What should you not buy at a Home Center? What should you purchase?

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[00:00:24] Eric Goranson: Yeah, that and so much more. It's stuff that's on the shelf every single day that you probably shouldn't pick up. And in the last segment we're gonna talk about the things that are those special buys or loss leaders that you can get there cheaper than you can get anywhere else. Who doesn't want to save a little butt of money, right?

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[00:00:59] Eric Goranson: [00:01:00] Thanks for joining us today. Well, we've got a fun show ahead. We're gonna talk about the things that, well, I don't think you should buy at the home centers, and these are things that, uh, well, Maybe they're not a goodbye. Maybe they're low quality, or even worse, they don't mean building code and shouldn't be used in your house anyway.

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[00:01:33] Eric Goranson: Just head over there to Facebook, look up around the House Nation, join us, and then you can share up your projects, jokes, memes, whatever. It's just a fun place for everybody to connect. Well, today I wanted to talk about those things that they sell in the home centers. That are just a really bad deal for the consumer and you know, not dogging on home centers here.

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[00:02:21] Eric Goranson: All it takes is a spark and you have lint on fire. And guess what? You've got a much bigger problem. So there's the first one right there that'll get you good. And then on ducks it. Like a vent fan. It always loves to catch junk in there, and all those little tiny ribs in the vinyl love to just get gunky and nasty.

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[00:03:03] Eric Goranson: Anywhere on that dryer. The more hard ducting you can do, the better the clothes you're gonna dry. Cuz the more efficient path of air going out is, and you can clean it. Cuz when was the last time you cleaned? That dryer duct work that should be done every couple to three years, especially if you do a lot of laundry, that can be a huge fire hazard.

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[00:03:42] Eric Goranson: And then on vent. If you've got a Fent fan that you're trying to replace, maybe it's the kitchen one, maybe it's the bathroom. Make sure you're using either a metal or an insulated duct. Check your local building code because they will tell you how they want it, cuz it depends somewhat on your climate.

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[00:04:26] Eric Goranson: So always make sure you get the nice higher quality ones that have the stainless steel braiding on the outside that will keep that from happening in most cases. And just make sure you change those things every five to 10. I like to make sure that they're ready to go and, um, you know, make sure they're good to go.

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[00:05:03] Eric Goranson: In my area, they don't meet building code at all no matter what. So that's the vent hood that blows the air right back out at you and doesn't actually vent outside. Those don't meet building code in many states and in the states that they do, they shouldn't. So make sure you never put one of those in your house and make it a priority to change that one.

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[00:05:44] Eric Goranson: So you wanna make sure that gets vented all the way outside. And just like your bathroom fans, those need to go exterior. Do not drop into the attic. That's how you get mold and mildew and nasty stuff up there. Make sure it vents all the way outside of the house. So you [00:06:00] don't have to mess with it. That's a key right there, is getting that stuff outside because otherwise you've got a moldy mess in the attic space, crawlspace, or wherever else it's going.

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[00:06:29] Eric Goranson: It doesn't take much to get it done. I've seen that happen. So that's a big one right there. And I know it's tough, guys. It's tough with those hoods. Maybe you don't have an easy way to do it. Maybe it's in a condo, an apartment type situation. But guess what? In the condos, they still are required in most places for that to go outside.

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[00:07:15] Eric Goranson: Propane natural gas, you need to have that vent fan, have a good one, have it so it's going outside and you're gonna be much better off. That's one of those things that, uh, health-wise, that's a serious deal and I wanna make sure that that's working out great for you. And another little thing here too, while you're talking about venting, you know, make sure you've got the right size of that duct going out as well.

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[00:08:03] Eric Goranson: Nobody wants that energy loss right there. And of course, with any hood, make sure that you've got the right makeup, air if you've got a tight house. Like a newer one, make sure that you've got the right amount of air coming back in to make up for it. And makeup air is a big deal we've talked about at that on the show before.

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[00:08:45] Eric Goranson: So what we're gonna do is on the podcast, maybe in your local area, you're gonna have specials there on the radio. If you're listening on the radio, don't worry, the podcast will be out. But we're gonna do some special, my favorite episodes of 2022. [00:09:00] So I'm gonna take our favorite cuts out of this, post 'em up.

