“Bad form!” Nice try! You almost slithered past me while I was distracted. Next time, try using some PAM on a piece of plastic - you’ll make far less noise. I know, you’re a little shy and you’re one of my newest subscribers, right? I always love to greet new subscribers and this is where I do it each week. Thanks for signing up!

Remember when Captain Hook (Dustin Hoffman) said that line in the movie Hook - the remake of Peter Pan? What a great accent he used! CLICK or TAP HERE to hear Hoffman say “Bad form!”, and then watch a few very short clips of this magical movie. It’s going to warm your heart, I GUARANTEE it.

You might be one of my loyal subscribers. If you could greet one of our newest family members, I’ll bet you might show them this epic video where I share the absolute BEST plumbing vent pipe roof flashing. For the love of God, don’t install one of the piece-of-c* * * ones made from aluminum and rubber! It’s guaranteed to fall apart in just a few years. CLICK or TAP HERE to see the flashing that’s on my roof.

Are You a Plumbing Inspector?

Are you a plumbing inspector or do you work closely with one? If so, can you please reach out to me ASAP? Just reply to this newsletter.

Insurance Review - ALERT

There’s lots of unrest happening in the USA right now. Your business or home could be near where this is happening. My STAIN SOLVER factory and fulfillment center are at risk.

I called my insurance agent the other day and asked if I was covered for looting and any fires that might be set by the peaceful protesters during the disturbances.

The answer was, “Tim, it clearly states on your EXCLUSIONS page, that you would NOT BE COVERED. Losses generated by riots are NOT COVERED.”

Yikes! I urge you to get out your homeowner’s or business policy and read your EXCLUSIONS page. If you’re not covered, create a contingency plan to protect yourself and your possessions. If you have questions, call your insurance agent soon.

Construction Damage and Dirt

A few days ago, Debbie shared a story about how the contractors building her new home almost ruined a very expensive cast-iron bathtub. Look at it:

Homeowners like Debbie send me photos quite frequently showing how some contractors imitate P I G S when working on their new homes or remodeling jobs. That said, my father-in-law grew up on a farm and he often told me that pigs make the best pets. It’s possible a few pigs have given all the others a bad rap.

Back when I was building, I dedicated a few old painting tarps to the task of protecting bathtubs. You can’t be too careful with cast iron tubs, acrylic tubs, showers, and any other plumbing fixture that needs to be installed before lots of other finishes.

It drove me CRAZY when I’d see my drywall finisher standing in a tub with his aluminum stilts on!

CLICK or TAP HERE to see what Debbie, (not the contractors!), used to make the tub look like new.

My Prediction Comes True

Each year as hurricane season ramps up, I issue urgent warnings about you becoming more self-sufficient. Natural disasters pound public utility and safety resources thinner than a piece of gold leaf.

Here’s a headline I saw at an online news source this morning:

Can you survive without power for two weeks or more? If the answer is “No”, then what is your contingency plan?

Identifying Energy Vampires

How would you like to have an easy-to-use tool that fits into your hand and allows you to discover where vast amounts of sweet moola are leaking out of your home into the ether?

CLICK or TAP HERE and be prepared to be absolutely amazed. There are some eye-opening infrared photos on that page.

I NEED Your Help, Again

Are you thinking of doing work around your home or do you have an interest in getting a home warranty?

I’m trying to gauge your experience when local professionals give you a FREE quotation on a job. I need the input from homeowners like you because I would have a jaded view, for sure, being a contractor. I’d love to hear your story and you might be helping someone else by sharing it!

That said, if you need FREE quotes for bathroom remodeling, gutter guards, or a home warranty, please go to the following pages, fill out the form, and then GET BACK TO ME once you’ve gone through the entire process. I want to hear the GOOD, the BAD, and the NOT-SO-PRETTY.

Bathroom Remodeling FREE Quotes

Gutter Guards FREE Quotes (DEMAND micromesh!!!!)

Home Warranty Information and FREE Quotes

Small Splitting Maul - Will it Work?

I was able to test a small splitting maul that resembles a hatchet last week. Like so many other things, I’ve been waiting for this small tool my entire life! Do you have any idea how hard it is to split small kindling wood with a giant maul? And a traditional hatchet just doesn’t work well for this task.

CLICK or TAP HERE to see my positive and negative comments about this dandy little maul and its bigger 6-pound brother.

