May 3, 2025 • 45 mins
Your calls, tips and questions with the guy who is all about easy!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Well, so we can welcome Aboard at Home with Gary Salvin.
This hour was brought to you by Dish Codings roller
Rock stone Coating. Now, I'll tell you what that is,
a wonderful, wonderful product. It can be used on exterior
projects like steps, pulldecks, patios, walkways, garage floors, balconies, basement floors,
interior airs. Check it out. It's DICEE Coatings dot com,
(00:53):
d A I C H Coatings dot com. It's the
roller Rock rollable stone coating that is available Low's Home
Depot and of course also Amazon. We thank them for
sponsoring this hour of the show. As we take your
calls regarding your home projects, let me give you that
phone number you can line up. It's eight hundred eight
(01:14):
two three A two five five. That's eight hundred eighty
two three eight two five five. And what are you
working on today? Have you had problem with pest our ants?
A problem yet? How about carpenter bees. I saw a
bunch of them this week where I'm at. It was
(01:35):
a beautiful day. And carpenter bees they always amazed me,
quite honestly. The size of them, like half the size
of your whole foam and they're threatening little guys, but
remember they're the guards. They're garden to queen. That's in
the woods. So if you get a little wood shed
and you see the centuries flying around, just take a
(01:58):
look at the woodshedd ye and see if you can
find a perfectly drilled hole. And that's where the queen resides.
She's back in the wood with the larvae, and those
guys are bringing her food and guarding her as she
leaves the premises. And the secret is to get the queen.
(02:19):
You get the queen, you get the colony. All right again,
you got the phone number, and I've got a whole
list of things i want to kind of remind you.
You might want to, you know, check off your list,
take a little look see around the house.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Boy.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
We had a torrential rain just a couple of nights ago,
evenings ago. I'm telling you, this's probably two inches of
rain in about an hour period. You know, I'm always
talking about gutters, gutters, gutters, and I got you know,
the gutter brushes in the gutters. I've not had any
gutters really overflow. But the other night the water was
(02:59):
it looked like a volcano. It was coming up out
of the gutter in the corner and the elbow with
double elbows going to the down spout. It's squirting water out,
and I'm thinking, what in the world is going on there?
And you know, I was thinking, I was kind of
putting off. I really don't want to go get the ladder.
I really don't want to do that. I really can't
believe there's debris in that down spout, And sure enough,
(03:22):
there wasn't. What had happened is the pipe that comes
off goes underground and then the ground falls a little
bit and the exits, the pipe exits and the water flows. Well,
that was plugged. I don't know how it got plugged.
(03:42):
I don't know if squirrels were putting leaves and acorns
and everything up there, but it was it had that
baby stopped up and there was the bubbling water. And
yesterday afternoon, a couple of days after the rain, I
got out a little stick and I'm poking around, Oh, okay,
that's where it is, and got a little snake out,
(04:03):
cleaned it out. There was a bunch of stuff in there.
So reminds me to remind you that you might kind
of take a look see and make sure everything's flowing
just right. That's the key. All right, let's go to
the phone lines again. Our phone numbers eight hundred eight
(04:23):
two three eight two five five. Another weekend, getting the
things done around the home, and let's go to Kathleen. Kathleen, welcome,
good morning, Gary morning.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Your very first comment had to do with ants.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Uh huh.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
And I have ants one or two marching across my
kitchen counter, and yesterday none at all. So I thought,
oh good, it's done, but this morning two more. And
how do I get rid of ants around my kitchen
counter without leaving poison residue.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
On my counter?
Speaker 4 (04:58):
Right?
Speaker 1 (04:59):
Don't want to do that. So there are little I
guess what I would recommend would be like rescue bait stations. Uh,
they're for ants. They're safe with pets, they're safe with
little children if you put them on the floor, very
very safe. So when you know about ants, go ahead.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
What did you call it?
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Their ant bait stations b A A B A T
bait stations ant BAC And it's made by rescue and
they're they're little disk okay, and ants when they're you know,
the colonies for ants are usually outside.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
It's kind of the same.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Thing as I was talking about with the carpenter bees.
All right, the ant queen is outside in an underground colony,
and all the ant you see in your house, outside
of your house, they're only interested in doing one thing,
getting water, getting food and bringing it back to the queen.
(06:05):
And they eat like we eat, you know. They some
when the weather is real warm or the weather is
real cold, their diets change from a carbohydrate to a protein.
The rescue ant baits all they are looked like a
hockey puck, and you can put them on a countertop,
you can put them along the baseboard. And as the
(06:27):
ants come marching in your home, and they love to
because it's comfortable and food and water is usually plentiful,
and they go and they find these these stations, these
bait stations, and they tell all their friends. So the
first day or two you may see more ants in
(06:48):
your house than you ever saw. And you're gonna say, Gary,
what have you done to me? And give it two
or three days, and there's a good chance ants will
be gone. I mean, it's that effect.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
My counter and not not be troublesome at all.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Yeah they're not. Yeah, they're not troublesome. At all. They're
they're very safe. It's so so again. You can check
it out. Their website is Rescue dot com and you
can get it at a lot of hardware stores, Lows,
Home Depot, Ace do it best. You can get it
(07:27):
on Amazon and just ant based ant bait stations. I
don't know that's so hard to say today, but it is.
But check that out, Kathleen, and stay on hold. And
I've got a little prize package. We've got a couple
of prize package from Rescue that we can give away today.
So let me do that for you. I'll put you
(07:49):
on hold, Danny, You'll get your name and addressed and
we'll get that out to you.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
All right.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
That being said, we do have Ron Wilson coming up
and we're gonna be talking about all kinds of things
that are going on in the outside landscaping. But let's
let's grab Bob first. Here. Bob, welcome, Hi Gary, how
are you doing doing fine? Thank you?
Speaker 5 (08:12):
So a friend of mine recently her sewer backed up
and she had people come and clean it out, and
ever since she's had just the dickens of a time
with sewer naps, and I mean hundreds and hundreds of them,
not just like ten or twenty like you normally see.
And she's tried baking soda and vinegar draino boiling water.
(08:37):
Following that, she called an exterminator. He said, boy, those
are tough. He says, I don't know what to tell you.
He basically didn't want to deal with it. Wow, wonder
if you got any advice.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Well, I'll tell you what I had one time. Is
there any so when they're in the sewer? Are they
flying around the outside of it too? Is he just
seeing them go down into the drain or what's he seeing?
Speaker 5 (09:05):
No, they're all around. She bombed mostly in her basement,
but they've migrated upstairs. But she bombed, and she had
hundreds of them dead on the floor.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Wow, but they're still But the problem is still in
the You know, one time we had a restaurant. A guy,
he had a restaurant. I've not done this, but he
swore by it. And what he did is he took
a little nine inch fan, plugged it in and blew
(09:35):
the air across the drain. Okay, sounds weird, right, but
what it did it kept the It kept the gnats
in the drain because they could not. You know, it
makes sense, right, And that's how he got rid of
That's how he got rid of them. He literally was
(09:55):
using different enzyme drain cleaners and he was had that
fan going around. He says, that's the way we used
to deal with them all the time. And you know,
there there is as we were talking about rescue products,
there is a a little nat trap. It sounds to
(10:15):
me that you're the experience that you're having is bigger
than a trap, you know, so the balm or changing
that environment totally really might be the answer.
Speaker 6 (10:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (10:32):
I like the fan idea. The only thing that I've
found that we haven't tried yet is a cider vinegar
trap basically fill a mixing bolt partly and then well
brand wrap around it.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
And yeah, yeah, exactly. And and the rescue traps that
I was telling you about, they're attracted I believe to
the color red. And they have a trap like that also,
and it's got a bait. But it sounds like you
a thousand of them.
Speaker 5 (11:01):
Uh, that's what I haven't seen him yet. He asked
what I told her. I said, I said, look, you
got you got way more than a couple of hundred.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Right, right, so theirs is red. It looks like a
big apple. It's got little holes in it, same type
of thing that are attracted to go into the trap.
And again that that website is Rescue dot com. And
just by coincidence and coincidence, we do have a pest
(11:31):
kit I can give you. Uh, let me put you
on hold. Danny can take your name and address and
we'll get you a little Rescue pest kit. It's got
quite a few different little kits involved there, so it's
a great prize giveaway and we'll do that for you.
All right, thank you much. Sit tight, We'll put you
on hold.
