Create an air barrier to stop peeling paint
Q. I always appreciate your help. Two years ago, I scraped, sanded, bleached, primed (two coats Glidden Gripper primer) and painted (two coats Behr Premium Plus) outside window frames. They are already peeling badly. I am very discouraged. Is there some "magic" paint I can apply that will last a while (like five to 10 years)?
A. How old is your house? How long have you been in it? Has the paint peeling been a constant problem? The answers to these questions would help me zero in on your paint failure.
My guess is that the small spaces between your window frames and the framing of their rough openings are either not chinked or chinked with fiberglass insulation. If the insulation in the exterior walls is fiberglass with a Kraft-paper or aluminum-foil integral vapor retarder, these spaces are not protected by a vapor retarder/air barrier. Interior moisture, if you live in a climate with a considerable differential between indoor and outdoor temperatures in the winter, can filter through the fiberglass and cause the paint to fail. This is a problem seldom found where builders use a plastic vapor retarder that bridges over these spaces if the plastic is stapled to the window frames or a low-expansion foam was used to chink.
Have you replaced the windows recently? What did the installers use to chink these narrow spaces? If this has not been a repeated problem over the years, this is not likely to be the cause unless some things have changed in your environment: more people and pets living in the house, more lengthy showers being taken, many more water-loving plants, drying clothes indoors, lowering the inside temperature in winter, storing firewood inside, a suddenly leaky basement or crawl space, etc.
If my guess is correct, the simplest solution is to remove the trim around the windows, pull out the fiberglass and replace it with low-expansion foam. This will provide the needed air barrier/vapor retarder. Another solution is to caulk around the trim with a nondrying, paintable caulk.
Q. My garage floor is almost 30 years old and in pretty good shape except for spalling/dusting, mainly dusting. Over the years, I have inadvertently dripped polyurethane on it when painting woodwork, and it seems to have held up well. Can I power wash or use a high-power blower and simply dump a can of polyurethane on the floor and spread it? Or is there another product that will hold? I really don't want to have to pay for a new floor.
A. I doubt that the polyurethane would last long under traffic, particularly with the salt that cars bring. The spalling may be the result of such salt damage. To prevent further deterioration, the spalling should be repaired with one of the several products available for repairing concrete such as Thorocrete reinforced with Acryl 60, or Top'N Bond, which contains its own binder. If you choose to have a masonry or concrete contractor do the work, he or she should be familiar with these products or their equivalents - contractors have their own favorite repair compounds. Dusting occurs for a variety of reasons. To control it, the concrete can be coated with a chemical floor hardener such as zinc or magnesium fluorosilicate or hardeners with cementitious properties, such as latex formulations, epoxy paints or boiled linseed oil (I would not recommend boiled linseed oil in a garage, as it is likely to take a long time to dry - if it dries at all). This is a job that requires knowledge of concrete and its problems - perhaps too much for the layperson, but if you are a skilled handyperson willing to learn the intricacies, best wishes.
Q. I am a senior citizen and read your column regularly. I have found it very informative. I just read about deck stain. Coincidentally, we are in the process of changing pressure-treated deck boards, posts and railings. We are retaining the deck foundation: posts and joists. Our deck is about 21 feet from the ground. Could I paint a "motor oil" on foundation posts and joists? Since oil is being used on electrical posts to prevent decay, I thought that it would be better on posts and joists. After installing new pressure-treated deck boards and railings, what kind of treatment do you recommend? I went to Wolman.com and found some confusing information on their products. Do I need to perform a "surface preparation" on my new boards? Should I apply stain, water repellent or preservative products? Is there any difference in these products?
A. I would not recommend using motor oil; the utility posts I believe you are referring to are not treated with motor oil. Instead, buy a copper-based product in a hardware or paint store and apply it to any wood member that is not pressure-treated. It is also a good idea to coat new pressure-treated wood with a product that is formulated for that purpose. Wolman offers several water-repellent, mildew-resistant treatment products under the label RainCoat: clear oil-based, clear water-based and tinted water-based. Tinted coatings last longer than clear ones. You do not need a surface-preparation product for new wood; these products are for use in wood that has weathered and needs cleaning before a protective coating is applied.
Q. Is there any way to strip and refinish a metal kitchen cabinet by a do-it-yourselfer? If not, could you refer me to someone in my area or provide me with an economical solution? Any help will be appreciated.
