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July 12, 2025 • 45 mins
Your calls, questions and tips with the guys who is all about easy.
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Speaker 1 (00:31):
Well, it's a weekend welcome. You're at home with Gary Salvan.
Its hours brought you by wed and Forget.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
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Speaker 1 (00:40):
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(01:01):
that is about twenty five feet, so no ladder is needed.
Pretty cool. All right, let me give you the phone number.
We'll kick things off. Get this weekend, Roland, get a
few things done around the home. It is eight hundred
eight two three eight two five five, So go ahead
grab that line and happy to talk to you about

(01:24):
maybe what's working on or what's not working on, and
what's working on in your home, what we need to fix.
We say it all the time, and I know many
of the listeners, you in particular, do take that walk
around the home and take a look at what's going on.

(01:45):
And in our area we've had lots of rain. And
when we talk with Ron Wilson here in just about
ten minutes, our landscaping friend, we'll ask him about how
it's changing the landlandscape. And I have read a lot
about that, and I'm interested from different diseases the nuts edge.

(02:07):
But the real question, too is how about your home?
What is the heat? What is the large amount of
rain doing your home? Are you struggling with some things?
And as I took a walk around the house this
past week, that is exactly what I was looking for
problem areas and happy to report not so much, so

(02:29):
that was good news. I was mainly looking at the sidewalks,
the patio, the land around the foundation. Did I have
a positive flow away from the home, because that's really
where we get into trouble. And also I want you
to pay attention to any penetration that's going through your home,

(02:51):
whether it is a vinyl sighting or wood sighting, or
whether it's brick. What do you see going on? If
it's brick, maybe you find out a crack or two.
Maybe it's the wheepoles at the last or the first
course of brick right above the foundation. Is are there

(03:12):
any bricks cracked? Are the we poles clogged. Those also
are designed to dispense water that gets behind the wall,
saving it from being trapped on the inside of the
exterior wall and the outside of the interior walls. And
if it's trapped and it can't get out, and if
it's a continual source of moisture, what do you have, well,

(03:36):
outside of a problem, Yeah, you have mold. So we
want to make sure that that those wheepoles are open, clear,
free flowing if necessary. Same with the gutters, same with
the down spouts that go under the ground. And again,
I know it's a simplistic way of saying it, but
if it looks wrong, it is wrong, and you need to,

(04:02):
you know, look into getting it fixed. Also, we had
a conversation last week about somebody that had three quotes
on a roof and one was significantly higher. And a
fellow wrote me and said, Gary, you know, if you
have two salespeople from any company and they get into

(04:28):
your house, maybe you invite them, maybe they just kind of, yeah,
they talked their way into your house and their quotes
doubled what everybody else is. And they're very pushy and
hard to get rid of. You don't want to sign
a contract with them to do your roof or do
your HVAC. And this fellow knew of a company and

(04:52):
also a couple of people that just made that mistake.
They got let the people in the house the amount
of pressure they just signed to get the roof done,
and well, I can't recall whether you said I got
done right or not, but they overpaid. And his premise
of writing me this is I was talking about how

(05:15):
important it is to get a couple of quotes, and
he was really imploring me, you got to keep talking
about that. You've got to keep talking about that. There's
no good, reputable company who's going to be offended if
you say, well I want to get a couple two
to three quotes on his job. At least the ones
I know, the reputable ones are going to encourage it.

(05:37):
Go ahead. Yes, it's a good learning experience. But this
hit home to him and I just wanted to pass
that on if you feel pressured. I remember it was
about eight years ago my son hit somebody ever put
he was having a quote on gutters at his home
and he was questioned, you ever hear these guys and

(05:58):
why are you asking me? Well, they told me I'd
get thirty percent today if I sign right now, I go. No,
your gutters aren't falling off your house. Get a couple
of quotes. You shouldn't feel pressure in making decisions on
improvement in your home or buying a car, buying a furnace,
buying a roof, you name it. Give it time to

(06:19):
think about it the best way, all right. Our phone
numbers eight hundred eight two three eight two five five
Rob you lead us off, Hi, Gary answer.

Speaker 3 (06:31):
I got an order house out here in the sticks.
It's a crick roof, not a crick roof, a crick
rock foundation. Got several auditions added to it, so forth.
But I'm trying to get a nice eating system in it.

