September 27, 2025 • 40 mins
In this episode of Home in Progress, Dan Hansen mixes practical advice with a dose of humor to help you get your home ready for the season. Sponsored by RepcoLite Paints and Benjamin Moore, the show dives into essential early autumn chores — from gutter cleaning and snowblower prep to chimney care and getting your home winter-ready.Dan also tackles one of the trickiest household issues: pet odors. You’ll hear about simple fixes like carpet rakes for dog hair, plus expert solutions for sealing in persistent cat urine smells that just won’t go away.And that’s not all. The episode wraps up with a look at Benjamin Moore’s SCUFF-X paint — why it’s a game-changer in both homes and commercial spaces — and a special October sale you won’t want to miss.Resources Mentioned:
Episode Breakdown00:00 – Welcome to Home in Progress00:36 – Teasers: what’s ahead in this episode01:36 – Early autumn home maintenance must-dos02:15 – Gutter cleaning tips and tricks09:52 – Snowblower prep & chimney care14:00 – Pet odor solutions19:09 – Why cat urine smells so strong19:31 – Listener question: sealing subfloors against odor21:22 – The chemistry behind cat urine21:56 – Recommended products for odor sealing24:39 – Extended warranties: a personal anecdote30:37 – The benefits of SCUFF-X paint34:20 – SCUFF-X in commercial spaces38:06 – October SCUFF-X sale announcement39:11 – Conclusion & how to connect with the show
Episode Breakdown00:00 – Welcome to Home in Progress00:36 – Teasers: what’s ahead in this episode01:36 – Early autumn home maintenance must-dos02:15 – Gutter cleaning tips and tricks09:52 – Snowblower prep & chimney care14:00 – Pet odor solutions19:09 – Why cat urine smells so strong19:31 – Listener question: sealing subfloors against odor21:22 – The chemistry behind cat urine21:56 – Recommended products for odor sealing24:39 – Extended warranties: a personal anecdote30:37 – The benefits of SCUFF-X paint34:20 – SCUFF-X in commercial spaces38:06 – October SCUFF-X sale announcement39:11 – Conclusion & how to connect with the show
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey, everybody, you're listening to Home in Progress, the show
where we talk about practical projects, real solutions, and we
do all of that well having a ton of fun
along the way. Right. I'm Dan Hansen, and as always,
we're brought to you by Repcolite Paints and Benjamin Moore.
And every week on this podcast we dig into the tips,
tricks and tools that make your home improvement projects easier.
(00:23):
You know, whether it's tackling big seasonal chores, you know,
understanding the right products for the job, or just finding
you know, maybe just a little inspiration for your next project.
You know, that's what we do here. In today's show,
it's packed. Coming up at the end, we're going to
be talking about scuff X from Benjamin Moore. I talk
about it a lot, but this time I've got some
(00:43):
really big news that should be interesting, I think to
pretty much everybody out there. So that's coming up at
the end. I'll also be talking about pets. You know,
we love our pets. Right specifically, I'm going to be
talking about dealing with pets smells. I found a tool
at home that's helped me deal with dog smells at
my house. I'll talk about that and I'm also going
(01:05):
to be answering a listener question about a cat urine
smell in a house he just purchased. So that's coming up.
So you've been warned. We're going to talk about cat urine.
If you've got a weak stomach or a weak disposition,
finish your breakfast. Now you've got time. Just start chewing rapidly. Chew,
(01:25):
swallow too, swallow, don't choke, don't choke. Take it easy.
You don't have to rush it. We'll get to that
cat segment, that cat urine segment in a little bit,
all right, But right now it's officially fall, and that
means that we need to talk about some early autumn
jobs that need to be on your radar, you know,
little home maintenance things that you should be thinking about
(01:47):
getting done. So basically, this segment is going to be
me nagging you. But it's a kind hearted nagging, right,
It's a lovable nag. And I'm also nagging myself, so
really it's pretty fair. Anyway. My first job recommendation is
the one that I recommend every single year, and as usual,
I'm directing it specifically at myself. I'm recording with a
(02:10):
mirror in front of me, so I can directly relay
this message to myself. Clean out your gutters and your
down spouts, you lazy bomb. You know, that's the part
that I said to me. That's not the part I'm
saying to you for you. It's just clean out your
gutters and down spouts. I'm adding the lazy bum part
just for myself. Anyway, as the leaves start dumping, you know,
(02:32):
and the rain picks up a clogged gutter, it quickly becomes,
you know, almost a waterfall, dumping water right at your foundation,
and that can become a mess in a hurry. For example,
last year, I just you know, quote hadn't gotten to
it yet, you know, a last fall, and this big
storm rolls in as they always do, and it turns
(02:53):
out my gutters were mostly blocked, as they always are,
and the water ends up pouring over the sides. Well.
A couple of weeks later, I go into the crawl
space to find something. I don't know what I was
looking for, but it was late at night. I remember that,
and I remember crawling in there to find whatever I needed,
and that's when I discovered that the area was still damp,
(03:15):
but worse than that I had loads of cardboard boxes
that had all been damaged. I couldn't even move them
without the bottoms falling out, and incredibly disheartening and frustrating.
And really, that's home ownership in a nutshell for me.
You know, I go somewhere to do something mundane, something
that just should take minutes, and I usually end up
(03:37):
discovering some minor tragedy that's going to take hours to clean.
That's home ownership for me. And that's what happened to
me last year in my crawl space. Well, it took
hours to clean up. It was an incredible mess. And
what made it worse was that it was so preventable.
You know, it was the clogged gutters that caused that problem.
So a number of takeaways here. First off, get your
(04:00):
gutters cleaned out before you've got rain problems. All right,
that's obvious. That's the first one. Do it now. Second,
gutter cleaning isn't a once in done job in the fall.
You've got to probably put it on a weekly or
every two weeks loop, depending on your trees, your yard
and all of that. But it's got to be done
multiple times throughout the season. As the leaves are coming down.
(04:20):
You know, if they're coming down, they're gonna be clogging
the gutters. I tend to do it once and think
I'm good to go. That is complete, complete silliness, laziness,
whatever you want to call it. I need to do
it more than once, so you probably do too. Small
battery powered leaf blower works really great for dry debris.
If you can get on the roof. I can get
(04:41):
on mine. It's a ranch, I walk around. I can
blow it out in probably ten minutes, So I've got
no excuse for not doing this more regularly. If it
gets wet and you've got wet mats of leaves in there,
you might want to go to a gutter scoop and
a bucket, you know, as your system for cleaning them out.
That's not as much fun. It's not as fast as
a leaf blower, but it's probably faster than blowing them
(05:03):
if it's wet. Now, I've got a good leaf blower.
I've got that Ego battery powered blower, very strong, and
it will blow through all of this stuff even though
there's wet leaves in there. But man, what a mess
and what a stink, What a profound smell that is
and you coat yourself with it. So if you're up
for that, you can get on your roof safely and
(05:24):
do that. And you've got a good blower, you could
blow them out. If you can't, just scoop them out
with the gutter, scoop whatever before you come down your ladder,
before you get off and put everything away. Also, you
want to make sure that you clean out the down
spout openings. You know, they can really clog up fast too.
Now at home, I've got a sewer snake in my basement.
(05:44):
You know, a sewer snake, And that sounds crazy cool, right,
everybody wants a s well, A lot of people probably
don't want a sewer snake. In fact, I don't know
how cool that really sounds. That actually sounds pretty terrible.
I don't like snakes, not big on the sewer. Imagine
a sewer snake. I mean, really, that's the worst of
many situations all combined. Well, my sewer snake is not
(06:07):
as bad or as cool, depending on how you feel
about snakes and sewers. It's not probably what you're thinking.
The previous owner left it. All it is is just
this flat, long metal band in a coil with kind
of a heavy ball on the end, and I saw
that sitting in my basement. For years, I had no
idea what he ever used it for until my downspouts
(06:29):
were so clogged that I was down there looking for
anything to ram down them and open them up. And
as I'm going through the basement frantically, all I'm finding
are things like rope. And I can't force rope down,
you know, if I could, Yeah, I don't need to
explain that rope doesn't work that way. And I thought, oh,
if I just had a metal band that I could,
(06:49):
And then all of a sudden, you know, the lights
went off in my head, Angels saying, I had an epiphany,
and I saw that sewer snake sitting there, and I realized,
this is probably exactly why previous owner had this. Anyway,
I use that to clear them out when they're really bad.
It's fast, it's not augur driven, you know, so it's
not damaging the gutters. That's good. Whatever you need to do,
(07:11):
do it. Make sure the downspouts are cleaned out, and
make sure the water is going to flow all right.
Another takeaway, you've got to make sure that the water
is moving away from your foundations. Right. Ideally, your down
spouts and all of that should move the water at
least five feet out. You know, ten is better if
you can make that happen, but at least you know
(07:32):
five feet out from the foundation is where that water
should be channeled. All right, when you're doing all of
this work, here's some quick gear and safety tips. Because
I am a safety person, I don't always do things safely,
So this is, you know, don't do things the way
I do them, but I do know from doing them
(07:52):
in the way that I've done them how you probably
shouldn't do them. So I can still speak to safety.
