Show Notes
- Lightning Protection: When lightning strikes, find out how to protect your home from storm damage.
- Stuck Windows: Get tips for opening and closing stubborn old windows that have you stuck.
- Buying a Grill: Here’s what to look for when shopping hot deals for a new grill.
Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
Plus, answers to your home improvement questions about:
- Uneven Air Conditioning: One room is much warmer than the rest of the house. Stephanie can check the airflow at the registers and returns, add insulation, and install supplemental cooling to balance the heating and cooling.
- Attic Ventilation: Jim is worried about mold he found after insulating his attic. He needs to increase the attic ventilation by adding ridge and soffit vents.
- Bathtub Refinishing: The bathtub finish is starting to erode and can’t be touched up. Peggy gets info about an epoxy refinishing kit to do the whole tub.
- Metal Roof: Patrick is considering installing a metal roof. It’s a good investment that offers new technology, insurance savings, and energy rebates.
- Painting Fireplace: Should you paint a brick fireplace? Mary gets advice about using a good primer, having to repaint, and ideas to decorate around the brick.
- Cleaning a Covered Deck: Ed wants to clean his covered wood deck. We recommend a wood cleaner, but he’ll need to cover his tools so they don’t get wet.
- Adding a Deck Step: It’s a high step from Steve’s deck into his cabin. Adding a step will be helpful and he finds out the right size tread to build.
- Garage Floor Stains: How do you clean grease stains from a garage floor? Kathy gets tips on cleaning the stains with TSP and using an epoxy floor paint.
- Driveway Repair: An old asphalt driveway is worn and has big dips. It sounds like it’s time for Bonnie to tear it out and replace the driveway.
Podcast Transcript
Read Transcript
| 0:00:25 | TOM: Coast to coast and floorboards to shingles. This is the Money Pit Home Improvement Show. I’m Tom Kraeutler. |
| 0:00:30 | LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete. |
| 0:00:31 | TOM: We are super glad to be here with you today. This is episode 2340 – 2,340 if you’re keeping track. And if you’ve got questions about your home improvement projects, your DIY dilemmas, whether you’ve started a project or you’re stuck in the middle of a project or you’re just getting ready to do a project, we would love to help you take that all important first step. Help yourself first, though, by reaching out to us, by going to moneypit.com/ask, that’s moneypit.com/ask. Click the blue microphone button record your question and you will be among the first to get an answer from us. Hey, coming up on today’s show, we’re going to talk about summer storms. You know, the storms that pop up in late summer and even I guess those in early fall can be pretty severe. And the most damaging, especially when it comes to lightning. So we’re going to share some tips on what you need to know about protecting your house and your stuff from lightning just ahead. |
| 0:01:29 | LESLIE: And older windows definitely have their charm, but they do come with their challenges, too. So we’re going to explain how you can free those windows when they get stuck and then keep them free without damaging the panes or even shattering the glass. |
| 0:01:42 | TOM: Yeah, that’s a really bad thing when we trying to free a stock window when you break it. I’ve actually done that. It’s actually pretty easy to do works. All right, guys. Plus, if you love the grill, but maybe your grill has been seeing some better days, now’s a good time to replace it. Lots of sales going on right now. So we’re going to share a few tips to help you take advantage of those late summer sales and select some great grills for the years ahead. |
| 0:02:07 | LESLIE: But first, we want to know what you want to know. How can we help you make your forever home the best it can be? So let us know what projects you have planned. What are you wrapping up from the summer season of projects? You have some new ones for the fall. Whatever you’ve got on your plate, let us help you tackle it. |
| 0:02:23 | TOM: The number here is 1-888-Money-Pit. You can call us at 888-666-3974. Where those questions or better yet, post them at Money Pit dotcom slash ask for the fastest possible response. Let’s get to it. Leslie, who’s first? |
| 0:02:37 | LESLIE: Stephanie in California is having a heating and cooling issue well, specifically a cooling issue in the bedroom. What’s going on? |
| 0:02:43 | CALLER: Oh, we don’t know. Right now we live in a four bedroom house every. |
| 0:02:49 | LESLIE: Room in the. |
| 0:02:50 | CALLER: House except for the master bedroom gets cool in the summer. We have not done a winter year yet. This bedroom, the master bedroom, is at least 5 to 7 degrees warmer than any part of the house. |
| 0:03:08 | TOM: Okay, well, there could be a number of reasons for that. First of all, what side of the house is it on? |
