Episode #2001: Easy Garage Organization | How to Hang Pictures Without Holes | 5 Questions to Ask a Contractor Post COVID-19 | Avoiding Home Repair Re-dos
In this occurrence …
Are you ready to do one final cleanup of your garage before the summer kicks into full swing? Tom& Leslie share simple garage organization tips, plus 😛 TAGEND
Have you needed to crank your AC more? If not- immense because there are 3 things you should do firstly- to make sure it’s set to keep you cool and comfortable all Summer long.The pandemic has changed the road we do many things, and that is certainly true when it comes to how we find and prefer contractors to take on the projects we don’t want to do ourselves. We’ll share 5 questions to ask your contractor.If you’d like hang some photos or shelves, but prefer to avoid creating pits in your walls- we’ll walk you through how to hang paintings without excavations do merely that without damaging your walls.Feel like your home improvement headaches are on repeat? We’ve got gratuities to avoid the how-to deja vu by doing them right the first time around.
Plus, provide answers to your residence progress questions about, cleaning a brick fireplace wall, how to polish marble, eliminating bees, repair or replace a dishwasher, steps for eliminating paint from rind.
Do you have a home improvement or decor question? Call the show 24/7 at 888 -MONEY-PIT ( 888 -6 66 -3 974) or post your question here.
Read Transcript
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: We’re here to help you with your home improvement projects, your decor dilemmas. We are your coaches, your hearten squad, your difficulty solvers. Whatever you need to get done, let us give you a hand at 1-888-MONEY-PIT. 888 -6 66 -3 974 is how you get in touch with us. You can also post your questions at MoneyPit.com.
Coming up on today’s show, are you ready to do one final cleanup of your garage before the summer kickings into full swing? We’re going to share some simple garage-organization tips to help, just ahead.
LESLIE: Well, the pandemic must surely converted the channel we do a lot of things. And that certainly is true when it comes to how we’re maintaining and improving our homes. And that includes, actually, how we find and pick those contractors to take on those projects that we just don’t want to do ourselves. We’re going to share five questions to ask your contractor, only ahead.
TOM: And if you’d like to do some speedy redecorating that involves hanging some photos or shelves but you’d prefer to avoid creating pits in your walls, we’re going to walk you through how to do exactly that without stimulating any mar whatsoever.
LESLIE: But first, the show is about helping you with your dwelling decoration and improvement questions. So cause us a bellow with your home betterment question now and you’ll get the answer.
Plus, today, you’re also going to get a chance to win some immense implements to get the job done. We’re featuring the Jorgensen 24 -Inch Bar Clamp.
TOM: Yep. We’ve got a prepared of four to give away and it’s going out to one listener proceeded at random. Make that you. Call us now at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Debbie in Arkansas is on the line and has a question to help her daughter’s house. What can we do for you guys?
DEBBIE: Hi. Two daughters recently bought a home. It’s an older house. It’s been remodeled. And she was going to renovate around her fireplace since she discovered that the large wall behind the hearth, which is about a 20 -foot-wide wall, has get- it had brick behind the plaster. And so, she took all the plaster down but it had been put up with Liquid Nails. So there’s Liquid Nails all over this brick- all over it- and it’s made a atrocious mess.
TOM: Oh, boy.
DEBBIE: And she’s announced in a couple of people to get orders and it was thousands of dollars to either re-brick over it or chisel it down. And they said it would probably ruin the brick if they did. And so I was just curious if you had any projects at all. We ogled up on the internet and there was one about a hot firearm, maybe, but I thought maybe you might have a cheaper or easier space of doing it.
TOM: Wow. It’s quite a mess. Yeah, I mean certainly, you can use a heat shoot but a heat artillery is very hot and it’s going to cause all kinds of fumes. And their own problems with the fact that you had this type of adhesive, it’s going to soak into the pores of the brick. So, at best, even after doing all that, you’re going to end up painting the brick, which we detest to tell anybody to do, because it’s going to- otherwise, it’s just going to look terrifying. You’re never going to have that natural brick. That decision was compiled for you by whoever decided it was a good idea to glue the plaster right to the brick without putting up any kind of a furring piece or something of that nature.
