Speaker 1 00:00:04 Welcome to the weekend. Warriors home improvement show built by bar lumber. When it comes to biggest small projects around the home, Tony Corrie, you've got the know how and the answers to make your life just a bit easier. Here they are. Your weekend warriors, Tony and Corey.
Speaker 2 00:00:23 Hey, welcome to the weekend. Warriors home improvement show built by par lumber. I'm Corey Valdez and I'm Tony Cookson. Thanks for tuning into this today. We've got another great episode lined up for you. It's uh, spring spring is around the corner. Yeah, it's almost spring. It definitely is starting to feel more like spring, but, uh, it's not quite here yet. We're very close. Very close. I mean it's next week. Yeah, it's next week. It's one week away. I'll take it. Uh, so anyway, so there's some things around your house. Well, there's a lot of things that, that we are it's time to start thinking about. I know that, uh, I walk outside in the morning and the sun is shining and it's still brisk and, and cool outside, but the sun reminds me that I want to be outside. And the, the, the home is emerging from its winter.
Speaker 2 00:01:12 <laugh> slumber. Yeah. From its winter, uh, nap. And there's a lot of things at the, at and around inside and outside of the home that need to be addressed. You need to change your home over from its winter mode to its spring mode. And that all starts taking place right about now. Yeah. A hundred percent. So we thought we would take some time today and talk about a list of the things that, uh, you might be looking out for that are coming around the bin. Yeah. So, uh, we kind of broke it up into inside and then outside. And there's lots of things inside. Uh, like for instance, you might as well, it's a good time of year to, uh, check your H V a C system vacuum. All the dust out. The house has been closed up all winter long. You've been running that furnace like crazy.
Speaker 2 00:02:03 And whenever you're running a furnace nonstop through the whole winter, it's sucking in dust particles from all over your house and the cold air returns that sit around your home either they're on the wall or on the ceiling, uh, they're usually sucking in and you'll see it. And if you grab a vacuum with a, a stick on it, say mine's on my ceiling. Right. So I put a stick on the end of it. And I, you know, like the vacuum stick with a blue brush and man, you clean that thing up and you can 100% tell cuz of the amount of dust and you're and get sucked in you're you're just talking about the louvers on the outside of the cold air return. Yes, exactly. Vent. Right. I mean, just think about what's inside there. You were, you gave a very grated sort of description by saying dust particles.
Speaker 2 00:02:54 I would say that dust particles maybe only make up one third of what it collects from inside your house during your winter. Well, they say like most dust is skin particles, right? I mean like almost like a large percentage of dust, that's just a skin. Yeah. I mean, on a it's terrible, it's a terrible, terrible thing. So is there, this is a question for you. Is there a step beyond, you know, wiping off the louvers on the exterior of your cold air return vent, uh, and doing more of a in depth or job cleaning job? I look, I have not, I don't have a central, um, furnace system or, or a central heating system like you do. So I, it's not something that I have to worry about. I do have to go in and clean the, the lint and the stuff that's gathered inside of my space heaters.
Speaker 2 00:03:45 Right. Or it could catch on fire, but in your situation you have ducting that, uh, the air goes through and the air handler. Yeah. All that stuff collects in, of course you have a filter in there which is supposed to catch the largest portion of all of that stuff. But certainly some of that stuff gathers in the dunk, in the ducks and, uh, and it's, there's no place for it to go. Right? Oh yeah. Yeah. I, I mean, I don't personally know. I don't know. Honestly, there are companies out there that specialize in cleaning ducks and ducks crack, uh, ducted, ducted, ducting. Yeah. Ducting. Well, let me just really quickly before you, before we finish with that thought, I don't have personal experience other than that bit of time that I spent in your crawlspace. Oh yeah. And we were removing the old galvanized ducting.
Speaker 2 00:04:39 I can tell you from personal experience, the insides of those sections of ducting were, had never been clean. They were not sterile or clean and there was things inside there, man. Oh man. So I'm just saying if, if everyone's ducting, uh, I is the potential to look like the inside of that ducting looked. I would want that to be properly cleaned at least once every, I don't know, five years. Yeah. I know what you mean. And I don't know the, uh, I don't know the answer to that because there's a way to have your ducts, your ducting sucked out. Yeah. They go in with these machines and that, that blow air and scrubbers and things, and they put it in like a chimney sweep, you know, they roll it through there and like a whole big, like a whole big thing. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I I've seen advertisements for it and I'm sure it's a good thing to do.
Speaker 2 00:05:32 Uh, probably not yearly. I think if you talk to those people, they would say that you should probably do it yearly, but sure. I mean, I, in my opinion, it's probably less than yearly. How old is your furnace? How old is it? Yeah. Um, I mean, your ducting is not as old as your furnace, but your ducting alone is five. Yes. I think seven years, seven, if I had to put a number on it, it, I think it would be about seven years old. And at that same time I had all new duct work put in too. So I mean, that seems relatively new to me. Yeah. Uh, compared to what a lot of people might be facing with their furnace and their ducting. So anyways, it's something to, it's something to look at at least something to consider. Well, also if you've run yourself through any sorts of remodels lately, you know, um, I know for a fact that when we remodeled our kitchen several years ago, the amount of dust oh, yeah.
