Side Quest 9: Sticky Situations
Welcome back to the Side Quest! These are our bonus "appetizer" episodes where we step away from the full meal to answer your listener questions and dive into whatever topics we want. Today, we’re talking about everything from flooring fails to "odoriferous" garlic bread.
Join the Movement (The Snacks Determine the Vibe)
Before we get into the tools, let’s talk recruitment. We’ve said before that How to Handyma’am is a movement—maybe even a "cult"—but the barrier to entry is simple: snacks.
The Pizza Rule: Pizza is the ultimate low-pressure recruitment tool because nobody suspects a trap when pepperoni is involved.
The Spaghetti Red Flag: If we invite you over for spaghetti and garlic bread, that’s the official cult recruitment.
The Soul Restorer: Emily recently had a "soul-restoring" moment with spaghetti and meatballs and the cheap, "soul-restoring" garlic bread.
The Smelly Truth: Samantha notes that Texas Toast garlic bread is "extremely odoriferous". In fact, the team knew a family member had COVID because they couldn't smell that garlic bread through the box—and you can usually smell that stuff while it's still frozen!
Fixing Click-and-Lock Flooring Gaps
El Rogue asked on TikTok about small gaps opening up in click-and-lock flooring. Samantha and Arly have strong feelings about LVT (Luxury Vinyl Tile), but if you have gaps, you don't necessarily have to tear the floor out.
The Prep: Zero Tolerance for Dust
No matter how you close the gap, you must clean it out first. Click-and-lock flooring has zero tolerance for debris in the grooves.
Use a vacuum or a can of compressed air to get every "midlet" of dust out.
If anything is in that seam, the planks will never click back together properly.
The Closing Tactics
The Tape & Block Method: Place masking tape on the plank to protect the finish, then hot-glue a block of wood to the tape. Use a mallet to hammer the block toward the gap until it closes, then pop the tape off.
The Duct Tape Trick (Vinyl ONLY): Wrap a 2x4 block in duct tape with the sticky side out. Stick it to the floor and hit it with a hammer to slide the plank. Warning: Do not do this on laminate! It will pull the paper-thin top layer right off the compressed sawdust.
The Suction Cup Tool: There is a professional tool that looks like a dumbbell with suction cups. You suction it to the two planks and turn a handle to pull them together.
The Mystery of the "Yellow Drips"
An anonymous listener noticed yellowish, syrup-like drips running down their laundry room walls.
The Diagnosis: Surfactant Leaching
This isn't necessarily a smoker in the house; it’s a chemistry issue.
Latex paint has a component called a surfactant that can separate if the paint is exposed to high humidity before it fully cures.
The Fix: Clean the walls, prime with a blocking primer, and repaint.
The Rule: Do not steam up that room (no hot showers or heavy laundry loads) for at least three days while the new paint cures.
Why is My Wall Sweating?
Jamie B is seeing condensation on the walls, not just the windows.
The Reason: Missing Insulation
Condensation is a simple equation: warm air meeting a cold surface.
If a section of your wall is missing insulation, that spot becomes significantly colder than the rest of the room.
When the warm air of your home hits that uninsulated "cold spot," it turns into water.
Anchor Management: Removing Drywall Plugs
Michelle W wanted to know how to get those plastic drywall anchors out to patch a wall.
The Hammer Method: For hollow walls, the easiest way is often to use a Phillips head screwdriver and just pound the anchor into the wall.
The Drill Trick: If you have plaster walls or an anchor that won't budge, use a fat drill bit. Go slow and let the bit grind away the plastic head of the anchor until it’s flush or gone, then patch over the hole.
At How to Handyma’am, we’ve learned everything the hardest possible way so you don't have to. There is no question too small—we want to give you the entry-level knowledge to build your DIY confidence.
Join us this Friday for the full meal!
Transcript:
Hi! Welcome back. Welcome to the Side Quest. All right, folks, this is our side quest. This is our opportunity to bring you some content that's a little off-topic when we try to keep things going on Fridays. We’re going to take advantage of this time to answer some listener questions. You can consider this like, "don't stump the handyman".
I'm Samantha. I'm Arly. I'm Emily, and we are How to Handyma’am. These are our bonus episodes, which means they're whatever topic we want. They're shorter, so it's like an appetizer and then the full meal is on Friday. Or if you're not quite willing to commit to us for a whole 45 minutes to an hour and a half, you can dip your toe into the water with the side quests.
