The Home Improvement Show 9-27-25

Tune in here for this 9-27-25 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 the impact of rain on home maintenance, especially when it comes to gutters, foundations, and lawn care. With storms rolling through the area, they stress the importance of inspecting gutters during heavy downpours to catch overflow, clogs, or water backing up against fascia boards that can cause long-term damage. 

They also explain how dry weather can crack clay soil around a home’s foundation, leaving gaps that allow water to seep beneath footings once rain returns—potentially leading to costly structural shifts. Beyond drainage, John and Dave share lighthearted stories about reseeding grass, neighbors’ yards benefiting from runoff, and even a unique solution where a homeowner built a concrete ramp around their house to avoid gutter

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
The Home Depot Home Improvement Show with John and Dave.
Pre set up, I tried pro answering your home improvement
questions every Saturday on News Talk eleven and ninety nine
to three w BT.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Good morning, everybody, Welcome to the Home Depot Home Improvement
Show with John and Dave.

Speaker 3 (00:19):
I'm John Gordon, I'm Dave Doval, David Doble.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Good morning.

Speaker 3 (00:23):
How are you bye, my friend? How about you?

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Everything's good, Everything's good.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
A little rainy this morning, yeah, here too, waiting on.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
I guess these storms to move through.

Speaker 4 (00:32):
I didn't pay attention to the radar or anything, but
gonna be wet.

Speaker 3 (00:38):
But we need the rain, so yeah, we do. We
need it here spend I don't know a month month
and a half really since we've had any real rain.
I think I think maybe before Labor Day.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Yeah, I guess we had a really rainy July and
in early August, and then you're right that everything just
shut up. So well, it's that time of year where
folks are getting grass seed out and stuff like that.
So rain, a good soaking rain, not one that like
washes everything away, would be well.

Speaker 3 (01:09):
And that has been. Uh that's the way it's been,
which is nice because it's a big joke at our house,
is that. And I plant I use bermuda, so you know,
you do that in in May, and usually every time
I do it, it ends up. My neighbor's yard is
beautiful down there down the hill. It's always a gully

(01:31):
wash washer as soon as I shoot. That's what Gene
always says. She says. She says, yeah, you must have
put out grass seat because it just monsoon through here.
I was like, yep, thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
I think two ways to get rain and my neighborhood
like you'd wash your car. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:46):
He doesn't like to cut his grass either, so he
really doesn't like me for it.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
I don't think he's not grateful.

Speaker 3 (01:53):
No, oh well it's all good.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
Well it is good. It's all good, lots of good
stuff going on. Always love call so dial us up
at seven o four five seven eleven ten or text
us up at seven four five seven eleven ten on
the WBT text line driven by Liberty Buick GMC. Those

(02:17):
are ways again, you can always go to ask John
and Dave dot com, click on the questions button and
send us stuff that way. I've got I don't know,
but probably fifteen or twenty different things that have kind
of bubbled up over the week, and and we'll just
tackle them as they go. We're I spent a lot

(02:38):
of time out at the uh we affectionately kind of
give a nickname to each of the like like we
do this a lot. But this is the double clunk.
So we've been out there. It's a nod to doctor Seuss.

Speaker 4 (02:53):
And so getting stuff done out there.

Speaker 2 (02:56):
I've been staying at it done.

Speaker 3 (03:00):
I looked at one the other day that a friend
bought that's that he bought for their They bought for
their son, and they had a really good deal. I
guess it was a good deal. But I spent about
an hour with them walking around looking at it, and
I broke their heart.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
But oh yeah, like.

Speaker 3 (03:19):
I'm sorry, I'm just being honest.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
Yeah, it's you got well. Barba is the same way. Like,
so if you're going to do this, you get a
house that's not in the best shape right, right, and
and then you fix it and you sell it, and
you try to avoid major, major structural things, right. But
even on this one, we enclosed, we encapsulated the crawl

(03:42):
space and made some structural changes underneath, just because it
needed to be taken care of, right, But yeah, she
walks in and she's like, man, we sure know how
to pick them. And I'm like, well, thank you, because
that's the idea.

Speaker 3 (03:56):
Well this is this is rebuildable. But I think the
folks that were in it before or had done a
lot of things that were probably not not supposed to
be done, and so they I think they had envisions
of you know, adding no in the upstairs because somebody
had already put a set of steps up to the attic,
and you know, there was termites, evidence of termites, and

(04:19):
it was just I was like, you need to see
you guys. So anyway, anyway, say little prayer for him.
He'll be fine.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
It's all good. So let's see. I didn't do anything
to like to prepare in the sense of thinking about
seasonal transitions yet. So most of what we've got here
is just kind of like the routine things that we
see a lot given all the rain coming. One of
the first questions on the list was like, I don't

(04:52):
know is if in Charlotte you're seeing it, I know
where we are. There just seems to be an overwhelming
number of ads for gutter protection. It feels like every
time you turn around, there's there's somebody on, you know,
on the TV or the radio talking about gutter protection.

Speaker 3 (05:12):
This is their time.

Speaker 2 (05:13):
Yeah, and so it makes sense.

Speaker 4 (05:17):
But the question that came up is like, how do
I know if I have gutter issues.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
And or if there's problems with my gutter.

Speaker 4 (05:27):
The I think we've always talked about the best way, although.

Speaker 2 (05:30):
Your neighbors probably think you're nutty, is when you're get
in just one of those gully washer downpours of rain
is bust out the umbrella and go walk the house
and see what's going on with it. If you've got
you know, water overflowing the gutters, then something you know
downspouts are clogged up and and you got to get

(05:51):
at it. The other thing that I think, David, is
the big problem with gutters overflowing isn't I mean, if
it runs over the front, it can create erosion. If
you've got red clay, it could stain brick siding and
stuff like that. None of that's good, but it doesn't
cause structural issues. It's when the water gets back behind
the gutter and starts hitting facia, framing members of the

(06:14):
roof and stuff that things get ugly, and if you've
got leaves in the gutter, you can see sometimes you'll
see like little leaves or debris between the back of
the gutter and the facia sticking out, hanging down whatever.
That's usually a pretty good sign that water's going the
wrong way. What else, what else should folks look for

(06:36):
for that?

Speaker 3 (06:37):
Well, I think you said it. I mean, if it's
raining pretty heavy, you would just want to identify and
make sure that the water is coming out of the
down spouts because that would tell you that you're potentially
clogged or something's going on. So make sure that, you know,
make sure the water's exiting, and then you know, make
sure that it's extended out far far enough away from
the house. It's it's not going to be a foundation

(06:58):
issue because that's the last thing you need is water
piling up, you know, And we just talked about that
about how dry it's been. So if you if you
really go out and look at your yard, you'll see
that it's probably cracked and split open. Well, it probably
is a gap all around your foundation as well. Get right, yeah,

(07:19):
because this clay shrinks and then when it when it shrinks,
then it leaves a void between the foundation of the
house and the footing, So that allows that water a
direct path down underneath your footing. And then you know,
and that's what you don't want, because you don't want
that dirt to get soft. And with all the weight

(07:40):
that's sitting on top of it, now your house can
get shifting. Now, yeah, it'll start to shift a little
bit easier. So it's a good thing to have it away.
Now I have to share this with you. I was
coming out of a neighborhood a couple of weeks ago,
and I've been through there multiple times in the last
several years. But this house they had poured essentially like

(08:01):
a three foot ramp off of their brick house that
adjoins there all the way around it, and so they
have no gutters, And so what they're doing is they're
allowing the water run off the roof and hit this
concrete and then and then run away from run away
from the house. So and the yards that the yard
is full of big trees. So I'm sure they're sick

(08:22):
of trying to clean the clean the leaves off of
the gutters or out of the gutters. So I'm assuming
that's what they're what their deal was, but they had
their foundation vents were marked out or or or formed out.
So I was like, okay, I mean I guess it.

