May 23, 2008 AsktheBuilder News

What's in This Issue

MY LAUNDRY ROOM
HOME DEPOT AND LOWES COMMENTS
MEMORIAL DAY WORK WARNING
OXYGEN BLEACH

My Laundry Room

This weekend I am switching out all of the cabinets in my laundry room. This room is not in my basement where many washers and dryers are located. I am also adding a few extra cabinets that should have been installed when I built my house. It is going to be a fun little project that I hope produces one or two informative videos. You will see before and after photos as well as videos.

I wanted to mention that the new cabinets are not the normal 30-inch high ones. The bad boys that were just delivered yesterday are 42-inches high, so we will gain about 15 extra cubic feet of storage space than we currently have. The plan is to put things up high that are not used that often.

Many people forget about these taller wall cabinets when remodeling a bathroom, kitchen or a laundry room. They usually are pretty affordable, so I urge you to consider them when looking at wall cabinets.

One of the videos I plan to tape is about my dryer-vent pipe. Years ago, I was an idiot and installed the outlet for the dryer down low at floor height since that is where the outlet is on the dryer. Let me tell you that is a mistake. Wait until you see what I am doing to make it super easy to get my dryer in and out of the space at any time. It will take only 30 seconds to disconnect the vent pipe from the wall.

I also plan to show you in a video the way I bring water to my washing machine so it is easy to turn off and on. You really need to be able to easily and quickly turn the water on and off to the washing machine in case you leave your home at any time. About five years ago, one of the supply hoses to my washer burst. Luckily, we were eating dinner at the time and I heard it leaking. Since then I installed burst-proof hoses. But the key is to have handy valves you can turn in case of a problem or to ensure the water is only on when the washing machine needs water.

As for dryer venting, I want to hear from you with any and all questions you have about dryer vents. I will do my best to get answers to you as fast as possible.

Home Depot and Lowes Comments

In last week's newsletter, I had a minor rant about Home Depot and Lowes. As expected, I received other comments.

Martin Brummel took the opportunity to let off some steam. He wrote:

"On your statement about the big box stores, I could not agree with you more. The public does not realize that the box store's pricing on a lot of their items are more than if you search out your local lumber or supply houses. Also, your local suppliers are usually home-grown businesses, and they will almost certainly go the extra step for you, and will work even more diligently with you if there are any problems with the products that they sell. You can talk to almost anyone, and they will have a story about a big-box store that had ordered and / or installed products, for them or their friends, and the disasters that followed. I am a contractor and have been so for over 20 years, and I almost always use the local suppliers because the service and quality is  always better. I always wonder why a professional contractor would ever exclusively use the big-box stores. Bigger isn't always better. Thanks for letting me vent."

A few hours later I got this email from Tim Chapin in Macedonia, OH:

"Hey, you are right about prices at Home Depot and Lowe's.  Another item that I've found huge mark ups is on HVAC sheet metal parts. Go to your local HVAC contractor supply houses and you can save a fortune, and have a way-better selection. I'll never buy a pipe or boot from either Home Depot or Lowe's again.

I think the worst thing they do though is put a lot of materials in people's hands that, if not used properly, can lead them to kill themselves. Some jobs should be left to the professionals. And, just so you know, I'm not a contractor!"

I share these wonderful comments in an effort to help. So you know, I did not get any emails taking me to the woodshed. When I get emails or calls putting me in a bad light for crossing the line or making a mistake, I absolutely publish those as well. I try to be like Fox News - Fair and Balanced. (Ouch, I can hear the emails on that one now!)

Memorial Day Work Warning!!!

Many people do larger outdoor projects on the first real weekend of summer. One of them is wood deck cleaning and sealing.  I have a huge category at AsktheBuilder.com all about Deck Maintenance.

But here is the bottom line:

• Avoid cleaning your deck with a pressure washer. They can cause severe damage by eroding the soft spring wood that is in between the darker bands of summer wood
• Avoid using Chlorine Bleach as a cleaning solution. The chemical name for this product is Sodium Hypochlorite. Look for that on the label of anything you are thinking of buying. Chlorine bleach is highly toxic to all nearby vegetation, including trees. It takes the color out of the wood. It can accelerate the corrosion of all fasteners and metal framing components. It is better to use Oxygen Bleach. Read the next item in this newsletter for a special offer.
• Be sure to seal the deck with a sealer that is made from synthetic resins. These products are not food for mildew and algae. I talk about these in great detail in many of my past Deck Sealer columns that can be found in the Deck Maintenance category.

Over the years I have received countless emails and calls from people who have either ruined their decks or had a professional ruin it with a pressure washer. Be careful with those machines around wood!

Oxygen Bleach

I sell oxygen bleach, and have done so for about 13 years. The name of my product is called Stain Solver. Years ago, I was exposed to the product when doing research for a deck-cleaning column. When I heard about it, it was one of those classic Too-Good-To-Be-True products. Well, guess what? It was and is that good. So good in fact, that my wife and I decided to start to sell the product. Go here to see what else it cleans.

For all of you deck-cleaning warriors, I am offering you this weekend off. How would you like a Super Sale price on the 12 and 50-pound sizes of Stain Solver? This is an amazing offer I will extend until next Wednesday (expired on May 28, 2008) since you may not get this email until next week when you get back to work.

Since the prices of so many other things are going up, I am calling this the Neutralizer Sale. My prices are going down as others go up.

Use this Promo Code for the discount:

20ssdeck (Sorry, the sales has expired.)

Remember, no spaces and lower case. Go here to get some.

Stain Solver is perhaps one of the greenest cleaners out there. My raw materials are made in the USA and the ingredients used to make the active cleaning agent are food-grade approved by the FDA! You can't get much purer and greener than that!

Keep in mind my Stain Solver safely cleans hundreds of other things. For example, I just hung up the phone with June Hunter. She purchased eight pounds of Stain Solver to clean the grout in her kitchen floor. Wow, does it do a good job of cleaning floor grout. I know this first hand as I used it for years on my own kitchen floor grout that would go from light gray to black around the refrigerator. Gray was the original grout color, but my kids would drop food and drinks, and soon enough, Yuck!

Index of past newsletters.