In this engaging episode of Fix-It Radio, host John Rush and guest Steve Horvath dive into the world of home remodeling, sharing practical tips and personal stories about do-it-yourself projects. They explore the importance of consistency in renovations, emphasizing how matching the quality of new fixtures with existing ones can greatly influence home value. With a touch of nostalgia, they revisit past technologies and reminisce about the days before digital advancements, discussing the pros and cons of modern surveillance in parenting. Join them as they provide valuable insights for both seasoned DIYers and newcomers alike.
SPEAKER 04 :
Walter? Upstairs! Are you alright?
SPEAKER 13 :
In the floor behind the chair.
SPEAKER 04 :
This is America.
SPEAKER 02 :
Does everybody know what time it is? Fix It Radio.
SPEAKER 10 :
All right, welcome. Fix-It Radio, KLZ 560. Myself, Steve Horvath, joining me. Gino’s out of service with me today. He’ll be with me in Drive Radio as well. If you’re listening to a replay of this program, it’s a standalone hour. We do Fix-It Radio every Saturday from 9 to 10. Talk about things around the house. Last week, we talked about… home generation and electricity and all that stuff. But I’ve got more to talk about today. Charlie Grimes, of course, our engineer, and Larry Unger answering phones. So give us a call. Any questions you’ve got, 303-477-5600. You can text us as well, 307-200-8222. Good morning, Steve. Good morning. A little brisker this morning than we’ve been used to.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, now we’re on the fix-it thing. I’m in the middle of a fix-it project, too. All right, so what are you doing? I’m painting and remodeling. Well, no, just fixing up a daughter’s bedroom that was decorated for a teenager. So you’re… Three coats of primer to cover up the color that they chose and things like that.
SPEAKER 10 :
So you’re redoing because of kids exiting.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah. Basically. And it’s been out for a long time. Seasons of life. I’ve taken my time. Yeah, yeah, time. Carpets and stuff. I’m going to give my first try at the flooring, the laminate type flooring. Oh, yeah. And I bought all the tools and stuff. So maybe when I come back next time, I’ll let you know how it went. It’s a bedroom.
SPEAKER 10 :
Not a bad idea. The one thing I know, and by no means for all of you listening, I am by no means a… I’m an auto technician. I’m not a carpenter. I can pretty much figure a lot of things out. And the one thing I learned a long, long time ago when it comes to… Things like tile and flooring. It’s that very first one that is set, that everything else goes off of, that is really key to making sure you’ve got it dialed in. You get it dialed in and everything else is squared up and true and ready to go. And there’s tricks of the trade, which I’ll be frank, some of you listening know, I don’t know those tricks of the trade. I’ve never been in that world, Steve.
SPEAKER 05 :
And it’s interesting, too. I’ve watched YouTube videos. And those kind of videos, you know, we were talking about technology. And, you know, those are the positives of that. There’s always somebody else that’s done it, you know, and they have a trick or two. You know, they actually, they don’t, you don’t use, at least for some of you, you don’t even need a miter box. You use a, it’s like a guillotine saw, like a guillotine, like a paper cutter.
SPEAKER 10 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 05 :
But specials, you just kind of slice it. So I don’t know, you know how that, how that’s going to turn out. That’ll be fun for me too.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, good. Nothing wrong with that. So, you know, we were talking before we came on air, what Steve was talking about is we were, I don’t know, we were, we always chat before we come on air and it was Steve and I and Larry talking and just talking about technology and, you know, days before even you were talking about the Bronco game today. And, you know, there was one time where if you didn’t watch things live, you, you missed it. You either had to wait for a rerun or something along those lines because there wasn’t any ability to, you know, record anything. And yes, I remember those days and, Still vividly old enough to where I remember the first VCR that our family bought. I think I helped pitch in and buy it. And, and we, before that you didn’t have any ability to, you know, to record and watch anything. And even then what you recorded, what you recorded and then rewatched was not of the highest of quality. I mean, it allowed you to actually see what was going on and hear the sound and so on, but it was by no means a, a high quality production by, by any means, but we’re talking about technology and, and, you know, where we are today versus where we used to be. And is technology a good thing or is it a bad thing? And, you know, folks, it’s like anything else. And this is a topic that I know is a hot button for a lot of individuals. And we can talk about this even and incorporate this into Fix It Radio with just technology around the house and so on. And the reality is it can be used for really great, useful purposes or it can be used for not so good of purposes. It’s like anything else, Steve. Yeah.
SPEAKER 05 :
I was thinking of the kids as they’re growing up. We can monitor them much easier. Oh, yes. We know where they’re at all the time, things like that. We could get away with stuff. Now they can’t get away with as much.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, you’re right about that.
SPEAKER 05 :
Maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe that’s a bad thing. A little freedom isn’t bad.
SPEAKER 10 :
When we were kids, you had dimes in your pocket and a pay phone, and you were required to check in at certain times and so on. And if you didn’t, then you had a chance of getting grounded or reprimanded or whatever. Yeah. You know, I mean, I don’t know. There was probably, Steve, a little more freedom at that time. But with said freedom, I think also you had higher responsibilities because of that freedom, which is typically the way things work. And You wonder today, because of what you’re talking about and the ability to monitor and so on, and kids don’t really have to check in because you can check on them remotely and so on, are we raising kids that aren’t as responsible at the same age as that you and I were? That’s the question.
SPEAKER 05 :
I was just thinking expectations. You were expected by your parents to be responsible and do the right thing. Now, maybe you don’t have to be. Maybe those expectations aren’t the same.
SPEAKER 10 :
You know?
SPEAKER 05 :
Everything changes, which is kind of fun to watch.
