Home Improvement Show 9-13-25

Tune in here for this 9-5-25 episode of the Home Depot Home Improvement show on WBT with John Gordon and David Dovell.

On this edition of the program, John and Dave talk about repairing holes in drywall. This morphs into how to prevent air from the attic entering the house through the attic stairs. John and Dave discuss the challenges of getting air returned to the air handler especially when doors to rooms in the house are closed and go over several options. How is the best way to protect your deck against weather, whether it is winter weater r the sun. Discussions with callers included, insect control, cleaning bacteria or mold from air vents. It’s another informative Saturday packed with practical, hands-on advice from two seasoned home improvement pros.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
The Home Depol Home Improvement Show with John and Dave
present upy try pro answering your home improvement questions, every
Saturday on News Talk eleven ninety nine to three WBT.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Good morning, everybody, Welcome to the Home Depot Home Improvement
Show with John and Dave.

Speaker 3 (00:22):
I'm John Gordon, I'm Dave Doval.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
David. Good morning.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
Huh oh you there, I'm here. Okay, yeah, that's fine.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
I've got a terrible reverb again, but we're good.

Speaker 3 (00:35):
Oh is it bouncing? Okay? Yeah, see if he can
get that dialed around for you.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
Yeah, we'll get it.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
All's well, how about you, sir. It's good. O, we're good.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
We're good. I'm out of town right now. We're heading
back this afternoon but late actually this morning. But we're
up in Maryland for a wedding. Oh nice, beautiful. I
think we're on the western in shore of Chesapeake Bay.
It's really pretty, so a lots of family haven't seen

(01:07):
it a long time. It's nice, so all good? Right? Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:11):
I think that might be Gena's old stomping ground up there.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
Oh is that right? Yeah? Because she was with uh yeah,
I forget the company, but here yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
it is a beautiful area. But we got lots of
talk about I don't know what, I don't know what
the weather is like we all are, but it's it's
really pretty here. It's fall time. It's time to think

(01:35):
about all those fall projects, and we have a list
of I don't know, a lot, a lot of stuff
to talk about. It's people are thinking about, well, cooler
weather coming.

Speaker 3 (01:52):
Yeah, I think I think what is going to be
in the nineties here in the next couple. Yeah, well,
I haven't turned back around, so we're paying. We're paying
for the cooler, for the cooler August that we had.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Yeah, we had a couple almost a full week there
be where it was good. Well, we've got people let's
see talking about insulating doors, uh, patching walls. Let's see
what else is on this here? Winter well, winter rising. Okay,
I couldn't read my own writing there for a second. Uh,

(02:32):
just lots of good stuff, lots of good stuff. We'll
get into it post taste anything in the email world
or or been quiet.

Speaker 3 (02:41):
I'm going to pull up the text line. I don't know,
I've got it. Oh you haven't pulled up.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
Yeah, I've got it. Yeah, But I mean, you should
probably check me on it. Guess I don't always stay well,
I don't stay on top of that all right. So
here's here's one day that I feel like, uh man,
good idea. But I put can I spray foam into

(03:11):
a hollow core door so it becomes an insulated door?
I don't. I don't know the person would understand. A
hollow core door has a style lock block and it's hollow,
but it's not there's not empty space. It's typically cardboard,

(03:36):
like a honeycomb kind of cardboard that fills that space,
so so that there's some rigidity to the.

Speaker 3 (03:45):
Door, right and you can't push the panels in or
anything right right.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
So, and I'm thinking when I say that, like a
lu Wan door, uh uh uh, a hollow core masonite door,
Masonite being a brand name hard hardwood, hard hardboard door,
same deal, right, You would it would be impossible to

(04:10):
get any amount of insulation into it.

Speaker 3 (04:14):
That, Yeah, you'd have to drill make a difference. You'd
have to drill a bunch of holes. So I think
if you get to that point and you need a
you just need a solid core door. And I think
we talked about that last week a little bit about
taking the door down and uh using the old door
as a template. So that would be the ideal thing
is just to buy a solid core door that looks

(04:36):
like the existing doors that you have and then and
then just just machine it and paint it and put
it put it back up.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
Yeah, and it just because people talk about masonite like
hardboard masonite, but masonite. The door manufacturing arm has some
really awesome solid core into intior doors. So they're like
one in three eight's fit into your existing jam said,

(05:07):
and as we spoke about last week, you can you
can take your existing door down uses template to hang
this new one. But there there's a series called safe
and Sound I think. So one version is has a
fire rating, is an interior door with a fire rating.
And then there's a soundproof or soundproof I guess, not

(05:32):
like a radio station, I guess, but it's it doesn't
sound transfer and those are and they look really good.
You get some really nice styles, So that's it. That's it.
And if you're looking for a door that's got some
insulation in it, I don't know why, other I'm thinking

(05:57):
sound deadening. I don't know why. Else you would want
to so late an interior door. Can you think of
what that would be?

Speaker 4 (06:04):
Well, not unless someone's using it as a studio of
some sorts and they're you know, they're looking to keep
the sound out of the of from coming in the
room if they're recording or you.

Speaker 3 (06:16):
Know, what is it. Everybody's a podcast digital digital creator
these days, right, So yeah, but I think that would
be you know, that would probably be one of the
reasons to try to keep the sound out, you know,
or it could be somebody that has a third shift
job or something have to sleep during the day.

Speaker 2 (06:39):
Yeah, but it would definitely be sound, not any kind
of temperature or thermal block.

Speaker 3 (06:44):
Right, No, Yeah, it would have to be sound. Yes, Okay,
I would think I would hope, well, you never know,
get hang a blanket over the door, if you know,
if it's too cold or too hot.

Speaker 2 (07:00):
I know we're coming up on a break here, so
so I won't dally. But if we have a minute,
I'll tell you an interesting story on the flip house
that we're working on and up in Writesboro. But we
got a lot of good questions ahead of us. We

(07:20):
have open lines at seven o four five seven eleven ten.
We can use or you can use that same number
to text us using the WBT text line driven by
Liberty Buick GMC and uh, well, we'll just answer your questions.

(07:40):
Answer your questions that way, so cir go away. Give
us a call seven oh four five seven oh eleven ten,
and remember you can always go to Ask John and
Dave got ask John and Dave dot com. Click on
the questions button and send us a note that way
and we can answer your questions. Don't go away. The
Home Deep homer Proof Show with John to Dave is

(08:01):
coming right back. Welcome back, everybody. It's a Home Deep
Home Proven show which on today. If I'm John.

Speaker 3 (08:14):
Gordon, I'm Dave Doval.

Speaker 2 (08:18):
Hey, and we're taking your calls at seven o four
five seven eleven ten. Give us a call. We're taking
the same text line. We'll do it. You can hear,
we can. We can talk on the same text line.
But that same number has a text line, so let's
do it. David, here's a here's a great question. I
was watching something I was on TV and it made

(08:39):
me chuckle. I might it might have been Barb and
I were watching an old run of the Home I
Proven Show.

Speaker 3 (08:47):
With tim uh, Tim Allen.

Speaker 2 (08:50):
It's a guy's name, Tim Allen. Yeah, and any anyway,
I won't go into it. Yeah, that's get a life, John.
But so the question was, and I found it in
in in this stuff that I was looking at, what's
better to patch a hole in dry wall? Spackle or
joint compound?

Speaker 3 (09:08):
Little holes spackle?

Speaker 2 (09:10):
Yeah, why, I don't know. It doesn't shrink.

Speaker 3 (09:17):
Oh, I was like I thought you were.

Speaker 2 (09:19):
It doesn't shrink as badly. I know, I wouldn't thought,
I said, I thought you were getting ready to do
a joke. No, no, I've never told a joke on
the air, not a good one anyway. No, it's it
was a legitimate question here that I ran a class,
and it made me it was part of a tull
Time show or whatever that I was watching with Barb. Anyway,

(09:42):
if you do have hole, we've we've spent a lot
of time talking about how you patch holes in drywall,
right the door knob goes through it, or I don't know,
rowdy kids are wrestling and you got a hole in drywall,
and you know, little back orp board, and we've always
spoken about joint compound for those things. But if you're
just filling. You know, a nail, you're punched an anchor,

(10:06):
you know through because you know those expanding anchors that
you can't take out, Just punch them through and you've
got the little hole. Spackle is actually you can make
drywall work. You usually got to come at it a
couple of times, whereas spackle doesn't shrink back as badly, right,
and so spackle wins. But I can't tell you the
last time I messed with that. All Right, mystery solved.

