Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Well, it's the weekend. Welcome you're at home with Gary Salvin.
This sounds brought to you by easy Breed. Does your
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(01:15):
with the unhealthiness of our home. Again, that website's ez
breed dot com. We thank them for sponsoring this hour
of the show. And this hour of the show is
all about your home, in most cases, your biggest investment
of your life, and how to protect it. And you
protect it by maintaining it and taking care of it
(01:35):
like we do all the things that we try to protect.
And the phone lines are open if you've got a
question regarding your home. It's eight hundred eight two three
a two five five eight hundred eight two three eight
two five five. Feel free to grab a line. I
got a lot on my plate to share with you
of things to talk about. One of the things is
(01:58):
ceiling fans. A lot of us that go from winter
circulating the air to summer circulating you the air. We'll
cover that. We'll talk about cleaning the grill. I'd also
like to know your input. A lot of people in
the south, Midwest, Northeast, a lot of wet, wet, spring
(02:19):
and cool also. And over the last number of years,
probably ten, we've been going through a whole cycle of
battery I know, battery powered equipment. I remember when I
first was introduced to it. It's probably been a good
ten years, and this fellow was telling me how it
was going to take over the outdoor power equipment market.
(02:42):
And I'm curious if you've made that switch. Not so
much about the blowers and the weed eaters and all that.
I'm more interested to hear your opinion of the battery
operated lawn mowers, and you know, have you made that switch,
How do you like that? How is it keeping up
with the uh spring rains? And maybe UH you know,
(03:06):
rapidly growing grass. So I'd like to have some opinions
only because I've been asked my opinion so many times
this week by different people. And I'll give you my
opinion at some point this weekend. And you know, there's
a lot of pros, maybe a couple of content, but
let's talk to the people that have used them. I'd
(03:29):
like to have your input again. That phone number is
eight hundred and eighty two three eight two five five,
and feel free to jump on board. So we'll talk
about that. Also, also about where are you with all
the rain? That sounds like a funny question but not really.
How the gutter's holding up? Do you know how the
(03:50):
gutters are holding up? How's the cross space the basement,
how's the roof? Doing some pump working? Do you have
a backup? Some pumping, some pump So we're gonna cover
some of the things that in a lot of parts
of the country are very very relevant. And here's here's
another thought to ponder. And I always find this amazing.
(04:14):
I used to use my gas grill a lot, and
I still use it at least once or twice a week,
which is I don't know if that's everage or not,
but I use my gas grill. How do you know,
how do you always seem to know when you're running
out of gas? I mean, I can't tell you how
(04:38):
many times. And I have a backup tank, but it
always always chuckle about it. I'll go out to grill,
we have some people over, and I have a backup tank,
and I'll go like a, I think this is a
damminar and I guess, and sure enough that's the day.
Do you have that same situation at your home? So
(05:00):
we've got a lot to talk about. Plus we'll have
Ron Wilson in. We'll have Raindy Schreber with gutter brush
in get all those seeds and gunk out of the gutters.
Plus we'll take your calls. Again. It's eight hundred and
eight two three eight two five five, and Jeff you
lead us off. Welcome, Hey, good morning morning.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
First thing, I weigh my propane tank, always empty. Yeah,
I weigh with the bathroom scale. I write on with
the magic marker empty like twenty three pounds, and then
when I fill it up, I write the full weight
and I write it down. So when i think I'm
getting pretty low, I carry out the bathroom scales and.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Wait, yeah, I was kind of thinking I've not done that.
They have little uh weight. I guess it's like a
scale that you're going to attach to the tank also,
but I just think it's like intuition. I'll bet you
it's like eighty percent of the time when I run
out of propane, I know I'm gonna run out that day.
(05:58):
And dog Gondada I do says a lot about us guys, right,
I guess again the reason the reason.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
I called I called you about three weeks ago with
my LED light problem, uh huh, and a nice gentleman
called after me, a Ham radio operator named Bill, and
he was given his secure for my problem and his
phone cut out, so I didn't get He wanted to
wrap something around and transform in my basement.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Yeah, I don't recall what it was. I know. I
don't know if Danny knows what hour or what day
that show was. To pull up the podcast, you don't.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Yeah, it was about three weeks ago. But I sent
you pictures of the lights. Did you get those about
the LED lights?
Speaker 1 (06:42):
No? Usually I always do, but I don't recall getting
those pictures.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Well, you wanted information on them, yeah, and we looked
all over the box and it's very, very plain Jane,
cheap stuff Amazon.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
And I do remember that when I was having that conversation.
I don't, I to be honest with you, when he
was talking about a lot of this stuff, I thought
he is a couple of grades ahead of me, uh
in terms of his knowledge on LEDs. But I do
remember him kind of quantifying what I had said is
a lot of the least expensive bulbs are also a
(07:17):
lot of the problem problematic bulbs.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Well, it's not even you all approved. After I checked that,
thinking a little bit, I did change a dimmer switch
on the second floor, which helped.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
On that good.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
And my wife goes up to change that turnos on
it kills my radios. I'm just thinking, he's right, the
ham radio guy. My entire house. My wiring is acting
like a guy in antenna. Huh, that messes up my
radio signals, right.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Yeah, I don't recall what he had mentioned about wrapping
around something to work. I know we did talk about
the inexpensive bulbs and different things like that. Yeah, we
do a podcast of each and every hour of the show,
and I don't know what date that was, but if
you can kind of zero in. If you normally listen
(08:09):
on Saturday, and if you normally call at a certain time,
maybe you can follow up about an hour and get
that podcast an hour after when you would have called,
because if the timeframe serves me correct, that's about when
he called up and had his two cents added to it.
So hopefully that'll help you find it all right. I
(08:29):
appreciate it much, Thank you much for the call. Again.
Our number is eight hundred eight two three eight two
five five. Other things do talk about If you think
it's just a little too chilly to work outside, I
don't know about you, but I got plenty of work
on the inside. We'll discuss that also along with your calls.
And of course Ron Wilson will be coming in and
again he talks about landscaping and gardens, and I'm sure
(08:54):
his industry's a little bit sideways also, so we'll chat
a little bit about power equipment, the whole works. We'll
cover it. And in fact, before we go to Ron,
let's go to Nancy. She's got a comment on the
power equipment, the battery versus the gas. Welcome Nancy, Hi,
(09:14):
how are you doing doing fine? Thanks?
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Yes, we have about the battery powered lawn mower, but
I guess we've had it for a season. I personally
love it. My husband was very hesitant, you know, he
didn't want to He didn't want to switch over from it.
But I had had rotator cuff surgery and pulling that
lawnmower to start it was not too easy. So we
(09:39):
switched over and got about three quarters of an acre
yard and don't have any issues with it. I'm I'm
very happy with it. Somehow, it folds up the store
very easily. It came with an extra battery, so sometimes
it depends. I tend to mow a little slower. If
there's a lot of leaves, I tend to mow a
(09:59):
little and we'll have to put in the second battery.
But in general, I say, go for it.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
There you go. Do you find them? You know, obviously
the starting makes it easier, that's a pro. Are they
lighter than a guess powered? Do you find them lighter?
Speaker 3 (10:15):
I feel I feel they are. You know, they're power driven,
so I mean it's not like I'm I'm doing a
whole lot of pushing. My husband doesn't like the sound
of the when you put it on. The power drive
you can't stand that high pitched sound.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Is that?
