[00:00:04] Speaker A: Welcome to the weekend warriors home improvement show, built by bar lumber. When it comes to big or small projects around the home, Tony and Cory have got the know how and the answers to make your life just a bit easier. Here they are, your weekend warriors, Tony and Cory.
Tony, you know, it's getting cold outside. So what does that mean?
[00:00:28] Speaker B: That means we need to start talking about how we're going to prepare our home and our property and everything that we have to make the transition from warmer weather to colder weather. Believe it or not, the home, without some maintenance, will suffer during the winter months if it's set up for the summer months.
[00:00:50] Speaker A: Absolutely. You're right. There are lots of things around the house that you need to be taken care of right now. While it's not snowing, while it's not raining nonstop, all day, every day.
[00:01:01] Speaker B: If it's doing a little bit of raining, but it's not raining nonstop all day every day. And while it's getting darker sooner, now, that's a hint that right now is the time that we need to be getting all these things taken care of before the weather really turns hard on us.
[00:01:20] Speaker A: Absolutely. So we're going to give you some things to think about and do inside of your home and outside of your home today. And we'll start inside the home. And the first one that you really, really need to think about is your heating system. You need to replace your furnace filter. Well, maybe not necessarily, but think what was the last time you replaced the furnace filter? And depending on what cartridge you use, it could potentially, you might have to replace it monthly or every other month. I actually have furnace filters that are four inches thick.
[00:01:52] Speaker B: Those are monsters.
[00:01:53] Speaker A: Yeah. It's a 25 x 25 x four.
[00:01:56] Speaker B: Takes a long time to fill that thing up.
[00:01:57] Speaker A: Well, and it says that it lasts up to six months, so I don't let it go that long. I like to replace it more often than that. But anyway, just think about that. That's one of the things. Your furnace is going to run more efficient, and you're going to have cleaner air inside of your home.
[00:02:16] Speaker B: Yeah. Keeping the filters replaced or cleaned stands true for many things. You own your car. Exactly. Is the exact same thing. You have an air filter in your car. You have a gas filter in your car. You have an air filter in your furnace. These are things that need to be replaced regularly. And while you have to purchase it, it's a lot less expensive to change a filter than it is to have your furnace repaired.
[00:02:41] Speaker A: Did you know on mini splits, Tony, you know what a mini split is.
[00:02:44] Speaker B: I do.
[00:02:44] Speaker A: I have a mini split in my bonus room. And it wasn't working right. I was pushing the button and it just wasn't this summer, actually. I was pushing the button and it wouldn't cool down. So I called my buddy, the HvaC guy, Dan, and I said, dan, what is going on with this thing? And he said, have you cleaned the filter on it? And I said, I don't even know. There was one.
The head unit has this whole thing that comes down and it's got this filter in there. I said, oh, you wash it off and you put it back. Yeah, but there's these sensors in there that if you don't have the proper airflow, it'll shut itself off.
[00:03:18] Speaker B: That is a well manufactured piece of equipment. It's not going to let us ruin it. I just didn't know. By running with a dirty filter. Yeah, that's smart. Yeah. It definitely pulls air in from your house and then changes it.
[00:03:33] Speaker A: Cools it or heats it.
[00:03:34] Speaker B: Cools it or heats it and then sends it back. So definitely it's going to be collecting some nasty stuff that's in your air.
[00:03:41] Speaker A: Absolutely. And if you have any other sort of heating in your home. I grew up with radiators in a boiler. That's what I grew up with.
[00:03:50] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:03:51] Speaker A: Our home that I grew up with, grew up in, was built in the 20s, so we had a coal room downstairs in the basement, and we had this old boiler when we first moved in that was actually coal fed. And at some point in the guess it was converted to fuel oil.
[00:04:10] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:04:10] Speaker A: And for the first several years we lived there, we actually ran it off fuel oil. We would have somebody come in, pump the fuel oil in, and we would run it all winter. And that boiler would send hot water up to all of these heat registers inside the house. And sometimes you would get that clanging, so you'd have to go in and drain them.
There's these little nozles on the side.
You would bleed all the air out. So if you have a boiler and radiators. Old school, I know there's some homes in Portland that have that. Now's a good time to take care of that.
[00:04:46] Speaker B: Wow, that's smart. Yeah, there's a lot of things. This list is going to be long, and we're going to move through it fairly quickly.
If you don't understand something that we said or you have a question or you want to add something to the list, please feel free to send us an email.
[email protected] Corey and I will be happy to reply. Share what you talked about on the radio, whatever. We really love to hear from the listeners, but more importantly, we like to get you correct information as quickly as possible.
Here's the next one, Corey, on the list. Check for drafts around windows and doors. Obviously, there's several ways you can do this. When it's below 30 outside, stand next to it and you'll feel it. Or you can get a thermal camera, and you can check around windows and doors with a thermal camera from the inside, and you'll be able to see cold coming in if it's coming in, but checking for drafts around windows and doors. And then, of course, if that's there, you can replace weather stripping.
You can add insulation or expanding foam. You can seal off those leaks and leave your home warmer during the winter months.
[00:06:01] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:06:02] Speaker A: And you might find that it's time to replace your windows. I probably wouldn't do that right now as a project, but maybe something to consider next spring. But if you have old school single pane windows with aluminum frames, you can go out and buy plastic film. You put it on with double stick tape, and then you run a hairdryer over it, and it tightens as tight as a drum. And it makes, essentially a double pane window. There's an air gap of insulation that really, really helps. I grew up doing that in our house. That's what we had was aluminum frame windows, and we would buy those kits every year. It was normal for us. And when we got all the windows replaced, it was weird. We didn't have to do it. So it's something to keep in mind. It's fairly inexpensive, especially in the bedrooms, if you know you're getting cold at night. Yeah, it's a good idea.
[00:06:51] Speaker B: I mean, I have vinyl double pane insulated windows in my house, and you still feel the aura of cold around the window if you're sitting on a couch next to the window. I mean, the windows that I have are 20 years old, and so when it's below 30 outside the window, the glass is cold.
[00:07:11] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:07:11] Speaker B: 100% on the inside. And so that's going to affect the air inside the house. The more efficient your windows are, the less effect it will have.
