Home repair: Buried tree stumps give reader sinking feeling

Q. We have been reading your column for years and hope you can provide some guidance. We moved into our house in 1983. The houses in this neighborhood were built among existing woods, so the builder had to cut down lots of trees. My guess is the builder buried the numerous tree stumps rather than carting them away. Half of the yard has always been like the enclosed photo, with lots of depressions. Maybe one to two years later I put down lots of fill and replanted grass seed, because the yard was sinking. I repeated this process about two years later, but the problem persisted. Around 1992 or 1993, while the city was tearing up the street for gas lines, I had them dump huge chunks of asphalt and dirt and they also were kind enough to use a grader to smooth it out. I then replanted grass seed for a third time. I thought this would solve the problem. I was wrong. Other yards have issues like this, too.

I have let it get worse on purpose, trying to isolate the worst spot. What would you do? The kids are gone now, but mowing the lawn is an adventure in this section. I would appreciate any advice/options you can provide.

A. From the photo you sent, which shows a yard full of deep depressions, it looks exactly as you suspected: Tree stumps were buried and are rotting away, causing the sinking holes on the lawn. This will continue until the stumps are completely rotten, which may take years, or until they are removed. Removing the stumps would require excavating the affected part of the yard with a backhoe and refilling it, which could be very expensive.

Q. We have a two-story home built in the early ‘70s in suburban Illinois. The second floor has four bedrooms and a hallway. We have gas forced-air heat and central air. The cold air returns on the second floor are all at the top of the wall near the ceiling. Would it benefit us to move them down near the floor to help pull the cold air off the floor in the winter? Why did they place the returns up so high back in those days? Would it affect the air conditioning in the summer when it is drawing the hot air from the ceiling? What if we extend them to the floor but leave the top grill in and replace it with a shut-off on both high and low and shut off each during the appropriate season?

Also, we are having a new roof put on and are putting in a ridge vent and continuous soffit vents. We currently have gable vents on each side of the attic. Should we have the gable vents sealed up so the ridge/soffit venting will work more efficiently?

A. The thinking was to pull the stratified warm air out of the ceiling and recirculate it through supply ducts to the floor area. This applies to both heating and air-conditioning.

A better way would be to provide both heating and air-conditioning with a low supply for heat and a high supply for air-conditioning, following the laws of physics. The same would apply to the returns, but they are usually installed low. Extending your returns to the floor would involve cutting through drywall or plaster and cutting into your ductwork. This would be a major expense for the four bedrooms on your second floor.

The gable vents should be sealed to prevent them from negatively affecting the efficient functioning of the soffit/ridge-vent combination. This can be done simply by fastening a piece of plywood painted matte black over the openings. Be sure there is a clear space for the air to move from the soffit vents to the ridge vent. This is often difficult to provide with certain types of construction, or it is overlooked in other types, where it could easily be done.

Q. My house water is supplied by a Goulds 1/2-horsepower, 7 gallons-per-minute submersible pump, which was installed in April 2000. The previous pump had lasted 30 years. In the last two months, I have had two instances where the pump apparently failed, and there was no water in the house. Both problems were resolved without any action on my part, and I have had no recurrence of the problem for nearly three weeks.

The people who installed it no longer deal with pumps, and when I called about the situation, they referred me to a well outfit. I do not want to call them if the problems were just temporary quirks, as I am sure their consultation would be pricey and a new pump would be very expensive. What do you suggest I do?

A. If the problem recurs, I suggest you call a couple of local firms that deal with wells, including rural plumbers who install submersible pumps, and discuss the problem with them over the phone. Most of them are generous enough to advise you as to whether you need a service call.

Q. I have city water. My toilets have sweated for the last two years (lived here for 11), and I keep towels around the toilet tanks. When I use the air conditioner the problem goes away!

A. Since this is a relatively new occurrence, look inside the tanks to see if there is any built-in insulation and whether it is deteriorating and letting the cold water come in contact with the china. I am assuming that the city’s water temperature has not changed in the last two years.

