From Decks to Ducts: May Home Projects That Will Save Your Summer

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Welcome to the around the House show, your trusted source for everything about your home.

Thanks for joining me.

I'm Eric G. John Dudley is out on assignment today, but he'll be back for next hour.

Don't worry, we have got him busy doing his stuff right now.

Well, I wanted to mention something real quick before we get into today's show.

I got a lot of messages last week of how to find out where we are going to be for some of these live events we've been doing.

And for instance, last weekend we were airing the Park Rose Hardware show, but I was actually out in Redmond, Oregon showing up for their home show out there for the Bend Home and Garden Show.

So I was out in beautiful central Oregon last Saturday having fun with pyramid heating and cooling out there.

So that was a ton of fun.

But it's one of those things that if you want to find out more about where we are, the fastest way head over to Facebook and we're going to work on putting a calendar up on the website here as well.

But the around the House show page over there, I always post stuff up over there where we're going to be so you can catch it over there.

Make sure and follow that and you'll be able to get the latest and so you can find it over there.

The links are just on our website at aroundthe house online.com Man, I tell you what, here in Oregon it has been a wild week this last week.

On Sunday I was driving around in my truck doing some stuff on the shop, looking down, it's 94 degrees outside and then turn around on Monday and it's like 70 again.

It is.

That was the earliest we've been that hot of all I think recorded history here at least in the Portland metro area.

So we have been all over the place.

It could be 50 and raining or 94 or 92 depending on where you're located.

So it's been pretty wild over here.

Not really stoked about fire season for us this year.

But I wanted to talk today in this hour at least what can we do be doing around our homes for May?

What do we have coming up?

What are some good things to be working on.

And the first one here I really want to talk about.

If you've got that wooden deck in your backyard or even in the front yard, if it's one of those, those homes, there's nothing wrong with that.

But inspecting that deck before summer hits because, you know, here's the thing, Memorial Day is going to be right around the corner.

It is sneaking up on us fast.

Are you ready to fire that grill up and have the family and friends over and well, you've got problems.

And someone goes to the er, let's see if we can prevent that.

You know, around here, in most of the country, whether it's that winter rain or the freeze thaw cycles of the northern part of the country, or even down in Florida where they got some good freeze thaws cycles here this last year, it really does its business on a deck.

And we're seeing it even more now because we're putting on these composite deck boards on top that can last 20, 30, 40 plus years.

But traditionally in most parts of the country, the wood underneath it, unless it's doing even for treated stuff, might only last 15 years.

Now there are people out there that are going to go, sheesh, I've got a deck that's lasted me 30 years underneath.

Well, here's the thing.

That older pressure treated where they used things like arsenic and other heavy metals and chemicals and everything else in it.

Yeah, that stuff was toxic, but it didn't break down very well either.

So it lasted a lot longer.

Today's stuff, when we're looking at it, as far as a pressure treat, the coppers and things that are in there, it's good.

It's just not as good as the nasty toxic stuff that could make you sick.

So again, you know, it's, we're trying to be healthier, but the problem is, is when you're building decks, especially now and you're putting composites over it, you want to put the deck tape over the top of all the, the framing so you can make that stuff last a little bit longer and hopefully catch up to where, for instance, where those deck boards are going to land.

As far as wearing out or needing to know look bad enough that you want to change them out.

That's the first thing.

The first thing though that I would do for your deck is do that quick visual walk around just the top side, check it out, look for soft, spongy boards, railings, grab a little all or a small screwdriver, start poking around a little bit and see if you can find some damage.

Cracks, splinters, warping, nail screws that came out.

I'm not a fan of nails anywhere.

Unless you're using joist hangers.

With joist hanging nails, that's one thing.

Refund those railings a little bit.

They should feel like they're rock solid.

And then if you watch videos on, let's say YouTube, social media, and the thing that I always say is it's that connection from the deck to the house that traditionally gives you the fails to get someone hurt.

And so you want to take a look at that.

I was talking to my buddy Wes here the other day and he's been working on his deck and he sent me some pictures and like many decks out there, they weren't flashed correctly.

And so you think about that.

2 By 6, 2 by 8, 2 by 10, whatever is up against the house that is fastened to it.

If there isn't a metal flashing and some flexible flashing that diverts water away from that joint and back out, you now can get rotting siding between, you know, that, that rim joist basically and the house itself.

You get water back in there and you've got a weak joint.

