Home repair: Attic access panel was a big mistake
Q. We own a 13-year-old Cape Cod-style home. About five years ago, we installed an access into the small bit of attic space above the upstairs hallway. When we made the cut into the attic space, all was well. The underside of the roof was fine. Since then, however, we’ve had problems with mold growing on the underside of the roof sheathing. The access is located in the upstairs hallway, near the bathroom door. The ridge and soffit vents are clear, and the upstairs bath vent does not appear to be leaking into the space. The access door consists of a rectangular piece of drywall with rigid foam insulation and fiberglass insulation on top. The perimeter of the door has weatherstripping. We replaced the moldy sheathing less than two years ago. Looking into the space earlier this week, I found extensive mold again. How do I make it stop?
A. A small attic has little room for forgiveness, and since all was well before you cut the hole, it sounds as if the weatherstripping around the scuttle hole is not tight enough to prevent convection of the warm, moist air from the living spaces. You went to a great deal of effort and expense replacing the moldy sheathing, which was probably not necessary unless it was seriously deteriorated — unlikely in three years. Unless you have an overriding reason for having an access hole to the attic, consider sealing it again and letting the mold die from lack of moisture. If you are wary about it, you could spray it with full-strength fresh Clorox bleach before sealing the hole.
Q. At my home, a 35-year-old shower and bath combination built into the walls is still bright and shiny; however, the apartment enclosure lacks the luster after a tenant moved out. Is there any way to return the shine? I’ve tried white vinegar, Soft Scrub, wax, car shine, all to no avail.
A. Assuming that the bath/shower enclosure is fiberglass, try cleaning it and putting some shine back with Gel-Gloss, a product specifically made for fiberglass, acrylic and cultured marble surfaces, www.gel-gloss.com.
Q. We live in an older two-story home. On occasion, the first- and second-floor toilets will have the sound of water rushing into the tank. Please advise.
A. I assume you hear the rushing sound when the toilet is idle. This usually indicates a leak where the flapper seats in the funnel-like outlet at the bottom of the tank. The rubber flapper may be wearing out, or there may be sediment on the walls of its seat that prevents a complete seal. You can test this by pouring a small amount of food coloring in the tank and watching if it begins to show up in the bowl. To check which is causing the leakage, shut off the water to the tank by closing the oval valve that feeds it. Flush the tank, and lift the flap. Check it out carefully, clean it, and feel for any softness or wrinkles. If it feels flimsy, replace it. Clean the seat into which it drops. This should stop the leak. If you are not comfortable doing the work, call a licensed plumber.
Q. My new gutters are leaking at all miters and end caps. The contractor has no answer and claims he used the best gutter sealant. I’m at a loss. Please advise.
A. It looks as if the contractor didn’t do the job right. If he is unable to make it good, you may need to have another contractor or handyperson make the repairs.
Q. Do you have any tips for removing Z-Bricks from a plastered wall? If not, can it be painted?
A. First, try using a hair dryer at the highest setting to heat the bricks, one small area at a time to soften the adhesive. Pry the bricks out. If your hair dryer is not hot enough, rent a heat gun. Once the bricks are off the walls, use the hair dryer or heat gun to soften the remaining adhesive and scrape it off with a broad-bladed putty knife. You may need to use a razor blade to finish the job. Spackle as needed to fill any gouges. If that doesn’t work, remove them with a tile or cold chisel. The plaster will be ruined or covered with adhesive remnants and may need replacement or repairs. Z-Bricks are a mineral product and should be able to take a quality masonry or latex paint. But you must make sure the surface is clean and free of grease, dirt and other pollutants — not that easy to do on rough-textured interior surfaces, particularly over a kitchen sink where some splashing may have occurred. Use a cementitious or latex paint. Z-Bricks are hard to clean because you cannot hose them off after using a sprayed-on emulsifying agent. But if you need to clean them, try Comet applied with a wet brush, and rinse with water in a squirt bottle. It is messy, but it can be effective. You’ll need a lot of towels to protect the adjacent surfaces. You can do a relatively good job of painting the bricks with a thick-nap roller. The difficulty will be to fill all the pores of both the bricks and mortar. This may require going over the surfaces several times. You may have to do the mortar joints individually with a paintbrush.
Q. We have a 15-by-16-foot addition, and the space between the concrete and floor joist is about 8 inches. We have four 2½-by-16-inch vents, two on each side. The floor joists are insulated with fiberglass insulation. I seal these off in the winter. Do you think these should be sealed off permanently?
