Focus 580; Home Improvement

Good morning. This is focused 580 on 580 This is our morning telephone talk program and in for David in chime Tom Rogers every month David brings in Hanks piece from Speace Home Inspection Service. Long time a home inspector in the champagne Urbana area and has a lot of expertise in what home maintenance and home improvement is all about and we bring him in once every month to answer some of your questions about home maintenance home improvements. Things around the house you have questions about and we love to answer your phone calls your phone calls are important for the show and our numbers are 3 3 3 9 4 5 5 inside the champagne Urbana calling area and 1 800 to 2 2 9 4 5 5. Throughout the rest of the two states where you're hearing us today Hank again. Good good after Good morning rather and welcome to the show I'm jumping ahead of myself I never I never host focus Fidei. Well I'm glad to be here. I'm glad to be glad you're here and hopefully we can get a lot of questions answered about home maintenance. We'll talk to first of all it's we'll get a call ready in the

meantime at. Will try line. Line 1. OK I will try line one. Oh there we go we've got him. We got him here. Line one I think. Still here we've got a bit of a problem on line 1. Once again with your questions on home maintenance 3 3 3 9 4 5 5 or 1 800 2 2 2 9 4 5 5 Hank because some of the things that come up at this time of year and we've I've noticed in the forecast for the rest of the week we've got a good chance of rain and I look at that and watch the watch the rain go down my roof and through my gutters and hope beyond hope that it's just going away and not inside the house. Well that is a major problem. One of the biggest problems with houses in this area is that the builder tends to build them to load of the ground. The house is supposed to be on a little bit of a hill. The building

code says that there should be a minimum slope of six inches in the first 10 feet away from the house on all sides. Now in order to provide disabled access and so on this means that there's going to have to be some Lamping. We likewise want to be sure that the wood portions of the House are four to six inches above the soil level and in most cases this is one step up. You know order to get into the house of cigs and eat meat. Yeah at least just that because you have to realize that we've got 12 inches a wood below the floor. And if that wood is going to be above ground level it's usually two steps or a sloped section and wood is not going to last a few seasons of rain. In order to keep it from getting wet attracting termites things

like this we need to get that wood above the moisture line on the outside and sometimes it takes some window wells to keep so we can bring the dirt up high enough so that the dirt doesn't go against the wood window frames if you have a basement or a crawl space that Wells in order to keep it out of the dirt away from the crawl space vents because moisture is the biggest enemy of the house. A wet crawl space will cause problems throughout the entire house a matter of fact it may shorten the life of the roof by 25 percent. How's that. Is it just that condensation going up and well if you look at the houses a balloon and you evaporate one drop of water in the bottom of the balloon it goes everywhere and it will condense any placers a cold surface and the cold surface most freely and rigidly encountered is the bottom of the roof sheathing because that's above the insulation and so we end up. I have.

Generally speaking we get about 20 years out of the ordinary shingles not the heavy weight of the ordinary shingles we get 20 years I was on one where I almost fell through it was only three years old. Because enough moisture from the crawl space had gone up through the house condensed on the bottom of the roof sheathing and rotted Bush really. How does it go up is it just a little bit. Through the entire house and moved by vapor pressure it will go any place that air can go but not necessarily in the same direction. So if you're moving by vapor pressure not by air movement. And yes it pretty well uniformly distributed through the house. We finally have gotten most people accustomed to the idea if you have a crawl space house the entire soil surface must be covered with a sheet of plastic and that's to keep the condensation from starting that writers and suit the moisture from going up. Even a crawl space where the soil is dusty dry. If you spread a

sheet of plastic tied it within a couple of hours you'll have moisture droplets on the bottom of the plastic. And this must cover the entire crawl space. And we actually want it lapping up the foundation a little bit. Do you want it secured down as sort of air tight or it doesn't have to be generally speaking would you suggest lapping the joint 6 inches or so and running it up the foundation such that if any one Easter soaks through the foundation it goes under the plastic rather than on top of it. Once you get moisture on top of the plastic it has no place to go except to evaporate up into the house because it can no longer sew down. So we've we've got to keep it off the top of the plastic. That also means that we have to keep water from other sources off the top of the plastic such as the condensate from the air conditioner. If you ventilate the crawl space in the summertime and you have duct work down there and running air conditioning you will probably get