[00:07:19] Speaker A: Absolutely. All right, the next thing on the list is insulation.
If you have zero insulation in your attic, might be a good time to take care of that.
If you don't have enough, there's a minimal amount of insulation you should have according to code. Right.
You're building code, but that's more of his suggestion. I've always been told building a house to code is the worst house you can build without getting in trouble.
[00:07:47] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:07:47] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:07:48] Speaker A: It's kind of a joke. But also, when it comes to insulation, you could go r 50, and you just keep adding more.
[00:07:57] Speaker C: Right.
[00:07:58] Speaker A: But one thing you have to be careful of is your ventilation. You never want to put too much insulation into your roof or into your attic so that it blocks off the ventilation. That is very, very important.
[00:08:10] Speaker B: The ventilation, of course, that you're referring to are in the eaves. And so at the bottom of the roof, the roof hangs over, and underneath there are eaves. Sometimes they're enclosed soffits. Sometimes they're just open air bird blocks with screen there, and you can't block that off. Air needs to be able to come through and create this whole circulation. Yes, circulation.
[00:08:35] Speaker A: Because what happens is hot air rises, and we all know that moisture travels. There's moisture in all air, almost all air. And there's all these humidifiers in your home in the form of showers, washing machines.
[00:08:51] Speaker C: People.
[00:08:52] Speaker A: Washers, people. Every time you breathe out air, it has moisture in it.
[00:08:57] Speaker C: Right.
[00:08:57] Speaker A: And we know this because when you breathe onto a mirror or breathe onto any glass, what happens?
[00:09:03] Speaker B: It fogs up.
[00:09:04] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:09:04] Speaker A: It fogs up with condensation. So your house naturally has all this condensation in it. And if you have a leaky roof or, I'm sorry, a leaky ceiling and all that hot air is traveling up into your attic, it's going to condensate on the first coldest surface, that it's at its dew point.
[00:09:23] Speaker C: Right.
[00:09:23] Speaker A: That's when water condensates, is at its dew point, which could very well be on the surface of your interior. Of your roof sheathing.
[00:09:33] Speaker B: Yeah, or roof sheathing.
[00:09:34] Speaker A: Yeah. Or sheet rock. Absolutely. You don't have the proper ventilation to allow that moisture to escape. It will condensate, and you will get mold, and enough water will happen, it'll drop down onto your insulation. And if you live somewhere where it gets really cold, that stuff could freeze up, and then you'll get ice dams, and it could get really ugly.
[00:09:58] Speaker B: I've seen this exact same thing happen.
I've been inside of a building where the ceiling, the roof. It was a vaulted roof. Inside of the building. It was dripping water. Yeah, it was dripping water down, and I was like, oh, man, there's a leak. And the guy that I was talking to was like, dude, it hasn't rained. It's summertime. It hasn't rained. Why is it leaking? And I thought, why? You got an air conditioner up there? No, it was condensation from heat and moisture buildup inside the building that had settled on that surface and was dripping down. The insulation was wet. It was a mess.
[00:10:36] Speaker A: That's crazy.
[00:10:37] Speaker B: Yeah, that's exactly what was happening. No rain. There had been no rain.
[00:10:40] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:10:41] Speaker A: You may think when you climb up there, oh, my goodness, these big open spaces. I can see daylight through there and all this stuff. You have to have that. Ventilation in your attic is very important just for that reason.
[00:10:53] Speaker B: It's absolutely a necessity.
[00:10:54] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:10:55] Speaker A: The other thing you might want to check is down in your crawl space or in your basement. Check for insulation up there. I've moved in to two different houses now where I had zero insulation in my crawl space, and.
[00:11:07] Speaker B: Terrible.
[00:11:07] Speaker A: We added it, and it made a gigantic difference. So consider doing that.
[00:11:13] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely.
Thermostat settings. This is another one if you don't already have a smart thermostat, something that allows you to set it so that the heat comes on and goes off at the most optimal times, and you're not forgetting it and leaving the heat running when you're not at home, those types of things. A smart thermostat can absolutely save you a bunch of money.
And if you have that already, now is the time to go in and update the time that your heat is starting and ending.
Here's a prime example. If you come home and it's cold and you want to be warm, you crank the heat, and it costs you more money to get your house up to heat that is warming you than it would be if you had set it down on a low setting for all day long. So you can tell your smart thermostat to heat your furnace at. Let's call it 60 degrees or 55, maybe during the day when you're not home, 55, and then have it start warming up in the hour that you're coming home, and then have it at a heat that you want it to be at when you get home. Maybe that's 65.
[00:12:27] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:12:28] Speaker A: Well, we have dogs, so I'd keep mine. We keep ours at, like, 62.
[00:12:32] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:12:32] Speaker A: Probably the coldest. We would keep it.
[00:12:34] Speaker B: Okay, well, I'm at seven degrees. I have a cold heart.
[00:12:39] Speaker A: You're like, that dog's got hair.
[00:12:43] Speaker B: The dog was meant to be outside. So what? I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. We take pretty good care of our dog as well. But you get the gist. I was trying to be extreme.
[00:12:53] Speaker A: I get what you're saying.
[00:12:54] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:12:54] Speaker A: Smart thermostats will definitely save you money. And now is the time to switch them over, if you haven't already. Yeah, we talked about windows a little bit with the film, but there is something else you can buy, and they're called thermal curtains. Like, you can buy curtains that are extra thick or have a layer in them, and then when you close them, it does the same thing. It creates an air gap that allows your room to be more insulated or the windows to be more insulated.
[00:13:24] Speaker B: Yeah, we have blackout drapes on a lot of our windows, and those work really good, too. They're extra thick. You can really tell. You put your hand in behind the curtain, between the curtain and the window, and you will feel it. They definitely trap cold in that space so that it's not traveling around the house cooling you.
[00:13:45] Speaker A: It's amazing how that works.
[00:13:46] Speaker B: It is amazing.
[00:13:47] Speaker A: Now is a good time to check for leaks. Inspect all your faucets, your pipes, your water heaters. You want to look at all that stuff. If you find any, replace it immediately.