There are, you know, a variety of adhesive softeners out there but I fear that even if you went through all that trouble, you’re still going to have a awfully undesirable-looking surface. So, I think if- I’m sorry it’s all torn up now but I think if it was me, I would probably fur over that, fix grove airstrips to that brick face and I would probably put new drywall or some other surface over it, at this stage, and give up on the idea of having an exposed-brick wall unless, of course, you want to re-brick the whole thing which is a big mess and a big job.
DEBBIE: And a big expense, too.
TOM: And a big expense, yeah. Of trend. Yep. Absolutely.
DEBBIE: OK. Alright. Well , thank you very much. I appreciate it.
TOM: Good fortune with that campaign. Thanks so much for calling us at 888 -MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Heading over to Louisiana where Ron is on the line. What’s going on at your fund oppose?
RON: Well, my house has marble storeys in the kitchen and in both captain showers. And I’m trying to find what to put down to build them shine again. They’re so dull. And we had a man “ve been coming” but he craves an outrageous premium to glisten them up, so I’m trying to figure out how to do it myself.
TOM: Well, Ron, you can do this yourself. There are two different makes that I would suggest you take a look at.
The first one’s called Rejuvenate. And that is a marble, granite and stone flooring clean and a polish. Not very costly to get. And the other one- it’s been around for a long time and I’ve recommended it a number of day and beings ever get back to me and say they love it- is called Granite Gold. And again, that is a stone and tile storey cleaner which will enable it to polish and clean the storeys at the same time.
Now, perhaps it won’t be as good as having a pro come in there but it’s going to be a heck of a lot less expensive, even if you have to make love more frequently.
RON: Yeah. The gentleman that came out to give me a price, he said, “Oh , no. Don’t use Rejuvenate.” So, of course, he demands the job.
TOM: Well, that’s probably a great recommendation.
RON: Yeah. He wants( inaudible ).
TOM: If you look at it online, it frequently ever has four or five hotshots. The beings appear to cherish the stuff.
RON: I know we utilized it on the rest of our floorings in the members of this house: on the hardwood storeys and the tile storey. But I never have articulated it down on the marble and …
TOM: Well, I think there’s a formula just for the stone products, so make sure you’re squandering the right one.
RON: OK. OK. Alright. I’ll check that out. Thank you so much.
TOM: Alright. Good luck, Ron. Thanks for announcing us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Hey, you working on so many activities at a time that you could actually use an extra set of entrusts? Well, we can help. We’ve got a great medal up for grabs this hour. We’ve got a gave of 4 Jorgensen Heavy-Duty 24 -Inch Steel Bar Clamps.
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TOM: Leading out to one caller drawn at random. Make that you. Call us, again, at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Helen in Arizona is on the line with a question about some belch depict. What is going on?
HELEN: I “ve had my”- the exterior of my house decorated last-place time. And the painter had power-washed it. Came back in got a couple of eras- one or two days- and actually did the decorate. And it was about two months after that, I happened to notice little bubbles showing under the paint. And I presume that’s because there’s water under that paint.
TOM: Not definitely. What you have is an adhesion issue. So the paint’s not persisting to the wood siding or the substrate, whatever it is. This is a wood-sided house?
HELEN: Yeah, it’s a manufactured home, yes.
TOM: OK. Do you know if your painter exercised a primer? Or did he exactly applied the topcoat paint on?
HELEN: I’m trying to think if my cover did have primer in it.
TOM: Well, it wouldn’t have it in it; it would be a second coat. See, the freedom procedure would have been to scrape or pressure-wash- as he did, in this case- to be disposed of the liberate draw, algae or mildew and so on, tell it dry and then primary it.
HELEN: Right.
TOM: Because primer is what establishes the dye put. Now, if he didn’t prime it and the paint’s separating after two months, that’s a big problem. And it’s a problem for your painter because he did something wrong. There’s no way that depict should be failing after two months.
