[00:00:00] Eric Goranson: It's around the house. All right. We've been talking here about my home improvement myths, exterior addition about stuff. What is good? What is bad? There's a lot of bad information out there. So today I am trying to help you outside your house with making sure you've got the right information. And this one here is a question I always get a lot.

[00:00:22] Eric Goranson: And so I wanted to put it in the myths category. Cause I think it is, should I pull permits for my second story deck? A lot of people, the home improvement myth, ah, you'll be fine. You don't need to. In most cases, in most places here in the United States on a second story deck, that's over geez, over 18 inches off the ground.

[00:00:42] Eric Goranson: Usually maybe 30 in some areas. That answer is going to be, yes, need to pull a permit. And here is why deck construction and what is allowed and isn't allowed is changed a lot. When it comes to remodeling and renovating your home, there is a lot to know, [00:01:00] but we've got you covered. Welcome to the round the house show.

[00:01:06] Eric Goranson: This is where we help you get the most out of your home through information education. Thanks for joining me today. We're going to have some great interviews coming up here in the coming week. So stay tuned for that. But today in this second hour of the show, we're going to be talking about home improvement myths, exteriors edition.

[00:01:23] Eric Goranson: We're going to talk about all the things around the house on the outside. You got to be careful of and what's right. What's wrong. There's so many things on social media that give off really bad information that, Hey, you can do this and maybe you can't, or even better, you shouldn't because it's going to be expensive, go badly, and you'll have to do it all over again.

[00:01:44] Eric Goranson: If you want to find out more about me, head over to around the house, online. com. We have our brand new website up over there. So you can catch a lot of new information there. It's hiding there. We got videos, we got everything. Of course, the podcast, the TV show, it's all hiding over there. So [00:02:00] today we're talking about home improvement myths.

[00:02:03] Eric Goranson: The first one here in this segment, I wanted to talk about vinyl siding. Should I paint it or not? So let's talk about vinyl siding and the pluses or minuses. The whole idea behind vinyl siding when it came out in the 80s. Maybe even early 90s, but it was 80s is when it first started really coming out was that you never had to paint it And the theory was you could put it up there.

[00:02:25] Eric Goranson: It's plastic. It's gonna be durable. You'll get 50 plus years out of it It's gonna be amazing. Then people realized it's vinyl in vinyl gets brittle It chalks up cracks becomes just very fragile or like many people they put it on and went Okay, I'm tired of the I'm tired of the White House I want to go dark.

[00:02:48] Eric Goranson: I want to do something different. So the problem with vinyl is the material it's made out of. It's the vinyl itself. Vinyl expands and contracts and that's why there's so many [00:03:00] overlying pieces and there's the J trims. So there's room for it to flex, right? So it can expand and contract. The problem is when you go paint it, whether it's a cool day, hot day, whatever, You are now painting it in place where, when it expands or contracts, and really when it contracts, if it gets cold, you're going to see all the gaps where that vinyl shrunk and pulled back, and now you have all these, if you're painting it gray, and it was white, you're going to have all these white marker lines.

[00:03:32] Eric Goranson: For each piece of where it shrunk, but the problem is, this is your catch 22. When it's that cold, you shouldn't be painting it because it won't stick. So you're now you're in a big problem with that. And the next part of it is even worse. And I've seen this happen and it's not about the paint. It's about the vinyl itself, depending on the product.

[00:03:54] Eric Goranson: If you have a light color vinyl, they made that plastic composite. [00:04:00] To be light, which means it doesn't have to be heat resistant or as heat resistant is what a dark color would be. So they use different plastics for different colors. So what happens is if you take a white vinyl. And turn around and paint it charcoal gray, for instance, when the sun hits that it can look like you had a house fire next door and it melted and I've seen it fall off the house curl up and fall off the house.

[00:04:29] Eric Goranson: So one, you go down to your paint store and get the special vinyl paint and primer. You get it all on there. Yeah, that vinyl paint sticks. It'll stay on there. He did the directions correctly. But what happens is that sun hits it. And if you go to a darker color, You can have a heck of a mess, because it'll warp, twist, melt, looks like you took a torch to it.

[00:04:51] Eric Goranson: So there's the problem with final sighting. So if it was me, instead of spending all that money on paint, and having the chance of having [00:05:00] to redo it all anyway, I would just start saving up and start putting up hardy plank or something else that you can get up there, get a nice warranty on it and replace that vinyl siding or if you've got an old classic house, do some peeking underneath it.