Don’s Dilemma

Don lives in Toledo, Ohio. That’s about three hours up the road from where I lived in Cincinnati. It’s just west of the most spectacular continental glacial grooves on the planet. I was near Don’s house just ten months ago and shot this photo while I was alone at the State Park pondering how just 13,000 years before I’d have been buried under 3000 feet of ice!

Did you know there were four periods of massive continental glaciation in the past 2,000,000 years? Four times the enormous thick ice sheets were created and then melted with just a few campfires burning.

I was mystified by this as a young geology student. As the years clicked by and I accumulated more critical-thinking skills, I became even more impressed by Mother Nature’s power to do all this on her own with no assistance. As you’re about to see, there appears to be a shortage of critical-thinking skills out in the general public.

Anyway, Don’s sent me this pithy email:

“I boiled in linseed oil with my red Behr deck stain. Now the deck stain is peeling off with green spots that did not stick to the wood. I sanded off the spots but I’m not sure what to do next to stop the peeling.”

Do you grasp what Don did? He apparently, if I understand his email to me, put on a white lab jacket, perhaps donned (pun intended) some safety glasses, MAYBE got out a fire extinguisher and proceeded to put some BEHR deck stain on his stove, heated it up to BOILING, and then added linseed oil.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

What’s happened to good old common sense and critical-thinking skills?

For the love of Pete, you should NEVER EVER try to do what Don did. NEVER play amateur chemist in or outside your home!

NEVER mix anything with anything else unless you KNOW FOR A FACT what the result will be.

For example, NEVER mix chlorine bleach with vinegar. It creates TOXIC chlorine gas.

NEVER mix chlorine bleach and ammonia - once again, you create TOXIC chlorine gas

NEVER mix chlorine bleach with rubbing alcohol. You create chloroform which is also TOXIC.

NEVER mix hydrogen peroxide with vinegar. You create peracetic/peroxyacetic ACID which is highly corrosive.

I could go on and on and on about what shouldn’t be mixed with one another. Before you mix ANYTHING, contact the manufacturer of the things you want to mix and get their okay.

Here’s what my advice to Don is:

• Go buy a lottery ticket or two to see if some of your lucky magic is leftover.
• Get out a belt sander and remove the peeling mess.
• NEVER AGAIN DO SOMETHING LIKE THIS HOPING that what you’re doing is going to work.

That’s quite enough for a Sunday. Whew, that was one long newsletter! Did you like it? Let me know!

Remember, get back to me after you’ve filled out the bath, gutter guard, and home-warranty forms and heard back from the contractors. I want to know if you’re treated with respect and if you have a great feeling about the experience.

Tim Carter
Founder - www.AsktheBuilder.com
BEST CLEANER in the World - www.StainSolver.com
Morse is Auditory - www.W3ATB.com

Do It Right, Not Over!

P.S. A few years back I was the home improvement expert for the ABC-TV affiliate in Cincinnati, OH. I used to have some fun with the garden expert in collaborative videos. I actually got hurt doing this video and did a good job of masking the pain! CLICK or TAP HERE to see if you can guess what happened.

Hah loooo, as Winnie the Pooh would say! Are you a brand-new subscriber? I thought so. This top spot in the newsletter is a place of honor, and it’s reserved for you. Thanks for subscribing.

You, though, could be a long-standing subscriber. Tell me, do you recall the video I recorded that shows the secret to tightening a loose doorknob? Who knew it was SO EASY????

CLICK or TAP HERE to watch this SHORT video.

How to Clean Response

Holy Tomato! That old saying is true, be careful what you wish for.

I asked what you have trouble cleaning so that I’d be sure to include your questions and my solutions in a FREE Deep Cleaning Tips & Secrets eBook I’m creating for you. Your input burst open the floodgates. Here’s an eye-opening snippet of just a few of the comments and questions you submitted:

I’ve been busy creating new pages on the STAIN SOLVER website to address some of your latest cleaning challenges.

But get this, many many of the questions you asked were already answered on the STAIN SOLVER website.

To locate them, all you have to do is enter one keyword and a list of related columns will pop up. Here are some examples of existing pages:

• How to clean mold off ANYTHING
• How to clean inside a toilet tank
• Remove ANY laundry stain
• Clean baked-on grease off ANYTHING
• Clean algae off ANYTHING
• Clean ANYTHING off of concrete
• Clean oil from concrete
• Clean any type of urine from ANYTHING
• How to Clean A Garlic Press

Give it a try. Just go to the STAIN SOLVER website and see if there’s an answer waiting for you.