Sorry, go ahead.
[00:13:58] Speaker B: No, I was just going to tag on to that. Oh, go ahead.
Here's another thought. If you own an rv or a travel trailer, this is a good time to either treat with antifreeze or open your low point drains and get all the water out of the lines so you don't end up with frozen pipes in your rv as well.
[00:14:22] Speaker A: Rvs, big time.
Yeah, same thing. You just want to winterize everything, insulate.
If you have a house like we, we in the Portland area, all of our houses are almost on crawl spaces. Almost all of them. And I've been to houses where there's water pipes that come down and are super exposed to air.
[00:14:44] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:14:45] Speaker A: There's a vent, a crawl space vent right there. So what a lot of people will do will get these little foam plugs and stick it in there. So if you know for a fact your water pipes are down there exposed, you can either do two things. You can wrap them in insulation, or you can put those little foam plugs in during the winter months.
[00:15:06] Speaker B: Yeah, they make insulating pipe insulation, which is like a long. Looks kind of like a noodle. A pool noodle.
[00:15:13] Speaker A: Insulating pipe insulation.
[00:15:14] Speaker B: Yeah, insulating pipe insulation. Looks like a pool noodle.
[00:15:17] Speaker A: Yeah, it kind of does. With a slit down it.
[00:15:19] Speaker B: Yeah, slit down. It fits right over top of your pipe. Those are very clean, easy to handle, easy to use, easy on, easy off. That's a good way to go. They're pretty inexpensive.
[00:15:27] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:15:27] Speaker A: And you just got to know. And if you don't know and we get that super cold day where it gets down to zero. Your pipes could definitely freeze.
[00:15:35] Speaker B: Yes, absolutely.
[00:15:37] Speaker A: Go ahead.
[00:15:38] Speaker B: Smoke detectors. This is a great time to check your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors because they run on batteries usually, and those batteries will fail. And even if they haven't failed yet, it's a good time to replace the batteries. At least once a year is a good rule of thumb. You want those to continue functioning, especially if you heat your home with a stove or with a fireplace. Smoke detector, extremely important if you use any kind of fire to heat the house. So make sure those are functioning properly by replacing the batteries and then testing them immediately after.
[00:16:18] Speaker A: Absolutely. Speaking of fireplaces, if you have a fireplace, now's a good time to clean it out. Vacuum up all the old ash inside. Make sure your chimney is clear on the inside. And if you have firewood, get stocked up. Now.
[00:16:33] Speaker B: This is also a great opportunity to relive a scene out of Mary Poppins.
Chim chimney chim chimney chim chim chiru.
[00:16:44] Speaker A: I don't know the words I'll clean.
[00:16:45] Speaker B: Your chimney as a favor to you. I don't know know if you just really have a need for a Mary Poppins fix.
[00:16:54] Speaker A: Here's another one that people probably don't think of is pellets.
[00:16:59] Speaker B: Oh, right.
[00:17:00] Speaker A: There's a lot of pellet stoves. It's actually very popular. Agreed.
[00:17:05] Speaker B: We sell a lot of pellets at par lumber company.
[00:17:07] Speaker A: You can buy them by the pallet and get them delivered. So if you've just moved into a house that has a pellet stove, you probably need to be thinking about it sooner than later.
[00:17:16] Speaker B: You need to be thinking about cleaning it. I'll tell you what pellets. Not all pellets, but traditionally, pellets leave a lot of ash content behind.
[00:17:25] Speaker A: Oh, really?
[00:17:26] Speaker B: And you do need to clean the stove if it's been used and not cleaned, just like a fireplace, it is something that needs to be done. So check that out.
[00:17:36] Speaker A: All right.
A lot of houses have humidifiers, and one thing you want to do is make sure that a the filter on it's replaced. A lot of people neglect their humidifiers, and they'll build up mold. So you want to make sure that thing is cleaned out, and you also want to turn it down in the winter months, you don't want the air too dry, especially when you've got that furnace pumping heat.
You don't want your moisture in the air to drop so low that your skin's crackling.
[00:18:10] Speaker B: Yeah, that's in the home. Now, adversely in your rv. This is a very good time to plug in your dehumidifier in the rv, which is a little device that emits a little bit of warm air constantly, even in the coldest nights, and keeps the moisture from building up inside the trailer, which what will happen is if you have wood doors, they're put together like style and rail doors, the cabinet doors, and those will swell up with moisture and just swell up and fall apart. You'll come into your trailer in the spring, in March, and your cabinet doors will be laying on the floor.
[00:18:48] Speaker A: That happened to you?
[00:18:49] Speaker B: Take it from me, I saw it happen. There's too much moisture built up in the trailer and the doors just fell.
[00:18:56] Speaker A: Right off the hinges.
[00:18:58] Speaker B: It was an unbelievable thing, dehumidifier in the rv.
[00:19:04] Speaker A: All right, next one on the list is to check your ceiling fans. A you want to make sure they're clean. Clean the tops of them. If you don't remember the last time you cleaned the top of it, it's due. Do it now. And another thing that most ceiling fans do is they have a reverse. So instead of blowing air down, you can run a ceiling fan in the wintertime and it draws the air up and circulates that warm air throughout your room.
[00:19:30] Speaker B: Here's a really good tip. Clean the top of your wipe your fan blades before you reverse the action and turn it on, or you'll be vacuuming it off the floor, poofing it around.
Because if you turn that around the other direction, all that dust that's up there is coming off.
[00:19:47] Speaker A: All right, we talked about windows, but we also need to talk about the doors because if you have drafty doors, you can replace the weather stripping or you can adjust the weather stripping on the door to ensure that you have a tight seal. Tony and actually did a video on this on how to do the sill. Most doors, most modern doors have an adjustable sill. And go check out our video. We actually show you how to do it right on the.
[00:20:19] Speaker B: Show.
[00:20:19] Speaker A: Yes, sir.
[00:20:20] Speaker B: YouTube.com wwomeshow.
[00:20:24] Speaker A: What's the next one? Tony?
[00:20:25] Speaker B: Okay. An emergency supplies. Because this is the time of year where you cannot afford to be without supplies.
