December 14, 2025 • 45 mins
In this hour of "At Home with Gary Sullivan," Gary discusses home improvement and maintenance tips for the winter season. He shares advice on how to prepare your garage for cold weather, including checking for gaps in the garage door and installing weatherstripping. Gary also talks about the importance of maintaining your home's insulation and preventing water damage. Additionally, he addresses a listener's question about heat pumps and their limitations in cold temperatures. The hour wraps up with a discussion on wildlife control and the importance of sealing entry points in your home.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Well the weekends upon us. Welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
You're at home with Gary Salvin talking a little home improvement.
Glad you could join me as we shot about maybe
issues you're having around your home. Our phone number gets
you through is eight hundred eight two three eight two
five five. I know, trying to motivate you on a
maybe a morning like close to the holiday and cold
temperatures in many parts of the country with snow cover
(00:56):
is a little challenging, but I got plenty of things
to keep you busy. See, you're just talking about maintaining
our floors and types of floors depending on the weather
that you know, survive a little better, and how to
keep them. I do love the line that someone it
has been thirty five years when the fellaw said to me, Gary,
carpet doesn't wear out, it just ugly is out. I
(01:18):
love that line. And when you talk about weather like
this and what you can be tracking into your home.
The person that told me that saying had been in
the carpet business for a long long time his whole life,
and he is spot on so other things that we
can kind of take a look at, maybe think about
a repair, maybe maintain different things in the house. I'll
(01:42):
start in the garage, A good time to do. Seriously,
if you got temperatures in single digits are below zero,
I always try to look at what the temperature in
that garage is.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
And I don't think i've ever seen my garage built
twenty six years ago. I don't think i've ever seen
it where the garage was, you know, below freezing or
even freezing. I think as cold as I've ever spotted
it was thirty nine degrees. Now it's a more not
modern home, but I remember the garage doors. They were
(02:21):
close pey, but they weren't the top of the line
clo pe so they had some insulation in them, but
it wasn't like a euthane liquid eurethane insulation that was in.
There's panels, foam panels inside between the two pieces of metal.
And I don't think my garage has ever got below,
like I said, thirty nine degrees. But here's a little
(02:43):
test if you if you got some cold weather, and
a lot of times we have brilliant blue skies after
a snow or some real cold cold temperatures, that's why
it's cold because there's no insulation clouds or insulation right,
stand in the garage and just look at your garage
door from inside, looking out the doors down. So what
(03:07):
are you looking for, Gary, I'm looking for light. If
you got a really sunny day and you stand in
a garage and you look at the garage, you'll see
or you will not see light penetrating around the sides.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Of the door or.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
The bottom of the door. So modern garage doors and
not so much older garage doors which were really not
ensulated very well and not really weather stripped. I mean,
so you're going to see all kinds of light. Then
you need to think about maybe doing something about that,
(03:47):
maybe getting a weather stripping kit for garage doors, maybe
getting new garage doors if they're rule, and you want
to maybe utilize that garage with a workshopper there you know,
some activity if you will, and you certainly weren't warmer
than it is. But also so when you look around
(04:08):
the sides, if you see light coming in between the
door and the frame, it's probably not it's probably not
weather stripped, or the weather strip was torn over the
years and never replaced. And the weather stripping on doors
is basically a frame with about an inch and a
half piece of vinyl that sticks out and runs down
(04:31):
the framing of the garage door, so it's sitting tight.
Just it's not an insulator. It's just kind of blocking
the wind and you know, the cold temperatures from coming
straight into the garage, so check for that. As far
as looking at the bottom of the garage door, if
you see light penetrating in there the seal, do you
(04:54):
ever pay attention to that it's vinyl. I've always amazed
the clop Pey garage doors. They used the same seal
that they've used since nineteen thirty five. Isn't then amazing?
So it's not like you got to get the model
in the year of the garage door. You can just
(05:15):
get that seal. I would take it out at first,
or at least a sliver of it and take it
with you. But I replaced my not long ago, and
it was a close pay door, and it was amazing.
When I started doing the research. It's like they're all
the same, and a big box store had it, told
me what al it was on, and I just went
(05:36):
and grabbed it and installed it.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
It was that easy.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Now, sometimes it can be a little challenging. You got
to clean the tracks, you got to warm the seal,
you might need an extra pair of hands to change
out that seal, or maybe we have some additional problems,
because there's always additional problems, and that is maybe the
slab has settled a little bit, so on one side
(06:05):
of the door touches the other side does not. There
are different thresholds you can get for garage floors. There's
also vinyl concrete mixes that will attached to existing concrete
where you can build it up a little bit. But
if you see a lot of light coming in at
that bottom of the sides, think about correcting that. Because
(06:27):
if you think about this, what is the difference of
the air in the garage? If it's let's say it's
not weather stripped at all, maybe it's not an insulate
in that garage is thirty degrees, minds forty degrees. Maybe
yours is fifty degrees. But that's a big difference in it.
(06:49):
I mean most of the garages about the house right,
Maybe there's insulation in the walls going into the house,
so they're treating that as an exterior wall. Maybe there
is not, so it could be an area where you're
introducing a lot of cold air and if you take
(07:10):
the time to find out if there's an issue, and
you can tell if that wall has got insulation or not.
There's probably some outlets in there or maybe a hose
bib coming out. It's not you know, really dry wall
around that very well, and you can you can actually
get in there and feel or see if there is
any insulation in that wall. But you know, if you've
(07:32):
got a temperature on the garage of thirty degrees and
mindsetting at fifty degrees, there's there's a lot colder air
that's going to infiltrate your house than my house. And
right now I don't know exactly what the temperature is
in the grush, but as coals i've ever seen, it
was thirty nine. That's why I say, if you just
kind of pay attention to that, there might be something
(07:56):
you know you want to change there. And then once
we get rid of whatever winter debris you have in
your area, and I'm talking you know again, the salts
and the ice meler and the residue from that, once
it gets above freezing, sweeping and flushing that driveway and
the garage floor. I like to say it's imperative because well,
(08:19):
I think it is important. I think it is imperative
that you get that off because once it gets dampened again,
it becomes it's a definite assault on that concrete. It's
going to challenge that concrete. It's going to soak in.
It's a corrosive mixture of moisture and salt, and it's
(08:41):
going to do what they call spawling, which is popping
that surface, that concrete off. So you know your little
visit in the garage is not going to be without purpose.
And again, if you're in a house and you know,
I'm not saying you're hoarding, but it's a storage erry
(09:02):
area for your home. And I know this is a pain,
but it's one of the It's actually one of the
tips I do a morning show tip, and it's going
to be one of the tips I use. This Thursday
is when we have, you know, Christmas and gift giving
time of the year. We add more stuff to our homes,
(09:24):
we look for more places to store stuff.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
I think we all are challenged by that.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
And again, if the garage has become your collection point
for a lot of that stuff, it would behoove you.
