Holiday gifts for your handy men and women

Following my annual practice, here are holiday gift suggestions for the handy men and women in your life. At the top of my list this year are several tools for your shop or home toolbox:

• Black & Decker's impact driver (model BDCS801). It is an impressive tool for what B&D calls "light duty," and with a price tag of $40 at Amazon, it should be in every home toolbox. I have used mine a lot since getting it and have been very impressed with the length of the charge.

• For heavier duty, and ideal product in the DIY's shop is the Black & Decker 20-volt lithium impact driver. Impact drivers are so superior to regular drivers that someone told me he gave away his other drivers after getting his B&D impact driver. They are not drills, however, so you also need one of those. Most home shops already have one, but if it is corded, consider buying a battery-operated one. The convenience is worth the price.

• My shop also contains a 20-volt circular saw and reciprocating saw, which are so handy. It's a relief not having to deal with several extension cords for distant jobs.

• For the garden, although I have a corded leaf blower and weed whacker, I got a 20-volt battery-operated Black & Decker leaf blower and weed whacker because of the convenience and ease of use. Often I need only a small cleanup and it's a hassle to cart a corded tool, plug it in and put it back when done.

By sticking with the same brand, all these 20-volt tools give me the great advantage of interchangeable batteries, so, with several batteries, I never run out of power.

• Three other valuable additions to your tool collection are the Dremel and Rotozip tools, as well as the RotoSaw, which makes it easy to cut in a variety of materials; its accessories are also helpful. Their versatility around the shop is considerable.

• Moving inside the house, every household with oval pot metal valve handles found under sinks, lavatories and toilet bowls needs the Gordon Wrench. This small plastic wrench, offered in two sizes, is essential to free these often frozen and fragile valves. Trying to free these valves in an emergency with regular wrenches or channel locks often results in breaking them. The Gordon Wrench prevents this from happening. You can see what it looks like and buy it online at: www.gordonwrench.com. It can be hung out of the way on a nail under the sink or vanity cabinet where it belongs.

• I have also found the SKrAPr, a hard plastic tool originally designed to scrape encrusted spills off glass-top cooking surfaces instead of using a razor blade, very handy to clean barbecue grills; it comes with a mini 4-inch SKrAPr and two SKrAPr Papers to sharpen the edges. You can get it at Amazon.

• Open It!, a multi-tool developed by women, makes it easy to open the cellophane tape on packages with its retractable utility knife and to cut hard plastic packaging with its rugged jaws. It is also handy to open battery compartments on electronics with its very small Phillips screwdriver, among other uses. You can buy it at Amazon; simply write OpenIt in the search box.

All will make great stocking stuffers.

• For bird watchers pestered by squirrels, The Yankee Flipper, a bird feeder that spins into action when a squirrel jumps on it - sending the critter flying: www.drollyankees.com. Expensive, but fun to watch.

• If you will forgive this bit of self-promotion, my book "About the House with Henri de Marne," a nearly 500-page compendium of your questions and my answers for over 40 years, is available directly from the publisher, Upper Access Inc., www.upperaccess.com. To order, call toll-free at (800) 310-8320. It is also available in bookstores or on Amazon.

A new expanded e-book version is also available in all formats at Amazon, Google and bookstores.

• And finally, an amazing new invention out of little ol' Vermont: the Chimney Scrubber. A number of fire departments around the U.S. and Canada have endorsed it and bought it to deal with chimney fires and chimney cleaning. The Chimney Scrubber is installed permanently and can be used to scrub and clean the chimney from inside without ever climbing on the roof - a safety issue, particularly during the winter, when the roof can be slippery and covered with snow.

A pulley is permanently installed on the top of the flue liner and the proper size brush is dropped down the chimney, weighted with two heavy weights and attached to a long stainless steel chain. All that is needed is to raise it and lower it by pulling on the chain; its looping wires scrape the sides of the flue liner very effectively. A brilliant invention! I wish it had been invented when I owned my mountain home, heated it with wood for many years and cleaned my two chimneys myself.

