Home repair: Overhead heat registers fail to keep basements warm
Q. I own a ranch-style home with a partially finished basement. The two outside walls in the family room are paneled with 2-by-2 framing. The walls are below ground with a cement-block foundation. I have two overhead furnace heat ducts and have to run electric heaters to maintain heat. Would it be cost-effective to insulate these two basement walls? If so, what would I use?
A. Overhead heat registers are counterproductive. When the furnace is on, they will discharge warm air, which stays near the ceiling. But as soon as the furnace shuts off, this warm air is sucked right back into the ducts because the warm air in them is rising and flowing upstairs. If possible, you should have the registers ducted to the floor.
To insulate the outside walls of the family room, you would have to remove the paneling. To be safe, you should not insulate any lower than three feet below grade unless you are sure that you have a working foundation drain; the backfill of the foundation is coarse sand, bank-run gravel or stones almost to the grade; and the grade and all appendages are sloping away from the foundation. Otherwise, you risk having deep frost crack the walls. It sounds as if it is not worth the trouble when changing the warm-air distribution may solve the problem.
Q. It is time for me to replace the roof shingles. I visited a home show and discussed the replacement with three roofing contractors. Two used CertainTeed (Landmark and Landmark TL) and the other uses Owens Corning (Oakridge and Duration). From your columns, I will not use IKO but have questions regarding CertainTeed. It seems the Owens Corning shingles are acceptable. Do you have further insight regarding shingles?
A. I understand that there is a class-action suit against CertainTeed shingles. I have not heard anything good or bad about Owens Corning. I used BP shingles on our house because I had good reports on them.
Q. I have two estimates from different contractors. One is a father-and-son outfit working out of their trucks; we found them through an ad in our local paper. The other is from a highly recommended, long-established firm. The price differential is significant. We are not wealthy, but cannot afford to have something go wrong. Are we taking a risk with the father-and-son team? Can you help us make the decision? We would be grateful.
A. Unless you know that the father-and-son team has been in business for a long time, does quality work, and has an excellent record of taking care of any problems that are likely to develop, and will be around when they do, you are taking a chance. The difference in the estimates is likely due to the federal and state government-required insurances that are expensive, such as workers’ compensation, etc., which the father-and-son team may not carry. For example, a well-established, high-quality contractor friend of mine with a crew averaging 10 to 15 workers, depending on the season, pays more than $50,000 a year for these mandated insurances. He also carries completed-operations insurance, which protects customers from any later occurrences — something that can happen to the best contractors.
To retain good workers, reputable contractors generally offer benefits such as vacation and sick time, some health-insurance coverage, etc. Many one-man and two-men outfits do not carry any insurance, and may not be around when you need them. As an example, friends of ours chose a lower bid from such a small contractor, and were very unhappy. The work took forever; the men would not show up regularly, and when the job was finally done, our friends found poor workmanship with no recourse. My recommendation would always be to give the job to the established firm with excellent references.
Q. In 2009, we had our roof done because of hail damage and went to the ridge vent instead of the little aluminum vents. Now that winter has been going on for several months, we have noticed that it seems colder in the house than it seemed to be before the ridge vent was installed. Is this a side effect of the ridge vent? What do you suggest to help with this problem, more insulation? I would appreciate your valuable input. The roofing contractor thinks I am losing it.
A. An effective attic ventilation system consisting of an uninterrupted air space between soffit and ridge vents will keep the attic cooler in the summer and in the winter, and remove any excess moisture. The little round louvers in the soffits and the small aluminum roof vents found in many houses are ineffective. A ridge vent is not effective without soffit vents of equal or larger net free ventilation area (NFVA) or with gable vents. The remedy is more insulation in the attic, which will help in both winter and summer. Be sure that the added insulation does not cover the soffit vents or interfere with the flow of air from the soffits to the ridge, as can happen when insulators blow cellulose in without proper baffles at the eaves.
