(00:00:00) Chance of thunderstorms developing this afternoon highs between 75 and 80 degrees. Mostly cloudy. Now throughout the state and Duluth. It's 66 degrees some rain falling and Rochester and 69 in st. Cloud 74 degrees and the current temperature in the Twin Cities is 75 degrees and Bob. That's the latest (00:00:19) news Chris. Thank you. It's six minutes after eleven o'clock. And I guess this may end up being a indoor project weekend instead of an outdoor project weekend, unless you feel lucky I guess Gary. Yeah. Branson is with us today on. Midday. Gary's latest book here is called the complete guide to manufactured housing and in it. He's described as an active and prolific freelance writer and I congratulate you because everybody ought to be known as prolific at something at some time in their in their lives, which is harder being a veteran Builder contractor being a prolific writer. Well prolific writer is harder to do I guess (00:00:50) that I've done three or four books since then they're all in the pipeline out there somewhere and I think my last one was my 24th, so I've got a 25th silver anniversary book coming up here shortly. (00:01:03) It's terrific. I know you have one coming on log homes. Is (00:01:06) there is it the log home book is out. We've got one at the printer for her Hurst with him our division of Hearst to publishing that is a hundred and twenty-five home emergencies and how to handle them deals with floods and all the things we've been experiencing lately. I have another book on home repairs. That's at F&W Publishers and Cincinnati. So those are the two that are in the pipeline right now (00:01:32) where we have some calls in the pipeline to we'll get to those in just a second. Let me give you the numbers in the Twin Cities the numbers 2276 thousand outside the Twin Cities 1-800 to for 22828. My theory is that Saturday's is an automatic pent-up demand to go do something build something fix something whatever and when we have weather like this that makes outdoor work perhaps not possible depending on what your project is. I think there's a lot of folks pacing looking for something to do and maybe we'll be able to give folks. Idea of something to fix and solve some problems for Melissa. Let's go to the phones of this morning. Good morning. Good morning. Hello. I've got a question about crawl spaces. I have a house in a winter climate and the zoning officials tell me that the crawl space has to be vented which is not too practical if you've got pipes and things under it. I've got a contractor who says that you really ought to put some kind of plastic sheet over the soil and then close the vents in the winter, even though the zoning people don't agree with that and the only people say you'll get mold buildup Etc. What do you know about crawl spaces? And how should you really treat them? (00:02:38) Well quite a lot. We I come from an area south of hearing down through Kansas where I started my building career and most house there were either slab on grade or crawl space. There were fewer basements down there. We had a very high water table. Although there's not much surface water. There is now surface water in that by the way is the right way to do that according to that. It is to put down a six or eight mil sheet of plastic over there the ground underneath in the crawl space and use a mastic some psychic kind of construction adhesive to stick that in seal the edge of that plastic to your concrete foundations. It's a good idea to put some sand over that and all the plastic down in place and that'll keep moisture from migrating up through the soil and and dampening your crawlspace underneath there. As far as the ventilation we have the now build houses. If you start from ground zero and build this foundation and what waterproof it and moisture proof it so that moisture can't get in. They they can build such crawl space without Vince. I'm strongly in favor of events because I think any moisture trapped under there is potentially going to do some damage. I would leave the vents open one of the things you have there that you mentioned was the water pipes. Of course, you can either reposition those pipes and have Re-plumbing done insulate them or put the electric heaters on which are attached expensive to do the other thing you could do would be to put some kind of heat in that crawl space area some perhaps electrical resistance heating or something in there to keep that area little warmer one of the things about whether you should vent or not depends on if you're seeing some moisture build-up some frost build up and that sort of thing in that crawl space. You probably should open the vents and let the air circulate if the area is dry and often it is depending if you're building for say sand as opposed to heavy clay or something to holds more moisture you can get by with events clothes. So the thing to do there I would think would be to have adjustable vents open them if necessary. If you're seeing a moisture build-up if you see no moisture build-up and it remains relatively dry, then keep them closed. (00:04:54) All right. There are a lot of folks who have had flooding problems or just even wet basements for that matter and in addition to having a more moisture Laden year than normal. I've seen the pictures on TV of folks who have had two feet of water in their basement and gone back in fairly soon with the moisture around the foundation putting pressure on in. What's what's the advisability of (00:05:19) that? Well, there should be gravel and drain tile around that footing to provide some drainage away from as the water comes approaches to the basement. Of course, if your grade is right on the surface the water should run downhill. It should be great in such a manner of the water runs at least 10 feet away from the building before it can form a puddle and soak into the soil. If it soaks if it puddles and soaks closer than that within three feet of the foundation, you're going to have a wet basement that water's going to find its way back to that wall. The it's amazing to me. I was involved in some of the cleanup and the Chaska shock of the area back in the floods and 65 and back in those times when we took down ceiling fixtures light fixtures and in the main floor and the water water dirty water dumped in our face is super took these fictional vindicating the water gone eight feet deep in there. And if you open them up and dry them out, it's amazing how quickly they can clean up and how little damage was present in many cases. (00:06:19) Gary Branson is the guest today on midday and we're taking calls about home repair Fix-It projects you'd like to do the numbers to to 76 thousand in the Twin Cities 1-800 to for 22828 in or outside the Twin Cities and let's go to another call. Good morning. Good morning. How are you put on the