It is pricey, but compare it to paying chimney sweeps to clean the chimney once or twice a year if you burn wood, or your taking the risk of attempting the job yourself. Check it out at www.chimneyscrubber.com. My editor, Steve Carlson of Upper Access Books and Software, bought one and is very happy with it - an important endorsement.

Q. I read your column in the Ann Arbor (Michigan) News. The article about bathroom vents hit home, because mine are vented into the attic space rather than outside. You said they should not be vented through the eaves. Where are they supposed to be vented? My roof has the ridge vent. Can the vent tube be attached up near it so that the moisture goes out there?

A. Bathroom vents discharging into the attic cause excessive moisture, which can lead to mold formation and melting of the snowcap, and the ensuing buildup of ice dams.

Venting them through a soffit, which is an air intake for attic ventilation, simply returns the moisture back into the attic.

Venting these fans upward to a ridge vent has two undesirable effects:

• It can lead to frosting of the ridge vent, which can then drip back down onto the insulation and wet it.

• The condensate runs down the vent and wets the fan itself, adjacent ceiling material and insulation.

All of these deleterious effects were covered in detail in the column you are referring to; perhaps your newspaper cut out some of my answer because of space constraints.

Bathroom and kitchen fans should be vented through a wall if on the first floor of a house and through a gable wall if on the second floor.

Instructions for the proper venting process were also included in the earlier column.

Q. My mother-in-law has asked me to paint the concrete front steps of her 58-year-old house. My thought is to have them power-washed and forget it. If she insists on my painting them, do you have any suggestions?

A. If your mother-in-law is not happy with power-washing and insists on having the concrete steps painted, any remaining paint must be removed with a paint remover or other mechanical means.

They should also be washed with a detergent, such as TSP-PF, to remove all foreign pollutants, followed by a thorough rinsing.

Then, when thoroughly dry, any crack or spalled area should be filled with concrete patch and allowed to cure according to the directions on the package.

Next, apply a concrete primer followed by two to three thin coats of concrete paint, allowing each coat to cure according to the paint manufacturer's specifications.

You should be able to find the necessary products in paint and hardware stores as well as in home centers. The steps should not be used for a minimum of 24 hours to allow the paint to harden.

The problem facing you now is the weather. It is not a good idea to paint concrete this late in the year because it is bound to be quite cold by now. This project will take a week or longer, depending on the weather. Cold temperatures will delay the curing of each of the recommended steps.

I am not in favor of painting concrete; too many problems can develop. Staining it is a better option.

Q. In your advice regarding cleaning wood floors, you recommended not using steam cleaners on wood floors. Is this for all wood floors, or just laminates? We have native T&G maple, finished with poly oil base.

A. Do not use steam on any wood floor.

Q. Our new home construction has Marvin Integrity windows. The large fixed living room window has a grille between the glass. Every time the front door is closed, the grille rattles badly against the glass. In conversations with my contractor, the local Marvin window distributor and Marvin windows customer service, they have all told me there is nothing that can be done to solve the problem and that it is a characteristic of glass expansion and contraction.

Since it happens under all temperature and humidity conditions, I am having a hard time believing their answers. Do you have any possible solutions to this issue?

A. Did your local Marvin dealer come and check the window out or just tell you over the phone that nothing could be done? If it's the latter, you should insist the dealer send a service technician to make sure the small, nearly invisible little silicone dots, used as bumpers at the intersections of the grille, have not been omitted in the manufacturing process; it happens.

These little dots are cushions, there to prevent the rattling of the GBG (grille between glass). If the dots are missing, Marvin should replace the window, which is what the local dealer near me would do.

But even if these little bumpers are there, it is possible the grilles can still rattle, in which case, nothing can be done.

• Henri de Marne was a remodeling contractor in Washington, D.C., for many years, and is now a consultant. His website is www.henridemarne.com. Email questions to henridemarne@gmavt.net.

© 2014, United Feature Syndicate Inc.