December 21, 2024 • 38 mins
Gary takes your calls and tips. He also offers a few helpful tips along the way.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
We have lines that are open. You can dial us up.
It's eight hundred eight two three eight two five five.
Love to talk to you about your home project, either's
maintenance or repair. Whatever the question may be. May not
know the answer. Someone out there will so about your house,
not necessarily about appliances or things like that, but we'll
do our best. Patricia, Welcome, Hi, they're hearing. How are
(00:27):
you doing doing fun? Thank you good? Hey?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
A quick question. I have a vintage untried for me
message open or oven, but I'm worried about whether or
not it would affect the eating almost or the little
thermometer that's in there. It's uh, you fill up right
(00:53):
about a medium sized ball, ceramic ball with ammonia and
you leave it up. Will that hurt those elements?
Speaker 1 (01:02):
I have no idea.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Well, you haven't heard that I have.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Well, we had somebody pouring ammonia down drains a little
bit ago and telling me it. You know it takes
care of that, But I don't know ammonia. Obviously, you
know it has a gas because we can smell it,
but I don't know if it affects the elements. I
don't know.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Well, it's an old Hello helloween books that I received,
and I just saw it in there and I didn't know.
I haven't heard nothing else about it.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Well, she had a lot of good, you know, home
remedies that may work. I will say the one that
I talked about in terms of just putting a a
you know, a baking pan in. They're filled with water
at you know, four hundred and four twenty five for
about three or four hours and it just that steam alone.
(02:00):
We'll soften up any food particles and then coming back
with like a kitchen to grease or that cream cleanser
I have, and it literally will wipe it off and
remove the residue. But just putting in ammonia and just
like it said, I just don't know. Maybe somebody can
give us answer.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
I'll try your remedy.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
All right, give it a try. Let us know. Thanks, Patricia,
Let's go to Bill. Bill welcome.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
I've got a top loading washing machine where the drum
has rusted out, not completely, and I've been told that
the easiest and probably the cheapest way to deal with
that is just get a new washer. But can something
kind of ceilant like JB Waterworld be used to stop
(02:53):
the water from coming out of the bottom of the drum.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
You could use like a plumber. There's a POxy or
there's a product called PC seven which is an epoxy
for steel. Both of those would have a potential work.
I don't know how long they would last. How big
is the hole?
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Well, I don't know. It's been three years or more
since I looked at it. But I bought some JB.
Water weld for another purpose recently, so it's putty. Yeah,
water we putt putty for a leak similar thing around
my sink drain, so I thought maybe it could be
(03:39):
used for the.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Well, you got nothing to lose, Bill, you know, really, you.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Know if putty dry as hard as rock, and I
don't want to use something that I could use better
if I have to pull that.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Out, Well, the thing that I'm recommending is probably very
similar to what you're talking about, So I would say
what's on the market those type of steel epoxies is
probably what you're going to have to use. Now, I
wouldn't use a I think part of the issue will
(04:16):
be how big the hole is, how much you have
to put on, because if you start messing up with
the weight and the balance of that, that could cause
even further problems. So you know it's probably would be
you know, probably do a fairly decent job if you
got in there with some you know, three hundred grit
(04:38):
wet dry paper, remove the rust, cleaned it up real good,
and the holes, you know, fairly small where you can
cover it up with that type of paste or patch,
but don't put it on too thick.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
What size maximum for a whole.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Or a Yeah, I probably wouldn't do it much bigger
than a tip of my thumb. There's no rules on it.
I'm just guessing.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
What if I combine the putty, if I put in
a piece of aluminium or metal to help plug the
hole so the putty would hold better, or whatever.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
I think the first thing you're gonna do, Bill is
find out how big that hole is, because right now
we're just kind of chasing our tail. You know, if
the hole's bigger and you need a plug, you're gonna
have to do something. So how you're gonna configure that
I don't know, but you would have to use some
(05:43):
sort of filler, That's what I'm saying. I think you're
I think you're probably looking at something that's gonna be
half the size of a dime to use just a putty,
and after that you're gonna have to take a look
at it and see what you can kind of make
a mission. I think probably the first advice you ahead
was getting a new washer is probably a good option.
(06:04):
There are a couple other things out there, Bill, There's
I don't know if you're familiar with what a boiler
plug is. A boiler plug is like a a different
sized bolts with threads and a gasket at the top
where you could literally just screw a boiler plug in.
There is designed where there's a hole in a boiler
(06:28):
you know, if it's you know, again, it depends on
the size. You got to find out the size first.
But maybe a boiler plug and some epoxy patch maybe
that's the answer. But I think it's going to be
a try and trial and error type thing. And I
also don't think you got much to lose based of
the based on what you're telling me about the washer itself.
(06:49):
All right, we got a spot for you, and if
you've got a question, jump on board. It's eight hundred
eight two three eight two five five. We'll continue with
your calls. You're at home with Gary Sulvan right here
in fifty five care see detalk station and back ahead
and we go at home with Gary Sullivan taking your
calls about your home projects, a maintenance or repair, or
(07:12):
maybe a big project you're looking at for next year.
I kind of like to talk about those too. We
got another couple of weeks to chat about those. But
you know, it seems like every year a couple things
I always try to do is you're ahead, what's my
project next year? And where am I going on vacation?
That's key. Let's get to Mark Mark welcome.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
Hey there. You were just talking about umdifiers on furnace
installations and whether it's on return or supply.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:43):
So typical insallation is to mount the head unit on
the return and then there's a bypass that carries the
air to the supply side. The point being is that
when you mount on the supply side, if you do
have leagues from poor maintenance and such, right, that water's
going to trail over the heat exchanger and so you
have the risk of causing damage to the furnace, the
(08:03):
control boards and everything else. The terminology for the unit
inside the humidifier is a water pad and you were correct.
It's not a filter. It's basically just for even distribution
of the water. So as that air passes through the
return side, draws through the water pad, picks up whatever
said moisture is, and then carries to the supply side
(08:25):
the damper that you have on the umidifier strictly for
air control, whereas the humidifier is controlled by what's called emdicat.
