The Home Improvement Show 11-8-25

Tune in here for this 11-8-25 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 preparing your home for the upcoming cold weather and holiday season. From easy facelift projects that won’t break the bank to essential maintenance tasks before guests arrive, they share practical advice and plenty of good-natured banter along the way. The hosts dive into listener questions about ceiling fans — including how to properly install one on a vaulted ceiling — and discuss when it’s best to call in a professional. 

They also share tips on drywall patching, wiring challenges, and keeping DIY projects safe and manageable. With their signature humor and hands-on experience, John and Dave remind homeowners that every project can be done with the right mix of time, money, and patience.

Listen here for more !!!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

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

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Good Saturday Morning, everybody. Welcome to the Home Depot Home
Improvement Show with John and Dave. I'm John Gordon, I'm Dave,
DOVL David. Good morning. How are you, sir?

Speaker 3 (00:26):
Everything's lovely? How about you, my friend?

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Everything is lovely. Some things are just more lovely than others. Right, Yes,
it's good. It's a beautiful day. We're ready. I think
we're supposed to get some cold weather here coming up.
I don't know if it's gonna be the same as Charlotte,
but yeah, we're gonna get like a twenty degree drop
from from where we are. I think today and tomorrow
into Monday morning, which is fine. I mean, it's that

(00:50):
time of year. Let's have some let's have some fall,
some winner. All good. It's time to think about like
a lot of things. I'm not going to rush us
down the path into Christmas. I think we should kind
of take things as the calendar presents them. But it

(01:10):
is time to think about the holidays. From a hey,
guests maybe coming perspective, or we're going to do some
entertaining and you know, beginning with maybe Thanksgiving, and so
that might have some impact on things you have on
the list of you know, tasks, projects to get done.

(01:33):
You may be deciding to paint. I haven't put it together.
There's two things, David, that I got kind of sitting
on my desk here that I'm just too lazy to
get figured out. One is just revisiting and redoing. Hey, okay, here,
what are the things we can do, you know, to
kind of give our house a facelift without you know,
raising the national debt in our budget. And then the

(01:55):
other is what I'm calling a geek list. This is
like you would like this list. It's all the things
you should do in your house that only like one
percent of the population does. And this is good to
be a geek, like this is good in my opinion,
but it truly is like special.

Speaker 3 (02:18):
So I'm a special kind of geek.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
You're a special kind of geek, David. I mean, you
only never settle for second when first is available, so
you go, man, But it is we could have a
little bit of fun with that. But that's a teaser
that just stays on my desk right there for a minute,
and we'll wrestle with that. Seven O four five, seven

(02:42):
eleven ten is the number to call us. You can
actually text us at that number. I love the text thing.
We you know, question pop people pop questions back and forth.
We can you can have five minutes between an answer
and the follow up question. So do do that seven
O four five, seven eleven ten on the WBT text
line driven by Liberty Buick GMC. That's out there. This

(03:05):
week we start talking about Hancocks spikes for kids. We'll
talk a little bit about that. That's coming up. Uh
what else you're still doing? I guess the bath renovation.

Speaker 3 (03:20):
Yeah, yeah, bath renovation and uh and the garage at
aur An RV Garage out in Weddington. So yeah, busy, busy, busy.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
That's good. That's all good. Uh, let's see, we've got
man a lot of things to talk about. Uh, ceiling fans,
wooden floors in the basements, soundproofing. Uh, there's just a
lot stains in my toilet. There's a lot, So I

(03:52):
guess we'll just dive into it. I'm trying to pick
a starting point. Let's just start with a ceiling fan,
because there's there's a couple of lessons here that our
ceiling fan related. One of them is the more complicated
one is like, hey, how do I hang a ceiling
fan from a vaulted ceiling? And that can be kind

(04:12):
of complicated because a vaulted ceiling is usually high, So
how do you get up there? B you can't get
in the attic typically over a vaulted ceiling to put
blocking for a box that's going to be sturdy enough
to hold a ceiling fan. So it can be complicated

(04:35):
but could be done, right.

Speaker 3 (04:38):
It can scaffolding in a big checkbook.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
Everything can be done. It's just a matter of time
and money.

Speaker 3 (04:49):
Right there you go.

Speaker 2 (04:51):
I used to tell my associates that when I was
a store manager, I'm like, stop worrying about things. There's
nothing you can do that. I can't fix time money.
The only thing I can fix is from making customer mad,
So don't ever make a customer mad and everything else.
We can fix time and money. That's all it is.
But so scaffolding probably is involved. It's probably a professional job.

(05:15):
I'm thinking, all right, but some people might want to
do that. You can rent scaffold. You can rent scaffold
at the home depot.

Speaker 3 (05:21):
I think, yeah, I mean it depends on how tall
it is.

Speaker 2 (05:24):
I mean yeah, but you do have to get up
there and either you're going to do some dry wall
work because you're going to open things up and actually
block it like with wood, or you're using one of
the ceiling fan boxes. It expands left and right to
get to connect to a trust or a framing member

(05:46):
or rafter or ceiling joist. Right, I mean, what am
I missing?

Speaker 3 (05:51):
I mean, well, I mean the toughest part about that
is getting wire. Getting the wire up there, oh right,
you know, so that's you know.

Speaker 2 (06:01):
Hey, honey, the ceilings fan there, It just we just
can't turn it on.

Speaker 3 (06:04):
Yeah, you have to find your you find your opening,
and to figure out how to fish a wire up
there because normally there's insulation. So then you have to
go with the glow sticks. If you can find an
access point that you twist those fiberglass rods together and
you run those up and and you know, hopefully hit

(06:25):
or miss right.

Speaker 2 (06:27):
Yeah, I have to fish out line through the wall
in the garage because I wasn't going to go up
in the attic until it got cooler. But I have
to drop a new line in the garage for barb
for a charger thing. So yeah, fishing fund fish it's
never fun, never fun. But so that's I think the
bottom line is, if you're trying to hang a ceiling
fan on a vaulted ceiling, call a professional can be done,

(06:51):
but probably not a DIY.

Speaker 3 (06:52):
Job right, and be prepared. There's a there's always a
good chance that you're going to have to cut patches
or holes out of the ceiling, you know, and they'll
just save the patches if you do them right. I
don't know if you've ever done this, John You when
you make your cut, you try to square them up,
but you save the patch, but you cut them at

(07:13):
an angle so that when you put them back in
they're pushing back against the drywall. Yeah, so you cut
it at a twenty two or forty five degree angle.

Speaker 2 (07:24):
When you slide them back in, you get a cleaner fit.
I just had to do that at this flip house, right.
I had to move a line for the water heater
about ten feet up and over or over and up,
and I just use a flex tool cut a big
path in the drywall, popped it out, ran my wire

(07:45):
through the stuves, put the little plates on there, and
right put the drywall back in.

Speaker 3 (07:50):
And I try to always when I'm when I'm helping
someone or trying to walk them through that, and I'm
always saying, and cut a bigger hole than you think
you need, because it doesn't. It doesn't. You're gonna have
to patch it anyway.

Speaker 2 (08:02):
It's the same amount of patch it.

Speaker 3 (08:04):
It's the same amount. I mean, maybe it's a little
bit more tape and a little bit more mud, but
it's it's worth it to cut the whole a little
bit larger so that you can get your arm in
there if you have to, or or whatever. But yeah,
make a bigger cut. You wouldn't how I.

Speaker 2 (08:20):
Know that experience is the best to wish. Ever sometimes
it's expensive though. All right, there's another question on ceiling fans.
But we've kind of gone past our break time, so
we'll take our break and we'll be back to answer
home improvement questions. It's seven o four five, seven eleven
ten by phone or by the WBT text line FIVN

(08:42):
by Liberty Buick GMC. All that happens when we return
from these important messages. Welcome back. It's a whole deep

(09:12):
home recruit show with John and Dave.

Speaker 4 (09:14):
I'm John Gordon, I'm Dave Doval.