(06:52):
And I guess I'm kind of curious how to get
you know, duct work that the mice and you know whatever,
or don't chew it all up. You know, it's basically
you're on your belly kind of going underneath the joists
and so forth, and it's just a that's a terrible thing.

Speaker 2 (07:15):
Well, people come out, if you had people come out
and take a look at because there's different heating systems
that maybe you want to go in a different direction,
almost like a mini split system throughout the house where
you could have zone heating and cooling and and and
not that duckwork to worry about.

Speaker 3 (07:37):
Well, now that's another thing, but I guess and then
you have cold floors and so forth. Though, because I say,
the quick rock you know, needs to be probably replaced
with some block or something like that.

Speaker 1 (07:50):
So is it is it supportive or what? Why do
you say that that it would have to be replaced.
I mean maybe it does. I'm just curious.

Speaker 3 (08:02):
Well, it's well, it's basically, you know, I don't know,
a couple of hundred let's at least one hundred years
old now sure, and uh it's you know, just you know,
mice and so forth kind of get in and uh,
you know, I don't know if I think we've had
a snake in there once or twice too, but uh yeah,

(08:24):
but yeah, it's I mean it's pretty solid, but you know,
trying to uh, you know, just get the wind, you know,
the cold wind, because we're out you know, in farm
land here and you know there's there's nothing blocking uh
the wind. A lot of times and you know, I've
actually put a you know, roofs angles up against it
and you know, to kind of keep some of the

(08:46):
wind out of there, and of course, you know, keep
the keep the floor somewhat warm during the win especially
during the winters.

Speaker 1 (08:52):
Sure, sure, well your your original question, you were talking
about duck work. I guess my question sounds like, you know,
whenever you're with a home that's one hundred, one hundred
and fifty years old, there's a multitude of questions, right,
and in terms of you know, the duck work and stuff.
You know, there's a couple of different types of duck work.

(09:13):
But you know, I don't know if you've had anybody
look at it and do different quotes on the different
types of duck work based on what your concerns are.
But you know, a regular you know, I don't think
you'd want a e vent type duck work, you know,
like a drier hose type thing, you know, that could

(09:36):
get chewed. But a regular metal duck work, I would say,
would still be your your your best bed. Again, hard
for me to say without looking at the whole overview
of the house and what the concerns are. Is it
a dirt far in that cross space area or the basement? Yeah,
that dirt Yeah, So again you're metal system is going

(10:01):
to be your best or just avoiding the duck work
with mini splits. And I know that's a whole nother,
you know, a whole other issue. But it sounds like
you are concerned about a couple of things, and it's
the duck work is just one of them, just kind
of maybe a byproduct of the just the whole age
of the house. But answering your question without seeing the house,

(10:23):
I would say, you know, you just stay with your
metal duck working and make sure that the uh the
joints are screwed together and even used with a moment
tape where there's no separations.

Speaker 3 (10:37):
Well, we've never had really metal duck working. We've always
had the plastic you know, you know, it comes in
a box and you can spread up that course. You
know what's happened is, you know, the mice and so
forth try to make a home in there, and you know, uh,
you know, so I guess I'm I'm probably my daughter's
moving out of the house. Finally. Then I was thinking

(10:59):
this fall a lot to kind of rip up the
floors a little bit and you know, maybe dig some trenches.
I guess, you know, for some metal duct work insulated
metal duct work, and I found like on Amazon some
other duct work round dut work that's kind of I
don't know what to use it for, but actually it's
like a corrugated type plastic, except we're thinking that the

(11:20):
mice would not be able to chew into it.

Speaker 1 (11:22):
Yeah, and there's another thing that used a lot in
older homes too, where there's not much room in the walls.
In some places there's no no walls. It's almost a
PVC pipe and it's a high velocity furnace that's used.
And maybe it's an inch and a half two inches
PVC pipe, not like a you know, ABS or anything

(11:45):
like that where it's a thin wall. This is like
a thick walled PVC pipe and they're not going to
chew through that too. That's why I said, really getting
heating and cooling contract out, showing them what they're up against,
get their input on the best service. But a high velocity,
smaller duckwork might be an answer also, And that's something

(12:06):
i'd really take a look at, rob and maybe make
a plan on the whole step by step of what
you want to do to upgrade, so your kind of
as you add pieces to it, you're working in the
same direction. Thank you much for the call. I appreciated
our phone numbers eight hundred eight two three eight two
five five will continue with your calls. You're at home

(12:26):
with Gary Sullivan.

