November 22, 2025 • 39 mins
In this episode of Home in Progress, sponsored by RepcoLite Paints and Benjamin Moore, Dan tackles one of the most common chimney problems—and it has nothing to do with fire. He explains how water finds its way into brick, mortar, and chimney caps, how to spot the signs early, and what homeowners can do to fix and prevent damage.From there, Dan shifts into the “ghost stories” hiding inside older homes: knob-and-tube wiring, cast-iron plumbing, galvanized supply lines, and those enormous gravity furnaces sometimes called “octopus” systems. He breaks down what they are, why they’re still out there, and what you need to know if you’re buying or renovating an older house.A listener question leads to a practical step-by-step fix for painted-over wallpaper glue, including how to safely prep, clean, and prime the wall for a smooth finish.Finally, Dan shares a few personal ghost stories from his own 1900s home—strange noises, odd shadows, and one unforgettable week of unexplained events—and uses them as a segue into the importance of proper inspections and hiring qualified specialists when working with old home systems.Episode Timeline00:00 Welcome to Home in Progress00:14 The Most Common Chimney Problem00:35 House-Related Ghost Stories01:22 Listener’s Wallpaper-Glue Dilemma02:35 Solving the Wallpaper-Paste Problem06:39 Priming for a Perfect Finish10:22 Real Ghost Experiences18:16 Unexplained Events in the Old House18:43 Transition to Practical Home Improvement20:18 Understanding Knob-and-Tube Wiring25:07 Cast-Iron & Galvanized Plumbing29:22 Gravity Furnaces: The “Octopus” in the Basement32:34 Chimney Maintenance & Water Damage38:57 Final Thoughts
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey, everybody, thanks for tuning in. You're listening to Home
in Progress, sponsored by repcole Like Paints and Benjamin More.
And because you're here, your Saturday is off to like
a rock and good start. Anyway, this week, we're gonna
be talking about a chimney problem. In fact, it's the
chimney problem that results in the biggest repair bills and
(00:23):
the most damage. And surprisingly it's got pretty much nothing
to do with fire, nothing to do with fire at all.
We're gonna get to that so that you can make
sure that your chimney's not in the danger zone. All right.
We're also gonna be talking about ghost stories. Got all
of that right, ghost stories. My voice broke horribly there.
We're not gonna be talking about legit, well not completely
(00:46):
about legit ghost stories. We're gonna be talking about the
house related kind of ghost stories. I'm being a little
bit figurative, a little bit cute with my language here.
We're gonna be digging into the old, outdated systems that
still haunt older homes. See what I'm doing ghost stories there.
We'll talk about those old systems, those outdated systems that
we can find in older homes and what you should do,
(01:08):
if anything, when you run into them. You know, you're
looking for houses, trying to find the right house. You
find this cute old house, outdated systems inside. What do
you do? Do you run away? Do you invest a
ton of money in fixing it. We'll talk about all
of that coming up, but right now, let's go to
my inbox because last week I received a great question
(01:29):
from a listener, a really, really good question, and there's
a ton to dig into. It's a five star question,
and before I get into answering it, I should stop
for a second and say that if you've got a
paint question or a design question or anything like that,
email me at radio at Repcolit dot com or direct
message Repcolite on Facebook or Instagram and ask away. If
(01:52):
I use your question on the show, I'll send you
a coupon for a free gallon of Benjamin Moore or
Repcolite paint, which is what I'm doing for this particular listener.
And I'm not giving out any names. I have not
given out any addresses. We haven't made fun of anybody.
So there is no fear in asking your question. Ask
your question. It's all upside. You know, I'll get you
(02:16):
your answer, and maybe if I use your question on air,
you'll get free stuff, and everybody loves free stuff. Anyway.
Here's the question that I received. Quote. We are working
on a house and we think somebody painted over wallpaper glue.
Any idea is how to remove that or at least
make it smooth. All right, let's start with the problem
(02:37):
and what's exactly going on here when people strip wallpaper
from their walls. You know, everybody hates this job anyway,
so we try to get through it as fast as
we can, right, and we normally skimp and cut corners here,
just because we're so sick of it. You know, we
would rather do anything than strip wallpaper. I'd rather clean Well,
(02:58):
I'm not going to go into that because it's early
in the morning. Some people are eating breakfast. But a
lot of us would rather do anything on earth than
strip wallpaper. So when we do strip wallpaper, we tend
to cut corners a little bit, We skimp, We want
to be done quicker than we should be, and sometimes
we don't get all of the wallpaper paste off the walls. Now,
the walls look good, or can look good. They can
(03:19):
look clean, they can feel good when they dry after
you remove the paper, and a lot of people think
and hope and just knock on wood and figure they're
good to go, and they go ahead and roll their
latex paint on. But here's the big butt wallpaper paste
is water soluble, and any residue that's left behind can
be reactivated by the water in the water based paint.
(03:40):
That's not necessarily going to be every single time reactivated,
but it can be. And often when this happens, it
can result in a texturing that occurs in your finish paint.
It can also result in a patche or uneven sheen,
you know, in the finish of your paint, and there
are other issues that can happen. Now. Sometimes people see
that it's happening right away and they freak out and
(04:02):
they stop painting until they figure out what's going on.
Sometimes they don't notice, you know, they just finished the
room and they notice it later. Sometimes they notice and
they just don't care, right, they don't care. They're moving.
It's gonna be somebody else's problem to deal with anyway.
When the paint dries, often you've got this texturing problem
or sheen problem or whatever that's pretty much locked into
(04:23):
the surface. Sometimes it's way worse than other times. I
had one customer years back who had stripped a wallpaper
border off the wall, you know, just a wallpaper border
at cheer rail height. They didn't get all the paste off,
and they called the store wondering why in the world
there was this weird texture all around the newly painted
room right where the border had been. You know, that
(04:44):
one was really obvious. Now sometimes it's less than that.
Sometimes it's you know, just in a few areas on
the wall. But either way, when it happens, it's absolutely
no fun, and it's something that can dramatically affect the
look of your finished paint, you know, especially where you've
got this real bumpy area exactly where a wallpaper border
had been, right at chair rail height. You can't really
(05:05):
move on from that. So that's what causes the problem,
and that's what the problem looks like. That's what the
listener is dealing with. But what do you do with
it now? You know, now that there's paint on it
in the paint stry well, Sadly, sadly, there's only one
really you know, valid solution at this point, and that's
to sand that texture smooth. You know, it's necessary and
(05:29):
nothing else is going to make that area blend back in.
So depending on how heavy that texture is, you could
start with a one twenty grit maybe a one fifty
grit paper and start sanding it down. You're trying to
knock down all the rough spots, and then once you've
got the bulk of that sanded, move to a one
eighty or a two to twenty grit to smooth it
all out a little bit. Now, if you've got a
(05:49):
larger area, you know, not just a few spots, but
a big area that you're covering, you know, you're probably
gonna want to consider investing in a dry wall sanding head.
You know. There are some that are handheld. You know,
you attach your sandpaper to them and it gives you
this nice flat standing surface with a handle to hold
on to, like a big sanding block with a handle.
That works really well. If you've got bigger areas, you know,
(06:11):
full walls, go get a drywall sander head that will
attach to an extension pole. It's going to dramatically speed
up that sanding process and you can get a little
more oomph on it, you know, oomph that's a technical
term we use that in the paint world. And when
we're talking about sanding, you want to have oomph on it.
So the extension pole is going to help you do that. Now,
once you've got everything sanded and you've got the dust
(06:34):
wiped off with a damp rag, you know, you've got
to get that dust off, then you're not ready to
paint yet. You've got to prime those areas to lock
down any remaining paste. Now, if you don't do this,
there's the possibility, and sometimes it's a really good possibility,
that any remaining wallpaper paste residue will again be reactivated
when you put your paint down, and the problem is
(06:55):
just going to repeat. And the last thing on earth
that you want to do after stripping wall, painting your wall,
sanding your walls smooth again, and then painting them again
is to have to sam them once again. Right, you'll
just leave the house at that point. So you've got
to make sure that you fixed the problem entirely, and
to do that to lock that wallpaper paste residue any
(07:18):
that might be remaining. To lock it down, there are
a couple different options. The first, the old school method,
is to use an alkid primer like Repcolites proflow primer
or Benjamin Moore's fresh Start oil primer. Now, these are
the best options if the paste was heavy, or if
you want absolutely zero risk. You know, water activated paste
isn't going to be activated by an oil based primer.
(07:38):
It's going to seal it in, lock it down, and
then you can top coat those oil based primers with
a water based paint. No problem. You know, there's no
water and oil problem when you're talking about an oil
based primer. Go ahead with your water based paint over top.
So lock it down with an oil primer. That's the surefire,
silver bullet way to go. A second option is a
water based option, and it's a product called Guards gar
(08:01):
Dz Guards. It's probably how the word should be spelled,
but Gardz. It's a product from Zinzer. We carry it,
and it's designed for trouble surfaces. And one of those
trouble surfaces is locking down wallpaper paste tresadue. Now, even
though this product is water based, it's specifically formulated not
to reactivate the paste. Either of those options will work,
(08:23):
the oil based primers or guards. Either one will lock
it down. Now, once you've got the surface sealed and
the primer's dried, then you can top coat with your
wallpaint of choice, and you move on with life from there. Now,
the last thing I'll say about all of this today
is this, if you want to avoid this problem in
the first place, be really diligent when you strip wallpaper
and work really hard to remove all of that paste residue.
