The Home Improvement Show 8-23-25

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
The Home Depot Home Improvement Show with John and Dave.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Pre set up.

Speaker 3 (00:05):
I tried pro answering your home improvement questions every Saturday
on News Talk.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Eleven and ninety nine to three WBT.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
All right, good Marty, Welcome, It's the Home Depot Home
Improvement Show, John and Dave.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
I'm Dave Doval and I'm David Drew with NASCAR Heat
and Cooling.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
And our good friend John is off at the beach
having a little vacation.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Good for him.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
Yeah, yeah, I see him out there on the surfboard.
Now you think no, no, but I'd like to tease
him about that.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
Yeah, he's probably a blast with the family. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
I asked him about his speedo but he said no, no,
it's not happening anymore.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
He did clarify, so I was like, maybe shower.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
He you know, who knows.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
It's all good.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
Hey, We're we're here taking some home improvement questions. Seven
zero four five seven oh eleven ten. Don't forget the
text line. That's WBT text line driven by the Liberty
Buick GMC same number five seven oh eleven ten, seven
zero four five seven oh eleven ten. David, thanks for
coming in and join us. I know we're you're you're

(01:12):
filling in, but you are your longtime friend and h
you actually used to do do some stuff with us here.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
On the show, right a little bit. Yeah, yeah, that
was years ago. Yeah, I appreciate you guys inviting me
in today. And yes, it has been a long time, right,
I think it's like two thousand. I saw it to John.
I think it was two thousand and one. Oh wow, Okay,
so it was a while. It was when Home People
was starting to push train heating, you know, equipment in
stores back then, and I said, hey, how about I

(01:41):
come in and talk about training on our home Depot
show because our company was selling it, the company I
was working with was selling it, right, and it just awsomed.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
Yeah, it's been good and we get some questions, still
get lots of questions, HVAC questions.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
So we'll talk about that.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
We'll talk about any home improvement that any questions you
might have. I guess we could kind of go for
some things that can talk about will be again the
new refrigerants that are out there that are causing chaos,
chaos in the industry. Well, I think anytime you change,
I think that happened when we went to the four
ten A. Right then it was a problem learning curve.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
It was and it was overblown, right, a lot of
our minds about it, But as soon as we got
working with it, it turned out to be a really good refrigerant.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
Just the change of it. I mean the people that
the people that suffer the real brun are the customers, yes,
that suffer through it because you're changing, and it causes
you to have sometimes to have to change the system
because the refrigerate becomes so expensive that it's cost prohibitive
where it doesn't make sense. You're putting good money after
bad in other words.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
And now we're in the whole gamut of refrigerants, motors, equipment.
It's all just changed. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
Well now and you have to have a variable speed
blower right at least two speeds, isn't it?

Speaker 2 (03:01):
Yes? Yeah, But moreover, it's more about the new refrigerant,
the availability of it, the cost of it, why they
are not having out it's made, but the drums that
were made were not correct for this refrigerant due to
its slight slight flammability. And I don't want to scare

(03:25):
anybody with that. And then of course, only a couple
of years ago, not even two years ago. We went
to the new motors, the M one's or M two
whatever that was, where you had to they redesigned all
the motors, made the outdoor units a little bit larger
to reach a certain efficiency, and it was the same motor,
but it had to do the same amount of work

(03:46):
or twice the work with half the electricity. And so
that's where we're right.

Speaker 1 (03:51):
Well, I know that we really enjoyed our system, which
is the Linux you know, multi stage, and we had
I had a question about that a while back. I
want to kind of kind of hit on that too,
but it was a customer that was switching units out
and they wanted to know about what seer and they

(04:12):
had two people they were working with getting bids, and
part of it was do you go with a nineteen
or was a twenty seer or do you stay back
with an eighteen seer? And you know, as as it
turned out, if if you're if you're going to bump
up and go to these these these high end systems,

(04:33):
you really have to change duct workout, do you not?

Speaker 2 (04:37):
Absolutely? I mean you might as well not do anything.
Or that's what I told them, Yeah, unless you change
out the duck work and make it easy for those
motors to breathe, right, and of course bring in dirty air,
looted air. You're and like you did on your house,
it's perfect. Everything it's went together very well. The house
is tightly sealed, you have the ceiling of the attic foamed,

(04:58):
and you have you know, a great climate for your
equipment not only to stay in, but for us to
work on it. Right.

Speaker 1 (05:04):
Oh yeah, well, you know, I mean that's kind of
like our John and I have said for years.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
We think that a.

Speaker 1 (05:09):
Crawl space, the code should be it should be concrete,
and every house should come with a creeper.

Speaker 2 (05:16):
Yes, or a four foot crawl yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (05:18):
So I think there's actually some counties in the United
States that have that if you have a crawl space
has to be concrete, has to have floor drains in it.

Speaker 2 (05:25):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (05:26):
Just would be a really cool thing. And I do
I do think that they've uh there's a code coming
that if you change, if you close your vents permanently,
you have to have a full encapsulation. I think that
might be what's what's going on. I there's there's something
to it, and I'll find out more as it comes on.
It's not I don't think it's it's it's in, it's

(05:47):
part of the code, or it's mandatory yet, but I
think it's coming. So so if someone comes in other words,
they're not going to let you do a hybrid system
in the in the crawl space. But you know, you
and I both know that if you can, if you
can clean that cross space up and keep it dry, Uh,
it's better for you, it's better for your house, it's

(06:07):
it's better for every everything.

Speaker 2 (06:09):
We've been talking about this for years. I can go
into houses that are fifty sixty, seventy years old and
the crawl spaces are just dust. They're perfect dry, and
of course they're probably sitting on a bit of a
pill well there, yes, but you know that's what I
got here in nineteen ninety five. And now they'll build
on a.

Speaker 1 (06:25):
Swamp and as long as you can drive something distratitude
to rock so it'll sit on it, you'll be okay.

Speaker 2 (06:33):
Well, we used to have a backrush start. There's a
builder I'm not gonna mention the name, but we couldn't
get on it, really get nderneath the house. We had
to dig our way channel, our way to where the
piece equipment was supposed to go. And then when it rained,
we had to put it into two x ten to
plank over because the water would sit at the cross
based door and over the moat, over the moat and
get into the equipment. But thank god, of course the

(06:54):
codes changed where everything the minim was like thirty six inches.
Now something of that effect, right, And you could only
imagine me by size training and I was even I
was installing.

Speaker 1 (07:05):
Throw that unit up on his shoulder and crawl in
there you are the band. Oh okay, well, listen, lines
are open seven zero four five, seven oh eleven ten.
We're just we're just kind of chatting about some some
different things, little HVAC, some home improvement. The text lines
opening and give us a text there, give us a call,

(07:26):
and uh, I think we're getting ready to well, we're
not quite there yet. We're gonna go to a break
here in a minute. I do have a question here
from a customer. We'll talk about that about dust control
in the house and then humidifying and dehumidifying that you
can add because you can add some of that stuff
to your to your system. It just depends on where

(07:48):
it's at right, correct, So we'll talk about that. That's
normally more of a winter but I think he's getting
ahead of the game because before winter comes, maybe want
to have this settled out. Anyway, with that set, let's
take a break and uh, we'll be back with more
home improvement after this. All right, welcome back. It's the

(08:36):
Home Depot Home Improvement Show with John and Dave. I'm
Dave Doval and I'm David Drew with NASCAR.

Speaker 2 (08:40):
Are heating cooling? Yeah? Thanks Dave.

Speaker 1 (08:43):
We appreciate you coming in today. Line's open seven zero
four five seven oh eleven ten. Any questions about any
home improvement any anything about your ac or got the
heating seasons coming up? Let's it'll be a little while.
Of course, weather's been pretty mild here the last few weeks.
Don't forget the the WBT text line driven by Liberty

(09:05):
Buick gmc lonnie. You'll have to pull anything up for
me because I am for some reason I have do
not have my little text box there. I can't find it,
so I don't know if I erased it or what.
This new phone man, I've been doing all kinds of
fancy things with it.

Speaker 2 (09:21):
And I don't know how to undo it.

Speaker 1 (09:24):
I'm like, I had that other phone for so long
and everything's different.

Speaker 2 (09:27):
So so how's it feeling not using the rotary It's
it's it's a challenge.

Speaker 1 (09:32):
But you know that arthritis was setting in their fingers,
So I'm off of the rotary. Thank you, though, Rodory.
Have you ever even seen a rotary phone?

Speaker 2 (09:40):
Lonnie? Uh? Yeah, I'm from the eighties, so yeah, I'm
the last generation you saw it.

Speaker 1 (09:47):
You say, what is yeah, because now they say it
or even a push button phone now it's it's different.

Speaker 2 (09:52):
That's great.

Speaker 1 (09:54):
Listen. Uh customer, a friend customer of mine is sent
me a text at the David Dobal text line and
it was there's not one, so don't be asking where
that number is anyway. About dust and how to control
dust in a house, one of some things that you
can do to control dust. Is there something we can

(10:16):
do with the HVAC system.

Speaker 2 (10:19):
That will help with that?