So we see.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Yeah, And I appreciate Mark for some reason. And I
think you're getting our first hour of the show. So
we've been doing this show for about three hours now,
and I did look some things up, and you know,
one of the I just I don't know why it was.
I was just having a really hard time gather my
thoughts to explain it. You did it very eloquently. Thank you.
(08:59):
So I'm an eye.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
Well we're a little slower here.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
I guess I'm in Cincinnati. I think we're cousins. There
you go. When the warm air is heated in going across,
or doesn't that hold more moisture?
Speaker 5 (09:13):
It can?
Speaker 4 (09:14):
It all depends on the setting of the amidistat, and
I always tell clients it depends on the house itself too.
There's so many residual things that are putting moisture into
a home. We spend more of our life to get
it out than to add moisture to it.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
I you know what, I totally agree with you. Bathroom
fans number one problem.
Speaker 4 (09:33):
And you can't disregard house plants, cooking, dog, dish water bowl.
How many kids are taking showers exposed foundation?
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Ye? Well, very good, thank you, Thank you for the tip.
I appreciate it. Did much better than I did earlier. Yes,
all right, I try. All right. It's eight hundred and
eight two three eight two five five. If you've been
trying to get through, now is a very good time.
The lines are open. I talked earlier today we were
(10:04):
talking about weather stripping. I just somebody emailed me and said,
what in the world is going on with our energy bill?
Last year or our even building was two ninety five.
I just got a bill for six hundred bucks. Well,
have you been listening to the news? Energy is not
(10:26):
going down, it's going up. And I didn't ask any question.
They were just making a statement to me. And I
think it's a fair question. I don't think I compare
homes to homes. That's not fair because some homes built
before seventy five they don't even have insulation in the
(10:46):
walls unless they've edited. Is that the case? Do you
know where the insulation is in your attic? In terms
of our values, in terms of have you added insulation
to your attic? Have you looked at adding weathers dripping
in your home and kind of done a little miniature
energy audit Any penetrations around the home wires or pipes
(11:11):
are those tightly calked. But what type of materials are
needed for weather stripping? You know, there's a bunch of
different types, and sometimes all that's needed is a scissors
or utility knife, or a screwdriver if you're installing a
door sweep, and maybe a drill. But you know, to
(11:35):
give you an example, there's weather stripping as simple as
foam back tape that you can just put on a
jam and the door closes against it. You might replace
it every couple of years, but it's available, requires no tools,
and you know, get somebody outside with a piece of chalk.
(11:58):
I tell this often inside a little flashlight, Go around
the door, go along the top, go along the bottom.
Person outside with chalk and mark where the air penetration
is and if you want to go with the foam tape,
you know, have at it. There's also v strip or
tension seal for the sides of the door. Those just
(12:20):
kind of close and create a little bit of a
vinyl flap that creates eliminates the draft that creates the seal.
There's a vinyl bulb on an aluminum frame that can
be screwed to the jam and the door pushes against it.
That's a little bit more, not complicated, but it's a
(12:42):
little bit more permanent than the foam back tape, that's
for sure, but can be And don't forget don't forget
the the the the door sweep at the base. But
when you're inspecting that door, check for the gaps that
are around the door. Talked about the light. Also, just
(13:02):
by closing in you can observe a lot of it.
On a cold day, you can feel where the penetrations are,
measure the gaps. You're probably gonna find out that the
gaps are different at different parts in the door, and
you know you're gotta take care of the smaller gaps too.
That's why the foam is nice, or that vinyl bulb
(13:23):
that I was talking about in the frame because it compresses.
And if you want to do that tape with the foam,
there's also a tape with like a sponge rubber. It's
a little bit more stout, and if the gap is
fairly consistent, I'd really recommend using that number one. It's
gonna last a lot longer than the foam and it's
(13:46):
gonna be a little more stout. Like I said, so
it's gonna you know, take that gap and handle that
opening much better. As far as the door sweeps at
the bottom of the door, all kinds of easy ones
there too. I've seen him in brown, I've seen him
in white. That's about to do choices. I was thinking
(14:09):
if there was a black I don't remember seeing anything.
But really it's an adhesive strip off the back that
just peels off and you can, you know, have the
door closed and you can put the adhesive goes to
the door. Obviously the vinyl sweep would go to the
floor and or the threshold and then that'll do okay. Heck,
(14:29):
you can throw a tower or blanket down there on
real cold days do something. Also, look at that threshold
and if it's an aluminum threshold and you've got that
little vinyl seal, that little half moon that's replaceable. Now
there's about eight different sizes and shapes, configurations, and it
(14:53):
just slides in. You can pull that out, take it
to the hardware store, make sure you get the exact one.
Putting the and that creates a seal at the bottomlet
the door to the threshold, and maybe that's your answer
if you want a better door sweep. There's some really
cool ones. I told you about the easy one. Sometimes
(15:14):
I'm all about easy, but on weather stripping on doors,
I don't want to be screwing around with this every year.
I want to do it now and have it last
five or ten years. And they have some nice I know.
There's a couple of real quality Dennis Macklenburg Duncan good
quality door seals, good rigid aluminum. Maybe it's got a
(15:36):
triple vinyl seal so when you close it, you got
like three fingers of vinyl that are sealing it tight
at the base of that door, and you'll have to
draw a pilot holes in and run a screw in.
But that's a real permanent one. There's also one I've found.
(15:57):
I haven't installed one in years but I like it.
It's a sweep that you anchor to the door, and
then a little part of that sweep, the actual sweep
that goes down to the floor to the threshold to
create the seal. There's a little extension that goes beyond
the opening of the door. When you close that door,
(16:19):
you kick that so it engages and drops when the
door's closed, and then if you had to like swing
it over carpet, when you open the door, it retracts.
