July 26, 2025 • 40 mins
Mr all about easy takes your calls, questions and tips.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, the best time of day. I get to say,
welcome now number four and good afternoon. You're at home
with Garry Salvin. Take you through another weekend, getting a
few things done around the home. By the way, this
iur was brought to you by Rhinoshield. Don't paint, don't Finyl,
go Rhino It's Rhinoshield Cincinnati dot com. Rhinoshield never paint
(00:20):
your home again, guaranteed. Go to Rhinoshield, Cincinni dot com.
The estimates, of course they're free, all right. Thanks to
Rhino Shield for sponsoring this hour of our show. If
you'd like to join us, you may do so. It's
eight hundred eight two three eight two five five and
John kick us off this hour.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Welcome Hello Gary. Yes, sir, this is John. I've been
with you for over five years. It's a great program.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
I have I have a four bedroom skier splat and
I had the roof replaced in twenty four years ago.
I'm going to need a new new rough. I got
a couple of drips here and there. I had somebody
come out here and I paid like ninety thousand for
(01:14):
the house. Back in eighty three. I had a fella
come out and give me an estimate, and he wants
like forty thousand dollars for a rough and it's a
single roof. Is that that's almost half what I paid
for the house and the property. Could that be realistic?
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Well, I'll tell you what it. I preach it all
the time, John, and I'll preach it again and again.
Get yourself three estimates, and I'm trying to be It's
so important to do that because there is a couple
of companies out there that like to give really high
(01:59):
estimates real click. Most of that number you just gave
me and give a lot a lot of pressure. They
get in your house and it's like you can't get
rid of them. And I hate that and I hate
to even hear that because the industry itself is not
that bad. There's some there's some there's some great roofers
(02:19):
out there, but if you'll you'll quickly find out there's
variations in price. I had a roof put on like
four years ago. I had three estimates. They were within
it was an expensive roof, it was it was a
steep roof in a bigger size house, and there was
(02:41):
a difference of probably fifteen percent on the quotes, and
I ended up getting the middle one based on you know,
what they were offering. And you know, like in one quote,
the Loews quote didn't have the flashing. They weren't going
to do the flash. And I asked the other people
(03:02):
that we're going to do the flashing, why are you
doing the flashing? The one guy goes, we do flashing
all the time. Not a very good answer, but a
legitimate answer. And the other guy goes, well, you know,
I got pictures where you have holes in your flashing.
I can send those to you. So get three estimates.
I mean, get three estimates. Ask people. I got a
(03:26):
local company that I talk about all the time. It's
not going to do you any good, but it's Brian
Addis roofing in the Cincinnati area, and you know he's
he even he even encourages people to get three estimates
because you got to know what you're buying, and you
got to compare apples and apples. And so even if
(03:49):
you called me and said I had this one quote
and I love it, but gee wasn't going to do that,
do you know why, I'd say three estimates. Man, get
three estimates, and then you can kind of use it
as a format for studying the project and ask the
questions that need to be asked. And so, I don't
know if that's legit, but get two more estimates than
(04:11):
you will.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
I got one question for you. They're pushing fifty year roofs.
You know I'm already seventy seven. You know I'm not
going to be around.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
You probably don't need a fifty year roof. Yeah, yeah,
I mean, I hear you. I mean there's there's roofs
for everybody. I mean there's metal roofs. I'd love to
have a metal roof on my house. I'd love to
have it four years ago. Same way, I'm not going
to be in this particular house for another ten years.
(04:43):
I'm not going to put a fifty thousand or a
fifty year metal roofing. Though I want one really bad.
It will increase the value, but is it really necessary. No,
twenty five thirty year roof is more than fine.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Okay, that's all the questions I have. Thanks for your time.
You bet you and you have a great day.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
You do the same, Thanks, John, take care and boy,
when we talk about that too, we get into the
roof Max the sprays I don't knock that product. I
think the product is worthy of consideration. Is it for everybody?
Speaker 3 (05:22):
No?
Speaker 1 (05:24):
No, If you're going to be in a house for
the next twenty years, thirty years, the rest of your life, whatever,
and you need a you're gonna need a roof in
three or four years, do you really want to spray
a ceiling on there to get another five years? Well
maybe if finances aren't there, if you're gonna move in
(05:47):
a few years, maybe that's a good idea. But that's
not a long term solution. But it serves. It serves
a place. So learning about these things, compare the different quotes,
and what you're going to get and what's it going
to cost, those things all come into play big time,
(06:07):
all right. Our phone numbers eight hundred eight two three
eight two five five. Grab a line. We got Chuck, Chuck, Welcome,
Hi Gary.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
We have a brick patio out of our front door.
It's maybe six by eight or so, and then it
goes onto a brick step and then from the brick
step down onto a cement walkway. This was installed probably
when the house was built in nineteen ninety and the
step had pulled away from the rest of the bricks
(06:38):
and crumbled around a bit and then sort of pulled
off that front part of the patio. We had that
repaired by a mason, so he tore that all out,
rebuilt that first step, and attached it back onto the patio. However,
(06:58):
on the surface of it, I have some hairline cracks
here and there in the gaps and the mortar maybe
that you could kind of cram a playing card into. Okay,
And I'm afraid of water getting down in there in
the winter and freezing and expanding and then cracking apart
the rest of the patio. So what could I do
(07:19):
to fill those hairline cracks. There's a couple actually that
are bricks themselves that have a hairline crack in them.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
Hmm.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
So there is a ceilant for hairline cracks, and these
are cracks that'd be less than like could'd be around
a thirty second to a sixteenth of an inch. It's
made by a company called Chimney r X, and so
they make a lot of chimney restoration or maintenance products
(07:54):
to chimney sweeps and stuff. So it's Chimney RX. The
name of the product is Mortar joint and Crack sealant,
and it's it's the viscosity of milk. In fact, it
looks like milk. It's white. You paint it on and
it dries clear. Okay, So when did you have this
(08:19):
work done? Oh? May Okay. I do think I would
call and just kind of get his take on it. Also,
he may offer the same you know, type product. But
I you know, whenever you're deal with concrete and stuff,
(08:39):
the one thing it's always guaranteed to do is crack
or separate. I just like it. The cracked brick bugs
me a little bit.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
Yeah, the parts he did are not cracked. This is
the rest of the patio because he just did like
I said, there's you step down onto a brick step
and then from that down onto the cement walkway. That
brick step was cracked apart. He took that off and
took the mortar off of it to reuse the bricks
and then reattach that to the front of the other
(09:12):
part of the patio. Or he didn't do anything with
the Yeah, he didn't do anything with the other part
of the surface. And there's only two bricks that have
like a hairline crack in them, And I don't know
if it was some settling that it took place just
over the years.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
It could be some settling, or it could just be
shrinkage of the mortar itself, Okay, which happens during a
drying process at times depends, you know. So it's an
older variety, right, I mean that's older right.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
The whole house was built in nineteen ninety and I'm
guessing the patios put in at the same time. The
bricks matched the house. Essentially it's a brick house, and
so they put this again. It goes to the front door.