I just speak at it from a different level of
experience than other people who do things the right way. Anyway,
if you've got an extension ladder that you've got to use,
you know, rather than a step ladder to reach all
your gutters and stuff, be sure that you use a
ladder stabilizer or a ladder standoff on that extension ladder.
(08:16):
It's going to affix to the ladder. It's basically arms
that will keep it from resting against the gutters, so
you're not damaging the gutters when you're doing the work.
So use that ladder stabilizer or a ladder standoff. Also
have a spotter when you're on the ladder, you know,
on an extension ladder, and you want the spotter to
be a competent spotter. You know. Their jobs simple, but
(08:37):
it's really important. They're going to stand right at the
base of the ladder, facing the ladder. They're going to
plant their feet against the side rails, you know, at
the bottom there so the ladder can't slide back, and
then they hold onto those rails with both hands. That way,
if the ladder does start to shift, they can push
down and forward to keep it steady. Also, and this
is really important, they're not supposed to lean on the
(08:58):
ladder or climb it themselves. They just stay put, stay
ready and make sure the ladder doesn't go anywhere. So
use a spotter and clean out your gutters. It's a
great fall project. Do it now before you've got heavy rains.
In fact, this past weekend Saturday, we got crazy rains again,
same exact thing. My gutters were clogged. I ran out
(09:20):
this time because I didn't want water in the crawl space.
In all my brilliance, I ran out into the storm.
You know, lightning everywhere, I'm out there on a ladder
cleaning out my gutters. Do not do that. Completely idiotic,
completely dangerous. I should have just lived with potentially water
in the crawl space. That would have been way smarter,
(09:41):
but I didn't. I got out there in the heart
of the storm. Don't do that. Clean your gutters out
ahead of time. All right, enough of that, another project
for the fall. For right now, this part of fall,
get your snowblower ready. And I say this every single year,
and every year I still think this is absolutely brilliant advice.
I know none of us are ready for snow yet,
(10:01):
and it feels like it's probably a ways off at
this point yet. But really, all we're talking about here
is making sure that that snowblower actually works. So fire
it up, put in just enough gas to get it started,
check your oil, let it run for a little bit,
and then run it dry before you store it again.
That way, you're not leaving gas sitting in the tank
to gum things up. You know. The whole point right
(10:23):
now is to find out if it's going to start,
and you want to find that out now, you know,
because if it needs repair work or something like that,
that's something you want to know, while the weather's decent
right you know, you can tinker with it in your
garage right now and it's not going to be miserable
to work on it. Or instead, if that's not your thing,
you can get it to a repair shop, you know,
and they've got openings most likely to do the work.
(10:46):
If it's not repairable. And you discover that, now you've
got time to buy a new one. Because normally this
is how it goes. That first big storm is going
to dump you know, eight inches in your driveway and
that's when you're going to discover that your snowblower won't start.
Now you're out there in the cold, you're under pressure
to clear the driveway out, you know. And then everybody
else whose snowblowers don't work, either they're flooding the repair
(11:09):
shops or they're buying up the last snowblowers that are
on the shelves. You don't want to be in that situation.
Give yourself a head start. Make sure that snowblower works. Okay.
Another smart fall job is this, take care of your chimney,
you know, either clean it out yourself, or better yet,
hire somebody to sweep it. And then you know, inspect
it that way. When the temperatures drop and you're ready
for a fire, you know it's going to be safe
(11:30):
for your home. And here's one last one for today.
There's other ones, and we'll talk about those in the
weeks to come, but here's one last one for the
early part of autumn. Get on the schedule to have
your sprinkler lines blown out. You know it's still early. Yeah,
you don't need to do it yet. It's too early
to do it right now, probably, but call now to
reserve a spot. Get on the schedule. You know, every
(11:52):
single year I forget, Oh my gosh, I don't do
well with any of these things. I need lists and
I need a man serve to follow me around and
say did you do this? So I'm going to work
on that. But anyway, every year I end up scrambling
late in the season. You know, it just dawns on me.
I didn't do that yet. And a couple of times
(12:13):
we've had an early storm hit before the lines were flushed,
and I spent a few stressful days hoping I wasn't
going to have problems. Totally avoidable stress if you just
get on the calendar now and I do have one more.
I know I said that was the last one, but
I have one more that I think is pretty good.
Get all your water based paints and stains out of
(12:34):
your garage and get them inside, you know, into a
climate controlled area. You know, unless your garage is heated,
then they'll be fine. But if you don't heat your
garage during the winter, you want to get those water
based products inside, those paints and stains if you want
to use them again safely. A lot of times, you know,
(12:54):
and I guess I should say it's early to do that.
I understand that we're not worried about freezing right now
at this point, but what happens, you know, a lot
of the times we forget that they're there. You know,
it's still a little fresh in our mind because we
did some summer jobs, summer projects and stuff, you know,
maybe some early fall projects, and we've got them in
the garage. But as the season starts to deepen, as
(13:15):
we start to get leaves coming down and we're focused
on that, or when snow, God forbids snow starts falling,
we're not going to remember these things. And a lot
of times they end up sitting in the garage all
winter long, and the next spring you find them and
you're really running a risk are they going to be
good enough to use at that point? Paint is not inexpensive,
(13:37):
and you certainly don't want to just waste it if
you've got stuff that you'd like to use again. So
right now, you know, this weekend, go through the garage.
If you're not going to be using these products the
rest of the fall, get them out of the garage
and get them into the basement. All right, that's the
last little fall project. I know there are other things
that we'll talk about as the season deepens. We'll get
(13:57):
to those on future episodes, but that's enough for now.
All right, let's talk pet smells. Dogs, cats. They bring
a ton of joy into our lives, right, but they
also come with their fair share of odors, and a
little bit of pet odor isn't the biggest deal in
the world, but every now and then those smells seem
to take over the entire house. Well, we're going to
(14:17):
talk about some practical ways to tackle those, and I'll
start with a simple dog for a trick that I
came across recently, and we're going to get to that
right after This home in progress is brought to you
by Recolite 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 the brush, all
(14:39):
comes down to the quality of the paint. The paint
is the project. Make sure it's the best. Pets. We
all love pets. I guess some of us love pets.
A lot of us love pets. But even among those
who love them, we know that they bring their share
of work. I mean, two dogs live in my house
and we definitely have to work to deal with dog things,
(15:01):
you know, all the things that dogs bring, but also
dog smells and really, really I can't win here. If
I don't give them a bath, they get stinky. If
I give them a bath. You know, that's the miracle
of dogs. Is Now the house is gonna smell like
wet dog, which if you're not familiar with that smell,
you know it's truly a powerful, powerful odor. It's something else.
(15:22):
And then there's the shedding and the fur and the
dander that they leave behind. You know, it gets everywhere
and it really contributes to mess, but also that dog
smell that we all know, and it drives me absolutely nuts,
you know, because the house is clean. You know, I
clean a lot, a lot. You know, I vacuum every
single day, or the kids vacuum. You know, one of
(15:42):
us vacuums every single day. And I've got a good vacuum.
You know, we didn't chinse out on the vacuum. And yet,
especially when my Golden Retriever Maggie is shedding like crazy.
When that happens, I've previously noticed this ridiculous smell that
I didn't like at all. You know. It was a
bare and I didn't want to have people over even
(16:03):
you know, and not for the normal reasons, but because
of the fact that the house was stinky. Well when
that was happening the past, you know a little bit here.
I did everything I could think to do, but I
could not beat this dog smell problem. I gave them baths,
I dealt with the wet dog smell until they dried out.
I tried to air out the house. I used odor,
(16:23):
eating things like baking, soda and so on. But that
smell was so persistent. I knew it could be because
of the fur and the dander that they were leaving behind.
But since I was vacuuming every day and filling up
that canister regularly, I assumed it had to be something else. Well,
after a long time of doing that, I ran into
this floor rake thing for carpet, you know, a carpet
(16:45):
rake that's designed to pick up pet fur. The ad
that I saw that made me make the purchase. That
ad made the claim that even if you vacuum, the
fur can remain. Now, I didn't believe that, you know,
I didn't think that that was accurate. But I was desperate,
and desperation that makes a man do things that he
might not normally do, like part with his brass a
(17:08):
little bit. So I bought this little rake thing, which
was relatively cheap, and I thought i'd give it a try. Well,
when it arrived, I had really, you know, almost no
confidence that it was going to do anything. And to
be certain that it was doing something more than just
my vacuum, you know, I wanted to make sure this
was a good test. To make sure that it was
(17:28):
the rake doing something, I vacuumed the floor especially well
before I used it, you know, And once I had
done all of that, I started raking the carpet, expecting
to find nothing, and oh my goodness, I found. I
raked up like two more Golden Retrievers worth a fur
that was somehow still in the carpet after I vacuumed.
(17:49):
You know, I raked and I raked and I raked,
and I removed these piles and piles of fur. And
then I raked the floor again that first night, and
I did that until I had no more fur coming up.
The next day, I came home from work and the smell,
the dog smell, was noticeably reduced. I've done that carpet
raking about once a week from that point on, combined
with regular vacuuming, and it's been incredibly, incredibly effective in
(18:12):
reducing and removing the dog smell. So if you've got
a shedding dog and you've got a bit of that
dog smell in your house, check out these fur removing rakes.
I'm gonna put a link in the show notes to
the one that I got. It's not the most sturdy,
but it also wasn't terribly expensive the one that I got.
