Two coats of stain for new wooden shakes

Q: I wrote to you last fall about what stain to use on my newly installed cedar shake shingles (No. 1 grade), and as per your response, I am going to use TWP 200. What I forgot to ask you is whether one coat is enough or would two coats be better? And if two coats are better, how long between applications should I wait?

A. TWP 200 is fine for your application. You can also check out TWP 1500 Series, which has an even lower VOC content. You can look at the difference between the two stains on the company's website: www.amtico.com.

The instructions on the can will advise you on how to prepare the surfaces, and that two coats are usually needed on new wood - and how long to wait between coats.

Q. My 150-year-old house has 50-year-old white smooth vinyl siding, which has turned yellowish in many areas. The siding is in good shape, structurally, so is it acceptable to paint it? If so, what preparation and products should I use?

A. Yes, vinyl siding can be painted. It should be thoroughly cleaned to remove any pollutants, including mildew. This is best done by hand, as pressure-washing can result in water penetration behind the siding.

The best way to wash the siding and remove all pollutants is to mix equal parts of EcoGeeks' Deck & Patio Cleaner and OXY-Boost in hot water, using a soft-bristle brush.

This is not only one of the most effective cleaners for siding, it is also environmentally safe. You can purchase the two products on the company's website: www.ecogeeks.com.

Rinse with a gentle shower from your garden hose to remove all residue.

Vinyl siding is formulated with a certain coefficient of heat absorption, and since your vinyl siding is white, you will need to stick to white or a very light color to prevent your siding from buckling or warping. White is the safest.

You should also apply the paint in the coldest weather the paint manufacturer recommends because, if you wait for warmer weather, the siding will expand, and when it shrinks again in colder weather, you'll see unpainted areas at all joints.

Paint with Sherwin-Williams Duration or Sears Weatherbeater ULTRA (which is also made by Sherwin-Williams), following the directions on the can.

Q. I'm starting a project in our basement - insulating interior stud walls and covering them with drywall to paint later. I'm now beginning to work with the exterior concrete block walls, which have been painted with a white masonry waterproofing, and am starting to stud out the walls. What would be the best choice for an insulating product for these walls, and is a vapor barrier necessary, and how should that plastic be used correctly?

A. It is unfortunate that you painted the block walls with a waterproofing paint. Did you do so because there was leakage into the basement? If so, there were better ways to handle the problem.

Over the years, I have cautioned my readers not to do so. If water penetrates the blocks, and it cannot leak into the basement, it will build up inside the blocks' cores and evaporate through the inside of the exterior walls into the living spaces and the attic. In a case I investigated several years ago, this had resulted in such serious damages that apartments had to be vacated and totally redone.

If you have had no leakage, you should take all needed steps to ensure that it will never happen. Make sure that, if you have a foundation drain, its outlet is free and open. Make sure the exterior grade slopes gently away from the foundation for several feet. Get rid of any flower beds or shrubs and maintain a healthy stand of grass.

If you have gutters, make sure the downspouts stay open and discharge their contents so they flow away from the house.

If you have no gutters, be sure to insert concrete patio blocks flush with the grade at the roof's drip line to prevent erosion.

Before insulating a basement, you need to make sure there is a functioning footing drain, the backfill was done with coarse material and the grade slopes away from the foundation. Otherwise, fully insulating the walls may allow frost to penetrate deeper and crack the walls.

If these conditions are not present, you should not insulate the walls deeper than 3 feet below grade in order to allow some heat loss to keep the frost at bay.

Under the right conditions, to finish a basement, it is best to adhere 2-inch thick XPS (blue or pink) rigid insulation to the walls with a compatible adhesive, such as Styrobond or polyurethane caulking compound. Now that the walls are painted, this may no longer be possible, as the sealants may not be compatible with the paint used.

However, since the studs will hold the rigid insulation in place, you can also use polyiso rigid insulation, which could not be adhered to the block walls because of its aluminum skin.

The bottom plate should be pressure-treated.

Once your wiring is in, you can put fiberglass batts between the studs. With this type of construction, a plastic vapor retarder is not needed, as the frame walls will be kept warm.

However, since you have started studding the walls, it may no longer be possible to install rigid insulation directly to the block walls. So the options are to cut rigid insulation to fit tightly between the studs or fill the stud spaces with unfaced fiberglass batts and carefully staple plastic to the studs. This is not the best way to go for reasons too long to mention here.

Q: I am getting icicles that appear to be from warm air condensed on the inside of our overhangs on the front of our old New England-style roof (balloon frame). We know it's not water leakage, as it occurs in the early winter when no snow or water is on the roof whatsoever; we have seen over the years that ice will form under the middle of the two angles at the lowest point. I removed the wood at the bottom where the two "A's" converge and the wood was completely soaked and rotten.

Our attic now has 18 inches of blown-in insulation and we have insulated as much as we can at this point without removing the roof sheathing (not due to happen) or removing the outer wall on the front of the house to see where the warm air loss may be making this happen. It appears to be some sort of warm air vortex inside the overhangs.

Any thoughts about how to solve this? Thanks for your insight. I have thought of putting a vent at the bottom and top of the underside of the overhangs to let any warm air trapped inside the overhang escape and/or injecting large-area foam around the area from the outside.

A. The photos you attached show snow melting on the lower part of the roof between the two dormers. The resulting water freezes as it hits the cold overhangs. This indicates that there is heat loss into the attic from the living spaces, but the fact that the wood was soaked without snow or rain indicates that moist, warm air is convecting into the cold spaces above the finished spaces.

The small window to the left of the valley must be a bathroom - a generator of great amounts of moisture. Please check every inch of the bathroom walls and ceiling carefully, looking for any possible cracks or separations that would facilitate exfiltration of the moist inside air into the attic.

You should also perform the same examination in all the rooms below the attic.

If all surfaces are very tight, you may want to consider painting the walls with B-I-N as a vapor retarder, followed by two coats of a semi-gloss paint with as low a perm-rating as you can find in your choice of color.

Since your house is balloon-framed, even if the walls are insulated with fiberglass, rock wool or cellulose, moisture from a wet cellar, or one where moisture is generated by hanging laundry or storing firewood, can migrate through the walls to the attic. You should have a contractor check to see if the bottom of the stud spaces in the cellar are sealed, and if not, they should be with a material providing a vapor retarder, such as polyiso or XPS rigid insulation.

If your thorough investigation and the painting of the bathroom walls and ceiling do not result in correcting the problem, an energy audit may be worth considering to identify the sources of the convection.

A reader's endorsement: "I do not have a question, but noticed in today's column you recommended the Rainhandler.

"I just want to say that my husband installed this system on the back of our home and I am VERY happy with it. No gutters to clean out, and water goes away from the house. So many people have never heard of this system."

A. The Rainhandler, www.rainhandler.com, is a very good substitute for gutters and downspouts in many situations.

I have used it myself, and have recommended it through this column for many years.

The Rainhandler, properly installed, sprays roof water in a gentle shower instead of the water falling in a sheet, digging a trench in the ground unless some means, such as paving blocks at the roof's drip line, are positioned to prevent this damage, which can lead to basement leakage.

It is particularly useful where gutters would be difficult to access, as it eliminates any need for cleaning.

Even with the Rainhandler, the grade should slope gently away from the foundation.

• Henri de Marne was a remodeling contractor in Washington, D.C., for many years, and is now a consultant. His book, "About the House," is available at www.upperaccess.com. His website is www.henridemarne.com. Email questions to henridemarne@gmavt.net, or mail First Aid for the Ailing House, Universal Uclick, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106.

© 2015, United Feature Syndicate Inc.