Ken Moon's Around the House Web Site

Ken’s Weekly Columns

July 28

Dave has dirty glasses: They are cloudy after running through the dishwasher. We are on well water. What can we do to clear them up?

Make sure the water is hot enough. Use a candy thermometer to measure it at the kitchen tap. 120 degrees is barely OK. 130 or even 140 will do a better job in your dishwasher. But remember there’s a scalding hazard with hotter water, so if there are little kids or infirm adults in your house, you may want to invest in scald-proof bath and shower faucets. Many people—especially on hard well water—don’t use enough dishwasher soap. Measure the grains of hardness in your water supply, then visit the soap manufacturer’s web site to get an idea of how much you really need. Also, use that liquid rinse dispenser in the door of the dishwasher, and keep it filled.

Finally, you’ll probably need to scrub each glass by hand with a kitchen pad and some Comet or Bar Keeper’s Friend after you’ve made the adjustments I’ve recommended.

Celia has a squeaky door: I want to oil my garage door. What kind should I use. Or is grease better?

Grease is not a good choice. In an open air assignment like this, it tends to attract dust and grit, and soon the rollers and tracks are filthy. A liquid spray lubricant, like WD-40 or a Teflon product (my favorite) is a good choice. Apply a very thin spray coat to the rollers and the track—especially that curve at the top.

If it still squeals, you may need some help. The tracks can get slightly out of parallel with each other over time, or the door itself can gradually go out of square. This is no job for us DIY folks, since the door weighs hundreds of pounds and is served by highly-torqued or stretched springs that can cause severe injury without notice.

In fact it’s a good idea to get a “tune up” for your garage door every other year. They will balance the springs, adjust and tighten all the lag bolts and screws, check the tracks, lubricate everything and make sure the opener is working as designed. A good time is the fall, so it’s ready to go into cold weather—the toughest time for your faithful garage door friend. Expect to pay $90 or so.

Bob has a new deck: I want to keep that pretty redwood color. Can I use a clear stain?

I don’t blame you. The reddish-blonde color of new redwood is gorgeous. The deck stains I like are the linseed-oil based products. They all come in a variety of redwood, cedar and earth tone pigments. The color components help to reflect UV light from the sun, but, in your case, you’ll want the clear version to let the natural redwood tones show through. That’s OK for water and mildew protection, but it will cook away faster than its pigmented cousins. So, plan on recoating the deck every year—whereas we “pigmented” deck owners can get an extra year out of our stain applications.

By the way, deck stain application ca be a little tricky. This is one instance where more is not necessarily better. If you initially apply it in too thick a layer, or try to add a second coat, you may end up with a sticky mess that won’t cure properly. So, use a low nap roller cover to apply one thin uniform coat (I screw a broom handle into my roller so I get to stand up).

J.T. has a wet basement: The concrete is damp, but there is no actual standing water. What can I do to prevent or cure this?

You need to start from the outside and work your way in. Check all the usual suspects for water intrusion: downspouts and sprinkler heads too close, soil sloped the wrong way, leaking sprinkler zone valves, water-demanding plants too close to the house, and leaking planter boxes. Once that’s done, you can dry out the basement with some extra ventilation. Older homes with those tiny basement windows can trap high humidity conditions that in turn can lead to damp floors. Buy a cheap bath fan, install it on the ceiling down there and run the duct through a window. You can plug it into an ordinary light timer so it runs a few hours twice a day. Crack the stairway door a little to allow dry replacement air to flow through the basement and out the fan duct.

July 21

Terry has a hot garage: You wrote last week about adding vents to cool down the garage. But our HOA doesn’t want turbines or any visible venting. What can I do?

Why not an attic vent fan? It mounts on the inside wall surface over a gable vent. The only thing showing on the outside would be a flat, rectangular, louvered grill—and surely that wouldn’t be a big deal to your HOA board. The fan is controlled by a thermostat and blows outward through the vent grille. Of course, vent fans work best when they have a cooler air source to draw from. So, for maximum efficiency, you’ll have to leave your big garage door up a foot or so—and of course, that might also freak out your board. If it does, install a couple of crawl space-type grilles close to the ground on the outside walls as an air supply.

Wayne wants a cooler upstairs: We have A/C, but our 2^nd floor bedrooms are hot. Would a whole house fan help? The installers think we’re crazy.

