We start out the show with new products for your home for all of you that have dogs! Eric G shares his tricks for making a dog easy home that makes it easier for the dog owner and much for comfortable for that puppy!

Are there really wood floors that are pet proof?

Then we dive into new ways to build a deck and waterproof it so that you can control water from going under the deck.

For more information on Dexerdry: https://dexerdry.com/

Thanks for listening to Around the house if you want to hear more please subscribe so you get notified of the latest episode as it posts at https://around-the-house-with-e.captivate.fm/listen

We love comments and we would love reviews on how this information has helped you on your house! Thanks for listening! For more information about the show head to https://aroundthehouseonline.com/

We have moved the Pro Insider Special on Thursday to its new feed. It will no longer be on this page. You can find it and subscribe right here: https://around-the-house-pro-insider.captivate.fm/

Mentioned in this episode:

Check out our New YouTube channel @AroundtheHouse HQ

Make sure you subscribe and RING THE BELL for our brand new channel with 4k content! Click the link to take you there!

YouTube Around the House HQ

Take a second and leave us a review on your favorite podcast player!

Quick favor—if you're enjoying the show, the absolute best way you can support us is by leaving a quick review on your favorite podcast player.

022

[00:00:32] Eric Goranson: We'll have a problem. And you're relying on the finish all the way around the product to do that. So don't buy the hype on a pet proof wood floor, go with something that, uh, a vinyl or a tile.

[00:01:10] Caroline Blazovsky: Hello everybody in radio land and

[00:01:21] Eric Goranson: I always thought, you know, you'd go to the store. And maybe when you were just 21 or me maybe slightly younger, you would get. MD 2020 drinks, mad dog, mad dog. Did you realize that that's actually not the name of it is not mad. Dog Morgan, David, 2020.

[00:01:47] Eric Goranson: I hope so. I hope everybody had that low point in their life when they're drinking that

[00:01:53] Caroline Blazovsky: can Google. Yeah, all you young in's Google's

[00:02:15] Eric Goranson: We

[00:02:24] Intro: field.

[00:02:40] Intro: Oh,

[00:02:45] Eric Goranson: I wanted to talk a little bit about, let's start out with dogs first because you know, we are a dog family.

[00:03:13] Eric Goranson: And when we eventually, when one ages out and we go down to two, we will probably stay at two just because that's the way it is. You don't believe me.

[00:03:29] Eric Goranson: Uh, I think we'd find a really cool homeowner that would want to have a, be a new pet owner.

[00:03:55] Caroline Blazovsky: And it's key. I'm researching something right now. I want to know how many Americans [00:04:00] have a domesticated animal in

[00:04:02] Eric Goranson: Well, we're not talking pigs. We're not talking miniature horses. I'm just talking dogs today though. But when you talk to dogs, it's interesting. You know, one of the first things we did when we moved into the house is we put in a. Dog door through the side of the house. So, you know, like many homes, we have a small yard on the side, right.

[00:04:39] Eric Goranson: I built a little doggy deck and a ramp that goes down. And I built a side door. So no matter what time of the day or night, the dogs could go out and go to the bathroom. And so if we were gone for hours on end, they could go outside. No one had to let the dogs out.

[00:05:04] Caroline Blazovsky: According to the 20 21, 20 22 national pet owner's survey, almost a hundred million people have household.

[00:05:28] Eric Goranson: So I'm not worried about that. And I'm also not worried about a skunk or a raccoon or something come in and there, because again, they're going to avoid the dogs pretty well. So it's kind of in my neighborhood and the way I've got to protect it, it's not a. Um, I'm

[00:05:43] Caroline Blazovsky: My girlfriend's got three dogs in this beautiful home. I mean, it's gorgeous immaculate home, and they developed a rat problem because of the dog door. It's the only logical way these rats got in.