And again, if you have an insulated garage door and
it's above forty degrees, you could do it now. If
it's real cold, you're probably not. But going through in
just kind of cleaning it up and organizing and deciding
(09:55):
this needs to be kept, this, this needs to be pitched,
This needs to be donated. Start with three small stacks.
Regardless of what you're gonna do to your garage, just
get it organized. And then as you receive a gift
or two, maybe you've got to give that some thought
(10:15):
of executive where that's going to be stored.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
But if you can get that garage.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Organize warm weather stripped, it's going to save you money
on your energy bill. Also, all right, our phone numbers
eight hundred eight two three eight two five five will continue.
You're at home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
Help for your home is just a click away at
Garysullivan online dot com. This is at home with Garysullivan.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
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(12:22):
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(13:18):
If you'd like to join us, do so. Our phone
number is eight hundred eight two three A two five
five And uh. You know one of the things we've
talked about all fall, and it is the fireplace maintenance
and repair of that I know I'm talking a lot,
a lot about maintenance, but it is so critical. And
(13:42):
by the way, if you miss Beth Harper talking about
home insurance and how important maintenance plays, you can get
that podcast. It's on the iHeart app or wherever you
get your podcast. It's at Home with Gary Sullivan. Danny's
got it listed and really talks about in a lot
(14:02):
of cases, insurance always used to kind of got looked
up if you had a problem. I mean, just throw
it to the insurance and they took care of it.
Insurance doesn't work that way anymore. I mean, you've seen
the storms you've seen and I'm not a show for
the insurance company. It's just they're a business, right, and
(14:23):
they're betting things won't happen, and you're covering yourself in
case they do happen, and so the odds change right
depending on damage over the years, and that's kind of
really what's happening. Insurance companies looking at homeowners with insurance
and they're going hold on. You know, the part of
(14:45):
the sighting on this house was opening up and nobody
ever nailed it back together and cooked it. And it's
not my fault that there's a nest of raccoons in
the attic.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
Oh, that's kind of a change.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Some insurance are doing that, some insurances aren't doing that.
My point being is the whole thing is shifting to
is the damage caused by lack of maintenance or was
it an incident that was kind of out of the
homeowner's control. For instance, here's an example. You have a
(15:22):
frozen pipe and the pipe splits, so now you have
a leaky pipe and it's dripping through the ceiling. That's
kind of an incident. But if you don't shut off
that water, and now it's a really big incident. Is
(15:42):
that going to be covered?
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Anyway?
Speaker 2 (15:45):
If you want to check that podcast, do so. In
the meantime, we're going to talk to Reggie.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
Reggie, Welcome, Hi Gary Holiday.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Thank you, Sarah, same to you.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
Yes, a couple of years ago, I had a American
standard heat pump installed. I don't know that heat pumps
are your area of expertise, but I thought i'd ask
you anyway. Okay, something peculiar happens when the outdoor temperature
reaches zero degrees fahrenheit. My outdoor compressor, it shuts down
(16:25):
the indoor temperature of the house drops three degrees, at
which point my heat strips and my electric auxiliary kick
in bring the ambient indoor temperature back up the three degrees.
So it's where I keep it at seventy four and
(16:48):
then that electric furnace, those heat strips continue to heat
the home until the outdoor temperature rises a few degrees,
at which point the compressor kicks back on. Is that
operating correctly as far as you're understanding.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Yes, yes, So a lot of heat pumps, and really,
to be honest, when that was sold to, whether it
was you or the previous homeowner, that should be explained.
So a heat pump is really good, but it has
its limitations, and they're really designed to shut off between
(17:26):
probably zero and five degrees. Now, the efficiency of your
energy usage in your house just went squat, right because
you were heating it with a heat pump and now
you're heating it with a giant toaster. So if it
kept run, the compressor kept run, it's probably caused some
(17:47):
damage to the compressor itself.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
So that's why it switches.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
To emergency heat. And I used to always call it
I forget. I had a heat pump, probably in the
early to mid eighties and there was a little I
think it was a blue light or a red light.
I can't remember. When the electric went on the heat
pimp went off, this little light would go on, and
I'd call it the red light special because so you
(18:16):
know it was special. But yeah, that is, you know,
that's I'm not going to say heat pumps are just
designed a warm weather climates. I mean, you know where
you're at, that probably happens, maybe not even every year,
but I mean it could happen every year, but may
not have also happened for five years.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
But that's exactly what they do.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
Yes, Well, I'm in southern Indiana and I'm told I'm
a little too far north for a heat pump that
I would be better served if I lived in southern
Kentucky or even Tennessee. Let me ask you this, as
far as the cost effectiveness is concerned. You know, I
put hand to paper and I've thought about getting a
(19:03):
high efficiency gas furnace to use in conjunction with the
heat pump, like a lot of people do. Right, right,
I can't really justify the cost.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Well, that's got to be a question, and based on comfort,
I mean, sure it's going to be a hit to
install that and justifying the cost is you know when
you get this bill in the comfort factor. All that together,
listen if you have a follow up question, Reggie, sit tight.
You're at home with Gary Sullivan.
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Speaker 1 (22:17):
All right, you're at home with Gary Salvan.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
Thanks for joining me. When we were talking to Reggie,
he was talking about a heat pump and the compressor
shutting off around zero five degrees and the electric furnace
kicking on. And I said, oh, so you're heating your
home like a like a toaster, because that's what it's like,
and electric is the ribbons of heating elements, right, And
(22:42):
he gets hot in a blow or blows the hot
air through the house, and he was getting ready.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
We got.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Short changed by the break, which we can't do anything about.
But I was hoping he held on because he was saying,
why I did an analysis of a cost projection on how,
you know, maybe switching that furnace out to a high
efficiency natural gas versus the electric and I just I
(23:10):
can't justify that. I said, well, you know, maybe after
you get the heating bill on this electric one, maybe
you can justify it. Here's the real issue, and that
probably wasn't a fair answer. That's why I'm talking about it.
Here's the real issue, the electric The real issue is
the cost of electric versus the cost of gas. So
(23:36):
that varies, and it's kind of varying right now. Sometimes
the cost of gas and the cost of electric, and
I'm just talking about the cost, not talking about comfort.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Is close. It's it's balanced.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
It's a little more of this way or a little
more of that way. It kind of goes up or
down depending on demand and and and you make a
decision whether you want to do that. So right now,
to make that decision, and I don't even know where
the comparable costs are. I'm going to assume it was
(24:15):
if I give you a little history of it.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Okay, so.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Maybe as far back as the seventies, electric was very expensive.
Gas was less expensive, and utility companies wanted to have
people switched to gas, so they gave you incentives. They
(24:41):
would lay a gas line. Maybe your subdivision didn't have gas.
