you. When was the last time that you jumped up and walked around your house and took a look at the cracks in the foundation to see if you can see every, you know, little bit of foundation to see if you're having cracks or not. Now, some of the most common things you'll see, I mean, concrete is going to crack.

[00:00:26] Eric Goranson: There's no guarantee against that. But what can happen is you can have. Settling. You could have a pipe broken. You could have clay soil and ignoring foundation damage gets to be a bigger issue. It's just like having a wet basement. Ignoring that wet basement can be very expensive. 'cause what happens is after a while you're get correct.

[00:00:46] Eric Goranson: When it comes to remodeling and renovating your home, there is a lot to know that we've got you coming. This is around the house. Hey everybody, welcome back to Around The House Show. This is where we help you get the most outta. [00:01:00] Your home through information and education. Thanks for tuning in today. I really appreciate it.

[00:01:05] Eric Goranson: Well, last weekend I was out in the Tri-Cities, Washington, Pascal, Kennewick and Richland, and I was over there with my friends at K one a radio for waterfalls and unlimited hydroplane racing. It was a ton of fun. It was a lot of fun going on my hometown radio station that I used to grow up, which is now of course for a number of years, been an affiliate.

[00:01:25] Eric Goranson: Four around the house here. So, uh, been great to hang out with those guys and always appreciate it when I get to go out and, uh, hit the road a little bit and spend some time with one of the many radio stations across the country, especially one from my hometown. Well, today we're gonna talk about in hour one the top 10 mistakes that can cost you the most when you repair your home.

[00:01:45] Eric Goranson: And these are things that, uh, that if you're a homeowner, can be very expensive if you don't pay attention to these things. So we're gonna go through my top 10 here and they're really important and they're things to keep an eye out on. And these are the things that if you [00:02:00] ignore it, this is kind of like paying attention to medical things.

[00:02:04] Eric Goranson: Like, wow, I got a little chest pain. I'm gonna ignore that. Now. These are those kind of things in your house that you wanna pay attention to, just like that. So maybe we can get you more informed and more in tuned. That can save you some money on taking care of that house. This episode is brought to you by Root Quencher and root quencher.com.

[00:02:21] Eric Goranson: If you wanna have those trees and bushes living well and saving yourself some money on water, check out my friends at Root Quencher and root quencher.com, number one, and it's relating to summertime, especially now, but it also goes to wintertime, your H V A C system and tuneups. Now if you've got wall heat with forced air heaters, that's one thing.

[00:02:42] Eric Goranson: You still gotta clean those out and maintain 'em. Baseboard heat, not so much. You know, uh, boilers need to be maintained, but H V A C systems tend to get forgotten the most, and it's because every six months to a year, you should have somebody coming out and doing a tuneup on that thing and making sure that it's [00:03:00] working correctly.

[00:03:01] Eric Goranson: And it seems that about 95% of the times that I have seen failures where they had to call out somebody because the heat's not working or the ACS not working, these were things that could have been prevented early on. Sometimes that maintenance where you could have spent just a little time cleaning will make it so your system runs less efficient and you're reducing the lifespan of this stuff.

[00:03:26] Eric Goranson: And now that where things are getting more technologically advanced on H V A C systems, you know, you could spend 15 to 20 grand really easy on a small house, on a quality H V A C system. So you wanna maintain it. Here are the things to probably help you get the most outta that system. Now, depending on the climate where you're at, you're gonna need one or two times a year.

[00:03:49] Eric Goranson: People are gonna need to come out and do a tuneup on it. And for me, I prefer to have somebody in the spring when it's warm outside, come out and run that h you know, the, the heating system. [00:04:00] Or actually the cooling system. And then when it coming into fall and it's cooling off, get the heating system. Now, if it's a heat pump, it's the same kind of thing.

[00:04:06] Eric Goranson: So you just wanna have somebody be in through there at least once a year and tune that thing up. Because what they do is they go through and they'll test to make sure you don't have any big leaks. They're gonna look and see, you know, if everything is working correctly, that's starting capacitors and things like that are doing what they need to do.

