December 28, 2025 • 45 mins
In this hour of "At Home with Gary Sullivan", Gary tackles two pressing home improvement issues. First, he helps a caller deal with a clogged drain, discussing the best methods for removing hair and other debris. He also shares tips on how to safely remove rock salt residue from concrete after a winter storm. Additionally, Gary offers advice on how to fix a toilet that's not flushing properly, and he chats with a caller about a bathroom paint peeling issue. With his expertise and friendly guidance, Gary helps listeners tackle their home maintenance challenges.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Well the weekends here. Welcome. You're at home with Gary
Salvin dec I was brought to you by YEP Smart
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DUMO nd Global dot com. All right, taking your calls,
Our phone number is eight hundred eight two three A
two five five lines are wide open. And I do
want to thank mister Parker for joining us and talking
(01:36):
to us a little bit about the uh drain cleaners
and the biofilm and educating on that. I gosh, I
started using that stuff. I don't know. It's probably been
about eight years ago. Now that's when I first found
the product. And I found it because I did everything
you're supposed to do to a washing machine and it's stunk.
(01:57):
Quite honestly, it smelled bad. And wipe down the seals
and everything help for a little bit for a day
or to smell. Started reading about biofilm. I never heard
of it before. I've heard of Legionnaire's disease, and that's
a disease from biofilm. As Jim was talking about and
(02:18):
as he's uh, you know, created different products and for
spas and hot tubs and cold plunge tubs, and then
we got to talking about drains and were like, why
wouldn't that work, and uh, it does, it does. So
it's a h H S. And me thank him for
(02:38):
spending a little time with us. I certainly do. And
since we've been talking for the last couple of weeks,
we've chatted a lot about drain maintenance and if you
have a problem drain where you're always getting you know,
it's slow running, doesn't do anything for hair and I
and I've had many many people that I've talked to
(03:01):
that have enzyme cleaners. None of them do anything for
a hair that I've found. There was one a long
time ago, and then they quit making that claim, So
I don't know that seems to be. If that's the issue,
that seems to be. The mechanical way to remove it
(03:22):
is really the only way, and tubs are probably the
number one issue. I will say, if you do have
a slow running tub and you want to try the awesome,
that's fine, but I also would like to tell you,
you know, mechanically removing it with a snake or something.
If somebody in the home has you know, longer hair
(03:45):
or more of a coarse hair, something along those lines,
wiry hair, curly hair, those do have a tency clog
up shower drains. And I know I'm always talking about
that zip it strip, but you don't have to use that.
There's there's other type of smaller There's even one it's
(04:06):
a I call it a pressure washer for a for
a drain where maybe you can break it up and
just push it down your tub. Drain goes down you know,
through the tub obviously, and then goes usually an elbowing
in straight underneath the tub where it ties into another
(04:26):
pipe and it's you know, obviously it has a little
bit of fall, but not much. That seems to be
where the entanglement takes place. You never know what's in
there though. I don't know if I ever told you
we built a house. This is crazy. We built this
house twenty six years ago. You know, you get all
(04:49):
excited you had a new house. Then you start finding
out where all the mistakes are, and we had. We
had a couple, but we didn't have many. But the
mistake we had was after after it was all done
and we were in the house for a bit. I
can't really remember, it's been a while, and all of
(05:09):
a sudden, our main shower wouldn't drain. I mean it
was really slow draining. And you know, he had the
contractor come out and brought a plumber out, and they'd
run a snake down there and they they just weren't
getting anywhere. And he goes like, what we discovered was
(05:32):
the guy that set the tile and the grout, Yeah,
you got it. He poured the leftover grout down the drain.
So that was a big help. Literally had to cut
the ceiling and cut the pipe because it had all
kind of settled in a trap and it was rock hard.
With just a little passageway. Weren't going to get that
(05:53):
cleaned out with a snake, So things happened. But yeah,
if it's the only way you're really going to get
that out is with a with a snake of some sort.
All right again, our phone numbers eight hundred eight two
three A, two five five. You can grab a line.
They're wide open. So we're waiting for you in the meantime.
(06:17):
Me too, You too, So, Danny boy, we had a
little snow a little bit. Did you have to shovel?
Speaker 2 (06:24):
No?
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Did you have to use any rock salt?
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Uh?
Speaker 4 (06:27):
Yes, a little bit.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Okay for people that used rock salt. Let me give
a little thing here. Remember I always talk about that
as it can hurt concrete or or asphalt. But here's
what you got. Here's what you gotta think about. There's
a residue of the rock salt. So it melded to
(06:51):
snow and I you said, did great. We had perfect
temperatures for it. It was very effective. And then we
have a residue now on the concrete, say, and nobody's
thinking about it anymore. The snow's melted, the driveway's clear. Yahoo,
We did our job. But there's a residue there, and
(07:11):
then we're gonna get a little I think tomorrow in
our city we're going to have a wintery.
Speaker 5 (07:16):
Mix, which means might not possible, yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Which means it might drizzle or spit a snow flurry
or two. And it's gonna wet that residue. So it's
not going to stick on anything, and that little drizzle
isn't going to wash it away or anything, but it's
going to make that salt active with that water, and
(07:42):
it's going to weep into the concrete. And remember, concrete's hard,
but it's not super solid. There's capillaries in it, and
it's going to work its way down into the slab
and it's gonna be corrosive. And when we chat in
the spring and summer every year, and I mean every year,
(08:06):
at least for thirty nine years, we chat every year
about the surface of the concrete, it's rough, the top
is popping off. There's a good chance that's what's caused it.
So again we're always talking about disconnecting a hose. This
(08:27):
is a really good time. Once it gets above freezing
whatever that would be is to get that residue off.
You can get a lot of it off with a
street broom and then maybe when it's above freezing, just
hose it down real quick. Let's get as much of
that off as we can because it will be crosive
(08:48):
if it just lays there. And then maybe next time
when you're thinking about, you know, the ice melter of
your choice, and you go to the hardware store, take
a look at all the different types because you have
a huge selection. So much of us. You know, we
buy for price, and I'm not any different than you.
(09:11):
We buy for price. Rock salt's inexpensive. It melts snow
and ice, but I've told you about the after effects.
Then there's an ice melter. It melts snow and ice,
maybe down a little little lower temperature. But you got
to watch some of the stuff that's maybe three bucks
for a ten pound bag, four bucks for a ten
(09:33):
pound bag, because if you read the label and you
go to the back and you read the ingredients, it's
got salt in it. So I want you to clean
that up kind of the same way as we just
talked about with rock salt. And then if you go
take a look at another one and there's an ice
melter and it's just calcium chloride bingo. That's not nearly
(10:00):
as corrosive, and then you can get into magnesium chloride.