Speaker 2 00:06:28 Shipped up that went down into the duct work alone. And we tried to do our best, you know, we, I ran my shop back down there and tried to clean out all that, that dust that, you know, inexplicably gets in there, you know, you try your best, you cover it up and you try not to let that stuff in there, but you know, it just does. Yeah. Sheet rock dust gets everywhere. Oh, you're introducing a whole plethora of new debris that, uh, has no place else to go. So anyway, that's something to think about at the very least clean the events on the registers and the cold air return definitely take the opportunity to replace your furnace filter, which of course you should be doing on a regular basis. But as long as you're planning a, you know, a, a spring home maintenance, uh, event, right.
Speaker 2 00:07:12 That's one of the things you'll spring cleaning. Yeah. You know, the spring cleaning is a big part of spring, home maintenance, but you know, there's so much to do. Yeah. We've got a really extensive checklist. We're gonna do that on a different show. Uh, talk about spring cleaning, but there's a little bit of crossover and you can't help that. Yeah. No, absolutely. Uh, for instance, vacuuming your exhaust vents in your bathrooms. Oh yeah. It's a good time to do it because again, your house has been sealed up. It's closed. You haven't had the windows open, no fresh air, a lot of dust particles collecting. And if you walk in and you haven't done it in a long time and you look up at your bath fan, it's gray, <laugh>, it's, it's covered and fuzz. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, if that has turned color and it's no longer white, that's probably because it's got so much stuff on it.
Speaker 2 00:07:57 Yep. Throw them vacuum attachment on there. And yeah. That stuff collects there and it reduces the flow of air, which, uh, causes the fan to have to work harder. And the moisture that's supposed to be coming out of the bathroom when you use that fan is not, is not getting out properly. So yeah, that's, uh, very important, very important. Absolutely. Uh, you know, Tony, this is also a very good time to paint last weekend. We just painted my daughter's bedroom and it made it such a huge difference that we wanna do more. We wanna paint our bedroom, we wanna paint the hallway in the ceilings. I actually just recently replaced some lighting in my hallway. It was, I kind of had one of those old, you know, lights with the globe. Oh sure. Like one or two bulbs in it, you know? Yep. Lit up the entire hallway and entryway.
Speaker 2 00:08:48 And I took that out and I replaced it with these really high powered LEDs. Really, really nice. But the amount of light it puts out, man, it really showed me. Oh yeah. The, the filth and the ceilings that probably haven't been painted since the seventies. Oh yeah. Textured walls. Oh yeah. Gather dust. Like you wouldn't believe so it's uh, that was a good time, you know, painting inside, maybe fixing up the walls, you know, when you're, here's a tall winter, long coming in with your rain boots and your big clunky coats and, and putting holes everywhere. Get, go ahead, get a little roll blue tape and walk the entire house and use these little pieces of tape to mark areas that you see. Now, if you're walking in looking and you're finding these things that will help you get them all, if you're gonna get out the speckle and you're gonna get out the paintbrush, you're gonna get out the paint.
Speaker 2 00:09:39 You might as well make your way through the whole house and fix as many little dents and holes and, um, things in the Sheetrock as you can. Yeah. That's not a bad idea. Uh, and so, you know, you find those little cracks and the Sheetrock where you feel like the house is coming apart, but it's really just, uh, just, you know, crack sheet, rock mud, just go in there, fill it up a little bit, paint it over. Have you ever used spray texture? Absolutely. Where you get the little can and you like patch. Yep. So there are several spots in my daughter's bedroom that somebody had clearly done some huge damage, or I don't know, you know, through the years, the houses 50 years old. Sure. At some point somebody did something and there's a few spots man, where the speckle person that, you know, that came in and put the speckling really laid it in thick and basically deleted all of that in texture.
Speaker 2 00:10:32 Texture. Yeah. Uh, I think I might grab a can of that spray texture. Well, here's a little tip for you and try and hide some of that. You get a, a can of orange peel texture and set. It's got three settings, usually like, um, light, medium and heavy. So set that thing to light first, grab a piece of cardboard, hold it 12 to 16 inches away and spray a little bit on the cardboard. Ooh. Do some testing on a cardboard, get a feel for how glove it's coming out, then set it to heavy and do the same thing that will tell your mind what this is gonna look like when it comes off onto your wall. That's a good tip. You won't end up because if you do it on the wall and it's too heavy, then you're gonna have to wipe it off of the wall, right?
Speaker 2 00:11:12 You're like, oh crap. If you let it dry, then you're gonna have this big lobby thing. So it's better to put it on the lightest setting and then make a couple of passes. Um, ultimately you'll have less, um, product that comes out and the speckles will be smaller. And so hold it far enough away. Put it on light, make a pass. If you need some more speckles, make another pass. You might put it on medium to get some little larger, uh, globs or speckles, but, um, tested on cardboard first to give you your best result. I guarantee it speckly very, specy very nice. Uh, Tony, what are some other things inside the house somebody should be thinking about doing this time of year? Well, this is something we always say this maybe not necessarily this time of year, but this is a great time. Add this to your list.