There's about a six by eight foot and then there's
the one step of the brick step and then down
to a cement walkway.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Okay, all right, well do this. Go to the website
Chimney RX letter r x RX dot com and it's
called mortar joint crack SELINGT I've used it on a
couple of brick window sills where the same thing happened
at shrinkage between the mortar and the brick. Was a
(10:25):
little concerned about water getting in there and going through
free slall cycles, and I used it probably a couple
times in ten years. Never had any problems associated with
what I was trying to correct. So my assumption is
I corrected it or it was never going to be
a problem.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
Okay, sounds good. Yeah, I'm just concerned because it's a
flat surface. Yeah, and of course you get the water
there that you know sits down in there, and then
we have freezing thaws throughout the winter.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
So yeah, a lot of these pieces have videos on it.
I'm sure there'll be some additional information and you'll find helpful. Okay,
all right, thank you, Garry, very good, thank you. Take care.
All right, Well, take a break, and I invite you in.
We've got forty five minutes that we're going to talk
about home maintenance and repair. And I invite you in.
(11:16):
Our phone number is eight hundred eight two three eight
two five five. Tom, you'll be up first, and your
calls are welcome, and Danny's ready to take your call.
And you're at home with Gary salvn right here in
fifty five care see the talk station by the way.
You're at home with Gary Salvin. A local line is available.
It's seven fifty five hundred. Those are wide open, seven
(11:38):
fifty five hundred, and let's go to Tom. Tom. Welcome well, Gary, Yes, sir, A.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Lot of talk has been about humidity coming in people's
homes through a wall outlets. Well, the biggest areas are
of the still plate cavity down in the basement right
and all around the floor, or the warm eats the ceiling,
because that's why your carpet gets so dirty. Yeah, down
the wall insultration.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
But yeah, so taking that a step further, a lot
of people, you know, in a lot of rooms in
our homes, we're changing out carpets. And whether you're changing
out carpet to carpet or charp it carpet to an LVT,
it really leads you an opportunity. It takes some silknized
(12:28):
curly cocking and calking that underneath that base board. Once
you pull that carpet up, run a beat of calking
in there and stop that draft. And also, as Tom said,
the sil plates. Those that's getting a lot of attention
right now, Tom, because a lot of remodelers are home builders.
(12:48):
When they're when they're finishing up the job, they'll just
take some batting insulation, they'll roll it up and they'll
just stuff it back in that that choyce cavity. And
you know they used fiberglass for furnace filters too, so
we know allows air going through it. And a lot
(13:09):
of your foam companies now are offering that where they'll
come in and foam those choice pockets. And I think
the return on that investment would be pretty good.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
Yeah, that's wide open to your house and in the
winter time too cold air coming down to these airs.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Sure is. Yeah, very good, very good. Thanks, take care
bye bye. Yeah, those are two areas that we haven't
talked about that for a long time, and that is
he said it, he goes, that's where your carpet gets started.
You do you have that problem in your home, and
you you will, especially if we have a higher pile carpeting,
(13:51):
and especially if it's in white or beige or real
light gray, and where it butts up to the base board,
probably no quarter around there. You got the tax strip
right in front of the base board and there's air
filtration going on there. That's what I was talking about. It.
Next time, you replace the carpet API and the tax
(14:12):
drip and put a beat of clocking in there and
stop that draft. Even though you have insulation in your walls,
there'll be a draft there. And basically if you do
have carpet. You got a little black line that goes
around the perimeter of the room. Your carpet's basically working
(14:33):
like a filter and the errors coming in and over
the years, that filter, that fiber, that material is cleaning
the air and you get this black line. So keep
that in mind. There's a couple things whenever you're doing
flooring I'd recommend for you to do, and that is
(14:57):
to check this see if the floor is properly In
other word, do you have any squeaks, any soft spots
in the floor. And if you're contracting with somebody to
install the carpeting or install the floor, and use that
as maybe an extra and yeah, might cost you a
(15:20):
little extra. Get a couple of quotes and add that.
You know, like okay, a lot of times when those
sub floors are nailed down, sometimes they're always say glued
and screwed, but a lot of them are just nailed.
There's no glue, they just nail. They miss the joys
and you get squeaked. And even when you screw the
(15:48):
sub floor down onto the joys, you'll miss some. But
have it nailed, have it tightened up, examined it for
squeaks that would be one, and then the bead of
cawkings certainly be the other. Those are two out of sight,
out of mine areas and potential problems bots, but it
(16:10):
can make it can make a difference. Is certainly getting
rid of the squeaks makes a difference. If you got
only half the nails going into the joist and you
get you know, we're talking about humidity in the summer.
You got fifty five percent humidity in your house in
the winentertain you got thirty percent humidity in the house.
That that expansion contraction of that wood is gonna make
it squeak if it's not properly fastened, no question about it.
(16:34):
So that annoyance would be gone. And then minimizes the
air filtration by adding some nails or screwing down that
subfloor make a big difference. Also, especially if there's carpet
well either or makes a big difference. But those are
(16:55):
a couple of things I would certainly recommend that you
do all right. Again, as I said, our phone number
is eight hundred eight two three eight two five five.
I've also, over the years have always talked about garage
door failures. Maintenance has been withheld and the door fails
(17:25):
when usually on the most extreme weather days. So if
you get days where it's about one hundred, or you
get days where it's like zero, that's very You get
a lot expansion, contraction and movement on doors. You got
the metal rollers, you got the metal hinges, you got
(17:45):
the metal cable, you may have the metal springs. I mean,
you got a lock going on on doors, the largest
movable object in the whole house. And it's not like
you've got to do it every month, but I think
you could give it a little bit of attention two
times a year, maybe right now, if it's been a while,
(18:12):
I'd certainly encourage you to do that. And the other
time would be to do it right before wintertime, so
you can get a blaster garage door lubricant and you
can do the tracks, the wheels, the hinges and the
(18:34):
big spring. All right, Our phone numbers eight hundred eight
two three eight two five five. Grab a line. We'll
take a break and come back. Get some more questions answered.
