The Important Window Label You Need to Read | Avoid These Mistakes When Selling Your Home | Is Vampire Power Sucking Your Energy? | Ep #2267

TOM: Coast to coast and floorboards to shingles, this is The Money Pit Home Improvement Show. I’m Tom Kraeutler.

LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.

TOM: And we are here to help you take on the projects you want to get done around your house. You’ve got a home repair that’s giving you trouble? You need help solving a problem? You’ve got a do-it-yourself dilemma? You’ve got a decorating dilemma? Listen, if you’ve got a decorating dilemma, there is no better person to seek help from than my friend, Leslie, because she will nail it the first time, guaranteed.

LESLIE: Woohoo!

TOM: So reach out to us with your questions at 1-888-MONEY-PIT or click the blue microphone button on MoneyPit.com. You can record your question right there and we’ll call you back the next time we’re in the studio.

Coming up on today’s show, are you planning to do some window-shopping for windows? Well, you might find that it’s pretty confusing when you have to buy windows because there are many, many options to go through. But there is one label that’s required to be on every new window sold. And if you know how to read it, it makes buying the best window very, very simple. So we’re going to share this trick of the trade, in just a bit.

LESLIE: And if you’re planning on selling your home this coming year, there are a few recent trends that are pretty much guaranteed to get rid of those buyers. We’re going to share what you should avoid before those potential buyers show up.

TOM: And did you know that if your TV, your computer, lots of other appliances are plugged in, they are actually quietly draining electricity all day, every day even when they’re turned off? It’s called “vampire power” and we’re going to share some tips on how to save all that wasted money.

LESLIE: “I want to waste your money.” That’s what they’re saying.

TOM: That’s right.

LESLIE: But first, guys, we are here to lend a hand this holiday season, whatever it is. Maybe you need a gift idea, a project for the new year. We are standing by, so give us a call and we’ll help you out.

TOM: The number here is 1-888-MONEY-PIT. That’s 888-666-3974. Or you can go to MoneyPit.com and click the blue microphone button.

So let’s get to it. Leslie, who’s first?

LESLIE: Susan in Missouri has a question about a fireplace.

Tell us what’s going on at your money pit.

SUSAN: Well, I have a gas fireplace and it’s one of those where they seem to have cut the hole in the wall and stuck the fireplace in there and now I cannot stop the wind from blowing in. I don’t know what to do.

TOM: OK. So, is the wind coming in the hole where the gas pipe is coming through?

SUSAN: It seems to be coming from all around the fireplace. It’s got the mantel and it comes from around the mantel. And anywhere where there’s – where it’s been put together, it seems to have air coming in. And of course, it is coming in – it’s got the outside box, I guess. They have the exhaust.

TOM: OK. So this sounds to me like it’s a manufactured fireplace as opposed to an old, brick one that was converted to gas. Is that correct?

SUSAN: Absolutely. Absolutely, yes.

TOM: And it has doors on it, too?

SUSAN: No. It does not.

TOM: Do you know what the brand is of the fireplace?

SUSAN: A Lennox, I believe.

TOM: Well, the first thing I would do is I would take a look at the installation. And very often, there’s probably gaps somewhere around that box that were not properly sealed. I could – I would also consider contacting Lennox and getting the original installation instructions. You may even be able to download those, which would give you or your contractor a guide to determine if it was correctly installed. And then, thirdly, I would find out if doors are available for that fireplace, because that could solve all your problems.

SUSAN: Oh, OK. OK.

TOM: Especially if it’s a gas fireplace premade and it has a combustion-air supply, you may be able to keep that all behind the glass doors and stop all the drafts from coming through.

SUSAN: Oh, that’s a great idea. Thank you. I’ll try that.

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

LESLIE: Wade in South Dakota is on the line and has a question about siding.

How can we help you?

WADE: Hi. We had a big hailstorm come through and it took out a bunch of our siding – our steel siding. And I’m kind of fighting with the insurance company to find an exact match. My question, I guess, is – the house is close to 20 years old. What are the chances that the siding that they pick is going to match up with the color?

TOM: Between little and none.

WADE: That’s kind of what I figured.

TOM: And listen, Wade, when – this is not a new argument with insurance companies. It happens all the time with roof damage, you know?