Speaker 2 (08:37):
Works because there's no hoa there.

Speaker 3 (08:40):
Uh yeah, well I think they do have one, but
I don't know if it's that intense.

Speaker 2 (08:44):
So hmm interesting. All right, we got to take a break.
Let's do it seven oh four five to seven eleven ten.
Give us a call or a text, and we'll talk
about your home improvement questions. When we returned to the
Home Depot Home Improvement Show with John and Dave, Welcome back, Exepard.

Speaker 3 (09:30):
I'm Dave Doval.

Speaker 2 (09:32):
Let's talk.

Speaker 4 (09:33):
We're at seven O four five seven oh eleven ten.
Seven O four five seven oh eleven ten. Give us
a talk, give us a call. Well, chat about what's
important to you. We've got lots of stuff to go
over here.

Speaker 2 (09:45):
We'll try to oops have a different computer screen this morning.
All right, I think I might have bats in the attic.
Well you should check that out and see. I guess
I think here's how I'm interpreting this, David. I don't

(10:07):
want to go up there and look, but I'm pretty
sure I got bats in the attic, Like I mean.

Speaker 3 (10:11):
I don't just make that up, right, I understand.

Speaker 2 (10:14):
So you must have seen something hanging, like maybe they're
hanging on a gable vent or something.

Speaker 3 (10:18):
I don't know, or they hear something.

Speaker 2 (10:21):
Yeah, could be I mean, if you see bats, I
guess hanging and you hear seven the attic, it could
be there. I don't we We had a caller a
week or two ago, maybe it was last week, maybe
it was before I ended up sending her a link
to the ultrasonic has there's there's all. There's several out there,

(10:43):
and I remember we got the feedback from one person
that said, hey, it wasn't working, and so I got curious.
I took it apart and it was basically just like
a red light inside of a box. It was like
truly snake oil. Right, it was just a hoax. Yes,
And I forget which one I said, but there are
there are several that I've seen a good tests on.

(11:05):
I think, isn't isn't that the only thing we've really
found short of calling a animal control person out.

Speaker 3 (11:11):
Well, yeah, and you have to because they're protected, so
they I think what they I don't know if they
physically remove them or if they I'm not sure how
they get them out. You know, I've read several articles,
small articles about building a bathouse for them, which I
think is nothing more than a couple of pieces of

(11:32):
plywood separated by two by fours and you leave the
bottom of it open, and I think they go up
in there and hang. I don't know if you put
cup hooks.

Speaker 2 (11:43):
Or I think. I think what you do is you
get like a spotlight and you put a big bat
symbol up in the sky.

Speaker 3 (11:51):
Ah, and you think about that.

Speaker 2 (11:54):
Yeah, yeah, they come out. That's disrespectful. So but I
do think you probably want to check, like, I don't know,
who would you check to make sure that.

Speaker 3 (12:07):
You don't well, I think all these the wildlife removal,
critter control, there's I mean there's several there's some brand
names there I think too. But uh, but someone that
that handles that. So people that come and get squirrels
and raccoons and snakes and all that stuff will come
and come and help you, and they'll and I think
along with that, they find the entry point and they

(12:30):
shut that down. But now you've got to remember you
have to be careful because if they've been in there
for a while, I think the dried guana is uh,
is that what it's called? Something like that?

Speaker 2 (12:43):
That stuff, that bad stuff, craziest bad stuff.

Speaker 3 (12:48):
Anyway, it's not good for your lungs, so uh. I
think once it dries out and if you disturb it,
it becomes airborne. Yeah, and of course you're an attic,
so there's a potential for some wind or what not
to be blown through there.

Speaker 2 (13:03):
So plus if you got any leaks or anything in
return vents that's coming into the house, right, I mean
small amounts, but over a period of time, it's probably
not good. All right, what are you going to do?
Do the do? Get it out? So critic control or
our animal control is probably the best bet. You can

(13:23):
try driving them out with the ultrasnic. I feel like
I read somewhere that that actually was worked. They use
echo location. I think is is you know, to navigating
stuff so that maybe I don't know that that may
be effective or maybe it's ineffective. All right, seven O
four five, seven eleven ten, that's the number.

Speaker 4 (13:46):
Checking the time here, We're good.

Speaker 2 (13:49):
How can I measure PSI for a house for the
water in the house. Not sure what the motivation is,
but it's pretty easy right, just get a let me
hit your local home depot or home improvement store and
and get one of those little gauges you put on
the spicket.

Speaker 3 (14:10):
That's it. That's the best way on the outdoor spicgott now.
And and most houses are not divided. Some sometimes the
outdoor hydrants are are separated from the indoor. Maybe they
have a regulator on the house, but they don't regulator.
Maybe they have a different regulator for the outdoor outdoor

(14:32):
hydrates or spickets. That's what we did because we wanted
to keep that pressure higher outside. And of course, yeah,
it's much easier when you're building the house to do it.
But but yeah, so you would basically just screw that
that gauge on there, and it tells you what your
what your p s I is. And I think we
talked about this a couple of weeks ago, that you

(14:54):
could actually buy a pressure reducing valve a PrV that
has it built in. And if you if you get
the situation where you have to replace yours or you
have the plumber coming out, you may want to go
ahead and have them change that and have them add that,
because then and then you have it. And I can't
believe somebody doesn't have one that's Wi Fi as well already.

Speaker 2 (15:15):
So maybe they do, we just don't know about it.

Speaker 3 (15:17):
Yeah, very possible. And if not, somebody just made millions.

Speaker 2 (15:21):
They're getting ready to right, All right, let's talk to Carl. Carl,
good morning you each other? How are you?

Speaker 3 (15:27):
Hey? Good morning morning. How can we help?

Speaker 5 (15:31):
Really appreciate you. I really appreciate You'll show. I listened
to it every Saturday that I can.

Speaker 3 (15:36):
Well, we appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (15:37):
Thank you.

Speaker 5 (15:40):
So our son just had an addition put on and
in the adding on to that, they put a gas
water heater in his utility room, which is in his garage.
And what they did was they just ran a flu
on it that came up from the water heater and
then went ahead at almost horizontal to the outside wall.

(16:03):
And he he couldn't really use that because it really
blocked off half his utility room. So they came back
out and used a flexible blue it looks like a
single wall flexible like a dryer or something. Ran it
up for about three feet and it's just it's all

(16:25):
vent up and it kind of forzontal now into a
wall uh thing going outside and I told him I
didn't think that was acceptable, and I was wondering what
you all thought.

Speaker 3 (16:40):
We are you're talking about aesthetically or or the actual
the actual duck that you're talking about is probably stainless
steel and it and it is. They do make those
for exhaust. Uh, for a direct vent furnace that's probably uh?

(17:01):
Is it? Is it a fan assisted?

Speaker 2 (17:05):
Do you know?

Speaker 5 (17:06):
There's there's no no one ten going to it at all,
So it's definitely just a gravity.

Speaker 3 (17:14):
You know, Yes, it can't ever, it can't ever be
totally horizontal. It has to if it's if it's acting
as a what they call b vent, it's not. It
has to have some pitch because you don't want you
don't want that water. You want that water vapor as
it condenses in there. You don't want it to lay

(17:35):
in that pipe. Was it inspected?

Speaker 1 (17:41):
You know?

Speaker 5 (17:42):
I really don't. This is actually in career, and I
don't hold much for the inspection department to be honest.
Uh won't be untill the final but you know, it
really wasn't the original work, so you know whether or not, yeah,

(18:02):
probably not, probably not. If you can picture this, it
goes up and then you know so it does go
vertically kind of abstract because it's you know.