Now the first thing is if you see nails right there, that's where you got to slow your roll and really get some work done.

I would go in and sink better fasteners in there.

So find out where those are at and then get in there with some heavy duty lags.

I like some of the power lags out there.

Find something that's going to be rated for your area.

If you're towards a coast or near saltwater, you want to use stainless steel.

You get what I'm going at and I want to see those things fastened a couple at every stud in the wall.

That way you've got that fastened tight.

So many times when that deck gets overloaded, it gets weak.

Really.

That's the connection point that carries the most load.

So that's the part that you see fail.

Let's go out to our Red Wing safety tip real quick so we can talk safety around the house.

Hey guys, it's Eric G from around the House with a quick safety tip on handling paints, cleaners and solvents.

These chemicals can be real hazards, but a few smart habits keep you safe and healthy.

Always start by reading the label.

Look for ventilation requirements, skin warnings and flammability risks.

Then work in a well ventilated space.

Open up those windows, run exhaust fans or set up a portable fan to clear those fumes that can cause dizziness or breathing trouble.

Protect yourself with chemical resistant gloves, long sleeves, pants and safety goggles.

In cooler weather, layer a lightweight Red Wing hoodie for extra coverage without the bulk.

For heavy jobs like floor gluing or pest control, add a respirator and take fresh air breaks.

Store chemicals in a cool, locked away spot from kids and heat sources.

Dispose of leftovers properly through your local hazardous waste program.

Never down the drain or in the trash.

Respect your chemicals prep smart and they'll stay great project partners instead of problems.

Stay ventilated.

Stay safe out there.

This project safety segment is proudly brought to you by Red Wing.

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Check out the new collection@redwingshoes.com or your local Red Wing store today.

Red Wing gear that works as hard as you do now, you'll really want to spend a lot of time on that connection to make sure it is dialed in.

Make sure that there's water on the top diverting out.

Sometimes it's pretty hard to reflash that if that mistake's been made, but sometimes you can go in there, cut the siding back, do some flashing, put some trim boards back over the top of it, make it look good and help divert the water correctly.

If not, that's got a weak joint right there.

Now if you want to find out more about us or if you have a topic you want to hear us talk about here on the show, head over to aroundthehouse online.com and we can be contacted there.

We've got all our social media stuff.

We've got our two YouTube pages which is around the house HQ and around the House Eric G. You can find them both there.

Slightly different contact content in those and we do have our new video out with Cam Anderson on the Blacktails Ranch page that we have there as well where I walk through his house and I'll share that up on the playlist on the around the House HQ page.

You can find it right there around the House.

Be right back.

Don't change that dial.

We're just getting started on those pre summer projects.

Make sure you follow us on Facebook and our other social media platforms for all the updates and live events.

Head to our website aroundthehouse online.com for all the links.

We will be right back.

Sam.

Welcome back to the around the House show, your trusted source for everything about your home.

I'm Eric G. John Dudley is out on assignment today, but we're talking about some of these projects that are great for May before the real summer hits.

And like I was saying earlier in the first segment, summer hit my area here last weekend.

But it's a nice time to get out and get some of this stuff done so you can get out and hit the lake, go play in the water, whatever you're doing out there, going camping.

Nice to get some of these things out of the way so you can enjoy the rest of the summer.

I wanted to wrap up here on inspecting your deck because I want you to just go through, get underneath the deck and do a fastener check and make sure that you have all the metal brackets anytime that wood is changing direction.

So if you've got the beams up there connected to posts going down, floor joists, I want to see like the Simpson metal connectors between all of those so they're all touching each other, all tied off together.

I want to see that from the concrete footings all the way up to have metal brackets there holding everything together.

So that way it's good to go.

That way you're not just depending on a couple screws.

Couple brackets really can make the difference structurally.

So make sure everything's tight, everything's good, and if there's anything rotten, get in there, do some, do some planning, replace anything rotten or any other fasteners that don't look good.

And if it seems to be a little wiggly, sometimes cross bracing some posts and things like that can really help strengthen things up.

If it's moving around too much, it could just be rotten in time for replacement.

So being with the average lifespan with today's stuff out there is probably 15 years or so, depending on how it's treated in the weather conditions it's in.

Kind of gives you an idea of that lifespan.

Now the next one here too is keep it clean.

Anytime that between deck boards, you can get pine needles, dirt, sand collecting down in that, any kind of leaf material, anything organic and even dirt that will look.