outside of our house and some people are advocating vinyl and others are saying steel and I guess I would like to hear you discuss the virtues of both and if you would conclude with if it were your house, which you would use thank you. (00:06:53) Well, (00:06:53) The (00:06:53) vinyl siding is the largest seller of the between aluminum the prefinished sightings aluminum Sia exciting steel and vinyl vinyl is the cheapest and the most therefore was one of the reasons it's the most popular all of the so-called, you know, no maintenance sightings may need in time like aluminum or steel will in time after all the finish on there's just a pea coat of paint and eventually that will degrade and you'll have to do something with it which is to say to repaint the house, but you should get 15 20 year interval before that happens as far as the choice there. If your if your budget is your primary choice, I would say to go with the vinyl between violence deal. (00:07:38) It's 30 minutes after eleven o'clock a a reminder before the next call that you can now purchase most of the music heard on Minnesota public radio's music stations through the new public radio music Source, just call one eight hundred seven five music and remember that your purchase benefits, Minnesota Public Radio. Gary Branson, perhaps can benefit you. Let's take another call. Good morning. Hello. How are you? I'm good. Thanks. I'm putting in Cyclone fencing. I live in Wyoming Minnesota and they told me that the frost line is a 42 to 48 inches for the footings and it seems a little deep for the post. I was wondering what would happen. If I didn't go that that D for the frost line. (00:08:18) Well, number one, you don't have to be concerned with frost line when you're building a fence the fence post, you know there you'll get a slight heave on a on a house foundation or building Foundation as to ground freezes. Of course, it expands a bit and will heave your house there. You have to be concerned frostfangs. You don't with Cyclone fencing your problem there. If you're talking about the the metal wire Cyclone Fence you don't have much of a wind load on that. But what you have to do is to pay attention to the depth. Usually they put suggest putting one third of the post into the ground in. To give it proper strength and wind loading and the necessity for the depth of the post depends somewhat on the type of soil you're setting it in if you have soil such as hard clay or something it'll support the post lights and we'll let it say so if you're putting a fence post into the ground say it says you want a 4-foot fence and you should use the six foot post and put a 2 feet into the ground. It's also a good idea if you're in light soil, I don't know what you have in Wyoming but if your light soil to use submitted each one of those Post locations to be sure and get a good set there. We just built about 300 feet of fence last month friend and I put up about a hundred and twenty thirty feet of of six foot high privacy fence wood fencing and then the rest of the cycle and fencing so we just dumped half a bag of cement in each 60 pound bag of cement and each one of those holes and we got a good sturdy fence there. (00:09:47) So five years from now, we won't be (00:09:48) wavering. Let's say yeah you want that thing to stand exactly (00:09:51) you could do a you could do make me a very Happy person. If you tell me that the deck, what do they call it the beams at the post that around my house now that are sitting on maybe a quarter inch of cement that looks like it was one shovel full onto a hard clay surface is just fine. And that's no problem. (00:10:09) Well it may or may not be a problem the deck normally when you install a deck if it's faster the house at one side to the usually it's bolded to like bolted to the mud sill or the bottom Choice and then on the outside if those if you don't have Frost Footers there it'll just kind of swing up a bit on the frost and it isn't a problem. Now, if you've got posts that aren't on Frost footings against the door you maybe can't get the door open because of the frost will raise that deck enough that you will be have difficulty opening the door in the winter time so that I (00:10:43) can fix it now or wait till the winter and well if if it's wrong of it (00:10:46) sitting there if it's setting their level and Plumb I would just sit down on (00:10:51) it. Well, that's good. I need more work to do. I'd like to pass along before the next call here. The National Weather Service in Fargo is issued a flood warning effective until three o'clock this afternoon for Northeast North Dakota Southern Grand Forks County just a while ago a rainfall reports of 8 to 10 inches in the last six hours in the area having fallen in the Finley area, which is 40 miles Southwest of Grand Forks and estimates show two to five inches of rain has fallen across Northern Barnes County Southern Griggs much of Trail as well as Southern Grand Forks County. So a flood warning is in effect until three o'clock with the folks in the southern Grand Forks County area of Northeast North Dakota the beat goes on and so does the phone calls? Good morning? Hi. We have a 1908 home with a poured concrete concrete foundation and the surface in our Insider basement seems to be slowly disintegrating there's spalling and then it seems like the surface swells a little bit and then crumbles. Floor and I'm just wondering what would be a short-term and long-term solution or if you could refer me to a book or a person for some help (00:12:05) well for that kind of extensive problem, of course the foundation any deterioration of foundation can be critical a depending on to what extent is deteriorating. I would suggest that you get a either masonry contractor or construction engineer to take a look at that and see that what happens, of course is that that poured concrete basement depending on how rich concrete was when it was bored back in 1908, you're getting it takes up moisture from the surrounding soil and that moisture degrades and this mid deteriorates over a period of years how much deterioration? Well, that's just a surface thing. If it's just on the surface, it could be cleaned off perhaps scraped or or hammered off with a hammer gun or or that sort of thing or sand blasted down. To affirm a point where it says you've got firm cement again again. If the thing is strong enough to hold up the house and there's no problem there. You may be able to clean it down replaster the inside walls or even build another wall inside of a like concrete block for morale for cosmetic purposes. As long as that thing is holding the validation is holding the house where it belongs, but they'll only way you can find that out as find there's to get yourself an expert in there as I say, it could be an architect or or a construction engineer or masonry