I think that's what the pet safe is. You've seen
maybe labels pet Safe doesn't hurt their pauls or anything
like that. I think it has a magnesium chloride. It
melts snow and ice down know about zero degrees is
I must say fairly. It's not pH neutral, but it's
(10:25):
not nearly as corrosive as any of the other products.
And maybe that's what you should take a look at,
especially if that concrete is unsealed, it's been there for
a while, and that rock salt or that calcium chloride
with rock salt is going to be a challenge for
that concrete. And we'll be talking in the spring or summer.
(10:47):
So if you haven't bought your ice melters, that's a
little information on the types you should be looking at. All.
Right again, our phone number is eight hundred eight two
three eight two five five. Take a break and Roseanne
you'll be up first we'll continue. You're at home with
Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
Help for your home is just a click away at
Garysullivan online dot com. This is at Home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
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see and smell the difference. All right, Beck, Here we
(13:47):
go at home with Gary Sullivan twenty one minutes after
the top of the air and talking a little home
improvement and Roseanne. Welcome, Gary, how are you doing fine?
Thanks good.
Speaker 6 (13:59):
So Mike is about the zip tool to unclog a drain.
I used one. I've had one for a while and
my bathtub clogged and I used to try to use
it in the bathtub. Well, apparently over time that thing
(14:23):
gets brittle because it broke. Oh and yeah, surprised to me.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Got about three of them at the house, and there's
none of them that are young. I know that.
Speaker 6 (14:39):
Either you use them. Yeah, okay, So it broke in
the drain and probably about I got some of it out,
but about half of it, the bottom half is still
in the drain. Any ideas to get that out or
what would a plumber do to get that out?
Speaker 1 (15:01):
My guess is they're going to run a snake down
there see if they can get that. You know, the
front part of the snake's kind of a.
Speaker 7 (15:09):
Coil, you know, a round I'm familiar.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
Yeah, maybe they can tangle and pull it up that way.
Can you see it or not?
Speaker 6 (15:17):
No, not anymore anymore.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
I would say that would be the only way. Yeah,
do you have it?
Speaker 6 (15:25):
Would break up and grind up in there with the
snake and just flush down.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Maybe with a power one you could push it it
I guess it depends where in that drain it is.
I you know, I would say a snake would be
the best thing. Is there is this on the first
floor and there's a basement underneath.
Speaker 6 (15:45):
Or no, no, it's on the second floor.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
I was going to say, unless you could you know,
access it from the bottom. But that's not going to happen, right,
I would say a snake. You know, I've had a
but tell you what, I've had some of those zip
it strips, the yellow ones I've had. I've I've had
maybe a barb you know, you know how they got
(16:10):
those little cleats on the side of it. I've bent those,
but I've never broke one.
Speaker 6 (16:16):
Well it's possible age they become brittle.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Yeah, And I was even I just even wonder if
there's even different qualities of it. I have no idea.
I have no.
Speaker 6 (16:26):
Yeah, okay, well just beware.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Yeah, I'll tell you what it can If it can happen,
it will I know.
Speaker 6 (16:32):
That, yes, right, Fortunately, I have a shower on the
first floor.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
So I'm not Does it DrAk that was what I
want to ask. Does it drain with it down there?
Speaker 6 (16:42):
Or I was afraid to run the water? Yeah, because
I don't want to, you know, make it worse. Yeah,
if that would make it worse, so I am going
to have a plumber.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Yeah. It depends where that is position too, you know.
I mean, like I said that the the drain, it
goes down a little bit and then there's usually an
elbow right there and then there's like a long wall
tube that ties into the waistline. So but we don't
know where. We don't know for sure what it looks
like underneath, So probably not a good idea to run
(17:16):
water down there.
Speaker 6 (17:16):
But yeah, I'm just going to hand hang on.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Well, look forward to the full report. Rose in Okay,
I will cry together?
Speaker 6 (17:26):
Oh will we?
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Ever?
Speaker 6 (17:29):
So my other question is electrical. I have on an
outdoor electrical outlet. I had plugged in a roof cable
for ice, you know, and at the end of the
season last year, I pulled it out and it sparked.
So is that a problem?
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Well, we never like to see sparks in an outlet.
I guess the one thing I would ask you before
anything is is that outlet ground false circuit interrupter installed
on that? Or is it protected by one inside the
house or house Howl's the house.
Speaker 7 (18:14):
You think, well, the house is.
Speaker 6 (18:17):
Seventy six years old, but this outlet was installed probably
within the last twenty years. I'm going to say, yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Yeah, I think the one thing I would do is
probably change that outlet and put in a GFI, which
is the one with the because I don't know why
it's sparked. I mean I don't know.
Speaker 6 (18:37):
Okay, okay, Well to me, that means I'm in a
Colon electrician.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
Yeah, I would get a g I would have that
GFI protected regardless. So even if it had not sparked,
because when if it was GFI protected and it sparked,
it has shut everything down immediately. Oh you know it's outside.
You know, if it's not protected with a GIFF somewhere
(19:05):
in that house, my guess is it would have blown.
So my guess is it's not protected, and I would
install one there. All right, Roseanne, thank you appreciate the call.
Alex and Matt, you'll be up first and you're at
home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 4 (19:38):
Solutions to your home improvement are as easy as calling
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Speaker 1 (19:43):
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Speaker 4 (19:44):
He's at home with Gary Sullivan.
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(22:15):
you're at home with Gary Sealvin where we talk a
little home improvement each and every weekend. By the way,
if you missed our conversation with Jim Parker from Awesome
and we talked about the biofilm. We also talked about
drain cleaning and killing the sludge that builds up in drains.
That podcast, by the way, is available and you can
(22:37):
pick it up wherever you pick it up. Your podcast,
the iHeart app is easy. Hit the magnifying glass at
Home with Gary Salvin and you're on your way. A
lot of good information there. All right, you can grab
a line. We're talking about your home and let's go
to Alex. Alex welcome.
