December 28, 2025 • 45 mins
This hour of "At Home with Gary Sullivan" is all about tackling home improvement projects and learning from a homeowner's experience. Lisa shares her story of hiring a contractor for a kitchen renovation, but things didn't go as planned. She discusses her concerns and the issues she faced, including a change in the scope of work and a lack of communication. Gary offers advice on how to navigate similar situations and provides tips on how to find a reliable contractor. They also talk about the importance of doing your homework and being prepared for home improvement projects.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:28):
All right, the weekends upon us. Welcome aboard. You are
at home with Gary Salvin live and in studio that
clean up the pieces from a couple of holidays. Why
not let me give you the phone number, happy to
take your calls regarding your home projects or maybe a
little repair, maybe a little maintenance, whatever the case may be.
Maybe it's just time to get up and moving. I
(00:51):
think a lot of people can relate to that. We
had snooze day yesterday, Christmas the day before that, and
now we can kind of slowly edge back into life.
What do you say? All right, here's our phone number.
It's eight hundred eight two three eight two five five.
One of the things we'll all be talking about this
week is New Year's even making resolutions and all that
(01:12):
good stuff. And of course I have a list too
for resolutions for ah uh for the New Year, and
it starts with one of the simple ones. And we
uh talk about this quite a bit, and that is
do you have your manual? You know, we get it
a lot. I'm not an appliance repair person by any
(01:34):
stretch of imagination, but you know, people will call and
ask different questions and I always go, like, what do
you have your manual, and a lot of times that
answer is no, or have you read the directions on it? Boy,
make that a resolution. You can just save yourself so
much time, so much angst, and uh, probably get the
answer pretty fast. If you don't want to say a manual,
(01:55):
at least when you get the appliance or whatever, write
down the model number, down what the appliance is, the manufacturer.
You can probably find it online pretty easily, and that
might be another option for you also, so you know,
I'd put that as my other list for sure. And
then of course, when I implore you to do a lot
(02:18):
and we'll continue in the next year, which by the way,
will be our fortieth year of doing this show, and
that will be to take a walk around the house.
And I know I chat about that a lot, but
it absolutely still amazes me the things you find. And
(02:38):
you know, I'm looking for different things. You may not
maybe know what to look for, but I'm telling you,
you start doing that, you'll find something that doesn't look
right every time you walk around the house. And if
it doesn't look great, it's probably not right. And then
it's a matter of you know, creating a plan to
(03:00):
get that fixed. So we'll just leave it at that.
In other words, if you've seen, you know, a metal
frame for the man door next to the garage door
and is rusted and it's rusted through, that needs to
(03:21):
be fixed. Water gets in there, it's gonna keep getting worse.
Or a wood door jam and the paint's peeling off
it and you put your fingernail against that wood and
that wood is soft, that doesn't look right, doesn't feel right,
and we need to, you know, take care of that.
Or the facia board, which I'm always talking about the
(03:41):
facia board. A lot going on right there too with
the gutters. Hopefully you got those cleaned out, but the
facia board, if there's not really tightly adhere to the house,
even the gutter not tightly adhere to the house, doesn't
look right and it's not right, and you gonna have
some moisture issues. You could have some wildlife issues. You
(04:05):
could have some basement issues. Even though it's the gutters
up in the air away from the basement, but there's
a good chance to be spilling a lot of excessive
water right on that foundation, which is going to cause
the problem. Also, one other New Year's resolution, why not
do your homework. A lot of times we'll take a
(04:28):
lot of calls where you know, you just haven't really
thought the whole process through. You haven't really thought about
what that what that end result, What are you looking
to really do? And asking yourself those questions, how much
am I willing to spend to get this rectified or
(04:53):
get this updated? In fact, one of the things we're
going to talk about today is updating what's the new
friends and remodeling for twenty twenty six. And I mean,
why not. We're a few days away, right And by
the way, if you are going to do a project
and you want to get that thing rolling, and I'm
(05:13):
not saying on January second, but I'm saying, maybe get
it rolling by March April, Man, start doing your homework
right away, because as we work our ways to the
opening day, I always called it for home improvement that
first week in April, May June. Boy, I'll tell you,
(05:35):
if you start doing your homework in January, you'll be poised.
You'd be ready to go and be able to start
making those decisions. So like if you're going to redo
the kitchen, or redo the bath, or maybe add a
office in the basement, start doing that work now, kind
(05:55):
of figure out where your finances are, what's gonna really
work for you, and start talking to people and you know,
start seeing if your financial plan is a dream or
is it in line or how can we trim that up?
Those are certainly things that you can start working on
(06:17):
right away. Find a contractor. And that's another thing too.
When you find that contractor, you know, obviously, you know
you got to check for you know, insurance and all
that good stuff and background and you know, ask for
references and all that stuff. But you know what the
number one thing is. The number one thing is how
well do you and that contractor job? How do you
(06:41):
get along or do you feel like you're on the
same page. Are things being really explained to you? Well,
do you feel comfortable because you're going to live with
them for a while. Okay, my son just had a
project done at his home and beautiful, beautiful work that
(07:05):
they did, and you know, different contractors in and out,
and he was just telling me, you know, how important
it was to keep him and his wife update on
what they were doing and where they were at. And
a timeline was given at the beginning, and the timeline
is updated as they go through the project, so very
(07:28):
very important. Everybody's kind of got to be on the
right page because it's frustrating, you know that you got
people in your house all day long and it's kind
of not like it's you know, it's always kind of
torn up and dishoveled a little bit, or it's cleaned
up and everything at the end of the day, but
it's just not quite home. We're changing home, we're updating home,
(07:53):
and it takes a little bit to get there. So
those are the things you really want to, you know,
be talking to, be talking about when you're working on
with the contractor. All right, let me give you the
phone number and uh we'll be able to see it
and then we'll get Danny to uh get you on board.
We'll chat about your issues and get you back to
(08:15):
work in no time at all. What do you say, Okay,
we gotta all get moving again. Right, it's eight hundred
and eight two three eight two five five. You're at
Home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Takes it right with a call to Gary Sullivan at
one eight hundred eight two three talk. This is at
home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
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(11:04):
Nineteen minutes after the top of the air, you're at
home with Gary Salvan talking to Home Improvement. If you'd
like to join us, grab a line. Lisa will be
with you in a minute right now. Ron Wilson, Yes,
our gardening guy.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
I'm a gardening garden right now.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
There's not much gardening going.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
On, Barney Shanman are you.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
I'm good and you you survived.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
I did, and there's gardening going on. As a matter
of fact, with it's sixty six degrees.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Today, I was gonna say.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
If the if the soil is workable, you can stick
it on the planet. As a matter of fact, I
will be digging a hole to day to plant one
more tree in our yard. You are, I am Andrew,
but I'm gonna plan a I'm gonna plant an exclamation
London plane. And it's what that is. It's a sycamore tree,
sort of a hybrid, and it's a more of an
(11:53):
upright variety. It's a really nice tree and they're using
them a lot for street trees now, but it has
that sycamore bark and leaf and it's just really nice.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
But not for sure you do a couple of river birches.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
No river birch. I leave those up to your neighbors.
