[00:00:00] Eric Goranson: It's around the house. We've been talking about my top 10 tricks to extend the life out of the most expensive systems in your home. And that's super important because I'm just trying to save you money and maybe help extend the life out of stuff around there. Next up on our list here, making sure that you maintain the tile in your home.

[00:00:24] Eric Goranson: And it could be a tile shower. It could be a tub shower. It could be a floor. It could be a backsplash. We're on the house shows. Brought to you by Pyramid Heating and Cooling. Serving in Oregon, the Portland metro area, and Bend, Oregon, they are your one stop shop for heating and cooling and indoor air quality.

[00:00:41] Eric Goranson: To find out more, head to PyramidHeating. com. Oregon CCB 59382. When it comes to remodeling and renovating your home, there is a lot to know, but we've got you covered. This is Around the House. Welcome to the Around the House show, the next generation of home improvement. Thanks for [00:01:00] joining me today. We're brought to you by our Friends at monument grills to find out more about them and their amazing grills for all of you, girl enthusiasts that love innovative, high quality grills for under 900 bucks.

[00:01:14] Eric Goranson: That's a great way to cook to find out more head over to monumentgrills. com. I'm Eric G we've got a great show lined up for you, but first, if you're new to this show, if you're catching us on the podcast, YouTube, or on the talk media network, On radio stations all across the country. Thanks for joining us today.

[00:01:33] Eric Goranson: If you want to find out more about us, head over to around the house online. com. And you can call us here in the studio at 833 239 4144. That number again is 833 239 4144. Check us out on social media. Just look for either the real around the house show or around the house show. And of course, we've got a brand new tick tock.

[00:01:56] Eric Goranson: And we've got our YouTube channel. So make sure you find that out there [00:02:00] and you can find that all down in the show notes here. If you're listening on the podcast, guys, we've got a great show here this hour. We're going to talk about my top 10 tricks to extend the life of the most expensive systems in your house.

[00:02:15] Eric Goranson: This is stuff that things are getting so crazy expensive right now out there. With labor and materials and all that taxes, all of that we're seeing right now. Things are so crazy expensive. So I thought, Hey, let's do an episode on ways to keep what you have going just a little bit longer and see if we can extend the life out of those where you do a little bit of maintenance for little care, and maybe we can keep that thing going for you so you don't have to replace it.

[00:02:41] Eric Goranson: So the first one here is probably one of the most expensive in fearful projects around your house. And that is foundation issues. Now, this can be pretty expensive, and we've talked about this in recent episodes here and there, but I wanted to just talk about it first off in this one because it's important.[00:03:00]

[00:03:00] Eric Goranson: If your house is located on clay soil, it looks like modeling clay when it's wet. Or in the summertime, if it's dry or in the wintertime, it's dry, depending on where you're at in the country. If you see those cracks in the ground, like an old lake bed, that's clay. And here's what happens. And we see this in my area, in the Pacific Northwest, a lot with the clay soil is that, uh, there's a trend here in our area to not water your lawns in the summertime.

[00:03:27] Eric Goranson: Cause it's our dry season, right? It is just bone dry. We might just get a little bit of rain a month and those yards turn absolutely white. The problem is, though, is when your yard turns white, that ground that is clay shrinks up like an old kitchen sponge sitting on the window sill. And so everything shrinks up.

[00:03:47] Eric Goranson: And if your house is sitting on the clay, most likely it is if you've got clay soil, then that's sitting on that in your house is moving. And then when you turn the sprinklers on, or you get the fall rains or whenever the next rainstorm comes in. [00:04:00] That soaks up the water and expands back out again So what with that is a huge issue with that foundation moving around and all it takes is one crack Once you get that one crack now, you're going to be moving it around because that crack's going to move That's the weak point and then you'll start other cracks around the foundation So my thing is is maybe you don't want to water your whole lawn and there's reasons why you do it It's your lawn But make sure at least you're watering around the base of the foundation around the house, those flower beds and things, make sure you've got a soaker hose or something keeping that wet.

[00:04:33] Eric Goranson: So you have less house movement. Go ahead and fix those cracks. That's not too bad to do, but many times just keeping that water around the foundation Keeping that soil at a constant dampness will keep that from moving around so much, and it'll slow down or even eliminate those foundation issues. So you can fix those cracks with carbon fiber, depending on what you have.

[00:04:56] Eric Goranson: And, uh, if you've got a couple of good cracks in it, just call up your local Uh, [00:05:00] structural engineer, have them come out, come up with a solution for you. Usually you can put carbon fiber over the top. That could even be a DIY project, but that is something that can really help you out. So keep that moisture around there.