SPEAKER 10 :
I don’t think you’re wrong in that. So, you know, again, we’re talking about Fix-It Radio. There’s things that you can do around the house. And somebody says, so John Rush doesn’t remodel his own home. No. No, folks. I am not that guy. A, time-wise, I learned a long time ago, I mean decades ago, certain things i’ll do myself and for you know an around the house show like this all of the regular normal maintenance fixing things and so on absolutely i’m in i’ll do it if we’ve got a plumbing problem electrical problem things along those lines absolutely i am i am a do-it-yourself or i’ll get those things taken care of tackled no problem at all and even to the point of even maybe some larger things i’ll definitely tackle some of that kind of stuff no problem now When it comes to carpentry and remodeling and changing a room around or remodeling a bathroom, retiling and so on, is that in my wheelhouse? No. I learned a long time ago I can hire those things out and I can do what I do best and make more money doing what I’m doing versus taking all the time to do that stuff. And so, no, I do not do remodel projects. Now, I mean, when it comes to things in my barn and I’m getting ready to – redo my bathroom in my barn and things like that. Yeah, okay, those things I’ll tackle because, you know, being out in my barn, if it’s not quite perfect, is it really going to matter at the end of the day? No, but in the house, I want it to be perfect.
SPEAKER 05 :
I think we all are probably perfectionists in a way, and I know if I do something in a certain way, I can see that I didn’t do it right. I can tell a good job and a bad job, but I can’t get to a good job on, like, tile and things like that, so that’s why I get a little… I get a little difficult with myself on things like that, so I know I have to set my expectations for what I’m going to do. That’s why I’m doing a bedroom instead of the main hall.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, if you’re going to do something – and that’s a great tip, by the way. For a lot of you that are listening where you may want to do some things on your own, you may want to tackle a particular project. Yeah, don’t start with a complete kitchen remodel. I mean, if you’re thinking of doing something, go do a – a bedroom or a smaller bathroom or something along those lines, you know, tackle that, you know, basement bathroom, even to where maybe, you know, you’re the only one that ever sees it’s like me and my, my bathroom in my shop. I mean, doing some things along those lines. I mean, in my case, there’s rarely a person that’s ever going to see that particular end of things. I’m, I’m the only one really that’s probably ever going to see it hardly anybody ever enters and exits the you know, that particular bathroom. So, you know what, I can have kind of the freedom to do whatever I want to in that one, Steve. And if it works out really well, great. If not, great. I can learn from doing that. But yeah, at the end of the day, am I going to go inside the house and do that type of a project? No.
SPEAKER 05 :
And I think our wives have an expectation of the quality we need to do, too. Not in a bad way.
SPEAKER 10 :
And we’ve talked about this in this program, too, for most of you that are listening. And this is pretty much across the board because the area that this signal reaches, this is pretty true for most people. When you go to resell your home, And some of the things that we’re talking about, if they’re not done correctly, in other words, if it looks like you did it yourself and it either doesn’t match the rest of the house or the quality is subpar or whatever the case may be, this is something we can talk about for a moment. You really need to match when you do a remodel. You really need to match the rest of the quality or even make it a little bit better than the rest of the quality of the house. Otherwise, you’re going to get nicked when you go to sell the house because that’s one of the first things they’re going to notice that’s going to stand out. So when you do any kind of a remodel project, you really need to be consistent, I guess is the word that… I’m really looking for. Be consistent in how you do some of those remodel projects so that things match the rest of the house. I was always a big one, Steve, with doing basements, for example. My biggest pet peeve is when you walk into a basement that you can just tell somebody went in and threw together about as quickly as they possibly could. It doesn’t match the rest of the house. You can tell it’s not matching the rest of the house. It’s got a whole different feel than the rest of the house. And if you’re going to sell your home and maximize the price, the basement should flow and look like the rest of the house. And what I mean by that is the same doors, the same trim, the same type of carpet that you would use, the same handrails that you would have in other places. Oh, yeah. the same doorknobs that you would have in other places. If there’s a bathroom, it needs to match the other bathrooms in the home and so on.
SPEAKER 05 :
Especially in the fixture area where you’re buying like the vanity or, you know, if you buy the cheaper Home Depot one, which is fine. For some things. For some things, but, you know, not where it doesn’t match.
SPEAKER 10 :
If you’ve got a, you know, let’s just say it this way. You’ve got a million-dollar house, which in today’s world is not that hard to get to. It’s kind of an average here in this Denver area. You’ve got a million-dollar house, and you’ve got some pretty nice fixtures in the rest of the house, and you go to do a bathroom someplace, even in a basement, and all of a sudden you go and buy the cheapest sink and faucets that you can buy at Home Depot. Yeah, that’s not going to match the rest of the home. And here’s what happens when people are rolling through because most people don’t have much vision. Sorry to say, but they don’t. They’ll roll through, and guess what the thing is they’re looking at and concentrating the most on? They’re not looking at the rest of the house. When they leave, the thing that stands out to them is, why didn’t they do that bathroom right? Why didn’t they make that match the rest of the house sort of a thing? And so for me, going back to the question of, do I do my own remodels? No, because I want the quality. To match the rest of the home, because if especially in my case, if it doesn’t and I go to flip the house at some point, you’re going to get nicked on those things. So I want it to be par with everything else or even above par with everything else, because when you do that, you’re maximizing your resale value.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah. And, you know, you just never know. You think, I’m going to live here for 30, 40 years, and the next year something happens, and you’re selling, you know, and not of your own choice sometimes.