Speaker 3 (18:13):
Sure this stuff means or whatever.

Speaker 5 (18:15):
Right then it kind of goes for as atal them
back down and then totally upside down, and then it
you know, swiops to go to the event, you know.
So yeah, it's just I couldn't picture it really actually
even drawing.

Speaker 3 (18:28):
Yeah, that's that's a problem. You well yeah, well, and
you'll have some issues with the water here for one.
But I would. I mean, he's going to have to
hire an independent plumber to come out there and take
a look at that, just see what see what's going on.
Now he could take some pictures and see if you
can send them to the to the inspection department and

(18:51):
ask them, uh that that that may be something, and
you may call them and they may they may come
out there. I don't know if there would be a fee,
but I would. I would do that. The good news
is it's in the garage, so right, it's not you know,
it's probably not going to affect him too much in
the house, but still you don't want carbon monoxide building
up in the well.

Speaker 5 (19:12):
That's what I told him, you know, And I and
I hate I threw up a red flag. So of
course his you know better half, you know, she's concerned.

Speaker 3 (19:20):
About it as not sure.

Speaker 5 (19:21):
I said, you know, it could be a carbon monoxide issue.

Speaker 3 (19:24):
And yes, absolutely, yeah, it's probably not drawing well.

Speaker 5 (19:26):
And there seemed to be an avenue to go up
through the roof. I told him why. I don't understand
why they just didn't go straight up to begin of it.
But right, anyways, that's kind of what I thought.

Speaker 3 (19:35):
Yeah, okay, it really wouldn't work that way. All right,
good enough, Well let us know how it works out.

Speaker 5 (19:41):
Very good, Thank you very much, Thank you.

Speaker 2 (19:43):
Appreciate the calla thanks you too. All right, we got
to slide away for another break. Seven O four five,
seven eleven ten. That's the number. Give us call and
give us a text. We'll talk about and return to
the All Deep I'm Improvement Show with Times eight. If

(20:14):
you welcome back, it's a Deep all the print tiller
John and Dave.

Speaker 3 (20:18):
I'm John Gordon, I'm Dave Doval, and it's time.

Speaker 2 (20:22):
For our Home Depot Product of the Week. I've been
kind of sitting on this one because I saw it
in our product review or at the product review back
in March, and I just kind of wanted to get
some time under you know, out there and stuff like that.
But David, this is it's life proof flooring. So it's
called max Core. Uh. It's waterproof vinyl flooring. So it's

(20:47):
got the click lock like LVT. Right, that's twenty two mil,
and it's it's in like the large format like instead
of you know how you get you know, the plank stuff, right, Yeah,
this is this is twelve inches wide by twenty four
inches long, and it you get it looks like large

(21:10):
format tile. I'm pulling up one example of it. There's
a bunch out there. I like this one because it
does really look it's it's it's pretty crisp looking, but
it gives you all the benefits of an ease of
installation of the flooring. It gives you a large format look,
and it's waterproof so you can use it in kitchens,

(21:31):
you can use it in bathrooms. It's got a twenty
two mili ware layer. So that's I mean that used
to be rated twenty twenty was I think a lot
you know for some commercial applications and stuff like that.
And it's about three three eighty eight a square foot,
say four dollars a square foot. So that's it. That's

(21:51):
it's max Core Tarra travertine, click lock Vinyl waterproof flooring.
Check it out max Core Terra Travertine. But there's a
whole bunch of that's there's a whole bunch of different styles.
Check them out online or in your store. All right,
let's keep rolling here. Put that back down, and let's see.

(22:14):
We talked about p S I the other when if
you've got like a laundry room faucet and you want to,
like David, we were saying, hey, maybe the outside spicketts or
outside hose bibs are are different on a different line
or or not may or may not be, you know,

(22:34):
through a pressure reducing valve. You can go to the
laundry room sometimes and typically a laundry room faucet will
have a hose threading on the end of the spout
versus you know the usual and and so you can
screw it right on there. This is another another place
you may be able to do.

Speaker 3 (22:54):
That, right of course, of course, it's it's evolved to
the pullout hose. A lot of the newer ones are
so and I actually have we have a we put
a laundry sink in the garage, and I had taken
a faucet out of a job that was that was
going to be the customer didn't want and I kept
it and it has a it's a really nice pull

(23:16):
out and it's the tall neck. So I'm going to
adapt it to uh, to our laundry sink. But uh,
but yeah, that used to be all almost all all
laundry faucet's had a place to put a hose on,
which was pretty convenient.

Speaker 2 (23:31):
Yeah. Yeah, Now we went for style versus.

Speaker 3 (23:35):
Well, I think it because it gives you You do
get a hose, so and I and we have one
on the existing one, but it's not very long. And
still if you put a bucket down in there, I
don't know. I just I just think this is going
to be a little bit better for us.

Speaker 2 (23:50):
There you go, all right, here's uh. My floors are bouncy.
I presume that means that when the house was built,
they just took the span for the floor joist to
the max and you probably have some sponginess in the floor.

(24:14):
The dishes in the China cattle cabinet rattle when you
walk by things like that. You can reinforce those joists.
I think, what, what are your recommendations for that?

Speaker 3 (24:31):
Well, I've been using a company. This happens to us
a lot when we uh would go in and when
you remodel a kitchen. A lot of times if there's
not an island, or maybe they expand the island, and
then you're gonna put a big piece of stone on
top of it, and so will will we will go
ahead before we get started, before we load the floor

(24:53):
up and have the guys come in and there there.
Most of the time they've been putting these smart jacks in,
so they pour foot they dig footings, poor footings, they
have these jacks, these smartjacks, and then they use a
piece of four inch steel. Now you can also do
this with you can build masonry piers, you can pour footing,
build masonry piers, and then they can put traditional lumber

(25:16):
on top. It's just what we find with used in
the four inch steel and the jacks is that it
doesn't take up as much room, and especially if it's
an area that you have to crawl underneath regularly. A
lot of times, by the time you put a drop girder,
you really cut that space down that you can get.
You can get through to do work in other parts

(25:37):
of the crawl space, especially if there's a furnace or
something that they have to go by there, and then
in the future if they have to take it out,
then drag the and drag the furnace out. You know,
you don't want to have to take down your drop
girder to be able to get it out. So and
of course if you did, if you did have to
remove these smart jacks and the beam, it wouldn't be

(25:59):
as it wouldn't be as much work to do. It
still would be some work, but anyway, but essentially you're
putting this beam, whether it be of wood or steel,
perpendicular to your existing joist, and and they will jack
it up and and and I'm saying that because most
likely if if it's if you're getting that kind of bounce,
it's probably the t G I. S oh okay, you

(26:21):
know it's the ply wood. It has a two by
four on top of two by four in the bottom
and a piece of os B standing up on edge.
And it looks like a capital I from the end
before it's installed and eye joist correct and and so
you know that is that's pretty common in most of

(26:41):
your track built homes now, especially for if it's on
a cross space, so they do maxim usually they maxim
out as far as they're allowed to go, and then
you'll get that you get that vibration in that bounce.
I mean that was it's easier on the knees and ankles,
I think. But yeah, not a consolation though, right exactly,

(27:04):
Well you have to bell crow all your china down,
that's or oh, never mind, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (27:14):
So it is. Yes, it's one of the things. It's
actually interesting. I put these two questions together just because
I felt like they were related, because the other question
that was out there was how much how much can
I cut out of a floor joist before it's problematic?