HELEN: I had it depicted the die prior and the person or persons did a horrid chore. And so, I decided to change colors and have it done again.
TOM: The new painter- the person who does it accepts the condition of the house. So, if the first person made any mistakes, then the second guy’s job is to correct those mistakes so that his creation examines good.
HELEN: But there was no bubbling after the first depict job.
TOM: OK. I hear you on that. But OK , no matter what was there before, you need to make sure that the house was not only cleaned and release colour removed but primary. Because at some target, you’re going to – you can’t retain putting strata upon seams of paint and expect every one to stick to the one before it.
Primer is the glue that manufactures the make-up affix. And if he did not prime- and I think that’s probably a good reason that this paint is failing. Two eras in warm brave should probably have been enough to deal with any humidity from the pressure-washing. Heck, it’s not much more than simply a heavy rainfall. So, I think what you need to do is to contact that painter and have them back and have a discussion as to why your paint’s disappointing after a short time. It absolutely should not be happening.
Thanks for calling us and wish you the best of luck with that project.
LESLIE: Alright. Let’s face it, guys: there are plenty of entries in your garage, right now, that I’m going to say you’re probably never going to use again. Because I know I got the same things in my garage that I’m not ever going to use again. So let’s do it together, chaps. Let’s get rid of that stuff, plus figure out a acces to accumulate things like toys and chemical cleansers right next to each other. So let’s get that garage organized.
First off, you’ve got to go into your garage and be harsh. Take three large-scale bins: one to crowd with items to gift or sell, one with items that you want to throw away and one with things that you’re like, “I truly want to keep.” And if it’s like my garage, it’s not going to be a bin; you really need the sector of your driveway that’s like this thing, that thing.
Now, get rid of anything that you know you’re not going to use in the future. And by future I convey if you haven’t exerted it, say, in the last six months, then get rid of it. Because you’re not going to use it again unless it’s a quirky seasonal thing, like anniversary decor. But get rid of it. If you haven’t squandered it in six months, gone.
Next, you want to think about your things. Can somebody else use them? Now is a great time to make a donation run to your nearest kindnes drop-off. Just get the stuff out of your home. Otherwise, you’re going to have the same conversation with us next year, the year after that, one more year after that.
TOM: Definitely. Now, formerly you’re done sorting the things out that you don’t require, you was necessary to separate the ones that you do. So subdivide up the sports paraphernalium, the dwelling maintenance components, the celebration trinkets and all those other categories into separate receptacles or bins or baskets or sturdy boxes. And make sure you clearly description everything. You might find it’s also useful to do kind of a color-coded system: perhaps red and lettuce for celebration, blue-blooded for outgrown clothing, black for seasonal sports and so on.
A little bit of organization now is going to oblige summer so much more pleasant. Because I’ve got to tell you in my house, everything comes parked in the garage and not in the claim blot. So, really important to keep that opening empty, nifty and organized.
LESLIE: Jim in Tennessee is on the line and handled by some bees.
What various kinds of bees? Are they all over? Are you getting hurt? What’s happening?
JIM: We have a log cabin, East Tennessee. And shortly after we constructed it, we started having a problem with tolerating bees.
LESLIE: Ah, carpenter bees.
JIM: So, these are beings bumblebees that so far have not hurt anybody.
LESLIE: They have big, black, lustrou tushies and they can drill a perfect gap in all wood faces, 5/8 -inches around.
TOM: Yep. Yep.
JIM: They’ve decided to make our cabin their home, as well. And about this time of the year, we’re inundated with millions of bees. We’ve had exterminators come through and nothing seems to eradicate them.
TOM: I don’t know what material they’re applying but often, the title pesticide will prevent them from coming back here. What they’re mostly doing is they’re drilling excavations in grove surfaces. And then they go in those excavations and they lay eggs. And then they just kind of make them sit here and invent. Now, with the privilege types of pesticide- typically, there’s a pulverized pesticide that they actually put into the holes and around there- that will stop that.
Now, is it happening in the enters themselves or is it on the fascia and the decoration?
JIM: No, it’s every- pretty much everywhere.
