It’s April 1st and this week’s guest pro is called Dr. Drainage… no fooling!
We get a lot of questions each week about water either ponding in the yard or causing damage due to erosion too close to the house. Dr. Drainage (his friends and family know him as civil engineer Ryan Larsen) talked specifically about the misconceptions, and often mis-identified, French drain. You can watch a lot of the good doctor’s videos on YouTube!
In addition to drainage issues, Danny & I shared our Top 5 list of areas around your home you may be forgetting to include in Spring Cleaning. Check out that list on our web site here.
Here are the other questions we tackled on this week’s show.
Hour 1
Joe
I’m trying to find a decent contractor. I used one before who didn’t do a good job and we ended up letting go. How do I go about finding a good one and one who’s not going to take advantage of us?
Al in GA
When we have heavy rains water is draining down my driveway partly dumping into my carport and down the foundation into my crawl space. Will a French drain help? Any other suggestions?
Manny in IA
I have blown in attic insulation and I want to add more. What is the best way to do this? Add additional blown in insulation? Use batt over the blown in? Do I need to shield the light fixture housing in the attic? With more insulation do I need those attic vent things that go between the rafters?
Carol in ME
I have a mobile home and whomever built the pitched roof over the flat roof, but it is too heavy for the tip-out and the roof of the tip-out is starting to sag and i am afraid the tip-out roof is going to fall in. Do you have any suggestions?
Felicia in AL
I have a cement carport and it has been in place since I was 8 years old, but now it is cracked, and the sidewalk on both of my house is broken up and not safe to walk on. I would like to know, saving money, how to repair it step by step from preparing and doing the work.
Jeni in Toronto
What can I do about fading behind pictures when you remove them after they have been hanging on pine walls for a few years?
Hour 2
Gerry in AL
A friend turns her hot water heater off when she goes on vacation, another turns his very low. Does this really save money?
Thelma
I have a cultured marble countertop. There’s nothing wrong with it, but it’s quite old and I would like to revive it. How can I do that?
Joe in AL
What is the best way to stain and seal a red oak swing? The 1st time I left it natural and put polyurethane on it. Most of that has peeled off. I need something that will last.
Sharon in NM
I have a gas-log fireplace that is disconnected due to gas pipe leak in the attic inside the fireplace/chimney cavity. The fireplace sits across the corner of 2 walls. We can’t get to the pipe to repair / replace it. In the 18 years since the pipe was cut and capped, I know there are new solutions for resurrecting my ‘dead’ fireplace. I’d love to have use of it; what can i do to run a new gas line to the logs? The rear of our fireplace is on an exterior brick wall; it shares an adjacent wall in a bedroom. We removed drywall on the bedroom side and discovered there is NO space to install a new gas line in that cavity. The only access to the firebox/gas logs appears to be down the chimney itself. What can we do to make our fireplace work again?
Kathleen in SC
I want to turn a powder room into a pantry. I want to know how to remove the toilet and cap it off so all if flush with the concrete slab. So when a new, most likely vinyl, floor is put down you cannot see there was a toilet there. And of course so it won’t wear in that spot also.
