[00:00:00] Eric Goranson: It's around the house. 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 joining me today. This is our mid week update. This is where we talk about the stuff that didn't happen in last weekend's show.

[00:00:36] Eric Goranson: And is it going to make it into this weekend show? And there's so much to talk about. One thing first, before we get into that, let's talk about how to find us around the house, online. com. You can find everything from all of our home improvement tips, all our videos, all that different stuff over there.

[00:00:52] Eric Goranson: Cause we have a lot of different channels and it's easier to find it over there from the TV show around the house, Northwest to the national radio show. And of [00:01:00] course, what you're listening to. Which is the podcast, which is a different version of the radio show. Thanks for joining me today. I tell you what I've been thinking about you guys out in the South right now that have been dealing with all of the flooding and the wind damage and everything else.

[00:01:13] Eric Goranson: And right now, all I can say is make sure and watch those basements if you have it. And of course those things could be filling up with water. So pay attention to where those problems are occurring. Take pictures with your phone. If you have leaks. So you can come back and repair them later. Cause if they dry up, you'll be chasing them down, trying to figure it out.

[00:01:31] Eric Goranson: So it's a great time to troubleshoot these answers right now and try to find those. That way, you know what to deal with later on. Maybe it's your gutters, maybe with 10, 15 inches of rain, you realize that the gutters are going down and landing right next to the foundation and thus flooding out your crawl space or basement.

[00:01:49] Eric Goranson: Those should be in a gutter system. It goes down into the ground and into a storm drain system that goes out at least 10 ft into the yard. That way it can go downhill [00:02:00] and away from the home either into a dry well either out towards the street if it's legal in your area and you can make it sure that that water doesn't come back in.

[00:02:08] Eric Goranson: So many times people put that water right out. It lands right next to the foundation. They've got a some pump down there and they're pumping it out a couple of feet from the house. Mhm. And all they have is a water fountain. Cause you're just circulating that water. It has to get 10 feet away for it to get not back down into the foundation.

[00:02:25] Eric Goranson: And that way you don't flood that basement again and again and again, and make sure your grading is good all around your house. But right now it's probably not the time to be fixing it, but now it's the time to address the problems and figure out what you got. So the next time you're going to be in a much better place.

[00:02:40] Eric Goranson: So that's the thing right there that I wanted to talk about a couple of things. One of them being some moldy lumber that I found this last week. You probably saw this on social media. If you've been following me at around the house show. And I was in at my local Lowe's store and this is not bashing on Lowe's.

[00:02:56] Eric Goranson: This is going to happen in a lot of different lumber yards when they keep stuff [00:03:00] indoors, but I come walking into the lumber department. I'm like, man, what is that? And sure enough, I walked by the two by four, eight, just a regular lumber right there. And it is black, it is brown, it has white fungus going on it.

[00:03:15] Eric Goranson: If you have had a massive water damage to your house, where something's been wet for years on end, this is what this looked like. And I was shocked because it was half there, other half has been sold to people, and it is getting sold to be put in people's houses. So I walked around, I was actually just going in there to get some lumber.

[00:03:34] Eric Goranson: Just a couple of sticks. Cause it was Sunday lumber yards, not open. So I popped in there to get a couple of two by eights. Guess what? It was a hot mess. There were four major lumber bunks in there that had black moldy substance all over the lumber. And I took some pictures of it. And I tell you what, this stuff was nasty.

[00:03:53] Eric Goranson: You could smell it in there. And something, this comes down to training. That is a serious health hazard [00:04:00] for people. When you walk in there and you can smell it, something's going wrong because that mold's going to be releasing toxins and you have to test it to really know what it is. Can I tell you it's black mold?

[00:04:10] Eric Goranson: No, it's a black colored mold. And you just don't know how toxic it is without doing some testing. And I was not going to go take that home to do it. But all that fungus and stuff, what's bad. And that shouldn't be in brand new lumber. So usually what happens with this is you'll see them bring in maybe green lumber that's soaking wet.

[00:04:28] Eric Goranson: And they put it up in the bunks inside the structure for a while, inside the store, and it's wrapped up in that plastic, and it probably just sat there and fermented. And then, what do you have? You've got some really, really nasty lumber that you shouldn't be putting in your house. So this stuff is worse than a lot of stuff I've ripped out.

[00:04:48] Eric Goranson: Ironically, if you'd have been sitting there and had this in an attic space with a house inspection, one of these pieces, they'd have said you need to have a full abatement in that house. And that's going to be a serious problem. So make [00:05:00] sure when you're pulling lumber at whatever lumber yard you are, make sure that you've got that dialed in and you're looking to make sure if there's mold in it, bring it up to the associates there or your lumber person to go, Hey, this is, this is a problem and see if they'll open up a number unit of lumber for you.

[00:05:16] Eric Goranson: If it's got mold on it, that could be a big problem. You don't want to have to go back and try to treat it and deal with it yourself. That's an expense that you shouldn't have to be paying for. Now, here's the thing. When we're dealing with this kind of stuff, this is a big, healthy home issue. This can get in there, and if you've got other moisture, or you're in an area that's got high humidity, let's say you're finishing a basement.

