Home repair: Larger water tank may settle marital spat

Q. I have the temperature on my water heater set to about 120 degrees so that when you have only the hot water on you will not get scalded. It is a 40-gallon tank, not nearly enough for five people to take back-to-back showers.

My wife thinks that if I turn up the temperature on the tank to make the water hotter, you will use less hot water in the mix when you shower and therefore the water in the tank will last longer. This makes no sense to me. I was wondering what your opinion is on this?

A. Oh, my! You are putting me in the awkward position of settling a disagreement — which I hope is friendly — between you and your wife. So here is my attempt at satisfying both of you.

Setting the water heater thermostat at 120 degrees not only saves energy but also prolongs the life of the heater. The higher 140-degree temperature usually set by the manufacturer creates calcification within the heater, which shortens the life of the heater unless it is a plastic tank like the Marathon.

With the lower temperature, you run out of hot water because not as much cold water — if any — is needed to get the desired temperature at the faucets.

However, you can have your cake and eat it, too, by raising the heater’s temperature to 140 degrees and installing a mixing valve (required in some states anyway) that automatically mixes cold water and delivers water at 120 degrees. Great compromise!

Another choice is to get a larger tank, particularly if yours is heated with electricity, which has a slower rate of recovery.

Q. Our problem is this: The first shower in the morning is just barely warm enough to not be cold. That’s with the hot water faucet turned all the way on and the cold all the way off. The rest of the showers throughout the day are fine, with no shortage of extremely hot water. We turned up the temperature on the water heater, hoping that would help. It didn’t. The water heater doesn’t look very old. It was in the house when we moved in four years ago.

A. It sounds as if the cartridge spool in a single-handle faucet gets stuck in the cold position until it has a chance to warm up or it loosens up from using the faucet. A licensed plumber can replace it with a new one.

Q. I recently had a very reputable local company remove all the fiberglass insulation from my attic, seal penetrations with spray foam and blow in about 16 inches of cellulose insulation. I spent a bit over $4,000 for the work. My house is about 30 years old and has a 4/12 pitch roof. The attic is 24-by-34 feet. The eaves where the trusses rest on the outer walls have limited depth, as was typical of construction at that time. My soffits are ventilated, and I have continuous ridge vents. My question is: The energy upgrade company added spray foam over the top plates of the eave walls right up to the roof deck, approximately 4 inches to 6 inches deep, which eliminates my vented attic. I now have only a ridge vent; the company recommends I now add gable end vents. They feel that with the spray foam sealing attic penetrations, I do not need a vented attic. I question this assumption. What are your thoughts?

A. It’s unfortunate the firm that did the work did not install a baffle under the roof sheathing at the wall top plates before spraying the foam. It would have allowed the desirable air flow needed to provide the air wash over the roof sheathing from the soffits to the ridge vents, while still giving you a couple of inches of foam — enough to be effective.

However, it is possible that, having sealed all convective paths and blown in 16 inches of cellulose in the attic, there may not be a need to provide additional ventilation in the form of gable vents, which are not advisable. Gable vents are prone to water and snow intrusion on windy days and are not effective with ridge vents. I would not go to the trouble of installing them.

Check your attic from time to time on the coldest days of winter. If you notice condensation on the roof sheathing or on the tips of the roofing nails, you may want to consider installing DCI Products’ midroof intake SmartVent (www.dciproducts.com). It can be installed under the roof shingle course above the wall plate insulation, thus acting as a soffit vent above the wall plates’ spray insulation. A 1-inch slot will need to be cut in the roof sheathing as an intake for air. If you do not see any condensation, there is no need to do anything.

Q. I have prefinished hardwood floors throughout one level of my home. The sun has faded the flooring in the living room around the perimeter of the rug. Is there any way of replacing the wood, which I have plenty of, without having to do the entire level?

A. A competent carpenter should be able to do it. But if the space covered by the rug is not very large, it would be simpler to rip out the entire floor and redo it. You would then have a floor of the same color, whereas it is likely the new floor may still not match the area under the rug, if that is important to you.

Q. I read your recent response about laminate flooring and formaldehyde outgassing. I wish I had known about it before I had a large area in the house done. Now I’m just wondering, with the planks so well flushed together and the laminate over the top, how much outgassing can there be?

A. Most laminate flooring is made with melamine resin, which contains formaldehyde. Formaldehyde, a volatile organic compound used in many building products, is causing increasing concern about indoor air quality.

Your home probably has other materials made with formaldehyde, such as kitchen cabinets and other furniture made of particleboard, carpeting, etc.