[00:05:11] Eric Goranson: Keep the house from moving around. You're going to have a lot less drywall cracks and windows and doors moving around on the inside as well. You'll have less of that stuff. If the house isn't moving. So those are my two tips right there. And if you've got those foundation cracks, just get them repaired.

[00:05:26] Eric Goranson: And I always recommend, like I've said before, to make sure and have. A structural engineer come out and take a peek at it. You'll pay a few hundred bucks for that Have them come out and take a look at it and they'll say hey, that's no big deal or they're going to say wow We've got bigger issues and then you want them to write up a report you're going to pay for that It's going to cost you a little bit of money But then that you're going to have a report that's going to say the best way to fix it And then you can get the foundation contractors out to do it and they can follow up with their system And now you have a repair solution that everybody can bid on equally You Which means you're [00:06:00] more informed.

[00:06:01] Eric Goranson: On getting the right solution there. So that's a big one right there. So keeping those foundations good, keeping them damp, but not overwet. It's just like when we talk about those, uh, downs, you want to get that water at least 10 feet away from the foundation. Those are all things you can do to keep that foundation a lot better shape.

[00:06:20] Eric Goranson: That water sitting next to it is going to do damage as well. And especially with older foundations, like before 1940s, for instance, You'll see that that water will do significantly more damage in many areas. So be careful with that. That can be a big problem. Now, the next one here is roofs. And I think the average shingle cost out there for putting up a roof these days is about 25, 000 across the U S as the national average.

[00:06:47] Eric Goranson: So how do you do, how do you keep that from getting out of control? There's a couple of things you can do to get that life out of that roof. If you're an area where you get moss or lichen from rains, if you're in a wet area, [00:07:00] make sure that you've got like a zinc strip across the top or you're treating that roof.

[00:07:05] Eric Goranson: To keep that clean. There are soft wash companies out there. Never pressure wash a shingled roof. Don't do it. Don't have somebody come up there. There are plenty of companies out there that do roof treatments and soft wash that will get up there and clean that without taking a shower. All of the granules off.

[00:07:23] Eric Goranson: Cause that's the key right there is if you remove those granules, that's a really big issue because that's the wearing surface of the roof. So when that roof gets worn out, it's the granule loss that's hurting you. And so there's guys that can get up there that, that can softwash that. And do a gentle wash, no pressure washing, but they'll get up there with a hose and, and softwash that there are companies out there that sell a treatment that keeps the roof a little more pliable, but I'll be honest.

[00:07:51] Eric Goranson: I have not researched those, so I don't know probably any more about it than you do, but it might be something I take a look at. I want to test out and see if that [00:08:00] actually works. Or if that's just another add on that, uh, really doesn't do a lot. If you have any experience with that, feel free to hit me up over to roundthehouseonline.

[00:08:08] Eric Goranson: com. I wouldn't mind having a little more information or your experience with it, but really keeping that roof clean is a big deal. And if you can keep that stuff off of it, it's just going to last a lot longer. So make sure that that little bit of maintenance up there, get up there, keep the gutters clean.

[00:08:24] Eric Goranson: And of course, just keep all that stuff growing in my area here. We have a big issue here with, with tons of junk getting on the roof. And that's because we live in a forest and it is a bi weekly job to get up there sometimes to keep that clean and keep that from off and off there. So that's the other problem is if you're up there too much, you can also do some damage to that roof as well.

[00:08:45] Eric Goranson: Cause you don't want to be wearing that surface off. But really keeping that maintained is going to be the key. Now, the next one here, we're going to talk about sighting, but one more thing that I want to mention here before we go out to break, we'll talk about sighting here in a second. [00:09:00] One more thing I want to mention with roofs is when you're up there, inspect it, make sure that, that if you can find a few extra bundles of shingles that you can put away, you're Keep in the cool area.

[00:09:10] Eric Goranson: So it's not going to get all stick together, but really, if you can make sure that you've got some extras or something, that's a close match that way, if you have to do some repairs on it, if you get a little bit of wind that has gotten underneath it, that has lifted some shingles up, or you've got some damage from hail, you can at least get in there and get that repaired.

[00:09:28] Eric Goranson: And have it look halfway decent roses are red Violets are blue Around the house with eric g coming back to you right after the break You thought it was gonna We'll be right back Should I be allowed to be so hot[00:10:00]

[00:10:03] Eric Goranson: Welcome back to the around the house show. The next generation of home improvement. We're brought to you by our friends at monument grills to find out more about them. And there are amazing grills for all of you. Grill enthusiasts that love innovative, high quality grills for under 900 bucks. That's a great way to cook to find out more head over to monumentgrills.

