Episode #2027: Maintaining a Lush Green Lawn | Low Cost Ways to Keep Cool| Open Concept Living
In this episode …
Having a hard time maintaining a lush dark-green lawn in the hot of summertime. Tom& Leslie share you need to know to make it past the chocolate-brown and back to green.
Are cooling penalties representing an increase of your electric statements? Get tips for low cost to no cost ways to keep you cool during these hottest periods of the summer season.If you’d like your home to feel open and airy but don’t have the budget for a major remodel, we’ve went smart tips-off to help open up the space without evacuating your bank account in the process.For all the cutting-edge design impressions out there, most of us still follow unwritten layout settles. We’ve went doctrines for shaking up status quo and determining big layout affirmations.
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: And we are here to help you with your residence campaigns. Whatever you need to get done to make your dwelling from house to home to castle, we are here as your squad. We’re now to help you constitute the best decisions to get this done, to take the freedom steps, to get the right materials, to save you time, save you coin, save you beset and make sure it all comes out good on the other side. We’d love to have you participate in that because this is a participation show. Call us, right now, with those questions. The crowd is 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
Well, coming up on today’s show, we are officially in the hottest part of the summer. And if you find that your lawn is having a hard time stopping up, turned a bit brown, good information is that’s probably OK if you know how to protect it. We’re going to tell you what you need to know to make it past the chocolate-brown and back to the lettuce, precisely ahead.
LESLIE: Plus, are cooling expenditures driving up your electrical bills? We’ve went tips for low-cost to no-cost courses that you can keep your cool during these hot, red-hot, super-ridiculously hot last few days of summer.
TOM: Plus, if you’d like your home to feel open and airy but don’t have its own budget for a major remodel, we’re going to have some smart-alecky gratuities enabling you to open up the space without evacuating your bank account in the process.
LESLIE: But first, we want to know what you want to know. What are you working on, trying to get done before Labor Day, trying to get done before the fail climate collisions us? Which we’re all going to be so appreciative when it’s not so stinking hot anymore. So whatever you are working on, cause us know so we can help you get onto done right.
TOM: The figure here is 1-888-MONEY-PIT, 888 -6 66 -3 974.
Plus, if you do give us a scold, we’ve got some implements to give away to one lucky listener. We’ve got a T5 0 Staple Gun and a T25X WireMate, both made by Arrow Fastener, usefulnes about 50 horses going to go. So sacrifice us a bawl, right now, at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Mary in Illinois is on the line with a decorate question. How can we help you today?
MARY: I want to paint a fireplace that’s brick and just want to know if there’s- if you can do that, first of all, and if there’s a certain kind of decorate you need to use.
LESLIE: Has it been drew before or is it natural brick?
MARY: No. It’s natural brick- original brick.
TOM: Well, you certainly can draw it but I would think very carefully before you do this. Because formerly you coat, you have to repaint eventually. And hearths tend to get terribly soiled and extremely smoky and they’re hard to keep clean. If it’s time the coloring that you don’t like, there may be some ways to sort of decorate around that emblazon. But I would really hesitate to tell you to dye it.
We get a lot of summons from folks that are not fortunate with a painted hearth and they want to know how to do the exact opposite, which is get the paint off. And formerly you depict it, it’s just really hard to do that.
MARY: OK. I was kind of worried about whether it would rind or- when “youre telling” just to – you just have to keep repainting because of …
LESLIE: Well, paint, over duration, is going to crack and run dry. And it will get so dirty, simply from the exhaust and the use of the hearth, that you’ll get sort of 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 coated, the brick is so porous that you’re going to kept 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 boundaries, 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 wishes to take that colour off, it’s now a chemical stripper. And because that brick is so porous, it’s going to have sucked in all of that colouring and so it’ll never get back to that original brick gaze again. It’ll have that sort of hue of whatever dye it was.
MARY: Uh-huh. OK. OK. Great. Well, thank you for your help. I appreciate it.
