Air leaks can draw excessive dust into home

Q. I have a problem with dust in my house. Our house is 63 years old. We have lived here for 18 years and have made numerous changes in the house. We are very clean people, so this is a very upsetting problem for me. We had a new furnace installed approximately seven years ago. At that time, we had our ductwork cleaned. They did not do a very good job, so my husband actually took apart the ductwork piece by piece and cleaned it. We had an electronic air cleaner installed, but it did not correct the problem. My husband did something to the electronic air cleaner so that we can use regular furnace filters that we change every month! Any help you can give me will be greatly appreciated. A. An electronic air filter is supposed to catch the majority of pollutants in the air. Perhaps yours was not properly installed or adjusted. Replacing its electronic filter with standard filters was not a good idea. It would have been better to have the installer check it out and make any necessary adjustment. The dust problem you have may be due to the environment in which you live. Are you in an industrial area or near farms that generate a lot of dust? A house built in the 1940s may have leaky windows and many other cracks and crevices through which dust can enter. Houses built in those days were not built with an emphasis on energy conservation. Due to the stack effect, warm air exhausting out of any paths in the upper floors is being replaced with outside air that may bring in the dust. You may want to have an energy audit performed on your house, which would pinpoint any air leakage problem. Your local power provider may offer such services or lead you to someone who does.We live in a two-story colonial built in the early 1960s. The main water drain to the sewage line for the two upstairs bathrooms runs down a north wall that is in the front of the house where the living room is. Whenever a toilet is flushed, it makes an extreme amount of noise. Is there a way in which the pipe could be insulated to lessen the noise? We use our living room every day and the noise is quite aggravating. Also, I read your column every week and tried to purchase your book, but was not able to find it. Where may I purchase a copy?A. A house built in the early 60s is likely to have a 3-inch copper waste pipe in a 2-by-4-inch frame wall. That does not leave much room for any type of sound cushioning within the wall itself. However, if the waste pipe is near a corner, you may be able to adhere 2-inch thick rigid foam insulation over the existing wall and cover it with new finish, which will create a small bump in the wall. Of course, if the pipe is not in a corner, you can also build up the entire wall as mentioned, but this may entail altering the trim around windows. Either way should help. You should be able to buy my book in any bookstore or directly from the publisher: Upper Access Book Publishers, upperaccess.com, (800) 310-8320.We have a one-story section of house roof that is very convenient for workmen to stand on. TV satellite dish installers and painters working on the trim of the two-story section of the house can stand and walk on it to do their work easily. The roofing is the best quality of asphalt shingles. However, all that traffic has worn off a lot of the mineral granules. I have read in your column that these granules protect the asphalt from the harmful rays of the sun. The wear is only on one particular area, and the rest of the roof is fine. Is there any product that could be painted on to protect the worn shingles?A. Such coatings exist, but it would be difficult to match the color of your shingles so that the patch-up job would look OK. You can get such coatings in home centers like Home Depot, etc. It would be better, if you have any shingles left from the initial job, to replace the worst-worn shingles. Otherwise, just let it go until you need a new roof.You've recently answered how to remove moss and other growth from a roof. I take issue with your recommendation of installing zinc at the roof ridge. Yes, the zinc will kill the moss when it rains as it makes its way down the roof. However, the killing doesn't stop at the gutter. The zinc continues to kill vegetation as it enters our streams and lakes. I believe this is why green building advocates recommend not installing copper or galvanized roofing. Isn't there a more sustainable way to handle this issue? If not, I'd suggest we learn to live with a little moss on our roofs. A. You make an interesting point. However, I do not know of any other solution at this time. If anyone has a credible answer, please let me know.It seems like waiting a long time for hot water is a common problem, as it is in my house. In a recent column, you mentioned the Laing Autocirc. I would appreciate more information, particularly where to find this device. Do most plumbing-supply stores handle it? I also don't understand how it can provide hot water to every faucet in the house when it is installed under the kitchen sink. A. The Laing Autocirc is just one of such devices. It keeps hot water at every faucet by drawing it from the water heater and recirculating it though the cold water pipes. The downside is that, if you want cold water, you have to run the cold water for a few seconds because it is tepid at first. Any licensed plumbing contractor can install one of these units. We love ours.After just watching a dozen or so asphalt shingles blow off my roof, I have some questions for you. Do you recommend that roofers remove the cellophane strips from the backs of shingles before they install them? Do roofing manufacturers recommend that roofers remove the cellophane strips from the backs of shingles before they install them?A. The cellophane strips, which protect the self-sealing strips until installation, must be removed from the back of the shingles to allow the sun to seal the exposed top shingles to those under them. Failure to do so is why you have had shingles blow off. The manufacturers put the cellophane strips on so the shingles don't stick to each other in the bundles.We live in an 11-year-old ranch with about 2,300 square feet on the main floor. We have always had to wait several minutes for hot water in the baths, kitchen and other places in the home. We had a tankless water heater put in two years ago when the traditional water heater gave out. But the problem remains. I have heard of solutions that involve recirculating pumps and that circulate warm water through the plumbing in the house. The research I've done has left me confused about "hot water circulating pumps," "demand-type circulating systems" and "temperature-control type systems." We would like something that is simple to install and efficient. We are tired of seeing clean water going down the drain while we wait for hot water. Can you help? A. Laing Act-909 Tankless Pump is made especially for tankless water heaters; it uses the cold water line to recirculate hot water, just as the Laing Autocirc does with a regular storage water heater. To some extent, installing instant hot water to a tankless water heater is defeating its purpose, because to provide hot water at every faucet when you turn the faucets on requires the heater to come on even when no hot water is needed. Still, an improvement over what you have.Is there anything that will remove pine sap stains from our grill and deck furniture? I've tried quite a few things, including Skin So Soft and Brillo pads, and nothing removes the sap stains. Your help in the past has been great and I really appreciate your know-how.A. Pine sap is very difficult to remove. One chemical that was used to work on it years ago is no longer available to the public. If anyone has been able to get rid of pine sap satisfactorily, please let me know.The living room in my home has cathedral ceilings. During the summer when we use the house, it gets really hot. Our central air is not as effective as it would be if the ceilings were insulated and sheetrocked. The roof and ceiling were done in 2004. Is there any way to keep the look and cool the house better? I do not want window units.A. I assume that this is a vacation house used occasionally. You didn't tell me what the present ceiling is, so I will assume it is also drywall. To keep the cathedral ceiling, you can have 2-inch thick rigid insulation applied to the existing ceiling finish and cover it with new drywall. Do you know how much insulation is in the existing roof and if there is any ventilation? The latter would help keep the roof cooler.Reader feedbackThe ranch owner who wrote about hot-water loss could have been writing about our house. The water heater is on the opposite side of the house from the bedrooms and bathrooms. Not that I have a complete solution to the problem, but I have an interesting energy conservation tip with tangible results for anyone with lots of water pipes. It is what you recommended: covering the hot water pipes with insulation.I was able to access all our hot water pipes through the drop ceiling and crawl space and covered them with the inexpensive foam made for this purpose. Covering everything was contrary to a recommendation I had gotten earlier that stated erroneously that only the first 5 feet count. After covering everything, I had to turn the hot water tank down one entire notch forever - which is quite notable since there are only five notches or so - as the water was almost scalding. It heats up quicker, too. I imagine my savings are quite dramatic, since the setting is permanently 20-percent less. bull; 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 e-mail at henridemarne@gmavt.net.#169; 2009, United Feature Syndicate Inc.