Eric G answers listener questions Part 1

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[00:00:24] Eric Goranson: If you do have a question, submit it over at around the house online.com. You can contact us there and write it out, or you can send us via Burst submission. Just head over to the Around the House website and you can take a look there and we'll have the instructions for you, which is around the house online.com, and that video could end up on a future show or my television show, which is also called Around the House when it comes to remodeling and renovating your home.

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[00:01:08] Eric Goranson: And I've had a lot of questions coming over the last few weeks and we are just gonna tackle 'em today. So looking ahead, some of the stuff you're gonna catch this hour, we're gonna be talking about some exterior painting tips. And range Hood basics. We've had so many questions on Kitchen Range Hoods.

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[00:01:41] Eric Goranson: That is our closed group. And if you have questions like this, make sure get over to around the house online and message over there, and we will be glad to give you a hand. And if you just wanna share up some pictures, we'd love to see what projects you're working on over at, around the House Nation. And, uh, make sure if you're over at the website to, uh, check [00:02:00] out the videos.

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[00:02:18] Eric Goranson: And this is a big deal because there's a lot of people out there, they're maybe just getting quotes. Uh, they're going to have somebody come do the painting. They don't wanna get up in the ladder. Maybe they got a two story plus house. And they were like, forget it. Well, one of the first things that I want to see is depending on the weather in your area, it could be a little early to paint and it depends on the paint that you're gonna put on the building.

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[00:03:01] Eric Goranson: So really, I wanna see daytime temperatures, you know, well into the fifties and sixties, and I wanna see overnights in the fifties for it really to be curing correctly. There are some paints though. That I will say that can go into the forties and even a little bit into the thirties at night. So make sure you understand what paint is being, being put on your place.

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[00:03:40] Eric Goranson: The speed coat, lower part of the line. What are they doing? What are they using? And that's a key right there. Cause you want this to hold up. And with today's color choices you see out there with bold colors, better paint matters. Because what happens is, is the better paints, they have better UV inhibitors and stuff in there [00:04:00] to keep maybe that brighter color.

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[00:04:21] Eric Goranson: But you can spend, you know, look for the sales out there. But you'll see people out there getting some pretty expensive paints and they are cool, but you don't need to use that on your house. Now, here's the other thing I want to see too. I also worry, you know, about the prep work because the prep work is so important.

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[00:04:56] Eric Goranson: Make sure that you're looking good there. That's easy to get at your paint storage. Just a little [00:05:00] pen test. See if you're working with it. The nice thing is we're starting to see with lead paint is it's starting to kind of go away. Cuz we've done so much painting over the years. The lead paint's starting to get pretty buried into a project now, or it's been completely removed, or the siding's been removed.

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[00:05:43] Eric Goranson: And so those primers are available out there. But speaking of primers, when you're talking about painting, Make sure that if you've got any kind of a weird situation, like an old oil based or anything else on that house or, or uh, a weird color bleed, or you've got [00:06:00] things out there where the paint is pretty hammered, that primer is key.

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[00:06:27] Eric Goranson: It can really be helpful to give you something really solid as a base, and it'll also seal behind that. Next up is gonna be your pain. I wanna see if that's getting sprayed on there. I wanna see people backroll stuff out there because those blow and go guys out there that just. Spray the house and don't do any back rolling.

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[00:07:05] Eric Goranson: You'll get a more even coat on the outside out there by doing it that way. That way you don't have that thick spot and maybe a lighter spot that will help roll that out. And those are some of the keys there, but you know, Again, this is the time to go through and check all that caulking. And if you're just going around and doing touchups right now, maybe you painted A couple years ago I was just going through, starting a couple projects around my house and I realized that, wow, I need to go through and do some touchups and I just painted my house about 18 months ago, so I'm gonna go through and do some touchups.

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[00:07:51] Eric Goranson: Now my last tips before we go out to break are gonna come down to the materials you're using. Buy good brushes, buy good rollers, that stuff will [00:08:00] last you forever. I have brushes that have lasted me probably eight to 10 years before they've worn out, and if they've worn out, it means I probably didn't take care of them.

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[00:08:28] Eric Goranson: Have a good roller frame. And if you get those materials and take care of them, they'll last you a long time. I went out and bought some really nice drop cloth and you know, something nice drop cloths or great to have around the house for painting projects. And I'm actually gonna go out and buy a couple more cause I have some more interior paint projects coming up that I'm gonna be tackling on those bad weather days.

