March 9, 2025 • 45 mins
Gary's tips and your calls on the third hour of Sunday's show.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
H m hmmm.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Well the weekends upon us. Welcome. You're at home with
Gary Sullivan getting a few things done around the home.
The time moved up. We're in the spring and summer
mode now, I declare, at least where I am, the
sun's out's a good looking day, so hooray if you'd
like to join us. Got a question of a heat wave.
(00:54):
It's a heat wave. Heat wave.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Turn on your h v A C.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Gary, Oh no, you know what that brings a good point.
I got that on my list. I was talking about
little things to keep in mind and do things as
simple as cleaning the cabinets and the kitchen. You know
that's usually a combination of soft wax oil from our hands,
dirt clean and restore, not polish, no waxes, no silicones.
(01:24):
That's one that's an easy one. And Danny mentioned the
air conditioner, and probably not too many people's minds are
on their air conditioner right now, but think about having
and you'll see all the ads. Everybody wants to inspect
(01:45):
your air conditioner. And I think a lot of people
that scares people. They go like, yeah, they want to
look at my air conditioner and tell me it's broken.
I've got to buy an air conditioner. Does that happen?
Sure it does not all the time, not with everybody,
But it's one of the reasons. The other reason is
(02:06):
the reason you should really focus on. When they get
in there, they're inspecting, you know, the free on levels,
the electrical contacts, and a multitude of other things. And
is that even resetting fan speeds and things like that.
It's such a value, you know, I see them advertised
(02:28):
one hundred and nineteen dollars seventy nine dollars, eighty nine dollars.
I will I will tell you that will extend the
life of your compressor, of your air conditioning unit. I
think that's a great investment caution. If something's wrong with
(02:49):
it and they start trying to sell you this, that
and the other thing. If you don't have a relationship
with that particular company, and you don't really know about
them much, and you're a little uneasy about all of
a sudden, we have nothing but bad news. Get a
second opinion. There's a lot of different air conditioning heating
(03:13):
companies that offer free second opinions. Think about it from
their standpoint. Okay, if you need it, that's fine. If
you don't need it, and they give you a free inspection,
of free opinion. Wonder who you're gonna call next time.
In fact, I always talk when you have investments like that.
(03:34):
You know, if you get into air conditioning and furnace
and air handler and all that. I mean, it's an
investment in your home and you need to get more
than one opinion. And I would certainly do that unless
you know the company. I deal with a great company,
and you know they tell me something wrong, I trust them.
(03:56):
They're not gonna They're not gonna mess around. I feel
strongly about that. Or if you're sitting there and you
got a twenty five year unit and they say XYZ
is wrong, well, probably is am I sure? Well done?
Not really, So get your second opinions for sure. So
(04:16):
that's another little thing you can put on your list
of things to do we were talking about. Granted, here's
another one. Winter time is dry time in our homes.
Check the humidity in my home this morning is thirty
six percent. That's where it should be, but it's dry.
Do I have any gaps between the walls and the woodwork? No?
(04:37):
If I do, should I call them? Yes? It is
now a good time to do that. Absolutely Now, as
you're taking a walk on the outside of the house,
and then you do one on the inside of the house,
here's another thing to look at, you know, we're talking
about doorstops. Look into ceilings, around the corners, around the perimeters.
(04:58):
See if you see little nail heads that pop through
the top coat on the drywall. And again, when things
dry out, things start moving, shrinking, et cetera. Nail heads
will sometimes be a telltale sign that there's some movement.
(05:19):
So what I want you to do there is go
ahead and set the nail below the drywall and then
run a screw right next to it. A screw's got threads, okay,
So if there's movement there will be that screw is
going to be strong enough to hold and stabilize that drywall.
(05:41):
A nail, and that's what you used to do. Nail that up.
That's gonna work out. It's gonna you know, after you
get a few years of that tugging and pulling and moving,
that hole will be a little bit bigger than that nail.
That nail will start working almost like a piston. And
so we need to set that deeper. We need to
(06:02):
run a screw next to it. Remember it's got threads,
it's cutting threads into the studs and it's not gonna move.
And then your other nail is buried your screw head.
You use a little topping, compound, sand, prime paint, you're
good to go. But that's another thing to take a
(06:22):
look at. Also this time of year, think about this,
you know, and in the wintertime, our homes seem to
be busy. We got the holidays and everything. We got
furnace filters in there. Do you change those regularly? Should
if it's a pleated filter, like a lot of filters are.
(06:44):
They got the cheap flat panel fiberglass, which well, not
quite as effective, but depleted ones they got a lifespan
about three months and after the holidays, if you hit
them in you know, around Thanksgiving, you're overdue. And your furnace,
(07:08):
your air conditioner, your air handler, if it's impeded by
a dirty filter, it takes longer for the conditioned air
heated or cooled to satisfy the thermostat, So it's gonna
work harder. It's going to you know, put more wear
(07:31):
and tear on the motor, and it's going to cost
you more money. Because the air that you're paying to
condition is being blocked a little bit by a dirty filter.
Change them on a regular basis. That's another little tidbit
that I definitely put on your list to get done.
(07:55):
Other things is just organization in terms of garages, basements.
You know, we have so many really cool things. You know,
the drawback I see or the mistakes I see people's
packing everything up in cardboard boxes. You know, boxes right
(08:15):
now are plentiful. If you're an Amazon shopper, you probably
get a new box every day. So we have we
have a pallethora amount of boxes and people start storing them.
But these put anything in a box and store it
in a basement. Remember that's the humid place that absorbs
the moisture, starts smelling. You get mold. It's an organic
(08:37):
material mustiness or up in the attic and the heat
the stuff we're storing in there. That's tough on the
stuff we're storing. It's also tough on the box. It
starts breaking apart. Plastic containers are fantastic, not going to
have that mold issue, not going to break down. And
(09:00):
so that's a good tip or a tip that you
might want to employ. When you're starting to store stuff,
those boxes aren't always the best thing for storage. If
you do want to use those, that's fine. I would
just say I would definitely make sure that they're up
off the floor, that they're on a shelf, that they're
(09:22):
just not sitting around. I mean, as that water vapor
wakes up through the floor and that cardboard box is
going to absorb that. So that's a no note. And
by the way, you know, we're always talking about the
water vapor that can wink through a wall or through
a floor. There are ceilings that can stop that. Now,
(09:43):
underneath your slab there is supposed to be a vapor
barrier maybe or maybe it's broken down and that water
vapor is kind of making a party going through that
slab every day. The dry lock clear can be used
on floors or walls. It's clear. It is a surface clear.