condensation on the duct work just because the duct work is going to cool and that's right you're below the dew point of the outside air and it's going to drip down on the plastic and this too can cause a problem. A sump pump is not really a solution to a problem it is a solution to a symptom. The problem is we're getting water in there in the first place. We don't want it there. So you don't put in a sump pump to keep it dry we want to keep it dry before the water ever gets there which should never need us and it's pretty obvious in say a basement where where some palms are probably a little more common but in a crawl space how do you know. Well as I say to you Look you go down to look. Most people never look in their crawl. Fortunately But even basements do not necessarily have to have a sump pump and if the grading is done mostly water that ends up in your basement or crawl spaces water off your own roof so that if you have a good gutter system the downspouts are

extended far enough away from the nation to a point where the water continues to run away not run back toward the house. We don't usually have problems. I have a basement in my house so I don't have a sump pump in it. It stays dry because of that it stays dry. Ron let me let me first of all before we go ahead just make sure that the line one isn't isn't working correctly and we have so many on line one OK we'll take that off line there we go and remind you once again that our numbers are 3 3 3 9 4 5 5 in Champaign-Urbana and elsewhere 1 800 to 2 2 9 4 5 5 and we do have a call I guess on line to get after our good morning line too. Hello fellow line 2. Yes there we go how you doing. Hi and you've got a question for Hank yet not now. I'm not sure it's exactly a maiden. QUESTION But I hope maybe you have some ideas. OK I'm looking for some tips on painting and I mean painting in a room and my problem is how do you make a good straight

edge between two different colors. It didn't matter so much when rooms were all being painted white and the ceilings were white but now that I like my teenage daughter wants one wall yellow on one wall turquoise blue and when the two walls meet it's impossible to get a good edge between the colors. And I'm wondering if there's some kind of technique that professionals use that of course I've tried taping masking tape but it's always some of it bleeds and then it's to make the edges really sharp. I just don't know how you do that. Well there are professional masking tapes and applicators that seem to do a pretty good job. Every time I use tape and I've been I work with it a lot and and and tape it really carefully and so on it inevitably lead to when you pull the tape off it it effects. Well this is one of the things you got to use a professional grade tape on a professional application type applicator. This will roll it down and the

tape is designed to release within 36 hours drive the speed so that you don't pull anything loose with it. And this sort of thing and professional painters do this regularly. They're just using tape correctly to make it Yes now this sort of crinkly looking brown tape is not what you use. This is not a professional grade tape I what does it look like. Because most of them are relatively clear Derby two or three inches wide will be thin so they stick down quite well. And if you leave them more than 36 hours you really play getting them off. OK so where do you where do you buy those kind of when you can you can get them at the stores like Menards Lowe's. Obviously anything. All right and I mean applicator you. Say just reduce roll it on the head. And very often these things come in what

looks like a four inch wide roll but the plastic attached to it unfolds so it's about 20 inches wide so you don't slop it all over the place. And they seem to work quite well. And do you think it is. Technique maybe to use like a razor blade at some point when when you're cutting the table off something like that. Well if you're going to cut it off yes but you should be using the edge to tape the your boundary should be the tape edge not a cutting edge except at the ends. Yeah I guess I just had problems with. Even though you have to put the tape on you know the paint that you that's gone over the edge of the top of the tape. You know in places it appears or are people under. But you're saying that maybe the good ones have not had that problem. OK well I'll try that. Thanks a lot. Well thanks for your call. Numbers again 3 3 3 9 4 5 5 or 1 800 to 2 2 9 4 5 5 0 0 1 to line 3 after Good morning. Me I don't have a question problem. Morning. Calling to say

part of the bounty of living in Sandton Urbana. You're referring to the FBI all around. And yes especially listening to home will thank you and Hank thank you. I think public service is over the top. No some might say definitely is an intelligent man who can communicate and how rocky the ride to have someone like them through could be doing their job and knowing someone giving public service and so I say hats off to bed and home. Well thank you very much. You got some good lookin houses to add to back you up there I guess. Let's go onto a line for get out her good morning line for yellow line for you there. Yes there we go. For the woman with trouble painting in the corners. I have been dating for a number of years and without using to keep it all I simply use a little pad that's about three or