Speaker 1 (10:20):
And then also about humidifying a house, adding humidity to
a house, and we know that answer, but we can
talk a little bit about that because it's not for
it's not forever. You certainly don't like putting them in
the attic.

Speaker 2 (10:34):
No, And as you know, and you're going to say
it's it's holistic, it could completely holistic. The dust situation,
you know, when the house is built, I mean, perforations
are in the plumbing coming into the house. Same with
the you know, we no longer like the whole whole
attic fans, you know remember those, Yes, they just pull

(10:55):
it all right in, right, all the dust and pollin right. Ye. So,
But as far as you're heating and air system, of course,
if the duckwork back to if it's sealed with mastic,
it's clean. You're changing your filters. And we're not gonna
talk really about static pressure, but that you have just
as much air going in as you do going out.
So you're not like having doors slam behind you, right,

(11:16):
push or push out one or the other negative or
positive pressure. You'd like to have it a little towards
the neutral, but if anything, my preference is a little
bit on the positive side. Right. But the heating and
air system, it's just a pump, it's a blower, just
pushing the air through the house as pushing all of it.
And again, if you could keep that filter clean, and

(11:37):
you know how I feel about these three month, four
month filters. I don't like them one bit. I like
cheap filters. Put them in there and just change them
every thirty days because after that stuff is growing on, right,
you know, and especially as a high humidity issue in
the house, there's a lot of things growing on.

Speaker 1 (11:54):
What about is there any is there any devices that
can be added? I know there's some air purification, but
what do they What's what in your opinion, what's the
best thing that folks should do if your house is dusty,
it is one of the things that you can help
with now you you mentioned it, if your duct work
is not sealed up, so anything pre what was it

(12:15):
ninety nine? Isn't that when they.

Speaker 2 (12:18):
Yeah, it's well, yes, I said, when I got into
business in ninety five, we were using mastic.

Speaker 1 (12:23):
Yeah, so they were just they were starting to use it.
So the guys that were ahead of the game were
using it. But I think it became code in ninety
nine somewhere in there. So all that means is that
they used to use tape. Right, they'd used wire and
a zip tie and then tape if you were lucky.

Speaker 2 (12:40):
And we have to do all that, we have to
do the tape the zip tie and the mastic.

Speaker 1 (12:44):
Right, so, and that helps you because that helps you
hold the the flex onto the metal ducks. So you're
changing from a flex duct to a metal usually a
metal some type of metal fitting. So then you mastic
and then you then you put your the outside because
you also do the insulation. Right, there's two three sections

(13:06):
really of a flex stuck right, correct.

Speaker 2 (13:08):
And of course you know the thickness we're up to
you now is pretty R eight where I started the busines,
I think was R four as far as the insulation
value goes.

Speaker 1 (13:19):
Right, Yeah, So we had a text in from Jeff
and he wanted to know when the uh, the encapsulation
will be enforceable. I'm not sure, Jeff. We'll find more
out about that. So you know how they make you hang,
They say, well, come right after this commercial, we'll tell
you the rest of the story.

Speaker 2 (13:40):
Right.

Speaker 1 (13:40):
Well, so, Jeff, you're gonna have to listen for another
month or so at least, and then well then we'll
tell you. I will find out more about this. I
just talked to somebody the other day about this. It
was the first first I heard of it, and I
was actually in a crawl space when they told me.
So we weren't having a long conversation about it, as
you can imagine, but they said it was coming and uh,

(14:01):
and I think everything has to be taped now. So
I think we'll have to wade through and see what
the actual rules will be. And and well, I mean,
you know, there is a price involved, but I think
it's that if you close your vents, if you if
you close them permanently, then I think it has to
be an encapsulation is kind of the way I understood,

(14:22):
Uh understood that. So what we were talking about was
they're doing a a hybrid system where they were just
laying like a ten mil plastic or a six mil
but I think it's gone up now to ten mil.
But they would lay a ten mil plastic and close
off the vents and seal them up and then put

(14:43):
a dehumidifier in there.

Speaker 2 (14:46):
There's some issues with that.

Speaker 1 (14:49):
The guys at dry Pro would tell you, you know,
without a sump pump in there, it just depends on
your crawl space a lot.

Speaker 2 (14:55):
If you're below grade.

Speaker 1 (14:57):
In other words, if they built the foundation of the
house and the crawl space was was here you can't
see my hands, But if it was low, and then
they backfill up against the brick. Now you've created a hole,
so if water gets in there, it has a hard
time getting out, and you really have more chance of
water soaking in to the crawl space.

Speaker 2 (15:18):
So at that.

Speaker 1 (15:19):
Point you almost need a sump pump because you're the
dirt around that perimeter of the house is higher than
your crawl space floor, so that that could be a problem,
and that happens more often than not.

Speaker 2 (15:31):
I mean, you see it, don't you, Dave. I mean
involved with one that house, it was exactly like that.
It was almost dead level, and they went through the
whole thing multiple times, the some pump, the plastic, the drainage,
the drainage all around the house, and some days it
didn't work. Then they had to put a French strain

(15:52):
around the back of the house to lead it to
the front, right in front of the property. It's and
a lot of people times don't find out until they've
been in there a few years, right, And that's the thing,
how long has this been going on? Well, typically that's
when you have somebody going in to your crawl space,
whether you're eating air guy or your bug guy. Hey,
you ain't looking around seeing if there's any water down
there or any of the insulations hanging, and that's the

(16:16):
only way you're gonna find because most homeowners, especially if
it's only a thirty two inch crawl are not going
to go in there. There's no way, right, But when
they see water and gamage seeping out from that place,
and they're going to like, what's going on?

Speaker 1 (16:27):
Yeah, there's some telltale signs. I mean, you know, if
you don't really want to go in the crawl space
and you're not ready to call someone, what the things
you can look for in that isna?

Speaker 2 (16:37):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (16:37):
Well yeah, so if you open the crawl space door
and you see the insulation all kind of shredded, hanging
down like.

Speaker 2 (16:45):
Icicles Spanish more cyclic, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (16:47):
Then there's a good chance that you're pretty damp because
the insulation is getting wet and it's heavy, it's delaminating.
And then the other thing is if you have hardwood
floors in your house, if you stand back in the
light and look, if you see them kind of humped
up and they're they're there, are are cupped on the edges,
then you know that that on every joint you see

(17:08):
it kind of sticking up higher than the middle of
the floor. Then you know that there's a good chance
of crawl space as is wet or has been wet
for for a good while, or there's excessive moisture. I mean,
it's it's It's usually not the end of the world,
for sure, but those are a couple of signs that
you may need to get someone out. And of course,
you know, I'm I'm of the I'm of the mindset

(17:30):
that if if you have a crawl space, you should
have someone come out and inspect it and and see
what's going on and take a moisture level. I also
think everybody has a crawl space, should have a weather station,
should have something that measures the humidity so that you
can see it. In the house, what's going on, what's
going on in my crawl space. It's important to know
because if it gets away from you, it costs you.

(17:54):
It costs a lot of money to fix it.

Speaker 2 (17:56):
And whereas out in the fielder you said, see the housewise,
you know I was on your cross space. Look at unease,
they're wet. They got the red clay here, which is
you know, horrible, So so you might want to get
your husband look underneath there. I don't know the source
of the water, but you might want to have him
brings right, of course, so I would say he's not
going underneath there. Yeah, well I don't like it either.

(18:17):
It's not my favorite.

Speaker 1 (18:18):
Thing anyway, Jeff, I know that that wasn't a complete answer,
but stay tuned. We will find out more about that,
and of course we'll talk more as time goes on.
And I'm sure we'll have west Wooden back in here
with dry Pro before along. They're they're a sponsor of
the show. But he they come in quarterly and uh

(18:39):
and I'll make sure I keep this question.

Speaker 2 (18:42):
Nearby and that way we'll have it.

Speaker 1 (18:45):
We'll put it right there because that looks like about
a quarter away. They do good work, they do and
have for a long time.

Speaker 2 (18:53):
Uh. Oh, we got to take a break, so let's
let's do that. Give us a call.

Speaker 1 (18:58):
Seven zero four five, seven zero eleven ten. We're gonna
take a break. We'll be back with more home improvement
after this. All right, welcome back. It's the Home Depot

(19:29):
Home Improvement Show with John and Dave. I'm Dave Doval
and I'm David Drew with North and South Carolina Air.
All Right, Dave, thanks for coming in joining us.

Speaker 2 (19:36):
We appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (19:36):
Hey, it's time for our Home Depot Product of the
Week this week is a This is kind of a
simple product, but this is a good deal and I
think it's something that everybody needs to have in their house.
That's a six foot step ladder, and this is a
Werner six foot fiberglass step ladder.

Speaker 2 (19:55):
It gives you up to.

Speaker 1 (19:56):
A ten foot of breach depending on your height David'd
be eleven or twelve feet for you.

Speaker 2 (20:01):
Uh, but with a.