Speaker 5 (11:51):
All right.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
Ron Wilson, he's coming up next, and we got all
boatload of stuff to talk about on the outside of
your home. If the landscaping around your house is anything
like it's like going crazy, we'll continue. You're at Home
with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 7 (12:06):
Help for your home is just a click away at
Garysullivan online dot com. This is at Home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Hi everyone. I've been raving about wet and Forget outdoor
cleaner for years and for good reason. It takes the
hassle out of cleaning moss, mold, and mildew. No bleaching,
nose scrubbing, no rinsing, just spray and you're done. It's
perfect for roof sticks, sidewalks, even patio umbrellas. Available in
hose en sprayer with a thirty foot reach a concentrate
(12:49):
and are ready to use option Find Wet and Forget
It Low's Walmart Minards or visit Weddinforget dot com and
now in stores the new wedd and Forget window and
screen cleaner. For for forty years, DeMont has made powerful
pain and coding removers that are tough on layers but
safe for you in the environment. Tried Demand smart Strip Advanced.
It works on over ninety percent of the coatings, no
(13:11):
harmful fumes, no dangerous chemicals. Not sure what you're removing Well,
Demon's easy test kit tells you exactly what you need.
Find smart Strip at you're participating Do It Best retailer
Sherwin Williams or visit Dumont Global dot Com at Dumont
Global dot Com Dumont Smart safe and proven, so do
it yourself with Demand. So you want to transform that
(13:31):
basement into a home officer rec room, but that air
it's not so great. You need controlled ventilation from the
easy Breathed Ventilation system. I had an easy brief system
installed in my basement years ago, and that's stagnant. Must
the odor gone? So make this level usable and healthy.
In best of all, installation only takes a few hours.
Call eight sixty six eight two two seventy three twenty eight.
(13:52):
That's eight sixty six eight two two seventy.
Speaker 4 (13:55):
Three twenty eight.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Or go to easybreed dot com. The Happy Healthy Home people. 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 Sulvan here from my friends
at Rota Ruter Plumbing and Water clean Up.
Speaker 4 (14:09):
They're the some.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Pump experts and can install back up some pump that
will prevent basement flooding even during a power outage. And
if your primary pump is getting up in the years,
well Rotro Ruter can replace that too, trust me, a
lot cheaper than a flooded basement.
Speaker 8 (14:24):
Called Roto Ruter at one eight hundred Get Ruto today.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Well it's time to go outdoors. Our friend Ron Wilson,
who does a national gardening show, is joining us once again.
And mister Wilson. Missus Sullivan would like to know if
there's a drought going on, But as I look out
the window, it looks like a pretty steady rain.
Speaker 4 (15:11):
Sharlwan. You tell missus Sullivan she's just becoming a regular
stand up comedian.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
She's enjoying this, isn't she? And for folks that don't know,
is we, like many many people have had some really
dry summers over the last ten to fifteen falls in falls. Yeah,
last fall was really yeah. And Ron preaches everybody not
taking care of the landscaping the lawn if you'd like,
(15:41):
and uh, missus Sullivan always likes to say, tell Ron
it's okay. Well it's not always okay, but right now, seriously,
we've had a very wet spring, have we not here?
Speaker 4 (15:52):
Yeah, lots of rainfall and no doubt about it. Actually
confusing folks sometimes actual water newly planted trees and shrubs
or not right, And you know it's the same old,
same were don't need to check the immediate rootball to
see if they because sometimes even with all the rain, right,
it doesn't penetrate to trade the root ball. So you
know what I thought you were going to say on
that water volcano thing. What's that? You said? I wasn't
(16:14):
going to go get the ladder, so I convinced all
the grandkids.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Oh, get them up there. I mean, I'm telling you what, ron.
I've seen gutters overflow, I've seen downspouts back up, and
this thing it was a volcano.
Speaker 4 (16:28):
Huh.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
That thing was plugged. I pulled out it looked like
a four inch wide, uh, big piece of rope that
must have been two feet long.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
Hm.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
And I guess it's the pine needles, you know where
those pine trees are, right, the pine needles and different
things that have just gotten in there over the years,
little pieces, and it just kept mountain and mountain water
was going through it just fine. And then one day
it said maybe not, I gonna do enough. Enough's enough,
(17:02):
and it was. It was kind of I started pulling
this ropeie thing out with it with literally a snake,
a garden snake, and and it was or drained snake,
and it looked like a garden snake when I pulled.
Speaker 4 (17:15):
It actually had a garden snake in there as well.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
I thought it was when I started pulling it, like,
I don't know what I'm pulling out, but this could
just might not have a good ending.
Speaker 4 (17:26):
Crazy stuff.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Yeah, but you know, again, if you don't really pay attention.
I was actually went out to see how hard it
was raining. I knew it was raining really hard. I
didn't know if it was hailing. I was just curious.
I picked my head out on the screen porch and
I see this just gushing out of the double elbow
of that downs about, like, what in the world is
(17:48):
going on there?
Speaker 4 (17:50):
And I found out so may have been doing that
a couple of times.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
It might have been.
Speaker 4 (17:54):
Never know, you just didn't notice. I have to get
those grand kids up there more often to take a look.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
I get that thing cleaned out. Come on, But it's
raining right now and it looks like we're gonna have
a rainy day once again.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
Yeah, unfortunately, But I'll tell you what. You know. Next
weekend is Mother's Day.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Weekend, Yes, and big gardening weekend.
Speaker 4 (18:13):
As I'm looking at our weather forecast, by Tuesday, most
of this is out of here, and we're looking at
some pretty decent days through the rest of the weekend. Well,
you know what's going to happen. There's a lot of
folks that haven't done anything yet. Right the week before
of and after a Mother's Day weekend is always crazy.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
Does that mean Run's gonna be working a lot of hours?
Speaker 4 (18:32):
Nope, but it's always crazy. And take advantage of a
rainy day like today, this Saturday, or tomorrow and get
out to your local independ race idea and buy what
you need today and tomorrow because obviously a lot of
folks aren't going to go out today or tomorrow. And
I'm not I'm not just saying that gets I.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Got the same thing, not to go to a garden center.
But seriously, I'm sure a lot of outdoor contractors, you know,
painters outdoors, they're probably slow right now, yeah, for outside work.
And I'm like, I got all round on my notes,
big print book it now.
Speaker 4 (19:12):
Yeah, so you know, do that. And if you're doing
stuff for Mom, like making our special planter or hanging
basket or whatever, you may do, get it this weekend,
take it home, put it in the garage, down on the
patio or whatever. But you got it out of the
way now, sure, spend more time with Mom next weekend.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
So and you might even be able to fit in
the parking lot at the garden.
Speaker 4 (19:30):
And you might even be able to get in there
and get actually get to talk to someone as well.
And know missus Sullivan, we are not in the droughts.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
There you go, and that's why we talk to you
each and every week because you have this great advice.
Speaker 4 (19:41):
Thank you much, Ron, I appreciate it, my pleasure.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
Ron Wilson online dot com. Your call's next at Home
with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 7 (19:52):
Solutions to your home improvement are as easy as calling
one eight three talk. This is at Home with Gary Soliman.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
Be prepared to conquer all your lubrication projects with Blaster MultiMAX,
premium synthetic lubricant from the Blaster folks that outperforms the
leading competitor in six ASTM tests. It's odor listen provides
the longest lasting lubrication and protection against corrosion for thousands
of applications from door hinges and window tracks to loud
(20:37):
and garden equipment, chains, locks, and more. Look for at
any time at a hardware store, auto or home center
near you and always use Blaster products and work it
like a pro. Spring us here and so are the
Jaws Spring Cleaning caddy packs just in time to tackle
your toughest cleaning jobs. This all in one kit features
five high performance Jaws concentrated cleaners, including my favorite streak
(20:58):
free glass cleaner, micro Fiber thousands of powerful Jaws cream cleanser.
They're neatly packed in a sleek caddy. With Jaws, you'll
clean smarter, faster, and save more. Don't wait, order now
before they're gone at jawscleans dot com. Code Gary save
twenty percent free shipping on all orders over thirty five dollars.
Here's a winning spring project from dish Coatings. Renew your
(21:20):
drab concrete with spread Rock speckled granite coating. Transform your ports, steps, walkway, garage,
pull deck and more in your choice of five beautiful colors.