| 0:03:14 | CALLER: It would be on the south side of the house. |
| 0:03:16 | TOM: The more sun, you know, the more cooling you need. So it’s not unusual for a room on the south, the west side, to need more cooling power. So let’s talk about what you could do to try to improve this. First of all, I would check the airflow at the registers to make sure you’re getting good airflow at all of the AC registers. In some cases, systems can be balanced so that they supply more air to one room and less air to another, just as important as to check the return registers. Stephanie, because not only do you have to push cold air into the room, you have to pull the air back so it can be recalled. If you don’t have a return in the bedroom itself, it’s going to be a central return, like in the hallway, perhaps outside of the bedroom. If that’s the case, you want to make sure that when you close the door of the bedroom that there’s at least a one inch gap under the door because that’s how the air gets pulled back and again, recirculated. Other things that you can do would be to increase insulation over this particular room. So if there’s an attic access above, for example, you could double up the insulation over that and that would also help to keep it cooler. So I would speak with your HVAC professional initially to try to get the balance working a little bit better. And then if that doesn’t work, think about adding some additional insulation and if that doesn’t work at all. The other thing you could do is you can add supplemental cooling to that. I have a room, for example, in my house where I have a split Douglas system because it happens to be on the West side. In my case and it overheats. It’s far away from the air conditioning system supply. And so I never quite get enough cooling air into this one room to make a comfortable. So we have a split Duclos system in there that’s supplemental. So those are all good options to help even out the temperature of that room of the house. Stephanie, thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit. |
| 0:04:58 | LESLIE: All right. Now let’s welcome Jim, who loves to put new insulation on top of old insulation and then add some more insulation in the attic. What’s going on? You got something happening up there? |
| 0:05:07 | CALLER: I’m hoping I didn’t outsmart myself. I thought I would insulate my attic. I would do it myself. So I went down to the local Lowe’s and picked up some insulation, put it up their staple gun did on this has been going on for a few years while I went up there recently and it looks like there’s some mold growing on the ceiling on the wood. They don’t have the insulation on. So now I’m thinking I’ve outsmarted myself. What do I do? Is it mold? I think it is. How do I get rid of it? What do I do to prevent it in the future? Did the insulation have something to do with it? Anything you could tell me, I sure would appreciate it. |
| 0:05:44 | TOM: Well, I don’t think you outsmart yourself, Jim. I think it was probably a good idea to add insulation in there. What you may not have known is that when you add insulation, you have to also add ventilation. Now, depending on the age of your house, you may never have had really enough ventilation to begin with, or you may have inadvertently blocked some of the soft vents. Sometimes when we put insulation across the floor of an attic, we block the ventilation. So you need more ventilation in there so that we’re not trapping that moist air inside the attic space. What will happen is that will condense on the underside of the roof sheathing, and sometimes that can grow algae or moss or maybe even mold. I wouldn’t panic too much about it. I would increase the ventilation in the attic by adding region, soffit vents, if at all possible. And then also I would maybe spray it down with a 25% bleach solution if you wear a mask and glasses and that will kill anything that’s attached right there, just keep an eye on it. Going forward, you want to make sure you have good ventilation. Otherwise, that sort of thing can definitely happen. |
| 0:06:47 | LESLIE: Hey there. We’ll be enjoying this episode of our podcast. If you are. You know what would totally make our day is if you leave us a five star review on Apple Podcasts. |
| 0:06:56 | TOM: Absolutely. Just go to money, FT.com, slash review and let the world know how much you enjoy our home improvement tips and tricks and you might even win a copy of our book. |
| 0:07:08 | LESLIE: We’ve got Peggy on the line who needs a product to help with a bath painting project. Actually, the bathtub. Tell us what you’re working on. |
| 0:07:12 | CALLER: I have a bath tub for the refinishing sort of came off. And it’s got a water stain. I think it’s a calcium stain. It’s sort of a grayish on this ivory tub. Is there anything I can use to get the coating back on there and get that color back where it was? |