In case you don't want to go to the show
notes to check it out, you can look it up
for yourself. It was a three and one carpet rake
(18:35):
for pet removal or pet pet pet hair removal. It
doesn't hurt your pets, you know, it's not removing your pet,
just the pet hair. I think Bolthy bo l fi
E Bo l f i E that's the name brand.
It came with a little floor rake and then a
little handheld thing and some other little dudad that I
(18:56):
wasn't sure what it was for twenty six bucks. Definitely
worked really well. There's a lot of them out there,
you know, read reviews, but try it, you know, check
it out and it might help you out. All right.
That's dealing with dog smells. Now I want to talk
about cat ear and smells, and we'll get to that
right after. This home in progress is brought to you
by Repcolite Paints and Benjamin Moore. Think about it. You
(19:18):
spend hours prepping, sanding, 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 best, all right. I've been waiting
for this. Let's answer a listener question about cat ear
and smells in a house that he just purchased. And
while this situation isn't fun, you know, it's not fun
(19:41):
even a little bit if you're living in it. It's
it's funnier or more fun if you're not living in it.
But even then it's not terribly fun because we're very
you know, compassionate and empathetic people. But even though the
poor listener is dealing with this, it's not all bad
because they're getting a free game of Rep Coolier Benjamin
More paint just for asking the question. Now, if you'd
(20:04):
like that for yourself, you know, not the cat urin smells,
because we can help you out there too, So I
guess specify if you want cat urine smells, let me
know in the subject of the email. But if you'd
like the free gallon of paint, you know, Rep Collier
Benjamin More Paint, just send your paint question or design
question to radio at Repcolite dot com. If I answer
them on the air, like I'm doing with this one,
(20:25):
then I'll send you a gift certificate for a free
gallon of your choice of paint. It's a great deal,
So send those questions to radio at Repcolite dot com
All right, here's the question that I received from my listener.
We've tried everything to remove the odor of cat urin
in a house that we've just purchased. We've pulled carpet,
we've pulled pad, we've cleaned the ducts, We've had a
(20:45):
company come in and treat the sment basement floors. Now
we're wondering about sealing the subfloor. What product does Repcolite
have that would seal that unpainted floor, that unpainted subfloor effectively?
All right, getting to the answer, the first thing to
say is that the listener did a great job, you know,
doing a ton of the heavy lifting. You know, got
a lot of the main things out of the way.
(21:07):
But typically, yeah, ceiling the subfloors is usually the final
step to get rid of stubborn pet odors, especially cat
urin and cat urin. You know what about it? Why
does it seem so much worse than other smells? Is
it just in our minds? Or is there something to it? Well,
here's the short answer. It's a chemistry problem. Cat Urine
contains uric acid that forms crystals as it dries. Now
(21:30):
those crystals are water insoluble, which means regular cleaning doesn't
always get rid of them. You know, even humidity in
the air can reactivate them and bring that smell right back.
Add to that, you know the ammonia and other compounds
going on, and you've got really one of the most
pervasive household odors out there. Now. The good news is
(21:50):
sealing the surface usually solves it usually fixes it. At
rupcholite to get to the answer, while we recommend a
clear shalac shellac. It forms an incredibly dense, non porous
film that locks in stains and smells permanently. All right.
It's been used for years and years as the go
to fix for fire and smoke damage, nicotine odors, and
(22:12):
of course pet urine. And here's something interesting. If you
use a pigmented version of these products, you know, like
a pigmented shill act there's white pigmented shillaxe out there,
or even an oil based primer, you actually end up
with something that's got a little more breathability in the
finish compared to a heavy clear coat. So that's why
we're recommending a clear shellac. And that breathability means moisture
(22:34):
vapor can still move through slowly, and that can be
important when we're talking about sub floors or masonry where
we're trying to seal in an odor. You know, you
can seal in the odor to some extent, but you're
not completely locking that surface down in the same way
that a clear film can. So while these will work
and people will recommend them, you know, white pigmented sllaxe
and stuff, they're not as effective as something without any pigment.
(22:57):
And here's another question that we get a lot. Can't
you just roll code of semi gloss paint over the
surface and call it good. Well, the short answer here
is no. A glossy latex or acrylic paint is less
porous than you know, a flat primer like I just
talked about, and it will slow down the transference of
that odor a little bit, but it's still a breathable finish.
And those cat eurine crystals that we talked about earlier,
(23:19):
they're eventually going to sneak through, you know. Sillac, on
the other hand, creates this dense, non porous barrier, and
that's why it's the gold standard for sealing odors in.
If you're looking for a little more economical option, Repcollites
Finisher's Touch sanding Sealer, which is an oil based product,
will also do a really great job. You know, both
products are clear, both will block odors. Just keep in
(23:40):
mind shellac is an alcohol based product, sanding sealer is
oil based, so both are going to have strong odors
during application, so make sure you've got good ventilation. All right,
thanks for the question. I've got a gift certificate in
the mail for free paint. And remember, if you've got
a question and you'd like a chance to get free
Rep Coolliti or Benjamin More paint, send that question to
Radio at repco light dot com. All right, scuff X
(24:03):
from Benjamin Moore one of my favorite paints to talk about,
and we're gonna do it again, but this time I've
got something to say that's likely going to be interesting
for every single person out there that's coming up. Right
after this, you're listening to Home in Progress, where the
projects are real, the mistakes, they're educational, sometimes painful, mostly educational.
And the only thing more stubborn than that old wallpaper
(24:26):
on your bathroom wall is your determination to get it fixed.
Probably sponsored by Repcolite Paints and Benjamin Moore Paint with
a purpose, people who care and everything you need to
get the job done right, all right. The other day
I was sitting around thinking for some unknown reason about
an old Simpsons episode. In it, Homer discovers and I'm
(24:47):
kind of paraphrasing trying to remember it as well as I,
you know, as best I can. So I could be
wrong about some of these details, but the crux of
what I want to get to I'm right on. Anyway,
Homer discovers through some X rays or something that the
reason he's been so dumb all these years is because
he's got a crayon stuck in his brain. You know,
(25:08):
since he was six or so, he'd crammed I think
a whole box of crayons up his nose, sneezed most
of them out, but one of them remained, and from
that point on he was dumb. You know, That's the idea.
So they discover this rogue crayon and he has it
surgically removed, and suddenly his IQ rises dramatically. You know,
he's thinking deep thoughts, he's connecting with Lisa the smart
(25:30):
daughter and so on. But being smart turns out to
cause a number of problems for him. He ends up
I think pointing out issues at the power plant where
he works, people end up losing jobs and overall, overall,
overall he creates, you know, by being smart, he creates
a lot of social anxiety for himself, for others. He
doesn't like it. He misses being old, dumb Homer. And
(25:53):
he makes the decision to have the crayon reinserted, which
I love. I love that. You know, we took it out,
you got smart art. The only way to fix this
is to put it back in. And during the procedure,
as they're putting the crayon in, Mo the bartender and
stand in surgeon in this particular episode, he keeps tapping
the crayon, you know, back in. He's got a little
(26:14):
little hammer and he's tapping it and he's trying to
figure out how dumb to make Homer. And with each tap,
Homer says something dumber and dumber. Finally Mo taps it
in just right, and Homer blurts out, extended warranty, How
can I lose? And Mo says, perfect, all right, So
there you go. The perfect level of dumb is being
excited about an extended warranty. And I love that for
(26:38):
so many reasons. You know, first and foremost because I
was that guy, you know, I bought every single extended
warranty I could get my hands on. I was a
sucker the capital s you know. I remember the first time,
you know, do you remember your first time? I remember
my first time with an extended warranty. I'd just broken
(26:59):
up with a longtime girlfriend. I was full of angst
and whoa, you know, and all of that. And for
the first time forever, I actually had some money in
my pocket. I wasn't dating, so I actually had money.
So I decided I was going to go buy an expensive,
you know, nice stereo system so I could listen to
sad music and style. And I remember as I was
(27:22):
shelling out the money, the guy at the counter said, Hey,
would you like to hear about our extended warranty? And
I said extended? What tell me more? And he realized
right then that I was an idiot, you know, ripe
for the picking. So he goes on to explain it.
It's the best thing in the whole wide world. I mean,
I'm going to charge you a small, small, you know,
(27:44):
a pittance, you know, it's a tiny bit of money,
and then anything that goes wrong with your equipment in
the next year is covered one hundred percent. You know,
even if an earthquake happens and it falls, it's covered.
Even if termites eat the legs off the table that
it sits on and it crashes to the floor. Covered.
Even if your little brother or sister puts a pop
(28:05):
tart in the tape deck, it's all covered. You'll get
a new stereo from us if we can't repair yours,
and it's all at no cost to you. And I
remember saying, even if somebody puts a pop tart in
this tape deck, it's still covered. You know. For some reason,
that was the fact that just sealed the deal for me.
(28:25):
I didn't even ask how much this extended warranty was
gonna cost. It was worth it at that point just
for the pop tart safety net. So I shelled out
a whole bunch of extra cash and I went home happy.
You know, I felt so protected, you know, like a
hug from the store, you know. And of course I
never ever used it. Nobody put a pop tart and
(28:46):
let's say in the tape deck. You know, everybody in
my family at that point was ten years old or older.