TOM: Wow, yeah.
JIM: It’s in the enter and it’s in the fascia and pare, as well.
TOM: Yeah. Because the fascia and the prune – you are aware, I had some fascia and decorate like that that was going razed in a garage and I got tired of treating it every year, so I merely changed it with a composite material. And it was funny because the firstly time after that, the bees prevented flying around it recalling, “Hey, looks like wood but doesn’t taste like wood.” So, they eventually “ve been given” and didn’t come back.
But it voices to me like you’re really not addressing the right type of pest-control professional, because I don’t understand why if they’re applying some of the standard produces that are out there- which you can’t buy, by the way, because they’re not over the counter- that these bees keep coming back.
JIM: Right. Well, we have a home contract for a pest-control company. And we’ve had them since we constructed the members of this house. And they’ve devoted cares several times but it doesn’t seem to really eradicate the bees.
TOM: I can’t give you a specific pesticide but I will tell you that insecticidal dirt is often what works best. It has to be applied to the holes, even inside of those flaws. And then once it’s inside of them, you do not want to seal up the holes; you want to let it sit and do its job. And then after the season, so to speak, then you are able to shut up the holes. Because if you don’t, they’ll come back. But you want to make sure that all the bees have been killed. Because if you don’t make sure they’re all killed, they’ll simply remain teaching to find new spaces, because you sealed off the ones that the government has. But if you apply the insecticidal dirt, that will do it.
And then after you have it all sealed up, then you might want to think about staining or refinishing areas outside skin-deeps, because that will too depres bee infestation. It’s often covers or grimes with any kind of a varnish. They’re not going to like the taste of that stuff.
JIM: OK. Alright. Great.
TOM: Alright? Yep. Good luck with that assignment and thank you, again, for cry us at 888 -MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Jackie in Florida is on the line with a dishwasher question. Tell us what’s going on.
JACKIE: Here’s my thing. It’s a Whirlpool dishwasher. It’s only four years old. And all of a sudden, merely one day a few weeks ago, it simply- I noticed all the saucers just stopped dehydrating. And so I did some seeming up and just sort of troubleshooting. It could be this, it could be that. And now, they seem to be drying but time not baking. But now there’s mold building up in it, as well.
TOM: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
JACKIE: And I’ve even noticed- like it’s still sizzling if I draw it right after the cycle’s done( inaudible ). You continued to feel the warmness of it but …
TOM: But you’ve got to- but you have to hand-dry them, in other words.
JACKIE: Right.
TOM: Well, frequently, if the dishwasher is not drying, the problem is in the heating element. The fact that they’re warm is probably just the hot water that you’re expending to soap it with, because dishwashers are hooked up to the hot-water side. But the heating element is that electrical curl that’s in the bottom of the dishwasher and it may have neglected. But you’ve got a decision to make because you just mentioned you have a four-year-old dishwasher. And having soul come out and diagnose it and reparation “its probably” going to cost you 200 or 250 bucks.
JACKIE: Right.
TOM: So, what you’ve got to figure out is whether or not you want to risk that or just go ahead and scrap it and start- and guild yourself a brand-new one.
JACKIE: Right.
TOM: When it gets to be middle-aged like that, it doesn’t ever make sense to amend it.
JACKIE: Right. And here’s the thing. I’ve tried to even look up online to see if I could buy the heating element myself and then replace it myself but …
TOM: Yep. Well, you certainly can do that.
JACKIE: But the constituent crowd doesn’t come up. I can’t find a join portion to it. And so then I talked to Whirlpool and of course, they want to send someone out and …
TOM: Did you try Sears? Because I picture Sizzles has Whirlpool components. And they’re really good about stocking a lot of parts and too taking them back if they don’t fit.
JACKIE: Do I have to gather it out of the cabinet to get to the bolt to unhook it? Or does it attract right …?
TOM: I wouldn’t know without looking at it. And that’s the other thing: you’re going to be diving into something that you’re unfamiliar with and it might just be that, again, it only doesn’t work.
JACKIE: Right.