four inches square with tiny wheels on the ground that you run up and down the wall and it gives you a straight edge without in the corner without use of to keep. One. You're luckier with it than I have been. OK I want to do it has Q about treatments for new concrete. I've got the one called Cam stop and it's the Syleena and hydroxide solution the two recommended before so don't apply it for four weeks after the concrete is. In place. Yeah now that said essentially a water repellent treatment the silane and Psylocke Sainz or water repellent treatments. OK now it's interesting. The highway department uses a solution proscribed creed which they claim helps dry and all it

is is one part of linseed oil five parts cursing if OK I've heard that right at the neck and the neighbors detest it that I don't. But it's not the best smelling thing in the world I did it but I think at that that solution with the in-seat oil one part in five I think you said yeah. I can go on either immediately on either new or old concrete right. OK. Right that can do the main thing that we that they're talking about not putting it on fresh concrete is that there's a lot of moisture to be evaporated out of fresh and green and we don't want to lock this in. We don't want any oil and Lynsey do that too. Well it isn't nearly is proof as some of these other things lead you get a lot more evaporation through the linseed oil and kerosene version and you do know that can go on immediately.

Right. OK thank you and thanks for your call 1 800 2 2 2 9 4 5 5 inside or in outside the Champaign Urbana calling area 3 3 3 9 4 5 5 in Champaign-Urbana Let's go on now to a line one in El Paso Good morning good morning line one. Hello. I I visited with you quite some time ago about a metal roof for our home and we have finally decided upon a system a metal roof that we're going to have installed. But before we do that we're going to attempt to make our dormers maintenance free. So I have two two big questions regarding the dormers. First of all the difference between the highest quality aluminum siding and vinyl siding and the contractor will put on either one. I want to know what to ask for. What will be the best and they're going to be quite well in the what. Why do we do about fighting in our camp to make these

farmers maintenance free with a new roof on them. Well vinyl expands and contracts about twice as much as aluminum. So remember it has to be nailed snugly but not so snugly that it can't move. That's why it has slotted holes. We do not set the nails hard we we want to allow this sighting to move. Secondly vinyl siding is not waterproof. This means or has to be a weather barrier behind it. OK whether this is house wrap or roofing felt or something of this sort because the wind will blow water through vinyl siding then the the real problem comes with flashing between the roof shingles and the siding. And that has to be done very carefully there should be a piece of flashing for every row of shingles that turns up behind the siding. And likewise that flashing should

go behind the house wrap or whatever your weather barrier is. OK so that anything that blows through and runs down the weather barrier can't run under the flashing. If it's any help to we're putting the roughing over one layer of the existing asphalt singles. OK we talked about that and that seems to be acceptable that is acceptable but you do need to have the new flashing with the new layer roofing too. OK. Don't depend on the old flashing right then getting back to the siding. What about the aluminum side of the stairwell. Think or do better. And generally speaking it goes 0 0 point 0 to 8 or something like that because one of the standard thickness is now and that's just the Dormers being what they are the longest piece of siding probably won't be more than three foot. You know there's just there are two sides in the front right. Dormer of it so it's going to be a lot of piece work. And like I say I want the best whether it's vinyl or aluminum and I just want the

best. Well just remember that siting dents from hail. Yeah now it wouldn't crack. What. No it wouldn't crack. Yeah and either of them will will eventually truck. In other words the finish on them will eventually show the truck 20 years or so down the line. OK so if you're going on your home Hank which would you put on. Well I'm not sure I would use either of those products I'm going to stay dormant presently. AR would you know the house is still banking 50 and it's been painted regularly and well taken care of. But I'm not getting any younger either and I don't need to be climbing around up there. And so while we're doing that we'd like to put some on that would last for a long long time. Well they say you should get about 20 years out of either one of them before they start showing any problem. Only 20 years would be a fair shake. Yeah I only only go there once every 20 years I wouldn't mind that

now. OK so either one might be acceptable gone with high quality stuff right and the other question I I need to know what to ask for the contractor suggested putting in new windows in the dormer and he said he would put in a high quality window at our home presently has the older wood windows with the replaceable storm windows and we get along fine with that for these two dormer windows. Now. What do we do we go with like a wood with vinyl wrap or aluminum wrap and I have seen some vinyl wrap windows that have deteriorated over time. So what should I ask him for. I would go with one of the major brands. Anderson or Pellow or something like this. Pillows are. Aluminum wrap Andersen's are vinyl wrapped. Both of them seem to do quite well in this area. You mention another name and it wasn't either because those are the two that come to mind.