(27:38):
So we got like fifteen seconds before a break. So
I guess let's take our break and then come back
and we'll talk about that, because there are situations where
you have to do some things if you're remodeling or
running plumbing or changing stuff around, but you can make
a lot of trouble if it's done incorrectly in in
structural components. So let's take our break and then we'll

(28:02):
tackle that when we get back. Folks, we're at seven
oh four five seven eleven ten. We can call us
at that number, or you can text us using the
WBT text line driven by Liberty View of GMC, and
we'll answer your questions when we return from these important messages.

(28:39):
Welcome back. There's a whole big goble Prevent show with
John and Day.

Speaker 3 (28:42):
I'm Johnny Gordon, I'm Dave Doval.

Speaker 2 (28:44):
Seven four five.

Speaker 4 (28:46):
Seven eleven ten. That's our number. Give us a call.
We'll talk about your questions. David, we teed up.

Speaker 2 (28:54):
The question before the break there on alterations to floor joys.
So I'm not sure what the scenario here is, but
maybe running adding a bathroom, running new plumbing, moving uh
in a kitchen room model, maybe moving the position of
the sink, or adding an island sink or something on

(29:15):
that order. And a floor joist is in the way
the the tjies that you've talked about or the eye
choice that you talked about, and then there's also tjis.
There's there's several different versions of trust trusses. What really
is really the ideal solution it is? I agree in

(29:35):
every way it's a little more expensive, but anyway, but
you've got floor joists. Uh. The let's just take this
in order like a a TJI or an I beam
unless you're using one of this, some of them have
a place for a punch out where you can it's

(29:55):
designed that the load will be distributed correctly if you
knock it out and run your plumbing that way. If
it's just a conventional floor joist, I don't know what
the rules are about what you can do with that, if.

Speaker 3 (30:08):
Anything, do you well, yeah, so you can. There's certain
places done a floor joist that you're allowed to to
drill holes for pipes, okay, and it's they're very specific
and it's not always where you think it is because
the load's on the end, so you have to be careful.

(30:30):
But there is a chart available out there and you
can easily pull it up on the internet and it
will let you know what you can notch and what
you can drill. But it's it's pretty it's it's it's
it's pretty restrict pretty restricted. It is because it's it's
it's designed. You know, your joist are designed to carry

(30:50):
a load. And uh, normally, normally when you build a
house or when a house is designed, the engineer goes
through that and heat they place the toilet so that
it doesn't hit on a joist. So and if it
does hit on a joist, they box it out and
they headed off. It's what's called heading it off. Uh.
So there's there's uh, there's not a lot of room there.
So you have to you know, it has to be

(31:13):
pre planned and you have to to know where it's at.
So the the carpenters are going to lay out the
joysts because and there will be a certain amount off
of the wall and they know where it needs to
be because if there's a toilet, which is the largest
pipe in the in the house, that's carried carried everything away.
So there you go. And then uh, like you said that,

(31:33):
the eye joys are specific. You can only punch holes
where the where normally where they have them blocked out.
But again there are some there are some uh some
rules that allow you to drill bigger holes. We ran
some four inch pipe a flex pipe for an exhaust
fan through. We added a bathroom into a house last year,

(31:57):
into an existing area and it was TG or eye
joiced upstairs. And then after we read about it, we
found out where we could where we could actually put
these four inch holes and it had to be so
far off of the bottom and so far from the end,
and that was it. Uh And so even printed out
in the paper that told us for that size joyce

(32:21):
where it would go, and we taped it on the
wall so that the inspector would have it, and of
course we also sent it in that's part of the
file of the permit.

Speaker 2 (32:30):
Got it. So as we're talking here at Don's something else.
It's coming back to memory for the eye joice And
I can't remember if I got this terminology right, and
it might just be feeled jargon, but I feel like
with the with the eye Joys, the there were things
called squash blocks, and they they were a piece of

(32:54):
two by four blocking that that went between you as
you defined it. You know, if you look at the
end file of it or like cross section, it looks
like a capital eye. And so this would be this
would get nailed and fastened to the two by four
on top and the two by four on bottom either side.

(33:14):
And I feel like they used to have to put
those where there was going to be a load bearing
wall in some scenarios or something. Does that? Am I
remembering that? Right?

Speaker 3 (33:22):
Yeah? They're they're there very well could be if it's
running perpendicular to the to the joist right, So if
you're if you're loading up on top, then they'll stack two.
They'll put two eye joys side by side if it's
running parallel and sitting above it.

Speaker 2 (33:40):
So you got that with right and that. But if
it's perpecting, yeah, So the only reason I bring that
up is with if it wasn't eye joys. We're in
the in the bouncy floor scenario, wondering if a squash
block would help that.

Speaker 3 (33:52):
It'll help some, It'll help some because sometimes it's not
actually bounce. Well it is, it is bounced, but what's
allowing it is that the eye joist is is twisting
out at the bottom. So as you as you load it,
as you put weight on top of it, if you
were underneath the house, you would see it and it
would kind of twist out to the left or right

(34:13):
as you as you walk across it. It's strong on
top because you have plywood that's normally nailed and glued,
which you know supposedly is for the for the squeaks,
but it adds a lot of strength to it. So
but don't don't cut into him. I saw a video
and you know the big. The big thing is these
zero clearance showers, right, so no curb and you could

(34:36):
do it. We've done a bunch of them in the past,
but we end up taking the entire floor out of
the bathroom and it gets reframed and you're using thicker
joist or doubling or whatever the engineer tells us we
need to do. But I saw a guy cutting those
those eye joist and then adding a two by four
back on top of it, and you know, I don't

(34:58):
I don't know if that video is still up. But
that's the kind of stuff you you have to be
be care You have to be careful of that's not
you're not allowed to do that. You cannot alter a trust.
You can't alter eye joys beyond what uh you know
what the what the rules say. So if you go
beyond that, you have to have an engineer.

Speaker 2 (35:18):
Yeah, so really you're you're calling an engineer because if
you had to cut something with an engineer, you can,
you know, you can, sister Joyce. There's just other ways
you said, heading it out, you know, yes, no, there's
it's probably the most common way that it is. So
there's a lot of solutions. It's not like you're okay, done,

(35:38):
but you really want to get somebody that can do
the math for you.

Speaker 3 (35:42):
Right And if and if for some reason you come
across something and it's it is over drilled. I mean,
most of the time that stuff is just what we
talked about. It's overspanned and you know, and loaded on
top with too much and that causes problems. But sometimes
things get drilled out by accident, you know, maybe somebody
doesn't know, oh you know, somebody new in the business

(36:02):
or a helper or whatever. But they do make some
Simpson strong tie brackets and and different things that you
can put back in if if someone was to cut
a hole in the wrong place. But but an engineer
normally can come up with a fix, so you don't.
Most of the time you don't have to go in
and take the whole floor system out. I think probably

(36:24):
worst case scenario would be if someone did something to
a joyst you would have to go in and do
what we were talking about earlier and install drop girders
on either side of where the damage was done to
the to the eye joys.

Speaker 2 (36:37):
Right, okay, And and and that also in certain scenarios
could be part of the plan, right, where you just
add the drop.

Speaker 3 (36:46):
Girder and and well, and a lot of times that's
the way it is. That that's the way these guys
repair a lot of these band joys. So if you uh,
it's notorious for for the older dirt filled porches for
the to rot, then sell out the main band that
holds the front wall of the house up to rid
out because water runs back in there. And that's exactly

(37:08):
what they do is they drop back three four or
five feet and they'll set piers and they'll build a
new beam to hold up the joist, and then they'll
take out those those cut off joys to replace the
band and then add the joyst back which will overlap
over top of the the beam that they've installed that
drop girder. So it you know, it can be done.

(37:30):
It's just it's hard work and it's expensive work.