If you find yourself without power is one example. You find yourself without power, it gets cold really quick and you find yourself not knowing how to deal with some things. Having emergency supply kit created, very much.
[00:20:52] Speaker C: Like.
[00:20:55] Speaker A: An emergency preparedness kit.
[00:20:56] Speaker B: An emergency preparedness kit, like we talk about for natural disasters and that sort of thing should have something like that.
[00:21:03] Speaker A: Ready to go flashlights candles, blankets, non perishable food. And I have found that at our house we've had the power go off. I mean, only a handful of times over the years and never really for more than any period of time, for more than maybe than an hour. But one time in the winter it went off for almost 10 hours. So I had to run the generator and plug in the refrigerator. And we actually had it to where we plugged in our television. But we all grouped together in the living room and know, kind of slept in the living room with blankets because it was freezing.
[00:21:37] Speaker B: Yeah, that's another really good tip.
Go out and start your generator.
Here's a little tip, a pro tip for you, corey. Right here.
Keep fuel in your generator. And the way you do that is you buy clear gas. It's a little bit more expensive, but it's ethanol free. There's no ethanol in that fuel. That's stable fuel. It can be in your generator and it can stay in there through the winter. And you don't have to worry about the gas getting old or varnishing your jets or not starting that. And then go out there and start it. Make sure it works properly. It starts and then when you really need it on January 27 at 11:30.
[00:22:21] Speaker A: P.M. And when it's freezing, it'll start.
[00:22:24] Speaker B: And that's what you want. So do a little bit of making sure that your stuff's ready to go and it'll help you out for sure.
[00:22:31] Speaker A: Absolutely. Now is a good time to maintain your appliances. Make sure all of your furnaces are running. We talked about that. If you have space heaters, make sure that those work. Ensure that all your vents and filters are clean. But also it's a good time to maintain your kitchen appliances. All kitchen appliances, especially your refrigerator, they have operations underneath them. Not really operations, but the refrigerator has your condenser down there and all that stuff, and it draws air through it. There's cooling fans, so it's always pulling, like, dusty air through there.
[00:23:10] Speaker B: Linty, linty air.
[00:23:11] Speaker A: So if you pull your refrigerator out, if you can't remember the last time you vacuumed under it, be prepared.
[00:23:16] Speaker B: You're going to find like a squirrel's nest in there. It's what it's going to look like. It's going to be a big old mess.
[00:23:21] Speaker A: It's a good time to do it.
[00:23:22] Speaker B: Yeah.
Okay. Water heater. This is something else. When I read this the first time, I thought, wow, that seems like a really good idea. Drain a small amount of water from your water heater to remove sediment in every water heater. Maybe not every water heater. In my water heater, there is what they call a sacrificial rod, and it's part of the element in there, and it erodes over time. The sacrificial rod, that's what its job is. Its job is to erode so that the water heater will continue to work properly.
[00:23:55] Speaker A: Yeah, the jacket. It attacks the rod instead of the jacket.
[00:23:59] Speaker C: Right.
[00:23:59] Speaker B: And then as it attacks that rod, those pieces fall down to the bottom of the water heater, and they can build up in there over time. And if you've ever replaced the sacrificial rod, then you've had to drain the water heater, and you've seen that sediment come out. It's a good idea to drain a little bit of water from your water heater and remove that sediment. It'll make it more efficient.
[00:24:23] Speaker A: And if you have hard water, if you have hard water and you know it, there's probably sediment sitting at the bottom of your water heater. And I've always heard that if you haven't started it from the get go, then it's probably not a good idea to start later on. I mean, if it's a fairly new water heater, within the last couple of years, you could probably start, but the longer you wait, what happens is your spigot will kind of become corroded and you won't ever be able to turn it off fully. So you open it up to drain a little bit, and then you try to close it, and it's all corroded and all of your pieces in there, it'll just sit there and drip. So you want to be careful with that. But, yeah, as general maintenance, if you start doing it, just do it every year.
[00:25:12] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:25:12] Speaker B: I'll tell you what. I had a water heater malfunction at my house. The water heater was about 16 years old.
[00:25:20] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:25:20] Speaker B: When it happened. And it developed a leak on the bottom of the water heater. The water heater was sitting in a.
[00:25:29] Speaker A: Pan, and it's inside your house, and.
[00:25:32] Speaker B: It'S inside the house, it's in the closet, and it developed a leak underneath. Could not have been seen, could not have been prevented. Developed a leak underneath and then just filled up the pan and then eventually spilled over the pan. And the next thing I knew, my entire floor.
[00:25:46] Speaker A: Well, you know how you fix that?
[00:25:47] Speaker B: It's buckling up.
[00:25:48] Speaker A: They make sensors.
[00:25:50] Speaker B: You're right. Those water sensors, we've read about that. We know about those. It's a really good idea. Great place to have one behind your fridge, one behind your washer and dryer, one in the room in the pan with your water heater. That's a great idea.
[00:26:07] Speaker A: Absolutely. Especially like you where your water heater was inside a closet inside your house.
[00:26:11] Speaker C: Right?
[00:26:11] Speaker A: Mine's in my garage.
[00:26:12] Speaker C: Right.
[00:26:13] Speaker A: So if it started leaking, I'd probably see it because I walk by it every day.
[00:26:16] Speaker B: Would you see it if it was your refrigerator or.
[00:26:19] Speaker A: I actually had my refrigerator line burst.
[00:26:21] Speaker B: See what I did there?
[00:26:23] Speaker A: I set you up, but I heard it. I just didn't know it was leaking water. I thought it was a long story.
[00:26:29] Speaker C: Yeah, it is.
[00:26:30] Speaker B: It's funny. We've both dealt with a little bit of h 20 tragedy. So we're speaking from experience, folks.
[00:26:36] Speaker A: Next thing on the list is to check for pests. Now is the time of year where all of the stink bugs are coming in.
[00:26:43] Speaker B: Oh, man.
[00:26:44] Speaker A: All of the squirrels, all of the mice are looking for warm places to live.
[00:26:48] Speaker C: Yikes.
[00:26:48] Speaker A: So if you've got a hole in your foundation, they're getting in. And I actually had someone that I work with that had everything sealed up, but he had a squirrel dig a hole under his foundation.
