Episode #2048: Germ Free Faucets | Avoiding Frozen Pipe Bursts | Best Garage Heaters | Painting Kitchen Cabinets
In this bout …
We’re all trying to avoid germs more than ever and motion-activated faucets are good for cutting down the spread of germs in public restrooms- but are they a healthy fit for your dwelling? Tom and Leslie share the options
With freezing brave onward , now is a good time to make sure a frozen, ended water pipe DOES NOT turn the INSIDE of your home into a Winter Wonderland! One very special type of valve can stop this from happen to you. We’ll explain how.What’s the difference between a garage and a dwelling workshop or gym that you can use year-round? Often as little as twenty or thirty degrees! We’ve came tips to help heat your garage so you can find more useable space.If you’d like to paint your kitchen cabinet, there’s one very special primer that can perform the difference between paint that lodges and coat that chips away! We’ll share the solution.
Plus, answers to your home progress questions about, natural way to scavenge windows, painting a refrigerator, eliminating geese, repairing a concrete driveway, refinishing brick on a fireplace.
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 now.
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: What’s going on in your neck of the woods? If you are taking on a project as we reel towards the holiday season to get your house in shape for the friends in your bubble- those few that you will permit to visit you during this odd holiday season – hey, appear, you’re still going to fix up your mansion, because we love to have a couple of tribes over now and then and we want our house to look clean.
And so whether it’s a project that you need to get done because you’ve got a repair that’s necessary or an update or an improvement you’d like to take on, there’s never been more improvement going on, frankly, than since COVID started because we’re all spending so much darn time in our rooms. We’re trying to fix them up. I’m doing that.
Leslie, you’re doing that and …
LESLIE: Oh, we’re all doing it.
TOM: We’re all doing it. So, whatever is on your to-do list, we would love to lend a hand.
Now, there’s a couple of ways that you can get in touch with us. You can pate on over to our social-media pages- in particular, Facebook.com/ TheMoneyPit- and send us a question that way. You can also post a question through our website, MoneyPit.com. Or you can call us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT and we’ll take your specify, your figure, your question and we’ll call you back the next time we’re in the studio.
Folks have been doing that all week. We’ve got some great callers that we’re going to connect with for this show. But first, here’s what we’ve went coming up. You know, we’re all trying to avoid germs more than ever right now, which shapes it a good time to talk about hands-free, motion-activated faucets. These have been available in the commercial-grade cavity for years and time over the last 2 or three years, they’ve been demo up more in the residential side. And they’re really cool. They’re great for cutting down the spread of germs and they genuinely are a good, healthful are suitable for your residence. So we’re going to fill you in on the different types and what you need to know to put one in your home.
LESLIE: And with the freezing weather come through here , now is a great time to make sure that a frozen or a breach water pipe does not turn the inside of your home into a wintertime wonderland. One very special type of valve can stop this from happening to you. We’ll explain how.
TOM: I retain when I was a home inspector and tubes had frozen and broken in a house that was vacant, was being managed by a relocation companionship. It was a winter wonderland but I don’t believed they thought it was so wonderful. There were frozen rivers of ocean everywhere. So surely something you don’t want to happen. We’re going to give you some tips to make sure it doesn’t.
And likewise ahead, do you ever wonder what the difference was between a garage and a dwelling shop or a ship office or a gym that you can use year-round? Well, the difference is about 20 or 30 measures. So we’re going to have tips that you can use to help heat your garage so you can find more usable opening year-round.
And we’re launching a brand-new sweepstakes for all of our Money Pit devotees. It’s called the Holiday Home Decor Giveaway. It’s presented by Arrow Fastener and they’ve fastened us up with a dozen positions of implements, worth over $125 each, to give away.
TOM: Yep. You get the tools to help with all of your festivity decor and craft activities, including the T2 1X Wire Stapler, which is great for hanging those festivity suns. Enter now at MoneyPit.com/ Sweepstakes.
But first, let’s get to your calls and your questions. Again, that count is 888 -MONEY-PIT.
Leslie, who’s firstly?