Speaker 7 (22:54):
Yes, I have an older toilet in my house and
one of the tank empties into the bowl. It doesn't
sell that fast, not it to flush? And then when
a flush, water doesn't go down. Could that be the
internal trap inside the bowl? And it goes down but
it's very slow and not any.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Yeah, it's you know, there's probably parts of that toilet
that have calcified from hard water. And it's probably again
probably when you're doing plumbing over the phone, we're doing
a lot of Probably, it's probably when you flush, it's
not bringing enough water at a at a significant force
(23:37):
to create a clear flush. Okay, so right, and so
So there's two reservoirs of water. There's the closet and
the bowl itself. And once you press that handle down,
it's releasing the water from the closet to the bowl,
and it's releasing it underneath the rim the toilet. There's
(24:01):
a series of holes that go all the way around
the rim of the toilet, and if you take a
little compact mirror or something along those lines, you can
actually see those little holes and you'll be able to
see if they're clogged okay from hard water, and if
they are, you'll have to clean those out. And what
I'll do is I'll take like a real thin like
(24:25):
a paper clip or like a real small drill bit
and just use my index finger and my thumb and
just kind of twist it into those holes. Kind of
clear out those holes if you will, and you will
add force and water by cleaning out those holes. And
then if you got to force in the water, you
(24:46):
should clear out the waste and remove that and replace
the second reservoir, which is the water in the bowl. Now,
the other thing you asked is could it be something
that's clawedugging in the drain or et cetera. Et cetera. Yeah, exactly,
(25:08):
exactly exactly, So there could be several things. One, hard
water deposits. If you look into the bowl, there'll be
a little hole about the size of a quarter in
the older toilets, and that's connected to kind of the
stack if you will, for the air which helps the
(25:28):
flush also, and if that's calcified, you know, putting a
court of clr in there overnight and just letting it
sit and then flushing it in the morning. Uh, that'll
help clear that out to you know, to a degree.
And then the other thing is if there's something up
(25:49):
in the vent on the roof that's clogging it, you
would probably notice other things going wrong in that bathroom
also probably hurt some. Here's some gargling and different things
along lines if that would be impeded with something. But
I'd start with the You can do a little test too.
Take the um bowl and just put a little food
(26:15):
coloring in it, and when you flush the toilet, have
a bucket of water and just slowly pour the water
in kind of replacing the water coming from the closet
and see if it flushes better. And if it does,
then you're gonna know that it's just not receiving enough
water from the closet. And and that's those holes underneath
(26:38):
that rim.
Speaker 7 (26:41):
Yeah, now what is all your help? If there may
be some blackets in the.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
May it it may it may I will, I will
caution you when you use that. They're they're different call
to use because that that that trap or that the
opening in the bottom of that bowl literally goes straight up.
Even though you're pushing down, it goes up. It's molded
(27:11):
into the toilet. It goes up and does a like
a one eighty and then goes straight down. So it's
they make a toilet auger. You gotta be real careful,
you don't scratch the porcelain, you gotta be You just
gotta be real careful using it. It's it's a little
challenging to use and and quite not say, if something's
(27:34):
stuck in there, there's a good chance you'd end up
taking the toilet off the off the seal and you know,
working it from the bottom side up rather than the
bull side to the pipe.
Speaker 7 (27:48):
I see what is that a SELR.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
CLR. You can get any hardware store, grocery store. It's
a mild acid that will uh, I've had I've had
mixed results with it. I've had some results where it
worked real good. Back in the day, a plumber just
used Mratic acid and I'm not recommending that, but that's
what they would use. This is a hydrochloric acid. I
(28:14):
think it's a lot less strong than a erratic.
Speaker 7 (28:18):
So I can pour the clar into the bowl.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Yes, and just let it sit. Don't flush, just let
it sit. But again, I I keep mentioning that the
water coming through the rim because that's that's usually what
it is. It's usually not in the drink fast enough. Yeah,
it's just not coming in fast enough. That's exactly right.
Speaker 7 (28:38):
Yeah, it's not making that suction right, pull it out.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
That's why I said you can test that with a
bucket of water.
Speaker 7 (28:47):
Now, the the newer tilets have it takes less water
to flush it. But there maybe I've just changed the bowl.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
Right, well, you know quite honestly. I mean, yeah, those
the toilet you're using is an older toilet and that's
probably why it's got some issues. And the newer toilets
certainly conserve water. And for the most part, the manufacturing
is caught up with the government regulations. When it first
came out. There was a lot of bad news about
(29:18):
low flush toilets, but they're kind of getting there now.
Speaker 7 (29:21):
Yeah. Now, I'm not gonna save much water by putting
in a low flush. Is that significant?
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Well, it depends how old your toilet is, but you're
probably comparing per flush, you're probably gonna save you know,
three gallons per flush.
Speaker 7 (29:38):
Oh, that would be significant.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know you got one point six
flush toilets. Now some are even lower. And the old
ones way back in the day were like seven gowns.
Most of the older ones are about five, so you
save a few gowns.
Speaker 7 (29:57):
Yes, I see. Okay, all right, okay, thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
Gary, You're quite welcome. Thank you, take care bye bye.
All right, and uh, while we're on toilets, let's go
to Matt. Matt welcome.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
Hey, Gary, how are you against her doing?
Speaker 1 (30:12):
Fun?
Speaker 2 (30:14):
So I called into you a few months ago about
a toilet that would intermittently flush and not fully empty,
or sometimes it would be normal flush normal. So I
did some more digging, and I came to find that
the toilet was wobbly. So I tore it all apart
(30:36):
and found that the floor flange had actually broken.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
Oh, jeez.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Okay, So I went and I bought a new one. However,
when I dug further into it to put the new
flange in, it appears that it is the flange and
the pipe is all one piece. Is that something that's.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Common or I'm you know, there's nothing common in plumbing.
You know, there's a lot, there's a lot of variables,
and there there is a lot of variables, and they've
kind of got a new type flange. I don't know
if you ran into that when you went shopping for
the flange that could possibly be put in on top
(31:23):
of that.
Speaker 7 (31:24):
Which is what I did.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
I found one that that's apparently a flange fixer, and
I wound up putting that in. It came with the
rubber seal to go further into the pipe, and then
I did a non wax seal for under the toilet
that also had a piece that went into the pipe
as well. Right, and for the first i'd say twenty
(31:53):
or so flushes, it was doing everything normal, working properly,
and now I'm back to not as bad as it
was before, but it's still intermittently not wanting to flush fully.
So I don't know where.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Let me interject. My thought, okay, because when you started
and you said the toilet wasn't flush, and then the
seal in the ring, we're one piece but broken. My
thought is, what's that got to do with the flush?
Speaker 2 (32:31):
That's what I was thinking. My thought was with it
not having a full vacuum seal, that it wouldn't fully
flush every single time. So my thought with having this
piece on top is maybe it's still not getting a
full vacuum seal.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
Maybe, but that thing, I feel like that's sparking up
the wrong tree. Okay, I just you know, I just
went through little dissertation on the flush mechanism with the
other fella, and how old is that toilet?