(08:45):
You know, once you think you have all of it off,
a really good test is to lightly miss some areas
of your wall with water and then run your hand
over those spots. If it still feels slimy or slippery,
there's paste residue there that you've got to still get off.
So keep cleaning no matter what. You know, even if
it feels clean. You know, when you do that little
water test, I'd always recommend using either of those two
(09:05):
primer options that I mentioned earlier. If you're going to
be painting that area, that extra priming step. You know,
even if you think you did it really well and
you got it really clean, that extra priming step can
save you a ton of headache down the road. Okay,
most of us love a good ghost story. There's just
something really fun about them, and usually it's the setting
that makes them work. You know, old houses, creaky floors,
(09:27):
strange sounds, histories we don't fully understand. Well, let's talk
about some of those old houses and the ghost stories
that they really come with. Not the supernatural kind, though
those are really fun, but the outdated systems that are
still lurking in the walls, hiding under the floors, haunting
the place. When you or someone in your family walks
into an older home and stumbles across these remnants of
(09:49):
the past, what in the world do you do? Do
you run? Do you figure you're going to have to
just drop a ton of money to get the house
up to speed? What do you do? We'll get into
all of that right after. This Home in Progress is
brought to you by repcol Like Paints and Benjamin Moore.
You know, people often think of paint as just another
line item on the project's supply list. But here's the thing.
Everything you do, every hour of prep, every stroke of
(10:11):
the brush, all comes down to the quality of the paint.
The paint is the project. Make sure it's the best.
And we're back. You're listening to Home in Progress sponsored
by repcoal Like Paints and Benjamin Moore, And right now
I want to jump into something that I don't think
I've ever shared on the show My ghost Experience. Now.
I know I said at the end of last segment
(10:31):
that we're not going to dig into the whole ghost
story thing from a supernatural point of view, but that's
not entirely true, because I do want to dig into
that a little bit, just because it's really really fun
and it makes the rest of this palatable. I mean,
it's always brilliant. Everything that falls from my mouth is brilliant.
(10:53):
I know it's not. I just tell myself that so
I can get through the day. But this ghost story
stuff makes it a little more, a little more interesting. Now.
I'm not a big ghost person. I want to say
that right up front. So don't send me letters telling
me it's all false, you know. I don't want letters
or emails saying that, And don't send me letters the
other way, you know, inviting me to ghost hunter outings
or things like that. I know there are things out
(11:15):
there that I don't understand. Oh my goodness, there are
so many things out there that I don't understand. But
I don't get all spooky and buy into the stuff
really really, very very quickly. All right. So with that
out of the way all of this happened that I'm
going to relate. All of these things happened at my
first house over the course of about a single week,
and it happened about twenty four years ago or so. Now,
(11:37):
the house was old when we were living there. It
was built in the early nineteen hundreds in Zealand, you know,
nineteen ten, nineteen, something like that. I don't remember. It
was a great little house, you know. It really didn't
harbor all kinds of spooky surprises for ninety nine percent
of the time we were there, until the point when
I renovated the upstairs. Now, the first thing that made
(12:01):
me wonder if something weird was going on was in
regards to the silverware drawer. You know, shortly after completing
that upstairs renovation, I got up one morning to get
ready for work, and I opened the drawer. You know,
I want a spoon for my Captain crunch, right, the
crunch stuff needs to be consumed. I need my spoon
to do that. I can't just shovel it into my
(12:21):
mouth with my hands. Well I can, but I've been
told that that's not proper. So I needed a spoon.
I opened up the silverware drawer, and that drawer it
had wooden dividers built into it for spoons, forks, knives,
and then it had a front compartment that ran side
to side, you know, across the drawer for all the
weird odds and ends, you know, grapefruit spoons, pary knives,
(12:42):
those little nubbly poky things that you hold corn on
the cob with, you know, all of that went in
that weird little front compartment. Anyway, that front compartment, when
I opened it up, was full of all of our silverware,
all of the other compartments. They were empty on my
wife and I. We were the only ones in the
house at that point who could reach the silverwear drawer,
(13:05):
you know, or pull it open. We had two kids
back then, but they were babies, they were twins, and
while Hanson children, you know, they are at the forefront
of society and and everything, there's still babies. They even
being Hanson babies, they were incapable of opening drawers and
moving silverware around. So it wasn't them, clearly, it wasn't them.
(13:29):
In the end, my wife and I kind of decided
jokingly that maybe one of us was sleepwalking and did
it right okay. We didn't think much about it until
a few days later when I came home from work
and the silverware drawer was all messed up again. Trying
to eat my Captain Crunch and the silverware drawer is
messed up again. Because Captain Crunch isn't just a breakfast food.
It's a little pick me up in the middle of
(13:51):
the day too. Anyway, the silverware drawers all messed up,
same thing. It's really weird at that point. To me.
I put it right, and I'm kind of thinking about it.
So I get the vacuum out. You know, I've got
other cleaning to do, other things to do, So I'm
cleaning and thinking about the silverware drawar thing, and as
I'm vacuuming the carpets. And this is really tough to
describe on the radio. When I tell the story in person,
(14:14):
I can show people what I was doing. But picture this.
I'm in the middle of the room, and I'm pushing
the vacuum forward, right, I walk behind it and push
it forward, and then I pull it back all the way,
you know, to the other side of the room. It's
not the best vacuuming technique. I was a rookie at
that point. I've developed my skills since then, but at
(14:34):
that point, that's how I did it. I'd push it
all the way to one end and then pull it
all all the way back to the other side. And
when I'm walking back to the other side, I'm looking backwards.
I'm looking where I'm walking, and the vacuum's kind of
in front of me behind, you know what I'm saying.
I can't see the vacuum at that point because I'm
looking the other direction. That's the point. Anyway, I did
(14:55):
that once, did that twice. On the third time, I'm
in the middle of the room walking back. All of
a sudden, the vacuum like snags something or something. It
lurches in the air like three to four inches and
slams back down to the carpet. Like I said, I
wasn't looking at it, so I didn't know what happened.
But I assumed from the feeling, the tug on it
(15:15):
and all of that, I assumed that one of the
attachment tubes had fallen loose and had kind of jammed
into the carpet and kind of caused the vacuum to
jump up in the air and fall down Anyway, when
I looked at the vacuum and tried to figure out
what happened, all of the attachments are on the vacuum.
Everything is in place where it should be, and there's
nothing anywhere in the room. I'm in the middle of
(15:37):
the room. There is nothing, not even carpet fibers that
I could have snagged. Everything is fine. I have no
idea to this day what caused the vacuum to jump
three inches in the air and slam back down to
the floor. No idea. I can't explain it. So all
of that was weird, right, but I still put it
out of my mind until a couple days later when
my mother in law came to see the upstairs room.
(15:59):
You know, she wanted the sea the work I had done,
so I was outside when she pulled in. I was
getting ready to mow the yard. She walked into the
house telling me she was gonna go check out that room,
and I went to work mowing the yard, and I
can still picture it. I was on the front yard
mowing and I looked up and I saw her looking
out of that upstairs window in that renovated room, and
(16:19):
I waved because I'm you know, inherently and always friendly.
I waved and she just kind of stared at me,
didn't wave back. I assumed, you know, she was dissing me. Now, really,
I assumed that she was just looking in another direction.
You know, I couldn't see her face clearly or see
where she was looking specifically. I could just see that
she was there, so I assumed she was looking in
(16:39):
another direction. Anyway, I wrapped up the mowing and I
headed into the house. I found her in the living
room holding one of the babies, and I asked her
how to that room? Look, you know, I wanted the praise,
I wanted all of that. I was eager to be
told what an amazing job I had done. And of
course she responded, you know, you know where she's where
I'm going with this, because you're way ahead of me.
(16:59):
She responded by saying she hadn't even gone up to
the space yet and was just getting ready to do so. Well,
I completely figured they were messing with me, you know,
her and my wife, but they were adamant. They stuck
to their guns. They had never left this room. She
walked in, went straight to the chair, picked up a baby,
and they sat there until the moment when I walked in,
and then she went upstairs. She had never gone up there.
(17:22):
She said, well, I was dead sure I'd seen somebody.
And with all the weird stuff that had happened that week,
I began to wonder if something even weirder was going
on at my house. Well, the last thing that happened
during that really, really memorable week happened to my wife.
We had a small bathroom in that house and it
had no lock on the door. So I installed this tiny,
little flimsy sliding lock on it so people could have
(17:44):
some semblance of privacy. You know, I was the only
one who really used it. My wife was never really
one for lock doors or the need for privacy, but
for me, privacy was paramount. So I put that little
lock on there, and during that week, at the end
of that weird week, my wife I went through about
three days straight of being locked in that bathroom. Every
single time she went in, she didn't lock it. The
(18:07):
door locked on her. She never saw it lock, and
she swore she wasn't doing the locking. And no matter
what we tried, we could not make it happen on
its own. Never happened to me, but every time she'd
go in there, or many times that she'd go in
there during that end of that week, she'd find that
door locked on her, that little sliding bolt you know,
set in place. So a lot of crazy stuff in
(18:30):
that old house. You know, who knows what was going on.
