(00:00:00) Welcome to midday for this Saturday the last Saturday in January January 28th marks it a click here along with Gary Branson. Gary is a former contractor. He's also the author of more than 25 do it yourself home improvement books the latest of which Gary Branson's home repairs and improvements on a budget and as many of you may have figured out by now. We're going to be talking about projects around the house on midday today Gary. Thanks a lot for coming in this morning and welcome back to Minnesota Public Radio. It's always nice to see you. Nice to be back on public radio. It's great to see you too. Gary. Branson is an excellent source for solutions to Home Improvement problems and suggestions about ways to make complicated repairs understandable. So whether you're struggling with a leaky pipe a drafty living room for plans for a major project this spring Gary will likely be of considerable help to you this morning. If you're listening in the Twin Cities a number to call to ask you a question and seek your advice to to 76 thousand. That's 2276 thousand in the metropolitan area anywhere else. You can hear our broadcast this morning you can Toll-free with your question the toll-free number 1-800 to 422828 toll free. Once again with your questions for Gary Branson at one eight hundred two four two 2828. Well Gary first off, it's February almost February rather the dead of winter. What what kind of things are people getting in trouble at at home? And in the line of home repair projects this time of year. What's typical? Well, of course in our climate, the indoor projects get saved for the winter time when you can't do anything outside and The Lawns not to be done and that sort of thing. So you get into the attic expansion finishing and room additions and and the basement finishing in the recreation rooms are now's a good time to remodel the kitchen that's most remodeled room in the house that in the bathroom. So any of the Interior projects and we've had a mild winter, so you still see a little Roofing and Siding activity outside on a warmer day. What are some of the problems people run into when they go about Home Improvement projects in the winter. I suppose one of them would be just where do you put all the the debris? I mean if your Doing a kitchen or something. You're not going out the old kitchen when it's cold outside. It's more difficult to store everything outside. Right? Well, if you're in within the cities are nearby suburbs, you can call your trash collection company and and have them put a dumpster on the property and you've got a ready a place to dispose of the stuff. We urge people if at all possible, for example, you're going to redo the inside of a house in the plaster is pretty straight but a little bit crumbly to go right over the top of that with the wallboard rather than remove the plaster. It's much less work. It's much less dirt and you don't have the disposal problem. There's also true in any product that might contain asbestos ceiling tiles floor tiles floor the old so called an Oli amused to some of that contained Asbestos and rather than take it up and go through the problem of scraping the whole floor just put a quarter inch Luan. Mahogany right over the top of that and and put your new floor covering over the mahogany and the leave the old stuff and play. Okay, Gary as is always the case when you grace us with your advice on midday, the lines are jammed right now. Let's start things off with Richard who is listening and Baldwin, Wisconsin. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. (00:03:12) Yeah, I can only use one arm and I love to cook and where we want to do some things our kitchen to make it more natural for me so I can cook and we like to know about ideas to include in our kitchen. (00:03:29) Well, I wrote a book A couple of years ago. There was quite well-received called the complete guide to barrier free housing for handicapped or disabled people. One of the things we find out is that most housing has most public buildings are built to accommodate those who are fully able bodied in the kitchen. You can put in things like a rather than that rather than to have the knob type pulls on your doors and dresser our doors and drawers. If you put on the d-type handle the handle it shaped like a d you can get your fingers in it. Those are much better for anybody who's arthritic or has limited hand Mobility. You can put a single lever faucet in instead of the hot and cold faucet put a single lever that controls both the water flow and the water temperature with one handle and you can you can activate that with your elbow. You don't have to use a hand the For some people depending if you're in a wheelchair, for example, you might want to put the side by side refrigerator freezer rather than up and down because up or freezers hard to reach for a person that seated you can get poor cooktops. You mentioned you like to cook look for a range that has a staggered burner so that the burners are not exact not directly behind a lined up with each other they're staggered so that when you reach across the front burner this lit, you're not burning your arm to reach the back burner if you see what I mean. These are some of the things that you can do there are other things available. You might check with your local Health Department that have County Health Department. See if they have any literature many government agencies. There's one for example in Florida that has a hole like a series of condos that are devoted to handicap living in developing their appliances that have Braille type knobs for those who have problems with site this Thing that people are really paying a lot more attention to now. Oh, yes, sir. 43 million President Bush in 1988 past American Disabilities Act and I applauded that my best friend in this world died young and lived the last 10 years of his life in a wheelchair and he was a big Husky paratrooper. He had been a paratrooper at Fort Bragg and suddenly he got a debilitating illness wound up in the wheelchair and was very frustrated by and I helped him to get around to shop for the wife and kids and that sort of thing and found out firsthand myself and that's why I wrote the book that you can't get a lot of places if you're at all handicapped. That's not the term they like to use now less able the other thing is there are 43 million of us out here who have some sort of problem doing the daily chores of just getting by getting dressed feeding yourself finding your way about all those things 43 million out of 260 million people so you can see it's a one family. For has a family member with a handicap and Builders and Realtors how to keep that in mind when they're trying to build houses for resale. I hope that information is helpful to you Richard and Baldwin. I scared you. Can