Speaker 2 00:11:57 Check the batteries in your smoke detectors in your carbon monoxide detectors, because it's something that we always forget and we don't, we, we want them to be working when we need them. That's the most important thing and changing them one at a time as they fail is, uh, never any fun, right. That that can drive a person. Um, you know, mad. Yeah. Hearing those constant beeps. Yes. Go out and buy a 20 pack or a 40 pack of double a or triple a batteries and replace the batteries in all. Or maybe they're nine volt. Um, and I think minor nine volt replace the batteries in your smoke detectors and your, uh, carbon monoxide detector. That's a great idea. What about G FCIs? Is it, is it ideal? Should you test those often? When is the last time you tripped a GFC? I plug in your house.
Speaker 2 00:12:46 Well, I'm gonna be honest with you. It hasn't been that long ago. The fact is I've added so many things here and there and gadgets and stuff inside my house. That I'm pretty regularly always pushing my, my panel, my electrical panel to its limit. I, um, I trip breakers and GFCs all the time. So, but I've never had, in my experience, I haven't had a G FCI fail, a ground fault interrupter. Um, I haven't had one fail, but testing, it sounds like a really good plan. I haven't spent a lot of time testing them, but, um, it's I have had a GFC it's difficult to do fail. Yeah. A hundred percent. It, uh, they just go bad. You know, sometimes they won't trip. Sometimes they won't come back on or after they do trip. So you wanna make sure they're working properly that's for sure.
Speaker 2 00:13:34 Well, it seems like it could happen pretty easily in a house that's 40 or 50 or 60 years old. And if you're thinking about electricity, it's probably a good time to check any extension cords that you regularly use for wear and tear. Yeah. I've told the story on the show before I had my, um, I had my electric fireplace that's in my family room, plugged into a power strip, should not have had that, but I did. And, uh, at some point it failed and there was a little bit of a melting scenario there, a little bit of blackness around there. And um, I learned very quickly that something that draws that kind of amperage should be plugged directly into an outlet. No kidding. Um, but you know what? I hadn't been call you Clark Griswold. Hadn't have known about it. If I hadn't been walking around inspecting all of my plugs.
Speaker 2 00:14:26 So it's definitely a good tip. You could save yourself something. Yeah. Yeah. Very expensive. Um, here's a good one. If you have vinyl windows, you can use silicone spray in the bottom of the window, in the track to help it glide back and forth easily. Yeah. The window rides on little, um, like little tiny wheels, sort of like a ball bearing, but it's a, it's a little wheel and they made a Delrin. Yeah. Sometimes they're brass. It depends on the manufacturer of the window. Um, but it rolls back and forth on those and those can get grimy and gummed up and then not once to slide very good, which causes your window sometimes to, um, you know, to drag and, and, uh, it could be difficult to get it to slide. So a little bit of silicone spray can make a big difference. Yeah. And if you're living in an older house with older wooden windows, uh, you're probably, maybe think about getting those moving too.
Speaker 2 00:15:21 You know, you don't wanna wait till that super hot day and realize that all your windows are paint is shut. Yeah, absolutely. As long as you're messing around with the windows, this is a good time to check your screens and for damage or just dirty. A lot of screens get dirty, man. They get dirty, especially during the wintertime. And, uh, it makes a big difference. Take the screens all off, take them outta the backyard, inspect them, make sure the frames aren't damaged or the screen isn't how many holes in it, spray them all off and put them back on. You'll be so happy, but keep track of where they go. It can be difficult sometimes. Yeah. Even two windows that are the same size or you think are the same size. Yeah. The screens might be slightly different. So yeah. That's a good tip. Yeah, generally.
Speaker 2 00:16:02 Yeah. Generally a screen will have a couple of Springs on one side, uh, pay attention to which side the screen. What about are on when it's in the, what about the frame? If the frame is damaged you, is it easy? Can you just make one build your own? Do you buy that stuff and or do you get one made? How does that work? Yeah, I would go and have a, a frame made. I think it's maybe let's think maybe $20 for a standard size frame. Don't quote me on that. I'm saying it's inexpensive like that you won't pay, um, an arm and a leg. You won't pay 40 or 50 or $60 for, to, for a new screen. So it's inexpensive enough to have a screen replaced. You can go to par lumber company and get, take them the, the net opening of your screen, what side the Springs are on what color or what style your mesh in your screen is.
Speaker 2 00:16:55 And they can reorder you a new screen that matches that screen. But if you have torn screens and you want to do it yourself, you can buy rolled screen from many different places. Yep. Mesh screen mesh mesh, and there are lots and lots of different options there. Uh, we recently redid our patio, backdoor patio in pet friendly window screen. It's an extra thick. Oh yeah. And it's like you, like, if a cat got on it, it wouldn't tear and rip, is it fiberglass or aluminum or it is fiberglass. Okay. Um, yeah, but you're right. You can get aluminum screens. You can even get copper screens. I've seen, uh, aluminum screen has a tendency to dent and then that doesn't want to come out because it holds its shape once it's been, you know, poked with something. Yeah. Um, so it, you know, if, if your screens get a lot of use, um, in that way, if children and pets and those things, aluminum might not, not be the way to go.