[00:10:25] Eric Goranson: com. I'm Eric G we've been talking about my top 10 tricks to extend the life of the most expensive systems and products in your home before we get it back into that discussion, I wanted to talk about a couple of things. If you've been catching the show, the around the house, Northwest television show that, uh, do with great television.

[00:10:42] Eric Goranson: We had a brand new concept last weekend, and of course, it's airing the second episode of that new concept this weekend. We retooled the entire show and we'd gotten up to close to 80 episodes there. So we needed to do something a little bit different. It was great to do some changes and we've got a new show going out there.

[00:10:59] Eric Goranson: So [00:11:00] take a look at that. You can catch that over at around the house, online. com. And you can catch it over there on the YouTube pages and stuff. So it's really fun. We've got some kind of a new design oriented with it. We're doing a few less heavy projects. We're talking more about some beautiful homes that we see out there.

[00:11:16] Eric Goranson: And then the episodes are a little bit more themed where we're going to go chase down a subject all throughout it. And it's a more condensed show at a half hour instead of an hour. Which I am so thankful for, and it gives us a really a better chance to tell the story and not have to put out as much content each week we can carefully tell the story versus just having to cram that out.

[00:11:39] Eric Goranson: That was becoming such a big undertaking week after week and with a tight crew and my buddy Bradley that was doing those first episodes with us boy, he will be missed on our team. We've got some great new team members, but it's a reimagined around the house Northwest. So take a look at it. If you haven't catched it, but caught it before, if you have a great television station in [00:12:00] your area, take a look, there's hundreds of stations across the country.

[00:12:03] Eric Goranson: Just look around the house up on there and you'll see some of the videos there, but you can catch it at around the house online. com. We've been talking about this subject about just trying to help you save money. Get the most out of those systems in your home. So when maybe interest rates get better or this inflation gets down or you make more money, you can afford to do these things.

[00:12:24] Eric Goranson: Cause so many people out there are really trying to extend the life out of things in their home. And one thing I want to talk about here before we get into this, that's related is so many people go, man, I would do this as a DIY project, but I just don't know how to do it. Take a look in your community.

[00:12:40] Eric Goranson: If you're in a little bit bigger area, take a look and see if there are DIY classes that maybe some of the nonprofits or the habitat humanities or whatever else in your area is doing. Like we have a place in my area here called the rebuilding center. They have an whole education department. So if you want to [00:13:00] come in and learn how to use power tools, or if you want to learn this stuff, since our schools, many of them out there have dropped the ball on teaching kids who are now adults, how to use tools, how to fix things themselves, how to do those repairs.

[00:13:14] Eric Goranson: We have really failed a couple generations now with not giving them the knowledge to do basic things like that. These places are really doing some great education, and it's basically for the cost in many of these places. So take a look and see if there's any classes you can take to tackle these projects, because it could be really beneficial to you and save you a ton of money.

[00:13:37] Eric Goranson: And these are lifelong skills, so it might be cool to do that. Check around and see what's out there. You might be surprised what's in your area. If you just take a little Google around and see what you can find or duck, duck, go, or whatever you're using out there for your privacy, take a peek and see what's out there might be able to do.

[00:13:56] Eric Goranson: Your next one is a DIY project and save you [00:14:00] some serious money. We were talking about foundations earlier, roofs, keeping up with that. Now with siding, this is an important one. And there are so many different sightings out there, but you could have vinyl sighting with a quote unquote, lifetime warranty.

[00:14:15] Eric Goranson: You could have a cedar shingle. You could have asbestos shingles. You could have cement and all the different woods that we see out there. There are so many different to even stone. There's so many different sightings out there. So I want to talk about this kind of as a general rule of sighting. First off, maintaining it as big, for instance, one of the big problems that I see.

[00:14:36] Eric Goranson: Is that vinyl sightings, it will get dirty, chalky, mildewy. All these things will happen. If it's in a wet, damp area, you'll see stuff growing on it. Cause it's still PVC plastic, right? It's still vinyl. So what you want to do is make sure and get that clean. I think the biggest mistake that I see people doing though, is they'll get in there with the pressure washer and do some significant [00:15:00] damage.

