The top 10 mistakes that can cost you the most in repairing your home

you. When was the last time that you jumped up and walked around your house and took a look at the cracks in the foundation to see if you can see every, you know, little bit of foundation to see if you're having cracks or not. Now, some of the most common things you'll see, I mean, concrete is going to crack.

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[00:00:46] Eric Goranson: When it comes to remodeling and renovating your home, there is a lot to know that we've got you coming. This is around the house. Hey everybody, welcome back to Around The House Show. This is where we help you get the most outta. [00:01:00] Your home through information and education. Thanks for tuning in today. I really appreciate it.

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[00:01:25] Eric Goranson: Four around the house here. So, uh, been great to hang out with those guys and always appreciate it when I get to go out and, uh, hit the road a little bit and spend some time with one of the many radio stations across the country, especially one from my hometown. Well, today we're gonna talk about in hour one the top 10 mistakes that can cost you the most when you repair your home.

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[00:02:04] Eric Goranson: Like, wow, I got a little chest pain. I'm gonna ignore that. Now. These are those kind of things in your house that you wanna pay attention to, just like that. So maybe we can get you more informed and more in tuned. That can save you some money on taking care of that house. This episode is brought to you by Root Quencher and root quencher.com.

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[00:02:42] Eric Goranson: You still gotta clean those out and maintain 'em. Baseboard heat, not so much. You know, uh, boilers need to be maintained, but H V A C systems tend to get forgotten the most, and it's because every six months to a year, you should have somebody coming out and doing a tuneup on that thing and making sure that it's [00:03:00] working correctly.

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[00:03:26] Eric Goranson: And now that where things are getting more technologically advanced on H V A C systems, you know, you could spend 15 to 20 grand really easy on a small house, on a quality H V A C system. So you wanna maintain it. Here are the things to probably help you get the most outta that system. Now, depending on the climate where you're at, you're gonna need one or two times a year.

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[00:04:06] Eric Goranson: So you just wanna have somebody be in through there at least once a year and tune that thing up. Because what they do is they go through and they'll test to make sure you don't have any big leaks. They're gonna look and see, you know, if everything is working correctly, that's starting capacitors and things like that are doing what they need to do.

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[00:04:45] Eric Goranson: Usually that does a couple things. One, it's cheaper than just paying for the service. Then two, if you have a breakdown, it usually gets you on the short list for sending somebody out there on an emergency basis because nobody wants to have to pay to somebody to go out there when the heat's down, you [00:05:00] know, and it's Sunday afternoon and it's 30 degrees in your house or, or even worse, 120 degrees.

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[00:05:27] Eric Goranson: I tell you what, all I have been doing on the outside of my house this year is working on where previous homeowners didn't do the right maintenance and keep things caulked up and sealed up because I have more carpenter ant damage in little locations. You know, nothing like bigger than a dinner plate, but when I get into it, it's like, Another big project.

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[00:06:15] Eric Goranson: On a rainy day, it's gonna stop water damage. It's gonna keep mold from growing because you're gonna keep it dry back there, and as well as keep dry rot under control because you have not exposed things in the framing to the elements. And these are keys. So really spend some time going around couple times a year, you know, and make sure that all the caulking is correct around doors, windows, openings, that kind of stuff.

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[00:07:00] Eric Goranson: Now, another thing to consider is that also that air infiltration is usually contributing to heat and cooling loss inside the house. Anything you can do to keep that stuff down. And now that we're getting into late summer in my area, this is what I call spider season, where the spiders are starting to get aggressive, they're getting big, they're getting ready to nest.

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[00:07:37] Eric Goranson: If you're getting the house sealed up tight, make sure that you've got all the plastic down there and a vapor barrier down in that crawl space to make sure you're looking good. That's another trick there. Or indoor air quality and making sure that you've got things really clean. So here's the next one here that we'll talk a little bit more up in the next hour, but this is another one here.

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[00:08:21] Eric Goranson: Now $150,000 of the water damage is a ton in a house that's under 20 years old. And what seemed like happened is that they had a small water leak that was upstairs in one of the bathrooms on a common wall between two bathrooms. So that water leak took it out, and then it came down that stud bay down into the kitchen and got in behind the kitchen, under the kitchen.