TOM: You’re very welcome. Thanks so much for calling us at 888 -MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Bob in Illinois is on the line and working on a kitchen makeover. What can we do for you?
BOB: Oh, we’ve get kitchen cabinet- they’re probably close to 30 years old- and we’re wanting to remodel our kitchen and I’m wanting to strip them down. And I was just wondering what was the best way- what to use to get it on with.
TOM: Well, the good news is that 30 -year-old cabinets are usually extremely, very well-built. You can’t certainly strip down a 10 -year-old cabinet, because they pretty much fall apart. But if it’s a 30 -year-old plywood cabinet, you can definitely piece it.
Now, what do you want to do after you deprive it? Do you want to cover it or do you want to go with a clear coating?
BOB: I’d like to go with a clear coating on it. Maybe introduced a pecan finish on it or something.
LESLIE: And what’s on there now? Are they just stained or are they covered?
BOB: No, they’re simply stained.
TOM: It’s hard to change the color of a stained board. I’m just telling you just make preparations for that. But what you might want to do is use a good-quality stripper. Rock Miracle, for example, is a good one.
LESLIE: Yeah. You know, another thing that’s good to do is head over to your regional mom-and-pop paint shop, because sometimes there are newer concoctions that are out there.
I was just getting some wallpaper paste but in that section, there were some really nice paint strippers. They apply a little differently, they go on more easily, they work more rapidly. So I ever precisely pop into the shop to kind of watch what they’ve came in there that they’ve worked with.
But Tom and I have both exercised Rock Miracle and I like that because it goes on more like a adhesive, so you can really assure where it is, you can see it start to work. And I guess it depends on how much grime is on there, how dirty they are.
I would start by giving them a good cleansing. Then make sure they’re baked very well, then positioned the stripper on them. Follow the directions. And you’re going to want to use a wire brushing and a make-up scraper. And that’s going to get that finish off of there.
Now, it’s important to work on them on a flat skin-deep, so take all the doors and drawer fronts off. Label them as you take them down, with a piece of strip on the back side of the cabinet door and one on the cabinet box itself so that you know exactly where things run. And leave the hinges on the box surfaces so that you can have the doors flat. These are things that are just tricks of the trade that will help you be more successful.
And if your openings are full overlay- are they or are they not?
BOB: Are they what now?
LESLIE: When your cabinet door closes, do you view any of the cabinet box around it, like a formulate? Or does the door cover it?
BOB: Yeah, it does; it reddens up against the make of the cabinet.
LESLIE: So, that’s a blessing and a curse. Because then you can ignore the box or you can also work on the box while it’s in place, to divest that down, as well. And in all such cases, the Rock Miracle is very good because it’s certainly thick, so it’ll stay on in a horizontal post, as well. So, those are some good things.
And you may have to apply it more than formerly, depending on how well-adhered your discoloration currently is. I mean you’ve genuinely to see. And then keep in mind that depending on the species of wood, the type of color that you are able to come from the stain that you’ve selected to go on there might be a little different. So you might want to work on a back side or a smaller area, just so you can see how it will react and what dye you’ll actually end up with.
BOB: Thank you, then.
TOM: You’re very welcome. Thanks so much for announcing us at 888 -MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Now we’re leader over to Nebraska where Dan is on the line with a mold statu. What’s going on?
DAN: So I been put forward a pole building three years ago, and it’s a 48 x36 and 10 -foot side walls. And I finished off about 700 square feet on the inside and sheetrocked it, kept R30 in the ceiling, R19 on the walls. And it’s got a 4-inch slab concrete locate to it.
And this spring, I went out there and I had mold all over everything. And I don’t know what’s justification that. The first two years I never had a bit of problem.
TOM: Well, it’s been a terribly sodden year. Now, you have no heat in this building, I infer?
DAN: I heat the shower, which is about 8×10, during the winter here in Nebraska. And the residual I don’t heat.
TOM: Well, look, mold needs three things to survive: it needs moisture, it needs air and it needs food. And all those things are available in that pole building. Your walls are made of drywall, I infer?
