Garages are a hot topic that we have not taken on for a long time. We jump into making sure that door and opener is working well and if that is a DIY project or time to bring a pro in. We also talk about if you are parking your vehicle there what issues that can cause and how best to fix those so you have a clean and healthy garage. Storage is also an issue so we tackle storage issues and what you should pay attention to within that structure so it is just a little bit safer. All this and MORE in the first hour of Saturday's show.

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[00:00:05] Intro: around the house

[00:00:24] Intro: Instead of putting out in the rain on the porch or, you know, Hey, I'm worried about my stuff getting stolen. It'll just open the garage door up and do it. Boom. What I like about this garage door openers also has a camera on it. So you could actually set it to notify you when the garage door opens. And so you would see that Amazon person kicking the package in.

[00:00:50] Intro: know. You come around the

[00:01:09] Eric Goranson: over on this side here, just looking forward to this subject, because this is one of my favorites. I cannot wait to dive into all about garages.

[00:01:25] Eric Goranson: Yeah. But, but not really dove into it like this, , and this first segment, I would really want us to dive in kind of about the inherent issues with garages, especially ones that are attached to your house.

[00:01:54] Eric Goranson: Nice. It's cool. But when they come home in the winter time and the cars are wet from the rain [00:02:00] I walked by and it looks like it's raining inside gets, you can see the water running down the inside of the glass from the humidity condensating on the cold glass door. Nice. So that's going to be a moldy moldy mass inside that garage.

[00:02:21] Caroline Blazovsky: You guys store everything in there. I'm looking in your garage as we speak

[00:02:38] Eric Goranson: And so I've been really trying to pare stuff down here to get it pared down so I can of course do the show in here, but as well, be able to do some work in here, paint some stuff, do whatever.

[00:02:55] Caroline Blazovsky: That's an unconditioned space, right? So that's the issue. Why people start putting stuff in to [00:03:00] begin with that they shouldn't. So they've got paints, they've got caught. They have, all kinds of cleaners and different things that they don't want frozen or exposed to the elements.

[00:03:15] Eric Goranson: More automotive chemicals in the car port, actually on a, uh, on a racking system out there, uh, that sits outside. So that works out well. Cause it's. But none of that's really going to get frozen enough to blow up. You know what I mean? It's like my motor oil and my anti-freeze and my brake clean and all those things out there, NACA, it's going to be okay if it froze, , it's not going to hurt

[00:03:37] Caroline Blazovsky: I had a car out in the frigid temperatures. It can handle it.

[00:04:18] Eric Goranson: So one, you don't get mold and two, it doesn't show up inside your house.

[00:04:23] Caroline Blazovsky: So anytime you start a car or you idle a car and you shouldn't idle with even the garage door open, but people do, you're launching all of these petrochemicals, like benzenes and Tallinn and these carcinogens. And if you ever saw what was lit in a label or on a label of gasoline, you wouldn't want it in there.

[00:04:58] Caroline Blazovsky: So once you crack a pink and [00:05:00] that can continues to leach out all kinds of stuff. So make sure that you've got that covered. You've got to have some type of ventilation in the garage. It's not just the space that you can put everything in and it doesn't affect.

[00:05:17] Eric Goranson: Just all that stuff inside there, and it can leach into the house. And you're good. My garage is the ceiling is insulated the walls. Aren't on three sides because I've got a wood garage door in the front. Then I've got two walls that go to the exterior and the rest of it is insulated wall to the house.

[00:05:49] Caroline Blazovsky: Yeah. I mean, even when it's not, , air finds the path of least resistance.

[00:06:07] Caroline Blazovsky: When you open a window, what happens? The air comes in. So it's the same principle with. Oh,

[00:06:28] Eric Goranson: So that's the good part is it's can deal. It's not that big a deal. One of the things you gotta be careful too, and we've talked a little bit about this in the past, but you know, what you're doing in a garage floor is important. , if you're parking your car in there all the time, you were telling me a story about having those mats on the floor that was in yours.

[00:06:49] Caroline Blazovsky: Yeah, these garage floors are kind of complex, right? Because they're usually cement and they transmit vapor back and forth. Right. Vapor goes down, vapor goes up, they're breathable. And so when you put [00:07:00] systems, certain systems over them, you start to trap the vapor underneath. And so we went with this plastic.

[00:07:21] Eric Goranson: And so, yeah, then you got that gunk buildup to me.

[00:07:45] Eric Goranson: If you spill oil off the car or, , anything that was trapped down into that, you've now blocked that and kept it down into the concrete. And then anything on the top side, you can actually turn around and just clean it up with a mop or a, or a paper towel, and you've got it cleaned up and taken care.[00:08:00]

[00:08:18] Caroline Blazovsky: It could potentially get musty and once that happens, but I think you would only smell that when you, if you were to pull up the epoxy or to disturb it in some capacity, I don't know if it would, if it would affect you, if you'd start smelling it around the perimeters or not, because it gets musty under there.