Speaker 2 (37:34):
It's expensive work. Yeah, and it's it's it's expensive because
it is hard work. And then in the crawl space,
it's just in a really obnoxious scenario. You're right, you're
trying to dig with a short handle shovel or or
something on.

Speaker 3 (37:46):
That order, so you drag everything in there. It's just
it's just heavy hard work.

Speaker 2 (37:50):
It's difficult, all right, We're gonna take a break for
the top of the hour. Here, We're gonna go ahead
and slip on out. Give us a call though, get
ready a seven four five seven eleven ten by phone
or seven oh four seven eleven ten by text using
the w two text line. Because of my liberty view
of GMC. We'll answer your questions when we return to
home people on the improvement show. What's on to day.

Speaker 1 (38:48):
The Home Depot Home Improvement Show with John in Day
pre Center by try Pro answering your home improvement questions
every Saturday on News Talk eleven ten and ninety nine
three double.

Speaker 2 (39:02):
Welcome back, everybody. It's our number two with a home
Deep Home Improvement Show with John and Dave.

Speaker 3 (39:06):
I'm John Gordon, I'm Dave Doval.

Speaker 2 (39:09):
Let's talk at seven oh four five seven eleven ten
or text us same number. He's in the WBT text
line driven by Liberty buick GMC text lines are slow
this morning. Last week we kind of got all fired
up out there. Gives shout. We're happy to h well,
happy to take a call, good day to sleep in.

(39:30):
Yeah it is. I had some serious thoughts I did.

Speaker 3 (39:33):
I did too, but then I thought, I'm not gonna
leave my buddy hanging.

Speaker 2 (39:37):
Thank you for that.

Speaker 3 (39:40):
Not that you couldn't handle it.

Speaker 2 (39:42):
It's just more fun certainly better for the listeners. All right,
this kind of you were talking David before the break
about situations where maybe flooring structural members got altered beyond
what would be good or acceptable, and you made reference

(40:03):
to Simpson's strong tie that that group is just absolutely
amazing with the kinds of engineering stuff that they come
up with. You could really geek out looking at that catalog.
But I bring that up because his next question is
about a post, a deck post for a handrail that's loose.

(40:28):
So it's come loose, it makes me believe that it's
probably not. It's probably attached to the framing in some way,
but doesn't go down into the ground and sit in
on a concrete pad with concrete poured around it. So
it's probably attached to the choice or to the header

(40:49):
joists in some fashion. And now it's loose. What do
you do? There's some there's some old fashioned ways I
guess to do to fix that. The first question I
have is is it through bolted. It's been a while
now that they've changed the code probably probably twenty plus
years at this point, but I believe in Mecklenburg County

(41:11):
a post like that has to be through bolted with
five eights or larger galvanized lag bolts or carriage bolts
correct well.

Speaker 3 (41:21):
And I think now you're allowed to use those, uh
those structural screws okay, like as wells or yes, timber
timber tech. I think someone was a brand name. But anyway,
they're they're thinner, but they're they're high strength screws and
they they they drill those in and you don't have
to pre drill them. I don't think, no you don't.

Speaker 2 (41:41):
I've been using them a lot.

Speaker 3 (41:43):
Yeah, they have a I mean they come with the
price tag, but you pay for the you're paying for
the screw on on the front end. But it's it's
it's the labor, they speed and peace of mind. Yeah,
it truly is. And so I think the other thing
too with with posts is when you the other the
other part of that code is that you can't you

(42:04):
cannot notch a four by four anymore and set it
over the side. So it used to be that's what
they would do, is they would notch it set, set
it over the decking and then down the front, or
they may cut the decking around it and have it
go through the back be fastened to the back. But
you have to leave that a four by four post
as a as a rail. It has to be full

(42:26):
four by four. You can't cut them. And then the
other way that you strengthen them is that you you
not only can bolt it to the band of the
deck on either the outside or the inside, but you
you if you run, if it's on the inside, if
you will run a perpendicular blocking back or another block

(42:46):
beat behind it and then bolt it through because now
it's fastened at more places two directions. Yes, and and
that's that is the ideal way to secure a post
and make sure that it's not that it's not going
to come loose.

Speaker 2 (43:02):
Then if that is all I don't know, baffling whatever
not that this would be an easier but Simpson's strong Time,
I believe makes a fastener that'll do exactly what you said.
It'll give ways to fasten that post in two directions.

Speaker 3 (43:22):
Right, Yes, And it could be just a simple angle
right bracket or strap.

Speaker 2 (43:27):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (43:28):
They make all kinds of stuff. I don't know if
you've seen this, and you've probably been around it, but
you know garage around a garage door is a big deal. Now,
how you fasten, how you fasten the walls down to
the foundation. It used to be it just wasn't a
big deal. It used to be they just nailed the

(43:49):
walls down to the to the foundation or the slab.
But now they have to be strapped or bolted. So
they would put straps in the masonry and then when
they build the walls, you you would spread these straps
out and wrap them around the bottom plate. So this
garage that we're working on right now, the doors is

(44:11):
one oversized door for RV. But it has a special
bracket that has a bolt that goes down into the
foundation fourteen inches now and it comes up and it
goes through. But this this bracket has a hole in
the bottom of it for a five eighths bolt that

(44:32):
gets a nut and a washer on it. But the
strap on this bracket goes up about about sixteen inches
and it has I don't know, probably twenty or thirty
holes in it, and that has to be fastened to
the king studs that back up the jack studs, which
are what the header sits on, so in other words,

(44:53):
it ties that whole assembly, and then at the top
it has a special strap that goes across the header
from the plate down below the header and through the header.
So they're really starting to pay attention to that stuff
because those are the weak points of of these buildings
and that that you can have a lot of damage
with heavy winds. So you know, I would, I would.

(45:19):
I don't know that. I'm assuming it could be tore
off of the foundation, but man, I would not want
to be around the storm that does it. I'm telling
you it is something else the way it gets fastened down.
And there's there's several hundred dollars uh in just in
materials for for these specialty brackets to tie all this down.
So you know, when you're looking at the blueprints, you

(45:41):
don't want to miss that kind of stuff because it
can get expensive pretty quick. You know, it cuts into
the profit if you if you got to buy it
and you didn't figure it in.

Speaker 2 (45:49):
Yeah, yeah, there's not tons of margin to start with, right,
So that's that's good. I didn't I didn't realize all
of those changes had taken place with coastal stuff. There's
always been.

Speaker 3 (46:03):
Yeah, it's always been tougher down there.

Speaker 2 (46:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (46:05):
Well, the whole house is bolted from the top to
the bottom. They have threaded rod.

Speaker 2 (46:09):
You have a through bolt literally or a an anchor
bolt that literally goes through the top plate.

Speaker 3 (46:15):
Yes, bolted right, yes, and then you and then of
course you tie your your all your roof rafters are
tied down to the plates with straps as well, so.

Speaker 2 (46:25):
It's built to last. As they say, let's let's not
start another question. We're going to take a break. We're
at seven oh four five seven by phone or by text.
Give us a call for a text and.

Speaker 4 (46:40):
We'll answer your home improvement question when we return to
the Home Depot Home Improvement Show.

Speaker 2 (47:14):
Welcome back wnt's Home Improvement Show with John and Dave Ran.
It's Home Post Homo Provement Show, a Town of Day
or something like that. Give us a call, give us
a call or seven four five, seven eleven ten, and
we'll talk about what's what's on your home improvement mind.

(47:36):
Let's see we didn't do oh this is mm hmm.
There's a there's a solution here, but man, it's not fun.
My driveway is pitched toward my overhead door. So they
probably came to that conclusion. During a rain storm, there's

(47:57):
all the water ran to and probably through the overhead door.
It would be my guess, right, what's the solution.