[00:05:16] Eric Goranson: Some neighborhoods had vinyl siding salespeople going door to door, basically saying, hey, I can put vinyl siding on for the price of you repainting your house and you could have wonderful siding under there that needs minimal work and your house will be more classic anyway. So take a look at the vinyl siding and what you have underneath it.

[00:05:36] Eric Goranson: Now, if you've got a new house that was built that way, of course, that's not going to be the case. But take a look. There's a lot of cool products out there. I would sure look at doing something that you can paint down the road and you're going to have a much better house down the road. And what's funny in my area, vinyl sighting is not popular.

[00:05:54] Eric Goranson: It's not in the Pacific Northwest. It is not a hot item for a couple of reasons. One, I think we [00:06:00] have the hot summers and the cold winters and the mosque grows on it. So it's really hard to keep clean. So that vinyl really likes to let that scum moss green gunky stuff on it. And so I think that's one of the reasons why the vinyl sighting just was never hot up here.

[00:06:18] Eric Goranson: And then when it first came out, people really showed that as being a, like a low quality product. So they just said, Hey, it's that's a, that's mobile home sighting or whatever. And I have no problems with mobile homes, but that was the impression back then that they did. So I think that really kept people from using it as much here as you see maybe on the East Coast and the Northeast or other parts of the country.

[00:06:40] Eric Goranson: Now, the other thing that you run into it is that with vinyl sighting is if you ever put this on, you need to. Have an extra box or two, because even though it will fade and chalk up, if you get something like hail or any kind of damage like that. That stuff can shatter. And when it's broken, there's no fixing it.

[00:06:58] Eric Goranson: You can't go in and patch it and paint [00:07:00] it. Nope. You're out of luck. So that's one of those things that be really careful with because once that stuff starts to break, you're into a sighting job at that point. So something to take a look at. If you're putting in new sighting, now's the time to do some installation.

[00:07:14] Eric Goranson: Do any of that trim window replacement, any of that stuff. If you're gonna go chase it around, it's not a bad thing. But do your shopping. There's a lot of great products out there. There's a lot of new composites, but I would strongly advise you not to paint vinyl siding because I just don't think it's going to turn out well.

[00:07:33] Eric Goranson: And then you have a paint on a piece of plastic that just doesn't like to hold up. Even though companies like Sherwin Williams have made products for it, you run a big risk of that product not holding up down the road, especially on a hot summer day or all it takes is a car to be parked there. I've seen this to a car parks and there's like windshield is at the right angle and the glass reflects.

[00:07:53] Eric Goranson: And all of a sudden that is melting off the side of the house. So. I want to see if I can save you some money with that. And that'll be [00:08:00] a really good idea because nobody wants to have to do this project twice. Hey, before we go out of break, I wanted to comment coming up. We're going to have some great fun.

[00:08:08] Eric Goranson: I'm going to be going down to two big trade shows this year. I'm going to be down at the design and construction week meeting with people down there having a great time. And checking that show out, take a look. I'll be playing with my normal friends down there, having a great time and doing some video, doing some audio.

[00:08:24] Eric Goranson: We'll be doing the show down there. We're going to have a lot of fun with people down there. People you want to hear from. So that'll be coming up. Lots of new products coming up and that's at the end of February. So you'll hear that in early March. And then the following month, I'm going to be a guest of the national hardware show in Vegas.

[00:08:41] Eric Goranson: So we'll be talking about brand new hardware stuff. That'll be popping out. Make sure you check that out. And if you are a maker or you're an influencer and you're checking this show out, love to see it down there. So take a look at registration for the national hardware show. They, you are, you are welcome down there.

[00:08:56] Eric Goranson: You can go down there and do stuff. I know for many [00:09:00] people out there in the media, working at the design and construction week is a challenge. It is tough. They have stringent rules down there. You have to follow. So it's way tough to get in down there. Takes you a lot of paperwork to get down there with a camera and do stuff So something to take a look at I know for all you people out there The hardware show is going to be a great one this year in las vegas All right, everybody when we come back we're going to be talking about Some new stuff about dacs that I want to talk about in our home improvement myths Then we're going to talk about heat pumps and then i'll be talking about venhoods.

[00:09:34] Eric Goranson: That's so much more coming up here This is going to be a great one here today. So I'd love to see you hang around for the entire show. If you have any questions, give me a call at 8 That's 8 3 3 2 3 9 4 1 4 4 around the house. It's going to be right back after these important messages. Don't go anywhere.