DAN: Yes, sir. Sheetrock. Mm-hmm.
TOM: Yeah, right. Drywall, yeah. So the working paper facing, that is terrific mold meat. And you have moisture there and you have plenty of breath and you’re not heating it, so the humidity is always moderately high. And that’s why you’re thriving mold. So, you need to at least ventilate that build if you’re not going to heat it, to keep moving the breeze through it so it doesn’t- the humidity doesn’t become quite as high-pitched. But at this level, if you’ve got all that molding, that has to be treated.
DAN: Yeah. And I’ve done that. I’ve gotten that all out of there, right now, but I- and I settled a dehumidifier in there only to …
TOM: OK. Well, that will help.
DAN: And it took me 21/2 daytimes and I got it down to 30 percent, so it came right down. Do I need to seal the storey? The concrete flooring in there?
TOM: I don’t think that that’s inevitably the cause of the problem. I don’t think it’s a bad theory to seal the floor but I think that this is just a condition given the fact that you’ve got a soften construct there with no central heating system, with plenty of drywall, slew of sweat and spate of breeze. So, exactly because of the conditions, the mold is going to grow.
Now, there were other highways that you could have framed these walls. For speciman, there’s a product called DensArmor, which is a fiberglass-faced drywall that’s specifically designed not to grow mold, because it’s not organic. But with paper-face, in an un-heating building like that, I’m not astounded that it flourished. Well, I am surprised it made two years but it might just be that it was just so moist this last year that it certainly took off.
DAN: How do I is moving forward and volcano that, though?
TOM: Well, what I would do is I would probably have a supporter in there that was based on a humidistat so when the humidity came genuinely high-pitched, that it would kick on and outline air out of that build. Kind of like having an attic devotee but on a humidistat instead of a thermostat, right?
That plus the dehumidifier should help you keep the moisture to a minimum.
But keep an eye out for mold because once it gets started, then it genuinely can take off quickly and it sounds like that’s happened in this case. So if you catch it sooner than later, you’re going to be much better off.
DAN: Yes. I want to try to eliminate it totally, so I’ll try that.
TOM: Alright. And when you do find the mildew, when it gets there, you make sure you treat it properly so that you kill the molding spores. Don’t just try to scrub it off, because it’ll come right back. You’ve got to treat it to kill the mildew spores, then clean off the rest.
Alright, Dan? Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888 -MONEY-PIT.
What are you working on this warm summer weekend? If it’s your live, you’re in the best place. Give us a ask with your questions at 888 -MONEY-PIT. If you do, we’ll give you the answer to your home better question. Plus, we’re going to give you the chance to win a great set of tools from my best friend at Arrow Fastener.
LESLIE: That’s right. We’ve got up for grabs the Arrow T25X WireMate and Arrow T5 0 Heavy-Duty Staple Gun, plus staples. I represent the T50 is America’s best-selling staple gun, and you will have this tool for pretty much your entire life-time and then anybody else’s lifetime that you’d love to give it to them. They’re so well made and these are two of the handiest tools, I conclude, to have sort of at your dwelling because you’ll find tons of projects, whether they’re creating something from scratch or amending something that you’ll be able to use these for.
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TOM: You know, one of the projects I was looking at this week is they’ve got the step-by-step on how to do a dwelling movie screen for those working backyard screenings.
LESLIE: Oh, that’s so great.
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LESLIE: We’ve get Rebecca from Kansas on the line. What can we do for you today?
REBECCA: We have a room that has the old-time timber panel in it with the grooves and such that we’d really like to not remove it. But is there some way we can get the drywall look without putting up drywall, with putting on clay by hand or splattering it and kind of doing a knockdown? Or would it affix or- what do it is necessary to do?
LESLIE: Well, I feel like what it is you put on top of it, whether you fill it with mud or you use something to acquire the grooves go away and then try to smooth out the surface, you’re going to come so much better fluctuation from the walls, simply in general. Not that your home is moving but it does. And it gets a lot of change exactly from beings treading by that none of that’s going to stick in there. And it’s going to end up falling off and seeming curiou and you’re going to have to do it again.