[00:04:23] Eric Goranson: These are all kind of keys that you wanna pay attention to because this is the stuff that can save you some serious money if you get on it early. So H V A C system and tuneups and keeping that maintenance person out there. One little trick is many times you can get out there and have somebody into a service contract, so you sign a service contract with the company that's gonna maintain it.

[00:04:45] Eric Goranson: Usually that does a couple things. One, it's cheaper than just paying for the service. Then two, if you have a breakdown, it usually gets you on the short list for sending somebody out there on an emergency basis because nobody wants to have to pay to somebody to go out there when the heat's down, you [00:05:00] know, and it's Sunday afternoon and it's 30 degrees in your house or, or even worse, 120 degrees.

[00:05:06] Eric Goranson: You know, these are things that you don't have to pay that trip, that extra chip charge for. And many times those service contracts will get you in at a better deal. So something to talk about with your H V A C. Service provider. Now here's another one that's easy to do this time of year, and this is called not caulking and keeping your house weather tight.

[00:05:27] Eric Goranson: I tell you what, all I have been doing on the outside of my house this year is working on where previous homeowners didn't do the right maintenance and keep things caulked up and sealed up because I have more carpenter ant damage in little locations. You know, nothing like bigger than a dinner plate, but when I get into it, it's like, Another big project.

[00:05:49] Eric Goranson: And so these are things that, uh, I'm tracking around and if you keep that caulking up to speed, and of course when you do buy good caulk, like there's stuff from [00:06:00] uh, sashko made called big stretch, that that moves a lot more. So it gives you a lot more flexibility, which means you have to cau COEs. But really that caulking is one, is gonna help stop pest damage because you haven't got a freeway into the structure.

[00:06:15] Eric Goranson: On a rainy day, it's gonna stop water damage. It's gonna keep mold from growing because you're gonna keep it dry back there, and as well as keep dry rot under control because you have not exposed things in the framing to the elements. And these are keys. So really spend some time going around couple times a year, you know, and make sure that all the caulking is correct around doors, windows, openings, that kind of stuff.

[00:06:41] Eric Goranson: That'll keep, uh, it'll do a better job of not having the sugar ants come in, carpenter ants, termites, all that other stuff. You wanna make sure that, uh, you've got that stuff done and keep an eye out for what's going on out there on the outside of your house, because that's where the damage occurs, and it also drags it inside.[00:07:00]

[00:07:00] Eric Goranson: Now, another thing to consider is that also that air infiltration is usually contributing to heat and cooling loss inside the house. Anything you can do to keep that stuff down. And now that we're getting into late summer in my area, this is what I call spider season, where the spiders are starting to get aggressive, they're getting big, they're getting ready to nest.

[00:07:20] Eric Goranson: And the more you can do to get that house sealed up and tight is gonna be part of that. Now another thing too here that's not on this list, But it's a good thing to do when you're thinking about this, is making sure that crawl space or basement is dialed in as well, because so much air is coming outta that crawl space.

[00:07:37] Eric Goranson: If you're getting the house sealed up tight, make sure that you've got all the plastic down there and a vapor barrier down in that crawl space to make sure you're looking good. That's another trick there. Or indoor air quality and making sure that you've got things really clean. So here's the next one here that we'll talk a little bit more up in the next hour, but this is another one here.

[00:07:57] Eric Goranson: Is people ignoring water leaks in the [00:08:00] bathroom and kitchen. Now I've got a neighbor over here that I don't know very well 'cause they were kind of kitty corner and, and they're backed up against a very small corner of my house. But these guys moved and when they moved, they did an inspection and realized when they're putting the house up for sale, but they had about $150,000 worth of damage.

[00:08:21] Eric Goranson: Now $150,000 of the water damage is a ton in a house that's under 20 years old. And what seemed like happened is that they had a small water leak that was upstairs in one of the bathrooms on a common wall between two bathrooms. So that water leak took it out, and then it came down that stud bay down into the kitchen and got in behind the kitchen, under the kitchen.

[00:08:40] Eric Goranson: So this. Got them the trifecta of two kitchen, uh, one kitchen and two bathrooms in a remodel. And we come back here. We'll talk about some of those warning signs, because I'll be honest, I don't know these people, so I'm not gonna sit here and hammer on my former neighbors. But at the same point, if you were paying attention to your [00:09:00] house, you would know that you had a musty water damage that took out that much damage, because there are warning signs that are gonna come up and you're gonna go, huh?