Maybe we were imagining things. That's possible. Maybe the previous
owners weren't thrilled with my renovation choices or my color
choices or whatever. Either way, it made for a really
memorable week. So what's the paint point, the home improvement point. Well,
rather than talk further about the mysterious and the supernatural,
let's talk about a more practical, aka boring type of
(18:54):
haunting that's going on in many older homes. And I'm
referring to old, out of date systems hiding behind the
walls and in the floors of our old houses. And
if you think I'm making a leap here, I am.
I really wanted to talk about ghost stories and this
was the best way I could think to make that legit.
And still, you know, pay my bills and do my
(19:15):
due diligence by talking about home improvement stuff. All Right,
I've got a friend that within the last few years
or so, fell in love with the nineteen twenties Bungalow house.
The woodwork, the built into the character, everything in the
house was perfect. But then Heena's wife went through the
house and started spotting some of these spirits from the
past that were haunting this perfect little house. Nobin tube wiring,
(19:38):
cast iron plumbing, an old octopus furnace, just to name
a few, And they ended up trying to do a
ton of research in a quick way to figure out
what all of that meant, you know, and whether or
not they could or should move on the house or
keep looking. So today I want to break down some
common old house systems that you might encounter, what they
mean for your home, and when you actually need to
worry about them, and whether your house hunting or not.
(20:00):
These are really interesting systems. I keep saying it's boring.
It's not boring at all. They're interesting systems, and knowing
about them it's really going to make you seem that
much smarter when your kids start house hunting, or your grandkids,
or when people at a party ask about an octopus furnace,
what's that you're going to know? All right, So let's
start with the electrical system, because really This is usually
(20:23):
that first blast from the past that scares buyers. And
I want to talk specifically about noob and tube wiring. Now,
noob and tube it was the standard wiring method from
the late eighteen hundreds or so through the nineteen thirties
and even into the early forties. In some parts of
the country. You'll still see bits of it and homes
built well into the fifties. So if you're looking at
(20:44):
anything built before nineteen fifty, there's a real chance that
you'll run into, you know, noob and tube wiring. And
it gets its name from the ceramic tubes that the
wires ran through and the ceramic knobs that held everything
in place. And here's something a lot of people don't expacked.
For its time, it was actually a really well designed system.
You know, the wide spacing, the wire's cool, the porcelain
(21:07):
components they don't deteriorate, and the copper conductors they can
last a long, long, long, long time. And here's a
part that really surprises people. Nob and two wiring is
not inherently dangerous. Old copper doesn't wear out just because
it's old. The problems that we encounter with nob and
two wiring comes from three basic things. First off, there's
(21:29):
no ground wire, and that means you can't safely use
three prong appliances, and there's no protection if a fault occurs.
And while the National Electrical Code the NEEC doesn't specifically
ban old nob and tube wiring from existing in a house,
it does prohibit ungrounded wiring in kitchens, bathrooms and other
wet areas. So if you find active nob and tube
(21:50):
wiring serving those spaces, it's automatically not cool. It's automatically
not up to modern standards. So that's the first thing. Second,
nob and tube was never intended, of course, it was
never intended for today's electrical loads. Right, we're asking a
system designed for a couple of lights in maybe a radio,
(22:11):
you know, the talking box, We're asking that system to
handle microwaves, air conditioners, computers, TVs and everything else we
plug in. It's just not suited for that kind of
heavy lifting. Third, and this is usually the big one, insulation.
You know, nob and tube wiring was designed to sit
out in the open air, so it could release heat.
The moment you bury it in blown in insulation, you
(22:33):
can trap that heat, and that creates a fire hazard. Now,
For that reason, the National Electric Code the NEC generally
doesn't allow insulation over active nob and tube, and most
local jurisdictions follow that rule. Now a few Western states California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho,
they've carved out really specific exceptions to the rule, but
(22:54):
they require, you know, special inspections and contractor certifications and
all that to get around or to fill in or
to make those exceptions fly. For most of the country, though,
the bottom line is pretty simple. If you want to
insulate your home, then noob and tube usually has to
be replaced. Now, another thing to keep in mind, many
older homes have been partially rewired over the years. You
(23:16):
might have modern wiring in the kitchen and the bathrooms,
but original knob and tubes still running to other areas.
Now when old and new systems are connected improperly, which
does happen, unfortunately, it can create additional hazards. So with
all of that said, if you find noob and tube
in a house that you're considering, you need to just
start by having it thoroughly evaluated by an electrician who
(23:39):
understands older systems, and that inspection is really really important,
especially before you start any renovation work. Of any kind.
If the wiring is original, if it's unmodified, in good shape,
it's in open and dry areas, it could easy be
safe to live with for now. But if you want
to insulate your home, and most homeowners eventually do, or
(24:00):
if any of the wiring happens to run through damp
locations or anything like that, replacement usually becomes the safest
and the most practical option. Now, rewiring a home typically
runs anywhere from twelve thousand to thirty six thousand, depending
on the size and the access, so it's a major project.
But again it's often necessary because many insurance companies just
(24:20):
won't cover homes with active knob and tube wiring, or
they require, you know, really strict conditions, you know, like
a licensed electrician certification that it's safe, maybe an agreement
to replace the system within a specific timeframe. Some insurers
they're only going to offer coverage if a small portion
of the home still has nob and tube. The availability
(24:41):
of insurance varies by carrier and by state, so you
need to do your research there. You know, I can't
make a sweeping generalization for all the insurance companies out there,
but the bottom line is that noob and tube wiring
can significantly complicate getting homeowner's insurance. I think we can
say it safely that way. It makes it more complicated.
(25:01):
So you're gonna want to dig into that, all right.
That's one little goodie that can be haunting an old home. Now,
let's talk about plumbing, and in this case, there are
two older systems that you need to understand, cast iron
and galvanized steel. Now, cast iron that was used for drain,
waste and vent lines from the eighteen hundreds, late eighteen
hundreds through the nineteen seventies. It's incredibly durable. Many systems last,
(25:25):
you know, eighty to one hundred years or more, but
it does corrode from both the inside and the outside.
Inside sewage, you gotta love that. Sewage produces hydrogen sulfide gas,
which turns into sulfuric acid, and that slowly can eat
away at the metal. Now, outside soil conditions, especially acidic
or moist soils, can attack the pipe over time, and
(25:47):
eventually the iron, you know, is going to rust through. Now,
common signs of a failing cast iron system includes sewer
odors in the home. What's that smell? Sure does smell
like the sewer Boyd, that's a tip off that maybe
the cast iron system is failing. So sewer orders in
the home, that's a big tip off, slow drains, backups,
(26:09):
gurgling sounds, wet spots in the yard. Now, if you've
got rust colored water in your sink, that's usually pointing
to old galvanized supply lines, not cast iron drains, but
rust flakes around floor drains and deteriorated cleanouts. All of
those things can indicate trouble. If you're seeing any of this,
it's time for a plumber to run a camera inspection
and let you know exactly where you're at. Now, the
(26:31):
good news, the good news in all of that is
that modern pipe relining methods. We've talked about these on
the show probably a year or two ago. I'll dig
that up and put a link in the show notes.
But modern pipe relining methods can sometimes extend the life
of cast iron without tearing everything up. A resin liner
can be inserted into the pipe and cured in place,
(26:52):
and that gives you a smooth new interior. It's way
less invasive than a full replacement. But if the pipe
is severely deeriorated, complete replacement maybe unavoidable, and that usually runs,
you know, anywhere from ten to thirty thousand, depending on
the house. Galvanized steel pipes, So we just covered cast
iron systems. Now let's talk about galvanized steel pipes. They're different.
(27:15):
They were used for freshwater supply lines, you know, the
water coming into the home from the twenties through the
nineteen sixties. And basically what these are are steel pipes
coated with zinc. Now the idea was really really good,
but over time that zinc wears away and the steel
begins to rust from the inside out. Now, galvanized pipes,
they've got a lifespan of probably about forty to fifty
(27:36):
years or so, sometimes less in areas with harder, mineral
heavy water. So if your home was built before nineteen
sixty and the original plumbing is still in place, those
pipes are kind of beyond their expected life span. So
I love just dishing out great news on a Saturday
(27:56):
morning or whenever you catch this show, but that is
the reality, and there are some warning signs. You can
look for low water pressure, especially on the hot water side,
brown or rusty water from the taps, visible rust at
the pipe joints, leaks, you know, a leak is always
a sign that something's not right. I don't know what's
(28:17):
going on, but that leak tells me something's not right.