We got a lot of them in the neighborhood too,
but none of them that blow into my yard like
they do into yours.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
A lot of branches down this year?
Speaker 3 (12:15):
What branches down on tree?
Speaker 1 (12:17):
From trees?
Speaker 3 (12:18):
Oh, we've hit a lot of wind. Yes, we had
picked up a lot of branches, oh brand Oh yeah,
especially from the River Birch.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Well, a couple of locusts too.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
Well, locals will do that too, but the River Birch
always likes to get rid of those little bit of branches.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
And I like that because I need another job to
do well.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
And you could pay your grandkids a penny apiece for
picking them up.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
They were all here, boy, but.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
You took advantage of that.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Well, they're getting older now.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
That the penny and the dimes don't work anymore.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
They don't make it. Mister shall Begking does sometimes begging
and promises down the road.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
I found if you walk slow and kind of bent
over and fall down, and then they feel feel bad
for would you don't grandpa do that?
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Sometimes I just fall down, I said, oh, can you
get that branch?
Speaker 3 (13:06):
Be careful? There's sympathetic, yeah, but a man of your age, yeah,
that's not a good thing to be just fake falling.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
You shouldn't do that. No, Plus I get mud on
my knees.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
How do you get back up? It's my question.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
Hope, I'm near a tree.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Here's something. Put that hand on there, you go.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Yeah, No, the pennies and nickels don't work. No, no,
we got to increase that. But no, there have been
a lot of branches have blown down this year in
our neighborhood, and fairly decent sized ones. I get the
little twigs and stuff, but uh, well, when it's windy,
that's what happens.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
That's what it's good to clear them out. But you
know what, on a serious note here, and you be
kind of serious, when you have high winds, a lot
of high winds, it is good to go out and
we do the manage by walking around looking up in
those trees. Just see if you can see any crack branches,
things that are hanging down that could possibly fall out
of there in the next storm that comes through. Ye,
and don't go up there and get them yourself. Call
(14:06):
it certified arborist outs to getting taken care of them.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
And when you see a lot of branches, I know
the wind. I mean, I'm not asking you why do
they fall because it's really windy, but are those they're
kind of the weakest link though, right. In some cases,
you know, the branches that fall, could they be diseased
or have problems.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
Could be could be why? They could be an indicator
that there's a problem with the tree. Right, And if
you have a lot of them, I mean, my mom
has three huge pinoaks. I'm talking. These things are one
hundred each side, one hundred branches go out one hundred feet.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
Yeah, they're huge, and they're like you can't put two
arms around them. All that. Anyway, it always has a
lot of dead woods. About every two or three years,
we have an arborist come in and clean out the
deadwood at the top. It just happens with a tree
of that size and that age. It's natural for them
to do that, so it's not diseased, not stressed. The
plants put out some new growth every year, so we
you know, it's okay. But in some cases you're right.
(15:03):
You know, some trees, if they're starting to decline like that,
that can be an indicator is a problem. So you know,
if you do see that and the tree doesn't look
right during the growing season, I would probably have and
you should anyway, but have an arborist come out and
take a look. At it just to be sure everything's good.
But some trees just naturally carry a lot of dead wood.
(15:24):
We're talking about that sycamore. They do too, those smaller
branches all of a sudden you see them falling out everywhere.
It just kind of comes with that tree. But it
is good to walk around and just take a look,
and if you're concerned, get that certified arbust out, not
just a tree trimmor, but the certified arbist to come
out to look at them.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Sure, Hey, I you mentioned planning a tree. Do balton
burlap Christmas trees? Are those still a big thing? Little thing,
very little thing.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Not like they used to be? Okay, And I think
what you do see when folks want to give that
a try, they're working with the ones that are in
the containers, right, And so if they're in a fifteen
twenty twenty five gallon container, obviously a smaller tree but
easier to take inside an end back out against the
hardest part. Yeah. So there's a few bald bur laps
(16:12):
out there, but not as much mostly container and that
that that business is kind of it's still there, but
not as popular as it was back you know, seventies,
early eighties, you know everybody was doing that to tr.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Yeah, we did one. Well, we first got our house,
our second house, kids were really young and we got
a you know, a baldenbur lap live tree. And you know,
I guess you know people are really putting up their
Christmas decorations in trees so early in the year. I mean,
it doesn't work before Thanksgiving and you're really limited what
(16:46):
seven to ten days in a heated home exactly for
a container tree. And that was my point. If people
have that, should that be outside like now, I mean
it's warm where we're at frozen be a good.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Time, absolutely, I should say it's a ten or two
seven to ten to two, okay, two days in the
garage to acclimate, seven to ten days in the house,
two days back into the garage plant it, yea. And
I have never had the ground in our area Gary
be frozen enough after any Christmas that I couldn't get
(17:19):
out and plant.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Yeah wait a week you know.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
Yeah, so it's not you know it, you're right. And
if you take two bags of mulch and lay it
on the ground where you're gonna plant, this thing, keeps
it warm, keeps it warm, doesn't freeze, you just take
the bags off, you dig the hole, you use doo
pine fines and that way you can use it as
a soil amendment and as a top dressing. Grounds. Thought
you plant it, but here's the key. You still have
(17:43):
to water it in. So when you're all said and done,
you got to have to drag the hose out there
or five gallon buckets water that thing in really well.
Uh and and go from there. And if we have
a dry January February, give it a five gallon shot
once a month just to make sure we got good moisture.
Now root ball and uh. And then take it from there.
But again, two keys. One is planning it when you're
(18:05):
done and keeping it in the house for a minimal
amount of time and you'll be successful.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Hey, I got a question for you. I meant to
ask you this last week. A buddy of mine has
a lawn service. Does is fertilizing and we'd prevention whatever
else they do. And I guess because of the snows
that we had, what was at the beginning of December,
they didn't get their winter rice feeding and they wanted
(18:33):
to come out this week to do that. No, that's
what I thought. Now, I said, I don't think so
I'll tell them you want your longe be back if
you paid it in advance or put a credit over
to next year something. Yeah, but don't I know at
this stage it would just sit there, right, and it's not.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
Going to do you any good. Yeah, grass is gone dormant,
it's not going to take it up. If the ground's
frozen at all, that's you don't put it on frozen.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
Ground, right, So I thought that sounded weird.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
Let it ride, come back in the springtime, take a
look at it. Uh, you know, you still may be okay.
You may do a mid spring feeding for the one
you miss, but don't do it now.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
All right. I was thinking, that's kind of what I
told him. I sold, I don't think i'd do it,
But ask ma.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
You knew specialists, you knew, you knew. Hey, have a
great New Year's even New Year's Day. We'll talk to
you in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Very good, Happy new year, ron I take care, take care,
bye bye, We'll continue. Lisa, you're a first. You're at
home with Gary.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Solivan's start a project and don't know how to finish it.