[00:09:08] Eric Goranson: Wonder what's causing that. These are things that can really save you a ton of money because now they've got a remodel that's going on for months and they were hoping to sell their house 'cause they had moved and uh, I think they're in two of, probably four or five months of remodel. They'd hoped to have it on the market as of this last week.

[00:09:27] Eric Goranson: It's not close. These are things that are gonna take a lot of time and money outta them all. While I'm sure they're making two house payments, so this is gonna get to be very expensive. We come back, we're gonna talk more about those warning signs just as he was around the house returns.[00:10:00]

[00:10:10] Eric Goranson: Welcome back to The Round The House Show. This is where we hope you get the most outta your home through information and education. Thanks for joining me today. I am Eric G now. Hey, if you wanna find out more about us, head over to around the house online.com. You can find a bunch of stuff there. And then we have our YouTube videos over there as well.

[00:10:26] Eric Goranson: We've got over a hundred videos up there from Made in U s A stuff all hosted by me and it's something for you to take a look at. There's a ton of stuff happening. I wanna see what's going on out there, so please make your comments to me and you can head over and message me on social media, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or you can just hit me up over to round the house online.com.

[00:10:48] Eric Goranson: We've been talking about today, the top 10 mistakes that cost you the most in repairs to your home. And one of the big ones we were talking about here is water leaks in the bathroom and kitchen. And so I have a neighbor that we were talking about that has a [00:11:00] ton of damage and um, these are things that happen a lot.

[00:11:03] Eric Goranson: And here's things that I want you to take a look at and pay attention to. If you have a humidity problem inside your house, that's where you start looking at leaks. And what do you have going on? Mold testing can tell you that as well, and we'll get into that a little bit later on. One of the other numbers here, but these water damage leaks sometimes can be covered by insurance as long as it's not considered a flood where water comes from the outside into the home or neglect where you knew that things were going on and you just kind of ignored it and you could have prevented it from happening.

[00:11:39] Eric Goranson: And so here's where the common places are that we see water damage. In a bathroom, for instance, bathroom, it's usually a shower failing where you had an incorrect tile job done. You had somebody not waterproof, that you had somebody that did not, um, do the pan or you broke [00:12:00] the pan, or just something that completely failed.

[00:12:03] Eric Goranson: Now, one of the most common things, we'll talk about this in the next hour, is not doing the waterproofing correctly. I'd say a majority of the time I see issues with water proofing on most tile jobs that are done by homeowners or contractors that are not professional tile setters. It's a big problem out there, but the other part you see too, is under the sink you might have a trap leaking or you might have something like that or a toilet that's leaking around that.

[00:12:32] Eric Goranson: Anytime that you see water damage, mold, softness of the floor, those are warning signs. Now, when you get to a kitchen, they're in different spots. Probably the most common that I've seen is the ice maker line or the ice maker itself failing on the refrigerator freezer, and that water leaking onto the floor and causing a damage.

[00:12:53] Eric Goranson: That is a common one, so that's one way to go. The other common one is the dishwasher. [00:13:00] Leaking and the bottom seal going out and warping the floor up there. Those are another common one, just as is the dishwasher, uh, not dishwasher, but the garbage disposal. When that bottom bearing fails, water starts dripping.

[00:13:11] Eric Goranson: Those get to be minor ones. Now one of the biggest and most expensive ones is in the laundry room where the hoses to the washing machine fail. Uh, and when that fails, it literally blows stuff all over everywhere. And it's like a garden hose running. If you're not home, this can go on for hours to days.

[00:13:30] Eric Goranson: All because most likely somebody had a rubber black rubber hose back there that should have been swapped out to something that was much kinder, like one of the braided ones that will last so much longer. Now, these are important so you can get these things not leaking. So, um, because, and the reason why you see this was washing machines and even dishwashers do when you and I turn a faucet on and off.

[00:13:56] Eric Goranson: We're semi gentle about it, but when you have an [00:14:00] electric solenoid that clicks off, boom, it hits hard. And guess what happens when that thing turns off? It's like a gate getting slammed shut, and all that water hits it. And so it's really hard on the hose. So that hose keeps getting expanded, contracting, expanding, contracting.