It's not penetrating clear, but it will stop the water
(10:07):
vapor up to ten pounds per square inch. It's going
to hold back some moisture, and that too can help
humidity issues down in basement areas. We talk about air
exchanging also ceiling same things with radon any gases or
vapors the dry lock clear would be a great addition.
(10:30):
Filling cracks would be a great addition. Ceiling the sumpump
getting a good tight lid on top of it, that
could be very beneficial. Also, all right, your calls next
the number If you'd like to join us, I'd love
to have you. It's eight hundred eight two three eight
two five five. You're at home with Gary Celibate.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
Time to get your hands dirty with Gary Selivan. Give
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Speaker 2 (12:44):
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(13:42):
All right, back, here we go twenty one minutes here
from the top of they are at home with Gerry
Salvin taking your call is in. Feel free to go
ahead and grab a line. Loretta. Welcome, Hi, Hello, are
you good? Good?
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Hello? Yes, how are you doing today?
Speaker 2 (14:00):
I'm doing fine, Thank you.
Speaker 5 (14:02):
Yes, I was calling about the rhino shield. Gut you
just head on.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Uh huh.
Speaker 5 (14:07):
I don't recall you guys talking about replacing the siding,
which would be you know, what would the price range
be on that.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Well, we weren't talking about replacing. We were talking about
you could paint the sighting. Yeah, yeah, okay, so it
would so the rhino shield is a coating and you
heard them talk about all the you know, side benefits
versus paint and the cost on that is about two
(14:37):
to two and a half times what having your house
painted would be.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Oh okay, okay, So.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
If you wanted to paint the sighting, you know that
that's an option.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Oh okay.
Speaker 5 (14:50):
So I have another question for you. I noticed that
I have holes and downstairs in my floors there are
cement floors. Why would I have holes? Why would there
be holes in that floor?
Speaker 2 (15:05):
I don't know how big are they? Weird? Probably like
a quarter and it's straight.
Speaker 5 (15:14):
Yeah, it goes all the way through the floor.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Was there a pipe maybe that was coming up through
that floor at one time?
Speaker 5 (15:22):
You know, it's been like that ever since I've been
in this house. And we bought this house in two
thousand and six, and when I had the carpet replace
that's when I noticed there were holes.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Yeah. Well there's no purpose, you know, there's nothing that's
going to put a hole on the floor. Is it
a perfectly round hole? Yes, So somebody's drilled something there,
or there was a pipe there. You can certainly patch it.
Speaker 5 (15:48):
Oh okay. So you don't think they had anything to
do with water?
Speaker 2 (15:52):
No? No, I mean water. If water's coming up through
that hole, it wouldn't be the fault of the hole.
It would be the fault of a high water table.
And water isn't going to cut a perfectly round hole
in the floor of the you.
Speaker 5 (16:08):
Know, okay, because I do have a fireplace down there,
and I noticed that water comes in the basement right
around the sides of the fireplace.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Right at the floor.
Speaker 5 (16:21):
Mm hmmm.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Yeah, And that's not the fault of the fireplace either,
that's just a high water table. In other words, between
the wall and the floor, there's a natural seam and
water always takes a path of least resistance. So that's
where that water is weeping out. And so the cure
to that would be to lower the water table below
(16:45):
that house. And a lot of times that can be
done with a sump well and a sump bump.
Speaker 5 (16:51):
Okay, yeah, because I don't have a I don't have
a place where you can crawl in, and I don't
have a cross space up under the house.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Well, you don't need a cross space that you can have,
you know, again, in the concrete floor, you can have
a sump well installed which goes down you know, thirty inches,
and then there's a pump. The water would drain to
that little well and be pumped to the outside of
the house away from the foundation to that A plumber, just.
Speaker 5 (17:20):
A regular plumber.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Sure, Oh okay, okay, because I thought I had to
cause some mind, like every dryer or somebody.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Well, well, I was just getting ready to say, if
you were going to just put in a sump well,
a plumber can do that, okay, and that should and
that should help alleviate the issue. There's a lot involved
in what causes a basement leak, whatever dry does. And
(17:52):
I've known those folks for a good twenty years. They
do great work. They take a look at the house
and their whole idea is to waterproof the house. So
you know they're they're they're doing the sump well, they're
doing the outdoor drainage, they're doing indoor drainage systems. They're
(18:13):
putting in an easy breathe. I mean that basement would
be super healthy area. It would be there would be
no water, there would be no problems, it would be
a whole system. Uh. We kind of started with a
hole in the concrete floor and got to water weeping
around the fireplace. So I don't know if you have
a sump well or not, but maybe that's something you
(18:35):
want to take a look at.
Speaker 5 (18:37):
Yeah, maybe I'll just call a plumber just around the fireplace.
Whereas the water's coming in sure sure nowhere nowhere soundstairs
is getting wet.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
And another thing you might want to do is really
take a look. You know, I'm always saying these water
issues always start on the outside, So I say natural seam.
Water weeps in through that natural seam. The next question
is why is there all this additional water right there
that's causing that that area to have a high water
(19:11):
table so clogged to gutters. That would be one reason. Uh.
Grating that slopes towards the house and not away from
the house, that could be another reason. Uh little pockets
of various little dips and things that hold water on
the outside of the foundation in that area, that might
(19:31):
be the reason. So we can also address outside fix
those problems. If it takes care of the problem, you're done.
If it doesn't, you might take a look at the
somep Well. Thanks much, Loreta, good luck with getting that fixed.
I appreciate your calling. You're at home with Gary Sullivation.
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(22:37):
You're at home with Gary Salvin talking home improvement. If
you'd like to rebel line, I encourage you to do so.
It is that time of year. It's eight hundred eight
two three eight two five five. And by the way,
if you miss the conversation on the Rhinoshield product for
exterior coatings for your home, you can pick that up
on the iHeart app or wherever you get your podcast.
(22:59):
And he's a form that into a nice little podcast
and you can pick that up very easily. It's at
home with Gary Sullivan. All right again, our number eight
hundred eight two three eight two five five got about
a half hour ago, So grab a line. Brian, welcome. Hi.
Speaker 6 (23:17):
Yes, I totally have an off the wall question for you.
I think I hear you talking about Ryan X and
Rhyin o'loner things like that. So I have a dog
that constantly digs holes and don't know how to stop it.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
What's he digging for?
Speaker 6 (23:38):
You know, it's a boxer, and I don't know, there's
there's no reason to dig.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Maybe he's got too much energy.
Speaker 6 (23:53):
This dog could run all day long.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
I bet you, I bet you. That's it. You know,
really on those types of issues, you're right. I mean,
there's you got to figure out what's going through a
dog's head that's making them want to want to dig.