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[00:09:08] Eric Goranson: Wonder what's causing that. These are things that can really save you a ton of money because now they've got a remodel that's going on for months and they were hoping to sell their house 'cause they had moved and uh, I think they're in two of, probably four or five months of remodel. They'd hoped to have it on the market as of this last week.

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[00:10:10] Eric Goranson: Welcome back to The Round The House Show. This is where we hope you get the most outta your home through information and education. Thanks for joining me today. I am Eric G now. Hey, if you wanna find out more about us, head over to around the house online.com. You can find a bunch of stuff there. And then we have our YouTube videos over there as well.

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[00:10:48] Eric Goranson: We've been talking about today, the top 10 mistakes that cost you the most in repairs to your home. And one of the big ones we were talking about here is water leaks in the bathroom and kitchen. And so I have a neighbor that we were talking about that has a [00:11:00] ton of damage and um, these are things that happen a lot.

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[00:11:39] Eric Goranson: And so here's where the common places are that we see water damage. In a bathroom, for instance, bathroom, it's usually a shower failing where you had an incorrect tile job done. You had somebody not waterproof, that you had somebody that did not, um, do the pan or you broke [00:12:00] the pan, or just something that completely failed.

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[00:12:32] Eric Goranson: Anytime that you see water damage, mold, softness of the floor, those are warning signs. Now, when you get to a kitchen, they're in different spots. Probably the most common that I've seen is the ice maker line or the ice maker itself failing on the refrigerator freezer, and that water leaking onto the floor and causing a damage.

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[00:13:11] Eric Goranson: Those get to be minor ones. Now one of the biggest and most expensive ones is in the laundry room where the hoses to the washing machine fail. Uh, and when that fails, it literally blows stuff all over everywhere. And it's like a garden hose running. If you're not home, this can go on for hours to days.

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[00:13:56] Eric Goranson: We're semi gentle about it, but when you have an [00:14:00] electric solenoid that clicks off, boom, it hits hard. And guess what happens when that thing turns off? It's like a gate getting slammed shut, and all that water hits it. And so it's really hard on the hose. So that hose keeps getting expanded, contracting, expanding, contracting.

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[00:14:47] Eric Goranson: Pressure washer on a asphalt composite shingle unless you are a professional. Doing a soft wash is a really bad idea because those granules are what protect [00:15:00] your house. Those granules are what's there, that's important. And guess what happens? They blow those right off the top. You gotta heck of a mess.

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[00:15:31] Eric Goranson: Let 'em up on there, hire these guys to do it 'cause he just didn't want to be three, three stories up on an extension ladder. Totally get it. Well, they didn't tarp everything off, and so they dripped all of this white paint on the green roof, and then they came up there and made some cleanup efforts that were poor with grinding wheels and stuff.

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[00:16:18] Eric Goranson: Making sure that anybody working on any owner house is licensed Bond insured, because he hired somebody that was licensed upon insured, he had a place to go back to. 'cause they at first did not want to pay to fix the roof. And because it was a covered porch that you could see. They're on a hill slope coming down, you would see this.

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[00:16:55] Eric Goranson: So again, these are issues that you see as far as having a color [00:17:00] and having that get washed off there. So be very careful. On a shingled roof, you know, with a architectural type, you know, composite three tab, that can be a problem. And I've seen some damage done, done to, uh, if you have some of those old seventies cedar shingle roofs as well.

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[00:17:39] Eric Goranson: So with that, uh, my advice to keep these mistakes from happening, if you're not an expert, have a roofing company come out and take a look and inspect it every two or three years or after big storms, pay 'em to come up, take a look at it. Do any repairs that are needed. Stay on top of this. That way you don't have to do it later.

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[00:18:17] Eric Goranson: Man, you're gonna have to spend another 25 or 35 or 45,000 bucks to put a roof on that gets expensive and you didn't have to do it that way. More tips when around the house returns we'll.[00:19:00]

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[00:19:27] Eric Goranson: And that is our around the House Insider subscription. And you can actually get the podcast a couple days early if you subscribe to that. And we're gonna have some here in August. We're gonna have a couple exclusive episodes that you can catch over there. That will be for all of you guys only. So we appreciate you on the radio show or the podcast, whichever one you're tuning to out there.