[00:14:17] Eric Goranson: Finally gives up the ghost and it flights to flood your house. So these are things to be really careful with because this can get very expensive. Now, one of the next ones, um, that can be very expensive is roof damage. Now, roof damage is a key here because this can be done by hail. It can be done by wind, it could be done by the door-to-door salesperson trying to get you to let gum up on the roof and pressure wash and get the moss off with your roof.

[00:14:47] Eric Goranson: Pressure washer on a asphalt composite shingle unless you are a professional. Doing a soft wash is a really bad idea because those granules are what protect [00:15:00] your house. Those granules are what's there, that's important. And guess what happens? They blow those right off the top. You gotta heck of a mess.

[00:15:09] Eric Goranson: So something to think about. Do not let somebody up on your roof to pressure wash it. Now here's another mistake that happened and this happened at my brother's house here this last year. He has a three story house, um, old 1920s saying like they do, and he let a painting company jump up on the roof and he's got green architectural shingles that are really pretty.

[00:15:31] Eric Goranson: Let 'em up on there, hire these guys to do it 'cause he just didn't want to be three, three stories up on an extension ladder. Totally get it. Well, they didn't tarp everything off, and so they dripped all of this white paint on the green roof, and then they came up there and made some cleanup efforts that were poor with grinding wheels and stuff.

[00:15:52] Eric Goranson: And this insurance company had to pay 40 plus thousand dollars for a new roof to go on my brother's house [00:16:00] because of the painting mistakes that they made. So these are key pieces here. To make sure that when you're hiring people, when you're, um, dealing with them in this manner, this is important. And, uh, that's another one of the mistakes that we've always talked about on the show.

[00:16:18] Eric Goranson: Making sure that anybody working on any owner house is licensed Bond insured, because he hired somebody that was licensed upon insured, he had a place to go back to. 'cause they at first did not want to pay to fix the roof. And because it was a covered porch that you could see. They're on a hill slope coming down, you would see this.

[00:16:37] Eric Goranson: So it wasn't something that was hiding, it was something that would be pretty visible. And as soon as they started to grind off with a wire wheel, the green, you know, uh, basically finish that's on it with the, with the little pieces of aggregate. Once they started removing that, they were turning 'em into black shingles.

[00:16:55] Eric Goranson: So again, these are issues that you see as far as having a color [00:17:00] and having that get washed off there. So be very careful. On a shingled roof, you know, with a architectural type, you know, composite three tab, that can be a problem. And I've seen some damage done, done to, uh, if you have some of those old seventies cedar shingle roofs as well.

[00:17:16] Eric Goranson: So when in doubt hiring somebody to come up and clean your roof and you need to maintain it, you need to keep the moss off, the dirt off, all that stuff, you need to keep this clean. 'cause you wanna get 30 years out of a 30 year roof, you wanna get 50 years out of a 50 year roof. So the more you can do to keep that working correctly and not having it, you know, come apart is good.

[00:17:39] Eric Goranson: So with that, uh, my advice to keep these mistakes from happening, if you're not an expert, have a roofing company come out and take a look and inspect it every two or three years or after big storms, pay 'em to come up, take a look at it. Do any repairs that are needed. Stay on top of this. That way you don't have to do it later.

[00:17:58] Eric Goranson: And if you stay on top of those repairs, [00:18:00] you know, and making sure that you have some of those shingles that are extra put away so you can use 'em for repairs, that's how you're gonna save some money on keeping that roof. Because if you have to, if you put up a 30 year roof and you mistreat it or don't maintain it and it lasts you 15 years.

[00:18:17] Eric Goranson: Man, you're gonna have to spend another 25 or 35 or 45,000 bucks to put a roof on that gets expensive and you didn't have to do it that way. More tips when around the house returns we'll.[00:19:00]

[00:19:11] Eric Goranson: Welcome back to The Around The House Show. This is where we hope to get the most outta your home through information education. Hey, uh, if you wanna join us up, we do have a kind of an insider program, which is, uh, on the podcast over here. We're gonna have some exclusive content coming up and, uh, that's gonna be fun.