All it had was electric.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
So if you got.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
Xyz amount of people to join and say yeah, I'll
convert to gas, and you had to hook up one appliance.
If you got say I don't know, say it a
third of the neighborhood to say yes or fifty percent,
I don't know what it was. But you had so
many people said y'all convert to gas. They would run
(25:09):
the line for no charge. They were going to run
the line down your street, and then they'd run to
your house at no charge, which was a big deal.
So you could put in a gas water here, you
could put it. You didn't have to change out the furnace,
you know, maybe you put in a gas stove. You
just had to put in a gas appliance. Because everything
(25:30):
was electric and gas was much cheaper. They were running
the line for free, and uh, you know, it was
you know, a lot of neighborhoods converted at that point.
Then I would say, oh gosh, lately, it seems like
they were fairly close, fairly close. But what are we
(25:51):
reading and hearing now? We're hearing electric with data processing plan,
it's creating a huge demand on electricity. And maybe if
you have noticed maybe the time of year where you're
using more electric, like during the air conditioning season, you're
(26:14):
finding an increase in your bill, significant increase in your bill.
And if you go back and look at the you know,
you know the price per kilo what hours, you've seen
that rise, So you can certainly do a study on
whether it's going to be more convenient less expensive, and
(26:34):
I would bet right now it would be less expensive.
But you still got the cost of the furnace and
the installation of that. And I don't know how old
the electric is, but I can tell you if you're
run a heat pump in your you're down to zero
five degrees and that shuts down and it turns the
(26:55):
emergency heat on, that's expensive. So if he did that analysis,
and you know, he's got just the cost of a furnace,
I say, just the cost, but you have a cost
of a furnace. Maybe that can be justified if there
is a savings on the fuel. So I don't know
(27:16):
how he justified that, but that's the real question. And
to add to that a problem you'd still have. You
can still have the heat pump on a natural gift furnace,
but to add that problem is you still have the
cost of the furnace. And if that heat pump an
electric furnace is just you know, five six, seven years old,
(27:39):
you probably can't justify that. All right, Our phone numbers
eight hundred eight two three eight two five five. Listen,
it's cold outside. If you went outside and you went egg,
I got to get back inside. I can tell you
wildlife right now is searching also to get inside your home.
Maybe you've heard some scratching behind the walls in your home.
(28:04):
It may not just be a mouse. A lot of
people go, oh, it's a mouse. It'll die, or it'll
it'll leave the premises. Yeah, it might, it might. But
one of the things in ron Kruger we've had on
many times in his show, would talk about raccoons and squirrels,
especially this time of year, love to get into your
attic and make that their place of residence. And I
(28:31):
want you to take a look and the next well
you still have maybe snow on the roof, maybe you
live in a warmer climate. Then I want you to
just pay attention what's going on in your roof because
they love to get up near the ventilation at the
peak of the roof. Squirrels especially. Look for squirrel squirrel
(28:56):
tracks up on a roof. Look for any wildlife up
on the roof if you were in a warm climate,
because they're looking to take up residents also also look
around the gutter area of your home, and the gutter
area would be the facia board, which is the vertical
(29:19):
board underneath the gutter and right where there's a forty
five degree miner cut where it goes maybe around the house.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
If that has.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Been pulled apart from the house pulled out done have
to be pulled out far and there's a gap and
that board's not tightly nailed. That very well can be
the entry point for wildlife getting into your attic and
you know a spring project, if you're creating a maintenance list,
(29:51):
that would be a very good thing to put on
the maintenance lips. Now, if you hear critters moving in
the ceiling or in the wall, you really do want
to get them out of your house. And a critter
control company can trap them. It takes them no how
to get those guys out of your your attic for sure,
(30:12):
and you don't want them nesting and you know, urinating
on the insulation inside your house. That becomes a bigger expense.
And people always go like, well, I don't want to
pay some trapped the animal, My gosh, what's that going
to cost? Believe me, if if animals are inside your
house and stay there for a short even a short
(30:35):
period of time. That's going to be the cheap part
of the problem is getting them out, because once you
got them out, there's probably a pretty good chance you
got a mess to take care of. So you're pulling
insulation out, you're sanitizing, you're putting new insulation in, you're
(30:56):
repairing the entry point of how they got in. So again,
you know, if even if if you have no problem
and you have some of those maintenance issue and you're
walking around the house, that's something you want to take
care of. You want to nail that face your board
nice and tight. You want to make sure it's nice
(31:17):
and tight and cooked and painted.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
You're okay.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
But if you see a pulled apart now, or you
hear critters and it's pull apart, I think it's time
for action. I don't want to see you just live
with it. If you want to see if you can
just live with it and they'll leave it never come back.
Good luck with that. It might happen. Probably not if
(31:44):
it's a cold winter. All right, again, it's eight hundred
eight two three eight two five five. Steve, you'll be
up first. We'll continue you're at home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 4 (31:54):
Help for your home is just to click away at
Garysullivan online dot com. At Home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
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(32:33):
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Speaker 5 (32:47):
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pipe and clean up the water damage. And if you
have vulnerable pipes and crawl spaces, garages or beneath pere
and beam homes, Roto Router can offer solutions to protect
(33:09):
and winterize those pipes before the next deep freeze. Schedule
an estimate and service call at Rotorrouter dot com or
call one eight hundred get roto. With more and more
time spent at home, more and more projects are getting
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(33:31):
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Speaker 2 (33:48):
Hey Gary Salvan here for Zlar pumps. Zala's been keeping
home Safe and DRYSIS nineteen thirty nine and their passion
for excellence is why it's the only name I trust
to keep my basement dry. For your homes groundwater protection system,
you got to check out the Solor Model sixty three
some pump with the led plug and the aquanot fit
five oh eight battery backup system. Together, they're your guaranteed
(34:11):
water protection system when installed by a factory certified installer.
To find your installer today, go to zalorpumps dot com.
(34:34):
All right, back at it we go, or thirteen minutes
from the top of the hour talking a little home improvement. Remember,
each and every hour is available to you via podcast.
Also a podcast on protecting your floors during the winter
that's available to you. Also knowing what's in your insurance
policy and knowing how your insurance company works. Beth Harper,
(34:58):
she is an insurance broker. That's a good podcast. Lot
good information there too, So each and every hour plus
those interviews all available. And Danny, I guess the gutters
gutters and underground drainage is available also or no, let.
Speaker 3 (35:16):
Me turn my Micael and'll help. It's part of our
hour four that we did.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
Yesterday, Okay, so that'll be under our four, Yes, sir,
very good. A lot of good information there.
Speaker 5 (35:24):
Also absolutely good conversation.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
Yep, thank you, all right. Let's get to Steve.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
Steve welcome, Oh, thank you so much for being there.