So, my suggestion is either embrace the paneling look, as far as the flutes, and draw it to give it a different influence or apply a 1/2 -inch drywall over it.
REBECCA: If you coated it, would you have to set some sort of a primer so it’ll stick or would it is required to do a light-footed sand on it or …?
LESLIE: Yes and yes. You want to make sure that the surface is clean, obviously.
REBECCA: Right.
LESLIE: So if there’s anything sticky or gross on it, you want to give it a good cleaning. You could use something like TSP, which is trisodium phosphate. And that’s a good wall-prep product. Or you can give it a beacon sanding. But if you pay it a nice- if there’s a gleam to it, you may want to give it a brightnes sanding but not necessarily.
And then I would use a really good, heavy-duty primer: something perhaps like a B-I-N or a Zinsser; something that’s hard-core that’s going to stick to anything. And then give that baked and formerly that’s done, you can go ahead and kept a latex topcoat on it.
REBECCA: OK. If we elected a member of do the 1/2 -inch drywall, we’d just receiving treatment like a normal drywall: strip it, leant the clay on and sand it and paint it.
LESLIE: Absolutely. The only thing to consider is that any electric receptacle – your caskets, things like that- are going to have to be drew out a little bit.
REBECCA: Oh, we’re going to have to produce them out.
LESLIE: Yeah. Trim, as well.
REBECCA: OK. Very good. Thank you.
TOM: Good luck with that campaign. Thanks so much for calling us at 888 -MONEY-PIT.
Well, if you’ve ever watched your lawn fade from savory dark-green to kind of a wheat-field brown during these warm days, you might feel like there’s nothing that you can do to stop the destruction. But that dark-brown grass does not automatically mean your lawn is dead; it most likely means your lawn is hibernating. And if you got a few steps or most importantly, don’t take a few steps, it will come back very quickly.
LESLIE: Yeah. I think this one beings would be like, “What? ” We’re telling you not to mow the lawn so much, guys. Obviously cut back on the mowing because that’s going to help your summer grass survive. It’s best to keep the grass a little bit longer in the height of the summer heat. Cutting it too much can actually cause that grass to lose more moisture from the part tips.
Now, if your lawn is healthy, you can allow your grass to go into a semi-dormant state by cutting back on the watering and then not perturb so much that it won’t come back to lettuce in the cool weather.
TOM: One thing I’ve learned about the height of the lawn is that the taller lawns actually create colour for the base of the plant. So, if you cut it down to where you’re identifying the dirt, you have no more shade. And therefore, it has a much greater chance of being completely dried out and could die.
Now, if you’re not facing sea limiteds, you want to remember to irrigate very early in the morning. Give that lawn a chance to dry. That’s going to discourage any problems with imperfections and diseases.
For more tips-off on summer-lawn survival, spoke our post, “7 Tips for Healthy Lawns in Hot Summers.” It’s on MoneyPit.com.
LESLIE: Peter in Alaska, you’ve went The Money Pit. How can we help you?
PETER: Well, I’m having trouble with my grime load at my house, the vent- the central volcano- going out. In the wintertime, it freezes solid and I don’t know what to do about it.
TOM: Let’s check. Tell me about the structure of your mansion. So the grime volcano leads from your shower, up through your attic into- though the roof and out?
PETER: Correct. And it’s a two-story house. It’s very well isolated. I have R-3 2 walls and R-8 3 ceiling and I have doubled walls in my home. And the attic is expressed along the ridge and it also has gable vents.
TOM: And is it freezing over it, across the top of the vent?
PETER: No. It’s down a little and my show is up high. I got it about 4 feet away from the crest of the roof and it stands about 4 foot up from the roof.
TOM: I wonder if you were to insulate that grunge tube, whether it would be warm enough to prevent the freezing from forming down deep in it, if you were to insulate it right up to the point where it departs the roof.
