Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Well it's the weekend. Welcome aboard. You're at home with
Gary Salvin taking through another hour, getting some projects done
around the house, and if you'd like to join us,
there is a bunch of open lines for you right now.
So if you've been trying to get through, well, now's
a great time. It's eight hundred eight two three eight
two five five. A lot of discussion today about humidity
(00:54):
and water and molds and mildews, and certainly we can
continue to talk. Came about that. There's a lot of
things that contribute to humidity insider homes, and we've talked
about a lot of those. And I'm not talking about leaks.
I'm just talking about humidity where it's just the you
got the air kind of shown, but just a little
(01:15):
bit uncomfortable. One thing that will produce a lot of
humidity is just a closed dryer that just isn't functioning
up the par In other words, it's not drying those
clothes real fast. It's killing you on your electric bill too,
because maybe what used to take thirty minutes to dry
a load of closes now up to around forty five
(01:36):
fifty minutes, and a lot of cases it's just because
the vent itself has got some debris in it, lint.
It needs cleaning, and I encourage you to take a
look at. Another thing I see a lot is when
the dryer hose or the dryer vent pipe is not
(02:00):
tightly connected to the pipe that goes outside. So there's
a disconnect inside the laundry room or wherever your dryer
is in the basement, and some of the air's going
out through the exhaust and some of us going inside
the home. And that's just hot, moist air. And if
(02:21):
you've got an air conditioner going, you're kind of battling
your air conditioning system versus the dryer. So yeah, check it,
just check it. And if you start noticing, like wow,
the clothes just don't dry as fast as they usually do, yeah,
you probably got too much lint build up inside that
dryer vent or dryer vent pipe, and take that off.
(02:45):
You can get a brush and clean it. I know
some of them get a little bit more complicated. I've
seen runs of dryer vents as long as twenty five
feet in condo units. That's not good. That's not good.
In a lot of cases, it's way too long. And
sometimes even a what happens is that warm air and
(03:06):
that dryer is going through that pipe. And if it's
got an elbow, every elbow is worth about a three
feet of vent pipe. So if you've got a twenty
foot run and you got three elbows, you're almost a
thirty feet and that dryer's only got so much oom
to get that warm moist air out of your house.
And if thirty feet and it doesn't have enough force,
(03:31):
condensation occurs inside the pipe. You might have a little
dip in the pipe. It's got water in it, and
it's taken forever to dry your clothes. And in that case,
you can have you know, if you can't get to it,
maybe get a certainly have somebody clean it. Maybe even
add a booster fan in that run of pipe to
make sure we get all that moisture out of that
(03:53):
pipe before condensation occurs. All right, you got the phone number,
you can give us a call. Love to talk to
you about to your project. And let's go to Mike. Mike, welcome,
good morning.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Yes, all right, I got I want to talk to
you about restaining concrete stain flowers.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Okay, is it possible? Well, you can always restain what
what type of stainer are you using. Is it an
acid stain or is it like a semi transparent concrete
stain or what it was? An acid okay? And and
what are you trying to do? What don't you like
about it now? Is it worn or you're just trying
(04:33):
to re enhance it or what's the object here?
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Well, it's got some of my heavy traffic areas that
are worn and that I just want to re enhance it.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Okay, Okay. So usually when you're using an acid stain,
that's kind of a an easier project. But it's also
usually capped with a a seiler on there, usually a
gloss sealer. Is is that true? Or was there a
loss seiler put on there?
Speaker 4 (05:02):
No?
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Sailor? Okay? So it's strictly an acid stain. You're going
to stay with the same color, yes, sir, Yeah, yeah.
A nice thing about an acid stain is they all
look different, right, I mean yes, For people that don't
like acid stain, that's what they say, Well, I don't
like it. It doesn't look like paint, Well, then paint it.
(05:23):
But the beautiful thing about an acid stain is that
pigment is built into the concrete. And Mike, that's awesome.
And for people that haven't seen, it's kind of almost
a marbleized look. And you know, so you can stay
right over it, sure, staying with the same color. It's
not been sealed, so you're good to go.
Speaker 4 (05:46):
Do I have to sand it?
Speaker 1 (05:49):
I wouldn't think you would need to send it again
because it's pigmented into the concrete.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
I just give it a good cleaning and spray it
back home, right.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
And you can even test it too, because you can
take like a you know, maybe a tablespoon of water.
Just put a little doll up of water on there.
My guess is it'll just disperse right into the concrete.
It won't beat up or anything like that. And if
it and that's what you want to do. You want
to just disperse right into the concrete. If the water's
(06:20):
doing that, so will the acid stain? Great?
Speaker 4 (06:24):
Thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
You're quite welcome, Mike Show. Thank you appreciate it all right,
And from Mike to Mike, Mike welcome. Hey Don Gary, Yes, sir, fine.
Speaker 4 (06:35):
I have a septic tank and I'm wondering how many
times should I clean it and how long as far
as taking out the material and my wife you put
stuff down in there, And what shouldn't I put down
inside the septic tank? And what should I put down
(06:56):
inside it? As far as food and stuff like that,
and there's an harm.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
It, well, that's a loaded question. There's a bunch of
stuff there. What I would do is I'd get an
article on septic tanks and read it first. To be
honest with you, how long has it been since you've
had it, you know, cleaned or taken care of. I mean,
if you keep it in balance and everything with the
bacteria and everything. I mean, I guess in a perfect
(07:22):
world you could never clean it. But usually it's about
seven years.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
Okay, Yeah, my neighbors they had theirs for like twenty years.
I had to clean mine every once in a while,
put a new leach line in. But as far as
uh stuff that put down it, food is not good
or milk is okay? Like a bacteria type of deal
or because I'm telling or not.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Yeah, I think probably one of the things that screws
up septic tanks more than anything else is lots of soaps,
which again affects the bacteria. There is a the and
there's a lot of different types of additives to septic tanks,
some very good, some kind of a waste of money.
(08:11):
To be honest with you, what I would do is,
there's a there's a website with a it's called Aerobic
r O E B I C dot com. Rhobic has
a has an excellent I guess it's I guess I
would refer to it as a conditioner a conditioner, but
(08:37):
I would use that on a regular basis, and then
I would really be careful of things that can clog
the drains. Uh. One of the biggest problems right now
is those flushable wipes. They're terrible on subtic tanks, using cleaners,
drain cleaners that are not septic safe. I think those
(08:59):
are probably big your issues than some of the other
things that you're speaking of. Feminine products, diapers, of flushable wipes,
those are the things that are really the big, big,
big problems.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
I would say, Yeah, they won't the grade or anything.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Right right exactly exactly, So those would be the things
I would focus on, and then adding a bacteria balance
system I think as the theerobic dot com I think
it's called K sixty seven. You can see it. It'll
it's it's probably one of the higher rated septic system additives.