Speaker 6 (35:33):
I have multiple problems in my place. I live in
a former flower shop and Greenhouse Delmar, Maryland. But first
question before I move on to my water problem is
is should I do anything with these brand new held
the split units. I got two of them, and I
heard you talking about heat pumps. I guess essentially they're
(35:54):
eat small heat pumps. But should I do anything with
maintenance on those things? I mean, I hate to read direction,
so I'm just trying to get.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
Well, no, not necessarily, not necessarily not that I I
don't have one, so I guess I'm not up to
speed on exactly on the maintenance. But they're pretty maintenance
free as my as my thought, and.
Speaker 6 (36:20):
I got a water problem because they I got concrete floors.
Used to be a flower shop. And my brother pointed
to dive very quickly the driveways at one height and
where the water comes in only on hard rain. But
where the water comes in it is lower, lower grade,
you know. And these guys have come out to try
(36:40):
to fix it. I personally don't think they're ever going
to fix it, you know. I told my kids just
to maybe think about building onto this place and keep
the water from coming in somehow other than just digging
down and putting French strains in and whatever. They're doing,
you know, because that I'm an old guy. When it
(37:01):
gets when that water comes in, I used to mop
and now I suck it up with a shop back
with no filter. But you know, it's very irritating. You know,
you gotta, you know, dump it out. And my artwork.
I got a gallery and here it's my clage work,
you know, and it's slowly, little by little it well,
you know, getting ruined.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
Well, I'll tell you if you have a water issue
in your home, it's not good. It's not healthy, it's annoying.
It's not going to get better. It's only going to
get worse. Okay, so there's some cheering news. So there's
what I call the killer G's what brings water into
(37:44):
your house, and that is gutters grating in groundwater. So
if you have groundwater accumulating around the foundation, in other words,
you can see it ponding, that's problem. That means you
gotta add soil. We can't allow that to happen. If
(38:05):
the grating either of the yard, of the concrete or whatever,
if everything is tilted right towards the foundation, that water
is going to go to the foundation and you're gonna
see groundwater. So you'll have two of the killer killer gees.
And of course, if you have gutters and they're not
properly connected to your house, or they're clogged and they're overflowing,
(38:29):
that's the third killer g So it sounds like you've
got a grating issue and maybe a groundwater issue. And
how do you get rid of that? Well, you do
do that by underground pipes, underground French drains, collecting and
moving that water away. Or if it's concrete and it's
(38:51):
all tilted to the house, they can they being mudjackers
or slab jackers can drill into the slab pump us
cement growding beneath that slab and lift that slab so
there's a positive grade away from the house.
Speaker 6 (39:09):
Yeah, well, probably this is not a house. It's a
former green green. I understand though, And there's too and
you know, and and uh, I agree with you. I
don't think the gutters are good enough. I got holes
in the greenhouse. And uh, the question is if I
fixed all that, because it's lower grade, it may never
(39:29):
get better. I mean, I would tell my kids that
to sell this place tomorrow. If I didn't have so
much artwork in you know, I have like two thousand
collages in here in it physically hard to move even
if they sold and make money on this place, you know,
because I kind of liked where I am Delmar, Maryland
and ice Town near the beaches, and uh and I
(39:51):
have I have no issue with it with the city
I'm in, but this is my aluma was so to speak,
because you know, they have my I let my kids
set up a trust fund with the money I made
on my house. But it's not you know, it's not
a huge chunk. It's it is a good chunk. But
you know, even more I put into this place, the
(40:12):
lower the trust line is. So it is frustrating. And
I'm seventy years old, so you know, I'm trying to
run my gallery and I open up a phone rubber shop, and.
Speaker 2 (40:25):
I think that is you know what you're saying. I
understand You're not the only one in that position. Many
people are. And I think it really comes down to
the point is not so much can they fix it?
I think the question is how much is it going
to cost to fix it? That's what sounds like to me.
So and it's you know, I mean, it's not pleasant
(40:48):
obviously living in a home where you have you know,
you have water entering your home, and it's a breed
of you know, you can breed mold. I mean, the
problem can and will get worse, whether it's a greenhouse
or a home. If you've got those problems, you your
choice is either to liquidate it, sell it as is,
(41:14):
or fix it and make it a viable structure. And
you know, I mean, I know all the problems with that.
Speaker 1 (41:24):
I get it. I hear you.
Speaker 2 (41:26):
But that's really that's really the decision. Because even if
somebody's listening to me right now, and let's say you
got a you know, four hundred thousand dollars home, and
all the neighborhoods are around four hundred thousand dollars homes
around you or three hundred or two hundred or eight hundred,
doesn't matter, and yours has a water problem. You know,
(41:52):
there's water behind the walls, there's waters under the floors.
There's when it rains hard, it leaks between the floor
and the wall. There's a natural seam there. If you
have all those problems and the person next to you doesn't,
you're not going to sell your house for four hundred
(42:12):
thousand dollars unless you're in a home market kind of
like we were about three years ago, you might have
somebody just gobble it up because there was.
Speaker 1 (42:23):
Very little.
Speaker 2 (42:26):
Excessive inventory, if any inventory. I mean, it was bare bones.
But as you work back to a pretty decent housing
market where you have balance inventory, your house is you're
you're going to have. You know, you're going to have
(42:47):
one choice, and that is to fix it up to
get the true true value out of that, or you're
gonna sell it at a discount and then they're going
to fix it up. And again, not to try and
raid on anybody's parade, but that's kind of what it
(43:09):
comes to. It certainly sounds like you don't want to
move doesn't mean you can't move. It just means you
don't want to move. So I think you see the
options and you don't like the options, and nor would I,
And I'm sorry, but that's the options, all right. So,
(43:30):
Danny boy, we paraded right through another weekend and certainly
appreciate all your help getting it done and taking the calls.
And I do want to encourage you to take a
look at the podcast on homeowner Policies, Insurance Policies, conversation
about flooring, and I know a lot of that information.
You may say, oh, that's just good common advice, especially
(43:52):
on the flooring, but it is really good advice. Shoes off,
doormats inside, outside, make sure sidewalks and things are clean
of residue of salt and ice melts, and you know,
small stones, and make sure they're not brought into the
house or it will decrease the life of your floor.
Speaker 1 (44:15):
All right, Danny Boy, good Lord Willing.
Speaker 2 (44:17):
We'll both be back next weekend for more at Home.
Speaker 1 (44:20):
With Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 4 (44:38):
He's the weekend and you have fixed questions, give Gary
a call at what eight hundred and eight two three
talk this. He's at Home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 6 (45:01):
F
Well the weekends upon us. Welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
You're at home with Gary Salvin talking a little home improvement.