[00:15:00] Eric Goranson: To the house because you're pushing water in places. It's never intended to go So there are plenty of great vinyl siding cleaners out there for maintenance You can go around the house It's more of a hose end sprayer and then head out to your automotive store someplace Even if your home center has them some of those nice stiff brushes scrub brushes Like you do a semi truck or a big truck with On a stick and then just get in there and some elbow grease and get that cleaned off You And that way, you don't have to worry about putting too much water in the wrong places and causing water damage to the building.

[00:15:33] Eric Goranson: Get in there, get that cleaned up. A lot of these vinyl sighting cleaners have some stuff that keeps that oil back in there. So it'll eliminate that chalkiness and and all of that. So that's good. And then, of course, where you need to caulk things in. Make sure that's caulked in. And that's going to be really with any type of sighting out there is to make sure that between window trim, door trim, and the sighting that you've got that caulked in at the right place.

[00:15:58] Eric Goranson: Vinyl sighting is a little bit different [00:16:00] just because the way the J trims are, you need to be careful where you caulk and where you don't. But you want to keep that sealed up as best you can because vinyl siding in itself is not really something that's weatherproof In that pretty easy for rain and moisture to get around it And that's something that's going to be a little less durable as far as that goes It'll take it but it just lets water behind it and that can be a bigger issue But making sure that you've got that nice and clean and maintained and if it requires finish get on that if you've got that 1980s t111 plywood siding with the 8 inch or 4 inch Kind of grooves in it.

[00:16:35] Eric Goranson: You see out there making sure that stuff is hard, thin primed and painted. Those little touch ups are really good. I've got to get my scaffolding set up here. Cause I've got. A whole area of my house that I just painted last year. Then I've got a woodpecker coming in here before the weather turns. I've been chasing him off.

[00:16:53] Eric Goranson: I got to go up and put a, one of those plastic owls up and see if I can get that. And hopefully the Eagle next door, [00:17:00] I'll keep an eye on him and maybe get him out of there, but not much I can do about the wildlife, but he's been chewing into my. Siding. So I got to get up there and get some patching done and some painting and get that fixed up before winter comes around because all that raw wood and it's right on the edge of the house is going to be really exposed.

[00:17:18] Eric Goranson: And I don't want to get that wet and rotted because otherwise I'm going to be replacing all that siding on that side. And when you have T one 11, that's a big job. Because all that stuff sits there and causes a heck of a big mess. What can happen with that is, is traditionally that T one 11 citing is, is actually the sheathing and the sighting is one.

[00:17:37] Eric Goranson: So how they built the house, those houses typically is you would see the two by four studs basically in the seventies and eighties, they would put tar paper up, staple it up to the. Two by fours, and then just put those sheet panels up there and then they would prime and paint off. They went and get caulked in.

[00:17:55] Eric Goranson: So that is structure and it is also citing. So you want to make [00:18:00] sure that stuff's in the great shape because otherwise you've got some structural issues there. So really keeping that looking good. If you've got brick out there, making sure that's clean, making sure it's pointed, making sure that all that stuff is looking good.

[00:18:12] Eric Goranson: Again, those are things that a little bit of maintenance can jump in before you have to replace it. And just be careful when you're out there. Sometimes with brick, you'll see down low, these little holes. Don't go closing those up many times. If you notice in there in the same spot, that's a weep hole that's designed for any water that gets behind it to come out there.

[00:18:31] Eric Goranson: So don't get too crazy with the mortar blocking that stuff up. That's there for a purpose. What do Eric G and Taylor Swift have in common? Absolutely nothing. Thank the good Lord. More great household tips on around the house with Eric G right after the break. To the around the[00:19:00]

[00:19:03] Eric Goranson: house show, the next generation of home improvement. We're brought to you by our friends at monument grills to find out more about them. And there are amazing grills for all of you. Grill enthusiasts that love innovative, high quality grills for under 900 bucks. That's a great way to cook to find out more head over to monumentgrills.

[00:19:24] Eric Goranson: com. We've been talking about my top 10 tricks to extend the life out of the most expensive systems in your home. And that's super important because I'm just trying to save you money. And maybe help extend the life out of stuff around there. Now, before we get into the list here, I wanted to talk just for a moment about checking out our YouTube channel.

[00:19:43] Eric Goranson: We've really started putting stuff together. We're putting more videos up there. And of course you can also catch the podcast on there. Just look for the around the house show over there. And you can find that over at our website. If you don't want to have to go search for it, just go over to around the house, online.

