Episode Transcript
[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 Corey.
You know, Tony winner is almost here. It's time that we start talking about fall home maintenance again. I know it seems like it comes up every year.
[00:00:35] Speaker B: It does seem like it comes up every year. We've got some really good tips on here. And, you know, I actually have experienced yet another of the things we're going to tell you to try to avoid.
[00:00:50] Speaker A: Oh, really?
[00:00:50] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:00:51] Speaker A: Like, you avoided doing this maintenance and now it's bit you, is that what you're saying?
[00:00:55] Speaker B: Well, I felt like that I did it, except somehow you didn't. I did it wrong.
[00:01:02] Speaker A: Oh, okay.
[00:01:03] Speaker B: And I learned from it. I learned a big old lesson. So there is that story that will be told today. All right, that's something to. That's something to tune in for.
[00:01:13] Speaker A: Well, let's get into it.
[00:01:14] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:01:15] Speaker A: Fall home maintenance, it's just one of those things. It's that time of the year when it starts to get cold and there's certain things around your house that you really need to think about and focus on that will prevent really big problems down the road. If you just let them go, they just get bigger.
[00:01:32] Speaker B: Yeah. This is not a heavy lift, actually. This is a. This is a. This is a list of a few pretty insignificant tasks that will benefit you greatly that will have a significant effect. Insignificant tasks that will have a significant effect, for sure.
[00:01:50] Speaker A: All right, so starting on the exterior of the house, probably the easiest, number one thing that you need to do before, especially here in the Pacific Northwest. We live in what we like to fondly refer to as a rainforest. It rains like, 200 something days a year here. Yeah, it's insane. It rains a lot here. So for us, downspouts and gutters are prime. We have to get those cleaned out. We have a lot of pine trees here, Douglas fir, all kinds of different trees. But those trees especially have these, like, little things that. That fall and then fall into your gutter and just clog them up. It's like a sludge.
[00:02:37] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And on top of that, moss. Moss grows on everything, and it grows a lot on the roof. And if every year you don't get up there, kill and remove the moss during the summer months, then it will come back to life in the winter months. And so if you have moss on your roof that grew last winter and it's still there. Even if it's brown. When it starts to rain, it will turn green again and it will grow again. Uh, and that moss has a lifespan anyways. It falls off and it rolls down the roof and lands in your gutter and then ultimately clogs your downspouts.
[00:03:21] Speaker A: Yeah. And it's, uh, it's important they make all kinds of different roof treatments. I've used the spray on roof treatments. Actually got an email about this from one of our listeners last week about which one that I use.
[00:03:36] Speaker B: And there's a spray on roof treatment.
[00:03:39] Speaker A: Yeah, it's called, it's made by moss out, and it connects to your garden hose. Or you can get it a concentrate that goes into, like, a garden sprayer.
[00:03:46] Speaker B: Really.
[00:03:46] Speaker A: There's all kinds of them. There's a powder that you can sprinkle on. I don't like the powder. I see it. People put it on their roofs in my neighborhood.
[00:03:53] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:03:54] Speaker A: And it just looks like your roof has powder on it for several weeks.
[00:03:58] Speaker B: I think it looks weird until it rains.
[00:04:00] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, exactly. So I like the spray on one, the garden hose one. It goes on and then you just a lot. My roof, I can reach to the peak without having to climb up on my roof. So I use that one and I can spray all the way to the peak and it covers the whole thing.
[00:04:16] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:17] Speaker A: And it works really well. But because I maintain it every year, I don't have to climb up there and broom it off, you know, I don't have to brush away the big chunks, you know, I mean, you've had it at your house where you had, you have a two story. It's a lot harder to get up there.
[00:04:35] Speaker B: It really is.
[00:04:36] Speaker A: So climbing up there, in maintaining it, you're going to get those big chunks of Moss that will eventually roll down your roof and clog up your gutters.
[00:04:46] Speaker B: Right.
[00:04:46] Speaker A: Or I don't. I just don't do that.
[00:04:48] Speaker B: For me, there's a saving grace because I have a lower roof. I have a first story roof and then a second story roof. And so the second story roof has its own gutter and its downspout drains onto the top of the lower story roof. So my implication is limited there. My liability is limited there. If that section of downspout is full and it's not draining onto the bottom roof. Well, that's just a very quick pull that eight footer off and jet some water through it. Yeah, but the lower sections are draining into the rain drains. And once it's in the rain drain, I can no longer affect that without a snake or a professional jethe. Yeah.
[00:05:32] Speaker A: You had to have yours jetted.
[00:05:34] Speaker B: I did.
[00:05:35] Speaker A: Your rain drains.
[00:05:35] Speaker B: That was one of the lessons that I learned about not properly removing moss from my roof before the winter.
[00:05:41] Speaker A: Yeah. It just literally plugs it up.
[00:05:43] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:05:43] Speaker A: It's such a thick moss is so thick.
[00:05:46] Speaker B: Yeah. It grows and then you don't do anything with it and it turns brown and you think it's going to disappear and then it comes back to life and then it doubles. There's twice as much now because it's been two winters. And if you wait, you wait again, it's going to be. It's going to triple.
[00:06:02] Speaker A: And then.
[00:06:02] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, eventually you have.
[00:06:04] Speaker A: There's a math equation for that.
[00:06:05] Speaker B: You have so much moss on your roof that it. I mean, it's inevitable that it will clog your gutters.
[00:06:12] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:06:13] Speaker B: And your downspouts.
[00:06:14] Speaker A: So that's why cleaning the gutters and downspouts is the number one thing on the list. I have these little screens that go over my gutters that I put on there a few years back to try and limit some of that foliage. Yeah. That stuff that gets down in there.
[00:06:29] Speaker B: Organic matter.