Glad you could join me as we shot about maybe
issues you're having around your home. Our phone number gets
you through is eight hundred eight two three eight two
five five. I know, trying to motivate you on a
maybe a morning like close to the holiday and cold
temperatures in many parts of the country with snow cover
(00:56):
is a little challenging, but I got plenty of things
to keep you busy. See, you're just talking about maintaining
our floors and types of floors depending on the weather
that you know, survive a little better, and how to
keep them. I do love the line that someone it
has been thirty five years when the fellaw said to me, Gary,
carpet doesn't wear out, it just ugly is out. I
(01:18):
love that line. And when you talk about weather like
this and what you can be tracking into your home.
The person that told me that saying had been in
the carpet business for a long long time his whole life,
and he is spot on so other things that we
can kind of take a look at, maybe think about
a repair, maybe maintain different things in the house. I'll
(01:42):
start in the garage, A good time to do. Seriously,
if you got temperatures in single digits are below zero,
I always try to look at what the temperature in
that garage is.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
And I don't think i've ever seen my garage built
twenty six years ago. I don't think i've ever seen
it where the garage was, you know, below freezing or
even freezing. I think as cold as I've ever spotted
it was thirty nine degrees. Now it's a more not
modern home, but I remember the garage doors. They were
(02:21):
close pey, but they weren't the top of the line
clo pe so they had some insulation in them, but
it wasn't like a euthane liquid eurethane insulation that was in.
There's panels, foam panels inside between the two pieces of metal.
And I don't think my garage has ever got below,
like I said, thirty nine degrees. But here's a little
(02:43):
test if you if you got some cold weather, and
a lot of times we have brilliant blue skies after
a snow or some real cold cold temperatures, that's why
it's cold because there's no insulation clouds or insulation right,
stand in the garage and just look at your garage
door from inside, looking out the doors down. So what
(03:07):
are you looking for, Gary, I'm looking for light. If
you got a really sunny day and you stand in
a garage and you look at the garage, you'll see
or you will not see light penetrating around the sides.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Of the door or.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
The bottom of the door. So modern garage doors and
not so much older garage doors which were really not
ensulated very well and not really weather stripped. I mean,
so you're going to see all kinds of light. Then
you need to think about maybe doing something about that,
(03:47):
maybe getting a weather stripping kit for garage doors, maybe
getting new garage doors if they're rule, and you want
to maybe utilize that garage with a workshopper there you know,
some activity if you will, and you certainly weren't warmer
than it is. But also so when you look around
(04:08):
the sides, if you see light coming in between the
door and the frame, it's probably not it's probably not
weather stripped, or the weather strip was torn over the
years and never replaced. And the weather stripping on doors
is basically a frame with about an inch and a
half piece of vinyl that sticks out and runs down
(04:31):
the framing of the garage door, so it's sitting tight.
Just it's not an insulator. It's just kind of blocking
the wind and you know, the cold temperatures from coming
straight into the garage, so check for that. As far
as looking at the bottom of the garage door, if
you see light penetrating in there the seal, do you
(04:54):
ever pay attention to that it's vinyl. I've always amazed
the clop Pey garage doors. They used the same seal
that they've used since nineteen thirty five. Isn't then amazing?
So it's not like you got to get the model
in the year of the garage door. You can just
(05:15):
get that seal. I would take it out at first,
or at least a sliver of it and take it
with you. But I replaced my not long ago, and
it was a close pay door, and it was amazing.
When I started doing the research. It's like they're all
the same, and a big box store had it, told
me what al it was on, and I just went
(05:36):
and grabbed it and installed it.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
It was that easy.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Now, sometimes it can be a little challenging. You got
to clean the tracks, you got to warm the seal,
you might need an extra pair of hands to change
out that seal, or maybe we have some additional problems,
because there's always additional problems, and that is maybe the
slab has settled a little bit, so on one side
(06:05):
of the door touches the other side does not. There
are different thresholds you can get for garage floors. There's
also vinyl concrete mixes that will attached to existing concrete
where you can build it up a little bit. But
if you see a lot of light coming in at
that bottom of the sides, think about correcting that. Because
(06:27):
if you think about this, what is the difference of
the air in the garage? If it's let's say it's
not weather stripped at all, maybe it's not an insulate
in that garage is thirty degrees, minds forty degrees. Maybe
yours is fifty degrees. But that's a big difference in it.
(06:49):
I mean most of the garages about the house right,
Maybe there's insulation in the walls going into the house,
so they're treating that as an exterior wall. Maybe there
is not, so it could be an area where you're
introducing a lot of cold air and if you take
(07:10):
the time to find out if there's an issue, and
you can tell if that wall has got insulation or not.
There's probably some outlets in there or maybe a hose
bib coming out. It's not you know, really dry wall
around that very well, and you can you can actually
get in there and feel or see if there is
any insulation in that wall. But you know, if you've
(07:32):
got a temperature on the garage of thirty degrees and
mindsetting at fifty degrees, there's there's a lot colder air
that's going to infiltrate your house than my house. And
right now I don't know exactly what the temperature is
in the grush, but as coals i've ever seen, it
was thirty nine. That's why I say, if you just
kind of pay attention to that, there might be something
(07:56):
you know you want to change there. And then once
we get rid of whatever winter debris you have in
your area, and I'm talking you know again, the salts
and the ice meler and the residue from that, once
it gets above freezing, sweeping and flushing that driveway and
the garage floor. I like to say it's imperative because well,
(08:19):
I think it is important. I think it is imperative
that you get that off because once it gets dampened again,
it becomes it's a definite assault on that concrete. It's
going to challenge that concrete. It's going to soak in.
It's a corrosive mixture of moisture and salt, and it's
(08:41):
going to do what they call spawling, which is popping
that surface, that concrete off. So you know your little
visit in the garage is not going to be without purpose.
And again, if you're in a house and you know,
I'm not saying you're hoarding, but it's a storage erry
(09:02):
area for your home. And I know this is a pain,
but it's one of the It's actually one of the
tips I do a morning show tip, and it's going
to be one of the tips I use. This Thursday
is when we have, you know, Christmas and gift giving
time of the year. We add more stuff to our homes,
(09:24):
we look for more places to store stuff.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
I think we all are challenged by that.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
And again, if the garage has become your collection point
for a lot of that stuff, it would behoove you.
And again, if you have an insulated garage door and
it's above forty degrees, you could do it now. If
it's real cold, you're probably not. But going through in
just kind of cleaning it up and organizing and deciding
(09:55):
this needs to be kept, this, this needs to be pitched,
This needs to be donated. Start with three small stacks.
Regardless of what you're gonna do to your garage, just
get it organized. And then as you receive a gift
or two, maybe you've got to give that some thought
(10:15):
of executive where that's going to be stored.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
But if you can get that garage.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Organize warm weather stripped, it's going to save you money
on your energy bill. Also, all right, our phone numbers
eight hundred eight two three eight two five five will continue.