TOM: So I’m sure that somebody out here has had that problem before and has a YouTube video waiting for you to look at, to kind of figure out.
JACKIE: Yeah.
LESLIE: There’s a YouTube video for everything.
TOM: Yep, exactly.
JACKIE: Right. You can do everything on YouTube.
No. And that’s actually- what I’ve looked into is YouTube, as well. That’s how I figure out how to fix anything and everything these days is YouTube.
TOM: Well, good for you. That’s great.
JACKIE: But I didn’t know if there was a simple way. I scavenged it well. I scrubbed everything down guessing maybe that was the problem, because you know how dirty they get and impediment up.
TOM: Yeah.
JACKIE: So, I don’t know.
TOM: But like I said, I don’t think it’s a clog situation. Because if you told me your dishes weren’t coming out clean, then we’d be having a different conference. But it sounds like they’re merely not baking and that’s most probably going to be that coil.
JACKIE: OK. Alright. Well, expressed appreciation for. I think you just made the- my final decision.
TOM: Alright. Well, we’re glad we could help you out. That’s what we do. Thanks so much for announcing us at 888 -MONEY-PIT.
Making good residences better, this is The Money Pit Home Improvement Show. I’m Tom Kraeutler.
LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.
Well, the pandemic has changed the route that we’ll do many things in the working day and weeks ahead. And that’s certainly true when it comes to how we’re going to maintain and improve our residences. And that emphatically includes how we find and choice contractors to take on those projects that we don’t want to do ourselves.
TOM: That’s right. But if you ask your pro the liberty questions, you’ll be able to identify those that will not only be able to complete your job on time and on plan but they’ll do so in a way that protects you and their own families from pointless likelihoods. With us to talk about that and five questions that you should ask your contractor, post-COVID, is Dan DiClerico with HomeAdvisor.com.
Welcome, Dan.
DAN: Hey. It’s good to be here.
TOM: So you guys have been on the digitalization of home better for a lot of years now. And this is sort of a whole new level that we’re stepping into. How is this going to change the room we find and hire pros?
DAN: Yeah, I ponder first of all, it’s increasingly important to ask that pro how comfy they are with virtual communication. We’re seeing a real sea change in how the enterprises and clients interact. A mas little face-to-face interactions, particularly in the early phases of the project. So, you know, coming an understanding of- for example, with video messaging. Is that something that the pro is going to be able to use with the homeowner through the early planning and contract phase of development projects?
TOM: So, for example, you don’t really need to meet these people in person. You could probably- actually, it’s more accessible, more. You could probably schedule four or five reckons, so to speak, nearly back to back and do them one call at a time, with FaceTime or any other type of video-chat system, where you can walk around with a pro and say, “OK, here’s my kitchen and here’s what I’m thinking about doing, ” and so on and so forth and maybe even give them some rough dimensions.
You should be able to kind of certainly explain the job and give the pro sort of explain him or herself and maybe even give you a little bit of a virtual appearance at the same time, rather than walk into your house and sit down at the kitchen table with a diary full of photos, right?
DAN: Exactly. Yeah. I symbolize during the course of its pandemic it was a necessity. You couldn’t physically go into the home. But that’s what we’re kind of discovering here: that there’s a real efficiency, a real convenience for the professional and the homeowner to be doing some of the present working, at least, virtually through video messaging or whatever other platform it may be.
LESLIE: And we can say, Dan, that this was probably inspired by the children’s online see. Because I know each time my seven-year-old comes on his Zoom class thing, they have to run around and see each other their entire lives. “Did you visualize my bedroom? Did you see this? ” But …
DAN: Exactly. That’s the site. We used to talk about the firm handshake, the clean shirt, the clean-living truck as being part of the first impression. Now, it’s how savvy is that pro on the Zoom call.
LESLIE: Which is smart. And I guess you can do a lot of other things. You can probably do fee or “re coming” with a remunerate planned or contracts. All of that can also be done virtually.