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(22:22):
All right, back at it we go. We're talking home
improvement and we're here live talking about your issues in
your home. Feel free to join us our phone number
eight hundred eighty two three eight two five five, and
let's go to Lisa. Lisa.
Speaker 5 (22:37):
Welcome, Thank you Gary, good morning, and he had the
holidays to you.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
Happy holidays to you, Lisa. Thanks, thank you for.
Speaker 5 (22:46):
Your almost forty years of service to the public. We
greatly appreciate you Gary each and every weekend. So thank
you for that.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
Thank you. That's that's almost a ridiculous amount of time
and radio I'll tell you that.
Speaker 5 (22:58):
Well, we have appreciated every single episode, so we thank
you so much.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Garrett, thank you.
Speaker 5 (23:05):
You're welcome. So my question on topical home improvement. I
have a question for you concerning contractors. Okay, so I
hired a contractor. I just wanted it simple. I didn't
want walls knocked down. I wanted a simple countertop replacement,
cabinet refacing because replacing the cabinets was out of my
price range, and no appliances replaced, and a backsplash. That's
(23:30):
the end of the story. And I did, like you said,
all the research I spent probably a year and a half.
During research, I did all the companies, asked all the questions,
downloaded the National Kitchen Bathist Association handbooked felt good. I
had five estimates. The contractor came in, felt good about it.
(23:53):
We were on the same page. I was comfortable with it.
And then the covered doors were delivered the wrong cover doors.
Okay on this mistake, totally understandable. However, it was turned
around that what I signed was for the color of
the cover doors, which I had to slaunch that the
that was different from the doors that were delivering. That's
(24:15):
when things went off the rail. I started in pitt
of my stomach. I thought, I don't feel good about this. However,
when you sign the contract and you put the deposit
down not refundable, I said, let me give give a
second chance here. So what ended up happening was they
(24:38):
in doing the resaying I had the old style nineteen sixties,
the built the house was built in nineteen fifty six,
the wooden doors with no tracks, everything was pull up. Well,
they ended up put They ended up putting those easy
glide doors in and shortened the drawers and some of
(25:01):
the cabinets underneath. So and so, and I was home
for every part of it except the terror out. I
was actually in the other room and I asked the contractor,
I said, please let me know before you're going to
hang the doors, because I wanted to see what they
look like. Never said anything until it was done. So
(25:22):
at that point I said, you know what I said,
I'm going to go ahead and stop the project. Just
go ahead and don't finish it, and I'll I will
find somebody else. Gary. Dat was two and a half
years ago. Jeez, I am yeah, I have they did
the whole tear out. I've been living. I've been cooking
in the basement. I have no kitchen sink. I had
(25:44):
the nineteen sixties style gas cook top, which dad has
been gone. The only thing I managed to keep was
the counter stops, so I am able to do things
on the countertops fine, and cooking in the basement and
from the dishes in the stationary job. So, if you
have any advice for me. The company was five star
(26:08):
rated Better Business Bureau.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
Yes, sometimes I mean I hear you. I mean, you
know it sounds like you did your due diligence. You
had the connection with the contractor. What went sideways who knows.
In a flash star rating you can't beat you know what,
was it a one man band or did he have
(26:33):
subcontractors in there?
Speaker 5 (26:36):
He Yeah, he was the owner, sole owner of the company.
And he had a subcontractor, a son, the father and
son team with another helper with another help He was
the owner of the company. Yeah, I think a friend
of the sun. He was the owner. I saw good
about him. I thought, this is the contractor for me.
(26:57):
I have other jobs lined up well. And then everything
went in.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
The toilet, so did they? So when you stopped the job,
how did the money shake out?
Speaker 5 (27:10):
Well? I paid half of the cost up front, and
the one thing that I should have you should have
kicked in to the bad feeling, was that they wanted
half of the money in cash, right, Yeah, And I
was always told, yeah, that's.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
A little bit of a red flag. But you know,
you know, in fifty percent, I mean, you probably wouldn't
have had to put that much upfront. But you know,
I mean every contractor is a little different. They have needs,
you know, and it depends on if they're small companies,
they're probably gonna want a little bit more money than
twenty percent up front. But yeah, yeah, so so where
(27:52):
are you going from here? What's your plan?
Speaker 5 (27:55):
Well, you know what, I ended up doing the cabinet refacing.
I don't know what your probably have experience with it.
It's just what I didn't like the look of it.
So I tore it out, and I tore it out.
I pulled all the boards out, all the extra boards
that they put to shorten up the cupboards. I pulled
all those you know, easy guide doors out of there.
So now you know what I'm thinking. I took all
(28:17):
the carver doors off. I'm going to donate them. I
really like the open look. So you know what I think.
I think I'm just going to go get some glass doors.
I really would like new countertops. I don't have a say, sink,
and I'm keeping the cooked tabs. So basically all I
need is somebody to install things. Everything's already torn out.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
Well, you know, I think you can't let that particular
issue trouble you. It happened, it's gone, you did your
due diligence. Certainly, I would get back to the you know,
proper amounts deposited in I'd like to give twenty percent,
and then if we want incremental payouts depending on how
(29:01):
much work is done. You can even go to your
better Business Bureau in the Cleveland market and now have
recommendations of what you should be putting down. And then
I would, you know, I'd probably go to like an
Angie's List something along those lines. It's not called I
think it's just called Angie's Now. And you know, I
(29:23):
mean you're going to start the process over again. I mean,
you know you're going to explain not what happened, but
what you want and you're gonna have to start the
process over again. I don't I don't think you really
did anything horrible. You know, you thought you made the
right decision. And you know who doesn't in their lifetime
(29:44):
get burned every now and then. It can happen to anybody.
We can certainly take the you know, safeguards not to
let it happen, but I wouldn't beat myself up about it.
I'd move forward and get somebody to do it. There's
a lot of good contractors out there that you'd never
have a problem that would go above and beyond the call.
And you know, you felt good about everything, but it
(30:06):
didn't work out, and you know, so that's what happens sometimes.
But to get to get an idea. I would check
on Angel's. They also have ratings given by the people
that have done work form similar to your five star.
Doesn't mean it's not full proof, but right, yeah, certainly
(30:26):
that's what I would do to start that process over.
Speaker 5 (30:30):
Yeah, in this better this company had one and forty
seven stellar rates. Now one person that had anything negative
about this company. As the owner said, you know, I've
been doing this for thirty years. I've never walked away
from a job in the whole time I've been in
the business. I thought, well, I'm the one in thirty
years that you're going to walk away from it. You
(30:53):
have an Is there anybody that you personally would recommend.
I'm in the Cleveland areas.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
Yeah, not offhand. I know I'm in the Cincinnati market,
and you know, we have a one of the really
neat things and it's a sponsor of the local show.
It's called Three Day Kitchen in Bath. The thing I
like about this company, it's pretty cool and it's a franchise.
So you may have one in the Cleveland market against
(31:21):
Three Day Kitchen in Bath. But they'll come in and
they'll do they'll sit down and do the design with you,
so that it's one person accountability. They do this design.