SPEAKER 10 :
I always get that question, you know, am I in my forever home? And my answer is there’s no such thing. I don’t care. Do you drive by your old house? No. I’m just curious. Rarely. I mean, if I’m out and about and maybe there’s somebody that you’re trying to show, you know, the area or something along those lines. Yeah, you might roll through like that. But no, on a routine basis, do I roll back through the houses I’ve owned? No. And for me, which for most, some of you listening could do this, but for a lot of people, it’s hard to do. I could, within an hour, drive through every house I’ve ever owned in this area.
SPEAKER 05 :
Probably maybe even less for me because I’ve lived only in one little pocket.
SPEAKER 10 :
Right.
SPEAKER 05 :
But it’s interesting.
SPEAKER 10 :
Most people don’t do that. Most people roam around and they’ve lived in different parts of the country and so on. But some of us have lived in one area our whole lives. And I could literally within an hour drive to every home that I’ve ever lived in in this particular area. So interesting how that is.
SPEAKER 05 :
There’s a security in that.
SPEAKER 10 :
I guess so. It’s a good thing.
SPEAKER 05 :
It’s a good thing.
SPEAKER 10 :
All right, we’ll come back. I’ve got some things to talk about when it comes to being organized. We are getting a little bit cooler, and for some of you, freezing pipes, things like that, we can talk about some of that as well. Questions, though, again, 303-477-5600. We’ll be right back. Fix-It Radio, KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 02 :
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SPEAKER 10 :
We are back. Fix It Radio, KLZ 560. Had a great tip that came in on the text line, by the way, talking about, you know, keeping things the same and so on. In this particular case, this listener said the first thing they did moving into a house they bought was all of the toilets were sort of the shorter bowl, you know, the round bowl, kind of a mismatch, you know, hodgepodge, one toilet here, one toilet there. And what he did is he went out and bought, you know, there’s three bathrooms, I think, three or four bathrooms. Went out at the same time and bought all the same toilet. elongated bowl, which, by the way, makes a bathroom automatically look richer by putting the elongated bowl versus the short round bowl. And sometimes you don’t have room to do that, but in most cases you do. And if you have that ability to do something like that, yeah, that is an almost instant bathroom upgrade because the toilet, of course, is one of the first things that folks look at when they’re buying homes and stuff. And that’s a great upgrade, having them all match, look the same, and so on. Yeah, absolutely. That’s a great tip, by the way, so thank you for that. Jeff, Montana, what’s up?
SPEAKER 13 :
Hey, good morning, gents.
SPEAKER 10 :
Good morning.
SPEAKER 13 :
It’s fog right now, temperature inversion going on, and temperatures are supposed to drop next week and not get out of the 20s. Winter’s finally here.
SPEAKER 10 :
That’s chilly. Yes, that’s chilly.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yep. Before I get to the floors, the thing on toilets, what I did when we moved in here is I got all the slow closings. toilet seats.
SPEAKER 10 :
Those are nice too. I have some of those.
SPEAKER 13 :
Those are great. Yeah. You can buy them. They’re not that expensive. Um, you might have to search a bit. I did, but, uh, some of the toilets come with them.
SPEAKER 10 :
If you’d paint on what toilet you buy, it’ll even come with it.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yep.
SPEAKER 10 :
So very nice.
SPEAKER 13 :
On flooring. My, my family grew up, uh, I grew up in flooring. My family has been in flooring since, uh, mid sixties. So I, uh, I learned how to put in carpet and vinyl and some vinyl asbestos tile, very occasionally ceramic tile and stuff. So that made me willing to try things like laminate. And there’s just a couple of things on laminate that you need to watch out for. The chops off of the ends are fine because you probably put down a little sport around or something to cover up the very edges of it. They say you have to worry about it expanding and contracting. I have never had that problem. It’s the same with no matter what happens. So, you know, they talk about leaving gaps at the edges and stuff because it’s free-floating. I wouldn’t worry about that. The thing that I would is that it’s a jigsaw puzzle, but it’s a jigsaw puzzle with very, very, very close tolerances. And It’ll look like it’s in, but it’s not because it won’t quite fit. When you get them together, the pieces together, they snap and they just lay down flat. If there’s any rising on it, it’s not in tight.
SPEAKER 05 :
It’s not in tight enough.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah, and so you have to watch that because you’ll swear it’s in and it’s not. There’s a guy, I did his floor, but we had to pull up like six. different layers because he hadn’t made sure it snapped and i wasn’t watching him and i saw the white line and i went oh crap so we had to does it come to my floor for a minute i thought i don’t care let him suffer with the consequences and then the ocd in me went no but i can do it right right does it come back apart pretty easy yes it does okay it does it just uh that’s not an issue okay sometimes the edges might be a little deformed and you have to kind of watch out for that, but most of the time it’s not. The second hint is that I try to different ways, and I would put together one whole length if possible. So in other words, on the short edges, I’d do that whole length and then bring the whole thing. You’re going to need probably a helper with that in a bedroom. Although on second thought, I did mine by myself, so it worked all right in the bedroom I did here. But Then you take that whole link and you snap it in place at once, and you can kind of use that pounding block that you’ve got.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 13 :
Did you get one of the plastic blocks?
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, plastic block. You even came up with a little hammer and some – I got some little things that you put on the edge to create that little tiny gap.
SPEAKER 13 :
Right, yeah. Which you say I may not need as much. No, that block is good for pounding, you know, not too hard, of course. Yeah. And you’ll – after a couple of meals you’ll see that satisfying snap and you’ll know yep it’s in it’s down you might have one area that’s not you have to kind of finesse it a little bit but it’s very forgiving for that you just gotta like i said it’s very very much attention to detail um and then the third thing and this is for flooring in general that are pieces um you have to pay attention to what the width is because like if you’re um if your floor is, uh, I’m going to just say 12 and a quarter or 12 feet, three inches. Uh, and you’re going to start from the back wall, right? And go to the doorway.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 13 :
That means you’d have a three foot, a three inch little piece in the doorway, which is not a good thing.