Speaker 2 (09:16):
We're at seven oh four five, seven eleven ten. Oh
that's the number. Give us call. We got a text
coming in. You be tickled to know that I did
go to home depot and purchase five of the fire
extinguisher blankets. All right, Oh, this is Gigi and it
was an awesome idea for Christmas gifts, getting started for
the holidays. All right, so Ggi's in the spirit giving gifts,

(09:38):
given practical gifts too. You got to kind of love that, well,
men love that. I don't know, Gigi, good call in
my opinion.

Speaker 3 (09:47):
All right, So I could I could get one of
those blankets and wrap a vacuum cleaner with it.

Speaker 2 (09:54):
You could. And here's here's uh.

Speaker 3 (09:58):
Just be sleeping in the market line.

Speaker 2 (10:00):
Yeah, keep one of those blankets for the garage. All right.
Let's see where we're We were talking about ceiling fans
and uh and there's a question, was hey, installing one
on a vaulted ceiling can be done. It's a professional job.
I think hire it out. It'll be it'll be worth
it in the long run. The The other question that

(10:22):
was ceiling fan related was let me see, let me
see keeping It was basically it amounted to, does it
make a difference turning? Does running the ceiling fan towards
the ceiling really work in the winter? Does it doesn't help?
I mean, if you go online and look at different
people have different opinions. But the the bottom line of

(10:47):
it is that if you run the fan on low,
moving the air, pushing it up as heat rises during
the winter and collects especially you have like an nine
foot ceiling, you take the air that's hotter than the
rest of the room at the ceiling and you kind
of push it toward the ceiling and it forces it

(11:09):
back down the walls and spread some of that warm
back toward the lower parts of the room. I don't know, David,
Maybe we could do ask John and Dave study and
houses and have a control group, and I don't.

Speaker 3 (11:28):
Know, Well it works in most rooms, you know that
makes sense, but I mean you do have differing situations
where maybe you have a balcony, like an open balcony
or something, and it very well could push all the
heat up there.

Speaker 2 (11:44):
So and so nothing actually happens, right.

Speaker 3 (11:47):
I mean, and you know, as we know, you heat rises,
so you really don't need more heat in that ceiling.
In that case, I think you would put it on
low and then low and low it down, right.

Speaker 2 (11:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (11:57):
Absolutely, But if you're in a four there's four walls
in a room, whether it's a vaulted ceiling or just
a rectangle square room, doesn't matter. It's it's it's gonna
it's gonna push it back down the walls. If you
have it in reverse. I just think you get a
bigger bang for your buck when you when you do that.

Speaker 2 (12:15):
Yeah. And it's and again you don't want to create
breezes because breezes of any sort, even warmer air, unless
it's radically warmer air, kind of have a tendency to
cool your skin, right, the whole wind chill thing. So
so it does have to be on low and be patient.
But it as you say, four walls, it makes uh,
it makes a difference just pushing that warmer air back

(12:37):
down into the room and uh, and and keeping keeping
the air distributed if you will, throughout the room. All right,
let's go in the basement for a second. This question says,
can I build a wooden floor over my concrete basement floor. Yeah, yeah, yeah,

(13:04):
But a couple of cautions would be well, I think
what should they think about?

Speaker 3 (13:09):
One would be the first thing, is the most important,
would be a vapor barrier, right because you don't know,
I mean, most modern homes are going to have a
vapor barrier. And the newer codes are better than what
it used to be. It used to say, you know,
all all all all slabs attached to the house have
to have a vapor barrier. Well, now it's they have

(13:31):
to have styrofoam for insulation. They have to have you know,
a six or a ten mil plastic. It has to
be taped at the joints. So it's a lot more extensive.
And then you hope that the concrete, the guys that
place the concrete aren't, you know, perforating the liner all
over with whatever they're using, you know. So, but here's

(13:56):
the thing. You can't put plastic under a slab after
it's in place. So I if I'm gonna cover up
a floor, I'm gonna buy a rubber product like sandy
tread or uh the other product we move. I'm gonna
I'm gonna mop it now. There are other products available
that you could put down, and I can't tell you

(14:16):
the name of them, but a flooring wholesaler would be
able to direct you. And they're they they're rollable, so
you just you just roll them down, but it's a
liquid vapor barrier. And and then I think at that
point you you know you can put sleepers down, which
are what are sleeps?

Speaker 5 (14:33):
Uh?

Speaker 4 (14:33):
Basically it's in the garage with the fire blanket.

Speaker 3 (14:36):
That's what it is. That's exactly what it is. That
would be me a two by fours treated two by
fours normally, and then you could put down tongue and
groove plywood over that. So you would you would lay
your two by fours on the perimeter and then they
would be sixteen inches on center and they would be
I would glue them and fasten them with tap.

Speaker 2 (14:57):
Counts and say you fasten them to the ground.

Speaker 3 (14:59):
Yeah, yep, you would fascinate. And if you use sandy tread, John,
you could actually use more sandy tread to bond that
wood to the sandy tread that you put on the floor,
so you get a really you get look like it is.
And they actually have some on their website. You can
look you can actually set tile with with that, which

(15:22):
is which is kind of cool, but I don't I
can't imagine how that might work out. But anyway, so
sleepers on the floor, they would be glued, probably with
a P and L adhesive and then tap cons as
as needed, probably sixteen inches on center at least, and
then you put fasten your plywood down and again you

(15:43):
would you would nail, I would screw the plywood down
with the right length screws, and then also I would
I would use the flooring adhesive for subfloor. And then
you're set to go. And as long as as long
as you don't interfere with a ceiling height or I mean,
you're what do you what are we talking about two

(16:03):
and a quarter inches?

Speaker 2 (16:05):
Right?

Speaker 3 (16:05):
Because the two by fours are laying flat, so right,
so inch and a half and three quarter and it
shouldn't make much of a difference on a ceiling height.
And and then it could mess with your stairs. Okay,
so you're a good point. Your last your last your
last step if it was seven inches, would would change
and that could become a trip hazard.

Speaker 2 (16:27):
So it might even be worth doing the ceiling height
calculation and figuring out if you go to the if
you just actually put like a two by six arm
or something or stack it to get the height that
you need.

Speaker 3 (16:43):
Actuation if you could, if you could get.

Speaker 2 (16:44):
It tall, you have the height. If you have a
ceiling height, sure, but that's usually that usually is the challenge.
I mean, the structural members of the ceiling or the
floor joists above tend to be acceptable. Typically, it's just
how did they run the duct work and how much
below the the bottom of the floor joists above? Do
you have to come to clear right with the ceiling

(17:06):
and stuff like.

Speaker 3 (17:07):
That, so, you know, and then I think you have
to decide what would what's the reasoning behind wanting to
put a wood you know, to put a wood floor
down over concrete. There's lots of options out there today
and finishes that you can that you can use below ground.
And you know, even staining concrete, you know, I mean

(17:28):
you can stain it and seal it and you can
make it. You could make it look it's there's some
beautiful stuff out there. I've seen the Yeah.

Speaker 2 (17:36):
The other thing that I think you can do now
the printed seram or porcelain tile that is in like planks.
It looks like wood. Yes, those, I mean that's super durable.
Best to apply that over something is as stable as concrete, yeah, right,

(17:56):
versus a framed system. And so there's if it's purely aesthetics,
there's a lot of options. But maybe somebody just wants
to have a wooden floor. The other question that I
wondered if it was going on, is like, hey, are
they thinking that somehow I can put like a system
down and then do some insulation to make it warmer.

(18:18):
Could be, and that's certainly possible, but I think the
amount of change in temperature you're going to get for
all that work is pretty minimal.

Speaker 3 (18:28):
That's what I would say, you know, unless you were
raising it up higher to run duct work or you know.

Speaker 2 (18:35):
Maybe sort of heating underneath.

Speaker 3 (18:37):
There could be heating. It could be maybe you need
a cable tray, you know, for something, you know, if
you're turning in the room. So maybe part of the
floor is removable. So and that's always an option too,
is you can buy those that have a frame that
you put up and there's feet and all of that,
and then the panels are removable and I'll shut up.