you mention the name of the book one more time? The book is a better way label and that is available from F and W in Cincinnati, Ohio. Let me see if I can read the fine print on the phone number of 5135312222. And the Book of that particular book again is the complete guide to barrier Free Housing. Okay, Gary Branson the guest today on Saturday. Midday his latest book Gary Branson's home repairs and improvements on a budget. We're talking about Home Improvements and we have a full bank account lers. We'll get right back to the phones. Matt is in Minneapolis. Good morning. (00:07:16) Good morning. I would like to ask two quick questions. I bought a house last year and this year. I've noticed that I started to get some cars on a vertical cracks in the wall. And then in addition to that my basement was finished when I Out the house and now I've noticed some buckling in the paneling and I was wondering I don't see any water coming out underneath the floor. Any think what might I do to work with. Both of these problems (00:07:40) is how new was the (00:07:41) house the house is built in (00:07:42) 1935 35. It shouldn't be it's there are a couple of possibilities when you get this kind of cracking in that one of the the least desirable or the one that you don't want to have is a problem with the puddings are foundations. It sounds like you might want to check for something because there's something structural going on there. The only other alternative might be that if you have an excess of moisture in the house for some reason either it's a can't it doesn't have to be running water. If there's just humidity present in there. Then you will get enough moisture to expand and buckle the paneling and that sort of thing. There are a number of a home inspectors listed in the Yellow Pages of your telephone book who will come and take a look and see what exactly is going on. Under the key is that you're getting horizontal cracks, which is a bad indication that there may be some settling there. And the other thing is the buckling of the paneling and in the basement both could indicate a structural problem and I'd have that checked out if it's humidity you can open up a window and let the humidity out or put a dehumidifier in there and bring your humidity under control. It's some cracking normal. Well in this climate, I mean because the extreme temperatures we ordinarily when a house is built it has about 20 percent moisture content in the wood the term settling doesn't mean your foundations moved as many people think it just means that Lumber loses moisture down to a stability level of about 13 percent now house long as that building stands for the next 200 years. It will take up and give off moisture seasons change and humidity changes. So the house in effect breathe. That's why you'll see a crack more prominent in the winter time when you're heating it and humidity is low. Then it is in the summertime when it's the temperature is more moderate and the humidity is at a I'm a level. So you see that given take all the time in there and there's some movement in the house seasonally as long as the house stands off now to Don who's listening in Minneapolis here on the FM New Station with Gary Branson. Good morning. (00:09:41) Yes. Good morning. Moving us. Say I have a question. I have ceramic tile in my bathroom. I have the fine cracks in the grout and I'm wanting to redo that route problem is I'm finding real difficulty in matching. The color that I have the grout. Is there a way of painting grout that will correct the problem if I when I installed others that doesn't match the existing (00:10:09) you having trouble matching the grout color Yes. Okay. I'm taking it that the grout was a custom mixer something there tooth two or three things you can do if you if thousand new enough that you can track down the contractor who install that the tile Setter can tell you what a used and where to find it failing that you can go to a place like Well any of the tile ceramic tile outlets and tell them your problem and they'll give you a probably be able to match that grout to whatever color you have existing. It's not a good idea to try to paint over that it should be the grout should be the color should be throughout the ground itself and not just a surface coating on the ground. Okay. Let's go to Paul who's in Sparta, Wisconsin. Good morning. (00:10:51) Well, good morning. I have a question about painting a basement floor. What are your recommendations for painting a concrete basement floor of the house is about 7 years old and when it was new, I did apply a good coat of water seal to it. (00:11:05) Now the water seal seven years later shouldn't shouldn't present a problem. You need to clean that floor with a strong solution trisodium phosphate or even etch it with 5% muriatic acid. Your dealer can tell you how that's done. And you need to clean up all of the concrete hesitancy to dust on the surface and you need to clean that up. There are now a various the hardest to put on but the Most effective is an epoxy coating and you can find that at any Floor Covering or paint store and tell them what you want to do what you're going to do with that and they'll be able to direct you to the proper brand. I thought you weren't supposed to paint concrete because it doesn't allow it to breathe and then it crumbles and what's the set the record straight on this one? Well, we always urge people to at least seal a basement floor concrete floor floor deck whatever it is driveway because it does send you track the dust in your house and your house is more dirty. You can paint like a basement floor. We do not recommend that you painted the exterior of a stucco house. For example, that's basically just some encoding on cladding on that house, but the moisture that's inside the house is trying to get out and the moisture barrier that's formed by the pink coat will stop it. And then the paint will peel and you'll have a mess but that's not true on concrete floors. You can paint a concrete floor. You do need to clean it very well and then be sure that you apply a primer and a paint coat as recommended. It depends on there are even latex. Floor paints out there as you may know now, there's you know latex used to be a they thought they had a where problem with it. But now that you've got a quality latex is or you can go to the epoxy a little tougher to handle because you're putting the to the Catalyst and up two components together, but it's doable if you if you have any painting Talent at all, and if you have any experience there and they can set you straight on which floor coating to you. Okay, your kitty eyes with the producer the program passes along another question from a caller who wants to know if you can paint over paneling and if so, what do you need to do? Well, you can