LESLIE: Marie in Florida is on the line who’s looking for an easier channel to cleanse some windows around the house. What’s going on?
MARIE: Right. Yes, I’m lazy and I’ve been speaking the ads and- Spray& Forget. Is there a window clean that I can use on the outside, that I could just spray and then forget?
TOM: OK. Yeah. So, Spray& Forget is a fine product and that’s designed to clean mold and mildew and algae and moss off of backing and roofs and skin-deeps like that and sidewalks. In words of spaces- so, you’re looking for a product you scatter on and only does the cleanse for you. And I’m not aware of anything that does accurately that. I think that is a job that is always, formerly and forever, going to need our own personal touch.
LESLIE: Well, I want I feel like anything that you’re going to spray on and leave on is going to leave a streak. Because you know it’s – you’ve got to completely remove whatever cleaning formula you put one across there. Otherwise, it will blotch or cloud or got something unusual. So that’s the issue with scavenging glass. It’s not like a concoction you can spray on a siding and cause it kind of do the work.
TOM: Yeah. There’s a line of products that we like that are cleaning commodities, including window cleansers, made by a company announced JAWS- J–AW-S. It’s JAWSCleans.com. These are produces that- where they sell you the concentrate and a mix in a bottle. And for a fraction of the cost of buying one that’s previously mixed up at the store, you can get a dozen or more bottles full of this material by mixing it yourself with the concentrate.
And I like it because it doesn’t leave any streaks. And I told the guy that owns the company, who I’ve become friendly with, that I prevent a bottle on my table in my power, because I scavenge computer screens and glasses with it.
So you might want to take a look at that: JAWSCleans.com. I think there’s a promo code there for The Money Pit that’ll get you 20 -percent off if you merely enter MONEYPIT in the promo box. And that might be a product that’s so easy to use that it wouldn’t be so bad for you to have to clean those windows yourself.
MARIE: OK. That sounds pretty good. I merely- I have 20 openings and I don’t want to clean them.
TOM: You can always hire a pro. There’s kinfolks out there that that’s all they do.
Well, good luck with that project. Thanks so much better for calling us at The Money Pit.
MARIE: OK. Thank you.
LESLIE: Len in Iowa, you’ve get The Money Pit. What can we do for you today?
LEN: Well, I have a crawlspace. Now, we’ve got a couple of real bad gales. A bunch of rain. It hasn’t filled over the years that I’ve had the house but with all this flood concentrated in a couple of periods, it has rallied water. And I’m wondering, what’s the best method to waterproof a crawlspace?
TOM: Well, I have marvelous story for you. This is a really easy project because you’ve told me all I need to know in mentioning that you generally have never had a wet crawlspace before. But with all the heavy rain, you did develop one. Because this degrees clearly not to a rising water table, which could be complicated to fix, but it times immediately to such issues with the sewers around your house and the grading.
There’s too much water arrival right around the foundation perimeter. That can happen if your channels are blocked, if they’re too small or if the downspouts aren’t provided away from the house enough. They need to be, in your contingency, 4 to 6 feet away to make sure that that water is not doing a U-turn back into that crawlspace.
On top of that, you should take a look at the score. And if the soil is flat, if it’s ascent into the house, that’s another issue. You need to add clean-living crowd grime- which is good news, inexpensive- and you could slope it to plummet about 4 inches- 4, 5, 6 inches- over 4 paws. It’s just about a 10 -degree slope. Tamp it down real well but you have that delightful ascent maintained. And then on top of that, you could plant grass, you were able to framed stone, whatever you want. But you’ve got to have that locate grunge ascent properly.
And those two things will make this problem go away. It might take a while because it’s in the crawlspace but it will go away.
LEN: The room sits down from the road about- if you search from the altitude of the sidewalk, it sits off from the road about 8 paw. But as I said, I don’t have this problem generally. It’s jolly baked. I have it inspected every year for termites. And I asked the guys if it’s dry and they said, “Yes, it’s dry.” It’s exclusively been a problem – you are well aware, in Raleigh, we had the hurricane and then we had a lot of rain.