[00:06:10] Eric Goranson: I don't have to mow it, or I don't have to worry about it. Just being all like, you know, Cedar chips or things like that. So it's really easy to clean up. So I did do a, I did a would ship around the. 'cause I didn't take that all the way up to the edge. So I did that around the outside just to kind of use that as a, a good way to keep it smelling good out there.

[00:06:48] Caroline Blazovsky: So, is there a preference, , so too, I've seen two ways to do this, right? So you can do it with a fence and you can do wood, you can do metal, you can do all kinds of consistency of fence to keep animals in a designated area. [00:07:00] Or how about the electric fence? I mean, so, so many people use these. How do you feel about them personally?

[00:07:05] Eric Goranson: know, here's the thing, I like the, the S the, the hard Cedar fence for multiple reasons. One, I'm going to keep. Many animals out of that yard that I don't want in them. So someone else's dog, someone else's, , cat are much less likely to come over that fence. There's a hard barrier there, as well as anything else.

[00:07:57] Eric Goranson: So, yeah. And they're pretty expensive too, but I mean, [00:08:00] not that a Cedar fence isn't I like more of the hardware. I would have to agree.

[00:08:13] Eric Goranson: So that works out pretty well.

[00:08:46] Eric Goranson: And Julie went to work. She tried to bring the dogs in, cause they got sprayed with a skunk. She went to work. She didn't even get sprayed, but because she had touched the dog to their hand, they sent her home from work. [00:09:00]

[00:09:01] Eric Goranson: juice. Oh yeah. And even the tomato juice doesn't work that well, the, uh, we found that the, the nature's miracle skunk enzyme stuff worked.

[00:09:31] Eric Goranson: We'll do that just as soon as around the house returns.

[00:10:17] Eric Goranson: You can get rodents, right. That why through there, and you had a problem with that at one.

[00:10:39] Eric Goranson: And that's, and that's not good. So there's a solution for that. And, uh, there's a lot of different brands out there. So you can do your research and this isn't by any means of commercial. Cause I don't have any one of these, but they make high-tech pet solutions is a good one. High-tech pet products. They have a really high rate.[00:11:00]

[00:11:02] Caroline Blazovsky: Amazing. How cool is that high tech? You got to describe it though. Give a description.

[00:11:22] Intro: like

[00:11:29] Eric Goranson: technology, except this is.

[00:11:35] Caroline Blazovsky: technology look at that, does

[00:11:49] Eric Goranson: And I will say it will be more, more cost-effective, , many other solutions, 400 bucks can save you a lot of. Or if you're dealing with a lot of different things that are, um, you don't

[00:12:11] Caroline Blazovsky: And so I figure it works pretty clear until I got to check it out and see how

[00:12:24] Caroline Blazovsky: that. You need some extra CFM coming in,

[00:12:29] Eric Goranson: It's one of those things. If I go put in a high-tech pet door, all of a sudden I'm like, dang it. Now I'm got to put up a makeup air system. It's going to cost. It's going to create a whole other problem. Right. It's just like, oh no. So I'm going to have to be really careful with that. So that's one of those you go.

[00:13:12] Eric Goranson: I don't recommend. The engineered floors out there where they're a plywood floor and you've got the planks that are put together that are pre-finished in wood, not a fan with, with, uh, pre-finished wood floors with pats, because no matter what, you've got an area around each one of those planks that can let you know dog urine pet urine, go around that, and then it'll get.

[00:13:48] Caroline Blazovsky: Cat pee notoriously a problem from smell to odor, to staining once you get it and it permeates a structure and I don't care, it could be concrete. That is [00:14:00] almost next to impossible to get out

[00:14:08] Eric Goranson: Here's the thing. There are companies out there. That are saying that they have pet proof wood floors, that a pet can pee all over it. And it's a pre-finished wood floor. And I say, don't believe that hype, because it is impossible to build a wood floor. That will be a hundred percent pet proof because.

[00:15:03] Eric Goranson: Do not do a wood pre-finished floor. In my opinion, it just doesn't work.