Marvin perhaps. MARTIN Well that Marvin perhaps. No I don't believe it was either. Tempo. You're out. OK tempo Namco. Yeah I think that's what he meant. OK I would consider that to be a lower quality window than any others. But Anderson Pelan Marvin was young and there again we're getting back to the material of the window on one instruction method. What would you recommend there. Well OK it all depends on what you want in all of these are available with wood interiors are available plastic to interiors the major problem with Windows is being sure that they are flashed correctly and there is a new ASTM standard method for flashing windows and doors. And that's what we recommend. Most building codes don't require it as yet it hasn't been around long enough to have gotten through the building code process but basically there should be

a nine inch wide flashing around the windows across the bottom when you bring the side flashings down over the bottom one and then the top flashing goes over the side flashings so that everything sheds water. And you know this if your builder is interested it is an ASTM standard a 21 12. OK and they have very specific instructions as to how to do the flashing. He said there would be minimal work on the inside of my home. Simply taking off a couple of terms I guess. Our home has a very nice room easily if you try to work with that to be minimal minimal work on the inside and home again. Oh yeah on the outside. Right OK. So that I am there you know I can say that. So your choices of like were wrapped in vinyl. And one of the other 21 wood wrapped in aluminum wood wrapped in aluminum.

OK. And there again I already mapped it out to Dan.. Each one has its advantages and disadvantages. OK so the major disadvantage of the vinyl we don't have a problem here and that is that it's in a high altitude we have problems with the vinyl wrap because the ultraviolet is so strong it causes some of the vinyl to be ture e-rate vinyl are getting better all the time aren't they for UVA protection. Yes they are. Yeah I know how the sun when it just beeped on them every day. What it does while you cook. Right. All right well thanks for your call Sue. We appreciate it. 3 3 3 9 4 5 5 or 1 800 2 2 2 9 4 5 5 if you have a question for Hanks piece our monthly guest from Speace Home Inspection Service to answer your questions about home improvement Let's go on now to line number two good ad Good morning line to Ellaline to Nick I think we we have on here line too.

OK we'll go on to line 3 Line 3 Good morning. Hello line 3. Dropping right and left line 3 Are you there with us this morning. OK well try I will. We'll go onto a line for you there line 4. There we go we've got some. Well we had somebody there but we've just lost the call. 3 3 3 9 4 5 5 Do bear with us this morning we've got a few phone problems this morning and things just happen to give away a giveaway on a Monday morning I suppose. But bear with us and we'll be able to take your calls very shortly 3 3 3 9 4 5 5 1 800 2 2 2 9 4 5 5 and if you did get cut off be sure to give us a call back. We've got the phone lines I think resolved right now. Line 1 has a question right now get a good morning. Hello line one. Well yeah we normally push the buttons here in the studio but apparently that's not working today. We'll we'll go and cross our

fingers and see if we can get a couple of these other lines answered and we will move on to if we can get a queue from which line we should take next line one where they hung up and we'll try. I was soon the next one would be line two if I'm correct and. As they get set in line. OK we'll try I will try. Well try something. In the meantime we've had these problems before with the phones but hopefully we can get them resolved this is a call in show let's try line for line for you they're with us now. Hello line for now. I'm not hearing anything OK. You mentioned the vinyl siding you mentioned rain getting into vinyl siding. Are we talking about all types of siding where that's a problem or is that a specific problem with vinyl. It's much more of a problem of vinyl because the joints are far more subdued

and actually vinyl siding is made with poles ulit any water gets behind it can get out. But that means water can roll in as well. So there's no way to make those you have holes somewhere else where it's right you have to have a Wenner barrier behind the vinyl. Or you will eventually have problems. And what kind of barrier are we talking about well home wrap the house wraps. And again we use things have to be applied so they lap from the bottom up so that every succeeding layer of green is over the other one. Roofing felt will work. We sometimes tape the joints in foil for used insulation board and that's a satisfactory method of doing. But the main thing is we've got to have the house wrap there and we've got to have that flashing around the windows and doors. What kind of insulation if any does the house for providers of just a simple plastic barrier. It's a simple Waterbury. Do they make stuff that has sort of both qualities.

