Home repair: A tale of two sidings

Q. I was told there is a vinyl-clad aluminum siding. But with two sidings, it must be expensive. Is it worth it? I have a bedroom over a garage, and the garage ceiling is not insulated so the bedroom gets cold. It also has an overhang where the cast-iron baseboard heat is, and it is not insulated. The garage ceiling has drywall. How should I insulate this?

I don’t know if the wall to the recreation room is insulated. Since I am taking the shakes off, is it best to put in Andersen 400 series windows instead of replacement windows? I have a solid-wood door in the garage. What is best for insulation purposes? Your column is educational to all. I’ll be 86 in two months!

A. Vinyl-clad aluminum siding is quite a bit more expensive than either aluminum or vinyl siding. The claim is that vinyl strengthens the siding and keeps it looking nicer longer. But like so many claims, you need to take it with a grain of salt. You may want to get a price for it and a price for regular vinyl to decide whether it’s worth it. Resist any sales pressure, and make the decision on your own.

The best way to insulate the garage ceiling and the bedroom overhang is to have dense-pack cellulose blown in. It can be done through small holes in the drywall ceiling that are easy to fix. To determine if the recreation-room wall (which I assume is common with the garage) is insulated, put your hand on the inside in cold weather. If it feels warm, it is insulated.

Marvin’s Ultrex all-fiberglass windows are competitive in price to top-quality vinyl replacement windows. They are custom-fit to any openings, whether double-hung or casement. The hardware is easy to operate, and Marvin’s service is excellent. After comparing Andersen, all-vinyl windows and Marvin, we installed Marvin casements on our additions and could not be more pleased. Andersen 400 series is a good window, more expensive than Marvin’s, but a reader wrote me a long letter describing his bad experience with the installation by an Andersen crew and their refusal to make good on the problem and subsequent requests for service. If the solid-wood door is from the house to the garage, I assume it is clad with steel on the garage side, as it should be for fireproofing. It may not need replacement. The most important factor to consider is its weatherstripping. However, if you decide to change it, choose an insulated steel door. Thanks for your nice comment, and congratulations on your 86th birthday!

Q. I have a free-standing garage built into a hill on one side to the height of about four feet. This is nice because it keeps the garage from freezing inside for all but the coldest days. The problem is that in the summer when it is hot and humid, it is cooler in the garage and condensation forms on the floor. Is there anything I can do to change this?

A. Keeping the garage door open and running a fan across the floor should help.

Q. Our garage has a smooth concrete floor, which makes it easy to keep clean. However, when wet, and especially when there is snow or loose ice on the floor, it can become treacherously slippery to walk across. Is there a retrofit for this? Should the floor have had a different kind of surface to begin with?

A. The type of finish you have is best for garages, as it resists salt damage. We have the same problem, so I use a plastic snow shovel daily to stay ahead of the snow and ice. That does not solve the wetness problem, one of winter’s dark sides we have to deal with. You could get coarse sand and sprinkle it on the concrete, but that will become a daily chore.

Q. We have a question regarding noises being made by our HVAC system. Last year, we built a 2,000-square-foot ranch house with a full basement. The house is located in southwestern Pennsylvania. Our HVAC unit works well, but during warm-up and cool-down in winter, we hear what appears to be expansion and contraction noises coming from the ductwork. The main ductwork is eight inches high and rectangular. The width of the main ductwork telescopes from 14 to 10 inches. The trunk lines are round, with a six-inch diameter. We keep the main living area at 68 degrees, and the basement is eight to 10 degrees lower.

The installer taped the round ductwork joints, but didn’t screw most of the joints. The round ductwork joints that were screwed had only one screw at the elbows. Also, the round ductwork wasn’t screwed to the metal bridging.

When we first noticed the noise, it was easy to locate because we heard a clicking sound that would last long enough to determine the source. Most of the noise came from where the elbows connected the round ductwork to the rectangular ductwork. Our builder came back and screwed the round ductwork to the metal bridging and the joints in the round ductwork, where he could access them. While that did help, we still hear noises. Some in the same place as before, and some that just make a single popping noise that is difficult to locate. We generally hear the noise at night, when the white noise of the day is absent.