[00:08:48] Eric Goranson: There's no air underneath that. So the moisture comes up through there. It's not getting that air for it to get mustier nasty. So it's just a non-issue with, uh, with anything like that. And it's attached to the concrete. [00:09:00]

[00:09:07] Caroline Blazovsky: So when we lifted it up, it was completely saturated and underneath with water. I mean, it was. It's musty. And then the block started to all smell. And I mean, literally the smell was so atrocious. It took over the whole house.

[00:09:28] Eric Goranson: And we come back we're to dive into garage doors. Next, this is an important one. And we'll do that just as soon as around the house returns,

[00:09:54] Intro: Welcome

[00:10:16] Eric Goranson: Guess what that is. The garage door oil spring on a regular garage door, big rubber band , that coil spring up there. And you ever had one break.

[00:10:33] Eric Goranson: I had earlier this year and it sounds like it's usually right when the garage door is going down and it's usually like six or eight inches off when it has the most.

[00:11:08] Eric Goranson: That was a spring

[00:11:15] Eric Goranson: No, what it is is it's under coiled tension, right? So it's, , you're taking this spring and it's a coil tension. This one. And what happens is that's the assist for putting the door up and down.

[00:11:53] Eric Goranson: Here's where this is dangerous. This is not a DIY project of replacing this spring. [00:12:00] I could have went on Amazon in order to couple Springs, but here's the thing. When they came in and did the work, they came in and went, , the bearings on that are gonna need to replace. Cause we're going to take it apart.

[00:12:29] Eric Goranson: And the problem is is that, , if you're doing this, how you wind the spring up, right? So think of a long coil spring, and you're going to tension it to store energy in it. The only way you do this is you have these long rip metal rods and you put them in a hole, you spin it a quarter to. Put another rod in and you hold while you're holding this rod inside this hole, you twist it down, put another rod in, twist it down.

[00:13:24] Eric Goranson: If you're not careful, he was lucky. He just had a broken job, but you gotta be super careful with those things. I did. I could have done mine. I know exactly what needs to be done to do that. Did I want to touch it? Nope. Because my medical deductible is going to cost me more than what it's going to be to have somebody come out, give me a warranty.

[00:14:05] Eric Goranson: So I'm a big fan of replacing garage door. Have somebody come out and do it. And that way they can get rid of the door for you. You're not having to haul it off. And, uh, it gets installed and adjusted correctly because when they work perfectly

[00:14:29] Caroline Blazovsky: And in my office building, they have a detached garage, which is an odd size door, which makes it a little more complicated. It was a much larger than. But it's been what, six months now, with back since October, it's been ordered no door. It's a long time now we're in April.

[00:14:49] Eric Goranson: , usually you could get a new door in a month, not so much. Now you kind of can't as you, as you are likely finding.

[00:15:09] Caroline Blazovsky: You can't not have a garage door facing out to the roadway or you'll lose your

[00:15:22] Caroline Blazovsky: her, took out the whole bottom two panels and the

[00:15:26] Eric Goranson: But that's musty in there now, too, with. Darby and open yuck.

[00:15:32] Eric Goranson: not your cleaning job now. My cleaning job, pleasant, not pleasant. Well, that's, you know, there's so many good doors out there these days to, when I replace mine, it's going to be mostly a glass door because I want to be able to see in and out of it.

[00:15:58] Caroline Blazovsky: What's the benefit. So [00:16:00] at my home I have a solid door, so no glass, but I mean, are there benefits, pluses or minuses to having doors?

[00:16:19] Eric Goranson: Yeah, it's more set X. I mean, you can have a much more sealed up garage with not having to have a glass door in it, because if you've got a, an insulated steel door in there, that's going to be much better with sound and temperature than it is a piece of glass.

[00:16:54] Eric Goranson: You gotta have the right house in the right door. Those two really have to go together well, , getting that right [00:17:00] door and , for me, this garage door is going to stay here for a bed. Cause I want to do that a garage addition. And when I do that, , when the time comes, I want to have a taller ceiling in here.

[00:17:23] Caroline Blazovsky: home tech.

[00:17:34] Eric Goranson: Uh, there are so many things for that. And this next segment, I want to talk more about it and that's a good transition to go out here to break because there are some great new home techs out there, especially now that if you're an area with a little bit of crime, like with people stealing Amazon packages, you can put a garage door opener in that you can allow Amazon to have access to so they can open the door up enough to kick the.

[00:18:02] Caroline Blazovsky: stolen. Access to your tools. I think your stuff.

[00:18:12] Intro: that

[00:18:17] Eric Goranson: Just as soon as around the house returns.