As Arly says, you really should join the cult. Please do join the cult. If we invite you to a spaghetti dinner, that's the cult recruitment. I feel like pizza is easier to get people in a cult with because pizza is a lot more casual. I'm not getting invited to a cult; it's pizza. Really, come on. Nothing terrible ever happens with pizza. Now, if it was spaghetti with garlic bread, definitely a cult recruitment. It’s just too much.
That's funny, I just for some reason last week had a hankering for spaghetti. I specifically wanted the cheap garlic bread—the Texas Toast kind. I had spaghetti and meatballs with that one night and I told Lucas I think it restored my soul. It is extremely odoriferous! If you are a vampire or Jim Pearl, you do not want to be in the house when we eat this. We knew Hannah had COVID for sure when I brought her dinner, including that, and she could not smell it. You can smell it frozen through the box.
Shall we answer some listener questions? This one came from TikTok and this is El Rogue. El Rogue says gaps have opened up in my click-and-lock flooring without tearing the floor out. Is there any way to close some of the small gaps? Dang, I hate that click-and-lock does this. No matter which tactic you choose, you need to clean out the gaps very, very well. A can of air might do well for that, or a vacuum. You definitely need to get a vacuum in there because click-and-lock has almost zero tolerance for anything being in the groove—no dust, no "middlets" and dreams or prayer. It has to have absolutely nothing in between, or it’s definitely not going to click.
I've seen people literally jump and push with their feet towards an area if they have on rubber shoes that are grippy. But the thing that I've seen get the best results with the least amount of damage is putting masking tape on the piece that you need to move to protect the flooring. Then you either super glue or hot glue a block of wood to that tape. You take your mallet and hammer the block in the direction that it has to go, and then you can just pop up the masking tape. That protects the glue from getting on your floor.
Vinyl click-and-lock flooring always has to have a gap on the edge, so if you go to bang it and there’s still the floating aspect, you might not be able to click it hard enough. If you have tried everything and you can't get it back together, you can buy yourself some time by using tan or gray caulk from the hardware store and tooling it flush with a putty knife.
I have done this in our house for vinyl click-and-lock, not laminate: wrap a 2x4 block in duct tape backwards, sticky side out. Place it on the floor and hit it with a hammer. It will stick. You cannot do that on laminate because laminate basically has a papery top that the duct tape will pull right off. They also make an actual product that looks like a dumbbell with suction cups. It goes on the two pieces that are separated, you suction it on, and then you turn the middle and they pull together. If you are taking the time to do that, I would put a little wood glue in the seams because it’s thin, water-soluble, and dries very hard.
Next question is from Anonymous. What are these funky yellowish drips we have going on in our laundry room? Our townhome was built in the 1970s. Is this a moisture issue? This is the issue we had in our downstairs bathroom where it almost looks like a smoker lived there. It’s called surfactant leaching. With latex paint, if it’s exposed to humidity before it cures, a component called the surfactant will separate and run down like syrup. The solution is to clean the walls, use a blocking primer or a shellac primer, and paint it again. Do not shower or steam it up for a minimum of a couple of days while it cures.
Jamie B wants to know why am I getting condensation on my walls, not my windows? It’s probably most likely because there's missing insulation somewhere. Condensation is where something warm meets something cold. If an area of your wall doesn't have insulation, say into the corner or down to the ground, that wall is noticeably colder. When that warm air hits it, you get condensation. Air is an excellent insulator, but it has to be trapped in there to work.
One more question. Michelle W wants to know how to remove plastic drywall anchors. I want to move my towel holder and patch the wall. My favorite way is taking a Phillips head that I don't care about anymore and just banging the anchor into the wall. Most of those are one-time use anyway. In a hollow wall situation like drywall, just pounding it in and letting it fall into the wall is a great idea because if you try to pull them out with pliers, you do so much damage you wreck the drywall around it. For plaster walls, my trick is to take a fat drill bit, put it into the anchor, and go very slow. It will basically grind out the head of the anchor that is outside the wall so you can patch over it.
There is no question too small to ask us. We understand that our approach is unusual because we are licensed builders actively working in the field, and yet our target is for homeowners who want to take care of their own homes. We've learned everything the hardest possible way, truly, so you don't have to. You can find us at How to Handyma’am most everywhere and join our Facebook community. We will see you Friday!