(18:57):
Has we got to go to a.

Speaker 2 (18:58):
Break we got. We do have to go to break
that one fast tis so give us call folks for
seven oh four five seven oh eleven ten, or you
can text a seven oh four five seven oh eleven
ten on the WBT text line driven by Liberty View
or GMC. We'll talk about your home improvement questions right
after this welcome back. It's the Home Depote Improvement show

(19:29):
on John and Dave. I'm John Gordon, I'm Dave Doval
seven O four five seven oh eleven ten. By phone
or by text, let's talk. We're going to do our
Home Depot Product of the week right now. It's that
time of year. We're going to talk about Deluth Forge
Ventless dual fuel gas log set. I'm looking at a

(19:51):
twenty four inch Berkshire stacked oak. Beautiful pretty couple things
I like about this number one the same unit is
dual fuel or natural gas. Puts out thirty three thousand BTU.
That's warm. It'll heat up to thirteen hundred square feet,
has a thermostat control so it doesn't get ridiculously hot

(20:12):
in the room, and it allows you to set your
desired temperature. That's got an LCD screen, so you know
what's going on, what mode it's in the logs. You
can look at the picture online the logs are they're good.
It's a good looking set of logs, right, and then
you can also check out the mechanics behind it, which

(20:32):
are cool. You can geek out on that if you
want to. These bad boys are gonna set you back
trying to find the number three hundred and sixty one
dollars for a twenty four inch set. But just shot,
there's Duluth Forge has a bunch of different ones. There's
a lot of different options out there, but it's that
time of year to be thinking about, hey, can we
do a little bit of auxiliary heat, get a little

(20:53):
ambiance and actually save some money in the process, mostly
just because comfortable and have it look good. All right,
that's it. That's an old deeper product of the week.
Let's take some calls at seven oh four, five, seven
oh eleven ten, David, why we're on the topic of

(21:13):
gas logs. I feel like there was a question on
gas logs. I'm looking at this kid, Oh oh yeah,
this is this is kind of bad bongos in my
I think the question is how do I clean the
black soot off? My ceramic gas logs, Like we can
answer that question with any of a number of cleaners,

(21:34):
but it's kind of like, how do I keep the
blood that's dripping out of my you know, wrists from
staining my pants? We could answer that question too, but
maybe there's a reason. There's something more serious going on,
And I think to have black soot on the logs
as indicative of something's not burning correctly, or the flame

(21:56):
is hitting the logs and it's not supposed to the flame.
Gas logs are supposed to work around that. So I
know that Don is out there. Maybe before we take
a headlong dive into the ceramic logs, we take we
take Don's question. Good morning, Don, You're on the Whole
Deep Homer Morovement Show with John and Dave.

Speaker 6 (22:12):
How are you, good morning.

Speaker 7 (22:15):
I've got a question about underlayment for a metal roof. Okay,
and uh so I'm putting in the metal roof and
I keep looking at underlayment options. Some are you know,
ninety dollars a roll single layer membrane tacked down. Some
go up to you know, three hundred dollars a roll

(22:36):
that are self adhesive. Can you give me a recommendation.
You know, the metal roof's gonna last for you know,
thirty forty, maybe fifty years, So I'm looking for a
product that's going to match the life of the roof.

Speaker 3 (22:51):
Standing seam or are you gonna is it gonna screwed.

Speaker 6 (22:54):
Down and I'm going to use a metal shingle. Oh okay,
a deck or a metal shingle.

Speaker 3 (22:59):
Yeah, So, I mean I think I think the ice
and water shield is fine. Or any membrane that is
self healing and is and has an adhesive back. So, uh,
that's that's pretty You.

Speaker 6 (23:14):
Prefer the self the self adhesive, not the ones you
tack down.

Speaker 3 (23:18):
I'd like those. I mean, you can get the one
that you tack down and it'll certainly work for that
as long as it's self healing. So any fasteners that
are driven through it, you know, they'll close back up
around it because it's it's it's it's not going to
do you any good if you put something that's not
self healing, right.

Speaker 6 (23:38):
So what about what about high temperature need? For the
high temperature version of those membranes.

Speaker 3 (23:45):
You'll you'll need it. I mean I would certainly make
sure that it'll it's good for one hundred and fifty
degrees at least.

Speaker 6 (23:52):
Yeah, right, Okay, any particular brand you'd recommend, Uh.

Speaker 3 (23:58):
No, not really. I I think if you see.

Speaker 6 (24:01):
Gray, I see the grace at home Depot sure available.

Speaker 3 (24:04):
Yep, that's a good product, and it's that's it's made
for roofs, so you really can't go wrong, you know.
And I think it's I don't even know what it
costs anymore. The last time I bought some of it
was fifty dollars a roll, but I think it's a probably.

Speaker 4 (24:16):
A little more.

Speaker 6 (24:17):
It's two something a roll now for a five square
foot roll, like two ninety wow.

Speaker 2 (24:24):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (24:24):
Yeah, yeah, but it's worth it.

Speaker 6 (24:29):
Yeah, you answered the question.

Speaker 7 (24:30):
Yeah, I know it's gone to that roost will last
a long time.

Speaker 6 (24:32):
I got to make sure what's underneath lasts as long
as well.

Speaker 2 (24:35):
Thank you very much, done, No, thank you for the call.
All right, that is that's a good investment. I like
that he's using the more decorative version of that.

Speaker 3 (24:45):
Also, Yeah, they look good. I'm seeing a ton of
commercials for the metal shingles and they look nice. And
I like traditional metal roofs too though you.

Speaker 2 (24:56):
Know, they're very Yeah, I didn't seem though it was
like I I just I struggle to rationalize anything but
the standing seam and for the conventional ribbed metal roof.

Speaker 3 (25:07):
Right right, Well, I mean you have to be prepared
for making it, so you're either you're either changing screws
at some point in time or you're coating the roof
with a rubber. With the rubber coating over it that
you can seal the screws up. So you know, it's
a decision that has to be made, and I guess

(25:27):
it depends on where you're at and you know, but
you have to remember if you take the screws out
of wood, there's always a chance that when you put
them back in, they're going to strip. You know what
I'm saying, because I do. If you don't have that
clutch set properly on your impact drill, when you run
them in there, you'll you'll overspin them. And of course

(25:48):
it's got a little bite, but when you take it
out and you go to put it back in, it'll
be gone.

Speaker 2 (25:52):
Now.

Speaker 3 (25:53):
Of course, you can go with a longer screw as
long as you have something that it'll bite into.

Speaker 2 (25:58):
That's usually what I think. Do don't think with a
little longer.

Speaker 3 (26:01):
Screw you would you would think, yes, yeah, but if
it's if it's if there's no ply would if it's
just the one by four underneath, what do you do? Right?

Speaker 2 (26:15):
Yeah, No, it's a good point. Maybe you step up
a size in the diameter, but.

Speaker 3 (26:18):
That would have to be it. And it's and I
don't know how available that is. Yeah, with the rubber
with the rubber rings.

Speaker 2 (26:25):
So now you're applying the Opreme washers to every screw
before you put it in. All right, Yeah, we got
to take a break. Seven O four five, seven eleven
ten is the number for a phone call or a text.
Give us a call. We'll talk about your home improvement
project when we return to the home deepa Home I
provement show. It's on and.

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men men again.

Speaker 2 (27:42):
Welcome back. It's the Home People, Home Improvement Show with
John Todavi.

Speaker 4 (27:46):
I'm John Gordon, I'm Dave Dovl.