[00:15:14] Eric Goranson: did in my house. I knew it. It's like, okay, I'm putting on a killer finish and I know three or four years down the road, five years down the road, I'll be redoing it again, which I knew I'd be doing some changes to the house on that floor anyway, in that.

[00:15:35] Caroline Blazovsky: So just to recap, we've got a fence. You need a good fence. You need a dog doors or animal door. I'm going to say animal. Cause people have multi pets. I've got something I'm gonna throw out there.

[00:15:52] Intro: Yes,

[00:16:04] Caroline Blazovsky: And obviously litter is one of the things we worry about. It causes all kinds of dust debris, you know, you can get all kinds of bacteria. So there is a thing called the litter robot. So if you're into smart technology, AI, all that kind of stuff, check this thing. It's like a little house and it goes in the cat goes in, does its business.

[00:16:24] Eric Goranson: that's crazy. My best. My best litter robot is not having a cat, so,

[00:16:40] Eric Goranson: Well, here's one of the technologies that I have.

[00:17:12] Eric Goranson: He wouldn't take a dive off of the second story balcony going between the rails of the balcony land in the bushes and take off

[00:17:27] Eric Goranson: So that's runner, he was always a runner and he came out of LA as a runner. He was a, a found dog down there. So this dude was just always doing that. So I got, and I love this thing.

[00:18:05] Eric Goranson: And so, um, I can turn a little light on it with my phone and literally go track him down within a couple. And it's pretty cool. So what if he's

[00:18:16] Eric Goranson: GPS? Yeah. Checking them all over the place. That's awesome. Hey, when we come back, we're going to talk Dax. We're going to do that just as soon is around the house

[00:18:42] Intro: Hey

[00:18:48] Intro: building it up.

[00:19:12] Eric Goranson: Hey Caroline, we were talking about, and we are

[00:19:20] Eric Goranson: We are not, we are, this is not your typical Collin home improvement show where we dive in and get you a little bit more information. For that next project, or even just information that you're trying to figure out and plan that next project.

[00:19:43] Caroline Blazovsky: Yeah, I'm going to hold deck. I've torn my deck off. It's been off now for COVID and it is going be rebuilt this year.

[00:20:13] Eric Goranson: One way is a, , Trex has a way to do it, which in my application. Wasn't going to work because you know how you, Caroline, you have deck boards and there's that gap between each. What this does.

[00:20:36] Caroline Blazovsky: If you have a very rainy climate, you get this. I don't even know how to describe no grass mud underneath this unusable space. And so what Eric's talking about is he took this space underneath the deck and made it into something that you can utilize. And there are ways to do this prior to what he's doing.

[00:21:02] Eric Goranson: Yeah. Which is awesome. So one way Trex has had this for a number of years. They have a bladder system, which is like a, almost a rubber gutter that comes in between the floor, Joyce and that collects the water and runs out off the end of the deck.

[00:21:37] Eric Goranson: And I'm like, I am, my gutters are hard enough. I'm not doing an 18 inch wide gutter.

[00:22:03] Caroline Blazovsky: So when I come in to test mold interior, you have a mold problem because of the deck, which is crazy. And people don't think about it. They think it's outside. They don't have to worry about. But it does infiltrate your building envelope and you end up with mold growing inside the house and through the air.

[00:22:16] Eric Goranson: would guess what that system with a 10 by 20 deck, I could fill up a couple trash cans of just black gunk every year coming out of that thing. So I didn't want to deal with that. Nope. Not doing it. So that's, that's one way to do it. The way that I liked that I did on mine and it's held up well, is a company called Dexter dry D X E R D.

[00:22:42] Caroline Blazovsky: Yeah, what's there.

[00:23:06] Eric Goranson: Between the deck board. So if you think of a composite deck board, there's that groove down the side for you to use like hidden fasteners and things with it that lets you hold it down without having to put in a face faster. What this does is this actually goes in and has splines and it pushes in and almost creates.