PETER: I thought about that. I did that for our volcano that’s over the stave, because I thought of the heat going up through there might condensate with the freezing metal. So I did insulate that. So I was thinking maybe that would work. I don’t know.
TOM: I would. That’s a really easy thing to do. I is undoubtedly “ve been thinking about” establishing that a shot. Because the moisture that’s getting out there is obviously a lot of sea vapor. And if we can prevent that piping from freezing, the less possibility you’re going to have to come that sparkler buildup. And then probably what happens is you get gurgle-y pipes because you’re not getting any air out of it. Things don’t redden right and all that.
PETER: Exactly. Yeah, we’re concerned about it. And everything is heated, you are well aware? Our lavatories are hot water.
TOM: I is now trying that. I would isolate it. It’s a very easy thing to do and you’ve once got a terrifically isolated residence, so why not just lengthen it up the other side of the roof?
PETER: Yeah. Alright. Thank you very much. I’ll try that.
LESLIE: Valerie in Washington is on the line and has a question about outdoor decor. What’s going on?
VALERIE: I have a simple railing on my front porch and it’s cedar. Part of it’s stained to keep it from deteriorating, so it’s orange-colored. And the rest is just naturally-aged cedar-silvery. And I miss it to be white to match the rest of my edging. So, there’s two different shades and do I do an undercoat- a primer? And is it oil-based? And can I get a stain- a pure-white stain- for it?
TOM: So, you probably can. What I would suggest is a two-fold approach. I would primary it first and then I would use a solid-color stain, because I think that will give you the sort of more natural look that you seem to be looking forward to. But you should prime it and then apply the solid-color stain.
Now, because this is off-color orange, as you describe it, if you don’t prime it, you may get some of that that comes through. That’s why I miss you to prime it firstly. You’d use an exterior-grade primer and you’d use a solid-color stain. If you buy both the primer and the discolour from the same manufacturer, you can be sure that they’ll progressing well together.
VALERIE: OK. Does this issue if it’s oil-based or not?
TOM: I would probably recommend an oil-based primer, exclusively because you’re going to get better coverage over that darker color. But in areas of the stain itself, that could be latex-based.
VALERIE: Oh. OK, then. Thanks a great deal. I appreciate it and I experience your program.
TOM: Well, thank you very much, 888 -6 66 -3 974.
Well, if you’ve been feeling your A/ C is running overtime in your live, it simply isn’t getting as cool and pleasant as it could, you may be right because right now, there’s a lot of things that happen in terms of wasting energy. And you don’t sense it because it’s wasted cooling vigour. In the winter, we always feel like we’re wasting energy when you feel enlists in the winter through the windows. But in the summer, you simply run that A/ C 24/7 and you don’t actually be understood that as a big waste and it really is. Just take a peek at this month’s electric bill if you don’t believe me.
LESLIE: Now, there are a few things that you can do to not only cool off more quickly but trimmed those costs, as well.
Now, to keep the heat out, here’s some things you can do. You can increase your attic insularity, you can use dangles and blinds on the windows that is a lot of sun in and you can consider upgrading your roofing and your windows.
Now, you can also keep the cool in. And to do that, you need to seal and shield those cooling passages in the attic and seal divergences, crackings, any holes that you find around your dwelling. Too, keep your cooling system efficient by properly maintaining it every year and closed to express in any unused chambers. And finally, why not add a ceiling follower now and there to help keep that cool moving around the space?
TOM: Yeah. And make sure that ceiling fan is moment in the right direction, because they’re all reversible. There’s a little switch on the side. And during the summer, you want them to pull cold breath up and in the winter, you want them to push heated breath down.
If you require some more ways to stay cool and save vitality, go to ENERGYSTAR.gov. They’ve got immense tips-off and advice on how to do only that.
LESLIE: Alright. Now we’ve came Randy from Maryland on the line with a decorate question. How can we help you today?
RANDY: I exactly placed a brand-new deck on the back of my house. The home was actually built in 1988, so it’s good and settled. I just wondered how soon I could treat it. I’ve heard two months, three months. I’ve heard a whole season. I don’t want to wait too long but I don’t want to get it on too early.