SPEAKER 05 :
So you’d rather, you’d rather start full in the room when you enter the room.
SPEAKER 13 :
Well, you might want to cut that back piece down like in half.
SPEAKER 05 :
I see.
SPEAKER 13 :
So I don’t know, what is it, eight inches? And should make it four inches so that the piece in the doorway is going to be as full as possible.
SPEAKER 05 :
Oh, gotcha. Good idea. Good tip. Do some little bit of math and planning out where everything is going to lay. Yeah, good tip.
SPEAKER 13 :
Cool. Yeah, so, yeah, and it’s also between the walls, actually, probably more important now that I think about it, although it’s kind of between the walls. So I’m looking at my panels here. I think they’re metric, so they’re approximately 8 inches. So if you’ve got, like, let’s say a… 12-and-a-half-foot room, and then you have another two inches in the doorway, you’re probably okay. But if it’s anything less than that, you’re probably going to want to trim a little bit off that back piece just to make sure that you have a pretty full piece right there at the doorway and the front wall.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, so that’s the part that everybody’s going to see first. They’re not going to see that back wall.
SPEAKER 13 :
No, they never see the back wall.
SPEAKER 10 :
Good point. With furniture and everything else around that, they’ll never see it.
SPEAKER 13 :
Cool. Well, thank you. Right. And then it’s easier to do the transition as well. You can buy various transitions. What do you transition to?
SPEAKER 05 :
If it goes well, I’m going to transition and just keep going to the hallway.
SPEAKER 1 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 05 :
So hopefully I can just keep, you know, but I kind of want to see how this part goes.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, so, Jeff, correct me if I’m wrong. So in that case where you’re going across the threshold, don’t you want to go, you know, like a threshold piece that would go, you know, side to side in between the jams? So you’ve got to factor that into your equation as well, right?
SPEAKER 05 :
How you’re going to finish that.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 13 :
No, because if it’s flat, you just continue it out into the hallway. Okay.
SPEAKER 10 :
Okay. So you don’t need to put a threshold transition piece there at all. Unless I guess the only time you do that is if it’s a different type of flooring, right? Sure. Yeah.
SPEAKER 13 :
You’d want to, if you’re transitioning to something that’s completely different. Yeah. And there’s different heights of the transition pieces. Like, um, in this house, I, we had a, uh, we have wood floors throughout the entire, uh, first main level and including in the kitchen, which is really dumb in my, my mind that I, uh, I looked at having them refinished, and it was going to be, I think, $5,000 or something. I can’t remember really, but it was a huge amount. And for about $1,000, I could buy the laminate for the kitchen, which would make it water-repellent and everything. So I elected for that. But then I had to get a transition piece that would go down the width of the laminate down to the hardwood floor. So I had to plan for that. Yeah, okay. And…
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s some pretty good tips. Thank you.
SPEAKER 13 :
You bet. It’s not hard, but it’s very precise. It’s very demanding. And it’s good that you start at the back because if you make any mistakes, like you said, nobody sees them.
SPEAKER 05 :
Absolutely.
SPEAKER 13 :
And by the time you get to the front, you’ll be a pro.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, that’s what I was kind of thinking, and I’ll just keep carrying on.
SPEAKER 13 :
And, John, you were talking about being willing to do the bathroom in the barn shed shop area rather than the house. I was just wondering how much of that is due to the spousal influence. You’re not going to mess up my house. Oh, a lot.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, the shop’s easy. I can do whatever I want to out there. Although she’s giving advice on what it should even look like and so on, which is fine. I am not an interior decorator by any means. So at the end of the day, as long as everything functions and looks good, that’s all I really care about. So in this case, if she wants to dress it up some for the shop, then that’s fine by me. Maybe I’ll sneak over there and paint the walls pink for you or something. No, there you go. There you go, Steve. Unfortunately, I mean, you know, my shop bathroom is only like, I don’t know, it’s probably a, I don’t know. I don’t know if even know if it’s six by six. I think it’s about, I think it’s about that. I think it’s about a six by six square. So, I mean, it’s not like it’s anything major, so it should go fairly well.
SPEAKER 05 :
Isn’t that the handiest thing to have in a shop?
SPEAKER 10 :
Oh, man. Yeah. Well, we talked about it a while back. Like, you know, if you have, if you build a barn or a shop or whatever, what’s one of the things that you really, you know, would like to have? And for me… uh personally between having drains and a bathroom yeah those are like two things that you’d want to have in every shop in my opinion after having it it’s good but not a shower no i don’t know shower i mean i i even i’ve over the years just as a side note for some of you listening uh even owning shops and so on like i did all the years there were a couple of shops that that i even put a shower in purposely did some remodeling and so on at one point in time to even put a shower in that i will tell you And over a decade of use or a decade of that shower being there, I’ll bet you it didn’t get used a handful of times. It was the biggest waste of money I ever did because nobody really wants to shower where they’re working. If they want to change clothes and go home and clean up or whatever everybody does, rarely did anybody ever use the shower for that. It’s just not. You just go inside and use your regular shower and be done with it. So, yeah, rarely is that ever an issue. So, yeah, I would not build a shop with a shower.
SPEAKER 13 :
Okay. Well, you see, I forgot to mention, too, fine-tooth blade on the chop saw.
SPEAKER 10 :
Okay. Yeah, very fine.
SPEAKER 13 :
Real bad.
SPEAKER 10 :
No, that makes sense. Don’t split everything.
SPEAKER 13 :
And some people even put the blades in backwards so that they don’t cut as well.