[00:18:32] Eric Goranson: to around that. Eric Jean Caroline B I'm Zeke sky. And I'm going to show you how to shred

[00:18:47] Intro: welcome back

[00:19:08] Eric Goranson: If it's, , acting wonky, get it fixed, probably can save the garage door. Cause if it gets too hung up with the wrong door opener, you can completely taco up that, uh, that garage door. So make sure everything's tuned up correctly on the opener and the garage door. And

[00:19:26] Caroline Blazovsky: some people have. Three four doors.

[00:19:40] Eric Goranson: Oh, yeah, absolutely. I want to have four doors to replace. That's my, that's my dream garage.

[00:20:04] Eric Goranson: Now, what I like about that is if someone's in your, you know, in your neighborhood stealing packages, or it's a concern, you can get that dialed in pretty quickly. The other thing I like about it though, is if Amazon gets there and they open up the door and they can't get it to shut that driver has to wait around for Amazon's garage tech person to come over.

[00:20:37] Caroline Blazovsky: So is this a pack? Is this an app or something through Amazon?

[00:20:44] Eric Goranson: So they have their mic hue app. And what that is is that's what runs the garage door remotely in the smart home stuff. But they have a way to. Give it access from their system. So you have to allow this kind of third-party access [00:21:00] into it. So yeah, they can come up and say, oh cool.

[00:21:24] Caroline Blazovsky: So I know they're not going to try to take my car out for a joy ride.

[00:21:46] Eric Goranson: , when the one of the dogs got out, and that was a huge problem. Dog got out, man. Neighbor got it. I'm four and a half hours away. And our dog centers hour and a half away at work and [00:22:00] couldn't break away cause he was on the radio. So they hit my doorbell. I answered the doorbell and said, okay, I'm going to open up the garage door, go ahead and put the dog in the garage.

[00:22:20] Intro: How's

[00:22:33] Eric Goranson: Here's one of the things I liked. There's your typical, quiet garage door that they have. Then they have these new ones and, Caroline you'd know what the regular garage door opener. It looks like it's sitting up there in the middle of a garage and they now have these new models now that have been out for awhile.

[00:23:14] Eric Goranson: So it's actually driving that from there. So it's never fastened into the garage door. It's fastened to the rock. The controls, the cable for the girls. So

[00:23:32] Caroline Blazovsky: I'm

[00:23:56] Eric Goranson: So that's kind of trick. I liked that feature on those and [00:24:00] probably on my next door, I'll go that direction. That's an

[00:24:15] Caroline Blazovsky: Is there a way to do that?

[00:24:33] Eric Goranson: The rod goes across the top. There's that big wheel, the cable goes up on right next to that is the bracket that the bearing there's a lot of stress on that bearing. So sometimes that noise can be that bearing, failing that that bearing fails and that, things are getting ready to go sideways on you.

[00:24:57] Caroline Blazovsky: I'm going to have to have them out because it's doing that when it's [00:25:00] going up and down. And you hear that June,

[00:25:03] Eric Goranson: June.

[00:25:19] Eric Goranson: So it was pretty well set by the time we were done, but I was impressed that they could. , get that running and it's, it runs like a top now. I was like, man, I should have had you guys out earlier just to tune the thing up. Cause it's 10 times quieter than it was.

[00:25:36] Caroline Blazovsky: What's the lifespan on a garage door. Is there one,

[00:25:58] Eric Goranson: That's on [00:26:00] afternoon sun. That's painted dark that can split and check and call apart. I, I've got a 1977 door in my house. It's nearing the end of its lifespan. That's a long time, , it's a long time when a garage door, but it's still holding. It comes down to how will you maintain it? And the climate you're putting it in.

[00:26:18] Caroline Blazovsky: big ones, the aluminum, like, so I have a steel door and I mean, I don't from the outset outside, it's aesthetically looks perfect, but now it's just starting to wear, , and it's making this noise when it goes up and down. So maybe it just needs a tuna. It sounds like it

[00:26:35] Eric Goranson: That's an easy way to go, , it's got a little bit of smile to it where there's a little bit of a warp to the bottom of the door, so it doesn't seal perfectly. So I had to get creative with some, you know, with some, um, you know, seals and stuff to make sure it's sealed up. Your doors.

[00:26:53] Caroline Blazovsky: What? I would call it an abnormally large door. It's like a door and a

[00:27:16] Eric Goranson: And all those. I mean, I had my last house I had, oh, I had had, it was horrible as a builder special house. And I had the eight by sevens. And so I w I'd go to my truck and put the mirrors in just to get it in there. And I'm like, this is horrible. This is horrible. And we come back, we're going to have to jump out to break Caroline.

[00:27:45] Intro: Absolutely.