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[00:20:07] Eric Goranson: Next up is ignoring foundation damage and water intrusion. Now, here's my question for you. When was the last time that you jumped up and walked around your house and took a look at the cracks in the foundation to see if you can see every, you know, little bit of foundation to see if you're having cracks or not.

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[00:20:48] Eric Goranson: Ignoring that wet basement can be very expensive because what happens is is after a while you'll get a fluorescence where the water is grabbing the minerals and dragging it through, [00:21:00] and it's breaking down that concrete. So if I have seen some homes that were grossly negligent, Their foundation. Here's a story that was a horror story that I had that was absolutely horrible.

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[00:21:35] Eric Goranson: It looked like I opened up a steam shower, comes rolling out and I'm like, we got a problem. So I get my head under the house and realize that they were running laundry at the time, and the water line that went from the washer and dryer, the drain line that went all the way across the kitchen that was made out of, of [00:22:00] uh, galvanized, had rotted out.

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[00:22:31] Eric Goranson: Had sunk in so much, it had bound up and it was holding up against the cabinets, and that was keeping the house from dropping down there and partially collapsing. So the cabinetry was really holding up that part of the house just from the tension of it. So this was a big problem. They were gonna have to spend a hundred thousand bucks to fix that probably by the time they're done because they were gonna have to put a new kitchen in.

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[00:23:21] Eric Goranson: Plus we had all the steam in the water from every time they did that there was gonna be mold. This was gonna be a hundred thousand dollars repair. This was a $500 replumb that turned into hundreds of thousands of dollars. And because the neglect was so bad, it didn't look like that the insurance was gonna cover it because somebody should have known better.

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[00:24:09] Eric Goranson: Now I'm gonna give you some tips here because there are some really nearly criminal companies out there doing foundation work around the country. I have 'em in my area. I'm sure you have 'em in yours. There are people out there that overcharge. Try to scare the heck out of people because they, they, your house is gonna fall down around you and then they hit you for a full meal deal.

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[00:24:53] Eric Goranson: Structural engineer first, and then talk to your foundation companies to find out what the fix is. [00:25:00] That way, you know you have the right fix with an engineering plan, and then they can bid off the same thing so you know what you're paying for. That way you don't have four different solutions in four different plans.

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[00:25:33] Eric Goranson: So if you got to your house over 60% relative humidity. So my question to you is, is when was the last time you checked the humidity in your house? What was it like in your basement? What was it like in your crawlspace? If you're slab un, great, it doesn't matter. But really, what is that humidity around in different parts of the house?

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[00:26:17] Eric Goranson: Those, those don't work well. They cost you a lot of money, so you wanna put in something that's more serious or built in. You know, look at different brands. There's Santa Fe. There's a lot of different ones out there that are built in that are gonna be much more efficient and not have the recall issues that you see with a lot of the portable ones that are just meant as a spot treatment and not meant to do a whole basement or house.

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[00:27:02] Eric Goranson: That can be a big issue. So make sure you've got that under control as well as you're using your kitchen. Vent hood a lot. If you've got the stove on, turn the vent hood on. Vice versa, you get it. It's not hard. That will keep air quality so much better in the house, and that can also keep damage down as well.

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[00:27:40] Eric Goranson: These are all things you should be paying attention to. If you don't have, if you have one of the old Federal Pacific or one of the, you know, 1960s to 1970s electrical panels that were recalled due to fire hazard, make sure that you have those things swapped out and now is the time to do it. [00:28:00] Because I tell you what, my house, I had one of those federal Pacifics at my house, and because there was an issue, I had, um, basically it was days away from a fire and I had it where the neutral, uh, bus bar and stuff on the inside had burned through and was going to be in contact with metal because the plastic had heating up so much.

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[00:29:04] Eric Goranson: Welcome back to The Round the House Show. Now we've been talking about top 10 mistakes that can cost to the most in repairing your home. These are those things that people just kinda, oh, I'll deal with it later. I'll deal with it later. And that's just like a slot machine or like watching the lotto numbers.