When you're all finished with everything and you pick out everything,
you do sign off on the whole deal, and then
they actually put you up in a motel or a
(31:43):
hotel and they come in and in three days they
do the whole project. So they don't start anything until
they have every piece in the warehouse and ready to go.
And I always like that concept because you know, you've
designed mind it together, you've uh, you've you've picked it
(32:03):
out together. They have a mobile show room and you
can when it all comes in you can look at
it then too, and then it's just three days in bam,
you know it done out of your way. Always like
that for yours. What you might want to do is
go to a you know, maybe not a big box store,
(32:26):
but maybe a hardware store or a individual lumberyard or
something in the Cleveland area and ask them about some
contractors that they feel are you know, do good business
with them and aren't seem to be highly rated and
start that process with them. All right, Happy to you, Lisa,
(32:51):
Thank you. Take care you know that that that those things,
I mean, it's like a marriage, right. Sometimes those don't
work out either. It seemed all right, but it didn't
work out. And you know, IM not gonna just drag
everybody down, but protect yourself the best you can, you know,
And I think the half down I've not I've come
(33:13):
close of getting in a bad relationship with a contractor
and probably escaped it before it got to that point.
But it's it's it's hard. But there are some red flags.
And she said it too. Boy, when it was all cash,
that's always kind of scary. Nowadays for me it is
(33:36):
too and fifty percent and all cash. Gee, what's going
on here? That might have been a red flag. But
who hasn't made a mistake. Let's move forward, all right?
Let me give you the phone number. Feel free to
join us as we chat about your home projects, maintenance, repair,
new projects. The lines are open in a spot for you.
It's eight hundred eight two three eight two five to five.
(34:00):
You're at home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
Help for your home is just a click away at
Garysullivan online dot com. This is at home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
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(35:32):
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go to rotrouter dot com. Today. All right, back at
(36:58):
it we go. You're at Home with Gary Sullivan. And
by the way, each and every hour of our show
is available via podcast. You can pick that up on
the iHeart app. It's at Home with Gary Sullivan and
take a listen. We've had some good guests last week.
We were talking about metal roofing, and gosh, I've talked
to Todd Miller off and on probably for fifteen twenty years,
(37:22):
and the whole metal roofing segment is really grown, and
you know for its fire retardancy. So out west, see
a lot of it in the our flagship stations as
sincinnt Ohio, Louisville's maybe one hundred miles south. See a
lot of that. Through the rural Kentucky area is really nice, good,
(37:45):
good looking stuff, and throughout really the country. It seems
to be a growing roofing product. You've heard me kind
of whining a little bit about so much whiny. It's
just that the shingles are different. It's a good uh
(38:06):
a shingled roof. An asphalt shingle roof is a great
affordable roof. Don't get me wrong. A metal roof is
double the price of a sphalt shingle roof. I'm just
saying the performance of that metal roof is outstanding and
it is beautiful. Or you can make it look like
an asphalt shingle roof, So you can learn a little
(38:28):
bit about that if you want to check it out
that that podcast is up and it is available. It's
under our last Saturday's date, and uh, if you want
to check that out, I highly recommend it. Our phone
number if you'd like to join us again, is eight
hundred eighty two three A two five A two five five. Gary,
(38:49):
it's eight hundred eighty two five eight two five five.
Easy for me to say.
Speaker 3 (38:53):
So A two three two five five.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
Yeah, I'm all messed up, you know. I'm it's like
an off day today. Everybody's kind of still kind of
sleepy and you know, trying to get get the motors going.
Me too, but let's get those motors going. So one
of the things today I'd like to talk about, and
we talk about it often. We talk about our homes
being too dry, too wet, We talk about it being uncomfortable.
(39:20):
We talk about moisture invading the basement areas and mold
and all that, and I'd like to kind of get
your take on that. And one of the things is
do you have a humidifier in your house? And if
(39:41):
you do have a humidifier in your house, and I'm
not talking about the little portable one that blows steam
in the air, which are nice, nothing wrong with that,
But I'm talking about a whole house humidifier. It's it's
usually installed on the furnace stuff quirk. And I'm curious
(40:04):
how if you're satisfied with that, can you control the
humidity levels in your home or is it still way
too dry or is it too wet and the windows
are sweating? And how do you control that? And then
what basis is it automatic? Do you have to turn
it on? And your humidity course fluctuates during the wintertime
(40:31):
depending on what the outdoor temperature is. And right now
we're about, oh, I don't know, ten to fifteen degrees
above normal, so it's more humid outside and more humid
inside than it normally is than just two weeks ago
when it was freezing cold. It is near zero and snowing.
(40:51):
So I'm asking you, is where is your home comfortable?
In other words, with the heat? That's one thing, and
a lot depends on where your thermostat is set, but
also where the humidity level is set, and do you
know where that humidity level is set? So that's one
thing I'd like to ask. The other thing I'd like
to ask is in the basement. Does that seem a
(41:16):
little bit more wet and humid than the rest of
the house. And is there signs that you could have
some mold or even mildew growth in that basement. Does
it have that basementy smell odor, that stagnant odor, and
(41:37):
what are you doing about that if anything? Also, do
you see efflorescence? Efflorescence is a white, chalky residue that
you'll usually see on concrete foundation or block foundations, and
that indicates a presence of more oyster that is reacting
(42:02):
with the lime and the salts inside the concrete, which
is causing efflorescence to grow just because of the stamp
all the time. So I'd like to hear your input
on that. Paul, Welcome, Hi Gary, How you doing doing fine?
Thank you? Hi Gary, Happy New Year, Happy New Year. Hey.
Speaker 6 (42:30):
Just on the humidifier comment, we do have one. It's
a whole house and I have to manually adjust it.
But we've been in the house five years. I've only
used it the last couple of years. I never bothered
to even use it before, and I don't know if
it's a mental thing. I think I notice the difference
in the house in terms of moisture content, Things like
(42:54):
that we haven't had any issues with it, but I'm
pretty conscious of adjusting it now. My question, and I
was going to call you before, what's the best way
to clean the filter on that thing, because actually I
need to do it this year.
Speaker 1 (43:07):
Yeah. So it's not really a filter, it's more of
a media. So it's a I don't know, ten by ten,
twelve by twelve something like that steel frame about two
inches thick, and the water goes over that pall and
saturates the media in there to help distribute the moisture.
And it really should be replaced every year, to be
(43:28):
honest with you, especially if it's used all the time. Otherwise,
what happens is it calcifies from the hard water deposits
and that little filter humidity pad becomes like a rock
and it doesn't absorb the water, and then your humidification
(43:48):
drops significantly. And that was one of the reasons why
I was proposing that problem, because if people are doing
those adjustments like you've been doing those adjustments and they're
not getting any increased humidity, that pad has probably not
been replaced.
Speaker 6 (44:07):
All right, hop it out and put a new one.