You're at home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
Help for your home is just a click away at
Garysullivan online dot com. This is at home with Garysullivan.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
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Speaker 5 (12:00):
When the weather turns cold, your plumbing system can really
take a beating. Hey Gary Salvin here for roto Ruter
plumbing and water clean up. If you experienced frozen or
burst pipes this winter, roto Ruter's expert team can repair
the pipe and clean up the water damage. And if
you have vulnerable pipes and cross spaces, garages or beneath
peer and beam homes. Roto Ruter can offer solutions to
(12:22):
protect and win arizeose pipes before the next deep freeze.
Schedule an estimate and service call at rotrouter dot com
or call one eight hundred get rot Oh.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
Hey Gary Salvin here for Zalar Pumps. Zala's been keeping
homes safe and dry since nineteen thirty nine, and their
passion for excellence is why it's the only name I
trust to keep my basement dry. For your home's groundwater
protection system, you got to check out the Xlor Model
sixty three some pump with the LED plug and the
aquanot Fit five oh eight battery backup system. Together they're
(12:54):
your guaranteed water protection system when installed by a factory
certified installer. To find you're installer today, go to zalarpumps
dot com. Talking a little home improvement, maintenance and repair.
(13:18):
If you'd like to join us, do so. Our phone
number is eight hundred eight two three A two five
five And uh. You know one of the things we've
talked about all fall, and it is the fireplace maintenance
and repair of that I know I'm talking a lot,
a lot about maintenance, but it is so critical. And
(13:42):
by the way, if you miss Beth Harper talking about
home insurance and how important maintenance plays, you can get
that podcast. It's on the iHeart app or wherever you
get your podcast. It's at Home with Gary Sullivan. Danny's
got it listed and really talks about in a lot
(14:02):
of cases, insurance always used to kind of got looked
up if you had a problem. I mean, just throw
it to the insurance and they took care of it.
Insurance doesn't work that way anymore. I mean, you've seen
the storms you've seen and I'm not a show for
the insurance company. It's just they're a business, right, and
(14:23):
they're betting things won't happen, and you're covering yourself in
case they do happen, and so the odds change right
depending on damage over the years, and that's kind of
really what's happening. Insurance companies looking at homeowners with insurance
and they're going hold on. You know, the part of
(14:45):
the sighting on this house was opening up and nobody
ever nailed it back together and cooked it. And it's
not my fault that there's a nest of raccoons in
the attic.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
Oh, that's kind of a change.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Some insurance are doing that, some insurances aren't doing that.
My point being is the whole thing is shifting to
is the damage caused by lack of maintenance or was
it an incident that was kind of out of the
homeowner's control. For instance, here's an example. You have a
(15:22):
frozen pipe and the pipe splits, so now you have
a leaky pipe and it's dripping through the ceiling. That's
kind of an incident. But if you don't shut off
that water, and now it's a really big incident. Is
(15:42):
that going to be covered?
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Anyway?
Speaker 2 (15:45):
If you want to check that podcast, do so. In
the meantime, we're going to talk to Reggie.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
Reggie, Welcome, Hi Gary Holiday.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Thank you, Sarah, same to you.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
Yes, a couple of years ago, I had a American
standard heat pump installed. I don't know that heat pumps
are your area of expertise, but I thought i'd ask
you anyway. Okay, something peculiar happens when the outdoor temperature
reaches zero degrees fahrenheit. My outdoor compressor, it shuts down
(16:25):
the indoor temperature of the house drops three degrees, at
which point my heat strips and my electric auxiliary kick
in bring the ambient indoor temperature back up the three degrees.
So it's where I keep it at seventy four and
(16:48):
then that electric furnace, those heat strips continue to heat
the home until the outdoor temperature rises a few degrees,
at which point the compressor kicks back on. Is that
operating correctly as far as you're understanding.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Yes, yes, So a lot of heat pumps, and really,
to be honest, when that was sold to, whether it
was you or the previous homeowner, that should be explained.
So a heat pump is really good, but it has
its limitations, and they're really designed to shut off between
(17:26):
probably zero and five degrees. Now, the efficiency of your
energy usage in your house just went squat, right because
you were heating it with a heat pump and now
you're heating it with a giant toaster. So if it
kept run, the compressor kept run, it's probably caused some
(17:47):
damage to the compressor itself.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
So that's why it switches.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
To emergency heat. And I used to always call it
I forget. I had a heat pump, probably in the
early to mid eighties and there was a little I
think it was a blue light or a red light.
I can't remember. When the electric went on the heat
pimp went off, this little light would go on, and
I'd call it the red light special because so you
(18:16):
know it was special. But yeah, that is, you know,
that's I'm not going to say heat pumps are just
designed a warm weather climates. I mean, you know where
you're at, that probably happens, maybe not even every year,
but I mean it could happen every year, but may
not have also happened for five years.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
But that's exactly what they do.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
Yes, Well, I'm in southern Indiana and I'm told I'm
a little too far north for a heat pump that
I would be better served if I lived in southern
Kentucky or even Tennessee. Let me ask you this, as
far as the cost effectiveness is concerned. You know, I
put hand to paper and I've thought about getting a
(19:03):
high efficiency gas furnace to use in conjunction with the
heat pump, like a lot of people do. Right, right,
I can't really justify the cost.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Well, that's got to be a question, and based on comfort,
I mean, sure it's going to be a hit to
install that and justifying the cost is you know when
you get this bill in the comfort factor. All that together,
listen if you have a follow up question, Reggie, sit tight.
You're at home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 4 (19:37):
Solutions to your home improvement are as easy as calling
one eight eighty two three talk this. He's at home
with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
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Speaker 1 (21:31):
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Speaker 2 (21:32):
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Speaker 1 (22:17):
All right, you're at home with Gary Salvan.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
Thanks for joining me. When we were talking to Reggie,
he was talking about a heat pump and the compressor
shutting off around zero five degrees and the electric furnace
kicking on. And I said, oh, so you're heating your
home like a like a toaster, because that's what it's like,
and electric is the ribbons of heating elements, right, And
(22:42):
he gets hot in a blow or blows the hot
air through the house, and he was getting ready.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
We got.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Short changed by the break, which we can't do anything about.
But I was hoping he held on because he was saying,
why I did an analysis of a cost projection on how,
you know, maybe switching that furnace out to a high
efficiency natural gas versus the electric and I just I
(23:10):
can't justify that. I said, well, you know, maybe after
you get the heating bill on this electric one, maybe
you can justify it. Here's the real issue, and that
probably wasn't a fair answer. That's why I'm talking about it.