Speaker 1 (20:02):
Weight limit of three hundred pounds. So you can buy
cheaper step ladders. And we've all we've all seen them,
but you have to remember when you get up pretty
high on a step ladder, if if you have one
that's that's that's not rated at a higher weight, they
get a little rickety, so they could you could get hurt.
So this is a great deal at one hundred and
nine dollars for a six foot fiberglass ladder. This is

(20:24):
a it's a professional ladder.

Speaker 2 (20:25):
Ult your complaint then.

Speaker 1 (20:27):
It is and and it has an I A duty
duty rating.

Speaker 2 (20:32):
So uh.

Speaker 1 (20:33):
The Home Depot Product of the Week this week is
the Werner six foot fiberglass step ladder at the three
hundred pound load capacity for one hundred and nine dollars.
Check that out. So, and you know, that's kind of
one of those things you could give somebody as a
gift to you know.

Speaker 2 (20:48):
Well, or send me to their house to change out
the light bulb. Right yeah.

Speaker 1 (20:51):
So well, the guy that's always borrowing your ladder, yeah,
get him a ladder. Or you could buy that ladder
for yourself and give him your old one.

Speaker 2 (20:59):
That's even better. See yeah, I like that. Yeah, the
wooden one, the wouldn't slot one, the real rickety one
you have. Well, I like my neighbors, so I would
do that. It has pain from the nineteen fifty still
on it. Right there you go with lead paint. Yeah,
that's a point. It would be lead paint. Hey, let's
do it.

Speaker 1 (21:16):
Let's do a text from the WBT text line that
brought to your Driven to you driven by Liberty Buick GMC.

Speaker 2 (21:23):
It's a lot of words.

Speaker 1 (21:25):
John says, thirty seven year old cross space with six
mile plastic and gravel on top when constructed. What humidity
percentages of is acceptable? Getting weather station no standing water,
French drain in lowest corner insulation fifty sixty fallen and
planning on replacing. Suggestions encapsulations too expensive. Well, I mean

(21:46):
right now you still could. You still could could go
in with the with the heavier plastic, clean it up.
They'll if you're going to replace the insulation, they'll pull
it out and they'll drag it out with the plastic.
They'll kind of roll it up and get rid of it.
You probably need to have the floor joist washed off
while you're doing this because if you don't, it's going

(22:06):
to get caught in an inspection later home inspection when
it's sold and you don't have to I need, but
it's gonna and eventually somebody's gonna want it done. So
if there's any fungus growth, they're gonna want it wiped
off and cleaned off. Because people freak out. Every cross
space has a little.

Speaker 2 (22:20):
Bit of it.

Speaker 1 (22:21):
Promised, I promise you.

Speaker 4 (22:23):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (22:24):
But getting the weather stration is a great idea. You
want to be you want to be between You want
to be below seventy percent humidity and not below fifty percent,
So between fifty and seventy percent. My cross base stays
ideally right around sixty percent, which is good because when

(22:44):
it gets drier, when we go a long time without
rain and things really dry out, you can hear the
floor is creaking more than when it's got a little
bit more moisture in it. So there's a there's a
happy medium in there. And especially for older houses that
have in damp for a long time and then you
go in and dry them out, they really creak. Uh,

(23:05):
you know, every time you move because it's it's sometimes
it's the plywood sliding up and down on the nails.
Sometimes it's the joist moving squeaking, and they're they're they're
moving as you walk across the floor with the pressure,
believe it or not, even though they're nailed. They loosen
up on the nails because when it was all built
and put together, it was full of moisture and damp.

Speaker 2 (23:26):
And then and then you go in and you.

Speaker 1 (23:28):
Dry it out, it'll cause squeaky floors.

Speaker 5 (23:32):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (23:33):
And he says there's no sandy water and he's got
a French strain.

Speaker 2 (23:36):
That's good.

Speaker 1 (23:36):
So I think you're good. So I think you go
back with a ten mil plastic, you tape it, put
a dehumidifier in there. I closed up the vents in
my house and I put s foil faced styrofoam in
the openings, and then I I calckd them. And there's
people out there that don't like that, but I have
no problems with my cross space. So I like it,

(23:59):
and it's it's my house, and that's the way I
wanted to do it, and it works, and my my
humidity stays pretty consistent underneath there. The machine, the dehumidifier
helps control that. And then of course, you know all
the grating, all of our down spouts are in piping
that move the water away from the house. The house
has been professionally landscaped around so that the water is

(24:20):
moving away from the house on all directions.

Speaker 2 (24:24):
Well, you got a great lot. I mean it hopes
away on two sides.

Speaker 1 (24:29):
Yeah, and it's well it is, and it was, and
you know, we did all. I did all the things
I needed to do because I knew, I know what
people deal with on a daily basis out there because
somebody half did their property.

Speaker 2 (24:41):
So back to his cross space, the stones, he said
he's going to pull the stones out too.

Speaker 1 (24:46):
Uh no, no, no, you know hopefully it's not.

Speaker 2 (24:49):
Hopefully it's river rock or.

Speaker 1 (24:51):
Pebbles and not gravel, not fifty seven stone, you know,
because that's what we always tease about.

Speaker 2 (24:56):
I tell people to put to.

Speaker 1 (24:58):
Clean their around their air conditioning or put up some
type of a guard around it, and then put stone
in there. And I said, if you like your air
conditioning guy, you put in pebbles, and if you don't
like him, you put in fifty seven stones.

Speaker 2 (25:11):
That's correct. Our knees just sharp. It's good for your knees.
It's horrible. That's why I said, I've been through crawl
spaces that have gravel.

Speaker 1 (25:16):
It's like I shouldn't say it because I actually do
have sharp stone around both of my air conditioners, but
I alwayo have. Also, you guys also have knee pads,
so we're good. But John, I hope that helps. John
s uh, just check that. And humidity in the crawl space,
Like we said, somewhere between fifty and seventy percent. You
get over seventy, you start you start dancing with the

(25:38):
devil underneath there. So that's when you start getting moled
and and rock can can begin after after that point.

Speaker 2 (25:46):
So you can get you can get those weather.

Speaker 1 (25:49):
Stations that have two or three remotes, so you set
a remote underneath there and then you have the reader
or the receiver in side the house and they'll tell
you temperature and humidity. They sell them. They sell them
at home depot. I think Amazon has them and you
can get what you want. I have one in the attic,

(26:10):
one in the crawl space, and then the one in
the house, so you get a pretty good comparison of
what's going on in those spaces, and it kind of helps.

Speaker 2 (26:20):
You to know, you know, if it's getting if.

Speaker 1 (26:22):
The moisture, if the moisture goes up all of a
sudden in your crawl space were all high, it possibly
could have a leak. So it's a good time to
go check it and you know it gives it gives you,
gives you a warning.

Speaker 2 (26:33):
Do they still uh promote the fans, the small satellite
fans throughout the crawl space to keep the air moving.

Speaker 1 (26:40):
Well, I mean sometimes because they're moving air into dead spaces,
so you could you could move the air around. So
even if you have a dehumidifier, it's not a bad idea.
If it's if you have offsets, you know you're closing
up your vents. Used to be why they did it,
and there's still some some equipment out there that draws
outside air in and pulls it in. But I think

(27:02):
it's for select crawl spaces. I don't think every crawl
space is a candidate for for that system. It's pretty cool,
but it's it's it's fans and they move it and
it works off of due point temperature and humidity, so
it reads, it reads everything. So yes, so that's pretty cool.
And then so then we have another text and let's

(27:23):
let's uh, I guess, let's take a break and then
well we'll save this one for after the break.

Speaker 2 (27:28):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (27:29):
It's the Home Depot Home Improvement Show. John to Dave
will be right back after these messages. Welcome back. It's

(28:00):
the Whole Depot Home Improvement Show with John to Dave.
I'm Dave Doval and.

Speaker 2 (28:04):
I'm David Drew with NASCAR, eating and cooling, and.

Speaker 1 (28:06):
We appreciate everyone joining us. Seven zero four five, seven
oh eleven ten. That'll get you in here on a
phone call or a text on the WBT text line
driven by Liberty Buick GMC and John John text back
about his crawl space. No, John, take your you'll take
the old plastic out, the old poll the six mil

(28:29):
if you have your insulation change. Those guys will probably
drop that insulation and they'll roll that plastic up with
that insulation and try to pull it and drag it
out of there and keep it so it doesn't make
such a mess. And then you will go back with
the ten mil after they'll they'll install your insulation and
then they'll put the ten mil, or they may put
it in first so they have something drier to crawl

(28:51):
and hopefully it's not wet. You don't need to put
any more gravel in there. And and we were kind
of joking around before the break about fifty seven stone.
That is a that's a drainage stone, and it's a
sharp stone and it's perfect to go along the edges
if you're putting in a French drain or drains that
run to your sump pump, and you could you could

(29:12):
put gravel that fifty seven stone. But if you put
gravel in your whole crawl space, which is hard to
do after the house is built, by the way, even
if you're dumping it in ditches, because it's all gotta
be brought in but by bucket. But if you are
putting gravel, you need to use a round stone because
you don't want anything that's going to cut through your
plastic later. So you're looking for pebbles or river rock,

(29:35):
something that's rounded if you are going to put stone
in there, but there's no reason to put it in
there unless you need it, unless you need it for drainage,
So you can avoid you can avoid that, but do
clean up on once it's out. Whoever you hire, make
sure that they take out any big rock, pieces of brick,
no wood, no cardboard, that's all termite food. You want

(29:56):
to make sure they clean that out, and normally they do.
Most companies that do that are going to are gonna
do a good job. But so one layer is all
you need of that ten mil uh, John, and you
should be good to go. And then Brian writes in uh,
he has an older home windows and you know it's
it's sealed, well, what is the highest efficiency HVA unit

(30:18):
HVAC unit and owner should install That's we just kind
of talked about that, didn't we with.