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[00:29:38] Eric Goranson: Water leaks in the bathroom, and kitchen power washing your shingled roof. Foundation damage water intrusion. Ignoring those mold, ventilation and control and humidity is another one. Then the last one here before we went on to break was not paying attention to electrical issues. Now, next up here can be very expensive 'cause I've seen it do tons of damage and that's [00:30:00] roots from trees.

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[00:30:30] Eric Goranson: So there are a lot of different things here within trees you need to pay attention to, including their health in case they go falling over your house or things like that. So managing the trees through maintenance, making sure you've got the root damage. From like to a driveway or to, to your plumbing under control.

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[00:31:16] Eric Goranson: If you're gonna put it up for sale, you're gonna, you know, do something with it. Smoking cigarettes in your house is one of the leading, most expensive things you can do to damage your home on the inside. Here's why you to come into a house that had a heavy smoker. And I have somebody in my kind of extended family that has a relative that is a heavy smoker, and I'm just gonna talk about what would happen to this house if you needed to do something with it.

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[00:32:11] Eric Goranson: Start over. Then remove all the heating and cooling ducts and put in a new HVAC system. I have had a hard time getting ducks clean enough after smokers have been there, where you don't get those whiffs of smoke that show up days, weeks, months, years later, and you're like, where did that come from? I could smell that cigarette smoke.

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[00:33:02] Eric Goranson: Getting it clean and going, and you're doing that for months, it seems on end, trying to get every room cleaned up. So the things that get contaminated that you really can't fix your heating and cooling system, you're gonna see the vent fans and the bathrooms get all clogged up and nasty, especially where people will smoke in the bathroom.

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[00:33:44] Eric Goranson: Or you're buying a house, it's a project house that had smokers in it, here's what I'm gonna tell you to do, and here is my best advice for you. And this will kind of tell you about what some of the, the costs are involved with it. So first off, If it's had heavy [00:34:00] smokers in, I take it right down to the studs.

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[00:34:26] Eric Goranson: Replace the vent fans, take out any soft pieces like carpets and, and wallpapers. Of course, if you're taking the drywall down anyway, it's gonna come out, draperies, all that stuff, pretty much tough to get that out. Then once you get that down, This is a good time to reinsulate as well. I would take that all down and treat this like it was a house fire and get in there with the, uh, primer sealers and seal off anything you can to keep that from coming back up through.

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[00:35:18] Eric Goranson: If you think about it, if you've got air infiltration coming in and outta the house, maybe it's around outlet covers or things like that, that can get trapped in the insulation behind the wall because you had an air leak. And so that smell will continue and it's a really tough one to manage. That's gonna be one right there to really pay attention to is gonna be that smoking.

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[00:35:59] Eric Goranson: [00:36:00] This one is for you. This is not maintaining that septic system or your, well now with the septic system, they always recommend in many cases, at least what I've been told by my septic experts, is to have somebody come out and pump that thing out every five years or so and get as many solids outta there and make sure that you're treating that system.

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[00:36:52] Eric Goranson: So making sure that you're feeding it with the enzymes and you've got that going well. Making sure. You're not putting things [00:37:00] down it, I mean it shouldn't be going down it. Be careful of things like garbage disposals and things like that, or, or flushing, flushable wipes. These are things that can cost you tens of thousands of dollars when things go incorrectly.

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[00:37:33] Eric Goranson: But as far as the septic system, get it running well make sure it's maintained, make sure the drain field's not plugged up. That's good. Well systems, same kind of thing on the maintenance, making sure that it's getting tested. I always want you to test your well water. Test that once a year. See what's in it.

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[00:38:12] Eric Goranson: So making sure that well is dialed in, making sure that the water quality is dialed in. Those are all things that are really important. Now if there's something that you think that I've missed, I would love to hear from you. Head over to around the house online.com. Hit the contact us. Is there something over there that, uh, you think that I should have covered this week?

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[00:38:51] Eric Goranson: Of course, how do we get around those? And those are keys to any time that you're doing a bathroom model. And I've done thousands of these things. So I'm gonna give you [00:39:00] my insider tips and tricks, whether or not you're hiring somebody to come do it, or it's a project that you're gonna tackle yourself.

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