Not crazy: shrewd. A whole house fan will help cut air conditioning costs—not a lot, but enough to make it worthwhile. The fan sucks cool evening air into the house and out through the attic. It’s that through-the-attic part that will help marginally lower your cooling load. And there’s another advantage: at the beginning and end of the summer, when it’s not quite hot enough for central cooling, but too warm to sleep, the whole house fan is just the ticket. In other words, you’ll start high-cost cooling later and end it earlier with the fan, and, since it costs less to use per hour, you’ll save dough.

Finally some folks find central cooling a little irritating, since it dries out the interior atmosphere and re-circulates odors and staleness—sort of like an airliner on a long trip. If that’s you, too, you’ll like the fresh air intake of your whole house fan.

David has a foundation concern: We have a family room with a concrete floor. While installing a new TV set, I got close to the floor and noticed big gaps and voids where the floor meets the foundation. There are no cracks, but should I worry?

This is quite common—mostly in tri-level homes. The family room floors are installed over soil which has been hauled back in to fill up the foundation. Sometimes builders are over-cautious about tamping that dirt, because it could injure the then-new foundation wall. So, over time, the dirt subsides and creates voids under the floor. It’s usually not a problem, because this slab is not part of the support structure of the house—it’s an independent component that will usually support itself. That’s why you’re not seeing any movement or cracking.

Some folks, however, are not so lucky. The outside two feet or so of the floor edge can crack and drop an inch all the way around the perimeter of the room. Or, the floor can actually shift sideways a little to leave a gap between it and the foundation. No matter. These are essentially cosmetic problems that can be filled in with floor patching compound, foam or caulking before the carpet is installed. And, since the furniture covers these outside areas anyway, they tend to fade from your consciousness.

Bottom line: If there aren’t other signs of structural trauma to the house—like random, zigzag cracks in the drywall or doors and windows that don’t open or close properly, you’re OK.

Janet has an older driveway: There is a big gap between it and the inside garage floor. Didn’t you suggest a wood strip for that?

There are two fixes here. There gaps are usually too wide to caulk with a driveway sealant. You can indeed cut a redwood strip on the table saw the long way to the right thickness. Once it’s jammed into the crack, its edges can then be caulked for a watertight fit.

You can also inject some of that expanding polyurethane insulating foam to fill the void. This stuff should not be exposed to sunlight, so, when you get within ½ inch of the top of the driveway, stop. Let it cure overnight, then cut off the excess. Top it off with a layer of liquid, self-leveling driveway sealant. This material will semi-harden as it protects the foam underneath and creates a waterproof—but flexible--connection between the two concrete masses.

July 14

Lisa has a hot garage: The sun hits the garage door and it’s like an oven in there. We have tried to insulate it with foam. Is that OK? Or is there something else we can do?

You didn’t say what kind of garage door you have—an older wood style or newer steel. If it’s the former, there’s not much you can do, because the inside is flat. Steel doors, however, have a built-in slot to accept insulating panels. You could contact the manufacturer to buy the panels now, or you could make your own. Buy some Styrofoam pieces at the hobby store, wrap them with heavy clear plastic and glue them in place with some silicone adhesive. If you’ve already glued on the raw panels, you should cover them with the same plastic sheeting; it’s not a good idea to have raw foam exposed anywhere in your house.

One other reason that garages get so hot this time of year is lack of insulation and ventilation. If there are bare walls in there, you should insulate and sheet rock them. That will cool the space down now, and also will help retain your engine block heat inside in the winter. It would also be a good idea to install a fan in the highest portion of the garage on an outside wall. Wire it to a timer or thermostat so it runs during the hottest portion of the afternoon.

Greg is out of town a lot: I travel on business 3 to 5 days a week. Should I lower my water heater temperature to “vacation” during that time? Or is that not long enough? Is it hard on the water heater?

I turn mine down if I’ll be gone 48 hours or more—so, in your case, certainly, it’s a good idea. The water heater adds about $25 a month or so to your gas bill, and I bet you’ll save two-thirds of that over time. That might be an extra $200 in your pocket in a year’s time—enough to offset a few tanks of expensive gasoline.

One other thing: Cover the water heater with an insulating blanket. You can find kits at the discount store for less than $15. That will add a few percentage points to your savings over time. Finally, I can’t think of any harm you’ll inflict on your water heater by slowly turning the dial up and down a couple times a week.