Speaker 2 (30:26):
We did, But again, if you discussed if it's the
windows are old, the duckwork is old, you know there's
gaps and leaks in places. You don't just go with
the least if you don't want to do those other
things that are extremely important. So like you and John
will to say return on investment. Right. Always what you
guys say, and it's absolutely true, is stay away from

(30:47):
the high Sea if you don't plan on getting it
to its maximum efficiency by taking care of all these
gaps and leaks and whatever. Right. And you know you
and I have discussed this. You know, when I put
brand new windows in my house, I was shocked at
the difference in my electrics.

Speaker 1 (31:03):
Right, And it's and it's it's it's the glass and
it's the frame. But it's also that they're ceiling around
that window. Correct that that the installation is as important
as the window itself.

Speaker 2 (31:14):
Well, let me step into this for just a second.
So on this efficiency thing, it used to be like
the selling point, right, it's no longer the selling point
because right now the government has mandated weren't near fifteen
creteen when I got into the business. We were just
barely hit into ten. Right. And yes we have we
have scroll compressors, we have inverters that can go up
to twenty three cere, twenty four cere that can remove

(31:38):
that can gain heat down to six degrees below zero
and further they can, it is, but you've got to
create the perfect place for that type of stuff.

Speaker 1 (31:51):
Right if you're going to spend the money on the system.
So for him, if he stayed with just a fifteen
or sixteen seers system and then eventually changed his windows,
did some air ceiling in the house, then you would
get the complete benefit of the fifteen or sixteen seer.
But right now, if you go by a twenty one
or twenty five seer system, you're not going to get

(32:13):
any benefit from that.

Speaker 2 (32:14):
Right No. And again it's with the scroll compressors or
the invertic compressors that we're The benefit right now is
the length of the run times deumdification, right because they
got so many stages on them, and the slower it runs,
the more humidity removes. Once the house gets to a
stable temperature, will just use seventy two degrees for example,
and you've got that humidity controlled, it feels a lot

(32:37):
colder than said it does. You feel a lot colder,
and say it because it's wicking right off of you
and just you know.

Speaker 1 (32:43):
Well, in our system what it will do when we
set it the humidity level at fifty four percent or
fifty seven percent wherever it's set, but the thermostat has
actually set at seventy three or seventy four degrees. When
I go by it, it'll that house will be so
seventy one degrees because it's running in the background. But

(33:03):
it's just barely running and it's just sipping electricity.

Speaker 2 (33:07):
Correct.

Speaker 1 (33:08):
Do you remember when the first system was first put
in and called just said, man, what's wrong with this thing?
That the unit's barely turning out there? Don't tell me
this is broke. You said, hey, dummy.

Speaker 2 (33:18):
And again, it's incredible technology and even the least not
that anything is least expensive anymore, it's outrageous. But even
the fifteen seers are outstanding and the work they can do.
We no longer have reciproc recip reciprocating compressors, none of
that stuff. It's it's all and back when we said
we can't replace pieces of equipment anymore. Right, We've talked

(33:41):
about this too. If you've got a leaking evaporator coil,
don't expect anybody to fix it or replace it. You've
got to get a new outdoor unit and a new
evaporator coil. Because the way the laws have made it
that you will have this refrigerant and efficiency in things
that the government wants your home to be at a
cost to you. Furnaces, Yes, we can keep the old furnace,
but it's not too horrible, not a problem. But there's

(34:03):
really no more just pieces trading pieces out anymore. It
has to be all hr I.

Speaker 1 (34:08):
Matched, right, So so back to Brian, Yeah, so stay
stay with the lower seer at this point the minimum
that you can do. I mean, if you want variable
speed stuff, can you get that?

Speaker 2 (34:23):
Is it? Or does it?

Speaker 1 (34:24):
Does it get up in the higher seer when you
when you go to the real malt like my system.

Speaker 2 (34:29):
Is matched, you can it's a match. But you know,
we just we just did is we use lingo? We
probably should have defined seer seasonal energy efficiency ratio the
amount of electricity used to make that thing run. I
can't remember how many hours a day or to keep
the house cool, but that's what it is. The higher
the number, more efficient it is, right, that's what it
stands for.

Speaker 1 (34:49):
So yeah, you know, so the answer I guess that
really the total answer that question is is put in
a system. Now that's that's that's that you're not going
to waste too much money on and then work on
adding insulation to the attic air sealing the house windows doors,
and then when you go to the real high sier

(35:11):
systems and you spend that money, you really do have
to change the duct system out.

Speaker 2 (35:15):
Yeah, we do. It's all based on what we call
static pressure, and of course that's the air going in
versus the air going out, and that it meets the
compliance of the manufacturer.

Speaker 1 (35:26):
Right Okay, So, Brian, I hope that answers your question. So,
so don't go crazy on the seer right now, the systems,
whatever you put in is going to be better than
what you have currently. I can promise you that the
technology is so much better. So I think you'll be
good with that.

Speaker 2 (35:45):
I guarantee he knows the weak spots in his house,
you know, sure you can.

Speaker 1 (35:49):
You can tell you can feel it, and you know
it's it's worth it to try to seal it up, dude,
a little bit of time. You don't have to do
it all at once, but you know, getting that mode
of thinking. And there's lots of websites and of information
out there that show you how to air seal, and
of course there's people that do it for a living,
you know, if you don't want to do it yourself,
and you can, I know, you can go through Duke

(36:10):
Energy and they have some programs as well, so that's
part of the code. Now, that's part of the energy code.
And they air seal and they it's unbelievable how what
a difference it makes just going through the house in
the framing right before they put the insulation and they
spray foam all the cracks and the crevices and the joints,

(36:31):
every hole where a wire goes through, where a pipe
goes through. If you live in an older home, you
don't have that. They've been fires blocking and stopping for
a while is what they call it. But it's air
ceiling and that's so fire can't pass from one floor
to another. But it also helps your ac right then
you eat, so it's good.

Speaker 2 (36:50):
All right.

Speaker 1 (36:50):
That music means we have to take a break. That's
what we're going to do. Seven zero four five, seven
oh eleven ten. We'll be back with more home improvement
after these messages.

Speaker 6 (37:18):
All right, welcome back.

Speaker 1 (37:41):
It's the Home Depot Home improvement Show with John and Dave.
I'm Dave Oval and.

Speaker 2 (37:45):
I'm David Drew with North and South Carolina Air.

Speaker 1 (37:48):
All Right, Dave, thanks for joining us. We appreciate it.
Let's get Chris in here.

Speaker 2 (37:52):
He has an HVAC question.

Speaker 1 (37:53):
Hey Chris, welcome to the program.

Speaker 2 (37:55):
Go ahead, Yes, good morning.

Speaker 4 (37:57):
My AC system is nineteen eighty four vintage. It was
here when I bought the house. I got to replace
the whole thing at some point. It's the old school stuff.
My house is roughly a thousand square feet indoors, a
single story. The unit is outside on the side of
the house, and my air handler unit is upstairs, and

(38:20):
I have that flexible piping that goes to six registers
in the ceiling. I'm just trying to get an idea
of my cost and what size of a unit I'm
gonna need, just you know, a ballpark figure, so I
can kind of prepare for it financially.

Speaker 2 (38:36):
Okay, it's a thousand square feet and you said it's
eighty four. Have there been any window upgrades, insulation upgrades,
anything like that to help the load.

Speaker 4 (38:51):
I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch that.

Speaker 2 (38:53):
Says you said the house was nineteen eighty four. Have
you made any upgrades to the windows or the insulation, doors,
anything to and make it more energy efficient.

Speaker 4 (39:02):
Uh yeah, I upgraded the windows. I spent about about
eighteen or twenty years ago. They're double pane windows, and
the doors are I mean, it's a it's a sealed
tight house. It doesn't leak very much. It holds a
heat quite well. I heat with wood in the winter time,
so I really don't use it as a as a
hater U and the AC still runs fine. I'm just

(39:24):
I'm just running on borrowed time.

Speaker 2 (39:26):
So I'm going to guess that's a brick house and
you probably it is eighty four. So you don't have
a whole house fan in the center of the hallway.

Speaker 4 (39:33):
Well, uh, it does. The air handler unit the intake
is in the center hallway in the house and is
a wood framed wood siding house.

Speaker 2 (39:42):
Okay, so that the duckwork you're probably going to have
to replace because right now, when you your duckwork had
R for insulation if that back then, Now of course
it's R eight. You know, that's double the thickness, so
that would have to be your place.

