. I didn’t know if I had to sand it all the way down or not, so …
LESLIE: No. You just probably want to get rid of that ridge.
TOM: Yeah. Just make it nice and flat. And when you do put your top coat on, Donna, I would recommend a flat paint; nothing with a gloss because if you’ve got a little texture on there, the flat paint will help hide that. If you use something with a gloss, you’ll see it.
DONNA: OK. OK. That is great. I appreciate it.
TOM: You’re welcome, Donna. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Well, now we’re going to take a question from Steven in Minnesota whose question is about insulation. So my only guess is that you’re freezing your buns off, Steve.
STEVE: Well, I’ve been living in this house for about 15 years and it’s never been a very warm house, so I’ve been insulating the walls and such. And then I got to the attic and I noticed that it’s got blown-in insulation that’s settled way down and so I decided to beef that up. They recommend an r 38 up in this part of the woods. And so I – I was putting some insulation up in there and I noticed, when I started reading up on it, that I would need unfaced insulation in there.
TOM: Correct.
STEVE: Yeah, that makes sense but I’d already installed some faced insulation down because I could get it over into the corners.
TOM: Oh, boy. Which way did you face the vapor barrier?
STEVE: I faced it down; the paper down.
TOM: The paper is down; the insulation is up. And is that a second layer of insulation?
STEVE: Yes. It’s over the …
LESLIE: It’s over the blown-in.
TOM: Oh, man.
STEVE: The blown-in stuff.
TOM: Yeah. I got bad news for you, Steve. You’re going to have to pull that out. If it – because it’s basically sandwiched in between. And what you’ve done now is you’re going to trap moisture beneath that paper and the blown-in will become saturated and it could develop condensation and mold problems because what happens is you get dust on the insulation and that feeds mold and the mold will grow on the insulation strands.
LESLIE: And also, as the insulation gets moist, you’re cutting down its r value; you’re making it sort of not do its job, correct?
TOM: Yeah, that’s right. You know, it may not be a terrible job. What you’re probably going to want to do is pull that insulation out there. You can even peel off the paper face – it’s not a pretty job but it’ll work – and then lay those batts back down as unfaced; then you’ll be good to go. And you’re right; you need about 22 inches of blown-in or about 19 inches of unfaced insulation in that attic space to give you the maximum amount of warmth.
STEVE: OK. Well, I guess I’d better get myself back up in there then.
TOM: Yeah. Basically, Steve, you created a moisture sandwich there and we’ve got to fix that.
STEVE: OK. Well, that sounds like something I can probably work on this next weekend.
TOM: That sounds good. Steve, thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: You are tuned to The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show. Pick up the phone and give us a call with your home repair or your home improvement question, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And Tom – Mr. Mary Sunshine of optimism – is now going to be answering (Tom chuckles) all those calls. (laughs)
TOM: 1-888-MONEY-PIT. Yes, I will. 888-666-3974. Unless I use the call forward to your house, my dear.
LESLIE: Dang. (chuckles)
TOM: Hey, most of the time you want to keep doors shut to save on energy bills but there is one time when propping open a door can actually save you money. Wondering what that is? We’re going to tell you, after this.
(theme song)
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. And the number here – actually, the number to Tom’s house – is 1-888-MONEY-PIT. Give him a call right now. (Tom and Leslie chuckle) No, seriously; pick up the phone, give us a call. We want to hear what you’re working on. We want to help you get the job done and more importantly, we want to give you the tools to get the job done and we want to give them to you for free.
So one caller who gets on the air with us this hour is going to win a set of three Husky Tough Tapes from Iron Bridge Tools. Now these are extra-tough with numbers on both sides of the measuring tape and magnets to help keep the tape where you need it when you’re working alone. It’s a prize worth over 50 bucks, so give us a call with your question at 1-888-MONEY-PIT right now for your chance to win.
TOM: 888-666-3974. You know, keeping doors shut tight will prevent cold air infiltration which, of course, is the biggest cause of increased energy bills. But there is one instance when an open door will actually save you money. We’re talking about your dishwasher door.
You know, air-drying your dishes is a great way to save money and save energy. If your dishwasher doesn’t have an automatic air-dry switch, turn off the control knob after the final rinse, prop open the door a bit and the air will dry out your dishes without soaking your energy bill.
888-666-3974. Give us a call right now with your home improvement question. Perhaps you’ve got a money-saving tip. Give us a call right now.
Leslie, who’s next?
LESLIE: Kathleen in Utah needs some help with a hard-water situation. Tell us about the problem.
KATHLEEN: Hi. Thank you for speaking with me. I have a rental home; has very, very hard water. There is no water softener. I have a dishwasher that I replaced about three years ago and the renters are complaining about hard-water spots. I went through a local home improvement store who suggested running Lime Away through it, which sounded not too safe. And then they suggested I purchase a water softener. I was wondering what you would suggest. This is my own little money pit; the expenses have exceeded the revenues.