Who's gonna put a pop tart? In tape deck. But anyway,
I never used the thing. But of course that didn't
stop me or make me think at all. Instead, I
basically doubled down and I bought every extended warranty that
(29:07):
was offered. And then I got even worse. If they
didn't offer me an extended warranty that I wasn't going
to use, I'd ask them, is there any way I can,
you know, like, give you more money now and buy
an extended warranty so I'm protected in the future if
something crazy would happen, you know, a pop Tart involved
(29:29):
in something, and you'd still cover this product and this
equipment and maybe get me new if something went wrong
and salespeople would just light up. They loved me. They'd
sometimes fight over me, you know, they all wanted me
to be their customer. I can only imagine how much
money I have blown unextended warranties over the years, warranties
(29:50):
I never once used. And that's why that Simpsons episode
cracks me up, you know so much. It's so real,
so real to me. Anyway, now I don't buy them anymore, right,
you know, I'm not that guy, But at the time
I always thought it seemed like the smart thing to
go to do. Spend a little money and I'll protect
my investment. I'm guessing you've been there too, Maybe not
as often as me, but I bet you've signed on
(30:12):
that dotted line at least once thinking this is going
to keep me covered. And that gets me finally, long windedly,
to the paint point. A lot of us have thrown
down money on extended warranties that will never ever cash
in because they make us feel safe. But when it
comes to paint where the protection is real or could
be real, where you can actually see the difference day
(30:32):
after day, we hesitate. We don't want to drop any
extra money down. It's kind of backwards. Specifically, I want
to talk about scuff X from Benjamin Moore. Buying scuff
X isn't really, you know, purchasing some someday safety net
that you might use you probably will never use. When
you buy scuff X, you're purchasing a finish that's going
to outperform period. It's going to do it anything you've
(30:55):
ever had on your walls. When it comes to resisting
scuffs and marks, you know where that rex most finished
isn't going to touch scuff X. It's going to keep
your walls looking great for years. It's going to It's
just how it is. We've seen it over all the
years that scuff X has been out. I doubted it
at first. I wasn't sure about it because it was
crazy claims that Benjamin Moore was making about it. But
(31:16):
it's panned out. It really does what they say it
will do. It's so much fun to sell because people
instantly see the results. For example, I've talked about it
a ton of times on the show here. But you know,
three four years ago something like that, I painted my
entry with scuff X. And previously it had been a
high end ceramic paint that was supposed to wash up
(31:37):
really well, and it did a good job. But it
was an entry way, and I've got five kids, you know,
and they'd come in and they'd kick their shoes off,
which apparently to them was like some kind of Olympic sport.
I don't understand. I still can't figure it out. I
couldn't figure it out then, I can't figure it out now.
But I'd find scuff marks on the wall, you know,
(31:57):
mostly at the first foot or so up from the floor,
but every now and then they'd show up somewhere near
the ceiling. You know, I don't know, like I said,
as parents, I don't really think we're ever meant to understand,
you know, our children's minds. Anyway, we had a ton
of scuff marks all over that wall, and I'd wash
them off periodically, but a lot of the time I
(32:18):
couldn't get them all off, so they were there. But
then I painted, like I said, three four years ago
or so with scuff X, and the walls still look
largely new. You know, the trim in there is beaten
up a bit, but that wasn't painted with scuff X.
The walls which were painted with scuff X look great.
You know, I don't have a single scuff and I
haven't in all of that time. Now the kids, you know,
(32:41):
the argument could be made the kids have gotten older
and wiser, and I'm certain that the older part is true.
I'm sure the wiser part is true as well. So
I'll give you that they've gotten wiser and older. But
the scuffs went away overnight once I applied the scuff X,
and no touchups. I haven't done a single touch up
in that room, a single touch up on the walls
(33:04):
in years in three years, never not a single one
and no need for one. I'm not just living with
marks on the wall. There is nothing, you know, it's fine.
So scuff CK's a huge change in that space, and
it really reinforced to me to my mind that Benjamin
Moore's claims about this product were real. And that's just
one of my scuff x stories. But take a look
(33:25):
around your own home, you know, right now, just take
a look around. Maybe you know you're thinking that you
don't need scuff X. You're you're not going to benefit
from it. You don't have kids kicking their shoes off
or whatever, or scuff marks on the wall. But take
a minute and just look, you know, look down the hallways,
look in the entryways, the mud rooms, you know, maybe
the laundry room, you name it. Check out the high
(33:46):
traffic areas in your home and look for scuff marks,
you know, from boots, from shoes, from furniture, you know,
things like that. Now, if your walls truly are Christine,
you know you've won at life. You know congradulates you've
made it. But if they're marked up like most of
our walls, you're going to find things that you've kind
of overlooked or you've forgotten about. You just don't see
(34:09):
them anymore. You're so used to seeing them. If you
look at him, now, look for it. Now you'll find it.
And if that's what you're finding, scuff X was made
exactly for those spaces, but it's not just made for homes.
In fact, it primarily wasn't made for homes. It was
made for you know, schools and hospitals and things like that.
That's where it was primarily made to be used. Last week,
(34:30):
my dad he was in the hospital, you know, undergoing
a bunch of tests as they tried to figure out
if he had a stroke or what had happened. I
talked about that last week. It was tough. He's home now,
you know, so I'll say that he's home. He's doing
really well. Still got this double vision thing that's kind
of driving him nuts, so we're praying that that gets better.
But you know, all things considered, he's doing well. But anyway,
(34:53):
while he was in the hospital, I spent one of
those days sitting there with my mom, you know, just
waiting you do at the hospital. And as I was
working in this little sitting area, you know, off a hallway,
right near an elevator bay. I couldn't help but notice,
you know, as I'm sitting there, how beat up the
walls were. You know, I didn't notice them at first,
But the longer I sat there and the more I'm
(35:14):
looking around, I'm realizing, Wow, there's scuffs everywhere, you know,
all along the elevator wall, all down this big hallway.
Scuffs from wheelchairs, from gurnees, from carts, you know, you
name it, and look, I get it. You know, I'm
not judging anybody. I wasn't sitting there judging the look.
I wasn't going to deduct from the money we were willing. Well,
I'm not paying anything. It's dad and mom, But I
(35:36):
wouldn't suggest that they deduct anything from their bill or
from where they're willing to or what they would pay
for their bill because of the scuff marks. You know,
it's a hospital, it's not a showcase. I get all that.
But here's the thing. Those facilities, you know, places like that,
spend a ton of money designing, callming, welcoming spaces. They
work with interior designers to get just the right colors
(35:58):
for their spaces, and then their wall beat up like
that really work against everything they're trying to create. Now,
with scuff X, those same walls would be looking good
for months. We've seen it. We've seen people or places
like this who've switched to scuff X. It will look
good for months instead of needing touch ups every couple
of weeks. So if you're responsible for a space like that,
(36:20):
you know, a hospital, a waiting room, a senior living center,
a school, you know, any commercial setting that sees a
ton of traffic and wear, shoot me an email at
radio at repco light dot com. You know, we'll talk
it through and possibly we can get free gallons of
scuff X in your hands to try. We'll give it
to you because we know you're gonna like it. And
here's another thing to think about. A lot of times
(36:42):
people think, oh, you know, I'll just go to a
shinier finish with my usual paint that's going to resist
stuffs just as well as scuff X. Well, first off,
it's not going to and we can demonstrate that really
quickly to you. But also you can get scuff X
in a matte finish, and that matt finish is going
to resist more scuffs than most other products will in
(37:03):
a semi gloss, and that means that you can use
a matte finish on your walls, which is much easier
on the eyes, shows your color better, and also it
doesn't expose nearly as many or as much of the
wall's imperfections. You know, at the hospital where my dad was,
the walls were shiny for this exact reason. They went
with a shining your paint, a semi gloss to resist
(37:23):
wear and scuffs, and the walls are still scuffed on top,
you know, besides the fact that they use semi gloss.
And because they use semi gloss. You know, in that
big hallway, when I see the sun coming in, it's
reflecting off of that wall and it's exposing all kinds
of imperfections. The wall looks absolutely terrible. I've got photos
in the show notes, so check them out. A matte
(37:45):
finish is going to hide a lot of that, and
it's going to still resist the scuffs, you know, if
you get scuff X. So, if you're responsible for a
customer facing facility or a public facing space out there
that sees a lot of wear, reach out you know,
radio at repcolit dot com. We might be able to
put some free gallons of scuff X in your hands
so you can try it, no strings attached. All right.
(38:06):
That's a lot of stuff for a certain you know,
kind of a niche group of people. But I've got
good stuff for everybody out there listening. Starting October one,
So next week and then running all of October, scuff
X in matt, eggshell, and satin, those three finishes is
going to be on sale for under fifty six bucks
a gallon, and that's about twenty four dollars off each gallon,
(38:26):
and there's no limits. You can buy one gallon, you
can buy twenty gallons, whatever you need. I don't think
we've ever had scuff X price like this before, so
it's a great time to give it a try. It
applies beautifully, you know, it looks great. It holds up,
you know, like I'm saying, holds up, you know, like
nothing else I've ever worked with. It's it's one of
those rare products that lives up to the hype. I
(38:48):
know you're gonna like it, so think about it for
your next project. And remember that sale starts October one
at every repco Light location. So there you go. We'll
have more information at repco Light dot com. As October
or starts. It's not a you know, come in while
supplies last don't, so don't worry about rushing there. Just
make sure you get there before the end of October
(39:10):
and snag some of that pain. All right, that's gonna
do it for this week's episode of Home in Progress.