Like say you get ice-dam damage and you have to just replace like 3 feet of roof on the front of the house or maybe you get leaks around a vent or something and you have to replace a piece of roof. Insurance companies traditionally replace the entire roof. And in your case, they should be replacing all of your siding, without argument, because they’ve got to restore it at least as good as it was before. And giving you mismatched siding isn’t what you contracted them to do.

So I would stick to your guns. And sure, give them the opportunity to find a replacement but they won’t be able to. And you don’t have to accept it and you can insist that it all be replaced with brand-new siding.

Do you have a private adjustor on this to help you with the claim?

WADE: Somebody that the insurance company contacted, yes.

TOM: That adjustor is working for the insurance company. What you want to do is get a public adjustor. And a public adjustor works for you, the public. And they work on commission, so it doesn’t really cost you much to have these guys on the job. And they’re there to find every single, solitary thing that they can claim for and get that into the claim.

So, everything from picking up the nails on your property that will be part of that construction project, to getting the whole house re-sided. They try to get that claim as full as possible because the more they find, the more money they make. Because they’re all on commission.

So I would definitely find a good-quality public adjustor. Perhaps check with your attorney. Do your research. Find somebody that has a lot of experience and let them fight for you so you don’t have to fight with the insurance company.

WADE: Great. I’ll definitely look into that. Thank you.

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

LESLIE: Heidi in Oregon is dealing with a stinky shower.

What’s going on?

HEIDI: We have a two-story house. The one shower is in the basement downstairs. It’s a daylight basement but it’s built back into the side hill. And what I’ve noticed is that after showering, you leave the bathroom and you come back in and there is this sour-towel smell. It’s not a sewer smell or a septic smell but it smells like a towel that has been left damp somewhere and it’s just been left to kind of mold or do whatever. But I’ve changed the towels and I come back in the bathroom and I’ve located the smell with my nose and gone right down to the drain. And it’s coming out of the drain in the shower.

TOM: What this might be is something called “biogas.” And when the water drains and it takes with it the soap scum and everything else, you can get germs that are going to grow in that. And that biological material off-gasses and can make horrible smells. So …

HEIDI: Well, that’s what we thought, too, because it’s in both showers: upstairs and downstairs. And we only smell it, obviously, after someone has showered and it was wet. So we’ve taken the grates off, we’ve cleaned with a bottle brush. I look with a flashlight down there and those pipes are – they’re spic-and-span clean all the way down to the P-trap.

TOM: Have you used any kind of an oxygenated bleach down those traps?

HEIDI: No, we don’t do that because we’re on a septic tank and we don’t want to kill all the good bacteria in the septic. And so I’ve been afraid to use anything.

I’ve tried vinegar. I’ve used Lysol spray.

TOM: Well, not so much vinegar, yeah. Well, OK, why don’t you use Borax?

HEIDI: Borax. OK. And pour it down into the drain? Because …

TOM: Well, no, what I want you to do is I want you to get a solution of hot, soapy water with Borax in it. And I want you to scrub the inside of that drain, all the different parts, with a big, thick bottle brush. Get as much of that trap cleaned as you can and see if that reduces it.

And by the way, do you have ventilation in those bathrooms?

HEIDI: Yeah. There’s windows, uh-huh.

TOM: Do you have fans that you could leave on after? Bath fans?

HEIDI: Yes, yes. And we always turn the fan on when we shower.

LESLIE: And keep it on when you’re done?

HEIDI: Well, no. We usually shut it off when we’re done.

TOM: So, yeah, that’s another thing I would change. That behavior I would change. What I would do is I would replace the bath-fan switch with one that’s on a timer or a humidistat. So that after you are done showering and leave the bathroom, it stays on for another 15 or 20 minutes.

HEIDI: But we’ll go ahead and try that, then, and see what happens.

TOM: Alright, Heidi. Thank you so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT. Good luck with that project.

LESLIE: What are you guys working on this holiday season? Maybe you’re too shy to reach out to Team Money Pit. Well, don’t be because we’ve got an awesome prize to give away this hour and it could be yours. We’ve got, up for grabs, a Cordless 5-in-1 Professional Staple and Nail Gun from Arrow Fastener.

This staple gun shoots five different types of fasteners. So whether you’ve got an upholstery project or woodworking or you’re hanging insulation, you’ve got the right tool for the job. It’s compact, you can get into a lot of tight spaces and it’ll fire 1,000 staples in a single charge. So, project’s done.