(09:41):
But in all, honestly, if you if you keep it
good bacteria in there, you could you could virtually never
clean it.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
Okay, I've been used in riddex.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Not bad. The erobic is probably a little higher quality.
How often have you been cleaning it out?
Speaker 4 (10:01):
No, lately, I haven't been doing after I got my
leech line done. Uh huh, you know as far as that,
so I'm just curious. I didn't want to flood my
basement again, like you know, that's what happened the last time.
The water just backed up.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
And yeah, yeah, well that's gonna certainly you know, with
that leach field, that's certainly gonna help things, right, I mean,
because you know, heavy water, a lot of water usage.
Any too much water, that's what starts to looting the
whole bacteria process to make the septic system work. So
having that fix probably helped a bunch.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
Okay, cool, I appreciate it, sir.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
You're quite welcome. Thank you, Take care, bye bye. All right, Andrea,
you'll be up first. We're going to take a break
if you'd like to join us. It's eight hundred and
eight two three eight two five five at Home with
Gary Sullivan it's.
Speaker 5 (10:55):
The weekend and you have fixed questions. Give Gary a
call and eight two three talk. This is at home
with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 6 (11:12):
Thanks.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
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(11:43):
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(13:45):
we go twenty one minutes after the top of the hour.
You're at Home with Gary Salvin. By the way, if
you missed any of yesterday's show, you can pick up
each individual hour via podcast wherever you get your podcasts,
or just download the iHeart app up and type in
at Home with Gary Salvan, or go to our blog,
Garysalvan online dot com and you can pick up an
(14:08):
hour or two that you missed yesterday whenever, through the
course this week, next week, whenever. But that's there for you.
All right back to the phones we go. Our number
is eight hundred eight two three eight two five five
and Andrea, welcome.
Speaker 7 (14:25):
Good morning, Gary morning. I have a couple of have
a couple of humidity questions. The first one is our
house is eleven years old and we have run a
dehuman is fired down the cellar. It's an unfinished basement.
The whole time that we've been here, it broke. I
called the appliance place where we bought all our appliances,
(14:49):
and the guys tou to me. You don't really need one,
so I didn't buy one. Now today it's cool, or
I'm I'm on the East coast, it's I'm in New England.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
It's cool.
Speaker 7 (15:01):
It's only seventy degrees. But my hygrometer, which I've got
thanks to you, is still reading seventy two and I'm
getting cold in my house trying to get down to
like sixty. So is the reason that this is so high?
It is because I've got nothing going on in the cellar?
Or is it because my husband just put it on upstairs?
(15:22):
It's a colonial I'm not sure what to do to
get the humidity to fifty five to sixty.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
So if it's what did you say it's seventy degrees.
Speaker 7 (15:30):
Outside, It's seventy degrees outside, and I now have it
as seventy one percent humidity inside.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Right? Do you have windows open?
Speaker 7 (15:40):
They're now all closed.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
They're all closed, okay, And do you know what the
humidity outside is?
Speaker 7 (15:46):
It's human. I looked it up and it was about
I think sixty three or sixty five something like that.
So it is humid. It's just cool rainy.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
Yeah, well, I think when your air conditioner isn't running
and you don't have a humitted a humidifier, and it's
humid outside and we all have leaks and all that
good stuff, and we don't we're not running the air conditioner.
You're going to be humid inside. There's not much you're
(16:20):
going to do about it except running the humidifier. What
happens when it goes up to eighty outside and the
air conditioners running the air conditioner is probably your biggest
humidifier you got. And if the humidifier isn't running and
the air conditioner isn't running and it's humid outside, you're
(16:42):
gonna be humid inside.
Speaker 7 (16:45):
Okay, So I just need to keep the conditioning on
even if I need to.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
No, I wouldn't say that I would. I would. Are
you comfortable in your house right now?
Speaker 7 (16:56):
I'm never comfortable? I either's or too cold?
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Yeah, well i'd probably I don't know if i'd turn
my air conditioner on, because quite honestly, if it's seventy
degrees outside, the temperature inside your home is probably not
far from that, and that air condist is probably not
going to turn on unless you run that air condition
at about sixty eight degrees, And you'd be better off
just running a dehumidifire downstairs.
Speaker 7 (17:20):
Okay, so we got to get another dhumidifier. I thought
that might help.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Yeah, yeah, well sure it would help. And again it's
there's always gonna be days that are high and low.
I know, even in our house, and we're we really
watch the humidity levels. But if it's a day where
it's seventy degrees outside and you know, we'll like to
(17:44):
open the windows and a lot of and you're not
really you know, if you're really trying to control humidity,
that's not a good idea. I mean, it's light rain,
it's outside at seventy If you open up your windows,
that humidity's coming in your house. Period. If your windows
are close and you don't have an air conditioner on,
you don't have a deumidifier, and that that humid air
(18:05):
still to a degree, going to get inside your house.
So you know, it's kind of there's only so much
you can do.
Speaker 7 (18:15):
So if I get it down to maybe sixty five
and keep window shut, well it's still.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
Relatively yeah, if you well, like like today, I looked
this morning when I woke up. We're about eighty five today,
I think, and it's humid outside I got the air
conditioning on, I got a do umidifier on. It was
fifty four percent. Okay, okay. We're supposed to have cool
(18:42):
in the seventies this week, and depending on what the
outdoor humidity is and how we treat the air conditioner
inside our home, we'll probably turn off the air conditioner.
We'll probably open the windows and if a jumid outside
is going to be humid inside, but it's going to
be short lived because it'll get hot again, the air
conditioner go back on, and you know, we'll play that
(19:05):
little game so to keep it as regulated as you
can over the course of time, you really kind of need,
you know, the deumidifier and also the air conditioner, just
kind of play them off each other to, yeah, try
and keep it below sixty. I wouldn't get too crazy
about trying to get it down to around fifty all
(19:26):
the time, all right. I hope that helps. And you know,
a one day thing, it's not a big deal. We'll
continue with your calls at Home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 5 (19:43):
Makes it right with a call to Gary's Ellivate at
one eight eight two three talk This is at Home
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Speaker 6 (20:00):
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(22:37):
thanks for joining me. You're at home with Gary Sullivan
taking your calls regarding your home projects. It's eight hundred
eight two three eight two five five. I was telling
you earlier that there was an article on things you
hate projects, you hate, maintenance, you hate, cleaning, you hate
what do you hate to do in your house? There's
(22:58):
a whole article on this. Most of them I get
cleaning windows, running the sweeper. The number one thing, changing
the batteries in your smoke alarm. Got to be kidding me.
How big of a deal was that. At least I
haven't founded a big deal, but that was the number one.
I think it's aggravating when the alarm goes off in
(23:20):
the middle of the night because you didn't change the
bat That little beep can make you crazy. But changing
out the batteries, I don't know, wouldn't be in my
top ten. Anyway, back to the phones we go. We
got Brian. Brian, welcome, Thank you very much.