[00:19:27] Eric Goranson: And that is our around the House Insider subscription. And you can actually get the podcast a couple days early if you subscribe to that. And we're gonna have some here in August. We're gonna have a couple exclusive episodes that you can catch over there. That will be for all of you guys only. So we appreciate you on the radio show or the podcast, whichever one you're tuning to out there.

[00:19:50] Eric Goranson: I really appreciate everybody supporting the sponsors that you hear in the show, whether it's on the radio or the podcast. We've been talking about the top 10 mistakes that Costa the [00:20:00] most and trying to keep that home repaired. And uh, we were just talking about power on a shingle roof, which can be really bad.

[00:20:07] Eric Goranson: Next up is ignoring foundation damage and water intrusion. Now, here's my question for you. When was the last time that you jumped up and walked around your house and took a look at the cracks in the foundation to see if you can see every, you know, little bit of foundation to see if you're having cracks or not.

[00:20:29] Eric Goranson: Now, some of the most common things you'll see, I mean, concrete is going to crack. There's no guarantee against that. But what can happen is, is you can have settling, you can have a pipe broken, you can have clay soil. Ignoring foundation damage gets to be a bigger issue. It's just like having a wet basement.

[00:20:48] Eric Goranson: Ignoring that wet basement can be very expensive because what happens is is after a while you'll get a fluorescence where the water is grabbing the minerals and dragging it through, [00:21:00] and it's breaking down that concrete. So if I have seen some homes that were grossly negligent, Their foundation. Here's a story that was a horror story that I had that was absolutely horrible.

[00:21:13] Eric Goranson: I felt bad for these people. Called me up to come take a look at their house. Guy was a truck driver, had his 20 year old kids that were living in the house during the time he was on the road. He couldn't figure out why his refrigerator was jammed up against the cabin so hard. Well, it was wintertime. I pop open the door to the crawlspace.

[00:21:35] Eric Goranson: It looked like I opened up a steam shower, comes rolling out and I'm like, we got a problem. So I get my head under the house and realize that they were running laundry at the time, and the water line that went from the washer and dryer, the drain line that went all the way across the kitchen that was made out of, of [00:22:00] uh, galvanized, had rotted out.

[00:22:02] Eric Goranson: Had been running for years in the crawl space. So much so that when they were doing laundry with a top load washing machine, it was 50 gallons of load, it was washing out, and so it had washed out underneath the kitchen sink so badly that the foundation had collapsed in there. It was just hanging there off the house and the floor had sunk so much right there that the hall between, I mean the door between the, the kitchen and the refrigerator there at the end of the kitchen.

[00:22:31] Eric Goranson: Had sunk in so much, it had bound up and it was holding up against the cabinets, and that was keeping the house from dropping down there and partially collapsing. So the cabinetry was really holding up that part of the house just from the tension of it. So this was a big problem. They were gonna have to spend a hundred thousand bucks to fix that probably by the time they're done because they were gonna have to put a new kitchen in.

[00:22:57] Eric Goranson: They had framing to do. This [00:23:00] hitter been going so long in this crawlspace that the duct work that was galvanized underneath, it had rotted out and on the ground down there, there were chunks of rotten pieces that were the size of a dinner plate. That's all that was left was for the ducting. So you had a heat running in this place, so it was 90 plus degrees down there.

[00:23:21] Eric Goranson: Plus we had all the steam in the water from every time they did that there was gonna be mold. This was gonna be a hundred thousand dollars repair. This was a $500 replumb that turned into hundreds of thousands of dollars. And because the neglect was so bad, it didn't look like that the insurance was gonna cover it because somebody should have known better.

[00:23:46] Eric Goranson: So really keeping attention to cracks in the foundation, humidity in the crawl space, making sure that you don't have water running into the basement walls and sitting down in the basement floor. Those are gonna be [00:24:00] expensive things that never get cheaper. They always get more expensive, so the longer you wait, the more expensive it's gonna get.

[00:24:09] Eric Goranson: Now I'm gonna give you some tips here because there are some really nearly criminal companies out there doing foundation work around the country. I have 'em in my area. I'm sure you have 'em in yours. There are people out there that overcharge. Try to scare the heck out of people because they, they, your house is gonna fall down around you and then they hit you for a full meal deal.