SPEAKER 05 :
So there’s more of a burn almost, but you have to be kind of careful on that, too, I’m sure.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah, well, the top part’s really brittle and it’ll chip. But the bottom part, it’s all plastic laminate.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yes, yes, or engineered hardwood or whatever. There’s so many different ones, which is a challenge.
SPEAKER 10 :
We could almost do an entire show on all of the different types of flooring that is out now that didn’t exist even a decade ago.
SPEAKER 05 :
and the length of it and what it changes and how it… It’s amazing. What I’m amazed is the thickness. You can go from just a, you know, maybe a couple three millimeters up to 10, 12, 13 millimeters. It’s pretty thick flooring. I mean, that’s half inch.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, and as you all are listening. No, I mean, there’s even today, and some of you are sending me pictures, you know, there’s Jeff, you know, this, there’s even now, you know, tile that looks like wood, there’s, you know, wood that looks like you go over, you got laminates that look like real wood, you’ve got, of course, real wood, you’ve got wood that’s already pre finished, you’ve I mean, you name it, there is a plethora of stuff now that you can, you can buy you go to any of the big tile, you know, flooring stores, and it’s just like, I mean, holy cow, is there a lot of choices?
SPEAKER 05 :
And you know what? Actually, at those places, they’re very, very helpful. I mean, extremely helpful. Not the big box guys. They’re not so much. Boy, you go to those. They can tell you everything.
SPEAKER 10 :
Now, one thing I will tell a lot of you, because these are, in my world, I think some mistakes that I potentially have made, and they’re not made because I’ve actually done this the right way in cases. If you have any kind of a bathroom area and you’re doing any kind of tile, by the way, you’ve got a bathroom area or you’ve got, especially in a basement where you’ve got the concrete flooring and then you’re going to put tile or something on top of that, heat it. At least heat the bathroom. It’s not that expensive to do. The kits that they make, Jeff, and you know this, that they make that actually will allow you to heat that floor, it’s not that expensive. I don’t want to say it’s inexpensive, but it’s not prohibitive in any way by cost. And, oh, man, what a difference it makes at the end of the day.
SPEAKER 05 :
We’ve done that in ours.
SPEAKER 10 :
It’s the only way to go. For those of you listening, are you thinking about doing any kind of a remodel and you’re putting tile in the bathroom and you’ve got the ability to heat it, heat it.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yes, indeed. Our basement, our house has radiant heat in the floor, and that includes the basement. And that’s the comment I keep getting is, it’s so nice to wake up to a warm floor. People, you don’t know how much it’s worth until you experience it.
SPEAKER 10 :
And you can also do things like, you know, I did a remodel years ago in my master bedroom, and it’s tile because I hate carpet. I’m one of those guys. I just don’t like carpet. Anyways, it’s just me, and I’m a really weird individual, which everybody already knows. Charlie’s over here nodding his head, so it’s just me.
SPEAKER 13 :
That’s not weird, John. John, that’s not weird.
SPEAKER 10 :
Anyways, I learned what I’m getting at is I went ahead and drew things out and I heated all around the bed and then a walkway to the bathroom and the bathroom itself. When I redid all of the tile, I didn’t heat all of the flooring because I didn’t need to. You’re not walking around a lot of the other places where it’s not necessary. The mistake I made there for everybody listening is I should have heated the closet. and i didn’t really yeah i should have heated the closet so just a side note because you go in the closet in the morning usually get your clothes and so on and it would be nice if that was heated but i at least heated around the bed in the bathroom so so so those of you listening in the future if you do anything like that go ahead and heat the closet as well interesting okay yeah the things you learn when you go to this when you go to the store and uh
SPEAKER 13 :
There are flooring that is designed particularly for basements because of the more damp environment and phosphorescence and transorption and all that stuff down there. So make sure you’re getting a flooring that’s proper for the application that you’re doing. Kitchens are another one. You know, folks will put down laminate that has the particle backing in the kitchen and wonder why it swells up.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah. Get a little water on it, and next thing you know, are you walking with your boots with snow on them?
SPEAKER 13 :
Yep. But good luck with it.
SPEAKER 10 :
Thank you.
SPEAKER 13 :
I think you’ll really enjoy it. It’ll be fun.
SPEAKER 10 :
That’s awesome. Jeff, thanks for the tips. And for those of you listening, appreciate that very much. And again, lots of comments in on the text line as well, so thank you for that. John and Cheyenne, you’re next. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, I’ve got a few tips on the vinyl floor, and I’ve done a couple of them over the years. First of all, the one I did had a wood pattern design. And I really recommend that when you get boxes, open up two boxes or whatever and start laying them out in different stacks because you’ll see patterns that are distinctive. Good point. And you want to try to weed of it randomly. Yep, good point, John. You don’t get this, like this one knot hole pattern I had was so obvious that if I keep repeating it, it would just look bad if I didn’t make it.
SPEAKER 10 :
Great idea. Great point. Yeah, and I’ve watched some professional tile layer type individuals, John, and I’ve seen exactly what you’re talking about where they will – literally take everything out of the boxes, plural, and sort of get things laid out in advanced and then position things kind of where they want them to make sure that the pattern fits accordingly. And I’ve seen them do that. So you’re exactly right.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah. Yeah. It’s real good.
SPEAKER 10 :
Because they will, because you know, they’re using a printer basically in a lot of cases. I don’t know exactly what kind of printer that is, but it’s, you know, they might have 10 different patterns that are there, but that pattern is going to repeat in every box.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, and as you’re laying them out, you’ve got to watch that pattern you’re trying to mix up vertically on one line and horizontally on the other line, because when you walk in the room, you know, it can curl on you if you’re just looking one way.
SPEAKER 10 :
Great point.
SPEAKER 03 :
Another big tip I got is… They’re usually, correct me if I’m wrong, around six inches wide on those strips.