Speaker 3 (10:31):
But you know that that doesn't it doesn't seem to
bother me too much. Good, So yeah, yeah, you'll please
with it.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
Very good. Thank you much for your input. I appreciate it. Okay,
thank you, bye bye. All right, Ron Wilson, he's up next.
We'll continue. Kyle. You'll be up first, and you're at
home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
Helm for your home is just a click away at
Garysullivan online dot com. This is at home with Gary Sullivan.
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you're at home with Gary Salvian. This is the time
every week where we join up with Ron Wilson. Ron
his whole life has really been based in working with
horticulture and lawns and gardens and nursery stores. And Ron,
here's the question for you, all right right, because one
of the things I've got is you know what ruins
(14:02):
a kitchen and the cook Well here's that's the best
answer yet that wasn't on my list. But what is
the common mistakes that homeowners make for their maybe their
whole landscaping or landscaping and gardening, I mean being in
the business like me pretty much your whole life. What
(14:26):
real common mistakes do you see a weekend.
Speaker 5 (14:29):
And week out using the Internet.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
To what identify stuff or whatever?
Speaker 5 (14:36):
H No, Seriously, A lot of times when I go
and look at you know, there's so many different things
out there. When I go to look at landscapes, for instance,
if someone did it themselves, which is fine, a lot
of people do their own landscaping, you know, whatever, is
not calculating the size, the mature size of the plant.
(14:57):
So many times the plants are overgrown. I get the question,
how do I t from his back or to keep
it smaller? Can I you know, blah blah blah, And
it's like, well, you know, if you hadn't to put that,
it's just in the wrong spot, and let's move it
somewhere else and let it grow and then take it
from Let you know, find something smaller that comes into
play a lot. What overplanted comes into play a lot.
(15:17):
Over mulching comes into play a lot. Still an issue, Gary,
I was out yesterday and I know that I've even
spoken with these people several times, visiting some ailing plants
in their landscape and pulled the mult away from the
around the trunk of the tree they just finished mulching.
(15:38):
Showed them again how you don't put you know, mult
up against trunk of the tree. It was six inches
deep on top of the root ball.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
Now, is that what causes the girdling all?
Speaker 5 (15:49):
It can? As a matter of fact, it had. It
had been like that for over a year. And as
I pulled that mulch back to show them that you
wanted to look like a doughnut. As I'm doing that,
roots and it sometimes called those air roots. But these
roots that already started to come out from the side
of the trunk of the tree. Wow, trying to root
into the excessive mulch that was there. And you don't
(16:10):
want that to happen because it can't create girling roots
over time, you know, et cetera, et cetera. And you
can look at the trunk of the tree already starting
to decay a little bit in some areas. So that's
that still as a major issue. Not You're gonna love
this one. Not mowing the lawn as often as you should,
(16:30):
mowing the lawn too short. You know, it's hard to
convince people to mow the lawny higher level. Yes, it
is a fine line. I look back over the last
ten years. In the year my lawn looked the best
was the year it was kind of shaggy looking. To
be honest with you, Yeah, I left it go that
extra notch. In fact, I think I hit it as
(16:52):
high as.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
It would go. And I can't remember why with I
was just playing around with it, or it was a
wet spring, but that particular year, when the out always
comes around August, my grass stay greener well.
Speaker 5 (17:04):
And and that's the whole point. Research has shown that
we know that. And if you can mow it three
inches three and a half inches high, two and a
half is a minimum, but three to three and a
half inches the taller than grass, and there's a point
where you can get be too tall and not successful.
But that three and a half inch three inch height
also increases the depth of the rooting down below, so
it roots in deeper and better. It shades the ground
(17:27):
so doesn't dry out us quickly. And then there's the
other thing on top of that, gary when you're mowing,
is throwing those clippings back into the turf. It's amazingly
people still bag those clippings and take that away. So
I mean there's a I think, and you know the
other one is commitment to watering. Yeah, we just you
know it's you know, when you first plant, you water
and try to get everything, and then once you know,
(17:48):
you think it's all rooted in and we get into
a drought or whatever it may be, and you just
don't see the watering going on that should be going on, right,
especially in the fall.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Well when's our long looked the beat?
Speaker 5 (18:01):
Our lawns look the best usually right now and in
the fall, and in the fall cooler right temperatures, and
they take advantage of that as well. So, yeah, exactly,
I mean, think about it. That lawn is like a piece
of celery, you know, it's that turf is seventy water.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
Yeah, you mentioned a couple of things that that I
got follow up questions when you're talking about the hythe
and I know the moral will tell you what hyth
it is. But can you just take a regular ruler
and stick it down to the soil lever and see
how high that grass is for you get an idea
where you're at.
Speaker 5 (18:35):
Yeah, before you mow, you'll probably be surprised. Yeah, and
you never want to take off more than about a
third of the grass blade each time you mow, right, uh,
And I think you'll be surprised how short you are
mowing once you go out there and actually measure it.
In many cases, like you were talking about with a
push mower. In many cases to get that three and
a half inch heighth, you you're on the top setting.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Yep.
Speaker 5 (18:55):
Some of them won't go to four inches. A lot
of them won't go to four inches, so it's almost
impossible to go too tall. But you know, you've almost
got to go to the top notch before you get
to three and a half inch owing height, So we
wind up moving a little bit too short, stressing it out,
and that could cause problems down the road as well.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
The roots that's girdling the tree, can you can you
cut those out with like a chisel.
Speaker 5 (19:17):
Absolutely, just catch it early enough, you can cut those
off on both ends. In some cases get it out
of there. In some cases just leave it alone, let
it do its own thing. But cutting it on both
ends and killing that definitely, most definitely do that.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
Been a great help. Have a great weekend you too,
All righty, Very good run Wilson online dot com. Your
calls Next at Home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 4 (19:45):
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(22:39):
we talk about your home projects, plus maybe some answers
to some of the questions I threw out today. Happy
to take your calls at eight hundred eight two three
eight two five five and uh, Kyle, welcome. You're at
home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 6 (22:55):
Good morning, and happy Memorial Day everybody. Yes, sir, sir,
the reason I'm calling is twofold. First I heard you
asking about electric powered lawnmowers and whatnot, and so I
was trying to offer my opinion on that and also
had a question for you after the fact. How can
I help you with the electric lawnmower situation.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
Well, I was just curious. It's not so much the
electric you know, the battery operated mowers. You know, obviously
we've been going through a transformation for the last ten years,
and this year we've had an exceptionally rainy spring. And
I'm just looking because I'm sure a lot of people
are looking at, you know, changing from a gas powered
(23:39):
mower to a battery and the pros and cons that
maybe you've experienced if you own a battery mower.
Speaker 7 (23:47):
Yes, sir, I can.
Speaker 8 (23:48):
I can help with that as best as I can.
Speaker 7 (23:52):
I was actually I wasn't purchased.
Speaker 8 (23:54):
I was gifted a broken Ego mower, one of the
zero turn models and fixed it, and so you know,
I got it for a really good price. But however,
it does have some pros and cons. I would still
consider it even as you know, a forty six inch mower.
I would still consider it a battery powered mower because
(24:16):
it takes the machine itself takes battery powered packs that
go in the back of the in the back of
the mower bind the driver's seat and those come out
just like little batteries like you would think on a
my like on a remote control car or something that
or like that. So I would still consider it battery powered.