[00:09:52] Eric Goranson: We're just getting started. What's [00:10:00] up,

[00:10:09] Eric Goranson: this is Dixie Dania and Satchel from Steel Panther. And you are listening to. Around the House with Eric G. Yeah. We love Eric G and you should too.

[00:10:27] Eric Goranson: For the Around the House show, this is where we help you get the most out of your home through information education. Thanks for joining me today. Hey, we do have a new website up, so head over to aroundthehouseonline. com. Take a look at what we have going on there. Everything from the TV show to the radio show.

[00:10:42] Eric Goranson: The podcast here, as well as a punch of videos on YouTube that we've got as well. So if you're going to tackle that project, take a peek over there might be something I've covered and I show you how to do it in the video. All right. We've been talking here about my home improvement myths, exterior addition about [00:11:00] stuff.

[00:11:00] Eric Goranson: What is good? What is bad? There's a lot of bad information out there. So today I am trying to help you outside your house with, uh, making sure you got the right information. And this one here is a question I always get a lot. And so I wanted to put it in the myths category because I think it is, should I pull permits for my second story deck?

[00:11:18] Eric Goranson: A lot of people, the home improvement myth, ah, you'll be fine. You don't need to. In most cases, in most places here in the United States, on a second story deck, that's over, geez, over 18 inches off the ground, usually, maybe 30 in some areas, that answer is going to be yes, you need to pull a permit. And here is why deck construction and what is allowed and isn't allowed has changed a lot over the last decade And they want to make sure with all the deck failures that we see in the news And everything else out there.

[00:11:53] Eric Goranson: They want to make sure that you're building it correctly So people get get a safe time [00:12:00] outside Now here's the problem that you see the problem is that so many people go out to build their deck And they build it wrong And unfortunately, when they build it wrong, that can get people hurt, killed, or whatever.

[00:12:13] Eric Goranson: And the problem is, they're the ones that are liable for it. There are great debt contractors out there, and there are horrible debt contractors out there. And that's the problem, is you gotta be really careful of who to trust, who to work with, and all of that. Because, just because you're hiring a contractor, doesn't mean they know what they're doing.

[00:12:36] Eric Goranson: Great example here guys. We're gonna go off on a little bit of a tangent here I am in a Facebook group called deck construction tips and tricks And these are guys that are contractors mainly in there And I tell you what, 60, 70 percent of the decks that I see are just an absolute hot mess. They wouldn't pass code.

[00:12:58] Eric Goranson: They won't do anything. [00:13:00] They're just a danger to everyone. Absolute danger. So this is something I really want you to be careful with. I want you to be really careful with what's going on in your building a deck. And here's the things I want you to, to explore. One, I would pull that building permit. That's the first one.

[00:13:17] Eric Goranson: The second one. And when you do a building permit, you're going to have to do the drawings and make sure that you have all the right clips, fasteners, and pieces like that. Is there an easy way to do it? Yeah. Jump onto one of the websites out there. Simpsons strong tie is one. I'm not using as many fasteners as theirs.

[00:13:36] Eric Goranson: I did. I've switched brands, but here's the thing. I've been using a lot of my tech stuff. Personally, I like their brand Simpson out there. They charge a premium for it, but Simpson does have a great deck builder software that sits there and goes through and basically specifies out all your lumber, all your clips, all the stuff to meet, to meet most building code.

[00:13:57] Eric Goranson: And then that way you get the railings, [00:14:00] right? You get all the different pieces going and there's a lot of pieces from how you flash it to the house Which you need to do a lot of research on that flashing where it attaches is something that's super important Because that's how that can rot and fail So there's a lot of little pieces there that you need to really take your time and look at And make sure that you've got it dialed in this can be Absolutely a disaster if this goes wrong and I can't tell you how many videos i've seen of guys up there Trying to put a hot tub on there and the hot tub falls off for the, they're stacking.

[00:14:33] Eric Goranson: The biggest one I think that made it around the web here a few years ago was the guy that was stacking roofing, powder roofing on the deck. Pulls right off the house, falls down, second story deck. That's how you get hurt or worse. So pull your pyramids, design it correctly, flash it correctly. Make sure if you've got posts and everything that it's going into the right depth of concrete.

[00:14:55] Eric Goranson: And that's where you really want to make sure that you're following all those rules and regulations. And you're doing [00:15:00] it for your soil type, but you can be building it out of steel. You can be building out of wood. You can be doing a composite deck surface. There's a lot of great things out there, but they've really used a lot of different fasteners now when you're building the deck.