Q. Last June we had our driveway redone with new asphalt. The company was not reliable. There is one spot (I believe where they left their equipment overnight) that just will not harden! What can we do? Would sealing the driveway make it harden?

Also, is there a solution for peeling paint on the north side of our house? It is the corner where the hose and faucet are located (dampness).

A. According to my longtime friend Don Jamieson, owner of Jambro in Worcester, Mass., and an expert on asphalt paving and repairs, this is the way to tell if the soft spot is due to leaking solvent from a piece of construction equipment or simply to a vehicle tire parked on that spot:

Asphalt mix contains stone aggregate. If the stones are loose, can be pushed around, kicked or brushed out of the mix, a solvent such as hydraulic fluid, gasoline or diesel fuel has leaked onto the spot and dissolved the asphalt. The only remedy is to have an asphalt contractor remove the damaged asphalt and replace it with hot asphalt. Cold patch, used by cities and towns to patch potholes and available to homeowners at hardware, building-supply or big box stores, is only a temporary repair.

Sealing the driveway would exacerbate the problem. Keep in mind that a newly laid asphalt driveway should be sealed only after at least a couple of years, when the asphalt has turned gray. If the driveway is in the shade, it may take longer for the oil in the asphalt to evaporate. The best sealers are, in progressive order: coal-tar pitch emulsion, asphalt-based emulsion and acrylic sealers. All of them should be applied very thinly and be reapplied only when the present coating is wearing off.

I need more information to comment on the peeling paint. Can you send me a photo of the affected area?

Q. I recently had a deck installed, and the contractor used treated lumber for the support posts and runners. Any wood that is exposed is cedar. I note that you did not mention this option to folks who read your column. I’m curious about this.

A. This is an option for the deck boards, and it looks very nice. Cedar and any other wood that is not pressure-treated require regular treatment to maintain their beauty. Pressure-treated wood also should have an initial application of a coating made especially for it, but the option to repeat it regularly is up to the owners. Cedar is a good thought, though, and I should have mentioned it as a choice. I have some reservations about some of the “non-wood” deck materials because I have heard and read about some problems with mold and discoloration developing after a few years.

Q. My daughter lives in a two-story home that has a master bedroom directly above the living room. Around Memorial Day, rain started coming in by the wood casing on the top of her living-room picture window. She currently has plastic on the inside of her window with a large bucket in front of the window to catch the water.

The top of the window on the outside of the house was checked for gaps and caulked. The situation still prevails. There are no water marks or indications of any leak on or below the master bedroom window, which is directly above the leaking window. A roofer inspected the roof, vents and flashing and found nothing wrong. Where can the water possibly be coming from? What does she do next? Remove the window trim on the inside of the house? Replace the window?

A. You haven’t told me how old the house is, what type of windows your daughter has (wood or vinyl), how long she has been living in the house and whether this is the first time such leaks have occurred. The leakage would indicate the likelihood that a housewrap was used and that the windows were installed incorrectly, as is so often the case by builders who do not understand how important it is to channel water over the top window flange and seal around the windows thoroughly.

Not knowing this, it is difficult for me to come up with an answer to the leakage other than to suggest that if the windows are solid vinyl, I have worked on some that began to leak at the joint of the sides of the frames and the bottom tracks when the sealant failed.

If you can provide me with answers to the above questions and send me a photo of the exterior of the house where these windows are, I may be able to provide you with a better answer.

INTERESTING COMMENT: In regard to a question regarding an electronically controlled furnace in the laundry room, where the flame sensor needs regular cleaning, I have a possible solution. I’m a commercial builder, and my HVAC contractors have told me of a link between high-efficiency powdered detergents and problems with flame sensors and heat exchangers. It seems that fine particles of the detergent can become airborne during filling and are pulled into the returns of the furnace, where they react with the equipment. They are recommending liquid detergent. It’s worth a try.

DEAR READER: Thank you; this is a new one for me as well.

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 email at henridemarne@gmavt.net.

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