TOM: Well, there’s a simple water softener that you can install that’s called EasyWater. Their website is EasyWater.com. And instead of having to hire a plumber, EasyWater essentially can be installed by you. Very simple; you’re wrapping an electric wire around your main water pipe and what it does is it sort of realigns all of the mineral deposits inside the water so that they don’t stick to each other. And if they don’t stick to each other, they’re not going to stick to the plumbing and the glasses and everything else.
You can buy and install one for a lot less than you could hire a plumber to install a water-softening, salt-based system. It’s also a lot healthier for your tenants.
KATHLEEN: Well, that sounds like a great idea. I’ll certainly look into it. I appreciate your suggestion.
TOM: You’re welcome. That website again is EasyWater.com.
KATHLEEN: And is it E-Z or is E-A-S-Y?
TOM: It’s E-A-S-Y- …
KATHLEEN: E-A-S-Y. Okie-doke.
TOM: … -Water.com.
KATHLEEN: EasyWater.com. Thank you so very much.
TOM: Really is easy to install. You’re welcome, Kathleen.
LESLIE: Don in Pennsylvania has got a question about his heating system. What can we help you with?
DON: Yes. I was wondering about a cold-air return – the fresh air return from the – bringing air in from outside …
TOM: OK.
DON: … the duct work.
TOM: Mm-hmm. You mean, from the exterior. You’re not talking about the return inside the house. You’re talking about venting some fresh air into the house, correct?
DON: Yes. Into the cold-air return ventilation system.
TOM: OK. So, I think what you’re talking about is called an air-to-air heat exchanger and …
DON: OK.
TOM: … basically it takes fresh air into the house but allows some of the heated air, as it’s being exhausted – sort of the stale air – to transfer some of its heat to the chilly air coming in and dramatically improves the efficiency of that operation. That’s added typically in a home – a residential home that’s really, really well-insulated; that does not have a lot of air changes per hour, because it maintains the healthy environment. It’s also a fairly standard thing done in a commercial installation, where you have to make sure that you’re always introducing fresh air into the building. So it’s a good idea if the home is very, very tight. If it’s not really tight, then you don’t need to worry about it.
DON: OK. It is a little bit tight.
TOM: Well, how do you know how tight it is? Have you ever tested it?
DON: When I was up in the attic up there, we had the insulation running through the – through the wrappers and across.
TOM: You know, that may seem like it’s an energy-efficient house but we’re talking about how well-sealed the house is. There’s one way for you to tell; it’s called a blower door test. It’s done by an energy auditor and they can actually measure how tight your house is. And I’ve got to tell you, of all the times I’ve seen these tests done – basically, what they do is they stick a big fan in the front door and they blow the house up with air just like you’re inflating a balloon and then they measure how much of it is leaking out and they can actually do it in the reverse, too; they can depressurize the house and measure how much air is leaking in.
Generally, you will find that it’s very, very inefficient; far more inefficient than what you thought it was. So unless you’ve done that type of test, Don, I wouldn’t recommend that you install the air-to-air heat exchanger; just speculating that you may need it. I would get the data first and, frankly, if the house is leaky, you may be better off putting your money into how – in trying to figure out how to make it tighter and that’s something that will also be identified by that blower door test because it will show you exactly what’s leaking; whether it’s the windows, the doors, the walls, the outlets and you’ll know exactly how to attack it and make that house nice and energy-efficient. You can probably get it done, by the way, by your local utility company. They very often offer those services.
LESLIE: Mm-hmm, and sometimes they even do it for free.
TOM: That’s true; sometimes they do do it for free. Don, I hope that helps you out. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Now, Tom, when you go and get the energy audit done on your home, is the blower door test the standard test or they’re a series of other things that they do?
TOM: There’s probably a series that they’re going to do; it depends on how thorough the energy audit is. But if you have the opportunity to get that blower door test, it’s really going to be enlightening what you find out about the house.
LESLIE: Dan in Idaho needs some help with a new home he’s building. What can we do for you?
DAN: Hey, we’re building a new house …
TOM: OK.
DAN: … and I want to know if there’s a website to go to that will tell us what efficient things that we can do that are cost-effective, before we get started.
TOM: Yeah, that’s a good question and I think a great place to start is EnergyStar.gov. That is the website put together by the Department of Energy and they have Energy Star information there for pretty much every room in the house, for every construction technique, there’s info for homeowners, there’s info for builders. You can really do a good job of educating yourself, Dan, on that single website put together by DOE.
DAN: Great. They have stuff like for furnaces? How about for like windmills? Are they …?