Speaker 8 (23:37):
Gary. You've got a question for your regarding if you
have a specific recommendation for bathroom culk. I've got a
walk in shower with ceramic tile on the walls and
where the seam meets the molded floor. I've used products
that are labeled mildew and mold resistant, but after applying
the calck on that seam, generally in a couple of months,
(24:00):
all black spots and blotches appear inside the calk and
they won't scrub out as if the mold is or
mildew is growing in the calck. You have any recommendations.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Here, Well, the problem is not the colock. The problem
is the waters behind the calking, Okay. And so when
you have a mildew resistant cocking, it's meaning that mold
will not grow on the surface of the calking, but
if the mold colony is behind the calking bead, it
(24:30):
will grow into it. Okay, I'm just saying that that's
that's the reason why you're experiencing it. I mean, sure
you've probably used a product and it would be one
I would recommend um, But the same thing will happen
if you get water. And I'll explain how that water
is getting there. It's the DAP quick seal, which contains microban,
(24:54):
which has a five year warranting on mold and mildew
on the surface of the cock. What happened and so
many people I use this as a tip because a
lot of times what will happen, especially if you have
kids in bathtub and they're splashing the water and the
water's going over the tub and it's going down inside
of the tub, and some of that calking has maybe
(25:18):
pulled away at one time or another. So in other words,
there's a little seam where some moisture can get in there.
Then the vinyl shika can start kind of curling back,
and more water will get in there, and there'll be
a mold grown on the subfloor, on the dust inside
the the one area where there's a gap, and that
mold will grow and it'll grow up into that calking.
(25:43):
But that's different than having mold grow on the surface
of the calking. That makes sense.
Speaker 8 (25:49):
And when you call the shower base where it meets
the ceramic tile, how I after you pull all the
old coot, how do you sterilize that? So beginning with
a dry.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
It's tough, but rubbing alcohol would be it. If you
can pull that cocking out and you know, get a
hair dryer in there and try and dry that out
the best you can. And then depending on how big
that is. I've even used like disinfectant little pieces of
gauze and running in there. Q tip if that's not
(26:26):
too big, but loving alcohol will help dry and kill
that mold and then then reapply your quick seal.
Speaker 4 (26:35):
Terrific.
Speaker 8 (26:36):
Thanks very much, appreciate the program.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
You're quite welcome. Thank you, bye bye. Yeah, And that
goes for everything. That was one area that is a problem,
aary and often overlooked. He obviously hadn't overlooked it. He
sees what the problem is. But even if you clean
out the calking around the bethtub up at the top,
or the shower pen whatever, and you've pulled all, yes,
(27:01):
you have to remove the old cocking and nose spaces
up there between the tub and the wall is usually sizeable.
You can get a Q tip in there, and you
get a que tip and some rubbing alcohol and get
that in there and get it dry and get that
on that mold, get as cleaned up as you possibly can,
get it sterilized as possible, as good as you can,
(27:24):
and then let it dry and then reapply the cocking
I mentioned the quick seal. It is an acrylic siliconized cocking,
so it's a water based silicone and it's a little
bit easier to apply than straight silicon, and it's got
microband in it, which is a mild aside, and that's
(27:47):
what i'd recommend using. All right, let's go to Robert.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
Robert welcome, Hey, good morning Gary.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
How are you doing fine, sir? Thanks?
Speaker 3 (27:57):
So Hok's going back to a couple of things I
want to address that some of your other callers have
talked about. Is I have a septic system and a
garbage disposal in my kitchen. In the garbage disposal, there's
an there's an injector where you put a cartridge on
the side, uh huh, and every time you turn on
the garbage disposal, it injects the bacteria into the septic
(28:20):
system and it works.
Speaker 4 (28:21):
Great.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
That's very cool. I'm not familiar with that. So that's great.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
That's a that's an Insyncorator product.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
Uh huh.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
Then when I built the house seventeen years, I've been
there and I just had the septic tank pumped this
last summer and they said, wow, this is in great shape.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
Yeah, boy, isn't it amazing? Maintenance? Maintenance, maintenance, And yeah,
the food, I'd read just a couple of quickies during
the break, and you know, most most of the things
really address keeping the bacteria levels, which is what I
had talked about using the K sixty seven aerobic product.
I like yours better because I don't have to remember
(29:03):
to do that. It does just.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
Glance under the sink every month or so make sure
there's Uh.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
I love that. I mean, I really do love that.
But one of the things that really screws up septic
systems is you know, huge amounts of water, huge amounts
of soap, and then disposables, I mean, the things people
try to flush and put down. And if you've got
a septic system, it's guaranteed to screw it up.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
And you know it's not it's not designed to break
those things.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
Down, right right, you gotta get a grinder and add
it to the house. Then, Yeah, for sure, for sure. Hey,
thanks for mentioning that. I'm gonna look into that. I
I don't have a septic system, and uh, but it'll
be good to to know that's available.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
Yeah. It's Insyncorator and it's just a little four ounce
cartridge or something you plug onto the side.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
Love it, Thank you much.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
Yeah, I wanted to talk a little bit about humidity
as well. Sure, I'm pretty well versed in that category.
So the air conditioning system is the best way to
remove the humidity from the home. But it's got to
be sized properly, not oversized. If it's oversized, it doesn't
(30:14):
run long enough to remove humidity. So you need a
long cycle.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
And some of those motors are adjustable and some are correct.
Speaker 4 (30:25):
Correct.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
You want to run your fan speed as low as
possible and still maintain adequate throw from let's say, from
your from your register so that it moves the air
around properly.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
Correct.
Speaker 3 (30:41):
And then those these humidifiers great, great appliances in themselves,
just little many air conditioners, right.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
And the longevity of them is not great either. Correct,
it's not great now.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
But if you know, in a situation, if you have
a home with an oversized air can the unit and
you don't have enough load for it to run, those
can be great additives to it. You may need more
than one, right, You don't have to keep that humanity down.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
Yeah, and let me add this too, and I think
you'll agree the sizing is important. I didn't get that
get into that with her, but I see it, and
I'm sure you see it all the time too. We're
forever updating our houses. We start out to show today
about proper ventilation in a home, proper insulation in a home.
(31:31):
And then we're putting in new front doors, we're putting
in new windows, we're putting in energy efficient everything in
our homes. Our homes become more energy efficient, and then
you're you know, air conditioner breaks down and somebody comes
in puts the exact same size that you add without
really doing a thorough investigation of your house. It's easy
(31:53):
to get a system that's too big.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
It's very easy. And you're exactly right. I see that
every day. Well, because I'll get those tech costs. What
did you put in? Well, I put in what was
their last right. How do you know that was right?
Well it worked for so many years. Yeah, and you're
absolutely right. And houses nowadays, they're building them with these
phone encapsulations, uh huh bone and and I'm seeing these
(32:18):
system sizes drop dramatically from what a load calculation standpoint.