Speaker 4 (12:27):
Time to get your hands dirty with Gary Sullivan. Give
them a call at one eight hundred eighty two three
talk You're at home with Gary cellivator.

Speaker 5 (12:51):
Well.

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(13:12):
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Speaker 1 (13:22):
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(13:42):
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(14:16):
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(15:20):
it we go. Joining us now is Ron Wilson. This
time every weekend we have him in talk about what's
going on on the outside of the house. And Ron,
when we were chatting in your show, I was talking
about nuts edge and we didn't even get the fungus
and stuff growing in the lawns of hot wet summers. Boy,
they breed a lot of trouble into our yards and landscaping.

Speaker 6 (15:41):
Do is not lorny, mister Shanman, Yes, they do. As
a matter of fact. You know, I got to I
had an interesting email this week. Somebody said, can you
explain to me why all the crab apples are dying
in our area? If you look around, they look pretty rough, right, Yeah,
And that's you know, that's what it is. It's a
they get leafed as and then the foliate they don't

(16:01):
die typically they will. There are other issues, but you're right,
and we transition, you know, we talk about this all
the time, going from that spring season to the summer season,
and it can be tough. And if the weather conditions
are right, you know, you get all kinds of diseases
start to move in and we're trying to water. We
got irrigation going and we're watering plants in the foliage
and that just sets them up for more disease. And

(16:24):
you can't water the lawn except for at nighttime. That
sets it up for disease. You know, it gets very confusing,
but yes, it can be a tough time. And you know,
nut grass, you know, you know we were kidding about that,
but nut grass, if you think about it, that's that's
a hard one to get rid of. And I think
one of the issues many years ago was I spray
it with stuff, but it just keep coming right back
up again, right And the thing you got to remember

(16:45):
about that, and like wild onions and wild garlic that
shows up in your lawn or your landscape is you're
not just dealing with the foliage you're dealing with those
nuts that are down in the ground, right, and that's
got to go through the foliage, through the stem, through
the roots, and into those nuts. And that's a hard
thing to do and get rid of them.

Speaker 1 (17:04):
Not something you can just pull out either. I mean,
well you pull it out, it pulls out easy, but
you rarely get it all out.

Speaker 6 (17:10):
And it does grow right by it a lot of
times it will. Now if you catch nutsedge or nut
grass or water grass is called sometimes when it first
comes up. And remember it comes up from seed, so
they have those seed heads and those blow around. That's
where it starts and it develops the nuts eventually down
in the ground. But if you get them when they
first start to grow and pull them out, you got
it because it hasn't formed the nuts yet. Once it's

(17:32):
become established, you know, it's tougher. So fortunately, there are
products on the market today that homeowners can get their
hands on that do a really good job. Timing is
very very important. Takes a couple applications. And the interesting
thing there is, just like the onions, it has a
waxy coating on the Outside's why it's a real shiny
mm hmm. What happens when you spray water on that

(17:52):
rolls off exactly. It beads up and rolls off. So
you you bruise it, you step on it, you try
to do something to break it, or you use a surface.
And I'm not talking about laundry or dishwater soap. I'm
talking about a true surfactant that's used in in the
pesticides and secticides, fudgicides to make that more penetrable. Is
that the word pature penetrable anyway? Sure, yeah, thank you.

(18:17):
Lubricious's yeah, the simitatious and lubricious and yeah, all those
words that you use anyway to make it penetrate. And
it'll take a couple of applications, but now we can
get it under control. And of course improving the drainings
and all that will help too. But sure weather set
us up for that. You know, we had good rainfall
all spring, cool weather, stayed wet, stayed damp. You know,

(18:41):
those areas that didn't drain well stayed wet, and that
says eating that stuff up. So you know, it's there's
out there for you that you know I'll do. There's
a lot of things I'll do and won't do but
there's one thing.