Speaker 2 (27:49):
We're taking your calls at seven oh four five to
seven oh eleven ten or your texts at seven oh
four five seven oh eleven ten. And it's Charlotte. It's time.
It's time again. Nothing says joy like a kid getting
a new bike for Christmas. Time for Hancocks Bikes for Kids.
Please consider bring in a new bike to WBT on
Friday December fifth from five to nine pm the WBT

(28:13):
but the WBT team will be there to thank you
for your generous donation. This is the thirty second annual
WBT Hancockspikes for Kids. Holy Cow, it's benefiting kids from
Kids First of the Carolinas and it's presented by Garage
Door Doctor. Friday, December fifth from five to nine pm.
Visit WBT dot com four details. Alrighty, I got some

(28:39):
texts coming in. We got to go to the ceramic
log thing. But hi, guys. During vacation, started reading Built
from Scratch about Home Depot great books. It is a
great book. It's a super easy read and it's you're
gonna love it. I don't work for Home Deepot anymore.
I'm officially retired, so it's not self serving for me
to say good things about the Home Depot, but I did.

(28:59):
I spent two hours this past week with a group David,
just some folks that I knew through Nary, and they
asked me to do just to talk about some leadership
things and stuff, and I leaned heavily on the core
values and the culture stuff that Home Depot taught me.
So grateful for that time. It was not always a picnic,

(29:21):
but it was good. It was so good. All right.
Last week you mentioned a great idea for charging liftian
batteries to prevent fires. I manage a volunteer garden and
we have accumulated lots of battery driven tools. At the
end of the work session, we always have to leave
notes for the next workday about which batteries need charging
because the rules, none are left charging when the last
person locks up. Good rule. I look for timers and

(29:44):
they seem to require a specific time hour for on off.
Do you know any you can just set a duration
so that you can plug them in anytime. Yeah, it couldn't.
You'd have to do it like you have to use
a switch. Wh you'd have to switch.

Speaker 3 (30:01):
Well, you can, or you can buy I'll tell you
who is the outdoor Christmas timers. I don't know if
you've seen those, yep. And so you plug in, you
plug in, so you could plug three. I think some
of them have three pigtails or three places to plug
things in. But the timers build into it, and then

(30:23):
it has the cord build into it. So you plug
it in, set the timer, plug three chargers in.

Speaker 2 (30:29):
Yeah, and it'll go on. You can set it for one, two, three, four,
five hours and then off it goes and.

Speaker 3 (30:34):
Then it's off. So you know, most of my chargers
are less than an hour, so yeah, it works. It
works pretty well.

Speaker 2 (30:42):
And if you had the Christmas timer thing with just
one plug on the bottom, you could put a three.
You have a short pigtail plug that you can buy
that's a I think it's a twelve gage cord.

Speaker 3 (30:52):
Correct.

Speaker 2 (30:52):
You can plug three into that, right, so you can
safely do that. By the way, that's not overloading. All right,
check that out. If you still don't have success, give
me give us a shout back. Text us back. We
would love to make sure we get that squared away
because we truly appreciate how you're thinking from a safety perspective.
Barb a client of David's. Love to show. What they're

(31:16):
really saying is love you, David brother. Nice job. All right,
we were talking. I'll keep the text coming. We love them.
We were talking about cleaning the soot off of ceramic
gas logs, and David, if there's soot on those logs,
something is amiss typically, isn't it. You shouldn't have the soot.

(31:37):
Something's not burning correctly. And it's either as simple as
bad placement of the logs. Those logs have little notches
in them to fit on the frame that the gas
jet is in, and then they have little notches on
the log and you have to follow the instructions because
you need to put them precisely in the place that

(31:57):
it's that they're supposed to be. Because the flame comes
up behind and around those logs. It's not supposed to
heat up the logs or burn the logs correct, So
I think I think if you've got sit on them,
get get the manual out, make sure that the placement
is correct. It could be burning. I be issues with

(32:20):
how like how rich and I don't know. There's just
I think that's just a kind of a an alarm
so to speak, or a little red light should be
going off that that's not how it should be. May
even want to call like an appliance installation specialist, how
just to take a look that you're not having some
trouble because it could be putting If it's burning, it

(32:40):
could be putting things into the air that you don't
want to be breathing.

Speaker 3 (32:42):
Also, right, well, you can kind of smell it when
it when it when it's burning, those burning hitting the
logs and it's not supposed to and and of course
you can see the sood as you as you've mentioned.
So yeah, most and most of those logs I think
have pins.

Speaker 4 (32:59):
That are built where.

Speaker 2 (33:00):
You set them up correctly so they get positioned right right.

Speaker 3 (33:03):
And that's that's usually what I've seen is as people
have taken them out to dust them. And really, if
it's as long as they're cool, you can just take
a shot back with an upholstery brush and get regular
dust off. Now, if they're sooted up and and and
you you know that you're going to sort the problem
out what's causing them to be sooted, then you can

(33:23):
clean them with a with a usually with a stiff brush,
and and then and and brush them off. And I think,
if I'm not mistaken, John, I think it was salt
is what we heard. You could use salt in a brush, yeah,
and it won't it doesn't hurt them, and it doesn't stain.

(33:44):
And like you know, a baking soda can be an
abrasive too, but you wouldn't want to put baking soda
because how would you get it out of all the
little ridges well film and stuff, right, So I think
salt was was something that's.

Speaker 2 (33:55):
Of course enough abrasive enough, but so of course that
it doesn't get into that that makes sense. Yeah, remember that?
So good for Thank you? All right, So that's that's that.
Please do check those things out gas logs and it's
our product of the week. I love them. I think
they're great vent free direct vent vented. There's just a
lot of options, but they do take a minute to

(34:18):
be done correctly and installed correctly. When I was talking
about our product of the week, it's going to be
on every single one. But there is an oxygen sensor, right,
so if the if there's it's it's called an oxygen
depletion sensor. So if if for some reason it's depleting
the oxygen, it's not burning correctly or it's unsafe, it's

(34:38):
going to shut off. So I'm a fan of the
of the gas log. I love a wood fireplace, a
wooden a wood burning fireplace. A wooden fireplace probably wouldn't
last very long, but I don't know. There's something about
just pushing that remote and having a nice, pretty warm fire.

(34:58):
You get the little things that go on the bottom
of the glow, like embers. You can make it work.
If it doesn't look real, have another bourbon. Not a
good plan. Wait Ant, wait ante, who said that on
the radio? All rightum, it's that time of year. This
one is keeping rodents out that well, I say it's

(35:20):
that time of year. That's really not the reason for
the question. This person has new development in the neighborhood,
so probably like taking down some trees and and doing
some development. And so they've seen an influx of mice
into the house. How do you keep them out? Well,
you close up every single possible opening that they can

(35:41):
get in, which is like, how do you how do
you get peace on earth? Fix every problem? So I
think a couple of things you do want to get
around the house and wherever there's especially at you know,
ground level, is like, uh, what would be some places, David,

(36:02):
The foundation vents where cable or plumbing or condensate lines
are coming out through a foundation wall, anywhere that you've
got a penetration, the dryer vent, anywhere there's a penetration
through the foundation wall, you want to you want to

(36:25):
fill that in now you can get it doesn't great
stuff makes is it the orange version it is.

Speaker 3 (36:32):
A rodent, Yeah, it's can Yeah, the fireproof is orange orange.

Speaker 2 (36:38):
Okay, So there's a there's a rotent version of it
that I think has a pesticide in it.

Speaker 6 (36:45):
Mhm.

Speaker 2 (36:46):
But those though, would be a good way to block
it up. The other thing that we've heard works really
well is you want to make sure you put it
in there and then seal it off. But steel wool
into the hole and then calking over so you don't
get moisture and rush rust running down. But that's the
it's it's a it's a meticulous task because you've got

(37:09):
to go find and those little critters number one, they're
small to start with and like I don't know, they
can slide into the tiniest spaces. It's ridiculous. So you
really got to close it up tight. The other thing
or tightly. The other thing that we can do is
run out of time for the top of the hour,
so we'll come back. We got to take a break

(37:31):
and wrap for the for this first hour. We'll be
back for a second hour of the Home Deep Home
Improvement Show at seven four seven by text or by phone,
we'll talk what we'll return from these important messages and.

Speaker 1 (37:43):
The Home Depot Home Improvement Show with John and Dave

(38:22):
pre cent up I try pro answering your home improvement
questions every Saturday on News Talk eleven, ten and ninety
nine three WBT.