So if you don't do a load out on an
existing home and just throw in the same size it
was there, it could be oversized before you got there.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
I totally agree Row, And I tell people people ask
me all the time they asks, is you, Gary, what
what's the best air conditioner? What? What air conditioner should
I get? I always go the first thing you do
is get the best technician. And the best technician is
going to have a system that he trust, that they
believe in, and he's going to take care of you.
(32:53):
It's really about the boots on the ground.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
They're all made of the same components. It's the best
air conditioner is the one that's been installed properly, sized.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
Properly Thank you. Totally correct, and I appreciate that.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
Yes, sir, have a great day.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
All right, you do the same, Thank you. Eric. All right,
Absolutely spot on. So if and we've talked about that
in the past, but it is so true. If if
you're dealing with somebody that's just coming out and he's
just going to replace what you got, I can almost
I can almost guess that that's going to be wrong.
(33:35):
They've got it. They got to ask the questions. Okay,
let me do a whole lowcut. How old of the windows,
what kind of installation do we have? I mean, my goodness,
houses didn't even have insulation in the walls in nineteen seventy.
Now they're pumping foam in them. You think your home
(33:55):
is going to be more efficient. Absolutely, let's take a
little break, James, you'll be up first. If you'd like
to join us. It's eight hundred eight two three eight
two five five. You're at home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 5 (34:08):
Help for your home is just a click away at
Garysullivan online dot com.
Speaker 6 (34:13):
This is at home with Garysullivan.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
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(37:06):
home with Gary Sullivan, taking your calls regarding home improvement
in our phone number. If you'd like to join us,
it is eight hundred eight two three eight two five five.
So go ahead and grab along. I've got a couple
open for you. James.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
Welcome, good morning, Gary. Really enjoy, really enjoy your show
and forget shower fans.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
All right, very good, thank you.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
We have a American standard toilet that doesn't flesh. Sometimes
it will flesh, and sometimes it does not flesh.
Speaker 1 (37:43):
Okay, how old is the toilet?
Speaker 2 (37:47):
You think probably it's eight ten years old.
Speaker 1 (37:54):
Okay, Um, Well, it could be a multitude of things,
and I guess probably the most common. You know, a
lot of times people think it's a blockage in a drain,
Usually in a toilet. It's not, but it can be
so the toilet to remove waste, it has to transfer
(38:16):
the water from the closet into the bowl and pushing
the waste and the water in the bowl into the drain,
which is one hundred and eighty degree gooseenck that goes
up the back side of the toilet and then down
into the four inch sewer line through the house and
then out of the house. So A, it could be
(38:41):
not transferring enough water from the closet to the bowl.
It could be that. B it could be a restriction
in the toilet itself because it also not only requires
drainage through the pipe, it also requires air. So if
(39:02):
you took a one gallon gas can without opening the vent,
it would just burp, blurt blurt out of a gas can.
You open the vent, it flows very nicely. So the
vent or the stack could be impeding to flow. Or
there could be a blockage in a drain. So it
could be any of the three. Normally, and I don't
(39:25):
even know if that normally is the right word, but
one of the issues is the transfer of the water
from the closet into the bowl. Underneath the rim of
the toilet there is a series of holes that allow
that water to transfer from the closet into the bowl
with enough force to flush the waste from the bowl
(39:47):
of the toilet. Those sometimes will get clogged with hard
water deposits, and to check that out first, you would
take a small mirror, maybe from like a compact case
or something like that, run it underneath that toilet rim
and see if those holes are open. You can even
(40:09):
take like a little twist bit in between your forefinger
and your thumb and a compact mirror on the other
hand and kind of open up or clean out those holes.
Open up those ports and see if that takes care
of the problem. You could also at night before you
(40:31):
go to bed, take a quart of CLR, which is
calcium lime rusting mover. It's a mild acid, and pull
the whole quart container into the toilet bowl and let's
sit overnight. If there was some hard water deposits over
the vent hole, that'll clean up those calcium deposits and
(40:54):
allow it to flush well. Also, so there's two simple
things you can do.
Speaker 2 (41:00):
The third one is pour that into which one.
Speaker 1 (41:05):
Into the bowl into the bow, and the just pour
it right in with the water and just let it
sit overnight and then the morning flush it away that long, yes, sir.
And of course the third one require more work, and
(41:26):
it would be if it were in the goosh neck
trap or drain uh you know, you know, if there's
something that was blocking that water flow. I know when
I kids in the house, you know, somebody'd always throw
a little truck or paper little paper cup or something
(41:47):
in there, and it would go in there. And when
you flush the water, bounce around and plug up that uh,
that drain line. And the only way you can get
that cleaned out is to shut off the water, pull
the toilet, get underneath and see what's in there to
clean that out. But those are three things you can
work on.
Speaker 2 (42:07):
I'll tell you the cel our sounds.
Speaker 8 (42:10):
I have some.
Speaker 2 (42:13):
Deposit build up in the bottom of the toilet, and
I've left the colar for I think a couple of
hours it says, or twenty minutes or something. I didn't
know I could leave it that long. But on up
into the hole. There are some deposits in there that
(42:38):
are quite hard.
Speaker 1 (42:40):
Okay, okay, we'll get a little twist bit and a
mirror so you can clean out those ones that are clogged.
If you have hard water, and it's generally the hard
water deposits inside the bowl or underneath the rim of
the toilet that's causing your problem.
Speaker 2 (43:00):
All right, well, thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (43:03):
All right, you bet, thank you appreciate it. All right,
If you would like to join us, and we'll take
a break here at the top of the air and
take some more calls on the other side. If you
would like to join us, feel free to go ahead
and doll us up. It's eight hundred eighty two three
A two five five each year this time when schools
(43:24):
go back, I talk about Jaws Cleaners, and you know,
maybe if a kid's going away to college, or you
just want to clean up after a tough summer at home.
Jaws has some great deep cleaning products that are very
very safe to use. One of them would be the
Jaws Foaming bathroom Cleaner. It's great for showers and tubs.
(43:46):
It gets rid of water spots, soapscumb, mineral deposits, and
it'll leave it at that shower with a sparkling shine
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(44:09):
Jaws products simply going to their website. It's Jaws Queens
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dollars free shipping on that also, so check it out
the Jaws products. All right, we'll take your calls. Tom,
you'll be first, and then Robert join us. Eight hundred
eight two three eight two five five. Y're at home
(44:30):
with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 5 (45:10):
Start a project and don't know how to finish it.
Call Gary at one eight hundred and eighty two three talk.
You're at home with Gary Sullivan
Well it's the weekend. Welcome aboard. You're at home with
Gary Salvin taking through another hour, getting some projects done
around the house, and if you'd like to join us,
there is a bunch of open lines for you right now.