You may be wondering if the extra expense of STAIN SOLVER is worth it. First and foremost, STAIN SOLVER is a certified organic oxygen bleach made in the USA. I've not been able to locate a competitor's product that's also certified organic.

I use the highest percentage of USA-made active ingredient in STAIN SOLVER. The popular name brand you may be using has far less active ingredient than STAIN SOLVER, and is almost certainly sourced in China, the land of many many bad things as we have come to discover in recent years and months. Remember the tainted dog food and the Chinese drywall that caused wires and pipes to corrode?

Are you finally convinced you want to try STAIN SOLVER? CLICK or TAP HERE for goodness sake, and just order the small sample size if you’re wringing your hands. I KNOW it’s going to work for you!

Just this past week, a good friend of mine finally used it on her kitchen countertop grout, and she was thunderstruck with the results. Do you want to be Thunderstruck? CLICK or TAP HERE.

Staining Cedar Siding

Two days ago, Howard invested in one of my simple phone consult calls. He’s refinishing the cedar siding on his home near Toronto, Canada.

Howard shared that he had used Thompson’s Water Seal and had disappointing results. He’s not alone in being unhappy with this product. Few people use Thompson’s twice.

Howard wanted to know what I’d use if the cedar siding was on my house. Easy!

CLICK or TAP HERE and scroll down the page until you see my boat dock frame up in the air. It’s backlit with a gorgeous NH sunrise.

Watch the short video on that page. You’ll see the product I told Howard to buy. It’s on the hood of my truck. No, silly, I didn’t seal my truck with the product!

Forever and Ever House Paint

Three days ago, Mary from Cincinnati reached out to me. Here’s what she asked:

“I have a brick house with cement sills that have been painted. The paint is peeling. What kind of primer and paint do you recommend that will last forever? The house is 107 years old.”

My response was:

“Mary,

Forever is a darn long time.

Read this column and CLICK the big paint can that has the green label near the top of the column. READ the label on the can for the recommended primer.”

That’s enough for a Sunday. I’ll meet you back here next week.

Tim Carter
Founder- www.AsktheBuilder.com
BEST Organic CLEANER - www.STAINSOLVER.com
Morse Code LIVES - www.W3ATB.com

Do It Right, Not Over!

P.S. Riddle me this. Do you think tar paper is good? Why isn’t it used more often? CLICK or TAP HERE and see how I feel about this century-old black paper.

You know that old saying, "Be careful what you wish for."

It's TRUE!

I asked you yesterday what you want to clean. I was inundated with responses on this page.

I decided to create a NEW VIDEO for you and I just uploaded it. But before you watch it, allow me to share one thing.

Many of the things you wanted to know about already had pages created on the STAIN SOLVER website.

All you have to do to find the page you need is type in one keyword.

For example, if you want to discover how to clean hardwood floors, type HARDWOOD into the search engine at the STAIN SOLVER website.

How about glass showers? I'd type in SHOWER into the STAIN SOLVER search engine.

See how EASY it is to find your answer? Go try it now.

CLICK or TAP HERE now to watch the new video!

A real AsktheBuilder.com newsletter will be in your inbox on Sunday.

Tim Carter
Founder - www.AsktheBuilder.com

Do (CLEAN) It Right, Not Over!

If you just subscribed, this is NOT a normal newsletter.

I'm about to start writing a SHORT FREE eBook sharing with you all of my Deep Cleaning Tips & Secrets.

But I want to know what you would like to see in the eBook.

What questions do you have about cleaning?

What do you have trouble cleaning?

I don't care what the question is, just enter it in the form on this page.

CLICK or TAP HERE and please share with me what you want to know about how to deep-clean ANYTHING with the LEAST AMOUNT OF EFFORT AND WORK.

I expect to have the FREE eBook for you on or before October 1, 2020. You'll get a link to it in a future Ask the Builder newsletter.

Thanks,

Tim Carter
Founder - www.AsktheBuilder.com

Do (CLEAN) It Right, Not Over!