Speaker 2 (38:33):
Welcome back, everybody. It's the Home Depot Home Improvement Show
with John and Dave.

Speaker 4 (38:36):
I'm John Gordon, I'm Dave Doval.

Speaker 2 (38:39):
We're taking your calls this morning and your text set
the same number seven oh four, five, seven oh eleven ten,
Give us a call, give us a text. Jimmy has
given us a call. Let's talk Jimmy. Good morning. You're
on the Home Deep Home improvement show with John and Dave.
How are you?

Speaker 9 (38:53):
Bye? Good morning guys. How y'all doing?

Speaker 2 (38:55):
Yeah? Doing well?

Speaker 3 (38:56):
Thanks for holding.

Speaker 9 (38:58):
Yes, sir, y'all we're talking to months back about fireplace
to chimney. I was on my roof putting lights up,
and I noticed there's some cracks on top of the fireplace,
you know, the chimney, and it looks like it's mortar,
like they put in between bricks. You got a good
crack in it?

Speaker 4 (39:17):
Yeah, it is, y'all.

Speaker 9 (39:19):
Y'all said something about sealing it.

Speaker 2 (39:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (39:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (39:24):
The water beat off of what can I feel those cracks?
Because I don't know how to do more? Did I
have did they have mortar ready in a bucket? Or
you having a talk tube?

Speaker 3 (39:32):
You can buy it in a cock tube and uh
you can. You can seal it up. Normally when we
when when we've been involved in it, we we bought
a basically, it's a it's a mastic. It's what is
it John cool cool seal, cool seal, cool seal, and
I think they make a matching cock with that that

(39:52):
will that will bond uh to to the mortar. But
you could put just about any cock in there. I
just we just you would use the calck that that
that works with the cool seal, because we immediately put
the cool seal on afterwards, because you know, if you
put something else, you may have to wait a day
or two and let it, let it dry, let it cure.

Speaker 9 (40:13):
But it's called cool seal.

Speaker 3 (40:15):
You're brushing all it's a brush, it's a viscous uh,
and it'll it'll fill in hairline cracks and small cracks.
But if you have wide ones, you probably need to
you probably need to put the uh the calking in there.

Speaker 9 (40:32):
And then yeah, let it dry it and come back
with a cool seal on it.

Speaker 3 (40:36):
We we we usually would go right over top of
it because it feels because it's basically the same material,
it's just thicker, uh. And then that way because we're
we're we're trying to come for one trip so to
keep the cost down for the customers. So if you
have to come back, then it's you know, it costs
more money. If it costs the company more money and

(40:57):
you have to pass that on. You can't eat it.

Speaker 2 (40:58):
So well, let me.

Speaker 9 (41:01):
It's got two flutes coming up, and one was for
the furnace that I don't have no more. And it's level.
You cannot put no cap on it, you know, it's
kind of flush, doesn't have a lipt like the fireplace
does where you put a cap on it. I need somebody.
I cannot find nobody that makes me a custom stainless
steel that goes around it, what comes on and off

(41:22):
because I do burn you know, firewood and needs to
be cleaned every so often. Do you know anybody I'm called? Uh,
people that clean chimneys. One guy came out and measured everything,
never came back.

Speaker 3 (41:37):
Yeah, and I'll tell you who has it. And every
time we do this. Owens, did you call it? They
have a they have a shop, so they custom make
chimney caps. So he has called Owens Owen's Chimney Services.

Speaker 9 (41:53):
That's in Charlotte. I'm in rock Hill.

Speaker 3 (41:55):
They're an Indian trail, but I think they surface that area.
But he I think he open up a a their
own metal shop, so I think they do just for
that reason. For custom to be able to do custom stuff.

Speaker 2 (42:08):
And they can make one Jimmy that even if you
don't have that lip, they make one that's kind of like,
for want of a better term, a friction fit that
can go down in there. So you don't have to
swear off a solution just because right set up.

Speaker 9 (42:19):
Well, I want to cover the other hole up. I
don't need it, no one it.

Speaker 3 (42:22):
We'll have a fun nace, Okay, So that one, they'll
just cut a piece of stainless steel and then they'll
just they'll just adhere it with whatever whatever they think
will work. Probably a poly era thane. I would imagine
cowk er glue. That's really all you need if you
get those measurements. Anybody that that sells metal, I mean,
you could use galvan eyed, but I would probably do

(42:44):
the yeah, because and you know it's out of sight,
out of mind, and you won't have to worry about it.

Speaker 6 (42:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (42:52):
So and again Owen's Chimney Services.

Speaker 6 (42:57):
Owens, Owen's Owens.

Speaker 9 (42:59):
Okay, all right, yeah, this is a problem to I
need to I need to fix soon, be for it
becomes thousands of dollars, like Y'll say, yeah, it gets
in the.

Speaker 2 (43:11):
House and that's a bad day.

Speaker 3 (43:12):
Yeah, they'll come out. They'll do the whole thing. They
repair will Yeah, they repair the tops of chimneys too,
So well, hell.

Speaker 9 (43:19):
I'll just let them do it because, yeah, you know,
over the pain and get it done right and be
done with it.

Speaker 3 (43:25):
You know, I'm right, and you don't have to be
up on ladders and all of that. So right, good
call it right?

Speaker 9 (43:32):
Okay, Well, thank you guys so much. Unless you show
all the time. I love it and I learned a
lot and a lot of things I will not do myself.
Thanks so much, guys.

Speaker 3 (43:43):
I have a good day you too.

Speaker 2 (43:44):
Thanks for living all right, thanks for your cobie by.
All right, I have a problem with a gas log system.
The pilot light will not stay running. I had an
HVAC contractor work on it, but he could not. He
could get it started but cut off immediately. I thought
it was a problem with a gas regulator. So a
pilot light A couple of things. I'm wondering if you

(44:11):
have a pilot don't isn't there a thermal couple involved
with that?

Speaker 3 (44:13):
Yeah, if it's a standing if it's a standing pilot light.

Speaker 2 (44:16):
Yes, yeah, so I would think that the HVAC guy
would check that. But traditionally, when a pilot won't stay lit,
there's a thing called a thermal couple, which is just
a safety design that makes sure that the pilot stays
lit and and if it doesn't, it cuts off the gas.
So I feel like that's where I would start, David,
what am I missing?

Speaker 3 (44:37):
No, that's that would be that. I think the first
thing and.

Speaker 2 (44:41):
A thermal couple. Go on Google, YouTube whatever. There's there's
got to be six hundred and seventy two point three
different videos on how to change a thermal couple. It's
a DIY job. As a general rule, I should be
careful how I say that, or maybe the code says
you're not supposed to do that, in which case, always
follow code. But it's not a complicated thing.

Speaker 3 (45:01):
Oh it's an appliance. I think you can work on
your own and your own home, so you know, just
like yeah.

Speaker 2 (45:08):
Yeah, all right, So yeah, I think that's I think
that's the our our text partners from Monroe, that would
that would be the place that we would we would
check out going back real quickly, David, we had to
take our break, but we were talking about keeping rodents
out in The particular scenario we had was because of
new development in the neighborhood. But and we were talking

(45:29):
about sealing up the openings. The other thing that we've
frequently spoken about is is there are ultrasonic devices that work.
You just got to be careful.

Speaker 9 (45:40):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (45:40):
And at the break, I should have looked up the ones.
There's a there's there's one that's very popular. It's a
black box. I'll look it up at the next break.
But you got to kind of be careful buying them online.
Read the reviews. Make sure you're getting a reputable one. David.
Remember we had the person call us up and say, yeah,
I brought this thing online and it didn't seem to
be working. So I unplugged it and took it apart.

(46:02):
And it was basically a little like red light inside
of a box that came on and it was it
was snake oil, right. It was like, yeah, plug us
in a little red light keeps them away, you know those. Yeah,
there's one hundred bad places we could go with that.
So we'll just keep moving. But the yeah, make sure
you get a decent one, and I'll look it up

(46:22):
when we when we take our next break. In fact,
speaking of taking our next break. I think we're there.
Holy cow, time flies, we are going to take a break.
Give us a call. We're at seven oh four five
seven oh eleven ten, or text us at the same
number using a new WBT text line driven by Liberty
View at GMC. We'll talk about your homopilic questions when
we returned from these important messages. Welcome back. It's the

(47:05):
whole deep Home of foved show with John and Dave.