TOM: Randy, what’s the material the floor is made out of? Is it pressure-treated lumber or cedar or redwood? What?
RANDY: Yeah. It’s pressure-treated lumber.
TOM: OK. So what I would do at this point is I would wait until next spring. Let it be exposed to the environment for a while. It is true that the log, when it firstly goes in, is very moist. And by waiting maybe six months in your speciman, you’re going to find that it’s going to dry out a bit. And it’ll be ready to sort of take a stain better than taking it right now. So I is clearly cause it sit for a while and then stain it before next summer, when it gets sort of cool and dry out.
And then in terms of the stain itself, I would recommend that you choose a solid-color stain. It will still depict the grain through but it’ll have more pigment in it and it’ll last longer. Does that help you out?
RANDY: I think so. So mostly, say, wait a full season then?
TOM: Yeah. I would wait a full season and then I would stain it after that.
RANDY: OK.
TOM: Thanks, Randy. I hope that helps you out. We realize you calling us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
And if you do give us a see, we’ve got some implements to give away to one luck listener. We’ve got the Arrow T25X WireMate and the Arrow T5 0 Heavy-Duty Staple Gun. Both great implements to have on hand for dozens and dozens of projects. That T50 is America’s best-selling staple gun. It’s been around for contemporaries. I is a well-known fact that I proudly use the T5 0 that was my father’s and it- the thing simply impedes going and moving. It doesn’t wear out. It’s awfully, particularly dependable.
So we’ve got one of those and the WireMate to give away to one luck caller, plus staples. So hold us a call right now. Make that you. The count is 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Tammy in Arkansas is on the line and is having an issue with the bricks on her residence. What’s going on?
TAMMY: OK. I’ve got a home that sits on a concrete slab. They’re made out of the cinder blocks. And the crannies are beginning to crack on the outside and the inside. And somebody told me to use concrete with it and I’m wanting to do it myself. So what do I need to do to seal those crannies?
TOM: Yeah, you don’t want to use concrete, because concrete is not going to fill cracks very well. Are we talking about sort of hairline or reasonably thin crackings now, Tammy?
TAMMY: Well, maybe a 1/2 -inch. They’re kind of separating there but they’re separating into strata of the block.
TOM: But you really think it’s a full 1/2 -inch? That’s an mighty big crack.
TAMMY: Well, you can put your finger up to it. It’s moderately deep. You can see on the outside and you can see on the inside.
TOM: OK. Well, listen, if you’re getting that kind of movement in the wall, you need to have this looked at by an expert. I would have a professional home inspector or a structural engineer look at it, because that’s a huge crack in the building. A 1/2 -inch fissure is really big if it’s pulling apart. That means that the house is slipping apart at that wall or terminating on one result of private buildings, stimulating that to crack. And I would like to know why that’s happening.
Are those crannies brand-new or have they always been there?
TAMMY: No , no , no , no. They really started, because the place was built in 1969.
TOM: Yep. You’ve got to get to the bottom of it, Tammy, because there’s something wrong with the house for those crackings to occur like that.
Now, you’re not talking about mortar that fell out, are you? You’re talking about physical fractures; all the mortar is still there. It’s time separated.
TAMMY: It’s precisely separating. It’s all it is. The mortar is still there.
TOM: Yeah. I would- here’s what I would do, Tammy: I would go to the website for the American Society of Home Inspectors. It’s ASHI- -AS-H-I-. org. Find a certified home inspector in your province or have a structural technologist look at it, get their recommendations and then you can take it from there. If the hits are that big, I want to stop the building from moving before we begin to think about sealing them up, OK?
TAMMY: OK. OK. I sure appreciate it.
TOM: Good luck. Thanks so much for calling us at 888 -MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Well, while older dwellings have appeal and reference, the thing that they often absence is an open floor plan and some things that more and more modern families “re looking for”. So, the good news here, people, is that you don’t have to stick with the scheme that’s offered in your older home.