[00:23:43] Eric Goranson: And even mine this last weekend, because it was a nasty winter with lots of rain. I got up there and just hit my, a pressure washer with the white. I held it away, cleaned off my deck and it slides into that. And I tell you what it looked, it looks amazing now. [00:24:00] And it's held up for a couple of years already, and it is the way to create that waterproof surface.

[00:24:31] Eric Goranson: So it's an easy way to keep it clean and you don't have to worry about any of that other junk getting in between the deck board. Blocks that

[00:24:50] Caroline Blazovsky: So as you're assembling, right. And you explain, you have this compression tool that works, you kind of kind of compress the boards together. Yeah.

[00:25:06] Eric Goranson: And, uh, man, that was a solid system and, uh, it looks great and it works really well. I almost wish I would have done it on my lower deck and I didn't because I didn't think I need. But now when I'm going well, I wasn't worried about it cause there's on my lower deck. There's nothing underneath it. It's only, you know, 15, 14 inches off the ground.

[00:25:35] Caroline Blazovsky: Well underneath, I can get all, you can get this musty smell that happens under, under a lower deck too. Do you have that screened off around it?

[00:25:44] Eric Goranson: air flow? That goes underneath it. So, yeah, it's good. I got air flow through there, so it's fine. So, but I've done that on purpose. I wanted the air to go through.

[00:25:58] Eric Goranson: nasty.

[00:26:16] Eric Goranson: We'll put the link in the show notes on the podcast today. Now, Caroline, you been looking at an interesting system and we're gonna have to go out to break here in a few minutes, but you've been looking at something for your house, which I thought was kind of interesting, which was usually. Paver blocks on a second level deck.

[00:26:54] Caroline Blazovsky: First off your structure of your dock, forget, forgetting your, you know what you're going to put on the top part, but [00:27:00] you've got to decide what you're going to use. So I like the steel. What do you think about that? Go with metal,

[00:27:13] Caroline Blazovsky: How about price point? You think it's going to be any they're saying it can be pretty.

[00:27:31] Eric Goranson: But at our height of our, in our lumber pricing, steel was right in there. So it wasn't that much more expensive as lumber prices get cheaper. It'll become more of a distance between those two, but, uh, it's gotta be.

[00:27:52] Caroline Blazovsky: I don't agree with that, but they're saying you can get a good 40 to 50 years out of the system. If you use the steel framing with the pavers on. [00:28:00]

[00:28:09] Eric Goranson: We'll do that just as soon as around the house returns.

[00:28:51] Eric Goranson: Ari command from Eva. Novelas down and you're listening to around the house with Eric G

[00:29:03] Intro: Welcome

[00:29:26] Caroline Blazovsky: From a total. So if you're doing it from a total new deck, right, you can go with the steel framing. If you decide, Hey, I just want to remodel the deck that I have. You can use the pressure treated lumber underneath, but then you've got to use these galvanized. I don't know. They're kind of looked like a little, uh, A pup tent, you know, like a triangle that steak.

[00:29:57] Eric Goranson: So yeah, you gotta be careful with that. And I'll be [00:30:00] honest, that's where that's a product that I would probably not recommend for that, because if you've got an old.

[00:30:29] Eric Goranson: So you're better off putting it on a whole brand new system. Uh, otherwise you're going to be re-engineering and rebuild. That old system, which could be a huge problem.

[00:30:58] Caroline Blazovsky: But I get your, I get your [00:31:00] jam on that. That seems like it could be sketchy if it's not designed to probate. And then PEV paver deck plank, for those who want to build a new deck using a treated wood structure on new footings and finish it with stone, concrete pavers, or outdoor porcelain tile.

[00:31:18] Eric Goranson: The thing that I don't like about that personally for me is I don't like a hot deck surface because it makes it in the summertime less enjoyable when you're sitting outside and tile and concrete. Or pavers really tend to grab the heat. And , that's why on my deck, I actually went with the, uh, moisture shield decking, cause it reflects heat.