[00:27:00] Speaker B: Oh, no.
[00:27:01] Speaker A: Straight up mined. A hole completely under the footing.
[00:27:05] Speaker B: That is a determined.
[00:27:06] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. And it. So he ended up having to put traps in. He had to seal it up, seal that hole up with gravel. And it was crazy.
[00:27:14] Speaker B: Here's a shameless plug for Matt White with the killers.
[00:27:18] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, they service our house.
[00:27:20] Speaker B: Matt White with the killers.
He is an exterminator and he does really good work. He's been on the show many times. And give him a call if you're having any problem with insects or rodents. Give him a call. Matt White with the killers.
[00:27:37] Speaker A: Yes, sir. Okay, next one on the list is winter. Know, I'm sure you've probably all already done, you know, ditch that lightweight stuff for a little bit of heavier. Maybe the down comforter. Pull that baby out.
[00:27:50] Speaker C: Oh, yeah.
[00:27:51] Speaker B: This is the time of year for that.
[00:27:53] Speaker A: Instead of cranking up the furnace, save some energy.
[00:27:56] Speaker B: This is a good time to review and update your family's emergency evacuation plan, your emergency exit plan. How are you getting out of the house in the event of an emergency, and wintertime is not an emergency time, but since we're talking about things you should be working on now, that's a great example of something that needs to be done periodically. And now is a good time to do that.
[00:28:25] Speaker A: Well, think about if there was an earthquake in the winter. Right. Think about that.
What would you do?
[00:28:34] Speaker C: Right.
[00:28:34] Speaker B: If it was July, I'm going to camp out in the backyard, right?
[00:28:38] Speaker C: Yeah. Guess what?
[00:28:39] Speaker B: It's not July in the middle of winter.
[00:28:42] Speaker A: If you can't get back into your home because of an earthquake, demolished part of it or some of it or all of it, what are you going to do?
[00:28:51] Speaker C: Right.
[00:28:51] Speaker A: That's how I like to think about my emergency preparedness kit. I know we've talked about that a lot on the show, but just put yourself into situations. Look outside. Look at the weather right now. And if you had to live outside right now, what would you want? Yeah, it certainly shortens up your options 100%, the weather. All right, let's jump outside, Tony.
[00:29:11] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:29:11] Speaker B: Okay, I'm ready.
First thing on the list, clean your gutters and your downspouts. This is the time of year. Obviously, it's fall and pretty straightforward. It's been fall for a while. Get in there and get those leaves and all that sediment out of your gutters so that your downspouts don't clog up. Because if your downspouts clog up, there's a chance that your rain drains will clog up. And that costs money, folks. Cost me $250 to have my rain drains jetted.
[00:29:41] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:29:42] Speaker B: Because I got to let too much foliage junk.
[00:29:47] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:29:47] Speaker A: Well, sometimes it's tree roots, could be. Sometimes pests living there, nesting.
[00:29:52] Speaker B: Yeah, a lot of times it's moss.
[00:29:54] Speaker A: Yeah, moss.
[00:29:54] Speaker B: Because we didn't keep the moss down on the roof or leaves. If you've got a lot of trees around, clean those gutters and make sure that the downspouts are draining properly all.
[00:30:05] Speaker A: The way to the street.
[00:30:06] Speaker B: If they're not making it to the street, then that water will start to.
Can start to infiltrate right up next to your foundation. And you don't want.
[00:30:14] Speaker A: I've had that happen.
[00:30:15] Speaker B: You don't want to be having the dirt failing around your foundation. You don't want it.
[00:30:21] Speaker A: Well, we know this. I'll tell this story real quick. Well, I had the same situation. Water was coming out of my drain. Drain coming around and stopping, and it was going into my crawl space, and it was eroding around my fireplace. Remember, we had to tear that out and all rebuild it.
[00:30:36] Speaker C: Oh, my gosh.
[00:30:37] Speaker B: You were afraid it was going to fall before we could get it down.
[00:30:39] Speaker A: I was crazy. I had guys come out and pour a footing around my fireplace because it all eroded away.
[00:30:44] Speaker B: Yes, I remember. That was a crazy, crazy time.
[00:30:47] Speaker A: But since you're up on the roof cleaning gutters. Now's a good time to inspect your roof. Check around all of your vents. If you have air vents, any sort of dryer vent or anything like that.
Skylights. There's flashing kits that go in there, and it should be all shingled properly. However, if that gets caked with moss or leaves or pine needles, then you'll have what happened to me where there was so much stuff caked on the side there that you couldn't even see because it was under that little mushroom cap, water was coming in. When it rained so hard, water was coming in, hitting that little ramp of decaying junk, and then flowed right into my roof, right into my attic, I remember.
[00:31:41] Speaker B: And it dripped the craziest thing ever. I was like, how is this even happening?
[00:31:45] Speaker A: Yeah, I got up there and I cleaned it out, and I actually called a roofer budy of mine. He says, oh, yeah, that's common. He's like, what you could do is take a hook knife and widen it out a little bit. Where the roof comes over top of that little flashing piece, you can widen the roofing. Interesting. So there's more room for the water to flush that stuff out of there.
[00:32:06] Speaker C: Sure.
[00:32:07] Speaker B: Stuck, right?
[00:32:07] Speaker A: But I'm constantly. I'll run up there and check. Every time I'm up there, I walk over to those vents and make sure that they're clear.
[00:32:14] Speaker B: Foliage will get you. But this tip that you're giving about, that I'm about to give about going around and checking for cracks around the home. And I'm talking about everywhere. Cracks in the trim, in the caulk, cracks in the foundation, in the concrete, in the driveway. Everywhere, anywhere you find cracks. Because I've got a situation right now.
[00:32:39] Speaker A: Oh, my.
[00:32:40] Speaker B: On the outside of my home where the dryer vent. It's actually not a dryer vent. It looks like a dryer vent.
[00:32:45] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:32:46] Speaker B: The exhaust vent from the bathroom, from the spare bathroom events out the side of the house.
[00:32:52] Speaker A: And I have not flashed properly. No.