DAN: On HomeAdvisor, we’re truly coming out in front of this as much as possible. We’ve propelled a assortment of new tools that are going to facilitate with this kind of virtual communication. So the video messaging is built right into the app. The digital pays, which avoid the transaction of money or checks, it’s all part of this larger digitalization of residence business that’s been happening for several years, even longer. But actually, in the last few months it’s truly taken off.
TOM: So let’s say we are going to hire a pro to do a bigger project and they’re going to spend some time in our home, perhaps have some subcontractors involved. What kinds of questions should we be asking them, aside from are they going to be wearing face disguises and such? What sort of services might we expect them to provide now when they come to work in our infinites?
DAN: Safety and cleanliness. You always craved a contractor who’s going to keep the job site neat and tidy , now now more than ever. So, certainly questioning about the protective paraphernalium, the face disguises. We be taken into consideration- we accompany it with the coronavirus but there’s no reason that pros shouldn’t be wearing disguises on a regular basis given all the dust and toxicity.
So, inviting up-front about that, coming a good sense of what the relationship is to the subcontractors. And again, this was always a best practise. The best GCs out there have good, long-term relationships with their subcontractors. But moving forward, it’s even more important. You want to know their- that they weren’t out sick for a few cases weeks before “theyre starting” on your job.
TOM: Well, I contemplate, too, we want to make sure- we’ve always expected them to clean up at the end of the day. And we were just talking about sawdust. But now we’re talking about- are they going to bring their own cleaning furnishes, towels, pass sanitizers? Are they going to wear the gloves and the booties on your …?
LESLIE: Yeah. Paper towels are in demand, so you bring your own.
TOM: Yeah, that’s right. That’s right. BYOPT.
DAN: Totally. Yeah, BYO.
So, talk to the pros up-front about this. This is part of the initial vetting process. But when you’re checking those citations, talk to past clients, as well. Ask them. “Hey, did this guy deter a clean-living, organized chore site or was the place a mess? ” It’s really important to ask those questions these days.
LESLIE: Do you think it’s important, Dan, when you’re having these kind of initial online gratifies- and you think that maybe when you actually have decided on the pro and get them in your live that it’s sort of that idea of- “Oh, while you’re here, there’s also- blah.” Should you sort of discuss that up-front like, “I may have another thing or not”? Just because you don’t know if they have availability for those extra projects, time-wise.
DAN: Definitely, emphatically. Yeah. Is it possible to bundle multiple projects into one? More important than ever. It’s not that it wasn’t a best rehearsal before but now, now more than ever, you want to try to minimize the number of day you’re having to impart professionals into the home. And wrap programmes, if it’s an HVAC pro who’s coming to fix your A/ C legion- “Hey, can you take a look at the humidifier or the breeze filters? ” Whatever it may be. But trying to package those projects into one makes a lot of impression these days.
TOM: We’re talking to Dan DiClerico from HomeAdvisor about how dwelling improvements and the recruitment of pros and tribes that are going to work in your home may be modified, in the future, in a post-COVID environment.
Dan, it comes to me that we’ve always been conscious of the time it takes to get a job done and the scheduling relevant to that. And there are a lot of factors that figure into that: how long it takes to order materials and such to get the job done. And it used to be that it was OK if the people came in the morning and they went to another job in the afternoon.
Now, I repute, I want you guys in and out complete in as short a period of time. I don’t crave this to go for longer than it “re going to have to”, so I think that plays into this, as well. Are they going to be able to start this job from- mostly, from start to finish without leaving the site to go work abroad?
DAN: Oh, that’s such a great point. I think we’re looking for leaner, more efficient programmes. And it’s merely another example of how the pandemic really is forcing the industry to modernize in a good deal of positive ways. I convey I hate to say it’s been a positive; it certainly hasn’t been that. Pros are really having to get on board with information and communication technologies and with being as efficient as possible.
TOM: Yeah. I think that’s happening across a good deal of industries. Look at telemedicine, right? That has been adopted with open arms, whereas before it was like, “I don’t know if I like that or not.” But now, parties are like, “You know, it’s not so bad.” We’re getting information that we need, we’re getting construe by health professionals. And it’s going to be similar in other industries, as well.