contractor who understands those things and habitus asked (00:13:28) have you just built a sidewalk or the first time I ever built a sidewalk work with cement friend of mine brought me over to see his house and his cement projects. I guess. I became an expert after just building one one four by six sidewalk, but he also has an old house and the cement is crumbling on his porch. I guess he heard they had replaced the you know, your typical Victorian wooden porch with a cement one including these big huge cement steps. Which are now crumbling, you know, you really don't want to take a jackhammer to that stuff and sledge Hammer it out of there. Is it? Okay to cement over cement will how do you know if you've got enough (00:14:05) bonding in most cases? You'd want to get an expert's opinion get a mason in there. They can Bond over that there are concrete bonders that help you stick Newsome into Old there are mechanical Fasteners. So you can put wire lath over and pour put another coat over the top of it as the only the criteria here is whether you can get down to a sound substrate you see if you if you try to to stick a new layer of cement to a surface is flaking or spalling off. Obviously, you don't have a sound surface for it to adhere to and and that you're going to get a Knitter interlayer Bond failure where the two layers will stick together simply because the face layer on the oldest peeling, so the only probably they are not the average homeowner wouldn't be expert enough to assess that and see what to do. Pepper have to have a (00:14:55) contractor 2276 thousand in the Twin Cities the number to call to speak to a Gary Branson today on midday here on Minnesota Public Radio and outside the Twin Cities one eight hundred two four two two eight two eight. Let's take another call. Hello. Hello. Thank you for taking my call. And I have a centered front entry on my rather small house in the previous owners bermed the Earth up against the house against the foundation and then they timbered to make it two levels and the step that's in the middle between those those two wings of I guess you'd call it timbered Earth is deteriorating and and they didn't do a good job on the timbering and it's caving in so I want to replace it with something more enduring. I kind of like the concept. I wondered what your guest thinks of these Keystone things that they're building retaining walls out of and if I were to replace the Timbers with Keystone, could I also build a step-up? That to keep it looking, you know uniform all the way (00:15:57) across I as far as the key stones are very attractive landscape component. They just to stack together to form more retaining walls and that sort of thing very decorative. I've seen them both on people's land Lawns and at the home show when I visited there they were very attractive whether they would be applicable to your project or not. I think you should call the Keystone company and tell them what you propose to do. I don't know that they make a block that can be used for example for the step surface of a step but they may do one and only way to find out would be to ask them (00:16:35) Gary Branson. The guests were taking your calls today on home repair and Improvement and and such the book that I've been leaving through the last couple of days is manufactured housing, you know, the lingo changes we used to call it prefab. So now it's manufactured and I guess this also would include what we used to call (00:16:51) trailers. Yeah that mobile. All me on this is now referred to as manufactured book because once in most cases the wheels are used to move it to its location and it's at sound Foundation or basement in this never moved again, in 95% of (00:17:05) cases prefab homes, as we call them. I call them used to be really kind of ugly. They've really changed in recent years. I know a few years ago. I heard my neighbor. I was I'm into the keeping up with the Joneses was going to build a prefab home and I figured great. I'm I'll be okay. It won't be better than mine and boy he showed up with a beauty and you know, it's it's they've really (00:17:27) changed. Well the building technology, of course back in my day when I was first young man in the business, which is right after World War two most that prefab stuff was what set up the whole ideas came out of out of our military experience for they were rushing housing up all over the world and and the construction Battalion or CBS of the Navy were a legendary and their ability to get it done. Yesterday, you know and they could pop those up and many of those fellows went into the prefab business when they came out of there and we did one project in Wichita, Kansas 1500 houses, you know, and that's about a hundred days worked on there, you know in those days we take those out on pallets and and have your your roofs and walls to everything framed up and stacked on. Hey racks and you go out in the morning in the middle of a wheat field and tonight. There's a Housing Development there. It was amazing to to 76 thousand in the (00:18:21) Twin Cities 1-800 to for 22828 outside the Twin Cities to talk to Gary Branson. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Mr. Branson. I asked the moon One deals with driveway cracks on a passport driving. The other is drain tile. Is there any way that I can clean out the drain tile? (00:18:42) This is at footing level in your basement. That is correct. None that I know of you if you possibly could get take a backhoe and dig down to that level and put with water pressure. You might be able to flush them. I've never seen it done, but you could I think they're I would talk to a masonry contractor and ask ask him to assess the (00:19:05) possibility on the driveway. It seems like every other year I redo my driveway and the ground heaves during the winter and in the spring I have these cracks that are about an inch wide. Is there any solution for (00:19:25) that? The cracks are an inch wide to do they close up as the weather warms in the frost comes out of the ground to the Christ getting narrower. Yes. I have a similar situation. The cracks aren't quite so severe. They will always crack in the same place because obviously that's where the stress is. And so the next time the ground heaves my blacktop driveway developed a cracks and I put some of this stuff. I think they call it driveway medic is made by Phillips. 