Speaker 3 (48:08):
Well, I mean a lot of people don't like it,
but the best thing, if it's if it's if it's
a severe problem, is to to buyas yourself a trench drain,
and you saw cut the concrete and then you set
this drain in in the in the concrete and then
you you will tie a pipe to the end of it,

(48:28):
and that'll be the end of it. That's that's it
will carry the water away. Kind of creates a little
bit of a maintenance issue because from time to time
you'll have to pull the grates off and and and
clean it out. But but it will stop that problem.
And the beauty of that is John, is you can
set those in in the concrete and then along the

(48:50):
edge where you make the cut, you could just use
like a like a siccaflex, so you could put a
backer rod in there in a cecaflex and then you
essentially you glue it in place. Because the last thing
you want for the water to run through, uh between
the between the drain and the concrete and then and
then sat yeah, yeah, saturate the dirt underneath, and then
it's gonna settle and you're gonna cause a lot of

(49:12):
other problems. So that's that's generally the best way. I
have seen a couple of times where uh, water was
running towards it, or small puddles, and they would snap
some lines. They would mark that area with some some
with a crayon while it was wet or where the
puddle was, and then they would take after after it

(49:35):
dries up, they'll snap some lines and they take a
concrete saw and they'll they'll cut some grooves in the
concrete and run, yeah, and try to run that back
to a lower spot or to another expansion joint and
let that water, let that water run out. Normally, they
do it kind of in a decorative way. So if
you only had if you had a low spot on
one side, they would cut the same the same cut

(49:58):
on the other side, and it looked, Yeah, so it
looks symmetrical, and it looked more like like it was
intended to be there.

Speaker 2 (50:06):
Can you can you add like a stamped concrete or
something to change the grade of it and cause the
water to run somewhere else.

Speaker 3 (50:16):
It depends, Yeah, pretty quickly, it depends, and you can
there's there's coatings that you can apply to the top
of concrete. And you saw that. I think you had
the guys on from uh. Uh, I can't remember what
who's the Uh you had somebody on one time when
I wasn't here. It sacrine and uh they were doing

(50:36):
the toppings. Talked a lot about the topping mixes. So
if you have room, you can apply those a little
bit thicker. And you know, as long as you can
control it, then you can. You can shed water that
way too. But if it's severe, if it's a severe
slope to the garage or the waters running that way anyway,

(50:57):
then then you have to you just about have to
put a trench dring in. And it's not as bad
as it It's not as bad as it seems because
you really already have one joint is cut. So that's
the where the concrete ends or meets the apron of
the gage, the apron of the garage correct, so that
that would be you know, that would be it's it's
I'm not gonna say it's an easy fix, but it is.

(51:18):
It is repairable and it and it doesn't look bad.
Those drains do not look bad at all.

Speaker 2 (51:22):
No, they go flush and and they've got a stainless
steel typically grate on top with some fasteners that go
down to hold it in place. And it and it
really isn't You could probably even with a blower, prevent
like major major clean out times just by blowing it out,
you know, when when things were dry. So it's and

(51:44):
it's not bad. It's not bad at all. You can
pressure wash, just might careful not to pressure wash sludge
down the drain and and and end up clogging your drain,
right right, But well that's good, all right? Yeah? Is
there a reason to go eight inches on center versus
four inches on center for a labatory or bathroom faucet?

(52:08):
It's purely appeal. I appeal aesthetics, isn't it?

Speaker 3 (52:12):
It is aesthetics because generally, for for a DA Americans
with disability, you're looking for a lever type handle, which
you you can order widespread and get a lever on
either one. But I just think it's easier. I just
think it's easier if you have one center handle. For me,

(52:35):
That's the way I look at it. Here's here's my
big deal with it. It's already kind of a pain
to have to clean around a faucet and clean around
the back of it. When you do widespread, now you
have two handles and a spout, so you just you
just created more work for yourself and more place sports good.

(52:56):
I know, I know, but and well and and that's
the thing is that it's I always tell people, I said, well,
those are for people that don't the for for the
areas you don't use, so you just want them to
look good. You just want to look at like a
powder room. But I think for everyday use, the convenience,
I think the convenience of it outweighs the statics. That's

(53:19):
just that's my thought now, you know, and I'm sure
there's people that are going to disagree with me, and
that's fine, but that's just my opinion. And I just
like to bring that up so people will think about
that first and and and then that way the decisions made.
Because I got no skin in the game, I'm just
telling you what I'm what I've been around and what
I've seen. So if you like the widespread and that's
what you want, by that's what we're gonna do so

(53:42):
you're paying for it. I'm gonna do it for you.

Speaker 2 (53:44):
So your wishes are my commands.

Speaker 3 (53:46):
And there you go. But my bill just want to
give them all the information. And you know, the widespread
stuff costs more. It takes more time to install it,
and and of course you have you have more holes
to drill in the in the in the in the
grit surface, solid surface. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (54:02):
Yeah, some of the cultured marble, even some of the
granite tops, uh will come. I think one of the
products of the week's products of the week a couple
of weeks.

Speaker 3 (54:13):
Ago had widespread I heard you say that.

Speaker 2 (54:15):
Yeah, eight on center. And again the appeal to that
is aesthetic.

Speaker 3 (54:20):
Oh oh, and it looks I mean it does look fabulous,
don't get me wrong, But I just always go back
to that. But that's that's that one time look because
you're probably not even going to notice it after six miles.

Speaker 2 (54:33):
So you know what's funny is we're sitting here talking.
We have been in this house a year and a half,
and I had to stop and think, I'm like, how
are the faucets on my bathroom? Saying configured? Right? Like
what are I? And I right? The second. I can't
tell you whether they're eight or four, I will tell
you that their lever is they're not just you know

(54:54):
one right, but but I have to go look.

Speaker 3 (54:58):
But a lever is that's the that I'll handle it
from here. So that's the but the but the smart
move is to use lever handles if you're doing if
you're doing something like that, just so and and what
that means is so if you lose the opportunity of
their ability to to use your hands openly, you can
use the back of your hand to open and you

(55:20):
can pull it with without having to grip something in turn.
It especially you know, if you and it could be
something as simple as arthritis or or whatever. Not to
discount it as being simple, but I just think those
are the kind of things that you have to think about.
And then I'm I'm always thinking beyond the actual remodel
is that you know, you have to live with it
every day after that, do you keep it keep it simple?

(55:43):
You know you can. You know, I'm also a chrome.
I like chrome. It stands the test of time, It's
easy to take care of, and it doesn't discolor, it
doesn't change, you know, unless you do something crazy and
put acid on it or something, you know, And that's
always my first choice. That's what we did in our house,
and I don't think my I don't think Gina was

(56:03):
thrilled about it at first, but I think she appreciates
it now.

Speaker 2 (56:06):
Glad she's there now. Yeah. So I feel like when
we studied universal design, the litmus test was to close
your fist, clench your fist. Could you still turn the.

Speaker 3 (56:21):
Water on and off or open a door knob.

Speaker 2 (56:25):
With a clenched fist. I'm just grateful for the lever
because I don't use my fist. I might use trailing
portions of my anatomy and not have them trail for
a second and get the door open.

Speaker 3 (56:41):
Well, if your hands are full, or if you're if
you grocery bags in your hands, or your hands are
covered with something that you don't want to get all
over the faucet or the door, it is handy, uh
you know, and then of course you know me. The
other side of it is is that when you have
that loose shirt hanging out and you go buy that
door or hooks on there. So I like to always

(57:04):
remind people that that's always a possibility to one of
the reasons that they had you close up the the
handrails on your stairs is that they're supposed to be
a return back to the wall exactly for that reason,
so that you don't get hooked and it caused you
to fall or trip down the stairs.