SPEAKER 05 :
Is that what you’re – Yeah, I think there might even be eight inches. It’s pretty – You’ve got the big ones. Yeah, it’s pretty big, which is – Okay, yeah.
SPEAKER 03 :
What I recommend perpendicular to where the long run is, measure one end of the room left to right and the other room left to right. I was off one inch on this room. Oh, really? And what I did was hide half an inch on each corner. So that first row is real crucial to start off with. Also, the reason you need to measure it is you don’t want to just put a full tile down on your first run. Because the time you get to the end of the room, you don’t want to end up with like a three quarter inch strip or a two inch strip. So if you just plan it out carefully and take the measurements of the width of the tile and factor it in and do that first long cut on that first row is real critical. And from there on, it goes fast. And when you get to the other end, You might have a 4-inch or 3-inch, which is fine, but you don’t want to end up with an inch or a quarter-inch or a half-inch.
SPEAKER 05 :
And if you walk on it, it’ll pop and do all sorts of bad things.
SPEAKER 03 :
Interesting. I had the problem doing it on a cement floor. I had to use a lot of concrete leveling to get voids and cracks and everything out so it would lay flat. And the other guy’s right. You don’t need that big of a space, but you do want it free-floating. So I would take off the wood trim, do the floor, and then put the wood trim back to hide, like, say, an eighth to a three-sixteenths space for the floating, and the wood trim would hide it. Yeah. That’s all I got. It’s a fun project. It takes time, but I enjoy doing them. They’re not that bad.
SPEAKER 05 :
I think that’s what I’ve learned over the years is I really just need, you know, when you’re an automotive mechanic, you want to get things done right away, every day. Right. And I’ve had to learn to. pace myself on these things and take my time and that’s actually I’ve learned that to try to be better at taking these things on and enjoying them instead of being frustrated by them and that kind of thing so yeah I’m kind of like that way it’s kind of like zen you know you just take your time and do a good job and then you love it more yeah
SPEAKER 10 :
Good way of looking at it. Great tips. John, thank you, as always. I appreciate it. And a lot of you are sending in some great tips, even on the heated floors and so on, which a lot of you have learned the same way that I have on that. So thank you, by the way. I appreciate that. We’ll come back. We’re not going anywhere. Keep sending us text messages, 307-282-22, and you can call in as well, 303-477-5600. Fix-It Radio, KLZ 560.
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SPEAKER 10 :
All right, we are back. Fix It Radio, KLZ 560. Thank you all, by the way, for all the text messages. Great information, advice, and so on. And for those of you listening, and I’ve had numerous of you text in, and I actually did a remodel in a portion of my house where I learned this the hard way on a concrete floor that I did not heat, that I regret not heating. I regret cheaping out. I knew I could have heated it and I just chose to be cheap and not do it. And it’s an area of our house that we don’t use very often. But anyways, long story short, I messed up and should have done that. And it’s one of my biggest regrets on those sorts of things was not doing that. So a lot of you are texting in that, yeah, if you’ve got any kind of concrete and you’re putting any kind of especially tile flooring or anything on top. Yeah, go ahead and heat that, and you are 1,000% correct. It makes things so much warmer in that space, and it’s not that expensive to do, especially if you guys are doing things on your own. It’s really not that difficult to do. Plenty of instructional videos on how to do the heating of the floor, and it is a game changer. It is literally the difference between night and day, and I cannot say enough about that in doing so, and a lot of you are agreeing with me on that. So thank you, by the way. for that and again going back to some of your even commenting on this there are so many choices of flooring that it you re this is where you really need to do some research on the front side decide number one what type of product are you going to use so don’t don’t worry about styles and all that stuff because believe me there’s a gazillion styles and whatever type of product you use so in other words what i’m saying is Are you going to use prefinished hardwood floors? Are you going to do regular hardwood floors that need finished? Which, as a side note there, most people don’t know this. There’s not a lot of difference in price on a per-square-foot basis. They’ll all try to sell you on the fact that the prefinished hardwood is way cheaper than regular hardwood that is then finished. Folks, I’ve done the pricing. It’s not that much difference. personally speaking and this is nothing against anybody that uses pre-finished hardwood if you want to use pre-finished that’s fine i personally like the look of just regular old like red oak put it down have the guys come out sand it fill it stain it clear coat it and when it’s done it looks absolutely gorgeous and it doesn’t look like a pre-finished floor now Again, to each his own. It’s all in the look that you’re looking for. A lot of times they’ll sell you on the pre-finish because in their right, there’s not as much mess and dust and so on. But realistically, the devices that they’re using now, there’s not a lot of dust and stuff anymore anyways. I don’t want to say it’s completely dustless, but it’s pretty darn close. And the product that you get when it’s all said and done, it just looks, again… Personally speaking, I can walk in and tell you right off the bat if it’s pre-finished or if it’s somebody that’s actually in it. Now, I get it. Some of the pre-finished floors, if you decide you want to sand them down and have them done, they’re still made of real wood and so on. They’re just a pre-finished product. And again, the other thing that they’ll sell you on is the pre-finished is tougher. And if you have dogs, it doesn’t scratch as well and so on. Or it scratches easily, I should say, and so on. And there is some truth to some of this. So again, first things first. Decide. what it is you want for flooring. And don’t think about it in terms of, how should I say this, Steve, looks, because all of the products, like I said, you can buy tile that looks like wood. You can buy wood that looks like tile. You can buy all of the different pre-finished products and the laminate products. There are so many different choices. It’s like carpet. The spectrum is so wide now that you literally can pick about any type of look that you want, so my advice always is figure out exactly what it is you want in that particular area to start with. Are you gonna go with a laminate? Are you gonna go with tile? Are you gonna go with tile that looks like wood? Are you gonna go with actual wood itself? I mean, what kind of a look are you actually looking for in that particular area of the house that you’re redoing? And then, like to Steve’s point, I think you also need to look down the road. What else might flow into this that you may decide to change on down the road so that everything flows together? It’s sort of like, I guess the way I look at doing house is a lot like I used to build off-road rigs back in the day. Oh, I see. What’s the end result going to look like? So when I’m all said and done, and for some people that might have been a two-year process getting their truck, their Jeep, whatever, totally done, okay, but in the end, what’s it going to look like? And let’s make sure that we’re building towards that end look so that we’re not redoing things along the way. And I think when you do home remodeling, it’s a similar situation. What are you wanting everything to look like when it’s all said and done, and how is it all going to flow together? Because the last thing you want is some area of the house that sticks out like a sore thumb. Because to Steve’s point earlier, you may find that, well, I’ve got to sell now before I’ve got everything even redone because things in life can change. There’s sicknesses and deaths and so on where your life circumstances can change things to where now all of a sudden you’ve got your home on the market. Well, how does all of this work? So I’ve always been one to where I want my home ready for sale at all times.