Some pros on it. It's definitely a lot lower maintenance
(24:39):
than when it comes to a combustion engine. You don't
have to worry about winterizing it or you know, keeping
the fluids checked or anything like that. Everything is sealed
except for a couple of bearings where the lawnmower blades attach.
It's definitely, in my opinion, more cost efficient. Just plug
(25:00):
it into a normal one ten outlet, and it has
a large converter that comes with the mower that you know,
allows you allows you to charge it with within two
hours probably and I can cut and half an acre
to three quarters of an acre pretty easily, just on
one charge. So all in all, I'm really satisfied with it.
(25:27):
Going to the negative parts, these are just some of
them are personal preferences and one issue for anybody on
this specific model of mind. It has led headlights, and
either I'm not smart enough to figure out the controls
or there is no control setting to turn the lights off.
(25:47):
They go low to high beams, but you can't turn
them off without disconnecting excuse or something like that as
far as I can tell. So that's a little bit annoying,
you know, considering that it runs off electricity and there's
no reason to run lights at twelve o'clock when I'm cutting.
As mentioned the it is not nearly as waterproof or
(26:12):
you know, it doesn't brave the elements as well as
a combustion engine.
Speaker 6 (26:15):
That's how I ended up with.
Speaker 8 (26:16):
The lawnmower in the first place, as it had been
left out in the rain and the control panel shorted
out that sits on the very top of the on
the top of the machine, so he couldn't get it
to work. And then I just replaced the CPU and
it fired right up and did find So it's not
as Wether's friendly. And the only other real issue I
(26:40):
have with it is not the battery packs themselves. In
this specific mower, it comes with a docking station for
six batteries, but when you buy it from the manufacture,
or at least when he bought it, it only comes with two.
And so the purchase cost itself is you know, fairly
(27:02):
high for an electric mower, and then you add five
hundred dollars a piece for you know, each additional battery
up to six, it turns out to be quite an
expensive piece of law equipment. So that that and the
main part is is there's no islet or latch or
(27:24):
anything to where you can actually lock the battery compartment
if if you were you know, leaving it outside for
a couple of days, or you just had security issues there.
It's just a spring loaded level where you can pop
up and make yourself three grand and you know, batteries,
if somebody was fly enough to do that. But I
would definitely recommend it if you can eat the cost.
(27:47):
It's a lot less maintenance, it's quieter.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
Plud of a torque.
Speaker 8 (27:50):
Huh yeah, yeah, I would recommend it, and the torque
is just fine there are settings on it to where
you can change how much torque goes to the wheels
and the how many RPMs the blades spin, so you
can set it to your preference. I usually run mind
pretty much wlide open, but you know it seems to
(28:12):
do just fine.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Yes, very good, very good. I appreciate your help on that.
I just kind of throw it out there. I'm sure
a lot of people, you know, with all the rain
and the rapid growing grass, maybe mowers are failing and
you're kind of with it looking at a buying decision,
and hopefully your input there will help somebody out. So
I appreciate it. Our phone number again is eight hundred
(28:36):
eight two three eight two five five Kegan. Welcome, Hi Gary,
have Memorial Day.
Speaker 8 (28:42):
Thanks for taking my call.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
Thank you, sir. Good morning, good morning.
Speaker 7 (28:46):
So I have a well one. I'll give a plus
one in addition for the green for the electric mowers.
I've had my electric mower for about five years now.
It's GreenWorks, it's awesome. I've even been a little bit
hard on it too, and at times I've left it out.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
In the rain.
Speaker 7 (29:03):
It works great, and the battery pack is interchangeable with
with my weed whacker too, so I can get the
entire yard and we'd whacked in one charge.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
But sure you know one of the things I'll throw
in there too before we get to your question is again,
that's what the manufacturers, whether it's GreenWorks, Ego, Troy, whatever,
de Wault now Milwaukee, when when you're buying one of those,
do your research onto different brands because their their goal
is to get you into their brand. So just like
(29:35):
Keegan said, he gets the GreenWorks mower and then he
gets the string trimmer and maybe the blower, and then
those batteries are interchangeable. So just just a tidbit there.
I appreciate you bringing that up.
Speaker 7 (29:48):
Yeah, it's really handy because in one forty volt battery pack.
I mean, I've got a smaller yard, so it's you know,
you want to talk about about a third of an
acre or so, but it gets done with a bat
half a charge left and plenty of spare. So but
I think I had a question for you. I have
an older home built in nineteen thirty uh, and I
(30:11):
wanted to pick your brain a little bit as far
as fixing creaky floorboards in the hardwood floor. They have
been refinished previously, and they're still in pretty good shape.
But I didn't know if there's anything. Obviously, there's no
sub floor that's sitting on there. They're they're tied down
directly the joist and everything. But I wanted to short
(30:32):
of a you know, squirting olive oil underneath there or something.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
What's a good Uh yeah? Yeah. Are are they squeaking
now or do they squeak all winter and they're getting
less now? Or is there any change during the seasonal changes.
Speaker 7 (30:47):
No, it's it's pretty year round. I mean, there's some
places where the house is settled a little bit, and
you know, different floor boards have uh not not uniform
spacing between them. So I'm sure the humidity goes up
and down, but you know it's just the.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
Are they nailed down? Yes? Okay, So yeah, your answer
or the answer for your floorboards is gonna be a
little bit different from homes that were built like in
the seventies on up in the older homes built in
the thirties, you said, so there's no real sub floor.
There's the boards that are finished for the hardwood floor,
(31:30):
so we don't have to worry about a lot of
times in newer floors, the squeak is actually emanating from
the tongue and groove part of the boards. That's not
gonna be a problem with yours. Your boards are there
right on the joys. They've been nailed, and they're old.
So the boards and the joist and everything have, you know,
(31:52):
dried out and swelled and shrunk, probably you know, one
hundred times, and over time, over time keeging, those nails
begin almost work like a piston. In other words, is
that board swells and shrinks and swells and shrinks, and
you walk over it, and the other couple that had
(32:12):
the house walk over it. Not all the nails, but
some of the nails become they bounce a little and
they groove or they make that whole microscopically bigger and
you get some squeaking there. So geez, I don't know.
You know the answer to that is to tighten up
the floorboards to the joyst. But the secret is is
(32:36):
to find out which ones are loose, and how you
do that can be challenging, but if you can really
pinpoint the areas and either renail you know, next to
that nail and shank nails and patching up going through
the surface, you know, that that's one of the ways.
(32:57):
The other ways is from underneath. There is a little
different device called a squeak ender, which is a plate
that's screwed to the bottom of the wood floor that
has a threaded rod that goes around and like an
angleire and that loops underneath the joist and a big
thumbscrew where you just tighten it and you just start
(33:18):
pulling the boards down, okay, And that's very cool. Also
taking shims with a little construction adhesive on it and
again finding where there's that little bounce and putting that
shim in there, just to know you're just tightening it up.
And probably one of the ways to do is if
you can get underneath that floor with a piece of
(33:41):
chalk and have somebody walking on top, you can sometimes
locate where that you know where that squeak is and
with a piece of chalk marked the joist and then
come back and address it with the shims and the
construction adhesives or the nails on the top or you know,
the squeak ender tool, and that's how you would tighten
(34:01):
it up. You gotta find a bounce and then you
gotta you gotta tighten it snug it up to the joyst.