TOM: Well, the Arrow Cordless 5-in-1 Professional Staple and Nail Gun, along with a year’s supply of brad nail and staples – I wonder how they figure that out. What’s a year’s supply of brad nails? I guess they have a way of doing it. It’s going to go out, though, to one listener drawn at random. If you’d like to win it, call us with your question. The number here: 1-888-MONEY-PIT.

LESLIE: Rob in Washington is on the line and is dealing with some flooding.

Tell us what’s going on.

ROB: Well, I own a 1-acre lot and I’m surrounded by 58 acres of green belt. And my house sits up in the front of the lot and I have a cement driveway that runs down into a 1,200-square-foot shop. And every time it rains here in Seattle, which is every other day …

TOM: Yeah, frequently.

ROB: And at daylight savings, we get an extra hour of rain. But I get – my shop floods and I need to know what kind of drain system I can put in in front of my shop. The cement is maybe 14, 16 feet wide.

TOM: So basically, Rob, what is happening is the water is running down the cement driveway and into the shop. Is that the main source of the water? What you need to do is to put a culvert across the driveway.

So the way that works is you, essentially, cut the driveway in half; you slice out a gap in the driveway. And it might be 8 or 12 inches wide.

ROB: How close to the shop, though?

TOM: I would go probably a few feet in front of it. I wouldn’t go too far away.

ROB: OK.

TOM: Because that just gives you more water – more sidewalk to collect sort of in front of it. So I would go fairly close to it. And then you basically cut the driveway in half and you drop this culvert in, which is sort of like a U-shaped channel. And then on the opposite end of it, it’s attached to a drain line, which would go to a curtain drain.

So the water would go down the garage, it would fall into this culvert. And you can buy these or order these at building-material supply centers that service, you know, masons. And people that do more commercial-type work can be able to find these premade. And the drain tile – the drainpipe – will connect to the culvert so the water would go out to this drain line and then you go into a curtain drain.

So the curtain drain you’d make yourself. And again, on the downside of the property, you’d carve out an area about 12 to 18 inches wide and deep, fill it with stone, lay the drainpipe in there, cover it with more stone, put some filter cloth and then some topsoil or whatever you’re going to cover it with.

So, essentially, the drainage for this is invisible once it’s done but you’re intercepting that runoff down the driveway and running it around the building and into the drain tile. And that pipe that you install there must be perforated. And I would recommend using solid-PVC perforated pipe, not the flexible, black, landscaping perforated pipe.

ROB: OK. Thank you, guys.

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

LESLIE: Well, considering that most homeowners only replace windows about every 20 to 30 years, choosing the right window among the dozens of choices that are available today is super important. But it’s really challenging. So, luckily, there’s a rating code developed by the NFRC – now, that stands for the National Fenestration Rating Council – and it can help you quickly compare the energy performance of windows, doors and skylights.

TOM: Now, two of NFRC’s ratings are particularly important to know: the U-factor and the solar heat-gain coefficient. That’s the SHGC. Now, if you understand these two ratings, you can make a really smart decision when comparing energy-efficient replacement windows. And that’s going to help you save you money on both the heating and cooling costs.

So, first, let’s talk about this U-factor. That measures how well a window prevents heat from escaping a building and it’s rated from .09 to 1.2. The lower the U-factor, the better the product is at keeping heat from getting out.

And solar heat-gain coefficient tells us how effectively the window blocks the sun’s solar radiation and heat. It’s rated on a scaled of 0 to 1. The lower the number, the better. That means the windows are really effective at blocking unwanted solar heat. In other words, your house is not going to heat up as easily and it makes it a lot easier to cool it in the summer.

LESLIE: Yeah. Now, there’s two other ratings that are part of the NFRC: visible transmittance, which measures how much light is getting through the window; and condensation resistance, which tells you how good a window is at keeping moisture from forming on the inside or even between the panes and air leakage, which tells you how good the window is at keeping out those drafts.

TOM: Now, all of this info is contained in the NFRC label, which is on each and every window. So make sure you look for that label. Refer to the sticker when you’re shopping for windows, maybe take a picture of it. And this way, you can compare it against other windows you’re considering so you make the best choice for your home improvement project.

LESLIE: Greg from Iowa is on the line – is looking for some home maintenance tips.

How can we help you?

GREG: I bought my new house, new construction, 8 years ago and – I’ll be honest, kind of embarrassing but I’ve really done zero home maintenance since. Other than changing the air filters every once in a while, I’ve done zero home maintenance thing.