[00:24:35] Eric Goranson: I have seen companies that should have been sent, you know, charging you $30,000 for a massive project that were charging you 130,000 bucks because they thought they could get it outta you. So here's my quick tip on this. A little side note, you have foundation damage you wanna get fixed. Always make sure that you talk to.

[00:24:53] Eric Goranson: Structural engineer first, and then talk to your foundation companies to find out what the fix is. [00:25:00] That way, you know you have the right fix with an engineering plan, and then they can bid off the same thing so you know what you're paying for. That way you don't have four different solutions in four different plans.

[00:25:11] Eric Goranson: You don't know which one to deal with, so always deal with the professional in that one. Now, the next one here is a big one. Kind of goes off of this one into a different room, bold in your house. Controlling humidity and proper ventilation and or dehumidification. Now this is something, when it gets ignored, is massive.

[00:25:33] Eric Goranson: So if you got to your house over 60% relative humidity. So my question to you is, is when was the last time you checked the humidity in your house? What was it like in your basement? What was it like in your crawlspace? If you're slab un, great, it doesn't matter. But really, what is that humidity around in different parts of the house?

[00:25:52] Eric Goranson: Downstairs upstairs, one side, other side, what is it? If it's over 60%, you're growing mold. So [00:26:00] that means that you're gonna have a mold situation. So you don't want it near that high. So you either have to figure out how to deal with those environmental concerns, how to deal with having a dehumidifier. And to me, a dehumidifier is not one of those little roll around ones you plug in that are the, the little instant ones.

[00:26:17] Eric Goranson: Those, those don't work well. They cost you a lot of money, so you wanna put in something that's more serious or built in. You know, look at different brands. There's Santa Fe. There's a lot of different ones out there that are built in that are gonna be much more efficient and not have the recall issues that you see with a lot of the portable ones that are just meant as a spot treatment and not meant to do a whole basement or house.

[00:26:40] Eric Goranson: Now here's an easy one for you. It's an easy maintenance one, so make sure that you've got those vent fans running outside. Make sure that you've got in the bathrooms. Those are all high quality fans that vent completely the exterior helm, and you have 'em on timers that run for 20 minutes. That is one of the easiest ways to prevent that [00:27:00] incidental mold damage.

[00:27:02] Eric Goranson: That can be a big issue. So make sure you've got that under control as well as you're using your kitchen. Vent hood a lot. If you've got the stove on, turn the vent hood on. Vice versa, you get it. It's not hard. That will keep air quality so much better in the house, and that can also keep damage down as well.

[00:27:21] Eric Goranson: So the next one here on the list, and I wanna make sure we power through these here, is not paying attention to electrical issues. Making sure that you have that dialed in. If you see a light flicker or you have a light switch that isn't working, or you have a circuit that's kicking off sometimes, Maybe you've got a hot smell in a wall.

[00:27:40] Eric Goranson: These are all things you should be paying attention to. If you don't have, if you have one of the old Federal Pacific or one of the, you know, 1960s to 1970s electrical panels that were recalled due to fire hazard, make sure that you have those things swapped out and now is the time to do it. [00:28:00] Because I tell you what, my house, I had one of those federal Pacifics at my house, and because there was an issue, I had, um, basically it was days away from a fire and I had it where the neutral, uh, bus bar and stuff on the inside had burned through and was going to be in contact with metal because the plastic had heating up so much.

[00:28:22] Eric Goranson: It was cracked, so pay attention to those electrical demons that could be a fire ready to start, and there's no way that's not going to get expensive around the house. We'll be right back.[00:29:00]

[00:29:04] Eric Goranson: Welcome back to The Round the House Show. Now we've been talking about top 10 mistakes that can cost to the most in repairing your home. These are those things that people just kinda, oh, I'll deal with it later. I'll deal with it later. And that's just like a slot machine or like watching the lotto numbers.

[00:29:19] Eric Goranson: With the thing growing, it's just grown and getting more expensive. So these are my top 10 things that are adding to that and making a more expensive house repair. So some of the ones we talked about earlier, uh, as a recap, hvac, making sure your heating and cooling system is tuned up, not caulking and keeping the house weather tight.

