The next Stefan Good Day download with Doug and Jay Kirshner is made possible in
part by Caltron, which is the safe way for you to lose weight and
keep it off. We're ready to get to work here literally and figuratively on
the Friday Good Day program because weekend opportunities for fixing up things around the house
as the weather gets better. We encourage you to listen carefully to Tom Kreitler,
who is not only the co host of the money Pit home improvement radio
program Graham, but also all the things that he has available to help you
out with the podcasts and the newsletter, that sort of thing. And they
always have little kibbotzing conversations here about some of the things from its conversations,
Yes, conversations, So from the Q and A department. One of our
listeners named John has written to have me ask Tom about what happens. He's
got cold water problems. He says, whenever it's a running there's a pulsation
in the water pressure and the pipes shake, right, he says, just
started. So what the heck causes that water hammer? Basically, you have
the energy of all the water, which is very heavy Remember water is eight
pounds a gallon, and if your pipes are loose because they're not secured to
the framing of the house, as that water runs through the pipes, the
pipes start to vibrate, they start to move, they start to shake,
and sometimes they start to bang when you turn the water off because they have
all water moving forward and it's kind of hitting the wall. Right. So
the solution here, John, is for you to find all the places in
your house where the plumbing is attached to the framing and then secure it better.
There are simple little brackets that hold a copper pipe to a two by
four to a two by ten or whatever whichever way is being run. But
wherever you can access it, you want to secure those pipes because you're going
to find that there are some loose ones and that's what's causing this problem.
It's pretty pretty straightforward. The worst case scenario. There's actually something called a
water hammer arrestor DOUG, which is basically a shock absorber for your plumbing system.
Really, yeah, how's it working? Well, basically, think about
it. Think of the way shock absorber works. Right, So when the
car bounces over a bump, it absorbs that bump and then it lessens it,
right, so it doesn't keep happening again and again and again. And
that's what a waterhammer wrestler does. And old fashioned plumbers actually made these by
using loops of pipe with nothing but air inside them, and the air would
be the cushion itself. But today we have the devices that do that where
else, Ladies and gentlemen, can you hear that kind of insight into why
your pipes go bang bang bang against the wall? There? It is,
all right? So a couple of things here that are sort of business related.
I noticed that Home Depot has bought a material provider called SRS Distribution eighteen
billion dollars. This is the largest purchase in Home Depot's history. You know,
they try, as other big outfits do, to bring in if they
do business with somebody and they spend a lot of money with them, but
why not own them, right? I mean, that's kind of what this
is all about. I don't know. Materials provider is a broad I was
thinking of you yesterday. I'm driving along the highway in Maui and there's a
truck beside me that is it's a company, YadA YadA, and what it
does is supply contractors with the materials just for the foundation. I never heard
of anybody. Are there a lot of these kind of Well, if it's
around this, I think is A is a big material supply company that focuses
on builders and commercial constructions. So it's an area of business that home depot
I mean certainly the commercial construction side of it. It's probably an area that
they've not had as much sens and paid to and so they're trying to expand
we've seen these types of acquisitions over the years. Yeah, of course this
is a super big one. All right, Money Pit podcast this week focusing
on the risks of hiring an uninsured contractor. Yeah, this sounds like a
real dirty worm. Here, give us more on that. Now, you
have to if you're going to hire a contractor, you have to ask for
their insurance, to make sure they have workmen's comp insurance, because if somebody
gets hurt on your property, that contractor or that subcontractor could sue you as
the homeowner, even though you have little to do with this, a little
to do with the job at this point. If if they're injured performing your
job, then you're at risk. So that's why you want to make sure
they have insurance. Now, I always recommend that you get to copy that
insurance and you call the insurance co to make sure it's valid, because some
less reputable contractors will get the insurance and then cancel it keep the stift.
Yeah, right, exactly. Then that's an old scam man. Yeah,
that's an easy scam, all right. One of the things in the newsletter
this week moneypit dot com forward slast newsletter is a focus on heavy rain and
the way to protect basement. They're going to get more four inches here in
California, I am this weekend. Yeah, So what's the story behind that.
Well, it all comes down to water management, right, You've got
to have gutters that are properly sized for the house. They've got to discharge
that water well away from the foundation the gutter caisset when they come and they
put gutters, and they usually turn them out about a foot at the bottom
of the leader and they stick a splash block in there and that's it and
the water pools there goes back into the basement. But you've got to keep
those gutters clean. Another thing you can do is use larger gutters. The
six in sized gutters instead of the five right, put them on my house,
Doug. The last time I clean my gutters was twenty fourteen. Yeah,
I have to keep that. Spouts are so big. Yeah, pass
all the leaves right through it. You don't, You don't need guards.
The next Stefan Good Day download with Doug and Jay Kirshner is made possible in
part by Caldron, which is the safe way for you to lose weight and
keep it off.