Our builder and his HVAC subcontract say the noises are “just a part of the animal.” At a recent home show, we asked a few of the HVAC exhibitors their opinion. We were greeted with anything from a blank stare to the opinion that the noises are due to shoddy materials and/or workmanship. If the noises are just part of the animal, we would understand and live with them as best we could. Our concern is that the builder and HVAC subcontractor are more concerned with burying the problem than fixing it.

A. I am not sure what you mean by the builder screwing the ductwork to the metal bridging. If it is the metal bridging usually installed between floor joists at mid-span, that would be a mistake. Ducts should be strapped to framing with at least an inch or two of clear space to wood or other materials. Small clicking sounds are not unusual during expansion and contraction, but it is possible that mistakes were made in the installation; it’s hard to say from a distance. If any ductwork is in a cold space, insulating it is essential to prevent heat loss, and it would help attenuate the sounds if they emanate from the cold space.

Q Several years ago, I painted our kitchen ceiling with textured paint. The idea was to hide all the patches, cracks, etc., in a 60-year-old kitchen. I washed the ceiling down first with TSP and filled all the cracks. Now I find that the texture paint is chipping off in chunks. I know the ceiling needs to be redone. What did I do wrong in the first place? What should I do now to correct the problem? Thank you for your advice.

A. It is possible that the TSP was not completely rinsed off. Would you consider applying 3/8-inch gyp board to the existing ceiling? That would solve all your problems.

Q. We have a problem with an underground spring near our foundation that gets swollen by heavy rains and melting snow. The water overloads our French drain and then leaks through the concrete-block foundation. The French drain exits onto the street and water flows out of a four-inch pipe and is half full for about four to five days, then gradually stops until the next heavy rains. How do we deal with this spring or underground watercourse?

A. I assume that you are referring to an exterior drain at the base of the foundation. A French drain is a trench filled with stones all the way to the surface; a curtain drain is similar to a French drain, except that its top is covered with soil that forms a swale to direct surface water to a lower point. Your leakage problem may be due to a powerful underground spring or a partially clogged foundation drain, as a four-inch drainpipe can move a lot of water, witness the fact that you only see water flowing at half capacity through its outflow at the street.

The first thing you should check is the grade and all appendages around the foundation to make sure that the leakage is not due to, or aggravated by, surface water. Heavy rains and melting snow make me suspect that these possible problems may be contributing to the leakage. One way to tell is if the leakage occurs shortly after the heavy rains start or a sudden warm temperature melts the snow fast. If the leakage takes place a day or two after the rain or a warm spell, it is probably causing an underground spring to swell.

In either case, rather than dig out the foundation to find out if sediment partially plugs the footing drain, which may not be the case, it is simpler and less disruptive to cut a hole in the concrete slab and install a submersible sump pump. If there are a few inches of stones under the slab, and the water works its way under the foundation, they may allow the water to drain into the sump without additional work. If there are no stones under the slab, or this does not solve the problem because the water leaks at the joint of the footing and the foundation wall, a waterproofing contractor can install a fiberglass gutter around the inside perimeter of the foundation, which will collect the leaking water and take it to the sump for disposal. Some waterproofing contractors offer concrete coring and install a sump pump; or look in your Yellow Pages under “Concrete Breaking, Cutting, Sawing, Core Drilling.”

Q. I just read your response on where to exhaust bathroom vents. You state that fans should be vented through gable walls and never through roofs, soffits, soffit vents or ridge vents. Where do you suggest that we vent them in a house with a hip roof?

I have rehabbed a 100-year-old home with a walk-up attic. I have three-foot-wide eaves and need to exhaust the vent somewhere. The attic is unheated and uninsulated. I planned on running the exhaust into the soffit and cutting a vent on the underside. I can also go through the roof if needed. What are your thoughts?

A. Hip roofs offer a challenge. If there are no soffit vents in your broad overhangs, you can vent the fan through one of them. You may find that the area around the exhaust may need painting more often than other areas because the steam may cause some peeling. A soffit vent near the bath fan exhaust would be an intake that would draw the venting into the attic — an undesirable condition. I am assuming that you neither have soffit nor ridge vents, because it is nearly impossible to have the latter on a hip roof.

Ÿ Henri de Marne was a remodeling contractor in Washington, D.C., for many years, and is now a consultant. Write to him in care of the Daily Herald, P.O. Box 280, Arlington Heights, IL 60006, or via e-mail at henridemarne@gmavt.net.

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