Spread Rock is one hundred percent real stone you apply
with a troaler squeegee to add a rich, elegant upgrade
to all kinds of concrete surfaces. Results are amazing and
economical with free shipping. Order spread Rock from the home
(21:43):
depot lowserdish Coatings dot com. That's Daichcoatings dot com. I
talk a lot about products that can make your life easier,
and I love tear Mender. This liquid vine and adhesive
repairs tears on all types of clothing fabrics, leather, vinyl
footwear buttons. Tear Mends can also repair canvas, awnings, tents,
carpet and fabric furniture. It's one product you got to
(22:05):
have in your home this spring as we start pulling
out the outdoor cushions and umbrellas. Ter Menders available at
your local hardware store and Amazon. Check out tear mender
dot com for more great make do and men's solutions
and ideas. All right, back, get it We go at
(22:58):
home with Gary Sullivan. If you'd like to join us,
we're talking about your home issues. You may be having
paint that's peeling, et cetera, et cetera. And here's our
phone number. It's eight hundred eight two three eight two
five five and let's go to Steve.
Speaker 4 (23:11):
Steve, welcome, Hi, Good morning, Gary morning.
Speaker 6 (23:15):
I'm considering AH an attic fan, a roof mounted attic fan,
and what I'm looking at is, uh, it's solar powered.
But the problem I have with it is that it's
always on it when the sun is shining. It's not
temperature controlled. I was going to ask you what you
(23:37):
think of that?
Speaker 1 (23:39):
Well, I guess the first thing I think of is
what type of ventilation do you have in that attict.
Speaker 6 (23:45):
Currently, Well, I've got you know, good soft ventilation, and
i've got on each end of the house. Is is
an opening? What do you call it? Yeah? Yeah events,
there's a vents on each under the house. Okay, but
it gets awful hot up there.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Okay, do you have a ridge vent up there or no?
Speaker 6 (24:12):
No?
Speaker 4 (24:12):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (24:14):
So when you put that fan up on the roof,
the fear that I have is when that's on, it's
going to be pulling the air right through the gable
vents and out. So you won't have anything really functioning
(24:40):
where you're pushing the hot air up and out, which
is what the soft events are supposed to do. Yeah,
but I think what's going on right now is you've
got holes, but you don't have anything pulling or pushing
hot air out. It's just up there. You got openings,
(25:01):
but you don't have any flow going. You might have
some flow going from the soffits out the gables, but
if you put a fan up there, I think it's
just going to take air from the gables right up
through the fan. So if you do that, it's really
kind of a whole formula how you get good flow.
(25:23):
And if you always kind of think of a chimney.
If you had soft events all the way around your
home and you have nothing else up there, okay, no
other venting, and you have a ridge vent, or you
have a fan, or you have those little turbine vents,
(25:44):
then you got the cooler. Let's say it's one hundred
and thirty five in that attic, which is not out
of character at all, and it's ninety degrees outside. That
ninety degree air is cool, and as it gets into two,
there's a drawl. It's like a chimney, right. It draws
that cooler ninety degree air into the base of the
(26:07):
attic and it pushes the hottest air out through the top.
So my whole reason for that discussion is to just
put a fan up there and not address the gable events.
It's probably a problem. Yeah, okay, So then when it
comes on to turning it on all the time, you
(26:29):
know you could probably get something with a you know,
a thermostat or a temperature sensor to turn that on
when you know you'd said it maybe like when it
gets to say one hundred and ten degrees, it runs.
Speaker 6 (26:51):
Yeah, I didn't want it to run all winter for
drawing in that.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
Cold air well, you know what, don't worry about wintertime.
In all honesty, that air once it's in the attic,
it's cold up there anyway. Yeah, okay, it's not hurting
or doing anything. What is up there in that attic,
or what could be in that attic is you know,
(27:14):
when there is warmth coming up from the house into
the attic, even with insulation up there, there's some there
could be some venting where it's dumping warmer moist air
into the attic, like from a bathroom fan or something
not that it's supposed to, but it happens a lot.
(27:35):
Some warm air that's coming in from the sides of
can lights and getting up into the attic, and then
that warm air with moisture in it just water vapor
hits that cold air and it starts shedding the moisture
and then insulation gets wet. But if you've got ventilation
up in the winter, it's taking that warm air right out.
Speaker 6 (27:58):
Yeah. The house is twenty years old and it's clean
up there. I got putation up there and there's no
mold or anything. It's just so hot.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
Well summertime yeah, yeah, well, if you wanted to, I mean,
can you I just I remember when ventilation and addicts
first started coming out in like the eighties, people actually
sold covers to cover the vents at the top of
the house. And then we started having some mold issues
in attics. It's like, well, hold it that venting is
(28:32):
as important in the winter time as it is the summertime.
And once that cold air is in the attic gets
cold up there. Anyway, Yeah, just let it happen.
Speaker 6 (28:40):
I don't know why they didn't put a ridge vent
when I when when I had the house built.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
Yeah, that's odd. If it's twenty years old, I.
Speaker 6 (28:48):
Agree, Maybe I'll have a roofer come out and put
a ridge vent in instead of a.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
Well, you're still gonna you're still going to be addressing
that that gable issue. One of the things, you know,
I would consider if you had, you know, gables on
both sides, is to put a fan in one of
the gables and just pull that stream of air all
the way across the attic.
Speaker 6 (29:13):
Yeah. Yeah, that's something to consider too.
Speaker 4 (29:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
Okay, Well, so when when you just google attic ventilation
formula and there is a there is a formula, it's like,
for every three hundred square foot footprint, of the house,
not to square foot, just the footprint. There should be
(29:39):
one square foot of uninterrupted ventilation. A lot of the
you know, ventilations interrupted fifty sixty seventy and that's when
you're talking about putting in a ridge vent and the
soft events, and you can split it fifty to fifty.
But people that have older homes or have gable vents,
(29:59):
it's cruis up that whole formula. And there's a lot
of homes that they think they're ventilated properly and they're not.
Speaker 6 (30:09):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Okay, Well I'm trying to address the
heat of their Okay, Well, I appreciate talking with you, Gary.
Speaker 4 (30:17):
I hope it helps.
Speaker 6 (30:19):
It's about the fourth time you've helped me out with
something very good.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
Glad to do it. Thank you, appreciate it. All right,
let's go to uh, Tim, Tim, you're at home with
Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 9 (30:32):
Hi, good morning, Gary, good morning. Well. The problem that
I have is flies, and they're they're black, glossy, sort
of chubby looking flies to come into the house and
(30:54):
I might get ten, fifteen, twenty twenty five of them.
I don't know where they come from. I don't know
how they get in, but they do, and I have
to spend a lot of time trying to eradicate them.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
So do they congregate around the windows.
Speaker 9 (31:17):
Yes, we have a sliding glass door in the one room,
and they seem to travel in a pack almost, and
they go from the back room to the front room,
to the back room to the front room. Sometimes it's funny.
(31:45):
Sometimes I can hook up the vacuum cleaner and use
the hose, right, Yeah, but that's not ideal. So anyway,
if you have any.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
Well, I think one of the things that comes to mind,
you know, I mean, there's I've been talking about the
rescue insect traps and fly traps, horny traps. They've got
traps for just about everything, and certainly flies are a
nemous to a lot of homeowners. And they have the
trap stick that can literally hang up near the windows
(32:25):
and things which will attract them. They're a bright yellow color.
It's for indoor use. And I would get probably the
rescue trapstick and then put it up there and see
if it eliminates your problem. I think it will.
Speaker 9 (32:43):
Well, that sounds that sounds great. Yeah, anything that would
would help, because it gets very annoying, and you know,
you have people come over and that sort of thing,
and there's this hord to fly.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
Well, yeah, you've got to get that population down. And
they also have you know, an outdoor one. But for
what you're dealing with, I would say the rescue trap stick,
I mean fly fly tape has been around for years.
They've kind of created this trap using some of that technology,
(33:21):
but a little dressier. And again I used to have
them where they all congregated around the windows in a basement.
But check it out's rescue dot com and let me
put you on hold. I've got a rescue price pack
I'll just send out to you. I believe they got
about eight ten different traps in there, and I guess
(33:43):
is one of the fly traps will be in there
and Danny will pick you up on the other side
of the break as we continue. You're at Home with
Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 7 (33:52):
Help for your home is just a click away at
Garysullivan online dot com. This is at Home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
Here's another happy odor exit comment. I bought the perfect
used car, except it reeked of a smoke smell. I scrubbed,
I sprayed, I even left the windows open for days
and nothing got rid of the smell. Then I found
odor exit AQM Air Quality Manager a small packet. The
smell was gone overnight, not covered up, eliminated, and the
smell's never come back. Don't live with a car that
(34:37):
smells like I campfire. Get aqm at odor exit dot
com and breathe fresh air. Odor exit aqm at odor
exit dot com. Gary Salvent here for the Xalor pump company.