[00:19:56] Eric Goranson: com. And you can find that. And our other channel, which is part of a [00:20:00] KBTV Fox 12 for the around the house, Northwest television show that has stuff hiding over there. So take a look. We've got a lot of video stuff for you and tips and tricks and everything else hiding over there. Next up on our list here, we're talking to HVAC.

[00:20:16] Eric Goranson: I'm done preaching about that for right now, but one of the next ones here is something that can really get out of control. And sometimes you can save it. Sometimes you can't. Okay. making sure that you maintain the tile in your home. And it could be a tile shower. It could be a tub shower. It could be a floor.

[00:20:34] Eric Goranson: It could be a backsplash. It could be anywhere that you've got tile. And there's some basic maintenance things that I always recommend for that. First off, If it's around a tub shower or a shower base, for instance, is making sure that all that caulking is clean sealed up and is operating correctly. So that needs to be a hundred percent silicone caulk.

[00:20:58] Eric Goranson: And you don't want to make sure [00:21:00] that if somebody did this for you earlier, that you've got anywhere that tile, if you've got a flat tile wall, let's say it's the wall of the shower. And as it goes into the corner and around to the other side, anytime that tile changes directions, that should be a caulked joint.

[00:21:16] Eric Goranson: So there are some products out there that I'm seeing some tile guys use. I don't think it's reliable, but they've got some of these new kind of hybrid grouts that they say will work, but I've seen them fail too many times. So until technology gets better, I would like to see that. Anywhere it changes direction to be silicone.

[00:21:34] Eric Goranson: And that's what the ANSI teaches us as far as the rules of that out there, as far as the technical specifications for tile. So you want to make sure that anywhere that is, that's how that works out. So make sure that you've got that cleaned out. So if it's clean, it looks good. Inspect that. Make it look great.

[00:21:52] Eric Goranson: Now, if you have to clean it out, get in there and get in there with a razor blade and clean out all of that caulking that all the moldy stuff, all the [00:22:00] stuff that's loose, get it out of there. And then just go back with a color matched caulking, and you can go in there and really get that dialed in and looking good.

[00:22:08] Eric Goranson: Now, the other thing is if you've got older tile, it's probably not been sealed in a while, unless you've been really on top of it, generally tile need to be sealed every six months to five years, depending on what what the situation is. For most of the older grouts out there. So you want to make sure that you've got that taken care of.

[00:22:26] Eric Goranson: So my question is, when was the last time you sealed that grout? Because grout is not waterproof unless it's one of the new ones that have that epoxy or some of the sealing properties built into it, into the older stuff. No, it's just a regular. Cementatious grout. So it's like a cement based product. So what you want to do is make sure that you get in there and get that cleaned up.

[00:22:45] Eric Goranson: So my best bet is you can get in there with a steamer. If you don't have one, you can sure rent one and get onto your home improvement rental place and get one of those. Go around and steam, clean it all, get it all looking good. Few little [00:23:00] scrub brushes, get it all dialed in. Once it's nice and dry, you can go back with a high quality sealer and seal that.

[00:23:08] Eric Goranson: So that way you get that looking good and fresh, and that's just going to extend the life out. If you're getting so much. Mold and junk and nastiness on those. That's going to help break down that grout. So you just want to make sure that you get that cleaned up. Now, if you've got grout failing, and now you've got water down underneath the tile on the shower floor, then you've got a leak.

[00:23:27] Eric Goranson: And then of things will go sideways. That's how you end up spending 15 grand to pay a professional. Come on, put a new shower in for you, which nobody wants to do these days. I get it. But those are some of the tricks and tips to making sure that any of that tile is looking good. Floor tile gets the worst, especially that stuff in the nineties and two thousands.

[00:23:46] Eric Goranson: We got huge wide. Grout lines that maybe are half inch and those things just get dirty so quick. So get in there, really clean it up and use some really good quality sealer out there. Don't get the cheapest stuff. You can get the most expensive stuff you can [00:24:00] afford. That's higher grade. Do some online research, see what you can do out there and get a good grade of it because it will last longer.

[00:24:07] Eric Goranson: You get what you pay for with sealers and uh, you want to make sure you're putting the right product down. So it lasts. And even some of those sealers, take a look. Some of them will have different chains to them where it's a mat or a gloss or whatever. And you can get the look that you're trying to achieve with that and make sure it's looking nice and dialed in.

[00:24:25] Eric Goranson: All right. The next one here is one that can be pretty dangerous if you're not careful. This is maintaining your garage door. Now, garage doors can be six grand. They can be 25 grand. It's really depending on what you're trying to do. And how many of them you have, but if you've got that older wood door, here's what I recommend.