(10:30):
I guess if that was on your list of mysteries.
Here's one I know we've talked about this before. Oil
stay this poor person, though, I feel their pain. Brand
new driveway delivery truck came drift oil all over the driveway.

(10:52):
They're like, how do I get the oil out of
my out of my brand new driving It's inevitable, I
guess at some point. But it's like when you're a
new vehicle, it's like precious, precious until you get that
first thing and then you kind of lose your mind.
But some stuff.

Speaker 5 (11:10):
Exactly yeah, yeah, But anyway, what we've talked about, uh,
using detergent, powdered laundry detergent, and and and let you
work almost like to absorb the dries stuff that pulls the.

Speaker 2 (11:29):
Oil out and then and cleaning it. That'll be good.
I think you want to be really careful about washer
on new concrete. I mean you want to be careful anyway,
but that would work right.

Speaker 3 (11:41):
Yes, what was it?

Speaker 2 (11:45):
Do they still make you? You knew of some time ago,
like little microbes or something like that that you could
buy that actually ate the oil.

Speaker 3 (11:53):
Yeah, and I think there's several member several companies underded
it now. But it's I think it was called Eco
Solve two thousand and it was you mix it with
water and that's what it does. I think the key
to it was is you had to keep it wet
or the microbes would would would die. So once you

(12:14):
activate them with water, then the idea was to lay
something damp over top of the spot that you've treated.
So you would you would mix up the product with
the water, apply it to the spill and then and
then you would lay something wet over so be wet
rag or you know, I've heard of people wet and
wet and a piece of carpet, you know, an old

(12:36):
piece of carpet or rug and it hold lot of
water and it won't evaporate, so that's the key to it,
and then the microbes will eat the oil up. Remember
I told you the story about that was when I
first found that product and I got my hands on it,
and I had it at home, and I was like,
what am I going to do?

Speaker 4 (12:55):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (12:55):
You know what am I going to check this on?
Because I didn't have any i'd have any oil spills.
But but we had fried French fries for some reason.
We never did that. We always baked them, but we
fried them for some reason. We had that oil and
it was in a in a to go cup. We
were going to let it gel over and then throw
it away, and so we put I put that that

(13:17):
echo solved two thousand in there, and the next day
when I went and checked it, it was water. It had
eaten all the oil up in the cup and it
was nothing left but water, which then it's crazy. So
I was a believer at that point. So I thought
it was snake oil.

Speaker 2 (13:35):
Well, it's possible, it's possible. The good thing about snake
oil is a generalle It does not leave stains and
it tastes just like chicken. So that said, so oil
stains if you can find the ecosyl. I gotta believe
you can go online and just kind of google. That's
that challenge.

Speaker 3 (13:56):
Didn't find see if it's still available. Hey, how's the
how's your how's your reverb going there?

Speaker 2 (14:04):
It's in the background. I can hear it. It's it's
not It's cool. We'll get through it. Let's see, here's
one oh these installing attic stairs. Uh, And it says
need to cut, need to make cuts. So I'm presuming

(14:27):
if it's a truss, that's a whole different ball of wax.
But if you raft your roof, you can cut ceiling
joists to accommodate attic stairs. Right, if you just head
everything out.

Speaker 3 (14:47):
Yeah, most of the time you can. Now if it's
if it's dimensional lumber, that is that is a stick
framed uh situation. But if it's a trust, you can
not cut those trusts.

Speaker 2 (15:02):
You have to cut the trust.

Speaker 3 (15:03):
So if they're two foot on center, then you have
to buy a twenty two and a half inch stairway
and you have to put it in between those trustes.
And then yeah, and then of course you can head off.
You could you could put a block between the the
trusses at the at the at the hinge point and
at the opening portion of the of the stairs to

(15:25):
help hold them in place. But you're not supposed to
alter trustes at all. You're not supposed to drill them,
drill holes of them, you're not supposed to cut them,
you're not supposed to notch them unless you have an engineer.
Engineer draw it up and tell you what you have
to do to brace it. Because evidently every every every

(15:45):
inch of it has a purpose, you know, has some
type of pressure.

Speaker 2 (15:52):
Well, if you think about it, like trust, configurations are
can be super super complex. Right, There was a point
in time where we were as in residential construction, you
were really only seeing trusses for for a gable roof
was common, and then a hip roof we had step

(16:14):
down trust is right, but that was really it. Now
there's all manner of configurations that that I'll get trust
and and that it does it takes the load of
your roof and moves it from the roof to some
point along a bottom cord and there. So there's a
lot of there's a lot of math involved, right, and

(16:38):
and and they're doing it with like if you had
a two by six rafter roof and a two by
and two by six ceiling joists and conventional framing that's
all replaced by a two by four and the trust
typically right, Yes, so it's less it's a smaller dimension. Uh.
Here's a text that says, how about sheet rock repair.

(17:02):
When a towel bar pulls out of the wall, I'd
like to put the bar back in the same place,
not to worry. Let's see, do we have time. Yeah,
we have time.

Speaker 6 (17:13):
So we're that bar pulled out. You'll need to clean
up the hole, square it up, make it a little
bit bigger. David, we usually talk about just getting a
piece of plywood. I've used like a one by three
if it's if it's not a big hole, and you
want that piece of wood to be bigger left and

(17:34):
right for top and bottom, if you want so, it
should be bigger than the hole by about an inch
or so to the left and to the right, or
top and bottom. I always put a little screw, I
screw a drywall screw into the piece of the wood,
because you got to put it in at an angle
and then pull it back because it's bigger than the hole, right,
and so you want to pull it back against the

(17:55):
back of the drywall.

Speaker 2 (17:56):
So I put a little screw on it, and I
hold that screw. And then if you're going top to
bottom bigger or left or right bigger than the hole,
with another drywall screw, you screw into the wood through
the drywall to the right of the hole, into the
wood through the drywall to the left of the solid

(18:18):
piece of right m And then you can put a
piece of drywall back over that patchet, and then you
can screw your towel bar back and actually you've probably
got something stronger because you've got wood back there now
where you had just drywall before.

Speaker 3 (18:33):
Right, And then and then I like how you started out,
was I really like it when when you can use
a piece of plywood, A lot of times if you
use with that small of a piece of pine, it
could split, split with the sharp with the sharp screws,
because you're you're you're kind of close to the end.
So I most always use plywood because it works out better,

(18:57):
you know, But we have done it with a five
gallon paintster.

Speaker 2 (19:02):
I was gonna say, yeah, yeah, you can, you know,
whatever scrap is around.

Speaker 3 (19:06):
And then the other thing that you could do is
you get actually put a little glue on the board
too if you wanted to, and glue it to the
back of the right wall, so that gives you a
little help but.

Speaker 2 (19:16):
Makes good sense. All right, we're about thirty seconds away
from a break here, and maybe just real quick, I'll
remind folks that it's time for the sixth annual WBT
Little Heroes Blood Drive. On Thursday September eighteen, WBT and
the One Blood, Big Red Bus will be at Watson

(19:37):
Insurance in Belmont from ten am to three pm. We'll
be broadcasting live and encouraging you to make a life
saving blood donation. It's the sixth annual WBT Little Heroes
Blood Drive Thursday September eighteenth at Washington Watson Insurance in Belmont.
Visit the WBT dot com location for location details or
to register for your appointment. And with and said tell

(20:01):
you that we're going to take a little break. Don't
go away. We're at seven O four five seven oh
eleven ten and we'll talk about your questions when we
return to The Home Deepot Home Improvement Show with John
and Dale. Welcome back. It's the Home Depot Home Improvement
Show with John and Dave.

Speaker 3 (20:23):
I'm Dave Doval, and.