[00:32:02] Eric Goranson: It could be so hot that the pets could be burning the pads of their feet.

[00:32:20] Caroline Blazovsky: So I would call it like a blonde or a light tan. We play cornhole out on that, , all summer long and it has never been a problem, but I do think it's gotta be the color tone. And then. The ground is cooler, right? Because of the fact that we're in a four season

[00:32:37] Eric Goranson: Right. When it's sitting up on a steel structure highlighted, and it's a 90 degree day, the coolest thing out there is still 90 degrees. You don't have that big heat pull out of it. So something to consider, you know, uh, something to think about. I like, I like something. Cool. And then the other thing I don't like about.

[00:33:17] Eric Goranson: I want to make sure that, uh, if I do drip someplace that I don't have this big marked up area, because the early tracks in the early composite decks didn't have that covering on the outside and all that oil around your barbecue would soak in it. Just look like crap. Get it outta there and it just was oil dropped.

[00:33:47] Caroline Blazovsky: I, that I was concerned, cause I'm looking at the paver deck complete. So that would be a whole new system is how to disseminate that water.

[00:34:11] Caroline Blazovsky: That'd be an interest. Concept that has to be discussed. Talk

[00:34:26] Eric Goranson: It comes down and around the pavers and , it's kind of a loose moving system in a way, even though it feels solid, water does soak down through it. So you've got to, , you're depending on that galvanized beneath. To direct the water now a way that has gone through that. So that's another one of those things that I'd kind of go, huh?

[00:34:49] Caroline Blazovsky: to check it out. It says the pavers are on dry, are dry and laid on top of a filter fabric. What happens if a Pedro cracks or become stained by accident? A field [00:35:00] paver can be easily removed and replaced for little cost.

[00:35:05] Eric Goranson: We just put it in. Yeah. You're just gonna have extra pavers. You can pop them out and put them back in. But so it sounds like they're not putting anything around the exterior of the pavers. You're just butted up to each other. Yeah. So it sounds like you're not putting in any kind of a. Like a sand around them to, to lock them in together.

[00:35:45] Eric Goranson: It can be 100% prevented with about a half hours worth of work. Yeah. Make sure that flashing is done correctly. We talked about it a few weeks ago in our Walt Tamala episode. Now, one thing to do is, , when you're walking around and [00:36:00] doing that quick deck inspection, make sure that deck that led your board, which is what holds the framing to the house.

[00:36:31] Eric Goranson: Large headed, screw holding that in there. And I want to see that into every, every, you know, 18 inches or so. I want to make sure that we've got a bolt or a fastener in that because many times when you see a deck failure, that's when that deck pulls away from the house and collapses. And, uh, it could be too many people on the deck.

[00:37:05] Caroline Blazovsky: them. I was just going to say, brand links are huge. How many times I've leaned up against someone's stuck.

[00:37:14] Intro: shouldn't be doing

[00:37:27] Eric Goranson: And you got five guys in the backyard, right? So that's, that's not what you're looking for and, uh, make sure those things are solid. Make sure they're fastened correctly. And, uh, I want to see those bolted in as well. I do not want to see, , deck railings nailed into the side there. I want to see some, some fasteners that are screwed together and a really good top plate that locks everything.

[00:37:48] Caroline Blazovsky: two-story deck that we took off. And when I tell you it was no flash. The railings were just, , basically nailed together pieces of two by four, two by six. I mean, it was like one of the [00:38:00] old traditional decks. And then also the stairs, the treads, the spacing between the stairs now in the older ones, I mean, a child could easily fall through.

[00:38:25] Eric Goranson: and the average lifespan of a deck.

[00:38:47] Eric Goranson: It's not long. It's not

[00:38:52] Eric Goranson: not Carolina. I hear that music in the back. It is expensive. You know what time it is? I'm Eric G and I'm

[00:38:59] Eric Goranson: B [00:39:00] and you've been listening