Here's the real issue, the electric The real issue is
the cost of electric versus the cost of gas. So
(23:36):
that varies, and it's kind of varying right now. Sometimes
the cost of gas and the cost of electric, and
I'm just talking about the cost, not talking about comfort.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Is close. It's it's balanced.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
It's a little more of this way or a little
more of that way. It kind of goes up or
down depending on demand and and and you make a
decision whether you want to do that. So right now,
to make that decision, and I don't even know where
the comparable costs are. I'm going to assume it was
(24:15):
if I give you a little history of it.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Okay, so.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Maybe as far back as the seventies, electric was very expensive.
Gas was less expensive, and utility companies wanted to have
people switched to gas, so they gave you incentives. They
(24:41):
would lay a gas line. Maybe your subdivision didn't have gas.
All it had was electric.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
So if you got.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
Xyz amount of people to join and say yeah, I'll
convert to gas, and you had to hook up one appliance.
If you got say I don't know, say it a
third of the neighborhood to say yes or fifty percent,
I don't know what it was. But you had so
many people said y'all convert to gas. They would run
(25:09):
the line for no charge. They were going to run
the line down your street, and then they'd run to
your house at no charge, which was a big deal.
So you could put in a gas water here, you
could put it. You didn't have to change out the furnace,
you know, maybe you put in a gas stove. You
just had to put in a gas appliance. Because everything
(25:30):
was electric and gas was much cheaper. They were running
the line for free, and uh, you know, it was
you know, a lot of neighborhoods converted at that point.
Then I would say, oh gosh, lately, it seems like
they were fairly close, fairly close. But what are we
(25:51):
reading and hearing now? We're hearing electric with data processing plan,
it's creating a huge demand on electricity. And maybe if
you have noticed maybe the time of year where you're
using more electric, like during the air conditioning season, you're
(26:14):
finding an increase in your bill, significant increase in your bill.
And if you go back and look at the you know,
you know the price per kilo what hours, you've seen
that rise, So you can certainly do a study on
whether it's going to be more convenient less expensive, and
(26:34):
I would bet right now it would be less expensive.
But you still got the cost of the furnace and
the installation of that. And I don't know how old
the electric is, but I can tell you if you're
run a heat pump in your you're down to zero
five degrees and that shuts down and it turns the
(26:55):
emergency heat on, that's expensive. So if he did that analysis,
and you know, he's got just the cost of a furnace,
I say, just the cost, but you have a cost
of a furnace. Maybe that can be justified if there
is a savings on the fuel. So I don't know
(27:16):
how he justified that, but that's the real question. And
to add to that a problem you'd still have. You
can still have the heat pump on a natural gift furnace,
but to add that problem is you still have the
cost of the furnace. And if that heat pump an
electric furnace is just you know, five six, seven years old,
(27:39):
you probably can't justify that. All right, Our phone numbers
eight hundred eight two three eight two five five. Listen,
it's cold outside. If you went outside and you went egg,
I got to get back inside. I can tell you
wildlife right now is searching also to get inside your home.
Maybe you've heard some scratching behind the walls in your home.
(28:04):
It may not just be a mouse. A lot of
people go, oh, it's a mouse. It'll die, or it'll
it'll leave the premises. Yeah, it might, it might. But
one of the things in ron Kruger we've had on
many times in his show, would talk about raccoons and squirrels,
especially this time of year, love to get into your
attic and make that their place of residence. And I
(28:31):
want you to take a look and the next well
you still have maybe snow on the roof, maybe you
live in a warmer climate. Then I want you to
just pay attention what's going on in your roof because
they love to get up near the ventilation at the
peak of the roof. Squirrels especially. Look for squirrel squirrel
(28:56):
tracks up on a roof. Look for any wildlife up
on the roof if you were in a warm climate,
because they're looking to take up residents also also look
around the gutter area of your home, and the gutter
area would be the facia board, which is the vertical
(29:19):
board underneath the gutter and right where there's a forty
five degree miner cut where it goes maybe around the house.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
If that has.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Been pulled apart from the house pulled out done have
to be pulled out far and there's a gap and
that board's not tightly nailed. That very well can be
the entry point for wildlife getting into your attic and
you know a spring project, if you're creating a maintenance list,
(29:51):
that would be a very good thing to put on
the maintenance lips. Now, if you hear critters moving in
the ceiling or in the wall, you really do want
to get them out of your house. And a critter
control company can trap them. It takes them no how
to get those guys out of your your attic for sure,
(30:12):
and you don't want them nesting and you know, urinating
on the insulation inside your house. That becomes a bigger expense.
And people always go like, well, I don't want to
pay some trapped the animal, My gosh, what's that going
to cost? Believe me, if if animals are inside your
house and stay there for a short even a short
(30:35):
period of time. That's going to be the cheap part
of the problem is getting them out, because once you
got them out, there's probably a pretty good chance you
got a mess to take care of. So you're pulling
insulation out, you're sanitizing, you're putting new insulation in, you're
(30:56):
repairing the entry point of how they got in. So again,
you know, if even if if you have no problem
and you have some of those maintenance issue and you're
walking around the house, that's something you want to take
care of. You want to nail that face your board
nice and tight. You want to make sure it's nice
(31:17):
and tight and cooked and painted.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
You're okay.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
But if you see a pulled apart now, or you
hear critters and it's pull apart, I think it's time
for action. I don't want to see you just live
with it. If you want to see if you can
just live with it and they'll leave it never come back.
Good luck with that. It might happen. Probably not if
(31:44):
it's a cold winter. All right, again, it's eight hundred
eight two three eight two five five. Steve, you'll be
up first. We'll continue you're at home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 4 (31:54):
Help for your home is just to click away at
Garysullivan online dot com. At Home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
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Speaker 5 (32:47):
When the weather turns cold, your plumbing system can really
take a beating. Hey Gary Selvan here form Rota Ruter
Plumbing and water cleanup. If you experienced frozen or burst
pipes this winter, Rota Ruter's expert team can repair the
pipe and clean up the water damage. And if you
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(33:09):
and winterize those pipes before the next deep freeze. Schedule
an estimate and service call at Rotorrouter dot com or
call one eight hundred get roto. With more and more
time spent at home, more and more projects are getting
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(33:31):
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Speaker 2 (33:48):
Hey Gary Salvan here for Zlar pumps. Zala's been keeping
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(34:11):
water protection system when installed by a factory certified installer.
To find your installer today, go to zalorpumps dot com.
(34:34):
All right, back at it we go, or thirteen minutes
from the top of the hour talking a little home improvement. Remember,
each and every hour is available to you via podcast.
Also a podcast on protecting your floors during the winter
that's available to you. Also knowing what's in your insurance
policy and knowing how your insurance company works. Beth Harper,
(34:58):
she is an insurance broker. That's a good podcast. Lot
good information there too, So each and every hour plus
those interviews all available. And Danny, I guess the gutters
gutters and underground drainage is available also or no, let.
Speaker 3 (35:16):
Me turn my Micael and'll help. It's part of our
hour four that we did.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
Yesterday, Okay, so that'll be under our four, Yes, sir,
very good. A lot of good information there.