Zalor leads the way in some pump some battery backup
systems with continuous innovation. Now you can see the light
with their led plug illuminating Zolor green when the power
(34:58):
is present. You no longer have to wonder if you're
some pump pass power. The plug is always illuminated when
power is present. Check it out today on the popular
Zlar model sixty three and M fifty three. Go to
zalarpumps dot com the locate a factory certified installer in
your area zalarpumps dot com. Mosquitoes can transmit deadly diseases,
(35:18):
including wesnow virus, but some mosquito dunks kill mosquitoes before
they're old enough to bite. Just float an organic mosquito
dunk and ponds bird bass rain barrels in any standing
water to kill mosquito larvae for thirty days or longer.
Don't worry. Mosquito dunks won't harm people, pats, fish, birds,
or wildlife. Mosquito dunks are available at garden centers, hardware
(35:41):
stores and online. Visit some Responsible Solutions dot com. Now's
the time to ventilate your basement to prevent the natural
build up of pollutants, humidity and toxins that cause stagnant
musty odors. Stop to trouble. Win the battle with your
basement for good with an easy breathe ventilation system. Put
when in my basement at humidity and musty odor go.
That was about ten years ago. Bad air out, better
(36:03):
air in. It's that simple installation only takes two hours.
Now available in self installed kits. Call my friends at
easybreed dot com eight six six eight two two seventy
three twenty eight easybreed dot Com. All right, back at
(36:42):
it we go about twelve minutes before the top of
the air, talking little home improvement. You're at home with
Gary Sullivan. By the way, when we were talking about
the flies and I was talking about different types of flies,
chances are is what he was dealing with is a clusterfly.
They're bigger than a regular house fly, they're black, they
(37:03):
hang around windows. I remember when I asked that, and
they're slow, and my guess is that's exactly what he's
dealing with. And they love the You know, this time
of year, I'll say early spring, that's when you start
seeing them inside the home. They're kind of waking up
(37:26):
and so they've been in the house and they go
to the windows light and that's where they start showing up.
So to get rid of them, he mentioned using a vacuum,
and don't laugh, that is a I didn't comment on
it when he said it, but that is a standard
way of removing cluster flies. And of course the other
(37:47):
one is the sticky traps or the fly strips. Just
put them up near the windows and that'll that'll help.
The long term solution, as we have with every pest,
including the ants that we talked to about first, including
the clusterflies, is seal the cracks around windows, doors, vents, attics.
(38:10):
I'm always talking about it. Oh, it takes a little
expandable foam or some calking and you're good to go.
And if ants are an issue, we talked about the
bait stations. Take a look. If you got mulch around
the landscaping of your home, just take a look at
the at the maulch that you have there, see if
(38:32):
you can see a trail of ants using it as
a highway into your home. And then look up on
the foundation or if you have a brick home, and
see if you see any ant traffic going up the
side of the house. And I'll bet you they'll take
you right to a crack, right to their entrance point.
(38:52):
And you need to get that repaired. And it shouldn't
be too difficult. Many things you could use calking big,
you know, for expandable foam. But also there's a product
I talk about often called Geocil brushable sealant, and it's
like real thick maple syrup that's clear. You can brush
(39:15):
it on. They'll seal up that crack. They'll seal up
that hairline crack easily. And you know, road close, mister ant.
Speaker 4 (39:25):
All right, let's go to Brian.
Speaker 2 (39:26):
Brian, Welcome, good morning, Gary morning taking my call.
Speaker 1 (39:31):
You bet.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
I got a twenty one year old at home that uh,
I'm gone through six months a year on the snowbird
or whatever. And I got this odor in it that
I cannot get rid of, and I have no idea
where it's coming from. It's just an old, stale, musky smell.
It seems to be stronger and the house not near
(39:57):
as strong in the attic or in basement. I've done
everything with odor exit. I put that new cowgarone HBAC
odor block in the furnace, I had my duckwork professionally
clean and sanitized, had all the furniture cleaned, and I'm
(40:20):
just at a loss.
Speaker 9 (40:24):
When I'm gone.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
Also too, I leave all the pans on and all
the interior doors open.
Speaker 1 (40:28):
Yeah, yeah, well it sounds to well, gosh, it could
be a bazillion things. Okay, whenever anybody says snowbird and
I'm gone a lot and I have this odor I
can't get rid of. The first thing I think about
is sewer issues. Sewer smells, a dry trap, a dry
(40:48):
floor trap, a dry trap around the furnace that could
be pulling that sewer guess up through the air handler
and distributing it through the whole house.
Speaker 2 (41:02):
So I've checked all them, and and I've went as
far as to like put mineral.
Speaker 4 (41:09):
Oil in the top of them.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
So I do not think that's the problem. I have
got a small goldfish pond in the landscaping in front
of the house, approximately a thousand gallares. The liner has
a small hole in it where it's leaking. I'm not
getting any water in the basement, any water problems, nothing,
could that have anything.
Speaker 4 (41:32):
To do with it?
Speaker 1 (41:34):
Well, yeah, I could make a case for it. Okay,
you don't have water in the basement, but you certainly
if you got a small leak, you got a lot
of water sitting up against the foundation. Yeah, there's drainage
around the foundation. Sometimes there's a waterproof coating that's deteriorated
on the outside foundation below grade. Water could be moistening
(41:54):
the concrete foundation and adding humidity into the basement. You
adity interacts with you know, organic material, It can give
you a very basementy smell. If the furnace is in
the basement, again, the air handler's pulling that air up
and blowing it up through the house.
Speaker 4 (42:14):
You know.
Speaker 1 (42:15):
Whether that's it, I don't know, but I can make
a case for it.
Speaker 2 (42:20):
Yes, And I got a humidity gauge or whatever in
my house, and it's it's I don't know what it's
supposed to be forty to forty five, and it's always
right there. I can see all the interior walls of
my poor basement and they're not damp or anything at all.
One other thing that I had a problem with years
(42:40):
ago is on my outside faulset on the back of
the home. It busted inside the wall. Had it immediately
repaired it, but I did not take out or replace
the insulation. I let it dry. Could that have a
problem be a problem?
Speaker 1 (42:57):
So the way that would react is it would go dormant.
The mold colony would form because of organic material and moisture.
It will grow when the moisture dries up. And so
you've taken care of the problem that was introducing the moisture.
(43:17):
As it dries up, that colony will go dormant, but
can be reactivated with moisture. And it can be moisture
we don't see, so it again can be humidity or
water vapor. I think we have eight to ten gallons
of water vapor going through a foundation of your house
every day. So there's a moisture, is there enough to
(43:41):
activate that colony? Could be the only way I guess
you'd really do is just have a mold test done
in the house and see what your spore count is.
There's going to be a spore count in your house regardless.
But you know, sometimes when there's problems, you know, you
can get up to twenty thousand spores and then you
would know that that would be a problem. I had
(44:02):
an issue like this one time. Had a refrigerator down
in the basement and the condensation tray at the bottom
of the refrigerator had got it had plugged up, and
a little bit of water that was in there had
become stagnant, mold was growing in it. And who would
have looked there but literally got down and just started
(44:24):
searching everything hands and knees and sniffing, and I that's
what it was. So sometimes even though the basement doesn't
have that strong odor, if the air handler's down there,
that's the distribution and you got you know, you know,
humidity forty five percent ain't bad at all. If it
was sixty five seventy percent, I'd be a little concerned.
(44:47):
So I don't know if I can really tell you
exactly where it, would be happy to talk to you
further about it. I gotta take this break. I'll put
you on hold. If we have nothing else to talk about.
I will talk to you soon. All right, we'll continue.
Speaker 10 (45:02):
You're at home with Gary Sullivan's.
Speaker 7 (45:21):
The weekend and you have fixed questions. Give Gary a
call at what eight hundred and eight two three talk.
This is at Home with Gary Sullivan
Well, so we can welcome Aboard at Home with Gary Salvin.