Speaker 2 (33:08):
I put it in probably five or six years ago,
and it worked fine up until what was it beginning
of last year, and it was working fine. I had
no intermittent issues, and then all of a sudden, it's
popped up. And I don't know.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
Because really, when you're when you're flushing a toilet, you're
you're just basically taking you know, you got a closet
full of water, but you're really basically taking a bucket
of water, and you're pouring it rapidly and that's creating
that push to make that water replace the water that's
(33:51):
in the bowl. Okay, And if you don't have enough
volume coming into that bowl, it struggles to get up.
Remember when I was telling them, when you snake it,
you go down and then you go straight up, and
then you do one hundred and eighty degrees down. So
you need that water volume and pressure to push that out.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
And that's this. This toilet is a one of the
low is a low flow volume of flushes?
Speaker 1 (34:18):
Yeah, it's one.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
I believe so. And I've under the lid. It says
to have the still water line one inch below Yeah,
one point eight gallons per flush.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
It says to set that uh water line. I think, yeah,
set water level below overflow top. I've tried doing that
about an inch and I've got it back up to
it's at the very top of that overflow tube. But
it's still doing the issue.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
What don't we just try use a bucket and see
if that helps it, so then we can concentrate on
the flushing mechanism, because I you know, usually if you
got a bad seal or a bad flange or something,
you're gonna see water. That's usually the signature of we
got a problem. You'll see water leaking out from under
(35:21):
the toilet if that seal isn't sealing real good. And
it sounds to me like you got that perfect seal
by Danko in there, and those are pretty forgiving. But
I would it could be. I don't know if you
even on the brand that you have is an American standard.
(35:42):
Yes see, they had some problems with their flush mechanisms too,
why don't you.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
Yeah, And I've called them and they said that this
one was not one of the particular models that was
happy the issue.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
Okay. And when I was talking to him, because we're
dealing with two generations of toilets, when I was talking
with him, I was talking about using a compact mirror
under there to see if the ports were clogged. Do
you even have those ports under there?
Speaker 6 (36:12):
No?
Speaker 1 (36:13):
Yeah? Yeah, hmm. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
It's frustrating to the point where I'm almost tempted to
buy a new toilet.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
Yeah, why don't you do this? Keep listening. Maybe somebody
had some experience with it, so do keep listening. But
also I think I would flush and pour water in
there and see if see if that does anything, See
what that does.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
And you say when you say pour the water in,
are you talking about into the tank.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
Into the into the bowl, into the bowl. Okay, so
you're adding more water, more volume, and see if that
changes things or not. Because that's gonna take. That's gonna
take that seal. I think out'll play a little bit. Yeah,
I'm gonna have to break. Okay, so get back with me.
I'm curious to them. We'll see if anybody else comes
(37:04):
and give some good advice. Also, thank you much. All right, yes,
let's take a break. I'm kind of rambling here. We'll
continue your with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 4 (37:16):
Help for your home is just a click away at
Garysullivan online dot com. This is at Home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 1 (37:40):
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Speaker 1 (40:00):
And back in. It's just another brief thing on the toilet,
and we covered the water levels and everything else. And
you know, another thing to check he was talking about
to fill in the closet. Also making sure that that flapper,
depending on what he has there, that that's you know,
allowing all that water to drain out of that closet.
That's another thing to check. So take the lit off,
(40:23):
watch it flush and see if that floppers flapper stays
out till there's a drain all the way down to
the opening. And if it's just draining halfway, that could
also be a part of that problem, not getting enough water,
enough power behind the flush. All right, enough of that,
we'll go to Matt. Matt, welcome.
Speaker 3 (40:42):
Gary, first time caller and listening to you on in
Louisville off of whas your affiliate. Yes, So, I got
two questions for you. First one is we have an
issue in the bathroom where the paint and I'm not
sure if it's oil based or not. It is peeling
off in large portions. I can literally take my fingers
(41:04):
and grab it and just kind of peel it away. Okay,
obviously I want to put the paint back up. I'm
going to try and maybe use a use some kind
of heat or something like that. And second part of that,
it's a family member. It's not even here in Kentucky,
it's in Florida, so I don't know if that comes
into play.
Speaker 1 (41:21):
Well.
Speaker 3 (41:22):
Any recommendations you'd have for putting it back on, Obviously,
maybe looking at a paint with a for a bathroom
type I guess for a Well.
Speaker 1 (41:29):
That's true. I'll tell you, you know, Matt, the number
one and number two things for paling paint first is
bad preparation. The next one is water. If I was
going to add a third, it would be kind of
tying into the water. Would be what type of paint
is it. I'm not talking a brand name, but is
(41:50):
it an oil based paint or is it acrylic paint
or a latex paint. Oil based paints don't breathe. So
if there's a moisture issue, and we certainly haven't a
moisture in a bathroom, but there's so many things that
can cause it. It could be you know, the exhaust
fan is invented outside it's ringing on the ceiling directly above. Yeah,
(42:12):
I mean you know it's moisture.
Speaker 8 (42:14):
I was cleaning, cleaning, I was down there on vacation
cleaning the exhaust van and then notice the paintless feeling.
You know, the exhaust fan got clogged up. We brushed
out with air compresser and vacuum, got that all clean.
It draw it has a lot of draw on there now,
which I think it was lacking before. Right, So now
I'm down to just the dry wall and just trying
to let it air out a little bite.
Speaker 3 (42:35):
Then using the shower. I'm like, use the other shower,
don't use this one.
Speaker 1 (42:38):
This limit And quite honestly, I mean that can you
know again if it's an oil based paint, and you
can test to see what it's oil base or water
based paint, which you're gonna need to know anyway, just
take some rubbing alcohol and a cotton cloth, saturate that
and rub real hard. And if it is oil based paint,
(43:06):
it'll shine. If it's latex paint, it'll start getting gummy
and start kind of removing it. So oil base will
shine and latex pain will start getting gummy and sticky.
That's how you tell the difference.
Speaker 3 (43:23):
So what if it's what if it's water based.
Speaker 1 (43:26):
Well it'll breathe, but if there's too much water, it's
not going to breathe it all out. So it could
be either one, to be honest with you, but moisture
is the number one enemy, okay. And the other thing
we can't answer is preparation. In other words, was it primed,
did it need to be primed? Was it painted over
oil base? And if it was, and with a latex
(43:48):
paint without a primer, that can cause it to pine.
So the first thing I do is test make sure
it's not a lead based paint, and then the best
way to do it is just scrape it and get
it down, prime it and use a good bathroom paint.
If you've got a follow up question, we'll put you
on hold. If not, thanks for the call, and we'll
continue with your calls. Mike and Edwin, you'll be next, Matt.