66 is like a Band-Aid for blacktop. You peel the back side off of it and thing is about it's a fabric about 6 inches wide. It's adhesive on one side and you just clean that area and fill that crack sprinkles lights and in there and pop that thing down there and that's been holding for me. I don't know if it would hold with a 1 inch stretch that's quite a lot of stretch there. You may have to the ultimate solution there, maybe two you could try the driveway Medicus not terribly expensive and if that doesn't work, you'll have to take to be the base asphalt up and and get somebody in their Tax Claim put down a new base. What you need is a good gravel base underneath that asphalt to allow water to run away and reduce the Amount of heave or Frost heave on the on the slab. That's why most cement and blacktop failed says because it has an in insufficient base underneath it and insufficient drainage and water accumulates there and freezes and Pops it up. (00:20:48) Well, there's a project you don't see much of this summer. Is that driveway sealing thing with that? You know that black goopy stuff that you well blacktop (00:20:56) sealer. It won't quit raining. You (00:20:57) can't get any decent weather to (00:20:59) do. It can't we won't quit raining long enough to get to my healer down (00:21:03) Gary Branson's on midday today. It's 2276 thousand in the Twin Cities outside the Twin Cities one eight hundred two four two two eight two eight. Hello. Hello. We've just moved to Minnesota and to our dismay. We found out our roof has no ventilation and one cocktail contractor has recommended soffit vents with baffles and a ridge vent. And another one is told us that he doesn't need to put in soffit vents because we have a lower pitched roof, and he just put roof vents in lower down on the surface of the roof, and we're wondering Which way is best, where'd you move from? If you don't mind my asking from North Carolina? Okay, what's Carolina one of my favorite (00:21:37) places used to go down to Charlotte for the tournament of Kings a lumberjack championship of (00:21:42) the which where we're from. Is that right? Yes. (00:21:45) Well, welcome to Minnesota the I've lost my trike out on the Carolina and for lost event soffit vents. She was to need to do if you're going to move air through an attic space is to allow some place for them or for them are coming in you need an entrance and you need an exit and so if you just put Vince down low on the roof, what you're trying to do is get a chimney effect nature. You don't have to have a fan in there to pull out stale air and moisture out nature will do that for you. If you build a roof, right and that means that you allow soffit vents at the low end and the air can come in there. It will move across that insulation barrier in your attic will be heated by the sun beating on the roof. And as that air is heated it naturally Rises just like the exhaust smoke from a chimney. So it goes up to the top now. It's trapped at the top unless you allow it someplace to get out. So then you put a ridge vent at the top and you get this continuous movement of air so that they're dry areas. Begin at the soffits moving across your insulation picking up the moisture being heated rising and going out to ridge vent. So that's the way to go with both the Ridge and soffit vent that gives you a very good ventilation system. No power. You don't have to have a power fan or electricity or anything. (00:23:10) Is there any difference in the in the climate of Minnesota versus North Carolina? They would make that requirement in North Carolina and not as (00:23:17) necessary. No most building most building rules apply regardless of where you do your building you have for example in down in her part of the country her their major BTU problem is air conditioning where ours is, you know, they opposite where ours is is heating but the trying to keep the house comfortable for human occupancy, which is what we're trying to do is the same whether you're trying to keep the heat out or in you want that are to move out of that attic you want the moisture to move out of the attic and you want the insulation barrier. (00:23:50) What's the project like that? It cost her because we don't know how big our houses but (00:23:53) it's impossible. I'm so long out of the business as a contractor to estimate the other man's, you know, time and materials whatever the cost is it should be repaid both in it increases the longevity of your asphalt shingle because if you don't violate that roof, you get such a temperature build up in that attic that you're frying the shingles from Endor side of the roof and you get a 20 25 you're single now may last 10 or 15 years. If you don't try to keep that space ventilating keep that roof temperature down. (00:24:24) So there's a double jeopardy you're going to mess up your shingles and you're gonna have a pretty uncomfortable house in the summertime (00:24:29) if you don't yeah, it doesn't. Yeah, you can you can install events without disturbing the shingles. (00:24:34) Hope we can answer your questions. Give us a call to to 76 thousand in the Twin Cities 1-800 to for 22828 with Gary Branson walking talking Encyclopedia of problems around your house. Hi, you're on the air. Hi. I've got two quick questions. If I could the first is I'm getting ready to sell my house and we have a housing maintenance program in our city and they're requesting that I do pretty extensive work on my Plumbing because they don't feel that the vending is up to the current code when Plumbing is 55 years old and it works perfectly well, and I'm just wondering if that's a common a common and legitimate request or if that's something that often is just stayed in a in a disclosure form. The other question I had was if you start pouring footings in the fall and don't complete the basement block basement until the following spring cheer up Frosty's problems. (00:25:38) If you pour the footings in the pole, yeah. Well, I've seen projects stopped at various stages of completion and you could check with your Mason but I've not aware that there ever was a problem there. We've started building houses and got you know, you get your puddings down and you get two feet of snow. You just simply can't continue and there it says till spring so I've never witnessed any problem. I spent many years in the actual building business hands on as far as selling the house in the plumbing vents. I'm a bit surprised if they are going to force you to bring that up to code. There's there's in most building codes for example, probably 90% or 95% of the wiring and Plumbing in the houses in in st. Paul and Minneapolis City Limits would not meet today's code because they were built 30 40 50 a hundred years ago. And so they were all done to the code prevailing at that day and certain things have been done over the years perhaps to update them. But most of them would not meet today's code and they allow them to be occupied because they're they're The optimum code that we use today, but they are still safe according to the experts you see so I'm a bit surprised that with the plumbing thing event most normally if the if they let you you can't use certain kind of Plumbing traps for example anymore. But if you have them already in the building that