[00:24:45] Eric Goranson: First, take a look at it, lift it up a little bit, get it halfway up, take a peek at it. Does it have what they call a smile is the bottom of that door warped. Is there kind of a spot where maybe the middle is hanging down more than the edges? [00:25:00] Because what happens is those cables hang on the outside of the garage door and the middle over time kind of sags a little bit.

[00:25:06] Eric Goranson: That's pretty hard to repair on a garage door. So there's not much you can do about that. Usually with a wood one like that, it's time for replacement. But here's the thing. If you've got a wood door or even a metal one, This is probably where you want to bring in the professional to come in and do some maintenance on it.

[00:25:23] Eric Goranson: Make sure that your springs are good because when those springs break, especially when you've got that coil spring, that's across the header, across the top versus the ones that are like in the old doors to go up on the cables on the sides that help lift the door that way. But your traditional coil spring garage door, these should be maintained.

[00:25:42] Eric Goranson: You should have grease on the wheels and the bearings. And then after a while, what happens is Those springs will fail. And the problem is if you've got a car in there, all of a sudden you'll hear this boom and this whizzing noise. And that means that you probably lost the spring up top. And usually it happens in my experience is when the door's [00:26:00] coming down, it'll be eight or 10 inches off the ground.

[00:26:03] Eric Goranson: It goes, boom, the door drops. And so at that point is when you need to put her in spring up there. And I will tell you, this is not a DIY project. This is something that you want to bring in a pro. I have seen way too many people get hurt, pretty easy to get killed doing this. If you're not careful, because it's the way it's the archaic way you have to tension these springs.

[00:26:23] Eric Goranson: You literally have to put a rod in a hole. Turn it a quarter turn, stick a rod in that same hole and use that. And if you have the wrong tools, you're trying to do with a screwdriver or whatever else I have seen two people in my lifetime, trying to do this, the DIY project, and it came out and they broke their job.

[00:26:42] Eric Goranson: So it's just not worth it. And when that technician's in there, you want them to take a look, maybe the carrier bearings for that whole rod and that tension spring or that torsion spring that goes across the top. You want to make sure that's all working well. And those bearings and adjustments can really extend the life of that.

[00:26:59] Eric Goranson: And so [00:27:00] that's a great way to keep that thing working. So usually it's depending on the door, but even if you have to come in and do new springs and bearings and all that stuff, I've seen a professional start as much as five or 600 bucks for that. But if you can get a few more years out of the door, it's not a bad way to go and it'll make it quieter.

[00:27:16] Eric Goranson: And then if you put a really good, high quality garage door opener on it, you're to be looking pretty good. So keep that garage. Tuned up that door looking good. If it's wood, make sure it's stained or painted. Make sure you're on top of that and make sure all the edges are sealed up because that thing takes a beating, you know, when it gets water up against it or anything else, and just make sure that's looking good.

[00:27:38] Eric Goranson: So a little bit of maintenance on that is going to save that door and keep it lasting a long time. Even the metal ones will wear out. So you just want to make sure that you've got all those bearings and stuff looking good And that way, you know, you're gonna have less issues with it down the road And it's not gonna rot out if it's wood and if you can keep that going a little bit longer mine I had to finally replace the last year.

[00:27:57] Eric Goranson: So I had way too much. It was a [00:28:00] 1977 door It had a good life well beyond its expectation, but had a smile and it was rotting out just from uh, Lack of maintenance over the years and something that had happened way before I got the house But something to take a peek when it comes to that Now I want to get into plumbing systems here because this is something that you can maintain and stay on top of this stuff.

[00:28:21] Eric Goranson: And really save yourself some money. So one of my first tips here for maintaining that plumbing system is do not use drain cleaners in your house. Don't pour it down the drain. Rarely does it do the job. Rarely does it work correctly. In my opinion, stay away from those drain cleaners. When you come back here.

[00:28:41] Eric Goranson: I want to talk more about the water side, not the drain side of your system to make sure that's working well. We'll do that just as soon as Around the House returns. Welcome[00:29:00]

[00:29:09] Eric Goranson: back to the Around the House show, the next generation of home improvement brought to you by my friends over at Monument Grills. To find out more about their amazing grills for all of you that love to cook outside, head over to MonumentGrills. com. We've been talking about the top 10 tricks. To extend the life of the most expensive systems in your house.