And I would say a couple of things that would
come to mind is, you know, he's got a lot
(24:18):
of energies boards so he digs. Or another thing they
dig is you know, we had a call earlier about
a guy that had moles and moles drive him crazy.
And if you got moles in the yard, I'd work
real hard at eradicating the moles, because if that's the case,
(24:39):
he probably is is digging for the moles.
Speaker 6 (24:44):
That's when he was talking about the cast oil and yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
Yeah, do you have moles?
Speaker 6 (24:51):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
Oh okay, So you can usually see the tunnels. You
can usually see the tunnels. You know. It's a little.
Speaker 6 (25:03):
It's got about a half acre. But and I got
electric sense around the yard.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Okay. And he runs all day and digs.
Speaker 6 (25:12):
Uh turns all day long. And then we find a
three foot hole out in the backyard or something.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Well another thing to do? Does he stay kind of
in the same area of digging. No, yeah, it's all over.
Speaker 6 (25:30):
All over, it doesn't matter. It's leave her alone for
a little bit, and yeah, a hour later she's got
a hold up.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
Yeah. Yeah, Well it's kind of it's gonna be difficult
to uh solve, I guess you know. There's other things
like if they dig in the same area, you can
you know, bury some like chicken wire three or four
inches down below the uh you know, the ground cover
of the grass. You could do rocks or gravel. There's
(26:02):
also yeah, there's also some things dogs don't like too,
is vinegar, citrus peels, putting those in different areas. And
then the last one to kind of take a look
at is if you want to maybe start trying to
put him in one area, you could have an automatic
(26:25):
motion sensing sprinkler system. So it doesn't have to be
a system, it can be a freestanding motion sensor sprinkling.
So like, if he's more likely to go to the
northeast corner and dig, you could put aim that sprinkler
in that area. When he gets in that area, that
sprinklertle spray and he'll get out of dodge. Now he
(26:45):
may just go to the southeast corner and dig I
don't know.
Speaker 6 (26:49):
Okay, nothing I've tried yet, but that sounds so there's.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
A couple of things you might try, all right, Brian.
Speaker 6 (26:58):
Appreciate thanks here for for everything a lot, so very good.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
Thanks Brian, take care all right, Let's go to Jeff. Jeff, welcome,
Hello Gary.
Speaker 7 (27:10):
This quick question.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Got a pretty new water heater.
Speaker 7 (27:13):
Where do I start?
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Okay, I had some loss too. It's come up through
the basement drain from a flood here in the past,
and it's still there and it's dried up and all that,
and I want to clean it. And I thought if
I hooked the garden hose up to the base of
the water heater where you would normally drain a water heater,
and it's it's got a fitting for a garden hose, right,
and it would take a rimch to open the valve.
(27:35):
Would that harm the water heater? Doing such a thing?
Using that hot water to simply hose off the basements,
It's not do anything. I didn't know if it would
create some type of vacuum or something because I didn't
open something at the top or something like that.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
No, No, that's you know, you you just you'll have
water going in and you'll have water coming out. So
you know you've got probably you know, fifty sixty gallons
to play with, and you can certainly use that water.
Just be mindful that water's hot. There's no there's no
mixing there. It's probably one hundred and twenty degrees so
(28:12):
it is.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Do you think that would harm a standard garden hoset
and it would only be like a five or ten
minute thing that be doing.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
No. I'll tell you if you're gonna have a problem,
I'll tell you where you're gonna have a problem. You'll
have a problem with a valve. If you have a problem,
that's where the problem will occur. Those valves they put
in the water heare are let's let's capitalize and do
it in bold type cheap valves. They're usually just nylon
(28:39):
valves and luckily it's a relatively new water here. What
happens a lot of times is somebody does a process
like you're talking about five years after they get it,
and all of a sudden there's a calcium carbonate in
their hard water. Plus they get stuck in those valves
(29:02):
and you can't turn them off. But if you if
you're gonna have a problem. That's where that's where the
problem is gonna show up. Jeff.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
But that but that problem that you just mentioned would
have been because I did what I did.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
No, it's just a cheap valve. If you're opening it
and closing it, sometimes they they they're.
Speaker 6 (29:24):
Just sep I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
I was thinking of the valve at the top. You're
talking about the valve that I opened, Okay.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Right, right right?
Speaker 1 (29:32):
Yeah, years old, so that shouldn't be a problem.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
Yeah, So if they are, you're just gonna have to
drain it out, shut off the water at the top,
and drain that thing completely and replace the valve. Get
a nice little brass valve in there. But if you
have any problem, that's where it's gonna be.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Got it.
Speaker 6 (29:49):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
Thanks, all right, good luck, take care. And one other
caution there. It's just not hot water that you're gonna
you're gonna want to be careful. If that was sewage
bacteria health issues, you want to use gloves, mask goggles,
(30:12):
and you want to really use a good disinfectant and
if you want to at least spray that on there
first where it's going to kill a lot of that
and then go with your hot water and then go
with your light scrubbing kind of rinse and then reapply
(30:35):
the disinfectant. Those are the things you're going to want
to tackle. All right, let's get to Pat. Pat Welcome,
Hey Gary.
Speaker 7 (30:44):
I want to follow up with the gentleman who had
an issue with the dogs digging in the yard. I've
found that very comical. We have two part boxers that
would go out and just dig a hole and you
don't know what they're looking for.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
Yeah, I can't understand that.
Speaker 7 (31:04):
And about twelve years ago we had one dog that
would dig a trench and he actually brought home a
mole and said like, okay, Dad, here's dinner. And but
there we got the invisible fence and then run on
the good four acres. Now you were talking earlier about HBAC.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
Two nips, Yes, sir, And on a.
Speaker 7 (31:34):
Serious note on well, people do do that because checking
the free on, they'll check the connections and what your temperatures. Now,
but if your system does need replacing, if you're on
a pure heat pump, consider a hybrid system because in
(31:55):
my area and we got hit hard with the cold
weather and the people long pure heat pumps they had
astronomical like.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Oh yeah, exactly because the heat pump wasn't engaging, right,
I mean it was running on electric heat. This is
like trying to heat your house with a giant toaster. Really,
the point there, Pat, and I appreciate the call, thank you.
The point that I was trying to make on there
also was it's you know, we find a doctor, right,
(32:30):
we find a denis, maybe you find somebody that you
buy your cars from, maybe you've used a certain roof
for you know, a couple of times in your lifetime
of owning the house. Find yourself a good plumber, find
yourself a good HVAC company. And my point was, and
(32:54):
I said it a couple of times, is if you
have a company that you have dealt with where they inspect,
I mean I can get I just replaced a unit
and an air handler. It was it was almost twenty
six years old. And the guy even told me, he said,
(33:16):
you probably get another year or two out of this,
but it's starting to delaminate in the heat exchange. He
shows me the pictures and it's like, Okay, I've dealt
with this company for a long time, and you know,
over the last ten years. I don't think I did
it the first ten years, but then I started. I
(33:37):
might have done it maybe every three years or something.