A. Metal kitchen cabinets are factory-finished, and that finish should not be removed. You can sand the cabinets lightly to break the sheen, then wipe them off with a tack cloth to remove all loose material and prime them with B-I-N. Choose a metal enamel or a quality latex paint. Foam brushes work well with this type of priming and painting, allowing quite a smooth finish - if you paint only in one direction and don't go over the same area twice.
Q. Love your column. I don't always tell my husband that I got the information from you. I want him to think I'm pretty handy. We have a two-story colonial home built in the early 1960s. The home is in Mount Prospect. We have a basement below ground with four window wells that all have drains. They are also covered. One started to fill up years ago when we would get heavy rains. We have had the window sealed, so water does not trickle in anymore, but we have had to pump out sometimes. Now, window two is starting to do the same. I think we have a clogged drain or even a crack somewhere. My husband isn't doing anything, and I feel this is the start of something bad. What do you think? We do have a sump pump if that makes a difference.
A. Since the window wells are covered, water is getting in them from the ground surface, as window wells are usually not deep enough to be affected by subsurface water. Look at the grade around the wells carefully; it may have either settled more (strange in a house built in the '60s, but stranger things have happened) or some erosion may have taken place around their edges, leading water into them. This could have happened if the grade around the house has changed for whatever reason (new landscaping, poor gutter drainage, a dog digging a cool and cozy hole) and water either runs toward or pools against the foundation. If this does not solve the leakage, please give me more details.
Q. I was reading your article in the newspaper recently about heating hot water and the most reasonable way to do it. We have a coil in our furnace and a circulator sending the hot water to a hot water tank we use for storage. The tank was originally an electric one, which we disconnected because it was an expensive way to heat hot water. We have a hearthstone stove in our dining room with circulating fans in top corners of doorways as well as ceiling fans. We have an open stairway with ceiling fans in bedrooms upstairs. The house is well-insulated, we think. We have replaced windows up and down with argon-gas replacements; we have a closed-in front porch with large- and medium-sized windows. Our stove heats the house pretty much except when well below zero or when we are gone. Our furnace is 3 years old, so it should be energy efficient. We have been thinking of putting a jacket on our hot water tank. Do you think this a good idea? Do you think this way we heat our water as efficiently as with electric?
A. If your 3-year-old boiler is oil-fired, disconnecting the wire to the electric heater and using it as a storage tank for water heated through the coil in your boiler was a good idea. Most modern boilers are quite small and use little energy to maintain the programmed water temperature. But if your boiler is propane-gas fired, you are paying more than if you had stayed with electricity as a means of heating water. This may be different in a few years. Yes, you should install an insulated jacket over the storage tank, regardless of its own insulation.
Q. Our home is 40 years old, and last year the stoop and step from our utility room to the back yard had begun to shift. It fits into an "L" shape of the house (utility room is shorter than the kitchen). It has sunk over an inch toward the kitchen. I am concerned about it raising the aluminum siding, which was installed above and around the cement stoop. One cement contractor said that we need to have two support columns. The area is about 36-square feet with another step down. He thinks the rebar from the foundation finally snapped off from freezing, thawing and water getting under the stoop. We live in a Chicago suburb, complete with the winters, ice and snow. The building department of our village said that we didn't need the pier support. Another contractor said everything was fine, and we didn't need to replace it. We then decided to match the step, stoop and sidewalk in the yard with pavers to match the patio and driveway. My concern is with the stability of the pavers and it being semipermeable to water. Will this increase the chances of getting water in our basement? Should the area of the foundation that will be exposed when the existing stoop is removed be waterproofed? With what and how?
A. You have explained the situation very well and all the terms you have used are correct. Is your concern about the potential damage to the aluminum siding because the concrete stoop is tilting, causing it to rise at one end? If the inspector from the building department and a contractor have not seen this as a potential problem, there may not be. It is possible that, if the stoop was tied into the house foundation at the time of construction, one or more rebars may have rusted away, and the stoop is pivoting on a sound one in the high corner.
Why has neither one of the contractors suggested that the sunken side of the stoop be raised, compacting soil under it or having new concrete poured underneath for support? We used to do that routinely. Has either one given you a reason this cannot be done? The stoop and step are not so big that a small machine can't lift it enough to do the work, unless it is inaccessible. This should cost you less than the removal, disposal and replacement of the stoop with pavers. However, if you decide to go ahead with the replacement, it should not increase the risk of basement leakage if done properly. There should be no need to waterproof the area exposed by the removal, as I assume that it is mostly above grade.
• Henri de Marne's column appears Sundays. He 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.
© 2008, United Feature Syndicate Inc.