So if you've been trying to get through, well, now's
a great time. It's eight hundred eight two three eight
two five five. A lot of discussion today about humidity
(00:54):
and water and molds and mildews, and certainly we can
continue to talk. Came about that. There's a lot of
things that contribute to humidity insider homes, and we've talked
about a lot of those. And I'm not talking about leaks.
I'm just talking about humidity where it's just the you
got the air kind of shown, but just a little
(01:15):
bit uncomfortable. One thing that will produce a lot of
humidity is just a closed dryer that just isn't functioning
up the par In other words, it's not drying those
clothes real fast. It's killing you on your electric bill too,
because maybe what used to take thirty minutes to dry
a load of closes now up to around forty five
(01:36):
fifty minutes, and a lot of cases it's just because
the vent itself has got some debris in it, lint.
It needs cleaning, and I encourage you to take a
look at. Another thing I see a lot is when
the dryer hose or the dryer vent pipe is not
(02:00):
tightly connected to the pipe that goes outside. So there's
a disconnect inside the laundry room or wherever your dryer
is in the basement, and some of the air's going
out through the exhaust and some of us going inside
the home. And that's just hot, moist air. And if
(02:21):
you've got an air conditioner going, you're kind of battling
your air conditioning system versus the dryer. So yeah, check it,
just check it. And if you start noticing, like wow,
the clothes just don't dry as fast as they usually do, yeah,
you probably got too much lint build up inside that
dryer vent or dryer vent pipe, and take that off.
(02:45):
You can get a brush and clean it. I know
some of them get a little bit more complicated. I've
seen runs of dryer vents as long as twenty five
feet in condo units. That's not good. That's not good.
In a lot of cases, it's way too long. And
sometimes even a what happens is that warm air and
(03:06):
that dryer is going through that pipe. And if it's
got an elbow, every elbow is worth about a three
feet of vent pipe. So if you've got a twenty
foot run and you got three elbows, you're almost a
thirty feet and that dryer's only got so much oom
to get that warm moist air out of your house.
And if thirty feet and it doesn't have enough force,
(03:31):
condensation occurs inside the pipe. You might have a little
dip in the pipe. It's got water in it, and
it's taken forever to dry your clothes. And in that case,
you can have you know, if you can't get to it,
maybe get a certainly have somebody clean it. Maybe even
add a booster fan in that run of pipe to
make sure we get all that moisture out of that
(03:53):
pipe before condensation occurs. All right, you got the phone number,
you can give us a call. Love to talk to
you about to your project. And let's go to Mike. Mike, welcome,
good morning.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Yes, all right, I got I want to talk to
you about restaining concrete stain flowers.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Okay, is it possible? Well, you can always restain what
what type of stainer are you using. Is it an
acid stain or is it like a semi transparent concrete
stain or what it was? An acid okay? And and
what are you trying to do? What don't you like
about it now? Is it worn or you're just trying
(04:33):
to re enhance it or what's the object here?
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Well, it's got some of my heavy traffic areas that
are worn and that I just want to re enhance it.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Okay, Okay. So usually when you're using an acid stain,
that's kind of a an easier project. But it's also
usually capped with a a seiler on there, usually a
gloss sealer. Is is that true? Or was there a
loss seiler put on there?
Speaker 4 (05:02):
No?
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Sailor? Okay? So it's strictly an acid stain. You're going
to stay with the same color, yes, sir, Yeah, yeah.
A nice thing about an acid stain is they all
look different, right, I mean yes, For people that don't
like acid stain, that's what they say, Well, I don't
like it. It doesn't look like paint, Well, then paint it.
(05:23):
But the beautiful thing about an acid stain is that
pigment is built into the concrete. And Mike, that's awesome.
And for people that haven't seen, it's kind of almost
a marbleized look. And you know, so you can stay
right over it, sure, staying with the same color. It's
not been sealed, so you're good to go.
Speaker 4 (05:46):
Do I have to sand it?
Speaker 1 (05:49):
I wouldn't think you would need to send it again
because it's pigmented into the concrete.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
I just give it a good cleaning and spray it
back home, right.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
And you can even test it too, because you can
take like a you know, maybe a tablespoon of water.
Just put a little doll up of water on there.
My guess is it'll just disperse right into the concrete.
It won't beat up or anything like that. And if
it and that's what you want to do. You want
to just disperse right into the concrete. If the water's
(06:20):
doing that, so will the acid stain? Great?
Speaker 4 (06:24):
Thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
You're quite welcome, Mike Show. Thank you appreciate it all right,
And from Mike to Mike, Mike welcome. Hey Don Gary, Yes, sir, fine.
Speaker 4 (06:35):
I have a septic tank and I'm wondering how many
times should I clean it and how long as far
as taking out the material and my wife you put
stuff down in there, And what shouldn't I put down
inside the septic tank? And what should I put down
(06:56):
inside it? As far as food and stuff like that,
and there's an harm.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
It, well, that's a loaded question. There's a bunch of
stuff there. What I would do is I'd get an
article on septic tanks and read it first. To be
honest with you, how long has it been since you've
had it, you know, cleaned or taken care of. I mean,
if you keep it in balance and everything with the
bacteria and everything. I mean, I guess in a perfect
(07:22):
world you could never clean it. But usually it's about
seven years.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
Okay, Yeah, my neighbors they had theirs for like twenty years.
I had to clean mine every once in a while,
put a new leach line in. But as far as
uh stuff that put down it, food is not good
or milk is okay? Like a bacteria type of deal
or because I'm telling or not.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Yeah, I think probably one of the things that screws
up septic tanks more than anything else is lots of soaps,
which again affects the bacteria. There is a the and
there's a lot of different types of additives to septic tanks,
some very good, some kind of a waste of money.
(08:11):
To be honest with you, what I would do is,
there's a there's a website with a it's called Aerobic
r O E B I C dot com. Rhobic has
a has an excellent I guess it's I guess I
would refer to it as a conditioner a conditioner, but
(08:37):
I would use that on a regular basis, and then
I would really be careful of things that can clog
the drains. Uh. One of the biggest problems right now
is those flushable wipes. They're terrible on subtic tanks, using cleaners,
drain cleaners that are not septic safe. I think those
(08:59):
are probably big your issues than some of the other
things that you're speaking of. Feminine products, diapers, of flushable wipes,
those are the things that are really the big, big,
big problems.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
I would say, Yeah, they won't the grade or anything.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Right right exactly exactly, So those would be the things
I would focus on, and then adding a bacteria balance
system I think as the theerobic dot com I think
it's called K sixty seven. You can see it. It'll
it's it's probably one of the higher rated septic system additives.
(09:41):
But in all, honestly, if you if you keep it
good bacteria in there, you could you could virtually never
clean it.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
Okay, I've been used in riddex.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Not bad. The erobic is probably a little higher quality.
How often have you been cleaning it out?
Speaker 4 (10:01):
No, lately, I haven't been doing after I got my
leech line done. Uh huh, you know as far as that,
so I'm just curious. I didn't want to flood my
basement again, like you know, that's what happened the last time.