Speaker 7 (34:08):
Got it okay?
Speaker 1 (34:09):
Alrighty well, I appreciate Gary. Thank you all right, Keegan,
thanks for the call. Appreciate it. Take care all right again.
Our number is eight hundred eight two three eight two
five five. Talking about your home and you're at home
with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 4 (34:23):
Help for your home is just a click away at
Garysullivan online dot com. This is at home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
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(35:09):
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(36:14):
save twenty percent free shipping on all orders over thirty
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worth a pound of cure, and that's true when it
comes to preventing a basement flood. Hey, Gary, Salvan here
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(36:36):
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(37:16):
at Home with Gary Sullivan. Don't forget each hour. This
show is available to you via podcast about an hour
after it maybe two hours, depends on how busy Danny
Boy is. But you can pick that up at the
iHeart app and it's labeled the day in the hour
and how busy our systems are. Yeah, yeah, you just
never because I can upload it.
Speaker 8 (37:37):
It may take a while to get to where it
needs to go.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
You get it up there pretty quickly. Y're on top
of it all the time. Let's get Joanne. Joanne.
Speaker 9 (37:46):
Welcome, Hi Gary, Thanks you taking my call.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
You're welcome.
Speaker 9 (37:53):
I'm a teacher and Thursday was our last day, so
we've been working on on my gutters. And I went
down in the basement just to kind of check and
in the north corner it was just black molde all
from the top.
Speaker 7 (38:10):
To the bottom.
Speaker 9 (38:11):
I'm like, oh no, so I have wet and forget
and I thought I'll just spray it on there. You know,
I'm not sure. It looks pretty heavy duty and that
you know shortly, you know, within six or eight hours
it had taken a lot of it away. But I
just I have allergies and everything. I just think I
(38:32):
need to have the basement checked out. And I really
would like you if you know some company that you
think a lot of that I can get into check
for the molde.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
You know, I don't really have a name that because
I haven't really used them, but it's a home hygienist.
I know there's one called at home or is it Homeworks.
I think it's Homeworks. It's the name of the company,
and they do radon detection mold detection. The reason I
threw out the name home hygienics is a lot of
(39:05):
people that test for mold also remediate mold. A little
bit of a conflict of interest in you know that
bugs some people. So that's why I always mention a
home hygienis to just get come out and take some
are samples and do some testing. There's multiportes in our
home no matter what the question is, how big of
(39:27):
an issue is it? So like used to get mold
counts for outdoors, which could be twenty thousand. Inside a
home you might have two thousand, but if you got
a mold problem, it might be twenty thousand. So working
with a real professional to determine if there is a
mold problem, would I would probably search out like a
(39:50):
home hygienis.
Speaker 9 (39:51):
Now okay, so you're saying a home hygienis, yeah, chap
and see right. And then there you've heard company called Homework.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
Yeah, Homeworks with RX home w r X uh. They
do right on mitigation. They also do mold mitigation. And
when you start googling you kinda find all different companies.
I don't have one that i'd really work with, you know,
off the top of my head to recommend. But that's
the direction you want to go. So some of the
(40:25):
black mold is or the mold you see that was
black in color is gone now correct?
Speaker 9 (40:32):
Yes, I sprayed it with wet and for okay, forget
and a lot of them, you know, So.
Speaker 1 (40:38):
Which prod use what I would use?
Speaker 9 (40:43):
The wedding for uh that you get used for the
shower and tub. But I did go ahead and order
on Amazon, you know, wed and forget for inside and
out in a gallon jug and because I thought, well,
I need to maybe washed down those walls, you know,
(41:03):
when to get that.
Speaker 1 (41:06):
Ye I'm saying that, you know you're right in the
line if I always recommend with people if they have
indoor mold that they can see and they can determine
that there's an infestation if it's more than ten square feet.
I don't know who recommended, whether it's me or companies
or who, but it seems like ten square feet is
(41:28):
a point where, well, if it's over that, you might
want to get a pro in there. And it sounds
like yours is over that, and you might want to
get a pro in there, and it sounds like that's
a direction you're going over.
Speaker 9 (41:40):
I'm not sure if it was over the ten square feet,
but it was in the corner and it was really
black and all the way from the top to the box,
and it was surprising. After I sprayed, it was wet
and forget, you know, it took a lot of it away.
I was shocked, but I don't want to fool around
with black mold, so kind of didn't know where to
(42:01):
begin or well, it's all companies.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
Yeah, and there's over three hundred different species of mold.
Now most of it's penicillium and most of it can
be removed, but there are some really other dangerous molds.
And the longer you go, so you got mold spores
in your house, we got organic material, including dust is
organic material. There's usually plenty of that in the basement.
(42:24):
And then you add a high humidity. You don't have
to have water, you can see just high humidity can
activate a colony of this and as it multiplies, its strengthens,
and you know, I mean it would be worth having
air samples taken in there and they can determine exactly,
you know, what kind of mold, how bad it is.
(42:47):
There's there's some test hits and they're they're they're not
very effective. There there's one by Healthy Homes which will
tell you whether it's a a dangerous mold or not. Okay,
because we know you got mold. It's just a matter
of how much and is it dangerous? Right? And I
(43:09):
think it's called a five minute mold test kit, and
all you do is little dust on top of door frames,
and it's almost like a pregnancy test where it'll give
you one line or two lines. You know, it'll say
it's dangerous mold or it's not dangerous mold. That's a
pretty good test kit for a homeowner. I think they're
about forty bucks. I think ACE Hardware carries them. There's
(43:30):
probably other people that do also. If you want to
get a snapshot with that first, I mean you could
certainly do that.
Speaker 7 (43:39):
Okay.
Speaker 9 (43:39):
So what was the name of the forty dollars test kit?
Speaker 1 (43:42):
It's a five minute mold test kit, okay, and it's
made by Healthy Homes.
Speaker 9 (43:50):
Okay, all right, thank you so much. I definitely appreciate
your help. I want to get this taken care of.
It's kind of scary, very good.
Speaker 1 (43:59):
I hope that helps. Thank you much, appreciate take care,
oh mine. All right, we got more coming your way
if you'd like to grab a line. It's eight hundred
eight two three eight two five five. We got Joan
and Scott, Jerry, Tim and Rich And one of my
favorite products is the Jaws cleaning products and springs here
(44:19):
for sure. They got the Jaws Spring Cleaning Caddie packs
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(44:42):
It's Gary at jawscleans dot com and uh, you'll be
glad you get I'll tell you I used the products
all the time, and we'll be taking your calls for
the next hour. You're at home with Garriy Sullivan.
Speaker 4 (45:08):
It's the weekend and you have fixed questions. Give Gary
a call at one eight hundred eighty two three talk.
This is at Home with Gary Sullivan.
Well, it's the weekend. Welcome you're at home with Gary Salvin.
This sounds brought to you by easy Breed. Does your
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(01:15):
with the unhealthiness of our home. Again, that website's ez
breed dot com. We thank them for sponsoring this hour
of the show. And this hour of the show is
all about your home, in most cases, your biggest investment
of your life, and how to protect it. And you
protect it by maintaining it and taking care of it
(01:35):
like we do all the things that we try to protect.