Well to an extent some of the foils. But for oil reflective insulation only works if it's facing in air space. And generally speaking we don't have much of an air space when you put the siding over it. So that doesn't help so the foam boards the plastic foam boards with a aluminum face will provide you with some many times when installing siding over old siding they use about a quarter inch thick. What we call fanfold board the insulation value provided by that is negligible. Well the reason I asked this is just getting back to my own house experience I have a house that was built in an era where they didn't really care too much about insulation apparently wasn't that big a deal. And and now a lot I'm sure there are a lot of homeowners out there who face the same problem of trying to put insulation and you know in a house that may not have been meant for.

It was fairly difficult to justify the expense of a lot of insulation when gas was 10 cents a therm. Now that is 60 cents a therm it becomes much more important. And but our real problem was worse spending a lot more effort on making the house airtight than we did before. And that was the problem with these old houses where the curtains blew and windows closed down and the. Which is which has its pluses and minuses. But you know you have an awful lot more minuses than plus. Why is that I mean I mean a lot. Well take a look at it this way it's you know this is the weather like we have today fairly decent weather you think it would be nice to just open up the windows and let the air blow through the house. I don't believe I have open the window in at least five years. No kidding. This is the Midwest we have hot air. We have humid air. We have cold air. And depending on what or what direction the wind is coming from we have stinking air. I would just as soon keep it out there. The air in my house generally speaking is a

heck of a lot healthier than what comes in the window. Do they is there a concern though I mean some people think well that's not fresh air coming into my house. There isn't any such thing. There really is nothing it is this so-called fresh air you get every piece of pollen that everybody is allergic to is comes in every time you open the window. If you could see moisture vapor you would see just pouring into the window. This is particularly true of those people who run air conditioning in during the day and open their windows at night because the your air conditioner works all day the next day. Pumping the water out the came in with that air. And so controlling the humidity is an important part. And as a safe you have if you open the windows you can't control the humidity Turk correct. Correct. As far as the air intake in most systems do you get some air pulled in

from outside where you are you will get Sunny you should get maybe a quarter of an air change per hour. And that's that's certainly acceptable. If we get a house is tightly sealed we may actually put in a mechanical intake system but we will carefully filter it before it comes in it is a matter of opening the window. Thank you. We we get a good fat filter in there so that we a lot of this stuff that we don't want doesn't make it in. And as I say the real problem in this area is controlling humidity and you cannot control humidity with an open window. What kinds of filters are available and those have changed over time. And this is Fargo's of change substantially over time. The best of course is the electronic filter which will take out particles down to the size of smoke. Second best is the high efficiency mechanical filter which is about four inches thick folded paper

filled react much like the air cleaner in your car right. Yes. And those will take out particles down. It will normally take out creep pollens but not necessarily grass pollens. There is a discussion of all the varieties of filters that are available and how they perform on my website. If you call up my website in a hank SPEEs dot com and go into the various sections of it. There is a section there on filters and you know even the kind that you have a little 1 inch thick filter that you slip into your furnace right. There's at least 6 varieties of those things and they cost anything of rooms 59 cents to $10. How about picking one of those. I mean obviously Is it true you pretty much get what you pay for you know the better the furnace the more the more costly the yeah the filter the better the living to

59 cents one will catch dust bunnies and not much of anything smaller than that. We're as we have some very good ones but you'll be in the 7 the $10 range for them and they're only good for at the most 3 months. The other thing that most people don't change their filters often enough Salut it tends to restrict the flow through heating and cooling system we don't get the air distribution in the house that we're looking for. Plus you're probably spending a little more trying to get all the little bit more air through the house to one of the ways to check your air conditioning is to put a thermometer at the return air duct. Leave it there for about 5 minutes while the air conditioner is running and then move it to a supply duct and see how much the temperature drops. If your air conditioner is 5 years old or less the temperature drop between the two should be between 10 and 15 degrees.