You're at home with Gary Sullivan. All right. One of
the subjects that we've spent a little bit of time
today is on condensation and temperature swings. One of the
(18:54):
things I mentioned it is casually, but I kind of
want to circle back, and I see this in a
number of houses. Remember the lady that was talking about
the the dryer, and she was saying the smells that
the I guess the area where the dryer was was
a separate room. It was a communal room with the
(19:20):
washer and dryer in it, and that smell, that stagnant,
you know, stuffy smell, was entering her condo at some
At the beginning of the show today, I was just
talking different things. To really watch the humidity level in
your home, especially when it's very human and hot outside
(19:43):
and people coming in and out of your house and
allowing that humidity to come in, and a source of
that could possibly be, uh, your the mud room, the
washer and dryer area where that dryer is not the
vent is not attached to the dryer properly. You can
(20:08):
sometimes smell that when you go into people's homes, and
especially when it's hot and you're trying to run the
air conditioning and you're trying to kind of keep that
humidity at a good number, you know, fifty to fifty
five percent, and so that hot moist air that you're
(20:29):
evacuating out of that dryer to outside the house. You
want to make sure it's getting outside the house. I
weep when I see these devices that say, hey, you're
just letting that warm air go outside. You could use
that to heat the washroom. No, no, no, it's very
(20:51):
warm and it's very wet. You don't want to vent
that dryer inside your house. Ever, you'll see water running
down the walls. Ever, the same holds true if that
dryer vent gets clogged, if that UM pipe is not
(21:15):
connected at the joints with the elbow or to the
dryer itself, if that's not a really tight connection, you're
gonna smell that and you're gonna have a humidity issue.
So that's something to check. And after you check it,
(21:39):
um I would take your connection, especially if you got
you know, aluminum pipe to aluminum pipe, maybe going up
a wall before it exits or something like that. That
joint you don't use duct tape on that, but you
can use aluminum tape. An aluminum tape has a very
(22:00):
very sticky adhesive. It's very very appliable. It's almost like
it's almost like Reynolds wrap with an adhesive and it's
you know two inches wide. You can take that joint.
You can minimize a lot of humidity, which can be
a foe in the wintertime if there's too much, and
(22:21):
it can be certainly a foe in the summertime, making
it uncomfortable and sometimes smelly. The other area is to
run that fan in the bathroom when you're showering, and
run that thing for a half hour afterwards. And if
you're thinking about replacing, in other words, the fan blade,
(22:44):
you know it makes all this noise, let's get let's
you know, the fan shot, and you're thinking about replacing it.
Check out some of the newer ventilation fans. They actually
have a humidistat in the fans where they can monitor
the humidity level inside the room and you can set
(23:07):
that gauge it i don't know, say fifty five percent.
When it gets to that point, the fan shuts itself off.
That's a good investment. You could also if you don't
want to do that, because nobody's going to take a
shower and then stand around for a half hour and
wait for permission and turn off the fan. That doesn't happen.
(23:32):
So the other option is to put in a timer
instead of a switch. So you you know, you can
crank it on forty five minutes, you got fifteen minutes
to shower and thirty minute running afterwards. That evacuates most
of it. So that's something if your fan is, you know,
on its way out, that's something I would certainly consider. Also,
(23:55):
take a look into bathrooms. We've had this call a
couple times. Running a lot of hot showers and not
running that fan will create moisture on the walls. And
paints have what they call surfactants in it, and it's
a soap material, and that soap material actually dries in
(24:18):
the paint, and if you get a lot of really hot,
steamy water or mist on the walls, that surfactant will
mix with that water and it'll leach down the wall
and you'll see. So if you're in a bathroom and
(24:39):
you see some streaks where it looks like a droplet
of water had run down the wall, and then at
the end of that street there's a little brown dot,
that's the surfactants. It's picking up the surfactants out of
that paint, and maybe you're experiencing this. So that's why
I wonder bring it up. You can get some like
(25:03):
tri sodium phosphate and water, and you can get the
rinse free variety and it's a powder. You mix it
with water and you just wipe down that wall with that.
You will then remove the surface surfactants and you'll eliminate
that particular problem. And there is a I don't have
(25:25):
the exact name of it, but I know Ben Moore
now has a paint that is guaranteed not to let
those I think it's called Aura, but I might be
wrong not have those water droplets form. So they've done
(25:45):
something with the surfactans in that. And that's again, if
you've got an unventilated bathroom, maybe maybe there's no way
to ventilate. Maybe it's an older home. That might be
something you also want to look into. There's so many
really cool different types of paints out now, paints that
don't need primers, paints that have radiant barriers built into them,
(26:08):
almost like ceramic coatings. I mean, there's a lot of
different niche type paint products out there, and that's one
of them. That's one of them, So that's worth really
delving into, and you know, making that adjustment. Also, one
(26:28):
of the things we talk about air infiltration in air
warm human air, which is kind of what we're battling
right now. We didn't talk about this, but it's also
a key component of allowing not only air in your home,
but unwanted water in your home. Moisture is the outside
(26:53):
around windows. The calocking is the calking missing, Is it cracked?
Is the mortar missing or cracked? There's a lot of
new type products on that too, where you're not really
working is hard, especially on cracked mortar. There is some
(27:16):
pretty good quality mortar patches now in cooking tubes which
has doesn't bleach out quite as white as the old
stuff did. That works pretty well, But the need to
have calking around the windows is key, and I know
people put that off and don't because it's an entry
(27:38):
point for water which can produce wood rot inside the walls,
and you know, there's your things. There's acrylic silkonized calkings,
which is the easiest of the calkings to use for
the standard non professional that's going to be applying it.
(28:00):
Your thinge is paintable, so is the siliconized acrylic that's
paintable also, But the ease of laying a bead down
with either one of those products is definitely the acrylic.
Silkinized cack is easier. Your thane's probably got a little
better adhesion, a little better flexibility. Good for mixed substrates.
(28:24):
But if you're looking if this is something you're gonna
do once every ten years, I don't you know whether
you had mixed substrates or not. I'd definitely use the
silkinized acrylic. You're gonna find you're gonna be able to
do a much much better job. I also mentioned I
kind of hate to bring this up in the summertime,
but I will when I was talking about air infiltration
(28:50):
again because it's hot, it's so humid. Talk about in
a winter time. Don't really talk about using this in
the summertime. But if you're halfway into the summer and
you're probably not going to have depending on where you live,
of course, but if you're not going to open up
your windows for a while, you can use those weather
(29:12):
stripping kits that are very clear plastic and put them
over the winter. In the summer, there's also clocking that
you can calk your windows closed. I talk about it
a lot in the wintertime, not so much in the summer.