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[00:09:20] Eric Goranson: And the Southwest is gonna hold up to different stuff than it will in my area where we get rain for six months outta the year. All right, everybody, when we come back, more questions and more answers just as soon as around the house returns.

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[00:09:46] Eric Goranson: should I? Is so hot.[00:10:00]

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[00:10:25] Eric Goranson: You know the next one here, we were just talking before about our exterior painting tips, but range hoods are a question that has been coming up more so than ever before, and I think it's because, you know, you've seen people talking about the gas range bands because of the. You know, indoor air quality being poor and all the stuff that, that, quite frankly, the electrical companies were out there pushing.

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[00:11:09] Eric Goranson: Ventilation is key here, so that's the key. You cannot have an electric range and go, oh, I changed out my gas range. I'm not gonna use a range hood, and now my air is gonna be clean inside. That's not how this works. This is a ventilation problem. So I'll start out by saying, here in the United States, If, if your area does not require it in building code, guess what it's going to because it's a safety thing and there are a few areas out there that are still way behind in building codes, especially when it comes to ventilation.

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[00:12:04] Eric Goranson: Uh, my entire career of designing kitchens, it was required, and that was 30 years. So this is not something that's just new, and here's why. Your range puts off so many different chemicals. When you cook now, you could be taking formaldehydes. Now. Yes, formaldehyde is something that is naturally occurring.

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[00:12:44] Eric Goranson: I'm not gonna get into the. Deals with this, but you can watch your, your indoor air quality go bad just as soon as you start doing something on that range, whether it's an electric induction, gas, whatever, gas just adds a little bit more to [00:13:00] it because you're combusting fuel to do it, but it doesn't matter.

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[00:13:24] Eric Goranson: You know, of course, a range hood has to cover the cooking surface completely. So if you've got a 30 inch range, you can put a 30 inch hood over the top of it if it's made of metal. But if it's a wood hood, you probably will need a 33 or a 36. Why is that a 36 inch wood hood? That wood can't be hanging over the cooking service cuz if you have a fire.

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[00:14:09] Eric Goranson: So you need to have some height there as well, considering you have an 18 inch gap between the. The cooktop, you know, between the countertop and the cabinets, you need to have a little bit more for that. And so I see people out there trying to put in a shelf for the microwave over the top foot, and guess what?

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[00:14:42] Eric Goranson: Have I used them in designs in the past? Yeah. Most of the time it's in a condo where that's kind of the only option, but generally speaking, I'm not a fan of them for that reason. Now, the worst situation I've seen with microwaves. And just a little sidebar on this, which was kind of funny. I have seen people try to put in a [00:15:00] double oven.

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[00:15:26] Eric Goranson: That's about a cubic foot. So if you think about that, that basketball, you're moving 400 c f m out in many places, that's gonna require makeup, air, makeup, air means that you are pulling out, creating a vacuum. Air outta the building. So you need to create incoming air to replace it. So that's even bigger.

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[00:16:07] Eric Goranson: I might only move 900 out, I might only move 800 out, depending on how far that has to go and where it goes and what restrictions you have, which restrictions being elbows and corners and things like that. But makeup air is key. So that's where, you know, if you've got a newer house, especially, it's tight.

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[00:16:49] Eric Goranson: So be really careful. That, you know, you're not creating that problem there because that can be a huge issue. So makeup air is big, and then getting a quality hood, you know, if. [00:17:00] There are some new ones out there as well. Let's put it this way, that are automatic. So if you turn on its senses, heat, um, you or the cooktop below, it turns on and AME has something like that.

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[00:17:34] Eric Goranson: That way you'll be a lot better off. You're gonna get that air outside. I am seeing air testing where you actually test the air inside the kitchen after cooking a big meal, and it can be as bad or worse than anywhere in the world, including third world countries outside in a polluted city. So you don't need that in your house.

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[00:18:10] Eric Goranson: Less respiratory. And if you've got people in the house with asthma or or, or grandparents or anything like that, or somebody with, uh, lung issues, make sure you're using it for them because it's gonna pay off. All right. We come back. I've got so many more questions that have come in that we're gonna tackle.

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[00:19:09] Eric Goranson: Welcome to The Round the House Show. This is where we help you get the most outta your home through information and education. Thanks for joining us today. Well, today we are tackling all sorts of questions that have come in on projects and I'm gonna try to help you get through them. And the latest one here, which came in here, uh, via the website, which was great, thanks for sending that over, is about a fiberglass tub, shower, and.