Speaker 2 (57:21):
Yeah. Ever since we've spoken about that, I've paid attention
to it. And there's a lot of non compliant handrails.

Speaker 3 (57:27):
Oh yeah, absolutely, And of course a lot of that
stuff's grandfathered in. But if you remodel code yeah, yeah,
So it's not a bad idea, it really is not.

Speaker 2 (57:35):
No, it's good, Okay, good stuff. Here's a question, what
are the best hinges to use for a wooden gate?
We have let's see, time wise, we have less than
a minute to do that. So let's wait till after
the break to tackle that one. Because there's a couple

(57:57):
things to think about. There's there's the hen and then
there's where you fastened and how you fasten it to
the gate exactly. There's a lot that goes into actually
doing it correctly, and so we'll we'll tackle all of
the elements of that excellent question when we come back.
You can call us at seven O four five seven

(58:17):
eleven ten or text us at the same number seven
O four five seven eleven ten using the WBT text
line driven by the Liberty View at GMC, and we
will answer your text questions, your calls, and.

Speaker 4 (58:30):
Much much more when we return to the Home Deeper
at Home Improvement Show with John and Day.

Speaker 2 (58:54):
Welcome back to the Home Deep homey Provement Show with
John and Babe.

Speaker 3 (58:56):
I'm John Gordon, I'm Dave Dovl.

Speaker 2 (58:59):
We're at seven old four or five seven eleven ten
by phone or by text. It's time for our Home
Depot Product of the week. We're gonna look at max
Core Tarra travertine. It's click lock vinyl waterproof flooring. Basically,
the reason I like it it looks awesome, but LBT

(59:20):
and the click lock flooring has come so far over
the years as far as how it looks. The reason
I like this one is it's large format. It looks
like large format tiles, and so each tile is like
twenty four inches long and twelve inches wide, so you
don't get the kind of fake I don't know, print

(59:41):
seem whatever. It looks like legit travertine tile floor only
it's vinyl and it's waterproof. It's six milimeter thickness and
I think a twenty two mili. It has a twenty
two mili ware layer. So don't quote me on the
commercial ratings and stuff like that, but like twenty mil

(01:00:01):
used to be, I think what they was acceptable in
a commercial application. This is twenty two mil, so it
resists stains, it's coded to be protected against UV. It's
just an awesome looking flooring and it's very very durable
and very very easy to install. And it costs about
three eighty eight four dollars a square foot, So perfect

(01:00:24):
for bathroom, kitchen, mudroom, places like that where you really
want to have a crisp and an elegant look without
all the headaches of ceramic tile, although I still love
ceramic two. All right, that's it. That's our Home Deeper
product of the week. And let's see where we were
talking about hinges for a gate. I think right, yes,

(01:00:47):
so it says what are the best hinges for okay,
a wooden gate. It's all physics, right, so you can
say the more the greater the air. Yeah, you can
spread over which you can spread the weight, the less
stress you have on the you know, the bearing points

(01:01:09):
and it lasts longer, it works better. I just did this.
I used a t hinge because I didn't have room
for a strap hinge. But isn't a strap hinge again
from physics perspective, because it's long in each direction the
better way to go.

Speaker 3 (01:01:29):
I think it is because I think it spreads out
the forest or the weight on the on the on
the hinge itself an over a larger area. And I
think the other thing it does is that when you
do a t hinge, you end up on the on
the t hinge actually has a strap on one side,
right and then the block the rectangle on the other.

(01:01:49):
Think about how how much closer your screws are together, right,
you know, on that one point. But regardless of of
what you use, you have to play ahead because sometimes
you're forced to use a t hinge as you were
right John, because you didn't have a place for the
other strap of the hinge. So so when you when

(01:02:10):
you build a gate, or you're framing up beside a
post that's going to have a gate, you have to
you have to decide what kind of hinge you want
to use, and then you frame accordingly so that you
have something to fasten the hinge to right.

Speaker 2 (01:02:26):
Right exactly In the gate that I just did, I
had to use a two by six ripped down, you know,
on top and bottom. But but that gave me the
advantage of having being able to step up a size
and the t hinge.

Speaker 3 (01:02:45):
Yes, and that is the other The bigger the hinge,
the better off you're going to be for the gate.
So I mean even I always try to go oversized
on the hinges just simply because of over time, you're
gonna get some sag. It's gonna loosen up a little bit,
you know, unless you put the whole gate together with
screws and glue.

Speaker 2 (01:03:07):
Well yeah, so so there that let's go there because
this is I just added this right from that first question.
So hinges are good. Make sure you use the right screws.
I screws will come with the a galvanized screw. If
it's an exterior hinge will come with the you know,

(01:03:27):
the strap hinge or the t hinge or whatever. I
don't believe that they're always.

Speaker 3 (01:03:32):
Long enough, right, I agree.

Speaker 2 (01:03:34):
Right, And so if you're attaching a t hinge to
a four by four, you have three and a half
inches plus the thickness of the you know, the hinge,
don't just put the galvanized screws that come with it
in Step it up, yeah, and put a you know,
inch and a half two inch screw in there, right,

(01:03:55):
and it doesn't hurt anything. It doesn't come sticking out
the other end. If you're going into a two by
five framing member, you have one and a half.

Speaker 3 (01:04:02):
Inches to play with, exactly.

Speaker 2 (01:04:04):
And so step up the size of those screws.

Speaker 3 (01:04:06):
And even the not only the link but also the
diameter because you can always almost always drill it out
just a little bit more. And that's what we did.
We would use lag bolts right a lot of times.

Speaker 2 (01:04:19):
Simpson has awesome little packages of lag bolts all the
way up to like three eighths of an inch or
something like that anyway, or you can just get regular
lag bolts for that. Then the thing that I added
is like making sure that the gate is square and
stays square. Right, And so we have fifty five seconds

(01:04:42):
before our final break. So let's hang on that topic
because it's not hard to do. But if you take
a little bit of time on the front end and David,
as you say, kind of planet, how are you gonna
make the members, the styles and rails, if you will,
for want of a better term of a gate, remain square,
get them square, and then keep them square. It takes

(01:05:04):
a little bit of work and a little bit of planning,
and then you don't have to worry about it. So
don't go away. We're gonna we'll talk about that and
any topics since you have. If you call us at
seven oh four five seven eleven ten, or text us
at that same number using the WB two's text line
driven by Liberty View at GMC, we'll come back and
talk about your questions.

Speaker 6 (01:05:24):
Well, they return to the All Deep Hoholme The Provement
Show with Johnny.

Speaker 3 (01:05:42):
B Your Emergency Situation Station.

Speaker 2 (01:05:50):
Welcome back. It's the whole Deep Home The Provement Show
with Johnny Eve. I'm Johnny Morton.

Speaker 3 (01:05:53):
I'm Dave Doval.

Speaker 2 (01:05:55):
Seven O four five seven eleven ten. That's the number.
Give us a call, give us a text. We'll talk
about your questions. We were talking about gates, hanging gates
and then keeping a gate that you make yourself square.
It's it's really not hard, David, and I don't know.
I'll let you correct me. I've done it several times

(01:06:15):
and I use pipe clamps and a speed square. Yeah,
just to make sure that my right angles are all square.
Once I've got them, you know, I make the cuts
the size I need to do. You use it a
you know, a chops a or something so you get
a nice clean, even cut. And then place some you know,

(01:06:37):
place the framing members. I just placed them on the ground.
Get the speed square in the corner. Got you got
ninety degrees ninety degrees above. Crank the clamp tight, and
and now everything is in place, you know, all four corners.
What what I have done that seems to have worked
is I'll use the big heavy duty like three inch

(01:06:59):
by three inch or maybe it's four inch by four
inch right angle brackets that are one and a half
inches wide, so they're exactly the with the thickness of
the framing members of the gate. And then I use,
as you said, those big lag screws. There's usually two
holes in each leg or each you know, each leg
of the angle, and then holes I use the smaller

(01:07:20):
ones to hold everything in place, and then pre drill
and drive the the big you know that are going
to hold permanently those angles in place. And while you're
square there's other versions that you can use.