| 0:07:30 | TOM: Hey, Peggy. So when you have a finish that starts to come off of a tub like that, or in this case, it may be some erosion from the water. That part you describe is actually very, very common. And it’s not easy to really I shouldn’t say it’s easy. It’s impossible to touch it up and have it look anything close to the way it naturally used to Look, I do have a solution for you, and it’s a product that I discovered and it’s called Echo Powell. Now, the Echo Powell is like an epoxy refinishing kit. I found it on Amazon. I did a lot of research on it. Folks were saying that it was very effective as long as you very, very carefully follow the instructions, which they’re pretty good about. There’s lots of instructions and videos to go along. But when you apply this echo pal, essentially it will look like a brand new finish. In my case, I was refinishing a tub from the 1950s that was badly worn and actually had been painted with some sort of a tub varnish once before. The echo Pal, though, made it look like it was brand new porcelain around the factory. I was really impressed by it. So you can check that out. You’ll find it on Amazon, probably other retailers as well. But you can’t just touch up an area like that. You really have to redo the entire surface of the tub. |
| 0:08:37 | LESLIE: Now we’ve got Patrick on the line who’s got a roofing question. How can we help you today? |
| 0:08:40 | CALLER: I had a question about a metal roof versus a shingle roof. Our roof is about 17 years old and it’s ready for it’s ready to change now. |
| 0:08:49 | LESLIE: Is it ready to change? Because you don’t like the way it looks or is it failing in some way? |
| 0:08:54 | CALLER: Oh, no, it’s actually fine. The shingles are fine. But I was I was kind of wondering about the cost benefit of spending twice as much for a metal roof versus a shingle roof for another. You know how long will the shingles how long should that metal roof last? What’s the gauge in the metal, that kind of. |
| 0:09:17 | TOM: Thing. How long do you plan on staying in the house? Forever. Forever. Okay. That’s important information. So if you put a metal roof on this house, I think it can last for all intents of hurts purposes forever. The metal roofs of yesteryear, when they were properly maintained, would easily last 50 to 100 years. The metal roofs of today will do the same thing, and they can even do it more successfully because of some of the modern elements of technology that are added to it. For example, you are in Florida. Is that correct? |
| 0:09:50 | CALLER: Yes, Port. |
| 0:09:51 | TOM: Charlotte. You know, their one nice thing is that metal roofs have reflective paint. It’s like a low e paint. And they actually reflect some of that radiant heat back off of the roof. So instead of having a roof, it’s like a heat collector. You’re going to have a roof that’s a heat reflector. So there’s also an energy efficiency element to it as well. But I think that metal roofs, you know, lasts literally indefinitely. As long as they’re properly maintained, they don’t need a lot of maintenance. Of course, if there’s a storm, that sort of thing, they stand up a lot better. They don’t fly off like shingles do. And even though it’s twice as expensive, it’ll probably be the last year if you ever have to put on that house. |
| 0:10:33 | CALLER: If I do this $11,000 roof, well, I report that to my homeowner’s insurance. And will I get a benefit from that or. |
| 0:10:40 | TOM: No, that’s a good question for your broker. Certainly a metal roof is more fire resistant. I also would look into energy any energy efficiency or rebates because since it’s a Loewy roof coating, you may actually qualify for an energy rebate. So I would look into that as well. |
| 0:10:57 | CALLER: And how would I look into that? |
| 0:10:59 | TOM: You know, a good source is the Metal Roofing Alliance. That’s a trade association for the metal roof industry. Go to metal roofing dot com and in fact, they have a section on their website about tax incentives. So they are available for metal roofs. |
| 0:11:14 | CALLER: All right. I appreciate your help. |
| 0:11:16 | LESLIE: Well, each year the cost of lightning strikes adds up to millions of dollars of damage to the electrical systems and homes throughout the country. So to prevent this from happening to you, it’s a good idea that you install a surge arrestor. |
| 0:11:30 | TOM: Yeah. And when we say surge arrestor, we don’t really mean you install it, we mean electrician install it because it’s really the initial step for whole house protection because it kind of safeguards all your hard wired equipment. So what are we talking about? Air conditioning systems, appliances, stuff that can’t be protected by a simple plug in surge device that will probably cost you about 250 to 350 bucks, but it could save you thousands if you need to replace the equipment. And they actually saw this happen to my neighbor. You know, we’ve been reporting on this for years and this actually happened to my neighbor. Her electrical system got hit by a lightning strike and she couldn’t figure out initially why she had no microwave, no range, no cable TV, no Internet connectivity. It all got taken out by one strike, one surge wiped the whole thing out. So really a good idea to do that is not terribly expensive improvement and it can definitely protect your house and your equipment. |