[00:32:55] Speaker B: Well, some years ago, some years ago, I replaced all of the SPF, the spruce pine fur trim on the outside of my home with hardy.
And it lasts forever. But I have this vent, this air vent on the side of my house.
[00:33:11] Speaker A: They didn't replace that.
[00:33:13] Speaker B: That is still trimmed in SPF. And that is all but completely gone. And those big cracks there between the trim and the siding, that's just water is just diving in there. So I have to get that replaced very quickly before I let it start raining. And it just free flows in there.
[00:33:35] Speaker A: It makes me wonder how they or why they didn't fix that, I'd fire that guy.
[00:33:41] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:33:41] Speaker B: Well, yeah, I mean, it's just one of those things that happens.
They missed this. The piece of trim to the left of it and the piece of trim to the right of it are both hardy.
[00:33:51] Speaker A: Well, but it's not flashed properly either. So you need to get that trim replaced, flash it properly, and probably replace that entire vent.
[00:33:59] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:33:59] Speaker B: Back when these were being installed back then, I think. They did not head flash back then.
[00:34:04] Speaker A: No, they just slapped it on there 20 years ago.
[00:34:07] Speaker B: Yeah, 20 years ago.
But they did flash the belly band below it. And you see that?
[00:34:13] Speaker C: Yeah, I see that. Yeah.
[00:34:14] Speaker B: But that didn't get flashed, so that's crazy. Anyway, that's an example. You want to check for cracks in your paint, in your trim, in your caulk all the way around the house and fill those cracks and then paint back over that and make sure you get it all sealed up. You don't want to mess with that.
It can cause big, expensive damage real quick.
[00:34:33] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:34:33] Speaker A: The longer you let it go, the worse it gets. Right. All right. Next thing on the list is to winterize your outdoor faucets and your irrigation system. Your irrigation system, if you have one, should have a low point drain. You want to make sure that you open that up so all the water flows out and doesn't stay in the system and then freeze. Because if it freezes, it's going to cost you a lot of money in the springtime to get it fixed.
[00:34:56] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:34:57] Speaker A: Same thing goes for your outdoor faucets, your outdoor hoses. You want to make sure those are all empty of water stored away in a nice, dry area like a shed or in the garage. Those are investments. Hoses are expensive. I guess if you don't mind buying new ones every so often, then don't worry about it. But the longer you leave them out there, a year, after a year, they just go bad. Same thing goes for your furniture. Your outdoor furniture. Get it covered up right now.
[00:35:25] Speaker B: Yes, absolutely.
Here's another thing. Foliage. We were talking about foliage earlier. Make sure that you're trimming back branches that are overhanging the roof. That's dropping foliage into your gutters and causing you problems. And also, if it's laying up against the house, then that can start to grow up to the house or up underneath the siding. Bugs are making their way back and forth across from the trees to your house. You just want to keep it trimmed back. And you definitely don't want to have large branches that are overhanging part of your home, because during the winter, when everything starts to get wet, those things have a tendency to break off or fall and land on the house. So take a really good inspection of the home and make sure you don't have danger areas with branches and trees and leaves and those sorts of things.
[00:36:16] Speaker A: I always say, if it's touching your house, trim it.
[00:36:20] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:36:21] Speaker A: If it's overhanging your house, trim it.
[00:36:24] Speaker C: Right.
[00:36:25] Speaker A: Just like you said. Anything touching or anything over the top, cut it back.
Otherwise, you're just asking for trouble.
Yeah, we talked about that one. Preventing ice. Know, in the Portland area, we don't have to worry about this too much, but our listeners that are out in central Oregon and the midwest, you guys have to worry about ice dams. And the one way to prevent that is to, a, make sure your gutters are clear, and b, make sure that your air vents are not blocked into the attic. We talked about that earlier, but if you're in a really bad spot, they make heaters that you can put on your overhangs. So you flip that switch, and it melts all the ice off. So you'll know the area. If you see a lot of that in your area, it's probably a good time to look at investing in that.
[00:37:17] Speaker B: I don't. I've never seen an ice dam. I don't even know what that is.
[00:37:21] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:37:21] Speaker B: It's because you grew up here, but you saw it.
[00:37:24] Speaker A: Yeah, I grew up in Michigan.
[00:37:25] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:37:26] Speaker A: I mean, what happens is water gets backed up and it freezes in the gutter. Well, yeah, anywhere in the gutter. But what happens, too, is water will freeze from the underside of the deck, the roof deck, and all of it.
[00:37:42] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:37:42] Speaker A: Then you just get this huge ice dam on the edge, and then the further back it freezes. Then the water, as it melts, drips down the inside plate of your house.
[00:37:52] Speaker B: Oh, interesting.
[00:37:52] Speaker A: So it'll ruin the walls on the inside of your house.
[00:37:54] Speaker B: Oh, my goodness.
[00:37:55] Speaker A: You'll get ice in your attic.
[00:37:57] Speaker B: Oh, my goodness.
[00:37:58] Speaker A: And then. You know what you mean it just keeps freezing up the roof.
[00:38:01] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:38:02] Speaker A: It's called an ice.
[00:38:03] Speaker B: Damn. Got to go out there and smack it with a. Chip it away with a shovel or something.
[00:38:08] Speaker A: Yeah. Interesting.
[00:38:09] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:38:10] Speaker B: I've never seen anything like that.
[00:38:11] Speaker A: That's a torch. Don't burn your house down.
[00:38:15] Speaker B: Driveway and walkway maintenance again, you're walking around the house looking for cracks. You want to repair cracks in the concrete as well. This is just as important.
This is the time of year where if you have a crack in the concrete water goes in there, and water sits inside that crack. And then it freezes. And when it freezes, it expands and it opens that crack more, and then the cycle continues. More water goes in. It freezes, the crack gets bigger, more water goes in.
[00:38:40] Speaker C: Right.
[00:38:41] Speaker B: And so then you have this giant crack. Well, once you have a giant crack, the water goes in and starts to wash away the foundation that the concrete is poured on. Like, if it's gravel or sand or dirt or whatever's down there, then you end up with this massive, gaping hole underneath the concrete. And your concrete is no longer safe to drive on, let alone walk on. And it's a bad, obviously, in an extreme situation, it's very bad.