Speaker 2 00:17:49 Yeah. But it is easy. As a matter of fact, you replace the screen. You can actually check out a video that Corey and I made about rescreening a, a screen frame. You can see that on our
[email protected], right. Or YouTube channel. Yeah. You search par lumber on YouTube. Uh, you can subscribe to our channel there. Yeah. It's pretty cool. Um, speaking of, um, furnishing. Oh yeah, yeah. The furnace, uh, going back to that. Yeah. Now's a good time to reprogram your thermostat. Do you have a, do you have a smart thermostat or do you have a programmable now? As you know, I have space seating in my house, so I don't have a furnace, so I don't, you don't even have basic thermostats. I do have basic ther every wall heater that I have in my house has its own thermostat. So I have a thermostat, but it's not digital.
Speaker 2 00:18:39 So there's no smart. You can't set it to turn on or turn off. Nope. I just turn the dial from off to on <laugh> and the farther I turn at the warmer it gets. Wow. Um, but, uh, yeah, that's basic, but I we're heading into a time when I'm not gonna need those at all for months and months. Right, right, right. And, um, well, so my house, I have a thermostat and I actually have a smart thermostat, but it's not as smart as you would think. I still have to program it to say, okay, it's summer now, uh, stop heating. And when you get to this certain temperature start cooling and these sorts of things, uh, but you, you need to do it as long as you're talking about cooling. Uh, you know, this is an opportunity for you to take a, a really hard look at your condenser if you, oh yeah.
Speaker 2 00:19:27 Your AC condenser. If you have air conditioning, take a look at your AC condenser. It of course is outside. And, uh, it's got a SCR. It's got a great up on top, but it allows things to get down in there and, uh, it can get pretty yucky. You wanna make sure that it's not obstructed in inside there. Yeah. Some people even cover them. They make AC condenser covers that you put over the thing during the wintertime, that'd be a good thing to have. Do you have a condenser cover for that? I don't, because mine, there's nothing really above mine that can fall. It's like, it's not under trees or anything like that. It's pretty open. Um, but if I did, if it was under a tree or something, I would definitely consider that. Yeah. Speaking of covers, this is another thing, uh, we haven't really talked much about anything up on top of the roof, but, but we do have some projects for you that are up on the roof.
Speaker 2 00:20:15 And the first one that I would say is, uh, the chimney, we need to give the chimney a little bit of attention. If you have a fireplace that you use and you're not going to be using it as often going forward, uh, it's a good time to inspect the exterior of your chimney, make sure that you don't, that you're not missing any, uh, of the mortar or, you know, anything that needs to be repaired there. Of course, if you have chunks of mortar missing, you want to replace that. Or maybe you want to do a little bit of tuck pointing, little tuck pointing <laugh>. Yeah. Um, or, or if it's just a crack, maybe you can fill that with some, uh, some CA or something that would keep water from getting inside there. Of course water gets inside there and then it freezes and it expands and it makes it bigger in that whole thing.
Speaker 2 00:20:58 Yeah. Um, but here's another thing I oftentimes see chimneys when I was a kid, the, the brick chimney that we had on top of our house, it didn't have anything covering the top of it. It was open up a top, a chimney cap. Yeah. Didn't have a chimney cap. And I see it was funny. We started this conversation here off air and we looked outside and sure enough, here are all these chimneys with chimney caps on them. My chimney didn't have a cap. That would be a really nice addition. If you have a chimney and you use your fireplace and you don't have a cap on there, maybe think of, well, a cap you think about critters. You know, if, if you're not using your chimney through the summer critters fireplace, like Santa Claus or no, like, uh, squirrels, smaller critters and birds, you know, you've heard of birds nesting inside chimneys.
Speaker 2 00:21:44 Sure. Putting a chimney cap on that would probably negate that. Uh, and maybe even closing the flu for the winter or for the summer. If you do have a chimney cap, check your chimney cap, make sure it's not missing any, uh, parts or pieces. And there's no opportunity for rodents to get inside there. Rodents, speaking of rodents, Ugh. Now is the time man. Rodents are going crazy this time of year. Oh yeah. Time to call the, the killers pest control. Yeah. Or is it exterminator? <laugh> pest control. I call the killers. Yeah. And they come, uh, twice a year and they set traps and they do bait boxes and spray and they take care of my house for me. We need to get Matt white with the killers. That's a good idea. Back on the radio that's to give him a call. That's a good idea. That's a great show. He's got lots of great, uh, tips and information about, uh, exterminating and that sort of stuff. And I, I always a good show. I always learned something that doesn't matter how much we talk to him. Um, so I'm looking forward to that. We gotta take a quick break. When we come back more tips on things to do around the home to prepare for spring, don't go away. We'll be right back.
Speaker 1 00:23:06 You're listening to the weekend warriors home and Prova Joe built by par lumber. Now here's Tony and Cory.
Speaker 2 00:23:18 Hey, welcome back to the weekend. Warriors home improvement show. Thanks for staying with us. Hey, if you haven't already go check out our Facebook and Instagram page and our YouTube channel, we are at WW home show. Uh, you can always go to our
[email protected] and, uh, click on all those links. Or you can go to par.com and click on our link there. Uh, if you ever wanna send us an email and you got a question or a comment or anything, you can email us at weekend
[email protected], uh, makes it super easy for you. We answer everything absolutely to our best of our ability. Uh, but anyway, today we're talking about spring home maintenance. I have to apologize. Spring is next weekend. Our list had us inside the house and I jumped outside. I don't know. I was like, I went to the window. I started talking about screens and the next climbed through the window was outside the house.