That will just help keep that rot going.

So really keep it clean.

Do a lot of cleaning.

Make sure everything's looking good.

Any cut ends on the pressure treated, hit some cut solution on the end of that, so that's sealed and good.

And just keep an eye out for any termite bug or even the carpenter bees that are cruising around.

If you are on your deck and you, oh, that's a cool little Bumblebee, but it doesn't look exactly like a bumblebee.

You could be nesting in that deck.

So keep an eye on it.

Same thing with termites.

Just keep an eye out.

And when it's out on this stuff on a deck, call a pro in, have them take a look at it and make sure that it's solid.

That way you'll be good.

And then, of course, don't ever stack a bunch of stuff on it.

We've seen the videos where roofers will stack a pallet of roofing up there.

Somebody puts the hot tub on an unengineered deck.

That's a no go.

In that case, if you're going to put a lot of weight on it, contact your local structural engineer so they can take a look at it and tell you what you need to have that load there.

So that's the big one.

So just make sure you take some time on that and you'll have a safe summer on your deck.

Now, we were talking here a little bit about some of the past, but this is the time of year in my area, and of course, everybody's different across the country.

I get the yellow jackets, hornets, wasps.

Those things get crazy around here.

They get really aggressive in kind of late July, August, September, when we start getting into the heavy part of summer.

So it's a great time for preventative.

And here's what I would do, and this is the interesting part.

You can go on to your local home improvement store and they'll have six different kinds of traps for those things.

Some might work, some might not.

It's depending on what bugs you've got in your area.

And so take a look, ask around, see what works in your area.

For me, I use the Y traps, the why ones that go for all three.

They're the ones that are kind of round.

They've got a container up top with a water and a solution in it, and down below they've got another trap.

Those things work really well, and they're great for trapping those things and getting them dialed in and getting them out of there, because who wants to be out there squatting away?

Wasps, Yellow jackets, hornets.

When you're out cooking, enjoying yourself, maybe you're watching the game on the television outside in your outdoor kitchen.

I want to keep those things away.

So do what you can do to control them.

If you're getting the black little sugar ants inside your home, sometimes in certain areas this springtime, they get active and they're going to throw a party inside your house, I really use the Ant traps for those kind of things.

And basically they're really simple.

You could pop them open, put them where you're getting the ants coming in.

For our house here, we'll get them sometimes by the coffee maker on that countertop.

They'll come in there, and it really makes a difference.

As soon as I see one, I open it up, I set it on the counter right there.

It's not like it's a fruit food prep area, but I just keep it away from pets.

It's not like that stuff is super dangerous.

But I don't want anybody consuming something they shouldn't be, including my pets.

So you make sure you got that there.

And those traps work really well.

They'll get in there, they'll eat it, and then they'll take it back to the nest and it kills off those little tiny black sugar ants.

And so anytime you can keep those under control, you're good to go.

I don't like them in my house.

I know you don't too.

And we want to be careful with this stuff.

Of course, using the right stuff in the right areas.

I just don't go around and start blasting around the house with them and trying to holistically spray the whole area and kill everything.

Not healthy.

Not healthy for you, not healthy for your pets, not healthy for anything like that.

So keep that under control.

But pests are starting to wake up right now and get going.

Here's the thing.

If you're in an area where you've got termites and you've got a lot of this stuff, what I would do, especially if you get the big fat black ants, the carpenter ants, this is where I bring in the professionals.

This is where.

And I do this all the time here at my area.

I. I see them and I go, I need to get a second opinion here.

And I do this stuff for a living.

I bring in my local guys here, Bloom Pest Control, and I bring them in.

It's really awesome.

They come in.

They're my Portland company here that I've worked with for years.

Get Nathan in, take a look around, he'll give me his take, and then I know what the treatment plan is for that space.

And there's a lot.

I like the independent guys personally.

I call sometimes.

I'll call Craig at the homeowner show down.

I think he's got Excalibur Pest control down there in north of Houston, Texas.

Use your local guys.

I think they're the best ones compared to the national guys because they're really in tune with what's going on in your area?

In my opinion, that's who I've leaned on.

So really make sure walk the foundation, look for ant trails, wasp nests under ease.

Look for those rodent droppings or gnaw marks.

Take a look around for any of those cracks and then seal everything up where you can get it all sealed up.

They make great expanding foam that is kind of rodent unfriendly.