TOM: Right.
LEN: So, I’m just trying to make sure that- I meditate the furnace sits on a cinder block- couple of cinder blocks up. It hasn’t- the irrigate hasn’t reached the furnace, so it’s not like it’s a major problem.
TOM: Right. No. And I is a well-known fact that when this happens, parties tend to want to speculate and calculate and like you’re saying, “Well, the road’s here and the house is there.” It’s really simple. If you get irrigate in a cellar or crawlspace after a heavy rain, it’s always the grading and the gutters. Ever. There is a lack of exceptions to that, OK?
LEN: OK.
TOM: So the solution is just to figure out what part of that is not working in your live, OK?
LEN: You review I should supplant channels with the …?
TOM: No. I think you should empty your sewers and I think you should extend the downspouts 4 to 6 feet away from the house so you don’t have any water coming off that roof that’s not drained those several hoofs from the house.
LESLIE: Leading away from your property.
LEN: I got it. I got it.
TOM: OK?
LEN: OK. Yep. Thanks a lot.
TOM: Alright. Good luck.
LEN: Appreciate it.
TOM: Thanks so much for announcing us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
Another example of parties ever thinking that an expensive difficulty has only one expensive mixture. Not when it comes to keeping water out of the below-grade gaps around your home. Very inexpensive solution.
LESLIE: No. And a lot of it is all preventative. If you really get ahead of the problem, there will be no problem.
TOM: Remember you had that humid vault year ago, Leslie? What was it? Was it a tennis missile or a toy or something? Was it one of the downspouts or something …?
LESLIE: No, it was- we had a hid downspout, so I couldn’t envision where it deposited.
TOM: Right.
LESLIE: And at some pitch, it had detached. So, it was going down the downspout but it was going nowhere underground.
TOM: Right.
LESLIE: And so it was literally just going right against my foundation wall. And it was- the irrigate in the vault wasn’t even anywhere near that wall. I was persuasion it was a sprinkler or something. It had to be anything but. Because in the thick of it, you’re just thinking it’s something bigger and it doesn’t ever have to be.
TOM: I “ve told you” the same thing that we told Len: it’s always the drainage.
LESLIE: I remember immediately taking a mat knife and started cutting out that carpet in the basement. We had just gotten the house and I retain accompanying downstairs and being like, “Carpet in the vault. That’s a cruel idea.” And the people were like, “It’s cozy.” So, it even happens to us.
Now we’ve got Kathy on the line who’s got a question about covering appliances. Tell us what’s going on.
KATHY: Well, I have an old-time house with wide pine storeys. And my current refrigerator, which is probably somewhere between 34 and 36 years old, is that lovely harvest golden. You probably remember that color.
TOM: Yep.
KATHY: So, when I say harvest amber, you know I’m going back a lot of years. So, I need a refrigerator. The one I have has been dying a slow fatality. So, I can’t get a colored refrigerator; they just don’t represent them. So I wanted to have it depicted and I was going to get a white refrigerator.
And I determined an auto-body shop that they are able to make love for me but I just wanted to know- I called the company that- I called Whirlpool because that’s the company I’m going to buy the refrigerator from. And they don’t recommend decorating a refrigerator. So, I just wanted to know what your opinion was about painting a refrigerator.
TOM: So, if we got this right, you’re saying that you’re going to buy a brand-new refrigerator but you’re going to paint it in a lovely, 1970 s harvest golden?
KATHY: Yeah.
LESLIE: You can get sticky vinyls reproduced at a variety of places. You can do it online. I gambling Staples or a Kinko’s or something near you might also print on a sticky vinyl. And you can color-match that refrigerator to a Pantone color, which is something that they’d be able to pull right up into the computer and get that precise match. And then you can have it printed on a sticky vinyl, almost like an adhesive paper. And you could go right on top of that.
And you can get it in a matte-finish paper, you can get it in a glossy-finish article. There’s a variety of places online that make love. Just make sure that you get it wide enough so that you’re doing it in one full thicknes across the face of the refrigerator and to carry around to the sides. And absolutely, all you need is a steady pas and a squeegee. And it’s better than coating it. And if you get tired of the harvest gold in the future, you can really peel it away.
