Insulate attic floor before spray foam

Q. I live in a ranch-style home that was built in the late 1960s. Recently, I have been approached by two different contractors touting the energy savings benefits of making my attic space unvented by closing the ridge vents in the roof, removing the attic fan, closing the resulting hole and spraying the rafters (underside of the roof deck) with 5 inches of open-cell, spray foam insulation, as well as sealing off the soffit vents with this same spray. They also proposed 21/4 inches of closed-cell spray foam to insulate my basement sill plates. They claim this will significantly reduce air infiltration into my home and save loads of energy, but I am concerned about what might happen to my rafters, sheathing and asphalt roof shingles by cutting off the air circulation in the attic. I have been unable to find any independent information regarding this procedure. Although I have found quite a few articles on the Internet about creating an unvented attic by using this spray foam technique, unfortunately all of them are either by contractors who provide this service or by spray foam manufacturers. What are your thoughts on this process, and would you recommend it?A. There is something missing in the equation. Did these contractors conduct a thorough assessment of the air infiltration of your house by means of a blower-door test? If not, they are selling you a job you may not need. How much insulation is between the floor joists of the attic? What type of insulation is there? If you have minimal insulation on the attic's floor, adding 8 inches of blown cellulose may solve the air-infiltration problem, if you do have such a problem. Make sure that the insulators protect your soffit vents - you do not want those blocked off. This would be far less expensive than foaming the roof deck, and it would preserve the ventilation you have - not a bad thing to have to help cool the attic in the summer.As to the basement sill plates, their suggestion is good, but, again, there are less expensive ways to control air infiltration in this location. Caulking the joint between the masonry foundation and the wood sill plate would take care of this problem. Two-inch-thick rigid foam fitted against the rim joist between the floor joists, with its perimeter caulked, will take care of making this weak band more energy efficient.We had a new garage put in about three years ago. Within a year the concrete part of the garage floor that is exposed to the elements began crumbling. We contacted the contractor, who stated, "That has been happening to a lot of the jobs done that year," and said that the installer has died. I do not think we are going to get a very good response from our contractor or a very good repair. Our question is: What are some ways to fix this?A. If the crumbling is not deep and not too extensive, you may be able to fix it using a vinyl-reinforced mix such as Top 'N Bond or ThoroCrete to which Acryl 60 is added. If the apron is in very bad shape, you will be better off having it removed and redone by an experienced concrete contractor.I'd love to have the Laing Autocirc installed at my home, as the hot water takes forever to get to any of our faucets, particularly the upstairs bath. My husband insists it will be expensive to install and even more expensive to operate. Could you please give me a general idea of what to expect the plumber to charge for installation as well as operating costs (if any!). It sounds like such a great solution to all that water wasting.A. Depending on what plumbers charge in your area, you are looking at an expense of between $500 and $600 to purchase and install the Laing Autocirc. The operating cost depends on how you program the pump. The time clock is European style (24 hours), and it has trippers that allow you to determine when you want the pump to be activated. You can set the timer to start the pump when you get up in the morning and to shut off when you retire if someone is home all day, or you can also shut it off and restart it if the house is empty during the day. The adjustments are endless.A built-in temperature sensor automatically turns the Autocirc pump on when the water temperature in the hot water supply line cools down to 85 degrees and turns it off automatically when the hot water supply line to the faucet reaches a temperature of 95 degrees. It is installed preferably under the kitchen sink, but can be installed under the farthest fixture from the heater, providing instant hot water at all fixtures. The manufacturer claims that the savings in hot water can be as much as 17,000 gallons for a family of four. This equates to a considerable saving of energy in whatever fuel you use. You can easily figure out the savings in the cost of water by checking your water bill. The saving in energy depends on the type you use and its unit cost. Your energy provider should be able to help you with that.We live in an older home in the country with our own septic tank system. Our plumbing worked fine up to about a year ago; then, after we used our shower, the toilet would not flush properly. After plunging it several times, the toilet would begin working normally again. What is the problem, and how can we fix this? A. There may be an obstruction in the toilet waste line that collects paper, but if it happens only after you use the shower, you may want to have a plumber snake the lines out. If the toilet is quite old, there may be a functional problem with it. We had a similar problem and needed to use the plunger frequently. My impatience at this irritation caused me to replace the toilet with a water-saving toilet, which solved the problem.There is a leak behind my front outside brick steps. Water leaks down the basement wall only during a hard rain. Do you recommend a brick sealer or caulk to remedy this problem?A. It sounds as if the steps are tilted back toward the house, leading the water from hard rains against the foundation wall and into your basement. If this is the case, a brick sealer would not solve the problem. If the steps are within three-eighths-inch of the house wall, you may be able to caulk the joint, but that depends on the type of siding. You may need to have the steps straightened out if they are stand-alone and not too large, or resurfaced, if this is possible without negatively affecting the tread height at the front door or the walk. A competent contractor or mason can advise you of the choices.Two issues in my 50-year-old split level are beyond my knowledge level. Could you please provide some guidance? I pulled up old carpeting in the master bedroom intending to sand and refinish the hardwood parquet flooring underneath. However, I discovered a noticeable dip toward the exterior wall approximately 21/2 feet from, and traveling the length of the wall. The parquet is separated slightly at the "ridge" that has formed. Additionally, there is an area of the ceiling that looks almost as if it is collapsing around a (load-bearing?) wall. It seems these are consistent with the house settling. My question is, how do I determine whether these are structural concerns? In the event I do need to have an engineer check out my home, what should I expect in terms of the cost in my area? The second issue I have is with the two half-flight stairs. The stair treads are in terrible shape, with one stairwell using a hardwood for the tread and the other using what appears to be pine. Each of the stairs has at least one tread that is cracked through. As might be expected, both sets of stairs are very noisy, too. Someone suggested putting a maple or oak veneer on the broken and soft wood treads, and someone else suggested removing and replacing the broken treads. If I can afford it, I would rather do the repair properly once, rather than patch things now and face more repairs in a few years. Is it safe to remove and replace treads? The soft wood steps are accessible from the crawl space but the upper flight is not. Also, how durable are veneers?A. My guess is that the affected floor is over a part of the house that is cantilevered either over the foundation wall, if your house is only one story, or over the first floor if this is occurring on the second floor. The measurement you give backs this up. If the wall supporting the roof is "in space" because the floor is extending beyond the wall below it, and the cantilever was not properly engineered, the weight of the roof could cause the entire wall to sag, resulting in the "ridge" on the parquet floor and the "collapse" of the ceiling. Undersized joists would cause this by sagging over time. Because the sag seems to be minor, this can be repaired by slowly jacking up the wall back to its original level, and opening up the floor by removing the parquet and the subfloor. New joists can be sistered next to the existing ones, and all of them - new and old - should be stabilized by nailing joist hangers upside down to them and the center beam. To be completely comfortable about this, you may want to consult a structural engineer who will have the advantage of checking the conditions, which I can only surmise exist, not being able to look at your house (wish you could have sent photos of the interior and exterior of your house). You will have to ask any engineer you contact what his or her fee will be. An experienced carpenter can replace the damaged treads; it's a much better fix than adding a veneer. If you can afford it, have him or her replace all the softwood treads with hardwood. If you do not know of such a craftsman, ask family, friends and neighbors for recommendations.What was the name of the product you recommended to get grime off wood kitchen cabinets?A. The product is Milsek. You can also buy it online at www.milsek.com.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.