Speaker 2 (20:25):
We're ready for your calls at seven O four five
to seven oh eleven ten or your texts at the
same number seven O four five seven eleven ten using
the WBT text line driven by Liberty Buick GMC grateful for.
That's kind of slick to get those texts in here.
Take advantage of it unless you're driving. It's time for

(20:46):
our home depot Product of the Week this week. I went, well,
it's it's a it's a door. It's an exterior door
manufactured by Crosswood Doors, and I'll send you you can
you can check out the website and different stuff to
see more details on it. But when we were redoing
that portion of our home, I was all set on

(21:08):
a fiberglass door, because fiberglass stoor is super durable. You
can you can actually stay in them, paying them. There's
just so much you can do with a fiberglass s dooor.
But Barb was set on a wooden door, and then
I'm glad it's it's it's there. There's beautiful. This is
like solid hemlock. It's built really well, all the dowel

(21:30):
constructions and things so that the integrity the door will
will be good. You'll it's it's a wooden door, so
you're gonna have to stain it and maintain it. But
what it looks like just can't be emulated in a
fiberglass store. This particular one is unfinished and it comes

(21:50):
pre hung. I'm looking at one that's that's a three
foot door with a sidelight each side of twelve inch
side light on each side. So that may or may
not be an exact configure ration and for your door,
but I think go check these things out because they
come with oil rub bronze hinges and again that debt
color combination could be changed, high performance weather stripping and

(22:11):
adjustable bronze in swing threshold. And it's a beautiful, beautiful
door and it's a great way to change how the front.
It is an investment. The particular version that I'm looking
at is about thirty five hundred dollars. I would also
tell you just if you hit the home Depot website

(22:31):
and check out front door ideas, because it'll show you
all these different doors. The number of doors available just
from Crosswood is significant, and then there's other great manufacturers
out there also, and you get there's just really good
ideas about sprucing up the front of the front of

(22:52):
your house. And David, have you and I haven't looked
at it in a long time, but when we used
to check the cost versus value information about you know,
home improvement. Remember it was a steel door at the time,
but front entry doors for a long time out ranked
in payback, out ranked bath remodels. I think kitchen remodel

(23:16):
might have been the only thing that that outranked it
as far as return on your investment. So that's it.
It's a it's a crosswood exterior, this particular one I'm
looking at as a farmhouse style because that's just really
popular right now and it's beautiful. That's it. That's our
whole depot product of the week. David. Sorry for the
price point, man.

Speaker 3 (23:37):
No, well, I mean it is it what it costs.

Speaker 2 (23:41):
No, I'm just I'm just kidding. I know you like John,
you like to spend money. Not really, I just like
I like quality stuff. All right. We talked about the
what the attic stairs David before we hit the brake,
and you and I have spoken before and now as
we well ninety degrees, this week is not going to

(24:01):
be any kind of imitation of cooler weather coming, but
it is coming, and I wanted to take one second
because you've always given good advice as far as weather
stripping or keeping all that. In the summertime, hot arises,
so you're less likely to have of a big heat

(24:24):
gain from an a set of addict stayers that are
in the house, but you can certainly have heat loss
in the winter time through that. And so you've talked
about just using regular like foam kind of weather door
weather shipping the stairs, right.

Speaker 3 (24:43):
Yeah, I was in an attict yesterday or went up
in won and they put a raised up the frame
around it will build a frame out of some one
by material and they hinged a piece of plywood on
that and then on the plywood was foam glued to it.
So you just flip the door up and it would

(25:05):
flip up against the trust and then they had an
eye and a hook so that you could hook it
would slam me, slam me and knock you back down.
What's that game where they've hit you with the hammer
the little black a mole, Yeah, because that's what you'd
feel like. It was pretty heavy, but it was it
was a it's a it's a nice way to do it,
and it's it's kind of out of the way. And

(25:27):
I think the ones that you and I have talked
about or have seen are made really out of foam. Uh,
and you could get something a little thicker, maybe three
quarters or one inch thick, and then you would you
could tape it together and make it bigger than the
actual hole. And then the ones that I've seen some
innovative things people have done is they put a doal

(25:49):
rod across it so that you have a handle, and
then what they would do, yeah, and and most a
lot of them, I think what they do is they
just slide it straight back so they track and it
works works pretty well. And I did that at our
townhouse with foam and a piece of plywood. I just
made a track and then I just had a handle
and I just slid it back out of the way

(26:10):
and then you would go up in the stairs and
it worked pretty well.

Speaker 2 (26:14):
Yeah, we same thing. I made it out of insulation
foam I did. I wasn't smart enough to think about
the dial solution, and I certainly wasn't smart enough to
think about the track thing. But I had enough room.
I had just massive space up there to just push
the box out of.

Speaker 3 (26:29):
The way, and that's really that's all it matters.

Speaker 2 (26:31):
Yeah, yeah, but it is nice to it so that
it's anything that's a little less cumbersome is always a
scot improvement. But it makes a big difference. It makes
a big difference, and we don't anticipate energy costs going down.
And also if you're on a if you're on like
a heat pump system, it's just nice not to have

(26:54):
that extra burden, you know, or or load if you will,
on your system in the wintertime when all that heat
is kind of escaping back up into the attic.

Speaker 3 (27:05):
Yeah, and you don't think about that stuff till the
till the power bill or the gas bill comes. But
you know, we don't. You try not to waste food
or you try not to waste things. You don't see
heated and cooled air as it escapes. So if you
could see it, we maybe we would be better about it.
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (27:23):
Well, you'd have John Cannamella come by once a month
with with his camera and just show.

Speaker 3 (27:30):
You infrared ever infrared glasses, right.

Speaker 2 (27:35):
Yeah, and just see the places where where heat is
escaping or where cold is well, heat is escaping. Heat
moves from hot to cold. So anyway, so that's a
that's a really good if you're going to do the
attic stairs, just make project. Uh. The other thing that
why I hate I don't want to just beat this

(27:56):
attic stair horse. But I had just jotted some notes
down around the whole topic because one of the reasons
that someone might want to cut trusses is because the
attic stairs are in a hallway, right, and the trusses
are running perpendicular to the direction of the hallway, and
you want to pull the stairs down. You can, if
you take a minute and think it through, you may

(28:19):
be able to actually place those stairs lined with a
doorway into a bedroom or another room, so that when
you pull them down, the stairs go into the room,
but you have enough head clearance to get up the
stairs and not bang your head on the top of
the door. And so you just give it a minute
and think it through. It's not it's not necessarily a

(28:40):
lost cause or something you want to risk, you know,
you know, manipulating trustes and cutting trustes and stuff like that.
So there's lots of good there's lots of good possibilities.
Never hurts to call a qualified a remodeler or an
engineering company just to get an idea. It doesn't have
to cost you an arm in la. All right, we
are ready to take another break. Don't go away where

(29:02):
at seven O four five sevenh eleven ten. That's our
phone number. That's also our text line using the WBT
text line driven by Liberty Buick GMC. We'll talk about
your questions when we return from these important messages. Home

(29:23):
Improvement Show with John and Date. That's a long title,
but it's still us. I'm John Gordon, I'm Dave Doval
seven four five seven eleven ten. Give us a call.
We'll talk about your questions. H let's see what do
we got here? Is a jump vent a do it

(29:44):
yourself job. So when we say jump fin David. If
you look at a lot of new construction this the
HVAC systems are designed in size for for you know
what needs to be or very frequently you find systems

(30:07):
where there's one or two main uh. I still call
them cold air returns, but return vents versus a situation
where you have a return vent in every room. I
I kind of in every room because I feel like
it it well, it does it lets the conditioned air

(30:29):
come in and and the other air go out, and
you don't get a situation where you get jammed, right,
because if you get into a bedroom in a in
a scenario where you've got one one main return or
two returns and not returns in individual places, you close
the door serious undercut. You reduce how the how the

(30:51):
air moves. So let's do this, so I see that
gis called it. Let's let's get Gigi's call and then
we'll dive into the to the return. Good morning. You're
on the whole deep home improvement showing. John and Dave.
How are you?

Speaker 7 (31:04):
I'm doing good, John, Daves. Can you hear me?

Speaker 3 (31:08):
I can hear you.

Speaker 2 (31:09):
We can, yes, ma'am.

Speaker 7 (31:10):
Okay, a little bit far away, but I can hear
you too as well. Good morning, guys, Good morning, good morning.

Speaker 2 (31:18):
Uh.