[00:29:29] Eric Goranson: And there's a lot of things that you can do out there to really get things dialed in for your home. That could save you some serious money. And that's what we've been talking about today. Trying to extend the life of systems within your house. Whether it's inside or outside. So you can afford to do it later and buy a little more time before you have to take on a bigger project.

[00:29:49] Eric Goranson: I wanted to talk about two more here in our last segment today. And the first one is getting the most out of your appliances. And I'll be honest, a lot of these appliances, we've added so much technology to them [00:30:00] and they really just don't last as long as those old. 1970s and eighties Kenmore ones did back in the day.

[00:30:07] Eric Goranson: I'm going to sound like some crazy boomer out there, but really We just don't build them that well anymore. And then we added so many features. We've just asking for problems. And so that is why a lot of people go out there and we'll go buy like a speed queen or something like that. That is a commercial type brand made for your home and that you can put in there and get 20 or 30 years out of, and there's a lot of companies that do that type of stuff.

[00:30:32] Eric Goranson: Mila is another one out there that really has tried to build machines last a long time. They traditionally in the past have carried parts for 20 years. And sometimes that's the problem with a lot of these appliances that, okay, great. We control panel quit. And I can't even get a control panel for it. And I've run into that.

[00:30:49] Eric Goranson: I've got out of the beach house. We've got a really nice Viking dishwasher that sometimes doesn't finish the whole, the whole process of going through the cleaning [00:31:00] cycle. It just errors out. It looks like it needs a control panel. Those panels are no longer made. Might be able to find a used one out there, but by the time you do that, You can go buy another dishwasher.

[00:31:13] Eric Goranson: And so we've really created a almost throwaway set of appliances out there that starts to get pretty expensive. So here's some of my tricks and tips to keeping those things living the longest life for you in between having to replace them. First off, before we get too deep into appliances, let's talk about your water quality coming into your house because your washing machine, your dishwasher, You're anything, including hot water heater, that ice maker in the refrigerator rely on a high quality water coming in.

[00:31:45] Eric Goranson: And so my first thing is, is to make sure that if you have water quality issues, you take care of them before they get to those appliances, because if you've got hard water or lots of minerals that shouldn't be in there. [00:32:00] You are going to shorten the life of all of those appliances and that's going to cost you money.

[00:32:05] Eric Goranson: So take a look. I work a lot, lot with a King water filtration. We're going to have those guys on the show coming up soon. Great company. And they are really good at taking that water quality issue and getting it dialed in, whether you've got a system where you've got to fix hard water, that's coming in where you've got that high mineral content, that's going to build up in a dishwasher or a wash machine and fill up.

[00:32:30] Eric Goranson: With solids, your hot water heater, all of those things just really get that dialed in. So that's the thing that can really hurt tile, glass, everything around the house. So water quality can do tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage in your home if you're not careful. So. My tip is first, have your water tested, have it done every few years, see what's coming in there, see what you should be dealing with.

[00:32:57] Eric Goranson: Even if you put a system in [00:33:00] test before it, test after it, just make sure you know what you're consuming in your water, because all it takes is for some, some material to be coming in your house. It could be a valve that was replaced years ago that now has lead in it or something like that, or you've got some serious issues.

[00:33:19] Eric Goranson: Get that stuff taken care of. So you don't have a serious problem before it ruins all of your appliances and those kinds of things. Now, once you got the water quality dialed in, now you can worry about making sure that everything's working correctly. If you have a front load washing machine, make sure you follow for that clothes washer, the, the, the way to clean it, you should be running cleaner through it, following those directions.

[00:33:44] Eric Goranson: I love my front load machines. I've had them for probably 20 plus years. And they work well for me and I know there are people that are top load people out there and you still need to clean those as well because what you do is you have an inner and outer tub. That inner tub, you can't see. And what [00:34:00] happens is on those inner tubs for those machines is you get soap, oil, all that buildup behind it, and that can be pretty unhealthy.

[00:34:07] Eric Goranson: So you want to make sure and run some of that cleaner through it. Tide, all these different companies make them pick your poison, but run those cleaners through there. And if you've got a front load machine, make sure you change the filter that comes before the pump, because that gets all the hair clips, coins, screws, bolts, saw blades, whatever ends up in there.

[00:34:26] Eric Goranson: That gets it from blowing that pump up. So make sure that you've got that dialed in and cleaned up now with anything else, just keeping a clean dishwashers, making sure that you're cleaning out the little grills and things down below, make sure you run a clean cycle through it, and these are all things that should be maintained, check to make sure that the ice maker is working correctly and make sure you vacuumed out around that refrigerator.