In spite of the tight fit of the planks, there can be outgassing because the gas is still able to work its way between the planks. If none of your family members has felt any flu-like symptoms, there is little to be done besides ventilating the house in good weather. Eventually, the outgassing will stop. If any family members are sensitive to the outgassing, one solution is to replace the laminate with a solid-wood floor.

Q. I was wondering if you could give me any suggestions about our well water. We have lived in our split-level house for 36 years and have never had this problem.

When we turn on the cold water in our kitchen faucet, the smell is horrible. After the water runs for about three minutes, the smell goes away. We recently had a water specialist come and check the water. We have an existing water softener, and he took samples of our water with the softener on and then without the softener. The water tested fine — no bacteria or anything that might cause the smell.

The water specialist suggested we change the holding tank, which we did. He also suggested we put one cup of Clorox in the water softener and then recycle. We did. Nothing seems to work. He said that usually a water smell goes to the top of the water line, but this is not the case. We have this problem only in the kitchen sink, not upstairs in the bathroom. Do you have any suggestions?

A. Yours is an interesting problem, and somewhat unusual. It seems as if the water specialist performed the usual tests, albeit without success. However, if the smell is caused by sulfur bacteria, they will not be detected by water testing. One way to tell if this is your problem is to look inside a toilet tank for a slime ring at the water line.

Even though the water specialist is correct in telling you that hydrogen sulfide will go to the highest fixture, the first thing to try is to remove the aerator from the kitchen faucet and run the water. If there is no smell, the problem may be with the aerator, which may aerate the water in such a way as to release hydrogen sulfide, whereas aerators on the other faucets may not. (Kitchen faucets have different types of aerators.) Put the aerator in a glass with a Clorox bleach solution for a few hours and see if that helps.

Putting the Clorox bleach in the softener takes care of the brine but does not do anything anywhere else in the distribution lines. So if the odor still remains, try the following: If you have a filter between the pressure tank and the softener, bypass the softener and fill the filter one-quarter full of Clorox bleach. Open the kitchen faucet and run the water until you smell the bleach. Turn off the faucet and do not use it overnight to let the bleach kill any bacteria in the distribution line.

Once the kitchen faucet is shut off, you can run the water through all the other fixtures to treat them with the bleach.

If that fails to take care of the problem, you may want to have the water specialist come back and investigate further.

Q. I read your column every week and have seen a few questions about “sewer” smells. I have noticed that when I do not flush my toilet all day long, when I come home from work there is a slight sewer odor. If I am home all day and use the toilet, the smell does not appear. Is there a solution to the smell? My husband says to pour undiluted Clorox bleach down the toilet and it should go away. I have done that a few times, but the smell comes back. How do you know if something is wrong or clogged with your sewer?

A. You may have a failing wax seal where the toilet sits on the waste flange. The stack effect in a house during the heating season creates a negative pressure that is equalized by drawing air from the sewer. In your case, this pressure appears to be slight, so when you are home and flushing the toilet — and maybe going in and out, providing the needed make up air — the sewer gases are not drawn up.

A licensed plumber can replace the failing wax seal with a newer, non-wax type that should never fail.

Q. Hello to my favorite columnist! This is concerning the wet windowsill problem. We have Gordon’s insulated shades installed on our south-facing bay window. We keep them well-drawn at night to preserve inside heat. Result — big puddles and some mildew on the sills each morning. I’m looking for a solution and am wondering about the feasibility of any or all of the following:

Ÿ Tile the windowsills. Would this make removal of the windowpane for repair or replacement difficult/impossible?

Ÿ Apply caulk — like around a bathtub — at the bottom of the panes.

Ÿ Paint the sills with outdoor/boat paint or other type of mildew-preventing paint.

Ÿ Line the sills with plastic shelf lining and put towels on top of them to be removed each morning (pain in the neck).

If you have other suggestions, they would be greatly appreciated. We’ve lived with this problem for 20 years and would like to end it.

A. Gordon’s window shades (www.gordonswindowdecor.com) are very energy-efficient; we have them on most of our windows. We have no condensation because we had Magnetite storm windows installed on all our casements, as well as glass storm panels over our fixed glass windows, to achieve triple glazing — almost a must in cold climates. It solved the problem we had before.

It seems that it may be your best choice. Find a dealer for Magnetite acrylic storm panels, which are applied to sashes or window frames, depending on the type of windows, with magnetic strips for a tight seal.

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 email at henridemarne@gmavt.net.

© 2011, United Feature Syndicate Inc.