But there's nothing that says you can't use it in
the summertime too. Even your entryway into your attic, if
(29:37):
you've got a piece of plywood that you move over,
those aren't exactly weather tight, and so if you go
maybe you got one in a closet or at the
top of the stairs, or you know, in between the
bedrooms upstairs. If you feel heat coming from that attic
down around that removable piece of wood that will allows
(30:00):
you to climb into the attic, you might consider making
that a little more weather tight. And you can do
it pretty easily. There is a foam weather stripping. I'm
gonna say it's an inch wide, maybe three ace of
an inch thick, so not very thick, and you put
(30:24):
it around the perimeter that piece of plywood is usually
what it is, and the sponge end is showing the
adhesives on the plywood, and it'll rest on that ledge
and that foam. That foam weather stripping will really help
(30:44):
with the draft coming from the attic down. And I
know that's one of the things we struggle with this
time of year, especially in you know, I call it
the Cincinnati two story. You know, you got the first floor,
you got the second floor, and you got the attic
and you know, the back of the ceiling is like
the attic floor, and there's insulation up there. We talked
(31:08):
about making sure you have the proper you know, our
value up there sixteen eighteen inches here in the Cincinnati area,
fiberglass and cellul it's blown in. And if you don't
have the ventilation to move the hot air out. You
got the hot air in there, and you got insulation
(31:30):
on the floor, you're still not out of the woods.
You got can lights and different things. This controlling. I mean,
it's like an oven on the other side of that ceiling.
So adding additional insulation is great. And running the ceiling
fans if you don't have ceiling fans upstairs, that's again
(31:55):
a good energy saver because it creates that that breeze
and in the summertime they go counterclockwise, it creates a
little wind chill. With this discussion, the other day, we
had a ceiling fan out on a porch and I
don't know, we're looking at that thing and you see
(32:15):
it going and one person's going, that's going clockwise, the
other but no, no, that's going counterclockwise. You want it?
And I said, all right, And this conversation. If you
stand underneath the ceiling fan and it's the summertime, you
should feel that ceiling fan blowing the wind on you
(32:36):
because it's to push the it's to create a wind
chill if you will onto you. If it's going for
the winter, you should be able to stand on there
and never feel breeze because it's pulling a column of
air up around the walls, is putting it down onto
the floor. So the direction of summertime counterclockwise. All right,
(33:00):
our phone numbers eight hundred eight two three eight two
five five and gravel line. We'll wrap things up in
about ten minutes, and you're at home with Gary Salivan
right here on fifty five. Care see the talk station. Well,
chasing water again, that's what we do a lot on
this show, and this time it's water we can't really
see because we've had a lot of calls on the
(33:22):
condensation questions. And you know, another thing is if you're
living in a home and you have a cross space
and a basement that's a source of a lot of moisture.
We can't see water vapor. We do talk about this
a lot, but since we're talking about humidity levels and
(33:44):
controlling that in our homes, it probably pays to talk
a little bit about the basement areas and even the
outside areas. I'm talking a lot about grating. You know,
if your yard slow right to your foundation, that's an
entry point in a lot of cases for water build
(34:06):
up where water can become a problem and get into
your home, which is certainly going to add humidity. But
if that water just doesn't have a path of least
resistance going into your home, maybe there's some proper grading
and stuff where it flows away from the home, but
(34:28):
it stays wet around that area that's still as it
sits up against the foundation. You know that water vapor
will penetrate through concrete, and adding a barrier to that
concrete to minimize water vapor penetration. And I think it's
(34:50):
was like five to eight gallons of water per twelve
hours can come through a basement wall. You'll never see
it here. Back in the day, uh And I don't know,
maybe thirty forty years ago, if you build a family
room or a theater room in a basement, they'd put
(35:10):
the studs up, they put the insulation in, they wrap
it with plastic. I remember thinking about that that can't
be right. Well, we found out it wasn't right. It
trapped that moist air in the insulation, which began the mildew.
(35:32):
So the question really is if you're going to do
that now, everybody's looking for more room in their home.
Maybe you have an unfinished basement and you're thinking about
finishing it. Maybe put a gym in, or you know,
I don't know, theater room or office or whatever. Do
(35:53):
not wrap that wall in plastic. The thought now is
that moisture is going to come through the wall. Let
let it in or stop it before it gets in.
And I'll talk about that in a second. So let
it in means if you put insulation, you build a
(36:14):
studed wall and you put insulation in there, don't put
a vapor barrier on it. Let the water come through.
Let the water vapor come through. Okay, we'll control it
once it gets in the environment in the cross base
or in the basement, and we'll do that by using
a deumidifier pulling the humidity out, or like an easy
(36:40):
breathe where we're venting it moving air, pulling the wet
air out, or seal up that wall the best you can.
And that's a possibility. You can seal that with a
product like dry lock. It's a waterproofing cement based synthetic
(37:06):
rubber based paint get about one hundred square feet to
a gallon, eliminates water vapor. It can actually stop water
that's weeping through a block wall. I said, weeping, not rushing,
holds back about ten pounds of water pressure per square inch.
(37:28):
So if you're fighting the endless battle of humidity, those
are two good ways to do it. You know, let's
stop the water vapor from getting into the house to
the basement, through the walls, through the floors, through the
joist pockets. Or if we're creating water vapor inside the
(37:51):
house plants, aquarium, showers, cooking dryers, let's evacuate that air
out with fans, bathroom fans, the hood over the stove,
the cooking fans, it's pulling air out. Tightening up the
(38:14):
vents on the dryer, that's pulling air out. So we
can still always address the outdoor issue. But you know,
really controlling all these things really the key. Also, any
type of leak that you've been ignoring, shame on you,
(38:38):
because you know, leaky flashings, shingles that have cracks and
allows rain or water to infiltrate into the attic. Again,
we started to show off today being you know that
cross space in that attic, those are two areas that
are out of sight, out of mind, and they trap moisture.
(39:00):
I mean, you just think about that. Think about in
that attic with insulation, if water gets in there because
of poor ventilation, it's that water is not going anywhere.
It's just gonna mold and be a mess. And if
you've got crack shingles and you know, leaky flashings, you
(39:23):
gotta you gotta get you gotta get a plan. You
gotta get that fixed, and then you're probably gonna want
to get that insulation out of there or you're just
gonna have endless problems. You're gonna have a big old
mold problem. So really paying attention, that's the key. And
if you if you ever want to know if you're
having a water infiltration through like a concrete floor in
(39:46):
a basement or a cross s base, there's a simple
way to do it. You can get some four mil
plastic that's not real thin, but four mel plastic and
about eighteen inches by eighteen inches, use some duct tape
and tape a patch of add on the floor or
on the wall, whatever, and give it a day or
two and see if you get water droplets inside that
(40:08):
plastic and that's probably just the water vapor coming in
creating condensation, and then you can use your dry lock
on top of that. Danny boy, it's been a busy,
busy day. We talked about a lot of things. Thank
you very much for your efforts today. I certainly appreciate it.
