Home repair: Attack stubborn mold with homemade solution
Q. You have responded recently to a number of letters regarding moss or mold on roofs. I have taken your advice by installing zinc strips on a roof this year to combat the invasion, but it is too early to see the results.
My particular concern is the growth on my vinyl siding that faces north. I scrub each area of growth with a mixture of one-third cup Clorox and two-thirds cup water to which a couple drops of dishwashing soap has been added, and then rinse with tap water. I understand why the north side might be more susceptible to such growth, but not why it grows on vinyl siding. Each year after I scrub it off in one place, more appears in another place over the summer, even as high as 15 feet above ground. Is there some product that could be sprayed on the siding to prevent such growth altogether?
A. The mixture you used is one of the recommended ones. Commercial solutions can be purchased in hardware and paint stores, but the cost is higher and the results may not be much different.
You have an unusual situation, as I can see from your photo. It looks like the vinyl siding is quite old and has lost its finish. You may want to try power washing it next summer and painting the affected north side with a high-quality exterior latex paint to which a mildewcide has been added.
You must live in a very humid area — near water, perhaps?
Q. I enjoy your Sunday column and hope you can give me some advice regarding the standing seam roof that was put on my converted dairy barn/house in 2007.
Initially, someone botched the job terribly, and it took a lawyer, a loss of money and 21 pieces of heavy-duty equipment to dry out the house. I then found someone else who did a great job. However, last February we had a very wet, driving snowfall that was almost sideways. Snow got into the ridge vent, melted all over a bed and soaked through the carpeting and onto my good teak wall unit one floor below.
My roofer is now suffering from liver cancer, so I turned to the carpenter who put in the underlayment. He has been consulting with various roofers, and no one seems to be able to offer a solution.
I don’t want to go through this again. I thought that once I put on a good roof ($20,000), I wouldn’t have to worry anymore, but that is not the case.
Can the ridge vent be made smaller so the roof still receives ventilation? I don’t want to have a condensation and mold problem by doing this the wrong way, so I am asking the expert!
A. It sounds as if no external baffles were installed below the ridge vent. External baffles direct wind over the ridge vent, thus preventing rain or snow from creating the type of problem you’ve had.
For a standing seam roof, these baffles consist of L-shaped pieces of metal that match the color of the roof. The upright legs are as high as the standing seams, and the other, 1-inch-wide legs are fastened to the roof.
The baffles are sized 1 inch shorter than the distance between the standing seams. They should be installed 1 inch below the bottom of the ridge vent by screwing them onto the roof deck through a two-sided, 1-inch-wide adhesive tape, leaving a half-inch open space at each end for drainage. When properly manufactured and installed, these baffles are unobtrusive.
The best approach is to have a roofer who installs standing seam roofs fashion the baffles and install them. But he or she may be too busy to handle such a small job. If you are interested, I can give you the name of the best commercial roofer near you who can make the baffles for your carpenter to install.
Q. We live in an 11-year-old, two-story house with two-story spaces and ceilings upstairs that go to the roof peak. Our smoke detectors are wired into the whole house with battery backup. We are both now seniors, and changing a battery when it starts to beep requires a very big ladder and is a huge hassle. We need to get someone else in here to do the job ASAP!
We have a whole-house generator that comes on whenever the power is interrupted and is fueled by our underground 500-gallon propane tank, so battery backup is not needed. Currently, we are using lithium batteries and have removed the highest detector in the 24-foot-high living room space. We want to replace these smoke detectors with some that do not have batteries and that ideally are also CO detectors, but we are unable to find any. Do you know of a photoelectric smoke detector, or smoke/CO detector, without battery backup that is available?
A. All smoke detectors come with battery backups, and some have rechargeable batteries. Some models are combination smoke and CO detectors.
Smoke detectors should be replaced every 10 years, so you should replace your detectors now. Lithium batteries are supposed to last seven to 10 years, so if you choose detectors with lithium batteries, you should be set for the useful life of the detectors.
Please have your detectors replaced as soon as possible, because they are needed more in the winter when furnaces, boilers and fireplaces are used. Also, please put back the one you removed in the living room; it is even more important than the lower ones because smoke particles rise.