KATHY: Oh, that sounds wonderful. I hadn’t even thought of Staples.
TOM: Well, there “theres going”. Alright, Kathy. Good luck with that activity. Thanks so much better for announcing us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
And I’ve got to say, Leslie, that’s the first time we’ve ever had a caller who wanted to keep a 40 -year-old paint color.
LESLIE: Oh, for sure.
TOM: Well, hands-free faucets have been around in business used to support decades. But now they are designed more for their families and they furnish quite a few health and safety advantages.
LESLIE: For one, you don’t need to worry about your hands being dirty or soapy or full. And they’re also great for obstructing the germ weigh down, because you’re going to have less entrusts stroking less surfaces.
Now, there are other advantages, as well. You’re going to save water because there’s no running the faucet while you’re soaping up your hands. It’s really great for people who have restraint pas mobility. It’s also great for the chef in the house because you’re not reaching for the faucet with those raw, infected menu handwritings that you’ve came while you’re cutting up the chicken. And then you’re like, “Ooh , now I need to wash it off my hands. Let me stroke the faucet with my hands.” I convey it’s really crazy how dirty those faucets get.
And they’re also great for adolescents who exactly can’t reach. You just need to be able to touch or wave at that faucet and the water’s going to come on. So there’s so many benefits of these touch-free faucets. Super great.
TOM: Yeah. And they drive pretty much like a regular faucet, in terms of installation. You have to plumb in the sizzling and the cold lines but they also have a battery pack that operates the stroke feature.
Now, you might think that that’s a battery that has to be replaced regularly. It actually doesn’t because it’s exclusively powering a little, tiny LED light. And so, those batteries can last easily over a year. And when it does need to be replaced, well, piece of cake. You merely snarl open that battery pack and stick in a brand-new artillery. It’s as easy as altering a artillery in a flashlight.
LESLIE: Rudy in Ohio is on the line with a question about a metal roof. How can we help you today?
RUDY: We had a hailstorm that damaged my roof. And I wanted to replace it with a metal ceiling and I required your opinion on whether this is good to leave the roof on. And there’s a material called a- it’s some kind of bubble-like insulation that can be put on there and then exactly framed the metal right over that versus crying it off or even applying furring rows over it. Just wondered what your opinion would be on that.
TOM: Sure. Well, listen, while you certainly could do that, I would not recommend it and I’d never do that to my own house. I just think it’s penny wise and pound senseles, as my mother ever were saying, because you’re going to get the best job if you take that asphalt-shingle roof off. You’re talking about an investment-grade roof here. When you kept a metal ceiling down, this roof’s going to last you 80, 100 times. This is going to outlast you and me. So, you might as well do this right. And I would not trap asphalt shingles between that brand-new metal roof and the house for the next century. I think it’s a really bad way to apply the ceiling, even though some people will do it that way if they really want to save a little bit of money.
I think you’re better off do that roof right down to the original sheathing and putting the metal ceiling on as if it was the first roof that residence ever get. That’s going to give you the best job. It’s going to look better, it’ll lay flatter and you’re too going to be more energy-efficient. Because that asphalt-shingle roof will nurse a lot of heat and make it more expensive for you to cool your house in the summertime.
You mentioned that there’s some sort of a bubble something or other. All those underlayments that maybe have a tiny bit of air and it may be sold by contractors as an insulator, they give such an infinitesimally small amount of insulation that I tell you it’s simply not worth it. So I would do- I would take it right down to the roof sheathing.
RUDY: I wasn’t to be considered it as so much better of an isolation as just something to keep the metal from actually being in contact with the shingles.
TOM: Yeah. One of the questions that- when you settled it against asphalt shingles is if those shingles are deformed in any way, it’s going to sort of transmit right through to the metal. So it’s a road of kind of smoothing things out. But it’s time not a good feeling. You’re going to get a better installation out of that metal roof if you can just go right to the wood. And exactly do it formerly, do it right and you’ll never have to worry about it again, OK? It’s going to add some quality to your home, as well.