| 0:12:29 | LESLIE: Mary in Illinois is on the line with a painting question, How can we help you today? |
| 0:12:32 | CALLER: I want to paint a fireplace. It’s brick and just want to know if there’s if you can do that. First of all, if there’s a certain kind of paint you need to use. |
| 0:12:43 | LESLIE: Has it been painted before or is it natural brick? |
| 0:12:46 | CALLER: No, it’s natural brick. Original brick. Well, you. |
| 0:12:50 | TOM: Certainly can paint it, but I would think very carefully before you do this, because once you paint, you have to repaint it eventually. And fireplaces tend to get very dirty and very smoky, and they’re hard to keep clean. If it’s just the color that you don’t like. There may be some ways to sort of decorate around that color, but I would really hesitate to tell you to paint it. We get a lot of calls from folks that are not happy with painted fireplaces. They want to do the exact opposite, which is get the paint off. And once you paint, it’s just really hard to do that. |
| 0:13:19 | CALLER: Okay. I was kind of worried about whether it would peel or when you say it just you just have to keep repainting because of. |
| 0:13:27 | LESLIE: What paint over time is going to crack and dry out. And it will get so dirty just from, you know, the exhaust and the use of the fireplace is that you’ll get sort of that that haze around the upper portion of it, regardless of what type of screen you have. Now, the other thing to keep in mind is that since this will be its first time being painted, the brick is so porous that you’re going to put a lot of time into priming because it’s just going to absorb all of that primer and you want to get a good quality primer. You want to make sure that you brush in the grout lines, roll on the surfaces of the brick brush again. So it’s a lot of steps. It can be done. But as Tom said, if you want to take that paint off, it’s now a chemical stripper. And because that brick is so porous, it’s going to have sucked in all of that color. And so it’ll never get back to that original brick look again. It’ll have that sort of hue of whatever color it was. |
| 0:14:19 | CALLER: Okay. Okay, great. Well, thank you for your help. I appreciate it. |
| 0:14:22 | TOM: You’re very welcome. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit. |
| 0:14:26 | LESLIE: All right. Now we’ve got Ed in West Virginia on the line. Who’s doing some exterior cleanup? What are you working on? |
| 0:14:32 | CALLER: Well, my deck I’ve got a covered deck with treated wood, and it needs cleaning to get the dirt and grime off of it because it is covered with rain. More come in and wash it off and I can’t use a lot of water because I’ve got things underneath it that water would leak down to so and I also have exterior steps and they’re getting nasty. So what kind of a cleaning product can I use to clean this this wood with? |
| 0:14:59 | LESLIE: Now, first of all, what’s underneath that? You don’t want to get wet. Is it furniture or are you storing stuff? There? |
| 0:15:04 | CALLER: Well, I’ve got basically a workshop. I’ve got two workshops, one inside the house and one outside under the deck. |
| 0:15:13 | TOM: You’re going to probably have to cover those with tarps or something because you are going to need to use some amount of water. But what we would recommend is a wood cleaner. Now, cleaners, what they do is they’re are very good at removing dirt, running, grinding, sort of removing that oxidized grayish sort of appearance that gets on top of pressure treated lumber and flood makes a good one, right, Leslie? |
| 0:15:35 | LESLIE: Yeah. Flood actually has a product called Flood Wood Cleaner, and you can mix it with water. I think one gallon container mix up to five gallons of cleaning solution. And it can actually remove a great appearance on lumber and give it like a like new appearance. Now, here’s the thing. I know a lot of people think that when it comes to cleaning a deck, oh, it’s just dirt, it’s pollen, whatever’s on it. And they think just using some water on it is going to get rid of it. But you get the same things on your car and you don’t wash your car with just water. You actually need a cleaner or a soap product, but you don’t want to use soap on wood. So it’s always good to use a product like a wood cleaner that really will help you get rid of all of the weathering, the dirt, the grime, you know, just the usual stuff that a winter will put on a surface. So if you go with the flood wood cleaner, you can use it on exterior, interior, all kinds of woods. I mean, I’m saying interior because I’m meaning that yours is covered. I wouldn’t use it in the house, but that’s what I mean. There. And it’ll do a good job. You’ll get about a thousand square feet total from a gallon. So you’ll get a really good coverage. You want to let it dry. But again, like Tom mentioned, you want to cover anything that’s underneath because it is a cleanser and you don’t want to get it on your tools. |