Speaker 1 (18:52):
I won't do. What's it.

Speaker 6 (18:54):
I will not help your your previous caller. Crawl underneath
that house and look underneath there.

Speaker 2 (18:58):
You know, talking to duckwork and all that, and an
older home and a you know, a creekstone foundation.

Speaker 1 (19:08):
Part of that. It's just the environment. And whenever you're
trying to keep critters out, you start on the outside
of the house. I don't care whether the problems in
the duckwork or not.

Speaker 6 (19:17):
I am not up on those older homes. I'm not
a cross spaced person. No, I don't like to get
that stuff it's down there.

Speaker 1 (19:26):
I don't either.

Speaker 6 (19:27):
Here you go, all right, Ron, thank you much, All right,
take care, appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (19:31):
It's Ron Wilson online dot com. We'll continue with your calls.
You're at Home with Gary Sullivan.

Speaker 4 (19:48):
Home Improvement one O one with Gary Sullivan every weekend.
Classes began at one eight hundred and eighty two three top.
You're at Home with Gary Sullivan.

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(20:29):
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(21:18):
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(21:40):
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Speaker 1 (21:42):
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 stacks, sidewalks, even patio umbrellas. Available in
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(22:03):
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It Low's, Walmart, Minards, or visit Weddinforget dot com and
now in stores the new wedd and Forget Window and
screen cleaner. All right, back at it. We go at

(22:41):
home with Gary Sullivan taking your calls regarding your homes
and the lines are open, so go ahead and grab
a line, happy to talk about your home project. Our
phone number is eight hundred eight two three eight two
five five. Grab a line, Danny Boyle, take your call,
and all lines are open right now, they're all open.
I know, we'll discuss what you're working on, get you
back to work in no time at all. When we

(23:02):
were talking about the duck work, it's still kind of
that conversation. Doesn't bug me about the conversation. But regardless
of whether the home is five years old or one
hundred and fifty years old, the problems that we were
discussing with about, you know, runs getting into the duck

(23:24):
work and they runs period, mice whatever. If they get
into your home, they're looking to survive. They go to
your attic, they make their nests or their environment and
insulation and where it's comfortable and the duckwork. There's certainly

(23:47):
things you can do. I'd love to just kind of
talk about this through a little bit more because you
can have some of the flexible duck work in some areas,
but maybe in other areas you want to go with
that's solid, like a galvanized or aluminum duck work and
make it more secure. But really the problem does start

(24:08):
on the outside, and when you have an old home,
that's a challenge.

Speaker 2 (24:12):
I mean, we used to heat with wood and coal,
and you know, we weren't really worried about buttoning up
our houses all that. Well and well we are now
with just a price of energy. But keeping them out
to begin with is the start easier said than done.
I totally get that, But there's other things I'm always

(24:32):
talking about with critters and stuff is just changing the environment, smells, lights, motion,
and maybe some peppermint oils, some spearmint oils. There's different
products out on the market and also different things you
can do to create them yourself with saldust and essential

(24:55):
oils of peppermint and spearmint, Put in a little tiny
burlap bag and play them to out the home where
they just don't like that that smell.

Speaker 1 (25:04):
Keeping them out. Tubes and tubes and tubes of calking.
Of course. So and as we were talking, it became
obvious to me that the duckwork was one issue, but
there was other things of concern and probably one of
the deals depending on how long you're gonna stay there,
what you want to make in your investment, what do

(25:25):
you what are your expectations of house? Are you also
looking at saving energy and an older home is really
getting a consultant, an architect a contractor and talking the
whole program through and what can I do to make
this home more livable, more secure from critters and stuff.

(25:48):
So a lot of work goes into that, and and
real honesty comes into the point of getting boots on
the ground and letting people kind of inspect and try
and you know, hear what you're saying. Obviously, the duck
park that was one part of it, but then we
got into Foundations and he was concerned really about the

(26:08):
health of it. I go, is that fallen apart? No,
but it's over one hundred years old. Well, yeah, I
get it now, all winds blowing through it. Well, those
are bigger and different problems. Certainly, a high house that's
not you know tight, is going to allow for recruitters
to get into your home. And then the duck work
becomes the you know, the red flag if you will, like, oh,

(26:31):
I got mice in here that are eating my duckwork,
so you know, going to a metal taping the seams,
using silicon clocking around those seams, those all help, but
the problem with the rod is still there. So I'd
start with talking to HVAC people and then talking maybe

(26:52):
to a general contractor and see exactly where we want
to go with this house? What do we really want
to do with this house? All right again, our number
is eight hundred eight two three eight two five five.
Go ahead and grab a line we got Doug.