The water just backed up.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
And yeah, yeah, well that's gonna certainly you know, with
that leach field, that's certainly gonna help things, right, I mean,
because you know, heavy water, a lot of water usage.
Any too much water, that's what starts to looting the
whole bacteria process to make the septic system work. So
having that fix probably helped a bunch.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
Okay, cool, I appreciate it, sir.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
You're quite welcome. Thank you, Take care, bye bye. All right, Andrea,
you'll be up first. We're going to take a break
if you'd like to join us. It's eight hundred and
eight two three eight two five five at Home with
Gary Sullivan it's.
Speaker 5 (10:55):
The weekend and you have fixed questions. Give Gary a
call and eight two three talk. This is at home
with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 6 (11:12):
Thanks.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Do you have a damp, musty odor from past water
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(11:43):
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(12:04):
They repair water heaters, garbage disposals, some pumps, and just
about any other residential or commercial plumbing problem. I use
rotor Ruter at my house and you should too. Call
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(12:25):
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Walmart dot com and Amazon. All right, back here it
(13:45):
we go twenty one minutes after the top of the hour.
You're at Home with Gary Salvin. By the way, if
you missed any of yesterday's show, you can pick up
each individual hour via podcast wherever you get your podcasts,
or just download the iHeart app up and type in
at Home with Gary Salvan, or go to our blog,
Garysalvan online dot com and you can pick up an
(14:08):
hour or two that you missed yesterday whenever, through the
course this week, next week, whenever. But that's there for you.
All right back to the phones we go. Our number
is eight hundred eight two three eight two five five
and Andrea, welcome.
Speaker 7 (14:25):
Good morning, Gary morning. I have a couple of have
a couple of humidity questions. The first one is our
house is eleven years old and we have run a
dehuman is fired down the cellar. It's an unfinished basement.
The whole time that we've been here, it broke. I
called the appliance place where we bought all our appliances,
(14:49):
and the guys tou to me. You don't really need one,
so I didn't buy one. Now today it's cool, or
I'm I'm on the East coast, it's I'm in New England.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
It's cool.
Speaker 7 (15:01):
It's only seventy degrees. But my hygrometer, which I've got
thanks to you, is still reading seventy two and I'm
getting cold in my house trying to get down to
like sixty. So is the reason that this is so high?
It is because I've got nothing going on in the cellar?
Or is it because my husband just put it on upstairs?
(15:22):
It's a colonial I'm not sure what to do to
get the humidity to fifty five to sixty.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
So if it's what did you say it's seventy degrees.
Speaker 7 (15:30):
Outside, It's seventy degrees outside, and I now have it
as seventy one percent humidity inside.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Right? Do you have windows open?
Speaker 7 (15:40):
They're now all closed.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
They're all closed, okay, And do you know what the
humidity outside is?
Speaker 7 (15:46):
It's human. I looked it up and it was about
I think sixty three or sixty five something like that.
So it is humid. It's just cool rainy.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
Yeah, well, I think when your air conditioner isn't running
and you don't have a humitted a humidifier, and it's
humid outside and we all have leaks and all that
good stuff, and we don't we're not running the air conditioner.
You're going to be humid inside. There's not much you're
(16:20):
going to do about it except running the humidifier. What
happens when it goes up to eighty outside and the
air conditioners running the air conditioner is probably your biggest
humidifier you got. And if the humidifier isn't running and
the air conditioner isn't running and it's humid outside, you're
(16:42):
gonna be humid inside.
Speaker 7 (16:45):
Okay, So I just need to keep the conditioning on
even if I need to.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
No, I wouldn't say that I would. I would. Are
you comfortable in your house right now?
Speaker 7 (16:56):
I'm never comfortable? I either's or too cold?
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Yeah, well i'd probably I don't know if i'd turn
my air conditioner on, because quite honestly, if it's seventy
degrees outside, the temperature inside your home is probably not
far from that, and that air condist is probably not
going to turn on unless you run that air condition
at about sixty eight degrees, And you'd be better off
just running a dehumidifire downstairs.
Speaker 7 (17:20):
Okay, so we got to get another dhumidifier. I thought
that might help.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Yeah, yeah, well sure it would help. And again it's
there's always gonna be days that are high and low.
I know, even in our house, and we're we really
watch the humidity levels. But if it's a day where
it's seventy degrees outside and you know, we'll like to
(17:44):
open the windows and a lot of and you're not
really you know, if you're really trying to control humidity,
that's not a good idea. I mean, it's light rain,
it's outside at seventy If you open up your windows,
that humidity's coming in your house. Period. If your windows
are close and you don't have an air conditioner on,
you don't have a deumidifier, and that that humid air
(18:05):
still to a degree, going to get inside your house.
So you know, it's kind of there's only so much
you can do.
Speaker 7 (18:15):
So if I get it down to maybe sixty five
and keep window shut, well it's still.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
Relatively yeah, if you well, like like today, I looked
this morning when I woke up. We're about eighty five today,
I think, and it's humid outside I got the air
conditioning on, I got a do umidifier on. It was
fifty four percent. Okay, okay. We're supposed to have cool
(18:42):
in the seventies this week, and depending on what the
outdoor humidity is and how we treat the air conditioner
inside our home, we'll probably turn off the air conditioner.
We'll probably open the windows and if a jumid outside
is going to be humid inside, but it's going to
be short lived because it'll get hot again, the air
conditioner go back on, and you know, we'll play that
(19:05):
little game so to keep it as regulated as you
can over the course of time, you really kind of need,
you know, the deumidifier and also the air conditioner, just
kind of play them off each other to, yeah, try
and keep it below sixty. I wouldn't get too crazy
about trying to get it down to around fifty all
(19:26):
the time, all right. I hope that helps. And you know,
a one day thing, it's not a big deal. We'll
continue with your calls at Home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 5 (19:43):
Makes it right with a call to Gary's Ellivate at
one eight eight two three talk This is at Home
with Gary Sellivator.
Speaker 6 (20:00):
Thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
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favorite retailer. All right back to where we go and
(22:37):
thanks for joining me. You're at home with Gary Sullivan
taking your calls regarding your home projects. It's eight hundred
eight two three eight two five five. I was telling
you earlier that there was an article on things you
hate projects, you hate, maintenance, you hate, cleaning, you hate
what do you hate to do in your house? There's
(22:58):
a whole article on this. Most of them I get
cleaning windows, running the sweeper. The number one thing, changing
the batteries in your smoke alarm. Got to be kidding me.
How big of a deal was that. At least I
haven't founded a big deal, but that was the number one.
I think it's aggravating when the alarm goes off in
(23:20):
the middle of the night because you didn't change the
bat That little beep can make you crazy. But changing
out the batteries, I don't know, wouldn't be in my
top ten. Anyway, back to the phones we go. We
got Brian. Brian, welcome, Thank you very much.
