Fading siding likely needs some new paint

Q. I have been reading your weekly column for quite a few years. It is very interesting. Our home in Florida has a color problem with the vinyl siding. The siding is medium blue and the issue really shows up on the side facing the sun. Could this be cleaned with a mixture of vinegar and water?

A. It looks like the sun's UV rays have caused the siding to fade. Try washing it with a solution in the following proportions: 1 cup TSP-PF, 1 quart Clorox bleach, mixed in 3 quarts warm water. Rinse well, but be aware that TSP and bleach are harmful to vegetation.

This will help clean the siding, but is unlikely to take care of the fading. You may need to repaint the siding. You can do so by applying one or two coats of a quality exterior latex paint on a thoroughly clean surface.

Q. I have Pella windows that were installed as replacements about 25 years ago. They are plain panel glass. The association for my townhouse requires that windows have grilles or the appearance of such from the outside. Therefore, I am allowed to put white half-inch tape on the windows to form grilles. Can you tell me what type of tape I should use to permanently "construct" that look?

A. I can't think of any tape that would do what you want to do and be aesthetically acceptable. If anyone of my readers has a solution, please let me know.

But why not have a professional job done? If you contact a local Pella Windows and Doors dealer and can give them the following information, they can tell you if removable wood grilles can be retrofitted inside: Are the windows double-hung or casements? Is the glazing insulated? What are the series and the dimensions of the windows? This is the information they'll ask for.

Q. I have a partially covered 20-year-old deck made of Wolmanized wood. Originally, I sealed it with CWF by Flood. It was beautiful, but in time, it turned very dark and ugly, so I cleaned it very well, primed it and painted it with Behr latex Porch paint. I know it is not recommended to paint, but I did so anyway.

After several years and repainting it twice, I now have a problem. On the tops of the rails, one set of steps, and the area adjacent to that set of steps, the paint is peeling. When scraping, the paint "peels" back in strips and the wood underneath seems wet. After a rain, the paint is really loose in these areas. In the winter, we keep the snow cleared from these areas. The rest of the deck is fine, even in other exposed areas. The deck needs to be painted again and I don't know what to do to get it ready.

A. I hope that you don't mean "painting again" after the failure you already have been left with. It is best to apply a semitransparent stain or a coating especially made for pressure-treated wood.

My favorite of all time is Amteco TWP because of its protective properties and longevity. I was introduced to Amteco in the 1960s by a forest products specialist of the Texas Forest Service. He told me the weather conditions they have to deal with on the Gulf Coast of Texas are about the worst for wood products. Over the years, he had tried many coatings to determine the most effective ones at protecting wood surfaces, and found Amteco TWP to be superior to all other products he had tried.

Following his recommendations, I have used it myself for many years and recommended it to my readers and clients, and have never been disappointed.

You can buy Amteco's TWP online at www.amteco.com, or navigate the website until you find a link to retailers' locations.

Obviously, you'll have to remove any remaining paint from all surfaces and allow the wood to dry thoroughly. To remove the paint that is still solidly attached to the wood, use a paint remover.

Q. I saw a column you wrote about roof ventilation and I wondered if you'd help me with a question.

I recently purchased a duplex, and during the inspection, it was brought to my attention that the ridge vent was not complete - it is only a partial vent over one unit and not the other.

The units were originally part of a house that has since been divided, and I have been told there is a wall with a hole dividing the two sides in the attic.

When the roofer replaced the roof in 2013, more soffit vents were installed as per my instructions. When I called the installer of the roof and asked why he didn't do a full ridge ventilation, he told me it is not always needed or done. I find this hard to believe and have since read a few articles that seem to support my thoughts. The house is in Oregon, so there are no hurricanes or extreme weather of any kind.

Would you know if partial ridge venting is a normal practice anywhere or was the roofer just trying to save time and/or money? Is a full ridge vent the way to go?