[00:29:38] Eric Goranson: Water leaks in the bathroom, and kitchen power washing your shingled roof. Foundation damage water intrusion. Ignoring those mold, ventilation and control and humidity is another one. Then the last one here before we went on to break was not paying attention to electrical issues. Now, next up here can be very expensive 'cause I've seen it do tons of damage and that's [00:30:00] roots from trees.

[00:30:02] Eric Goranson: Now I love my trees. I've got all my all around my house, but trees can also completely damage your driveway. It can damage the sewer line, go into your house. It can also do a ton of foundation damage. I have seen. Massive Sequoia trees push in foundations, and so the basement wall was collapsing. I've seen them lift up a house where the root goes underneath it, and as the tree grows, it lifts up on the house.

[00:30:30] Eric Goranson: So there are a lot of different things here within trees you need to pay attention to, including their health in case they go falling over your house or things like that. So managing the trees through maintenance, making sure you've got the root damage. From like to a driveway or to, to your plumbing under control.

[00:30:52] Eric Goranson: So that's a key right there. So making sure you've got that dialed in. Now the next one here is gonna be [00:31:00] controversial for some people and I, they're gonna go, Hey, it's, it's my right. And you know, it is your right, but there's also damage to your house here. One of the biggest damage things that I see out there, and this is something.

[00:31:16] Eric Goranson: If you're gonna put it up for sale, you're gonna, you know, do something with it. Smoking cigarettes in your house is one of the leading, most expensive things you can do to damage your home on the inside. Here's why you to come into a house that had a heavy smoker. And I have somebody in my kind of extended family that has a relative that is a heavy smoker, and I'm just gonna talk about what would happen to this house if you needed to do something with it.

[00:31:46] Eric Goranson: Now this house has had probably 30 years of smoking. 40 or 50. I don't know. I've been in it before this home. By the time you go in there, you could take the [00:32:00] time and wipe down all the walls and get the yellow tar off of it. But many times to do that, right? I'm gonna say you should take it down to the studs.

[00:32:11] Eric Goranson: Start over. Then remove all the heating and cooling ducts and put in a new HVAC system. I have had a hard time getting ducks clean enough after smokers have been there, where you don't get those whiffs of smoke that show up days, weeks, months, years later, and you're like, where did that come from? I could smell that cigarette smoke.

[00:32:39] Eric Goranson: So many times when I'd gone in and done repairs to homes that had smokers in 'em, you either wipe the walls down with multiple coats of T S P. I've gone through rags and towels and you know, go get the thing of Costco towels, couple bags of those, and literally you've got a pallet of paper towels and you're tossing them [00:33:00] and you're wiping it down.

[00:33:02] Eric Goranson: Getting it clean and going, and you're doing that for months, it seems on end, trying to get every room cleaned up. So the things that get contaminated that you really can't fix your heating and cooling system, you're gonna see the vent fans and the bathrooms get all clogged up and nasty, especially where people will smoke in the bathroom.

[00:33:22] Eric Goranson: You know, that's another one, Hey, I'm gonna go smoke in the bathroom. Those fans take the first beating and that goes away. And then flooring. Any one of the carpets and vinyls will soak that smell up like nobody's business. And those are things to watch out for. So in a nutshell here, if you're buying a house that was a, you're gonna flip it and you're gonna do this right?

[00:33:44] Eric Goranson: Or you're buying a house, it's a project house that had smokers in it, here's what I'm gonna tell you to do, and here is my best advice for you. And this will kind of tell you about what some of the, the costs are involved with it. So first off, If it's had heavy [00:34:00] smokers in, I take it right down to the studs.

[00:34:02] Eric Goranson: I would go in there. It's a good time to reinsulate, deal with any issues. The cabinetry, you're not gonna get clean the, you know, all of that stuff. It's just soaked in. It's just not gonna come out with wood cabinetry, particle board, that stuff smokes into the oils. It's just, it's just brutal. So I'm gonna say to do it right, go down to the studs, replace the heating and cooling system.

[00:34:26] Eric Goranson: Replace the vent fans, take out any soft pieces like carpets and, and wallpapers. Of course, if you're taking the drywall down anyway, it's gonna come out, draperies, all that stuff, pretty much tough to get that out. Then once you get that down, This is a good time to reinsulate as well. I would take that all down and treat this like it was a house fire and get in there with the, uh, primer sealers and seal off anything you can to keep that from coming back up through.