Speaker 8 (23:37):
Gary. You've got a question for your regarding if you
have a specific recommendation for bathroom culk. I've got a
walk in shower with ceramic tile on the walls and
where the seam meets the molded floor. I've used products
that are labeled mildew and mold resistant, but after applying
the calck on that seam, generally in a couple of months,
(24:00):
all black spots and blotches appear inside the calk and
they won't scrub out as if the mold is or
mildew is growing in the calck. You have any recommendations.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Here, Well, the problem is not the colock. The problem
is the waters behind the calking, Okay. And so when
you have a mildew resistant cocking, it's meaning that mold
will not grow on the surface of the calking, but
if the mold colony is behind the calking bead, it
(24:30):
will grow into it. Okay, I'm just saying that that's
that's the reason why you're experiencing it. I mean, sure
you've probably used a product and it would be one
I would recommend um, But the same thing will happen
if you get water. And I'll explain how that water
is getting there. It's the DAP quick seal, which contains microban,
(24:54):
which has a five year warranting on mold and mildew
on the surface of the cock. What happened and so
many people I use this as a tip because a
lot of times what will happen, especially if you have
kids in bathtub and they're splashing the water and the
water's going over the tub and it's going down inside
of the tub, and some of that calking has maybe
(25:18):
pulled away at one time or another. So in other words,
there's a little seam where some moisture can get in there.
Then the vinyl shika can start kind of curling back,
and more water will get in there, and there'll be
a mold grown on the subfloor, on the dust inside
the the one area where there's a gap, and that
mold will grow and it'll grow up into that calking.
(25:43):
But that's different than having mold grow on the surface
of the calking. That makes sense.
Speaker 8 (25:49):
And when you call the shower base where it meets
the ceramic tile, how I after you pull all the
old coot, how do you sterilize that? So beginning with
a dry.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
It's tough, but rubbing alcohol would be it. If you
can pull that cocking out and you know, get a
hair dryer in there and try and dry that out
the best you can. And then depending on how big
that is. I've even used like disinfectant little pieces of
gauze and running in there. Q tip if that's not
(26:26):
too big, but loving alcohol will help dry and kill
that mold and then then reapply your quick seal.
Speaker 4 (26:35):
Terrific.
Speaker 8 (26:36):
Thanks very much, appreciate the program.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
You're quite welcome. Thank you, bye bye. Yeah, And that
goes for everything. That was one area that is a problem,
aary and often overlooked. He obviously hadn't overlooked it. He
sees what the problem is. But even if you clean
out the calking around the bethtub up at the top,
or the shower pen whatever, and you've pulled all, yes,
(27:01):
you have to remove the old cocking and nose spaces
up there between the tub and the wall is usually sizeable.
You can get a Q tip in there, and you
get a que tip and some rubbing alcohol and get
that in there and get it dry and get that
on that mold, get as cleaned up as you possibly can,
get it sterilized as possible, as good as you can,
(27:24):
and then let it dry and then reapply the cocking
I mentioned the quick seal. It is an acrylic siliconized cocking,
so it's a water based silicone and it's a little
bit easier to apply than straight silicon, and it's got
microband in it, which is a mild aside, and that's
(27:47):
what i'd recommend using. All right, let's go to Robert.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
Robert welcome, Hey, good morning Gary.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
How are you doing fine, sir? Thanks?
Speaker 3 (27:57):
So Hok's going back to a couple of things I
want to address that some of your other callers have
talked about. Is I have a septic system and a
garbage disposal in my kitchen. In the garbage disposal, there's
an there's an injector where you put a cartridge on
the side, uh huh, and every time you turn on
the garbage disposal, it injects the bacteria into the septic
(28:20):
system and it works.
Speaker 4 (28:21):
Great.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
That's very cool. I'm not familiar with that. So that's great.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
That's a that's an Insyncorator product.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
Uh huh.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
Then when I built the house seventeen years, I've been
there and I just had the septic tank pumped this
last summer and they said, wow, this is in great shape.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
Yeah, boy, isn't it amazing? Maintenance? Maintenance, maintenance, And yeah,
the food, I'd read just a couple of quickies during
the break, and you know, most most of the things
really address keeping the bacteria levels, which is what I
had talked about using the K sixty seven aerobic product.
I like yours better because I don't have to remember
(29:03):
to do that. It does just.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
Glance under the sink every month or so make sure
there's Uh.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
I love that. I mean, I really do love that.
But one of the things that really screws up septic
systems is you know, huge amounts of water, huge amounts
of soap, and then disposables, I mean, the things people
try to flush and put down. And if you've got
a septic system, it's guaranteed to screw it up.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
And you know it's not it's not designed to break
those things.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
Down, right right, you gotta get a grinder and add
it to the house. Then, Yeah, for sure, for sure. Hey,
thanks for mentioning that. I'm gonna look into that. I
I don't have a septic system, and uh, but it'll
be good to to know that's available.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
Yeah. It's Insyncorator and it's just a little four ounce
cartridge or something you plug onto the side.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
Love it, Thank you much.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
Yeah, I wanted to talk a little bit about humidity
as well. Sure, I'm pretty well versed in that category.
So the air conditioning system is the best way to
remove the humidity from the home. But it's got to
be sized properly, not oversized. If it's oversized, it doesn't
(30:14):
run long enough to remove humidity. So you need a
long cycle.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
And some of those motors are adjustable and some are correct.
Speaker 4 (30:25):
Correct.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
You want to run your fan speed as low as
possible and still maintain adequate throw from let's say, from
your from your register so that it moves the air
around properly.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
Correct.
Speaker 3 (30:41):
And then those these humidifiers great, great appliances in themselves,
just little many air conditioners, right.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
And the longevity of them is not great either. Correct,
it's not great now.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
But if you know, in a situation, if you have
a home with an oversized air can the unit and
you don't have enough load for it to run, those
can be great additives to it. You may need more
than one, right, You don't have to keep that humanity down.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
Yeah, and let me add this too, and I think
you'll agree the sizing is important. I didn't get that
get into that with her, but I see it, and
I'm sure you see it all the time too. We're
forever updating our houses. We start out to show today
about proper ventilation in a home, proper insulation in a home.
(31:31):
And then we're putting in new front doors, we're putting
in new windows, we're putting in energy efficient everything in
our homes. Our homes become more energy efficient, and then
you're you know, air conditioner breaks down and somebody comes
in puts the exact same size that you add without
really doing a thorough investigation of your house. It's easy
(31:53):
to get a system that's too big.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
It's very easy. And you're exactly right. I see that
every day. Well, because I'll get those tech costs. What
did you put in? Well, I put in what was
their last right. How do you know that was right?
Well it worked for so many years. Yeah, and you're
absolutely right. And houses nowadays, they're building them with these
phone encapsulations, uh huh bone and and I'm seeing these
(32:18):
system sizes drop dramatically from what a load calculation standpoint.