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[00:09:21] Eric Goranson: Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and of course Facebook. Around the house and around the House Nation. All right, everybody. We're gonna go out to break here. We'll be back right after these important messages. Let's talk about those things we shouldn't be buying at the home center. We'll be right back.

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[00:10:07] Eric Goranson: Welcome back to Around The House Show. Now we've been talking about our things that you should. Get at the Home center this year. Now make sure that you, uh, if you're brand new to the show, you can go over and find out more information on us and around the house online.com. Now we have almost 900 episodes.

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[00:10:43] Eric Goranson: We got like 900 of 'em. So you can take a look over there and it's a great resource if you're gonna tackle that new project remodeling project. Even if you're gonna hire, hire somebody to. Guess what? We have got the resource for you over there. Thanks for bearing with me. I am, uh, just battling the [00:11:00] last like, week two and a half of that respiratory virus, so, uh, getting stronger every day.

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[00:11:26] Eric Goranson: So next op S traps. You know we have a regular P trap that goes under the sink, right? That's that trap that goes down and that's what's normally code. In your under your kitchen or bathroom sink. Now, in old homes, they use something called an S trap, and if you see it on the package it says srap. I want you to take the time and convert that over to a P trap from an S trap.

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[00:12:20] Eric Goranson: Nobody wants that, so you wanna make sure and keep that water. In that trap. So that's what a P Trap does. That's why S Traps have been banned for a lot of years. But you know something, you could still buy 'em in the home centers. So take the time if you've got the S trap before you grab that S trap package off the shelf, take a minute, convert it over to a P trap, it's gonna make the room smell better too.

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[00:13:10] Eric Goranson: That's not a bad idea, but when I treat that stuff, I treat it from the cleanout out to make sure that I've got things cleaned up. Because you know you always wanna have that clean going to the street like mine cuz I have such energy. Pieces in here from low flow toilets to, you know, front load washing machines and good dishwasher.

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[00:13:58] Eric Goranson: Definitely stay away from [00:14:00] those drain cleaners. Never good for your house. Uh, I get rid of mine. It's something I did years ago cuz I've seen too many people destroying good pipes and that gets pretty darn expensive. Now here's the next one. This is gonna be the, the probably the first controversial one here.

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[00:14:47] Eric Goranson: I just have, I just don't like, Now I had a house here in, uh, in Oregon here that I was working on, and we did a remodel and they did the shark bite. [00:15:00] It was installed correctly and it blew off the hose and it was installed by a plumber cuz they were going from one diff different pipe to another. This was probably five or six years ago that was a hundred thousand dollars water damage in that building, just freshly remodeled.

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[00:15:45] Eric Goranson: This guy is a licensed plumber, master plumber knows his. So here's the thing, quick fitting has got a new type of press to connect fitting like a shark bite in that it [00:16:00] pushes on. Roger sat there and did some testing on it. I tell you what, this actually worked out really well. They did pull test and pressure test, and they well outlasted what the shark bite did.

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[00:16:33] Eric Goranson: Are they something I'm gonna put on the wall? No, they're a great temporary fitting, but I tell you what, quick fitting, I'm impressed Roger passed. They passed through his tests and, um, you know when you can get these things to hold to 2,127 psi, that's 21 times a city water pressure. That's gonna do pretty good.

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[00:17:24] Eric Goranson: I tell you, glue on the threaded, fitting onto the C P V C. Glue it on there into a threaded fitting screw on the next fitting, and go from there. Use a threaded fitting to go between those two and you'll be better off if, and here's my little thing on C P V C, if you have a house full of C P VC pipe, and that stuff's fairly old, guess.

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[00:18:08] Eric Goranson: Make sure you're either using the expansion of the crimp, and guess what? You're gonna have a much. Better time at it. Stay away from this PVC and the C P VC for anything water inside your home. That's my advice because guess what? It's gonna last and you're gonna fix it once and not have to worry about it.

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[00:19:04] Eric Goranson: Welcome back to The Round the House Show. Now if you wanna find out more about us or contact me if you have questions, head over to around the house online and you can fill out the. Desk page, or you can send me a message on Twitter or you can send it over on Facebook Messenger for a group which is around the House Show or around the House Nation, where you can invite, just ask on there.