[00:15:12] Eric Goranson: So if it's been 15 years since you've built a deck, considering that's the lifespan of an average frame deck like that, anyway. It's been 15 years. I would do some research. There's guys I would follow out there. One of my favorites. If you want to see over to find home building and look at their deck stuff with Mike over there.

[00:15:30] Eric Goranson: He's really good. That's a great resource. If you want specific how to videos, follow Dr. Dex on Instagram and on Facebook. That guy is super cool. So there's a lot of different things that you can do that are absolutely crazy with Dex these days from lighting, Everything else, but just take the time get it dialed in and you'll have a safe deck, but make sure those railings are good I don't know how many times you've seen people that Fell off through the [00:16:00] railing because you had three guys sitting up there that are big and they're leaning on the railing talking and all Of a sudden snap post comes off and now everybody's laying on the ground and somebody gets hurt So let's keep it safe for everybody, especially if you're planning that deck this spring It's a little bit different.

[00:16:13] Eric Goranson: People can still get hurt, but when it's a foot off the ground, many places that doesn't need a building permit, so it's just depending on if you start getting high enough, that's where you start running into trouble. So take a look. I know it's a pain. Do the drawings. If you need to have engineered drawings, get those done.

[00:16:31] Eric Goranson: But just do it right so it's a safe built deck and that'll save you a ton of money in the long run So that's the myth. You don't need a building permit for a deck. Yeah, you do when you're getting up off of uh, 18 to 30 inches depending where you're at That's where it starts to get to where people go.

[00:16:47] Eric Goranson: Oh, you need railings and once you need railings, they want permits That's what that is. All right, guys, that's my big one here on decks and take a look at the new deck products out there as well. Whether you're looking at, you could be looking at the different [00:17:00] pieces of composites to steel framing like we talked about earlier.

[00:17:04] Eric Goranson: Do your research. There's a lot of great products out there and there's a lot of new ones. So spend the time. And take a peek at it. I think there's a lot of great things out there with deck clips. There's some new deck clips that work really easy that I like. If you're using a deck board, the Ninja Clip System by Grip is really cool.

[00:17:22] Eric Goranson: I like that. It's got these serrated edges on it, so if you're looking at that, there's a tip. And another one, too, is if you're just gonna face screw them, take a look at what Millboard by Outlive has. You've seen me do it on my TV show. They make some great product as well. So take a peek at that It is some really neat stuff and it looks like wood and you screw right through the face of it And it's a self healing so it's like a tire when a nail goes in it kind of seals around it That's what happens.

[00:17:47] Eric Goranson: And so when you put a screw in you basically lose the entire head of the screw in it So just make sure don't sink them in all the way until you're done because if you need to go move something A little harder to find those [00:18:00] screws when they're sunk in there. Now you're going to be looking for a, with a magnet or something, trying to figure it out.

[00:18:04] Eric Goranson: And, uh, that doesn't always work well. All right, everybody, if you want to find out more information about us, head over to around the house, online. com. Make sure you follow us on social media. We do a fair amount on Facebook and Instagram. And then we do have a closed group, Facebook group that we should put, uh, posts up.

[00:18:21] Eric Goranson: And I tell you what, that's a fun one. And, uh, that's, uh, around the house nation that you can check us out over there and join. And, uh, this last week I was doing some framing out at the, uh, beach house. And, uh, you got to take a look at what fell down out there when we took the windows out, the header was so dry rot.

[00:18:38] Eric Goranson: Yeah. The header bounced literally without getting the power tools out. That's how dry rotted that was. Let's say we had to do some free framing on that one. All right, when we come back, more exterior, basically home improvement myths that we're going to debunk just as soon as Around the House returns.[00:19:00]

[00:19:00] Eric Goranson: Hey, this is Ron Keel, the metal cowboy from Keel, the Ron Keel band and stealer. We are rocking Around the House with Eric G. Welcome back to the around the house show. This is where we help you get the most out of your home through information and education. Thanks for joining us on the radio today or the podcast.

[00:19:19] Eric Goranson: If you're catching it there, I do appreciate it. If the, if you're a first time listener to us today, thanks for tuning in. If you want to find out more about us, head over to around the house, online. com. We've been talking about my home improvement myths exterior edition today. Earlier we were talking about painting vinyl siding and then pulling building permits on second story decks or raised off the ground decks.