A. Although building codes are still in the Dark Ages on this subject (requiring vents), for years now, the recommendation has been to seal any crawl space vents as long as the soil is thoroughly covered with plastic or, in your case, with concrete. Open vents can cause both winter and summer problems. You can simply seal them as you have been doing.
Q. We need your expertise about what to do with our crumbling driveway. In June 2008, we hired a contractor to replace our driveway, garage floor, sidewalks and patio. Most of the replacements are holding up well with just a few little cracks, but the driveway is crumbling away. After the first winter, some of the apron by the garage crumbled from smooth to rough patches, and the rest seems as if it will eventually crumble, too. Also, we used a “California style” for the rest of the driveway, and all the smooth surfaces are crumbling away. A year later, after many e-mails and phone calls, the contractor came and declared that it was not his fault and that maybe the cement people were at fault. We called the cement company to verify, and it stood by its product, and the contractor does not reply to our inquiries anymore. Each winter, the driveway is crumbling more and the uneven surfaces are developing little potholes, especially by the street. Is there any solution for this problem? Can we do something apart from replacement? We are retired, so paying twice for the driveway is hard.
A. There can be several reasons for the concrete surfaces to fail, and they are often the fault of the concrete contractor during the finishing process, although the concrete mix for the driveway could also have been faulty. Your driveway was poured in June, so this is not a case of concrete poured in too-cold weather. I don’t know what “California style” is, so I can’t say whether or not this had anything to do with the failure of the driveway as compared to the rest of the work. The use of salt in the streets, which is carried on your cars, may have something to do with it. It is also a good practice to seal the driveway yearly to protect it from the salt. I don’t think you are going to get any help from the contractor unless you file a complaint with the consumer-protection division of your state attorney general’s office, and it requests an explanation from him and encourages an amicable settlement. Failing to get the contractor to replace the driveway or repair the top surface, the least expensive solution to your problem is to have asphalt applied over the crumbling concrete.
Q. We have six beams radiating from a center point above our great room, providing a large open area in the center of our 10-year-old contemporary home. These beams (four wooden and two steel) are structural, with about 7 inches of their depth exposed below the finished plasterboard ceiling. The beams are covered with boards (probably 1-by-8-inch composite material) and painted the same color as the ceiling for a finished appearance. Over the years, the junction of these covering boards with the plasterboard has become more apparent due to the appearance of a one-quarter to three-eighths-inch crack, which was probably initially filled with caulking compound before painting. What material is best to fill these junction cracks and allow for future expansion and contraction of the materials involved?
A. Composite boards should not shrink, so if the boards were installed after the drywall ceilings were done, they may be solid wood. Lateral shrinking of the wood beams is also possible, but if the shrinkage is visible at the steel beams, this cannot be the case. You could try filling the cracks with a polyurethane caulking compound, such as Sikaflex-1a (there are other brands, depending on where you shop). The key to success is the proper application of the compound. If not done according to the manufacturer’s instructions, it may also separate in time. Caulking must adhere to the opposite surfaces of the crack to be filled, but not to the back of the crack, in order to flex with seasonal changes, which makes it difficult to do with such small cracks. You may simply have to take your chances on filling and tooling the cracks. Polyurethane caulking can be painted.
Dear readers: Several of you have written me with heating-system-balancing problems. I have just solved one at our house in an unorthodox way that might work for you, too. We recently had a central warm-air and air-conditioning system installed to accommodate sizable renovations to our mid-1960s house. Although it would take too long to describe all the details, we discovered a problem heating the lower level because we wanted to keep both a natural-gas fireplace insert in the living room and a free-standing stove in our sunroom as our main source of heat on the main floor. I had a second thermostat installed in the lower level, turned the upstairs one off, and shut off the flaps on the upstairs floor registers. During the air-conditioning season, I will reverse the process, as the downstairs will not need that much cooling. It has solved the problem. Will it work for you?Interesting suggestion: I received the following e-mail from a reader who read about the plight of another reader who had to dust every day. This is an angle I hadn#146;t thought of, and I am not sure it is appropriate #8212; the reader complaining of the dust may have a central vac #8212; but here it is: #147;Regarding the woman who needed to vacuum every day, the cause may be as simple as a poorly working vacuum cleaner. If it is a bagged type of vacuum, the bag may be torn. If it#146;s bagless, it might have a poor seal. She might be vacuuming the same dust over and over each day.#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.$PHOTOCREDIT_OFF$