Speaker 4 (39:57):
Yeah, it's that flexible piping that's kind of laid out
over the top of the insulation.

Speaker 2 (40:02):
Now I don't know if it's silver or gray. But
I can see what it's looking. It's probably very checkered
the outside of it. It's silver.

Speaker 4 (40:10):
It actually looks in pretty good shades. I mean it's
not it's not cracked or broken or anything like that
that I can tell.

Speaker 2 (40:17):
So I'm going to and I shouldn't do this, but
I guess you're probably going to be into it for
probably about two and a half tons of cooling somewhere
around there. Of course, we do load calculations. We go
out there, we measure the windows, we measure the house.
We do two types of loads. One is you know,
just off the internet that's provided. But then of course

(40:39):
this is one we do by hand on the computer
to tell us exactly what you need. And of course
it does take the windows into consideration, does take the
orientation of the house to the sun. All these things
are taking consideration cost. This is not including the duck work.
So I'm not gonna I don't you know. I can't
tell you about the duck work, but I can tell
you this. Nothing is nothing is cheap anymore. And I

(41:01):
don't did you say have heat pumper gas'.

Speaker 4 (41:04):
That's a heat pomp. It's all electorate.

Speaker 2 (41:06):
Well, okay, so you yeah, you definitely have to replace
both pieces. And yeah, you're probably I'm going to take
a guess in this, but you're gonna probably be just
for the equipment alone, probably in the nine thousand dollars area.
And that's yeap oh no, it's it gets once worse.
I mean everything has to be permitted and the equipment
cannot be mismatched.

Speaker 4 (41:27):
Yeah, I understand that. It's like if it's the old
school refrigerant and all that, the air handlers upstairs, and
that it's gonna have to be taken taken out and
pieces and all that. And I'm kind of waiting to fall,
so it's cooled off. I wouldn't ask anybody keeps in
the attic when someone.

Speaker 2 (41:42):
Is high like this, thank you. Yeah, Actually, it's we
don't we don't replace duckwork during the summer. We wait
till the we don't want to kill the guys, we
wait till the fall, right and winner to replace duckwork.
People are pretty right, yeah right, yeah, it's it's it's
not anybody gouging. And I think it's the way the
government has set this up now with these sists of
them said they're overly complicated, and we are global. We

(42:04):
have signed agreements with the rest of the world that
we have got to do these things to stop the
depletion of the ozone.

Speaker 4 (42:10):
Yeah, I understand all that stuff. Like I said, I'm
just trying to get an idea of what I'm doing
withsten to and a half time and about about nine grand.

Speaker 2 (42:19):
I just need to and that's not the duck. You
probably will be into it for probably another four or five,
depending on you know how bad it is. But again,
you need to enjoy this. You need to do for yourself. Yes,
the efficiency of the house, but most people wait till
they sell the house. Hey, I'm going to do this now.
Now do it for yourself. Now, reap the benefits, and
then when you do go to sales, if you do,

(42:40):
you still reap the benefits of having a fairly new
system possibly in the world.

Speaker 4 (42:43):
Right, Okay, Well, I appreciate your time, and I'll look
into this little ways down the road here. Like I said,
I've been putting this off for a couple of years.
It's just a matter of time before this whole unit's
going to go out.

Speaker 2 (42:55):
So thank you so much for a question. Chris.

Speaker 4 (42:58):
I appreciate your time. Thank you very much.

Speaker 1 (43:01):
All right, thanks Chris. All right, Chris is gone?

Speaker 4 (43:05):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (43:06):
John?

Speaker 2 (43:07):
And are Jim and Nate?

Speaker 1 (43:08):
I got your text here? Hang tight, We're gonna get
Steve in.

Speaker 2 (43:11):
Here real quick. Steve, Welcome to the program. How can
we help?

Speaker 4 (43:16):
Hey?

Speaker 7 (43:16):
Good morning guys.

Speaker 2 (43:17):
How's there running? Steve?

Speaker 7 (43:19):
Two questions? Actually, let's let's go at the easy one hopefully. First,
I've got a building thirty twenty four to ten foot ceilings.
It's workshopping and storage for rental house, the rental house properties.
And it's twenty five years old and the outside bandsills
again prussure treated wood, twenty five years old? Should I
even think about it being this old? To try to

(43:40):
seal that band sill? And the six bus six is
that they're sitting on. There's no rots, no fungus, no damage,
no water damage, there's nothing. But when it rains against
the OSB siding that I put on the smart side,
and again all that water runs straight down. So is
that pressure treated wood being this old? Is it going
to absorb war?

Speaker 4 (44:00):
Now?

Speaker 7 (44:00):
Should I seal it somehow? What enough I do? What's
the best ceiler to seal the old pressure treated wood?

Speaker 1 (44:08):
And this is the band sill of the house.

Speaker 7 (44:11):
The band sill of my building.

Speaker 1 (44:13):
Of your building. I mean it won't it wouldn't hurt.
You could put like cedar shield on it and it'll
it'll help it repel water. Essentially is what it does.
Is it it kind of petrifies it. It's called a
wood stabilizer, But essentially what it does is it petrifies it,
and it doesn't allow it to take moisture on, at

(44:34):
least at a deep cellular level. So it's it's it's
going to shed it off and it's not going to
soak in. And that's that's why we push it. And
anytime you can, anytime you can keep the wood from
absorbing water, it's not going to expand and contract. And
now it's stable, and that's why they call it a
wood stabilizer.

Speaker 7 (44:52):
So in the building is that old. I mean I
framed it up in ninety nine and then early two
thousand MASONI ding on it, shindling it so that it
is a really survive, but it is up off the ground.
I've got about twelve inches on one side, about thirty
six inches on the other hand.

Speaker 2 (45:12):
That's put you to air flow in pretty good shape.

Speaker 1 (45:14):
So really, you could buy a gallon of cedar shield,
put it in a pump up sprayer and hit that
thing and you would be in you'd be in pretty
good shape. I mean, it's just precaution, is all it
would be.

Speaker 2 (45:25):
It's not would you recommend?

Speaker 7 (45:27):
Would you recommend the fact of the elements that I get,
like a bucket of soap and a brush and maybe
scrub any dirt to breathe.

Speaker 2 (45:34):
Well, you could do that right right before you spray it,
because they tell.

Speaker 1 (45:38):
You to get it damp and then spray it because
it opens up the pores and allows the product to
go in better. So, hey, we're gonna Steve, I hate
to do some put you on hold. We got to
go to a break. I thought we would get you
before then, but hold tight, we're gonna get you afterwards. Folks,
we're going to take a break. We'll be back with
more home improvement.

Speaker 2 (45:55):
Right after this.

Speaker 3 (46:06):
All right, welcome back.

Speaker 1 (46:07):
It's the Home Depot Home Improvement Show with John and Dave.
I'm Dave Doval and I'm David Drew with NASCAR. Heating
cooling lines are open seven zero four five seven oh
eleven ten. We'd love to hear from you by phone,
or you can do the WBT text line driven by
Liberty Buick GMC. We've been gott lot lots of Texas morning,

(46:27):
so that's good. A product Home Depot Product of the
Week this week is a Werner six foot fiberglass step
ladder that allows you to have a ten foot reach.
It's rated at three hundred pounds. This is a it's
a it's a fiberglass ladder, so it's really strong. It
doesn't conduct electricity, and David was teasing a little bit
earlier about that.

Speaker 2 (46:47):
We were teasing about.

Speaker 1 (46:48):
Giving, you know, buying your neighbor if he borrows your
ladder all the time, by this for yourself and give
him your old one. But an illuminum aluminum step ladder
is not a very safe ladder for multiple reasons.

Speaker 2 (46:59):
In the old wood are not either.

Speaker 1 (47:02):
So if you if you if you have one that's
out of out of date, or if you have one
or you don't have one at all, or you're borrowing
your neighbors.

Speaker 2 (47:09):
Uh, this is a great deal.

Speaker 1 (47:11):
At one hundred and nine dollars, they're normally like one
hundred and forty bucks, so a pretty good deal. Werner
six foot fiberglass step ladder three hundred pounds low capacity
at the Home Depot. All right, let's get Steve back
in here and then we'll handle Jim and Nate that
came in on text. Hey, Steve, welcome back, Thanks for holding.

Speaker 7 (47:33):
Hey, yes, sir, thank you guys for waiting. So my
my thirty twenty four building, ten foot ceilings R eleven
in the walls I do have. It's completely open except
for a ten by twelve office again the same R
eleven in the walls. The two windows in the office
are the old home windows I got at Home Depot
twenty five years ago. But it has a dropped ceiling.

(47:55):
So the question is it's all like trick. What could
I do to heat it to keep paint and things
like that from freezing and so forth, so forth and
so forth. What would be a good heat pomp or
or something electric and electric furnace that I could use
to put in that building? Doctor, unduct doesn't matter because

(48:17):
it's opened.

Speaker 2 (48:19):
So see, if do you plan on working in there?

Speaker 7 (48:24):
Occasionally I'll be putting in mud bench and just things
like that. It may not be all the time, but
I can always turn the heat down to like in
the sixties during the wintertime and then completely off once
it gets spring and summer and fall. I'm not worried
about cooling. I can get some of those tall fans.