[00:06:30] Speaker A: But I tell you what, the little stainless steel screen, those get clogged up and I have to get up there and hose them off at least twice a year now, because what'll happen is those little screen, the mesh will get clogged and then water will run right over the top and then over the edge of my gutters. Right in a really heavy rain. Drives me nuts.
[00:06:49] Speaker B: Yeah. That's crazy.
[00:06:50] Speaker A: There isn't good.
[00:06:51] Speaker B: You don't want that.
[00:06:52] Speaker A: Yeah. There's just not a good method for cleaning out gutters. You know, when I lived in the midwest, I grew up in Michigan, and we had all kinds of deciduous trees everywhere, and we just got leaves galore filling up the gutters and you just clean them out. You could use a blower and just blow them out. But here everything is just so wet and it's like a sticky, sludgy mess. It fills up your gutter.
[00:07:17] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:07:18] Speaker A: And I tell you what, one of the biggest problems that can happen is if your gutters are full and they fill up with water, which is what happens. Like, if I know when I need to clean out my gutters almost immediately is when it rains because the gutters fill up with water and then the water just starts coming over the edge.
[00:07:36] Speaker B: Right where it shouldn't be coming over.
[00:07:37] Speaker A: Correct. And so then I have to get up there and usually go down to the downspout and just start grabbing handfuls of just muck and sloshing it out into a bucket.
[00:07:49] Speaker B: Right.
[00:07:49] Speaker A: And a lot of times I'll have to do that in the rain. That's why I bought those metal screens.
[00:07:53] Speaker B: Been there?
[00:07:54] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. I'm up on a ladder in a downpour with my raincoat and gloves on, trying to clean out the downspout so it empties that 25 foot run of gutter that probably weighs 500 pounds.
[00:08:06] Speaker B: I think I sent you a picture of my gutter completely full of water, pouring down rain.
I was laughing at myself because knowing that, this exact thing. But in my defense, it happened earlier in the season than I expected that it would.
[00:08:23] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:08:23] Speaker B: But, um. Yeah, you definitely. Now is the time.
[00:08:27] Speaker A: Well, it happens quick.
[00:08:28] Speaker B: Get out there and get them clean. Otherwise you're asking for trouble. So people might be saying this, Corey. The really, the real, the people that just really don't want to do it might be saying this. So big deal. Water pours out over the edge of the gutter. What do I care?
[00:08:45] Speaker A: Yeah, big deal.
[00:08:46] Speaker B: Well, let's talk about that just real quickly.
[00:08:49] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, you got to first understand what gutters are for and what they are is to divert water away from your home.
[00:08:58] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:08:59] Speaker A: Your surface area of your roof is large. So all that water collects on there, and it has to go somewhere. So it slides down the roof into the gutter. And then the gutter is designed to take it out, in a way, from your house because you don't want it coming in underneath your eyes, underneath your. Yeah. So, like, around your foundation. Cause what will happen is it'll undermine or. Sorry, undermine your foundation. It will cause your foundation to sink. It'll crack. You'll get cracks in places inside of your house.
It's really bad.
[00:09:37] Speaker B: Yeah. And then you'll have water standing underneath the house. Water standing underneath the house results in mold and mildew and allergens underneath the house. And it's a. It just is an unforgiving disaster. Right. You don't want that.
[00:09:51] Speaker A: It depends, too, on what sort of house you live in. In the midwest, we had a lot of basements which aren't very popular here in the Pacific northwest Portland area. But if you do have a basement, you'll know if you've got water coming in.
[00:10:05] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:10:05] Speaker A: You know, your basement will start flooding.
[00:10:07] Speaker B: That's where it goes, right into the basement.
[00:10:09] Speaker A: And that's probably from a bad gutter issue.
[00:10:12] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:10:13] Speaker A: Where the water is not being directed away from the house.
[00:10:16] Speaker B: Yeah. So that's important. That is very important. While you're on the roof, you should inspect it for damaged roofing material. If it's shingles, missing shingles. If it's shakes, missing shakes.
And make sure that you repair those again before the rain or snow starts this winter season.
[00:10:36] Speaker A: Absolutely. It's a good time to do it. And another thing we had to do this at your house is inspect the fasteners that are holding your gutters onto your house.
[00:10:45] Speaker B: Gutter spikes.
[00:10:46] Speaker A: Gutter spikes. Traditionally, a lot of times, houses are built where they do what's called a direct applied gutter. The gutter is nailed directly to the truss tails at the edge of your roof deck. And if you were to just take that gutter off, you'll just see the roof tails every 24 inches on center, usually.
[00:11:04] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:11:05] Speaker A: And the end grain of wood just isn't as strong when you're nailing into it.
[00:11:11] Speaker B: It doesn't like to hold fasteners.
[00:11:13] Speaker A: Right. So they'll put these gutters on there with these, you know, six inch spikes or eight inch spikes. Usually six inch. And your gutter is four inch. Right. So then it's only going in a couple of inches, which is fine, but over time, they start pulling away. So there's some great products out there. One's made by fasten master. It's a direct replacement screw that will. They're a little bit larger diameter, so they'll go into that hole and really hold it tight. But you want to make sure that you're installing the ferrules. What that is, it's a little aluminum tube that goes on the inside of your gutter. That will prevent it from squashing. As you tighten that gutter screw in. That's called a ferrule.
[00:12:01] Speaker B: Yeah. That's a good tip. Obviously, we replaced the gutter spikes in my house.
[00:12:06] Speaker A: I know.
[00:12:07] Speaker B: With.
[00:12:07] Speaker A: Not that hard.
[00:12:08] Speaker B: No, it was. But it was a project that desperately needed to be done.
[00:12:12] Speaker A: Yours was literally falling off the house.