Q. A close friend of mine from Vermont suggested I contact you about cleaning granite counters. Although I sealed them shortly after installation and then once again, apparently the sealing has worn off, and some darker stains have entered the stone. Although I use a countertop cleaner, it doesn’t seem to get the work areas, such as around the sink and stove, as clean as I would like. Do you have any suggestions for how to lift off the darker areas, especially before I seal the granite again? I realize the granite is porous and that I may never be able to clean it to my liking.
A. Try a commercial poultice or make your own by mixing a cup of baking soda and a cup of water to a peanut-butter consistency. Apply it to the countertop and cover the poultice with plastic wrap. Leave it on overnight and wipe it off with a soft cloth and distilled water. (Tap water may contain minerals and chlorine that are harmful to granite.) Repeat if needed.
Seal the countertop with DuPont’s BulletProof, which should be available at stores selling granite.
Q. Thank you for your column. If I read nothing else, I keep the section with your column until I find time to read it.
I have a problem with mold, both pink and black. This mold grows anywhere I have plumbing in the house. This has been going on since I moved here more than six years ago. (The house is a 1960-70 one-story ranch with the basement half out of the ground.)
The mold is on the faucets in the kitchen and bathroom. It grows on the faucet entrances, the commodes and the shower — definitely black in the commodes, but mostly pink in the shower and sink drains. However, there is also black that grows at the shower joints, and black down the sink drain. I take out the stopper and scrub it clean each time, use a toothbrush to scrub down the drain as far as I can, and then pour bleach down it.
I have scrubbed out the commode tanks until I had them completely white. I then add bleach to be sure I have them cleaned. I always use either 2000 Flushes or another brand that contains bleach. I do this each time I see any mold anywhere. They do not stop the black from growing at the water line in both the bowl and tank.
I scrub the faucets with Lysol cleaner with bleach. I tried Lime-A-Way. Within weeks, everything needs redone. It seems that I cannot keep up with it.
We have no mold in any other areas of the house, i.e., closets, cellar, garages. We have a humidity gauge that normally stays between 40 and 50.
Can you give me any clue to what causes this, and, better still, what I can do to make it go away?
A. The best and most environmentally friendly cleaner you can use is white vinegar. Try it instead of the chemicals you have been using. It’s also a lot cheaper. You can pour some in your toilets and leave it overnight; it should dissolve the black rings.
The mold develops because water must be standing in the affected areas for quite awhile before it evaporates, not surprising with the level of humidity in your house. Try wiping off the water whenever you are done using the fixtures, and wipe them with vinegar at least once a week.
Q. You probably have answered this question before, but here goes again!
I spilled some oil on my concrete driveway changing the oil on my car. I immediately soaked up the excess with cat litter but have had no luck getting out the stains. I have tried Orange Cleaner, dish detergent and WD-40, all to mostly no avail.
I then tried what I thought would be my last resort, a strong mixture of TSP/90, which may have lightened the stains a bit, but they are still there.
This is an old, craggy driveway that has probably soaked up the oil, but do you have other suggestions? I have some older oil stains that I would also like to work on.
A. The concrete industry recommends several methods for removing oil stains from concrete. These two are most appropriate for homeowners:
Saturate old stains with paint thinner and cover them with cat litter or a sprinkling of Portland cement. Let stand overnight and sweep. You may have to repeat the treatment.
Or apply a thin layer of TSP-PF crystals over the stains and sprinkle hot water on them. After 30 minutes, scrub with a stiff brush and rinse.
More on dust: I just received an email about the letter I answered recently regarding a house that had large amounts of unexplained dust. The reader suggests two possible causes: “1) An inefficient vacuum cleaner that might catch a lot of dirt but doesn’t capture all of it, and 2) with the age of the house, I might look closer at the carpeting. It may have been a less expensive type or is just getting old and starting to fall apart. Just a Sunday morning thought! Love your column!”Thank you; great suggestions.Ÿ Henri de Marne was a remodeling contractor in Washington, D.C., for many years, and is now a consultant. Write to him via email at henridemarne@gmavt.net. His book, #147;About the House,#148; is available at www.upperaccess.com and in bookstores.© 2011, United Feature Syndicate Inc.