This hour was brought to you by Dish Codings roller
Rock stone Coating. Now, I'll tell you what that is,
a wonderful, wonderful product. It can be used on exterior
projects like steps, pulldecks, patios, walkways, garage floors, balconies, basement floors,
interior airs. Check it out. It's DICEE Coatings dot com,
(00:53):
d A I C H Coatings dot com. It's the
roller Rock rollable stone coating that is available Low's Home
Depot and of course also Amazon. We thank them for
sponsoring this hour of the show. As we take your
calls regarding your home projects, let me give you that
phone number you can line up. It's eight hundred eight
(01:14):
two three A two five five. That's eight hundred eighty
two three eight two five five. And what are you
working on today? Have you had problem with pest our ants?
A problem yet? How about carpenter bees. I saw a
bunch of them this week where I'm at. It was
(01:35):
a beautiful day. And carpenter bees they always amazed me,
quite honestly. The size of them, like half the size
of your whole foam and they're threatening little guys, but
remember they're the guards. They're garden to queen. That's in
the woods. So if you get a little wood shed
and you see the centuries flying around, just take a
(01:58):
look at the woodshedd ye and see if you can
find a perfectly drilled hole. And that's where the queen resides.
She's back in the wood with the larvae, and those
guys are bringing her food and guarding her as she
leaves the premises. And the secret is to get the queen.
(02:19):
You get the queen, you get the colony. All right again,
you got the phone number, and I've got a whole
list of things i want to kind of remind you.
You might want to, you know, check off your list,
take a little look see around the house.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Boy.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
We had a torrential rain just a couple of nights ago,
evenings ago. I'm telling you, this's probably two inches of
rain in about an hour period. You know, I'm always
talking about gutters, gutters, gutters, and I got you know,
the gutter brushes in the gutters. I've not had any
gutters really overflow. But the other night the water was
(02:59):
it looked like a volcano. It was coming up out
of the gutter in the corner and the elbow with
double elbows going to the down spout. It's squirting water out,
and I'm thinking, what in the world is going on there?
And you know, I was thinking, I was kind of
putting off. I really don't want to go get the ladder.
I really don't want to do that. I really can't
believe there's debris in that down spout, And sure enough,
(03:22):
there wasn't. What had happened is the pipe that comes
off goes underground and then the ground falls a little
bit and the exits, the pipe exits and the water flows. Well,
that was plugged. I don't know how it got plugged.
(03:42):
I don't know if squirrels were putting leaves and acorns
and everything up there, but it was it had that
baby stopped up and there was the bubbling water. And
yesterday afternoon, a couple of days after the rain, I
got out a little stick and I'm poking around, Oh, okay,
that's where it is, and got a little snake out,
(04:03):
cleaned it out. There was a bunch of stuff in there.
So reminds me to remind you that you might kind
of take a look see and make sure everything's flowing
just right. That's the key. All right, let's go to
the phone lines again. Our phone numbers eight hundred eight
(04:23):
two three eight two five five. Another weekend, getting the
things done around the home, and let's go to Kathleen. Kathleen, welcome,
good morning, Gary morning.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Your very first comment had to do with ants.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Uh huh.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
And I have ants one or two marching across my
kitchen counter, and yesterday none at all. So I thought,
oh good, it's done, but this morning two more. And
how do I get rid of ants around my kitchen
counter without leaving poison residue.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
On my counter?
Speaker 4 (04:58):
Right?
Speaker 1 (04:59):
Don't want to do that. So there are little I
guess what I would recommend would be like rescue bait stations. Uh,
they're for ants. They're safe with pets, they're safe with
little children if you put them on the floor, very
very safe. So when you know about ants, go ahead.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
What did you call it?
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Their ant bait stations b A A B A T
bait stations ant BAC And it's made by rescue and
they're they're little disk okay, and ants when they're you know,
the colonies for ants are usually outside.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
It's kind of the same.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Thing as I was talking about with the carpenter bees.
All right, the ant queen is outside in an underground colony,
and all the ant you see in your house, outside
of your house, they're only interested in doing one thing,
getting water, getting food and bringing it back to the queen.
(06:05):
And they eat like we eat, you know. They some
when the weather is real warm or the weather is
real cold, their diets change from a carbohydrate to a protein.
The rescue ant baits all they are looked like a
hockey puck, and you can put them on a countertop,
you can put them along the baseboard. And as the
(06:27):
ants come marching in your home, and they love to
because it's comfortable and food and water is usually plentiful,
and they go and they find these these stations, these
bait stations, and they tell all their friends. So the
first day or two you may see more ants in
(06:48):
your house than you ever saw. And you're gonna say, Gary,
what have you done to me? And give it two
or three days, and there's a good chance ants will
be gone. I mean, it's that effect.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
My counter and not not be troublesome at all.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Yeah they're not. Yeah, they're not troublesome. At all. They're
they're very safe. It's so so again. You can check
it out. Their website is Rescue dot com and you
can get it at a lot of hardware stores, Lows,
Home Depot, Ace do it best. You can get it
(07:27):
on Amazon and just ant based ant bait stations. I
don't know that's so hard to say today, but it is.
But check that out, Kathleen, and stay on hold. And
I've got a little prize package. We've got a couple
of prize package from Rescue that we can give away today.
So let me do that for you. I'll put you
(07:49):
on hold, Danny, You'll get your name and addressed and
we'll get that out to you.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
All right.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
That being said, we do have Ron Wilson coming up
and we're gonna be talking about all kinds of things
that are going on in the outside landscaping. But let's
let's grab Bob first. Here. Bob, welcome, Hi Gary, how
are you doing doing fine? Thank you?
Speaker 5 (08:12):
So a friend of mine recently her sewer backed up
and she had people come and clean it out, and
ever since she's had just the dickens of a time
with sewer naps, and I mean hundreds and hundreds of them,
not just like ten or twenty like you normally see.
And she's tried baking soda and vinegar draino boiling water.
(08:37):
Following that, she called an exterminator. He said, boy, those
are tough. He says, I don't know what to tell you.
He basically didn't want to deal with it. Wow, wonder
if you got any advice.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Well, I'll tell you what I had one time. Is
there any so when they're in the sewer? Are they
flying around the outside of it too? Is he just
seeing them go down into the drain or what's he seeing?
Speaker 5 (09:05):
No, they're all around. She bombed mostly in her basement,
but they've migrated upstairs. But she bombed, and she had
hundreds of them dead on the floor.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Wow, but they're still But the problem is still in
the You know, one time we had a restaurant. A guy,
he had a restaurant. I've not done this, but he
swore by it. And what he did is he took
a little nine inch fan, plugged it in and blew
(09:35):
the air across the drain. Okay, sounds weird, right, but
what it did it kept the It kept the gnats
in the drain because they could not. You know, it
makes sense, right, And that's how he got rid of
That's how he got rid of them. He literally was
(09:55):
using different enzyme drain cleaners and he was had that
fan going around. He says, that's the way we used
to deal with them all the time. And you know,
there there is as we were talking about rescue products,
there is a a little nat trap. It sounds to
(10:15):
me that you're the experience that you're having is bigger
than a trap, you know, so the balm or changing
that environment totally really might be the answer.
Speaker 6 (10:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (10:32):
I like the fan idea. The only thing that I've
found that we haven't tried yet is a cider vinegar
trap basically fill a mixing bolt partly and then well
brand wrap around it.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
And yeah, yeah, exactly. And and the rescue traps that
I was telling you about, they're attracted I believe to
the color red. And they have a trap like that also,
and it's got a bait. But it sounds like you
a thousand of them.
Speaker 5 (11:01):
Uh, that's what I haven't seen him yet. He asked
what I told her. I said, I said, look, you
got you got way more than a couple of hundred.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Right, right, so theirs is red. It looks like a
big apple. It's got little holes in it, same type
of thing that are attracted to go into the trap.
And again that that website is Rescue dot com. And
just by coincidence and coincidence, we do have a pest
(11:31):
kit I can give you. Uh, let me put you
on hold. Danny can take your name and address and
we'll get you a little Rescue pest kit. It's got
quite a few different little kits involved there, so it's
a great prize giveaway and we'll do that for you.
All right, thank you much. Sit tight, We'll put you
on hold.