Good Lord Willing. We'll be back tomorrow for more At
Home with Gary Sullivan
Well, the best time of day. I get to say,
welcome now number four and good afternoon. You're at home
with Garry Salvin. Take you through another weekend, getting a
few things done around the home. By the way, this
iur was brought to you by Rhinoshield. Don't paint, don't Finyl,
go Rhino It's Rhinoshield Cincinnati dot com. Rhinoshield never paint
(00:20):
your home again, guaranteed. Go to Rhinoshield, Cincinni dot com.
The estimates, of course they're free, all right. Thanks to
Rhino Shield for sponsoring this hour of our show. If
you'd like to join us, you may do so. It's
eight hundred eight two three eight two five five and
John kick us off this hour.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Welcome Hello Gary. Yes, sir, this is John. I've been
with you for over five years. It's a great program.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
I have I have a four bedroom skier splat and
I had the roof replaced in twenty four years ago.
I'm going to need a new new rough. I got
a couple of drips here and there. I had somebody
come out here and I paid like ninety thousand for
(01:14):
the house. Back in eighty three. I had a fella
come out and give me an estimate, and he wants
like forty thousand dollars for a rough and it's a
single roof. Is that that's almost half what I paid
for the house and the property. Could that be realistic?
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Well, I'll tell you what it. I preach it all
the time, John, and I'll preach it again and again.
Get yourself three estimates, and I'm trying to be It's
so important to do that because there is a couple
of companies out there that like to give really high
(01:59):
estimates real click. Most of that number you just gave
me and give a lot a lot of pressure. They
get in your house and it's like you can't get
rid of them. And I hate that and I hate
to even hear that because the industry itself is not
that bad. There's some there's some there's some great roofers
(02:19):
out there, but if you'll you'll quickly find out there's
variations in price. I had a roof put on like
four years ago. I had three estimates. They were within
it was an expensive roof, it was it was a
steep roof in a bigger size house, and there was
(02:41):
a difference of probably fifteen percent on the quotes, and
I ended up getting the middle one based on you know,
what they were offering. And you know, like in one quote,
the Loews quote didn't have the flashing. They weren't going
to do the flash. And I asked the other people
(03:02):
that we're going to do the flashing, why are you
doing the flashing? The one guy goes, we do flashing
all the time. Not a very good answer, but a
legitimate answer. And the other guy goes, well, you know,
I got pictures where you have holes in your flashing.
I can send those to you. So get three estimates.
I mean, get three estimates. Ask people. I got a
(03:26):
local company that I talk about all the time. It's
not going to do you any good, but it's Brian
Addis roofing in the Cincinnati area, and you know he's
he even he even encourages people to get three estimates
because you got to know what you're buying, and you
got to compare apples and apples. And so even if
(03:49):
you called me and said I had this one quote
and I love it, but gee wasn't going to do that,
do you know why, I'd say three estimates. Man, get
three estimates, and then you can kind of use it
as a format for studying the project and ask the
questions that need to be asked. And so, I don't
know if that's legit, but get two more estimates than
(04:11):
you will.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
I got one question for you. They're pushing fifty year roofs.
You know I'm already seventy seven. You know I'm not
going to be around.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
You probably don't need a fifty year roof. Yeah, yeah,
I mean, I hear you. I mean there's there's roofs
for everybody. I mean there's metal roofs. I'd love to
have a metal roof on my house. I'd love to
have it four years ago. Same way, I'm not going
to be in this particular house for another ten years.
(04:43):
I'm not going to put a fifty thousand or a
fifty year metal roofing. Though I want one really bad.
It will increase the value, but is it really necessary. No,
twenty five thirty year roof is more than fine.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Okay, that's all the questions I have. Thanks for your time.
You bet you and you have a great day.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
You do the same, Thanks, John, take care and boy,
when we talk about that too, we get into the
roof Max the sprays I don't knock that product. I
think the product is worthy of consideration. Is it for everybody?
Speaker 3 (05:22):
No?
Speaker 1 (05:24):
No, If you're going to be in a house for
the next twenty years, thirty years, the rest of your life, whatever,
and you need a you're gonna need a roof in
three or four years, do you really want to spray
a ceiling on there to get another five years? Well
maybe if finances aren't there, if you're gonna move in
(05:47):
a few years, maybe that's a good idea. But that's
not a long term solution. But it serves. It serves
a place. So learning about these things, compare the different quotes,
and what you're going to get and what's it going
to cost, those things all come into play big time,
(06:07):
all right. Our phone numbers eight hundred eight two three
eight two five five. Grab a line. We got Chuck, Chuck, Welcome,
Hi Gary.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
We have a brick patio out of our front door.
It's maybe six by eight or so, and then it
goes onto a brick step and then from the brick
step down onto a cement walkway. This was installed probably
when the house was built in nineteen ninety and the
step had pulled away from the rest of the bricks
(06:38):
and crumbled around a bit and then sort of pulled
off that front part of the patio. We had that
repaired by a mason, so he tore that all out,
rebuilt that first step, and attached it back onto the patio. However,
(06:58):
on the surface of it, I have some hairline cracks
here and there in the gaps and the mortar maybe
that you could kind of cram a playing card into. Okay,
And I'm afraid of water getting down in there in
the winter and freezing and expanding and then cracking apart
the rest of the patio. So what could I do
(07:19):
to fill those hairline cracks. There's a couple actually that
are bricks themselves that have a hairline crack in them.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
Hmm.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
So there is a ceilant for hairline cracks, and these
are cracks that'd be less than like could'd be around
a thirty second to a sixteenth of an inch. It's
made by a company called Chimney r X, and so
they make a lot of chimney restoration or maintenance products
(07:54):
to chimney sweeps and stuff. So it's Chimney RX. The
name of the product is Mortar joint and Crack sealant,
and it's it's the viscosity of milk. In fact, it
looks like milk. It's white. You paint it on and
it dries clear. Okay, So when did you have this
(08:19):
work done? Oh? May Okay. I do think I would
call and just kind of get his take on it. Also,
he may offer the same you know, type product. But
I you know, whenever you're deal with concrete and stuff,
(08:39):
the one thing it's always guaranteed to do is crack
or separate. I just like it. The cracked brick bugs
me a little bit.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
Yeah, the parts he did are not cracked. This is
the rest of the patio because he just did like
I said, there's you step down onto a brick step
and then from that down onto the cement walkway. That
brick step was cracked apart. He took that off and
took the mortar off of it to reuse the bricks
and then reattach that to the front of the other
(09:12):
part of the patio. Or he didn't do anything with
the Yeah, he didn't do anything with the other part
of the surface. And there's only two bricks that have
like a hairline crack in them, And I don't know
if it was some settling that it took place just
over the years.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
It could be some settling, or it could just be
shrinkage of the mortar itself, Okay, which happens during a
drying process at times depends, you know. So it's an
older variety, right, I mean that's older right.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
The whole house was built in nineteen ninety and I'm
guessing the patios put in at the same time. The
bricks matched the house. Essentially it's a brick house, and
so they put this again. It goes to the front door.