Take care. Good luck with that assignment. Thanks so much better for announcing us at 888 -MONEY-PIT.
And by the way, if you’re listening to this call and thinking, “Well, does that apply to asphalt-shingle roofs, as well, if you’re putting on a brand-new asphalt-shingle roof? ” It perfectly does. You don’t want to gave a second layer on for the reasons: it’s not going to lay right, it’s going to hold a lot of heat, it’s going to raise your cool payments because it’ll clear the attic that much hotter. You’re just going to get a better job, all the way around, if you always remove your aged roofing textiles first and then put on the brand-new roofing surface after that.
LESLIE: Hey, with the holidays right around the corner, what are you guys doing to get your house all embellished and amusing and joyous? I bet you’re working on a lot of things: putting up brand-new glowings, looking around the house for things to look really cute. Well, have we got a great opportunity for you guys to triumph some excellent an instrument for the holiday season.
It’s the Arrow Fastener Holiday Home Decor Giveaway. Twelve champions, people, are going to receive a placed of tools from Arrow Fastener, worth over $125, to help you with your residence improvement celebration decor and crafts.
Now, one of the tools in this kit is the P2 1 Plier Stapler. Now, I really like this because, first of all, you’re going to be baking cookies and all types of broiled goods and putting them in those cute, little purses with the offering tags. This stapler allows you to just go flat across the top, one-handed. No opening anything up. It’s really fantastic. Plus, any endows that you’re putting in a talent luggage, same lot. You can embellish it right away with your plier stapler, get that name on. Super fast, super supportive for the celebration season.
But don’t forget, guys, it’s a huge prize pack worth 125 horses with four implements. You can enter once a day, so do so today at MoneyPit.com/ Sweepstakes.
TOM: That’s MoneyPit.com/ Sweepstakes. Time to get into the ho-ho-home improvement mood.
LESLIE: Eleanor in Florida, you’ve went The Money Pit. How can we help you today?
ELEANOR: My son has a house in South Carolina that has a floating dock on a pond in the backyard.
TOM: Yep.
ELEANOR: And the goose have liked to do their business on that deck that …
TOM: I’ll bet they do.
ELEANOR: And we wondered what he could do to let them go somewhere else.
TOM: Well, seem, there’s three different sort of categories of repellant. There’s chemical and I candidly don’t know a lot about that. There’s also sound, which can annoy the heck out of your neighbors. There’s different types of motion-activated dismays, so to speak. Some of them sound like gunshots, some of them are like a trumpet. And when the geese district or fly in the road of the action identification, it goes off.
And then the third largest one, I would call them sort of “ornaments.” And we often recommend- for example, with woodpeckers, hanging on the house shiny pie plates and things like that that invent in the sail. Well, they actually have different types of flounces. You got to find them, for example, on Amazon.com. And you could find the ones that have the best ratings. And essentially, what they are are sort of discs that spin around and they’re shiny and they kind of annoy the birds. And then they kind of stay away from it.
But that’s kind of truly the three categories that folks use to try to minimize the amount of geese. They can be a real problem, so I don’t envy what you guys are going through. But that’s kind of what you’ve got to do to try to deal with them. You can either use a phone machine, you can use a chemical repellant or you could use one of these embroideries that mostly deter them from acre. OK?
ELEANOR: We got pie plates.
TOM: Alright. Well, begins with that. Good luck with that programme. Thanks so much for announcing us at 888 -MONEY-PIT.
ELEANOR: Thank you. I love your show.
TOM: Thank you very much.
LESLIE: Well, burst water pipe can cause expensive dwelling headaches and they happen most in the wintertime. That’s because pipings are carrying the water, they freeze, they expand and then they erupt. And when the irrigate defrosts or isn’t frozen anymore, it just starts racing like crazy all around your house.
Now, ironically, though, the hose most susceptible to freezing is the outdoor hose faucet. And it’s too the easiest to protect.