It's pretty cool, but that's something you might want to
take a look at. Also, all right, if you'd like
to join us, Love to talk to you about what
you're working on or maybe a project you're thinking about
(16:42):
tackling next year. Love to chat about that. It's eight
hundred eight two three eight two five five. Will continue
with your calls. You're at home with Gary Salvan right
here on fifty five care Seed Detalk Station and backhead it.
We go at home with Gary Sullivan. Earlier today we
hit and it's interesting, I tell you, plumbing systems they're
(17:03):
challenged this time of year, either by the amount of
demand that we're having with entertainment and cooking and all that,
or the cold weather whatever the case may be, they
do struggle. I'm not saying it's gonna break down, but
we've had back to back weekends where we had some
(17:23):
conversations about water pressure that's real high and then goes
real low. And I was talking, in fact, about an
hour ago to somebody and I said, well, you got
to determine whether you're dealing with low water pressure or
you're dealing with low water volume. There is a difference,
(17:44):
but there's also things to check, and a lot of
times when I go through and today's been a classic example.
Time of year, I'm sure people are busy and they
don't have the time to really go through check all
the boxes, do the investigation, whether it's a leak. We
(18:07):
think it's in the roof, but maybe it's somewhere else,
or the water systems, you know, real high pressure and
then no pressure, or is it volume. So when you
start making a checklist and saying these are the things
you need to check, I really don't want to hear it.
Can't you just tell me what's wrong with Any answer
is no. So just kind of doing a little looking
(18:29):
around on some notes I have from last week and
today regarding the problem with water that presents itself as
flowing with good pressure and plenty and then coming to
a trickle. I had talked to I said, well, it
could be all the way out to your meter. It
could be the supply, you know, and just start checking
(18:51):
it down and talking about some of the things it
could be. And one of the first things to check
if this happens is, you know, the main shut off
valve coming in your home, make sure it's fully open,
(19:12):
even shutting it off and turning it on, seeing trying
to determine if there's a blockage there. Again, if it
flows full but then down to a drop or a trickle,
an obstruction really could be the problem. It could be,
you know, getting stuck in there and just stopping the
(19:33):
water from flowing. Faulty pressure regulator. A lot of people
don't even know what a pressure regulator even looks like.
But it's right by your valve, and I say, put
your two fists together, that's about what it looks like.
It could be malfunctioning, especially if it doesn't maintain consistent
(19:57):
pressure again, starts out strong and then just kind of
weakens air in the pipes. The person last week I
chatted about that shutting off the main, opening up the pipes,
draining the pipes, and then opening the main again and
seeing if that stops the issue. Even a compromise pipe outside,
(20:23):
a supply pipe, crush broken, whatever, that can certainly come
into play. Also, all right, Randy, welcome, Yes, sir, Yeah,
I have a question.
Speaker 5 (20:35):
I have a thirty year old house with thirty year
old toilets, and at least two of them anyway, and.
Speaker 6 (20:41):
And just these two toilets they flush slowly when they're
full of number two and so.
Speaker 5 (20:53):
And I had one plumber tell me that, oh, yeah,
you have an old toilet, And I said, what do
you think by an old toy?
Speaker 1 (21:00):
It?
Speaker 5 (21:00):
Oh yeah, old toilets don't flush well. And I didn't
understand how one could go from plushing perfectly fine to
not flushing well well.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
When I was young, I walked well, and I don't
walk so well now. And we're talking, yeah, well, let
me tell you. Let me tell you why, because he
didn't finish explaining what he meant. So the way you
get a good flush and a toilet is the water
from the closet is quickly distributed to the bowl, which
(21:35):
removes the waste, and you get a good volume flush.
So the real question is what's prohibiting your toilet from
giving and delivering a good volume, plush flush. And there's
two things. When you have hard water, and we certainly
(21:56):
have hard water in our city, and with all limestone
and hard water creates some calcium carbonate, and you know,
it's almost like a small stone. You know, it affects
our water heaters, it affects our refrigerator water fillters, and
(22:17):
it shows up in our toilets. So for every pipe
that goes down in taking water, there's a pipe somewhere
that is allowing air to flow in. So a good
flush needs air and it needs water. So if it's
dislodging the water from the reservoir to the tank into
(22:39):
the bowl, it's going down a pipe and it's distributed
around the entire rim of the toilet bowl, Randy. And
underneath that toilet bowl rim is a series of holes
all the way around it. And what happens over time
is that toilet ages is little pieces of calcium carbonate
(23:03):
get stuck in his holes. So you start minimizing the
power of that flush. All right, So if you take
a compact mirror and you run it along the rim
of that bowl, and you're gonna see where some of
these holes are open, and you're going to see where
some of these holes are clogged. And a little twist
(23:26):
drill bit or a little piece of wire or something,
if you have a compact mirror and you're holding it
underneath there, you can kind of clean out those holes,
which is going to increase the water flow going to
the bowl. All right, So that takes care of the
volume of water, and you can kind of prove it
(23:47):
to yourself too if you want. Where as you flush
that you stand there with a bucket of water and
add water into that bowl and see if that removes
all the waste and everything by having more volume of water.
So the other one is air I mentioned, and if
(24:07):
you look down in that toilet, you'll probably see a
little hole about the size of a nickel that's connected
to the other pipes that provide the air. I'll use
this analogy. If you have a gallon gas canon you're
trying to pour gas out of it without opening that vent.
You know how it just kind of burps the water out,
(24:28):
But if you open that vent, that water flows freely.
Same thing is calcium carbonate will form around that hole,
restricting the airflow, which will restrict the flush. So cleaning
that out may be as simple as taking a bottle
of CLR calcium lime, rusty movie. Pour a whole bottle
(24:52):
of that in there. Let's sit overnight, and then flush
it away and see if that helps. Those are the
two things as I would do.