[00:19:42] Eric Goranson: This next one here is a good one, and it's one that I want to have an honest conversation with you about. And this is interesting. And is a heat pump the best way to heat and cool a house? We have right now. Lots of energy that is sitting here. Companies trying to push heat pump technology on us. [00:20:00] And you know something?

[00:20:01] Eric Goranson: In a lot of markets and a lot of places out there, a heat pump might be the right option for you. They're efficient. They will cost you less money in many cases. And it will be more efficient than a gas furnace or an AC unit. And so that might be good. But here's the thing I want to have this in depth conversation about today.

[00:20:21] Eric Goranson: It's not just about looking at numbers, right? And I guess we do have people out there that are very big on not burning fossil fuels to heat their home. And. If you want to do that awesome, but here's where I have a little bit of an issue and this comes down to what you want to do and what you want to support and I want to be careful here.

[00:20:44] Eric Goranson: I'm not after anybody here. There's not a bad guy that I say in this really is what's going on, but I think you need to do some research and see if you trust having a single source for your heat or cooling for your house. You're cooling. Of course, you're [00:21:00] using electricity. Okay. But if you're going to use natural gas, propane, or if you're going to be using electricity, and this is where I want you to really do some deep digging for yourself, because in some communities, their electricity rates are pretty low, and they expect them to be pretty low for a while.

[00:21:20] Eric Goranson: In other areas, there have been expensive double digit jumps for their electricity rates. If you're going to go solar and you want to go heat pump, that could be a huge savings for you. But if they're trying to put the natural gas business out of business in your state, do you really want to switch over to all electric where there is no competition for that?

[00:21:45] Eric Goranson: You know that this is a business, right? The natural gas companies and the electric companies are business. Now there are co ops and things like that in the electricity. sector that they are a community owned. So I [00:22:00] think their pricing might be a little more budgeted than the, the for profit companies out there.

[00:22:05] Eric Goranson: But generally speaking, this is something that I want you to take a listen, take a look and give it some thought. Give it some thought. If you want to bet on your electricity rates being reasonable from here on out and it's hard to say I can't predict the future. I love my electric company. They do a great job here.

[00:22:25] Eric Goranson: But at the same point, are you comfortable saying, okay, I'm going to trust these guys with my bill for heating my house for the next 15 or 20 years, whatever that lifespan is of your heating and cooling unit. And I know that people I've talked to that have asked me the same question and that, and that's the answer I give them.

[00:22:43] Eric Goranson: I say, what's up to you. It's up to what you want to do. If you're sure looking at dollars and cents today. That heat pump, unless you're in North Dakota or some of the northern states up there where you're going to get down to negative 30 where it could be an issue. Anything where you're getting down to zero is starting to really push a heat [00:23:00] pump.

[00:23:00] Eric Goranson: It used to be in the thirties. It wouldn't work now. It's in on the teens for many of the efficient ones, but I just want you to really think and ponder if you want to have two sources, one for one for heat or that. So just think about that. It can be a tough decision, but it's one of those that I just want to make sure that you've got that dialed in.

[00:23:20] Eric Goranson: You've given us some thought because. You're committing to something for a long time, and if you think your natural gas rates are gonna go up and it's gonna be crazy, then maybe it's smart to get to a heat pump. Now, if you've got, like, just an old gas furnace and you're doing the upgrade, the other thing to take into account, though, is the rebates out there.

[00:23:38] Eric Goranson: Do you want the government or your local municipality or local power company? Whoever is doing that paying for part of your installation process. So not gonna get into the politics of it. That's not what this show is. This is relatively a politics free. Show, but this is what I want you to dive into and really take some time and give it some thought.

[00:23:58] Eric Goranson: And if you don't, no worries. I just want to [00:24:00] make sure you're aware of what's going on out there and that you can make the best decision possible. Now, there is 1 of the thing I do want to talk about here when it comes to heat pumps. And this is another myth. I'm going to slide into this 1 here. That if you're thinking about doing a water heater in your house and you've got natural gas and you're like, I am going to go with an on demand unit, tap the brakes on that.

[00:24:24] Eric Goranson: Take a look. If you have the space to do a heat pump water heater, because I was all set to go to take my 40 gallon natural gas water heater and change that into an on demand unit. And my buddy over Bradford White said, are you sure about that? Eric G is that what you want to do? Yeah. Are you sure that's the plan?