to my knowledge, they don't usually make you take them out. The plumbing inspector wouldn't Sit Stay come out as long as the plumbing is working. If you know this may be something that you can avoid if the city or somebody is saying do it you probably are stuck with the with the project most often if the plumbing works. That's that's about all you can expect in house. It's 55 years old. I love watching those (00:27:17) programs on TV, you know where they build a garage in like a half an hour? Yeah and such if you really gets me going and I just want to grab the kids and come on kids. Let's go build it a (00:27:25) trip. That's what they're hoping will be on one of those (00:27:28) shows a we used to be great because they would have the plumbing and heating contractor and they would have this they would rehab a house for a couple and about three So did they would always bring in the plumbing and heating guy who invariably would say? Oh, it's much worse than we thought and give these folks a bill and the episode would end is the announcer was talking in the couple was crying on their couch about the plumbing and heating bill. I don't know what has to do with anything but the other than the plumbing and heating things bug (00:27:55) me was like this like the story about the surgeon to got the bill from the plumber and he complained he said my God that's $200 an hour. I don't make $200 an hour in the plumber said neither. Did I when I was a surgeon (00:28:07) another call, good morning. Good morning. Good morning. I have a very peculiar problem. We have a stone retaining wall on a portion of our backyard and we have shrews that love to live in there and dig tunnels all over the upper portion. Is there any solution for getting rid of those things? (00:28:33) Well, I'm sure there is a solution. I'm not sure what it is. I would contact Either a pest control company that you can find in the Yellow Pages or the University of Minnesota. They do much work on this for example moles and some sorts of I don't know what the shrews could be looking for. I think they live on grubs and worms and such like perhaps like a mold as and that's what they're looking for. So what you have to do is get rid of the grubs to get rid of the moles. The university has their agricultural Department over there would I'm almost sure have an expert over there that could advise you on getting rid of any kind of pest of that sort, or you could call one of the Orkin or one of the pest control type (00:29:13) companies. I had carpenter ants last (00:29:17) year Yep. They're fun to let them in a retaining wall if item every (00:29:21) yeah, I don't know house and on all of my trees. Do you ever get rid of those? Can you ever really get rid of those things? I (00:29:27) haven't managed to I have for one season, but they always come back. I have a wood retaining wall and they there's something about that pressure-treated lumber. They seem to gain weight on it to get bigger. Every years is be good (00:29:41) for I don't know why I thought the pressure treated lumber was supposed to eliminate pests. Well, I guess it (00:29:46) is there there's another thing though that if you buy pressure-treated lumber or Redwood or whatever you have to buy the best in order that it comes in various grades, if you get the heavy duty ground contact pressure treated lumber, you can hardly pick one of them up because they're so full of chemical that's made for ground contact, but people will buy the one that's slightly pressure-treated looks green so to speak but it isn't supposed to be explained is made to be used above ground like an addict. something not against ground (00:30:15) contact Let's go back to the phone. Good morning. Where you calling from? I'm calling from st. Cloud. Great. And my question is I've replaced the ceramic tile in front of my front door. The the people who owned the house before me just use mastic to stick it down. When I put in the replacement tiles the people at the store said no, no, you have to use a mortar mix. Well, I did unfortunately now, it's all popping up on me and I don't know how to fix this if I should try and scrape it off, but it looks like it's really hard to do that. So I'm sort of at a loss how to repair that. (00:30:53) Well the I would think that the mastic so long as your floor is strong enough that it doesn't Flex under a person's weight if it flexes, of course, it'll pop the tile or slate or whatever off as long as I have floors in proper shape. It would be quite a painstaking thing to do but you could take that towel back up and clean the backside of them and use them a stick to put them down people such as Oh colortile are these Tile Outlets should be able to provide you if you go to them with a problem. They might be able to provide you with a cleaner for that. You can clean fresh motor off of Tyler Bricker that with muriatic acid of 5% to hydrochloric acid solution, but I don't know if the if this particular cement base will clean off or not. If it's if it's more than a few months old you check with your color tile people or one of the tile outlets and and on what you should use therefore mastic to replace that. (00:31:49) All right, let's go from Saint Cloud to who knows where good morning where I'm calling from Minneapolis. I was working out is Gary the editor of workbench magazine. (00:32:00) No. No, I am have done some work for them. I'm listed or was as a contributing editor for them. I was 10 years at a magazine called The Family Handyman. I was senior editor over there. I do some work. I'm doing a story right now for Minneapolis st. Paul Magazine on home repairs OB in the November issue a vow. Had a December story and pop mechanics on buying a carpet I have a son is in the carpet business. And so we collaborated on 14 pop mechanics their Hearst publishing. I've done a couple of books for them as well. (00:32:31) As you say workbenches is a small magazine. My question has to do with Latin plaster walls living on 1920 house will be replacing an existing window with a smaller window and consequently. I'm going to have void area in the in the room to fill in and I'd like to know should I try and finish that with plaster or could I remove the lath and plaster and then put in drywall and then somehow scream over to the joints (00:33:03) you can patch if you make a nice clean job, maybe use a carbide saw blade to cut that new opening fill in around there with wallboard and and then just tape and tape the Between the wallboard Neil plaster as though you were taping wallboard. Now what you have to do. There is your if you use half or even five eighths inch thick wall board most blasters three quarters of an inch to an inch thick if you consider the plaster and the lath, so they won't quite match. You'll have to nail some perhaps some would laugh Thor 2 layers of