[00:12:14] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:12:15] Speaker A: So that was a good one. Next one on the list is to, since you're out there, inspect your siding and trim. Look at the tops of your windows, the sides of your windows. If you see any large gaps or cracks, it's a really good time to cut the old caulking out and replace it with new. You don't want to just go right over the top. You want to cut the old stuff out and replace it. One of the things from the last, probably 20 years in the building industry, 20 years ago, the only thing you could buy was Vulcan. It was a really good product.
[00:12:49] Speaker B: I remember. And at least we felt like it was.
[00:12:52] Speaker A: Yeah, well, it was super, super sticky time.
[00:12:54] Speaker B: It was.
[00:12:54] Speaker A: Yeah, it was super sticky. And it was also paintable.
[00:12:57] Speaker B: And it was textured.
[00:12:58] Speaker A: It's textured. It looked really good. But the problem that they realized over the years is that it didn't expand and contract very well. It had a lot of solvents in it, which would evaporate over time, causing it to shrink. So after 1015 years on your house, that Vulcan would. It can just absolutely contract, and then it would leave a giant gap. Gap in between the siding and your window. So some of the later developments in caulking technology over the last 20 years have leaps and bounds with new chemical compounds that have a lot less solvents in them that don't evaporate off or don't off gas. And they are super, super stretchy. They are. They expand and contract with the material. So if you. If you do end up cutting out the old caulking and replacing it with something new, like quad max. That's a really good one.
Cicaflex is another one that's on the market. Sonaborn, I think, got bought out by Cica flex.
[00:14:06] Speaker B: Big stretch.
[00:14:07] Speaker A: Yeah, that's another one.
[00:14:08] Speaker B: There's lots of products out there.
[00:14:10] Speaker A: What? The only thing you want to do is make sure that the product that you're buying, the caulking that you're buying, is paintable. You don't want to throw a 100% silicone. People think, oh, silicone, it's great.
[00:14:25] Speaker B: Well, it is, except when you can't.
[00:14:28] Speaker A: Paint, it is not paintable.
[00:14:29] Speaker B: It looks terrible.
[00:14:30] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:14:31] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:14:31] Speaker A: You will paint it and it will flake and peel right off.
But I personally, I like some of the newer technologies, like in Quad Max and the Seeka flex sonoborne NP 100, NP 150. Very, very good sealants.
[00:14:46] Speaker B: Another thing to look at while you're inspecting your siding and trim, look at the face of your trim. One by four, one by six, whatever it happens to be your belly band, look at the face of the trim. If you can see some rippling or some. What looks like wrinkling, um, or. Or lines in the face of that, you know, it's very likely that you could be facing some rot in that trim. That that's how it will happen. The water will get behind because the caulking has failed and it will rot that trim. You. You need to replace rotten trim immediately. Um, because if the water can get in there through that trim, it has free rain to be behind the siding of your home. And you don't want water in there. You don't want it in there.
[00:15:30] Speaker A: Yeah. If you suspect that it's rot, take, like, a small screwdriver and do the poke test.
[00:15:35] Speaker B: Yeah. Just tap it.
[00:15:36] Speaker A: Poke around. If it penetrates in at all. And, I mean, you'll not at all, but, like, you'll know it with little effort.
[00:15:43] Speaker B: Yeah. You're not driving it with a hammer, you're just tapping it.
[00:15:46] Speaker A: Yep. It'll poke right through. And that's clear rock.
[00:15:48] Speaker B: If it looks hollow or feels hollow or sounds hollow. Yeah, that's rotten. And you need to get that replaced ASAP.
[00:15:55] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:15:56] Speaker B: I have replaced rotten trim on my house.
[00:16:00] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:16:00] Speaker B: And it's even been in the last year. So it's. Of course, my house is 20 years old and so it's. It's been 20 years since it was sighted. And, you know, these things have a lifespan. Trim, paint, siding. All of these things that are on the exterior of your home, protecting your home, have a lifespan and eventually they have to be replaced. It is the nature of the beast. It is.
Inspect your windows and doors when you're looking at your siding and trim, inspect your windows and doors. Check for drafts. Replace weather stripping if it's necessary. And again, check that caulking. Make sure that your caulking is adhering both to the siding or the trim and the window or door.
[00:16:47] Speaker A: Yeah. We did a video on how to replace weather stripping. It's not that difficult of a job. If, depending on the type of door that you have.
If you have. If you have the slot cut in it for the weather stripping and we can talk about that some more, but in our video, we really going to explain it and it's just old and worn out. You can peel that right out of there and put brand new and your door will be ceiling around. It will be brand new.
[00:17:18] Speaker B: Working like it's brand new.
[00:17:19] Speaker A: Yeah. If you close it right and you have light, you can see light anywhere around it, bottom, top, middle, anywhere, then.
[00:17:26] Speaker B: Cold and warm air is just passing absolutely back and forth.
[00:17:29] Speaker A: It's time to replace it.
[00:17:30] Speaker B: Yeah. It's like open borders. They're just traveling back and forth.
[00:17:34] Speaker A: Yeah. For bugs, too.
[00:17:35] Speaker B: Yeah, bugs outside. As long as we're outside, trim trees and bushes. You don't want. You don't want any kind of foliage that is making contact with the siding or the roofing on your home. You want to have a clear air barrier between the things that are growing in your yard and your house. You don't want them becoming you know, becoming into contact and staying in contact.
So cut back branches that could cause damage maybe that are hanging out over the street or are hanging over the house. Big branches that look like they could break or fall in a heavy wind and protect yourself from that kind of thing. Right now?
[00:18:21] Speaker A: Yeah.
Moving out into the yard, you want to make sure that you've drained and stored your garden hoses. I actually, this happened to me, you know, here in the Pacific Northwest, we don't get a ton of cold, cold, cold weather, you know, sub zero. Hardly ever. Yeah, this.