And the phone lines are open if you've got a
question regarding your home. It's eight hundred eight two three
a two five five eight hundred eight two three eight
two five five. Feel free to grab a line. I
got a lot on my plate to share with you
of things to talk about. One of the things is
(01:58):
ceiling fans. A lot of us that go from winter
circulating the air to summer circulating you the air. We'll
cover that. We'll talk about cleaning the grill. I'd also
like to know your input. A lot of people in
the south, Midwest, Northeast, a lot of wet, wet, spring
(02:19):
and cool also. And over the last number of years,
probably ten, we've been going through a whole cycle of
battery I know, battery powered equipment. I remember when I
first was introduced to it. It's probably been a good
ten years, and this fellow was telling me how it
was going to take over the outdoor power equipment market.
(02:42):
And I'm curious if you've made that switch. Not so
much about the blowers and the weed eaters and all that.
I'm more interested to hear your opinion of the battery
operated lawn mowers, and you know, have you made that switch,
How do you like that? How is it keeping up
with the uh spring rains? And maybe UH you know,
(03:06):
rapidly growing grass. So I'd like to have some opinions
only because I've been asked my opinion so many times
this week by different people. And I'll give you my
opinion at some point this weekend. And you know, there's
a lot of pros, maybe a couple of content, but
let's talk to the people that have used them. I'd
(03:29):
like to have your input again. That phone number is
eight hundred and eighty two three eight two five five,
and feel free to jump on board. So we'll talk
about that. Also, also about where are you with all
the rain? That sounds like a funny question but not really.
How the gutter's holding up? Do you know how the
(03:50):
gutters are holding up? How's the cross space the basement,
how's the roof? Doing some pump working? Do you have
a backup? Some pumping, some pump So we're gonna cover
some of the things that in a lot of parts
of the country are very very relevant. And here's here's
another thought to ponder. And I always find this amazing.
(04:14):
I used to use my gas grill a lot, and
I still use it at least once or twice a week,
which is I don't know if that's everage or not,
but I use my gas grill. How do you know,
how do you always seem to know when you're running
out of gas? I mean, I can't tell you how
(04:38):
many times. And I have a backup tank, but it
always always chuckle about it. I'll go out to grill,
we have some people over, and I have a backup tank,
and I'll go like a, I think this is a
damminar and I guess, and sure enough that's the day.
Do you have that same situation at your home? So
(05:00):
we've got a lot to talk about. Plus we'll have
Ron Wilson in. We'll have Raindy Schreber with gutter brush
in get all those seeds and gunk out of the gutters.
Plus we'll take your calls. Again. It's eight hundred and
eight two three eight two five five, and Jeff you
lead us off. Welcome, Hey, good morning morning.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
First thing, I weigh my propane tank, always empty. Yeah,
I weigh with the bathroom scale. I write on with
the magic marker empty like twenty three pounds, and then
when I fill it up, I write the full weight
and I write it down. So when i think I'm
getting pretty low, I carry out the bathroom scales and.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Wait, yeah, I was kind of thinking I've not done that.
They have little uh weight. I guess it's like a
scale that you're going to attach to the tank also,
but I just think it's like intuition. I'll bet you
it's like eighty percent of the time when I run
out of propane, I know I'm gonna run out that day.
(05:58):
And dog Gondada I do says a lot about us guys, right,
I guess again the reason the reason.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
I called I called you about three weeks ago with
my LED light problem, uh huh, and a nice gentleman
called after me, a Ham radio operator named Bill, and
he was given his secure for my problem and his
phone cut out, so I didn't get He wanted to
wrap something around and transform in my basement.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Yeah, I don't recall what it was. I know. I
don't know if Danny knows what hour or what day
that show was. To pull up the podcast, you don't.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Yeah, it was about three weeks ago. But I sent
you pictures of the lights. Did you get those about
the LED lights?
Speaker 1 (06:42):
No? Usually I always do, but I don't recall getting
those pictures.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Well, you wanted information on them, yeah, and we looked
all over the box and it's very, very plain Jane,
cheap stuff Amazon.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
And I do remember that when I was having that conversation.
I don't, I to be honest with you, when he
was talking about a lot of this stuff, I thought
he is a couple of grades ahead of me, uh
in terms of his knowledge on LEDs. But I do
remember him kind of quantifying what I had said is
a lot of the least expensive bulbs are also a
(07:17):
lot of the problem problematic bulbs.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Well, it's not even you all approved. After I checked that,
thinking a little bit, I did change a dimmer switch
on the second floor, which helped.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
On that good.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
And my wife goes up to change that turnos on
it kills my radios. I'm just thinking, he's right, the
ham radio guy. My entire house. My wiring is acting
like a guy in antenna. Huh, that messes up my
radio signals, right.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Yeah, I don't recall what he had mentioned about wrapping
around something to work. I know we did talk about
the inexpensive bulbs and different things like that. Yeah, we
do a podcast of each and every hour of the show,
and I don't know what date that was, but if
you can kind of zero in. If you normally listen
(08:09):
on Saturday, and if you normally call at a certain time,
maybe you can follow up about an hour and get
that podcast an hour after when you would have called,
because if the timeframe serves me correct, that's about when
he called up and had his two cents added to it.
So hopefully that'll help you find it all right. I
(08:29):
appreciate it much, Thank you much for the call. Again.
Our number is eight hundred eight two three eight two
five five. Other things do talk about If you think
it's just a little too chilly to work outside, I
don't know about you, but I got plenty of work
on the inside. We'll discuss that also along with your calls.
And of course Ron Wilson will be coming in and
again he talks about landscaping and gardens, and I'm sure
(08:54):
his industry's a little bit sideways also, so we'll chat
a little bit about power equipment, the whole works. We'll
cover it. And in fact, before we go to Ron,
let's go to Nancy. She's got a comment on the
power equipment, the battery versus the gas. Welcome Nancy, Hi,
(09:14):
how are you doing doing fine? Thanks?
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Yes, we have about the battery powered lawn mower, but
I guess we've had it for a season. I personally
love it. My husband was very hesitant, you know, he
didn't want to He didn't want to switch over from it.
But I had had rotator cuff surgery and pulling that
lawnmower to start it was not too easy. So we
(09:39):
switched over and got about three quarters of an acre
yard and don't have any issues with it. I'm I'm
very happy with it. Somehow, it folds up the store
very easily. It came with an extra battery, so sometimes
it depends. I tend to mow a little slower. If
there's a lot of leaves, I tend to mow a
(09:59):
little and we'll have to put in the second battery.
But in general, I say, go for it.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
There you go. Do you find them? You know, obviously
the starting makes it easier, that's a pro. Are they
lighter than a guess powered? Do you find them lighter?
Speaker 3 (10:15):
I feel I feel they are. You know, they're power driven,
so I mean it's not like I'm I'm doing a
whole lot of pushing. My husband doesn't like the sound
of the when you put it on. The power drive
you can't stand that high pitched sound.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Is that?
Speaker 3 (10:31):
But you know that that doesn't it doesn't seem to
bother me too much. Good, So yeah, yeah, you'll please
with it.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
Very good. Thank you much for your input. I appreciate it. Okay,
thank you, bye bye. All right, Ron Wilson, he's up next.