Speaker 4 (47:06):
I'm John Gordon, I'm Dave Doval.

Speaker 2 (47:09):
We're at seven oh four five seven eleven ten. Hey Charlotte,
nothing says joy like a kid getting a new bike
for Christmas. It's time for Hancockspikes for Kids. Please consider
bringing a new bike to WBT on Friday, December fifth,
from five to nine pm. The WBT will be there
to thank you for your generous donation. It's the thirty

(47:29):
second annual WBT Hancockspikes for Kids benefits Kids First to
the Carolinas. Its presented by Garage Door Doctor. It's Friday,
December fifth from five to nine pm. Visit WBT dot
com for more details. Do it all right? Here we go.
Thoughts about installing a standing scene metal roof over existing

(47:53):
shingles homes in a rural area with not many contractor
options in Both contractors who bid have suggested covering the
shingles would be fine. I'm skeptical, David. I think we've
suggested that you go back down to the wood for
any of a number of reasons, don't we.

Speaker 3 (48:10):
Well, I I mean I think so for a couple
of reasons. So what they're doing is they're gonna go
on that roof and they're gonna they're gonna go over
the shingles. I think they go around and cut the
overhanging shingles off of the rakes and the and the eves,
so you know, they all have inch and a half
or two inch, depends on who the roof is. But

(48:30):
they cut that back and then they lay one by
fours perpendicular to the to the to the ridge or
what would be perpendicular to the metal right, and then
they fasten the metal down. But my my thought is
is if if, if you can, I think you probably
get a smoother job if you take the shingles off

(48:50):
and you put the one by fours down on the decking,
or you go right over the decking. If it's good
if it's thick enough.

Speaker 4 (48:59):
I think.

Speaker 3 (49:00):
I think if you're putting a metal roof, which is
normally a fifty year plus roof on, wouldn't you want
to inspect the substrate that you're putting it over.

Speaker 2 (49:09):
That's where I was going to go, Yeah, this is
a good chance, because that thing is good. That roof
is going to last forever. It would be terrible to
have the roof in awesome shape and have an issue
with the deck that you missed when you did the
installation right right.

Speaker 3 (49:21):
And so the other side of that is if you can,
in fact get in the attic with a bright light
and see the entire roof. I mean the only place
you can't see usually right is in the sofits from
the attic A lot of us. If the roof is
steep enough, you might be able to look down in there,
but the insulation in the way and all of that.

(49:42):
But I just think if you can inspect it from
the top, replace any plywood that's bad, and then and
then I think you get on with it. It's just
if I was doing it, that's the way I would
do it. But I see people do it all the
time and they don't have any problems, and you know
you're saving the cost of not removing the shingles.

Speaker 2 (50:03):
That's and that's yeah. And it sounds like the scenario
that he's had a couple of quotes on that and
both of them want to go over just the shingles,
So it sounds like they don't even I'm projecting. So
just as John's problem, nobody else's, but well in here,
sometimes you go ahead.

Speaker 3 (50:22):
No, I'm just going to say, well, I think the
other thing that you could do is that if those
guys aren't interested in removing the shingles, get a roofer
out there that that would that would come and take
the shingles off, and that would be it. They'll just
charge you to remove them, clean up and haul off
the debris and then schedule it obviously a timely manner

(50:44):
with your with your with your guy that's going to
put the metal on there. There is a guy on
our website, Tico Lewis Uh, that's that's what he does.
He's a general contractor, but they specialize in roofings and
they do they do metal roofs. And I don't think
he would have a problem if you wanted to. He's
gonna do whatever you want, So if you want it

(51:05):
stripped off, they'll strip the roof off in and and
maybe maybe look their number up on our website ask
John and Dave dot com and uh and call him
and just see what he says.

Speaker 2 (51:15):
You know, Yeah, that's there. You go. All right? Umm, okay,
I promised that I would look up the the uh
what do you call it? Rodent control thing? This one

(51:36):
looks like I trying to find the manufacturer. This is
the one I think that I was trying to find.
It's got a couple of different settings on it. Buzzkick,
not to be confused with buzz kill anyway, check it out.
There's there's the ultrasonic rodent control. Is is an option

(51:58):
sometimes for both insects and for but I think it's
more effective on the road and piece of it. All right,
Uh seven O four five, seven oh eleven ten, Hey,
give us a call, send us a text, go ahead.

Speaker 3 (52:09):
I was real quick. I wanted to when we were
talking about that. If you are if you are ceiling
around the foundation, or you're sealing up cracks and brick,
or really doesn't matter whatever it is. But I really
am a fan of the clear polyurethane cocks for that.
They're translucent, they'll pick up the colors of So if

(52:31):
you have a void in the brick or a crack,
there's a couple of little tricks that we use for
that too. And I think we talked about this before, John,
is if you have a crack in the brick and
you don't want it, you don't want to pay to
have the brick removed, you can buy that translucent cock.
What what we've done in the past is take a
brick and drill it and then get the powder and then.

Speaker 2 (52:53):
Collect the dust.

Speaker 3 (52:54):
Right, collect the dust. As soon as you put that
cock in there, you just flick that dust on it
and it knocks that sheen down. But for penetrations for
pipe or anything that's going through the walls or other joints.
You know, if you have to calk around a cross
space door is a notorious place for mice to get
in because a lot of times that'll fit them tight. Right,

(53:17):
But that calk works really well and it'll stick to
any almost any surface, and it's translucent, so it'll pick
up the brick color. Or if you have a painted
surface that joins that, it'll pick that color up to
and it other than it being shiny, it almost disappears.

Speaker 2 (53:35):
I think we've spoken about it, not just for those applications, David,
but if you've got ceramic tile on the floor in
the bathroom and you're calking the front portion of the
toilet using the clear, there also is a wind because
for the same reasons, right it it creates the seal,
but you don't have if you're if you're an expert cocker,

(53:57):
or you tape carefully or whatever you can, you can
put whatever or color you want in there. But the
clear uh does the job of ceiling, but it picks
up the color from the floor almost and it's almost imperceptible. Right,
So good point, all right, good thing. Well let's stay
on that topic for a second, because this is weird.
This is another one of those things that says, well,

(54:17):
tell me what's going on here? But I have a
crack and hardy fib or cement siding. So I'm presuming
that this is a lap siding and there's a crack
in it like so that either was installed poorly or
something's going on. I mean for hardy to crack.

Speaker 3 (54:40):
Well, it could be one of I think it could
be over a bowed stud, So you'd have a stud
that was sticking out and it got fastened on one
side of the stud in the other and when they
pulled it down, it broke. And it's possible that it
warped more because maybe the exterior of the house was
finished but the interior wasn't. It wasn't conditioned, so it

(55:02):
already had a bow and it may have continued the bow.
And then sometimes they'll sometimes sometimes they'll they'll it'll crack
uh when you're blind nailing, and it'll it can crack
down down the surface. But normally you would think that
someone would fix.

Speaker 2 (55:18):
That at an installation instation. But I mean, you make
you good points. So what's the repair solution on that?

Speaker 3 (55:25):
Well, I mean the ideal repairs is to remove it.
But I mean it's blind nailed, it's pretty it's pretty tough.
It's pretty tough to get it out of there. So
again I think you go with uh some type of
polyurethane adhesive and then paint it. If it's an emergency repair,
you could use the clear, but those those cocks are

(55:46):
paintable after they cure for a few days. You have
to read the label like a quad type of Yeah,
I'm a big fan of all the Quad Cocks, the
the Max and the in the in the regular, the
original Quad. Uh. It's good products.