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[00:19:46] Eric Goranson: Those, you know, you've seen them, they're kind of that corrugated flex trap that you can buy that maybe things are offset in that P trap area. Stay away from those flexible traps. There are some new ones now that they say they meet [00:20:00] code, but guess what? Meeting code and still want 'em to use 'em. Not a good idea.

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[00:20:32] Eric Goranson: Once that slime starts building up, that is much more likely to get caught. And gets clogged much easier cuz it's not giving you a smooth run going through there. You know, you think about it when they're buying for gold, what are they doing? They're putting the gold through ripples, so the heavy stuff falls out.

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[00:21:15] Eric Goranson: Those things are junk. Any of those things, if you're trying to get it working for a day, that's one thing, but guess what? You're gonna be throwing it away when it's done. Don't use those. All right. Now, here's a big one. We're gonna probably take up the rest of the segment on this one. Stay away from the home center.

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[00:21:58] Eric Goranson: People go, oh, it has to be a good deal cause [00:22:00] I'm buying at the home center. No, not really. Here's what happens. The home center has to make their 15, 20%, right? So what they're doing is they're taking many times that new contractor, maybe they're new, maybe they just start a new company. They're, um, maybe less experienced.

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[00:22:44] Eric Goranson: Maybe they're just not good at sales. They're the ones that start out every homeowner. Has to be worried about this because any of these new people that go working for the home center, they're making less money than if they were out doing it themselves. [00:23:00] So they're now having to deal with that. And now you've got the middleman who is your home center.

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[00:23:30] Eric Goranson: So really, if you think about it, that product can be installed for the price that they're buying it for. If you got a good deal and then they're marking it up, that 15, 20, 25, whatever their markup is to turn around to sell it to you. Then you get to deal with the store. That's always a lot of fun. And then you're dealing with the store on all the issues, the problems, and the poor communication that goes on there as well.

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[00:24:19] Eric Goranson: So be very careful there. Are they licensed upon insured? Yeah. Are you gonna have problems? Maybe. Are they hard to deal with? Most of the time. Most of the time. So be very careful there. So whether or not it's kitchen cabinetry, you know, countertops a little bit less, but still, um, granite countertops just deal directly with your favorite fabric.

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[00:25:05] Eric Goranson: Out of the big box stores, those brands. Are usually common brands. Now, they might have their in-house brand that's made by one of the big companies, the Craft maids, the American Wood marks, all those different brands out there that have it, the, the Schuller, the whoever else you see out there building cabinets.

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[00:25:53] Eric Goranson: First off, I've worked with cabinet companies that have negotiated to be in Home Depot and low stores, for instance, and other big box stores. [00:26:00] The things that happen inside the negotiation is something that you as a consumer should pay attention to. First off, they say, okay, we've got, I'm gonna make some numbers up here.

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[00:26:31] Eric Goranson: You need to have a rep that goes through that store every two and a half weeks. Let's. Could be little, could be less, you know, more, less whatever. But the problem is, is you now have high overhead. So you have free displays, high labor, cuz these people have to go in and cheering the people in the stores.

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[00:27:13] Eric Goranson: There was last week's paint expert or last week's garden expert. I've seen it a hundred times. They worked in blinds and flooring. They wanted to go, Hey. That's how I started my kitchen design career 30 years ago. I blew my knee out. I was working in the lumber depart. I'd done some kitchen design in the past and they said, Hey, you gotta have, uh, a c l surgery, so you're gonna be in a wheelchair for a while around here.

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[00:27:58] Eric Goranson: And here's the other thing too, and this [00:28:00] comes down to the home centers as well. The home centers could have a much better kitchen design system if they wanted to, but they don't want to pay those people what the going rate is. So for the designers that aren't so great, the designers are just starting out into their careers.

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[00:28:57] Eric Goranson: Welcome back to the Round the House Show. Now we've been talking [00:29:00] about those things that, uh, well maybe at the home center you shouldn't pick up whether or not they meet building code or, uh, well, maybe it's just not the great buy. Some of the things we talked about. That vinyl dryer vent hose, the one that's white plastic, never buy that.

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[00:29:39] Eric Goranson: One we're talking about now is you have to be really careful with in the home centers, because many times home centers, they're buying windows, for instance, and doors regionally. Now the problem is, is they might not meet the energy code in your area. There was a guy that [00:30:00] I saw had went out, walked into his home center, bought new windows off the shelf, didn't pay attention to.