Speaker 5 (25:03):
Oh, because sometimes it does sur and sometimes it just
claws right and so so sick of the claw, I
just plunge it right. And that made me think that
something with the something with the you know, the drain.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Right right, Well, that's everybody's natural thought, and I'm not
here to say that's not the case. Because my third
thing is is remember that that uh, that trap or
that pipe that's in the toilet. It's a one hundred
and eighty degree turned. It goes, it's molded into the toilet,
(25:42):
It goes up, it turns ninety degrees, comes straight down,
and goes into the waistline underneath the toilet. So any
kind of impediment that's in that drain screws everything up
to usually if there's kids in the house, and I
did this many times, you know, shut off the water, drain,
(26:06):
the tang, take the toilet off and snake underneath, and
you'll find a little toy car or some surprise.
Speaker 5 (26:13):
Oh yeah, yeah, we had a car.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
Yeah yeah, exactly exactly. So yeah, yeah, so you know
there's a there's those three things are the kings. Most
people think it's the uh, the trapping the pipe right away,
And really what I'm here to say is on older toilets,
it's just restriction of the air or the water in
(26:36):
a lot of cases, which you are easily solved. All right,
you're quite welcome, Randy, Thank you, take care of him.
Merry Christmas. All right, you can grab a line. We
got a spot for you. Our number is eight hundred
eight two three eight two five five. By the way,
if you're gonna pop off a toilet under the floor
(26:57):
when you go to put that back, this hip will
save you time and money. There's all kind of wax
rings out there. There's just a regular wax ring, don't
get those. There's a wax ring with a little snout
that fits into the waistline. You can get those. Then
there's these newer ones that you definitely should get us.
(27:18):
It'll save you an hour frustration. Perfect seal is the
name of it. The waxes containing a little rubbery plastic housing.
Super easy to install, super easy getting perfect alignment with it,
and certainly the direction you'd want to go. All right again,
that number is eight hundred eighty two three eight two
(27:40):
five five your calls and you're at home with Gary
Salvin right here in fifty five care see the talk station?
All right? Uh? Little Christmas music? Absolutely. I was just
reading an article on Ron Wilson. Did have a heart
attack if I told him this, but it brought back
a interesting memory from the Sullivan household. It was called
(28:03):
the headlines. Of course, you know today's world. We got
to scare you. It said Christmas tree syndrome. Oh my gosh,
what's going on? And I didn't read the whole article,
but basically what it was talking about was allergens and
mold being brought into your house. I'm not going to
(28:25):
sit here and tell you that that can't happen, because
there's mold spores, remember, in the air everywhere. That's how
leaves and sticks and things break down. But who doesn't
love a natural tree in your house for Christmas? Can't
eat the smell and the looks, and eventually, I think
(28:47):
a lot of us have gotten away from Christmas trees.
But when they're talking about the Christmas tree syndrome, this
is a terrible story to tell. But my middle son,
he was It turns out he had some issues with allergies.
(29:10):
And he's a year and a half old. Christmas comes around,
he's drolling, he's got a red face, and he's miserable,
and we took him to the doctor. Thought he had
a cold, a cole and my wife says, well, does
he have allergies. I'll know he's not. You know, we
don't even test for allergies that that age or something
(29:32):
along those lines. In other words, don't worry about it,
akrod okay. So on we go, and you know, during
the course of the year, you know, he had a
couple bouts of it, and next Christmas his red cheeks,
he's drolling his eyes for water and looks terrible. We're
still not putting the it's easy to put it together now, right,
(29:55):
But nobody else was suffering from anything. It wasn't even
on the mind that it could be allergens from the
Christmas tree until he was about five. So say four
Christmases went by and he's five, and all of a sudden,
Sooo says, I wonder if he's allergic to that Christmas
(30:19):
tree because he always always kind of has bad allergies.
And I'm going like, well maybe, but you know, also
as our homes get tighter, you hear me tell the story,
and you know, there's a lot of you know, air
particles that we can breathe, and it could be allergies.
(30:39):
I don't know if I blame the Christmas tree right away.
And the following year we didn't put up the Christmas tree.
We had an artificial tree, and he was getting older
and he was getting over some of his allergies. But
when Christmas came, there was no red cheeks, no drooling,
and no watery eyes, and so I guess I had
(31:02):
the Christmas tree syndrome in our house. And of course,
two or three years later he outgrew all his allergies
and has a happy ending. But when I saw that headline,
the article I was reading people suffering from Christmas tree syndrome,
first I laughed. In fact, Danny, I even laughed and
told you, oh, more scary headlines. Yes, but it's real.
(31:26):
You know, I talk about it all the time. If
you have mold and mildew allergies. Some people get dramatically
affected by it, other people not at all. I remember
shooting a TV show down in a basement one time
on waterproofing basements, and this lady whose house it was said, well,
(31:47):
I can't go down there because I can't hardly breathe.
And I'm going, OK, what did we get ourselves into?
And we probably had a crew of five or six
and me and we went down there and no problem.
One person had a problem, and the owner of the
house had a problem, and they could not go down
(32:07):
in that basement. It was in bad shape. It was
in bad shape. But those allergions certainly affect people. I
tell this story just because if you're sitting there with
somebody who's dramatically, you know, suffering with cold or allergies,
just kind of put that note in the back of
your head, especially if you have a Christmas tree or really,
(32:31):
I guess any type of greenery that's natural, not plastic,
so anyway that might save you some problems. Well, I
do want to take this time really to wish everyone
a very very merry Christmas. Thank you for joining us
all through the year. We will be back next weekend
and we'll do it again, of course, but I certainly
(32:55):
thank you for your patronage to the show. I thank
you for taking care of our sponsors and trying their products.
We talk about them a lot, and I also talk
about a lot of products that are not my sponsors,
because I think you the listener wanted to know how
to fix it, what do you use, and where to
get it. And I try to stay on that belief.
(33:19):
And we certainly want to thank Danny Boy who's here
every weekend taking the calls and getting you on the air,
and he promised he'd leave you with a little Christmas music,
and Danny really thanks for everything this year. I appreciate it. Listen,
Merry Christmas to everybody, and good Lord Willing. We'll be
(33:41):
back next weekend for more at Home with Garry Sullivan.
Speaker 7 (35:00):
I don't.