Speaker 2 (56:00):
They're great products. They're a little bit messy their mineral spirits,
you know, clean up, but super great products. That was yeah,
so all right, so that would that would work on
the in that application. We are, I guess less than
a minute away from our next break, but we'll tee
up this this conversation. So this person is looking for

(56:24):
alternatives to toggle bolts. It sounds like they may have
tried something or ready they've got a long cleak that
they want to hang, and they may have had trouble
getting all the toggle bolts to line up so that
you had a nice level cleat. But we'll talk about that,
and we'll talk about any questions that you have. Give
us a call. We're at seven oh four five seven

(56:44):
oh eleven ten for a phone call or seven oh
four five to seven oh eleven ten for the new
WBT text line driven by Liberty Buick GMC. Either way,
we'll talk about your home I prom question. When we
return to the Home Deep Home Improvement Show with John Today.

(57:13):
Welcome back. It's the Home Deep Home Improvement Show with
John Todave.

Speaker 4 (57:16):
I'm John Gordon, I'm Dave Doval.

Speaker 2 (57:19):
We're at seven four five seven eleven ten by phone
or by text. It's time for our Home Depot Product
of the Week. This week we're looking at the luth
Forge Ventless dual fuel gas logs. I'm looking at a
twenty four in set. You got to check your measurements, course,
but things I like about this particular set. It's got
patented dual fuel technology which allows you to purchase this
log set whether you're using LP or natural gas. Puts

(57:43):
out thirty three thousand BTUs of heat and it'll read
up to thirteen hundred square feet. It's got a remote
control and a thermostat so you can set the temperature
and not maybe doze off and just wake up cooking
in the room. LCD screen makes it easy to monitor
what's going on. And the logs look awesome. I'm looking
at the images online. You can check them out and

(58:05):
it comes a little bag of my birds and stuff
like that. That's the part that I really like that
you put down in front so it looks like a
real fire kind of going and glowing, and it runs
a ninety nine point nine percent efficient, so there's no need.
It's a duct free, event free solution. But always check
and have them installed by a certified appliance apply appliance installer,

(58:27):
especially because that's what code requires, I think in Mecklenburg County.
All right, that's our home deeple product of the week.
We have been talking about all kinds of different things.
I think before we slid out to the break, we
were talking about alternatives to toggle bolts. And this could
be my ineptitude, my understanding, or I'm kind of extrapolating

(58:51):
that they've got a cleat that they want to put
on a wall, and they were having trouble just with
conventional toggle bolts, you know, drilling their holes and everything lineup.
So the cleat was level. I'm not sure that that's
right because if it's that long, you should be able
to hit studs and you don't get a level line
and so on. But some of the things that happened

(59:12):
with toggle bolts. If you take them out and then
you want to put them back in, typically the little
winged thing falls down into the wall cavity, and now
you have another challenge. They make a strap snap toggle bolt.
You can check them out online work principally the same way,
but once they're in place, then that stays in place.

(59:33):
So if you pull something down and put it back
up again, you're taking something off for painting or whatever.
So not exactly sure I interpreted the question correctly, but
but there are alternatives to the traditional toggle bolts, David,
I've just been forever using easy anchors. Yeah, there's a
seventy five pound version and it's it's great.

Speaker 3 (01:00:00):
I don't know, well, you know, they make those easy
anchors that and and basically they have a Phillips opening
and you run them through dry wall. You just you
just use your drill and you and you have to
do it gently. You don't want to over overspin them.
But they make one with a toggle, they do, yes,

(01:00:20):
and that works. They work really well. I guess my
question is is what is the cleat for? What are
they what are they hanging that they feel like they
need a toggle? And is it you know, how wide
is it? Because you know, if you if you had
two holes and they were pretty close together with a
toggle and you put something on, you something on a hollow.

Speaker 2 (01:00:42):
Wall, you're pulling the drywall away.

Speaker 3 (01:00:44):
Yeah, you really couldn't pull a chunk out of the drywall.
That's why you have to be careful with grab bars
and and things of that nature that that that you use. So,
but there's anchors. There's so many different types of anchors
out there now that you know, just spend a little
time in the acre aisle. You'll you'll see on the
packages that shows you how to how to use them

(01:01:06):
and they work really well.

Speaker 2 (01:01:08):
Yeah, it's a it's there's good solutions out there. And
and so I guess don't get stuck on my interpretation
of that this other question. Let's go back to the
gas logs piece for a second, because the question was vented,
vent free, direct vent all with with with respect to

(01:01:30):
two gas logs or it even in some cases heaters,
vent free gas logs are are good, acceptable, safe products.
I've had some folks tell me that they would never
do it, right, I would never do a vent free log.
I just don't trust combustion that's not vented. And and look,

(01:01:50):
I get that, But what would be some scenarios where
you wanted to go with a direct vent? What's a
direct vent like versus e vented?

Speaker 3 (01:01:59):
A direct vent is is a and what it does
is it draws outside air in around the FLU. So
it's a double wall FLU. It terminates to the outside.
It can either terminate through a side wall or through
the roof, and then it it actually has a lid
over it. It's covered so water or insects whatever can't

(01:02:20):
get in it. But it has a it has a
place to draw air around it back in for combustion air.
A lot of times they're sealed, all right, and those
are those are what you're if you put that in
a bedroom and a sleeping a sleeping room, you have
to it has to has to be a direct vent,
that's correct.

Speaker 2 (01:02:39):
And then you can get a direct vent water heater.
So if you want to gas water heater or an
LP water heater and it's in it, it's difficult to
tie into the traditional FLU or the existing FLU, or
maybe there's not an existing FLU. A direct vent water
heater solution. So anything that has a fossil your fossil

(01:03:01):
fuel burning not coal and stuff like that. But not
that anybody uses coal anymore, but a lot of people
in Northeast still use oil. That direct vent is a
safe way too to have fossil fuel, and fossil fuel
is pretty inexpensive. So so all right, we got a

(01:03:23):
couple of minutes here. The question is what's the best
way to sound proof a wall.

Speaker 6 (01:03:31):
In?

Speaker 2 (01:03:32):
Oh? What is it? David? The brown rock wool, rock.

Speaker 3 (01:03:36):
Wool or rock sel. One's made from stone, and one's
made from slag. What a slag from from steel? From
the manustance stream.

Speaker 2 (01:03:49):
It's like it's all the it's all the beautiful rolling
hills of Pittsburgh slag. That's terrible. It's not like that
anymore anyway. So yeah, rock rock wool or Roxil is
a brand name. But you have to be careful because
a lot of folks will put insulation. I have some
friends do like a two by six wall in their

(01:04:10):
home between two rooms that they wanted to have soundproofed
and just put regular insulation in there. Certainly it's better
than nothing, but traditional fiberglass insulation is not as good
as soundproofing. Is a soundproofing product. And conversely, putting a
soundproofing product in doesn't do anything or is not as
effective from a heat you know, transfer reduction as the others.

(01:04:35):
But that's a good way to soundproof a wall. And
then while you're at it, soundproof in the wall without
dealing with the door sometimes is a problematic. So I
think it's masonite that makes a series of interior doors
called safe and Sound, and they are some very attractive
doors that it's not like you know, you're putting a

(01:04:57):
vault door on your bedroom or family room or something
like that. So very attractive, very stylish. But the cores
are such that they are sound sound deadening. So those
are some those are some alternatives or some ways to
think about how you sound proof a room. It's not
with what do you call it, the phone insulation or

(01:05:18):
the or typical fiberglass. All right, we're about forty five
seconds away from taking a break, so this will be
our last break at the last second hour. So we're
gonna grab cup coffee. Give us a call. We're at
seven oh four five seven oh eleven ten or on
the WBT text line driven by Liberty viewy GMC, same number.
Give us a call, give us a text. We love

(01:05:40):
the text thing and well we'll talk about your home
improven questions when we return from these important messages. Welcome back,

(01:06:02):
last segment seven O four five seven oh eleven ten.
Get those calls in, get the texts in the same
number this one. Oh from Kim and Greg. Thank you
so much. Congratulations on retirement. We're spending our retirement listening
to your podcasts whenever we're in the car, even listening
to podcasts this summer driving back from the Grand Canyon.
I love long drives with Barb. We don't listen to

(01:06:26):
my podcast so well. Sometimes we listen to the other one,
the family room one. But all right, seven four five,
seven eleven ten, David, is it too late to paint
my house? As in like, is it going to be
too cold? No?

