Skip new flooring until basement water situation resolved

Q. The heavy rains in June overwhelmed our gutters, and we had water in our underground family room. We had a new gutter system (the larger kind) installed in front of our house and temporarily bypassed the underground pipe that is clogged due to roots.

In October, they will redo those drains and aim them down to the back, lower part of the yard.

They also plan to install a French drain and sump pump inside the family room and laundry/furnace room and a surface French drain outside on two sides of the house. Bushes will be removed and soil added.

What kind of flooring can we put in - carpet and pad as before, and can we cover the drain, or another type such as vinyl or tiles?

We are in our 80s, but plan on staying in our house for as long as possible. Eventually selling should be considered also.

A. I am glad to hear that you installed larger commercial gutters, and I hope that the project also included commercial downspouts. The combination is unbeatable for efficiency in handling all types of rainstorms, which seem to be getting stronger with climate change.

If there is a way to safely discharge the downspouts on the surface instead of redoing your underground pipes, please consider that option; it's trouble-free, whereas underground drains can encounter a number of problems. Yours could easily be clogged by roots again.

To drain safely on the surface requires a gently sloping grade away from the foundation and the downspouts discharging onto splashblocks to dissipate the force of the water.

French drains consist of an outside trench with or without a perforated pipe set on a 2-inch bed of stones, backfilled with stone to the grade and left exposed.

Interior drainage systems are mistakenly called French drains. They come in several forms - from fiberglass conduits glued to the slab at the base of the walls to perforated pipes buried below the slab, all leading to a sump pump.

You are asking if the interior drain can be covered; does this mean that you will end up with an open trench? I would discourage you from accepting this, as there is the likelihood of water stagnating in the trench, which can cause mold to develop, and let radon into the air.

If you are guaranteed a perfectly dry basement, a synthetic pad and carpet are a good floor finish, providing a softer and warmer surface to walk on. But I would caution you to wait until you have experienced a couple of major storms, and found the work successful, before making the investment.

Vinyl tiles are also a good option, but not comfortable to walk on barefoot. Hard tiles - ceramic or quarry - have the same drawback.

Carpeting is more difficult to clean and may not offer the best option for eventual resale. You might want to talk to a Realtor for a professional, local opinion, keeping in mind that trends change with time, and what is popular and best today may not be so in a few years. With that in mind, consider what is best for you now, since you may not move for years.

Q. A while ago you had a column about replacement windows. You mentioned Renewal by Andersen and, I think, Marvin replacement windows.

I don't think you mentioned Pella replacement windows. I am thinking of replacing our windows since they are 29 years old, and I would like to have that information about replacement windows again to be sure I can get a good replacement product.

A. The reason I didn't mention Pella windows is that, although Pella had an excellent reputation in the '50s and '60s, their quality degraded significantly in the recent past.

I was called to handle several cases where Pella windows and doors rotted after Pella refused to make good on them.

Any manufacturer with such a poor reputation for customer service is not one I can recommend.

I do not know if these quality problems have been resolved in the last few years.

Here is an interesting suggestion: In reference to an earlier question on how to remove hair spray from a hardwood floor, here is a suggestion from a reader:

"I don't know if this will work on hardwoods, but it's so obvious that no one thinks of it.

Hair shampoo with water was recommended to me as a way to remove hair spray from painted walls and doors. Of course it works - the formula is meant to remove hair spray from hair!

This would sure beat sanding if it translates to floors. I enjoy your column and look forward to it every week."

Q. This past spring we had a backup in our basement laundry room drain and bathroom toilet at the base.

We hired a company (Mr. Rooter) that came in and said the pipe outside the house to the septic had collapsed, so they dug out and replaced it. They put in two pipes for easier clean out (outside) and did nothing inside the house. They said there was no outside trap when they replaced the pipe and they didn't add one.

Now, only when it gets cooler outside, our bathroom smells like a septic tank! The bathroom is only 3 years old, and we never had that problem before. We replaced the seal on the toilet three times and still the odor is unbearable. We do have a ceramic-tile floor, but the toilet is level. What else can we do? Winter is coming!

A. Since you mention that you get the sewer smell when it gets cold, it seems to indicate that the stack effect in the house is drawing in sewer gases to equalize the pressure in the house, which becomes negative as warm air exfiltrates through any cracks and minor openings in the upper levels.

Since you have replaced the toilet seal three times, it sounds as if you used a wax seal and that perhaps it does not completely seal the connection.

Consider having a master plumber check the situation, and, if this is the case, replace the seal with one of the new permanent types available. The sewer smell may also originate from another source, and the plumber may be able to discover it.

Useful follow-up from a reader: I very much enjoy your columns, mainly because you usually give such specific advice as to repairs, while it seems like other advisers are reluctant to recommend, or for that matter not recommend, specific products.

In one of your columns in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review recently, there was an inquiry about a two-part toilet with a leak between the two parts.

My home was built in the 1920s and has the same configuration. Fortunately we have a local hardware store (Rollier's Hardware in Mount Lebanon) that caters to this older community and they carry these now "odd" items because they are older replacement plumbing parts. So with some effort, that thin wall elbow is certainly available and can be changed without too much effort.

She included that this leak was "unsanitary when flushed," which is not exactly correct. That leak is fresh water, not waste. It's really more of an inconvenience than unsanitary, but over time, this leakage will cause further damage with that water spillage. It will increase with usage and has to go somewhere, but it's not going to be into the drains.

For that matter, that elbow is thin-walled - there is very little if any water pressure through this pipe. Chances are good that some temporary repair would be quite successful, such as just applying some waterproof epoxy or similar at the leak. If it's the gaskets that are leaking, they of course should be changed with the installation of a replacement elbow anyway.

You made a comment about simply replacing this old unit with a new one - two problems here. First is the distance from the wall to the center of the floor drain. These older units are typically set at 15 inches, and the newer ones at 13 inches. Yes, there are variations, and yes there are units that are built to accommodate these dimensions, but if the local plumbers couldn't get creative enough to find this older elbow, I doubt that they've got the imagination to resolve this distance gap. Second, going to new will probably compromise the style of all the fixtures. I wonder if they are wanting to change the look and feel of this older, possibly vintage bathroom with a modern toilet.

I certainly appreciate your column, and have used it on many occasions to explain problems to others who are experiencing similar issues.

A. Thank you for this valuable information. I hope the Massachusetts reader who has the problem will read this and contact the hardware store you mention.

Regarding the distance from the wall to the center of the waste pipe, there are adapters to accommodate these variations if the final decision is to replace the toilet with a modern one.

As pointed out to me by another Massachusetts reader, this will require considerable and costly changes to the waste system required by the Massachusetts plumbing code.

I am always grateful for the education I get from the readers of this column.

• Henri de Marne was a remodeling contractor in Washington, D.C., for many years, and is now a consultant. His book, "About the House," is available at www.upperaccess.com. His website is www.henridemarne.com. Email questions to henridemarne@gmavt.net, or mail First Aid for the Ailing House, Universal Uclick, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106.

© 2015, United Feature Syndicate Inc.