Speaker 1 (44:08):
In there, Yes, sir, Pretty simple to do too. So
you should have no problem at all with it. Thank
you much for the call. If you'd like to join us,
do so. We're talking home improvement in You're at Home
with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 2 (44:42):
Weekends. I mean a never ending list of things to
do around your home. Get help at one eight hundred
and eighty two three talk You're at Home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 4 (45:00):
The play became a
All right, the weekends upon us. Welcome aboard. You are
at home with Gary Salvin live and in studio that
clean up the pieces from a couple of holidays. Why
not let me give you the phone number, happy to
take your calls regarding your home projects or maybe a
little repair, maybe a little maintenance, whatever the case may be.
Maybe it's just time to get up and moving. I
(00:51):
think a lot of people can relate to that. We
had snooze day yesterday, Christmas the day before that, and
now we can kind of slowly edge back into life.
What do you say? All right, here's our phone number.
It's eight hundred eight two three eight two five five.
One of the things we'll all be talking about this
week is New Year's even making resolutions and all that
(01:12):
good stuff. And of course I have a list too
for resolutions for ah uh for the New Year, and
it starts with one of the simple ones. And we
uh talk about this quite a bit, and that is
do you have your manual? You know, we get it
a lot. I'm not an appliance repair person by any
(01:34):
stretch of imagination, but you know, people will call and
ask different questions and I always go, like, what do
you have your manual, and a lot of times that
answer is no, or have you read the directions on it? Boy,
make that a resolution. You can just save yourself so
much time, so much angst, and uh, probably get the
answer pretty fast. If you don't want to say a manual,
(01:55):
at least when you get the appliance or whatever, write
down the model number, down what the appliance is, the manufacturer.
You can probably find it online pretty easily, and that
might be another option for you also, so you know,
I'd put that as my other list for sure. And
then of course, when I implore you to do a lot
(02:18):
and we'll continue in the next year, which by the way,
will be our fortieth year of doing this show, and
that will be to take a walk around the house.
And I know I chat about that a lot, but
it absolutely still amazes me the things you find. And
(02:38):
you know, I'm looking for different things. You may not
maybe know what to look for, but I'm telling you,
you start doing that, you'll find something that doesn't look
right every time you walk around the house. And if
it doesn't look great, it's probably not right. And then
it's a matter of you know, creating a plan to
(03:00):
get that fixed. So we'll just leave it at that.
In other words, if you've seen, you know, a metal
frame for the man door next to the garage door
and is rusted and it's rusted through, that needs to
(03:21):
be fixed. Water gets in there, it's gonna keep getting worse.
Or a wood door jam and the paint's peeling off
it and you put your fingernail against that wood and
that wood is soft, that doesn't look right, doesn't feel right,
and we need to, you know, take care of that.
Or the facia board, which I'm always talking about the
(03:41):
facia board. A lot going on right there too with
the gutters. Hopefully you got those cleaned out, but the
facia board, if there's not really tightly adhere to the house,
even the gutter not tightly adhere to the house, doesn't
look right and it's not right, and you gonna have
some moisture issues. You could have some wildlife issues. You
(04:05):
could have some basement issues. Even though it's the gutters
up in the air away from the basement, but there's
a good chance to be spilling a lot of excessive
water right on that foundation, which is going to cause
the problem. Also, one other New Year's resolution, why not
do your homework. A lot of times we'll take a
(04:28):
lot of calls where you know, you just haven't really
thought the whole process through. You haven't really thought about
what that what that end result, What are you looking
to really do? And asking yourself those questions, how much
am I willing to spend to get this rectified or
(04:53):
get this updated? In fact, one of the things we're
going to talk about today is updating what's the new
friends and remodeling for twenty twenty six. And I mean,
why not. We're a few days away, right And by
the way, if you are going to do a project
and you want to get that thing rolling, and I'm
(05:13):
not saying on January second, but I'm saying, maybe get
it rolling by March April, Man, start doing your homework
right away, because as we work our ways to the
opening day, I always called it for home improvement that
first week in April, May June. Boy, I'll tell you,
(05:35):
if you start doing your homework in January, you'll be poised.
You'd be ready to go and be able to start
making those decisions. So like if you're going to redo
the kitchen, or redo the bath, or maybe add a
office in the basement, start doing that work now, kind
(05:55):
of figure out where your finances are, what's gonna really
work for you, and start talking to people and you know,
start seeing if your financial plan is a dream or
is it in line or how can we trim that up?
Those are certainly things that you can start working on
(06:17):
right away. Find a contractor. And that's another thing too.
When you find that contractor, you know, obviously, you know
you got to check for you know, insurance and all
that good stuff and background and you know, ask for
references and all that stuff. But you know what the
number one thing is. The number one thing is how
well do you and that contractor job? How do you
(06:41):
get along or do you feel like you're on the
same page. Are things being really explained to you? Well,
do you feel comfortable because you're going to live with
them for a while. Okay, my son just had a
project done at his home and beautiful, beautiful work that
(07:05):
they did, and you know, different contractors in and out,
and he was just telling me, you know, how important
it was to keep him and his wife update on
what they were doing and where they were at. And
a timeline was given at the beginning, and the timeline
is updated as they go through the project, so very
(07:28):
very important. Everybody's kind of got to be on the
right page because it's frustrating, you know that you got
people in your house all day long and it's kind
of not like it's you know, it's always kind of
torn up and dishoveled a little bit, or it's cleaned
up and everything at the end of the day, but
it's just not quite home. We're changing home, we're updating home,
(07:53):
and it takes a little bit to get there. So
those are the things you really want to, you know,
be talking to, be talking about when you're working on
with the contractor. All right, let me give you the
phone number and uh we'll be able to see it
and then we'll get Danny to uh get you on board.
We'll chat about your issues and get you back to
(08:15):
work in no time at all. What do you say, Okay,
we gotta all get moving again. Right, it's eight hundred
and eight two three eight two five five. You're at
Home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Takes it right with a call to Gary Sullivan at
one eight hundred eight two three talk. This is at
home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
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Get that stagnant, stuffy air out with an easy breathe,
then reduce airborne particles by eighty five percent. Don't get
(09:33):
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(11:04):
Nineteen minutes after the top of the air, you're at
home with Gary Salvan talking to Home Improvement. If you'd
like to join us, grab a line. Lisa will be
with you in a minute right now. Ron Wilson, Yes,
our gardening guy.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
I'm a gardening garden right now.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
There's not much gardening going.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
On, Barney Shanman are you.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
I'm good and you you survived.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
I did, and there's gardening going on. As a matter
of fact, with it's sixty six degrees.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Today, I was gonna say.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
If the if the soil is workable, you can stick
it on the planet. As a matter of fact, I
will be digging a hole to day to plant one
more tree in our yard. You are, I am Andrew,
but I'm gonna plan a I'm gonna plant an exclamation
London plane. And it's what that is. It's a sycamore tree,
sort of a hybrid, and it's a more of an
(11:53):
upright variety. It's a really nice tree and they're using
them a lot for street trees now, but it has
that sycamore bark and leaf and it's just really nice.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
But not for sure you do a couple of river birches.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
No river birch. I leave those up to your neighbors.