Now I do annual inspections on him, and I'm convinced
that's one of the reasons why that unit lasted that long.
And also to help you as a homeowner, they do
the inspection, they're usually very affordable and you know it's
(33:59):
going to operated maximum efficiency. If you need to make
a repair, you're gonna get, you know, twenty twenty five
percent discount on parts if you have a breakdown when
it's well anytime, but like if it's really cold, if
(34:20):
you are kind of part of their maintenance program, you're
going to go to the top of the list. If
you you know, again you're continually working, you're in a
partnership with them. They will explain the different systems. They're
gonna know your house, they're going to know your heating
(34:40):
and cooling better than you do, and they're going to
want to continue that business relationship. I think on something
like that, it's like getting an oil change in a car.
It's longevity. You know, if you're really good about get
and the oil change in your car, that car's going
(35:02):
to last a long time. So that was my point
on they can really talk about the different systems. But
he's right, he's right. All right, let's take a break
and if you'd like to grab a line before we
head out for the weekend, you certainly can. In the meantime,
I've got some more tips on things you might want
(35:23):
to take a look at or take your calls. You're
at home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 4 (35:27):
Help for your home is just a click away at
Garysullivan online dot com.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
This is at home with Garysullivan.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
Well, a lot of people are finishing their basements to
add more living space, whether it's an extra bedroom, home, office, gym,
or living space. Now, this adds more value to your home,
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have an odor. You need controlled ventilation to clean the
air you breathe. Simply put your moving that damp, dirty,
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(36:11):
only takes a couple hours to install. For more information,
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(38:21):
All right back in it We go at home with
Gary Salvin, taking you through the weekend, and thank you
so much for joining me. We've covered a lot today.
We were talking about simple little maintenance. We covered a
lot filters, We've covered door stops, We've covered all kinds
of things. Here's a couple more cabinet cleaning. Door sweeps,
(38:46):
whether it's front door, side door, back door, garage door.
Take a look at those door sweeps. In a lot
of cases are a piece of aluminum, sometimes plastic, and
there's a a vinyl strip which you know it's attached.
(39:06):
The housing of that sweep is attached to the bottom
of the door, and the vinyl sweep goes up against
the threshold and seals and eliminates drafts, so pretty simple,
pretty inexpensive peace, which also means it doesn't last forever,
(39:28):
and chances are it'll still stayed on the door. It's
still anchored on, usually with a screw, but adhesives also.
But what will happen over time is that vinyl strip
will just wear. It'll just be old, it'll get brittle,
(39:48):
it'll crack it, it'll be missing parts of it, and
of course then it's very ineffective. But it's also become
an entryway into your home for mice. I'd have to
think that so many times when folks get a rodents
(40:10):
in their home, it's caused by one of two things.
For the most part, they can get in all kinds
of ways, they can chew their way in, but it's
either faulty door sweeps, misaligned doors door sweeps that type
of thing, or doors that just don't get closed. So
(40:30):
as you do your walk around the house, that would
be something I would checks the door sweeps, the weather
stripping and just make sure and you can replace these
so easily. So that's put that on the list on
the inside of the house as you walk around and
when you're walking around the house again, another thing, and
(40:52):
this problem is probably going to disappear in the next
probably sixty days. And that's squeak floors. You know, Squeaky
floors show up a lot in the winter time when
the house is dry. Remember I'm telling you keep your
humidity in the wintertime around thirty five percent. And if
you can do that, that's awesome. If you don't have
(41:15):
a humid afire, or maybe if it's too hu minted
because you don't run fans when you're cooking or bathing
or anything along nose lines, you get it on both sides,
but you should have it around. You know, when it's
below forty you want to have that humidity in your
home around thirty five forty so as it dries, the
(41:39):
squeaks in the floor kind of show themselves. And if
that has been a problem or maybe something you noticed,
or maybe you got some time to notice, now you
can take care of that floor squeak, especially hardwood floors
in several places. One is where the tongue and groove
(41:59):
of the floor meets. As it's dry, that groove and
opening gets a little wider, there gets to be a
little play, and that wood's just squeaking. And a cure
of that's really easy. You use baby powder or talc
and sweep it in there kind of lubricates the tongue
(42:20):
in groove mechanism. The other place is if the subfloor
that is attached to the joys, the stringers over time
again the expansion and contraction of the wood, and if
(42:41):
it's nailed that hole, it starts bouncing that hole. Start
that nail starts working like a piston, and you really
need to renail reglue, get underneath, use a shim, tighten
that up. There's a need little product called squeak ender
that gets screwed to the base of the subfloor and
(43:02):
it's got a threaded rod with a big wing nut
which then loops around the joys. Only if you can
get to the underside of that floor could you use this.
But if you can, very effective. So you screw that
on the subfloor, make sure the screw's not too long.
You don't want to go through the floor, all right,
(43:22):
and then looping around the joys with that threaded rod,
then tightening that wing nut, pulling that sub floor nice
and snug against the joye. That'll eliminate. Also there's also
ways you can and sometimes you have to is where
you actually have to go through the top of the
board or through the carpet with the screw and then
(43:43):
just trying to find those those joys can be a challenge,
but you got to kind of re anchor. That's really
what we're doing. We're re anchoring that sub floor to
the choice to eliminate the screws or eliminate the squeaks.
So there's another thing you can take a look at
and notice and maybe this week get to work on
(44:03):
some of those particular projects. Well, Danny boy, thank you
very much. It's been a very busy week. You're gonna
miss us next Sunday it's your birthday. I will give
me one hundred and one, right, four and six. You're
dreaming now, Yes, yeah, Danny's forty days, Yeah, forty eight. Okay,
Danny's birthdays. Next Sunday he's taking off.
Speaker 3 (44:24):
Joe will be in but always does a great job.
Speaker 2 (44:28):
Yeah, always does a good job. And you will be
here next Saturday with me and we'll take your calls
and we'll talk about your home improvement projects. And it's
gonna ramp up. It's gonna get really busy between now
and the end of summer. So we're looking forward to
a very busy season. Thanks for your help, Danny, I
appreciate it, and good Lord Willing. We'll both be back
(44:48):
next weekend for more at Home with Gary Soliman.
Speaker 4 (45:04):
Help for your home is just a click away at
Garysullivan online dot com.
Speaker 3 (45:09):
This is at Home with Garysullivan.