[00:18:42] Speaker B: This winter is going to be a little colder than we've seen in recent years.
[00:18:46] Speaker A: Yeah.
But it does get below 30. You know, I would say that it hovers in the twenties, thirties. I mean, it's pretty rare that it gets that it dips below freezing here. So I never worry about my faucets and my hoses, hardly ever, until I got in trouble and I left it connected. And for some reason, one of the kids went outside to do something and they turned the hose on to get water out of it. But it was frozen. Duh. It's the middle of winter, right? And so they were like, oh, whatever, and then left it.
[00:19:26] Speaker B: They let.
[00:19:27] Speaker A: They set the hose down on the ground, but left the water on.
And I remember I was working from home. This was during COVID I was working from home. And the springtime hit. It was warming up outside, and that hose finally let loose. And I didn't know it, but it had been.
Water had been pouring out of that thing. And the situation at which that nozzle, the end of the hose was sitting, was pouring water right into my foundation, like into my crawlspace, because it was a vent right there.
A crawl space vent with one of those foundation vent. Yeah, with one of those, like, vent guards, concrete vent wells. And it was like, perfectly sitting there. And water was just pouring in, pouring and pouring and pouring. And I remember hearing it in the morning, and I was like, that's a weird sound. And I couldn't quite figure out what it was. And I was sitting in my kitchen working and working on my computer all day. And I just remember at some point in the afternoon going, it kind of hit me.
[00:20:28] Speaker B: Yeah. Is the water on?
[00:20:30] Speaker A: And so I walked. Yeah, I walked outside and sure enough, it was just full speed pouring water into my. And it had been.
[00:20:36] Speaker B: How long has that been on?
[00:20:39] Speaker A: There was so much water. And you know what it was?
[00:20:41] Speaker B: Who turned the water on?
[00:20:42] Speaker A: I heard my sump pump kick on. That's what really did it. When the sump pump kicked on. I kept hearing it kick on, and I'm like, man, that's weird. Why is my sump pump keep kicking on?
It would kick on, like, every 30.
[00:20:57] Speaker B: Minutes, pumping all that water. You just pumping the water out? Yeah.
[00:21:01] Speaker A: So, well, that was a bad deal.
[00:21:03] Speaker B: I'll tell you what. I feel like that the lesson that you learned there was a little, you know, less expensive for you than mine.
My lesson was that in the springtime, this last spring, I turned the hose on for the first time to water the backyard. Oh, yeah. And heard a very loud noise inside the wall, which I could not at first. I couldn't figure it out.
And anyways, I watered the lawn and went on. The next time the water came on, it was my wife outside. She turned on the hose. I was inside, and the noise was much louder inside. And that's when I realized that water was spraying freely inside the wall. I have frost free faucets around on the outside of the house, and so there wasn't really a good possibility that I had a broken pipe because I have frost free spigots. But guess what it did. That frost free spigot broke right where the valve is, and I pulled that thing out of there. After having to replace the sheetrock on the interior wall and the insulation on the interior wall, I pulled that thing out of there, and there was a, like, a one inch long split right in that copper pipe. Boy, oh, boy, oh, boy. It was. I sent you a picture of it. You saw it. It was bulged and. And broken. Yeah, that was expensive for me. I replaced the spigot myself, and I got it. I got it all put back together. But the sheetrock and insulation comes at a pretty penny, buddy.
[00:22:47] Speaker A: And you know what's interesting about that is it's frost free. It's not supposed to exactly freeze and break.
[00:22:54] Speaker B: It was. It was.
[00:22:55] Speaker A: It was like a mechanical error.
[00:22:57] Speaker B: Exact thing. And yet it did. And I said to myself, I don't need to use those faucet covers, those faucet insulators. I have frost free faucets. Well, you know what I think my mistake was, Corey? I think my mistake was that I left the hose attached even though it was frost free. Right. And the end of my hose had a nozzle.
So when I turned the water off, the water was not able to drain away from the faucet because it couldn't leave the hose because the nozzle was still on the hose.
So my hose was full of water because my nozzle was on. And I think ultimately, that was the problem?
[00:23:42] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:23:43] Speaker B: You have to remove the hose from.
[00:23:45] Speaker A: The faucet for the extra water to.
[00:23:48] Speaker B: Drain, for the extra water between the hose and the valve to drain out. And that's what happened. That was my fault ultimately, in the end. Interesting. But I learned a valuable lesson there. I won't make that mistake again.
[00:24:02] Speaker A: Interesting. So what's funny about that? That exact same thing happened to another friend of mine.
[00:24:07] Speaker B: Oh, really?
[00:24:07] Speaker A: The exact same thing.
[00:24:09] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:24:10] Speaker A: So I don't know. Maybe it was a bad batch of those.
[00:24:12] Speaker B: Yeah, maybe those things working in the lawn and around the house. You need to rake leaves. You don't want to leave. Leaves. You don't want to leave.
[00:24:22] Speaker A: Leaves, leaves, leaves.
[00:24:25] Speaker B: You don't want to leave. Leaves.
[00:24:26] Speaker A: I don't, I've seen this before. I actually had a neighbor in my neighborhood rake all of their leaves into their lawn and they left them all winter long, and then they had to.
[00:24:40] Speaker B: Thatch their lawn when they came.
[00:24:41] Speaker A: Yes. It looked absolutely horrendous in the spring because all of those leaves decomposed. Exactly. They have all that moisture and it really just allowed the lawn to fill in with weeds and what a mess it was. I think they thought it was a good idea.
[00:24:58] Speaker B: I don't know why.
[00:24:59] Speaker A: You're much better off.