Speaker 5 (11:51):
All right.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
Ron Wilson, he's coming up next, and we got all
boatload of stuff to talk about on the outside of
your home. If the landscaping around your house is anything
like it's like going crazy, we'll continue. You're at Home
with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 7 (12:06):
Help for your home is just a click away at
Garysullivan online dot com. This is at Home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Hi everyone. I've been raving about wet and Forget outdoor
cleaner for years and for good reason. It takes the
hassle out of cleaning moss, mold, and mildew. No bleaching,
nose scrubbing, no rinsing, just spray and you're done. It's
perfect for roof sticks, sidewalks, even patio umbrellas. Available in
hose en sprayer with a thirty foot reach a concentrate
(12:49):
and are ready to use option Find Wet and Forget
It Low's Walmart Minards or visit Weddinforget dot com and
now in stores the new wedd and Forget window and
screen cleaner. For for forty years, DeMont has made powerful
pain and coding removers that are tough on layers but
safe for you in the environment. Tried Demand smart Strip Advanced.
It works on over ninety percent of the coatings, no
(13:11):
harmful fumes, no dangerous chemicals. Not sure what you're removing Well,
Demon's easy test kit tells you exactly what you need.
Find smart Strip at you're participating Do It Best retailer
Sherwin Williams or visit Dumont Global dot Com at Dumont
Global dot Com Dumont Smart safe and proven, so do
it yourself with Demand. So you want to transform that
(13:31):
basement into a home officer rec room, but that air
it's not so great. You need controlled ventilation from the
easy Breathed Ventilation system. I had an easy brief system
installed in my basement years ago, and that's stagnant. Must
the odor gone? So make this level usable and healthy.
In best of all, installation only takes a few hours.
Call eight sixty six eight two two seventy three twenty eight.
(13:52):
That's eight sixty six eight two two seventy.
Speaker 4 (13:55):
Three twenty eight.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Or go to easybreed dot com. The Happy Healthy Home people. 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 Sulvan here from my friends
at Rota Ruter Plumbing and Water clean Up.
Speaker 4 (14:09):
They're the some.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Pump experts and can install back up some pump that
will prevent basement flooding even during a power outage. And
if your primary pump is getting up in the years,
well Rotro Ruter can replace that too, trust me, a
lot cheaper than a flooded basement.
Speaker 8 (14:24):
Called Roto Ruter at one eight hundred Get Ruto today.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Well it's time to go outdoors. Our friend Ron Wilson,
who does a national gardening show, is joining us once again.
And mister Wilson. Missus Sullivan would like to know if
there's a drought going on, But as I look out
the window, it looks like a pretty steady rain.
Speaker 4 (15:11):
Sharlwan. You tell missus Sullivan she's just becoming a regular
stand up comedian.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
She's enjoying this, isn't she? And for folks that don't know,
is we, like many many people have had some really
dry summers over the last ten to fifteen falls in falls. Yeah,
last fall was really yeah. And Ron preaches everybody not
taking care of the landscaping the lawn if you'd like,
(15:41):
and uh, missus Sullivan always likes to say, tell Ron
it's okay. Well it's not always okay, but right now, seriously,
we've had a very wet spring, have we not here?
Speaker 4 (15:52):
Yeah, lots of rainfall and no doubt about it. Actually
confusing folks sometimes actual water newly planted trees and shrubs
or not right, And you know it's the same old,
same were don't need to check the immediate rootball to
see if they because sometimes even with all the rain, right,
it doesn't penetrate to trade the root ball. So you
know what I thought you were going to say on
that water volcano thing. What's that? You said? I wasn't
(16:14):
going to go get the ladder, so I convinced all
the grandkids.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Oh, get them up there. I mean, I'm telling you what, ron.
I've seen gutters overflow, I've seen downspouts back up, and
this thing it was a volcano.
Speaker 4 (16:28):
Huh.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
That thing was plugged. I pulled out it looked like
a four inch wide, uh, big piece of rope that
must have been two feet long.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
Hm.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
And I guess it's the pine needles, you know where
those pine trees are, right, the pine needles and different
things that have just gotten in there over the years,
little pieces, and it just kept mountain and mountain water
was going through it just fine. And then one day
it said maybe not, I gonna do enough. Enough's enough,
(17:02):
and it was. It was kind of I started pulling
this ropeie thing out with it with literally a snake,
a garden snake, and and it was or drained snake,
and it looked like a garden snake when I pulled.
Speaker 4 (17:15):
It actually had a garden snake in there as well.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
I thought it was when I started pulling it, like,
I don't know what I'm pulling out, but this could
just might not have a good ending.
Speaker 4 (17:26):
Crazy stuff.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Yeah, but you know, again, if you don't really pay attention.
I was actually went out to see how hard it
was raining. I knew it was raining really hard. I
didn't know if it was hailing. I was just curious.
I picked my head out on the screen porch and
I see this just gushing out of the double elbow
of that downs about, like, what in the world is
(17:48):
going on there?
Speaker 4 (17:50):
And I found out so may have been doing that
a couple of times.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
It might have been.
Speaker 4 (17:54):
Never know, you just didn't notice. I have to get
those grand kids up there more often to take a look.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
I get that thing cleaned out. Come on, But it's
raining right now and it looks like we're gonna have
a rainy day once again.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
Yeah, unfortunately, But I'll tell you what. You know. Next
weekend is Mother's Day.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Weekend, Yes, and big gardening weekend.
Speaker 4 (18:13):
As I'm looking at our weather forecast, by Tuesday, most
of this is out of here, and we're looking at
some pretty decent days through the rest of the weekend. Well,
you know what's going to happen. There's a lot of
folks that haven't done anything yet. Right the week before
of and after a Mother's Day weekend is always crazy.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
Does that mean Run's gonna be working a lot of hours?
Speaker 4 (18:32):
Nope, but it's always crazy. And take advantage of a
rainy day like today, this Saturday, or tomorrow and get
out to your local independ race idea and buy what
you need today and tomorrow because obviously a lot of
folks aren't going to go out today or tomorrow. And
I'm not I'm not just saying that gets I.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Got the same thing, not to go to a garden center.
But seriously, I'm sure a lot of outdoor contractors, you know,
painters outdoors, they're probably slow right now, yeah, for outside work.
And I'm like, I got all round on my notes,
big print book it now.
Speaker 4 (19:12):
Yeah, so you know, do that. And if you're doing
stuff for Mom, like making our special planter or hanging
basket or whatever, you may do, get it this weekend,
take it home, put it in the garage, down on the
patio or whatever. But you got it out of the
way now, sure, spend more time with Mom next weekend.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
So and you might even be able to fit in
the parking lot at the garden.
Speaker 4 (19:30):
And you might even be able to get in there
and get actually get to talk to someone as well.
And know missus Sullivan, we are not in the droughts.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
There you go, and that's why we talk to you
each and every week because you have this great advice.
Speaker 4 (19:41):
Thank you much, Ron, I appreciate it, my pleasure.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
Ron Wilson online dot com. Your call's next at Home
with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 7 (19:52):
Solutions to your home improvement are as easy as calling
one eight three talk. This is at Home with Gary Soliman.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
Be prepared to conquer all your lubrication projects with Blaster MultiMAX,
premium synthetic lubricant from the Blaster folks that outperforms the
leading competitor in six ASTM tests. It's odor listen provides
the longest lasting lubrication and protection against corrosion for thousands
of applications from door hinges and window tracks to loud
(20:37):
and garden equipment, chains, locks, and more. Look for at
any time at a hardware store, auto or home center
near you and always use Blaster products and work it
like a pro. Spring us here and so are the
Jaws Spring Cleaning caddy packs just in time to tackle
your toughest cleaning jobs. This all in one kit features
five high performance Jaws concentrated cleaners, including my favorite streak
(20:58):
free glass cleaner, micro Fiber thousands of powerful Jaws cream cleanser.
They're neatly packed in a sleek caddy. With Jaws, you'll
clean smarter, faster, and save more. Don't wait, order now
before they're gone at jawscleans dot com. Code Gary save
twenty percent free shipping on all orders over thirty five dollars.
Here's a winning spring project from dish Coatings. Renew your
(21:20):
drab concrete with spread Rock speckled granite coating. Transform your ports, steps, walkway, garage,
pull deck and more in your choice of five beautiful colors.