Well, I’ll be gosh-darned. Dag nabbit, I’m certain you must be a new subscriber! This top spot in my newsletter is reserved seating for you. Put your real estate in a comfy chair and strap yourself in. While the ride won’t be as exciting as the Wild Mouse at Coney Island in Cincinnati, Ohio was years ago, it’s still going to be fun.

You, though, could be a follower who’s been nice enough to stay subscribed. Do you recall the video I did about how to mix drywall mud? You know, the one where I thought I was Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart, and Harrison Ford all wrapped up in denim?

I know, I know, don’t quit my day job! CLICK or TAP HERE and get ready to chuckle.

Do you LIKE this newsletter and still want to get it each week? Good! I NEED YOU to CLICK or TAP HERE.

Huge YouTube Honor

Several months ago, a senior YouTube team member reached out to me. They were starting a big project to promote some of the top YouTubers in each of the 50 states.

It’s called the United States of YouTube. They picked me as one of the top three in New Hampshire. CLICK or TAP HERE and then CLICK the state of NH to see me.

If you want the SHORT CUT, CLICK or TAP HERE to go straight to NH.

How Words Are Born

I’ve been a professional writer now for about twenty-six years. As I’ve traveled the path, I’ve become quite interested in how words come to be.

Think about the simple word - recreation.

What happens when you go out and have fun, play a game, water ski, go swimming, snow skiing, etc.?

You re-create your psyche coming back to your normal day or life all refreshed!

Now, how about that Girl Scout favorite - S’mores? You know, the graham cracker, marshmallow, and chocolate sandwich.

Well, I’d bet you a dozen dark chocolate Aglamesis pecandes it comes from, (muffled mouth full of s’mores saying) “I want some more!”

Clean Microfiber Anything

Jared reached out to me two days ago about my STAIN SOLVER product. I don’t know if he was planning to clean microfiber stuff at his house, but he did mention how it makes all his clothes smell spring fresh.

Here’s what he said, “I’m a 78-year-old disabled senior on a fixed income. I rely on STAIN SOLVER and have been using it for years. When the virus caused you to be out of stock, I had to go to Costco to get your competitor’s cheaper brand which is NO COMPARISON. STAIN SOLVER is simply the best.”

Do you need to clean microfiber towels or furniture? Look at these:

CLICK or TAP HERE if you want to see how to SAFELY clean all of the microfiber prizes in your home.

Power Outage Feedback

You have no idea how much I value you and your willingness to share great information. In the last newsletter, I shared how I made a mistake about not calling the local power company when we lost power. CLICK or TAP HERE to read the story and see the dramatic photo of what high-voltage power lines can do to a roadway.

Elaine got back to me, asking about surge protectors. I wrote about those years ago and I BEG YOU to CLICK or TAP HERE to discover something about them that you probably don’t know.

She also said to call 911 for a downed power line because they have a secret number to contact the power company. They’ll dispatch a fast-reaction strike team to the downed arcing line.

Brian, who hails from the great state of Tennessee, suggested getting in contact with as many neighbors as possible and having ALL of them call too.

The more people out of power from a single issue, the higher up the priority list it goes to get repaired. That makes all kinds of sense.

The Fun Quiz!

I told you last week’s quiz would be fun and fulfilling! Maybe you were one of the four-out-of-FIVE who got the answer RIGHT!

Congratulations! Look at the results from last week:

Now don’t be getting all high and mighty! Let’s see if you can keep your streak going.

You’re going to absolutely LOVE reading the story all about how today's quiz came to be. I give you a link to the story after you SUBMIT your answer.

For today's quiz, look at the photo just below. Do you think you can answer a question about these multi-colored wires? When you submit your GUESS, you're going to see a link to a story you MUST READ.

CLICK or TAP HERE to discover something new and FUN with this week's Fun Quiz!

That’s enough for a Sunday, right?

Are you a Stain Solver user? I’ve got huge news coming soon.

Tim Carter
Founder - www.AsktheBuilder.com
BEST ORGANIC CLEANER - www.StainSolver.com
Morse - Are U Kidding? www.W3ATB.com

Do It Right, Not Over!

P.S. Riddle me this. You need to STOP WATER from getting into your basement or crawlspace. Or, you might want to reclaim your SOGGY backyard from the swarms of mosquitoes that currently have staked their claim to YOUR land.

CLICK or TAP HERE to see how I’d make your soil drier than the Atacama Desert.