Speaker 7 (45:14):
M hmmmmm
H m hmmm.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Well the weekends upon us. Welcome. You're at home with
Gary Sullivan getting a few things done around the home.
The time moved up. We're in the spring and summer
mode now, I declare, at least where I am, the
sun's out's a good looking day, so hooray if you'd
like to join us. Got a question of a heat wave.
(00:54):
It's a heat wave. Heat wave.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Turn on your h v A C.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Gary, Oh no, you know what that brings a good point.
I got that on my list. I was talking about
little things to keep in mind and do things as
simple as cleaning the cabinets and the kitchen. You know
that's usually a combination of soft wax oil from our hands,
dirt clean and restore, not polish, no waxes, no silicones.
(01:24):
That's one that's an easy one. And Danny mentioned the
air conditioner, and probably not too many people's minds are
on their air conditioner right now, but think about having
and you'll see all the ads. Everybody wants to inspect
(01:45):
your air conditioner. And I think a lot of people
that scares people. They go like, yeah, they want to
look at my air conditioner and tell me it's broken.
I've got to buy an air conditioner. Does that happen?
Sure it does not all the time, not with everybody,
But it's one of the reasons. The other reason is
(02:06):
the reason you should really focus on. When they get
in there, they're inspecting, you know, the free on levels,
the electrical contacts, and a multitude of other things. And
is that even resetting fan speeds and things like that.
It's such a value, you know, I see them advertised
(02:28):
one hundred and nineteen dollars seventy nine dollars, eighty nine dollars.
I will I will tell you that will extend the
life of your compressor, of your air conditioning unit. I
think that's a great investment caution. If something's wrong with
(02:49):
it and they start trying to sell you this, that
and the other thing. If you don't have a relationship
with that particular company, and you don't really know about
them much, and you're a little uneasy about all of
a sudden, we have nothing but bad news. Get a
second opinion. There's a lot of different air conditioning heating
(03:13):
companies that offer free second opinions. Think about it from
their standpoint. Okay, if you need it, that's fine. If
you don't need it, and they give you a free inspection,
of free opinion. Wonder who you're gonna call next time.
In fact, I always talk when you have investments like that.
(03:34):
You know, if you get into air conditioning and furnace
and air handler and all that. I mean, it's an
investment in your home and you need to get more
than one opinion. And I would certainly do that unless
you know the company. I deal with a great company,
and you know they tell me something wrong, I trust them.
(03:56):
They're not gonna They're not gonna mess around. I feel
strongly about that. Or if you're sitting there and you
got a twenty five year unit and they say XYZ
is wrong, well, probably is am I sure? Well done?
Not really, So get your second opinions for sure. So
(04:16):
that's another little thing you can put on your list
of things to do we were talking about. Granted, here's
another one. Winter time is dry time in our homes.
Check the humidity in my home this morning is thirty
six percent. That's where it should be, but it's dry.
Do I have any gaps between the walls and the woodwork? No?
(04:37):
If I do, should I call them? Yes? It is
now a good time to do that. Absolutely Now, as
you're taking a walk on the outside of the house,
and then you do one on the inside of the house,
here's another thing to look at, you know, we're talking
about doorstops. Look into ceilings, around the corners, around the perimeters.
(04:58):
See if you see little nail heads that pop through
the top coat on the drywall. And again, when things
dry out, things start moving, shrinking, et cetera. Nail heads
will sometimes be a telltale sign that there's some movement.
(05:19):
So what I want you to do there is go
ahead and set the nail below the drywall and then
run a screw right next to it. A screw's got threads, okay,
So if there's movement there will be that screw is
going to be strong enough to hold and stabilize that drywall.
(05:41):
A nail, and that's what you used to do. Nail that up.
That's gonna work out. It's gonna you know, after you
get a few years of that tugging and pulling and moving,
that hole will be a little bit bigger than that nail.
That nail will start working almost like a piston. And
so we need to set that deeper. We need to
(06:02):
run a screw next to it. Remember it's got threads,
it's cutting threads into the studs and it's not gonna move.
And then your other nail is buried your screw head.
You use a little topping, compound, sand, prime paint, you're
good to go. But that's another thing to take a
(06:22):
look at. Also this time of year, think about this,
you know, and in the wintertime, our homes seem to
be busy. We got the holidays and everything. We got
furnace filters in there. Do you change those regularly? Should
if it's a pleated filter, like a lot of filters are.
(06:44):
They got the cheap flat panel fiberglass, which well, not
quite as effective, but depleted ones they got a lifespan
about three months and after the holidays, if you hit
them in you know, around Thanksgiving, you're overdue. And your furnace,
(07:08):
your air conditioner, your air handler, if it's impeded by
a dirty filter, it takes longer for the conditioned air
heated or cooled to satisfy the thermostat, So it's gonna
work harder. It's going to you know, put more wear
(07:31):
and tear on the motor, and it's going to cost
you more money. Because the air that you're paying to
condition is being blocked a little bit by a dirty filter.
Change them on a regular basis. That's another little tidbit
that I definitely put on your list to get done.
(07:55):
Other things is just organization in terms of garages, basements.
You know, we have so many really cool things. You know,
the drawback I see or the mistakes I see people's
packing everything up in cardboard boxes. You know, boxes right
(08:15):
now are plentiful. If you're an Amazon shopper, you probably
get a new box every day. So we have we
have a pallethora amount of boxes and people start storing them.
But these put anything in a box and store it
in a basement. Remember that's the humid place that absorbs
the moisture, starts smelling. You get mold. It's an organic
(08:37):
material mustiness or up in the attic and the heat
the stuff we're storing in there. That's tough on the
stuff we're storing. It's also tough on the box. It
starts breaking apart. Plastic containers are fantastic, not going to
have that mold issue, not going to break down. And
(09:00):
so that's a good tip or a tip that you
might want to employ. When you're starting to store stuff,
those boxes aren't always the best thing for storage. If
you do want to use those, that's fine. I would
just say I would definitely make sure that they're up
off the floor, that they're on a shelf, that they're
(09:22):
just not sitting around. I mean, as that water vapor
wakes up through the floor and that cardboard box is
going to absorb that. So that's a no note. And
by the way, you know, we're always talking about the
water vapor that can wink through a wall or through
a floor. There are ceilings that can stop that. Now,
(09:43):
underneath your slab there is supposed to be a vapor
barrier maybe or maybe it's broken down and that water
vapor is kind of making a party going through that
slab every day. The dry lock clear can be used
on floors or walls. It's clear. It is a surface clear.
It's not penetrating clear, but it will stop the water
(10:07):
vapor up to ten pounds per square inch. It's going
to hold back some moisture, and that too can help
humidity issues down in basement areas. We talk about air
exchanging also ceiling same things with radon any gases or
vapors the dry lock clear would be a great addition.