there's no reason that you can't paint over the paneling the what you need to do is to drive any nails down below the surface and and spot in the nail heads with some kind of wood filler to fill them up. If you don't mind having the joint effect there you can leave the joints as is there are you can hang a canvas covering you can go to a wall covering storm. Tell him you want to put a canvas covering on there as an underlayment to seal over that. First put it right over the paneling and then put the paint over the over the over the blank stock or the wallpaper all covering that you've used to smooth out all of that. Are you can spackle in the cracks between and then you need to put on a good sealer. One of the sealers I recommend is like sensors Bullseye or one of those slacks healers very tight sealer. They'll seal it up give you a good surface to put your paint coat on 21 minutes now past eleven o'clock, you're listening to midday on the FM news station marks a deck like here along with Home Improvement expert Gary Branson, and we're talking about projects around the house. If you're in the Twin Cities and have a question for Gary 2276 thousand is a number to dial two two seven six thousand in the metropolitan area anywhere else. You can hear the broadcast toll-free 1-800 to for to to 828 the toll-free number with your question for Gary Branson one eight hundred two, four two two eight two eight. The phone lines have been pretty busy folks for the record. So if you get a busy signal encourage you Hang up and just try again. Let's go off to Fargo North Dakota where the phones are now apparently working David. Good (00:14:35) morning. Good morning. (00:14:37) Yes, I got the telephones (00:14:38) repaired. Yes, sir. That's Crest River, but we're working on more head. Yes. Thanks for taking my call. I have a 19 mid 1920s Vintage House in historic district, which has a wood shingle roof. It's in need of repair. I've read recently and in publication called the old house Journal that the new growth wood shingles are less durable so dramatically so your thoughts about that and in alternative both for the durability and maintenance of the appearance. (00:15:10) Well, as far as the wood shingle, we found that I'm not sure that the new growth that's very respectable publication incidentally whole house Journal I go back to when Clem labine is running out. I don't know if he's still there not the very very respectable journal and if they say it's true, I would be inclined to think it. In fact true about the new growth. Would one of the things however, when we used to install the old cedar shingle we put those on sleepers. We didn't put that on a solid plywood deck so that the any moisture that got in between those shingles it would drive from the bottom side as well as the top from that excited as well as the top and you just ever 12 inches, you put a sleeper across there are nailer strip to nail that your shingles to and you did not put down a solid plywood deck now they put on a plywood solid deck put a tar paper or Roofing paper over that and install those shingles as though they were installing and as asphalt to shingle and that's not the proper way to do that and we found some short and roof life because of shingles don't dry as they used to I can remember getting my grandfather for example getting 70 80 years out of a cedar roof, but I think that has more to do with the way that shingle is installed if that's installed properly. You shouldn't have any trouble with it. It's a Attractive roof, you can get them treated for to prevent fungus growths or Moss from going on the wood shingles one of the problems if you keep the roof deck clean, that's a spray it down and keep the key ways open so that the water can run down not get pulled and trap there. There are also fire retardants that you can treat that shingle with if you are an area like California where they had this the brush fires, they're treated with fire retardant so that the roof Can't Catch so you can build just about any kind of feature into that roof that you desire from fireproofing to rot proof Moss proof that sort of thing and it's a very attractive roof. If you prefer to have something other than the standard asphalt shingle and you like that would type. Look. Is there an alternative to that word that maybe is less expensive and might hold up longer. That's a good suggestion Mark. There is several companies. There is a shingle called Woodruff. For example, that is intended to look like a shake and in fact is not a shake at it's a it's a Composite Materials it look okay. Yeah, it looks great. It's a great looking rough and it gives you the appearance of wood. They're also the wood tone asphalt shingles and some of them are what they call Ash angle which combines the appearance of a single with a thick bottom of a shake and so I think it's Owens Corning. It has the so-called changgil and it's just a thicker gives you a thicker Shadow line on the edge of the shingles and it's very attractive. Okay. Well if our alternative took care of your David will go back to the phones and to Laura who's listening in Minneapolis. Good (00:18:00) morning. Good morning to both of you. Good morning Laura. How are you? Very well good. Thanks. The question I have is that I'm having some rotting on the last two baseboards of my garage and it is the alley side where the plows come through every winter and build up a big mound of snow in that as it melts. It makes the situation worse. Most of my neighbors have their garages sitting on about two or three inches of cement so that's Well away from the ground. I'm wondering if there's anything that I can do to build my garage up in that way. That isn't going to cost a lot of money. (00:18:39) Well, you could have a contractor take a look at it one alternative is to take off those bottom baseboards and and put in a couple of extra row of concrete block to get the thing up and out of the snow so that it doesn't melt another option is just to make sure that you keep that snow shovel away from there and keep that course dry. You could remove those last couple of courses or cover them up with some other kind of a material that was more resistant and aluminum or metal siding. That's more resistant. It's a subject of denting of course from the snow, but it is resistant to the Decay. There are several different options. You could put in there including the option of putting in the metal siding and painting it look like the rest of your siding. Okay. Well, does that answer your question? Are you still there? Laura? Yes, it sure (00:19:27) does. Okay. Well, thanks for calling. Thank (00:19:29) you. It's good to have a contractor look at that and he'll give you the options and let you choose from among them as I say you could put in a couple more courses of concrete