Speaker 8 (36:00):
At its
Speaker 1 (38:34):
Fifty five k RC, the talk station
We have lines that are open. You can dial us up.
It's eight hundred eight two three eight two five five.
Love to talk to you about your home project, either's
maintenance or repair. Whatever the question may be. May not
know the answer. Someone out there will so about your house,
not necessarily about appliances or things like that, but we'll
do our best. Patricia, Welcome, Hi, they're hearing. How are
(00:27):
you doing doing fun? Thank you good? Hey?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
A quick question. I have a vintage untried for me
message open or oven, but I'm worried about whether or
not it would affect the eating almost or the little
thermometer that's in there. It's uh, you fill up right
(00:53):
about a medium sized ball, ceramic ball with ammonia and
you leave it up. Will that hurt those elements?
Speaker 1 (01:02):
I have no idea.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Well, you haven't heard that I have.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Well, we had somebody pouring ammonia down drains a little
bit ago and telling me it. You know it takes
care of that, But I don't know ammonia. Obviously, you
know it has a gas because we can smell it,
but I don't know if it affects the elements. I
don't know.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Well, it's an old Hello helloween books that I received,
and I just saw it in there and I didn't know.
I haven't heard nothing else about it.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Well, she had a lot of good, you know, home
remedies that may work. I will say the one that
I talked about in terms of just putting a a
you know, a baking pan in. They're filled with water
at you know, four hundred and four twenty five for
about three or four hours and it just that steam alone.
(02:00):
We'll soften up any food particles and then coming back
with like a kitchen to grease or that cream cleanser
I have, and it literally will wipe it off and
remove the residue. But just putting in ammonia and just
like it said, I just don't know. Maybe somebody can
give us answer.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
I'll try your remedy.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
All right, give it a try. Let us know. Thanks, Patricia,
Let's go to Bill. Bill welcome.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
I've got a top loading washing machine where the drum
has rusted out, not completely, and I've been told that
the easiest and probably the cheapest way to deal with
that is just get a new washer. But can something
kind of ceilant like JB Waterworld be used to stop
(02:53):
the water from coming out of the bottom of the drum.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
You could use like a plumber. There's a POxy or
there's a product called PC seven which is an epoxy
for steel. Both of those would have a potential work.
I don't know how long they would last. How big
is the hole?
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Well, I don't know. It's been three years or more
since I looked at it. But I bought some JB.
Water weld for another purpose recently, so it's putty. Yeah,
water we putt putty for a leak similar thing around
my sink drain, so I thought maybe it could be
(03:39):
used for the.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Well, you got nothing to lose, Bill, you know, really, you.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Know if putty dry as hard as rock, and I
don't want to use something that I could use better
if I have to pull that.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Out, Well, the thing that I'm recommending is probably very
similar to what you're talking about, So I would say
what's on the market those type of steel epoxies is
probably what you're going to have to use. Now, I
wouldn't use a I think part of the issue will
(04:16):
be how big the hole is, how much you have
to put on, because if you start messing up with
the weight and the balance of that, that could cause
even further problems. So you know it's probably would be
you know, probably do a fairly decent job if you
got in there with some you know, three hundred grit
(04:38):
wet dry paper, remove the rust, cleaned it up real good,
and the holes, you know, fairly small where you can
cover it up with that type of paste or patch,
but don't put it on too thick.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
What size maximum for a whole.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Or a Yeah, I probably wouldn't do it much bigger
than a tip of my thumb. There's no rules on it.
I'm just guessing.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
What if I combine the putty, if I put in
a piece of aluminium or metal to help plug the
hole so the putty would hold better, or whatever.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
I think the first thing you're gonna do, Bill is
find out how big that hole is, because right now
we're just kind of chasing our tail. You know, if
the hole's bigger and you need a plug, you're gonna
have to do something. So how you're gonna configure that
I don't know, but you would have to use some
(05:43):
sort of filler, That's what I'm saying. I think you're
I think you're probably looking at something that's gonna be
half the size of a dime to use just a putty,
and after that you're gonna have to take a look
at it and see what you can kind of make
a mission. I think probably the first advice you ahead
was getting a new washer is probably a good option.
(06:04):
There are a couple other things out there, Bill, There's
I don't know if you're familiar with what a boiler
plug is. A boiler plug is like a a different
sized bolts with threads and a gasket at the top
where you could literally just screw a boiler plug in.
There is designed where there's a hole in a boiler
(06:28):
you know, if it's you know, again, it depends on
the size. You got to find out the size first.
But maybe a boiler plug and some epoxy patch maybe
that's the answer. But I think it's going to be
a try and trial and error type thing. And I
also don't think you got much to lose based of
the based on what you're telling me about the washer itself.
(06:49):
All right, we got a spot for you, and if
you've got a question, jump on board. It's eight hundred
eight two three eight two five five. We'll continue with
your calls. You're at home with Gary Sulvan right here
in fifty five care see detalk station and back ahead
and we go at home with Gary Sullivan taking your
calls about your home projects, a maintenance or repair, or
(07:12):
maybe a big project you're looking at for next year.
I kind of like to talk about those too. We
got another couple of weeks to chat about those. But
you know, it seems like every year a couple things
I always try to do is you're ahead, what's my
project next year? And where am I going on vacation?
That's key. Let's get to Mark Mark welcome.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
Hey there. You were just talking about umdifiers on furnace
installations and whether it's on return or supply.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:43):
So typical insallation is to mount the head unit on
the return and then there's a bypass that carries the
air to the supply side. The point being is that
when you mount on the supply side, if you do
have leagues from poor maintenance and such, right, that water's
going to trail over the heat exchanger and so you
have the risk of causing damage to the furnace, the
(08:03):
control boards and everything else. The terminology for the unit
inside the humidifier is a water pad and you were correct.
It's not a filter. It's basically just for even distribution
of the water. So as that air passes through the
return side, draws through the water pad, picks up whatever
said moisture is, and then carries to the supply side
(08:25):
the damper that you have on the umidifier strictly for
air control, whereas the humidifier is controlled by what's called emdicat.