(44:11):
If you're still there and you're at home with Gary.
Speaker 9 (44:14):
Sullivan, thanks the weekend and you have a fixed questions,
(44:41):
give Gary a call at what eight hundred and eight
two three talk this.
Speaker 4 (44:45):
He's at home with Gary's sullivant
Well the weekends here. Welcome. You're at home with Gary
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Our phone number is eight hundred eight two three A
two five five lines are wide open. And I do
want to thank mister Parker for joining us and talking
(01:36):
to us a little bit about the uh drain cleaners
and the biofilm and educating on that. I gosh, I
started using that stuff. I don't know. It's probably been
about eight years ago. Now that's when I first found
the product. And I found it because I did everything
you're supposed to do to a washing machine and it's stunk.
(01:57):
Quite honestly, it smelled bad. And wipe down the seals
and everything help for a little bit for a day
or to smell. Started reading about biofilm. I never heard
of it before. I've heard of Legionnaire's disease, and that's
a disease from biofilm. As Jim was talking about and
(02:18):
as he's uh, you know, created different products and for
spas and hot tubs and cold plunge tubs, and then
we got to talking about drains and were like, why
wouldn't that work, and uh, it does, it does. So
it's a h H S. And me thank him for
(02:38):
spending a little time with us. I certainly do. And
since we've been talking for the last couple of weeks,
we've chatted a lot about drain maintenance and if you
have a problem drain where you're always getting you know,
it's slow running, doesn't do anything for hair and I
and I've had many many people that I've talked to
(03:01):
that have enzyme cleaners. None of them do anything for
a hair that I've found. There was one a long
time ago, and then they quit making that claim, So
I don't know that seems to be. If that's the issue,
that seems to be. The mechanical way to remove it
(03:22):
is really the only way, and tubs are probably the
number one issue. I will say, if you do have
a slow running tub and you want to try the awesome,
that's fine, but I also would like to tell you,
you know, mechanically removing it with a snake or something.
If somebody in the home has you know, longer hair
(03:45):
or more of a coarse hair, something along those lines,
wiry hair, curly hair, those do have a tency clog
up shower drains. And I know I'm always talking about
that zip it strip, but you don't have to use that.
There's there's other type of smaller There's even one it's
(04:06):
a I call it a pressure washer for a for
a drain where maybe you can break it up and
just push it down your tub. Drain goes down you know,
through the tub obviously, and then goes usually an elbowing
in straight underneath the tub where it ties into another
(04:26):
pipe and it's you know, obviously it has a little
bit of fall, but not much. That seems to be
where the entanglement takes place. You never know what's in
there though. I don't know if I ever told you
we built a house. This is crazy. We built this
house twenty six years ago. You know, you get all
(04:49):
excited you had a new house. Then you start finding
out where all the mistakes are, and we had. We
had a couple, but we didn't have many. But the
mistake we had was after after it was all done
and we were in the house for a bit. I
can't really remember, it's been a while, and all of
(05:09):
a sudden, our main shower wouldn't drain. I mean it
was really slow draining. And you know, he had the
contractor come out and brought a plumber out, and they'd
run a snake down there and they they just weren't
getting anywhere. And he goes like, what we discovered was
(05:32):
the guy that set the tile and the grout, Yeah,
you got it. He poured the leftover grout down the drain.
So that was a big help. Literally had to cut
the ceiling and cut the pipe because it had all
kind of settled in a trap and it was rock hard.
With just a little passageway. Weren't going to get that
(05:53):
cleaned out with a snake, So things happened. But yeah,
if it's the only way you're really going to get
that out is with a with a snake of some sort.
All right again, our phone numbers eight hundred eight two
three A, two five five. You can grab a line.
They're wide open. So we're waiting for you in the meantime.
(06:17):
Me too, You too, So, Danny boy, we had a
little snow a little bit. Did you have to shovel?
Speaker 2 (06:24):
No?
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Did you have to use any rock salt?
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Uh?
Speaker 4 (06:27):
Yes, a little bit.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Okay for people that used rock salt. Let me give
a little thing here. Remember I always talk about that
as it can hurt concrete or or asphalt. But here's
what you got. Here's what you gotta think about. There's
a residue of the rock salt. So it melded to
(06:51):
snow and I you said, did great. We had perfect
temperatures for it. It was very effective. And then we
have a residue now on the concrete, say, and nobody's
thinking about it anymore. The snow's melted, the driveway's clear. Yahoo,
We did our job. But there's a residue there, and
(07:11):
then we're gonna get a little I think tomorrow in
our city we're going to have a wintery.
Speaker 5 (07:16):
Mix, which means might not possible, yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Which means it might drizzle or spit a snow flurry
or two. And it's gonna wet that residue. So it's
not going to stick on anything, and that little drizzle
isn't going to wash it away or anything, but it's
going to make that salt active with that water, and
(07:42):
it's going to weep into the concrete. And remember, concrete's hard,
but it's not super solid. There's capillaries in it, and
it's going to work its way down into the slab
and it's gonna be corrosive. And when we chat in
the spring and summer every year, and I mean every year,
(08:06):
at least for thirty nine years, we chat every year
about the surface of the concrete, it's rough, the top
is popping off. There's a good chance that's what's caused it.
So again we're always talking about disconnecting a hose. This
(08:27):
is a really good time. Once it gets above freezing
whatever that would be is to get that residue off.
You can get a lot of it off with a
street broom and then maybe when it's above freezing, just
hose it down real quick. Let's get as much of
that off as we can because it will be crosive
(08:48):
if it just lays there. And then maybe next time
when you're thinking about, you know, the ice melter of
your choice, and you go to the hardware store, take
a look at all the different types because you have
a huge selection. So much of us. You know, we
buy for price, and I'm not any different than you.
(09:11):
We buy for price. Rock salt's inexpensive. It melts snow
and ice, but I've told you about the after effects.
Then there's an ice melter. It melts snow and ice,
maybe down a little little lower temperature. But you got
to watch some of the stuff that's maybe three bucks
for a ten pound bag, four bucks for a ten
(09:33):
pound bag, because if you read the label and you
go to the back and you read the ingredients, it's
got salt in it. So I want you to clean
that up kind of the same way as we just
talked about with rock salt. And then if you go
take a look at another one and there's an ice
melter and it's just calcium chloride bingo. That's not nearly
(10:00):
as corrosive, and then you can get into magnesium chloride.
I think that's what the pet safe is. You've seen
maybe labels pet Safe doesn't hurt their pauls or anything
like that. I think it has a magnesium chloride. It
melts snow and ice down know about zero degrees is
I must say fairly. It's not pH neutral, but it's
(10:25):
not nearly as corrosive as any of the other products.