There's about a six by eight foot and then there's
the one step of the brick step and then down
to a cement walkway.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Okay, all right, well do this. Go to the website
Chimney RX letter r x RX dot com and it's
called mortar joint crack SELINGT I've used it on a
couple of brick window sills where the same thing happened
at shrinkage between the mortar and the brick. Was a
(10:25):
little concerned about water getting in there and going through
free slall cycles, and I used it probably a couple
times in ten years. Never had any problems associated with
what I was trying to correct. So my assumption is
I corrected it or it was never going to be
a problem.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
Okay, sounds good. Yeah, I'm just concerned because it's a
flat surface. Yeah, and of course you get the water
there that you know sits down in there, and then
we have freezing thaws throughout the winter.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
So yeah, a lot of these pieces have videos on it.
I'm sure there'll be some additional information and you'll find helpful. Okay,
all right, thank you, Garry, very good, thank you. Take care.
All right, Well, take a break, and I invite you in.
We've got forty five minutes that we're going to talk
about home maintenance and repair. And I invite you in.
(11:16):
Our phone number is eight hundred eight two three eight
two five five. Tom, you'll be up first, and your
calls are welcome, and Danny's ready to take your call.
And you're at home with Gary salvn right here in
fifty five care see the talk station by the way.
You're at home with Gary Salvin. A local line is available.
It's seven fifty five hundred. Those are wide open, seven
(11:38):
fifty five hundred, and let's go to Tom. Tom. Welcome well, Gary, Yes, sir, A.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Lot of talk has been about humidity coming in people's
homes through a wall outlets. Well, the biggest areas are
of the still plate cavity down in the basement right
and all around the floor, or the warm eats the ceiling,
because that's why your carpet gets so dirty. Yeah, down
the wall insultration.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
But yeah, so taking that a step further, a lot
of people, you know, in a lot of rooms in
our homes, we're changing out carpets. And whether you're changing
out carpet to carpet or charp it carpet to an LVT,
it really leads you an opportunity. It takes some silknized
(12:28):
curly cocking and calking that underneath that base board. Once
you pull that carpet up, run a beat of calking
in there and stop that draft. And also, as Tom said,
the sil plates. Those that's getting a lot of attention
right now, Tom, because a lot of remodelers are home builders.
(12:48):
When they're when they're finishing up the job, they'll just
take some batting insulation, they'll roll it up and they'll
just stuff it back in that that choyce cavity. And
you know they used fiberglass for furnace filters too, so
we know allows air going through it. And a lot
(13:09):
of your foam companies now are offering that where they'll
come in and foam those choice pockets. And I think
the return on that investment would be pretty good.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
Yeah, that's wide open to your house and in the
winter time too cold air coming down to these airs.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Sure is. Yeah, very good, very good. Thanks, take care
bye bye. Yeah, those are two areas that we haven't
talked about that for a long time, and that is
he said it, he goes, that's where your carpet gets started.
You do you have that problem in your home, and
you you will, especially if we have a higher pile carpeting,
(13:51):
and especially if it's in white or beige or real
light gray, and where it butts up to the base board,
probably no quarter around there. You got the tax strip
right in front of the base board and there's air
filtration going on there. That's what I was talking about. It.
Next time, you replace the carpet API and the tax
(14:12):
drip and put a beat of clocking in there and
stop that draft. Even though you have insulation in your walls,
there'll be a draft there. And basically if you do
have carpet. You got a little black line that goes
around the perimeter of the room. Your carpet's basically working
(14:33):
like a filter and the errors coming in and over
the years, that filter, that fiber, that material is cleaning
the air and you get this black line. So keep
that in mind. There's a couple things whenever you're doing
flooring I'd recommend for you to do, and that is
(14:57):
to check this see if the floor is properly In
other word, do you have any squeaks, any soft spots
in the floor. And if you're contracting with somebody to
install the carpeting or install the floor, and use that
as maybe an extra and yeah, might cost you a
(15:20):
little extra. Get a couple of quotes and add that.
You know, like okay, a lot of times when those
sub floors are nailed down, sometimes they're always say glued
and screwed, but a lot of them are just nailed.
There's no glue, they just nail. They miss the joys
and you get squeaked. And even when you screw the
(15:48):
sub floor down onto the joys, you'll miss some. But
have it nailed, have it tightened up, examined it for
squeaks that would be one, and then the bead of
cawkings certainly be the other. Those are two out of sight,
out of mine areas and potential problems bots, but it
(16:10):
can make it can make a difference. Is certainly getting
rid of the squeaks makes a difference. If you got
only half the nails going into the joist and you
get you know, we're talking about humidity in the summer.
You got fifty five percent humidity in your house in
the winentertain you got thirty percent humidity in the house.
That that expansion contraction of that wood is gonna make
it squeak if it's not properly fastened, no question about it.
(16:34):
So that annoyance would be gone. And then minimizes the
air filtration by adding some nails or screwing down that
subfloor make a big difference. Also, especially if there's carpet
well either or makes a big difference. But those are
(16:55):
a couple of things I would certainly recommend that you
do all right. Again, as I said, our phone number
is eight hundred eight two three eight two five five.
I've also, over the years have always talked about garage
door failures. Maintenance has been withheld and the door fails
(17:25):
when usually on the most extreme weather days. So if
you get days where it's about one hundred, or you
get days where it's like zero, that's very You get
a lot expansion, contraction and movement on doors. You got
the metal rollers, you got the metal hinges, you got
(17:45):
the metal cable, you may have the metal springs. I mean,
you got a lock going on on doors, the largest
movable object in the whole house. And it's not like
you've got to do it every month, but I think
you could give it a little bit of attention two
times a year, maybe right now, if it's been a while,
(18:12):
I'd certainly encourage you to do that. And the other
time would be to do it right before wintertime, so
you can get a blaster garage door lubricant and you
can do the tracks, the wheels, the hinges and the
(18:34):
big spring. All right, Our phone numbers eight hundred eight
two three eight two five five. Grab a line. We'll
take a break and come back. Get some more questions answered.