They won't eat through it because they put stuff in that foam for filling up those bigger gaps.

You'll see those around maybe cable TV openings or H vac lines coming in or anything like that.

You'll see that going around and then really watch.

And this is the big one here.

If you're feeding the birds out there and that bird seed is coming out, hitting the ground, or even worse, you're putting the bird seed on the ground.

That is the fast pass to get those rodents in there.

Whether it's mice, rats, raccoons, whatever else, you don't want to be feeding the unintended ones.

So make sure you get a bird feeder that will clean up after itself where it's not hitting the ground.

So it's a lot harder for those things.

And then get rid of the clutter out there.

Make sure that you've got great yard sanitation.

Make sure you don't have places of water like old tires are going to mosquitoes there in my Pacific Northwest, if I've got water damage someplace, the carpenter ants are going to find it.

They want that wet wood and so they're going to go in there.

If you see a couple of those things walking around, you have a problem with wet wood someplace.

We're going to talk about something super important that can save you some money on cooling this summertime because this is a big one.

We'll do that just as soon as around the House returns.

Don't change that dial.

Welcome back to the around the House show, your trusted source for everything about your home.

Thanks for joining me today.

I'm Eric G. Johnson.

Dudley is out on assignment, but don't worry here, you'll be back for the next hour.

And today we've been talking about those projects around your house you should be tackling here in May.

That'll make your summer so much easier.

And if you've got a segment that you'd like for us to talk about, maybe it's a topic, something you're struggling with or you want to learn more about, hit us up.

Send a message over@aroundthehouse online.com you can contact me there, even hit me up on social media usually I can get back to you pretty quickly.

Facebook and Instagram are the easiest.

Those are the ones that I probably see the most.

I don't have time always to get on TikTok every day, so sometimes those messages do get missed from time to time.

But you can find us over there.

I wanted to talk in this segment here about making sure that your home's ventilation is working correctly.

And this is a big one.

If you've got that attic space over your house and it's not vented correctly, it can be a hot mess in the summertime.

You can be collecting so much heat up there and there's only so much that insulation is going to do.

Even if it's like R30, if it's 95 degrees outside and it's 140 in the attic up there, that ceiling is kind of still be hot.

And now you're paying to deal with that.

And I know some people go, oh, I just put a attic vent fan in there, one of the power fans and the gable end turned it on and I was ready to go.

Here's the problem.

You can totally mess that up.

As a DIY project, I've seen it done.

To do a powered vent fan, there's some things that you gotta do.

First off, you gotta fix the existing ventilation problems that are there.

You kind of want to have a little bit of a balanced system where you've got air coming in through the soffit vents, which are kind of right on the flat underneath, like where your gutters are.

Maybe you've got soffits there.

They're up even closer.

If you don't have framed in soffits, it could be up there, closer to where the rim joist would be on the wall.

But you need to have vent ventilation coming in there.

Those vents need to be cleaned.

And if someone went in there and blew an attic insulation and didn't keep them from getting blocked, that could stop your airflow.

And then in a perfect situation, I either want to see a ton of roof vents or a ridge vent that goes down the entire length of the roof up there and want to make sure I get enough air in there correctly.

Now here's the problem.

If you've got those two things working just awesome and you put a.

You're like, hey, I'm going to put a power vent in here.

I'm going to move some air, I'm going to bring in that outdoor air.

Going to cool this thing down.

Yeah, that can work.

But here's the problem.

You can actually be sucking the cold air out of the house with air leaks, and then you're removing the cold air as well.

And that can cause another issue.

So if you're really wanting to do this right, the time to do this is when you're replacing insulation up there, because you really need to pull back the insulation and go through and seal up every little air intrusion spot around light fixtures, around ventilation, like a bath fan, around in open walls where they've drilled to put electrical or plumbing up there.

Those were never sealed up well, but it's since the interior walls generally aren't insulated, you're going to pull conditioned air up.

So if you turn that fan on and it's creating a vacuum in that space, the path of least resistance is going to be the cool air in the house.

That'll cost you a lot of money.

So what I say is, if you're going to do that, make sure you go through, spend the time and seal it up.

That will get you the best situation.

And then you could put in that attic fan to do the same thing.

Those are a way to do it.

But be very careful with that, because poor ventilation doesn't just make your house feel stuffy as well.

It really can cost you money on those energy bills and even worse, create mold problems before you even notice.