If you've got a home improvement question that you'd like
me to tackle on a future show, send me an
email at radio at repco light dot com. That's our
E P C O L I T E Radio at
repcolight dot com. You can also find past episodes, blog posts,
(39:30):
and other resources at repcolight dot com, so check that out.
And if you enjoyed today's show, make sure you hit
subscribe on your favorite podcast app so you'll never miss
another episode. New shows come out every single week, and subscribing,
you know, that's the easiest way to stay up to date.
And while you're there, share the show with a friend
who loves a good project and you know, just loves
(39:52):
the highbrow entertainment that we provide on a regular basis.
That really helped me out. If you'd share it, I'd
love it. I'm Dan Hans And then this has been
Home in Progress brought to you by Repcolite Paints and
Benjamin Moore. Thanks for listening. I'll see you next time.
Hey, everybody, you're listening to Home in Progress, the show
where we talk about practical projects, real solutions, and we
do all of that well having a ton of fun
along the way. Right. I'm Dan Hansen, and as always,
we're brought to you by Repcolite Paints and Benjamin Moore.
And every week on this podcast we dig into the tips,
tricks and tools that make your home improvement projects easier.
(00:23):
You know, whether it's tackling big seasonal chores, you know,
understanding the right products for the job, or just finding
you know, maybe just a little inspiration for your next project.
You know, that's what we do here. In today's show,
it's packed. Coming up at the end, we're going to
be talking about scuff X from Benjamin Moore. I talk
about it a lot, but this time I've got some
(00:43):
really big news that should be interesting, I think to
pretty much everybody out there. So that's coming up at
the end. I'll also be talking about pets. You know,
we love our pets. Right specifically, I'm going to be
talking about dealing with pets smells. I found a tool
at home that's helped me deal with dog smells at
my house. I'll talk about that and I'm also going
(01:05):
to be answering a listener question about a cat urine
smell in a house he just purchased. So that's coming up.
So you've been warned. We're going to talk about cat urine.
If you've got a weak stomach or a weak disposition,
finish your breakfast. Now you've got time. Just start chewing rapidly. Chew,
(01:25):
swallow too, swallow, don't choke, don't choke. Take it easy.
You don't have to rush it. We'll get to that
cat segment, that cat urine segment in a little bit,
all right, But right now it's officially fall, and that
means that we need to talk about some early autumn
jobs that need to be on your radar, you know,
little home maintenance things that you should be thinking about
(01:47):
getting done. So basically, this segment is going to be
me nagging you. But it's a kind hearted nagging, right,
It's a lovable nag. And I'm also nagging myself, so
really it's pretty fair. Anyway. My first job recommendation is
the one that I recommend every single year, and as usual,
I'm directing it specifically at myself. I'm recording with a
(02:10):
mirror in front of me, so I can directly relay
this message to myself. Clean out your gutters and your
down spouts, you lazy bomb. You know, that's the part
that I said to me. That's not the part I'm
saying to you for you. It's just clean out your
gutters and down spouts. I'm adding the lazy bum part
just for myself. Anyway, as the leaves start dumping, you know,
(02:32):
and the rain picks up a clogged gutter, it quickly becomes,
you know, almost a waterfall, dumping water right at your foundation,
and that can become a mess in a hurry. For example,
last year, I just you know, quote hadn't gotten to
it yet, you know, a last fall, and this big
storm rolls in as they always do, and it turns
(02:53):
out my gutters were mostly blocked, as they always are,
and the water ends up pouring over the sides. Well.
A couple of weeks later, I go into the crawl
space to find something. I don't know what I was
looking for, but it was late at night. I remember that,
and I remember crawling in there to find whatever I needed,
and that's when I discovered that the area was still damp,
(03:15):
but worse than that I had loads of cardboard boxes
that had all been damaged. I couldn't even move them
without the bottoms falling out, and incredibly disheartening and frustrating.
And really, that's home ownership in a nutshell for me.
You know, I go somewhere to do something mundane, something
that just should take minutes, and I usually end up
(03:37):
discovering some minor tragedy that's going to take hours to clean.
That's home ownership for me. And that's what happened to
me last year in my crawl space. Well, it took
hours to clean up. It was an incredible mess. And
what made it worse was that it was so preventable.
You know, it was the clogged gutters that caused that problem.
So a number of takeaways here. First off, get your
(04:00):
gutters cleaned out before you've got rain problems. All right,
that's obvious. That's the first one. Do it now. Second,
gutter cleaning isn't a once in done job in the fall.
You've got to probably put it on a weekly or
every two weeks loop, depending on your trees, your yard
and all of that. But it's got to be done
multiple times throughout the season. As the leaves are coming down.
(04:20):
You know, if they're coming down, they're gonna be clogging
the gutters. I tend to do it once and think
I'm good to go. That is complete, complete silliness, laziness,
whatever you want to call it. I need to do
it more than once, so you probably do too. Small
battery powered leaf blower works really great for dry debris.
If you can get on the roof. I can get
(04:41):
on mine. It's a ranch, I walk around. I can
blow it out in probably ten minutes, So I've got
no excuse for not doing this more regularly. If it
gets wet and you've got wet mats of leaves in there,
you might want to go to a gutter scoop and
a bucket, you know, as your system for cleaning them out.
That's not as much fun. It's not as fast as
a leaf blower, but it's probably faster than blowing them
(05:03):
if it's wet. Now, I've got a good leaf blower.
I've got that Ego battery powered blower, very strong, and
it will blow through all of this stuff even though
there's wet leaves in there. But man, what a mess
and what a stink, What a profound smell that is
and you coat yourself with it. So if you're up
for that, you can get on your roof safely and
(05:24):
do that. And you've got a good blower, you could
blow them out. If you can't, just scoop them out
with the gutter, scoop whatever before you come down your ladder,
before you get off and put everything away. Also, you
want to make sure that you clean out the down
spout openings. You know, they can really clog up fast too.
Now at home, I've got a sewer snake in my basement.
(05:44):
You know, a sewer snake, And that sounds crazy cool, right,
everybody wants a s well, A lot of people probably
don't want a sewer snake. In fact, I don't know
how cool that really sounds. That actually sounds pretty terrible.
I don't like snakes, not big on the sewer. Imagine
a sewer snake. I mean, really, that's the worst of
many situations all combined. Well, my sewer snake is not
(06:07):
as bad or as cool, depending on how you feel
about snakes and sewers. It's not probably what you're thinking.
The previous owner left it. All it is is just
this flat, long metal band in a coil with kind
of a heavy ball on the end, and I saw
that sitting in my basement. For years, I had no
idea what he ever used it for until my downspouts
(06:29):
were so clogged that I was down there looking for
anything to ram down them and open them up. And
as I'm going through the basement frantically, all I'm finding
are things like rope. And I can't force rope down,
you know, if I could, Yeah, I don't need to
explain that rope doesn't work that way. And I thought, oh,
if I just had a metal band that I could,
(06:49):
And then all of a sudden, you know, the lights
went off in my head, Angels saying, I had an epiphany,
and I saw that sewer snake sitting there, and I realized,
this is probably exactly why previous owner had this. Anyway,
I use that to clear them out when they're really bad.
It's fast, it's not augur driven, you know, so it's
not damaging the gutters. That's good. Whatever you need to do,
(07:11):
do it. Make sure the downspouts are cleaned out, and
make sure the water is going to flow all right.
Another takeaway, you've got to make sure that the water
is moving away from your foundations. Right. Ideally, your down
spouts and all of that should move the water at
least five feet out. You know, ten is better if
you can make that happen, but at least you know
(07:32):
five feet out from the foundation is where that water
should be channeled. All right, when you're doing all of
this work, here's some quick gear and safety tips. Because
I am a safety person, I don't always do things safely,
So this is, you know, don't do things the way
I do them, but I do know from doing them
(07:52):
in the way that I've done them how you probably
shouldn't do them. So I can still speak to safety.
I just speak at it from a different level of
experience than other people who do things the right way. Anyway,
if you've got an extension ladder that you've got to use,
you know, rather than a step ladder to reach all
your gutters and stuff, be sure that you use a
ladder stabilizer or a ladder standoff on that extension ladder.
(08:16):
It's going to affix to the ladder. It's basically arms
that will keep it from resting against the gutters, so
you're not damaging the gutters when you're doing the work.
So use that ladder stabilizer or a ladder standoff. Also
have a spotter when you're on the ladder, you know,
on an extension ladder, and you want the spotter to
be a competent spotter. You know. Their jobs simple, but
(08:37):
it's really important. They're going to stand right at the
base of the ladder, facing the ladder. They're going to
plant their feet against the side rails, you know, at
the bottom there so the ladder can't slide back, and
then they hold onto those rails with both hands. That way,
if the ladder does start to shift, they can push
down and forward to keep it steady. Also, and this
is really important, they're not supposed to lean on the
(08:58):
ladder or climb it themselves. They just stay put, stay
ready and make sure the ladder doesn't go anywhere. So
use a spotter and clean out your gutters. It's a
great fall project. Do it now before you've got heavy rains.