| 0:16:44 | TOM: Yeah. And you have to wet the deck surface first and then once it’s wet, then you apply the wood cleaner using kind of like a pump up garden sprayer, or you can even roll it on with, with a brush roll or like as if you, you’re painting. |
| 0:16:55 | CALLER: Okay. |
| 0:16:55 | TOM: You let it sit on the surface for a while and then you rinse it off. |
| 0:16:58 | CALLER: Okay. Well that rinsing it offers a problem. |
| 0:17:03 | TOM: That you’re not going to be able to dry cleaner wood deck. |
| 0:17:06 | LESLIE: Yeah, I don’t know any cleaner that’s going to take. |
| 0:17:08 | TOM: That is just not going to happen. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-Money-Pit. So, Leslie, now we’re always asking for folks to give us five star reviews. |
| 0:17:17 | LESLIE: So. |
| 0:17:18 | TOM: Well, sometimes folks actually don’t give us five star reviews. They could give us something else. And one of our latest reviews, I just want to let you know that it’s, Tom is a bit monotonous and mansplain-y. Leslie is better. At least she has more personality. Let me make this very clear to you, Leslie. I do not mansplain. I just say what’s on my mind. And if you have any questions, you’re welcome to ask me. But I do not mansplain. Is that very clear to you? |
| 0:17:42 | LESLIE: That makes it– |
| 0:17:42 | TOM: Is that clear to you? Is that clear to you? Is there any questions about that? |
| 0:17:45 | LESLIE: I think you’re actually mansplaining a mansplaining definition. Interesting. |
| 0:17:53 | TOM: I think you’re absolutely right. |
| 0:17:55 | LESLIE: I’m going to say that I think most men don’t know when their mansplaining. |
| 0:18:02 | TOM: Yeah, you’re probably right. |
| 0:18:03 | LESLIE: And I think women just– |
| 0:18:06 | TOM: Tolerate us? |
| 0:18:07 | LESLIE: Tolerate. We’re like, okay, but Tom, you are super smart and I appreciate all of your knowledge. I really do. |
| 0:18:21 | TOM: Thank you very much. I don’t think I do that. But if I do, I apologize. I you know, one of our editors, our newsletter editor told me that she can tell when I get annoyed at a question. I try not to, but sometimes we answer questions that were I’m not getting annoyed at the caller, I’m getting it no matter what happened to them. And usually it involves like a contractor to try to take advantage of them or something of that nature. But I think I should be getting into it, stuff like that, because I think I need to convey it because we don’t want that to happen to people. |
| 0:18:46 | LESLIE: I’m also going to say it’s not necessarily annoyance. I think it’s passion. Passion for the project, passion for our listeners. |
| 0:18:51 | TOM: Yeah, that’s right. |
| 0:18:53 | LESLIE: You know, it’s like we want everything to go well for everybody. And I think also, given the nature of what we do and what we’ve seen and the projects we’ve worked on, you know when things go poorly, like they can really go poorly and then things can get expensive. So we’re invested. |
| 0:19:08 | TOM: In the best scenarios and we can interrupt that process right when we can give you some tips or advice before you spend the money, you know, or going down a direction that maybe was unnecessary. |
| 0:19:17 | LESLIE: And your monotonous mansplaining. Steve in Pennsylvania need some help with a building project? I love that you’re planning and you’ve asked us to help. What’s going on? |
| 0:19:27 | CALLER: Steve Yeah, I have a small summer cabin at Lake Tahoe and the deck was built in the early sixties, and the step up from the deck into the cabin is a stretch. So I was wanting to put like a stoop or a landing or step or whatever you want to call it, on top of the deck that make the step up into the cabin a little less severe. So I was looking at maybe something about 54 inches wide and 6 to 7 inches tall, but I did. I don’t know how deep to make that step. |
| 0:20:05 | TOM: When you say deep to make the step, you mean what’s the like? What’s the tread depth when you put your foot on it? |
| 0:20:10 | CALLER: Exactly. |
| 0:20:12 | TOM: So what are you going to build it out of? |
| 0:20:13 | CALLER: I was just going to put it in wood. Everything else is wood up there. |
| 0:20:16 | TOM: So I would just use I would use a two by 12 for that step. Might make a nice big deep step. You could use a two by ten. Most steps are narrower than that, but I think a two by 12, which is 11 and a half inches, would be fine. |
| 0:20:28 | CALLER: So 12 inches deep from the edge of the cabin, door to the edge of the deck. |
| 0:20:35 | TOM: So it’s just one step basically between the deck and the cabin door. Is that correct that you want to put in? Right. So I would make it a two by 12, not it’s about 11 and a half inches deep. That’ll be fine. |