The tricky thing with galvanized is that it can look
perfectly fine from the outside while being almost completely clogged,
let's say, on the inside. You know, I've seen water
supply lines reduced to the diameter of a pencil, you know,
but outside they look fine. Replacing all of these things again,
(28:38):
really hard to give numbers to this, but it could
cost anywhere from eight thousand to twenty thousand for a
typical house, you know, depending on size, number of stories,
whether it's on a slab or has a basement. Modern
options are copper or PEX tubing. Pex is now probably
the most common because it's faster, it's cheaper, it's more
forgiving if water freezes in the lines. All of that,
(29:01):
here's one important note before we move on. Some insurance
companies won't ensure homes with active galvanized plumbing, or they'll
charge significantly higher premiums. So replacing those pipes often isn't
a comfort upgrade. It's a requirement. All right. There's a
couple different things haunting our homes. Let's move on and
talk about one more little ghost that's lurking, and I
(29:23):
want to talk about gravity furnaces. These are massive cast
iron systems that were installed from the late eighteen hundreds
through the nineteen fifties, and they're commonly called octopus furnaces
because of the great, big, huge tentacle like ducks spreading
out from the center. They're like monsters that live in
your basement. They're nightmare fuel if you're a small child.
(29:46):
And unlike modern forced air systems, these older systems, these
gravity furnaces, they rely entirely on natural convection, you know,
hot air rises, cold air falls, and because of that,
they're usually only about you know, fifty percent of the
you know, don't get all hung up on that, but
that seems to be the general easiest way to state
(30:08):
that about fifty percent efficient. You know. So in practical terms,
what I'm getting at is you burn a lot more
fuel for the same amount of heat that you get
from a more efficient system. You also can't add central
air conditioning to a gravity system. There's simply no blower
to push air across an ac coil or move it
through the house. You know, the system wasn't designed for it,
(30:28):
so central air just isn't an option until the furnace
and the duct work are replaced. And on top of that,
many of these old furnaces and their ducks were originally
wrapped in asbestos insulation. You know, now, that doesn't automatically
mean danger and that you should freak out, but it
does mean that you can't just tear these things out
by yourself. So if you find one of these furnaces
still in operation in your home, assume that it's nearing
(30:51):
the end of its useful life, you know, replacement for one,
especially once you factor in asbestos abatement and new duct work.
Typically that report placement's going to run anywhere between eight
thousand and fifteen thousand, but that is just you know,
for starters. It depends on how things shake out, how
things go, how big the house is. It could go higher,
(31:12):
you know, you could be in the twenty thousand dollars range.
You just need to get those quotes. That's not what
I'm here for. I'm trying to give you a ballpark
to help you decide if it's time to run away
or if it's something you can budget for. Anyway, if
you're looking at an older home wrapping everything up, you know,
and we've got a lot of beautiful historic housing here.
If you're looking at an older home, get a thorough
(31:34):
home inspection. It's a really good argument for why that's important.
But also beyond just that inspection, consider bringing in specialists.
You know, a home inspector. They're going to give you
this big picture overview, but an electrician who understands nob
and tube wiring, a plumber who can run a camera
through your drains, and an HVAC tech who's actually worked
on those old octopus furnaces. Those folks are going to
(31:57):
be able to give you specific, actionable information. It's going
to help you decide and make better plans regarding what
is your next step and what you should be doing
moving forward with that particular house. Now, don't let any
of this really scare you away from a house that
you love. Older homes are incredible. They're often better built
in many key ways, and they've got character that you
(32:18):
can't recreate, and they're in established neighborhoods with mature trees
and a real history. So a lot going for these
older homes. Just go in with your eyes open. Know
what you're buying, Understand what may need attention, and plan accordingly.
All right, let's shift gears. What do you think causes
the most damage to chimneys. It's actually not fire related
(32:39):
at all. We'll talk about what it is and most importantly,
what you can do to prevent it. Right after this.
Homing Progress is brought to you by Repcolite Paints and
Benjamin Moore. Think about it. You spend hours prepping, sandy, taping,
and then finally painting. Don't throw all that work away
with an inferior product. The paint isn't just another supply.
The paint is the project. Make sure it's the and
(33:00):
we're back. You're listening to Home in Progress, sponsored by
Repcolite Paints and Benjamin Moore. And a couple of weeks ago,
I talked about the roof leak that I had up
near my chimney, and like all home projects, the more
I dug in, the more I learned. And one thing
I didn't talk about in that segment, but I really
should have was the chimney itself. You know there are
something like, yeah, I don't know, forty million, I think
(33:23):
was the number I ran across. Forty million masonry chimneys
in North America, and the most common problem that they
deal with is water, not fire, not critters, but water.
So what's the deal with that. Why in the world
is water such a big problem for chimneys. Well, first off,
brick and mortar themselves are basically like sponges, you know,
every time it rains, they soak up water. And then
(33:44):
in Michigan we've got our freeze thought cycles that turn
that moisture that's in the brick and in the mortar
turns it into cracks, crumbling mortar, and spawling brick. So,
right off the bat, you've got, you know, just the
very nature of the bricks and the mortar themselves make
water the issue. Second, you've got the chimney crown. You
know that slab at the top that should be concrete,
(34:05):
It should be sloped, and it should be overhanging the
brick to get the water away from the brick. But
many crowns are just thin mortar, they're cracked, they're flat,
or they're flush with the chimney, so that water ends
up running straight down the side and right back in
through the bricks. So that's a huge problem. Third, you've
got flashing around the chimney, you know, it's the metal
(34:25):
where the chimney meets the roof. It's that metal band
right there. And if that metal band around that chimney
and it isn't sealed well, or if it's not installed correctly,
water can sneak right behind it and into the attic.
So water can cause all kinds of problems around a chimney.
So what do we do as homeowners? You know, if
we're not seeing water dripping into the attic or anything
(34:46):
like that, do we just figure we're fine and we
just wait, or is there anything that we should be
looking at? Well, there are a few things, of course,
that you can look at and check out to kind
of determine the health of your chimney. And first look
for white chalky stains on the brick. If you see
a lot of white chalky stains on the bricks of
your chimney, that's efflorescence, and that means that moisture is
(35:08):
moving through the brick. Efflorescence, it's basically salt deposits, is
what it boils down to. We talk about it inside
the home, you know, and every time you see efflorescence,
it just means there's a moisture issue taking place, all right.
So if you see white, chalky stains on the bricks,
that's a bit of a warning sign. If you see
spawling bricks where the faces are popping off, you know
(35:29):
that's a warning sign, right. That means water is causing that.
Like we mentioned the freeze thought cycles. Water gets in
freezes and it will start to degrade the brick. You
see spawling, So look for those things. Look for cracked
mortar joints or missing pieces of mortar. You know, that's
something to pay attention to. Check out that crown. If
it's flat, if it's cracked, if it doesn't have an overhang,
(35:52):
all of those things are issues that you're going to
want to explore further. If there's gaps in the flashing,
you know, or the flashing isn't sealed, well, again, that's
a concern and you should get somebody out there to
take a look at that. So what do you do
if you find some of these things. I can't cover everything.
I will cover as much as I can in the
time i'm left with. But if you've got crown issues,
(36:15):
you know, hairline cracks or something like that, A lot
of pros will come out and they'll brush on and
elast Americ coating and on. The last Americ coating is
just a real it's basically a rubberized coating. It goes
on like paint, but it's just really really thick. It's stretchy,
and it's for the crown and it will seal it
(36:36):
in and protect it. If you've got large cracks or
a flat mortar only crown, well then you're probably looking
at a rebuild. You know, have to get somebody out
there to rebuild it. You know, if it doesn't have
the overhang or anything like that, it's going to have
to be rebuilt. And so you're going to want to
get some some quotes on that. If you're experiencing water problems,
I would for sure if you notice those things, get
(36:56):
an inspector out there who can look it over and
give you some good advice. You know, as he's looking
at exactly or she is looking at exactly what you're
dealing with, so crown issues, that's what you would do
with some of those things. If you've got damaged brick
or mortar, you know, spawling bricks or deteriorated joints you're
probably gonna need a mason or a chimney pro out
(37:16):
there to help you fix that. If you've got flashing problems,
get a good roofer. You know, they'll come out and
fix it. If you've got flashing concerns, a lot of
roofing companies will come out and they'll give you a
free estimate to diagnose if you do have an issue
out there above Roofine, Sheriff, Goslin, Roofinge, they'll all come
out and, do you know, just a free inspection and
(37:37):
give you some good info that you can run with.
Waterproofing the chimney, this is something that's a really good option.
It's something that you probably should be doing on a
regular basis. At Repcolite, we've got a great option, all
Pro Waterproofing Sealer. It's one hundred percent clear acrylic sealer
creates a really strong, flexible, breathable coding that deeply penetrates
(37:58):
porous substrates like the brick. It's going to protect them,
waterproof them, but still allow moisture vapor to escape. That's
really important. Don't paint your chimney bricks with some kind
of you know, film forming coding like that. Elastameric. That
Elasta America I mentioned is for the crown only. Don't
be painting anything up there without consulting an experts. So
(38:18):
if you've got issues or concerns about your chimney, talk
to the right people. And if you're thinking that you'd
like to get a waterproofer on those bricks as a
good preventative maintenance project, stop out at your nearest Rep
Colite store. Tell us what you're working on, you know
what you got going, and we'll walk you through everything
you need to know to make sure you do it right.