sheet rock or something in there often. We used to use two layers of 3/8 inch sheet rock, which would give you three quarter inch thickness. So that would bring out so that the new wall board was flush and even with the old plaster if you follow me that will be the problem of the plaster is thicker than the (00:33:52) wallboard boy. How do you know when to leave it to somebody else? Do you know what I hear you say? Yeah, you got to cut this window or whatever. That's when I say bye. (00:34:02) Well, I spent on you know, if I was about 12 13 years old when my father took me out on a construction project first time of Summer, you know summer vacation from school was not a vacation in my day. So I've been at it since then when I went to work for handyman. Seen as senior editor over there, they we found there are so many skill levels. It's unbelievable. The amount of skill levels one author suggested that nobody ever beat the United States in a war because we're an ancient nation of mechanics. If you get Five Guys stand on a street corner down there one time can build your house in the next one can build you a car. The whole country is is voided that is is quite an amazing thing. So you just have to throw the information out there and let that person assess for themselves. I had a lady call me one time and she was going to fix her roof and I said well, can you describe the so she said I'm on the roof now with a cellular phone. I'm actually shingling right now and here this lady of crawled out her Attic Window and put a new roof on it young woman not and she's calling me from the rooftop of the question is C. So everybody's doing it, you know, they and there's a tremendous amount a level of experience at the same time. We try to caution people to assess their own ability. I don't know how whether they're able. Do this or not? When they write me or call me. All I can do is tell them how it's done. And if they think oh that's getting me into a little trouble especially in anything to do with the mechanical trades such as plumbing and wiring especially where you can get yourself into real serious trouble. If you don't know your (00:35:33) business, I have two great fears in any projects I do which are not numerous but I try one is that I can't do it or and I'll get stuck halfway through and the other is that I'll have to explain to somebody why the wiring is this way or that way. There's a big hole where there shouldn't be a big hole or that sort of thing. You're listening to a midday on Minnesota Public Radio. We're talking today to Gary Branson as you could probably figure out we're taking your calls and questions about things that are going on around your house. Good morning. Yeah. I have a The porch that the water has eroded away one corner about 6 inches underneath and I was curious on how to repair that (00:36:10) you say as one corner. Are you talking about poster footing at the corner of a post on the porch? (00:36:16) No, I mean Rod (00:36:21) I see and this is the water has washed out the footings under the post or is it done damage to the porch wood itself orchids. The structure (00:36:29) itself was a cement porch. I sigh and it's just a rotary the ground from underneath the corner of it. (00:36:34) I see there is a company or several companies perhaps around town that do what is called cement jacking. If you look at the ready mix cement companies, they come out with pumps and they pump a slurry of cement and fly ash and one thing and another underneath any structure and fill any holes and they also by inserting pushing the stuff in Under Pressure can raise and level a structure such as Sidewalk or a step or whatever like that and rather than bringing formerly. All we could do is break that stuff up and rebuild it break it down and rebuild it at this point a call the cement jacking company and ask them to come out and take a look and see what they can do. They can probably Pump It full of cement and jacket back where it belongs and stop and fill the hole. So there's no further erosion. (00:37:20) Alright still I give the number. If not, I'll give it again to 276 thousand in the Twin Cities 1-800 to for 22828 more calls from Line to Line we go. Good morning to you. Good morning from Ramsey Minnesota. Great, and I have a barn with black asphalt shingles. I'm very steep roof and the north side of it and a lot of green fungal growth on pure a lot to do with the rain this year. My question is should I be concerned with this growth on there or if so there a way to get rid of it, or should I just let nature take its course. (00:37:56) Well, depending on whether you have a fungus or herbal growth like moss you can apply either they make herbicides fungicides for the roof that will that will kill that growth on there. If you're getting that kind of growth it indicates to me that you're having some poor drainage on there if that roof is that steep. You shouldn't be getting a whole lot of twigs and things accumulating there. If you have trees overhanging that roof and shading at that will encourage that type of growth if you get moss in that sort of growth, there's a in the Pacific Northwest where they have a lot of rain out in Oregon and Washington, they make a zinc strip that you can nail up on the ridge underneath the ridge of your roof and as that zinc washes down the roof, it will kill that fungal growth on there and you will keep that roof clean. So you could look into that zinc strip application. I think okay Hardware would be the people who would who would Of that or I don't remember the name of the product right off hand. I could get it for you. If you want to call me off. (00:39:00) Are you also wrote a book on I want to say it was surviving lumber yards and and got a man said it was it what's up (00:39:09) guys to manufacturer guy do Home Centers Lumberyard. This (00:39:12) place is getting bigger and bigger. I consider it a challenge now when I can find a 2x4 in a Lumberyard and without having to well, that's really where it is. (00:39:20) The growth has been phenomenal when I went to handyman in 1977. We went down to Chicago to the what is the biggest trade convention in the world Hardware Show and it's filled up a little McCormick Place and now they've built two new McCormick Place has completely filled the old one built two new ones and there's no end to it and site one of the things happening is that we're becoming an older Nation. We were after Bo about after World War Two I would say if you start dating back all of these housing our Using stock something like 80% of it is over 40 years old. So it needs updating and repair constantly plus the manufacturers and magazines like handyman and workbench in those and the TV shows that you mentioned are educating people and what used to be deep dark secrets that only the plumber of the brick Nation