block and raise that up and get that what away from the ground if (00:19:40) I were to choose to do that. Can you give me an idea of how much I might be looking at? What (00:19:44) why it's difficult to build another man's work without seeing the situation but a dollar. Oh, let's go to Roseville into Bharat. Who's got a question for Gary Branson. Good morning. (00:19:56) Good morning. My question is that we had some you know, the plumbing problems in the bathroom, and I wanted to replace the flush valve and all the ballcock and all that stuff. So I got the kit from the store and I replaced it. I have done that before but in one of the bathrooms now the problem is that after you flush it. Sometimes it doesn't happen all the time. Sometimes suddenly. There's a whole I think it's called water hammer. We got this horrible noise and the whole house was shaking and things And I don't know why it's happening because I've done this take another bathroom before it doesn't happen and here it doesn't happen all the time. It happens sometimes (00:20:32) well most often you experience water hammer where you have a solenoid valve shutting off in say a washing machine in the water is pushing along at 70 pounds pressure and comes to a screeching halt and you bring her to a screeching halt them and a pipe hammers. There are inexpensive devices that you can put in there that will shock absorbers that you can put in that line to stop that water so that there's an air cushion all those are little round things. Yeah. Okay. There are a number different kinds you can put depending on what kind of pipe you have if it's a horizontal pipe. You can put a straight copper pipe just T it in and there's are up in there and when it comes to when the water pressure comes to it, there's a place for it to go and compress the air you can't compress water when it comes up against the end of the pipe and you suddenly shut off. The flow is just bang bang bang. So you might have the water pressure checked in your house there. A company can do that for your plumber and make sure that it's not excessive in some areas. I think in Richfield there we may get up around 80 90 pounds if I understand the system correctly, that's a lot of water pressure in a in a Farm Outlet where you had a well your water pressure might be only around 2030 and you don't get that hammer. So you they can put in a dampening device to soften that at the meter if the water pressure coming in the house proves to be a little bit too high and sometimes it will be if you're the first house away from the water company and you're getting a full full charge of that your water pressure may be a good deal higher than the guy down a mile down the line where the friction and you know, just to there's a slow down in that water pressure on down towards the end of the line in the system. So you could have that checked and make sure if you're getting high water pressure coming into the house, you might want to check that and have them put a little softer into the line right there at the meter. Okay? Otherwise if the pressure coming in the house looks good, maybe. He could pull one on align right when you're outside the house right near the toilet fixture. Yeah, okay. It's 30 minutes now past eleven o'clock you listening to midday on the FM news station. This is a reminder of Prairie Home Companion is at home at the Fitzgerald Theater tonight and you're invited to attend Rush seats for the live broadcast are available until showtime at five o'clock. This afternoon tickets can be purchased right now at the Fitzgerald Theater box office. And remember if you can't attend tonight's live broadcast. Be sure to tune in tomorrow evening at six o'clock for A Prairie Home Companion here on the FM news station. K no W FM 91.1 in the Twin Cities so tickets still available for this afternoon's live broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion from downtown st. Paul and the Fitzgerald theater. Gary. Branson is with me today on. Midday. We're talking about home repair and we have a lot of people on the line. Let's see how many callers we can get through in the last half hour of the program can good morning. (00:23:18) Good morning. Good morning. You mentioned a little while ago about the possibility of covering up as This is containing flooring. I have a 1950s house with ceiling tiles. I'd like to know can I find out if those contain asbestos and if they do is it possible to do something short of removing them may be covered (00:23:39) up if you can trace back they may be marked with the name of the manufacturer and you could contact the manufacturer. Let us say Armstrong top or example and find out if that they were using that in those days Asbestos and asbestosis and I and all those things are caused by contact with it appears to be a result of prolonged contact with asbestos by people who work in the industry. So it from what I can gather and I also did in my book on barrier Free Housing. I had a section in there about these kinds of things I checked out the asbestos as far as I can see number one, if you remove those Thailand do not damage them in the process. You're not in no danger. They as long as the stuff is Airborne Airborne asbestos fibers the one that gets you so the only way I know of you could always have lab tests on that but it might be a expensive. The other thing is you can get an asbestos call your EPA office get and that's bestest removal contractor to come and remove that if you're concerned with it. Otherwise, I removed I worked with asbestos products all my life. I regret that now but I escaped unharmed from daily contact with asbestos. So I think that maybe the casual contact maybe a little bit overrated as a health risk. Some people might be a little bit too alarmist about moving one asbestos tile in their lifetime from I saw a magazine Home magazine for example is warning people about taking up a 9x12 Asbestos and linoleum in the kitchen. Well that Jaime is ridiculous. I mean the exposure of that stuff there again, you've got to have Airborne particles. We do tell people leave it there. Don't rip it up. Just put the plywood over it so you don't have to remove it and you don't have to worry about it or disprove. Those of it, but I think it's greatly overblown the guys who had worked in that asbestos everyday people who install brakes on automobiles used air to clean that dust out of there and blew them asbestos into their own lungs those on a daily basis for 30 years. That's where the where the big problem is. Okay, Bob's in Minneapolis here on the FM news station. Good (00:25:43) morning howdy, I'm finishing my attic and in order to insulate it and leave some Headroom. I am using reflectix insulation rather than like 16-inch fiberfill or something like that. (00:25:55) First up. What is