So we see.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Yeah, And I appreciate Mark for some reason. And I
think you're getting our first hour of the show. So
we've been doing this show for about three hours now,
and I did look some things up, and you know,
one of the I just I don't know why it was.
I was just having a really hard time gather my
thoughts to explain it. You did it very eloquently. Thank you.
(08:59):
So I'm an eye.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
Well we're a little slower here.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
I guess I'm in Cincinnati. I think we're cousins. There
you go. When the warm air is heated in going across,
or doesn't that hold more moisture?
Speaker 5 (09:13):
It can?
Speaker 4 (09:14):
It all depends on the setting of the amidistat, and
I always tell clients it depends on the house itself too.
There's so many residual things that are putting moisture into
a home. We spend more of our life to get
it out than to add moisture to it.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
I you know what, I totally agree with you. Bathroom
fans number one problem.
Speaker 4 (09:33):
And you can't disregard house plants, cooking, dog, dish water bowl.
How many kids are taking showers exposed foundation?
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Ye? Well, very good, thank you, Thank you for the tip.
I appreciate it. Did much better than I did earlier. Yes,
all right, I try. All right. It's eight hundred and
eight two three eight two five five. If you've been
trying to get through, now is a very good time.
The lines are open. I talked earlier today we were
(10:04):
talking about weather stripping. I just somebody emailed me and said,
what in the world is going on with our energy bill?
Last year or our even building was two ninety five.
I just got a bill for six hundred bucks. Well,
have you been listening to the news? Energy is not
(10:26):
going down, it's going up. And I didn't ask any question.
They were just making a statement to me. And I
think it's a fair question. I don't think I compare
homes to homes. That's not fair because some homes built
before seventy five they don't even have insulation in the
(10:46):
walls unless they've edited. Is that the case? Do you
know where the insulation is in your attic? In terms
of our values, in terms of have you added insulation
to your attic? Have you looked at adding weathers dripping
in your home and kind of done a little miniature
energy audit Any penetrations around the home wires or pipes
(11:11):
are those tightly calked. But what type of materials are
needed for weather stripping? You know, there's a bunch of
different types, and sometimes all that's needed is a scissors
or utility knife, or a screwdriver if you're installing a
door sweep, and maybe a drill. But you know, to
(11:35):
give you an example, there's weather stripping as simple as
foam back tape that you can just put on a
jam and the door closes against it. You might replace
it every couple of years, but it's available, requires no tools,
and you know, get somebody outside with a piece of chalk.
(11:58):
I tell this often inside a little flashlight, Go around
the door, go along the top, go along the bottom.
Person outside with chalk and mark where the air penetration
is and if you want to go with the foam tape,
you know, have at it. There's also v strip or
tension seal for the sides of the door. Those just
(12:20):
kind of close and create a little bit of a
vinyl flap that creates eliminates the draft that creates the seal.
There's a vinyl bulb on an aluminum frame that can
be screwed to the jam and the door pushes against it.
That's a little bit more, not complicated, but it's a
(12:42):
little bit more permanent than the foam back tape, that's
for sure, but can be And don't forget don't forget
the the the the door sweep at the base. But
when you're inspecting that door, check for the gaps that
are around the door. Talked about the light. Also, just
(13:02):
by closing in you can observe a lot of it.
On a cold day, you can feel where the penetrations are,
measure the gaps. You're probably gonna find out that the
gaps are different at different parts in the door, and
you know you're gotta take care of the smaller gaps too.
That's why the foam is nice, or that vinyl bulb
(13:23):
that I was talking about in the frame because it compresses.
And if you want to do that tape with the foam,
there's also a tape with like a sponge rubber. It's
a little bit more stout, and if the gap is
fairly consistent, I'd really recommend using that number one. It's
gonna last a lot longer than the foam and it's
(13:46):
gonna be a little more stout. Like I said, so
it's gonna you know, take that gap and handle that
opening much better. As far as the door sweeps at
the bottom of the door, all kinds of easy ones
there too. I've seen him in brown, I've seen him
in white. That's about to do choices. I was thinking
(14:09):
if there was a black I don't remember seeing anything.
But really it's an adhesive strip off the back that
just peels off and you can, you know, have the
door closed and you can put the adhesive goes to
the door. Obviously the vinyl sweep would go to the
floor and or the threshold and then that'll do okay. Heck,
(14:29):
you can throw a tower or blanket down there on
real cold days do something. Also, look at that threshold
and if it's an aluminum threshold and you've got that
little vinyl seal, that little half moon that's replaceable. Now
there's about eight different sizes and shapes, configurations, and it
(14:53):
just slides in. You can pull that out, take it
to the hardware store, make sure you get the exact one.
Putting the and that creates a seal at the bottomlet
the door to the threshold, and maybe that's your answer
if you want a better door sweep. There's some really
cool ones. I told you about the easy one. Sometimes
(15:14):
I'm all about easy, but on weather stripping on doors,
I don't want to be screwing around with this every year.
I want to do it now and have it last
five or ten years. And they have some nice I know.
There's a couple of real quality Dennis Macklenburg Duncan good
quality door seals, good rigid aluminum. Maybe it's got a
(15:36):
triple vinyl seal so when you close it, you got
like three fingers of vinyl that are sealing it tight
at the base of that door, and you'll have to
draw a pilot holes in and run a screw in.
But that's a real permanent one. There's also one I've found.
(15:57):
I haven't installed one in years but I like it.
It's a sweep that you anchor to the door, and
then a little part of that sweep, the actual sweep
that goes down to the floor to the threshold to
create the seal. There's a little extension that goes beyond
the opening of the door. When you close that door,
(16:19):
you kick that so it engages and drops when the
door's closed, and then if you had to like swing
it over carpet, when you open the door, it retracts.
It's pretty cool, but that's something you might want to
take a look at. Also, all right, if you'd like
to join us, Love to talk to you about what
you're working on or maybe a project you're thinking about
(16:42):
tackling next year. Love to chat about that. It's eight
hundred eight two three eight two five five. Will continue
with your calls. You're at home with Gary Salvan right
here on fifty five care Seed Detalk Station and backhead it.