| 0:20:46 | CALLER: Well, thank you very much for your help. You have a great day. |
| 0:20:50 | LESLIE: Well, old windows, they’re definitely charming, but they do come with their own very special set of maintenance headaches. |
| 0:20:57 | TOM: Yeah, and one of which is how to get them moving again if they get stuck. So we’re going to talk you through the step by step solution to that. |
| 0:21:04 | LESLIE: Yeah, I think generally what happens is, you know, when you’re painting a window, it’s kind of hard to paint a window without it getting stuck and the adhesive quality of that paint, I mean, especially where you don’t want it to stick, it’s really strong here. |
| 0:21:17 | TOM: It’s like glue, right? So you got to be careful when it comes time to freeing up those stuck windows you don’t damage. The windows were break the glass. So here’s sort of my tricks of the trade for that. There are really two ways to break those windows free without breaking the glass That is. First, you can use a wood block to tap the inside sash. Now, the sash is the part that slides up and down, like in a double window. Right. And you put the woodblock on top of that window, like where the front sides of the frame come together and you tap it, even though the window is closed. Right. You tap it. And as that window drives down ever so slightly, it tends to break the paint seal and that will free up the window. It’s kind of counterintuitive because you think, what should I be tapping it up? Like pulling it up as opposed opening the window? Actually, no. You want to tap it real quickly down and that breaks that seal and then you can move it up in there. |
| 0:22:07 | LESLIE: All right. Here’s another tip. If that doesn’t seem to work, you can take a five in one painter’s tool and you can use that to break the seal that’s adhering the sash in place as well. So your first effort is going to be to kind of cut through that paint seal along both the vertical sides of the sash and along the stool at the bottom of the sash and at the meeting rail where the two window sash sections meet. |
| 0:22:27 | LESLIE: So you kind of want to just take that pointy edge, you know, it’s like, I don’t know what they call all those different parts of the five and one tool. They all have very specific usage, but this is the pointy one. Yeah. So you’re going to kind of slice that open, then try it. If that doesn’t work, you can gently tap the painter’s tool. You know, that narrow edge, that sort of a scraper with the hammer between the window sash and the window jam. And as you tap that painter’s tool, you want to have an assistant hold that vacuum. So assistant, I mean, kids, spouse, whoever’s there to give you a hand, hold the vacuum hose directly below, because there’s going to be paint, dust, there’s going to be chips, there’s going to be stuff coming around. Some of it’s going to be small. And this way you’re kind of just nip it in the bud before it comes to the floor. |
| 0:23:06 | TOM: Yeah. And you basically move outside and repeat the process by cutting that paint seal around the entire sash. You’re kind of freeing up that sort of glue effect of the paint, sort of sealing the window shut. And when you get it freed up and you’ve done the best you can, you can also slip a flat bar underneath the section gently and in line with sort of those vertical sides of the window, pry out the sash until it breaks free. And then after you got it moving, then you want to raise it and lower it a few times to see how smoothly it rides. Now, if you want to lubricate that, you can’t use WD 40, right? Because it’s wood, but you could use a lithium spray. The lithium spray tends to be a little heavier to stick around. It’s also sometimes a bit powdery, and that will help that window move and continue to move for some time going forward. |
| 0:23:50 | LESLIE: Cathy in Arizona is on the line and needs some help cleaning the garage. What can we do for you? |
| 0:23:54 | CALLER: Well, we bought this house last fall and the garage for years. I’m sure grease from the cars, but I don’t know how to clean it up. And just wondering if I can do that myself or if I’ve got to hire somebody to do that. |
| 0:24:07 | TOM: I think you could do it yourself. You what you want to do is pick up some tri sodium phosphate that’s known as TSP. You’ll see it in the hardware store panel of a home center. Mix that up into a paste like consistency and cover the area of the stain. Let it sit for a while and then wash it out. Now, old oil stains are among the most difficult to take up, but it will brighten it up a bit. And if you want to be cleaner than that, what I would do is I would wash the floor, let it dry really well, and paint it. You could use an epoxy painting, garage floor painting system. It’s a two part epoxy that’s chemical cured. So you mix the two parts of the paint together, you apply to the floor, then you wait an hour or two and it basically hardens right up for you. And then it’ll be a lot easier to clean after that. |