new some how do they feel about? Hello tapping those deep dark sea? Well, it's like anything else you do is, you know, you aren't still not a plumber even if you replace the washer so, you know the plumber still do most of the real (00:40:27) Plumbing work and no I replace the washer. I strut like a plumber. There you go. It's a challenge and one that I like to meet from time to time. Let's go to the phone. Good morning. Hi, and we have a room that has limited air circulation in it. It's not damp and we have a constant motor in there. Very unpleasant odor almost like a urine odor and wonder If you could identify what might be the cause whether it's the tile or the wax and what could be done to deal with it. We've scrubbed it with Borax and of course normal soaps. (00:41:05) Well, you don't have any pets or that in the house. That would be causing owner. Sometimes you get an ammonia odor that is similar to what you described in that may be coming from the floor wax. I don't without knowing what brand of wax there are that I wouldn't be able to say exactly if you have a strong odor down there. I would there is there room damp. Is there a very damp (00:41:32) that's the surprising thing about it. It's not stamped or not. Really a musty type of water either. (00:41:39) Well, there are companies if I would first of all take a good stripper in strip that wax off of there and see if that gets rid of the odor if your humidity levels are low, you could are that space out and see if that gets rid of the odor and if it doesn't in the Yellow Pages of the phone book, you'll find companies that deal in such things as fire and flood reconstruction and that sort of thing. If you have a fire they'll come in and remove the smoke off of all of the interior of your house and so forth. And so those people are experts in dealing with a odors and finding their sources and dealing with them and if you can't do that by just ripping the wax and and airing the place out then I would call one of those experts and have them come on and see if they can detect it would almost certainly they can because they're used to dealing with musty odors mildew smells and and the results of flood water and this this sort of thing where and fire odors so they can get rid of smoking almost everything and no doubt could cure your problem (00:42:36) boy. I look at those pictures. Of the folks mostly Iowa, Missouri and I say boy, I just walk away. I don't know how you face a project like that of (00:42:46) it's amazing to me and when when they fled it down through tasks and Shakopee down there asked those people why don't you walk away and they looked at me like you got to be out of your mind and they told me this is home. This is where I live and this is where my money you know, they got the money invested in house. You just can't very well walk away from the impulse. You understand what he is overwhelming because it is a terrible mess sure is (00:43:10) good morning. You're on a midday with Gary Branson. Yes. Thank you. I'm calling from st. Paul. I have a house that was built in 1926 like most collars. It's old. I have plaster walls. There's been some settling in and foundation and I can see cracks along the walls and also along the ceiling that's the textured ceiling and I'm wondering what would be the best solution is that trying to check about raising the foundation? Or is there a cheaper way to try to repair those? (00:43:42) Well the first and most serious problem is that Foundation failure because that did will not get better. It will not improve with age. It's going to get worse and worse as they start to fail. Then it the progression is almost geometric. So you need to get either a masonry contractor or again a construction engineer in there and assess how much movement there is that Foundation? Whether it's failing and must be replaced that nothing you do. The plaster is going to help as long as that Foundation is sagging also on the plaster. You probably will have to have a professional patch a because if you have a textured surfaces tremendously difficult to patch (00:44:22) this paint get rotten and I know this is a question from left field and oil-based paint particularly. We had a smell in a while. We have a smell in a Roman a surprise. I've got 51 minutes without asking you this and we just can't track it. We tried tsp scrubbing all the walls carpets everything and now we think it may be the paint went bad or something. Is (00:44:46) that no, I wouldn't think so. I've never experienced that we used to use casein paint which was a milk by-product. It was like Borden's glue and those screws are there casein glue there byproduct of Milligan. They if you left that stuff set for very long as our just like milk and if you put it on the wall the odor then was into the wall and you couldn't get it out. We also some of the early spray textures of vinyls that we had with sour if you left them overnight, even 24 hours mixed once they were they came as a mill mix and dry in a bag and if you mix them with water they would sorry but I wouldn't think that the oil paint would give you a problem there again, if you can't find out where that odors coming from there are companies who specialize in that nail a Pages they you know, they flood repair and tire repair and that sort of thing and They would probably be able to say what that order is not (00:45:41) accurate. Try to get this many calls here as we can in the intervening few minutes here. Good morning. Yes. I've got a ridge vent question and I've got a cedar Shake question. The Richmond question is I've been to lumber yards and I've seen some they look awfully flimsy. What does a good ridge vent look like and if you could recommend a kind of appreciate it and after that I'll give you the cedar Shake question. (00:46:04) Well, I don't know that I could recommend a brand right off the top of my head the vents as you say made. It may look a little flimsy, but once they're nailed in place, it's like a flashing there's no strength to a flashing. It's very flimsy aluminum or vinyl. But once it's nailed in place, it serves a purpose it was designed for so I would you know stop by any any lumber yard or you know, you're building centers and just, you know, try them by hand. See if you're concerned about the strength of the Just test them by hand and see how much material is built into their (00:46:43) have to have any special mechanical rigidity. (00:46:46) Well, no the not that I there's a it's difficult to describe verbally what those things look like but there's a there's a kind of a v-shaped cap on the top to shed the rain and then normally there will be a t like the center of a truss down the middle from coming off that V and then there will be a secondary cap there that your nail into the roof and the air can just flow up and out through that thing