Speaker 7 (31:19):
I live in an area where I have a lot
of trees and of course deers and all kinds of stuff.
But I have a problem with those big palmetto bugs.
And uh, it's a no win situation when it comes
to bringing somebody over here and spray. They wants so
much money, so I cannot go there. So I was wondering,

(31:42):
what can you suggest for me to get something that
I could maybe control what's going on and also be
kind of safe. I have a dog. He hardly ever
goes outside. But let's say I do this before we
go to bed, just spray something. But it has to
be powerful in house to maybe keep it control, you know,

(32:03):
away from the house.

Speaker 2 (32:05):
Yeah, we've uh. David and I have spoken for a
long time about a product called home Defense. It's manufactured
by Ortho Home Defense, yes, ma'am. And I buy it
by the gallon at the home depot and you can
get a couple versions. The first one I buy I

(32:26):
always has a little battery powered sprayer on it, and
then then I'll just buy refills for it. But what
but what we do. The reason it's the reason we
like it is it can be of the inside of
your home. So if it's hardwood, if it's carpet, a laminate,

(32:47):
certainly ceramic it stuff is a un issue. I don't
let it puddle on the hardwood, so I'll spray it
and just kind of wipe it away so it's damp,
but it's not puddled. It's it is safe for pets.
You don't want your pets drinking it. Or but but
but spring it in the house. We used it for
years with all of our pets. Never had an issue,
and I couldn't. I wish I could tell you precisely

(33:10):
why it is so effective, but it is amazing. I
spray twice a year, and I go around the perimeter
every single wall. I literally start at one point in
the walk through through every single room and spray at
the base board, just at the baseboard where they're coming in.
Right in the in the kitchen, where there's openings in
the wall for the supply lines or the drain lines,

(33:33):
I spray there. Same in the bathroom, vanities, laundry room,
wherever there's penetrations in the wall, I spray. In a while,
i'll see a palmetto bug, but he or she I
don't know the gender of the bunks. Are its legs up?
They're dead right, And so that's that has been super

(33:53):
good for us. I'll also tell you that this is
a little bit tougher, David. We think that we they
breed very frequently. They're breeding in your gutters because if
there's any kind of just like silt or debris laying
in the bottom of your gutter, water's flown over. But
if it stays damp for a protracted period of time,

(34:15):
that's a great breeding place for them. So it might
not be a get out and get it the gutters.
I don't know. But you could also go up into
the attic and then just spray down along the eve
line with the same home defense product. I've done that,
and that's how I've solved those things, because because they

(34:35):
don't bother me. I mean, they're gross. I guess you
don't want tom running around, but our kids absolutely that.
My daughters would just lose their mind if they saw
one of those things, and so that's what we did.

Speaker 7 (34:48):
Yeah, do you have to Hey, you don't have to
wear a mask or anything.

Speaker 2 (34:53):
No, I know, it's very it's I don't Again, I
don't know the active chemical, but no, I've never worn
a mask, and that back is just really handy for
for extra chores around the house.

Speaker 3 (35:04):
Yeah. I've really never smelled it spraying, and it probably has,
but that's not saying much. I don't smell many things.

Speaker 2 (35:10):
But it's but I do, and it's it's fundamentally odorless.

Speaker 3 (35:14):
It's it's so it would just be the mist if
you wanted to put up a respirator or a cloth
over your over your nose and mouth if you wanted
to just say you don't ingest any of it. But
I sprayed. I dump it out, John uses you. I
didn't know they had a battery operated when I don't
they do? Yeah, I dump it out port my sprayer.
So yeah, it hurts your arm, spray it.

Speaker 2 (35:37):
Yes, I'm sorry to interrupt.

Speaker 7 (35:40):
Do you remember what this George looks like. It's his
home defence But it's.

Speaker 2 (35:44):
It's a white It's a white jug with a red cap.
And you usually if you go to your local home
depot store, they have it in the garden department with
all the insecticides. But typically they have like a h
end cap with it in a couple other places in
the store. Just so, I don't know if they've got

(36:06):
it out this time of year or not, but but
go in just and ask the associate of the guard
department for Home defense ORTHO Home Defense and call us back.
But I think you're going to be pretty happy.

Speaker 7 (36:19):
Okay, I will call you guys back for sure.

Speaker 2 (36:22):
You much, all right, thank you, thank you too. All right,
let's see let's talk to Ken. Ken. Good morning, you're
on the Home Deep Hummer Puma Show with John and Dave.
How are you okay?

Speaker 8 (36:35):
Doing great? So i'd eat your all air conditioning expertise,
which I think you'd have a little bit of. So
I had, you know, by annual inspection come by. They
looked over the system and this and that, and they
found in the in the cold air return duck that

(36:58):
what they said they thought was a bot right, and
they stuck their hand in there, and they took a
picture of it, and they showed up to be and
I wasn't really sure. And and then proceeded to say, Okay,
it's gonna cost down an X amount of money to
replace your ducks and to to make it good. So
I brought in a second opinion, and he looked at
it and he says it's not mold. He says, mold's

(37:21):
gonna if it was inside your your duck, and it's
gonna be black a nature. This is white nature. It's
a bacterio. This gets your spray bottle of fifty to
fifty bleach and just spray it on there and uh
it'll it'll go away in a heartbeat. And it was
more of a white kind of like a jellyoush per

(37:44):
se and so I just want to get your opinion
on it. I mean he also told me, you know,
go get yourself h u V light and installed on
that box that says it should be easy to do.
And uh, but you get your opinion on that. The
versus seeing you know, black spots are worth versus seeing
a little clup of white.

Speaker 3 (38:04):
Sure, what. I guess My other question would be, did
anyone have a reason why because normally, normally you can't.
You're not going to have anything like that unless you
have moisture available.

Speaker 8 (38:19):
So one of the events, which is one of the
reasons I called one of the events that comes out
of that box, and I think it heads towards one
of the bathrooms fell off and so that hole was exposed.
I don't know for how long.

Speaker 3 (38:32):
Okay, that caused condensation, So there's yeah. Yeah, So John,
I'm thinking, I'm thinking he could probably maybe would be
safer to use the conchrobium.

Speaker 2 (38:46):
I thought the same thing. The only question that I
have is if it's like a gelatinous, if it's kind
of like jelly like, it probably is a bacteria. And
I don't know how effective the conchrobium is on bacteria.
I guess it would do the same thing. It would
encap slate it and cause it, cause it to die
and then not come back. I think, I think is

(39:07):
now I talk a lot. I think that's probably a
good way to start. It's a little bit safer than
the bleach.

Speaker 3 (39:13):
And unless you can reach it and wipe it off
the bleach, the brutlet bleach spray and it probably doesn't
take much if you had to use it, would you
think so?

Speaker 8 (39:23):
All right?

Speaker 2 (39:23):
Is it a big spot?

Speaker 8 (39:26):
I would probably say it's probably maybe five five inches
in diameter and.

Speaker 2 (39:33):
It's just one spot.

Speaker 3 (39:34):
Yeah, you can? Can you reach it?

Speaker 8 (39:37):
When you can get I can stick my arm in there,
and you know, I thought about, okay, I'll just get
my ring camera, put it in there, and then stick
my arm there. I can see what the hell I'm doing.
Then then I can I can just clean that spot up.

Speaker 3 (39:49):
That's that's not so Just put some rubber gloves on
and you could spray in there. But maybe just mix
up some bleach and water and maybe a little drop
of soap, dish soap or something and going there with
a rag a pair of rubber gloves and just wipe
it down. I just I'm always weary about spraying the chlorine.

(40:09):
Anything with chlorine in it where it can get to
the metal, get that in, get the metal parts, because
it's it's pretty corrosive, right, so you know you want
to be careful about what it gets on and leaving
it there's leaving it. Leaving it there is the problem unchecked.
So yeah, right, I think if you do that, I
think you'd be fine.

Speaker 8 (40:27):
Okay, And then as far as installing a UV light,
he says, it's quite simple. Just you know, get your like,
you can drill a hole here and you just slide
it in and screw it all and then plug it.

Speaker 2 (40:40):
I would, I would, I would get a professional to
do that for you. Canon. Here's why that. Ultraviolet lights
are very effective. And if we have to put you
on Hoby about twenty seconds left, I put you on
Holy Well. They're very effective, but they need to be
directed correctly because if they hit certain components because they're

(41:01):
u V, they can actually cause different components to deteriorate
and cause systemic challenges if they're not placed correctly. So
it's absolutely the right idea, but you just need to
have it installed correctly. Ken we're gonna pop you on
hole just to make sure we've got you totally taken
care of, because we've got to slide away for our break, folks.
It's a new suck. I'm Sorry's the Whole Deeper Home
Improvement Show with John and Dave. We'll be back after

(41:23):
these important messages.