[00:25:01] Speaker B: They make a rake. They make billions and billions of dollars selling rakes because that's a bad idea.
[00:25:08] Speaker A: I think he thought it was going to be a good fertilizer.
[00:25:11] Speaker B: Well, it might have been.
[00:25:12] Speaker A: Leaves are not a good fertilizer.
[00:25:14] Speaker B: It might have been if it hadn't been raining and snowing all winter.
[00:25:18] Speaker A: Right.
So that's the thing. If you, after you've raked it, you want to cut it short and fertilize it. Apply a fall fertilizer on your lawn. It will promote deep growth into the, of the roots.
[00:25:37] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:25:38] Speaker A: And it, your lawn will look so much nicer in the spring.
[00:25:42] Speaker B: Absolutely.
So I like to plant fall flowers, usually bulbs, which add seasonal plants and prepare the, you know, spring. So my favorite ones, I can't ever remember what they're called. Irises, maybe. Is an iris one of the flowers that comes up early in the spring?
[00:26:03] Speaker A: My wife would know this answer.
[00:26:04] Speaker B: It's a, it's an annual, I think annual is how we refer to perennial. Oh, a perennial that come back every year? Yeah. You plant these bulbs. They're like irises, I think, and they come back as the first thing to bloom in my yard every single year. And I absolutely love it.
[00:26:24] Speaker A: There's lilies and tulips.
Tulips, daffodils irises crocus.
[00:26:36] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:26:37] Speaker A: Lilies.
[00:26:37] Speaker B: Yeah. I think maybe they're. They're pretty. I think they're irises.
[00:26:42] Speaker A: Yeah, a lot of them.
[00:26:44] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:26:44] Speaker A: But now is the time to plan them.
[00:26:45] Speaker B: Right now you want time to plan them?
[00:26:46] Speaker A: The one, those certain ones you plant in the fall. It's a good time to do it.
[00:26:50] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:26:52] Speaker A: Let's see the next one. Oh, add some garden mulch. Nice little layer of mulch. It'll protect your plants, help them retain moisture. We don't have that big of an issue here. Retaining moisture in Pacific Northwest during the winter time. It rains a lot, but, uh, anyway, it's a good time to do that. Moving inside the house. Your h vac system, if you haven't already, you probably have turned on your heater at some point in the last couple of weeks. I know. I just converted mine over from cooling to heating, and I. I think I'm done with the air conditioner. I think it's official. We'll see. I don't, I don't know if we'll see any other 80 plus degree days the rest of this year, but.
[00:27:34] Speaker B: Well, I use, I use space air conditioners. Uh, you know, the kind that go, like, little window units. Roll around window units.
[00:27:42] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. You actually have.
[00:27:43] Speaker B: I don't have a furnace in my right.
[00:27:45] Speaker A: You don't have a central air.
[00:27:46] Speaker B: I have space heating and cooling. And so, uh, I have removed my, my window units and stored them for the winter. I haven't turned the heat on yet, but the blankets are out, so. Yeah, I know. We're getting close.
[00:28:02] Speaker A: That's what I'm talking about.
[00:28:03] Speaker B: But if you have, if you do have central heating and cooling, you need to make sure that you are replacing, checking and replacing your filters. And also, it's a good idea to have a professional come and check your system and make sure it's. That it's working properly and have it serviced. You don't want to be trying to get it serviced when, when it's, you know, below freezing and. And it stops working for you.
[00:28:30] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:28:31] Speaker B: That's not the time to get that done. So get it done before you need it. Yeah.
[00:28:34] Speaker A: Because you will pay a premium. You will pay an absolute premium.
[00:28:39] Speaker B: You'll wait a premium amount of time.
[00:28:41] Speaker A: As well on a cold day. And you have no, it's like in the middle of summer when your air conditioning breaks, you're gonna call them and they're gonna say, yeah, we'll squeeze you in in two months, next Tuesday. Yeah, it's gonna be terrible.
[00:28:53] Speaker B: A week from next Tuesday.
Yeah.
[00:28:56] Speaker A: So anyway, if you have a fireplace, get that chimney cleaned, get it inspected.
[00:29:02] Speaker B: You're gonna have a chimney sweep.
[00:29:04] Speaker A: A chimney sweep. Chim chimney. Chim chimney. Cheroo.
[00:29:07] Speaker B: Yep. Have a chimney sweep come out, do a little dance.
Clean your flue. Yeah.
[00:29:13] Speaker A: It's definitely important. When you're talking about backflow and proper airflow of a fireplace, people that have them know. I actually, I've told the story on the show a hundred times, but when I bought my first house, we had this fireplace. It's like a little. Just a little fireplace, you know? And we thought it was so romantic in this little house that one day we started a fire in it, and sitting in there enjoying our little new, little newlywed fireplace, and our furnace kicked on. Didn't think anything of it. But next thing you know, it reversed the airflow in that chimney, and all the smoke started piling into the house. Because when you turn on your furnace, your furnace creates negative pressure, and it sucks air out and blows it to the exterior, and it has to be replaced somehow. And when it's being replaced, it has to find fresh air from outside because you're creating negative pressure.
[00:30:11] Speaker B: So fireplace is a big hole.
[00:30:14] Speaker A: Path of least resistance. When that flue was open.
[00:30:16] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:30:17] Speaker A: It just sucked all the smoke, and it was crazy. And we didn't know what was going on. We were opening the windows and the doors, and then I realized that's what had happened.
[00:30:27] Speaker B: What?
[00:30:27] Speaker A: A furnace kicked on.
[00:30:28] Speaker B: This bummer.
[00:30:29] Speaker A: Every time we had a little fire in there, I had to turn off the furnace.