Now, let's talk about that.

How does that happen in there?

One, if you've got bath fans that come out and ventilate into that attic space, I think that's against code anywhere in the country.

Those should be all the way outside and not just going up to a vent hole.

They should be plumbed all the way up through either the sidewall or through the roof surface out onto the outside.

Can't be close to that.

It needs to be going all the way.

Because I tell you what, you can spend $50,000 pretty quickly having to go in, remove all the insulation, go in there, mold, debate everything, and now you got a serious problem.

So you don't want to see that happen.

That gets expensive.

So make sure that all those vents are going outside.

And even more importantly, on top of that, take your time to make sure that your vent fan in the kitchen is doing the same thing.

Now, it might not go up into the attic space.

It could go out the back wall.

But if you've got a house where they use the recircle, recirculating ones, where I call them forehead dusters, that's when you turn it on, it blows right out and hits you in the face because there's a vent coming back out that doesn't ventilate outside.

Those are garbage.

They're completely useless.

I would replace that.

And that's a good project.

Replace it.

Run new ducting outside.

Whether it's out the back wall, sidewall, whatever you're getting out through the kitchen or up through the space and out of the building.

That way you're as good as gold.

You got to get that stuff out of there because that range, for instance, again on the inside of your house is the largest polluter inside your house.

As far as poor indoor air quality.

Doesn't matter if you've got electric induction or gas.

No matter what, you're still releasing chemicals when you cook that stuff.

And if you're cooking with oils and you're frying, it's even worse.

So you want to make sure and get that stuff out of there.

There is a little bit out of the combustion of a gas range.

But no, most of your poisonous stuff that is, I wouldn't say poisonous.

It's not going to kill everybody if it's working right.

But most of the stuff that is not good for you is going to come out from cooking on.

No matter what cooking surface you're cooking on.

It's just the breakdown of the foods with the heat that does it.

So make sure you do that.

Now the other thing is on bathroom fans, make sure on those bath fans that they're running for a while.

I like to have Those things running 20 minutes past the time I walk out the door.

So that way you can get all that moisture out of there.

Because that's a big one.

Now here's another thing that's super important too.

When was the last time you pulled those covers down and cleaned them out in there?

That's a big one.

If you can get in there and clean those things up, get all the dust bunnies.

It happens in the laundry room, it happens in the bedrooms.

It's interesting.

Now here's something that is important as well.

And I saw this in my girlfriend's house and it was something that I caught there because of interior doors.

This was a new builder, a brand name builder out there.

And before my time, they put the doors too close to the carpet on the second floor.

So with light cream carpet, the only air that's coming in room to room is going underneath that door.

And if you've got a quarter inch like these doors, you now have an air filter there.

And that carpet always gets so dirty.

So that's one of those Things that.

That really causes an issue.

So you want to make sure and get that cleaned up.

It'll literally make that the air filter.

And so that's part of the problem with that.

So you need to have.

With that fan, if it's moving 100 and let's say it's removing 100 CFM, it's probably 75.

It's a big fan.

Let's say it's 75 CFM by the time it gets to the outside, because there's some bends and some length to that.

If it's 75 CFM, which is 75 cubic feet per minute, which is about 75 basketballs per minute, you're gonna need probably a much bigger opening under that door.

Or you can get one of those doors that van air doors makes.

That air goes through the door, and it will go.

Let it go through there without losing the sound that comes through that door.

It'll still sound like a solid core door.

But having those doors that can ventilate correctly and get the air under it, otherwise, it's like trying to take a soda straw and.

And suck down a really nice vanilla shake with it.

It's hard to move that air.

So you want to make sure that's moving freely and you're good to go.

That's a big one.

So make sure you're changing.

If you've got a newer house with ERV systems or HRV systems, any of those systems like that, make sure you're changing the filters.

Make sure that you've got your h vac C system running correctly.

If it's got a winter or a summer mode, make sure you clicked over into that and you'll be good to go.

And that can save you some serious money.

And if you're in an area, whether you're in Florida or the Pacific northwest, where if wildfires are going, keep an extra air filter, Our air will get really bad from those fires, and those filters will get dirtied up quicker.

If you're only changing them like every 60 to 90 days, because they're big, thick ones, you want to change them sooner because they will get dirty faster.

Hey, if you want to find out more about us, head over to aroundthehouse online.com.

All of our social media platforms are right there.