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[00:19:50] Eric Goranson: And many times when they put 'em in, they built the house around 'em. They came in when there was studs, they had a rough floor. It goes in, it gets screwed in to the, [00:20:00] to the studs. It gets drywalled around the floor, comes up to it, and the plumbing gets hooked up, and that's how they go. But, If they weren't installed correctly or they just broke down this, can we be where the problems happened?

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[00:20:32] Eric Goranson: Cuz many times you'll get a crack in the floor and that's just because that fiberglass time, after time of a decade or more of people stepping on it, the bottom of that will flex enough that you'll start to get those hairline cracks and then it starts leaking. And once you get water underneath there, you got a hot mess.

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[00:21:11] Eric Goranson: What I want to do is get in there with some low expansion spray foam and try to give it some support. And so what I'll do is I'll go in and, uh, drill a couple holes very carefully cuz if you over drill it, you can drill into the tub. So this is where you don't want to get a hole saw or anything where you don't, where you can't control the tip.

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[00:21:48] Eric Goranson: Basically patch and fill those fiberglass cracks, and then they can paint the whole tub. And you think about it, a fiberglass tub shower is just like a Corvette. It's like the old Corvette. You can go in there, [00:22:00] you can patch that up, clean it up and paint it, and it's gonna be a really good surface down there.

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[00:22:24] Eric Goranson: And that can be nice. Now, if you've got, you know, flooring that's bad and you've got drywall that's bad, and plumbing, that's gonna get swapped out, tear the whole thing out and do something better. But if you're on a budget, they can be saved, but you just gotta be really, really careful with it. And that's the key right there, is being really careful.

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[00:22:59] Eric Goranson: [00:23:00] Carry it outta there. And that's really your only option if you've got like mold or water damage below it. You just gotta rip the thing out, cut it up, get it outta there, and that'll be the best way to do it once you get it out of there. Then you can go down and fix the framing and the subfloor and those kind of things and get it done right.

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[00:23:43] Eric Goranson: Shower system or a acrylic base with a tile wall system in there, that's gonna be your best bet. Either one of those will work really well. I just wanna make sure that you've got that kind of dialed in. So, uh, you can do that, but that is how you save it. Now the other thing you just gotta really worry about too [00:24:00] is, is a shower door.

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[00:24:21] Eric Goranson: I would much rather pay a little bit more and have a shower company come in, build the right one. You know, the, the problem that you have with, with these universal ones is they look like universal ones. The ones you get from the home, you know, the home center, you've got a big piece of metal that's meant to adjust the width.

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[00:24:57] Eric Goranson: So you need to make sure that you've got the right silicone or [00:25:00] whatever is required for that to seal off those screw holes cuz you don't water to get back in that. That can be a whole other problem. That's the worst when you have a brand new shower system and you have created problems with that. But really having a nice shower door can stop water damage as well as, uh, give you some control there.

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[00:25:37] Eric Goranson: Why do that? Spend the few hundred bucks or a thousand bucks or whatever it costs. I know it's expensive, but get your water condition. It is going to extend the life of your water heater, your refrigerator, ice maker, your faucets, all those things in your house. It will extend the life of those if you get the water treated.

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[00:26:10] Eric Goranson: Cleaners that are meant for fiberglass, which means not the comets, not the subs, soft scrubs, not the bar keeper's friends. You are creating micro scratches with that, and that micro scratch makes it where the hard water deposits, the soap, the scum. Will actually attach itself to it. And when that happens, it really creates a problem because now you're making it so it gets dirty so much quicker.

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[00:26:52] Eric Goranson: So do not do that. And then the other thing I've done too is if I've got the glass that's clean, I've put rain X on there. Some of the bathroom cleaners that [00:27:00] help sheet that off there, all that is, is a wax that really helps and, uh, that will really make a big deal on making that be better. And I think you'll be better off Now, one other quick side note on this, I wanna make sure that we, we cover before we go out to break here.

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[00:27:51] Eric Goranson: Or fiberglass showers. Those systems have always been known to be kind of builder basic, and if you're trying to put. Or show your [00:28:00] house is a more luxury home, that is not what people are gonna expect to see in it. So if you've got a higher end home, I would not put one of those back in it. I would go with a tile or a slab or something like that.

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[00:29:04] Eric Goranson: Welcome back to The Round the House Show. This is where we hope to get the most outta your home through information and education. Thanks for joining me today. Well, we've been tackling on the show questions. That people have had on projects that have come in over the last week or two. I just wanted to see if we could get these tackled out.