TOM: Now, one path to create an open feel in a very closed-in space is to build a pass-through between areas. It’s not a DIYer first-time project. It involves a lot of knowledge and a lot of tools. But start with the most important thing first: assess the extent to which the wall can be opened up by figuring out of it’s a load-bearing wall.
Now, if possible, go to a storey below, perhaps into a cellar or crawlspace, and look at how the floor joists are running. They’re either going to be parallel or horizontal to the wall. If they’re perpendicular, that wall may be load-bearing, so you need to get an expert to help if you’re not sure. If the wall is load-bearing, you are able contributed a pass-through. But I’ve got to tell you that the level of complexity goes up, because you have to support the weight that’s on top of that wall before you reconfigure what’s below.
LESLIE: Yeah. So perhaps best left to the pros.
TOM: Definitely.
LESLIE: Now, if the wall is not load-bearing, you can cut out a pass-through. But before you do go all in, it’s smart to do some exploratory surgery firstly. You’ve got to see what’s going on in those walls.
TOM: A little wall surgery. See what’s there, yeah.
LESLIE: So, first, you want to figure out where this pass-through is going to be and trace a template so that you can see exactly where it’s extending. Now, try and line up the template so that the left or right side starts on a stud. Now, this is going to realize that making a good deal easier. If you’ve got a room and can lay this out so it’s in between the ornaments, it’s even better because you’re not going to have to formulated anything around that opening.
Next, you’ve got to make sure that you switch off all electrical circuits on that wall and then go ahead and use a reciprocating saw, trimming merely through the thickness of the wallboard. So you’re not going into the studs just yet. You want to get the drywall off in the shape of your pass-through. Does that make sense?
TOM: Yeah. And the above reasons you do that is because it’s really hard to patch a small section of drywall. It genuinely always demo. So what I try to do is only cut away the drywall I absolutely have to and sort of work within that open place to kind of frame in around it. It’s thoroughly possible to do that. And this path, you’re not doing a good deal of patching. Now, once you attend the inside, it’s a lot easier to double-check that, of course, it’s not load-bearing and that you don’t have wiring in the way.
And then once you formulated it all out, framed a little sill there, you’re going to find that that kind of a thing just really opens up the room. And if you happen to extend it so it overhangs on one side, you are eligible to even have area to pull up a little barstool or something and have a little breakfast area. So it’s a really good way to open up a seat and provide that sort of visual length so you’re seeing right through the wall. And it truly constitutes the whole thing feel that much bigger.
LESLIE: Patrick in Wyoming is on the line with a few questions about cracking drywall. Tell us what’s going on.
PATRICK: I have a returning trouble with hits in the walls. And I’ve spackled them four or five times and I’ve spread the scatter rubber sealant over them and they just remain returning.
LESLIE: And when you’re talking about cracks on the wall, do you imply by the door, by trim design, by windows or smack in the middle of the wall?
PATRICK: Both. I have one by a front door that stops recurring and then I have one stair- going down a mount of stairs.
TOM: Well, by the stairs is pretty usual because you get a lot of action and by doors.
LESLIE: And the breast entrance, too.
TOM: Yeah, a lot of shift in that space. So, I think he’s just not tying it right, Leslie.
LESLIE: And the issue is, Patrick, whatever you do to fix them, it’s not a once-and-for-all thing. Because you’re dealing with movement that continually, over era, could eventually lead to whatever you’ve used to fix that crack to dry out. So, there’s got to be a way to fix it.
PATRICK: Yeah, the hardware accumulate sold me this rubber-spray compound that’s supposed to flex and give with the wall. And it doesn’t seem to work. I’m just wondering what’s the best solution. Paneling?
LESLIE: No, I’ve never worked a rubber-spray compound but what I have done, in areas where I have a crack or any sort of seaming, instead of using a article videotape like you would do when you’re putting two membranes of drywall together, I use a fiberglass strip. And it seems almost like a sticky mesh. And you use that to go over your rift and then you set the deepen over it and feather it out.