SPEAKER 1 :
Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER 10 :
Even though it may not be completely finished the way that I want it, I want my home to be a turnkey sale at any moment in time. If somebody wants to buy the place, it’s ready to go. That’s the way I’ve looked at every single house I’ve ever owned. So as you’re doing these things, keep some of that stuff in the back of your mind. Tim in Longmont, go ahead.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yes, I’ve got several comments. Sure. Quite a while back, you were talking about the pros and cons of a hot water recirculating line. Yes. And I’m a retired plumber. I highly always recommended that when I was doing work for someone.
SPEAKER 10 :
In my opinion, Tim, that kind of goes back to the, you know, what do you absolutely have to have in your shop? Well, what do you absolutely have to have in the house? That is one item for me that is an absolute must. After doing that in the last, like, four homes I’ve owned, that’s a must.
SPEAKER 05 :
So it’s more like an instant hot, the hot water.
SPEAKER 10 :
You know, my master shower is the farthest thing away from the hot water source, Tim, and I have almost instant hot water. It’s not quite, it might take one second or so, but that’s about all it is.
SPEAKER 12 :
Really? Yes, that’s right. And Watts makes a system with a pump that you can do, a homeowner can do in an hour. Okay. You don’t need to run an extra line or anything.
SPEAKER 10 :
Really? And Tim, to your point, for those of you that don’t know what Tim’s talking about, and Tim, you can explain this a little further because you’re that guy. Best thing ever.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yep, yep. And one of the People say the disadvantage of the Watt system is that it uses the cold water as the return side for the system. But what I found with that the cold water is kind of tepid for the first minute. So if you’re washing your face or brushing your teeth, I’ve got sensitive teeth. Yes. You’ve got tepid water coming out the cold side, and then it gets good and cold. Who really needs ice-cold water in your lavatory?
SPEAKER 10 :
No one.
SPEAKER 05 :
Even in our kitchen, you know, we get it out of the refrigerator half the time when we want cold.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yes, that’s right. That’s right. Another comment I had, you were talking a while back about you suggested or I think your caller suggested running the dryer vent into the garage to warm it.
SPEAKER 10 :
And the only way you can do that, of course, is if it’s an electric one, then you’ve got to be careful of lint and other things along those lines. That’s the one thing. And by the way, that’s not, for everybody listening, that’s not code because you can’t have any openings from the garage back into the house because of fumes and so on. So, Tim, if I, I mean, that couldn’t have been me mentioning that because code-wise for me and what I’m doing on air as a host, yeah, I could never recommend that.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yeah, because you’re breaking that one-hour firewall between the garage.
SPEAKER 10 :
That’s right.
SPEAKER 12 :
The other disadvantage of that, it’s going to put a lot of humidity into your garage, and if that’s a workshop and you’ve got tools that aren’t chrome-plated or something, they’re going to start rusting because of that humidity that’s introduced into the area. Oh, that makes sense. Yep. And now the most important thing I want to mention to you, since you’re redoing your
SPEAKER 10 :
uh bathroom uh put in a urinal oh that’s the handiest thing yeah somebody was asking me am i going to put one in my shop and i was just explaining to somebody through the text line that if i had the ability in mind to do so i would i room wise as i said a minute ago tim i’ve got like a six by six and i’ve got a big shop sink that i don’t want to give up to me that’s just as important as having the urinal so i’ll deal with not having the urinal because i want my big shop sink
SPEAKER 12 :
Well, one thing you can do now, it’s your shop. There’s nobody in there. You can put the urinal outside. I mean, outside of the bathroom wall.
SPEAKER 10 :
My problem is my plumbing, the wall that I would need to put it on is inside of another room that’s behind the bathroom. So at that point, I’m walking into another room. Yeah, I mean, I would love to do that. It’s a great idea, but I don’t have that access.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yeah. Well, I… I like it. I love it.
SPEAKER 10 :
I love it. And believe me, because I’m about the only one out there, I would do that in a heartbeat because that part doesn’t bother me, Tim. If it was on the right wall, I would do that.
SPEAKER 12 :
Well, my last house, I put one in, and it’s the handiest thing in the world because I was in a semi-residential area. Now I’m on 40 acres, so I just go out the door. Yeah. Yeah. Good point. Good point. Or the other thing, if you’ve got an outside wall… You know, just run a pipe out, dump it into a gravel drain.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, no, you have a point. And I do have that ability. That one I could pretty well, you know, could pretty easily do. That one wouldn’t be as big of a deal. I could do that. That would be that hard to do. But to your point, for those of you listening, and we’ve talked about this in the past when it comes to, you know, some of your remodeling, you’re building a shop, adding on, doing a garage or whatever. Yeah, bathroom and in that bathroom, if you’ve got the ability room-wise to do it, yeah, put a urinal in. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yep, yep.