You're at home with Gary Sullivan. All right. One of
the subjects that we've spent a little bit of time
today is on condensation and temperature swings. One of the
(18:54):
things I mentioned it is casually, but I kind of
want to circle back, and I see this in a
number of houses. Remember the lady that was talking about
the the dryer, and she was saying the smells that
the I guess the area where the dryer was was
a separate room. It was a communal room with the
(19:20):
washer and dryer in it, and that smell, that stagnant,
you know, stuffy smell, was entering her condo at some
At the beginning of the show today, I was just
talking different things. To really watch the humidity level in
your home, especially when it's very human and hot outside
(19:43):
and people coming in and out of your house and
allowing that humidity to come in, and a source of
that could possibly be, uh, your the mud room, the
washer and dryer area where that dryer is not the
vent is not attached to the dryer properly. You can
(20:08):
sometimes smell that when you go into people's homes, and
especially when it's hot and you're trying to run the
air conditioning and you're trying to kind of keep that
humidity at a good number, you know, fifty to fifty
five percent, and so that hot moist air that you're
(20:29):
evacuating out of that dryer to outside the house. You
want to make sure it's getting outside the house. I
weep when I see these devices that say, hey, you're
just letting that warm air go outside. You could use
that to heat the washroom. No, no, no, it's very
(20:51):
warm and it's very wet. You don't want to vent
that dryer inside your house. Ever, you'll see water running
down the walls. Ever, the same holds true if that
dryer vent gets clogged, if that UM pipe is not
(21:15):
connected at the joints with the elbow or to the
dryer itself, if that's not a really tight connection, you're
gonna smell that and you're gonna have a humidity issue.
So that's something to check. And after you check it,
(21:39):
um I would take your connection, especially if you got
you know, aluminum pipe to aluminum pipe, maybe going up
a wall before it exits or something like that. That
joint you don't use duct tape on that, but you
can use aluminum tape. An aluminum tape has a very
(22:00):
very sticky adhesive. It's very very appliable. It's almost like
it's almost like Reynolds wrap with an adhesive and it's
you know two inches wide. You can take that joint.
You can minimize a lot of humidity, which can be
a foe in the wintertime if there's too much, and
(22:21):
it can be certainly a foe in the summertime, making
it uncomfortable and sometimes smelly. The other area is to
run that fan in the bathroom when you're showering, and
run that thing for a half hour afterwards. And if
you're thinking about replacing, in other words, the fan blade,
(22:44):
you know it makes all this noise, let's get let's
you know, the fan shot, and you're thinking about replacing it.
Check out some of the newer ventilation fans. They actually
have a humidistat in the fans where they can monitor
the humidity level inside the room and you can set
(23:07):
that gauge it i don't know, say fifty five percent.
When it gets to that point, the fan shuts itself off.
That's a good investment. You could also if you don't
want to do that, because nobody's going to take a
shower and then stand around for a half hour and
wait for permission and turn off the fan. That doesn't happen.
(23:32):
So the other option is to put in a timer
instead of a switch. So you you know, you can
crank it on forty five minutes, you got fifteen minutes
to shower and thirty minute running afterwards. That evacuates most
of it. So that's something if your fan is, you know,
on its way out, that's something I would certainly consider. Also,
(23:55):
take a look into bathrooms. We've had this call a
couple times. Running a lot of hot showers and not
running that fan will create moisture on the walls. And
paints have what they call surfactants in it, and it's
a soap material, and that soap material actually dries in
(24:18):
the paint, and if you get a lot of really hot,
steamy water or mist on the walls, that surfactant will
mix with that water and it'll leach down the wall
and you'll see. So if you're in a bathroom and
(24:39):
you see some streaks where it looks like a droplet
of water had run down the wall, and then at
the end of that street there's a little brown dot,
that's the surfactants. It's picking up the surfactants out of
that paint, and maybe you're experiencing this. So that's why
I wonder bring it up. You can get some like
(25:03):
tri sodium phosphate and water, and you can get the
rinse free variety and it's a powder. You mix it
with water and you just wipe down that wall with that.
You will then remove the surface surfactants and you'll eliminate
that particular problem. And there is a I don't have
(25:25):
the exact name of it, but I know Ben Moore
now has a paint that is guaranteed not to let
those I think it's called Aura, but I might be
wrong not have those water droplets form. So they've done
(25:45):
something with the surfactans in that. And that's again, if
you've got an unventilated bathroom, maybe maybe there's no way
to ventilate. Maybe it's an older home. That might be
something you also want to look into. There's so many
really cool different types of paints out now, paints that
don't need primers, paints that have radiant barriers built into them,
(26:08):
almost like ceramic coatings. I mean, there's a lot of
different niche type paint products out there, and that's one
of them. That's one of them, So that's worth really
delving into, and you know, making that adjustment. Also, one
(26:28):
of the things we talk about air infiltration in air
warm human air, which is kind of what we're battling
right now. We didn't talk about this, but it's also
a key component of allowing not only air in your home,
but unwanted water in your home. Moisture is the outside
(26:53):
around windows. The calocking is the calking missing, Is it cracked?
Is the mortar missing or cracked? There's a lot of
new type products on that too, where you're not really
working is hard, especially on cracked mortar. There is some
(27:16):
pretty good quality mortar patches now in cooking tubes which
has doesn't bleach out quite as white as the old
stuff did. That works pretty well, But the need to
have calking around the windows is key, and I know
people put that off and don't because it's an entry
(27:38):
point for water which can produce wood rot inside the walls,
and you know, there's your things. There's acrylic silkonized calkings,
which is the easiest of the calkings to use for
the standard non professional that's going to be applying it.
(28:00):
Your thinge is paintable, so is the siliconized acrylic that's
paintable also, But the ease of laying a bead down
with either one of those products is definitely the acrylic.
Silkinized cack is easier. Your thane's probably got a little
better adhesion, a little better flexibility. Good for mixed substrates.
(28:24):
But if you're looking if this is something you're gonna
do once every ten years, I don't you know whether
you had mixed substrates or not. I'd definitely use the
silkinized acrylic. You're gonna find you're gonna be able to
do a much much better job. I also mentioned I
kind of hate to bring this up in the summertime,
but I will when I was talking about air infiltration
(28:50):
again because it's hot, it's so humid. Talk about in
a winter time. Don't really talk about using this in
the summertime. But if you're halfway into the summer and
you're probably not going to have depending on where you live,
of course, but if you're not going to open up
your windows for a while, you can use those weather
(29:12):
stripping kits that are very clear plastic and put them
over the winter. In the summer, there's also clocking that
you can calk your windows closed. I talk about it
a lot in the wintertime, not so much in the summer.