TOM: Not so much for alternative energy. Are you thinking about, you know, investing in wind or solar or something of that nature?
DAN: The whole thing. Wind; maybe putting in a boiler, a wood boiler and …
TOM: Yeah, you’re not going to find a one-stop shop for that. I will tell you that, generally speaking, that the alternative energies like that are going to be pretty expensive. Like I know – for example, I heard just the other day that the cost of installing a wind generator was averaging at around 20K and it was going to save you about 700 bucks a year in electrical costs, so think about it; do the math. You’re not going to break even on that for more years than that generator is probably going to – than that wind generator would actually last.
So even though it sounds like a good idea, the install costs are so high it doesn’t always make a good idea. I’ll tell you what is a wise thing to do when you’re building your house and that is to build one that is really energy-efficient. I mean, you can basically build an Energy Star-rated house today …
LESLIE: Mm-hmm.
TOM: … where you test it when you’re done. You actually have an independent test done to make sure that it’s draft-proof and it’s insulated well, it has the right kinds of doors and windows. All those sort of things are the best …
LESLIE: Will keep your costs down.
TOM: … are the best way for you to keep your costs down. Again, maximum energy efficiency; I would concentrate on that first.
LESLIE: Mm-hmm.
TOM: And then, you know, if you have the opportunity to put a small solar panel on the roof or something of that nature, you can do that second. But the first thing is to make sure you build an energy-efficient house.
LESLIE: Mm-hmm.
TOM: Don’t worry about how to fuel it; just make it tight first.
LESLIE: And you know what, Dan, there’s actually a great website. It’s the website for the U.S. Department of Energy and they have a whole site dedicated to energy efficiency and renewable energy and that website is EERE.Energy.gov. And when you go to the site you’ll see a whole section on solar energy and wind and hydropower and geothermal technologies and there’s a lot of information there that might help you along the alternative track as well.
TOM: Dan, thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Hey, we know this time of year you guys are spending a lot more money on your energy bills but did you ever wonder exactly where those energy dollars are escaping from your money pit? Why not consider an energy audit? And those are available free from many utility companies.
TOM: Details on how you can get your energy audit, next.
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ANNOUNCER: The Money Pit is brought to you by Therma-Tru, the nation’s leading manufacturer of fiberglass entry and patio door systems. Choose the brand more building professionals prefer and add up to $24,000 to the perceived value of your home. For more information, visit ThermaTru.com.
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 and hey, folks, we totally understand; everybody out there is scrimping to save money and your house, really, I would say is your biggest wallet emptier out there. So when you’re thinking about saving money around your house, energy is the big dollar-spender and we all want to learn ways where we can tighten up our homes and make them more energy-efficient. And I think a great way to start would be having an energy audit for your home.
TOM: Absolutely, because the whole process can be very overwhelming. If you do want to save energy, where do you start? What’s the first thing you should do? What’s the second thing you should do? How do you prioritize these things? An energy audit is the answer.
But how do you get a good one done? With us to talk about that is Kevin Ireton. He’s the editor of Fine Homebuilding magazine. They’ve got a great article in the current issue, called Every House Needs An Energy Audit, on page 42.
Kevin, where do we start?
KEVIN: Tom, you’re exactly right. The place to start is with an energy audit. You want to hire somebody who’s professionally trained in diagnosing, you know, all the problems that can happen in a house.
TOM: Kevin, I’m often surprised when you see the competing claims of manufacturers that sell a lot of energy-related products. I remember once recording a window commercial for a company; at least they sent me the script. We ultimately refused to record it because it said, ‘You would save 50 percent on your energy bills if you installed these windows,’ and I wrote back to the salesman and said, ‘Maybe if you had no windows and now you have windows, you might save 50 percent.’
But the consumers are faced with a lot of these competing claims; some of them make absolutely no sense and so an energy audit, I would imagine, helps you prioritize exactly which of those improvements are going to make the most sense for you financially.
KEVIN: Tom, you’re absolutely right. It’s the energy auditor who’s going to be able to come in and measure how leaky your house is, how well your insulation is working, how efficient your furnace is and a dozen other things. And then he’s going to recommend to you the improvements that you can make in the house. And then you can also have your house tested again to know whether those improvements are actually doing what was claimed was going to happen.
LESLIE: Now, Kevin, do you think that an energy audit works well for, say, just a home like mine that was built in 1920 or for the new house that’s going up three doors down? Is it something that you want to do early-on in a construction project or does it better benefit an older home?
KEVIN: We’re at a time when it’s – when the field is really changing. I think we’re going to reach a point where all houses should get an energy audit. In your case, you want an energy audit because you want to know, ‘Where is my house leaking? How do I improve the energy performance in my house?’