Speaker 2 00:24:08 We need to get back in the house, finish our list inside. Yeah. I mean, there's not, there's not very many things left inside the house that you shouldn't be already doing, but there's a few things that maybe some good reminders. Yeah. Well, we're gonna be talking when we get back outside, we're gonna talk about CA and, and trim and things around the outside of the home. But there's CA inside the home that needs to be addressed. You need to take a look at, in the shower, any caulking or grout that you have inside the shower that is starting to look dark or crumbling away, cracking or peeling. And, uh, and you need to look at replacing that. It's important to note that if you are replacing, caulking that split or cracked, that's allowing water to get in behind the CA bead that you have to remove all of that before you can put new on you.
Speaker 2 00:24:57 Can't put new on right on top of the old stuff, it will not work properly. Well, one thing to think about, uh, two is like with everything, painting, caulking, anything, if you're putting new paint on something, it's only your new paint is only as good as what you're painting it onto. So if you're painting it onto crumbly, surface, flaky, paint, a flaky paint, the paint that's under the you're sticking to, if that's flaking off, it's just gonna come off, even with your new paint on it. Right. You have to get that bond. Yeah. You have to the, to the, the original, the best of your ability to the original surface, and then with caulking, if you're using the correct cuing, like a, you want a silicone based, usually inside the, the bathrooms in kitchens, um, new silicone won't stick to old silicone. So you, you really gotta get it out of there.
Speaker 2 00:25:50 You gotta scrape it out as best as you possibly can. Before you lay that new bead in and look for something that has a mold and mildew inhibitor, uh, that's always works best in the bathroom with all the moisture that's around. Yeah. It's usually called kitchen and bath. Yep. Kitchen and bath. Absolutely. So, um, so here's another one. Uh, we were inside again, we're not trying to have a spring cleaning show, but this is an opportunity to, to address your window curtains, drapes, blinds around the windows. Those things get filthy. I mean, absolutely filthy, take them down, wash them, whether you're just beating 'em with a tennis racket or, or running 'em through the laundry. However it is you do that. They need, uh, they need an opportunity there to be. Yeah. More sometimes blinds. Like we have not many blinds, uh, but we have those wood SL not wood, but they're composite slot lines.
Speaker 2 00:26:43 Mm-hmm, <affirmative>, mm-hmm, <affirmative>, uh, those are really hard to clean. I don't know if you know this, you just like a little, you just see like a little duster or something like a, yeah. I mean, we do that, but if you really wanna deep clean 'em, um, I actually saw a video online where you fill up the tub with cleaner in water and you don't your blinds in there and let 'em soak for a bit, pull 'em out hose 'em down and then let 'em dry. Really? Like the water turned black, just gross. Super gross. Yeah. Well that does seem like that would be effective. Uh, takes a little bit of time, I guess, if you were doing all the windows in the house. Yeah. You could probably do. I mean, two or three at a time. I would imagine so. Yeah. All right. Anyway, let's jump outside of the house.
Speaker 2 00:27:26 There's a lot of things on the exterior of your house, uh, that need, you really need to do let's start at the top. Cuz we were already up on the roof. We were talking about the chimney and some things there. Uh, we didn't really suggest it, but it's a good time to get your chimney swept. Uh, if you have a chimney and you use your fireplace as a good time to get the chimney swept, you could wait to until fall right before you start using your chimney. But I feel like that's when everybody is wanting to get their chimney swept yeah. To avoid a chimney fire, which I have seen by the way, not a good situation, uh, that, so that's inside there. Doesn't all get out and it creels up. It builds up inside the flu or in the, in the chimney and then that can catch fire.
Speaker 2 00:28:10 And then you end up with a fire in the chimney of your fireplace and that's not good. It's bad. Um, so, so you get you in order to avoid that, you get it swept, you call Mary Poppins, she calls Dick van Dyke. He comes out sweeps the chimmney and uh, it's a whole song and dance. So don't miss that opportunity. Yeah. Right. Well, you know, people would say, well, I'll do it in the fall. Well, everybody in their mother's doing it in the fall. Right. Then, you know, you can wait and pay higher prices. Probably. It's just like when we say to get your AC unit maintained, do you wanna wait till that first 80 or 90 degree day to realize that your AC is broke right or not working. Right? <laugh> no, no. You wanna do it now. Right? Have them come out and, and maintain it or repair it or whatever needs to be done this time of year.
Speaker 2 00:28:57 You're gonna pay much lower premium than calling 'em on that hot day. Cuz they're not gonna be available. Yes, that's absolutely true. While you're on the roof, take a moment to inspect your roofing, whether it's wood, shingles or composition, composition, shingles, or tile, whatever your roof is, inspect the roof, look for missing portions. Or if you have composition roof, look for lifted shingles, um, Moss will grow on the roof and Moss, if not treated right away, it gets bigger and bigger and it grows underneath your shingles and causes your shingles to lift up. And it invites moisture up inside there. And the next thing you know, you got moisture that's in the framing and, and can be inside the house. Yeah. And so you want to be vigilant with your roof shingles and make sure that you're getting all that organic material outta there. Moss is the worst.