Speaker 3 (01:07:37):
There's triangle makes one that I'm sorry the triangles. There's
right that you then fastened to the face.

Speaker 2 (01:07:44):
Exactly, and and I chose not to do those in
most applications because there's not a spot for a big screw, right,
and I like the big I like, I just feel
like that biting you know.

Speaker 3 (01:07:58):
Well, yeah, And I think the key to those is
when you when you use those the triangular braces that
go on the corner, so they're surface mounted, your screws
are closer to the ends of the boards, right, Uh,
so you have more chance to split. So you really
need to make sure that you pre drill or really
you would, you would you would actually use a through

(01:08:20):
bowl and countersink the nut on the side that the
that your slats or your fence was going to actually
be nailed to. So there's and it's just a lot
more work. So the l brackets that you're using are
actually ideal.

Speaker 2 (01:08:34):
That's that's kind of what I've done, and it seems
to have been successful keeping its square long term. That
construction methodology should do that. But if you want to
be if you want to add some additional to it,
you can.

Speaker 1 (01:08:48):
Buy a.

Speaker 2 (01:08:50):
Like a turn buckle type application words, piece of threaded
rod with a turn buckle in the middle of it,
and you fasten that and then just tighten it and
it kind of draws, you know the way it's it's
it's a lever and full crimb scenario, right. Sure weight
is pulling down. So if you fasten that threaded rod
to the top portion closest to the hinge and then

(01:09:12):
the bottom portion of the gay farthest from the hinge,
you can carry that weight back to the framing member
and prevent the thing from.

Speaker 3 (01:09:21):
You'd be surprised how how many times I see that backwards?
Oh really, yeah, the turnbuckle backwards.

Speaker 2 (01:09:28):
So yeah, you got to think about it for a second.

Speaker 3 (01:09:31):
Yeah, you do, you know, I mean, and it's important
that you use that top hinge because the gate is
the gate door is normally going to sag. Same thing
with a lot of screen doors, right, you know, the
same thing. And you talk about a great way to
square up a fence. I saw a at the beach back.
I can't remember when we went down there earlier this year,

(01:09:54):
but around the swimming pool where we were staying, they
had the vinyl you know, the vinyl slat privacy fence
all the way around it. But you could tell that
they had problems with the gates coming apart. And what
they had done was bought a piece of sheet PVC
and then fastened it with white aluminum screws on the

(01:10:16):
inside of the gate. So they squared the gate up
and then and then fastened the PVC panel.

Speaker 2 (01:10:21):
To all the piece all the pickets, yep, and the.

Speaker 3 (01:10:24):
Frame and the frame and it and it was secure
and uh, it was. It was. It was smart.

Speaker 2 (01:10:30):
Yeah, that's not going to change. That's not going anywhere.

Speaker 3 (01:10:32):
No, that's that's a permanent fix. I mean you if
you could do the same thing with the gate, but
but you would have to use treated plywood and it
would delaminate unless you unless you wanted to add PVC
to it.

Speaker 2 (01:10:42):
There's one other thing you could do in place of
that turnbuckle threaded rod that I spoke of. You can get,
if it's esthetically and space uh possible, a piece of
one by four, just like wind brace in a framing wall.
You can you wouldn't let it in, but you can

(01:11:04):
just cut the angles correctly and then screw again using
hefty screws. The top of the one by four into
the same positions as the turnbuckle would go right, so
the the high end is closest to the hinge, the
low end is farthest from the hinge top to bottom.
And then screwing that one by four into place, now

(01:11:25):
you've got you add the rigidity of four inches or
three and a half inches. Again, as long as your
screws are done correctly, you're you're probably not going to
get racking in that appen.

Speaker 3 (01:11:35):
Right, and you keep the weight down And that's that's
key because sometimes I see it two by six or
something on there. Well, you've you've put a wider piece
of wood, but you've added quite a bit.

Speaker 2 (01:11:44):
Of while weight if you're in treated lumber. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:11:47):
Yeah, So you want to try to you want to
try to keep it as light as possible, because you
know you're already it's already it's already you know it's
already hanging out there off of the hinges.

Speaker 2 (01:11:57):
So it's working against you just from from the did
you hang it?

Speaker 3 (01:12:00):
And I think one more thing to add to that
is the post that the hinges are on is the
is probably one of the most important posts, uh that
you install. So you want to make sure that you
get that in the ground full depth that you can
with with concrete on it. And then that's the post

(01:12:20):
that's adjacent to that, uh, that's on that hinge side.
You want to make sure that one's in the ground
and strong. And then you're relying on the the two
by fours or two by six is whatever you're using
to tie that tie that all together. That gives you.
That gives you a lot of strength.

Speaker 2 (01:12:37):
Boom done. Okay, So that's a lot to talk about,
but it's if you just take a second, it's it's
not difficult.

Speaker 3 (01:12:46):
Well, that's that's what we that that planning ahead a
little bit and and thinking about that because that will
save you a lot of aggravation down the road if
you do those things when it when a fence is
going in.

Speaker 2 (01:12:56):
Yeah, because because then you go to swing the fence
and it oops. I don't have you know, I haven't
done this correctly.

Speaker 3 (01:13:02):
Yeah, Now I got to add a wheel exactly I did.

Speaker 2 (01:13:06):
I confess I used it. I wanted the bigger member,
but to your point, I didn't want all the weight
of to treated two by six is as the horizontal
framing members, right, So I ripped them down and got
the space I needed for good hinges, but also took
you know, a third of the weight off of each
framing member.

Speaker 3 (01:13:25):
So right, well, and if you have a if you
have an oversized gate, there's nothing wrong with adding a wheel.
As a matter of fact, it's encouraged. And they have
a spring loaded wheel so that as you as the
gate swings out and gets further away from where it
latches or if it's uneven ground or whatever it will,
that will drop down and you'll have plenty of support

(01:13:47):
to carry that gate. So pretty smart. Really something to
something to think about if you're adding a something over
a four foot gate, That's what I would do.

Speaker 2 (01:13:54):
There you go, there, you go, So all kinds of
good stuff. And my bet is that if you went
out and you know, to YouTube or one online to
said hey, how do I build a gate? You would
find two thousand, six hundred and fifty five point three
different iterations of how to do what we just talked about.
So I say go for it. It's good stuff. Great questions,

(01:14:17):
all right, we are what a minute and a half away,
a minute away from from wrapping up, so there's several
questions out here. We're gonna We're just gonna leave them
for next week. If you've got questions and our show
is over, send us a note at Ask John and
Dave dot com. You can go you can go to
Ask John at Dave dot com, click on the questions
button and send us something that way, or you can
go to just Questions at Ask John and Dave dot com.

(01:14:38):
Send us question and we'll tackle it that way. Folks,
thanks for being with us this week. We love we
love having this time together. We also love to remind
you each week that we think that the most important
kind of home improvements that you can make is the
one that makes your home a halfs your place to
live in. So I forget to work on that project
this week, and we'll see you next week when we'll
return to the Home Depot Home Improvement Show with Johnny

(01:14:58):
Day

Speaker 4 (01:15:01):
In Sea