[00:05:36] Eric Goranson: You could be spreading that around the whole structure and have some serious health issues. So that's something you want to make sure and deal with. And don't sit there and say, oh, it's just because it's the home centers, they have cheaper lumber. Not necessarily. It all comes down to why is the lumber worse at a home center.

[00:05:52] Eric Goranson: Many times it starts out, it's not, but here's the issue we run into. What happens is, is these lumber [00:06:00] companies are buying for their lumber yards, Home Depot, Lowe's, all the other places are buying there as well. But what happens is, is it gets stored indoors, so it's in an artificial, so if it's got air conditioning, it's going to dry it out really quickly.

[00:06:13] Eric Goranson: And if you're in a more humid environment, that wood is not going to warp and twist as much. But what happens is, is when it's been sitting inside, all like unbundled, where it's not bound together, And you've got homeowner after homeowner trying to pick out the most beautiful, awesome piece of wood out of there when you show up and half of it's been picked over, you've got a pile of lumber.

[00:06:36] Eric Goranson: Basically, it's a lot lower grade, and that's a big issue. So what happens there is that you've got all that problem, and so it's just been picked over, picked over, picked over, and these stores don't like to mark stuff off because that goes against their overhead. So they just leave it there and hopefully some unsuspecting fool grabs it and takes it home and goes, ah, it's a little work, but I can work with it.

[00:06:56] Eric Goranson: A lot of lumberyards will go through there and pick out that [00:07:00] stuff, put it over in the coal pile and somebody will use it for blocking or something like that because they got a good deal on it. So here's the thing. If you go in and look at the lumber grades, that's the key right there. Sometimes you'll walk into a home center and it's not going to be kiln drying, which is KD.

[00:07:16] Eric Goranson: That means that they forced dried it. In these big kilns to make sure that it's at a certain moisture And it doesn't like to warp many times, but if you're in a coastal area or near a coastal area, sometimes they'll bring in green lumber so it doesn't swell up and do things when it gets on the job site.

[00:07:32] Eric Goranson: So you got to look and see what grade they're selling. My load store just changed from KD to green, and that's something you see a little bit different. And that's something you got to watch out for. So check the lumber grades. What grade of lumber is it? Many times it's a similar thing that's at your own lumber yard.

[00:07:49] Eric Goranson: It's just how it was treated and how many people went through and picked it out. That's the thing. Most contractors going in there, they're throwing the back of the truck or somebody is loading it out and they're not even going back and picking it out of the [00:08:00] back bunk. It's getting delivered to the job site.

[00:08:02] Eric Goranson: They grabbed the first 24 off the top and it's gone. There might be one or two bad ones in there. But that's what happens. Those one or two bad ones keep getting stacked up in the pile and you got a hot mess. Now look at a recalls today. I see that echo has a recall on a backpack blower to find out more about that.

[00:08:19] Eric Goranson: Head over to see the consumer product safety commission. That one, they've got a recall on there could catch on fire. So you want to check that out. If you've got an echo backpack blower, that could be an issue for you. All right, guys, we've got a great show coming up this weekend that I don't want you to miss.

[00:08:34] Eric Goranson: It's going to be a lot of fun. We'll We're going to be talking a couple of things. One of them here, the top 10 things not to purchase at your local home center and how swooping gone bad. And of course my top 10 tools you should buy for your toolbox. Those things you should have. And I'm not talking about like just basic stuff.

[00:08:54] Eric Goranson: I'm talking about my favorites, my favorite brands, and none of these are sponsored. So you're going to get my [00:09:00] total opinion on what my favorites are and what's the really best out there that I have found. And if you've got something that should be on that list, make sure and message me over at around the house, online.

[00:09:11] Eric Goranson: com. If you have a tool, that's your favorite. I'd love to see it. We'll talk about that on Saturday show. Now, if you're not a premium member, you might think about that. It's about four bucks a month and you can jump on and grab the podcast on Thursdays instead of Saturdays. And you get exclusive access to me as well as our entire catalog.

[00:09:29] Eric Goranson: So you can go back and catch some really amazing interviews that we've had with some really special people. Thanks All that for four bucks a month. Give it a try. You won't be disappointed. And a lot of these shows that go extra long, we put that in there. So we've got extended cuts over the last month or two in there of stuff where we've had to cut it off for time for the radio show, and that's the difference there is you might get five, 10, 15, even 20 minutes extra of my complete thought that wasn't cut off for time.

[00:09:57] Eric Goranson: All right, everybody have a great rest of the week. I've got a [00:10:00] nice week this week. I got a great video. It's going to be coming out where I had Jimbo, my buddy. Jim Haas from Blaze Grills coming over. And he came over last week right before I went on vacation and we did a great barbecue outside. We did some slight rib eye sliders.

[00:10:17] Eric Goranson: These things were amazing. And then we took a bacon wrapped donut holes and cooked those up. You'll see that video soon up on the YouTube page and I'll put it up on the around the house online playlist. As soon as we get that up there, which will be very soon next day or so. Might even be today. So keep an eye on that.

[00:10:32] Eric Goranson: All right, everybody. Have a great rest of the week Thanks for tuning in to around the house. We'll see you saturday