that describe a little (00:25:56) bit kind of like bubble pack with silver foil over it and supposedly if you put it in the right way you get about an are 16 or in our 12 out of the insulation. And of course if you put it in the wrong way you get about an our nothing over that I'm putting three quarter inch poly styrene to form a vapor seal and I have two related questions. First thing is I'd like to tape the polystyrene so that it Forms a Good Vapor Barrier, but I can't find tape that sticks to polystyrene. And the second thing is everyone who has seen this as patted me on the back and said real good. Don't try to put the wallboard up yourself and I'm wondering if you could talk to me about the relative merits of putting up your own wall board or Contracting to do it. It does seem like a heck of a lot of work and I don't know if I'd be the best person to try it on a first pass. (00:26:49) Well, I've seen that reflectix and it appears to me that that stuff should work as advertised if it's properly installed, but don't be confused. If you on most of the fiberglass insulation in the United States was improperly installed there was no care taken to that because we didn't understand we being the people who were working in a didn't understand the necessity to maintain a complete envelope on the outside of that house. If you take a 40 foot by 8 foot high wall 40 foot long and leave a hole the size of your fist in there. You've reduced the insulation of Goodness of that end tire wall by about 40% and we've got test to prove that so it's like having a tiny hole in the tire on your car and it doesn't take much of a hole to let the heat leacock because heat is trying very hard to go too cold. That's just thermodynamics. Now on the polystyrene and the vapor barrier. I don't know you might contact the manufacturer or contact somebody like tuck who manufactures tape and tell them you want to take those joints and see if they have a product that will do the job. I don't offhand know of any particular product as far as installing wall board. You should use the largest continuous sheets that you can to minimize. The number of joints in there. What you want to do in that room is done make it look like an painted you want to make you look like this no seams in there. You want to be seen free one way to do that is don't put extra seams in there. And the way to do that is use 12 foot long wall board, which is heavy as a house, you know, it's fun to put on ceilings. Yeah. It really it's a million giggles and I used to do that for a living too. And it's very hard work. There's a right way and a wrong way to do it. Isn't you know many of the how-to book say? Oh, well, this is in anybody can install that will know anybody can I'm sorry, but I've seen an awful lot of improperly installed wall board and it becomes a mess. If you put a cut Edge against the factory Edge, for example, then you don't have a recess seem there and it's very difficult to keep that from showing there are ways. I can take a few take a ten foot high wall in the house in the you put sheetrock on I'll guarantee it'll crack and I'll put it on a guarantee it won't because it all depends on where he put the joints. So if I have a break for example eight feet up and a plate there and then two foot studs above all put that joint that wall board. So it overlaps that joint. I won't put two layers of for and so the joint ends right? We're Plumb where the framing is because that was causes cracks. So there's it's not a nothing is not a no-brainer job. There's there are ways and means to do that and things that are good to do plus those fellows have the tools and I keep telling you know, they argue over what kind of hammers to use and I said don't use a hammer on wallboard. We got screws wall board screws and wall wart screw guns screw the stuff on there's no other Way to do it and do it right the impact tool. So speak in the case of a hammer. If you hit the wall board, you knock a hole in it or your damaged the core around it and that sort of thing and you get nail pops much better to screw it on and that's what the pros will do for you and it's not impossible to do that, you know from an antigen amateur standpoint. Oh, no, it's not impossibly when someone else to tape it for you though. If there are thousands or millions of people out there doing it and I've seen I went to house one time the people were doing it themselves and a housewife was in there and I asked her if she had somebody to finish the war because I was looking for work and she said no I'm going to do it myself and I said good luck lady, you know when I came back two weeks later and she had done a beautiful job of it. And so there's you know, it all depends how skilled you are and manually dextrous you are that sort of thing, but wallboard is heavy and hard to hang and and there's a right way to do it and I don't urge that as just a job for anybody to take there are people who do it no question about that and successfully. So, alright. I want to ask you this real quickly if Bob decides to hire that out. How should you go about putting bids out? And how should he ensure that he's going to get a good contractor and a good price. Well, there are a number of people. I always try to direct anybody who needs a contractor of any sort or subcontractor to go through nari or the National Association of home builders in areas of national Remodeling Group and they are committed to upgrading the service and the image of their own industry. So to with the National Association of homebuilders, they have Remodeling and subcontractors in there. There are four installing this drywall. There are in the Yellow Pages listed under drywall contractors. There are installers and finishers and the best way is to Old tried-and-true fine three unless you know somebody or have a friend or co-worker can recommend somebody look in the Yellow Pages get three or four bids and you pretty soon you'll begin to realize about where the right price lays and and you can always check out the fellows credentials for work. Good luck. Bob will go back to the phone. Then to mirror who's listening in St. Paul, you're on the FM news station with Carrie Branson. Good morning. (00:31:28) Good morning. We have a house that was built in the 1930s and it has the original linoleum. It's quite dirty and porous and we were going to rip it up. But our realtor said that it was kind of a collector's item and that we should leave it on because it would contribute to the value of the house. Anyway, we've gone to many many places trying to find out what the best way to clean and then you know seal this linoleum is and nobody seems to know or can agree on anything. (00:31:57) Well, I'd suggest a couple of things if you look on any product made by Johnson's Wax of Racine, Wisconsin, they've