We go at home with Gary Sullivan. Earlier today we
hit and it's interesting, I tell you, plumbing systems they're
(17:03):
challenged this time of year, either by the amount of
demand that we're having with entertainment and cooking and all that,
or the cold weather whatever the case may be, they
do struggle. I'm not saying it's gonna break down, but
we've had back to back weekends where we had some
(17:23):
conversations about water pressure that's real high and then goes
real low. And I was talking, in fact, about an
hour ago to somebody and I said, well, you got
to determine whether you're dealing with low water pressure or
you're dealing with low water volume. There is a difference,
(17:44):
but there's also things to check, and a lot of
times when I go through and today's been a classic example.
Time of year, I'm sure people are busy and they
don't have the time to really go through check all
the boxes, do the investigation, whether it's a leak. We
(18:07):
think it's in the roof, but maybe it's somewhere else,
or the water systems, you know, real high pressure and
then no pressure, or is it volume. So when you
start making a checklist and saying these are the things
you need to check, I really don't want to hear it.
Can't you just tell me what's wrong with Any answer
is no. So just kind of doing a little looking
(18:29):
around on some notes I have from last week and
today regarding the problem with water that presents itself as
flowing with good pressure and plenty and then coming to
a trickle. I had talked to I said, well, it
could be all the way out to your meter. It
could be the supply, you know, and just start checking
(18:51):
it down and talking about some of the things it
could be. And one of the first things to check
if this happens is, you know, the main shut off
valve coming in your home, make sure it's fully open,
(19:12):
even shutting it off and turning it on, seeing trying
to determine if there's a blockage there. Again, if it
flows full but then down to a drop or a trickle,
an obstruction really could be the problem. It could be,
you know, getting stuck in there and just stopping the
(19:33):
water from flowing. Faulty pressure regulator. A lot of people
don't even know what a pressure regulator even looks like.
But it's right by your valve, and I say, put
your two fists together, that's about what it looks like.
It could be malfunctioning, especially if it doesn't maintain consistent
(19:57):
pressure again, starts out strong and then just kind of
weakens air in the pipes. The person last week I
chatted about that shutting off the main, opening up the pipes,
draining the pipes, and then opening the main again and
seeing if that stops the issue. Even a compromise pipe outside,
(20:23):
a supply pipe, crush broken, whatever, that can certainly come
into play. Also, all right, Randy, welcome, Yes, sir, Yeah,
I have a question.
Speaker 5 (20:35):
I have a thirty year old house with thirty year
old toilets, and at least two of them anyway, and.
Speaker 6 (20:41):
And just these two toilets they flush slowly when they're
full of number two and so.
Speaker 5 (20:53):
And I had one plumber tell me that, oh, yeah,
you have an old toilet, And I said, what do
you think by an old toy?
Speaker 1 (21:00):
It?
Speaker 5 (21:00):
Oh yeah, old toilets don't flush well. And I didn't
understand how one could go from plushing perfectly fine to
not flushing well well.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
When I was young, I walked well, and I don't
walk so well now. And we're talking, yeah, well, let
me tell you. Let me tell you why, because he
didn't finish explaining what he meant. So the way you
get a good flush and a toilet is the water
from the closet is quickly distributed to the bowl, which
(21:35):
removes the waste, and you get a good volume flush.
So the real question is what's prohibiting your toilet from
giving and delivering a good volume, plush flush. And there's
two things. When you have hard water, and we certainly
(21:56):
have hard water in our city, and with all limestone
and hard water creates some calcium carbonate, and you know,
it's almost like a small stone. You know, it affects
our water heaters, it affects our refrigerator water fillters, and
(22:17):
it shows up in our toilets. So for every pipe
that goes down in taking water, there's a pipe somewhere
that is allowing air to flow in. So a good
flush needs air and it needs water. So if it's
dislodging the water from the reservoir to the tank into
(22:39):
the bowl, it's going down a pipe and it's distributed
around the entire rim of the toilet bowl, Randy. And
underneath that toilet bowl rim is a series of holes
all the way around it. And what happens over time
is that toilet ages is little pieces of calcium carbonate
(23:03):
get stuck in his holes. So you start minimizing the
power of that flush. All right, So if you take
a compact mirror and you run it along the rim
of that bowl, and you're gonna see where some of
these holes are open, and you're going to see where
some of these holes are clogged. And a little twist
(23:26):
drill bit or a little piece of wire or something,
if you have a compact mirror and you're holding it
underneath there, you can kind of clean out those holes,
which is going to increase the water flow going to
the bowl. All right, So that takes care of the
volume of water, and you can kind of prove it
(23:47):
to yourself too if you want. Where as you flush
that you stand there with a bucket of water and
add water into that bowl and see if that removes
all the waste and everything by having more volume of water.
So the other one is air I mentioned, and if
(24:07):
you look down in that toilet, you'll probably see a
little hole about the size of a nickel that's connected
to the other pipes that provide the air. I'll use
this analogy. If you have a gallon gas canon you're
trying to pour gas out of it without opening that vent.
You know how it just kind of burps the water out,
(24:28):
But if you open that vent, that water flows freely.
Same thing is calcium carbonate will form around that hole,
restricting the airflow, which will restrict the flush. So cleaning
that out may be as simple as taking a bottle
of CLR calcium lime, rusty movie. Pour a whole bottle
(24:52):
of that in there. Let's sit overnight, and then flush
it away and see if that helps. Those are the
two things as I would do.
Speaker 5 (25:03):
Oh, because sometimes it does sur and sometimes it just
claws right and so so sick of the claw, I
just plunge it right. And that made me think that
something with the something with the you know, the drain.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Right right, Well, that's everybody's natural thought, and I'm not
here to say that's not the case. Because my third
thing is is remember that that uh, that trap or
that pipe that's in the toilet. It's a one hundred
and eighty degree turned. It goes, it's molded into the toilet,
(25:42):
It goes up, it turns ninety degrees, comes straight down,
and goes into the waistline underneath the toilet. So any
kind of impediment that's in that drain screws everything up
to usually if there's kids in the house, and I
did this many times, you know, shut off the water, drain,
(26:06):
the tang, take the toilet off and snake underneath, and
you'll find a little toy car or some surprise.