and there's little baffles and braces between the two layers all the way down the roof of the length of the ridge (00:47:19) vent. Should you use the whole length of the ridge or should you just can you get by with only Wedding part of (00:47:25) it? Well in most cases they suggest and the government suggests that the best ventilation is what they call continuous Ridge fitting end to end so that you get air movement throughout the roof. What can happen is if you got a dormer or l-shape roof and you're Jack Rafters come in there at odd angles and that you can create a pocket where there's no air movement. If you don't have complete continues ridge vent you get event here in event there. Another thing you have to watch if you've already got a couple of Riff Raff fence up there the static roof Vents and you add more vents. Now, these are will go out the path of least resistance and what you can do a short circuit one vent and so that it no longer operates in you're pulling I've got done that for example with turbine vent as it blows. It takes all their the used to go out the static Finn. Did you have a second (00:48:17) question? Yeah, right woodpeckers are going to have to my Cedar Shakes. I was wondering is the best solution just to pry up underneath and replace a Shaker. Can you recommend some kind of way of patching that without having to tear up the sheets? (00:48:28) Well, there's they're pretty difficult to to patch. What you should do is have somebody again often times when that woodpeckers pecking on your siding there may be insect infestation there. He's looking for lunch. So in order to get him to do that, you need somebody a pest control company like Oregon or such to come out assess what's going on there and get cured the problem and then the woodpecker's will go away. You probably should just pull the shakes up and replace them. (00:48:54) Great. You think you have a woodpecker problem and bang the next thing, you know, you've got a insect from right the case. Good morning. You're on midday sir. Good morning, sir. Our houses are 30 years old. In fact, I had it built and between our living room and dining room. There's a lot of ate half with span. Okay, the original sheetrock Syrian cracked and of course over the period over the 30 years. I've had it taped and plastered twice these times cracked for a header. I got probably I think there's a two by ten header up there. Can this thing be remedied with a new header up there a larger group headers or should I (00:49:28) just are you telling me that you have an L-shaped ceiling between this living a dining room? And there's no (00:49:34) okay. What (00:49:35) happens there? The the problem, is that when People install sheetrock. They started the wall with four-foot white sheets and just keep going until they hit the other wall. And if that joint if you would come 12 feet or 8 feet as you say in that dining room l and a joint occurs at a stress point in a framing where the to framing members come together. You will get the tube framing members expanding and Contracting a different directions and they'll break that off open. There are patches that are supposed to stay flexible an ant fiberglass type patchers, but you may have to re-sheetrock that whole ceiling and if you do cut a sheet in half and drop a two foot wide section in at the wall and then come out with fours so that your overlapping that area where the L is and where that crack is and so that you're not having a joint in the sheetrock occurring at a stress point in the framing. Do you follow that it's very difficult to do this verbally because you almost have to visualize what's going on here, but the It in the sheetrock must not occur at the at the corner of that L where the living room and dining room joined because nine times out of 10 you get a crack there and you can all the way you can change that is to re-sheetrock it put a two foot in at the corner and then start dropping in fours. And when you get to that 8-foot place, you will overlap that by two feet. And then then don't nail it that point it won't crack again. (00:51:03) Let's see if we can squeeze one more in one minute here. Good morning. Good morning. Got a real quick question. I hope I want to finish a basement room. I'd like to know the best way to insulate the floor is styrofoam product. For example, that can be put down (00:51:18) insulate the floor. Yes. That shouldn't be necessary. What do you propose? You're going to put a nail boards on that puts fiberglass in (00:51:28) between. Well, I was thinking of something like Styrofoam. What I want to do is just put in like a vinyl floor and I'd like to have the possibility of a guest room there. So I thought it might be good to insulate the floor just for (00:51:41) warmth. Well, it's very difficult to do a top of the floor, you know, they put Styrofoam down before they pour the floor slab overt, but I am short of you. The only thing I can think of that you could do would be to nail sleeper boards to the floor or glue them to the floor and then put Styrofoam in between I checked with the building department to be sure that's approved construction before I did it (00:52:08) Gary. Thanks for being here with us today. I always enjoy being here. We (00:52:11) always get a lot of interesting (00:52:12) questions. I'm going to go home and be prolific at home repair right? There you go. Gary Branson here with us this morning on the midday on Saturday and say midday on Saturday is a supported by the oriental rug company specializing in sales and service of handmade oriental rugs and located in Minneapolis at 50th and and Bryant it's a minute before noon here on Minnesota Public Radio coming up of course is a Car Talk the if you're an optimist, I guess you can glean optimistic view of the weather this afternoon. Yeah, hazy with variable cloud cover. That's it might be cloudy. It might not and National Weather Service lingo there remains a 60% chance of thunderstorms high temperatures will be in the 70s today. Periods of showers and thunderstorms tonight some of the thunderstorms may be severe this evening and heavy rainfall is possible through the night tonight tomorrow remaining mostly cloudy with a 40% chance of more showers and thunderstorms high temperatures will be in the middle to Upper 70s. I'm Bob Potter inviting you to join me on Morning Edition each weekday. We present a comprehensive look at overnight national International and Regional news start your day with Morning Edition from five to nine on the news and information service of Minnesota Public Radio. This is klow 91.1 FM and knnow 1330 AM Minneapolis-Saint Paul the Twin Cities news and information station. It's 12 o'clock Car Talk is made possible by the 140 locally-owned Bumper to Bumper auto parts stores and their Affiliated dealers throughout the Upper Midwest.