Speaker 2 (48:41):
So if you went with a mini split, would do
the heating and cooling, and okay, obviously keep whatever equipment
you have in there dry and cool or warm whatever
as you want, without the extremes. I have a shop
where I keep my motorcycle and I keep it at
eighty two eighty three degrees because it's it's just a workshop,

(49:01):
and you know I w in there. I don't want
that humidity hanging in there either when I walk into it.
Uh So, the mini splits are great.

Speaker 1 (49:09):
Can they just sip electricity?

Speaker 2 (49:11):
Don't they? Once? But no, he he he. If he's
playing with the thermostat up and down, up and down,
that's not going to help, and I don't okay's but
he's got eleven insalation, which is not horrible. It's pretty
good actually right in the walls. So if if he
keeps it at let's just say eighty one degrees in
the summer eighty two and then the winter, just keep
it at sixty three.

Speaker 5 (49:31):
Okay, and then when I go on at the lord.

Speaker 7 (49:34):
If I need to jump it up, I can bump
it up.

Speaker 2 (49:36):
Oh yeah, because there's gonna be remote. You get a
remote with it. And but you know you're talking about
the outdoor unit, and you'd probably get a larger one
for that size building. You probably get something like in
the two two to three ton rates.

Speaker 7 (49:50):
Any particular tonnage. Is it based on cheap at sea?

Speaker 2 (49:52):
It's based on I don't know if you've heard me before.
It's based on the square footage. It is based on
the orientation to the sun, windows, things like that, and
of course the insulation on the sides and above. And
do you have an insulation above No.

Speaker 7 (50:07):
I was going to use either leuon or a way
for board, and then blow the insulation. I was going
to put a like an a little attic, a scuttle
hole in it to be able to get up in
there for obvious reasons, to check the roof for any
damages or leaks and things like that. I'm going to
put two gable small little gable vents on the side,
and then some ground or some square vents over my

(50:27):
ease as well to get some draw up there. So
eventually I will do probably a blow in R thirty
naturally in the in the attic. It's a workshop, it's
not a home. That partly doesn't really matter that forre efficiency.

Speaker 1 (50:41):
Right, Yeah, this is just about this is just about
keeping you comfortable and protecting your contents of the building.

Speaker 7 (50:48):
Yeah. And I do have trees, so it is a
wooded lot. So the building, the roof is in the
summertime is pretty shaded.

Speaker 2 (50:55):
That's good, it's good. But we can't use that in
the calculations because because your hurricane burcane comes through your call,
I say yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, and you will, like
I said, I have that set up and we're keep
my motorcycle and it's uh, you know, you won't regret it.
It's so much better just going in there knowing that
you've got a nice, cool place to work. Doesn't that
be perfect because you're working outside and you go in

(51:16):
there and you still feel great and same in the
winter you go out there at sixty two degrees.

Speaker 7 (51:21):
Yeah, and if for some reason it's it's cooler like
in the spring and the fall. I actually had gotten
to thirty six inch doors, so I've got a six
foot opening into the building. One and three quarters, solid
lambing wood doors, so it's not the the cheap exterior doors.
But so you know I can always open those, get
a cool breeze in. You just got to keep an
eye on your birds and stuff trying to get in.

(51:42):
Of course.

Speaker 2 (51:42):
Sure, yeah, you wouldn't make me out of that shop. Okay,
I want to be in that shop all day.

Speaker 7 (51:46):
All right, Well, what I appreciate all your help on
all these questions.

Speaker 1 (51:50):
You're welcome, good luck with everything.

Speaker 2 (51:52):
Thank you guys, thanks, thanks for listening.

Speaker 1 (51:54):
All right, let's do uh, let's do Nate real quick,
because his text came in first. Again, it's a nineteen
eighty four house. All we got all these nineteen eighty
four houses this year or on these texts that we're
getting anyway, Nate bought a house that was built. A
home built in nineteen eighty four has a tankless water

(52:16):
heater that's about ten years old. He said, it seems
to be working fine currently. But what sort of routine
maintenance do you need to do on these units? Those
units are supposed to be flushed every year if you
live on it, if you have a well, maybe more
often than that. But if it's city water, what they
want you to do is there's a there's some ports
on the bottom and some valves, and you basically you

(52:38):
turn the water off and you're you're pumping water through
that coil in and out with a very mild acid.
I think you can use white vinegar, but I think
they have a specific product that you're supposed to.

Speaker 2 (52:50):
Put in there.

Speaker 1 (52:53):
What happens is the minerals will build up on the
inside of that coil and it becomes an insulator, and
then it's not as efficient. So the coils being heated
around it from the outside, and so if you start
caking up the inside of the coil, you're losing the
efficiency of a tankless toil. Parnicles on a boat, Yeah,
pretty much as a great explanation of it. Sure is

(53:15):
where my brother Tim lived in Ohio, they had so
much lime in the water he wouldn't even mess with
tankless water heaters because they would be they would be
jammed up in a couple of months. Uh So, But Nate,
do get that checked out. Maybe the first time you
do it. You can get a video, you can buy
a kit and you can do it yourself, or you

(53:36):
could hire a plumber to come over there. Let him
show you how to do it properly, and then maybe
from there you could buy the kid if you're pretty handy,
and you could just do it yourself. It's not it's
not rocket science, but there is a there is a
way that needs to be done. So really, every year
you should be washed or renting out those coils on
those tankless water heaters, and for all the folks that

(53:59):
have them, aren't you probably should do it because you
are losing efficiency on them, and that's why you bought
it right, instant hot water. All right, With that said,
let's go ahead. Let's get Jim to David.

Speaker 2 (54:12):
This is for you.

Speaker 1 (54:13):
Jim says, my HVA system is almost thirteen years old.
Each year I've had to add two to three pounds
of refrigerant due to what they are saying is a
leak in the coil the inside the coil in the furnace.
As I know, you know, Dave, they have a representative
coming out this week try to sell me a new system.
Is it better to replace the coil or get a
new system.

Speaker 2 (54:31):
I don't think he's going to be able to replace
the coil because again they're no longer manufacturing any that
are for ten equipment, it's not there. And the equipment
they do have they're holding for warranty customers. They know
what's in warranty, right, that's coming over the next five years.
They've got to hold it for the people who are
to warranty. Sure, but as far as you know, as

(54:53):
far as I know, and as far as what we
deal with, we can't replace just coils anymore. It's we
can't find them, right, just as hard as also to
find equipment these days. It's it's getting better. But he's
probably gonna have to end up buying a new outdoor
unit and new evaporator coil with the new refrigerant in there,

(55:17):
whether it be R thirty two or R four or
fifty four B. You're gonna have to bite the bullet
on this. But you know, you say you're two to
three pounds a year. That's significant. That is a pretty
good that is and by law, you are not allowed
to add refrigerant to a known leaking system, right, that
is not you know, if you intentionally know this, you
can't add that refrigerant. So yeah, unfortunately he may have

(55:42):
to bite the bullet and get the evaporator coil and
the outdoor and if the furnaces at age too, he
may be looking at getting that furnish updated. Yeah, go
ahead and do the whole thing thirteen years old. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (55:53):
Yeah, So if it's a gas furnace, you get a
little bit more mileage out of them in the south
because correct, you're not running the furnace as much, right, correct,
But if you have to match the systems, it's a
lot tougher now.

Speaker 2 (56:03):
Right, Yeah, oh yeah, you have no choice. Whatever the
computer spits out, this is what you're using.

Speaker 1 (56:07):
This is what you have to use. So here we
go with that. Okay, hope that answers you guys question
and uh, we're going to take a break here. Seven
zero four five seven oh eleven ten. You can either
call or use the WBT text line driven by Liberty
Buick GMC.

Speaker 3 (56:23):
We'll be right back, all right, Welcome back.

Speaker 1 (56:41):
It's the Home Depot Home Improvement Show with John and Dave.
I'm Dave Doval and I'm David Drew with NASCAR. Heating
cooling lines are open. Seven zero four five seven oh
eleven ten. We'd love to hear from you by phone,
or you can do the WBT text line driven by
Liberty Buick GMC got lot lots of Texas morning, so

(57:01):
that's good.

Speaker 2 (57:03):
A product.

Speaker 1 (57:03):
Home Depot Product of the Week this week is a
Werner six foot fiberglass step ladder that allows you to
have a ten foot reach. It's rated at three hundred pounds.

Speaker 2 (57:13):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (57:14):
This is a it's a it's a fiberglass ladder, so
it's really strong. It doesn't conduct electricity, and David was
teasing a little bit earlier about that. We were teasing
about giving, you know, buying your neighbor if he borrows
your ladder all the time, by this for yourself.

Speaker 2 (57:26):
And give him your old one.

Speaker 1 (57:27):
But an illuminum aluminum step ladder is not a very
safe ladder for multiple reasons. And the old woodwinds are
not either. So if you if if you if you
have one that's out of out of date, or if
you have one, or you don't have one at all,
or you're borrowing your neighbors. Uh, this is a great deal.
At one hundred and nine dollars. They're normally like one

(57:48):
hundred and forty bucks, so a pretty good deal.