Speaker 1 (41:53):
The Home depol Home Improvement Show with John and Dave precentive.
I tried pro answering your home improvement questions every Saturday
on News Talk eleven ten, ninety nine to three WBT.

Speaker 2 (42:08):
Welcome back, everybody. It's the Home Deep Balm Improvement Show
with John and Dave. I'm John Gordon, I'm Dave Doval.
Taking calls at seven O four five seven eleven ten,
seven four five seven eleven ten. That's the phone number
you can call on. That's also a text line that
you can text us. It's a WBT text line driven

(42:29):
by Liberty Viewing GMC. It's it's a great way to
get us information back and forth. Do we get make
sure that we had was Ken right squared away?

Speaker 3 (42:38):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (42:39):
He's good, Okay good. I would I like you would
be concerned about too many chemicals and stuff into the
duct work and I'm glad he got a second opinion.
And we've heard just a lot of there's just mold
is a serious issue, right, particularly black mold, but there's

(43:00):
there's been a lot of people in the marketplace taking
advantage of that, and so it's good that he got
a second opinion.

Speaker 3 (43:07):
Well, yeah, and I think, as we've said in the past,
that mold is everywhere. So it's it's it's there's particles,
it's you carried in your house, it's on your clothes.
That the key to it is giving it an environment
where it can grow and bloom. And that's you know,
and we talk about the bad kind of mold. I mean,

(43:27):
all of it is not great, but the stuff that
can really hurt you is the kind of mold that
grows where it has a constant water source. So that
that kind of tells you you you if you have
water leaking or coming in a house or dripping or
and it continually stays wet, that's that's where you have

(43:47):
a problem.

Speaker 2 (43:48):
That's right.

Speaker 3 (43:49):
Hence, a crawl space, you know, is an ideal place
for mold to grow and bloom, but you know, your
crawl space could get wet and it can dry out
most of the time, there are crawl spaces that get
wet and don't dry out because they have a constant
source of water coming in. But you know, that's why
we go into You go into a crawl space and

(44:09):
you'll see, uh, you'll see fungus. You'll see evidence of
dried fungus on the joist and that's because it grew
when it was damp in there, and then it dried
out because the season's changed and and and that's what
you have. And so you know, that's why we talk
about sealing up crawl spaces. Right, If you if you
can control that environment and keep the moisture at bay,

(44:31):
you're not going to have those kind of problems. So
it's why it's important. It's important to keep things dry.
You know, don't let water leak in your house, don't
let it get in your crawl space.

Speaker 2 (44:41):
Right, And then the other piece, it's just kind of
it becomes self evident, is is Ken had his inspection right,
So in that inspection is where this particular problem was
was discovered.

Speaker 3 (44:56):
But there was a reason right there, There was a.

Speaker 2 (44:58):
Reason right the to disconnected event.

Speaker 3 (45:01):
Yeah, so that caused that caused condensation because probably that
it was probably the air conditioning and not the heat,
but it was cold and it was probably in an
area that was not conditioned the attic. So it's hot,
and then you have moisture humid, right, it's going to grow,
it's it's it's it's going to cause condensation. Now you
have moisture, you have the perfect environment. And you know

(45:25):
you've got at least seventy degree temperatures up there right,
at least a good day, so you know it's the
perfect environment. And and you know, now you have a
little science UH project going on in your duct work.
But normally that's how it happens.

Speaker 2 (45:44):
All right, good call taking the time to do that, Ken, Uh.
Right before we started talking to Gigi and Ken, we
were talking about there's situations in UH in your h
in an HVAC system designed correctly and passes and inspect
and all that stuff, but in a scenario where you
don't have a cold air return and in individual rooms,

(46:08):
just in large areas of the home. And it's more
popular now with the home designs that are big and open, right,
so you've got big, open grate rooms and things like that.
So it's very effective and makes sense. It's practical. But
if you close the master bedroom door, or you close
the guest bedroom door, or you close the laundry room door,

(46:33):
the only ventilation you have now You've got input vents
pumping cool air or warm air, depending on the time
of year, into those isolated rooms. But the only escape,
the only return that you have happening, is whatever clearance
you have underneath your door. So three quarters of an
inch and inch maybe if you change pile height and

(46:58):
carpet that could change and go away all together. And
and so it's it's it's right, you can't push more
air in without some air going out, and and and
so in a master bedroom or those guest bedroom scenarios,

(47:19):
we've spoken about what we call a jump vent, which
is just event that kind of goes into the attic
and then comes down in a in a little you know,
covered vent inside those rooms to give easier access for
a way for air to leave as a conditioned air

(47:40):
comes in. That I don't know if I explained that
well or not. It feels like a big introduction for
a simple question. But number one, David, I think we
would all agree that that's that if you have a discomfortable,
uncomfortable situation in those isolated rooms like that, that could
be a solution. The question that originally was asked is like, hey,

(48:02):
can I just do that myself? Is it a do
with yourself job? I mean, in a certain sense it is.

Speaker 3 (48:09):
Yeah. I mean if you have some tools and a
little know how and are willing to get up there
and do it, but you know you don't You certainly
don't want to create a problem for yourself, right.

Speaker 2 (48:21):
Yeah, And that's where I think you probably want to
call you go ahead. I think so too, because the
other thing that's possible is they'll look at it and say, hey,
look a jump fence. Cool. But you could actually, depending
on proximity to other you know, duct work and stuff

(48:41):
like that, you may actually tie in legitimately to well,
I don't want to say more permanent. It's a permanent solution,
but there might be a morse, systemic or holistic solution
for what you're looking at. And then and it's done
by a professional and they know whether the alterations are

(49:03):
going to make are going to have an impact on
the load calculation for the whole house, right, Because it's
possiblely you solve a problem in one room and create
a problem in other larger areas of the whole right.

Speaker 3 (49:14):
Well, yeah, and then you're going to cut into a return,
so and you really should put a return vent housing
or box in that. If you're going to add a
return to a room that you could put a filter
in unless you have a whole house filter, right that
is at the furnace. So you know, if you do that,
if you have filters that are in whole house or

(49:36):
in returns that are in the ceiling and other rooms,
maybe one out in the hallway or whatever, then you
really have to put a box in with a return
for a return with a filter, a place for a filter.

Speaker 2 (49:50):
That's a really good point.

Speaker 5 (49:51):
You know.

Speaker 3 (49:51):
So otherwise if if you don't, if you don't have
a whole house filter, now you're drawing air back to
a return vent that's going back and it's not being filtered.
And now you're coating your coil inside the inside the
blower with the blower box or the furnace with with
potential dusk and yeah funk, you know, and then now

(50:12):
you have now you've created more problems. Yeah, so I agree,
you're better off probably to hire someone out and have
them come out and assess the situation and fix it,
do it right?

Speaker 2 (50:23):
Yeah, we can chat when we come back from our
break a little bit, I think, because I think that
merits just a minute or a second or two of
additional conversations. But we do have to take a break.
This is the Whole deepa Home improvement Show with John
and Dave. We're going to take your calls when we
returned from these important messages. Welcome back. It's the Whole

(50:50):
Deep Home Improvement Show with John and Dave.

Speaker 3 (50:52):
I'm John Gordon, I'm Dave Doval.

Speaker 2 (50:55):
Hey Charlotte, it's time for the sixth annual WBT Little
Heroes Blood Drive Thursday September eighth and the one Blood,
Big Red Bus will be at Watson Insurance in Belmont
from ten am to three pm. We'll be broadcasting live
and encouraging you to make life saving blood donations. It's

(51:17):
the sixth annual WBT Little Heroes Blood Drive Thursday September
eighteenth at Watson Insurance in Belmont. Visit WBT dot com
for location details and to register for your appointment. All right,
good stuff. Seven oh four, five, seven oh eleven ten.
That's the number for a phone call or a text

(51:39):
and we'll talk about what's important to you. David, right
before the break we were the additional events, and you
made a really important point that if you end through it,
I think it's a case for like the whole house,
if that would be something that I think folks make it,
consider making an investment in and doing and doing that.