[00:39:09] Speaker A: And it can get so bad if you get a crack so big, it'll break your mama's back.
[00:39:12] Speaker B: That's right. That's very true. Or you could climb down in there and go on a journey to the center of the, you know, also a possibility. It's kind of a goonies moment.
[00:39:21] Speaker A: The Shanghai tunnels down there.
[00:39:23] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:39:24] Speaker A: Now is a good time to go out and buy ice.
[00:39:27] Speaker B: Astoria.
[00:39:28] Speaker A: Astoria.
[00:39:29] Speaker B: Do you remember? Oh, yeah, yeah.
[00:39:31] Speaker A: If you have, like, in the Portland area, we just don't see a ton of it in the worst case scenarios. Usually it'll just, we'll get a couple freezes. And what happens is we have a lot of steep driveways here. Mine is included in that. And I've actually had my driveway freeze overnight. And then one of our cars slid down the driveway into the.
[00:39:55] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:39:55] Speaker A: Into the street.
[00:39:56] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:39:56] Speaker A: So you got to be careful. And if you go out and try to buy ice melt and a shovel after it snows, good luck. Good luck.
[00:40:05] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:40:06] Speaker A: So if you see a sled, I'm going to give you three things to buy a sled if you don't already have one, because your kids are going to be screaming about it, and you're going to go to every store trying to find a sled with your chains on.
[00:40:16] Speaker B: If you buy it now, they're cheap.
[00:40:18] Speaker A: Absolutely. Everybody's got trouble. And you need to buy ice melt.
[00:40:21] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:40:22] Speaker B: Smart.
[00:40:23] Speaker A: And, oh, here's another one. Throw heavy bags of sand in the back of your truck. If you drive a pickup truck, especially a two wheel drive pickup truck, throw two to 460 or 80 pound bags of just sand.
[00:40:35] Speaker B: Get it in a reinforced bag.
[00:40:37] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:40:38] Speaker B: So that it will weather the storms and keep the back tires on the road.
[00:40:43] Speaker A: Traction sand.
[00:40:43] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:40:44] Speaker B: Smart.
[00:40:44] Speaker A: They used to sell it here at Leshwab. Par sells them. We sell them in 80 pound bags. I think I actually just keep them in my garage and then when winter fires up, I'll throw them in the.
[00:40:54] Speaker B: Back before it's raining every single day. The time is now to get out into the yard and address your flower beds and your garden. And if you've got annuals, I think they call them annuals that die every year, right. If you've got annuals out there that have died, you need to get out and pull those out. I mean, even some perennials die and leave this dead thing behind. Get out there and get all that stuff out. Clean out your flower beds and your garden beds and just prepare for the bulbs that are going to sprout before you realize it in February or March.
[00:41:34] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:41:35] Speaker B: I'm already excited about that.
[00:41:37] Speaker A: Make sure you check all your outdoor lighting and when it's getting darker earlier, it's a good time to install some motion activated lights. It's safer. It's going to prevent you from slipping in the wintertime. You come home from work at five or 06:00 and it's pitch black outside and there's ice. Little outdoor motion light. Outdoor lighting is going to help you out a lot in that situation.
[00:41:59] Speaker B: We talked about being on the roof and checking the chimney for obstructions. Check it from the inside. Check it from the outside.
Chimney fires are a very real thing. I feel like every week during the cold season, the local fire department goes out to chimney fires because the soot inside the chimney catches on fire because it wasn't properly cleaned and you don't want to have that going on. If you get a blockage up there, then the smoke that's supposed to be going outside can be pushed back into the house. Corey knows what that's like. You don't want to have the house full of smoke because your flu is not working, your chimney's not working, or you got something funny going on with your furnace.
[00:42:40] Speaker A: Well, but it's not just that.
Even if you have a chimney and you don't use it, say if you have a fireplace and you just never use it, you still want to inspect it. Because if it's made of brick, you want to make sure that it's not decrepit, falling apart.
[00:42:55] Speaker B: Well, it will.
[00:42:56] Speaker A: That's what I'm saying. You need to make sure the top.
[00:42:59] Speaker B: The mortar cap, solid mortar is on there is falling apart all the time. Maybe you don't see it yet or maybe you won't see it next year, but it's falling apart all the time. It's going to have to be repaired. Little tuck and point work is going to have to be done up there at some point, but you don't want it to catch you by surprise. So be looking for it all the time.
[00:43:20] Speaker A: Absolutely. Make sure your sheds and fences are all locked down. If you got a fence that looks like it's about to fall over, those Winter storms might be its last leg. And that happened to both of my neighbors in the last couple of years where winter storm came through and literally demolished their whole fence.
[00:43:39] Speaker C: Yikes.
[00:43:40] Speaker A: So, good time to check it out.
Make sure all your snow equipment is up and running like Tony said. Check your generator, make sure it starts. It's full of gas or you have gas on hand to run it. But if you're in areas that you use snow removal equipment, like a snowblower, do the same thing. Make sure it's maintained. Make sure it starts. The last thing you want to happen is when you get out there to snowblow your driveway in that huge snowstorm and you can't get to work because the stupid thing won't start.
[00:44:12] Speaker B: Yeah, this is me right here. Check outdoor vents. Make sure that outdoor vents for the dryer furnace and other appliances are clear of debris and rotten wood. And rotten wood. That's right.
I actually have the hardy and the vent on hand at home, the louvered vent. So it's ready to go.
[00:44:31] Speaker A: Nice. I actually cleaned my dryer vent the other day because mine is probably like everyone else's.
[00:44:39] Speaker B: Cleaned your dryer vent? You cleaned the entire dryer motor and everything?
[00:44:44] Speaker A: Well, I did that, too.
[00:44:46] Speaker B: You took the entire thing apart and put it back together again.