And maybe that's what you should take a look at,
especially if that concrete is unsealed, it's been there for
a while, and that rock salt or that calcium chloride
with rock salt is going to be a challenge for
that concrete. And we'll be talking in the spring or summer.
(10:47):
So if you haven't bought your ice melters, that's a
little information on the types you should be looking at. All.
Right again, our phone number is eight hundred eight two
three eight two five five. Take a break and Roseanne
you'll be up first we'll continue. You're at home with
Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
Help for your home is just a click away at
Garysullivan online dot com. This is at Home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
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(12:33):
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see and smell the difference. All right, Beck, Here we
(13:47):
go at home with Gary Sullivan twenty one minutes after
the top of the air and talking a little home
improvement and Roseanne. Welcome, Gary, how are you doing fine?
Thanks good.
Speaker 6 (13:59):
So Mike is about the zip tool to unclog a drain.
I used one. I've had one for a while and
my bathtub clogged and I used to try to use
it in the bathtub. Well, apparently over time that thing
(14:23):
gets brittle because it broke. Oh and yeah, surprised to me.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Got about three of them at the house, and there's
none of them that are young. I know that.
Speaker 6 (14:39):
Either you use them. Yeah, okay, So it broke in
the drain and probably about I got some of it out,
but about half of it, the bottom half is still
in the drain. Any ideas to get that out or
what would a plumber do to get that out?
Speaker 1 (15:01):
My guess is they're going to run a snake down
there see if they can get that. You know, the
front part of the snake's kind of a.
Speaker 7 (15:09):
Coil, you know, a round I'm familiar.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
Yeah, maybe they can tangle and pull it up that way.
Can you see it or not?
Speaker 6 (15:17):
No, not anymore anymore.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
I would say that would be the only way. Yeah,
do you have it?
Speaker 6 (15:25):
Would break up and grind up in there with the
snake and just flush down.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Maybe with a power one you could push it it
I guess it depends where in that drain it is.
I you know, I would say a snake would be
the best thing. Is there is this on the first
floor and there's a basement underneath.
Speaker 6 (15:45):
Or no, no, it's on the second floor.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
I was going to say, unless you could you know,
access it from the bottom. But that's not going to happen, right,
I would say a snake. You know, I've had a
but tell you what, I've had some of those zip
it strips, the yellow ones I've had. I've I've had
maybe a barb you know, you know how they got
(16:10):
those little cleats on the side of it. I've bent those,
but I've never broke one.
Speaker 6 (16:16):
Well it's possible age they become brittle.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Yeah, And I was even I just even wonder if
there's even different qualities of it. I have no idea.
I have no.
Speaker 6 (16:26):
Yeah, okay, well just beware.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Yeah, I'll tell you what it can If it can happen,
it will I know.
Speaker 6 (16:32):
That, yes, right, Fortunately, I have a shower on the
first floor.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
So I'm not Does it DrAk that was what I
want to ask. Does it drain with it down there?
Speaker 6 (16:42):
Or I was afraid to run the water? Yeah, because
I don't want to, you know, make it worse. Yeah,
if that would make it worse, so I am going
to have a plumber.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Yeah. It depends where that is position too, you know.
I mean, like I said that the the drain, it
goes down a little bit and then there's usually an
elbow right there and then there's like a long wall
tube that ties into the waistline. So but we don't
know where. We don't know for sure what it looks
like underneath, So probably not a good idea to run
(17:16):
water down there.
Speaker 6 (17:16):
But yeah, I'm just going to hand hang on.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Well, look forward to the full report. Rose in Okay,
I will cry together?
Speaker 6 (17:26):
Oh will we?
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Ever?
Speaker 6 (17:29):
So my other question is electrical. I have on an
outdoor electrical outlet. I had plugged in a roof cable
for ice, you know, and at the end of the
season last year, I pulled it out and it sparked.
So is that a problem?
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Well, we never like to see sparks in an outlet.
I guess the one thing I would ask you before
anything is is that outlet ground false circuit interrupter installed
on that? Or is it protected by one inside the
house or house Howl's the house.
Speaker 7 (18:14):
You think, well, the house is.
Speaker 6 (18:17):
Seventy six years old, but this outlet was installed probably
within the last twenty years. I'm going to say, yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Yeah, I think the one thing I would do is
probably change that outlet and put in a GFI, which
is the one with the because I don't know why
it's sparked. I mean I don't know.
Speaker 6 (18:37):
Okay, okay, Well to me, that means I'm in a
Colon electrician.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
Yeah, I would get a g I would have that
GFI protected regardless. So even if it had not sparked,
because when if it was GFI protected and it sparked,
it has shut everything down immediately. Oh you know it's outside.
You know, if it's not protected with a GIFF somewhere
(19:05):
in that house, my guess is it would have blown.
So my guess is it's not protected, and I would
install one there. All right, Roseanne, thank you appreciate the call.
Alex and Matt, you'll be up first and you're at
home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 4 (19:38):
Solutions to your home improvement are as easy as calling
one eight two three.
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Talk this.
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He's at home with Gary Sullivan.
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(22:15):
you're at home with Gary Sealvin where we talk a
little home improvement each and every weekend. By the way,
if you missed our conversation with Jim Parker from Awesome
and we talked about the biofilm. We also talked about
drain cleaning and killing the sludge that builds up in drains.
That podcast, by the way, is available and you can
(22:37):
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the iHeart app is easy. Hit the magnifying glass at
Home with Gary Salvin and you're on your way. A
lot of good information there. All right, you can grab
a line. We're talking about your home and let's go
to Alex. Alex welcome.