Speaker 5 (35:24):
Also absolutely good conversation.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
Yep, thank you, all right. Let's get to Steve.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
Steve welcome, Oh, thank you so much for being there.
Speaker 6 (35:33):
I have multiple problems in my place. I live in
a former flower shop and Greenhouse Delmar, Maryland. But first
question before I move on to my water problem is
is should I do anything with these brand new held
the split units. I got two of them, and I
heard you talking about heat pumps. I guess essentially they're
(35:54):
eat small heat pumps. But should I do anything with
maintenance on those things? I mean, I hate to read direction,
so I'm just trying to get.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
Well, no, not necessarily, not necessarily not that I I
don't have one, so I guess I'm not up to
speed on exactly on the maintenance. But they're pretty maintenance
free as my as my thought, and.
Speaker 6 (36:20):
I got a water problem because they I got concrete floors.
Used to be a flower shop. And my brother pointed
to dive very quickly the driveways at one height and
where the water comes in only on hard rain. But
where the water comes in it is lower, lower grade,
you know. And these guys have come out to try
(36:40):
to fix it. I personally don't think they're ever going
to fix it, you know. I told my kids just
to maybe think about building onto this place and keep
the water from coming in somehow other than just digging
down and putting French strains in and whatever. They're doing,
you know, because that I'm an old guy. When it
(37:01):
gets when that water comes in, I used to mop
and now I suck it up with a shop back
with no filter. But you know, it's very irritating. You know,
you gotta, you know, dump it out. And my artwork.
I got a gallery and here it's my clage work,
you know, and it's slowly, little by little it well,
you know, getting ruined.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
Well, I'll tell you if you have a water issue
in your home, it's not good. It's not healthy, it's annoying.
It's not going to get better. It's only going to
get worse. Okay, so there's some cheering news. So there's
what I call the killer G's what brings water into
(37:44):
your house, and that is gutters grating in groundwater. So
if you have groundwater accumulating around the foundation, in other words,
you can see it ponding, that's problem. That means you
gotta add soil. We can't allow that to happen. If
(38:05):
the grating either of the yard, of the concrete or whatever,
if everything is tilted right towards the foundation, that water
is going to go to the foundation and you're gonna
see groundwater. So you'll have two of the killer killer gees.
And of course, if you have gutters and they're not
properly connected to your house, or they're clogged and they're overflowing,
(38:29):
that's the third killer g So it sounds like you've
got a grating issue and maybe a groundwater issue. And
how do you get rid of that? Well, you do
do that by underground pipes, underground French drains, collecting and
moving that water away. Or if it's concrete and it's
(38:51):
all tilted to the house, they can they being mudjackers
or slab jackers can drill into the slab pump us
cement growding beneath that slab and lift that slab so
there's a positive grade away from the house.
Speaker 6 (39:09):
Yeah, well, probably this is not a house. It's a
former green green. I understand though, And there's too and
you know, and and uh, I agree with you. I
don't think the gutters are good enough. I got holes
in the greenhouse. And uh, the question is if I
fixed all that, because it's lower grade, it may never
(39:29):
get better. I mean, I would tell my kids that
to sell this place tomorrow. If I didn't have so
much artwork in you know, I have like two thousand
collages in here in it physically hard to move even
if they sold and make money on this place, you know,
because I kind of liked where I am Delmar, Maryland
and ice Town near the beaches, and uh and I
(39:51):
have I have no issue with it with the city
I'm in, but this is my aluma was so to speak,
because you know, they have my I let my kids
set up a trust fund with the money I made
on my house. But it's not you know, it's not
a huge chunk. It's it is a good chunk. But
you know, even more I put into this place, the
(40:12):
lower the trust line is. So it is frustrating. And
I'm seventy years old, so you know, I'm trying to
run my gallery and I open up a phone rubber shop, and.
Speaker 2 (40:25):
I think that is you know what you're saying. I
understand You're not the only one in that position. Many
people are. And I think it really comes down to
the point is not so much can they fix it?
I think the question is how much is it going
to cost to fix it? That's what sounds like to me.
So and it's you know, I mean, it's not pleasant
(40:48):
obviously living in a home where you have you know,
you have water entering your home, and it's a breed
of you know, you can breed mold. I mean, the
problem can and will get worse, whether it's a greenhouse
or a home. If you've got those problems, you your
choice is either to liquidate it, sell it as is,
(41:14):
or fix it and make it a viable structure. And
you know, I mean, I know all the problems with that.
Speaker 1 (41:24):
I get it. I hear you.
Speaker 2 (41:26):
But that's really that's really the decision. Because even if
somebody's listening to me right now, and let's say you
got a you know, four hundred thousand dollars home, and
all the neighborhoods are around four hundred thousand dollars homes
around you or three hundred or two hundred or eight hundred,
doesn't matter, and yours has a water problem. You know,
(41:52):
there's water behind the walls, there's waters under the floors.
There's when it rains hard, it leaks between the floor
and the wall. There's a natural seam there. If you
have all those problems and the person next to you doesn't,
you're not going to sell your house for four hundred
(42:12):
thousand dollars unless you're in a home market kind of
like we were about three years ago, you might have
somebody just gobble it up because there was.
Speaker 1 (42:23):
Very little.
Speaker 2 (42:26):
Excessive inventory, if any inventory. I mean, it was bare bones.
But as you work back to a pretty decent housing
market where you have balance inventory, your house is you're
you're going to have. You know, you're going to have
(42:47):
one choice, and that is to fix it up to
get the true true value out of that, or you're
gonna sell it at a discount and then they're going
to fix it up. And again, not to try and
raid on anybody's parade, but that's kind of what it
(43:09):
comes to. It certainly sounds like you don't want to
move doesn't mean you can't move. It just means you
don't want to move. So I think you see the
options and you don't like the options, and nor would I,
And I'm sorry, but that's the options, all right. So,
(43:30):
Danny boy, we paraded right through another weekend and certainly
appreciate all your help getting it done and taking the calls.
And I do want to encourage you to take a
look at the podcast on homeowner Policies, Insurance Policies, conversation
about flooring, and I know a lot of that information.
You may say, oh, that's just good common advice, especially
(43:52):
on the flooring, but it is really good advice. Shoes off,
doormats inside, outside, make sure sidewalks and things are clean
of residue of salt and ice melts, and you know,
small stones, and make sure they're not brought into the
house or it will decrease the life of your floor.
Speaker 1 (44:15):
All right, Danny Boy, good Lord Willing.
Speaker 2 (44:17):
We'll both be back next weekend for more at Home.
Speaker 1 (44:20):
With Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 4 (44:38):
He's the weekend and you have fixed questions, give Gary
a call at what eight hundred and eight two three
talk this. He's at Home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 6 (45:01):
F
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