[00:24:45] Eric Goranson: And I went, of course it is. Why wouldn't it be? And he goes, do you want to save money? I'm like, well, of course I want to save money. He goes, what if we did a heat pump, water heater, where you're going to put it? We started talking about it. I had the real estate and I put in one of the arrow therm Bradford [00:25:00] white heat pump, water heaters.

[00:25:01] Eric Goranson: And you know something, it was the best call I did that thing with my energy rates. Now my energy rates just went up, but I'm going to guess 160, 170 bucks a year to heat 80 gallons. And when it's in heat pump mode, it's only using 500 watts of electricity, so it saves me a ton of money. Now, the heat pump water heater is cool because it uses less, if you have hard water, it's using less heat because it's a gentle heat, like a heat pump.

[00:25:28] Eric Goranson: So it's putting warm, warmth to that. So it's not going to be like a, you don't get that scale buildup like you would normally get. So it's one thing to think about, but really, I really like the heat pump water heater and it's something to consider. And there's a lot of great rebates out there. So think about that.

[00:25:44] Eric Goranson: Now, the one reason that I went with Bradford white and they're not paying me to say this, they don't pay me a dime, but the reason I went with them is their heat pump water heater actually is serviceable. So if you look at the other brands out there and it's made in the United States, which I like to, [00:26:00] so the other ones are made overseas.

[00:26:01] Eric Goranson: And if they are making them here, if some little part on that goes wrong. You're throwing the whole dang thing away and you got to swap it out. Where this, I could have a heating and cooling person come over and say, Hey, we've got a compressor seal or something crazy that went wrong. You could actually repair it.

[00:26:19] Eric Goranson: So that's the cool part of it is you could actually fix it if something went sideways on it. So something to consider, but I do like that they went with a repairable unit and it's made in the United States, which I think is awesome. So anytime we can do that and keep that stuff here that makes me happy and that's american jobs that we're promoting Which I of course i'm a big fan of so we want to make sure and do that Speaker to that before we go out to break here in a minute.

[00:26:44] Eric Goranson: I do want to say If you head over to the around the house show on kptv fox 12 So if you go over there, or you actually if you just go over to youtube and go fox 12 oregon and then find the around the [00:27:00] house northwest tab you can see All of my segments I did last year highlighting local craftspeople here in the Pacific Northwest building stuff, and we had a lot of companies that we sat down and did a lot with and really it was a lot of fun going around and I just wanted to talk about this for a minute since it's the kind of the last Bye.

[00:27:20] Eric Goranson: This is the weekend of the last show of season one. We did 52 episodes. We have about 300 plus videos up from the show. And so that's, what's really cool about that. But we went through and highlighted so many local companies that are building stuff here. Some great ones. We went down to, we, this, we want to, it was just, it was so much fun.

[00:27:43] Eric Goranson: I found a company that makes. And this was crazy local mattresses and I could literally order a mattress On a thursday and have it delivered made to my specs on monday Super cool, right? Super cool And so we went through and take a look through [00:28:00] that list over there and our main and northwest segments They're a lot of fun.

[00:28:03] Eric Goranson: We're going to continue on here with the weather gets a little bit better Because a lot of times we're outside and it was just hard to do it and a lot of companies had some safety issues if we were outside walking around their plant. If it's driving rain and there's a lot going on, we're gonna, we're gonna get back on those again because there's more places we're gonna go visit.

[00:28:21] Eric Goranson: But I tell you what, we went to Miller Paint, which is a Pacific Northwest paint company, watched them make paint. We went over to Rada paint and did it there. We did best manufacturers who makes these crazy, cool little kitchen whisks all made in the U S. So, so many places we did, we did Leatherman tool.

[00:28:41] Eric Goranson: We did all these different things. So go check it out. That's going to be around the house, Northwest or on KPTV, Fox 12, Oregon, YouTube around the house. We'll be right back. Don't go anywhere.[00:29:00]

[00:29:04] Eric Goranson: Welcome back to the round the house show, where I hope you get the most out of your home through information and education. Thanks for joining us today. We've been talking today about our Home Improvement Myths exterior edition, talking about those things outside the house and we're not going out to break there right before this commercial break.

[00:29:20] Eric Goranson: We were talking about my YouTube videos over on KPTV, Fox 12, Oregon, and one way you can find this is the easy way. Don't go have to go in a big search. You can just go over to around the house online, our website, and you'll see the videos there and then just view the playlist. It's an easy way to do it.