TOM: Yeah. All you need to do is replace the traditional hose faucets with frost-proof or freeze-proof faucets. You’ll never have to worry about it freezing and divulging as long as the inside of your home is heated. Now, with a standard faucet, the supplying piping connects to the faucet outside. And yeah, there’s probably a shutoff valve but the problem is that pipe is copper and copper deliveries the coldnes somewhat darn well. It moves it right back into the house, it freezes the tube, it expands and it violates. And that is a really bad thing because once it divulges, especially if you’re not home, there is no stopping the water flow.
LESLIE: Oh, my goodness. Do you retain, Tom, year ago I was at Disney with my mom and the sons?
TOM: Yep.
LESLIE: And I got a phone call from my mom’s housekeeper, from the family vacation home. And she was like, “The water is everywhere.”
TOM: Yeah, I do remember that.
LESLIE: And we had several pipes burst and it truly- it was like a waterfall coming from the ceiling which- also, the ceiling was on the flooring. So, you are well aware, it’s unquestionably a huge headache, guys.
TOM: It wasn’t the most supernatural place on Earth, was it, at that moment?
LESLIE: Oh , no. I was like, “I’m about to get on the Runaway Train. Can I call you right back? ” No, it was truly- what a disaster.
But people, it’s an easy project to replace that faucet outside but it’s not a do-it-yourself project. Because installing one of these faucets involves soldering with a propane ignite, so it genuinely is an initiative for experienced pros. And you’re going to still need to add a shutoff valve for these faucets on the interior area of the home.
Now, those frost-proof valves, guys, it’s not going to 100 -percent say you’re never going to have a broken pipe but it certainly is better safe than sorry.
TOM: And by the way, if you’re going to do this project, you want to make sure there’s too a shutoff inside the house, near where the piping proceeds out through the wall for your garden-variety hose but inside. And then precisely recollect to shut those off in the wintertime.
And one more step: on the valve itself is a little, minuscule brass detonator. You should tighten that up and make it drain, because that’s the ocean that remains in the piping between the shutoff and the valve outside. Even that 12 inches worth of sea in that short-lived piping can cause the pipe to expand and break.
So, all these little things that we’re suggesting will make sure it does not happen to you. And you know what? There’s one person out there that never, ever, ever forgets to do this and that’s the guy that’s had it happen. Never forget again.
LESLIE: I make truly.
TOM: Never forget again.
LESLIE: George in Texas is on the line with a driveway question. What can we do for you today?
GEORGE: Well, I was wondering about some- obtained big cracks in my concrete driveway. There anything to do with that?
TOM: So, are these new hits, George? Or have they been there for a while?
GEORGE: Yeah, they’ve been there for a while. The concrete’s probably 40 years old.
TOM: OK. And how wide are the crannies? How far open are they?
GEORGE: Maybe a 1/2 -inch.
TOM: Two things. Number one, you can repair these. And QUIKRETE makes a number of makes that are able. But one thing that you want to do is, because the crannies are so wide, is you’re going to have to insert what’s called a “backer rod” in there firstly, which is like a very small foam tube. And you press that down until it’s about a 1/2 -inch below the surface or maybe 3/8 -inch below the surface. And then you can use a flowable urethane caulk on top of that. And the reason you’re putting the ally perch in there is so that you don’t lose a lot of the joint-sealing material down all the way down to the ground.
And once you do this and if you do it right, then that seal will expand and contract and it won’t crack again, OK? So you material the cracking with the sponsor pole and then you restore it with a urethane sealant.
GEORGE: OK. What is it I’m putting first in the sound?
TOM: It’s called a “backer rod.” It’s like a sud tube.
GEORGE: Oh, OK.
TOM: It’s like a Styrofoam tube. It comes in different diameters.
LESLIE: To replenish the gap.
TOM: It’s precisely to fill the gap.
GEORGE: I visualize. OK. And then all those smaller ones merely don’t do that? Put the second item in there?
TOM: And then you apply the flowable urethane, OK? And that ought to do it.
GEORGE: OK. Thank you so much.