And like I said, don't seal those bricks with anything
(38:39):
without talking about it first with some experts. Not just
talking about it, talk about it with some experts. Stop
out at a store, at a Rep Coolite and talk
to us about it. Because using the wrong product on
those bricks can actually potentially make the situation worse. So
don't do that. Talk to us. We'll help you do
it right. All right, that's going to do it for
this episode of Home in Progress. If you enjoyed what
(39:01):
you heard, please consider subscribing to the show. Please consider
leaving a review, unless it's a really bad one. Then
you can consider leaving a review, but i'd encourage you
not to. In the end, decide to leave a review
if it's a good review, a positive review, a glowing review.
By all means, leave one or twelve, I don't even care.
(39:23):
Make sure you share the show with your friends and
all of that stuff. I've got links to some of
the resources that I mentioned in this episode. I've got
links in the show notes, so check those out. I'm
pretty much rambling right now, so i'm gonna wrap it
up for Home in Progress. I'm Dan Hansen. Thanks for listening.
Hey, everybody, thanks for tuning in. You're listening to Home
in Progress, sponsored by repcole Like Paints and Benjamin More.
And because you're here, your Saturday is off to like
a rock and good start. Anyway, this week, we're gonna
be talking about a chimney problem. In fact, it's the
chimney problem that results in the biggest repair bills and
(00:23):
the most damage. And surprisingly it's got pretty much nothing
to do with fire, nothing to do with fire at all.
We're gonna get to that so that you can make
sure that your chimney's not in the danger zone. All right.
We're also gonna be talking about ghost stories. Got all
of that right, ghost stories. My voice broke horribly there.
We're not gonna be talking about legit, well not completely
(00:46):
about legit ghost stories. We're gonna be talking about the
house related kind of ghost stories. I'm being a little
bit figurative, a little bit cute with my language here.
We're gonna be digging into the old, outdated systems that
still haunt older homes. See what I'm doing ghost stories there.
We'll talk about those old systems, those outdated systems that
we can find in older homes and what you should do,
(01:08):
if anything, when you run into them. You know, you're
looking for houses, trying to find the right house. You
find this cute old house, outdated systems inside. What do
you do? Do you run away? Do you invest a
ton of money in fixing it. We'll talk about all
of that coming up, but right now, let's go to
my inbox because last week I received a great question
(01:29):
from a listener, a really, really good question, and there's
a ton to dig into. It's a five star question,
and before I get into answering it, I should stop
for a second and say that if you've got a
paint question or a design question or anything like that,
email me at radio at Repcolit dot com or direct
message Repcolite on Facebook or Instagram and ask away. If
(01:52):
I use your question on the show, I'll send you
a coupon for a free gallon of Benjamin Moore or
Repcolite paint, which is what I'm doing for this particular listener.
And I'm not giving out any names. I have not
given out any addresses. We haven't made fun of anybody.
So there is no fear in asking your question. Ask
your question. It's all upside. You know, I'll get you
(02:16):
your answer, and maybe if I use your question on air,
you'll get free stuff, and everybody loves free stuff. Anyway.
Here's the question that I received. Quote. We are working
on a house and we think somebody painted over wallpaper glue.
Any idea is how to remove that or at least
make it smooth. All right, let's start with the problem
(02:37):
and what's exactly going on here when people strip wallpaper
from their walls. You know, everybody hates this job anyway,
so we try to get through it as fast as
we can, right, and we normally skimp and cut corners here,
just because we're so sick of it. You know, we
would rather do anything than strip wallpaper. I'd rather clean Well,
(02:58):
I'm not going to go into that because it's early
in the morning. Some people are eating breakfast. But a
lot of us would rather do anything on earth than
strip wallpaper. So when we do strip wallpaper, we tend
to cut corners a little bit, We skimp, We want
to be done quicker than we should be, and sometimes
we don't get all of the wallpaper paste off the walls. Now,
the walls look good, or can look good. They can
(03:19):
look clean, they can feel good when they dry after
you remove the paper, and a lot of people think
and hope and just knock on wood and figure they're
good to go, and they go ahead and roll their
latex paint on. But here's the big butt wallpaper paste
is water soluble, and any residue that's left behind can
be reactivated by the water in the water based paint.
(03:40):
That's not necessarily going to be every single time reactivated,
but it can be. And often when this happens, it
can result in a texturing that occurs in your finish paint.
It can also result in a patche or uneven sheen,
you know, in the finish of your paint, and there
are other issues that can happen. Now. Sometimes people see
that it's happening right away and they freak out and
(04:02):
they stop painting until they figure out what's going on.
Sometimes they don't notice, you know, they just finished the
room and they notice it later. Sometimes they notice and
they just don't care, right, they don't care. They're moving.
It's gonna be somebody else's problem to deal with anyway.
When the paint dries, often you've got this texturing problem
or sheen problem or whatever that's pretty much locked into
(04:23):
the surface. Sometimes it's way worse than other times. I
had one customer years back who had stripped a wallpaper
border off the wall, you know, just a wallpaper border
at cheer rail height. They didn't get all the paste off,
and they called the store wondering why in the world
there was this weird texture all around the newly painted
room right where the border had been. You know, that
(04:44):
one was really obvious. Now sometimes it's less than that.
Sometimes it's you know, just in a few areas on
the wall. But either way, when it happens, it's absolutely
no fun, and it's something that can dramatically affect the
look of your finished paint, you know, especially where you've
got this real bumpy area exactly where a wallpaper border
had been, right at chair rail height. You can't really
(05:05):
move on from that. So that's what causes the problem,
and that's what the problem looks like. That's what the
listener is dealing with. But what do you do with
it now? You know, now that there's paint on it
in the paint stry well, Sadly, sadly, there's only one
really you know, valid solution at this point, and that's
to sand that texture smooth. You know, it's necessary and
(05:29):
nothing else is going to make that area blend back in.
So depending on how heavy that texture is, you could
start with a one twenty grit maybe a one fifty
grit paper and start sanding it down. You're trying to
knock down all the rough spots, and then once you've
got the bulk of that sanded, move to a one
eighty or a two to twenty grit to smooth it
all out a little bit. Now, if you've got a
(05:49):
larger area, you know, not just a few spots, but
a big area that you're covering, you know, you're probably
gonna want to consider investing in a dry wall sanding head.
You know. There are some that are handheld. You know,
you attach your sandpaper to them and it gives you
this nice flat standing surface with a handle to hold
on to, like a big sanding block with a handle.
That works really well. If you've got bigger areas, you know,
(06:11):
full walls, go get a drywall sander head that will
attach to an extension pole. It's going to dramatically speed
up that sanding process and you can get a little
more oomph on it, you know, oomph that's a technical
term we use that in the paint world. And when
we're talking about sanding, you want to have oomph on it.
So the extension pole is going to help you do that. Now,
once you've got everything sanded and you've got the dust
(06:34):
wiped off with a damp rag, you know, you've got
to get that dust off, then you're not ready to
paint yet. You've got to prime those areas to lock
down any remaining paste. Now, if you don't do this,
there's the possibility, and sometimes it's a really good possibility,
that any remaining wallpaper paste residue will again be reactivated
when you put your paint down, and the problem is
(06:55):
just going to repeat. And the last thing on earth
that you want to do after stripping wall, painting your wall,
sanding your walls smooth again, and then painting them again
is to have to sam them once again. Right, you'll
just leave the house at that point. So you've got
to make sure that you fixed the problem entirely, and
to do that to lock that wallpaper paste residue any
(07:18):
that might be remaining. To lock it down, there are
a couple different options. The first, the old school method,
is to use an alkid primer like Repcolites proflow primer
or Benjamin Moore's fresh Start oil primer. Now, these are
the best options if the paste was heavy, or if
you want absolutely zero risk. You know, water activated paste
isn't going to be activated by an oil based primer.
(07:38):
It's going to seal it in, lock it down, and
then you can top coat those oil based primers with
a water based paint. No problem. You know, there's no
water and oil problem when you're talking about an oil
based primer. Go ahead with your water based paint over top.
So lock it down with an oil primer. That's the surefire,
silver bullet way to go. A second option is a
water based option, and it's a product called Guards gar
(08:01):
Dz Guards. It's probably how the word should be spelled,
but Gardz. It's a product from Zinzer. We carry it,
and it's designed for trouble surfaces. And one of those
trouble surfaces is locking down wallpaper paste tresadue. Now, even
though this product is water based, it's specifically formulated not
to reactivate the paste. Either of those options will work,
(08:23):
the oil based primers or guards. Either one will lock
it down. Now, once you've got the surface sealed and
the primer's dried, then you can top coat with your
wallpaint of choice, and you move on with life from there. Now,
the last thing I'll say about all of this today
is this, if you want to avoid this problem in
the first place, be really diligent when you strip wallpaper
and work really hard to remove all of that paste residue.
(08:45):
You know, once you think you have all of it off,
a really good test is to lightly miss some areas
of your wall with water and then run your hand
over those spots. If it still feels slimy or slippery,
there's paste residue there that you've got to still get off.