[00:29:36] Eric Goranson: But I just wanted to thank my favorite boots out there right now are truman boot company They're made in eugene, oregon. This guy they just build handmade boots down there beautiful stuff Sheesh, there was just so many cool things that we got to visit Handmade wallpaper at lonesome pictopia These ladies make a beautiful handmade wallpaper.

[00:29:58] Eric Goranson: And then we had some other stuff too. [00:30:00] There's a great thing here in Oregon, and it's one of those things. I'm not a big fan of our Metro government. I'll be the first to say that. And we're not going to get into that whole story. Cause this isn't a political show, but that's a pseudo government agency here in the Portland Metro area.

[00:30:14] Eric Goranson: But they do have one of the best paint recycling facilities in the country. So if you have latex paint, they actually. Take the paint in mix it all up quality test it and make their own colors and then you can buy it super cheap And it's recycled paint and so they've done a really good job of doing that So we saw them paint recycling which was really cool And that was another one went and saw our friends at tiger stop Who make these really cool controls for your chop saw.

[00:30:42] Eric Goranson: So we just had a lot of cool things. And the last one I want to mention before we go is to get back to the show here was Oregon freeze drive, who is a mountain house, the stuff you should have freeze dried food saved for emergency or that natural disaster. So you've got something there. So just wanted to thank all the different [00:31:00] companies out there that played a part.

[00:31:02] Eric Goranson: In the show storm breaker brewing. There's a lot of different ones out there I can't go through them all because it would be a long show doing that but thanks to everybody out there And make sure that you're giving your business to your local people around because I tell you what They're the ones that are keeping your city alive and all that local stuff.

[00:31:19] Eric Goranson: I'm a huge fan of So I wanted to talk here about my last kind of big home improvement myth here on the on ventilation in your house and this is actually a big one and it's something that I think we should be talking about because Ventilation is something that is taking air inside and moving it outside And there are so many different ways that you see and this is one of those things about people The myth that I want to talk about here is putting in one of those whole house attic fans To evacuate the heat out of the attic and how you could put one in a few hours.

[00:31:50] Eric Goranson: And now you have something that is a big energy saving of keeping that attic space cooler and thus saving you energy on your heating and cooling. Now [00:32:00] there's a problem with that. And the big problem with that is that there's a lot more to this project than just putting a fan in. And this is where that myth is sure.

[00:32:07] Eric Goranson: You can go out and spend a few hundred bucks on that fan, but the amount of work to do this correctly is huge. Here's why. First off, if you put a big fan in, just like anything else, when you're moving air out, you have to move air in. And so if you're going in and moving 500 CFM out, where is that incoming air coming from?

[00:32:27] Eric Goranson: So one, you need to make sure that your soffit vents are big, large enough and have the large enough square inches to supply the air and the CFM of that fan. Second of all, you need to pull back all the insulation in that attic and caulk and seal up. Around every opening and every joist bay, every light, because here's what happens, you will create somewhat of a vacuum up there as it's pulling air out, right?

[00:32:57] Eric Goranson: Turn the fan on. There's air coming in the back. It's coming out the front. [00:33:00] It's going out the door. The problem is you're going to start pulling if you're not careful, conditioned air from the home down below. So what happens is, is you're sitting there and you've got the fan on. It's pulling air around your recessed can lights that aren't sealed up.

[00:33:14] Eric Goranson: Okay. All the little holes that are for the plumbing and the electrical and the drain lines and all those different things. It's pulling it out and that's air that you've already paid to condition. So now when that pulls out of there, you're pulling in the hot air from outside around windows and doorways and other places.

[00:33:32] Eric Goranson: And so now you've made something that's much less efficient. So you want to get up there and what I like to do when you're up there and something like that is get up there with the fire foam, the fire block foam. And just fill in all those voids around all the pipes, everything else, use some caulking, caulk everything in that you can.

[00:33:52] Eric Goranson: If you have to build little boxes around the recessed can lights to make sure those are sealed up, that's a good way to do it. And that'll get you [00:34:00] going so you can do that. Then you can put in the insulation, maybe more insulation while you're at it, because it's not that harder to add more if you're doing it.

[00:34:08] Eric Goranson: But if you can do that attic fan is going to make a lot of sense on keeping that that cooler up there And thus reducing it now the other part of ventilation I want to talk about is that kitchen fan and the bath fans like we talked about earlier making sure that those are vented outside So while you're up in that attic space Make sure you should have if you have a range or a cooktop or whatever That hood should be venting all the way outside If you have a recycle hood That kicks it back in your face when you turn it on, throw it away.