Speaker 7 (22:54):
Yes, I have an older toilet in my house and
one of the tank empties into the bowl. It doesn't
sell that fast, not it to flush? And then when
a flush, water doesn't go down. Could that be the
internal trap inside the bowl? And it goes down but
it's very slow and not any.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Yeah, it's you know, there's probably parts of that toilet
that have calcified from hard water. And it's probably again
probably when you're doing plumbing over the phone, we're doing
a lot of Probably, it's probably when you flush, it's
not bringing enough water at a at a significant force
(23:37):
to create a clear flush. Okay, so right, and so
So there's two reservoirs of water. There's the closet and
the bowl itself. And once you press that handle down,
it's releasing the water from the closet to the bowl,
and it's releasing it underneath the rim the toilet. There's
(24:01):
a series of holes that go all the way around
the rim of the toilet, and if you take a
little compact mirror or something along those lines, you can
actually see those little holes and you'll be able to
see if they're clogged okay from hard water, and if
they are, you'll have to clean those out. And what
I'll do is I'll take like a real thin like
(24:25):
a paper clip or like a real small drill bit
and just use my index finger and my thumb and
just kind of twist it into those holes. Kind of
clear out those holes if you will, and you will
add force and water by cleaning out those holes. And
then if you got to force in the water, you
(24:46):
should clear out the waste and remove that and replace
the second reservoir, which is the water in the bowl. Now,
the other thing you asked is could it be something
that's clawedugging in the drain or et cetera. Et cetera. Yeah, exactly,
(25:08):
exactly exactly, So there could be several things. One, hard
water deposits. If you look into the bowl, there'll be
a little hole about the size of a quarter in
the older toilets, and that's connected to kind of the
stack if you will, for the air which helps the
(25:28):
flush also, and if that's calcified, you know, putting a
court of clr in there overnight and just letting it
sit and then flushing it in the morning. Uh, that'll
help clear that out to you know, to a degree.
And then the other thing is if there's something up
(25:49):
in the vent on the roof that's clogging it, you
would probably notice other things going wrong in that bathroom
also probably hurt some. Here's some gargling and different things
along lines if that would be impeded with something. But
I'd start with the You can do a little test too.
Take the um bowl and just put a little food
(26:15):
coloring in it, and when you flush the toilet, have
a bucket of water and just slowly pour the water
in kind of replacing the water coming from the closet
and see if it flushes better. And if it does,
then you're gonna know that it's just not receiving enough
water from the closet. And and that's those holes underneath
(26:38):
that rim.
Speaker 7 (26:41):
Yeah, now what is all your help? If there may
be some blackets in the.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
May it it may it may I will, I will
caution you when you use that. They're they're different call
to use because that that that trap or that the
opening in the bottom of that bowl literally goes straight up.
Even though you're pushing down, it goes up. It's molded
(27:11):
into the toilet. It goes up and does a like
a one eighty and then goes straight down. So it's
they make a toilet auger. You gotta be real careful,
you don't scratch the porcelain, you gotta be You just
gotta be real careful using it. It's it's a little
challenging to use and and quite not say, if something's
(27:34):
stuck in there, there's a good chance you'd end up
taking the toilet off the off the seal and you know,
working it from the bottom side up rather than the
bull side to the pipe.
Speaker 7 (27:48):
I see what is that a SELR.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
CLR. You can get any hardware store, grocery store. It's
a mild acid that will uh, I've had I've had
mixed results with it. I've had some results where it
worked real good. Back in the day, a plumber just
used Mratic acid and I'm not recommending that, but that's
what they would use. This is a hydrochloric acid. I
(28:14):
think it's a lot less strong than a erratic.
Speaker 7 (28:18):
So I can pour the clar into the bowl.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Yes, and just let it sit. Don't flush, just let
it sit. But again, I I keep mentioning that the
water coming through the rim because that's that's usually what
it is. It's usually not in the drink fast enough. Yeah,
it's just not coming in fast enough. That's exactly right.
Speaker 7 (28:38):
Yeah, it's not making that suction right, pull it out.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
That's why I said you can test that with a
bucket of water.
Speaker 7 (28:47):
Now, the the newer tilets have it takes less water
to flush it. But there maybe I've just changed the bowl.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
Right, well, you know quite honestly. I mean, yeah, those
the toilet you're using is an older toilet and that's
probably why it's got some issues. And the newer toilets
certainly conserve water. And for the most part, the manufacturing
is caught up with the government regulations. When it first
came out. There was a lot of bad news about
(29:18):
low flush toilets, but they're kind of getting there now.
Speaker 7 (29:21):
Yeah. Now, I'm not gonna save much water by putting
in a low flush. Is that significant?
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Well, it depends how old your toilet is, but you're
probably comparing per flush, you're probably gonna save you know,
three gallons per flush.
Speaker 7 (29:38):
Oh, that would be significant.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know you got one point six
flush toilets. Now some are even lower. And the old
ones way back in the day were like seven gowns.
Most of the older ones are about five, so you
save a few gowns.
Speaker 7 (29:57):
Yes, I see. Okay, all right, okay, thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
Gary, You're quite welcome. Thank you, take care bye bye.
All right, and uh, while we're on toilets, let's go
to Matt. Matt welcome.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
Hey, Gary, how are you against her doing?
Speaker 1 (30:12):
Fun?
Speaker 2 (30:14):
So I called into you a few months ago about
a toilet that would intermittently flush and not fully empty,
or sometimes it would be normal flush normal. So I
did some more digging, and I came to find that
the toilet was wobbly. So I tore it all apart
(30:36):
and found that the floor flange had actually broken.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
Oh, jeez.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Okay, So I went and I bought a new one. However,
when I dug further into it to put the new
flange in, it appears that it is the flange and
the pipe is all one piece. Is that something that's.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Common or I'm you know, there's nothing common in plumbing.
You know, there's a lot, there's a lot of variables,
and there there is a lot of variables, and they've
kind of got a new type flange. I don't know
if you ran into that when you went shopping for
the flange that could possibly be put in on top
(31:23):
of that.
Speaker 7 (31:24):
Which is what I did.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
I found one that that's apparently a flange fixer, and
I wound up putting that in. It came with the
rubber seal to go further into the pipe, and then
I did a non wax seal for under the toilet
that also had a piece that went into the pipe
as well. Right, and for the first i'd say twenty
(31:53):
or so flushes, it was doing everything normal, working properly,
and now I'm back to not as bad as it
was before, but it's still intermittently not wanting to flush fully.
So I don't know where.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Let me interject. My thought, okay, because when you started
and you said the toilet wasn't flush, and then the
seal in the ring, we're one piece but broken. My
thought is, what's that got to do with the flush?
Speaker 2 (32:31):
That's what I was thinking. My thought was with it
not having a full vacuum seal, that it wouldn't fully
flush every single time. So my thought with having this
piece on top is maybe it's still not getting a
full vacuum seal.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
Maybe, but that thing, I feel like that's sparking up
the wrong tree. Okay, I just you know, I just
went through little dissertation on the flush mechanism with the
other fella, and how old is that toilet?
Speaker 2 (33:08):
I put it in probably five or six years ago,
and it worked fine up until what was it beginning
of last year, and it was working fine. I had
no intermittent issues, and then all of a sudden, it's
popped up. And I don't know.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
Because really, when you're when you're flushing a toilet, you're
you're just basically taking you know, you got a closet
full of water, but you're really basically taking a bucket
of water, and you're pouring it rapidly and that's creating
that push to make that water replace the water that's
(33:51):
in the bowl. Okay, And if you don't have enough
volume coming into that bowl, it struggles to get up.