TOM: You’re welcome. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much better for announcing us at 888 -MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: Well, if you’re an enthusiastic DIYer and happen to have a garage, you can bet that there are many projects that get worked on in that space. But in winter, that gets a lot tougher as the garage is that one place under the roof which isn’t heated commonly. But today, garages are just likely to serve as laundry rooms, shops, play ranges or even cavities for your pets. So, adding garage heating is a task that can become a very popular project, especially since so few of us use that room for actually putting a auto in.
TOM: Yeah. Now, if this is a project you want to explore, the most common option is a forced-air heater. You’ve came options. These will give instant hot like a conventional furnace and they’re designed to solve any outdoor-heating need, which technically this is because it’s an unheated gap. They’re available in gas or electric. They’re easy to use and reasonably easy to install. And they’re a great way to warm up an part garage.
Now, if you’re abusing a gas-fired unit, of course you do need a gas text. You need an electrical outlet. The length depends on how much room you need to heat and where you are in the country.
LESLIE: Yeah. Now, a basic rule of thumb for forced-air garage heaters is that you’re going to need 45,000 BTUs to heat a 2 to 21/2 -car garage and 60,000 BTUs for a 3-car garage. So you’ve got to keep that in subconsciou by comparison to your home’s heating system, because that’s going to be a lot of extra heating expense.
TOM: Now, one way to cut down on that heating expenditure is to insulate your garage. Remember that usually simply the wall between the house and the garage is likely to contain insulation. And detached garages may have absolutely no isolation. So, insulate all those exterior walls and remember that the doors- the garage doorways; those large-scale, old openings- are not segregated for the best part but they’re easy to add insulation to. You can use foam bodies and contribute them to the inside of the garage door. And they can definitely help, as well as shorten racket transfer.
If you’re already considering a new garage doorway, though, make sure you specify an insulated one because it certainly computes a very small cost to the overall project.
LESLIE: Lynn in Arkansas is on the line and needs some help with a chimney. What can we do for you?
LYNN: Well, I have a 1980 s brick hearth. It is surrounded by library panel, so the brick-surface area is just the hearth and a row of bricks on either side of the fireplace and perhaps two rows of bricks above the fireplace until it converges the mantel and the library paneling from there up.
TOM: Right.
LYNN: I want to give it a facade. And I thought about stucco-ing it or plaster of Paris or perhaps tiling it. I want to attempt to do this myself and I didn’t know if I was overstepping my boundaries.
TOM: Leslie, I considered that tiling is kind of a cool notion, because that would be very attractive on a hearth. I like that a little better than stucco-ing it. What do you think?
LESLIE: Oh, yeah. I even like- outside of tiling, you can face it with marble or a granite. And that can really look beautiful and you can do that in a fuller expanse. They nearly do it in three sections and that reviews stupefying. You can also do it in a faux stone, so it looks like a ledgestone or a creek rock. That really yields it some characteristic. It’s elegant that way.
LYNN: Could this get immediately on top of the brick or would I was also necessary prep the brick? I imagine I is required to fill the brick grout indications to make it a smooth finish, perhaps, before tiling?
TOM: No, because the- well, the tile could pretty much go over that.
LESLIE: Right. And your adhesive.
TOM: It might be a little tricky. Yeah, you would adhere it right to the brick. It might be a little tricky on the grout but I don’t think you have to put any kind of sheathing over it or anything like that.
LYNN: OK. Cool.
LESLIE: I wouldn’t. I think your adhesive is going to be enough. The only instance is if you had a super-uneven surface. I had a very old fireplace that the surface was- it nearly was just a coral but it was this old cement stucco that was like coral, that was all uneven. And I introduced a cement card over that, time to give me a level playing field. But if you’ve got an even skin-deep, I think that’s the way to go.
LYNN: Wonderful. OK. I’m been trying to this.
TOM: Alright. Good luck with that job. Thanks so much for announcing us at 888 -MONEY-PIT.
LESLIE: What are you working on this almost holiday season? Whatever it is, we are here to give a hand. So is secure to affix your questions at Facebook.com/ TheMoneyPit, just like Debbie did.