We'll continue. Kyle. You'll be up first, and you're at
home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
Helm for your home is just a click away at
Garysullivan online dot com. This is at home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
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(13:38):
you're at home with Gary Salvian. This is the time
every week where we join up with Ron Wilson. Ron
his whole life has really been based in working with
horticulture and lawns and gardens and nursery stores. And Ron,
here's the question for you, all right right, because one
of the things I've got is you know what ruins
(14:02):
a kitchen and the cook Well here's that's the best
answer yet that wasn't on my list. But what is
the common mistakes that homeowners make for their maybe their
whole landscaping or landscaping and gardening, I mean being in
the business like me pretty much your whole life. What
(14:26):
real common mistakes do you see a weekend.
Speaker 5 (14:29):
And week out using the Internet.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
To what identify stuff or whatever?
Speaker 5 (14:36):
H No, Seriously, A lot of times when I go
and look at you know, there's so many different things
out there. When I go to look at landscapes, for instance,
if someone did it themselves, which is fine, a lot
of people do their own landscaping, you know, whatever, is
not calculating the size, the mature size of the plant.
(14:57):
So many times the plants are overgrown. I get the question,
how do I t from his back or to keep
it smaller? Can I you know, blah blah blah, And
it's like, well, you know, if you hadn't to put that,
it's just in the wrong spot, and let's move it
somewhere else and let it grow and then take it
from Let you know, find something smaller that comes into
play a lot. What overplanted comes into play a lot.
(15:17):
Over mulching comes into play a lot. Still an issue, Gary,
I was out yesterday and I know that I've even
spoken with these people several times, visiting some ailing plants
in their landscape and pulled the mult away from the
around the trunk of the tree they just finished mulching.
(15:38):
Showed them again how you don't put you know, mult
up against trunk of the tree. It was six inches
deep on top of the root ball.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
Now, is that what causes the girdling all?
Speaker 5 (15:49):
It can? As a matter of fact, it had. It
had been like that for over a year. And as
I pulled that mulch back to show them that you
wanted to look like a doughnut. As I'm doing that,
roots and it sometimes called those air roots. But these
roots that already started to come out from the side
of the trunk of the tree. Wow, trying to root
into the excessive mulch that was there. And you don't
(16:10):
want that to happen because it can't create girling roots
over time, you know, et cetera, et cetera. And you
can look at the trunk of the tree already starting
to decay a little bit in some areas. So that's
that still as a major issue. Not You're gonna love
this one. Not mowing the lawn as often as you should,
(16:30):
mowing the lawn too short. You know, it's hard to
convince people to mow the lawny higher level. Yes, it
is a fine line. I look back over the last
ten years. In the year my lawn looked the best
was the year it was kind of shaggy looking. To
be honest with you, Yeah, I left it go that
extra notch. In fact, I think I hit it as
(16:52):
high as.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
It would go. And I can't remember why with I
was just playing around with it, or it was a
wet spring, but that particular year, when the out always
comes around August, my grass stay greener well.
Speaker 5 (17:04):
And and that's the whole point. Research has shown that
we know that. And if you can mow it three
inches three and a half inches high, two and a
half is a minimum, but three to three and a
half inches the taller than grass, and there's a point
where you can get be too tall and not successful.
But that three and a half inch three inch height
also increases the depth of the rooting down below, so
it roots in deeper and better. It shades the ground
(17:27):
so doesn't dry out us quickly. And then there's the
other thing on top of that, gary when you're mowing,
is throwing those clippings back into the turf. It's amazingly
people still bag those clippings and take that away. So
I mean there's a I think, and you know the
other one is commitment to watering. Yeah, we just you
know it's you know, when you first plant, you water
and try to get everything, and then once you know,
(17:48):
you think it's all rooted in and we get into
a drought or whatever it may be, and you just
don't see the watering going on that should be going on, right,
especially in the fall.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Well when's our long looked the beat?
Speaker 5 (18:01):
Our lawns look the best usually right now and in
the fall, and in the fall cooler right temperatures, and
they take advantage of that as well. So, yeah, exactly,
I mean, think about it. That lawn is like a piece
of celery, you know, it's that turf is seventy water.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
Yeah, you mentioned a couple of things that that I
got follow up questions when you're talking about the hythe
and I know the moral will tell you what hyth
it is. But can you just take a regular ruler
and stick it down to the soil lever and see
how high that grass is for you get an idea
where you're at.
Speaker 5 (18:35):
Yeah, before you mow, you'll probably be surprised. Yeah, and
you never want to take off more than about a
third of the grass blade each time you mow, right, uh,
And I think you'll be surprised how short you are
mowing once you go out there and actually measure it.
In many cases, like you were talking about with a
push mower. In many cases to get that three and
a half inch heighth, you you're on the top setting.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Yep.
Speaker 5 (18:55):
Some of them won't go to four inches. A lot
of them won't go to four inches, so it's almost
impossible to go too tall. But you know, you've almost
got to go to the top notch before you get
to three and a half inch owing height, So we
wind up moving a little bit too short, stressing it out,
and that could cause problems down the road as well.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
The roots that's girdling the tree, can you can you
cut those out with like a chisel.
Speaker 5 (19:17):
Absolutely, just catch it early enough, you can cut those
off on both ends. In some cases get it out
of there. In some cases just leave it alone, let
it do its own thing. But cutting it on both
ends and killing that definitely, most definitely do that.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
Been a great help. Have a great weekend you too,
All righty, Very good run Wilson online dot com. Your
calls Next at Home with Gary Sullivan.
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zalarpumps dot com the located factory certified installer in your
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(22:39):
we talk about your home projects, plus maybe some answers
to some of the questions I threw out today. Happy
to take your calls at eight hundred eight two three
eight two five five and uh, Kyle, welcome. You're at
home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 6 (22:55):
Good morning, and happy Memorial Day everybody. Yes, sir, sir,
the reason I'm calling is twofold. First I heard you
asking about electric powered lawnmowers and whatnot, and so I
was trying to offer my opinion on that and also
had a question for you after the fact. How can
I help you with the electric lawnmower situation.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
Well, I was just curious. It's not so much the
electric you know, the battery operated mowers. You know, obviously
we've been going through a transformation for the last ten years,
and this year we've had an exceptionally rainy spring. And
I'm just looking because I'm sure a lot of people
are looking at, you know, changing from a gas powered
(23:39):
mower to a battery and the pros and cons that
maybe you've experienced if you own a battery mower.
Speaker 7 (23:47):
Yes, sir, I can.
Speaker 8 (23:48):
I can help with that as best as I can.
Speaker 7 (23:52):
I was actually I wasn't purchased.
Speaker 8 (23:54):
I was gifted a broken Ego mower, one of the
zero turn models and fixed it, and so you know,
I got it for a really good price. But however,
it does have some pros and cons. I would still
consider it even as you know, a forty six inch mower.
I would still consider it a battery powered mower because
(24:16):
it takes the machine itself takes battery powered packs that
go in the back of the in the back of
the mower bind the driver's seat and those come out
just like little batteries like you would think on a
my like on a remote control car or something that
or like that. So I would still consider it battery powered.
Some pros on it. It's definitely a lot lower maintenance
(24:39):
than when it comes to a combustion engine. You don't
have to worry about winterizing it or you know, keeping
the fluids checked or anything like that. Everything is sealed
except for a couple of bearings where the lawnmower blades attach.