(10:30):
Filling cracks would be a great addition. Ceiling the sumpump
getting a good tight lid on top of it, that
could be very beneficial. Also, all right, your calls next
the number If you'd like to join us, I'd love
to have you. It's eight hundred eight two three eight
two five five. You're at home with Gary Celibate.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
Time to get your hands dirty with Gary Selivan. Give
them a call at one eight hundred eighty two three talk.
You're at home with Gary Celibator.
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(11:36):
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Speaker 3 (12:44):
Like a pro.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Well. A lot of people are finishing their basements to
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but often the air in the basement is stagnant, may
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(13:05):
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eight six six eight two two seventy three twenty eight.
(13:42):
All right, back, here we go twenty one minutes here
from the top of they are at home with Gerry
Salvin taking your call is in. Feel free to go
ahead and grab a line. Loretta. Welcome, Hi, Hello, are
you good? Good?
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Hello? Yes, how are you doing today?
Speaker 2 (14:00):
I'm doing fine, Thank you.
Speaker 5 (14:02):
Yes, I was calling about the rhino shield. Gut you
just head on.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Uh huh.
Speaker 5 (14:07):
I don't recall you guys talking about replacing the siding,
which would be you know, what would the price range
be on that.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Well, we weren't talking about replacing. We were talking about
you could paint the sighting. Yeah, yeah, okay, so it
would so the rhino shield is a coating and you
heard them talk about all the you know, side benefits
versus paint and the cost on that is about two
(14:37):
to two and a half times what having your house
painted would be.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Oh okay, okay, So.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
If you wanted to paint the sighting, you know that
that's an option.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Oh okay.
Speaker 5 (14:50):
So I have another question for you. I noticed that
I have holes and downstairs in my floors there are
cement floors. Why would I have holes? Why would there
be holes in that floor?
Speaker 2 (15:05):
I don't know how big are they? Weird? Probably like
a quarter and it's straight.
Speaker 5 (15:14):
Yeah, it goes all the way through the floor.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Was there a pipe maybe that was coming up through
that floor at one time?
Speaker 5 (15:22):
You know, it's been like that ever since I've been
in this house. And we bought this house in two
thousand and six, and when I had the carpet replace
that's when I noticed there were holes.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Yeah. Well there's no purpose, you know, there's nothing that's
going to put a hole on the floor. Is it
a perfectly round hole? Yes, So somebody's drilled something there,
or there was a pipe there. You can certainly patch it.
Speaker 5 (15:48):
Oh okay. So you don't think they had anything to
do with water?
Speaker 2 (15:52):
No? No, I mean water. If water's coming up through
that hole, it wouldn't be the fault of the hole.
It would be the fault of a high water table.
And water isn't going to cut a perfectly round hole
in the floor of the you.
Speaker 5 (16:08):
Know, okay, because I do have a fireplace down there,
and I noticed that water comes in the basement right
around the sides of the fireplace.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Right at the floor.
Speaker 5 (16:21):
Mm hmmm.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Yeah, And that's not the fault of the fireplace either,
that's just a high water table. In other words, between
the wall and the floor, there's a natural seam and
water always takes a path of least resistance. So that's
where that water is weeping out. And so the cure
to that would be to lower the water table below
(16:45):
that house. And a lot of times that can be
done with a sump well and a sump bump.
Speaker 5 (16:51):
Okay, yeah, because I don't have a I don't have
a place where you can crawl in, and I don't
have a cross space up under the house.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Well, you don't need a cross space that you can have,
you know, again, in the concrete floor, you can have
a sump well installed which goes down you know, thirty inches,
and then there's a pump. The water would drain to
that little well and be pumped to the outside of
the house away from the foundation to that A plumber, just.
Speaker 5 (17:20):
A regular plumber.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Sure, Oh okay, okay, because I thought I had to
cause some mind, like every dryer or somebody.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Well, well, I was just getting ready to say, if
you were going to just put in a sump well,
a plumber can do that, okay, and that should and
that should help alleviate the issue. There's a lot involved
in what causes a basement leak, whatever dry does. And
(17:52):
I've known those folks for a good twenty years. They
do great work. They take a look at the house
and their whole idea is to waterproof the house. So
you know they're they're they're doing the sump well, they're
doing the outdoor drainage, they're doing indoor drainage systems. They're
(18:13):
putting in an easy breathe. I mean that basement would
be super healthy area. It would be there would be
no water, there would be no problems, it would be
a whole system. Uh. We kind of started with a
hole in the concrete floor and got to water weeping
around the fireplace. So I don't know if you have
a sump well or not, but maybe that's something you
(18:35):
want to take a look at.
Speaker 5 (18:37):
Yeah, maybe I'll just call a plumber just around the fireplace.
Whereas the water's coming in sure sure nowhere nowhere soundstairs
is getting wet.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
And another thing you might want to do is really
take a look. You know, I'm always saying these water
issues always start on the outside, So I say natural seam.
Water weeps in through that natural seam. The next question
is why is there all this additional water right there
that's causing that that area to have a high water
(19:11):
table so clogged to gutters. That would be one reason. Uh.
Grating that slopes towards the house and not away from
the house, that could be another reason. Uh little pockets
of various little dips and things that hold water on
the outside of the foundation in that area, that might
(19:31):
be the reason. So we can also address outside fix
those problems. If it takes care of the problem, you're done.
If it doesn't, you might take a look at the
somep Well. Thanks much, Loreta, good luck with getting that fixed.
I appreciate your calling. You're at home with Gary Sullivation.
Speaker 4 (19:52):
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classes began and one eight hundred and eighty two three
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(21:00):
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(22:37):
You're at home with Gary Salvin talking home improvement. If
you'd like to rebel line, I encourage you to do so.
It is that time of year. It's eight hundred eight
two three eight two five five. And by the way,
if you miss the conversation on the Rhinoshield product for
exterior coatings for your home, you can pick that up
on the iHeart app or wherever you get your podcast.
(22:59):
And he's a form that into a nice little podcast
and you can pick that up very easily. It's at
home with Gary Sullivan. All right again, our number eight
hundred eight two three eight two five five got about
a half hour ago, So grab a line. Brian, welcome. Hi.
Speaker 6 (23:17):
Yes, I totally have an off the wall question for you.
I think I hear you talking about Ryan X and
Rhyin o'loner things like that. So I have a dog
that constantly digs holes and don't know how to stop it.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
What's he digging for?
Speaker 6 (23:38):
You know, it's a boxer, and I don't know, there's
there's no reason to dig.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Maybe he's got too much energy.