In fact, this past weekend Saturday, we got crazy rains again,
same exact thing. My gutters were clogged. I ran out
(09:20):
this time because I didn't want water in the crawl space.
In all my brilliance, I ran out into the storm.
You know, lightning everywhere, I'm out there on a ladder
cleaning out my gutters. Do not do that. Completely idiotic,
completely dangerous. I should have just lived with potentially water
in the crawl space. That would have been way smarter,
(09:41):
but I didn't. I got out there in the heart
of the storm. Don't do that. Clean your gutters out
ahead of time. All right, enough of that, another project
for the fall. For right now, this part of fall,
get your snowblower ready. And I say this every single year,
and every year I still think this is absolutely brilliant advice.
I know none of us are ready for snow yet,
(10:01):
and it feels like it's probably a ways off at
this point yet. But really, all we're talking about here
is making sure that that snowblower actually works. So fire
it up, put in just enough gas to get it started,
check your oil, let it run for a little bit,
and then run it dry before you store it again.
That way, you're not leaving gas sitting in the tank
to gum things up. You know. The whole point right
(10:23):
now is to find out if it's going to start,
and you want to find that out now, you know,
because if it needs repair work or something like that,
that's something you want to know, while the weather's decent
right you know, you can tinker with it in your
garage right now and it's not going to be miserable
to work on it. Or instead, if that's not your thing,
you can get it to a repair shop, you know,
and they've got openings most likely to do the work.
(10:46):
If it's not repairable. And you discover that, now you've
got time to buy a new one. Because normally this
is how it goes. That first big storm is going
to dump you know, eight inches in your driveway and
that's when you're going to discover that your snowblower won't start.
Now you're out there in the cold, you're under pressure
to clear the driveway out, you know. And then everybody
else whose snowblowers don't work, either they're flooding the repair
(11:09):
shops or they're buying up the last snowblowers that are
on the shelves. You don't want to be in that situation.
Give yourself a head start. Make sure that snowblower works. Okay.
Another smart fall job is this, take care of your chimney,
you know, either clean it out yourself, or better yet,
hire somebody to sweep it. And then you know, inspect
it that way. When the temperatures drop and you're ready
for a fire, you know it's going to be safe
(11:30):
for your home. And here's one last one for today.
There's other ones, and we'll talk about those in the
weeks to come, but here's one last one for the
early part of autumn. Get on the schedule to have
your sprinkler lines blown out. You know it's still early. Yeah,
you don't need to do it yet. It's too early
to do it right now, probably, but call now to
reserve a spot. Get on the schedule. You know, every
(11:52):
single year I forget, Oh my gosh, I don't do
well with any of these things. I need lists and
I need a man serve to follow me around and
say did you do this? So I'm going to work
on that. But anyway, every year I end up scrambling
late in the season. You know, it just dawns on me.
I didn't do that yet. And a couple of times
(12:13):
we've had an early storm hit before the lines were flushed,
and I spent a few stressful days hoping I wasn't
going to have problems. Totally avoidable stress if you just
get on the calendar now and I do have one more.
I know I said that was the last one, but
I have one more that I think is pretty good.
Get all your water based paints and stains out of
(12:34):
your garage and get them inside, you know, into a
climate controlled area. You know, unless your garage is heated,
then they'll be fine. But if you don't heat your
garage during the winter, you want to get those water
based products inside, those paints and stains if you want
to use them again safely. A lot of times, you know,
(12:54):
and I guess I should say it's early to do that.
I understand that we're not worried about freezing right now
at this point, but what happens, you know, a lot
of the times we forget that they're there. You know,
it's still a little fresh in our mind because we
did some summer jobs, summer projects and stuff, you know,
maybe some early fall projects, and we've got them in
the garage. But as the season starts to deepen, as
(13:15):
we start to get leaves coming down and we're focused
on that, or when snow, God forbids snow starts falling,
we're not going to remember these things. And a lot
of times they end up sitting in the garage all
winter long, and the next spring you find them and
you're really running a risk are they going to be
good enough to use at that point? Paint is not inexpensive,
(13:37):
and you certainly don't want to just waste it if
you've got stuff that you'd like to use again. So
right now, you know, this weekend, go through the garage.
If you're not going to be using these products the
rest of the fall, get them out of the garage
and get them into the basement. All right, that's the
last little fall project. I know there are other things
that we'll talk about as the season deepens. We'll get
(13:57):
to those on future episodes, but that's enough for now.
All right, let's talk pet smells. Dogs, cats. They bring
a ton of joy into our lives, right, but they
also come with their fair share of odors, and a
little bit of pet odor isn't the biggest deal in
the world, but every now and then those smells seem
to take over the entire house. Well, we're going to
(14:17):
talk about some practical ways to tackle those, and I'll
start with a simple dog for a trick that I
came across recently, and we're going to get to that
right after This home in progress is brought to you
by Recolite 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 the brush, all
(14:39):
comes down to the quality of the paint. The paint
is the project. Make sure it's the best. Pets. We
all love pets. I guess some of us love pets.
A lot of us love pets. But even among those
who love them, we know that they bring their share
of work. I mean, two dogs live in my house
and we definitely have to work to deal with dog things,
(15:01):
you know, all the things that dogs bring, but also
dog smells and really, really I can't win here. If
I don't give them a bath, they get stinky. If
I give them a bath. You know, that's the miracle
of dogs. Is Now the house is gonna smell like
wet dog, which if you're not familiar with that smell,
you know it's truly a powerful, powerful odor. It's something else.
(15:22):
And then there's the shedding and the fur and the
dander that they leave behind. You know, it gets everywhere
and it really contributes to mess, but also that dog
smell that we all know, and it drives me absolutely nuts,
you know, because the house is clean. You know, I
clean a lot, a lot. You know, I vacuum every
single day, or the kids vacuum. You know, one of
(15:42):
us vacuums every single day. And I've got a good vacuum.
You know, we didn't chinse out on the vacuum. And yet,
especially when my Golden Retriever Maggie is shedding like crazy.
When that happens, I've previously noticed this ridiculous smell that
I didn't like at all. You know. It was a
bare and I didn't want to have people over even
(16:03):
you know, and not for the normal reasons, but because
of the fact that the house was stinky. Well when
that was happening the past, you know a little bit here.
I did everything I could think to do, but I
could not beat this dog smell problem. I gave them baths,
I dealt with the wet dog smell until they dried out.
I tried to air out the house. I used odor,
(16:23):
eating things like baking, soda and so on. But that
smell was so persistent. I knew it could be because
of the fur and the dander that they were leaving behind.
But since I was vacuuming every day and filling up
that canister regularly, I assumed it had to be something else. Well,
after a long time of doing that, I ran into
this floor rake thing for carpet, you know, a carpet
(16:45):
rake that's designed to pick up pet fur. The ad
that I saw that made me make the purchase. That
ad made the claim that even if you vacuum, the
fur can remain. Now, I didn't believe that, you know,
I didn't think that that was accurate. But I was desperate,
and desperation that makes a man do things that he
might not normally do, like part with his brass a
(17:08):
little bit. So I bought this little rake thing, which
was relatively cheap, and I thought i'd give it a try. Well,
when it arrived, I had really, you know, almost no
confidence that it was going to do anything. And to
be certain that it was doing something more than just
my vacuum, you know, I wanted to make sure this
was a good test. To make sure that it was
(17:28):
the rake doing something, I vacuumed the floor especially well
before I used it, you know, And once I had
done all of that, I started raking the carpet, expecting
to find nothing, and oh my goodness, I found. I
raked up like two more Golden Retrievers worth a fur
that was somehow still in the carpet after I vacuumed.
(17:49):
You know, I raked and I raked and I raked,
and I removed these piles and piles of fur. And
then I raked the floor again that first night, and
I did that until I had no more fur coming up.
The next day, I came home from work and the smell,
the dog smell, was noticeably reduced. I've done that carpet
raking about once a week from that point on, combined
with regular vacuuming, and it's been incredibly, incredibly effective in
(18:12):
reducing and removing the dog smell. So if you've got
a shedding dog and you've got a bit of that
dog smell in your house, check out these fur removing rakes.
I'm gonna put a link in the show notes to
the one that I got. It's not the most sturdy,
but it also wasn't terribly expensive the one that I got.
In case you don't want to go to the show
notes to check it out, you can look it up
for yourself. It was a three and one carpet rake
(18:35):
for pet removal or pet pet pet hair removal. It
doesn't hurt your pets, you know, it's not removing your pet,
just the pet hair. I think Bolthy bo l fi
E Bo l f i E that's the name brand.
It came with a little floor rake and then a
little handheld thing and some other little dudad that I
(18:56):
wasn't sure what it was for twenty six bucks. Definitely
worked really well. There's a lot of them out there,
you know, read reviews, but try it, you know, check
it out and it might help you out. All right.
That's dealing with dog smells. Now I want to talk
about cat ear and smells, and we'll get to that
right after. This home in progress is brought to you
by Repcolite Paints and Benjamin Moore. Think about it. You
(19:18):
spend hours prepping, sanding, 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 best, all right. I've been waiting
for this. Let's answer a listener question about cat ear
and smells in a house that he just purchased. And
while this situation isn't fun, you know, it's not fun
(19:41):
even a little bit if you're living in it. It's
it's funnier or more fun if you're not living in it.