Speaker 3 (01:06:44):
I think you're limited on time. Is a big thing
because the mornings you still are dealing with DO and
you have to quit long enough in the afternoon for
the paint to cure because the DO starts to settle
again at night. Temperature wise, it's it's most Most paints
are pretty low temperature now.

Speaker 2 (01:07:04):
So latex paint. Technically the minimum, I mean the minimum
black and white is thirty five degrees fahrenheit, so just
above freezing. The max is ninety degrees. Probably not going
to have that issue right now.

Speaker 3 (01:07:18):
Unless you're looking for a baked on finish.

Speaker 2 (01:07:21):
Oil base is a little bit is forty forty degrees
right and then also ninety degrees on the on the
top end. So I think to your point, David, yes,
you could do it. You just got to get it
in that timeframe. But we're gonna even in this cold
snap that's coming up, I think we're still gonna be
like fifty seven for the lower something like that. Maybe
I don't. I don't remember what's coming up, not that

(01:07:44):
anybody can really predict the weather. But but so you
got a minute, You got a minute to get it done.

Speaker 3 (01:07:50):
Yeah, just be just be thoughtful of the when you start.
Obviously it needs to be dried out. Uh, you don't
want to put paint over a wet surface with water
and then and then remember you have to stop in
the afternoon long enough to let it, let it skim
over and dry, so that as the as the dew
sets in at night, then the flash high. It doesn't flash.

(01:08:12):
You don't it does an alligator start running, because if
he gets wet, it'll it'll look bad. I've seen it. It
looks awful.

Speaker 2 (01:08:19):
We probably don't have time. But there's a couple of questions, Well,
we'll get to next week. We'll just carry them over.
But one of them was some issues with pain, probably
a function of poor application. Let's go to the bathroom.
Uh well, that sounded terrible. Let's go into the bathroom

(01:08:41):
and have a conversation about why these stains are not coming.
They won't bleach out on my toilet. I got stains
and I can't get them out even with straight bleach
pummice stones. I think her stone is the best solution
we've had for that. Right.

Speaker 3 (01:08:57):
Yes, it works works well them at a.

Speaker 2 (01:09:00):
Pool supply because folks will use it on the ceramic
tilet that you know that gets the the lines or
scum on it from just pool water evaporating and so on.
But pummas, it's a It's abrasive enough to take the
stains out, but it does not harm the porcelain or
the vitreous china. So that's that's it. That's his that's

(01:09:22):
that's how to do it. We should talk though, like
what are the stains, because if you've got I mean,
there could be issues with copper pipe where a low
pH in the water is slowly like affecting the integrity
your copper pipes, and ultimately it could be a challenge.

(01:09:44):
So it'd be worth if you're seeing like the pinkish
kind of stains. It'd be worth just testing the water
and making sure that you're not setting yourself up for
a longer.

Speaker 4 (01:09:53):
Term, right, a longer term.

Speaker 3 (01:09:54):
Well, and that's where that that pumas stone comes in
handy on the on the pink stains because a lot
of times if you'll, if you will feel that the
the the porcel of the china, it'll it'll be rough
on that water edge because that's where the minerals build up.
And then that's that gives that that that beginning of
that's the beginning of of mildew is what it is,

(01:10:15):
or mold h it's it gives it something to cling to.
So if you clean that bowl with the pumpice stone,
that ring will not be there as often you have
it's a regular deal. I mean you have to do
it every every every few months, I would think, depending
on the the mineral content in your water. But you know,
we have a fairly new house and and we have

(01:10:37):
that and that's what I did. And then they stay
away for a good while before they start coming back.
But the but the minerals build up at the water
line and if you can clean that off, it'll it'll
it'll eliminate that for for a good while.

Speaker 2 (01:10:51):
Okay, there you go. Here's one. Here's one of our favorites.
How do I patch popcorn ceiling? So sure exactly what
you know necessitated the patch, but popcorn ceiling, in my opinion,
like if you can just take it, take it off right,
just scrape it all off. You just soak it with

(01:11:13):
water real good, really well, and and and scrape it
off and skim coat the ceiling and paint it is
the best solution. But there's some things out there you
can buy. I think homeacx ho m a X makes
a spray patch that you aerosol spray. They also make

(01:11:35):
a batch that you can mix yourself, and then there's
also a ready mixed like an already mixed uh patch.
I have used. I haven't used the aerosol because I
just didn't trust it or I didn't trust me to
use it correctly. I've used the dry mix. I liked
the dry mix because I could kind of mess with
the texture to get it to match in a little bit.

(01:11:57):
I've also used the pre mix and you can work
it so that it blends. In the challenge, David is
always the final color right, so you can make the
textures kind of match so it doesn't look obnoxious, but
the color is difficult. And I think for that we've
always spoken about upshot. Is that still out there. I've

(01:12:19):
not checked it in a while because I got rid
of all of our textured ceilings.

Speaker 3 (01:12:22):
But it works pretty well. I mean, you know, it's
it's it's it's better than it's better than the color
difference you have from new to old. But it is
old ceiling yellow, right, yeah, I guess they call.

Speaker 2 (01:12:36):
It white, yeah, but it's it is. It's they've taken
into consider agents, so somehow they've matched it to be
fairly close. And I actually used it to patch scenarios
or to deal with where we had a watermark, and
it works and it it it hides it. It's a
it's a flat you know, Matt Finish, so it doesn't

(01:12:58):
like flash or gets shiny on you. Some times painting
over those things can can be less than optimal. So
so that's it. It's it's a it's a it's a
bit of an art, but certainly can be done. And
it's why we think if you have an opportunity as
you re as you renovate a room or do something

(01:13:18):
just kind of scrape it down. It's not It's really
not that hard, and that makes in my opinion, just
a big difference. All right, in the spirit of patching,
I'm just charging through questions here, David, So if you
want to slow me down, well here's let's let's go this.

(01:13:39):
I should have brought this up when who is a
gentleman that called us asking about chimneys? But the question
is how often do chimneys need to be cleaned? And
then like a secondary question is do those creoso killer
logs actually work? I think a chimney really needs to

(01:13:59):
be clean the end or expected once a year, doesn't it.

Speaker 3 (01:14:02):
Well, yeah, and I think it depends on the use.
So if you're wood burning, you definitely, and you're burning
a lot or you're burning a wood stove, yes, you
need to you really need to pay attention to that.
If you're burning gas logs not so much. That's not
so much. They're going to get a little bit of
soot on them.

Speaker 2 (01:14:19):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:14:20):
I'm not sure what the recommended time is in between
uh inspections, but you could probably look that up and
and see what they are. I wouldn't want to say
it because if it could be wrong, and so look
that up, talk to your chimney sweep. But normally those
those stay pretty clean. The inspections more about them making

(01:14:45):
sure everything's attached, making sure that the that the chase
cover on the top, because usually a prefab fireplace has
a metal top over it does not. It's not masonry,
like we were talking earlier to Jimmy, so they'll inspect that,
make sure it hasn't sunk down, make sure it's not

(01:15:05):
holding water, make sure water is not running down on
top of your unit. And I think that's that's that's
that's more important than actually looking down in the flu
for a gas of gas logs or something like that.

Speaker 2 (01:15:19):
All right, there we go. All right, we got several
questions here, but we're gonna run out of time, so
we'll save them for next week, God willing, we'll be
back to do that again. We we as we head
into the holiday seasons, for sure want to remind you
that as everything gets frenetic, we think the most important
kind of home improvement you can make is the one

(01:15:39):
that makes your home a happier place to live in.
Don't forget to work on that project this week and
We'll see you next week on the Whole DEEPO Home
improvement Show with John and.

Speaker 5 (01:15:46):
Dave and Stea