We got a lot of them in the neighborhood too,
but none of them that blow into my yard like
they do into yours.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
A lot of branches down this year?
Speaker 3 (12:15):
What branches down on tree?
Speaker 1 (12:17):
From trees?
Speaker 3 (12:18):
Oh, we've hit a lot of wind. Yes, we had
picked up a lot of branches, oh brand Oh yeah,
especially from the River Birch.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Well, a couple of locusts too.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
Well, locals will do that too, but the River Birch
always likes to get rid of those little bit of branches.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
And I like that because I need another job to
do well.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
And you could pay your grandkids a penny apiece for
picking them up.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
They were all here, boy, but.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
You took advantage of that.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Well, they're getting older now.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
That the penny and the dimes don't work anymore.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
They don't make it. Mister shall Begking does sometimes begging
and promises down the road.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
I found if you walk slow and kind of bent
over and fall down, and then they feel feel bad
for would you don't grandpa do that?
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Sometimes I just fall down, I said, oh, can you
get that branch?
Speaker 3 (13:06):
Be careful? There's sympathetic, yeah, but a man of your age, yeah,
that's not a good thing to be just fake falling.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
You shouldn't do that. No, Plus I get mud on
my knees.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
How do you get back up? It's my question.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
Hope, I'm near a tree.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Here's something. Put that hand on there, you go.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Yeah, No, the pennies and nickels don't work. No, no,
we got to increase that. But no, there have been
a lot of branches have blown down this year in
our neighborhood, and fairly decent sized ones. I get the
little twigs and stuff, but uh, well, when it's windy,
that's what happens.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
That's what it's good to clear them out. But you
know what, on a serious note here, and you be
kind of serious, when you have high winds, a lot
of high winds, it is good to go out and
we do the manage by walking around looking up in
those trees. Just see if you can see any crack branches,
things that are hanging down that could possibly fall out
of there in the next storm that comes through. Ye,
and don't go up there and get them yourself. Call
(14:06):
it certified arborist outs to getting taken care of them.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
And when you see a lot of branches, I know
the wind. I mean, I'm not asking you why do
they fall because it's really windy, but are those they're
kind of the weakest link though, right. In some cases,
you know, the branches that fall, could they be diseased
or have problems.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
Could be could be why? They could be an indicator
that there's a problem with the tree. Right, And if
you have a lot of them, I mean, my mom
has three huge pinoaks. I'm talking. These things are one
hundred each side, one hundred branches go out one hundred feet.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
Yeah, they're huge, and they're like you can't put two
arms around them. All that. Anyway, it always has a
lot of dead woods. About every two or three years,
we have an arborist come in and clean out the
deadwood at the top. It just happens with a tree
of that size and that age. It's natural for them
to do that, so it's not diseased, not stressed. The
plants put out some new growth every year, so we
you know, it's okay. But in some cases you're right.
(15:03):
You know, some trees, if they're starting to decline like that,
that can be an indicator is a problem. So you know,
if you do see that and the tree doesn't look
right during the growing season, I would probably have and
you should anyway, but have an arborist come out and
take a look. At it just to be sure everything's good.
But some trees just naturally carry a lot of dead wood.
(15:24):
We're talking about that sycamore. They do too, those smaller
branches all of a sudden you see them falling out everywhere.
It just kind of comes with that tree. But it
is good to walk around and just take a look,
and if you're concerned, get that certified arbust out, not
just a tree trimmor, but the certified arbist to come
out to look at them.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Sure, Hey, I you mentioned planning a tree. Do balton
burlap Christmas trees? Are those still a big thing? Little thing,
very little thing.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Not like they used to be? Okay, And I think
what you do see when folks want to give that
a try, they're working with the ones that are in
the containers, right, And so if they're in a fifteen
twenty twenty five gallon container, obviously a smaller tree but
easier to take inside an end back out against the
hardest part. Yeah. So there's a few bald bur laps
(16:12):
out there, but not as much mostly container and that
that that business is kind of it's still there, but
not as popular as it was back you know, seventies,
early eighties, you know everybody was doing that to tr.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Yeah, we did one. Well, we first got our house,
our second house, kids were really young and we got
a you know, a baldenbur lap live tree. And you know,
I guess you know people are really putting up their
Christmas decorations in trees so early in the year. I mean,
it doesn't work before Thanksgiving and you're really limited what
(16:46):
seven to ten days in a heated home exactly for
a container tree. And that was my point. If people
have that, should that be outside like now, I mean
it's warm where we're at frozen be a good.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Time, absolutely, I should say it's a ten or two
seven to ten to two, okay, two days in the
garage to acclimate, seven to ten days in the house,
two days back into the garage plant it, yea. And
I have never had the ground in our area Gary
be frozen enough after any Christmas that I couldn't get
(17:19):
out and plant.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Yeah wait a week you know.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
Yeah, so it's not you know it, you're right. And
if you take two bags of mulch and lay it
on the ground where you're gonna plant, this thing, keeps
it warm, keeps it warm, doesn't freeze, you just take
the bags off, you dig the hole, you use doo
pine fines and that way you can use it as
a soil amendment and as a top dressing. Grounds. Thought
you plant it, but here's the key. You still have
(17:43):
to water it in. So when you're all said and done,
you got to have to drag the hose out there
or five gallon buckets water that thing in really well.
Uh and and go from there. And if we have
a dry January February, give it a five gallon shot
once a month just to make sure we got good moisture.
Now root ball and uh. And then take it from there.
But again, two keys. One is planning it when you're
(18:05):
done and keeping it in the house for a minimal
amount of time and you'll be successful.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Hey, I got a question for you. I meant to
ask you this last week. A buddy of mine has
a lawn service. Does is fertilizing and we'd prevention whatever
else they do. And I guess because of the snows
that we had, what was at the beginning of December,
they didn't get their winter rice feeding and they wanted
(18:33):
to come out this week to do that. No, that's
what I thought. Now, I said, I don't think so
I'll tell them you want your longe be back if
you paid it in advance or put a credit over
to next year something. Yeah, but don't I know at
this stage it would just sit there, right, and it's not.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
Going to do you any good. Yeah, grass is gone dormant,
it's not going to take it up. If the ground's
frozen at all, that's you don't put it on frozen.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
Ground, right, So I thought that sounded weird.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
Let it ride, come back in the springtime, take a
look at it. Uh, you know, you still may be okay.
You may do a mid spring feeding for the one
you miss, but don't do it now.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
All right. I was thinking, that's kind of what I
told him. I sold, I don't think i'd do it,
But ask ma.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
You knew specialists, you knew, you knew. Hey, have a
great New Year's even New Year's Day. We'll talk to
you in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Very good, Happy new year, ron I take care, take care,
bye bye, We'll continue. Lisa, you're a first. You're at
home with Gary.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
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(22:22):
All right, back at it we go. We're talking home
improvement and we're here live talking about your issues in
your home. Feel free to join us our phone number
eight hundred eighty two three eight two five five, and
let's go to Lisa. Lisa.