Speaker 6 (23:53):
This dog could run all day long.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
I bet you, I bet you. That's it. You know,
really on those types of issues, you're right. I mean,
there's you got to figure out what's going through a
dog's head that's making them want to want to dig.
And I would say a couple of things that would
come to mind is, you know, he's got a lot
(24:18):
of energies boards so he digs. Or another thing they
dig is you know, we had a call earlier about
a guy that had moles and moles drive him crazy.
And if you got moles in the yard, I'd work
real hard at eradicating the moles, because if that's the case,
(24:39):
he probably is is digging for the moles.
Speaker 6 (24:44):
That's when he was talking about the cast oil and yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
Yeah, do you have moles?
Speaker 6 (24:51):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
Oh okay, So you can usually see the tunnels. You
can usually see the tunnels. You know. It's a little.
Speaker 6 (25:03):
It's got about a half acre. But and I got
electric sense around the yard.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Okay. And he runs all day and digs.
Speaker 6 (25:12):
Uh turns all day long. And then we find a
three foot hole out in the backyard or something.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Well another thing to do? Does he stay kind of
in the same area of digging. No, yeah, it's all over.
Speaker 6 (25:30):
All over, it doesn't matter. It's leave her alone for
a little bit, and yeah, a hour later she's got
a hold up.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
Yeah. Yeah, Well it's kind of it's gonna be difficult
to uh solve, I guess you know. There's other things
like if they dig in the same area, you can
you know, bury some like chicken wire three or four
inches down below the uh you know, the ground cover
of the grass. You could do rocks or gravel. There's
(26:02):
also yeah, there's also some things dogs don't like too,
is vinegar, citrus peels, putting those in different areas. And
then the last one to kind of take a look
at is if you want to maybe start trying to
put him in one area, you could have an automatic
(26:25):
motion sensing sprinkler system. So it doesn't have to be
a system, it can be a freestanding motion sensor sprinkling.
So like, if he's more likely to go to the
northeast corner and dig, you could put aim that sprinkler
in that area. When he gets in that area, that
sprinklertle spray and he'll get out of dodge. Now he
(26:45):
may just go to the southeast corner and dig I
don't know.
Speaker 6 (26:49):
Okay, nothing I've tried yet, but that sounds so there's.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
A couple of things you might try, all right, Brian.
Speaker 6 (26:58):
Appreciate thanks here for for everything a lot, so very good.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
Thanks Brian, take care all right, Let's go to Jeff. Jeff, welcome,
Hello Gary.
Speaker 7 (27:10):
This quick question.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Got a pretty new water heater.
Speaker 7 (27:13):
Where do I start?
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Okay, I had some loss too. It's come up through
the basement drain from a flood here in the past,
and it's still there and it's dried up and all that,
and I want to clean it. And I thought if
I hooked the garden hose up to the base of
the water heater where you would normally drain a water heater,
and it's it's got a fitting for a garden hose, right,
and it would take a rimch to open the valve.
(27:35):
Would that harm the water heater? Doing such a thing?
Using that hot water to simply hose off the basements,
It's not do anything. I didn't know if it would
create some type of vacuum or something because I didn't
open something at the top or something like that.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
No, No, that's you know, you you just you'll have
water going in and you'll have water coming out. So
you know you've got probably you know, fifty sixty gallons
to play with, and you can certainly use that water.
Just be mindful that water's hot. There's no there's no
mixing there. It's probably one hundred and twenty degrees so
(28:12):
it is.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Do you think that would harm a standard garden hoset
and it would only be like a five or ten
minute thing that be doing.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
No. I'll tell you if you're gonna have a problem,
I'll tell you where you're gonna have a problem. You'll
have a problem with a valve. If you have a problem,
that's where the problem will occur. Those valves they put
in the water heare are let's let's capitalize and do
it in bold type cheap valves. They're usually just nylon
(28:39):
valves and luckily it's a relatively new water here. What
happens a lot of times is somebody does a process
like you're talking about five years after they get it,
and all of a sudden there's a calcium carbonate in
their hard water. Plus they get stuck in those valves
(29:02):
and you can't turn them off. But if you if
you're gonna have a problem. That's where that's where the
problem is gonna show up. Jeff.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
But that but that problem that you just mentioned would
have been because I did what I did.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
No, it's just a cheap valve. If you're opening it
and closing it, sometimes they they they're.
Speaker 6 (29:24):
Just sep I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
I was thinking of the valve at the top. You're
talking about the valve that I opened, Okay.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Right, right right?
Speaker 1 (29:32):
Yeah, years old, so that shouldn't be a problem.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
Yeah, So if they are, you're just gonna have to
drain it out, shut off the water at the top,
and drain that thing completely and replace the valve. Get
a nice little brass valve in there. But if you
have any problem, that's where it's gonna be.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Got it.
Speaker 6 (29:49):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
Thanks, all right, good luck, take care. And one other
caution there. It's just not hot water that you're gonna
you're gonna want to be careful. If that was sewage
bacteria health issues, you want to use gloves, mask goggles,
(30:12):
and you want to really use a good disinfectant and
if you want to at least spray that on there
first where it's going to kill a lot of that
and then go with your hot water and then go
with your light scrubbing kind of rinse and then reapply
(30:35):
the disinfectant. Those are the things you're going to want
to tackle. All right, let's get to Pat. Pat Welcome,
Hey Gary.
Speaker 7 (30:44):
I want to follow up with the gentleman who had
an issue with the dogs digging in the yard. I've
found that very comical. We have two part boxers that
would go out and just dig a hole and you
don't know what they're looking for.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
Yeah, I can't understand that.
Speaker 7 (31:04):
And about twelve years ago we had one dog that
would dig a trench and he actually brought home a
mole and said like, okay, Dad, here's dinner. And but
there we got the invisible fence and then run on
the good four acres. Now you were talking earlier about HBAC.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
Two nips, Yes, sir, And on a.
Speaker 7 (31:34):
Serious note on well, people do do that because checking
the free on, they'll check the connections and what your temperatures. Now,
but if your system does need replacing, if you're on
a pure heat pump, consider a hybrid system because in
(31:55):
my area and we got hit hard with the cold
weather and the people long pure heat pumps they had
astronomical like.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Oh yeah, exactly because the heat pump wasn't engaging, right,
I mean it was running on electric heat. This is
like trying to heat your house with a giant toaster. Really,
the point there, Pat, and I appreciate the call, thank you.