But even then it's not terribly fun because we're very
you know, compassionate and empathetic people. But even though the
poor listener is dealing with this, it's not all bad
because they're getting a free game of Rep Coolier Benjamin
More paint just for asking the question. Now, if you'd
(20:04):
like that for yourself, you know, not the cat urin smells,
because we can help you out there too, So I
guess specify if you want cat urine smells, let me
know in the subject of the email. But if you'd
like the free gallon of paint, you know, Rep Collier
Benjamin More Paint, just send your paint question or design
question to radio at Repcolite dot com. If I answer
them on the air, like I'm doing with this one,
(20:25):
then I'll send you a gift certificate for a free
gallon of your choice of paint. It's a great deal,
So send those questions to radio at Repcolite dot com
All right, here's the question that I received from my listener.
We've tried everything to remove the odor of cat urin
in a house that we've just purchased. We've pulled carpet,
we've pulled pad, we've cleaned the ducts, We've had a
(20:45):
company come in and treat the sment basement floors. Now
we're wondering about sealing the subfloor. What product does Repcolite
have that would seal that unpainted floor, that unpainted subfloor effectively?
All right, getting to the answer, the first thing to
say is that the listener did a great job, you know,
doing a ton of the heavy lifting. You know, got
a lot of the main things out of the way.
(21:07):
But typically, yeah, ceiling the subfloors is usually the final
step to get rid of stubborn pet odors, especially cat
urin and cat urin. You know what about it? Why
does it seem so much worse than other smells? Is
it just in our minds? Or is there something to it? Well,
here's the short answer. It's a chemistry problem. Cat Urine
contains uric acid that forms crystals as it dries. Now
(21:30):
those crystals are water insoluble, which means regular cleaning doesn't
always get rid of them. You know, even humidity in
the air can reactivate them and bring that smell right back.
Add to that, you know the ammonia and other compounds
going on, and you've got really one of the most
pervasive household odors out there. Now. The good news is
(21:50):
sealing the surface usually solves it usually fixes it. At
rupcholite to get to the answer, while we recommend a
clear shalac shellac. It forms an incredibly dense, non porous
film that locks in stains and smells permanently. All right.
It's been used for years and years as the go
to fix for fire and smoke damage, nicotine odors, and
(22:12):
of course pet urine. And here's something interesting. If you
use a pigmented version of these products, you know, like
a pigmented shill act there's white pigmented shillaxe out there,
or even an oil based primer, you actually end up
with something that's got a little more breathability in the
finish compared to a heavy clear coat. So that's why
we're recommending a clear shellac. And that breathability means moisture
(22:34):
vapor can still move through slowly, and that can be
important when we're talking about sub floors or masonry where
we're trying to seal in an odor. You know, you
can seal in the odor to some extent, but you're
not completely locking that surface down in the same way
that a clear film can. So while these will work
and people will recommend them, you know, white pigmented sllaxe
and stuff, they're not as effective as something without any pigment.
(22:57):
And here's another question that we get a lot. Can't
you just roll code of semi gloss paint over the
surface and call it good. Well, the short answer here
is no. A glossy latex or acrylic paint is less
porous than you know, a flat primer like I just
talked about, and it will slow down the transference of
that odor a little bit, but it's still a breathable finish.
And those cat eurine crystals that we talked about earlier,
(23:19):
they're eventually going to sneak through, you know. Sillac, on
the other hand, creates this dense, non porous barrier, and
that's why it's the gold standard for sealing odors in.
If you're looking for a little more economical option, Repcollites
Finisher's Touch sanding Sealer, which is an oil based product,
will also do a really great job. You know, both
products are clear, both will block odors. Just keep in
(23:40):
mind shellac is an alcohol based product, sanding sealer is
oil based, so both are going to have strong odors
during application, so make sure you've got good ventilation. All right,
thanks for the question. I've got a gift certificate in
the mail for free paint. And remember, if you've got
a question and you'd like a chance to get free
Rep Coolliti or Benjamin More paint, send that question to
Radio at repco light dot com. All right, scuff X
(24:03):
from Benjamin Moore one of my favorite paints to talk about,
and we're gonna do it again, but this time I've
got something to say that's likely going to be interesting
for every single person out there that's coming up. Right
after this, you're listening to Home in Progress, where the
projects are real, the mistakes, they're educational, sometimes painful, mostly educational.
And the only thing more stubborn than that old wallpaper
(24:26):
on your bathroom wall is your determination to get it fixed.
Probably sponsored by Repcolite Paints and Benjamin Moore Paint with
a purpose, people who care and everything you need to
get the job done right, all right. The other day
I was sitting around thinking for some unknown reason about
an old Simpsons episode. In it, Homer discovers and I'm
(24:47):
kind of paraphrasing trying to remember it as well as I,
you know, as best I can. So I could be
wrong about some of these details, but the crux of
what I want to get to I'm right on. Anyway,
Homer discovers through some X rays or something that the
reason he's been so dumb all these years is because
he's got a crayon stuck in his brain. You know,
(25:08):
since he was six or so, he'd crammed I think
a whole box of crayons up his nose, sneezed most
of them out, but one of them remained, and from
that point on he was dumb. You know, That's the idea.
So they discover this rogue crayon and he has it
surgically removed, and suddenly his IQ rises dramatically. You know,
he's thinking deep thoughts, he's connecting with Lisa the smart
(25:30):
daughter and so on. But being smart turns out to
cause a number of problems for him. He ends up
I think pointing out issues at the power plant where
he works, people end up losing jobs and overall, overall,
overall he creates, you know, by being smart, he creates
a lot of social anxiety for himself, for others. He
doesn't like it. He misses being old, dumb Homer. And
(25:53):
he makes the decision to have the crayon reinserted, which
I love. I love that. You know, we took it out,
you got smart art. The only way to fix this
is to put it back in. And during the procedure,
as they're putting the crayon in, Mo the bartender and
stand in surgeon in this particular episode, he keeps tapping
the crayon, you know, back in. He's got a little
(26:14):
little hammer and he's tapping it and he's trying to
figure out how dumb to make Homer. And with each tap,
Homer says something dumber and dumber. Finally Mo taps it
in just right, and Homer blurts out, extended warranty, How
can I lose? And Mo says, perfect, all right, So
there you go. The perfect level of dumb is being
excited about an extended warranty. And I love that for
(26:38):
so many reasons. You know, first and foremost because I
was that guy, you know, I bought every single extended
warranty I could get my hands on. I was a
sucker the capital s you know. I remember the first time,
you know, do you remember your first time? I remember
my first time with an extended warranty. I'd just broken
(26:59):
up with a longtime girlfriend. I was full of angst
and whoa, you know, and all of that. And for
the first time forever, I actually had some money in
my pocket. I wasn't dating, so I actually had money.
So I decided I was going to go buy an expensive,
you know, nice stereo system so I could listen to
sad music and style. And I remember as I was
(27:22):
shelling out the money, the guy at the counter said, Hey,
would you like to hear about our extended warranty? And
I said extended? What tell me more? And he realized
right then that I was an idiot, you know, ripe
for the picking. So he goes on to explain it.
It's the best thing in the whole wide world. I mean,
I'm going to charge you a small, small, you know,
(27:44):
a pittance, you know, it's a tiny bit of money,
and then anything that goes wrong with your equipment in
the next year is covered one hundred percent. You know,
even if an earthquake happens and it falls, it's covered.
Even if termites eat the legs off the table that
it sits on and it crashes to the floor. Covered.
Even if your little brother or sister puts a pop
(28:05):
tart in the tape deck, it's all covered. You'll get
a new stereo from us if we can't repair yours,
and it's all at no cost to you. And I
remember saying, even if somebody puts a pop tart in
this tape deck, it's still covered. You know. For some reason,
that was the fact that just sealed the deal for me.
(28:25):
I didn't even ask how much this extended warranty was
gonna cost. It was worth it at that point just
for the pop tart safety net. So I shelled out
a whole bunch of extra cash and I went home happy.
You know, I felt so protected, you know, like a
hug from the store, you know. And of course I
never ever used it. Nobody put a pop tart and
(28:46):
let's say in the tape deck. You know, everybody in
my family at that point was ten years old or older.