Try to make it smooth and then let it dry and beach it. And you do a couple of applications of that, allowing it to super dry, beach it smooth, add another layer. And that does the manoeuvre because that fiberglass strip that’s sort of mesh-y appear does its best to encompass the crack, spread the surface over it and compiles it adhere considerably better than you would with a paper videotape or no tape at all. And that should give you a much longer time.
TOM: Alright. Good luck. Thanks so much for announcing us at 888 -MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Don’t forget you can post your questions online, just like John did who writes: “I have a leak from my ceiling in my hallway below a rusted air duct. I had the rusted duct removed and replaced. Then simply a few months ago, the dribbles started again just as it did before. What do you propose? ”
TOM: From these definitions, Leslie, it seems to fit the pattern of a condensation leak that’s motived simply by the warm, humid breath impressive that cold air-conditioning duct. You know, it doesn’t always happen but given that it’s been such an extraordinarily warm summer, it’s happening a lot. So I think it’s surprising folks.
What you need to do here, John, is you need to get up in that attic opening, right above the ceiling, and segregate those passages. I would isolate all the canals. Make sure that they are completely surrounded by insulation because there, if you do that, you’re not going to have that warm air spectacular the coldnes surface, you’re not going to get the condensation and you’re not going to get the leak.
LESLIE: Alright. I hope that helps, John. Good luck with it.
TOM: Well, for all the cutting-edge design impressions out there, most of us still follow some unwritten intend governs: those things that somebody, at some stage, decided we should never, ever do. Well, sometimes ending the rules is a necessity. Leslie has got opinions for shaking up that status quo and obligating some large-scale, bold pattern proclamations, in today’s edition of Leslie’s Last Word.
LESLIE: Yeah, I feel like a lot of people sort of get stuck on these old scheme regulations. They’re like, “Oh, well my parents did it. So I should do it, also.” But that’s not true. You’ve got to break these rules sometimes.
And here’s a good one: neutral complexions. You’ve got to use them in small-time seats. Simply neutral. Even if bold colors can make a space seem smaller at times, the misconception of having a bright, daring color in a small room or even a light, bold wall covering in a small space is outstanding and clearly forms a office that’s eye-catching and interesting and sort of becomes a showpiece. So there’s ways to have fun in those smaller spaces.
Now, somewhere, individual said, “Your master bedroom has got to be a serious space.” Well, get rid of that regulate, too. Fun decor can give you something exciting and engendering to wake up to and then it brought about by the kid in all of us. So I’m not saying go cutesy but have fun, be cheerful, apply complexion, use interesting qualities. Do something that seems a little bit out of the ordinary to make it have some fun.
Now, when it comes to hanging artwork, are you like, “Ah, I’ve got to hang it at eye-level”? Well, thoughts again. You can recline a formulate or a canvas, of the right size or even smaller, from floundered summits on the floor. And that gives you sort of an art-studio vibe. And then genuinely play around with the different statures, different types of epitomes and sort of layer this in certain areas of the room. And that’s super eye-catching and interesting.
And who said chairs have to match? I mean everybody adoration the establish Friends and I don’t think they ever had a chair that matched. So you can mismatch chairs in breakfast nook. You can do a bench on one side and according chairs on the other. You can mismatch chairs in a accommodated chamber. Maybe do the same frame with different textiles. There’s so many immense ways to mix and pair that I don’t want you to be afraid.
Definitely try to do some of these enjoyable things. And if you’re too apprehensive to actually exactly do it to start, look at some representations online, cut things out, employed them together with one another. Get fabric swatches, get decorate swatches until you feel that comfort level. And then go for it.
TOM: This is The Money Pit Home Improvement Show. Coming up next time on the program, kitchens are the one plaza in the members of this house where most of deplete a great deal of experience. And if you’ve ever was almost like the kitchen cabinets are dated, drab and dull, it might not ever be your favorite chamber. The good information is there are options for getting a new look without spending a lot of money. Kitchen lockers can be replaced, refaced or only refinished. We’ll sort out the best options for your place, 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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