Speaker 5 (22:37):
Welcome, Thank you Gary, good morning, and he had the
holidays to you.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
Happy holidays to you, Lisa. Thanks, thank you for.
Speaker 5 (22:46):
Your almost forty years of service to the public. We
greatly appreciate you Gary each and every weekend. So thank
you for that.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
Thank you. That's that's almost a ridiculous amount of time
and radio I'll tell you that.
Speaker 5 (22:58):
Well, we have appreciated every single episode, so we thank
you so much.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Garrett, thank you.
Speaker 5 (23:05):
You're welcome. So my question on topical home improvement. I
have a question for you concerning contractors. Okay, so I
hired a contractor. I just wanted it simple. I didn't
want walls knocked down. I wanted a simple countertop replacement,
cabinet refacing because replacing the cabinets was out of my
price range, and no appliances replaced, and a backsplash. That's
(23:30):
the end of the story. And I did, like you said,
all the research I spent probably a year and a half.
During research, I did all the companies, asked all the questions,
downloaded the National Kitchen Bathist Association handbooked felt good. I
had five estimates. The contractor came in, felt good about it.
(23:53):
We were on the same page. I was comfortable with it.
And then the covered doors were delivered the wrong cover doors.
Okay on this mistake, totally understandable. However, it was turned
around that what I signed was for the color of
the cover doors, which I had to slaunch that the
that was different from the doors that were delivering. That's
(24:15):
when things went off the rail. I started in pitt
of my stomach. I thought, I don't feel good about this. However,
when you sign the contract and you put the deposit
down not refundable, I said, let me give give a
second chance here. So what ended up happening was they
(24:38):
in doing the resaying I had the old style nineteen sixties,
the built the house was built in nineteen fifty six,
the wooden doors with no tracks, everything was pull up. Well,
they ended up put They ended up putting those easy
glide doors in and shortened the drawers and some of
(25:01):
the cabinets underneath. So and so, and I was home
for every part of it except the terror out. I
was actually in the other room and I asked the contractor,
I said, please let me know before you're going to
hang the doors, because I wanted to see what they
look like. Never said anything until it was done. So
(25:22):
at that point I said, you know what I said,
I'm going to go ahead and stop the project. Just
go ahead and don't finish it, and I'll I will
find somebody else. Gary. Dat was two and a half
years ago. Jeez, I am yeah, I have they did
the whole tear out. I've been living. I've been cooking
in the basement. I have no kitchen sink. I had
(25:44):
the nineteen sixties style gas cook top, which dad has
been gone. The only thing I managed to keep was
the counter stops, so I am able to do things
on the countertops fine, and cooking in the basement and
from the dishes in the stationary job. So, if you
have any advice for me. The company was five star
(26:08):
rated Better Business Bureau.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
Yes, sometimes I mean I hear you. I mean, you
know it sounds like you did your due diligence. You
had the connection with the contractor. What went sideways who knows.
In a flash star rating you can't beat you know what,
was it a one man band or did he have
(26:33):
subcontractors in there?
Speaker 5 (26:36):
He Yeah, he was the owner, sole owner of the company.
And he had a subcontractor, a son, the father and
son team with another helper with another help He was
the owner of the company. Yeah, I think a friend
of the sun. He was the owner. I saw good
about him. I thought, this is the contractor for me.
(26:57):
I have other jobs lined up well. And then everything
went in.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
The toilet, so did they? So when you stopped the job,
how did the money shake out?
Speaker 5 (27:10):
Well? I paid half of the cost up front, and
the one thing that I should have you should have
kicked in to the bad feeling, was that they wanted
half of the money in cash, right, Yeah, And I
was always told, yeah, that's.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
A little bit of a red flag. But you know,
you know, in fifty percent, I mean, you probably wouldn't
have had to put that much upfront. But you know,
I mean every contractor is a little different. They have needs,
you know, and it depends on if they're small companies,
they're probably gonna want a little bit more money than
twenty percent up front. But yeah, yeah, so so where
(27:52):
are you going from here? What's your plan?
Speaker 5 (27:55):
Well, you know what, I ended up doing the cabinet refacing.
I don't know what your probably have experience with it.
It's just what I didn't like the look of it.
So I tore it out, and I tore it out.
I pulled all the boards out, all the extra boards
that they put to shorten up the cupboards. I pulled
all those you know, easy guide doors out of there.
So now you know what I'm thinking. I took all
(28:17):
the carver doors off. I'm going to donate them. I
really like the open look. So you know what I think.
I think I'm just going to go get some glass doors.
I really would like new countertops. I don't have a say, sink,
and I'm keeping the cooked tabs. So basically all I
need is somebody to install things. Everything's already torn out.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
Well, you know, I think you can't let that particular
issue trouble you. It happened, it's gone, you did your
due diligence. Certainly, I would get back to the you know,
proper amounts deposited in I'd like to give twenty percent,
and then if we want incremental payouts depending on how
(29:01):
much work is done. You can even go to your
better Business Bureau in the Cleveland market and now have
recommendations of what you should be putting down. And then
I would, you know, I'd probably go to like an
Angie's List something along those lines. It's not called I
think it's just called Angie's Now. And you know, I
(29:23):
mean you're going to start the process over again. I mean,
you know you're going to explain not what happened, but
what you want and you're gonna have to start the
process over again. I don't I don't think you really
did anything horrible. You know, you thought you made the
right decision. And you know who doesn't in their lifetime
(29:44):
get burned every now and then. It can happen to anybody.
We can certainly take the you know, safeguards not to
let it happen, but I wouldn't beat myself up about it.
I'd move forward and get somebody to do it. There's
a lot of good contractors out there that you'd never
have a problem that would go above and beyond the call.
And you know, you felt good about everything, but it
(30:06):
didn't work out, and you know, so that's what happens sometimes.
But to get to get an idea. I would check
on Angel's. They also have ratings given by the people
that have done work form similar to your five star.
Doesn't mean it's not full proof, but right, yeah, certainly
(30:26):
that's what I would do to start that process over.
Speaker 5 (30:30):
Yeah, in this better this company had one and forty
seven stellar rates. Now one person that had anything negative
about this company. As the owner said, you know, I've
been doing this for thirty years. I've never walked away
from a job in the whole time I've been in
the business. I thought, well, I'm the one in thirty
years that you're going to walk away from it. You
(30:53):
have an Is there anybody that you personally would recommend.
I'm in the Cleveland areas.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
Yeah, not offhand. I know I'm in the Cincinnati market,
and you know, we have a one of the really
neat things and it's a sponsor of the local show.
It's called Three Day Kitchen in Bath. The thing I
like about this company, it's pretty cool and it's a franchise.
So you may have one in the Cleveland market against
(31:21):
Three Day Kitchen in Bath. But they'll come in and
they'll do they'll sit down and do the design with you,
so that it's one person accountability. They do this design.
When you're all finished with everything and you pick out everything,
you do sign off on the whole deal, and then
they actually put you up in a motel or a
(31:43):
hotel and they come in and in three days they
do the whole project. So they don't start anything until
they have every piece in the warehouse and ready to go.