[00:30:32] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:30:33] Speaker A: So anyway, it's important. Which leads into the next little tip of check your carbon monoxide sensors, your smoke detectors. Make sure they work. Make sure you've replaced and tested them. The batteries, it's. Pick a time of year and just do it every year.
[00:30:48] Speaker B: Pick a time of year and replace all of the batteries, whether you think they need it or not. Fresh batteries every year. Those batteries will last a year. Fresh batteries every year.
[00:31:01] Speaker A: 100%.
All right, let's move. Let's take. Get out of the furnace stuff. There's. There's a lot of areas inside the house you can work on, including. We talked a little bit about this, but ceiling gaps and drafts around your windows and doors, it's kind of a one of those things. Air sealing in your house is probably the single most important thing you can do to save on your energy bill.
It's not always the easiest because depending on when your windows were installed, if you live in an older home, single pane windows, double pane windows, there's. There's all kinds of little things there. But if you are sitting next to your window and you can physically feel cold air coming from your window, then one of the things you might be able to do is pop the trim off and. And see if it's insulated between the window and the framing.
There's probably insulation in the bay next to it. But one of the old time things to do, pre 1990, probably even 2000, was just to take insulation and stuff it in that little crack.
[00:32:16] Speaker B: Right.
[00:32:17] Speaker A: Which is like a half inch to three quarter of an inch gap between the window and the framing, which is.
[00:32:22] Speaker B: Not actually properly airing air flow.
[00:32:26] Speaker A: Correct.
[00:32:27] Speaker B: Right.
[00:32:27] Speaker A: It's not stopping anything from coming through.
[00:32:29] Speaker B: No, it's filtering it really well.
[00:32:31] Speaker A: Filtering the air, stopping it. So what you can do is peel all that out of there and get some window indoor foam, specifically for windows and doors. If you install the wrong foam, it will.
[00:32:45] Speaker B: Can.
[00:32:46] Speaker A: It can overexpand. Yep. And make it so your windows and doors no longer open. Yeah.
[00:32:53] Speaker B: Yeah. That's a worst case scenario. You don't want that. Just make sure you buy the kind that says for window and door, it's a minimal expanding foam. For window and door. It works good.
[00:33:03] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:33:05] Speaker B: Here's, here's a tip for you. This doesn't really cost you anything, but in the colder months, when you're in the house trying to stay cool, if you have ceiling fans of, you can reverse the rotation on your ceiling fan to rotate clockwise to push warm air down, instead of pulling the air up into the ceiling, which is what oftentimes a fan will do. I mean, I guess you can run it. Obviously, you can run it either way. But if you're trying to circulate air, you're pulling the air up. Usually it's hitting the ceiling and dispersing it around. But if you reverse it to a, to rotate clockwise, then it will push the warm air that's at the ceiling down to you.
And that is one way of keeping the warmer air that's. That's at the ceiling level down. We know warm air rises, heat rises. Right. So that's a good tip.
[00:34:05] Speaker A: Furnace installers hate this one simple trick.
[00:34:08] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a headline. Is it really?
[00:34:11] Speaker A: Yeah, probably, yeah. Reverse your ceiling fan. It's super easy. Usually you want to do it when it's off because there's a switch on the furnace or, sorry, on the fan. You have to reach up and click the little switch. Sometimes the newer ones have them on the remote. If you have a fan with them.
[00:34:28] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:34:28] Speaker A: You can reverse in that way.
[00:34:29] Speaker B: Yeah, that's a good idea. It's free.
[00:34:31] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:34:32] Speaker B: Good one.
[00:34:33] Speaker A: Another thing you can do, or you should do, is, if you haven't done it before, is definitely inspect your attic and inspect your basement or crawlspace. Yep.
[00:34:42] Speaker B: Crawl space, depending on what your situation is.
[00:34:44] Speaker A: You wanna look for pests, leaks. If you're up in the attic, you wanna look for leaks. If you wanna look for insulation issues, if you can see the tops of your ceiling joists, you can physically see.
[00:34:58] Speaker B: Them in the attic.
[00:34:59] Speaker A: In the attic, you probably don't have enough insulation.
[00:35:02] Speaker B: That's a good tip.
[00:35:02] Speaker A: That's almost a guarantee.
[00:35:04] Speaker B: That's a good.
[00:35:04] Speaker A: Because our 38 is like 16 inches, I think, 16 inches deep of insulation.
And, I mean, if your ceiling joists are two by twelve, which is probably unlikely, then you're still only at eleven inches. So you'd really need a lot more than that. A lot more than you've got about r 20 short.
[00:35:29] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:35:30] Speaker A: So I would say that most roof trusses, or most ceiling roof joists are two by six, two by four, even in some cases, usually, if it's hand framed, maybe two by eight, two by ten. So you really, if you can see them, you're probably only sitting at six, seven inches of insulation, which is not nearly enough.
[00:35:52] Speaker B: Not enough.
[00:35:53] Speaker A: So you can do that yourself. You can go up there, you can rent machines and blow it in, or you can roll it out. You can get crap unfaced. You don't want to get craft faced. You want to get unfaced insulation.
And there's a reason for that. If you get craft face, that paper face on there, which is impregnated with asphalt, acts as a vapor barrier. Well, your ceiling, which has drywall on it, sheet rock that also has a paper face on it, it's painted with pva primer, and then a coat of paint that also acts as a vapor barrier. So what can happen is vapor will get trapped between your insulation face and your sheetrock. So that's why you don't want to use craft face. If you're laying it up on top of existing insulation, it's important.
[00:36:54] Speaker B: That is a very good tip.