Now, Dan, you mentioned that there were some new technologies, either now or about to be here. You mentioned that the HomeAdvisor app has been updated to accept digital pays and do video chitchatting. But there are some other engineerings that are going to help pros do some of this research and do some of this forecast without even preparing hoof in their home and particular around augmented reality.
DAN: It’s really exciting. A spate of very cool, particularly accessible- here and now- software that mounts the intelligence of the smartphone. I like to say it turns sort of FaceTime on steroids, abusing things like spatial mapping or object identification, neural networks, these sorts of things.
So, for example, a painter. If a homeowner supports his or her phone up to a office, the painter, squandering all these software advancements- these tools- will be able to take measurements for that apartment without ever participating the house and provide that homeowner with a very accurate estimate, all in sort of virtual time.
TOM: Well, Dan, in many ways this is sort of forcing people to become more comfy with digital tools. And I think that that’s going to be a good thing. I know there was a lot of natural sort of anxiety about running this path for pros and for homeowners, as well. If you’re a younger homeowner, then certainly you’re going to have more comfort than if you’re an elderly homeowner.
But I think that this move and showing that it can be done successfully and safely and efficiently for everyone, by using these digital tools, is really going to be a positive for the industry going forward.
DAN: It genuinely addresses that feeling difficulty, certainly fetches the industry full on into the 21 st century. So I think this is a good thing moving forward.
TOM: Dan DiClerico from HomeAdvisor.com, thank you for coming in for stopping by The Money Pit.
And if you’d like to get more details on these tips-off and thoughts for how you can digitize your dwelling improvement projects going forward, Dan’s post about this very topic will be up online, on our home page, at MoneyPit.com.
Give us a call right now. Two things will happen: you’ll get the answer to your dwelling betterment question and a chance to win this hour’s prize. We’ve get, from our friends at Jorgensen, 4 Heavy-Duty 24 -Inch Steel Bar Clamps.
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LESLIE: Well, one of the quickest ways to spruce up a room is to add a few framed photos, wall hangings or even some shelves to those blank canvas of walls. They’re surrounding you. But for millions of people who rent apartments or homes, protruding depressions in those otherwise excellent walls is a sure way to lose a good chunk of your security deposit.
TOM: Well, that’s right. So, to avoid that beset, all you need is a relatively clean-living, smooth wall, a bit of geniu and a few cases reasonably inexpensive products.
So, first up, let’s talk about mounting tape. It’s a very powerful, sticky, foam-centered tape with adhesive on both sides. But while preparing videotape tends to be permanent and can mar faces when removed, it will also leave behind a very nasty stain.
LESLIE: Now, another type of mounting product announced “mounting airstrips, ” they’re designed to release cleanly when you pluck it along the longest access. So, if it’s horizontally, vertically, you pluck it in that direction and it kind of naturalness its way off the wall. It’s really fantastic but you want to make sure that that wall is flat. You want to make sure that it’s smooth, it’s a good face. And that’s going to help you to get the items to secure certainly, really well.
And again, it’s so easy to taken away from. Just make sure that you buy the hook or the divest that goes to the right weight faculty, because you can reuse the hookings. You exactly have to replace the rows. So time make sure you’re sizing it properly for what you’re hanging on the walls so it does not slip off.
TOM: Now, if you’re hanging framed art or photographs and unframed signs, that’s a significant part of any interior-decor project. So to work with the brackets and the holes and the hanging cables that form part of those formulates, there’s likewise a special designated of picture-hanging steals determined exactly for that role under the 3M Command line. But Leslie made a great point: make sure you check the weight limits. They’re pretty accurate and they are now working genuinely, really well if you have a smooth face to work with.
LESLIE: Check out The Money Pit on Facebook at Facebook.com/ TheMoneyPit. Post your questions there.
