Home repair: Prime front and back of siding
Q. I've constructed an addition to our home: a two-car garage, attached and unheated. I'll be installing the siding in the spring. It is radial-cut spruce, and I'm installing it rough side to the weather, smooth side to the Typar. I'll be staining it with Cabot OVT solid color oil stain. Is there any value in this situation to staining both sides of the siding?
A. Yes, there is. You should definitely back-prime all the clapboards before installation and coat all field cuts while installing them. Be sure to check with either Cabot or the store from which you buy the stain as to whether Cabot still recommends applying its Problem-Solver primer on the raw wood before applying the OVT stain. Cabot developed Problem-Solver, as its name indicates, because the company has had problems with adhesion of its stains to bare wood. You do not need to apply the OVT to the backside of the clapboards; the primer will suffice.
Q. We completely renovated our kitchen last fall. I decided to go with custom-painted cabinets instead of wood. They're Shaker-style wood frames with the inset panels made of MDF board, painted a light cream color. Although I wipe them off as soon as I notice anything on them, when the sun hit them this morning, I was able to see things that looked like grease in places on the cabinets near the stove. I purchased a reputable cabinet cleaner months ago and tried cleaning them as directed, without much success. I ended up using soap and water. What cabinet cleaner would you recommend for cabinets like ours?
A. By all means, try Milsek Furniture Polish & Multi-Purpose Cleaner. You can buy it online at www.milsek.com. I have received rave reviews from quite a number of readers.
Q. Recently, we had our bathroom tub reglazed. A month later, it began to chip. The contractor came back and completely redid the job. Within three weeks, it began to chip again. We are not sure what he used; the material is soft and pliant and was painted on with a brush. The house was built in the 1950s, and the tub is the original. We would appreciate any suggestions on how to restore the tub without having to replace it.
A. It's hard to tell what happened. Reglazing is an option to rejuvenate an old tub, and it may be that the mechanic is not experienced in preparing the surfaces. You may want to consider Bath Fitter or a similar process instead. If you are not familiar with these, they put an entirely new liner over the tub and walls if you so choose. In a reglazed tub or one with a liner, you need to be careful with cleaning it, as the finish is not as tough as the original one.
Q. Our home is 23 years old, and we are noticing a great reduction in the water pressure in all of the faucets and showers. Flushing the toilet while someone is in the shower causes a real problem. If my husband wants to wash the deck, I can't run the washing machine. How do we find a reputable person to clear the pipes? And how extensive a job should it be? We have a three-bedroom house with two full baths and two half baths. The home is about 2,100 square feet with a finished basement.
A. A licensed plumber is the person to call. The cost will depend on what needs to be done.
Q. Our house was built in 1953. The main basement is roughly 30 by 20. I built an addition that is 20 by 14; it is a crawlspace with a dirt floor covered with two layers of heavy plastic. I insulated between the floor joists with 6-inch fiberglass insulation with the foil face up toward the living space. At the time we built the addition, it was common practice to have outside ventilation, and I added three aluminum vents that are the size of the concrete block. Years later, I added 3-1/2-inch insulation to the inside of the concrete block with the foil face toward the inside of house and I duct-taped all the seams. This insulation extends about 30 inches out over the plastic that is lying on the ground. There is one access to the inside of the house that's 30 by 25 (inch). I close it off during the heating season and open it in the milder weather, using a small fan on a timer to circulate the air. Should I cement the vent holes shut to stop the cold air from coming through the insulation that I put over the vents?
A. You have done a great job. This is the way insulating a crawlspace's walls is supposed to be done as an alternate to rigid insulation. The technology at the time was indeed to vent crawlspaces, but we now know that it creates more problems than it solves. Having the soil covered as thoroughly as you have done is the current recommendation. It keeps the soil's moisture at bay, and that is all that is needed.
Instead of cementing in the vents (which is a good solution), consider covering them with painted or pressure-treated plywood, and putting fiberglass insulation over the plywood.
Q. I have a 25-by-12 room addition with 2-by-10-inch floor joists and a 3-foot-2-inch vertical clearance in the unheated crawlspace. The space between the joists is fully insulated with fiberglass insulation. There are two adjustable outside vents. Our floor gets cold in the winter. I would like your opinion on adding Styrofoam panels or similar to the concrete walls and floor joists.