So if you don't do a load out on an
existing home and just throw in the same size it
was there, it could be oversized before you got there.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
I totally agree Row, And I tell people people ask
me all the time they asks, is you, Gary, what
what's the best air conditioner? What? What air conditioner should
I get? I always go the first thing you do
is get the best technician. And the best technician is
going to have a system that he trust, that they
believe in, and he's going to take care of you.
(32:53):
It's really about the boots on the ground.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
They're all made of the same components. It's the best
air conditioner is the one that's been installed properly, sized.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
Properly Thank you. Totally correct, and I appreciate that.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
Yes, sir, have a great day.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
All right, you do the same, Thank you. Eric. All right,
Absolutely spot on. So if and we've talked about that
in the past, but it is so true. If if
you're dealing with somebody that's just coming out and he's
just going to replace what you got, I can almost
I can almost guess that that's going to be wrong.
(33:35):
They've got it. They got to ask the questions. Okay,
let me do a whole lowcut. How old of the windows,
what kind of installation do we have? I mean, my goodness,
houses didn't even have insulation in the walls in nineteen seventy.
Now they're pumping foam in them. You think your home
(33:55):
is going to be more efficient. Absolutely, let's take a
little break, James, you'll be up first. If you'd like
to join us. It's eight hundred eight two three eight
two five five. You're at home with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 5 (34:08):
Help for your home is just a click away at
Garysullivan online dot com.
Speaker 6 (34:13):
This is at home with Garysullivan.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
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dot com. All right, back at it, We go at
(37:06):
home with Gary Sullivan, taking your calls regarding home improvement
in our phone number. If you'd like to join us,
it is eight hundred eight two three eight two five five.
So go ahead and grab along. I've got a couple
open for you. James.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
Welcome, good morning, Gary. Really enjoy, really enjoy your show
and forget shower fans.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
All right, very good, thank you.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
We have a American standard toilet that doesn't flesh. Sometimes
it will flesh, and sometimes it does not flesh.
Speaker 1 (37:43):
Okay, how old is the toilet?
Speaker 2 (37:47):
You think probably it's eight ten years old.
Speaker 1 (37:54):
Okay, Um, Well, it could be a multitude of things,
and I guess probably the most common. You know, a
lot of times people think it's a blockage in a drain,
Usually in a toilet. It's not, but it can be
so the toilet to remove waste, it has to transfer
(38:16):
the water from the closet into the bowl and pushing
the waste and the water in the bowl into the drain,
which is one hundred and eighty degree gooseenck that goes
up the back side of the toilet and then down
into the four inch sewer line through the house and
then out of the house. So A, it could be
(38:41):
not transferring enough water from the closet to the bowl.
It could be that. B it could be a restriction
in the toilet itself because it also not only requires
drainage through the pipe, it also requires air. So if
(39:02):
you took a one gallon gas can without opening the vent,
it would just burp, blurt blurt out of a gas can.
You open the vent, it flows very nicely. So the
vent or the stack could be impeding to flow. Or
there could be a blockage in a drain. So it
could be any of the three. Normally, and I don't
(39:25):
even know if that normally is the right word, but
one of the issues is the transfer of the water
from the closet into the bowl. Underneath the rim of
the toilet there is a series of holes that allow
that water to transfer from the closet into the bowl
with enough force to flush the waste from the bowl
(39:47):
of the toilet. Those sometimes will get clogged with hard
water deposits, and to check that out first, you would
take a small mirror, maybe from like a compact case
or something like that, run it underneath that toilet rim
and see if those holes are open. You can even
(40:09):
take like a little twist bit in between your forefinger
and your thumb and a compact mirror on the other
hand and kind of open up or clean out those holes.
Open up those ports and see if that takes care
of the problem. You could also at night before you
(40:31):
go to bed, take a quart of CLR, which is
calcium lime rusting mover. It's a mild acid, and pull
the whole quart container into the toilet bowl and let's
sit overnight. If there was some hard water deposits over
the vent hole, that'll clean up those calcium deposits and
(40:54):
allow it to flush well. Also, so there's two simple
things you can do.
Speaker 2 (41:00):
The third one is pour that into which one.
Speaker 1 (41:05):
Into the bowl into the bow, and the just pour
it right in with the water and just let it
sit overnight and then the morning flush it away that long, yes, sir.
And of course the third one require more work, and
(41:26):
it would be if it were in the goosh neck
trap or drain uh you know, you know, if there's
something that was blocking that water flow. I know when
I kids in the house, you know, somebody'd always throw
a little truck or paper little paper cup or something
(41:47):
in there, and it would go in there. And when
you flush the water, bounce around and plug up that uh,
that drain line. And the only way you can get
that cleaned out is to shut off the water, pull
the toilet, get underneath and see what's in there to
clean that out. But those are three things you can
work on.
Speaker 2 (42:07):
I'll tell you the cel our sounds.
Speaker 8 (42:10):
I have some.
Speaker 2 (42:13):
Deposit build up in the bottom of the toilet, and
I've left the colar for I think a couple of
hours it says, or twenty minutes or something. I didn't
know I could leave it that long. But on up
into the hole. There are some deposits in there that
(42:38):
are quite hard.
Speaker 1 (42:40):
Okay, okay, we'll get a little twist bit and a
mirror so you can clean out those ones that are clogged.
If you have hard water, and it's generally the hard
water deposits inside the bowl or underneath the rim of
the toilet that's causing your problem.
Speaker 2 (43:00):
All right, well, thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (43:03):
All right, you bet, thank you appreciate it. All right,
If you would like to join us, and we'll take
a break here at the top of the air and
take some more calls on the other side. If you
would like to join us, feel free to go ahead
and doll us up. It's eight hundred eighty two three
A two five five each year this time when schools
(43:24):
go back, I talk about Jaws Cleaners, and you know,
maybe if a kid's going away to college, or you
just want to clean up after a tough summer at home.
Jaws has some great deep cleaning products that are very
very safe to use. One of them would be the
Jaws Foaming bathroom Cleaner. It's great for showers and tubs.
(43:46):
It gets rid of water spots, soapscumb, mineral deposits, and
it'll leave it at that shower with a sparkling shine
and a fresh clean scent. If you're looking to disinfect
different items bookshelves, light fixtures, high touch points, computer screens,
they got a wonderful disinfectant and you can learn about
(44:09):
Jaws products simply going to their website. It's Jaws Queens
dot com and I think it has a thirty five
dollars free shipping on that also, so check it out
the Jaws products. All right, we'll take your calls. Tom,
you'll be first, and then Robert join us. Eight hundred
eight two three eight two five five. Y're at home
(44:30):
with Gary Sullivan.
Speaker 5 (45:10):
Start a project and don't know how to finish it.
Call Gary at one eight hundred and eighty two three talk.
You're at home with Gary Sullivan
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