But there's nothing that says you can't use it in
the summertime too. Even your entryway into your attic, if
(29:37):
you've got a piece of plywood that you move over,
those aren't exactly weather tight, and so if you go
maybe you got one in a closet or at the
top of the stairs, or you know, in between the
bedrooms upstairs. If you feel heat coming from that attic
down around that removable piece of wood that will allows
(30:00):
you to climb into the attic, you might consider making
that a little more weather tight. And you can do
it pretty easily. There is a foam weather stripping. I'm
gonna say it's an inch wide, maybe three ace of
an inch thick, so not very thick, and you put
(30:24):
it around the perimeter that piece of plywood is usually
what it is, and the sponge end is showing the
adhesives on the plywood, and it'll rest on that ledge
and that foam. That foam weather stripping will really help
(30:44):
with the draft coming from the attic down. And I
know that's one of the things we struggle with this
time of year, especially in you know, I call it
the Cincinnati two story. You know, you got the first floor,
you got the second floor, and you got the attic
and you know, the back of the ceiling is like
the attic floor, and there's insulation up there. We talked
(31:08):
about making sure you have the proper you know, our
value up there sixteen eighteen inches here in the Cincinnati area,
fiberglass and cellul it's blown in. And if you don't
have the ventilation to move the hot air out. You
got the hot air in there, and you got insulation
(31:30):
on the floor, you're still not out of the woods.
You got can lights and different things. This controlling. I mean,
it's like an oven on the other side of that ceiling.
So adding additional insulation is great. And running the ceiling
fans if you don't have ceiling fans upstairs, that's again
(31:55):
a good energy saver because it creates that that breeze
and in the summertime they go counterclockwise, it creates a
little wind chill. With this discussion, the other day, we
had a ceiling fan out on a porch and I
don't know, we're looking at that thing and you see
(32:15):
it going and one person's going, that's going clockwise, the
other but no, no, that's going counterclockwise. You want it?
And I said, all right, And this conversation. If you
stand underneath the ceiling fan and it's the summertime, you
should feel that ceiling fan blowing the wind on you
(32:36):
because it's to push the it's to create a wind
chill if you will onto you. If it's going for
the winter, you should be able to stand on there
and never feel breeze because it's pulling a column of
air up around the walls, is putting it down onto
the floor. So the direction of summertime counterclockwise. All right,
(33:00):
our phone numbers eight hundred eight two three eight two
five five and gravel line. We'll wrap things up in
about ten minutes, and you're at home with Gary Salivan
right here on fifty five. Care see the talk station. Well,
chasing water again, that's what we do a lot on
this show, and this time it's water we can't really
see because we've had a lot of calls on the
(33:22):
condensation questions. And you know, another thing is if you're
living in a home and you have a cross space
and a basement that's a source of a lot of moisture.
We can't see water vapor. We do talk about this
a lot, but since we're talking about humidity levels and
(33:44):
controlling that in our homes, it probably pays to talk
a little bit about the basement areas and even the
outside areas. I'm talking a lot about grating. You know,
if your yard slow right to your foundation, that's an
entry point in a lot of cases for water build
(34:06):
up where water can become a problem and get into
your home, which is certainly going to add humidity. But
if that water just doesn't have a path of least
resistance going into your home, maybe there's some proper grading
and stuff where it flows away from the home, but
(34:28):
it stays wet around that area that's still as it
sits up against the foundation. You know that water vapor
will penetrate through concrete, and adding a barrier to that
concrete to minimize water vapor penetration. And I think it's
(34:50):
was like five to eight gallons of water per twelve
hours can come through a basement wall. You'll never see
it here. Back in the day, uh And I don't know,
maybe thirty forty years ago, if you build a family
room or a theater room in a basement, they'd put
(35:10):
the studs up, they put the insulation in, they wrap
it with plastic. I remember thinking about that that can't
be right. Well, we found out it wasn't right. It
trapped that moist air in the insulation, which began the mildew.
(35:32):
So the question really is if you're going to do
that now, everybody's looking for more room in their home.
Maybe you have an unfinished basement and you're thinking about
finishing it. Maybe put a gym in, or you know,
I don't know, theater room or office or whatever. Do
(35:53):
not wrap that wall in plastic. The thought now is
that moisture is going to come through the wall. Let
let it in or stop it before it gets in.
And I'll talk about that in a second. So let
it in means if you put insulation, you build a
(36:14):
studed wall and you put insulation in there, don't put
a vapor barrier on it. Let the water come through.
Let the water vapor come through. Okay, we'll control it
once it gets in the environment in the cross base
or in the basement, and we'll do that by using
a deumidifier pulling the humidity out, or like an easy
(36:40):
breathe where we're venting it moving air, pulling the wet
air out, or seal up that wall the best you can.
And that's a possibility. You can seal that with a
product like dry lock. It's a waterproofing cement based synthetic
(37:06):
rubber based paint get about one hundred square feet to
a gallon, eliminates water vapor. It can actually stop water
that's weeping through a block wall. I said, weeping, not rushing,
holds back about ten pounds of water pressure per square inch.
(37:28):
So if you're fighting the endless battle of humidity, those
are two good ways to do it. You know, let's
stop the water vapor from getting into the house to
the basement, through the walls, through the floors, through the
joist pockets. Or if we're creating water vapor inside the
(37:51):
house plants, aquarium, showers, cooking dryers, let's evacuate that air
out with fans, bathroom fans, the hood over the stove,
the cooking fans, it's pulling air out. Tightening up the
(38:14):
vents on the dryer, that's pulling air out. So we
can still always address the outdoor issue. But you know,
really controlling all these things really the key. Also, any
type of leak that you've been ignoring, shame on you,
(38:38):
because you know, leaky flashings, shingles that have cracks and
allows rain or water to infiltrate into the attic. Again,
we started to show off today being you know that
cross space in that attic, those are two areas that
are out of sight, out of mind, and they trap moisture.
(39:00):
I mean, you just think about that. Think about in
that attic with insulation, if water gets in there because
of poor ventilation, it's that water is not going anywhere.
It's just gonna mold and be a mess. And if
you've got crack shingles and you know, leaky flashings, you
(39:23):
gotta you gotta get you gotta get a plan. You
gotta get that fixed, and then you're probably gonna want
to get that insulation out of there or you're just
gonna have endless problems. You're gonna have a big old
mold problem. So really paying attention, that's the key. And
if you if you ever want to know if you're
having a water infiltration through like a concrete floor in
(39:46):
a basement or a cross s base, there's a simple
way to do it. You can get some four mil
plastic that's not real thin, but four mel plastic and
about eighteen inches by eighteen inches, use some duct tape
and tape a patch of add on the floor or
on the wall, whatever, and give it a day or
two and see if you get water droplets inside that
(40:08):
plastic and that's probably just the water vapor coming in
creating condensation, and then you can use your dry lock
on top of that. Danny boy, it's been a busy,
busy day. We talked about a lot of things. Thank
you very much for your efforts today. I certainly appreciate it.
Good Lord Willing. We'll be back tomorrow for more At
Home with Gary Sullivan
At Home with Gary Sullivan News
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