A. Your instincts and research are correct. A full ridge vent should have been installed when the roof was put on.

There are a number of ways attics have been and are being ventilated, if at all. Prior to the 1960s, before ridge vents were invented, attics were ventilated with gable vents, roof turbines, a variety of roof vents, etc., all of dubious value.

For adequate ventilation to take place, there needs to be an intake and a matching exhaust. Many of the various ventilation systems used in those days, and even today, do not provide that combination.

Gable vents admit rain and snow under strong wind conditions, and wind entering into one vent drops to the attic's floor while being drawn to the opposite vent by negative pressure. The upper part of the attic gets no ventilation. This was made very clear to an architect who called me in the early '60s when he discovered heavy, fuzzy mold growth in the upper half of his attic.

Some roofs are difficult to vent, such as hip and some gambrel roofs. Another recent practice is to provide no ventilation, and spray foam between the rafters, making the roof a "hot" roof. This type of roof usually cancels roof shingle warranties, as the manufacturers specify the need for the roof sheathing to be ventilated to keep the shingles cooler.

To be clear, the best way to ventilate an attic passively is with a combination of a continuous, full-length soffit vent at each eave of a roof and a continuous, full-length ridge vent at the peak of the roof.

This combination will work very well for cooling a roof in the summer and controlling moisture in the winter as long as there is an uninterrupted airflow between the soffit and the ridge vents.

Since you live in a damp climate, albeit moderate, it would be preferable to have a working soffit/ridge vent combination.

Q. Three of the 12-foot, 2-by-8-inch support boards on my deck are deteriorating, as shown in the attached photos. I've had similar problems with some step framing (stringers) that I've had to replace, and I'm obviously concerned.

At first I thought carpenter ants were the problem, but I had a professional bug inspector out who said he didn't think ants were the problem, and I got the same opinion from some employees at several lumber yards where I brought some wood samples for review.

I'm told this seems to happen sometimes to pressure-treated wood - that I must have got some bad stuff. I was also told that some wood sizes for decks do have different qualities of pressure treatments, but not in the 2-by-8 board sizes.

The deck has two tiers and both are about 12 by 20 feet. The main support beams appear to be fine, and the surface materials are a Trex-type material that is also in good condition.

This deck is about 10 years old, but I've had pressure-treated wood in other decks that was in excellent condition after a much longer period of time. Moisture should not be an issue.

Should I be treating this deck support framing with some kind of stain or preservative? It will be almost impossible to treat the top side of the 2-by-8s where they are deteriorating, as this also is where the deck surface boards are screwed into the framing.

FYI - I have bolted new 2-by-8 pressure-treated boards alongside the three problem framing boards, and this appears to be a solution for now, but it wouldn't work well for the entire deck.

It's strange that the rest of the framing in the deck appears to be OK visually as opposed to this deteriorating part that now has almost a black stained color. Also, two neighbors had decks built by the same contractor at the same time and their decks appear to be OK, but their deck surface boards are pressure-treated wood, not the composite-type Trex I have. Could this be an issue?

A. No, the deck boards should have no effect on the 2-by-8-inch joists.

Looking closely at the photos you sent, I am convinced that these three joists are not pressure-treated. Sorry to be so suspicious, but my guess is that either a mistake was made at the lumberyard or the contractor ran out of pressure-treated joists and, for expediency's sake, used what else was available to him. It could have been the same thing with the steps' stringers.

Your solution is the best; you should have no further problems.

Interesting follow-up from a reader: "I had the same problem of water bubbling up on my toilet seat as a writer to your column. It started after I bought a new water-efficient toilet and installed it in my basement bathroom. I found water splashed up on the toilet seat all the time. I found out the water in the bowl is much lower on the new toilet, and the older 3.7 gallon toilet upstairs, when flushed, caused such a push of gas or air that the small amount of water in the 1.7 gallon toilet couldn't prevent it from bubbling up the basement toilet. I'm not sure there is anything that can be done to prevent it. It's a pretty good sock if you're sitting on that toilet when someone upstairs flushes. Just prepare to stand up quickly."

• 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.

© 2016, United Feature Syndicate Inc.