If you have a new house, you really kind of want to know the same thing. As a person buying that house, you want to know if the claims that the contractor is making are correct; you can actually test those. If you’re a builder, you can test the house for leakiness, for instance, before the drywall goes up when you can still get in and fix all the leaks. I think we’re going to see a lot more energy auditing going forward.
TOM: We’re talking to Kevin Ireton. He’s the editor of Fine Homebuilding magazine.
Now, Kevin, for those of us that have existing homes, how do we hire and select an energy auditor? How do you make sure that the person doing the audit is not only there to sell you, perhaps, some services in the sense that they would say, ‘The bad news is you’ve got a leaky house; the good news is I’m just the guy to fix it for you.’ So, how do you prevent the conflicts of interest?
KEVIN: Well, first of all, you want to make sure that the energy auditor has been trained and certified by one of the three organizations that we found that do it: CMC Energy Services, Building Performance Institute or RESNET. Secondly, you want to get some references, as always.
And the last thing, it’s interesting that you bring up that point: do you hire an energy auditor who also offers to fix the things?
TOM: Right.
KEVIN: Or do you want an energy auditor who’s third-party independent and he says, ‘I’m not going to fix your house.’ People disagree about that and I think you’re going to have to use your own judgment. I mean, personally, if I knew a renovation contractor or remodeling contractor who owned a blower door test and an infrared camera and was that into, you know, these kinds of diagnostic techniques, I would be impressed and I’d be a little more inclined to hire that guy.
TOM: Interesting point. You know, in the 20 years I spent as a home inspector, the golden rule there is thou shall not repair homes thou inspects, because of that very conflict of interest. So I think that it’s a definite concern and we hear a lot from other trades that are in the inspection business that cause a lot of fraud, so I think you have to be very careful. In fact, Leslie and I were just talking not too long ago about an experience she had with a chimney sweep …
LESLIE: Mm-hmm.
TOM: … who promptly arrived at her home only to declare, almost immediately, that she needed (Leslie chuckles) a chimney liner, without even looking inside the thing.
LESLIE: Yeah, and to completely rebuild the exterior portion of the chimney on the roof as well.
KEVIN: It’s a really tough issue. One of the people we interviewed for this article said, ‘Would you take your car to somebody to get it diagnosed and then not let that person fix it?’ Well, of course not, in most cases. So …
TOM: And let me guess; that was the guy that did the repairs.
KEVIN: Yeah, well, of course. (Tom and Leslie laugh) But I think …
TOM: Alright, Kevin.
KEVIN: … it’s going to come down to a judgment call, absolutely. And that’s why it’s so important to check references.
TOM: Good point.
LESLIE: (overlapping voices) And what is the price range on these audits? Like what can we expect to pay and how quickly will we see the savings?
KEVIN: Leslie, that’s a tough one. We saw price ranges everywhere from $200 to $2,000.
LESLIE: That’s huge!
KEVIN: And partly what you have to know is – I mean, first of all, it varies from house to house but also the level of diagnostics that the individual does can vary from company to company. And even some companies might offer different levels of service. So that’s the price range. Most of them seem to fall between $500 and $1,000.
TOM: Well, one thing we all agree on is it’s a great thing to do. Kevin Ireton, the editor of Fine Homebuilding magazine. The issue is on newsstands now; info at FineHomebuilding.com and the article is called Every House Needs An Energy Audit. We agree.
Kevin, thanks so much for stopping by The Money Pit.
KEVIN: You’re welcome, Tom.
LESLIE: Well, thanks for that great advice, Kevin.
Hey, if you’re looking for another way to keep your home warm and energy-efficient, the answer is the right windows. Now, replacement windows, they might be too pricy of a project in this very uncertain economic climate we’re facing. Why not break it down into more manageable chunks? We’ll tell you how to do that, next.
(theme song)
ANNOUNCER: The Money Pit is brought to you by Therma-Tru, the nation’s leading manufacturer of fiberglass entry and patio door systems. Choose the brand more building professionals prefer and add up to $24,000 to the perceived value of your home. For more information, visit ThermaTru.com.
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 1-888-MONEY-PIT to ask your home improvement question and to get in on our prize giveaway. This hour we’re going to give away three Husky Tough Tapes. They’re measuring tapes in 16, 25 and 40-foot lengths. It’s all you need to get all those projects done around your house. They’re worth over 50 bucks; going to go out to one caller that comes on the air with us and asks their home improvement question at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Well, if one of your projects is making your house more energy-efficient so you can start saving some of those energy dollars and replacement windows seems to be the ticket to make your house air-tight but it’s kind of expensive and your budget is taking a hit, just like everybody else’s, well, you can do the replacement window project in phases.
In fact, adding or enlarging just one or two windows in your home has many positive effects. Increased natural lighting and improved fresh air circulation will add a whole new feeling of life to your living space and you could even choose to do the windows on the front fa
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