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[00:30:26] Eric Goranson: When you're pulling permits on something like that, because all of a sudden you think, ah, I'm buying it from the home center. It's gotta be right. Not always the case. Not always the case. So be very careful with that. Those energy standards might not meet what your local area is. Now, the next one, I always recommend being careful with this, and not always is it the case, but many times be careful with tile, grout and mask from the home centers.

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[00:31:17] Eric Goranson: I go down to my flooring professional store and get it there. Now here's the problem with some of the tile. Some of the tile can be seconds. It can be stuff that maybe is a little more warped. It can be stuff that is uh, maybe not perfectly square. It can be stuff that's not perfect and it can end up on the home center shelve.

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[00:31:58] Eric Goranson: So be very careful [00:32:00] with what you get in the tile department at the home center. Some of it's. There's a lot that's questionable and harder to work with. Will it all perform? Sure. Will it be easy to work with? Not always. Sometimes it's the harder stuff to work with and you're saving a little bit of money, but that's why the tile installers, many of them you don't see sticking their head into the home centers.

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[00:32:48] Eric Goranson: In the big blue and orange stores, those are different fans. And if I go down and buy something from a plumbing wholesaler, so those are different units, so they're [00:33:00] not made the same. They're different. They're the homeowner specials. So I would rather spend a little bit more money and get the real one than go in there and buy that fan off the home center because those are different and, um, I don't know what the deal is with 'em, but they're definitely a different model than what you see at the professional store.

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[00:33:41] Eric Goranson: Many times when I look at, for instance, home Depot in the past, I can buy a wire there for wiring the house cheaper than I can. From my electrical wholesaler. Why is that? Because they are trying to get electricians to come in there and contractors to buy [00:34:00] materials. So those lost leaders are great to pick up at the home center because they're trying to get you in the door.

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[00:34:27] Eric Goranson: So always take a look at that. Those loss leaders are where the money's at. So once you find those, usually that doesn't change. And so that's one of those things that you can get as a really good buy. And so, uh, don't be ashamed to buy that from one of those places. Now, second of. Appliance special buys.

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[00:35:05] Eric Goranson: So they'll say, okay, we're gonna have six washers and dryers. Six of each go into this location, and when you see those special buys, many times they'll have a slightly different model number, but you can get those at a special price. Why they give 'em a special model number is because many times they have the minimum advertised price, which is map pricing.

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[00:35:48] Eric Goranson: Well, it's because that's the price. That is the minimum price. So they can guarantee everybody has the same margin. And they have that with appliances as well. I've actually seen companies that have sold stuff below price. [00:36:00] And we're not able to, retail locations, not able to sell, sell that brand like Mila for instance, for a month they get suspended and can't order products for a month.

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[00:36:30] Eric Goranson: Accessories like for Milwaukee or Rigid or one of those things, I'll go in this time of year around Christmas time and pick up those things and stock up for the rest of the year. Cuz many times you'll see, you know, packs of, um, multi-tool blades and drills and all these different things on Special Buy.

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[00:37:13] Eric Goranson: Those over on the podcast here didn't make the radio, but if you're listening on the radio, you can catch it on the podcast player. And we had that kind of thing where, wow, that $99 either, uh, rigid or um, craftsman toolbox with all the wrenches and ratchet. Killer price. You can't just go get that every day.

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[00:37:50] Eric Goranson: A lot of times if they didn't sell, They'll blow those things out. So, uh, you know, 26, 27, 20 eighth, 29th, go back in the store again. [00:38:00] Take a look because those don't have a normal place on the shelf. They're out in the aisle, they're out in the special area. Take a look over there because many times they'll drop those things down again cuz they wanna get 'em outta the aisle.

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[00:38:34] Eric Goranson: So keep an eye out for that. Lumber yards have great stuff, but sometimes Home Depot gets that stuff in there. And again, that's another one of those lost leaders. You're trying to get people in the two by fours, the one by six seater fencing, those kind of. Here's where you can watch out for, and that's where you can save some serious money.

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[00:39:17] Eric Goranson: I'm Eric G and you've been listening to Around The House.