TOM: Well, that’s why you bought a new house.

GREG: Yeah, exactly.

TOM: But alas, it’s time to take on a few projects, huh? What’s going on in the house now?

GREG: No, there’s nothing wrong. It was just more of general maintenance that needs to happen and I just don’t know what to do.

TOM: So, general maintenance – so, first of all, when it gets chilly like it is now, it’s time for you to do some heating-system maintenance. Now, what kind of fuel do you have? Do you have gas – natural gas?

GREG: Yes.

TOM: So it’s important to have your heating system serviced. You apparently have not done that for 8 years; you’re well overdue. The reason for that is even though when you turn the heat on, it comes on and provides heat to your house, it could be doing so inefficiently or at worst, it could be doing so dangerously. So, every fall, you need to have your heating system cleaned and serviced to make sure it’s running properly. And then in the summer, you’ll have your air-conditioning system serviced for the same reasons: not so much the danger but more importantly, the efficiency. So, those are two things you should be doing right now.

And when your HVAC technician comes, he’ll probably also take a look at the water heater because sometimes, the burners can get coated with rust. Because natural gas is very corrosive when it burns. So that’s the kind of thing that you probably need to do right away.

The other maintenance tasks are really going to depend on kind of what’s going in the house. If you’ve got a toilet that leaks or runs all the time, then you could need fill or flush valves. If you’ve got paint that’s cracking or peeling, you could need paint. But the mechanical maintenance, I think, is most important because that’s potentially dangerous. Does that make sense?

GREG: It does.

TOM: Now, are you seeing anything that you think needs attention?

GREG: No, nothing much. It’s just then – I think we’ve had a pretty lucky 8 years and there’s been no crises at all, so …

LESLIE: You’d better be knocking on a piece of wood right now.

GREG: Right. It’s about time to get it maintained, I suppose. Get some maintenance done to the HVAC, yes?

LESLIE: Yeah. And you know what’s something you probably don’t consider is your dryer vent. You know the exhaust duct behind your dryer that exits to the outside of your house? A lot of people don’t think to clean that because lint does go out there and then gets to the outside. And it can get stuck and it can get caught and you should be cleaning that at least once a year, probably twice a year.

GREG: Do I have to pull out the dryer to do that?

LESLIE: Yes. So you pull the dryer away from the wall. There is a product called – it’s a – Gardus LintEater is one of the ones that we’ve used, Tom and I. And you actually put it through the exit vent on the exterior of the house and you sort of twist it through with a drill-driver motor. But you have to be very careful and there’s a certain direction you have to put it in. But it goes through and the amount of stuff that comes out – I mean it’s – you’ve never seen so much junk.

GREG: Well, indeed. Well, thanks a lot for the tips. Anything else that comes up? Anything else you can think of, that is, or are those the biggies?

TOM: Ah, there’s so much to be done, you know. I think you just need to be aware. But take care of those mechanical things because that’s where you can get yourself in trouble, OK?

GREG: Alright. Thanks a lot.

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

LESLIE: Cindy in Louisiana, you’ve got The Money Pit. Tell us all about your roofing problems.

CINDY: We have a camp and it’s got a – it’s a metal building with a – the pitch on the roof – there’s several different layers of the pitch. It goes down and so let’s be like three different pitches on it. We had it put in, oh, probably in ‘07 or ‘08. And then, around 2011, we decided to pull off that plastic-wrap insulation off the inside of the roof and spray on the spray insulation on it. And once we did that, that’s when we started noticing the leaks.

So, we tried different things. We even had another company come out, pull out all the screws and put it new ones that were a little fatter and so – with the washers and all that mess with them, to seal it. That has not worked.

We’ve been up there on that roof I don’t know how many different times, trying to put silicone on top of the screws after we clean it down along the seams. Sometimes, we’ve even had to get up there and he’s had to pull out the screw, put silicone in and put the screw back in. It’s just been an absolute nightmare to try.

TOM: You said these are metal roof panels? Is it like corrugated roof? What kind of metal roof is it?

CINDY: Right. It is. It’s like a corrugated roof.

TOM: So they’re big metal panels, right?

CINDY: Right.

TOM: When you try to replace these screws, I guess you’re essentially taking the panels almost off the roof, right, because you’re removing all the fasteners?