If it's an older air conditioner it will probably be between 15 and 20 degrees. If the drop is more than that. This means we have an adequate airflow through the system. Now this can be due to a number of things it can be due to a dirty filter. It can be due to having too many outlets closed in the system into too many duct outlets are hosed off so we're not getting enough. Now if you are getting less than 10 degrees call a repairman or something wrong. And as I say you've bought a check most airconditioners have variable speed motors on the fans and they'd change speed between heating and cooling. We have to move about twice as much air to cool as we do to heat right. And if something isn't working right the fan speed you will get over cooling you know who did this 20 25 degree temperature drop and your system just isn't as efficient and it's all due to that one an air filter that you're supposed to

replace. Not particularly. At least that's one of the major factor hot air filters. We're talking with Hank speed. We normally answer your home maintenance questions once a month here on focus 580 we do have some problems with our phone lines and we're trying to get them solved as we speak and hopefully we'll have some room for some questions in a couple of minutes but please bear with us and we'll hopefully be able to take some of those questions. Yeah I remember when I first moved into my first house speaking of furnace filters I didn't have the the ones that you replaced that you buy the paper ones that you buy at the store you. We had the the ones that you took out and washed. You know those still in use are there. Yes there are some things about that. Generally speaking their efficiency on fine particles is not great unless after you wash them re spray them with a sticky coating at things will hang onto. But yeah they're still in use and there's nothing really wrong with them. They say they're not they're not good for fine

particles. OK let's look we've got a couple of. In lieu of being able to put phone lines on the air this morning we do have somebody who's helping us take some questions off the air and you are able to give us a call at 3 3 3 9 4 5 5 or 1 800 2 2 2 9 4 5 5 our producer Travis Daniel is busily working in the other studio transposing some of those questions and sending him into here so so we can answer your questions this morning but you will be able to get on the air unfortunately but one caller called up and has some walls that were sponge painted and wants to remove remove the texture smoothing the texture out. What kind of sandpaper should he use or is there another way to get the wall smooth. And also he's asking whether he should use a joint compound. There are multiple ways of doing this if you can stand you're going to need an open coat paper otherwise the paint will plug the paper very rapidly. If there is a lot of texture Larry it may be about as easy to put a

skim coated joint compound on it as anything else. I do wish these decorators who advocate these finishes would take into consideration what is going to take to get them back off again. Exactly there are some depending on what kind of paint they've used. If you lightly sprayed a wall with water let it soak for 20 minutes and scrape it and a lot of it will come off. Hopefully none of the drywall finish will come off. That's right you got to be careful of what water used to we don't want to get into the paper and the dry wall. The joint compound you can you can skim coat it was joint compound and if you are good you will get us moving. But you've got to be but you've got to be good. Pretty smooth handed. We've got another caller who called up and says he has 100 year old house has hardwood floors and parts of the floor are lifting up. That's the floorboards of the entire thing should he replace the individual boards. Or is the way to pull them down from below.

You can pull them down from below I suspect he's got a moisture problem somewhere that is causing the wood to expand and then buckle. So I'd be looking for the source of the moisture first but otherwise yes there are a number of products. SK weekender is one of them. That screw into the bottom of the floor joist and then fasten that to the floor of the floorboard and fasten it to the floor joists. Some of that can be done if the hardwood itself is in good condition. I would try and go with something like that rather than pick it up. Our real problem with old hardwood floors is that they've usually been sanded too often now and a hardwood floor can only be sanded twice. No kidding. You think that you know you've got to know that every quarter inch from its origin a half inch boards we have tongue and groove edges and when we when the top edge of the groove gets thin it splits off right. So so so twice and he replace the whole floor. You'll probably end up

replacing the holes are there other reasons way of the why that may be pulling up. Other than waster. That's the usual one. It depends if the framing is moving or something like that because usually it's moisture caused. We're still taking your calls unfortunately we're not being able to get you on the air but you can leave your questions with our producer Travis Stanzel is answering the phones and he's forwarding them in to us this morning 3 3 3 9 4 5 5 or 1 800 2 2 2 9 4 5 5. Caller has a multi flow septic system with a gravel filled evaporation pit. He says Is there a problem running some pump exhaust into that pit. I would not want to run the sump there because it may be just producing too much water due for all to evaporator soak in. I don't like to mix sump pump effluent with the sewage treatment effluent because we usually end up groaning that way.