got a 1-800 number down there. I haven't talked to the lady expert it down there in some while but they are very good on this kind of question. And if I were you I'd take call that 800 number for Johnson's Wax asked to talk to their Maven expert on the subject and ask what they recommend they've got a product for a ceiling and floor wax and polish and cleaning product for to suit any surface. And that's where I would start. The other thing you can do is to go to like Armstrong tile and have them and and get their expertise. They will have again if you go to your library check out the 800 number for business almost every company of any size at all nowadays has an 800 number and they're there to help you and they got reams of material. So you might try both those approaches a lot of people listening might well sympathize with me. Because they to I'll go to various Home Centers and find 15 different answers to the same question. What do you do in those situations when you're really trying to do it, right and you don't want to but you just want to do it right period and you are interested in spending time enough to track down the right answer but everywhere you go. Everybody's got a different solution for you. Well, that's true. Well, one of the things that's the Home Centers comes up for example of some of these places are hiring part-time help in that who have no expertise and and I've been frustrated. They're one of the things visitor Home Center. I think of nox for example who has the so-called answer booth and they got people there who you know, they got people there who are experts that know of the budget power is another one who has professional licensed plumbers and electricians and people there who know what they're doing. There's an awful lot of good information out there mostly from manufacturers. There's an awful lot of bad information. A lot of people don't know much about fixing houses that are more than welcome. Writing about half. Yeah, they're writing about and you if you are a professional and know the right way to do these things or you know, they approved way you could check from one book to another and you see that they copy the errors, you know, because they don't know themselves. They may pick up there that's in one book and repeated in the next book. So every book that you see as the same error and so it's a bit frustrating but there is information around and go to the manufacture of the product. Like I say pick up your 800 Directory in the library and and find 800 number of company, whatever product you want to deal with and try to frequent those Home Centers that have have good qualified people. You'll know them before very long because you get in there and you meet the guy who really knows his help. He knows his stuff on like the pain or whatever it is product is and they've been around for years and they know their stuff and that's the place to shop. Okay, Gary Branson former contractor and author of 25 do it yourself home improvement books the latest of which Gary Branson's home repairs and improvements on a budget is the guest Saturday on midday 2276 thousand is a number in the Twin Cities 2276 thousand in the metro area. If you have a question anywhere else, you can hear the broadcast toll-free 1-800 to for to 2828. Craig is patiently waiting in Minneapolis could morning already. Yes. Great. (00:35:13) Yeah, I'm remodeling a room in my house. And I've already gone through about the three layers that were there down through the lath and plaster and everything and the house is still rigged up with gas lines for the old gas lights in the ceiling. They're all tapped off, but I'm just wondering if I should go through the expense and worry of trying to trace it back as far as I can to the source and tap it off or if I just put that up in the ceiling and leave it as it is that it will be okay. (00:35:38) It was my experience. I used to get into that a lot of that Remodeling and and it was my experience that the wherever that was tied into the incoming gas line that the connection have been severed and it's no longer connected anything. They just put left the pipes and walk as they were covered up with plaster and they would have to remove the plaster and lath and To get the pipes out. So they just leaving their dead. But in most cases in every case, I ever encountered they're no longer has any gas attached to you know, gas pipe attached to the beginning of that line where it comes in they disconnected that completely I'm sure that that would be the case and you could ask him an inspector to check it for you, but I'm sure that that's not even connected to the pipe anymore. Is there a safe way to find that out to test it? Well, the only way I would know of would be you know, you could have as I say I'd have somebody else come and do it unless Craig has some particular expertise in this to go back and know you know, when you see it. You see this Maze of pipes in the basement. You're not sure which one's connected to watch. That's what you're trying to do is decide, you know isolate that pipe and make sure this disconnected most of the time they're not hooked up. No. No, they if they're properly done they're disconnected and you know you open up a wall and you'll find a band and wires and Greenfield of tubing that used to have electric conduit in it and all sorts of things that have been abandoned. As to upgrade the house, you know, okay Dennis and sure of you. You're in the FM news station with Gary Branson. Good (00:37:03) morning. Yes. Hello. Good morning. Yes. My question is what can I do about creaking squeaking floors in home? There's only eight years old pretty well constructed home, except it has particleboard floor and it just started out in the high traffic areas. And now it's about all throughout the traffic areas in the house and is driving us crazy. There's some pretty good little tricks to this aren't there. (00:37:27) Well, there's there's a number of things you can do. Do you have any bounce to the floor? It's a spongy when you walk on it. Can you feel it (00:37:33) bounce a few spots? (00:37:34) Yes. Yeah and those places the problem is the bouncy four and two small floor joists, and you need to just let us say they used a 2x8 where they should have used it to buy 10 just nail another to buy a 10 and double up every joist in that floor. Say they're 12 foot long. You just pop that in there and Spike it to the new one to the existing. And you double up all your floors and stiffen them up in the process a lot of this stuff if they used the particle board in there if they weren't careful when they installed that you might have some loose Nails in there that's very difficult to do anything about I'm assuming that you've got carpet over the top of those now and the only way to do that right is to wait