Speaker 5 (27:08):
Doug welcome, Yes, Garry, thank you for taking my call
on welcome. Several years ago, I know it's a crack
along my foundation that runs horizontal almost all around the
horror the foundation where it's underneath the garage. I had
a guy come out and said it wasn't a problem
because it was just like I think, he said, like

(27:30):
maybe rebar was expanding underneath the uh and uh. But
over the years it's gotten kind of worse. So it's
really popped out a little bit.

Speaker 2 (27:40):
You know.

Speaker 5 (27:40):
There's it's, it's it's. So I was wondering if there's
something I need to do, and then like who would
do that kind of work?

Speaker 2 (27:47):
So I'll use the word bowing. I mean, is it
is it just not square anymore?

Speaker 5 (27:55):
Well, another crack is bul bulging out.

Speaker 1 (27:58):
Bulging out?

Speaker 2 (27:59):
Okay, yes, So there are there's all different ways and
different things to use on stabilizing foundations. And I was
in a home one time it was so bad, literally
you could see, you could stand in the basement, you
could see outside at the top and also where the

(28:20):
crack was bulging. So if it's settling down, you'll usually
get a a vertical crack. Vertical cracks are usually taken
care of by power driving a steel pipe all the

(28:40):
way down into the bedrock and then attaching to the
footer and and resupporting it.

Speaker 1 (28:47):
They used to call it underpinning the the the horizontal
cracks where it's actually bulging out, there's a couple of
things you can do there, and one of the really
neat things is you asked twho does that. Structural repair

(29:07):
companies and also some waterproofing companies. I talk about ever
Dry waterproofing a lot. They have a whole system and
one of the things that they incorporate in their system
is it's carbon fiber, the same thing Space Shuttle was
made of. And this is applied on the inside or

(29:32):
outside of the wall, which reinforces and stabilizes that bulge,
and it's I don't think it's a quarter inch thick,
but it's that heavy duty. There's also things where you
turnbuckles and posts and cables and beams on the inside.

(29:56):
I mean there's a lot of different ways to do it.
And again, since it's bulging out and not bulging in,
there's going to be different remedies accordingly. But if you
if you wanted to just get an idea of exactly
what's going on in yours, you can get as a

(30:19):
as a let's see an outside person who's not going
to do a work. In other words, you can get
a structural engineer to assess the problem, explain what the
problem is, and write a solution for you, in which
case you can then go out and contact people that

(30:40):
repair those and you'd have the specifications on how it
should be repaired, not by the people that are going
to repair it.

Speaker 5 (30:49):
Well, you like make some recommendations on people to do that.

Speaker 1 (30:53):
I'm sure he would. I'm sure they would, Yes, yes,
all right?

Speaker 5 (30:57):
And can I ask a quick other question. Sure, into
my house, there's a hole where the air conditioning line runs.
And it's not a perfectly round hole because there's those
electrical lines that move in there, and I guess when
they did that, they put some kind of putty in there.
It's not cock, it's some kind of putty that fills

(31:19):
in around the hole there. I'm not familiar with that putty,
but it's now it's like cracked, you know, and there's like,
like you were saying, I'm afraid critters are going to
get up in there.

Speaker 1 (31:30):
Is this putty rock hard now? Or could you like
put a little indent in with your fingernail.

Speaker 5 (31:37):
Oh it's yeah, it's still it's still flexible, but it's cracked,
you know, and it's it's not as flexible as it
probably used to be. I just don't know what that
stuff is.

Speaker 1 (31:48):
Well, and you said the electrical lines are running through that,
so I'm a little want to be a little cautious here.
This hole is above raid correct, okay, And how what's
the diameter of that about?

Speaker 2 (32:07):
Oh?