Much more water comes out of the sump pump. So I'm trying to remember where I guess I guess some of the when I also had a house at a sump pump and a septic system and it all went to the same place. Easy. It does make that much of a difference when you've got that much money you should know. You should definitely you can dump that much water into a septic tank field it won't absorb anough. They handle the extra flow from the sump pump is designed specifically to handle how slow What types of things say a person is moving into a house that has a septic system. And like me I have no idea almost almost no idea how a septic system works much less how to repair things how to maintain it how to know that some of the things that they that they suggest to help maintain septic systems really do the job. What kinds of things you do for a you know as it is a basic maintenance kind of thing. Well if you don't have a garbage disposer you want to be sure that the tank gets pumped every 7 to 10 years. If you do have a disposer it's three to five years. Just

get rid of what's ever and whatever's in the bottom because septic tank has basically three operating layers. One is non digestible mineral material that sinks to the bottom. Then we have a water solution that is loaded with the anaerobic bacteria that actually break down the sewage. And then there is about 6 inches of scum on top and the main thing that we have to do is be sure that the mineral material in the bottom does not get washed out into the disposal field because this is very fine particles and it will plug the soil so that the soil no longer absorbs. The same way we should never run the backwash from a water softener into a septic system. In this area because adding salt to the back washing the water softener is very salty. Makes Clay very tight and it quits absorbing water.

The anaerobic bacteria is that stuff that needs to be replaced now and then I when I when I you know you go to the supermarket you see these things of red X and they say use it to make sure that they are septic system keeps we're told is a little waste of money. No kidding. Yes. Now the one thing that you can if you have a septic disposal field and there are creases out there and you think anything is loading with tree roots about every four to six months you dump a pound of Converse will fade down a toilet and that will discourage the creek roots discourage them by but not necessarily kill them or it doesn't kill the tree but it will cute kill the roots it will hope it will open the field back up right. Got another caller asking if you have any information on an acrylic material to be painted on roof shingles to extend the life of a shingle and make roofs last longer sounds like another product that's out there that you probably has no desire and. The basic problem is. You're usually covering up a bad substrate.

And if you have a bad substrate nothing is going to last well I would not consider such a product. What if you used a product once the roof is on you to have a fresh brand new roof. Why would you. It took to preserve a single Perhaps he uses observable. No I would think that the generally speaking your ordinary asphalt shingle a first layer will last 20 years on the average if it lasts less than that you've got some other problem oyster from the bottom or whatever. The second layer of shingles will last about an average of 15 to 17 years. We never recommend a third layer and tear it off after too late after two layers tear off. And the purpose of these little granules on the surface solution gols are not only decorative primarily it is to protect the roofing felt underneath from the sun. So if we have anything that is wearing those granules off if the sun can get to the felt it will be a whole within two

years and those granules wearing off is just a natural aging process. It's not if you see them you know collecting in your gutters or something like that. Yeah that's not to be too concerned about if in the house your room is rather old or else you've got a tree or a limb that rubbing against it and rubbing him off. And that's a quick way to a whole so so it's not necessarily a sign that you need to run out and get a new roof it's but you've got you've got a few years of that going on and afterwards we have a caller who is asking if you can give your number how to over the air the caller wants to know about a gutter guard type thing that Hank didn't want to mention on the air. I don't know what he's talking about this sounds like an inside inside question to me. All right using you know a call or leave a message at 3 5 6 5 0 4 8. And I will send you something. I always kind of hesitate to do that because we know we get lots of calls on this program. I would not want to chain you behind a desk for 60 hours a week just answering people's hearts whether

you like to do it but it I am not overly prompt right now I'm very busy so but I will get some stuff out for you if you can. Leave your address and if you do have a question we still have a few minutes that we can take your question off the air and and related to Hank threw me the numbers 3 3 3 9 4 5 5 1 800 2 2 2 9 4 5 5 outside the champagne Urbana area. And we do apologize for the lack of phones this morning. Speaking of gutter guards are there. We're starting to see commercials for them all over the place. Are these things that are worth your time. What what kinds of the argument is that what about the what you're willing to pay for that if you have a two story house and you're feel unsafe on ladders and I guess that's a good idea. One of my friends tried this and he's slightly older than I am and he ended up in hospital because he went off the ladder. OK.