Speaker 6 (57:50):
UH.

Speaker 1 (57:51):
Werner six foot fiberglass step ladder h three hundred pounds
low capacity at the Home Depot all right, let's get
Steve back in here and then we'll handle Jim and
Nate that came in on text. Hey Steve, welcome back,
Thanks for holding.

Speaker 7 (58:07):
Hey, yes, sir, thank you guys for waiting. So my
my thirty by twenty four building, ten foot ceilings R
eleven in the walls I do have. It's completely open
except for a ten by twelve office. Again the same
R eleven in the walls. The two windows in the
office are the old home windows of guy at Home
Depot twenty five years ago. But it has a drop ceiling.

(58:29):
So the question is it's all electric. What could I
do to heat it to keep paint and things like
that from freezing and so forth, so forth and so forth.
What would be a good heat pomp or or something
electric and electric furnace that I could use to put
in that building? Doctor, unduct doesn't matter because it's opened.

Speaker 2 (58:53):
So see, do you plan on working in there?

Speaker 7 (58:58):
Occasionally I'll be putting in the mud bench and just
things like that. It may not be all the time,
but I can always turn the heat down like in
the sixties during the wintertime and then completely off once
it gets spring and summer and fall. I'm not worried
about cooling. I can get some of those tall fans.

Speaker 2 (59:15):
So if you went with a mini split it, we'd
do the heating and cooling and obviously keep whatever equipment
you have in there dry and cool or warm whatever
as you want, without the extremes. I have a shop
where I keep my motorcycle, and I keep it at
eighty two eighty three degrees because it's it's just a workshop,

(59:35):
and you know when there, I don't want that humidity
hanging in there either when I walk into it. H
So the mini splits are great.

Speaker 1 (59:43):
Can they just sip electricity?

Speaker 2 (59:45):
Don't they? Once he if he's playing with the thermostat
up and down, up and down, that's not going to help.
And I don't okay, but he's got eleven inslation, which
is not horrible. It's pretty good actually, right in the walls.
So if if he keeps it at let's just say
eighty one degrees in the summer eighty two and then
the winter, just keep it at sixty three.

Speaker 7 (01:00:05):
Okay, And then when I go in at a lord,
if I need to bump it up, I can bump
it up.

Speaker 2 (01:00:10):
Oh yeah, because there's gonna be remote. You get a
remote with it. But you know you're talking about the
outdoor unit, and you'd probably get a larger one for
that sized building. You probably get something like in the
two to three ton rings.

Speaker 7 (01:00:22):
Now any particular tonnage. Is it based on cubic feet?

Speaker 2 (01:00:26):
It's based on I don't know if you've heard me before.
It's based on the square footage. It is based on
the orientation to the sun, windows, things like that, and
of course the insulation on the sides and above, and
do you have an insulation above?

Speaker 7 (01:00:40):
Now, I was going to use either luon or a
way for board and then blow the insulation. I was
going to put a like an a little attic, a
scuttle hole in it to be able to get up
in there for obvious reasons, to check the roof for
any damages or leaks and things like that. I'm going
to put two gable, some my little gable events on
the side, and then some ground or some square vents
over my ease as well to get some draw up there.

(01:01:06):
So eventually I will do probably a blow in R
thirty naturally in the in the attic, it's a workshop,
it's not a home. That probably doesn't really matter that
forre efficiency.

Speaker 1 (01:01:15):
Right, Yeah, this is just about this is just about
keeping you comfortable and protecting your contents of the building.

Speaker 7 (01:01:22):
Yeah, and I do have trees, so it is a
wooded lot. So the building, the roof is in the
summertime is pretty shaded.

Speaker 2 (01:01:28):
That's that's good. It's good. But we can't use that
in the calculations because because your hurricane hurricane comes through
your gall I say yes, yeah, yeah, and you will,
like I said, I have that setup in or I
keep my motorcycle and it's uh, you know, you won't
regret it. It's so much better just going in there
knowing that you're a nice, cool place to work. Doesn't
that be perfect because you're working outside and you go

(01:01:49):
in there and you still feel great and same in
the winter you go out there at sixty two degrees, it's.

Speaker 7 (01:01:55):
Yeah, and if for some reason it's it's cooler like
in the spring. In the fall. I actually had gotten
two thirty six inch doors, so I've got a six
foot opening into the building, one and three course solid
lambing wood door. So it's not the cheap exterior doors,
but so you know, I can always open those get
a cool breeze in. You just got to keep an
eye on your birds and stuff trying to get in

(01:02:16):
of course.

Speaker 2 (01:02:16):
Sure, yeah, you wouldn't make me having that shop. Okay,
I want to be in that shop all day.

Speaker 7 (01:02:20):
All right, well, okay, what I appreciate all your help
on all these questions.

Speaker 1 (01:02:24):
You're welcome, good luck with everything.

Speaker 2 (01:02:26):
Thank you guys, Thanks, thanks for listening.

Speaker 1 (01:02:28):
All right, let's do Let's do Nate real quick, because
his text came in first. Again, it's a nineteen eighty
four house.

Speaker 2 (01:02:37):
All we got, All these.

Speaker 1 (01:02:38):
Nineteen eighty four houses this year are on these texts
that we're getting. Anyway, Nate bought a house that was
built home built in nineteen eighty four, has a tankless
water heater that's about ten years old. He said, it
seems to be working fine currently. But what sort of
routine matenance do you need to do on these units?
Those units are supposed to be flushed every year if

(01:03:00):
you live on it, if you have a well, maybe
more often than that. But if it's city water, they
what they want you to do is there's a there's
some ports on the bottom and some valves and you
basically you turn the water off and you're you're pumping
water through that coil in and out with with a
very mild acid. I think you can use white vinegar,

(01:03:21):
but I think they have a specific product that you're
supposed to put in there.

Speaker 2 (01:03:26):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:03:27):
What happens is the minerals will build up on the
inside of that coil and it becomes an insulator. Uh,
and then it's not as efficient. So the coil is
being heated around it from the outside, and so if
you start caking up the inside of the coil, you're
losing the efficiency of a tankless barnicles on a boat. Yeah,
pretty much has a great explanation of it. Sure is

(01:03:49):
where my brother Tim lived in Ohio. Uh, they had
so much lime in the water. He wouldn't even mess
with tankless water heaters because they would be they would
be jammed up in a couple of months. So, but Nate,
do get that checked out. Maybe the first time you
do it, you can get a video, you can buy
a kit and you can do it yourself, or you

(01:04:10):
could hire a plumber to come over there, let him
show you how to do it properly, and then maybe
from there you could buy the kid if you're pretty handy,
and you could just do it yourself. It's not rocket science,
but there is a there is a way that needs
to be done. So really, every year you should be
washed or renting out those coils on those tankless water heaters,

(01:04:32):
and for all the folks that have them that aren't,
you probably should do it because you are losing efficiency
on them and that's why you bought it, right, instant
hot water. All right, with that said, let's go ahead.
Let's get Jim to David.

Speaker 2 (01:04:46):
This is for you.

Speaker 1 (01:04:46):
Jim says, my HVA system is almost thirteen years old.
Each year I've had to add two to three pounds
of refrigerant due to what they are saying is a
leak in the coil, the inside the coil in the furnaces.

Speaker 2 (01:04:57):
I know, you know, Dave.

Speaker 1 (01:04:58):
They have a representative come out this week trying to
sell me a new system. Is it better to replace
the coil or get a new system.

Speaker 2 (01:05:05):
I don't think he's going to be able to replace
the coil because again, they're no longer manufacturing any that
are four ten equipment. It's not there. And the equipment
they do have they're holding for warranty customers. They know
what's in warranty, right, that's coming over the next five years.
They've got to hold it for the people who are
to warranty. Sure, but as far as you know, as

(01:05:27):
far as I know, and as far as what we
deal with, we can't replace just coils anymore. It's we
can't find them, right, just as hard it is also
to find equipment these days. It's it's getting better. But
he's probably gonna have to end up buying a new
outdoor unit and new evaporator coil with the new refrigerant

(01:05:50):
in there, whether it be R thirty two or R
four fifty four. B. You're gonna have to bite the
bullet on this. But you know, you say you're two
to three pounds a year, that's sick magnificant. That is
a pretty good that is. And by law, you are
not allowed to add refrigerant to a known leaking system, right,
that is not you know if you intentionally know this, right,
you can't add that refrigerant. So, yeah, unfortunately, he may

(01:06:16):
have to bite the bullet and get the evaporator coil
and the outdoor and if the furnace is at age too,
he may be looking at getting that furnish updated. Yeah,
go ahead and do the whole thing thirteen years old. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:06:27):
Yeah, so if it's a gas furnace, you get a
little bit more mileage out of them in the south
because correct, you're not running the furnace as much, right, correct,
But if you have to match the systems, it's a
lot tougher now.

Speaker 2 (01:06:36):
Right, Yeah, oh yeah, you have no choice. Whatever the
computer spits out, this is what you're using.