If you have not been into the crawl space of your home or seen or even know how to access the crawl space of your home, this is an opportunity for you. You should know what's going on down there. We had a. We had a caller, or we had a guest on the show some years back. That is a guy who just. His whole he's entire business is surrounded with, uh, just the crawl space. And, um, we talked about, he said that he refers to the crawl space as the scary place. Crawl space. Scary place. Because nobody wants to go down there. Everybody's afraid that there's wild animals or, you know, dangerous insects or who knows? Maybe a black hole swirling down there. But if you haven't laid eyes upon the crawl space of your home, it's a good idea to familiarize yourself with what's going on down there, because the fact is, you're breathing air that's coming from there. Whether you want it to be the truth or not. It is. And keeping that space down there as healthy as possible is going to be your best bet. So don't assume everything's fine. Get down there into your crawlspace and look at it, and once you've seen it, then you'll make a decision about whether or not something needs to be done there. Um, but familiarize yourself anyway.
[00:38:24] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely.
Um, all right. Moving back outside.
If you've got any sort of outdoor furniture, now's a good time to get it clean. You want to get it cleaned up first and then put it away or clean it and then cover it.
[00:38:39] Speaker B: I saw that. Your furniture still needs to be covered.
[00:38:42] Speaker A: It does. That's on the docket for this weekend.
[00:38:44] Speaker B: As a matter of fact.
[00:38:45] Speaker A: All right. All right. We're gonna get it cleaned up, and we're going to cover it with. We got brand new coverings because the ones that we had been using for the last several years when I pulled them off this spring, started falling apart. Yeah, they were pretty.
[00:38:58] Speaker B: Well, they got a lifespan rotted, so.
[00:39:01] Speaker A: Those went in the trash. We bought some new ones, but it's a good time to do that. Outdoor patio furniture is freaking expensive.
[00:39:08] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:39:09] Speaker A: So last thing you want to do is let it sit through.
[00:39:11] Speaker B: What about snow removal equipment?
We don't do a lot with moving snow around here. I mean, a little like, I had to shovel the driveway once last year. We don't understand what that's like.
Our listeners in the central Oregon area or northern Washington have a better idea about this.
[00:39:30] Speaker A: But I.
[00:39:31] Speaker B: If you, if you regularly have to deal with snow, this is a good time to test your equipment, test your snow blowers, stock up on ice melt, make sure that you've got shovels and that the shovels, snow shovels are in good working order. If you don't have a snow shovel and you haven't been through a winter in your home, don't wait to get a snow shovel until the snow hits the ground.
[00:39:55] Speaker A: Right.
[00:39:55] Speaker B: That's not the time to do it.
[00:39:57] Speaker A: Same thing with ice melt or rock salt. Yeah, that's. That's one of the things in our part of the world. We don't deal with ice and snow here very much. And usually if we do, it's ice. That's we.
[00:40:11] Speaker B: Yeah, that's. We definitely get our share of ice. That's the big one for sure.
[00:40:15] Speaker A: So. Yeah, if. If you are stuck. Last year we had a big ice storm.
A lot of damage here in the Portland area, but my neighborhood was in that boat. He didn't have a shovel. He didn't have any ice melt, and he backed out of his driveway and slid right out into the street.
[00:40:33] Speaker B: Oh, man.
[00:40:34] Speaker A: Fairly steep driveway. Yeah, I have the same steepness in my driveway, so. I know.
[00:40:38] Speaker B: Right.
[00:40:39] Speaker A: But. So he called me. So to come over and help him de ice his driveway so he could get back up and put that car back in the driveway, it was kind of crazy. Yeah, that's scary. It's just one of those things. You want to have a bag of ice melt in the garage, have your snow shovel, even though if you never use it. But if you do live in an area like central Oregon or anywhere else in the. In the world that gets snow, now's a good time to get that snow blower absolutely operating well.
[00:41:11] Speaker B: Have you seen those. Have you seen that makita? That makita. It's like a snow removal machine. You kind of. Kind of stand behind it. It's long. You know, it's got handles on it. Anyways, it's basically.
[00:41:24] Speaker A: Snow blowers work.
[00:41:25] Speaker B: It's got a wheel with flaps on it and it just spins.
[00:41:29] Speaker A: Oh, and it just throws like a power broom.
[00:41:32] Speaker B: Yeah, it's like a power broom.
[00:41:33] Speaker A: I've seen the. You can use those for anything.
[00:41:35] Speaker B: It's very. Yeah, you can sweep asphalt with it.
[00:41:38] Speaker A: Yeah. Or if you even have gravel in a. In grass, you can sweep gravel right out of.
[00:41:43] Speaker B: Yeah. That's a very cool tool. I wish I lived in a place where I had more snow so I could use that.
[00:41:49] Speaker A: No, you don't.
[00:41:49] Speaker B: It's fun. Fun little tool.
[00:41:51] Speaker A: I grew up where I went to college. I went to college in the upper peninsula of Michigan, in Marquette, Michigan, and we would. We averaged like 25ft of snow per year or something.
[00:42:02] Speaker B: Wow, that's a lot.
[00:42:04] Speaker A: I used to have to get up in the morning and shovel my driveway just so I could go to class. That was.
[00:42:09] Speaker B: That's terrible.
[00:42:10] Speaker A: That's terrible.
[00:42:10] Speaker B: That's terrible. You should have just invested in some snowshoes.
[00:42:13] Speaker A: I know I had snowshoes, but one of the things I was going to say, too, since we're talking about snow removal equipment, you know, if you have a lawnmower that uses gas or a weed whacker that uses gas or anything that uses any sort of gas, you want to drain that out of there. You don't want to leave fuel in your lawnmower all winter long, especially if you use fuel that has corn in it. I mean, ethanol corn. That's what. That's where the, uh. That's where they get the. Ethanol. Is corn.
[00:42:46] Speaker B: Corn fuel?