Speaker 5 (32:07):
I would say it's probably three four inches, but it's
kind of irregular because, like I said, the air conditioning
line runs through there, and also the electrical lines for.

Speaker 1 (32:20):
The and it's it's it's uh, it's solid though there's
no gaps or anything. I mean it was totally filled.

Speaker 5 (32:29):
Uh, well, there's gaps now because it's kind of dried up.

Speaker 1 (32:33):
Right, But I mean originally it was so they make
a little block. I don't know if it even has
a name, to be honest, I'm sure it does, but
I don't know what the name is. There's a little block.
It's a pliable euthane. It's not a liquid, and but
it's it's kind of like playto okay, yeah, yeah, only

(32:54):
it's like a euthane base. So you would have to
get that, you know, as much out of there as
you could, which might be a challenge too. With drain
lines and electrical lines going through there. That might be
a difficult thing to do. But that pliable mixture literally

(33:16):
is when the drain lines through it and the wires
are through it, you take it, you mold it in
your hand and you literally pack it in and it
dries and stays like a eurothane, stays pliable, but nothing
less forever, right, and eventually, you know, after about fifteen
twenty years, it's going to start drying out. So digging

(33:38):
that out and reapplying that, like I said, it comes
in a little small brick and it's fulfilling holes in
foundations around lines and wires and things like that. Another thing.
Just tossing this out there. There is a rodent proof,
expandable foam now and again that might be an option

(34:02):
of trying to and again I can't see it, but
if there was gaps and pieces missing, maybe putting that
roadent proof expandable foam in there, you might be able
to kind of incorporate both into that opening.

Speaker 5 (34:18):
All right. And the pliable euthane that comes in blocks
and is available at hardware stores, Yes, sir, and it
is called pliable euthane.

Speaker 1 (34:30):
I don't know what it's called. My background was in
the hardware business, and I just remember these books. We
always had them sitting on the counter back in the
service department, back where we fix things. You just roll
it up and put that in. It was even before
the years of expandable foams, but it was. It was

(34:51):
real substantial and it was pliable. I'm sure it was
like a euthane. I don't know if it exactly was
a euthane base, but it sure f felt like, uh,
smelled like and looked like you're thing.

Speaker 5 (35:05):
Okay, all right, Yeah, I'm not familiar with that stuff,
but I'll go to the hardware store and the root
around out there for yeah.

Speaker 1 (35:11):
Yeah, just going their electrical departments. See if they don't
have something like that they they, I'm sure will.

Speaker 5 (35:18):
Okay, all right, all right, appreciate it. Very much.

Speaker 1 (35:21):
All right, thank you for the call. Take care all right.
We got John, Matt, Jerry, Betty and you. If you'd
like to join us, it's eight hundred eight two three
eight two five five your calls. Next, You're at home
with Gary Sullivan.

Speaker 4 (35:35):
Help for your home is just a click away at
Garysullivan online dot com. This is at home with Gary Sullivan.

Speaker 2 (35:58):
Hey, Gary Salvan here for the plumbing pros A Rotor
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(36:21):
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(37:26):
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Speaker 1 (38:27):
All right, back then, if we go at home with
Gary Salvin, it seems like the uh the challenge of
the day is to tighten up our homes. Uh, save energy,
keep critters out, be more comfortable, keep the water out.
That's your number one enemy. And uh we'll continue to
chat about that to a point where you can't take

(38:49):
it anymore.

Speaker 2 (38:50):
Because, uh, it won't be long. We'll start having cool
nights and all the field mice will be looking to
get in your house, and we'll be talking about really
exact in and around doors and garage doors, man doors, windows.
It never ends. Got to keep keep the bad stuff
out for sure, all right. Our phone numbers eight hundred

(39:11):
and eighty two three eight two five five line open
and Betty welcome, Hey Betty, sure we got all day?

Speaker 7 (39:26):
Oh I'm sorry I was multitasking. Thank you, Paul, I
not only find you interesting. I find you entertaining. I'm
not handy Pulton, but okay, this is my question about
insulation in the attic. About thirty years ago we had
insulation blown in. I'm thinking and I probably need to

(39:48):
improve upon.