Spread Rock is one hundred percent real stone you apply
with a troaler squeegee to add a rich, elegant upgrade
to all kinds of concrete surfaces. Results are amazing and
economical with free shipping. Order spread Rock from the home
(21:43):
depot lowserdish Coatings dot com. That's Daichcoatings dot com. I
talk a lot about products that can make your life easier,
and I love tear Mender. This liquid vine and adhesive
repairs tears on all types of clothing fabrics, leather, vinyl
footwear buttons. Tear Mends can also repair canvas, awnings, tents,
carpet and fabric furniture. It's one product you got to
(22:05):
have in your home this spring as we start pulling
out the outdoor cushions and umbrellas. Ter Menders available at
your local hardware store and Amazon. Check out tear mender
dot com for more great make do and men's solutions
and ideas. All right, back, get it We go at
(22:58):
home with Gary Sullivan. If you'd like to join us,
we're talking about your home issues. You may be having
paint that's peeling, et cetera, et cetera. And here's our
phone number. It's eight hundred eight two three eight two
five five and let's go to Steve.
Speaker 4 (23:11):
Steve, welcome, Hi, Good morning, Gary morning.
Speaker 6 (23:15):
I'm considering AH an attic fan, a roof mounted attic fan,
and what I'm looking at is, uh, it's solar powered.
But the problem I have with it is that it's
always on it when the sun is shining. It's not
temperature controlled. I was going to ask you what you
(23:37):
think of that?
Speaker 1 (23:39):
Well, I guess the first thing I think of is
what type of ventilation do you have in that attict.
Speaker 6 (23:45):
Currently, Well, I've got you know, good soft ventilation, and
i've got on each end of the house. Is is
an opening? What do you call it? Yeah? Yeah events,
there's a vents on each under the house. Okay, but
it gets awful hot up there.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Okay, do you have a ridge vent up there or no?
Speaker 6 (24:12):
No?
Speaker 4 (24:12):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (24:14):
So when you put that fan up on the roof,
the fear that I have is when that's on, it's
going to be pulling the air right through the gable
vents and out. So you won't have anything really functioning
(24:40):
where you're pushing the hot air up and out, which
is what the soft events are supposed to do. Yeah,
but I think what's going on right now is you've
got holes, but you don't have anything pulling or pushing
hot air out. It's just up there. You got openings,
(25:01):
but you don't have any flow going. You might have
some flow going from the soffits out the gables, but
if you put a fan up there, I think it's
just going to take air from the gables right up
through the fan. So if you do that, it's really
kind of a whole formula how you get good flow.
(25:23):
And if you always kind of think of a chimney.
If you had soft events all the way around your
home and you have nothing else up there, okay, no
other venting, and you have a ridge vent, or you
have a fan, or you have those little turbine vents,
(25:44):
then you got the cooler. Let's say it's one hundred
and thirty five in that attic, which is not out
of character at all, and it's ninety degrees outside. That
ninety degree air is cool, and as it gets into two,
there's a drawl. It's like a chimney, right. It draws
that cooler ninety degree air into the base of the
(26:07):
attic and it pushes the hottest air out through the top.
So my whole reason for that discussion is to just
put a fan up there and not address the gable events.
It's probably a problem. Yeah, okay, So then when it
comes on to turning it on all the time, you
(26:29):
know you could probably get something with a you know,
a thermostat or a temperature sensor to turn that on
when you know you'd said it maybe like when it
gets to say one hundred and ten degrees, it runs.
Speaker 6 (26:51):
Yeah, I didn't want it to run all winter for
drawing in that.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
Cold air well, you know what, don't worry about wintertime.
In all honesty, that air once it's in the attic,
it's cold up there anyway. Yeah, okay, it's not hurting
or doing anything. What is up there in that attic,
or what could be in that attic is you know,
(27:14):
when there is warmth coming up from the house into
the attic, even with insulation up there, there's some there
could be some venting where it's dumping warmer moist air
into the attic, like from a bathroom fan or something
not that it's supposed to, but it happens a lot.
(27:35):
Some warm air that's coming in from the sides of
can lights and getting up into the attic, and then
that warm air with moisture in it just water vapor
hits that cold air and it starts shedding the moisture
and then insulation gets wet. But if you've got ventilation
up in the winter, it's taking that warm air right out.
Speaker 6 (27:58):
Yeah. The house is twenty years old and it's clean
up there. I got putation up there and there's no
mold or anything. It's just so hot.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
Well summertime yeah, yeah, well, if you wanted to, I mean,
can you I just I remember when ventilation and addicts
first started coming out in like the eighties, people actually
sold covers to cover the vents at the top of
the house. And then we started having some mold issues
in attics. It's like, well, hold it that venting is
(28:32):
as important in the winter time as it is the summertime.
And once that cold air is in the attic gets
cold up there. Anyway, Yeah, just let it happen.
Speaker 6 (28:40):
I don't know why they didn't put a ridge vent
when I when when I had the house built.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
Yeah, that's odd. If it's twenty years old, I.
Speaker 6 (28:48):
Agree, Maybe I'll have a roofer come out and put
a ridge vent in instead of a.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
Well, you're still gonna you're still going to be addressing
that that gable issue. One of the things, you know,
I would consider if you had, you know, gables on
both sides, is to put a fan in one of
the gables and just pull that stream of air all
the way across the attic.
Speaker 6 (29:13):
Yeah. Yeah, that's something to consider too.
Speaker 4 (29:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
Okay, Well, so when when you just google attic ventilation
formula and there is a there is a formula, it's like,
for every three hundred square foot footprint, of the house,
not to square foot, just the footprint. There should be
(29:39):
one square foot of uninterrupted ventilation. A lot of the
you know, ventilations interrupted fifty sixty seventy and that's when
you're talking about putting in a ridge vent and the
soft events, and you can split it fifty to fifty.
But people that have older homes or have gable vents,
(29:59):
it's cruis up that whole formula. And there's a lot
of homes that they think they're ventilated properly and they're not.
Speaker 6 (30:09):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Okay, Well I'm trying to address the
heat of their Okay, Well, I appreciate talking with you, Gary.
Speaker 4 (30:17):
I hope it helps.
Speaker 6 (30:19):
It's about the fourth time you've helped me out with
something very good.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
Glad to do it. Thank you, appreciate it. All right,
let's go to uh, Tim, Tim, you're at home with
Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 9 (30:32):
Hi, good morning, Gary, good morning. Well. The problem that
I have is flies, and they're they're black, glossy, sort
of chubby looking flies to come into the house and
(30:54):
I might get ten, fifteen, twenty twenty five of them.
I don't know where they come from. I don't know
how they get in, but they do, and I have
to spend a lot of time trying to eradicate them.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
So do they congregate around the windows.
Speaker 9 (31:17):
Yes, we have a sliding glass door in the one room,
and they seem to travel in a pack almost, and
they go from the back room to the front room,
to the back room to the front room. Sometimes it's funny.
(31:45):
Sometimes I can hook up the vacuum cleaner and use
the hose, right, Yeah, but that's not ideal. So anyway,
if you have any.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
Well, I think one of the things that comes to mind,
you know, I mean, there's I've been talking about the
rescue insect traps and fly traps, horny traps. They've got
traps for just about everything, and certainly flies are a
nemous to a lot of homeowners. And they have the
trap stick that can literally hang up near the windows
(32:25):
and things which will attract them. They're a bright yellow color.
It's for indoor use. And I would get probably the
rescue trapstick and then put it up there and see
if it eliminates your problem. I think it will.
Speaker 9 (32:43):
Well, that sounds that sounds great. Yeah, anything that would
would help, because it gets very annoying, and you know,
you have people come over and that sort of thing,
and there's this hord to fly.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
Well, yeah, you've got to get that population down. And
they also have you know, an outdoor one. But for
what you're dealing with, I would say the rescue trap stick,
I mean fly fly tape has been around for years.
They've kind of created this trap using some of that technology,
(33:21):
but a little dressier. And again I used to have
them where they all congregated around the windows in a basement.
But check it out's rescue dot com and let me
put you on hold. I've got a rescue price pack
I'll just send out to you. I believe they got
about eight ten different traps in there, and I guess
(33:43):
is one of the fly traps will be in there
and Danny will pick you up on the other side
of the break as we continue. You're at Home with
Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 7 (33:52):
Help for your home is just a click away at
Garysullivan online dot com. This is at Home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
Here's another happy odor exit comment. I bought the perfect
used car, except it reeked of a smoke smell. I scrubbed,
I sprayed, I even left the windows open for days
and nothing got rid of the smell. Then I found
odor exit AQM Air Quality Manager a small packet. The
smell was gone overnight, not covered up, eliminated, and the
smell's never come back. Don't live with a car that
(34:37):
smells like I campfire. Get aqm at odor exit dot
com and breathe fresh air. Odor exit aqm at odor
exit dot com. Gary Salvent here for the Xalor pump company.
