Right now’s House owner Radio Podcast | September 3, 2022

(MaryTDebs, Getty Photos/pixelshot)


Hour 1

In Hour 1, learn to lengthen your washer’s lifespan, take away white stains from brick, drain standing water out of your yard and extra.


Find out how to Make Your Washer Final Longer

Washing Machine
Common upkeep can preserve your washer operating longer.(stevepb/pixabay)

The typical lifespan of a washer is just 10-15 years — about the identical as a goldfish!

Listed here are some ideas from Client Experiences to make your washer final so long as potential:

  • Make certain it’s degree and it stays degree. Your washer’s drum can spin very quick, and all that vibration can put on out elements and loosen fasteners. Use a degree and alter the ft. Examine it every year to verify it’s degree. Vibration can knock it off degree.
  • Don’t overdo the detergent. An excessive amount of detergent could make the washer work tougher and typically set off an additional rinse cycle, which extends the wash time, wastes vitality, and finally reduces the washer’s lifespan.
  • Clear the dispenser drawer. Clear it frequently. Detergent can construct up in there and create additional suds, once more making the washer work tougher. 
  • Examine the water hoses. When you have rubber traces, change them with braided stainless-steel. 

Eradicating White Stains From Brick

White stains around a stucco window on a brick home
There are a number of methods to take away these stucco stains from this brick residence. (Tim Patton)

Tim Patton’s 25-year-old residence in Alabama has a brick facade with white stucco wraps across the entrance home windows. Over time the white from the stucco has step by step stained the crimson brick beneath & across the home windows. 

Energy washing has not eliminated the white stain. He asks, “Are you able to advocate a product and methodology for eradicating the white stain from the brick?”

Bricks that aren’t sealed are very porous, so stains have a tendency to stay on them without end. 

First, attempt scrubbing the spots with TSP or CLR, Calcium, Lime Rust Remover. Make sure you take a look at it in a small spot first. 

If these don’t work, improve to a brick and stone cleaner like Rutland Brick & Stone Cleaner. Spray it on and scrub it with a soft-bristle brush.

If all these fail, you could attempt an acid-based cleaner. As an alternative of utilizing highly-corrosive muriatic acid, attempt Miracle Sealants Heavy-Obligation Acidic Cleaner

When you do take away the stains, seal the bricks and apply a few coats of paint to the stucco to minimize the chance of any additional staining. This can preserve the stucco cleaner and forestall it from depositing any residue. 


Resolution for Standing Water

Standing water in a yard
Standing water is usually a breeding floor for bugs. (MarieTDebs, Getty Photos)

Jimmy Crocket constructed his home in Missouri three years in the past, and superbly landscaped his yard, Nonetheless, he didn’t understand that when it rains, the water from his next-door neighbor’s yard drains into his, creating virtually a pond round one in all his planters. 

He asks, “How do I drain standing water that drains into my yard from my neighbor’s yard?”

When you have a whole lot of floor water and water that piles up , a whole lot of time French drains gained’t care for that sufficiently and also you want some sort of floor drain. 

Set up a trench drain system with some fiberglass basins. Direct them to the closest place gravity-wise the place you may transfer the water. You may paint the basins to match your landscaping so that they gained’t be as noticeable. 

I’ve an identical downside at my residence, and I’m doing a mix of a French drain and trench drain to catch the floor water and in addition get down decrease with the ditch. I’ll dig it about 16 inches broad and 16 inches deep, fill it with gravel, and place a perforated pipe with a membrane round it (sock pipe) so it doesn’t replenish. And on high of that would be the trench drain.

That method, the water will drop into that pipe and transfer underground to a different space. 

Go to the software rental heart and get a Ditch Witch or a termite machine (miniature backhoe) that will help you dig the trenches. Lay a bit of plastic down to position the dust onto so clearing it off the grass is less complicated when you’re carried out. 

As all the time, name 8-1-1 earlier than you dig in your yard. 


Hour 2

In Hour 2, hear ideas for eradicating a bathtub from a toilet, a straightforward repair for a desilvering mirror, and extra.


Eradicating a Bathtub

In most remodels, a bathtub can’t be eliminated in a single piece. (Garrett Aitken, Getty Photos Professional)

A caller is on the point of transform her toilet, and taking the bath out goes to be an issue. She’s unsure if it’s a cast-iron or an enameled-steel tub. I used to be questioning if we wanted to noticed it in two or what we must always do. Thanks

A technique you may inform if a bathtub is iron or metal is to present it a very good thump on the within wall. If it feels like a metal drum, then it’s metal. A forged iron will sound like a thud as a result of it’s thick and onerous. 

For a few of the skinny metallic tubs, you’re in a position to escape across the high flange and disconnect the drain and work that out of there. However in so many bogs, there’s not sufficient room to tilt them up with out tearing out a wall.

It’s onerous to get a bathtub in and it’s onerous to get a bathtub out, so breaking it up will make eradicating it so much simpler. 

You should utilize a reciprocating noticed with a metallic blade to chop the bathtub in half. Many instances with forged iron tubs, it’s mainly simply placing on a face defend and long-sleeve shirt and going at it with a sledgehammer. As soon as it begins to interrupt within the heart, then you may extra simply break it up into small items. 

Earlier than you are taking the sledgehammer to it, cowl it with a quilted transferring pad so shards don’t fly all over the place. First hit the center on the skin then work your method as much as the highest then towards the within. You’re making a crack up and over down the center, and also you may be capable of get it out in two large items. 


Hiding Tough Edges on a Mirror

Tough edges round a mirror may be distracting. Disguise them with some trim. (3 Echoes Content material Studio)

Karen Dewing in Florida has three wall-sized mirrors in her grasp bathtub which have misplaced a few of the “mirroring” near the sides. 

She asks, “Is there any method to restore or cowl these areas? The broken spots are about 1-by-3 inches lengthy, and I’d hate to have to switch such giant mirrors only for some small areas across the outdoors.”

Desilvering is normally a results of moisture seeping in across the edges and inflicting the mirror reflection to flake off.

Use development adhesive to connect prepainted trim boards across the mirrors to create an image body. This provides it an ideal look whereas additionally concealing the desilvering spots. Give slightly extra life out of these mirrors.

The silver backing doesn’t final without end. The older the mirror is the extra probably it would occur. You’ll additionally get some recognizing and 

Though you’re decreasing the mirror area, it’s nonetheless a greater answer than eradicating the mirror and changing it. 


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Easy Options

Hands using a screwdriver to adjust a door hinge
Most fashionable cupboard doorways have self-closing hinges, however over time, the small leaf spring contained in the hinge can break, after which the door gained’t keep closed. (Kurhan, Getty Photos)

Fast Repair for a Damaged Self-Closing Hinge — Most fashionable cupboard doorways have self-closing hinges. However over time, the small leaf spring contained in the hinge can break, after which the door gained’t keep closed.

Right here’s a fast repair:

  • Maintain the door closed with an affordable curler catch.
  • Mount the curler mechanism inside the cupboard and fasten the latch to the door. 
Wooden spoon scooping baking soda from a jar
Use to take away cussed odors from couches and different upholstery. (itsarasak thithuekthak, Getty Photos)

Baking Soda Sofa Cleaner — Right here’s learn how to take away cussed odors from couches and different upholstery:

  • Sprinkle a beneficiant quantity of baking soda onto the material.
  • Wait 20-Half-hour
  • Vacuum utilizing the upholstery brush.

The baking soda will take in odors and even loosen up some floor stains.


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