It would have been cheaper to put I'm going to garden right. There is some debate as to whether the how effective they are particularly ones that you cannot clean under that. You may yet find stuff that still ends up in him. There were several of them work on different theories and. Most of them worked pretty well. And there is a drastic difference if you're a do it yourself or you can get him for 75 cents a foot. If you hire live and done commercially they can be as high as $15 a foot. Right right. And I think the latter is ridiculously overpriced. Another question that's come in color has a six by six by eight half bathroom and he wants to know what the smallest exhaust fan he can use and if he has read recommended for a quiet one measured in I can't last one but exhaust fans for bathrooms especially small ones. Yeah generally speaking you're going to need something in a 60 80 CFL

range. And your sound rating is in Solondz zones OK and the lower those sones number the quieter the fan and usually the higher the price right. As far as ventilation goes half math we don't have to worry too much about moisture or anything like that. But you exhausting into an attic is probably OK as is as a player or just building when I don't. I'm not fond of exhausting humid air from the house into the attic but basically it's purely a matter odor control. One question to follow up on the roof questions we're talking about. Is there an advantage of 30 year shingles over 20 years shingles. Besides 10 years is that true. You probably won't get tenure. No kidding. You have to realize that shingle warranties are pro rated and they only cover the cost of the shingles not the labor involved. Therefore the manufacturer can put a long

warranty on and they will you know you got three fourths of the life owed we pay one fourth of the cost of new shingles but only the shingles not the labor to do it and the new 30 and 35 and 40 year shingles that I have been seeing on the roofs. I don't think they're going to make it that long. OK a couple of other questions before we wrap it up. Are the desktop air cleaners that we're seeing bogus or worthwhile three or four hundred dollars to buy one of these desktop air cleaners. What do you think. I wouldn't spend it. I don't think that there is. If that's. The best way of handling it. I'd rather spend the three or four hundred dollars on an electronic or filter in my heating system which will clean your whole house and we just talked about that through the through the electronic system right. Someone caller said that they someone had painted tar on a concrete wall.

How do you get the tar off the wall is an exterior wall. How do you know how do you use or a way to get as much tar as possible off that wall. You're probably going to end up sand blasting it. No kidding. That doesn't sound like fun. It doesn't sound like fun and it's going to change the concrete is not going to look like it ever did before. Does it hurt the integrity of the concrete Not really but. This Taryn kind Krege is almost impossible to remove. Your opinion on geothermal heating American nation compared with your typical high efficiency gas furnace. They're still selling heat pumps these days and yet we're told that geothermal is very efficient. The only problem is it's expensive to put in a geothermal system may cost two to three times as much as a conventional heating system. However its operating cost may well be a quarter to a third of the conventional system. I know people with geothermal

systems whose power bills are in the 30 to $40 a month range all winter right. So I'm all in favor of geothermal I think this is going to be one of the energy conserving ways I think we're going to gold more and more geothermal in the long run but our real problem is installation cost. Installation cost especially with somebody who I mean if you're planning on living in your house for 20 30 years you know the math adds up. Yeah but geothermal you have a couple of possibilities one is to drill wells drop a loop of pipe down it now no casing let the dirt TV in around the pipe. We can also bury them in trenches 68 feet long or if you're fortunate enough to be around a pond it's at least 10 feet deep you can loop out into the pond. And these are really quite efficient. How much is a geothermal system compared to a regular city with a high

efficiency which in exchange is higher than your standard for icing we're generally speaking for an average sized house and you know thermal system would probably be about 75 hundred. Eating that covers portable heating and cooling a conventional heating cooling system will probably be in the twenty five hundred thirty five hundred So it's geothermal you still have your air conditioning you still your furnace is just that you also have a heat pump. When all it does it does both the cool heating and cooling the one the one while you know by the side of the House does both. All right you know what I think we just made it through an hour without phone. How we did that I don't know what but as usual thanks for your input. The listeners thank you for your your expertise on Home Improvement and maintenance and we look forward to seeing you next month and we'll have some phone calls ready for you next Alright fine. Thanks a lot Hank Speace is with Speace Home Inspection Service.