(52:01):
There's two things to think about. One is if air
is slipping around the filters or you forget to change filter.
There's there's a lot of things that go into that
particular piece of it. Your air is is or dirty
air if you will, or particulate is getting to that

(52:21):
moist coil. It's always it's an issue in the in
the for more of an issue in the summertime when
that coil is wet and and and stuff can stick
to it. Pardon me, but so so there's that. But
then you're buying if you're spending I don't know if
you're buying any kind of reasonable filter, You're you're spending

(52:44):
some amount of money every single month to change those
filters out. You can spend more and change them out
less frequently, but there's there's a there's a you know,
money that you're spending on there. I just think it
might be worth saying, Okay, it's going to cost me
five hundred and seven hunter whatever it is to put
this this you know, whole house unit in that you

(53:06):
know that just goes right before the air intake at
the at the air exchange unit. I just think it's
an investment that's worth making. David, I don't know. I
don't preach to the too much.

Speaker 3 (53:18):
But well, no, I think George and I were talking
at the break about about about that because he has
a situation where his doors are all closed most of
the time and he feels like he's not getting enough
air back to the central return. So see, Yeah, he
reminded me of of another time when we had spoke
about adding a flat vent and essentially above the door,

(53:45):
and so you have to if there's a header right
above the door, you have to go a little bit
higher to get over top of the header. But you
basically just cut the dry wall out and you put
one of those events on each side to cover up
that hole and it will draw that air out that
that'll give it a way to draw it out of
the room.

Speaker 2 (54:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (54:04):
So, and I've seen that, and I've also seen people
use louver doors, you know, and it depending on how
your door's made. You could actually you could cut the
vent in the door, but I wouldn't do that probably
unless it was a solid door, just simply because you could.
You you talked earlier about the honeycombs in there. You
weaken the door when you start cutting it open. Yeah,

(54:24):
So I think that vent is a is a really
is a really good way to do it. And you're
usually safe up there, you know. I would start on
the inside of the room and cut a small hole
and then look, you know, enough to get your to
look in there and get your hand in there, feel around,
make sure there's not any wired there. Normally isn't, but
you never know.

Speaker 2 (54:45):
Over the door typically not right, yeah, correct, as soon
as you say no, then there it is.

Speaker 7 (54:49):
Right.

Speaker 2 (54:49):
Yeah, I think that. I think that's good. The other thing,
the only thing I'll say on that is I've seen
it and actually used it. You. I would install the
the vent U so there's with the opening up versus down, correct,
because because if you put two of those, uh, you know,

(55:09):
back to back with the louvers down, you it's it's
purely aesthetic. It's purely aesthetic. But when you walk through
you kind of look it up and you can see
it and see the framing and uh and stuff, and
so if you flip it the other way, it's just
it's as good as as close as you're going to
get to a solid look from from a floor, from
a ground looking up perspective. And but it solves a problem, uh,

(55:32):
that we're talking about.

Speaker 3 (55:33):
It didn't very handling. One more little tip to once
you cut the dry wall out, take your shop back
and vacuum the hole out because there's dry wall dust
and then there's probably construction dust in there, So clean
it up a little bit so that you're not drawing
that dust out with the return. You know, that's that's
just me. You probably aren't going to get much, but uh,

(55:54):
you could, so.

Speaker 2 (55:57):
Clean it up, clean it up, clean it up. I
won't spoil it. Not a spoiler alert. So I started
a list and we'll share it one show. I gotta
I gotta get it organized a little bit better. But
like I'm calling it my like my geek list or
nerd list, and it's a list of things that you

(56:19):
really should do, but the average person just doesn't. David
Dobel will do it and have a schedule for it.
You know, probably post it somewhere in his house. But
it's it's a little bit it's a little bit self
indicting for me also. But anyway, well we could have
some fun with that and so vacuum. That was that

(56:44):
was on my list. All right, here's one. Do I
need to winterize my deck in parts north where ice
and snow is going to sit on the deck, you
know for a protracted period of time going in to
the winter, you want to make sure that it's sealed. Well,
we're talking about a wooden deck now. I think it's

(57:07):
more important for us in this climate to make sure
going into the summer that it's protected because it's the
sun and that really just pounds the fool out of
our our wooden decks. What are your thoughts?

Speaker 3 (57:19):
Yeah, I agree, Uh, And you know the sun's hard
on everything, so you know, I mean the sun or
the water, right, water, water will water will wear down
a rock and sun will give you wrinkles.

Speaker 2 (57:32):
So that.

Speaker 3 (57:34):
That'll that'll that tells you everything you need to know.
I think, uh, in moderation, but yeah, sun is the
sun is hard. If you could protect you can protect
everything from the sun, you're better off. I mean you know,
you think about it. You protect your body, You try
to protect your body from it, whether you're wearing sun
block or you're wearing a big floppy hat or both

(57:57):
or both anymore. Yeah, no kidding, So yeah, it's I
that's the that's the main thing with the deck, which
is a wood deck. And you and I still love wood, John,
I know that, yes, and there's nothing like it. But
if you're busy and you don't have time for it,
or you don't have the budget for it, really a

(58:18):
deck needs to be washed and stained and sealed at
the minimum every two years. And most of the time,
if it gets any amount of sun, or if it's
the opposite, if it's shaded all the time, then it's
probably got mildew on it. So it's going to have
to be washed and cleaned off. And then when you
do that, you're breaking down your stain probably or the seiler. So,

(58:41):
but a minimum of every two years, and I always
found that the decks that we had every year, it
just it needed it done. You could tell they were dry,
they were thirsty, they needed they needed something on them
to protect them. And you know, even at that they
they still didn't do that well. So if I'm doing
a deck, I'm either gonna I'm either going to put

(59:03):
stone on it or I'm going to put a composite material.
It's just uh, you know, after being around it for
so long. I mean I love wood, don't get me wrong,
but yeah, it's just a text care. Yeah, you know
you want to you're gonna you have an investment in it.
But when you add it up, if you do a
wood deck and if you're staying in it every year,
if you're paying somebody, eventually you're going to get to

(59:24):
the price point of a composite deck or uh maybe
a deck with stone on top of it, or a
raised patio that is concrete. There's lots of ways to
do it, and of course those things cost money. But
like I said, if you add it up, you're you're
going to be in the same spot. Eventually it's going
to cost you the same amount of money.

Speaker 2 (59:44):
Yeah, I agree. Okayo de good question. Thanks for that.
The other let's just stay on it. There's I have
a farther down the list, but let's go there right now.
A couple of things. The if you're doing a deck
and you really want to have ye and I would

(01:00:04):
argue to some degree, maybe even easier maintenance or cleaning
using a hidden hangar versus face, you know, screwing or
nailing from the face into the choice underneath. I just
think is hands down the better way to go. And
so consider that if you as you consider your your
choices in an installation of a new deck. And also, uh,

(01:00:27):
let's talk also David. One of the questions was, as
I put that, it's a it's a composite deck that
this person is working with as they put the screws in.
The composite is kind of they say, bubbling up or
making mushrooming mush. I think we call that mushrooming, right,
And it's just a function of using an improper screw. Uh,

(01:00:53):
A deck screw designed for composite decking. If you if
you took it out and looked at the back of
the pan head, if you will, there's little ridges on it.
And what it does is you drive the screw into
the composite decking it. It cheers it kind of it
kind of does its own counter sync version and pulls

(01:01:15):
product out of the way so that when it sits flush,
it's it's not pushing the composite that didn't get removed
up into that little ring or mushroom around the screw.
It's a it's a little more expensive than a typical.

Speaker 3 (01:01:30):
Screw, which is probably why they didn't use them.

Speaker 2 (01:01:33):
Yeah, but it's like it's the same thing. It's like, look,
we all do I do? You say, I do this
and save.

Speaker 3 (01:01:39):
It, and then you're like, usually I learned my lesson.

Speaker 2 (01:01:44):
Yeah, we call that tuition.