Speaker 1 (39:49):
That, right, Uh, it could be Yeah, you got to
get somebody up there and measure that. You know, insulation.
All insulation, with the exception of probably foam, does settle
over time, some quicker than others. But even like fiberglass
insulation settles and becomes compact, cellulose kind of breaks down
and settles. So all insulation does need refreshing on occasion,

(40:15):
no time period and the best way to do it.
So I'm gonna guess, Betty you're in Louisville, I'm gonna
guess that Department of Energy probably recommends probably like an
R thirty eight in addicts, and an R thirty eight
is just a measurement of insulation. For every say inch

(40:37):
of fiberglass or cellulose insulation for every inch it equals
about two and a half our value. So if you
go up to an R thirty eight, you can see
you're gonna need I don't know, fifteen sixteen inches somewhere
in that area. Somebody's got to get up there with

(40:57):
the yardstick kind of push it down in the insulation
and see how many inches of insulation you have.

Speaker 7 (41:05):
Okay, now, which it would be better to have some
more blown in are that time that comes in a row.

Speaker 1 (41:13):
Well, you can use either. You can use either the
one thing you got to protect against. And you probably
have a vapor barrier which is plastic or paper at
the bottom of the insulation that's up there already. Um,
and you could kind of fluff it up a little
bit also if it's pretty compact, and at that point

(41:37):
you could just put the batting down or the blown in.
You just don't want to use a secondary vapor barrier,
so you want to not have it paper faced. You
don't want to have it encased in plastic. You just
want the fiberglass batting or blown in fiberglass or cell.

(41:57):
You loose either one you can mix and match.

Speaker 7 (42:00):
Okay, now let me ask you something else. My aunt
has the house that's about seventy five years old, and
I don't know how the glowing in insulation has been there.
But same difference about from our house. Okay, now I
have this question, But insulation in the walls. Someone said,
if you had this foam put in the walls, it

(42:22):
would help insulate your house better. I was thinking more
or less of her house, which is so old. Yeah,
and I think I think she has plastic walls. Have
you ever heard of that?

Speaker 1 (42:37):
Not really.

Speaker 7 (42:39):
What I say, not plastic old gosh.

Speaker 1 (42:42):
Plaster, yes, yeah, plaster, dry walls. Yeah. What you're going
to have to do is, so we didn't start insulating
our walls to like nineteen seventy seven, So and the
foaming insulation that's put in there, probably we didn't start
doing that to the you know, like two thousand or

(43:04):
nineteen ninety five or somewhere in there. So there's a
gap in there sometimes most of the time, but sometimes
in a real older home there's just two or three
rows of brick and there is no gap, and then
there's not much you can do. But in a lot
of cases, even if it's a half inch or an inch,

(43:25):
when you pump that foam insulation in there, it seals
that whole gap up. So you may not have the
best of our values, but what you'll do is you'll
cut out all that draft. It'll make a significant difference.
And the only way you're gonna know what's back there
is get a company out there, they'll drill a hole

(43:46):
from the outside in. They'll see what's you know what
you got back there? Is there a place to pump
the foam in or is there not? And yeah, it
will definitely help. If there's a gap in there, you
can fill for sure.

Speaker 7 (44:04):
Well, my question is what will that do to the
wiring is in there?

Speaker 1 (44:08):
Sit won't do a thing. Won't do a thing. In fact,
if you want to run new wire in, you can
just push the wire right through the phone. But whether
it's wiring or whether it's pipe, no problems at all.
Thank you much for the call. I do appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (44:26):
Let me tell you about my favorite product. I talk
about it almost every week. It's called tair Mender and
on their you can take a look at the video.
They've got it right on the Facebook accountants, or you
can go to their websites termender dot com.

Speaker 1 (44:42):
Repairs, canvas, awnings.

Speaker 2 (44:44):
Tens, carpet, fabric for furniture, even fabric like clothing. I
call it the construction adhesion for fabric. But check it out.
It's a great gotta have product for your home. It's
tamender dot com.

Speaker 1 (44:59):
All right, your calls. Next, we've got Jerry, Matt, Jeff, Cindy.
You can join us. You're at home with Gary Sullivan.

Speaker 4 (45:11):
Help for your home is just a click away at
Garysullivan online dot com. This is at home with Gary Sullivan.

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