[00:34:50] Eric Goranson: When was the last time you took that bottom panel out or a top panel? If you've got something more expensive. And cleaned out the coils and vacuumed or blew those out to make sure they're clean. [00:35:00] That is something you should be doing all the time. And I bet you'll find a bunch of dust bunnies down there that are costing you money, but it also puts extra load on that compressor.

[00:35:09] Eric Goranson: And nobody wants that. So you want to make sure you got that cleaned up down there and looking really good so you can get the most life out of that appliance. And that's a big one right there. So spend some time maintaining these, not saying you have to have a come out and have service for those, but a lot of these are just DIY tricks to make sure if you've got hard water.

[00:35:27] Eric Goranson: And if you've got a newer hot water or water heater, make sure you're, you're going through and flushing that out. If you have a gas or electric, most of them are gas on demand water system. Make sure you're following that service for that. Sometimes those things need to be cleaned every six months. So find your model number, read up on it, make sure you're doing that maintenance on there and make sure it's something that is easily taken care of.

[00:35:52] Eric Goranson: So you've got that. Dialed in and looking good because we want these things to last the longest that they can. Now, the [00:36:00] last one on here is something that's exterior and it's something that gets forgotten a lot. And I wanted to mention it here. Wood fences, but you'll put up that a cedar fence or wood fence.

[00:36:10] Eric Goranson: Maybe it's pine, whatever you're doing in your area. Those wooden fence posts love to rot out and maybe it's a wind storm. They blow over cause they've rotted out. And now you're out there doing a wood fence repair. Now there is something that you should take a look at on the marketplace. We did a story with these guys last year, post protector.

[00:36:29] Eric Goranson: This stuff is really cool. If you're putting a post in and replacing a post, it's a sleeve that goes over the post that goes in the ground and keeps it from rotting. So it seals around that. So you don't get water down there. And that ground contact is what tears it up. Now they also make a new product that you could actually drill in and put and re inject basically inside of it.

[00:36:52] Eric Goranson: The stuff that is in that pressure treating materials. It's like what you see the power companies do. Two telephone poles. You'll notice a telephone pole [00:37:00] could be up there for 40 years. And you're like that sure outlasts what's going on in my wood fence, but you're right because they go around every once in a while, drill in, and they will plug in a new piece, basically of chemical that goes in there and keeps that up.

[00:37:17] Eric Goranson: Pers would preservative alive in there and it doesn't break down so you can do this to your fence posts I just went and did it to mine because I'd already put them in But you can drill in and put that in and take a look at post protector for that That's a great one there and the other things that you can do to keep this dialed in and looking beautiful Just make sure you've got everything cleaned up on the fence if it needs painting or staining stay on top of it And then make sure that you're not hitting around it with the weed eater or the string trimmer and you're taking damage with that.

[00:37:48] Eric Goranson: A little bit of maintenance will make that last a lot longer. So keeping it clean, keeping it dialed in as far as a wood fence goes, you're going to be looking pretty good. So a little bit of maintenance goes [00:38:00] a long way. And the same thing with metal fences out there. I've got an aluminum gate, I've got metal fence in the front.

[00:38:06] Eric Goranson: With that, I just go around. I just literally mix up a little bit of sudsy water and basically take some Dawn in a, in a pump sprayer. And I go around and just spray it down with the Dawn dishwashing detergent and then hit it with the hose. And it just releases the dirt off of it. If I needed to scrub any, uh, like tree sap or something, I could clean it up there, but really this stuff is so.

[00:38:28] Eric Goranson: Durable that, uh, I know that's going to be lasting a lot longer than the wood fence I put in before. So take a look at that stuff, make sure you're maintaining it. And this is a big maintenance episode here, but guys, I am just trying to make sure that I can save you some serious money with not have to tackle these big projects.

[00:38:47] Eric Goranson: Now there are things out there that are hard to not really maintain. And that's sometimes going to be an electrical system. When you have an electrical panel, for instance, that is outdated, You can't just put in old use breakers [00:39:00] in it. Sometimes with those there are fire hazard. You need to change them out and swap them out.

[00:39:05] Eric Goranson: Those are things that you just can't do much with. And the same thing gets into some of these 20 year old HVAC systems. If they haven't been maintained many times, it's almost more expensive. And the freon is so hard to find for those that refrigerant that's in there is many times discontinued. So sometimes with those.

[00:39:23] Eric Goranson: You just have to start over. All right, everybody. Thanks for tuning into the first hour of around the house show. We'll see you for our two. Thanks for tuning in today.