Speaker 2 00:29:54 I mean I've driven by houses in my neighborhood that literally the entire roof is green with Moss. Yeah. And I'm just thinking to myself, how is that? Not leaking. Yeah. I mean, maybe it is, maybe it is. And they just don't know it. Yeah. Uh, I mean, I've, I've treated my roof for Moss in a year where I waited too long and it was really bad and uh, clogged up my downspout, my downspout clogged up my rain drain and I had to have somebody come out and jet my rain drain. Yeah. It's it's, it's a whole thing you don't want to have to do any of it. Yep. Keep the Moss off while it's still just enough. And um, before you, before you treat the Moss and sweep it all off your roof, make sure that you plug your downspouts because that Moss is gonna end up in your gutter.
Speaker 2 00:30:39 There's nothing you can do about that. And then you wanna scoop that out of your gutter before it goes into your downspouts, you should have a bulb or a screen or something in your downspout or a leaf guard or gutter guard that blocks solids from getting into your gutter. Yeah. Uh, if you don't have that at the very least get a downspout screen bulb to protect the organics from getting down into your downspout, cuz it will clog your rain drain. Yeah. Clogging your, if your rain drains, like we talk about cleaning your gutters all the time, but not necessarily your rain drains and the rain drains is what take the water away from your gutters out, usually to the street. Right. Right. And if now's a good time to make sure everything's working properly and one of the things like Tony, you helped me with.
Speaker 2 00:31:25 When I moved into my house, I wanted to double check that they worked. So I put a hose in the top, in the gutter, in the downspout and waited for it to hit the street. And you were able to say, yes, absolutely water is coming out here or no, there's nothing coming out. So where's that water going? It's going somewhere. If you have, if you have been in this house and you've just come through winter here in the Pacific Northwest, then you know whether or not your rain drains are working because they would sometimes because they would've been backed up when we were, you know, dealing with inches and inches and inches of rain. Uh, and so, but you might be moving into a new place and before it starts raining, you'll want to know whether it's working or not. So it's definitely something to consider and, and make sure that it's functioning properly.
Speaker 2 00:32:10 I just had this talk with my neighbor across the street who had this exact problem. They had brand new gutters put on, he had his roof cleaned, everything was just perfect, ready to go. They just bought the house a year ago. And this winter they were having this overflowing issues. So he thought the gutters had put, you know, or, or leaves had fallen it sure enough, no. Any, there was nothing in the brand new gutters. So he had to, to have someone come out and jet his rain drains because water was backing all the way up all the way up the gutter and then overflowing out the top. Yeah. So, well where my downspout drops into my rain drain, which is very near the foundation of my home, that water was bubbling out of the rain drain because it was coming down the downspout and then not draining.
Speaker 2 00:32:59 And so that all that excess of water that was coming out of the rain drain right near my foundation began to erode the ground on the outside of my foundation. Yeah. Well it did not get really, really bad, but over time, if it's not addressed that can undermine your foundation. Not a good situation at all. Yeah. That could cause a cracked foundation. And then, uh, you know, your home is you, the foundation of your home is compromised, which is not good. Um, concrete patios, walkways driveway, uh, they're probably gonna be covered in, you know, Moss, mildew and Moss slimy. You get that dark color. It's a good time to get out the pressure washer and start cleaning it up. I like to use, uh, 30 seconds outdoor cleaner. I also like to use there's another one I use that's a spray and forget wet and forget.
Speaker 2 00:33:49 I think that one works really, really well. I actually use it on my patio. I use it on my roof. You buy it by the gallon or? Yeah, they sell it at, uh, Costco actually. How much does one gallon cover? Ish. A lot. Really. Okay. Yeah. Like 10,000 square feet. Is it concentrated? And you it's a concentrate. You put it on your hose. Oh, okay. Okay. And you spray it, you know, and it kind of foams up. It works really, really well. Um, you let it sit for a while and then spray it off with your pressure washer. Yeah. On my patio, uh, I have a brick patio paver patio in between all of the, you know, the, the bricks, the pavers, the, when you start losing sand, you know, you use that, um, what's that sand called the locking sand paver lock paver lock.
Speaker 2 00:34:32 Sometimes that washes away and fills back in with dirt. Right. And then Moss grows immediately in that. Right. So I'll have like a network of Moss in my patio. So I spray that down with that Moss killer and then it makes it much easier to clean away. You really have to be careful when you're pressure washing a paver patio, cuz it'll kill all that paver locks and out there. Yeah. Well it actually a pressure washer not used the way you wanna use it can etch concrete. It can etch your driveway. Oh yeah. It can etch your walkways. Um, it can etch anything. I mean those pressure washers can really get it done. You want to use, uh, you want to use a tip that gives you a fan, a nice fan and you wanna make sure that you keep your distance back and that you're not, uh, because you know, the closer you get the cleaner it gets and then you wanna get closer and then closer and then closer until you're cleaning one square inch at a time <laugh> to get like this super white, you know, Dr.
Speaker 2 00:35:33 Sidewalk or driveway, well, you don't have to do that. And, and you, you will run the risk of etching your concrete. Here's the thing. After you finish with your concrete, you're gonna want to take that. <laugh> there's my, here's the thing you're gonna want to take that pressure washer onto the deck and you're gonna pressure wash the deck. You can't pressure wash the deck, like your pressure wash the concrete. If you've got a wood deck that pressure washer will feather that wood back and it will damage it for good mm-hmm <affirmative> it will never be the same mm-hmm <affirmative> and uh, and then you'll be, uh, compelled to replace deck boards and then you'll have a few that are different color. And then next thing you know, you're, you know, you're red decking, your entire deck. So just be really careful with your pressure washer.