So keep cleaning no matter what. You know, even if
it feels clean. You know, when you do that little
water test, I'd always recommend using either of those two
(09:05):
primer options that I mentioned earlier. If you're going to
be painting that area, that extra priming step. You know,
even if you think you did it really well and
you got it really clean, that extra priming step can
save you a ton of headache down the road. Okay,
most of us love a good ghost story. There's just
something really fun about them, and usually it's the setting
that makes them work. You know, old houses, creaky floors,
(09:27):
strange sounds, histories we don't fully understand. Well, let's talk
about some of those old houses and the ghost stories
that they really come with. Not the supernatural kind, though
those are really fun, but the outdated systems that are
still lurking in the walls, hiding under the floors, haunting
the place. When you or someone in your family walks
into an older home and stumbles across these remnants of
(09:49):
the past, what in the world do you do? Do
you run? Do you figure you're going to have to
just drop a ton of money to get the house
up to speed? What do you do? We'll get into
all of that right after. This Home in Progress is
brought to you by repcol Like Paints and Benjamin Moore.
You know, people often think of paint as just another
line item on the project's supply list. But here's the thing.
Everything you do, every hour of prep, every stroke of
(10:11):
the brush, all comes down to the quality of the paint.
The paint is the project. Make sure it's the best.
And we're back. You're listening to Home in Progress sponsored
by repcoal Like Paints and Benjamin Moore, And right now
I want to jump into something that I don't think
I've ever shared on the show My ghost Experience. Now.
I know I said at the end of last segment
(10:31):
that we're not going to dig into the whole ghost
story thing from a supernatural point of view, but that's
not entirely true, because I do want to dig into
that a little bit, just because it's really really fun
and it makes the rest of this palatable. I mean,
it's always brilliant. Everything that falls from my mouth is brilliant.
(10:53):
I know it's not. I just tell myself that so
I can get through the day. But this ghost story
stuff makes it a little more, a little more interesting. Now.
I'm not a big ghost person. I want to say
that right up front. So don't send me letters telling
me it's all false, you know. I don't want letters
or emails saying that, And don't send me letters the
other way, you know, inviting me to ghost hunter outings
or things like that. I know there are things out
(11:15):
there that I don't understand. Oh my goodness, there are
so many things out there that I don't understand. But
I don't get all spooky and buy into the stuff
really really, very very quickly. All right. So with that
out of the way all of this happened that I'm
going to relate. All of these things happened at my
first house over the course of about a single week,
and it happened about twenty four years ago or so. Now,
(11:37):
the house was old when we were living there. It
was built in the early nineteen hundreds in Zealand, you know,
nineteen ten, nineteen, something like that. I don't remember. It
was a great little house, you know. It really didn't
harbor all kinds of spooky surprises for ninety nine percent
of the time we were there, until the point when
I renovated the upstairs. Now, the first thing that made
(12:01):
me wonder if something weird was going on was in
regards to the silverware drawer. You know, shortly after completing
that upstairs renovation, I got up one morning to get
ready for work, and I opened the drawer. You know,
I want a spoon for my Captain crunch, right, the
crunch stuff needs to be consumed. I need my spoon
to do that. I can't just shovel it into my
(12:21):
mouth with my hands. Well I can, but I've been
told that that's not proper. So I needed a spoon.
I opened up the silverware drawer, and that drawer it
had wooden dividers built into it for spoons, forks, knives,
and then it had a front compartment that ran side
to side, you know, across the drawer for all the
weird odds and ends, you know, grapefruit spoons, pary knives,
(12:42):
those little nubbly poky things that you hold corn on
the cob with, you know, all of that went in
that weird little front compartment. Anyway, that front compartment, when
I opened it up, was full of all of our silverware,
all of the other compartments. They were empty on my
wife and I. We were the only ones in the
house at that point who could reach the silverwear drawer,
(13:05):
you know, or pull it open. We had two kids
back then, but they were babies, they were twins, and
while Hanson children, you know, they are at the forefront
of society and and everything, there's still babies. They even
being Hanson babies, they were incapable of opening drawers and
moving silverware around. So it wasn't them, clearly, it wasn't them.
(13:29):
In the end, my wife and I kind of decided
jokingly that maybe one of us was sleepwalking and did
it right okay. We didn't think much about it until
a few days later when I came home from work
and the silverware drawer was all messed up again. Trying
to eat my Captain Crunch and the silverware drawer is
messed up again. Because Captain Crunch isn't just a breakfast food.
It's a little pick me up in the middle of
(13:51):
the day too. Anyway, the silverware drawers all messed up,
same thing. It's really weird at that point. To me.
I put it right, and I'm kind of thinking about it.
So I get the vacuum out. You know, I've got
other cleaning to do, other things to do, So I'm
cleaning and thinking about the silverware drawar thing, and as
I'm vacuuming the carpets. And this is really tough to
describe on the radio. When I tell the story in person,
(14:14):
I can show people what I was doing. But picture this.
I'm in the middle of the room, and I'm pushing
the vacuum forward, right, I walk behind it and push
it forward, and then I pull it back all the way,
you know, to the other side of the room. It's
not the best vacuuming technique. I was a rookie at
that point. I've developed my skills since then, but at
(14:34):
that point, that's how I did it. I'd push it
all the way to one end and then pull it
all all the way back to the other side. And
when I'm walking back to the other side, I'm looking backwards.
I'm looking where I'm walking, and the vacuum's kind of
in front of me behind, you know what I'm saying.
I can't see the vacuum at that point because I'm
looking the other direction. That's the point. Anyway, I did
(14:55):
that once, did that twice. On the third time, I'm
in the middle of the room walking back. All of
a sudden, the vacuum like snags something or something. It
lurches in the air like three to four inches and
slams back down to the carpet. Like I said, I
wasn't looking at it, so I didn't know what happened.
But I assumed from the feeling, the tug on it
(15:15):
and all of that, I assumed that one of the
attachment tubes had fallen loose and had kind of jammed
into the carpet and kind of caused the vacuum to
jump up in the air and fall down Anyway, when
I looked at the vacuum and tried to figure out
what happened, all of the attachments are on the vacuum.
Everything is in place where it should be, and there's
nothing anywhere in the room. I'm in the middle of
(15:37):
the room. There is nothing, not even carpet fibers that
I could have snagged. Everything is fine. I have no
idea to this day what caused the vacuum to jump
three inches in the air and slam back down to
the floor. No idea. I can't explain it. So all
of that was weird, right, but I still put it
out of my mind until a couple days later when
my mother in law came to see the upstairs room.
(15:59):
You know, she wanted the sea the work I had done,
so I was outside when she pulled in. I was
getting ready to mow the yard. She walked into the
house telling me she was gonna go check out that room,
and I went to work mowing the yard, and I
can still picture it. I was on the front yard
mowing and I looked up and I saw her looking
out of that upstairs window in that renovated room, and
(16:19):
I waved because I'm you know, inherently and always friendly.
I waved and she just kind of stared at me,
didn't wave back. I assumed, you know, she was dissing me. Now, really,
I assumed that she was just looking in another direction.
You know, I couldn't see her face clearly or see
where she was looking specifically. I could just see that
she was there, so I assumed she was looking in
(16:39):
another direction. Anyway, I wrapped up the mowing and I
headed into the house. I found her in the living
room holding one of the babies, and I asked her
how to that room? Look, you know, I wanted the praise,
I wanted all of that. I was eager to be
told what an amazing job I had done. And of
course she responded, you know, you know where she's where
I'm going with this, because you're way ahead of me.
(16:59):
She responded by saying she hadn't even gone up to
the space yet and was just getting ready to do so. Well,
I completely figured they were messing with me, you know,
her and my wife, but they were adamant. They stuck
to their guns. They had never left this room. She
walked in, went straight to the chair, picked up a baby,
and they sat there until the moment when I walked in,
and then she went upstairs. She had never gone up there.
(17:22):
She said, well, I was dead sure I'd seen somebody.
And with all the weird stuff that had happened that week,
I began to wonder if something even weirder was going
on at my house. Well, the last thing that happened
during that really, really memorable week happened to my wife.
We had a small bathroom in that house and it
had no lock on the door. So I installed this tiny,
little flimsy sliding lock on it so people could have
(17:44):
some semblance of privacy. You know, I was the only
one who really used it. My wife was never really
one for lock doors or the need for privacy, but
for me, privacy was paramount. So I put that little
lock on there, and during that week, at the end
of that weird week, my wife I went through about
three days straight of being locked in that bathroom. Every
single time she went in, she didn't lock it. The
(18:07):
door locked on her. She never saw it lock, and
she swore she wasn't doing the locking. And no matter
what we tried, we could not make it happen on
its own. Never happened to me, but every time she'd
go in there, or many times that she'd go in
there during that end of that week, she'd find that
door locked on her, that little sliding bolt you know,
set in place. So a lot of crazy stuff in
(18:30):
that old house. You know, who knows what was going on.
Maybe we were imagining things. That's possible. Maybe the previous
owners weren't thrilled with my renovation choices or my color
choices or whatever. Either way, it made for a really
memorable week. So what's the paint point, the home improvement point. Well,
rather than talk further about the mysterious and the supernatural,
let's talk about a more practical, aka boring type of
(18:54):
haunting that's going on in many older homes. And I'm
referring to old, out of date systems hiding behind the
walls and in the floors of our old houses. And
if you think I'm making a leap here, I am.
I really wanted to talk about ghost stories and this
was the best way I could think to make that legit.