CINDY: Yeah. Well, we can’t – with the spray and everything else, we had even thought about could we take the roof off and start over. And now, with the spray down on it, we can’t even do that.

TOM: Oh, so this spray is actually up on the underside of the metal roof itself?

CINDY: Right. So it’s glued down now.

TOM: Oh, boy. So there was basically no sheathing or anything underneath this?

CINDY: No. When we started this project, we started it with someone who we thought – we didn’t know anything and we thought the person knew everything. And now we know better but we messed up and now we’re kind of caught in a bad position.

TOM: So, yeah, it’s not a good situation. Because it’s kind of hard to try to repair something that probably wasn’t put in well to begin with. So I have one idea for you and that is to put another layer of roofing over the roofing that you have now but put ice-and-water shield in between the layers.

So, ice-and-water shield is very effective at sealing these kinds of leaks. It’s specifically designed to seal around fasteners. And if you were to – if it was possible for you to put another layer of metal roofing over this but put ice-and-water shield in between, that would definitely stop the leaks from happening.

Short of that, I think this is a situation where the roof has to come off and you really have to do it right from the get-go, because I don’t think – the roof was just put on, I guess, over some sort of furring strips or something like that. There was never any ice-and-water shield underneath that. And so I’m not surprised that it does leak, especially from driving rain. I don’t think you can rely just on the fasteners or even fasteners that have rubber gaskets on them to keep that kind of a roof completely leak-free.

CINDY: Alright. Well, I tried. Thank you.

TOM: Alright. Good luck with that project. Thanks for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT, 888-666-3974.

I wish we could give everybody a quick fix. But sometimes we just can’t, especially when you have a roof that’s been going so wrong on so many levels for so long. You just can’t bring it back.

LESLIE: Well, if you’re planning on selling your home this coming year, kitchens are an important aspect. But there’s a few recent trends that new buyers are not liking.

So, first of all, let’s talk about open shelving. I mean there’s seriously two types of people in this world: those who love open shelving in a kitchen and those who hate it. I, personally, hate it because …

TOM: Well, that’s because you’re not a neatnik. If you like to have – if you’re constantly cleaning your house, you would probably like open shelving because it’s only going to catch a lot of dust, right?

LESLIE: Well, I like the look if you’re styling those shelves constantly. Because if it’s an open space, I want it to look beautiful, I want it to look perfect, I want everything to be in its place. But let’s be real: nobody’s going to put it back where you want it. So it’s going to quickly look messy in the first place.

So, there’s no guarantee that a potential buyer coming into your home is going to think like me or is going to think like a person who says, “Oh, I love this. This is amazing. I can see where everything is.” So, just keep kitchen cabinets, guys. It’s better off.

TOM: Now, another thing to watch out for are sterile kitchens. While there’s nothing wrong with a sleek, contemporary kitchen look, some homeowners today take that idea really a bit overboard, I think. If your kitchen is so white and featureless and shiny that it could be mistaken for an operating room, chances are it’s not going to appeal to many potential home buyers. So inject some color, some texture and personality if you want to get top dollar for your home.

LESLIE: Alright. Another thing is bright mosaic or tile backsplashes. They’re eye-catching. If you’ve got no intention of moving anytime soon, then feel free to dive headfirst into this trend. However, if you think you’re going to be putting your house on the market, know that not every buyer is going to like that color or that pattern that you’ve chosen. So stick with neutral tile selections, because that’s going to help potential buyers imagine how their own colors and style preferences are going to coordinate with the other elements in your kitchen. Same applies for a bathroom.

TOM: Now, finally, let’s talk about bright kitchen cabinets. While painted cabinets are popular, if the color is overly bright, like a cobalt blue or a bright red, there’s a good chance that the only thing the buyer is going to think is how much of a hassle and expense it might be to repaint them.

LESLIE: I do love a cobalt-blue island, though.

TOM: Well, maybe. But that’s just sort of an accent piece, right? That’s not everything. If the whole room was cobalt blue …

LESLIE: Mm-hmm. Not everything.

TOM: So think about it. Think it through. Make the best decision. If you do, your home is going to sell quickly and for the best possible price.

LESLIE: Looking for a great reason to reach out to Team Money Pit? Well, first of all, you’re going to get help with all of your project questions. But second, we’re giving away a great prize this hour.