[00:42:47] Speaker A: Yeah. Most fuel that you buy normally has ethanol in it. There's a percentage of ethanol in it. The problem with ethanol is it absorbs water, and it also eats the plastics and rubbers inside of your engine. So in your carburetor, if there's any sort of gaskets or anything, that stuff will gel, and then that will completely destroy your carburetor over time.
[00:43:15] Speaker B: So you wanting to buy ethanol free fuel?
[00:43:17] Speaker A: I always go and buy, yeah, that's what I use in all my lawn equipment, is ethanol free gas. And it's actually not easy to find.
[00:43:26] Speaker B: Well, I've got a gas station near my house that sells it, but it's expensive. It's like. It's a dollar a gallon more than all the other fuels.
[00:43:33] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, I usually it's like more than premium. It'll be like ethanol free premium. But people that run large, like lawn equipment operators, they'll use it. Or boats. You want to use ethanol free gas and boats. A lot of times there's. The engines just aren't designed for it. Actually, my lawnmower says no, ethanol gas only.
[00:43:59] Speaker B: Oh, really?
[00:43:59] Speaker A: Yeah. And my last lawnmower that I had, man, that thing, I didn't even know that at that time. And I just had such a hard time. I was always rebuilding that carburetor every spring, and then I realized I found out that it was coming from the ethanol.
[00:44:18] Speaker B: Oh, man.
[00:44:18] Speaker A: Destroying the engine slowly.
[00:44:20] Speaker B: My lawnmower does not say ethanol free fuel. Only my lawnmower says no gas because it's Makita.
[00:44:30] Speaker A: Oh.
[00:44:31] Speaker B: And it operates on 36 volts of battery life.
[00:44:33] Speaker A: Nice job.
[00:44:34] Speaker B: It's a good. I like it.
[00:44:36] Speaker A: That is the next thing on my list to replace.
[00:44:39] Speaker B: You need a battery operated lawnmower.
[00:44:41] Speaker A: I do. I want a battery mower. I hate the gas.
[00:44:44] Speaker B: The Makita ones are nice. I like it.
[00:44:47] Speaker A: All right, Tony, last couple things on the list here let's make sure all of your outdoor lighting works. It's getting darker sooner and sooner and sooner. Next thing you know it's going to be dark before you even get home from work. And you want to make sure that your path lights and your, you know, any of your automatic sensored lights that come on when you walk in front of your motion sensor lights. Just make sure that all those work and that the bulbs are replaced as necessary.
[00:45:15] Speaker B: I just replaced bulbs in my yard lamp at the corner of my property. I have a lamp that's on a photocell and it only comes on at night and goes off, of course, when the sun comes out.
But I went out there to replace the light bulbs. Guess what was in there? Cfls.
[00:45:32] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:45:33] Speaker B: From probably like five years ago.
[00:45:35] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:45:35] Speaker B: I feel like they've been in there for a long time.
But anyway, I replaced the cfls that were in there with some led lights and. Oh, that baby's bright now, I tell you.
[00:45:45] Speaker A: Nice.
[00:45:45] Speaker B: Yeah, it's good.
[00:45:47] Speaker A: What color bulbs did you put in? Like what, Kelvin?
[00:45:51] Speaker B: Yeah, I put in a, I put in a warm bulb.
[00:45:56] Speaker A: Twenty six hundred k. I can't remember.
[00:45:58] Speaker B: What the number was.
[00:45:59] Speaker A: 3000K.
[00:46:00] Speaker B: But I tested them. I tested them at the store and bought the ones that had this really warm sort of feel. You know, I didn't want any stark blue light out in my front lawn.
[00:46:12] Speaker A: Yeah. My neighbor across the street has stark whitish blue lights.
[00:46:19] Speaker B: Oh, it's.
[00:46:20] Speaker A: And I hate it.
[00:46:21] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:46:21] Speaker A: Kind of wants to sneak over there in the middle of the night, change him out.
[00:46:24] Speaker B: Yeah, he might never. He probably doesn't even know. I bet you he doesn't even know.
[00:46:29] Speaker A: I don't think so.
[00:46:30] Speaker B: He would be like, yeah, I don't even know.
[00:46:31] Speaker A: He's older so I don't think he would mind.
[00:46:34] Speaker B: Okay, this is a big one. This is. We saved the biggest one for the last one. This is the biggest one. Clean and inspect your garage. You know what, we could have an entire show just talking about cleaning and organizing your garage. Oh my goodness, that is such an enormous undertaking. And you know what? It doesn't happen in one day. It does. It doesn't happen in one weekend. I mean, it might not happen in two weekends.
[00:46:59] Speaker A: Did you say it doth happen?
[00:47:00] Speaker B: It doesn't. It does not.
[00:47:02] Speaker A: It doth happen.
[00:47:03] Speaker B: It does not.
[00:47:06] Speaker A: It's, it. I mean, I think project my garage pretty organized, but yours is a whole nother level.
[00:47:13] Speaker B: Yeah, mine's level. All right. Mine's a big job. Mine needs two people, maybe four for sure.
[00:47:19] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:47:20] Speaker B: That's going to be our next project, you and me cleaning my garage.
[00:47:23] Speaker A: Let's do it.
[00:47:24] Speaker B: Corey's going to be like, I'll order the dumpster. Yeah, that'll be great.
[00:47:29] Speaker A: I'll take two weeks off of work.
[00:47:31] Speaker B: Well, this list will keep your home in top shape as you transition from fall to winter. So we hope you found something in here that is helpful. We hope that you identified some of the things that we were talking about as things that you need to do. And we hope you have a really good time getting it done.
[00:47:48] Speaker A: Yeah. And if you came up with anything or you didn't hear anything that you think we should be doing around our house in the fall, shoot us a message. Let us know. We're at weekendwarriors.com. that's parr.com. thanks so much for listening. We'll see you next time.