Speaker 2 00:36:13 Um, just, I recommend putting it on a fan setting and holding it back and just making sure you don't get it too close, cuz it can damage. Uh, I recommend getting a spinning attachment that goes on the end of your pressure washer, uh, nozzle. And it plugs in and it's like a, it's like a round disc with spit rotating blade inside brushes, brushes that water. They're not brush brushes blade. Yeah. They're water, uh, in fan that spins really, really fast. And then around the perimeter of that is like a, a brush. Yeah, it does have a brush. And that thing, man, you wanna talk about ease, cleaning a patio or cleaning a driveway using that attachment goes so much faster, so much less dirty cuz as you're cleaning, you know, and it's spraying up, you know, usually you gotta wear like rain gear. Yeah. Right.
Speaker 2 00:37:06 Uh, and doing it that way keeps all the, the gust down, keeps everything down and it works super fast. So I highly recommend getting one of those. That's a very good tip. Uh, obviously we, we talked a little bit about the deck, cleaning it off, cleaning and restating your deck. This is the time to do that. Well, I wouldn't say restain, but cleaning it for sure. Restain, because it's not warm enough. Right. It's not warm enough because you need to have, uh, a couple of 70 degree days. Yes. You need, I think three or four in a row. If you're actually, if you've got, um, a Cedar deck or a hardwood deck that you're putting Penant on or something like that, a, a penetrating oil sealer. You don't wanna be doing that right now. It's I think we've got way too many rainy days in our near future.
Speaker 2 00:37:52 Okay. All right. It's too soon. It's not but cleaning. I mean you could clean it not too soon to clean it. No, but you can't stain in it. I wouldn't stain in it. Not yet. Okay. That's a good tip. That's a summer home maintenance. I've already started clean staining mine. So I should stop now. Well, it's a covered <laugh> yours is covered. Yeah. I'm just kidding. Uh, okay, good. This is big. This is a big one. Here we talk about the lawn and you have an affinity for the lawn. You, you really love my line. You are the guy that has that beautiful lush green lawn. I try to, and then a little patch of crab grass sprouts out and you take a week's vacation and you spend some time, you know, some, some real personal time with your lawn, communicate with it. You eradicate that crab grass.
Speaker 2 00:38:39 Yeah. I, I mean, in springtime, you want to use a, they make spring fertilizers, you know, just like they make a winterizer you, if you, if you put your lawn to sleep with a winterizer with a winterizer, uh that'll that will feed it through the winter, it'll allow those roots to grow much deeper. Um, you can do the same thing in the spring. You can wake it up. Um, Moss is a huge problem for a lot of us that live in the valley here in the Portland area. And what you can, what I would recommend is getting your soil tested so that you know what you need to add or not add to it. Um, but you can buy different supplements for your lawn, just like you would do for your own health. You can take a little scoop of it and you send it away for testing little vitamin a.
Speaker 2 00:39:26 Yeah. I would recommend that vitamin D uh, so like for instance, like if you have a lot of Moss, um, Moss growth in a lawn means that there that the, the acidity level in your lawn is off the pH level in your lawn is off. So you can correct that, but you could kill the Moss, but you need to correct the root of that problem, which is the acidity level in your lawn. Okay. And the only way to know is to get a tested. Interesting. And you can't test it yourself. You gotta have a scientist do it. Um, you know, they make kits. I don't know how good they are honestly, but, but you send it off. Have you, have you sent off soil from you lawn to have it tested? You have? I had, I had a Moss. My Moss problem is back. And several years ago I had the same Moss problem and I got rid of it for several years.
Speaker 2 00:40:16 Nice. So now it's time to do it again. Interesting. Very interesting. Yes. You, uh, you, the, your relationship with your lawn is, uh, is a priority. I, you know, I like my lawn. I like to, uh, I like to mow it. I like to look nice. Is it time? Is it time to mow? It was, uh, it was sunny. Today. Is today a mow day? What's your grass look like? Is it growing? It is growing like crazy. Uh, my backyard, I actually did have to mow it for the first time in the thing with, with the lawn is you don't wanna mow it too soon, you know, cuz as it's waking up and it's rooting and it's growing, if you go in it too soon, you could be causing harm. Um, so I would wait as long as physically possible. And my backyard, my grass was six, seven inches.
Speaker 2 00:41:02 Oh yeah. Way long. So I mean, I really had to go at it. We had a few warm days. I feel like I remember you telling me that the sweet spot is like three inches or so three, maybe four inches. I think four inches is more accurate. If you are cutting your lawn below that certain dimension three or four inches, whatever that is, then your lawn is gonna spend its time growing back that length above the surface instead of growing roots below the surface, which make it more healthy, healthy, and durable, uh, plus you're removing portion of the, the blade which holds nutrient water or whatever it eats or drinks. And so it has to grow that back in order to, so it requires more water. Uh, there was another tip you gave me, which I really liked a lot. You said if you are, if you are regularly mowing your lawn regular on, on a really regular basis and you're taking off, you know, a half an inch or an inch or whatever at a time, then there's no need to bag it.