[00:27:50] Intro: returns.[00:28:00]

[00:28:29] Eric Goranson: already command from even novels down and you're listening to around the house with Eric G

[00:28:38] Eric Goranson: Welcome back to around the house with Eric G and Caroline B. Hey, if you want to get a whole. The easiest way is to hit over to around the house, online.com and you can message us there, or just turn us up over on Facebook, around the house show or around the house nation, which is our closed group.

[00:29:01] Caroline Blazovsky: forget Instagram, Instagram. They can find us there too, around the house

[00:29:15] Eric Goranson: There's one thing about garages that drive me nuts and they are poorly done garage conversions. I think we've all pulled up to somebody's house and you go, well, that used to be a garage

[00:29:56] Eric Goranson: I can't stand those in one. Most of the time they're not done to [00:30:00] code and to. Trying to make them look good on the outside of the house is almost nearly impossible to me.

[00:30:21] Caroline Blazovsky: Yeah.

[00:30:45] Eric Goranson: So the only way to do it, the only way to do it. Well, we're talking storage and here's a pet peeve and you and I live in different parts of the country, of course, but what I see here and, and I, I have friends that are. Beautiful cars stored in [00:31:00] nice garages. But the problem is that they also have racking around three sides of that and that racking in our earthquake country.

[00:31:35] Caroline Blazovsky: Eric sent me a picture today and I don't mean to throw shade or throw any butt buddy under the bus. It was bad, beautiful car in the center of these racks of all kinds of storage materials. And that's coming down. If you have an earthquake, just imagine your garage totally packed with debris on all three sides.

[00:32:12] Eric Goranson: It's no different kids, dresser tie everything off. So if it does come down or it tries to move, it doesn't come down on top of you. And then what I like to do is get like bungee cords, at least to put across you put the bow, the, the totes or whatever on that. If you don't want it to come down on your car, put some bungee cords across there, or even just some rope to tie off.

[00:32:46] Intro: That's a good idea. You

[00:32:55] Caroline Blazovsky: And if we do, it's pretty minimal, you wouldn't really feel

[00:33:15] Eric Goranson: And, uh, it's one of those things you just want to make sure that you have stuff's up there stacked. Now, the other thing that I want to talk about too, Caroline, that you see out there is making sure you're protecting that stuff against rodents, because I don't know, it seems like rodents love to get into grass.

[00:33:44] Intro: yeah,

[00:33:53] Eric Goranson: That mouse can get in

[00:34:03] Eric Goranson: talked about sustainable materials and I was like, yeah, except when they chew it all up and it's, it's a bad deal it's a bad deal.

[00:34:23] Caroline Blazovsky: and they're coming. They are coming. Whether you have a new house. I remember Vinny had a brand new Mercedes in a brand new house, right on the water on the bay.

[00:34:41] Eric Goranson: and it's bad they're coming. So you want to make sure, and they can get into so many different things. They can get into all the different, , if you've got papers stored, they'll love to chew those up and nest in them.

[00:35:11] Caroline Blazovsky: Eric and I were talking about, like, he looks at the garage when he goes to look at a house immediately, cause that's his space, right. He loves to build and do contracting. And then I look at the garage as like the last space, but either way it's so important. It's something that we just ignore. It's still a room in the house and it's still, and it has this unique environment because it's usually in traditionally not a condition.

[00:35:45] Eric Goranson: about it.

[00:35:58] Caroline Blazovsky: I know. I have seen [00:36:00] that. That's so bad. And then you're going to have mold growing on your walls and just sweating vape.

[00:36:06] Eric Goranson: that. Don't do it. It's not a good way to do it, and it's just one of those things be really careful with that because any kind of moisture like that coming in, it's just going to be a bad deal. I mean, and the other thing to do too, is just make sure that you've got your electrical system out there dialed in as well in the garage because when you've got it cleared out or you're getting ready to move in, if you're going to add in extra outlets out there.

[00:36:55] Eric Goranson: And you have to have that to be able to reset. It's the forgotten one that I [00:37:00] always call the cause of the Christmas disaster because their Christmas lights have kicked off outside, and they can't figure out why it's usually that one in the garage that they need to reset. And maybe it's behind the beer fridge in the garage.

[00:37:21] Caroline Blazovsky: I have in my garage, which is kind of interesting. Gas meter in the garage. One of the old ones it's in the garage. That's where they've never moved it yet, but that's common here.

[00:37:43] Eric Goranson: Pat's crazy. All of ours are outside here. Mine I'm actually going to work on mine. Mine is under the carport. That's been there for 30 years. I'm going to get them to move it because I don't want it in the car port there.

[00:38:11] Eric Goranson: That doesn't happen. It's all on the exterior part of the building.

[00:38:21] Eric Goranson: have the technologist comes around and tests. For us, you call them up.

[00:38:43] Intro: around the house. .