| 0:24:54 | CALLER: Okay. But so I can still put that epoxy over if I don’t get all this grease up. |
| 0:24:59 | TOM: No. Once you clean up the grease, as I mentioned, you made it made the grease maybe up, but it might still be stained. And if you wanted to make it look nicer, then you could paint it. |
| 0:25:07 | LESLIE: Yeah, because the beginning part of this kit is usually like an etching compound. That sort of prepares the floor to receive the coating. So if you can just get the actual grease off, even though the stain is there, it’ll prepare it so that it will adhere to it. |
| 0:25:21 | CALLER: All right. Okay. All right. Thank you. |
| 0:25:23 | LESLIE: Well, if the grill you’ve been using all summer long is starting to look a little worse for wear, now is a great time to think about replacing it. I mean, we’re really starting to see those summer sales cropping up, and it’s not hard to find a good deal on a grill. |
| 0:25:37 | TOM: Yeah, and what makes it confusing, though, are the many, many options available. So to help you sort out the best with kind of boiled this down to really three issues. First of all, you need solid hardware. You want to look for stainless steel hardware in solid aluminum body. These grills are the most durable and they can take the heat very, very well. |
| 0:25:57 | LESLIE: Yeah. Next thing, you kind of want to be checking out the burner design, like the layout. You should look for an H style burner design because it provides an even distribution of heat. And you want to make sure that the burner is made from stainless steel. If it’s not, you can expect have to replace it in a couple of years. |
| 0:26:13 | TOM: And lastly, check the warranty shot for a grill that comes with the warranty that covers all parts of the grill, including the burner and the valves. You know, some so-called lifetime warranties only cover the grill body like as if anything could go wrong with the aluminum body. Nothing goes wrong with the body. So why do you need a warranty on the body? |
| 0:26:30 | LESLIE: Yeah. No, it’s everything inside. |
| 0:26:31 | TOM: Right. So you want something is going to cover those burners. Because I tell you what, that’s what Ross out. And if they do rust out, they can replace. But you shouldn’t have to do that anytime soon. |
| 0:26:41 | LESLIE: Yeah, and you know what else you could look for? Guys like a griddle. We replaced our grill with a, like, a flame cooktop, a Blackstone. It’s awesome. |
| 0:26:50 | TOM: Earlier this summer, I replaced burners and replaced the cooking grates. But I never thought about adding a griddle to. |
| 0:26:56 | LESLIE: Oh, no. Now we got rid of the barbecue itself and got a black stone flat top. It is outstanding. Bonnie in Pennsylvania is on the line with a deep driveway. Tell us what’s going on. |
| 0:27:07 | CALLER: Well, our driveway was asphalt originally and it’s probably like 30, 40 years ago. And there really isn’t much left to it now, but it’s most of it is fine, solid. But this one to partner with have great, great depth. And so you kind of go down in and the water collects in there. I was wondering what we could fill that in with. It’s not like the rest of the driveway is kind of nonexistent now, but it’s not a. |
| 0:27:34 | TOM: Well, at least you have a speedbump built in your driveway, you know? Yeah, probably safer that way. You get if you’ve got a 30 or 40 year old driveway. I mean, that driveway doesn’t really owe you any money. You can, you know, patch it. You can have it professionally patched with more asphalt material. My concern is that whatever’s causing that dip is an underlying problem, and it’s just going to reform over and over again. I mean, once you start to get a dip course, the water gets in there and it sort of exacerbate said. But I think your options are to top coat that driveway, which you could do with more asphalt material. It’s a professional project. It’s not one you can do yourself or if you want to go ahead and invest the time and the money right now, you can just tear it out and build it again. When it gets to be that age, it really does have to be replaced. If you think about it, you know, roads have to be replaced far more frequently than that. But as you get a three or four year old driveway, it’s probably reached the end of a normal life cycle and it’s time for it to be torn out and completely replaced. Not top coated, but you could buy yourself some time by doing an application. |
| 0:28:36 | CALLER: Could you just fill it in with stone or something? For now, I. |
| 0:28:39 | TOM: Know because it’s just going to fall out, you know, it’s not really a do it yourself project. You have to put more asphalt mixed with stone under pressure, rolled over it, but my concern about, you know, recording a driveway that’s that old is it’s just not going to last that long. |
| 0:28:53 | CALLER: Yeah. There’s nothing much left recoded, right? |