Q. Our builder put both upstairs bathroom fan vents in the roof of my house, and I have encountered the problems you recently noted. I have been searching for resolution of this problem for at least five years. The local radio call-in home-improvement show advised on the soffit vent routine, but only with great difficulty could they be applied to my house using the available kits in the national building-supply stores. I have a question, however. The distance is approximately 15 feet, six inches from my fans to the closest gable end wall. What size bell-mouth PVC pipe should I use? Do I have to use the four-inch size? Thanks in advance for your response.
A. The local home-improvement show gave you the wrong advice. Venting bathroom or kitchen fans through a soffit is asking for trouble. Soffits are intakes for attic ventilation. The warm, moist air exhausted by the bathroom fan will be sucked back into the attic, causing potential moisture problems. It’s almost as bad as venting the fans in the attic itself. Fans should be vented through gable walls and the ducts kept as low as possible — sitting on top of the attic’s floor joists — except that it is advisable to slant the ducts slightly by using small blocks of decreasing size from the fan to the gable (you only need two per section of rigid pipe). This allows any condensation to flow to the outside. Each length of the rigid schedule 20 drainpipes I recommend using is 10 feet long, and only comes in the four-inch size. It can easily be cut with a handsaw, a radial or table saw, or a chop saw. The bell end should face the fan, and the wall termination is best done with an aluminum or plastic jack that looks like a hood. If you can get one that has a spring-loaded flap, buy it.
Q. Several years ago, you had a commentary on asphalt shingles — specifically those made by IKO, where (as I recall) you told about their declining quality and, more specifically, problems with them honoring their warranty. Either I neglected to save that article or I put it in such a safe place that I can’t easily find it.
I am about to replace the shingles on my home, and want to go with the best-rated shingles. I’m not sure the style of my home would lend itself to a metal roof (contemporary hillside ranch), but am open to suggestions. The house is 18 years old, fully open to the elements (no nearby trees or other shade) and although the edges aren’t yet curling, there is significant granule loss and several small leaks in spots. Final question: Would you recommend a product like Grace Ice & Water Shield one or two courses up from the drip edge in addition to the valley’s, or putting the water and ice shield over the entire roof? Any inputs/direction would be greatly appreciated.
A. A standing-seam metal roof should look fine on a ranch, but a quality job will cost you three times as much as the shingles. I can’t advise you on the best-rated shingles, as I don’t know of any such rating, but I can comment on the serious problems people have had with IKO shingles over quite a few years — many early failures, sometimes in half the claimed life of the shingles — and the manufacturer’s refusal to honor the warranty. I have been in court testifying against their so-called expert who invented the stupidest reasons for the early failure of the product. I have installed BP shingles on our roof when the 25-year IKO shingles we had failed in 13 years. After the experience I have had with readers and clients, I haven’t bothered to make any claims with IKO, as the hassle is not worth it. Our previous roof had 20-year Bird shingles that failed in six years. After some negotiations, Bird offered one-third of the cost of the replacement, just before they filed for bankruptcy. Let’s hope that BP shingles will perform better.
You should have an ice and water protection membrane installed, which needs to cover a minimum of two feet above the intersecting plane of the exterior walls. It is not necessary to cover the entire roof. The membrane should also be applied in valleys and any other roof penetrations.
CORRECTION: In a previous column, after being made aware by a reader that the Hot Water Lobster required no check valves on the water heater, I commented that this was unfortunate because this meant the removal of the shut-off valves on both the hot- and cold-water lines needed to isolate the tank if it needed replacement. This was in error: The check valves that need to be removed are in the pipe stubs that come with the tank for connection with the water lines. These check valves are found in about 5 percent of the tanks manufactured, and are easily removed by a plumber with a pair of needle-nose pliers. Sorry for the confusion.COMMENT FROM A READER: An interesting tip from Julie Reimer Elver, ceramics and sculpture fine arts department, Antioch Community High School in Antioch: #147;I read your article in today#146;s Daily Herald about cleaning the 20-year-old acrylic tub. We had the same problem. It had yellowed, and no amount of cleaning could get it white again. We got For Dummies tub-refinishing epoxy kit in white and refinished it ourselves. The tub looks bright white again and appears to be new. Just thought I would add this to the choices for this person.#148;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.$PHOTOCREDIT_ON$© 2011, United Feature Syndicate Inc.$PHOTOCREDIT_OFF$