We’ve got the Arrow Fastener 5-in-1 Professional Staple and Nail Gun. It’s compact, it’s powerful. It’s worth 75 bucks. You can fire a ton of fasteners; 1,000 per charge, in fact. It’s worth 75, as I said, but free to one lucky listener this hour. So give us a call.

TOM: The number here is 1-888-MONEY-PIT, 888-666-3974.

LESLIE: Cary in Alaska is dealing with a heating problem.

It’s cold there. What’s going on?

CARY: I live off-grid with a battery bank and inverter with a solar and generator backup to recharge batteries. Consequently, I’d – and I have a full electric house with propane direct-vented furnace. My question is: will installing a drop ceiling improve my heating efficiency and lower my propane bill? Because my ceilings are vaulted at 17 feet. And a lot of the heat goes up, so I’m just wondering – basically a 12×24-foot area.

TOM: So, Cary, what you need to do is to not only put in that drop ceiling but to put insulation batts above the drop ceiling. If you just put the drop ceiling in, you will not have enough R-value in that drop ceiling to do the job you need it to do. So I would build the drop ceiling and then I would put probably at least 12-inch-thick unfaced fiberglass batts on top of it. It should be plenty strong enough to support that. Just stacked end to end right above that ceiling.

You’re going to have to kind of put the frame in, put a couple of ceiling panels in, drop some insulation in and sort of work your way across. But if you were to put that much insulation above the drop ceiling, it will have a huge difference in your heating bill. Because right now, you’re spending most of that money to heat that ceiling cavity and you’ve just got to keep the heat lower than that.

CARY: OK. Well, that’s good to hear. I appreciate the help there.

TOM: You’re welcome, Cary. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.

Well, did you know that if your TV, your computer, your laptop, your phone, any small appliance is plugged in, it may very quietly be draining electricity even when it’s turned off. Electricity used by products when they’re switched off is known as standby power or as we call it, “vampire power.”

LESLIE: Yes.

TOM: Because it kind of sucks the power out even when it’s off. And it really can add up to some money.

LESLIE: It wants to suck the power and spend all your cash.

I mean – and it might not be something that you notice right away. But standby power is wasted energy and it’s going to add up. In fact, according to the Department of Energy, it costs the average U.S. household as much as $100 a year.

TOM: Now, there are actually three easy things that you can do, right now, to reduce standby power and save some of that money.

First, use a power strip and make sure it’s got on-and-off switches. If you plug all of your electronics into a power strip and then you flip off that power strip when the items are not in use, you know that they’re truly off because there’s no power going to that setup outlet. So that’s an easy way to stop it basically right at the point it connects to your electrical system.

LESLIE: Now, another sure way to reduce your standby power load is to just unplug the products. Now, it’s not convenient and obviously, there’s some products that always need to be plugged in, like your refrigerator, for example. But there’s others that you may not need to be plugged in all the time, like your toaster oven or countertop appliances, the coffeemaker, your phone chargers, all the things.

TOM: And lastly, if you’re ready to replace an appliance, always, always, always buy one that’s ENERGY STAR-rated. These don’t cost more than other ones. But if they’ve got the energy efficiency built-in, you’re going to use less standby power than something that’s not ENERGY STAR-rated. So make sure you look for that ENERGY STAR seal on any new appliance that you buy, small or big.

LESLIE: Alright. There you go, guys. Three simple ways to reduce or eliminate your standby power and save some money, too. Get rid of those vampires.

Heading to Minnesota where Deb is having some issues with an unlevel floor.

What’s going on?

DEB: We’re in a house that the main part of the house was built in the 1930s. And that’s our problem right now, although the rest of the house has got issues, too. It’s over – a little over 3,000 square feet and we tried to sell it. Can’t sell it, so we’re staying but we don’t – there’s only two people living in this big of a house.

So we want to block off the upstairs and just live on the main floor. We were going to change the stairs and enclose them. Right now, they’re open stairways. But when we started doing that, the floor behind it is probably real close to an inch-and-a-half dip.

TOM: And why is it important to you that you try to take this dip out of the floor? Because, generally, when dips form over many, many years, everything gets – kind of gets settled in that space and it’s not always a good idea. In fact, it’s rarely a good idea to try to pick it back up unless it’s an active structural problem, which I doubt this is.

DEB: We want to replace the steps going upstairs. And we can’t do that because the steps that are there right now are actually twisting from the dip.