Now, Mickey in New York writes: “I’m redoing parts of my kitchen. I want to add a glass-tiled backsplash. Do I it is necessary applied anything on the wall under the tile? Or can I merely articulated an adhesive straight to the wall? ”
TOM: Well, I think you’re concerned about whether or not you need to do anything about the drywall on the wall and the answer is no. You don’t have to. Of trend, you’ve got to take off the plates from the electric outlet and you’re probably going to have to deepen them. There’s increases to those electrical containers that are in a position conclude them a little bit thicker so that they’ll stand out towards the edge of that tile that you’re going to end up with. You don’t have to change the drywall.
And you too don’t have to use adhesive. There are types of other products that are sort of sticky-backed and they’re sticky on both sides. One of them is called Bondera. There are others. And Leslie and I have abused them on programmes. And the cool thing about these sticky-backed produces is that you can grout right away. You framed them on the wall and then you peel off the other side, deposit the tiles right on it and you can just grout immediately. So it does save you a cluster of season. But you certainly won’t have to do anything to the drywall underneath.
Now, if you’ve got a tile wall and you want to change it, you can forget that drywall. It’s better off really to weeping the whole thing out.
Right, Leslie?
LESLIE: Yeah. I mean you can’t gave tile on top of tile. And if you try to take out tile and get back down to a workable skin-deep, you only won’t. There’s going to be all kinds of things that are fastened to it. So, clearly to get started, if you are eligible to, with the tile wall or “ve been thinking about” a course to maybe pop out one tile and computed in a decorative tile. And unexpectedly, you are able to like it again.
There’s lots of ways to work around but tile on the wall previously certainly meets it harder. But good luck with your project.
TOM: Well, it’s the classic Groundhog Day moment: you get out your implements, you cook a problem and a moderately short time later, it’s got to be done again. Leslie has got tips-off to help you stop that how-to deja vu, on today’s edition of Leslie’s Last Word.
Leslie?
LESLIE: Yeah. You know, preparing that same trouble over and over and then again and again really is a drag, guys. Let’s just get it on formerly and not make love a hundred times.
So, the next time you construe some peeling paint, don’t merely slam another coating of make-up right on top of it and be like, “Alright. That’s good. That’ll hold for now.” Instead, get rid of the old substance with a colour scraper or if you have to, a chemical commodity. And then here’s the key: prime those skin-deeps before you once again apply a topcoat. That’s going to make sure that paint remains as best as it can.
Now, if your vault seems to spring a leakage each time you determine the last one, there’s probably a good chance that the real issue at your residence is poor drainage. So, you want to make sure that you’re grading the grime away from your home’s foundation. Make sure those gutters liberate the sea about 4 to 6 feet away from the exterior wall and you’ll find that you have a much drier vault space.
And here’s another one, people: get rid of that caulking gun once and for all for the bathroom. Now, if the caulk between your shower tiles remains cracking or smashing between the shower and the tub, you want to make sure that you fill the tub with spray before you actually reapply the caulk line. So fill the water in the bathtub. That load is going to pull it down so when you’re adding in the caulk, it’s sort of going to the widest space. And then leave the water in. And once it’s dry, ditch it and it will shut back together all neat and tight so you don’t have to worry about any infinites or anything getting behind it.
Do these this method and I predict you won’t be asking us how to do it again.
TOM: Do it formerly, make love right, you miss have to do it again.
This is The Money Pit Home Improvement Show. Coming up next time, do you want a plot that not only glances good but too provides an important purpose? There is a great deal of genus out there, like bees and hummingbirds and butterflies, that frolic a big role in flora breeding. They’re called “pollinators” and they are incredibly important to life now on Earth. So, it’s important we give these souls a region to to be undertaken by their good work. We’re going to talk about how you can build your very own pollinator garden, on the very next edition of The Money Pit.
I’m Tom Kraeutler.
LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.
TOM: You can do it yourself …
LESLIE: But you don’t have to do it alone.
( Copyright 2020 Squeaky Door Creation, Inc. No component of this transcript or audio file may be reproduced in any format without the express written permission of Squeaky Door Productions, Inc .)
The post Episode #2001: Easy Garage Organization | How to Hang Pictures Without Holes | 5 Questions to Ask a Contractor Post COVID-1 9 | Avoiding Home Repair Re-dos performed first on The Money Pit.