SPEAKER 12 :
And your heated floor, the radiant.
SPEAKER 10 :
Oh, yes.
SPEAKER 12 :
Now they’ve got, you can do it electrically. You don’t need to run hot water radiants. You can do it electrically. And as you mentioned, I like your thought of just doing it on the area where you’re walking from point A to point B. You don’t have to do the whole room, just where…
SPEAKER 10 :
where you’re walking. Good point. Good point. And, and for those of, and as you know, Tim, once you get that concrete heated, it just retains the heat, which just keeps everything else warmer. And, and yeah, that’s the advantage of doing that. And for those of you building a shop, if you’ve got the ability to put any kind of, you know, radiant heat, whether it be, you know, glycol or whether it be, you know, electric, like you’re talking, Tim, as you guys are listening and building some of those things, do it, do it.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yeah. Yeah. I’ve got a neighbor. They’ve got a, I don’t know, probably a 50,000-square-foot shop. They keep all their equipment in there and stuff. And they put radiant heat in there, and they said they look forward to working on equipment in the wintertime because that floor is 65 degrees. Yeah.
SPEAKER 10 :
it makes it a lot nicer to roll around on that floor. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. The other thing, too, for some of you listening, is you’re doing houses or you’re building or whatever, and I realize this year here we haven’t had a ton of snow, but if you have the ability to put any of the snow melt systems in in your drive or your walks or anything along those lines, Tim, that’s another thing where I have one, and I wish it was larger.
SPEAKER 05 :
Really? So it’s basically like a floor heater.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, it heats the driveway and the snow melts off, and it’s the best thing ever. It really is. Yeah.
SPEAKER 12 :
Well, along those same lines, several years ago, I took your recommendation, got one of the rubber mats for my garage. Oh, best thing ever, too. And with the lack of snow this year, I just take and fold it into thirds, so I’m not driving over it. Yep. But it’s still there, and all I have to do is unfold it if we get some snow. Great point. So that mat, that is just wonderful. That’s a
SPEAKER 10 :
one of the best suggestions I’ve picked up from you guys. I appreciate that. And you, you bring big help today as well, Tim, appreciate you very much as always. Thanks for listening.
SPEAKER 12 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 10 :
Thank you, man. I appreciate it. No. And I wasn’t planning on talking flooring today. Steve being here kind of fired things up, which is fine. I mean, this show can take whatever direction it needs to. And you guys gave a lot of helpful hints today along those lines. And for a lot of you and some of you, you know, you’re thinking about building a place or you have built a place, or maybe you’re going to do some remodeling and, and, Whatever the case may be, think about all of these things we’ve talked about today. For some of you, you might be in your quote-unquote forever home. Some of you might be like me, where it’s never the forever home, but you want to make it so its value is as much as it possibly can be. So when you resell it, you’re maximizing your price. In my case, I bought a home that… one of my friends had owned and had done a lot of great things to it i expanded upon what he did the snowmelt system i just mentioned a moment ago was something that he did which after now having it i will tell you this if i ever built another home and even if i bought a home that didn’t have it and i had the ability to take the concrete out and redo it um folks it would be one of the first things i did because after having it oh man And I know it’s a first-world thing, and I’m extremely spoiled and extremely blessed. And somebody asked me last week, do I think about that often? And yes, I do. And yes, I’m very blessed. And I know a lot of the things we’re talking about today even are first-world problems and issues and things. But they’re still out there. They’re still things that you all do, and it’s a part of our life. And I’ll just tell you straight up, the snowmelt systems that they make are second to none. And if you’ve never experienced it, you don’t know what you’re missing.
SPEAKER 05 :
Cool.
SPEAKER 10 :
You’re not shoveling like you once would, let’s just say that.
SPEAKER 05 :
That is really neat.
SPEAKER 10 :
It is the slickest thing ever. And they’re all automated. Some would ask, well, how do they work? In my case, it’s got sensors where it knows what the temperature is outside. There’s an eye actually in the concrete that knows if it’s covered up. So it knows if there’s actually snow on it. So between that and knowing the temperature, it knows when to turn on. It turns on for a certain amount of time. It heats up the coolant. It’s actually got glycol in the lines. It heats all of that up to bring the temperature of the concrete up above freezing, which then melts the snow or whatever’s on top of it. And does it work? Yeah, it does. Best thing ever. Again, after having it, that’s one of those items that if I ever – in fact, if I built a shop, I would even heat in front of – if you’re going to heat the floor in the shop, heat the pad in front of the door while you’re at it. You can’t heat the entire driveway, of course. Well, some people do, but – That’s hard to do. It’s really expensive. But at least if you’re building a shop and you’re going to go ahead and heat the floor, I would advise you go ahead and run that system out and heat that 20-foot section or so in front of the shop door so it’s always clear no matter what. And it stays a little bit warmer as well. So, yeah, if you’re going to do some of those things, add some of those snow melt things into what you’re talking about, and it works great. Guys, again, thank you. You can always ask questions outside of the show. If you’re listening to a replay show, we appreciate that as well. 307-200-8222. Text us anytime. This has been Fix It Radio. Myself, Steve Horvath. This is KLZ Radio.
SPEAKER 01 :
The views and opinions expressed on KLZ 560 are those of the speaker, commentators, hosts, their guests, and callers. They are not necessarily the views and opinions of Crawford Broadcasting or KLZ management, employees, associates, or advertisers. KLZ 560 is a Crawford Broadcasting God and country station.