[00:44:49] Speaker A: I have this front load dryer, and the stupid thing runs on these little hockey puck wheels, and one of them went bad, like, two years ago. So I tore the whole thing apart, got it on YouTube, figured out how to fix it, and I did it myself. Very proud. Saved myself probably $500. Oh, yeah, right. No. So I put it back, and then just last week, the stupid wheel, it just started going, like, screeching, like it was going to metal on metal. So I had to do the same thing. I pulled the darn thing out, pulled it all, took it all apart in my kitchen. Sure enough, parts of dryer everywhere. And sure enough, it's this stupid idler pulley that keeps. There's a drum right in there that rotates, and there's a big belt that goes around the drum and then down to the motor. But then there's this Idler pulley on this idler arm with a spring that keeps the tension on it. Well, that stupid thing, the bearing shot gone and it was literally just screeching metal.
[00:45:46] Speaker B: It was hanging on by a thread, that thing.
[00:45:47] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:45:48] Speaker A: So $22 on Amazon. I bought a new kit, put it all back together and it works.
[00:45:52] Speaker B: Beautiful. You're drying jeans again.
[00:45:53] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:45:54] Speaker B: Good job.
[00:45:54] Speaker A: But while I was at it, I cleaned out the dryer vent, which goes down and then over about 25ft.
[00:46:03] Speaker B: Oh, you cleaned out the hose?
[00:46:07] Speaker A: Yeah, the dryer vent. Hose. Some people's dryer. Like at your house, your dryer is on an exterior wall 16 inches long.
[00:46:15] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:46:15] Speaker A: So it goes right to the outside so you can reach your arm in there.
[00:46:19] Speaker B: I got one of those little feather duster things that goes in here.
[00:46:21] Speaker A: Not me. Mine's 25ft long. So I got to get one of those long kits with the little spinny thing. And I ran that through there. And then on the inside I took my Makita blower and my big one and it's the same diameter on the end as the dryer vent.
[00:46:38] Speaker B: Oh my goodness. Did that just blow like a giant.
[00:46:42] Speaker A: It worked amazingly. I stuck that thing in there and turned it on and it blew it all out.
[00:46:47] Speaker B: That's awesome.
You broke it up first with the thing and then blew it all out.
[00:46:52] Speaker A: It's crazy how much gets stuck in there, believe it or not.
[00:46:54] Speaker B: Very smart. Good job.
Okay. Inspect and clean outdoor air conditioning units. That's your compressor. The compressor sits outside. That's a big fan. And remove leaves and debris from that condensing unit there.
[00:47:08] Speaker A: And if you can cover them, actually sell covers that you could put over.
[00:47:12] Speaker B: Smart.
[00:47:12] Speaker A: Yeah. If you live in an area that has leaves, if you have a big tree above it and you know it's just going to get caked, you can cover it.
[00:47:20] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a good idea. I mean, it's a good idea to keep it from being covered in snow and rain anyways.
It's intended to be used during the summer months when it's not raining. So keep it covered and it'll last longer.
[00:47:34] Speaker C: All right.
[00:47:35] Speaker A: The last one on here is to be prepared for winter storms. We kind of covered a lot of this stuff, but have rock salt, sand, ice melt, just be ready for those wintertime power outages.
[00:47:49] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:47:50] Speaker B: Candles, flashlights, extra batteries, books. Yeah.
[00:47:55] Speaker A: Games? Cards.
[00:47:57] Speaker B: Yes. Uno.
[00:47:59] Speaker A: Or I do love Skipbo wintertime card games.
[00:48:03] Speaker B: I love power outage card games.
[00:48:05] Speaker A: I really do too.
[00:48:06] Speaker B: Specifically power outage. Because here's the thing. Everything in your world and everyone around you, all of your people, everything comes to a stop, they put the cell phones away, and you're just like, I.
[00:48:20] Speaker A: Know, when the wifi is out, everybody doesn't know what to do.
[00:48:23] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:48:23] Speaker B: Everybody races to another part of the house to find candles and matches and oil lamps and whatever.
[00:48:29] Speaker C: Right.
[00:48:30] Speaker B: And then they kind of gather around and they're thinking, how long is this going to last?
[00:48:35] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:48:36] Speaker B: And then if it lasts long enough, there's a generator and there's some card games and some storytelling. That's my favorite time. It seems weird, but it is my favorite time.
[00:48:46] Speaker A: I do want to throw at this caution because every year it happens, it seems you read about these things where someone has brought the powers out, they've brought a heater inside the house that's not appropriate to run inside your house.
[00:49:01] Speaker B: Propane, for example.
[00:49:02] Speaker A: Yeah, propane. And people die from carbon monoxide poisoning.
[00:49:07] Speaker C: Right.
[00:49:07] Speaker A: So if you're going to have a heater, you need to make sure that it is appropriate for interior use. I went out and bought a kerosene heater that absolutely is approved for indoor use. You just want to make sure you have a little bit of air, fresh circulation, circulation.
But just be careful.
[00:49:28] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:49:28] Speaker B: Propane heaters are not to be used inside. Not at all for any reason.
You know what, and for all you guys out there and gals out there who have a wood shop, and you're thinking, well, I'm not inside. I'm in a shop. Same rules apply. No propane heaters inside the wood shop.
[00:49:46] Speaker A: Unless you open the garage door a couple of feet.
[00:49:49] Speaker B: I mean, you can have the heater sitting outside, blowing heat inside, but not if all the doors and windows are closed. That's not working.
[00:49:59] Speaker A: Yeah, my dad actually had, you know, those.
I can't even remember what those things are called. We call it, like, the bullet heater. Yeah, like the long torpedo heater.
[00:50:07] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:50:07] Speaker A: Long tube with the ready heater. Ours ran on kerosene, so it was safe to put inside.
[00:50:13] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:50:14] Speaker A: White gas, some people call it.
[00:50:15] Speaker B: Be careful out there.
It's that time of year where we.
[00:50:20] Speaker A: Compromise for comfort, make bad decisions.
[00:50:23] Speaker B: Yeah, and let's not do that.
Let's not do that.
[00:50:27] Speaker A: Well, thanks so much for listening. Hopefully you found something useful in this podcast. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to email us. We're
[email protected]. Make sure you go check out our YouTube forward slash wwomeshow. We're also on Instagram. Same handle, wwomeshow. Go follow us. Like us. And like I said, have a good time and we'll see you next time.
[00:50:51] Speaker B: Have a great week. Bye.