| 0:28:56 | TOM: Yeah. So it’s not worth it. Okay, Bonnie. |
| 0:28:58 | CALLER: Okay. Thank you. |
| 0:28:59 | TOM: Good luck. Thanks so much for calling us. At 888-Money-Pit. |
| 0:29:02 | LESLIE: David wrote in to Money Pit and he says, My crawl space insulation is falling and drooping. Can I pull down the old insulation and just insulate the crawlspace walls? Also, I have six foundation months that open and close for winter and summer. Should these remain or be covered? |
| 0:29:19 | TOM: Hey, good questions, David. So first of all, the fact that your insulation is falling out and drooping is not a reason to remove it. The right place for floor insulation is in between the floor joists that are right above your head in the crawl space. The fact that the insulation that’s there is not properly supported is not a reason to remove it. Now there’s a couple of ways to support insulation, but typically it’s done with wires that are slightly longer than the space between the standard, say 16 inch or 24 inch on center floor joist spacing would be. If it’s not completely falling apart and getting like wet and nasty and disgusting looking, you could push it back up, pick up a pack of those wires, which is pretty inexpensive, and just go ahead and press it into place about every 12 inches. And that should hold it just fine. Now, if you’ve got to replace it, you might want to think about using thermal fiber instead of fiberglass. I used thermal fiber in my crawl space and actually even the first floor of my house and I did it because it’s more moisture resistant and it’s also stiffer in the sense that when you stick it up into the floor to a space, it tends to support itself, frankly, because it just doesn’t have as much flex fiberglass, although I did put the wires in on top of that. But I like the thermal fiber for those reasons. It’s also more fire resistant. You know, there are folks that will put insulation on the crawlspace walls and you could do that. There’s a special type of blanket, but it’s not going to replace what you put on the floor and your flooring was super cold and uncomfortable. Now, as to the question for foundation vents, the foundation vents really should be open about nine months of the year. And the reason you have foundation vents is because there’s moisture in that crawl space that you want to allow to vent with the outside air. Typically, if you live in, say, the northeast, I would close those vents maybe like November, December, January or maybe even just December, January, kind of like there’s three coldest months of the year. I would keep them closed. But for the rest of the year, I would definitely leave it open. |
| 0:31:24 | LESLIE: All right. Now we’ve got one from Julie who writes The sliding glass doors on my tub enclosure were looking disgusting. So why remove them, including the framed strips? Can I replace the doors myself, or should I hire someone? And is there anything tricky about this project I should know? |
| 0:31:39 | TOM: You know, if it’s a standard sized door, you could do it yourself because, man, I’ve seen some pricing on those custom doors lately. Leslie I couldn’t believe they were in the thousands to put in. |
| 0:31:50 | LESLIE: I don’t doubt it’s just ridiculous. |
| 0:31:52 | TOM: I can’t imagine justifying that kind of money. So I would look at the kits that are available in the standard sizes and do it yourself. It’s really not a difficult project and they’re going to last a long time. The last door I did was a big shower door in a condo that we own and rent, and it went very, very smoothly. It looks fantastic. |
| 0:32:11 | LESLIE: Well, you know, it’s they really do when they’re done well. And there’s so many awesome ways you can achieve these shower doors. They are fantastic. They look great. |
| 0:32:18 | TOM: You are listening to the Money Pit Home Improvement show on air and online at Money Pit dot com. Hey, guys, thank you so much for spending a part of your weekend with us. We hope you’ve picked up a tip or two to help you take care of your home and make it the place that you want to be. Create that forever home. And remember, if you’ve got questions, whenever you think about that, you can reach out to us at 888-Money-Pit, or better yet, go to Money Pit icon slash ask. Just click the blue Microphone button. You can record your question right there and get a fast response from us. Until next time, though, I’m Tom Kraeutler. |
| 0:32:53 | LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete. |
| 0:32:55 | TOM: Remember, you can do it yourself. |
| 0:32:57 | LESLIE: But you don’t have to do it alone. |
| (Note: The above referenced transcript is AI-Generated, Unedited and Unproofed and as such may not accurately reflect the recorded audio. Copyright 2023 Squeaky Door Productions, Inc. No portion of this transcript or audio file may be reproduced in any format without the express written permission of Squeaky Door Productions, Inc.) |
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