And still, you know, pay my bills and do my
(19:15):
due diligence by talking about home improvement stuff. All Right,
I've got a friend that within the last few years
or so, fell in love with the nineteen twenties Bungalow house.
The woodwork, the built into the character, everything in the
house was perfect. But then Heena's wife went through the
house and started spotting some of these spirits from the
past that were haunting this perfect little house. Nobin tube wiring,
(19:38):
cast iron plumbing, an old octopus furnace, just to name
a few, And they ended up trying to do a
ton of research in a quick way to figure out
what all of that meant, you know, and whether or
not they could or should move on the house or
keep looking. So today I want to break down some
common old house systems that you might encounter, what they
mean for your home, and when you actually need to
worry about them, and whether your house hunting or not.
(20:00):
These are really interesting systems. I keep saying it's boring.
It's not boring at all. They're interesting systems, and knowing
about them it's really going to make you seem that
much smarter when your kids start house hunting, or your grandkids,
or when people at a party ask about an octopus furnace,
what's that you're going to know? All right, So let's
start with the electrical system, because really This is usually
(20:23):
that first blast from the past that scares buyers. And
I want to talk specifically about noob and tube wiring. Now,
noob and tube it was the standard wiring method from
the late eighteen hundreds or so through the nineteen thirties
and even into the early forties. In some parts of
the country. You'll still see bits of it and homes
built well into the fifties. So if you're looking at
(20:44):
anything built before nineteen fifty, there's a real chance that
you'll run into, you know, noob and tube wiring. And
it gets its name from the ceramic tubes that the
wires ran through and the ceramic knobs that held everything
in place. And here's something a lot of people don't expacked.
For its time, it was actually a really well designed system.
You know, the wide spacing, the wire's cool, the porcelain
(21:07):
components they don't deteriorate, and the copper conductors they can
last a long, long, long, long time. And here's a
part that really surprises people. Nob and two wiring is
not inherently dangerous. Old copper doesn't wear out just because
it's old. The problems that we encounter with nob and
two wiring comes from three basic things. First off, there's
(21:29):
no ground wire, and that means you can't safely use
three prong appliances, and there's no protection if a fault occurs.
And while the National Electrical Code the NEEC doesn't specifically
ban old nob and tube wiring from existing in a house,
it does prohibit ungrounded wiring in kitchens, bathrooms and other
wet areas. So if you find active nob and tube
(21:50):
wiring serving those spaces, it's automatically not cool. It's automatically
not up to modern standards. So that's the first thing. Second,
nob and tube was never intended, of course, it was
never intended for today's electrical loads. Right, we're asking a
system designed for a couple of lights in maybe a radio,
(22:11):
you know, the talking box, We're asking that system to
handle microwaves, air conditioners, computers, TVs and everything else we
plug in. It's just not suited for that kind of
heavy lifting. Third, and this is usually the big one, insulation.
You know, nob and tube wiring was designed to sit
out in the open air, so it could release heat.
The moment you bury it in blown in insulation, you
(22:33):
can trap that heat, and that creates a fire hazard. Now,
For that reason, the National Electric Code the NEC generally
doesn't allow insulation over active nob and tube, and most
local jurisdictions follow that rule. Now a few Western states California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho,
they've carved out really specific exceptions to the rule, but
(22:54):
they require, you know, special inspections and contractor certifications and
all that to get around or to fill in or
to make those exceptions fly. For most of the country, though,
the bottom line is pretty simple. If you want to
insulate your home, then noob and tube usually has to
be replaced. Now, another thing to keep in mind, many
older homes have been partially rewired over the years. You
(23:16):
might have modern wiring in the kitchen and the bathrooms,
but original knob and tubes still running to other areas.
Now when old and new systems are connected improperly, which
does happen, unfortunately, it can create additional hazards. So with
all of that said, if you find noob and tube
in a house that you're considering, you need to just
start by having it thoroughly evaluated by an electrician who
(23:39):
understands older systems, and that inspection is really really important,
especially before you start any renovation work. Of any kind.
If the wiring is original, if it's unmodified, in good shape,
it's in open and dry areas, it could easy be
safe to live with for now. But if you want
to insulate your home, and most homeowners eventually do, or
(24:00):
if any of the wiring happens to run through damp
locations or anything like that, replacement usually becomes the safest
and the most practical option. Now, rewiring a home typically
runs anywhere from twelve thousand to thirty six thousand, depending
on the size and the access, so it's a major project.
But again it's often necessary because many insurance companies just
(24:20):
won't cover homes with active knob and tube wiring, or
they require, you know, really strict conditions, you know, like
a licensed electrician certification that it's safe, maybe an agreement
to replace the system within a specific timeframe. Some insurers
they're only going to offer coverage if a small portion
of the home still has nob and tube. The availability
(24:41):
of insurance varies by carrier and by state, so you
need to do your research there. You know, I can't
make a sweeping generalization for all the insurance companies out there,
but the bottom line is that noob and tube wiring
can significantly complicate getting homeowner's insurance. I think we can
say it safely that way. It makes it more complicated.
(25:01):
So you're gonna want to dig into that, all right.
That's one little goodie that can be haunting an old home. Now,
let's talk about plumbing, and in this case, there are
two older systems that you need to understand, cast iron
and galvanized steel. Now, cast iron that was used for drain,
waste and vent lines from the eighteen hundreds, late eighteen
hundreds through the nineteen seventies. It's incredibly durable. Many systems last,
(25:25):
you know, eighty to one hundred years or more, but
it does corrode from both the inside and the outside.
Inside sewage, you gotta love that. Sewage produces hydrogen sulfide gas,
which turns into sulfuric acid, and that slowly can eat
away at the metal. Now, outside soil conditions, especially acidic
or moist soils, can attack the pipe over time, and
(25:47):
eventually the iron, you know, is going to rust through. Now,
common signs of a failing cast iron system includes sewer
odors in the home. What's that smell? Sure does smell
like the sewer Boyd, that's a tip off that maybe
the cast iron system is failing. So sewer orders in
the home, that's a big tip off, slow drains, backups,
(26:09):
gurgling sounds, wet spots in the yard. Now, if you've
got rust colored water in your sink, that's usually pointing
to old galvanized supply lines, not cast iron drains, but
rust flakes around floor drains and deteriorated cleanouts. All of
those things can indicate trouble. If you're seeing any of this,
it's time for a plumber to run a camera inspection
and let you know exactly where you're at. Now, the
(26:31):
good news, the good news in all of that is
that modern pipe relining methods. We've talked about these on
the show probably a year or two ago. I'll dig
that up and put a link in the show notes.
But modern pipe relining methods can sometimes extend the life
of cast iron without tearing everything up. A resin liner
can be inserted into the pipe and cured in place,
(26:52):
and that gives you a smooth new interior. It's way
less invasive than a full replacement. But if the pipe
is severely deeriorated, complete replacement maybe unavoidable, and that usually runs,
you know, anywhere from ten to thirty thousand, depending on
the house. Galvanized steel pipes, So we just covered cast
iron systems. Now let's talk about galvanized steel pipes. They're different.
(27:15):
They were used for freshwater supply lines, you know, the
water coming into the home from the twenties through the
nineteen sixties. And basically what these are are steel pipes
coated with zinc. Now the idea was really really good,
but over time that zinc wears away and the steel
begins to rust from the inside out. Now, galvanized pipes,
they've got a lifespan of probably about forty to fifty
(27:36):
years or so, sometimes less in areas with harder, mineral
heavy water. So if your home was built before nineteen
sixty and the original plumbing is still in place, those
pipes are kind of beyond their expected life span. So
I love just dishing out great news on a Saturday
(27:56):
morning or whenever you catch this show, but that is
the reality, and there are some warning signs. You can
look for low water pressure, especially on the hot water side,
brown or rusty water from the taps, visible rust at
the pipe joints, leaks, you know, a leak is always
a sign that something's not right. I don't know what's
(28:17):
going on, but that leak tells me something's not right.
The tricky thing with galvanized is that it can look
perfectly fine from the outside while being almost completely clogged,
let's say, on the inside. You know, I've seen water
supply lines reduced to the diameter of a pencil, you know,
but outside they look fine. Replacing all of these things again,
(28:38):
really hard to give numbers to this, but it could
cost anywhere from eight thousand to twenty thousand for a
typical house, you know, depending on size, number of stories,
whether it's on a slab or has a basement. Modern
options are copper or PEX tubing. Pex is now probably
the most common because it's faster, it's cheaper, it's more
forgiving if water freezes in the lines. All of that,
(29:01):
here's one important note before we move on. Some insurance
companies won't ensure homes with active galvanized plumbing, or they'll
charge significantly higher premiums. So replacing those pipes often isn't
a comfort upgrade. It's a requirement. All right. There's a
couple different things haunting our homes. Let's move on and
talk about one more little ghost that's lurking, and I
(29:23):
want to talk about gravity furnaces. These are massive cast
iron systems that were installed from the late eighteen hundreds
through the nineteen fifties, and they're commonly called octopus furnaces
because of the great, big, huge tentacle like ducks spreading
out from the center. They're like monsters that live in
your basement. They're nightmare fuel if you're a small child.