A. I hope that the crawlspace soil is fully covered with 6-mil plastic or has a concrete cap. It is essential to contain the soil's moisture, so that it doesn't create an unhealthy condition that can cause structural and mold problems. Once this is done, and you have no leakage from outside, you should seal the vents. This can be done with painted or pressure-treated plywood. Adding rigid insulation to the concrete walls will be helpful in moderating the crawlspace temperature. The soil below your house is exuding warmth, which is quickly lost through the concrete walls. The rigid insulation will greatly reduce the heat loss, and should help keep the first floor warmer. I would not recommend putting rigid insulation to the bottom of the floor joists in addition to the fiberglass already there; it could create a moisture problem within the fiberglass.
Q. Our 2,400-square-foot, three-story town home built in 2007 has one zone. The third floor nary gets a breeze of heat or cool from the system. During our first spring/summer, the thermostat (second floor) was set at 75 F. The first floor was 64 F, and the third floor was 83 F. The builders are still around dealing with other “violations,” yet are distancing themselves from helping us. What is your advice?
A. The system may need balancing, and it seems as if the original builder's HVAC subcontractor didn't do a good job of it. You may try closing the dampers on the first floor to direct more heat and air conditioning to the third floor. If this is not successful, I suggest that you call a reputable HVAC contractor to check out the system. Hopefully, there isn't too much wrong with the installation.
Q. I have been reading your articles on household repairs for a long time and hope you can straighten me out on a bathroom-exhaust issue. I own a two-story colonial that has no exhaust vents in either of the two bathrooms on the second floor. I would like to have vents installed but noticed in two separate columns that you wrote that bathroom vents should not be vented through the roof, especially in cold climates. I guess I would consider the Chicago area a cold climate, so I was wondering how you would direct the moist bathroom air to the outside.
My house has 6-inch eaves, both in front and back, with continuous venting along the whole lengths. If bathroom vents were installed through the eaves, it would seem to create a big icing-up problem in the winter. The eaves are the only other place I can think of for venting the bathrooms.
A. The Chicago area is cold! The best way to vent bathroom and kitchen fans is through gable walls. Venting them through soffit vents recirculates the moist air they are exhausting into the attic, because soffit vents are intakes. Venting them upward through a roof or a ridge vent allows condensation to run back down, rusting the fans and staining the ceilings. To vent these fans through gable walls, the ducts should be kept as close as possible to the top of the attic's floor joists. The best ducting to use is Schedule 20, bell-end PVC drainpipe, which comes in 10-foot length and can easily be sawed with a wood blade. The bell ends should be facing toward the fan, and the duct should have a slight slope toward the outside. This is easily done with small wood blocks of decreasing thickness placed at both ends of each pipe section. The pipe should terminate through a hooded plastic or aluminum wall jack with an effective damper. Avoid plastic jacks that have a grill cover — as it will trap lint and need to be cleaned regularly — and plastic jacks with louvers; they are fragile and are soon likely to break. To reduce condensation, place R-13 insulation snugly on each side of the pipe and on the top.
Q. Our colonial was built around 1960; it has vinyl siding and a concrete-block foundation with slab flooring in the basement. The roof is asphalt (1992). The windows seem to be wood frame with aluminum storm windows on the outside. My problem is mostly on the second floor. During the winter months, the windows drip and puddles accumulate on the framing. When we had the house inspected, the inspector mentioned we needed additional insulation and ventilation in the attic. We increased the insulation.
How can I correct this problem of extreme condensation on the windows upstairs? The windows get mold on them from so much wetness. One contractor suggested a better fan in the bathroom that we were supposed to run for a long time after showering, but this has not helped at all.
A. Your house seems to be fairly tight — a good thing. What kind of attic ventilation do you have? And why did the inspector suggest increasing it? Perhaps you should consider doing so.
There may be several reasons for the excessive humidity. Assuming that you have no leakage issue in the basement, if the concrete blocks have been waterproofed from the inside, and there are grade problems outside, the cores of the blocks may be filled with water. This would be a serious problem. Lifestyle can also generate excessive humidity: storing firewood in the basement; drying laundry on racks instead of with a dryer; a dryer not vented to the outside; many water-loving plants; the bathroom fan exhausting in the attic instead of outside. Any and all of these can contribute to the problem. I would need more details to be more helpful.
Ÿ 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.
© 2011, United Feature Syndicate Inc.