[00:34:58] Eric Goranson: And that's my best [00:35:00] advice. All the new duct work can go in, you can insulate, you can do all the upgrades, but uh, that is really the only way to be able to get that house, in my opinion. Back to where you're not gonna get those tinges of. Where'd that smoke smell come from? Because it's gonna come outta so many weird little places.

[00:35:18] Eric Goranson: If you think about it, if you've got air infiltration coming in and outta the house, maybe it's around outlet covers or things like that, that can get trapped in the insulation behind the wall because you had an air leak. And so that smell will continue and it's a really tough one to manage. That's gonna be one right there to really pay attention to is gonna be that smoking.

[00:35:41] Eric Goranson: So sorry, smokers out there just talking about the damage that it's doing to the house and what somebody, whether it's you, your kids, or the next buyer's gonna have to do to make it right. Now our last one here is, um, a little less for people living in the city, but for everybody else living out in the country a little bit.

[00:35:59] Eric Goranson: [00:36:00] This one is for you. This is not maintaining that septic system or your, well now with the septic system, they always recommend in many cases, at least what I've been told by my septic experts, is to have somebody come out and pump that thing out every five years or so and get as many solids outta there and make sure that you're treating that system.

[00:36:23] Eric Goranson: Now, the newer systems that many states are requiring are very expensive 'cause you have to put in these pressurized systems with. Pumps and electrical and all that kind of stuff. So you can spend 20, 30, $40,000 pretty quickly or more on a system. So if you have one that is currently working correctly, it is in your best interest to get as much life of that as you can without having a problem.

[00:36:52] Eric Goranson: So making sure that you're feeding it with the enzymes and you've got that going well. Making sure. You're not putting things [00:37:00] down it, I mean it shouldn't be going down it. Be careful of things like garbage disposals and things like that, or, or flushing, flushable wipes. These are things that can cost you tens of thousands of dollars when things go incorrectly.

[00:37:14] Eric Goranson: So be careful what you put down there. Make sure that you have somebody come out and inspect it and look at it every five years. 'cause the last thing you wanna do is have to replace that. It's gonna cost you a ton of money. Now, of course, in some areas where there's waterways and things like that, we will see where they will force you to upgrade it at some point.

[00:37:33] Eric Goranson: But as far as the septic system, get it running well make sure it's maintained, make sure the drain field's not plugged up. That's good. Well systems, same kind of thing on the maintenance, making sure that it's getting tested. I always want you to test your well water. Test that once a year. See what's in it.

[00:37:52] Eric Goranson: Some states will require you to, some won't, but really keeping an eye on what's in that water and making sure that [00:38:00] that pump is running correctly. 'cause you can have pressure tanks that fail, that will short cycle that pump, and now you have to put a new pump in. And, uh, there are things like that that I wanna make sure that you're maintaining and taking care of.

[00:38:12] Eric Goranson: So making sure that well is dialed in, making sure that the water quality is dialed in. Those are all things that are really important. Now if there's something that you think that I've missed, I would love to hear from you. Head over to around the house online.com. Hit the contact us. Is there something over there that, uh, you think that I should have covered this week?

[00:38:32] Eric Goranson: Love to hear from you. Get your suggestions of what I could have covered in this top 10. Now coming up on our next hour, the next episode, we're gonna be talking about the secrets to bathroom modeling. I'm gonna talk about my secrets to save you the most money. The places where you can save money, the places where the most mistakes happen.

[00:38:51] Eric Goranson: Of course, how do we get around those? And those are keys to any time that you're doing a bathroom model. And I've done thousands of these things. So I'm gonna give you [00:39:00] my insider tips and tricks, whether or not you're hiring somebody to come do it, or it's a project that you're gonna tackle yourself.

[00:39:06] Eric Goranson: Maybe it's a full gut job. Maybe you're just trying to. Fix it up, dress it up a little bit. Either way, you wanna make it pretty and I'm here to help you save money and do it correctly. 'cause nobody wants to do this project twice round the house. We'll be right back for the next hour after these important messages.