It's definitely, in my opinion, more cost efficient. Just plug
(25:00):
it into a normal one ten outlet, and it has
a large converter that comes with the mower that you know,
allows you allows you to charge it with within two
hours probably and I can cut and half an acre
to three quarters of an acre pretty easily, just on
one charge. So all in all, I'm really satisfied with it.
(25:27):
Going to the negative parts, these are just some of
them are personal preferences and one issue for anybody on
this specific model of mind. It has led headlights, and
either I'm not smart enough to figure out the controls
or there is no control setting to turn the lights off.
(25:47):
They go low to high beams, but you can't turn
them off without disconnecting excuse or something like that as
far as I can tell. So that's a little bit annoying,
you know, considering that it runs off electricity and there's
no reason to run lights at twelve o'clock when I'm cutting.
As mentioned the it is not nearly as waterproof or
(26:12):
you know, it doesn't brave the elements as well as
a combustion engine.
Speaker 6 (26:15):
That's how I ended up with.
Speaker 8 (26:16):
The lawnmower in the first place, as it had been
left out in the rain and the control panel shorted
out that sits on the very top of the on
the top of the machine, so he couldn't get it
to work. And then I just replaced the CPU and
it fired right up and did find So it's not
as Wether's friendly. And the only other real issue I
(26:40):
have with it is not the battery packs themselves. In
this specific mower, it comes with a docking station for
six batteries, but when you buy it from the manufacture,
or at least when he bought it, it only comes with two.
And so the purchase cost itself is you know, fairly
(27:02):
high for an electric mower, and then you add five
hundred dollars a piece for you know, each additional battery
up to six, it turns out to be quite an
expensive piece of law equipment. So that that and the
main part is is there's no islet or latch or
(27:24):
anything to where you can actually lock the battery compartment
if if you were you know, leaving it outside for
a couple of days, or you just had security issues there.
It's just a spring loaded level where you can pop
up and make yourself three grand and you know, batteries,
if somebody was fly enough to do that. But I
would definitely recommend it if you can eat the cost.
(27:47):
It's a lot less maintenance, it's quieter.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
Plud of a torque.
Speaker 8 (27:50):
Huh yeah, yeah, I would recommend it, and the torque
is just fine there are settings on it to where
you can change how much torque goes to the wheels
and the how many RPMs the blades spin, so you
can set it to your preference. I usually run mind
pretty much wlide open, but you know it seems to
(28:12):
do just fine.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Yes, very good, very good. I appreciate your help on that.
I just kind of throw it out there. I'm sure
a lot of people, you know, with all the rain
and the rapid growing grass, maybe mowers are failing and
you're kind of with it looking at a buying decision,
and hopefully your input there will help somebody out. So
I appreciate it. Our phone number again is eight hundred
(28:36):
eight two three eight two five five Kegan. Welcome, Hi Gary,
have Memorial Day.
Speaker 8 (28:42):
Thanks for taking my call.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
Thank you, sir. Good morning, good morning.
Speaker 7 (28:46):
So I have a well one. I'll give a plus
one in addition for the green for the electric mowers.
I've had my electric mower for about five years now.
It's GreenWorks, it's awesome. I've even been a little bit
hard on it too, and at times I've left it out.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
In the rain.
Speaker 7 (29:03):
It works great, and the battery pack is interchangeable with
with my weed whacker too, so I can get the
entire yard and we'd whacked in one charge.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
But sure you know one of the things I'll throw
in there too before we get to your question is again,
that's what the manufacturers, whether it's GreenWorks, Ego, Troy, whatever,
de Wault now Milwaukee, when when you're buying one of those,
do your research onto different brands because their their goal
is to get you into their brand. So just like
(29:35):
Keegan said, he gets the GreenWorks mower and then he
gets the string trimmer and maybe the blower, and then
those batteries are interchangeable. So just just a tidbit there.
I appreciate you bringing that up.
Speaker 7 (29:48):
Yeah, it's really handy because in one forty volt battery pack.
I mean, I've got a smaller yard, so it's you know,
you want to talk about about a third of an
acre or so, but it gets done with a bat
half a charge left and plenty of spare. So but
I think I had a question for you. I have
an older home built in nineteen thirty uh, and I
(30:11):
wanted to pick your brain a little bit as far
as fixing creaky floorboards in the hardwood floor. They have
been refinished previously, and they're still in pretty good shape.
But I didn't know if there's anything. Obviously, there's no
sub floor that's sitting on there. They're they're tied down
directly the joist and everything. But I wanted to short
(30:32):
of a you know, squirting olive oil underneath there or something.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
What's a good Uh yeah? Yeah. Are are they squeaking
now or do they squeak all winter and they're getting
less now? Or is there any change during the seasonal changes.
Speaker 7 (30:47):
No, it's it's pretty year round. I mean, there's some
places where the house is settled a little bit, and
you know, different floor boards have uh not not uniform
spacing between them. So I'm sure the humidity goes up
and down, but you know it's just the.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
Are they nailed down? Yes? Okay, So yeah, your answer
or the answer for your floorboards is gonna be a
little bit different from homes that were built like in
the seventies on up in the older homes built in
the thirties, you said, so there's no real sub floor.
There's the boards that are finished for the hardwood floor,
(31:30):
so we don't have to worry about a lot of
times in newer floors, the squeak is actually emanating from
the tongue and groove part of the boards. That's not
gonna be a problem with yours. Your boards are there
right on the joys. They've been nailed, and they're old.
So the boards and the joist and everything have, you know,
(31:52):
dried out and swelled and shrunk, probably you know, one
hundred times, and over time, over time keeging, those nails
begin almost work like a piston. In other words, is
that board swells and shrinks and swells and shrinks, and
you walk over it, and the other couple that had
(32:12):
the house walk over it. Not all the nails, but
some of the nails become they bounce a little and
they groove or they make that whole microscopically bigger and
you get some squeaking there. So geez, I don't know.
You know the answer to that is to tighten up
the floorboards to the joyst. But the secret is is
(32:36):
to find out which ones are loose, and how you
do that can be challenging, but if you can really
pinpoint the areas and either renail you know, next to
that nail and shank nails and patching up going through
the surface, you know, that that's one of the ways.
(32:57):
The other ways is from underneath. There is a little
different device called a squeak ender, which is a plate
that's screwed to the bottom of the wood floor that
has a threaded rod that goes around and like an
angleire and that loops underneath the joist and a big
thumbscrew where you just tighten it and you just start
(33:18):
pulling the boards down, okay, And that's very cool. Also
taking shims with a little construction adhesive on it and
again finding where there's that little bounce and putting that
shim in there, just to know you're just tightening it up.
And probably one of the ways to do is if
you can get underneath that floor with a piece of
(33:41):
chalk and have somebody walking on top, you can sometimes
locate where that you know where that squeak is and
with a piece of chalk marked the joist and then
come back and address it with the shims and the
construction adhesives or the nails on the top or you know,
the squeak ender tool, and that's how you would tighten
(34:01):
it up. You gotta find a bounce and then you
gotta you gotta tighten it snug it up to the joyst.
Speaker 7 (34:08):
Got it okay?
Speaker 1 (34:09):
Alrighty well, I appreciate Gary. Thank you all right, Keegan,
thanks for the call. Appreciate it. Take care all right again.