And I always like that concept because you know, you've
designed mind it together, you've uh, you've you've picked it
(32:03):
out together. They have a mobile show room and you
can when it all comes in you can look at
it then too, and then it's just three days in bam,
you know it done out of your way. Always like
that for yours. What you might want to do is
go to a you know, maybe not a big box store,
(32:26):
but maybe a hardware store or a individual lumberyard or
something in the Cleveland area and ask them about some
contractors that they feel are you know, do good business
with them and aren't seem to be highly rated and
start that process with them. All right, Happy to you, Lisa,
(32:51):
Thank you. Take care you know that that that those things,
I mean, it's like a marriage, right. Sometimes those don't
work out either. It seemed all right, but it didn't
work out. And you know, IM not gonna just drag
everybody down, but protect yourself the best you can, you know,
And I think the half down I've not I've come
(33:13):
close of getting in a bad relationship with a contractor
and probably escaped it before it got to that point.
But it's it's it's hard. But there are some red flags.
And she said it too. Boy, when it was all cash,
that's always kind of scary. Nowadays for me it is
(33:36):
too and fifty percent and all cash. Gee, what's going
on here? That might have been a red flag. But
who hasn't made a mistake. Let's move forward, all right?
Let me give you the phone number. Feel free to
join us as we chat about your home projects, maintenance, repair,
new projects. The lines are open in a spot for you.
It's eight hundred eight two three eight two five to five.
(34:00):
You're at home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
Help for your home is just a click away at
Garysullivan online dot com. This is at home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
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(35:32):
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(36:58):
it we go. You're at Home with Gary Sullivan. And
by the way, each and every hour of our show
is available via podcast. You can pick that up on
the iHeart app. It's at Home with Gary Sullivan and
take a listen. We've had some good guests last week.
We were talking about metal roofing, and gosh, I've talked
to Todd Miller off and on probably for fifteen twenty years,
(37:22):
and the whole metal roofing segment is really grown, and
you know for its fire retardancy. So out west, see
a lot of it in the our flagship stations as
sincinnt Ohio, Louisville's maybe one hundred miles south. See a
lot of that. Through the rural Kentucky area is really nice, good,
(37:45):
good looking stuff, and throughout really the country. It seems
to be a growing roofing product. You've heard me kind
of whining a little bit about so much whiny. It's
just that the shingles are different. It's a good uh
(38:06):
a shingled roof. An asphalt shingle roof is a great
affordable roof. Don't get me wrong. A metal roof is
double the price of a sphalt shingle roof. I'm just
saying the performance of that metal roof is outstanding and
it is beautiful. Or you can make it look like
an asphalt shingle roof, So you can learn a little
(38:28):
bit about that if you want to check it out
that that podcast is up and it is available. It's
under our last Saturday's date, and uh, if you want
to check that out, I highly recommend it. Our phone
number if you'd like to join us again, is eight
hundred eighty two three A two five A two five five. Gary,
(38:49):
it's eight hundred eighty two five eight two five five.
Easy for me to say.
Speaker 3 (38:53):
So A two three two five five.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
Yeah, I'm all messed up, you know. I'm it's like
an off day today. Everybody's kind of still kind of
sleepy and you know, trying to get get the motors going.
Me too, but let's get those motors going. So one
of the things today I'd like to talk about, and
we talk about it often. We talk about our homes
being too dry, too wet, We talk about it being uncomfortable.
(39:20):
We talk about moisture invading the basement areas and mold
and all that, and I'd like to kind of get
your take on that. And one of the things is
do you have a humidifier in your house? And if
(39:41):
you do have a humidifier in your house, and I'm
not talking about the little portable one that blows steam
in the air, which are nice, nothing wrong with that,
But I'm talking about a whole house humidifier. It's it's
usually installed on the furnace stuff quirk. And I'm curious
(40:04):
how if you're satisfied with that, can you control the
humidity levels in your home or is it still way
too dry or is it too wet and the windows
are sweating? And how do you control that? And then
what basis is it automatic? Do you have to turn
it on? And your humidity course fluctuates during the wintertime
(40:31):
depending on what the outdoor temperature is. And right now
we're about, oh, I don't know, ten to fifteen degrees
above normal, so it's more humid outside and more humid
inside than it normally is than just two weeks ago
when it was freezing cold. It is near zero and snowing.
(40:51):
So I'm asking you, is where is your home comfortable?
In other words, with the heat? That's one thing, and
a lot depends on where your thermostat is set, but
also where the humidity level is set, and do you
know where that humidity level is set? So that's one
thing I'd like to ask. The other thing I'd like
to ask is in the basement. Does that seem a
(41:16):
little bit more wet and humid than the rest of
the house. And is there signs that you could have
some mold or even mildew growth in that basement. Does
it have that basementy smell odor, that stagnant odor, and
(41:37):
what are you doing about that if anything? Also, do
you see efflorescence? Efflorescence is a white, chalky residue that
you'll usually see on concrete foundation or block foundations, and
that indicates a presence of more oyster that is reacting
(42:02):
with the lime and the salts inside the concrete, which
is causing efflorescence to grow just because of the stamp
all the time. So I'd like to hear your input
on that. Paul, Welcome, Hi Gary, How you doing doing fine?
Thank you? Hi Gary, Happy New Year, Happy New Year. Hey.
Speaker 6 (42:30):
Just on the humidifier comment, we do have one. It's
a whole house and I have to manually adjust it.
But we've been in the house five years. I've only
used it the last couple of years. I never bothered
to even use it before, and I don't know if
it's a mental thing. I think I notice the difference
in the house in terms of moisture content, Things like
(42:54):
that we haven't had any issues with it, but I'm
pretty conscious of adjusting it now. My question, and I
was going to call you before, what's the best way
to clean the filter on that thing, because actually I
need to do it this year.
Speaker 1 (43:07):
Yeah. So it's not really a filter, it's more of
a media. So it's a I don't know, ten by ten,
twelve by twelve something like that steel frame about two
inches thick, and the water goes over that pall and
saturates the media in there to help distribute the moisture.
And it really should be replaced every year, to be
(43:28):
honest with you, especially if it's used all the time. Otherwise,
what happens is it calcifies from the hard water deposits
and that little filter humidity pad becomes like a rock
and it doesn't absorb the water, and then your humidification
(43:48):
drops significantly. And that was one of the reasons why
I was proposing that problem, because if people are doing
those adjustments like you've been doing those adjustments and they're
not getting any increased humidity, that pad has probably not
been replaced.
Speaker 6 (44:07):
All right, hop it out and put a new one.
Speaker 1 (44:08):
In there, Yes, sir, Pretty simple to do too. So
you should have no problem at all with it. Thank
you much for the call. If you'd like to join us,
do so. We're talking home improvement in You're at Home
with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 2 (44:42):
Weekends. I mean a never ending list of things to
do around your home. Get help at one eight hundred
and eighty two three talk You're at Home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 4 (45:00):
The play became a
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