until you replace your carpet and when the floors bear and you can get to it go in there and read nail the floor or have screws shoot screws into it to the screws hold better than the nails do can you come up underneath it from the basement with screws to or something and if it's accessible so many times now they used to be we had the old subfloor and then we had a underlayment half inch plywood under on top of that and you could go up and shoot the screws. If it's not finished sealing in the basement. You would go shoot screws in there being careful that the screw was long enough to penetrate through the subfloor and into the underlayment piece but not completely through it so that it's you know, sticking up through the carpet. That is one thing that you can attempt to do. If you have access from the bottom side there again, you want to be sure that the screw that you just use a screw shooter the drywall screw gun type of an operation and use a short screws so that you don't penetrate through both layers and come up into the carpet. And so many people have gone crazy from squeaky floors a code won't even allow you not to put anything down other than a tongue-and-groove. I think that ties everything together, you know, the big four by eight ungroup sheets, right? I'm not sure if that's code everywhere. I know that in many cases they did use two small Joyce or they used to light a underlayment Plywood And you just get a certain amount of flex their when you walk on it and there are other things you can do Drive shims between the plywood and underlayment and the and the floor joists and try to tighten them up. That way there are even little devices that you can I forget what the name of it is, but it's if you ask for something that will tighten up the floor to stop noises in the floor. They will be able to supply the most of the homes that You see them around and it's a little job that you nail or screw onto the joist and then you screw up and adjusting screw up until it gets tight against Aaron won't let it Flex. Those are some of the things that you can do. You can also check and make sure that you don't have a plumbing pipe or a heating vent or something like that. That's rubbing when you walk on the floor the vents rubbing against the closest choice and causing us squeaking noise. Okay. Well good luck tennis. Now off to a mobile home owner or renter up and Duluth drum. Good morning. (00:40:29) Good morning. Yes. I'm thinking about buying a mobile home. (00:40:35) Actually. I did a book on that too. Yeah. I did a complete guide to do manufactured housing. (00:40:41) Okay. I'm going to have to get that done. I've what I was wondering is does it pay to rehab (00:40:48) the rehab a mobile home? Yeah. Well one of the things that you want to if you go back very far, they they change the rules for manufacture and codes for manufacture. Some of those older early ones don't have a second exit you want enough doors to get out of a some of them are built so that they weren't very fire-safe. There were some disasters fires in them you may recall and at that time they changed the codes so that they had updates some of them had aluminum wiring which isn't intrinsically bad if its installed right as fine, but the key is to install a right. So some of those older mobile homes had some safety problems or manufactured houses as they call them today the newer models. I'm quite struck with them. There is a great opportunity there to use manufactured housing to solve some of the low-income problems around and for those who want to be remote out in the boonies where it's hard to find a construction crew. You can go out there with the mobile home and set it up on a foundation and you're all you know, the unlock the door and the whole thing is finished inside. And so there's as far as rehabbing it that would depend on our handy. You are you're working, you know, you're working wood to metal paneling to meddle. You've got some metal exterior in there and maybe some metal studs and then you got some plywood and other words. So you have to use a self-tapping sheet metal screws to attach the wood to the metal and those sorts of things. If you have those kind of skills, there's no reason why you couldn't rehab one may get the name of that book out Gary. Do you remember what all the where again the book is the complete guide to manufactured housing and that would be available from F&W 85135312222. And that's just a buy more or less a buyer's guide not so much a Fix-It guide to but a buyer's guide how to set one up what to look for you want to be sure if you buy a mobile home that it was built for Minnesota. You don't want to Florida mobile home. To live in a fine point you wouldn't want to set that thing up and it's right there and they're produced regionally for the climate that they're made in and once in a while somebody will drag lightly insulated Florida house up to Florida. I think as more mobile homes in any other state in the Union and so I had that chart in my book where they're at. But it's a real alternative just have to it's like buying anything else Caveat Emptor, you know, let the buyer beware you've got to shop around and be sure you're getting a good product and some with a warranty and something to safely build safety is a key factor. Okay, Christina and Hudson, Wisconsin, you're on the FM news station with Gary Branson. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. (00:43:24) We own a two-story home that has pretty blue vinyl siding on three sides. But the large back area is a tan stucco and we were told that we could paint the stucco with a new epoxy that could be computer matched to the siding. Is this (00:43:41) true? I would definitely check that one out further. I don't know of any Epoxy paint for that doesn't mean there isn't one. There's new developments every day. I'm not aware of that product and I am very leery I have talked to I was in I was a member of the plasters Local Union in Minneapolis in 19. About fifty four five, so I'm not completely without knowledge in this area and I do not believe in painting stucco in some areas where they don't have the temperature problems that we have here. You can get away with paying you see it in Las Vegas. You see it in California those areas where they have more moderate climates here. If you put a paint on a stucco you will put a vapor barrier so that the moisture inside your house can't go through and exit to the outside and is trying very hard to do that and it feels your paint and you got an awful mess. So I would be very leery of putting that product on there and I would go to some of the more established paint houses in town like Anderson and and those sorts of people and go in there and talk to him and ask him for a you know, what they think of this particular product and if