Speaker 3 (01:01:46):
After you've run the first screw, you pretty much know
it's you better go get the other screws. I told
you the story about going in home depot one day
and I saw a guy with two or three guys
with them two or three carts of lumber, and they
had dry wall screws, boxes of those screws, and I
just said, I said, hey, you guys gonna build a
big deck. It looks like you said yea. I said,

(01:02:06):
I said, are those the screws you're going to use?
He said yeah. I said, you might want to rethink that.
Said the ones are really expensive. I said, I know,
there's a reason it'll be even more expensive if you
use those screws.

Speaker 2 (01:02:19):
Yeah, it's it's just sometimes I don't want penny wise
pound foolish. Sounds like too like descending judgmental, But it's
just like cost of cost of acquisition versus cost of ownership,
right or not owning it at all, because at that.

Speaker 3 (01:02:35):
Collapse, spend a dollar to save a dime.

Speaker 2 (01:02:38):
Yeah, so all right, we're going to have to take
a few seconds, so we'll do that. This is the
Whole Deep Home Improvement Show with John and Dave. We're
at seven oh four five, seven oh eleven ten. You
can call us or text us at that number and
we'll talk when we return from these important messages. Welcome back.

(01:03:05):
It's the Home Deep Balm Improvement Show with John and Dave.

Speaker 3 (01:03:07):
I'm John Gordon, I'm Dave Doval.

Speaker 2 (01:03:10):
Seven oh four five seven eleven ten. It's the phone
number or the text number. Let's see we got it's
time for home Deeople. Product of the Week. Sorry for
the start of there. I was trying to read a text.
It's like driving a radio show and texting at the
same time. Doesn't work. Product of the Week. This is

(01:03:34):
a beautiful crosswood door modern farmhouse, Hemlock. It's a wooden door.
I love the energy efficiency and durability of a steel door.
Really love to fiberglass doores. But there is nothing more beautiful,
my opinion, than a wooden door stained and maintained correctly.

(01:03:57):
This is this particular one that I'm looking at as
a twelve light door with two side lights on it.
Each individual window is a sealed insulated piece of glass,
so it's it's functional, it's safety glass. The particular again,

(01:04:18):
the style that I'm looking at is a farmhouse style.
If you go to just home depot dot com and
check out the Crosswood doors, there's also other great manufacturers
you'll see what I think is just a way to
make a huge improvement on the it's a reasonable investment.
The door that I'm looking at is thirty five hundred
dollars thirty four ninety five, but it comes pre hung,

(01:04:41):
jam is primed, ready to paint. The door is ready
to be stained or painted, and it's just beautiful. It's
bored for your dead bolt and locks and all those things.
But don't just lock onto this one particular thing. Go
check out all the particular entry doors that are available
and check out front door ideas on the home depot website.

(01:05:02):
Also there's this door ideas, but then there's front entryway ideas.
If if you've got a great door and you just
want to kind of spruce up what the entrance looks like.
Great ideas are there also. So that's it. That's our
whole depot product of the week. Let's see where we Oh,
here's a good one, David uh. You know those big
umbrellas that you get that like are on a big

(01:05:25):
base and they're like typically square and they cover like
an eight foot or eight by eight or ten by
ten area. I don't know what the exact size this
question is. Yeah, yes, The question is love the umbrella,
hate the base, which I kind of understand because you
got to you got to work around it. The question

(01:05:46):
is can it be mounted some other way? Sure? I was, Yeah,
have you have you did that at your house? I
feel like I've spoken about this to somebody.

Speaker 3 (01:05:57):
I had one. We had one that that had a
plate on the bottom instead of that big box and
you slid it under underneath the hot tub. That's what
it was for, was to cover the hot tub so
the hot tub would hold it down. But you could
do the same thing with a plate very similar to
a big sign post, you know, like a commercial sign

(01:06:20):
for a restaurant or whatever, and it would have a
base welded to it that's flat with four holes in it,
and then you would mount that down to your concrete. Now,
it would have to be concrete obviously, it couldn't be
travertine or pavers or anything like that. It would have
to be mounted to a slab. But yeah, you could certainly,

(01:06:41):
you could certainly have that welded and then bolted down,
but like I said, it would have to be mounted
to a concrete slab.

Speaker 2 (01:06:50):
All right. One other version of that same What if
you and you'd have to look at the manufacturers instructions
and stuff like that. I don't want to just be
altering products. But what if you just didn't put it
in the base that it came with, and you poured
like a kind of a concrete footing for want of

(01:07:10):
a better term, and maybe sixteen by sixteen eighteen inches deep,
and you put a sleeve in it to accommodate the
pipe of the umbrella, and then drop the umbrella into that.

Speaker 3 (01:07:22):
You could as long as you're the height. You still
had your height that you needed because you know, if
it's mounted to a base and you know, drop it
in yeah, seven foot tall, you drop it in hole
as long as you as long as you could limbo
and you could get underneath.

Speaker 2 (01:07:36):
That right, new party, new party thing.

Speaker 3 (01:07:40):
Yeah, So again you'd have to probably uh, you'd probably
have to find yourself a welder and have them extend
the pipe. But it could be done. It's not that
it couldn't be done. You certainly could do that. Or
you could have a pipe stick up out of the
footing that you've that you talked about John, that you've poured,
and that would be a larger diameter, and then you

(01:08:02):
would drop a put a bolt through the bottom so
that your umbrella would would sit on top of that
bowlt and then you would have another pin that you
would stick through it so that you could remove it
if you wanted to or spin it around or whatever
you wanted to do. So lots of options, but there are.
But it's custom and so you know, you're you're going

(01:08:22):
to have a few different people involved, so it's probably
going to have a price tag. But if it's that
important to you, you know, and you want to do that,
it could certainly be done.

Speaker 2 (01:08:30):
Yeah, And it's it's kind of a more permanent, aesthetically
pleasing solution. Sounds good. Sure, let's see here's two text questions.
What kind of door lasts the longest, the old oldest
wooden door? No, it is a five thousand year old
Neolithic poplar wood door discovered in Zurich and someone took

(01:08:54):
care of it. Well, yeah, well what was going on prediscovery?
I don't know. Would. I think it was at the
Biltmore House that I saw a little thing like like
one of those history marker things that showed a fire

(01:09:14):
maybe in a church or something, and a wooden beam
was still in place, and a metal steel beam had
melted and draped over it like informed an arch. So
the fire was hot enough too, but the wooden beam

(01:09:34):
survived clearly. That was like dense hardwood, all those things.
At the end of the day, I think the answer
to this text person's question is wood is the most durable.
But you've got of a wooden door to get it

(01:09:55):
to last five thousand years, not to mention the legal
work that has to be done to ensure the generation
after generation after generation takes care of it. Not fine,
But so what is your opinion, David.

Speaker 3 (01:10:10):
I'm a fiberglass fan. I like fiberglass doors because they're stable,
they hold up pretty well in the in the weather,
even in the sun. I mean, we have fiberglass doors
on the back of our house. I have not painted
them yet, and really it's they're five years old. What
I did start to notice is that you am starting

(01:10:31):
to see some fiber some of the fiberglass strands in
the door. So we're we're we're gonna paint them pretty soon.
But I did not want to paint them because you know,
they get used a lot, and it's it's paint, you know,
you know how paint does. It just looks bad after
a while. So but we have a stained front fiberglass door,
which is perfect. It still looks as good as the

(01:10:54):
day that we put in. Now we have a large
porch roof over top of it, so it does not
see any weather at all, gets wets when I wash
it off. So I'm a fan. They're stable, they're foam filled.
If you stain them, if you can keep the sun
off of them, they do quite well and will last
a long long time.

Speaker 2 (01:11:15):
Okay, there you go. Maybe five thousand years from now,
they're going to discover you'll hurt fiberglass door.

Speaker 3 (01:11:24):
If I don't, they won't.

Speaker 2 (01:11:26):
That's a good point. Here's one other thing, Uh, it
just a text came in. Any know anyone who can
repair lead on a leaded glass door sidelight? I think
I think it's called caming. There's got to be somebody
out there to do that. There's people stained glass or stuff. Yeah,

(01:11:47):
so you just got to google it and you'll find
someone who can do that. Uh, we don't. I don't.
I don't think we have anybody David.

Speaker 3 (01:11:56):
Doing I do not. I do not know anyone.