Who's gonna put a pop tart? In tape deck. But anyway,
I never used the thing. But of course that didn't
stop me or make me think at all. Instead, I
basically doubled down and I bought every extended warranty that
(29:07):
was offered. And then I got even worse. If they
didn't offer me an extended warranty that I wasn't going
to use, I'd ask them, is there any way I can,
you know, like, give you more money now and buy
an extended warranty so I'm protected in the future if
something crazy would happen, you know, a pop Tart involved
(29:29):
in something, and you'd still cover this product and this
equipment and maybe get me new if something went wrong
and salespeople would just light up. They loved me. They'd
sometimes fight over me, you know, they all wanted me
to be their customer. I can only imagine how much
money I have blown unextended warranties over the years, warranties
(29:50):
I never once used. And that's why that Simpsons episode
cracks me up, you know so much. It's so real,
so real to me. Anyway, now I don't buy them anymore, right,
you know, I'm not that guy, But at the time
I always thought it seemed like the smart thing to
go to do. Spend a little money and I'll protect
my investment. I'm guessing you've been there too, Maybe not
as often as me, but I bet you've signed on
(30:12):
that dotted line at least once thinking this is going
to keep me covered. And that gets me finally, long windedly,
to the paint point. A lot of us have thrown
down money on extended warranties that will never ever cash
in because they make us feel safe. But when it
comes to paint where the protection is real or could
be real, where you can actually see the difference day
(30:32):
after day, we hesitate. We don't want to drop any
extra money down. It's kind of backwards. Specifically, I want
to talk about scuff X from Benjamin Moore. Buying scuff
X isn't really, you know, purchasing some someday safety net
that you might use you probably will never use. When
you buy scuff X, you're purchasing a finish that's going
to outperform period. It's going to do it anything you've
(30:55):
ever had on your walls. When it comes to resisting
scuffs and marks, you know where that rex most finished
isn't going to touch scuff X. It's going to keep
your walls looking great for years. It's going to It's
just how it is. We've seen it over all the
years that scuff X has been out. I doubted it
at first. I wasn't sure about it because it was
crazy claims that Benjamin Moore was making about it. But
(31:16):
it's panned out. It really does what they say it
will do. It's so much fun to sell because people
instantly see the results. For example, I've talked about it
a ton of times on the show here. But you know,
three four years ago something like that, I painted my
entry with scuff X. And previously it had been a
high end ceramic paint that was supposed to wash up
(31:37):
really well, and it did a good job. But it
was an entry way, and I've got five kids, you know,
and they'd come in and they'd kick their shoes off,
which apparently to them was like some kind of Olympic sport.
I don't understand. I still can't figure it out. I
couldn't figure it out then, I can't figure it out now.
But I'd find scuff marks on the wall, you know,
(31:57):
mostly at the first foot or so up from the floor,
but every now and then they'd show up somewhere near
the ceiling. You know, I don't know, like I said,
as parents, I don't really think we're ever meant to understand,
you know, our children's minds. Anyway, we had a ton
of scuff marks all over that wall, and I'd wash
them off periodically, but a lot of the time I
(32:18):
couldn't get them all off, so they were there. But
then I painted, like I said, three four years ago
or so with scuff X, and the walls still look
largely new. You know, the trim in there is beaten
up a bit, but that wasn't painted with scuff X.
The walls which were painted with scuff X look great.
You know, I don't have a single scuff and I
haven't in all of that time. Now the kids, you know,
(32:41):
the argument could be made the kids have gotten older
and wiser, and I'm certain that the older part is true.
I'm sure the wiser part is true as well. So
I'll give you that they've gotten wiser and older. But
the scuffs went away overnight once I applied the scuff X,
and no touchups. I haven't done a single touch up
in that room, a single touch up on the walls
(33:04):
in years in three years, never not a single one
and no need for one. I'm not just living with
marks on the wall. There is nothing, you know, it's fine.
So scuff CK's a huge change in that space, and
it really reinforced to me to my mind that Benjamin
Moore's claims about this product were real. And that's just
one of my scuff x stories. But take a look
(33:25):
around your own home, you know, right now, just take
a look around. Maybe you know you're thinking that you
don't need scuff X. You're you're not going to benefit
from it. You don't have kids kicking their shoes off
or whatever, or scuff marks on the wall. But take
a minute and just look, you know, look down the hallways,
look in the entryways, the mud rooms, you know, maybe
the laundry room, you name it. Check out the high
(33:46):
traffic areas in your home and look for scuff marks,
you know, from boots, from shoes, from furniture, you know,
things like that. Now, if your walls truly are Christine,
you know you've won at life. You know congradulates you've
made it. But if they're marked up like most of
our walls, you're going to find things that you've kind
of overlooked or you've forgotten about. You just don't see
(34:09):
them anymore. You're so used to seeing them. If you
look at him, now, look for it. Now you'll find it.
And if that's what you're finding, scuff X was made
exactly for those spaces, but it's not just made for homes.
In fact, it primarily wasn't made for homes. It was
made for you know, schools and hospitals and things like that.
That's where it was primarily made to be used. Last week,
(34:30):
my dad he was in the hospital, you know, undergoing
a bunch of tests as they tried to figure out
if he had a stroke or what had happened. I
talked about that last week. It was tough. He's home now,
you know, so I'll say that he's home. He's doing
really well. Still got this double vision thing that's kind
of driving him nuts, so we're praying that that gets better.
But you know, all things considered, he's doing well. But anyway,
(34:53):
while he was in the hospital, I spent one of
those days sitting there with my mom, you know, just
waiting you do at the hospital. And as I was
working in this little sitting area, you know, off a hallway,
right near an elevator bay. I couldn't help but notice,
you know, as I'm sitting there, how beat up the
walls were. You know, I didn't notice them at first,
But the longer I sat there and the more I'm
(35:14):
looking around, I'm realizing, Wow, there's scuffs everywhere, you know,
all along the elevator wall, all down this big hallway.
Scuffs from wheelchairs, from gurnees, from carts, you know, you
name it, and look, I get it. You know, I'm
not judging anybody. I wasn't sitting there judging the look.
I wasn't going to deduct from the money we were willing. Well,
I'm not paying anything. It's dad and mom, But I
(35:36):
wouldn't suggest that they deduct anything from their bill or
from where they're willing to or what they would pay
for their bill because of the scuff marks. You know,
it's a hospital, it's not a showcase. I get all that.
But here's the thing. Those facilities, you know, places like that,
spend a ton of money designing, callming, welcoming spaces. They
work with interior designers to get just the right colors
(35:58):
for their spaces, and then their wall beat up like
that really work against everything they're trying to create. Now,
with scuff X, those same walls would be looking good
for months. We've seen it. We've seen people or places
like this who've switched to scuff X. It will look
good for months instead of needing touch ups every couple
of weeks. So if you're responsible for a space like that,
(36:20):
you know, a hospital, a waiting room, a senior living center,
a school, you know, any commercial setting that sees a
ton of traffic and wear, shoot me an email at
radio at repco light dot com. You know, we'll talk
it through and possibly we can get free gallons of
scuff X in your hands to try. We'll give it
to you because we know you're gonna like it. And
here's another thing to think about. A lot of times
(36:42):
people think, oh, you know, I'll just go to a
shinier finish with my usual paint that's going to resist
stuffs just as well as scuff X. Well, first off,
it's not going to and we can demonstrate that really
quickly to you. But also you can get scuff X
in a matte finish, and that matt finish is going
to resist more scuffs than most other products will in
(37:03):
a semi gloss, and that means that you can use
a matte finish on your walls, which is much easier
on the eyes, shows your color better, and also it
doesn't expose nearly as many or as much of the
wall's imperfections. You know, at the hospital where my dad was,
the walls were shiny for this exact reason. They went
with a shining your paint, a semi gloss to resist
(37:23):
wear and scuffs, and the walls are still scuffed on top,
you know, besides the fact that they use semi gloss.
And because they use semi gloss. You know, in that
big hallway, when I see the sun coming in, it's
reflecting off of that wall and it's exposing all kinds
of imperfections. The wall looks absolutely terrible. I've got photos
in the show notes, so check them out. A matte
(37:45):
finish is going to hide a lot of that, and
it's going to still resist the scuffs, you know, if
you get scuff X. So, if you're responsible for a
customer facing facility or a public facing space out there
that sees a lot of wear, reach out you know,
radio at repcolit dot com. We might be able to
put some free gallons of scuff X in your hands
so you can try it, no strings attached. All right.
(38:06):
That's a lot of stuff for a certain you know,
kind of a niche group of people. But I've got
good stuff for everybody out there listening. Starting October one,
So next week and then running all of October, scuff
X in matt, eggshell, and satin, those three finishes is
going to be on sale for under fifty six bucks
a gallon, and that's about twenty four dollars off each gallon,
(38:26):
and there's no limits. You can buy one gallon, you
can buy twenty gallons, whatever you need. I don't think
we've ever had scuff X price like this before, so
it's a great time to give it a try. It
applies beautifully, you know, it looks great. It holds up,
you know, like I'm saying, holds up, you know, like
nothing else I've ever worked with. It's it's one of
those rare products that lives up to the hype. I
(38:48):
know you're gonna like it, so think about it for
your next project. And remember that sale starts October one
at every repco Light location. So there you go. We'll
have more information at repco Light dot com. As October
or starts. It's not a you know, come in while
supplies last don't, so don't worry about rushing there. Just
make sure you get there before the end of October
(39:10):
and snag some of that pain. All right, that's gonna
do it for this week's episode of Home in Progress.
If you've got a home improvement question that you'd like
me to tackle on a future show, send me an
email at radio at repco light dot com. That's our
E P C O L I T E Radio at
repcolight dot com. You can also find past episodes, blog posts,
(39:30):
and other resources at repcolight dot com, so check that out.
And if you enjoyed today's show, make sure you hit
subscribe on your favorite podcast app so you'll never miss
another episode. New shows come out every single week, and subscribing,
you know, that's the easiest way to stay up to date.
And while you're there, share the show with a friend
who loves a good project and you know, just loves
(39:52):
the highbrow entertainment that we provide on a regular basis.
That really helped me out. If you'd share it, I'd
love it. I'm Dan Hans And then this has been
Home in Progress brought to you by Repcolite Paints and
Benjamin Moore. Thanks for listening. I'll see you next time.
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