(29:46):
And unlike modern forced air systems, these older systems, these
gravity furnaces, they rely entirely on natural convection, you know,
hot air rises, cold air falls, and because of that,
they're usually only about you know, fifty percent of the
you know, don't get all hung up on that, but
that seems to be the general easiest way to state
(30:08):
that about fifty percent efficient. You know. So in practical terms,
what I'm getting at is you burn a lot more
fuel for the same amount of heat that you get
from a more efficient system. You also can't add central
air conditioning to a gravity system. There's simply no blower
to push air across an ac coil or move it
through the house. You know, the system wasn't designed for it,
(30:28):
so central air just isn't an option until the furnace
and the duct work are replaced. And on top of that,
many of these old furnaces and their ducks were originally
wrapped in asbestos insulation. You know, now, that doesn't automatically
mean danger and that you should freak out, but it
does mean that you can't just tear these things out
by yourself. So if you find one of these furnaces
still in operation in your home, assume that it's nearing
(30:51):
the end of its useful life, you know, replacement for one,
especially once you factor in asbestos abatement and new duct work.
Typically that report placement's going to run anywhere between eight
thousand and fifteen thousand, but that is just you know,
for starters. It depends on how things shake out, how
things go, how big the house is. It could go higher,
(31:12):
you know, you could be in the twenty thousand dollars range.
You just need to get those quotes. That's not what
I'm here for. I'm trying to give you a ballpark
to help you decide if it's time to run away
or if it's something you can budget for. Anyway, if
you're looking at an older home wrapping everything up, you know,
and we've got a lot of beautiful historic housing here.
If you're looking at an older home, get a thorough
(31:34):
home inspection. It's a really good argument for why that's important.
But also beyond just that inspection, consider bringing in specialists.
You know, a home inspector. They're going to give you
this big picture overview, but an electrician who understands nob
and tube wiring, a plumber who can run a camera
through your drains, and an HVAC tech who's actually worked
on those old octopus furnaces. Those folks are going to
(31:57):
be able to give you specific, actionable information. It's going
to help you decide and make better plans regarding what
is your next step and what you should be doing
moving forward with that particular house. Now, don't let any
of this really scare you away from a house that
you love. Older homes are incredible. They're often better built
in many key ways, and they've got character that you
(32:18):
can't recreate, and they're in established neighborhoods with mature trees
and a real history. So a lot going for these
older homes. Just go in with your eyes open. Know
what you're buying, Understand what may need attention, and plan accordingly.
All right, let's shift gears. What do you think causes
the most damage to chimneys. It's actually not fire related
(32:39):
at all. We'll talk about what it is and most importantly,
what you can do to prevent it. Right after this.
Homing Progress is brought to you by Repcolite Paints and
Benjamin Moore. Think about it. You spend hours prepping, sandy, taping,
and then finally painting. Don't throw all that work away
with an inferior product. The paint isn't just another supply.
The paint is the project. Make sure it's the and
(33:00):
we're back. You're listening to Home in Progress, sponsored by
Repcolite Paints and Benjamin Moore. And a couple of weeks ago,
I talked about the roof leak that I had up
near my chimney, and like all home projects, the more
I dug in, the more I learned. And one thing
I didn't talk about in that segment, but I really
should have was the chimney itself. You know there are
something like, yeah, I don't know, forty million, I think
(33:23):
was the number I ran across. Forty million masonry chimneys
in North America, and the most common problem that they
deal with is water, not fire, not critters, but water.
So what's the deal with that. Why in the world
is water such a big problem for chimneys. Well, first off,
brick and mortar themselves are basically like sponges, you know,
every time it rains, they soak up water. And then
(33:44):
in Michigan we've got our freeze thought cycles that turn
that moisture that's in the brick and in the mortar
turns it into cracks, crumbling mortar, and spawling brick. So,
right off the bat, you've got, you know, just the
very nature of the bricks and the mortar themselves make
water the issue. Second, you've got the chimney crown. You
know that slab at the top that should be concrete,
(34:05):
It should be sloped, and it should be overhanging the
brick to get the water away from the brick. But
many crowns are just thin mortar, they're cracked, they're flat,
or they're flush with the chimney, so that water ends
up running straight down the side and right back in
through the bricks. So that's a huge problem. Third, you've
got flashing around the chimney, you know, it's the metal
(34:25):
where the chimney meets the roof. It's that metal band
right there. And if that metal band around that chimney
and it isn't sealed well, or if it's not installed correctly,
water can sneak right behind it and into the attic.
So water can cause all kinds of problems around a chimney.
So what do we do as homeowners? You know, if
we're not seeing water dripping into the attic or anything
(34:46):
like that, do we just figure we're fine and we
just wait, or is there anything that we should be
looking at? Well, there are a few things, of course,
that you can look at and check out to kind
of determine the health of your chimney. And first look
for white chalky stains on the brick. If you see
a lot of white chalky stains on the bricks of
your chimney, that's efflorescence, and that means that moisture is
(35:08):
moving through the brick. Efflorescence, it's basically salt deposits, is
what it boils down to. We talk about it inside
the home, you know, and every time you see efflorescence,
it just means there's a moisture issue taking place, all right.
So if you see white, chalky stains on the bricks,
that's a bit of a warning sign. If you see
spawling bricks where the faces are popping off, you know
(35:29):
that's a warning sign, right. That means water is causing that.
Like we mentioned the freeze thought cycles. Water gets in
freezes and it will start to degrade the brick. You
see spawling, So look for those things. Look for cracked
mortar joints or missing pieces of mortar. You know, that's
something to pay attention to. Check out that crown. If
it's flat, if it's cracked, if it doesn't have an overhang,
(35:52):
all of those things are issues that you're going to
want to explore further. If there's gaps in the flashing,
you know, or the flashing isn't sealed, well, again, that's
a concern and you should get somebody out there to
take a look at that. So what do you do
if you find some of these things. I can't cover everything.
I will cover as much as I can in the
time i'm left with. But if you've got crown issues,
(36:15):
you know, hairline cracks or something like that, A lot
of pros will come out and they'll brush on and
elast Americ coating and on. The last Americ coating is
just a real it's basically a rubberized coating. It goes
on like paint, but it's just really really thick. It's stretchy,
and it's for the crown and it will seal it
(36:36):
in and protect it. If you've got large cracks or
a flat mortar only crown, well then you're probably looking
at a rebuild. You know, have to get somebody out
there to rebuild it. You know, if it doesn't have
the overhang or anything like that, it's going to have
to be rebuilt. And so you're going to want to
get some some quotes on that. If you're experiencing water problems,
I would for sure if you notice those things, get
(36:56):
an inspector out there who can look it over and
give you some good advice. You know, as he's looking
at exactly or she is looking at exactly what you're
dealing with, so crown issues, that's what you would do
with some of those things. If you've got damaged brick
or mortar, you know, spawling bricks or deteriorated joints you're
probably gonna need a mason or a chimney pro out
(37:16):
there to help you fix that. If you've got flashing problems,
get a good roofer. You know, they'll come out and
fix it. If you've got flashing concerns, a lot of
roofing companies will come out and they'll give you a
free estimate to diagnose if you do have an issue
out there above Roofine, Sheriff, Goslin, Roofinge, they'll all come
out and, do you know, just a free inspection and
(37:37):
give you some good info that you can run with.
Waterproofing the chimney, this is something that's a really good option.
It's something that you probably should be doing on a
regular basis. At Repcolite, we've got a great option, all
Pro Waterproofing Sealer. It's one hundred percent clear acrylic sealer
creates a really strong, flexible, breathable coding that deeply penetrates
(37:58):
porous substrates like the brick. It's going to protect them,
waterproof them, but still allow moisture vapor to escape. That's
really important. Don't paint your chimney bricks with some kind
of you know, film forming coding like that. Elastameric. That
Elasta America I mentioned is for the crown only. Don't
be painting anything up there without consulting an experts. So
(38:18):
if you've got issues or concerns about your chimney, talk
to the right people. And if you're thinking that you'd
like to get a waterproofer on those bricks as a
good preventative maintenance project, stop out at your nearest Rep
Colite store. Tell us what you're working on, you know
what you got going, and we'll walk you through everything
you need to know to make sure you do it right.
And like I said, don't seal those bricks with anything
(38:39):
without talking about it first with some experts. Not just
talking about it, talk about it with some experts. Stop
out at a store, at a Rep Coolite and talk
to us about it. Because using the wrong product on
those bricks can actually potentially make the situation worse. So
don't do that. Talk to us. We'll help you do
it right. All right, that's going to do it for
this episode of Home in Progress. If you enjoyed what
(39:01):
you heard, please consider subscribing to the show. Please consider
leaving a review, unless it's a really bad one. Then
you can consider leaving a review, but i'd encourage you
not to. In the end, decide to leave a review
if it's a good review, a positive review, a glowing review.
By all means, leave one or twelve, I don't even care.
(39:23):
Make sure you share the show with your friends and
all of that stuff. I've got links to some of
the resources that I mentioned in this episode. I've got
links in the show notes, so check those out. I'm
pretty much rambling right now, so i'm gonna wrap it
up for Home in Progress. I'm Dan Hansen. Thanks for listening.
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