You can just click on them and go send us a message right there.

Around the house.

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Don't change that time.

Make sure you follow us on Facebook and our other social media platforms.

For all the updates and live events, head to our website.

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We will be right back.

Foreign.

Welcome back to the around the House show, your trusted source for everything about your home.

I'm Eric G. As I said earlier, John Dudley is out on assignment today.

But don't worry.

Next segment, he will be back in the second hour.

Today we've been talking about those projects to do in May here that you really can dive into to make sure that you're good for the rest of the summer or at least ahead of the game.

And I think that's super important.

First, I want to talk about a couple things that are going on here in the around the house world.

We are in the middle of our new studio soundstage build out.

This is going to be the ultimate shop that we're building out so we can be doing stuff and I'm looking forward to that.

This is going to be a lot of fun.

It's a lot of work.

We're building out.

We're having a good time.

If you want to come down, if you're one of my friends out here in the Pacific Northwest and you want to come down and do some work on it with me, reach out to me, always looking for some fun, help craftspeople to work and swing hammers with and do stuff with.

We got a lot of fun stuff that we're doing.

We're gonna be doing everything around the house.

We're gonna have a place that we can do these videos so we can do Apple podcasts and stuff with the video.

And so our goal here later on this summer is to have a video version of this that'll air after the radio show that you can check it out and see exactly what we're talking about.

So gonna be super fun.

Gonna help us create more content and all that stuff and be able to do it in one cool space.

And it's coming along.

Going to shoot some stuff here next week as well.

We shot some stuff this last week.

We'll have some new videos coming out shortly on this.

Looking forward to.

It's going to be a lot of fun.

But the last thing I want to talk about here is making sure we teased a little bit about it here.

This last one we were talking about talking about the ventilation and making sure that air filter is solid and when it comes into smoke season.

It used to be just us here on the west coast we would see wildfires, but I'm seeing them now and in the South, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, anywhere there's drought, you can have these fires and making sure that you've got the house sealed up and you've got good air.

Filtration is key.

And that's where I'd really want to take some time and take a look.

If you're in a place where you've just got air conditioning, but I'd say maybe a window air conditioner versus and maybe in the wintertime baseboard heat, but you don't have any real filtration.

This is where I would take the time and make sure that you've got some kind of a HEPA filter running inside the house to make sure you've got clean air.

That's going to really help you out.

It's going to lower the allergens down and got to be a much healthier space.

Great for people with apartments and things like that.

The other thing is make sure you've got a humidity sensor in the house.

If you're getting up 55 plus percent humidity, you're going to need something to bring that down.

Now air conditioning naturally will lower that somewhat because you'll have condensing moisture on the coils.

It will dry it out.

But sometimes that can be so humid it's just freezing things up.

So having a dehumidifier could be important.

Also if you've got a damp crawl space or basement or even in a kind of your house is in a really wet area that can be coming up through the cement floor if you're slab on grade and they didn't put down any vapor barrier underneath it.

So those are all things you can do.

So lowering that humidity, press humans out there, guess what?

That feels like we're lowering the temperature.

That's why when you're in a house and it's 70 degrees on the thermostat, you're man is still stuff in here that's probably 55% humidity versus when you were cold it was probably 18 or 20% because your body feels that heat the same with humidity.

So that's how you can get that.

And it makes it feel much worse than it actually is.

So keep that clean.

Go through the filters.

Now.

Check your thermostat as well.

Check the batteries, if it has them, replace them as needed.

I like the new smart ones.

If you've got an ancient one, it's good to do that.

Now here's another thing that I think is super important and this is a debate that some people make in today's world of H Vac.

If you have central heating and cooling or even a mini split, you should have that serviced.

Get it serviced, get it taken care of.

And there are multiple things you can gain with this doing that annual service on the heating side and the cooling side.

You should have that serviced about right now for the cooling side.

I like to do it in the fall for the heating side.

So you're ready to go for the rest of the year.

Here's two things it does.

One, it can save you money because you're gonna get things dialed in.

If that unit is having to work harder on the heating side, for instance, and you're burning too much gas or the electricity, it's using too much, it's not working efficiently, that can cost you an added utility bills.

So this summer, if you want to save the most money, get that thing tuned up.

It's like the tune up in your car.

It needs to happen.

And if you can get them doing that, it's awesome.

Take a look.

What I recommend is if you've got a carrier dealer, make sure you have the carrier person come out.