Speaker 1 (01:06:41):
This is what you have to use. So here we
go with that. Okay, hope that answers you guys question.
And uh, we're going to take a break here five
seven zero four five seven h eleven ten. You can
either call or use the WBT text line driven by
Liberty Viewing GMC.

Speaker 3 (01:06:57):
We'll be right back, all right, Welcome back. It's the
Home Depot Home.

Speaker 1 (01:07:17):
Improvement Show with John and Dave.

Speaker 2 (01:07:19):
I'm Dave Doval and I'm David Drew with North and
South Carolina Air.

Speaker 1 (01:07:22):
And this is the last segment. Look how fast it
went by.

Speaker 2 (01:07:25):
It's quick, it's done.

Speaker 1 (01:07:27):
And sorry for the guys calling in about all the commercials.

Speaker 2 (01:07:29):
Sorry, that's just how it works.

Speaker 1 (01:07:31):
You know, without it that you know, it would have
to be pay per view and you wouldn't get a view.
It's right, you just have to listen.

Speaker 2 (01:07:39):
But again, if they complain about the advertising, that this
means they want more of you, David.

Speaker 1 (01:07:45):
I don't know about all that, but listen to what
Tom says, Tom Tom from the from the WBT text
line driven by Liberty by GMC.

Speaker 2 (01:07:54):
Tom. Here was what is a what is a good
product to clean my air handler oils in the attic?
Okay one an HVAC contractor, Yeah, he can, he can
do it the mildest. We use the mildest product out there, right,
and it's it's typically like greener or low alkaline, very low.

(01:08:17):
I mean, some of these coils have so many specific
standards from the manufacturers that void the warranty. Right. What
I also suggest is buying a tablet, those drain pan tablets,
put one or two in there and let that help
keep the drains clean. But yeah, he could, he can
find a low alkaline coil cleaner. It's got to be diluted,
you know, I can't remember the age, like four to one,

(01:08:40):
and then he needs to rinse it down. But again
he's doing this in his attic, so he's either got
to pressurize something jug or get water or something up
there and there is no rents. By the way, I
should take that back. There is no rint coil cleaner
where he can put in a jug, close it down,
clean it. But he's only gonna be he's only gonna
be able to do the outside of that coil because
he'd have to take off the plates. You know, they

(01:09:00):
try and go play that keeps the air in there.

Speaker 1 (01:09:02):
Right to keep to get to get to the outside
or the inside of.

Speaker 2 (01:09:05):
The right inside, you know, and we can we can't
always even get to that because of the capillary tubes.
Too technical, but the capillary tubes that go in front
of it block that plate right, and you know, it's
all if you can or not get in there. It's
a great idea, but it's still we do that as
a maintenances. That's what. Yeah, that's so again.

Speaker 1 (01:09:26):
Earlier and I had told uh uh Nate about his
tankless water heater maintenance. You know, you may want to
call he We told Nate call plumber and then watch
him and let him show you how to clean it.
And then I think maybe Tom probably should do the
same thing here because it's too expensive if you screw

(01:09:46):
up right.

Speaker 2 (01:09:47):
Oh yeah, and by the way, if he's looking for products.
I know this like calgen, calgen and new bright if
that's what he's looking for names. Uh, But again there's
different grades. There's brown, which is really caustic, and there's blue,
and there's green, and there's an orange, and they are
have levels of alkalinity to them. Right so, right, because
that's what.

Speaker 1 (01:10:06):
Cleans off the the the fungus and the.

Speaker 2 (01:10:10):
And these coils are no longer copper. They're all illuminum.
They're illuminum, so nothing but illuminum. And therefore you know
how you know soft illuminum is right?

Speaker 1 (01:10:20):
So and then I think the other thing with trying
to clean your own coil is if you're if you're
if your condensation lines are not cleaned out, and you
dump all that water in there all at once, there's
a good chance you can overflow that and if you
don't have an emergency pan underneath, you could have a problem.

Speaker 2 (01:10:35):
And that's what he should be doing, if he wants to
do something productive, clean out that trap, the p trap
that's up there in the attic. I don't know if he
pupper gas, he pump will have a cap on it.
Gas will not once pause the pressure those negative pressure
and just clean it out and that'll help a lot.
But if he's he's gonna do it, he's gonna do
it right.

Speaker 1 (01:10:53):
Well, be careful if you do it, tom So. Uh,
there's gloves to use. Gloves, Yeah, absolutely, because there's more
to it and just slashing something on there. Make sure
you don't cause a bigger problem than you already have.
So and again, if you keep your filters clean in
your unit and you change it regularly, you're going to
have far less trash on your coil. It's not going

(01:11:17):
to get as dirty.

Speaker 2 (01:11:17):
Now.

Speaker 1 (01:11:18):
Of course, if your return line's not sealed, it's it's hard.
It's hard to keep it off of there unless you
have a furnace, a filter.

Speaker 2 (01:11:26):
Right at the furnace. Carr, by the way, is this
vintage nineteen eighty four? I don't know. He didn't say.

Speaker 1 (01:11:31):
It's a nineteen eighty four kind of day. All right, Hey,
let's get Russell in here while we still have time. Russell,
welcome to the program.

Speaker 2 (01:11:38):
How can we help?

Speaker 5 (01:11:40):
Well, thank you, Jenem, I appreciate it. My hot water
heater pressure release valve, it's five years old, the whole heater,
but about four months ago I replaced the valve because
it was leak. It would spit out about half a
pine of water every couple of days. So I bought
a new released the alt at Whole Depot and looked online.

(01:12:01):
Wasn't too hard, and I put the new valve in.
I lowered the temperature from one forty to one twenty
and now it fits out water still maybe every two
weeks I get about half a pinty. What's going on?

Speaker 1 (01:12:16):
It sounds to me, what's what's the setting?

Speaker 2 (01:12:18):
Is it a gas water heater? Electric?

Speaker 5 (01:12:21):
Electric?

Speaker 2 (01:12:21):
Okay? Is it? Do you know what it's?

Speaker 1 (01:12:23):
What it's turned up to?

Speaker 5 (01:12:25):
I turned it, well, I had turned it up to
like hot showers, but I thought that might be a problem,
so I'd put it back down to one hundred and
twenty degrees.

Speaker 2 (01:12:32):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:12:33):
So then the other thing that it could be is
is is there a tank on top of your water heater.

Speaker 5 (01:12:41):
An expansion tank?

Speaker 2 (01:12:42):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (01:12:42):
Yes, okay, yes, so we need to make sure that
that's working. It sounds it sounds like the pressure is
building up in the house, is what it sounds like
to me. How's how's your how's your faucets?

Speaker 5 (01:12:55):
It seems normal, I mean, and it's the community. I
live in the community is only five years old. Everything's
every house and talent home is pretty similar. So I'm
in the town of Matthews, in the city limits and stuff,
so it just seems normal. I guess I can't really
answer your question.

Speaker 1 (01:13:13):
Okay, So maybe one of the things that you could
do is they make a little a little ten dollars
twelve dollars gauge that you can you can buy and
you'll screw that on your outdoor. We'll faucet and you'll
turn that water on.

Speaker 5 (01:13:28):
Oh, we had a house, especially when bought the house
three years ago, and the gentleman said it was just fine.
It does eighty five pounds sound right to you.

Speaker 1 (01:13:37):
That's a little high the go by memory.

Speaker 2 (01:13:41):
But yeah, that might be just a little bit high.

Speaker 1 (01:13:43):
So if you have a pressure reducing valve on the house,
it could be going bad. So that can go either way.
When they go bad, it can either your pressure can
increase or it'll decrease.

Speaker 2 (01:13:54):
I would buy the device.

Speaker 1 (01:13:55):
That usually they're in the irrigation aisle at up depot.
Put it on your faucet or put it on a
laundry tub faucet to spick it outside is the best
place and and see see what you're see what's coming
in the house.

Speaker 2 (01:14:09):
All right, I think that might be.

Speaker 1 (01:14:11):
What it is, and you may need to dial back
your pressure reducing valve and that that would probably give
you some relief.

Speaker 5 (01:14:17):
Gentlemen, I thank you and I enjoyed listening to your show.

Speaker 2 (01:14:20):
Thanks.

Speaker 1 (01:14:20):
We appreciate you.

Speaker 2 (01:14:21):
Appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (01:14:22):
All right, Russell is gone and we're just about out
of time. Man, we got just a couple of minutes. Jeff,
I've got your I've got your text here, but I'm
not gonna have enough time to answer it because it's
it's it's uh pretty extensive, and I'm going to talk
to David about this. Send send me a note to

(01:14:44):
our website, questions at Askjohn and Dave dot com or
questions at Askjohn and Dave dot com, or you can
go to the website and just put your phone number
and then we'll give you a call about this and
and see if we can help you take care of that.
Dave wanted to thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:14:58):
Thank you for inviting me. We appreciate you. Thank you
very much.

Speaker 1 (01:15:01):
Do it again soon. Folks would have to remind everyone
that we believe that the most important kind of home
improvements is the one that makes your home a happier
place to live. Don't forget to work on that this week.
We'll see you next week right here on WBT

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