they handle it bottom I'm stuck with you put something on there that you shouldn't put on there you're in it for life that right. Well, as I say the problem with painting stucco is half of the pain will fall off and the other half. You can't get off. It's you know, You get up sticking like a son of a gun in places and then it'll peel and patch in other places and it's just a mess. I would if I want to do some of that stuck a wide called Donnelly or one of the stucco companies and have them re-- - that surface the color I wanted it and they will come out with a plaster prior stucco product. That's the right color and put it on there and you've got to still got his full cement product in a nice-looking job. Okay. Let's go to Roberta who's in st. Paul. Good morning. I think say Brooklyn Park. I'm sorry Roberta. Good morning. (00:45:31) Good morning. We live in a home that we purchased last year and it had been kind of neglected for the priests by the previous owner. And as I was washing the windows last year, there's a small dry rot space in the window and I we need to get the window replaced. I believe in it's also kind of seeped into the wall in our family room, but there's so many window varieties out there. I was wondering would you prefer would it be better to put in vinyl? Those or wood windows or what? What sort of window should I be going towards? (00:46:08) Well, that's kind of a buyer's Choice. There are some very good quality wood windows around Pella. For example our friends at down at Anderson at Bayport here in Minnesota make some of the finest Marvin up a Warroad make some of the finest wood windows in the country. So we got a lot of good window manufacturers there. I chop around I try to match up with whatever if you're not going to replace all the windows in your house. If you're just replacing a couple that are damaged I would replace them with the same type of window to maintain the continuity of the house architectural effect. You don't want a vinyl window here and and wood window there. So I would I would maintain whatever if you're going to do a complete window replacement, then I would study into it and see what's various sorts of things are serious. For example offers the vinyl window replacements are there are a number of companies around to do they're very tight. They don't rot the paint doesn't feel all of these things on the other hand. You've got some of the good wood windows. Get the would look you get a vinyl cladding or aluminum cladding on the outside. So they don't have to be painted. So you pay your money and take your choice kind of it's a there's just a wide variety of Windows out there and I'd chop them and see which one made the most sense to me both for my needs and for my pocketbook. It's not the situation as far as you're concerned that five years from now somebody like yourself is going to be shaking his head saying why did Everybody by these plastic vinyl windows? They're junk and they're not going to well they had some early trouble. I don't know much with the windows both the siding there were some trouble with the vinyl in the early days because it had a high expansion factor and that was causing some problems, but they've solved that years ago. And so I know I don't think it is any such thing is that they're all sorts of Windows. I've never been a big booster for metal windows in Minnesota because the cold but now they're putting some insulation into those windows and that sort of thing the final winner for example, extremely tight and well-fitting and they don't swell up like a It went to doesn't stick and so they work very easy sure and expensive to I compare them to some of the expensive wood ones and that's exactly right, but you don't get the charm of wood and some of the wood windows there. It's an interesting thing. If you're ever down a Bayport try to get a tour through that I understand Factory down there. It's a fascinating see what they've done and window technology and how they beat the problems with air infiltration and energy and all these other things. Okay, Robert and Plymouth. You will be the last caller for Gary Branson. Good morning. (00:48:30) Good morning. Hello Robert. I really enjoyed the different aspects of how to repair some these things. I really enjoyed your program. Well, thank you in particular. I'm coming back to a question that a collar come in with concerning painting concrete you had discussed painting of a stucco and painting a basement floor, but some something you may not have touched on that. I think it's a value point to touch is is sometimes people paint their basement walls or the foundation wall on the outside and being with the consulting firm that we do some testing on Testing and some experts on coding is something that was made aware me was in painting some of those sites what was important can paint them but it is important as you said for the moisture flow. So a latex is preferable over an oil. That's right. Well, that was really interesting point too. I didn't happen to catch and what you're presenting. The other thing was the idea about the settlement. I wasn't it was interesting to hear what the moisture content the change of the wood which affects the house and the settlement Something That We're involved with our Consulting is that part of it is a factor in the Summit is actually the soils because when ever you disturb the soils, sometimes the contractor may not have the time or (00:49:42) opportunity yet certain. Do you have a question or anything you want to ask real quickly? Because we got to run here in a second. It got it. (00:49:49) Okay. (00:49:52) I'm glad you did bring out that particular point though. We're talking latex here because oil forms a barrier that can't be penetrated by the moisture. So the latex is much better product for that. That's true. Well, Gary Branson, thanks a lot for coming in. It was real nice to see you again it so it is doing well. Quick our here when we get here where they keep us pretty busy. So we always have a good time and we learn a little bit and hope somebody learned a little bit from us and it's always nice to be here Carrie prints and author of 25. I guess now 26 books on Home Improvement the latest of which Gary Branson's home repairs and improvements on a budget Gary also a former contractor and a frequent guest on Minnesota Public Radio always a popular person to have in the studio. Thanks a lot for coming in and good luck to you for having me. See you again sometime soon and thanks to you who listened and called him with your questions as well. Thanks to producer Kitty Eisley and Technical directors Clifford Bentley and Alan Strickland. I'm Mark zdechlik. Midday on Saturday is made possible in part by the oriental rug company celebrating its 10th anniversary year at 50th and Bryant and