Remember when I was telling them, when you snake it,
you go down and then you go straight up, and
then you do one hundred and eighty degrees down. So
you need that water volume and pressure to push that out.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
And that's this. This toilet is a one of the
low is a low flow volume of flushes?
Speaker 1 (34:18):
Yeah, it's one.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
I believe so. And I've under the lid. It says
to have the still water line one inch below Yeah,
one point eight gallons per flush.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
It says to set that uh water line. I think, yeah,
set water level below overflow top. I've tried doing that
about an inch and I've got it back up to
it's at the very top of that overflow tube. But
it's still doing the issue.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
What don't we just try use a bucket and see
if that helps it, so then we can concentrate on
the flushing mechanism, because I you know, usually if you
got a bad seal or a bad flange or something,
you're gonna see water. That's usually the signature of we
got a problem. You'll see water leaking out from under
(35:21):
the toilet if that seal isn't sealing real good. And
it sounds to me like you got that perfect seal
by Danko in there, and those are pretty forgiving. But
I would it could be. I don't know if you
even on the brand that you have is an American standard.
(35:42):
Yes see, they had some problems with their flush mechanisms too,
why don't you.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
Yeah, And I've called them and they said that this
one was not one of the particular models that was
happy the issue.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
Okay. And when I was talking to him, because we're
dealing with two generations of toilets, when I was talking
with him, I was talking about using a compact mirror
under there to see if the ports were clogged. Do
you even have those ports under there?
Speaker 6 (36:12):
No?
Speaker 1 (36:13):
Yeah? Yeah, hmm. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
It's frustrating to the point where I'm almost tempted to
buy a new toilet.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
Yeah, why don't you do this? Keep listening. Maybe somebody
had some experience with it, so do keep listening. But
also I think I would flush and pour water in
there and see if see if that does anything, See
what that does.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
And you say when you say pour the water in,
are you talking about into the tank.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
Into the into the bowl, into the bowl. Okay, so
you're adding more water, more volume, and see if that
changes things or not. Because that's gonna take. That's gonna
take that seal. I think out'll play a little bit. Yeah,
I'm gonna have to break. Okay, so get back with me.
I'm curious to them. We'll see if anybody else comes
(37:04):
and give some good advice. Also, thank you much. All right, yes,
let's take a break. I'm kind of rambling here. We'll
continue your with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 4 (37:16):
Help for your home is just a click away at
Garysullivan online dot com. This is at Home with Gary Sullivan.
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Speaker 1 (40:00):
And back in. It's just another brief thing on the toilet,
and we covered the water levels and everything else. And
you know, another thing to check he was talking about
to fill in the closet. Also making sure that that flapper,
depending on what he has there, that that's you know,
allowing all that water to drain out of that closet.
That's another thing to check. So take the lit off,
(40:23):
watch it flush and see if that floppers flapper stays
out till there's a drain all the way down to
the opening. And if it's just draining halfway, that could
also be a part of that problem, not getting enough water,
enough power behind the flush. All right, enough of that,
we'll go to Matt. Matt, welcome.
Speaker 3 (40:42):
Gary, first time caller and listening to you on in
Louisville off of whas your affiliate. Yes, So, I got
two questions for you. First one is we have an
issue in the bathroom where the paint and I'm not
sure if it's oil based or not. It is peeling
off in large portions. I can literally take my fingers
(41:04):
and grab it and just kind of peel it away. Okay,
obviously I want to put the paint back up. I'm
going to try and maybe use a use some kind
of heat or something like that. And second part of that,
it's a family member. It's not even here in Kentucky,
it's in Florida, so I don't know if that comes
into play.
Speaker 1 (41:21):
Well.
Speaker 3 (41:22):
Any recommendations you'd have for putting it back on, Obviously,
maybe looking at a paint with a for a bathroom
type I guess for a Well.
Speaker 1 (41:29):
That's true. I'll tell you, you know, Matt, the number
one and number two things for paling paint first is
bad preparation. The next one is water. If I was
going to add a third, it would be kind of
tying into the water. Would be what type of paint
is it. I'm not talking a brand name, but is
(41:50):
it an oil based paint or is it acrylic paint
or a latex paint. Oil based paints don't breathe. So
if there's a moisture issue, and we certainly haven't a
moisture in a bathroom, but there's so many things that
can cause it. It could be you know, the exhaust
fan is invented outside it's ringing on the ceiling directly above. Yeah,
(42:12):
I mean you know it's moisture.
Speaker 8 (42:14):
I was cleaning, cleaning, I was down there on vacation
cleaning the exhaust van and then notice the paintless feeling.
You know, the exhaust fan got clogged up. We brushed
out with air compresser and vacuum, got that all clean.
It draw it has a lot of draw on there now,
which I think it was lacking before. Right, So now
I'm down to just the dry wall and just trying
to let it air out a little bite.
Speaker 3 (42:35):
Then using the shower. I'm like, use the other shower,
don't use this one.
Speaker 1 (42:38):
This limit And quite honestly, I mean that can you
know again if it's an oil based paint, and you
can test to see what it's oil base or water
based paint, which you're gonna need to know anyway, just
take some rubbing alcohol and a cotton cloth, saturate that
and rub real hard. And if it is oil based paint,
(43:06):
it'll shine. If it's latex paint, it'll start getting gummy
and start kind of removing it. So oil base will
shine and latex pain will start getting gummy and sticky.
That's how you tell the difference.
Speaker 3 (43:23):
So what if it's what if it's water based.
Speaker 1 (43:26):
Well it'll breathe, but if there's too much water, it's
not going to breathe it all out. So it could
be either one, to be honest with you, but moisture
is the number one enemy, okay. And the other thing
we can't answer is preparation. In other words, was it primed,
did it need to be primed? Was it painted over
oil base? And if it was, and with a latex
(43:48):
paint without a primer, that can cause it to pine.
So the first thing I do is test make sure
it's not a lead based paint, and then the best
way to do it is just scrape it and get
it down, prime it and use a good bathroom paint.
If you've got a follow up question, we'll put you
on hold. If not, thanks for the call, and we'll
continue with your calls. Mike and Edwin, you'll be next, Matt.
(44:11):
If you're still there and you're at home with Gary.
Speaker 9 (44:14):
Sullivan, thanks the weekend and you have a fixed questions,
(44:41):
give Gary a call at what eight hundred and eight
two three talk this.
Speaker 4 (44:45):
He's at home with Gary's sullivant
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