Speaker 2 (01:11:58):
All right, all right, it's time for us to take
our last break of the show. So we're gonna slide
out and do that. Don't go away. We're at seven
oh four five seven oh eleven ten by phone or
by text using the WBT text line driven by Liberty.
Regardless how you of how you reach out, we'll talk
about your questions when we return from these messages. Welcome back.

(01:12:31):
It's Home Depot's Home Improvement Show with John and Dave.

Speaker 3 (01:12:33):
I'm John Gordon, I'm Dave Doval.

Speaker 2 (01:12:36):
Seven four five seven eleven ten. Text or call. Don't
text while you're driving the Uh it's final segment, final
segment for this week. So if you got some questions,
to sneak them in here right now. Be a perfect time.
We've been talking a lot of different a lot of
different stuff. This one is again I think we I
feel like somewhere in the thirty years we've spoken about this.

(01:12:59):
Have a range hood. There's a duct coming down from
the attic into the cabinet over the range hood, but
it's not connected. It's set up to be you know
how you filter it filters the air and then pushes
it back into the room. Can can that be fixed?

Speaker 7 (01:13:17):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (01:13:17):
Sort of depends on what unit you've got. Is it
a if? Is it integral with a microwave? Is it
just a range hood by itself? That that sort of
are those are variables? I guess if it's just a
range hood, David, Usually a range hood comes if you
take it down, it comes with a knockout. It comes

(01:13:41):
from the factory closed up, and then you pop it
out and that's where you connect your duct and now
you go from vent free to to vent it or
duct it right?

Speaker 3 (01:13:50):
Correct?

Speaker 2 (01:13:51):
But okay, I feel like depending on the microwave unit
the manufacturer, there's kind of a ducted like a what's
the right word like like adjustable or changeable. I don't
know where you can set the the unit in one

(01:14:15):
way and it vents out into the room through a
filter system, and then I feel like I don't know.
I remember manufacturers ge you can take the unit out
and flip it over and set it back in, and
now it pulls the air and pushes it up to
a vent. So the I think the short answer that
I now have failed to give is yes, that can

(01:14:38):
be fixed.

Speaker 3 (01:14:42):
Sorry read it does need an explanation with it?

Speaker 2 (01:14:48):
Well, the problem is you can't see my hands, because
that's fifty of the answer.

Speaker 3 (01:14:54):
Sure, and the direction.

Speaker 2 (01:14:56):
I got it all right, but so no simple answer yes,
get if it's not something you do all day every day,
which I suspect is probably the case. A good handyman,
a person that does kitchen installations, a remodeler, any anybody
could come out and take a look at that. An

(01:15:17):
appliance installation person could come out and take a look
at that, either the simple adjustments or at least tell
you know that it's particularly complex or more complex if
it's part of a microwave, right where you've got an
under under cabinet microwave, that that takes a little bit
more work and muscle and so on to drop that
thing down, have a look and so on. But yes,

(01:15:38):
it can be fixed. It's not the end of the world.
Don't sell your house because.

Speaker 3 (01:15:42):
Of that, right exactly. Hey, here's another quick text on
the on the w BT text line driven by Liberty
Buick GMC, and they said that there's many options at
and they sent a link. I won't I'm not going
to click on that link. But for umbrella stands or

(01:16:03):
umbrellas that go in the ground, that mount in the ground,
and they have and I've seen them, because we were
looking at one rather than a stand for a straight umbrella. Now,
the umbrella that John was talking about earlier was the
one that's cannilyvered. So the base goes in the corner
and it's a heavy weighted base, and then it bends

(01:16:24):
and turns out over your area that you're trying to shade.
So if you had a conversation pit or whatever with
some chairs, or maybe a little table or a coffee
table or whatever, or I mean even a dining table
doesn't matter. But the base was awkward, and so that
would be I don't know, I have not seen anything

(01:16:45):
that would hold those other than what we were talking
about John, So I'll have to open that chet checking out.

Speaker 2 (01:16:52):
Thanks for the.

Speaker 3 (01:16:53):
Yeah, that's that's awesome. And I have looked at the
ones for standard umbrellas, like table umbrellas that she could
stick in because we wanted to put some umbrellas between
some of the lounge chairs that we had so when
people were laying out, maybe they want to lay out
by the pool, but they don't necessarily want to be
in the sun get cooked. So but we ended up
just buying because the same thing we have travertine, and

(01:17:15):
you can't you know, we really don't have anything to
mount it to and you have to you have to
pull the travertine out, get down in the ground and
get that mount down in there. And I just don't
know if I could if I were thee to do that.

Speaker 2 (01:17:26):
So so we kind of kind of taking the federal
government approach making a simple thing difficult by jot to
put it in the ground. I know, but I do
appreciate the link. It's worth checking out. That's how we
learn all this stuff right, right, And then really quickly
we got to answer back just a question on caming,
repairing the caming and a letted glass. Texter says that

(01:17:49):
they had a lot of people that they talked to
only one I spoke intelligently about it, and they wanted
to take out the sidelight completely, bring it back to
the shop, rebuild aim and replace the glass. And it
was like about thirty five hundred dollars unless you've got
some kind of super great attachment to you know, that

(01:18:09):
particular leathered glass's got your family crest in it or
something like that. Now you're talking about maybe taking that
sideline altogether and just replacing it with there's a lot
of options for.

Speaker 3 (01:18:21):
That, and they have stained glass inserts that you could
put in that sidelight most likely, because those are all
standard so that's a standard cut, whether it's a half
light or a full light. So you may want to
look into that as well. We'll get Bob and here.

Speaker 2 (01:18:36):
You Yeah, let's get Bob. Bob, good morning on the
Whole Deep Home Improvement Show with John and Dave. How
are you hey?

Speaker 7 (01:18:42):
That's how you doing great?

Speaker 2 (01:18:43):
Doing well well?

Speaker 8 (01:18:48):
Mon is about.

Speaker 7 (01:18:50):
Fifteen years old. And I don't know if the thing
was stained pain you know what it came in the
factory is splotchy and spotting.

Speaker 2 (01:19:02):
But but.

Speaker 7 (01:19:06):
Painted, I mean, would logically be stained would be the
way to do it.

Speaker 3 (01:19:12):
Yeah, Well, it's the finish is probably what what has failed.
And then it's the the light or the sunlight. If
it gets sunlight on some light is is bleaching out
whatever finishes on there. So, if it's you'd have to
know what kind of door? Is it fiberglass or is
it Would you think it's wood? Yeah, you've got the

(01:19:34):
same problem John has with a bad connection. So we're
not getting all your words. Uh so yeah, if it's
if it's wood, yeah, you're still you're still coming in and.

Speaker 2 (01:19:48):
We we can we can figure it out. Okay, you
could tell whether it's wood or fiberglass if you take
the lock set out. When you look in the hole,
you'll see wood because it a wooden blocking. You'll be
able to see is there a layer of fiberglass before
it hits the wood? And now you know that it's fiberglass.

(01:20:09):
From what you're saying it probably it sounds like it
would be wood. And and some of the splotchy bob
could be just the fact of when they stained the
door the first time, they didn't use a sanding sealer
or or prepare it well enough so that the stain
was absorbed evenly. Across you know, the entire piece of
wood and and that could be a bit of a

(01:20:30):
problem also. But if you got.

Speaker 3 (01:20:36):
You did pretty good.

Speaker 2 (01:20:38):
Yeah, you did really well.

Speaker 8 (01:20:39):
Okay, I will in doory program and thank you for.

Speaker 3 (01:20:44):
The hell you're welcome.

Speaker 2 (01:20:45):
Well, thank you for the call, Bob. We appreciate it.
All right. We're like about a minute away from wrapping
everything up, so we'll go ahead and do that. Just
really appreciate all the great calls. Loving this, loving this
text line where folks can go back and forth on
the on the WBT text line driven by Liberty View GMC.
It's been pretty slick, So grateful for that. Dude. Please

(01:21:06):
don't do that while you're driving though, for any of
the number of really good reasons. And uh, let's see,
we were talking as we want to wrap up as
we do every single week, with a reminder that we
think that the most important kind of home improvement that
you is the one that makes your home a happier
place to live in. There's lots going on, schools back in,

(01:21:27):
lots of distractions, but amid all the distractions and amid
all the projects, don't forget to work on that project.
And we'll see you next week when we return to
the WBT Home Improvement Show with John and Dave