Marsha’s tub needs help: The finish has chipped away around that overflow thing. Can I touch this up myself?

Sure thing. Look for a porcelain repair kit at the hardware store. Use a small kid’s paint brush (you’ll throw it away afterwards) to dab the spots. You’re in luck: This touch up material doesn’t do very well longevity-wise in heavily used parts of the tub—like around the drain. In your case, it should be a relatively permanent repair, since it’s out of the way.

Mike has bad window wells: They need painting, but I don’t know what to do first to get them ready.

Wire brush to release all the loose material that will come off, then wipe the surface down with white vinegar, followed by a rinse. For specialty painting jobs like this, I prefer a name-brand paint store rather than a big-box place. Ask for the appropriate metal primer and top coat. If the metal is rusty, look for a rust-combining primer that will chemically neutralize the blemishes and cover them at the same time.

If you’re tired of looking at those ugly window wells, there are lots of neat ways to decorate that space. You can buy murals of tropical vistas or other scenes that can be cut to fit around the curve of the well. Also, I’ve seen folks plant artificial vegetation in there and even install indirect lighting to make the basement space seem bigger, brighter and more inviting. Use your imagination !

July 7

Kathy needs more attic insulation: How should I hire someone to do this? What questions should I ask?

It’s pretty straight forward. You need to end up with about 13 inches of total depth of blown material up there. That yields an R value in the low 40’s. Regardless of what type you have now—Rockwool, vermiculite (which, by the way, can contain a little asbestos), fiberglass, or cellulose, you should leave it in place. Removing old insulation is messy and can contaminate you house with particulates that can be hazardous to your respiratory system.

I prefer the cellulose upgrade. Why? It takes less of it to achieve a given R value (it’s essentially ground up paper with a little fire retardant added). How much it will cost depends on how much you have now. If you need, say, another 6 inches or so, figure on about 60-cents per square foot. That price will go up or down based upon the total square footage in the attic.

New attic insulation is so cost effective—the highest return on your investment—that it will pay for itself in just a couple of heating seasons. Compare that with new windows or a furnace, which can take 6 to 10 years before you realize net energy savings.

If your house was built before the 1960’s, you may not have enough (or any!) wall insulation; it can be injected into the stud cavities. It’s a little pricey because it’s so labor intensive, so you may find that new windows would be a better investment to increase the R value of the total wall system.

Owen has a smelly bathroom: We can’t tell where it’s coming from, but it’s that familiar rotten egg smell.

The shower drain is the main suspect here. It accumulates hair and other gunk that can siphon water out of the trap and let city sewer main gas into the house. Use a liquid drain cleaner once in awhile. My favorite is plumber’s sulfuric acid. One brand name is Liquid Lightning, available at some Wal Marts and smaller hardware stores. For a shower that you use every day, you’ll need to repeat the drain cleaning every 6 months or so.

The same thing can happen in the lavatory drains, only a little less often. Pull out the stoppers and soak them in ammonia for a half hour or so. Then, place a bucket under the piping beneath the vanity, disassemble it and clean out the trap and that horizontal pipe going into the wall.

Bill needs new siding: I have that old pressed board stuff--about 30 years old and the edges are starting to look bad. What about new vinyl material? Or what kind do you like?

There are four choices for new siding: (1) The vinyl you ask about is medium-priced. It looks good and only needs a power washing every so often. It’s main drawback is delicacy. It is vulnerable to hail strikes and even pebbles dug up by your weed eater. So, make sure the installer leaves lots of extra pieces for you to replace damaged sections. (2) Composite--cement based-- siding is also a good choice (full disclosure: I advertise a major brand on the radio show). It is virtually indestructible, and comes pre-painted or plain-primed. (3) Steel siding is another handsome finish for your house (here in the Rockies we avoid the “Tin Men” aluminum kind because of hail). It’s a little pricey, but comes with a factory finish that is second to none. (4) Finally, you could apply new hardboard material—like you already have. This stuff behaves itself if it’s cared for properly. But if you wait too long between paint jobs, the edges start to swell and delaminate. Then they continue to absorb ambient moisture from the surrounding air and so it goes until it needs replacement.

If your siding is barely swollen and still salvageable, apply some spackling to the nail heads and then two heavy coats of a good primer to those edges before the final topcoat.