TOM: Well, that’s not a problem. It’s easier to build a set of steps that fits the existing floor structure then it is to try to fix the floor structure. You can easily make a set of steps that has a stringer that’s longer on one side than the other. Very often, when stairs are made sometimes, especially custom stairs, they leave the stringers running long and the carpenters cut them on site so they fit perfectly in the home. But I don’t think it’s necessary to try to rebuild your floor just to fix the stairs.

OK, Deb? Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.

Well, Chase in Colorado says, “My wife and I just bought our very first house and we want to replace the faucets in the bathroom and the kitchen sinks. We have zero DIY skills but we watched some YouTube videos and we think we can handle it. Are we crazy to try?”

I don’t think you’re crazy to try it, Chase. You know, if you want to tackle any plumbing project, there’s one sort of – in my view, Leslie – go/no-go sort of decision point. And that’s this.

LESLIE: OK.

TOM: If you can turn off the valve that supplies water to that faucet and it turns off easily and you don’t have to really wrench it or wrap a towel around it, anything like that, it just goes off just as simply as the faucet itself would turn on and off, then what’s the worst that could happen? Something doesn’t fit but the water’s still off, so you can have some time to go get the right part and that sort of thing.

But if you cannot turn that off and maybe you have to go to the main valve to stop water flowing in from it, I’d stop right there and just have a pro do it. You’ll be much happier, because you really need those valves to work.

So I think it’s something you can do. Plus, a lot of faucet manufacturers today are making it a lot easier to install these faucets for DIYers. They’re making the parts easier to put together. They’re adding some additional materials, additional hardware to make sure you have what you need. And I just put one in from Price Pfister that went together very simply because the manufacturer had thought through that whole thing. I didn’t need special wrenches, which is something I would’ve needed to use not too long ago to make sure everything was tight.

LESLIE: That’s awesome. It really is a great project. And not for nothing, you can learn a lot of stuff online if you’re willing to be in charge and take on a project yourself that you’re unfamiliar with.

TOM: Well, adding a festive touch to your windows is a great way to spread some holiday cheer. But you need to make sure you know how to do that without damaging those window frames. Leslie has got some non-destructive tips, in today’s edition of Leslie’s Last Word.

Leslie? Take it away. You’ve got to put your staple gun away for this one, right?

LESLIE: Yes, indeed. I know. It’s super fun to decorate the windows for the holidays. I mean what’s a holiday card without a decorated window or two popping through? The problem is, though, that modern, more energy-efficient windows are much easier to damage because they just have a lot more moving parts than the old-fashioned wood windows that you probably grew up with.

Now, there’s a few obvious things you should never do to the windows, such as drilling into or puncturing the frames or sashes. Also, you want to steer clear of gluing, stapling or taping lights to the window frame. And be careful with real pine branches or cones, because that fresh pine sap can really leave some nasty stains after the holiday season is over.

And while it’s tempting, also do not spray that fake snow from aerosol cans on your windows, because that snow can be super hard to remove after the holidays. Don’t ask me how, because I brought home some cool TV-prop spiderweb things that come from Italy and it’s awesome and it’s looks great on – when you’re making the spiderweb go from the clock to the thing on the table.

TOM: Nice.

LESLIE: But I was like, “Look at this, boys. Check it out.” It’s still on my windows in the front of the house.

TOM: Excellent.

LESLIE: It’s a little bit but it’s still there. So you’ve got to be careful, guys, because that snow definitely is hard to get off.

So, how do you add some holiday cheer to those windows? Suction cups. They can be your best friends for hanging glass ornaments, icicles, even a small wreath. And in homes with younger kids – my kids still love those peel-and-stick sort of sticky-gel things that you put on the glass and it makes all fun holiday scenes. There’s a lot of ways you can add the decorations without any of the risk. And if anything does have to be attached, make sure you attach it to the trim around the windows and not the window itself.

TOM: Good advice.

This is The Money Pit Home Improvement Show. Coming up next time on the program, hey, if your roof starts to leak when snow starts to melt, you might have an ice dam. When you get heavy snow and that’s followed by warm days, that lets ice dam up at the roof edge. It blocks the melting snow and it causes some potentially pretty serious leaks inside your home. So we’re going to share a solution to melt that problem away, on the very next edition of The Money Pit.

I’m Tom Kraeutler.

LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.

TOM: Remember, you can do it yourself …

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

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