Now, Debbie writes: “We have a 20 -year-old home that has the original oak cabinets in the kitchen. Is there a product that we can use that will prep them for make-up without all of the sanding? We’re going to be selling soon and don’t want to put in all of the time into them by sanding them.”
TOM: You know, I feel your grief being in a rush and all that but you can’t rush this project. I want if you do, it’s going to be one big-hearted mess. And a lot of meters we experience homeowners that are just trying to threw a whitewash on everything in the members of this house with a speedy coat of draw. And I tell you, as a home inspector, that does not bode well for my report. Because I suspect that you should have been a little more attention to your home care and maintenance by doing things right.
Now, if you want to take on this project, what you really ought to think about doing is thinly sanding – you don’t have to heavily sand- delicately sanding those skin-deeps and emptying them well to remove any grease and grime.
But one thing that will make it easier is to use the right kind of primer. There is a primer, Debbie, announced “high-bond primer” or “bonding primer.” And the distinctions between that and the category you might use on your walls is it’s designed to stick to the slick surfaces of the cabinets and the oil-based finishes and all that sort of stuff. I is undoubtedly apply a bonding primer followed by a solvent-based or oil-based topcoat, perhaps semi-gloss, so that the cabinets become cleanable.
If you do this right and you make love well, they’re going to stand up. You don’t demand the make-up to start peeling off as brand-new, prospective home buyers are walking through and opening up policy and looking at every crevice and cranny. It has actually sour the part spate if they think that the first thing they’d have to do is replace your kitchen.
LESLIE: And those painted boards can be really gorgeous. You’re absolutely right. And you know what? If you do a good job, it’s really going to give you a neat return on your investment.
TOM: Yep. Good point.
LESLIE: Alright. Next up, we’ve got a post here from Ann in Florida. She writes: “I live in a second-floor condo of a three-story building. The neighbour next to me really discovered that she has black mold grown in several of her walls. I have walls that are adjacent to some of hers. Should I obsess? ”
TOM: Possibly. I represent Florida is a damp, moist locate where you typically get a lot of mold. I think it’s obviously something you have to stay on top of. Because you have a connected wall there, if there was a leak that got, for example, into the wall- maybe even not is generated by your neighbour; it was feasible to precisely a roof spill in the building or something- it may start to grow inside that wall. And it’s not going to respect any property lines, I’ll tell you that. It’s going to come through all sides.
So, I would stay in touch with the neighbor and with the condominium association. Make sure that this is properly addressed which, by the way, doesn’t mean the upkeep guy goes in there with a bottle of bleach. One of the worst things you can do is have an amateur try to clean mold, because you release spores to the air. And if you’re sensitive to that special type of mold, you’re going to get very, very uncomfortable. So it needs to be taken care of by a professional.
So I is undoubtedly communicate that and especially to the association who is going to have ownership of those common organizations, who were able to the wall in between you and the neighbor. And do so in writing so that there is a documented record that you manufactured them aware of the problem and asked them to have it properly and professionally fixed.
LESLIE: Alright, Ann. Good luck with that. Remember, the quicker you tackle this problem, the less of an issue it’s going to be. So get right on it.
TOM: This is The Money Pit Home Improvement Show. And we want to take a moment time to say thank you- thank you all- for make time out of your period to listen to this program. We hope that we accompanying value to their own lives. We hope that we fetching appraise to your residence improvement and decor projects. And we will be here if something sounds up in your fund quarry and you need a hand. You can always reach us at MoneyPit.com. Post your question right there or through one of our social-media canals or announce us, 24/7, at 1-888-MONEY-PIT. If we’re not in the studio, we will call you back the next time we are.
But for now, it’s time to go. 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.
( Copyright 2020 Squeaky Door Make, Inc. No component of this transcript or audio enter may be reproduced in any format without the express written authorization of Squeaky Door Product, Inc .)
The post Episode # 2048: Germ Free Faucet | Avoiding Frozen Pipe Bursts | Best Garage Heaters | Painting Kitchen Locker saw first on The Money Pit.