[00:34:39] Eric Goranson: They're drunk. If they don't work period, there is not a good one out there. They have a little tiny charcoal filter that maybe grabs a little grease, but it's not doing you any good. So all of the carcinogens out of the food that you're burning, cooking, whatever, the grease, everything else, all the chemicals coming out of that are coming up into the air and being released in your house.

[00:34:59] Eric Goranson: And [00:35:00] that is the largest. Biggest influence of indoor air quality. That's what's causing it to be so bad in there So that hood is your friend. You should be using it correctly and guys If you got it going it's going to make it for cleaner air inside the home Now i'm going to add one more on here That you should think about if you have a newer home.

[00:35:19] Eric Goranson: We've talked about it too, but it's an exterior one I also think in ventilation that you should have probably a humidity controlled vent fan in your garage that vents to the outside. Because if you get something in there that all it takes is two wet cars and a sealed up garage and you got mold growing.

[00:35:35] Eric Goranson: So take a moment, install one of those in there. I've seen people install ERV systems and get more complex, but if you put in a bath fan that'll kick on at 60 percent and it'll move the air out, that will help you out. And that'll help keep that space really dialed in and you're not going to be getting mold on all your boxes in the garage because it's unheated, right?

[00:35:58] Eric Goranson: So that's the thing. [00:36:00] Take some time. Do it right. All right. Well, that wraps up my Home Improvement Myths Exterior Edition. Now there's one other thing and I want to talk about it's a little bit of a different subject here. And I wanted to talk about it here real quick and it's, I could use your help out there.

[00:36:16] Eric Goranson: If you see any bad home improvement videos of people giving bad information out there on social media, maybe it's Facebook, maybe it's, maybe it's Instagram, maybe it's YouTube. If you see something that's absolutely wild, please. Send that link over to me drop it on my Facebook and the messenger on the around the house page or drop it over there I want to see it if you run into it I could use your help because we're gonna be continuing these things and I don't have time to chase down all of social media But we're gonna we're gonna see that coming up and then hey this summer.

[00:36:54] Eric Goranson: I'm working on I'll give you a little hint here to this summer. We're gonna have Probably [00:37:00] the biggest giveaway that we've ever had in the 35 years of around the house This is going to be a massive giveaway And we're working out the details now, but to this kind of late spring summer. I haven't got the date figured out yet There's a lot to check out right there and that'll be coming soon So make sure you pay attention because this is going to be the mother of all giveaways for us right now And when we get this thing going, it's going to be a lot of fun And you could have a really cool thing in your garage.

[00:37:30] Eric Goranson: So we'll just leave it at that. That's going to be coming up here in a few months. So just keep an eye out for it. Not to tease you too badly with it, but do that. But I could use these videos so we can continue to educate people on what we're doing out there of trying to stop all of this absolutely horrible advice that we're seeing on social media.

[00:37:48] Eric Goranson: The people are doing well, guess what? They're giving wrong information and it's hurting people like you that are just out there searching trying to find information It's just like what we saw here [00:38:00] And this was a big one here that I was really shocked about And I don't know if you guys saw this out there and this is something That's a big problem out there.

[00:38:08] Eric Goranson: And so this was in the last minute of the show here. I want to talk about this Mike holmes from homes on homes Some of the houses he's working on that. He was actually part of he actually didn't build these but they were sponsored I posted up a story on the around the house show facebook page over there, but basically in canada These homes that were allegedly mike holmes approved homes are now being demolished Because of this.

[00:38:36] Eric Goranson: They actually had to go in. These houses were so horribly built, they literally had to tear them down. And one of the homes had hundreds of thousands of dollars of work on it. Just to get it. And it was one that actually Mike owned for a little bit before they sent it. Take a look over on the Facebook page.

[00:38:52] Eric Goranson: The story is very fairly done, I think, by CBC News out of Canada. And the segment, if you want to search for it, is why some [00:39:00] Mike Holmes approved homes are now being demolished. That is something that's pretty ugly and just got to be careful with your sources out there. And obviously something went wrong in his organization for that to happen.

[00:39:10] Eric Goranson: Because nobody wants to see brand new houses get torn down because they're so horribly built All right, everybody. Enjoy your weekend. Have a great one out there Stay safe on those home improvement projects, and we'll see you next time. Thanks for tuning in to around the house