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White vinegar can remove deposits, but needs time to work

Q. Can you tell me how I can remove mineral deposits from rubbed-oil bronze faucets? I have tried salt and vinegar, but I am afraid to leave it on too long.

A. White vinegar should work, but it needs to be given time to work. If the mineral deposits are all over the faucets, you may need to soak a paper towel with the vinegar and wrap it around the faucets for 10 minutes or so.

Q. Our outside porch stairs have been a continual problem. Paint is slippery during the Chicago winters and the paint peels, probably due to moisture that gets under the paint. After paint we tried transparent stain, which also peeled. It seems penetrating stain is the next option to try.

A. If your outside stairs are made of concrete, and you do not want them left natural, a concrete stain is best. You can have the paint store add silica sand to the stain to make it less slippery.

If your porch stairs are made of pressure-treated wood, why paint or stain them at all? But if you want them coated, use coatings specially made for pressure-treated lumber and add silica sand to it.

If the stairs are made of other wood, use the same formula.

Q. I have enjoyed reading your column in the Daily Herald on a regular basis for years, and now, for the first time, I find myself seeking some unbiased, well-trained advice. I hope that you can help me.

I own a 35-year-old home in Lake County. I purchased the home seven years ago and have survived numerous repairs and remodels including a new roof, new floors, new bathrooms, kitchen remodel, etc. However, I am truly stumped by the latest episode of this home.

About six weeks ago, we had a very heavy, concentrated rainfall, and although I have never had water issues in our partially finished/partial crawl space basement before, I noticed that the carpet along one of the walls was soaking wet. There was no sign of water anywhere else - the walls were dry, the crawl space was dry and the sump pump was working appropriately, and the area around the pump was also dry. There is a window above the area where the carpet was wet, but the area around the window frame, including the windowsill, was dry. There is a deck in our yard that sits above the window.

I called a waterproofing contractor who came out and looked around. He said that it was likely debris that had collected in that window well that caused a drain to fail. He said his company did not do window well work, but gave me the name of a handyman who could remove the deck boards, clear the debris and do a "hose test" to see if that was indeed the problem. I followed this advice, and hired the recommended handyman (who charged me $600), cleared the debris and conducted the test.

We saw the water draining, he concurred that this is indeed what had caused the water. He noted that it appeared that the dirt around the well had eroded, causing the water to flow toward the house, and put a few bags of dirt around the well to regrade it a bit. He sealed the inside of the well around the edges with some type of caulk, and put the deck boards back.

We had a few light rains shortly after that with no further water. I thought the problem was fixed. A few days ago, now that we were dry, I had the carpet inspected for mold, cleaned and sanitized ($175). Well, last night, we had another heavy, fast rain and … the carpet was again wet in the same area - and now, the windowsill of that window is also wet!

Needless to say I am very frustrated, having paid for repairs that did not work, and perhaps made the problem worse. However, I do not want to call these guys again because they proved unable (and expensive), so I don't want to throw more money at them.

Do you have any ideas or suggestions on what could be the cause of the problem, what would a reasonable fix include and, also, what type of company would be most reliable to diagnose and fix the problem?

A. The clues point to the window well or the area next to it under the deck as the source of the problem.

It is possible that heavy rains cannot be handled by the window well drain. You could try having a piece of pressure-treated plywood - shaped and cut slightly larger than the well - set on top of the well with a slight outward slant, and see if that solves the problem in future heavy downpours. The plywood can be secured with screws projecting through the plywood just inside the well's perimeter to hold it in place.

If it does solve the problem, your choices are to leave the plywood in place or replace it with a plastic window well cover (if there is enough room below the deck).

But because the window is under a deck and can't serve much purpose, the best approach would be to have it bricked in and waterproofed from the outside, and have the well removed.

This would allow the grade to be raised against the entire foundation under the deck. The few bags of dirt the handyman put around the window well may not have been enough.

It is common for the grade under decks to be sunken or slant toward the house. If it can be regraded to slope away from the foundation and covered with black plastic weighted down with stones or anchored with landscape staples (they look like croquet wickets), you should no longer have a problem in that area.

A general contractor is probably the best person to perform this work.

Q. I am so sorry to ask this question because you have written about these procedures a few times over the years. I have clipped the information from the paper and misplaced it.

Would it be possible for you to perhaps recap some proper techniques regarding ventilation fans? I am specifically interested in whether the vent should be through the roof, to the eaves or the gable, and also the type of venting material to use. I do remember that it should be adequately insulated to prevent freezing cold temps/condensation in northern climates.

A. This question comes up quite often, so it deserves repeating my recommendations.

Bathroom and kitchen fans should not be vented into the attic, through roofs, ridge vents, vented and unvented soffits or gable vents. They should be vented through an exterior wall between two stories or a gable wall, preferably on the side most exposed to winter sun.

The problem with venting upward through a roof, gable or ridge vent in a cold climate is not only the backdraft, but the condensation running back down into the fan housing, causing it to rust, and wetting surrounding insulation and ceiling finish.

Bathroom fans - and kitchen fans - should never be vented into an attic. Their discharge not only adds unwanted and damaging moisture to this enclosed cold space, but also heats the space, causing the snow to melt and ice dams to form on the roof. The grease in kitchen fan exhaust is also a fire danger.

Soffit vents are intake vents; any moisture discharged through them will be returned in the attic. Gable vents are both intakes and exhausts depending on the wind direction.

The most efficient way to vent bathrooms is to do so downward through a basement or crawl space and outside through the rim joists. This respects the laws of physics, which allows us to save energy. When a fan is vented upward through an attic to the outside, the stack effect encourages warm, moist air to continually exhaust because the flap of the outside jack is not airtight, and is constantly being pushed open by the exhausting air. When a fan is vented through the rim, or band, joists, the normal stack effect in the house seals the flap, thus preventing the loss of energy suffered by upward venting.

But if it is not possible to vent them through a band joist, the next best way to vent bathroom and kitchen fans is horizontally with the appropriate type of ducting. For bathrooms, schedule 20, 4-inch, 10-foot long PVC bell-end drainage pipes are best. The bell end should be facing the fan. A transition connects the fan outlet to the first section of the pipe. Additional full or partial sections of pipe are connected to the first one until the pipe exhausts through a gable wall and is capped with an aluminum or plastic hooded jack with a flap. Avoid louvered caps; I have seen too many of them with broken vanes.

It is best to set two small wood blocks of diminishing thickness under each section of pipe on top of several joists to allow the condensate to drain to the outside. If you have a lot of insulation covering the floor joist, add pieces of batts of decreasing thickness to achieve the same goal.

Snuggle 4-inch thick fiberglass batts on each side of the pipe and lay another strip on top to reduce the risk of the moisture condensing and freezing on its way out.

• Henri de Marne was a remodeling contractor in Washington, D.C., for many years, and is now a consultant. His website is www.henridemarne.com. Readers can send email to henridemarne@gmavt.net, or write First Aid for the Ailing House, Universal Uclick, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106.

© 2014, United Feature Syndicate Inc.

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