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[00:29:47] Eric Goranson: And I can tell you what, and this is one thing I really want people to get, uh, if you take away one thing outta here is know where you're getting your information from. Because I tell you what, um, [00:30:00] there is some horrible information that's given out that is completely incorrect. On Facebook, YouTube, everywhere else of just really, really bad information.

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[00:30:36] Eric Goranson: You know, if you go onto a site and somebody starts talking about doing a tile shower and whether it's a face group, you know, group or not, and you've got people on there that say they've been a contractor for 30 years. And they're describing things that there is no way that that shower's gonna last five years.

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[00:31:15] Eric Goranson: There are plenty of projects on there and. There are, there are good ones. There's bad ones. Um, I went on a ranch probably a year ago about one where they were doing a attic bathroom and they cut through floor joists. They ruined structure. They did a whole bunch of bad stuff on there and left a really junky job site with all the building materials, scrap materials left in the floor, joists.

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[00:32:09] Eric Goranson: You know that tile needs to have a waterproofing system behind it. You know, that's just one example. You know, electrical issues. Oh my gosh, it has been weeks that I've been seeing horrible electrical stuff. You know, connection's not done in boxes using the wrong light fixtures. I don't want this to sound too negative, but just be very careful out there, guys.

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[00:33:00] Eric Goranson: And that's something to be really careful of because a lot of people are having to do projects twice because of it. Now one great resource. So when you're tackling a project that I will say, you know, outside of around the house here, of course, is go over to the manufacturer's YouTube page. Many manufacturers, if you're taking on a tile project and you're thinking about using Art X or Weedy, or Schluter or one of those, head over to their website, take a look.

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[00:33:55] Eric Goranson: You know, if you're gonna go look at an H V A C system, go out and hire the [00:34:00] person to do it. Awesome. If you don't have a referral from somebody, jump on that brand's website and make sure that you've got their premier dealer. You want somebody that knows it and has a good relationship. What I don't want to see is you hire an H V A C professional that doesn't have one of those things that's working outta the back of their truck.

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[00:34:42] Eric Goranson: Because if you're paying somebody to do it, why not have them do it? And that's really where I think one of the biggest things of hiring that non-licensed and bonded and insured contractor, uh, where that really can bite you, you know, outside of the, uh, you having the problems here with the, uh, with them being your employee and getting [00:35:00] hurt and you're having to pay their medical bills.

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[00:35:22] Eric Goranson: So the, you're paying for it, you want it to hold up like it was intended. Now, one of the bigger topics I want to address here real quick at the end of the show as well of this hour is I want to talk a little bit about asking those questions. And making sure that you've got the right people on the project, for instance.

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[00:36:01] Eric Goranson: You really want to turn around and probably be bringing in. That homeowner, that that plumber a homeowner. When you're in over your head on that, if you're asking those questions on a social media page, I'll be honest, that is the best time to bring that plumber in to do it right. I can't tell you how many questions that popped up in my inbox that have pictures that, um, I know people are trying to be on a budget.

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[00:36:46] Eric Goranson: Can you replace a piece? These are all things that I really want you to make sure that you have addressed. And the same is with electrical, with complex electrical questions on social media. I would really like to see it where somebody gets in there. Puts their [00:37:00] hands on the project and starts taking a look at amperage and OMS and draw and all the things that you should be taking a look at with this that don't get addressed in a social media post.

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[00:37:33] Eric Goranson: Because when you call to have that emergency, That's really the key right there, is to have them. They know who you are if you've done business with them before and they're coming out to fix a broken pipe, or they're fixing a, uh, an electrical issue that you've got at the house. Maybe a tree fell in the, in the, it damaged the pole coming into your, the line coming into your house, so it pulled something outta the panel or something.

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[00:38:19] Eric Goranson: Also good to have that with your building professionals, have those people know who they are, and that way you've got an account there and uh, they know where you live and when you call up, you can get somebody out there quickly because when there's been all these different damages out there and all these different things happening, Make sure that you've got that address.

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[00:38:55] Eric Goranson: So if you, uh, go to YouTube, Google Kpt V. Fox 12, and go to the [00:39:00] around the house tab that's on the playlist. You'll find all probably almost 50 videos we have over there that are answering a whole bunch of DIY questions, including some new made in USA stuff. All right everybody, this was the end of our number one.

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