Zalor leads the way in some pump some battery backup
systems with continuous innovation. Now you can see the light
with their led plug illuminating Zolor green when the power
(34:58):
is present. You no longer have to wonder if you're
some pump pass power. The plug is always illuminated when
power is present. Check it out today on the popular
Zlar model sixty three and M fifty three. Go to
zalarpumps dot com the locate a factory certified installer in
your area zalarpumps dot com. Mosquitoes can transmit deadly diseases,
(35:18):
including wesnow virus, but some mosquito dunks kill mosquitoes before
they're old enough to bite. Just float an organic mosquito
dunk and ponds bird bass rain barrels in any standing
water to kill mosquito larvae for thirty days or longer.
Don't worry. Mosquito dunks won't harm people, pats, fish, birds,
or wildlife. Mosquito dunks are available at garden centers, hardware
(35:41):
stores and online. Visit some Responsible Solutions dot com. Now's
the time to ventilate your basement to prevent the natural
build up of pollutants, humidity and toxins that cause stagnant
musty odors. Stop to trouble. Win the battle with your
basement for good with an easy breathe ventilation system. Put
when in my basement at humidity and musty odor go.
That was about ten years ago. Bad air out, better
(36:03):
air in. It's that simple installation only takes two hours.
Now available in self installed kits. Call my friends at
easybreed dot com eight six six eight two two seventy
three twenty eight easybreed dot Com. All right, back at
(36:42):
it we go about twelve minutes before the top of
the air, talking little home improvement. You're at home with
Gary Sullivan. By the way, when we were talking about
the flies and I was talking about different types of flies,
chances are is what he was dealing with is a clusterfly.
They're bigger than a regular house fly, they're black, they
(37:03):
hang around windows. I remember when I asked that, and
they're slow, and my guess is that's exactly what he's
dealing with. And they love the You know, this time
of year, I'll say early spring, that's when you start
seeing them inside the home. They're kind of waking up
(37:26):
and so they've been in the house and they go
to the windows light and that's where they start showing up.
So to get rid of them, he mentioned using a vacuum,
and don't laugh, that is a I didn't comment on
it when he said it, but that is a standard
way of removing cluster flies. And of course the other
(37:47):
one is the sticky traps or the fly strips. Just
put them up near the windows and that'll that'll help.
The long term solution, as we have with every pest,
including the ants that we talked to about first, including
the clusterflies, is seal the cracks around windows, doors, vents, attics.
(38:10):
I'm always talking about it. Oh, it takes a little
expandable foam or some calking and you're good to go.
And if ants are an issue, we talked about the
bait stations. Take a look. If you got mulch around
the landscaping of your home, just take a look at
the at the maulch that you have there, see if
(38:32):
you can see a trail of ants using it as
a highway into your home. And then look up on
the foundation or if you have a brick home, and
see if you see any ant traffic going up the
side of the house. And I'll bet you they'll take
you right to a crack, right to their entrance point.
(38:52):
And you need to get that repaired. And it shouldn't
be too difficult. Many things you could use calking big,
you know, for expandable foam. But also there's a product
I talk about often called Geocil brushable sealant, and it's
like real thick maple syrup that's clear. You can brush
(39:15):
it on. They'll seal up that crack. They'll seal up
that hairline crack easily. And you know, road close, mister ant.
Speaker 4 (39:25):
All right, let's go to Brian.
Speaker 2 (39:26):
Brian, Welcome, good morning, Gary morning taking my call.
Speaker 1 (39:31):
You bet.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
I got a twenty one year old at home that uh,
I'm gone through six months a year on the snowbird
or whatever. And I got this odor in it that
I cannot get rid of, and I have no idea
where it's coming from. It's just an old, stale, musky smell.
It seems to be stronger and the house not near
(39:57):
as strong in the attic or in basement. I've done
everything with odor exit. I put that new cowgarone HBAC
odor block in the furnace, I had my duckwork professionally
clean and sanitized, had all the furniture cleaned, and I'm
(40:20):
just at a loss.
Speaker 9 (40:24):
When I'm gone.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
Also too, I leave all the pans on and all
the interior doors open.
Speaker 1 (40:28):
Yeah, yeah, well it sounds to well, gosh, it could
be a bazillion things. Okay, whenever anybody says snowbird and
I'm gone a lot and I have this odor I
can't get rid of. The first thing I think about
is sewer issues. Sewer smells, a dry trap, a dry
(40:48):
floor trap, a dry trap around the furnace that could
be pulling that sewer guess up through the air handler
and distributing it through the whole house.
Speaker 2 (41:02):
So I've checked all them, and and I've went as
far as to like put mineral.
Speaker 4 (41:09):
Oil in the top of them.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
So I do not think that's the problem. I have
got a small goldfish pond in the landscaping in front
of the house, approximately a thousand gallares. The liner has
a small hole in it where it's leaking. I'm not
getting any water in the basement, any water problems, nothing,
could that have anything.
Speaker 4 (41:32):
To do with it?
Speaker 1 (41:34):
Well, yeah, I could make a case for it. Okay,
you don't have water in the basement, but you certainly
if you got a small leak, you got a lot
of water sitting up against the foundation. Yeah, there's drainage
around the foundation. Sometimes there's a waterproof coating that's deteriorated
on the outside foundation below grade. Water could be moistening
(41:54):
the concrete foundation and adding humidity into the basement. You
adity interacts with you know, organic material, It can give
you a very basementy smell. If the furnace is in
the basement, again, the air handler's pulling that air up
and blowing it up through the house.
Speaker 4 (42:14):
You know.
Speaker 1 (42:15):
Whether that's it, I don't know, but I can make
a case for it.
Speaker 2 (42:20):
Yes, And I got a humidity gauge or whatever in
my house, and it's it's I don't know what it's
supposed to be forty to forty five, and it's always
right there. I can see all the interior walls of
my poor basement and they're not damp or anything at all.
One other thing that I had a problem with years
(42:40):
ago is on my outside faulset on the back of
the home. It busted inside the wall. Had it immediately
repaired it, but I did not take out or replace
the insulation. I let it dry. Could that have a
problem be a problem?
Speaker 1 (42:57):
So the way that would react is it would go dormant.
The mold colony would form because of organic material and moisture.
It will grow when the moisture dries up. And so
you've taken care of the problem that was introducing the moisture.
(43:17):
As it dries up, that colony will go dormant, but
can be reactivated with moisture. And it can be moisture
we don't see, so it again can be humidity or
water vapor. I think we have eight to ten gallons
of water vapor going through a foundation of your house
every day. So there's a moisture, is there enough to
(43:41):
activate that colony? Could be the only way I guess
you'd really do is just have a mold test done
in the house and see what your spore count is.
There's going to be a spore count in your house regardless.
But you know, sometimes when there's problems, you know, you
can get up to twenty thousand spores and then you
would know that that would be a problem. I had
(44:02):
an issue like this one time. Had a refrigerator down
in the basement and the condensation tray at the bottom
of the refrigerator had got it had plugged up, and
a little bit of water that was in there had
become stagnant, mold was growing in it. And who would
have looked there but literally got down and just started
(44:24):
searching everything hands and knees and sniffing, and I that's
what it was. So sometimes even though the basement doesn't
have that strong odor, if the air handler's down there,
that's the distribution and you got you know, you know,
humidity forty five percent ain't bad at all. If it
was sixty five seventy percent, I'd be a little concerned.
(44:47):
So I don't know if I can really tell you
exactly where it, would be happy to talk to you
further about it. I gotta take this break. I'll put
you on hold. If we have nothing else to talk about.
I will talk to you soon. All right, we'll continue.
Speaker 10 (45:02):
You're at home with Gary Sullivan's.
Speaker 7 (45:21):
The weekend and you have fixed questions. Give Gary a
call at what eight hundred and eight two three talk.
This is at Home with Gary Sullivan
At Home with Gary Sullivan News
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Intentionally Disturbing
Join me on this podcast as I navigate the murky waters of human behavior, current events, and personal anecdotes through in-depth interviews with incredible people—all served with a generous helping of sarcasm and satire. After years as a forensic and clinical psychologist, I offer a unique interview style and a low tolerance for bullshit, quickly steering conversations toward depth and darkness. I honor the seriousness while also appreciating wit. I’m your guide through the twisted labyrinth of the human psyche, armed with dark humor and biting wit.