Speaker 5 (26:13):
Oh yeah, yeah, we had a car.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
Yeah yeah, exactly exactly. So yeah, yeah, so you know
there's a there's those three things are the kings. Most
people think it's the uh, the trapping the pipe right away,
And really what I'm here to say is on older toilets,
it's just restriction of the air or the water in
(26:36):
a lot of cases, which you are easily solved. All right,
you're quite welcome, Randy, Thank you, take care of him.
Merry Christmas. All right, you can grab a line. We
got a spot for you. Our number is eight hundred
eight two three eight two five five. By the way,
if you're gonna pop off a toilet under the floor
(26:57):
when you go to put that back, this hip will
save you time and money. There's all kind of wax
rings out there. There's just a regular wax ring, don't
get those. There's a wax ring with a little snout
that fits into the waistline. You can get those. Then
there's these newer ones that you definitely should get us.
(27:18):
It'll save you an hour frustration. Perfect seal is the
name of it. The waxes containing a little rubbery plastic housing.
Super easy to install, super easy getting perfect alignment with it,
and certainly the direction you'd want to go. All right again,
that number is eight hundred eighty two three eight two
(27:40):
five five your calls and you're at home with Gary
Salvin right here in fifty five care see the talk station?
All right? Uh? Little Christmas music? Absolutely. I was just
reading an article on Ron Wilson. Did have a heart
attack if I told him this, but it brought back
a interesting memory from the Sullivan household. It was called
(28:03):
the headlines. Of course, you know today's world. We got
to scare you. It said Christmas tree syndrome. Oh my gosh,
what's going on? And I didn't read the whole article,
but basically what it was talking about was allergens and
mold being brought into your house. I'm not going to
(28:25):
sit here and tell you that that can't happen, because
there's mold spores, remember, in the air everywhere. That's how
leaves and sticks and things break down. But who doesn't
love a natural tree in your house for Christmas? Can't
eat the smell and the looks, and eventually, I think
(28:47):
a lot of us have gotten away from Christmas trees.
But when they're talking about the Christmas tree syndrome, this
is a terrible story to tell. But my middle son,
he was It turns out he had some issues with allergies.
(29:10):
And he's a year and a half old. Christmas comes around,
he's drolling, he's got a red face, and he's miserable,
and we took him to the doctor. Thought he had
a cold, a cole and my wife says, well, does
he have allergies. I'll know he's not. You know, we
don't even test for allergies that that age or something
(29:32):
along those lines. In other words, don't worry about it,
akrod okay. So on we go, and you know, during
the course of the year, you know, he had a
couple bouts of it, and next Christmas his red cheeks,
he's drolling his eyes for water and looks terrible. We're
still not putting the it's easy to put it together now, right,
(29:55):
But nobody else was suffering from anything. It wasn't even
on the mind that it could be allergens from the
Christmas tree until he was about five. So say four
Christmases went by and he's five, and all of a sudden,
Sooo says, I wonder if he's allergic to that Christmas
(30:19):
tree because he always always kind of has bad allergies.
And I'm going like, well maybe, but you know, also
as our homes get tighter, you hear me tell the story,
and you know, there's a lot of you know, air
particles that we can breathe, and it could be allergies.
(30:39):
I don't know if I blame the Christmas tree right away.
And the following year we didn't put up the Christmas tree.
We had an artificial tree, and he was getting older
and he was getting over some of his allergies. But
when Christmas came, there was no red cheeks, no drooling,
and no watery eyes, and so I guess I had
(31:02):
the Christmas tree syndrome in our house. And of course,
two or three years later he outgrew all his allergies
and has a happy ending. But when I saw that headline,
the article I was reading people suffering from Christmas tree syndrome,
first I laughed. In fact, Danny, I even laughed and
told you, oh, more scary headlines. Yes, but it's real.
(31:26):
You know, I talk about it all the time. If
you have mold and mildew allergies. Some people get dramatically
affected by it, other people not at all. I remember
shooting a TV show down in a basement one time
on waterproofing basements, and this lady whose house it was said, well,
(31:47):
I can't go down there because I can't hardly breathe.
And I'm going, OK, what did we get ourselves into?
And we probably had a crew of five or six
and me and we went down there and no problem.
One person had a problem, and the owner of the
house had a problem, and they could not go down
(32:07):
in that basement. It was in bad shape. It was
in bad shape. But those allergions certainly affect people. I
tell this story just because if you're sitting there with
somebody who's dramatically, you know, suffering with cold or allergies,
just kind of put that note in the back of
your head, especially if you have a Christmas tree or really,
(32:31):
I guess any type of greenery that's natural, not plastic,
so anyway that might save you some problems. Well, I
do want to take this time really to wish everyone
a very very merry Christmas. Thank you for joining us
all through the year. We will be back next weekend
and we'll do it again, of course, but I certainly
(32:55):
thank you for your patronage to the show. I thank
you for taking care of our sponsors and trying their products.
We talk about them a lot, and I also talk
about a lot of products that are not my sponsors,
because I think you the listener wanted to know how
to fix it, what do you use, and where to
get it. And I try to stay on that belief.
(33:19):
And we certainly want to thank Danny Boy who's here
every weekend taking the calls and getting you on the air,
and he promised he'd leave you with a little Christmas music,
and Danny really thanks for everything this year. I appreciate it. Listen,
Merry Christmas to everybody, and good Lord Willing. We'll be
(33:41):
back next weekend for more at Home with Garry Sullivan.
Speaker 7 (35:00):
I don't.
Speaker 8 (36:00):
At its
Speaker 1 (38:34):
Fifty five k RC, the talk station
At Home with Gary Sullivan News
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com