Speaker 2 00:41:59 You can put on a side, uh, deal where the grass clippings come out to the side and those clippings will actually feed your lawn. Yeah. Returning the, the source to the lawn, which can feed it. Here's where that falls apart. That falls apart. If you wait three or four or five weeks to mow, and then you just end up dumping giant clumps of dead grass in your lawn. Right. Which just is gonna do more damage. Yeah. You can't do that. If you, like I said, if you're mowing it regularly, I use a side shoot and I just shoot it right back into my lawn. Let that go down, cuz it, I mean, every time you bag it and you take it away, you're just taking away nutrients and very important, very important to keep your lawnmower blade sharp. This is the time of year to take your lawnmower blade and, and either sharpen it yourself or take it off and have it sharpened.
Speaker 2 00:42:46 You could take a lawnmower blade to par lumber, drop it off. They'll send it out and have it sharpened to bring it back. Yeah. That's uh, not a super expensive thing to do. Yeah. It's uh, I, I like to just use my angle grinder makes it super easy. Clamp it into my clamp, run the angle grinder on it, make it super sharp. You've been, wanna do that regularly. You've been talking about replacing your gas, motor your gas lawnmower motor with a, with a cordless battery battery operated load I a Nikita. Have you, you haven't made the, the move. Not yet. I'm uh, I'm waiting for the right time waiting for the, for the sale. I heard recently that, um, California is moving towards, um, disallowing, the use of small engines. That is correct. You've heard this. Yeah. This is not news to you. And that small engines and that, that landscapers and, and, and contractors that are using small engines will have to move to cordless, uh, type products in order to do their job.
Speaker 2 00:43:43 That is correct. That's very, very interesting. They say that, uh, small motor actually puts off more emissions than, um, than a, an economy car after it's driven you. I don't know, a couple thousand miles or so. Yeah. A little two-stroke motor, uh, on a chainsaw yeah. Is really bad for the environment. Unbelievable. You know what the solution for that is battery Maita. Yes. Maita makes, I've told you, I want one makes almost all the power tools you want in cordless technology, which is, uh, equivalent or better than a lot of corded products out there. My lawn mower is a four stroke. So it doesn't put off the amount of emissions that a two-stroke does, but still dealing with the gas, you know, changing out to spark plug, getting that thing tuned up every spring. Yeah. Especially with the gas that we're using with the ethanol in it.
Speaker 2 00:44:33 If you forgot to pump the gas out of your lawnmower in the winter or in the fall, and you're just getting it open, I guarantee you that that fuel has gelled up inside of your carburetor and you will have a heck of a time starting it. I guarantee it. I feel like this is the time to be trimming back our trees, hedges and shrubs. Um, but only if you catch them before they go to bud, this is true. Yeah. You wanna do any sort of large scale trimming to any of your shrubbery or trees or anything while they're dormant, which is not now not, it's not now at least not at my house. Yeah, me too. I noticed that my trees have got little green buds all over them and now I've waited too long, uh, to do any of that shaping or trimming that I was gonna do.
Speaker 2 00:45:18 Now's a really good time to unpack the patio furniture. Oh yeah. You put it away in the winter time. You got everything packed away, get it all out, get it cleaned up, get it, uh, ready for use in the summer. If you've got solar panels, I would highly recommend getting those cleaned or cleaning them yourself. I have solar panels on my roof and after the long winter I look up there and there's a nice film of junk all over them. So I'm gonna climb up there and give 'em a clean cuz I want to get that energy that I wanna get as much, uh, solar energy as I can to reduce my electric bill. Yeah. That's a really good idea. And since you're up there might as well clean those skylights. If you got any, oh yeah. Or sun tunnels. Yep. Clean skylights, clean your windows.
Speaker 2 00:46:01 You know, I recently was cleaning the windows inside my home and I did all that work and got done and noticed that they were still dirty that's because it was on the outside that Fil, the filth is on the outside. Then I realized I was only halfway done and I had to start all over again. Right. Get outside and clean all those windows, man. Oh man, it's a job. You know, if you got, uh, 20 windows or something on your house and cleaning all those inside and out is a job, but you know what? You gotta do it. You have to do it. And I'll tell you one thing, since you're looking at your windows, pretty close, check the caulking on all your windows, make sure that it's not splitting away. And just like we said, with the interior, if it is, it's not a terribly difficult job, you just have to cut the old caulking out, peel it, put a nice high quality bead of say like quad max or uh, master seal.
Speaker 2 00:46:47 One 50 is a really, really high quality, uh, exterior caulking and fill those back up and you don't have to do it all at once. You can do one window at a time. If you notice you walk around your house, you see holes everywhere, do one at a time and check for paint. This is your time to touch up paint where you need it. If it's flaking scrape the old stuff off, if you have to hit it with some kind of a, um, sanding block or something to knock that old stuff off, get the paint back on there. Make sure it gets a good bond with the substrate. I got one last thing about the lawn that I forgot. Wake up your sprinklers. Oh yeah. You put into bed. Right. And you drained them and you got your water supply lines all opened up. Get those sealed up and ready before you have. We seen our last frost can, is that that something we can do right now? I think so. All right. Well that's all the time we got folks. Thank you so much for tuning in. This has been another episode of your weekend warriors right here on the weekend. Warriors radio have a great week.
Speaker 3 00:47:47 Um,