You don't have to, but that's also nice if you've got somebody that's very familiar with that brand.

And for instance, I use Pyramid heating and cooling.

But if I moved into a house that doesn't have a carrier and they're a carrier dealer, I still use them for my stuff.

That's all the same theories and they all work generally when the different brands as well on the service side of things.

But here's the advantage, and I'll use a Pyramid is an example.

Those guys have a pretty good system.

So you get part of their service plan.

So you get those services done.

It will put you in the priority calling.

So if you do have a break breakdown and something goes sideways, you're at the top of the list, which is also good because it seems when things get really cold or really hot, that's when these things take a dump on you and they crash and burn.

And now you got to have somebody come out and fix it.

You want to be front of the line on that one so you're not sitting there without heat or without cooling.

Now the thing I like with them too is they do this service and when they go through it, they go through everything.

They're looking to see that everything's working correctly.

They'll test connections, they'll make sure things are good.

Many times they can look at something and go, hey, that fan is on its last leg.

It's working, but it's barely working.

You want to replace that today or not?

And here's why I think this is smart.

It's my opinion, but I think this is smart to get this service done because since they've changed out all of the Freons basically to a new one, it's impossible to get those old major parts.

If you've got a compressor that died, guess what?

It's got to use the new stuff, which means you got to take the inside unit out.

So now you're putting in a new system.

So if you're trying to milk yours along and you don't want to spend the 10, $20,000 for a new system, depending on the size and how efficient it is, you want to make sure you get it running as best it can.

And with things so expensive out there, like gas that we're trying to put into our cars each week to get to work and get around, make sure that you get that working as well.

So you can really save some money.

Any place we can save money is awesome right now.

So another thing is too.

In the summertime, if it's going, if you're hearing strange noises, the vents aren't working right, not enough air coming out, higher normal energy bills, or that system's short cycling where it's turning off and on, those are warning signs that your system's telling you that you should be paying attention.

Now, another thing that I like to do too, on the inside of the house is that vent maintenance.

If you've got those floor registers, pop them up, vacuum them out.

Maybe it's the kids Cheerios that got down there, or dog toys or little tiny things that slip through the vent.

Cleaning that out is really good.

Now, I'm not a big fan of the duck cleaning out there unless it's somebody that's good.

There's a lot of scams out there these days.

They'll tell you to do it for 49.

You show up and now it's 490 because they got you in the door.

I like to use companies that are nadca.

NADCA certified.

That is the industry certification for these guys.

And that can really make sure that you've got somebody that's knowledgeable and isn't going to damage your system by trying to clean it.

Those are some things that, like that spring tune up that can save you 10 and 10 to 20% on your utility bill and extend the life of your system.

That can save you a bunch of money for a few hundred bucks.

Going back to here, guys, before we wrap up for this hour, if you're a company out there and you want to be involved in our studio build out, maybe you've got some new cool shop stuff or things like that reach out to us can hit us up.

Over@aroundthehouse online.com we're partnering up with some new people.

I've got some fun brands that we've got in there.

A big thanks to my friends here locally at Conrad Lumber Floor and Decor has got some really cool finishes for the walls that we're putting in there and some flooring as well because they need something that's going to be durable and easy to clean and that I don't feel too bad about.

Make it a mess with and still be able to clean it up.

And so we've got a lot of people here that are really working with us.

We got some new LED lighting, some new hexagon lightings that we're working on that are going to be shipping soon.

We're going to have a lot of fun in there.

Might even be putting a lift in the place so we can do a couple automotive tune up segments as well.

We got a lot of fun ahead.

If you want to find out more about us, head over to aroundthehouse online.com we've got the blog there, we've got our store with our tips, our tricks, all of those things in there.

We've got the videos, we've got all our social media channels.

These are all things here that can really kind of get you dialed into where you're going to find all of our stuff and make sure that you join our Facebook closed group because what that is going to around the House Nation.

We're putting some special stuff up there as well from time to time, including some polls of things that can be showing up in a new show coming up soon.

All right guys, we're going to wrap this one up today.

Hour two is ahead next.

I'm Eric G. Thanks for tuning into around the House.

Enjoy this spring and summer out there.

It's just getting started.

Thanks for tuning in to the around the House show.

Make sure you follow us on YouTube.

Just look for our new channel at around the House HQ and our long form channel at around the House.

Eric G. We will see you next time.