Our number is eight hundred eight two three eight two
five five. Talking about your home and you're at home
with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 4 (34:23):
Help for your home is just a click away at
Garysullivan online dot com. This is at home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
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save twenty percent free shipping on all orders over thirty
five dollars. Well, they say an ounce of prevention is
worth a pound of cure, and that's true when it
comes to preventing a basement flood. Hey, Gary, Salvan here
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(36:36):
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eight hundred, get routo today, back at it We go
(37:16):
at Home with Gary Sullivan. Don't forget each hour. This
show is available to you via podcast about an hour
after it maybe two hours, depends on how busy Danny
Boy is. But you can pick that up at the
iHeart app and it's labeled the day in the hour
and how busy our systems are. Yeah, yeah, you just
never because I can upload it.
Speaker 8 (37:37):
It may take a while to get to where it
needs to go.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
You get it up there pretty quickly. Y're on top
of it all the time. Let's get Joanne. Joanne.
Speaker 9 (37:46):
Welcome, Hi Gary, Thanks you taking my call.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
You're welcome.
Speaker 9 (37:53):
I'm a teacher and Thursday was our last day, so
we've been working on on my gutters. And I went
down in the basement just to kind of check and
in the north corner it was just black molde all
from the top.
Speaker 7 (38:10):
To the bottom.
Speaker 9 (38:11):
I'm like, oh no, so I have wet and forget
and I thought I'll just spray it on there. You know,
I'm not sure. It looks pretty heavy duty and that
you know shortly, you know, within six or eight hours
it had taken a lot of it away. But I
just I have allergies and everything. I just think I
(38:32):
need to have the basement checked out. And I really
would like you if you know some company that you
think a lot of that I can get into check
for the molde.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
You know, I don't really have a name that because
I haven't really used them, but it's a home hygienist.
I know there's one called at home or is it Homeworks.
I think it's Homeworks. It's the name of the company,
and they do radon detection mold detection. The reason I
threw out the name home hygienics is a lot of
(39:05):
people that test for mold also remediate mold. A little
bit of a conflict of interest in you know that
bugs some people. So that's why I always mention a
home hygienis to just get come out and take some
are samples and do some testing. There's multiportes in our
home no matter what the question is, how big of
(39:27):
an issue is it? So like used to get mold
counts for outdoors, which could be twenty thousand. Inside a
home you might have two thousand, but if you got
a mold problem, it might be twenty thousand. So working
with a real professional to determine if there is a
mold problem, would I would probably search out like a
(39:50):
home hygienis.
Speaker 9 (39:51):
Now okay, so you're saying a home hygienis, yeah, chap
and see right. And then there you've heard company called Homework.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
Yeah, Homeworks with RX home w r X uh. They
do right on mitigation. They also do mold mitigation. And
when you start googling you kinda find all different companies.
I don't have one that i'd really work with, you know,
off the top of my head to recommend. But that's
the direction you want to go. So some of the
(40:25):
black mold is or the mold you see that was
black in color is gone now correct?
Speaker 9 (40:32):
Yes, I sprayed it with wet and for okay, forget
and a lot of them, you know, So.
Speaker 1 (40:38):
Which prod use what I would use?
Speaker 9 (40:43):
The wedding for uh that you get used for the
shower and tub. But I did go ahead and order
on Amazon, you know, wed and forget for inside and
out in a gallon jug and because I thought, well,
I need to maybe washed down those walls, you know,
(41:03):
when to get that.
Speaker 1 (41:06):
Ye I'm saying that, you know you're right in the
line if I always recommend with people if they have
indoor mold that they can see and they can determine
that there's an infestation if it's more than ten square feet.
I don't know who recommended, whether it's me or companies
or who, but it seems like ten square feet is
(41:28):
a point where, well, if it's over that, you might
want to get a pro in there. And it sounds
like yours is over that, and you might want to
get a pro in there, and it sounds like that's
a direction you're going over.
Speaker 9 (41:40):
I'm not sure if it was over the ten square feet,
but it was in the corner and it was really
black and all the way from the top to the box,
and it was surprising. After I sprayed, it was wet
and forget, you know, it took a lot of it away.
I was shocked, but I don't want to fool around
with black mold, so kind of didn't know where to
(42:01):
begin or well, it's all companies.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
Yeah, and there's over three hundred different species of mold.
Now most of it's penicillium and most of it can
be removed, but there are some really other dangerous molds.
And the longer you go, so you got mold spores
in your house, we got organic material, including dust is
organic material. There's usually plenty of that in the basement.
(42:24):
And then you add a high humidity. You don't have
to have water, you can see just high humidity can
activate a colony of this and as it multiplies, its strengthens,
and you know, I mean it would be worth having
air samples taken in there and they can determine exactly,
you know, what kind of mold, how bad it is.
(42:47):
There's there's some test hits and they're they're they're not
very effective. There there's one by Healthy Homes which will
tell you whether it's a a dangerous mold or not. Okay,
because we know you got mold. It's just a matter
of how much and is it dangerous? Right? And I
(43:09):
think it's called a five minute mold test kit, and
all you do is little dust on top of door frames,
and it's almost like a pregnancy test where it'll give
you one line or two lines. You know, it'll say
it's dangerous mold or it's not dangerous mold. That's a
pretty good test kit for a homeowner. I think they're
about forty bucks. I think ACE Hardware carries them. There's
(43:30):
probably other people that do also. If you want to
get a snapshot with that first, I mean you could
certainly do that.
Speaker 7 (43:39):
Okay.
Speaker 9 (43:39):
So what was the name of the forty dollars test kit?
Speaker 1 (43:42):
It's a five minute mold test kit, okay, and it's
made by Healthy Homes.
Speaker 9 (43:50):
Okay, all right, thank you so much. I definitely appreciate
your help. I want to get this taken care of.
It's kind of scary, very good.
Speaker 1 (43:59):
I hope that helps. Thank you much, appreciate take care,
oh mine. All right, we got more coming your way
if you'd like to grab a line. It's eight hundred
eight two three eight two five five. We got Joan
and Scott, Jerry, Tim and Rich And one of my
favorite products is the Jaws cleaning products and springs here
(44:19):
for sure. They got the Jaws Spring Cleaning Caddie packs
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plus refills. You can get it all use a coupon code.
(44:42):
It's Gary at jawscleans dot com and uh, you'll be
glad you get I'll tell you I used the products
all the time, and we'll be taking your calls for
the next hour. You're at home with Garriy Sullivan.
Speaker 4 (45:08):
It's the weekend and you have fixed questions. Give Gary
a call at one eight hundred eighty two three talk.
This is at Home with Gary Sullivan.
At Home with Gary Sullivan News
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Introducing… Aubrey O’Day Diddy’s former protege, television personality, platinum selling music artist, Danity Kane alum Aubrey O’Day joins veteran journalists Amy Robach and TJ Holmes to provide a unique perspective on the trial that has captivated the attention of the nation. Join them throughout the trial as they discuss, debate, and dissect every detail, every aspect of the proceedings. Aubrey will offer her opinions and expertise, as only she is qualified to do given her first-hand knowledge. From her days on Making the Band, as she emerged as the breakout star, the truth of the situation would be the opposite of the glitz and glamour. Listen throughout every minute of the trial, for this exclusive coverage. Amy Robach and TJ Holmes present Aubrey O’Day, Covering the Diddy Trial, an iHeartRadio podcast.
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