The point that I was trying to make on there
also was it's you know, we find a doctor, right,
(32:30):
we find a denis, maybe you find somebody that you
buy your cars from, maybe you've used a certain roof
for you know, a couple of times in your lifetime
of owning the house. Find yourself a good plumber, find
yourself a good HVAC company. And my point was, and
(32:54):
I said it a couple of times, is if you
have a company that you have dealt with where they inspect,
I mean I can get I just replaced a unit
and an air handler. It was it was almost twenty
six years old. And the guy even told me, he said,
(33:16):
you probably get another year or two out of this,
but it's starting to delaminate in the heat exchange. He
shows me the pictures and it's like, Okay, I've dealt
with this company for a long time, and you know,
over the last ten years. I don't think I did
it the first ten years, but then I started. I
(33:37):
might have done it maybe every three years or something.
Now I do annual inspections on him, and I'm convinced
that's one of the reasons why that unit lasted that long.
And also to help you as a homeowner, they do
the inspection, they're usually very affordable and you know it's
(33:59):
going to operated maximum efficiency. If you need to make
a repair, you're gonna get, you know, twenty twenty five
percent discount on parts if you have a breakdown when
it's well anytime, but like if it's really cold, if
(34:20):
you are kind of part of their maintenance program, you're
going to go to the top of the list. If
you you know, again you're continually working, you're in a
partnership with them. They will explain the different systems. They're
gonna know your house, they're going to know your heating
(34:40):
and cooling better than you do, and they're going to
want to continue that business relationship. I think on something
like that, it's like getting an oil change in a car.
It's longevity. You know, if you're really good about get
and the oil change in your car, that car's going
(35:02):
to last a long time. So that was my point
on they can really talk about the different systems. But
he's right, he's right. All right, let's take a break
and if you'd like to grab a line before we
head out for the weekend, you certainly can. In the meantime,
I've got some more tips on things you might want
(35:23):
to take a look at or take your calls. You're
at home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 4 (35:27):
Help for your home is just a click away at
Garysullivan online dot com.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
This is at home with Garysullivan.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
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(36:11):
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(36:35):
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(38:21):
All right back in it We go at home with
Gary Salvin, taking you through the weekend, and thank you
so much for joining me. We've covered a lot today.
We were talking about simple little maintenance. We covered a
lot filters, We've covered door stops, We've covered all kinds
of things. Here's a couple more cabinet cleaning. Door sweeps,
(38:46):
whether it's front door, side door, back door, garage door.
Take a look at those door sweeps. In a lot
of cases are a piece of aluminum, sometimes plastic, and
there's a a vinyl strip which you know it's attached.
(39:06):
The housing of that sweep is attached to the bottom
of the door, and the vinyl sweep goes up against
the threshold and seals and eliminates drafts, so pretty simple,
pretty inexpensive peace, which also means it doesn't last forever,
(39:28):
and chances are it'll still stayed on the door. It's
still anchored on, usually with a screw, but adhesives also.
But what will happen over time is that vinyl strip
will just wear. It'll just be old, it'll get brittle,
(39:48):
it'll crack it, it'll be missing parts of it, and
of course then it's very ineffective. But it's also become
an entryway into your home for mice. I'd have to
think that so many times when folks get a rodents
(40:10):
in their home, it's caused by one of two things.
For the most part, they can get in all kinds
of ways, they can chew their way in, but it's
either faulty door sweeps, misaligned doors door sweeps that type
of thing, or doors that just don't get closed. So
(40:30):
as you do your walk around the house, that would
be something I would checks the door sweeps, the weather
stripping and just make sure and you can replace these
so easily. So that's put that on the list on
the inside of the house as you walk around and
when you're walking around the house again, another thing, and
(40:52):
this problem is probably going to disappear in the next
probably sixty days. And that's squeak floors. You know, Squeaky
floors show up a lot in the winter time when
the house is dry. Remember I'm telling you keep your
humidity in the wintertime around thirty five percent. And if
you can do that, that's awesome. If you don't have
(41:15):
a humid afire, or maybe if it's too hu minted
because you don't run fans when you're cooking or bathing
or anything along nose lines, you get it on both sides,
but you should have it around. You know, when it's
below forty you want to have that humidity in your
home around thirty five forty so as it dries, the
(41:39):
squeaks in the floor kind of show themselves. And if
that has been a problem or maybe something you noticed,
or maybe you got some time to notice, now you
can take care of that floor squeak, especially hardwood floors
in several places. One is where the tongue and groove
(41:59):
of the floor meets. As it's dry, that groove and
opening gets a little wider, there gets to be a
little play, and that wood's just squeaking. And a cure
of that's really easy. You use baby powder or talc
and sweep it in there kind of lubricates the tongue
(42:20):
in groove mechanism. The other place is if the subfloor
that is attached to the joys, the stringers over time
again the expansion and contraction of the wood, and if
(42:41):
it's nailed that hole, it starts bouncing that hole. Start
that nail starts working like a piston, and you really
need to renail reglue, get underneath, use a shim, tighten
that up. There's a need little product called squeak ender
that gets screwed to the base of the subfloor and
(43:02):
it's got a threaded rod with a big wing nut
which then loops around the joys. Only if you can
get to the underside of that floor could you use this.
But if you can, very effective. So you screw that
on the subfloor, make sure the screw's not too long.
You don't want to go through the floor, all right,
(43:22):
and then looping around the joys with that threaded rod,
then tightening that wing nut, pulling that sub floor nice
and snug against the joye. That'll eliminate. Also there's also
ways you can and sometimes you have to is where
you actually have to go through the top of the
board or through the carpet with the screw and then
(43:43):
just trying to find those those joys can be a challenge,
but you got to kind of re anchor. That's really
what we're doing. We're re anchoring that sub floor to
the choice to eliminate the screws or eliminate the squeaks.
So there's another thing you can take a look at
and notice and maybe this week get to work on
(44:03):
some of those particular projects. Well, Danny boy, thank you
very much. It's been a very busy week. You're gonna
miss us next Sunday it's your birthday. I will give
me one hundred and one, right, four and six. You're
dreaming now, Yes, yeah, Danny's forty days, Yeah, forty eight. Okay,
Danny's birthdays. Next Sunday he's taking off.
Speaker 3 (44:24):
Joe will be in but always does a great job.
Speaker 2 (44:28):
Yeah, always does a good job. And you will be
here next Saturday with me and we'll take your calls
and we'll talk about your home improvement projects. And it's
gonna ramp up. It's gonna get really busy between now
and the end of summer. So we're looking forward to
a very busy season. Thanks for your help, Danny, I
appreciate it, and good Lord Willing. We'll both be back
(44:48):
next weekend for more at Home with Gary Soliman.
Speaker 4 (45:04):
Help for your home is just a click away at
Garysullivan online dot com.
Speaker 3 (45:09):
This is at Home with Garysullivan.
Speaker 7 (45:14):
M hmmmmm
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